Disclaimer: I don't own any Harry Potter characters…not one!
Author's Note: Okay, a little bit about this chapter before you start reading…there's a lot of dialogue in this chapter, it's not all dialogue, but there's quite a bit of it. Also, Hermione has to go under a fake name in this chapter, if you don't like the one I chose, I'm sorry. And last but not least, I made Lily a little bit strange. She's really hyper all the time and sounds kind of mental, but I enjoy writing her parts, so I hope you enjoy reading them! Oh yes, and Hermione's thoughts are in italic. I hope this chapter isn't totally mind-boggling to you guys!
CHOSEN
Chapter 2
Attack On The Train
Hermione's eyes fluttered slowly open and she slapped her hands to her head in pain. She felt a big lump but couldn't feel any blood, so she sat up and looked ahead of her. Hermione jumped a little when she saw that there were five people staring back at her.
Four of them were about her age and the other one was older. The first boy was tall, about 6' with longish black hair. His big brown eyes were staring at her with concern written all over them. The second one was shorter then the first, about 5' 11" with strangely familiar messy jet black hair. He was staring at her with a strange look on his face, as if she had just appeared out of thin air. The third boy was the tallest, close to 6' 3", Hermione guessed and had dark blonde hair that was slightly curly and his blue eyes had a mysterious air to them. The fourth was the shortest one there, about 5' 9", and in Hermione's opinion, looked slightly like a rat. His white blonde hair was thin and he looked as though he was going bald, even though he looked no older then 16. The last man was older with a long white beard, familiar half-moon glasses, and a wonderful twinkle in his eyes. Hermione recognized him immediately.
"Dumbledore!"
Dumbledore's eyes crinkled into a confused frown, "I'm sorry Miss, but have we met?"
It was now Hermione's turn to frown, "Uh, yah, I'm a student at your school. I'm friends with Harr-" Suddenly Hermione took another look at the boys standing around her and gasped. She pulled the chain containing her time turner out of her shirt and smacked her hand to her head. Her time turner was totaled; all that was left was a bit of jagged glass. "Shit."
"Is there something wrong Miss?" Dumbledore asked.
Hermione chuckled shakily at his understatement, "You'd better believe something is wrong," she paused, looking around at the people standing around her, "would it be alright if I talk to you alone for a minute, Professor?"
Dumbledore nodded quickly, "of course." He looked over to the boys and they nodded and silently left, closing the door behind them.
Hermione lifted herself off the floor from were she lay, sort of sprawled on the ground and sat down shakily on the seat.
Dumbledore sat on the one across from her and cleared his throat, "so, I take it you have a bit of explaining to do?"
Hermione nodded slowly then looked at him, "could I ask one question first?"
Dumbledore nodded.
"They boys. The ones that were just in here. Are their names Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew?"
Dumbledore nodded again and Hermione heart slowly sank. He had just confirmed her worst fears. She had traveled back in time. About 20 or so years she gathered.
Hermione took a deep breath, then started to speak, "Umm, I know this is going to sound really weird Professor, but I'm from the future. About twenty years from what I figured out."
Dumbledore frowned, "if you're from the future, how did you get here?"
Hermione sighed, "I have a time turner. Back in the future, I was walking across the compartment to get a book to read when I fell and smashed my head against the compartments wall. I guess I broke my time turner as well. I thought that the jolt I felt meant the train was moving but I guess I hitched a ride into the past instead." Hermione finished her story and then waited for Dumbledore to say something.
"Well that's quite a predicament I'll admit."
When Hermione saw the twinkle in his eyes, she was reassured and knew that Dumbledore would do anything to get her back to the future.
"May I ask you what you name is Miss?"
Hermione smiled, "I'm Hermione Granger."
"Well Miss Granger, I'm afraid I don't know how long its going to take to get you back to the future, so I'll suggest that you go through the sorting with the first years. We'll just say that you're an exchange student from another school, okay?"
Hermione nodded.
