A Time Before Tears

CHAPTER NINE

Hermione was crying. It wasn't a big surprise; she seemed to be doing that a lot this year, her third year. Her two best friends weren't speaking to her because her cat might have eaten Ron's rat. How stupid was that? How immature? She decided to not care that they weren't speaking to her, and that she really had no friends right at that moment. No; she would pull herself together. She wouldn't cry. She would be strong and show nothing.

She got up and walked out of the library right then. She took her two armfuls of books with her and was trying to get a better grip on them when a voice called out to her.

"Hermione?" She turned, only to see the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor walking towards her. His eyes roamed over the heavy load she was carrying and smiled. "Do you need some help?"

"No thank you." She readjusted her load and tried not to show to strain in her arms caused by the huge load, and without her realising it, her Timeturner had fallen in front of her clothes and was now very visible. Professor Remus Lupin noticed it right away.

"You'll have to leave soon," he said quietly, almost as if he hadn't meant her to hear it, but she had.

"Excuse me Professor?"

"Eighteenth of June in the second bed in the hospital wing, that is your ticket home. Do you understand?" Hermione nodded, trying to get out of conversation without seeming rude. "You have an amazing capacity to remember fact Hermione. I need you to remember that date for me. If you forget this, everything will change."

"Professor..."

Hermione hadn't understood what he was talking about. She had rationalised that it was the week after a full moon and it had probably affected him badly. She supposed he must have been somewhat offbeat, so she hadn't thought to actually store the information away. In fact, she had been a bit peeved that a professor was acting in such an odd manner. Now Hermione regretted all of those negative thoughts, because she now remembered that day. She remembered that conversation. She even remembered wanting to tell him that she would probably forget the time and place, and she had for a while. But now she remembered. She knew where and when to get home.

She knew it, and suddenly nothing made sense.

Wasn't this what she had wanted since she got here, to know when she was going to leave? Wasn't that her dream? But if that was true, why did images of the people in this decade come to mind when she thought of going home? When she thought of her place in the war, why was it that she was surrounded by the Marauders instead of the best friends she'd left behind?

It was because she had left them behind. She'd believed she would not be going home, and had finally accepted that. Ron and Harry had become - to her at least - a memory in her past that she couldn't get back to. Maybe she would get to see them in another eighteen years. Maybe she could even baby-sit for them. She'd even toyed with the idea that the reason Harry hadn't met his godmother was because it was Hermione.

But now, after all of these months of wondering, she suddenly had the opportunity to go home, and that shocked and somewhat bothered her. She had only a few months to make the decision that would change her life forever, no matter which side she chose, and she was terrified.

How was she going to deal with all of this? How was Lily? Well, she'd never actually told Lily, but she did get a peek into what the other girl was thinking the next Saturday morning as she was sitting in the corner of the common room, making a list of the reasons to stay and the reasons to go.

"If it hadn't been James who was betrayed - if it had been Remus or Peter - James would have broken into Azkaban and freed Sirius before believing him guilty. It's hard to imagine Remus wouldn't have done the same." Hermione turned to see Lily looking straight at her, as usual, and seeming to look through her. Hermione moved her left hand to cover the parchment she'd been writing on before responding.

"Why?" Hermione asked as Lily took the seat next to her at the table.

"Sirius took an Unforgivable for James," Lily said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Hermione now turned and focused completely on the girl.

"A Cruciatius curse was aimed at James, but Sirius jumped in front of it." Lily waited only a moment for Hermione to absorb that information before plowing on to the next topic. "Can you understand why I doubt the future as you've told it to me? One of the biggest pieces of evidence you've given me is nearly impossible for me to believe."

"I wasn't lying, Lily."

"I know that you believe your story to be true. I just wanted to tell you that it's going to take a while for me to accept all of this. I will need real proof." Lily paused, and Hermione jumped in with the first thing that came to mind.

"Professor Binns will die at the end of the year and continue as a ghost teacher." Lily just shook her head as though she wasn't really expecting proof.

"I'm only sixteen, Hermione, and this is a lot for anyone to take in. Too much, almost." Lily looked at the ground. "All in one night I found my entire future planned out for me, and it's worse than even my worst imaginings."

Hermione didn't say a word; she couldn't even manage to look the other girl in the eye.

