This was written for the 2017 Off The Beaten Path fic exchange from Hermione's Haven on Facebook. Thank you so much to my beta, Julie (xxDustNight88) for her wonderful help! Thanks also goes to my Brit and Star Trek picker, Rose, for making sure I didn't mess things up too much. Any additional errors you see are my own.
Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable from either the Harry Potter world or the Star Trek world. Or the Doctor Who world for that matter. Anything you do recognize belongs to their creators. I am making no money off this fic.
She remembered running and fighting, and the terrifying sight of her best friend's still body being carried across the castle grounds in Hagrid's arms. The one thing she didn't remember was the spell that hit her in the back and sent her spiralling. Oh, and she remembered pain. Lots and lots of pain.
How long she spiralled, she could not say. She was in and out of consciousness and not able to catch sight of where she was going. The blessed blackness fully took over when she felt her body slam into the hard and unyielding ground.
She lost track of the amount of time she was surrounded by the blackness, but it was long enough for it to start to feel like a close friend. That feeling was not something she was used to and one she quickly figured out she did not want to feel again anytime soon.
Some unknown time later, colour started bleeding back into her world, pushing away the darkness. As her vision came to life again, she felt her body being pulled back towards the surface.
Seconds later, her eyes popped open.
It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the brightness of the room she was in after being surrounded by the darkness for so long.
Once she felt like she could move and not have her world tilt on its axis, she slowly sat up. Looking around the room, she noticed right away that she was not in the Hogwarts hospital wing or even at St Mungo's. She frowned, nothing in the room gave away what hospital she was in.
A beeping sound over her shoulder finally caught her attention. She looked behind her and frowned. The screen she saw was unlike anything she had ever seen before. Her eyes followed the cords that led from the screen down to where they were connected to her and her frown deepened.
"What in Merlin's name is going on here?"
She looked over to the bedside table and did not see her wand. Reaching for the drawer, she opened it only to find the clothes she had been wearing inside, but still no wand. Panicking, she started to feel under the pillows but still didn't locate her wand. As her confusion increased, she felt her heartbeat speed up and her lungs seize. She collapsed back against the pillows as the beeping increased in speed and volume. The opening of the door to her private room was lost on her as her hearing dimmed and her vision narrowed.
A head popping into her limited visibility, stopped her spiral back into the darkness.
"Miss," she heard the man above her say, his voice far away. "Everything is okay. You're safe."
As he continued to talk, his voice became louder and her vision slowly started to clear.
"That's it, Miss. Continue to relax and breathe normally."
She finally felt the tension in her muscles dissipate as her breathing returned to normal and her vision cleared completely.
He stood up and took a step back to give her a bit more space. As he did, she noticed that he was wearing what seemed to be scrubs, but they were unlike anything she had ever seen before. Even in the wizarding world, she had never seen clothing like what he was wearing.
"Where am I? Who are you? How did I get here? What's wrong with me?" She questioned.
He grinned at her small barrage of questions. "How about we take it one question at a time? Let's start with the easy one, you are in Jackson, Mississippi at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. I am an intern assigned to your case," he bowed his head, "Leonard McCoy at your service, Miss. Do you mind if I sit?" He gestured to one of the chairs placed next to her bed.
She lay there for a few moments lost the soft cadence of his Southern American accent. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she shifted her pillows around and settled back against them. "No, not at all."
He placed the small grey contraption that he'd held in his hand on the bedside table before sitting down. "As for your other two questions, they're a bit more complicated."
"How so?" She tilted her head to the side.
"Well, for starters, you were found by one of the agricultural professors on the university farm when they arrived for morning classes. Since no one knew who you were, you were brought here for observation.
"As for what's wrong with you, other than malnutrition, dehydration, and numerous scrapes, bruises, burns, and similar injuries, we can find nothing wrong with you. Or rather, nothing to explain why you were out for eight days."
Her eyes widened. "Wait, did you say eight days? What day is it?"
"May 10th."
Her eyes narrowed. "This doesn't make sense. If it's only May 10th, why are you wearing whatever it is you have on? You should be wearing scrubs."
