"Er-excuse me…" Sirius's voice, untouched by age, sounded. Hermione froze before slowly turning to face him.

A thousand thoughts raced through her mind. She didn't even know how she'd respond to whatever Sirius said next. Hermione looked directly at his face and she could scarcely move a muscle when she locked eyes with him. He was so young…so alive. His black hair curled delicately under his ears and light blue eyes shone with youth. He was so different from the Sirius she knew. Neither scars nor tattoos tainted the boy's skin, something she was so used to seeing on his future self. Shaking herself away from her thoughts, she prepared to speak when Sirius beat her.

"Would you mind passing the parsnips?" Sirius asked, a speculative look in his eyes.

Hermione's mouth popped open with disbelief before she slowly handed him the bowl. What was he playing at?

"Thanks. I'm Sirius," he offered, holding out a small hand for Hermione to shake.

Deciding to go along with it despite the brewing frustration she felt, Hermione grasped his hand and introduced herself.

Lily, who was watching the exchange with narrowed eyes, looked back and forth at Sirius and James. "You two are the prats from the train!"

"Indeed we are," James said with a laugh, bits of food flying out of his mouth. "Name's James."

"Pleasure," Lily said, wrinkling her nose in disgust before turning towards a young Alice Travers, hopefully, Longbottom in the future.

Remus, who was blissfully eating and ignoring the current goings-on, jumped when James addressed him.

"You sick, mate?" James asked, his aristocratic accent pronounced. "It's no bother if you are. I just want to know I won't drop dead in the morning from catching whatever you've got."

"Yes, unfortunately," Remus said giving a long drawn out sigh. "I've dragon pox and won't last the night."

James blinked owlishly, trying to suss out Remus. While James was busy nervously examining Remus for any sign of the pox, Sirius let out a laugh.

"James, you git. He's not got the pox," Sirius said before turning to face Remus. "Ignore him, all the inbreeding gets to some more than others. I'm Sirius Black."

"Black? My dad says you're all inbred nutters," Remus said without thinking while Hermione kicked his leg under the table.

"Only the lucky ones!" Sirius exclaimed with a laugh before reaching around Hermione to shake Remus's hand. "I can tell we'll be friends."

Remus perked up at that. He spent many a night over the summer confiding to Hermione that he was worried no one would like him. No matter how much Hermione tried to convince him otherwise, Remus would hear none of it.

"Here, Remus, let's switch," Hermione said, trying to get Remus, James, and Sirius to solidify a future friendship. "There's treacle over there that I want."

"If you'd like, Hermione," Remus said, standing up so Hermione could slide away from Sirius.

The heavy air that cast a veil around Sirius and Hermione broke and she felt like she could breathe easy again. She smiled at Lily and introduced herself to Alice and the petite blonde sitting next to her who turned out to be Marlene McKinnon. Hermione had a vague recollection of the name but couldn't quite place her.

"It must be so great being sorted into the same house as your brother," Marlene said, thick Scottish accent rolling around her words.

"I couldn't imagine if I wasn't," Hermione admitted. "Do you have any siblings?"

"Just one. My brother Hamish who's a 4th year Ravenclaw," Marlene said, a hint of sadness slipping through her voice.

"Chin up," Alice told her with a smile. "My dad's a twin and they got separated. My dad went to Gryffindor and my uncle went to Hufflepuff, still just as inseparable."

"And my friend Sev just went to Slytherin but that doesn't mean we're no longer friends!" Lily exclaimed, not noticing the sceptical looks some of the people sitting close by gave the girl.

"You see, not a problem," Hermione said with a smile.

The rest of the feast comprised mostly of light discussion. It was nice, this time around. The first time through Hermione was utterly alone and her dorm mates were often unpleasant to her. It was nice to have girls that actually spoke to her and laughed with her. They were all in a new situation and all attempted to make the best of it and find friends quick.

Alice was clearly the most charismatic of the group, a detail that was surprising to Hermione. Neville was always terribly shy and fumbling from a lack of confidence. Hermione had yet to meet Frank Longbottom, but she could see Neville shared his mother's kindness. When Alice spotted another first year girl sitting shyly by herself, Alice made sure to call over the girl and make introductions. The girl, who introduced herself as Mary MacDonald, was overjoyed to have been included in the discussion.

As their stomachs began to hurt from fullness, the girls tucked into pudding and began discussing their first signs of magic. Alice proudly stated that she was a bit of a late bloomer but when she was eight she slid too fast down a slide and accidentally started to fly.