"And I don't think that anyone should know about your current situation. I think that it would be safer for everyone else if you keep that bit of information to yourself and I."
Hermione nodded again.
"Also, I don't think anyone should know your real name. Is there a specific fake one that you'd like to assume?"
Hermione thought for a minute, "May Johnson?"
Dumbledore inclined his head to her, "well then Miss Johnson, I don't see the you have any supplies or clothes with you."
Hermione looked around, he was right, her trunk hadn't come with her.
"So I'm going to give you money to buy new clothes. Your supplies will be brought to you by one of the house elves since Diagon Alley is so far away. You can just go to Hogsmeade and buy new clothes there. I'm sure there are lots of shops that sell clothes." He handed her a sack.
Hermione shook it and her the jingling sound of coins. "Thank you," Hermione cried, "thank you for everything." She wrapped her arms around him in a hug and Dumbledore smiled and hugged her back.
"You're very welcome Miss Johnson," Dumbledore turned to leave, "oh, and if you want, you can tell the boys outside of you predicament, but be wise with your decision, for they may lead to destruction of the future."
Hermione thought about that while three of the four boys filed back in again. Hermione was glad that Peter wasn't with them anymore; she didn't want to talk about her problems in front of the person that killed Harry's parents.
They all stood there for a few seconds staring at each other before Remus extended his hand to her and said, "Hello, I'm Remus Lupin, and these are my friends, Sirius Black and James Potter."
Both Sirius and James shook her hand and then after a moments pause Sirius asked, "What's your name?"
Hermione came out of her daze and smiled all friendly like, "I'm so sorry, how rude of me! My name is May Johnson. It's very nice to meet you all, I'm in quite a- well let's just say I'm in quite a mess and it's nice to see some sort of familiar faces."
James frowned, "what do you mean 'sort of familiar'. You've just met us."
Hermione sighed then spoke, "Um, I know this is going to sound weird, but-" Just say it, Hermione thought, "I'm from the future, 20 years in fact. I was in my compartment on the train when I tripped and fell. My time turner smashed and brought me here. If you don't believe me, its okay, but I really need a bit of help and if you guys would be my friends, I'd greatly appreciate it."
All three boys looked at each other the smiled, "Friends," they agreed.
Hermione smiled widely, but deep inside all she wanted to do was cry. She was a long time from home and she didn't know if she was ever going to see Harry and Ron again.
Sirius looked at May. She's really beautiful, he thought. If she got cleaned up a bit, she'd look even better. If that's at all possible. He could tell that she was sad, even though she was smiling. She probable missed her friends and family.
Hermione saw Sirius staring at her and blushed a bit. He is really hot, Hermione thought. Actually he's damn sexy. I love his eyes, and the way his hair falls slightly over one eye. Wow.
Just then they were all interrupted by the appearance of a girl. She had shoulder length bright red hair and her jade green eyes shone when she saw James. "There you guys are! I've been looking for you EVERYWHERE. Ally is waiting in a compartment in case you showed up, but I was getting impatient so I went looking for you," just then the girl saw Hermione and she frowned, "I've never seen you before. Do you go to Hogwarts? What's your name? I'm Lily by the way, Lily Evans."
Hermione opened her mouth, speechless for a moment before answering, "Err, hi. I'm May Johnson. I think its safe to say I know you, sort of."
Lily grinned, "Its nice to meet you May, but I don't ever remember meeting you. I'm sorry but could you refresh my memory a little?"
Hermione looked at Sirius, who gave her an encouraging nod, before speaking, "I'm from the future. I kinda had an accident with a time turner and ended up here."
Lily shook her head, "How did you get a time turner?"
"My head of house gave me one so I could make it to all my classes because I was taking so many," Hermione explained.
Lily nodded her head a bit absent mindedly, "Alright, so who knows all this information? Just me, James, Remus, Sirius, and Dumbledore?"
"Yup, that's pretty much it," Hermione agreed.
"Can I tell Ally about this, because she hangs out with us a lot and it would be totally weird if she didn't know the whole story."
