Chapter 2 - More Than That
A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, hehe. This is a SS/HG and LM/GW story, enjoy. Please read and review. :)
Present time:
Severus tossed and turned in his bed, visions of two of his students invaded his mind. He could see a younger version of himself talking with Miss Granger….Lucius and Miss Weasley were there too. He watched himself looking surprised as Miss Granger defended him from two of the marauders…..Severus woke up and bolted upright in his bed….it was only a dream…but then why could he remember a certain know-it-all and a red-haired girl in his past? He gritted his teeth as he got up…Albus…he had something to do with this…Severus pulled on his robe and walked out into his living room towards his fireplace. He stepped inside the fireplace and grabbed some floo powder, throwing it on the ground he shouted "Albus' office!"
Albus yawned as he got up and headed into his office. He was surprised to see Severus appear in his fireplace. He saw the angry expression on his young colleague's face and conjured a chair for him to sit down, Albus sat down at his desk. "Good morning Severus…it's a bit early….what brings you here?"
Severus glared at him. "You know damn well why I'm here! Why did you send Miss Granger and Miss Weasley back in time! Did you think I wouldn't notice my memories changing!"
The Headmaster stared at him for a moment before speaking, his blue eyes sparkling. "Severus, I actually sent Miss Granger back in time…Miss Weasley accidentally went back with her….she was sent to stop Lucius from ever becoming a death eater….apparently she has decided to also try and stop you from doing the same thing."
Severus stared at Albus…he was shocked to say the least…he couldn't believe the headmaster could be so stupid. "Albus! You do realize that if I'm having these flashbacks, then Lucius is too! Why did you have her of all people go?"
"Because she has a time turner and is one of the brightest witches to ever grace this school, she knows what she's doing, she agreed to it and I'm sure Miss Weasley is doing her best to help."
Severus groaned and put his head in his hands…he did not want two of his students meddling in his past.
Albus smiled at his colleague, he knew Lucius would have dreams as well…it was all a part of his plan.
Hermione yawned as she got up and began getting dressed, she was not a morning person but she knew they had to go to Hogsmeade before class started. She tried to pull her jeans on and she yelled at Ginny to get up. Hermione felt her foot get caught in her jeans and yelped as she fell on the floor. She could hear laughing and looked up to see Ginny smiling at her as she got up.
"Ha..ha..ha…not funny." Hermione smirked as she finished pulling her pants on. The red-head grinned at her as she summoned her clothes and began to get dressed.
Both girls walked on down to the Great Hall, waving at Lily and James, who were eating breakfast as they headed towards the Head Table.
"Ah, Miss Weasley, Miss Granger, what can I do for you two?" The headmaster asked, his blue eyes twinkling. A younger Minerva McGonagall smiled at the two girls as she turned to talk to Madame Pomfrey.
Hermione smiled at the sight of one of her favorite professors and turned to look at the Headmaster. "We were wondering if we could go to Hogsmeade for some school supplies and clothes…um we would need some money though."
The Headmaster thought about it for a moment before replying. "Yes, you may go, just be back in time for your classes…..I'll have the money issue taken care of, just tell the owners of the stores you go into to owl me."
Hermione and Ginny thanked him and then turned around to head out of the Great Hall.
Sirius saw them leaving and decided to accompany them. Remus and James rolled their eyes at him as he ran up to the girls.
Both girls jumped as Sirius wrapped his arms around them. "Where are you two lovely ladies off to this morning?"
"Hogsmeade." Ginny said as she tried to casually slip out from under his arm.
Sirius pulled her closer and Hermione removed his arm from her person. "Well then I shall accompany you two there."
"That's not necessary Sirius, thank you for the offer but we can take care of ourselves." Hermione said, hoping he would leave.
"I insist, I have nothing else to do anyways." He grinned as they walked out of the Great Hall, Ginny still trying to get out of his grasp.
Severus and Lucius had started up a conversation about the dark arts at their table, how the professor teaching the course was a complete dunderhead, when Lucius' eyes grew dark as he noticed Sirius with his arm around Ginny. He couldn't understand why it bothered him, but it did. He wanted nothing more than to hex that imbecile. Severus noticed his friends expression and raised an eyebrow. Lucius quickly turned his gaze elsewhere. "What?" He snapped at Severus.
Severus smirked at him and began to eat his breakfast.
