"Do you know how to use the floo?" Minerva asked Hermione as they stood in front of the fireplace in their personal quarters, ready to go shopping. Minerva was wearing a long black dress, the bodice clung to her figure and the skirt flowed nicely down her long legs. Her hair was in a bun, not a tight one that Hermione was used to, but a loose one, with a few strands of hair framing her face on either side. She had a small black bag, the strap of which rested on her left shoulder, and the bag rested against her right hip. It had an undetectable extension charm on it.
After breakfast, which they had eaten at the table in the kitchenette, Minerva had transfigured Hermione's clothes, again, into some light blue jeans and a t-shirt for a popular muggle band at the time so that she would fit in. She also transfigured her shoes into some white pumps. Hermione's hair was left down, though Minerva showed her a spell to straighten out the curls.
"Yes, I've used it a few times." Hermione answered.
"Okay. We will be going to The Leaky Cauldron."
Hermione nodded, taking a handful of floo powder as she stepped into the fireplace and called out the address, dropping the powder and disappearing in the green flames.
She walked out of the fireplace at The Leaky Cauldron and looked around, it looked the same as it did in the future. Although, Tom, who stood behind the bar serving customers, looked younger.
Soon Minerva arrived and she led the girl out of the pub and down the muggle street.
"We'll get you some muggle stuff first, I have both muggle and wizarding money on me."
"Okay."
"Do you know what kind of stuff you want to get? We can get you some stuff to decorate your room with as well as clothes and things."
"I don't know. Can we just go into different stores and have a look around? As for the room, the bed is perfect, and so is the furniture. All that I really want is some paint for the walls, maybe some different blankets, and some books for the bookshelf. Maybe some things to go on the desk as well, but that's it."
"Okay. If that's what you want."
They start looking around different clothes stores, Hermione picking up clothes that she likes the look of and trying them on in the changing rooms. She also picked up bras, and nickers, and socks. Soon she has a good haul of clothes and so they go to shoe stores. She buys some Converse high-tops in various colours (black, white, light blue, burgundy, and red), remembering how much she liked the shoe in the future. She also bought some smart, black shoes for school, much like the ones she wore in the future. They then went to another store to buy some hair and body products, such as shampoo, conditioner, hair bands, make-up, deodorant, perfume, shower gels, moisturisers, sanitary towels, flannels, towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste, face wash, etc. She figured that to become friends with the Marauders she should probably look nice, so she had to change her style. Also, the clothes that were her style weren't around in this period of time, so she had to change anyway. She brought some bags as well, including one for school. She didn't want to buy so much but Minerva insisted as it was the first time she had a child to spend money on. All the bags with these things in were shrunk and put into Minerva's bag.
They then went to a department store to get stuff to decorate her bedroom with. Hermione chose a paint colour that looked somewhere in between a purple and a grey, like a mixture of both colours. It was a pale colour, not bright. But it looked nice. She brought some new duvet covers, blankets and pillow cases as well. Also brought some fairy lights that she liked after Minerva caught her staring at them and insisted she brought them too. They were a warm, yellow-ish colour encased within fake white roses. They were beautiful. Minerva said that they could get them to work with magic. They went to a muggle bookstore next and she picked out some of her favourite muggle books, as well as ones that she liked the sound of.
It was lunch time when they left the bookstore, so they decided to walk back to The Leaky Cauldron to get something to eat before going into Diagon Alley. All of the bags were shrunken and inside of Minerva's little black bag.
They found a table at the back of the pub and sat in the wooden chairs, opposite each other. Soon Tom came over and took their orders for drinks and food and left again.
"So, have you enjoyed your day so far?"
"Yes. Thank you, for everything. You really don't have to buy me so much, though."
"Of course I do. I'm your guardian now, it is my job to buy things for you. And Albus and I have plenty of money, and used to only have each other, and ourselves, to spend it on. Also, you came here to help us, it's only right that we help you too, by buying you what you need. Is there anything that you want to ask me?"
"Um, do you stay at the school for all the holidays?"
"No. For Christmas and Easter we do. But we spend most of the summer at my family home, McGonagall Manor. We come back a week before term starts in order to make sure everything is prepared and get some extra work done. You will have a room there, too. We will sort that out next summer."
"Thank you. Uh, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"
Minerva smiled at the girl. "I'm forty. I'll be forty-one on the fourth of October, though. Can I ask you something?"
