A Time Before Tears

Chapter Three

Friday, as the sixth year Gryffindors packed their things to leave their last class of the day, Hermione considered what she was going to do that night. She did not want to go back to the library. She did not want to hang around with Remus- not if he was only with her at the headmaster's behest. The only people, she realized with a pang of loneliness, that she wanted to talk with were twenty years away. Hell, they weren't even born yet.

Hermione turned her thoughts away from them. It was too painful to think about. Instead she alphabetized the books in her bag as she put them away.

"Val, Noelle, and I are going to a little Slytherin party tonight. Want to come?" asked Lily as they all left their Herbology class.

"Slytherin party?"

Hermione had never known a house to have a party that invited students from another house. In fact, she'd never heard of a house holding a party in general. It was just one more thing on a growing list that she wanted to understand. Having decided her studies mattered only a little, Hermione worked to understand the situation she was in- creating her own projects to take her mind off of the world that she was lost in.

"There will be music and dancing and food. And I think Val might stay over there. You want to come with us?"

"Yes," she said after a moment. The three girls entered the castle through the huge main doors.

"What'll you wear?" asked Valerie.

"I don't know. I've never been to an inter-house party before."

"I didn't know they had houses at Beauxbatons," commented Noelle.

"The parties are a lot of fun. I think the guys'll come, if Sirius isn't being a prat," Lily added, leaving no room for explanation from Hermione about the lack of houses at her 'old school.'

~*~*~

The party turned out to be in a room in the dungeons that had been decorated with bright flying streamers and flashes of lights going off. Hermione was violently reminded of the disco era in muggle history and hoped that nothing of that sort had passed into the wizarding world.

Hermione stayed near the walls, trying to avoid making herself known to too many people. She wasn't sure what she would do if she got back and saw these people twenty years older while they saw her as the same bushy haired brunette. If she could manage to get back at all, that is.

She was jumpy just seeing people with different colored uniforms voluntarily being in the same room. It was something that she had never experienced before, and it was really nice but also kind of scary.

"Are you all right?" asked Lily, walking up to her with two Butterbeers.

"Yes, it's just..." Hermione dropped the end of her sentence, not sure how to finish it without farther implying that she had not gone to the French school for magic. Instead she looked across the room and gazed steadily at a group of guys chatting animatedly. From what Hermione could see, there was at least one person from each house in the group.

"Odd seeing all the houses together?" Lily asked, not unkindly. Hermione was excited to hear that Lily understood what she was feeling; Hermione assumed this meant Lily felt the same way as she did. They caught each other's eyes and Hermione had a sudden flash of understanding. Lily Evans did not empathize with her feelings, she simply understood that was what Hermione was feeling. Who are you? Hermione found herself wondering at Lily.

"Yes, it's odd. It kind of scares me into not wanting to mix and mingle," Hermione said, trying to maintain the conversation.

"Even with the world on your shoulders you can find time to have one butterbeer and enjoy a party," Lily said, sounding like she was reciting something. She smiled and handed Hermione the second drink. Hermione laughed a little.

"Where'd you learn that?"

"James of course."

Both girls smiled- one because she was remembering a time when she had stood on the side of a party and a boy had dragged her to the dance floor with a drink, the other because her heart was compressing as she witnessed the love that fought against an unbeatable curse and won.

James and Sirius walked in then and soon found Lily and Hermione. The four of them stood talking until James finally dragged Lily away. Hermione suddenly found herself alone with Sirius Black and would have shuddered if she'd been brave enough to look at him. As it was, she could only glance at him out of the corner of her eye. She worked hard with what she could see trying to see the man she once knew: Sirius Black the infamous Azkaban escapee.

Sirius, known in her time as Snuffles, known as a murderer, known as the last best friend of a werewolf, known as the godfather of the world's greatest hope, stood beside her known only as Marauder and wanting nothing else.

"Valerie's over there." Hermione pointed.

"I know."

"Then why are you talking to me?"

"Because I trust Lily and Remus and they told me you were worth it," he said. It was obvious that he wanted to be doing something. He was an active kid that didn't do well in serious conversation; Hermione admired him for trying.

"Are Lily and James an item?" Hermione asked, figuring a light topic was in order. She should have realized that this one wasn't that light.

"Why?" he asked sharply.

"Because they seem perfect for one another," Hermione responded. Sirius' face slowly broke into a smile and he nodded.

"They are celebrating four months soon I think," Sirius explained, smiling, and Hermione witnessed, once again, the devotion people seemed to have towards Lily and James. It was a devotion that seemed unparalleled and unquestioned. People were happy when they were happy. People were mad when they were hurt. People were excited when they took an interest in them. Hermione took that in stride and tried to simply accept it.

