III. She's the new target.

September 3, 1975; Wednesday

Hermione woke up the next day feeling as if he wasn't able to sleep at all. He had cast a silencing charm around his bed and proceeded to punch the pillow in frustration. Sirius had gotten on his nerves. How dare he and James say things like that to him? He hadn't done anything wrong, except perhaps, glare at Peter for a few milliseconds.

Well, if anybody glared at Harry or Ron even for a short time, he probably would have the same reaction as well.

He ran a hand through his hair, mildly surprised to find it short.

Oh yeah…he thought. He forgot he was a guy now.

Hermione yawned and cast Tempus. His eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. It was half-past eight; he had about thirty minutes before class started.

Must be the time-travel jet lag.

He scrambled out of bed and raced to the bathroom. He took a quick bath. When he had dried himself, he looked around for his uniform; only to find it missing. He scoured the room for any of his clothes but found nothing, except a pair of boxers.

He then cursed as he realized what happened: the Marauders. He walked over to his bed and put on the boxers. He then proceeded to transfigure his blanket into robes, his bed sheets into pants, and his pillow cases into a shirt. After hastily putting them on, he grabbed his bag and rushed to class.

Hermione reached Arithmancy about five minutes later. Luckily for him, the teacher arrived just after him. He slumped into the seat next to Lily's in relief. The red head, who had been no doubt worried about him, proceeded to interrogate him about his absence during breakfast.

"Well, you know, somebody," he gave Remus a withering look, "thought it would be hilarious to hide all of my clothes."

Remus suddenly found the graffiti on his arm chair very interesting.

Lily frowned. "So where'd you get the clothes you're wearing now?"

"Had to transfigure my bed sheets and blanket."

She looked impressed. Remus turned to him and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by their professor.

"Yes, Mr. Lupin? Something you'd like to share with the class?"

Remus immediately shook his head.

"Very well." She said and continued her discussion.

He didn't speak to him for the remainder of the period.

The rest of the morning passed, and Hermione found himself walking to lunch. As he and Lily reached the entrance to the Great Hall, Hermione suddenly found himself covered in something bright green and gooey. He took the bucket of goo? sludge?—whatever it was—off his head and attempted to wipe it off his face. Attempted being the keyword.

Lily glared at James, Sirius and Remus who were short of rolling on the floor, and suddenly gasped. She pointed at the teacher's table. Hermione followed her gaze and, upon seeing what she was pointing at, proceeded to groan.

Now he knew where his clothes went.

Every bit of clothing he now owned—minus the boxers he was wearing—was hung on a clothes line across the Great Hall. James and Sirius positively roared with laughter. Remus looked a bit mortified at the stupidity of the prank, but was still laughing along. Peter, on the other hand, looked upset.

For once, Hermione was glad he was turned into a guy. None of the clothes were really his; most of them he'd never seen before. Therefore, he wasn't too embarrassed. But it was still mortifying to have the whole student body see his entire wardrobe. But he was determined not to let the prank get to him. He purposely took a seat next to Sirius, still dripping with goo.

"Hey there, Chronos," Sirius grinned at him mockingly. "Looking a little green aren't you?" and the two practically howled with laughter.

Hermione inclined his head in greeting and proceeded to pile potatoes and roast beef on his plate. Lily took the seat beside his and eyed him.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to retrieve your clothes?"

Hermione shrugged. "Maybe later." He said in an attempt at nonchalance. Lily continued staring at him. "Do I have something on my face?"

Lily grinned. "Yeah, goo."

Hermione grinned back at her. "Oh yeah. Stop staring at me please." He added.

"Sorry," Lily blushed and looked away. "I was just surprised at you lack of reaction to the prank."

He leaned closer to her and whispered, "I figured that they want me to be angry or horrified or embarrassed. And I am not giving them that satisfaction. Besides," he pulled away, slightly disturbed at the glazed expression on Lily's face. "I'm feeling a bit vindictive."

Lily snapped out of whatever she was thinking. "Vindictive?"

"Yup." He simply said and started eating.

Halfway to his lunch, as Remus accompanied James to the washroom, he put his plan into action. First, he stealthily grabbed Sirius' wand from his pocket. Disarm him first.

