A/N: Another update, yay! I was on a role with this chapter (I had written it in January and just had to edit it). I managed to edit it super quickly and just couldn't wait to upload it. I hope you all enjoy, and don't forget that if you leave a comment you'll get a PM with a sneak peak of the next chapter.

CHAPTER THREE: SETTLING IN.

The large double doors of the Hospital Wing burst open and I breathed a sigh of relief as Professor McGonagall entered the Hospital Wing in a flurry of dark robes. Most of my injuries had been healed during my two night stay and I was finally being released.

McGonagall made a beeline to where I sat on the edge of the bed, a smile pulling at her lips. She had made the decision that I was trustworthy and not out to hurt anyone when she visited me yesterday and talked to me in more depth about my classes and any supplies that I would need for my stay at the school. It was strange how well we got on so quickly.

"Good morning, Miss Granger. How are you feeling today?" She said as she came to a standstill.

"I feel fine. Madam Pomfrey said that all of my visible wounds have healed perfectly fine, although there are several scars that I'll have for life. I also have bruised ribs. They should be fine in a week or so, but there was nothing else that she could do for that."

She nodded her head, and smiled over my shoulder at Madam Pomfrey.

"Hello Minerva. Miss Granger is all ready to go, however I would like for her to come and see me again at the end of the week just to make sure everything has healed perfectly."

Minerva nodded her head and sat down on the chair that was next to my bed. "That will be no problem. Now, Miss Granger, we need to discuss the story that you will use to explain why you are here. I've spoken to the Headmaster and we've come up with a basic narrative for you, if that is okay?"

"That's fine."

"Well, as I'm sure you are aware, gossip spreads rather quickly here at Hogwarts, so the majority of the schools knows that you were found unconscious and rather…injured. So the Headmaster and I decided that, with your permission of course, it would be a reasonable story that you were attacked by Dark Wizards. The Headmaster also suggested that we say your family was killed during the attack. It would explain why you've come to Hogwarts and will make it easier for people to think that you have no family, rather than question why you've transferred here and why you stay back during the holidays. Does this story sound good to you?"

Agreeing with her, I asked a couple of questions about the depth of the story and if it was okay for me to make up my own aspects if asked, and then she stood up, motioning for me and stand up and follow her from the Hospital Wing. I walked beside her through the halls of the school and was glad we only passed a handful of students on our way towards Gryffindor tower, each one staring at me curiously, with me watching them in turn. I almost laughed at some of the clothes that they were wearing. Being in the Hospital Wing almost made me forget that I was in 1977.

McGonagall came to a sudden stop in front of the Fat Lady and turned to face me. "I know this must be nerve wracking for you Miss Granger. But, I've arranged for you to meet with our Head Girl who will introduce you to the other students and show you your dorm room. She's a very nice girl, I'm sure that you'll get along nicely."

"Phoenix." She said as she turned back to the Fat Lady. Smiling down at us, the Fat Lady swung the door open to reveal the Common Room I had missed so much since being on the run with Ron and Harry. I sighed happily at the site of it as I stepped inside.

Once we passed the threshold, the portrait swung shut closed, leaving us in the almost empty common room. The only people there was a small group sitting by the fire. At the sound of our entrance they all turned around and I had to fight with every fibre of my body to hold in my gasp of shock.

My hurt lurched at the site of the people before me. Three of which were undeniably dead. One who I hoped was. And another who was clinging to his life alongside his wife in the Hospital Wing back in 1998.

Red hair flung around as we were approached and I instantly recognised Harry's mum, Lily Evans. She smiled brightly at me, and rushed forward to hold out her hand for me to shake. I took it, smiling back, trying not to show any sign of my shock.

"Hi, you must be Hermione." She said brightly, dropping her hand from mine. "My name's Lily Evans. Head Girl."

"It's nice to meet you." I hesitantly crossed my arms over my chest.

"Okay, now that you two have met I'll be on my way. I've left your timetable with your trunk and books up in the dorm room. If you find you need anything, Hermione, don't hesitate to ask."

I smiled and thanked her as she turned to leave the Common Room. Then I turned to face Lily, who was still staring brightly at me.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to the boys. Then I can show you to your dorm room and introduce you to your room mates." She led me over to the couch where the four Marauders were seated, and I finally managed to get a proper look at them.

