Chapter 5: So this is how it began

Hermione was perfecting her 'extra credit' for Ancient Runes when the action she anticipated and awaited came to life. She was mildly irritated by the lack of progress she had made in befriending the Marauders. They had asked an idiotic-in Hermione's opinion-question consisting of a simple 'why?' and when she couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation that wouldn't have her locked up in St Mungo's they continued on with their suspicions.

When she grew tired of their wariness she turned to befriending Severus and Lily to find out that she couldn't. The memories of the older Severus Snape were too freshly sewn into her memory, they seemed too raw, as if they were something that was otherworldly and too real. Whenever she tried coming up to the pair the emotions that had build up started painfully stabbing into her heart so she didn't-couldn't try anything. The fact that Lily's eyes were the colour of oak tree leaves was another ordeal.

Sometimes she asked herself the question she felt so guilty for answering. She knew that given the opportunity she would go back to her first world and that was what worried her. She had parents that adored her as much as they did the first time around and two brothers that she loved immensely. She had friends that would go beyond the limit for her and she had places to go to if everything went down the hill. Most importantly, in here she had a safety and certain stability that she never managed to grasp the first time around, but still, she wanted go back.

However, Hermione knew that she shouldn't leave her brothers no matter how much they abandoned her, she shouldn't leave her parents no matter how much they pressured her and she shouldn't leave this world for the memory of that one. She shouldn't leave this world just to get her happiness back if that meant that everyone she loved here would suffer.

She knew that if they did win in 1998 Harry would forever blame himself for the death of the many in the war and try to bury his thoughts in his head. Ron would never fully recover the loss of his loved ones and live in a paranoid state that he would try his best to cover up. Many more would just drown themselves in alcohol to numb the pain and their feelings until they couldn't remember any longer.

Hermione could now prevent it all. She had all the power in this situation. But the question was: how much would it break her? Or could she do it alone if it was already close to impossible when her, Ron and Harry were involved?

A bold voice brought her out of her inner monologue. As the words that sounded something like 'will you marry me?' were said in a joking tone a bright red-headed girl had slapped a messy, black haired boy with a quill in hand and said something including the Giant Squid and flobberworms before storming out of the library. Hermione's eyes widened.

"Did she just slap me using a quill?" James' eyes were dancing with bewilderment and disbelief. His right hand smudged the now-present ink on his face.

The three others occupants of the table tried suppressing their laughter before nodding energetically and offering a quiet "Yep.", "Yes" or an "It was amazing.".

Just before Sirius could point out on Lily Evans' words after the 'slapping' James had a unnatural gleam in his eyes. "Moony, Sirius, Pete, I was joking-when I asked her to marry me. But-" he paused scratching his head, further disheveling the untidy hair. "-I think I want to ask her to Hogsmeade now. Wow. Was she always this pretty?" he stood up on the table. "I want to this moment to be in history!"

A small fire started dancing in her heart with a smile tugging at the side of her lips as the four occupants of the table were ushered away from the library. One phrase was occupying her mind: so this is how it began.

…

Soon enough it was three months past the 19th of January (19th of April) and Hermione had taken to research of any sorts to keep her mind away of any painful memories. It was dinner and she decided to skip, telling her so-called-friends that she had a stomach ache.

Hermione, deciding that she shouldn't take Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem yet-due to the influence she remembered having from the locket-searched for various methods of preserving magic in limited areas of space. She was currently reading a book about historical relics that have unusual magical properties in an effort to find something that might be of help. She skimmed through the part about Godric Gryffindor's sword and was reading about the Sorting Hat when a gentle tugging snapped her out of her struggles.

At the hem of her robe sat a granite grey cat, staring at her with his equally grey, marble like eyes. He had quickly spit out the edge of her robe as his tongue brushed the fur around his mouth in a swirling motion.

She set her book on the couch and picked up the cat she suspected to be part kneezle. "Hello beautiful, what's your name?"

He in return jumped onto her lap and slid his head under her arm. Hermione chuckled lightly. She started brushing his grey fur subconsciously and continued her reading.

