A/N: Huge thank you for the reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Big thanks to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter! You can find me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) for sneak peeks, story updates and questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter seven and be on the lookout for chapter eight soon!

Being back at Hogwarts was far stranger than Hermione could have expected. People were naturally curious about this new student who had joined them as a sixth year student and was somehow nebulously related to Regulus Black. She could feel their whispers and stares all throughout dinner, but she was pleased to have Regulus at her side, fielding all of the questions and going over the rehearsed explanations about her being taught at Beauxbatons before returning to England.

She was introduced to Regulus's cohort of friends, which included Rabastan — who was content to give her a wide berth after their stilted discussion on the train — Angus Bellchant (formerly described to her as a bellend, which, having met him, she could agree), Bernard Rosier (who had a cruel smirk perpetually on his face), and Ansel Pucey (who might be alright if he'd managed to look her in the eye for more than two seconds).

Regulus was far less helpful when it came to the witches that she would be rooming with, but he did pull aside a pretty witch with cornsilk coloured hair, called Elvira, and asked her to look after Hermione for him. She agreed with a put upon sigh, like it was the biggest ask in the world.

Hermione wanted to let the girl know that she could get on just fine by herself, but then she remembered she was nearly two decades in the past with almost no friends at all and she probably shouldn't turn down the help if she could help it. Besides, it wasn't as if she was beating off friends with a stick in her proper time. So what if being Regulus's sister was a bit of a cheat code to actually having a group of female friends?

Being amongst the Slytherins for the welcome feast had made her feel incredibly homesick for Harry and Ron and the Gryffindor table. She tried not to stare at James Potter for too long, convinced that the Head Boy would think she was some sort of creepy stalker if he caught her at it. How could she explain that if she just squinted, she could imagine that he was actually his yet to be born son?

She barely ate anything at the welcome dinner, unable to swallow past the knot in her throat, thinking about how fucked all of this was and cursing Bellatrix for the thousandth time.

Batting away Elvira's weak attempts to include her in some gossip with her new housemates, Hermione decided to go to bed early.

The next day, she woke up, feeling determined that she would take matters into her own hands that day. Orion had forbidden her from speaking to anyone of the future outside of Grimmauld Place, but what Orion didn't know wouldn't hurt him. He'd been concerned about Dumbledore learning anything about who she really was, so naturally Hermione decided to finally seek out the Headmaster so she could explain her predicament to him.

She knew that Orion thought it was hopeless for her to return to her normal time, but she thought that Dumbledore just might have some other ideas. After classes, she would pay him a visit and find out for herself.

Classes were fine. Hermione knew that she was taking on a lot by intending to pursue seven NEWTs, but it wasn't as if she felt overloaded by work. Her professors were no more interested in her than anyone else at the school and she was pleased that none of them put her on the spot. The Headmaster must have clued them in before she started.

She shared four classes with Regulus and Rabastan was the only other Slytherin in Advanced Arithmancy, but she avoided sitting with him in favor of another witch who was in Ravenclaw with large glasses. By the time that classes were over for the day, she felt none of the characteristic excitement she would usually have over the start of a new school year, with all that magic new material that she would be learning.

No, she had a one track mind today and all she could think about was finally getting the chance to speak with Dumbledore. Her feet carried her the whole way as she raced to his office to catch him before dinner. She never even stopped to wonder if he would believe her because, of course he would, he was Headmaster Dumbledore!

But, when she got to the gargoyle that guarded his office and explained that she would like to speak with him. The gargoyle turned away for a moment and Hermione was sure that he would hop aside, revealing the staircase up to his office, only to be told that the Headmaster wouldn't be speaking to her.

Hermione huffed, pressing her hands to her hips in annoyance. "What do you mean he won't see me?" she demanded, unable to believe that she was actually arguing with a statue.

The gargoyle would give her no more information, pointedly ignoring her like he was made of stone.

Feeling equal parts annoyed and glum, Hermione stood there for a moment while she tried to decide what to do about this. She wasn't going to get anywhere tonight, obviously, so she turned, deciding to head to dinner so she could regroup and figure out how to get Dumbledore to sit down and listen to her. Even if he couldn't get her back to her time, she still had important information he'd probably want to hear!

"Well, well, well," a snide voice said from somewhere behind her. "What do we have here?"

Hermione snorted and spun on her heel coming face to face with Sirius, James, Remus and Peter — that little rat. "Are you trying to sound like a bad villain?" she asked, unable to help herself. Even though she knew she and Sirius were ostensibly on the same side, there was something about him that made it too easy to argue with. It had been the same in her time. "Because it's working."

"It's the little urchin that my family is trying to pass off as one of their own," he continued, not bothering to answer her accusation.

"The urchin has a name," she reminded him, jutting her chin in the air. "Hermione Granger. I don't believe that we've met yet."

"Why would I want to meet you?" Sirius asked, looking her up and down disdainfully.

Hermione swallowed, feeling some unease settle in her stomach. Even though Harry hadn't wanted to hear it, Professor Snape had insisted that both Sirius and James had been bullies while they were at Hogwarts. Hermione now wondered just how true it might be. "Well, you are the one who sought me out," she argued back. "We don't have to speak."

