So, here I am again with a new chapter - which took me longer than I wished. But my internet connection decided to just off itself and see how I would deal with it (mental breakdown followed by inspiration XP) and so it took me longer to upload. Plus uni restarted so I had that to concentrate on as well.

Anyways, I'm breaking with the line of the original story and still hope that you will enjoy!


She smiled at the woman through her Glamour. Hermes Granger was fourteen, small and lithe as he weaved through the crowd in the Leaky Cauldron, masterfully carrying a tray full of glasses and bottles back to the bar. Tom smiled at her from behind and Hermes nodded back, giving him a smile of his own.

Walking around in the Leaky and carrying heavy trays of full or empty glasses, cups and bottles had strengthened her muscles and she realized that she had grown a lot more during the summer, now almost looking over Tom, who was not all that tall anyways. For Hermione it was still a small accomplishment.

The pretty owl that she had named Sif was around her mostly these days, enjoying her company and whenever Hermione would sit on a bench in Diagon Alley during her pauses, Sif would join to sit on her shoulder and read over her shoulder. Tom had lent her a few clothes that would allow her to mingle with the magical crowd and not be immediately detected as a muggle. She enjoyed the feel of trousers immensely, and liked how she looked in Tom's old clothes – apparently he liked it as well.

Ever since she had detected the Used Section at Flourish and Blott's and the Second Hand Bookshop Veritas, she had been spending a little money on books that would fit into her backpack additionally to everything that she had already there. She was aware that she would need a hide-out for her belongings while she only had a backpack.

When her wand vibrated, she smiled, tapping it once with her hand and cancelling the time-charm – while it was one of Alecto's charms for the kitchen, it was perfect if she wanted to get back to the Leaky on time from her pause.

Closing her book on Dragons, she breathed easy, smiling at Sif who shook herself out of her sleep and blinked her big brown eyes sleepily at Hermione. "Wake up, sleepy head, my pause is over… I'll go back."

Sif clipped her beak as if in a yawn but didn't leave Hermione's shoulder as she stood up and made her way back to the Leaky. The owl purred, pushing her feathery soft head against Hermione's temple, who, in turn, gently scratched the owl beneath the beak where she liked it most. Overly content at the reaction of her well-trained human, Sif chirped satisfied.

"There you are, Hermes."

Tom smiled at her as she entered through the back door, gently prying Sif from her shoulder and setting her down on the lean of her stool, before she took off her coat and looked expectantly at Tom.

The innkeeper had picked her up from King's Cross last summer again, had given her the small mansard again and had allowed her to work. Hermione was content, she was happy that she had somewhere to go back to after a year of work and learning and the Leaky was just the place that she liked. People came every day, drank, ate, talked – she liked to listen to what people said, liked to look at them and their expressions; she liked being in such a lived-in place.

"Come on, we got an important guest later that day. The minister will be staying at the Leaky and we'll need to make sure that his suite is nothing but impeccable… and we'll house Harry Potter."

At her saucer-like eyes, Tom shrugged. "I don't know either, Hermes. Dumbledore says he has a stay over the holidays but apparently there were... inconveniences." Hermione suppressed a snort: with Harry there were always inconveniences, even if he just stumbled into them most of the time.

It appeared that the Minister Suite needed a complete once-over and Hermione was only too happy to comply. She worked all day, sweating when the heat became too overbearing, but still too engaged in her rearranging and cleaning away. When she was done though, she had accomplished quite the feat.

"Just in time, lad." Tom's voice reached her when she was finished, the man smirked. "Minister just came in a few minutes ago." Behind him Hermione could see the Minister's trunks floating. Hermione went down to the pub again as Tom arranged the last few things for the minister and found Alecto, the kitchen assistant, already steaming from extortion. He'd been doing the pub, the kitchen and the cleaning up for quite some time.

"I'm taking over the cleaning-up, 'lecto." Hermione volunteered, and the sweating man smiled at her as she grabbed the nearest tray and went to collect glasses and orders. Mostly she was a full-fledged assistant during the summer, though Tom did not like to see it when she worked at the bar, which was understandable, she was, after all, only fourteen. Loading and unloading a few glasses, she started towards a table with a full tray of glasses.

"Hermes!"

