Chapter 2: Summer Routine and Diagon Alley
Over the next two weeks Hermione and Sirius (or Uncle Sirius as she now called him) fell into a routine. Every morning they had breakfast with the staff in the Great Hall, where everyone sat at a single table.
She found that she knew all of the professors from her time, except for the Divination Professor, Professor Straline. At least this professor didn't seem as irritating as Professor Trelawney did in the future.
After breakfast she would help Sirius with his lesson plans for his Defense Against the Dark Arts classes. With Sirius' personality and tendencies to goof around, this wasn't getting done as quickly as she felt that it should. Although, Hermione was learning to relax and goof around a little also. She found that without the threat of danger hanging around every corner she was able to breathe a little easier and laugh a little more.
In the afternoon they would have lunch together in their quarters and then work on her animagus transformation for a couple of hours. This actually came about because they were both trying to keep as busy as possible to keep from thinking about the friends and family they left behind in the future. During a talk they had the first morning they were in the past; Hermione had told Sirius that she had hoped to become an animagus in the future. At this point Sirius said that he would help her and they had started work on her transformation that day. She had already discovered that her form was a sleek gray wolf and she had progressed to being able to change each of her limbs, but couldn't fully transform. With Sirius' help the whole process was going much faster than she had ever thought that it could.
During the evenings they had taken to talking about the adventures each of them had had at Hogwarts. When Hermione told Sirius about her first (and last) flying class and the fact that she had never been on a broom since then, Sirius had decided that flying was another thing that she needed to learn. Each evening since then, he had instructed Hermione on flying a broom for a while. At first Sirius took Hermione up with him, until she was comfortable with the feeling of flying. By this point, Hermione had progressed to actually being able to leave the ground by herself and lazily fly over the pitch. Now, she never went as high as Harry and Ron when they flew and she never performed any tricks, but at least she was comfortable with leaving the ground on her own.
Over the past two weeks Hermione and Sirius had become a lot closer and now really felt like the family that they were telling everyone they were. Hermione no longer felt weird calling Sirius her uncle, she actually got a warm feeling inside when he responded to it.
This morning however, their routine was going to be broken. Sirius and Hermione were going to go to Diagon Alley to get her school supplies for the year.
The day after they had arrived Sirius had taken Hermione into muggle London where they both bought muggle clothing and necessities. Hermione had laughed uncontrollably that day when Sirius came walking out of a muggle shop in a red shirt, dark blue jeans and a black leather jacket like he owned the world. He had just looked so different than she had ever seen him and the cocky grin on his face just set the look off.
Now though, with only a week left before the students would be returning, they needed to get Hermione's school supplies and Sirius had to get some robes to wear for class. Hermione could just imagine Sirius walking into the classroom to teach his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class in his jeans and a t-shirt.
Hermione was curled up in the armchair before the fire reading the current (past to her) edition of "Hogwarts: A History" when Sirius walked in through the portrait hole.
Walking over to Hermione, Sirius handed her her Hogwarts letter for the year. Opening it she saw the familiar writing welcoming her back to Hogwarts and her list of school supplies for the year.
She had already sat down and spoken with Professor Dumbledore regarding her classes. After talking for a couple of hours, casting the standard spells for fifth year and answering questions regarding their theory, he had given her permission to continue any of the classes she had previously taken.
Looking over her letter she saw her list of required books.
Defense Against the Dark Arts : "Defensive Strategy"
Transfiguration: "The Standard Book of Spells Grade 6"
Charms: "Advanced Charms"
Potions: "Advanced Potion Brewing"
Ancient Runes: "Advanced Ancient Runes"
Arithmancy: "Standard Arithmancy Level 3"
She had chosen to not continue Care of Magical Creatures (she felt that she had had enough run-ins with dangerous creatures to last her a lifetime) and Astronomy.
Gathering the bag that she had picked-up in muggle London from the floor beside her chair; she followed Sirius through the floo.
***Through the Veil***
Sirius was standing a few feet from the floo in the Leaky Cauldron when Hermione stumbled out. He caught her around the waist to keep her from falling down. Hermione looked up and thanked Sirius for catching her when she noticed that he was grinning at her. "What?"
"I just find it funny that the 'smartest witch of her age' can't use the floo system without stumbling." Hermione's cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
"Well, I guess that I have a difficult time with wizarding transportation. I don't do too well with portkeys or brooms either. Although, I am getting better with the broom aspect."
