A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I hope you all have a great weekend - in my neck of the woods, we are supposed to get a foot of snow, so I intend to spend the weekend holed up writing :) You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Huge thank you to kristeristerin for beta reading this chapter!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter six and be on the lookout for chapter seven soon!

October 1967

Hermione hadn't been planning on going to Hogsmeade at all. First, it just didn't feel right to go to the little village without Ron and Harry, tucked under an invisibility cloak, at her side. Secondly, she didn't have any money or any desire to buy anything there even if she did. And third, the rest of the girls in her dorm had already secured dates for the weekend, leaving Hermione as the odd one out.

"I'm sure someone will ask you next time, Hermione," Elna had tittered at the vanity, pulling her blonde hair back into some rather mod looking pigtails. "Once they get to know you better."

She had wanted to tell them that she had been asked to Hogsmeade, even if she didn't understand why, but that would mean giving the school quite a bit of gossip. The thought that Hermione Granger and Rodolphus Lestrange would attend Hogsmeade together when he was betrothed to Bellatrix Black was sure to set tongues wagging, and Hermione had no desire to be on Bellatrix's bad side.

In the end, though, she was worn down by Arthur Weasley, who had invited her to go to Hogsmeade with him and the rest of his friends, insisting that they were going as a group and that it would be a fun time. Realizing that she had been a bit rude to the boy whose family had graciously taken her in over the summer, Hermione had agreed to go with him, making plans to meet him in the entrance hall on the morning of.

Lottie had giggled and wished Hermione good luck on her date, something that she furiously denied. But, there was no convincing the pretty dark-haired girl.

Hermione made her way down to the entrance hall, eager to get going. It had been a long time since she had been to Hogsmeade and it would be nice to get out into the little village and see what had changed. Plus, it would help her get her mind off of how little progress had been made with the effort to get her back to her correct time. Dumbledore had shared the Unspeakable's progress report with her and he had made little headway thus far.

Arthur was already waiting for her when she arrived, hands shoved into his pockets. He brightened up immediately when he saw her, shooting her a winning smile. "How are you today, Hermione?" he asked, leading them out towards the carriages that were headed down to Hogsmeade.

She resisted telling him how she was really feeling and instead focused on her excitement to see everything the village had to offer. He helped her into one of the carriages and the next thing she knew it they were off. "Where are the rest of your friends?" she asked, wondering why they hadn't joined them. "I hope that I wasn't too late and they went down without you. I suppose we will just have to meet up with them in the village."

Making a noncommittal noise, Arthur shrugged his shoulders and began regaling her with all the different sorts of sweets were available at Honeyduke's, trying to press her for her favorite kind of wizarding candy. "Sugar quills," she finally told him. "But I don't eat too many sweets because my parents are dentists."

"Dentists?" he asked, his green eyes full of wonder at the unknown of it all. One thing was certain never to change, and that was Arthur's interest in all things muggle. He was so curious that he even breezed right over Hermione's mention of parents, a seldom discussed topic considering how much she missed her parents. "What exactly is that?"

"Oh, well, muggles need people to look after their teeth to make sure that they don't get any decay. Dentists are sort of...well, healers I suppose. They can repair the damage in muggle's teeth and help them make sure that they don't get more decay," Hermione tried to explain. "Candy is something that's known especially for hurting your teeth."

"Well, that must explain why you have such pretty teeth," Arthur said, his eyes dropping to her mouth, before snapping back up to her eyes. He turned pink all the way to the tips of his ears, stammering when he realized what he said. "I mean, smile, of course."

Hermione laughed him off. "Oh, you wouldn't have always thought that," she said, remembering how terrible her teeth had been, but knowing that she couldn't share the particulars with Arthur. It would simply raise too many questions. "My front teeth used to be entirely too large for my face."

Not a moment too soon, they were arriving in the village. Hermione forged her way out of the carriage, unwilling to let Arthur help her again. She breathed in the cold air, the icey temperature filling up her lungs, shocking her system. Snow hadn't fallen yet, but there was still some frost hanging around, not yet melted by the bright morning sun. "So, where are your friends likely to be? We should go meet up with them," she said, turning to face her companion.

Looking at his guilty face, Hermione should have known that Arthur had been suspect in getting her down to Hogsmeade. "Why don't the two of us just walk around for a bit together? We can always meet up with them at the Three Broomsticks later," he offered, trying to link his arm with hers.

Hermione pulled her arm away from her, narrowing her eyes at the seventh year. "We were never going to Hogsmeade as a group, were we, Arthur?" she demanded, already knowing the answer. "It was just you and me together, wasn't it?"

He flushed once again, his mouth opening and closing while he searched for the words to explain to her what he was thinking. "Well, I...I suppose I knew that you wouldn't want to go if I called it a date, but..." he trailed off, realizing the awkward position he'd put her in.