For nearly four months Hermione had known this girl. She had looked at her with wonder many times, but somehow she'd forgotten that Lily Evans was, in spite of everything else, a sixteen-year-old girl. Hermione had never truly considered how scary it would be to suddenly know the future. If a girl had come back into her own time and told her she would marry Ron, Harry would die, Neville would betray them all, and she herself would die before the new millennium came... Hermione would have first consulted a book to see if it was possible, gone to Harry and Ron to see what they thought, and finally dragged both boys in to see a professor about it. Lily had done none of that in the past week (at least not to Hermione's knowledge). Lily had continued living as if nothing had changed, and Hermione had been thoroughly shocked by that. Lily should have been sad. She should have been withdrawn. She should have cried. She should have told all her housemates. She hadn't.

"I love him so much it hurts," Lily said, pulling Hermione out of her thoughts. "I've only known James such a short time, and already I love him enough that the thought of us both dying before we've even enjoyed ourselves... It makes me really sad."

"Seven years you've known him, and there's still over a decade before you die in my time. Now that I'm here we can change that. Maybe Voldemort won't come after you." Lily looked straight at Hermione. She seemed to be considering something. When it appeared she'd come to a conclusion she replied to Hermione's comment.

"You've told me a lot about yourself. Maybe I should tell you about me," Lily began. She swept her eyes over the room to ensure that no one was listening, and then continued. "I only just met James last year and -"

"What?" Hermione interrupted. "Sirius said you two liked each other since almost second year -"

"Sirius is a romantic at heart and a better friend to James than you could possibly imagine. He carries guilt with him like a cloak, though, and while he wants to think that James and I are a picture perfect couple... I wonder if he's deluding himself or if he really believes that was what happened." Lily smiled a little then. "I really hope he hasn't been Harry's only source of information about me."

"Harry doesn't really -" Lily held up a hand.

"Please don't. I... I don't think I can handle any more. I was trying to make a joke. I think." Lily smiled and Hermione saw that it was laced with strife. "Up until last year I hadn't spoken two words to any of the Marauders. We were in the same house, we went to classes together, we cheered for the same Quidditch team, and that was enough for us. I had no idea that Remus was a werewolf until you told me last week. I knew you saved Severus from a werewolf. I didn't know it was him.

"I knew Valerie and Noelle only barely. We spent almost no time together. I don't think I even knew their last names to be honest. I had many acquaintances that were friends of a sort. I spoke often with other people, and Severus was my best friend. That was enough for me.

"Then nearly two years ago, something happened to us Gryffindor sixth years. It should have been a tragedy, but we stood together and relied on one another. In the end it was something that bound us to each other for the rest of our lives; bound us either by obligation or by love. I learned to trust James completely. In return he treated me as one of his best friends." Lily stopped once more and looked around the room. She shuffled her feet a little, and Hermione was shocked to recognise this behaviour as that of nervousness. Lily was nervous. "I'm not sure if you've spent enough time with him to know it, but James makes his best friends love him. He made me love him, anyway.

"I'm not sure how I feel about your story. I know how people really are: they're fickle and self-interested. I know that people betray their best friends, but James isn't someone who gets betrayed like that.

"I love him so much that it hurts to think about a person betraying him because I'd never dare to do anything like that. I don't believe you would make up your story; you act like someone that has never really been betrayed or learned the hardships of life, and in these times everyone knows about tragedy. The only way you wouldn't would be if maybe you were from another time or place...

"Your innocence begs for me to look more carefully at Peter, but all I see is that Peter loves James too. Peter too would lay down his life for James. That's why your story is so hard to believe."

Lily didn't say another word. She didn't change her posture, but still Hermione felt the distance between them growing. Hermione, not thinking about maneuvering abilities or tactics or anything other than the thought of losing Lily as a friend, reached out to bring the redhead back.

"You don't need to believe it. You don't even have to do anything about it." Hermione took Lily's hand.

"But you do," Lily said, taking her hand back and leaving Hermione wondering what she meant.

~*~*~

Hermione wandered around the grounds for a long while after her talk with Lily. She wasn't thinking straight. She walked around the huge grounds twice; she wasn't sure how much time had passed, although she knew it must have been a great deal. The sun was close to setting, and people surrounded the lake. Actually, the lake was really crowded for the wintertime.

