Lost

LOST

Chapter One

Hermione nervously followed Professor McGonagall to Gryffindor tower. She had spent a week in the Hospital wing recovering from her fall, but Dumbledore had decided that it was time to introduce her to the rest of the school.

All of the Professors had spent the past week searching for something that could send her back to her own time, but they had all come up empty, and the time turners in this decade were not yet powerful enough to send someone more than a few hours into the future. It seemed that Hermione would have to stay where she was.

She had been worried about what was going to happen to her, seeing as she was stranded and without a single Galleon to her name. Dumbledore has just smiled at her fears, telling her that money was no problem. In fact, Professor McGonagall, who had quickly found that she adored Hermione, offered to be her guardian and caretaker for as long as was needed. All this made Hermione feel somewhat better in her situation, but she was still numb to just about everything. She tried not to think that she might never get back to her own time, but the thought seemed to never be far off.

As they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, McGonagall turned to Hermione with a kind smile. "I know this is hard for you dear. Just know that the entire staff is here for you, of there is anything you need." She put a hand on Hermione's shoulder, "My Gryffindors are a good bunch. I am sure they will make you feel right at home."

Hermione smiled weakly. "I am sure they will, considering that I know most of them already."

McGonagall pursed her lips together, and squeezed Hermione's shoulder. "Are you ready dear?"

Hermione nodded and McGonagall gave the password. They climbed in through the portrait hole and into the common room, which was filled to the brim with all of the Gryffindors.

They all looked at her with curiosity. All they had been told was that there was a new girl joining their house, but no one could get anything more out of the teachers. They hadn't even been told what year she was in.

McGonagall cleared her throat and the room became silent. Hermione took a deep breath, and tried to smile.

"We have a new student joining Gryffindor. Her name is Hermione Granger, and she is in seventh year. I hope you will all make her feel welcome, and a part of Gryffindor." She looked at a pretty girl with red hair, "Lily, as you are Head Girl, I would like to ask that you show Hermione around. That is all for now. Remember to get some sleep; there is a Hogsmeade visit tomorrow." With that she gave Hermione a last smile, and then walked out of the common room, leaving the students to themselves.

Lily walked up to Hermione with a friendly smile on her face. "Hi! I'm Lily Evans!"

Hermione smiled back, trying hard not to stare at the girl who would become her best friend's mother. "Hi Lily, I'm Hermione. It's nice to meet you."

Lily grinned. "You have no idea how nice it is to meet you! I've been the only Gryffindor girl in my age for six years! I need an ally."

Hermione had to smile. "I'm sure we'll be great friends. Do you mind if we go up to the dorm before I meet everybody? I'd kind of like to get settled in?"

"Sure! It's right over..." Lily stopped short as Hermione walked straight up the stairs to the girls' dorm. "there." She looked at a small group of boys and raised an eyebrow before following the new girl up to their rooms.

Lily shut the door to the small room and looked at Hermione. "How did you know where it was?" She asked, sitting down on her bed.

Hermione blushed. "I um... it's..." she hung her head, "it's complicated."

Lily looked at her, eyes glittering a bit. "It's true, isn't it?"

Hermione looked confused. "What's true?" She sat down on the bed opposite Lily.

"My friend Severus... he was the one who found you after you fell... said he heard the teachers talking about you." Hermione looked horrified; she didn't want people knowing she was from their future. "He said that they said that you knew things... that you are a seer, like, a real one."

Hermione relaxed a little bit. This could be very helpful. If they all thought that she was a seer she wouldn't have to worry about accidentally slipping something that she wasn't supposed to know. She decided to run with it. "Yeah... that's why I transferred to Hogwarts. My... old school... didn't have a good divination teacher, and they thought I could control my abilities better here."

Lily clapped her hands together. "Oh! Can you like, do it whenever you want? Can you tell me something about me?"

Hermione considered if there was anything she could tell Lily. "Well, I can't control what I learn. I just sort of... know things. And, I don't really like to tell people their futures, it's a personal thing." She saw the disappointment in Lily's eyes. "Well... I can tell you one thing." Lily smiled. "You are going to have a son who you will love more than anything."

"Wow. I've always wanted a son!" Lily said, smiling to herself.

**************************************************************

After Hermione had finished unpacking her new things, Lily took her by the hand. "Come on, I want to introduce you to the gang."

They descended the stairs into the common room, which was now almost empty except for a group of four boys in the corner. Hermione immediately knew who they were when she saw a boy with messy black hair and glasses turn around. These were the Marauders.

