Eulogizing Memoirs
Amelie Rae Lanhoss
A/N-YES, I'M ALIVE! I was completely overwhelmed at the number of reviews I got for the last chapter. Overwhelmed. You guys are the greatest, I now have a gigantic list of people who deserve chapter dedications. There's a long story behind why I posted today, full of excuses and the flu, unfortunately. Anyways, I had originally planned on combining Hermione's time-traveling with her first day at Old Hogwarts but then Flaignhan wrote this really nice, long review, hoping that there would be a nice long chapter about the stay at the Weasley's and I felt so guilty for barely even mentioning it that I had to go back and add stuff and re-edit Shopping And Time Warps. Anyways, review responses in my bio; This chapter is for Flaignhan, obviously, and, in loving memory always, for K.M.L.
-C.R.C.
Chapter 8-Shopping And Time Warps
"Shhh!"
"I can't help it!"
"You'll wake everyone up!"
"I can't help it!"
"There isn't even anything funny!"
"God, this brings back memories."
Sirius and I both turned in the direction of the voice, Sirius still shaking with silent laughter. Squinting into the darkness I could make out a male-looking outline that seemed a lot like-
"Professor Lupin?"
"Remus, Hermione, Remus, remember?"
I smiled shakily, a bit nervous even though he probably couldn't see me.
"Yes, sir."
There was a beat of silence before Sirius broke it.
"What memories, Moony?"
"All the times at Hogwarts when Mya was with us and we were pulling one of the pranks she had come up with, you could never stop laughing just imagining the Slytherins' faces and she was always telling you to be quiet or we'd get caught."
"We only got caught once because of me."
Remus snorted disbelievingly, "Sure Padfoot, keep telling yourself that, no doubt Mya will say something different when she comes back."
Sirius stuck his tongue out at him.
"No way, My'll be on my side."
Remus snorted again, "Right, well, I'm going to sleep, don't stay up too late talking."
He knows we talk? But-How could he know we talk? The only way he could know is if Sirius told him, I sure as hell didn't. Siri wouldn't tell, though, right? He-He promised he wouldn't tell anyone. He promised. And I can definitely trust Sirius, right? I can trust him, can't I?
I forced myself to take a deep breath. Relax, Mione, he probably just got asked by Remus one night about where he went and said we talked. That's probably what happened, relax Hermione. But-Still-
"Sirius?"
I tugged on his wrist a bit, nervous.
"Have you- have you told Pr-Remus about-about our talks?"
"Hmm? Told Moony? Only when we first started talking."
He stopped rummaging around the Weasley's magical refrigerator and turned slowly towards me.
"I promised, Hermione, remember? I'm not someone who breaks their promises. You can trust me, y'know."
I nodded a bit too quickly, he sounded somewhat hurt.
"I know, I was just…checking," I finished lamely, "I'm sorry."
He looked surprised.
"What for?"
"For-for not believing you?" I tried tentatively.
By now he had pulled out two glasses and a jug of chocolate milk and set them on the kitchen table.
"Silly, Mione," he looked at me curiously for a moment before continuing, "C'mere."
Okay…this is kind of…strange, I guess, would be the word. But, then again, it's also very Siri-like. Well, Siri-like in a mysterious kind of way, like when he's talking about Mya. I think I'm confusing myself now so I suppose I'll just walk over to Sirius and…be hugged. I didn't expect that, I think, since Kevin, I've kinda gotten unused to getting hugs on a regular basis. But it's still nice, so I'll hug him back…
And now he's murmuring into my hair that it's alright.
And now he's kissing the top of my head.
And he's hugging me again.
And now he's pouring me a glass of chocolate milk.
And now everything is okay, because he's my best friend again, and I won't ever doubt him.
"Eeek!"
I'm somewhat ashamed to say that the very Ron-just-saw-a-spider/Parvati-and-Lavender-just-met-their-favorite-singer-like shriek that woke everyone in the Burrow who was still sleeping past 9 on the 26th of August came from me. But! I had a very good reason for doing so.
"I got Head Girl!"
"Oh! I'm so proud of you! You earned it Hermione! Congratulations!"
I happily let Mrs. Weasley give me a bone-crushing hug, a wide smile on my face that only lessened a tiny bit at the realization that I CAN'T BREATHE!
"M-Mrs. Weasley-"
"Oh! I'm so sorry, dear."
"Where's the 'ire?" Ron asked as he stumbled sleepily down the stairs.
"Show more support Ronald Weasley! Your best friend just became the Head Girl!"
"So?"
I hugged Mrs. Weasley one last time before she could start shouting at Ron and said, "I'm going to go tell Ginny!"
"Alright, dear." She smiled in her motherly way at me before turning back to Ron.
