A/N Ok. It was an extra day. Sorry. Several of you lovely commenters have mentioned ideas about how their interactions with Snape might go. I wanted to say that they were all good ideas. By the time I posted the chapter that sparked those comments though, I had already written a good bit of their meet ups. I hope how I've plotted this out doesn't disappoint. Snape isn't a huge part, but he will get significant screen time I think, and eventually his own chapter.

Chapter 11

Out on the street, they ducked into an alley and dissilusioned themselves. Thankfully, they didn't have long to wait before their target stalked into town. Even better, he appeared to be alone. That was, until his other tail beat them to him.

The marauders, still missing James, stepped out of a shop just in time to follow him up the street. Not caring about subtlety, they immediately began taunting Severus.

"That's hardly sporting, three on one." Fabian clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Do they know he's already a Death Eater?"

Sticking close to the shop fronts as they followed, George answered for a still quietly stewing Hermione. "Well, they probably believe he is at this point but, like the lady said, they've been ganging up on him since their first train ride. He can give as good as he gets now but not as an ickle firstie."

She snorted. "Part of me thinks his time in Azkaban made Sirius a tolerable human being."

George would never wish the hell he imagined Azkaban to be on an innocent man, but she had a point. Young Sirius Black was a bully and from what Hermione had told him of Snape's memories, an arrogant berk as well. Considering his upbringing, he pictured a Draco Malfoy but without all the blood purity nonsense. Surely he could grow up a bit without going to Azkaban.

As they followed the boys down the street, away from the busy shop fronts and towards the small residential blocks, the taunts grew nastier and hexes and curses started flying. Hermione grumbled and put up a protego around them so they wouldn't get hit in the crossfire. Now would have been a perfect opportunity if not for the three interlopers. What he wouldn't give for some Peruvian Darkness Powder.

Fabian spoke close to his ear. "Gid and I will knock out those three, you two go for Snape from across the way?"

"Sounds good. Ready Hermione?"

"Yes. Give us thirty seconds to get out of the way." Groping around blindly, her hand smacked him in the chest and twice down his arm before she grabbed his hand and tugged him across the street.

Drawing his wand, George kept hold of Hermione's hand so as not to lose her. When the marauders dropped suddenly, Snape spun around in place looking for the new threat, wand and protego shield up.

"Who's there? Is that you Mulciber?"

Hermione went first with a silent stunner. It bounced off his shield but now he knew where they were. He shot a nasty looking hex in their direction which only missed their own shield narrowly. George threw a stunner of his own, not wanting to risk actually hurting him with anything more dangerous.

The three of them went back and forth for nearly a minute before a stunner from where Gideon or Fabian must have been got him while he was focused on the threat he had seen. Dropping their disillusionment charms, they stepped towards the four boys, all prone at uncomfortable looking angles. Apparently unable to help herself, Hermione trod on Peter's hand as she stepped around him.

"I've heard young Black here mention he wants to be an auror after school." Gideon shook his head. "We weren't exactly being quiet as we followed them. He'll have to work on paying better attention to his surroundings."

Fabian looked more sober than his brother. "He's so eager to join Dumbledore and start killing Death Eaters but he's just an inexperienced kid." He looked up at Hermione with an apologetic frown. "I'm sorry this was left to you and your friends. Children shouldn't be fighting this war."

Gideon sat Remus up against a fence post. "Come on Fab, they're of age. They're not kids."

Helping move the two other marauders, George thought they were both right. They may have been of age, but they were green and eager for death.

"I was twelve when I first went up against the Dark Lord." Hermione crouched over Remus, raising her wand to his temple. "Hogwarts didn't protect us, and I've already told you about my theories on that. Dumbledore doesn't care how young they are if he can use them."

Remembering his own final year at school, George frowned and moved over to secure Snape. She was right. It was true that they had created the DA on their own, but by then the adults in their world had completely failed them. "Don't worry Hermione, we won't let things get to that point this time."

Once Hermione was finished altering memories, she stood up and looked around the empty street. "It's a good thing the only people who live here work in the village. Alright, we have to hurry to have him back by curfew."

Grabbing ahold of Snape, they apparated away.

GH

They'd magically bolted the chair to the floor, secured him to the chair and taken his wand. Head lolling to the side, eyes furious, Severus was fighting the stunner with everything he had. Hermione crouched in front of him, a cautionary protego around herself to protect from wandless magic.

"Hello Severus. I'm sorry we had to meet this way. We really don't want to hurt you. The reason we've brought you here is because we need help and you're the only one who can give it to us."

When his eyes swung to Gideon and Fabian, she held up a hand to bring his attention back to herself. "Yes, I know they're Dumbledore's men but not here. This…" She gestured at the four of them. "We aren't working with him. What we're doing is separate from his little group. In fact, I'd wager my fiancé and I have as little regard for the old man as you."

George shifted behind her and she smiled slightly when she noticed her protego shimmer with added magic.

