Disclaimer: I own nothing but the order these words are in, everything else belongs to JKR :)

September 16, 1977

Hogwarts ~ The Library

3rd Person POV:

Hemione sighed, hitching her bag up on her shoulder. She was skipping lunch again – NEWT year was a lot of work, and she also had to research time travel and try to figure out what to do about Voldemort. Currently, she was headed to the Library to work with Snape on the Potions project. As she entered the library, she noticed two things: 1) The three Slytherins huddled in the corner and 2) Peter standing with them. Snape wasn't there yet, but that was a good thing, in this case. Hermione quietly walked down the aisle next to where the four students were whispering. She paused to listen when she was behind them.

She recognized Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy, but when she saw the face of the third person, her breathing hitched, and bile rose in her throat. It was Bellatrix. She shook her head; you can't do anything about what she did to you. Just focus on what they're saying.

"The meeting is on the 21st. Don't be late," Rodolphus hissed.

"B-but what if-" Peter was cut off by Bellatrix.

"There are no what ifs." She glared at him, and he shrunk back, "You already made your decision. You joined. I suggest you be there. The Dark Lord doesn't give second chances."

"O-Okay." Peter whispered; his voice quavered.

"Good," Lucius said. "Make sure not to tell anyone. Meet us at the gates at 7:00 sharp. Make sure your excuse for leaving is good. We can't have anyone suspecting anything."

Peter nodded timidly, and the Slytherins left the library, leaving him alone.

Hermione couldn't help but be disappointed – Peter hadn't really seemed like a Death Eater, you couldn't have helped him, anyway. A voice in her head reminded her, it's only the second week of school, and if he's already hanging out with Death Eaters, then he had to have been doing it since before you came back in time. Hermione sighed, but it made sense.

Hermione was pulled from her thoughts as Peter, too, left the library. She sighed, walked over to an empty table, and got out some books and parchment to begin her essay. After all, Snape was late, and she wanted to get at least half of the essay done before Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was next. A few minutes later, Snape rushed in. She looked up and raised an eyebrow – he was usually on time.

"McGonagall kept me late," he muttered.

"In trouble?" She grinned up at him.

He shook his head, "No, just a question about my essay."

In the past week, they had struck up a tentative acquaintanceship. It was a sort of mutual respect for each other. They were both smart, and somewhat (though Snape wouldn't admit it and Hermione didn't want to make him uncomfortable) enjoyed each other's company and intellect.

The Great Hall ~ Lunch

"I wonder where Hermione is," said Sirius.

"Yeah," agreed James, "and Peter, where's he been going off to?"

Remus nodded, "Ever since school started, we've just been seeing less and less of him. Not to mention, we barely saw him over the summer. That was definitely weird."

Lily and Dorcas went and sat down with the boys.

"Hey, Lils, do you know where Hermione went? She just disappeared after Arithmancy," Remus asked.

"I'm not sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say that she's in the library. She spends lots of time in there."

"Yeah," nodded Dorcas, "I saw her go in there when I was leaving Divination. She's probably gone to work on her Potions project."

Sirius frowned. He didn't really like the idea of Hermione hanging out with Snape all alone. He could hurt her, or something, he thought. He knew he was being irrational, but he couldn't help the protective feeling he got when he was around her. He stood up and excused himself.

"Padfoot! Where're you going?" James questioned.

"Bathroom," he muttered. He was not going to the bathroom. Instead, he was going to the library to check up on Hermione. Lunch ended in ten minutes, and they had Defense next, so he figured he could just act like he was picking Hermione up.

He walked to the library quickly, after all, he hadn't had a chance to really talk to her in a few days. As he entered, he walked along the aisles, looking for Hermione and Snape. Sirius heard quiet laughter coming from one of the tables in the corner. Peeking around the corner, he was shocked to find the two of them laughing at something. He had no idea what it was, but he was suddenly jealous of Snape. How dare he go hanging out with her and making her laugh? He was Snivellus for gods' sake! He was a sneaky, slimy, greasy-haired git!

He took a deep breath and walked over to them, trying to play it cool, even though he was practically boiling inside, "Hey Hermione, Defense starts in a few minutes, we should get going," he tried to ignore Snape.

"Okay," she agreed, packing up, "Severus, why don't you walk with us? You've got DADA, too."

He looked reluctant but was about to respond when Sirius' jealousy got the better of him, "Well, Snivellus, you gotta wash your hair before you walk with us. I don't need the greasiness getting to me."