It was his turn to narrow his eyes. "Wear scrubs? Doctors and nurses haven't worn scrubs since the late 2090s. Who are you?"
"Hermione Granger," she replied sharply before she sat up further in her bed. "You just mentioned not wearing scrubs since the 2090s, what did you mean by that? I want to know what is really going on here, because if this is some crazy stunt from Harry and Ron, it's not funny. I just fought to defend my home of the last seven years and I don't appreciate being the butt of any jokes."
"Not many people know this, but the garments we wear have changed, twice actually, since scrubs were used," he replied. "I do not know who either gentlemen you mentioned are and I can assure you, Miss, that this is not a joke. You were brought in here by campus security after you were found. The doctors and nurses here have been taking care of you since then. I have just been observing your treatment since I am finishing my last year of undergrad and it's been an interesting case."
She crossed her arms over her chest. "Then where are they? The doctors and nurses? Why did they send an intern in here?"
"Because there is another patient that just came into the emergency room an hour ago. They're trying to save their life and I was the only one that they could spare to come check on you. Rest assured that this is not normal protocol, but it is the best we can do for the time being. The doctor on the floor tonight will see you once he's done with the other patient."
"Oh," Hermione whispered. She was silent for a moment, mulling over everything she had been told so far. "I know this will seem like a silly question to you, but what year is it?"
He paused before replying with a year she was not expecting, "2249."
Hermione tried to fight it, but her body finally shut down and she was pulled back into the darkness. She groaned in frustration as she was surrounded by nothing a second time.
She was determined not to stay where she was at, so she thought over everything that the intern told her. It was 2249, she was in a hospital in Mississippi, USA.
i'Somehow I not only jumped forward over two and a half centuries into the future, but I also moved thousands of miles across land and water. How?'/i She knew that while the old show she watched with her parents growing up wasn't actually real, didn't mean that the thought of being transported by the big, blue box didn't flit through her mind. i'No, that's just ridiculous. There must be a spell of some kind that did this to me. I need to get out of here and see if there are any wizards anywhere to see if they can help me.'/i
Now, that she had a plan for figuring out what really happened, she knew she needed to get out of this land of black for good before any of that could happen. And once she figured out how she got here, then maybe she could find a way back home.
Her determination spurred her to fight her way back.
When she finally woke up the second time, she was more prepared for the strange world that she was now living. This time she was greeted by the warm, smiling face of a doctor who told her that if she was stable through the next few days then they would be able to release her. She didn't want to waste any time lying about in a hospital bed any longer, but her doctors would not budge.
She did use her stay to her advantage and found out where on the university farm she had been found and she was hoping that her wand was still there even though a fortnight had passed.
Once she was released from the hospital she waited until dusk before she made her way to where she had been found. In the fading light of day, she scoured the ground with no success.
Not expecting it to work, Hermione held out her hand and whispered, "Accio wand."
Seconds later, she stared in shock as her fingers curled around the familiar length of her vine wood wand. She stood there for a few moments and allowed her magic and body to become reacquainted with the sturdy piece of wood.
She knew she had a long road ahead of her as she made her way back to Hogwarts, but it was safer for her to take a series of jumps rather than to try one big jump. Sticking to the darker nighttime shadows of famous landmarks, she started her journey. Between each jump, she took a few moments to regain her bearings. As she landed at the base of Stonehenge's great trilithon, she was breathing deeply and could feel her magic waning, but she was so close to her final destination that she didn't want to stop.
Knowing that the landscape would have changed quite a bit since she was last there and that there was the possibility that Muggles could be around, now that it was light out. Hermione took care to Apparate the last leg of her journey and the rest of the way to Hogwarts.
She materialized just outside the gates of her old school and quickly looked around. There was no one in sight. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as she tried to get her bearings. She had never traveled that far in one go and she could feel the drain on her magic. Reaching out a hand, she used it before to guide herself down to the ground. Closing her eyes, she took a few moments to let her body rest.
As she sat there, she thought about what she would say it she came across anyone magical. How does one say that's you're from the past and not get locked up immediately? She just hoped that if she did find anyone that they would be a listen first kind of person.
