Disclaimer: All things belonging to the Harry Potter book belongs to J.K.R.
All things unrecognizable are mine.
Chapter 4
Walking back to Gryffindor Tower Hermione half listened to Mrs. Munchkin's, 'my aunt's', rants. Busy looking around Hermione was having a hard time nodding in the appropriate spaces, 'but then again Mrs. Munchkin didn't really seem to notice...' And indeed she didn't. A bit wrapped up in telling about the time she tripped in front one of her Slytherin classes, Mona Munchkin failed to see the distraction of the girl beside her, whose head kept swiveling around much like a child's while looking for a friend during a game of hide and seek.
Hermione was surprised to see no changes in the castle. She looked around, making sure she never missed a corner but still found nothing that seemed different. Perhaps with the exception of an odd portrait here or there.
Noticing they had arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady Hermione patiently waited until her usher realized the same.
"...and even though I knew I had too much work I couldn't refuse to tutor the poor boy he needed it so..." The teacher's kindhearted voice was interrupted by an annoyed one that was so very familiar to the ex-Head Girl.
"What's going on?! Waking me up at this time... And you aren't even one of the younger ones... Should know better..." Her eyes swept over Hermione before turning to her companion... "and you, you're a teacher... You're a teacher!" The annoyance in her voice soon made way for surprise as she repeated the last sentence and she soon continued in a more apologetic as well as respectful tone, "oh, I am sorry, just thought it was another one of the first years who find sneaking around funny, or the older couples who go out to..."
Mona Munchkin interrupted the sentence with a loud cough before sharing an amused smile with 'her niece' at the Fat Lady's fluster, and before the portrait could say anything else the professor whispered the password, which Hermione made sure not to forget and they entered the tower.
Hermione wondered why the teacher had accompanied her all the way to the tower and now into it, it's not as if she didn't know her way around. Just as she thought this she noticed the professor had stopped a few doors down and was embarrassed to see she had been making her way to the Head Girl's room down the corridor.
The older witch smiled at her before opening the door and whispering, "You're lucky this year's Head Girl is from Gryffindor so you can keep Lily's bed..." Wishing her a good night stout lady softly closed the door behind her as she left with a smile on her face.
Hermione smiled too, she'd always liked the name Lily, as she had told Harry whenever they spoke of his mothe... Her eyes suddenly widened and she sat down on the soft mattress of he new bed with a straight back.
'She couldn't be... it would be too much coincidence... being here...!' Hermione knew Lily Evans had been Head Girl back in her days at Hogwarts. She closed her eyes and did some quick math in her head. Her own mother was now forty-two, ('well not now but in the present, not that this isn't the present now, but still...') so she'd be nineteen in 1984... 'And this Lily is seventeen, so...'
The young girl tried to process this new information. Slowly making her way under the covers, Hermione never noticed she was still in her uniform, or that she didn't even have anything else to wear. She was relieved, at least, that she was in Hogwarts and not in the Muggle world where she would've been truly alone. The thought of accidentally meeting a younger version of her parents scared her a bit until she dismissed it as impossible. She grinned for a second as she remembered an old Muggle movie where something similar happened to a boy with a time-traveling car, then her face contorted to a frown as she began to think seriously.
After the past hour of strange occurrences and decisions between Dumbledore, Mrs. Munchkin and herself, things were only just starting to sink in. It was now, looking at the top of her four-poster bed that Hermione began to process what had happen and even with her Gryffindor bravery she couldn't help the small tinge of fear that emerged. She missed everybody, it was ridiculous, she hadn't even been gone a full day, probably less than three hours, and already she missed people. It wasn't missing from being away too long but missing from fear of not knowing just when she'd see them again, how long? She missed her parents, Harry, Ron... just everything about her time. Still she pushed those thoughts aside and made way for more pressing issues, she now had some time to think properly and she wouldn't waist that time like this, especially when she knew that she'd be back soon. Of course she would.
The best thing was to be prepared. She thought of who else she was likely to find here and even what their personalities were like. She had to be ready to answer any question, to face any person. Thinking of that, she thought it best to keep her distances from some, 'wouldn't want to change history or anything...' But actually, she did. That was the last thought Hermione Anne Granger had before she was finally overtaken by her tiredness.
