Marauders in Time

Partners in Crime

Since it was their fifth year, their Ordinary Wizarding Levels (O.W.Ls) were approaching fast. Even though Ravenclaw had beaten Slytherin in the latest Quidditch match, there was no time to celebrate. All the fifth year students were hard at work preparing for the most important exams of their lives.

Lily, being one of the students who often struggled during pressured times, spent a prolonged period of time in the library. She didn't like the idea of flaunting around pranking people for the fun of it, something the Marauders were prone to doing even in a different timeline. Sometimes, Remus would join her in studying, but Lily liked to do things on her own. Despite asking Dumbledore whether they would have to redo fifth year when they went back and the answer being that they would, Lily still felt a burden to try her best. This year meant nothing overall but she knew it would look bad on her conscience. And she didn't want to look like she was slacking off.

On a particular evening, she was sat in the corner of the library on her own, her Transfiguration notes sprawled out in front of her as she tried to complete the week's homework. She had just finished Potions, which was easily her best subject, and she would have to complete a History of Magic essay, practice Cheering Charms, study the star charts for Astronomy, learn about the Devil's Snare in detail for Herbology and then complete theory notes on Defence Against the Dark Arts. For Lily, DADA was a joke. The things Umbridge taught contributed nothing to their OWLs and she would have to resort to DA meetings every week to catch up. There was no doubt, the stress was getting to her.

"Hey," a voice said from behind her as she just completed half a page of what was needed.

Lily turned to see Hermione stood behind her with a large, supportive smile on her face. Lily always liked Hermione. She was very friendly to her when she first arrived, shared Muggle parents like her so she could relate to her being slightly unaware of some of the things that happened. And most importantly, she was the cleverest witch she had ever met of her age.

"Hi," Lily smiled. "Studying?"

"I actually just finished," she replied. "The History of Magic essay we had to complete? Took me almost an hour."

"I haven't started on it."

"Okay," Hermione glanced at the books spread out in front of Lily. "I am just gonna sit over here and do some pre-reading for tomorrow's classes."

Hermione left Lily, who immediately continued her Transfiguration homework. Hermione could have helped her finish it in less than 5 minutes, seeing as she did it the day before. But she had other matters to attend to. Finding an empty table, she laid her bag down and grabbed out her copy of A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, flipping to the pages about the current century. She wanted to do her research on the new students, starting with Daniel Barone.

She flipped through the pages, skimming the names until she found something. There was a Barone somewhere, but it talked about a miner in Brazil. Not exactly related to the one in her grade. She tried to look for the last names of Holmes, Rose and Magree. When she couldn't find anything, even after looking through some of the previous centuries, she sat back and sighed. She gave Lily another glance, who was still pouring over her homework, and decided to look for names related to Ruby Haddrill. Nothing. 

"Something is off here..." Hermione whispered to herself.

They were homeschooled, which meant they couldn't be raised from Muggles and they weren't Muggle-born. There had to be some form of record of their names somewhere. And there was no way she would ask the Ministry for information. Even after looking through 4 different books for almost half an hour, she couldn't find anything. She then reopened A History of Magic and decided to look for homeschools within the country, since the Marauders never mentioned anything about being foreign.

Nothing.

Lily POV

I had just finished my History of Magic essay, and I could see why Hermione took a long time to complete hers. It was a long essay, particularly since there was limited information on centaur and human interactions. She looked back around and saw Hermione flipping through a book rather furiously. The book looked thick, so I assumed it was A History of Magic. No other book could ever match the size of that. I once tried to read it but it was too much for me. But why would she be reading that? She has told me numerous times she has read the book many times. And she just finished her essay for Binns.

"Hmm..." I mumbled, turning back and shaking my head.

I had gone through most of my homework. I decided to skip practicing Cheering Charms for another day. There was no way I could practice in the library. Besides, it was dark out and the library was closing. I felt I was quite satisfied with my work. Packing my things, I moved to put some books I borrowed in their respective shelves. Once I was ready to leave, I approached Hermione. 

"Hermione?"

She jumped a little when I said her name, closing her book a little harder than I expected. She whipped around and saw me, her smile coming back, but this time I felt it was forced.

"Sorry. Wha-What can I do for you?" she asked, trying to stay calm it seemed.

"Uhh I just wanted to say I am leaving. Do you wanna come?" 

She seemed to debate it for a bit as she stared at me blankly for a few seconds, making me feel very uncomfortable.

"Oh you go on," she finally said. "I just gotta..."

She moved to grab her book and ended up pushing it to the floor, making her jump a second time. There was something very fishy going on here and I wasn't sure if I wanted to know. As she moved to pick up her book, I went towards the door. Suddenly she called me back.

"Wait!"

I whipped around and saw her put the book in her bag, along with her other things, "I'll come. Wait up."

She looked very clumsy as she dropped another book again. Which was weird since she was usually very organized and careful. Maybe the stress was getting to her. It would explain a lot. She was the best in the year and was expected to excel in the exams. But why on Earth would she be looking through A History of Magic when she had just finished completing the essay for Binns? She did say prereading but how would she know what we were doing for next lesson? Binns never told us what we would be doing the following lesson. Unless...

"Lets go," Hermione said, walking past Lily without stopping.

Lily followed behind her and walked up to her pace next to her when they exited the library. They didn't say anything on the way back, partly because Lily felt Hermione was deep in thought. She was mumblings things to herself whenever they turned corners, things like "who is he?" and "doesn't exist". Could she be talking about me and those idiots? Those 4 toerags who just mess around with the twins every day? What if she was doing her research about us. Oh God what if she found out we weren't who we said we were. 

We are so screwed!

"Hermione," Lily said hesitantly.

"Yes?"

"Is everything okay?"

She seemed to hesitate as well, not replying until they reached the portrait. Before I could say the password, she replied, "I'm fine." and nothing else. She was lying.

I knew it.