-proved to be ineffectual for it has commonly breached through the minds of most powerful Occlumens. The Sorting Hat has also proven to see forgotten or highly suppressed memories and-

"Ow!" She felt something sharp stab into her still arm. Hermione locked gazes with the marble eyes that were glaring at her. She huffed with annoyance before continuing the careful stroking that she had stopped when reading that chapter.

After four more minutes of paper turning the book was closed. She stared out into the empty common room. She didn't know that the Sorting Hat could see any suppressed, forgotten or magically enhanced memories. This also meant that it could see and did see her suppressed memories, which meant that-

-she should stay in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat obviously knew what it was doing and if it had let her convince it then she most likely belonged here in this era. Why had she been so stupid, naively assuming that she could go back to Gryffindor and have a happy life. No, Gryffindor would draw much unwanted attention, especially the changing houses thing, it was better when her house mates only saw her as an unworthy little annoyance. After all, no attention meant no suspicions on her true notions.

She heard hurried footsteps approaching the common room. Dinner was over. Hermione reluctantly stood up and picked up the book which she took a note of in her leather journal to buy later. She had to return the original to the library.

Those marble eyes were glaring again. "Sorry, but I really need to get going and your owner will be here very soon so… I hope to see you later." She pet his head once before setting out to go return the book to her free time heaven.

Hermione happily noted that her way to the library was uneventful except for a greeting with Benjy and Amos that she very much appreciated. She had learned quickly what their friendship toward was, and happily stayed in a trusting regime with them. She did scold them for not completing their homework and helped them with some classes which they thanked her for but kept teasing about with an 'if you marry someone, it will most certainly be a book'. She smiled fondly at the memories.

After passing a few more halls she reached the library and giving yet another pass to the restricted section to Madame Vone-who was the Hogwarts librarian currently-she entered the doors and searched for the shelf she took the book from. She put the book back carefully and stayed in the same spot for a while, looking at the other books that might help her, but to her dismay she found nothing.

The sudden increase of the thumping of her heart and a chilly coat of wind that was thrown onto her back alarmed Hermione. She decided to leave the library as soon as the prickling sensations continued to grow onto her neck. She took two steps before her limbs tumbled and she fell onto the floor without being able to catch herself.

Inhaling deeply, she collected her thoughts and tried to stand up. -She couldn't, something was keeping her from moving. The chill ran down her spine again. A water-like substance was crawling up her toes and sending her body into shock with it's ice cold temperature. She felt it reaching her knees. The cold water started rising higher with its aggressive motions giving her no choice but to try crawling out of there. Hermione saw the door when the water had touched her stomach. It was started pressing down and squashing her from around her body. It was at her neck.

She had managed to get to the doorframe and tried pushing herself out before the water swallowed her fully but as soon as her fingers were out of the restricted section the water had engulfed her body fully and was dragging her to the other direction. The fight was going on for a minute before Hermione's oxygen supply ran out and she was choking violently. Her hands started losing their grip as her eyes were giving into the empty darkness which now felt, oh, so inviting. She tried her best to hold on, she even gave a final push towards the door but nothing could help her in this situation. With no strength to fight she let go and gave into the cold darkness.

One last image entered her head before she could fall: a book was lying on a corner shelf of a library, titled 'The Peverell Bloodline'.

…

Her hands reached around her neck while her lungs coughed out the water. She didn't have enough air. Again and again, Hermione took big gulps of oxygen. The only task on her mind was to fill the hunger her body gained. After regaining a steady breathing pattern she just lay there. She didn't know where she was, in fact she didn't care where she was as long as she could breathe. Eyes shut, hands on her heart and adrenaline pumping in her veins-she was safe for now.

She only opened her eyes to look around after what she assumed was a 15 minute rest. To her confusion, she was in the same spot of the restricted section of the library where the water started creeping on her, the only difference now was that she could stand up and nothing was trying to kill her-or that was at least what she thought. She checked for her wand and was even more surprised to find that she was dry and so was the spot she presumed she coughed the water out on. What was wrong with her? Better yet, what was wrong with one of the books that has done this to her? Or was it a student? Maybe a protection jinx?

