A/N: It has been a loooong time since I updated this story, and for that I am sorry. My life has been really busy this year and I've just had no time to focus on this story. I do plan to finish it (I have an outline completed and know exactly where I want to go with it), but the writing is just taking a little bit longer than I wanted.

I hope you all like this chapter, and if you leave a comment I'll PM you a sneak peak of the next chapter!

CHAPTER TWO: STEPPING THROUGH TIME.

I pushed my way through the never-ending surge of people in the halls, as the echo of Voldemort's voice faded from the air. I needed to find Professor McGonagall now. I couldn't wait a minute longer. Harry only had until midnight to surrender himself, and if my trip to the past had anything to do with winning this war I needed to leave before Harry and Voldemort had the chance to face it off.

I tried my hardest to ignore the fallen bodies of the injured and dead, focusing instead of making my way through the school to the Great Hall. My instinct telling me that that was where I would find the Professor.

Opening the large door, I bit back a sob at the sight of the dead laying in rows. My eyes scanned over everyone until they finally landed on Professor McGonagall, who was standing at the front of the room with Harry and the Weasley family. I quickened my pace and stopped in front of the group, panting at the speed I'd walked in order to make it here.

Professor McGonagall looked down at me with a small smile on her face. "Miss Granger, thank Merlin you're okay."

"Hermione!" Harry said, breathing a deep sigh of relief. "We had no idea where you were. Have you been at the Shrieking Shack this whole time?"

I shook my head, placing my hands on my hips as I tried to catch my breath. "I stayed with Snape until he…well, I stayed with Snape. But he gave me a memory and I went to the Headmasters office to watch, and now I need you to send me back Professor. I need you to send me back right now."

Professor McGonagall's eyes scanned down my body over the rims of her glasses. She didn't speak straight away, and I could see both Harry and Ron's curiosity reaching its peak. She folded her hands together in front of her dark green robes and nodded her head sadly. "Yes, I suppose I should do just that Miss Granger."

"What's going on? What do you mean 'send you back'?" Ron bellowed, reaching out towards me. His eyes were red from crying, and under normal circumstances I would have happily welcomed his touch, but right now I needed to stay focused. I needed to go back before more people died.

"What did Snape show you Hermione?" Harry inched closer so that no one else could hear his voice as he spoke, his eyes searching mine for any hint of what the memory could have entailed.

I shook my head. "I'll explain. But not here. We need to go somewhere private."
Professor McGonagall, agreed, excusing herself away from Bill and Arthur Weasley, who stood on the other side of her. Not waiting for a response from any of us, she turned to leave. None of us questioned where she was leading us, and as we all walked in silent steps behind her it became clear we were heading in the direction of the Headmasters office. She uttered the password when we were close enough to the door, not stopping as the stairs began to turn their way up.

Once inside the office she headed straight to sit on the edge of the desk. Harry and Ron stopped beside me, looking between me and the old witch.

"Are you going to tell us what's going on now?" Ron said, throwing his hands up and then crossing them over his chest tightly.

"I need to send Miss Granger back in time." McGonagall's clear voice bounced off of the dark walls.

"The past! Why?"

"I don't know, Harry. The memory didn't say."

"Yes." Professor McGonagall adjusted her glasses and straightened her robes. "Unfortunately I cannot tell you anymore than you have seen, Miss Granger. It could influence your actions in the past and change our future in ways that could prove more dangerous than the current situation that we find ourselves in at the moment."

"We're not sending Hermione back in time. Have you lost your mind? Not alone, at least. She couldn't survive back there on her own, surely." Ron uncrossed his arms and started pacing back and forth across the room. "I mean, if her being sent back has anything to do with defeating You-Know-Who then we should all go back. The three of us. And who's to say that sending Hermione back wouldn't change our futures anyway? What if, by sending her, it influences You-Know-Who and he ends up winning the war back then?"

"You can't come with me Ronald. Don't you realise that this had already happened before? I've already been to the past, and I need to go back there and make sure everything that happened, happens again."

