Prologue
The night had settled, and with it, a chill in the air, familiar to the inhabitants of the streets. Two strangers walked the cold nights, one an old man, jaded due to years of fighting, and one a small girl, maybe aged four or five. She held the man's hand, her tiny legs struggling to keep up with the fast paced man.
"Hurry child, we mustn't dally," the man whispers. The girl grunts and tries to run even faster, to keep up, her curly brown hair bouncing behind her. "Now, I want you to listen closely." His voice is stern, and the girl concentrates completely on his words. "They know you're coming, and they do know who you really are." The man slows, before stopping between a wall and a large shrub. He bends at the waist, so that their eyes meet, and he puts his hand on her shoulder."You know who you are, don't you child?"
"Yes professor." The young child's dark brown eyes beam into the man's own light blue ones.
"Very good, and your responsibilities?"
"To enjoy myself, but also listen to the voice inside my head."
"Good child, I knew you were exceptionally bright." He looks at the child adoringly, before gripping her hand once again and quickly races across the street, and towards the third house on the street. Once there, he walks up the three steps to the porch, and knocks on the red door thrice. A woman opens the door, and hurries the two in.
"Oh Albus, something horrid has happened." The woman, a beautiful brunette, with wide set eyes, similar in color to the young girl, rings her hands together. "My son, Remus, he, well, you see..."
Albus' eyes immediately lose their shine and he grabs the woman by her shoulder and holds her steady. "Take deep breaths Hope." The woman, Hope, does as Albus says. "Now tell me, what has happened?"
"My son, Remus, he, Lyall said, was attacked by a werewolf, and I don't know what to do!" The little girl gasps, and Hope, the woman lets out a sob.
"Where is the boy?"
"Lyall took him to St. Mungos, to get treated, but he said to stay for you and the child, that I could maybe see him later."
Albus nods his head and he brings his left arm back, towards the little girl, "Come here child." The little girl rapidly walks toward him, and once she's standing next to him, he looks to Hope once again. "Hope, meet your new daughter, Hermione. Hermione, this is your mother Hope Lupin."
Hope, worried as she was, still managed a small smile for the girl, "hello deary."
7 Years Later
"Come on Remus, or we won't find any seats," an 11 year old girl shouts, pulling on the sleeve of an overly skinny young boy, around the same age as her. The young boy, of a shy demeanor, hurries along to keep up with his sister's fast pace.
"Hermione, please slow down," Remus says. "I can't keep up."
"Yes you can; stop being lazy." The two children board the train and begin to look for some place to sit. They past multiple compartments, many with older children in them, a few with first years, and nearly all were full, until they reached one that was empty. The two siblings, content with the isolation, shrug and make themselves comfortable.
For the next few minutes, the two siblings sit in compatible silence, each reading a book they had brought: Remus reading 'The Return of the Native' by Thomas Hardy, a muggle, and Hermione reading 'Hogwarts: A History', which had quickly become her favorite read. The two sat together, enraptured by their individual books, for a while before their door was opened.
"Excuse us, but could we sit with you," a red-headed girl, also seeming to be aged eleven, asks.
Hermione smiles, "of course!" The girl smiles and begins to sit down, holding the sleeve of another boy. The boy was pale by nature, with long-ish black hair. He looked to be unwashed and his clothes did not fit him properly. Maybe because of this, he seemed to have a shy disposition. "My name is Hermione; this is my brother Remus." Remus looks up from his book and smiles at the two.
"My name is Lily, and this is my friend Severus." The boy smiles a little.
The first years all lined up, just as Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor, had told them to, and all waited for their turn to get called up to try on the sorting hat. It began uneventfully, the first eleven year old being sorted into Hufflepuff, but that changed as a young Sirius Black went to get sorted. He has wavy, black hair, and what looked to be grey or light blue eyes, Hermione couldn't tell from so far away. He was expected to be sorted into Slytherin, due to his last name, but, instead, he was sorted into Gryffindor. Gryffindor table cheered loudly, taunting Slytherin, and the boy looked absolutely gleeful.
Lily, the girl Hermione and Remus met in the train was also sorted into Gryffindor. It carried on, boys and girls being sorted into one of the four houses, for what felt like hours to Hermione.
Then her name was called. She walked, quickly but unsurely to the stool, where she sat down and allowed the hat to be placed on her head.
"Hmmmm, you have a brain don't you girl?" If Hermione was shocked by the sorting hat speaking, she didn't show it.
"I suppose you could say that."
"Hmm, where would you want to go?" It surprised Hermione that the hat would ask her what she wanted.
"I don't care much, but I would prefer to be with my brother."
"Hmm, loyalty is it? You don't want to be separated?"
"I suppose fear could be another word," Hermione responds, truthfully.
"Well then, I suppose you belong in...GRYFFINDOR."
Hermione, content enough to be a part of Gryffindor house, merrily skips to her new table, and then watches Remus' sorting, crossing her fingers and hoping that he is sorted into Gryffindor too.
When Remus is, Hermione is the loudest to cheer.
Hermione and her brother always sit next to each other in the Great Hall, normally with Lily and the girls in the Gryffindor first year dorms, sitting to the left of Hermione, and Sirius Black and the boys in Remus' dorm sitting on his right.
Already, two of the first years don't get along: James Potter, who had quickly become Sirius' best friend as well as a friend of a chubby, sniffling boy named Peter, and Lily. James and his friends constantly pick on Severus, the boy Hermione learned was Lily's best friend.
With the exception of James and Lily, who Hermione believes will fall in love with each other, everyone else get along. They have to; they all go to class together, and only a few have older siblings or friends in other houses.
But Hermione has another problem; every time Peter talks to her, she doesn't feel good, like she's going to throw up, and she feels unreasonably angry at him. It makes maintaining a relationship with the first year boys of Gryffindor difficult.
