What If?

by Lucinda Hailey

What if? What if Hermione found love and friendship in an unlikely place? What if Hermione found love in an old enemy? What if Harry met his parents? What if Sirius died as a teen? What if? What if? What if? *Excludes Books 6&7*

4. It's A Priviledge, Not A Right

Chapter 3:- It's a privilege, not a right.

"Well? Are you going to tell me sir?"

"Oh, of course Miss Granger. I was wondering how you would feel about taking the rest of the week off to sit by our 'visitors' till they wake up."

"I would be honoured sir."

"Good. I will organise the details with your Professors."

"Ok, thank you sir."

"It is a privilege not to be taken lightly Miss Granger."

"Of course not sir!"

What can possibly be hard about sitting next to a couple of beds all day everyday? Hermione wondered.

"Well, I expect you to do your homework and hand it into me, I will then hand it into your Professors for you."

"Of course Professor. But, ummmm Professor, how am I meant to get my homework if I'm sitting with our four 'visitors' all day, everyday for the next week?"

Hermione had wanted to ask this for the last five minutes, but she wasn't exactly sure how to phrase it.

Oh well, I guess I don't need to worry about how to phrase it if it just comes tumbling out of my mouth now do I?? Hermione questioned herself, before being brought back to earth by the sound of Dumbledore's voice.

"Well Miss Granger, tomorrow morning I will owl you with the details of all the assignments and homework that you can expect for the next week. When you are done, you are to owl the said assignments and homework to me. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes Professor. Thank you."

"your quite welcome Miss Granger. Now I must go and inquire about your work load for the next week."

"Ok Professor, and thanks again"

"Your welcome Miss Granger. Now get some rest." It was more of an order than a request.

As soon as the portrait hole had closed behind the Head Master, Hermione lay down on the couch and when sleep finally overtook her she dreamt dreams full of the four mysterious students that she had met (well tripped over really) a couple of weeks ago.

"Granger? Granger! GRANGER!"

Malfoy had walked into the Head's common room to find Hermione asleep on the couch.

"Huh? Waz happened?" Hermione sat up groggily.

Then she saw Malfoy standing over her and looking thoroughly pissed off.

"Nothings happened, stupid. Well, if you don't count you falling asleep in the middle of the day! I spose you were resting up for certain night time activities eh Granger?"

"Well, Ferret, if you count patrol as a 'certain night time activity' then yes. If not, then no."

"Oh, so we're back to the nasty nicknames are we Mudblood?"

"Obviously we are Ferret."

"I've had enough of your filth to last a life time!"

"Whatever Ferret, if I'm so dirty then why are you still here?"

"Because Mudblood, you are going to go up to bed so that I can sit here and put the final touches to my plan for your death in clean and pure air, right here in the common room."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you Ferret, but I'm gonna stay right here and read a book. If you want 'clean and pure air' then I suggest you go up to your own room where you can put the final touches to your plan for my death in peace and I wont be there to 'dirty' your air. Oh, and before I forget, I've already 'dirtied' the lounge and air down here - whereas I haven't been in your room, so therefore it's 'cleaner'"

"Oh yeah Mudblood?"

"Yeah Ferret."

"WELL I WANT THE GODDAMN LOUNGE!!!!!!!!"

"WELL I DON'T CARE!!! YOU DON'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT FERRET, SO GET USED TO IT!!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

"Could you please vacate the common room so I can plan, Hermione?"

"NO!"

Did he just say please and use my first name? Hermione shuddered at the thought.

"Okay then, I'm gonna sit down here and plan anyway. Alright?"

"Fine with me as long as you don't talk to me."

"Okay."

So Malfoy sat in his chair for about five minutes before getting up and going to his room muttering something about a tiring day.

I might go and see the mysterious students now that I've had a sleep, been rudely woken up and had an argument. Hermione thought as she stepped out of the shower and dressed. Malfoy was still in his room. I wonder what the time is.
Hermione knocked on Malfoy's door and waited for him to answer.

"Who is it and what do you want?" Malfoy shouted from deep inside his room.

How rude can you get? Hermione wondered before answering his demand.

"It's Hermione and I wanted to know if you knew the time."

"How should I know? Look, there's a clock in the common room. The Slytherin hand is the minute hand and the Gryffindor hand is the hour. There you go. NOW GET LOST!"

"Thanks for that Malfoy, and how am I meant to get lost when I've grown up in these walls?"

