AN: Hello, fanfiction and Harry Potter fans. I do not own Harry Potter, but feel free to enjoy this or hate it. If you enjoy it, please leave a lovely comment, if you hate it, then leave some constructive criticism, thanks!
AN2: I don't usually love my own writing. I see too many things that is wrong, things I want to fix no matter how many times I edit. BUT this chapter is actually one of my favs, so I hope everyone enjoys XD
Warning: Violence
Can You Take the Jump?
Chapter 12
The sunlight streaming into the Transfiguration classroom made his sensitive eyes hurt. The migraine he was experiencing was worsening, his brain felt like it was pounding in his skull and his muscles ached so much that he trembled as he stood up after being dismissed at the end of class.
"You sure you're alright, mate?" James asked Remus as soon as he noticed his friend's pale sweaty face.
Remus nodded, but honestly, he wasn't. He was still trying to get used to transforming at school, the new environment was making the wolf agitated, making her pre-transformation symptoms even worse than it used to be.
The world was spinning beneath him and he felt like vomiting.
"Woah," Sirius caught the swaying boy and provided some much-needed support. He grunted under the weight, but managed to keep Remus up. "Okay, you're definitely not okay."
"I'm fine." Remus insisted. Sweat trickled down his forehead on the cold December afternoon. Remus winced in pain as his joints were trying ease his body into the transformations that would happen later that night.
"Nope, we're not believing you this time." James shook his head as he helped Sirius by taking some of the Remus's weight. "Actually I'm not sure I believed you the first time either." James placed his hand on Remus's forehead, then looked rightfully worried about the state of his friend.
"I'm fine!" Remus pushed his friends off him and whipped around, throwing James's hand off the sore shoulder.
The loud shout caught the attention of everyone. People whispered as they watched Remus storm off and James remained behind with Sirius and Peter with a baffled look on his face.
"Something's going on with him." James muttered. The lanky boy was a lot stronger than James had given him credit for, as he rubbed the hand that Remus threw off.
"No kidding." Sirius muttered as he watched Remus disappear into the crowd of students. "You alright mate?"
"Do you need to see the School Healer?" Peter asked.
"I'm fine." James shook the sore hand, making a fist with it a couple of times. "Come on, we'll be late for our next class."
…
The full moon obnoxiously shined brightly in the clear night sky like a flashlight, completely unaware of the immense pain it was causing a young boy.
"Aughhhhh!" Remus clenched his teeth as pain radiated throughout his body. He whimpered in pain and screamed as he felt his bones break to reconfigure into the monstrous form of a werewolf. As searing pain spread throughout his body tears trickled down his face, but it wasn't the pain that made him cry, it was the unfairness of it all, the pure despair about losing himself and being overtaken by it.
"I just want to die."
He peered through his tears to see the wooden floor of the Shrieking Shack. It would be his last human memory before he lost himself, before he became the monster.
...
Only 5 minutes passed since the moon had settled beneath the horizon. The good thing about winters were that the moon set relatively early and the sun came up later in the day, allowing Remus to sleep in. In fact, he was sleeping so deeply he didn't hear when someone quietly entered the Shrieking Shack.
Not a single soul saw Hermione tip toe into the wooden cage for the monthly beast. She carefully placed a blanket over the naked young boy to give him some privacy as she quietly pulled out various vials of Dittany mixed with different concentrations of silver. She'd been doing this since September, when she saw a new scar form on Remus's face after his first month of transforming at school. Pomfrey was a great Healer, but werewolf wounds were tricky, treatment methods and silver concentrations requiring adjustments depending on the depth and extent of the wound. It was something that could only improve with practice. Although Hermione trusted that the healer would eventually get the hang of treating this young boy, at the moment, Pomfrey was inadequate.
With practiced ease, Hermione sanitized her hands with a flick of her wand, then gently investigated how deep each newly formed wound was.
She sighed, when she noticed that it was deeper than last month. His wolf was getting worse. She didn't know if it was part of the development of a growing werewolf, or if it was still not used to changing in such an isolated area.
"I'm sorry, Remus." Hermione whispered as she frowned at the deep cut on his shoulder.
"You could have stopped this." A voice rasped beside her.
"No, I couldn't."
"The girl who travelled time to save the world couldn't save a four year old boy from getting attacked by a werewolf?"
Hermione whipped around at the owner of the voice. A haggard and war-torn Hermione Granger standing before her. She had crazy eyes and her wand fidgeted in her hand, ready to fire a deadly spell at any moment. She had forgotten that this was how she once looked. She could've given Bellatrix Lestrange a run for her money if the bet was on who looked crazier. Blood soaked her clothes, her hair was wild, and there was that look in her eyes that screamed she had nothing to lose anymore. It was a dangerous look, sending chills down her spine.
"I was four." Hermione replied with a soft whisper this time.
"You were thirty-seven."
"My body was four."
"You think that is a good enough excuse?" She spat, demanding perfection from her, like always. No mistakes were allowed. "You were still able to use magic like you're thirty-seven! Look at the face of the boy who is suffering because of your callousness!"
