{3-That One Kid}

Hermione's dormitory was far nicer than the one she had had when she was at Hogwarts the first time. In fact, she was surprised by its niceness, for she was sure Dumbledore would have made the tiny room sub-par, seeing how he trusted her on strict terms.

She would not complain, however, about having her own shower and bathroom.

Her first class, as though fate truly was tempting her, was with Professor DeLancey who taught Arithmancy. She was horrified, really, to take a class with the first person she'd lied to while being in that time, and the fact that she anticipated him being a great bore. It was weird to be in a classroom that she associated with another Professor in whole, and Hermione sat herself in the back, much against her normal motivations.

When the class had filled in, all four houses in the classroom because of how few took it, he locked eyes with her and smiled. Now, she wasn't entirely sure what happened to change his demeanor in a matter of twelve hours, but it was of no matter to her if he treated her like a quality student in the upcoming months.

"Welcome to seventh-year Arithmancy, my few who have stayed. I look forward to teaching you this year, and I hope since you have chosen this high-level class, you are excited for this class as well."

Hermione could see Lily and Remus in one of the front few rows, their heads attentive and focused. As she scanned around the rest of the room, she also found Professor Snape... well, just Snape she supposed, as his shiny black hair was an obvious tell. He was sitting alone, however, just in front of Hermione to the right.

The class started off pretty easy, and she felt rather good about the first lesson. Hermione didn't doubt the ease of the upcoming year, but handling it with certain people around her... now that was what was going to prove to be a challenge. Though, at least DeLancey had proven himself not to be a complete snooze, for Hermione found he had a sudden spirit to him.

Her next class was Potions, and she wondered if she would mean as much to Slughorn now as she would in her future school years. Then again, if he had taken a shine to her in this time, certainly being a Granger in the future would have sparked some recognition in the old man when he picked her for the Slug Club. It must be how she merely sticks to herself in the upcoming term like she was determined to do.

He welcomed in students, and because Hermione was avoiding her, Lily arrived before her, and she intimately greeted Slughorn, a happy wave and smile, and the man burst at the seems with joy.

When he greeted her, however, his smile was unsure.

"You're the new student, yes? A Floral Granger?" Hermione grimaced at Slughorn's butchering of her name. It was especially gruesome knowing that she was a boy to the common eye.

"No, Sir, it's Florizel," she corrected, accepting the handshake he'd offered.

"Very well," he said, brushing her away, obviously not worried over her success in the class or seeing if she had any previous knowledge of potions to suddenly be taking a N.E.W.T. level course.

Hermione sat down in the back again, and watched as she was joined by again, all the houses, but this time the room lacked Remus Lupin, yet still held Lily and Snape.

She had to keep herself low, and just stay to herself, Hermione reminded her curiosity as it wanted very much to get to know both people. Hermione's hero complex, which she was very much giving all the credit to Harry for her having, wanted to save them both. To keep Snape from even dipping into the dark side, and to keep Lily from... well, death.

However badly Hermione wanted to do this, she knew interference was impossible, and so she steeled her emotions and waited for class to start.

Slughorn seemed to get right down to business, telling them what potion they were going to make, and then declaring they were to take partners! That they chose themselves!

Now, Hermione was no fool, and she knew that Lily and Snape were no longer on solid ground, so they would not be pairing together, but Hermione also knew how talented Snape was in potions. No matter how smart Lily was, the art of potion-making required an intuition that only Snape had.

So, despite her mind telling her how bad of an idea it was, she ignored the advice and walked over to Snape, offering to be his partner. Why they needed partners in a N.E.W.T. class was beyond Hermione, but she decided to be advantageous about it.

Snape looked up at her, and Hermione felt something odd shift in her head, like a switch that turned on and brightened a bulb. Severus Snape was quite the handsome student. His green accents of Slytherin colors made for a glorious change against the black Hermione was used to, and she felt outrageous at noticing how charming black eyes looked against silver.

She already knew she'd made a poor choice in coming over here.

"You want to be my partner? Aren't you that new kid who no one knows anything about? People don't just come here seventh-year, that's not how things are done."

Hermione recoiled at the amount he had to say to her. Obviously the dark arts soured him more quickly than she'd first imagined.

"Right, well, no offense, but we both need partners, and I don't see anyone rushing to intercept me to get to you."

He snarled at her and motioned to the seat next to him, mumbling already about how insufferable the new Gryffindor boy was.

Hermione scoffed. She could take the sass because she could deal it back just as harshly with no retributions... bar never partnering with him again. She decided to cut her losses, and see if they could just get to work.

As they went on in silence, Slughorn seemingly impressed by the limited talent Hermione exhibited in her willingness to learn and help Snape, who seemed he was not as soiled by the dark arts as Hermione had originally assumed.

