Everyone kept staring at her as though she was an alien and Hermione guessed she couldn't blame them. After all, even in a world full of magic and completely unbelievable things, Time Travelling was a big deal, so to speak. She understood their shock and doubts, but understanding that didn't make her any less nervous.

Her eyes fell on Sirius, who sat on the couch completely relaxed. His face was graced with a smug smile that probably did nothing to make everyone around feel better. The only worse thing that he could have done was running around in a t-shirt saying 'Hermione told me first, you losers!'. Still, when he caught her gaze, his smile changed into a gentle, tender one that made her a lot more confident in herself.

"Can you please say something?", she pleaded quietly and bit her lip, when no reaction came at once.

Peter looked at her with his mouth gaping, Remus seemed submerged in a deep conversation with himself, Lily's face was as red as her hair, while James' stare hadn't been graced with even an ounce of understanding.

"I'm sorry, are you an alien? You know, like those creatures in Muggle movies?", Prongs finally asked and Hermione sighed, while Sirius started to chuckle uncontrollably.

"Yes, James. She's secretly green and really, really ugly"

Sirius' comment didn't make Hermione less annoyed than she already was but what it managed to do was to make Lily even angrier.

"James, you idiot! Didn't you listen to her?! She's from the freaking FUTURE!"

"Um… I know. That's kind of cool", James grinned, while Lily slapped her forehead in despair.

"You moron, Hermione just told us that the upcoming war is going to last for another twenty years and you're asking her if she's an alien!"

James looked positively baffled for a moment and then realisation lit up his face.

"Hermione, are me and Lily married in the future?!", he asked with excitement, while Sirius rolled of the couch, laughing hysterically.

Hermione must have admitted, this conversation did not go as expected. She was fully prepared for tears, outrage and a lot of yelling. But this? Even knowing how awkward James could be didn't prepare her for that.

"Are you kidding me?!", Lily screamed furiously and grabbed a pillow in order to kill James with it.

At that moment, Sirius decided that he needed to save his best friend, so he stood up and got himself hit in the face. Hermione snorted, seeing his completely dejected expression.

"Step aside, Black. I need to kill Potter", Lily stated, not caring about hurting the wrong person, but Sirius grabbed the pillow and yanked it out of her hand.

"Yes, because that's so much more mature than his behaviour"

The girl blushed furiously and tried to stare him down, but Sirius only grinned, putting the pillow down.

"You can fight all you want later, but don't you think we have better things to do right now?", he asked and sat down once again, looking at Hermione, who couldn't wrap her mind around this entire situation. "I'm pretty sure that you drive kitten crazy. She needs to hear that you accept her and stuff like that"

The Ravenclaw shot him an irritated glance, but couldn't exactly disagree with him. She really needed to know that her friends were… well, still her friends.

"What are you, nuts? Of course we accept her", Lily stated, sounding quite offended by the mere suggestion that she could have thought something else. "It's just that it is so bloody… horrifying. All of it"

Silence enveloped everyone in the room, while Hermione looked down, fidgeting with her fingers and not knowing what to say. Should she offer them comfort? Tell them that the future she had known no longer existed? Nothing seemed entirely right.

"I'm sorry for lying to you, guys. I really am. But I hope you can see why I had to do that, even though it made me feel horrible", she finally whispered and earned herself a couple of simultaneous sighs.

"Hermione…", Remus spoke for the first time since she had finished explaining things to everyone. "I can't say that I think everything is just fine. Time Travelling is dangerous and breaking its rules… Like you said, you have disrupted the entire future and I'm not sure whether it's a good thing"

She looked at him with guilt painted all over her face, trying to tell him how much it pained her, but to her surprise, Remus smiled at her gently.

"But I know that you didn't want it to happen. You're the smartest person I've ever met and I believe you're doing everything to minimize the damage. That's why you refused to tell us anything specific about our lives, isn't it?"

She nodded and bit her lip once again, trying to fight the tears which suddenly appeared in her eyes.

"However, even if you actually wanted any of this to happen, you would still be my friend. You didn't turn your back on me and I could never not return that favour", he said quietly and Hermione inhaled sharply, letting a sob escape her mouth.

Remus' words meant so much more to her than anyone could have thought. She had no troubles with deciphering their second meaning; he must have figured out that she had known all along about his lycanthropy and still stood beside him, just like his other friends.

