I'm still thinking on other pairings, but I know for a fact that I want Hermoony. The debate is between Sirius and Ginny or Luna. Meh. I'll leave that up to you guys.
It was just after the War. Nearly a month afterwards, if you wanted to be precise. Hogwarts had been fixed up and polished and the students were quickly sent back home as everyone tried to breathe and clear their heads to figure out a future for themselves. Hermione had fixed Hogwarts, found her parents and given them their memories back, and then been offered a teaching position by McGonagall, where she readily accepted it and began to work out lesson plans.
But what she and everybody else hadn't expected were a few visitors.
Filch hadn't known what it was. Hadn't known that Harry still treasured it, even though he'd leant it to Neville before he left. Hadn't known what the repercussions were of throwing the seemingly useless piece of blank parchment into the fire. Hadn't known that it would soon drive Hermione Granger mad.
She'd been walking through the hallways one night to clear her head, with the intent of going down the grounds to enjoy the summer night. She'd heard voices, voices that didn't sound at all familiar, and quickly got out her wand to investigate. She knew that if these people didn't know who she was, she wouldn't intimidate very well. She was rather on the short side, and rather petite from the months in the woods, and it wasn't as if she were dressed – or even built – like Lara Croft. Jeans and a baggy borrowed Quidditch jersey did not strike fear into the heart of anyone. But the person who wore them could.
She'd stepped out into the empty hallway and blinked, scratching her head before shrugging it off as her imagination. She turned back around and started walking down her original path, humming to herself now. She slowly walked down the steps and turned a corner to head outside when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned around and aimed her wand, eyes darting around for anything. When nothing happened, she lowered it and looked around curiously before sighing and saying to herself, "I must be going mad."
"Apparently!" a jovial voice said, making her whirl around with a scream and hex whoever the owner was. She blinked when they only stared right back at her, although she blinked even more when she could see right through him. He snorted and put his hands on his hips, the ghostly form wearing a pair of Muggle jeans and a blurred Muggle band t-shirt, long hair hanging around his face, "Rude you are! You don't just go and hex new friends!"
"Who said you were a friend?" she asked, hands on her own hips as she frowned at the ghost.
"Well, let's fix that," he said before smiling charmingly and tipping an imaginary hat as he gave a bow, "Sirius Black, at your service." She gasped and he looked up as she went rather pale and gaped a little at him. "Err – problem?"
"You're supposed to be dead!" she said before catching herself as he smirked and arched an eyebrow at her, "Well, I mean forty-years-old and dead. Not – how old are you here, sixteen, seventeen?"
"Bingo!" he said, grinning as he tapped his nose, "Seventeen, right on the dot!"
"Why are you here?" she asked, mostly to herself.
"We got bored," somebody said behind her, making her whirl around and gape as her heart momentarily stopped. He looked like Harry, same jaw line and messy hair and an easy-going grin, although his glasses were rectangular and he was wearing a button-up shirt and jeans, hands shoved down in the pockets.
"Oh no, tell me it stops here," she groaned, throwing a hand over her eyes.
"Sorry," a small voice said, making her look up at the stair railing to see that a rather chubby boy was peeking over at her, short light hair the only thing she could see beside his face.
"Shit," she cursed, running a hand through her hair, "Shit, shit."
"Ooh, such language," James grinned brightly at her, "What's your name, pet?" He picked his feet up and floated there, crossing his legs and resting his chin on a fist.
"Hermione," she said shakily before releasing a breath, marching up the stairs and going past Peter, the other two following her quickly enough as she began to jog down the hallways, creeping along.
"Now, Hermione, where are you going?" Sirius asked curiously.
She bit her lip and said nothing, putting a finger to her lips as she got out her wand and knelt to a door, "Alohamora." She pushed the door open slowly, creeping in to Filch's office and looking around worriedly. "Accio Marauder's Map." She covered her mouth with her free hand as flecks of ashes flew into her open palm. "Oh no, oh no, oh – "
"So you've heard of us?" James questioned lightly before wincing a little, "D'you think you could help us? Last thing I remember is making the map with them, and then apparently we've up and died."
"No, no, just – oh, I need to get out of here before he catches me," she said, moving out of the room and locking it again, muttering to herself, "I may be a professor now, but it is never good to get on Filch's bad side."
"You're a professor?" Sirius asked before wrinkling his nose, "And here I thought you'd be good company."
"Sirius, hush," James chided as Peter floated up next to them.
"Well, alright, in the map, you'd apparently made a copy of your spirits from your birth to the point where you put the copies into the map. And whenever Filch burned the paper, he let your spirits out. Jesus, I'm sorry."
James nodded slowly before grinning easily, "Heh, at least we're somewhere fun."
"Pranking for all eternity sounds alright," Sirius smiled as well.
"I leave you lot for five minutes and you've gone and ruined somebody's night!" a new voice announced, making them turn and look at the new figure. He had a frown and his arms were crossed, wearing a button up shirt like James, although the sleeves were rolled up and he had on a t-shirt underneath. His hair kept getting in his eyes, and he had scars on his face, one even cutting through his right eyebrow and another nearly to the corner of his upper lip. He looked over Hermione curiously as she did the same to him.
"Moony, this is Hermione – Hermione, this is our friend, Remus," Sirius introduced.
"Nice to meet you," she nodded before sighing and walking away, looking down at the ashes in her hand. "How am I going to tell Harry? Oh, I shouldn't – he'd get terribly upset. Best just to tell him it's lost, that should work."
"Where are you going?" Sirius asked her, popping into her line of sight by hanging upside down in front of her, making her blink at him.
"Back to bed," she answered, swiping her hands free of the ashes and the dirt that came with it.
"Want some company?" he asked, giving a grin.
She frowned dully at him and walked through his head, making him hiss and her resist the urge to shiver at the cold, "No, I do not."
And thus began the madness.