Silence enveloped the mismatched pair that was comfortable. Sirius no longer seemed to want to get away and Hermione was content to let her thoughts drift.

"Did you really dye Snape's hair pink for a week?" Hermione asked, segueing to a lighter topic she'd heard Harry mention once. Sirius laughed.

"Don't forget the sombrero." Sirius launched into the story, full with the motions and the fireworks and the detentions. Hermione laughed hard and long as she had never done in her own time. She laughed with a boy who would become a man that would no longer laugh and began to question her decision not to help him.

~*~*~

"That was fun," Noelle exclaimed, lying tiredly on her bed.

"Not as much fun as tomorrow night's going to be." Lily laughed and threw a pillow into the air only to catch it a moment later.

"What's happening tomorrow night?" Hermione asked. Noelle turned her head without raising it off the bed. Lily grabbed her pillow, standing, and turned to gaze questioningly at Hermione.

"You mean Remus hasn't-" Noelle trailed off. Hermione waited for the end of the question only to find it didn't come. Noelle got up and walked out of the room.

"What's going on Lily?" but Lily just shrugged and lay back against her pillows, smiling slightly.

"Don't worry about it. Noelle has everything under control. Read a book or something. Here, read this," Lily tossed her a book. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them. "I heard your first class in Care of Magical Creatures didn't go all that well." Lily laughed and Hermione soon joined in.

Saying that her first day in Care of Magical Creatures hadn't gone well was like saying finding out Santa Clause wasn't real was a little annoying. Her first day in a class went abysmally.

"I could've really hurt someone. You'd think a professor would've tested my abilities before just trusting me to know what to do with a doxy!" Hermione exclaimed, half angrily remembering what a fool she'd made of herself and half laughing remembering the professor expression as the flying creature had turned on him once he'd opened the cage. With no wand of his own, trusting the students to follow their own devices, he'd been completely unprepared for the bites that came.

"I never took the class. I never wanted to take the class. I never will want to take the class," Lily said, propping herself up on her elbows.

"So you only take one extra class?"

"Yes."

"What do you do while we're all in class then?" Lily was spared answering as voices from outside bounced around the room.

"I thought someone else-" it was Remus' voice. Hermione felt like she was eavesdropping again. It was something that she rarely did in her own time and found herself doing more and more frequently in this one. She hated herself for it.

"Who else knows her you fool?" Noelle cut him off. Hermione shot a questioning look at Lily who pointedly ignored her. She refused to give her any idea of what was going on, although it was quickly becoming apparent to Hermione. A knock sounded on the door and Lily got up and answered it, letting Remus in as she walked out.

"Hi, Hermione," Remus said, looking quite awkward. Hermione got up, not liking to speak to people while lying down.

"Hi, Remus." He was looking amazingly uncomfortable. He was shifting from right to left on his feet, but his eyes never left hers.

"I was wondering if you'd like to go to the Halloween Ball tomorrow night with me?"

"Tomorrow night's Halloween?" she asked, feeling completely stupid.

"Yes and there is an annual ball. Noelle has just informed me you don't have a date and conveniently neither do I." Hermione's mind, having registered that there was a ball that she didn't know about happening in less than twenty-four hours, moved on to think of the conversation she'd overheard on Wednesday.

"Dumbledore asked you to hang around with me this week," Hermione stated and was shocked by his blasé response.

"Of course, how else were you going to get to all your classes?" he said offhandedly. "But you don't have to come to the ball with me just because the headmaster wants me to watch you." The honest answer kind of rocked Hermione. She'd been expecting denial of some sort, or at least some look of embarrassment. His explanation made it seem so obvious to her. Of course no one knew she could find her classes on her own. They wouldn't even expect her to know how to get to the Great Hall alone. She suddenly felt very foolish.

"I'd really like to go with you Remus," he was visibly relieved as he smiled at her.

"That's great! Um... I'll see you tomorrow then." She smiled at him, and then he whispered, "watch this." And he tiptoed over to the door and pushed on it really hard. Hermione heard the two thumps before she saw the girls rubbing their heads.

"Goodnight, Remus." He disappeared from sight and she hopped back into bed with loud protests from Lily and Noelle who suddenly wanted to talk more. It was the first time since she'd been in this time that she fell asleep with thinking of the place she had come from. Instead she thought of the place she would be the following night.

~*~*~

"James Potter!" Lily called out as she entered the common room the next morning. Six pairs of eyes met hers as they swept the room. She walked towards them normally and with an air of perfect innocence asked James, "Is there a reason my books have all turned a bright orange color and become unreadable?" She bit her lip and looked truly puzzled. James looked outraged.