Feeling her magic stabilize once more, she slowly stood up and turned to face her first home in the magical world.
"Who are you?" A voice demanded as she looked up at the imposing building and realised that even after all these years, nothing had changed. It looked just like it did when she was a student there.
"I said, 'Who are you!'"
Hermione whirled around to face the person who spoke. A lady stood there with her hands on her hips and a hard look in her green eyes.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Hermione said. "My name is Hermione Granger and I'm—"
The lady whipped out her wand and pointed it between Hermione's eyes. "No, you're not. Miss Granger disappeared—"
Hermione cut her off, "On the battlefield right here at Hogwarts over 250 years ago? From some unknown spell? Never to be seen again?"
The witch's wand wavered for a moment before she straightened her shoulders. "Yes. No. And yes."
"Well, I can promise you that I am indeed the same Hermione Granger. Whatever the spell was that I was hit with sent me to this year and all the way to Mississippi, USA." She paused for a moment as she realised what the other witch said in response to her second question. "Wait, the spell I was hit with is known? What was it? Is there a way to reverse it so I can go back home?"
"How do I know you are you who say you are?"
Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. Everything that I could tell you I should already know since I'm in the future."
The witch lowered her wand just a little bit so it was no longer pointing between her eyes, but rather at her heart now. "You said you ended up in Mississippi, how did you get back here?"
Hermione looked confused at her question. "What do you mean how did I get back here? I Apparated, of course."
Green eyes widened at her response. "You didn't splinch yourself over that distance?"
Hermione shook her head. "No, I've not been Apparating very long, but while Harry, Ron, and I were on the run, I became very good at moving us across long distances."
"Well, why didn't you just teleport?"
Hermione's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Teleport? What's that?"
"It's like Apparating, but faster and much safer."
"Huh," Hermione mused. "I look forward to seeing how it works." She looked around and noticed that there was a group of people walking towards them. They walked right by the two women, nodding at them both before they disappeared through the gates. "Who are they?"
The other witch looked over her shoulder and smiled. "They are some of the townspeople. Muggles actually."
"Muggles live in Hogsmeade? How is that possible? Don't all the wards and the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy keep them from seeing the school and the town?"
The other witch didn't say anything for a few moments as she looked at Hermione intensely. She finally lowered her wand. "My apologies, Miss Granger."
"What? What for?"
"For thinking you were an imposter."
Hermione shrugged. "You have every right to be leery of someone who says they're someone from the past. Out of curiosity, what changed your mind about me?"
"Well, everyone knows that a little over fifty years ago the statute was abolished."
"Really?" Hermione questioned.
"Yes, it was no longer necessary for us to hide from Muggles once everyone in our world had to band together to fight off an invasion from space."
Hermione gave her a look of disbelief. "An attack from space? As in aliens?"
"Yes, aliens," the other witch laughed. "And there are lots of them. Some good and some bad."
She shook her head. "Wow, I really don't know what to say to that."
"Why don't you come back to the village with me and I will send a message to Headmistress Longbottom requesting access for you to enter the library. There are many books about what happened after you left along with books about the statute and what we've discovered about the alien species humans have met."
"Is there a book that has what spell was used on me? Is there any information out there?"
"Yes, there is some information about the spell, but it's pretty scarce. As for a way to return to your time?" The blonde-haired witch shook her head. "Unfortunately, there is no way to reverse the spell and return you to your time. I am sorry."
Hermione nearly stomped her foot in her frustration. "What am I going to do?"
"Let's start with a letter to the headmistress and we can go from there."
Hermione sighed and nodded her head. "I think you're right, Miss…"
"Oh, I am sorry." She smiled and held out her hand, "My name is Madame Rosmerta."
Hermione's eyes lit up at her name and she reached out and shook her hand. "I take it you own The Three Broomsticks?"
"Yes, I do. And the Hogshead Pub now too." She turned and led the way back to the village. "Our family took it over once Aberforth passed away."
"Makes sense," Hermione replied as she followed the blonde witch to her new life.
She didn't know what was in store for her, but she was excited to learn more about the strange new world she found herself in.