Creating your own future
Disclaimer: I don't own anything and I don't make any money off this. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling and god-knows-who-else.
Please note that this FF will contain a very short crossover with Supernatural but that will only be on the side as a memory not anything big, hence why it's not in the Crossover category.
Also the pairing will be Hermione / Remus if there will be any pairing with her. Please note that I have not actually read or watched Books/Movies 6 & 7 so I know only what I have gathered from reading fanfiction.
Needless to say, this will be AU. From after 5th year onwards.
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A/N: Right. I got it. Revising this was a bad idea. Please stop with the mean comments *cry* . I swear I'll never do it again. I'll just go through for some grammar stuff I can spot or repetitious words. Nothing else. Please keep reading. And nice comments?
Please note that Chappie one is the only one that has been reread for grammar mistakes so far. None of the Betas I've contacted have replied so... anyone know anybody that would be interested in the job?
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"And last but not least we will be having a transfer student this year again. She has been homeschooled and taught in different countries. We are honoured to welcome Ms. Hermione Winchester amongst us for her final year."
After Dumbledore's speech there was hesitant applause and curious looks as a girl in a black cloak with messy, curly brown hair separated herself from the shadows and made her way to the front and towards the chair with the sorting hat on it.
James stared at her curiously.
"When was the last time we had a transfer, Pad?"
Sirius looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Do you really not remember? That witch in our first year from Beauxbatons. She was a fourth year."
Remus leaned over to interject.
"Her name was Mireille and she was a Hufflepuff Prefect in her fifth year."
Sirius winked at him.
"Oooh, a Prefect, huh? Guess you wish you would have had to spend many lonely hours in the night with her, eh?"
James grinned mischievously and was about to open his mouth to comment as well and probably embarrass Remus when Lily, a red headed witch seated across from them, shot them a dark glare that made James shut up immediately but not before shushing his friends and telling them to watch the sorting.
Remus, Peter and Sirius rolled their eyes in unison before turning their focus back onto the witch who had by now put the sorting hat on her head and awaited its verdict.
"It'd better be GRYFFINDOR!"
With that Hermione quietly thanked the hat before taking it off and turning to face the crowds. Now that she was facing them, the Marauders could see that she was wearing an olive green roll neck jumper and tightly fitted black trousers. Her black cloak swirled about her, never inhibiting her movements whilst the top of her cloak adhered more closely to her figure but still allowed a wide range of movement. She ignored the wildly cheering Marauders who were trying their best to make room for her and instead headed for the end of the table.
With a pout Sirius calmed down and sat next to his friends again, taking up the space they had cleared for her easily again.
"I don't like her."
Remus grinned at his friend.
"Why? Because she was sensible enough to recognise you for the hooligan you are?"
Sirius glared at his friend, before breaking out into a smile and telling his friend to piss off, whilst he concentrated in gathering his preferred food onto his plate. James had ignored the byplay entirely whilst he focused all his attention on the pretty redhead seated across from him.
"So, Evans, how was your summer holiday?"
The redhead proceeded to give him short one-word answers to his queries before turning her attention to her friend, Mary, seated beside her and ignored James further attempts to talk to her.
Meanwhile, further down the table Hermione had seated herself with a small distance between herself and the Marauders. Unable to help herself, she started for a moment at the sheer amount of food that had appeared on the tables. For the last few years the war had been in full swing and she had been on the run constantly; food had become scarce quickly and you ate what you got your hands on. Your magic kept you going when the lack of food should have made you collapse and beyond that, when you were really desperate, you'd use permanent transfiguration and hope to the Gods that whoever now held a stone instead of a piece of bread wasn't starving as well. Hence why this was reserved for only the most dire of circumstances, when you couldn't steal or eat any food you may come across because it may be poisoned or otherwise deadly.
