DISCLAIMER: See first chapter
A/N: This is the place where I thank my beta, without whim there would be no Time to Travel, and all my reviewers.
HarryGryffinGirl: I'll make sure I do that.
Lil Drop Of Magic: Thank you so much. I think I might actually finish this; I've got the plotline sketched out in my head.
BeCkY6: Thank you so much!!
Lily and Hermione sat in their room, talking. Hermione
"Lily, what do you think about James?"
Lily thought for a moment.
"He's really arrogant, and rather mean, but since you came …. I don't know. I guess what he needs is a know-all, goody-goody girl to keep him in line on the dates."
"We aren't dating!" Hermione exclaimed. She felt a sudden urge to defend herself. She didn't think she could bear Lily teasing her.
"And what do you call the trip to Hogsmeade you've planned? Sure you aren't dating."
Hermione blushed. She didn't want to think about herself dating Harry's dad, but she knew all excuses were feeble. Admit the truth Hermione, she scolded herself. You've got yourself into a very messy situation. She knew James knew she loved him, and she knew he loved her.
"I didn't think. I was trapped in the moment. I didn't think ahead. Besides, I'm not sure weather I'll go or not. Now that I think about the future…"
"But you do like him?"
Hermione thought.
"I don't know. He's funny, and nice, a bit arrogant, yes, but I'm sure I could deflate his head. But I can't go."
"Why?"
"Because I don't belong here," was Hermione's vague reply.
"You mean, you don't belong now?"
Hermione's head jerked up.
"How?… What?…"
"Little things. They way you knew your way around, the way you seemed to recognize me, the way you had an air of knowing more than we did. Am I close to the mark?"
Hermione sighed.
"Dead on. But Ron and Neville'll kill me if they knew I'd told you."
"Then they won't know, will they? Now, exactly when are you from? Tell me everything about your time!"
Lily made herself comfortable to listen to an interesting story.
"I can't tell you, it'll screw up the future. All I can tell you is that we're from 1997."
"Not even what happened to me?" Lily begged.
"Especially not what happened to you!"
At that moment, Nora Perks decided to come in, followed by Fiona and Camilla.
"What are you doing here?" she sneered.
"This is our room, too, you know," Hermione said coldly. Lily shivered. Hermione was really intimidating when she was angry. Her eyes, usually warm, with a light twinkle in them, were cold, and unfeeling. I don't want to cross her when she's in a bad mood, Lily thought. Nora was the only one who seemed unaffected by Hermione's attitude.
"Listen, Mudblood," she hissed. "Just because you hang around our guys doesn't mean you can nick them in front of our eyes. They're far too good for you. If any one of you two should hang out with purebloods too good for you, you'll wish you were never born."
"As if you scare us, Perks. Nothing you could do can hurt us, besides, you can't do anything, your nail polish would be ruined."
Hermione stormed out. Both she and Nora were fuming.
Hermione had made an enemy out of the most popular girl in the school.
She turned to Lily.
"You know what, Lil? I'm going on that date with James, and I'm going to have fun."
"Glad to see you made your mind up," Lily said pointedly. "Although, I have a few words about the reason you agreed."
"What's that?"
"Don't use James for revenge on Nora."
"I wasn't planning to," Hermione said crossly. But deep inside she wasn't so sure. Am I only using James? And what'll happen at the date? How will I be able to return, if we should… not Hermione, don't think that! You won't fall in love with him. She sighed. It was easier said than done.
Lily watched Hermione internal battle. She wanted to do something to help her best friend.
"Herm?" she asked quietly. "Can I say something?"
Hermione looked up. Lily smiled.
"Go for it. Live in the moment. 'It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all', or something like that."
Hermione smiled.
"Thanks, Lil. That's exactly what I needed to hear."
They sat down on the couches and chit-chatted about everything and anything.
Remus found Neville in the common room, working almost in a panic to complete his History of Magic essay.
"You can copy mine if you want to," he suggested. He felt pity towards Neville. Poor Neville was always compared against Hermione, and it really wasn't fair. Neville looked up.