"So, why did you transfer into Hogwarts so last-minute, anyways?"

Hermione was chopping up a few leaves and looked over at him curiously, his hands never bothering to leave what they were doing.

"I..." she hadn't thought this far into it, because obviously she was British, her accent hadn't changed, only her pitch of voice. Her brain searched for the closest thing to the truth and muddled it into an acceptable response, "I was sort of forced to come here, not really my choice. I don't like to talk about it."

Snape actually laughed, and Hermione heard the sound through no sarcasm or snide. She found it was actually nice... just like his face. She scolded herself immediately for thinking it because in Merlin's name, Hermione did not want to fancy Severus Snape. Not now, or ever.

"A mysterious Gryffindor, just what this school needs." He took a breath and put his stirrer down, looking over at her suddenly and reaching out his hand as though being forced. "I'm Severus, by the way. Severus Snape."

Hermione nearly said her own name, but she caught herself in just enough time, "I'm Florizel Granger."

Hermione grabbed his hand and shook it, feeling how cold his hands were, and wondering if that was a trait he had carried into adulthood, then decided she didn't care. Snape did not seem impressed by her chosen name, anyways, as he pulled away and took the leaves she'd been cutting, throwing them into the potion and mixing it in a zigzag pattern.

They chattered about random things, and Hermione was truly surprised about how well he was willing to get to know a random Gryffindor, who unbeknownst to him, had been Gryffindor for eight years now. Surely if he knew that, he wouldn't have given her the time of day. But Hermione was new and just in her second class of the day, and it seemed they were both taking all the same classes together anyways.

He seemed to have thrown caution in the wind.

They sat next to each-other in the next class, as it seemed that he did not have any friends to call his own. Hermione felt bad for that information leaving her unfazed, but he kept it in check, happy to offer him a friend.

Of course, this got Hermione wondering how in the name of mother earth, Severus Snape didn't look at her oddly in the future. She figured at least someone would have mentioned Florizel Granger to her, wondering if they were related at all.

Not dwelling on it, Hermione let her friendliness with Severus Snape ride out until classes were over, where she headed straight to the library. There was hardly a single soul there when she reached the big, familiar room, and she thanked the heavens for that. Her search for time-travel material would have to begin immediately so she could hopefully get home before deciding to just wait the twenty-one years for everything to reset itself. That was her last and final option.

So Hermione spent the afternoon in the library, avoiding glances from Madame Pince, and collecting books here and there.

She only got through a few articles, none of them mentioning such large go-backs in time, and nothing particularly helpful stood out in her power-study. Hermione only wondered how she was going to study the time-travel when she would soon have a plethora of other work to do come the next few days. She already had an Arithmancy assignment Severus had asked her if she wanted to work on with him.

Hermione also thought generously on that situation as she silently ate her dinner in the Great Hall, attempting to avoid James. It was a hard task, but not completely fruitless if she just kept her interest mild and her friendship with Severus steady. Though, her thoughts on that made that safeguard nearly impossible. Being friends with her future professor in a different form was a very bad idea, especially beginning to like him how she was. It wasn't anything ridiculous, but she found that his company was pleasurable when she could bite back snarky replies, and he'd respect her for it. By the end of the day, he'd even started calling her 'Zel' because he thought her name was ridiculous and a mouthful.

Hermione agreed, but she'd been hard-pressed, and she wanted her own name as a sibling to sound reasonable, and easy to forget if her alter-ego came up with an even crazier name.

So, either she kept the friendship against better wishes or ended up cornered by James, and possibly the rest of the Marauders, all equally terrible options.

Hermione knew that whatever choice she made couldn't affect the future, because she'd already lived through it, knowing what happens, but her anxiety did not release knowing everyone died.

Making her choice quite blatantly, she got up from the Gryffindor table when crowds had died down, and even the Marauders had left, and sat with Severus, pulling her Arithmancy homework out and inviting him to do the same.

Snape seemed unbothered by her presence, but also not necessarily impressed by it either. For all the effort she was putting in, Hermione was mildly upset at him for being so cold, yet at the same time did not place blame on him entirely. What he was falling into would be the end of him, not that he knew that, and he had to slowly watch Lily fall in love with James... Merlin, the poor man was being tortured. At least he got to go through his seventh year, unlike Hermione who hadn't had the chance.

Still, Hermione had to watch Severus fall dark as she only got closer to him, showing off her talent for Arithmancy, and them biting insults back and forth. It was a shame to know one-day they would lose it all.

A/N

So.... yeah. I was supposed to publish Wednesday, whoops. Oh well. Maybe I'll make it up to you guys with another update? 

Anyways, how are we liking it?