My eyes instantly went to James, who looked as if he could be Harry's twin brother. Messy black hair, glasses, same face shape. The only differences being the lack of scar and the colour of his eyes. Then they turned to Sirius who still had the longer hair, but any signs of age and torment that he had received by being a captive for years were now gone. Instead he was looking me up and down and grinning up at me. The look reminded me of the one Victor had given me the night of the Yule Ball in fourth year, or the look Cormac had given me during Slughorns stupid Christmas Party. I internally shuddered at the thought.

I tried hard to skip Pettigrew altogether, who was just as pudgy and rat-like as the last time she had seen him. I tried not to dwell on the fact that he would betray Lily and James to Voldemort sometime in the future. I couldn't change the past, no matter how much I wanted to. Then I looked at Remus, who seemed to be sporting far less scars than he did in 1998, and who looked less troubled than I ever thought I would see him.

"So, these are my friends. On the left we have Peter, then there's Remus and Sirius. And the gentleman in the glasses is my boyfriend, James. I managed to get everyone else out of the Common Room, but I knew that they'd force themselves in here to see you anyway, so I just let them tag along."

They all greeted me enthusiastically, Sirius' hand lingering in mine a little bit longer than the others. I tried not to show my disgust at the thought that that was Harry's godfather, but it was hard when you knew the man as being a prisoner stuck in his own home drinking himself silly.

"It's nice to meet you Hermione. We've definitely been in need of fresh blood around here."

Remus hand flung out and slapped Sirius across the back of his head. "Don't be insensitive, you asshole."

"It's okay." I said, just before James could punch Sirius in the arm. "I'm happy to be at Hogwarts. I've heard amazing things. I mean, sure, my circumstances before coming here weren't…ideal, but I just need to look forward."

The group seemed to let out a collective breath as I spoke. Sirius smiled up at me and I immediately averted my eyes away, not wanting to encourage him at all.

"Okay, you got to meet her. Now, why don't you go play with your brooms like good little boys while I show Hermione her room."

Lily grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the sniggering group of boys towards the stairs up to the girls dorm. I followed behind her, eager to escape the awkwardness of my introduction to the group of Marauders.

We reached a door which I was familiar with and Lily knocked on it twice. There was a crash inside and I could hear hurried footfalls of someone running towards us. The door was thrust open and I almost let out another shocked breath. Standing before me was a face I didn't personally know, but seemed similar enough to one that I did know that it was easy for me to guess who she was. Wide eyes staring at me in wonder, dark hair, and a smile that mirrored that of the son she would have.

"Oh my gosh! You must be Hermione. It's so nice to meet you. Come in. Come in." Alice Longbottom…well, not Longbottom yet, moved aside to let the both of us into the room. I looked around, taking in all of the decorations that were spread across the walls. Most of it was similar to what was there in my time, but there was the odd thing that screamed 70's to me.

Lily walked straight to a bed that sat in the far corner of the room and sat down on the very edge of it. Next to her on the bed sat a large trunk. I headed forward, excited to see what textbooks I had, as well as what clothes McGonagall had gotten for me. I hoped that they weren't horrendous, and I hoped that they actually fit me.

Sitting near Lily on the bed, I reached for a letter that sat on top of the trunk. I looked at the envelope and tore it open as Lily spoke to Alice about one of the classes that they shared. I pulled out the piece of parchment and unfolded it, looking down at my timetable. It was virtually the same as what it had been in my sixth year. Looking over each class, thinking about the work we would be doing, I instantly relaxed.

Putting the letter aside, I stood up from the bed and reached for the trunk, unclasping it. I threw it open on the bed and looked at what was inside of it. The clothes weren't too bad, the odd pair of flared jeans and knitted turtle-necks, but I would be wearing my uniform most of the time anyway. I shoved everything to the side of the bed and then turned my attention to my textbooks. I recognised most of them, having read them in my spare time over the course of my Hogwarts education. However, there were a couple that weren't as up to date as I was used to. I would need to read through these copies to make sure I didn't say or write something that was too advanced for this time period.

"Is this the right trunk?" I looked up to meet Lily's eyes. She was still sitting on the end of the bed, but she had turned to face me and was looking at me in confusion. "You don't look like you've seen any of this before."

"Oh. I've never-I haven't seen any of this stuff before. When I left my home, I could only bring a small amount of things with me and none of them were suitable for school. Professor McGonagall went and bought all of this stuff for me yesterday."

Lily's face dropped at the mention of leaving my home. It wasn't a lie, exactly.

"Oh, that's a shame. It must be hard being in a strange place, without your own things to make you feel comfortable."