* * *
Being usually the first to wake among her roommates she was surprised to find an empty dormitory when she awoke. That was of course before last night's events came rushing back into her head. With a groan, Anne Munchkin dragged herself out of bed and waddled her way into the bathroom.
Glad that she at least had her wand with her she exited the bathroom no more than five minutes later with clean teeth and robes as well as no less than suitable hair.
Quickly gathering her bag she cursed under her breath at the prospect of being late in what would be her first day in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Stumbling out of the dormitory she was once again surprised to see that there was a large number of students lounging about the common room.
'Must be a weekend, should've asked Dumbledore...' She thought to herself as her eyes swept among the different faces, many of which were staring back at her, some with amusement others with curiosity and some of them with a mixture of both. But most of them seemed uninterested in the unfamiliar seventh year and simply resumed what they were previously doing.
Slowly walking down the stairs, her eyes came to rest on a small group of teenagers whose gaze continued on her. She was waved over by a pair of identical hands as twin sisters invited her to join them. Hesitantly she walked towards them, not exactly looking at any of their eyes but rather at her suddenly interesting shoes.
"Hi, I'm Marlene and this is my sister Laura, it's good to have another girl join Gryffindor, what with Lily being Head girl, there's only the two of us left..."
Laura interrupted her sister, "Lily is probably coming, she just had to go to the Headmaster's office for some 'head business' or something... You've obviously met Dumbledore, even though you did get here yesterday pretty late, we didn't even see you come and we went to bed quite late already..."
Annoyed at her sister's previous interruption Marlene desperately looked for a comment she could make to interject her sister, the light bulb over her head could almost be seen lighting up as the obvious dawned on her and she triumphantly cut off her sister's voice. "I'm sorry what's your name?"
The other students who sat with the twins, and were watching their battle with a look that told this had all happened before, a lot, now turned to look at Hermione.
"I'm... Anne, Anne Munchkin. Mona's, Mrs. Munchkin to you probably, Mona Munchkin's niece. See I use to go to Silverwood, which was a very good school but my parent's had to move to France for business, and though I do speak French they thought it'd be hard for me to adapt to a new culture and go to Beauxbatons, and I couldn't very well stay on my own so they decided that it would be best for me to stay with Mona Munchkin, my aunt, until they come back and that meant coming to Hogwarts."
Hermione said all this very fast, reverting back into her old self after the worry of having hesitated when answering her name. 'Still', she thought, 'they'll probably link it to anxiety...' Which wouldn't exactly be a lie seeing as how Hermione was extremely nervous.
There was a second of silence, which seemed all too long for the uneasy girl, before one of the two boys who sat smiled and spoke. "Anne," he had a languid smile with perfect straight, white teeth that would do her parents proud as well as a lazy voice that was extremely pleasant, matching very much his more than pleasant looks, "- my name is Sirius, Sirius Black and like the twins said, it good to have another girl join Hogwarts, especially if she's a Gryffindor."
The brown-haired girl hoped nobody noticed her shocked expression and desperately tried to hold it back by chewing, rather fiercely, on her lower lip. God, she would never have recognized him... Sure, she'd heard of Sirius' good looks during his youth but to think that this carefree, handsome and smooth young boy was the same troubled man she had known, 'and had seen being killed', was beyond her imagination.
She was glad when the other boy spoke up and she had something to direct her attention to instead of letting it wonder down that path. She turned to look at the shorter boy and her relief disappeared once again. "Hi, I'm Peter, Peter Pettigrew... I just wanted to know, how did you become a Gryffindor? I mean not that I'm not glad..." he added quickly as both Sirius and the brunette twins shot him a dirty look, "it's just that I don't remember you being Sorted..."
"Oh... it's okay... As I got here much later than expected and I needed a place to sleep Dumbledore thought it was better to just do the sorting in his office..." feeling their uncertainties Hermione went on, "that old hat can sure take a while to sort huh?" Satisfied that she had indeed been through the sorting ritual, even if it wasn't public the small group thought nothing of it when Hermione excused herself to go to the library and catch up on the material covered before her arrival.
