A/N: Look, another juicy chapter. I'm spoiling you! Much love! xx-Kitten.

Of Ticking Clocks & Beating Hearts

By Kittenshift 17

Chapter 10: Aboard the Hogwarts Express

When they were halfway to Hogwarts, Hermione got up in search of the loo and with the intention of changing into her robes in preparation for their arrival. She had spent most of the trip lounging in the compartment alongside Snape, Lily, James and Sirius. The latter two boys had spent much of the ride thus far discussing Quidditch, playing a game of chess and several rounds of exploding snap.

Lily had looked on during both of the wizarding pass-times with keen interest, her green eyes lighting up at the sight of the chess pieces moving independently. Snape had appeared rather envious of the gold chess set James had pulled out of his trunk as though it were nothing. Being from a rich old pureblood family, Sirius hadn't batted an eye over the expensive set.

Severus and Lily were clearly unaccustomed to such wealth and Hermione had known at a glance that Severus was jealous of both other boys and somewhat disdainful as only the poor could be of those better off than themselves. Hermione had sought to distract him by plying him questions about how he'd captured Essy, his snake, and about the types of things he was most looking forward to studying at Hogwarts. Already his love of the Dark Arts and his knack for potions was showing itself.

She'd felt a little bit bad when Lily had looked stumped by some things when she and Severus had begun a mild argument over the best uses of valerian root. She had also noticed that Snape took the extra time to inform the muggle-born girl of what Valerian root was and of the types of potions they were discussing that it was most often used it. Lily had looked grateful to be better informed but Hermione had caught the look in her green eyes just the same. The look that Hermione recognised all too well from her own time spent as a muggle-born witch unsure of how things worked in the wizarding world.

It was the look of a determined girl intending to make sure she would never have to sit around feeling stupid for not knowing something that seemed to be common knowledge to everyone else. It was the look of a burgeoning bookworm about to take to the texts with ravenous intent to devour any and all knowledge. Hermione couldn't find it in herself to feel too badly for the girl. A moment's confusion ensured a life-time of good grades and a constant understanding of the world around her. She only lamented that there wasn't some kind of bridging course given to muggle-born students prior to the start of term that would ensure they had a basic understanding of the magical world.

Hermione herself had insisted on being allowed to purchase many books on the subject and had had almost an entire year prior to beginning term for the first time in her original timeline. Born on the 19th of September Hermione had fallen just outside the age bracket of those allowed to enter Hogwarts and so had turned eleven nineteen days too late to be admitted. Instead she'd had and entire year to research the magical world and she'd already been ravenous of knowledge and books by then, eager to learn as much as she could about the new world she'd been told she belonged in.

Maybe in her free time she would look into writing such a book as to offer to muggleborn students, focusing on the types of things that purebloods and halfbloods – indeed anyone with magical family members or anyone raised in a magical household – knew from birth. Things like the way spells worked and why owls were used to carry the post. Things like what to expect when arriving at Hogwarts and interacting with other magical students. She felt it important that more mugleborns be raised to be more aware of the fact that their circumstances were the cause for some discrimination from their peers.

She would need to discuss it with Dumbledore of course, but Hermione knew it was a good idea. She'd have killed for the chance to access such a book in her own time when she'd first learned of the magical world.

Despite all that, however, Hermione was concerned over the fact that she'd yet to encounter Remus. She knew from the past stories that Remus and Sirius had shared with her that the boys had met on the train and she found it surprising that he hadn't turned up yet. As she changed into her uniform, marvelling at fitting into the small robes once more – Hermione decided it might be time to go looking for him. She didn't want to upset the time line by having James and Sirius remain in the compartment she'd been using instead of moving on after having a fight with Severus and Lily.

Scouring the train, Hermione peered into the many occupied compartments, unsure of what he looked like at eleven but suspecting she would know him on sight nonetheless.

"What are you doing Lyall?" a familiar voice drawled from behind her as she searched the train. Hermione turned slowly to star up at Lucius Malfoy. He was clearly in the middle of patrolling the train, as per his prefect duties.

"I'm looking for someone, Malfoy," she replied evenly, "Don't suppose you've seen a boy – a first year – sitting by himself anywhere? Maybe with a pudgy little blonde boy?"

"What if I have?" Malfoy smirked.

Hermione sighed.

"What do you want for the information?" she asked him, doubting he wanted gold since he already had so much of it.

"What are you willing to give me for it?" the older boy bargain.

"Not much," Hermione shrugged, "If I keep looking I'll eventually find him, with or without your assistance."

Malfoy's grey eyes narrowed on her slightly and Hermione allowed herself a little smirk, realising she'd outsmarted him by proving she was willing to find the answer without his help if he didn't want to cooperate.