"Knowing that your story is even worse than I initially thought doesn't change how I feel about you. Actually, I admire you even more", Peter added his own opinion, staring at his shaking hands. "I can't imagine living with everything you know and still finding strength to care. The lies, the struggle to keep everyone safe… You've already sacrificed everything once and you're still willing to do this again. Even knowing that it can end exactly the same. How does one do that?"

His words left her speechless, once again. It seemed that Peter Pettigrew had a talent for doing just that. A talent that must have been hiding deep inside of him all along. There was simply no one who could have made him search for it and let it out. She couldn't be more proud that she had managed to do so. Not when she looked at his serious, thoughtful expression and pain consuming his blue eyes.

"Because the world is worth fighting for. Not all of it, but still… If I just gave up, because of all the horrible things that have happened to me, I'd never be able to look myself in the eyes again. Maybe there will be some consequences of travelling so far back in time. But I still need to try and fix everything. For you, for my friends from the future who deserve a shot at normal life, but mostly for myself. Giving up is not an option for me", she smiled and snorted quietly. "That's one of the things that landed me in Gryffindor when I first got to Hogwarts"

Everyone looked at her shocked and then five voices sounded in the room simultaneously.

"You were in Gryffindor?!"

Hermione giggled and nodded lightly, watching as Sirius' expression lit up with pride.

"Ha! I'd always known that you were a kitten, rather than some kind of a chicken!", he said, pointing towards her House emblem.

"It's an eagle, Black", Lily stated and shook her head. "But you're right, for a Ravenclaw you have way too much fire inside of you", she said to Hermione and nodded thoughtfully.

Hermione made a point of ignoring Sirius' seductive smile that appeared on his face and shrugged.

"We're way too complex to possess only one House's characteristic features. I felt good in Gryffindor, but Ravenclaw suits me just as well"

"Smarty-pants", Sirius murmured affectionately, while Hermione blushed.

She cleared her throat and looked around the room. Peter was the only one without a smile on his face and she could tell that something bothered him. Suddenly, he met her gaze and shook his head ever so lightly, letting her know that whatever it was, he didn't want to talk about it in that exact moment. Hermione decided to leave him be and switched her gaze to Remus.

The Prefect also looked as though he had something important on his mind, so she smiled and sat down next to Sirius, allowing him to embrace her.

"Ask away. If I can answer, I will", she reassured Remus and smiled, while he sighed tiredly.

"What happens now that you've told us?"

Hermione frowned slightly and looked at him intensely. Of course, she had expected that question, but she had also hoped that it would come up much, much later. Unfortunately, the Prefect was way too bright to let her stall everyone.

"Nothing happens, Remus. My secret is safe inside your heads, I made sure of that, but it doesn't change that much. I can't let you join the fight and risk your lives right now", she answered and scowled when everyone shot her angry looks.

"So you could have let Ewan do that, but not us? Does he know about all of this?", James asked with exasperation, forcing Hermione to sigh.

"Ewan is an entirely different case. He's only a couple of months away from finishing Hogwarts and I've been teaching him how to defend himself. And no, he doesn't know. Not yet anyway"

"Then why don't you teach us?", Sirius asked, clearly annoyed at the thought of Hermione giving Ewan a special treatment. "Or maybe you think we can't do it?"

"Don't be ridiculous. People can still come after you, because you're friends with me and you know me better than anyone. I wouldn't have told you everything if I didn't think that you can handle it and put that knowledge into good use", she said and frowned. "Ewan's an entirely different case, though. No, I can't explain why, but you really need to trust me on that. I wouldn't be training him if there was any other way"

"What exactly do you mean by 'training', huh?", James asked, leaning forward with glinting eyes.

"Yeah, what do you mean?", Lily supported him right away with a stern expression. "I've seen you in the Defence Against the Dark Arts and, no offense, Hermione, but you're not so great"

Hermione smiled at that statement and nodded. Of course she tried to fix her mistake of disarming Mulciber by pretending not to have any fighting skills. Sirius and James bested her in classes without any problems and, even though she absolutely hated lying to them like that, she really needed to keep her skills to herself.

"About that…", she murmured and scratched her head, smiling awkwardly. "I kind of… I pretended not be good. You see, fighting in a war leaves you with an impressive set of skills. Skills, that would have caught everyone's attention way too quickly"

"Wait a second. So what you're trying to say is that you're actually better than us?", James said with an expression full of disbelief and when she nodded slightly, he snorted. "How about a duel then?"

"I don't think it's the right time for something like this…", she muttered, but everyone seemed weirdly excited by the idea.