Making her way to the library Hermione began to review what had just happened. She had expected that question and had even prepared for it. She just hadn't expected it to be asked by Peter Pettigrew. She'd always dubbed him as, 'stupidest scum of the earth!!'! But thinking of the cheerful chubby boy who only minutes before was sitting with her, she noticed she'd have to re-examine some of her older judgments.
The plan of just staying away from any familiar faces came to mind again and again Hermione decided it was the best thing to do, she couldn't go around meddling in people's lives.
As she walked through the library's familiar bookshelves she remembered Sirius' flirty manner, 'He really was something else', she thought with fondness as a small sad smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
She hadn't really come here to study, as much as she enjoyed reading she hadn't really thought of that. She just needed a means of escape and 'studying' seemed like the most believable excuse she could find, besides the fact it was the only excuse she could find. Thinking she might as well keep herself occupied she chose 'Charming Charms; Charms That Were Actually Useful In Life, an extensive study by Charlotte Chin' and sat on one of the library's tables.
* * *
Remus had to go to the library again. The full moon on Thursday night had definitely taken it's toll on him and he hadn't been able to go to his morning classes on Friday and now he had and awful charms essay due on Monday and still hadn't managed to write more than half a parchment, and it was supposed to be at least a full parchment and a half.
Then again where was he supposed to find a detailed explanation and analysis on Cleaning Charms, of all things? Really they were things taught to first years... Yes... the teacher had explained to him in his office when he went over to get his homework; the spell could be easy enough for a first year to repeat and use but to understand the workings and analyze the procedure was far beyond that level. "That was the real beauty of Charms, the art of the subject!"
He could understand the teacher's passion for her subject and often admired that in his professors, but having only recently been through a transformation, Remus was in no mood to search for unknown books much less analyze something as basic Cleaning Charms.
After what he deemed a long time of searching through the bookshelves Remus emerged with a few books that he knew had little chances of approaching the subject in as much detail as he needed. Walking out of the rows of books he stopped in his tracks as he stared at a book entitled 'Charming Charms; Charms That Were Actually Useful In Life, an extensive study by Charlotte Chin', probably the only book, in the greatness that was Hogwarts' library, that could really help him.
There was of course the small detail that was the fact the book was being held and read by someone. He supposed he could always come back later and see the book, then again there was the chance whoever was reading it now would check the book out and he wouldn't be able to get it. 'Who was that anyway?' Remus couldn't really see the person's face behind the curtain of thick brown hair, still he couldn't remember anyone from his class with that hair.
And this person was probably from his class, probably using that book for the exact same purpose he wanted it... Then he remembered the McKinnon twins mention something about a new girl in their dormitory. Marlene had said the girl was out cold, apparently she had woken up. Funny that she'd go directly to the library on her first day, not many girls he knew would do that, 'Besides Lily that is...' He thought as he walked towards the girl.
"Excuse me," the girl's eyes continued glued to the book and he smiled before trying again, "Excuse me, hi..." As she looked up at him he reddened slightly and lowered his gaze to the book she'd lowered herself, softly rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand he continued, "you must be the new girl..."
The thin, lightly brown-haired boy looked around a bit. Hermione thought of how he had come to know her as "the new girl", apparently transfer students weren't any more normal in this time than they were during her own. Besides if she'd wake up one morning to find a stranger asleep in her dormitory, still wearing her robes no less, she'd probably tell Harry and Ron as quickly as possible as well. For a moment Hermione idly wondered if she had been one of the topics over breakfast and mentally shook her head, hopping that thought wasn't true. She quickly returned her attention to the boy who had started to talk once again.
Looking at his face Hermione knew who he was. She hoped she was wrong, that it was just some slender boy who happened to look like him, that he was somewhere else talking to his friends. Only a short while ago she was telling herself to keep away from anyone she knew and again she found herself face to face with... who else but some she knew... 'Then again, being in Gryffindor Tower the Gryffindors were probably the only ones who knew she was there', she rationalized, 'it's even sweet of them to come and talk to me on my first day...'
"Hi, I'm Remus and I was just wondering if maybe, when you're finished with that book if perhaps I could possibly borrow it, you know, after you're done with it..." So many 'maybes' and 'perhaps', he was never good at talking to people he didn't know that well, no he wasn't like Sirius or James who could act cool and smooth towards anyone...