She only allowed herself a small pause and a barely noticeable clenching of her hands before she helped herself to a small portion of food, selectively choosing what would give her the most nutrition so she would receive all the vitamins and minerals she required as she knew from experience that she would be unable to consume the vast quantities that her body needed.
The shadows cleared from her eyes and she focused on the faces surrounding her, trying to remember whether they had lived or died and which side they had been on.
"Hi. Hermione, right? My name's Mark."
The blonde haired guy beside her held out his hand to her with a friendly smile. With her left hand she covertly ran some silent spells out of sheer paranoia before she shook his hand and smiled back.
"Hi Mark. It's a pleasure to meet you. So... what is Hogwarts like? I have read Hogwarts, a History of course, but books only tell you so much."
He grinned.
"Ah, a secret bookworm. I think you'll feel right at home among the Seventh year girls. They are all part-Ravenclaw. Lily Evans especially, the redhead you see further down the table." He quickly pointed out the redhead currently glaring at the Harry-lookalike.
"She is also the Headgirl so you will probably have a lot of interaction with her in the first semester at least. Just across from her is James Potter, the guy with black hairs and glasses. He is the headboy. You can ask him for help as well if you need anything. He is usually quite decent, but just to warn you: He loves pranks."
Mark stopped pointing out people and turned back to her. His green eyes sparkled warmly and she finally remembered where she knew him from. Mark Tyler. Killed in an attack on Hogsmeade during his seventh year. He never even got to graduate. Rosier appeared to have taken him on and after a short spell exchange he'd been tortured and then, under Imperius, forced to kill himself.
With another blink she was back in the here and now and she looked closer at this boy – he was about 1.70 tall she reckoned, short, tousled blonde hair, high cheek bones, warm eyes and a near constant smile on his face. His built was not muscular, more of a wiry guy and he did not look as though he'd ever had to fight anyone. No scars, no wariness, just relaxed openness.
"Well, Hogwarts can be quite confusing and you can get lost quite easily with the moving stairs and doors that are actually walls or walls that are actually doors. But don't worry, Gryffindors stick together and you'll easily make friends and have people around you going to the same classes. We won't leave you to figure it all out yourself."
He smiled at her and she nodded back.
"So, anyone got maps of the castle that can be used?"
Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed how the marauders froze in their movements and eavesdropped more intently now.
"No – No maps. Funny, I hadn't even thought of that, but that would make sense. I wonder why they don't hand out maps."
A snort across from her and Mark got her attention. A girl with bright pink hair sat across from them and had raised her eyebrows at them.
"C'mmon, where would the fun in that be? If you had a map you'd never get lost and everyone would know all the secret passageways. Instead you can find a lot of hidden secrets – rooms, shortcuts, passageways that lead nowhere... Hogwarts would lose half of it's mystery and intrigue if you gave kids a map. By the way" with that she turned to Hermione. "my name is Rose. I'm that idiot's twin sister."
Hermione smiled and nodded to her.
"Hermione. But then again, you probably knew that already."
Rose Tyler. She had dropped out of school after her brother died and it was rumoured she got into battle magics. Apparently she took out quite a few death eaters before they got her at home; only 14 months after her brother died. Her parents died in the same attack. To make an example of why you should not resist, they had severely mutilated her whilst keeping her alive and left her body on a pike in the middle of Diagon Alley. It had taken the Ministry a week before they had found the right spells to be able to take her body down.
"Have you got any siblings?"
Rose smiled at her, eyes soft as she regarded her twin and it was clear to Hermione who saw herself as the 'elder' of the two and thus more protective one.
"No, I am an only child."
Their conversations were then interrupted by Professor McGonagall – who still had dark brown hair and looked remarkably young – as she was handing out the time tables.
"Ah, Ms. Winchester. I am Professor Minerva McGonagall. I will be your head of house as well as your transfiguration teacher. If you have any difficulties please feel free to come to my office. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your entrance exams. I hear you did extraordinarily well."
The strict professor gave her a pleased smile, before handing her two sheets of paper.