The brunette was furious though, completely irritated that her so-called friend would have tricked her this way. She knew that Arthur was interested in her, but she had tried to tell him that that interest wasn't returned. Arthur Weasley was meant to be with Molly, not her. "You are right, Arthur. If you had asked me to Hogsmeade, I would have said no," she said, wanting to be as clear as possible. "But even worse is you knew that would be my response, but you tricked me anyways!"

Turning on her heel, Hermione stalked off in the direction of the castle. Arthur shouted at her retreating back. "Hermione! Where are you going?"

She waved him off. "I'll be fine on my own!" she shouted, needing to put more distance between them, so that she didn't do something like hex the man she knew as Mr. Weasley.

Hermione knew that it was too early for any of the carriages to be going back to the school, so if she wanted to get back to Hogwarts, she would have to make the walk on her own. Thinking about it for a minute, she decided it was worth it. Besides, it would be nice to get out in the fresh air for a little while.

She had been walking on the path for a while when she realized that she heard the telltale crunching of someone following behind her. Sure that she was about to find Arthur dutifully trudging along after her, she whirled around, sending her wild hair swirling around her. "What do you want?" she asked, only to realize that it was not Arthur Weasley, but rather Rodolphus Lestrange. Flushing in embarrassment, she groaned seeing one of his dark eyebrows rise in surprise at her rudeness. "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"It's not as if you'd actually be pleased to see me anyway," Rodolphus quipped.

"That's not true," Hermione said with a frown, even though she wasn't entirely sure if that was accurate. She didn't know if she wanted to spend any time with Rodolphus, knowing what she did about his future. At the same time, she felt a little badly about holding something against him that hadn't even happened yet. Still, wouldn't he have the potential to do those horrible things he would do as a Death Eater now? He didn't seem like a horrid Death Eater in her limited contacts with him thus far. He didn't seem to take anything too seriously. But...well she didn't know what he knew about her either.

Rodolphus fell into step next to her, moderating his steps so that they were walking side by side. "You seem to be heading back to the castle early. Date didn't go as planned?" he questioned, his tone indicating a hint of resentment that she'd gone with someone else.

Hermione immediately grimaced. "Yeah, Arthur and I had a...difference of opinion," she said charitably. "I was under the impression that he was inviting me to go with his group of friends and not as a...one on one thing."

"Why don't you want to go to with Weasley, anyway?" he asked, the gravel crunching under their feet in a steady rhythm as they walked.

"Oh, you know, I just think he and Molly are better suited to one another," she answered. She couldn't tell him that she knew that Molly and Arthur would end up married with a gaggle of babies, one such baby being one of her best friends. "Enough about Arthur, though. I am still so annoyed and I don't want to say something uncharitable."

"I've got plenty of uncharitable things to say about Weasley, if you need," Rodolphus quipped, smirking at her.

Hermione cleared her throat to stop the laugh that was bubbling up. "You are leaving Hogsmeade rather early as well. Is Bellatrix a bad date?" she needled him, wondering how the two of them would actually end up getting on with one another.

Rodolphus lifted the package under his arm. "Didn't go with Bellatrix," he explained. "I just...my little brother Rab was really upset that he can't go to Hogsmeade until third year. He really wanted to go to Honeyduke's, so I ended up going myself to get him a couple of treats."

"Oh? And what is his favorite?" Hermione wondered. Internally, she was a bit annoyed that she hadn't been able to stop at the sweet shop herself. A packet of sugar quills would have been lovely to have.

"He likes any kind of candy, to be honest. Pepper imps, though, I would say are probably his favorite," Rodolphus explained. "I'm partial to the toffee myself."

It was...too odd to be learning what type of candy Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange learned. It distorted her memories of them too much, twisting the disheveled visage of two grown men fresh from Azkaban, skinny and dirty, into something far more human. Instead, she was being forced to acknowledge that they were just a pair of brothers, who liked pepper imps and toffee and quidditch and flirting with girls and...

Hermione wasn't ready to give Rodolphus a chance, no matter how charming he appeared to be. Instead, she let the silence hang in the air between the two of them.

Rodolphus must have found it at least moderately unpleasant, because the next thing she knew, he was rubbing at the back of his neck with his hand, giving her a sideways glance. "You know if you were really pissed at Weasley," he offered with a sly grin. "You could always support Slytherin instead of Gryffindor in this month's Quidditch match."

That had Hermione rolling her eyes at the cocky Slytherin. "Fat chance, Lestrange," she said, glad that the castle was in sight, unable to stomach the rapport they were building. "I might be annoyed with him, but I am still a Gryffindor."

"You've only been a Gryffindor for, what? A month now? Two?" he asked. "How loyal can you be?"

"Well, loyal enough to know that I won't be cheering for Slytherin, or for you," she said firmly. They walked into the castle together and Hermione was ready to get back up to Gryffindor tower. "Well, thanks for the company, Lestrange," she told him, before turning and scurrying up the stairs, needing to put more distance between them.