"You're going to get yourself in trouble, girl," he informed her, "As for the boy you're looking for… well it might be that there's a boy alone in a compartment I've inspected. Why are you looking for him?"

Hermione grinned widely.

"He's my friend. I think he might have gotten lost after leaving the compartment to get changed into his robes," Hermione lied smoothly, hefting the wad of folded up clothing she was carrying to indicate she'd changed recently herself.

Lucius rolled his eyes at her answer.

"He's right down the end of the train," Lucius told her, pointing, "You better watch yourself, Lyall. You go poking into everyone's things like this all the time and you might not like what you find."

"Thanks for your assistance, Lucius," Hermione replied sweetly, fixing a big sly smile on her face and causing him to narrow his eyes on her further before Hermione skipped off down the corridor of the train to the very last compartment.

When she reached it she peered through the glass at the solitary boy sitting inside. He looked rather sorry for himself and sort of like he'd chosen to sit away from others on purpose. Either out of concern over being around them when he believed himself to be a monster – or out of fear of being around others his own age when he'd spent his whole life being hidden away from the world and disdained by his werewolf-loathing father.

Realising Malfoy was still watching her, Hermione smiled brightly and slid open the door to the compartment before stepping inside.

"Hello," she greeted him with a bright smile, "My name is Hermione."

Remus looked at her, startled, his hazel eyes wide as though fearful of her presence and her bright greeting.

"Remus…" he mumbled when Hermione smiled and waited for him to tell her his name.

"It's wonderful to meet you Remus," Hermione told him, "What are you doing sitting in here all by yourself?"

"I… there was… um… well, I didn't… um," Remus stammered clearly shocked by her question.

"Only, there's plenty of room in my compartment further down the train. You should come and sit with me and my new friends. Are you a first year?" Hermione asked, reaching for his trunk and meaning to help him move it down the train.

"I… yes I'm new this year…. Oh, don't you'll…" Remus said, shooting to his feet just as Hermione tugged his trunk from the shelf before she realised it weighed a ton when it topple down on top of her.

"Hurt yourself," Remus finished, reaching for the trunk where it had fallen badly and was half crushing Hermione.

"Ouch!" Hermione exclaimed, "Do you have a library worth of text books in there? Even my trunk isn't that heavy. And I did put a library worth of text books inside."

"Sorry," Remus muttered, hefting it with far too much ease for a regular eleven year old boy, "I um… my mum, she… well she wanted to make sure I was prepared for everything."

Hermione got the feeling based on the sound she could hear coming from his trunk that there were actually some heavy metal chains in there. She wouldn't be a bit surprised. Remus was the type who would think to chain himself up every full moon.

"Well it's awfully heavy," Hermione told him, rubbing the top of her head where it throbbed a little, "Do you need some help with it?"

"You want me to move to your compartment?" he asked looking alarmed now.

"Of course I do. My friends and I have plenty of space left and besides, you can't sit here all by yourself. How will you make any friends it you don't talk to people?" Hermione grinned at him.

His sandy-blonde hair hung into his eyes and over his face slightly, partially concealing the scar that marred his otherwise handsome features. His hazel eyes were still wide with concern over being accosted by a bossy, perky little girl who was trying to kidnap him to another compartment and thus force him to interact with boys who would one day be his best friends.

Hermione smiled at him brightly again, hoping he would comply.

"Um…" Remus said, biting his lip nervously.

"Come on," Hermione told him, reaching for his hand and tugging him along while he hauled his trunk along one handed.

He made no further protests and she hauled him right out of the compartment and away down the length of the train to the compartment she had been sharing with James, Sirius, Severus and Lily.

"There you are!" Lily cried, "I though you must have gotten lost."

"Not lost," Hermione smiled at the girl, tugging Remus into the compartment with her, "But I found Remus sitting in a compartment by himself so I invited him to join us. Remus, this is Severus, Lily, James and Sirius."

She pointed to each of her new friend respectively.

"Hey mate," James waved, giving him a big grin and getting up to shake his hand. Remus was clearly startled by all the attention but he shook hands with everyone in the compartment when they all got up to greet him.

"Let us give you a hand with that," Sirius offered, reaching for his trunk.

"Oh… um it's… really heavy," Remus warned, allowing Sirius to pull on it but lugging it up to the overhead compartment by himself.

"Bloody hell, did you pack it full of bricks?" Sirius complained as he hauled it. James got up to help as well and Hermione could tell Remus was downplaying his ability to lift it by himself to avoid being caught out as freakishly strong.

"My um… my Mum she… well she wanted to make sure I had everything. She insisted on me bringing more books that I know what to do with," Remus admitted.

