The room was dark, and only soft breathing could be heard. James allowed an evil grin to light the features of his face, making his hazel eyes glitter. He wasn't a beater for nothing; he had brilliant aim. Expertly snitching his younger brother's slipper from the camp bed on his left, he heaved it across the dozing forms of Hugo and Louis to hit his cousin and best friend squarely on the ear.

Fred Weasley swallowed his yelp. James woke him like this every other day, and quite often at night. He sat up, instantly alert, and cast the dark haired boy across the room a questioning look.

James smirked, and beckoned for Fred to follow him outside the room.

"What?" the sixteen year old red head hissed as soon as they crossed the door frame.

"Can't you hear them?" James asked, and to Fred's surprise, it wasn't the joking James that was talking, it was the serious one.

Fred frowned as he listened just the slightest bit harder and found that, not surprisingly, James was right. The dull murmur of voices could just be heard above the drip of the bathroom faucet and heavy breathing. He nodded.

"They were shooting each other those looks at dinner, too. They're plotting something, and I don't think it's Christmas."

"No… I doubt they would be whispering about Christmas in June," Fred muttered, rolling his eyes.

The cousins crept down the stairs, skipping quietly over the creaky ones, and crouched to listen at the kitchen door of the Burrow, where the family congregated often in the summer.

Ginny's voice could just be heard; they were troubling to keep their voices down, which was concerning. James was often kept awake by the shouts of laughter and loud voices that occurred whenever the adults met after bedtime. She was saying, "I just don't think it would work, love. Think of how much it would change; nothing would ever be the same."

There were quiet murmurs of agreement, but Harry's voice broke in in an angry whisper. "Think of Ted if nothing else. He needed the support he didn't have as a teenager, and now that he has children-"

Grandma Molly clearly disagreed with the part about Teddy Lupin lacking support, but her husband shushed her protests. "I'll agree Teddy got a little lost in the shuffle, back then," Arthur said, "But we're beyond that now. We wouldn't want to risk the lives we've built for ourselves on a fling like this that could-"

There was the sound of a chair scraping back across the floor as Harry got up, and they heard the door to the yard slam shut.

Another chair made a scraping sound, but James heard his mother's voice again. "Don't, Ron," she murmured, "He just needs some time to cool down. You know how much effort he's put into this time turner project at the ministry, he really thinks he can get away with it if he goes back."

"Couldn't he, though?" Ron asked quietly, "I mean, if he were still harping on the idea of going back to save his parents, I'd tell him to pipe down a notch, but just Sirius, Remus, Tonks, and Fred? I mean, Dumbledore too of course, and then-"

"You see, Ron?" The voice of Percy's wife sighed. "It's just too much. Those deaths had so much impact on them, and some have changed for the better because of it-"

"Better because of it?" an incredulous voice asked, and Fred winced as he heard his father stand too. "Do you think a day hasn't gone by when I haven't wished Fred and I had stayed at the radio station? Keeping the supporters updated was more important anyway, but no. We'd convinced ourselves we could do more good fighting. Do you know how long it's been since-"

He broke off in what may have been a slight sob, and the boys heard him cross the room to follow Harry.

There was general silence. Finally Aunt Hermione broke it, sounding slightly like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone. "It would never work."

Ginny sighed, and she sounded so upset James had to resist the urge to go to her. "Harry's so convinced he can make it better, though. He's been carrying that prototype around in his briefcase ever since they first tested it…"

"Does it work then, the prototype?" Angelina asked. Fred knew that his Mum would throw away everything if it meant his dad was truly happy again.

James could almost hear his Aunt's trademark frown as Hermione chided gently, "We can't go back. We've no idea what it could change."

"What? What so tremendously important could be changed-" Ron interrupted.

Hermione sighed. "You want to get into that? Suppose Fred and George never came that night. Suppose the killing curse hit Percy instead. What does Percy do now? He teaches Defense, and he's a bloody good professor. Suppose in twenty years there's to be another dark lord. Suppose right now Percy's teaching the child who will defeat him. If Percy had died, that child might have wound up with a dolt like Lockheart for a professor. This child no longer has any idea how to bring down a dark lord. The whole of Britain is annihilated. All because we think we could cope with life better if some people hadn't died."

"Bit of a long shot," Bill muttered, and James nodded his head at Fred in agreement.

"But does it work?" Angelina said again. She never had been one to give up on an idea.

"It does," Ron admitted.

"But we will never put that knowledge to use," Ginny said firmly, and her chair too could be heard scraping back from the table. "I'm going to check on Harry."

"Mm," Angelina agreed, and yet another chair screeched across the floor.

Yawns could be heard. "It is getting late," Grandad announced.

"I've got work tomorrow," Ron agreed. A general murmur of assent swept through the room, and more chairs were pushed back from the table. James and Fred exchanged panicked glances and scurried back to the top floor, where they slipped back into the boys' room and sank on to James's camp bed.

"What do you think?" Fred whispered.

"I think Dad and Uncle George are right," James replied instantly.

"But all those things that could happen…"

"Aw, c'mon. They were only speculating," James said.

"You're right, that was a bit far-fetched, I mean, Britain being annihilated just because my dad wants to see his brother…" Fred trailed off, looking skeptical.

"Mm."

"They'd never do it, though. I mean with those guys it's an all for one and one for all deal, I mean, have you ever seen one of them do something when the rest said no? Anything big, I mean, not making Shepard's pie instead of steak…"

"We could do it!" James exclaimed, not quite remembering to keep his voice down.

"What do you mean?"

"We could go back and save everyone! We could tell all the dead people to stay home, meet some kick-butt awesome dudes, then come back. It'll be a snap." James said confidently.

"We could. We even know where the time-turner is-" Fred agreed.

"In my dad's briefcase-" James added.

"In Granddad's study-"

"On the fourth floor." James finished.

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow. Now get off my bed. We have to be well rested to go meet the past."

As Fred crept back across the room, Albus Potter rolled over in his bed. Go meet the past, they said. Well his thick brother and cousin weren't going on any adventure without him.