A/N - Update (2-12-17). Thanks to sonotawriter for betaing.
What's happened so far:
Ch 1 - Neville stole a device that he had come across in the Ministry that night years ago. In his grief he decides too many had died and that he's going back to the first fall of Voldemort to change he can finish setting the device, Hermione tries to stop him, but they both arrive in 1975. An unconscious Hermione is taken to the Hospital wing by the House Elves who found her unconscious in the kitchens. An invisible Neville leaves the kitchens and limps his way to Hagrid for information (but is overcome by his injuries, as well, and taken to the Hospital Wing, by Hagrid).
Ch 2 - Now in November of 1975, Hermione and Neville take the guise of 16-year-old (5th year) twins (Jean and Trevor Orwell, the Godchildren of Hagrid) with the help of the headmaster. Together they had decided it best if Neville joins the Marauders in Gryffindor, and Hermione joins Slytherin in hopes of changing the school's view of Slytherin and to hopefully befriend Snape and Regulus.
Neville and the Do-Over
Chapter 3: 1975
[Late that night - technically the next day]
(Thursday, November 20th, 1975)
"Dammit, Peter!" Sirius caught himself on the offending bedpost and squeezed his toes tightly in his hand, continuing to swear under his breath.
"Huh?" The chubby boy woke with a start, at his name.
"What's wrong?" Remus rolled over, his voice carrying pain and discomfort.
"It's 2 am and he's shouting, that's what's wrong." James moaned, rubbing his face.
"Peter's moved his damn bed again!" Sirius growled.
"What?" Peter squeaked.
"Can't a bloke try to take a piss, without breaking his foot?"
"I didn't move my bed."
"Well, it's a good two feet over." Sirius gripped as he gripped at the pain in his toes finally subsiding enough for him to hobble to the bathroom and relieve himself. When he came back, the three other boys were sitting up in their beds all staring in the same direction.
"What y-" Sirius stopped short seeing the empty bed between Remus and James. "What the?"
"That definitely wasn't there when we went to bed." James rasped.
"Guess those rumors are true, and that the new student is a 5th year and was sorted privately."
"I was sure it was the girl we heard in the Hospital Wing." Sirius climbed back into his bed.
"I guess you don't know every girl in school." Remus sighed.
"Well, he does have nearly three more years, to remedy that." James laughed.
"So, what do we do with the new guy?" Sirius asked.
"Well, we won't be able to plan things in here anymore." James sighed, throwing himself back onto his pillow.
"We could if he was a friend."
"What, you want to tell him your secret and then make a raid to the kitchens his first night?"
"Of course not, but if we involved him in the kitchen runs and a couple pranks maybe he wouldn't look so close at me going out every full moon."
"And me." Sirius added pointedly. "And them too once they get the hang of it." He added.
"Right." James adjusted his pillow - thinking. "We could test him out, involve him in some little stuff and see if he rats on us. Then see how he does with something bigger – something that would be some real punishment if we were caught. Maybe let him be caught to see if he's loyal."
"It would make our lives easier if he were cool, and if not we have reason and access to prank him." Sirius added.
"Pranking sound good, let's just skip to that." Peter laughed.
"Let's at least try, not to shit where we eat Peter." Remus sighed, laying back in bed and rolling over.
"Yea it would be kinda terrible of us to just prank the kid without trying to get to know him." James' voice was sleepy.
"We could pull some better pranks with a 5th man... if he's not a little prat." Sirius fixed his pillow.
~.~.~
When Neville and Hermione woke up, robes and school bags were waiting for them. They changed in the Hospital bathroom and took a peek in their bags before going down to breakfast. Neville found a letter had been placed beside his bed and was addressed to both of them.
Trevor and Jean,
Your things finally arrived from home. What isn't in your bag will be in your new trunks (I hope you like them and the bags). Your schedules are in the planner in each of your bags – you will find all the books for the day also in your bags. Enjoy your first day at Hogwarts, and make lots of new friends. Write, and visit soon.
Your Proud Godfather,
Rubeus Hagrid.
P.S. Professor Dumbledore asks that you not hesitate to visit him – just remember the licorice wands.
"He's taking this quite seriously." Neville said once Hermione had finished reading over his shoulder, pointing to the bit about 'making lots of news friends'.
"What would you expect?" She answered simply, watching Madam Pomfrey out of the corner of her eye. 'If only we could talk honestly without drawing attention or being overheard'.
"Well, I guess it's time."
"Just be confident – like Professor Dumbledore said." She nodded in a way that made Neville wonder if she were really talking to him.
When they entered the Great Hall, all eyes seemed to turn towards them. Dumbledore waved to them from his seat and made his way to meet them. They tried not to look uncomfortable as they walked down the length of Gryffindor table. They met Dumbledore in the middle of the hall, between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables.
"Ah! Welcome! Miss Orwell," he took her hand and patted it gently. "and Mr. Orwell." He shook Neville's hand. "Feeling all better, I hope?" Hermione got the feeling that he was making a scene of it all. "Good! Good! Now then," He turned the Gryffindor Table, "Mr. Lupin join me please," He turned to the Slytherin table "and Miss Burke please join me."
"Headmaster." Lupin appeared with a nod.
"Yes, Mr. Lupin meet the Orwell Twins." Remus gave them both a quick smile, before turning his attention back to Dumbledore. "Mr. Orwell will be joining you and the other 5th year Gryffindors. And..." Dumbledore turned to find Miss Burke who stood at his other side. "Miss Burke, meet the Orwells – Miss Orwell will be joining you and the other 5th year Slytherins."
Both Prefects took Dumbledore's pause as an opportunity to introduce themselves more personally to their new housemate. Miss Burke was a pretty girl, a little taller than Hermione, with lush black curls.
"Atropa Belladonna Burke." She introduced herself to Jean. "Call me Bella." She added softly but with an edge before she waited for Jean to introduced herself fully.
"Jean Hermione Orwell, but just Jean please." Jean answered Bella's silent inquiry as Trevor and Lupin held a similar conversation.
"Remus." Lupin said offering his hand to Trevor to shake.
"Trevor," Neville answered him with a matching smile, "and my sister is Jean." He added with a jerk of his head back to her as Jean was still talking with Bella Burke. Remus assured Trevor that he'd take care of him until he was all settled in (before the girls were done with their more formal introductions) and Dumbledore started again.
"Good, I expect you both," Dumbledore looked at both Prefects in turn, "will take excellent care of our new students, and ensure they receive a warm welcome." They both gave a quick nod in agreement. "Good, then I will leave you four."
"Jean you can eat with me if you want, but I expect you want to eat with your brother." Bella's voice was both polite and sweet, but Hermione questioned the sincerity of her offer.
"Thank you, for understanding Bella." Hermione gave her a sweet smile.
"Of course," Bella did seem rather relieved. "I'll come get you for class." She smiled and returned to her table, where she was greeted with a kiss from a handsome boy.
"Well then, I guess the pleasure is mine." Lupin attempted a laugh, and after an awkward silence, he gestured to the end of the table which was empty. On the way down the table, he paused by two black haired boys and muttered, "See ya later." Before continuing on.
"So," Lupin started, taking a seat. Hermione and Neville sat beside each other, across from him. "Why now?" He asked, and then appeared unhappy with his choice of question.
