Chapter Three
The man brought out too many emotions in her: anger, hurt, fear, pity, just to name a few. She realized it wasn't just the older version of him that brought about those emotions, but the younger version as well. As she walked with her friends towards Hogsmeade to enjoy an afternoon of junk food, drinks, and laughs, she couldn't help but remember the shiver or the blush that her traitorous body caused when in his presence. The boys were off in Honeydukes having the time of their lives when Hermione got an idea to pull Lily aside and talk privately.
"Lily, I know we just met and I feel horrible for meddling, but why do you and the guys seem to hate Snape so much."
"Well, it's a long story. I met Severus long before I started Hogwarts. We grew up near each other, you see, and he was the one to tell me about my powers, since I was a Muggle born and all. I tried to remain good friends with him, and stand up for him when the boys would make fun of him. I don't know why they dislike him so much, they're guys so I guess they just needed someone to pick on and he was the first to retort. But then one day, I was trying to defend him, and he called me a…he called me… a Mudblood. Slytherin's are usually the only ones that use that derogatory term; especially those who are following Him. I knew then that he was choosing his future, and I was choosing mine. So we stopped talking, and I finally gave in to James's pathetic attempts at asking me out. I never looked back." She replied courteously. She knew about the 'Mudblood' incident, but she never knew that Snape had met Lily long before they started school, had been close friends even. It could explain why he felt the need to protect Harry all those years, not because James saved his life, but because he was protecting Lily's son. It was worth looking into and could help Hermione in saving his life and future as well.
By dinner that night I finally received a cue from the Headmaster. I watched as an owl delivered an official letter to Sirius Black's hands and the carefree times with my new friends would become slightly by this evening.
"What's it say, Padfoot?" James asked while leaning over his should to read the elegant scrawl of the Headmaster.
"Just that he wants to meet with me after dinner. Nothing more than that." He replied with a shrug. I chanced a quick glance at the Head Table and saw Dumbledore wink over his glass and McGonagall nervously tapping her fingers across her goblet. Tonight Sirius would be informed of the dangerous game they would all have to play, and the terrible fate of his closest friends should they fail.
"Why does old Snivilous keep glancing at you, Hermione?" James asked as he noticed the Slytherin's periodic eye contact at the curly haired brunette.
"No idea. I'll see you guys tomorrow though. I promised Aunt Minerva I'd fill her in on the information I got from the library earlier." Hermione replied as she picked up her bag and walked ahead of the rest of the group. She knew the Headmaster and McGonagall would expect her to be in his office before Sirius arrived. The other two had left the hall five minutes earlier than she did. Though of course someone wasn't going to make the trip upstairs easy…
"Out without your bodyguards to protect you? Shame, Miss Granger…" His deep baritone voice trailed off. The tone and the title reminded her of her first year in Potion's when he called her an Insufferable Know It All. She nearly laughed at the memory before realizing the seriousness of the situation. One thing the girl could be grateful for was that the majority of the other Slytherin's had already graduated: Lucius, Nott, Belatrix, etc. The only ones left in 7th year were Narcissa and Severus, and Narcissa's younger sister, Andromeda, Tonk's mother. Molly and Arthur had long graduated by then, and already had Bill and possibly Charlie at this point. Alice and Frank Longbottom were here though, but kept mostly to themselves as both were fairly shy individuals, much like their son when he was younger.
"I'm well over 18, I hardly need bodyguard's to protect me, Snape." She spit back in retort. He laughed at her attempt to be scathing. But she kept walking anyway.
"Tell me Miss Granger, do you happen to have any extraordinary talent?" He asked as he followed her up the first set of stairs and towards the Headmaster's hallway. She needed to get him to leave but he wasn't taking the hint.
"No. Absolutely ordinary. Sorry to disappoint you, sir. Now if you please don't mind…" She trailed off but he grabbed a hold of her left arm anyway and forced her to turn around. Those black eyes narrowing slightly and she realized what he was attempting to do. He was attempting to read her mind. Thankfully she could build mental walls that put the Great Wall to shame and could deflect him before he saw anything useful. It made him laugh.
"Now I highly doubt that, Granger." He replied with a laugh.
