AN: Hi everyone. Sorry I didn't update sooner, but I've been tied up with a few things and had sick kids to get well again. Okay, so I'm glad to see how many people are hooked on my story and coming back for more. I love it. Thank you everyone who reviewed. I tried to reply to them all, but a few of you were not logged in and either I couldn't find you or wasn't sure which one was you if a few different ones came up.

Special Thanks to Kristine Thorne, my lovely and brilliant Beta for getting all of this back to me so quickly. You rock lady.

As always, please Read and Review. I'm greedy as I've admitted to a few of you, and love reading them all. Take care everyone.

Chapter 5

Her first class found her in Ancient Runes. She had arrived early like she always did with her classes, looking around at the empty tables around the room. She sat down at a table in the middle and pulled out a book she'd gotten from the library. It was on many obscure things not taught anymore. She had found it in the Restricted Section. She didn't remember it being there during her school days in the future.

She had found that it held some information on Legilimency and wanted to read it. Settling down to do so while she waited, she didn't notice someone take a seat a few rows back and watch her silently in the empty room.

The class filled up and she felt people sit on either side of her. But she never stopped reading to see who it was. As usual, she got wrapped up in her reading and didn't notice the class start until someone nudged her shoulder.

Glancing up she found Lily sitting beside her on her right. She gave Lily a smile and whispered her thanks when she finally noticed class had started and put her book away. She glanced to her left and found Remus sitting on her other side. He gave her a quick smile, but she saw questions in his eyes and she quickly looked away.

Hermione tried to listen, but she already knew all of this. She thought about what she had read so far on mind reading. With the book she already had and the one she had gotten today, it gave her a few things to play with on trying to learn the skill.

It didn't look like something that she would be able to quickly master. She knew Snape had spent years learning it and secretly wondered if it was indeed that hard to learn. She wondered if she tried, if she could learn it faster than he had. It made her smile to think that she might be better at something than he was.

"Ms. Brown?" The professor called.

Hermione heard the name, but it didn't click in her brain that she was being addressed. So she went on thinking about how nice it would be to learn something better or at least faster than her old potion's professor.

"Ms. Brown?" The professor asked again.

It wasn't until Remus stepped on her foot rather hard that she glanced up. Oh crap. Hermione thought. I'm Ms. Brown. "I'm sorry, what Professor?"

The professor smiled at her. "I said I was wondering if you could tell me what these symbols mean. Do you know them at all dear? They're not that hard for a first day." The professor said snidely, acting like Hermione was an idiot if she didn't know them.

Feeling a bit irked at his patronizing tone, Hermione smiled sweetly at the professor. "Why yes I do sir." She proceeded to fill the annoying professor in on all the possible meanings the marks could hold. Which, there were numerous ones, even a few she was sure they weren't meant to discuss yet with it being so early in the year. She had found out that it was only around October when she had arrived.

Remus raised an eyebrow at her as she went on with her extremely long and unnecessary answer, while Lily smirked and did her best not to giggle. Hermione did her best to recall every obscure meaning the marks could hold, including a few she found in some dusty books in Grimmauld Place years ago that wasn't taught here at school.

When Hermione was finished. She smiled again, just as sweetly. "Was that what you were looking for Professor?"

Lily snorted softly while Remus did his best to hold back his laugh. Though he failed miserably. Hermione swore she heard a soft male chuckle behind her in the now silent room, but didn't dare look back to see who it was. She didn't want to draw attention to the laughter. Any of it. So she kept her achingly sweet smile in place as she waited for the completely dumbfounded professor to recover his ability to speak.

"Um…yes…that was quite thorough my dear. Thank you for that." The professor stuttered out while looking utterly dumbfounded, making the two beside her laugh just a bit harder.

Hermione stepped on each of their feet, grinding her foot into theirs to get them to stop laughing, even quietly, before the professor caught on. They quickly stopped, but she saw they were still hiding smirks.

The professor didn't call on her the rest of the class, making the two sitting beside her chuckle a few more times. She turned and glared at Remus, making him stop instantly. Lily, she found, laughed just a bit harder when Hermione glared at her. So Hermione stopped glaring and smirked just a bit herself.

The class ended and Lily and Remus all but dragged her out of the classroom. As soon as they were clear and out of hearing range, both of her friends started to laugh. The two laughed so hard they had to stop and hold their sides. Hermione simply shrugged and kept on walking.

