Beta love to the lovely CarbConnoisseur

It had taken several calming draughts and another bottle of firewhisky to calm everyone down enough to listen to the next part. James had squashed himself and Lily in between Sirius and Hermione and had refused to let go of her hand.

"You said Voldemort was gone, how were you still fighting?" Dorcas asked once silence had finally fallen.

"He was gone…but not dead," Draco supplied, noting the triumphant gleam in Dumbledore's eyes that confirmed he had an inkling of the kinds of magic Tom Riddle had dabbled in since leaving Hogwarts. Had he known this early the first time? It wasn't a thought Draco wanted to linger on as he pictured the bodies of his friends, his teachers, his family, and Hermione's loved ones. If he had known then, surely he'd have done something? He had to believe that, even knowing what he knew about the manipulative old bastard or he might just kill him where he sat.

"In our first year, he lived on the back of our Defense professor's head," Hermione added

"On…what?" Minerva gasped.

"Professor Quirrell. I don't know if he's a professor of something else just now but perhaps prevent him from visiting Albania. It doesn't end well."

"Quirrell….Quirinus Quirrell?"

"Yup that would be him."

"He's not graduated yet!"

"Ah well, we're all good on him being possessed then," Hermione replied lightly.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Back on point…..This one made friends with Harry Potter, Ron Weasely and Neville Longbottom. Weasley, Potter and Granger…."

"Who is Granger?" Augusta frowned.

"Ah…I am. Or was. Harry adopted me, hence the name change."

"As I was saying. They were bloody Gryffindors and couldn't leave well enough alone. Even after Longbottom standing up to them. Which was no small thing, Hermione is terrifying."

"Says the boy who went hunting for the dragon," Hermione snorted.

"Rich coming from the girl who took on a mountain troll with two other first years!"

"Mountain troll….dragon….at school?" Minerva sounded horrified.

"Ah. Yes….Dumbledore in his infinite wisdom decided that school was a better place than Gringotts to store the Philosopher's stone. It was hidden under a Cerberus named Fluffy and an….obstacle course of sorts," Hermione explained haltingly.

"Fluffy," Minerva mouthed before concluding "Hagrid?"

"Of course," Hermione smiled slightly. "The troll was let in by Professor Quirrell as a distraction because he…or Voldemort, wanted the stone. I happened to be in a bathroom when Ron and Harry locked it in with me accidentally. We, or really they, knocked it out and we became friends."

"And the Dragon?" Dorea asked faintly.

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh. "Hagrid. He won it in the Hog's Head; we think from Quirrell. He lives in a wooden house!"

"That was your issue with the dragon?" Draco asked incredulously.

James and Sirius snorted, "What type of dragon?" James asked, dodging Lily's hand as it moved to hit him.

Hermione laughed, "A Norwegian Ridgeback. We saw it hatch. It was…quite cute really in a deadly, fire breathing sort of way."

"Cute," Minerva repeated faintly.

"Anyway, Harry found the Mirror of Erised during a little midnight wander which makes me think it was all an elaborate plan to prepare him in some way."

"Mirror of Erised?" Charlus asked.

"Oh it's an enchanted mirror of sorts, it shows your deepest desires. Odd that it just seemed to be hanging about in an empty classroom don't you think? It was…it was the first time Harry had ever seen you. He had no pictures, no idea what any of you looked like and that mirror showed him the family he so desperately wanted, so he went back. Dumbledore caught him and told him it was being moved."

"He had no idea what we looked like?" Lily asked faintly.

"He lived with Petunia."

Lily nodded, a flash of pain radiating across her face before she could mask it. "And we're going to talk about that shortly," she stated pointedly.

"If you want," Hermione conceded reluctantly. "We…thought Severus was after the stone. He seemed the type, all brooding and crotchety, so we went after it. We did try to involve a teacher, but we were not taken seriously, funnily enough. We bypassed Fluffy, some devils snare, some enchanted keys, played a giant game of enchanted chess and solved a logic potion that could have poisoned us and Harry went through magic fire to get the stone. It dropped into his pocket from the Mirror and he sort of….disintegrated Quirrell with a touch? Something about the blood protections left on him. And that was our first year."

There was stunned silence before Dorea was on her feet. "What in the name of Merlin were you thinking?" she snarled, heading for Albus. Worryingly for him, there were agreeing nods from around the room.

"Those things were not protections! That stone should never have been inside the school! How did no one notice three first years working their way through those defences?"

