1978

Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked down the corridors, chatting amicably. They turned a corner, not looking at what was ahead, when Ron suddenly stopped and said, "What's that?"

The other two turned and saw a white spiral that resembled a mirror. "I don't know," said Hermione. "Let's see."

They crept closer. Hermione gasped. "I see something! Let's see here..." She leaned in for a closer look. Her nose was practically touching the spiral.

"Hermione, don't--" began Harry, but it was too late. There was a rush, a sucking noise, and Hermione was gone.

Hermione got the sensation that she was falling down a long, windy tunnel. Finally, with an unpleasant bump, she landed hard.

When she was finally able to get up, she realised that she was in the same corridor, but it couldn't have been more different. Actually it could have, she told herself--it could have been painted tie-dye pattern. At any rate, the white spiral was gone. So were Harry and Ron. A large picture hung behind her. In it were four people--two men and two women--in different coloured robes. One man wore red, while the other, far more sinister-looking one wore green. One of the women wore yellow, and the final woman wore blue. They surrounded the Hogwarts coat of arms.

She heard a sound and turned. A boy was waltzing nervously around the corner. He stopped and looked at the portrait. "Oops, wrong turn," he said. Then he noticed Hermione. "Hey, who are you?" he asked suspiciously. "I've never seen you before. What house are you in?"

"I'm in Gryffindor," said Hermione, "and I've never seen you before either."

The boy ignored that. "You can't be in Gryffindor! I've never seen you before, and I'm in Gryffindor! Wait...what year are you in?"

"The sixth," said Hermione. "I think."

"Well, so am I, and--wait," said the boy. "What do you mean, you think? You don't even know how old you are?"

"I do," said Hermione, a little hurt. "I just don't know what year I'm in."

"Well, if you're sixteen, you're in the sixth year."

"That's not what I mean," protested Hermione. "I mean, what year am I in? What year is it?"

"Can't you read a calendar?" the boy snapped, then winced. "Sorry, I know I've got a bit of a temper. Remus keeps telling me I should control it..."

Hermione laughed. "That's okay. I do too. So, uh--what year is it?"

"Why, 1977," said the boy. "It's January fifth, 1977."

"1977?" gasped Hermione. "It can't be!"

"Why not?" asked the boy.

Trying to get a hold of herself, Hermione said, "I fell through that--that thing--it must have been a time vortex--in 1996. I've gone nineteen years back in time!"

The boy gaped. "Well, you might as well stick around. I've read about time vortexes--actually, one of my friends did, but same difference, we tell each other everything. You can't go through them until the exact day you fell through. When did you fall through?"

"January twenty-eighth."

"Well then, you're stuck here for a few weeks. Might as well come back to the common room with me. By the way," the boy added, "what's your name?"

"Oh, sorry," said Hermione. "It's Hermione. Hermione Granger. And I'll be here for three weeks, two days. What's yours?"

"Peter. Peter Pettigrew...say, are you really from the future?" Peter asked eagerly.

"Yeah, why?"

"Erm...well, I know it's probably too much to ask, but..." He leaned in eagerly. "I take Divination, and we're studying crystal balls, intensely..."

"Ha! Ahem..." coughed Hermione.

"What?" Peter asked.

"Nothing," said Hermione. "Continue."

"Well, I was wondering..." Peter hesitated slightly, then said, "Could you tell me a couple of things that are going to happen? I can't ever see anything in a crystal ball."

"I don't normally hold with cheating," said Hermione, "but all right."

They stopped at a familiar portrait of a fat woman in a pink dress. "Password?" the woman asked.

"Herbology," said Peter, catching Hermione's eye and grinning. "Frank put you up to that one, admit it."

"Yeah, yeah," said the Fat Lady, annoyed, as she swung open to admit them.

Hermione shook her head. "She doesn't change much."

"I hope not," said Peter, laughing.

The common room was almost empty. That was the first thing that caught Hermione's eye. "Where is everyone?" she asked.

Peter chuckled again. "It's still Christmas. The only ones who stayed behind were us."

"Us?" said Hermione, confused.

Peter led her over to a table. Three boys sat around it, a piece of parchment in front of them, talking quietly. Peter cleared his throat.

The boys jumped and whirled around. "Peter! Don't do that!" cried the one nearest to them. He had dark hair that lay neatly against his head and chocolate brown eyes.

"Don't do what?" Peter said innocently.

"Don't sneak up on us like that!" cried the boy next to him. This one had jet-black hair and light grey eyes. He wore gold, oval-shaped glasses.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" gasped the third boy. "I thought you were McGonagall!" This boy had light brown hair and matching eyes.

Peter smiled mischievously. "Hey, have you met my friend here?"

"No," said the first boy, eyeing Hermione suspiciously. "Is she McGonagall from when she was our age?"

Hermione shook her head. "I'm Hermione Granger."

