Turn back time - Hermione Granger in the Marauders era

Chapter 3 - A Rat, a Vow and a Nighttime Sneak

The weeks that followed passed swiftly, with no out of the ordinary happenings whatsoever, as usual. In Hogwarts, life continued as if they were the only ones who existed. Of course, that was not the case. Almost every day, someone would whisper of the murder written in the Daily Prophet, and with a sinking heart, Hermione listened anxiously for the names.

Thankfully, no one ever broke the news that one of her family members were dead. Hermione didn't have any muggle friends where she lived with her parents, so there was no one else for her to worry about. She had only received two letters from her parents in the month that she had been in Hogwarts, she hadn't heard from them in two weeks, but that was nothing new as her parents rarely wrote to her. Yet she heard often from her younger brother Josh, who always persisted her with questions of Hogwarts and magic. He was the only one in her family who didn't regard her as an abnormality.

Hermione sighed as she finished her Potions essay and looked over to Mary and Marlene who were both playing some card game. They squealed delightedly and slightly annoyingly every time they won a card. Lily, on the other hand, was sitting on the chair reading. Apart from the four of them, there were only a few first year Griffindors in the room. Hermione put away her completed homework and sat beside Lily.

"Are you okay?"

Lily looked up from her book. "Yeah, 'course."

"I saw you talking to James earlier..."

"Yeah. And what?"

Hermione chuckled quietly. "He loooves you,"

"Mmm hmm." Lily said nonchalantly.

Hermione's eyebrows knitted. "Oh, don't get all sulky on me!"

"What? I'm not."

"You know he loooves you..."

"Yeah, he's only said it a few times," Lily said sarcastically.

"And do you love him back?"

"Oh, for goodness sa- Ahhhh!" Lily screamed, kicking her legs onto the sofa.

"What? What!" Hermione shouted

"There's a rat! Euh!"

Hermione, Mary and Marlene all shrieked childishly, and ran to the nearest chair. There was a slight commotion as James, Sirius, Remus and a number of others ran down to see what was going on.

"What is it?" Remus asked quickly.

"Are you being killed or something?" James sniggered.

The girls straightened themselves out hastily and Hermione noticed the rat escape towards James. He bent down and picked the rat up. It didn't even struggle, which Hermione found odd for a rat.

"Aww. Girls, scared of a little rat? Did you think it was going to hurt you?"

"Shut up, Potter," Lily sighed tiresomely.

"Shall I let him go, Evans. Scare you a bit more?"

"Don't you dare! Can't you take it away, outside a window or something?"

"Okay, fine. If you go out with me, Evans,"

"Dream on."

Threateningly, James took one hand of the rat, but it stayed firmly in place. His eyes locked with Lily's firm and furious ones. They were frozen for a number of moments. Seeming to accept defeat, James sighed.

"Alright. Alright. I'll take him upstairs." He said sadly.

"Into your dormitory?" Lily said in disgusted disbelief.