Disclaimer: I would love to own Harry Potter, but I feel that would be optimistic to the point of foolishness.
Authors Note: REJOYCE! For today, we fully understand the nature of the time travel of Hermione Granger.
The winners of the Prank-Off were Remus and Peter, who had earned detentions until the end of the year. Sirius and James were following close behind by a month, so they didn't lose by much.
"How did Dumbledore know who it was, though?" Hermione asked incredulously of a chuckling Remus.
"Well, he knows that the first day of the year is always the day of the Annual Prank-Off. In his heart, he doesn't really mind, but he does have to punish us. He knows that whoever gets the most detentions wins, so in a way, he's kind of like the judge." Remus responded with a sentimental look of fondness for the insane old coot.
"How do you know he doesn't mind? You knocked out seven people and five others were on the ceiling?" Hermione replied with a look of disbelief on her face.
"He complimented us on a job well done, and said this was our best year yet. Also, after all the other teachers were gone he gave us each 20 points to Gryffindor" Remus grinned slyly.
"Oh…"
Hermione picked up the Daily Prophet, and read with tears in her eyes. There had been an attack by Voldemort on her hometown. She scanned carefully through the listings of people dead and injured. She read it through twice, but didn't see her parent's or grandparent's names on the hauntingly long list. Relief flooded through her, but she couldn't stop the tears from streaming down her face.
"Are you alright, Hermione?" Remus asked with concern in his voice.
"I'…I'm fine," Hermione replied, wiping away the small droplets from her glistening cheeks, "Attack on my hometown. My family survived, thank God, but my town is destroyed." She felt kind of silly as she found herself crying on his shoulder. Nothing happened to your family and your town will be rebuilt. You are going to be born there in a couple of years, Remember? If anything happened to your family, then you wouldn't be born, so you don't have to worry. She argued to herself But what if something DOES happen to your family, because you don't do anything about it! He's gaining strength. You need to do something to stop it! Her other half replied. "Sorry. I know they'll rebuild it, but it shocked me."
Dumbledore came up behind them. "Miss Granger, are you alright?" he said seriously. "I'm fine professor. Attack by Voldemort on my hometown, kind of shocked me." She replied, still mopping her face. "I see," He replied. "Would you come with me for a moment?" It wasn't a question as much as a suggestion. She complied, and walked with him silently to his office, taking a seat in the large squishy chair in front of his desk.
"I have been researching your unusual predicament. I have found out some rather important information.
"In times where it is so obvious that something is not right in the world, your own magic will set to work. This sends you to the past,occasionally to different locations or to the future. It is something that Merlin himself didn't quite understand.
"But in his studies of the fragile sands of time, he did discover a piece of information that has proved consistent in rare cases like your own. It takes more than the need to fix past mistakes to alter time like you have done. A person can get over a death, or even many if they are strong willed, and not contemplate it or simply decide to forget it. Merlin said in his case studies, it was almost always a death that caused a person to go back, in conjunction with the deep emotional stress that you have to endure during that time.
"My guess is that you were not only sent back to fix fate's deadly mistakes, but also because of depression or anguish. A feeling of emptiness, if you will. If your time can't offer condolence or satisfy your needs, then perhaps another time can. I believe that may have been the case with you. Am I hitting the nail square on the head or am I off?" He finished with a questioning look. Hermione simply nodded as Remus' face floated to the top of her mind.
"I have a question, Dumbledore. Erm…how did you know my name the first day I was here? I don't remember telling you." She asked quietly.
"Legilimency. Normally, I could not get something as strong as your name, normally I'd get just a sense of whether you were lying or not, and your basic emotions. But you were so confused; you were quite easy to read. I am assuming you know what Legilimency means." He replied.
Dumbledore looked at her inquisitively, as if asking for something more from her. A sudden idea popped into her head, and as she mulled it over silently for several seconds she decided it would be for the best to tell him.
She cleared her throat. "Dumbledore, sir, have you started the Order of the Phoenix yet?" she inquired. Dumbledore looked bewildered and shook his head.