Hermione then leaned across the table—'unintentionally' rubbing into Sirius—and reached for the salt, which was on Sirius' left side.

"Ugh!" he reacted. "Chronos! What are you doing? You're covering me in slime!"

"Forgive me, Black," he said. "I was merely reaching for the salt."

Sirius rolled his eyes, grabbed the salt and jabbed it towards him.

"Thanks!" Hermione took the salt and 'accidentally' knocked over Sirius' pumpkin juice. "God! I'm sorry, Black!"

"Ugh, get your hands off me!" he said as Hermione attempted to wipe the juice off his pants using a napkin.

"Here! Let me help!" Hermione brought out his wand. "Now, what was that spell to dry clothing? Was it Incendio?" A jet of fire shot out from his wand and set his pants on fire. "Oh no! That's not it! I think it was Aguamenti!"

Sirius spluttered as the water hit his face.

"No? Ugh. What was that spell again?"

Peter was chortling by this time.

"Ah! I think I've got it!" Hermione pointed his wand at Sirius' pants—"Evanesco!"—and they disappeared.

Sirius lunged at him and both he and Lily moved out of the way.

"Ha-ha! I've got it now!" he brandished his wand in mock-triumph. "Locomotor mortis!" Sirius fell back down as the leg-locking curse hit him.

"I'm going to kill you, Chronos!" he growled.

"Oh! How could I have forgotten?" Hermione gave him an evil grin. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Sirius was levitated and the students who saw him laughed out loud at the sight of his snitch patterned boxers.

"Mr. Chronos!" McGonagall finally intervened. "What on earth are you doing? Put Mr. Black down at once!"

Hermione cancelled the spell and Sirius fell flat on his face. Lily and was laughing so hard, tears were flowing from her eyes. Peter was attempting to keep his face straight, but he could not stop sniggering.

"I was merely trying to help Mr. Black dry his pants, Professor." Hermione said respectfully. "I kept messing up the spell to use." He continued innocently.

"Be that as it may, Mr. Chronos," McGonagall continued, trying but failing to hide her amusement. "Five points from Gryffindor for embarrassing a fellow student."

Hermione was surprised to find himself not at all sorry for doing what he did. Usually, he'd be extremely guilty for losing points for Gryffindor, but now, he didn't think it mattered much.

"And you, Mr. Black," she rounded on Sirius, "Fifteen points for hiding Mr. Chronos' clothes and displaying across the Great Hall. You and Mr. Potter will be serving detention with Mr. Filch for a week."

"I believe I heard my name?" James entered the Great Hall with Remus, both looking confused.

"Yes, you did, Mr. Potter. Take your friend up to your dorm and help him into a pair of pants, please. And, as I said, the two of you will be serving detention with Mr. Filch for a week. And, you will take down Mr. Chronos' clothes and return it to him untouched. Am I clear?"

"Yes, ma'am." They all replied meekly.

"Very well. You may go." She dismissed. "Well, what are you all waiting for?" she addressed all the other students. "Get to class!" and all students rushed towards the exit.

"I don't usually approve of pranks, but that was brilliant." Lily grinned at him.

"Thanks. I'm not usually the type of person who does that type of stuff. You don't think I injured him in any way, do you?" he added worriedly. He really didn't want Sirius to get harmed.

Lily scoffed. "I think the only thing that was injured was his ego."

"Mm-hmm." He thought back to what he did. Was it childish of him to have gotten back at Sirius like that? Should he have just let him go and ignored him? He sighed mentally. It had been three days since he got turned into a guy, and he was already changing personality-wise. And he wasn't sure if it was for the better or for the worse.

"Hey, Si-Black!" he called out to Sirius.

"What?" Sirius' voice dripped with venom.

"Catch!" and Hermione threw his wand to him. The incredulous look on his face was enough to have him grinning.

"Wha-you-I-how—" he spluttered in rage.

"Next time, try not to leave your personal belongings unattended."

And with that, Hermione made his way to his next class wondering if he should have handed out an apology along with the wand.

After a few more minor pranks, all thoughts of apologizing to Sirius were out the window. True at first, it was all funny, but after a while it was starting to get annoying.

It wasn't funny at all.