"What is your sick fascination with me anyway, Slytherin?" The brunette bit back while turning her head up to meet his taller frame. Once again he pulled her out of sight of prying eyes and had her back up against the wall. He leaned in to her right ear before replying in a low growl.
"Maybe I just like a challenge." He whispered into her ear seductively placing a kiss in between the junction of her shoulder and neck. She felt her knees melt and was grateful for the stone wall supporting her back. She vowed to save whoever she could, and if that meant her future mean tempered Potions Professor, then so be it. She had no idea how to seduce a man, but she didn't think she would have to. He was seductive enough for the both of them. She would play his game while she could, and maybe it would make him think twice about joining the others of his House.
"Then you'll have to improve your game, Snape." She replied after gathering what was left of her dignity and storming off in the direction of her initial intention. She watched as he retreated back to the dungeons, a large smirk still gracing his aquiline face.
'Bastard.' She thought as she muttered the password to the gargoyle and went upstairs to meet her fate.
'Hello fate.' She replied to herself and she sat down next to Sirius who had evidently beaten her to the Headmaster's office. McGonagall was already there, standing behind the Headmaster with a worried frown on her face.
"What are you doing here, Hermione?" He asked lightly, not realizing that his future was about to be significantly changed.
"Sirius, we need you to swear an oath, and then there's something we need to talk to you about…" Hermione began with the encouragement of the two adults in the background. It was understood that she would be the one to break the news to him, seeing as how she was the only one who knew the story and had lived it all these years.
"I don't understand," he muttered after an hour of discussion, "How do I end up in prison for 12 years?" He finished.
"Peter betrays James and Lily to Voldemort while being their Secret Keeper for their home. Voldemort finds them, kills them, except their son Harry. You seek out revenge against Pettigrew who cuts off his own appendage and escapes in his Animagus form while you get caught for killing him, and a group of Muggles standing in the way." Hermione explained as her composure was nearly cracking.
"And James and Lily…"
"Will be killed in about two years or so. Pettigrew will hide out until the Dark Lord returns again as a pet of my friend Ron Weasley. You remain in prison until your escape during my third year of school, but you die during our raid at the Department of Mysteries two years later. Remus will survive, barely, until the final battle where him, his wife, Harry, and number of others die at the hands of the Dark Lord who successfully takes over the Magical realm." Hermione continued. It wasn't the best explanation but it had to do. She had already recounted this story twice so far and it brought back too many painful memories. Sirius sat silent for a long time. His anger evident on his face.
"I'll kill the bloody bastard myself!" Sirius shouted as the group took that to mean Peter Pettigrew.
"You can't expose him yet, Sirius. I don't know when he turns. The only thing I do know is you have to limit what you say to him, and never, NEVER let him become the Secret Keeper. It will buy us precious time." McGonagall replied, her own anger at the situation evident on her face as well.
"So how can I help? Why are you only telling me and not the others?" He asked the group around him.
"James and Lily would be best off not knowing, we need their story line to play out as normal as possible. We may end up recruiting Remus though at some point but his knowledge must be limited to what he can know. Hermione can explain a bit better why we need you in particular." The Headmaster wearily replied. He glanced up at the portraits who were all feigning sleep but were listening intently.
"Voldemort decided to split his soul into seven pieces and place those souls into objects of value: Horcruxes. He cannot be destroyed, fully, until all seven pieces have been uncovered and destroyed. Only a powerful magical object can destroy them. In our time the sword of Gryffindor slays a basilisk and it becomes infused with the power to destroy these horcruxes. There are also some powerful spells that will work too, like Fiendfire. We need your help uncovering three of them. Dumbledore already destroyed two, a silver ring that once belonged to Voldemort's mother, a descendant of Slytherin and the lost diadem of Raveclaw that was hidden here in the Room of Requirement. That leaves us with five. Your brother, Regulus, will become if not already, a Death Eater. He knows the location of Slytherin's locket and will uncover it and hide it inside your parent's house." She watched him groan at the mention of his family, knowing as she did that his parents disowned him.