"Hey guys. I want to introduce you to Hermione." The guys stood up and offered their hands in order. "Hermione, I want you to meet James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter." Hermione shook each of their hands, trying hard not to show her hatred for Peter. "Guess what guys... Hermione is a seer!" Hermione blushed at the looks on the guys faces.

"No way," Sirius said, looking her up and down, "tell me something no one knows."

Hermione smiled for a moment before leaning close to him and saying, "I could tell you a lot of things, Padfoot."

He looked at her with shock, then with a huge smile on his face. "That is so cool!"

The other guys were dying to know what had impressed Sirius so much that she ended up having to whisper each of their nicknames to them as well. They all seemed to find it to be extremely cool that she could do that, and immediately thought of her as one of their own.

They settled down into the chairs in front of the fire as Lily went off telling Hermione all about Hogwarts. Hermione was thrilled to find that Lily seemed to like studying as much as she did. The boys moved off into their own separate conversations and she soon had almost fooled herself into feeling normal here.

"Tomorrow we get to go to Hogsmeade, Mya." Lily had already given Hermione a nick name. "It is the coolest little town. They have all sorts of fun shops and things to do. Plus, it will give me a chance to introduce you to some of the other seventh years."

"Sounds like fun." Hermione said, wondering what the town looked like twenty years before her time. "I'm kind of worried about meeting the other kids though."

Lily smiled with sympathy. "It's gotta be hard, coming to a new place like this. Don't worry though; I'm sure everyone will love you. I'll introduce you to everybody, and I know that Severus really wants to meet you."

At this Sirius snorted. "I don't know why you insist on being friends with that oily git, Lil."

Lily frowned, "Just cause he is in Slytherin doesn't make him a bad guy, Sirius. Sev is a good person, just because you don't like him..." She turned back to Hermione. "Gryffindor and Slytherin have this stupid rivalry going on, and these guys," she motioned to the Marauders, "can never seem to get over that." She threw Sirius a look. "It's true that some of them are rather creepy, Lucius Malfoy for example, but some of them, like Sev, are nice." She paused. "Well, Sev isn't exactly nice... he's kind of sarcastic and sullen." Noticing the look on Hermione's face she added, "But you'll just love him, I'm sure of it."

*******************************************************************

Hermione opened her eyes, glad for the fact that she had her own room. Since there were no other seventh year girls, and Lily, as Head Girl had her own room, Hermione got the seventh year dorm to herself.

She had spent most of the night before crying. She missed her home, her friends, and her family. This Hogwarts felt alien, these people... it just wasn't right. She wished she could just go back to her old life.

Hermione drew her knees up under her chin, and laid her head down, beginning to cry once more. She didn't notice when Lily crept in. "Oh Mya!" She rushed over to the bed and put an arm around Hermione. "What's wrong?"

Hermione sniffled, trying to pull herself together. "I just... I miss my friends, and my old school."

"I know, it has to be hard for you." She gave Hermione a little hug. "Why don't you tell me all about your friends?"

Hermione smiled, and as the two girls got ready for Hogsmeade, she told Lily a highly censored version of her friendship with Harry and Ron.

"They sound wonderful." Lily said, sitting down next to Hermione at breakfast. "No wonder you miss them."

Talking about them had really helped Hermione, and she felt much better about everything already. She really liked Lily. "Thanks for listening Lily. I feel much better already. I can't wait for Hogsmeade today."

Just then they were surrounded by the Marauders. James sat next to Lily, Sirius sat next to Hermione, and Peter and Remus sat across the table.

"Morning girls," Sirius said, helping himself to a large stack of French toast. "You are going to love Hogsmeade, Mya..." Hermione smiled at the nick name, "There are all sorts of neat places to see."

Remus agreed, "Yeah. Hey, have you guys heard? There is a new shop in town, Zonko's. It's supposed to be an amazing joke shop."

Absentmindedly, Hermione nodded her head, "It's great, if you like that sort of thing. Although I have to admit the trick..." She stopped, noticing the five of them staring at her. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Sorry."

Sirius grinned at her. "No, that's awesome. I wish I could see the future."

She shrugged. "It's kind of a burden. I know some things I wish I didn't."

Remus could sympathize. "I know it must be hard to have an ability you can't control." She smiled at him, knowing exactly what he was referring to. "We won't press you about it or anything." He paused, grinning, "Just give us the heads up if we're about to be caught by Filch or something, okay?"