Hermione looked at the blonde boy who was seizing from just the residual pain he was experiencing. She placed her hand over his fist and squeezed.
"I'm sorry Remus." She repeated, this time with a teary voice. "I'm so sorry."
"Fix it." Older Hermione commanded.
"I'm working on it."
"Not fast enough."
"It's challenging magic."
"Excuses."
Hermione whipped around to face her past self, "Becoming an Animagus is one of the few things you've actually never done before, so why don't you just trust me and let me be the judge of how difficult it is."
"You don't have time to dawdle. He shouldn't be alone through this suffering. He shouldn't be suffering at all. You could have prevented it."
"I'm not dawdling. It took the Marauders 3 years to fully transform. I'm only in my second month and I've already transfigured most of my body into my animal."
"Only your second month." Her past-self scoffed, "You should have prepared to become an Animagi the second you didn't save him when he was four."
Hermione clenched her teeth, but said nothing else to her hallucination, because it was right. It was always right. She should have prepared for Remus.
A discomforting smirk formed on Old Hermione's lips. "Although I have to say, your Animagi is very fitting to say the least. A fox. The cunning trickster who uses intelligence to force everyone to play to their tune."
"I think that's the point."
"What about Wolfsbane?"
"How am I going to convince him to drink a questionable substance every day for a week before the full moon. He doesn't even know me. I'm practically a stranger who's not even supposed to know about his lycanthropy."
The older Hermione relented at her logic. "Get it done." And just like that, she disappeared.
Hermione let out a sigh. Her older-self was overbearing, filling her mind with horrible memories and a crushing sense of responsibility. Hermione looked down at her hand that squeezed Remus's hand, finding it trapped in his fierce grip. She attempted to release herself from his grasp, but to no avail. Rather than force her hand out and potentially wake him, she decided to let him hold her hand for the time being. She stroked his face with her other hand, studying ever square centimeter of the young boy lying in front of him.
It was a shame, she thought, Tonks would never able to see Remus in his younger years. He was handsome, even with his scars. There was no question about how good he would look in his twenties.
Thinking about the quirky Auror and the boy sleeping in front of her gave her some comfort. Werewolf mates were soulmates. No changes in time or history were going to change that. She was confident that they would meet again and fall in love like they did the first time.
She didn't know how long she spent just studying the sleeping boy, but it was only when Hermione heard the entrance to the Shrieking Shack open, did she realize she'd fallen asleep next to him.
She jumped up, shocked at the fact she'd slept at all. She looked down at Remus, who was thankfully still soundly sleeping. She scrambled off the floor only to realize her hand was still firmly in his grasp. At a last attempt, she tried to pull her hand out one last time, only for Remus to groan and pull her closer forcing her in to his arms.
At that point, the concern of waking Remus had become her last priority. She ripped herself out of his grasp causing Remus's eyes to fly open. She threw a Disillusionment Charm over her body as fast as she could, but Remus's green eyes stared directly into hers as she disappeared into the walls of the wooden shack.
"Wha—" Remus stuttered out, then rubbed his eyes as if was second guessing what he'd just seen.
"Mr. Lupin?" Pomfrey asked as she carefully stepped into the shack. "Oh, goodness." She immediately turned around to give Remus the privacy he needed.
"AH! I'm- I'm sorry!"
Remus blushed bright red, when he realized just how exposed he was. Usually by this time, he was wide awake and dressed for Pomfrey to come and check on him, but today he's slept in. Remus quickly got grabbed his pants from the corner and dressed, but kept his eyes on the exact spot Hermione Evans had disappeared.
"You can turn around."
Pink in the face, Pomfrey turned to the young boy to examine any possible injuries he might have caused to himself. To her surprise, he was pretty much fine other than a few bruises and scratches. There were some cuts looked quite fresh, but looked like someone had treated them already, better than her, even.
With a perplexed look on her face, she looked up to the young boy to ask him if he'd done the treatments to himself, but found him staring at one spot.
"What is it, dear?"
Remus snapped his head toward the witch and blinked a few times.
"Oh, uh. It's nothing."
Pomfrey stared at the spot that Remus had been staring at with an inquisitive gaze.
"A-am I okay?" Remus asked, redirecting her attention to himself.
Pomfrey slowly nodded, "Surprisingly okay." She handed him a jar of bruise paste. "Just rub this on the spots that are turning into bruises."
"Great." Remus smiled at the school Healer as he took the jar from her. "It's a bit chilly, so I'd like to get fully dressed. Could you give me some privacy?"
"Of course, dear." Pomfrey slowly stood up, but looked uncomfortable about just leaving the conversation there. "Remus, was there someone…" she started, but then looked around the small empty shack. "Nevermind."
Remus watched Pomfery leave and waited until he heard the Shack's door close.
"Evans? Hermione?" Remus whispered into the empty space. He walked toward the space where he's seen her disappear, and swung his hands in the space.
Nothing.