"Are you from another time?" asked the first boy eagerly.

"Yes..." began Hermione.

"So," interrupted the third boy, "How old would you be now?"

Hermione thought for a minute. "Negative three years old. I haven't even been thought of yet."

"You're from the future?" exclaimed the second boy.

Hermione nodded. "Nineteen years, to be exact."

The third boy who'd spoken seemed to realise that they hadn't even told Hermione their names. "I'm Remus. Remus Lupin."

The first boy laughed. "I can't believe we didn't introduce ourselves. I'm Sirius..."

"Sirius about what?" said Hermione without thinking. Then she winced. "Oops. Guess I've been hanging around Harry too much. Sorry."

"No problem," Sirius said easily. "As I was saying, I'm Sirius. Sirius Black."

"And I'm James. James Potter...what's wrong with you? You have a stomach ache or something?" the second boy said.

Because Hermione had suddenly remembered what all these names reminded her of, and considering the pang so many of them gave she was surprised she hadn't realised it when Peter introduced himself. Remus Lupin, that shy boy in the neat robes, would one day, one year, be her Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, unable to even afford robes that weren't patched and darned in a thousand places. Peter Pettigrew, that short little boy who, sad to say, reminded Hermione of a bowling ball, would betray one friend and frame another, then spend several years as a rat hiding from him. Sirius Black, that easygoing boy, would spend much of his adult life in Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit--the ultimate crime against his friends, one that he'd rather die than commit--and he would--but she couldn't think of that, it was still too painful. James was the one who reminded her most of this. That bright-eyed boy who so resembled her boyfriend Harry would be Harry's father. He would be--but she couldn't think of it either. Obviously, her pain showed on her face already.

"No," said Hermione with a bit of a smile. It was hard, as though her face had forgotten how. Fitting, perhaps--she hadn't smiled almost all summer. "I guess it's just jet lag catching up to me, that's all."

"Wow," said Peter, studying her face.

"Wow what?" queried Hermione.

"Your face..." he said.

"What's wrong with my face? Is something on it?" she asked anxiously.

"No, no," said Peter. "It's just...when you smile, it's like your face is completely transformed. Why don't you do it more often?"

"Erm..." said Hermione, hesitating and looking around at the concerned faces of her new friends. Then she sighed. "Oh, I might as well tell you. You can't do anything about it anyway."

"Go on," said Sirius, spellbound.

"Well..." she began. Then she hesitated, unsure of how to say it. Finally, she decided on the direct approach. "Two...well, seventeen years from now, we will--oh God, this is going to be hard. I'm not used to explaining things in the future tense."

"Then explain it in past tense, from your time," said James.

Hermione took a deep breath. "Two years ago, we hosted the Triwizard Tournament."

"You're joking!" cried Peter, Remus, and Sirius at once.

"Nope," said Hermione. "Anyway, we were supposed to have one champion. The one chosen was Cedric Diggory for Hogwarts."

"Diggory--is he Amos Diggory's son?" asked James.

"Yeah," said Hermione.

"What do you mean, supposed to have one champion?" said Remus, confused.

"I'm getting to that," said Hermione. "My friend Harry was chosen also. There were a lot of people who got upset about that. First of all, there was the issue of the champions per school--there was only supposed to be one. Second of all, there was supposed to be an age line keeping people out who were under seventeen."

"Rats," commented Sirius.

"You called?" said Peter before he could stop himself.

Sirius laughed. Suddenly, he seemed to realise that Peter and Hermione were still standing. "Sit down," he said.

The two sat, and Hermione continued. "Well, the contest rules said that if a student's name came out of the goblet, they were under obligation to compete, so he had no choice. His friend Ron--he's been best friends with Harry since they met on the train to Hogwarts--got jealous of him. They had a fight; mostly that Ron didn't believe him. Harry wrote to--" Hermione caught herself just in time; she'd been about to say "Sirius". That would have been suicide. Instead, she said, "--his godfather and told him. Anyway, that's just a side note. The first task was dragons. They had four dragons, one for each champion, and they had to get past them and collect the Golden Egg. Harry went last, and he was up against the toughest dragon of them all--the Hungarian Horntail."

"Cripes!" yelped James. "He okay?"

"Yeah," said Hermione. "He just got scratched, grazed is more like it. The next task was harder. Each champion had a hostage--Harry had Ron, Cedric had his girlfriend Cho, the Beauxbatons champion had her sister, and the Durmstrang champion had me--"

"I'm not going to ask," muttered Peter as Sirius snorted with laughter.

"Don't worry, I don't like him like that," Hermione assured him. "He's a jerk who likes sucking up to people who don't like him so that they will."

"Sounds like Peter," teased Sirius. "Except he sucks down, 'cause he can't reach up."

"I heard that!" cried Peter.

"I know," said Sirius smugly.