"Thank you," the relief was very prominent in his voice. Remus wondered how it must be, having a sister who was the smartest witch in the class, and constantly being compared with her. "Hermione doesn't want me to copy, she says I never learn that way."
"Typical Hermione," Remus smiled, but continued, "Listen, Neville, I need to talk to you."
Neville was confused. He couldn't think of a valid reason for Remus to need to talk to him.
"James, he'll marry Lily, right?"
Neville was taken aback by this statement. He didn't know what to say. I wish he had asked Hermione. She'd know what to do if they confronted her.
Remus smiled a little. He was very clever, and he knew it. As soon as he saw Neville's panicked face he had realized that so was the case.
"Thank you, Neville," he said and walked away feeling pleased with himself.
Severus kicked a stone. It flew in the air and landed about 2 metres away. He kicked it again, more forcefully. Everything was lost. Just as he thought he'd gained complete happiness, the Potter idiot had to go and ruin everything. Severus fought down the lump that had formed in his throat. He was feeling dismal, and angry. No, not angry, furious. His thoughts were of hatred, and possible revenge. Yes, he had to get Potter. Luring Hermione that way! Everyone could see he was simply toying with her. And if there was one thing Severus hated, it was when people toyed with his friends. Another stone was sent flying. Why? What does she see in an arrogant bastard such as him? Severus would have understood if it were this new guy, Blake, or that Ravenclaw prefect, McDougall, or even that tag-along Lupin, but Potter! His worst enemy! At first he thought that Hermione only was with them because her brother was, but then he found that she thought they were funny, and now she went and fell in love with Potter! How could she? They were total opposites! There was nothing that pleased him ore than to make others' lives miserable, but she enjoyed making others' lived more bearable. There was nothing he admired more than people who stuck up for others, and acted like knights in shining armour. The number of people Severus admired was very small.
He looked over the grounds. Nearly every one had gone to Hogsmeade. Only a few second and first years were outside. He recognized Diggory's little sister, the twit. He hated people with no spine. Maybe that was why he liked Hermione, she voiced her thoughts, and could be very intimidating if she wanted to. Severus knew that a Dark Lord was rising, and he knew the Dark Lord would recruit followers from Slytherin. But Severus would not join him. He hated serving others. He was his own, and he intended it to stay that way. Only the weak, and frightened would join the Dark Lord. Those who feared what he would do to them. Severus wasn't afraid.
He saw a group of girls torment Diggory's sister. It was odd, how Diggory was so popular and all, and his sister was the nerd of Hufflepuff. He decided to stick around to see how things progressed.
Lily had decided not to go to Hogsmeade. She rarely went. After all, what was the point of looking in shops, if you had nobody to go with. She wished Hermione was not going with James. She would have liked going to Hogsmeade with her new-found friend. Amelia sat with some other second years. Lily noticed that Amelia rarely opened her mouth. She edged closer, to see what their discussion was about.
"Why are you here, Diggory?" one of the girls said. "You don't belong here!"
Amelia was silent.
"Go to your own friends. No wait, you don't have any, do you?"
Amelia was silent.
"Not even your brother likes you!"
Amelia was silent. Lily could far too easily picture Amelia's situation. Hadn't she herself been in the same place a little while before. Maternal instincts took over, and her blood boiled. How dare these girls upset her friend?
"Hello, girls," she said pleasantly, with a curt nod at the others. The smile that lit up Amelia's face could melt the heart of even Professor Snape, if he had seen it.
The second years looked up. Their faces fell. They knew this face. It was one they had seen in the crowd surrounding James Potter. And it wasn't his admirer's crowd, either, it was his friend's crowd they had seen her in. Quite a number of them had crushes on him, and envied everyone who knew him directly, or knew someone who knew him. But why would she bother with them?
"Lily!" someone on their crowd shouted, and a number turned their heads to see who had shouted. Lily smirked. Definitley a Kodak moment, she thought, when she saw the expressions on the girls' faces as Amelia threw herself at Lily.
