This Chapter is really long to make up for the gap in posting. Please say you like it!
The training continued like that for many more months, starting with the loud dinner and progressing on to the rough training every night. Hermione still stayed up late for her extra training, which was becoming harsher as time moved forward. Thankfully, none of the four teen's grades didn't drop due to their hard schedule, but the pranks were less frequent.
Lily was proud of James on that front, though she didn't know the true cause. Snape had continued to turn closer and closer to the Dark Side and Hermione was a secretive as ever, though the Marauders told her many of their secrets. They didn't tell her about the werewolf though. Or the Animagus forms they have. We will start the story again in February. The 14th to be exact.
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Remus sat at the small table in the center of Hermione's room. His feelings for her grew, but she was as distant as when they had first met. The fiery brunette was very smart, sensitive and loyal. All the qualities Remus looked for in girls. Sirius most likely would have substituted 'smart' for 'beautiful', but Remus wasn't like that.
It was a night like all the others. Hermione sat watching Padfoot and Prongs racing, high on sugar, around the table. Remus, as usual, stared at the girl in front of him. He noticed the rings under her eyes were more pronounced than ever, which puzzled him because she went to bed at the same time as he did.
He started the conversation, "Today, James sent Lily a bouquet of roses. She was so glad that she kissed him in public, something she had refrained from doing. I hope they get married…" Remus said.
Hermione got an odd closed look on her face, but Remus was used to it by now. "Why didn't he get her lilies?" she asked.
Remus thought about it. "I think he said that roses were more romantic." Hermione nodded at him, "But then again, he also said it would be fun to bewitch that hat…"
Hermione gazed inquisitively at him. "Which hat?"
Remus smiled fondly at the memory. "He did it at my house over this Winter Break. I live in a Muggle neighborhood, so there were non-magic kids running around. James got this brilliant idea to bewitch an old silk hat of my dad's and make it make anything it is put on come to life.
"We agreed, and we left the hat lying next to a bunch of kids. They put it on a snowman they had just built and it began dancing around saying its name was Frosty. It eventually got on a train for the North Pole. We watched the whole thing."
Hermione laughed, and gazed at him. He thought he saw something like recognition in her eyes, but didn't speak up. Sirius and James raced by again, and Hermione said, "Let's go."
She got up but Remus stopped her. "We have something for you," he said with a smile.
"Surprise, surprise, surprise! We've got a surprise!" chanted Sirius, doing a cartwheel on the wood floor of the room. (AN: I have a friend who always has surprises for me and acts the same way. Without the cartwheels though.)
Remus took out his wand and nodded for the others to do the same. "Roseandito!" they said in unison. Roses flew out of their wands. Rose petals covered the floor. Each boy expertly caught a rose in their mouths and said in muffled tones, "Happy Valentines Day!"
Hermione stood amidst all of the falling roses, a huge smile on her face. "Does this mean I'm a good teacher?" she asked, grinning at the display.
"Of course!" James said through the rose. Hermione did a back flip in the air, and landed with almost a dozen roses in her quick hands.
"Thank you so much," she said, pretending to wipe a tear from her eye. Remus grinned at her wittiness and said, "Are we going out to work?"
"Actually," she said, looking thoughtful. "I think you should have the night off. I do have a lot to do. This will be my surprise for you!"
Sirius and James grinned at each other and Remus gazed thankfully over to Hermione. "See you tomorrow then," he said.
Hermione nodded and the Marauders walked out the portrait hole.
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Once the Marauders were out of sight, Hermione's smile fell and she looked sadly at all of the flowers around her room. In honesty, she didn't give them the night off because she had homework, but rather because she wanted to practice longer tonight.
She ran off to the field to practice the new spells she had come up with for her training. The spell she had in mind would prepare her for anything that came her way in her duel with Voldemort.
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The Marauders were sitting in their dormitory when James sat up straight. "I left my homework in Hermione's room!" he said.
Remus rolled his eyes. "We better get down there now. Lily will kill Prongs it he forgets his homework,"
James nodded and took out the Invisibility Cloak. The boys took the Marauders Map and walked downstairs. They snuck quietly down the halls, narrowly avoiding the Bloody Baron, who happened by at that time.
"Coca-Cola" whispered Moony at the portrait of the first phoenix. The boys fell into the room, tangled in their Cloak. "Hey Hermione," he began, but saw she wasn't at her desk. He got the gut feeling something was wrong.
"Hermione?" he called up the stairs. No answer came down. Remus raced over to James and took the Marauders Map from him. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he breathed.
The ink lines unfolded and the castle of Hogwarts was soon in view. There was Hermione, out on the Quidditch Pitch. "I thought she said she had homework." Sirius said slowly.
