Your Hidden Past

'Jane,' said a soft, kind voice. 'Jane, really, you have to wake – '

The girl called Jane had sat up in her bed in a daze, rubbing her left eye, and letting out a groan that indicated she was awake, and listening, though perhaps not very attentively.

'Oh, good morning,' said the soft voice pleasantly. 'We always go down for breakfast at half past; I thought you might want to accompany us.'

The girl nodded vaguely, now rubbing both her eyes, and the owner of the soft voice left her alone in her red four-poster bed, shutting the curtains behind her.

Even though Hermione usually took delight in rising early, seeing the sunset, or doing some homework, today was different. What she wanted to do now, more than anything, was to crawl back in, and sleep well into the day.

Seven minutes later, she was ready to go to the Great Hall.

After breakfast, Hermione had Ancient Runes, while Lily had Care of Magical Creatures. Lily was desperately trying to explain to Hermione how to get there, since it was in a classroom Hermione didn't know, but Hermione also didn't know half of the passageways and corridors Lily was describing, and ended up being wholly and utterly confused.

'So, right and then left, and then straight up, then left again?'

'No, no, no!' Lily cut in, waving her hands in distress. 'You go right, then left, then right, then straight up, and then left, and then – '

Sirius Black, who was walking behind them, seemed to be fed up with their discussion, and ended it with an 'Oh, don't bother, Evans. I'll take you there, Puckle.'

'Really?' asked Hermione, turning. Lily smiled gratefully at him, which he didn't even seem to notice, and ran off in the opposite direction.

True to his word, Sirius brought Hermione to the classroom in no time at all (her head spun when she tried to remember all the shortcuts they'd taken), and disappeared.

For a minute, Hermione panicked, and feared he'd brought her to the other side of the castle to get her lost, as a joke, but when she opened the door, there were several students she recognised to be Gryffindors.

'Er, is this Ancient Runes?' she asked a nearby Ravenclaw, just to be certain.

'No, you're in the kitchens,' someone from the back shouted, obviously trying to be funny. Hermione ignored him.

The Ravenclaw boy rolled his eyes, and then grinned at her. 'Don't mind him, he's an idiot. Yes, this is Ancient Runes. You can sit by me if you'd like.'

'That would be lovely, thanks,' said Hermione, taking a seat next to him and taking out the needed supplies.

'Say, are you new? I don't recognise you,' said the Ravenclaw after a while, and Hermione nodded. She was about to introduce herself, when a weary-looking teacher entered the classroom.

'Right then,' he croaked, and the class fell silent. 'We'll be doing some stuff yester – I mean, today, about some stuff we did tod – I mean yesterday, obviously. Go on, then.'

He took a seat, propped his feet onto the desk, snuggled deeper into his chair, and promptly fell asleep. Hermione stared.

'Is this some sort of joke?'

'No,' said the boy next to her. 'He does that every lesson.'

'You mean to say, you haven't had a decent Ancient Runes class ever?'

'Well, no,' said the boy, shrugging. 'The Professor's brilliant, really sharp, but he usually sleeps during the lesson. He expects you to keep up with everything, and you can come to him if you have any questions.'

'Honestly,' sniffed Hermione disdainfully. 'Where were you, then?'

The boy took out a book with strange scribblings on the front, and opened it somewhere in the middle. 'Chapter thirteen, here,' he laid it out in front of her, and Hermione looked outraged.

'Sir!' she said loudly. The chattering in the classroom died down, as the Professor simply rolled over in his chair. 'Professor!' she persisted, even louder.

The Professor snorted awake, crankily mumbling, ''S matter?'

'I've already finished this book in my third year. We were starting Odin's work,' said Hermione. The Professor cracked one eye open to see who was talking to him, muttered something about meddlesome students, and then straightened himself.

'Look, Miss Puckle,' he said, yawning. 'This isn't Beauxbatons, this is Hogwarts. Here, we do this book. Because we don't want you to do it all over again, you were asked to purchase that book. You can start on page one.'

Before Hermione could say anything, he'd fallen asleep again. Hermione stared at him for a while longer, and then blinked down at her work. The boy next to her laughed, a very pleasant laugh, that made Hermione smile, too.

'You'll have to forgive him,' the boy said, taking his book off her table again. 'He acts like that every once in a while. Have you really done this book already?'

She nodded, and he smiled at her. 'Me too. It's easy, isn't it?'

'Yes,' said Hermione, relieved. 'I thought I was the only one who noticed, but it keeps on repeating – '

'Raido,' they finished at the same time, and Hermione laughed.

