A/N: Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments! Especially to the helpful criticism, 'cause lets face it – I'm no J.K. Rowling, and I make many mistakes. I'm sorry for not updating in forever, and I have a list of excuses for it but I doubt that you want to hear that… sooo on with the story! And hopefully I'll update much sooner next time.
Hermione lay on the couch, watching the red hot coals in the fireplace. She looked at the hovering clock in the common room that read "3:16 AM". The clock was very intriguing, since it was in a shape of a lions head, and the numbers were glowing in its eyes. Hermione wondered why the clock wasn't there in her own time.
Her mind was reeling. It seemed like she just traveled on the biggest roller coaster in the world on high speed. She wanted to be back home, in her own time. She wanted to see her best friends. She wanted everything to go back to normal. But did she really?
You go back in time in order to set things right, and you start losing your head. Way to go, Hermione. What next? You're going to fall in love with one of the marauders! This is rubbish, I need to destroy Voldemort before he finds out that a girl came all the way from the future with the intentions of killing him. Oh Merlin, who am I joking? How can I destroy the "one-who-must-not-be-named." Besides, what if I screw this up? What if I make things worse? This is too much. I'm not destined for this. This wasn't in the prophecy…
The image of Harry came into her mind.
Flashback
"Hermione, this is TOO much for me. I can't be destined to do this. I don't WANT to be the 'boy who lived', I don't want to be the one boy who must save the wizarding world! I can't handle the pressure of being responsible for saving the lives of all the good people!"
Harry broke off, standing on his knees. He's finally come to it. He broke down. All of the terrors of the past years came bursting out of him just like out of a broken bottle. His eyes started to fill up with hot tears as he kept going.
"Hermione, you have to understand what I am feeling right now. I want to be normal. People walk by me, and they give me jealous looks, 'cause they want to be heroes! They don't know what I'd give to be just like them! I want to have parents. I didn't want to see Cedric die… I want my godfather to be back… And now Dumbledore… Hermione, I'm scared… What if you or Ron would be the next targets? I would not be able to go on if something happened to you two…"
Hermione sat down on her knees next to him. She hugged him, as he cried into her shoulder. She started crying herself, since she never liked to see her best friend break down like this.
End Flashback
Well, Harry, I know what it feels like to be you right now…At least about the pressure… the pressure of a thousand dragons pushing on you…
As the last tear left her cheek, she fell asleep on the couch of the empty common room, without any knowledge that she was being watched.
Remus lay awake that night, thinking about the mysterious girl that he just met.
It's just my luck. A beautiful girl who adores books comes into school, and accepts me for who I am and she's from the future. Not that I like her that way or anything… I mean, I just met her! He thought about the whole thing for a second. I'm just fancy – I mean fascinated by her. I don't fancy her. I don't. I'm her professor, which means that she's my student. That's just wrong. That's wrong on so many levels…A student. MY student… that came into the past to save the wizarding world…
"Oy, Jamsie! Wake up, pumpkin!" Sirius said in a sing-song voice, and slapped James's face lightly. James groaned and looked at the clock. His eyes went wide and he shot Sirius a look.
"Sirius! Eight o'clock in the morning? You've got to be kidding me; you better pray that I won't hex you to the next century!" James screeched. Sirius looked at him sternly, and shot back.
"James! Don't act like you don't know what this is about!"
"Bloody hell, Sirius! What are you going on about?" James yelled, wide-eyed.
"Oh, very FUNNY! You know fully well that marauders are not supposed to prank each other! It's breaking the marauders code!" Sirius started to scream louder, waking up Remus, who rubbed his eyes and watched Sirius in amusement.
"Where is he, James! What did you do to him this time? I swear, your pumkin juice won't taste very good today if you don't tell me what you-"
"Padfooooot! What in the name of Godric Gryffindor are you shrieking about!" James yelled, jumping up from his bed and facing Sirius.
"My CAT, James! MY CAT!" Sirius bellowed. "What did you do to him? Did you trap him in that toilet again? Or did you stick him on top of the Astronomy tower… without any food, or shelter… WHERE'S MY CAT, JAMES?"
Remus sat back, and covered his mouth as best as he could to keep himself from laughing. It was hysterical. If he didn't know any better, he would've thought that Sirius loved that cat more than any of his girlfriends. He never mentioned it out loud, knowing fully well that it could put him at a serious risk of being hexed.
James laughed, but seeing as Sirius gave him a death glare, he put on a serious face.
"I did nothing to your cat this time, I'm afraid. I saw it lying on your bed yesterday!"
"Yeah, well it ain't there now, pal, is it?" Sirius muttered, while searching under his four-poster.
