Disclaimer:I don't own any rights to Harry Potter or it's affiliates or ANYTHING! I just own the merchandise and this plot, the rest belongs to the beautiful and talented J.K. Rowling.
A/N Thanks for the reviews. You all have no idea what it means tome to haveother people like your work. Thanks again. And a special thank you to life2me for notifying me about my mistake about Bellatrix Lestrange in Chapter 1. I'll correct it. Thanks again and enjoy Chapter 2.
"Hermione?"
She still slept.
"Hermione?"
Still she did not stir.
"Hermione!"
"Wh-Wha?" Hermione had been jerked awake by a strong female voice. She was groggy. Everything was still blurry when she opened her eyes but she could make out a person standing at the foot of her 4-poster bed, with strong flaming red hair. At first she thought that it was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister and the only female Weasley other than Mrs. Weasley herself. "Ginny? Wha-" Hermione started to grumble.
"Ginny? I'm Lily. Remember? Lily Evans?" Lily asked.
"Huh?" Hermione shook her head and rubbed her eyes and blinked. "Oh, Lily. Sorry." She said.
"No Problem. Whose Ginny?" Lily asked kindly, her great green eyes full of concern.
"Oh-no one. No one. Just a weird dream I guess." Hermione said, forcing a small smile, hoping that Lily bought it. She didn't much feel like talking about the Weasleys who had been like a second family to her.
"Oh, ok. C'mon and get dressed. I'm sure the boys are already downstairs waiting for us." She walked across the room to her own 4-poster and picked up a brush from her nightstand and ran it through her hair.
"Boys?" Hermione asked mainly to herself. The past night's events came tumbling back to her. The unknown door, the fight with the Slytherins, the talk with Dumbledore and the others, talking late in the common room to…"Remus." Hermione whispered to herself. Luckily, Lily had disappeared into the bathroom so Hermione was alone in the room. "Oh no." She said softly to herself, sitting up and pulling her knees up to her chin and burying her head. She didn't! No, no way would she ever have allowed herself to be attracted to anyone, especially a future professor! But she had. She had kissed Remus goodnight.
Lily reappeared while Hermione was swimming in her thoughts. "C'mon Hermione or we'll be late." Lily said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"What? Oh yeah, right." Hermione jumped out of her thoughts and got dressed. She went with Lily down the staircase into the common room. To Hermione's horror and happiness was Remus, along with James, Sirius and Peter. James smiled as they approached. Once they got nearer he embraced Lily in a tight hug and planted a loving kiss on her lips who welcomed it with a smile.
"Oy! Knock it off you two. It's bad enough we have to hear about your guys' snogging. We don't want to see it too." Sirius, clearly annoyed at their PDA. He wrinkled his nose and rolled his eyes into a disgusted face.
"What!" Lily turned to James, still in his embrace, and gave him a stern and shocked look at the same time.
"Oops…I mean-" Began Sirius. But he had realized his mistake too late.
"James Potter, have you been telling them," she flew her hand to the other 3 Marauders who were all watching, along with Hermione, her eyes never leaving James, "of our…" she struggled to find a decent word, her face becoming the same shade of her hair, "romantic evenings?" She finished quietly, her face now fully enveloped in a scarlet red.
"No." James said, a small smile appearing on his face, "no no no, of course not honey. True I may have let slip the one time in that broom closet on the second floor-" James was cut short by Lily's slap on his shoulder. She had escaped James' arms and her mouth was open and her face, if possible, became even redder.
"James H. Potter! How could you? I'm not some sort of game you play then go and tell your friends how high you scored!" She said, her voice rising slightly but not too high as there were other Gryffindors in the common room.
"It's not like that Lil-" James started but was once again cut off.
"Oh spare me Potter! I really didn't expect this of you. I thought you respected me enough to-" Now it was Lily's turn to be cut off.
"I do respect you Lily. You're everything to me." James said, a look of hurt on his face now.
