Severus paced in the corridor, attempting to calm his breathing. He was nervous, more nervous than he had ever been in his life. As a result, he almost jumped out of his skin when he spotted Hermione walking down the corridor on the arm of bloody Antonin. Who the fuck was this boy?

"Severus," she nodded, turning to Antonin, her voice soft. "Will you set up the room?"

He nodded, pacing back and forth in front of the wall. "What is he doing?" Severus hissed, his eyes going wide when a door appeared.

"Setting up the room," Hermione replied with a slight smile. "Come on." Taking his hand, she tugged him forward as they walked into a room that he'd never seen before, but which Hermione clearly knew well. "It's the Library at Prince Hall," she explained. "I've always loved it."

He hummed, not sure where to begin now that he was here. "Malfoy gave you the ground rules?" Antonin checked.

"Yes," Severus growled, a scowl overtaking his face.

"Good," Antonin nodded with a smirk.

"Oh honestly!" Hermione exclaimed exasperatedly, "You're all ridiculous! And don't think I haven't noticed Barty creeping around when he thinks I'm not looking."

Antonin looked slightly sheepish, before muttering, "I won't apologise for keeping you safe."

"I'm safe enough," she retorted. "You know fine well that Abraxas, Orion, and Cygnus have been teaching me some… interesting hexes. And Walburga, Bella, and Andi only added to my repertoire."

Antonin shrugged. "Good. That still doesn't mean I'm not going to look out for you."

She rolled her eyes in response. "You're building a bloody guard, Tony!"

"Nonsense," he waved her off with a smirk. "We're friends, are we not?"

She huffed. "Of course we are."

"And Reggie, Barty, and Bast… they're friends."

"Antonin!" she growled. "It's not the same and you know it."

He sighed. "I promised, Mya. And… we owe you, all of us. Keeping you safe, it's the least we can do."

She sighed, her face softening. "One day, you're going to have to let me stand on my own two feet."

He nodded. "When you and Reggie are married and he's legally allowed to use all of those delightful spells in the Black family grimoires."

"Oh, for the love of Merlin!" she huffed.

"You're not marrying Regulus bloody Back!" Severus exclaimed.

Two sets of raised eyebrows faced him. "Oh?"

"You cannot be serious! You're what… fourteen?"

"Yes," she agreed. "The traditional age of betrothals."

"And… so… you just let our grandparents choose your husband?"

"Don't be absurd, Severus," she scoffed. "It was discussed. Several people were mentioned, most of whom I know. You forget that I've known Regulus since we were both in nappies. I'm… not upset."

He frowned. "But… how?"

"I always knew a betrothal was likely. I understand it seems strange, and I know some families now wait, but Walburga was… impatient, and Merlin knows Sirius isn't ready to consider anyone. They don't force, they just..."

"Strongly suggest?" Antonin smirked.

"Hush you," Hermione chided, before smirking, "Don't think I don't know what you and Bast are doing. Roddy and Bella have just announced a pregnancy. I'd push now if I were you."

Antonin flushed. "Right," he muttered, making her laugh.

"What… how the hell are you just accepting this?" Severus howled.

"It's… it's a different world, Severus," she explained gently. "I know that you don't understand, but I… we have grown up knowing we'd be betrothed to someone our families approved of. All of us. It's… just the way it's done. And I was lucky. Grandfather took my opinion into account."

"That's lucky?" he hissed.

She sighed. "In our world? Yes. It's lucky. I am aware that it shouldn't be, but it unfortunately is and I cannot yet do anything about it. I have had several conversations with Orion, Cygnus, Abraxas, and Isaiah…."

"Isaiah?" he checked. He recognised the rest of them.

"Oh, Rosier. Evan's father. They were surprisingly receptive to my opinions."

"Because they adore you and you saved their lines from extinction," Antonin snorted.

"Not Abraxas's," she shrugged.

Antonin rolled his eyes. "No you saved his from infamy and a rather large, public fall from grace."

"What… what the fuck are you talking about?" Severus shouted, his head spinning as he attempted to keep up with this conversation.

She sighed. "I… you have to understand how much danger my telling you puts us… me… in."

"I don't understand."

"I am considered by most to be a Seer." He froze. True Seer's were rare and sought after. Unscrupulous individuals tended to use them for their own gain. "Not that many people are aware," she continued, "But for those who are aware of… my gifts, most of them were led to believe that over the truth."

He felt his brain shut down, utterly unable to process what she had just said. "What?" he blurted.

"I am not a seer," she replied bluntly. "I am… much more dangerous, or I suppose, much more valuable, or perhaps utterly useless now, depending on how you look at it."

"What are you then?" he asked, utterly bewildered.

"Deliberately and permanently displaced."

"What?"

"I… in my original timeline, Severus Snape didn't have a sister."

He froze. "Your what?"

"Original timeline," she repeated like it made perfect sense. "It was… a ritual. The world was decimated. I don't quite understand all of it, to be honest. I gather that I did once, but it… works to embed someone in the timeline. And so I was born Hermione Snape… Prince, whichever, this time, with most of the memories of Hermione Granger. Not that I originally knew that that's what they were. I lived with you until I was almost three. Did you know that?"

"No," he rasped.