Albus held up his hands in supplication. "I confess as to having no idea as it hasn't happened yet."

"Nor will it!" Dorea snarled.

Draco and Hermione shared a look before grinning. It was more than a little satisfying to see someone take Albus to task. Too many people agreed with whatever he said in their time.

"You might want to sit down for second year," Draco commented mildly.

Dorea sat down sharply next to Minerva, not bothering to move back to her seat.

"Second year was surprisingly ok until Harry started hearing voices."

"Hearing voices?" Lily asked, alarmed.

"Well…just one voice really."

"That's not anywhere near as reassuring as you apparently believe it is," Remus replied wryly.

"Probably not," Hermione conceded with a grimace. "Our Defense Professor that year was Gilderoy Lockheart. He was…."

"A fucking useless twat?" Draco suggested.

Hermione rolled her eyes but didn't disagree. "When he publishes his first book do find someone in the aurory and tell them he's obliviating the real heroes."

Moody looked at her with interest. "And when would this be?"

"Um…I don't actually know. He was a household name in my time so I can't imagine it being too long. He's….pretty."

"Pretty?" Draco asked in disgust.

"Well, he is! Was….less pretty in a hospital robe….He used his prettiness to further his agenda. It was almost like a weapon, alongside his vapidness; lots of people fell for it."

"Remember when he tried to smile winningly at Severus? And did all those ridiculous wand flourishes," Draco reminisced with a smile. "Gods, seeing him flung into a wall was one of my favourite memories for ages!"

Hermione laughed, "Yes well…it's notable because he was so fucking useless at duelling, especially duelling Severus, that that was when we learned Harry was a parselmouth."

"How?" James barked.

"I'll get there," she promised grimacing at him. "Anyway, the Chamber of Secrets opened that year."

"The Chamber of Secrets is a myth," Albus interjected, rebuking her gently.

"Tell that to the muggle-borns who were petrified for fucking months Albus," Hermione spat. "Or Ginny Weasley who was taken to the chamber or Harry who…"

"Princess. Focus," Draco cut in softly. Hermione shut her mouth with an audible clack, her face still furious so Draco picked up the narrative. "Muggleborns were getting petrified. Hermione and Penelope Clearwater were the last two." He ignored the collective intake of breath. "She figured out that the monster in the Chamber was a basilisk. It was being controlled by a memory of Voldemort stored in a diary. A diary that possessed Ginny Weasley."

"There is no Ginny Weasely," one of the Prewett twins protested.

"There will be. Prepare yourself. Red is…fierce. Six brothers will do that I suppose."

"Six! Molly has another one?"

"Ron." Hermione cut in softly, her expression wistful.

Horrified understanding flooded the Prewetts' faces. "Oh."

"Yeah," she smiled back sadly.

"Anyway," Draco interjected, squeezing Hermione's hand, "Hermione worked it out, Potter found the page in her hand when he snuck into the hospital wing to visit, so he knew what it was and how it was getting around. They worked out that Myrtle had been murdered by the beast the last time so they went to her bathroom. The entrance to the Chamber is there. I don't know the whole story but ultimately Lockheart ended up with Potter and the Weasel. His memory charm backfired leaving him….inpatient material for the Janus Thickey ward."

"Ron's wand broke when he and Harry flew Arthur's car to school….it hadn't been working all year that's why it backfired," Hermione explained.

"Car? They flew a car to school! Wicked!" James grinned.

"They were seen my several muggles. Severus nearly murdered them when they finally got to Hogwarts," Hermione replied drily.

Sirius waved his hand. "Still cool."

Hermione snorted, "Sure Pads. Anyway, Harry rescued Ginny, killed the basilisk and shoved a fang through the diary, thus killing the first Horcrux."

"What? No! Come on….you can't just say it like that!" Sirius whined, "He killed a fucking Basilisk! We need more details!"

"I wasn't there, I don't have them. It died, he shoved the sword of Gryffindor through its mouth. Bye, bye basilisk. Oh but in case no one picked up on it, Hagrid is most definitely innocent and you should probably do something about allowing him to finish his education."

"Where in the name of Circe were the adults!" Charlus thundered as the enormity of what Hermione said sunk in. Everyone in the room flinched. "If a thirteen-year-old girl could fucking figure it out, why couldn't anyone else! And you!" he rounded on Hermione who reared back in shock, "Does the library not have a librarian in your time!"

