Disclaimer: I don't own any of JK Rowling's characters

There were only five people left in the common room: four girls, and one boy, in the 6th year, when Sirius, Ron, and Hermione climbed in.

"Hey, Padfoot!" The short boy called from an armchair. He had watery brown eyes and rather large front teeth. Hermione and Ron glared at him. Peter glanced at them warily and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He wrenched his gaze back towards Sirius, his eyebrows creased.

"Yo Wormtail," Sirius said, taking an empty armchair. "And ladies." He added courteously, nodding at the girls.

"Where's James?" demanded a red head.

"Relax, Lily." Sirius said in a superior tone. "He's out, as usual."

"Hey," exclaimed a girl with wild, curly brown hair. "Who're your friends?"

Sirius jumped up, looking guilty, having evidently forgotten Hermione and Ron for the moment. "Nina, this is Hermione Granger, and..." he looked questionably at Ron.

"Ron Weas- Wesley." The redhead said, looking self-conscious.

"So, where are you from?" asked a girl with short black hair and bright grey eyes, who was sitting near them on the rug.

Hermione thought hurriedly "We're exchange students from...from Canada." Just as Ron said "Ireland." They looked at each other.

"Ireland." Hermione said, as Ron said "Canada." The others stared at them.

"Canada." Hermione said, blushing. "We're from Canada."

Sirius shrugged. "Cool, do you speak French-" If he noticed any of the awkwardness going on with Hermione's background, he didn't say anything. Or seemed to care, for that matter.

Just then the portrait swung open and another three people climbed in, one of them looking especially dazed.

"Hey, Prongs, and Moony." Sirius said, walking up to them. Peter jumped down and followed.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped. "Where were you?"

"You know them, Harry?" James asked, staring at Hermione and Ron. "Fellow exchange students from America?"

"America?" Sirius said, clapping a hand over James' shoulder. "Prongs ole man, they're from Canada."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other uncomfortably.

"We-ell," Harry said, making the syllable extra long to buy time, "I'm actually from Canada, I was just- I decided to uh, go to school in the United States." He finished lamely.

Hermione mentally slapped herself on the forehead. Boys could be so stupid.

Sirius looked at Harry blankly. "So you were an exchange student in the US and now you're an exchange student here? What, does Canada have really bad schools or something?"

Harry snuck a look at Hermione who crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Uh, no." Harry said nervously. "I just-fancied the American scenery, and the, uh people. Then I decided I wanted to compare the life styles of the English with the Americans, so I, er went here..." His voice trailed off.

Hermione could've sworn she could hear crickets chirping.

"Ah. I see" James said, not looking like he saw it.

Harry had never fully appreciated the design of the rug on the Gryffindor common room as much as now.

"So who are your partners?" Remus asked, as if to make polite conversation.

"Partners?" Ron asked incredulously.

"You now Ron, the partners who are supposed to show us around." Harry said quickly.

"Ohhh." Hermione said, playing along. She elbowed Ron as he opened his mouth, looking confused. "I'm with Nina."

The curly-haired girl stepped forward. "Hi, I'm Nina. Nina Vasquez."

"Hey." Hermione said, smiling at her.

"I'm with ...Remus Lupin?" Ron said, catching on...sort of.

"We should all get some sleep." Lily cut in. "Its 1 AM."

"What'd we do without you, Evans." Sirius said with a grin.

"Don't, Black." Lily muttered, flicking back a strand of long red hair. James sighed, watching her longingly.

"C'mon Prongs," Sirius said, turning James around. "You lovesick stag."

Hermione laughed. Sirius turned around and winked at her before heading up the stairs with the rest of the boys. Harry turned slightly to look back at Hermione, partly in panic. She wrenched her gaze from Sirius and mouthed 2 o'clock, and looked pointedly at the common room.

"C'mon. I'll show you the sixth year dormitory." Nina said, taking Hermione's arm. The five girls trooped upstairs.

"You can have Heather's bed." The black-haired girl offered. "She went to a different school, somewhere in Switzerland. Supposedly."

Hermione stared at her.

"Sammi!" somebody shrieked. The 2 turned to see a girl with dirty blond hair point at her bed.

The black-haired girl jumped up. "Sorry Lira! Accio." A huge orange cat flew into her arms. He had a rather squashed faced, not exactly someone who'd win a beauty pageant, but Hermione stared. It looked exactly like Crookshanks.

After a minute of dazed staring around the slightly familiar room, she slid into Heather's bed. The other girls took a little longer to quiet down, as they chatted about transfiguration, Slughorn, the potion's master that Ron had been ranting about, and sympathized with Lily over her persistent admirer. Apparently, James was an "occasionally cute, but mostly annoying, conceited pighead", according to Lily, while the other girls argued that he was a "hot, if occasionally immature quidditch star". Sammi and Nina had a long conversation over quidditch, which Hermione knew nothing about, but finally the others quieted down. Fighting sleep, Hermione waited until 2:00 am, by looking at the luminous quidditch clock by Sammi's bed, before sneaking out of bed and into the common room.

Harry was already sitting by the fire. Ron sat in an armchair, already starting to snore. Hermione lost no time after shaking him awake. "Looks like we're about 20 years back in time." Harry nodded, gazing into the crackling fire. Ron stared at her drowsily. "What do we do?" He slurred.

Hermione shook her head. "We'll search something in the library, but for now, I think we just have to blend with the crowd. We should get these facts straight. We are exchange students from Canada, okay? We did not came blowing in from the future, 'cause that'd sound way too weird, and don't tell anyone. Not even your dad or Sirius." She added towards Harry. "Don't attract too much attention, and we'll find a way to get back soon." The two boys nodded. "And Harry, you can't have the same last names as James."

Harry nodded. "I said I was Harry Palter."

Hermione nodded. "Nice. Sooo...I guess we can order books or something for our classes here." She searched her pockets. "I've a few galleons and sickles left from my birthday."

Ron shrugged sheepishly. "None here."

They turned to Harry. He wordlessly reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag bulging with coins. They stared at it.

Harry sighed. "Don't ask. It was from the ministry with the...incident and all."

"Okay." Hermione smiled wanly. "I guess we can order supplies and fit in for a while. Might as well enjoy this while we can. Lucky tomorrow's Saturday."

Footsteps were heard from the doorway. "Hermione?" The black-haired girl with the grey eyes called Sammi, looked in tentatively from the stairs. She spotted Harry, and grinned. "Enjoying the English scenery?"

Harry flushed. "Yeah. It's, uh different."

Sammi laughed while Ron shook his head. Hermione stood up. "I'm coming. Good night guys."

And the three separated to their dormitories.

So there's the 3rd chapter. Thank you so much for the reviews. I was afraid no one was liking my story, so it would've been pointless to continue. Yeah, and I know I'm bad at chapter titles.

cec123: Thanx. I hope you continue to like it.

Reanne1102: More thanx. I couldn't make Hermione tell Sirius what was really going on, because it'd sound really weird that she came from the future and Sirius would think she was crazy and yeah...

Serendipity-England-1922:D My first reviewer! Yeah, and yet more thanks for the review

annnnd Alikat: I did get it working! even if it did take 50 hours. Thanks for the review(s). Am I thanking people too much? okay. I think I'm typing more than neccessary. d