Chapter 6: Back Again
November '97
Remus smiled at his old professor. "It's wonderful to see you again Dumbledore, it feels so great to be back," he greeted.
"I'm glad to have you back Remus. I'm happy that you decided to accept your former post as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at such short notice," he said politely.
"I'm glad I can oblige. It didn't take much convincing. Even in my current situation, I want to look out for the children, especially Harry, Ron, and Hermione."
"Yes, yes, I knew you wouldn't let the school down. You start tomorrow and I'm sure the students will be happy to have their favorite teacher back."
"I'm glad to be back," Remus stated happily.
"Remus there is something I want you to know. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but you will not see our young Hermione Granger due to the fact that she has traveled back in time. I don't know when she will return or if she ever will return."
"I know professor. I do remember her from the past. Ever since I saw her on the train I remembered the past," said Remus in a sort of sad tone.
"Remus I too have a bit of memory of what has passed, but some events have not happened yet so it is not quite clear and..."
"Professor please,” Remus interrupted. “I know what you will say. I understand very well. I must teach and care for my students. That is what I am here to do. Now if you will excuse me, I think I'm going to unpack and get a goodnight sleep."
"Goodnight Remus, I will see you tomorrow at breakfast."
"Goodnight Professor." Remus exited Dumbledore's office and headed to his own room. As he walked in it was just as he remembered it. He set down his suitcase and sat on the bed. He took out a small box that had beautiful Celtic engravings on it. It was the size a regular small jewelry box and very dusty. It's as if it hadn't been touched in years. He ran his thumb over it clearing away he dust. Under all the layers of dust it still looked brand new. He pressed the small button and the cover popped open. Inside was lined with velvet fabric. There were two pieces of jewelry, a simple, but beautiful ring and a gold necklace. He picked up the necklace and rubbed the heart shaped pendant. It was like a locket, but couldn't open. Engraved on the front was "Eternity Together" and engraved on the back was "Forever And For Always".
Remus' eyes watered and tears fell. They ran down his cheeks and hit the piece of jewelry. He wiped the away and placed it back in its box. He hoped that one day he would open that box again and place it around the neck of who he once held dear.
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The next morning Remus sat at the breakfast table with the rest of the teachers. All of them were happy to see him with the exception of Professor Severus Snape. Soon the students filed into the Great Hall. It didn't take long for them to notice the new yet familiar face at the teachers’ table. The hall was filled with murmurs of their favorite Professor being back. The most ecstatic of them all were Harry and Ron. They had bright smiles on there face. Smiles that had gone ever since Hermione disappeared. Dumbledore cleared his throat and stood up. He finally got the students attention and began to speak.
"Good morning students. I need not to tell you that there is a new face in the room today. Since our former Defense Against the Dark arts teacher Professor Newttongue would like to pursue a different path it is my pleasure to welcome back Professor Lupin to Hogwarts.”
All the students and teachers including Dumbledore clapped as Remus stood up and bowed. He took a second to glance at Harry and Ron. He smiled at them, nodded, and sat back down. Breakfast then went a normal as possible. The students were anxious and so was Remus to start the day. When it was over. Harry and Ron waited for Remus to leave the Great Hall. They caught him walking down one of the hallways and ran to catch up with him.
"Professor Lupin?" called Harry. Remus turned around to see two boys that held a great place in his heart.
"Hello boys, wonderful to see you and not in trouble I see," laughed Remus.
"I can't believe your back at Hogwarts, especially after our third year," stated Ron.
"Yes, well I just couldn't say no. A chance to teach again isn't something I want to give up."
"Have you heard then?" Harry asked sadly.
"About Hermione? Yes I have and I was shocked when I found out. How are you two holding up?"
"We were kind of freaked out for the first few weeks, but started to think to the bright side. Dumbledore said there is a possibility that she will come back. He just isn't sure," replied Harry.
"Yeah we tried searching books to bring her back, but we didn't find anything," added Ron.
"Don't give up; I'm not going to. I'll be trying to assist Dumbledore as much as I can to bring her back."
"I hope she comes home soon because my mom, dad and the whole family aren't taking it to well. Ginny was in a real shock for a while too. She used to tell Hermione everything," said Ron.
Remus scratched his light brown hair, but the gray slowly becoming more and more apparent than before. He lips formed into a wise smile. It was as he knew everything and knew for a fact that Hermione was going to return. He placed a hand on both of their shoulders. "Don't worry boys, just hold on to hope." They nodded to him and walked of to go to class. Remus turned to head to his own classroom. He didn't want to keep his class waiting on the first day.