"Oh, well..." Neville started.
"It's alright Trevor," Hermione patted his back and hoped that Lupin would take his discomfort as sadness and not the shock of meeting their future Professor. "Our Mum died." She paused with a frown and forced herself to picture that her Mum really was dead (and seeing that she had no idea if her parents even made it to Australia, it wasn't that much of a stretch). "So now," She paused to swallow, "we are being taken care of by our Godfather. Mother home-schooled us – kind of a family tradition." She tried to laugh, but it came out closer to a hiccup – her eye's wide, she slapped her hands over her mouth, as her face burned.
"Thanks," Neville tried to get his footing in the conversation now that Hermione was clearly mortified. "Our dad died right before we were born – or at least, that was what Mum said." He added with a weak smile.
"With a name like Orwell, I assume he was a Muggle." Remus tried to say it lightly, blood status could be a touchy subject. "My Mum is..." He added quickly before deciding that was a stupid addition.
"Yeah he was a Muggle – they met by chance on her travels and from that night they were together always... until he died." Neville was thankful they had come up with information for their fake parents – assuming that everyone would be asking about them and their years before now.
"Well I guess you two should eat up, breakfast will be over soon." He nudged the bowls of eggs and bacon closer to them. They took his advice and filled their plates: eating as quickly as they could without looking like pigs.
"Are you just going to … watch?" Hermione asked when Lupin still hadn't started eating or talking (or even started cleaning his nails or something).
"What?" Neville started with a mischievous grin before Lupin could reply. "Afraid he's assessing your table manners, Jean-Be-?"
"Don't you dare!" She hissed, slapping her hand against his arm.
"Come on, it's a fun nickna-"
"Not a peep more Trevor." She warned, her eyes wild. Lupin did his best not to laugh, and picked a piece of toast from the table and took a bite, just to have something to do (that wasn't watching them).
"Jean?" Bella Burke interrupted. "If you're done, I figure it would be good to be early – it's Charms and then Potions. You should talk to Professor Flitwick before class, rather than after, that way we can get to Potions early too and you can introduce yourself to Professor Slughorn - our Head of House."
"Oh, yes! Great idea, Bella." Hermione stood, flipping her hair out of the way as she dropped the strap of her bag onto her shoulder (smiling for a second at realizing how little effort the job was with her new hair). "I'll see you at lunch I guess then." She addressed Neville.
"We'll have Potions with you." Remus said softly.
"Well, we'll talk after Potions then." Neville smiled up slightly to Hermione.
After talking to Professor Flitwick, he set her up in the back of the class with some placement tests he had prepared. She breezed through most of it, until the last few pages, she guessed as best she could on them but marked them to show the Professor which ones she had only limited knowledge about. For the last 20 minutes, he had the class practicing the Fire-Making Charm he had lectured on and came back to see how Jean was doing. He was surprised to find her finished and waiting for him.
"You are quite impressive my dear." He praised, thumbing through the pages.
"I marked some of the questions. The ones on topics I've only heard of I circled the numbers, where the ones I have some basic knowledge on are underlined, and then lastly the one's with stars are things I have read about but haven't succeeded in casting." She added a little timidly, as her cheeks grew hot as she noticed some in the back row turned around and looking at her.
"I see," Professor Flitwick suppressed a chuckle, "don't mind them." He added quietly, catching her discomfort. "These notes will help me better prepare a personal lesson plan for you." He said with a note of praise (which relaxed her – despite this younger more energetic Flitwick, with his glossy black hair and handsome face, he was much the same). "Here is a list of books to get, as soon as you can." He handed her a scroll from his pocket. "Oh and don't worry about any homework I give the class, you are far beyond what they will be learning. I will have personal assignments for you on the lesson plan I'll give you, but if you get bored in class you can always attempt non-verbal or even some wand-less magic if you are up for a challenge." He patted her arm and left her to return to the front of the class.
After class was dismissed, Bella met her at the back of the class and walked her to Potions. There was polite conversation, but it was cold, and rather seemed like Bella's mind was elsewhere (or like she already hated Hermione, it was hard to tell). It wasn't that she wasn't used to this kind of treatment, she had always had a harder time making friends with girls (for some reason they always seemed to hate her – she had thought that was either her higher marks or her closeness with Harry).
~.~.~
"Professor Slughorn, sir?" Bella knocked on the open door and lead Jean inside.
"Ah, Miss Burke! How is your uncle?"
"He's well." She answered with a spectacular smile. "Professor, this is one of our new students." Bella gestured to Jean beside her (who Slughorn hadn't noticed).
"Jean Orwell, Professor." Hermione introduced herself with a handshake.
"Orwell? I can't think of any Orwell's..." He pondered as took her hand with a smile.
"You wouldn't sir, my brother and I are half-bloods – Orwell was our Muggle father's name."
"Ah, of course, what was your mother's name?"
"She came from an old Ojibwa Wizarding Family - like their Muggle counterparts, only given names are used and those names change with the person, but she went by Ayasha, in her adult life."
"American Indian, yes? Do you have no family there?"
"We are the last of our bloodline, and our grandparents left the tribe when our mother was very young. They move to England, and cut all ties."
"Fascinating, … so your accent?"
"Our mother was raised here, and we were born in Greece near the Bulgaria border, and traveled after that, moving every 6 months to a year." Hermione smiled.
"Of course. Well, I will have you partnered with a Mr. Snape. He is the best in the class. Although, I hear you might be quite advanced." He added with a smile.
"Well, I'll do my best to impress than sir."
Bella had shown her the table she would share with Snape. He had been easy to spot, but she played dumb when Professor Slughorn introduced them. 'That seems to have ruined his day', she noted to herself. She waited silently for him to unpack everything, and take his seat.
"Just don't mess up our potion." He hissed at her with a stern look when Slughorn was distracted. Gritting her teeth, she fought the urge to make some challenging remark – 'He turnout to be Potions Master, but I have taken this year and the next'. She was dying to throw it back at him but decided she would hold her tongue until he messed up. She told herself that doing so would make it easier to befriend him – that he would respect knowledge even if it meant he was wrong - but maybe, she just wanted a little justice.
All class she silently watched his every move – seeing that he wouldn't let her do anything else anyway. She was dying for him to make the tiniest mistake so she could rub it in his face. 'It's not like he hadn't done it to her – all those years harping on the smallest error – even distracting her at that critical moment to then sneer and criticize her'.
She watched him as he slowly (but still too quickly) added the powdered unicorn horn, and suddenly (seeing the desired color change) she injected her hand between his and the cauldron and with her other hand pulled his hand away. He glared at her filled with rage.
"What did I say!" He snapped at her, the whole room watching him now.
"Well, I'm not going to let you ruin it either!" She hissed at him. 'Damn that felt good.'
"What's the matter here?"
"I'm sorry Professor, but she's ruined it!" He said as he still hadn't given the potion even a glance.
"Oh?" Slughorn looked the potion over. "I'm sorry, my boy, but this potion is absolutely perfect!" He clapped happily. "I've never seen a student make a perfect Draught of Peace their first time!"
"To be honest, sir." She blushed, feeling guilty that Snape had made such a big scene about it. 'I wanted to rub it in his face – not embarrass him in front of half his year!' "It wasn't my first time – I learned this potion years ago."