"What? Of course, it does."

"Then why didn't you fucking tell them and let them summon a teacher!"

Hermione flushed, "I didn't think of it."

Charlus pinched the bridge of his nose, "You didn't think of it? For the love of Merlin. You're grounded. Indefinitely. Forever. Yes…forever. Forever is good."

Hiding a smile and ignoring everyone's stunned expressions, Dorea made her way back towards him. "You need to calm down, darling."

"Calm down! Calm down! Our thirteen."

"Twelve." Draco interrupted with a mischievous grin, guessing where this was going.

"Our twelve-year-old grandson killed a fucking monster with not an adult in sight and our thirteen-year-old granddaughter didn't think to alert an adult when she figured out what said beast was when apparently the entirety of Hogwarts could not! What the fuck was the Ministry doing while you were all busy doing their jobs for them?"

"The Ministry?" Draco echoed confused, his grin fading immediately.

"Yes! What were they doing!"

"I…don't think they were doing anything.'' Hermione ventured. "I don't even know if they knew."

It was abundantly clear that was the wrong thing to say as Charlus' face went through a surprising rainbow of colours in a short space of time. "What in the name of Godric were you thinking!" he bellowed, looking at Dumbledore. "The list of things that petrify is minuscule! Why weren't the Unspeakables involved?"

"Again, I must confess as to having no idea. It has not happened."

"Nor will it! We are dealing with it! Soon!" Albus merely nodded.

"Fuck, I don't really want to start third year," Hermione muttered.

"It cannot possibly be worse," Charlus stated, aghast.

"Don't be so sure," Draco murmured. "Those three were fucking magnets for trouble."

"Where were you during this?" Remus asked curiously.

"In Slytherin, keeping my head down, mainly."

"Wishing me dead….calling me mud blood," Hermione interjected with a smile, falling back into their own macabre version of teasing about his previous behaviour without thinking about her audience.

"What?" Sirius howled, standing up and pulling her around James and into his side. "What the fuck do you mean he called you a mudblood and wished you dead?"

"Thanks for that, Princess," Draco grimaced. "Time and place, remember?"

Hermione pulled away from Sirius laughing, "Calm down, Puppy. I broke his nose in third year in retaliation for his fucking awfulness. Apparently, he's a closet masochist because we were together by fourth after a really, really long, grovelling apology for being a prejudiced prat."

"It had better have been seriously long," Sirius grumbled, not looking convinced.

"Oh, it was. I made him get down on his knees and beg," she grinned. "It was good to lay the groundwork young."

Remus spat out his whiskey at Hermione's lecherous wink.

"You might just be my favourite Potter," Sirius grinned, his stance loosening once he realized that she really was ok.

"Oh my God," Lily groaned. "No…no you cannot do innuendo and sex jokes. I forbid it! It's bad enough with this lot!"

"Innuendo and sex jokes?" she asked innocently. "Lily we were fourteen…..I just meant he learned how to apologise like he meant it….I don't think I like what you're implying!"

Lily turned a violent shade of red and began spluttering apologies before Hermione grinned. "He didn't learn that version of an apology until fifth year."

Draco covered his face and groaned, "Remind me why I love you?"

Ignoring the laughing Marauders and disconcertingly, Charlus, Hermione patted him on the head. "Because I'm fucking awesome?"

"That you are," Sirius agreed, with a grin.

Draco scowled, removing his hands from his face. "Don't encourage her!"

Hermione laughed, wrapping her arm around him in silent apology for having started the conversation in the first place. "Right….let's get third year over with. Then I want a really long bath and a bottle of firewhiskey."

"You can have one of those things." Dorea conceded.

"Do I get to pick which one?" she asked hopefully.

"No."

Sighing, Hermione turned back towards the watching group. They really had been incredibly patient….or stunned. One of the two.

"Third year began with Dementors on the train"

"What!" Minerva exclaimed. "Dementors?"

"Yes. Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban and was hunting Harry….or so we were told. We met Professor Lupin that year. Boggarts in a group setting aside, he was the best Defense Professor we'd had so far."

"You know you made that sound like a compliment when you said it before, but I'm not seeing much competition," Remus interjected drily.

Hermione grinned, "Oh but Professor….you'd never won Witch Weekly's most charming smile!"

Remus looked back at her horrified, "Lockheart?"

"Yes," Draco spat. "His favourite colour is lilac….go on, ask me how I know?"

