Chapter Four: Thomas

"Hermione! There you are!" a dark-haired boy called out from the edge of the narrow passageway.

The witch looked up from her books and parchment and gave a horrified look of realization. "I was just on my way to meet you, I swear."

She shut the book and began shoving her things into her book bag. As Hermione grabbed the parchment she was writing on, the sudden movement knocked over the uncapped bottle of ink. The contents spilled across the table, making the young man chuckle.

"My essay!" Hermione shrieked.

"Shhhh," several students hushed from nearby tables. Embarrassed and extremely frustrated, Hermione picked up the parchment and let the ink drip off. "No, no, no," Hermione repeated to herself softly.

The wizard held his wand up to the ink-stained paper and pulled it away gently. With it, the ink was drawn away, leaving behing the words written in Hermione's writing.

"Nonverbal magic," the boy replied smugly. Filled with glee, Hermione grabbed the boy and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. She held the parchment up to admire the work. The grin on her face, however, fell once she saw the words added to her Arithmancy essay.

"Thomas!" Hermione yelled angrily, hitting the boy on the shoulder to emphasize her annoyance with him. "Take these notes off right now!"

"What notes?" the accused asked innocently. Hermione held the parchment up to the boy's face. In scrawled letters that looked unlike Hermione's own, across the page, in many places, it read: Wrong. Above the equations that Hermione had written, there were different equations and answers.

"Your theory was all wrong," he stated bluntly. "You used the wrong formula in your calculations and I fixed it. I suggest starting fresh. It'll be easier than trying to adjust your essay to fit the correct results."

Hermione balled her hands into fists. If the library weren't such sacred grounds for her, Hermione would have surely punched him.

"Infuriating," Hermione growled through clenched teeth, "You, Thomas, are absolutely infuriating."

The young wizard gave a slight frown. "If anyone should be upset, it should be me. I was the one who was stood up for our meeting on the Potions assignment."

Hermione stood with her hands on her hips. She opened her mouth to say something when a girl passing by called out, "Eli, we're late for practice!"

"Shoot, Ravenclaw's got the Quidditch pitch today. I have to leave now. We'll talk about the assignment later, yeah?" The young man grabbed his books off of the table and waved goodbye. "See you at dinner, Hermione." Hermione waved back.

Looking down at her essay, Hermione gave a small smile. It was December and it was a little over two months since she arrived at Hogwarts for her 7th year. Her "transfer" was not announced, and her sorting was done privately.

Ravenclaw.

It seemed fitting. Hermione had always felt that she would have done best in Ravenclaw. At first, it was unclear to her why the Sorting Hat had placed her in Gryffindor, but after her first few years, Hermione realized that it was her encounter with Harry that made her unconsciously want to protect him. The Sorting Hat recognized Hermione's brilliance, but it also considered her selflessness.

Although Hermione would often joke about it, it really was her intelligence that got the Golden Trio out of a lot of their messes, but without Harry, there was no need for her to go back to Gryffindor. This was a chance for her to see what could've happened had she pushed for Ravenclaw.

Then she had met Eli Thomas, a boy whose intelligence pushed Hermione to try harder in her classes. He was the brightest of his year, a title that Hermione, in her time, had owned. Not only was he the top of his class, but Eli was also Head Boy and captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. It baffled even Hermione that he was able to accomplish all this at once.

Eli approached Hermione first. As Head Boy and as a member of the Ravenclaw house, Eli was assigned the task of getting Hermione acquainted with the school. Hermione had to pretend she hadn't spent 6 years roaming the hallways of Hogwarts already. The school was far from being new, but it was fresher than the Hogwarts she knew. The books she had worn out from reading, she'd have to wear out again.

Being in Ravenclaw could not erase Hermione's memories of the warm, Gryffindor common room. There were no pranks by the twins, no giggling girls, and no crowds cheering over a game of wizard's chess. Hermione found the Ravenclaw Tower to be too quiet for her liking. So, she often went to the library.

On her frequent trips to the library, Hermione often ran into Eli.

Hermione reached up to get a book from a tall shelf. She was on the tip of her toes, but the book was just slightly out of reach. As Hermione lowered herself to rest her feet, the book she was looking for floated down into her hands.

"There you go," someone said from behind her. His voice was pleasant and reminiscent of someone she knew. Hermione looked up to find a tall boy with sandy blonde hair smiling at her.

"Thanks," Hermione replied. She shifted the large book in her arms nervously.

"Eli," the boy had said, "Eli Thomas."

It hadn't been that long since Hermione had last seen him. He had brought her on the tour of Hogwarts not two weeks before. They shared multiple classes together and often ate meals at the same time at the same table.

"I know. We've met before."

The wizard didn't seem offput by Hermione's attitude. "How are you adjusting to Hogwarts?" he asked, optimistic for conversation.

"It's been lovely."

Eli didn't seem to believe Hermione. She hadn't made any friends, focused too much on her studies, and was overly preoccupied with the ongoings of the Slytherin house.

"Is that the book you're using for your research?" the boy asked with a slight scoff.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Should it not be? The class text cites this book quite often."

"Mmhmm," the Head Boy murmured. He snapped his fingers and a brown book came flying off the shelf. "This is what you're really looking for."

"Magical Algorithms: Purposes and Properties," Hermione read aloud. The book looked and felt a lot thinner than the other textbook. The binding was still fairly tight, as if it were rarely touched.

"It's just more compact. Dense," Eli began, "But I don't think someone like you will have a hard time reading it."

Hermione took it as a compliment. It was flattering in a way Hermione wasn't used to. She couldn't find words, so she stood there shyly.

"It's good," the wizard reassured. "I've read it a few times over the summer break. It'd be... nice to have someone to discuss it with."

For Eli and Hermione, this was an offer of friendship that Hermione accepted by accepting the book. Their discussion of Arithmancy spilled over into other subjects and soon, the pair were inseparable study partners. They were almost equal in intelligence and drive. At times, Eli would abuse his Head Boy status to stay late in the Ravenclaw common room with Hermione to go over an essay or class notes.

It was a strange friendship, especially in that era. For a young man and a young woman to spend as much time together as they did, rumors were bound to spread.

Hermione is bethrothed to Eli. Hermione used a love potion to seduce Eli. Hermione transferred to Hogwarts to be with Eli. The rumors were all alike.

It was similar to Hermione's time, in a way. Having two best friends who were boys was sometimes an annoyance. Girls would constantly ask Hermione if she was dating Harry or Ron, or if not, who she'd pick if she were held at wandpoint and had to decide on one.

In a way, her companionship with Eli was different. Unlike Harry and Ron, Eli could hold his grounds in a conversation. He had ideas and the knowledge to back it up. Hermione didn't dare say it out loud, but she found herself open to the possibility that she was attracted to him.

Months with Eli, however, also meant months away from Tom, and months away from her mission. Her days at Hogwarts had been so normal that she had forgotten why she was at Hogwarts decades before her time.

November 29, 1938

I saw her today. She was with him, the Head Boy, in the library again. They argued but laughed before he had to run off, leaving her behind to study by herself. Quidditch is a waste of time and energy better spent on studies.

I could hear her repeating phrases aloud to herself, as she seemed to do when she found something frustrating to understand in her books. I was situated in the aisle nearby and everyone had gone to dinner, leaving the library to be in nearly complete silence aside from the turning of the pages and her murmurs.

I found myself missing the days in which she would read to us at the orphanage. Soon, I must return there for the holidays. Her presence will make it more tolerable.