"Dumbledore told me you might be advanced, but truly my dear!" Slughorn chortled. "Well let's see everyone else's, but I think we have already found the winner." He walked around the class looking into the cauldron on each table. "Almost Miss Evans." He said to the red head at the other front table, before moving on. "No, no." He sounded deeply disappointed by the next table.
"Far too strong." He told the third table, with three boys. "I know you two like your pranks but use this and they might never wake up." He left them, shaking his head. "Yes, that would do." He told the next table, giving the closer Slytherin a pat on the back, "Much better than last time Miss Burke."
He continued around the room until he arrived at Neville's Table. He was sitting with Lupin. 'Looks like Lupin is taking good care of Neville', she thought to herself (Hermione didn't notice the smile on her face).
"And with those eyes, you must be the other Orwell!" He patted Neville on the back, "Are you as advanced as your sister, Mr. Orwell?"
"Not as gifted with Potions I'm afraid Professor." Neville shrugged.
"Well let me see anyway." He inspected the potion carefully. "Well it isn't as good as Miss Orwell and Mr. Snape's, but..." He paused for effect "I'm afraid you have tied for second with Miss Evans and Miss Travers. I must say, Mr. Orwell, you pulled Mr. Lupin's work up several notches."
"Thank you, sir." Neville blushed.
"So that," Slughorn turned to address the class, "is 30 points to Slytherin for Snape and Orwell, Evans and Travers have earned 15 points for Gryffindor, and another 15 to Gryffindor for Lupin and Orwell. Finally, for third place, is 10 points to Slytherin for Burke and Aubrey. For homework, I want a roll of parchment on what you did wrong – everyone except Mr. Snape and Miss Orwell of course - no homework today for you two."
Snape packed up and left class without a word to anyone. Neville met Hermione at her table by the time she was packed up and standing. He was alone – his partner was being congratulated by his friends and the red-headed Miss Evans, for the points.
"That was bloody brilliant." Neville smiled approvingly.
"I don't know – I didn't mean for it to turn into a whole scene – I feel bad."
"Don't Jean-Bean!" Laughed a handsome black-haired boy. 'Sirius - Azkaban really did do a number on you'. "Snivellus needed that, he did." The Marauders had appeared – Peter standing a little behind Sirius. 'Don't think about him', she told herself, moving her gaze to the suddenly frowning redhead that had followed them over.
"Don't call him that, Sirius!" Miss Evans appeared, her green eyes on fire.
"It appears, Mr.- " 'Play dumb', Hermione reminded herself. "Sorry?"
"Sirius Black, darling, but you can call me Handsome." He gave her a cheeky wink and a confident smirk. Peter looked impressed – she wanted to curse him, the rat bastard. 'Focus'.
"Mr. Black seems to have an impairment when it comes to names." Hermione said to the angry redhead who was clearly Lily Evans. Lupin and James snickered behind their friend.
"That's for sure." Added the (still glaring) red-head. "I'm Lily," She offered her hand to Jean and then Trevor. "Care to study with me and a couple friends? Both of you, of course!" She smiled at Neville. They agreed gladly, but tried not to stare at her eyes – 'they really are just like Harry's'.
"Well Jean, it looks like you have been abandoned for Lunch." Lupin nodded to the back of Miss Burke, as she left the room.
"Well then!" Lily took Neville and Hermione by the elbows. "You two are eating with me then – Remus, care to join?"
"Come on Lily!" James protested. 'Don't stare, don't stare', Hermione forced herself not to look James. Lily scoffed and turned them towards the door. Remus followed, flashing his friends a shrug (and a smirk – James hated that Lily was friendly with Remus, but wouldn't let him and Sirius tag along).
"Come on Jean-Bean!" Sirius hollered at the open door, a laugh in his voice. Lily gave Hermione a small tug when she thought about turning around and hexing his big mouth shut.
"Hexing him, won't make it any better." Lily warned. 'How did she know?' Hermione whipped her head back to the girl in awe.
"It's true." Lupin added sadly from behind them.
"How did he even hear that? Trevor?" She looked past Lily to glare at him. Neville's face was red, and he looked away.
"It's my fault," Lupin was now on the other side of Neville, his hand on his shoulder. "I brought it up, and when Trevor told me how he shouldn't have said it, Sirius must have been listening in – I should have known he would."
~.~.~
Lily chatted up the group on the way to the Great Hall, asking the twins everything she could think of, except of course the one question everyone else had for them. 'She must have heard', Hermione thought. She asked them what subjects they were taking, she asked when their birthday was (Sept 30th, '59), she asked them if they had many friends back home (and then quickly moved on to how they were feeling about the coming O.W.L.'s).
"Have the Slytherin's been welcoming?" Lily asked, taking more potatoes.
"It's only been half a day Lily." Remus chuckled.
"Well," Jean started, playing with her food. "Bella doesn't seem to feel the need to make the effort that Remus has with Trevor," She smiled and glancing at him noticed a little blush in his cheek, "but she's OK - polite, a little frigid, though."
"Well you two can always eat with me – Jane and Trish would like you guys." Lily smiled at Jean. "And Trevor you tell me if James and Sirius hassle you." She stared him down until he nodded. "Sorry Remus." Lily said after a moment, Remus only shrugging it off.
"The Slytherin girls seem OK." Lily started again, after a pause. "Although I only really know Bella (from Prefect stuff) and then there's Patty who's nice but more of a loner. I see her in the Library a lot, and she'll say 'hi' if you talk to her, but you can tell she really would rather be reading or doing her homework. Maybe she'll be different with you, seeing that you'll be in the same dorm."
"I'm sure Jean will make plenty of friends, Lily." Remus grinned, teasing her. "Maybe you could give her 'til dinner at least." He laughed.
"Oh shut up, Remus. It's hard to start a new school in the middle of the term, and have everyone in basically the same groups of friends that they've had for the last 4 years." Lily defended but was starting to blush.
"Thanks, Lily, I appreciate it," Jean smiled, and grabbed Trevor, hugging him around the arms, "and I'm so glad my baby brother," She squeezed him, "has you and Remus looking out for him."
"Stop Jean." He groaned and tried to free himself.
"Sorry, Trevor." She released him, and he shrugged it off.
"Call us even." He grinned.
~.~.~
Lily and Remus had walked them to Transfiguration, after lunch. Neville and Remus sat together again, in the back of the room. Lily had deposited Hermione at the front right-side table and then stood just inside the door. Hermione hadn't figured out why until Snape walked through the door. Lily cornered Snape into talking to her, and after a minute walked him over to Hermione.
"You two are going to start over. Jean Orwell this is your fellow Slytherin and my dearest friend Severus Snape. Sev, this is my new and brilliant friend Jean. She's going to join our study group, and you're going to take her under your wing – she's too kind for a Slytherin."
"Now, you're dictating who my friends are?" He asked. 'Sounds like that's a recurring fight', Hermione thought to herself.
"No, I'm telling you who would be a friend if you decided not to be such an arse." And with that, Lily turned on her heel and walked off (her long redhead whipping around and nearly smacking the boy).
"I didn't know she was going to do that." Hermione said softly to his back.
"You ahead of us in Transfiguration too?"
"Yes." She said honestly.
"Better or worse than Potions?"
"Far better." And with that, he sat down next to her.
