A.N.: Here we go, guys. The weekend is finally here and with it another chapter of my story. Enjoy. For those of you who are getting impatient with Hermione: the girl is just back from her journey for 20 days. Time is moving very slowly in this story. So cut her some slack and let her come to terms with all the new things she learns from the past and the present. She really has a lot on her plate at the moment.

Chapter 20: Making enemies

24th of May 1981

It took two more days until Hermione was finally able to leave her bed again and so she spent most of her time reading or chatting to the twins to not climb the walls with boredom. It wasn't all bad, she always had an unknown book or a cup of tea on her bedside, but her fingers were itching to finally do something useful again. But restoring her back to health took its time and after half a day of moping, she accepted it grudgingly. The time resting was spent as pleasurable as possible, as the twins had delightful bedside manners and kept her entertained with little stories from their time at Hogwarts or little demonstrations of spells the two of them had invented themselves. Hermione told some stories herself but tried to stick to safer topics like brewing Polyjuice in the girl lavatory and adding a cat hair instead of a human one. The twins were highly amused and today Hermione could smile about the story herself.

But when Hermione was finally allowed to leave her bed, there was no holding her back. She wanted to see the Horcrux with her own eyes and Wormtail too before she could think about tackling the next project on her list. And so Fabian and Gideon escorted her to Severus' place on the same evening.

"Look who's back from the dead," her friend greeted her with a wide smile, after opening the door for them.

Hermione chuckled. "That almost sounds like you're happy to see me…" But at that Severus' expression immediately turned serious.

"Of course I'm happy. Don't have many friends around now, do I? Come in." He stepped aside and Hermione moved past him with a pleased smile. The interior of the house looked much the same than during her last visit, even though Hermione could have sworn that the place was cleaner and some of the broken tiles in the kitchen had been mended. But she didn't want to ask Snape about it.

"I hope you didn't invite yourself for dinner," he said with an almost shy smile. "…because there's not much in the house right now."

Fabian waved him off unconcernedly. "Don't worry. Hermione just wanted to see your new flatmate. How are you two getting along?"

Severus snorted. "Splendidly," he said with his voice dripping with irony. "But you can see for yourself." With that, he turned and led them down into the basement. The place downstairs was huge and looked like Snape was currently rearranging things into something like a lab. There were already two large storage cabinets on one of the walls and two massive tables in the middle, that were laden with different potion ingredients in various stages of preparation. It kind of looked like Snape was working on two or three potions at the same time, which was probably true considering the talent he possessed.

"Looks like you're busy," Hermione said with a smile and studied the ingredients curiously. "Dragon pox salve and Skelegrow I believe."

"Modified versions," Severus agreed with a smile. "I see you had a competent teacher," he added with a smirk and Hermione snorted.

"Where's your guest then?" Gideon asked and stepped between the two of them. Snape pointed his head at the back of the room. And really, there was a huge table with a large rodent cage on top of it, that contained everything a rat could wish for. Only that the inhabitant wasn't a rat at all.

Pettigrew was lounging in one of the little hammocks, that the cage contained and judging by the mass of his rat body he hadn't used the bogie wheel once. Not that Hermione was surprised. Scrabbers had always been a lazy rat after all.

"Hello Peter," she said sweetly and crouched down in front of the rat cage. Immediately the little rodent blinked one of his eyes open. "I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger. You don't know me, but I do know you very well. And I know that you're a traitor." She almost hissed the last word and Wormtail's reaction was immediate. He opened his eyes widely and looked at her with quivering whiskers. "But I can't have you ruining the lives of my friends by running to the Dark Lord. And so you'll be our guest for see foreseeable future. Do me a favour and be a good little rat. I know from experience that you can be an obedient little pet for years."

She grinned falsely at the quivering animal in the corner and imagined, that not even Umbridge's sweet smile could be more unsettling then hers at the moment. But that was exactly what she intended.

"You can be really intimidating if you want to," Gideon whispered from behind and grinned at her. Hermione snorted.

"You have no idea. When this is all over, you should ask me about the time I played Bellatrix Lestrange. If we manage to snatch a hair from her again, I could make a little show for you." She winked at him.

They retreated back upstairs, where they seated themselves on the shabby sofa in the living room. "Incorporating Bellatrix? Merlin that must be a hell of a story. Maybe Severus could snag one of her hairs for you."

Her black-haired friend shook his head vehemently at that. "Absolutely not. That woman is mad as a hatter. What if she thinks I fancy her or something? No, I won't even come close to her."

Fabian sighed dramatically. "Too bad. Then this little show will have to stay a figment of our imaginations."

