The Games We Play Chapter 4, a harry potter fanfic

The Games We Play

Harry Potter Story

The Games We Play Chapter 4

Little AN: I couldn't find out who was the actual Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher in this time and honestly besides the teachers who've been there forever I don't think JKR ever actually said who the teacher was so I took an actual character that she created but didn't give much of a background on except the general time he died and whom he was related to. I hope you guys like how I'll incorporate him in the story.

Summary 1: The last thing she remembered was Charlie Weasley taking her out onto the dance floor and then before he could even twirl her around once an explosion went off. They knew that the remaining Death Eaters would try to attack, too caught up in their pureblood supremacy for any other option, what they didn't think they would try to do was crash one of the Golden Trio's wedding.

Summary 2: Time Travel was a very dangerous thing. Though with no recollection of the future she was born too, Hermione became more capable to change things for the better.

Chapter Excerpt: Hermione had yet to make an official opinion of the three boys who found her and their other two friends. Lily would be nice to her one second then speak to her as if she was no better than an estranged cousin's acquaintance. Peter though a very shy boy Hermione found out, was prone to give her a strange surge of anger every now and again, more specifically when he would kiss ass to either the professors or even one of them. And to the three boys whom Dumbledore told her saved her life, well she discovered fairly quickly why they named themselves the Marauders.

Pairing: James Potter x Hermione Granger

Rating: M+

Previously:

She took in the man sitting before her, his overly grown beard reaching the middle of his chest, the pointed purple shimmering hat atop his head and the matching magenta robes to go with it. The thing that mostly drew her to him though was the man's electric blue eyes. She swore they even twinkled when she realized he caught her staring at her. Though instead of calling her out on it she received instead a warm smile in return.

"You're a wizard." she stated simply confused at how easily the words slipped from her mouth. Though he merely nodded his agreement and spoke back to her.

"And you my dear are a witch."

"When do you think she'll wake up?" asked the same voice of Sirius resuming his same task of poking his best friend though instead of Remus it was James' turn to receive the onslaught of Sirius' advances.

"She'll wake up when she's ready to." answered James

"When do you think she'll be ready to?" asked Lily rewording the same question just asked causing all three boys to turn there heads towards her in confusion, since the unknown girl was placed in this room Sirius would always ask when everyone thought the girl would wake up and James would always answer in the girl's offense that she would wake up when she wanted to, then Lily would try to convince James that when people were put into comas or magically induced sleep that it wasn't always a matter of she'll wake up when she's ready. So she supposed it was fairly reasonable that they would look at her as though she was completely barmy when instead of doing this she continued their banter and looked expectantly at James to answer.

He was the first to look away from Lily a soft smile playing at the corners of his lips as he turned to look back at the girl on the bed, he paused taking her in once more before continuing with his response, "She'll be ready when she realizes there's someone here waiting for her to wake up."

As though that was the Open Sesame to awaken the girl, her eyes fluttered open as soon as the words left James' mouth.

She blinked taking in the four shocked faces of what appeared to be students before Dumbledore and his words flashed before her eyes and she remembered everything that was spoken of the night before.

James was the first to recover from his stupor, he grinned cockily and tilted his head towards her then faced his friends,

"Told ya."

Now:

It had been three days and as promised Hermione thought upon Dumbledore's offer to enter the school though the thought of doing so as a student just sent condescending thoughts into her head, as though becoming a student was just insulting to her intelligence. Not to say she no longer had anything to learn but the teachers here would not offer much of what she did not already know. She figured that out when speaking to Lily and the Marauders about their classes. Though leaving the school didn't exactly feel like the right thing to do either. She decided to think of it later that evening after the Marauders and Lily left, right as her decision was made the doors to her room opened and the five students she just thought of entered.

She noticed that while James took his usual place to her right the other four just sort of piled in where there was enough room. While she wasn't completely sure she had her suspicions that James had taken some sort of claim over her though while a small part of her was offended at such a stake, a much bigger part of her, one that she chose to ignore every time the boy was not around her, she truly secretly liked that he had done so.

"So what are we going to talk about today?" asked James as he sat down on the chair to Hermione's right, taking her hand into his own as he did so.

"Well what classes did you have today?" asked Hermione, she knew what James really wanted to ask her though was how she got into the infirmary in the first place, though she remembered exactly how well that conversation went the first time they delved into the subject.

Hermione stared at the four students in front of her as she tried to make out exactly why they were looking at her so oddly.

"You're awake!" the bespectacled boy exclaimed loudly as if if he didn't she would drop unconscious once more.

"If I wasn't I certainly am now." Hermione agreed joking, She smiled when she noticed she made him blush, it was cute, she decided finally.

"Sorry about that we've just …" Hermione noted he didn't want to actually admit he was worried about someone he didn't even know, that or he wasn't quite sure on how to word it without sounding like a complete stalker.

"You three saved me, right?" she asked referring to the three boys, and at their astonished looks she continued, "I woke up last night, Dumbledore was here he explained things to me." she said with a sad smile.