"Nice to meet you, Jean Orwell." He offered his hand. Hermione was a little taken aback at the change, but took his hand and shook it – 'not nearly as greasy as you would think.'
"Glad to meet you." She answered.
The class was doing Vanishing Spells with mice. Hermione sat quietly as everyone else took notes of Professor McGonagall's lecture. She sat there trying to be as invisible as possible. Snape had noticed her lack of notes but ignored it, and she was thankful for it. She wondered if Neville was taking notes or not, but didn't dare look back at him. It might have taken him longer to get down (mostly due to a lack of confidence), but she knew this would be nothing for him too.
"Miss Orwell, yes?" Professor McGonagall stopped in front of her table.
"Yes, Professor?"
"You are feeling better, aren't you dear?"
"Yes, Professor."
"Is this boring you then, dear?" McGonagall asked and tension flooded the room (all eyes were on the new girl, and everybody wanted to see what was going to happen next).
"A little, Professor." Hermione's face was bright red, and she stared at her desk. "It's just I've been doing Vanishing Spells for awhile now, Professor." She finished, forcing herself to look at her old Head of House. 'Please don't hate me. Please, Please don't hate me', was all she could think as she stared up at the younger Minerva McGonagall.
"Alright than dear, show them how it's done." Hermione perked up a little, drew her wand and silently made the mouse disappear.
"Impressive." McGonagall praised, with a slight rise to her brow. "Well then," she recovered, and turned to the back of the class "Mr. Orwell I take it you too have mastered Vanishing Spells?" McGonagall called.
"Y-Yes Professor." Neville stood up.
"So what have been you writing then, Mr. Orwell?" McGonagall asked, leaving Neville trying not to blush now that the scrutiny of the class was on him.
"I was doodling Ma'am." He sighed.
"I see – well Vanish your mouse then, and you both can read quietly until I'm done." McGonagall said, and turned back to her lecture.
Hermione reread a chapter in her History book, until after McGonagall's lecture. Then she felt a poke at her back and turned around see two blonde haired, Slytherin girls. The closest introduced herself as Lucinda, and her friend as Katie. Lucinda asked for tips (and after watching her attempt), Hermione suggested she alter her wand movements a little and keep in mind that to vanish the mouse was to turn it into both nothing and everything.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Snape was listening, she forced herself to ignore it, and not to smile when he then vanished his mouse. Both, Lucinda and Katie's next try was almost perfect – although a little disgusting. They were thrilled on their second try, to both vanish their mice. They thanked Jean and told her they would walk her to History, seeing that Bella was more interested in snogging her boyfriend and that Trevor and the Gryffindors would have Charms next.
After Transfiguration, McGonagall called both Jean and Trevor, up to talk. Just outside the door, four students waited, making polite conversation together (at least, the three girls did). Bella Burke, as foreseen by Lucinda, had seemed to decide she was not needed again and hurried off after the class was dismissed (hand in hand with her fellow Prefect).
"Well I already know you can do Vanishing Spells and Non-verbal Spells, so what else have you done?"
"Conjuring and vanishing, and some Human Transfiguration."
"It sounds like you're two years ahead..." McGonagall was flabbergasted. "Tomorrow, you'll have a couple of free periods, came back then and I'll have you run through some tests so we can figure out where you two stand." She said with one of her rare smiles and started walking them to the door. "Oh, and 10 points each." She added, before shooing them out the door and into the waiting four.
Lily made Jean promise to eat dinner with her (Neville and Snape were to be there too. She had told Remus he was welcome but that if he wanted to eat with his friends that she would take care of Trevor for him). After Hermione agreed, Lily hugged her and walked off with her arm hooked around Neville's elbow.
Lucinda and Katie walked Hermione to class and sat on either side of her. There was friendly chatting, but only a little – even Hermione had forgotten some of the dates and names and the other two were too busy trying to write everything down in time. After class, Hermione walked with the two blondes down to the Great Hall, they told her they would join her and the Gryffindor's shortly after dessert – to save her from Bella's frigid company. Then the four of them (assuming Snape wanted to join them) would head down to the dungeons.
~.~.~
Neville was already sitting with Lily and two other girls 'must be Jane and Trish'. A tall red-headed girl with freckles and a petite girl with straight brown hair. Lucinda and Katie left her at the end of the tables and made their way to the Slytherin table. Lily waved, as Hermione passed James, Sirius, and Remus talking in low voices.
"Lucinda and Katie seemed nice." Lily smiled looking over at the Slytherin table. "Oh here comes Sev." She hurried him with her hand and scooted over to make room next to her.
"Lily, Lady's... Trevor." Severus greeted them, before taking his seat next to Lily.
"I'm so glad you still came, I'm sorry for earlier."
"No, I should, of course, take an interest in my new Housemate." He tried a smile at Jean.
~.~.~
After dessert had appeared, Lucinda and Katie followed. Lucinda took the seat next to Hermione, and Katie choose the seat next to Neville and quietly introduced herself to him (and pointed over at Lucinda who flashed a smile). When Hermione had finished, they stood and asked Snape to join – he looked torn for a moment, but politely agreed.
"Goodnight, Lily." Snape smiled at her. "Trevor." Neville got a polite nod and managed to return it (dinner with his future tormenter had been all but horrible – all because of Lily). Lily was lovely in every sense; naturally stunning, with a smile that captivated. She was kind to nearly everyone and had a way of making someone feel like they were the only one in the room when she was focused on them alone. 'No wonder James and Severus are in love with her'.
"Sis" Neville grabbed her hand before she could be hurried away by the two girls. Hermione leaned down close to him and he spoke into her ear. "After they fall asleep, meet me in the Room of Requirement. I want to talk."
"Good idea." Hermione said standing up – fixing her bag. "I had an idea just like that." She grinned.
"Say goodnight Jean! Trevor can have you in the morning." Katie called from beside Lucinda.
"Night baby brother." Hermione laughed, before joining the three Slytherins.
On their way to the dungeons, she wished she hadn't pulled the wrong hair off of Millicent in second year. Harry and Ron had, of course, told her about their adventure in Slytherin common room, but besides it being behind a fake wall they hadn't really said anything important.
"So what you think?" Katie asked as they stood right inside the common room. It was a little dark, and chilly, but not as uninviting as Hermione had imagined.
"Grand..." 'It was grand', Hermione thought, 'not homey like Gryffindor Tower, but not far from feeling like a grand old castle hotel - If that hotel was under water'. The large fireplace had a large fire burning but the room was still a little chilly. The green windows looked into the lake, and she heard the faint sound of running water.
The four sat in the common room, doing homework and the girls chatted about whatever struck them. Snape left them politely after finishing his homework, and the two girls decide it was the perfect time to show Jean their dorm.
The sound of running water was louder in the dorm, although it was rather relaxing she found. The 5th year girls dorm had five four-poster beds with green silk hangings, and silver embroidered linens. The room was lit with silver lamps, and each bed had a leather chair and a small bedside table.
The three talked on Jean's bed and helped her unpack her trunk until it was time for bed. In her trunk was a fair amount of new robes and Muggle clothes, there was also a small jewelry box (half full with earrings and necklaces – all looked to come from all over the world). Also, in the box were some random pictures of her and Trevor through the years (some of the different landmarks around the world, and others where they were clearly of camping). 'Dumbledore really went all out', she smiled to herself.