"I cannot believe you Ronald Bilius Weasley! Your best friend! Your best friend, just learned that she's going to be the new Head Girl at Hogwarts and all you can say is 'so?' You should be ashamed of yourself Ronald!"
I waited until Mrs. Weasley was deeply immersed in reprimanding Ron before I turned at the stairs and walked quickly into the living room. Sirius was still lying under a blanket on one of the couches and mumbling incoherently to Pr-Remus who obviously found whatever he was saying funny.
"Come here, Hermione, I'll let you see if you can make him get up any better than I can."
"Okay," I didn't know he had already noticed me.
"Get up Siri! Guess what? I'm Head Girl this year!"
He groaned and swatted at the hands that were shaking him before turning on his side to face me with his eyes still closed.
"I know, Mione, I heard you yell it to Molly the first time when you woke me up and I'm-"
"Ah!" I let out a little surprised yelp as one of his hands closed around my wrist and jerked down quickly so I ended up kneeling next to the couch. He opened his eyes a crack and leaned in to kiss my cheek before dropping his head back onto his pillow.
"-so proud of you and congratulations and everything but I just really want to sleep okay?"
He squeezed my hand a last time and rolled over again.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Remus mouthing for me to just agree with Sirius. Looking at him quizzically I turned back to the man on the couch.
"'K, Siri, if you want to."
He groaned gratefully.
"You're an angel, Mya."
Mya?
Remus was standing next to me, all of a sudden, and holding a glass full of ice cubes. He gave me a wicked grin and lifted the top of Sirius' blanket to reveal the back of his neck and the fact that he was shirtless before, with another mischievous smile, dumping the whole glass of ice cubes onto his back.
"Lupin!" Sirius roared at Professor Lupin and shot up like a rocket before starting to chase him around the room.
I collapsed, laughing, onto the checkered red couch Sirius had previously occupied and watched them run around the room. Sirius became Padfoot and broke the muggle lamp (probably charmed and brought home by Mr. Weasley) standing in a corner in his efforts to catch up to Profess-Remus. Remus jumped over the back of the couch and ran – or rather - tried to run out of the room and into the kitchen; instead, he ran straight into Fred and George. The resounding THUMP of three people hitting the ground, one on top of another, brought Mrs. Weasley and Ron out of the kitchen and Harry and Ginny to the bottom of the stairs. Mrs. Weasley, already in a scolding frame of mind, promptly blew up (metaphorically speaking, of course).
"Frederick Geoffrey Weasley! George Faustus Weasley! Remus…"
"John," Sirius supplied helpfully, quickly casting Reparo on the broken lamp.
"John-John?"
"John," Remus confirmed from atop Fred and George.
"John Lupin! What is going on?"
"We didn't do anything-"
"This time, Mum-"
"Honest-"
"Yeah, honest, we were just walking up-"
"He means innocently down-"
"Right, right, down-"
"From our room-"
"When we heard-"
"By chance-"
"Glass breaking, so-"
"We were worried and came to check-"
"It out, but as soon-"
"As soon as we got here-"
"We were shoved-"
"To the ground by Lupin-"
"Who was running-"
"He was running from Sirius-"
"It wasn't our fault-"
"Not at all-"
"We swear it wasn't us, Mum-"
"We swear it!"
Mrs. Weasley turned furious eyes towards Sirius.
"Sirius…"
"Orion Black…" P-Remus prompted cheerfully.
"Orion Black!"
"How dare you break my lamp…" Remus continued.
"How dare you break my lamp!"
"And run around destroying my living room…"
"And run around completely destroying my own living room!"
"And exposing my children to such rowdy behavior…"
"And exposing my poor children to such rowdy behavior!"
"And chasing, poor, innocent Remus…"
"And chasing poor Remus - I can deal with this on my own Lupin!"
"Sorry Molly, merely suggesting."
"Well don't!"
"So Hermione!"
I jumped at the sound of Mr. Weasley's voice and quickly spun to see that he was closely watching his wife, Siri, and Remus. Looks like he's already assessed the situation.
"I heard you telling Molly you're Head Girl!"
I nodded slowly, somewhat unsure of what to make of Mr. Weasley's suddenly over-jovial.
"That's fantastic! Isn't that fantastic, Molly?" he rambled on without pausing for an answer, "Y'know, Hermione, you've always been like a second daughter to us, don't you think we should give her a congratulatory gift, Molly?"
"Oh no, sir, really, you shouldn't have to get me anything," I quickly protested Mr. Weasley's idea, knowing how little money the Weasley family had I felt immediately guilty for possibly wasting some of it.
"Nonsense dear, Arthur's right, you've been like a daughter to us all these years, and you do deserve congratulations!"
Well, if it makes her that happy…and it did get her to stop yelling…
"Ok, thanks Mrs. Weasley," I agreed reluctantly.
