Chapter Two: Bizarre Encounters

With an "Oof!" Hermione landed on a cold stone floor. She groaned a little at the pain, feeling like she had just fallen a thousand stories. Laying on the ground for a moment, she struggled to catch her breath. Her eyes fluttered open, and looked at the ceiling. Nothing out of the ordinary. But then she remembered. The Time Turner, the dial, the strange runes... Hermione quickly scrambled to her feet to observe her surroundings.

With a feeling of disappointment, she surveyed that she was still in fact at Hogwarts. For some reason she had imagined being flung back to ancient times or the Medieval era, or something at least remotely exciting. Instead, it seemed that changing the dial simply transported her from her bedroom to some random hallway.

She sighed and dusted herself off, starting to walk down the corridor to return to her bedroom and work on homework or dream about Harry. It isn't fair, she thought, kicking a paper as she passed it. Why couldn't something exciting happen to me for once?"

The paper stuck to her foot. Frustrated, Hermione tried to kick it off. It still stuck. With a laborious sigh, she reached down and pulled it off. Bubble gum. Someone had stuck bubble gum to the paper and just carelessly discarded it in the hallway. Hermione made a mental note to bring up the litter problem at the next prefect meeting and crumpled up the paper, intending to throw it away.

But something caught her eye. The headline was huge and in bold black letters. "MALFOY NAMED YOUNGEST UNSPEAKABLE IN MINISTRY HISTORY." Hermione blinked. Draco Malfoy, an unspeakable? Her eyes skimmed over the small text of the article, to the picture. "Did Malfoy grow out his hair?" she mused out loud. It couldn't be, she had just seen him in class the other day. Then she finally read the caption. Lucius Malfoy, the ministry's newest unspeakable. "Wait a minute? Lucius Malfoy is an unspeakable? And why does he look so young?" Her eyes wandered back to the top of the paper, and saw the date: 1976. "Why is this old paper lying around in the hallway?"

It hit her all at once, full force, an impact almost strong enough to knock her back onto the floor. "I am in the past!" she whispered to herself in a voice full of awe and surprise. And judging from the date on the paper, twenty years in the past. "Two decades," she muttered to herself as she continued walking, her mind racing, "two turns. Each turn must be ten years."

After the initial disappointment of thinking the trick had not worked at all, Hermione was hardly prepared for the exhilaration she now felt. Even if it was only twenty years, she had discovered something new about the Time Turner. She thought about all the other markings around the dial. What if other ones put her back fifty years, a hundred...a thousand? Her heart beat rapidly with the possibilities, and she walked faster as the options flooded her mind. For History of Magic reports she could actually go back and observe the history as it was happening. The Goblin Rebellions, the founding of Hogwarts, the...

"Watch where you're going you clumsy toad." Hermione had been so wrapped up in thinking about the Time Turner that she didn't notice the young boy coming down the hallway until she had collided full force with him. She had fallen to the floor and landed half on the boy, who was now scowling at her. He jumped to his feet and began dusting off his robes, as if the mere touch of her had somehow soiled him.

Hermione frowned as she also stood. It was an accident, there was no reason to act so nasty. She was just opening her mouth to apologize when he spoke again. "Next time how about you actually look where you're going, lest you bump into someone better than yourself."

Under these circumstances, Hermione would usually grow defensive, but she was currently dumbstruck. That voice...she knew that voice! She had dreaded that voice for six years now, it had constantly mocked her, tormented her, deducted points from her house on her account for no good reason.

She brought her eyes to the speaker, a gaunt boy of about sixteen with stringy dark hair, a hooked nose, sallow skin, and piercing black eyes that strangely resembled...

"Snape?" she shrieked, "you've got to be kidding me!" The boy's dark eyes narrowed as he stepped back with surprise. Hermione hopped to her feet to examine him closer, and couldn't suppress a laugh at his resemblance to her future professor. "Severus Snape—this is too good!"

The boy stepped back again, apparently a bit shocked and extremely confused. "Uh...do I know you?"

Hermione didn't reply, she was too excited. Wait until she told Harry and Ron about this! Here she was, standing in the Hogwarts hallway with a sixteen year old Severus Snape. The prospect was too much, and she laughed again. Upon hearing Snape-of-the-past clear his throat, however, she once more brought her eyes to his.

"As much as I'd like to sit here watching you gawk at me all day," he said, still looking at her quizzically, "I have dinner to attend." With one more haughty glance, he swept off.

"Weird," Hermione said to herself, grinning. "I'd better get back...I can just imagine everyone's faces when I tell them!" She lifted her hand to her neck to find it absent of the chain. It must have fallen off, she mused. She briefly scanned the ground around where she landed, only to find it empty. It has to be around here somewhere... She got down on all fours, scanning the ground closely, until an amused voice interrupted her search.

"Looking for something?"

