Welcome to a new story. For those who have been following me for Doctor Who purposes, sorry. I'm taking a step away.

So far this story is 48 chapters out of who knows how many. It spans from Chamber of Secrets onward, and I am currently around the Half Blood Prince.

THIS IS VERY, VERY CANON DIVERGENT. I change a lot while still following the over all outline. I'm mixing book and movie things. It's what you know and nothing like it. But that's enough for me, here we go. The first 4 chapters are being posted right now.

September 1st, 1992

"Snape, Aurora" Professor McGonagall called out. The Great Hall was silent for only a moment before awkward, harsh whispers filled the void. The eleven year old girl with jet black waves and deep brown eyes looked to her father where he sat at the high table. He gave the faintest of nods as she headed toward the stool and the Sorting Hat. The pep talk was had before he left the week before.

He'd warned her that life at Hogwarts might not be as fun as she had hoped because of his reputation. His double, sometimes triple life meant he had to pretend to be the nastiest of people. He instilled fear because it was better to insure no one made mistakes in his classroom, he favored his house for more than just the loyalty he had to it. She'd sometimes heard her parents throw the house names around like insults, always with a smile or gentle aggravation.

But her father also warned her that he had to pretend to be the way he was for many other reasons, ones she was still considered too young to fully understand. Reasons that had him and her mother in such a fear over the summer that there was mild talk of sending her to Beauxbatons, or even Ilvermorney. She wasn't sure who talked them out of it, but she was going to have to thank them.

Sitting on the stool, she clutched wooden seat in a white knuckle grip and willed her heart rate to slow.

"Ah, now you are an interesting one." The Sorting Hat said in her mind. "A father from Slytherin, and mother from Gryffindor. I won't comment on the latter, you already know the tale. That of the former as well. But it's you that we need to worry about now, isn't it? So let's see, who are you more like? Father? Or Mother? Oh, and there's the answer, deep in your heart. You are so young, yet you know exactly what's needed to be done. I see where you'll be needed most." And then out load for the whole hall to hear, it shouted with absolute certainty, "Gryffindor!"

The hat was removed from her head, and she glanced back at her father.

Severus Snape gave a resigned nod, a hint of a proud smile, and was oddly the first in the entire room, staff included, to applaud for his eldest child.

It was as if his first clap was a demand, and instantly the whole room was applauding as they had the others who had been sorted before her.

She made her way down the table, eyeing the few remaining students in hopes to find the little red-haired girl whom she sat next to on the train. Ginny wasn't looking at her. Then again, Aurora noted that pretty much everyone at her table was avoiding eye contact with her. Chewing her lip in a habit she developed from her mother, she looked about the rest of the room hoping for someone, anyone to offer her a friendly smile.

Eyes met across the crowd of students at the tables, grey locking on to her brown, and her heart sank.

Draco looked resigned, more so than even her Dad, and like everything he thought he knew was turned on its head. She could already feel him pulling away, prepared to ignore a life long friendship simply because she would be wearing red and gold instead of green and silver.

"Welcome to Gryffindor, Aurora." A high, snobbish voice said. "And don't worry about what anyone says, me and my friends will look after you. Or, I'm sure they will once they get here."

Aurora turned toward the voice, and was startled a bit by seeing who she was speaking to.

"Wow," A round-faced boy across from them said with wide eyes. "You two sorta look a like."

"Maybe we're related." Aurora said easily enough.

"No, I'm muggle-born." Said the girl with wild hair, lifting her chin as if she dared Aurora to make a comment on it.

Aurora shrugged. "Doesn't mean anything." She said with a grin. She watched as a smile lit the features she shared with this young version of her mother, glad her father's dark, thin hair made up the majority of the locks she inherited, that his onyx eyes darkened her brown ones so they weren't so much like Hermione Granger's.

And so began what Aurora would come to understand as a complex life in the halls of Hogwarts, knowing that at least there was only this year and the next to get through before she didn't have to worry quite so much about letting slip to the girl beside her all that was going to come.

-H-

June 9th, 1994

"We've got exactly ten minutes to get back down to the hospital wing without anybody seeing us. Before Dumbledore locks the doors." Hermione warned Harry, and with that, they took off to the Hospital Wing.

Along the way, they'd had to dive into an alcove as Fudge and Professor Snape passed them by.

"The kiss will be performed immediately?" Professor Snape asked. Hermione noted that for all his desire to have Sirius in custody, he truly didn't seem to want to have the worst happen.