"Yes."
"Why did you drop Divination?"
Hermione laughed slightly as Tom came back to the table with their food and drinks. Hermione had ordered butterbeer and a chicken salad sandwich with chips, Minerva had ordered some gillywater and the same food as Hermione. The two thanked him and he left.
"Well, our teacher kept trying to predict Harry's death using the Grim. She asked Harry, Ron and I what we saw in that glass ball thing, whatever it's called, and I answered sarcastically, saying that we saw the Grim. She told me I had no talent in the subject whatsoever, and I walked out of class. It was the first time I had ever walked out of class, though."
"Who was your teacher?"
"Professor Trelawney. She's the one who made the prophecy about Harry and Neville. Dumbledore had to hire her to protect her, but she wasn't very good. In fact, after our first lesson with her we had a lesson with you and you told us that every year she predicted the death of a student, and none of those deaths had happened. I don't think you were very fond of her." Hermione said, laughing gently.
"I'm not a fan of divination, I have to say. It's a very imprecise form of magic. What's your favourite lesson? It's okay if you don't say transfiguration, by the way."
"I do like transfiguration. In fact, I like all lessons, except divination of course. But my favourite would have to be arithmancy. What classes do the Marauders and Lily take?"
"Lily and Remus are taking all of the same lessons you are taking. They're both very studious. James, Sirius and… Peter, are taking all of the same lessons except arithmancy because they didn't like the sound of it. And they don't like having too much homework. But, they're still taking nine subjects so they still have lots of work to do, plus there's the pranks."
"Are the Marauders the only boys in Gryffindor in the year? And what girls will I be with?"
"Yes, they are the only fifth year boys in Gryffindor. Frank is the year above them. You will be sharing your dormitory with Lily, Alice and a girl called Marlene McKinnon. Their year is quite a small year compared with all the others. I'm sure you'll become friends with all of them, though."
They both smiled slightly.
"Did you have a pet of any kind during your previous school years, we can get you a new one if you want?" Minerva asked Hermione.
"In third year I got a cat who was half-Kneazle. I named him Crookshanks. I don't mind. I don't need a pet."
"Well, we have plenty of owls you can use. But we can get you a new cat if you want. Albus and I happen to like cats as well. Or you can get your own owl. Whatever you want. Honestly, we have plenty of money and it is great to finally be able to spend it on someone else."
"Okay. We can have a look."
When they were done eating Minerva payed for their meals and they went through the back door, Minerva opened the entrance to the Alley and they walked through. It wasn't much different to how it was in the future. It just looked newer, the paint was fresh and the windows were clean. There were a lot of witches and wizards around, dressed in robes of all styles and colours, or dressed in muggle clothes.
They got all of the books Hermione would need for school that year, plus some others about magic in various forms and some fictional stories she had read in her years as a Hogwarts student, and some that sounded interesting. Minerva recommended some for her as well. She also brought a couple of books about pranking because she thought it would be easier to help the Marauders if she knew a bit more about the subject. Then they brought her school clothes and some robes for the holidays' etc.
"You know, James, Sirius and Remus are all on the Quidditch team. Do you like Quidditch? Maybe if you get on the team then that might help you with your task." Minerva said.
"I knew James was on the team, but Sirius and Remus? What positions do they play?"
"James is chaser. Sirius and Remus are beaters. We make sure to schedule the Gryffindor games so they aren't around the time of the full moon, that way Remus doesn't feel as ill. But you didn't answer the question."
"I like watching Quidditch. I haven't played, though, I'm not that great at flying."
"Well, if you want, we could get you a broom and I can teach you how to fly for the rest of the week. I used to be a Quidditch player myself when I was at school."
Now Hermione looked shocked. Minerva just smiled at her.
"You used to play Quidditch?"
"Yes, I used to be the Gryffindor teams' seeker. I was very good, if I do say so myself. In fact, I won nearly every game for our team. That was until my seventh year when we were playing Slytherin in the finals and their seeker knocked me off my broom. I was quite badly injured, and after that point I never played Quidditch again. But I am incredibly competitive. I get incredibly angry whenever Slytherin beat Gryffindor. Though, since the boys started playing for the team that has been happening less and less. James is very good at scoring goals, and the other two are very good beaters."
