Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

A Little Attention

It was when she kept avoiding the reason behind why she came to Hogwarts in the first place that it hit him. Sirius realized that the pain he kept seeing in her eyes was tied to grief. She must have lost someone. Probably her parents, if McGonagall became her guardian. He appreciated how Lily kept steering them away from those questions. He didn't like seeing that look in Hermione's eyes.


Finally the dessert was eaten and the plates were cleared. Hermione was grateful, for this meant that her interrogation was over. Lily, James, and Remus all stood up, calling for the First Years to follow them. They soon lead the way to Gryffindor Tower with a small group of students clustering together in fear tagging along.

Sirius smirked. Knowing Lily, it would take longer than needed to lead the children to the portrait of the Fat Lady. She wasn't aware of the many shortcuts and passageways that could cut the time spent traveling in half. She would also probably give a full description of everything she knew about the portraits they passed and what they needed to know about trick steps and moving staircases. James would try and get them to the Tower faster, but would bend to Lily's will because of his crush. And Remus... well, he would just go along with whatever the two Heads did, not wanting to create a confrontation between the two.

Sirius turned to Hermione, intending to show her in the opposite direction where the shortest path was, but found that she had already started heading in that direction. Peter just stood behind Sirius, waiting for him to lead the way as the Great Hall slowly emptied of students and teachers.

Where is she going? There's no way that she could possibly know about that passage, it took us three years to find it and she's only been here a week!

But apparently she did, as it became obvious when he followed her. She pushed aside a tapestry and tapped a brick, leading to a passageway lit by torches immediately appearing. By this point Sirius, and therefore Peter, had caught up to her.

Hermione held the tapestry out of their way so they could enter the passage, smiling when she saw the look of awe on Peter's face and the look of shock and confusion on Sirius'.

"How- you- how did you find this?" Sirius said in amazement.

Hermione just smiled a secretive smile, shrugged, turned around, and led the way up the steps that were just around the bend of the tunnel.

When they exited the passage about two minutes later from behind a painting of a landscape, Sirius was surprised even further when Hermione went to the statue of a headless wizard and pushed it aside to reveal another staircase. Both Peter and Sirius' jaws dropped in shock. Somehow this girl had been here for a week and discovered a secret passageway that the Marauders hadn't found in six years!

Needless to say, Sirius was extremely impressed. Even though his pride had taken a bit of a blow.

Hermione noticed their faces and thought that it was shock that she knew another secret of Hogwarts, not that she had opened up a doorway that they had never seen before. Why would she think that, when she had seen it on the Marauder's Map?

She continued to lead the way and managed to make it to Gryffindor Tower before anyone else, even though they had been the last ones to leave the Great Hall.

"I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you two tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we'll see you later." Sirius answered for them both.

Hermione smiled at them, walked up the stairs to her dormitory, changed into her pajamas, and fell onto her bed. She lay there and thought about the people she had just met, some of which she had known for years.

Lily had been very nice, and looked exactly like many of the pictures that Harry had of his parents. Long, straight, red hair, and beautiful green eyes. She was about Hermione's height, 5' 6''. Maybe a little taller. Lily is just like I thought she would be. Compassionate to others, but witty when it comes to James. I'm going to need to help get them together. I can't risk my actions affecting their relationship. Her eyes... just like Harry's.

James had also been what she had expected. An exact mirror image of Harry, minus the scar and with brown eyes. I hadn't expected him to be so... reckless? Carefree? I don't know. I guess when people kept saying how much Harry and his father looked alike I expected their personalities to be the same as well. Although Sirius did say that the risk of getting caught at something would have been what made it so much fun for James, so I should have expected a bit more recklessness.

And that led her to Sirius. He was about 6' even, with long black hair. Not so long that it needed to be tied back, but just long enough that it fell into his eyes. It gave him the daredevil look that she was sure girls were attracted to. He was muscular as well, but not to the point of extremes. Hermione had been sad when she saw him, knowing that he would be locked up in Azkaban and fall into the Veil. No. That won't happen. I won't let it. So don't think about it. I wonder why he never spoke at dinner? The Sirius I knew was eager to put his thoughts out into the open. She shrugged off the thought. With her knowledge of the past she realized that he had run away from home either this summer or last summer. He was probably thinking about that.

