Diamond in the Rough
By: TheFifthCharmedOne
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Summary: "So let me get this straight. You stole a magic jewel from an Egyptian pyramid, didn't read anything about it, and now we're stuck in 1977?" Hermione asked. "Sounds about right." Fred nodded. "And here I thought I'd have a normal life after the war." She sighed. "Just great."
Chapter 2: Questions To Be Asked
"Name?"
"Fred Weasley."
"House?"
"Gryffindor."
"Year?"
"Erm...seventh." Fred faltered slightly - what year would they be in, in this time? He had no idea.
"Weird. I've never seen you in any of our classes before." Sirius sat back, crossing his arms over his chest thoughtfully.
"Hard to believe you've seen anything beside the inside of your eyelids, Padfoot." Remus teased. Sirius stuck out his tongue childishly.
The four of them had become fast friends - and Fred was trying his hardest not to ask the questions he really wanted to know. How had they made the Marauder's Map? Were there other secret passageways? How many detentions had each of them had?
Beside all that, Fred couldn't believe how different Remus and Sirius seemed to look when they were younger. In the future, Sirius's skin was sallow and malnourished, his eyes haunted by years in Azkaban. Remus's face was pale, as usual, and the scars were more obvious in the future. It seemed he tried to hide them in the past.
All this thinking about future and past was giving Fred a massive headache. If they were in the past, then what had happened to their present - or was it future - selves? Had they just disappeared?
Hermione had gone into the girl's dormitory when they all walked back to Gryffindor tower. The Fat Lady eyed Hermione and Fred suspiciously, and Hermione wondered if she knew they weren't in their right time.
She couldn't believe what - or who - she had found.
"Are you a new student?" Lily Evans asked with interest. "I've never seen you before."
"Erm, well...I suppose so." Hermione said nervously.
"You suppose?" Alice Stevens piped up from another bed - the bed that Ginny would inhabit, in twelve years or so.
"Well - yes. I am a new student. My name's Hermione Granger."
"Lily Evans, and that's Alice Stevens. Our other roomates, Emmeline Vance and Marlene McKinnon, should be back soon." The redhead beamed, and Hermione was struck by just how beautiful she was. And her eyes - they matched Harry's perfectly. Or, rather, Harry's matched hers, seeing as she had them first. "I'm Head Girl this year, so I don't sleep in this room. You can have my bed." Lily continued. She pointed to the bed nearest to the window. Which, ironically, was Hermione's bed in the future.
"Yeah, she shares a dormitory with James Potter," Alice said with a secret smile. Lily's face turned red.
"Shut up, Alice!" she hissed. Hermione smiled a bit - so they didn't hate each other at this point. Harry had told her a bit of their story, and she surmised that they were now Heads together, and that Lily might be changing her mind about the bullying toerag she thought he was. "To my great disappointment," Alice coughed loudly. "I do share a dormitory with the Head Boy, James Potter. He's the head of the Marauders. I'm sure you've heard of him.
"You could say that." Hermione said. "Erm, not to be rude, but I am really tired - you know, from the train ride and everything. Could I just lie down and we could talk at dinner?"
"Oh, of course - how silly of me. Sorry about that. Go right ahead. Alice, I'll be up in the Head dorm-"
"Giving head?" Alice giggled, and now Lily turned an even darker shade of red. She spluttered for a few seconds.
"James and I are only friends." The redhead said finally, her face still as red as her hair.
"So he's James now? Not Potter?" Alice asked with interest. Lily's eyes narrowed.
"He's my coworker. More than that, he's my co-Head. I'm going to call him by his first name."
"Just keep telling yourself that. Go on upstairs to your dormitory. I'll see you at dinner, love."
Hermione had made her way over to her bed and collapsed. She didn't hear what Lily said next, as she had already fallen asleep.
"Prongs! There you are!" Sirius greeted his best friend, James Potter. Fred glanced up. "We've got a new roommate!"
"Really?" James asked. "Who?"
"I'm Fred. Fred Weasley." The redhead said. He shook Harry's father's hand and managed to keep his cool in the process. A rather impressive feat - George would be so jealous when he found out that Fred had met not only James Potter, but Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew! Their inspirations! He'd have George doing his chores for a year!
"...Says he just got here, but wouldn't he have come on the train with the rest of us?" Sirius was saying, and his voice interrupted Fred's thoughts.
"I missed the first train. Had to owl Dumbledore." He lied easily.
"Makes sense, I suppose." Remus nodded. Fred nearly sighed in relief. "But how have we not seen you until now?"
"I keep to myself, usually." Fred answered, the lie almost laughable. The day Fred Weasley kept to himself was the day Hermione Granger got a detention.
Speaking of Hermione, rather, thinking of her, Fred wondered where she had gone. He figured that she went to the Gryffindor girls' dormitory, but had she met anyone from this time period? Maybe Harry's mother, Lily? Wouldn't that be strange..
