DISCLAIMER: Deep in the jungle there lies a mountainous tree with millions upon millions of leaves. Every year, one leaf falls off. By the time the last leaf falls, I will still not own Harry Potter.

Summary: Through the barrier and into…a different time? Hermione finds herself in the Marauder's time. In a story of hate, lies, and hurt, Hermione finds something else….love.

A/N: Read my Halloween short story called "Twelve" under my other penname, Silenzioso Lupo…

Chapter 7:

"Hey," Lily said to Hermione halfway during the feast. Hermione looked up at the redhead curiously, surprised that she was talking to her. "I'll take you and show you around tomorrow if you want to," she offered.

Hermione smiled at the girl, her best friend's mother. "Thank you," she replied sincerely, "I'd appreciate that greatly. It'll give us a chance to get to know each other better."

"It's the least I can do," Lily assured her. She smiled, "And it will be good to get to know you better. I know that it's good to have guy friends, but it's always good to have a friend of the same gender to talk with."

Hermione almost laughed. "You are absolutely right," she said honestly. "But I thank you just the same. I am so nervous about going here. Everything's new."

"You'll make friends fast," James commented after swallowing a mouthful of mashed potatoes. "You're too nice for your own good." He pointed his fork at her as he said that and Hermione laughed a little. "I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment, but I'll take it as a compliment."

"You'd better," James teased. "I don't give compliments often."

"That's the truth," Sirius muttered and Hermione laughed.

"What was your old school like?" Remus asked, leaning over the table a little towards her.

Hermione looked down at the table and played with the food on her plate. "I…er…don't really want to talk about it," she muttered. "Not now."

"Was it bad?" Sirius asked, concerned.

"You could say that," Hermione said softly. "I've lost everyone I cared for by coming her."

"I'm sorry Hermione," Sirius told her. He put his arm around her shoulder in comfort and she rested her head against him, leaning into him.

"Yeah," James agreed, "me too."

"It's okay," she said at last, raising her honey eyes to meet Sirius' black ones. "I just want to forget about it right now, so forgive me if I don't talk about it a lot."

"You can't run from your problems," Remus commented, looking directly at her.

Sirius and James threw him a look that clearly told him to shut up but Hermione raised her chin defiantly. "I am not running," she said stormily, "I'm forgetting."

"Is there a difference?" Lily asked from her seat.

"A very large one," Hermione answered. She let her fork fall to the table and looked at all of them slowly. "I came here, not by choice, but by chance. I lost everything by coming here."

She paused, choosing her next words carefully. "I think that I have the right to forget."

The table fell into a uncomfortable silence as everyone looked at everyone else, trying to figure out what to say to that. Hermione looked at each of them in return, her gaze resting on Remus and Lily the longest, but they did not say anything.

"Here, here," Sirius joked, trying to lighted the mood. He raised his goblet high in the air. "To forgetting," he said loudly, drawing everyone's attention to them.

Hermione laughed at him and raised her own goblet full of pumpkin juice, clinking it against his. "To forgetting."

The others followed her lead and raised their goblets. "To forgetting," they all said together. They all drank deeply and sat their goblets back down.

Sirius turned to Hermione and grinned sheepishly at her. "Shall we retire?" he joked, using an old-timey voice as he waved an arm towards the door.

Hermione chuckled and joined in on his joke. "Yes, my lord, let's. I find that I grow quite tired as of late and a bed will do me good."

Sirius rose from his seat and held out his arm for her to take. "Come then, my lady, and I shall escort you to your room without delay."

Remus made a sound in his throat and Hermione threw him an amused look. She turned back to Sirius, amusement in her eyes. "Thank you, fine sir, an escort will be greatly appreciated." She rose and linked her arm through his. Then, she turned to the others. "Shall we?"

Everyone nodded, having finished with their meal, and rose. Hermione and Sirius stood there, arm in arm, unaware of the envious look that females and males alike through at them. Hermione was receiving a good deal of death glares from Sirius' fan club.

They waited for everyone to rise before walking towards the doors. Lily, to Hermione's surprise, came with them but her and James were clearly avoiding each other.

Sirius nudged her. Hermione glanced up at him to find him smiling. He nodded his head in James' and Lily's direction and mouthed 'the perfect couple' to her and she nodded in agreement. She moved closer to him, much to his delight, though she didn't notice that she was doing it.