Sirius waved at Tom and they headed out of the back of the Leaky Cauldron to the entrance to Diagon Alley. She had been here once before when they got money from Gringott's to shop in muggle London, but it still surprised her how little had changed in Diagon Alley between now and her time.
***Through the Veil***
They walked along in silence, each lost in memories. They retrieved money from their vault and headed to Madame Maulkin's Robes for all Occasions. Upon entering Hermione was startled when a voice called out, "I will be right with you Mr. Black." She glanced over at Sirius to gage his reaction and found him to be smiling.
Over their time in the past Sirius had begun to look healthy. His skin was no longer pallid, but now shown with a healthy glow from the time he spent outside on the quidditch field flying. Sirius used to barely laugh or smile, but it seemed like every day he was relaxing and laughing more.
Madame Maulkin began walking towards them and faltered slightly upon looking at Sirius. "I am sorry; I mistook you for someone else. How may I help you today?"
"Hello Madame. My name is Orion Harrison and this is my niece Hermione St. Clair. I need to get her a full school compliment for Hogwarts and I will require eight new robes."
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Harrison and Miss St. Clair. Let's begin with Miss St. Clair."
Hermione stepped up onto the stool and was immediately surrounded by tape measures zooming around, taking measurements from every possible angle. Within five minutes Madame Maulkin declared her finished with her fitting and told her that she would owl her finished robes to her within a few days.
As Sirius began to walk forward to be fitted for his robes, he told Hermione that she could go ahead and head over to the bookstore since his fitting would take longer.
"In other words, you don't want to be stuck in the bookstore forever and you think that you will get out of it by sending me over now." Sirius' only response was to give a crooked grin as he walked over to Madame Maulkin.
***Through the Veil***
Hermione grinned as she entered the bookstore. She quickly set off around the store to find her required textbooks. When she found her books, she began to browse the store.
Unfortunately, most of the books she saw lining the shelves she had already read in the future. Walking past the shelves that had held multiple copies of the collected works of Gilderoy Lockhart in the future made her pause. Instead of Lockhart's books sitting on the shelves she found a mixture of muggle and wizard fiction.
Quickly glancing over the titles, Hermione settled on picking up a copy of "Pride and Prejudice". She quickly opened the book to her favorite part. When Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle visited Pemberly during their trip and began to read.
A chuckle from her right brought Hermione back to reality and away from the interaction of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy by the carriage. Looking in that direction she found a boy standing there holding a copy of "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov.
The boy stood about six foot tall, had short sandy colored hair and mischievous amber eyes. He was dressed in a faded pair of jeans and a gray long sleeved t-shirt. There were multiple faint scars on his skin, but they were overshadowed by the lopsided grin covering his face.
"You know, you should really start at the beginning of the book. Not just jump straight to the middle. You could miss a lot of important events." His eyes shown with his amusement as he glanced from Hermione's face to the book held in her hands.
"Oh, well this is my favorite part. I can't recall how many times I have read this book, so I think it might be okay," Hermione replied with a grin of her own.
"My name is Remus Lupin, it is good to meet you."
"Hermione St. Clair."
Hermione shook Remus' offered hand, but couldn't believe that she was meeting her future professor. He looked happy and she could see the mischievous glint in his eyes. His face wasn't as scarred as it would be in the future and he didn't look as worn as he did most of the time she had known him.
"I don't remember seeing you before. You don't go to Hogwarts do you?"
"I have been home schooled till now, but I will be going to Hogwarts this year for my sixth year."
"I will be in my sixth year Gryffindor at Hogwarts this September. What house do you want to be in?"
"Well, I will be in Gryffindor. Professor Dumbledore already sorted me since I have been staying at the castle for the summer."
"Great. We will be sharing classes. If you don't mind me asking, why have you been staying at the castle?"
"My uncle is the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for this year and I have been staying with him."
"Hermione you wound me. I am not just your uncle, I am your favorite uncle." Sirius had come up behind them without Hermione and Remus becoming aware of his presence. Sirius grinned as both of them jumped away from him.
"Uncle Sirius you are my only uncle, how can you not be my favorite?"
Sirius just grinned and transferred his gaze to Remus. "Orion Harrison, nice to meet you."
"Remus Lupin, Sir."
Remus looked confused after the introduction. "I thought you called him Uncle Sirius?"
"His name is Orion Sirius Harrison, but I have always called him Uncle Sirius." Remus just nodded his head up and down in acknowledgement.
"Hermione we need to get going and get the rest of your school supplies. If I don't get you out of here you will stay in here all day."
"Okay. It was nice to meet you Remus, I will see you on the train. Bye."
"Bye Hermione."