"Who'd ever do such a thing?" he exclaimed jumping up. Sirius, Remus, and Peter looked on as Noelle made her move in the game of chess as if this conversation was a normal occurrence. Hermione sat and watched as James continued in his mock-outrage. "I promise you I'll not rest until I find the person responsible for this!" He started running in place with Lily looking after him, a grin slowly forming on her lips as her eyes narrowed.

"Who'd want to take you away from the things that cause you not to spend time with them? Who'd selfishly want you to focus on them for a day?" he pondered aloud.

"I know!" Peter said. "It was Dumbledore. He's had his eye on Lily for a while now." Hermione gagged.

"Don't be absurd!" Sirius joined in. "It was obviously Noelle. She didn't want any more of that O.W.L. business. She wants you to fail those N.E.W.T.s, Lily!"

"I think it was Professor McGonagall. She's rumored to be a crazy one," added Remus. Sirius and Peter paused to consider the idea, and then nodded their heads, agreeing. It seemed to Hermione that they often blamed everything they did on the Transfiguration professor. James continued to run in place, looking thoughtful.

"No, I think it was me," James announced. "I have a motive: I want to spend all day with my girlfriend. I have the means: I learned a spell like that yesterday... Yes. I am definitely the most suspicious person. All I need's evidence. Hold on. I, James Potter, turned Lily Evans' books into green mush. Okay, I've a confession in front of witnesses. I've found the culprit. I can finally rest." He stopped running and slumped down onto the couch. "That was tiring."

"That was stupid," Lily concluded. "And you're definitely going to have to be killed for it. My books are laying in ruin and now I've nothing to occupy my time before the ball."

"I can think of something to occupy you," he said impishly. Lily rolled her eyes.

"No. I think I'll still need to kill you."

"How about death by a thousand kisses?" Lily seemed to weigh her options as her head bounced left and right in concentration.

"That'll work." He grabbed her hand and pulled her down onto his lap and lightly kissed her mouth.

"One," he said.

"You do realize that we'll have to remain a couple until my revenge is fulfilled," Lily asked.

"Damn and I've a date with Sheryl Cranberry next week."

"And I with Dathan Bones. What're we going to do?"

"We'll have to kiss at an absurdly fast rate," James replied, grinning. Again Lily seemed lost in her decision making process.

"That'll have to do," and she lean forward and would have kissed him if Noelle hadn't been there at the moment.

"Do you see me? Sitting here quietly playing chess with Peter? Do you see him politely not telling you of his disgust? Yes? Good. Leave. Go make up your stupid rules outside this non-snogging room. Find a closet or something that isn't near me. Okay?" She said making extravagant hand motions to accompany her words. "But please be sure to remember the ball tonight." Hermione laughed as the two continued to sit where they were with the hands linked.

"And now it's your-" Noelle was cut off by a loud thud outside the portrait hole. Instantly five wands were out and pointed towards it. Hermione got the idea a little too late and searched for her own wand.

"What the hell?" Sirius asked aloud. James and he got up and went over to examine it, with the eyes of the younger and older students following them. When he opened the hole it was to find a very disheveled looking Valerie glaring at the picture.

"That stupid picture wouldn't let me in!" Valerie exclaimed, marching in with a satchel around her shoulder and a brush swinging in her hand. James and Sirius came back looking highly amused and James placed another kiss on Lily's lips. They all quietly put away their wands.

"Two," he said.

"Why'd she not let you in?" Peter called out to Valerie as she stormed by.

"Just because I didn't know the password!"

"Isn't that the whole point of the picture that only opens with a password?" Remus whispered to Hermione.

"When did we change the password anyway?" Valerie continued on her tangent as Noelle made another move in her game, Peter stared at the board, James and Lily sat close together looking at her, Sirius laughed at her, and Hermione and Remus just watched.

"A couple of weeks ago, Val," Noelle said. "Check."

"Well! Pah!" the unruly girl said incoherently. "Like she didn't know I was in Gryffindor! I mean look at my uniform for God's sake!"

"It looks as though you stole it and didn't know how to put it on correctly," Peter commented while continuing to try and avoid checkmate.

"Well I didn't!" she yelled and stormed up to the door leading to the girl's dorms. "And Snape says hello, Lily!"

Hermione looked at the group closely after hearing the last part of the girl's amazing speech. James didn't seem fazed by it at all but the other three boys all kind of twitched at the mention of the name, but other than that nothing was said.

"I don't know Valerie very well. Is she always like that?" Hermione questioned.

"Valerie is a bit..." Peter searched for the right word. "Intense."

"Or batty," Sirius chimed in.

"Yeah, that too," Peter looked at the board and his face fell as he saw the move Noelle made. It was checkmate.