"He's a bit of a thinker. Kind of like Moony. But I like him, seems to have potential."
"Potential?" Fred asked, coming out of his thoughts to Sirius's voice yet again. James looked over at him.
"Fred, have you ever pranked anyone before?"
"Loads of times." He answered before he thought about it. He nearly slapped himself - how did pranking loads of times fit in with the not-noticed, not seen identity he was building? Stupid!
"Could be just what we need. Pete's been acting a bit flighty lately so we need another man to keep watch-"
"I'll do it." Fred said, losing a bit of his usual cool, which was replaced by eagerness. Oh, George would never complain about his chores not being done again!
"Are you insane?" Hermione demanded when Fred told her what he was going to do. "Have you lost all of your sense? We're supposed to be keeping a low profile, at least until we figure out what's going on. If you're caught, the low profile goes out the window!"
"If I'm caught, which I won't be, it'll just give us a time period to work with. Depending on what the Marauders are planning - they haven't and probably won't tell me - I'll get a detention from whoever catches us, and that could give us an opening."
"An opening for what?"
"To find the stone!" Fred said, as though it were obvious. "Something happened to it when we traveled back - we can use my possible detention as a cover."
"Okay..." Hermione hesitated, starting to see his logic. "But what if you don't get caught?"
"Then I win points with the Marauders - another important thing if we're going to blend in here."
"You really have thought this through, haven't you?" Hermione asked with a smile.
"Sure have." Fred replied. "Have you met Harry's mum?" he asked softly, so not to attract attention. Despite the fact that their whole conversation was taking place in the empty Gryffindor common room, anyone could come down and overhear them. That would have nasty consequences.
"Yes," Hermione told him. "She's lovely. I wish Harry could meet her. What about James?"
"He's great. Hilarious, and really friendly. Reminds me of Harry, when he's not being so modest and quiet."
"So, other than looks, he's nothing like his father?" Hermione asked with a chuckle.
"Nope." Fred said, popping the p. He yawned, and looked at his wristwatch. "We should probably go to sleep - after midnight now."
"You're right." Hermione agreed. They both stood and walked toward their dormitories. "Night, Fred."
"Night, Hermione."
The next morning, Hermione discovered that she would be following Lily's schedule, almost exactly. Fred informed her that he was in all of his classes with the Marauders, which he was obviously very thrilled about.
Hermione was struck, again, by how young everyone seemed. Of course, this was twenty years in the past, so she should have expected it, but seeing Professor Flitwick without his massive beard was just ridiculous.
"Hey, Hermione!" Hermione turned, and saw Lily, Alice, and two other girls walking up to her. "I wanted to introduce you to Emmeline and Marlene. You didn't get to see them, since you fell asleep."
"I'm Emmeline!" The brown haired girl said happily. "You can call me Em or Emmy if you want, I don't really care. That's Marlene - she's in a bad mood since Sirius Black-"
"Don't say his name if you want to live, Emmy!" Marlene growled. Then she smiled at Hermione, her mood switching at the blink of an eye. "I'm Marlene McKinnon, nice to meet you."
"Hermione Granger." Hermione said, feeling a tad overwhelmed. "Don't we need to get to Defense?"
"You and Lily do. Alice, Marlene, and I have break." Emmeline informed her brightly. "Might want to get on that, Professor Thomas doesn't take kindly to lateness. Though he does favor Lily. Like most professors..."
"See you later, girls." Lily interrupted Emmeline's ramble. She took Hermione's arm and pulled her away.
"Nice to meet you!" Hermione said quickly as Lily pulled her toward the staircase.
"Emmy's a liar. Professor Thomas doesn't favor me." Lily said as they climbed the stairs. "Oh, James!"
For the first time, Hermione saw Harry's father. He was walking with Sirius and Fred, toward the Great Hall. Fred winked at her, and she gave him a small, knowing smile. James had Harry's unruly hair, and a similar build. James had a bit more substance, probably from Quidditch, but overall he and Harry could be twins.
"Hey, Lily." James greeted with a swoon-worthy smile. "On your way to Defense, then?"
"Yeah, didn't you just have it?"
"Yeah. Sirius slept, Fred got Gryffindor some house points, and I was my usual brilliant self."
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Which means you sat there and did nothing. Who's Fred?"
"That'd be me." Fred introduced himself. "Fred Weasley, at your service."
"You're adding new Marauders, James?" Lily asked with a laugh, shaking Fred's hand. Hermione had no doubt that the thought had crossed Fred's mind, but she hoped he wouldn't let his ambitions override his sense.
"Perish the thought, Evans!" Sirius proclaimed. "Fred's just going to help us with a bit of pranking later."
"James!" Lily scolded. "That does not set a good example for the younger students-!"
