Just Too Tempting

By Avadne

Chapter 23: A Secret

"We're telling them. Pete, Sirius, Remus, J-James… even Lily, they deserve to know. Dumbledore said we might as well," Hermione decided nervously. Draco gave a small nod to show that he was okay with her choice. At that moment, the Marauders walked in and Draco motioned for them to sit down. Hermione ran up the girls' stairs and was back in a few seconds with Lily.

"We have to tell you guys something," Hermione began carefully, looking at each person in the eyes before turning to Draco and nodding.

"Before you start, though," Draco took a deep breath and addressed the whole group. "Look, we weren't allowed to say anything at all. You might think screw the rules, but in this case, that could have led to thousands of deaths and the destruction of our world. It doesn't matter anymore, in light of recent events… but the point is; we wanted to tell you before."

"My name is Hermione Jane Granger… Hooper was my mother's maiden name and my dad used to call me Mi, both muggles. This here is Draco Hunter Malfoy. We were both born in… 1980. Started at Hogwarts in 1991, became Head Girl and Boy in 1997," Hermione started out slow, trying not to overload the information too soon. Sirius was the only person that didn't have wide eyes or their jaw dropped; instead, a rather ugly look had settled on his face, as he already knew. James was also slightly less shocked than the others, but knew naught of the details.

"Glamorious Finite," Draco muttered; both his and Hermione's glamours disappeared, leaving one silver eyed, platinum haired boy with pale skin and lower cheekbones, as well as a tanned girl without freckles, a flatter nose, caramel eyes and very long tangles of bushy hair.

"Malfoy. Did you say Malfoy?" Lily was the first to speak, taking the whole thing unusually well. Sirius remained silent, Remus looked deep in thought, Pete looked scared out of his wits and James… well, Hermione refused to look at James in fear of what awaited her.

"My mother is Narcissa Black and my father is Lucius Malfoy," Draco told her softly. Lily nodded, accepting the reply.

"So, what, you just went pop and appeared here all of a sudden?" Remus asked quietly, not looking at either Draco or Hermione. His voice was hollow and emotionless, but held a tiny hint of trademark sarcasm.

"Actually, it was Draco's fault," Hermione began. Once again, just like with Dumbledore, he interrupted.

"Was not!" he snapped back childishly. Hermione silenced him with another glare.

"Draco pulled us both into what he thought was a Pensive. Clearly, it was not and we ended up here," Hermione finished, still glaring fiercely at Draco, who stared back fearlessly.

"What do you know about us?" Remus asked hesitantly. "About our future selves, I mean."

"We know what would have been your future… but it's all fucked now that we are here. I can assure you that things will definitely be different now, without a choice," Draco answered for both of them.

"Why did you hate me?" Pete asked in his small, nervous voice. This was the question Hermione had been dreading. Draco looked at her quickly, asking with his eyes whether she wanted him to handle this. Hermione shook her head and stared determinedly at Pete.

"We didn't hate you; we hate what you became in our future. But it can be changed," Hermione told Pete, placing an arm around him. He stiffened slightly, for a second, but then relaxed.

"Well, what did I become?" he asked, even more nervously, also fidgeting with his pudgy hands. Hermione's eyes hardened and Draco didn't even let Hermione begin to answer.

"It's not important anymore. If you want to know so badly, I'll tell you, but not here or now. We won't allow it to happen again," Draco explained. Pete nodded, clearly unsatisfied with the answer, but not willing to push it any further at the moment.

"What happened in the future, what happened to us?" James had spoken, for the first time, and in a steely voice that had Hermione worried.

"You- you-" Hermione began, but could not finish. She simply shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. Sirius looked down also, overcome with emotion. James looked at Hermione for a split second, straight into her eyes, before getting up abruptly.

"I need to get away from here," he stated, walking off abruptly. Sirius stood up, as did Hermione, but he shook his head firmly, signaling she should stay here.

"Don't go after him, Mi-Hermione. He doesn't need you right now," Remus told her, uncharacteristically solemn. No one else moved a muscle; although it was clear that the others wanted to go after James, it was obvious that now was not a good time.

Finally, Sirius stood up and bolted after his best friend.

"James?" Hermione called out hesitantly. James was seated in his usual chair in the Gryffindor Common Room. Other than him and Hermione, there was only Sirius, who wisely cleared out as Hermione entered.

James sat like a stone, staring into the blazing fire. Hermione tried again, stuttering out his name. But James stubbornly didn't budge. In fact, he didn't show any sign of even hearing Hermione. Hermione very slowly moved herself to be next to him, standing by his chair. Then she placed a hand on his shoulder and tentatively began to speak.

But James gave her no chance. He moved abruptly, throwing her hand off him, stood and turned to her, finally speaking.

"I don't even know who you are," James whispered, at the moment, avoiding Hermione's eyes carefully and not willing to move any closer to her.

"But you do," Hermione begged desperately, willing him to actually look at her, look into her eyes with his own. Something that he was stubbornly refusing, so far.

"No, I don't. You're a stranger to me, Hermione Granger. How am I meant to know that you weren't acting all along, that you weren't pretending you had those… feelings?" James retorted, still not looking at her determinedly.

"Because I wasn't James. That was for real," Hermione begged desperately. James just shook his head and stepped back even further.

"Just leave me alone," James spat out bitterly, his face blank and his eyes iced over. Hermione stared at him fearfully, hating that she was the cause of his outrage and pain.

"I-," Hermione began to stammer out, but James shook his head violently, stood up just as violently and stormed out, leaving Hermione in the empty Common Room with tears down her face.