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November '77
Sirius, Remus, and Hermione sat in the boy's room. Hermione sat on Remus' bed while he and Sirius argued about what James and Lily where doing. They had gone out on a date. They said they needed alone time from the imbeciles they called friends. There was a low sounding growl. Remus and Hermione looked at each other, then at Sirius to see him with a wide grin.
"Looks like someone is hungry," said Hermione.
"Yeah, I think I'm going to go down to dinner. Maybe Lily and James will show up, but I doubt it. You guys coming?" asked Sirius.
"I'm not that hungry," said Remus.
"Me neither," said Hermione.
"Well I'm going down, but you to got to get out. I don't trust you two in this room by yourself."
"Oh Sirius get off it already," she said getting up and leaving. Remus got up and followed her. They found two seats in the common and said goodbye to Sirius so that he could stuff his face. Seeing Sirius show his goofy side reminded her of Ron so much. She had been thinking of them a lot lately. It had about 2 months since she left, but it wasn’t that bad. In some ways it was if she didn't leave she has best friends in the past too. At least by her standards.
"Hermione, you okay?" asked Remus.
"Oh, I'm fine. I was just thinking," she replied.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Just Harry and Ron."
"You speak of them highly. You must really care for them."
"I do, you know they're my best friends. I don't know what I would do without them."
"I can tell you guys are close."
"Yeah we are."
"If you don't mind me asking, what role do I play in the future?"
"I shouldn't tell you, but I guess it wouldn't make much of a difference." Hermione got comfortable and sat crossed-legged in the chair. She bit her lip and sighed. "Actually I think we should go somewhere more private."
"I agree. Lets go back upstairs," he suggested. The two of them headed back to his room and one again they were sitting on the beds. He was extremely giddy to find out what Hermione would tell him. It must be interesting or very serious that they had to move out of the common room. Once Hermione was settled she began.
"Well, you play a very important role in my future. You were my Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in my third year. You were everyone's favorite teacher too, except for the Slytherin's of course."
"I became a Professor. I never thought I was that smart." laughed Remus.
"You’re very intelligent Remus. You should give yourself more credit. Anyways, it was in that year that I found out your secret. I also found out the truth about Peter and Sirius."
"Sirius? What do you mean you found out the truth about Sirius?" asked Remus anxiously. Hermione hesitated. Was time for her to tell what was really going to go down in the future? She didn't feel right. It wasn't the right time, not yet at least.
"I think we better save that portion of the story for another day," she said sadly. Remus frowned. He really wanted to know.
"Another day then. Please continue."
"Okay. Peter hid in his animagus form as a rat for 12 years. He was known as Scabbers and he belonged to Ron. One day he bit Ron and ran away. When Ron finally got a hold of him again Sirius showed up and tried to attack Peter, but got Ron instead. Mind you this was all by the Whomping Willow. They went through the tunnel into the Shrieking Shack. Of course Harry and I had to follow. So we did and found Ron. It was then we saw Sirius for the first time in person. He changed back into his human form. Harry was going to kill him, but then you came in and stopped him. I thought you were both the bad guys so I let out your secret. Then Snape came in and wanted to take Sirius to the Dementors..."
"Why would Snape take Sirius to the Dementors? What did Sirius do?" interrupted Remus.
"Remus please try not to interrupt me."
"Sorry."
"Well after that, Harry used Expelliarmus on Snape and we heard the whole story about how Peter betrayed everyone. You and Sirius were going to kill him, but then Harry said no. He didn't want his dad's best friends to become murders. He was going to have the Dementors deal with him. We left and got out to the Whomping Willow. Sirius and Harry had a little talk, but no one knew not even you that it was a full moon that night. You changed right in front of my eyes. It was honestly the scariest thing I ever saw at that point in my life." Hermione then looked down. She could see the look of sadness on Remus' face and knew she shouldn't have put it that way. "Listen I didn't mean it that way. I just couldn't believe that someone so great could become something so different from what I know."
"I bet I was repulsive to you," he said with a bit of tension in is already low voice. She stood up and walked over to him and sat down next to him. She placed her hand on his cheek and made him face her. "You can never ever repulse me or scare me. You understand?" she said giving him a kiss on the cheek. He blushed and nodded yes.