~*~*~

It wasn't until later that night that Hermione learned more about the ball, about its history and what she should wear. She had walked into her room two hours before the ball began to find a dress hanging from her bed with a simple note attached. She hadn't even thought about what she was going to wear. She hadn't really thought about much.

She changed into the robes and went into the bathroom wanting to see what she looked like, but the sight she saw there made her stop and stare.

Lily was in front of the mirror with her wand out performing a couple of charms to change the look of her dress and hair. Hermione had seen Parvati and Lavender do just as much but she had never, in all of her years at Hogwarts, seen a charm performed so perfectly and beautifully. Well maybe once she had, but all he was doing then was summoning a broom. Lily was performing an art.

Her dress was a pale purple color that remained solid throughout the entire robe. The sleeves fell to her elbows, tightly holding the upper arm before they puffed up big at the shoulder. It fell to just above her ankles and was tight where it should have been loose and loose where it should have been tight. Hermione knew without a doubt that that dress was one of the ugliest she'd ever seen.

Lily didn't seem to have noticed Hermione's entrance into the bathroom. As Hermione watched, Lily slowly moved her wand in a tight circle above her head and a curtain of blue sparkling light fell around the redhead. It was an upside-down tornado of glittering beauty. Lily was lifted slightly off the ground while the light slowly fit itself around her body pulling at the robes and changing the places were it was too tight and too loose. When the light died away the dress was a dark purple color and fit her beautifully. It was still short at the ankles and the sleeves were still wretched looking, but Lily didn't seem done yet.

Lily then made a motion with her wand that encircle herself at the waist. She left a bright yellow circle of light in the wake, which fell slowly towards the floor until it clung to the hem of the dress. Then it changed into the fabric itself and elongated the end of the dress so that it fell neatly to the floor. When that light died down there was an intricate white flower design embroidered into the base of the dress.

She finished off the changes with a giant swish of her wand pointed at the mirror. There was a gold flash and Hermione had to temporarily shield her eyes. When Lily came back into view her hair was done up in an elaborate hairdo with Orchids intertwined in it. The sleeves were gone, replaced by one inch thick white straps that connected to the straight line of the purple dress so perfectly that Hermione could not see where one ended and the other began.

The dress stood out beautifully against the dull background of the bathroom.

"I have been using those same spells for nearly two years now. It does wonders for my budget." Lily smiled softly, not bothering to look at the mirror. She caught Hermione's eye and Hermione saw something there. She saw skill. She saw satisfaction in the work that had been completed. She saw a beautiful girl who should be the same age as her mother looking expectantly at her.

"I didn't think you noticed me. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Lily said, still looking expectantly at her. And Hermione was scared to realize that after five years of being best friends with her son, she could read Lily's eyes as easily as she could Harry's. "What's he like?"

"Who?" Hermione asked, shocked that the girl seemed to be able to read her mind.

"The boy that you think about when you think we won't notice. Was he your boyfriend?"

"No," Hermione said softly. "Just a really good friend." She tried to look away before Lily could catch her eye again. She wasn't sure she could keep herself from crying. Homesickness flooded her when she looked into those emerald eyes.

"You know more than you let on, Hermione Granger."

"And so do you." Hermione said, remembering the amazing fireworks show that had taken place not minutes before.

"I have seen more than I let on. It isn't the same thing. You know something you don't want to tell any of us. It's okay. A lot of people do it, but don't be so naïve as to think we don't notice." That speech should have sounded like a threat but it didn't. It sounded simply like the truth.

"You shouldn't say we when you mean you," Hermione responded.

"How're you going to do your hair?" Lily asked, just as Noelle and Valerie came into the bathroom and Hermione found herself wondering, once again, about the girl that stood in front of her. The girl that would one day become the woman that a boy longed for and knew nothing about.

~*~*~

"Having finished our meals, I would like to officially welcome you all to the 264th annual Halloween Ball." Dumbledore's voice resounded around the Great Hall. The students sat at small circular tables around the room. Hermione sat with Remus, James with Lily, and Peter with Noelle. Sirius and Valerie had been roped by their dates (both Ravenclaws) to sit at different tables. Everyone cheered at the Headmaster's words. "Let the dancing commence!"

There was an explosion of orange and black smoke streams that swirled together and danced their way across the room, leading every eye in the room towards the band that on stage. Every single person in the band was a skeleton.

"Wow! He got the Grueslas!" James exclaimed, and high-fived Remus.

The dancing began immediately. The seventh and sixth years were first, dragging their dates onto the floor and jamming to a fast beat. Hermione, hearing the music, felt relief wash over her as she realizes that disco really hadn't transcended worlds.

"Do you want to dance?" Remus asked. Hermione nodded and for the next hour she floated around the dance floor. Remus, who seemed to know exactly what to do, led her around the dance floor. They stepped left and right, and Lily felt like a princess on a cloud. His hand on her back sent tingles through her whole body extending from the place where his finger circled her spine.

