A/N Thank you to everyone who Reviewed! keep them coming!
Serendipity-England-1922 - thanks. I only hope that it'll be as good as you think it will be.
Silenzioso Lupo - haha well you'll have to wait and see who she ends up with ;)
Marie - thankz
Jezabell - glad you like it. thank you for pointing out the 'ron thing'. i changed it, so yeah. He's dead.
amrawo - thanks. well here's your next chapter.
Hilary White - like i said, changed it.
siriusly lupine - glad you love it. yeah, i like to think sirius is kinda sweet and sensative too, but watch out. Everyone knows he's a bit of a playa too! ;)
phoenixtear19 - thankz. I will.
Well here it is..
Chapter II : Let's Dance, Hermione!
Hermione was released from the hospital wing the next day, along with Remus. Remus looked glad to get out, and Hermione was nervous about what would happen now. It was true that Sirius (in the future) had told her not to be scared, but it was hard not to be.
'Two and a half years.' Sirius's voice rang in her ears as she sat alone in the Astronomy Tower. 'She was with us for two and a half years before she mysteriously disapeared.'
Two and a half years was a long time; and she already even missed her family. Or what was left of it. (Both of her parents had been killed, her grandparents were all already dead, Ron was dead... all she basically had was Harry and the members of the Order.) And she especially missed not knowing how her life was going to go.
She hated sitting in the Astronomy Tower thinking of what she knew was going to happen in her life.
"Mya?" She almost fell off of the edge.
"You scared me," she said, breathlessly, her gaze meeting her intruder's.
"Sorry." Sirius sat down across from her. "What are you thinking about?"
Hermione sighed. "Everything. I mean, I always loved not knowing what was going to happen. But now that you - now that I know what's going to happen, it kind of takes away the excitement that I always loved." She looked out at the setting sun.
"Well that makes sense."
"Does it?"
"Mmmhmm." Hermione looked back at Sirius, who's silver eyes were scanning the horizon, a look of sheer content on his face. "I love it up here," he said, looking back at her. "I love the way the colours of the sunset just kind of...bend."
Hermione watched him closely. His eyes were still on the horizon, the glare glinting off of them. She was in awe. She had never met this Sirius. This sensitive, open, serious Sirius. She grinned a bit.
"What?" asked Sirius, glancing at her.
Hermione giggled. "Nothing it's just that... well, in the future, you're not... you're not like this." Sirius smiled. "Well what am I like?"
"That's for me to know and you to find out," said Hermione, standing up.
"Mya?" Sirius asked, standing up to.
"Mmmhmm?"
Hermione saw him gulp as he leaned closer a bit.
"Never mind," he said, leaning back.
XzXzX
Remus watched as Mya and Sirius entered the Common Room. He had never seen Sirius act this way. It was kind of funny, actually. He kept looking at her in this really wierd way... Remus couldn't even describe it.
But he had never looked at a girl that way. Sirius, the play-boy of Gryffindor, had been seen with many girls, but never in all of his years had Remus seen Sirius look at any girl the way that he looked at Mya.
It made Remus jealous, really. There, right in front of him, was a beautiful, smart, amazing girl that accepted Remus for what he was, even knew within minutes, and she seemed to be too distracted be Sirius.
Remus laughed at himself. Had he actually thought that he could get a girl like that?
XzXzX
Hermione walked into the Common Room and the first thing that she was was Remus sitting in a corner. He seemed to be laughing a little, and smiling, she went over to say hi. Sirius followed behind her, a smile plastered on his face too.
"Hey, Remus," she said, winking.
Remus smiled back and responded with a quiet, "Hi."
"Listen, Remus, there are a few classes that I have that Sirius doesn't have, and Mcgonagol said that you had them, so do you think that you could show me around to them?" Remus was taken aback.
"Uh... well... yeah, 'course."
"Thanks," she said. "Wanna come with me down to supper? Sirius says he's ate, and you haven't."
"Well yeah, sure."
The Gryffindor table was pretty full. Remus and Hermione found James and Peter and they sat down across from them. Just as they dug into the food in front of them, a red-head girl with hair to rival the Weasley's came and sat down beside James.
