August 17th 1976, 09:04
Remus Lupin was a morning person. He liked seeing the day begin with a cup of warm tea and experiencing the hope that came with every morning sunrise. It somehow enticed a person into thinking 'something special will happen today'. Despite being mainly pessimistic, he was forever hopeful that one day it would actually happen.
He was sitting alone at the breakfast table in his kitchen gently sipping the regular morning brew when it came. 'It' referring to a sudden burst of silvery, wispy light. It startled him so greatly that he spluttered and dropped the rest of the liquid in the mug down his pyjama shirt. Luckily, it wasn't so hot. It was several moments before he realised that it was a Patronus, and that it was for him.
The Patronus materialised into an adorable otter and stilled, staring right at him. The light reflected on the tiled floor and caught on the glass of several objects in the room, such as the window above the sink and the display cabinet next to the door. His taken aback expression aside, Remus was enthralled by this creature and its ethereal presence; he found it rather beautiful. Having only finished his fifth year and never encountered a Dementor in his life, Remus couldn't say he had much experience with Patronuses, but he could say it was beginning to become a priority to learn how to perform the charm the more he stared at the creature.
But then, it started to talk and he jumped again: can they even do that? he thought. He blinked several times and tried to focus on its voice. Its... girly voice? No he wasn't mistaken – it was a young woman speaking. His face reddened. What would a young woman want to send him a message like this for?
"I need you to send a message to Remus Lupin," it said in its strange echo. Remus was dumbfounded, but enchanted. "Tell him this word for word," it continued, and then the voice changed and became clearer. "I am at the Ministry. I do not know what happened since Sirius fell through The Veil, but I need your help in getting back to Hogwarts. I will wait by the fountain in the auditorium." Then it was quiet and within seconds the friendly silver otter faded away.
Remus stood up abruptly and almost called for it to come back, but his shock overrode his need to see it again. Sirius? he thought worriedly. What had happened to him? What is 'The Veil'? Why does she need to get to Hogwarts? It's the summer holidays. Maybe she needs Dumbledore's help to help Sirius. But then why would she need me to get into the castle? What help could I possibly be?
He began to pace the kitchen, up and down attempting to formulate a plan – ignoring what had just happened. That would need to be figured out later. There was no time. Firstly, he would need to actually get dressed. Then find a way to the Ministry. If one of his friends was in trouble, then he was going in immediately. It didn't even occur to him that it might be a hoax; the Marauders didn't joke about things like that.
...
Two minutes and forty five seconds later, Remus was standing by the fireplace in his living room, Floo powder in hand. The Lupins hadn't been connected to the Floo network before that summer and Remus had begged his father to do so, since it was at least two buses, a train and another bus to even be within walking distance from James' house. It was simply too difficult to visit his friends during the holidays otherwise. He was now especially glad as there was someone in need of his help and he would have been at least two hours in getting to the Ministry if he hadn't been able to Floo.
Remus stepped into the fireplace and called out: "The Ministry of Magic!" He was then engulfed by a mass of green flames and disappeared.
...
Half an hour later...
"Moony, what the hell kind of time do you call this? I thought we had an agreement!" cried James as he threw open his drawing room door, walking into the room purposefully. He came to a halt when he saw his friend. "Ah, I see the emergency," he said dryly.
Remus was standing in front of the Potter's fireplace, covered in soot, with an unconscious girl in his arms. James had set his friend's up with a direct Floo link to his house without any need to call ahead first, however he had also set up an alarm to let him know exactly when they turned up.
"I don't... who... what's wrong... Ministry... otter... Sirius," Remus stuttered.
"Someone called?" Sirius said, as he strode into the room. He came to a sudden halt the same as James had done. "Look Moony, you did know we were kidding when we said you couldn't get a girl unless she was unconscious, right?"
"You're okay!" Remus said, visibly sighing with relief.
"Uh... yeah?" Sirius looked between Remus and James. "What the hell is this?"
"I was just about to ask that," James said. He gave Remus and the girl in his arms a pointed look.
"I'll explain but can I put her down first?" Remus said breathlessly.
"Pip!" James called, and a small house elf appeared with a crack!. "Take us all to the blue room."
"Yes, of course, Master James," Pip said.
James and Sirius walked over to Remus and grabbed a shoulder each. Pip reached up to hold James' hand and the strange group disappeared with a sharp crack!.
...
"Okay... so let me get this straight... this girl sent you a message by her Patronus because she needed your help to get to Hogwarts because I was in trouble? And you went straight to the Ministry of Magic to get her?" Sirius said incredulously.
"That about sums it up," Remus muttered.