He walked around the entire shack and swung his arms around to every corner to feel nothing, but air. He turned his head to the exit where Pomfrey had left. She'd taken the opportunity and left with Pomfrey.
"Easy Lupin, you're not even sure if she was really here." He told himself. He looked down at his arms where he was sure he felt someone's warmth the moment before he woke up. He took a deep breath in, but smelled no lingering smell of anyone else but Pomfrey and himself.
"There's no way a first year student is able to cast such a good Disillusionment Charm on herself, even my father can't do something it that well. And why in Merlin's name would she come here at this hour? She doesn't have any reason." He thought to convince himself. "If she was here, that would mean she knows. If she knew, there would be even more reason for her to never show her face to me again..."
He slowly got dressed, but couldn't help from keeping his eyes from straying back to the spot where she'd disappeared.
He remembered his first impression of the beautiful girl. Her eyes shined with intelligence and knowledge, but there was tragedy in there. That sadness drew him in because he felt like he could relate to her. Unlike all other innocent and naïve students their age, they both had something in them that they kept a secret in fear of isolation or worse.
When Remus finally exited his monthly prison, Madam Pomfrey was waiting for him just beyond the reach of the Whomping Willow. He looked back at the hole he'd just climbed out of with mixed feelings. While Hermione was most likely hiding a secret as well, there was no way it was as bad as his, therefore there was equally no way she would accept the monster in him. Despite his thoughts, there was a miniscule part of Remus that felt sad that his secret hadn't been exposed by the one possible person who might understand him.
"Alright darling?"
"Yes, sorry for the wait. My shoulder was a bit stiff. But I might even be able to attend class today." He gave the woman a genuine smile.
"Oh no you don't."
He gave her a pout, but she shook her head at him. "Unless you want to faint walking down the corridors to your next class, you will lie back down and rest for today."
…
Hermione's sat in Charms, worrying whether she'd really been caught by Remus Lupin. She'd be lying to herself by thinking he didn't see her, they'd made eye contact, after all. She just hoped he thought of her as some sort of hallucination.
She'd made sure she left absolutely no evidence of her presence, going as far as erasing her scent from the area within a 2-mile radius from the Shack. However, if he came and confronted her about the incident, then what was she going to say? Should she just look at him like he's insane? Would he even confront her about it?
"Mrs. Evans? Mrs. Evans? Mrs. Hermione Evans?!"
Hermione looked up from her daze, to realize Flitwick was calling on her to answer the question for the past minute, not her sister. Hermione opened her mouth to push the question aside with her usual 'I don't know', only to see Lily's expectant face. Ever since Potions last week, her twin was so happy that she impressed Slughorn, she was hoping she would do it again in every class.
There was an old and nostalgic urge to answer the question in her usual snobbery, but she stopped when she her the angry gruff of Mulciber in the back. No, now wasn't the time. Purposely turning her head away from Lily's sparkling eyes, Hermione stared blankly at Flitwick .
"I'm sorry Professor, I don't know the answer to your question."
As usual, all the Slytherins snickered and a few non-discretely whispered, 'Moron' 'Idiot' and the usual, 'Mudblood.'
Hermione turned to Lily again to see her turn back to face the front. Although she hadn't seen her face, Hermione knew her sister was disappointed. Lily was the only person who still wished her to perform at her best. Ignoring the pang of guilt in her chest, Hermione turned her eyes to the other pair of eyes that were staring.
Severus.
Ever the self-preservationist, Severus had not spoken to her since school had started. He'd been keeping his distance from her, but in consequence, he'd been keeping distance from Lily as well.
She worried about this development; it was completely different than the original timeline. Originally, the young Severus had some invisibility from his prejudiced peers because of his blood status, which permitted his friendship with Lily in school. It wasn't until their senior years did their friendship begin to strain because Severus had proved his worth to the Slytherin House.
But now that Hermione was in the scene, Severus had chosen to steer clear of both Evans sisters. It pulled the two childhood friends apart far too soon than what was originally supposed to happen. Not only that, Lily had grabbed too much attention as well, being the twin sister of the Slytherin Muggleborn. She was changing so much of the past. What if the future wasn't even recognizable to her? What if she couldn't prevent what she'd feared because she'd changed too much?
Hermione ducked her head trying to ease her pounding heart and racing mind. She needed to get in control. Having such a random and sudden panic attack would benefit no one. Her eyes travelled to the only sight that seemed to calm her down during moments like these.
The sound of boys snickering amongst themselves filled her ears, as she blocked all other sounds out. Her eyes peered to the one and only face that could possibly bring her ease; Harry Potter's face reflected in James Potter. She watched, feeling her worries melt away as the mop he called hair shake due to James's quiet laughter. The future Marauders were getting closer by the day, forming the brotherhood that they would soon risk their lives for. Some things were allowed to change, but that was not allowed. That couldn't be touched, despite the murderous anger she felt looking at the smallest and skinniest of the boys.
"Easy." Harry sat next to her, casually placing his feet on the desk, like he was in his own office in the Auror's Department.