"Are you all right?" Remus asked as she leaned forward and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm perfect."

"Do you want to take a break and drink something?"

Hermione wanted to say no, tell him that she never wanted to stop dancing, but instead she let him pull away from her and lead her back to the table. All the way, she missed the feeling of his hand on her back and breath on her cheek.

At the table, James, Sirius, and Noelle were talking. Remus pulled out a chair for Hermione and as she sat he asked her if she would like him to get anything. Just as she was declining the offer, Noelle interrupted and asked,

"Remus, will you dance with me?" Noelle asked.

Before he could respond, she grabbed his hand and dragged him back into the crowd of students. He turned to mouth, "I'm sorry" at Hermione before turning and walking out with Noelle. A slow song had just begun and Sirius cut off his conversation with his best friend so as to find his date. Hermione expected James to follow suit but when he remained for a minute she wanted to know why.

"You aren't going to dance with Lily?" she questioned. James smiled over at her as he ate a big piece of pumpkin pie.

"She's busy."

"With Peter?" Hermione guessed, seeing as his date (Noelle) was currently dancing with hers.

"Peter is dancing with a crazy seventh year and having the time of his life," James said, taking another bite. Then he pointed with his fork at a table in the far corner where a girl with green eyes was laughing loudly at something the boy next to her said. "Lily is talking with Snape."

"Oh. Um. Well, that's not what- I don't know. He didn't seem to care for Muggleborns much when I met him," Hermione finally decided to say.

"They aren't best friends or anything. She's nice to him as she is nice to everyone, and in return he's nice to her as he is to no one," James explained laughing a little. Hermione tried to imagine what Harry's reaction would be if he saw Draco Malfoy talking animatedly with his girlfriend. She didn't think it would be casual laughter.

"You and Snape don't get on well do you?"

"I don't care anything about him," James replied, eating another bite of pie.

"I thought you hated him."

"Hating takes energy and I don't have enough of that for my friends, let alone Snape."

James smiled at her and stood before walking across the dance floor toward the corner table. Lily smiled at him when he tapped her on the shoulder, and accepted his proffered hand. She said something to Snape before letting James lead her into a dance. Snape glared at James as he began a conversation with some other Slytherins at the table.

Hermione glanced around the Hall for lack of anything better to do. Remus was still dancing Noelle and so Hermione did nothing but sit at the table for a few moments by herself. She found she felt very out of place.

The people sitting, dancing, eating, and socializing around her were part of a world that she didn't understand. A world where there were rules here that she didn't understand: worst enemies didn't hate each other; best friends kept secrets; and everyone was alive. A bout of homesickness hit Hermione as someone settled into the seat next to her.

"Are you enjoying the festivities, Miss Granger?" She turned in surprise to find two pairs of sparkling blue eyes looking back at her.

"Yes, Headmaster," Hermione replied. Her eyes swept over his young face and she felt the familiar sensation of fright looking at him, fear for the change that he represented. If Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard in the modern age, could lose so much of his life to Voldemort, how bad had was the war going to become? If twenty years could make this youthful face haggard and old, lined with care, what would the years to come in her time be? She feared he could not survive them.

"How was your first week?"

"It went well. I got to know all the people in my year. Remus is great."

"I thought you two might get along. That was part of the reason for my choosing him as your guide." Hermione now felt double as stupid for thinking first that these cautious people would take to a stranger so quickly, and second that the guide thing was a secret.

"What were the other reasons?"

"He was concerned for your safety. He was the one that found you and brought you into our care," the old man explained and turned his eyes back to the dance floor as a sheet of bright orange light shot straight over the students and slowly descended upon them.

Lily and James were covered but neither moved from their position in each other's arms. They looked so right together with his hand laying softly on her back and hers on his shoulder with the free hands locked together on the side. Lily's head was rested on James chest and his on her head. Both of their eyes were closed.

"There's something special about Lily, isn't there, Headmaster?" Hermione asked.

"There are many things special about Miss Evans."

Hermione searched for the words to explain what she wanted to tell him. She wanted to say that she had never seen a student perform a charm as perfectly as she had seen Lily do before the ball. She had never even seen a professor perform some of the spells that she had seen the redhead perform during the nights while studying, thinking the other girls asleep.

"I feel as though I can't compare with her, or with any of them," Hermione said, annoyed that she couldn't find the right words to express what she was feeling.

"She is extraordinarily gifted, but I have heard positive things about your work as well."

"No. That isn't- what I mean to say is that I know I don't belong here."

"But you are here and in my experience wherever a person finds themselves is often where they ought to be."