The girl looked up at him from her sitting position with wide eyes and Remus thought of what he'd just said. 'God', he just strolled over introduced himself and asked for her book, he didn't even ask for her name or anything... The girl looked quite fragile as she bit her lower lip as though in thought, 'maybe she was just easily scared or something...'
The studious teenager who Hermione had seen as a teacher slowly slid into the seat next to hers and looked closely at her. She noticed he was slightly pale, so that his brown eyes stood out against the rest of his pallid face.
She had seen this enough times to recognize the signs; he had probably been through a transformation quite recently. With those thoughts Hermione remembered she was not supposed to know anything about him, anything at all, and hoped to God that she wouldn't let anything slip.
"So, you've been put in Gryffindor haven't you," Remus started again, having another go at this whole conversation thing, "I'm sure you'll like it here very much... I'm sorry what's your name again?"
"Anne, Anne Munchkin, Professor Munchkin's niece."
She had a clear voice, stern even. One, which he wouldn't really expect from the fragile girl he had deemed her to be. The corner of his lips lifted into a crooked smile that he hoped seemed welcoming.
"Well then that makes it even better that you've been put into Gryffindor," he leaned a little closer and lowered his voice a little, "see Potions isn't exactly our strong point and maybe with your help," he stopped and frowned a little, "well, besides Lily that is, she's good at everything, oh and Sirius who despite his jokes is really very smart and James, of course, our Head boy..." He stopped and grinned wider at Hermione's amused face, "yep, seems like I'm the one who's not very good at Potions..."
Hermione chuckled at this, she knew of Remus' lack of ability with Potions. "So... James and Sirius, good friends of yours?"
"Yeah... Best friends, James, Sirius, Peter and I. You've probably met Sirius, he said if there was a new seventh year girl in school he'd know her soon, said he'd wait for you in the common room, typical Sirius." He finished with a chuckle of his own as he noticed that Anne was blushing.
"Saw him as soon as I left the dormitory, this Peter was there too..." Remus wondered at the difference in the girls expression and voice when she mentioned Peter, she swallowed whenever his name was mentioned and even seemed to force herself to seem casual. He thought it best not to comment on it, Peter was a funny kid, a bit strange at times, but funny.
"That's right, wherever you find Sirius or James you can bet Peter will be there."
A small pack of students came rushing by as they sped out of the Library to be soon followed by other students. Now it didn't matter in what year you were, all students leaving the Library in an almost synchronized manner could only mean one thing; it was lunchtime. And surprisingly Hermione found herself starving, she hadn't really thought of food yet but now that she did she realized she hadn't had anything to eat in a long time.
"Come, it's lunchtime and I don't know about you but I'm starving..." That was another thing that would never change with the years; seventeen year old boys were always famished. She rolled her eyes as she stood to follow Remus and the other starved students out of the Library.
* * *
Author's Notes: A huge apology! What kept me from writing was not the infamous writer's block but my own horrible laziness! I've always been awfully lazy but I'll try and update earlier and next chapter will definitely feature more Remus.
Even though Hermione has to be known as Anne by the other characters I'm still referring to her by Hermione... That's mostly because I don't want to accidentally change her into one of my own character by changing her name and maybe unintentionally slowly change her personality and so on... I hope it isn't confusing (I didn't think it was, then again it's hard to be confused by your own writing)
Right, I realize I haven't exactly used the appropriate dates, for some reason I pushed everything about ten years or so ahead, I didn't really know what year Hermione was born and for some reason I picked 1990 (don't know why, guess it was just easier to work with...) Still, now that I've seen the timeline (THANKS AGAIN TO KRISTY) I'll try to at least keep the differences in ages among the characters correct (within a small margin of error, sorry...)
And thanks to:
Phnx
kishkitten36 (I know it's taking forever for some interaction to happen... sorry)
RainySunshine (I did actually think of The Wizard of Oz, it's just that I had borrowed the movie from a friend a while ago and I thought the little Munchkins kind of matched Mona's personality, I wondered if people would notice.
Kristy Mac8- You'll never know how much that timeline site helped me, believe me I was about to make quite a few unforgivable mistakes... So HUGE THANKS!