"Sure," Hermione didn't want her new friends to not know why she was in the state she was.
Lily smiled, "This is great! If you want I can help you around and stuff."
"That would be awesome," Hermione commented. Lily seemed like she was a really good friend and it seemed as if she was really hyper all the time.
James grinned widely, "Lily is a bit wild and random at times. Just wait till she gets really hyper. Just give her any kind of soft drink and it sets her right off."
Lily smacked James on the arm, "I am not hyper and random…okay maybe sometimes, but not all the time! Are the boys bothering you? If they are I swear, they're not annoying all the time, only half the time…okay, maybe ¾ of the time but what's the difference?" Lily laughed, "I guess we're all a tad bit strange, huh?"
Hermione chuckled at their antics, "its all right, I can get a little weird at times too."
Lily grinned good naturedly, she seemed happy to have someone to talk to. She put on a weird face and started talking a bit retardedly, "Woah, okay, you guys. I'm like, gonna got get silly little Allyster Mallister and then we're gonna fly over…LIKE PLANES! And we're gonna be like, oh, BOO!"
Hermione laughed loudly. From what she had heard, Lily was a total goody-goody, but she was actually really randomly funny. Hermione could tell she was going to enjoy spending time with Lily.
Remus gave her a look that a older sister would give her crazy younger brother, "You go do that Evans."
Lily spit out her tongue at him then laughed sarcastically, "A ha ha ha. I leeeeeeaving. Would you like to come with me May?"
Hermione smiled, "No, if its all right I'm actually going to go get cleaned up in the washroom."
All the boys nodded and both Hermione and Lily got up and went they're separate ways. Hermione heard Lily talking to herself as she walked down the hall.
'May rhymes with say which rhymes with shmay which rhymes with…'Her voice faded off in the distance and Hermione giggled to herself, she had never met such a random person.
Bathroom…Finding the bathroom, Hermione stood in front of the tiny mirror and looked at the lump on her head. It was big and purplish and very ugly. Hermione grimaced and pulled her wand out of her pocket. Doing a quickly healing spell, she watched as the lump shrunk into her head and the purplish color faded back to her normal skin color. Hermione rubbed her eyes tiredly. It seemed like it had been days since she'd had any sleep.
Hermione finished up in the bathroom then left it. Looking further down the hallway between the compartments, she saw a tall figure lean down to pick something up. It was getting dark so she didn't see the figure clearly.
Walking swiftly down the hallway, Hermione called out to the figure, "Hey! What are you doing?"
It jerked into a standing position and rushed into the nearest compartment. Hermione ran after the figure. As she came to the door where it had disappeared into, she stopped. What if it was dangerous? Hermione walked back a few steps and opened another compartment door to see if someone would come with her, but no one was in it. Hermione frowned. That's strange, she thought. Stepping back a few other steps, Hermione check the next one, but there was no one inside it. Weird, Hermione thought. Its like this entire part of the train is deserted.
Hermione decided to not waste anymore time looking for someone. She whipped out her wand and charged into the compartment to find that…no one was there.
Hermione turned in a full circle and didn't see anything. Shaking her head, Hermione turned in a full circle again. She could have sworn that she'd seen the figure go in this compartment.
Deciding to go check other compartments, Hermione was about to step out of the compartment when two strong arms grabbed her and pulled her out through the ceiling. Hermione screamed as she was lifted through the trap door and onto the roof of the train.
Looking at the figure that was holding her, Hermione screamed again. It was about seven feet tall with grayish pinkish skin that hung off its body. Its head was long and ovalish and very bald. Its evil red eyes were narrow little slits and it had no nose and no mouth. Hermione looked down at its hands and saw long claws off the end of each finger.
Hermione didn't have much time to think before it dropped her and then picked her up again, but this time by her feet. It started swinging her around and Hermione screamed again. Letting her go in mid-swing, Hermione went flying and landed hard on top of another compartment roof.