'I'm Richard Davies,' said the boy, holding out a hand.

'Jane Puckle,' Hermione said, shaking it. 'Pleasure to meet you.'

Ancient Runes was followed by Muggle studies, a class she also shared with Richard Davies. When the bell rang, Richard walked with her to the Great Hall, discussing their lesson about electricity all the while.

'Jane, it's unnecessary,' he told her sharply, as they rounded the corner.

'Of course it isn't!' Hermione replied. 'Electricity is what Muggles use to power almost everything.'

'Which is exactly my point,' said Richard triumphantly. 'What if they have a power outage? They'll be left with nothing!'

'There you are, Jane,' Lily's voice drifted over from the gigantic staircase next to the Great Hall, and Hermione grinned. Lily waved, and then hurried down.

'Oh, hello, Richard,' said Lily pleasantly, when she spotted him. 'How are you?' Without really waiting for him to answer, she barged on, 'Good, good. You won't mind me borrowing Jane for a bit, will you?'

Richard shook his head. 'No, I don't mind at all.'

Lily gave him a smile, and then grabbed Hermione by the arm. 'Thanks. Don't forget your patrol on Thursday. You've to go with Elsie,' she added, as they turned. When she looked over her shoulder, Hermione thought she saw Richard look crestfallen for a moment.

The rest of that week, and the one following that, weren't really that spectacular to Hermione. She shared all of her classes with Lily, except for Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies, which she shared with Richard, who turned out to be a pleasantly good conversationalist and a star at Ancient Runes.

It was at the end of an almost dizzyingly hot Friday afternoon, near four, when most of the students were lounging near the lake or in their common room, thinking of the silver tankards filled with Butterbeer served at The Three Broomsticks, and desperately whishing for autumn to return, that Hermione received a surprise.

If they studied in the library, Hermione and Lily always took a table near the back of the Charms aisle. It was circular, painted a deep mahogany, and large enough for the both of them (and, occasionally, Richard) to study at.

When they arrived that Friday afternoon, frantically discussing the Charms lesson of the day wherein Professor Flitwick had explained about the wandless conjuring they would be asked to do at their NEWTs examinations, they found it already occupied.

A large, leather-bound novel, titled Fog or Foe: How to Bewitch the Crystal Ball, was hiding someone from their view entirely, and Lily and Hermione shared a look.

'Er, excuse me?' said Lily.

The reader of the book jumped slightly, then lowered it to look over the gold-trimmed rim to the speaker. His eyes were a strange, familiar shade of blue, and Hermione frowned in thought.

Lily seemed to recognise the reader, however. 'Hi! I didn't know you were back yet!' she exclaimed, ecstatically.

The boy was alarmingly pale, but when he returned Lily's grin, he didn't seem at all sad, or ill. He seemed – he seemed almost happy.

'I just arrived an hour ago,' said the boy. Lily grinned again as she sat down next to him, and they began discussing the book, which was now lying abandoned on the table, and his sick grandmother, who he had been apparently visiting, in earnest.

Hermione, still in thought, sunk down into her chair, and began on the monstrous Potions essay Professor Slughorn had assigned them, which was to be handed in on that following Thursday.

Twenty minutes later, when Hermione returned to the table with a book from the Potions section she'd wanted to use for her essay, Sirius was standing at the table, along with James, and they were talking to Lily in rapid, hushed tones.

Hermione came nearer, just as Sirius was solemnly saying, 'We've come to collect our moony.'

Lily didn't look like she understood, and raised her eyebrows in a quizzical manner. 'You've come to what?'

'Collect our moony,' repeated Sirius slowly, as if talking to a five-year-old.

'We don't have your moony,' repeated Lily slowly, imitating his tone.

The boy who was sitting next to Lily seemed to find this all very amusing, and looked at James and Sirius with polite interest over the rim of his book.

James was now arguing with Lily about something - perhaps the "moony" Sirius kept going on about, perhaps not - which left Sirius free to make a hand gesture at her which looked to be a half-wave.

'Hello, Black,' said Hermione softly, sliding back into her seat. The boy looked up from his book, surprised. He stared at Hermione for a few moments, then, as if only just realising what he was doing, quickly looked down to his book again.

'I don't care!' Lily snapped at James, her hands on her hips. 'It's not even respectable to strut into the –'

'I didn't strut!' James cut her off, crossing his arms over his chest. 'I walked perfectly –'

'And, then, act if I'm an idiot, which is completely –' Lily continued, not having heard him.