"That makes no sense, 'Mione. You can't just go waltzing back into the past with no one to keep you safe. There'll be no one there to protect you."

His words hurt. I made up one third of the 'Golden Trio', and I sure as hell pulled my own weight. I could feel the fire of anger build its way up in my body at his words, and I tried to douse it by remembering that he was upset. He was upset that I would be leaving. It wasn't that he thought I couldn't protect myself, it was just that once I left they would have to work together until I came back.

"I can assure you Mr Weasley that Miss Granger will have plenty of people back there to watch over her if it's needed. However, we need to send back Miss Granger right at this moment. And I'll need both of your help to make it happen." She paused to take a breath and look between the three of us before her eyes landed on me. "Did Albus share which spell he wished for us to use, Miss Granger?"

I nodded my head, clearing my throat as I tried to remember the exact words. "Yes, he said it was a variation of 'luvinziah almatonia'."

McGonagall slipped off the edge of the desk, walking around it to a cupboard that sat at the back of the room. She tapped it four times with her wand and her mouthed moved to form the words of a silent spell. The cupboard door popped open to reveal a pile of old notebooks. My interest instantly piqued, and I fought the urge to rush forward and see what it was that those notebooks contained. If they were Dumbledore's they were bound to be interesting.

"I must ask you all to spend this time saying your goodbye's to one another." She said as she retrieved on of the notebooks and began to flip through it. "Time is of the essence."

I grabbed a hold of one of Harry's and Ron's arms and pulled them both back to the other side of the office, as far away as we could get form McGonagall. Ron still looked devastated, and as soon as I let go of his arm he reached out and grabbed my hand. Harry just looked confused.

"I don't know what it was that Snape showed you Harry, but whatever it was you have to listen to it and follow any instructions that he gave you. Snape used his last bits of energy that he had in his body to give us those memories, so they have to be important." I stopped, looking between the two of them, fighting back the tears. "I don't know when I'll be home, but if I'm not back before you face Voldemort, I want you both to remember that you can do this. You can do anything you set your minds to, you're both smart and will figure out how to do this without me."

"We'll be okay, Hermione." Harry muttered, looking down at the ground. "I know what needs to be done."

"And Ronald," I started, "don't underestimate yourself. You're a brilliant fighter. You both need to work hard and be here when I come back home. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have you here with me. But, we can't worry about that now. I'll be here at Hogwarts, and we know it's highly unlikely for me to get into any trouble without the two of you by my side."

Ron let out a soft laugh, gripping onto my hand tighter. I met his eyes and felt a smile pull at my lips.

"Are you three ready?"

We walked back over to the middle of the room where McGonagall now stood, levitating three lit candles as well as the notebook. I nodded to Harry, trying to convey that I wanted a moment alone with Ron.

I watched as Harry made his way to the centre of the room, leaving me and Ron alone. I strained to think of what to say to him. I had had a crush on him for years, and now that we had finally kissed I was headed off into the past.

"Look 'Mione, you know that I like you right?" He said, his voice so quiet that I could barely head him. "And, I don't know how long you're gonna be gone. But I'll wait for you."

"I like you too Ron, and you're right that we don't know how long I'm gonna be gone. But, in the light of current situations, I think it would be best to wait until I come back to discuss this any further, okay?"

He nodded and I leant forward. My heart raced within my chest as I pressed a gentle kiss at the corner of my lips. He instantly cheered up, his neck and face turning bright red as he dragged me over to the middle of the room.

"Alright then, Miss Granger. You're going to have to stand in the middle of the three of us while we take the shape of a triangle around you." McGonagall arranged the boys so that they stood on either side of me, several feet back, then she took her place in front of me. "Miss Granger I want you to make sure that you hold onto your possession tightly. I need you to stand perfectly still for this spell to work. Sending someone entirely, body and soul, to a different time takes a lot of concentration. We don't want to splinch you between time periods. That would be disastrous."

