Hermione walked into the Great Hall her first morning at Hogwarts tired and worried.
She was afraid to sleep all night, scared of waking her roommates with her nightmares, so she had spent all of her night overthinking everything.
How could she live with these people? How could she sit in class with dead people, Death Eaters, and people whose lives would end up so broken because of this world?
She sat at the Gryffindor table and ate some toast, her senses overwhelming her so much that she simply pushed them to the back of her mind, ignoring them all. Which was why didn't notice someone at her side until they spoke.
"Hello."
Hermione's head darted up in fear. How could she be so sunken into her thoughts she didn't notice someone approaching?
Moody's voice echoed in her head. Constant vigilance! What would he say had he saw her right now? Hermione had to admit that even though Professor Moody turned out to be a Death Eater in disguise, he was still the best teacher she'd had. He was the one who truly prepared them for war, for he was the only one who really understood what it meant.
"Hello," she said when she came back to her senses and realized that there was no Death Eater sitting next to her, only a friendly looking girl with auburn hair and green, almond shaped eyes.
A smile jumped to the girl's face. "Nice to meet you," she said. "I'm Lily Evans. We hadn't quite gotten the chance to speak last night, but I'm also a Gryffindor."
"You're my age, right?" Hermione asked. She knew Harry's mother was the same age as the Marauders but, until now, she had forgotten that meant they were sharing a dorm.
"Yes," Lily said. "Sixth year. Along with those knuckleheads," she added, nodding towards the Marauders who had just entered the hall and sat by their side.
"Who's a knucklehead?" Sirius asked, helping himself to some sausages.
"Apparently, you," Hermione said, a tiny smile lingering on her lips.
"Hey!" James called. "Nobody's calling my best mate a knucklehead!"
"Oh, don't worry," Lily said. "I called you a knucklehead as well."
"Evans, you're breaking my heart," James said, mock hurt. "Will you go out with me?"
"Like I said," Lily rolled her eyes at Hermione's direction, though her voice was stern and unamused. "Knucklehead."
Hermione let out a laugh and reached out her hand towards Lily. "Emerald Grey," she introduced herself. "I have a feeling you and I would be good friends."
"Likewise," Lily said, laughing. "It seems like Professor McGonagall is coming," she added, sounding worried. "I hope I would get accepted to the subjects I asked for."
"Honestly, Lily?" Sirius asked. "How many OWLs did you get?"
"Eight," Lily mumbled. "But McGonagall only accept the very best and Slughorn has a limited amount of students in his class! Only 12 students take his advanced class every year!"
"Don't worry, Evans, Slughorn loves you," Sirius said, unable to keep the sting out of his voice. "I believe Jamie and I need to be more worried."
"You need to be worried because if you ever call me Jamie again, I'll hex you," James threatened.
"No, you won't," Sirius said, smiling widely.
Professor McGonagall approached the table and started handing everyone their timetables. Of course, Lily was accepted to the subjects she wished to study and so did Remus, Sirius and James. Handing Pettigrew's timetable was slightly more complicated, as not all of his marks were sufficient, but eventually Professor McGonagall was done.
Then, she turned to Hermione.
"Miss Grey," she said. "By what Dumbledore had told me, you have received 9 O's, one in every subject you took except for Defense Against the Dark Arts where you received an E. is that correct?"
"Yes, ma'am," Hermione said, silently thanking Merlin that the rest of her classmates were already gone.
"If that is the case, I see no reason you couldn't take the subjects you requested and I am looking forward to see you in my class," McGonagall said, tapping Hermione's timetable and filling it with information. "I believe Mr. Lupin is waiting to show you the way to your first class," she added.
Hermione's head spun around. There, not even two feet away from her, stood Remus as he was patiently waiting.
"We both have Potions first thing," he explained. "I thought you might need some help getting to it, as you don't know where the class is."
"Thank you," Hermione said, blushing as she stood up and followed him out of the Great Hall towards the dungeons.
"So," he said, "ten OWLs?" Hermione shrugged. "I must say, it is impressing."