They caught up to her again a few seconds later. Lily had tears in her eyes. "Hermione, I thought the professor's eyes were going to pop out of his head when you just kept going on and on. That was great. I think that's the longest anyone has ever spoken in his class before. Other than him of course."

Remus was still chuckling a little as he spoke. "Don't be surprised if he never calls on you again."

Hermione smiled a bit. "Bloody jackass. Acting like I didn't know such simple runes. Even a second year could have told him what they could have meant."

Remus snickered making Hermione smile a bit more. "Okay, so maybe not as in depth as I did, but you get my point."

Lily slipped her arm around Hermione's waist as they kept walking. "Hermione, please remind me never to get on your bad side."

The three laughed as they went to their next classes, which happened to be together again. Not noticing the dark headed seventh year following behind them discreetly while smirking just a bit at Hermione. His black eyes slipping down to the arm around her waist and following it up until he was looking at the back of Lily's head.

Snape had always wanted Lily. But Lily didn't want him. It had crushed him, but he had still loved her. He was finding that thoughts of her were slowly filling with the brunette she was holding instead and it annoyed him greatly. He didn't know her. He had only met her a few days ago. This wouldn't do at all.

The five friends met up for lunch. Remus and Lily filled the other two in on what Hermione had done during Ancient Runes. Making James smirk and Sirius bark out a laugh.

Hermione had ducked her head when she noticed Peter sitting next to James on the edge of the group simply listening in. She didn't want the others to see her anger at the slimy rat. His animal form always seeming justified in her eyes with what he had done to his so-called friends.

Snape watched her all through lunch. He noticed her glance at Peter and look down before staying silent through the rest of the meal. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Peter was who she meant when he met her in the halls before her idiotic friends showed up and ruined it.

He watched as Sirius tried to draw her out and talk to her, but she stayed reserved and quiet instead. Hermione puzzled him. With who her friends were, he didn't understand why she was nice to him. Smiled at him. The only one in that group that had been decent to him was Lily and that hadn't meant anything, it turned out.

If Hermione's smiles meant anything, then why did Black call her that nickname? If her smiles meant anything why would she even date Black? Severus wondered. With a scowl, he finished his lunch and left the great hall. He saw her eyes fall on him as he walked by, but he ignored her.

The rest of the day was fairly easy for Hermione. Most of her classes had her learning things she already knew. So she was able to let her mind wander a bit and not worry about missing anything. She was unaware of being watched throughout those classes though. Not all of them, just the ones she shared with Snape.

At the end of the day, she curled up in the common room and started to read her books again. She had just about finished the section on Legilimency when the boys called her attention to dinner.

She smiled, thinking she was settling back into a routine, like the one with Harry and Ron. They always had to remind her that hours had passed while her nose was buried in a book.

She went to dinner and again she chatted with her friends until she noticed Peter merely watching them all, listening. Then she fell silent, watching him watch everyone else. She wondered again if she could do anything to stop him from what she knew he would do.

But then remembered that if he didn't betray James and his friends that it could seriously change the future. One wrong move and the Dark Lord could end up winning the war instead of Harry defeating him.

She excused herself as she felt a sadness creep over her again. She headed back to her dorm rooms. She needed to get somewhere that she could let this sadness out. This anger at feeling helpless.

She didn't want to change anything but how could she not want to save her friends? Save them for Harry and save her friends in her own time, if nothing else. Maybe she could stop James and Lily dying. Stop Sirius dying. Stop Neville's parents from being tortured into insanity. But she couldn't do it without risking so much.

She climbed through the portrait door for a moment, standing there in the open doorway before turning and heading out again. She ran to the gargoyle statue. Hoping the Headmaster was back from dinner.

She called out a password but it didn't work. She tried a few more, but again they didn't work. With a sigh she stood there. Wondering what she could do to fight off everything that seemed to envelop her. Pressing against her until she almost couldn't breathe with it.

She thought she heard steps behind her, so she spun on her heels. Her wand in her hand ready to do battle as her eyes looked about. But she didn't see anything. Glancing at her wand she got an idea.

She took off running again. Zipping through the halls faster and more accurate than she should have been able to since she was supposed to be new there. But she knew most of the students were still at dinner so she didn't worry about it.

She came upon the hallway she was looking for and thought of what she wanted. She knew the room would give her anything she needed. She needed a way to work out the pent up sadness and frustration.