She then reached back to the desk and handed me my small beaded bag. I had forgotten it in here in my hast to go and find her. I took the bag from her, grabbing my wand and casting a shrinking charm on it, placing the now-miniature bag into my pocket with my wand, then I shook my hands out and placed them shakily at my side. I needed to try and be careful not to fidget under the pressure of the whole situation.

Professor moved the candles to sit in front of Harry, Ron and herself, then instructed them both to copy her words precisely because once the spell started there was no way to stop it, and you didn't want me getting hurt in the process. Which wasn't a comfort considering I knew how bad Ron could be with pronouncing spells.

The flame of the candles flickered and almost-silent hum filled the thick air. McGonagall's words started to flow from her effortless as she raised her hands and began to cast the spell.

I didn't get the chance to hear whether Harry and Ron followed her in the chanting because as soon as her chanting started my ears popped the noise instantly distorted, as if I was swimming underwater. Moving my eyes around the room, the action caused everything around me to slow down and move in a slow succession. I moved my eyes back the other way, the world continuing to blur and slow down before finally refocusing, only to repeat the same thing when I tried again. The humming in my ears started to intensify, slowly building itself up to an intense squeal. I forced myself to remember that I wasn't allowed to move, trying to keep my arms at my side and stop them from shielding my ears from the ear-splitting sound.

Blinking several times, I tried to force the world around me to focus again. This seemed to make everything worse as a painful pressing on my brain spread through my skull. Unable to stop myself, I opened my mouth to cry out in pain, and all that came out was a soft buzz. All at once the buzzing and screaming ceased and the pain disappeared, causing my world to spin and then darkness surrounded.

#

My head was killing me. Against my better judgement I pried my eyes open and looked around the room to see if the spell had actually worked or not. The light that assaulted my eyes sent shock waves through my eyes, in my brain, and down my spine. Groaning, I let myself relax back into the bed, keeping my eyes squeezed shut.

"You're awake." The voice sounded familiar. Someone I knew. I let my eyes shoot open again, which was a stupid idea. Closing them once again, I tied to take shallow breaths to calm myself. "I guess I don't need to ask you if you're suffering any pain. Not surprising. It looks as if you've been beaten severely."

I heard the tell-tale swoosh of the thin curtains sweeping shut throughout the room and I hesitantly reopened my eyes to see Madam Pomfrey standing over me in her usual healer uniform, with her wand raised in the air.

She immediately thrusted a potion in my face and I took it without hesitation, gulping down the thick and lumpy liquid, sighing at the instant relief that it offered me.

"The Headmaster will be along in a moment. I sent for him as soon as you began stirring. You have a lot of explaining to do." Madam Pomfrey's words were harsher than usual, and it took me a moment to realise why. Of course she would be guarded towards me. She had no idea who I was, and the wizarding world was in the height of its first war against Voldemort.

I nodded my head dutifully, pulling myself up into a sitting position. Her eyes didn't leave me as we both waited for Dumbledore to arrive.

It didn't take long for the large doors of the Hospital Wing to swing open and reveal the aged professor. Behind him was Professor McGonagall, both of them staring over at me with their faces filled with an anxious curiosity.

"Ahhhh, she's awake. Good…Good." Dumbledore said, stopping at the end of the bed.

Goose bumps shot across my skin, traveling up my arms and prickling at the base of my neck. It was weird to see him again. Alive.

I waited for him to speak, but for several moments he just looked up at me over the rim of his glasses. "What is your name, child?"

"Hermione Granger, sir." I replied, my heart lurching at the back of my throat.

"And why, my dear, were you found unconscious on our grounds this morning?"

I cleared my throat, hoping that they'd believe. Then I remembered the memory Snape had shared with me. All I had to do was explain myself. I had nothing to hide. "I was sent here by one of my Professors. The spell that was used knocked me unconscious."

"Elaborate." McGonagall bit out, eyes narrowing.

"I was sent here from the future. The year 1998, to be exact. There were circumstances that led to the decision to send me back. I'm not 100% sure why I was sent here, or what I can hope to achieve while I'm here, but my Professor believed it was urgent enough to send me straight away."