She ran over to see what everyone was looking at, and found the entirety of the water turned gold. She supposed it must have been Remus and company.

Her suspicions were confirmed as she saw all four Marauders jump into the lake and take a swim. They looked ridiculous, and she had no idea how the water was going to get back to its normal color. The boys laughed and threw golden water at themselves, staining their skin, and oblivious to the crowd. Hermione looked at them and wished they could swim forever like that: happy and carefree. She hoped she and Lily could change the fates of these four boys.

"Stupid boys and their stupid pranks," a girl muttered to her left. Hermione didn't recognise her, though that wasn't saying much. Hermione recognised almost no one from this generation. There were a group of girls around her that were nodding at her comment. In fact they were the only ones not laughing; maybe that was why Hermione continued to listen to their every word.

"That is so immature."

"They give the wizarding world a bad name." Some girl stuck up her nose and nodded.

"The four horsemen of the apocalypse strike again," another blond haired girl said snidely as she looked back at the pond. Later, Hermione could never explain what it was about that moment that caused her to snap. She could never explain what it was that made her want to lash out and hit this girl, but right then it happened: the anger inside her finally boiled over.

"Don't call them that. Never call them that." Hermione said with a fierceness in her voice that commanded respect.

"Why not?" one brave - or stupid - seventh year Slytherin asked in a snotty voice.

"Because they will save more lives than anyone here, and any time I hear one of you blubbering idiots calling them that, I remember that you are nothing to me and that they are heroes."

As she stalked away, she never noticed the girl that had been following her.

~*~*~*~

Hermione went to lunch that day by herself. Noelle was working with Professor Binns to help her horrible grade in that class. Then again, her horrible grade was everyone else's decent grade. Hermione didn't know where Valerie was, but suspected she was with that boy in Ravenclaw. Or was it Hufflepuff? Lily was probably still in the common room.

Hermione took her seat among the boys and girls of Gryffindor and ate her food slowly with thoughts of friends and family passing through her mind. Her parents had been her only family, really: all of her grandparents had died before she was born, and both she and her parents were only children, so she had no siblings, nor aunts or uncles. While she knew she missed her parents dearly, she realised she should have missed them more. It was just that she'd lived for five years while only seeing them in the holidays, and so somehow living without them while here in the seventies seemed like just one more extended stay at Hogwarts. It was Harry and Ron that she missed most.

It had been a long time since she'd really remembered her best friends. Yes, she'd told their story, but she hadn't considered her own feelings. It took her a long time to realize that she was close to tears. But it wasn't just Harry and Ron that she thought of. It was everyone - everyone from Neville to Seamus and even Parvati and Lavender. She'd spent years with them. Every day in nearly every class she'd been with those people, and now she wasn't. It made her very sad.

Her thoughts were interrupted as somebody sat down next to her at the table. She turned and saw that it was Remus.

"You're gold," she said stupidly. He grinned and leaned close to her.

"I know, but I hadn't realised you knew, too," said Remus cheekily. She tossed a roll at his head and turned back to her food.

"Is the lake going to turn back any time soon?"

"Probably."

"Why did you do it?"

"James bet me that I couldn't find a spell powerful enough to affect the entire lake. I told him I could. Then I did." Remus smiled and took a bite out of his own food.

The two friends spent lunch together, and it was like nothing had changed. For Hermione, the conversation with Lily flew right out of her mind. It was as if something clicked, and right then all Hermione needed was this lunch with this boy.

~*~*~

Two days later, Lily and Hermione hadn't mentioned their conversation again, although they interacted often. Hermione wasn't sure if anyone knew anything and was hiding it, or if Lily had really kept it a secret, although she believed it was the latter option. Things were oddly normal within the group and Hermione felt as though she was lying to everyone now more than she ever had before. Before she had simply not mentioned anything to them; now she had told Lily but kept the rest of the group in the dark. She felt a distance growing between herself and the group that hadn't been there before. She felt once again like an outsider, although whether that was in her own mind or actually happening she didn't know. The only person who she seemed to be turning to more and more was Remus. They were having lunch together a week after he had 'been gold', and she felt relaxed for the first time in a long while.

"Let's go for a walk," Remus said, standing up after he'd finished lunch. It had taken he and Hermione nearly two hours to finish the meal, and the Great Hall was nearly empty by that time. It was so late, in fact, that the sun was getting low on the horizon.