"Look who's talking," Hermione said. "You're taking seven subjects, too. How many OWLs have you got?"
"Nine," he said with a smile. "I never did managed to concentrate in History of Magic class."
"It does seem to be an extraordinarily boring class," Hermione laughed.
"Indeed so," Remus smiled. "You know, I didn't see you yesterday on the train."
Hermione knew this was more of a question than a comment and felt obligated to respond.
"I was here already," she said carefully. "I… couldn't make it on the train, so Dumbledore agreed that I'll stay here."
"Was it the same reason he was with you when you bought your school products?" he asked.
"In a way," she said shortly.
Remus frowned. He had the odd feeling that Emerald was keeping something from him but he was afraid to push on the matter and make her back away. They had only known each other for a couple of days, he couldn't ask her to open up that quickly.
Especially not when he was keeping a secret that is probably bigger.
As they walked into the class, Hermione was overwhelmed by the amount of smells her senses were receiving. She doubled back and took a step backwards, breathing the clean air in the hallway.
"Are you alright?" Remus asked, worried.
"Yeah," she replied, distracted, before preparing herself to enter the classroom again.
Remus led her to one of the tables, where she noticed an Amortentia potion. It was very much like her own first class with Slughorn back at her time only this time, under all of the different smells in the class, she managed to notice a different smell than what she was used to.
The fresh parchment was still there, for sure, but so were other ones she couldn't quite recognize. She rubbed her nose, hoping to relieve some of the shock it experienced. Her senses were definitely overloaded.
"Now then," Slughorn said, calling the class to silence. "I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at. These are the kind of potions you should be able to make after completing your NEWTs. You have probably heard of them already, even if you haven't made them yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?"
He marked at a cauldron near to where Snape was sitting along with a couple of other Slytherins.
Hermione's hand popped to the air, and so, to her surprise, did Remus', Lily's and Snape's.
"Miss Evans?" Slughorn asked and Lily started talking immediately.
"Veritaserum," she said, "a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth."
"Very good," Slughorn said proudly. "Five points to Gryffindor. Now, this one here is pretty well known," he said, marking at the potion next to where a couple of Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws set. "Who can tell me what that is? Mr. Snape?"
"Polyjuice Potion," the Potion's Master to-be said. "Changes the looks of the drinker for an hour's time."
"Excellent, five points to Slytherin! Now, this one here… yes, Miss…?" Slughorn looked at Hermione, as if surprised to see her there.
"Grey, sir," she said. "And the potion is Amortentia. The most powerful love potion in the world," she added, blushing slightly.
"It is indeed," Slughorn said. "It's supposed to smell differently to each person, depending on its preferences. Care to share?"
"I smell… New parchment," she said warily, "and rain. A bonfire and…" She couldn't point out that last smell, but she knew for sure it was something she had smelt at this time, and not at hers.
That was odd. Why would she smell something from this time?
"Good, good," Slughorn said. "Another five points to Gryffindor. Now, it's time for us to start to work."
Hermione hadn't noticed the small vial that was on the teacher's desk on her first class, but she knew it had to be here somewhere. People like Slughorn don't change that easily.
And indeed, soon enough, a Ravenclaw student marked at something that was blocked from her view and asked what it was. Slughorn reached out and took the vile of golden liquid, displaying it to the class.
"Can someone tell me what that is?" he asked, and Hermione's hand flew up before she even comprehended it, at the force of a habit.
"Felix Felicis," she said with awe, remembering the one time she took it and trying to forget the circumstances in which it had happened. "Liquid luck."
"Precisely," Slughorn said, smiling. "Today you would be brewing the Draught of Living Death. The student whose potion would be closest to perfect by the end of the hour would receive this one vial – twelve hours of pure luck, for all his needs and measures. You have an hour, starting… now."
The students have all rose from their seats and walked to the supply cabin, Hermione amongst them. She picked her ingredients and walked back to her place, starting to brew.
The potion was as difficult and frustrating as Hermione remembered it to be, but this time she had a trick up her sleeve.
