19th November, 1977

Danny rose late on Saturday. She was meeting Remus at the library at half past ten to work on their Arithmancy project, and she wanted to get her readings for the week done so she could be more relaxed and focus on the Wolfsbane potion for the following days. She was planning on talking to Dumbledore that afternoon and ask for permission to access the Restricted Section for her research on a way to return to her time, as well as more advanced and obscure potions books. There were students in the common room as well as the corridors, but Danny didn't come across the Marauders or Lily on her way down to the dungeons to access the kitchens. She got some tea, toast and fruit from the cheerful elves and read an advanced chapter from their Arithmancy textbook while she ate. She had some time to spare before she was to meet her friend.

"Excuse me." She got a small female elf's attention as she moved close to Danny on her way to the back of the kitchens. "Can I have some chocolate chip cookies or something chocolatey to go, please? I want to give them to a friend of mine." She smiled at the elf, who blinked twice before jumping up and nodding energetically, happy to assist the nice young miss.

Thus, Danny headed up to the library ten minutes later with a small assortment of chocolate chip cookies and homemade cauldron cakes for Remus in her bag. Right as she reached the entrance hall, she came face to face with Regulus Black, this time on his own. Since they'd almost collided, Danny took a step back and stopped, the younger Black's eyes widening a bit when he recognized her.

Danny blinked at him once when he stood still. "Hi." She greeted, unwilling to show any malice toward Sirius' family. Though she was more than ready to be perfectly impolite toward Walburga if she heard a single scream from the hag.

Regulus didn't seem to know what to do. He seemed to be ready to retreat and run away, but his hand never reached for his wand.

Danny tilted her head at the silence. "You're Regulus, right?"

The boy's lips thinned and he swallowed. "Yes. You're Miss Delacour. The new student." He kept his voice level and polite, not friendly but not aggressive.

"Call me Danielle, or Danny." She smiled and extended her hand, trying to seem approachable.

Regulus looked from her hand to her face and narrowed his eyes a bit, but ended up shaking her hand. "Miss Delacour." He repeated, refusing to show such closeness with her yet. "Excuse me, I have somewhere to be." He let go of her hand and walked past her without waiting for an answer.

Well, she had tried to approach him, at least, and he hadn't attacked her. It was something.

Remus' eyes brightened when Danny placed the wrapped bundle of sweets on the table next to his already open textbook. He could smell the freshly made cookies. But even better, her own scent was mixed with that of the sweets, and it made him hunger all the more for it.

He cleared his throat and smiled gratefully.

She winked and smiled while bringing out her own materials, sitting beside him. "Just a little something to keep us going today." She commented in a whisper, making sure Madame Pince didn't notice that she'd brought food into her precious library.

"Thank you." He whispered back, reaching for her hand on the table, covering it with his own and squeezing lightly before retreating again.

Danny blushed at the feel of his hand on hers, but simply shook it off and focused on the work.

The pair went down for lunch quite late. They'd been sneaking bites off the sweets through most of the morning, so they weren't that hungry, and were advancing at a steady pace in their project.

"No, but really, it's brilliant! You could very well simplify the whole process through that formula!" Danny was excitedly telling Remus, who blushed at the praise, just as they arrived in the Great Hall.

Sirius turned in his seat as he heard them approach. "What's so exciting?" He asked, taking his jacket off Danny's spot. Just as she and Remus, he was wearing casual clothes, which looked oddly muggle given his pureblood origins. He'd just removed a black biker jacket to make room for her and was wearing a tight grey jumper and dark jeans.

"Moony's brilliant." She announced, grinning widely as she sat down and reached for a bowl of pea soup.

Remus flushed even more and tried to hide it by keeping his head low as he ate, making James and Peter snicker at him.

"He is, isn't he?" Sirius smirked, reaching over Danny to mess the werewolf's hair.

"He already made an amazing breakthrough and we've barely been working on our project for four hours in total." She bumped her shoulder to his and he couldn't help the smile that escaped him.

Lily heard them from her place next to Marlene, smiling at the sandy blonde teen. "He is brilliant, definitely." She nodded in agreement with the other girl.

"I'm getting jealous, Lils." James pouted at her, making the other girl roll her eyes.

Danny pointed a warning finger at the redhead. "No stealing him from me, Evans! He's my study buddy at least until we've handed the project in!" She joked, clutching Remus' arm with her free hand. "And I'm not sharing him with anybody!"

The poor teen was about to turn into a tomato.