Peter Pettigrew was covering his mouth trying, but failing, to keep his giggles to himself. He looked and acted so completely different from the man she knew he'd grow up to be. It was almost easier to think of him as two completely different people.
"Do you think he's beyond help? Already?" Harry asked her. "He certainly doesn't look it. Look at those watery blue eyes. They hold innocence."
"That's for him to decide. If he's beyond help, we'll know exactly what he'll do and we'll be ready for him. But until then, we watch. It's too early to act now." Hermione responded.
Her immensely passive role was odd because when she first arrived in this time, she thought she would be running around changing everything. However, during her years of studying and research, the various theories of about time travel had varying ideas on what would happen if one changed the past, but every one of them had one commonality: 'Bad things happen to those who mess with time'.
Hermione's solution was simple; most of the time she steered clear of everyone or discreetly persuaded them to take the path she knew they had to take. She could only act at a decisive moment.
"I'm not saving anyone who doesn't want to be saved."
"You might not be able to save everyone who wants to be saved either."
No, perhaps not, but she'll damn try.
"Thank you, for some of your attention today." Flitwick thanked as their lecture ended. "I do have one announcement. The winter holidays are now around the corner," The dwarf flicked his wand and a sheet of paper appeared in front of him. "This is a sheet that asks if you're going to stay in school this winter or not. It will go around, so please sign it if you plan on staying for the holidays. The last person who signs can bring it to me at dinner."
"Mudblood, bring my bag to the Great Hall." Mulciber asked, a cruel smirk spread on his face. He dumped the bag onto her desk with a loud thunk, much louder than it should have been. Judging by the bulkiness of the bag, he'd collected all his mates' books and shoved it in his bag just to make her life harder than it already was.
Hermione looked up to see if Lily saw how she was treated in her House, but the appalled look on her sister's face said it all. Hermione tried to shake her head as discreetly as possible, telling her not to react, but it was useless. She might has well have asked Lily not to be Lily.
Hermione looked back and forth between the bag and her approaching sister and quickly made a decision.
"Fine, Mulciber." She lifted up the heavy bag off the desk and quickly tried to usher the Slytherin out of the class. "Let's go."
Mulciber, who wasn't used to Hermione acting out his demands unless being beaten into submission, stopped and stared at her with a confused look. "Finally realized who your superior is, mudblood?" He smirked, leaning forward to gloat in her face.
Hermione stared back at him, not backing out from the challenge. "I said, let's go." She enunciated, but when she glanced behind him, she knew it was too late.
"Oi, Mulciber!" Lily's voice called out. She grabbed her bag and threw it at the boy's back.
The bag soared into the air, propelled by motion and momentum, it landed squarely on his back with enough force to make him lose his footing and push him forward into Hermione.
Although she raised her arms to stop Mulciber from falling into her, she knew it would be useless. As fit as Hermione was in this timeline, there was no way her smaller frame would be able to stop the boy who was at least 30 pounds heavier than she was. She felt her body tip back, but instead of falling into the hard floor, she was stopped by something, or rather someone. She turned to see Sirius Black standing behind her, carrying the weight of both Hermione and Mulciber with his body, one leg braced behind the other.
"You alright?" Sirius looked down into Hermione's eyes. It was the first time since the Sorting Ceremony where they stood so close. Even through this brief interaction, Hermione could recognize how much happier Sirius seemed since September, probably feeling less burdened by his familial obligations since he wasn't a Slytherin and enjoying true friendship for the first time in his life.
Hermione used Mulciber's imbalance to push his heavy body off hers, then quickly removed herself from Sirius's personal space. Mulciber, unable to regain his balance, ungracefully landed amongst the desks and chairs with a loud crash.
"Wha—" he wheezed out. He rubbed his head in pain as he tried to get up from his spot.
Sirius took Mulciber's bag off Hermione's shoulders and dropped it on the Slytherin's stomach.
"Auhh!"
Snapping out of his daze, Mulciber pushed himself off the floor, using a chair as leverage. He looked absolutely furious, his angry glare moving from Hermione, Lily and then to Sirius, as if deciding who he would unleash his rage upon. His eyes landed on Lily. Without another moment of hesitation, he pulled out his wand, pointing it directly at the space between Lily's eyes.
"Drop that wand, Mulciber." Hermione threatened in a low voice. Not a soul had seen her pull out her wand, but there she stood with her wand pointed steadily at the Slytherin. She had never retaliated for her bullying before, but if Mulciber hurt Lily, there was no guarantee that the boy would be well enough to finish Hogwarts.
Mulciber laughed, "What could you possibly do, Mudblood?"
"I would listen to her, if I were you." James, who appeared next to Lily, pointed his wand at Mulciber. Sirius and Pettigrew quickly followed suit, then Lily's roommates quickly raised their wands in support, but their eyes were nervous in case an actual duel was about to happen.
"You might be a decent duelist, but there's no way you're going to dodge 8 spells coming your way from 8 different directions." Sirius warned. "Unless you want permanently pink hair and vomit slugs all day, you should really lower that wand."
