The Project

Two weeks later they'd all settled into a routine.

Harry and James spent all the free time they had together.

Ron had sort of taken James' place within the marauders, and they were wreaking havoc on the school.

Hermione, on the other hand, who had been welcomed into Lily's group of friends with open arms, hadn't been in the company of Harry, Ron, and the rest of the marauders at all really.

One night she fell asleep on her homework in front of the fire in the common room and Lily came looking for her just as Harry, Ron, and the marauders came through the portrait hole after getting a midnight snack. And playing a prank or two. The seven awake people caught sight of each other and stilled.

Then, on the couch, Hermione started screaming.

"Sirius! James! Lily! Harry! NOOOO!!!! AHHHHH!!!!"

They all rushed to her, but Harry and Ron got there first.

"Hermione!" they yelled. "Hermione wake up!"

By this time the other five had gotten there and were shaking her.

"Hermione," they all yelled together, "WAKE UP!"

Suddenly her eyes opened and they locked on James.

"Harry," she exclaimed, eyes wild, "I just had this dream. I saw him, Voldemort, the night your parents-"

She was cut off as Ron suddenly wrapped his hands around her mouth,

"Mione you're talking to James," he muttered.

Her eyes focused and she seemed to get more lucid. Ron removed his hands and sat back, having a whole conversation with Harry in a look about what just happened.

"Hermione," started Lily, "What just happened?" Lily looked scared and she was shaking slightly, James, almost subconsciously, wrapped an arm around her and she leaned into him.

"It was just a bad dream," said Harry.

"Just a bad dream."

The look in Harry's eyes betrayed him though, everyone knew that Harry was lying, that something about Hermione's dream was haunting him, that maybe it wasn't a dream at all, that just maybe Hermione's dream was really a memory that haunted James' son and his best friends, even in the past.

"That was no dream," said Lily, still shaking slightly.

"Hermione told me yesterday that she never has nightmares, only bad memories."

It became clear to everyone right then just why Lily was so frightened by Hermione's dream; Hermione had yelled out Lily's name too.

James suddenly spoke up. "I want to know what you were remembering."

"Now," added Sirius.

"Forget it," said Hermione angrily. "There are some things about life that no one should know before they happen, and," she added when Sirius and James opened their mouths, "as much as we may want to, we can't change the future. There are too many factors involved here."

Harry got up suddenly and looked at Hermione and Ron. "I'm going to the Room."

"We'll do damage control here and meet you there," answered Ron.

"What's 'the Room'?" asked Remus.

"A place that we found last year," answered Hermione.

"Hm." Remus looked thoughtful.

"Listen," Started Hermione, "just forget about this. We're NOT telling."

"Even though our memories will be wiped?" asked Peter.

"Even though," answered Ron.

"Let's go Hermione," he said after a minute of silence. "We'll leave you guys alone for the night."

After Ron and Hermione had disappeared through the portrait hole, the five remaining students all sat heavily on the couch and chairs in front of the fire.

"What could be that bad?" asked Peter as everyone looked at him.

"I mean Ron has already told us that we were all alive and happy."

"Unless he was lying," said Sirius. The other four looked at him.

"He couldn't have been lying Sirius."

"How would you know, Lily?" asked Sirius. "How would any of us know?" He said the last part sort of to himself.

"I guess we don't," conceded Lily with a sigh, "but they're not going to budge and you know it."

The boys looked very unhappy.

Lily and the marauders did what Hermione had asked and forgot about her nightmare, well, put it at the back of their minds at least.

Most of them anyway.

They had plenty of schoolwork to take their minds off of things too. There was a big project in Charms that Flitwick had assigned. He put them all in pairs, gave them all a topic, said that the final paper and oral presentation were due in four weeks, and then let them go at it. Remus and James had been paired, as had Ron and Peter, Lily and Harry, and…Hermione and Sirius. The others looked at each other and then at Hermione and Sirius after hearing the last pair. This could end very badly and they all knew it.

The past few weeks Hermione and Sirius had been at each other's throats. He was being vaguely distrustful of her and kept badgering her to tell about the future. Hermione had snapped after two weeks of constant bickering and had told Sirius that if he didn't shut up, she'd make sure he'd never live to see the future and kneed him right in the groin.

She'd also done it right in the middle of the Entrance Hall so quite a number of students from all four houses had seen everything, including Lucius, Severus, Bellatrix, and Narcissa. By lunch the entire school knew the details and Hermione and Sirius had stopped speaking to each other. They'd stopped looking at one another and had avoided each other like the plague. Sirius, in a rage, had vowed to James, Harry, Remus, Peter, and Ron that he would have his revenge on that'mudblood'.

Lily had overheard and warned Hermione and at dinner that night

Hermione had marched up to Sirius, looked him in he eye and said, "Bring it on Paddy-boy and you'll find out just what this Mudblood is made of."

She'd stalked back to Lily, who gave the marauders a glare, and proceeded to ignore them.

Over the next couple of weeks Hermione had barely even spoken to Harry and Ron; nothing more than the requisite hi-how-are-you-bye/goodnight in the common room each morning and night. And now Hermione and Sirius were being forced to work together for four weeks.

Great.

Hermione and Lily made their way to the marauders and Harry and Ron and sat down.

"So," started James brightly, "Hermione, Sirius, what kinds of flowers do you want at the funerals?"

The boys burst out laughing and Lily looked like she wanted too.

"Up yours," stated Sirius at the exact same time as Hermione.

They looked at each other and looked away again quickly.

"Have fun children!" said Lily as she pulled Harry away. Remus and James soon followed suit. Ron and Peter looked at each other and then at Hermione and Sirius then back at each other. They shrugged and got up to look for a free corner of the room.

"Well I'm not going to let you bring my grade down, Black, so start working."

If looks could kill Hermione would've been ash.