A/N: This story came to me through my over active imagination and I had to write it down.
Summary: AU 6th year/ Marauder Era. Secrets that can change everything are revealed to Hermione as the first semester pf her sixth year at Hogwarts starts to end.
Pairings:
SBxHG
RLxOC
JPxLP
I'm also using some HP5 references that weren't used in the books.
Hope you all like it!
Read and Review!
Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Prologue
July 22, 1996
Remus Lupin sat on the small bed in Harry Potters bedroom, as he listened to the young boy- no young man- pour his heart out. The reason: Sirius Black was dead, and Harry Potter was once again blaming himself.
"And…" Harry Potter tried to choke out but failed as he felt his throat close up.
"Harry, just let it go. I know its hard, cub, I went down the same path when Li- when your parents died. Actually, Albus had to force feed me for the first month. At least you have friends who are willing to help you through your grief, I didn't. Let your friends help you, open up, don't close yourself off from everyone" said Remus to Harry whose hair seemed to be even more messy and if one looked closely, they could see a red rim around his eyes from when he was crying, just minutes before.
Harry ran a hand through his messy raven hair and sighed. Then, much to Remus' shock, he let out a hollow laugh and looked up into Remus' eyes with a look that was a cross between amusement and disappointment.
"You know what," Harry said after his hollow laughter had died down, "before he- before he- before he fell through the veil and died, he- he called me James. I guess he was either reliving his time as an Auror besides my father or he just always thought of me that way," Harry finished, his sadness laced into his blasé attitude.
If Remus was shocked to hear this he didn't show it. The fact was that he was three feet from their battle, battling Rabastan Lestrange, and heard every word that was said, every spell that was thrown. Remus sighed once again and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"That is probably what went through his mind, seeing as a good chunk of his life was spent rotting and hoping that he would see James and Lily again. Harry, this next year is going to be the hardest, but it will get better, I swear it. Now I must get back, our visiting time is up and sadly I must go back to Order headquarters." Said Remus.
"What, 'my visiting time is up' you make it sound as if I'm in a muggle prison and I'm the convict that can only have a five minute visitor, once a week." Harry said. Remus stopped at Harry's door as they both shared a chuckle. However, the more Remus thought about it, the more Harry seemed to be in that situation. The only time the Dursley's (and Dumbledore for that matter but that was a different story) would let him see Harry was Friday from 3pm to 5pm, Saturday from 1pm to 2:30pm and Sunday from 4pm to 6:45pm. Today was a Saturday.
Remus turned around and engulfed Harry into a hug, which Harry returned, grateful for the comfort. With that, the two said their goodbyes and Remus apparated out of Harry's bedroom right before the wards for no-apparation were put back into place.
Harry sighed and looked out of his window as he say the Order members change as a new shift approached. Even though people surrounded him, he never felt more isolated in his entire life.
Harry's birthday came and went and he was once again back at the Burrow. Professor Dumbledore who took him to recruit the new professor, Professor Slughorn, had escorted him.
Harry spent the rest of his summer recovering and pushing thoughts of Sirius and Kreacher out of his head. Before anyone knew it, it was September 1st and they were on the train heading towards Hogwarts.
In the last compartment in the middle car sat Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom sat waiting for their other friend, Hermione Granger, to show up. They had not seen her since the night before and were very curious as to where she went. In the mean time they all played exploding snaps, which Harry lost terribly.
Half way through the ride, Hermione walked in and looked a little worse for wear. As soon as people saw her they asked her where she had been. She decided to tell them the truth.
"Well, if you must know I was helping Professor Snape move his equipment. He got the Defense Against the Dark Arts post. Professor Slughorn is going to be teaching Potions. Also I was preparing," she said in a rush and hoped that her friends didn't question her. However, that was a hopeless hope.
"What do you mean, preparing?" asked Harry before everyone else could ask. Hermione looked at each and everyone one of them as if it would be her last time. She sighed, looked down, then looked back up and took a deep breath.
She decided to tell them what she had been doing most of the summer instead of what she had really been doing. If they found out she was following a dream, which was completely illogical, then they might call her a hypocrite and she hated being called names.
"I was gathering books that would help us to fight Voldemort." Everyone nodded their heads and sat back to do their own thing. Harry and Ginny took turns sneaking glances at each other even though Ginny wasn't single anymore. Hermione opened a lather bound book and read. Ron and Luna were talking about their Holidays and Neville was reading a book about Herblogy. Just then the compartment door opened.
Dean Thomas and Lavender Brown stepped in. Dean went over to Ginny with a smile, whispered something in her ear which caused her to giggle and nod her head and the two left. Hermione snuck a glance at Harry and noticed he was brimming with contained jealousy.
