Disclaimer: I am not transphobic :), so therefore I own nothing except the order these words are in, as everything else belongs to JKR

September 21, 1977

The Great Hall ~ Dinner

3rd Person POV:

Hermione glanced at her watch, 6:47 pm. She glanced at Peter, who was nervously picking at his food. The buzz of the Great Hall surrounded her, enveloping her in its warm embrace. Home. It had been a long time since she felt safe.

Three minutes passed, and Peter stood up.

"Pete! Where're you off to?" Cried Sirius, looking up at him.

"Bathroom - I-I don't feel too good. Might go to the Hospital Wing. I don't know how long I-I'll be."

"'Kay," nodded James, turning back to his food.

Only Hermione remained staring at him. He caught her cold stare and flinched, hurrying away. She only raised an eyebrow and watched as he walked out of the Great Hall. Hermione decided that she could go for a walk later – while she waited for the meeting with Voldemort to end – and then she would confront Peter. Or something like that – I don't want him or anyone else to suspect too much about what I know.

"Hermione?" Sirius waved a hand in front of her face.

"Huh?" Hermione startled.

"Dinner's over, c'mon," he grinned at her.

Hermione glanced around, seeing the hall emptying out, "Oh, yeah," she gave him a sheepish grin and followed him back to the Gryffindor common room.

Remus and Sirius played chess, Lily and Marlene were finishing their History of Magic homework, and James was watching Lily with a wistful expression. Hermione was curled up on the couch, book in her hand, watching Sirius' and Remus' game with an amused expression.

James sighed, still looking at Lily, and Hermione glanced at him, beckoning him over. He sat down next to her on the couch, "What's up?"

"Wanna know how to get Lily?"

His eyes widened, and he nodded in excitement.

"Okay, then. Listen up – and you have to do exactly what I say, or it won't work."

Another nod from James.

"Stop acting so obnoxious around her – I understand that you really like her, but when you act like a child, there's less of a chance that she will like you back." James opened his mouth to reply, but Hermione held up her hand to stop him, "Lay off asking her out – just hang out with her some," she paused, "like study with or something – go for a walk. Talk to her – show her that you can be mature and understanding. Be nice to Snape, for gods' sake – you know she doesn't like it when you're rude to him. Then, after a few weeks, ask her out to Hogsmeade. Nicely. And in private. No yelling across the Great Hall. Got it?"

James nodded, "Will it really work?"

Hermione smiled at him, "Of course it will, but you can't mess up."

"Okay! I promise I won't! Thank you so much, Hermione!"

"No problem."

James leaned forward and pulled Hermione into a hug. He couldn't help but notice how she flinched and stiffened at first, before finally relaxing after a few seconds. What happened to her? He wanted to ask her so badly, but had a feeling that she wouldn't want to answer any questions right then and there, with everyone around and all. After all, it's only been a few weeks since she came here.

Hermione gave a little sigh of content in James' arms. He hugs just like Harry. She felt the tears welling up in her eyes, and a sob beginning to make its way up her throat. No, I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry. Hermione swallowed thickly, fighting down the tears as James looked at her, worried, "Hermione, what's wrong?"

At his words, Sirius and Remus looked up, shocked to find her crying.

"What happened?" Sirius asked James, as he and Remus sat down.

"I-I don't know, mate, I hugged her, and she just started crying." James looked as confused as the other boys felt.

Hermione let out a strangled sob, it was so different here. No Harry. No Ron. No Ginny. No Neville. No Luna. My parents don't even remember me normally – it'll all be different with them. Sirius pulled her to his chest, stroking her hair gently and whispering comforting words in her ear.

After a few minutes, Hermione sat up, her tears slowly subsiding, "I-I'm okay now. I-I, uh, I'm sorry," she looked at Sirius' shirt, which was covered in her tears, "I-uh, ruined your shirt."

Sirius smiled at her, "It's okay, Kitten, nothing a Scourgify won't fix."

"Oh-um-okay, then." She paused, Sirius' words finally registering, "Kitten?"

"Your nickname."

Hermione shook her head, "Oh no. Absolutely not. No way."

"Why not?"

"I don't like it." Kitten was her mother's nickname for her.

"Well then what do you want me to call you?"

"My name. Hermione."

"But that's not fun," he whined.

"Too bad," Hermione stood up, fighting the grin that was making its way across her face.

"C'mon Kitten!"

She rolled her eyes.

"Wait, where're you going?"

"I'm going for a walk; I need to clear my head."

"Is it 'cause I called you Kitten? 'Cause I won't do it again!" He cried.

"No," she laughed, "I just need some time to think." As an afterthought, "But don't do it again."

"Ugh," Sirius feigned frustration, "fine!" He drew out the i, rolling his eyes.

"Your smile gives it away," Hermione smirked playfully, letting the portrait slam shut behind her.

Hermione walked along the edge of the Forbidden Forest, speeding up when she saw the smoke coming out of Hagrid's cabin. She glanced at her watch, 7:32 pm, Peter and the others wouldn't be back yet, but it was still an acceptable time to visit Hagrid. She took a deep breath and stepped up to his door, knocking firmly.