"You were competitive during my previous time at the school as well. Harry, he played seeker for the Gryffindor quidditch team, he was the best they had had in a few years, but he kept getting hurt during the games. He started in his first year after you saw him catch our friends' Remembrall during our first flying lesson. You were incredibly excited to have a new player that might actually help Gryffindor win. The whole team was. You even brought Harry a broom. The top of the range at the time."
"Harry, as in James' son, right?" Hermione nodded. "How did he keep getting hurt during the games?"
"Well, there was this one time, in our second year, when there was a rogue bludger chasing him around the pitch. Just as he caught the snitch it hit his arm and broke it. Then the fraud of a defence teacher tried to fix it but ended up getting rid of all the bones in his arm, so Harry had to spend the evening in the hospital wing growing his bones back with skele-gro. In third year, some dementors came onto the pitch during the game and they affected him the most, he recalled the night his parents died when they were around, and he fell off his broom from quite a height. Last year they didn't have Quidditch because it was the tri-wizard tournament. In which Harry was entered, even though he wasn't seventeen and he didn't want to do it. The person that impersonated Moody put his name in and jinxed the goblet. Harry did, however, use his broom to help complete the first task of the tournament, it was against a dragon. He was very good. Those were the worst ones."
"You and your friends certainly have been through a lot." Minerva said, smiling slightly at Hermione who smiled back.
"Yes, but we've had fun as well." Hermione replied, smiling back.
They next brought the ingredients that Hermione would need for potions, as well as the other things she would need for it, like the cauldron, and the gloves, and the scales, etc. After that they went to the animal store, Hermione found a cat that looked a lot like Crookshanks and chose him, Minerva was only too happy to buy him for her. They also brought some things for the cat to play with, and some cat food. Then they went to the stationary store and brought Hermione some parchment, ink and quills.
"Do you have your old wand or do you need a new one?" Minerva asked.
"I have a wand." Hermione answered.
And soon they were done, heading back to The Leaky Cauldron so that they could floo back to the castle. When they arrived they went to Hermione's bedroom and Minerva took all of the shrunken bags out of her small black bag and unshrunk them, placing them on the floor.
"I will leave you to unpack whilst I go and start on dinner. We can decorate your room tomorrow. Do you mind having sausage casserole, with roast potatoes? I have no idea what food you like."
"Sausage casserole is fine. Thank you, for everything."
"You're welcome. I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything." Minerva smiled before she left the room. Hermione smiled too. She could get used to living with her favourite teacher and the Headmaster.
She placed the new Crookshanks on the bed and started by unpacking her clothes and placing them either in the wardrobe, the chest of drawers, or the bedside cabinets. She then unpacked her toiletries, placing them all in various places of the en-suite depending on what the items were. The towels and flannels went in the cupboard, so did the sanitary towels and moisturiser. A toothbrush and the toothpaste went on the side next to the sink, so did the face wash. The shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel went on the side of the bath. The make-up and hair products went on the side near the sink as well. She then filled her bookshelf with the books she brought. Though, she placed all of her stuff for school on her desk or in her desk drawers for now. She placed the toys for Crookshanks in a clear space on the floor and he started playing with the toys immediately.
Soon she was done and wondered what to do next. She decided to go and see if Minerva needed help with the food.
When she arrived in the kitchenette she found Minerva and Albus there, cooking together whilst they laughed and talked about whatever came to mind. She felt slightly guilty for trespassing on their lives. Since barely anyone knew of their marriage it meant that the holidays were the only times that they were able to really be together, as a couple. And now she was here, intruding on their lives. She knew she had to come back, to save lives and help the Order to destroy Voldemort. But maybe it wasn't a good idea to be adopted by this couple. This couple who sacrificed so much to be together and are fighting in this war. This couple who barely had any time to themselves. She knew the older version of Albus said it was okay, but she was starting to doubt that.
She was just about to turn around and walk back into her room to give them space when Minerva noticed her and called her name. She looked at the couple, both of whom were smiling at her, and she smiled back slightly. Though she couldn't get rid of the guilt she was feeling.
"Are you done unpacking?" Minerva asked.
"Yes. Thank you, again, for today." Hermione replied. Not knowing what else to say.
"You're welcome. It was fun. Are you okay?" Minerva questioned, noticing the guilty look in the girls' eyes.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you. I was just coming to see if you wanted any help with the food, but I will leave you two alone." She said, starting to turn around. But Albus' voice stopped her.