Realizing she had no time to waste, Hermione jumped to her feet. Telling herself not to looked down, in fear then she would fall, Hermione quickly ran down the train. It was night now and Hermione was having a hard time seeing.
Suddenly Hermione tripped. Her wand, which she had been holding tightly in her hand, skittered towards the edge. Hermione stretched her arms in panic to reach it, but not before a large clawed hand came down on it, snapping her precious wand in half.
Hermione gasped and edged away from the horrible monster that was climbing from the side of the train to the top. Now there was one monster in front of her and one behind her.
Hermione started shaking. What was she going to do? She was alone and there were two huge monsters that had her cornered and she didn't have her wand.
One of the monsters hands shot out and grabbed her around the neck and started choking her. Hermione gasped, trying to take in some air as the monster lifted her up in the air.
Suddenly, feeling a burst of strength, Hermione brought both fists down on the monsters wrist. Hearing a snap, she knew that the bone was broken.
It dropped her and she fell back onto the train roof. Hopping back to her feet, Hermione drew herself back up to her full 5' 7" height and glared at the monster that had choked her. "You think you can just push someone around like that! Well you're about to learn differently!"
Hermione leapt up and kicked it in the stomach. The monster flew back about six feet and landed hard. Hermione rushed at it and grabbed its arm. Flipping it over her shoulder, Hermione swung it into the other monster. They both landed in a heap together.
Hermione saw a lead pipe sticking out of the top of the roof near the smokestack and snapped it off easily. Swinging the pipe in a figure eight in front of her she commented, "You don't just attack me and expect to get by. I am not an attackable person thank-you-very-much"
With that, Hermione started thumping them bother with the pipe. It made a sick, crunching noise every time it hit one of them. Suddenly one of them jumped up and slashed her across the arm.
Hermione instantly felt pain, and shortly after saw blood. She was focusing a little too much on her wound so she didn't notice when the monster brought its hand back and punched her in the face. Hermione went flying and when she landed, she kept sliding until she skidded to a stop a few inches from the edge of the train. Her lead pipe went flying into the night.
Hermione took a gasping breath, and got up slowly. "I will put up with shitty dreams, late parents, cranky librarians, and faulty time turners, but I will NOT put up with," Hermione paused for a few seconds to think of a descriptive word she could use, "…BALD ugly monsters trying to kill me!"
Hermione ran at one of the monsters, taking an enormous leap, she flipped over the monster and caught him in a roundhouse kick. He went flying off the side of the train and out into the darkness. Hermione could almost hear the mental scream he gave off as he crash-landed on the earth.
Turning to the monster that was still left, Hermione did a cartwheel and landed hard on both of his feet, keeping him where he was. The monster started to panic, ripping at her arms with him long claws. Hermione bit her lip, trying to ignore the pain and started punching whatever piece of the monster she could get at. Hermione could feel that the monster was losing strength and she started punching harder. Finally, with one last right hook from Hermione, the monster collapsed, exhausted. Hermione lifted him above her head and threw him off the train.
Wiping her hands off on her pants, Hermione suddenly started shaking. What's going on? Hermione thought. Why did those monsters attack me? And how did I live through that? Where did all those punches, kicks, flips, and cartwheels come from? I didn't even know I could do that!
Hermione collapsed on top of the train. Holding her head in her hands, Hermione wondered what she should do. Should she tell someone? If so, who? Well, Dumbledore was the obvious answer, Hermione knew that. After a few minutes of thinking, Hermione realized that she didn't really want to tell Dumbledore. Maybe if things get worse…but not yet, Hermione thought.
Looking up, Hermione saw Hogwarts castle emerging from behind some trees and jumped. She hadn't realized how long she had been gone for. Hurriedly running back towards the trap door that she had been pulled up through, Hermione quickly through the hole and into the compartment.
Looking down at herself, she realized what a mess she was. There were long bloody scratches down her arms and Hermione was sure that she could feel some new bruises forming on her head.
