When Hearts and Time Collide

Chapter 1

Pale sunlight filtered through the window in Gryffindor tower onto the scarlet covering of Hermione Granger's bed.
Hermione groaned and shielded her eyes from the offending light. Blinking she dragged herself from her warm bed and peered through the window at the cold, clear march day outside. Through the window Hermione could see the smooth green of the Quidditch pitch and tangled dark trees of the Forbidden Forest.

Pulling herself away from the beautiful scene of the Hogwarts grounds outside, she set off down the spiraling stairs towards the Gryffindor common room. She'd just reached the bottom of the stairs when she was greeted by the faces of her two best friends, Ron and Harry.

"Morning, Hermione" Ron said with a yawn.

"Morning" She replied with a smile. "We'd better be off to potions, or we're going to be late."

"Only Hermione could think of potions this early in the morning." With a sigh Ron and Harry followed Hermione out of the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

The house tables were already packed with students by the time they entered the Great Hall. Sliding into one of the few available spots the three friends selected their food and ate hurriedly before dashing down the stairs towards the cool darkness of the dungeons.

When they arrived in the Potions room, they caught sight of Professor Snape glowering at them from across the room. It was no surprise to them that he was in one of his famously bad moods, but they decided that it was best to avoid being the target of his wrath. They quickly took their seats and attentively studied their textbooks to avoid the intensity of his glare.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, you are precisely 2 minutes and 37 seconds late for class this morning. Tardiness is not acceptable here at Hogwarts. I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you a detenti…" Luckily Snape was interrupted as Neville stumbled into the room. Snape's glare darkened as he watched Neville crash into a shelf and knock a number of glass jars to the floor. Neville scurried to his seat, head down; trying to avoid looking into the cold black eyes he could feel watching him with distaste. Neville's dramatic entrance
only helped to worsen the Professor's mood. Snape spent the rest of the class criticizing the Gryffindors and by the time they escaped from the dungeons, Gryffindor had lost 11 points.

Grateful to be free from the horror of Potions, Hermione quickly bid her friends goodbye and hurried off to her favourite class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. It wasn't so much the class that she enjoyed, but the professor. Though she'd never admit it to anyone –not even Harry or Ron- she couldn't help but find herself slowly falling for Professor Lupin. She was almost glad that Harry and Ron were not in her class, as they surely would have noticed the way she stared at him. It wasn't like Hermione not to pay attention in class, but she couldn't help but find herself drifting off in her daydreams at the sight of her professor.

Hermione arrived in class and took her seat in the back. (It was the perfect place for Hermione to watch Professor Lupin without him noticing her staring.) As the professor began his lesson on grindylows, Hermione lost herself in the planes of his pale face, the curve of his lips, and the playful sparkle of his sapphire blue eyes. "Miss Granger, what is a grindylow?"

Hermione, broken from her reverie, jumped in her seat. "A grindylow is a pale green creature that lives in the weed beds on the bottom of lakes in Britain." She answered.

"Excellent, Miss Granger." The professor grinned at her before turning to write Hermione's answer on the board.

'He has such a beautiful smile' Hermione thought before slipping back into the fantastic world of her daydreams.

After classes had finished and the students of Gryffindor were fed and relaxing quietly in their common room, Hermione found herself alone, as she often did at times like these. Ron and Harry had scurried off after dinner to put into action some scheme that Hermione had chosen not to be a part of. Hermione was usually content to sit alone in the common room with nothing but her favourite books for company, but tonight as she glanced around the common room, she couldn't help but feel alone at the sight of friends talking and laughing.

Hermione had always found that she did not really understand her peers. The trivial interests of her fellow peers bored her. Sometimes she wished that she could be more like them, able to delight in meaningless conversation; but Hermione found herself repelled by their frivolous conversation. Yes, Hermione understood books better than she's ever understood people. Yet, she'd always wished that there was someone, someone who would share her love of knowledge and intense conversation. She sighed. 'Professor Lupin would understand me; he'd be perfect for me, he'd complete me. He would be that one person that I could tell everything to.'

That's not to say, however, that she didn't love her friends; she did. She just wished that they understood her interests. They'd never gotten why she loved the familiar pages of her favourite books, and they would probably never understand. Glancing once more around the common, Hermione stood, and climbed the stairs to her room, and, exhausted from the heaviness of her thoughts, she drifted to sleep. Her mind was troubled however, and she woke and began to think -as she often did when she found herself alone without distraction- about her beloved professor. 'If only I wasn't his student.' She thought. Hermione sensed in Professor Lupin a kindred spirit. 'He's intelligent, a lover of books, and a bit of an outcast. I understand him. If only he could know me as more than just a student, I'm sure he would love me, really love me'

Hermione shut her eyes with a sigh. 'Perhaps one day he'll really know me, perhaps one day he'll really love me.' And with that she surrendered herself to dreams; dreams filled with the face of the one man she loved, the man she knew she could never have. That night Hermione tossed and turned chasing thoughts in her mind, thoughts of Professor Lupin. Dreaming troubling dreams of him, dreams of the reality of her love for him and his ignorance of her love.

She awoke the next morning un-rested and confused by the swirling images in her head. Then a thought came to her. Hermione had been given a strange and rare object by Professor McGonagall. At the start of the year Hermione had received a time-turner, a silver hourglass that she wore on a chain around her neck. The time-turner was given to her so that she would be able to attend the impossible number of classes she had signed up for that year. The device turned back time with each inversion of the glass.

Hermione had just discovered the perfect way to find Lupin in a time where he could really see her, and could at last realize that they were destined to be together. 'This is more than just a crush; this is real.' Hermione then realized what she was going to do. But it wouldn't be easy. It would mean leaving everything that she knew behind her for just a chance at love. She was going to go back in time, back to when Lupin and his friends had traveled the Hogwarts halls as students. And with that decision Hermione grasped the hourglass around her neck and inverted the glass. She spun through time at
break neck speed, the space around her a whirl of colour. She hit the ground with a dull thump and opened her eyes to the world of the past.

Thanks for reading. Cyber high-five for anyone who reviews. Thanks so much to my awesome beta The Angel of Your Nightmare! :D