Lily laughed out loud at that, and even Danny dissolved in chuckles, lowering the threatening hand and rubbing Remus' back soothingly. "Alright, I think that's enough, we might have to take you to Pomfrey if you get any redder, Moony." The new girl smiled gently at him, but he didn't even meet her eyes.

Sirius was pissing himself with laughter on her other side, but slowly that subsided too, and the table calmed down.

Marlene was watching the scene carefully from her spot. When the laughter dissipated, she stood and walked closer to them, stopping behind Danny and Sirius. "Sirius, do you have plans next Saturday?"

Sirius' face went blank, his body as still as a statue. Danny was eating her soup by the spoonful, but listened to the conversation; it wasn't like she could not hear it.

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend." He neutrally commented. His eyes flickered to Danny, the girl had perked up at that.

Marlene held her hands together in front of her, almost as a way to keep them still. "Yes. Will you go with me?"

There was absolute silence around the table for a few seconds, the time it took Sirius to answer. "No."

That made Danny frown. Marlene seemed interested in him and they were friends, right? It was such a cold way to turn her down, it bothered the time-traveller.

There was a soft intake of breath from Marlene before she turned and left, her steps calm, but her back ramrod straight.

"That was harsh, Sirius." Danny scolded lowly, making the animagus frown. "You could have been a bit gentler even if you didn't want to go with her, you know?"

He held her hard stare for a few seconds before closing his eyes and sighing, turning back to face the table. "It's usually easier this way." He admitted, just as low. "It doesn't leave room for false hope."

Danny shook her head but went back to her food, her eyes glancing toward the staff table, to Dumbledore. She remembered her planner and looked at Remus, who was trying not to make it look like he was paying attention to her scolding. "I didn't know it was a Hogsmeade weekend. We can postpone Arithmancy if you want to go, Moony."

Both Remus and Sirius straightened and turned fully toward her at that. "You're not coming?" They let out in unison, sharing a surprised look with each other after.

Danny's eyes turned to Dumbledore once more. "I don't know if I can. I'll have to ask Dumbledore. I don't have a permission slip." She looked back toward the Marauders. "Are you all going?"

James nodded, pointing toward Lily with his thumb. "Got a date." He grinned, smug.

Danny smirked at that. "Hmm, I'd sneak out myself if I got a date like that." She winked toward Lily, who snorted, almost choking on her food, while James sputtered, once more wide eyed and caught by surprise by the girl. "I'll go ask Dumbledore, I might try to crash your date and steal your girlfriend away." With James about to take his wand out, she turned toward Remus. "We'll reschedule arithmancy for another day, alright?"

She drained the rest of the pea soup in one gulp and rose from the table to approach the staff table. She heard Peter ask "Is she gay?" lowly to the others, to which he received twin "No way"s from the aristocratic animagus and the teen werewolf.

Dumbledore had been talking to Hagrid, but both cut their conversation at her nearing. She smiled at the gatekeeper, vowing to herself to get a bit closer to him, since she was practically a stranger to this Hagrid. "Sorry to interrupt."

Dumbledore waved her concerns away. "Not at all, Miss Delacour. What is it you wanted?"

"I was just told next week is a Hogsmeade weekend. May I go?" Her eyes flickered between McGonagall and Dumbledore. He was her guardian, but she was the one who had to accept the permission slip.

"I have no problem with it, I'll sign the permission slip later." His eyes crinkled at the corners, smiling though his mouth was basically hidden under his moustache.

"And…" Danny licked her lips, nervous about speaking so in the open. "There's something I'd like to discuss with you. May I visit your office later, if you're not busy?"

He nodded silently and reached for his goblet. "I'm particularly fond of Fizzing Whizzbees these days."

Danny nodded back and excused herself from the faculty before returning to the Gryffindor table. The others were almost done by then and James seemed to have calmed down quite a bit. "Are you guys done? Wanna go outside?"

After much overt flirting with Lily and some more light research with Remus by the lake, Danny left the group to go meet Dumbledore.

On her way back, she came across five Hufflepuffs cornering another student. If that wasn't an unusual sight by itself, the student turned out to be a Slytherin, and not just any of them.

"... it's funny to hex us every chance you get?" One of the Hufflepuffs was saying aggressively. Danny stayed hidden just around the corner. No one was coming through this corridor. "Your buddies have cursed many of us every week since school started, and you are always there, letting them do whatever they want. Do you get a kick out of that? Is that the kind of thing that gets you going?" The Hufflepuff was getting more and more emotional, his hand trembling with rage. "Today you're getting a taste of what your lot has done to me."

With that, the five students pointed their wands at Regulus, who was simply staring back as impassively as possible, but tense, steeling himself for the oncoming attack.