Hermione waited, then continued. "Harry got there first, but was the last to get back because he was determined to return all the champions to safety, not just Ron. He and Ron had made up by this point, by the way."

"Good," said Remus, shooting a look at Sirius and James.

"The third championship was the hardest," said Hermione. "It seemed easy, but it wasn't. It was simply a maze. Harry got through, but Cedric almost beat him. Harry had saved his life twice, apparently, so Cedric wouldn't take the cup. Finally, they took it together."

"Is that the bad part?" queried James. "Because if it is..."

"It's not," said Hermione. "I only know two things about what happened after that. One, Cedric was killed. Brutally and for no reason except that he was there with Harry. Two, You-Know-Who used Harry's blood to bring himself back, give him a body of his own. That's all Harry will tell anyone but the teachers."

"Oh, God," said James.

Sirius said slowly, "So, You-Know-Who--what, dies?"

"No," said Hermione. "He's separated from his body."

"Ow," said Peter. "How did that happen?"

"Because Harry's mother died to save him, You-Know-Who couldn't kill Harry. The curse bounced back and hit him instead."

Remus noticed that several of these questions they were asking Hermione seemed to be painful for her to answer. "Come on," he said, getting up. "Let's go sit over by the fire. It's a little more comfortable." As he spoke, he quickly wiped blank the parchment behind him. Everyone got up and headed to the armchairs surrounding the fireplace.

No one spoke for a few minutes. Then Sirius, who also had cottoned on to Hermione's pain, said (a little too brightly), "What classes do you take?"

"I'm taking almost all my classes," said Hermione, also in a falsely bright voice. "Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Arithmancy, Charms, Herbology, History of Magic--that's it, really."

James counted on his fingers; his eyes widened. "Seven N.E.W.T. level classes?"

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "So they taught you how to count at some point along the way? Impressive."

Sirius snorted with laughter.

"Are you nuts?" demanded James, ignoring them both.

"Quite possibly," shrugged Hermione.

James tilted his head back and sighed. "I'm taking the courses McGonagall suggested to be an Auror." Sitting upright, he turned to Hermione. "Do you know if I make it or not?"

Hermione hesitated. "Well, I'm not sure. Probably, but I think you join the Order of the Phoenix too--that's kind of an Anti-Voldemort defence league. They tried to protect Harry last year--it worked, too."

"Great!" James beamed. "So I get to meet Harry."

"Yeah--yeah, you do," said Hermione hesitantly. It wasn't really a lie--he would meet Harry. "In fact, all of you know him. You're all in the--well, the original Order."

"The original?" echoed Peter, who had been silent for a while. "Are any of us in a later Order?"

"Sirius and Remus are." Hermione refused to elaborate any more.

Remus checked his watch. "Wow, it's late. This is the last day of holidays, everyone'll be back tomorrow. We'd best go to bed." To Hermione he added, "I think there's an extra bed in the sixth year girl's dorm. I'll go check--"

"That's okay," said Hermione, laughing a little. "You wouldn't make it anyway. Godric Gryffindor--the House Founder, you know--"

"Remus's told us," grumped Sirius. "Read Hogwarts, a History cover-to-cover and memorised it. Often as he's recited it, I may as well have memorised it too."

Remus stuck his tongue out at Sirius.

"Well," continued Hermione, smothering a chuckle, "there's a defence system--if any boys try to go up, the stairs turn into a slide. According to Gryffindor, the girls were more trustworthy than the boys."

"Bugger," said Peter, sliding down in his seat. Everyone laughed, even Hermione.

"I'm sure I'll find it all right," she added.

Remus nodded. "See you in the morning. Oh, by the way, password's Herbology."

"I know, Peter told me," said Hermione.

Remus grinned. "Bed, everybody."

"Yes, Professor," mocked James.

"Why can everyone here see me as a teacher?" muttered Remus.

"Perhaps because you're already a Prefect?" suggested Sirius.

"Or maybe it's because you will be," grinned Hermione. Remus blushed.

The boys swept up to their dormitory. Hermione walked slowly up the stairs to her own. She could tell by looking which beds were inhabited and which was not--a poster sat beside each one where people slept. There were four beds, three that were occupied. Hermione sank into the empty bed and fell asleep.

~~~

The Gryffindors arrived the next day. Remus introduced Hermione to several people whose names she recognised: Frank Longbottom (Neville's future father), Frank's girlfriend Alice Moore (whom Hermione suspected would be Neville's mother), and Gilderoy Lockhart (second-year Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher; when Remus introduced him he offered her an autograph). There were some she didn't know, but got to know them quickly--they were very nice. The other sixth year girls were Alice, Marlene McKimmon, and Lily Evans. Hermione smothered the pang she felt when meeting Alice, Marlene, and Lily--for she knew that Lily and Marlene would die and Alice would become insane--and quickly struck up a friendship with the three girls.

By the following Wednesday, Hermione's life had swung into a comfortable pattern. She knew the material well and was able to do well in her classes. Professor McGonagall even gave her a smile when she demonstrated a particularly difficult charm for her.

In public, Hermione was light, carefree, chatty. She laughed at her new friends' jokes, though only Remus could sense her true feelings. In private--which usually meant she would sneak off by herself and find her favourite window-box--she cried her heart out. She wanted to go home, but partly there was the pain every time she looked at the Marauders. She usually went to the window seat when it was a little darker; students were free to roam the corridors until ten, and the window-box had a great view of the constellations. On clear nights, she could see all her favourite constellations. It was there, on such a night, about a week after her arrival, that Remus Lupin found her.

