Hermione Granger and the Point Of No Return

Keep Your Enemies Close

Word count – 1,991

"No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar." –Abraham Lincoln

With thanks to Maddie my beta

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Hermione walked out of the 5th year girls' showers at lunchtime and pulled out her change of clothes. She'd had to shower at lunch; those stupid girls in her dormitory had taken so long in the bathroom at breakfast that Hermione had been forced to choose between showering in five minutes and skipping breakfast or waiting to get clean at lunchtime and kicking off her day with a hit of protein – she chose the latter. Hermione threw on some clothes and toppled out the room, tripping on her untied shoelaces; she righted herself and looked around, making sure no one had noticed. Hermione did up her shoes to avoid more embarrassing accidents and proceeded to walk through the corridors, looking for Malfoy. After about twenty minutes of searching she found him coming out of the Defense classroom.

"Lucius, may I talk to you, please?" she said, hurrying up to him. He turned around to face her and raised an quizzical brow.

"Of course," he said, following her down the corridor and into a deserted classroom.

Here goes nothing, Hermione thought glumly she shut the door and turned to face him. "I want to apologize for my behaviour yesterday; you just caught me by surprise while I was in a bad mood. However, that's no excuse for my rude actions. I do hope you'll be able to forgive me." I hope I sounded enough like a "superior" pureblood, Hermione thought when she concluded.

He stared at her for a moment before saying, "It's quite alright. Would you like me to escort you to your next lesson?"

Hermione inwardly grimaced. "No, but thank you anyway; I have a free period now. But tomorrow after breakfast would you take me to Potions in the dungeons?"

"Of course." He smiled at her and she forced a smile back before walking out of the room. I just have to play nice – bide my time. Remember, Hermione: keep your friends close and your enemies closer!

Hermione dragged herself down to the kitchens to get some food ("Pickled cranberries," she'd said, tickling the pear of the portrait hole painting.); once she'd eaten her fill of chicken, carrots, and potatoes, Hermione drifted off to her dormitory and grabbed her broom. She needed to let off some steam. Hermione rushed through the corridors and out onto the grounds. She mounted her Nimbus 2000 and kicked off hard, sending bits of earth flying out underneath her.

She did a quick lap around the pitch as fast as she possibly could, wind whipping her hair around her face and burning her eyes 'til tears leaked from them. She soon slowed down and steadied her broom, moving to kneel on it before going into a standing position; she wobbled for a moment but quickly regained balance. She did another lap at a slow speed, standing up; the sensation was so much different than just sitting or lying flat. She felt her nerves go into overdrive, her heart pounding hard and the adrenaline racing through her veins – making her feel slightly giddy on a temporary high – as she looked down at the earth move by under her broom at a newer, higher perspective, stretching her brain to concentrate on keeping her knees slightly bent, her feet locked into position, her arms stretched at her sides. She relished the way the wind made her robes flap around her, giving her bat-like wings if she moved out her arms far enough. Hermione let out a short laugh in spite of herself. As long as she didn't look down as she was flying fast, she could truly enjoy the sensations flying gave her; like those of Muggle roller coasters she had been on when she was young.

She soon decided to wind down, however, and dropped into a sitting position, doing a couple of flips about twenty feet above the ground. She came down, now only flying about a yard up, and did another slow lap around the pitch before stopping her Nimbus and dismounting; Hermione shrunk her broom and stuffed it back into her cloak, leaving the pitch behind as she headed back to Hogwarts, her mind much clearer and her mood lifted.

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Hermione slid into her seat, next to Lily, in Divination, a frown on her face. Why on Earth had Dumbledore stuck her in this class? She looked around the room: a boy with jet-black hair was sitting in one of the seats behind them, a handsome boy with chestnut brown, shaggy hair and startling grey eyes occupying the seat beside him. Hermione was prodded out of her staring by Lily; the teacher, Professor Hillcrest, had entered. Hermione smirked openly; this woman looked exactly like Trelawney: her buggy, misty eyes magnified by glasses with large, circular lenses that covered half her face; a simpering pout on her lips; her body weighed down under a mass of shawls and scarves, with an especially vibrantly-colored one attempting – and failing – to wrap up the puffy mass of frizzy orange hair atop her head.

When she opened her mouth to speak, Hermione noticed she even had the same irritatingly mystical voice as Trelawney: "Welcome, 5th years, to the first lesson of the year. In this section of our studies we will go over tea leaf reading, crystal ball gazing, and we will begin to decipher tarot cards. Today we will start by going over the art of tea leaf reading. So take the cup of the person opposite you and try to make out what the symbols in the cup tell you."