The five different hexes didn't reach the Slytherin, even though he was barely six feet away. Noticing the strong shield in front of the cornered student, the Hufflepuffs turned, expecting a bunch of Slytherins. They faltered when they only saw Danny, her wand raised in Regulus' direction.

"And here I thought you Hufflepuffs were supposed to be the gentle house." She spoke up. Regulus opened his eyes, having closed them when the others fired their spells. "This is just embarrassing. Five against one? That's the coward's way." She looked at the youngest Black and gestured with her head for him to move to her side.

"Who are you to interfere? This is none of your business!" The apparent leader of the Hufflepuffs screamed at her, shooting another spell toward Regulus when he noticed the boy moving.

Danny once more built a barrier between the spell and the Slytherin, then cast a silent Levicorpus on the attacker. He dropped his wand as he was hanged upside down, his friends glancing from their leader to the girl, shocked.

"Anyone else?" She dared, moving in front of Regulus as he reached her side. Another Hufflepuff charged, one more joining him quickly. Danny countered with Locomotor Mortis and a Bat-bogey hex on them, making the last boy cry out and cover his nose with his hands.

"Miss Delacour!" McGonagall's shout made everyone turn toward the corridor to their left. The head of Gryffindor and Flitwick were both making their way to the scene of the altercation, looking furious. The Hufflepuffs all hid their wands -those who could -and looked down toward the floor when the professors stopped near them. "What is the meaning of this?"

"This bunch of cowards had Regulus cornered there." Danny spoke firmly, pointing toward the wall the Slytherin had been against just a couple minutes earlier. "They had ganged up on him and were trying to hex him when I arrived. I was making my way down from visiting the Headmaster's office, professor."

Both Heads of House looked appalled at the explanation. Flitwick, who was usually cheery and laid-back, was looking as close to angry as Danny had ever seen him. "Is that true?" He asked those present in general, gasping when Regulus nodded and the Hufflepuffs didn't dare deny their actions. "I never expected something like this from you, Mr. Abbot, Mr. Cauldwell, Mr. Smith, Mr. Court, Mr… Oh, my, did he faint?" He faltered when his eyes reached the boy who had been hanged upside-down. Danny softly let him down, his friends picking him up when he was low enough. "Thank you, Miss Delacour. Gentlemen, honestly, this is most unpleasant and distasteful of you!"

McGonagall huffed in agreement. "You will accompany professor Flitwick and I back to my office and we'll discuss your punishments there. Mr. Black, are you alright?" She turned toward the Slytherin, who nodded immediately. "Thank Merlin. You can go. I will speak with you and professor Slughorn later on, don't you worry. Go along." The boy didn't hesitate to leave the scene, walking away as fast as possible. "Five points to Gryffindor for defending a fellow student in such a situation, Miss Delacour." McGonagall awarded, nodding approvingly at her.

"And another five for not letting house rivalries stop you from doing the right thing!" Flitwick added, nodding along. Then he stopped and tilted his head, his eyebrows disappearing up his forehead. "Miss Delacour, have you considered joining the Duelling Club? I'm in charge of it."

"I think my plate's full enough, professor Flitwick." She declined with a half-smile and turned to walk the same way Regulus had left. "If you don't need me anymore, I will go meet my friends outside, they must be getting worried already."

"Go on, dear, don't you worry." Flitwick let her go and both professors turned toward the bullies.

Danny had only gone a floor down when Regulus met her, cutting into her path.

"Oh, I thought you'd left." Danny blinked at him, stopping cold in the middle of the hallway. "Are you alright?"

"Why did you do that?" He hissed, moving close so no one else could hear even if they came into the hallway.

"You seemed to be in trouble. And I don't like bullies like that. If they want to hex someone, they shouldn't be cowards about it and do it one on one." She folded her arms across her chest and sighed deeply. "Are you alright?" She repeated, giving him a tired look.

He seemed to hesitate, taking a step back and clenching and unclenching his jaw, his eyes flickering with doubt and something else. "What do you want?"

Danny frowned, confused. "What do you mean?" She sighed again. "Look, Regulus, I don't want anything from you, if that's what you think. I just didn't like that situation. That's all. Don't think too much about it. I'll see you around." She moved around him and disappeared down the stairs, heading back to her friends.

"Dumbledore kept you awhile, eh?" James commented when she finally reached them, under a tree near the lake. Lily was tucked into James' side.

"Not really. I fought a bunch of Hufflepuffs on the way." She revealed, making them all stop and stare at her. She shrugged as she sat down next to Remus. "I'm guessing you'll be hearing about it soon enough anyway."