"Hey there, little one!" Lily said, as she stroked Amelia's hair. "What did Professor Flitwick think about your essay?"
"He loved it! I got an 'E'! Thanks to you," she added modestly. Lily smiled.
"You did a lot yourself. I only helped polish it up a bit."
Lily spent the day with the second years, who all were very respectful towards Amelia.
During the afternoon she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Evans," a smooth voice said behind her. She turned around to face Severus Snape. To say she was surprised would be an understatement. Why was Snape not at Hogsmeade? "I just wanted to say that what you did for Diggory today was really noble of you," he said hurriedly. Lily smiled a sweet smile. It melted his heart. How could he have missed her all these years at Hogwarts? She would have made a wonderful friend.
"Thank you, Snape," she said, still smiling that fantastic smile.
"Severus," he said. She still smiled that smile. He waited breathlessly for her reply. Had he been to fast? Would she refuse him?
"Lily," she smiled.
He felt the corners of his mouth tug upwards.
In their dormitory that night, Lily and Hermione sat on Lily's bed and giggled together.
"And then he told me to call him Severus," finished Lily, still giggling. "And we spent the day in the library with Amelia. Who would have thought Severus Snape could be so nice?"
Hermione stared at Lily, eyes wide open in shock. This just gets weirder and weirder. Lily and Snape! That is so wrong!
"Now," demanded Lily, "I want to hear about your date. Every single juicy detail."
Hermione made herself ready to tell a good story.
"Oh, it was really wonderful. We went to Honeydukes first. James, of course, bought a huge packet of cockroach clusters, but I decided to stick with good old chocolate frogs. Then he insisted we go to Zonkos, and I didn't mind. Afterwards, he said I could decide where to go, and I picked a bookstore, just to tease him. But he was really sweet about it, and even bought me 'Alohomora Your Heart'. Of course, I told him that I didn't like sloppy romances, but he said that it was the right book to pick for a day like this." Lily giggled a bit at this.
"Typical James," she said.
"And we went to a number of shops. He was really sweet, and bought me loads of things. Of course, I told him he didn't have to, and, of course, he didn't listen. We ended our date in the Three Broomsticks, with Butterbeer, and just when he leaned in to kiss me, Sirius interrupted with a loud cheer."
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Typical Sirius."
James told him off, and he was more than angry when he learned that they had followed us everywhere. He's really cute when he's angry. But still, none of us felt any need to express any feelings for each other, knowing we had audience, so we pulled a disappearing act, and spent the rest of the day hiding in the Shrieking Shack. Which wasn't the most romantic way to end a date, that's for sure."
Lily giggled again.
"You lucky thing," she said. "A date with James. Half the female population would die to be in your…."
A cold voice interrupted her.
"Didn't Nora tell you not to mess with our guys?"
This time, it was Lily who shot Camilla and Fiona a glare so cold it could compete even with Hermione's glares.
"Didn't Hermione tell you we don't care?" They walked out of the dormitory and down the stairs.
The common room was deserted save from one lonely girl. She sat crouched up in an armchair and stared at the fire. A solitary tear rolled down her cheek. It didn't matter if she cried here, nobody would see her. Still, she brushed the tear away angrily. She was not unhappy. She wasn't. But she was. In her heart she knew she was. This was not the life she wanted. It had all gone so wrong.
Ever since Mother died, she thought. Ever since Mother died, everything has gone wrong. Whatever she did, she couldn't get that aching sense of loneliness away. And when she laughed, and was happy, she felt guilty. Every time she laughed, she felt as though she dishonoured Mother's memory. But she couldn't let them see how much she was hurting. Therefore she buried herself under layers of happiness, which only made her feel worse. It was a Catch 22 Syndrome. And she had no way to get out of it. The only way would be to become a social outcast. She had been one, and she didn't want to go back there. Not for anything in the world. Another tear made itself down her cheek. This time she let it flow. The tears came closer together now, and a few sobs made themselves heard. She put her head in her arms and cried freely until she was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder. A girl's voice said kindly;
"Why are you crying, Nora Perks?"