Summary: Harry and James exchanges places in time. First part is from Snapes Worst Memory, but don't worry! I don't use much from the book. It's two paragraphs about it, or so…

Pairing: Normal, but might be with some liberty

Needless to say I own nothing of the Harry Potter universe.

The Trick of Time

Chapter One - Timetrick

To be tricked by time was the last thing James would ever worry about. Right now he was standing in the school grounds watching Snape hanging upside-down. His focus, however, was directed at the red-haired, green-eyed girl walking from him: the love of his life.

At the same time, Harry was watching his father and Sirius standing there torturing and humiliating Snape. He felt sick. His father doing such a horrible thing to Snape. The Potion master had never been kind, that was true, but nobody deserved this. No! He wanted to stop James and Sirius. He took one step towards them. This was cowardly, and not worthy of the house of Gryffindor.

Suddenly Harry saw the scene from a whole new perspective. As if he was James, staring after Lily, having a cut on his head after the sectumseper spell. "Hey, James!" Sirius said.

Where is James? Harry thought. He looked around in confusion. "Hey! Prongsie! We're in the middle of something, spare your love life to another time will you?" Sirius was dragging him by the arm. Dragging Harry by the arm. "What?" he said all confused. "Snivellus, remember?"

Snape was trying to get down, but the spell was holding him there, hanging helplessly in the air. Harry looked at him, then around at all the students.

He didn't just feel like he was watching from James' perspective. He was James! This was no longer a memory he was viewing, he was part of this. He was the one holding the wand in his hand, pointing it at Snape, who was disarmed and alone. It was him doing this. He slowly lowered his wand. "James?" asked Sirius, clearly confused.

Harry ran away, leaving everything behind. For the first time since all the fuss and showing-off began, Remus looked up from his book, clearly surprised; but not as surprised as Sirius. "Mate!" he shouted after James. He watched 'James' running for a while, but then Sirius started to run after what he thought was his best friend.

"Hey, Prongsie!" He tried to stop him, but James (or Harry as it was), was faster than Sirius.

"Having fun?" someone said in James' ear, and he looked up. There, with a hand on his shoulder, was someone that looked like an older version of grease ball Snape. "Who are you?" he asked, and suddenly he was standing in a dark office. He looked around in surprise and confusion.

"Who am I? Funny one Potter!" Snape - if it was Snape - was still holding very tight on James' shoulder. "...Snivellus?" he asked hesitantly. He was suddenly pushed violently away from Snape. Slower than usual, as his brain was trying to process what was going on, he barely regained his balance.

By Merlin, may his Quidditch reflexes would never stop aiding him!

The older Snape was shaking with anger and all colour was drained from his face. "Out of my office Potter!" James was still confused. Office? "But…" he started; even if it was Snape he wanted to know what this was all about. Was Sirius playing a trick on him perhaps? Or was this an elaborate prank by the Slytherins he had crossed during his time at Hogwarts?

"Out of my office Potter!" he barked while moving towards James. "Just one question, Snivellus?" he asked, slowly backing away from Snape. "What?" Snape kept coming closer. "Have you been taking an ageing potion? It's working you know, and you are even creepier than before, Snivvie." He said, his voice perhaps a little arrogant. Too arrogant.

"Out!" Snape shouted, taking a hard grip on his arm again, opening the door, and pushed James as hard as he could, so he was close to falling. He was close to falling right into a woman.

A frog-like lady - if you can call her that without offending too many frogs - looked at him with a wild grin. "Hello, Potter. Getting private lessons?" she smiled sweetly. "Ehm... Yeah" he said, lifting a hand to his hair, trying to send a Who-the-hell-is-she look to Snape, but he refused to acknowledge him.

"Professor, I would like to talk to you for a moment," she said in a high, annoying voice.

"Well Potter seems like our lesson is interrupted, you may go," he said. James opened his mouth. One minute ago he had been thrown out of the office, but now that grease ball just said 'you may go'. Still, he didn't like this woman, so he decided to let Snivellus be alone with what was arguably either Snape's total opposite or perfect romantic match.

James was walking up towards the Gryffindor common room when a girl suddenly appeared. "Harry, we are supposed to have Defence Against Dark Arts in ten minutes" she grabbed his already hurting arm and dragged him up the stairs. He didn't even have time to protest.