The door to the room opened before she could even fully reach it. She pushed it open and with a flick set the wards before it even closed. She needed time alone. She needed time to work off this negative energy. She needed to destroy some practice dummies.

She heard footsteps again and turned since the door hadn't shut yet in the dummy filled room. Her wand ready as the door slowly moved to shut. Not seeing anything, she turned and with a flick of her wand, finished closing the door. Hearing the door slam, she fired at the first target as she started moving into her different positions.

She had wanted dummies that fought back. Dummies that dodged and shot annoying hexes back at her. Nothing dangerous. All it shot were mild stinging hexes so she would feel it and know she had been hit.

She crouched and fired. Rolled from one hiding place to another as the spells flew over her head, or whizzed by her ear. She pivoted and ducked. All while shooting different spells so she stayed sharp with her skills.

She blocked with her shielding spell and when it was safe, fired again. After awhile this seemed too easy for her, so she asked the room to make it harder.

Outside the room, a pair of black eyes were still staring at the warded door. He didn't know how she had heard him. He had been disillusioned so she couldn't see him and he had stuck to the shadows, but his silent steps hadn't been enough. She had still known someone was there at one point.

He had seen her eyes raking over every inch of the hallway. What had made her so ready to fight all the time? Her stance and vigilance was not something you learned from books. This was something you learned from battle.

He knew that the Dark Lord was out there. Raising his own army to overthrow their current way of life and instill his own beliefs. Snape had seen it with his own eyes. Had taken the dark mark to be a part of it over the summer.

But what he had seen had spooked him. The Dark Lord was almost insane in his desire to kill anyone not of pure blood. The only reason he was allowed in was due to what he was. The half blood prince.

Snape snorted. He didn't feel like much of a prince. But that is what the Dark Lord had told him. Snape had only joined up due to thinking he was alone in the world and had nothing to lose. But now he wondered if that was true.

Hearing more steps headed his way, he pressed deeper into the shadows and watched. He saw Lily and her Trio of Morons headed his way and kept silent.

"Mooney, I'm telling you. The map says she is this way. It says she's in the Room of Requirement." Sirius said.

"Pads, how did she even know about it?" Remus asked.

"I don't know. You know that it opens up to those that need it, so maybe she just stumbled upon it." Sirius replied.

"Maybe she just wanted to be alone. You two especially have been kind of on her tail since she showed up." James stated.

"Prongs, we are only curious. You saw she just appeared out of thin air. No one saw her arrive. She was just suddenly there, knocked out on our dorm floor. You're not curious?" Sirius asked.

"Guys, you need to back off of her. Didn't you see how upset she looked at dinner? Haven't you seen how she'll be fine, only to suddenly retreat inside herself to her thoughts?" Lily asked.

"She needs some space to adjust to whatever her deal is." James told the other two boys.

The group stopped at the room and Remus reached for the door handle. He found his hand suddenly flew back.

"She put up wards to keep everyone out." Remus stated curiously. "I wonder why."

Sirius grinned. "Maybe she needed to be alone to…take care of business. So to speak."

James and Lily rolled their eyes at him. "Well if she is, do you think she'd want an audience? Especially you Sirius?" Lily asked.

Sirius grinned, making the dark man in the shadows curl his lip in disgust. "Lily, I'm Sirius Black. All women want me. Our little Kitten will come around to that as well, in time."

Lily snorted out a laugh, covering the soft growl that escaped from Snape. A growl that surprised him to have been let out at all. "Sirius, you are so clueless sometimes."

Sirius's grin grew bigger. "Lily, my dear, our Hermione just needs time to see that I really am a catch. I'm handsome, I'm rich, I'm very…talented in the ways of love. Why wouldn't she want me?"

Remus frowned at Sirius. "Maybe she doesn't care about looks or money. Maybe she wants someone well read. Someone she can actually talk to."

Sirius looked at Remus somewhat surprised. "Mooney, do you want our little Kitten as well?" When Remus didn't answer, Sirius grinned. "She is rather sexy, isn't she? I haven't seen a body like that on a seventh year…well ever. Even mostly covered you can see how curvy she is. I wonder if she is still seventeen or closer to eighteen. I haven't asked. Anyone know?"

All three heads shook and mumbled out a no. Snape thought about this. He hadn't thought to ask her either. Though he had been avoiding speaking to her since the incident on the way to the library.