It had been a good 2 hours since James had stormed off and Hermione was getting more and more depressed by the second. She had been wandering the halls of Hogwarts in a rather aimless fashion before eventually dawdling back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

And there, in all his glory, was James. In his favourite armchair, in front of the fire, clearly brooding. The pain in his eyes made Hermione's heart break. The fact that she caused it only worsened the effect.

"James?" Hermione tentatively whispered. James didn't move or make any acknowledgement that he even heard her.

"James, I'm so sor- no, you don't want my apologies, I can tell. But I need you to-" Hermione started again with determination, but faltered when James' head cut to the side sharply.

"I was going to give you this before…" James trailed off, his voice hoarse with emotion, as he pulled out a very neatly wrapped package. Hermione was quite frankly surprised that he was actually talking to her, but then again, he wasn't looking at her, so Hermione couldn't tell. Maybe James just wanted to get rid of the present as soon as he could, so that he could forget Hermione in peace.

That thought made Hermione want to throw up. James pushed it the package into her hands roughly, and Hermione accepted it hesitantly.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, James. I couldn't, I wasn't allowed to. I know it doesn't mean anything now but… I love you," Hermione whispered. She then turned around to leave, but was stopped.

"Open it," James ordered tonelessly. Hermione hesitated yet again but nodded and slowly unwrapped the package. She untied the ribbon at a painfully slow pace and then took the paper off in a similar fashion.

She was left with a box, which she opened.

And time seemed to freeze.

That had been happening a lot lately, but this… this…

It was simply beautiful. Hermione's hand shook as she lifted it up, holding the long, fine chain between her fingers carefully, allowing the delicate drop to hang down. At the end of the chain twirled a very delicate looking heart shaped diamond. Or so it appeared to be. It took Hermione a moment to realize that the heart was actually made of ice.

Engraved at the front was a simple Mi, and at the back, James.

What really rattled Hermione was that it was not cold to her touch. She looked at James questioningly.

"It's an Ice Heart," he was still avoiding her eyes. "A special type of enchanted necklace, shared between… well, you know. The day it melts or breaks is the day the love between the two ceases."

Hermione took a sharp breath. "You mean, you still-"

James was silent for a moment, making Hermione's hopes go right down. But then he very slowly lifted his head up, still not quite meeting her eyes, but coming a bit closer. Then he said it.

"Of course."

It took everything Hermione had not to jump into his arms then and there. But she had to make him understand first. "I'm so sorry James, oh God you don't know how bad it is. I couldn't tell you, I couldn't tell anyone, for obvious reasons. I wanted to, so badly, and when I realized I was falling for you, I nearly…. well, I don't know. I was so happy, but so, so… unresolved. I couldn't, I knew I couldn't, but I had to anyone, and it's just the way you make me-"

Hermione's babble-o-meter was going off the charts.

James cleared his throat very quietly, shutting Hermione up immediately, even with a noise that was barely audible. "I get it, M-Hermione. But just because I understand doesn't mean I'm any less upset or pissed off. I love you and you were lying all that time," James was clearly uncomfortable, probably form the massive show of emotion and all, but it did bring Hermione to her senses.

"I got you something too, James," here, Hermione handed her gift to James proudly. He looked at it carefully before untying the cord and putting it aside and cautiously removed the plain brown paper to find…

Well, a mirror. There was some sort of mirror thing going on around, Hermione decided. But this one was totally perfect. It had taken her forever to get all the charms right, but it was worth it.

"It's a special mirror, kind of like the one you and Sirius share," Hermione began to explain. James looked sharply at her, wondering how she knew about that mirror. Hermione just widened her smile and continued.

"Any where, any time, any place… you want to talk to me, just say the name. Any time, I mean it. This is exactly why I spelled it so… I knew I would probably be returning to my own time, but I couldn't bear the thought of just forgetting you. Even when one of us died, it would still work… unless both of us died, in which there would be no point in it anymore. I know I'm staying here now, but at the time… I didn't want to lose you," Hermione's voice had begun to crack towards the end of her explanation of the mirror.

She had, in fact, gotten the idea from Sirius and James' mirror, which Harry had showed her in 5th year. James ran a long finger down the frame, observing the mirror carefully.

Then, he moved forward slightly, and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, James met her eyes. The pain in his hazel ones had not disappeared, and the fury was still present as ever.

But now, there was also a twinkle of hope.

End 23

Drama alert. The good thing about fan fiction is…. none of this shit would EVER happen in real life, would it now?

Anyway, I know about the banning of song fics, and since this story has lyriucs in it, I know it's just a matter of time before it gets taken down. I won't be editing out the lyrics, they are there for a reason. So I thought I might as well post quickly so that the readers could get a taste of the finish.

The reason for the long gap is because I not so long ago moved away. I was really torn up about leaving my best friend and all, but am now traveling the country, stopping here and there. We have a place where we are going to permanently stay, but first are riving around and exploring. I luckily took a spare disk with the backup of this story along with me and have stopped at an Internet Café where I am typing as we speak.

The internet café, may I add, is a lot better than when I went to the public library. Anyway, we're staying her for 2 days I think, so I'll be posting again either later today or tomorrow.

This is the last chapter before the Epilogue, so please review! I guess ya'll can understand why I am not doing review replies, but I want you to know that you guys ROCK! Quickly, just a few things to a few people,

Gothic-hands, thanks for ALL of your reviews, I love you! Emerald Lily, I plan to take a look at your Hr/J as soon as I can :) Krstna, thanks hun yeah I plan to use email as soon as I have stable internet, and I just want you to know that although I haven't reviewed your stuff in ages, your work is really great! Harpiebird, I'm flattered you put a link to your site, I really appreciate it although I'm guessing JTT won't be on much longer with the new no-lyrics policy…

Avadne