They were just out the door when four bodies stepped into their path, blocking them in. They were Slytherins, Hermione noticed, but she quickly put on a unreadable expression for she was not supposed to know who they were.

She quickly looked them over. Two looked very unimportant but the third one caught her attention. He looked remarkable like Draco Malfoy.

"Hello," Lucius Malfoy purred, taking her free hand and raising it to his lips. "My name is Lucius Malfoy," he said as his lips connected with her knuckles. Hermione had to fight from recoiling in disgust, instead looking at him dispassionately.

"Get out of our way Malfoy," Sirius growled, his black eyes flashing.

Lucius' icy blue gaze never left Hermione as he answered. "I was not addressing you Black. I was conversing with this lovely lady."

He still had a hold of her hand, Hermione noticed grimly, and did not show any intention of letting it go even though she was subtlety trying to pull it free from his grasp. "And what is your name my dear?" he purred.

"Hermione Granger," she said simply, desperately wanting to end the conversation, if you could call it that, with him. She finally got her hand free and placed it at her side. She squeezed Sirius' arm slightly when she felt him tense up. She did not want a fight.

James stepped forward, beside her, and laid a protective hand on her shoulder. "You found out what you wanted to know, so why don't you just get out of our way and run back to the dungeons where you belong, Malfoy?" he asked, barely controlling his anger.

Lucius' eyes flashed angrily at James, the grey appearing icier than ever. "Why don't you and Black go off and play somewhere and let me and Hermione talk?"

Hermione looked from Sirius, to James, and finally to Malfoy and could see that a fight was about to start. "I'm really not in the mood to talk," she said quickly. "I'm really rather tired and just want to go to bed right now."

Lucius smiled chillingly at her. "Well then," he said cheerfully though Hermione could tell he didn't like the turn of events, "I'll let you go to bed. Sweet dreams, my dear. I know that I'll be having some," he added after a beat, his smirk chilling her to the bone.

Her look of disgust must have shown on her face for Sirius stepped in between Hermione and Lucius. "I don't think she'll be having any sweet dreams after seeing your face."

Lucius was about to refute but stopped at the last second. Instead, he looked away from Sirius and right past him to Hermione. "Be careful who you choose to associate with. We wouldn't want you to get hurt, now would we?"

Hermione opened her mouth, outraged by the hidden threat, and was about to refute. But before she could, Lucius spun on his heel and stalked off with his little henchmen following close behind.

"Of all the arrogant, male chauvinistic…," Hermione growled, clenching her hands into fists at her side as she stared after the blonde Slytherin.

Sirius and James laughed. "Come on," they both said and grabbed an arm each, dragging her on down the hallway towards the stairway.

"Malfoy is a prick," James informed her during their walk, "you just have to ignore him."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Do you?"

"No," he answered, "but that's not the point. You should because…well, you're new and all and he could cause you a lot of problems here."

"I have to agree with James on this one, Hermione," Sirius said from her other side. "Lucius Malfoy isn't exactly the best person to be getting into it with. Just stay away from him and his followers and you should be fine."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's not the question of whether I stay from them or not, it's whether they will stay away from me. Believe me, I could care less whether I see his face or not."

Sirius laughed and threw an arm around her shoulder, hugging her tight. "That's the spirit!" His eyes grew serious. "Just…be careful around him if he does corner you. We can't always be there and he knows some dark stuff, dangerous stuff."

Hermione nodded and smiled up at him. "I will, I promise. Now, where is this dormitory or are we just going to talk about Slytherin prats all night?"

A/N: Sorry that it took me so long to update…I've actually been doing my homework SHOCKER!..which is also why I haven't been on MSN lately. When I first typed this chapter, it was A LOT shorter, but I sat down and tried to add as much stuff as I could without going into chapter 8 or giving away secrets of later on. Okay, to answer some questions.

For those of you who asked who Ria is: I cannot tell you this! It is part of the plot. You're just going to have to sit there and wonder about it till you want to stab me repeatedly with a pitchfork. I will tell you this, though, some of you were very close in your guesses.

The "a story of hate, lies, and hurt" part will come in later on and I think a bunch of you will be cussing me up one side and down another. But there is 1 very important thing that you MUST remember: THIS IS A SIRIUS AND HERMIONE STORY! Just keep repeating that in your head no matter what you read, k pumpkins?

That's all for now…so there is only one thing left to do:

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THANK YOU FOR TAKING TIME TO READ THIS, IT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

!AMAYA!