The four teenagers looked at Madam Pomfrey's stern face and gulped. "This is Hermione Granger. She's the - uh - what are you?" Remus paused.
"Transfer student." Hermione lied.
"Well, what can I do for you?"
"She had a bit of a shock during DADA against her Boggart."
"Right, have some chocolate. You should feel better immediately." Madam Pomfrey said distractedly.
The four teenagers followed her gaze to a bed closed off from the rest of the Hospital Wing.
"Who's in there Poppy?" James asked, ignoring Lily's tsk of disapproval.
"It's... Mr Pettigrew. He washexed on his way to Divination this morning." Noticing the angry looks on James and Remus' faces, she hurried on. "Now boys, don't be angry. No, Don't go in there, it's not pretty!"
The boys ignored her warning and wrenched bck the crtains. Their eyes widened at the sight of their friend. Lily and Hermione gasped and rushed to his side. Peter was lying in bed, his eyes cosed. His face was covered in blistering boils, while his robes were torned and gashes were beeding through the bandages on hs right arm. He shifted slightly and moaned in pain. The two boys looked at Madam Pomfrey aghast. Hermione looked dow and started. While the boys were interrogating Pomfrey, ans Lily had gone to their next lesson, she pulled back Peter's left sleeve and sighed. There, for the world to see was the beginning signs of the Dark Mark. Peter woke up as she touhed the raw skin. He gasped softly when he saw that it was Hermione. She looked at him sadly. "Shh. No one needs to know just yet." She whispered, jerking her head towards Madam Pomfrey's office. He nodded glumly. "Vigoratus is armo" she muttered poking her wand at his left arm.
"Thank you" he muttered.
"We're going to have tot alk when you get out." Hermione said sadly. With that, she stood up and exited the Hospital Wing thinking about what she was going to do. Unaware of her surroundings, she walked straight into a group of scheming Slytherins.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here then?" a slimy voice said. Hermione looked up and found heself staring into the black eyes of Severus Snape.
"Looks like a filthy mudblood" a girl said from his right. Hermione immediately recognised her as Bellatrix Lestrange...Black. Anger flared within her. It's all her fault that Neville suffered, that Harry was depressed for the most of their sixth year. Letting rage get the better of her, she spat in Bellatrix's face. "You filthy mudblood!" she screeched. "You dare touch my face with your mudblood germs? You shall pay or that!" she whipped out her wand and pointed it at Hermione. As this happened, both Sirius Blacks rounded the corner, closely followed by a worried James and Remus. As they got nearer, they heard snatches of the conversation.
"Oh go boil your head, you Garbage Muncher." Hermione retorted. "And you, Snape! God go get a shampoo bottle, and use it! Have you never heard of a shower?"
Orion gasped as he saw the two Slytherins pull her into a broom cupboard.
"Get off me you stupid Garbage Munchers!" Hermione cried; struggling against Snape's tight grip.
"Oh no, I think you need to be taught a lesson. Leave us Bella." Snape commanded. Bella leered and walked away. The four boys rushed towards the broom cupboard, wands rased.
"Go eat Death, Snape." Hermione said, followed by a thump and an 'oof'.
Remus wrenched open the door and stared at the scene in front of him. Hermione was standing up, completely unscathed, with a calm but deadly look of victory on her face. "Hello boys." she said before walking out of the cupboard whistling a happy tune. There was a small groan, which attracted the attention of the surrounding maes. Severus Snape was lying on the floor clutching his crotch. It appeared that Hermione had one hell of a kick as well as slap on her.
"Detention Snape." Orion said before following Hermione. With that, he left three angry Gryffindors with one sad pathetic Slytherin. Oh yes, severus Snape was about to find out exactly what Remus Lupin, resientbookworm, and silent Marauder could do when provoked.
"Mione, you okay?" Orion called.
Hermione turned around to face him. "Yeah, it's just...seeing her alive, is too much."
"Alive? Bella's dead in the future?" he asked excitedly.
Hermione smiled. "Molly took care of her. It was amazing. Never knew Molly had it in her actually."
Orion sighed. "I've missed a lot haven't I?" Hermione nodded. "Tell me about Remus. Why is he your Boggart?"
Hermione's shoulders slumped. She had to tell him. This was going to be interesting. "Well recently... I er..you see...I've been developing feelings for him." she paused. Taking advantage of his goldfish impression she hurried on. "Um...on my birthday... he..he... he kissed me?"