"Yeah. I can't even imagine what you've been through. It must be surreal, going from being tortured by Death Eaters to finding yourself in a hospital bed at a strange school."

Alice was bouncing on the balls of her feet as she watched me and I raised my eyebrows at her. She had all the tact that Neville had. If it wasn't such a hard topic, I would have laughed at the similarities between mother and son. I silently wondered if she made a habit of blowing up cauldrons as well.

Lily slapped Alice on the arm and glared at up at her. "Alice! We don't know what happened to Hermione. You shouldn't speculate like that."

"It's fine, really." I said, trying to make my face look solemn. No matter that I had both been tortured by Death Eaters and been in a battle against them. "She's not wrong. However, I had already planned on coming to Hogwarts before my family was killed. It just meant my arrival was…unorthodox."

Lily jumped up and wrapped me in a tight hug. "I'm so sorry you've had to go through all of this. We'll take care of you here at Hogwarts, I promise."

My chest tightened, and I had to fight back the urge to cry. I had no idea what was happening with my friends, and on top of that I was in a room with two people that I knew would suffer at the hands of this first war.

"Thank you, Lily. That means a lot."

#

It was a relief when I was finally left alone to get into my pyjamas and climb into bed. After my exchange with Lily, four other girls had exited the dorms bathroom and had eagerly introduced themselves to me. I knew I recognised some of them to be the relatives to people I had grown up with, and it was interesting to see how each one acted in comparison to their relatives. It reminded me of home.

Being a seventh year student, I shared a room with Alice King, Marcia Devonleigh, Cecilia Finnigan, Raquel Brown, and Emily Wood. Each of them overly enthusiastic to meet me, which meant that I was completely worn out after five minutes of talking with them.

When they finally left me be, I closed the curtains around my bed and cast a privacy charm, setting to work on putting my clothes away and preparing my things for classes tomorrow.

My timetable had me in double Potions tomorrow morning, Transfiguration, and then Charms. I was excited to get back into my education, but nervous that I would be among classmates who I didn't know. I hadn't grown up with these people. I didn't know who I could trust or who I should avoid.

Once all of my things were set, I climbed onto the bed, pulling out my beaded bag and enlarging it to its normal size. Opening the bag I reached my arm inside, happy that the undetectable extension charm had held out through time. I continued to dig until I found a small photo album. Opening it up I flipped through the photos inside, skipping ahead to my most recent photo I had with Harry and Ron in it.

Pulling the photo out of the album, I gripped it in my hand before shoving the album back into the bag. Once the bag was securely hidden in my trunk I curled up under the soft blankets and looked at the people smiling out at me.

The photo was taken in our sixth year, after Harry and Ginny had gotten together. It was of the four of us, Ron, Harry, Ginny, and I, sitting on the couches in the Common Room. Ginny was sitting with her legs in Harry's lap, the both of them going from smiling at each other, to smiling at Collin (who was taking the photo). Ron was sitting as far away from them as possible, playing Wizarding Chess by himself, his face going from a scowl to a his trademark dopey grin. And then there was me, sitting in between them, my head stuck between the book in my hand and the camera lense.

Tears ran down my cheeks as I stared at the photo. I quickly rubbed them away, but it was no use, they kept coming. I ended up sobbing, clutching the photo in my hands. I missed my friends. I had no idea if I was going to be going home to a world where my friends were still alive or not. There were so many uncertainties. And as someone who longed for structure and balance, this upheaval was wreaking havoc on my emotions.

I laid there crying into my pillow, mourning for the friends and family I didn't know if I still had, the group in the photo continuing to smile down at me.

#

The next morning had me in a miserable mood, trying to make my hair conform to a ponytail while I tried to get rid of the puffiness in my eyes. Nothing seemed to help, and just as everyone else in the room was waking up, I hastily made my way from the room, down through the Common Room and out the portrait hole.

Wearing the uniform I relaxed under the familiar feel of the material on my body. Making my way down to the Great Hall was quite easy, not many people were out of bed and ready for breakfast this early on a Monday morning, and as I pushed the doors open and headed to Gryffindor table, there was only three other people in the whole Great Hall.

The first was Snape, sitting over at the Slytherin table, glaring down at a textbook. He looked up as my shoes clicked and clacked against the floor, sneering over at me. The second was a young boy sitting over at the Hufflepuff table, his eyes shut as he had teetered on the edge of his arm. The third was Lily, who sat in the centre of the Gryffindor table with books spread out around her and several pieces of parchment laid down in front of her.