He had never seen this girl in his life before. Why was Snape old? Could it be that Snape's dad had started working at Hogwarts? And then the pink frog-woman might be Snape's mother! James rather enjoyed the thought, but there were some more pressing matters at hand. He didn't recognise anyone at all! Where was Sirius? And who could this Harry be?

The real Harry stopped his wild flight. He was breathing very heavily and felt miserable, but he didn't care if he was exhausted. "James…" Sirius said, nearly falling to the ground. "What's the matter? If it's Evans…" he started but didn't have enough breath to finish.

"It's not Lily," he said. "I only felt that what we did just now, was, well… wrong, see?" he said. Sirius obviously believed that he was his father. That meant that this was most probably a dream. At least that was more likely than what his senses told him: he'd ended up into the past.

Only two years earlier Harry had time travelled. He remembered how serious Hermione had been about the rules. Never be seen or meet yourself didn't quite seem relevant to his situation. But he should probably not tell anyone that he was from the future. Which meant to not tell Sirius!

"You feeling all right Prongsie? It's Snape we're talking about here." Sirius said, less confused than he must be feeling. "Yeah! I'm fine. Guess it was Lily after all…" he muttered, "Come on, let's go back to the tower". Sirius nodded and seemed to be biting the hook. For now.

James was sitting in a familiar classroom, waiting for a teacher to appear. He was seated next to a red-haired boy. He could be a Weasley like Arthur. He didn't know anyone in the room. What was going on?

The Probably-Weasley was chatting merrily to him about impossible homework and Quidditch. James tried to follow, but his head was full of questions.

"You alright Harry?" the boy asked. "Yeah erm.. fine. I just didn't sleep well is all," James answered being intentionally vague. He should probably keep his head down until he knew what was going on. "Another nightmare?" the ginger boy almost stated more than asked. This Harry must have a lot of bad dreams, James absentmindedly thought to himself.

He would have to go and confront Snape. The old git seemed to know something, he also recognised him. Really recognised him, not as this Harry person.

The professor finally entered. It was her! The pink frog! James got the chance to look at her properly for the first time. She was really looking more like a toad when he thought about it, dressed in pink with brown hair and an evil smile, as fake as... James couldn't even come up with anything as fake as that smile. "Blimey, Umbridge is looking' stressed today, eh?" the boy next to him muttered in his ear.

"Wow, Harry, have you found a spell to hide the scar?" the boy asked with wide eyes, staring at James' forehead. James was more confused than ever but didn't have time to answer. What scar? Maybe Snape had knocked him out good and proper with one of those evil spells of his. That must be what was going on! He had passed out from the sectumsemper spell and would soon wake up in the hospital wing.

"Put away your wands. Today we'll read chapter seven: Why use defensive spells." The professor smiled and giggled.

"The book talks about all the reasons why the use of defensive magic is never needed, and how it's not really useful to know about. Children like you won't ever be attacked and it's a lot of better ways to get past an unfortunate moment." James nearly fell from his seat. Not practise spells or defensive magic? "Professor?" he asked to get Umbridge, the toad's, attention. "Yes, Mr Potter?"

"I've just discovered a very effective spell. Can I show it to the class?" he asked. "NO!" James was taken back. He and Sirius often demonstrated spells. Their DADA teacher was really a great guy. Young, funny, interested and open for new ideas. But this couldn't be his year.

"Mr Potter put your wand away open your book and read. Copy out the chapter multiple times to get an effect of it". James opened his mouth to speak. "We raise our hands in this classroom Mr Potter!" she said but he didn't care.

"Well, I won't read one page and if we're not going to use magic, I'll just take this lesson off and study alone somewhere else," James said, not that he was going to study, but it gave the effect he wanted.

He started to pack his bag, of course with his wand. "Stop!" Umbridge yelled. "Yes?" James said in a tired voice. "Don't you take one step" she threatened but he just headed for the door. "Detention tonight Mr Potter. My office right after class" she shouted after him as he wandered down the hall. "Whatever".

Harry noticed that he and his father were very different. All the girls were staring after him and Sirius; while Slytherins, first years and cats were avoiding them. Sirius strode elegantly down the hall, while Harry prodded after him, unsure by all this attention.

Whenever Harry got attention walking down the hallway there would be someone whispering about him, gossiping about mean newspaper articles. He had learnt to ignore it. But he missed the distraction of Ron. Harry really missed both him and Hermione. Ron would say something encouraging and funny: they would laugh. While Hermione would know what to do.

