1987: A Park In Muggle London
Hermione Granger was a very talented, six (almost seven) year old girl. She knew how to read, well before the majority of her peers. She kept her teeth cleaner than most children her age. And she seemed to have an aptitude for causing strange things to happen; once, her mother swore she saw Hermione slow herself down mid-air when falling from a great height and come out of it completely unscathed. Hermione, however, was no more skilled in the art of running than any other six (almost seven) year old. That is why, when she tripped running from the slide to the swing set, she did not find it all that strange as she stood up from her fall and brushed herself off. That was until she noticed that it was much darker out than before and that the once busy park, was now quite empty.
The park, which had previously hosted a multitude of children from the small London neighborhood including Hermione's own family, now played host to only herself and a young boy about her age. A boy who appeared to be crying softly while sitting on one of the swings.
"Hullo," Hermione whispered to the boy as she took a seat in the swing next to him.
The boy quickly looked up in shock before answering with a soft "Hi."
"Are you quite sad?" Hermione asked the boy as she began to gently move back and forth on the swing she had commandeered, "When I'm sad I like to read or pretend I have magic."
The boy sniffled in response.
"Why are you sad?" she asked.
"I got hurt the other day," he said trying to stifle his tears, "and my parents are telling me that I might not be able to go to school because of it."
"Oh that is sad," Hermione replied sympathetically, "School is great, there are so many books to read, and so much to learn. I would probably cry too if I couldn't go to school."
The boy chuckled a little bit and started to swing alongside Hermione. "This is different though," the boy added, "this school is special. You can only go when you turn eleven, and they only let very special and talented kids in. I was going to go when I turned eleven but now I might not be able to."
"That's silly," Hermione replied, "If you are special enough to get into the school than the fact that you are hurt shouldn't matter. But, if you don't get in, you could always come to my school. The teachers are nice, and you don't have to wait until you're eleven, and they won't care that you're hurt. A boy in my class still had to go to class even though he broke his arm."
The boy chuckled again, "That sounds like a great school."
Hermione and the boy continued to talk about school and learning while steadily increasing the height of their swinging.
"Watch this," Hermione said once she got to a height that she quite liked and she leapt from the swing. When she landed and she turned to face the swings again, intent on telling her new friend that it felt just like flying, she discovered that he was no longer there. In fact, the park was much brighter now, and she could hear her mom calling for her. Giving the swing set one last glance, Hermione turned and ran up to her family where they were packing the remnants of their picnic from earlier in the day and heading home.
1991: Kings Cross Station
Hermione could not find a "Platform 9 ¾" for the life of her, and to top it all off she had told her parents that she would be able to find it herself and they should go anyway so as not to be late for the root canal surgery that Mr. Browning had scheduled for that afternoon.
Looking around for any clue she could find, Hermione noticed a black-haired boy who had an owl amongst his belongings. At first, she thought this was rather odd, but then she remembered that owls were very common in the wizarding world (a fact she had come across while reading about witches and wizards). And if she remembered correctly, owls were on the list of animals students were allowed to bring with them to Hogwarts. Rushing forward she pulled her cart alongside the boy and asked, "Excuse me, I couldn't help but notice your owl, and was wondering if you could show me how to get to Platform 9 ¾?"
The boy looked up at her with large brown eyes from behind the thick frames of his round glasses. "Um, sure," he replied, "are you a first year too?"
"I am," Hermione responded excitedly, "I've read so much about it and I can't wait to see if it is anything like the books say."
"Oh, you must be muggleborn," the boy said, "Well, from what I've heard, it will be even better than you could possibly imagine. My parents told me that it doesn't matter what I've heard about Hogwarts, there is no being ready for its beauty and magic."
"I hope that is the case."
They walked in silence for a while longer before they came across the divider between Platforms 9 and 10.
"Okay," the boy said, "what you have to do, is straighten out your cart and walk through the barrier. My parents say that it's less scary if you run. I'll go first to show you how. Okay?"
Hermione nodded.
The boy smiled quickly at her before running at top speed into the barrier, and seemingly disappearing into it. After witnessing this Hermione took a deep breath and followed his example.
When she reached the other side of the barrier, Hermione did a quick scan hoping to find her new acquaintance but was quite disappointed when she could not find him. In hope of forgetting her disappointment, Hermione decided that instead of waiting around to see if she could find the boy again, she would just get on the train and find a compartment where she could hopefully read a bit more of Hogwarts: A History, before arriving at the school.
1993: A Vacant Hogwarts Hallway
Hermione was running late for Ancient Runes. That being said, she was always running late for Ancient Runes as she had to sit through Trelawney's horrid Divination lessons, which just so happened to hold the exact same time slot as Professor Bathesada's thankfully very interesting Runeology course.
Hermione hurriedly looked around the hall to confirm its emptiness before she produced a gold chain from within her robes. Attached to the chain was a time turner entrusted to her by Professor McGonagall at the beginning of the year in order to help her get to classes. As she walked down the empty hallway she started to turn the dials on the time travelling device, being very careful to count out the number of turns she was making. However, with all the concentration she had been putting into counting the turns, she failed to notice the suit of armor she was quickly approaching until she knocked into it and sent herself and all her school supplies flying backwards and to the floor.
Remus stopped mid-laugh when he heard the clattering noise coming from the hallway James and he had just past.