Without another word, the three boys hurried quickly down to the pitch, only stopping to retrieve the cloak and James's forgotten homework.
They arrived and situated themselves on the bleachers, watching the girl in the center. She was fighting ten of the dummies, but one special one was almost eight feet tall. She said a spell to it and it was blown backwards. The Marauders realized this doll was equipped with magic.
"Expelliarmus," a mechanical voice said loudly. Hermione retaliated with a Protego and after a few minutes raised her wand purposefully once the doll had landed on its back.
Her words were too quiet for them to hear, but the doll was suddenly engulfed in green light and was still. The boys sat open-mouthed as the emotionless teen went to restart the doll, who they now realized had a face that was quite snake-like indeed.
Remus got the gut feeling that it was the image of the Dark Lord. The doll jumped back to life. Moony used a spell to increase his vision and saw that the knob was on 'Voldemort.'
He nudged the other two boys to do the same and they all gasped. Hermione was too busy to notice though. The mechanical voice shouted out, "Crucio!"
The Marauders watched wide eyed as Hermione bit her lip in pain and raised her wand. The doll kept the curse on her until she knocked it over with a Disarming Spell.
Looking as though she had finally had enough, Hermione fell to the ground. The doll jumped up and Remus intervened, "STOP!"
His voice echoed through the stadium and he rushed down to the fallen girl, leaving Padfoot and Prongs in shock behind him.
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Hermione awoke groggily, the pain of the Crucio still lingering. Opening her eyes in slits, she saw four worried looking faces gazing at her. She registered she was lying in her silk bed. 'Someone must have found me out there. I didn't expect my weariness to add to the pain of the spell. Interesting,' she thought amusedly to herself, ignoring the pain.
Deciding to 'wake up' for the people in front of her, she moaned and let her eyelids flutter open. The people looking at her were the three Marauders and Headmaster Dumbledore himself.
"I though I had explained," began Dumbledore, his blue eyes full of anger and worry, though his tone was mild, "that you were not supposed to kill yourself?"
Hermione groaned for real this time and looked over at Remus's worried face. "We saw you and the fight," he muttered quietly.
The witch snapped her eyes open. "You spied on me?" she asked, disbelief and fury evident in her tones, "You and your bloody Marauders didn't trust me or something?"
She knew she had lost her cool, but she didn't care. Couldn't they just leave her be? She was doing this for the greater good and she knew it.
"Calm down Hermione," Sirius said consolingly, trying to quench her fury with his calm tones.
"I think that the future of our world is quite a bit more important than my training schedule," she yelled, all pretense forgotten.
She leapt to her feet, only to sway dangerously on jelly-legs. "Oh," she said weakly before fainting, landing safely in Remus's arms.
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Remus held up the unconscious girl, and laid her back on the bed. Dumbledore was staring at her, warmth and sadness in his eyes. "How could she think that?" asked Remus. "How could she think that killing Voldemort was more important than her own health?"
Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "Voldemort has put her through a lot. It is not surprising she is so driven."
"What did he do to her?" asked Sirius quickly. Dumbledore simply shook his head and left the room.
At the door he turned and looked back, "Please stay with her this weekend," he muttered. The Marauders nodded and looked back at the still girl on the bed.
She looked so innocent as she slumbered, the worry lines on her forehead were smooth and her brown hair was fanned around her. Sirius went to a drawer, got a parchment and said, "Let's think of pranks until she wakes, eh?"
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After a full thirty minutes of talking, Remus heard a sound from the bed. Spinning around, he saw the brunette sit up shakily and look over at him. When he caught her eye, Hermione looked quickly away.
Sirius got up and walked over to her. "From now on we will work longer with you so you don't need any extra training sessions, alright?" he said, putting a wary arm over her shoulder. The girl tensed at first, then relaxed.
"When can I get up?" she asked. Her brown hair was unkempt and she had weary eyes.
"Dumbledore said for you to relax all weekend, and we will enforce it," James said, striking a noble pose. Hermione chuckled weakly.
Hermione slipped in and out of consciousness the whole day. It was reassuring for her to awaken and see Remus sitting in the chair next to her bed.
When she was finally able to work again, she and the Marauders worked hard together. They worked longer at night, but Hermione was slightly relieved for the shorter workout. In honesty, she only was sleeping more so she wouldn't be weary during her fight with Voldemort, but she wasn't going to tell anyone that.
The boys were tired because of their nightly workouts, but all still kept up in class. Remus had to pinch his arm numerous times a class to keep from falling asleep. He could often be found in the library during lunch, completing homework or catching up on sleep.