Peeking out into the hallway, Hermione didn't see anyone so she hurried to the bathroom. Yanking some paper towel out of the holder, Hermione wet them under the tap then washed her arm wounds out. Wincing in pain as she did this, Hermione looked into the mirror and saw that there indeed were some new bruises on her head.
Finishing with her arm wounds the best as she could; Hermione reached into her pocket to pull out her wand and then remembered that it had been snapped.
"Shit," Hermione exclaimed out loud. Quickly pulling her hair over the bruises, Hermione made her way out into the hallway and ran back to the compartment where the boys and Lily were supposed to be.
Entering the compartment, Hermione was greeted by five concerned faces.
"Why did you take so long?"
"I thought you went to the bathroom to clean up?"
"Where did you get those scratches?"
Lily walked over and lifted Hermione hair out of her face to reveal the nasty bluish bruises that were forming on her forehead. She gave Hermione a suspicious look, "Where did these come from?" And she pointed at the long scratches on Hermione's arms, "And these…what happened May?"
Hermione leaned in to whisper in Lily's ear, "Can you come with me for a minute?"
"Of course," Lily agreed immediately, following Hermione out into the hall. When the others made to follow, Lily shooed them back. "Hey!" James exclaimed as she shut the door in his face. Lily glanced towards Hermione, "So tell me what this is all like. Why do you look like you were beaten up?"
"First, before I tell you what happened, could I borrow some of your clothes, and robes?" Hermione asked.
Lily nodded, "Sure May, no problem, just come with me."
Lily led the way to a compartment where here trunk was. After closing the door, she handed Hermione some clothes. "My clothes aren't exactly cool, but I think they'll fit you."
Hermione said a quick thanks before pulling them on. The jeans were a bit small, and the shirt was a bit tight, but it wasn't really all that noticeable when Hermione pulled the robes on over them. When Hermione finished changing, she leaned against the wall.
Lily sat on the seat trying to be patient and let Hermione say what she wanted to say on her own, but she wasn't saying anything, so Lily nudged her to speak, "Did you want to tell me what happened?"
Hermione opened her mouth, about to tell her everything that had happened on top of the train, but then she thought. What if me telling Lily puts her in danger? And then the monsters come after her? I didn't totally kill them, they might still be alive!
Hermione shook her head tensely, "I-I can't. I'm sorry."
Lily pasted the suspicious look on her face, "Why not?"
"Because I might put you in danger," Hermione explained. "I'm sorry, but I really don't want to do that. You're my friend and I don't want you getting hurt! Please understand that!"
Lily nodded her head slightly, understanding, "Okay, if you want to talk about it though, just say."
Hermione smiled, glad that Lily understood. "I will."
Hermione hated to ask Lily for another favor but… "Hey Lily, could you cast a healing spell to make my head bruises go away. And if you don't know that spell, I could teach it to you, it's really quite easy."
Lily chuckled, "Of course I know a spell to make bruises disappear. And I'd be more then happy to cast it on you."
After Lily had cast the spell she asked, "Do you want me to try and do something for your arms? You look like you're in serious pain."
Hermione shook her head, "Its alright. I think I'd better go to the hospital wing for these and the sleeves of this robe cover them, so no one can see them anyways."
Back with Sirius, James, Remus, and Ally…
The four friends were sitting in silence, waiting for Lily and Hermione to return. No one had said a word since they'd left.
Ally suddenly spoke up, "So-so this girl…May. She's from the future?"
All three boys nodded.
"How did she get a time turner? I thought it was against the law for an under aged witch to use one?" Ally asked.
James shrugged, looking unbothered, "I guess there not outlawed from where she came from."
They were silent for a few more minutes before Remus spoke up, "She, err, May that is, she said we were sort of familiar faces. What do you guys think she meant by that?"
Sirius looked up, his brown eyes creased with worry. He seemed sort of distracted, "I dunno. Maybe she knows us somehow? I'm not sure and I don't really care, I just want to know if she's all right, and what happened to her!"
Ally smiled at him, "Someone's got the hots for May!"
