Creating your own future

Chapter 8 – Starting a Revolution

Afraid the real action won't take place until the next chapter. For the moment it's more talking than anything else :)

Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to my latest reviewers, as always:

Guest – Thank you for your review and for your tip. My thoughts were a bit scattered when I first started writing, so thank you. I have updated the summary. Let me know what you think :)

Angelus Draco – More Marauder interaction in two chapter's time. Thank you for your review. Hope you continue enjoying it!
angel897 – Yay, thank you very much for your review. Please keep reviewing and let me know what you think.
carick of hunter moon – Yay, thank you very much for your review and you analysis. I hope I can keep your attention, then. Keep letting me know what you think, please.

MissLynn11 – Thank you for your long review ;) I think Albus in Vegas and purebloods in Vegas is definitely worth a chapter later on. Anyway, keep reviewing please. I will hopefully have the next chapter up tomorrow.

Please enjoy!

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"Is this really necessary, Albus? Can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"Nonsense, Minerva. We have procrastinated long enough. Now let's just wait until everyone is here."

Grinning madly, Albus leaned back in his very comfortable chair, relishing in the confusion of his staff members. Only a couple of days into the semester and already he was calling meetings; it was practically unheard of.

"Welcome to all new and old staff members. As you may have noticed I was absent for most of today. There is a very good reason for that: Our students have made me realise we have been stagnant for too long. We talk about wars that happened 40 years ago as if it was yesterday, we all – and I include myself in that – have preached equality, invention and spirit but have not promoted or enacted any of that. The founders united with the goal of educating children, of showing them the wonders of magic and improving everyone's life. What have we done since then? We have a ghost teaching history that died nearly two centuries ago, our muggle studies classes are a century out of date and we have no provisions for muggles to start learning about magical culture and vice versa. Children have had imagination stamped out of them – Margaret Mead once said that 'Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.' We have given the children rules upon rules, we have forced them to repeat exactly what we say and do, no room for mistakes. How then should they ever develop a sense of trying new things if that is the very thing we tell them not to do for 7 years? And then we are surprised when the children don't turn out to become great thinkers and innovators. We need to change. Our curriculum needs to change. I am asking all of you here and now to decide if you are willing to change, if you are willing to have every single part of your teaching and your teaching plans looked at in detail by several people, if you are willing to take criticism, if you are willing to learn and be educated, if you are willing to revolutionise the magical world, one child at a time."

Albus sat down again, watching as his teachers were motionless for a moment, still stunned by his speech, by what he was suggesting. But soon the first person to disagree stood up. Hugh, their muggle studies teacher, was the first in line.

"You can't possibly be serious, Albus! We are the best educational institution in the world; everyone is honoured to be invited to Hogwarts!"

"Compared to whom?"

Hugh looked at him, confused.

"Excuse me?"

"Compared to whom? We only have a handful of magical schools across the world. 6, maybe 7? There is not much competition, not much challenge. We are the best by reputation, by being the first school of magic to ever exist. We are not judged by what our students are capable of when they live in the real world. We are not judged by the teachers we employ nor by the curriculum we teach. You have no grounds for comparison because if you do start to look at what we teach and how these children have turned out we failed. Not only us, but the others too. So I ask you again, on what grounds?"

There was a pause as everyone contemplated his words, but once again it was Hugh who argued, lips curled into a sneer.

"Then what would you judge us on? Against muggles? Is that what you are suggesting?"

Part of Albus wondered why he had ever employed someone so obviously biased against muggles in the very subject meant to teach understanding of them.

"Partly. Mainly I ask that you look at yourselves, that you look at the students who left Hogwarts in recent years and ask yourselves why are there no new inventions, no brilliant ideas being discussed? Did you know muggles landed on the moon – walked on the moon? They can traverse over to USA in as little as 2 hours. They evolve by leaps and bounds everytime we turn our heads. What have we done that could compare? I want to one day be able to have our students, our pupils achieve similar great accomplishments. I want to die one day knowing that I left the world a better place. I can't say that yet."

"But you won against Grindelwald!"

Albus leant forwards, hands on the table, blue eyes intently fixed on each and every one of his teachers.

"And I ask you what has changed since then? Politics, people's opinions, rights? Everything is the same! We have another dark lord on the rise, another one with exactly the same goals. That should tell you how NOTHING HAS CHANGED! It's enough. I say we fight against this complacency. Are you with me?"

Even Hugh hesitated before replying.