"That's ok," Hermione told him, "I have just as many. You want some sweets? We got these off the trolley when it came by."

She waved her hand to the pile of candy they'd purchased – mostly James being entirely too generous with his money and reminding Hermione of Harry and how much she missed him. Severus was picking at the candy carefully, as was Lily. It was clear they didn't have much money for things like sweets and so weren't allowed them very often.

"Um… maybe a chocolate frog?" Remus asked nervously and Hermione grinned before handing him one.

"So what house do you think you'll be in Remus?" James asked him.

"I don't know," Remus admitted, "My Dad was in Gryffindor but my Mum was in Ravenclaw. Probably one of those."

"I'm going to be in Gryffindor," James announced, ruffling his hair distractedly, "So's Sirius."

"What about you, Hermione?" Remus asked her carefully, his cheeks turning pink as he asked such a question and Hermione began to suspect that Remus wasn't used to interacting with people his own age. She'd always believed his parents might've locked him away from the world when he'd been bitten. She could recall mention of his father very publicly loathing werewolves, so she suspected they'd hid Remus and his condition.

"I think I'll be in Slytherin. With Sev," Hermione nodded her head at Snape, "Lily's not sure yet where she wants to go."

"Oh," Remus smiled gently, "Is that your cat?"

He pointed to Cleo where she was curled up on the back of the chair behind Hermione's head.

"Yes," Hermione smiled, "This is Cleo. Would you like to pet her?"

Remus hesitated. Hermione wondered if her cat would dislike him. Some cats tended to dislike werewolves. Though neither Cleo nor Cygnus had reacted to his presence in the compartment.

"Don't disturb her if she's happy sleeping," Remus said finally, nibbling on his chocolate frog hungrily.

Hermione nodded in agreement before Remus was drawn into conversation about Quidditch with James and Sirius. Snape had grown bored of Quidditch talk and Hermione watched him pull a textbook on the Dark Arts out of his trunk before he settled back down to read it. She'd moved over upon her return to the compartment, allowing Remus the spot she'd been sitting in and choosing instead to sit beside Snape.

"Tell me about you, Lily," Hermione said to the girl, talking across Snape while he buried his nose in the book, "Do you have any siblings?"

Lily nodded brightly, "I have a sister, Petunia. She's a muggle."

"She's a bitch," Snape muttered.

Lily glanced at him, her eyes narrowing a little bit.

"Tuney was very hurt about not being a witch like me. She got upset about it and called me a freak. She doesn't like Sev very much because he's a wizard and he taunts her for being plain and boring," Lily said quietly.

"She called you a freak, Lily. Of course I taunt her. I defend my friends," Severus inserted into the conversation, glaring sideways at her.

"It's good to stick up for your friends," Hermione nodded, smiling slowly, "But you shouldn't be mean to her for something she can't help. She's obviously jealous that she's not special when Lily is. It would be hard, I think, to have a magical sibling who gets to go away to a special magic school."

"She always thought we'd be the best of friends forever," Lily nodded, "She thought we got to them same high school and that we'd be together forever. When my letter came she was heartbroken."

Hermione nodded sadly, "I don't have any siblings, but I can't imagine what it would be like to have a sibling who was magical whilst being a muggle."

"She hurt my feelings when she called me a freak," Lily bit her lip, looking away, "But when I heard her crying in her room after I got my letter I knew it was because she just wanted to be magical too."

"Doesn't give her the right to be a bitch," Snape drawled, his nose still stuck in his book.

"Just because you don't like the horrid things she said to you doesn't mean you can be mean to her Sev," Lily scolded him, "She's still my sister."

Snape looked over at her slowly, his expression going blank in the face of Lily's sharp words. The boys across the compartment were too caught up in their discussion of Quidditch to be paying any attention to the spat between friends.

"What about you, Sev?" Hermione asked him, "Do you have siblings?"

"No," he answered, "And good thing too."

Hermione frowned and glanced at Lily, whose eyes had turned slightly pitying again.

"You never wanted siblings?" Hermione asked him quietly.

"I would hate for anyone else, especially a sibling, to have to put up with my father the way I do," Severus answered tightly, sliding down a little more in his seat.

Hermione nodded slowly, choosing not to ask him anymore about it when it obviously made him uncomfortable. The rest of the train ride she quizzed the others in the compartment about their families, their hobbies, what they were good at. She was pleased when tensions didn't rise beyond the initial reaction to Hermione and Snape saying they might be in Slytherin. She did catch James eyeing the book Severus was reading with distaste, but he wisely bit his tongue, clearly not knowing enough about it from the title alone to know it was full of Dark Magic.