A/n: Three chapters in four days? It's a personal record!
October 10, 1976
The Dungeons, Hogwarts Castle
Hermione joined Lily and Snape's partnership after Avery's dramatic exit. Snape was hunched over the workbench, carefully chopping rose thorns for the potion, while Lily was leaning on the desk, watching him. "What happened?" she hissed, when Hermione set down her bag. "What did you do?"
With a shrug, Hermione replied, "I have no idea. He just pulled his wand out and pointed it at me."
Lily scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Slytherins are impossible." Snape looked up at her with a scowl, dark hair falling in front of his pale face. His nose protruded just as it did twenty years later, and he still had the same sallow face. Lily leaned in closer to Hermione. "He hasn't let me do anything this whole time," she whispered.
The brunette held back a laugh and looked around the room.
The Slytherins paired with Gryffindors did not seem to be a good combination. James and Mulciber's potion was a deep purple sludge, and Sirius and Malfoy's potion was emitting green sparks. Snape and Lily's seemed to be the only one that was even close to the correct consistency and color. Hermione glanced at Snape's open book, and tiny, nearly illegible scrawls filled the margins.
She watched Snape while he worked, remembering all of the times that she had attended a Potions class with him as her professor. He really was very talented, and she realized how much she underestimated his skills because of her dislike for him. For Merlin's sake, he had just brewed a perfect love potion on his own in a matter of forty-five minutes, at the age of sixteen.
Hermione wondered if he was showing off for Lily.
The last time she had seen Severus Snape was less than 72 hours ago, when he was bleeding out from a serpent bite, on the floor of Hogwarts' boathouse. He had given Harry his memories, then, and Hermione wondered what exactly he had given him.
She would give anything to find that out now.
"It's done," Snape said, standing up and wiping his hands on his robes. He avoided looking at the girls, and Lily sighed. She conjured a vial and took a sample of the potion up to Slughorn's desk.
James approached the two girls when class was dismissed, much to Sirius' amusement. He didn't have the heart to tell his friend that his face was covered in pearl dust, right as he was asking the 'girl of his dreams' on a date for the thousandth time. Sirius had persuaded him to ask Hermione as well, simply because he was intrigued by her. She was very clearly lying about her arrival to Hogwarts, but she didn't seem at all intimidated or frightened by his knowledge. She seemed to have confidence in his trustworthiness, something most people did not have.
It was more than a little eerie.
"She handled a Slytherin with no problem," Remus mentioned, and it was almost as if his friend was replying to his thoughts. "Avery had his wand pointed at her and she didn't even flinch. She didn't pull her wand, either. She talked him down. How many girls do we know that can do that?"
Sirius nodded. "I know. She's very strange."
"A mystery," Remus assented. "But I would definitely like to find out more."
"Don't judge a book by its cover," Peter piped up, and Sirius turned to him, incredulous.
"You've been reading too many Muggle magazines, Pete."
James returned, with Hermione in tow. He dropped to one knee and bowed at her feet, arms outstretched. "Men! Here we have our very own Miss Hermione Granger, capable of defeating our enemies with a single word!" He continued to bow repeatedly, his nose nearly touching the floor. Hermione giggled, rolling her eyes, while Sirius dropped to his knees as well and followed suit.
"It wasn't a big deal, truly," Hermione insisted, gesturing for the boys to get off of the floor. "I told him to put his wand away and he did."
Sirius goggled at her from the floor. "Prongs, can you believe that? She just told him to stop! No hexes, no injuries, no insulting language—she just told him!" James' jaw dropped open.
"Alright, alright, leave the lady alone," Remus laughed, taking Hermione's arm. "She's a better man than the four of us put together, yeah? Now let's show her the bloody lake like we promised."
The five of them: the Marauders and Hermione, nearly skipped out of the dungeons and into the clear, cool September air. It had been a mild summer, never getting swelteringly hot, and the fall was bound to be the same. In previous years, Sirius would have pushed his friends into the lake, and following their protest, exclaim that the Giant Squid needed friends too. This year, he thought he'd be kind and save them from freezing their arses off.