Lily shared a similar story. "Other than odd accidents when I was little, the first one I remember is playing with my sister on the swings. We jumped off at the same time and she broke her arm and I floated down!"

Lily laughed, a small, reminiscing smile on her face, and the other girls joined in. Marlene's first magic was turning the horrid peas her mother cooked into sweets. Mary would make the bedtime stories she wanted to be read to her float into her mother's hands, something which made her single mother, a kind muggle woman, understandably shocked.

Hermione was about to share her story of phantom toothbrushes when Dumbledore rose from the teachers' table and vanished the remaining food. Hermione snapped her mouth shut and turned to listen to the Professor. The hall fell silent, so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

"Ahem—" Dumbledore coughed, clearing his throat. "just a few start-of-term announcements now that we are fed.

"First years should note that the forest, as the name implies, is forbidden. This additionally serves as a reminder for some of our older students.

Another announcement, magic against a student is strictly forbidden outside of a secure classroom or supervised setting.

Finally, quidditch trials will be held on the second week of the term. Anyone interested should contact Professor Yaxley." Hermione heard James whisper excitedly to Sirius.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Father like son, she supposed. She listened to Dumbledore wrap up the speech before he waved his wand and summoned a phantom band above the teachers' table. Once the band was situated, Dumbledore instructed the students to sing the school song. Twisting his wand, a serpentine ribbon shot out of the end and formed itself into words. Another professor flicked his wand and the band began to play. Hermione happily sang along with the school song, and two fifth years that looked suspiciously like Weasleys began to belt out the song, causing all four tables to titter.

Once everybody finished the song, Dumbledore gave a kind smile and gave a one-man standing ovation. Once he sat down again, Dumbledore called for the prefects to escort the first years to their new dormitories.

Hermione stood up with Lily, Marlene, Mary, and Alice. They scanned the area around the Gryffindor table and eventually came across two prefects. The girl had wild red curls and a pretty, freckled face. She reminded Hermione of her own time as a prefect as the girl was frantically waving her hand and calling the first years over. The other prefect was a handsome black boy who merely laughed at the overenthusiastic witch beside him.

Once all ten of the new Gryffindors were gathered in front of the prefects, the boy spoke. "Hello, everyone. My name's Charlie Thomas and the other prefect for this year is Freya Fawley. Don't worry, she always looks like this," Charlie joked while Freya lightly hit his side.

"Ignore him, he always acts like this," Freya said sweetly. "Anyways, follow us and mind the staircases. We've a long way up."

With that, Freya and Charlie walked out of the Great Hall, and the nervous first years walked as close together as possible. Remus made his way next to Hermione as they walked up the marble staircase.

"Doing okay?" Hermione whispered. Remus looked dreadfully tired and worn down.

"I'm great," he insisted. "The blokes I talked to, James and Sirius, they're great!"

"Who're the other two?" Hermione asked him, even though she knew the answer to one of the boys.

"The short blond is Peter. A bit quiet and I don't think Sirius is the biggest fan," Remus whispered. "The other is Boris Bryce. Seems nice enough. His best friend is a 2nd year Gryffindor named Dev Patil, so I don't think he'll talk to us much."

Hermione and Remus continued to chat. Occasionally, Remus's eyes would bug out when they walked through a portrait that contained a hidden corridor. Every so often, Freya or Charlie would pull back a tapestry to reveal a door. After what seemed to be an impossible amount of staircases, they came to a sudden halt.

In front of them, exactly as Hermione remembered, hung the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Password?" She asked, her frilly pink ribbons bouncing as she tilted her head.

"Solum Adiuvat," Freya enunciated clearly.

The Fat Lady gave a curt nod before the portrait door swung forward to reveal a round hole crudely carved into the wall. Freya and Charlie stepped though while the first years all stumbled a bit as their short legs caught on the stone.

Hermione's heart grew as she stumbled through. It was exactly how she remembered it. The walls were stained a dark red and faded crimson armchairs filled the room. Hermione looked at the fire and in her exhaustion, she could almost see her teenage-self sitting around the fire with Harry, Ron, and Ginny. Tears came unbidden to her eyes and she quickly rubbed them on her sleeve, carefully to not accidentally reveal the word carved into her arm.

