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Chapter 4: Our Seventeen Year Old Parents
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"I'm Hermione Granger, I'm Head Girl, so if you need anything, I'll be happy to help. This is Harry Potter, the Head Boy, and Ron Weasley, one of our prefects."
"Nice to meet you three. I'm Beth Walker, this is my brother Blake, and our friend Julia Carter."
"Nice to meet you, come on, we'll show you around."
"What's this `we' stuff, Hermione?"
"You're going to be nice, Ron Weasley, so you're going to help out the new students." She turned and went into the common room. Ron turned to his other best friend.
"I swear, Harry, how have we put up with her for so long?" Harry laughed.
"This from the boyfriend?" The new students' jaws dropped. Lily looked at her brother and he mouthed, `What?' Harry said to Lily, Blake, and Julia, who quickly closed their mouths,
"Come on, Hermione and I will at least show you around, there won't be much help from Ron."
"Exactly. I've got other things to do right now." They all went through the portrait hole into the common room. It wouldn't change much in nineteen years. After a quick tour, everyone sort of went their separate ways, Hermione dragged Ron to the library, and Harry got out his Quidditch playbook and wrote down a few things. Julia, Lily, and Blake were in a corner, talking.
"Ok, seriously, what the hell?"
"Did either one of you know that Hermione and my Dad used to go out?" The twins shook their heads, no.
"This is bizarre. I mean, I knew Mum and Dad got together later in seventh year, but I didn't know that Mum dated Ron too."
"So what do we do?"
"Do? There's nothing to do, if we do something, we'll mess up the future."
"What if…?" Blake trailed off, as he had just glanced over at his Dad and saw Julia's aunt Ginny go sit by Harry and lean her head on his shoulder. He smiled and put an arm around her. Julia and Lily weren't looking at what Blake was; they had their backs to Harry and Ginny.
"Ok, did anyone know that Dad used to go out with Ginny?" Blake said in a deadpan.
"Ginny? As in my Aunt Ginny? Ginny Malfoy?" Blake nodded, and the girls turned.
"Oh my God, this is getting weird," Lily said. "I mean, I know that our parents probably went out with other people than each other, but it's just hard to imagine them with anyone else. Where's your mother, Jules, who's she with?"
"I have no idea. From what I've understood, she didn't date much in school."
"Anyways, Blake, what were you saying before you saw Dad and Ginny?"
"What if, since we never knew about who our parents went out with in school, that it's because of us that they're not together with who they're supposed to be with?"
"I doubt it. They were already going out before we got here."
"But what if…there's a reason we came back in time, that we need to fix the future?" Lily laughed.
"Blake, I think you're thinking way too much into this."
"Maybe, maybe not. What if I'm right?"
"It's doesn't logically make sense, Blake."
"Not everything is about logic, Lils. Sometimes things are the way they are without making sense."
"Keep an open mind, Lils, he may actually be right for once." Blake took a pillow and threw it at his friend, who laughed when she caught it.
"You know, even if it's just a freak accident that brought us here, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity," Julia said, still smiling. "We have the chance to get to know our parents when they were our age. Before battles, kids, marriage, and responsibility. We get to know them as seventeen year olds. So, I say we should go meet our seventeen year old parents."
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"Ron, I've been wondering,"
"What about?"
"About the new students."
"What about them?"
"Did they seem…familiar to you?"
"No, why?"
"It's just…when I saw them, I felt like I've met them before, like I already know them. It sounds crazy, I know, but…it's hard to explain."
"Yeah. Well, I'm sorry I don't see it."
"It's alright, I didn't really expect you to; I think I'm going crazy."
"You've always been crazy, `Mione, but I love you anyway." Hermione smiled.
"Well, I love you too, despite your faults too."
"What faults?"
"Honestly, Ron, I don't have the time or enough fingers and toes to list off your faults," She said playfully. Ron shook his head and looked at his watch.
"We'd better be getting back to the Common Room, Madam Pince'll be kicking us out soon." They gathered their books and returned to the Common room. The only person still there that could be seen by Hermione and Ron was Harry. Lily and Julia sat on the stairs out of sight, but not out of earshot of the conversations. Ron yawned and stretched.
"You know, I think I'm going to turn in. Good night." He gave Hermione a kiss, and climbed the boys' staircase. There was a small silence until Hermione broke it saying,
"Can I ask you something?"
"Always. Just whether I answer it or not is a different story." Hermione smiled.
"Did you notice anything weird about the new students?"
"What did you find weird?"
"Did you?"
"Kind of."
"Didn't it feel like they looked familiar or something, like did you feel like you've met them before, or that you've known them for a long time?"
"I did. It was weird. Especially the two; the brother and sister. What are their names? Blake and Beth. When I saw them it was like déjà vu or something, that there was a point in my life where I met them, and that I'd known them for ages."