"I believe you will be looking for a new muggle studies teacher as of next week. First week in, one week's notice. I don't agree with this."

Albus leant back, watching the man leave the room, feeling satisfied. It was always easier if they resigned before he had to fire them. Waiting for another moment, to see if anyone else made any moves, he then stood up again, hands spread on the table as he described his plans.

"Astronomy will have to catch up with muggle knowledge. I will order anything you need, Aurora. As for history and muggle studies: Obviously I'll be looking into replacements who are more up to date on their knowledge. Horace, please look into Chemistry and biology, they may be very useful. Minerva, I think you've kept up to date with the muggle's advances into biology, but please ensure that you are. Poppy, same for you. The machines and inventions muggles have made may be very useful to you, especially in medicine and biology. On top of everyone's subject needing to be updated and revised we will also start having muggle and magical evenings twice a week. We'll start off with teachers leading the magical evenings whilst one of the students will be doing the muggle ones. As everyone gets more comfortable we will start having all of them able to present what they like on these evenings and what they would like to introduce to their classmates. Besides Hogsmeade weekends we will also have excursions into the muggle world. There is so much to discover! We should also start having voluntary subjects students can take, such as arts, physical education, board games, Physics, politics, maths etc."

Grinning widely, feeling elated and excited at the new subjects, Albus finished the meeting.

"I will let you sleep on this. If you have any further suggestions please let me know. I was thinking after dinner on Tuesdays and Thursdays muggle culture nights and Wednesdays and Fridays magical culture nights. Off you hop to bed!"

Startled the teachers moved to leave the meeting room, intent on gathering in smaller groups in the teachers' lounge to further discuss these shocking new plans.

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That evening, to her own surprise Hermione sat down with Peter to help him with his homework. There was not much to do yet since they had only had a few classes for far but he was struggling with some of the more technical understanding of spells so despite her own reservations towards Peter, Hermione had offered her help when Sirius and James had been too focused on pranks to be of any aid to the boy. Besides, she was still on an emotional high from attending the concert.

"Okay, Peter, why do you swish and flick at all, then?"

The boy looked at her attentatively and she found herself softening. He was eager to please and tried his best; it was simply unfortunate that he'd chosen friends who would outshine him. He seemed quite decent still and he wasn't dumb, but people learned differently just as Ron and Harry had. She'd loved books, learnt everything from them whilst Harry learned through practice and would never really be interested in the theory behind them. Ron had been a brilliant strategist. She'd found out whilst they went through war mages training that he found it easier to learn if someone told it to him whilst he was otherwise engaged. His retention rate soared through the roof when she'd started talking whilst training.

Peter just seemed to require talking and different angles of approach to understand what she was getting at.

"Because it's the only way the spell works? If you don't do it in a certain order then everything may go wonky."

Hermione smiled patiently.

"That is sort of true. You need to remember that magic is innate. We all did magic as small children – either passively or actively. My best friend apparated himself when he was a child and another boy, Neville, his magic used to make plants blossom and heal injuries he had. Everyone's magic is different the same as we all find ourselves more or less talented in some areas more than others. But the point is your magic worked before you had a wand. You never needed a wand as a child to make things fly or to move anything. So why now?"

Peter looked puzzled.

"I don't know. Does magic become less accessible as an adult?"

She grinned. That was a good hypothesis.

"Good idea, but no. People mature – as a child you are automatically more orientated towards yourself, no matter how much you like other people. You want to play with a certain toy and suddenly that very toy flies towards you. What you have to remember is that your magic is you so if you need or want something strongly enough it will be done. As we grow up we learn that you can't always get what you want, that it may interfere with other people's wants and needs and you start to respect that. So we learn to suppress our desires and wants and we orientate ourselves to the people around us. Now, magic only surfaces in moments of high emotion, usually anger. At Hogwarts we learn that magic ought to be channelled in certain ways and our magic responds to that. It's like any muscle – you exercise it a certain way and that's the way it'll grow. In this case it learns to respond to using a wand."

Peter looked stunned and Hermione smiled at him again.

"You with me so far?"

Out of the corner of her eyes noticed that Peter wasn't the only one who was now listening to her. Remus and Sirius had paused in the middle of planning their prank, whilst James was actually sitting next to Lily, paying close attention to her words.

