Epilogue

Remus was the final member of the party to step through the portal and no sooner had he done so the doorway between the worlds closed once more.

"Guess we're walking back to Hogwarts?" Peter grumbled.

"At least it's not as cold as it was when we left," James commented. "Quite mild really."

Remus nodded that he too had noticed the improvement in the normally winter weather. "Looks like it's later at night too." He pointed up at the moon and a second later did a double take. "What the…?"

"What is it?" Lily asked with a frown of concern.

"The moon's wrong," Remus whispered.

"Are you sure?" James asked as he too looked towards the heavens where the moon had just disappeared behind a cloud.

"I'm sure." Remus shivered as he waited for the clouds to pass by and reveal the truth of his words to the others.

"Does that mean what I think it means?" Peter asked.

"It means we're not home," Sirius stated.

"But it was Dumbledore who did the spell, he knew what he was doing, didn't he?" James sounded half worried and half panicked as he looked around the familiar street, searching for proof that Remus was somehow mistaken.

Each of them were soon following his example. It was Peter who found what they were looking for first.

"Um, guys, you better take a look at this!" Peter called where he stood next to the village notice board.

"What is it?" Sirius asked. "Is Hogsmeade finally going to get a band to come play here or something?"

Peter shook his head and pointed at the poster.

WANTED

SIRIUS BLACK

Sirius let out an involuntary squeak at the sight of his name as James read aloud the small print on the poster that revealed that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban Prison and was at large in the country.

"It's not you Padfoot," Remus assured him quietly as he gestured to the picture of the wizard. "The one they're looking for looks about five years older than you. Maybe it's a relative or something?"

"Does it look like a ruddy relative?" Sirius hissed as he jabbed at the poster, much to the consternation of the raving wizard pictured on it. "It's me! You think I can't tell me from some other random member of the family?"

"It's not you," Remus repeated. "We've come to the wrong place, the wrong world. This isn't you!"

"Remus is right," Peter said. "Look at this here." He pointed to another poster on the board, this one advertising a meeting of the local residents to petition against the recent arrival of dementors in the area.

"Dementors?" Sirius gasped. "No prizes for guessing who they're after."

"I didn't mean the bit about the dementors," Peter replied. "I meant the date. Look at it."

"1993," Remus read. "1993?"

"I guess Sirius was in Azkaban a while," Peter commented, a little unnecessarily.

"What does it matter?" cried Sirius as he shook his head, his eyes still riveted to the poster. "It looks like the Sirius in this world is just as evil as the last one, so it's only a matter of time before the dementors are really after me. I'm sure I deserve it."

"If only for the haircut alone," James snickered.

"My hair? What's wrong with my hair?" Sirius yelled, his hands flying up to his head as though checking he still had some.

"James this is hardly the time to start winding him up," Remus chided. "We need to get to Hogwarts and find Dumbledore." He then turned his attention back to Sirius. "Come on mate, we're going to get home and you can forget all about this. We just need to get moving quickly before the dementors come."

Unfortunately Sirius wasn't listening and nothing Remus said was calming him down.

They were in serious trouble, and Remus only hoped that this world even had a Dumbledore. 1993 was a long time in the future and they didn't know whether Dumbledore was even alive.

A/N: As you can see the next story in this series is not startlingly original, though I think I have picked one of the less frequently used years. The sequel will (hopefully) have at least a few unique twists in it, even if it will be (in effect) yet another time travel story.