He already had a decent sized bruise on his left cheek when he'd run into a wall the Marauders conjured in front of him. He also had cuts on his arm from the where the quills they had enchanted started to peck him.

They weren't pranking him.

They were bullying him.

It wasn't anything new of course. People had always bullied him because of his looks and his love for books. The majority of those bullies were girls. Guys usually just jeered and taunted, they didn't exactly harm him physically.

Hermione had never fully appreciated being a girl until now. If he were a girl, they would never have done half of those things to him.

He sighed as he thought of Harry and Ron. Their friendship didn't start out all that great, but eventually, they warmed up to him. Could the same be said for the Marauders?

…Nah.

It saddened Hermione greatly to learn that Sirius and James were acting like Malfoy! Professor Snape was right. They strutted about in school as if they owned it, and hexed people left and right without batting an eye.

Remus, though admittedly less harsh than them, was still the same. He was a prefect for Merlin's sake! He could at least try to keep them in line.

And Peter…he was guilty by association, at least. So far, Hermione still wasn't sure about him. He was never one to hold grudges, but the treachery Peter committed (or will commit in this case)…

At any rate, whatever patience Hermione had left was all drained by the end of their Care of Magical Creatures class.

It was when he was looking at the billywig that he felt a hex hit him from behind. He turned around and glared at Sirius who simply gave him a smile worthy of Slytherin in return. He didn't feel any different; his skin wasn't changing color, wasn't forming pustules or anything of the sort. So, he decided to ignore it for the time being.

"All right," Professor Kettleburn called their attention. "I want a foot long essay on the effects of a billywig sting. Those who want to continue examining the billywig may do so for ten minutes. I will be back shortly." And he took his leave.

Almost all the students went back up into the castle except for him, Lily, Alice, two Ravenclaws, a Hufflepuff, the Marauders, and Snape. Hermione glanced at Sirius when he noticed him conjuring a paper airplane and levitating it towards him. He opened it cautiously to find…

Nothing.

It was a blank piece of paper.

Huh. He thought. He crumpled the piece of paper and threw it. Or at least, tried to.

The piece of paper stuck to his hand as if it were superglued. No amount of shaking could dislodge the thing from his hand.

Great. A sticking hex.

He looked over his shoulder and shot James a contemptuous glance. What was wrong with those idiots? James raised his wand and shot something at him. He felt a strong push from behind and he went tumbling towards the last person he wanted to get stuck with.

Severus Snape.

Hermione closed his eyes and hoped for the best. As he crashed with the person with an 'OOMPH!', he heard a voice shriek.

Snape? Shrieking? What— He opened his eyes and saw a mass of red hair.

He wasn't stuck to Snape…he was stuck to Lily.

Hermione wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry.

It mightn't have been so bad if it was his hand that was glued with hers, but it was his right cheek that was stuck on her left one.

Good God.

Their lips were so close, they could have been kissing each other. The thought made Hermione gag. Not only as he a straight woman (wow, that did sound as crazy as it looked), Lily was also his best friend's mum…Not yet, though, but soon enough.

"Merlin! Oh Merlin!" Lily was starting to panic. She kept washing her fingers in her palms.

"Lily…Lily…" Hermione called to her.

"Oh my Merlin! What are we going to do? Merlin!" Lily babbled on.

"Lily!" Hermione raised his voice. If he heard Merlin's name one more time… "Calm down!"

He heard Lily take a deep, shuddering breath beside him. "Le-let's just get to Madame Pomfrey."

They moved slowly, trying to minimize skin contact. The slightest turn of his head would result in a lip-lock—literally—with his best friend's mother.

"Chronos!" he heard, and Hermione let a groan escape from his lips. Lately, he seemed to be doing that a lot.

Running towards them were the Marauders, each sporting different reactions to what had transpired: James was aghast, Sirius frustrated (probably because the prank backfired), Remus mortified, and Peter half-amused, half-worried.

"Why are you kissing Evans? Keep your hands off her!" James stated possessively. Hermione resisted the urge to face palm himself, only because he knew that his hand would stick to his forehead if he did. Before he could retort, somebody beat him to it.

