Disclaimer: All flashbacks are of JKR's characters, settings and plots. I don't own the characters I'm playing with them to relieve revision stress.
Chapter 1- Meant to be there and dreams
"Come on, Hermione, we're gonna miss the guys!" Lily Evans yelled as Hermione pulled on her clothes.
"You just want to see James," Hermione retorted, grumpily. She wasn't the morning person. Lily and James had been going out for a couple of weeks now and although she still thought he was slightly arrogant, he was growing on her.
"Like you don't want to see Sirius. The whole school knows he's crazy about you. He dropped the 'a new girl a week' thing for you remember?" Lily reminded Hermione.
"I know, and Sirius is great! Really!" Hermione told Lily. She added the last word when she saw her friend's doubtful look.
"O.K. But remember, I do know a few guys who ..."
"Lily!" Lily's boyfriend, James Potter, shouted as he saw her walking down the stairs. Lily and Hermione quickly abandoned their conversation as James hugged Lily and Sirius, James' best friend and Hermione's boyfriend, gave Hermione a short but passionate kiss.
"Hey, you," he whispered into her ear. She blushed slightly. She was, after all, going out with the most gorgeous guy in Hogwarts.
James Potter was Head Boy and although he was supposed to set an example to the younger students, James was a prankster at heart. He and Sirius had teamed up in their first year to pull a prank on the Slytherins and had been best friends ever since. Sirius Black was, until recently, a player. He had a new girl every week and didn't wait to see what was around him. Then he and Hermione had started going out and he realised that she was who he wanted.
Just then, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, James' and Sirius' other friends, walked into the common room. Remus looked the part he played in the group. He wasn't as outgoing as the others and didn't look it. He was the intelligent sensible one. Granted, the rest were intelligent, O.K. minus Peter, but Remus was the one who could always be found with his head in a book.
Peter was the tag-along. He was always trying to fit in and by doing so got on Sirius' last nerve. Peter got over-excited about the smallest thing James and Sirius did and Sirius had, on more than one occasion, suggested that they ditch Peter. James, however, loved the attention he got from Peter and would remind Sirius of the agreement they had made in their second year at Hogwarts. It was then that they discovered Remus' secret. Remus was a werewolf, although this was known by very few. In fact only Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey knew, supposedly. In their second year, Sirius and James found out and talked to Remus, mainly asking why he hadn't trusted them. His answer had been that he thought that they would abandon him. But they didn't abandon him. The four of them made an agreement that they would never abandon a friend. To help Remus, James, Sirius and Peter learned to become animagi. Finally in their fifth year they managed it. They could each turn into a different animal at will. James became a stag, Sirius a dog and Peter a rat. However, Hermione and Lily didn't know this.
"Shall we go to breakfast?" Remus asked, feeling tired.
"I'm fine with that," Sirius commented, still staring at his girlfriend. They all walked to the Great Hall, Sirius and Hermione talking, Lily and James holding hands absently, and Remus and Peter deep in conversation about the Transfiguration homework that was due in after lunch. Out of the Great Hall walked two boys. The taller of the two had red hair and freckles and the other looked almost exactly like James.
"Wait!" Cried Hermione, realising what she was seeing. Suddenly, Sirius stopped walking.
"What is it?" He asked concernedly.
"You didn't see them? The two boys who walked past us. One of them looked almost exactly like James and..."
"Hermione, no-one walked past us. Are you feeling alright?" Remus asked carefully.
"What? Yes, yes I'm fine. But ..." Hermione started, but Lily cut in.
"You're probably tired. You didn't sound like you slept well last night."
"You know what? Forget it. I'm probably hungry. Yea, that's it." Hermione reassured her friends and, more importantly, herself.
Apart from the incident before breakfast, Hermione's day was completely normal. She went to all her lessons, did some of her homework and enjoyed an evening in the company of her friends. Sirius and James made it an entire day without hexing Severus "Snivellus" Snape, a Slytherin seventh year, who was teased endlessly about his greasy hair, hooked nose and love of dark magic. Peter almost lost Gryffindor points in Potions when he accidentally added Unicorn tail instead of horn, and Remus had to add another ingredient to stop an explosion, that would have almost certainly splashed half the class with Veritaserum.
When Hermione said goodnight to her friends, she went up to bed. However normal her day had been, her dreams seemed uncharacteristic. First she saw herself, on platform 9 3/4, but she was alone. She didn't see Lily like she had. She then saw herself in lessons, sitting next to the James-look-alike. Harry, she told herself, his name's Harry. And the redhead's called Ron. She then saw a mountain troll and ... was that her? She then saw herself holding a piece of parchment and walking along a row of seven bottles. Then she saw herself point to one and ...
Hermione saw herself in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. The teacher was a handsome man with a dazzling smile. She then saw a fifty foot long snake come round a corner and ... herself running into the great hall, full of people in pyjamas, screaming in delight at Jam – no Harry.
Another change, this time it was the same place, but a different year. She guessed around her third year at Hogwarts. She saw herself staring at a lunar chart, muttering and pointing to dates, all of which fell on, or around, the full moon. She then saw herself, Harry and Ron and two unknown men who looked strangely familiar. One of the men pulled the other up and into a brotherly embrace. Sirius and Remus? Hermione asked her subconscious. Yes, it replied. What happened? Why do they look older when I'm only 14?
Another year came and went. It included a muscular boy of around 18 dancing and talking to her. The lake, and a maze on the Quidditch pitch. James would have a fit, she thought. Next she looked 16, her fifth year. She saw herself flying, freely with nothing to support her. And a man in a mask hitting her with a curse. Another flash and she saw a man, Sirius she thought, falling after being hit with a jet of red light. He fell through a piece of material.
The setting changed. She was outside. She saw gravestones. She walked over to three. The names hit her like a brick. James Potter, Lily Potter and Sirius Black.
Then she woke up, sweating and almost in tears. Hermione pulled on her robes, picked up her wand and ran to the office of Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts.