"They say there's a Squid in the lake," Peter started, running a bit to catch up with the rest of the group.
"Pete, there is a squid in the lake. We've seen it. It's fondled you before. It thinks you're its boyfriend." James laughed. "Should Sirius throw you in again this year—"
Peter, James, and Sirius stopped walking, realizing that Remus and Hermione weren't walking next to them anymore. Sirius turned around, only to see Hermione on her knees on the ground, doubled over and clutching her chest. Holy shit. Remus was crouching next to her, one hand on the small of her back and the other holding one of her hands in his own. Sirius turned back and sprinted over to the two. "What happened, Moony?"
"I don't think she can breathe," James said, appearing next to Sirius, the tension evident in his voice. "Should we take her to the Hospital Wing?"
"Hermione," Remus said quietly but firmly, taking the girl's chin between his two fingers and turning her head toward him. "Do you want us to take you to the Hospital Wing?"
She shook her head no.
"I think she's having a panic attack," Peter suggested.
"Let's get you out of here," Remus murmured, helping the girl stand to her feet. A crowd had developed around them now—people standing and staring, some whispering behind their hands to their friends. "Sirius, can you-?" he gestured to the groups of people surrounding them. Peter jumped to Remus' assistance, taking Hermione's other side and leading her back toward the castle.
"Oi! Nothing to see here," Sirius yelled irritably, shooing away the groups of students (most of them being first and second years). They glared at him angrily, but walked away nonetheless.
Great… exactly what Hermione needed on her first day. Rumors.
He found the rest of his friends sitting just inside the castle entrance. Remus and Peter were sitting on either side of Hermione, clutching either one of her hands. James was standing awkwardly, concern crossing his face as he looked down at the girl. "I—I'm sorry—" she started, the tears freely rolling down her face.
"No," Remus said firmly, wiping a tear from her face. "You don't need to be sorry."
"I just met you, and I cry about being outside," she murmured, resting her head on her knees.
Sirius crouched down in front of her, resting a hand on her back. "We're all broken sometimes," he whispered, and he really hoped she took in what he had to say. "I can't tell you how many times I've lost my cool just walking through the corridors. But I have these three prats to calm me down whenever I get upset." He looked at Remus, always the calm in the middle of his storm; James, the one who made him laugh whenever he felt like doing anything but; and Peter, always knowing the right thing to say, whether it be a quote from a Muggle book or anything else. "We'll be here for you too, Hermione."
"What's going on in your head?" Remus asked quietly.
"That's another story for another day."
October 10, 1976
The Room of Requirement, Hogwarts Castle
Hermione stood anxiously opposite the tapestry with the Dissolution Charm flowing over her. It was the strangest sensation to be actually using a Dissolution Charm instead of being under an Invisibility Cloak, and it was even stranger that the Invisibility Cloak in question was in the same place as she, but with a different owner.
It was even stranger that she was meeting a Death Eater alone, in the middle of the night.
Hermione already had the ring off when Avery arrived. She assumed it would be a truce of sorts; letting him know that she was someone to be trusted. She lifted the Dissolution Charm when she saw him walking down the corridor and began pacing in front of the blank space of wall.
I need somewhere where Avery and I can meet in private.
"What are you doing, Granger?" he hissed as she paced for the second time, but when the door appeared, she heard him gasp. "What the hell—"
"In," she gestured, opening the door to allow him through. "Quickly." Avery entered with a scowl, clearly not used to women (let alone Muggleborn women) telling him what to do.
The room had conjured a sitting area, clearly suited to both of their tastes. The ceilings were high and the walls draped with gold and silver tapestries, a fire roared in the corner, and there were several deep blue couches in the center of the room. Blue. How neutral, Hermione thought. The far wall was lined with tall bookcases, and the shelves filled with books of different shapes and sizes.
"What is this place?" Avery marveled, staring around at the room. "I've never seen it before."