Hermione then turned on her heel and stalked down the stairs into the common room. It was a silly comeback. It was a comeback she probably would've used when she was five. She knew that but it was the first thing that popped into her head.

The clock read 5:30 pm.

It's not too late to drop by the hospital wing then down to the kitchens for a bite to eat, considering I've missed dinner. Then I might go and see Ginny, if I can find her that is. Hermione mentally listed all the things she wanted to get done before curfew.

Chapter 4:- BUGGER OFF!!!

"What IS that mess??" The voice was so close startled Hermione so much she jumped about a foot into the air and tumbled off her chair. She roughly pulled her earphones out of her ears and glared up at the person who was standing behind her chair.

"Malfoy. One of these days I'm going to accidently kill you. Where did you come from??" Hermione attempted to straighten her uniform.

"You wouldn't kill me. You love me too much. And I came through the door, where do you think I came from??" Did I just say that?? Malfoy was shocked at his own daring. Did he just say that?? Hermione was shocked at how easily he flirted. Especially with her.

"Don't under estimate me Malfoy." Hermione warned.

"Oh I don't. I think I over-estimate you sometimes." Malfoy said with a wink before turning on his heel and walking down the ward and down the stairs, towards Care of Magical Creatures.

Right. At least we managed to avoid a fight. Hermione thought while looking at the piece of parchment in her hands. It was supposed to be a seating plan for the middle of term ball, but ended up being covered in lyrics from the song blaring through her earphones. She was still sitting on the floor and discovered she was, in fact, quite comfortable.

"Is that supposed to be a seating plan of some description??" Hermione jumped for the second time that day. This time it was a quiet, smoth voice that spoke. This startled Hermione more than the unexpected speech as she was so accustomed to Malfoy's snarling voice when directed at her.

She looked around for the source of the voice, and found it sitting on the edge of the bed next to her, peering down at her in curiosity.

"Yes it is. It kind of transformed into random lyrics though." He's hot. She thought. Probably pureblood though. Probably completely up himself, probably another Malfoy...why does he look so familiar??"Cool. Can I have a look??" The boy bent down to pick up the piece of parchment off the floor without waiting for an answer.

"Sure" Hermione said sarcastically. Without warning he swooped down towards her and plucked her up off the floor. His arm muscles tensed slightly as he took her weight and stood her upright.

"Thanks. Ummm, I'm Hermione by the way. Hermione Granger. Head Girl"

The boy looked slightly confused when she mentioned she was head girl, but he'd get over it.

"Nice to meet you Hermione. I'm Sirius. Sirius Black." So that's why he looked familiar!! Hermione thought. It finally clicked.

"Do you know where you are??" Hermione asked enchanted by his light grey eyes and the way his hair fell over his eyes like so.

"Let me guess. The hospital wing at Hogwarts about 20 or so years in the future. How close am I??"

"Pretty close actually."

"Who was that Slytherin you were talking to??"

"The Head Boy. Draco Malfoy."

"He sounds like a prat." Hermione laughed and Sirius looked confused at what he'd said to make her laugh.

"You're not far from it there actually. And I have to share a common room with him."

"Poor you."

"You can say that again. Anywho, I suppose I should show you around eh??"

"I spose you should."

Hermione took Sirius down to the Great Hall where she was surprised to see lunch was being served and wolfed down already. She led him down the aisle to where Ginny was sitting and joined her for a brief lunch before taking Sirius up to the Heads Common Room, where Hermione planned to read a bit, while Sirius got used to being in the 'future' and posed any question he desired to Hermione to answer.

"YOU'RE A STUPID SPAZ MALFOY!! JUST ADMIT IT!!"

"I WILL ADMIT NO SUCH THING!! ESPECIALLY NOT TO YOU MUDBLOOD!!"

A look of absolute horror overcame Sirius' face for the few minutes before they came face to face with the screaming portrait.

"SHUT UP!!" Hermione screamed. The portrait fell silent.

"Password??" The portrait Malfoy asked sulkily

"Grytherine. And you are a stupid prat." Hermione said as the portrait swung open. Hermione and Sirius walked through, and the portrait Hermione was laughing - ACTUALLY LAUGHING!

"What was with that??" Sirius asked

"Mine and Malfoy's portrait. It gets slightly annoying sometimes."

"No it doesn't Granger" Malfoy waltzed down the stairs, took one look at Sirius and started ranting.