Wow, longest notes I've ever written...
Chapter 4
Walking back to Gryffindor Tower Hermione half listened to Mrs. Munchkin's, 'my aunt's', rants. Busy looking around Hermione was having a hard time nodding in the appropriate spaces, 'but then again Mrs. Munchkin didn't really seem to notice...' And indeed she didn't. A bit wrapped up in telling about the time she tripped in front one of her Slytherin classes, Mona Munchkin failed to see the distraction of the girl beside her, whose head kept swiveling around much like a child's while looking for a friend during a game of hide and seek.
Hermione was surprised to see no changes in the castle. She looked around, making sure she never missed a corner but still found nothing that seemed different. Perhaps with the exception of an odd portrait here or there.
Noticing they had arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady Hermione patiently waited until her usher realized the same.
"...and even though I knew I had too much work I couldn't refuse to tutor the poor boy he needed it so..." The teacher's kindhearted voice was interrupted by an annoyed one that was so very familiar to the ex-Head Girl.
"What's going on?! Waking me up at this time... And you aren't even one of the younger ones... Should know better..." Her eyes swept over Hermione before turning to her companion... "and you, you're a teacher... You're a teacher!" The annoyance in her voice soon made way for surprise as she repeated the last sentence and she soon continued in a more apologetic as well as respectful tone, "oh, I am sorry, just thought it was another one of the first years who find sneaking around funny, or the older couples who go out to..."
Mona Munchkin interrupted the sentence with a loud cough before sharing an amused smile with 'her niece' at the Fat Lady's fluster, and before the portrait could say anything else the professor whispered the password, which Hermione made sure not to forget and they entered the tower.
Hermione wondered why the teacher had accompanied her all the way to the tower and now into it, it's not as if she didn't know her way around. Just as she thought this she noticed the professor had stopped a few doors down and was embarrassed to see she had been making her way to the Head Girl's room down the corridor.
The older witch smiled at her before opening the door and whispering, "You're lucky this year's Head Girl is from Gryffindor so you can keep Lily's bed..." Wishing her a good night stout lady softly closed the door behind her as she left with a smile on her face.
Hermione smiled too, she'd always liked the name Lily, as she had told Harry whenever they spoke of his mothe... Her eyes suddenly widened and she sat down on the soft mattress of he new bed with a straight back.
'She couldn't be... it would be too much coincidence... being here...!' Hermione knew Lily Evans had been Head Girl back in her days at Hogwarts. She closed her eyes and did some quick math in her head. Her own mother was now forty-two, ('well not now but in the present, not that this isn't the present now, but still...') so she'd be nineteen in 1984... 'And this Lily is seventeen, so...'
The young girl tried to process this new information. Slowly making her way under the covers, Hermione never noticed she was still in her uniform, or that she didn't even have anything else to wear. She was relieved, at least, that she was in Hogwarts and not in the Muggle world where she would've been truly alone. The thought of accidentally meeting a younger version of her parents scared her a bit until she dismissed it as impossible. She grinned for a second as she remembered an old Muggle movie where something similar happened to a boy with a time-traveling car, then her face contorted to a frown as she began to think seriously.
After the past hour of strange occurrences and decisions between Dumbledore, Mrs. Munchkin and herself, things were only just starting to sink in. It was now, looking at the top of her four-poster bed that Hermione began to process what had happen and even with her Gryffindor bravery she couldn't help the small tinge of fear that emerged. She missed everybody, it was ridiculous, she hadn't even been gone a full day, probably less than three hours, and already she missed people. It wasn't missing from being away too long but missing from fear of not knowing just when she'd see them again, how long? She missed her parents, Harry, Ron... just everything about her time. Still she pushed those thoughts aside and made way for more pressing issues, she now had some time to think properly and she wouldn't waist that time like this, especially when she knew that she'd be back soon. Of course she would.
The best thing was to be prepared. She thought of who else she was likely to find here and even what their personalities were like. She had to be ready to answer any question, to face any person. Thinking of that, she thought it best to keep her distances from some, 'wouldn't want to change history or anything...' But actually, she did. That was the last thought Hermione Anne Granger had before she was finally overtaken by her tiredness.
