Disclaimer: Nah. I'm not JKR. Unfortunately.

Author's Note: I don't know how many times I rewrote this chapter and it only got worse and worse… here is it anyway.

Reviewer's corner

Nicole – Hm. I'll try to remember emailing you. No promises, though. If you get an account at you can put me on your Author Alert list and automatically receive a notification anytime I've posted. But I'll try to email you anyway.

Sara – You're right, of course. Hermione doesn't have a problem with her grammar. But I do, sometimes, so thanks for pointing it out. I corrected it, also.

Acdclover – Ha! Think you can scare me? Duh. LoL.

Thank you also Kendra is Cheese, Remusgrl01, Avadne, ViviBlack, LiLbLueangeL1223, Gywnn-Potter, Monkeystarz and BiggerstaffStalker. Did I miss anyone? Sorry…

Chapter 9 – I Don't Care

Hermione and James had decided to meet exactly at midnight in the Astronomy tower. Because of this project, the students included were allowed out of the common rooms at night, and the Astronomy tower had also been put at their disposals.The two of them were far from the only ones there – probably half of the class had also decided to join in, including Sirius and his partner – the Ravenclaw girl called 'Barette'. And Hermione had actually figured out that her first name was Mariah. So; Mariah Barette. Things didn't seem to go very smooth for them, though. You see, it only took about half an hour for the little girl to get the proportionately very much bigger Sirius pissed. I shouldn't need to add that everyone's attention very soon was on the somewhat… ill-matched pair.

"What do you mean you don't know?!" Sirius exclaimed, rising his voice.

"I don't know", said Mariah quietly, obviously afraid for the attention they drew.

"Can you say something other than 'I don't know'? Do you know anything at all?!"

"Of course I do", she said in a tiny voice.

"Like what?"

Silence.

"I don't know."

Sirius swallowed and took a couple of deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down. "You know what?" he then said. "In that case, I'll decide. You write the report on the history of the Plough, and I'll write something on what role it plays when used in Divination. Okay?"

She nodded.

"Whatever", he muttered. "I know you wouldn't say something if it wasn't okay, so I don't know why I even bother asking. Do that until Saturday – we'll meet again at midnight on Saturday."

She nodded again, looking frightened.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "And you better take some heart until then, cause this is extremely provoking. I might just get really mad. And you wouldn't like me when I'm mad."

She nodded again, this time looking absolutely terrified.

"See you", Sirius said and tramped out of the room. Mariah sat all still for a moment, not even daring to breath, but when everyone had returned their attention to their own stuff, she quietly got onto her feet and headed out without a word.

Also, things weren't exactly going smooth for James and Hermione either. That weird, uncomfortable silence, which Hermione almost had grown accustomed to by now, had reappeared and that meant that they got no work done at all.

"We should really be working", Hermione said.

"Um… yeah. We could… we could split the work like Sirius and Mariah did."

He doesn't want to work with me, Hermione thought.

Oh crappit, James thought. Now she thinks I don't want to work with her. But I want to. It's just that I shouldn't…

"Sure", she said. "I'll do the history."

"Then I'll write about what role it plays in Divination."

"Meet again Saturday night?" she asked quickly.

"Yeah. Sure."

"See you then", she said before quickly gathering all of her books, quills and parchments and heading off towards the door.

Some days later

"This was a very interesting class", Hermione said to Lily while heading back from their Ancient Runes class.

"Oh yeah", Lily agreed. "It has to be one of my favourite classes. Even better, though; it's Friday!"

Hermione smiled. "Oh yeah."

"Plans for the weekend?"

"No special", Hermione said. "Just relaxing, reading a bit perhaps, doing some homework. Er… I and James are going to work on our Astronomy project."

"Oh", said Lily and did a failed attempt to sound unaffected and like she was not worrying her head off.

"How is it going for you and Marcia?" Hermione asked cheerfully to break the high tensions.

"We're almost finished", Lily said in a strangled sort of voice. "It's gone excellent."

I've been so blind, Hermione thought. And stupid. Lily is worried. She mustn't be. Oh god, if I mess something up between them then… then I might just have ruined the entire world.

…important through all ages, Hermione finished the part of their report, which she had promised to finish until today. She had arrived to the Astronomy tower ten minutes early and taken that time to change a few lines in her text. And now, exactly on time, James arrived.

"Hi", he said and sat down next to her.

"Hi", she said.

Silence.

"So we should-" she started.

"Perhaps we could-" James started in the exactly same moment. "No, sorry, you go ahead."

