*Creeps out of the shadows, drops new chapter and darts back into hiding place* I am so so sorry for how long its taken to get this chapter out. I have no excuse.

Thank you to any one who has followed, favourites and/or reviewed since my last update.

VI: Settling In

To most it might seem odd to have your eleven year old daughter's new headmaster also be your new landlord, of course most people would definitely deem it odd to have narrowly avoided a car accident by having said eleven year old daughter accidentally carry your entire car twenty years back in time. Mr and Mrs Granger (as neither had a valid dental qualification in this decade) considered themselves most people, but since they had been told that Hermione was a witch, they had become rather more open to the impossible, the bizarre. They sat in their new home, an old fashioned, modestly sized house in the Shropshire village of Godric's Hollow, frankly too tired to contemplate that evening just how much their lives had changed.

Professor Dumbledore had told them that he had no need of rent from them. He had even told them that he would try to help them find jobs. Honestly, neither of them had the slightest idea just how they were ever going to begin repaying the old wizard for his kindness.

The feast that appeared on the House tables as Dumbledore finished speaking astonished Hazel. She'd never seen so much food in a single room never mind a single table; and it all looked gorgeous.

"What are you waiting for Hazel?" Sirius asked through a mouthful of roast beef.

She rolled her eyes and began to help herself to roast turkey, roast chicken, roast beef; potatoes, roast and mashed; mushy peas, carrots, broccoli and parsnips which she topped with lashings of thick mouth-watering gravy, stopping only when her meal was in danger of overflowing the plate it sat on.

"Got enough there Hazel?" Remus teased.

"For the time being."

Sirius and James nearly choked as her flippant reply made them laugh.

"Merlin Hazel," Remus bit his lip to keep from sniggering himself. "We've just met these guys, can you please not kill them... for the time being."

This time it was Hazel who nearly choked, in the short time she'd known Remus Lupin she'd noticed a change in him. Most of the time he seemed shy and nervous when addressed as if he was surprised that people wanted to be nice to him, but once in a while he would come out with something so that made her think that there was a different, more outgoing Remus trapped deep inside him.

After a short while the main course vanished, leaving the golden tableware gleaming as if it hadn't been touched; and then, just as suddenly a range of deserts took its place.

"Hey, save some of that for the rest of us Rem!" Hazel laughed as her apparently-a-chocoholic best friend reached for the vat of chocolate fudge sundae. She herself filled her plate with sticky toffee pudding and custard.

When everyone was full the deserts vanished too and once again the tableware gleamed as if freshly cleaned and polished. Dumbledore rose and led them all in a rendition of the school song; which dragged on until the last person had finished (and as everyone was singing the words to a different tune that took a while).

"Ah music," Dumbledore smiled wistfully. "One of the few types of magic that we don't teach here at Hogwarts; now that we are all fed and watered it's time for bed, now off you trot."

The first year Gryffindors were guided through the castle, up to a portrait of a fat lady dressed in a frilly pink gown by a group of older students who identified themselves as Gryffindor prefects.

"Password?" the portrait asked.

"Boomslang," one of the boys replied and the portrait swung open to reveal a room behind it. Once they had entered the room the boy gathered all of the first years in a huddle and made a small speech. "Welcome to Gryffindor tower first years, I'm Jack, Jack Pickerell, a prefect- this is the common room and dormitories are upstairs; girls to the right, boys to the left, now- good night."

After bidding the boys a goodnight Hazel followed the other four girls up towards their dormitory. Lily stood between her and the dormitory, an irate look on her face.

"A word?"

"Sure," Hazel nodded, folding her arms. "This is about what happened on the train, isn't it?"

Lily nodded. "Why did you side with that Potter? I thought you liked Sev…"

"I put up with Severus 'cause he's your friend do me a favour and do the same for me. I know what James said was mean, but he's a boy- they're idiots the lot of them; and you did overreact a tiny bit."

"You're taking his side?" Lily screeched in a fantastic impression of their older sister.

"No," Hazel assured her, clenching her fists, her temper beginning to fray. "He's my friend and you're my sister- I'm not gonna choose between you."

With that she pushed past her twin and entered their dormitory, not wanting to get into trouble on her first night away from home- she'd vent her frustrations on her pillow.

Hermione sat on her new bed, it was soft and luxurious and it brought home the fact that she was separated from her parents, and they were trapped twenty years back in time, perhaps forever. She hugged her knees to her chest and flopped onto her side as her tears began to spill from her eyes.

She was dimly aware of a red haired someone standing over her.

"Are you alright?" Asked an unfamiliar voice.

Hermione blinked furiously and looked up at Lily's twin sister, Hazel. The girl's mismatched eyes were full of concern.

"I… I'm fine," she replied weakly. "Homesick."

"Your name's Hermione, right?" Lily's sister asked.

Hermione nodded.

"I think it must happen to everyone," Hazel shrugged. "The homesickness I mean…"

Hermione burst into tears again.

"What've you done now?" Lily's voice demanded from the doorway.

Hazel turned sharply. "Nothing Lily, seriously I was just trying to cheer her up."

"Brilliant job you did too," Lily scoffed.

Hazel glowered at her sister before turning and crossing to her bed on the far side of the dormitory.

Gryffindor.

Gryffindor not Slytherin.