After a moment, he opened the door and looked down at her curiously, "Hello - how can I help yeh?"

She looked up at him, warmth filling her chest at the sight of her old friend, "Hi, I-I'm Hermione Granger. I'm a new transfer student here. I saw the smoke coming out of your cabin and thought I would drop by and say 'Hello.'"

He smiled at her, "Well, hello – I'm Rubeus Hagrid, but yeh can just call me Hagrid. I'm the groundskeeper here. Would yeh like to come in?"

"I would love to," Hermione smiled. She entered the small stone home smiling when Hagrid offered her some tea and rock cakes, "Yes, please."

"So," Hagrid started, handing Hermione a teacup and sitting down across from her, "Where're yeh transfer from?"

"Beauxbatons," came the answer.

"That's nice – they got Abraxans, don't they?"

Hermione grinned, "Yes, they do – they, uh, they pull the carriages." She quickly thought back to her 4th year when the students from Beauxbatons arrived.

"In'eresting, they're fascinatin' creatures, really."

Hermione agreed, laughing at how Hagrid could easily switch any conversation to animals and all sorts of other creatures. "So, what kinds of animals live around here?"

"Oh, yeh know, they're lots o' things around; unicorns, acromantula, hippogriffs, thestrals, even centaurs – but don't let them hear yeh callin' them animals – they'll get real upset."

"Wow, that's a lot of creatures just in the forest," Hermione grinned.

"Yeah - it'd be really amazin', though, if we could keep dragons." Hagrid gave a little sigh.

"That would be interesting, after all," Hermione paused, before smiling to herself and continuing, "they're highly misunderstood creatures."

Hagrid's eyes widened, and he nodded excitedly, "Exactly! Yeh're right – not many people understand tha', but I'm glad that yeh do."

They chatted for a while – about other animals and Hogwarts in general before Hermione looked at her watch, 8:27 pm, "Hagrid, it's been really great getting to know you but I'm afraid I have to go – I've got some homework left. But I'll be sure to visit again!" She called out as she left his hut.

It had been about 1 and a half hours since the meeting with Voldemort started and Hermione figured that he wouldn't keep them longer than two hours – after all, they were still students with a curfew and homework. Not that Voldemort would care about any of that, I suppose. Hermione decided she would go and talk to Peter when he was still with the Slytherins, and then later, Hermione would "accidentally" let it slip to the other boys who Peter had been "hanging out" with. Hermione slowly walked towards the doors of the castle, lingering around and feigning interest in some plants along the way.

Her eyes narrowed a little when she saw the students apparating in front of the gate, and she ducked behind a tree. Bellatrix pulled out her wand and opened the gates, and the four walked in. Hermione watched as they slowly walked past her in silence, waiting until they were about ten feet away before stepping out from behind the tree and calling out, "Hey! Peter! Wait up!"

The Slytherins froze, and Peter slowly turned around, trembling, "H-Hello, H-Her-Hermione."

Hemione hurried to catch up with them, ignoring the looks that the Slytherins gave her, "Are you going back to the common room?'

He stared at her for a long moment, probably wondering why she wasn't asking what he was doing with three Slytherins, before answering, "Uh, y-yeah. I, um, I was just-" he couldn't seem to think of anything else to say, so he just stopped talking and nodded instead.

Bellatrix just looked at Hermione like she was crazy before grabbing Lucius' and Rodolphus' arms and dragging them into the castle – but not before all three of them gave her dirty looks.

Hermione looked at Peter for a minute trying to decide whether or not to ask what he had been doing. Finally, she concluded that she shouldn't - she didn't want to hear whatever poor excuse he would come up with. She narrowed her eyes at him once again, watching him squirm under her gaze, before nodding at the closing doors of the castle, "Let's go."

"O-Okay." He stammered out and followed her back into the Entrance Hall. She walked back to the common room briskly, ready to get started on her homework, and couldn't help but snicker quietly to herself when she saw Peter practically jogging to keep up with her.

The common room was abuzz with activity, and Hermione smiled when she saw James talking quietly to Lily – it looked like he was already taking her advice. Remus was holed up in a corner, working on homework with Dorcas, and Sirius was laying on the floor, lazily flicking his wand at his notes, making paper cranes out of them. She shook her head in exasperation, walking over to him and sitting down, waving her wand at the cranes and turning them back into flat, neat sheets of parchment.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?!" Sirius cried, sitting up.

"You'll need those notes later, use different parchment."

"But, 'Mioneee," he whined, "this is more fun!"

She looked at him, it was heartbreaking to see how carefree he was. Before Azkaban. "Sirius," she raised an eyebrow playfully, "it's your NEWT year, you're going to need to study these later on."

"Well, I-I-" he spluttered, "I can just use your notes! Or Remus'! Or, maybe, Lily will let me use them!"

"They'll need their notes to study."

"Ugh," he grumbled, "whatever."

Hermione laughed, ruffling his hair, "You sound like a child."

