Want Chapter 3 – Late Nights, long mornings.

Lily was so enthralled by Hermione's tale of time travel that she wanted to stay up all night contemplating the possibilities and reasons for such an occurrence. Hermione even had to put a silencing charm around their end of the girls' commonroom because of her loud enthusiasm. Though Hermione, of course, was so thrilled to have a new friend that she would have stayed awake for a week telling her story. After a while though, the conversation shifted and they got to talking about other much more interesting things.

"Not as if I'd know them, but what are you friends like? I mean, during your time?" asked Lily from her cross-legged position on her bed, parallel to Hermione's.

"Oh, well, I have two best friends. Ron Weasley and Harry… er – Harry," Hermione said, not so smoothly. Lily didn't seem to notice.

"Oh? What are they like?"

"Well, Ron has bright red hair and a huge family, all so, so kind. He is…. odd. He's sweet when he wants to be but… you know… teenage boys. And Harry is a lot like James except… a little more… livid or confused I guess you could say," but Hermione paused when she saw the look of disgust on Lily's face.

"Why don't you like James?" asked Hermione, feeling almost a little hurt but not really sure why. Perhaps because Lily loathed the closest thing to Harry in this knew time when she truly shouldn't. Hermione couldn't love anyone more then her two best friends. He couldn't be that much different from Harry, could he?

"Why don't I like him!" Lily asked, shifting positions and reaching around the back of her head and pulling all of her ginger hair over her shoulder as an act of handling her frustration. "Well I don't hate him if that's what you mean. But honestly, he acts like a first year sometimes! He has absolutely no respect for her superiors, and he can be so cruel…" Lily trailed off and Hermione narrowed her eyebrows.

"Cruel? Well as long as I've been here those boys have been nothing but kind to me," Hermione said defensively. She didn't know why exactly she was sticking up for them. It was true she didn't really know them yet.

"Well sure, to you," Lily muttered. "To them you're just another girl whose naïve and pretty, who needs help finding her way around They just see it as a perfect opportunity to meet another girl." Hermione was slightly taken aback by this comment. She knew she was new and all which made her a little more vulnerable, but she never thought of herself as naïve. Lily noticed that Hermione was surprised at her words and obviously felt bad when she immediately started changing her words.

"I'm not saying you are, I'm just saying Sirius and James can bring the worst out of people."

"Well who are they mean to then?" Hermione asked now reaching over to the pitcher of water on the mahogany nightstand that sat between their beds and pouring herself a glass of water.

"Have you met Severus Snape yet?" Lily asked looking up. Hermione was just taking a gulp of water and in her attempt not to spit it out everywhere at Lily's words Hermione began coughing vigorously. Lily, startled, stood up, not quite knowing what to do.

"Are you alright?" she asked getting out her wand. "Are you choking? I can fix it right away." Hermione shook her head as her coughing fit ended.

"He goes here!" Hermione questioned loudly. She always knew he went to school with the marauders but it never actually hit her as hard as this. When she'd arrived she hadn't prepared herself, much less expected to see a younger Snape running around also. "I mean… of course he goes here, I - " Hermione clutched her head and flipped a lock of curly brown hair out of her eyes with frustration.

"Do you know him?" Lily asked again.

"Yes, I… he teaches at Hogwarts in my time," Hermione said, eyes out of focus and face screwed up in attempt to understand once again how she came to be here.

"Really? What a relief. Some are beginning to doubt his motives and whether he'll grow to become a dark wizard or not," Lily sat back, relaxed now, almost as though this was what she'd been waiting to hear and now she was ready to sleep. Hermione didn't want to talk about Snape's motives right now though. That was beside the point.

"Do James and Sirius make fun of him often?" Hermione asked. She knew about the one incident in the pensive, which Harry had told her and Ron about but she didn't think of it as being an ongoing occurrence.

"If whenever they see him is often to you, then yes," Lily said, now laying down and pulling her covers over her, eyes drooping with fatigue but Hermione stayed sitting up, thinking about what Lily was saying. She listened intently although her mind couldn't help but drift off onto the why and wherefore of such a situation. Was Sirius really as cruel as Lily made him out to be? And James. Was he really all that bad? What about Remus and Peter? That night Hermione dreamed about Ron and Harry. They had come back in time with her and Harry became best friends with Sirius and James. Harry made fun of Snape as well and at one point Lupin turned into his werewolf form and attacked all of them. Thankfully, Hermione woke up before anything worse could happen.