Several more dummies appeared inside the room with Hermione, these wearing Death Eater masks. She jumped as one fired at her, and was hit in the shoulder by another, making her curse as the sting shot down her arm.

She moved again and again, alternating blocking and firing. She turned and found one masked foe behind her ready to fire and used her wand to block and saw one move in behind her to fire too.

She raised her hand and with a silent spell added a second shield as the dummies fired again and again. She felt sweat pouring off of her as she tried to hold both shields. Her hair was frizzing around her face and she saw out of the corner of her eye that a third masked dummy was moving in to hit her from the side.

She didn't have a spare hand and knew that if this was real, she'd be dead in seconds. Doing a quick calculation in her head. She dropped, rolled, and fired at the third dummy as the two in front and back of her fired, missed her, and hit each other.

She called for a stop of the dummies and they all stopped instantly. Panting from exertion and feeling exhausted. She turned to leave and saw a table with a goblet and jug of water appear.

With a smile, she went over to it and filled the goblet with the cool water. It helped ease her parched throat, but she felt the sting still throbbing down her arm. She had taken a hit due to not paying close enough attention.

Knowing the sting would fade in an hour or so, she ignored it. She was just glad she had only taken one hit. Anymore and she might really be hurting. Feeling much better, her sadness and frustration gone with her exhaustion, she turned to leave while rubbing her shoulder and cursing again.

A mistake like that could have cost Hermione her life, had the masked foe been real. Hermione knew it was true too as she headed for the door.

All the thoughts from the people outside were interrupted as the door to the room of requirement opened to show a sweating and disheveled Hermione. She was rubbing at her shoulder as she stretched a few sore muscles.

She paused seeing the group outside the room staring at her. She raised an eyebrow at Sirius' knowing grin.

"Is there any reason you all are just standing out here?" She asked, dropping her hand from rubbing her shoulder that Snape, still hidden in the shadows, realized was stiff and twitching just a bit.

"We came to find you." Lily said, taking in her appearance and concerned at how worn out and disheveled she looked.

Sirius grinned again. "You know Kitten…" He said as he slung his arm around her shoulder making her wince slightly, though the only one that seemed to notice had black piercing eyes in the shadows. "If you wanted some alone time to…relieve some stress, I would have been more than happy to join and help you out."

Hermione stared at him blankly before it dawned on her what he meant. A slow flush covered her cheeks. "Sirius had I been doing that…not that I was, mind you, why would I want you to join me? Isn't the key word in all that alone? I can't be alone if I have help." She said, shrugging his arm off of her.

James and Lily snickered and Remus smirked at her while Sirius kept on grinning. The shadowed figure still watched, though his eyes held slight approval of her obvious rejection of Sirius's attention.

"So what were you doing in there Hermione?" Remus asked, fighting his own blush as thoughts of her 'taking care of business' made images pop into his mind of what she might look like naked and writhing around on his bed.

Hermione smiled gently. "Just working out, and burning off spare energy. But I'm ready for a shower and bed now."

Lily slipped away from James and came over to her. Slipping her arm around Hermione's waist, concerned with just how tired the bushy haired girl looked now. "Well, lets go get you cleaned up and then we can go to bed. Alright?"

The three Marauders smirked as they all thought of images of Lily helping Hermione in the shower before they curled up together in bed. Lily and Hermione turned to go back to the dorms, unaware of the boys' thoughts. James glanced at his two friends as he still imagined Lily's soapy hands on Hermione's skin.

Seeing them grinning goofily as well, James smacked them both in the back of the heads. "You guys better not be thinking what I think you're thinking." Before walking off to follow his lovely girlfriend.

Both Remus and Sirius grinned sheepishly. Sirius leaned closer to Remus. "Think Prongs was thinking the same thing as us Mooney?" Remus's only answer was a small grin and nod before they went to follow the three walking to their dorm.

When they were gone, Snape stepped from the shadows, his own thoughts racing as he wondered what he should do about Hermione. He didn't want to like her. She was bound to disappoint him like Lily had. His best course of action would be to keep ignoring her. Though he was curious what she had been doing in that room. Her arm wouldn't have been twitching like that from a simple work out.

A/N: Okay, I hope everyone liked this chapter. I thought Sirius was funny with his comment about Hermione's "alone" time. lol. Alright, you guys know the drill. Please leave me your thoughts.