Remus had been somewhat of a surprise. Hermione had expected him to be more like the man she knew he would become. Scarred and with a constant look of loneliness in his eyes. However, he was so much happier. He laughed easily, his body showed less scars, and his eyes were a bright blue rather than the dull hue she remembered. He was built much the same as Sirius, muscular and thin. I won't let his sadness follow him. He will live the rest of his life with his friends. He won't find out that someone he trusted with his deepest secret betrayed one of his best friends.

And so the betrayer crept into her mind. Peter. He seemed so... innocent, Hermione realized. He was shorter than the others, only about 5' 7'', and still had a bit of baby fat. Even though she knew what he would become, Hermione also knew that if she played her cards right, Peter would never follow Voldemort. I don't want to have to kill anyone else. If I can keep him from ever becoming a Death Eater, then I will. That, and I can't kill him when he hasn't done anything yet. And if I kill him when he has done something, then it will have been too late. I will have already failed my mission.

Thoughts focused on the differences between people, Hermione slowly drifted to sleep. And for the first time in a week, her mind was so full of something else that she did not have nightmares of her past.


The next morning Hermione woke up early out of habit at seven o'clock. She stretched, yawned, and got up to take a shower before the other girls decided to take it over. The shower took only about twenty minutes, including the time it took to get dressed and dry her hair. When she walked back to the dormitory, the other girls were just started to rub the sleepiness out of their eyes.

"Morning Mya. You seem to be an early riser." Lily commented as she gathered her clothes and soaps.

"Yeah, I put my education very high on my list of priorities."

One of the other girls groaned. "Oh great, another one. Can't we have any normal people besides me?"

"Oh, where are my manners? Mya, this is Mary Boot. The one next to you is Alice Everett." Lily said and introduced her to the other residents of the dorm while gesturing to them in turn.

"Nice to meet you both."

Mary was the same height as Hermione, with long, straight, black hair that reached about halfway down her back. She had brown eyes, a short and pointy nose, with a face that looked like it was made for a smile. Alice, however, looked extremely familiar. Slightly chubby, with a face that resembled Neville Longbottom. Hermione smiled when she realized that this must be Neville's mother-to-be, and wondered where Frank was. She soon shook her head to move her thoughts away from their fates.

Alice smiled at her, small dimples appearing on her cheeks. "It's nice to meet you too. It'll be nice to have another girl around here. Can you believe we only had three girls in our dorm? And the boys only have four. It was annoying having only seven students as Gryffindor Seventh Years. All the other houses have at least twelve."

"In my old school there were only three girls in my house as well."

"Really? Well, since your school was private it probably had less people in each year anyways, right?"

"Yeah." Hermione said while mentally cursing herself for forgetting that she came from Forstron.

"Well, I'm a bit hungry, so I'm just going to head down to the Great Hall for some breakfast. See you three later!"

"Do you know your way down?" Mary asked.

"Yes, I've been here for a week and made sure to know the way to all the rooms that I would need to go to." Hermione lied, seeing as how she had almost the entire school memorized like the back of her hand since her second year.

"All right. We'll see you in a few!"

Hermione nodded and made her way down the stairs to the common room. She wasn't surprised to find that no one was there, knowing that the other residents of the Tower had probably only just woken up. She smiled sadly when she thought about how similar this was to her own time.

She had almost made it to the portrait hole when she finally heard a sign of life.

"Mya!"

Hermione turned around to face none other than Remus Lupin, apparently an early riser like herself. He caught up to her and they made their way down to the Great Hall together.

"So, what classes are you taking?"

"N.E.W.T.s level classes for Transfiguration, Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Charms, Herbology, and Ancient Runes. What about you?"

"The same as you, minus Ancient Runes. I dropped it in the middle of third year when I realized that decoding symbols held absolutely no appeal for me."

"I know what you mean. My two best friends-" here she gave an almost unnoticeable pause- "they thought I was crazy for taking it because they thought it was all nonsense."

Remus decided not to question the pause that he detected. Had his senses not been elevated due to the full moon being only two days away, he might not have noticed it at all. But since it was, he had heard the soft intake of breath in that split second between her words.

"Yeah, James, Sirius, and Peter aren't interested in it very much either. Neither are Alice or Mary. Actually, Lily's been the only Gryffindor in our year who took it. She'll be ecstatic to find out she won't be alone anymore."

