Disclaimer: Once again, I own nothing dealing with Harry Potter or anything that the great J.K. Rowling has so graciously bestowed upon us. Thank you J.K. Rowling, I am your eternal slave forever more.

A/N: I would just like to say that I am sorry that I have not been updating lately, but my computer has been screwing up a lot lately and I am so happy cuz my mom just got me a new laptop. I hope you guys like this update.

The small group entered the medical ward in the hospital. As Harry and Ginny set Draco carefully in a nearby chair, Hermione went up to the service window and inquired about how soon the doctor would be able to see the next patient. The nurse looked up at her and sighed. She had a sour look plastered on her face.

"He'll be with you when he can," she said in a monotonous voice. Then, she looked back down at her magazine, Witch Weekly, and began to flip the pages once again.

"Well, do you suppose you might know about when the doctor will be able to see him?" Hermione persisted, nodding her head over at Draco. The witch looked at Draco, and then sighed wearily.

"Look, get off my back, alright? I don't know when the doctor will be in, so you'll just have to wait until he does come." And without another word, she closed the window.

"Unbelievable," sighed Hermione. She took one last look at the window and then went back to where the others sat.

"So?" asked Draco. "What did she say? Will the doctor see me now?"

"I'm afraid we'll have to wait until she's done with her filing," sighed Hermione, slumping into the chair next to Ginny.

"Filing what?" asked Harry.

"Her bloody nails," mumbled Hermione.

"Well, this is just bloody great," grumbled Draco, propping his ankle on an adjoining chair. "I'm sitting here hurt and these people don't even care."

"Well, there are others that are even more sick than you are," said Neville.

"Shut up, Longbottom," snarled Draco.

"So, now what do we do?" sighed Hermione. But no one really had to say anything. Hermione dug into her pocket and pulled out McGonagall's diary. She skipped a few pages that didn't seem to be too interesting until...

'November 1st,

'After that disastrous troll incident that happened last night, my nerves have been all jittery. That troll could have seriously harmed not only young Mr. Potter, but Weasly and Granger as well. Even though Harry did prove to be quite a strong wizard, he could have seriously gotten himself hurt. And I'm not so sure weather to believe that it was, in fact, Miss Granger who had been so careless in her choice making as to actually go looking for that thing.

'But now I'm faced with another kind of problem. One that I just pray does not get out of control. I fear that Albus still loves me. I was on my way to his office last night, after that horrible incident, to deliver some papers dealing with some of the curriculum that I thought might be interesting for the students. I was about to enter his office when I heard him talking. At first, I thought he might be with a minister. But when I peeked in, I saw only Albus in the room.

'This, I thought, was odd, to say the least. But then, I caught a few words of what he said. But to better understand what has happened, I should place in here a porthole to this event...'

The group looked at each other in fear. What should they do about it? That seemed to be the question on all their minds.

"Well?" asked Hermione. "Do you suppose we should actually go back into the past? Should we look and see what had happened?"

"Well, we can't all go," said Ginny.

"Oh pooh, why not?" asked Draco. Then, he looked at his leg. "Oh, yeah."

"I'll stay here with Draco," said Neville. It was obvious that he didn't want to get harmed in any way.

"And if Neville stays, I stay," said Seamus.

"Why don't you go, 'Mione?" suggested Ginny. "We'll all stay here and wait for the doctor to finally come out." Hermione sighed and nodded.

"Okay, here I go," she said. "But if you guys are done before I am. Don't forget to take the diary with you. I don't want to be left behind." The others nodded and then, before she knew it, she felt herself being pulled into the diary, the same way Harry had been pulled into Tom's diary in his second year.

Flashback

Hermione felt herself fall heavily upon the cold stone floor of a Hogwarts hall. She looked around and sighed as she remembered these halls. Now she would never see them again. But her unhappy thoughts were interrupted when she heard footsteps walking quickly towards her. She quickly stood and saw Professor McGonagall coming straight towards her, a stack of papers in her hand.

"Professor McGonagall," she said quickly, trying to explain her presence in the diary. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to read your diary, but when I read this passage to the others, they just-," But McGonagall didn't seem to see her as she walked right past her and continues down the hall. Hermione just shook her head and followed her favorite teacher.

She followed McGonagall all the way to Dumbledores office. The teacher mumbled the password and then proceeded up the now moving stairs. Hermione quickly followed, not wanting to be left in the hallway and miss everything that had happened in the office.

She saw everything that McGonagall said had happened up until the part when she had stopped writing and left the porthole. Then, she heard Dumbledore talking to himself, and she listened intently so as to try and catch everything that was being said.

"I know I should tell her, but I can't bring myself to do it. I don't know why I'm even thinking about this. This is totally unprofessional of me in every was imaginable." He ranted on a few more minutes before McGonagall's name came up.

"That's it! I shall tell Minerva tomorrow how I feel." With that, McGonagall knocked on the door. "Come in," the headmaster called. McGonagall pushed open the door and walked in, Hermione forever at her heal.

"I have those papers I want you to look over," she said, setting the papers on his desk.

"Thank you, Minerva," said Dumbledore. He looked at her and smiled.

"Is there something that you should like to tell me?" McGonagall asked, suspicious of what he was waiting to tell her.

"Why would you ask that?" asked Dumbledore, a little taken aback by the directness of the question.

"I just thought I might ask," shrugged McGonagall, thinking that she should just wait until the next evening if it wasn't that important. She turned, but Dumbledore stopped her.

"Actually, Minerva, there is something that I have wanted to discuss with you," he said. She turned and faced him, an eye quirked.

"And what might that be, headmaster?" she asked hesitantly. He was now standing.

"Minerva, how much longer can we go without talking things out?" He asked. Hermione held a look of confusion on her face. What was he talking about? She wondered.

"I can go as long as you can, Albus," McGonagall replied coolly, placing her hands behind her back and clasping them.

"You know I didn't want to do it, Minerva," he said, now walking around the desk. He sat down on the edge of it and placed his hands in his lap.

"Sure you didn't," frowned McGonagall.

"I really didn't," said Dumbledore.

"Oh, come off it, Albus," shot McGonagall. "Look, I don't know what happened that night and I don't really care. All I know is that you broke my heart when you left me standing at the alter, and I just don't think I could ever forgive you for that."

Hermione's eyes were popping out of her head and her mouth was open, making her look like some weird goldfish at a carnival. What? Did she just hear her right? Were McGonagall and Dumbledore actually engaged at one point? And did Dumbledore actually leave her at the alter? So many questions and almost no answers at all.

"Minerva, please listen to me for just one second," pleaded Dumbledore. He went to McGonagall and grabbed her by both shoulders. "I really did not mean for that to happen. I just didn't want you to get hurt or angry because you married me. I always thought you could have done better than me."

"Well, you did hurt me," shot McGonagall, pushing Dumbledore off her. "I don't care what you thought. I loved you and even if you thought I could do better than you, I thought I WAS doing the best thing for me." With that, she turned and headed for the door to leave. But not before turning at the door and adding, "If I could have done better, I would have by now." And then she stormed out, angrier than Hermione had ever seen her get before. Then everything began to fade like watercolors in the rain.

Hi all, Always Hopeful here. Sorry this chapter is longer than any others that I have written. I just had a lot of ideas and didn't know where to stop.