"Hey, Evans," said James setting an arm on her shoulders. The girl responded quickly.
She pushed his arm away and simply said, "Back off, James. You only took me out once, and you haven't even asked be out again. Don't for a second think that I'm 'your girl,' as I hear you've been telling people. We're not officially a couple until we have been out on three dates, and then a week after that even." She turned to Hermione. "Mya, right? Lily Evans." She put out her hand but put it down before Hermione had time to even try to reach for it. "I'm Head-Girl. Dumbledore told me that you'll be sharing a dorm room with me and Rose. Your trunk arrived earlier today." And with that she was gone, leaving a gaping Hermione, a hurt James, and a laughing Remus. Peter had disapeared sometime during Lily's little visit.
"Umm... I've... got... to go." James sped away, calling, "Evans...HEY! EVANS!"
"Well," said Hermione, turning back to her food. "She was... charming." This caused Remus to laugh even harder. "So what was up with her and James?"
"Well," said Remus, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice, "James has fancied Lily for years. Asked her out about two times a day. She always said no. Thought he had an over-inflated ego. Which he probably did. But anyway... So finally this year just kind of out of the blue she says yes. Puts James into a state of shock. He doesn't know what to do. So they go out, and James didn't ask her out again. So now he's kinda in a bit of a rut."
"I can see."
By the end of the day Hermione still wasn't over her first encounter with Lily, and was trying her best to avoid another one. But that plan proved close to impossible.
She was down in the Common room having a good chat with Sirius about Quidditch, (Sirius was attempting to explain it,) when an angry Lily Evans stormed in, followed by a frantic James.
"Evan! Please woman! I said I was sorry! I didn't mean to! Come on!" Lily stormed right up the stairs to the dormitories. James noticed Hermione. "Mya!" He ran over to her. "Oh, please, could you please, please, PLEASE go talk to her for me?" Hermione didn't move. "Please!"
Hermione looked up the stairs and sighed.
Lily was in her bed, curtains drawn, crying. Hermione didn't want to dusturb her too much, so she just spoke from the other side.
"Lily?" she said.
"What?" snapped Lily, angrily and fast.
"Listen, James sent me up to talk to you - "
"I don't want to hear anything that came out of that prat's mouth." Hermione sighed. This was going to be hard.
"Listen, Lily, he didn't say this, but I think... I KNOW that he's head over heals for you. It's more than a crush, let me tell you. He loves you, Lily, he's just waiting for you to show some kind of interest in him."
"Well I went out with him. Isn't that enough?"
"Well, he probably wasn't sure if you liked it enough to go out with him again." Lily cocked her head to the side and looked at Hermione.
"So he didn't mean what he said?"
"Which was?"
"Well, he said 'why do you even care if I go out with you again? You don't even like me!' " Hermione laughed.
"Well after that fit you threw I'm sure that he knows that you do like him." Lily laughed too. "I think you should go talk to him," said Hermione. She followed Lily down the stairs and watched, smiling as they exchanged words, then left out through the portrait hole back to the rest of the castle, James's arm on her shoulders.
"Nicely done, Mya," said Sirius, stepping up beside her. Hermione grinned,
"I know. I'm a genius. No need to praise me," she said, winking at him.
"Well aren't you just full of yourself."
XzXzX
The next week passed quickly, and Hermione found herself enjoying the Marauder's company as she repeated her seventh year. Sirius and Remus were both exceding great, "helping" her out, and James was... James. He seemed pretty caught up in his excalating relationship with Lily to pay too much attention to anything.
It was Peter that made her really curious. She had never found out when he joined Voldemort, all that she knew was that he did. And now, the only time she ever really saw him was during classes. He was never around, and that made Hermione really really nervous.
'I could stop him,' she thought, one night. 'I could stop all of that from happening. It could be a good world, couldn't it? Harry would have his parents. He'd have Sirius. What bad could come of revealing Peter?'
But she was still skeptical.
'You can't. You didn't all the other times, you can't now.'