~~~

Remus had had his suspicions from the very beginning that Hermione was unusually upset about something, even when she was happy. He also suspected it had nothing to do with the fact that Cedric Diggory had been killed, or at least very little. Now he had a chance to find out what it was. He put his hand gently on her shoulder.

"Hermione?"

Hermione looked up in surprise and quickly wiped her face on her sleeve. "Oh...hi, Remus."

Remus sat down next to her on the bench. "Hermione, what's wrong?"

"Nothing...nothing at all...what makes you think something's wrong with me?" said Hermione in a high-pitched voice.

"Mainly the fact that you've been sneaking off by yourself every night," shrugged Remus. He glanced out the window. "Wow, this is some view," he whistled. "You can see almost every constellation--look, there's Canis Major."

Hermione quickly followed his finger and located the dog's nose. "Oh, good, now I'll be able to find it," she said. "The nose of Canis Major is right near Orion's heel." Her gaze remained fixed on the star.

"That's Sirius, the Dog Star," said Remus next to her, looking at it. "Right? That's the star Sirius Black is named after."

"I know," said Hermione quietly. Then, very, very quietly, so that Remus almost didn't hear her, she said, "That's why I was looking for it."

Remus stared at her. "Do you have a crush on Sirius or something?"

Hermione shook her head. "Harry was wondering where it was the other day. I just wasn't sure."

Remus hesitated, then asked. "Hermione, what's wrong? Why is it your eyes fill up with tears every time you look at James, or Sirius, or Peter? What happens?"

Hermione hesitated herself. She looked up at Remus. "If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone?"

"I promise," said Remus, crossing his heart.

Hermione sighed. "Okay," she said. "In nineteen years--when I come from--James and Sirius are both dead. Peter is a Death Eater, so you don't consider him a Marauder."

Remus stared in shock. "No--no, it-it can't be true, it's not..."

Hermione gave a harsh laugh, completely without humour.

"Remus, by the time Harry turns sixteen you are the only Marauder left."

Remus stared across the ground. "James is Harry's father, isn't he?"

"Yeah..."

"And he has his mother's eyes, right?"

"Right."

"Other than that he looks like his father?"

"Right down to the messy hair."

Remus looked at the mountains, not really seeing anything. He was remembering his third year Divination exam. When it was over, the teacher, Professor Anderson, had gone in a kind of trance. She had described a boy who had messy hair and looked like his father but with his mother's eyes. She told Remus that only one of them would be left by the boy's sixteenth birthday.

At the time, he and his friends had assumed the boy was James, for the description fit him perfectly. They had even gone so far as to spend the previous summer together, sure it would be their last, knowing they'd never all make it to the sixth year. When James's sixteenth rolled around and they were all still alive, they disregarded it as a fraud. Now, though, he knew. He knew that the boy was Harry, not James.

"How?" he whispered. "How did they die?"

"Peter betrayed James to V-Voldemort," said Hermione hollowly. "Harry was a year old. Voldemort killed James, his wife Lily--"

"Lily Evans?" gasped Remus.

Hermione nodded. "Well, Voldemort tried to kill Harry, but I told you what happened."

"How long will it be before James--" Remus broke off, unable to finish.

Hermione did quick mental calculations. "He'll be seventeen this summer?"

"August fifteenth, yes."

"Well, let's see, they start dating next year at age seventeen, marry shortly after turning eighteen, in September I think, have Harry in July of the following year, so they aren't quite nineteen, and die Halloween the year after that. They're twenty. James has three years."

"And Sirius?" whispered Remus, feeling uncomfortable. Sirius had been the first to befriend him. Remus Lupin had been very shy and secluded, and Peter Pettigrew had been insecure. Sirius had befriended Peter on the train and met Remus the next day, and introduced them both to James. Now if some smart aleck called Peter Sleepy, Dopey, or Grumpy, he'd laugh and start singing 'Heigh-Ho!'--in fact, when he said hello, he often would say 'Heigh-ho!' Remus, though he didn't quite join in all of the pranks, at least no longer tried to stop them. If he lost Sirius before he lost James, he didn't see how he could go on.

