Author's Note: and here we are with another chapter. I've been really busy lately and I don't know when i'll get you guys the next chapter...so keep on reviewing, if you get bored check out Time Heals, nothing else need be said, just enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own them...
Chapter Eight
The Begining of Things
At 5 am in the morning no one would really be expected to be up. The few owls returning to the owlery, most likely with a dead mouse on their beak were about the only creatures to be awake at the time. Perhaps the few animals that scurried around the forbidden forest were up as well but it was the small scuffle of feet and grunting that broke the silence around the Hogwarts grounds.
Four boys, all looking ragged and messy, walked towards the school. One of them was being supported by two others and looked as if he had been in a nasty fight with someone or something, an animal, most likely. The last one looked wary and somewhat scared. He was different from the others and anyone would be able to tell. His demeanour was different and cautious, he was much less confident than the three other boys, not that he was any less than they were.
"Open the doors, Wormtail."
Peter did as he was told and opened the door allowing them inside. It was always the same every month. It was routine, now, between the four boys ever since they found out what Remus was. As they entered the school they did not expect to find someone there, waiting for them.
Professor Hermione Granger stared at the boys for a moment and then rushed forward, looking at Remus.
"He's quite heavy." Sirius said. "Can we go to the infirmary?"
Hermione laughed and then walked with them towards the hospital wing. Remus was laid on a bed that already awaited him.
"How did you know?" Sirius asked Hermione when she and the others left the hospital wing after leaving Remus and Madame Pomfrey.
The nurse expected the boys to bring in their friend every month so she did not worry about going to get him ever since they had found out. But the moment they brought him in she would kick them out. Of course this time there had been the new professor with them which she found to be odd but Madame Pomfrey did not allow her to stay either.
"I had a friend who was a werewolf once" she said. "I could see that he was one and last night I was worried about him."
It was about a month since the first order meeting and Hermione had become much closer to the marauders. They were nearly always in her classroom, Sirius more than the others though Hermione barely realized it, she enjoyed his company as annoying as he could get.
The three boys seemed to accept this answer. "Do you always wake up at five am to see him?" she asked innocently, after a moment.
James blushed, "we…well…"
Hermione chuckled, "I don't want to know. Go back to your rooms and get some sleep. You look terrible. You are excused from my class but I shall expect to hear that you went to your next class."
Sirius gave her a hug and then a large doggish grin.
"Thank you, professor" Peter said. He was still not calling her Hermione as much as she insisted of it.
"You're welcome, Pete." Hermione said. She knew he would betray them but there was something about Peter that she truly liked and there was just no way to shut him out. He was a sweet boy who was slightly broken and she was trying to fix him hoping that this would stop his from betraying them all.
He gave her a small smile before he left after his two friends whom, yawning, had already began to walk away. Hermione smiled and then shook her head before heading back to her rooms. All she had wanted to do was made sure that Remus was in a good enough state, something that she had been wondering about for the entire night. Hermione doubted whether she had gotten any more sleep than the boys.
Hermione did not expect to find anyone in her classroom when she entered it intending to mark a few more papers from her third years. This is why when she found herself looking out at Severus and Lily she was very surprised. The two were in a heated discussion. Not a friendly one, but a discussion nonetheless. They didn't even realize she had entered the room.
"You do realize that it is five am in the morning and that you should be in bed." Hermione said.
Lily and Severus jumped, startled. But before they could say anything the door to her office opened and Evan, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and wearing pyjama pants, looked around at them all. "You seriously need to let me sleep, 'Mione,"
Hermione let out a giggle, "I'm not stopping you." She said with a laugh.
Lily was eyeing the shirtless Evan with interest while Severus rolled his eyes and looked away towards Hermione. She didn't seem fazed, just amused.
"Of course you aren't." He said with a yawn, "what time is it, anyway?"
"Five" Hermione replied, "You should head back to your rooms, and I would advise you to put on a shirt."
"Oh, yeah" he scratched his head, "I don't know where I left it." he walked back into her office.
Hermione shook her head at them. "Why are you here again?" she asked.
"Well…" began Severus just as Lily said, "I…"
Hermione gave them a shake of her head as she looked for the papers she was meaning to get marked, "Severus, go ahead."
"As you know I am under a position of not wanting to be involved with a certain group. He talked to me again. Just about fifteen minutes ago. I couldn't sleep. I generally don't sleep on these kinds of nights; anyhow, he told me I must make up my decision sooner for Halloween. He wants more people and soon."
