Hey guys! I'm super excited about this chapter I really hope you all like it! please let me know any feedback you have I love to hear it! I hope you guys like the way i started to portray the marauders, i love writing them its super fun! also i just put out a one-shot fic about Dean Thomas, so if you guys are interested you should totally check that out! but anyways heres the fic i hope you enjoy !
Hermione was the first in her dorm to wake the next day. She peaked her head around her curtains, happy to see that everyone else was still tucked away in their beds.
Quietly, she slipped out of her bed and decided to take a fast shower to help her wake up; grabbing her beaded bag she headed to the washroom. She performed her usual routine of showering and getting dressed. She put a little product in her hair, magiced it dry and let it hang loose around her shoulders. She was happy to see that over the years it really had de-frizzed quite a bit. It certainly wasn't what she would call smooth or sleek, but it didn't look so bad anymore.
As she stood in front of the floor length mirror she looked back at herself. While her face had thinned out and her features looked more adult, the resemblance to the small first year she used to be could still be found. She looked down at her legs covered in tights, to her pleated Hogwarts skirt, to her tucked white blouse, and her red and gold Gryffindor tie. Seeing that red and gold had always been her favorite part of the uniform and she wore it like a badge of honor.
Finally she looked back up into her face and stared into her own eyes, seeing the familiar light brown. Her dad had always told her she was a student through and through. She was proud to know that nothing, not even a war, would change that.
Blinking away the light haze that began to form at the thought of her parents, Hermione slung her black cloak around her shoulders and set towards her dormitory. Just as she was about to turn the handle to enter, she heard a faint chattering behind it.
Mentally preparing herself, Hermione knew she would have to meet her new roommates eventually. So, taking a deep breath, she steeled her emotions and pushed back the door.
The second she stepped foot into her room there were three pairs of eyes staring back at her.
"Hi! Good morning, I'm Lily!" The auburn haired girl was the first to break the silence. "I'm sorry we didn't get to meet last night, it was so late when we came back to the room. Your name's Hermione, right?"
Hermione ignored her racing heart as she stared into the emerald eyes she knew well.
"Hi, yes I'm Hermione, it's nice to meet you." She said, politely, "I apologize for not introducing myself last night, the opening feast really wore me out."
"Yeah, Dumbles speeches really do that to you. I'm Marlene, by the way." The blonde haired girl from the robe shop said with a smile. Hermione looked back at her and was immediately struck by her beauty. The girl was so breathtaking Hermione briefly wondered if Marlene was part veela. She was a bit on the taller side, with long, smooth hair and sharp features. But Hermione found the most captivating part about her was her eyes. They were a deep blue, but what made them so entrancing wasn't necessarily their color, but rather the pure happiness and joy that was shown behind them. It was a look Hermione had not seen in her own eyes for years.
As Hermione sent Marlene a small smile, a voice said from next to her, "And I'm Dorcas, we're super excited to have you here. We've had an empty bed in our room for the past six years, and since our fourth roommate, Alice, has started dating her boyfriend last year she's been around a lot less."
Hermione met the other girl's eyes and once again saw the captivating shimmer of joy behind the umber color. Dorcas was also beautiful, but in a softer, subtler way than Marlene was. She was shorter with tight curly hair, but a beautiful kind of curly, much unlike Hermione's own. Her dark, rich skin gave the impression of warmth and kindness.
Sending her another smile, Hermione said, "It's nice to meet you ladies. Is Alice here or did she go down to breakfast already?"
"No, she went to breakfast with her boyfriend, Frank." Lily said, grabbing a towel out of her trunk. "She's usually the first one up, but with you here now she might have a little competition. Are you always up so early?"
"Usually," Hermione said with a small smile thinking about everyday on the run when she would wake up with the sunrise. "I was just about to head to breakfast."
Hermione saw the other girls were clearly not ready to go to the Great Hall yet, but given the level of exertion necessary to control her rampant emotions, she wouldn't mind having a bit of alone time before class.
"Oh ok, if you're willing to wait a few minutes one of us could walk you," Dorcas said, "Getting around the castle your first couple times can get a bit confusing."