Fudge blathered on, and as they passed, Hermione swore that Professor Snape's eyes caught hers in the shadows. It had been like that since she came to Hogwarts, and with every scathing remark, ever sneering insult, there was something of regret in his endless black eyes. Quiet apologies that she didn't understand and no one else seemed to see. She'd have justified it with her initially being one of the few Gryffindors that was kind to Rory, but that hadn't quite explained her first year.

When he and Fudge passed, they continued on their mission. They avoided Peeves by ducking into a classroom, then ran for the Hospital Wing.

There was a moment of panic when Professor Dumbledore locked the doors, but when he turned and smiled, Hermione was sure it would be alright.

"Well?" He had asked quietly.

"We did it!" Harry beamed breathlessly. "Sirius has gone on Buckbeak …"

Dumbledore beamed, then flicked his wand. His patronus shot from the tip and hovered in the air in front of him. "Events have occurred as they should, go to the safe house, he'll meet you there." He said, and then the phoenix took off. Dumbledore turned back to them. "All is as it should be." He said. "Now, get inside, I'll lock you in."

Once inside, Hermione and Harry returned to their beds, allowing Madam Pomfrey to fuss over them and feed them chocolate, something needed in much greater capacity than it had been hours before.

"What do you mean, gone!" Fudge's voice bellowed through the hall beyond the door, and Madam Pomfrey frowned.

"What do they think they're doing?" She grumbled.

"I can assure you, Minister," Snape's sneering tone grew louder. "If anyone knows what happened, it would be Potter."

A moment later, the doors to the Hospital Wing were flung open, and an angry Minister followed a displeased looking Potions Master.

The latter may have accused Harry of knowing something, but his black eyes bored into Hermione as if she were the one in which all accusations would be laid on. She felt herself shrinking on the bed, absently withdrawing the time turner, though being very careful not to fiddle with it.

"You've caused trouble in the past," Fudge was saying to Harry. "I forgave that business with your Aunt, and we knew full well there was something going on last summer. We know that Sirius Black was your god father, boy, it would seem that …."

"Cornelius, I think you're forgetting a very important fact." Professor Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. "The door was locked when we came to it. From the outside, no less. How could it be that Harry helped Sirius Black if he was here under Madam Pomfrey's care?"

Professor Snape snorted, and the Minister frowned in confusion.

Hermione clutched the time turner tighter in her hand, lest anyone notice it and figure out the whole thing.

"The Daily Prophet's going to have a field day." The minister began, shacking his head. "We had Black cornered, and he slipped through our fingers yet again …."

Dumbledore placed a hand gently on the Minister's shoulder and steered him toward the door. Hermione caught snippets of the conversation: Dementors being removed from the school, the contemplation of dragons in their place. It was all a bit barmey, really.

"Do not think for one moment that I believe a locked door would prevent you from somehow aiding in Black's escape." Snape said in a menacing voice. "And believe me," He said, eyes holding Hermione's while he was turned mostly to Harry, "There will be an extensive conversation about this later."

He turned in a swirl of black robes and followed Dumbledore and the Minister out the door. Madam Pomfrey shook her head, a wistful sort of smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth before she shook her head and headed back to her office.

When the quiet settled, Harry got up off his bed and came to sit beside Hermione. "Why do you think …?" He started, then trailed off. He looked to her hands, easing the Time Turner out of her grip and examining it. Unlike before, she did not smack his hands away, rather letting him have a look at the device that allowed him to save his God-father.

"Why do I think what?" She asked, looking at her fingers where they now rested on her lap.

There was another pause, and a gentle whirring sound. "Why do you think Sirius was so … awe struck with you?"

Hermione chewed her lip, unsure what to say, and as confused by that as she had been with her first interaction with Lupin.

"Granger, Her … Hermione." Professor Lupin gave his first roll call, and he slowly looked up at Hermione with wide, misty eyes. His mouth opened and closed for a few moments as he seemed to struggle with something to say. "I had thought you looked far too familiar on the train. Named for your mother, are you?"

Hermione frowned. "No, sir." She replied. "My mother's name is Helen."

Lupin frowned as well, seeming to study her more thoroughly. "Adopted then?" She shook her head. He nodded once more, frowned, and then returned continued to roll call.

Hermione had heard Malfoy grumble something about her wishing she was adopted, causing a few snickers from the Slytherins, but she ignored it. Professor Lupin hadn't asked her about her parentage or name again, though for the first couple weeks he looked wistful and heartbroken all at once. Sometimes, when he would catch her in passing, heading back to the tower from the library without the boys, he would stop and look as though he wanted to say something. Hermione would stop, wait but in the end, he would only bid her a good evening, afternoon, what ever time of day it happened to be, and continue on his way.