"Also, please let me know which classes you would like to take. You will need to choose two optional subjects: The first sheet of paper will complete itself automatically once I have agreed to your choices whilst the second sheet contains your potential future classes. There are some mandatory subjects but the rest are your choice. Please choose wisely and bear in mind that these choices affect your future career possibilities. Please let me know your choice by tomorrow morning. I am sure your classmates would be happy to tell you about each of the subjects but if you have any further queries my door is always open."
"Thank you very much, Professor McGonagall. I will make sure to consider my options wisely before presenting you with my choices."
The transfiguration teacher nodded in approval at her words before returning to her seat next to the headmaster. Hermione cast a glance at the parchment with her options and noticed new courses not offered in her time to her surprise: Battle Magics and Duelling. She momentarily thought about changing her originally plans and including these two before she caught herself. Any magic taught to seventh years would be far below what she'd already been taught. And Duelling would presumably be for Tournament purposes rather than real life.
Nodding to herself she chose the core subject she knew she needed: DADA, Transfigurations, Charms, Potions, Herbology and chose Arithmancy, Ancient runes and Care of Magical Creatures.
With her choices made she packed the parchments into her bag so she wouldn't lose them. Whilst she had been perusing her schedule she had noticed that Professor Dumbledore had made his typical speech, but she had ignored him – for once in her life ignored the headmaster - and only made sure to pay attention if anything out of the ordinary was said.
"Hello, Hermione right? My name is Lily Evans and I am the headgirl. If you need anything I will be happy to help you. Also if you require any of the materials of the last few years talk either to me or Remus Lupin over there. Now, if you'll follow me, I'll show you the way to the Common Room."
Hermione had seen her walk over and had already grabbed her bag, ready to be led to the Gryffindor tower since she was not supposed to know how to get there yet.
"Hi Lily. Pleasure to meet you."
Lily proceeded to lead the way after she had said her goodbyes to Mark and Rose, chattering on about the ghosts, the teachers, the classes and about their classmates. Her brown haired companion made sure to smile and nod at all the right places and wondered slightly if this was how Ron and Harry used to feel when she talked about Hogwarts, a History but then dismissed the thought just as rapidly. She'd rather not think about what she lost just now; the memories would catch up with her quickly enough anyway. They always did. She'd rather concentrate on the people she could save now.
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It was close to 11 p.m. when the Marauders came in through the portrait hole, tumbling over themselves in their haste and breathless with laughter.
"Oh Merlin, did you see..."
"I know, but the best was..."
Remus quickly hushed the other three as soon as he noticed her. Hermione suddenly found herself under the scrutiny of intensely familiar four teenage boys.
After a short, awkward pause Remus cleared his throat and approached her. His shaggy brown hair hung slightly into his eyes, his smile was wide and his posture was relaxed. His eyes were brown with a hint of amber, but he did not have the despair permanently etched into his face, barely any scars though she recognised some which were a lot less faded than she'd half expected to see. The most important difference though was he stood straight and he met her eyes. Adult Remus had a confidence born from being rejected his entire life and knowing who he was yet he'd always had this hunch in his shoulders, as if he was apologising for his mere presence.
This Remus in front of her was happy and relaxed and brought a melancholic smile to her lips. She hoped he'd stay this way.
"Hi, my name is Remus. These idiots are Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and our headboy – with a massive crush on Lily Evans – James Potter."
"Hey! I'll have you know she loves me too", James interjected, now stepping up.
"Yeah right, Prongs. You mean she loved you when she rejected you date this morning? Or every other time you asked her in the last 6 years?"
Sirius snorted at his best friend, grinning widely. Even with him the difference was so very pronounced: Azkaban had changed him, but yet never allowed him the time to grow up, leaving him a bitter, childish man in some ways as he was left without any time to adjust jumping from one extreme to the next. Now though, his eyes seem aglow with an inner light; he was so alive with happiness and she could see the deep love he held for his almost-brother.