"Which Professor sent you?" Dumbledore reached up and started to stroke his beard thoughtfully. "A time-travel spell would have to be performed by someone with a certain amount of power and authority."

"I'm not sure if it would be appropriate to say, sir. From the research that I've done, if I reveal too much about the future it would be pretty disastrous."

McGonagall scoffed, while Dumbledore nodded his head. "You are telling us, Miss Granger, that you were sent here, to 1977, from the future?"

I sighed. "Yes. I was sent here by one of my Professors here at Hogwarts. I don't know the exact reason why, but I know that it's important."

"How on Earth do you expect us to believe you are telling the truth?" McGonagall said, taking a step closer to the bed.

I turned to face Dumbledore, staring desperately up at him. "You have to believe me. You can perform Legilimency on me. I swear I'm telling the truth."

"That's a fairly bold thing to suggest. If she were lying, Minerva, she would surely not offer her mind to me." Dumbledore said, leaning closer to McGonagall.

She contemplated this for a moment before crossing her arms across her chest. "Or she's offering herself up in the hopes that you'll not follow through with it and simply believe her word."

Dumbledore turned back around to me and I knew that a second later his spell would hit.

Forcing my body to be perfectly still, I could feel his magic probing my mind and searching my memories. A small part of me was worried about him seeing anything from my personal life, while the rest of me was more worried about the things that could change the future. A moment passed as a series of memories flew through my head.

He pulled out of my head and quickly shoved his wand into his robes. "She's telling us the truth, Minerva. She will need to remain here at Hogwarts until she finds or does whatever it is that she's here for. We will need to come up with a cover story for her, and then we will place her in classes beginning on Monday. Her memories tell me that she was sorted into Gryffindor, so I think it would be best if she discuss her classes with you. For now though, I think it is best to let her rest."

Dumbledore turned towards the door in a flurry of purple robes and left McGonagall and I alone. With a wave of her wand she summoned a chair and sat down beside the bed. "I'm going to need you to give me some details about your education. What year you're in, class preferences, and the height of your knowledge."

By the flat tone of her voice I could tell that she still didn't believe me.

"I'm in my seventh year. My classes are Arithmancy, DADA, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, and Ancient Runes. I've been the top of every one of my classes since first year. My highest grade is in Transfiguration and Charms, and my lowest has been in Potions. But that has more to do with the bias that my Potions professor holds rather than my actual performance."

She nodded her head, conjuring a piece of parchment and a quill from her robes, and wrote down what I had told her. The sound of the quill scratching the parchment filled the room for a moment before she looked up and spoke again. "How old are you?"

"I turned 17 in September…well September of 1997."

"Okay. Finally, and this is something I want you to answer as honestly as possible. How did you get injured like this? Sending you back wouldn't have caused this amount of injury."

I looked down at my clothes, seeing that I was still wearing the dirty and torn clothes I'd been stuck in since we had arrived at Hogwarts before the battle had begun. Dried blood stained my shirt and pants, and I knew that my body was covered in bruises and scratches. I probably looked like I had been beaten to a pulp.

"In my time there's been some…conflict. All is this," I motioned down to myself. "Is from a mixture of torture, battle wounds, and tending to other people."

McGonagall looked at me wearily before she called out to Madam Pomfrey, telling her that it was okay to tend to my wounds now that they knew that I wasn't a threat. Madam Pomfrey nodded and waited for McGonagall to finish talking to me while she prepared some salves and potions on the table beside the bed.

"I'll tell the Headmaster what you have told me and we will come up with a believable story to tell anyone who asks. I think it would be best for you to remain in here until Sunday afternoon. It's Friday now, that gives you time to heal, we can squash any rumours that are already spreading through the school, and we can gather anything you may need to live and study here.

Waving her wand, Madam Pomfrey made the curtain around the bed swing closed, then with a second wave she made my clothes disappear, leaving me only in my underwear. A sharp hiss escaped her mouth as she took in all the scars and injuries I had acquired, and then she thrust another pain relieving potion into my hand.

