The Present Is Just A Pleasant Interruption To The Past

By: Euphony

A/N: Yes, this is HG/SB. Yes, she does go back in time yatta yatta yatta, and I know lots of people have done that plot but I hope mine will turn out unique and you will enjoy it anyway. I don't know about you, but I don't get sick of Hermione/Sirius stories. I love the couples that aren't used so often. Please review and tell me what you think.

Disclaimer – I don't own Harry Potter. Duh. Or anything associated with it. So you can't sue me. Oh and I got the title from lyrics in a song by Something Corporate... Konstantine ... download it if you want. It's my favorite song.

**********

Hermione laid in her bed, her eyes transfixed on the minuscule crack on the crimson ceiling of her dormitory.

'This is crazy, I'm never going to get any sleep.' She decided as she yanked herself up into a sitting position with her bare legs dangling over the side of the bed. The moonlight from the window at the far end of the room caught Hermione's profile and illuminated the river of tears that had run down her cheeks. She lingered there for a few seconds before she got fully up.

"I think I need a library run, that always clears my head." She gingerly crept out of her dormitory, making sure not to wake any of the other sleeping girls. Before she headed for the library, she made a quick stop at the boy's dormitory. Being still quiet as a mouse, she tiptoed to the end of Harry's bed and opened his trunk, using a silencing charm on the hinges. Her hands went automatically to the bottom left corner. In a matter of moments her fingers closed around a silky mass with a piece of parchment wrapped up in it. Satisfied that she had come for what she needed, she closed the trunk and looked back up at the sleeping form of one of her best friends. She could clearly see that tears had spilled from his eyes not too long ago.

'I know how you feel Harry.' She thought to herself. She crept back down into the common room, pulled the invisibility cloak over her and activated the Marauder's Map. Now in her sixth year, she had started to become more daring and had less tendency to follow school rules. Assured that no one was in her path she took off. She made it to the library without a hitch. Breathing a sigh of relief, she let the comfort of her favorite place in the world envelope her. Letting her mind wander and her feet carry her, before she knew it she was standing in front of a shelf in the library she had never been to before.

'Hm, this seems interesting. I wonder why I never noticed this shelf before.' She wondered to herself as she yanked a large book of the shelf. Her knees nearly buckled under the weight of the large book. Hobbling slightly, she managed to get it to the nearest table. Checking the map once more to make sure no one was roaming to close to her spot, she lit a candle.

She blew mounds of dust off the noticeably old and worn book she read the cover. Hogwarts, The People That Made The History. Immediately, Hermione knew she would like the book. She opened the cover and read the first page:

The present is just a pleasant interruption to the past.

'Hm, that's an interesting way of looking at it.' Hermione thought, agreeing with the saying. She turned the page and was greeted with just another sentence.

Proceed only if you truly wish to learn about the lives of the people that created your present.

Unfazed by the warning, Hermione turned the page and there was the table of contents. 'It seems to be the history of all the classes at Hogwarts, sort of like a muggle yearbook, I expect.' Hermione deducted. One particular class stuck out like a sore thumb to her.

'Page 789....789' She chanted in her head as she flipped through pages. Her heart skipped a few beats as she finally found the page. Sure enough there he was, staring right into her eyes as if nothing had happened. Grinning up a storm and occasionally throwing a punch at the boy in the picture next to him which Hermione didn't waste a second in determining that it was James Potter, Harry's father.

"Sirius..." She whispered, new tears springing from her eyes and cascading down her cheeks. "Why did you have to die..." She buried her head into her arms, she knew she must be ruining the pages with her tear drops but at the moment she didn't care. Before she knew it, she had dozed off into a blissful dreamless sleep.

**********

"Ow, Lavender! How many times have I asked you not to wake me up by nearly breaking my ribs!" Hermione slightly slurred her words as she scolded, who she thought to be one of her roommates, about poking her in the ribs to awaken her.

"Um, excuse me?" The person tried again. Hermione instantly awoke, not recognizing the voice at all. She was startled to be looking into a pair of a strangers hazel eyes. Trying to regain some consciousness she looked around and discovered, to her horror, that the invisibility cloak had slipped off her during the night and now she could feel it, with her toes, laying on the floor. After another few seconds she also discovered that she was sitting in the middle of the library in her pajamas which contained only a pink silk tank top and a matching pair of shorts. She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks.

"Um, thank you for, uh, waking me up," Hermione smiled faintly at the young girl that had poked her in the ribs. The girl nodded and gave Hermione a wary look before rejoining what looked like her group of friends, pointing at Hermione and speaking in hushed tones.

'Well, luckily it's still early so the library isn't that crowded.' Hermione thought to herself. She looked around at the table and couldn't find the book that she had been looking at yesterday. "How odd..." She thought out loud. But she didn't have time to worry about the book now. Hopefully she could sneak back to the common room before Ron or Harry woke up so they would never know she had left. She didn't need a barrage of their nosy questions, she had too much on her mind as it was. Gathering the invisibility cloak in a bunch, she realized she had lost the Marauder's Map.

"Oh no," Hermione groaned, smacking her forehead. "Harry will never forgive me, I have to find it." Searching for a few more minutes, without any luck. She decided to go back up into the common room and come back later to search. She was getting many curious looks from people in the library.

'What's wrong with them? I'm in my pajamas but I don't look that odd... I haven't sprouted a second head I don't know about, have I?' She thought to herself. She ducked into a deserted aisle and thrust the invisibility cloak over her. Feeling safe under the silky material she darted out of the library. Suddenly, she realized that none of the faces looked familiar to her. 'Strange...' She thought. She hopped up the deserted stairs, lucky for her it seemed that everyone was already at breakfast. As if on cue, her stomach began to rumble. 'Breakfast doesn't sound too bad right about now,' She thought. Then her stomach lurched as she remembered the Marauder's Map. The dreadful thought took over her mind. Before long she had just let her legs automatically lead her up the many flights of stairs to the Gryffindor common room.

Before she knew what was happening she felt like she ran into an invisible wall and the momentum sent her flying backwards down the stairs. As the invisibility cloak flew off her as she tumbled down the stairs she got a look at what she ran into. Four boys were sprawled on the stairs, apparently knocked backwards also and she noticed they had an invisibility cloak as well just before she hit a platform with a resounding thud and a crack. Everything became black.

**********

A/N – I hope you like the first chapter... I know it's short and doesn't hold much content or anything but I'm just dipping my toe in the water. I'm gonna see how people like it.

So please review! The reviews inspire me to write.