Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. These is just me way of manipulating the characters with words.
Hope you enjoy it… I will try to upload again sometime during this week(before the terrible chem exam). Oh yes, and thanks to Tristan for noticing that this is supposed to be set many years earlier… not in 2004 according to the book. Thanks also to Tristan for beta reading and to kit for reading it!!
Harry's POV: 2004
Harry and Ron sat in the back of their Potions class, chopping ingredients. He glanced up and noticed Snape sitting rigidly on his chair, staring straight at them. For the past week, both he and Ron were the highest on Snape's Gryffindor target list. Of course, they had already been before. This time, he seemed to be at every corner they turned in the school, ready to pounce on them with a series of detentions and deduction of points. In addition, all the students had noticed his odd behavior inside and outside of the class. It was as if his identity had done a complete 180. Since when had Severus Snape been more than ten minutes late for class? He avoided conversations with any female student (Not that he wasn't already nasty when talking with anyone). He had become an unorganized freak and the Potions office was beginning to look similar to Hagrid's enclosure for his 'animal friends'.
"She's been gone for three weeks," Ron said, frustrated.
"How can they not know how to bring her back?" Harry said, chucking his share of frog legs into the cauldron.
"She's good at Potions. She'll find a potion to return or something," Ron said in a optimistic tone, vigorously slashing the ingredients with his knife.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley," Snape sneered, appearing behind them and staring at them maliciously, "We all have had enough of you talking about Ms. Granger. Concentrate on your blasted Potions marks than your …. your silly friend."
"Why hasn't the school done anything to get her back?" Harry yelled at Snape, getting the attention of the entire class.
"Believe me, Mr. Potter. The entire staff is working very hard at returning her back. The last thing we want is for her to remain in that time. She's already a pain to this one," he said, leaving Harry and Ron questioning why he cared so much that she was stuck in that time. "Your potion is supposed to be black by now. Another zero." He swished his wand and the potion vanished.
Sirius' POV: Past
Sirius sluggishly pulled himself together and slumped down on the Gryffindor bench for breakfast. After a quick glimpse around the table, he noticed that Hermione wasn't there. He stuffed a spoon into a huge bowl and turned it upside down, waiting for it to drop onto his plate.
"Rwoke up on da wong thide of da bed, ate?" James asked through the toast he was munching on.
Sirius growled and dumped a pancake on his plate.
"Wait- does this have anything to do with the project and Hermione?" Remus asked, knowing he was on the right track.
Sirius slammed his fist on the table, making his fork fly to Peter's plate. "I don't get women, I honestly don't!"
"Same here," James said, smiling at Lily, whose lip twitched before she ran off with a petrified look.
"Seeing that Hermione's not here at her usual time, guess that you two got into another fight," Remus said, disappointed at his friend for losing all the perfect opportunities with Hermione.
" Not a fight… well yes at the beginning," Sirius said, getting a few 'I knew it' looks from Peter, James and Remus. "I kissed her and she apologized!"
"I'm sorry to hear that, Padfoot," James said, yawning, "First signs that you're losing your touch."
"I'm not-," Sirius started to say defensively.
"Must be the kissing," Remus said, shaking his head as if diagnosing Sirius with some newfound incurable disease.
"She returned it," Sirius barked, "She said it's because… you know she's from the…"
The others nodded in comprehension.
"She said something about it being complicated," Sirius said disgustingly. 'Since when had a girl rejected the Sirius Black?!'
"When a girl won't give a proper reason or calls it complicated, it's not a good sign," James said sipping on his coffee and opening the Daily Prophet.
Sirius grabbed the paper from him and smacked him on the head.
"Now Sirius," Remus said, trying to figure out some good words of advice that his friend would listen to. "Give her some time and she'll come around."
"Since when did you two become experts in the field?" Sirius asked, taking his first bite of his meal.
James, Remus and Peter stood up from the table and grabbed their bags.
"Hurry, Potions starts in four minutes," Remus said, already exiting the room.
Sirius looked down at his plate with a distraught face, "I haven't even eaten." Before he could even take another bite, he was yanked by the collar and dragged away by his friends.
When he entered the room, he found Hermione chatting incessantly to Lily. By the sudden stop to their whispers with his entrance, he knew that he was the topic of discussion. Hermione glanced away and opened her copybook in preparation to write notes.
He opened his mouth to say something to her but was harshly prevented of doing so by the teacher.
"As much as I like to see some of you in detention," Henderson, their Potions master said, looking specifically at Gryffindor, "I have not the will, nor patience, to spend my leisurely time with dimwits like you."
When class ended and the sighs of relief were heard equally if not more between the Slytherins and Gryffindors, they all quit the class. Lily and Hermione walked ahead of the boys and did not bother to acknowledge their presence.