"Sirius!" Cried Hermione, "That was completely unnecessary!" Snape had finished packing up his things and was leaving when Hermione called out, "Hold on, Severus, I'm coming with you." She shot a warning glare at Sirius before leaving, "I'll see you later."

They walked in silence before Severus spoke up, "You didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did, he was being rude for absolutely no reason. No one deserves that."

"It's not a big deal," he muttered.

She stopped walking, and pulled him back, noticing as he jumped at the contact, "Yes, Severus, it is a big deal. I hate bullies. And if Sirius wants to be my friend, then he has to understand that I will not tolerate it when he bullies people. I don't know why he said what he did, but whatever it was, the reason does not make it acceptable. Nothing makes what he did okay. Got it?"

"We're not even really friends or anything. Why do you care?"

"I don't know why I do," that's a lie, thought Hermione, I know exactly why: because I know that you're good at heart, and I know that I can help you, "but we're acquaintances, I suppose, and I enjoy spending time with you – I want to help you. I want to be friends with you."

Severus was rendered speechless by this – no one since Lily had ever really wanted to be friends with him – just Malfoy and Lestrange asking him to join You-Know-Who. He had said no because he knew that Lily would never want him to join and because he knew what they did (or, he knew enough, anyway). He couldn't help but wonder if Hermione was lying when she said she wanted to be friends.

When he could finally talk, the first thing that flew out of his mouth was, "Are you lying?"

Hermione didn't look surprised at his question, "No, Severus, I'm not lying – give me one good reason to lie to you."

"I-I don't know." He looked down at the floor, trying to ignore the heat spreading in his cheeks.

"Exactly."

"It's just," he paused, and she looked at him expectantly, "no one – no one wants to be my friend," shock filled his eyes when he realized that he had said that out loud – he hadn't meant to.

To his surprise, Hermione smiled gently, "Well then they're just missing out. Sure, you can be mean and snarky sometimes, but you're also, uh, funny, caring, and smart." He raised an eyebrow at her, and she grinned, "It's true!"

"Okay, sure."

She laughed, and he couldn't help laughing a little, too. It felt good. It had been a long time since he had been genuinely happy. Friends, he thought to himself, that's nice, I suppose.

When they got to the classroom, they said goodbye to each other, deciding to meet the next week to finish their project. Hermione walked in and took a seat next to Sirius, who was surprised that she was sitting next to him.

"You need to apologize to Severus."

"What? No way!"

"Sirius, I mean it. What you said was unacceptable, and he didn't even do anything to you!"

"That's not true."

"Oh, yeah? What'd he do?"

Sirius paused. He couldn't very well tell her that he was jealous, "I-I-You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"I-I just-"

Luckily for him, their Defense professor, Professor Donovan, walked in at that very moment, "Good afternoon, class. Today, we will be learning how to duel."

Gasps of excitement came from around the room, and James leaned forward, nudging Sirius, "This should be fun!"

The professor waited for the class to quiet down before speaking again, "Alastor Moody is here to help teach you," he smiled a little when more gasps filtered through the room.

At that moment, Moody himself walked through the doors, slamming them as he went. The class stared, wide-eyed, as he stalked to the front of the room and growled out, "Dueling is dangerous. We live in dangerous times, and therefore you need to learn how to duel. Many of you will fight in this upcoming war, and you need to be prepared."

The class stared, in shock, at his bluntness.

He proceeded to show them different spells and incantations that were most useful. Then, he and Professor Donovan demonstrated how to move during a duel to avoid being hit.

"Alright everyone, partner up!" The Professor called out, "You'll duel against your partners!"

Sirius turned to Hermione, "Wanna be partners?"

"Okay," she agreed, "but you have to apologize to Severus later. And, it has to be genuine."

"Fine."

They practiced for a bit, and Hermione let Sirius win – she didn't want to show off her dueling skills and draw unwanted attention to herself – yet.

After a little while, Donovan called the class to order, "We will now have a dueling 'tournament,' of a sort, so you can show what you've learned and so we can help correct what you do."

Moody stood up, "Let's start with you," he pointed at Remus, "and you," he pointed at Lucius Malfoy.

"You got this, mate," James encouraged him, while Sirius glared daggers at Malfoy.

The two stood at the front of the room, wands at the ready.

"3...2...1!"

"Levicorpus!" Cried Remus.

Malfoy dodged, shooting back, "Serpensortia!"

"Vipera evanesca!" The snake disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Rictumsepra!"