* * *
Being usually the first to wake among her roommates she was surprised to find an empty dormitory when she awoke. That was of course before last night's events came rushing back into her head. With a groan, Anne Munchkin dragged herself out of bed and waddled her way into the bathroom.
Glad that she at least had her wand with her she exited the bathroom no more than five minutes later with clean teeth and robes as well as no less than suitable hair.
Quickly gathering her bag she cursed under her breath at the prospect of being late in what would be her first day in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Stumbling out of the dormitory she was once again surprised to see that there was a large number of students lounging about the common room.
'Must be a weekend, should've asked Dumbledore...' She thought to herself as her eyes swept among the different faces, many of which were staring back at her, some with amusement others with curiosity and some of them with a mixture of both. But most of them seemed uninterested in the unfamiliar seventh year and simply resumed what they were previously doing.
Slowly walking down the stairs, her eyes came to rest on a small group of teenagers whose gaze continued on her. She was waved over by a pair of identical hands as twin sisters invited her to join them. Hesitantly she walked towards them, not exactly looking at any of their eyes but rather at her suddenly interesting shoes.
"Hi, I'm Marlene and this is my sister Laura, it's good to have another girl join Gryffindor, what with Lily being Head girl, there's only the two of us left..."
Laura interrupted her sister, "Lily is probably coming, she just had to go to the Headmaster's office for some 'head business' or something... You've obviously met Dumbledore, even though you did get here yesterday pretty late, we didn't even see you come and we went to bed quite late already..."
Annoyed at her sister's previous interruption Marlene desperately looked for a comment she could make to interject her sister, the light bulb over her head could almost be seen lighting up as the obvious dawned on her and she triumphantly cut off her sister's voice. "I'm sorry what's your name?"
The other students who sat with the twins, and were watching their battle with a look that told this had all happened before, a lot, now turned to look at Hermione.
"I'm... Anne, Anne Munchkin. Mona's, Mrs. Munchkin to you probably, Mona Munchkin's niece. See I use to go to Silverwood, which was a very good school but my parent's had to move to France for business, and though I do speak French they thought it'd be hard for me to adapt to a new culture and go to Beauxbatons, and I couldn't very well stay on my own so they decided that it would be best for me to stay with Mona Munchkin, my aunt, until they come back and that meant coming to Hogwarts."
Hermione said all this very fast, reverting back into her old self after the worry of having hesitated when answering her name. 'Still', she thought, 'they'll probably link it to anxiety...' Which wouldn't exactly be a lie seeing as how Hermione was extremely nervous.
There was a second of silence, which seemed all too long for the uneasy girl, before one of the two boys who sat smiled and spoke. "Anne," he had a languid smile with perfect straight, white teeth that would do her parents proud as well as a lazy voice that was extremely pleasant, matching very much his more than pleasant looks, "- my name is Sirius, Sirius Black and like the twins said, it good to have another girl join Hogwarts, especially if she's a Gryffindor."
The brown-haired girl hoped nobody noticed her shocked expression and desperately tried to hold it back by chewing, rather fiercely, on her lower lip. God, she would never have recognized him... Sure, she'd heard of Sirius' good looks during his youth but to think that this carefree, handsome and smooth young boy was the same troubled man she had known, 'and had seen being killed', was beyond her imagination.
She was glad when the other boy spoke up and she had something to direct her attention to instead of letting it wonder down that path. She turned to look at the shorter boy and her relief disappeared once again. "Hi, I'm Peter, Peter Pettigrew... I just wanted to know, how did you become a Gryffindor? I mean not that I'm not glad..." he added quickly as both Sirius and the brunette twins shot him a dirty look, "it's just that I don't remember you being Sorted..."
"Oh... it's okay... As I got here much later than expected and I needed a place to sleep Dumbledore thought it was better to just do the sorting in his office..." feeling their uncertainties Hermione went on, "that old hat can sure take a while to sort huh?" Satisfied that she had indeed been through the sorting ritual, even if it wasn't public the small group thought nothing of it when Hermione excused herself to go to the library and catch up on the material covered before her arrival.