"Hey, I'll have you know she is going to say yes this year."
Even Peter piped up now "You said that last year."
She still couldn't bring herself to look closely at Peter. Or James. Too many memories – and only the bad ones were close to the surface. So she avoided their eyes and watched Remus and Sirius instead, who made her heart feel lighter and the future seem so much more hopeful.
"And the year before that!"
"And the year before that!"
"Face it mate, she ain't gonna talk to you nicely, never mind go out with you anytime soon."
"No, I'm telling you guys, this is the year that Evans will fall in love with me-"
"I thought she was already in love with you?!" Peter interjected, confused, but was ignored as James simply continued speaking.
"We are headboy and headgirl! Our rooms are so close together and we go to the same meetings and organise stuff together! You'll see. This is the year!"
"Stuff?" Remus murmured, not at all convinced that James even knew what being a headboy even entailed.
"I am by no means an expert in the matters of the heart" Hermione finally drew all their attention back to her before this could escalate further. "but I believe calling her by her first name would be a good start for a romantic relationship – and by that I don't mean silly names such as 'Lily flower' or similar such phrases."
There was a pause as the boys absorbed that and stared at each other, before staring back at her. James' grin grew and he smiled widely at her.
"See? Why didn't you guys ever come up with this? This is brilliant. I promise, if we get married, you get to be bridesmaid!"
With that James plopped down on the couch next to her and tried putting his arm around. Hermione, who had stopped reading her book moments before they'd ever entered through the portrait hole - when she'd heard their steps rushing towards the Gryffindor common room. Her finger had still been between the pages of the book to where she had last read.
However the moment that James' arm swung at her, instinct had taken over and James found himself head down on the couch, arm twisted upwards behind his back, his wand up on the staircase to the girls dormitories and her knee pressing into his back whilst her other hand held her wand aloft, ready to cast if anyone so much as moved. Even Remus' werewolf reflexes hadn't been that fast and he hadn't caught half the manoeuvres she was making. The three boys just stood slightly dumbfounded staring, whilst Hermione blinked, once, twice and then caught up to the situation.
She released James, vaulted over the sofa to grab his wand as he wouldn't be able to go up the girls' staircase and held it out to him.
"James, I am sorry for grabbing you like that. Here's your wand. I apologise, I have trained my reflexes quite sharply as we were travelling through different countries and you would never know when someone wasn't quite as much a gentleman as you are. Sorry if I scared you."
All four boys were slightly weary as James took his wand back from her, before Sirius broke the silence by starting to chuckle.
"Man, she really had you mate. You got wailed on by a girl!"
His laughter grew louder and he started to hold his stomach.
"Oh- that was great, Hermione. You're officially my hero. And James' knight in shining armour."
That finally had the other boys cracking up. Hermione allowed herself a small smile, happy that she hadn't scared them off and even more so that no one else had been here to see her freak out. With a couple of good nights the boys went off to their bed room, still teasing each other.
With a relieved sigh, Hermione took her wand back out and with the ease that only comes from practice, she warded the main entrance to the common room to the best of her ability – which essentially meant that beside Dumbledore or Voldemort himself no one was getting in this room that meant harm or that was passing information along.
She had had to await the Marauders return so she could make the Gryffindor tower as safe as she possibly could. This had been one of her specialties; travelling through different countries with an eclectic mix of people allowed her to learn French, Spanish, Russian, Egyptian, Japanese, Czech, Italian and Greek wards.
Each country was more specialised on different things – Russian wards for example were geared far more along the lines of the Muggle government. They don't negotiate with terrorists. You kidnap someone and their wards will kill anyone, victim, innocent bystanders as well as the terrorists. You did not even try to kidnap Russians. The wards were mostly a closing kill line – anyone steps across and they get killed. And the circle would tighten until everyone inside it was dead. It was the most basic but also most efficient way if you had a bar full of Death Eaters. You can't apparate, Portkey or floo away.
