Summary: What happens when you go back in time twenty-three years, and before you can return to your own time you fall in love? Trouble, that's for sure.
Chapter One
"Michael, I really don't think we should be in here," Mia O'Connor called out to her trouble-making boyfriend.
"Oh, c'mon Mia. Your mum's the Minister of Magic for crying out loud. That gives you full right to be in here," Michael Loveless, a tall blond boy called back to his skeptical girlfriend.
"Michael, seriously. We really should get out of here," Mia said, looking around to make sure no one was around to catch the two.
If Mia were to break something or injure someone it would all lead back to her mother, giving her a bad name in the Wizarding World. Mia's mum, Vivian O'Connor, was the Minister of Magic. She had only been elected two years ago, and many people were still weary of her, since she had married a muggle man years earlier and produced a child. That was where Mia came into the story.
"Michael?" Mia called out once she had lost sight of the boy. "Where are you?" Mia continued to walk down the center of the aisles, looking at all of the artifacts that they held; time turners, divination orbs, old scrolls, and many other things she had learned about in Hogwarts in her five and a half years there. "C'mon, Michael! This isn't- Ah!"
"Gotcha," Michael whispered into her ear, giving her a sloppy kiss on the cheek as he pushed her up against a row of shelves. When her back hit the wood she could hear glass fall past her head and break at her feet.
"Michael! Look what you did! Mum is going to be furious," Mia huffed. She heard Michael struggle to get words out before looking him straight in the eye. "What?"
Michael pointed down, and Mia's eye followed his gaze to her feet. Around her sand was beginning to swirl up her legs from the broken time turners. Mia looked back up at Michael, reaching for his hand, but it was too late. It seemed as though she was fading away from her world with every second that passed by, and Michael was just staring at her, doing nothing to help her.
"Do something, Michael!" she screamed at him.
Michael continued to stare at her for what seemed like forever, until finally, he turned his back and began running all while screaming, "Help! Minister, help! Anyone! Vivian!"
Mia tried to hold onto her own world for as long as she could, just glimpsing her mother running towards her with many other ministry workers. She waved a small goodbye as a tear slid down her face, knowing that she would never see any of her family or friends again.
"Mia!" her mother called, just as her world disappeared completely. As Mia's head spun her mother's words rang in her ears, like they were stuck on repeat. It drove Mia insane, making her beg for mercy, mercy that she wouldn't get until she felt a solid floor underneath her.
"Oh my," she heard an old, wise voice say. Mia looked up from her spot on the ground to see that she was in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts, only it was oddly different. "What's your name, dear?" the voice asked. She looked for the owner of the voice, and she found herself staring into the eyes of a man she had only seen in pictures.
"Uh, Mia, sir," she responded after being shaken from her awestruck state. "Mia O'Connor."
"Well, Miss O'Connor, what brings you to my office?" he asked, his blue eyes staring right into her soul.
"Um, sir, if you don't mind me asking, what year is it?" she asked, avoiding his gaze as she picked herself up from the floor.
She brushed her pants off as he answered, "Nineteen-ninety-four. Why do you ask?" She abruptly stopped brushing her pants off and stared up at the old man with wide eyes.
"Sir, I think I have a problem," she said with no emotion in her voice, nor eyes. The only emotion she held at that moment was deep down inside of her being. She wanted to bear no evidence of her fear of the situation. She was raised to be brave and always look on the bright side.
"What would that be, dear?" the old man asked her with complete curiosity.
"I think I just went back in time twenty-three years." This time her emotions were too much for her to handle. Tears began to spill over the rim of her eyes and she held her hands to her face, to embarrassed to show that she was breaking inside.
"I see," the man began. "That is a problem."
"What do I do?" Mia cried. "Even in my time they still don't know how to reverse a time turner. No one has ever gone ahead in time! Only back!" She dropped to her knees and cried into her hands. It was too much. Mia just wanted to be home in her bed, cuddled up in her blanket with a good book or the latest gossip magazine.