They sat in silence for a while longer and only after she knew he would not laugh nor most probably understand, did she tell him what she had been dying to tell someone since she had met Lily.

"Lily is going to save us all."

"I have never doubted it, Miss Granger."

Hermione turned then to look at the man that would one day be tired and worn. She looked and saw a different kind of sparkle in his eyes as he looked at the couple that was dancing on the far side of the floor emanating a love that was untouchable. Dumbledore looked proud.

"Do you know her well?"

"As well as she would ever let me," and Hermione understood that meant that he knew almost nothing about Lily Evans. Hermione paused to consider her next words. She needed him to know but did she need him to know here in such a public place?

"I'm going to leave soon," she said with a steely edge in her voice that she hadn't intended. Was she trying to convince him or herself?

"And what are you going to take with you?" His question surprised her. She didn't know the headmaster very well- not nearly as well as Harry- but she did know enough not to be alarmed by the oddity of the questions he asked or the apparent randomness of them. She took them as a challenge.

"I had wanted to bring pictures."

Dumbledore nodded and conjured a camera. He handed it to her and she held it tightly in her hands, not unimpressed with the amazing show of power. She took two pictures: one of Dumbledore with the dance floor in the background and the second of Lily and James specifically.

"And what are you going to change?" the professor asked after the second picture.

"Nothing hopefully," she said.

"What's the purpose of your trip, if you plan to change nothing?" She didn't know how to respond to his sad tone.

"I can't change anything."

"If everyone felt they could change nothing, the world would be in the hands of an evil far greater than Voldemort by now," he said and stood up bowing. "You're a smart child. Don't let it hinder you."

He stood then and walked away, leaving Hermione with only her thoughts to comfort her. What did he mean not to let it hinder her? And what was that business about changing things? After a short while she finally decided that he didn't know what he was telling her to do. He only had half the information. He didn't know she was from the future. But when have you ever known the Headmaster to have a lack of information? And she answered herself as well, with the Marauders.

~*~*~

The night rushed by as dancing partners changed and the food disappeared and reappeared on their table. Hermione found herself, after her talk with Dumbledore, never sitting again. She found her place back in Remus' arms on the floor, only breaking from that pattern when Peter insisted she "take a spin on my arm." After Peter's intense dancing- which she enjoyed quite a bit after making herself distinguish between Peter and Wormtail- she found her way back to a very tired Remus dancing with Valerie (or more like being tugged around by Valerie).

"Hermione! Hi! Let's take a break," Remus said, spotting her.

"I'd love to," Hermione replied, smiling. They made their way back to the table with Valerie tow and found Peter had beaten them back to it. He was sitting with Noelle. Hermione picked up her camera as she sat down.

"Tired already are you?" Peter teased Hermione. And for the first time since she had gotten thrown into this time she didn't flinched at his words. She was too tired.

"Two hundred and sixteen," James said, kissing Lily as they came to join the group.

"Are you kidding?" Noelle asked.

"About what?" James asked back.

"Two hundred and sixteen kisses?"

"Well, you see, we give double points for snogging and triple points for-"

"No! No!" Noelle said quickly. Then she pointed her pointer finger at herself and shook it a little, "Do you see me not caring to learn you point system? Because I really don't." And the group laughed.

"We should make up our own point system, Valerie," Peter chimed in, grinning at the petite black girl like a fool, making his eyebrows go up and down suggestively. Hermione thought it only a little odd that he would direct this comment at Valerie, who was not his date, instead of Noelle, who was.

"Are you twitching or something, Peter? What's wrong with your eyebrows?" Noelle asked.

"Hullo! I am trying to seduce Valerie." Peter rolled his eyes as if it were the plainest thing in the world.

"You shouldn't try that anymore. You might hurt someone," Noelle teased.

"We should be getting out of here soon by the way," James commented as he took a look at his watch. "In fact we need to be at least twenty meters from here in fifteen minutes."

Hermione was about to voice her curiosity about the matter when someone accidentally knocked into her, causing her new camera to fall back onto the table, taking an inadvertent picture.

"Shoot, I'm not even sure how much film I've got in there."

"That's a magic camera," Noelle answered. "It's got unlimited pictures."

"Do you know a lot about these type of cameras?"

"My dad's a photographer."

Hermione began to question the girl about even the minutest details of the camera and she was sure the conversation could have continued far longer than it did if only Peter hadn't interrupted after a while.

"We have to go now," Peter said with a hand on Noelle's back directly her towards the door. Hermione walked out of the doors a little behind the rest of the group. Remus dropped back after a little while. And when they had successfully made it outside the portrait hole Remus and Hermione were completely alone.

"Peter watches over Noelle like a brother," Hermione observed. Remus didn't reply and so she decided to change the subject. "Thank you for tonight."