"Blimey, thought he was going to tell us the real details of his leisure time," Sirius muttered underneath his breath. He then began imitating their professor, "I prefer the slimy frogs in the bottom drawer of my desk than you dimwits. Then again, I feel sorry for the poor bloke. All he can get are those frog prostitutes." At one particular moment, he thought he saw Hermione grinning and trying to hide her laugh by looking elsewhere. But he was wrong; her face was placid and expressionless as she turned the corner to go up the stairs to her Transfiguration class.
He knew that there was nothing he could do. Unless he wanted their friendship (for whatever they did have so far) to end, he had to act quickly or else he would lose that. The awkwardness between them had only drastically elevated since the kiss and he wasn't about to lose her friendship for that night…. Just because of one kiss.
Hermione's POV
While in bed that night, Hermione tossed and turned, unable to get the miserable situation out of her mind. 'This is what you get for letting down your guard. This is what you get for falling for you best friend's godfather… never mind that your best friend is the guy you like in your time.' All she could remember was the tenderness of Sirius' kiss or the way he held her injured arm away from the impact of his body's weight when he kissed her. When she inhaled, she could only smell his exotic woody scent. She felt the touch and the warmth of his arms as he embraced her.
'That's it, you're going to do it,' she said to herself. After checking her watch to see that it was one in the morning, she slowly crept out of bed without waking up any of the girls in the room. She had plenty of gossip floating around involving her and half of the men in the school. She shook her head, as if criticizing herself mentally for gaining such a reputation. 'Look on the bright side… in the hue of black satin. There are two particular boxers to appease the depressing part of my reputation.'
She found her way in the dark to the boys' dormitories. She glanced at the several beds in the room. She knew that all Marauders slept in this certain room, but she didn't recall the exact spot of Sirius' bed. All of the curtains surrounding the beds were closed and unless she wanted to give someone the fright of their lives, she wasn't going to bother peeking in.
'Hmm, I wonder if that summoning spell for the boxers would work… if he is wearing any that is,' she thought, 'That would be interesting to try.' She imagined Sirius holding on to his pants as a pair of giant invisible hands yanked him off the bed and towards her. Laughing silently, she decided to stay away from that plan.
Exactly then, she noticed Sirius' broom and Quidditch uniform for the seeker splattered aimlessly across his trunk. She quickly peeped into the curtains and saw without surprise that he was not there. Instead, a bunch of clothes were covered by his comforters.
'You idiot- he's probably with Remus if the full moon is tomorrow night.'
She decided to sleep in the common room in case he ever did come. As she laid her head against the soft arm cushion of the sofa, her eyes dropped with heaviness and she slowly succumbed into sleep that she had lost last night.
Hermione opened her eyes, trying to adjust to the light surrounding her. She had always been a light sleeper and awoke to a sound which was undoubtedly a door closing. However, there wasn't anyone near the door. After a few seconds she heard a small bang and someone cursing.
"Sirius?" she called out questionably, rising from her seat so that the person could see her.
The invisibility cloak came off and Sirius appeared, holding his foot and hopping around. "Yes?" he asked in a tormented tone while keeping his foot down in great effort.
"Can we talk?" Hermione asked, leaning against the door's panel.
"Look, I understand that you don't feel the same way. You don't have to explain," he said, rubbing his foot before starting to head upstairs.
"Wait!" she hissed, grabbing his shirt which caused him to nearly fall on top of her. "Please."
He looked at her pleading face and conceded. They both sat next to each other on the couch.
Staring into the fire, they did not know what to say. Hermione, who had planned to talk first, found herself at a loss of words.
Sirius' POV
"Listen, about last night…,"Sirius said after much hesitation.
"I absolutely don't regret it," Hermione said in one breath, her voice high pitched.
"Yes, I understand that you don't want that…. But could we please stay civil …," Sirius said, stopping abruptly and reflecting over what had just happened. "Did you just say-,"
"Yes, and if you still don't have anyone, I'd love to go with you to the ball," she said boldly.
"Huh?" Sirius said, gazing at her in astonishment.
She turned and grinned at him. Her right hand wrapped around his neck as she pulled him into a long passionate kiss.
"Is that answer good enough?" she said, breathless.
A thousand feelings soared through his mind. "Perhaps some more will do… for clarification," he said, returning the kiss and pushing Hermione against the sofa.
He was slightly put off when Hermione slid her hands to his lips to stop him.
"I must warn you," she said, smiling, "You will definitely regret doing this, in the future."
"How would you know?" Sirius said, continuing by softly kissing her around the neck.
"I somewhat know you in the future," she said, bringing him back to his senses. His head jerked up and all he could say is, "How?"