"Also, you are one of the old families and your vaults will be near your cousin, Bellatrix, who marries Lestrange and inside their vault is a cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff. You could get us access to the area and we can sneak in and get the cup from there. Also, with your brother's help, we'll need access to the Malfoy's. If there's a Death Eater meeting at Lucius Malfoy's house, inside his library will be a diary that once belonged to Voldemort in his youth. Inside will not be writing, it'll be blank. The diary is also a horcrux. That will leave us only the snake, Nagini, and then Voldemort himself." She finished. Hermione was surprised herself to know that in the two days since she told the Headmaster about the horcruxes that he would swiftly expel the two easiest right away, but she was rather relieved that he had. The diadem was the one object they never destroyed in the future, so it was a start.
"I'll help, anyway I can. I don't want to lose James and Lily. Whatever you need it's yours. Even if it means stepping foot back into that awful house again…" Sirius replied. Hermione smiled, glad that someone now knew her story and she wouldn't have to completely hide any longer.
"Then it's settled. Miss Granger, do you have any further knowledge of when Regulus will turn his back on Voldemort?" The Headmaster asked, bringing the girl out of her reverie.
"Honestly, no. We did not begin hunting for the horcruxes until what would have been my 7th year. Though the locket that Regulus steals Harry and you discovered during our 6th year. He was long since gone by then though we're not sure exactly when. But before he was killed by Voldemort for turning traitor he had switched the locket with a fake and kept the real one hidden at Sirius's mother's house." The young girl replied dutifully, trying not to remember that eventful night when Dumbledore was thrown off the Astronomy Tower by Severus Snape and they discovered for all his efforts the locket had been a fake. She was glad she returned to the past with the full knowledge of everything that had happened, all the horcruxes, otherwise she would have been as lost here as the three of them were in the future when it took them a year to decipher Dumbledore's coded messages he had given Harry.
"Regulus is still a student here. It will be easy to keep an eye on him while inside Hogwarts." Professor McGonagall chimed in.
"We had reason to believe, in the future, that he never came back to finish his final year, Professor. When the marauders graduated their 7th year the war began to fully escalate. Though James and Lily didn't fully hide until after the birth of their son, everyone kept a low profile even before it. In the future Voldemort takes control of the Ministry and has a network of spies everywhere, but in this time he never gained that much power before he was destroyed so we have little to worry about there. He still gains a number of followers and was responsible for killing hundreds of Muggles and Muggleborn witches and wizards before his reign ended." She explained remembering the extensive research her and her two best friends had done prior to leaving on their year long hunt.
"Remind me what Snivillus's part is in all this again?" Sirius asked with a scowl on his face. Hermione took and deep breath and centered herself before continuing.
"He will seek out the Headmaster for a job at Hogwarts, so he can spy on the Headmaster for his overlord. He arrives early to hear a prophecy that a Seer, seeking the empty position of Divination Professor, gives to him. The only problem is, he takes the prophecy to mean James and Lily's son, though there are two boys that are born on July 31st; Harry Potter, and Neville Longbottom, son of Alice and Frank. He returns to tell the Dark Lord the prophecy not realizing that his master will seek out the deaths of all three individuals. He pleads the Dark Lord to save Lily's life, but knows deep down he won't. So Snape will return to Dumbledore and beg for his forgiveness and ask him to protect the Potter's, all of them, at whatever cost. Dumbledore will then demand that Snape becomes HIS spy, and inform him on Voldemort's intentions and whereabouts. The Potter's would have been safe for years, however you, Sirius, allow Peter to become Secret Keeper, and he in return becomes a rat for Voldemort. Pun intended." She finished, exhausted at the long night of conversation. She wasn't sure if they were going to tell Sirius this much, just in case he became too hotheaded and sought justice before it was due, but desperate times and all.
"So you're really from the future?" His usual smile was in place as he tried to liven up the solemnity of the room.
"Yes. I meet you in the future, as you will become Harry's Godfather and guardian for a short time." She smiled back.
"Tell me then. Am I still as charming?" He winked and Hermione took notice of Professor McGonagall rolling her eyes and the Headmaster's twinkle returning to his.
"After you clean up from your time in prison, yes. Though you're a bit more serious, Sirius. But still a handsome dog. Pun intended." She replied back to the now younger man beside her with a laugh. She watched as he sat back in his chair, arms crossed behind his head, a lively smirk warming up his tan features.
"Awesome." He finally replied at last.