For a while, Mulciber didn't move, his pride getting in the way of his logical surrender, but eventually the boy slowly lowered his arm. Slowly, everyone was lowering their wands, with James and Sirius being the last Gryffindors to drop their arms.
All eyes trailed to the last person who still had their wand out. Hermione looked down the length of her wand and stared into the eyes of her target. Anton Mulciber was cruel and vicious boy, and he would grow up be even more cruel and vicious.
"Do it." A voice whispered. "It would be so easy. These kids are like ants compared to you. Just kill him. He doesn't deserve to breathe like he does. Think about the pain he caused, and will cause in the future. The world won't miss him."
It was absurd, her subconscious encouraging murder in the middle of her first year Charms class, but what was more absurd was the fact that she was even entertaining the idea. Anton Mulciber was truly one of the worst Death Eaters, known for his violent crimes and disgusting acts, especially against helpless and innocent girls and women.
"Miss Evans!"
Flitwick had apparently run back, notified by a student about the potential duel about to start in his classroom. Sweat glistened his forehead as he glared at the offensive wand, his voice was much louder and lower than his normal teaching tone.
Hermione quickly dropped her wand arm, realizing she'd just seriously contemplated killing Mulciber in front of everyone. Everything she'd been working towards, for the last 11 years would be gone. Forced to spend her life in Azkaban instead of protecting what was truly important; the future.
Flitwick took points off of everyone and gave them all separate detentions, but Hermione didn't listen, she couldn't care less about something as insignificant as detention, not when she seriously considered committing one of the most serious crimes there is.
Attempting to sort out her moral dilemma in her chaotic mind, Hermione missed the way Mulciber leaned into Lily, whispering something softly into her ear, but James noticed. He watched Lily's face as she contemplated on whatever Mulciber had whispered.
Recognizing the determined look on her face, James knew something was going to happen. He watched with unease in his stomach when Mulciber gave them an arrogant smirk and walk off, even though Professor Flitwick hadn't even finished lecturing them on the rules of dueling outside of a classroom environment. What happened here in this classroom was a mere prologue; he could feel it in his bones.
…
Severus was someone who tended to mind his own business. He loved being alone, reading, testing out potions etc. He thought of large friend groups as a waste of energy, where each person had to match another's mood or follow some else's lead. He didn't desire the attention and gratification of friendships. Besides, he had a friend, Lily. They were the best of friends. There was no need to associate himself with a group of people who didn't care about him or vice versa.
Lily was enough.
Which was why his chest halted when he saw the familiar red head surrounded by a group of older Slytherins and Mulciber. They circled her like a pack of hyenas around a lone baby wildebeest.
Severus might've been able to ignore Hermione Evans's bullying because they weren't truly friends, their relationship was clearly defined in the Hogwarts Express on September 1st. But Lily was different.
Severus took a step forward, feeling the urge to help out his close childhood friend, but stopped when he noticed Willem Yaxley standing at the head of the crowd with Anton Mulciber by his side.
"Rumor has it that you're the sister of the mudblood in Slytherin, but unlike your sister who knows how to bow her head down to her superiors, you had the audacity to talked back?" As a third year, Yaxley towered over Lily, although she was quite tall considering her age. "A Mudblood like you should know your place."
"Oh yeah?" Lily stepped forward, not a waver in her voice. "And where is that?"
She stood as tall as she could, with her head held high and her shoulders back. She didn't even blink as her green eyes stared daringly at the boys in front of her. Severus couldn't tell if Lily was being incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.
Yaxley's arrogant expression crumbled into a sneer as Lily challenged his authority. "I'll gladly show you."
As Yaxley raise his wand arm, Severus managed to walk two steps before he was forcefully shoved out of the way. Severus winced when his elbow hit the floor painfully. He grimaced as he tried to prop himself up off the floor. Through teary eyes, he looked up at the situation and saw James Potter and Sirius Black form a protective circle around Lily.
With no sense of warning, someone on the Slytherin side threw the first spell.
Severus's eyes widened at the sudden start of a duel between the 3rd year Slytherins and 1st year Gryffindors. The Gryffindors were heavily outnumbered and outmatched. Adding himself into that mess would just conclude in another casualty. Instead of throwing himself headfirst into a fight he knew he could not help, he did what any logical and intelligent person would do; he went to grab someone who could actually help.
He ran blindly down the stairs, scanning the heads of people walking past him. They were either his height or just a bit taller than him. Useless. What he needed was a senior student or a professor who would be powerful enough to put a stop to what was happening upstairs.
4 corridors and 2 floors down, he saw her. She looked like an image out of a picture book, a beautiful girl sitting on a windowsill, thoughtfully reading her Transfiguration textbook. She wasn't a senior or a professor, but he knew in his gut that she would be able to help. He knew that it didn't matter if those boys were 3rd years or 7th years, Hermione Evans would be able to beat them with ease.
"Help…Lily…Slytherins…" Severus heaved from the strenuous exercise, breathing in after every word.
Hermione stood up immediately, completely forgetting about her book that'd fallen out of her hand and onto the floor.