Hermione stopped shuffling papers around and looked at him. "I will talk to Dumbledore. Stay here for a bit while I help Lily. Go ahead, Lily."
"They're gone" she said, "Potter and his friends. They haven't been back since dinner and I fear they may be up to something."
Severus snorted, but refrained from saying anything on the matter after Hermione gave him a look.
Hermione smiled softly at Lily. "You tell me you don't care and then you stay up all night worried about them. They are fine; in fact I have just gone to see them, if that will make you less worried. This is why I wasn't here when you arrived. I needed to see to them. You may go, Lily."
Lily nodded and left with a small smile on her face.
"James Potter is a prat and so are the rest of his friends." Severus said after the red head had left them.
"They are not so bad and anyway, as of late they have not been picking on you." Hermione stared at him. "Now, as for your decision, you know what it is. You will take the mark. Your occlumency has improved a lot, after all. Tell him you will take it."
Severus nodded, "what will I do then?" he asked not wanting to really know.
Severus knew what the death eaters did but only to some extent. He knew that they killed muggles for sport and many important people from the wizarding world and muggle alike seemed to disappear and they were, most likely, behind it. Severus also knew that they were for pure blood and even though he was a half-blood he needn't worry because no one knew this fact.
Hermione seemed to be thinking back to something or someone. She was thinking about Professor Severus Snape. The man she had watched, hurt and broken walk back into Hogwarts after one of the many revels and calls he received from the dark lord. Here was a boy that would go through much the same things. Lord Voldemort did not care a lot about age.
"You will play the part" she said. "I know he will hurt you because that is the way with him. I want you to come to me. Don't go to the infirmary, come to my rooms. If you can manage tell me when he calls you."
Severus nodded regarding her. She had something in her eyes. It was worry, over him. No one had ever truly worried about him and seeing her laced with worry for what would happen to him made him realize that there was someone that cared about him.
"I'll be okay" he whispered to her.
She nodded, "you're strong, one thing you must remember is that mentally you must not break to him."
Severus nodded and in impulse he walked around, towards her and took her in a hug. "Thank you" he whispered into her hair, "I think I would have died the moment I was standing in front of him."
Hermione smiled into the hug before pulling away, "You're a good boy, Severus." She said.
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The order of the phoenix met again three days after the full moon. Hermione was not at all excited about the fact. The order had proven to be just as useless as it had been back in her own time but this time she could mold them to be what she needed them to be. Making her way to the room of requirement where they met nearly every week Hermione found that she was not going to enjoy this meeting. Nothing seriously interesting or remotely concerned with Voldemort had happened.
Hermione was the first one to arrive in the large room. With tall yellow decorated walls and a long table which seated all thirty of them. Beyond Hermione the room was empty and seemed to be devoid of any noise. Hermione liked it this way; it was very unlike the way it got once they were all there and ready to voice their opinions on some matter.
The door opened.
The young woman that entered the room wasn't someone that Hermione had talked a lot to. She was opinionated, that was for sure, but Hermione had never actually gotten to speak to her. She was just eighteen, having graduated from Hogwarts just the year before. Her name was Monica Woodfairy, it was all she knew about the girl.
"Hi" Monica said.
Hermione said nothing but just nodded and watched her choose a seat. Hermione wondered how she had gotten involved with the order because she did not remember her in the original. No one had told her about a Monica being in the order the first time around. Maybe Dumbledore had something to do with this or perhaps Harry-Evan-he had some control on the members of the order.
Turning back to Monica, Hermione introduced herself, "I'm Hermione. Of course you would know who I am but I know you only by name and I wanted to know how did you get involved with the order?"
"It was Evan Ripred, he and I met a few times and he talked so passionately about Voldemort and how much he hated him and I said I would love to help so I joined last week. I would love it if you could call me Muffie; by the way, that's what everyone calls me."
Hermione nodded and then turned away wondering if she could be trusted. The girl seemed different, there was darkness there but just something more and Hermione couldn't help but feel that she was unnaturally beautiful with jet black hair that had a blue shine and deep blue eyes.
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"We cannot wait for him to show himself. We cannot be expected to wait for him to kill someone. There have been disappearances already, doesn't that mean something?" Hermione said.
The order had been arguing again over what to do about Voldemort. Most of them wanted to do nothing until he did something, until he showed himself outright. Hermione argued that he had already done so and that to wait was to lose time and instead that they should be sending out people on missions to figure out what Voldemort was doing.