"Right, so over the millennia wizards figured out which flicks increased the potency of the spell slightly. Every little bit allowed you to use less and less of your magic. Now that doesn't seem so important now but if you are ever in a fight, it'll save your life. Basically you are born with a certain size of core and increases somewhat over your life as you use your magical 'muscles' – though for it to be a significant improvement you'd need to push past the boundaries of exhaustion incredibly often. If you use it up, you're out of luck. No magic to protect you. That is why it's important to know which flick and swish and stab makes which spell stronger or faster. The words by themselves however are merely there for your own imagination."

Hermione shrugged slightly. She wasn't quite sure how to explain this bit so she paused momentarily to figure out the best way to express what she meant.

"Basically your magic does what you want it to do. It doesn't understand language. It works on intent. You must want and need the result to happen before you magic will allow it to happen. That's why it's so difficult when you first come to Hogwarts. You have to learn to focus all your willpower on that one goal. If you are distracted then that means that it will only happen half-way, not at all or a mix of two which could prove deadly. Watch, I'll show you."

Hermione called her wand to her right palm. She splayed out her hand, showing the wand lying in it motionless.

"Now, Peter show me your lumos."

Confused, he complied. He flicked his wand and muttered Lumos. A gentle glow emitted from the tip of his wand and cast a light across him. At her nod he used nox to extinguish his wand before turning back to her.

Grinning mischievously, wand still lying motionlessly in her hand, she said

"Light."

To everyone's surprise a light was on the tip of her wand.

"Brighter."

Slowly the light on her wand increased until people were starting to shield their eyes.

"Dimmer. Float."

The light dimmed until everyone could see it again and then they watched as the light left the tip of the wand and started hovering mid-air instead.

She loved these parlour tricks though it was actually incredibly strenuous work. Ironically enough she'd have a much easier time casting Protego Maxima or creating golems without moving her wand. The Lumos was a spell that wasn't used much as torches were much easier to use and didn't slowly drain their magic. In turn it meant that she hadn't ever experimented with it and this was actually her first time doing this now.

"What you can actually do is not use words at all. The words are only there to give you something to focus on, something that makes it clear to your own brain what you are trying to achieve. The reason we use Latin is simply because it used to be the language people used when spells were first invented. In the Wizarding world it remained a language for people in the higher echelons of society for centuries longer than in the muggle world."

They watched as she made the light explode into a shower of tiny sparks before staring at her open-mouthed.

"So, Peter, the reason you're having trouble transforming a slug is twofold. First, you probably don't particularly need a slug to transform into a hedgehog. The second is visualisation. You need to know what hedgehogs look like and move like before you transform the slug into them as otherwise you'll have trouble turning it into a convincing animal. Also, the bigger the difference between the two, the harder it'll be. That means if you're trying to turn a slug into a mouse you'll be more likely to succeed than if you decide to turn it into a thestral or a horse as you're trying to turn a small mass into a huge mass. It'll be difficult. Your magic can do it, but it'll expend more magic than you probably want to on a first try, never mind the fact that you always have to use more magic the first time you try any spell than any subsequent attempt. Now, what animal do you know incredibly well?"

Peter paused for a second as he contemplated her question before replying. She'd seen his eyes flit over the boys, obviously trying to decide if their forms weren't too big.

"My kneazle at home."

She grinned. She remembered Crookshanks very well too. Hermione quickly summoned a small slug from outside before placing it before Peter.

"Now, you know how your kneazle behaves, how it moves, what it looks like. Remember it, imagine it, down to the last detail. Remember what it smells like, what sounds it makes."

Hermione watched and waited patiently as Peter closed his eyes and called his house pet to the forefront of his memory. When he gave her a tentative nod, she pointed at the slug.

"Okay, now say the spell. Point your wand at the slug and think of how much you really want to have your pet here instead."

Live to live animal transfigurations were always hard but Peter succeeded on his first try. There, in front of him, sat a live kneazle, licking its paws and looking down at the humans staring at it. It really did look like a fantastic transfiguration.

"Wow, Pete, this is incredible."

Sirius clapped his friend on the back and she watched as the small boy lit up with happiness at this accomplishment. For once he'd been the one to impress his best mates and he seemed over the moon as they all swarmed him to congratulate him and to pet his kneazle.

Even James, who was admittedly the best in the school at transfigurations, admitted to being impressed at how lifelike the kneazle was – especially after it scratched his hands when he mocked it.

These things had all been taught in war mages training. They'd allowed them a grand total of one day to come to terms with the concept before they had damn better be able to not use incantations or move their wands. Then they were taught to moderate the amount of magic they used for each spell so as to maximise impact whilst conserving energy. Well, not so much taught as forced to do it over and over again until they could either do it right or collapsed; sometimes both.

