(Thanks for the nice reviews! Sorry it took so long to get chapter two up, but I'm a slow writer...)
Chapter 2
Out of Time
Hermione blinked several times. The empty, slightly eerie Hogwarts had been replaced with the more familiar version—one bustling with hundreds of students in black robes and a few teachers sprinkled about. She goggled for a moment, hardly daring to believe that the Time-Turner had worked, that she was standing fifty-odd years in the past. But... the haircuts! The robes! They were certainly like nothing she'd ever seen outside of old pictures.
"Hey, did you hear me? Where'd you come from, missy?" the scratchy voice asked again.
Hermione blinked again, looking around for the source of the questioning rasp. Her eyes landed on a short, bright-eyed man who had the look of a cheerful monkey; though undersized in stature, his arms were long, muscular, and hairy and his hands were enormous. "I," she began, wondering what to say for a moment before deciding on sticking as close to the truth as she could, "I Apparated."
The cheerful eyes narrowed a little. "Did you then? Who are you?" he asked firmly, though not aggressively. It took Hermione a moment to remember her story.
"I'm Leto, Leto Alfero," she replied composedly, pulling the magically forged papers from her pack as she added, "I'm hoping to transfer to this school. I've been attending school in the United States. I sent an owl to the head here, but didn't receive anything in return." Hermione frowned for effect. "My owl is a bit unreliable, I'm afraid." She quivered inside a little. She had been so focused on simply getting here to this time, that now that she was here, she felt sure that her story would be seen through and she'd be tossed off the grounds. And then what a fix she'd be in... Hermione took a deep breath as the long-armed man perused her false transfer papers.
"The States, is it? Don't get many comers from there. Well, sure and this looks in order to me. S'pose we better go see the headmaster 'bout it," the man looked over the papers for a second, then jerked his head towards the building. He set off at a surprisingly quick trot for his short, bandy legs, and a surprised Hermione had to hurry to keep up. For the first time, she noticed that there were several students glancing at her as she walked. It wasn't much of a surprise; she supposed it wasn't too common for a student as old as she was to be new.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" she asked, puffing a little with the effort of dragging her trunk along with her.
The man glanced back at her, then grabbed one of the handles himself and handed back her papers. He pulled the trunk along without any visible signs of effort. "I'd be Ogg, Miss Alfero. Keeper of the Keys and Grounds for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My apprentice, Rubeus, he's out helpin' some of the first years along to the castle. You'll be meetin' him later. Bit hard to miss him, really." He stopped and set her trunk down in front of the gargoyles that guarded the staircase to the headmaster's office. Ogg opened his mouth to say the password, but a voice interrupted before he could say anything.
"Who have you got there, Argen?" Hermione looked around for the owner of the voice, and had to brace herself to keep from gasping when she saw who it was. It was none other than Albus Dumbledore himself who was striding towards herself and the gamekeeper, long auburn hair and beard flowing. He did not wear the half-moon glasses, but his light blue eyes were still very penetrating as he studied Hermione, who was forced to quash a sudden urge to fidget. Oh, dear, and just when she thought she'd had a hope of pulling this off.
"Oh! Professor Dumbledore, this is Miss Leto Alfero," Ogg replied quickly, looking a little bit nervous at Dumbledore's presence himself. "She's a transfer. Got her papers in her hand, you'd like to see 'em."
Hermione took a deep breath in an effort to keep her voice steady and her face composed as she extended a hand. "How do you do, professor?" she asked carefully.
Dumbledore studied her hand for a moment before taking it, gripping it firmly as those blue eyes bored into hers. "Quite well, Miss Alfero. The papers?"
"Oh... yes," she handed them over, suddenly feeling less than convinced that their authenticity would stand up to Dumbledore's inspection.