"Sirius lasts a little longer," said Hermione quietly. "He has eighteen years and four or five months, but he'll spend twelve of them in Azkaban. They think he betrayed the Potters."

"How?" gasped Remus.

"How do they think that?"

"No, how does he--" Remus gulped and broke off again.

Hermione lowered her eyes. Very softly, she whispered, "Remus, it might've been kinder if Sirius had died before James, or just afterwards, or died in Azkaban. I mean, Harry wouldn't have done a lot of the things he'd done that saved so many lives without Sirius, but--" It was Hermione's turn to gulp.

"But what?" whispered Remus, looking at her.

Hermione sighed. "Remus, Harry knew Sirius--as he really was, not as Harry thought he was at first--for two years, and that was it. Last year...well..." Hermione took a deep breath and went on. "Harry and Sirius had become really attached to one another. Voldemort and Harry had some kind of connection. Harry could sense Voldemort's moods, his emotions, shared some of his visions. He had a dream one night that he was a snake, that he slithered up to the door of the Department of Mysteries and attacked Mr. Weasley--Ron's dad. He went and told Dumbledore and, sure enough, they found Mr. Weasley unconscious and bleeding from a snake bite. Well, anyway..." She took another deep, shuddering breath and continued. "Voldemort found out that Harry and Sirius were attached; he found out that Harry had come to regard Sirius as a mixture of a father and a brother, and that the one thing--the one thing Sirius cared about most in the world was Harry. So Voldemort sent Harry a vision of Sirius being tortured in the Department of Mysteries."

"So Voldemort tortured him to death," said Remus harshly.

Hermione shook her head. "See, Harry tried unsuccessfully to contact Sirius--he used Floo powder--but Sirius was upstairs tending to a wounded hippogriff and his house elf told Harry that Sirius wasn't there. After a while we wound up at the Department of Mysteries with Ron, Neville Longbottom--yeah, that's Frank's son--Ron's little sister Ginny, and this girl called Luna Lovegood. We went down to the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius, but since he wasn't there we didn't find him. Harry found a prophecy concerning him that was later destroyed. We wound up running from Death Eaters. I was hit by a charm, and knocked out, so I don't remember anything else, but Neville told me--Harry still won't talk about it, he's too upset, and Ron was a little confused. But Neville remembers...Sirius was duelling, trying to protect us, and he dodged an attack, taunted--the person he was duelling with, and the second light hit him in the chest. According to Neville, it seemed to take forever for him to fall, he fell through this arch and never came out. That's how they knew he was really dead...Neville told me that Harry said Sirius had never kept him waiting that long before."

Remus clenched his fists. "Who was he duelling with?"

Hermione started to answer, but then heard voices out in the hall. She stopped, and the two of them peered around the heavy curtain.

A girl with dark hair, a girl with blonde hair, a boy with immaculate white-blond hair, and a boy with dark hair were walking down the hallway, talking and laughing.

"No way! He wouldn't!" the blond boy was saying.

"Oh, he would, all right," said the dark girl, tossing her hair. "But then our dear cousin always was a rather...oddball, shall we say...wasn't he, Narcissa?"

"Quite odd," nodded Narcissa, the blonde girl. "Ran away from home this past summer--I heard he was living with that twerpy little friend of his."

"The geek with the glasses?" snickered the dark boy.

"The very same," smirked Narcissa.

"Auntie was so disappointed when he was Sorted into Gryffindor," said the dark girl with a sigh. The foursome had stopped just beyond the window. "She'd always hoped he would be in Slytherin, make her and Uncle proud."

"Him? Make his parents proud?" snorted the blond boy. "As if."

Narcissa nodded. "And have you seen that new girl?" she said to the others. "Her hair is so bushy...she'd benefit from some Sleak-Eazy's Hair Potion, wouldn't she?"

"So many freckles!" agreed the dark girl derisively. "And she's so ugly!"

"That's not all," said the dark boy.

"Oooh...what else is there, Randy?" asked the dark girl eagerly.

Randy winced. "First of all, my name is Randolphus. Randy if you like, but it is Randolphus. And second of all..." He leaned in confidentially. "I heard she's a Muggle."

Hermione nearly jumped out and shouted "So?" but restrained herself.

"A Muggle?" gasped the dark girl with delight. "Ooh...I'm writing to Auntie..."

Narcissa shook her head. To the girl, she said, "What good would that do, dear cousin? He doesn't live there anymore."

"True..."

Randy leaned in. "Besides, my darling, we can't tease him if his mother knows."

"You know, Randy," said the girl, making a face, "you're not as stupid as you look."

Randy laughed. Narcissa grinned. "Oh, Lucius, I almost forgot, you had something you wanted to show us?"

"Oh, right," said Lucius with a grin. Hermione was beginning to put the pieces together. "Look what I did this summer..."

He rolled up his left sleeve. Hermione and Remus couldn't see what was on it, but Hermione could guess, and it wasn't good.