Smiling, Hermione watched as Peter's face lit up as he was for once in the middle of the Marauders, gesticulating and excited, his friends and Lily hanging onto each word. Quietly she retreated to the girls dorms, deciding she needed to get some sleep in. Besides, she'd probably wake up far too early anyway.

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That night she dreamt of happier times, times spent with Harry and Ron, goofing off, playing Quidditch, having snowball fights, the three of them on the run from Death Eaters – it had been fun, almost like a game at first when they played what seemed like hide and seek at times. They had been crowded together in one small tent, her between the two boys. Sometimes they lay beside the fire and stared at the sky, trying to distinguish constellations. They had been children, innocent. She didn't think even Harry had quite a grasp on how dangerous everything had been. It had been almost like a game to run away from the adults and to do this. Because good always won and evil never triumphed. Blissfully innocent and unaware. She missed those times. Times where she'd look at people and see the good in them, where she'd see the wonder in new discoveries as Albus had today. But she had lost that sense of wonder, had lost a huge part of herself in the war and she wasn't sure she could ever regain it.

3.13 a.m. really was no time to be up but as always her body had kicked into gear and forced her to busy herself with something. She could not sit endlessly anymore, couldn't just enjoy leisure time, always had to be doing something, thinking something, occupied around the clock.

With swift, silent movements she got herself dressed and ready before sneaking out of the tower and down towards the abandoned classroom she was using to conduct her experiments.

The one thing she'd found out before she had taken that step back in time was that only active and large amounts of latent magic interfered with electric equipment. On the other hand runes were fine as the magic infused in them was minimal. Hogwarts itself would blow out any electrical equipment and most battery operated equipment as well due to large amounts of magic that had been absorbed by the castle.

Runes inscribed on the equipment would, theoretically at least, prevent magic from interacting with it; it would sort of create a non-magic bubble around the object. At least that was her theory – or her currently most prevalent one. She had several other theories, should this one fail. But for the moment tests seemed positive, though those had been on normal chairs and desks.

Of course as soon as she'd activated the rune set she'd inscribed on the alarm clock she found it blowing up into her face. Huh. Maybe one of the other rune sets would work better.

She set the clock aside to investigate later as she picked out the next clock and looked at her notes to select one of the other 16 permutations of runes she'd come up with for this.

At 7.32 a.m. Hermione found herself covered in dust, soot and with clock parts on her clothing. Nonetheless she was smiling. Her 16th variant of runes had worked – of course it had to be the last one she'd tried! But it was working. The alarm clock was ticking away and any spells she'd thrown at it fizzed out.

With a short spell she was clean again as she joined the Gryffindors for breakfast. Hermione Granger – now Winchester – had managed to make muggle equipment operate in magical environments. Take that, stupid purebloods! Hah!

Quickly eating her food she walked towards her first class of the day. Potions. Though that reminded her that she, somehow, needed to befriend Severus Snape. She was not entirely certain how to go about that yet though.

Sighing slightly Hermione went into the room, mind racing. Already she was in front of her first hurdle. So many plans, so many things she needed to accomplish.

It turned out to be a long day, which felt only longer when she went back to the alarm clock in the afternoon before her next class and found the alarm clock had exploded after all. The only positive she found in the day was when at 9.32 p.m. as she was frustrated and sitting on the astronomy tower, staring at the starlit sky whilst she ruminated on her continued failures to adjust the runes correctly, Albus Dumbledore sank down on the floor next to her and quietly handed her a hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Hands closed around the hot cup she allowed herself to inhale the strong sugary scent from the drink before taking a sip.

"I think Minerva is alternating between thinking I have actually gone mental to thinking it's an ingenious idea. She keeps giving me these looks and I'm half-afraid I'll wake up the next morning in a straitjacket."

Hermione laughed at the image of Albus Dumbledore, Surpreme mugwump, in a straitjacket thanks to his deputy.

"It's not that funny."

Grinning back at Albus, who could barely suppress his answering grin, she responded. "Oh, but it is."

Exhaling gently, she let go off the image and asked Albus what had been nagging at her for some time.

"Did you ever find that after the war you were... almost looking for another fight? Did it ever feel like it's all you have ever known?"

Albus gave her a sympathetic look, before heaving his own sigh.

