A/N Thank you guys! I really was *not* expecting any followers/reviews/favourites. Definitely not this soon. I appreciate it. This chapter is mostly just filler, I wanted to establish her meeting and getting to know certain people. This chapter also ended up being a fair bit longer than I expected. Sorry!
Suzululu4moe – I fixed one of the things you pointed out. As to the other.. Well, we'll just have to wait and see. ;) It won't be long, I plan on having that in the next chapter. You'll be getting that by Thursday. I'm just editing it now.
The clock on the mantle showed half past two in the morning, but still she did not sleep; tears and worry had kept her up. Hermione had helped to find and save the Sorcerer's Stone, had uncovered a basilisk at Hogwarts - and promptly had gotten petrified for her efforts. None of it even came close to being attacking by a tree (from which she was still quite sore) and finding herself twenty years in the past.
Harry is never going to believe this. She thought. On that note, he'd be insufferable for the next few years, making her recount every minute detail and action his parents took.
With a sigh, Hermione slid out of her four-poster bed. Her bare feet patting quietly on the carpeted floor. She grabbed her borrowed library book and went down the steps to the dimly lit common room. It was empty, of course - every sane person had long since fallen asleep.
'Incendio.' she muttered, pointing her wand at the fire place, flame shot out of her wand and the flickering light of the fire brightened the room significantly. Curling up on one of the armchairs closest to the fire, she began to read.
Professor Saul Croaker of the Department of Mysteries is most notably known for his application of The Hour Reversal Charm on devices known as 'Time Turners'. The Hour Reversal Charm is a highly unstable form of magic. The dangers have been studied, and numerous examples (see Section 3.8) have presented themselves in the last decade.
The volatility of these items and enchantments upon them are as yet unknown. However, Mr. Croaker notes that when used for more than a transition of twelve (12) hours, the results are unaccountably disastrous. Many witches and wizards have been known to find themselves irreversibly altered by travelling through time, and have landed themselves a permanent residency on the fourth floor of St. Mungo's.
The Hour Propulsion Charm is as yet, with the writing of this lexicon, non-existent. Current theories note the impossibility of this spell. The Ministry of Magic in Britain has strict regulations in place regarding the experimentation and use of time-related magics.
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'She's just showing up everywhere.'
'Clearly, James, she's just following me. First the tree, and now here. Who could blame her? After all, did you see the passion in her eyes when she first saw me?'
'Git, the only passion there was hate.'
'Ahh, but you see my friend, love is but a step away from hate. The emotion and passion is real!'
'We still don't know who she is.' Remus said, stepping in as the voice of reason.
For the second time in as many days, Hermione found herself waking up to the sight of Sirius, Remus, and James. This time, she noted, a fourth, small sandy-haired boy was with them.
'I already told you, my name is Hermione, and obviously I'm a Gryffindor. It's just been my unfortunate luck to have been found by you guys.' Hermione said, icily. She wasn't entirely sure as to why she was being so rude to them, but at that exact moment she found that she didn't entirely care. 'Now if you don't mind, I'll be leaving now. I'm starving.' With that, she collected her book that had fallen off the seat, and carried it up to her dorm. Changing into what was unfortunately her only pair of clothes, she made her way back down to the common room. It was just her luck that the boys had decided to wait for her.
'As we're the ones who found you, it only seems reasonable that we show you how to get to where you need to go.' James explained with a glint in his eye. She was about to, incredulously, insist that she knew exactly how to get to the Great Hall, thank you very much, but some of her better judgement came through, and she nodded. After all, how would a new student know how to get there?
Surprisingly enough, they didn't pepper her with questions immediately. Only half listening to what they were saying, as they told her about Hogwarts, she found herself becoming slightly intrigued by the mismatched group.
'You'll want to watch out for the stairs, the m-'
'Yes, I know. I saw that last night, and I read about it in Hogwarts: a History.' She said, cutting of Sirius. 'Tell me about yourselves though, I mean, I've heard of you from Professor McGonagall in her letters to me, but I'm afraid her perspective is all rather skewed.'
'Professor McGonagall's letters?' Asked James, true curiosity in his voice.
'Oh yes, you see, I'm her... her ward, I suppose would be the word for it. I didn't find out about being a witch until last year, so I was home schooled. I wasn't supposed to catch up with all my studies until this summer. I've always been a bit ambitious with my studies though.' She watched them out of the corner of her eyes, as the made their way down to the first floor. The small boy, whom she had yet to hear talk, seemed to accept it. Remus and James did as well, though James's brow furrowed a bit. Sirius just watched her.
'In the last few months, she's just been telling me what she thought I'd need to know for when I was ready to attend here. Of course, I'm only presuming it was the four of you.. She mentioned four Gryffindor's with a penchant for trouble.'
'And I do believe, Miss Granger, that I suggested keeping away from those four boys. I suspect they'll cause you much trouble.'