"Crooksie, where are you? Crooks?"
Remus got out of bed slowly and quickly made his escape to the bathroom. He was followed by Sirius's shouts 'IT WAS YOU, WASN'T IT MOONY!', and Remus quietly replied with a 'I simply don't know what I would want to do anything with your stupid orange hairball' loud enough only for the ones with truly keen hearing to understand.
"Hermione, you can't be serious! Why can't Myrtle be my girlfriend?" Harry exclaimed, insulted.
"Well, first of all Harry, she's dead. Second of all, you hate her, don't you? Oh come on you always did! Ron tell him!" Hermione pleaded.
"I think Harry should date whoever he wants. I mean I'm dating Mrs. Norris, and you never complained about it!" Ron reasoned.
"Well, that's a lot different!" Hermione retorted "It's good to not get in trouble with Filch for a while."
"Hermione!"
"What? It's true!"
"Hermiiiiiiioneeeeeeeeee!"
"What, Ron, WHAT?"
"HERMIONEEEEEE!" Came the voice again, and Hermione opened her eyes and came face to face with Sirius.
"Who's Ron?" Remus asked.
"Who's hollering?" Hermione asked, ignoring Remus.
"I am. Now do you mind? That's my cat you're holding!" Sirius said, stretching his arms out toward the fluffy orange cat.
Hermione looked at Sirius like he had four heads. What cat? I'm holding an animal? AAAAAAAAAH I am!
"Crookshanks?" She asked, amazed.
"You know Crooks?" Sirius smiled "No wonder he came over to you. He's not an ordinary cat you know."
"I know… He's mine in the future." She said quietly.
"YOURS? Why isn't he mine anymore?"
Hermione looked at him sadly. Oh yes, Sirius, I'll tell you that you couldn't keep your orange furball 'cause you went to Azkaban for a crime you didn't commit.
"You gave him to me… As a gift…" she said slowly.
"We must be truly good friends then, huh?" Sirius said joyously, while taking his beloved cat back from his future owner. "Now tell me, dear Hermione… did you fall for my charm in the future or in the past?"
Hermione scoffed and ruffled up his hair. "Neither, silly."
Sirius stared at her wide-eyed.
Remus and James burst out laughing while Sirius stood there gaping at Hermione. Hermione looked surprised and started to blush slightly, trying to find out what she did wrong.
"It's alright, Hermione. He's just surprised 'cause you're one of the few girls that turned him down." Remus said, and looked over to Sirius, who was working intently on fixing his hair "You're also the first girl to ruffle up his hair. He gets very touchy about his hair…"
James smiled at her and nodded in a overly happy fashion. He came over and patted Sirius's back, while saying "good one, bud. I'll never let you live it down." To make matters worse, he ruffled up Sirius's hair all over again.
"Don't even try fixing it, Sirius. It looks better this way." Hermione laughed.
"You think?" Sirius conjured up a mirror and examined his looks.
"Well… no." She smiled mischievously. "Since I see no difference!"
"It's a burn, after burn, after burn, isn't it Hermione?" he said dramatically. He put his fist to his heart, saying "I feel like I've been stabbed in the heart. Save me, my princess, please save me! Tell me you fell for me once you laid your eyes upon me!"
Hermione cackled evilly. "NEVER! For I fell for someone else, someone much more of a charmer than you could ever be!"
All of the boys perked up, and Remus eyed her suspiciously. Did she love someone else back in her time?
"Who is it then? Who!" Sirius asked, taking her hand and kneeling before her. It was hysterical how dramatic the scene looked. People came piling into the common room, and stood in shock watching the dreadful fiasco. "Tell me his name, this 'charmer' of which you speak? How could he steal you from me? HOW?"
Hermione decided to keep the drama going, and brought her hand up to her forehead and turned her face slightly."I don't think I should tell you, dear Sirius! It might hurt you too much!"
"Then HURT me, princess! Hurt me! I need to hear the name of the one I've lost the most precious treasure to!"
At that, Hermione sighed and picked up Crookshanks and started petting him. "I guess I must tell you now that he's in the room with us."
Around 14 boys shared glances, some looking extremely hopeful. Remus just looked at her intently. I know it's not me…please let it be me, please let it be me… but it can't be me, can it?
"The name of one that I've fallen for…" Hermione looked around the room impishly, and glanced at every guy in the room. Her eyes spent an extra second when they met with Remus's. She swore she saw a glint of fear mixed with something else. But why?
"…is Crookshanks!" and she held up the cat in her hands to laughter of many people. The room was filled with applause and bravo's as Hermione bowed. The marauders laughed really hard, and Remus's face filled with color again as relief washed over him.