Making her way to the library Hermione began to review what had just happened. She had expected that question and had even prepared for it. She just hadn't expected it to be asked by Peter Pettigrew. She'd always dubbed him as, 'stupidest scum of the earth!!'! But thinking of the cheerful chubby boy who only minutes before was sitting with her, she noticed she'd have to re-examine some of her older judgments.
The plan of just staying away from any familiar faces came to mind again and again Hermione decided it was the best thing to do, she couldn't go around meddling in people's lives.
As she walked through the library's familiar bookshelves she remembered Sirius' flirty manner, 'He really was something else', she thought with fondness as a small sad smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
She hadn't really come here to study, as much as she enjoyed reading she hadn't really thought of that. She just needed a means of escape and 'studying' seemed like the most believable excuse she could find, besides the fact it was the only excuse she could find. Thinking she might as well keep herself occupied she chose 'Charming Charms; Charms That Were Actually Useful In Life, an extensive study by Charlotte Chin' and sat on one of the library's tables.
* * *
Remus had to go to the library again. The full moon on Thursday night had definitely taken it's toll on him and he hadn't been able to go to his morning classes on Friday and now he had and awful charms essay due on Monday and still hadn't managed to write more than half a parchment, and it was supposed to be at least a full parchment and a half.
Then again where was he supposed to find a detailed explanation and analysis on Cleaning Charms, of all things? Really they were things taught to first years... Yes... the teacher had explained to him in his office when he went over to get his homework; the spell could be easy enough for a first year to repeat and use but to understand the workings and analyze the procedure was far beyond that level. "That was the real beauty of Charms, the art of the subject!"
He could understand the teacher's passion for her subject and often admired that in his professors, but having only recently been through a transformation, Remus was in no mood to search for unknown books much less analyze something as basic Cleaning Charms.
After what he deemed a long time of searching through the bookshelves Remus emerged with a few books that he knew had little chances of approaching the subject in as much detail as he needed. Walking out of the rows of books he stopped in his tracks as he stared at a book entitled 'Charming Charms; Charms That Were Actually Useful In Life, an extensive study by Charlotte Chin', probably the only book, in the greatness that was Hogwarts' library, that could really help him.
There was of course the small detail that was the fact the book was being held and read by someone. He supposed he could always come back later and see the book, then again there was the chance whoever was reading it now would check the book out and he wouldn't be able to get it. 'Who was that anyway?' Remus couldn't really see the person's face behind the curtain of thick brown hair, still he couldn't remember anyone from his class with that hair.
And this person was probably from his class, probably using that book for the exact same purpose he wanted it... Then he remembered the McKinnon twins mention something about a new girl in their dormitory. Marlene had said the girl was out cold, apparently she had woken up. Funny that she'd go directly to the library on her first day, not many girls he knew would do that, 'Besides Lily that is...' He thought as he walked towards the girl.
"Excuse me," the girl's eyes continued glued to the book and he smiled before trying again, "Excuse me, hi..." As she looked up at him he reddened slightly and lowered his gaze to the book she'd lowered herself, softly rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand he continued, "you must be the new girl..."
The thin, lightly brown-haired boy looked around a bit. Hermione thought of how he had come to know her as "the new girl", apparently transfer students weren't any more normal in this time than they were during her own. Besides if she'd wake up one morning to find a stranger asleep in her dormitory, still wearing her robes no less, she'd probably tell Harry and Ron as quickly as possible as well. For a moment Hermione idly wondered if she had been one of the topics over breakfast and mentally shook her head, hopping that thought wasn't true. She quickly returned her attention to the boy who had started to talk once again.
Looking at his face Hermione knew who he was. She hoped she was wrong, that it was just some slender boy who happened to look like him, that he was somewhere else talking to his friends. Only a short while ago she was telling herself to keep away from anyone she knew and again she found herself face to face with... who else but some she knew... 'Then again, being in Gryffindor Tower the Gryffindors were probably the only ones who knew she was there', she rationalized, 'it's even sweet of them to come and talk to me on my first day...'
"Hi, I'm Remus and I was just wondering if maybe, when you're finished with that book if perhaps I could possibly borrow it, you know, after you're done with it..." So many 'maybes' and 'perhaps', he was never good at talking to people he didn't know that well, no he wasn't like Sirius or James who could act cool and smooth towards anyone...