Sirius sent him worried glances. "Prongsie, are you…" he began. "I'm fine" Harry cut him off. "Alright, but I have a sense for stuff like that, and as long as I've known you" Sirius was cut off again "I'm OK!" Harry nearly shouted.

"Alright, alright," Sirius said holding up his hands as if to surrender. They walked in silence for a while before Sirius spoke again: "I've got to send a letter." His voice was thicker than Harry had heard before. A bit spaced-off, maybe?

He had a feeling that Sirius was lying about something and that James would've understood exactly what Sirius was up to. Harry did not. "Ok, catch you later Sirius." His godfather grinned, lifted a hand for goodbye and left.

Harry did not know what to believe. Had Snape, the older Snape, taken the wrong Potter back? Had James been sucked into the future and he, Harry Potter, the boy who lived, ended up here?

He needed to get back to the future! Just as he thought it he remembered the movies Dudley would watch when they were kids and Harry would be cleaning pans in the kitchen. He almost laughed at the absurdity of his situation. He had known about magic for over 4 years, but it never stopped surprising him.

Without thinking where he was going he ended up in a nearly empty hall. Something inside him wanted to find Snape and give him an apology. He leaned towards the wall, closed his eyes and felt something. A pain in his scar.

"Gone? What'd you mean gone?" Voldemort spoke furiously. Someone in the darkness, Harry couldn't see who answered: "I'm not sure yet My Lord, but I have this memory…" Harry didn't hear more.

Once again he was standing in the empty hall, but now he'd sunken down the wall he'd been leaning against. The pain was gone and he tried to remember what he'd seen. Voldemort was asking and someone answering about a memory.

He didn't know who the other was. It had all been more blurry than usual, perhaps because he was in the past. Suddenly Harry heard someone sob.

He looked down the hall. Around the corner, Snape was coming, clutching one of his books. This Snape had seemed so helpless against him, well James, and Sirius. Snape didn't seem to have noticed him, but suddenly he looked up and their eyes met.

Snape dropped his book and got his wand out. Harry barely had time to react. He got up and found his wand, but before he could even point it at Snape his wand was gone - "Expelliamus" the slippery voice had said.

His previous Potions professor was holding his wand. "Your wand looks different Potter, did your stupidity break the old one?" he asked. Harry didn't answer. "Where are your friends? Are you all alone for once?" What was Harry supposed to do? What would James have done? Had his father even been in this situation before?

"I just…" he began, but a spell was cast, nonverbally he noticed, as he fell to the floor just as Snape had earlier that day. "You find it funny to pick on someone? Four against one, is that fair for you Gryffindors?" Snape gave him an awkward grin that didn't reach his eyes. It was full of pain and anger.

"Snape, I just want to…" Harry rolled down the hall as Snape threw another spell at him. "You don't even dare to call me 'Snivellus' when you're alone? How pathetic."

Just when Snape was about to throw another spell, and this time Harry thought it would be a really dark one, Sirius and his brother rounded the corner. "Why can't you just tell them that I won't…" Sirius stopped the argument with Regulus.

"Prongsie..? Snivellus..?" the scene was sinking into Sirius who got his wand out and pointed it at Snape "Expelliamus" they both shouted towards each other. Snape's spell missed the wands but hit Sirius right in the chest. Sirius fell backwards with three wands in his hands. He hit the floor hard.

He scrambled to his feet and was about to hex Snape when Regulus stepped in between them - wand at the ready. "Stop it, Sirius, pick on someone your own size!" he said, although Harry found him rather timid.

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Little mummy's boy is trying to help a fellow Slytherin?" Something in Sirius demeanour made it seem like he would not hesitate to curse his younger brother. That he might, in fact, enjoy it.

"Maybe I'm just not as childish as you. I don't need to bully others to feel powerful." Regulus said, full of determination. No backing away now. His wand pointed right at Sirius' chest.

Sirius stepped forward and grabbed Regulus' wand, swiftly and forcefully pulling it out of his hands. "Why don't you go tell papa that I am mean to you." He pushed Regulus aside and cast his desired spell at Snape, who was thrown on the ground, unable to get up.

He then went over to Harry. "You OK?" he asked. But as he was about to hand Harry his wand, he seemed to notice something. "Where did you get the wand Prongs? This isn't yours. Have you got a new one?" he asked.