"WHAT? He's twenty years older than you! Hermione, what were you thinking? What was HE thinking? I'm going to kill him when we get back." Orion ranted.
"It's alright! Nothing will happen between us." Hermione said bitterly. "He'll probably say it was all a mistake."
Orion looked at her. "Do you love him?"
Hermione nodded, "I love him so much. Even now, I'm attracted to him. But I get the feeling that he hates me right now."
"How so?"
"He's avoiding me. He ignored me for a while after Defense this morning. Then he was nice to me, and the he ignores me again when I explained who my Boggart was. That bay has more moodswings than me! I just don't understand him." Hermione burst out.
Orion smiled. "I wouldn't worry about it. Remus always was careful when it came to girls. I remember, there was this one girl, I don't remember her name, bu he was s distant for the first few weeks, even though everyone could tell he loved after their first meeting. He finally asked her out and they were happy. But, she dsappeared with another g...oh crap." he said shock evident in his features.
"What's wrong Sirius?"Hermione asked suspiciously. Unfortunately for her, a certain shaggy black dog had followed them and overeard her question. Sirius? There was only one Sirius at Hogwarts and that was him. Why would she call Professor Knight, Sirius?
"I er... just remembered who that girl was." he hesitated. "It was..you. Whatever happens you'll get your guy in the end." he smiled.
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Me? If it was me, how come you or Remus never told me about it?"
"I have no idea, My best guess is that you placed a REALLY strong memory charm on us before you left. It's a bit hazy, but I can remember bits and pieces. Nothing major unfortunately."
Hermione smiled and hugged him. She stiffened up when she saw Snuffles following them at a close distance. "Snuffles is following us." she whispered.
Orion stiffened up. "How much do you think I heard?" he asked worriedly.
"We're going to have to find out aren't we?" Hermine sighed. She released Orion and quickly stunned the dog before hiding him in the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Sirius finally began to stir and started to growl ferociously at Hermione and Orion. "You know, I would've thought that you would be scarier as Snuffles." Hermione commented dog looked at her, confusion evident in his eyes.
"Come on out, Sirius Black!" Orion sang. The dog quickly changed into Sirius.
"How did you know it was me?" he asked incredulously. "And why did you call him Sirius. Why were you talking about me and Remus? And why are you talking about a girlfriend he's never had? You know what... Who the hell are you?"
Orion sighed, "We have to tell him."
Hermione nodded. "Right then, what I am about to tell you is top secret. You can't tell anyone , unless you get my permission. Understood?" Sirius nodded dumbly. " Right. Well. um...The thing is...we're...wow, this is harder than I thought, Orion and I ... we're... from the future..." she paused to take in Sirius' reaction. He ws staring at them, mouth wide open.
"bu...ho...what?" he stuttered.
"That's why I was so angry when I saw him. He disappeared two years ago, well, actually he died, but he didn't die he just got sent back in time. Does that make any sense? Anyway, Orion you had better tell him your real name." Hermione explained, biting her lip.
"Righto, well my name's actually Sirius Black." he said quickly.
Sirius stared at his future self and fell to the floor in a daze.
"That went well." Oriona remarked, before levitating Sirius and taking him to the Hospital Wing.
"Wait!" Hermione cried. She whipped out her wand, and changed Sirius' hair back to normal. "Veritas Statis" a pale gold glow settled into his body.
"What did you do?" Orion asked suspiciously.
"Just cast a spell." she replied innocently. "Oh fine, I cast a spell so that if he tells anyone, he'll regret it."
Orion gasped as another memory hit him. "You're...you're not talking permanent acne?" Hermione grinned evilly. "Oh crap."
"You tell someone don't you?" Hermione aske jokingly. Orion nodded, the horror of the memory etched on his face.
"I tell James, but we never told Remus, Lily or Wormy." he said slowly. "I think we were both really scared of what you would do to us."
Hermione grinned. "Am I that scary?"
"When you're angry, you're as bad as Molly. Or Harry for that matter." Hermione sighed. She had no idea she could be that scary. "well, we'd best leave him here." Orion said, reaching the Hospital Wing.
"Yeah, I'll see you in the morning." she smiled, hugging him and walking towards the Tower.