"Ok, I told this to Ron in the library, and he didn't see it." Harry laughed.
"Well, it is Ron, Hermione. He's not as perceptive as some people." Hermione shrugged and nodded in agreement.
"I know, but still. Ok, this is going to bug me. I have to find out who they are, this is going to bug the bloody hell out of me if I don't." Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Did you just say bloody hell? I think hanging with Ron is rubbing off on you."
"Shut up, Harry. Anyways, are you going to help me?"
"I'll let you get on that, I'll stay out of your way."
"You know, I think there's something up too. I think that Beth Walker's real first name isn't Beth."
"What makes you think that?"
"She doesn't answer to it as quick as she would if it were her real name."
"Really?"
"Yeah, watch her, she doesn't react quick to her name. Well, anyways, I'll figure it out, I hope. I'm going to bed, I'll see you in the morning."
"G'night, Hermione."
"G'night." Hermione climbed the stairs, but Lily and Julia had already gotten up and gone to their dorm room. They pretended to be asleep when Hermione came in to go to bed. Lily drifted off into an uneasy sleep and ended up waking to see the red glow of Hermione's alarm clock reading 3:30 A.M. She sighed and rolled onto her other side. Not getting comfortable, she turned on her lamp and took out a book and started reading. A minute later she heard someone gasp and sit up. Lily looked over the top of her book and saw that someone was Hermione. She was breathing as though she had just run a mile. She put a hand to her head like she had a headache, and glanced over to see who had the light on. Lily closed her book and sat up.
"Are you ok?"
"I'm ok, I just had the weirdest dream."
"Like a bad dream?"
"I think so, it was so weird. I was in this fog, and saw silhouettes moving around in the fog, and heard them moving. Then there was this green glow and I heard cackling laughter. Then someone hit the ground and I woke up." Lily's brow furrowed in thought, trying to think of what the dream would be about.
"Sounded like someone died in your dream, killed by the killing curse."
"Who though? I don't know anyone personally who's died from it. At least, that would visit me in a dream. I know of people who have died, but I've never met them."
"Maybe it's dread. Maybe you're dreading someone dying and you saw it in your dream."
"There are lots of those people. How do you know so much about dreams and stuff?"
"My dad used to have these dreams that he could see what was happening at a certain time, or it was something that would happen in the future. And I decided to read about those types of dreams or premonitions or whatever they are and learned quite a bit."
"The type of thing your dad goes through sounds like the stuff Harry goes through. He has to take Occlumency lessons to block off his mind." Lily laughed nervously. Hermione took a close look at Lily.
"I have to ask you something."
"What's that?"
"Have we ever met before?"
"I don't think so, I probably would've remembered it."
"You look so familiar, like I've known you for years."
"I think you might be thinking of someone else. I don't remember meeting you."
"I don't know, it's just this weird feeling I have. But anyways."
"Sorry about staying on this subject, but who do you know of that has died from the killing curse that you could've seen in your dream?"
"I know of lots of people, many have been killed by it."
"Any of your family members, or anyone close to your family?" Hermione shook her head.
"Any friends? Classmates? Families of friends and classmates?"
"Harry's parents. They were killed when he was one, but I'm sure you knew that. Everyone in the wizarding world knows that. One of the students here, he was in seventh year when we were in fourth, his name was Cedric Diggory. He was killed by Voldemort." Hermione glanced up to see if Lily flinched. She was somewhat taken back that she didn't. Lily figured that's what she was thinking. The daughter of the one who killed the darkest wizard of the age wouldn't flinch to hear his name. She grew up using the name, and not being afraid of it.
"Anyone else?"
"Well, Ron had an uncle that died from it, but I don't see how that has any significance to me." A memory came to Lily, something she remembered her mother telling her a long time ago.
"When I was about seventeen, I always had these weird dreams. They started out foggy and I could only see silhouettes of people moving around. Then I always saw a green glow and heard the people fall to the ground and a cackling laughter. It was a reoccurring dream that I had every night, and then the more I dreamed about it, the more clearer the world was, and I saw what was happening, and I saw more of that night. It turned out I was dreaming about the day your grandparents died. I saw your dad's parents' last few moments on this world, I saw Voldemort kill them. I find it kind of ironic how I ended up marrying their son two years later. It was almost like there was a significance to me seeing them die."
"Do you still have those dreams?"
"No. Not anymore. I haven't dreamt about that since I started going out with your dad." Lily was brought out of her trance and saw that Hermione had dozed off. Lily got out of bed and covered her mother up and shut her light off and climbed back into bed, but there was no way she would be able to sleep.
A/n: Here's the fourth installment to Tricky Deals of Fate, hope you enjoyed it.
Husker-fan-2006
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