"If you're quite finished, Mr. Black. Perhaps it's time you returned back to the Gryffindor dorms and got a good night's sleep. We'll begin working out some details of the where's and when's tomorrow." The older woman mentioned as she walked out from behind the Headmaster's chair.
"I don't need to remind you of your oath, Mr. Black." The Headmaster quipped in all seriousness. The laughter from Black's dark brown eyes died down to burning embers as he shook his head in cooperation.
"I'll walk back to the dorms with you." Hermione arose and followed her friend out of the Headmaster's study.
"You're quite a remarkable woman, Granger. To do what you have done. To risk your own existence for the chance that others will get theirs." He whispered as they walked through the darkened quiet hallways towards Gryffindor Tower. The brunette blushed momentarily and turned her head towards the direction up towards the much taller boy.
"If you had lived and saw what our world would become. You would have done the same. You once risked everything to get to Harry and tell him the truth of your innocence. You risked the Dementor's Kiss to protect your godson. I was just the only one left who could do something about it. It's not bravery, Sirius. More like survival. Had I stayed, I would have suffered a much worse fate. At least now, even if I don't make it, the knowledge is out there for you, for Dumbledore, for McGonagall, already the future has a brighter outlook then when I left it just because now you know what needs to be done to avoid the mess our world becomes." She replied honestly in the same hushed tones. When they reached the portrait, Sirius gave the password and stood back to allow her to enter first. She shook her head in decline.
"I must get back to McGonagall's rooms. I want to finish going over some plans and seeing if there's anything I missed. Tell everyone I said hi, and I'll see them tomorrow at breakfast."
Hermione barely made it halfway back towards her new rooms when a dark figure wearing a Prefects badge caught her by surprise. Though in truth maybe she wasn't that surprised since he'd been stalking her the past three days.
"I wonder if there's such thing as a restraining order in this world." The girl asked the dark haired man beside her as he fell into step.
"Not quite." He replied with a dark smirk. He hadn't made a move to stop her so she kept walking.
"Then did you drink a lust potion or something? Because I honestly don't know why you find it so fascinating to follow me around everywhere."
"Because I don't believe you." Came he reply. That made her stop.
"What do you mean?" She asked trying to keep the slight panic out of her voice that was slowly rising up inside her. She felt him trying to probe her mind once again but her walls came up instantly.
"You don't look anything like Professor McGonagall." He simply retorted back. She laughed, panic ceasing.
"Because it's an honorary term. My mother and hers were close friends long ago as girls." That seemed to appease him, at least temporarily.
"It doesn't explain why you are here." He stated this time grabbing her arm to force her to turn and face him.
"It's illegal to visit a woman I have called an aunt for the past 18 years? Well why don't you just throw me in Azkaban now and get it over with?" She tersely replied shaking her arm out of his grasp.
He glared at her then, not saying anything for a long time. Trying to decipher whether she was lying to him or not. Normally he could tell when others lied to him, it was a talent he had picked up over the years of living with the sly Slytherin's. She was lying, but not lying. Half-truths. The professor was close to her, but there was something else as well, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. She was already getting chummy with the Headmaster and her 'aunt', as well as with Lily and her idiot friends. She was nervous around him, for whatever her own reasons, whether it was because she knew he was a Death Eater or something more he wasn't quite sure. The Dark Lord had promised him Lily as a spoil of war, she would one day be his when their side won this little war. But in the meantime, while she pranced away with Potter and his cohorts, he could pass the time with the pretty brunette before him. She wasn't optimal, but she wasn't off limits; and she had friends in very high places that he could extort for his own advantages.
'Turning him back is going to become the death of me.' Hermione was thinking while Severus was coming to his own conclusions on what to do with her in return. She had never been attracted to the dark, dangerous types before, she never saw the point when she was younger. She usually went after the athletic types, the brazen brave idiots that they were: Krum, and Ron. But part of her had never felt that she fit in completely with her friends and the people around her. She never thought she would have believed it possible but in this time, in this place, fashion choices aside, she finally felt as though she fit into the people around her. Maybe she was destined to come here after all, maybe the things in the future had to happen so she could come back here and find her place. The only problem was: would she be allowed to stay in the end?