"It's always so much more complicated than anyone makes out. The adrenaline will stop, but it will take its time. Your body is expecting another attack and can't quite grasp the concept of relaxing fully anymore. It will take time, nothing else will help, unfortunately."

Hermione hummed, acknowledging his reply whilst assimilating the information.

"Did you know that when muggles fight for every 52,000 shots fired only one person is actually killed in war. As much as people bluster and talk to take another one's life is hard. To kill someone even in a kill or be killed situation is so incredibly hard. Most people don't manage it. And it kills a part of you, every time you do it and yet I know that for some people there is no cure, there is no help. Life will genuinely be better if these few individuals are removed. But it never gets easier. Why do people and children glorify death and killing so much? How do they idolise killing their fellow human beings, fellow wizards and witches?"

"Because, my dear, despite everything we've been through we would not ever wish this life on anyone else. We would not want them to suffer as we have. In turn we keep quiet about the horrors we have seen and done in the name of the light."

Albus stared outside, a small part of him wondering why he was being so open to this teenager. Yet a larger part of him knew that not only was she a vital part in whatever was to come but that she was a young girl who had seen and done too much. One of his students, in pain – and he'd help them every time if he could.

"Part of it may stem from embarrassment at examining our deeds in the harsh light of the day. But a part of it certainly is also that we have no wish to revisit our decisions, to question if we ever were doing the right thing at all, for surely the other side, our enemies, were also thinking they were doing the right thing. So who decides which side was right after all – the victor? But that is no justice. That is not fairness. We claim to fight for the light yet any action taken against other witches and wizards directly disputes this. We speak of glorious fights and doing the right thing, we congratulate each other for winning against the other side and yet they are all fellow brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters and sons. No less worthy than ourselves and all fighting for a cause they believe in."

Hermione watched as Dumbledore's gaze was fixed onto a distant past, memories of a war he'd buried resurfacing.

"I received an Order of Merlin 1st class for defeating an old school friend. I was told it was an honour and that I should be proud. Yet we had both been misled by our own ideas of grandeur and our own impressions. Neither of us was perfect, neither of us was light but neither of us was dark either. I believe that given a chance people can change. Who are we to decide that this is all they can be?"

Hermione tilted her head slightly, as she contemplated Dumbledore's words. Albus had received a rude awakening but Grindelwald had not. She wondered what would've happened had both continued together onto that path to destruction.

"I have noticed that people like to fit others into categories of light and dark, good and evil, Gryffindor and Slytherin. They forget that all we are is shades of grey, we all have the capacity for unspeakable good and immense evil within us. They say that the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Our biggest problem is our intense conviction that what we are doing is the 'right thing' to do. People continuously evolve and change, that's the beauty of it. We are not stagnant, we can change, we can become better or worse."

She remembered Peter, the boy who had gone on to betray his friends, betray his best mates and everyone he held dear – the boy she'd left in the common room was as far removed from that as he possibly could be. He was intent on protecting his friends but he intended to do so by standing side by side with them. No longer was he an outsider looking in, feeling unappreciated and abandoned. He'd made himself a part of the group now more than ever. People could change. It was the reason she'd done the time travel in the first place.

"I think that is the real problem in a war situation. You fight people and you kill people and with that you kill the thousand of possible people they could have been. Who knew that the next day they wouldn't have changed their minds? The problem is that life isn't fair and it isn't just. Life is what we make of it. We're going to have to live with the fact that we killed someone's family, left someone without the one they loved. It was our decision. It was neither right nor wrong. They are dead and we are not. All we can do is live life as well as we can, hope to atone for any sins we do and hope that the next time we find ourselves in the same situation we are capable of making the hard calls still, no matter the cost to ourselves. They say that before you enter a war you need to remember what it is you're fighting for. I fight for the innocent children my friends could have been. The innocence we lost in the fight, the lives we lost in the fights. I want James, Sirius, Lily, Peter, Remus, Mark, Nicola and all the other children at this school to remain just that. Children. I don't ever want them to have to decide if they are ready to kill, I don't ever want them to lose that sense of wonder. That is what I want to achieve, that is what I fight for and it is what I would not only die for but also what I would kill for. What do you fight for, Albus?"

And for once Albus Dumbledore found himself speechless.