"Oh no, that's ok," Hermione said eager for some space, "I'm sure I could follow another student headed down. I'm a bit famished, I'll see you all there soon!"
As she turned and shut the door behind her she hoped she didn't come off as rude, but meeting the girls of this era was almost as shocking as meeting the boys. They all looked so young and happy. They all seemed brilliant. If the situation was different Hermione would have loved to be friends with them, but alas, she repeated her mantra once more in her head, "Be nice and civil, but don't make friends."
She planned on briefly grabbing something for breakfast and heading to the library, but as soon as she stepped into the Great Hall her plans were thwarted by a messy haired teenage boy waving her over.
Again not wanting to be rude, Hermione walked to where he was sitting and took a seat across from him.
"Good morning." She said as she glanced at an excited James and a slightly stony faced Sirius.
"Good morning, Hermione," James said as Sirius nodded to her in acknowledgement before taking a sip of his black coffee.
"I hope you slept well," James continued, "Are you excited for your first day?"
"I am," Hermione replied as she began to pile some eggs and sausage onto her plate.
"Oh, here comes Minnie with our time tables," James said grinning.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall said as she appeared behind Hermione and gave the two boys their schedules. "I'm sure you two are treating Miss Granger well on her first day." She said sternly as she handed Hermione her schedule.
"Miss Granger," she continued as Hermione turned to meet her eyes, "If you have any questions or simply want to chat, you should know that my door is always open."
Hermione briefly thanked her long time favorite professor before James grabbed the timetable out of her hands to compare.
As his eyes darted between the schedules in front of him he said, "It looks like we have most of the same classes, the only difference is you have NEWT Ancient Runes where Sirius and I have Divination, but I think Remus should be in that with you, and you also have NEWT Arithmancy where we have a free, but again I think Remus is taking that one too."
"Oh nice, do you two have all the same classes?" Hermione asked, noticing how he spoke for both of them while only looking at his schedule.
"Yeah, we were together when we picked classes this summer." Sirius responded, "Neither of us took Arithmancy or Ancient Runes past the required level, Remus has always been a lot better with that type of stuff."
"And Peter usually doesn't take so many advanced classes, he'll take a few here and there so we'll have some with him, but, it's usually not his style." James said, taking a bite out of a piece of toast with some jam on it.
"Say, where are they this morning?" Hermione asked as she watched Sirius pour himself a second cup of coffee.
James chuckled and said, "Neither of them are really early birds. Especially Remus."
Sirius let out a bark-like laugh. "That's an understatement, Remmie would sleep until the sun set everyday if you'd let him."
"Really? I would've pegged him for an early riser." Hermione commented, remembering all the days in Grimmauld Place that Remus was up before her, but she supposed some things just changed with time.
"Not that I have anything to base that off, really." She quickly remedied, reminding herself that she wasn't supposed to know Remus.
Sirius sent her a wavering glance, but thankfully James easily brushed aside her comment as he chuckled and said, "Right, you would think someone as put together as him would be up early. But nope! Instead you've got us two for breakfast every morning!"
"Morning boys!" Hermione heard Marlene's cheerful voice say and she plopped down next to her. Lily soon took a seat on Marlene's other side and Dorcas sat across from her next to Sirius.
"Good morning, ladies. It's always a pleasure to see your beautiful faces in the morning." Sirius said with a charming smile, sending a wink at Marlene.
"Well this is a nice surprise!" James said smiling at Lily, "We don't usually get such lovely company for breakfast."
"Yes well, we decided to make sure you two weren't bothering Hermione too much before classes have even started." Lily shot back. "I thought Alice and Frank would be here, have you seen them?"
"Nope, I haven't seen either of them all morning. Maybe they decided to start the year off right if you know what I mean." Sirius replied with a waggle of his eyebrows.
Dorcas lightly smacked his arm, "C'mon Sirius, we haven't even been here a day. It's too early for your comments."
He simply sipped his coffee and shrugged in response.
