AN: Before we begin, I just wanted to drop a quick line to let you all know that I am NOT giving up on Time. This idea popped into my head while reading The Debt of Time by ShayaLonnie (absolutely amazing, by the way!). Enjoy!
Hermione Granger always knew something was different about her, something special, even. She could often be seen thinking to herself about a book, and suddenly that book would be in her hand or waiting for her on her bed. Other things happened to her as well, things that frightened her.
It was a relief to Hermione when Professor Minerva McGonagall arrived at the doorstep of her home and told the Grangers of the wonders of Hogwarts. She wasn't a freak; she wasn't abnormal! She beamed at her parents when the Professor uttered the words that changed the young girl's life.
"Miss Granger, you, like myself, are a witch."
That happiness was short-lived however. The moment the door closed behind the esteemed professor, her father, the man who doted on her for the past eleven years, turned on her.
"You may go to that...school," he said, the pause and tone worrying Hermione. He only used that tone when discussing parents of his younger patients who didn't give much thought to their child's dental health. "However, we will have to move house. We've stayed hidden for fifteen years, I'd like to stay hidden. If that McGonagall witch can find us, so can the ones who killed your grandparents. Death Eaters."
"But Daddy, you heard the professor! Harry Potter saved the wizarding world!" Hermione said, softly yet firmly.
"That doesn't mean the arseholes who killed my parents aren't still out there!" her father roared. "We thought we were safe! My...my father was a pureblood, meaning a person born of magical parents. He was also considered a blood traitor. He rebelled against the...being that Harry Potter supposedly defeated. I'm what's called a squib - that is, a child born to magical parents, yet doesn't have magic. Your mother is a muggle who's privy to the wizarding world, because of me."
"Daddy, what do you mean?" Hermione said, fearfully.
"It means that horrific things may happen if you attend Hogwarts under the name Granger. Tell me, you've looked at the book the professor gave you. There's one famous wizard with the name Granger. Who was it?"
After thinking for half a second, she replied. "Hector Dagworth-Granger. He was a potioneer."
"And your great-grandfather," her mother finally said. "Love, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go to Hogwarts."
"I must, Mum!" Hermione cried, standing quickly. "I can already make things happen without thinking about them! I need to learn to control it!"
Standing, Emma Granger looked at her daughter, her only child sadly, before leaving the room and returning with two vials that Hermione had never seen before.
"It's called a calming drought, love. It'll make you calm down and think rationally," Helen said softly, handing her daughter the sickly-looking green potion. Hermione drank it without question.
After she was certain Hermione had finished the potion completely, Helen took her own, sky blue potion.
"I'm sorry Hermione," her father whispered softly while her mother's face was turned away from her, to hide the tears.
"Sorry for wha..." Hermione started, before falling into a deep, comatose state. The bottle slipped from her hand as she slid to the floor, rolling across the room and coming to rest at Daniel Granger's feet. The spiky scrawl seemed to mock him, for siring a magical child, for not being able to protect her, and for doing what he knew was wrong, but unavoidable.
Time-travel drought. EXPERIMENTAL - NOT TO BE USED UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!
It was necessary, Daniel felt. He needed to protect her, even though she wouldn't even know him when she woke. Even though she would no longer be a Granger when she woke. He just hoped the family the potion was keyed to would be understanding.
While Mr. Granger was experiencing every emotion possible, his wife was sequestered in the loo, clutching her stomach and moaning softly. On the counter beside her sat the vial she had taken, the script on the label matching the one on the vial currently laying in the living room. BELIEVED TO CURE INFERTILITY IN WOMEN - UNTESTED. ONLY KNOWN SIDE EFFECT - ANY OFFSPRING PRODUCED FROM THIS WILL NOT BE MAGICAL.
Emma Granger was determined to give her husband a normal child. By any means necessary.
She was sore all over, and exhausted, but she felt a pull to something, or rather, someone. She knew she couldn't stop until she had reached her destination. She was close, she could feel it.
Meanwhile, a beautiful woman, her black hair styled perfectly, her gray eyes glistening felt the pull as well. The same pull any magical mother felt for their child. She knew it wasn't her precious James, the child that almost never was. James was safe, as a matter of fact, he was seated beside her, shuffling his ever-present deck of Exploding Snap.
Realization dawned in Dorea Black Potter's eyes, which changed from a soft gray to hard steel in a moment.
"Maggie," she said softly, calling upon the elf her mother in law had gifted James when he was born.
"Yes, Missus?" the elf said immediately. While Maggie technically belonged to James, Dorea and Charlus agreed that Maggie was to be more than just a nanny elf. Their child would not be spoiled like her cousins, like most of the other Blacks.
"Would you keep an eye on James for a while? There's is a pressing matter that I must deal with immediately," she said aloud, then, leaning over to whisper to the elf, she finished her thought. "The experiment of Mr. Dagworth-Granger's that we agreed to be keyed to has just been activated. I need to go find the child and bring them here as soon as possible. I'd also like for you to ask Mippy to get the room across from James ready."
With a nod, the elf disappeared for a moment, seemingly to talk to Mippy, then reappeared before James realized she was ever gone. "Master James, Maggie will be making your lunch then we's can play the Exploding Snaps!"
Nodding once to the elf, Dorea placed a kiss on James' head and walked to the apparition point, just outside the front door of Potter Manor.
It didn't take long for the girl to realize her destination had gotten much closer. It wasn't until she was being held closely by a nice woman in a long, black dress did she realize that the woman was her destination.
"You poor dear, you must be exhausted!" the nice woman whispered in her ear. "Do you want to come with me, we'll get you something to eat and a nice soft bed to lie down."
The girl nodded, her head resting on the woman's shoulder. "Do...do you know who I am?"
The older woman smiled sadly, before kissing the girl on the forehead. "Why, you're the little girl I've been looking for, my daughter."
"Why don't I remember you?" the little girl said, wiping her eyes.
"Because you took quite a tumble, love," Dorea said, trying to hide the fact she was seething at that sod Dagworth-Granger. Or rather, his relatives from 20 years in the future.
The little girl just nodded and hugged Dorea tighter. Standing, she turned and walked to the public floos that were nearby. Before stepping into the floo, she seethed again.
Dagworth-Granger hadn't just transported this girl to 1971. He managed to deage her to five years old!