"How do you know?" Lily asked, playing along.

"Because it was a question on the quiz he set us to test our knowledge during his first class. I'll take group boggarts any day of the week."

There was slightly muted laughter at that statement. "Anyway….Everything was reasonably fine all year. Crookshanks, my cat, kept trying to eat Ron's rat, Scabbers. Turned out he had a rather firm friendship with a stray dog."

"Stray dog?" Augusta asked

"Yup definitely stray," Sirius glowered. "I had a time turner that year."

"A time turner?" Dorea repeated faintly.

"Ah yes…I wanted to take all the electives," Hermione muttered, blushing.

"You used a time turner so you could do more school work?" James asked, horrified.

"Oh fuck off, I'm muggleborn, remember? You lot don't tell us anything and just sort of expect us to figure it out."

"But one of those classes is Muggle studies!"

"I wanted to see how they taught it from a wizarding perspective!"

"Oh, my gods…." Sirius groaned. "I thought Moony was bad! But this….this is….no. Tell me you did something fun with it?"

"Saved and rode a hippogriff, saved you from the Kiss, and escaped a werewolf?"

Sirius' jaw dropped "Ah yup….that would probably count," he replied faintly.

"Did you say you saved Sirius from the Kiss?" Charlus cut in, his expression furious.

"Ah yes?"

"Why?"

"Because he didn't deserve it!" Hermione replied indignantly

"No..no you misunderstand me. You had a time turner but why did you have to do it?"

"Oh ah….Dumbledore told Harry and I that no one would believe us if we told the Minister that Sirius was innocent and that Peter wasn't anywhere near as dead as everyone thought. It was his idea that we go back."

Everyone jumped as Albus Dumbledore went flying into the wall, Charlus' wand pointed straight at him, his face white with rage. "You sent two third years back in time to do a job that either an adult should have done or more realistically shouldn't have had to happen in the first place?" he thundered.

A witch Hermione vaguely registered was a younger Amelia Bones, stood. "Quite. The DMLE has ways of verifying memories, of course we wouldn't discount a child's!"

Albus stood stiffly, keeping his eyes on Charlus and his wand. "I would like to remind you that I am not yet him. I have done nothing."

It didn't seem to quell Charlus' ire. The man looked close to committing murder. "Charlus…." Hermione called softly. "Charlus…oh Merlin. Grandfather!"

Charlus jumped, refocusing his surprised attention on her, "Lower you wand. It was…years ago. And I imagine you'll want slightly more of an explanation about Peter."

He nodded stiffly, elbowing James out the road and wrapping an arm around Hermione, not wanting to admit how relieved he was she allowed it. What on Earth had Albus been thinking? Time travel was still relatively new and considered exceedingly dangerous. Why would anyone entrust the lives of two others to two teenagers already battling the odds with all the rules involved? It made him uneasy just how blinkered they all appeared to have been when it came to the wizard. They had trusted him and apparently, he abused that trust.

"Professor Trelawney gave her second Prophecy to Harry. It was about Peter. When Peter was forced by Remus and Sirius to change from his animagus form, he said he was threatened by Voldemort, which is why he betrayed the Potters. He escaped that night and was directly responsible for his resurrection, thus fulfilling that particular prophecy. Apparently, the old fraud was right occasionally."

"Where did I go…after you saved me from the Kiss?" Sirius asked shakily.

"You…moved around a lot with Buckbeak. You sent Harry exotic birds in place of owls. He…he absolutely adored you. I don't know if I mentioned you were his godfather. You made that summer he was shoved back to his Aunt's one of his better ones. If nothing else, he was able to use you to threaten them with. Your escape had been covered by the muggle news so they knew who you were. "

"How did I escape?"

"Ah…perhaps a conversation with fewer ears?" she suggested, darting her eyes to Amelia who looked faintly amused.

"Later, then."

"Right. I think we all need to process that," Dorea cut in. "Everyone out. We'll start fourth year tomorrow."

The Order trouped out without question, most of them too stunned to do anything else, leaving the house's occupants to regroup.

It took a long time before any of them were ready to leave the table. Sirius was surrounded by James and Remus. Charlus was clinging to Hermione tightly. None of them were really able to process the magnitude of what Hermione and Draco had revealed. All Remus could think, as he gripped Sirius' hand tightly in his own as if the Aurors were coming to cart him away now, was that these were the years Hermione had described as not being that bad.