Remus leaped out of the way, "Expelliarmus! Petrificus Totalus!"

Malfoy quickly found himself wandless and, on the floor, with the Gryffindors clapping for Remus.

"Good job, Lupin," the Professor praised him.

"Next up," Moody glanced around the room, "Mr. Black." Sirius walked to the front of the room, grinning at Remus. "3...2...1!" Alastor called out.

"Tarantallegra!" Called out Sirius.

Immediately, Remus started dancing, but he managed to call out, "Locomotor Mortis!"

Sirius suddenly felt his legs lock together and tried to remember the counter curse, but he couldn't. Meanwhile, Remus was also trying to remember the counter for the Tarantallegra, and the whole class was laughing. They looked rather stupid standing (and dancing) at the front of the classroom.

"Alright," Professor Donovan laughed, "Enough, let's choose some new people." He countered both spells and both boys went back to their seats.

Moody looked around the room, his eyes falling on Hermione, "You," he pointed a gnarled finger at her, "and you."

Hermione turned to see who else he had picked and froze when she saw it was Bellatrix. No, No, No! I can't do this! She shook her head of those thoughts, replacing them, yes you can, Hermione. This time, you have a wand on you, and it's just you and her – no one else.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something to Hermione, not liking the idea of his crazy cousin dueling her, but Hermione just waved him off, "It'll be fine." He was still nervous, though. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her. Sirius was still rather confused about his feelings for her – it was undeniable that there was a crush growing, but what about how he, Remus, and James felt like they knew her from before?

The two stood at the front of the room, facing off, Bellatrix with an evil smile and Hermione with a straight face.

"3...2...1!"

"Expelliarmus!" Cried Hermione.

Bella dodged and yelled, "Confundo!"

It missed Hermione by an inch, and she called out, "Stupefy! Incarcerous!"

Bellatrix was wrapped up in rope for only a moment and she vanished them quickly, "You'll pay for that, mudblood! Furnunculus!"

Hermione cocked her head to the side in a challenge and took this as an invitation to show what she could really do, spell after spell shot out of her wand and she used her left hand to perform wandless magic. Bellatrix only managed to get one more spell in, but unluckily for Hermione, it hit her. "Expelliarmus!" Hermione was now wandless, and the class expected the duel to end, but instead she continued, now using both hands to perform wandless magic. To be honest, she preferred wandless magic because the magic flew more freely.

Bellatrix immediately regretted having disarmed her for the spells came at greater force and speed now. She was hanging from the ceiling, bound in rope, and with birds flying around her head. She struggled to get down, beginning to untie the rope, but before she could, Hermione engulfed her in a huge ball of water, (quite like she had seen Dumbledore do at the Department of Mysteries at the end of her 5th year) bringing her down from the ceiling and spinning the ball around in the air for a full minute and a half before releasing her magic.

Bellatrix lay on the floor, soaked to the bone and gasping for breath, you could see where the birds had pecked her and even a few marks from the ropes.

The class was dead silent.

It took Professor Donovan and Alastor a minute to find the words they were looking for.

"That was," the teacher searched for the right word, "impressive, Miss Granger."

"Yes, it was," agreed Moody, glaring at her, "You must have had a good teacher."

"Oh, I did." It was you, Mad-eye, "One of the best I ever had."

"Alright, class dismissed," called out the Professor.

"You can apologize to Severus tomorrow," Hermione told Sirius as they left the classroom. The boys were still in shock, but Hermione was talking about something that happened in Herbology – completely oblivious to how surprised they were at her abilities.

"Uh, Hermione?" Asked James.

"Yeah?"

"How can you duel so well?"

She shrugged, "I first learned to duel when I was 15, and I've had a lot of training and practice since then."

"Practice?" Questioned Remus.

"Like, real life practice?" Added Sirius.

"Yep," she said, popping the p.

"Did you win a lot?"

"I won plenty of times." She paused, her expression turning sad, "But not enough."

"What do you mean?"

"When I needed to win the most, I lost," she thought back to when she was separated from Harry and Ron. When they were losing the battle. She hadn't seen the end of it, but she knew they would have lost. It was lucky, she thought, that she had been sent back earlier than she had planned – now she would have more time to change everything. Harry would have his parents, Sirius wouldn't spend 12 years in Azkaban, and Remus would never have to be alone again.

A/N: How was it? Review pretty please :)

Tell me what you think of it – suggestions/questions/ideas, everything :) I like knowing how you think it's going ♥♥♥