"Figures, Dumbledore would know before anyone. Completely brilliant, that one, absolutely mad, but brilliant." answered Remus as he noticed the sadness on her face Sirius not being as aware of it as the other three though blurted out, "How did you manage to get into the infirmary?"

"Didn't we just go over that?" asked Hermione a smirk slowly merging on her pretty little face, "You three saved me. And Remus brought me here."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." he pouted like a child before crossing his arms over his chest to complete the look.

"... and then we had Double Potions with the Slytherins." finished James and much to Hermione's disappointment realized she missed damn near everything James had just told her because she got lost in thought. Hermione had yet to make an official opinion of the three boys who found her and their other two friends. Lily, was a bit of an enigma. The red haired girl would be nice to her one second, then speak to her as if she was no better than an estranged cousin's acquaintance. Peter though a very shy boy, Hermione found out, was prone to give her a strange surge of anger every now and again, more specifically when he would kiss ass to either the professors or even one of the Marauders. The three boys, Dumbledore told her saved her life, well she discovered fairly quickly why they named themselves the Marauders.

She didn't have much time to dwell on it though as James' eyes narrowed on her and he questioned her, "Hermione, love, while I appreciate your inescapable passion for learning it's rude to ask someone a question and then not even pay attention to their answer. Are you trying to hurt my feelings?" he asked pleading with her with those damn puppy dog eyes, leaning against her more than what was absolutely necessary.

"Prat." she said laughing before lightly shoving him away from her, "I am not trying to hurt your feelings. Just thinking." she answered

"About what?" asked Lily kindly as she scooted closer to the bedridden (Madame Pomfrey's words not hers)

"Dumbledore offered that I stay as a student. Here. At Hogwarts." spoke Hermione quietly looking at the rose haired girl.

"Really? Oh how wonderful we'll be able to study together and maybe even share a room." squealed Lily but Hermione took her hand and gently spoke, "I haven't decided yet."

"But why wouldn't you want to come to Hogwarts? It's great." asked Sirius, "Unless of course you have Double Potions with the Slyther- you know what Hermione, maybe not coming to Hogwarts wouldn't be so bad." added Sirius as an after thought as both Remus and James hit their friend on the back of his head at the same time causing Hermione to giggle softly.

"Perhaps but there's just a tingling feeling I shouldn't be here in the back of my head." she looked down sadly once more and a flash of yellow, red and finally blue light flashed before her eyes along with her screaming. She jumped slightly startling the four students surrounding her bed and she thankfully didn't actually scream out loud.

"You alright, love?" asked James the first to reach over and grab hold of her hand in an attempt to calm her down.

"Of course, just caught a chill is all."she could tell that while Sirius and Lily seemed to buy her excuse Remus and James didn't, though James' frown quickly reversed and a more mischievous smile graced his face instead before he stated quite brashly, "Oh well in that case I should crawl into bed with to help warm you up." he said good naturally, faking to get out of the chair as Hermione poked him in the forehead just at the right moment to make him fall back down away from her, she smirked down at his smiling face and winked before looking away and muttering a small, "Pervert."

"Just trying to help a D.I.D" he said goofily, as Hermione raised a silent brow in question,

"D.I.D.?" she asked as all three boys answered at the same time, "Damsel in Distress."

"Oh whatever will I do with my P.P.C.?" questioned the curly haired girl as Lily began laughing shortly after understanding what the acronym stood for.

"P.P.C.?" asked Sirius, and this time it was the girls who looked at each other before saying at the same time much like the boys,

"Perverted Prince Charming." and then the girls burst into laughter once more.

"Oi!" the three yelled causing the two to just laugh harder.

It was three hours later did the Marauders and Lily leave to go eat in the Great Hall for supper. And Hermione found herself not thinking of Dumbledore's proposition like she promised herself she would. Instead her thoughts traveled to the Marauders and Lily. Though she knew she shouldn't have been she couldn't help but think how she would miss them, she knew as soon as Dumbledore offered her to remain as a student she would refuse, she just didn't want to leave the wonder that was Hogwarts, something called to her here and she was positively certain it had something to do with the them and Lily. Though as she thought it in her head it felt wrong and she knew it, it had something to do with James.

Her thoughts, leading into even more dangerous grounds, went back to thinking of the other Marauders and Lily.

Lily was a very studious girl and she supposed it made sense considering she was after all the head girl. Though she had to admit she like the redhead when she was actually civilized towards her, she had no idea what had previously gone on between James and Lily but it had been there, that much was obvious from the ways when James would say something too pervertedly to her. At first she thought it was merely because he was acting perverted but it wouldn't make sense as Sirius, Remus and even Peter had their perverted moments. Sirius more so than any of them. It was obvious that the two liked each other once upon a time, and Lily held some resentment when James would show her any sort of attention, that might be considered going past the just friends stage.

Noting that she was once again thinking of James and her thoughts of where Lily could go so James could keep being around her, she put them aside and moved her thoughts towards Peter the last little Marauder. Peter was definitely little, the boy was at least five inches shorter than James the second shortest of the four boys ringing in at 1.8 m(5'11"), making Peter at most 1.6 m (5'6"). Along with being the shortest he was also quite … chunky, Hermione supposed a good non-insulting word would be. He had messy dirty blonde hair but unlike James' it would always get tangled and matted so easily due to its thinness.