Third year
Hermione feels disgust as she works with Peter in potions. The two are supposed to be making a girding potion. Hermione excels in Potions, the reason why she was partnered with Peter, who ruins nearly every potion he gets his hands on.
James calls for Hermione. Sensing urgency in his voice, Hermione checks the potion, red as it's supposed to be at this step, then walks over to where James and Haley Buchanan, a brunette ravenclaw, are working on their potion to answer a question. As she turns back to Peter and her own potion, she sees with horror as Peter nearly throws in the flying seahorses instead of the doxy eggs. "Stop," she nearly screams in horror. Peter squeaks and nearly drops the seahorses in the cauldron, barely stopping himself in time. Taking a breath of relief, Hermione, as gently as she can, tells Peter what he should put in the cauldron.
By the end of the period, Hermione and Peter's potion was not ruined, and they received full marks.
Marlene McKinnon, a blonde haired third year with blue eyes, watches as Sirius Black, her current crush, flirts with a fourth year in the common room. As she watches Sirius Black and the girl, with envy in her eyes, Hermione and Lily watch her.
"How can she even like someone like Sirius Black," Lily whispers to Hermione, outrage quite apparent in her voice.
Hermione shrugs, pulling her eyes away from Marlene's despondent figure. "I'm not quite sure, but Sirius must have some redeeming qualities." Her eyes are pulled towards Sirius and Freya, the fourth year, most especially known for her strange violet colored eyes. She watches curiously as the two flirt back and forth, Sirius standing extremely close to Freya and Freya simultaneously blinking her eyes too much and unnecessarily twirling her hair. "What I don't understand is how Sirius prefers Freya to Marlene. He knows Marlene more, and she's a much kinder and entertaining person than Freya."
"Yes Hermione, but I don't think Sirius cares too much for a relationship." Lily clasps her hands together and rests her head on those hands. Hermione looks at her in confusion.
"Then why is he flirting with her?" Lily lifts her head up from her hands to stare at Hermione in disbelief, and assuming that Hermione is teasing her. Once she realizes that Hermione is serious, Lily starts laughing, unable to believe that there is, in fact, something that Hermione does not seem to have intimate and immediate knowledge of. "Lily will you quit laughing?"
"I'm sorry," Lily says as she waves her hands. "I just can't believe that you can't think of what he would want."
"That doesn't mean you have to be hysterical," Hermione grumbles in response.
"I'm sorry," Lily replies, still laughing, "I'm assuming that Sirius is flirting so that he can get a few kisses from Freya, maybe even more."
"Oh," Hermione nearly whispers, embarrassed that she hadn't come to that conclusion on her own. The voice in her head, the one Dumbledore had told her to listen to, snickers at her. "I think I should go to bed." She walks up the stairs to her shared room with the girls, the voice in her head still snickering.
Fourth Year
"He is such a, a dreamboat," Marlene exclaims, falling back on her bed. The other girls in the room laugh at her, but she ignores them, still clutching a letter to her chest.
Mary McDonald, a brunette with light blue eyes, snorts, then questions Marlene, "A dreamboat?"
Marlene proceeds to ignore her, but Hermione looks up from the book she was, previously, reading, an intriguing account on the uses of Venomous Tentacula (not a fourth year standard, but makes for a fascinating read). "Who are you talking about?"
"Why Remus Lupin of course," Dorcas Meadows replies as she continues to brush Lily's long, auburn hair. "He's Marlene's latest, obvious, crush."
"He sent me a letter, asking to take me to the next Hogsmeade visit. And he sent a box of my favorite muggle chocolates with it." Marlene stays laying on her bed, but turns so that she lays on her stomach rather than her back.
"Well you should at least write a letter back," Lily blurts out, speaking in a loud voice uncharacteristic of her. Hermione stares at her incredulously, worried for her friend.
Marlene, however, doesn't notice and nearly jumps in the air, with how quickly she pops her head up. "I'll do that right now," she exclaims, rushing about to find parchment and a quill.
"Hi Hermione." Hermione looks up from the book she is using to write her potions essay. She's sitting at a table near the back of the library by herself, as is usual for her.
"Oh, hello Damon." Hermione smiles up at him. Damon Galloway is a sixth year Slytherin, not someone she knows well. The girls in Hogwarts, surely in Gryffindor, regard him as one of the most attractive boys in school. He has dark, mocha colored skin, and light eyes. He is the current Slytherin Quidditch captain and has been a beater for the last five years, giving him a strong form. Damon was more than just his looks and athletic capabilities, however. He ranks second in his year, and is a prefect. Despite not being the most attractive boy in school, it's common knowledge that he's considered the "best catch" in the school. Hermione couldn't disagree. "Please, sit," Hermione says as she gestures toward the empty seat across from her.
"No, uh, I'm okay standing," Damon declines. "I was hoping that you would go to Hogsmeade with me."
Hermione, caught by surprise, looks at him in shock, before putting her head down. The voice in her head urges her to say yes and lists reasons as to why she should. "As a date," Hermione questions.
Damon doesn't quite laugh, but he eases himself at her question. "Yes Hermione, I don't know you too well, but I'd like to, and I think that the two of us could have a good chemistry, a good relationship."
Hermione still hesitates, and Damon waits for her answer patiently. "Um, yeah, sure, definitely."
The two smile at each other, neither noticing the black-haired boy staring at them in anger.
Hey everyone, if you're still reading this far, Thank You. So basically this story is going to have really, really, really slow updates. It took me a few weeks to write this Prologue. But it is longer than I expect most chapters to be, so maybe those chapters will be updated faster. BUT IM NOT SURE.
Either way, you can definitely PM or message me if I take too long.