"We know that you have joined the Dark Lord. I'm not sure if you've taken the mark yet, but you will. That's why we need you. You are going to carry on, wearing the mark and doing the Dark Lord's will. But you'll really be working for us." She couldn't tell what he was thinking; incredulous anger was all she could see in his eyes. "I'm going to tell you something that will sound impossible, and then I'm going to give you back your wand so you can look into my mind and see the truth of it."

"Are you sure that's the only way? Can't you just pull the memories out and find him a pensieve?"

She gave George a reassuring smile. "I haven't got a pensieve, have you? Besides, it's too easy to modify memories and he knows that. We need him to believe us so I'm willing to risk it." Her smile became a cheeky smirk. "I trust you to protect me."

He scoffed but she didn't miss the faint blush as she turned back to Severus.

"George and I are from the future. In twenty years you will give your life as Dumbledore's spy against the Dark Lord and less than an hour later the war finally ends for good. In two years, you turn spy after overhearing a prophecy and running to your master. When he interprets it and targets Lily, more specifically her infant son—yes, she marries James and they have a son, Harry—you'll offer Dumbledore anything if only he'd protect her and he'll do everything he can. But it won't be enough and once she's dead you devote your life to protecting her son and ending the Dark Lord."

Eyes wide and disbelieving, he had stopped struggling. It was an unbelievable story but she knew he was interested.

"I'm going to release the stunner. You won't try anything, and you can ask questions. Then I'll give you your wand back and you can look into my memories, your own memories that I've seen. I won't hide anything relevant, I promise. Are you ready, Severus?"

He blinked hard and she nodded and did as she'd promised. Jerking in his seat, Severus shook his head and rolled his shoulders. "Who are you? You capture me and tell me the most ridiculous story I've ever heard, you know my name but haven't told me yours?"

"That's fair. My name is Hermione Granger. I'll be born to muggles next September. This," she indicated George. "Is George Weasley. He was born a week ago. We visited actually, that was strange."

Severus sneered. "What did you do with Black and his lackeys? It didn't seem like you were too fond of them."

"I modified their memories. Which I'll do to you if you decide not to help us. I knew Sirius and Remus, they were good men." When he scoffed she smirked. "They will be good men." The smirk fell to something sad as she thought of little Teddy. "They went through hell before I ever met them. So did you."

"Not Pettigrew?"

A dark look clouded her face. "No. Not Pettigrew."

Severus eyed her more critically. "Interesting. You're right, your story is insane. Everyone knows time travel to this magnitude is impossible, and even if you could have come so far you wouldn't be able to change anything. You were a lack-wit Gryffindor no doubt. Here you are, in the past thinking you can do whatever you please. Typical. That's all, of course, supposing that bit of nonsense is even true. You might as well obliviate me now. I don't believe you and I won't betray my Lord."

Sighing, Hermione shook her head. "I can't do that, not yet. You're right, by any conventional understanding time is a loop. We haven't any proof yet but we didn't travel by conventional means and we aim to at least try. You've asked your questions. Now I'm going to hand you back your wand. If you try anything but legilimens you'll be dead before you finish waving your wand. And I warn you, like you I am a natural at this. If you try to hurt me once in my mind you may find yourself trapped there."

His glare was as acidic as it ever would be, but he nodded once and opened his hand. Letting out a short breath, she pulled the ebony wand from her sleeve and placed it in his hand. For a heartbeat she thought he might try to run, or hurt one of them, but he eyed the three wands pointing at him and sighed in resignation.

Without giving her any more warning than the gleam in his eye, he pointed his wand at her temple and cast.

When he pulled out of her mind, they were both breathing heavily and sweating. Tears streaked Severus's face and his wand clattered to the ground as he collapsed back into his seat. Hermione's head ached and her vision swam. When she started to sway where she crouched, George caught her and held her as she heaved and cried silent tears of her own.

Reliving everything; the last two years, the seven years before that, the battle, the losses, the heartache and the torture, then his own years' worth of memories… It was too much. She had no idea how long it had been. It felt like the years she'd lived. Burying her face in George's shirt, Hermione tried to push down the fresh pain to deal with later. She couldn't completely fall apart now: that could wait. Just then she needed to question Severus.

George's voice rumbled in his chest against her cheek. "Well, Snape? Will you help us or have we wasted our time?"

Peeking back at the sallow young man who was once her teacher, Hermione waited for his answer. Clearly devastated he shook his head. "I… I killed her. It was my fault."

"Even if…" She wiped her eyes, swallowed around the tightness in her throat and forced her shields back into place to stop herself feeling. "Even if you do things differently, she will still die. If Dumbledore hears that same prophecy and assigns it to her son again, I have no doubt he will orchestrate things to happen much as they did. I'm not entirely sure he truly did his best to protect them, but if you help us, if we succeed, Lily and so many others will live."

He stared at her for a long time. "You mean that, don't you. This, Harry, her son… He was important to you."

"He was my best friend." She paused, taking a deep breath and reinforcing her quaking shields. Thinking about Harry and how much she missed her friend and everyone else would have to wait too. "If we don't screw that up somehow and he's still born, I want him to grow up with his parents. And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that happens."

"Untie me."