"Oh nothing big," she said, hoping to not say too much.
"How am I ? Am I really that bad that you didn't want to date me?" Sirius said, grinning mischievously.
"Need I remind you that you are eighteen years older than me in my time. No, you seem like a good guy," Hermione said, letting her fingers sink into his hair. "A very good looking man."
"Since an eighteen year old has the hots for me, hmmm…I'm guessing that I'm not very available in the relationship area," Sirius commented, grinning proudly.
Hermione glanced away, not wanting to tell the reason for that. Besides being on a convict list(his name has not been cleared, nor did anyone know that he was dead, excluding the order), he was dead and his body lay in whatever dimension laid behind the veil at the Ministry.
"That's all I should say," she plainly, putting an end to the topic by kissing him. He slowly leaned back and fell against the sofa, taking Hermione down with him. His hands caressed her lower back with his thumb. After a few minutes of intense snogging, Hermione collapsed onto his chest gasping.
"So what were you doing up so late in here?" Sirius asked, playing with her hair as she lay one hand on his shoulder. She listened to the rapid rhythm of his heart.
"Well I tried looking for you in your bed-," Hermione said tiredly.
"Nice place to look for me," Sirius said, hinting at something else.
Hermione lifted her head and gave him a slight tap on his mouth, "Where were you anyways… till 3am?"
"Sleep is a waste of time," he said monotonously.
Little did he know, she had expected this answer and was thinking of the many ways that Sirius had remained the same in the future. "The day of the Quidditch game," she said, her head popping up once more, "I didn't mean what I said and… I don't wish you death." Her voice trembled at her last words as she returned to her former position and closed her eyes.
"No problem, I said some pretty nasty things myself," he said, embracing her more tightly to comfort her.
"Hmm time is precious especially if you can return to moments which are lost," she mumbled silently, not knowing herself what she had said.
After a few minutes of silence, he noticed that she was sleeping soundlessly on him. Pulling his wand from his pockets with some effort, he summoned a blanket from his room and laid it on top of them. 'Four in the morning,' Sirius remarked to himself, 'Get some sleep Padfoot or the plan might not work tomorrow ... and then you'll have to wait a few more weeks.'
The next morning, Sirius felt something tugging on his shirt. He moaned and covered his head with a blanket. Someone yanked off the blanket, only making him growl more.
"Stop-it-not-funny," he said threateningly.
A sudden sharp cold liquid was stuffed up his shirt and thankfully not in his pants. He jumped up and pushed the person off him as he allowed the snow to drop from his shirt.
"Not a morning person, are we?" Hermione said, rubbing her arm which she had hit while falling.
Sirius offered her his hand, pulling her up.
"Yes mornings are my weak spot," he mumbled, beginning to tickle her, "But I know what's yours."
"Stop it!" she said, hitting him with all the force she could muster. She slid down against his legs trying to kick him away from her.
"STOP IT!" she shrieked, not noticing that Lily and the other Marauders had gathered at the bottom of the stairs and were watching them intently.
"How rude?! Where's the please?" he said, watching as she fell to the floor.
Her foot lapped out at him and positioned itself between his legs, "Rude, you say? Now let's see who begs."
"Hermione," he said, looking painfully at her foot as if she had completed the action.
"A bit in a tight spot, Padfoot?" Remus sniggered. Sirius looked at him and the others for support.
"You wouldn't," he said, glancing at Hermione pleadingly.
Her toes pressed against his abs and slowly made there way down, stopping for a minute as she looked at him, "What's the magical word."
Fuck, that's what he would have responded if his precious assets were not in danger. Never mind what she was doing to him. Her toes played against the top of his pants as they curled up inside. She grinned mischievously, "Five, four, three-."
"Please stop," he muttered.
She gracefully bent her knee back and slid it between his two feet.
"I'll get you back for that," he said playfully, regaining his self composure. "Next time, I'll make sure that you don't get anywhere near that area."
"That's too bad," she said, winking at him naughtily.
"Let me reword that… not in a position to kick in that area," he whispered to her, wrapping his arm around her waist as they walked past their astounded friends.
"I'm starting to lose track on what terms they're on," James said shrugging, getting an agreement from Lily.
They were halfway towards the Great Hall when Hermione remembered that she had forgotten to complete a paper she had requested from Professor Binns for bonus points.
"Oh come on now, you're standing at what… 120%?! Can't you spare them?" Sirius groaned.
Hermione stifled a laugh, "You remind me exactly of my friends. This is different… it's just for a separate project I'm working on." She pressed his hand reassuringly and kissed him on the cheek before running up the stairs past the oncoming students.