"Nonsense, come and help. You can peel the potatoes if you want."
"Really? I don't want to intrude."
"You aren't intruding, Hermione. It's fine." Albus told her with a smile on his face.
"Okay." Hermione said before walking over to them and washing her hands in the sink before starting to peel the potatoes.
"Did you have a good day?" Albus asked the girl as he resumed cutting up vegetables for the casserole.
"Yes, I did, thank you. You don't have to spend so much money on me, though."
"Nonsense, we're your guardians now, it is part of our job to spend our money on you. Plus, we have a lot of money and not enough people to spend it on. And you needed clothes, and your school things. Also, you've already done a great deal to help us in this war, and you will continue to help us, so it is an honour to spend our money on you when you have already done so much for us, and will continue doing so." Albus spoke in a gentle voice, reassuring the guilty girl slightly.
When their dinner was done the three of them sat at the table together and ate the delicious meal, discussing the school and what Hermione got up to in the future among other things. And they sat at the table, still talking, for an hour after finishing their meal. Then Hermione went back to her room after saying goodnight to the adults.
She picked out some pyjamas and nickers and made her way to the bathroom to get ready for bed. She picked out a book before climbing into bed and started to read it, it was one of the books on pranking that she brought to help her become friends with the Marauders.
Soon she was disturbed by a knock on the door and she allowed the person to come in. It was Minerva, who smiled at her before sitting on the edge of the bed, facing Hermione.
"Are you sure you're okay, Hermione?" Minerva asked. "You know you can speak to me, or to Albus, about anything, right?"
"Yes. I'm fine."
"Really? Because I couldn't help but notice that you looked guilty before and during dinner. Why do you feel guilty?"
"It's just… You two are hiding your marriage from most people, so you barely get any proper time together, except for the holidays, and I just came here and intruded on your personal space. I feel guilty for ruining your time together."
"Hermione, you're not ruining our time together. We've wanted a child for so long but we decided to wait until Voldemort was gone so he couldn't destroy everything. That's why we started fighting him, because we thought that if we did then the sooner these dark times would be over, and the sooner we would be able to start our family. But you came and we're your guardians now. We're more than happy to look after you, Hermione. We're more than happy to share our time with you. We're more than happy to be the family you need, and we'll always be here for you, no matter what. I know it's hard for you right now, having just come back in time and not being able to see your real parents again, and not being able to have the same relationship with your friends as you used to because they haven't even been born yet. But we're here for you, whatever you need, whenever you need it. And we will spend our money on you whether you like it or not. Okay?"
"Okay. Thank you." Hermione said quietly. She felt slightly consoled, but she still felt guilty.
"You're welcome. Now I don't want you feeling guilty anymore. Okay?" Hermione nodded. "Good. Now I shall leave you to your book. Goodnight, Hermione."
"Goodnight."
Minerva smiled slightly at the girl before leaving the room. Hermione returned to her book, learning how to prank people. It was interesting, and incredibly clever. She hadn't heard Remus or Sirius discussing these pranks so she assumed that they either hadn't done them or had forgotten to mention them. They didn't discuss all of their pranks with her, just some of the best, but the ones she was reading about were incredibly funny, and clever, and she knew she could probably use them to help get on the Marauders' good side.
She was excited to become friends with them, she was excited to help them prank people, and to help them have better lives than they did in her timeline. Or at least the three true Marauders, she wasn't looking forward to meeting Peter, knowing that she would be incredibly angry at him but have to supress it until she was close enough to the other three to divulge the truth. She wondered what they would be like as their younger selves, she wondered what James was like. She also wondered about the three girls she would be sharing a dormitory with. Particularly Lily, she wanted to know what Harry's mum was like as a person.
She kept hearing people comparing him to his parents. Though they said he behaved and looked like his father, and had his mothers' eyes. But they never really mentioned him having any of Lily's behaviours, at least, not in front of her. She wanted to know who he was really like, and she wanted to make sure that his parents lived so that he would have a happier childhood. A childhood she could still be a part of if she successfully managed to become friends with the Marauders and Lily.
It took her a few hours to finish reading the book, and she had managed to memorise a good number of the pranks in there. She believed she was now able to become friends with the notorious pranksters, she believed she had what it took to become a Marauder.
She believed she had what it took to save the lives of these people.