When she reached the part where you had to cut the sopophorous bean, she took her silver knife and used it to crush it. Not far from her, she noticed Snape doing the exact same thing, and realized he was her competition today. Determined to win, she moved on with the potion and stirred clockwise once after every seventh counterclockwise stir.
By the time the lesson ended, Hermione was satisfied with the result. Slughorn looked at all of the potions and seemed to be unsatisfied at the least with the results the class showed, until he saw Snape's potion. He nodded in appreciation and moved on, finally reaching Hermione's.
Eyeing both caldrons, he took two pieces of Dragon Meat from one of the drawers, and let them sink into the black material. After five seconds, he pulled them out and looked at the results.
Hermione's potion was stronger, ever so slightly, and she felt a tingle of pride within.
"Congratulations, Miss Grey," Slughorn said. "One bottle of Felix Felicis, as promised. Use it wisely."
It was only when the class burst into applause that she realized she had just made two major mistakes.
The first was to draw attention to herself and possibly even change the course of history. She was never supposed to be in this class, never supposed to win. But she couldn't help it that she had already studied it all in her past, could she?
The second, and possibly more severe mistake, was to create herself an enemy she could have done without. Because from the looks of it, Severus Snape was not satisfied with her victory. And she had a feeling he won't let it slide.
Later that day, after lights out was called and the four Marauders were in their room, a conversation took place.
"So what do we know about the new girl?" James asked and three heads turned to look at Remus, who was sitting on his bed and reading a book.
"What do you want with me?" he asked.
"You're the one that talked to her the most," Peter explained. "What do you know about her?"
"Her name is Emerald Grey, she was at Beauxbatons Academy before transferring here for unknown reasons," he counted, still not taking his eyes off the book. "She had 10 OWLs, 9 of them Os and the last – DADA – was an E."
"Nerdier than you," Sirius chuckled.
"She went with Dumbledore for her shopping and stayed here the last couple of days, and she doesn't want to talk about it, so I guess her family's dead," Remus said. "She has tanned skin, brown hair, chocolate brown eyes…"
"Now you're just rambling," Sirius said with a smile and Remus blushed.
"Dear Merlin!" James called in excitement. "Moony has a crush."
"No, I don't," Remus said, still blushing.
"Oh, you totally do, mate," Sirius replied.
"Fine, even if I do," Remus said, "what does it matter? It's not like anybody would date a you-know-what."
The room sunk into an uncomfortable silence and Remus put the book he was reading down to his bed before closing his bedside light. Peter also climbed into his bed and James and Sirius exchanged understanding looks.
They were going to get Moony and Emerald together. Even if that meant playing matchmakers.
The first weekend of the school year was both a blessing and a curse to Remus.
On the one hand, it gave him a needed break from his studies. Usually, he could sleep late, have fun with his friends, and just sit and do nothing.
On the other hand, the full moon came early this year. It was already in the coming Wednesday and it was putting him on edge. He wasn't able to sleep late because the smallest of noises woke him up. He couldn't have fun with his friends because his head was pounding like someone was hitting it with a hammer. And boosts of adrenaline swamped through him, making it impossible for him to just sit and do nothing.
"Take that sour look of your face," Sirius told him on Sunday afternoon. "Do something useful – go find Emerald!"
"Why?" Remus asked, not wishing to move a single muscle.
"Because I said so," Sirius said.
"Not enough."
"If you don't do it, I'll start singing the national anthem."
"No!" Remus called. "No singing, Sirius. Definitely no."
"Then go find her," Sirius said, tossing a piece of parchment at his friend's direction. "Here, take the map."
Remus didn't really need the map. He knew exactly where Emerald would be sitting in the library, but he decided double-checking it couldn't be a bad idea. Only then, he realized it was the first time any of them searched for her on the map.
Anger swept over him as he stormed out of the room, ignoring Sirius' calls and running out of the Gryffindor common room and to the library. He found her just where he knew she would be and checked the map again before reading aloud the name it said.
"Hermione Granger?"
A/N: If the last part wasn't originally planned and I changed it to add a cliffhanger, does that make me a bad person?
If so, do bad people get reviews? (yes)