She'd nearly forgotten his earlier, strange behavior until they encountered Sirius Black in the shrieking shack.

"Harry," Hermione had warned him when he started taunting a man who had been in Azkaban for over a decade for murder. A man who had their friend's wand, and was likely more powerful than the two of them combined, even if he was out of practice. "Be quiet."

At her voice, Black turned and looked at her, his eye brows raising to his hairline.

"Kitten?" He whispered. "No, it can't be. I've gone mad, alone in the dark for all these years with my regrets and my revenge. Now I see… is it really Prongs before me? Am I imagining this all?" He glanced at Ron. "But if I have gone mad, why would I see Lily as a boy?" He glared, taking a step toward them.

The door had opened then, and Remus came through, taking in the scene before him, and then turning to Sirius.

"If I had truly lost my mind," Black had said his voice much stronger this time, "Then you would be a lot younger, Moony."

"I know the truth, Sirius." Lupin had said calmly. "I saw him, on the map, and then I flooed," He glanced at Hermione. "Someone who would know. She confirmed."

Sirius looked at her. "Then who ….?"

They were interrupted by Professor Snape. He' d immediately moved to stand between them and the other two adults.

There was arguing between the three of them. All of it over whether or not Sirius was the real reason Harry's parents were killed. Remus was trying desperately for Professor Snape to see reason, to put it all together like he had upon discovering Peter Pettigrew on the map. Professor Snape had declared there wasn't anything Black wouldn't say or do to get his way, murder included. Sirius had countered that he wasn't the one who would do anything for anything. Remus had started to say something that Professor Snape immediately cut off with a hiss, something to do with where hearts really lie.

Before Hermione could stop him, Harry had pointed his wand at Snape and cast Expelliarmus. Incidentally, so did Sirius. It had knocked Professor Snape to the side, against the wall, and out cold.

The truth, in the end, was as Sirius had started to explain. He was meant to the secret keeper, had tried to convince the Potters to use someone else, someone who they all knew would not only keep them safe, but would be able to hide the information from anyone who tried hard enough to find it. In the end, they chose Peter, for he was surely the one least likely to come into contact with any Death Eaters, could be trusted, and was their dear friend. And they had been wrong.

There was a binding spell, a conversation, Professor Snape rousing from his unconsciousness, holding him back from murdering Pettigrew. They left the shack, emerging on school grounds. There had been another, small argument among the grown men. This time it was about Sirius's prison sentence, and whether or not he should be held in custody at least until they could get his name cleared properly. Professor Snape swore it would be best if they brought Sirius back and held him, plead his case with the minister.

Then Lupin stiffened, and chaos resumed.

"I don't know why he looked at me like that, Harry." Hermione replied, the whirring soothing and hypnotic, pulling her through the night once more. "Why does Lupin, or Pettigrew for that matter."

"Snape never does." Harry snorted.

"Professor Snape," She corrected automatically. "And speaking of, if tonight taught you anything, Harry, it's that you should be able to trust him."

"Because he actually listened to reason?" Harry countered with a snort.

"Because he stood between us and danger not once, but twice. He thought Sirius was a murderer as much as you did when he placed himself between us. And again when Lupin transformed. Had you not gone after Sirius …."

"I know." He agreed.

"You don't, though. You didn't see the panic and fear in his eyes. He was harsh with us, yes, but for a reason."

Harry said nothing and when she looked over, she noted the whirring she heard was him flicking the Time Turner making it spin.

She snorted. "How far back are you planning on sending me?" She teased.

He grinned ruefully. "How far back can you go?"

"I was told it was only safe to go back a few hours. Wizards who meddle with time, and all. It won't activate on its own anyway. And besides, I think I'm quite done with this thing. In fact." She gently took it from Harry's hands, "I should see if Professor McGonagall will be willing to take it back before term's end. If I miss classes, so be it." She hopped off the bed and headed toward the doors. "I'll only be a moment." She threw over her shoulder.

Hermione held the device in two fingers up to her face, studying the gleam of the gold and the grains of magical sand. Such a beautiful little thing, though most dangerous things were.

She heard a warning yowl, and only had enough time to glance down to see Mrs Norris immediately in front of her feet. She tripped over her own two feet and the blasted cat, all in an attempt to avoid the animal and failing. As she moved forward, she felt another of her fingers catch on the time turner, activating the very thing that Harry Potter had been flicking and spinning, turning, for who knew how long.

"How far back can you go?" He had asked.

Before the world completely faded, Hermione glimpsed Filch rounding the corner and wondered how he would explain this to the Headmaster before the world went back.