The girl looked up at him from her sitting position with wide eyes and Remus thought of what he'd just said. 'God', he just strolled over introduced himself and asked for her book, he didn't even ask for her name or anything... The girl looked quite fragile as she bit her lower lip as though in thought, 'maybe she was just easily scared or something...'
The studious teenager who Hermione had seen as a teacher slowly slid into the seat next to hers and looked closely at her. She noticed he was slightly pale, so that his brown eyes stood out against the rest of his pallid face.
She had seen this enough times to recognize the signs; he had probably been through a transformation quite recently. With those thoughts Hermione remembered she was not supposed to know anything about him, anything at all, and hoped to God that she wouldn't let anything slip.
"So, you've been put in Gryffindor haven't you," Remus started again, having another go at this whole conversation thing, "I'm sure you'll like it here very much... I'm sorry what's your name again?"
"Anne, Anne Munchkin, Professor Munchkin's niece."
She had a clear voice, stern even. One, which he wouldn't really expect from the fragile girl he had deemed her to be. The corner of his lips lifted into a crooked smile that he hoped seemed welcoming.
"Well then that makes it even better that you've been put into Gryffindor," he leaned a little closer and lowered his voice a little, "see Potions isn't exactly our strong point and maybe with your help," he stopped and frowned a little, "well, besides Lily that is, she's good at everything, oh and Sirius who despite his jokes is really very smart and James, of course, our Head boy..." He stopped and grinned wider at Hermione's amused face, "yep, seems like I'm the one who's not very good at Potions..."
Hermione chuckled at this, she knew of Remus' lack of ability with Potions. "So... James and Sirius, good friends of yours?"
"Yeah... Best friends, James, Sirius, Peter and I. You've probably met Sirius, he said if there was a new seventh year girl in school he'd know her soon, said he'd wait for you in the common room, typical Sirius." He finished with a chuckle of his own as he noticed that Anne was blushing.
"Saw him as soon as I left the dormitory, this Peter was there too..." Remus wondered at the difference in the girls expression and voice when she mentioned Peter, she swallowed whenever his name was mentioned and even seemed to force herself to seem casual. He thought it best not to comment on it, Peter was a funny kid, a bit strange at times, but funny.
"That's right, wherever you find Sirius or James you can bet Peter will be there."
A small pack of students came rushing by as they sped out of the Library to be soon followed by other students. Now it didn't matter in what year you were, all students leaving the Library in an almost synchronized manner could only mean one thing; it was lunchtime. And surprisingly Hermione found herself starving, she hadn't really thought of food yet but now that she did she realized she hadn't had anything to eat in a long time.
"Come, it's lunchtime and I don't know about you but I'm starving..." That was another thing that would never change with the years; seventeen year old boys were always famished. She rolled her eyes as she stood to follow Remus and the other starved students out of the Library.
* * *
Author's Notes: A huge apology! What kept me from writing was not the infamous writer's block but my own horrible laziness! I've always been awfully lazy but I'll try and update earlier and next chapter will definitely feature more Remus.
Even though Hermione has to be known as Anne by the other characters I'm still referring to her by Hermione... That's mostly because I don't want to accidentally change her into one of my own character by changing her name and maybe unintentionally slowly change her personality and so on... I hope it isn't confusing (I didn't think it was, then again it's hard to be confused by your own writing)
Right, I realize I haven't exactly used the appropriate dates, for some reason I pushed everything about ten years or so ahead, I didn't really know what year Hermione was born and for some reason I picked 1990 (don't know why, guess it was just easier to work with...) Still, now that I've seen the timeline (THANKS AGAIN TO KRISTY) I'll try to at least keep the differences in ages among the characters correct (within a small margin of error, sorry...)
And thanks to:
Phnx
kishkitten36 (I know it's taking forever for some interaction to happen... sorry)
RainySunshine (I did actually think of The Wizard of Oz, it's just that I had borrowed the movie from a friend a while ago and I thought the little Munchkins kind of matched Mona's personality, I wondered if people would notice.
Kristy Mac8- You'll never know how much that timeline site helped me, believe me I was about to make quite a few unforgivable mistakes... So HUGE THANKS!
Wow, longest notes I've ever written...