"Alright."

Remus and Hermione walked in comfortable silence until they had moved a couple of corridors away from the Great Hall. Then the corridors started to get darker, and seeing was harder.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?"

"Oh." He shook his head sadly at her. "You doubt me." Hermione laughed.

"No, I just thought you might want to enlighten me."

"Well, we're going to the roof," he replied. Hermione turned to look at him, thinking he was joking, and saw him turn and smile at her. They walked on for a long time, Hermione following quietly behind him until the darkness finally got so dense that he had to take her hand in his so he could lead her safely. She let herself completely trust him to lead her in the right direction through the dark.

The roof was not easy to get to. Hermione hadn't even known it was possible to get up there, and found that it probably wasn't without the map. There were two times they were required to use passwords and four times Hermione was sure they passed through walls, but through it all their hands stayed entwined.

"Here we are," he finally announced, and Hermione found herself standing at a ridiculously high altitude. She inadvertently moved a lot closer to Remus and blinking her eyes. "I'm sorry. Are you scared of heights?"

"No," Hermione responded, and that was partially true. She wasn't exactly frightened of heights; she just didn't like them in certain situations. She hadn't minded being in the highest box at the Quidditch World Cup, but that had been because she knew she could control that height. She had been with the Minister of Magic and many, many other very well trained wizards. If something should have happened, like if Ron had jumped up in excitement and accidentally leaped over the edge, she knew they could have taken care of him. Now, she didn't know what Remus would be able to do if he or she slipped. She had no control over this situation, and that scared her.

"I brought brooms." She followed his now outstretched left arm and saw what he was pointing at. The particular portion of the roof that they were on was really flat and had walls at least a meter high surrounding it. There were two brooms hovering in midair a little distance from...

"Chairs?" Hermione intoned.

"Where do you think we go when we disappear all the time?"

"I just always assumed you were in detention," Hermione said without thinking about it. She walked forward then, pulling Remus with her, and looked at the chairs. They were really very nice: red with large fluffy pillows and footstools that matched. "How did you get these up here?"

"Well you know McGonagall is in love with Sirius, and all he had to do was -" Hermione sat down in one of the chairs then, not caring to listen to another made-up story about McGonagall (the Marauders' obviously favourite professor).

"This is amazing." She leaned back and put her feet up. Remus, who she'd released from her grip, stood watching and looking amused for a little while before joining her on the seat. They were facing the Forbidden Forest, but it seemed very, very far away. The people practising on the Quidditch pitch looked like ants from where they were. That caused Hermione to glance over at the brooms and make sure they were within easy reach (even though walls surrounded them and they were quite a way from the edge of the roof). Hermione wanted to somehow tell him about how in her own days she'd never done anything like this before.

"At my old school we would never have done anything like this."

"Hermione." His serious tone caused her to turn her head and look at him. He was very, very close to her. "Let's not talk about your old school."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't like being lied to." Hermione suddenly drew back. She drew back out of her thoughts about his proximity and her heart skipped a few beats. Lily told; he hates me. As if he was reading her thoughts, Remus continued, "Not that I would ever denounce lying. I know that sometimes it's necessary, but for us - just you and me - I think we can avoid it. We can talk about everything else in our lives: school, Quidditch, friends, professors, grass, air... anything."

"Did Lily say something to you?"

"No," he replied. "You just aren't a very good liar. I think it's because you don't do it very often."

He smiled at her and Hermione melted. She felt the distance between them (both metaphorical and literal) evaporate. Suddenly they were kissing on the roof of the castle, in a chair that shouldn't be there, as the sun set behind them, brooms hovering to their right, and Quidditch practises being held to their left. She was holding his face in her hands and could think of nothing that could make that moment better.

Just then someone else walked out onto the roof.

There was a banging sound, and Hermione and Remus jumped away from each other. They both turned together and saw Sirius standing stock-still, staring at them. Remus coughed a little.

"Did you forget about our detention?" Sirius asked, focusing completely on Remus. He wasn't smiling. Hermione suddenly felt very foolish as Remus tensed beside her. What had she just been doing? Sure, they'd written letters to each other every other day during the holiday, sure she ate meals with him a lot, sure they studied together quite a bit, sure they had so much in common that their conversations never got awkward, but what had she been thinking when she kissed him? Sirius looked almost livid.