Of course this wouldn't be best for the common rooms full of children nor for safe houses. But she had her personal set of wards interlaying one another so even if you managed to disable one, the magic from it would empower the others and cause them to mutate into slightly different wards each time. These were the wards she layered across the Portrait, the fireplace, the dormitories she placed more on the 7th year ones than on any others including even very simple proximity alerts.
Around her bed she silently cast even more spells so that no one could touch, interfere or even get near her bed unless it was herself as identified by her magical core. Due to her past experiences she also included silencing wards, before finally stripping down and getting ready for bed.
A few days ago she had finally had a bath after Merlin only knows how long and it had been so incredibly luxurious. She'd never take that for granted again. She lay down on her back in her bed, closed the curtains with a wave of her hand, after she had made sure she had several knifes and two wands in various places around the room and in her bed. Feeling somewhat safer, she closed her eyes and promptly fell asleep. It had been something she'd learned fairly quickly on the run. Fall asleep when you can, you never know when you'll next be able to grab a few minutes.
"Run!", Hermione screamed to Ron and Harry as they quickly grabbed their bags and ran.
After what seemed like hours but was probably only ten minutes of ducking and rolling and running, weaving through trees and jumping over roots she realised that there were only five death eaters behind her and that she had somehow lost sight of Ron and Harry. She didn't have much more time to think, ducking a Sectumsempra and jumping into a roll quickly when she noticed the tell tale Avada Kedavra out of the corner of her eyes.
She couldn't hear their panting breaths anymore nor their steps and she was furious with herself for not noticing earlier. They had never agreed on a new meeting spot since their last one was discovered.
Hermione gave a heaving sigh, realising she'd finally made it past the Anti-Apparition barrier. The tingle of it left her slightly euphoric as she disappeared with a crack. She then proceeded to apparate another four times after some bus, train and taxi journeys in between to ensure no one was following her.
Out of breath, in the middle of no one's land, Hermione popped up her tent, walked the perimeter, set the wards and cooked some tinned food on autopilot. She realised then and there that Harry and Ron would probably never find her again.
They had been in France, Italy, Czech Republic and UK so far. They would have no idea where to even start looking – and she didn't either. That was the way they operated. Unpredictability. It had seemed such a good idea to escape Death Eater's notice but now she found herself thwarted and unable to think where her two boys could have possibly escaped to. A quiet voice in her head decided to remind her that that was only really relevant IF they had managed to get away in the first place.
With a slight huff and desperate laughter that threatened to escape her, she hugged her knees as she stared into the fire. Then the tears came. What would she do now?
There were no further safe havens, no more Hogwarts, no Ministry; not that the ministry had ever been that much of a safe place but still, it had been something, someone. She had no refuge now.
With great, heaving sobs, she curled in on herself and wished with all her heart that Ron and Harry were safe somewhere, that they, too, had escaped the Death Eaters. Now that she was all alone she wasn't sure if she could do anything to help them if they weren't safe. They had always been together, the Golden Trio: from first through to fifth year, including fighting Cerberus, demented Professors, Basilisks, Azkaban escapees, followed by War Mage training and Horcrux hunting. A part of her had though them inseparable. Truth was, she wasn't sure what she could do without them. She read books, she wasn't a great fighter – not compared to Harry, nor was she a great strategist like Ron who only needed to glance at a battlefield before he had several successful battle plans in his head. Alone, she couldn't hold a candle to experienced Death Eaters.
She dreaded being without Harry and Ron. They had been her courage and her hope, her rock. What was she without them?
With a shuddering sob Hermione shook herself awake. It took her another three breaths before she could conjure up the time. 3.56 a.m. She had gotten about 4 hours of sleep – not bad. She vaguely wondered what she would have done if she had known back then, she'd never see her boys again.
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Please... Some nice comments? Pretty Please? With cherries on top...?