Hermione quickly stood and turned around to observe the boy who had just addressed her. He was quite handsome; tall with longish black hair that sleekly fell into adventurous gray eyes. He was casually leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest and a funny smile on his face as he stared at her. Hermione felt herself slowly turning red.

Immediately defensive, she jumped to her feet and snapped, "What are you doing? How long have you been watching me?"

The boy ignored her questions and took the liberty to slowly size her up from head to toe. Finally his eyes came to a rest on her face. "Who are you?" he asked.

"None of your business," she quickly retorted. "Now if you're not going to be of any help, would you kindly GO AWAY?" The last thing Hermione needed was some jerk from the past bothering her. She scolded herself for talking in the first place...who knew what the consequences for the future could be? All she wanted was to go back to the Hogwarts of her time, even if it was full of stress and problems with the male gender. In fact, this world wasn't turning out to be much different in the latter area.

"I think it is all of my business," the mysterious boy said as he stepped closer. It was all Hermione could do to suppress a laugh. This stranger was trying to be all suave and demure with that twisted look on his face, the husk in his voice that was obviously intentional, and the way he walked...or, rather, strutted. She held in her giggles, however, for she knew the type. Big egos bruise easier. "It's all my business, because your robes indicate that you're in Gryffindor and I've never seen you before. I would remember a face...and body...like yours."

Striving to contain herself from slapping him across the face, Hermione realized she was still in her Hogwarts uniform. Based on what her new "friend" was wearing, she was lucky that the outfits hadn't changed much in twenty years. Hermione's mind raced, searching for an explanation. She was glad to be interrupted by two more boys coming around the corner.

"There you are, Sirius!" said the scrawny boy with short light brown hair as he rushed up to his friend. "Hurry up, you're going to miss dinner." Observing Hermione, he casually added, "Hello."

"Sirius...Sirius Black?" Hermione instantly saw the resemblance upon hearing the name. This was Sirius no doubt; the sparkling gray eyes and mischievous smile were a dead giveaway. She breathed a little heavier and involuntarily shivered, as if seeing a ghost. But this wasn't a ghost, it was quite the opposite. This was young Sirius, the Sirius of twenty years ago: before his best friends died, before he was accused of killing them, before spending so long in Azkaban, before...before he was murdered. Hermione didn't know what to think, her mind was a blur. She couldn't find any words to say, either, as the only noise that came out of his mouth was once again his name. "Sirius." It was almost a whisper.

"Does my fame precede me?" remarked Sirius, regarding her with more curiosity. "But you still have to answer me—who are you?"

Hermione's sharp mind snapped into action. She determined not to let the thought of the future Sirius cause her to ruin anything of the past. "A transfer student," she quickly answered.

"I didn't think transfer students were allowed," said the other boy; this one short, pale, stout, and blonde. His voice squeaked like an adolescent going through puberty as he eyed Hermione warily from his small beady eyes. "Where are you from? And more importantly—how do you know Sirius?"

"I don't," Hermione replied, making up a viable story as fast as she could. "But the first thing I was told when I arrived here was to beware the infamous Marauders."

All three boys' faces broke out in mischievous grins. Hermione was relieved that they had bought her story, but deciding that she needed to look for the Time Turner before she changed anything drastically, she figured she should get the guys out of the hallway so she could effectively search. "Don't you have dinner to attend?" she asked.

"Don't you?" Sirius countered, "or do angels not eat?" Laughter erupted from the other two boys, and Sirius cast them a nasty look. "Come," he addressed Hermione, offering her his arm. "I'll accompany you."

"No thanks," she said, jumping back as if afraid of his touch. "I...err...I have to report to the Headmaster first."

Sirius's grin widened, "Then I'll escort you there." He once again extended his arm.

"I can find my own way, thank you very much," Hermione contorted, shaking her head and slowly backing away. She just wanted to get away from him, find her Time Turner, and go home. But Sirius's grin widened and he glided towards her. A true charmer through and through, thought Hermione. She actually couldn't help but smile at the thought of him putting the moves on her. Sirius took the smile as a green light and walked right to her side, but Hermione pushed away, still smiling. "Thanks for the offer, Mr. Black, but I am perfectly capable of walking by myself. And don't think you're fooling anyone with that false chivalry...some of us women possess the ability to see right through men like you." She now turned, heading in the opposite direction. But as she strode away she couldn't help but pause, and look over her shoulder. "See you later Marauders," she called with a wink.

"What a woman," Sirius muttered, watching her walk away.

"What happened to Denise?" joked Remus Lupin, the brown haired boy, poking Sirius in the ribs.

"Or Sandy?" commented Peter Pettigrew, the third boy.

"Old news, my friends, old news," Sirius said, gazing down the dark corridor where his newest prey had just disappeared. He abruptly turned. "Let's go eat, I'm starving."