'Oh, don't you dare, I didn't –'

Sirius was muttering, 'They do this every time' under his breath, but he didn't seem at all put off by it. He looked more amused than anything. However, the boy with the book said softly, without even looking up, 'That's enough.'

Lily and James stopped quarrelling to look at him. He calmly put his book into his bag, and Sirius jumped up, eagerly saying, 'You're coming with us? Are you, are you?'

The boy rolled his eyes, and stood up, slinging his bag over his shoulder. He looked over at Hermione, who quickly pretended to be very interested in her essay, her cheeks faintly pink.

'Yes, I'll come,' he said. 'But only,' he added, when Sirius looked as if he could kiss him, 'if you let me know who you are first.'

Everyone fell silent as Hermione, who'd turned back to her normal colour, looked up from her essay and said, in a clear voice, 'Jane Puckle.'

He looked puzzled for a moment, but then he looked at Sirius, who was nodding. 'I'm Remus Lupin.'

'P – Professor?' Hermione blurted out, frowning, before she could stop herself.

James looked faintly alarmed. 'Oh, no, you didn't spot her, did you?'

'Er, no, she walked past, but I saw her,' said Hermione, using his alarm to her advantage while she mentally berated herself for letting something slip.

'Thank Merlin,' exclaimed James. 'Look, Evans, we'll just borrow Remus for a bit, sure you won't mind –' and they disappeared before either Hermione or Lily could say a word.

Later that evening, after saying goodnight to Lily and dressing in her nightgown, Hermione stared up at the canopy of her four-poster bed, seemingly lost in thought. How could she possibly have forgotten such a thing?

'I don't know,' she said softly to herself. The last time she'd seen her former Professor was at Kings' Cross Station, and he hadn't nearly looked as happy and carefree and handsome as he had now.

You can't blame him; a swotty voice in the back of her head said to her, not too kindly, none of his friends have died yet.

Oh god. How was she ever going to go through with this?

'Something the matter, Remus?' a kind, cheerful female voice asked.

'No, nothing, Nymphadora,' the man called Remus answered, shaking himself, and then returning to his dinner.

'You know I hate it when you call me that,' said his female companion, pretending to look awfully annoyed.

He gave her a weak smile. 'Sorry. I like your name, though.'

A woman with shockingly pink curls and glittering orange robes grinned broadly at him. 'You and my mum seemed to hit off particularly well.'

Remus turned pink. 'I – well –' he stammered.

Nymphadora Tonks, the woman that was sitting across from him, looked even more amused. 'Ah, Remus, it seems that I've found your weak spot – you loved my mother all along –'

While his female companion prattled on about her mother and him sharing the same interests in lots of things, Remus suddenly received a blearing headache, and he grabbed his head, his knife clattering down on his plate with such force, a bit of porcelain sprung off into darkness.

'Remus? Are you all right?'

The voice seemed to come from far, far away, and Remus had a feeling of falling into nothing, into a transparent haze, while he faintly heard a voice talking to him, calling out his name ...

As suddenly as it had appeared, the feeling of being hot and cold at the same time vanished into nothingness, leaving a shaking Remus.

'Remus? Are you sure you're OK?' said Nymphadora Tonks, now sounding a lot less playful. Her face had gone pale, and Remus looked at her, confusion clouding his eyes.

'Yes, yes, fine,' he said, after a moment of silence, as he retrieved his knife from where it'd fallen on his plate, and waving his wand to repair it. 'Sorry.'

Nymphadora let out a sigh of relief, and then shook her head. 'You scared me for a moment there. What happened?'

'Nothing. Just memories,' said Remus, not untruthfully, and Tonks reached out and settled her hand on his shaking one on the table.

'It's all right. I know you miss him.'

'Yeah. I miss him,' said Remus softly, remembering the beautiful, radiant face of a girlwho had nothing to do with Sirius Black, and wondering how on earth he was ever going to tell Nymphadora about her.

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for reviewing. If you were signed in when you reviewed, I'll be able to send you a reply.

The rune Raido is part of the ancient magical rune alphabet, and a variety of meanings have been ascribed to it, including (but probably not limited to) journey, cartwheel, long journey on horseback and a chariot, or cart.

Odin or Wodan is the Norse god for war and death, but also the god of poetry and wisdom. Legend holds it that he hung for nine days, pierced by his own sphere, on the world tree, during which time he was said to have invented eighteen runes and nine powerful songs.

Odin has only one eye, which blazes like the sun. He traded his other eye for a drink from the Well of Wisdom, granting him immense knowledge. On the day of the final battle, Odin was killed by the terrible monster wolf Fenrir.