Charlie and Freya took turns discussing house rules and then branched off the boys and the girls. Charlie led the first year Gryffindor boys up one set of stairs. Hermione quickly whispered a goodnight to Remus and then locked eyes with Sirius before he turned away from her and walked up the stairs.

Freya led the girls up the other staircase and through the door that had a bronze plaque with the words First Years engraved on it. Once the five girls were inside, Freya welcomed them to Gryffindor and told them to get a good night's rest before classes began. As soon as she left, the girls began to change into their pyjamas and excited chatter intermingled with yawns filled the room.

"What do you think our first class will be?" Lily asked, her tired face still shining with unrestrained joy.

"Oh, I hope it's transfiguration!" Marlene said. "My brother told me that Professor McGonagall is one of Britain's most powerful witches! She can turn into a cat, you know!"

The girls all whispered excitedly to each other, Hermione included. She'd been through this before, but she doubted that Hogwarts could ever be mundane.

Alice was the first to cut off the conversation. She began to speak but a tremendous yawn put her words on hold. "I'm knackered, so it's off to Bedfordshire for me!"

"Night, Alice!" Mary said. "I think I'm off too, but it was lovely to meet you all!"

The girls each said their goodbyes before tucking into bed. One by one each girl closed her drapes and the candles next to her bedside magically put out. Hermione fell back into her bed, staring up at the dark and working through her racing thoughts.

Hermione lost track of time as she went through and evaluated every event of the day. Mentally, she gathered information about each person and filed it away to jot down later. It was odd to think that at this very moment Voldemort was at large and only starting to become an infamous dark wizard. Hermione felt so very trapped in her small, child-state. As much as she'd liked school the first time around, this time she would already know all the theories, have all the practical experience, perfectly replicate the wand work. If she wasn't careful, she really would be labelled the brightest witch of her age, not just as a passing compliment by a professor or friend. She really must keep her head down and avoid garnering attention, despite her immature mind craving it.

Just as Hermione was planning her academic approach to Hogwarts, a fine mist silently entered through a gap in the drapes. The wispy blue tendrils twisted around in front of Hermione and blue light illuminated her befuddled expression. The dormitory was deadly in its silence, only if Hermione concentrated could she hear a light snore come from one of the other beds.

She was slowly reaching for her wand when the blue tendrils grew and began to form into the shape of a large dog. Once the dog formed and occupied the space in front of Hermione, a phantom voice emanated from the patronus.

"Common room—by the fire," Sirius's adolescent voice whispered. "Disillusion yourself."

The grogginess that clouded Hermione's mind fled after Sirius relayed his message. The light of the patronus faded into the darkness as Hermione grabbed her wand. Silently, she disillusioned herself, her young body struggling to perform such advanced magic. It felt like ice slowly melting down her body, and Hermione's hand that pulled apart the drapes slowly melded into its surroundings.

With all the care she could muster, Hermione creaked across the floor of the dormitory and cast a silencing charm on the door before she opened it and slipped through. The common room was empty. A dying fire weakly illuminated the blood red walls of the area. Hermione made her way over to an armchair by the fire and sat down, noticing a divot in the seat of the armchair next to her.

Tentatively, she whispered: "Sirius?"

Hermione waited with bated breath before deciding to lift up her wand. "Finite Incantatem"

The area around the two armchairs pulsated with light before slowly dimming. The unpleasant sensation of cold wetness left Hermione's body and the chameleon effect disappeared. She placed her gaze intently on the space above the armchair next to hers and watched as Sirius materialized into view.

His childlike face was contorted by furious intensity. Sirius's wand pointed directly at Hermione's throat and the sleeve of his pyjamas fell back enough to reveal the same tattoos that marred his older self. Hermione's eyes widened in shock before she quickly regained composure and shifted into a more defensive stance from where she sat.

"How did you save me your third year?" Sirius demanded, his voice a furious whisper.

"Time-turner," Hermione said quickly. "Harry and I saved Buckbeak and you escaped on him."

With that, Sirius cautiously lowered his wand, deciding that Hermione's answer was sufficient. "How are you here?" He demanded.

"Same as you. The veil."

"What year did you fall through?"

"I didn't fall," Hermione said first before continuing. "I entered the veil in 2010. I arrived here in 1970."

Sirius took on a contemplative expression. His mouth opened several times before closing again. After an internal debate, Sirius settled on one word: "why?"

"For you," Hermione said softly. "I was an unspeakable and stupidly thought that I could enter the veil and bring you back."