Snape snorted humourlessly. "Too bad."

23rd of September 1999

Potter Manor was a large estate at the outskirts of Godric's Hallow. Hermione had never seen it before and she couldn't help but ask herself, if it had still existed in her old timeline, or if it was destroyed during the war, like Harry's old childhood home in the centre of the little town. The house was huge but except the size it luckily didn't have much in common with Malfoy Manor, that was still the setting of quite a few of Hermione's nightmares. Instead, the house had a more sturdy character and reminded her of the pictures she had seen of Pemberley, only on a smaller scale.

Hermione hated it to go to the manor alone, but taking Severus along obviously wouldn't have been such a great idea. And she wasn't a coward, after all, she told herself, and marched the long gravel walk towards the beautiful building. Still, it took her some self-convincing to use the intricate bronze door knocker at the door. She didn't have to wait long until the large wooden door swung open and a small house elf in a pristine red kitchen towel looked up at her with big eyes. Hermione had to swallow the groan that wanted to escape her mouth at the sight. Of course, such an old family as the Potters had house-elves, too.

"Hello Miss, I is Smirky. Did Miss come to see the noble Family of Potter?"

Hermione smiled politely. "Hello, Smirky. My name is Hermione Granger. I was invited by Harry Potter for tea."

The elf looked at her with a pleased smile. "Master Harry is in the back garden, Miss. Smirky can take Miss to Master Harry if Miss wishes." The little creature squeaked and Hermione nodded.

"That would be very kind of you Smirky. Lead the way, please."

The house-elf bowed its head and hobbled into the house and Hermione followed it slowly. The interior was beautiful. Everything was held in light and warm tones, without really favouring one colour over the others. The floor was mostly built of dark wood, but the colourful rugs that were present in all rooms gave everything a friendly and open flair. And Hermione couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief at the obvious differences to Malfoy's family home.

It took them several minutes to reach the garden and when Hermione stepped through the large white wooden door outside onto the veranda, she saw what must have been a happy family picnic. Harry was playing some sort of broom game with a man that could only be his father, as the two looked almost identical. On the ground, there was a large checked blanket with a red-haired woman sprawled on top of it and another brown-haired girl close to them that was chasing something through the grass. It was the picture a happy family and Hermione had to smile when she saw what a life her friend Harry had in this timeline. This was so much better than everything she could have hoped for him.

"Hermione!" drifted Harry's voice towards her through the air and a moment later the man that looked like her childhood friend zoomed towards her on his broom. He stopped it elegantly in front of her in the air and looked at her with a pleased smile. "I'm glad you came over. Now I can finally introduce you to my family."

Hermione nodded awkwardly. "Would be nice to finally meet them. I only know them from pictures I think."

The young man looked at her with furrowed brows. "I never introduced them to you? Didn't you say we were friends?"

Hermione nodded nervously. "You were an orphan in my old timeline, Harry. They died during the first war and you lived with your mum's sister."

"Aunt Petunia?" Harry almost yelled and looked at her with wide eyes. "Merlin, that's horrible."

She nodded. "Yeah, you hated it there. But let's not talk about these unhappy things, when your family is totally fine and right in front of us."

He smiled sheepishly. "I guess you're right. Come on then. I'm sure they'll be happy to meet you."

Hermione stiffened. "You didn't tell them I'm coming?"

He laughed. "No, I wanted it to be a surprise for them. Come along."

She sighed wearily and as her friend turned around and trotted towards his family she followed him with measured steps. Merlin, this meeting could be very awkward if one considered how Lupin had reacted when she met him a few days ago. Would it be the same with James and Lily? Time to find out she guessed.

"Hey mum," Harry said and conjured another blanket on the ground. "I've invited a friend for the afternoon. I hope that's alright."

The woman on the ground put her book aside and looked at her son with green sparkling eyes. "Of course it is, love. You know we love it to meet your friends from school." At that, her eyes travelled towards Hermione and looked at her curiously.

"Hello Dear, I'm Lily Potter," she said and pulled herself up from the ground to offer her another hand. Hermione took it with a shy smile.

"Hermione Granger, mam. It's nice to meet you." But she could feel the other woman stiffen at these words and look at her with eyes full of surprise.

"Hermione Granger, you say?"

Hermione sighed. "Yes mam, the Hermione Granger. Obviously, you've already heard of me."

The red-haired woman laughed and looked from her to Harry with amused eyes. "I guess you could say that yeah. Severus mentions you quite frequently. I didn't know you were alive though." She smiled at her apologetically. "Sorry, this sounded better in my head."

