Hey everybody! So here is Chapter 1. Please review and let me know what you guys think.

Chapter One: Wishful Thinking

"Events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation." - Eudora Welty

Her eyes glued to her Arithmancy textbook, Hermione was a tad preoccupied. It was their first day back at Hogwarts after their very first class and she was already studying. Not too surprising. At least it wasn't too surprising to the two other people she happened to be walking with to her next class.

Ron was staring. And Harry was trying really hard not to laugh at his expression.

"Ron, mate, you can't possibly think this is anything new", said Harry grinning.

"But she just keeps topping herself in studious behavior. Don't you ever wonder if her head will just explode?", asked Ron. He made a face, did a few hand gestures, and created some very loud sound effects to illustrate what he could see happening in the very near future if Hermione kept acting like Hermione.

This time Harry couldn't help but laugh and Ron followed suit. Becoming increasingly annoyed, Hermione finally had to look up from her book. She could never concentrate when surrounded by the two of them. Thank God they're endearing, thought Hermione with a smile starting to spread across her face.

"Please you two", she started. "I really do need to finish reading this. I have a timeturner again this year, but I'd rather not use it unless I have to. We're at NEWT level now. I have to use all my time to my advantage."

Harry and Ron stared blankly for a few moments at Hermione before Ron slowly made his way over to his friend whom he partially thought insane...in a good way.

Ron put his arm around her and looked her in the eye with the most serious expression he could muster. Hermione stared right back with her own look that clearly asked, What now?

"Hermione...", started Ron."Breathe. You know..." He began to breathe in and out in quick recession but it sounded a bit more like wheezing.

The three of them continued to laugh as they headed for the stairwell leading down to the dungeons for Potions. About ten feet from where they were standing, Malfoy saw an opportunity. They still had not spotted him and didn't have their wands out. He lifted his own with a smirk and pointed it in Harry's direction.

"Oi! Potter!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned just as Malfoy fired off a hex at Harry. He didn't anticipate Harry moving quick enough to miss the shot or Hermione not paying enough attention to know exactly where the spell was headed. Needless to say, he missed. While trying to move out of the way, Hermione took too many steps back and began to tumble down the long flight of stairs located directly behind them. Harry and Ron watched with horror as she fell down the staircase. About half way down they both heard the sound of something like glass break. Immediately after the unexplained noise, Hermione simply vanished. Both Harry and Ron stood quite still, staring in shock at the spot where their friend had just been.

That worked out all right. Malfoy was not a witness to her disappearance. After seeing the fall from a distance, he decided to move on. He may have missed, but he was satisfied with making their day just a little more unpleasant. They were all such a pain in the ass. His father wouldn't be in jail if it weren't for the lot of them. He continued on his way to the Room of Requirement. He had some free time now so he figured he'd get started.

"I don't know how you do it", exclaimed Remus in complete amazement. "I think this may be a new record. It hasn't even been twenty-four hours and Amy already detests you. You have a gift."

Sirius smiled. He wasn't too upset over his latest botched relationship, if a person could even call it that. It could better be described as two hours spent snogging in the broom closet on the second floor. It was a bit unfortunate that she caught him repeating this action with Morgan a half-hour ago.

"You need to learn how to pace yourself, Padfoot. It's only sixth year! You're gonna make it through the entire school's female population before Christmas", added James with such a smug tone that Sirius had to scoff.

"You're one to talk! What about you and Lily? A word of advice. You may want to start addressing her as such, because I have a feeling 'Evans' is a little less endearing than you think it is, mate."

James stopped dead in his tracks. That was low. He knew full well that he was getting to her. Just yesterday James saw her with a hint of a smile when he turned Frank's pumpkin juice into balsamic vinegar. Sure, Frank ended spitting it directly into James' face once he took the first gulp, but he was pretty positive that wasn't what she was grinning at.

Sirius thumped James on the back and the three of them continued to walk as they headed for the stairs.

"Wouldn't it be nice if the love of your life just fell out of the sky?", sighed Sirius with such a dreamy expression on his face that Remus knew he was joking.

"Ha! I highly doubt-", started Remus. He was cut off mid sentence when, out of nowhere, a bushy haired girl appeared tumbling down the stairs. They all watched in slow motion as she gained what appeared to be more speed. She was yelling her brains out but all they could do was watch as she fell directly on top of Sirius knocking them both to the ground.

Remus and James stared blankly down at the two of them for what seemed like a whole minute before Remus looked up and stared at the ceiling.

"Wouldn't it be nice if a million galleons just fell out of the sky?", Remus asked hopefully. Nothing happened. "Oh well." He gave up and finally turned his attention back to the two people trying to disentangle themselves as they got up off the floor.

While Remus tried to get rich, Hermione was seething. That bastard. Did he not see that I was standing right at the top of the staircase? Not that he would care. I probably broke this poor guy's back.

Sirius was a little amused. He recovered from the fall fairly quickly but didn't rush himself to get back on his feet. He found the girl's repeated apologies for having knocked him down rather funny, and if he kept lying where he was he had a pretty good view as she tried to disentangle herself and get off the ground.

James caught on rather quickly to Sirius' act and decided to cut his fun short.

"Um…hi. Do you need some help?" asked James.

"Yes, thank you. I am so sorry." Hermione took James' hand as she lifted herself off the floor, still looking down as she brushed herself off and made sure her clothes were in order. She finally glanced up briefly and realized it was Harry.

"Thanks, Harry. You didn't fall too did you? I swear I'm going to sock Malfoy the next time I see him."

"Who's Harry?"

"What do you mea-?" Hermione stopped mid-sentence as she finally took a good look at her surroundings. She was surrounded by three very curious and albeit slightly confused looking boys. She looked more closely at the features of the boy who had helped her and knew immediately that it wasn't Harry, just someone who looked incredibly like him. She continued to gaze closely at him as she squinted her eyes and took in his every feature.

James began to get uncomfortable under her unending stare and could not help but take a step back. He made a slight grunting noise directed towards his friends to get them to step in. Sirius quickly obliged and tried to disrupt her line of vision. "Good morning, love. Hate to interrupt but I was wondering if you could tell us your name. You see, I thought I knew all the griffyndors and I don't believe we've met. I'm Sirius. Sirius Black." He then proceeded to put out his hand.

Hermione's head snapped towards Sirius the moment he introduced himself, her face now frozen in shock. This wasn't possible. No. She had heard him wrong. He said something else. Hermione quickly revolved on the spot taking in the sight of James, Sirius, and someone whom she strongly believed was her former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor as slowly began to lose her sense of awareness. As Hermione's vision went fuzzy, the three marauders became even more alarmed then they had previously been. Sirius, being much more alert this time around, caught Hermione as she headed to the floor in a dead faint.