"It's okay, my dear," he comforted her. "Fawkes, please retrieve Minerva and Remus for me." Mia lifted her gaze, and even through her tears she could see the fiery-looking bird take off in flight, disappearing down the staircase that she had become all too familiar with in her time.
The old man took her hand and led her to a chair in front of his desk where Mia took a seat. It was much improvement to the dusty floor she had been sitting on before.
"Miss O'Connor, I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts," he informed her. That was the name! The entire time that Mia had been in the office she had yet to put a name to the face, and now it seemed very familiar to her.
In her time Mia had learned about Professor Dumbledore, and she felt remorseful for the old man. Being from the future wasn't as fun as some muggles would think and joke about. Knowing everyone's paths in life, when and how they would die, and what was to become of her beloved school made her frightful.
"Albus, what in the name of Merlin has you waking us up at such a God awf-" Mia turned around to face the woman that was ranting about being woken up, but the moment she saw Mia her words stopped flying out of her mouth.
"Professor, who is this? Do we have a transfer student?" a middle aged man with sandy hair asked.
"Remus, Minerva, I'd like you to meet Mia O'Connor. It seems as though we have ourselves a victim of a time turner," Dumbledore explained. Both professors looked at Mia with sorry expressions, but Mia ignored them. "We must figure out what to do with her."
"Well, until we can figure something out she should continue her schooling. It's very important that she do so, Albus," the one called Minerva argued.
"But won't some students get suspicious?" the other, Remus, asked.
"Nonsense," the woman replied. She advanced towards Mia, stopping just a foot in front of her. "Mia, can you tell us about yourself, please?"
Mia nodded her head and began, telling them every important detail of her life in her own time. "I was sorted into Gryffindor as a first year, that crazy hat said that I had many redeeming qualities but my bravery stood out." The man chuckled when she called the sorting hat "crazy hat", earning himself a slap on the shoulder from the woman. Mia smiled for the first time since the incident and continued, "I was in the middle of my sixth year when the incident happened."
"Where did it happen?" the man asked.
"At the ministry. My mother was the Minister of Magic at the time." Mia looked up at them with a conflicted expression hidden in the blue depths of them. "Um, what is the date? It was New Year's Eve in my time," Mia told them.
"It's just passed midnight, making it New Year's day," the woman informed her. So the time turner took her back exactly twenty-three years? Odd.
"Remus, do you agree with Minerva that Mia should continue her schooling until we can return her to her time? I think we could attempt it, but who knows what will change with her here," Dumbledore said thoughtfully.
The man, Remus, sighed, obviously a battle raging within his mind. "I think we could try it, but she'll need to hide her identity. If people know her true identity it may change the future."
"She can take my last name. If anyone asks she is my granddaughter," the woman said.
"What about her reason for suddenly coming to Hogwarts," the man challenged.
"She simply attended Beauxbatons until coming to live with me," the woman replied to him defiantly. It was obvious to Mia that she would win the battle between the two.
"Mia." This time it was Professor Dumbledore who spoke up. "I'd like to introduce you to two of Hogwarts' professors, Minerva McGonagall and Remus Lupin. Professor McGonagall teaches Transfiguration at the school, and Professor Lupin teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts. As you just heard, you're not Mia O'Connor during your time here. You're Mia McGonagall. We will keep you in Gryffindor just like in your own time, but you need to treat everyone as if you don't know what their future holds. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," she replied. "What do I do about my clothes and robes?" Mia looked down, grabbing onto her futuristic clothing that she had been wearing when she knocked over all of the time turners.
Professor McGonagall smiled at her before saying, "I guess we'll have to take you to Diagon Alley before classes start once everyone returns from break. Until then I'm sure I can find you some old robes."
Professor McGonagall looped her arm through Mia's and began leading her towards the staircase when Professor Dumbledore spoke to her once more.
"Mia, I trust you'll fit in quite well for the duration of time you stay with us," he said, giving her a quick reassuring smile. Even though his smile almost convinced her, Mia was still more than skeptical about her stay in the past.