"Is that your Mum?" Katie asked over her shoulder, pointing to the women in the picture that looked a lot like Hermione now did.
"Yes." 'At least, I assume that's what Dumbledore was going for,' she thought. She tried not to be sad that the women didn't look much like her real mother (more like an older sister, if she had one).
"You and Trevor look so cute." Lucinda cooed at the two children in the photo (only six or seven), watching them hug the woman and laugh. 'Personal touches indeed'.
They brushed their teeth together, in the adjoining bathroom before crawling into bed. Hermione waited, listening to the sound of the four girls breathing – after maybe an hour it sounded safe. She slid out of bed, leaving the hangings pulled shut, and slid into her shoes. She cast a Disillusionment Charm on herself and tip-toed out of the dorm.
On the 7th floor, she paused for a moment not really knowing why – she shook her head at herself and continued. She found the door waiting for her. Neville had beaten her there, but then the entrance to the Gryffindor common room was also on the 7th floor. She slipped inside and heard the door turning back into a stone wall. Neville was just taking a seat on a couch in front of a fireplace (in his Pj's).
"H- Jean?" He called still looking around.
"I'm here, just a sec." Hermione reversed the spell on her way to the couch.
"Oh good." He sighed in relief, looking at her. "I had told the room to only let you in, but with the fake name I wasn't sure if it would work."
They talked – Hermione had an idea to enchant their planners so that they could write to each other, and Neville showed her his bag with the supplies he had taken from their time. They laid out everything on the coffee table. Hermione took their planners and after a moment of thought, she made an attempt. The two tested them, and with a little tweaking, they got it so that anything one wrote on the page for Oct 31st appeared on the matching page, until replied to. They also saw fit to magically lock the planners so that no one else could open them.
With the planners working, Hermione took the two new bags and gave both an Undetectable Extension Charm on one of the wall pockets. She then vanished the third bag – explaining that they should use the two new ones because they had already been seen with them by everyone and that if they lost the old bag it had a small chance of creating a paradox.
"What exactly was your plan, N-Trevor?" They sat on either side of the couch facing each other and leaning on the padded arms.
"I was going to stop Sirius from going after Peter or rather I was going to help him so Peter didn't get away. I didn't know if trying to save Lily and James that night wouldn't just cause hundreds more to die. Voldemort only disappeared because he tried to kill Harry after his Mum died for him, right? So if she didn't die for Harry, then Voldemort would stay in power and that would be bad."
"Makes sense." She nodded for him to continue.
"But I thought, at least, I could save Sirius, and Lupin too really, and keep Harry from being raised by his aunt and uncle – which would, at least, be a better life for him – although not ideal. Then I was going to save my parents, and convince them to get Dumbledore to talk to me. Then I was going to tell him everything I know – and then fight in the Order helping Dumbledore defeat Voldemort before he even comes back."
"It might have worked, with you Dumbledore could have figured it all out in the early 80's."
"But coming back now, we can't just wait 6 years, watching them all die."
"No, we can't – I won't." She shook her head. "What you don't know is that we spent the last year destroying Horcruxes – dark magic where you put a piece of your soul into an object so that you cannot die. Voldemort made 6 so that his soul would be in 7 parts, but what he didn't know is that Harry was the seventh Horcrux – that's why Harry played dead because he went there to die so that we could kill Voldemort."
"The snake was one, and the diadem, weren't they?"
"Yes. So you see, we can kill Voldemort before Harry is born. We just have to get the Horcruxes before that night, but we have to make sure that no one knows. If Riddle finds out, he could move them or make more."
"But you know what they are, and where they are?"
"I, at least, know what they are and where they will be. Which might even be better. The only problem is that some of them might not be made yet, or not hidden yet, and there is no knowing what us just being here will change." She yawned, sparking Neville to do the same.
"Let's call it a night."
"Yeah, I'm beat." They packed up, Neville put on his invisibility cloak, and Hermione cast her Disillusionment charm.
"After you," Neville reached out blindly to where she had been a moment before and found her upper back, and gently pushed her toward the door. She opened the door and Neville felt her stiffen under his hand. He drew his wand under his cloak and stared into the hall. Hermione spotted a large vase teetering slightly on its pedestal, and quickly raised her wand.
"Homenum Revelio!" She cast into the hall, the only other sound the teetering of a china vase.
"Immobulus!" Neville cast once he realized the spell she was going to cast.
Before them, three frozen shadowed figures appeared. One short on the floor at the foot of the vase, and two tall together only feet from Neville. Hermione and Neville looked at each other, now both shadow figures themselves - but something was wrong, Neville had seen something (she knew that look well). Hermione turned to look behind her, but only saw a gray haze before she felt a hand closing around her mouth and pulling her backward.
"A-" She shrieked but was too quickly muffled by the hand. She tried to shake free – her wand hand pinned behind Neville to her right.
"Shhh! You'll bring Mrs. Norris." A voice hissed from between her and Neville (into her right ear and his left). That voice – it was only a whisper but still, she knew it – Lupin. "I'm going to let go of you both now, and restore my friends." He said softly.
Sure enough appearing beside them was Lupin. With a wave of his wand, the two shadows near Neville started moving and pulled off an invisibility cloak to reveal James and Sirius. Neville pulled off his cloak, and Hermione removed her charm; Lupin now bending over the small figure.
"Couldn't watch your step, Peter?" He said sadly, helping the boy to his feet.
"So what have you two found?" James watched as the door disappeared. "I've never seen that room before, and you two find it your first night!"
"Pinch me, James, I think I might just like a Slytherin." Sirius laughed, as Remus and Peter joined the group.
"You were all pretending to sleep!" Neville realized suddenly, that they must have followed him, and waited in the hall when the room hadn't let them in.
"Quiet!" Three of the boys hissed and turned their heads from side to side, listening.
"She's coming." Remus hissed to James.
Sirius forced Peter down so that he crouched on the ground, as Remus did the same to Hermione and Neville. James took his cloak by the collar and threw it wide as he kneeled so that it fell over the group crouched on the floor. Moments later a small Mr. Norris came around the corner, staring down the hall for a long time, before turning back the way she had come.
"I see this must be a normal occurrence." Hermione frowned, standing again and fixing her top.
"We live for the adventure love." Sirius smiled at her. 'I really wish he would stop looking at me like that', Hermione frowned at him in return.
"Let us walk you back." James offered her, but the look he gave her hurt – 'oh, Harry'.
"We don't know each other well enough," she growled, holding back tears that threatened to join the ache in her chest, "for that offer to not be insulting. You will find that I am quite capable."
"Don't be mad at him for it Jean." Neville reasoned, but he too had caught the eeriness: the words, the voice, the face - it was all Harry. Except this wasn't her best friend Harry, this was a copy, a cruel reminder of what she had lost.
"Goodnight, Trevor." Her voice was soft and sad. She turned and walked away while charming herself again. Watching her disappear, they all turned to Neville.
"What did I do?" James demanded.
"It's not you." Neville paused, they were still staring at him. "We lost a friend," 'nope still staring', he sighed, "and you look and sound … freakishly like him."
"...Harry?" James said after a moment's thought.
"H-How?" Neville went white.
"They visited me in the Hospital Wing the first day you two got here." Remus said softly. "I think she heard James because right after he spoke, she started calling for a Harry."