As soon as they walked out of Hogwarts, Ginny casually got out of Sirius' grasp and began walking in front of him and Hermione towards Hogsmeade.
Once they got there they began to shop around, looking for school supplies and clothes. Hermione slipped into the bookstore after buying some clothes in a store Ginny had dragged her into while Ginny went to try on clothes at one of the shops. Sirius tagged along with Hermione as she walked around the bookstore.
"Your friend is really pretty." He said causally as he looked at the various books lining the shelves. "Is she seeing anybody?"
Hermione tried to stifle a chuckle as she replied. "Umm…she's not really into dating right now."
"Oh she will be." He said with a cocky smile.
Hermione rolled her eyes as she picked out some potions books. "Sure she will."
Sirius just grinned as they walked through the store.
Thirty minutes later they met up with Ginny and began to head back to Hogwarts.
"Ginerva….I was wondering…." Ginny groaned at the use of her full name. "How about you and I go out sometime…we could come back to Hogsmeade for dinner or something." Sirius smiled at her.
"I don't think so Sirius…and it's Ginny." She said as they walked into Hogwarts. Hermione chuckled at hearing her response.
Sirius was speechless, no girl had ever turned him down…now he wanted her even more.
"Well thank you Sirius for accompanying us, it was fun." Hermione smiled at him as she and Ginny began heading towards their next class, leaving Sirius standing at the entrance hall in surprise at Ginny's response.
Both girls shrunk their bags and slipped them into their pockets as they entered their potions class. They walked over to some empty seats and sat down together. Ginny cursed as she saw Sirius entering the class behind Lily. Lily smiled at the girls and walked over towards them, sitting down next to Ginny. She sighed in relief as she watched Sirius take a seat next to James and Remus.
Soon the entire class had arrived and the professor was setting up instructions for the lesson, he finished and turned to the class as he looked at his list of the students in his class.
"Class we have two new students, Miss Ginny Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger, Gryffindor 7th years." Professor Slughorn announced as he tapped his wand on the board in front of him. Instructions for a sleep draught appeared on it, he turned to the class and began to pair everyone off. "Miss Evans and Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black and Mr. Potter, Miss Weasley and Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Snape and Miss Granger…"
Ginny and Hermione glanced at each other before moving towards their partners. They figured the Headmaster had spoken to the professor about their situation.
Lucius sneered as Ginny walked towards him and sat down next to him. She proceeded to ignored the looks he was giving her.
Severus groaned in frustration at having to have a partner, glaring at Hermione as she took a seat next to him. "Just stay out of my way." He growled as he set up the cauldron.
Hermione rolled her eyes at him as she reached for the ingredients and began chopping them up precisely. Severus watched her out of the corner of his eye as he finished setting their cauldron up. He was amazed at how concentrated she seemed, usually he got paired up with idiots.
Lucius propped his feet up on the desk and leaned back in his chair. Ginny began to work on the ingredients and then noticed Lucius sitting back in his chair, she stared at him for a moment before speaking. "Aren't you going to help me?"
He smirked at her. "No…it's much more fun to watch you do all the work."
She glared at him and aimed her wand at his chair, before he could do anything, his chair flew out from under him. He landed with a thud on the floor. He felt his face burn in embarrassment as he glared daggers at the red head before speaking. "What the hell!" He shouted. Everyone including the Professor stopped what they were doing to watch the scene before them.
Ginny stood over him. "You can sit there looking like a bloody idiot or you can help me with this potion." She hissed as she turned back to their assignment.
Lucius stood up quickly, trying to retain some of his dignity, he glared at his classmates before turning to help Ginny. Everyone went back to their work.
"You stupid girl." He mumbled under his breath as he began mixing ingredients into their potion. He was actually surprised and somewhat intrigued by this girl, no one had ever stood up to him before. She did not seem to fear him and had even managed to get him to help her with the potion. He felt confused, especially since he felt jealous at seeing Black putting his arm around her earlier…he barely even knew the girl! His thoughts were interrupted as Ginny spoke.
She sighed. "Don't call me stupid, you were the one refusing to help me."
He glared at her. "A Malfoy doesn't do the dirty work." He replied.
"Whatever." She responded as she filled the cauldron with some of the ingredients.
"Class." The professor spoke up. Everyone turned to look at him. "I have decided that I want you to do a project on the properties of a mandrake root, I want it to be a three foot essay. You are to work with the partner you have be assigned to and turn it in to me next class."