'Us? We'd never!'
They were entering the Great Hall now, and Professor McGonagall had come up to them from behind.
'See that you don't. I do not want Miss Granger's first impression of our school to be one from you. It is always you marauding boys whenever there's trouble.' She eyed them sternly, though the small smile on the old witches' face belied her words. 'Now, Miss Granger, here is your schedule. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I'm sure the prefects, or perhaps Miss Evans will be able to help you out, if you can't find me. Now, enjoy your weekend.' She gave one last smile, before eying the boys and walked down the Gryffindor table to talk to a few other students. James, taking the lead - as he seemed to always do - lead the five of them to a section along the table, where they began to pick at breakfast.
'Right, well, I'm James Potter.' He said, introducing himself between bites of toast.
'Sirius Black.'
'I'm Remus. Remus Lupin.' Remus said, his voice sounding rather small as he sat with his shoulders hunched and he looked only at his food.
'P-Peter. Peter Pettigrew.' The small sandy-haired boy said. Hermione felt her heart clench. The poor boy, it would be less than 10 years from now when he'd be murdered by one of his friends. She almost wanted to hug the diminutive boy. Remus too, looking at him. He clearly was self conscious about his condition. That hunch in his shoulders would still be with him for decades to come, at the very least. She smiled at him, she did quite like Professor Lupin.
'Charmed. I'm Hermione Granger, as you already know. I'm afraid I don't know anyone, would you be able to tell me about anyone? Or more about yourselves perhaps?'
It seemed that the perfect way to make sure that they didn't ask questions about her, was to ask them about themselves. At the invitation, they - mainly Sirius and James - began pointing out people, and snickering - telling about pranks or encounters they had had with them. She listened, mostly to find out the names of people, but also, it told her what to watch out for. It was bad enough having to deal with the Weasley twins, and there were just two of them. With this group, there were four.
'And this, the most beautiful of ladies in all of Gryffindor, is Miss Lily Evans.' James said eventually, grandiose filling his voice as Lily sat down beside Hermione. 'To what do we owe this pleasure? You've never before deigned to sit with us.'
'Oh sod off, you great toe-rag. I'm making sure Hermione doesn't get too caught up under your influence. Merlin knows that's the last thing she needs.' The flaming red head rolled her eyes and began eating her own breakfast. 'Sorry Hermione, don't mind them. I was wondering if you'd like to go to the library again? Exams are in a few weeks, and I imagine that you'd like to get caught up with studying..' She smiled.
'Evans, she's not goi-'
'I'd love to! I'll meet you there.'
She took the steps two at a time, skipping over the trick stair, and half-running down the third floor corridor to the library. Stopping for a moment outside the double doors she breathed. No matter where in time she was, or how many people she might be missing, the library at Hogwarts was a second home to her. Nothing could change that.
Opening the door, the smell of thousands of old books greeted her like a warm hug on a cool day. The panic that had been sitting just below the surface abated some, leaving her with determination to set things right. She passed sections on invisibility, legal issues, and dragons; paused slightly at the reference section, then continued on to a small half-shelf labeled 'New and Experimental Magics'. Hermione knew she was here to catch up on her studies with Lily, but, she reasoned it couldn't hurt to take a few minutes to browse. She'd have to ask Madam Pince if there were any other books specifically relating to time travel, but as it was, she found a small book called Tinkering with Time by Elegar Bluthwaster.
Carrying the dust-laden book, Hermione brought it over to the study area, her favourite table was occupied by a greasy-hair boy and a girl with flaming red hair who ought to have been a Weasley; Lily. She smiled, and moved to join them.
'Sorry, I got caught up a bit looking at the books.' Hermione said, sheepishly.
'It happens to me all the time. Have a seat. Sev, this is Hermione Granger; she's the new student.'
The greasy-haired boy looked up at Hermione, with a small smile that barely touched his sallow cheeks. 'Hi,' he said, before turning back to his essay. Lily only rolled her eyes and shook her head.
'Hermione, this is Severus. He's in Slytherin.' Hermione felt her eyes widening, Severus Snape? Lily Evans was friends with Snape? 'He's my best friend.' The red head said defensively, misreading the look on Hermione's face.
'Pleasure to meet you, Severus.' As social as ever, I see.
'Shall we study, Hermione?'
'Yes. Let's.'
It was a half hour into their study period that Hermione once again looked up to find the three boys surrounding them. Severus and Lily were helping her with potions; the curriculum had changed the most in that subject over the twenty years, and it had hardly been her best subject.
'Sirius, Peter… You guys see what I see, right?' James said, Remus was notably absent.
'I think I do, James.'
'We can't let Snivellus go around with all the Gryffindor ladies. It'll go to his overlarge nose.'
'I was thinking the same thing, James. Perhaps we ought to give him a reminder?'