"Where?"
Severus's legs had given up on him and he sat on the floor with a deep frown on his face, still heavily panting from the run. Hermione didn't have the time to wait for Severus to catch his breath. Her patience already ran out in the 2 seconds he'd been wheezing. She bent down and grabbed him roughly by his green tie.
"WHERE!" She asked, forcing his eyes onto hers.
He pointed up. "Emeric the Evil."
With no more information needed, Hermione let go of Severus's collar and took off running. She took the stairs 3 steps at a time. She turned the corners with ease until she reached the famous painting of the duel between Egbert the Egregious and Emeric the Evil.
Slytherins certainly had their flair for theatrics; dueling in front of one of the most well known and well depicted duels of all time. Except, the duel wasn't happening, or rather it was over by the time Hermione had arrived.
Sirius was knocked out on the opposite side of the hall, with a serious looking head injury. Four Slytherins were making groaning noises as the slowly tried to regain the senses. In the center of all this, 3 Slytherins were hovering around a limping James who was guarding another figure, lying on the floor. Hermione couldn't see who it was, so she took a step forward, forgetting to silence her footsteps.
Everyone conscious enough, turned to look, worried or relieved that it might be someone with authority.
The Slytherins smiled and James paled at the sight of Hermione.
"We have the set, boys!" Yaxley shouted at the boys and slapped Mulciber on the back. They smirked in unison. The other standing Slytherin, Willis, broke from formation and took a step toward Hermione.
James looked back and forth between Yaxley and the guy approaching Hermione Evans. He felt split on who to help and who to protect. Lily was unconscious, but everyone knew the other Evans was magically useless.
He prayed for a miracle.
"AHHHHHHH!"
James turned, expecting it to be Hermione who let out the scream, but instead, Hermione stood exactly where she was with a blank look on her face, neither frowning, screaming or cowering. Everyone's eyes searched for Willis, but he was gone. He just disappeared.
They all turned back to the blank faced girl, but this time, James recognized fire in her darkening eyes. Hermione Evans was expressionless, but that didn't mean she was emotionless. She slowly looked up, and everyone followed her eyes to the ceiling, then gasped at the sight of Willis dangling from the high ceiling.
"Drop." She spoke, barely above a whisper.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Willis screamed as the magic the held him up in the air disappeared, causing him to free fall to the floor.
Everyone flinched away from the impact, only to never hear it. Cautiously, they peered through their arms to see that Hermione Evans had magically caught Willis a meter away from full impact to the floor.
"Up you go again." Hermione flicked her wand once more, lifting Willis into the air.
"No, no! Please, no!" Willis cried, flailing about, but Hermione ignored him.
"Drop."
"AUGGHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHH!" Willis screamed again, but this time, Hermione caught him only a few centimeters away from the floor.
"Up, up and away." Hermione lifted Willis to the ceiling once again.
"P-please. Please! I'm sorry!" Willis cried.
James, Mulciber and Yaxley watched in shock as Willis soiled his pants mid air, his urine dripping to the floor like a leak in the ceiling.
"How disgraceful." Hermione tutted. She cleaned the puddle with a flick of her wand and stepped forward towards the three boys.
James was confused about a great many things happening in that moment, but took the distraction as an opportunity and used it to throw his body into Yaxley, tackling him into the floor. The boys scrambled on the floor for a few seconds until suddenly Yaxley was yanked away from James.
"Wha—" James looked up from the floor to find Hermione perfectly subduing the third year Slytherin with not an ounce of effort.
"You Mudblood bitc—" Yaxley started spouting, but Hermione effectively shut him up with a flick of her wand. James initially thought she used a silencing charm, but judging by the color changing on Yaxley's face and his panicked hand movements at his own tie, he realized that she magically tightened the green tie around Yaxley's neck.
James's eyes widened at the sight, his heart clenching from the first genuine touch of fear as he watched Yaxley's face slowly turn red to purple, but Hermione didn't seem to bat an eye. The older boy grabbed at his tie trying to loosen it with physical force, only for it to tighten more. James rushed to him, trying to pull at the tie to give him some more breathing room, but he could feel it tighten despite his best efforts. He pulled out his wand and whispered the words of a general counter curse his father had taught him, but the magic fizzed out when it touched Yaxley's tie.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Willis's scream echoed the halls as he dropped to the floor at startling speeds once more.
James turned to Hermione, she didn't have a frown on her face, everything about her was so perfectly blank except those eyes that had turned black. Her fury seeped out of her like a fog slowly making its presence known and filling the room. It was the type of anger that didn't need any facial expression or a raised voice, but everyone knew it was there the moment they laid eyes on her.
"Drop your wand." Her voice was quiet and completely unfazed at the pandemonium she was causing.
Mulciber was the last Slytherin standing. Hermione's rumored bully shifted his eyes nervously at his fallen friends, but refused to lower his wand to the her. To him, she wasn't just a Mudblood, she was the squib, the useless shame of Slytherin House, the butt of everyone's joke. There was no way his pride was going to let him lower his wand at her command.