"The reason I ask is that the Dark wizard, Voldemort, is currently rising to power. In the future, you start an organization called the Order of the Phoenix, which devotes their funds, efforts, and often lives to fighting Voldemort. No offense to you, but I believe you started a tad too late. I suggest you recruit members now, before Voldemort's power is absolute and his network is as vast as it is in my time. I'd advise you to start with the Potters and Alastor Moody. Be sure to get the giants and other magical creatures on your side; they play a key role in his army in my time. You can save many innocent lives if you start the Order up as soon as possible."
Dumbledore did not seem fazed in the slightest by this information. Instead, he merely nodded and said in a gracious tone of voice, "Thank you, Ms. Granger, I'll get right on that."
Hermione nodded and left the tower, wondering how the wizened old wizard who had been sitting in front of her could take such things in stride.
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Hermione was glad to find Remus at the bottom of the stairs. He mumbled with a rather embarrassed look on his face, "I just wanted to make sure you were ok."
Hermione hugged him and said, "I'm fine. It's nice that you would wait for me like that." She couldn't help but notice how nicely toned his muscles were through his old shirt. They walked back to the dormitory, where they found James and Sirius playing wizarding chess, and Peter watching the game with an interested look on his face. Instead of the usual leap of joy that accompanied the sight of the wonderful people before her, all she could feel was a lump in her throat. Rather than laughing at the possibilities of the next stupid thing Sirius would say, she found herself wondering whether they would die despite the fact that she knew quite a bit about the future and how she would try to fix it so they would live.
Over the next few weeks, Hermione took to being very quiet and spending hours in the library. Sleep abandoned her, because every moment of the day and night she spent thinking about whether she had altered the future positively or negatively, even by little things like saying hello to Moaning Myrtle, or giving Peter a piece of her chocolate.
I wonder why this has come on now, though. She contemplated one night. I mean, for the first couple of weeks, I was just happy to see them alive, and happy and carefree, especially Peter. Now all I do is worry.
She figured that it must just be the realization that things were not the same in her time, and that it had just sunk in that there was a huge weight on her shoulder to save the people that she loved, and the people that Harry never got to love.
Remus was starting to worry about her. She had bags under her eyes as though she never slept, and was spending hours in the library and the Girl's Dormitory. She also seemed worried, and her temper flared up at the slightest provocation.
Finally, Remus decided that he had to talk to her about it. She looked like she was about to die, and Remus couldn't bear seeing her like that. Yeah, and you're hoping you get asked out for being the sensitive, caring type!
That is not what this is about. This is about actually being sensitive and caring. This is about-
Shut up, brain!
He caught her coming out of the library one Friday. "Hermione, we need to talk. Come with me." He took her up to the hallway where the Room of Requirement was, did the whole routine that the door required, and opened up the door to a room with a couch and a fireplace. He figured they would be comfortable there.
"Hermione, you haven't been sleeping, you barely eat, and you just came out of a three hour library binge. Are you okay?" He asked gently.
"Yes, I'm fine," She snapped with an edge to her voice.
"Hermione, you obviously aren't. Please tell me what's wrong," he said seriously.
"I can't tell you," she said desperately, "I just can't."
"Please. It can't be that bad." He replied.
"'It can't be that bad'?" she screeched "It can TOO be that bad! Do you have any idea just how bad it can be"
"erm-" Remus started.
"I'm not a transfer student, Remus. I'm from the future. Trust me Remus, it is that bad."
He looked at her, and uncertainly said, "Are you ok?"
"NO I'm not ok. Do you know what it's like, looking at your best friend's father every day, looking at his godfather every day, looking at a professor you once had every day and knowing exactly what's in store for them?" She shrieked in an oddly high pitched voice.
"Whatever it is, it can't be bad enough to work yourself up over" he tried to console her.
"YOU HAVE NO IDEA! Do you understand what I see every day? Do you know what happens in the future? You look happy right now. You aren't worn out. The lycanthropy hasn't caught up to you just yet, has it? You live through hell! You lose your best friends in a period of 24 hours. James, Lily, Sirius, they are all DEAD! There isn't a light in your eyes in the future, Remus! You get a brief reminder of James in his son's third year, and you perk up a bit. You find out that Sirius has been jailed for a crime he didn't commit, chained up in Azkaban for 12 years until he figured out a way to escape, and your world looks up a bit until he dies two years after that. And I get sent back, to either fix it or watch it happen all over again. Do you know the pressure, knowing you hold the lives of so many in your hands? Knowing that if you slip up just a little something horrible will happen, or you'll watch history repeat itself? James has a son in the future, named Harry, who is my best friend. James never sees Harry to two years old. Every time I look at you all, the famous Marauders, I can't help but remember the suffering Harry, our friends, and I have to go through every day, and that I have to fix it!" she finished, and she broke out in broken sobs, tears streaming down her face.