"Why?" Lily wondered, frowning from her comfortable spot.

"Five of them had ganged up on another student. They had him cornered on the second floor." She pursed her lips.

Lily looked just as appalled as McGonagall. "Oh, no, who was it?"

Danny's eyes flickered toward Sirius, who had been listening as he laid down on the grass, but pushed himself up a bit when he saw her look his way. "Regulus. Don't worry, he's perfectly fine." She assured him. "Luckily, McGonagall and Flitwick turned up right in the middle of it. I told them what happened and they took the five Hufflepuffs to McGonagall's office for punishment. And I got ten points and an invitation to join the Duelling Club."

"You defended a Slytherin?" Peter squeaked, disbelief colouring his voice.

She glared at him, making him cower almost immediately. "It was one person against five, Pettigrew. It hardly seems fair, no matter which house they belong to."

"She's right." James sided with her, Lily nodding along. "They shouldn't have done that."

Sirius stayed quiet, once again laying back. He was looking up at the sky, thoughtful, silent.

"Anyway" Danny leant back on her hands, trying to enjoy the daylight while it lasted. ", Dumbledore signed my permission slip to go to Hogsmeade." Remus perked up at that, glancing her way. "Lils, wanna ditch this git and go on a date with me? I swear it'll be much better." She smirked at the redhead, who almost fell down to the ground when James suddenly stood, wand out in a flash.

The other Marauders and Lily were laughing themselves sick while James challenged Danny to a duel, defending his honour and his girlfriend's, in his words. The pair spent a good half hour shooting spells and defending themselves on the lake shore, no real harmful spells involved. A few younger years even approached to watch, Danny dancing around the fired up Head Boy, threatening to take points from her or give her detention if she kept flirting with his girlfriend.

"I'd like to see you explain that to McGonagall!" The new girl laughed and sent a dancing feet spell at James, who finally failed to protect himself properly and almost fell when his legs started spasming wildly.

The rest of the day was just as eventful. Danny went for a walk on the grounds, purposefully close to Hagrid's hut, and encountered a huge Bloodhound that definitely wasn't Fang.

The light brown dog was resting near the vegetable patch next to the hut, his head perking up when he noticed the new visitor. Hagrid was hunched over some plant and didn't notice her until the dog barked, drawing his attention.

"Hello." Danny smiled at the half-giant and his pet.

"Ah, Miss Dela…"

Danny saved him the effort of getting the French name right. "Call me Danny. You're Hagrid, right?" She walked a bit closer, the dog sitting up, tense.

"Aye. 'm the gatekeeper here. An' this is my dog, Ajax."

"Fitting name." Danny smiled and crouched a bit, extending her hand toward the dog, who leant closer and started sniffing it. "Are you a great hero too, huh?" She reached around Ajax' neck and scratched behind his ears, and the dog all but melted, his tail wagging as he drew closer and started licking her face, making her laugh.

"Ye like dogs?" Hagrid smiled at the girl, still a bit uncomfortable. He didn't know her much, and she'd just arrived from France. He thought he'd have more trouble understanding her, but she spoke perfect English.

"I love dogs. Most animals, actually." She devoted both hands to scratching Ajax, who soon dropped on the floor to show her his belly. "Do you see many in the forest? I've seen you go there a few times on our way to the greenhouses."

"Aye. All kinds. Was abou' to head to see a herd of hippogriffs." He pointed toward the forest and Danny perked up.

"Hippogriffs?" Her whole face brightened, surprising the gentle giant. "May I come along?"

Hagrid didn't know what to say. He didn't expect her to want to. She looked like a proper little porcelain doll. "If… if yeh want ter… Guess yeh could."

"Yes, please!" She stood up, the dog jumping up with her, his snout bumping into her hand to ask for more scratches.

Hagrid kept throwing glances at the girl as they traipsed through the edge of the forest. Ajax had fallen in love and he walked beside her, guarding her from whatever could try to jump them in the forest. The bucket of dead ferrets hanging from Hagrid's hand could attract other beasts, but nothing approached them on their way.

They reached a clearing and Danny's eyes lit up. He wondered if she'd regret it.

A herd of eight hippogriffs occupied the clearing. All of them stared at the visitors with keen eyes. Danny stared at the closest one, a white and bronze specimen that almost seemed to gleam in the sunrays coming through the trees.

Hagrid was about to speak and warn her of proper behaviour when the girl moved a couple steps closer to the closest hippogriff and bowed. The hippogriff watched her for a few seconds, taking a step toward her before returning a bow. Hagrid breathed in relief at that. She seemed to know what she was doing.