The three boys were sitting in armchairs surrounding a roaring fire in a bedroom in Potter Manor. The fireplace in the blue room, to be exact. Remus had laid the unconscious girl down on the bed and proceeded to tell his two best friends about his very strange morning. They had only so far concluded that they were just as confused about the situation as Remus was.
"I just don't get how she knows us though." James ran his hand through his hair. It was a nervous habit he didn't think he'd ever grow out of. "She's not at Hogwarts, right? But she's clearly a witch. And from Britain. Homeschooled?"
"I have some theories," Remus muttered as he stared across at the seemingly sleeping body on the bed.
"Well, could you please enlighten us because this is all too fucking weird for a Sunday morning," Sirius said, who, like James, was still in his pyjamas.
"I'll enervate her. You got her wand, right?" James said, nodding at Remus.
"Yeah," Remus replied, holding up the vine wood wand as if to confirm it further. He was quiet; he was nervous. What would she have to say? How indeed does she know them? Remus certainly had a few theories, but one more incredulous and ridiculous as the other and he was wary to see what this young girl said. He had a feeling that her presence would make a huge impact on the Marauders.
"Let's get on with it then. I have shit to ask," Sirius said. He stood up and walked over to the queen-sized four-poster bed. He stared down at her. "I think she's our age," he murmured, leaning close. "Kinda pretty."
James rolled his eyes and joined Sirius at the bedside. "Paws off," he said, smirking at the pun.
"Oh haha, like I haven't heard tha –" Sirius suddenly stopped. "Did you hear that?" he said, staring at the other two.
"What? All I heard was you prattling on about nothing," Remus said, joining the other two in staring down at the fourth party in the room. She certainly is interesting-looking, he thought. He perched on the edge of the bed, directly across from James and Sirius. But then he did hear it. The girl was murmuring something.
"It's... what is that?" Sirius said. He leaned right down into her face. The room was quiet for a moment before he burst out with: "'Snuffles'? What the fuck is Snuffles?"
"Oh, I'm sick of this! Enervate!" James cried, pointing his wand at the girl.
She immediately woke, springing her eyes open. She gasped and shot into a sitting position, smacking heads with Sirius as she did so. Simultaneous shouts of, "Holy fuck!" and "Oh my god!" followed.
...
Suddenly, Hermione was awake. It was a dream. It was all a dream. She hadn't at all seen Sirius Black die, nor had she been held under the Cruciatus Curse by Bellatrix Lestrange and nor had she spoken with a teenage Remus Lupin in the Ministry of Magic. Nope. It had all been a surreal dream and she would open her eyes to find herself looking at the red drapes of her four-poster bed in her Gryffindor dormitory. Her bed was comfy – very comfortable in fact, she quickly realised. Almost too comfortable...
It suddenly all came crashing down around her. Nothing had been a dream. It had indeed all happened. Hermione began to panic and she opened her eyes and shot up into a sitting position, as if she was waking up from a terrible nightmare. But she collided with something hard. Very hard. The collision caused a numb sort of pain that made her cry out. Her exclamation of pain was, however, echoed.
Hermione then took a first look at her surroundings. She was in a very large bed. In a very blue room, she further noticed. But the grandiose room was not which captured her attention, no, it was the two boys staring at her in mixed expressions of shock and apprehension and the third boy crouched over, with his hands pressed against his forehead in pain.
"I'd like to say that's the first time I've ever been head-butted by a girl, but unfortunately it's not," said the crouched over boy. He straightened up with a grimace, gently touching his brow-line. "Yep, that's gonna bruise. Thanks a lot," he muttered.
Hermione simply stared at him, mouth agape. It wasn't. It couldn't be. She really should have expected it after she saw Remus, but she still hadn't expected it at all. The teenage Sirius Black was everything he had been described as being. Hermione could easily see where he resembled the elder Sirius she knew, but this one was entirely different. There was a... life-ness about him that the older Sirius didn't seem to have. And his hair was shorter.
"Sirius Black," he said with a grin. He held his hand out for her to shake, but Hermione just stared at it.
"I know," she said, still staring at the hand as if it had done something to offend her. Suddenly she snapped out of it, and slapped her hands across her mouth. She couldn't let them know she was a time traveller. She couldn't let them know anything at all.
I can't be here, she thought. I really can't be here, especially here. I at least have to figure out what happened before I can do anything!
"We know you know," a new voice said.
Hermione's eyes travelled past the now amused-looking Sirius to a tall, thin, dark-haired boy beside him. She gasped again. James Potter was again exactly as everyone had described him as being. It was more than a little overwhelming. It was almost like she was meeting characters from a story; but to her, that's exactly what James Potter was. He was simply someone from a story. But there he was. All legs and life-like, staring at her as if she was some kind of alien.