Skillfully she pivoted on her heels as she heard her name called out. Harry rushed towards her and she had only that much time to stop him from eloping her in a hug that would have crashed the delicate glassware on her tray along with the rather pricy peach-liquor within.

"Harry!" she smiled as she stepped back carefully, "How nice to see you here."

The boy, never the quickest, looked at her for the first time and noticed the full tray in her hands. "Are you working here?"

Hermes nodded – she knew that she had to explain him everything at least twice… and she remembered that she'd told him just after having pushed Lockhart into the drain. "Over the summers, I am an orphan after all and Tom was nice enough to take me up…" she cringed at the reminder that she had work to do, "I really need to be going now, though, Harry, catch you later, yes?"


"So they think that Sirius Black has broken out of Azkaban to come and hunt you down, to finish you off, yes?" Ron asked over munching his chocolate-frog, Hermes pulled a grimace, making Lysander and Harry smile slightly – those two would never truly get along, but somehow they matched.

The black-haired boy nodded. "That's at least what the Minister thinks anyways. And seeing as I have no other information than that which was given to me, I should be inclined to believe the same…"

Hermes observed the unmoving posture of the professor opposite of her. R.J. Lupin's ears were continuously twitching, even though his breathing was still the same, deep, even in- and exhale it had been all the ride long; not to mention, his eyes were rolling quickly under his thin eyelids, but she could not be sure whether or not they were listened to.

"I'd say, Harry, that we take a closer look at it. The ministry, if I may remind you, also does not believe that Voldemort had attacked Hogwarts the last two years – they might have their own agenda, now suddenly taking notice of you…" she threw in cautiously, the boy nodded.

"That is why I am not all that convinced. I mean, they've never taken a real interest in me, and additionally I believe that there is more than one person that may want to take revenge on whoever it is and the Ministry also doesn't jump up then to make sure they're alright. I think-"

The screeching stop of the train interrupted Harry mid-sentence as he almost fell on top of Ron. Blushing the two boys quickly disengaged from one another, but Hermione and Luna had seen the looks and exchanged smirks.

"What is this?" Ron had forgone his umpteenth chocolate frog for the sake of inquiry, pushing his fingers against a quickly cooling window where frost-flowers bloomed. Hermione narrowed her brows – it didn't usually get all that cold at once, but indeed, it was getting cold, too quickly for it to be natural.

Her breath caught as suddenly a dark silhouette appeared in front of their compartment… "Lysander." But the blond boy was in the same state of shock as she herself. She hardly saw the hand opening their compartment door, lost to the overwhelming, yes painful, feeling of despair and agony.

Blackness threatened to surround her, when, in a last attempt for security, she fell forward and right on top of her new professor.

"Expecto Patronum." Light.

She coughed when she finally managed to get rid of the cold feeling inside of her, looking at Lysander, who was blinking with wide eyes that screamed of panic.

"Lysander…" she whispered again, glad when she got a reaction of the blonde. The professor, now standing, looked around, assessing the students around him who were still choking and trying to get rid of the clammy feeling.

"Here." Each of them received a chocolate bar, Hermione looked at it and then her professor, slowly sitting back down on her seat. "It will drive the cold feeling away."

Hermione did not ask twice. "What was that professor, if you don't mind me asking?"

Lupin looked at her with a nervous smile, now handing Ron his share of chocolate as well, before he sat down again. "That was a Dementor, they are known for sucking out the happiness in people's lives… which is why you are probably all feeling… a little bereft at the moment."

Gladly though, a second incident of that caliber did not occur during their carriage-ride to Hogwarts.


"Mister Granger, as you are probably aware, most of your lessons… cross each other. You have taken as many subjects as possible it seems and on a straight timeline that will not be successful."

She stared disheartened at the headmaster, ready to swallow her thirst for knowledge and cancel a few lessons. Dumbledore looked at her over the rims of his glasses, giving her his usual twinkle.

"Though on a… less straight timeline it is possible… and we are wizards after all, aren't we?"

She watched with amazement as Dumbledore produced a time-turner, explaining her the finer workings of the small apparatus. She would be able to travel through time with it – backwards naturally, it wouldn't do to end up in the future and stalk out the information she needed for the tests… even though she wouldn't do that anyways.

As the golden chain hung around her neck, she swallowed nervously, Dumbledore looked at her in earnest.