"Yes, but what are we to do?" one of the Prewett brothers asked, Hermione wasn't sure which one and neither did she care.
Dumbledore spoke this time, "by spying and by following people around people we believe to be death eaters, it will be hard and many of you will have to commit to long weeks of doing nothing but tailing someone but that is what will allow us to know more about what is going to happen."
Hermione nodded at him. "The first thing I must bring forth is that Voldemort is a great at reading minds so no one must come close to him unless it is truly necessary. The order, for the moment, is very well hidden and we do not want word of us to reach him."
They all nodded in agreement, finally they were getting somewhere.
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"Boys!" Hermione said in a scolding tone.
"Come on, Hermione, can't you just enjoy the day?" James asked. He was sitting on the lowest branch of a tree the five of them had come upon on their walk. "I mean it's a nice autumn day, can't you enjoy it?"
Sirius, lying down on the grass, let out a snort. "The only reason you say that is that you finally tricked Evans into going out with you."
Remus and Peter laughed while James gave a pout. Hermione just smiled enjoying their company. Hermione knew that without them she wouldn't know what to do and even though she scolded them about the things they were up to and the conversations that they often had around her she really did not know if she could even be sane if they weren't around to stop her from just sitting around with her books.
"I'm quite surprised, from having heard about your reputation that two of your mates have found themselves girlfriends but you are still single." Hermione commented after a while.
James glowed with pride while Remus took a deep red tint color to his cheeks. Sirius though laughed and then looked to Hermione.
"I don't do girlfriends" he said, "I have dates and how can I go after other girls when the one I want is right in front of me."
"Plus," added Peter, "He's already dated most of the seventh year girls except the Slytherins and then he has been with the sixth years and some of the fifth years. No one will take a dog like him."
Sirius looked indignant and turned from them as if mad.
Hermione gave a small laugh; she had wondered why the person that she knew to be a ladies man hadn't been seen with any girl during the entire time she had been at Hogwarts. He was handsome she would agree to that and sometimes Hermione felt that she liked that he wasn't dating around and then she remembered that she was his professor and beyond that, that she had no such claims on him. This was when her diary would make an appearance and she would write about her feelings for hours without ever concluding what, in fact, she was feeling.
"Alright, so explain to me, James, how you got her to say yes to you." Hermione said looking up at James.
James grinned while Peter and Sirius gave a groan. He had told them this so many times but Hermione had just recently heard of the new improvement and was very happy for James and Lily plus, she wanted to tell Evan.
"You've got him started" Remus said. "Wormtail, fancy a walk around the lake?"
Peter stood up at once and followed his friend.
"What about me?" Sirius asked in a whine but he did not make a move to get up and follow them.
"So, James, what happened?" Hermione asked.
James grinned and leaned back against the trunk of the tree where he sat on the branch. He closed his eyes, "so there I was, just sitting there, you know and I saw her walk into the room and I don't know what hit me but I just walked towards her and then I kissed her. She was rightly mad, I guess, but then I told her that she was just so kissable and I couldn't stop myself from doing it and then we were fighting. The usual thing, you know. 'selfish git' 'can't you see I love you' that sort of thing and then suddenly we were kissing again and then we were on the couch and then I told Lily I would never give up on her and that led to another fight about my stubbornness and then I asked her out and she said, 'if I must' and then kissed me again before glaring at me and leaving."
James gave a sigh and with a dreamy look jumped off of the tree, "I'm off to see her." He then ran towards Hogwarts.
Hermione laughed and then fell silent. Sirius looked at her and then stretched out on the ground. "I wonder how their relationship will go" he said. "I know Moony and Kerri are perfect for each other even though Remus refuses to say if they are together or not but now that we have discussed the love lives of everyone present but yourself I must know how is your love life?"
Hermione didn't know how she could answer this question so she stood up. "I have to go." She muttered, "I needed to meet Dumbledore, I completely forgot."
Sirius wasn't having any of it though and caught her around and waist and threw her over his shoulder.
"Sirius, set me down!" Hermione said as she hit him numerous times with her fists. He wasn't budging.
Sirius led her towards the Whomping willow and after touching the knot at the base of the tree he set her down and pushed her through the entrance to the shrieking shack.
"Now, tell me" he said, "I want to know."
"But why go to such lengths?" Hermione asked instead.
"Why won't you tell me?" he countered.