"Oooh, Lucius," breathed Narcissa. "Did it hurt much?"

"Nah," said Lucius, beaming. "It's a painless procedure, and I've never felt so happy in my life."

The dark-haired girl leaned in for a closer look. "I'm joining this summer," she declared. "Show me how, Lucius, and I'll prepare for it."

Obviously a little jealous, Randy spoke up. "I'll join too. You'll help me, right?"

"Sure," said Lucius, pleased. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "I wonder if any of those Gryffindors would want to join?"

"Not my cousin," said the dark girl, shaking her head. "He hates the whole family...well, except Cousin Andromeda and her good-for-nothing half-breed daughter."

"Who are they talking about?" Remus asked under his breath.

"Shh!" said Hermione just as quietly.

Lucius rolled his eyes. "I wasn't talking about your cousin, Bellatrix," he said calmly.

I was right, Hermione thought fervently.

"Then who were you talking about?" asked Bellatrix.

Lucius thought for a minute. "It ought to be someone close to your cousin, though, because then he'd be close to that geek...he is kind of important. I think he's the Heir of Gryffindor, although I'm not sure."

"What about the quiet geek?" suggested Randy.

"The smart freak, you mean?" smirked Lucius. "I don't know..."

"What about him?" said a new voice, one Hermione recognised.

A boy who was obviously a young Severus Snape walked up to the group.

"We were wondering who would join the Death Eaters," said Randy.

Severus nodded, and his eyes gleamed. "Well, that smart freak of whom you speak has a secret..."

Hermione felt Remus stiffen next to her.

"Ooh...what?" asked Bellatrix eagerly.

Severus dropped his gaze a bit. "I--er--I promised Professor Dumbledore I wouldn't tell..."

"Oh, come on, we won't tell anybody," wheedled Narcissa.

Severus looked up sharply. "Not even the Dark Lord?" he demanded.

"Not even him," promised Randy. "I'd go to Azkaban first."

Severus's eyes gleamed. "Don't tell him you know, but the freak is even more of a freak than you think." He dropped his voice dramatically. "He's a werewolf."

Remus bowed his head to his chest, obviously in pain, tears showing at the corners of his eyes. Hermione squeezed his hand gently, comforting him. Bellatrix clapped her hands in delight.

"Ooooh...how frightfully dangerous!" she said eagerly.

Lucius bit his lip. "He might join the Death Eaters..."

Remus's head snapped up. Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder to restrain him.

"I mean," continued Lucius, "he won't get another job as an adult. Who'd hire a werewolf? The Dark Lord can promise him fame, glory, riches, respect..."

You wish, Hermione thought, and from his expression Remus was thinking the same thing.

"But he is annoyingly good," finished Lucius. "He's a prefect and everything...he might join. But then again he might not. We should go for someone more gullible..."

Narcissa's eyes gleamed this time. "What about that fat kid? He'd believe anything..."

Lucius's eyes gleamed too. "Great idea, popkin! I'll talk to him the first time I catch him on his own..."

The five Slytherins walked off. Remus peered around the curtain to make sure they had really gone, then fell back into the wall behind him.

"Join the Death Eaters," he snarled. "I'll go hungry first!"

Hermione bit her lip. "Did you see that girl with the dark hair?"

"Bellatrix? Yeah," nodded Remus. "Why?"

"She--" Hermione hesitated. "They were talking about Sirius. Sirius is Narcissa and Bellatrix's cousin." Hermione's eyes filled up with tears, and she looked up at Remus. "Bellatrix is the one who was duelling with Sirius. She's the one who kills him."

Remus's eyes filled with tears too. "Oh, God."

Hermione's blurry brown eyes met Remus's. "Remus, one other thing...I knew."

"Knew what?" asked Remus, feigning dumb.

"I knew--I've known for three or four years--that you were a werewolf. You were our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher in the third year. You helped save our lives from Pettigrew--that's when we first met Sirius--and Snape got angry. He told all the Slytherins at breakfast, but I knew long before that--he assigned us an essay on ways to recognise and kill werewolves, and I figured it out from there. Severus kept his promise, except for those four--until he told the Slytherins, that is--and so did the other four. Bellatrix marries Randolphus Lestrange, and they went to Azkaban the year after Sirius. They escaped last year to rejoin Voldemort. Narcissa and Lucius get married too."

Remus bowed his head again. "I don't care about being a werewolf anymore," he said softly.

Hermione studied him for a minute. "So Sirius already tried to kill Snape, huh?"

"Yeah--wait, you knew that too?" said Remus, distracted.

"You told me in the Shrieking Shack the night we met Sirius and Pettigrew," grinned Hermione.