Professor McGonagall came back and handed the girls their schedules. After some comparing, Hermione discovered that she had all three of the girls in every class except for Arithmancy, where she only had Lily and Dorcas, and Ancient Runes with only Lily.
With about five minutes left before the first period, NEWT Herbology with Ravenclaw, Remus came rushing into the Great Hall with Peter in tow. Remus sat rather ungracefully in the seat next to Hermione with Peter across from him, mumbled a quick hello to everyone before spreading some jam on toast and shoveling eggs onto his plate.
"Morning Remmie, Pete, sleep well did you?" Sirius asked innocently.
"I would've slept well, but Merlin have I forgotten how you snore." Remus replied with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey! I don't snore!"
James snorted into his orange juice causing Sirius to shove his shoulder, spilling his drink all over him.
"C'mon we gotta go." James said smacking Sirius' head, as he stood up after magicing himself clean. The group walked out of the Great Hall and towards the greenhouses, Remus' and Peter's hands full of food as they ate on the way over.
Herbology, Hermione learned, was one of Peter's NEWT classes and he was actually fairly decent at it.
The first two days of classes went smoothly. Hermione found at this point she already knew the material; she also managed to reserve her "know-it-all" behavior so as not to draw too much attention. Although, she wasn't able to stop herself from giving perfect answers when called on anyways.
Fortunately or unfortunately, due to the similarities in the Gryffindor seventh years class schedule, for classes with partners Hermione typically found herself with either Remus or Lily. This was pretty much dependent on if Peter was in the class or if they shared a class with Ravenclaw, in which case Alice would be paired with Frank instead of Lily, and Lily would be paired with Hermione.
After their last class on Friday, NEWT Potions, in which Professor Slughorn gave a very long and drawn out "Welcome to Potions," speech, taking up the whole class period, Hermione walked off to the library to work on her research.
As she did the day before, Hermione found a semi-secluded table in the corner of the library, one that was one of her favorites in her own time. It was secluded enough so people mostly left her alone, yet she wasn't so secluded that she would be impossible to find if someone were to need her.
Hermione pulled a thick book on the history of time-travel out of her bag. She had found the book the day before but was still only a fraction of the way through it. She briefly entertained the thought that maybe this book would be the solution to her problem. The bookworm knew from her extensive research on time travel her third year that it wasn't in the library during her time at Hogwarts, so it was removed by someone. Hermione only wondered why.
She stayed in the library until the sun had set outside and the candles inside had dimmed. Around 11 o'clock Madam Prince ushered her out of the library. Aware that she was already out past curfew, she slinked quietly down the corridors taking secret passageways wherever possible.
She eventually reached the portrait of the fat lady, muttered the password and crept into the common room, amazed at how easy it was to avoid being caught.
As she walked in she passed every Gryffindor seventh year either lounging around the fire playing exploding snaps or huddled around a table studying.
"You're getting back late. It's a bit after curfew." James said, "How did you not get caught?"
"It's pretty easy when both heads are right here." She said cheekily as she sent a smile towards Lily. "I'm headed to bed, I'll see you all tomorrow!"
After a chorus of goodnights, she made her way up the stairs and into bed.
But she did not 'see them all tomorrow,' in fact the only one she saw the next day was Remus when he joined her in the library for a few hours. And the same on Sunday.
That Monday was the next time Hermione saw the vast majority of the Gryffindor's. When she arrived at breakfast before their first class she was met with a few comments regarding her study habits, which she quickly brushed aside.
"Well anyways," Marlene said, leaning forward on the table as if sharing a juicy piece of gossip. "Are you guys excited?"
"Excited? For what?" Remus asked.
"For Defense Against the Dark Arts!" She continued, a mischievous gleam in her eye. "C'mon guys! Last period today we have our first DADA class, AND it's with the Slytherins! I really don't know why they insist on putting Slytherins and Gryffindors in the same class, it never ends too well, but boy will it be interesting."