He'd come here intending to cheer her up, intending to give her a short insight, to show her that there was still good in the world. Instead he found himself taken aback, shocked and unsure how to handle her latest revelations. Most of all, Albus was unsure what he himself would be willing to fight for. He hadn't been forced to put a wand to his fellow wizards in decades and in the mean time he found he had lost his reasons to fight. He didn't want to kill, didn't want to wage war anymore. He wanted to forgive, to allow people to change; but how would people change if they had no own impetus to do so?

Maybe it was time to re-examine himself. No one ever dared to challenge him, no one ever spoke their mind around him and even Minerva was guarded around him. Talking to this young student who had by all accounts seen too much was allowing him to rediscover the person he used to be, thoughts he hadn't had in a long time. Somewhere along the way he had stopped changing, had stopped improving and started to accept the laurels the Wizarding world was so keen to bestow upon him. He'd stopped questioning himself and that had now led to this disquieting moment where he had to realise how complacent he had become, something he had never thought of himself.

Hermione gave him a grim smile. She realised what Albus was going through – she'd had to do it more than once. It wasn't pleasant having to re-examine all your past decision, having to account to yourself why you made every move and what your intentions had actually been. People were ugly and admitting to one self that one's motives may not have been as pure as one had imagined they were was in no way pleasant.

"So, how'd the other teachers take it?"

Albus needed only a moment to compose before he replied.

"I do believe I shall be looking for a new muggle studies teacher and a couple of other teachers. Hogwarts' funds are incredibly high as they have not been touched except for teacher pay for 346 years. It should be more than sufficient to find some new teachers for some new subjects. Thank you for giving me the brochures from the muggle schools, by the way. It was very educational and I was surprised no parent had ever complained that we offered nothing similar."

Hermione smiled. Her own parents had had a few choice words to say but Hermione had for the second time in her life defied her parents and never handed the letter over to her head of house.

"I am looking forward to the new curriculum. Can I suggest looking into hiring werewolves as well as other magical creatures? They are currently not being hired by anyone really or only a few are. Muggleborns, likewise, find it very hard to gain a foothold in the ministry. I believe Damocles has recently released a potion called Wolfsbane which allows werewolves to transform whilst keeping their mind intact. It would allow you to have a bigger selection of people to choose from for these positions. And Remus would surely benefit as well if you have a more experienced werewolf working here and both could keep their minds on the full moon."

"How do you know about Remus, Hermione? I don't believe he would have told you, he is far too secretive for that."

Albus was suspicious again. Well done, Hermione. Why don't you just blurt out that you're from the future, can't do any more harm anyway.

"I knew a werewolf, he was actually one of the people who taught me. Anyway, it only took a month for me to figure him out and that was when I hadn't ever met a werewolf before. You know I have scratches on my cheek from when I encountered a fully transformed werewolf. It wasn't hard at all to figure Remus out, especially since the full moon was just past when he was on the train. The symptoms are kind of hard to miss once you know what you're looking for."

There was no need to let Albus know that she had noticed him putting his wand away again, no need to let him know that she knew he was weary of her every now and again. But by god, it hurt. Albus had been part of her family, especially once Harry and Ron had disappeared. Albus was the only one she'd still been in touch with every now and again. He'd been the one to lead the rescue, the one to send in the house elf to apparate her out of Camp Potter before he'd laid the last ward lines to its destruction. He had saved her and he had been a mentor and good friend of hers.

Now, in this time he knew none of that. She was a new girl who had, barely here for a few days, managed to befriend the house elves, tell him she had a glamour on and tell him in no uncertain terms that she had killed people. Yes, she couldn't deny that he had every right to be suspicious but that did nothing to lessen the pain in her heart.

Yeah, it was turning out to be a great day.

They sat together for another few hours, student and headmaster, silently ruminating on the past days and the future.

It came as a surprise to both of them when Hermione suddenly managed to resolve the issues she'd been having with the runes a couple of days later.

Proudly she turned up in Dumbledore's office to highlight the runes and after several demonstrations they made their way to the ministry whilst she was officially excused from classes for the day. It was Thursday and the day turned more exciting than either of them had imagined, as the timeline had begun to diverge and events took place which hadn't originally until several months later. Hermione hadn't planned for this nor had she been expecting it and yet she found herself in the middle of it and once again couldn't help but wonder if Harry's saving people thing along with his infamous bad luck hadn't rubbed off on her because there could only be so much coincidence.

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Well, sorry for the long wait. Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think...

Also – are there any movies you would personally like to have shown on muggle nights for all the school? Or anything else very muggle-introductory that you think should appear? Please let me know if you can think of anything!