Laying back on the bed, she waved her wand over my body, running diagnostics, tutting to herself as she went. She gave the occasional comment, which a spelled quill then transcribed onto a piece of parchment.

The worst of it was when her wand came to hover over the nasty 'mudblood' scar on my forearm. She let out a loud shriek and reached for one of the salves on the table. I pulled my arm away from her, knowing that there was no salve that would hide it, having already tried it several times while at Shell Cottage.

"It won't work. The witch who did it used dark magic."

#

A sudden noise woke me from my potion-induced sleep, causing me to sit up in the bed, pointing my wand in that direction. I let out a relieved breath when I saw who it was. Snape.

He watched me carefully as I lowered my wand, scowling at my relief. "Why are you lowering your wand? I could have come here to kill you for all you know."

His feet shuffled across the floor and his long robes dragged on the stone as he stepped closer to the bed and into the light. It was strange seeing Snape so young. He still had the same hooked nose, dark eyes, and long black hair. But there were clear differences. He was obviously shorter and lacked the physical markers of being a spy. His hair also wasn't as greasy as it usually was, and he was actually kind of…handsome. In his own way.

"You're the one who brought me here. If you wanted me dead you would have done it earlier when no one knew that I was here."

That seemed to have stumped him and he paused, his dark eyes scanning over my body. Madam Pomfrey had given me a horrid 'old lady' nightgown to wear in bed, and I instantly wished that I had had time to pack some of my own clothes before I came here. The only clothes I had in my bag weren't exactly suitable.

"Why are you here?" He asked, pulling a chair up beside the bed.

"I don't know what your eye sight it like, but I think it's quite clear that I'm here because I'm injured." I rolled my eyes at him, pulling the thin hospital blanket further towards myself.

"You know that's not what I meant. I want to know what you intend to do here. Why you were sent here."

"I don't see how that's any of your business."

He clenched his fists and leant forward. "If you don't tell me, I'll tell everyone your secret."

"I'm pretty sure that if you started running around the school shouting that I'm from the future, it would only be bad for you. They'd probably assume you're crazy and then send you to St Mungo's."

"Aha!" He threw his hands up in triumph. "So you admit that you're from the future."

"Why don't you stop shouting, before Madam Pomfrey comes out here and yells at us?" I growled. "And we both know that you were spying on my conversation with Dumbledore and McGonagall. Why ask me questions you already know the answer to?"

"I'm going to find out why you're here, whether you tell me or not." He said, staring at me intently, inching closer. His dark eyes shifted between me and the door to Madam Pomfrey's office.

I leant closer to him, my body aching under the potions I had taken several hours ago. "Well, when you find out let me know."

His stare instantly turned into a glare and a familiar sneer filled his face. His loose hair hung forward as he let out a low growl. "Why would you come to the past if you don't know what you're here to do? Are you stupid?"

"I was sent her by one of the most respected professors Hogwarts has ever seen. She didn't seem to think I needed to know what I'm here for, and I don't think it's your business either."

He pushed back and let out another growl of frustration, standing up from his chair and pacing back and forth. I sat quietly as he paced, not really knowing what to do. I figured he would approach me at some point, considering what he had heard through the Hospital Wing doors, but I didn't really understand his urgency to get answers that I wasn't really in the position to give him.

I continued to wait for him to speak until a heavy yawn took hold. "Look, I can't tell you anything other than my name and the fact that I'm from the future. I don't understand why you would think I would, or could, tell you anything more than that."

He stopped pacing, standing still and looking down at me. "What is your name?"

"Hermione Granger." I said, holding my hand out for him to shake. He reluctantly took my hand in his and shook it, opening his mouth as if to tell me his name in turn. "You don't have to tell me what yours is. I ready know."

He scowled and dropped my hand, causing it to fall back down in my lap. I rolled my eyes, noticing the anger that was instantly in his eyes. He turned away from the bed without looking down at me again, talking as he reached the door.

"If you can't tell me anything else, Hermione, then I have no further use for you."