Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, just the new story-line I am thinking about here.


Previously

"What on earth?! Who are you?" A voice said. A voice she hadn't heard in over a year. Shocked she opened her eyes and looked to where the voice was coming from. Professor Dumbledore was standing in front of her. In his pyjamas of all things.

What on earth is happening?

Now

She was looking up at the face of Albus Dumbledore. A very shocked face. A very shocked and fairly younger face than she had last seen.

"Professor Dumbledore? What? How?" Hermione stumbled over her questions. She suddenly noticed that she was sitting on the floor of his office, just behind his desk. It was then that she noticed that Dumbledore had his wand trained on her. It was a fairly odd sight as he was wearing bright blue and purple pyjamas, with little stars that dashed about every so often.

"How did you get in here? You aren't a student I recognise so the wards shouldn't have let you in." Professor Dumbledore was quite stern when he wanted to be.

"My name is Hermione Granger. I'm not sure how I got here. I don't know what happened. One moment I was working in the Burrow, the next I wake up here. I must have fallen asleep at some point. Am I still dreaming?" Hermione didn't really want to bring up the point of Dumbledore's death, just in case this really wasn't a dream. It wasn't polite to talk about it with him anyway, not without him bringing it up first.

Dumbledore waved his wand over Hermione a few times, silently so she wasn't sure what he was doing. Probably scanning me for some sort of trap.

"I'm not a danger to you or anyone here at Hogwarts. I'm a friend of the Order of the Phoenix." That was sure to get his attention. Dumbledore stopped scanning her for a moment.

"Only those within the Order are meant to know of its existence. I know all of the members, but I don't know you." He said thoughtfully, "You say your name is Hermione Granger but I don't recognise the surname. You are most likely not Pureblood."

"I'm a Muggleborn Sir." Hermione interrupted. She went to stand up, being quite cautious of Dumbledore's wand. When it seemed like she wasn't going to get hexed for moving she stood up, stretching her sore muscles.

"Muggleborn. Ok. You mentioned the Burrow. I assume you know the significance of that name." He was questioning her.

"Yes, it's the home of the Weasley family. What did your scans find?" She got straight to the point. Dumbledore didn't really like being interrupted.

"How old are you?" He asked in return.

"18. What did your scans find?" She asked again.

"So you are in your last year of studies." He stated, again refusing to answer her question.

"Technically yes. What did your scans find? Please answer my question." Hermione gave Dumbledore her sternest glare, trying to imitate Professor McGonagall. Admittedly it probably wouldn't work against Dumbledore, but she gave it a go. All her glare did was make Dumbledore smile a little.

"My scans found an anomaly, one I haven't seen before. But I believe you pose no threat to me or my students. What do you mean technically you are in your last year of studies?"

Well that was some kind of answer I suppose.

"What kind of anomaly? Whilst I was technically a 7th year I wasn't able to attend Hogwarts." She wasn't exactly going to blurt out that she was on the run. She still didn't know what was happening. She still could be dreaming.

"I am still unsure of how to describe the anomaly accurately. It would help if you would answer some questions of mine." It was odd for Hermione to feel like she was being reprimanded. Not only was it odd because Dumbledore was dead, but also because she prided herself on not getting in trouble. Now she felt like Dumbledore was telling her off.

"I'll answer some questions. I won't answer all of them though." She still had to be careful after all.

"You say you are a Muggleborn named Hermione Granger and that you have studied up until your 7th Year. However I do not recognise either your face or your name. You are not a student here, and you do not have an accent, therefore unlikely to be a student from another school. My question therefore is, when were you born?"

"Why would you ask that?" She replied, confused. Then again, what about this situation wasn't confusing?

"I would like to know, it is a rather pertinent question at the moment." If his expression wasn't guarded before it was now. Hermione wasn't sure what to make of it. He moved away from her, obviously he had decided she wasn't so much of a threat. He moved towards some of his odd silver instruments, waving his wand. Occasionally flicking it towards Hermione then nodding at the results popping out of the instruments. Hermione had no idea what most of them were doing. The few that she had a vague idea about confused her with their results. After ten minutes of this he turned back to her.

"Have a seat Miss Granger." He pointed to the seat on the other side of his desk. She moved to sit as he sat in his chair, still looking like he was contemplating what she was. She gave him a similar look, given that he was dead as far as she was aware. After a moment he started on an odd speech. "Miss Granger I apologise for being so defensive earlier, I would not have even guessed who you were before our brief conversation. You must forgive me, this is the first time I have met a Time Traveller."

Now that was a surprise.

What on earth is he talking about? She wasn't a Time Traveller, was she?

"Why do you think that I am a Time Traveller Professor?"

"Why because it is 1971 my dear and from what my scans tell me you don't exist in this time. That makes me think you were born until 1972 at the earliest." What was it with Dumbledore and dropping bomb shells on her?

"I have to admit, I am not quite sure what to make of that. I'm still not convinced that I'm not dreaming. But if you are correct I can't tell you when I was born, you could infer too much from that information." Dumbledore smiled at that, Hermione couldn't quite figure out what he was thinking. She could normally hazard a decent guess at people's thoughts, but Dumbledore was always a mystery to her.

"So you didn't come here on purpose then. That will make things all the more difficult. If you are not sure how you came here, how are we to return you to your time? If I may ask, what year did you come from?" Dumbledore looked into her eyes with that question, after Hermione felt a small amount of pressure in her mind she remembered that Dumbledore was a skilled Legilimens.

Breaking eye contact she replied, "I'm not sure if I should say Sir. If I have really travelled back in time then I must limit the impact my presence will make. As far as I am aware there is no way to travel this far back, or to travel that far forward again. How would you suggest we go about finding me a way home? Also may I request that you not try to read my mind again? The knowledge I have is too dangerous for this time period. Too many things could change too easily."

Dumbledore seemed surprised that she had known of his attempts to enter her mind, but he did not look sorry for his actions at all. "I will begin making some enquiries to the Department of Mysteries. I shall keep my questions vague so they do not find out about you. I'm not quite sure what they would do about you so I will keep you from any potential harm whilst you are here." Hermione noticed he didn't respond to her request. "For the moment you may stay in one of the guest rooms."


A/N: Thank you all for tuning in to my second chapter. I know this is a little later than I said it would be, but myself and my partner had to welcome a new nephew into the family over the weekend! So a trip to the hometown was in order. There are no more imminent births coming up so I should be back on schedule!

Any and all reviews are most welcome!