I couldn't sleep the whole night from the tension building up inside me. What if I got stuck in here and could never go back? The thought alone frightened me. Padfoot had said that he'd tell his friends about me and that I'd meet them in the morning. And I was still awake when he went out. 

It was about dawn as I could tell from the soft rays of sunlight peeking through the window curtains. A few minutes later I could hear voices. 

"And you let her in without making sure that she really was from the future? How intelligent, Padfoot." 

Next I heard his voice, "slow down Moony. She's awake." 

Wow, he really has quick senses if he knows that I had been awake. Then another voice came into hearing, "we can decide whether she's speaking the truth or not after we talk to her. Now stop getting paranoid you two." 

There was a moment of silence; maybe they were speaking in hushed voices. Then after a short while the door knocked. 

"Come in," I replied. 

No sooner than that four boys of about the same age entered. One of them had messy black hair and spectacles covering his hazel eyes. He looked a lot familiar but I couldn't exactly figure out why. 

The other one was a lot tall and lean with tousled brown hair and scars denting his skin. He looked tired and the most prominent feature on his face was a deep scar starting from his left eyebrow going all over the bridge of his nose then down to his right cheek. 

The last was plump with a freckled face and looked like the kind of guy who preferred food above all. His sandy hair fell all over his face as he gave a toothy grin.

"Hello," I spoke. 

"Hi, I'm Prongs," the one with the spectacles spoke up, "this is Moony," he pointed to the boy with the scar, "and that's Wormtail," then to the plump boy, "and of course you've already met Padfoot." 

I nodded, "pleasure meeting you all." 

The boy named Moony asked, "how do we believe that you're from the future and not an impostor who's trying to trick us?" 

Good point. But how can I prove that? "I can't prove that," I told them. Now that's a dilemma for them. 

Padfoot spoke up, "it's not a big deal. Honestly Moony if you traveled in time then how would you prove something like that?" 

Moony asked me, "who's the Headmaster at Hogwarts in your time?" 

I replied, "Albus Dumbledore."

"And the Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher?"

"Gilderoy Lockhart," I answered.

Padfoot burst out laughing, "what? Lockhart? Un-bloody-believable."

Looks like they know Gilderoy Preposterous Lockhart as well and by the way Wormtail and Padfoot were hollering, it probably looked like they found it as the most hilarious joke they could have ever come across.

"I was more of expecting Snape to be the Defense teacher, but okay," Moony mumbled.

So they know Professor Snape as well? Interesting. "Well, actually, if you are talking about Severus Snape... He's our potionsmaster."  

Moony nodded and gave the final verdict, "okay. As expected. You really are from the future." 

Prongs, however, looked as if his eyes would pop out, "you mean old Snivelly is going to be the Potions Professor when my poor little kids would be at Hogwarts!" 

Uh... Yes. 

Prongs slapped his hand on his head in frustration, "poor unborn kids then. I heartily sympathize with you too even though Evans would be quite pleased to see Snivellus as Professor." 

Evans? Lily Evans? Harry's mother? No wonder he looked familiar. He looks exactly like Harry minus the eye color.

"Are you James Potter?" I asked. 

His eyes widened, "oh wow looks like I'm just as famous even 15 years later on. Yes I am. James Fleamont Potter. Chaser. Quidditch Captain. Hogwarts' star and pretty much..." 

But Moony interrupted him, "yeah yeah we know, James Famous Potter. And since she's from the future she'd probably know much more about your heroic achievements. Now shut it." 

Freaking unbelievable. I'm talking to Harry's father? Oh God. 

"Okay fine," Padfoot spoke, "now that it's clear that I wasn't lying about her, can you guys shed some light on the current crisis?" 

Yeah pretty much crisis it is. 

"What crisis?" James Potter asked, "I see no problem here. She came back from the future, she stays here. No problem at all." 

I sighed, "that's not the case. I came here but there must be some way to go back into my time. I can't stay like this forever. That would be like..." Now how does Hermione put it? Yes exactly, "that would be a violation of rules. I mean... Does anyone of you have any idea what I'm talking about?" 

Because Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail were looking at me with straight no nonsense faces. Pretty sarcastic. 

"Breaking rules is fun," Padfoot stated seriously. 

"I know what you're talking about," Moony faced me and spoke in a low voice, "serious breaches in the laws of time travel result in catastrophic events. Wizards who spend more time in the past than it is necessary often come to irreparable harm." 

Oooh that's scary. But then he spoke immediately, "so how did you come here in the first place? Maybe if we know about that we could help you out." 

I told them all about the tapestry thing. 

"Cool, you mean a time portal actually exists at our school?" Padfoot sure was excited about that. 

"Yeah but you're not supposed to use it," Moony replied. 

I get the feeling that Moony is a lot like Percy. He must act like the mother of the group taking care of everyone. Oh yeah I know Percy doesn't do that, but I could compare his apparent nerdiness to my dear Head Boy brother. 

But anyways... After our little talk, Moony assured me that he would look up on the whole tapestry thing and in the meanwhile I had to stay here. At Hogwarts. With them. For goodness knows how long. But the thing which was troubling me was that my family would be getting super crazy and anxious about me. 

"Don't worry, time will stand still in future as long as you're here," Moony stated relieving a bit of my tension. But I really hope I don't cause much harm to time and myself alike. Other than that all seems sorted. 

"So now that you're staying with us," Prongs spoke as if taking the matters in his hands, "we'll definitely help you to stay undercover. While going outside for mealtimes you'll borrow Moony's reading glasses. Helps in the disguise. And I also happen to have an Invisibility Cloak just in case of an emergency. On the other hand, Moony's quite good at Disillusionment Charms. You can stay in this dorm as long as Padfoot promises to behave well. Yes Padfoot I meant it (you're not entirely harmless, you know). Sorry just kidding, he's not a serial killer so that's safe enough I think." 

Uh... Okay, I guess? Wormtail (who had not yet said a word) finally spoke up, "now that everything's sorted, let's go down for breakfast. I'm starving." 

Padfoot shook his head, "you're always starving, Wormy." 

He shrugged, "well, I can't say no to food." 

They all nodded, "fair point." 

Then Prongs looked at me, "no need to worry Kat. I'm Head Boy here and I'll manage everything. When you go down just mingle with the crowd and act normally. No one will even notice." 

He was just leaving when he turned around for a last minute word, "oh and yes, staying with us means being part of our group. I hope you don't mind pranking people because even if you do, you're going to be dragged down in a lot of such stuff throughout the time you spend here." 

Then he turned to Padfoot with excitement, "do you know she could even be our secret agent! Imagine what we can do with another little inside help." 

Padfoot smirked, "I know what you're thinking, James. But we'll tell her that later." 

Yeah later. Right now I agree with Wormtail. I'm starving.

***