"Well he would, if somebody didn't cast a sticking charm on him." Peter said dryly, much to Hermione's surprise.

"Oh…right," James looked down and rubbed his neck. "Well…let's get you to the Hospital Wing." He moved to take Lily by the elbow but she and Hermione sidestepped to avoid him.

"Don't you dare touch me, Potter." Lily spat. "You and your friends' idiocy got us into this mess. I suggest you move out of the way before I hex you."

"How was I supposed to know that Snape,"—he glared at the figure behind them—"would step out of the way?"

"There's this thing called 'Common sense'. Though, obviously, you've never heard of it." Snape spoke up from behind them.

"Just don't try anything funny to Evans, Chronos." James threatened, touching the tip of his wand to prove a point. Hermione merely rolled his eyes in annoyance.

As if I would… and the proverbial light bulb flicked on in his head. A sly smile crept up his face.

James looked at him warily.

"Well, let's get to the Hospital Wing, Lilyflower." Hermione smirked and flung an arm around her, bringing Lily closer to his side. He felt her cheeks grow hotter but made no attempt to pull away.

"What are you doing?" James hissed. Remus and Peter their heads at Hermione's antics. Sirius, on the other hand, looked like he wasn't sure if he should be furious on his friend's behalf or amused at his jealousy. Righteous indignation won in the end.

"Keep your hands off her." Sirius ordered him.

Hermione made a show of trying to remove his hand and looking surprised when it wouldn't come off. "Oh, silly me," he said mockingly. "I forgot that somebody put a sticking hex on me. My mistake."

"Chronos…" Sirius warned.

"Yes?" he asked innocently.

James answered for Sirius, and it was a hex sent Hermione's way. Luckily for him, Lily already had her wand out blocked the attack.

Hermione couldn't see Lily's expression, but from the look on James' and Sirius' faces, she probably looked downright frightening.

"Are you daft?" she growled. Sirius and James seemed to shrink back at her anger. "Do you want to make this situation even worse than it already is?"

James somehow gathered the courage to speak up against her. "Worse? The way I see it, you two are looking rather cozy in that position! He's feeling you up!"

Lily took a deep breath and proceeded to scream at them for the next few minutes. By the end of her tirade, Hermione was sure his right eardrum had already burst. She was clearly a force who shouldn't be reckoned with.

"Come on, Daniel, let's get to the Hospital Wing." She paused before adding, "You, too, Sev."

"…All right then." Snape conceded. Hermione was surprised. Severus Snape? Willingly accompanying two Gryffindors?

Hell must've frozen over, Hermione thought.

The three moved past the Marauders and made their way to the castle and Hermione didn't glance back at them not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't. Being stuck to Lily did that you.

Sirius was coaching Peter at Wizard's Chess when he heard a sigh somewhere to his right. He shared a look with Remus across the chessboard. The werewolf jerked his head towards the direction of their moping friend. Sirius gave him a 'Why me?' expression before standing up and making his way towards him.

James was lying on his stomach across his bed with both of his hands supporting his chin. Sirius saw him open his mouth to sigh—yet again—and he placed his hand over James' face with a smack.

"Taffoo Wfva Frdwf harjoo vwing—"

"I'm sorry?" Sirius grinned at his friend's muffled reply. "I'm afraid I can't understand a word you're saying."

James broke away from Sirius' death grip over his mouth. He gave him a mock-angry look before and tackling him to the ground.

After a few minutes of wrestling, James emerged victorious—not that Sirius would ever admit it. The two flopped onto James' bed.

"So what were you saying?"

"I said 'Padfoot! What the bloody hell are you doing?'"

"Oh," Sirius chuckled. "I thought I was going to go mad. You've been sighing for the past fifteen minutes."

James sobered. "Yeah…well…"

"You've been thinking about Evans again?"

"I just don't get it!" he rubbed at his forehead. "Chronos has had more progress with her in two days than I have in five years!"

Sirius pitied his friend. He had already tried telling James to move on since Evans didn't even seem the least bit interested in him. He didn't even know why his friend seemed hell-bent on wooing her. James was the most popular kid in school—next to him of course—and could get any other girl.

"Prongs, don't you think you should, I don't know, move on? You've been trying to get her for the past...n number of years, mate."