"I am not!" He said petulantly, crossing his arms. At Hermione's incredulous look, he shook his head, before pausing, "Well, I'm almost an adult! I'm gonna be 17 in November. I'm still 16! 17 is an adult! I'm not 17 yet!"

"Yeah, okay, so you're still a child." She grinned at him and sang, "You are 16 going on 17! Baby it's time to think!" She laughed at his confused look, she stopped singing and said, "anyways, I'm going to the library to study. I'll see you later." Hermione stood up and grabbed her bag.

She was just about to walk out the common room door when Sirius called out, "Wait! Hermione!" She turned around, and he hurriedly said, "Make sure you come to dinner!"

"Why?"

"Because, uh, you haven't been eating enough!" Although that was true, the real reason he wanted her to go to dinner was because the Marauders had a prank planned. It would be the first major prank of the year, and he wanted Hermione to be there to witness it.

She rolled her eyes in response and sighed, "Okay. Fine. I'll be there. Now can I go?"

"Yeah," he grinned at her, and Hermione couldn't help but grin back.

Hermione walked to the library slowly, immersed in her own thoughts of when she would tell the Marauders about Peter's where Peter's true loyalties lay. She sat down in a secluded corner and started working on some homework when she felt eyes on her, but when she looked around, she didn't see anyone. Shaking the thought off, Hermione got up to look for a book and had just walked down one of the aisles when, suddenly, she felt a hand grab her from behind. Before she could do anything, another hand covered her face, and she was pulled into a dark corner of the library; she was defenseless – her wand still lay on the table where she had been working. Shivers crawled up her spine when she saw Bellatrix's face come into view.

"Well, well," Bellatrix smirked at her, cocking her head to the side, "the little mudblood came to say hello."

Hermione glared at her defiantly, but inside she was terrified.

"Now listen," Bellatrix flipped her curls over her shoulder, "if you tell anyone – anyone – about what you saw today...you'll regret it."

Raising her eyebrow in response, Hermione replied, "Oh, yeah?"

Bella's eyes widened in fury – no one in all of Hogwarts dared to talk back to her. She took a deep breath and was about to respond when Hermione smirked at her – as if she was daring her to fight. Bellatrix felt her blood boil, and the next thing she knew, she was punching the other girl. After a moment of shock, Hermione began fighting back, and the two girls were fighting on the floor.

Luckily for Hermione, Sirius had been on his way to the library because Hermione hadn't shown up for dinner like she had promised. Only a few seconds after he walked in, as he was heading to the back of the library, he saw the two girls.

He immediately rushed towards them and started trying to pull Hermione away, signaling to Lucius to pull his deranged cousin away. Malfoy saw what he was doing and pulled Bellatrix away from Hermione. As the boys were dragging the girls away from each other, Bellatrix, sporting a bleeding nose, spat, "This isn't over, you stupid freak!"

To Sirius' surprise, Hermione practically growled at her, "Damn right it isn't!"

As Lucius pulled Bella out of the library, Sirius turned to Hermione, "What happened?"

Hermione stared at him for a moment, as though she were in shock, and then stammered, "I-I, I was looking for-for a book and, and then – Malfoy came out of nowhere and he grabbed me! And then Bellatrix came and-and she," Hermione promptly burst into tears – to the surprise of both Sirius and her.

"Woah, Hermione – slow down," Sirius pulled her into a comforting hug, I'll ask her about what happened later, when she's calmer.

"I-I'm sorry," she murmured, wiping away her tears.

It was then that Sirius noticed that she had a black eye and a bruise on her cheek that was turning purple, "'Mione, you've got some bruises – let's go to the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey'll fix you right up."

She looked up at him, "I-I don't need to – really – I promise, I'm fine!"

"C'mon," Sirius gently coaxed her out of the library, flicking his wand at her books, packing them neatly in her bag, and levitating it to himself so he could carry it.

When the pair arrived at the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey immediately took note of Hermione's beat up face and clucked her tongue exasperatedly, before pulling out some anti-bruising cream, and asking, "What happened?"

Hermione blushed, and muttered, "Fight."

Sirius cut in, rolling his eyes, "With my crazy cousin, Bella."

The matron's eyes widened slightly and slowly nodded, as though she knew exactly what had happened, "I'm going to keep you overnight just in case, okay?"

Sighing a little, Hermione nodded slowly, settling into the bed.

"'Night Hermione, we'll come see you in the morning, okay? I wish I could stay longer, but I've got a lot of homework."

"Okay, goodnight, Sirius," Hermione smiled up at him, and Sirius smiled back, unable to help the butterflies growing in his stomach.

A/N: I am so, so sorry for not updating for like a gazillion months, I've been super busy and have had some serious writer's block. Additionally, I would like to offer my condolences to anyone who has lost family or friends during these times.

Anyway, I will be trying to update a lot more, from now on, but I still have lots of schoolwork and I run cross country 4-5 days a week, so I have a pretty tight schedule. Hope you enjoyed this chapter – feedback please :)

Love,

zoe