"Bull! If you had any respect for me, you wouldn't have gone bragging to your friends about us. Some things are sacred and private you know." Lily said, one hand on each of her hips now.
"Now come on Lily, that's not fair." Sirius decided it was time to repair the damage he had done. He stepped in between them and faced Lily, "James here, does respect you. And if it's any consolation, James doesn't 'brag' about anything. We sort of… force it out of him." Sirius finished.
"You what!" James said hotly.
Sirius turned to face James now, a small guilty smile on his handsome face. "We sort of…put Vetriserium in your pumpkin juice the other night. Sorry mate." He added, the small smile growing steadily wider.
"YOU!" James bellowed, running after Sirius. Sirius, eyes wide, ran for it. James was chasing Sirius around the common room, much to everyone's (including Lily's) amusement.
"I – am – going – to – KILL – YOU – BLACK!" James yelled, hands outstretched as Sirius dodged him by jumping clear over the couch, laughing. Hermione, caught up in the humorous scene being played before her, didn't notice Remus walk slowly towards her.
"Hey." He said softly.
"Huh? Oh, morning…Remus." Hermione said. She was still not used to calling Professor Lupin by his first name, much less kissing him. Her cheeks blushed lightly at this thought.
"Sleep well?" He asked timidly, looking at her with those gorgeous blue eyes she loved to stare at.
"Yeah, you?" She asked. Before he could answer, however, he yanked her by her wrist just in time to save her from the oncoming thick leather book that James had thrown at Sirius, who had dodged it and was now laughing even harder, which infuriated James even more.
"Thanks for that." Hermione said, laughing. Normally she would have found behavior like this inexcusable. But somehow, seeing James and Sirius like that just brought warmth to her heart and a smile to her face.
"Uh-oh." Remus' highly amused voice snapped Hermione out of her thoughts. She turned her head to look at what Remus was staring at and saw Sirius, flat on his back with James on top of him, holding him by his collar, his glasses hung lopsided by one ear.
"S-Sorry mate. I didn't mean anything by it." Sirius said in between chuckles.
"Ooo, Black, you are soo going to get your ass kicked!" Threatened James. To Hermione's surprise, Sirius erupted into more fits of laughter. You'd think Sirius would be begging for forgiveness (or mercy) not bursting into uncontrollable laughter. But Hermione saw the look on James' face and knew why Sirius had all of a sudden burst into laughter. Glasses, still lopsided, James had released Sirius and had, himself, started roaring with laughter, along with everyone else in the common room. Lily was on the floor, she was laughing so hard.
"C'mon boys. I need some breakfast after that jolly good bit of entertainment." Lily said, finally catching her breath and wiping the tears from her eyes. She walked over to James who had gotten up and straightened his glasses for him and finished it off with a kiss.
"I take it you're not mad anymore?" Hermione asked unnecessarily.
Lily sighed and looked at her boyfriend, "No, now that I know he didn't do it on purpose, how could I possible be mad at him?"
James looked shocked, but nonetheless pleased at the outcome of events.
Sirius had gotten up besides James, "Hey, Lily, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done it. But it was just too good of an idea to pass up." He said, sincerely. She smiled and rolled her eyes.
"It's alright. I should have known that by dating one of the biggest pranksters of the school, I was bound to be pulled into one of your guys' pranks." She sighed and shook her head. "I swear James Potter, you're going to be the death of me." Everyone, except for Hermione, laughed. No one else knew the morbid comedy at behind this statement.
"We cool, Prongs?" Sirius asked.
James hesitated but sighed, "Yeah, of course Padfoot." They shook hands and smiled. "C'mon, let's get to breakfast. All that running made me hungry." James said, letting go of Sirius' hand and replacing it with Lily's.
"Leave it to James to think with his stomach." Lily rolled her eyes and laughed. James, Lily, Sirius and Peter had crawled through the portrait hole, leaving Remus and Hermione with each other.
"Shall we go then?" Remus asked, his hand still wrapped around Hermione's wrist. He noticed this and quickly released it, blushing.