Hermione reached over and took Lily's cup as Lily followed suit and took Hermione's; they immersed themselves in reading it. Every now and then one of them would let out a large, derogatory snort which they didn't even try to conceal, eventually catching the attention of several students a swell as the professor. Hillcrest came over to see what the problem was.

"Nothing, Miss," Lily began, "though I can't quite make this out." She gave Hermione a quick wink before going into a long-winded explanation for why she couldn't understand it: "She has the sun – which means happiness – but then there's this big fluffy cloud – I can't find the explanation for it anywhere in the book – a bowler hat – which means money – except there's a cross through it."

"Hand me the cup, my dear."

Lily obliged and Professor Hillcrest took it and glanced at it. Suddenly she uttered out a shriek and dropped it, the cup plopping down a plush pillow colored a lurid orange tone, now decorated with various murky brown splotches from the dregs and tainted water of the teacup. Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"My dear, you have the grim!"

Hermione gave a large, un-ladylike snort and rolled her in amusement. By now they'd caught the attention of the rest of the class. Some of the students cast her frightened looks, and other moved their desks away from her as though worried they might catch her "bad luck," acting as though it were a highly contagious disease.

"It is not a laughing matter. I see death in your future."

It became too much for Hermione, she burst out laughing, putting her head between her knees and covering her mouth with both hands as she felt her face heat up form lack of oxygen. Professor Hillcrest patted her on the back as though she thought Hermione was crying. Once Hermione had sobered up and Professor Hillcrest had moved on, she whispered to Lily in a careless tone, "Of course she sees death in my future: we're in a war."

Lily didn't find it funny. "What if it's your death, though?" she remarked solemnly.

"Well I'm going to die eventually, aren't I?"

There was a loud popping noise behind them, like a plunger being withdrawn from a sink; the boys Hermione had noticed earlier were going purple trying to control their laughter as they pressed their lips together to keep their mouths shut. Hermione raised a curious eyebrow at them and they lost control completely, bursting out laughing. Lily turned around to scowl at them and they sobered up instantly.

"Ignore Potter and Black," muttered Lily darkly, turning back around to the front.

Hermione stifled a gasp: James Potter! Sirius Black! Sirius was young and James was alive. If only she could tell them what their futures held in store; but as soon as the thought entered her mind she immediately dismissed it, knowing she couldn't risk meddling with Fate. Once they had sorted themselves out they noticed her staring at them and made proper introductions.

"Sirius Black," the especially handsome one said, holding out a hand. Hermione took it, fighting the urge to smile as he brought it up to his lips and placed a feather light kiss on it.

"James Potter," the other said and her took Hermione's hand and followed Sirius's suit.

"Hermione. It's nice to meet you," she murmured before turning back to her teacup.

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Hermione sat in the library, one of her favourite book propped up in front of her. Her eyes skimmed over the pages of Hogwarts, a History with intense interest. Her eyes moved in a blur as they went back and forth across the thousands of pages. To any normal student passing by, it would appear as though she was just a nerd reading a big book, but the reality was that she was actually trying to find information on how the Hogwarts wards were made. If wards could be made, they could be broken, which mean Voldemort could get through – he always found a way, no matter how strong the protection. And if Voldemort found a way through then they'd all be saying, "Bye-bye, Future."

"You shouldn't read so much – you'll get eye problems." A soft voice brought her out of her reading. She looked up and saw a sandy-haired boy sitting across from her he noticed her questioning gaze, saying "Remus Lupin," as he extended a hand to her. Hermione shook it, marvelling at the cute boy in front of her that was to be her future (had been her past?) Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. "You're in Divination, right?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I think you're the one James and Sirius want to talk to. If you're Hermione, that is. They've been looking for you all afternoon, actually, and are standing outside the library right now; they wouldn't come in. They said they library gives them the heebie-jeebies."

Hermione laughed. "Wouldn't want to keep them waiting any longer, then," she said, following him through the many shelves of books and out the library doors, finding herself, once again, in once of the identical stone corridors of Hogwarts.

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A/N: I'm going to be nice, even though I've had a very bad day:

12 of you added me to your story Alert/Author Alert, yet you don't review. You are seriously lazy. I mean come on: I'm not a depressive or anything but when people review it makes me happy. So I've decided not to update 'til I get 10 reviews. :-) So have fun clicking the purple button.

Now that my little rant is over . . .

The next chapter will be about 5,000 words to make up for the shortness of this chapter.

Thank you to:

Manic-Cheese-Fairy – I'm glad you like it.

LG97 (the anonymous reviewer) – Thank you for reviewing even though you don't have an account!

AngelicBladez – Yes, Lucius did have it coming to him, didn't he? The little . . . I hope your not upset by her choice to try to keep him close. Remember, though: keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Tigersky7 – Thank you for reviewing!