"So, who the hell are you?" James said, crossing his arms.
Hermione shook her head. "No. No, I can't... I... I need... I need to speak to... Remus!" she said, turning to the boy perched on the edge of the bed next to her. She needed to talk to someone. Anyone. Remus was perfect, if she thought about it. He would be very useful in helping her find out what happened and understanding in what she could and could not do. Yes, she thought, Remus I can trust. He was the only person who was almost the same as a teenager as he was as the adult Hermione knew.
She saw Remus visible recoil. "M... Me?" he said, pointing at himself.
Hermione nodded at him. She didn't think she could ever get over the shock at seeing him so young. "Please," she said, turning to James. "Give me ten minutes alone with Remus then I will explain everything."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sirius said. He shook his head and waved his hands. "We don't know you. Hell, Remus doesn't know you. How can we trust you to leave you alone with him? You literally fall into our lives knowing who we are. You could be anybody, so I don't think so, mate." Sirius crossed his arms, mirroring James.
Hermione sighed. This was all a mess. She now couldn't get out of not explaining where she came from. She couldn't see any other way. But she simply had to talk to Remus first. She needed to get her head straight. She was stuck.
"She's unarmed. I'll be fine," Remus suddenly interjected. Hermione, James and Sirius all whipped their heads round to stare at him. He ducked his head, with his face reddening. Hermione almost smiled. It was both surreal and adorable seeing her old Professor like this. While it should feel wrong, she didn't actually feel anything like that at all.
Hermione looked away from Remus to find James staring at her with narrowed eyes. "Fine," he said. "But we're literally going to be just outside that door." He pointed between the two of them. "And no hanky-panky." James then grabbed Sirius by the back of his shirt and dragged him out.
Hermione's face heated up. What a ludicrous comment. She mentally scoffed. Her and Remus. Her and Professor Lupin. How entirely absurd. But as she caught the teenage boy's eye and saw his equally as embarrassed face, her face suddenly became intensely warmer and the idea less absurd.
When the door slammed, their situation suddenly became a little to intimate for Hermione's liking. They were alone and she had no idea what to say. How do you begin to tell someone that you are a time traveller and know them in the future?
"Here," Remus broke the silence. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Hermione's wand. "I think this is yours." He smiled shyly.
"They won't like it," she replied quietly, taking the wand from his outstretched hand. "But thank you, anyway. You don't think I'll curse you now that I'm armed?" she asked teasingly. What was she doing? Was this flirting?
"Will you?" Remus replied steadily.
"No."
"Thought so. Now, who exactly are you?"
Hermione blinked. She forgot for a moment that he didn't even know her name. "Oh," she said, glancing towards the door. "Do you mind?" Hermione gestured her wand towards the door directly in front of her. Remus shrugged in reply, so she quickly sent charms which locked the door and cast a silencing spell on the room. "It's not that I don't trust them," she said meekly. "I just have to... tell them differently."
Remus just nodded.
There was a murmured cry of: "They didn't!" outside the door, which made the two teenagers giggle.
"No, they definitely won't like it," Hermione said with a grin. She crossed her legs under her.
Remus shrugged again. "They'll find a way. It is James' house after all."
Hermione almost gasped again. She was in the Potters' house? "We're in Godric's Hollow?" she said, trying to hide her shock from him.
Remus frowned and gave her a strange look. "No, why would you think so?"
Hermione gaped for a moment. She had never heard of the Potters having another house, but then again, why would she? Thinking about it, Hermione didn't know much about James Potter at all. "I..." she stuttered. "I'm Hermione Granger," she finally said, holding out her hand.
"Remus Lupin," he said, shaking her hand. "But then again, you already knew that."
"Yes... well... I... um... My, this truly is difficult to explain." Hermione began to finger the ends of her hair. Best to say it bluntly, I suppose, she thought. "Yes, I do know you – I know all of you Marauders actually. I'm from... the future, you see." She paused, allowing him time for a reaction.
Remus frowned slightly. "I do see."
"Do you believe me?" Hermione asked warily. "Do you want me to prove it?"
"Not really," Remus said with a grimace.
Hermione ignored him and rushed everything out in a single breath. "You are Remus John Lupin, or sometimes also known as Moony, one quarter of the Marauders, which consists of James Charlus Potter, Sirius Orion Black and Peter Martin Pettigrew, also known by the names of Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail, whom are all Animagi, illegal of course, but only due to the fact that you are a werewolf, turned at the age of three, I think. You are all Gryffindors, despite the fact that Sirius comes from a family of entire Slytherins and was blasted off the family tree for having 'traitorous' blood ideals and running away to live with James, which I now suppose why he is here so early? I suppose that's happened already? God help me if it hasn't, I really cannot afford letting anything out."