"Yeah, let's go. I'm starved." She said, trying to sound friendly. They walked together to the Great Hall.
"It's about time you two! Where have you been? Testing out that broom closet on the second floor for yourselves?" Sirius asked as Remus and Herminoe reached the Gryffindor table. They blushed heavily at this comment and chose to ignore it.
"C'mon Hermione, I saved you a seat!" Lily said, patting the vacant opening next to her. Hermione took it gratefully, any excuse to not sit by Remus, who had chosen the other side of the table next to Sirius.
"So, what have we got today?" Sirius asked, shoveling a great amount of oatmeal in his mouth.
Before anyone could answer, however, Professor McGonagall had swept up the table to where they all sat. "Miss Granger?" She asked, striding up to Hermione.
"Yes?"
"Dumbledore told me all about your- er, enrollment here. Here is your course schedule. Your books are already waiting for you in your dormitory." She said, handing Hermione her schedule.
"Thank you professor." She said, taking the schedule.
"Oh great, you got the same classes as us." Lily said, reading the schedule along with Hermione after McGonagall had left.
"Looks like we got Transfiguration first. I better leave now so I can go get my books. I'll catch up with you all there." Hermione said, rising from her seat.
"Ok." They all chorused.
"Wait! I'll go with you." Remus offered, starting to rise from his seat as well.
"No!" Hermione said a little too forcefully. She realized this and spoke again, in a softer tone, "No, that's ok. I'll just meet up with you in class." She walked hurriedly out of the Great Hall and headed up the staircases to Gryffindor Tower. She knew she had sounded rather harsh to Remus, but she had to. She had to make him see that there was just no way that they could fall for each other. They just couldn't be together. At this thought, a feeling of sadness filled Hermione's heart. But why couldn't they be together? She liked him and he liked her. They both loved classes and both were extremely intelligent. Suddenly an image of her and Remus sitting together outside by the Great Lake, holding hands and reading filled her mind. No, she had to snap out of it! There was just no way it would work. Hermione had been so lost in thought; she hadn't realized she had arrived at the portrait of the fat lady. She gave the password and in about 10 minutes had grabbed her books, exited the portrait hole and had met up with the others in front of the Transfiguration classroom.
"That was fast." Sirius observed, as Hermione skidded to a halt in front of them.
She didn't have time to respond as the door had opened and Professor McGonagall had emerged.
"C'mon hurry up. We've got a lot to cover today." She rushed them all inside. Herminoe took a seat at the front desk with Lily. Remus sat behind her with Peter and James and Sirius had taken the back desk together.
"Now, today we will be learning to transfigure larger animals. Now, the larger the animal, the more complex the transfiguration spell is. So, if you'd all please take an eagle from the cage we will begin." She instructed, motioning towards the large cage, which held well over 20 or more eagles. After each student had an eagle, McGonagall demonstrated on how turning the eagle into an hourglass by the spell ("fritidious'). By the end of class only Hermione, Lily and Remus had succeeded in turning their eagles into full-fledged hourglasses. James' hourglass still had feathers, Sirius' hourglass still had a beak, which pecked him repeatedly on the arm and Peter's was half-eagle and half-hourglass.
"What a brilliant lesson!" Hermione said enthusiastically, while everyone was filing out of the class.
"Speak for yourself!" Sirius said in a low voice, cradling his bleeding arm. Everyone couldn't help but laugh as they headed towards Defense Against The Dark Arts, Hermione making sure that a few people were between her and Remus.
The next few days flew past Hermione in a blur. Before she knew it, it was Friday. She had managed to not be alone with Remus for the whole week by following Lily when she went off to bed or dashing to the library to help Peter with his homework. Everyone seemed transfixed on Saturday's Quidditch match, Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Everywhere she turned, students were talking about the Quidditch match with much enthusiasm. She herself had never fancied Quidditch too much, but it was fun to watch. She was sitting in the common room one afternoon, reading, thinking about all the games she had seen Harry and Ron play and the Quidditch World Cup she had been to with them when a hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her stupor. She turned around to find that the hand belonged to Remus.