Hermione thought back to the conversation she'd heard months before. Did Sirius still not trust her? Did he think she was threatening somehow? Did he think Remus was trusting too much too soon? In any case, she got up quickly.

"I'd better be going now." Remus too got up and faced her. He made a move to go to her, glanced at Sirius, and stepped back away.

Remus was a private person, Hermione realised. He didn't like people seeing a lot of his private life, even if it was one of his best friends. It probably had something to do with his being a werewolf and learning to hide information at a young age. He didn't even want to show affection in front of other people. Hermione felt a little relieved; she was the same way.

"We'll talk later," said Remus. Hermione nodded. She turned and walked away from him. She was headed for the wall but Remus stopped her. "You won't know the way back, you ought to fly."

"Er..." Hermione stuttered. She wasn't a good flier at all. In fact, it was the only class she'd ever taken (with the exception of Divination) that she hadn't been able to master.

"I'll fly you down, if you like." Hermione looked up, grateful that Remus had understood without her needing to tell him anything.

"That'd be wonderful. I don't fly very -"

"I ought to take her," Sirius said.

"Why?" asked Remus.

"Because Peter and James have something they want to tell you that they don't want me to hear. This way I won't be here and so there won't be any problems about finding ways to say it without me hearing."

"What do they want to tell me about?"

"I think a birthday surprise." Hermione shook her head. James and Peter were obviously going to a lot of trouble to keep Sirius from finding out about the party they were planning for him at the end of April and he already knew!

So it was determined that Sirius was take Hermione down on the broom because if one of the brooms was gone that would prove to James and Peter that he wasn't there. She climbed onto the back of the broom and let Sirius bring her down to the safe secure ground. It was one of the scariest experiences of her life not only because they were so high up, but also because she was having to trust Sirius completely. He was in the control of the situation and she could do nothing about that. When they reached the ground Hermione jumped off the broom and stood carefully on the solid surface. It was really very dark, and the only light was from the fading sun, backlighting the forest.

When she turned to walk back towards the castle, Sirius reached out and grabbed her arm. She looked back at him. In the almost complete darkness only his eyes were visible. Hermione shuddered, involuntarily scared.

"If you hurt him," Sirius said almost sadly, "I'll kill you."

~*~*~

Hermione was standing where she remembered the Divination classroom was, in the North Tower. She'd come to talk a little with the one professor she knew would listen to her, only to find there seemed to be no way up into the tower when there wasn't a class. The ladder wouldn't come down no matter what Hermione said to it. She'd even resorted to saying 'open sesame', and still nothing happened.

With everything that had happened since Christmas, from Lily finding everything out to kissing Remus for the first time only a day ago, Hermione was feeling really bogged down. Plus, she couldn't even talk about her predicament with anyone. Lily was the only one that would understand, but half of what Hermione wanted to say was about Lily, so that wouldn't work very well.

"Why won't you just come down?" Hermione yelled up the roof.

"What was that, Miss Granger?" Hermione spun around just in time to see Professor McGonagall standing down the hall a little way, and felt very embarrassed; she'd been caught yelling at an inanimate object.

"Sorry, Professor. I didn't know anyone was here. I just wanted to speak to Professor McDermott."

McGonagall nodded curtly. "She has had to attend to something in London. She will be back the day after tomorrow. Is this something I might help you with?" Hermione couldn't help what happened next. With everything that had been building up inside her, the crazy emotional roller coaster she'd been through during this trip, coupled with the fact that this was really the first opportunity Hermione had to share her secrets with someone she trusted to be able to take care of her... she started crying. Then she started nodding.

The professor took Hermione's arm and led her down a corridor to the left of where they had been standing. It was really a short little walk, and by the end of it Hermione had stopped crying and started feeling rather foolish. The professor opened the door, and she and Hermione sat at the desks on the other side.

"Sorry, Professor, I don't like crying in front of people."

"It's quite all right, Miss Granger. Do you want to talk about it?" She sounded both nervous and uncomfortable. That made it worse for Hermione. She had never heard the older woman uncomfortable or nervous. Everything was different and Hermione was starting to crack under the pressure of balancing it all.