Hermione and the Marauders stayed out late on the Quidditch Pitch one evening, working hard on new fighting techniques. Glancing up while wiping the sweat from her forehead, Hermione saw the moon was almost at its apex. It was a full moon.
With a shout, she called to Remus, "Go to the Whomping Willow!" He gazed at her in confusion until he saw the moon out of the corner of his eye.
He opened his mouth to tell James and Sirius, who were busy dueling, but all that came out was along blood chilling howl. Hermione watched in sadness as his legs elongated, as did his nose. Blond hair covered his body and his ears curved. His robes ripped, leaving him in black pants only.
He howled again and the other two Marauders looked over in alarm. Hermione yelled to them, "Turn into Padfoot and Prongs! We can herd him to the Shrieking Shack!"
With confused looks, the boys turned into their stag and dog forms. Hermione morphed into a cougar and leapt at Remus, driving him in the direction of the Whomping Willow.
Following her lead, James and Sirius blocked his other sides. Many bites and bruises later, Hermione and the boys had gotten Remus into the Willow. After checking that the werewolf would be okay, she hurried back to the castle before the Marauders could question her.
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Remus awoke from unconsciousness in the Hospital Wing the next morning. Sirius and James were sitting in the plastic chairs next to him, looking worried. As soon as he regained the ability of speech, Remus croaked, "How did she know?"
Without asking they knew who he was talking about. "We thought you had told her," Sirius muttered. The three Marauders sat in confusion until James came up with a 'brilliant' idea.
"Let's search her room and find out where she came from!" he said in an excited whisper. To his surprise, Remus and Sirius both nodded in agreement. They immediately began plotting.
Once they were sure Hermione was at classes, the Marauders snuck to her room. They had no school that Monday due to the wizarding holiday called, 'National Centaur Day.' Moony was relieved as he had been reluctant to skip class.
After searching for almost an hour without finding anything more interesting than her homework, Remus was about to call it quits. Suddenly, a shout of victory from Sirius gained his attention.
"What is it?" asked James, eyes on a very long, thin roll of parchment Padfoot was carrying.
The Marauder spread it out dramatically saying with a small shrug, "The title says 'Timeline'." The boys gathered around.
The dates started at 1972 and ended in 2002. "This says tomorrow Arthur and Molly Weasley will have their first child," James read off.
The teens gaped at the map, staring as dates such as 'September, 2002: The Last Battle.' Below was a tear-stained list of names of people who had died during it. The list went on for almost a foot.
Each boy found their death date and the events leading up to it. James saw 'James Potter and Lily Evans's marriage,' 'Harry Potter born,' 'Wormtail is made Secret-Keeper,' a day later it said, 'Wormtail betrays Potters and turns them into Voldemort. Harry causes first downfall of Voldemort.'
Sirius read, 'Sirius Black sent to Azkaban, accused of murdering Potters, Wormtail and 13 innocent Muggles.' 'Sirius Black escapes prison,' 'Department of Mysteries incident. Sirius Black is killed by Bellatrix Lestrange. Voldemort exposed to public.
Remus saw that on June 9th 2001 he would die. 'Death Eater attack on #4 Privet Drive. Remus Lupin killed while saving Harry Potter from death.'
Each boy stared in shock at their deaths, frozen in horror. How did Hermione know this? The Marauders' brains were too numb to comprehend.
A click at the door indicated that someone was entering. Frozen in surprise, the Marauders watched as Hermione walked in. Her eyes darted from their faced to the timeline in front of them.
The color drained from her face. "Accio Timeline," she whispered waspishly.
Remus gazed at her, "How do you know all that?" he asked, trying to keep the dread from his voice.
She walked forward comfortingly. "Stay away from us!" said Sirius panicking. He had just seen when all of his friends would die and it was too soon for him to think rationally.
The Marauders began to edge out of the room but Hermione stepped forward. "Impedimenta!"
Frozen, the boys glared at her. "I want to explain, but it would be better if you could see it yourselves," she said. Hermione went over to a drawer and pulled out a Pensive. Inside were liquid silver thoughts, floating mist-like over the surface.
"If you want to know the reasons why, touch my thoughts," Hermione said before poking the swirling mists with her wand.
All four teens touched it and they were taken to Hermione's past… their future.
In the Pensive
Spells shot around them, quicker than Remus could follow. Hermione stood calmly beside them, watching her own memories. Two sides fought, and you could see the difference in them clearly. On side was robed in white, the other in black. Light versus Dark. Good versus Evil.
The Light side fired futile Patronuses at literal hordes of Dementors and Lethifolds. Many of the Good were killed as they were outnumbered one hundred to one.