Hermione and Ginny smiled at each other…this was a great way to talk to Lucius and Severus.
Lucius groaned. "Why do I have to get stuck with you for a partner?"
Ginny glared at him and replied. "Why do I have to get stuck with an arrogant git for a partner!"
He was stunned at hearing her call him that, this was the third time she had stood up to him, he was starting to find her very interesting….he defiantly wanted to know more about this girl…he was going to start by looking in the library to see if the two new girls were even from that American school.
"Stupid chit…do not call me arrogant, you don't know me." He growled.
"Don't call me stupid…you don't know me either." She countered.
Lucius could not believe this girl, she just kept coming back at him. Finally they quit arguing and began working in silence on the potion until the professor had them copy notes for their homework assignment.
Soon the class had ended and Hermione, Severus, Ginny, and Lucius walked out along with the rest of the class.
"Let's go to the library so we can research this project." Hermione said to Severus as she turned to walk towards the library.
"Whatever." Severus said as he walked beside her, he was not going to have some Gryffindor leading him around.
Ginny began walking towards the room of requirement with Lucius following behind her.
"Where are we going?" He asked.
"You'll see, I stumbled across this place yesterday." She lied, she had almost forgotten that she wasn't suppose to know her way around Hogwarts.
Lucius looked at her suspiciously as he walked behind her.
Sirius and James dueled against each other in front of the library, hoping to run into Hermione who had the same project to do as them. Remus rolled his eyes at the two boys as he went inside the library to find a book to read.
Sirius stopped dueling with James as he saw Hermione coming towards them. "Hey Hermione, are you… Snivellus…what are you doing here?" He smirked at him as he saw him walking next to Hermione.
Severus glared at him. "Sod off Black."
Sirius laughed at him as he aimed his wand at him. "No need to be mean." James chuckled as he also pointed his wand at him. "Yeah…Snivellus…no need to be rude."
Severus drew his wand and aimed it at both of them, prepared to duel with them.
Hermione felt herself beginning to get very angry at seeing Sirius and James picking on Severus. She took her own wand out and walked in between the three of them, her wand pointing at Sirius and James. "Enough! Put your wands down! Now!" She growled.
"Hermione move out of the way." James said. Hermione shook her head.
Sirius advanced towards her. "Why are you protecting him?"
Before she could reply, Severus shoved her out of the way as James tried to hex him, narrowly missing Hermione.
Hermione stumbled as she tried to not fall over, looking over she saw Severus raising his wand at James. She quickly made her way towards them and stood in between them. "Stop, you'll just get into trouble." Hermione said to Severus. He slowly lowered his wand, in shock at her behavior…no one had ever stood up for him before.
Hermione turned towards the two marauders. "Why are you doing this?"
"It's just for fun." Sirius replied, James laughed as he nodded his head in agreement.
"Fun? You call picking on someone else fun? His name is SEVERUS by the way….I cannot believe you two…you damn near hit me with that hex too!" She shouted at them.
Sirius and James both looked at their feet as she yelled at them. "I'm sorry Hermione." Sirius apologized.
"Yeah, I'm sorry too, I didn't mean to almost hit you with that hex." James said.
Hermione glared at them. "But your not sorry for trying to hit Severus! Why don't you say you're sorry to him?"
"Why would we apologize to him? He's a Slytherin! Why are you even standing up for him?" James yelled, getting frustrated with her for sticking up for the Slytherin.
"I don't care what house he's in! I'm working with him on the project we were assigned in class, and he acts more mature than you two!" Hermione shouted as she turned to Severus. "Come on, let's go into the library like we were going to in the first place."
Severus nodded and smirked at the two surprised boys as they walked by them and headed inside the library. As they sat down, Severus found himself intrigued by this girl. He was so sure she was going to turn on him and start playing pranks on him like the marauders, but she had proven him wrong. He was sort of mad that a girl stood up for him but the looks on Potter and Black's faces were priceless. Looking over at her he realized she was talking, she seemed to be waiting for an answer. "What did you say?"
Hermione repeated her question. "Do you want to go and look for the books to research this project or go over our notes first?"
Severus thought for a moment before replying. "Let's go over the notes."
They began reading through their notes and were getting along for a while.