"It's just..." Hermione was unsure how to start. She wasn't sure what to do about the lump in her throat. It was painful for her to talk, so she tried taking two deep breaths and then speaking. It didn't really help much. "I left everyone and everything that I knew behind when I came here. I've nothing here. I don't have any money or family. Then I met the people in my year and everything seemed so great." Hermione began to cry again, and the professor awkwardly patted Hermione's hand a little.

"I don't know anything about Lily but I think I trust her. I know she still hides things from me and tells me to change things, but I can't. I don't know how. And then Remus was there, and he was so nice and I started to... but he isn't Ron. I was supposed to like Ron, and Sirius was so protective. Sirius told me not to hurt him. And then there's Peter and Noelle, and I have no idea what I am doing. I wish I were anyone but me. Anyone else would know exactly what to do."

Hermione felt immensely foolish after that incoherent babble fell from her lips. She probably hadn't even made sense half the time. Why had she just said all of that? McGonagall probably thought she was crazy. While Hermione and the McGonagall of her time were close and spoke often, Hermione had spoken to this woman probably no more than twice outside of class and it showed. McGonagall looked like she was trying to avoid looking really weirded out.

"Everyone is going to have a lot to deal with in the years to come and I think you have already lived through a lot and so have the people in your year. You need to give them time to process you." She gave Hermione's hand another awkward pat before letting go. "Are you feeling alright now?" Hermione nodded a little, not because she was feeling better, but because McGonagall looked very uncomfortable with this entire conversation. It struck Hermione that people had probably never come to the Transfiguration professor for anything like this before, which was probably why the professor's response was so amazingly odd and far from the point.

"Thank you, Professor," Hermione said, rubbing the tears away from her eyes.

"Being sixteen is difficult, but you'll live through it." Hermione was becoming confused now. Where had thought comment come from? What did that have to do with anything? Was McGonagall so confused that she was babbling?

"I suppose I just got scared."

"Switching schools after six years would be difficult for anyone." McGonagall laughed then. She laughed and it sounded like bells to Hermione's ears. She didn't think she'd ever heard her Head of House laugh. She didn't think she'd even heard her giggle or snicker. "I know that your housemates are... interesting people, but they are also very kind and compassionate. They are very good -"

Their conversation was interrupted when James went sprinting past the open doorway. He looked like a blur, but to Hermione - who'd spent five years watching Harry play Seeker - he was instantly recognisable. Apparently Professor McGonagall also recognised him, because she was at the door in an instant and looking down the corridor. Hermione soon joined her.

"Mr Potter?" James stopped a little way down the corridor and turned around slowly. His eyes became huge upon seeing Hermione and Professor McGonagall. He looked quickly back and forth between the two women. He looked guilty, Hermione thought.

"Professor. Hi."

"Why are you recklessly running through these corridors?" she said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. She seemed to agree with Hermione's assessment of the situation.

"Did I ever tell you that you are my favorite person ever?" James said, charmingly and earnestly.

"Is anyone on fire?" Hermione would have laughed if the professor hadn't sounded so serious.

"One little incident in second year... You need to move on, Professor. Dwelling is bad for the health." James made an indignant noise and tried to move away but McGonagall's hand stopped him.

"Where are the others?"

"What others?" James tried to look innocent, and to Hermione it looked a little painful.

"The only time I worry is when there are people from your little group of friends missing. That means some of you are unwatched and most probably out doing something that break all of our school rules." Professor McGonagall paused and looked up at the ceiling before bringing her eyes back down and locking them onto James' eyes.

"All of them at once? That's hardly possible." James looked thoughtful. "Although we did find a way to break one hundred and forty seven at once. It involved the restricted section, house elves, a complex magical hair gel, Professor Flutey -"

"Mr Potter. I will not hesitate to suspend you from the Quidditch team if anyone is seriously injured and you did not tell me about it."

"Professor. My friends and I are model students. I am a Prefect. Can you understand why I am shocked and offended by your accusation -" a loud banging interrupted his speech and James cringed before shaking his head sadly.

"Would two detentions be enough?" He smiled hugely at her, and Hermione thought she might have seen McGonagall smile.

"Let's go." McGonagall did not look pleased (but Hermione did suspect she was mildly grateful to be out of the conversation she'd been having with Hermione).

"She loves us," James mock whispered.

Professor McGonagall and James turned together then, without her having to force him, and together they walked down the long hallway. Hermione watched until she could only see their silhouettes.