"Sure." They finished their breakfast and made their way down to Hogsmeade with the rest of the school. Lily kept Hermione occupied with visiting every store in town. They stayed with the boys for most of the day, until they got to Zonko's. The girls had finished looking around in about five minutes while the boys wanted to inspect every thing the store had to offer. Lily and Hermione decided to go wait for the boys at the Three Broomsticks.

They ordered two Butterbeers and slid into a booth near the back of the pub. Much to Hermione's delight they became engaged in a conversation about their studies. Hermione discovered quickly that she was much ahead of the other students in all of their subjects, as she was from twenty years in the future.

"You really know how to make the Dreamless Sleep Potion? That is supposed to be very advanced." Lily said, taking a sip of her Butterbeer.

"It is," Came a low voice from next to the table. Both girls looked up in surprise, although Hermione's lasted much longer than Lily's.

Severus Snape stood before them, wearing a junior version of his trademark sneer. He was shorter than in Hermione's time, and there were many slight differences in his appearance. His hair was shorter, and his nose was straight, as if it's crookedness in the future was from some break that had not happened yet. His face had the glow of youth, and lacked the deep lines of worry and pain that riddled his future self. He was bulkier than she remembered which she also attributed to his age here. All in all a confusing mix of differences and similarities.

He noticed Hermione's stare and, to her great surprise, blushed slightly. "Aren't you going to introduce me, Lily?"

The other girl smiled and pulled him down to sit next to her. "Severus, this is Hermione Granger. Mya, this is Severus Snape, although I am sure you already knew that." She winked.

"Hi." Hermione said weakly. "I never got the chance to thank you for getting me to the hospital wing."

He looked at her suspiciously. "What was that all about, anyway? You seemed to come out of no where."

Hermione hadn't thought of that, and she took a minute to answer, "Oh, um... Portkey! I fell down a flight of stairs after touching the Portkey and um... yeah." She stopped, hoping that her explanation made some sort of sense.

Lily nodded like it was obvious, but Severus stared at her searchingly.

"Anyway Sev, Mya here was just telling me about some of the spells and potions they were working on at her old school. They are really advanced in America." She took a sip of her Butterbeer hoping that Severus would take the bait. She so wanted him to like her new friend.

She was rewarded by Severus sitting up a bit straighter, looking at Hermione in interest. "Yes, I overheard you talking about the Dreamless Sleep Potion. They don't teach it at Hogwarts. I've been trying to make it on my own but..." He held up his hands, "I haven't been able to get it down right."

She smiled; for once she knew something that her Potions Master didn't. "It's tricky... you have to do it just so." She afforded herself a little bragging, "I was the only one in my year able to get it right, so far."

Severus began to pick Hermione's brain about various potions he had been wanting to try, to see if she knew any of them. Hermione found it odd that she was giving advice on potions to the man who would someday teach her. However she found it oddly satisfying to be able to talk with him like this. It almost made up for the years of abuse.

Lily smiled happily. This was wonderful. She had noticed that Severus had been withdrawing into himself lately, pulling away from her, and from his fellow Slytherins. She hadn't seen him this animated in a conversation for a long time.

"Polyjuice Potion? You've actually made that?" He looked at her with big eyes.

She nodded. "We made it in my second year. It wasn't that hard... except that I accidentally added a cat hair instead of a human one. I spent a month in the hospital wing." She laughed at the memory.

A rare smile crossed his face. "It serves you right for doing such a dangerous potion in your second year." He paused for a minute. "What school did you go to anyway?"

She racked her brain for a minute, trying to remember what Dumbledore had told her. "I went to... Sunnydale Academy."

He didn't seem convinced, but nodded anyway. He was about to ask her something else when a loud voice interrupted.

"Still not washing your hair, I see." Sirius was looking at Severus with angry eyes. He, James, Peter, and Remus had walked into the Three Broomsticks a few minutes before, and were not happy that Lily and Hermione were sitting with Severus.

Severus sneered. "Always the gentleman, aren't you, Black?" He turned to the girls. "I'll talk to you later Lily. Mya," the corners of his mouth turned up as he used the name, "it was a pleasure meeting you." He took her hand and kissed the back of it before throwing Sirius a dirty look at walking away.

Sirius sat down next to Hermione, and Lily glared at him. "Why can't you just be civil to him, Sirius? He is my friend after all."

He made a face. "I can't understand why." He turned to Hermione. "If I were you, Mya," he added, seemingly because Severus had, "I would stay away from Severus Snape. He's no good."

Hermione didn't quite know what to say, so she turned the conversation away from Severus. "So, what did you guys get at Zonko's?"

That set the boys off and they spent the rest of their time talking about the things they had bought, but Hermione's mind stayed focused on Severus.