Remus nodded. "Yeah, they pulled James and Snape and Siri--and my sister Marilynn--and I out of school for a couple days. They locked me in some kind of cage to prevent me from escaping or killing anybody. My older sister--she just got out of Azkaban--was a werewolf too, and I'd testified to save her about ten or eleven years ago. They set up the place exactly the way it had been for Sylvia's trial...Thanks to James and Sirius, though, I got out alive and they even freed Sylvia. I think it was that Mr. Diggory likes us..."

"Mr. who?" said Hermione.

"Mr. Diggory," replied Remus.

"Amos Diggory?"

"Yeah," nodded Remus. "Why?"

Hermione sighed. "He'll be--actually, Cedric would've been nineteen now. He'd be turning twenty. Cedric's probably almost one right now. Cedric Diggory was the other Hogwarts champion. I told you about him."

Remus gulped.

The two pointed out constellations for a while, then Remus checked his watch.

"Wow! Hermione, we've got about two minutes to run back to the Gryffindor common room before we get in major trouble..."

So the two sprinted back, said a hurried "Goodnight", and ran up to bed.

Hermione arrived in the dormitory to find Alice, Marlene, and Lily up and waiting for her.

"So," said Alice expectantly, "how did it go?"

"What?" asked Hermione, confused.

"Did he kiss you?" asked Lily eagerly.

"Are you going out again?" asked Marlene.

"Do you have big plans for this weekend?"

"Are you going to the dance on Friday?"

Hermione held up her hand. "Hold on!" she laughed. "What are you talking about, what's so special about this weekend, and what dance on Friday?"

"You and Remus!" said Lily.

"We know you two were out together," added Alice.

"This weekend is a Hogsmeade weekend..." continued Marlene.

"And the dance is a casual dance on Friday."

The girls stared at Hermione expectantly. Hermione couldn't figure out what they meant for a minute...then she realised what was going on.

"Don't be ridiculous," she told them. "He's nineteen years older than I am, for crying out loud! Besides, I have a boyfriend, and he has a girlfriend!"

"You do?" said Alice, just as Lily said, "He does?"

Hermione nodded. "He told me--and if you two can keep a secret..."

"We can!" said both girls instantly.

Hermione grinned. "Well...you know James Potter?"
Lily nodded. "He's so mean!"

"Well," said Hermione slowly, "his son isn't, not really--at least he doesn't flip people upside down and threaten to take their pants off because his friend is bored--but his name is Harry, and I'm dating him. We started in October."

Lily grinned. "I wish you the best of happiness. What about Remus?"

Hermione went beyond grinning. She gave an evil smirk. "He's dating your sister, Lily."

"Petunia?" gasped Lily. "Oh, that's great! She was here at the end of last year, and they did fall in love, and I know they make a great couple. Do they wind up getting married?"

"No," said Hermione slowly. "No, Petunia winds up marrying a certain Vernon Dursley, who hates magic and makes her dye her hair, wear contact lenses to change her eye colour, act like she hates Harry...the works. Don't tell anyone, Lily."

"I won't," promised Lily. She hadn't noticed the "hate Harry" part of it.

"Hey, do you know our futures?" asked Alice eagerly.

Hermione nodded. "I'll tell you if you want."

"Oh, yes!" said all three girls eagerly.

Hermione smiled--something she'd been doing a lot of lately, though none were sincere. "Well, let's see...Alice and Lily both get married."

"Good," said Alice.

"You both have sons."

"Good," echoed Lily.

"At the same time."

"Cool!" grinned Alice.

Lily looked up at Hermione. "Who do we marry?"

Hermione thought for a second. "Alice, you marry Frank Longbottom."

"All right!" said Alice eagerly. "What about Lily?"

Hermione smiled.

"Whoa, hold up!" said Lily suddenly. "That's a different smile than you've been smiling."

"It came from the heart," agreed Alice.

Hermione shrugged. "It's a touching subject."

"Well?" said Lily impatiently. "Who do I marry?"

Hermione smiled the true smile again. "James Potter."

Lily gave a start of surprise. "No way!" Then she grinned. "Well, if I had to marry James Potter, I couldn't have picked a nicer daughter-in-law."

"What?" said Hermione again. Then she noticed Lily grinning at her. "...Oh. You mean me."

Lily grinned and nodded.

"What about me?" spoke up Marlene.

Hermione hesitated. "Erm...I don't know if you ever get married or not, but I do know that all three of you are in the Order of the Phoenix."