"Why do you want to know?"
"Why can't I just ask a simple question?" he replied with a grin.
"Why are we talking in questions?" Hermione looked at him perplexed.
Sirius shrugged and then, "Do you think I have any idea?"
Hermione let out a frustrated growl, "I have nothing to say really seeing as I haven't had a boyfriend since I was in my seventh year and that did not work out."
"Then why wouldn't you tell me this before?" Sirius said. "I mean it isn't that big a deal."
Hermione didn't know why she hadn't wanted to say anything either. Maybe it was because saying something about her love life would lead him to know that she had none and then it would probably go to the question she feared his name was the answer to.
"I don't know" she said then. "I do have to go though." And then she ran off just as she had been meaning to do before.
Hermione walked quickly towards her classroom. Sirius Black was getting to her and in the worst of ways. He was. What was he? Different came to mind, but that wasn't it. Thinking back to when she was in her time Hermione remembered being attracted to the older man when she was staying at Grimmauld Place before going to her fifth year. Then again she remembered staying in his room, reading his diary and finding out so much about him that had been hidden. His talent for drawing not to mention his feelings about so many different things; Sirius was a mystery. Hermione knew there was much more to be discovered in Sirius and he intrigued her but even more than that she cared for him and in more than friendly way because she knew he was like her.
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"Do you think he went into a rant about how beautiful every little piece of Lily is?" asked Peter, "he wouldn't let Sirius and I leave." Peter shuddered.
Remus laughed. "He's probably done by now." He said
"Yeah, but you can never be so sure about that." Peter said pointedly.
Remus nodded but regardless of that the two of them headed back towards the tree they had been sitting under but there was no one there. Remus only found a book sitting on the ground which he knew to be Hermione's. Where had they gone and why? Remus took the book and decided to go to Hermione's classroom and leave it there for her.
"Peter, get the map and meet me at Hermione's class." Remus told his friend.
"I wonder where they all went off to." Peter said as he strode away, heading for a secret passageway that would lead him directly to the Gryffindor common room. This was something they had found quite recently so they were still in the process of adding it to the map.
Remus walked to Hermione's classroom but did not expect to see her on the floor in tears.
"Are you okay?" he asked running to her side.
Hermione shook her head and continued crying but she had moved a bit so that she was crying against his shoulder. "I don't know what's wrong with me" she said. "It was just a simple question" and she kept on crying.
Remus had been there for her in the future throughout a lot of things and he had become a very close friend to her so that having him as her comforter was very welcome to her and she was hugging him as if she hadn't seen him in a long time and Hermione realized that she missed this. She missed having her Remus tell her that everything was going to be okay even with everything that had happened to her; even after everything.
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Attack in Diagon Alley
Late last night a surprise attack shook Diagon Alley and its occupants. It is believed to be the work of You-Know-Who and his death eaters. "His threat has been known for a long time but we never expected something like this to happen." says Abraxas Malfoy who was at the time buying a book in Flourish and Botts. However, now that the threat has been put in action, how is the wizarding world to respond? The Minister of Magic has made no comment and neither has Albus Dumbledore who was seen entering the Ministry this morning.
Hermione spluttered on her morning coffee and leaving everything on top of her half eaten eggs and bacon Hermione ran out of the great hall. The marauders, Lily, and Severus said this and grew worried about what could have caused her to leave the great hall as she did when usually she was one of the last ones to leave the table.
"We need to have an order meeting tonight" Hermione told Dumbledore as soon she was in his office, "Call them for tonight. Now about the attack, why didn't you tell me about it?"
"I would think you'd know." He said.
Hermione shook her head, "of course I didn't know. This didn't happen originally which means something changed and it has to do with me or Evan. Why did they attack though, what was the point of letting everyone know that they were up to something."
Dumbledore shrugged, "I don't know, we will discuss this later."
"It's started then, hasn't it?" Hermione said from the open door. "The war, I mean, it has begun."
"Yes, and it has a long time coming." Dumbledore said with finality.
Hermione walked out of Dumbledore's office knowing that she had to work quickly. Teaching would be her second priority from now on and she needed to figure out how to get close to Voldemort and then it hit her. Professor Snape had been a spy. Severus was also becoming a spy soon, could she somehow manage to get herself into the thick of things. It wasn't that Hermione didn't trust Severus but just that she knew he wouldn't be that important to Voldemort like she could be.
It was beginning and in many ways than one.