So far, now didn't.
But what she was doing, was finding herself quite interested in Sirius. She knew that she was supposed to be, but she had never expected herself actually to be. Funny, actually.
It was the day of her first Quidditch game there, though, that anything actually did happen.
Gryffindor had won, 230 to 50 against Hufflepuff.
Tradition had preceeded the Marauder's, for the first thing that Hermione heard as she waited by the gates for James, Sirius, and Remus was "Partyyyyyy!"
The three young men came, James and Sirius carrying their brooms acting pretty roudy, and Remus walking alongside them calmly.
James was Seeker, and Captain, Sirius was a Chaser, and Remus had announced for the game.
"You guys did wonderfully!" said Hermione, grinning.
They grinned back, but Sirius was the only one to speak. "Thanks, Mya," he said. Remus opened his mouth to speak, but Sirius went on. "Come on, you owe me first dance upstairs," he said, and grabbed her wrist, dragging her off. She got one glance at Remus, and she rolled her eyes.
The post-Quidditch parties were quite different from what Hermione was used to. Instead of just food, talking, and drinks with music, people actually danced. Hermione had never danced.
"Come on!" said Sirius, trying to drag her onto the dance floor.
Hermione attempted to procrastinate.
"Oooh, Sirius, let me at least have a drink!" Sirius waved his wand and Hermione held a glass of brownish looking liquid.
"Drink up!"
"What is it?"
"Firewhiskey."
Hermione drank it, skeptically. It burned as she swallowed it, but a good burn.
"Come on!" Sirius repeated, impatiently.
"Fine. But Sirius? I don't know how to dance."
Sirius laughed. "Well, I guess you're about to learn." The music was playing pretty loud, and Hermione could feel every beat. "Just feel the music, and move to it."
Hermione looked at him and said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, "I can't do this." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Yes, you can."
Hermione sighed, and looked to her side. Her gaze met Remus's, and she rolled her eyes again. Remus grinned and took a sip of his drink.
"Come on, Mya. At least try."
Hermione turned back to Sirius. She - again - sighed. "Fine."
She let the music guide her, and it was pretty easy.
"See," said Sirius, "Piece of cake."
He moved his hands, pulling Hermione's to his shoulders then moving his down to her hips.
XzXzX
"So you mean it'll be two and a half years before we see her again?" said Harry, angrily. He had lost Sirius, Ron, his parent, Dumbledore, and now, Hermione. Sirius had came back, sure, but it didn't change the pain he had gone through when he had died.
"Well we don't know. It was two and a half years there, but maybe she'll come back to our time. Maybe she'll be sent back so another time; like right now for instance. WE DON'T KNOW."
Sirius hated explaining everything over and over. But the only thing he had left out in talking to Harry, was that he had fallen in love with her. He knew that that would break Harry's heart, though Harry himself was not in love with her.
"Of course you don't! You don't even care! You didn't know her the way I did!"
And that was when Sirius lost it.
"No, I DIDN'T know her the way you did! I knew her better than you EVER did! I missed her for TWENTY YEARS, Harry! I LOVED her! When she disappeared I was more heartbroken than you could EVER know! Don't you DARE EVER say that AGAIN!" He turned on his heel and exited the room.
XzXzX
Hermione laughed and took another sip of her Firewhiskey. It was great to just... have fun for once in her life. She couldn't remember the last time that she just... wasn't so set on her grades and work and saving the world.
James and Lily were nowhere to be seen, nor Peter, but Hermione was having fun anyway with Remus and Sirius, and after a couple dances with each of them she felt a bit looser than she usually did.
"So, having fun?" Sirius asked, leaning against the wall beside her.
"Mmhmm..." Hermione watched the crowd. The tower was pretty packed full...
"How about another dance?"
Hermione shook her head. "Still a bit tired."
"Well let's get away from the crowd."
"What about Remus?" He had gone to get another drink.
"He'll be fine!" said Sirius, shrugging.
Hermione sighed and followed Sirius out of the portrait hole, and up to the Astronomy Tower.