The short walk back to Gryffindor Tower was mostly silent. James and Sirius had whispered back and forth together for awhile – all that Neville could gather was it was about the Come and Go Room. Remus had Disillusioned Peter and himself, leaving James and Sirius to share Harry's cloak and Neville to be under his own cloak. They had apologized (kind of) for following him though Peter just looked sour he had gotten them caught.
~.~.~
Hermione returned to bed, de-charmed herself, and setting her wand on the nightstand she slipped off her shoes. Crawling into bed, her face felt hot against her pillow. She reached back through the curtain for her wand.
"Muffiliato." She whispered, before placing her wand back on the table. She rolled over to her side, hugging her pillow to her chest, and buried her face in it. She fell asleep quickly, but would not sleep well. By morning, her face would bear the dried streaks of tears.
"Ron! Ron, wait!" She ran after him.
"How could you? You left, you said you'd be back and you just left!" He turned to face her but no matter how far or fast she ran, he never got any closer.
"I didn't mean to! I would have never!"
"But you did, and now Harry has Ginny and I have no one!"
"I'll find my way back, we can be together!"
"There's no way back – you know that – you knew it the moment it took you!" He yelled, turning from her and leaving her crying in shadow, as he was bleached out by the light.
~.~.~
[The next morning.]
(Friday, November 21st, 1975)
Neville woke up early and solemn. He snatched his planner from his bag and sat on his bed cross-legged. He turned to Oct 31th and frowned – nothing. He set a bottle of ink on the bedside table and grabbed a quill.
'Are you alright?' He wrote and stared at the page. After a long time, he wrote again, 'I miss them too.' He set down his quill and lay the planner open on the bed in front of him. His elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, he stared – waiting.
"Hey Trevor," James sat upright in his bed, staring at Neville as he stared at his book.
"...Uh huh...?" Neville didn't even blink.
"What ye looking at?"
"Not'in'" He remained fully focused on the book.
"Let's see..." Sirius' voice, soft and mischievous, got Neville's attention. Looking at him to see he had his wand in hand - Neville grabbed at the book, but it slipped through his fingers. Out of nowhere, Lupin was beside his bed to Neville's left and plucked the book from its path.
"That's enough Sirius." Remus handed the planner back to Trevor, with an apologetic smile. "Want to go see if your sister is at breakfast?" He said kindly.
"I doubt she will be." Neville's voice made it clear he was upset but didn't want to talk about it.
"... Sorry, mate." Sirius attempted an apology.
"Come on, Trevor. Let's go find her." Remus pulled him by the shoulder out of bed. "Get dressed, let's go." He was thankful to find that this Lupin was very much the man he would later know (except for the sadness, there was no trace of that in his eyes). They left the dorm with Sirius and James still sitting in bed. The common room was empty and they walked in peaceful silence. "Sorry about them, they don't mean to be gits – well sometimes they do, but -"
"I get it." Neville chuckled, ending Remus' rambling before it could really start. With that, the silence came back, and they made their way across the common room. When they stepped outside the common room, and onto the 7th floor, Remus looked at Neville.
"Where should we try?"
"Should we sneak into the Slytherin Dorms?" Sirius' voice came from behind him.
"Sirius!" Remus turned on him, annoyed.
"I'm Serious!" He paused for a moment like he wanted to say something, but with a look from Remus he sighed and continued. "I was an ass, and if I have to get caught in the Slytherin Dorms, get hexed by Jean and get detention for a month to make it better, then let's get on with it."
"Not like you really need a reason for that." Remus eyed Sirius who smiled at the fond memories.
"It is kinda my fault, so I'm in too." James put his arm around Neville, ignoring the other two and their moment. "So where to first?"
"I would guess she's in the Library behind a pile of books." Trevor said.
"When did she have time to find the Library?" Sirius' attention snapping back to the group.
"Jean could find a Library with both eyes jinxed shut." Neville smiled weakly, and behind him so did Remus.
~.~.~
She had gotten up early, not really wanting to talk to anyone. She silenced the bathroom door, as not to wake the other girls by showering. She dried her hair with her wand and was pleased to see her hair dry perfectly. She washed her face and caught her eyes in the mirror – it was so odd (having blue eyes, the same blue eyes she now saw on Neville). Dressing quickly, and grabbing her bag she left the four girls sleeping in their dorm. Lucinda and Katie really did seem nice (great actually), but if they saw her they would make her talk, and Hermione didn't want to talk – she wanted to read, she wanted to read and forget (or at least ignore). She was surprised to be spotted in the common room, that early in the morning.
"Oh, good morning Jean." Snape had looked up from his book, a seemingly rare feat. "Meeting your brother early today?" He said only sounding half interested.
"No," Her voice was guilty, and seemed to peak his interest, "I'm sneaking off to the Library to hide from him and the Gryffindors."
"Did those prats curse you already?"
"No, nothing like that." She chuckled. 'That, I would have handled better'.
"Well, I was planning on going to Library anyway – to met Lily – but if you needed a guide or a lookout..."
"That would nice." She answered quietly. He stood and crammed his books into his bag.
"I know Lily probably told you to call me Sev, but really only she does that – I usually hate it."
"What a relief." Hermione smiled. "So Severus then? Or maybe 'hey you'?" She joked but stopped when he seemed annoyed.
"Severus is fine." He joined her by the door. The two walked for awhile without a word – it was nice, everyone had been so filled with questions that there hadn't been a moment of silence. "This way." He said after awhile when they were about half way there. "I image being twins and being home schooled that you and your brother are very close." He added after they had made their turn.
"We are." She nodded but sensed he wanted more. "It's not really him I'm avoiding. Unlike Bella, his Prefect, Lupin, has been taking really great care of him – so..."
"So If you went to breakfast that would mean sitting with your brother, which would be great if it didn't mean facing Lupin and his friends."
"Yeah – not that they did anything wrong." She tried to assure him.
"They had to do something wrong or you wouldn't have gotten upset." Shit! She chastised herself. 'You're supposed to fix his issues not fuel his hatred!'
"I know they have a reputation when it comes to Slytherins, but they've all been pretty nice." She tried, but he didn't seem to believe her: she sighted. "Not to sound like 'one of those girls', but it wasn't really about them – " She had his attention now, "you see, me and my brother have lost a lot of people recently, and one was a very close friend of mine who was the perfect double of James Potter. So really, it was just this moment of déjà vu that reminded me of my friend when I had been trying so hard to not think about it all." 'Are you really bearing your soul to Snape?' Her 12-year-old-self demanded. There was silence again, but only for a few moments. "Could you -" She started.
"I won't tell anyone – except Lily – she has ways you know." He flashed a half smile. 'Boy, he is head over heels for her'.
"Thanks."
Snape picked their table in the Library and told her how it had the perfect view of the door, yet from the door, you were mostly hidden. She could only think about how he must have found this out from years of bullying from Sirius and James – 'don't forget that he was horrible to them right back, and bullied plenty of people himself', she reminded herself. She watched him struggle to pull his books out of his overly packed bag.
"Have you considered an Undetectable Extension Charm on your bag?" She said nervously (things with Snape had been going pretty good, and she really didn't want to mess it all up). He looked at her, his face blank. "Just a little one in the main pocket to double or triple the size..." She continued but still, he just looked at her with his blank face. "I'm sorry – I shouldn't have …."
