While walking up the trail that led to the main castle, a rush of nervousness flooded Hermione yet again. The Dumbledore who had temporarily soothed her worries was not of this timeline. Although the students were to be arriving on the Hogwarts in less than two hours, it wouldn't waver the loneliness she felt in that moment.

Hermione shivered as a gust of wind blew her hair into her face. She was anxious and overwhelmed with the thoughts of every way this could possibly go wrong. What if Lily, James, and all of their friends hated her? What if the time turner broke? What if someone found out her true identity?

After pondering for what felt like hours to Hermione, she finally reached the main entrance of the castle. Instantly, Hermione was greeted by a less wrinkled, shorter-haired, younger version of Professor Dumbledore.

"Ah, I see our new student has arrived from Beauxbaton's Academy of Magic! Happy to finally meet you, Harper Slughorn," he said, his eyes opening wide behind his half-moon specs. The wise man led the new student through the gates and into the ancient castle, while she dragged her trunk close behind.

It still amazed Hermione that, somehow, he was able to communicate with his past and future self; it was just another instance of Dumbledore's unwavering powers.

"You must be a distant relative of Horace Slughorn, correct?" he politely asked.

"Um, yes. I'm his niece," Hermione replied just as Professor Slughorn walked through the doors of the castle, eager to meet his supposedly new family member.

"So this is the niece I never knew about, eh?" Horace said in a tipsy voice. Although the Horace that she met was nearly twenty years into the future, his wrinkles and tired eyes remained present.

As the three of them approached the Great Hall, Hermione responded to her faux uncle by saying, "yes, I am your brother's daughter, Harper," hoping for him to not grow suspicious of her.

"Ah yes, you're Glenn's daughter. He's always been more of a closed door. That's probably why I didn't know about you..." Horace rambled on. "Well, It's great to have another Slughorn family member in the castle. I look forward to having you in my class, Harper."

"Me too, Uncle Slughorn," responded Hermione awkwardly. It was so unnatural for her to pretend that this man she had never met was her uncle.

"I assume you've got to sort her now?" asked Horace to the headmaster, who nodded in reply.

"Well then, excuse me while I go tidy up my office before the arrival of the train. I'll be seeing you," Horace said as he exited the Great Hall.

Headmaster Dumbledore continued shortly after. "So, Harper, Hogwarts' houses are very different from the houses at Beauxbatons. We must sort you into one of our four houses: Gryffindor, for the brave and loyal, Ravenclaw, for the intelligent and creative, Hufflepuff, the for dedicated and kind, and Slytherin, the for cunning and ambitious," he spoke.

Hermione followed in the headmaster's footsteps to the front of the Great Hall, where a layered hat sat on top of a wooden stool. Although Hermione already remembered all of this information from her first year, Dumbledore still explained to her how the hat worked as soon as placed on her head.

With that said, the hat, placed atop Hermione's head by Dumbledore, shouted out, "Gryffindor," within a matter of seconds, causing Hermione to let out a sigh of relief. Being sorted into any house other than Gryffindor would have made everything so much harder for her.

"Alright, Ms. Slughorn," Dumbledore said after removing the hat off of her head, "I'll escort you to the Gryffindor common room now, where you can unpack and get settled in before the wave of students come from the Hogwarts Express."

So, as Dumbledore led Hermione through the corridors of the 1977 castle, she took in all of its beauty. She saw familiar names carved into plaques on the walls, like Neville's father Frank Longbottom and her past teacher Remus Lupin. She walked in amazement.

Before she knew it, Hermione's eyes met the painting of the fat lady, and she listened as Dumbledore whispered the password. The painting swung open like a door, and Dumbledore told Hermione that the seventh year girl's dormitory is, "up the right staircase and is the seventh door down."

Hermione picked the bed closest to the door and began to unpack her belongings after she climbed the common room stairs. It wasn't long before she was finished. After pulling the notes she had taken the previous day out of her pocket, Hermione charmed it and placed it into her trunk's secret compartment. There, was the only place Hermione knew it would be safe.

A creak from the door and the floorboards caused Hermione to jolt in place. Looking up, she saw three unfamiliar girls standing with their trunks in the doorway.

"Who are you?" the first girl blurted as she placed her trunk on top of the bed next to Hermione's.

"Relax Marlene, she's probably here for a reason," the second girl said with ease before Hermione could speak back.

"What's your name?" the third girl said. Distracted by her striking red hair, Hermione stood speechless for a moment. This had to be Lily, Hermione knew it.

"I'm Harper Slughorn," Hermione finally replied back. "I'm a transfer student from Beauxbatons."

"Wait, Slughorn as in Professor Slughorn?" The second girl anxiously asked.

"He's my uncle," said Hermione. What Hermione did not expect was the first girl to burst out in laughter.

"Oh now we've got two Sluggys!" she joked. She walked over in my direction and stuck out her hand with rare confidence. "It's nice to meet you, Harper. I'm Marlene McKinnon."

"And I'm Alice Fortescue," the second girl added sweetly. "I assume you're a seventh year and have been sorted into Gryffindor?"

"Well, obviously, Alice," Marlene stated sarcastically. "why else would she be up here?" she continued, only to receive a playful eye-roll back from Alice and the third girl. Their funny attitude slightly eased Hermione more than expected.

"It's great to have you join us, Harper, even if it's just for a year," the third girl said as she opened her trunk and started unpacking. "I'm Lily by the way. Lily Evans," she said.

As her new roommates unpacked, Hermione was still in shock, especially since she knew what the future held in store for each girl in the room. Soon pelted with questions regarding Harper's past and personality, Hermione was slightly overwhelmed. But, to be fair, far less overwhelmed than she originally thought.

"Harper, have you gotten your schedule yet?" asked Alice.

"Yeah, I have it. Professor Dumbledore gave it to me about an hour ago," Hermione replied.

"Great! Let's all compare classes," Alice happily added.

Within seconds, all of the girls came scrambling over to Hermione's bed to look over her newly-recieved term schedule.

"Oh, you've only got one class with me, Harper. It's Herbology." Marlene said first.

"Well, I've got Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, and Ancient Runes with you, Harper!" Alice replied in a happy manner.

Lily looked the happiest when she saw Hermione's schedule. "We've got nearly every class together!" she beamed, "All except Astronomy." Lily beamed. "One of my other good friends is in your Astronomy class, though, so that's good," she added. Hermione led herself to believe that Dumbledore was behind her having so many classes with Lily. There was no way that it was a coincidence. Even back in 1977, Dumbledore never failed to amaze Hermione with his power.

Prompted by her driving hunger, Hermione asked, "Isn't it time to head down to the Great Hall for dinner?" to the girls, and they nodded. As the four Gryffindor girls headed down the stairs, Marlene and Alice split off from Lily to go sit with their friends from Hufflepuff.

"You can sit with me and my other friends at dinner if you'd like to," Lily said in the kindest way. Hermione felt so lucky. In less than three hours, she had already befriended Lily, Marlene, and Alice. It was almost too good to be true.

After Hermione nodded to Lily in reply, Lily leaned toward her and whispered into her ear, "My other friends, well, they are a bit odd."

"What do you mean?"

"Just," Lily paused, "you'll see."

A/N: hermione's about to meet the marauders! yay! I can't wait. thanks to all of the people who have voted so far! it means a lot. also thank you so much for over 60 views!

A/N UPDATE (6/10/20): just spent the past hour and a half rewriting this chapter, and boy, was it bad before. i am sorry. it is better now.     -callahan