He was a Gryffindor. Sirius Black lay with his eyes still closed in the comfortable red clad four poster bed in the dormitory that was warmer and more homely than the Slytherin alternative. He knew he'd seen photos of his relatives' time at Hogwarts. He couldn't believe it; it had to be a dream.

Yes, that was it. He was still at Grimmauld Place; 1st September hadn't happened yet and he hadn't befriended the Potter heir; a muggle born girl and a half blood. Any moment now Kreacher would be in to wake him.

Sirius opened his eyes.

How long had his ceiling been so low, and so red? He shut his eyes again and shook his head to clear away any remnants of his dream before opening them once more.

He was indeed lying in a red dressed four poster bed.

Sirius sat up and poked his head out of the red curtains and grinned as he took in the increasingly familiar Gryffindor boys' Dormitory. From the snuffling and snoring sounds from the other beds his new roommates were all still asleep. He slipped out of his new bed and padded over to the bathroom to get ready for the first day of his new life.

Hazel met Remus, James and Sirius in the common room next morning along with a small chubby boy with watery eyes and sandy hair that seemed plastered to his scalp.

"Morning," she smiled. "Who's your new friend?"

"I'm P-peter," Said new friend squeaked wrestling with his tie in a vain attempt at making himself look presentable. "Peter Pettigrew."

"Nice to meet you." Hazel told him.

Then there was a loud rumbling sound which seemed to have come from Sirius' midriff. After a moment's silence the five first years burst out laughing.

"Well said," James grinned, clapping the boy who should probably have been his fiercest rival, but might just become his very best friend on the back. "I think we should go down to breakfast before Sirius decides to try eating one of us."

Peter blanched, staring at Sirius in something akin to pure terror.

This time Peter was the only one who did not laugh. Remus was the one to take pity on him.

"Don't worry Peter- I'm pretty sure Dumbledore wouldn't let a cannibal into the school."

"Yeah," Sirius nodded. "My family are many things but we aren't cannibals."

Peter let out the breath he'd been holding and followed his new friends to the portrait hole and down to the great hall.

Hermione hadn't expected to sleep, but sleep she did- and very well too. She woke on her second day in 1971 with a renewed sense of hope. Even if she and her parents couldn't get back home she could play her part in one of the greatest wars in wizarding history. She was pretty sure James Potter was the Boy-Who-Lived's father and maybe Lily was his mother- the names were right after all; but then James and Lily weren't at all unusual names and as for Potter…

Sighing, Hermione ran her fingers through her bushy brown mane and left her bed. Once she was dressed she descended the spiral staircase and entered the common room just as the portrait of the fat lady was swinging shut.

There was a teacher at each of the four long house tables when Hazel, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter arrived in the great hall. Professor McGonagall was at theirs. A tiny old man at the Ravenclaw table; a wizened old witch with green splotched robes at the Hufflepuff table; and a large wizard with grey shot brown hair at the Slytherin table- these teachers were making their way to students seemingly at random.

As they crossed to the Gryffindor table Hazel noticed the wizard at Slytherin's table shoot a wistful look at Sirius.

"Sirius," she murmured. "D'you know why that teacher's staring at you? There at the Slytherin table."

Sirius groaned. "Must be Professor Slughorn- my cousins told me about him; head of Slytherin. He collects people apparently."

"What?" Peter frowned

"Sounds kinda creepy." Hazel remarked.

Sirius went scarlet. "Don't mean like that."

"Then how do you mean?" James asked.

Fortunately for Sirius, it was at that moment that Professor McGonagall approached them and the reason for their Head of House's movement around the table became apparent as she handed each of them an identical time table.

The first day of term was uneventful in the grand scheme of things. Hazel was pretty sure that the teachers were being lenient with them as far as lateness was concerned because it was their first day and they didn't know their way around yet. They started off with double Charms; their teacher was the tiny man from the Ravenclaw table- Professor Flitwick. Charms was followed by Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall who started off turning her desk into a pig then gave them a stern lecture about messing around in her classroom and set them off trying to turn a match into a pin. James, the jammy sod was the only one to manage it by the end of the lesson.

After lunch they had History of Magic. The most interesting thing that happened in that lesson was discovering the fact that their teacher Professor Binns was a ghost. Hazel had a feeling that Hermione Granger was the only one who managed to keep focussed on the ghost's monotonous lecture for the whole lesson. Finally they had Defence Against the Dark Arts. Hazel had been looking forward to this once she found out what it was of course; however Professor Bailey spent the whole lesson selling his old profession, Auror- which turned out to be a wizard in policeman, to them, but did so in a way which almost made Professor Binns' lesson seem interesting.

Hermione, the fact that she was trapped in the 1970s aside, was in heaven. Hogwarts was everything she'd dreamed it would be. Her lessons were fascinating and she had Lily and Severus to keep her company when not in lessons. Lily and Sev seemed to share her attitude towards school work and had been very grateful when she'd led them to the library. She wondered if she'd have already made friends if she hadn't travelled back in time- some how she doubted it; she'd never been very good at interacting with other children.

The biggest annoyance she'd come across that day was that James Potter, who had made friends with Lily's sister, had managed to turn a match into a pin before she had managed it. Potter didn't seem to be hard working and Hermione had never liked people who had natural talents as she'd always worked hard at things to excel at them.

~V~