"I haven't learned that spell."
"I could... do it to your bag... and one to make it not so heavy – if you …"
"That would be appreciated." He said after a pause, and Hermione had to hold her tongue ('Why does he have to make me bumble on? Can't he just spit it out already! Does he enjoy making people uncomfortable?').
She had him empty his bag. Once he handed it to her she drew her wand and after a few moments of muttering and concentration she smiled and handed it back. He inspected the space inside the bag as he added his books, and found it to be about three times the original size.
She then left him to walk the aisles taking book after book from the shelves. When the pile came from her arms to her chin, she stopped - setting the books down and shaking her head at herself - 'Why are you trying to carry all these, you're a witch remember?' With a tap of her wand, and a fond smile as she thought of Ron, the stack of books hovered off the ground and followed behind her.
When she returned to the table, Snape had his nose deep in a book and a piece of parchment on the table that was half filled with tight jagged writing. Her pile of books floated beside her, from mid-calf up to her ears. With a swish of her wand, the books sorted themselves into four stacks. Finally feeling at home, she sat down with a grin (enchanted a quill to take notes at the end of the table) and cracked the first book open with a contented sigh.
Snape watched her silently from the corner of his eye. She quickly flipped through the pages until she found something, at which point she seemed to trace the text with her finger and the tip of the feather could be seen wavering behind one of the stacks of books. When she had first returned with her stack, he had thought she might touch half of them by lunch, but after only an hour she had started putting them back (and coming back with more).
She had started returning to her seat with two more books, that she had just found when Snape looked from her to the door and gave her the tiniest of head shakes. Backtracking into the nook of the aisle, she waited. After a moment, she heard James address Snape. 'Why are you hiding?' She scolded herself. 'Just go out there and say you're sorry for being so crazy!'
"Seen Miss Orwell, Sni-" She heard a smack, "Snape?" Sirius asked.
"Afraid not."
"Studying alone?" Remus asked, and she was sure he had noticed all the books around her now empty chair (not to mention the two sets of notes on that table). She continued to mentally berate herself but could not find the nerve to face the horde. She listens on and couldn't help but feel a little thankful for Snape.
"Do you see anyone else?" Snape taunted, as Neville came around the corner. She jumped but was thrilled.
"Oh, Trevor!" She looked around.
"Why are you hiding Jean?" He hissed.
"I don't know, after -" She stopped herself. "after everything, you would think this would be nothing, but every time I thought about it, I-I just couldn't."
"You ran to Snape?" He changed the topic.
"He was in the common room, and befriending Slytherins was the idea."
"Every time I -"
"I know..." She cut him off with a glance around again (we really can't talk here). "Could you maybe bring just James – if it was just him I could..."
"Sure." Neville nodded and left.
When he appeared back with the group, they had just noticed him missing (having been distracted by Snape). He pulled James away from the group with an excuse, but once he was out of earshot, he explained and pointed him to the aisle. James rounded the corner alone and gave her a polite smile.
"I just wanted to - I was being stupid."
"Trevor explained – I had no idea, of course, but I can imagine it must be really hard for both of you."
"I feel terrible about it and terribly stupid."
"We're good... maybe even friends in the making," He smiled. "but if you feel that bad you could help me with my Potions homework." He laughed (just like Harry).
"Deal." She offered her hand, and he accepted. Sirius and Remus found them then, followed closely by Peter and Neville (there it was again, the butterflies in the bottom of her stomach).
~.~.~
James and Sirius sat at the other end the table and got their books out. Sirius wasn't too happy about this development – his morning of adventure had turned into studying. Sirius was muttering his frustrations until Remus leaned over and whispered something in his ear.
Neville helped Hermione put up a stack of books, and Remus appeared as Hermione was on her tiptoes putting a book back. His fingers meet the book's spine and lifted it out of her reach, and eased it into its place on the high shelf.
"Thanks." She blushed, just then realizing she could, of course, have gotten the book to put itself up.
"No problem." He smiled, looking down at her as he said it. He hadn't realized they were that close, he was only inches from her (he could smell her – she didn't smell like the other girls – who seemed to bathe in perfume), and she was blushing. "I better get back over there..." He stepped back and made his retreat.
She didn't use her wand for the rest of the books, for she was afraid that if she did, he might think she had meant him to come help her as some kind of girl manipulation (and she didn't want him to think she was someone who played those kinds of games). Feeling ridiculous, she returned with only one book, and Neville following her, she sat next to James.
"This it?" She asked, looking at the scroll in front of James, 'Harry's handwriting is better, and that's saying something'.
"Yeah." He nodded, letting her moved the page over to her and read it. Reading through it, she was impressed, it looked like James was better at potions than Harry, 'though that could likely be because of Snape being a horrible teacher'.
"It's pretty good. Tell me what your potion looked like and smelled like – I know it was too strong, but that could be a few things." She listened to James describe his potion, from the beginning.
"At at the end, it smelled sweet and was gray. Right Sirius?" James finished.
"Yea." Sirius answered bitterly.
"Seeing that you two are partners you might as well get your homework done while you're both sitting here," She said to Sirius before turning her head away from Severus and turning her attention to Jame before she continued in barely a whisper, "waiting for Lily." She smirked. James tried to hide his shock, Sirius grinned, and Remus held back a smirk.
"Alright Jeany," Sirius pulled out his homework, "enlighten me." 'How did he make that sound dirty?' She marveled at the impressive but rather useless talents of Sirius Black.
Thwack, James smacked Sirius on the back of the head.
"Be polite to the nice lady, Sirius." James scolded, and smiled sweetly at Jean. She gave him a pursed smile to hide her amusement and took his homework again. Tapping bits with her wand as she scanned it: she sometimes made things disappear and other times she made room between two sentences. With two fingers she slid the paper back in front of James, before addressing him again.
"Here." She pointed with her wand to the first space she had made. "Write about how many times you stirred it and the heat after step 8. Down here," she pointed again, "about how much unicorn horn you added and the hue of the potion. These last two, steps 13 and 15, are both about simmer time - include the flame height. Overall remember to give a detailed description of the color of the potion at the time you went to the next step." Sirius scowled at her.
"I know you're not dumb Sirius, so I'm not going to do you the discourtesy of doing your homework for you." She said softly and stood up. "Scowl or not." She added in a whisper.
"Jean! Sev! You're here." Lily appeared with a small group behind her. "Remus … I see you brought your friends."
"Sorry Lily," Jean turned to the girl, "I was just helping James with his potions homework." Jean interrupted Remus' search for words and got a small but thankful smile for it.
"Well if you've got them to actually study," Lily nearly sighed before addressing James and Sirius. "If you two are actually going to work, then you're welcome to stay." Lily said curtly and sat down beside Severus. James was about to say something (he must have thought it clever from the look on his face) but Jean shot him a clear 'shut it' glare and he slouched back into his chair.
~.~.~
Before lunch, they met Professor McGonagall in her classroom. She had them sit and take a short test, and upon reviewing the papers she then asked them to perform various spells for her. For the most part, Neville and Hermione were at the same level, but it was clear that while advanced for a 5th year, Neville was not as gifted as Hermione when if came to Transfiguration (though Hermione wondered if it was his confidence problem still – that fear had been banished in battle, but his confidence in class might be better).