She slowly raised her brow at the Slytherin boy's idiotic act of impudence, "Look around you, Mulciber. I'm not some squib that wiggled her way into this school because of pure luck. If you don't do exactly what I say, Yaxley's going to suffocate to death and your flying friend over there is going to actually drop to the floor. I'm sure it won't kill him," she shrugged, like she was talking about the weather, "at least, not the first time."
James gasped at the gravity of her threat. "Evans, you can't!" he shouted, but she shut him up with a look. Energy and power just poured out of her in a way James had never witness before. His ever-steady wand hand trembled for the first time in his life. He was openly terrified. He felt like he was in the presence of someone like Headmaster Dumbledore; like someone he could never win against, no matter how desperate and brave.
Mulciber thought he could take advantage of the distraction and waved his wand to form an incantation, "Stupef—"
Before the spell fully left his lips, his wand exploded in his hand. It splintered and shattered into thousands of pieces, piercing through his flesh and getting stuck between the bones of his hand. Mulciber's screams filled the hall.
James watched in horror as he clutched his mangled hand in agony, screaming and crying.
Hermione, unfazed by the bloody mess she'd made, looked rather with curiosity. It hadn't been her intention, but her power had so vastly overpowered his spell that his wand couldn't handle it and exploded. She turned to the boy in the ceiling and lifting her hand to undo her charm and let boy drop to the floor, desiring to hear that sickening crunch of bones breaking, but a shaking arm stopped her.
Shocked by the physical interruption, Hermione flinched and turned, only to find Lily gripping her by the hem of her pants.
Lily was trembling, scared and confused at the situation she found herself and her sister in when she opened her eyes. However, it didn't take long for Lily to realize her sister had gotten out of control. She'd heard her parents talking about Hermione in this state, being close to her was dangerous, but had to do something.
"Hermione! Stop! Please!"
James and Lily watched as the blind rage in Hermione's eyes disappear. The darkness faded as lucidity started to return. Golds, greens and browns swirled in her eyes once more when she gazed at her sister. But scared and unsure if she was truly back to her senses; Lily stood up and hugged her sister forcefully, restraining her arm movement.
"Evans, release this tie!" James shouted, sweating profusely as he strained against the magic the threatened to choke the life out of Yaxley. He couldn't feel his finger tips and Yaxley's eyes had already rolled back into his head.
A paradoxical change occurred in the youngest Evans. Hermione looked at the situation she'd caused and gasped. Only two seconds ago, she looked like she was fine killing the others, but now she looked truly scared of the damage she'd caused. Feeling incredibly conflicted, Lily looked back and forth from the perpetrator of the violence and the victim. She was scared of what she might do once she let go of her sister from the hug. Will she kill Yaxley?
"LILY!" James urged, turning red faced himself from trying to keep the magical tie from tightening. Sirius had regained consciousness, and was also limping to them, trying to help his friend save Yaxley's life. A normal tie would have ripped by now, but the high-quality silk was shocking durable against the restraint.
"You need to let me go. You need to trust me. Now." Hermione insisted. "Lily. If you don't, he will die."
Lily looked into the emotions that filled her sister's eyes and decided to trust her instincts by slowly releasing her death-like grip. When she let go of her wrist, Lily would be lying if she said her heart didn't skip a beat when Hermione pointed the wand at Yaxley's throat.
"Finite!" Her sister shouted. The boy's face was positively blue by the time she stopped the curse. James and Sirius fell onto his arse, when the tie suddenly released.
Hermione pushed James and Sirius aside and rushed to Yaxley's unconscious body. She reached to place her fingers to his carotid artery, but hesitated when she saw the angry bruise that was already forming around his neck. With trembling hands, she placed a finger under his nostril and held it there for a second. A worried look spread across her face as she undid the top buttons of his shirt.
"He's not breathing." Hermione seemed stunned by her own horrible actions. "Enervate!"
James held his breath, waiting for something to happen.
Slowly, but surely, the pinkness returned Yaxley's face, then he gasped a breath out, eyes nearly bulging out of his eyes. He took several deep breaths before his eyes were able to focus on the girl sitting above him.
"Ahhh!" Yaxley screamed as loud as his damaged vocal cords could manage as he frantically backed away from Hermione. His cry however, was drowned out by the two other boys screaming their head off.
"Professor!" Pettigrew's voice could be heard from the distance. "This way!"
…
Dumbledore's sparkling eyes stared at the student before him. Usually with such a young child, he didn't even need eye contact to get a glimpse of their mind, but with Hermione Evans was different. She'd always been different, since birth. He was never going to see what has in her mind until she allowed him in.
"Miss Evans, do you remember what I told you on your first day here?"
"You said a great many things on my first day in Hogwarts, but I believe you're trying to imply something about you having an obligation to protect your students?"