Suddenly, the Room of Requirement started to change right in front of their eyes, startling everybody. In a matter of seconds, they found themselves in a space that looked almost exactly like the place they used to practice during Umbridge's reigns. She closed her eyes, trying to calm herself and when she opened them again, everyone was looking at her with expectancy.

"Do we really have to do this?", Hermione asked grimly, but the only answer she got were two huge grins belonging to James and Sirius, who stood in front of her with their wands pointed at her.

"C'mon, kitten. Show us what you got, it's not like we can tell anyone, isn't it?", Sirius asked, stretching his arms over his head.

"Besides… You don't want to train us, but if you manage to win against the two of us, it would mean we really need training"

Of course they bloody needed it. They hadn't spent months with Moody trying to turn them into a pulp of sweat and tears, had they?

"You still have time for that. You're not even in your seventh year"

"Neither are you", Lily pointed out and shrugged. "I say, let's do this. Maybe it will do us some good if we see what a real fight looks like"

Hermione looked at Remus and Peter, trying to get them to support her, but both of them seemed just as excited about the duel as the rest of her friends. She sighed and grabbed her wand reluctantly, pointing it towards the space between Sirius and James.

"Give me your best", she said and took a fighting stance.

Judging by the sudden focus that appeared on their faces, they really intended to do what she had asked for. Hermione wanted to smile seeing Sirius' determination; that one expression she recognized even from his post-Azkaban days, especially when it came to protecting Harry.

Sirius was the one to make first move. She had to admit, he was rather quick for someone who kept swinging a bat at the Quidditch pitch. Still, his Disarming spell didn't even force her to cast Protego, as she simply ducked out of its way, watching James' moves carefully. If Sirius was quick, Prongs had possessed the speed of a lightning. He had been quite lithe, so she couldn't say she was surprised, but it still gave her little to no time for a reaction, when a non-verbal spell flew towards her. This time, she shielded herself and moved to her left, not allowing Sirius to use that second of weakness after her protection wore off.

Right away, she casted a non-verbal Disarming spell and pointed her wand at Sirius; her boyfriend was the easier target, as he was considerably slower than his partner. She didn't hope for her spell to actually reach him, but it still gave her enough time to perform another dodge and counter-attack. She figured that defeating them right away would definitely hurt their pride, so she decided to have a little fun.

All of Hermione's spells targeted Sirius, who stopped attacking her in order to defend himself. James started to get annoyed by her actions and his spells became much more forceful and chaotic, which she had every intentions of using to her benefit. She stopped Shielding herself, jumping left and right between the spells and doing everything she could to Disarm Sirius. First beads of sweat started to trickle down her forehead, when a smile appeared on her face, as she sent a spell towards James, who didn't expect that even in the slightest, as she had been attacking his mate for the better part of their duel.

James' wand flew to her hand and she immediately threw it towards Sirius, who got so distracted by her action, that his defence lowered momentarily. Before the wand could have reached her boyfriend, a spell flew his way, forcing him to duck to the left, completely knocking him out of balance.

In a matter of seconds, their duel was over, but everyone in the room stayed silent. The sounds of their quickened breaths mingled in the air for a while, until Sirius got up from the floor and pointed an accusatory finger at her.

"You cheated!", he said, making her smirk.

"Not really, Sirius. I just wanted to give you a second wand", she answered innocently and James chuckled.

"I don't mean the wand", Padfoot snorted and shook his head. "We should have been defeated much, much earlier, but you wanted to play with us"

Hermione shrugged and sighed.

"You both are really, really good. You have a gift for fighting and after training, you're going to be much better than me. I always sucked at Defence", she admitted quite truthfully, at least in her own opinion.

After all, her grades were still way above decent, but… She was Hermione Granger; anything beneath pure perfection was rather dissatisfying. She had to work her way through her weakness, though, if she wanted to survive. Moody beat that into her head quite successfully.

"It's kind of hard to imagine that", Peter murmured, clearly impressed by her skills. "You seem to be great at everything"

"In most cases, it's just books and cleverness", she whispered and looked down, trying not to think about Harry. "In that case, I needed to work incredibly hard to get those skills"

"So you really do workout", Sirius laughed and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, she looked at him with amusement.

"I do. And I miss Quidditch games because of that"

Everyone looked at her with surprise and she shrugged with a smile.

"You know that I can't tell you. Let's just say that the person that trained me requires absolute obedience", she rolled her eyes thinking about Moody.

"You mean, you're treated like a dog?", James asked seriously, making everyone chuckle.