She hesitated. Why am I hesitating?! She thought irritated. "I just thought we should start working. What were you going to say?"

"The same", he said and smiled. One of those adorable smiles that could make any girl's heart just melt. Hermione was no exception; she looked away and blushed while thanking God that it was dark.

"So", she said, desperately trying to keep her voice normal, "er… are you finished with the thing you were supposed to write?"

"Surprisingly… yes", he said and took a parchment out of his book. "I wrote it during Divination."

Hermione couldn't resist smiling when he handed it over to her. "Of course I knew Divination is nonsense", she said, "but I would never have suspected it was such nonsense that you can do other homework during the classes. Here", she added and handed her text to him. Let's read through each other's, shall we?"

"Sure", he said, took her report and began reading.

As time passed and they had read through each other's work, they went through another strangled-silence phase before James spoke.

"So", he said.

"Was it okay?"

"Yeah. You're a great essay-writer."

She chuckled. "Thanks."

"Mine?"

"Very good-"

"You sound surprised."

"I don't. You're one of the top students, why would I be surprised? Although it's not really your image."

He shrugged.

"There's just one thing I thought about." She searched the essay until she found it. "Here", she said and pointed it out.

"Oh, that. I just guessed-"

"You can't guess in an essay!"

He shrugged. "How is it supposed to be anyway?"

"I know I've read something about it in one of my books, wait, just a sec." She took one of the books she had brought for their little, er, session, and began flipping through it. "Here", she said. "Read."

She handed the book over to James, who read. "You're right", he said, "I'll change that. What's this book?" he wondered and checked the covers to see. "A Million Stars… never heard of it."

"It's quite new", Hermione said. "Harry gave it to me for Christmas."

"Um… so you and Harry, are you, er, close?"

"Well", she started, "we've been friends since… since Halloween in out first year, so yeah, I guess so."

"And your fiancé is like, okay with it?"

Hermione swallowed. She didn't want to talk about her fiancé. Especially as he didn't exist!

"There's really nothing he can do", she said. "Harry and I are friends… we knew each other long before me and my fiancé even met."

"What's his name?" James asked suddenly.

"Whose?"

"Your fiancé's."

"Michael", she lied.

"So he's like, totally okay with that you went here with your two best friends… who both happened to be males?"

Hermione was slightly uncomfortable with this whole situation, as expected. She did so not want to lie, but she guessed she couldn't take it back now. No return…

"Look, I just don't let him boss over me", she finished. "'Cause it's not worth it."

"You're probably right."

"We should really be working."

The nice work atmosphere was actually preserved this night; much thanks to lack of arguments between Sirius and Mariah. They seemed to get along somehow better this time, and Sirius just rolled his eyes instead of attacking her verbally. Perhaps Mariah said something more than 'I don't know' this time…

But the two of them (Sirius and Mariah) left after a while anyway, actually all the students started dropping off. Hermione and James were still there, though, working, and finished what they had assigned themselves for this time just as the last pair headed off.

"That's it, then", she said and began gathering all her books.

"Yeah", he said in a kind of sad tone.

Sad that we'll part now? Hermione wondered. No, no, what on earth was I thinking? He's got Lily. He should go to her.

But then he smiled. It was one of these smiles that could light up the darkest of nights (cliché but true) or at least make you forget that it was a dark night. And that's just what happened. Hermione totally forgot about everything, she looked at him and smiled back, and he looked at her. There was no deep valley between them anymore. It didn't matter that they were from two different worlds. It didn't matter that there was twenty years in between. Nothing mattered anymore. In this very moment, they were just two ordinary teenagers, lost in each other.

"Alyssa…", he began. How she loved hearing him saying her name.

"James…" she said.

"…I…"

"…we can't…"

"You're right", he said.

"You're with Lily now", she said softly.

"And you're with Michael."

She nodded. "Yes. But…"

"But what?" he asked softly.

"I don't care", she whispered.

He lifted his hand and stroked carefully some hairs out of her face. "You're beautiful", he said out loud.

She blushed. "Thanks", she said.

What did it matter that they weren't from the same time? Love certainly didn't care.

"I know we said we can't", he began slowly, "but do you think that we might… take that… back? Just… once? No one will know."

She nodded.

And he kissed her.

Author's Note: Sorry people, I'm not really in the mood for… describing all of their… uh, stuff. Use your own imagination. I do D. It's even easier if I switch places with Hermione.

James is hot.

Ooups. He's a character in a book. Hardly that, even. But what does it matter that he doesn't exist? Love certainly doesn't care… ha ha!

Luv ya lots!

Megafreak