Harry snorted and threw himself lazily onto the blanked and Hermione sat down next to him with folded legs. "It's alright I guess. I'm only back for around 20 days now. Before I was lost in time, or something like that."

Lily Potter stared at her with curious eyes. "Lost in time? You mean like…"

"I am a time traveller, yes," she confirmed with a nod. "Originally I am from around this time, but I travelled back to 1981 and stayed there for quite some time I believe. My memories from my time in the past are still very patchy though and if we have met before, I can't recall doing so. I'm sorry."

But the woman just smiled politely. "We haven't met. James, Harry and I were in hiding during that time."

"I understand. And I am happy everything worked out for your family. It's so great to see Harry having a real family."

This comment earned her an awkward look from Harry's mother, but before the woman could say something in return her husband was suddenly next to her and greeted Lily with a kiss on the head. "Who's that son? I didn't expect that you bring another lady friend so soon. What's with the fierce redhead? Didn't things work out with her?"

Hermione stared at Harry's doppelgänger with wide eyes and pink cheeks. "Ehm, I'm not… we're not…" She stuttered and looked at Harry for help, who looked equally uncomfortable.

"No dad!" he finally protested and shook his head vehemently. "Ginny and I are perfectly fine, as you very well know. For Merlin's sake, she had breakfast with us that morning! That's Hermione Granger. You might have heard of her, mum has." Harry ended his little speech with a pout and looked at his father with crossed arms. But the man had already transferred his interest towards Hermione. And she could immediately tell that he wasn't as glad to see her as his wife.

"Ah, Remus mentioned you are around again. I wondered if you'd show up," he said almost coldly and looked her up and down.

"Harry invited me, we met at Ginny's," Hermione said defensively and looked at Harry. Her friend looked at his father in a confused expression.

"What's wrong, dad?" he asked, but at this moment a giggling, about 6-year-old girl threw herself at Harry and tackled him to the ground. Her friend laughed good-naturedly and rolled the squealing girl around. It took a moment until Hermione registered the small animal that sat in front of them on the blanket and stared at her with wide eyes. It was a rat and Hermione would have recognized it everywhere.

"Wormtail," she greeted the traitor with a clenched jaw and fixed him with her eyes. He looked back at her with quivering whiskers, before transforming back into the man she knew as Peter Pettigrew.

"What is she doing here?" he asked in a shrill voice and stared down at her sitting form. Hermione looked back at him with calculating eyes.

"I'm visiting Harry," she said dryly and looked at him with a raised brow. "What's your excuse?"

"He's Emma's godfather," James answered her question instead and looked at her with a calculating gaze. Hermione felt the hair on her neck rise. Alone the fact that this little brown-haired girl was playing with the fat chubby man was giving her the creeps. But knowing that he was also made her godfather was almost too much for her. Didn't these people have any survival instincts at all? Emma didn't seem to share her feelings though, as she attached herself to Wormtils leg and looked at her with distrustful eyes.

"What's wrong Uncle Pete? Is this woman bothering you?" she asked and looked at her godfather with wide eyes. Instantly Wormtail's features morphed into those of the loving family friend and he petted her head reassuringly.

"It's alright, Cupcake. I'm sure Miss Granger doesn't mean us any harm. Isn't that right?"

Hermione looked back at him with a fake smile. "No, of course not. I just came to have a little chat with Harry, but maybe we should postpone this meeting to another time. I feel like I am intruding into this happy family meeting of yours."

Pettigrew smiled sweetly, whereas the girl at his feet looked at her with small eyes. "Yeah, uncle Peter doesn't like you and daddy doesn't like you either," she said matter-of-factly and stared at her with hard eyes.

"Emma!" her mother warned her, but the girl just shrugged apologetically.

"It's true mum, I can feel it," the girl said with a pout and looked at Lily with a proud gaze. Hermione sighed.

"It's alright. I'll see you another time Harry, alright?" she asked and looked at her friend for confirmation, but he was looking back at her with confused eyes.

"Yeah," he replied distractedly but Hermione could tell that his heart wasn't really in it and for a moment it felt, like she had lost him now, too. Stupid rat, stupid traitor, she swore in her head as she walked across the ground towards the house. But secretly she knew that she had only herself to blame for the chilly reception. Peter Pettigrew never was a traitor in this timeline. He had never betrayed the trust of the Marauders and acted against one of them. From their perspective, Hermione had betrayed them and she didn't regret her decision one bit. Even though it meant that it had probably cost her another friend. And the realisation hurt.