AN: Hi everybody, sorry it's been so long since my last update, I hope this long chapter somewhat makes up for it. :)
James' POV
I woke up cold, in pain, and shaking. I knew immediately that Rhea, my Rhea, was in trouble. I had to get to her. She must have had another one of her nightmare-memories from Before (Before being before she came to this time). I was gasping for breath, stumbling out of bed, pulling on my shoes, and trying to get out the door. Remus and Sirius woke up and Peter was dead asleep. I really didn't care what they thought: Rhea was hurt. I almost didn't hear Sirius ask, "What's going on?" but I did, so I shot him back a quick reply, "Rhea, she's hurt. I can feel it. I have to get to her." And I ran out of our Dormitory and down the stairs. I remembered what Fabian and Gideon had told me about how the stairs were charmed to turn into a slide as soon as any male stepped foot on it, but how they were sure I would figure out some way around it, eventually. But I didn't have time. Rhea needed me now! So I used a quick Levicorpus charm to levitate myself up the stairs. I got to the top and just followed my built-in sense of direction. I was hoping it wouldn't fail me now, not when I most needed it. It didn't. I ran towards the third door on the left, somehow knowing Rhea was in there. I barged in and saw 3 girls, startled by my appearance, trying (and failing) to comfort Rhea. Marlene was hugging her close, Dorcas was singing a lullaby to Rhea, and Lily was smoothing Rhea's hair in an attempt to calm her. I ran over to Rhea and asked, "Rhea, are you okay? What happened? Don't worry. I'm right here. I'm not gonna leave you." Dorcas, Marlene, and Lily moved back a little bit, obviously noticing that Hermione was calming down a bit now that I was here. "Was it that dream again?" She nodded, still gulping for air, "The one where - " She shoved her hand over my mouth. Oh! She must not want her new roommates to hear this. Okay then, "Rhea, come with me. We'll go back up to my dorm and you can stay with me tonight, okay?" She nodded.
Hermione's POV
I was so happy he was here. It calmed me quite a bit to know I could count on him and, hopefully, I would never have to go through that again. He would protect me and I wouldn't be tortured anytime soon I decided I would come back here in the morning to get dressed and explain to my roommates what happened just now. I quickly said, "Goodbye Lily, Marlene, and Dorcas. I'll be back in the morning. Thank you for helping me." And quickly left with Jamie in tow.
Once we were out of the room, Jamie asked, "Alright, which dream was it?"
I shiver and say, "The one about Bellatrix at Malfoy Manor where she carves that word into my arm. The scar from her went away when I came back, but sometimes its almost like I can still feel it. Like, if I run my hand across my arm, I'll still feel the bumps of the letters of that awful word." We cross over to the stairs that will lead to the boys' dormitory.
"Well, you're fine now. You're safe, that's all that matters. And, on the plus side, we can make sure Bellatrix harms many fewer people than she did in your time. Look, we're her. This is my new room." We walked inside and I was met with three boys. One had brown hair and was asleep, one boy with sandy blonde hair and golden-yellow eyes, and another boy who had black hair and gray eyes. I recognized Remus and Sirius from the train and the day at Diagon. "Hi." I said. Jamie motioned for me to move towards his bed, so I did. I sat on the foot of the only unoccupied bed left which I assumed to be James's. Sirius spoke first, "Why the hell did you leave, James? She looks fine to me."
Jamie growled at him, yes he physically growled, "I left because I could feel that my younger, twin, sister was in excruciating pain. She had a nightmemoria (AN: I made this up. In my mind, it means a memory you relive during nighttime-thus turning it into a nightmare. But the twist is that whatever you felt in that memory is magnified by 10)." Sirius and Remus both gasped. Nightmemorias were very rare and very few people ever had them. Therefore, if you are like me and have torture nightmemorias, you will feel 10x the pain you did when you actually lived it. Most people who even had nightmemorias had good ones and would wake up in the morning happy and blissful. That is why people want them. I've got the bad kind. It's awful. "You can feel her pain even in a nightmemoria?" This question was from Remus.
"Well, normally, I can, but tonight she shielded it from me." Now Jamie turned to me, "What were you thinking? Shielding from me during a nightmemoria? Really? You know that that just means I'll get to you later. It will take longer before I can help you. I love you and I hate to see you in pain, but it's even worse when you try to hide it from me, Rhea." I could see that he was on the verge of tears. So, I did what any good sister would do. i unshielded myself and hugged him. Now he would feel exactly what I feel. I was still shaking from the after-shocks and pain of the Cruciatus Curse and he stumbled backwards from the sheer force of my pain. Now we were both sitting on the bed and I decided I may have to modify some memories eventually.
"Can you guys keep a secret?" They nodded. So, I silenced the room, making sure Peter's bed was outside of the barrier, and then I began my story. I told them everything. And then I told them what happened at Malfoy Manor and what Bellatrix did to me. While telling them I left out all last names and most first names. I didn't want them thinking they had to die, because they didn't. I was here to change everything. It had begun the day Hermione Rheanan Potter, myself, was born into this world. I would make sure that far fewer people would die in this war than they had in my time. Jamie looked so furious that I thought he might do something stupid, like getting lost in Hogwarts on the way to the Slytherin Common Rooms to murder Bellatrix for what she had done to e in my original timeline. Sirius looked like he wanted to punch something. I had accidentally let slip Bellatrix's name while explaining what happened. At the point where i mentioned Fenrir Greyback though, Remus looked like he wanted to puke. A lot. Remus knew what Greyback was capable of-he was the one who had turned him-he knew how much worse my story could get. I kept talking, and told of how we escaped via Dobby the hose-elf and how he died right after saving Harry, Ron, Luna, Ollivander, Griphook, and myself. Then I told them about the Horcruxes (Gringott's) and how we escaped on a dragon. They were all dumbfounded at all of the adventures I had had. I had already told James the basics, but I hadn't gone into this much detail about anything. I talked about all of this for about two hours, so it was now 3:30 AM and we were all yawning quite a bit. Sirius, Remus, and James were all staring at me open-mouthed. They couldn't believe I had been on all of these adventures. I said, "I'm tired now, and we have classes in a few hours, so why don't we go to sleep now. I can answer some of your questions in the morning. But, I do want to warn you that there are some things I just can't tell you. Also, I want to tell you why I came back to this particular time. A very close friend of mine, Harry, was destined to defeat Voldemort. He was James's son. I came back to make sure that Voldemort is dead long before Harry is ever born. I want to give him a better life than the one he had in my previous timeline. Now, goodnight everyone." And then I layed down on Jamie's bed, pulled the covers up to my chin, and wordlessly/wandlessly cast the Nox spell to turn off the lights.
I heard scrambling and the rustling of bedsheets and duvets before Jamie got in bed too and I promptly fell asleep.