Hermione walked briskly towards the Apparition point, trying to ignore the way Lily confidently levitated the bloodied body of Regulus behind her. No, this old-new world was definitely different from what Hermione was expecting to see. No one in Knockturn Alley paid any attention either to the woman in the Auror robes, or to the Healer briskly pacing along the slop-splattered cobblestones, or to the half-dead corpse still clutching a dangerous artifact of clearly dark magic to its chest.

"Hey, psst, husband, is it always this weird around here?"

"Quiet, Lily will hear you!"

"Oh yes, of course, Lily, how could I forget about her?"

"Don't yell and stop being jealous. I've been dead for a long time!"

"But here you are very much alive, hmm?"

"Hermione, pull yourself together, please. I don't understand what's going on here either. At this time, I was supposed to be in a quarrel with Lily and was going to eavesdrop on that damn Prophesy. No further than tonight! Merlin the Great!"

Hermione stood stock-still, clutching her bag to her chest. Lily, not paying attention to anything, calmly walked on.

"Wait, that is, it turns out that I have a grand chance not only to change everything but also to reconcile you two? You didn't say she was a Healer..."

"I didn't know myself. In our last years, when we were still on good terms, she once said that she was not averse to becoming a mediwitch, but I hardly listened, because I myself dreamed of joining the itinerant hippies and going around the country. Stop laughing, Lily will hear you!"

"Oh, Merlin! It would be better if you did that than all this mess. Hey Lady Healer, wait for me! What's your name, anyway?"

"Ah, yes, that's really impolite of me... Lily Potter, Junior Healer in the OB/GYN department at St. Mungo's Hospital. And you?"

"Her... Maya Granger, junior Auror in the DMLE."

"Oh, it's harsh and interesting! We seem to be the same age, which House were you at Hogwarts?"

"I studied in Beauxbatons, I was born and lived for a long time in France, but my roots are here, in Britain," Hermione lied recklessly, inventing stories on the go.

"Why did you choose such a dangerous job?" The overly curious Lily did not let up. She was friendly and open, but she asked too many questions.

"The dark wizards killed my husband. I am a widow, you see. And here I have relatives, I am the second cousin of Eleanor Lupin, so she invited me to visit, and Alastor Moody reluctantly took me on a trial period."

"You are crazy!" Snape yelled, using Occlumency Merlin knew how. Well, her husband had always been a talented magician. "Why do you need this flea werewolf?"

"Because he is the most adequate of the Marauders! And I need someone's support if I'm here to change the world! Don't yell at me! I'm confusing my legend here!"

"You're out of your mind!"

"Did you just realize that now? You should have thought that I might be insane before you married me!"

"What are you going to say to Lupin?"

"I will show him my memories! I took them with me for a reason. He's a smart guy, he'll understand everything."

"Tell me, Maya, do you know Sirius? He, too, recently got a job at the Auror's Department." Lily continued asking her questions, not noticing Hermione's hesitation.

"No, I didn't have the honor to meet him yet... Where are we going to, Lily? Certainly not to the Blacks. And, even if we wanted to, wizards say, that their house is warded with such spells that Volde himself... khe-khe, Dumbledore will not prevail."

"Oh yes, Dumbledore is a very powerful wizard, he recommended me for training at St. Mungo's. He says the Order needs healers. Have you heard of the Order of the Phoenix? Remus must have told you. You should join us."

"Absolutely!" Beaming like the sun, Hermione promised, and thought to herself: "Merlin forbid!" On the contrary, it was necessary to convince everyone as soon as possible that Dumbledore was not a kind grandfather from a fairy tale, but an insidious intriguer and manipulator. "So, where are we going to, Lily? We can't enter the Infirmary either, and we need to deal with this artifact at first."

Lily stood against the wall and thought. She just didn't think of that.

"To the DMLE?"

"No, too much fuss. If the press finds out that the Black's heir is in trouble, we'll be in trouble too. And they will find out, believe me, " Hermione grimaced in response, recalling her many years of warm communication with Rita Skeeter. How old was she there now? Surely the damn bug was now on the rise of her career.

"Wife, pay attention!"

"Stop messing with my head!"

"I can't help myself, you're thinking too loudly..." Snape was pictorially upset. As Hermione pondered a worthy answer, a silver flash lit up the dark alley, and a huge lynx materialized in front of them, which immediately reared its fur and barked in Snape's voice: "To Spinners End, immediately!" And it was like that.

"Uh… Severus, where is the doe?"

"I have no idea," said her husband. Hermione scratched the bridge of her nose.

"Curiousier and curiousier," she muttered, staring after the lynx, and turned to Lily.

"Oh, do you love Alice in Wonderland too?"

"I adore it!" Hermione assured her, more than ever clearly feeling like the heroine of an aforementioned fairy tale. "Come on, on the count of three, let's apparate."

"I'll show you the destination," Lily confirmed and grabbed Hermione's arm.

Spinner's End in particular, and the working-class neighborhood of Cokeworth in general, were no different from the pretentious slums Hermione had seen in her past future. Except that Severus's house was much cleaner, there were some plants growing in the garden, and the fence was half painted green. Interesting. The owner of the house himself was dressed in black jeans, stained with this very paint, and a T-shirt with the Led Zeppelin emblem. His hair was much longer, and in his eyes, there was no hatred for all living things. There was no mark on his arm either. Hermione would have recognized the spell of glamor even in the middle of the night, in complete darkness. There was no Mark.

Young Severus did not differ in manners and, without asking, climbed into her thoughts, but the head Auror would not have been the main Auror if she had not erected shields and had not thrown the intruder to that very unfortunate fence. Snape rubbed his forehead, stood up, and looked at Hermione with undisguised admiration.

"Wow! How did you manage that? No one has given me such a rebuff."

Hermione shrugged.

"It's nice to be the first."

"Can you teach me that?"

"If you ask nicely. We need your help," she announced from the doorway, shoved Severus away, and followed Lily into the house.

"Yeah, you're useless here… Although, I must admit, at nineteen you're much nicer than you are now. And you don't know how to put up shields at all?" Hermione grumbled angrily, patting the side of her bag.

"Well, I taught you, and you once taught me. Although we met for the first time under somewhat different circumstances."

All the guests entered the house, and the door slammed shut behind them. Hermione had a strange feeling that she was trapped. But it certainly wouldn't be boring here.