Placing my bag on the seat next to me I instantly reached for eggs on toast. She glanced up at me, wishing me a good morning, before looking back down at her essay. Keeping my reply minimal, I quickly slipped into silence, knowing what it was like to be interrupted while working on homework. I did not want to be that person. Even if I had the urge to beg her to tell me what her essay was about.

Eating my breakfast in silence, I watched as the Great Hall slowly filled with more and more people. Eventually I had to reach into my bag and retrieve my Advanced Potions textbook and flip through it, wondering what the class was currently working on.

"Good morning, Lils." Looking up briefly from the textbook, I watched James sit down beside Lily, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. He nodded in my direction and smiled as I met his eyes above the textbook. "Morning, Hermione."

"Good morning, James," I said, keeping my head turned down.

I could feel, rather than hear, Sirius sit down beside me. His arm instantly going over my shoulder and his legs touching mine. Pushing back the urge to hex him, I cringed at the contact.

"Good morning, beautiful." He whispered. Clencing my jaw, I closed my book and slammed it on the table. He jumped slightly, but kept his arm around my shoulder.

My eyes moved past Lily's shoulder and over to the Slytherin table where Snape was peeking over at us with a look of disgust on his face. Our eyes met and I didn't look away as I spoke. "You have five seconds to get your hand off of me or else I'll hex you."

The tone of my voice caught everyone's attention, including Peter and Remus, who I hadn't noticed had joined us. Sirius' hand instantly dropped and he slid slightly away from me, muttering something under his breath. Lily was looking at me with furrowed brows, as if she was seeing me for the first time.

"Are you okay, Hermione?" She asked, her eyes running over my face.

Realising that I probably still looked horrible, I cursed myself for drawing in attention. "I'm fine. I'm just a little bit sensitive to people touching me without my permission."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sirius slide even further away from me. At least he wasn't putting up a fight.

"Are you sure that's it?" Lily said, smiling sadly at me.

"Yeah. I'm okay."

She nodded her head and then looked down at her watch. Her eyes widened and she immediately started packing up her books and papers. We watched on as she hurriedly packed up her things and climbed up from the seat.

"I'll see you in Potions, I have to go and hand in this essay to Professor Binns."

She didn't hesitate before running off full speed out the door, leaving it ajar as she disappeared. Turning back to the table, I reached for another piece of toast, my eyes travelling over to Snape, who was staring at the door to the Great Hall where Lily had just fled.

Hmm, I wonder what that was about?

Forcing myself to wait until there was a good twenty minutes before class was supposed to start, I pushed myself up from the chair and headed off to the dungeons. When I arrived there, I wasn't surprised to see that Lily was already setting up at a table in the front. She smiled at me as I approached the front desk to reintroduce, or introduce, myself to Professor Slughorn.

He looked up in confusion as I stopped at his desk, smiling politely at him.

"How can I help you, Miss…?" He said, his voice as nasally as I remembered.

"Hermione Granger, sir. I'm a transfer student. Today's my first day."

Realisation dawned on his face and his smiled brightly. "Of course, I remember Minerva letting me know now. Granger? I've never heard of any Granger's. Do you have any wizarding family I would know of?"

I felt my lips tighten, my mind going to the first time I had met him and when he had asked me the exactly the same question.

"No, sir. I'm a Muggle-born, and I don't have any family anymore."

"Muggle-born you say…no matter." The last part was spoke quieter to himself as he pushed himself onto his feet. He walked around the desk and motioned for me to follow him towards the back of the table where Snape was flipping through his potions book, the same one that was filled with countless scribbles and notes. "You can sit here with young Severus. He's quite the Potion whizz, I'm sure he can show you the ropes."

My lips curled into a scowl at the implication that just because I was a Muggle-born I didn't already know how to brew potions. As if I hadn't been taught how to brew potions under one of the leading Potion Masters in the wizarding world.

Letting my scowl drop, I thanked him and then pulled out a chair as far as possible from Snape and got myself situated.

"I don't plan on walking you through this. If you're too stupid to follow simple instructions, you can sit there and watch. I won't let my mark suffer just so I can teach you something a first year would know."

Smiling sweetly at him, I pulled my Advanced Potions book out of my bag and laid it down on the table in front of me. "Where I'm from I've been the top of my Potions class since I was in my first year. I brewed a Polyjuice Potion when I was twelve. I think I can manage a simple Drought of the Living Dead."