Chapter 2: A Change of Scenery

James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew shouldn't have been sat under the Slytherin table after curfew but the end of term feast was in a couple of days and it's not like they could not play a prank. The light from the mostly full moon lit up their grinning faces as they whispered back and forth.

"…Erm..guuuys. I don't think we should be doing this without Remus, you know he doesn't like it when we carry out pranks without him first trying to convince us not to do them." The anxious voice of the smallest of the trio whispered down the table.

The other two boys gazes met and both rolled their eyes at the now familiar argument. Sirius turned, ginned evilly and replied "Of course we shouldn't be doing this without Moony, but it is the day after the full moon, so it's not like he can complain or join us. I'm sure it will cheer him up when he sees all of the Slytherins baying like farm animals come the feast on Friday. I myself cannot wait!"

"Also," the smug Potter added "I believe that Evans will be positively begging for my attention once she sees that I've turned her precious Snivellus into an animal as he deserves." Snorting, he added "A sheep seems to fit that coward with the way that he trails after Avery, desperate from that bloody tattoo."

The doubtful replies of his friends however were drowned out when there was suddenly a loud, echoing bang and a flash of blinding white light. Emitting a high pitch squeal of fright, it was Sirius that rolled out from underneath the benches to first see the slumped over shadow of a figure land atop the Ravenclaw table, one table over from them.

Ignoring his friend's comment of "Manly, Padfoot, real manly," he muttered a lumos and took in the prone form as well as the expanding pool of blood radiating around them. He cursed and faintly heard Peter say that he was going to get Madam Pomfrey, as well as Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, before rushing off.

Limited as his knowledge was of magical maladies and cures, he knew not to move the girl who lay before him, and instead went to take his jumper off to stem the bleeding the muggle way. Ordering a shocked Prongs to do the same, they surrounded the girl and pressed their clothes to the multiple lacerations covering the girl's abdomen.

Taking the time to observe the state of their surprise visitor while they waited, they both took in how frail she looked after seemingly months of malnourishment, as well as the deep purple bruises under her eyes due to many sleepless nights. The neck of the girl's long-sleeved purple jumper, covered with a blood matted denim jacket, was splayed open and the pair of boys could see the remains of two scars. The first of which was long and thin across her throat as if someone had held a knife there, whereas the latter was the top of a mottled purple scar which Sirius assumed covered a large expanse of her chest, undoubtedly caused by dark magic.

Their exploration of the girl's unfortunate injuries was halted by the entrance of Madam Pomfrey, closely followed by the Professors. Her gasp was enough to tell the boys that this was incredibly serious and that the girl's injuries would be fatal if she did not work quickly. McGonagall quickly lit the candelabras around the hall and the face of the girl was suddenly animated with life, as if their Head of House had awoken her as well.

Reaching around for her wand she growled in frustration as she failed to find it and instead began to flail her limbs, attempting to fight off her attackers the muggle way. Sirius was amazed at the fight the girl could put up when in such a frail condition and fought to keep her down so as to not open up her wounds more.

Wisely stepping in, Dumbledore cast a stunning spell to stop the girl causing harm to herself or his students, yet it was James that got her to stay still enough for the Headmaster to aim correctly. By shouting at her to stop and that she was in no harm, the girl's attention was drawn to the frightened seventeen year old. Her eyes widened and the incredulous whisper of "Harry?" was the first and last thing to exit her lips before Dumbledore's stunning spell could hit her.

"Did you hear Poppy, Prongs? Without us she might have bled to death, it's not bloody likely for me to leave her here alone where the people that did this to her could return!" Prongs? Hermione's mind was still half asleep as she began to hear voices. Hmmmmm. I know that voice.

A deep voice she decidedly did not know replied, "Mate, we get it, we're all feeling quite protective of whoever this witch may be. Come on, we both saw how she came in like. But we need to sleep, you definitely need to shower, Poppy said she'd watch her." Now, who the hell is Poppy?

Suddenly the memories of the battle came back to her making her eyes burst open to settle on the boy at her bedside. The other boy, who seemed to have thick black curls and the voice she recognised abruptly stopped his arguments and gazed into Hermione's open eyes in shock. Although the feeling of recognition remained, Hermione's eyes were glued to the teenager closer to her.

The boy looked no older than her and so similar the friend she had seen dead on the ground no more than 12 hours ago. She had to hold back her exclamation of relief that Harry was not dead, when she came to the conclusion that this was not Harry. Madam Pomfrey seemed to have noticed the lull in the conversation and bustled back into the room, smiling when she saw that her patient had awoken.

Unfortunately, Hermione found that she could take no comfort in seeing a familiar face due to the fact that she looked about twenty years younger than she had been when Hermione saw her last. What seemed worse was the fact that there was no recognition in Madam Pomfrey's eyes when she regarded her. Turning back to the room at large she noticed that no other beds were occupied as you would assume after a battle and that the second chair at her bedside was occupied by no other than Sirius Black.

Her gasp of recognition caused the man in question to frown and she almost found herself asking how he was alive before realising that he had absolutely no idea who she was. Staring at him openly, she suddenly realised that the person stood before her was not the man she had once known, but a teenager, long before he had suffered 12 long years locked away in Azkaban.

"Am I dead?" She didn't quite realise that she had said it out loud until she received three confused shakes of the head. Thank God. She intoned, yet how could she be here where people she had known didn't know her and they appeared much younger. Not to mention the Harry Potter lookalike… Before anything else escaped her mouth, Hermione clapped her hands over her mouth, refusing to talk to anyone until she had seen Professor Dumbledore.

If what she thought had happened had actually happened then Dumbledore would still be alive, which he seemed to be seeing as Madam Pomfrey had sent word that she was awake. Unfortunately, that would mean that she was correct in the assumption that the failsafe that the Dumbledore from her time had created had not been a weapon of mass destruction, but some sort of Time Turner that had taken her back more than twenty years!

Up next is Chapter 3: A Bit of Bookkeeping