Hermione was exhausted. She blinked slowly her bleary eyes and rubbed her face in hopes of waking up. Looking up from the books on which she had been lying, she noticed that no one else was still in the library with her, excluding the ever-charming Madam Pince. She had been working diligently for the past three hours (it was now almost ten in the evening) since dinner, and she was in desperate need for a break. And some coffee, at that. This year was N.E.W.T. year, and while she always performed admirably on her end-of-the-year tests, she had reason to be worried. The scores you receive determine the jobs you can acquire- which is completely daunting, especially for Hermione, a muggle-born. Those factors led to Hermione Jean Granger in the deepest corner of the library revising, cross-referencing, and scribbling down more notes to study later. Some may call her insane, a nutcase, or a complete lunatic, but she would be the most prepared person out there, for her N.E.W.T.S and for her future. Well, hopefully.
She was really wishing she had her trusty Time-Turner right about now. Maybe with it, she could go back a few hours in order to get more studying in.
The book she had been reading before she dozed off happened to be a book entitled Time: Consequences and Lore. She honestly wasn't sure why she had picked it out in the first place or why it was even in the Hogwarts Library, seeing as Time-Turners and the like were sanctioned by the Ministry and almost no one ever saw one in their life, debarring the Unspeakables. They were kept locked away in the Time Room of the Department of Mysteries in the British Ministry of Magic, which Hermione now knew after her and her friends' excursion there in her fifth year. As for her picking the book out, there was just something about the book that called out to her. When she pulled it off the shelf and brushed away the dust stemming from misuse, that feeling was exacerbated. After her third year when she had her own Time-Turner to be able to attend all of her classes, she had become very interested in the subject of time and anything about it. She supposed that's why she opened it to read, even though she was almost completely sure she wouldn't need to know about the subject for the N.E.W.T.s at the end of year. But maybe she would; there was no way of knowing. Hermione kept thinking that, thinking that it may justify her reading it instead of revising more. As it was, she was still feeling a bit ashamed reading it before she got all of her studying done for the night.
Hermione was spending virtually all of her free time during the first week of classes in the library was because the Gryffindor Common Room had a low morale permeating through it with the threat of Lord Voldemort still around. Harry, her best friend, was training, training, and training even more, trying to prepare for the inevitable battle between the two due to the prophecy they heard two years ago. All they could do until then was try and live their lives while they could in the present, since they weren't sure of their pending futures. Even though they were trying to live normal lives, it wasn't truly possible with everyone always badgering Harry to kill Voldemort once and for all instead of stepping up themselves. Because of this, Hermione decided that she would stay away from the others and instead, study like the rest of their year should be.
Hermione sighed and stood up, stretching her arms and cracking her back. She checked the time with the Tempus charm and groaned- it was ten minutes 'til curfew. There was no way that she would be able to get back to the Common Room in that time. She really didn't like using her privileges as a Prefect to get away with things, but if she got caught out after-hours, even a little late, she didn't really have a choice.
Hermione collected the books she was going to read later and put them in her school bag. She slung it over her shoulder and walked out of the library after checking them out. She waved to Madam Pince, her being the only one the librarian was even remotely friendly to, if only because of their shared love of literature. As she trekked from the library on the fourth floor to the Common Room on the seventh, she recalled being sent an extra letter with her normal Hogwarts letter, congratulating her on becoming Head Girl of the Hogwarts Class of 1998. She had been completely overjoyed at first, but then sent back a letter to Professor McGonagall, turning down the position. Back when she was a doe-eyed, naïve girl with big aspirations, being Head Girl was her dream. Now that she was exposed to things outside of Hogwarts, she realized that she needed to be completely focused on the war effort, and if she had Head duties to do also, she would never give either the time they both deserved. After her, Hannah Abbott of Hufflepuff was made Head Girl. Hermione stayed a Prefect though, of course; she would never give that up.
The rest of her summer was quite eventful. She altered her parents' memories in order to keep them safe from Death Eaters, making them believe they were Wendell and Monica Wilkins who just so happened to want to leave England and move to Australia. It killed Hermione to do that to her family, but she knew that she would always be worried about them and their safety otherwise. Since her actions resulted in her not having a home, she moved to the Burrow to stay with the Weasleys. It was nice to be with some of her friends and pseudo-family, but there was a sense of false cheerfulness the whole summer. While they tried assiduously to behave as though nothing was wrong, they all knew the war wasn't getting better. Many strange things were happening to the Muggles and the Obliviators were working constantly, many times more than normal, to keep them from discovering the magical world.