McGonagall told Neville to just practice his weaker spells for now, and that in a month she would have him do them again, and would expect him to have them down. Hermione however, had a private talk with McGonagall, about the areas of Transfiguration she wanted to move into.
Hermione admitted that she had been studying on her own from books for the last eight months, that she had worked on the subject a lot and had been working on Animagus Transformation. McGonagall was shocked to hear that her new 5th-year student had already done the work needed before the actual transformation – only stopping due to not having someone capable of helping should it go wrong or if she couldn't turn back. How she and her friends had been caught by snatchers, been tortured, escaped, had to bury a friend, broke into Gringotts and rode a dragon to freedom, and then fought in the Battle of Hogwarts without any real time between for studies, didn't make it into the conversation.
"Well Miss Orwell, let us meet on Saturdays after lunch (starting tomorrow) for private classes, and we will see how you do." McGonagall walked them to the door and waved them off. The corridor was empty, as they made their way to the Great Hall for Lunch.
"I'm starving." Hermione admitted.
"Me too – I missed breakfast because of you." Neville attempted a reprimanding look but just made them both start giggling hysterically. They entered the Great Hall to find two groups waving at them.
"Over here you two!" James called them from the Gryffindor table. Sirius, Lupin, Peter, and even Lily, Trish, and Jane sat there.
"Jean! Trevor! Sit with us!" It was Katie and Lucinda waving at them from the Slytherin table, with a silent Severus on the other side.
"Oh boy..." Hermione whispered to Neville, and they both stood there frozen. Quickly, Lily came to their aid, pulling her friends Trish and Jane with her.
"Hey, you two." Lily smiled. "You two and I will get the Slytherins, and Trish and Jane will clear a spot at the Gryffindor table – and make sure that the boys understand how to behave themselves." Lily stressed to Trish and Jane who then left and started moving people at the end of the Gryffindor table.
Lily walked with them to where Katie, Lucinda, and Severus sat. It took some convincing, but after a bit, the three realized that Lily wasn't going to take no for an answer, and conceded defeat gracefully. So the six returned to the Gryffindor table and sat down. Hermione noticed James and Sirius weren't too pleased with the arrangement – Lily noticed too, and unlike Jean was not going to quietly hope for the best.
"If anyone tries to ruin this meal, I'll Hex them." Lily told the group, looking at Sirius mostly.
"You're just bluffing," Sirius grinned at her, "you love the rules too much." He taunted, confident he had her pegged.
"Then I'll do it." Hermione said simply with a shrug.
"Come on, Jean-Bean." Sirius seemed to really love that nickname but didn't seem sure if she were bluffing or not.
"I wouldn't push her Sirius." Neville warned. "You really don't want to be the wrong end of her wand." The group laughed as did Sirius at first, but he stopped cold at that look Trevor was giving him, and the truth in the warning dawned on him. Severus seemed to enjoy James' and Sirius' reaction to this warning but did little more the briefly raise a brow.
"That settles it then." Lily put her arm around Hermione with a radiant grin. "Jean and I will keep the peace."
After that, lunch was actually really great. Snape and Sirius, were both polite but mostly ignored the other. Peter could have been absent from the table (he laughed after James or Sirius made a joke, but not even they seemed to pay him any attention). Remus said very little but was nodding and smiling along with the conversation. The girls found plenty to talk about and seemed to enjoy friendly flirting with Trevor and with Sirius. Neville was quite baffled by the attention he was getting from the girls, but Sirius was fully in his element.
The conversation revolved around Lily, she was really the one holding the group together (sure it was for Jean and Trevor, but it was all Lily's doing). James tried to stay in the conversation, it was rare that he got to eat with Lily (or have a conversation where she wasn't yelling at him) but it kept turning back to 'girl stuff' or worse, homework.
James and Sirius ended up spending half the time talking quietly to each other (whenever the girls started ignoring them again). Remus got talking when the topic turned to their studies but seemed content just listening to everyone. For Jean and Trevor, there was barely time to chew and swallow before someone was asking them something else – the downside of being both mysterious and ahead of everyone in class.
After lunch, they had Care of Magical Creatures and then Astronomy after dusk. Care of Magical Creatures was with Professor Kettleburn who had a magic leg and arm. It turned out to be one of her more interesting classes – seeing as she had only taken up to 5th year and that it had been a rather unorthodox year of study. Astronomy turned out to be a lot like History – she just kept her mouth shut and was happy to have two classes that were easy but not mind-numbing.
She longed for bed by the time she reached the bottom of the Astronomy tower. Walking back down to the dungeons with Lucinda, Katie, and Severus was quiet except for someone voicing their desire for bed or complaining about how their feet hurt. On entering the common room, the girls said goodnight to Severus and dragged themselves off to their dorm. Bella and Patty had beaten them, and there were several hushed comments about this as the three quickly got in their Pj's and crawled into bed.
Hermione drew her hanging shut, whispering night to Lucinda and Katie. Yawning she propped up her pillows so she could lean back against the headboard. She set an inkwell on the bedside table and placed her planner on her lap. She unlocked the book with a tap of her wand and turned to the page for October 31st.
'We should visit with Hagrid, and have a talk with Dumbledore.' She wrote.
'We can go to the Owlery in the morning and send an owl off about that. I also need to owl order some books too – don't let me forget.' Neville's handwriting answered her after a few moments.
'How is everything going with the Marauders?' She asked.
'They seem to be embracing me. Sirius had offered to sneak into the Slytherin Dorms when we went looking for you, and I think I might already be able to count Remus as a friend, but maybe that's just him being so like our dear professor.'
'I'm not sure it would be Sirius' first time trying to sneak into any girls dorm. As far as Remus, he is so like he was – will be? Only so much happier. He was always so resigned to his sadness.'
'Probably not (Remus said something to that effect), but it probably was the first time he expected to be hexed and turned in - I'm guessing anyway. Yes, it's his eyes – I noticed too. I hope we can make it so they keep that happiness. It is so infection, and really helps at times.'
'What about Peter, we need to know if he has already started betraying them or if it only happens after he is Lily and James secret keeper. Or maybe it starts once they join the Order.' As she wrote it, she had the feeling that Remus or Sirius had said something about when they thought it had started, but she couldn't remember what they had said.
'I haven't noticed anything, but he isn't always around.'
'Also, we need to worry about the map.'
'Harry's map?'
'Yes. They made it, then the twins steal it from Filch and end up giving it to Harry 3rd year.'
'Doesn't it just show where people are?'
'It shows everyone's name. If they have it already, they could look at it and see you in your bed but have the map say that Neville Longbottom is in your bed instead.'
'How do we know if they have it?'
'Have they started calling each other Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail?'
'No, at least, I haven't heard any of those.'
'That's good. The nicknames will start after they finally become Animagi – it will be sometime this year unless we have somehow changed that.' Hermione tried to keep her eyes open, but she had been fighting it for too long, She told herself she would close the book and put it on her bedside table, but after closing the book, her eyes fluttered down and she fell asleep. She didn't dream that night, maybe she was too tired for even that.
'We need to write everything down – map it out in time. That way we can make sure the important things still happen and figure out how many we can save.' Neville yawned waiting for her reply. He didn't see the harm in getting comfortable – she would answer any moment and then he would put it up and go to bed.