Even Lily couldn't stop herself from noticing that obvious pun and it became clear that she was fully aware of their secret. Hermione sighed and nodded her head.

"Yes, like a dog. It's a good thing that my coach doesn't tell me to sneak into girls' dormitories"

Sirius snorted and flicked his hand dismissively.

"That would be stupid, wouldn't it?", he asked in a theatrical tone. "Why would you have to sneak into girls' room if you're a girl?"

"Maybe I should sneak into boys' then", she suggested, raising her eyebrows and Sirius gave her a lopsided grin, the one that made her heart skip a beat.

"Or better yet!", Remus exclaimed, clasping his hands with a loud clap. "You could both sneak out of here, so no one has to watch your flirting sessions"

Everyone laughed, as Hermione blushed and averted her gaze from Sirius, who didn't seem all that affected by Remus' words.

"Well… Frankly speaking, I think it would be better if you left. After all, we're in the Room of Requirement, if you know what I mean", he offered with a charming smile, forcing Lily to imitate the sounds of puking.

"Gross", she stated and scowled visibly.

"You don't know what you're talking about. Lily", James laughed and looked at her mischievously. "I can change that for you"

Remus got up abruptly, with his face covered in furious blush, and sighed loudly.

"Why don't we all leave, huh? I have no idea how did we got from talking about Hermione's past to… well, this. But I know that I really don't want to continue that subject", the Prefect stated firmly and started to walk towards the door, while James and Sirius laughed their asses off.

"Oh, poor Remy… Quit howling", James said.

"You really need to grow a thicker fur", Sirius nodded thoughtfully and Hermione couldn't stop herself from laughing.

Lily tried to remain serious, but a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, making her look quite ridiculous. Still, she obviously didn't like the idea of leaving the subject of Hermione's secret behind, as she said:

"Wait a minute… We can't just end this conversation. I still have so many questions!"

"I'm not leaving, Lily. Tomorrow is actually even better for asking questions", Hermione smiled and patted the girl on the shoulder. "You need to sleep on it. It's a lot to take in and I want all of you to think everything through"

Lily didn't look all that convinced, but finally, she sighed and nodded slightly.

"Maybe you're right. But Hermione… Know this. No matter how much we think about everything, we're not going to turn our backs on you. Alright?"

Hermione flashed her a beautiful smile, full of gratitude, which got even wider when the redhead pulled her closer and hugged tightly. After several seconds, she finally let go, her face covered in a pretty blush.

"Sorry", Lily muttered, while James moaned loudly.

"Why can't you hug me like that?"

"Because you're a moron and if I hugged you, you would have come up with some stupid ideas about it", Lily stated and James pretended to be offended.

"I would never do something like that!"

"Potter, I bet you're having those ideas even thinking about me hugging you"

"Am not!"

"You are!"

"Am not!"

"You are!"

Lily's and James' bickering was truly amusing, Hermione had to admit that, especially looking at their red faces and excitement shining in their eyes. How could they be so oblivious to the chemistry between them, she had no clue whatsoever, but all the signs on Earth pointed towards a change in their relations. Finally.

She felt someone touching her arm gently and looked up to see Peter standing next to her, with a serious, pained expression on his face. No one else seemed to notice him, as they were too busy watching this fight between Miss Prefect and Prongs, and Hermione knew it couldn't have been a coincidence that Peter chose that exact moment to capture her attention.

"What's up?", she muttered quietly and he switched his weight from one leg to the other with nervousness.

"I need to speak with you. Alone", he whispered and looked down to his feet. "Something has happened and I don't know what to do. Something that no one else can know about"

Her heart slowed its pace for a second, as she digested Peter's words with caution. His tone didn't sound good, making her sick with worry. It led her to a fairly simple conclusion; whatever bothered Peter, it had something to do with Death Eaters and Voldemort.

"When and where?", she asked in a grievous tone and Peter looked around to check if someone paid attention to their conversation.

"After supper, in the Library"

She nodded and smiled, not wanting anyone to see her suddenly serious mood. Just when she thought things were about to get better, life wanted to verify her ideas almost immediately. She just hoped that this terrible uneasiness building up in the pit of her stomach wasn't a sign of something really terrible to come.

First of all, let me thank you for all the reviews! You guys are amazing and you should know that I truly appreciate it!

As for this chapter, I am quite happy about how it turned out. It was supposed to be light and easy, because the next one is going to be... different. But you can already tell by the ending, huh? :D

Anyway, I hope you liked it! Once again, THANK YOU and I'll see you on the next one! :)