Remus gaped at her. "You..." he stuttered. "You... know?" he said quietly, not meeting her eyes.
"Oh," Hermione said. She hadn't realised that it was such a big deal for her to know, but back then... now... only his family, Dumbledore and the rest of the Marauders knew about his condition. But she almost breathed a sigh of relief; she hadn't given anything new away if that was all he was concerned about. "Well, yes," she continued. "You once turned in front of me."
He snapped his head up. "Was... anyone... hurt?" he asked fearfully.
"No!" Hermione exclaimed. "It was unexpected, yes, but I had guessed what you were before that anyway. And believe me, none of us mind you and your furry little problem." She smiled at him.
He gave her a small smile in return. "So you really do know us. Rather well, by the looks of it. Can I ask... how?"
Hermione frowned, attempting to think of a way around telling him the absolute truth, but something also entirely honest.
"Okay, fine," Remus said. "Can I ask when?"
"Yes! I can answer that. I came from the year 1996."
Remus visibly looked startled. "Twenty years?" he said, aghast. Hermione nodded and Remus was silent for a moment. "You're not... my child... are you?" he said in almost a whisper.
Hermione giggled. "Oh god no!"
"Are you James' child then? Peter? Sirius? "
"No, no, no, nothing like that. But I am friends with one of their children." Hermione said with a wry smile.
"Do not tell me that Sirius had a child, because I don't think I could handle that at any age," Remus said with a laugh.
Hermione giggled again, but sighed. "You know I can't really tell you anything in detail."
"I understand. But what I don't understand is what you are doing here... and how you got here for that matter. What exactly happened to your Sirius?"
"I don't really understand any of it, myself," Hermione said. She frowned down at the plush navy and white bedspread and began to pick at a loose thread. "I think it had something to do with my owing Sirius a life-debt."
Hermione heard Remus' sharp intake of breath and looked up to face him. "A life-debt? What the hell were you involved in?"
"I really cannot tell you that," Hermione said with a sad smile. "But somehow Sirius Black ended up saving my life, henceforth creating the life-debt. But then he... disappeared... and when I tried to follow, I was thrown back in time. Then I tried to contact you to get back to Hogwarts, it's May when I come from, you see, so we were still at school, and the rest is history, I suppose."
"The Veil, you said. Is that where your Sirius 'disappeared' to? And where you tried to go to follow?"
"I forget I told you that," Hermione said with a frown. "I don't quite know what it is... but I think it is a link to the Otherworld."
"So... your Sirius is... dead?" Remus said with a gulp.
Hermione blinked several times and tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but her voice still came out thick. "Yes, I think so. Which is why I was sent back in time. I failed to save him and the debt became tenfold and now I have to save his entire life." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I haven't had time to truly figure out what happened and why I'm here, but that is all I have come up with since talking to you." She smiled sadly at him.
Remus' expression became thoughtful. They were both silent for several moments. "So... our relationship in the future," he said carefully, breaking the silence. "I'm sort of like... an uncle to you?"
"Sort of," Hermione replied. It was safe for him to think that of them. She supposed it was almost true. "But you're young, so it's more like a... friendship," she continued.
"Right," Remus said, clearly deep in thought.
"I know this is all surreal and strange and you don't know me and don't trust me but I'd rather like you to," Hermione said almost pleadingly. If she was permanently stuck in 1976, she needed at least one ally.
"You were in trouble," Remus replied slowly, "and the first person you thought to contact was me. You clearly trust me a lot in the future, so I am going to trust you now."
A huge grin shot across Hermione's face. "Oh, thank you!" she cried, before throwing her arms around him. She felt his arms warily lightly touch her back.
The sound of a door slamming pulled them apart.
"There!" Sirius exclaimed, brandishing a knife in the air. "Got it!"
Hermione smiled at the sight of it. It was the knife that her Sirius had recently (well, twenty years in the future) given to Harry for Christmas; the one that unlocked any door.
He folded it down and shoved it back into his pocket. "Had to go all the way back to my room to get this, so you'll have to elaborate more on the me being dead part."
Both Hermione's and Remus' mouths dropped open at the same time. "Do any kind of wards keep you boys out?" she said exasperatingly.
"Nope," James said with a crooked grin. "Now that you've had your ten minutes with Moony over here, we have a few questions ourselves." His grin developed into something rather evil.
Hermione almost gulped. But at least, she thought to herself as she mentally prepared to be interrogated by three quarters of the infamous Marauders, I won't need to tell my story again.
A/N: Hermione really has been thrown right into the middle of it all, hasn't she?! I hope this began to explain my plan for the time theory I'm going to develop. Hope you liked it!
Holly - xo