Suddenly Hermione decided to ask Severus about Sirius and James. "Do they always pick on you like that?"
Severus looked up at her. "Excuse me?"
"Do Sirius and James always do that to you?" She repeated herself.
"That is really none of your concern…but yes." He sneered at her….who was she to ask him such a question?
Hermione saw his expression and immediately wished she hadn't asked that question. "I'm sorry." She said.
"It's..fine." Severus replied as he continued working on their project.
Present Time:
Sirius sat down in Remus' office and helped himself to some tea, he started to talk to him when his mind began drifting towards the past….he could see himself talking to a red-haired girl….Lily…no…another girl came into view…a brown haired girl…bushy hair…her face…Hermione Granger! He nearly spilled his cup of tea all over him as he watched himself flirting with them.
"Sirius? Sirius? Sirius!" Remus shouted.
Sirius snapped out of it and stared at Remus. "You are not going to believe what I just saw Moony."
"Actually, I think I know what you saw…are you having flashbacks from the past?"
Sirius nodded.
"I asked you here for tea so I could tell you…Albus told me to let you know that Miss Granger has voluntarily gone back into the past to stop Lucius and Severus from ever becoming involved with Voldemort…..and that you may see flashbacks if she or Miss Weasley, who accidentally traveled with her, talk to your younger self." Remus explained.
Sirius sat in shock for a few moments before speaking. "You mean…what I saw…was true?"
Remus nodded.
"Merlin…I hit on Hermione and Ginny!" He shouted.
Remus suppressed a laugh as he watched his friends expression. "Hmm…you always were after the ladies weren't you?"
Sirius glared at him as he drank some of his tea.
"So…how did you find this room?" Lucius asked, his eyebrow raised in question as he looked around the room. He was surprised she knew of this room, he'd only been here one other time and it was a hard room to locate. He watched as it changed into a library.
Ginny tried to think of something to tell him. "Like I said….I stumbled across it yesterday on my way to Gryffindor Tower."
"I see..." He looked at her suspiciously as she began to lay out their notes on the table. They took a seat on the sofa and Ginny began to go over their notes.
"You barely took any notes on the project we were assigned." Ginny said as she tried to read his messy handwriting.
Lucius smirked. "I don't find it necessary to take notes when I can remember what's being said."
Ginny looked at him. "Well then what do you remember?" She asked.
He began to go into detail about the properties of a mandrake root, Ginny was surprised he actually paid attention in class.
Severus and Hermione were still working on their project, they were almost finished. A few students stared in awe at seeing a Slytherin and Gryffindor actually working together. Severus noticed this and glared at them, the students quickly turned their attention elsewhere. Finally they finished the project and stood up to leave, it was getting to be lunch time. They began to walk in silence towards the Great Hall with Severus holding onto their homework assignment.
They walked into the Great Hall and Hermione smiled at Severus. "See you later."
Severus nodded and replied. "Okay." He headed towards his table and sat down . A plate of food appeared in front of him and he began to eat.
Hermione glared as she saw Sirius and James sitting at the table, she sat across from them and ignored them as they tried to talk to her. She struck up a conversation with Lily and Remus about the homework in potions, after a while she began to wonder what was taking Ginny so long when she looked over at the entrance to the great hall. Hermione watched as Ginny and Lucius appeared at the entrance, Ginny looked extremely pissed off and proceeded to slam her foot down on Lucius' foot. His face contorted in pain as he cursed loudly and began yelling at her. She tried not to laugh at the scene as Ginny stormed off towards her, Lucius' headed towards his own table, limping as he walked.
Ginny sat down, her face flushed from anger. "I can't believe that git!" She shouted.
"What happened?" Lily asked. Hermione nodded. "Yeah, what happened?"
"Stupid git was helping me with the homework assignment when he decided to go off with some of his slytherin friends! He just left me there with the project and then showed up at the last minute to walk with me to lunch! He expected me to do all the bloody work! I didn't even bother with it, I just left it unfinished and then headed over here, he followed me and was asking why I didn't finish it…and then you saw me stomp on his foot…it was quite funny seeing his expression." Ginny laughed as she began to eat.
Hermione, Remus, and Lily laughed as they also began to eat.
Severus tried not to smile as he saw what happened between the red-haired girl and Lucius. His blonde haired friend sat down next to him and began ranting about the girl. Severus just shook his head at him.