Danny stood straight once more and reached out a hand, the hippogriff moving closer until it's head touched the hand. When the girl smiled and started caressing the half-bird, half-horse creature, the rest of the herd seemed to relax and move closer to receive the dead ferrets from Hagrid.

For a little while, Danny felt the heaviness in her heart ease a bit. The boys helped. This hippogriff helped. Hagrid could help, once he got used to her.

"Do you have a name, handsome?" Danny asked the hippogriff, it's head curling down against her chest, her arms around it.

"She's a fem." Hagrid informed her as he fed the other beasts, Ajax still close behind Danny. "She hasn't a name."

Danny caught his eyes and nodded in thanks for the information before turning back toward her friend. "Can I name you?" She asked her directly, receiving a gentle nod. "You nod if you like the name and shake your head if you don't, alright?" She continued petting the feathery head and stayed quiet for a bit while she thought. "How 'bout… Petrie?" At the quick shake, she chuckled. "Okay, not that one. Hmm… oh… you're very smart. What do you think of Sage?"

The hippogriff raised her head, staring at the girl for a bit before nodding. Danny smiled widely.

"There we go, Sage. It's nice to meet you. My name is Danny."

Hagrid smiled at the interaction. Many people didn't appreciate the creatures as he did. They thought he was too fond of dangerous beasts. But this girl had all but stepped into a herd of hippogriffs without hesitation.

Marlene had looked at Danny oddly during dinner on Saturday when Lily and Mary had told her about the way Danny had asked Lily out for the Hogsmeade weekend, even duelling James because of it. She seemed to be trying to figure the new girl out, but no one was even close to managing that.

She got some nasty looks from several Hufflepuffs, even some Ravenclaws, but she chose to ignore them. Her choice to defend Regulus didn't seem like a very popular one.

20th November, 1977

Sunday was pretty relaxed. Danny had woken up late again, then disappeared without anyone knowing where she'd run off to. In fact, she had spent most of the day in the Room of Requirement, turned into a private study, with some of the books she'd borrowed from the Restricted Section with Dumbledore's permission and food from the kitchens.

Her animagus potion couldn't be hurried, but looked good so far. She didn't doubt the boys would get the ingredients she needed in time. Half of Sunday was spent reading up on theories about time-travel and time-turners, the other half on advanced potion making techniques and ingredients. In between both theoretical tasks, Danny had one side of the room turned into a combat training field, and practiced wandless and non-verbal magic, as well as the kind Dumbledore had been trying to instruct her on.

By the time she returned to the common room that night she was exhausted, dragging her feet, and barely made it to the couches, where her friends and dorm-mates were gathered. They'd been worried about her absence during the whole day, and though Lily didn't know about the Map, about the lack of her name on it. She had disappeared from school, or so the Marauders thought.

"Where have you been all day?" Remus inquired as soon as she let herself drop on the couch next to him.

"Busy." She rubbed her eyes and laid her head back against the cushions. "What did you guys do today?"

"Look for you!" Sirius burst.

She frowned. She distinctly remembered telling him she'd be working on her projects. "I told you yesterday that I had stuff to work on today."

"But you just disappeared! No one saw you all day, not even during lunch or dinner!" The long-haired Marauder scolded, rising from the armchair he'd been sitting on, next to James.

"And you weren't with Dumbledore, Danny." Lily added. "You told me yesterday that you were working on a project with Dumbledore."

"I meant Dumbledore offered assistance and resources, not that I'd be with him." She rolled her eyes, waving their concerns away. "I work best alone in certain things. I needed a day to focus and work, I didn't think you'd worry this much after I told you I'd be busy for the day." She stretched her legs out, groaning at the stiffness in her body. "I got some food and basically locked myself in an empty room. I'm working on several projects, not just one." She revealed, then kicked her shoes off to curl herself on the couch. "And now I'm knackered." When Sirius still glared at her, she sighed. "Honestly, this isn't going to be the last time I disappear like this, so just know that I'll be fine, I'll just be working on some stuff."

Marlene narrowed her eyes at the girl, analysing her movements. "What got you so tired?"

"Training." At the quirked eyebrow from the other girl, Danny elaborated a bit. "A lot of you asked me this week how I can do so much wandless and advanced magic. Training. I train. Quite a bit. Have for years." She wrapped her jacket better around her to stave off the chill of the room. Winter in Scotland wasn't very forgiving. "It's exhausting, but it's well worth it. I just alternate theoretical work with training, so I don't go stiff on a chair."