Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story. Chapter 2
When she opened her eyes, all she could see were two onyx-colored eyes staring straight back at her. They disappeared the moment she saw them and she heard footsteps moving away from her. Turning her head to follow them turned out to be a bad idea as her head felt like a dead weight. She panicked momentarily until she realized that she recognized … of all things … the ceiling. She was in the hospital wing. Her head began to clear and she felt it was safe to look around, there was no sign of the owned of the onyx colored eyes, but she could see that she was most definitely in Hogwarts infirmary. It looked different than it had looked the day before though, when she had gone to ask for a potion to relieve her headache, but different how she couldn't quite place.
A moment later, the candles jumped to life as Madame Pomfrey entered the infirmary. Hermione's brilliant brain clicked back into gear instantaneously as she saw that this was indeed Poppy Pomfrey but not as she knew her. As she neared Hermione's bed, the younger girl could see that the nurse wasn't alone. There were two teenage boys following her; one was thin with black hair and onyx-colored eyes, and the other she recognized as a young Remus Lupin. When they were only a bed away, she could hear Remus pleading with Madame Pomfrey to let him return to his dorm and the other boy telling him to stop whining and shut up. The other boy's voice sounded familiar and after thinking about it for a few moments, Hermione was able to figure it out. It was a young Severus Snape.
By the time she was level with the bed, Madam Pomfrey had given in and dismissed Remus, under the condition that if he felt any pain or even just a bit odd, he was to return immediately.
As soon as Madame Pomfrey asked Hermione her name, she heard Professor Dumbledore's voice from second year her head, telling her how much damage she could do to the future by changing even the slightest thing in the past. So Hermione did the only thing she could think of: she told her that she wanted to speak to the current headmaster right away. Hermione could see the protest forming on her lips and quickly told the nurse that she didn't have to leave, but that he could come to her in the hospital wing.
Madame Pomfrey didn't look pleased about it, but she turned around and headed back to her office to speak to the headmaster via the Floo network.
After she was out of hearing range, Hermione turned her head to look at Severus. He gave the girl a slight smile, which quickly disappeared as soon as he heard Madame Pomfrey's footsteps approaching. When Madame Pomfrey was level with the bed, she looked between Hermione and Severus then back to Hermione before saying, "The headmaster is in a meeting right now, but he said to tell you that he will be down in about two hours." She waited until Hermione nodded her head in understanding, before turning to Severus and saying, "I have things to get on with. I trust that you can stay out of trouble and occupy this young lady while we wait for the headmaster to arrive." Without waiting for a reply, she strode back to her office.
So they were left alone, Severus standing beside the bed and Hermione reclining against a mountain of pillows. After a while the silence became too much to bear, and she was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable with him standing over her like some sort of shy guard dog so she said, "You can sit down, you know." He looked somewhat sheepish, and Hermione realized that her tone had been unnecessarily sharp. He looked around him for a chair, but when he didn't see one, he just stood there silently looking at his feet. It dawned on her that he wasn't going to get the hint on his own, so she grabbed hold of his wrist and pulled him so that he lost his balance and fell onto the bed beside her.
Hermione knew she couldn't tell him anything about herself, but that didn't mean that she couldn't ask him questions so, turning her head slightly so that she was looking him straight in the eye, she motioned to the bag lying at his feet and asked, "Anything good?"
He looked a bit looked a little confused at first, but quickly figured out what she was talking about. He slowly bent down and lifted the bag onto the bed so that she could see what was inside. As soon as she saw she started to laugh, which, she admitted later, probably wasn't the best response to the situation, given how nervous Severus obviously was, but she couldn't help herself! The books that he was carrying in his bag were the same ones that she'd checked out of the library herself, just before she had gone to Potions, a few short hours before.
When the headmaster walked in over an hour later, the pair was sitting on the bed facing each other, discussing Strouston's inaccuracies when describing the feeling one gets after taking Polyjuice Potion. The Headmaster continued down the aisle between the beds towards the Madame Pomfrey's office. When he passed them, Hermione glanced up and gave him a look of great relief. It was none other than her own Professor Dumbledore! She turned back to Severus and smiled but unfortunately, he had seen the look she had given the headmaster and assumed it was a look of relief that she would be rid of him soon. It was kind of understandable, she supposed; he couldn't have known that she was just really relived that it was Professor Dumbledore, who Hermione knew she could trust and who would know what to do.
When she turned back to Severus, she was surprised to see a hurt look on his face. When he saw that she was looking, he quickly wiped the look from his face, stood up, grabbed his bag and excused himself all in the time span of about ten seconds.
After two hours of talking with the Headmaster, they came up with a plan. Hermione would continue on with her education, with everyone thinking she had been home schooled up to this point. After this was decided, Professor Dumbledore excused himself to send an owl to the Head Boy and Girl, asking them to meet a new seventh year Gryffindor outside the Transfiguration classroom.
Hermione was released from the hospital wing almost six hours after she had arrived in the year 1977. The headmaster had promised her that he'd have one of the female teachers take me to Diagon Alley to get some clothes, school books, writing materials and anything else she needed. So she left the infirmary in quite a positive mood and headed down to the Transfigurations class.
Just as she was about to turn the last corner before the classroom, she heard four sets of footsteps running in her direction. As she whirled around to see who it was, somebody crashed straight into her and sent them both flying. When Hermione's head finally stopped pounding from the impact, she looked up to see four pairs of eyes staring back at her.
A 17-year-old James Potter was holding Severus Snape by the arms with the help of a boy who could only be Sirius Black; Severus struggled, trying to get away. Hermione felt herself being lifted and placed on her feet. Turning to see to whom it was, she saw an apologetic-looking Remus Lupin. By this point James and Sirius had Severus backed up against the wall of the corridor, and were sneering at him cruelly as if they weren't quite sure what to do next. Hermione shot an exasperated look at the silent Lupin and strode towards them. She spoke slowly and deliberately; making sure to pronounce every syllable, "Leave him alone." James looked at Hermione for a moment, before pushing Severus toward her and rolling their eyes.
James, Sirius, and Remus all continued around the corner, heading towards one of the secret passageways leading into Hogsmeade. When their voices had completely faded away, Severus turned and left without even looking at her; he walked quickly down the stairs toward what, she could only assume, was the Slytherin Common room.
Hermione turned around, only to come face to face with Lily Evans, Harry's mother! She never heard much about her. Sirius was taciturn about her, and Remus…well, he was hardly ever around. Lily smiled at her before saying, "Sorry about them. I'd tell you that they're not always like that, but I'm not going to lie to you. I'd also tell you you'll get used to them but as I said I'm not going to lie to you. You will however develop a sixth sense as to when to dive for cover!" The two girls laughed together at this; she had a rich warm laugh which strangely enough, reminded Hermione of Professor Dumbledore. They got along instantly; she introduced herself to Hermione though she already knew who Lily was, of course. Who else could she be with those eyes?
She gestured in the direction the Marauders had gone and rolled her eyes, saying, "I guess I'll be showing you around by myself." Hermione smiled, suddenly feeling embarrassed and sad at the same time, knowing how it would end with them.
