Back in Time (Harry Potter/Marauders Era)

Chapter 13

(Freya's pov)

I smiled widely as the small Fang jumped onto me, and started licking my face. I laughed as he continued hopping around as I sat up. I smiled at the excitable puppy. I started stroking his head, and the dog cuddled into me. I only looked up from the puppy when I heard footsteps approaching us. I smiled brightly as I saw it was Hagrid. He didn't look very different from how he did in my time, other than his moleskin coat wasn't as tatty.

"Fang! Fang, come on, stop bothering them. Sorry, I don't know what's gotten into him, he suddenly took off, he's usually quite shy." He said, in his familiar voice, that was exactly the same as when I'd first heard it on my eleventh birthday. I shook my head as the puppy that was still on my lap calmed down more. "It's alright, I don't mind. I'm used to being around animals." I said, reassuring the half-giant.

He chuckled as Fang bounced over to him, wagging his tail. "Name's Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." He said, and I smiled, as that's how he would introduce himself in ten years. "I'm Freya Whiteford." I said, looking up at the man, and he smiled at me gently. "C'mon Fang, let's go get you some lunch." He said, and the puppy let out a whine, but followed his owner back down the hill and towards Hagrid's hut.

I smiled as I watched them disappear, and got lost in my thoughts of older Fang, and Hagrid, who I'd spent a majority of my time with at Hogwarts, because of both of our obsessions with the weird and wonderful of the animal kingdom.

"How on Earth did you do that?!" I heard someone say, which brought me out of my thoughts. I looked over and saw that the other girls were looking at me in shock. "What?" I asked, confused as to why they asked me that Fang had always been friendly and excitable in my time, I presumed he was always like that. "Fang is really shy, it took almost a year for him to be in the same room as us and not be scared, and we still aren't allowed to pet him. He's never met you, and yet you did all that in a few seconds." Mary said, in an astonished voice.

I looked at her, confused, I had never pictured Fang as being that kind of dog. I thought about it for a moment, and then realised that I hadn't answered the question. I was about to say something in response, but another voice spoke up before I could.

"She's really good with animals." I furrowed my eyebrows and turned around to see the Marauders standing behind me. Three of them were looking at the other shocked, and Remus had a small smile on his face. I blushed lightly under his gaze, and turned to the girls nodding. "Okay." Marlene said in a slightly suspicious way.

"Anyway, what are you boys doing here?" Dorcas asked, looking up at them, and I was grateful for the change of subject. "Well, we were about to head to lunch, and wanted to invite you ladies to join us, then we all go to the Common Room and ask questions, maybe get to know Freya a bit better." James said, and I smiled at the idea of getting to know my family.

I looked around and saw the other girls were nodding, even though Lily rolled her eyes slightly. We all gathered our stuff together and headed into the school. I walked alongside the rest of them, but kept my eyes down and didn't talk to anyone. I was thinking about what my friends were doing at the moment. They were probably wondering where I was, and what had happened. I could imagine Harry was freaking out and everyone from the Order going out and trying to find me.

I only really looked up again when we all sat down. I put a few things on my plate and started eating it. It didn't take me long to eat, so I just sat there and waited for the others to finish. I was brought out of my thoughts by the sound of fluttering. I looked up and saw that there was an owl flying into the room. I furrowed my eyebrows, didn't post only come during breakfast.

The tawny owl flew over to our table and landed in front of me. I looked up at the others around me, and I saw Lily shrug her shoulders. I took the letter from the owl's foot and it flew off. I saw that it had my name on it. I opened it and a few pieces of paper fell out. The first thing that caught my eye was the timetable, which was immediately snatched up by the Marauders, as they didn't know what classes I was taking yet.

The next piece that I looked at was a permission slip for Hogsmeade that was signed in Professor Dumbledore's cursive writing. Then there was another envelope that told me to 'open when alone', so I slipped it into my bag and listened as the boys went on about what classes they were taking.

I looked around and saw that no one else was eating, so I decided to speak up. "Do you want to head up to the Common Room?" I asked in a small voice, and everyone's eyes were suddenly on me. I shifted uncomfortable under their gaze, before they all agreed, and we started going upstairs to our Common Room.

I followed them all the way there. When we got there we all sat down by the fire. Peter, James, and Sirius plonked themselves down on the sofa. Remus and I were on the two single chairs, and all the other girls were on some cushions that were placed by the fire. "So, who's going to go first?" I hear Sirius ask, and I winced slightly, hearing his voice. It was similar to my godfathers, but was full of so much joy and youth that mine had lost long ago. I took a deep breath and hoped that no one had noticed my short space out. "I'll go," Lily piped up and started asking the questions.

"Okay, what is everyone's favourite subject?" She asked, and I sighed at the easy question. Lily was looking up at me, so I answered first, then we went around. I found out that James, Sirius, Peter, and Marlene's favourite subject was also Defence Against the Dark Arts. Lily and Mary chose Transfiguration, and Alice and Dorcas chose Charms. Then they all looked at me, and I realised they were waiting for me to ask a question.

"Umm, I don't know. How about, what are your plans for after school, what do you want to be?" All of them looked quite surprised at the question and I blushed. That was quite a personal question to start with. "Well, I want to be an auror." James said, puffing his chest out and winking at Lily. I smiled gently at this, even though Lily rolled her eyes. "So do I." said Marlene, and I nodded. "Yeah, being an auror would be cool, but I'm not sure yet, I just don't want to end up being an arsehole." Sirius said, and Dorcas and Mary let out a snort and I bit my lip.

Sirius had never been able to do anything like that. He hadn't even ever had a job in his life because he spent it either in hiding or in Azkaban. I wanted to look up at the boy, but couldn't bring myself to. Lily and Mary said they'd like to do something with Healing, and I thought that was cool. Alice said she was unsure at the moment, and had no idea what she wanted to do. Then Dorcas said she didn't mind as long as she was helping people. I smiled at their kindness, they all wanted to help people. I looked at the seat next to me, and saw that Remus was looking down at his hands.

He looked up and looked around. "I...I, ummm, don't know what I want to be either." He said, and I couldn't help but give him a sympathetic look. "I think you'd be a good teacher, Remus, you seem to be able to get things through Black and Potter's heads." Alice said in her small voice. The other girls giggled, and Sirius and James started protesting. I giggled, but quickly stopped once I realised what she actually said. My face fell and I remembered everything Remus had taught me that year. He was definitely my favourite teacher out of all of them.

I didn't notice that everyone had gone quiet until I looked up and saw that everyone was staring at me. I blushed heavily and started stumbling over my words. "I-I...uhm, want to be a Magizoologist, so something, l-like that." I said, looking down in my lap and I heard a few gasped and confused looks in my direction. Everyone else wanted to do something to do with fighting, but I wanted to get away from it.