"IF I'VE TOLD YOU ONCE MUDBLOOD, I'VE TOLD YOU A MILLION TIMES, DON'T BRING YOUR SCREW BUDDIES BACK TO THE COMMON ROOM!!!"

"IT'S A GOOD THING HE'S NOT MY 'SCREW BUDDY' THEN EH??"

"HE'S A BLOODY GRYFFINDOR!! IF YOU CANT GET EM IN YOUR OWN HOUSE, WHERE ARE YOU GONNA GET EM??"

"HE'S ONE OF THE FOUR WE FOUND A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO YOU SELF-RIGHTEOUS EGOTISTICAL BIGHEADED.....PRAT!!"

"You couldn't have come up with something a little better than 'prat'??" Draco laughed. She's losing her touch. I was right. She does love me.....DID I DRACO CASPIAN MALFOY JUST THINK THAT??? yep. and it was damn true.

"Like what Mr. Im-so-great??"

"Like sonofabitch, annoying pig...you know, your usual."

"Mmm. Maybe. But I actually didn't want to have a fight today."

"Well I guess I ruined your day huh??" Why the HELL am I feeling bad for ruining her day?? I LIVE to ruin her day!! What ever helps you sleep at night Draco. SHUT UP VOICE IN MY HEAD!! your talking to yourself. *yawn* by the way she's talking to you, you numnut. I AM NOT A NUMNUT!!

"Yeah. Just a bit, but as soon as I come face to face with Harry and Weasley, there's likely to be half a hall blown away, not just a few insults thrown." Why am I telling him this?? Hermione silently berated herself.

"How come??" Why am I caring?? Draco found himself thinking.

"Because Ron's being a prat and Harry, as per usual, has taken Ron's side."

"Hmmm... Well I can take care of them for you..."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"Meaning whatever you want it to mean..."

"Okay, I'm sorry to interrupt what I'm sure would end up being a fairly entertaining flirting/fighting session, but I'm stuck in the future and it's freaking me out!" Sirius interrupted. Hermione blushed and Draco stomped into his room and slammed his door.

"Geez. Was it something I said?" Sirius said with a half-smile painted on his face.

"No. That's just him naturally." Hermione said, throwing herself over the back of the couch and curling her legs to make room for Sirius.

"So how'd you lot end up roughly twenty years in the future?" Hermione asked, attempting to remove her robe without actually moving. Sirius raised a single eyebrow as he watched her.

"Here let me." Sirius reached over her and slipped the robe off her shoulders, making it far easier for her to wriggle out of it.

"Thankyou."

"Anytime. And to answer your question, For the yearly exams, Remus and Lily were making a time affects reversal potion and James had ruined ours to the shit house so we went over to watch Lily and Remus, the potion wonder twins, work their potions magic and James tried to impress Lily by sticking boomslang skin in the cauldron and heating it to boiling point."

"But Boomslang skin would've made the cauldron explode!"

"And the prolonged exposure to heat reversed the core elements in the potion and badda bing badda boom I'm waking up in the hospital wing with a beautiful brunette sitting next to my bed fighting with a pathetic blonde asshole over seating plans for the Christmas Ball."

"Oh. Ok. Hey, umm, do you wanna go to the Ball with me?"

"Don't you already have a date?"

"Ahh no."

"Well, in my time, the head boy and girl had to go together."

"If you don't want to go with me just say so."

"No, no. You've misunderstood me. I do want to go with you, but I don't want to say yes and then have you come up to me in two or three days and tell me you have to go with that prat."

"Oh. Well, I'll ask." Hermione lit the fire in the hearth and let the radiating heat lull her to sleep. When she awoke, Sirius was nowhere to be seen, and sunlight was streaming through the window. It took her a moment to realise it was a Saturday and she didn't have to go into the Hospital Wing until about 11 o'clock. The clock above the fireplace read 9 am. Hermione stretched and walked into the communal bathroom. There were two doors off the bathroom. One led to Draco's room, the other, Hermione's.

Hermione locked her door and stepped into the steaming shower and stood beneath the spray for a moment, loving the way the hot water always managed to undo all the knots in her muscles. The bathroom filled with steam as she lathered grapefruit and honey scented shower gel over her body. She shut off the water and stepped out, wrapping a white fluffy towel around her body. She stepped through the swirling steam in search of her clothes and bumped into something, causing her to drop her towel. The something she had bumped into looked up at her, his stormy silver eyes raked her body, taking in everything from her damp hair to her black painted toenails. The thing had also dropped his towel. The stranger stepped toward her and they were able to see each other better. His eyes widened and she screamed, gathered her towel and sprinted into her room.