"Anytime," he replied.

Their friendship, which truly started at this moment, became more than either of them could ever have guessed. It was her friendship with Remus that sparked her love for this time. And each time she was around Remus, he stoked that fire and helped Hermione leave her own time further behind.

Sirius, grinning like a fool as he opened the portrait hole to see if they were there, took a quick picture with Hermione's camera as they failed to notice his presence.

They would surely have said something to Sirius if it hadn't been for a resounding boom that shook the very castle.

"Got to go!" James shouted. On his way past Hermione, James grabbed Remus by the collar and dragged him off. An eager Peter and Sirius followed. Hermione, confused as she was, entered the portrait hole.

"That is so annoying!" Valerie exclaimed. Noelle handed Hermione her camera, which Sirius had thrown to her before running out the door, and turned toward the girls dorm. Valerie continued her rampage "Where did they just go? What did they do? Did they kill anyone?" And Lily and Noelle rolled their eyes at her and began to ascend the steps to their dorm.

"Do they do that often?" Hermione asked.

"Be glad they even warned us. Normally we aren't even considered that much. They really are a tight nit group," Lily chimed, almost yawning but avoiding it for the moment.

"What I want to know is what happened with Remus outside that Sirius decided he needed to take a picture," Noelle said before all of the girls fell into fits of giggles.

It was so nice (and decidedly odd) to see Lily laugh and act as a teenager that Hermione didn't want the moment to end. She had grown used to the idea that Lily was perfect- she was the saintly mother who died to save her child. She was a legend in Hermione's time and seeing her act normally shocked Hermione. This was what she wanted Harry to see of his mother. Hermione took a picture of the four girls laughing.

~*~*~

"Can't sleep?" Lily asked, lying on her side facing Hermione's adjacent bed. It was just a few hours after the ball and Hermione almost died of shock after hearing the girl's voice. The room had been devoid of sound just a moment before.

"What time is it?" Hermione asked. In point and fact Hermione had been awake but she didn't want to talk about it. She had tossed and turned, counted sheep, silently recited the Leprechaun Wars in chronological order, but nothing seemed to work.

"It's not yet midnight." Lily grinned. "We still have time to spend in Halloween."

"That is one of the oddest saying I've ever heard: we can still spend time in a day," Hermione said. The two girls were lying on their sides facing each other and for the second time that night Hermione regretted having to go home and leave this place and these people behind.

"Not so strange. Halloweens are magical," Lily laughed. "I wish I lived in a world full of Halloweens."

Lily rolled over to her back and looked at her feet as she moved them up and down. Hermione thought about her words and reflected on her own Halloweens in the magical world and realized how right she was.

Hermione's first Halloween in the magical world was the first day of her friendship with Harry and Ron. The second Halloween was the first of the basalisk attacks. The third was the first of their encounters with Sirius Black. The fourth was the day Harry was chosen as the Forth Champion-

"My first date with James was on a Halloween," Lily interrupted her thoughts. You died on Halloween, Hermione recalled. And they'd been married on Halloween if Hermione remembered well enough. And, if Harry was born exactly nine months after- "That was a great date."

"James seems pretty great."

"Not as great as Remus though, right?" Lily teased. And Hermione was astonished by the changes she constantly saw in Lily. Sometimes she was serious, wise even, and other times she was merely sixteen. Now she couldn't even seem to sit still.

"Is something wrong?" Hermione cautioned.

"It's Halloween night!" Lily exclaimed, kicking off her sheets. "Tomorrow I'll be back to normal but right now I want to run. I want to fly. I want to play!" She took Hermione by the hand and dragged her out of her bed. Hermione barely had time to grab her cloak when she found herself rushing past the portrait and down corridor after corridor.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you?" Hermione shook her head as Lily dragged her out to the Quidditch pitch.

"Nothing and everything. Does it matter?" Lily shouted. The girls ran, ran so fast that their feet splashed on the dew on the grass and their breath came out in little puffs of air. They ran with the distant stars above them and their hands clinging to one another, and in that they found their balance, their calm.

Lily broke contact with Hermione when she slipped behind the Gryffindor stands and came back bearing sweets.

"You do this a lot?" Hermione laughed.

"No," Lily replied sitting on the ground. "But sometimes a person needs to feel the night sky, needs to lie on the ground and look at the stars and feel how infinitely tiny they are."

Something in what Lily said triggered a memory in Hermione's. There was something she should have known, but she had forgotten... Hermione had done this before. She once sat on a field just like this and stared quietly up into the sky... back before the world had turned magical and she had met Harry and Ron... she had sat on a big field with... someone. Someone that meant a lot to her but she couldn't remember who...