"Good now let me finish," she smirked. "After you changed Snape came from the tunnel and tried to protect Harry, Ron, and I. Sirius kept you away from us in his dog form. From what I saw he looked like he got hurt. Harry ran to see if he was okay, but then you ran off after you heard a howl. Eventually we all got back to the castle. We tried to convince Dumbledore that Sirius was an innocent man and that Peter was the culprit, but at that time we were only thirteen and there was no way that the Ministry of Magic would believe us. So Harry and I used my time turner to go back in time and help Sirius escape. We managed to help him and he got away with another birdbrain friend of ours, a hippogriff named Buckbeak. That was a rather interesting year, but it was a sad ending when you left. You loved teaching us and everyone was sad to see you go."
"Then why did I leave?'
"Snape let it slip that you were a werewolf. You knew that parents would start bombarding the school with letters about a werewolf teaching their kids, so you resigned."
"A lot happens in the future and something tells me that's not even the half of it."
"You're right. There's more. So much more."
Remus took a deep breath. He really respected Hermione and wondered how she handled keeping all the information inside of her. Sometimes he could never understand how she was truly feeling. Even though she looked happy he could sometimes tell that there was something wrong. Little to his knowledge Hermione was staring at him and she was thinking too. She thought that he was such a good person and he didn’t deserve all the trauma that he goes through in his life. She wished she could make it all better.
It was getting a bit to quiet when they heard the door open it was James. He was back from his date with Lily. Hermione took that as a clue to leave. She smiled at Remus and James. She then closed the door behind as she left.
"So what were you to talking about?" Remus contemplated telling them, but decided to wait.
"Nothing out of the ordinary," he answered, but James knew he was lying and let it go.
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Lily was grinning like a hyena when Hermione came in. Hermione could tell she had a really good time. Lily attacked Hermione and pushed her on the bed.
"Our night was so great!" Lily bragged. "I have to tell you about it!"Hermione laid down on her bed and Lily laid next to her. "First James took me on a walk through this garden he found near the Herbology green houses. We where just talking. It was really easy to talk to him without all the students around. It felt really good and I found out things I never thought were possible. He then took me by the lake where there was a little picnic set up. I still don't know how he did it. I thought we would be in trouble, but nothing happened. He wouldn't tell me how he did it either. Forget about that. It was just so romantic when came over to me and he put his arm around me and I held close to him.” Lily started blushing and actually had tears escaping her eyes at the memory. "Then he kissed me and said he would never let me go," she cried. Hermione handed Lily a tissue. She could understand why Lily was crying. She had someone that really cared about her. Besides Ron and Harry she had no one that cared for her. Definitely not in a romantic way like Lily described. She smiled at her friend at how happy she was.
Hermione's face saddened for a moment and then went back to normal.
"Did I upset you Hermione? I'm so sorry," she apologized.
"No you didn't. I'm just really happy for you. Guys like James are hard to come by. You better not let him go," she smiled. She got up and headed to her own bed. Listening to Lily got her thinking about some of the things she missed and some things that happened in her life. Lily tried to reach for her, but left her alone. She decided to go to bed too before the other girls came back to the room. Thinking about the past caused Hermione's mind to remember things she thought she had already got over. That night Hermione had a terrible dream and a few days later they got worst.
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Hermione was running down a dark corridor with dead vines hanging from the ceiling and many doors. Each door she looked at was black with chains and pad locks. She finally stopped running. Her heart pounded as she looked at a door. It maroon colored with a gold knob and frame. It was the only door without chains. She placed her hand on it and opened it slowly. When she opened it and found another long hallway. She screamed in frustration. She had been running all along to find another hallway. Though there was a big difference in the two hallways. In this new one all the doors were unlocked. She walked to the first door and opened it in hope of getting out of that terrible place. Her eyes grew large and pulse went faster then ever. She felt like she couldn't breathe and collapsed on the floor. She looked up at the man who made her life hell...William. As he once did before he towered over her. Hermione held her chest and begged for air. She closed her eyes and just wished for someone, someone to come save her. When she opened her eyes she saw Ron, Harry, Sirius, James, Remus, and Lily standing over her. She tried gasping for there help, but they just stood there and then they faded away. She tried to scream again. She wanted them to come back she needed them to come back. She squirmed as William took a hold of her arms again and undid his clothing. She felt helpless. She couldn't move as if there was more holding her down. She finally opened her eyes and continued to yell until her voice got louder and louder. Soon the figure over her disintegrated and the she faded along with the darkness.