She smiled even wider.
"Wonderful! I'll just rouse the boys and we'll be on our way."
Diagon Alley will never fail to make me feel awed and like the eleven-year-old child I was on my first trip here. It seems like there's always something new and exciting happening. Or maybe it's just because I'm a Muggleborn and so much of magic is still new to me.
"We're going to Quality Quidditch!" Harry and Ron announced as soon as we had all flooed in – something that still gives me the shivers – and Mrs. Weasley waved them off before turning to me.
"I know just what to get you m'dear," she said cheerfully, "Why don't you wander around a bit?"
And then she and everyone went their separate ways. I noticed Sirius waving and quickly waved back before he and Professor Lupin turned the corner out of sight. That's strange; I had sort of expected to hang out with Sirius a bit. Oh well, I can always amuse myself simply by looking around at the people and the different shops.
I left the funny little country witches still standing around the entrance between the Alley and the pub and headed towards the big apothecary to my right-or not. Professor Snape's in there and I'm not afraid of him,honestly I'm not, I just don't feel like being sneered at. So…the cauldron shop across the street, god knows Neville blows up almost as many of my cauldrons as he does his own. It won't hurt to have an extra one at the beginning of the year.
I hesitated when I saw Macnair inside looking over brass cauldrons with a salesperson but went in anyways. How long could it take to buy a cheap, spare pewter cauldron, certainly I can do it without drawing attention to myself.
"Ah, Miss…Grain-her, correct?"
Apparently the Fates are conspiring against me, damnit, and I was so close to leaving too.
"Granger, actually," I corrected Macnair as I took my change from the cashier.
"Yes, yes, of course, Miss Granger, terribly sorry."
The bastard doesn't sound very sorry to me.
"You are quite…infamous, among some of my colleagues."
Your Death Eater colleagues, perhaps?
"Because I always score better than Malfoy?" I responded instead.
"Yes, that must be it," his eyes have gone all hard and vicious looking.
"Well, good day."
Did I just say 'good day' to a Death Eater? I must be losing my mind.
"Have a good day, Miss Granger, and take care of yourself."
Is it just me or did he sound a bit more sinister than usual at the end? Oh well, I am so out of here.
Deep breath in…and god it feels good being back out in the sunny alley instead of the same shop as Macnair. Now, where to go next…didn't Harry mention something about a small stationery shop sometime? Oh yes! That's right, between Flourish & Blotts and the Quidditch store, I even remember seeing it last year. Past the apothecary, and the other part of the apothecary, and the Quidditch store, whose windows Harry and Ron have their noses pressed up to. Silly boys…and here it is.
"Oh! Hello young lady."
I smiled and nodded back to the old, kindly looking wizard behind the counter of Sherman's Stationery Shoppe.
"Good morning."
"Are you looking for anything special, dear?"
Was I? No, I had actually just come here for fun…but the poor man looks so pleased and surprised at having someone wander into his dusty shop. I suppose…I suppose a scrapbook is always useful, right? I mean; I'm sure I can come up with some use for it. I smiled at the elderly wizard again, he reminds me a bit of my grandfather.
"I was actually planning on starting a scrapbook."
"Ah!" he clapped his hands together happily, "We have an entire section on scrapbooks and scrapbook-making!" and with that he ambled out from behind the counter and motioned for me to follow him towards the middle aisle.
"Here it is! Our scrapbook aisle!"
"Thank you," he looks so proud of himself…my birthday's coming up, I can afford to spend a good bit of money here, "I'm actually not completely sure how to go about it…" I trailed off, waiting for him to offer me one of the 'How-To' books I had spotted.
"That's not a problem! We do carry some books explaining it," he now sounded a bit desperate so I was quick to pick what looked like the most in-depth and expensive one, which wasn't really all that expensive compared to other book prices I've seen. Opening it up I flipped to the second page, the one that had an extremely long list of materials running all down it.
"Wow, I didn't know it took so much to make a scrapbook, I guess I'll just have to get some of everything," I smiled and laughed a bit nervously before looking up to see an expression of ecstasy on the older gentleman's face.
"I'll help you, my dear! Now, firstly, you'll want to pick out your scrapbook and then the papers you'd like to use in it, we have normal decorated parchments and we also have the slightly more expensive papers with moving decorations, if you'd just like to look this way, we also have some magical glitter and decoration things…"
Half an hour later I had enough supplies to redo my scrapbook in 7 different themes, including Quidditch – god just shoot me now. Mr. Sherman had helped me bring everything to the front and was now adding it all up. When he looked at me again it was with something akin to worship.
"Your total is 23 galleons, 9 sickles, and 4 knuts, please."
I handed the coins and he reverently put them into the drawer before pushing the large bag towards me.
