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Hermione had sworn never to use a time-turner again, and yet, here she was, in eighth year, with too many courses and responsibilities to do without one… Yanking open a random closet door out of frustration, Hermione locked herself in and carefully took the device out from under her blouse to go back in time for her meeting with the other prefects. What a joke. She was a prefect to only a handful of fellow eighth years who clearly did not need her, while the younger years all looked at her like she was Dumbledore reborn.
Carefully, she counted the turns and let magic take her back two hours.
"Oï! Hey! How did you do that? I thought we couldn't apparate in the castle!"
Just her luck, her closet was occupied in the past, and it was small enough they were now squished together, her and… actually, the voice was only somewhat familiar despite her knowing everyone down to the last little first year.
"Oh, well, never mind. Come here."
Before she could object, strong arms encircled her and pulled her close, her face smudged against a muscled chest where her objections were both muffled and misunderstood.
"Oh, you like that?" he asked, hands on her ass to pull her close again, except now he half carried her upwards so they were face to face.
Unfortunately, or not, it was too dark to see properly, but those glasses… Her hand went through his hair, short, but sticking out every which way. It couldn't be… Harry?
She opened her mouth, the question on the tip of her tongue, when his lips met hers. She should protest, push him back, but it felt so good, nothing like the other kisses she had shared with Viktor and Ron. It was everything she had always thought a kiss should be: tender, claiming her soul and her body, magical in sum. So, she knew it was wrong, but she let Harry kiss her, and even returned it.
"Wow," he said when they broke apart, breaking the spell, because that was not Harry's voice.
She should have realized sooner, but his hands on her bum had been quite distracting.
"Lily," he sighed and Hermione froze.
Getting her wits about her despite the haze of arousal still lingering, Hermione wandlessly cast Lumos. Once more, her first impression was that he was Harry, but the eyes were wrong: too dark in colour, too light in sorrow.
"Ah…" he said, hands coming off her as fast as a snitch. "I'm sorry, I, uh, thought you, uh…"
"Was Lily," she finished for him. "Yes, I'd gathered that much, thanks. Don't worry, I won't tell your girlfriend."
"She's not my girlfriend."
Hermione raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
"No, really. I invited her to join me here a couple of hours ago, so I thought…"
"An invitation to a closet is probably the worst idea I've ever heard to date a girl."
They stood there awkwardly, putting as much space between them as they could.
"You're James Potter, aren't you?" Hermione finally blurted out, needing to know in how much trouble she was exactly.
The wizard grinned proudly and she wished the roguish smile didn't make her heart skip a beat. A crush on her best friend's dad was not what she needed right now.
"I think you should leave now," she said, because she wasn't going to leave the closet until she had figured out how to get back to the future.
"I, uh, can't do that. I charmed the door to give us two hours of privacy once Lily joined me."
"You mean once whoever wandered into the closet next?"
"Well, if you want to get technical."
"What if that person had been Filch?" Hermione needled, enjoying his look of pure horror. That'll teach him not to take care of loopholes.
Silence fell between them once more, but James was the one to break it this time.
"I always thought my first kiss would be with Lily," he said.
"I'm sorry," Hermione replied and meant it.
"Could I at least have your name? Doesn't seem right to have stolen a kiss from a stranger."
Hermione pondered for a minute, but she didn't think her first name would create a time paradox, especially since they would never meet again.
"Hermione. For what it's worth, that was one hell of a kiss. Lily doesn't know what she's missing out on."
"Really?" Hermione laughed at how happy he sounded. "Was it your first too?"
"No," she admitted. "But it was by far the best."
In hindsight, maybe she should not have inflated his ego. If James grew any prouder, he might outshine her Lumos spell. With some difficulty, Hermione focused on finding a solution to her accidental trip in the past, when James interrupted her once more.
"Since we're both stuck here for another… ninety minutes, would you like to… kiss again, maybe?"
Hermione stared at him in disbelief.
"You want us to kiss because we're stuck in a closet? You can't think of anything else to occupy our time?"
"Well, if life gives you lemons…"
"What about Lily?" she asked snidely.
James deflated.
"My heart belongs to Lily," he admitted. "I wish she would open hers up to me."
"I can think of a few ways," Hermione promised.
Wizards could be so clueless, but Hermione made the best of the time that had been given to them to teach James to properly woo a witch. James seemed flabbergasted when she told him to stop being so loud and flashy: pranks and popularity were only good to get noticed. What he needed now was to catch her interest and win her over. But he listened, and even took notes, until the door clicked open and her Lumos spell suddenly winked out of existence.
"James?" she called, but she could already feel the cold emptiness beside her, and she mourned for a few minutes for another friend gone before leaving the closet for good.