Thankfully, they got a reprieve from being downcast with the arrival of Harry. A team made of Order members, including Hermione herself and Ron, went to Privet Drive and six of them polyjuiced themselves as Harry. With each Order member, there was another person riding who looked like Harry so that Death Eaters would be confused as to who was the real one. They took broomsticks, thestrals, and Sirius' motorbike and flew to different safe houses, eventually getting back to the Burrow. Sadly, Mad-Eye Moody was hit by the Killing Curse by Voldemort himself. George lost an ear, making it a lot easier to tell the difference between the Weasley twins. Hedwig, Harry's beloved owl, died too. Hermione herself, though, made it back safely, along with Ron and Harry. None of them had any lasting injuries, and Harry's birthday passed with a quiet celebration cut short with the arrival of Rufus Scrimgeour, the at-the-time Minister. He yet again asked Harry to represent the Ministry and support them in their endeavors. Harry, of course, refused.
Bill and Fleur had their wedding and it was beautiful. Well, it was- that is. That was when disaster came in the form of a Patronus- Kingsley's, to be precise. It said three simple sentences: "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming." And with that- pandemonium. Hermione knew she had to get Harry away from the Death Eaters who were likely there to find him, so she found him with Ron and they pushed and shoved their way out of the melee. She grabbed hold of them and Apparated them to Tottenham Court Road. Hermione unknowingly activated the Taboo Curse on the word "Voldemort" which alerted their location to the Death Eaters, and two came after them. Harry, Hermione, and Ron subdued them and soon after got a message from Mr. Weasley in the form of a Patronus, saying that they were okay and to not contact them, as they were being watched. The three decided to go to Grimmauld Place for the time being and ended up staying there the rest of the summer. It wasn't ideal, but they had to choose safety first.
Following the death of Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall became Headmistress. After the skirmish that had happened there, she put the school on lockdown completely to keep Voldemort away and out of Hogwarts. Though Voldemort had full jurisdiction over the Ministry, Hogwarts had never been controlled by the Ministry, so he couldn't get to it that way. To get to Hogwarts, the students were sent Portkeys within their Hogwarts letters to use to arrive there instead of riding the Hogwarts Express for safety. Harry let McGonagall borrow the Marauder's Map to ensure that there were no imposters using Polyjuice. Owls with letters and packages were monitored and House Elves were told to report back to the Heads of House if they found any Dark artifacts in students' dorms. All-in-all, the security measures were about as safe as they were going to get considering. Life at Hogwarts was about as similar as expected, and the Sorting was still conducted in the same way as always. Hermione tried valiantly to help her fellow Gryffindors adjust to life at school, she knew the answer to every question, and she attended all classes. Everything was normal enough- if normal was even a word that could be used for a typical year at Hogwarts.
Hermione shook herself out of her thoughts when she saw the Fat Lady's portrait guarding entrance to Gryffindor Tower. "Bandoline," she told the portrait the password to enter and the portrait swung open. There were a few stragglers still in the Common Room, most working on essays they had been assigned already during the first week. She scanned the room, and not seeing any of her friends, she crossed over to sit in her favorite red, fluffy armchair by the lackluster fire that was going out. Swinging her bag off her shoulder, she pulled out the book she had been reading earlier in the library and flipped it open to the page with the bookmark she had left in it. It was late- 10:06 pm, she checked- and she knew she should be in her dorm with the other seventh year girls, but she was just too interested in the tome and wanted to at least finish the chapter before sleeping. That's right, all she would read is a chapter.
Six chapters later and Hermione was transfixed in her book. At the end of each chapter, she thought, "One more chapter, one more chapter!" and relented. Now, looking up an hour later, she noticed that she was all alone in the Common Room and she was ecstatic. Now she had time to try out the spell! She had just found a spell that would take her back to an undetermined time so she could observe the world, and then would take her back when she said the spell's counter. So many things could go wrong, yes, but Hermione Granger was known for her complete indulgence in any knowledge. To limit herself is unthinkable. She could just imagine the things that she could see and learn! She could be taken back to 753 B.C. when Rome was founded, or witness the Crusades, or be alive during Louis XIV's rule, or- ooh! She could go back to when Hogwarts was founded! The things she could learn from the Founders! Hermione almost salivated thinking about it. But she forced herself to calm down. Without thinking of any consequences, she decided to throw caution to the wind. After tracing the spell's movements with her finger first and repeating the incantation multiple times, she finally took out her wand, made a loop and ended with a flick, and stated firmly, "Suscipe Me In Historia!"
Lights flashed before her eyes, blinding her, and Hermione Jean Granger knew no more.
Thank you so much for reading! Please review and tell me if you liked it, hated it, what I should improve, etc!
I would like to make something clear if you didn't figure it out already- there are no horcruxes in this fanfic!
"Suscipe me in historia" (the spell) means "take me back in history" in Latin if anyone wanted to know. That's courtesy of Google Translate so please correct me if I'm wrong!
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