She was a mess, she probably had overworked herself before fainting in the library and having a bad dream. What's the time anyway? She thought before casting a Tempus and groaning in realization that it was close to midnight and she'd now had to sneak past Filch. She wasn't used to relying on the Marauders map but now she desperately wished it had come to the past with her.

As quietly as possible, Hermione crept out of the library and started sneaking into the dungeons when she heard a screeching meow behind her followed by two loud footsteps.

"I know you're in there." A younger, yet more horrid voice of the Hogwarts' caretaker said. "You can't hide!"

Then the footsteps grew faster and Hermione started to run. Looking around for tapestries or any of the shortcuts known to her she ran up the stairs hoping it would slow down Filch. Unfortunately, she found none. And to her dismay the portraits started shushing and berating her loudly. She was sure she'd be caught because of the sound if the caretaker wouldn't catch her on his own.

She turned towards the third floor corridor where she remembered her first year adventures taking place and smiled slightly before running to up the room with the trapdoor and rushing in. She closed the door with a thud and took a calming breath. Now she just had to wait it out.

"What are you two little students doing in here?" She flinched and turned towards the sound. Peeves. "Breaking curfew are you? My, my…"

Before she could open her mouth to protest she was cut off by his voice that turned louder. "A second and a third year Slytherin! Breaking curfew! Planning on shaving Mrs Norris?!"

A second after the door was smashed open and Filch had rushed in. She was grabbed by the back of her collar and pushed further into the room when she heard a squeak and turned to see that there was another student-presumably the second year-held by her back collar, just as trapped as Hermione was.

Filch lowered his head and grimaced at the two students. "Tried to hide, did you? How I miss the days when you'd both be caned." Hermione was pushed back to the door before Filch started dragging her and the other student to the dungeons.

She determined to keep her mouth shut before she was in more trouble than now but she could have sworn she heard a small, mumbled 'we're sorry' from the second year. Today was definitely not her day.

…

"Five points from Slytherin for your misbehaviour Miss Riddle. The same applies to you Miss Silunova." Slughorn looked at them both with disappointment. "Your detention will be held next Tuesday with me. I don't expect this sort of behaviour from my top students, what has gotten into you both?" He paused making a face of complexion and disappointment. "We will discuss this later on your detention." Professor Slughorn glanced at them again and walked out leaving them both in the Slytherin common room.

"I'm so sorry, I probably got you caught." Said the other student, she looked at Hermione with a panicked expression.

"It's alright, Peeves would have got me caught anyway." Hermione offered her a tired smile.

"Are you sure?" The second year said with an uncertainty.

"Yes, it's fine." Hermione was about to turn around to go to her dorm when she heard the other student speak again. She didn't hate the girl but she found her rather annoying, especially when she was very tired and desperately wanted to go to bed.

"I'm Lina by the way. I know it's a weird name but my family isn't from here so… " the girl-Lina smiled again and Hermione picked up her accent. It didn't sound British, it sounded a lot like American but it was missing something. Hermiones' interest spiked.

"Are you from the States? Your accent sounds similar to theirs."

"Umm… no, I am actually from Kazakhstan, which is in the Soviet Union so I'm from there, but my accent is neutral I suppose, I started learning English from an early age so it doesn't really sound Russian." The girl said quickly.

Hermione briefly remembered her Christmas holiday in her first year and recalled the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 before nodding. "I'm Lucianna Riddle." She offered before deciding on something else. "Call me Hermione."

"That's an interesting name." Said the girl and looked at the clock on the wall. "It was nice to meet you but I think that we really should go to sleep because it's nearly one am."

Hermione nodded abscently going back to her dorm and jumping into the bed straight after brushing her teeth and changing. Her day was certainly an interesting one. She would continue to search more on containing spells and artefacts tomorrow.

…

Author's Note: I apologise for not having Hermione interact with the Marauders or Lily or Severus or Regulus or Dumbledore this chapter. I promise that the grey cat and the second year Slytherin hold some significance in the story. I am open to any of your suggestions and thank you so much for reading. I wish you the best.

-Alli