Throughout the morning all Hermione could think about was the upcoming DADA class. Hermione picked up on what Marlene had said, it was odd that the pairing of Slytherins and Gryffindors for Defense lasted through the decades. Hermione figured it might serve a political purpose, to learn where the others' weaknesses lie. But any advantages the light side may receive from it the dark received as well.
Besides, that's not to say that Gryffindor vs. Slytherin is necessarily light vs. dark. If anything the students in this time will show that very clearly, but typically Slytherins and Gryffindors had a habit of choosing harder stances than the other two houses.
Hermione was looking forward to class regardless. If anything, it would be interesting for her to see the skills of those in this time. Plus, Hermione had fought many of this eras Death Eaters when they were full adults, it would be fascinating to discover how much their skills had developed through practice and how much were taught in class. Besides, Hermione could safely say that during her time at Hogwarts she really only had two competent Defense professors, and one of the two was a Death Eater in disguise, so she was interested to see who would be teaching this year.
Hermione walked through the fourth floor corridor with the rest of the Gryffindors and stepped into the classroom. The second she walked through that door Hermione knew something felt off as she subconsciously slid her arm into her robe and grabbed her wand. She knew that whatever it was was likely to be a part of the lesson, however, they were here with the Slytherins, so you never really knew.
Looking around the classroom Hermione was interested to see that the desks and chairs were pushed around the room sporadically. There were dummies all around the edges of the room and the Gryffindors could be seen on one side while the Slytherins conjugated on the other. Hermione wondered just how long it would be before a fight broke out between the two groups.
At once the door to the classroom slammed close, the candles blew out and the dummies began to move. Various screeches and strings of curses were heard around the class, the dummies seemed to move at once, coming from all areas of the room surrounding the students.
And just like that, madness broke out.
The dummies raised their wands as they fired curses at the group .The vast majority were able to duck and dodge but a couple unlucky students were hit.
From the light of the spells being cast Hermione could see that the class had gotten the message and dispersed to begin fighting. She could hear shouts of Expelliarmus and Stupefy around her as well as a few other miscellaneous spells.
Hermione ducked beneath a desk and saw Remus in a battle against not one, but two dummies. And he was clearly struggling. So from her spot beneath the desk she began sending rapid-fire curses. Some basic, but a few a bit more complex.
In only a few seconds she had effectively destroyed one of the dummies and she began on the next. The dummy looked around, seemingly unable to identify where the multicolored spells were coming from, before he too was lying flat on his back.
Remus, slightly confused as to what just happened, looked around to see Hermione still squatting near the ground, already working on her next dummy victim.
She heard a booming noise coming from her right and turned to see that an entire wall had collapsed. Looking around she saw that for every dummy they had originally started with, there were two more in its place. The fighting had quickly become more reckless, more aggressive. Spells were flung carelessly and without direction, walls and desks were exploding, people were running wildly, dodging curses and flying backwards when they couldn't move fast enough.
The desk Hermione was huddled under was blown to pieces and she immediately shot up, wand in hand, firing curses at the dummy responsible. A red light shot from behind her head and past her ear. She sent one final spell at the first dummy and spun around, immediately sending a Bombarda at the new one, blowing him into pieces.
Through the darkness Hermione was able to make out a figure slinking through the corners, around duels and under desks, watching and occasionally contributing to the havoc. As Hermione took on a new battle she kept an eye on this mystery figure, now huddled beneath a desk on her left. As she took down the dummy she watched as he created four more, collapsed a portion of the ceiling, and released a handful of pixies into the classroom.
So that must be the professor.
Ready for this experience to be over, Hermione sent a nonverbal Petrificus Totalus at the professor, freezing him in his place and preventing him from causing any more chaos.
She quickly fired freezing charms at the pixies, enclosed them in bubbles, and destroyed the four new dummies.
Without the creation of new dummies or problems, the fighting soon began to slow down. The class fought off the remaining few and the fight finally stopped.
The professor managed to give himself mobility again and relit the candles. As the classroom was filled with light Hermione surveyed her surroundings and was astounded at the destruction that had taken place. Multiple walls were collapsed, desks, tables, and chairs were broken, windows were shattered, books and papers were splayed all over the room. And that's not even mentioning the students.