"Oh! Remus, you startled me." She said, trying to sound casual.
"Sorry." He replied simply. "Mind if I sit down?" He asked.
Hermione looked around and saw that she and Remus were the only ones in the common room. She gulped, "Sure, I got to be going anyway. I've got loads of studying to do in the library." She thought hurriedly, gathering her school bag and books quickly.
"Oh," He said, softly. "Hermione." He said, grabbing her arm before she could dash out. "Are you- did I do something to make you upset?" He asked, worry etched all over his face.
"What? No, no of course not." She said, resisting the urge to grab Remus and kiss him.
"Are you sure? Because it seems like you're avoiding me or something and I just want to know what I did to make you ignore me like you have been." He finished, releasing her arm. Hermione noticed the sad look that often took over the future Remus' eyes.
"No, I'm not avoiding you. I don't know what you're talking about." She said, trying to sound innocent.
"Yes you have. Ever since that night when-" he stopped short, looking down at his shoes and going crimson yet again, "when we kissed." He finished, still looking down.
Hermione was lost for words. True, she had been avoiding Remus but it was for the best. Why didn't he understand that? Instead, he looked sad and helpless and all Hermione wanted to do was grab him in a tight embrace and never let go. But she couldn't and it hurt her more than she would have liked.
"Remus," She began, not knowing what on earth she was going to say. She decided on the truth, maybe after the truth he would leave her alone and understand. "I do like you." At this, his head shot up, in disbelief. "But," She started, his head dropped again at this word, "but we can't. We just…can't. It will never work." She said, trying to control the tears that were threatening to fall.
"Because of my…condition?" He asked quietly, raising his head a little to look at her.
"What? What are you- Oh! No, no. Of course not. That doesn't matter." She said.
"Then what?" He asked, desperation in his eyes.
Hermione gave a big intake of breath and continued, "It's not your 'condition'. It's just; I'm from a different time, a different place. And we just couldn't. It would be wrong." She said, mainly trying to convince herself.
He stared at her. After what seemed like hours he spoke, "Then why did you kiss me that night?" His voice was laced with accusation.
"I don't know why! But I shouldn't have done it. It was a mistake." She said, stung by his harsh tone.
"Oh, so now I'm a mistake?" He asked, his voice getting louder and angrier than Hermione had ever heard it.
"No, quit trying to put words in my mouth!" She replied defensively.
"Well, someone has to try and make you say something. You've been avoiding me all week like I'm some sort of infectious disease!" His voice was now loud and Hermione was thankful that they were the only ones in the common room.
Tears formed behind her eyes. "I thought you of all people would understand why we can't do this! You of all people should have realized what is at stake!" She was practically shouting back, not bothering to block the tears anymore.
"You know what?" He said, his eyes starting to water, "I can't wait for you to go back! I wish you had never come!"
Hermione opened her mouth in shock. How could he say that? "Well I've got news for you! I wish I would've never come back either! I wish I would've never met you!" She screamed, tears now freely falling. She turned on her heel and bolted toward the portrait hole, not looking back. Once out of the hole, she found an unused classroom. She locked the door and collapsed onto a desk and cried her heart out. How could he say those things? How could he be so harsh with her? It wasn't like they were going steady or anything. Hell, he wasn't even her boyfriend! A kiss doesn't automatically mean you are going out. She cried harder and louder as she let Remus' last words, "I wish you had never come!" flooded through her. Did he really mean that? Did he really regret even meeting her? Maybe it's better this way. When it was time for her to go back, it would be easier. But would the future Remus hate her too? She sunk into a deep depression. What if she never got home? What if she was stuck here forever? "I just want to go home!" She cried out. She didn't know how long she had been crying before she cried herself to sleep.
A/N So, what did you think? Please tell me your thoughts, comments (good or bad, c'mon I can take it).Thanks again for all the reviews. Remus rocks!