Yelling nearby was a younger looking Hermione in white robes, dueling a tall Death Eater. A spell knocked off his mask revealing who Remus recognized to be Lucius Malfoy. Seeing a Light duo trying to kill what looked like his son, he swooped off, forgetting about Hermione instantly.
More and more Light people were cut down until soon most everyone standing was Dark. The brave were left to lie on the battlefields for eternity, a look of grave determination on their faces.
A lady with curly white hair fell, her heart-shaped face still. "Tonks!" screeched the young Hermione in tears.
Next to them the older Hermione was watching stone-faced, but her eyes were anticipating as if she knew something bad was about to happen.
A tall boy with red hair raced up to her. "'Mione," he gasped, looking sadly down at her, "I just saw your parents go down… I'm sorry."
"Oh Ron!" exclaimed the curly haired girl. The freckled teen was patting her shoulder when a scream made them both jump and begin firing spells, Hermione with a new intensity.
Soon almost every white robe was down. Close to them were two men fighting, one in white, the other in black. Remus was shaken to see the Light was an older version of Snape.
Sirius was gazing at Tonks's still body and saying, "She's my cousin." James walked over, a spell or two passing through him as he went.
"It's okay, mate," he said, patting Padfoot awkwardly on the back. All of the Marauders jumped as a voice hissed, "This is for Potter!"
The older version of Snape raced by, chasing a small man who was holding his wand in a silver hand. "Die," growled the man before shouting, "Avada Kendavra!"
Wormtail fell, his face cowardly in death. Remus watched as Lucius Malfoy came up behind Snape and muttered a spell. In a flash of green light Snape fell, dead before he hit the cold ground.
Hermione was instantly by Remus's side and gave him a comforting hug. She watched herself run forward, screaming for her professor.
In shock, Remus finally realized that if this was the future, Hermione was from it. Turning to her, he gave a shaky smile. She nodded and was about to pull them out of the memory when the Marauders noticed that everyone was watching one couple dueling.
A boy who looked identical to James was dueling a man who was obviously Lord Voldemort. The Dark Lord rapidly fired spell after spell at the boy. Both Hermione's began sobbing as the teen fell to the ground, his emerald eyes narrowed in determination and hatred.
Dumbledore immediately sent up a silver phoenix from his wand, rallying all the Light fighters to him. Hermione and her Headmaster raced off, the boy called Ron following closely. They were the only ones left in a sea of black.
Ron began chatting with Hermione, comforting her as Dumbledore began to make a shield around them. Hermione smiled at him, but began to scream as he fell dead, after a man had sent the Killing Curse at him. "NOOOOOO!!!!!!" screamed the future Hermione. The present Hermione (or is it past?) quickly pulled them out of the Pensive.
Hermione hastily dried her tears and said clearly, "That was my past; your future. Now can you see why killing Voldemort is my number one priority?"
The Marauders nodded, then James said, "So that may not happen?"
Hermione replied fiercely, eyes glinting dangerously, " Not if I have any say in it."
Reassured, James and Sirius nodded. Remus was still in shock over all those deaths. "Why did Snape kill Peter?" he asked wearily.
Hermione looked down, then spoke quietly, "Wormtail was made Secret-Keeper to the Potters. He betrayed them to Voldemort. As the only one who knew about it, Sirius went after him. Pettigrew then said that Sirius had betrayed the Potters, then he blew up 13 Muggles and transformed.
"Sirius was sent to Azkaban for 12 years until he escaped to chase Wormtail. It was the same year Remus became my Defense teacher. After Wormtail escaped and brought Voldemort back to his body, Sirius was killed in a duel by Bellatrix Lestrange, well, now she's Black. I'm sorry," she finished in a whisper.
"So Snape's on our side?" asked Remus in surprise. He was more Dark than anyone he could think of.
"He will be, even if he's not now. Snape will have one of the most dangerous jobs as he will be a double spy for Voldemort. When they found out he had already pledged his allegiance to Dumbledore, Malfoy was glad to kill him. He did it for fun, not for Wormtail," Hermione said. Her fists were clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white.
"Dumbledore was killed by Voldemort ten minutes after what you just saw. I was in the middle of going back in time to kill Voldemort as a child."
Remus was silent, thinking deeply. So that's how she knew of his lycopthery.
THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING!!! Did u see how LONG the chapter was! I am so proud of myself. I hope to update soon. I am open for ideas of which characters you want me to make in other stories I will make for u all. I am think about making a Herm/Harry story….. anyways PLEASE REVIEW MORE!!!! The next chappie will have Snape in it and gasp he will meet HERMIONE!!!!!!! AHH!!