James didn't waste his time and turned left after the classroom door smelled behind him. He went over to a carpet on the wall, waved his wand, muttered a spell and walked right through the carpet.

He came out of a wall. 'Let's call it: The ghost passage' Sirius' voice ringed in his head and he smiled. They had found it only weeks earlier, while up to no good. They were breaking into the DADA teacher's office to take back the map that Sirius had lost.

It was useful now as well. James waved his wand again. All the cats in the room changed into toads with wigs so they looked like Umbridge herself. He looked around. All the pink made him sick and he flicked his wand once yet again.

The office ended up quite dark with a little pond full of squeaking frogs that jumped everywhere. He laughed and jumped through the wall again.

"What is going on here?" professor McGonagall asked. Snape, Sirius and Harry looked up. Behind the professor was Sirius' brother, Regulus. "Mr. Black has told me that you're bullying Mr. Snape, again!"

Sirius and Harry exchanged looks. "Well?" Snape got to his feet and took his wand out of Sirius hand. "He attacked James, and I disarmed him" Sirius defended them. The professor sighed. "You're always doing something stupid." She looked at the boys.

"Detention I think" Sirius looked bored, Snape was angry and Harry felt petty and confused. "And I'll have to mail your parents" Sirius looked up in a couple of seconds Harry saw fright in his eyes and both his jaw and fists tightened.

The professor left, and Sirius ran after her after a little while. "Professor!" he shouted. She stopped. "I was just wandering if you could…" she interrupted him "I'm sorry Mr. Black, but I have to mail your parents. If you want me to not to do so again you better learn to behave."

She left and Sirius turned around angrily. Snape grinned and Regulus looked scared. Harry acted, he knew he had to "Com on Paddy, let's go" it wasn't so very hard acting James in a situation like this.

"I hope you're pleased!" the girl shouted at him. Hermione, wasn't it? "You're not supposed to get into trouble with her again! And we're supposed to have a meeting this evening, and you get detention! Don't you care at all about DA?" she yelled. "Care about what?" he asked.

"Dumbledore's Army, you git. Meeting tonight at seven" Ron (someone had called him Ron earlier) the Weasly, sounded exasperated. "Relax I'm sure you can do without me," James said and waved his hand dismissively. The girl snorted "You're our teacher, Harry".

"Well, I'll figure out something. It can't be that hard" he muttered. "Well, I'll meet you outside Umbridge's office at seven then" and James went inside.

"You know what to do," the woman said smiling more dangerously than ever. Her office was back to normal, but he was sure that she'd screamed when she first entered and Filtch had been called upon. He'd just have to get in and redecorate again.

He sat down. No, he didn't know what to do but this Harry Potter fellow did. He looked at the pen. Writing lines? What a punishment! But what to write?

He decided for something not that dangerous: I'm innocent, this is Umbridge's fault! He would normally have written: Umbridge is a toad! Or something worse, but…

As he wrote he noticed a pain on his left hand. He soon discovered that what he used for ink was his own blood. It hurt - A lot! - but he refused to show it to the old hag.

They sat in silence. Hours went past. 'A detention isn't supposed to last this long!' He thought. At five to seven he felt uneasy. From what they'd said, this Harry - him at the moment - was leading a (resistance?) group and teaching them spells. He had to get away.

Suddenly Snape entered the room. "Professor, I need to talk to you." This was James' chance. The toad was distracted. He jumped to his feet and left. He ran out and dragged Ron and Hermione along. "POTTER!" the toad professor yelled after him, and Hermione stopped. "She didn't let you go! We can't run from a teacher!" she yelled desperately.

"I can!" James shouted and they followed to the room of requirement. They entered and nearly fell over the doorstep. Hermione looked James into his eyes.

Sirius stopped after a while. "What were you thinking? Prongsie, why didn't you fight back at Snape?" Harry didn't know what to say. "He… surprised me." Sirius shook his head.

"You're acting very weird" two voices in two different times lines said simultaneously.

End of chapter 1!

Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey. I know you kinda can't do something in two time lines simultaneously. But don't look at it like a straight line. What even is time? And doesn't it move like Jeremy Bearimy anyway? The i is such a mystery.

Thanks to Prongsie who gave me the Umbridge idea! Reviews make me very happy and honoured!