When everyone made their way down to breakfast, they noticed someone missing.
"Where's Jenna?" Sirius asked, while taking a big bite of his toast.
Silence.
"I think she might have gotten upset by the whole fiasco this morning. You made it seem like you fancied Hermione." Remus said quietly.
"Well its good then, she got the dose of her own medicine." Sirius chuckled.
"I don't know about this Sirius… I heard she went to the girls bathroom and stayed there. She wouldn't let anyone else in." Lily sighed.
"Oh no… that seems all too familiar…" Hermione whispered, thinking back to her first year. I've already changed the timeline… this can't be good.
"What? OVER ME?" Sirius sprung to his feet, his face full of concern. "Which floor?"
"Third… but Sirius, don't you think she might not want to see you right now?» Lily asked, looking up from her breakfast. She was surprised to see him run out of the great hall. "Oh no… I hope that he knows what he's doing."
None of this would have happened if I didn't put on a show in the common room this morning. It's scary how time could change because of such little things. I hope I didn't screw anything up by doing this…
After observing the unique time-traveler, Remus has come to a conclusion that her mind wasn't on eating her breakfast. In fact, it was far from it. I wish I knew what she was thinking…It must be so scary for her. Time-traveling is very dangerous. Of course, if she's here to defeat Lord Voldemort, she must be willing to take that risk. I can't see how she's going to take on him and his followers without any help. I feel obligated to help her. No… I want to help her. But would I just get in her way?
"Remus, if you're not going to eat your muffin, can I have it?" James reached out and swiftly grabbed the blueberry muffin of his plate "Thanks, Moony. You're the best friend a marauder could ask for!"
"Ha ha ha. Hilarious. Give me back my breakfast!" Remus said, eyeing James with a glare.
Just then, a piercing scream filled the great hall. Hermione instantly reached towards her pocket, where her trusty wand sat, waiting for its moment of glory.
Heads turned as a group of men in glowing blue cloaks walked through the great hall. Their faces held grim and fearsome expressions. As Hermione watched them with a curious stare as they walked past their table, making their way to Professor Dumbledore. The Great Hall fell silent, and Hermione noticed she wasn't the only one who was curious to find out who the men were.
"Who in Merlin's name are those neon-cloaked Hinkypunks?" James asked, in a half-whisper. Remus gave an exasperated you-should-know-this sigh at James. Hermione gave Remus a questioning look.
"Oh come on, you don't know either? Even Sirius would know that these men are Hit Wizards. It's strange that they have come into the school. They are the wizard police from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad who deal with criminal masterminds." He said matter-of-factly.
Hermione was almost offended that she didn't know such an 'obvious' fact. Then again, she was impressed by Remus's knowledge. She looked towards James, who was stuffing his face with muffins. At least someone in here has a good head on their shoulders. She thought and laughed at him.
"You don't suppose that a criminal broke into the school?" Lily asked them, concerned.
"Nah… Theweshh nho whaey tghagt chgoud habn'," James spoke as food was falling out of his mouth. He swallowed. "Hogwarts is fully protected with charms and enchantments. And nobody could get past Dumbledore – he's one witty old dude."
"What do you suppose they want with Dumbledore then?" Hermione asked Remus.
"Well, it would make sense that there is trouble with the Death Eaters again. It must be getting a little out of control. Dumbledore is a wise man, and has more knowledge than all of those wizards put together… and multiplied by 27 million!" Remus answered.
"Why twenty-seven?"
"My favorite number." Remus shrugged and took a bite of his toast.
"Speaking of numbers… Arithmancy is our first class, Hermione." Lily told her, taking out her schedule.
"Should we wait for Sirius?" Hermione asked as she watched the group of people gather all their bookbags.
"Nah. He'll come if he chooses to. He's not exactly an expert at Arithmancy." James said, chuckling.
"I can't imagine why!" Lily exclaimed "All he does is drool over Jenna and try to show off. Last time he tried conjuring up a flower and ended up burning a bit of his hair when the flower exploded in his face."
"And you could only dream about what kind of expression he had on his face when he burnt it! It was hysterical!" James burst out laughing.
" Rumors are that his eyes got a bit misty after that accident, but Sirius insists that part of the flower got into his eye." Remus finished, and smiled as Hermione chuckled.
"All in all, there's never a dull moment when Sirius and Jenna are in the same class together. Especially because Sirius keeps making a fool out of himself." Said Lily.
"Oh, then I hope he shows up then." Laughed Hermione, as they slowly made their way up the grand staircase.