"The Room of Requirement. Better known as the Come-and-Go room. It only appears when the user walks three times in front of the wall outside of Barnabas the Barmy, and the inside of the room is always different, depending on the user's needs. I told the room I wanted somewhere to meet with you in private, and this is what it gave me."
Avery stared at her. "I thought you were a new student."
"I'm getting to that."
She took a seat on one of the blue couches, and Avery sat opposite her. "First and foremost, I wanted to give you this ring back. It served its purpose—to get your attention. I have no reason to have it now." She dropped the ring into Avery's cupped hand and he pocketed it quickly.
"Why did you have it in the first place?"
Hermione swallowed. Explaining this to him was going to be tricky. He had given her his mother's ring in the future so he could trust her in the past, but also because he knew it had been done already. Future Avery had known Hermione when he was in school, but apparently they failed to change the timeline, so he was sending her back again. She had never really thought about time in this way before. When did Hermione originally get sent back, if Avery knew her as a boy in school the first time around? When did it begin? Where was the cause and effect?
She supposed she would start at the beginning.
"Wait," Avery blurted, before she could start talking. "I brought this." He pulled out a small vial, filled with dark green liquid and capped with a cork. "So I know I can trust you."
"Veritaserum?" Hermione exclaimed.
"It's the only way to know you're telling the truth."
"It's illegal—"
"It seems like you need me more than I need you, Granger. You're testing my patience."
With a sigh, Hermione took the potion and downed it in one gulp. "You're right. I do. Are you ready to listen to me now?" Avery nodded, satisfied. "I'm going to start from the beginning. It's going to be long and confusing, but stick with me until the end, please. It should all make some sort of sense.
"My name is Hermione Granger, and I was born to two Muggles in September of 1980. When I was eleven years old, I was delivered my Hogwarts letter and I began school. I had two best friends, by the names of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. Harry was the son of James Potter and Lily Evans, and defied Voldemort by surviving the Killing Curse when he was just a year old. James and Lily didn't survive the curse. We went to school just as normal kids do.
"During our fifth year, things changed. Voldemort rose to power once more, and people were dying left and right. Muggles, Wizards—everyone. Albus Dumbledore discovered that Voldemort was using Horcruxes to keep himself alive—"
"What's a Horcrux?"
"It's a piece of someone's soul that they have enchanted to put inside of another object. Dumbledore found out that Voldemort had made seven of them, and he passed the mission along to Harry. Harry, Ron, and I did not return to Hogwarts for our seventh year and set out on a search for all seven Horcruxes. We destroyed the majority of them, and when Voldemort found out, he and his followers raided Hogwarts. There were many people killed, both on our side and his. We found out halfway through the battle that Harry was the eighth Horcrux that Voldemort never planned on making, and he sacrificed himself so that we could kill Voldemort.
"Anyway, we had suffered losses and everything was very confusing. I didn't know who was alive and who wasn't, so I was trying to fight my way through the castle to kill Voldemort. Even though Harry was dead, the mission wasn't, and I intended on fulfilling it. During this battle, I was dueling well—future you. I didn't know you and I assumed you wanted to kill me, because we were on opposite sides. You hit me with a spell that I still don't know the name of, and it sent me back here to 1976.
"When I woke up, I found a letter in my pocket and your mother's ring on my finger." Hermione passed the letter over to Avery, whose hands were visibly shaking as he took the parchment. She felt the effects of the Veritaserum start to wear off, but she knew she would continue to be truthful despite this fact. "That's all that I can tell you. I don't know where to go from here, or how we're going to save the world, as you put it in the letter."
Avery shook his head rapidly, smacking a palm against his forehead. "I don't understand. You're from the future, and—and you know me, and I sent you back?"
"Yes." Please, Avery, try to keep up.
"Have I ever killed anyone?"
Hermione thought back to everything she knew about the Death Eaters, but she couldn't place a finger on whether or not someone was murdered by Avery himself. "I don't know."
"Well, I don't want to," he insisted, handing the letter back to Hermione. "How do we save the world? How do I save myself?"
She smirked. Of course, the Slytherin would be concerned about how he could save himself. "How do we save everyone?"