"Thank you very much, Miss…"
"Granger," I supplied, he smiled broadly.
"Thank you very much, Miss Granger! Come back any time you'd like! Or even just send an owl!" his face took on a cloudier expression, "You remind so much of another young lady who wandered into my store over twenty years ago. Miss Taite, that was her name, Miss Mya Taite. She owled me a few times while she was at Hogwarts, she was a transfer student, you see, but she didn't stay long," he suddenly seemed jovial again, "Ah well! No doubt you have better things to do than listen to an old man's ramble! Though I would appreciate an owl or visit on occasion, I tend to get a bit lonely here." And with that he patted my elbow and sent me out the door. I smiled at him a last time before pushing it open and stepping out into the sunshine for the third time today.
I think I'll skip Flourish & Blotts for now and instead head slowly down Magical Menagerie for some of Crookshanks' favorite food.
"Granger."
Yech. A ferret. And not the cute kind like my muggle friend, Kaylaigh, has.
"Get out of my way, Malfoy."
Suddenly the sunny day doesn't seem to be so sunny, why does Malfoy always ruin everything? Great, now I sound like a whiny, spoiled little brat. Ironically enough, Malfoy is a whiny, spoiled little brat. And he smirks too much, like he's smirking now and…bowing?
"Whatever you want, Mudblood."
That so does not sound like the incredibly irritating Malfoy I know at school, something has to be wrong…or he's plotting something-
"Morsmordre."
"Ah!"
What the hell! Why'd the little ferret spin me around and push me towards the cauldron shop again. Oh god the Dark Mark. No wonder everyone's screaming and panicking.
"Ah!"
Don't you dare push me again, you stupid little-hah! Take that, Malfoy.
"Uh!"
Can't wait till you try having kids! There goes the rest of the Malfoy line!
"Draco! The Mudblood!"
What?
"I'll do it Walden."
Professor Snape?
"Admoveo Noccus Salignus!"
Ah! I feel like I'm going by Portkey-but I can't be! I can't be! And-and I can feel someone hanging on to me-oh god.
"Aiee!"
Ow…what…Whomping Willow…Hogwarts…Malfoy?
Mmm…antiseptic? What-Why…what?
"I think the young lady is coming around now, Albus."
"Ah, wonderful, thank you, Poppy, I will take it from here."
"Not a problem, Headmaster."
Headmaster…Albus…Poppy…Madam Pomfrey? So…I'm at Hogwarts? Why the hell am I at Hogwarts?
"H-Headmaster?"
"So you are awake, the two of you had us quite worried, especially Professor Kettleburn who found you close to the Willow."
Two of us? There's two of us? Why am I at Hogwarts again?
"Wha…" I opened my eyes to the usual white ceiling and bright lights of Hogwarts' own Hospital Wing. The Headmaster was standing next to me, actually looking somewhat younger, and twinkling down at me.
"Why am I at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore?"
"You know my name?" he sounded surprised, "How do you know my name?"
What's he playing at? "I've gone to school here for the past six years, sir, remember me? Hermione Granger?" he still looked blankly at me so I continued, "Harry Potter's friend?"
"Potter? I'm afraid the only Mr. Potter currently at this school is our Head Boy, Mr. James Potter."
What's he talking about? Harry's dad?
"No, Harry Potter…and Ron Weasley…y'know, Professor Snape, he calls us the 'Golden Trio'"
"I'm afraid that there is no Professor Snape here, there is a seventh year student Severus Snape."
"Yes, him, but he's the Potions professor…isn't he?"
What the hell is going on? Oh, oh good, he looks like something's dawning.
"Miss…Granger, did you say?"
I nodded.
"What year is it?"
What?
"It-it's 1997, sir."
"The date, Miss Granger, is August 31st, 1975."
"What?"
"I believe, Miss Granger, that you and your…colleague, have taken a trip back into time due to, perhaps, a faulty Time-Turner, is that a possibility?"
I nodded dumbly. McGonagall's Time-Turner. But, wait…my colleague? What colleague?
"My colleague."
"Yes, over there, a Mr…"
"Malfoy."
Oh god. Malfoy's here, this cannot get worse..
"Mr. Malfoy. Well, Miss Granger, I am not quite sure what to do with you two, I suppose there is nothing to do while you wait to be returned, other than introducing you to the school as foreign exchange students from…Salem?"
"Sure," my voice sounded a bit weak.
"Excellent! Is there anything you'd like to tell me before I leave to make your arrangements."
"Um…"
My mind was still trying to catch up. I'm back in time, in…1975? James Potter…seventh year Severus Snape…that means Siri's here! And he's my age, oh god. I'm stuck in the past with…Draco Malfoy of all people. I think that there's only one word to describe what…situation I'm in, I think, just an eloquent-
"Fuck."