"That's correct." Dumbledore paused. "That obligation was almost broken today, Mr. Yaxley has been sent to St. Mungo's for advanced treatment for the injuries on his throat, Madam Pomfrey needs to reattach some of the nerves on Mr. Mulciber's hands because they were shredded by the shards of his wand." Dumbledore sighed. "Hermione, what you did—"
"Was wrong." She finished. "I'll admit it. But it wasn't a spur of the moment action. They'd been egging me for months now. Not a single intervention was prepared by you or your staff although you knew what was going on. An obligation to protect your students? Am I not a student of Hogwarts? Where was my protection?"
"It's why I offered you a chance to switch Houses."
"Change Houses? That's like having my arm sliced off and you giving me a small plaster as treatment! Are you so blind that you can't see the clear prejudice that your students hold against students like me? If it hadn't been me, it would have been someone else! Stop making excuses for your incompetence!"
Hermione felt riled up, not only because it was the first time since school started that any staff had the curtesy to ask if her school life was going well, but mostly, she was furious because Lily had gotten hurt tonight.
"If any Slytherin found out that I'd come running to you at the first sign of trouble, my school life would have been even worse, and you know it. They would have done everything in short of killing me." Hermione stood up and lifted the side of her uniform shirt showing Dumbledore the scar on her side caused by Bellatrix's hex on her first week in school. "I bet you had no idea your students could be so cruel. You could have intervened indirectly; you should have kept a better eye out." She lowered her shirt and glared at the old man.
Dumbledore stared at her scar, looking concerned for her for the first time she stepped into her office. That was the problem with this man. He had his suspicions about her and he allowed it to cloud his mind. Once he's made up his mind about what kind of person you are, there was little one could do to change it. Granted he was correct 90% of the time, it didn't excuse his lack of effort to try to see the good in people.
"I'm sorry if my protection for you has been inadequate, but what you did, it is still unacceptable and punishable by law, if we report it."
"If you report it?" Hermione caught the emphasis.
"Mr. Willis and Mr. Mulciber has explicitly asked me not to report you, and I have a feeling Mr. Yaxley will ask of the same request, once he's done his calculations."
"Calculations? What calcu—" Hermione paused, then let out a lifeless laugh. "They're underage. If they report this, the authorities, their parents, the school board, everyone would get involved. They don't want that, do they?"
Dumbledore shook his head.
"If people find out and investigate, they'll find out that I beat them. A lowly muggleborn girl who's nearly failing first year Hogwarts."
"Yes," Dumbledore nodded. "I believe that's what they realized as well."
Hermione couldn't help but see amusement in this. They could have ruined her if they reported the incident and involved the authorities. Her identity as an Obscurial would have been found out, she would have been kicked out of Hogwarts and everyone involved in her promise to keep her tamed would be facing serious repercussions. Yet she was free, unburdened by any consequences due to the Slytherins' pride. The mere idea that she was able to beat three able bodied Slytherins would have been devastating to them, their family and their regard in society.
Hermione looked up curiously at the old man, wondering what he was playing at. Dumbledore didn't trust her like he trusted Hermione Granger, but then again, she didn't trust him like Hermione Granger trusted him either.
"Your punishment will be that you're not allowed to attending any extra curricular activities or events in school, such as Quidditch games. You will have detention for the rest of the year, and 100 points from Slytherin."
Hermione nodded slowly, wisely deciding not to say anything.
"Hermione, if something like this happens again, I will not protect you."
Dumbledore watched Hermione leave with unease in his chest. He wasn't sure if he was making the right decision, but there was one thing he truly believed in; 'keep your friends close, but your enemies closer'. He wasn't sure what the girl was, a friend or an enemy, but either way he needed to keep her close. As dangerous as this child was, she was young and impressionable. If he kept a watchful eye on this girl, maybe, just maybe, she could achieve great things.
…
By the time Hermione walked out of Dumbledore's office, it was already late in the evening, closing towards curfew. She stepped out of the gargoyle and sighed, when someone shoved her Transfiguration textbook, the one she dropped earlier that day with the Dark Arts content concealed inside, was handed back to her.
She looked up to see Severus standing in front of her with a nervous look.
"Did you read it?" She asked casually while taking the book from his hands. She didn't need to see him nod to know he saw its content.
"Are you going to ask why I'm reading this?"
Severus shook his head.
"Why not?"
"You saved Lily when I couldn't. And if this," he pointed at the book, "is how you've managed to do that, then I won't judge you for it."
Hermione nodded. They walked together in silence for the first time in months. Although Hermione never resented Severus to choosing to end their relationship due to social status, or at least an ease in school life, she had to admit that she missed him. He had this oddly satisfying dry sense of humor that she found herself enjoying.
"Could you do me one last favor before it becomes tomorrow and we have to go on pretending like we don't know each other?"
Severus turned to her, telling her 'go on'.
"I want to see Lucius Malfoy. In private."
…
In the dead of night, a silent intruder slid into the Hospital Wing where the injured quietly slept during the night. The footsteps were so soft that not even a werewolf's ears could pick up any sound.
"Obliviate."
The next morning, everyone in the Hospital Wing woke up with mixed and confusing testimonies as to who had caused such damage to them, but no one uttered the name Hermione Evans from their lips.