"Cool!" said the girls together.

~~~

All too soon for everybody involved, January twenty-eighth rolled around. It was a Saturday.

The girls said good-bye to one another in the privacy of their dormitory.

"I just want you to know," said Marlene, holding out her hand, "if I never meet you again, I have greatly enjoyed the experience of knowing you."

"As have I," said Alice, holding her own hand out to Hermione. "Tell--" She hesitated. Hermione had told her in private what would happen to her and Frank. "Tell my son I love him," she said finally.

"I will," Hermione assured her. "Don't worry."

Lily stepped forward too. "I look forward to hearing about you from my son in the future," she said eagerly.

"Er--heh-heh--yeah," said Hermione nervously. ""See you then...I guess."

The girls waved good-bye as she left the dormitory. She headed down the steps and looked around for Sirius, Remus, James, even Peter--she'd wanted to say goodbye to them too. They were nowhere to be found. Feeling dejected, she walked out of the tower and headed to the corridor.

As she had been told, the vortex was there. Just before she jumped into it, she heard a voice behind her.

"Mione, wait!"

Startled that somebody would be using Harry's nickname for her, she turned around. The Marauders stood behind her, grinning. James was in front.

"Didn't think we'd let you leave without saying goodbye, did you?" he grinned. "We wanted to say it privately, though."

He stepped forward and held out his hand. "Remus told me Harry's going to be my son," he told her, smiling. "I just want you to know--I couldn't have picked a nicer daughter-in-law."

Hermione grinned. "That's what your future wife said."

"My wife?" frowned James. "I guess she'd be in our year...is it Alice, Lily, or Marlene?"

"I'm not saying," replied Hermione, grinning wider, "but I'll tell you that I know of two people whose names are Alice Longbottom and Marlene McKimmon..."

"Hm...so that means..." James grinned widely. "Wow..."

He stepped back, and Sirius came forward. He, too, clasped Hermione's hand.

"Listen, Hermione..." he said, grinning, "if I meet you in the future, and I don't mention that I ever met you before, I have a very short-term memory, so I probably don't remember it. Forgive me..."

"That's okay," grinned Hermione. "When I meet you for the first time, I'm only thirteen. I won't realise I've met you yet."

Sirius grinned even wider and stepped back. Peter came forward.

"Hermione..." he said hesitantly, shaking her hand. "I just want you to know--whenever something happens to one of us, it's usually my fault. So if--if any of us wind up in jail, or injured, or dead, it's probably my fault."

"It is, actually," she said quietly, "but nobody believes me. I'll be seeing you, I suppose."

Peter gave her a kind of sick grin and stepped back. Remus stepped forward.

He, too, held out his hand with a small smile. She smiled back and took his hand, then threw her arms around him in a sisterly way. He hugged her back, very tightly. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. They'd already said it all.

Remus released her and stepped back. "Listen, we'll all try and visit you before the year's up," he said, speaking for his friends.

"Actually, Peter will probably stay back," Sirius grinned. "We'll need him to run interference. Unless we conveniently find a time vortex that will lead us to the future, we'll need to perform a spell to open one ourselves. And it will probably be illegal, so we'll need to leave Peter as a distraction."

"We'll have to do that no matter what," said Remus quietly. "You don't need to worry."

It was a double-edged remark for the other Marauders' benefit. They thought he was telling her not to worry about them getting caught. He was actually telling her not to worry about having to deal with Harry's reaction to Pettigrew.

Hermione smiled. "I'll be there. I can't wait to see you. It'll give me something to look forward to."

"Keep in touch, Mione," said Remus with a grin.

"How?" pointed out James. "What are you going to address the letters to--'Remus Lupin, Gryffindor Common Room, Nineteen Seventy-Seven?'"

Remus laughed. "I think there's a spell where you can send objects to a fixed time. I'll look it up and send it to you, okay?"

"Okay," grinned Hermione. "I--I'll see you around."

She turned around, hesitated, took a deep breath, and plunged into the vortex. Her last sight of the past was of Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus waving. Tears shone in the corners of Remus's eyes. She waved until she could see them no more.

Again, she felt the sensation of falling down a long, windy tunnel. Finally, she emerged, feet first, on the corridor. The painting was no longer there, and when she turned around, neither was the vortex. Harry and Ron were there, looking panicky.

"Mione!" cried Harry in relief, seeing her. "I thought we'd lost you forever!"

Hermione laughed. "How long have I been gone?"

Ron checked his watch and glared at Harry. "Ten minutes, but from the way Harry was acting you'd been gone for a month."

"What was that thing?" asked Harry as they walked away.

"Time vortex," replied Hermione. "A tunnel through time and space to a different time."

Ron looked interested. "Where did you go? Past or future?"

"Past. I went back nineteen years, three weeks, and two days in time."

Harry looked impressed. "Meet any friends?"

"Three girls and five boys."

"Did you date any of them?" demanded Harry.

"No, although one of them asked me," said Hermione with a smile, remembering the day after she'd talked to Remus, when Sirius had asked her to go out with him. She wound up hanging out with all the Marauders in Hogsmeade that Saturday.

"A boy or a girl?" inquired Ron with a mischevious grin.

"Ron!" shouted Harry and Hermione at once.

As they headed for the common room, Hermione remembered what they had told her...

"We'll come and visit, Hermione..."

Well, it was nice to have something to look forward to, after all.