"Are you stuck here?" Sirius asked with an indescribable expression.

"It would seem so," Hermione replied. "Dumbledore found out about me after I fell into Remus's garden. He told me there was no way back and I was adopted by the Lupins. I asked for a potion to make my mental maturity fit my age."

"Why did you go and do that?"

Hermione let a laugh escape. "Because it was exhausting!" She exclaimed. "It felt like I was an auntie to Remus, not a sister. Enough about me though…what happened after you fell through the veil?"

"It was…strange," Sirius admitted with a faraway look in his eyes. "I thought that I had died. I kept falling and falling. I must admit that I thought I was falling to hell; I never even believed in hell.

When I stopped falling, I felt like I broke every bone in my body. Every scar that I had was opened and I was bleeding everywhere. I didn't realize I was a kid again, but I saw that Grimmauld place was in front of me," Sirius stopped speaking for a moment, overcome by his experience.

"If I wasn't sure before, I knew then that I was in hell," he whispered. Though he wore the face of a child, the look in his eyes matched those of his older self who was haunted by the horrors of life.

"How did you survive?" Hermione asked, afraid to speak louder than a whisper.

"Kreacher, believe it or not. I thought that I was dying again and called out his name. Sodding beacon of hope, he was, when he appeared. I told him to grab a wand if there was one in the house, not to tell anyone what was going on. A few moments later he returned with my dad's.

I didn't even question it. I was too busy trying not to bleed out. After healing myself, I noticed my hands…I transfigured a tin can into a mirror, but it took so much effort at first that I wasn't even sure that I could transfigure it. But it worked. I saw my reflection and almost passed out from the shock of seeing myself as a child and covered in tattoos. I quickly cleaned myself up and fished a morning paper out of a rubbish bin. The year was sixty-eight."

Hermione tried to picture it. Sirius alone, thinking he was dead. He didn't land somewhere kind and pleasant like Hermione had. He landed outside the place that brought back all the negative aspects of his childhood and his isolation after escaping Azkaban. Hermione couldn't even begin to imagine.

"How did you do it?" She asked. "How did you spend three years alone?"

"I'd already spent twelve years alone. Three years is nothing after Azkaban," Sirius said. "Besides, I had dear old mum and dad. I had Regulus. My mother noticed that I was different, but she assumed that she and father had finally beat some sense into me. I charmed my tattoos and scars to be invisible. That took loads of work like you wouldn't believe. I decided to convince myself that the veil caused me to travel back in time, refused to believe it was a twisted afterlife. Time goes by fast when you're planning to change everything that went wrong the first time around," Sirius finished, trying to crack a joke.

Sirius thought for a moment. "You said you entered in 2010, though. What happened? Is Harry—" Sirius stopped speaking, not daring to think that Harry had died.

"He lived," Hermione said, tears beginning to spill. "For the most part, we all did. We lost some people…" Hermione refused to say names. "Harry and Ron settled down. Harry got married to Ginny, and they had three beautiful children. Remus and Tonks had a son. Harry defeated Voldemort. It…it was a good life."

Sirius wore a wistful smile. "I'm glad. Harry deserved that. After everything…Harry deserves a family. I only wish that I could have been a part of it."

"That's why I tried to bring you back," Hermione said. "For Harry and for you. Only, it didn't work."

Sirius suddenly grew intense. "Don't you see, though! We can change it all for the better. Your idea of fixing things didn't work, but that doesn't mean another idea won't. We can work on destroying Voldemort now. We can stop Pettigrew from ever becoming friends with—"

Hermione cut him off. "Are you sure that's what you want?" Hermione asked softly. "He was one of your best friends in school. What if you could save him? I wanted to enter Hogwarts and despise him. I did when I first saw him, but I can't judge him for actions that occurred in a different universe with a different set of rules."

Sirius curled his upper lip up in disgust. "I understand what you're saying—I really do, but you're wrong. He doesn't deserve a second chance. You don't betray your friends. We would have died for him, and he would never have done that for us. He was a rat once and he'll turn into a rat again."

"This world is different though. Look at Snape. His father died and his mother actually takes care of him now. This world is slightly different, and the people are slightly different."

"A different world doesn't change a soul, Hermione," Sirius said pointedly, signalling an end to the conversation.

"Fine," Hermione said. "This won't be the end of our conversation about Pettigrew, but I'll drop it for now. Tomorrow, though, we need to pay a visit to Dumbledore."