That morning, Hermione managed to wake up with a decent amount of time to organize her books, clothes and homework before heading down to the great hall with her new friend. At breakfast Lily and Hermione sat across from the marauders who all seemed strangely quiet.

"What is it?" Lily asked suddenly in a voice expressing her amazement and surprise at the sight of these four boys behaving so well. "You almost look… civilized."

"A lot on our minds," Remus muttered, referring to their conversations of the night before about the ball, Hermione, Lily. The truth was Peter was always pretty shy, James was trying to impress Lily, Remus was always tired due to his monthly visit to the shrieking shack, and no one really knew why Sirius was so silent. Lily narrowed her eyes and she and Hermione glanced at each other skeptically. Sirius looked up.

"What? You think we're incapable thinking, or something?" He asked, challenging them teasingly and dropping the spoon that he had been stirring around his porridge with for a while now. James laughed.

"The truth is we stayed up pretty late last night," he said. Lily rolled her eyes.

"I can only imagine what you were doing," she said glancing at Hermione again.

"Actually we were talking," Sirius said truthfully, though proudly understanding the fact that they thought otherwise.

"What about?" Hermione asked indifferently as she finished her last strawberry and looked up at him. He looked in her eyes and made her wait, allowing her curiosity to develop. Hermione felt her interest growing and every moment longer that she waited she wanted more desperately to know what they had talked about the night before. Sirius smirked slightly and finally when she thought she couldn't handle it any longer, he responded.

"Our Defense Against the Dark Arts homework," he replied casually, breaking eye contact with her and taking a bite of his porridge. The spell was broken and Hermione sighed and looked away irritatedly, making something inside Sirius chuckle. He loved watching a proud girl struggle with her dignity and willpower. Hermione didn't understand what caused that feeling to come over her. She knew in her future life she was attracted to Sirius in some way but this Sirius was different. He was much more immature, he was arrogant, and he was much too childish for her liking. So why did she want to know what the marauders were talking about the night before? Had she hoped they were talking about her? Her thoughts were broken when Lily stood up in her chair.

"Oh my gosh! I forgot my Potions homework!" she cried. "I have to run back up to the girls dormitory. I'm so sorry, Hermione, I'll have to meet you in there. Will you be okay?" Lily glanced around at the four boys whom she was leaving her with.

"What do you mean 'Will she be okay'?" James asked.

"Yeah, we're the ones Dumbledore put her in charge of," Sirius asked.

"No one is in charge of her," Remus spoke up jadedly.

"Thank you, Remus," Hermione said appreciatively. Sirius rolled his eyes at his exhausted friend for always having to be the mature one and ending arguments. Hermione smiled at Lily.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," she said. And a moment later Lily was gone, sprinting up to the dormitory and out of sight.

"Well, come on. It's almost time for Potions with Professor Karp," Sirius said standing up stretching. Remus, James, and Peter both stood up after him and stepped out of the benches. Hermione did the same except when she picked up her book bag and swung it over her shoulder, Lily's unfinished glass of orange juice was tipped over and its contents were flying directly at Hermione. But before it could spill Sirius had his wand out and the orange juice was reversed, flying back into the glass in seconds. The marauders all chuckled except for Sirius who was just shaking his head slowly and grinning in disbelief. Hermione was completely embarrassed turning several shades of pink, as she stayed frozen in her position halfway out of her seat.

"Sirius, you coming?" James asked after the laughter had cooled down. Sirius still hadn't stopped grinning at the humiliated Hermione, now slightly pitying her for having to undergo humiliation twice in one sitting.

"You guys go ahead. Looks like our new friend here could use some help," he replied with a smile. "So, Hermione you want me to come around and help you out of you chair, or what?" he teased as the marauders walked away.

"I'm sure I can handle it," she replied sarcastically as she stepped out of her chair completely and began heading towards the door. Sirius walked around to meet her so that he could accompany her to class. Next was potions and Hermione only hoped she could make it through the class without spilling something again.