"Just how exactly did you manage to weasley your way into my family?" Sirius wondered out loud, looking at her with his head cocked to one side. "Are you the ugly step-sister that my mother was forced to take in because my father stepped out on her?"

"I don't think she's ugly," the pudgy wizard behind Sirius said, apparently unable to help himself.

Hermione bit the inside of her cheek to stop from shouting out that he was a terrible rat who betrayed his friends. Honestly, if Hermione didn't know who Peter Pettigrew was, she doubted that she would think much of anything about the ordinary boy.

"Shut up, Peter," James hissed, the first thing that he said.

Ha, Hermione thought to herself, some Head Boy he was turning out to be. He was meant to be a good example, welcoming, well behaved. But, it seemed that he couldn't reign in his best friend even for a second if he was on a tear. And the way he talked to his own friend, well. Hermione wasn't too surprised to see that there were cracks in the Marauders friendships.

"Does it really matter?" Hermione asked, finally. "How I came to be in your family — the family that you left behind, mind you — is irrelevant because I'm not going anywhere."

Sirius's lips twitched for a moment and she wondered if she had hit a nerve. But then, he smirked at her. "That must be it," he said, triumphantly. "He really did step out on her. But, I wonder what happened to make you live with them. What witch did he get you on? Did your mother die or did she just decide that she didn't want you around anymore?"

Hermione could feel tears in her eyes and wished she could banish them. Merlin, this was really not how she was planning on her first meeting with Sirius going. She had not expected him to be so outright hostile to her when she had done nothing except exist in the Black family. He was nothing like the Sirius that she knew — he was so much worse than she could have imagined.

"You shouldn't talk about things you don't understand, Sirius," she warned, even though it sounded like a lame threat to her.

Remus Lupin — Godric, Remus bloody Lupin — looked uncomfortable and pressed his hand to Sirius's shoulder. It was odd to see her future professor, with a few less scars, looking quite so boyish and significantly less downtrodden. "Maybe we should just drop the subject and leave it alone, Sirius," he suggested. "I think you've upset her enough."

"Merlin's Beard, Remus, don't let her pretty exterior fool you," he demanded. "She's just as evil as the rest of them, I'm sure of it."

Remus wilted under the chastisement and Hermione was left sorely disappointed again. She'd thought of her professor as such a good person, who had a strong moral conviction, but even he couldn't stand up to his cruel friend.

"So which is it, Black?" a voice drawled from around the corner. "Is she your ugly step-sister or does she have a pretty exterior?"

Hermione's head whipped around and she was surprised to see Elvira standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, looking supremely unimpressed with the four seventh year boys picking on her. She felt her heart surge when she realized that maybe her classmate was not so put upon by her presence.

"The darkness inside of her suffocates any superficial beauty she might have," Sirius argued back with a snarl. "And I don't believe that you were invited to this conversation, Bliss."

Elvira came to stand next to Hermione. "I wouldn't really call this a conversation," she said, rolling her eyes. "Come on, Hermione. You don't have to talk to these Gryffindors. They just want you to stand here and listen to their bile, but they won't actually do anything about it."

Hermione could hear Sirius and James sputtering in the background, but Elvira didn't seem the least bit phased. "Yes, they don't seem to be very well mannered," Hermione said, stumbling over her words just a little bit.

"How Potter ever made Head Boy is a miracle to me. Dumbledore must have hit his head or something," Elvira continued, still leading her further away from the Marauders, until they were well out of ear shot.

"I'm sure he saw something worth cultivating," Hermione said, remembering Remus's insistence that James had grown to be responsible during his seventh year and that's when Lily fell in love with him. But, having met the wizard, she really wasn't so certain. When she saw that they were finally out of ear shot, she felt she could speak freely. "Thank you for helping me. I felt a bit like a deer in headlights just then."

"A what?" Elvira asked, looking at her owlishly, her pretty brown eyes looking at her confused. "Don't mention it. We Slytherins have to stick together."

Hermione bit her lower lip to keep from saying that she wasn't a Slytherin. But then again, the Sorting Hat had obviously put her there for a reason. "I suppose we do," she agreed.

"So," Elvira said, looking at her conspiratorially. "Was what Sirius said true? Are you the bastard daughter of Orion? Is that why your last name is Granger?"

She wasn't sure entirely what to say. "No, I'm not," Hermione said, remembering the story that they had agreed upon. "I'm a cousin, but Orion and Walburga agreed to take me in as their own when my... circumstances changed. It's really not that exciting."

Somehow, she did not think that the other witch believed her, but she was also not going to press any further at that point. "Whatever you say, Hermione," Elvira answered. "Now, let's get to dinner. Maybe if we are lucky Angus will have left us some of the rolls. He always seems to be stuffing the extras in his mouth."

Hermione laughed at that and agreed, walking side by side to the Great Hall. She wasn't entirely sure what to make of her, but she thought that she might have just made her first real friend at Hogwarts in this time.