Rotating History

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, the world or any of the magical items. The plotline is mine.

Hermione pointed her wand at her head and did a flourish saying conscientiam animi onerariam aversum possunt optimus, at the word optimus she jabbed her wand into her chest right above her heart. As she finished the incantation everything went dark and she knew no more.

When Hermione regained consciousness she was at once aware something had went wrong. She was about a half foot shorter that what she was at eleven years old, not to mention when she groaned she sounded as though she had just swallowed some helium. She jumped up from her bed and ran to the calendar that she had always kept pinned to the mirror on her armoire. It was March 2, 1985. Hermione couldn't believe it, there was no possible way she got the spell wrong because clearly she was alive and in the past. Recalling the spell, conscientiam animi onerariam aversum possunt optimus, Hermione realized she did not specify the precise age that she wanted to go back to. The spell sent her back to her six year old self because she could do the most good here.

All of the sudden it occurred to Hermione that her parents were still alive and that she now had five extra years with them. She did not even bother to look at the clock and ran straight into her parents' bedroom. Hermione gazed upon her parents for the first time in ten years.

"Oh, Merlin," she whispered to herself. "How am I going to get through this without completely breaking down?"

Hermione didn't even realize that her father Dan had awoken and noticed that not only was his little girl standing in the doorway of his bedroom, but also there were noiseless tears streaming down her face. He silently observed her for a few seconds and realized that something was very wrong, because he had never before seen such pain in his princesses' eyes.

"Hermione princess, what is wrong?" Dan pleaded with Hermione. He opened his arms wide so that she could come to him. Hermione did not waste even a second, she ran and jumped and nestled into his chest.

"Daddy, I had the worst dream. I dreamed that you and mummy had died and it was all because I didn't tell you something." Hermione sobbed into his chest. That was as close as she could get to telling the truth without giving away the future, or that she was from it. "I couldn't save you daddy, I didn't get there in time."

Dan was shocked, what could make his beautiful little six year old dream about her parents' death? And why would she have been the one to save them?

"It's okay princess, it was just a dream," Dan crooned to her. Holding her tight, he rocked her until her cries quieted and she was hiccupping. "See mummy and me are alright, although I could have done with some more sleep," her dad murmured to her.

"Dan what's going on? What is Hermione doing awake at five o'clock in the morning? Why is she in our room? I thought she had outgrown this." Hermione's mother Emma mumbled to her husband. Then she got a good look at her baby girl's face. Hermione was red and blotchy and her eyes were swollen. There was tear tracks drying on her face.

"What's wrong baby?" Emma said to her daughter. She deftly reached over and hauled Hermione out of her father's arms and wrapped her in an embrace that mothers had perfected throughout history.

"She's had a bad nightmare, and just needed a little comfort." Dan replied to his wife. He could see that Hermione was already falling back asleep. Dan decided that since they were already in bed they might as well get a little more shuteye before their alarm went off at seven thirty.

"Let's lie down and just cuddle her for a while. It won't hurt her to be snuggled just this once." Hermione's dad whispered, because Hermione had already fallen back asleep in her mother's arms.

"Alright Dan, but when we wake up you will tell me what this was all about," Emma said while stifling a yawn. With that both Dan and Emma Granger laid back down with their six year old daughter snuggled between them. They had no way of knowing that the nightmare that Hermione had said she had, was something that Hermione had actually lived through. Or that Hermione would spend the next twelve to fifteen years making sure it never happened in this new reality.

Meanwhile just about fifteen miles away from the sleeping family one of the boys that Hermione had came back to save was praying and pleading the God to send someone that could help. He was locked in a cupboard and didn't think his relatives would ever let him out after what had happened that day. He had no way of knowing that someone had been listening to his prayers and that his whole world was about to change, for the better. His name was Harry Potter.