Lavender made her way over to Ron slowly and seductively causing Ron to grab Lavenders hand and rush out leaving two jealously students, one faking jealousy, and once confused sixth year student.
"What happened?" Neville asked in confusion to what had taken place.
Hermione, with (fake) anger in her voice said, "Well, it appears Ronald got a girlfriend." With that she stormed out leaving two brooding, plotting students and one confused Neville in her wake. Once she was down the hall she sighed and leaned back against a compartment door and opened her leather bound book again.
After the train ride, students got reacquainted (or acquainted in the case of the first years) with the halls of Hogwarts and their class schedules. Hermione and Ron fought more and Ginny and Dean seemed a little too close for Harry's comfort.
By mid-November Hermione was getting anxious and Ginny had gotten bored of Dean and moved on, to Harry which Harry was more than ecstatic about. Hermione looked up all she could about time travel, under the pretense that she was in the library doing one of her essays. What she didn't notice was a pair of steely grey-blue eyes watching her sadly, knowing they could never be.
Hermione couldn't take it anymore. Since the middle of September she had put up with Lavender and Ron snogging all over. Now, she was furious with him and his insensitivity. It was common knowledge that Hermione had a crush on Ron. However, Hermione only pretended to in hopes that she really would have feelings for him, but now she knew better and knew more about who she was. Unfortunately, Harry seemed hell bent on getting his friends together so Hermione kept up her act.
It had been two months and she was sick of it. Pretending to like him made herself sick for two reasons, one was that she hated lying, it made her feel dirty, and two was why would she like someone that only messed with her heart?
But she had to act out, commit a jealous act to make everyone think she still 'loved' him. One night while on prefect patrol, she found it.
She had caught Lavender and Ron snogging after curfew.
"HEY! Break it up guys its after curfew!" She exclaimed. The two jumped apart but when they saw who it was they made a move to go back at it but where stopped by Hermione making tiny birds fly around Ron's head while pecking him while going around his head. There she thought that was my act of revenge and now I can go back to 'wallowing in self-pity'.
November turned into December and Hermione finished the leather bound book. The book was a diary of a man who time traveled. Hermione was decoding for Dumbledore; apparently the guy lived in the sixth century AD. He talked about three books becoming one and a secret of triplet girls with the purest blood. It sounded an awful lot like a fairytale.
On December 19, Hermione and Ron got into a huge blow out argument. She ran away in tears towards the room of requirements. She paced back and forth three times think that she wanted to be comforted. When she stopped in front of the door, words appeared above the doorway: Ynitsed ruoy tpecca ot emoc sah emit eht. Hermione read the word the way they were and a gold-white light came from under the door. Then she realized that the words were written like the mirror of Erised and so she read the words again. "The time has come to accept your destiny. I wonder what the means," she said to herself before she opened the door and walked in. All of a sudden, the room started to shake. She turned around when the shaking stopped and two more girls who she had never seen stepped in. However, they looked strangely familiar.
Back in 1996 the same pair of steely grey-blue eyes that had watched her from the beginning of the school year watched as she left to fulfill her destiny. He only hoped that he could find a person as amazing as she was.
Back with Hermione
The three stared at each other and gasped. They all looked completely different except for one thing, the shape of their eyes was almond shaped.
"Umm, hello" said Hermione. The two girls looked at her and pulled her into a hug. They then stepped back to look at Hermione while Hermione did the same to them.
The first girl she looked at had long mahogany came straight down to the middle of her back. Her eyes were a dark brown, almost black and almond shaped, and her nose was small and button like. Her face was oval shaped and she wore red lipstick, black eyeliner, and purple eye shadow. She looked to be about 5 foot 6 and was skinny but not overly thin. Her chest, like Hermione's, was on the smaller side.
The other girl had long wavy blonde hair that went to the middle of her shoulder blades. Her eyes were a brilliant blue color and almond shaped, and her nose was small and a little pointed. Her face was oval shaped but her chin was pointier then the other girl's. She was very skinny but she didn't look anorexic skinny. Like the other girl, she had a smallish chest and stood at about 5 foot 4 and ½. She wore blue eyeliner with pink lipstick and blue eye shadow.
To the girls, Hermione had curly chestnut brown hair that went to the middle of her back (the length seemed to tame out the frizzyness). Her eyes were almond shaped and were a hazel color. Her nose wasn't as small as the two other girls but it was on the small side and was a mix between pointy and like a button. Her face was also oval shaped but it was more round around her chin. Hermione wasn't skinny but wasn't fat. Her makeup had also smudged from crying so much.
The girls stared at each other for a few more moments before the one with mahogany hair stepped forward.
"Welcome home, my sister."