"What's up Hermione?" Sirius asked twenty minutes later, as she sprinted into the hospital wing, flushed and panting heavily.

"Some...some...someone in...in...someone in my...my...bath...bathroom...someone in...my bathroom" Hermione panted. Sirius pulled out a chair next to him for her and peered at her curiously.

"Yeah, that would've been Malfoy. I heard him muttering something about taking a shower."

"Yeah, well." Hermione huffed.

"Hey, Hermione?"

"Hey, Sirius. What?"

"What are we going to do?"

"EXCUSE ME?!?!"

"I can't believe you took that dirty. Although after being naked with Malfoy, I can't really blame you. I meant what are we going to do about my situation?"

"Typical Sirius. Always thinking about yourself." The boy with the honey-coloured hair muttered, smiling. "My names Remus. Remus Lupin. And you are?" Remus' question was directed at Hermione. As was his gaze.

"Her name's Hermione and Hermione's head girl. We are twenty years in the future thanks to your numskull friend Remus."

"Which one?"

"JAMES!! How could he be so stupid?!"

"He was trying to impress Lilly."

"BY SENDING US TO THE FUTURE?!?!"

"Why is everybody yelling? And who is she?" A female voice muttered quietly.

"She has a name. Her name is Hermione. And Hermione is head girl in this time. We are twenty years in the future Lil. Hermione, this is Lilly Evans."

"Harry's mum. I know. Nice to meet you."

"I have a son?!?" Lilly exclaimed.

"Yes. He's in his final year."

"Who's in who's final year?" The Harry-identical reached to the bedside table, searching for his glasses.

"A friend of mine. I'm Hermione Granger, Head Girl. You're James Potter and twenty years in the future."

"Oh. Ok. Hey, Sirius, have you seen my glasses?"

"No. James. I haven't. But what are we going to do?! We are probably adults in this time. Boring adults. Boring adults with boring jobs and boring lives and a gazillion boring kids."

"Don't get worked up Sirius. It's obvious what we have to do." Hermione looked around her at the blank faces of the males and Lilly's kind smile.

"It is?" Sirius was confused. And had no idea what she was on about.

"Yes." Lilly contributed.

"Well?" James asked, crawling under the bed, looking for his glasses.

"We have to send you home." Hermione stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Which, you have to face it, it kinda was."And until then, we will just assimilate you into our year as new students that happen to have the same names as responsible adults that we all know and love. However, there is one condition."

"Which is that we not socialise too much." Remus stated, with a small smile.

"STOP IT REMUS!!" Sirius exploded.

"Stop what?" Remus looked as confused as everyone watching felt.

"I SAW HER FIRST!! I MET HER FIRST!! I TALKED TO HER FIRST!! SHE IS MINE FIRST!!!"

"Okay, okay, Sirius. I'm sorry."

"Damn straight. I'm hungry. Time for the lunch bell." Sirius said, as he mentioned the bell, the bell went.

"Your stomach is right on schedule, as always Sirius." James said, clapped him on the shoulder as he passed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he went.

"I'm just happy they haven't changed the times." Sirius laughed as he and the others exited the hospital wing. His bark-like laughter echoing back to Hermione, who stayed where she was until a familiar red head pulled her down to the great hall. When they entered the hall, Sirius, Remus and James were laughing and joking around while Lilly sat by herself at the end of the table, reading a book. Malfoy stalked over to them.

"Rack off Weasley. The grown ups are talking." Malfoy sneered at Ginny. Ginny just rolled her eyes and wandered off to sit with Lilly. Hermione turned to glare at Malfoy and caught him looking her up and down. I could hex him into next century right now...that's not such a bad idea actually...Hermione shook her head to clear her thoughts and turned her attention back to Draco.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Hermione hissed.

"What's with those three Hermione?" Draco said, emphasising her first name.

"Nothing. Just happy to be alive."

"Don't you think you should explain to Golden-Boy that his dead parents, god father and god fathers best mate are here, from the past, and teenagers??"

"No. Dumbledore's going to do it."

"How do you know?"

"I just do. He pieced it together, long before I did. Now BUGGER OFF!!!" Hermione screamed the last two words and stormed over to the two red-heads sitting at the end of the Gryffindor Table, while Draco just threw her one of his Draco looks and walked out the doors and out into the grounds.