Lily and Hermione sat under the stars with their backs against one another for a long time, or at least long enough that Hermione had seen five shooting stars and still not known what to wish for when the next one swept past her.

"I wish I were better at astronomy," Lily sighed as she scrunched up her eyes in concentration. "Peter is amazing at it, always gets top marks there."

Hermione found her stomach in knots again when thinking about Peter Pettigrew and the way she had laughed in his arms on the dance floor not five hours earlier. Could he really be evil?

"Remus is a good guy by the way- definitely the most normal in the lot."

"He's a really good person, but we aren't that close or anything. I've only known him a week," Hermione said.

"That's long enough, isn't it?" Lily replied, and these two girls who grew up in such different and similar times sat together on a Quidditch field that wouldn't change in twenty years- probably hadn't changed in a thousand years- and together they were content.

Hermione Granger and Lily Evans: both Muggleborns, both best friends with a Potter, both destined to face Voldemort beside Harry Potter, both dreaming of futures that will never come to be. Or so they thought.

~*~*~

"There's another shooting star," Hermione said. "Make a-"

A bright blue explosion in one of the towers stole her attention. Smoke filled the tower before it leaked out the windows and down the walls. Lily was on her feet before Hermione even had time to process what was happening. With her wand held out in front of her, Lily raced up to the castle.

Hermione did not understand why until she realized that Voldemort was gaining power here. Everyone would be on guard and explosions would be just the thing to get people frightened.

Hermione's eyes had only adjusted to the new blue light when she saw a sight that made her heart skip a couple beats: Filch walking towards the tower with only one wall between Lily and him. He would see her in a matter of seconds.

Pulling out her wand, Hermione tried to whisper a power Accio charm. Lily was lifted off the ground and flew over to where Hermione was standing in the middle of the pitch. Grabbing the redhead by the wrist Hermione dragged her behind the bleachers and ducked down.

"What's wrong with you?" Lily yelled. "We have to find out what that was. Students could be in danger!" Lily was puffing and about to go back out there when Hermione silenced her with one well placed Silencio.

Hermione peered around the corner of the stands. Filch was making his way towards them, probably hearing Lily's shouting. In the meantime, Hermione saw that all of the lights in the "blue" tower were on. People ran back and forth and she could see their shadows in the window, but it appeared that only Filch was on the grounds. Speaking aloud to herself, Hermione hid back behind the corner.

"Voldemort never attacked- He was scared of Dumbledore. It can't be him." Having convinced herself, Hermione turned her attention toward the silent Lily. The redhead's eyes were narrowed. "Filch is coming. Do you understand how many detentions it will mean if we're caught? We might even be expelled and I don't have time for that!" Hermione took off the charm just as there was a rustling of the cloth that covered the bleachers.

Lily and she ran up the stairs as quickly as possible, and only paused once they were at the top.

"Hold still," Lily commanded and even as the footsteps came closer and closer she seemed calm and in control; she made a swooping motion with her wand and a sheet of emerald green enveloped the pair. It circled the two and created a blanket of green light around them. When the circle was complete and formed a solid barrier, Lily turned to face Hermione. Lily stared at her for a long while before taking a tentative step backwards while remaining in the enclosure.

"You saved me," she said.

"Quiet!" Hermione whispered. She cast a look around the room and wondered why Lily had so dumbly cast a spell that spread light around the room. Filch's head appeared at the top of the stairs and right in view at that moment and Hermione felt as though she were going to throw up. But his eyes glanced right over the pair of them, and after a few tense moments, he went back down the stairs.

"What is this? Are we invisible?" Hermione asked, staring at the charm surrounding them.

"No, we're ignored, like the Leaky Cauldron," Lily explained. Hermione nodded, aware of the change in Lily's face. It was as though Hermione had failed some type of test. After another moments pause she said, "We should stay here a few more minutes before going straight back to the tower."

Looking at the slight redhead in front of her, knowing what was to become of Lily Evans, Hermione felt a surge of regret pass through her. The girl, who was so aloof, so powerful, so special, would never live in a world where leaving home without her wand was okay. She would bring about that world, but never be a part of it.

Hermione knew next to nothing about the Muggleborn mother of her best friend. She wished now that she'd researched his family history back in second year. She'd planned to after she heard people thought Harry was Slytherin's heir, but then she'd gotten caught up with the Polyjuice Potion and then she'd been petrified. But she didn't want to think like that. Even remembering the hard parts of her time in Hogwarts was too painful. All it did was remind her of Ron and Harry.

"I just want to go home," Hermione said aloud surprising even herself.

"You shouldn't worry about things like that," Lily said to her softly, taking her hand and letting her believe that the two were close friends. "Tonight, just enjoy Halloween. You can worry and muse and ponder and everything else tomorrow."