Remus, Hermione noted, had an almost animalistic characteristic to his personality, it was subtle and it took even her to realize it was there at all but once you found it you could definitely see when Remus would tend to react a little wilder than normal, though overall he was a very calming young man, though being friends with Sirius and James one of them had to be.

Sirius was Hogwarts' player that much was obvious when the second night he'd bolted into Hermione's room thankful that Madame Pomfrey only used it for special emergencies and concealed it the rest of the time, hiding from some sixth year Hufflepuff who he snogged in a broom closet last week, whom went after him after finding out he snogged some seventh year Ravenclaw in that same broom cupboard. Needless to say it took James five minutes to finally convince him that the girl was gone and he could come out of hiding under her bed.

James. She found herself glaring at her bed coverings. It never failed, she always ended up thinking about him despite what she would think of even when she would attempt to draw out her sealed away memories and pain would grip at her entire being, it was always him she thought of first after the pain subsided. She didn't want to think of him, she really didn't but the small crush she had on him was beginning to complicate things. Too many things, some that she couldn't even remember, but she definitely found herself not listening to those other things and once more think of James, tomorrow she would have to give Dumbledore her answer she just hoped it was the right one.

Hermione woke up to the soft humming of Dumbledore as he slightly rocked back and forth on his feet while absentmindedly speaking to Madame Pomfrey on what she no doubt knew was her. As though sensing her eyes on them Dumbledore and the young mediwitch looked her way, she barely noticed as Dumbledore spoke to Madame Pomfrey and she huffed indignantly before walking away with a scowl on her face.

"So my dear, the end of the week is up. Have you though of my offer?" asked Dumbledore sitting down and carefully taking note of Hermione to hear what the girl would say.

"I have and I'm sorry but I must decline your invitation at becoming a student here at Hogwarts." she stated quietly,

"I see then if I may Hermione, I have begun thinking and one of my old students who is helping to fight in this war, whom once had a long distance relationship to a Ms. Aliane Delacour, sister to Monsieur Nigel Delacour, a very old friend, with his help he has managed to convince his sister to send her daughter to England to find and stay with her father, a Mr. Gideon Prewett, the same student I mentioned before and he has so graciously allowed to stay with him and with his younger sister when he and his brother are working." Dumbledore finished quietly.

"You, you're giving me a fake family?" asked Hermione quietly as Dumbledore chuckled slightly,

"Now, now Ms. Prewett it's so brash and unorthodox when you put it like that. I'd like to think of it as uniting warrior spirits to one another."

"Before I go," started Hermione stopping Dumbledore from completely standing up, once he was fully seated Hermione began talking once more, "I'd like to stay for a few weeks to complete my O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, then if I do well enough and perhaps if it isn't too much trouble with Professor Bones I'd like to stay on as his apprentice." Hermione looked down in the middle of her suggestion afraid of what his answer would be.

Dumbledore looked shocked at the young woman's blunt idea, though if she did manage to stay in the castle he could try to help her unlock her memories as time moved on, and best case scenario after Professor Bones retires this year, he'll get a new Defense Teacher.

"I think Ms. Prewett that that will be perfectly acceptable, though you'll have to move out of here and into an actual room, where I shall then take you to complete your O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, that is if you are ready to take them of course?" he questioned and chuckled at her eager nod.

"Very well then, if you gather all of your things your father is just dying to meet you and while the two of you get reacquainted I'll have Missy ready your new room." Hermione had already gotten out of bed and began gathering her things in earnest, smiling widely when she was finished and Dumbledore levitated her things and made them follow after the two who were now headed to his office.

It wasn't until she actually looked upon the stone gargoyle leading to his office did she take note of what he said and she yelled out quietly,

"What do you mean I'm meeting my father?"

"She's gone." James mumbled quietly as Sirius and Remus looked at him in pity, Lily however didn't really have such sympathy.

"Well she did say she had until the end of the week until she had to give Dumbledore her answer. Perhaps she decided to decline his offer."

"She wouldn't do that. She can't it's not like she can just … leave." Lily's words had really cut through to James and Sirius found himself glaring at Lily's smaller form.

"Why the hell do you have to be such a-"

"Mr. Black, I really do hope you aren't going to be finishing that sentence." Madame Pomfrey's presence seemed to diffuse the immense tension which clouded the area due to Hermione's absence.

"Of course not, Madame Pomfrey." Sirius bit out politely

"If you five are looking for Miss Prewett she is being escorted by Professor Dumbledore to the man's office to meet her father."

"Oi thanks Madame Pomfrey!"

James' voice echoed as he ran back to the entrance of the hospital wing, he was fully intent on finding the familiar stone gargoyle and hopefully Hermione.

Summary 2: Time Travel was a very dangerous thing. Though with no recollection of the future she was born too, Hermione became more capable to change things for the better.

Rating: M+

The Games We Play

Harry Potter Story

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