"James isn't involved, Evans." Sirius cut her off, not sounding too happy about the idea. "That's why Fred's helping out."
"What about Peter?"
"Dunno where he is."
"So you'd replace him that quickly?"
"Not replace. Just borrow."
Lily opened her mouth to reply, but the late bell clanged loudly, and all the color drained from her face.
"Hermione, we need to go!" She grabbed Hermione's arm again and they were off to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Professor Alan Thomas was a tall, athletically built man of his middle thirties. Hermione assumed he stopped working sometime before she and her friends would come to Hogwarts.
"Miss Evans, five points from Gryffindor for lateness." he said sharply, and Lily hung her head. "Same for you, Miss." He noticed her Gryffindor tie. In the first two minutes of class, they had already lost ten points for their house.
Today's class would be on Disarming Charms, something that Hermione had already learned. Lily took rapid notes - Hermione supposed she should too, to keep up their facade, but as she had already learned this, she didn't feel the need too.
Instead, she focused on the questions that needed to be asked.
Why had the Stone sent them back to the time of Harry's parents? How were they supposed to get back to their own time? What if they changed an important event and the future they eventually went to was completely different?
"For homework, I want a twelve inch essay on the history and uses of the Disarming Charm." Professor Thomas said. "Class dismissed."
Lily and Hermione now had a break before Herbology. They went over to the library - Lily wanted to get a head start on her homework, and Hermione wanted to research the Stone of Tempus.
"So, Hermione." Lily began. "Do you know Fred?"
"Yes. We're good friends." Hermione said, not looking up from her book. She didn't see the sneaky smile that Lily had on her face.
"Just friends?"
"Of course."
"Really?"
"Really." Hermione finally looked up. "Why are you smiling like that?"
"Because it's obvious he likes you." she grinned. "I saw the wink."
"Oh, he always does that." Hermione dismissed, though the thought of Fred liking her made butterflies dance in her stomach. "He's a player - don't think anything of it." She was saying that to both Lily and herself, hoping to quell the strange fluttering.
"If you say so. You obviously know him better than I do." The way she said it made Hermione's face turn a light shade of pink.
"W-Well, what about you and James? You might not have met me before now, but I've watched your entire relationship unfold-" Read about, heard things from Harry, same difference.
"Relationship?" Lily scoffed. "More like rivalry."
"Fine - rivalry. He clearly wants to go out with you, so why do you keep saying no?"
"Because that's just it. He only wants to go out with me. Nothing more. He just wants me because I'm the only one who ever said no. Forgive the cliché, but I want someone who will love me for longer than five minutes."
"How do you know he won't if you don't give him a chance?" Hermione asked, closing the book she had been reading. She stood and went to find another, while Lily fell into a thoughtful silence.
-X-X-X-
"Are we good, Fred?" Sirius whispered, and Fred made a thumb's up sign. Sirius and Remus then waved their wands at the toilets. An explosion of ceramic and water followed, and then Fred was being pushed in the opposite direction.
"That was brilliant. An old classic." Sirius grinned, still laughing. "Still can't believe you agreed to go with me, Moony."
Remus couldn't reply, he was too busy laughing. When he had stopped, he grinned.
"I had forgotten how fun that is." he answered. "Doesn't mean I'll do it again though." He said to Sirius's unasked question.
"Ruddy prat, abandoning me." Sirius muttered.
"Maybe if you didn't prank people, you would actually study for the N.E.W.T.s, since you only got three O.W.L.s."
"Oh ye of little faith, Moony!" Sirius cried, sounding pained. Remus and Sirius's exchanges reminded him a bit of George. He and his twin did have a tendency to argue, but usually it was all in good fun. With a pang, he realized that he missed his twin. He wondered if he or any of his other family members had noticed he and Hermione had suddenly disappeared...
"Ginny!" George called out, seeing his sister in the living room of the Burrow. "Have you seen Fred?"
"He's your twin, not mine." Ginny said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"I haven't seen him, or Hermione, since yesterday."
"Really?" Ginny asked, trying to remember if she had seen her older brother or Hermione at dinner. "And he's not at the shop?"
"Or at the flat." George confirmed. "Where the hell did he go?" He sounded really worried. "We just got back from Egypt, we should be working on our new line of products."
"Egypt?" Ginny questioned.
"You clearly don't pay attention too well, sister dear. Forge and I have been planning to go to Egypt for months. Is your little head to full of the Chosen One to listen at dinner conversations?"
"Shut up." Ginny told him with a small blush. "Even so, where could he have gone?"
A/N: So, you can see that there are many questions, most without answers. Don't worry, they'll be answered soon enough. :D
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, please, please review! I see a bunch of favoriting and alerting, but little reviewing! :( Please let me know what you think!
Sorry, I'm groveling. But I am really out of my element with this story and I'd love to know what everyone thinks.
Okay, I'm done.
-Charmy