George nodded to Gideon who dropped the spell. Now free, Severus rubbed at his wrists and looked thoughtful. "I can occlude, but the man in your memories… he was a master. I do not know if I am confident enough to go before the Dark Lord and lie to his face."

Sighing with relief, Hermione tried to explain what she knew. "From what I understand, it involves more showing him what he wants to see rather than outright lying. Certainly some false memories when necessary, and hiding your emotions behind your shields. He is arrogant in his skill and would never believe anyone could fool him."

Severus nodded slowly, and reached to pick up his wand. "I… will help you. These horcruxes, that's what you need me for?"

"Yes." Hermione reached into her beaded bag for her notes. "At this point he only has five…"

He scoffed. "Only five?"

"By the time we finally defeated him he had done it eight times."

"Bloody fucking hell. It was difficult to count sifting through your memories..."

"Yes, well…" She indicated her parchment. "One of them we should be able to get on our own. Three will be up to you."

"You said five, what about the fifth? You've a note here about Regulus." Severus rubbed idly at his left forearm. "He's… already taken the mark and seems as fanatical as anyone else."

"That one won't be available to us until the summer." She sighed. "Your Dark Lord hasn't hidden it yet, but he'll use Regulus's house elf to do it. Try and stay friendly with him if you can. We'll keep an eye on him this summer but it would help if you could as well. For now, we can't get into Hogwarts without alerting Dumbledore, so as you're still a student you should start with Ravenclaw's diadem."

"The lost diadem? You found it?" Severus gaped at them.

"Tom found it. Then he mutilated it and hid it at Hogwarts." Letting George explain about the room of requirement and how to find it, Hermione closed her eyes and hoped they were right. If he could do this, if he could bring them the diadem it would go a long way to proving that they could change time.

They could do this.

With Severus's help, they might be able to end the war before Harry was even born. It was almost too good to believe. Surely it wouldn't be as easy as she imagined. So many things could go wrong. Dumbledore could catch wind of their plan and interfere. Any of them could die.

But in the grand scheme of things, as long as little Fred and George, little Hermione, little Harry and Ron and everyone else grew up in real peace, it would be worth it.

"Are you alright, Hermione?"

George knelt in front of her where she sat on the foot of their bed. They had given Severus directions, had him swear an unbreakable vow and come directly home. Now she needed to stop occluding or she might hurt herself.

The things she was holding back, the hasty way she'd put up her shields—it was harder than it should have been. She was afraid to let herself feel everything again, all at once, and the fear was making it difficult to let go.

"I… I need help, George. I can't… drop my shields."

Taking her hands in one of his, he reached up and cupped her cheek. "What do you need me to do?"

Gasping out a sob, she dropped her eyes to his. "Can you cast… legilimens?" He nodded but didn't look confident. "You can do it. I just need… a little help, George."

"Ok."

Without breaking eye contact, he pointed his wand at her temple and slipped into her mind. His magic washed over her shields, warm and sweet like the sun on a chill spring day. It was strong and comforting… it felt safe. She could let down her defenses. She could let herself fall apart and he would be there, the way they had both been for each other so many times.

With a shudder and a sob, her shields came down.

Everything felt so raw and fresh and painful, but George caught her as she slipped from the bed into his lap, sobbing. Hurt and fear and pain from the traumas and torture, deep and overwhelming sorrow over the losses of her parents and friends—all at once Hermione felt like she was drowning in it.

They sat there on the floor, her wrapped in his arms as she clung to him, until all her tears had been spent and then they sat there still. How long it had been, she had no idea, but the sunlight from the window had long since disappeared. The scar on her arm ached dully and she wanted her Mum but the worst of it had passed.

Drying the last of her tears, Hermione found herself as reluctant to move from George's embrace as he seemed to be to part with her. She had been avoiding examining her feelings for him too closely. Neither of them were in a fit state for that yet and now they were right in the middle of another war and either of them could die. But she couldn't deny the way she felt for him, the way she'd begun to feel for him gradually as they'd spent nearly every evening in one another's company for the last several months as they put themselves back together.

As she sat there in his arms—cheek against his warm chest, his own pillowed in her hair—Hermione knew that she could love him. Even if they had never traveled back in time, she would have come to the same conclusion. It just would have taken longer: their sudden isolation and increased reliance upon one another had made her notice things about their relationship she wouldn't necessarily have seen otherwise.

But she couldn't tell him. She couldn't act on her feelings, not yet. Not when either of them might die. Hermione might not have been raised in the magical world, but she understood how magical bonds formed between people. The severing of their magical bond was half the reason losing Fred had so completely destroyed George, more even than the normal painful loss of a close sibling.

What would happen to him if she died? As they were? He would be able to move on. If they became so much more to each other? She didn't think he could survive another loss like that. And if she was honest, Hermione didn't think she would either.

She hoped that Fred wouldn't mind.

A/N Pretty sure in Cannon the use of Legilimens and Occlumency is meant to be a rare thing. I have the idea that Fred and George would have practiced on each other a bit to learn how to occlude at least a little. They were smart and would have seen the benefit, if only to guard their proprietary spells and things for their shop, never mind the war. So, he can do it, just not to the extent that Snape or even Hermione could.