Remus pulled her into a slightly awkward hug, patting her on the back. She threw her arms around him and bawled into his shoulder. She has been bottling this up for ages; she just needs to let it out. That was Remus logic. When he noticed that she had quieted down a bit, he sat her up a bit and picked up her head with his hand.
"Hermione, I promise that even if the worst happens and the entire world is wiped out, I will not blame you for a second. That is entirely too much pressure to have placed on you. And don't worry, you still get several more years of Sirius, James, Peter, and I with our dashing good looks and charm," he joked, hoping to lighten her mood a bit, "Now look at me." She looked up slowly. "Anything that happens to us is not your fault. Please come be our friends again, or at least spend more than five minutes with us, Sirius has been pining for you." She nodded, teardrops still pouring down her face.
She threw her arms around him again, burying her face in his shoulder again, still crying. "I'm so sorry. I probably shouldn't have told you your future. I felt like I was going to explode. And I'm sorry for sitting here crying like an idiot on your shoulder. I feel so stupid." She sat up and smiled. "Thank you for listening. Can you promise me you won't tell any of that to Sirius, James, Lily, or Peter? I don't want to tell them just yet, I'm not ready to tell them yet."
Remus nodded, and Hermione slid back into her own seat.
They sat in silence for several moments, before Hermione spoke again.
"You know that potion you got as a Secret Santa gift?" Remus nodded. "Well that was from me. Well it won't be invented for twenty more years, so I did it from memory. Did it work?
Remus smiled, and replied, "Wonderfully. I didn't have any bruises or broken bones or anything."
Again, a comfortable quiet settled over them,
Hermione smiled as she thought of Harry again. "You know the Marauders Map?" Hermione asked. Remus smiled and nodded. "Well, Harry, James' son gets it, along with the Invisibility Cloak, in the future that is. You're very proud of him. He reminds you so much of James. They're the spitting images of each other, you know?"
They again sat in silence, Remus soaking in all that had been told to him. Mainly, that she knew he was a werewolf but didn't hate him. He never immagined that he would ever find anyone aside from the Marauders that would accept him like that.
SEE! You're a perfect match! she doesn't mind that you're a werewolf, and you KNOW you like her!
She has just confided possibly her biggest secret in you, and all you can think about is asking her out!
But maybe she could use some comfort, if you know what I mean-
SHUT UP BRAIN!
Remus quickly stood up. "Here, let's get you back to the common room. Are you ready to go?" She stood up and nodded. When they got to the common room, they noticed it was empty. "They must be at dinner," Remus mused more to himself than Hermione. "Want to head down?" he asked her. She shook her head.
Once again, she threw her arms around him in a tight hug. She stepped back and said, "Thank you for being such a good friend." She threw her arms around him again just as the other Marauders walked in, and as per usual, began whistling.
"Oooh…Remus is getting LUCK-AY tonight" Sirius shouted. Remus and Hermione both jumped back, and at the same time both yelled, "NO Remus is NOT getting LUCK-AY tonight!" and then burst out laughing, as did the rest of the Marauders.
"Glad to see you're back to your normal self," Peter squeaked to Hermione as they quieted down.
"Yeah, me too." She replied, as the boys had to immediately turn around to go to their next detention with Professor McGonagall: catching Cornish pixies which the last class of the day had apparently set loose day after day for a month and a half. Sirius often voiced the sneaking suspicion that McGonagall was just angry and set them lose day after day due to the fact she wanted to torture them because she couldn't admit her undying love for him.
Co-Author's Note: It is quite literally all my fault that this chapter is so late. I'm really, truly sorry, but it has been quite hectic at school for the past few days, I hope you can forgive me.
Earth-Wind-Fire-Ice