"What's up mate?" James said stopping alongside the tall, sandy haired boy.
"Did you hear that?" Remus responded looking over his shoulder to the hallway that he could have sworn was vacant when they passed it not five seconds earlier.
"I didn't hear anything," James said with a wide grin, "but sometimes I swear you have inhuman hearing. It's weird mate."
Remus rolled his eyes before grabbing James by the wrist and pulling him back towards the hallway from which the clamor had originated.
"Oh, good Godrick, Hermione," the brunette muttered to herself as she sat back up and noticed that her time turner had already settled back down, "Now there's no telling how late I-"
"Excuse us miss," A voice from behind her caused her to jump.
Turning she saw a familiar form with messy black hair and round glasses leaning down and offering her a hand while an unfamiliar boy helped to gather the rest of her books and quills. "Harry, you scared me to death," she replied accepting the hand he was offering.
"What? My name is James, James Potter" the boy said as he helped her to her feet, "and this is my mate, Remus."
"Remus Lupin," the other boy finished as he passed her the large pile of school books he had collected from the floor.
Hermione blanched, her eyes widening imperceptibly as she re-evaluated the appearance of the first boy, finding that he was indeed, not her close friend with green eyes and a lightning bolt scar, but rather a carbon copy with warm brown eyes and unmarred skin. "Oh my," Hermione muttered to herself before clearing her throat, "I am so sorry, James. When you first came up to me I thought you were my friend Harry; you look remarkably similar."
Hermione's mind was racing as she tried to think of a way to amend this accidental time jump. As she was mending her bag, which had ripped open during her tumble, and putting her books back into it, she decided the best solution would be to ask for help from someone with more experience with powerful and experimental magic.
"Would you boys mind escorting me to the Headmaster's office," she asked as she came up with a quick lie, "I'm running late for a meeting with him and I'm afraid I'm not quite sure where his office is located."
The boys glanced at each other before shrugging and agreeing to take her there.
"So, what is your name," Hermione was asked by the young version of her DADA professor as the walked through the halls of the castle.
"Hermione," she responded quickly.
"That's a rather unique name," James said, "does it mean anything special?"
She shrugged in response, "I believe it was derived from the name of the Greek god Hermes, messenger of the Olympians, but as far as I can tell, it just means that my parents are die-hard Shakespeare fans."
"That's interesting," James said, "are you a muggleborn then?"
"Umm," Hermione began, wary of giving away too much information about herself. "Yes actually," she decided to answer determining that it was unlikely that something bad would happen just because she revealed her name and blood status.
"My mother is a muggle," Remus said in reply, "James however has little to no experience with the non-magical world."
"More-so than most purebloods, I would say," James retorted in a small huff before turning to their female companion, "Say Hermione, have we met before? I have such a nagging sensation that we have."
"Me as well," Remus cut in.
This caught Hermione off-guard, time-travel magic was tricky and there could be a chance of her young professor's magic recognizing her own despite the time displacement, but it was unlikely that James Potter's would do the same.
Hermione stuttered, "Uh, no. I don't believe we have."
James hummed in response, "I could have sworn, that I recognized you from somewhere."
The trio continued on their journey with only bits of sporadic small talk here and there until they arrived at the headmaster's office.
"Any chance either of you know the headmaster's password?" Hermione asked realizing that the gargoyle guarding the staircase would only move once the correct word or words were spoken.
"I can't say that I do, "said James as Remus shrugged, "if it's any help, I heard from Mary McDonald that he usually uses a sweet as his password."
"Oh, okay." Hermione said doubtfully, "umm, Sugar Quills."
The gargoyle didn't budge, and an embarrassed blush rushed to Hermione's face before Remus guessed Chocolate Frogs, also to no avail.
The three teens guessed a few more times before a fourth voice spoke up saying, "The password is Mars Bar, whatever that is. So, why are we sneaking into the headmaster's office chums?"
James and Remus's faces lit up as they chorused "Sirius!" and greeted the newcomer warmly.
Hermione, on the other hand, froze.
"Who's this bird?" the young man with handsome, long, black hair questioned.
"Oh, this is Hermione. We were just helping her find Professor Dumbledore."
"A pleasure to meet you Hermione," said the boy with a cocky smile reaching out a hand, "I'm Sirius Black."
Hermione was silently panicking as she limply held out her hand to shake. Based on what was happening, she had determined that Harry's father was good friends with the very man who was out kill his son. She was shaking hands with a notorious mass murderer and Azkaban escapee who'd likely kill her if he knew she was muggleborn and friends with Harry Potter. She pulled her clammy hand away before clearing her dry throat.
"P-pleasure to meet you… Sirius. I- don't mean to be rude, but I am already - I am, um, late for my meeting. With the headmaster. And I'm sure … well I assume, you lot have classes."
James's eyebrows furrowed together at Hermione's sudden stutter but didn't have time to say anything before the mysterious brunette shot up the stairs towards the headmaster's office.
"Well," said Sirius regaining James and Remus's attention, "that was a decidedly strange interaction.
_oOo_
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or settings, I'm writing for fun.
AN: Hey all it's been a hot minute since I've done any writing but definitely let me know if this is any good and if you think I should keep going. Also the title might change in the future because I'm not particularly attached to it.