They continued to discuss classes, Hogwarts, friends, and teachers on their way down to breakfast. That is, until they heard someone else speak.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? The new girl and the nerd. Aaaaaaaw, you two make such a cute couple!" the voice said in a sickeningly sweet tone.

Hermione and Remus turned around to face the speaker. Hermione's hand automatically went to her wand, hidden beneath her robes, upon recognition of those behind them. It was Bellatrix Black, Evan Rosier, and Antonin Dolohov.

"Black. Rosier. Dolohov." Remus said in a cold voice.

Bellatrix Black smirked. "Lupin." Now ignoring him, she turned to Hermione. "So, Mya Grey, was it?"

"Yes, but since I don't know your name I hope you forgive me for not addressing you."

"Oh, how rude of me." Bella said sarcastically. "Bellatrix Black. This is Evan Rosier, and this is Antonin Dolohov."

Hermione nodded her head in acknowledgment.

"There have been a few rumors about you." Rosier sneered.

Hermione's eyes flicked over to him but reverted back to her primary concern, Bella.

"Really? Like what?"

This time it was Dolohov who spoke. "Like how you know this school better than half of the Seventh Years put together."

How would they know that? Unless Peter told them... but I always thought that he joined Voldemort after Hogwarts? I'd better play it safe just in case.

"I may have found a few shortcuts during my stay here. What's it to you?"

All three of them smirked, and ignored the question.

"Is it true that Professor McGonagall is your guardian, but not your parent?" asked Rosier.

"Yes. Why do you care?"

"So what happened to your parents?" Rosier continued.

"Does it really matter?"

"If it does to you."

"Why?"

"Can't some classmates be interested in a new face?"

"Classmates? Yes. You? No." came a voice from behind the three Slytherins, making it their time to turn around. It seemed that while Remus and Hermione had been taking their time talking while they were walking, the rest of the Gryffindor Seventh Years had managed to catch up to them, Sirius in the lead.

"I'm sorry, did someone say something? Or was that just a fly buzzing around my ear?"

"Even if a fly did have some kind of reason to approach you, it would die from shock at your lack of brains." Sirius shot back.

"Well forgive me, I can't hear people that no longer exist." Bella said with a fake sweet smile.

"Do you mean mother has finally disowned me? That's the only smart thing I've ever seen her do."

So it was this past summer where Sirius ran away. Hermione thought, while observing the shocked looks of her roommates. From the lack of response from the boys, she could only surmise that Sirius had already told them. Hell, they probably had a party at the Potters' place when they found out.

"Best choice Aunt Walburga ever made. You've always been a disgrace to the name of Black. Going against the other purebloods, becoming a Gryffindor, and running away? I'm surprised she managed to wait so long."

"Has she been spreading around that she kicked me out herself? As much as I wish she had done it before, I'm the one that took the initiative. I ran away myself, rather than stay in that godforsaken house a minute longer."

"The only smart choice you ever made was to leave. Now at least you won't be a disgrace to your superiors."

"Hope you don't mean yourself." Hermione spoke with a dangerously soft voice, her wand in her hand at her side.

Bellatrix turned sideways so that she could watch both parties, her attention on Hermione at the moment.

"Stay out of it, wench. This doesn't concern you."

"Except they interrupted our little chat, Bella. It's terribly rude to just ignore someone in the middle of a conversation."

Bella seemed to have had enough for today when she saw Professor McGonagall coming around the corner, because she simply smirked one last time, beckoned to Dolohov and Rosier, and walked away.

When they had disappeared through the double doors of the Great Hall, all the Gryffindors approached each other.

"You guys okay?" Sirius asked, looking at Hermione in particular.

"Yeah, she just questioned Mya here about some stuff. Nothing big." Remus said.

"What about?" Lily wondered.

"Her past, it seemed like."

Meanwhile, Hermione had been staring at the doors with her jaw clenched, her wand still at her side. Even though the last time she had seen Bellatrix she had died at the hands of Mrs. Weasley, it still didn't change the fact that she hated the witch for torturing her at Malfoy Manor. It worried her slightly that she had been asked those questions. Hermione knew that Bella wasn't completely crazy in this time, since she hadn't been to Azkaban just yet, but it didn't change the fact that she was dangerous. Hermione was sure that there was a reason beyond curiosity about a new student for the interrogation, but didn't know what. And she hated not knowing.

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