Dumbledore studied them for what seemed to be rather a long time, then scrutinized Hermione closely again. After another eternally long moment, his gaze shifted to Ogg. "Thank-you, Argen. I'll take Miss Alfero from here. Will you see to her trunk?" he asked the gamekeeper, who nodded and hefted the chest, then hurried off. Without looking at Hermione again, he gave the gargoyles the password, then motioned for her to step onto the moving staircase with him. Because he didn't speak during it, the short ride seemed very long indeed. Dumbledore knocked lightly on the headmaster's door and received a tremulous entreaty to enter in return. He swept into the office with Hermione following somewhat less confidently. "I'm sorry to bother you, Armando, but you have a visitor who needs to speak to you," he said as Dippet looked up from a small mountain of parchment.
"A visitor?" the old man asked somewhat vaguely, then narrowed his eyes at Hermione. "And who are you?"
Hermione cleared her throat and glanced sideways at Dumbledore before answering, "I'm Leto, sir, Leto Alfero. I'm from America and I was hoping to transfer here to Hogwarts. I have all the papers..." she trailed off as Dumbledore set them down on the desk.
Dippet held them very close to his face as he looked them over. "This is... highly unusual. We've had transfers before, but on the very first day...? Highly unusual, yes."
"I apologize, sir. Copies of those papers were sent by owl, but I fear... er, Errol is a bit unreliable. It's likely he got sidetracked on the way." Hermione lied smoothly, while her heart constricted a little inside her chest. Oh, what had ever made her believe this would work, that a fully qualified wizard, the headmaster of Hogwarts for goodness' sake, would be fooled by her forgery? She held her breath as he began to shuffle through the bits of parchment.
Dippet didn't seem to notice. "Well, this seems most... excellent, yes. Most excellent. Now, this grade scale... the A, B, C, D, and F, yes, this is equal to our own Outstanding, Exceeds Expectations, Acceptable, Fair, Poor, and Dreadful, yes." He mumbled a bit more in his wobbly, reedy way as he flipped one of the papers over, but there was a distinct gleam in his eye as he looked over her marks. "Well, Miss Alfero, I must say everything looks in order. Yes. As for the transfer, consider it done—this should be more than enough—" Hermione's breath almost burst out of her and she felt the wild urge to leap into the air with happiness. "—now, all you need is to be Sorted into a House..."
Remembering her role through her glee that somehow it had worked, Hermione politely broke in, "Er, Sorted, sir?"
The headmaster blinked at her. Dumbledore looked at her swiftly, but then looked away, so quickly Hermione wasn't sure he'd looked at her at all, but then Dippet started speaking again. "Sorted, yes, my dear girl. You see, we have four Houses here at Hogwarts. Each stands for a different virtue: courage, intelligence, willingness to work hard, and cunning. Now, your House will be like family while you're here, yes, and your actions can earn you points or lose you them—depending. At the end of the year, the House with the most points wins the Inter-House Competition. Yes, it's a very high honor. Very high."
Hermione nodded as if it were all new to her. "I see."
"Well, if that's all... Albus, why don't you take our new student down to see about her schedule this year..? I must attend to more paperwork... dratted stuff that it is." Dippet vaguely waved them off with the point of his quill.
"Of course, Armando," Dumbledore replied, the first he'd spoken through out the meeting. Graciously, he gestured to Hermione and they went down the moving staircase again in silence. It was only when they reached the bottom that he spoke, "You'll likely want to wait until after you've been Sorted to finalize a schedule, Miss Alfero... It is usually the task of the Heads of Houses to sort that out."
Hardly daring to believe that she had hoodwinked not only Armando Dippet, but Albus Dumbledore himself, Hermione nodded again. "I, I see. Thank-you for the advice." She turned to walk away, but then heard his voice again and turned back.
"Miss Alfero?" his blue eyes burned into her, not with any sort of ill will, but a kind of intensity that made it feel as if she were being looked through and made her insides begin to wriggle uncomfortably. "You may have hoodwinked Armando and Argen, but I'm afraid I'm not yet convinced. I'm going to keep my eye on you."
"I—"
"Good evening to you, Miss Alfero. The Sorting will take place in the Great Hall.