Sirius frowned at her, "Is it not alright for me to be worried about a friend with scratches all over her arms and a bunch of bruises on her head? I'm just worried that's all." Sirius turned away from them grouchily and stared out the window.
James grinned at his best friend and spoke under his breath to Remus, "Padfoot's got it bad."
When he saw Sirius giving him the death stare, James went into a fit of coughs and looked away, attempting to be inconspicuous, but not doing a very good job of it.
"Why are you guys all like 'its not okay for anyone to know that I like a girl'? I think it's cute that Sirius likes May," she looked at Sirius and gave him an approving nod.
Just then, Lily and Hermione walked back in. Hermione's long hair was still hanging in front of her face a bit and Sirius immediately ran over and pulled it back, checking for the bruises.
"Hey? What happened to your bruises?" he asked, confused that they were gone.
Hermione smiled a small smile at him, "Lily, the little genius that she is, cast a spell to make them go away. Thank to her, I'm in no more pain."
Sirius gave her a disbelieving look and lifted up the sleeves of her cloak revealing the long scratches up her arms, "What about these?"
"They're just scratches," Hermione said snatching her arms out of his grasp, "They don't hurt at all."
Everyone stood around her in a circle and gave the same suspicious look that Lily had given her. Noticing this, Lily rushed over from where she'd been sitting and stood beside Hermione. Grabbing her hand, Lily gave them all furious looks, "Just leave her alone you guys. She doesn't want to be questioned about this, okay?"
Hermione mouthed a small 'thank you' to Lily. Lily smiled at her and mouthed back 'no problem'.
Just then, the train pulled to a stop. The three boys and two girls got up and filed out of the compartment to quickly pulled their robes on.
Hermione stayed into the compartment and gazed out the window, up at the familiar castle. Its tall stonewalls looked majestic against the dark bluish blackish sky. Dustings of stars dotted the sky and beautiful half moon hung low in the sky.
Hermione was so happy to be back at the school, it was like her second home, but at the same time, she was sad. Harry and Ron weren't here to share the beginning of this year with her, as they always had. What if she never saw them again? What if she was stuck in the past forever? Hermione started to cry. Silent tears fell down her face and she covered her face with her hands.
"May?"
The voice startled her and she hastily wiped the tears away from her face, not wanting anyone to see her cry. Turning around, she saw Sirius. He had changed into his school robes. Walking over to her quickly pulled her into a gentle hug. "Its all right. It must be hard for you, getting thrown back in time and all. But you don't have to cry…I'll help you! James, Remus, Lily, Ally, and me will all help you; I swear you'll never be alone. I promise."
Hermione was touched that he cared that much. She had thought that he was going to be all alone, but maybe she wasn't going to be. She rested her head on his shoulder and sighed. Maybe everything would be okay.
Author's Note:
Hey you guys. I was going to make this longer, but then I thought this would be a good place to cut it off at. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll try to post more soon! Here are your review responses:
little mimi: Thanks for the review, I'm glad you like the chapter!
Reanne1102: Wow! So many compliments in one review! Thank you so much, I'm glad you like my writing and I hope you interest remains sparked throughout the ENTIRE story!
2INSANE4U: I LOVE your name! My mind is out of the gutter, LOL. Thanks for your review!
rcaqua: No this isn't a Buffy the Vampire Slayer x-over, sorry. I got a few ideas from the show, but not much. I hope you like it anyways and continue reading! Thanks for the review.
Heaven wouldn't take me and Hell was afraid I would take over: Sorry you had to wait so long! Thanks for your review and I hope you liked the update!
Hotkat144: I'll post more in A Talent Show soon. Thanks for your review.
LillyFan78: I'm happy you like the start! French Vanilla coffee is aMOOzing, LOL. I love it, and it's funny though. I never really liked coffee until I tried my beautiful French Vanilla, but now I'm soooo obsessed with it! LOL. Thanks for your review!
amrawo:I'm glad you like the first chapter, hope you liked the second!
Love,
sakura-sweeti