"She'll eventually warm up to me. She just—well…" James trailed off.

"Isn't interested in you?" Remus pitched in.

"Doesn't want you as a boy friend?" Peter said.

"Hates your guts?" Sirius added helpfully.

"Now see here, I'm—"

"Not the one for Evans?"

"An arrogant prat?"

"The most popular kid in school and could get any other girl he wants?"

"Shut up!" James snapped. "I'm—she—you just don't get it!" he ran a hand through his hair.

Remus pinched the bridge of his nose. "We really don't, James. It's a mystery to us. You've been infatuated with Evans for five years."

Sirius and Peter nodded their heads in agreement.

"There's just…something about her. I don't know. When I see her, I just feel really happy. When she smiles, the whole world just lights up. And when she talks to me, no matter what she says…Merlin!" James sighed dreamily.

Peter mouthed 'Obsessed!'

Sirius frowned at him. "Prongs, mate, this can't be healthy for you."

James opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Remus.

"Look, let's make a deal." Remus, ever the sensible one, said. "You have until the end of this year to at least be friends with Lily. If you can't do that, you'll have to get over her." He raised his hand to stop James from interrupting. "Do it or we'll force you to do it." He glowered. "And, believe me, we will."

James shuddered. "All right."

Sirius couldn't blame him, Remus was scary when he was serious.

The tension was broken when Peter threw a pillow at Remus and hit him square on the face.

"Pillow fight!" Sirius exclaimed as he grabbed the end of his pillow and started hitting Peter with it. Remus launched himself at James.

The past conversation was forgotten as chaos ensued in their dormitory.

Hermione rubbed at his cheek as it was finally detached from Lily's person. Looking at the opposite bed, he saw Lily do the exact same thing, though she did it with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Lily?" he asked.

"Hmmm?"

"Is something wrong?"

"I'm just worried about Severus." She admitted.

Hermione thought back to what happened a few minutes ago. On their way to the Hospital Wing, they bumped into a few other sixth and fifth year Slytherins, among them were some soon-to-be-Death Eaters: Avery, Nott, Parkinson, Mulciber, Crabbe, Goyle, etc.

*Flashback*

"Snape!" Nott called out. "What are you doing hanging out with this…filth?" he gestured towards Hermione and Lily.

"I—" Snape was at a loss for words.

"He was asked to escort us to the Hospital Wing." Hermione lied. "I don't believe we've ever met, Mr…?"

Parkinson sneered at them. "As if we would lower ourselves to tell you our names."

"Well, no need to be rude." Hermione said coldly.

"Shut up, you filthy little mudblood!" Nott drew out his wand, but Snape stopped him from shooting a curse.

"They're not worth it." He said quietly.

"Hmph." He lowered his wand, turned around and stalked away. "Come on, Snape! Stop associating yourself with Gryffindor scum."

"I'm sorry." Snape whispered to them before he ran after the group.

*End Flashback*

"Well, that is something to be worried about." He agreed.

Lily bit her lip. "Do you…do you think he's going to be a Death Eater?"

It was Hermione's turn to bite his lip. Snape most certainly was going to be a Death Eater, but he wasn't about to tell that to Lily. "It depends on whether your friendship with him would be strong enough to pull him away from bad company."

"I hope it is." Lily whispered.

Hermione stood up and sat beside Lily. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Whatever Snape does, remember, it's not your fault. If he ends up immersing himself in the Dark Arts, you should remember that it was his choice, and not your fault."

Lily looked up to him and smiled gratefully. At that moment, Hermione noticed something else that Harry had inherited from his mother other than her eyes…

He inherited the ability to smile even though he felt like crying.

"Well," Lily stood up. "Let's get to dinner before the Marauders think up of some crazy idea to get us all killed—,"

"Or worse: Expelled." Hermione finished with a smirk.

Lily laughed out loud and Hermione, once again, noticed something Harry got from his mother:

Her infectious laughter.

A/N: Hi guys! I'm back! Hurray! It's sem break! So I'm hopefully going to be able to update sooner!

So, LEAVE A REVIEW, guys! ANONYMOUS REVIEWS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME! :D (Flames will be ignored)

Replies to reviews:

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