Sirius was relieved to get a few bites from his breakfast compared to the day before. He stared across the room at Snape who glared at him with equivalent disgust. 'Wait till the buffoon sees me with Hermione.' Sirius glimpsed at his watch and realized that it had been twelve minutes since Hermione had left.
"That's odd," he said, "She did say she'd return."
"Always protective of your women," Remus said, although he found it weird that it was taking her so long to return.
Snape couldn't be withholding her if the bastard was in the same room. His eyes settled on the empty seat beside Snivellus.
"Malfoy," Sirius said enigmatically. He started marching down the Gryffindor table, followed by Remus, Peter and James.
"It doesn't mean he's abducted her!" James said running alongside Sirius.
They ran up the staircase which led to the hallway to the Gryffindor room. In a small nook of the corridor, he found Malfoy cornering Hermione against the wall with her wand in hand. Lucius' right hand were running across Hermione's legs while his other was forcing her head back into the wall.
Lucius noticed them standing at the end of the hallway, "Well look, it's the Gryffindor foursome to the rescue."
Without any hesitation, Hermione lifted her knee up and hit Lucius in the balls. "THAT'S FOR BEING A PRICK!" He stumbled upon his place while the Marauders winced, knowing the pain he suffered (though he deserved it). Hermione's knee came up again and came into contact with the area again, "THIS IS FOR THE FUTURE OUTCOME of your little willy!"
"WHAT?! WE HAVEN'T SLEPT TOGETHER YET!" Lucius said through clenched teeth. He dropped to the floor, cradling his crotch.
"YOU ARSE! I told you should stop drinking so much! HOW CAN YOU FORGET?!" she said, trying to hide her laughter.
Lucius seemed to be looking at her thoughtfully.
"OH YES and I want my bra back!" she said, adding and winking at Sirius.
"Which one would that be?" he asked, starting to kick the floor to get rid of the pain.
"YOU SCUM BAG!" Hermione walked over to Sirius and whispered to him, "I love fooling people."
"Thank heavens it's only that," Sirius said, shaking his head. He strolled over and picked up the pathetic form of Lucius and banged him on the wall.
He punched Lucius until the blood was staining the floor. Several students had gathered around to watch the one sided fight.
"Sirius," Hermione said, touching his back weakly, "That's enough…"
"Yes," James said, "Think Hermione did enough damage to last Malfoy for many years to come."
"If I see you once more near her, I'll kill you," Sirius spat on the shorter figure in front of him.
McGonagall ran towards them in rage. "MR. BLACK! In my office at once! I wouldn't be surprised if Henderson warrants that I should suspend you from playing in the rest of the season." She was so infuriated with his behavior that she was at a loss for words. She summoned a stretcher for Lucius who was nearly lifeless besides being held up by Sirius.
"But professor-," Hermione said, wanting to explain the situation.
"It will be discussed later," McGonagall said, quieting the protests of all the Marauders. "For now, Ms. Granger, the headmaster wishes to see you in his office."
Hermione nodded and returned Sirius' reassuring look as she left.
Hermione's POV
When Hermione reached his office, she found Dumbledore waiting for her at the entrance. He quickly invited her to join her as he whispered the password and the stairs elevated them to his office. Signaling her to sit down, he did likewise on the opposite seat.
"Ms. Granger, how are your studies?" he asked brightly.
"Very well. Sir, don't punish Sirius... He was only defending me against Lucius," she said in a hurried voice.
"No," he said lifting his hand, "This is not concerning that matter." He paused, "I'm happy to announce that Professor McGonagall and some of my other colleagues out of the school have discovered a way for you to return back."
Hermione's eyes widened in horror as she gulped. 'No. Not now.'
Dumbledore gazed up at her in a serious manner, "Everything has been prepared for your departure tomorrow."
Hope that's another worthy cliff hanger!!! MUAHHHHHHHH I'm so evil. Wait till you see what happens in the next chapter!! HEHEHEHE … even more evil
Thanks for reading and reviewing…
Artisia: get your own description… hahah I'll e-mail you one soon. Bye carrots
Kou Shun'u: the use of a pensieve…I'll keep your idea in mind
Natyslacks: 'bless his little cotton socks'… so cute! What a funny review!
Nissy Padfoot: Thanks
Mistic-angel: I did put duck angels! Like a few chapters ago!!!
Shadowsong11: yes I understand your hint…hehehe
Swissmiss: YAY! She finally gave in!
Mystripedskirt: Cheers! More snogs means happier people
Sirius gyal: Thanks!
MaisjetadoreSiriusNoir: thanks
Maeri: affection is very important to survive in this type of world yay to snogging
Evilive: Yup I like complicating things… if you thought that was complicating… heheh wait to see what happens next!
Tristan: Thanks for correcting and for notifying me about the mistake! I realized it during a few chapters ago but ah well…