Hermione jumped up out of bed. It was dark and the only the moon shown on her face. It wet with sweat and disgruntled with fear. She could still feel as if air could not reach her. She got up out of her bed and crept out the door. She headed down to the common room, but since it was late no one was there. She needed to leave and go somewhere, but where would she go in the middle of the night. There was no where she hadn't been before. She left the common room. Knowing she was confined to within the castle she didn't know what was the point except to think. She walked the dark halls with the little light that she had from her wand. She thought that she heard someone behind her. "Nox,"she said putting out her light. She turned to see that it was no one, but her stepfather's face flashed in front of her eyes. Hermione started running and tears ran down her face. She felt like she was being haunted again, but why were these thoughts and images coming back to here when she was so happy. She kept on running not aware of where she was going. She turned a corner and bumping into to someone. They held her arms and not knowing who it was Hermione started to get angry. "Let me go, let me go. Get the bloody hell of me." By this time she started getting hysterical. The person holding her tried to calm her down, but it wasn't working. Hermione started calm, but stated crying harder into the arms of whoever was holding her. She sank down to the floor and the person followed.
"Lumos!" the person whispered. They shined the light on the face of the girl in front of them. Her brown eyes were red from crying and lack of sleep and she seemed so afraid. "Hermione...it...it's okay. It's me, Severus. Are you alright?"
"Severus?" she asked unsurely. She might have been a bit paranoid, but knew not to trust Severus Snape. "You get away from me. Just get away."
"Hermione what's wrong?" he said placing a hand on her arm.
"Don't touch me!' she yelled. She tried to get up, but he pulled her back down.
"Hermione what's wrong? There is no way you of all people would be out this late."
"And what about you huh? You have to report to someone? Just let me go."
"Hermione you gave me the uncommon courtesy of listening to me when no one else would. Let me do the same."
She was in absolute shock. For once in her life Severus sounded so sincere. He looked at her with dark eyes that penetrated her own. It was as if he was reading her like an open book. Her eyes watered and she broke down and she fell into his arms. He embraced her and leaned his head on hers.
"Why is he haunting me? Why? It's like I can't escape,"she wept.
"Who? Tell me," he said trying to get her to open up.
"My step father. I came here to escape and it's like I can't get away. I see him in my dreams. I never told anyone because I thought it would go away, but..." Hermione stopped. She wasn't going to release all her secrets. She wouldn't allow him to see her like this. She sighed and leaned her head back against the wall. She wiped away her tears. What happened to me? I have to be stong. I have to be.
"Hermione, it's okay. I know what you are going through. You're not the only one to be betrayed by family." Hermione raised her head and had a look of fury on her face.
"You have no idea what I have gone though." She was vulnerable and she knew it, but he was there and she had to release the anguish, it just happened to be him. Severus said nothing to her. He just took off his cloak and her jaw dropped. She felt awful and wanted to take back everything she had said. Severus' arms were full of scars and they seem to head toward his chest.
"I'm sorry. I guess you do understand." She placed her hand in her lap. She realized why he always wore clothing to cover his whole body as an adult.
"Trust me I do. More than you know. Everyone wonders why my nose is crooked and they make fun of me, but they don't know. My father punched me when I was young and this was the result. I never thought that some of my own blood could do that to me. I also found Hogwarts as my escape, but I will never truly forget and I will never forgive," he said putting his cloak back on.
Hermione wiped her face from the tears that had dried. There was such a personal moment that they shared. It wasn't even with a person that they suspected. It was with their 'supposed' enemy.
"Severus I know that me being in Gryffindor and you being in Slytherin means that we are supposed to be rivals, but could we put that aside. What was said here will never be repeated?"
"Alright, tomorrow we go right back to being enemies, agreed?" he said smiling for the first time that night.
"Agreed,"she replied. She also smiled.
The thought left her when she realized that they needed to get back to their respectable dormitories. They nodded to each other and he turned to leave, but she held him back. She hugged him tightly and whispered in his ear, "Thanks for listening. Now we're even." She smirked at him and headed back to the common room. Severus could feel the warmth that Hermione left behind. There was a bond that they would share. He knew it. As he headed back to the common room he felt as if there was someone following him. The dugeaons were dark and erie as ever when a figure grabbed him from the darkness.
"What the...?"
"Hello Severus," said a creepy voice that would send bad vibes to anyone.
"What do you want?"
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I greatly apologize for any inconvenience I have caused by taking to long to update. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. Please review and let me know what is on your mind.
Thank You all for keeping with this story. ^_^ R.Y.LeBeau