Peter Pettigrew and some Slytherin girl were lying unconscious in a corner, another Slytherin was trapped under some rubble from the collapsed wall, and Marlene was slumped by a window cradling her leg. And every single other student was covered in dust, scrapes, rubble, and blood.
At least the students were clearly getting a practical education, Hermione thought suppressing a small chuckle.
Hermione took a quick glance down at herself and noticed that she too looked a mess, although she didn't look as bad as some of the class. She was covered in rubble and a bit sore, but she didn't appear to have any injuries as most of the class did.
"What the fuck." Sirius was the first to say once everyone had figured out what just happened.
The Professor made his way over to Peter and the Slytherin girl, rennervating them both before turning around and saying, "Welcome class! To Defense Against the Dark Arts. My name is Professor Novikov."
The Professor waved his wand and the walls began to rebuild themselves.
"As you can tell, I favor a practical approach to learning defense. Today's class was more of an introductory lesson so I could gauge your skill level." He continued and Hermione picked up a slight Russian accent, "The next time we have class will be this Thursday, and it will be a double."
Slight murmurs could be heard around the classroom. Hermione turned to see a couple Slytherins smirking. Sirius was whispering something to James, Dorcas had crouched down by Marlene, and Remus had sat by Peter.
"Some of you may not agree with the way I choose to teach my class. I am aware that my methods aren't typical. However, there is a war rapidly approaching. We would be stupid to deny that. And in the next few years you will see that in battle, nothing is typical, you do not know what to expect, anything can happen at any time. And it is my job to prepare you for that."
As the professor looked around the classroom Hermione wondered if he knew what was going to become of almost half the class he was standing in front of. Of what they likely already had become. If he knew, would he still teach this class the same way?
"Nice job today class," he said, briefly meeting Hermione's eye, "You all did well. I will help those that are injured to the hospital wing, all others are free to leave early."
Who was this man? Hermione wondered, and why had she never heard of him before?
She watched the professor create makeshift stretchers for Peter, Marlene, the formerly unconscious Slytherin girl and the boy that had been trapped under the collapsed wall. As he levitated them away, Hermione turned back to some of the other Gryffindors. Remus had now joined James and Sirius, who were now muttering aggressively about something.
He had his long hair pinned up behind his head by his wand, something Hermione had never seen anyone do before but found she rather liked. He had a scrape on his left cheek and Hermione was amazed that he still managed to be so attractive. She watched as Remus briefly lent in to say something. Hermione couldn't tell what it was, but as she looked away, from the corner of her eye she saw Sirius turn to look at her before speaking again, giving her an uneasy feeling in her stomach.
She cleared the dust and dirt off her body when she was joined by Alice, Lily, and Dorcas as they went over what just happened.
"That was ridiculous, I mean it was great, but crazy." Alice said covered in dust and cuts.
"I hope Marlene is okay, her leg looked a little bit broken," Dorcas muttered, worrying her lip.
"Don't worry Dor, she'll be alright, it's nothing Madam Pomfrey can't heal. I just can't believe that happened in the first class, imagine what else is going to happen this year. Besides, people actually got hurt!" Lily said quietly to the girls looking around at the rest of the class.
"Who is he?" Hermione asked the girls.
"I don't know," Lily replied, "I've never heard of him before."
"No matter who he is, I'm willing to bet that we've had worse Defense professors before," Alice said, smirking slightly, "Besides, he is a bit easy on the eyes isn't he?"
Professor Novikov returned to the classroom seconds after those words left Alice's lips. Hermione watched him wave his wand a few more times, returning the rest of the rubble into whole pieces once again, clearing the remaining dust, and moving the desks into typical classroom positioning.
He sat down at his desk and began writing something, presumably notes on the lesson.
As Hermione watched him she couldn't help but feel that he looked familiar. He was the stereotypical tall, dark, and handsome, with strong features and a built form. She was reminded very much of Viktor Krum.
Hermione briefly let the girls know she was headed back to the library before excusing herself, unaware of a pair of eyes following her every move.