Hermione decided to take a quick shower before their Transfiguration class started. She took out her shopping bags from her robe and resized them. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and walked out towards the bathroom.
Ginny began to change her clothes and wore her new skirt and tank top under her robes. Once she finished changing she decided to put her hair back in a bun and apply some makeup while she waited on Hermione.
Severus and Lucius walked into Transfiguration and sat down with their house. Severus was surprised when he saw Hermione and Ginny walking into the class and looking for seats. Lucius glared at the red head and turned to Severus. "Why do they keep showing up in our classes? This is the second time." He hissed. Severus just shrugged and opened his transfiguration book.
Minerva McGonagall walked into the classroom and sat down at her desk. "Hello class, today we will begin trying to transfigure the cup on each of your desks into a cat." She grabbed a cup out of her desk and set it down. She proceeded to demonstrate the lesson. Soon, she had everyone else trying to do the same thing, Hermione got hers right on the first try and Ginny made her cup sprout a tail. Lucius was getting frustrated as he tried to transfigure his cup, his cup ended up having a tail and four legs. Severus finally made his cup transfigure into a cat on his third try, he glared at Hermione as he watched her get it right the first time.
Soon, Professor McGonagall dismissed the class and Hermione and Ginny made their way towards the Great Hall for dinner.
Sirius and James spotted the two walking out of their class and headed towards them.
Hermione saw them and turned to talk to Ginny, ignoring her confused expression. "Umm…I think they want to talk to you 'Mione."
She sighed and turned around to face them. "What?"
"We're sorry for what happened earlier…we'll…um…well…we'll..apologize to Sni…..Severus…we just don't want to be enemies with you…I am so sorry about almost hexing you too." James said. Sirius nodded his head in agreement.
Hermione smiled at them. She highly doubted they meant it when they said they were going to go and apologize to Severus….but she'd make them. "Well as long as you two apologize to him…then okay….I'll stop ignoring you…you're both forgiven." James grinned at her and gave her a hug, Sirius turned her around and hugged her too.
"We may not know much about you two..but you're both our friends and in our house." He smiled.
Ginny just looked at them all with a confused look on her face. "What is going on?"
Hermione laughed. "I'm sorry Ginny, I forgot to tell you…I'll tell you over dinner."
"That would be nice." She said sarcastically as they made their way into the Great Hall. Sirius tried to put his arm around Ginny again but she shrugged him off.
Severus watched as they walked in, he felt angry at seeing the girls talking with two of the marauders…what happened to Hermione being angry with them?
Lucius watched as his friend glared at Black and Potter, he wanted to hex the both of them, especially Black, he was too close to Ginny for his liking…..wait, since when did he even care about some girl he hardly even knew? He mentally slapped himself for his line of thoughts and tried to distract himself by talking with Severus.
Hermione and Ginny yawned as they walked towards their common room. "I'm gonna go to bed so I'll talk to you in the morning." Ginny said as she made her way to their dormitory.
"Goodnight Ginny." Hermione replied as she sat down on the couch, she summoned a book to her and began to read, enjoying the heat from the fireplace.
"We are going to the library." Lucius announced as he dragged Severus with him from the Great Hall.
"Why, you never like going in there unless you have to." Severus said as they entered the library.
"I am going to do a little research." Lucius smirked as he walked over to the section that had yearbooks.
Severus shook his head and sat down at a nearby table. He conjured a book and began to read while Lucius went through a stack of yearbooks.
"I knew it!" Lucius yelled suddenly. Severus looked up from the book he was reading and stared at his friend.
"You knew what?"
"They lied to us!"
"Who lied to us?"
"Those girls! They aren't from that American school." Lucius said.
"How do you know?" Severus asked.
"They aren't in any of the yearbooks." Lucius replied. "They have some explaining to do…they know more about this school then they've told us."
Severus gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"
"They are hiding something….I just know it….we are going to go and talk with them tomorrow."
"We? I don't think so…" Severus trailed off as he was interrupted by Lucius.
"Yes, you are coming with me. Ginny and Hermione are hiding something…that Ginny girl knew about the room of requirement…she said she stumbled across it…she had to have known about it beforehand…that room is hard to just stumble across." Lucius explained.
"Well this had better be good or I'm going to hex you for wasting my time tomorrow." Severus hissed as they got up and began to walk out of the library.