"Apparently, according to Grandmother, my nightmares were awful and Eileen couldn't cope," Hermione continued as if she were discussing nothing more interesting than the weather and not upending his entire world, "Tobias definitely couldn't cope. She thought he was going to murder me. When she heard what I was screaming, she thought perhaps I had the sight and knew she couldn't deal with it. He would never have dealt with it. So she contacted Grandfather and demanded they take me or she was dropping me off at a hospital somewhere."

He flinched at the matter-of-fact way she said it. Noticing, she waved him off. "It's… well it's not fine, but… I haven't had a terrible childhood. Grandmother made sure that I was surrounded by children my age and began working with me using a combination of legilimency and occlumency to cope with the nightmares. She began documenting them when I was around five, then began involving other people when I was around six and was able to verbalise what I saw. Around then, other things started coming back. It… took a while to get things straight. Having two sets of memories was rather confusing."

"You expect me to believe this?" he demanded.

She shrugged. "I cannot make you. What you decide to believe is entirely up to you. However, it is worth asking yourself why I'd lie."

He jumped at the sound of someone knocking on the door as Hermione turned to glare at Antonin. "That had better not be who I think it is," she hissed.

Antonin smirked, sauntering over to the door, pushing Rabastan, Lucius, and Regulus inside.

Despite Hermione's glare, they all grinned back at her.

"Hello my dove, you look radiant today."

"Lucius!" she growled. "Why are you here?"

He pouted. "Can I not just want to spend time with my favourite Ravenclaw?"

"If rumours are to be believed I am far from your favourite Ravenclaw," she replied pointedly.

He flushed slightly. "You're still my favourite," he insisted.

She rolled her eyes in response. "And you two?"

"Thought it was time I met the family?" Regulus quipped, faltering slightly as her glare intensified. Sensing her impending loss of patience, Rabastan held up his hand placatingly.

"I'm here for Antonin," he protested, making her laugh against her will.

"You can stay then," she agreed magnanimously. "Although I did point out all of five minutes ago that given that Bella and Roddy have just announced a pregnancy, perhaps you should ah… do something about formalising things now?"

Rabastan sighed. "And when they refuse?

"They won't refuse."

"And how would you know that?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

"I don't. I was merely meaning we needed to persuade them."

"Oh?" his eyes lit up with mischief.

"Surely plausible deniability is best? I am, after all, a seer," she smirked.

Lucius barked out a laugh. "Gods, and Rene Lestrange would bloody buy it."

"Of course, he would," Hermione agreed with a grin.

"What… how the fuck is any of this normal?" Severus howled.

Several eyes turned to look at him simultaneously. "As hard as I imagine this is to believe, what do we gain by lying?" Hermione asked again.

"I… I have no idea," he admitted with a sigh, running his hand over his face. This was all fucking insane.

"Especially as you can check with your mother whether I'm telling the truth or not." Hermione continued as if he hadn't spoken.

Severus sighed, letting the silence fall for several seconds as he contemplated that. "Right. I… fuck. Who else knows?"

"Most of Slytherin and Ravenclaw think I'm a seer. As for those who know the truth, everyone in this room, Roddy and Bella, Cygnus and Druella, Orion and Walburga, Narcissa and Andi, Abraxas and Celene, Isaiah and Leonora, Augusta Longbottom, and Sirius. I imagine that Remus Lupin and James Potter also know. Pettigrew was the only one I expressly forbid. Even Eileen doesn't know the truth. It's… the fewer people who know the safer it is and quite frankly, that's already a rather long list."

"We need to make a decision about Barty," Antonin cautioned.

"I know," she sighed. "I'm just… struggling with it given everything."

He hummed. "Bella wasn't sane either," he pointed out. Severus got the impression this was a conversation they'd had before.

"I know! I don't know why it feels different. It just does. Maybe it's because Barty Senior concerns me in a way that Cygnus doesn't."

Antonin sighed. "Fine."

"What happened in her future to make her do the ritual?" Severus blurted.

Hermione flinched, her eyes meeting Antonin's as her hand went unconsciously to her chest. "Death mainly," she murmured. "So much death."

"You're too young to have heard of it," Lucius began, squeezing her shoulder. "But there was a man named Tom Riddle. In this timeline, he was destroyed by a group of families… with the help of a newly discovered, young seer."

Severus' eyes widened. "And in the original timeline?"

"You all supported him," Hermione replied softly. "And only Lucius survived it."

"Fuck," Severus hissed. "I supported him?"

"Yes. He… promised a return to the old ways, purebloods on top, a stronger division of muggle and magical. And he tortured, maimed, and murdered. He turned families against one another, and he ruled his followers with fear. He… hunted a baby."

"A baby?"

"Yes," she gave a small sad smile. "Harry James Potter. He… murdered James first. Then Lily."

Severus paled. " My Lily?"

"She's not yours Severus," Hermione replied softly. "But yes, Lily Evans was Harry's mother. He had her eyes. She and James were dead by twenty-one because your master was threatened by a prophecy. He… disappeared for a while, but he came back. It was… chaos. People were dying and there was destruction and mass murder for the sheer hell of it. And then he brought it here to the school. It… so many people died. Children died. And he enjoyed it. We won in the end, but the cost was obscene. I… she couldn't live with the cost."

He nodded slowly as he tried to process that. It was unbelievable. All of it was utterly unbelievable, but… the look on her face… the look on her face forced him to consider that she was perhaps telling the truth. And that was a terrifying thought.