"Mister Granger, I must implore you not to tell anyone of your possession of the time-turner. People have always wanted to travel back in time to righten things, but everything that has happened in the past has a consequence in the future, Mister Granger. You cannot allow the wrong people to know about the time-turner, which is why I cannot let you tell anyone about this."

Ready to take a wand-oath, as she believed Dumbledore would make her, she nodded. The headmaster nodded back and smiled. "Well then, Mister Granger, hurry up, before you are late to your first class."

Hermione flew down the stairs – she had potions first after all and Snape never liked late-comers.


"So what's this all about?" Hermes appeared next to Ron, Lysander and Harry – Ron gaped open-mouthed.

"Where the hell do you come from?" Lysander, non-committing, handed her a cup of tea and motioned for her to drink it, Hermione did. The tea was bitter and disgusting, but as she had finished it, she handed it to Lysander, who exchanged it against her own cup.

All that Hermione could see were the buds of tea. "I'm supposed to read your future out of that…" she quirked an eyebrow at Lysander, who shrugged. Hermione sighed and opened the book, trying to see whatever in that… rest of tea-leaves.

"Well, what does his tea-cup say?" Miss Trelawney chattered interested, too close to Hermes' ear. She could smell the unmistakable stench of whiskey wafting from the woman, and instinctively stilled – she had learned her lessons in the Leaky Cauldron: drunken people were most offended if you leaned away from their alcohol-smell.

Hermione just couldn't believe that a teacher at Hogwarts would be daft enough to get so nattered that even a student could tell! Looking at the ridiculous teacher who was trying to encourage her, she spoke up, very clearly: "You should stay away from the alcohol."

Of course Trelawney wouldn't realize that Hermione had not spoken to Lysander, whom she knew not to drink, but instead went on to blabber about how her third eye was not open, blah blah blah. Instead, she reached for the cup that a bemused Lysander was holding in her hand to read of it.

"Ah… you're a sibling, a girl and a boy…" she frowned then, "But you, have a brother."

Silence reigned for a moment, before, ever so slowly, Hermes stood up, at eye-level with the older woman, mustering the best mask of rage that she could call up and calming her voice to a level where it sounded low and threatening, oh thank Merlin for having put her into the classes of the Master of sounding threatening – Snape's lessons were manifold.

"Are you telling me… that I am girl, Miss?" she hissed the title so vehemently that she could see small specks of spittle sprinkling the thick glasses of the Divination teacher. When the woman did not respond, she stepped back. "I thought so." And then, because there was nothing better to do and Trelawney was dangerously close to the truth, she left without another word.


Lysander found her later in the Room of Requirement, checking over her Glamours – the two stared at each other utterly perplexed for a few moments, before Hermione swallowed, looking at her friend. "Was my show convincing?"

Luna nodded enthusiastically, before they dove for a reassuring hug, Hermione released a deep breath. "Merlin, I thought that coot had caught me, right up there. I was almost sure that she'd go screaming to the headmaster and demand that I be evicted from school. Damn that was… too close."

Luna pulled her closer, before moving away and smiling at her. "Well, you will be glad to hear that the two of us are only half of the female student population at Hogwarts then."

Hermione was actually ecstatic.


What's this, what's this? There's something in the air. What's this, what's this? There's magic everywhere.

SO close to detection! Now you know why Hermione never returned to Divination ;)

I want to thank bushyhaired-american-nerd (thank you 3), arabellagrace (thank you as well), Anonymous (don't forget Hermione's a bookworm - so she went to the library to figure it out), the Guest (hmmm... valid question, I have yet to think of a fitting answer), smurfgirlz (unfortunately little of Dobby, but there will be a house-elf), Ceralyn (I think it was the last of her family, but I'm not so sure yet...), douglas. bailey. 7946 (we all are ;P), TequilaNervous (thank you), Pellaeonthewingedlion (thank you) and renaid (thank you for the compliment and I hope you stay with us) for the lovely, encouraging reviews =D. They made me billion tons of happy.

Also, thank you Pesche, astig01, Kawaii girl 4 life, Ceralyn, Princess Eclpise and Sea Goddess Michiru for the Story Alerts. And thanks to renaid for the Author Alert.

And thank you Smurfgirlz, Riddlergirl101, and Sea Goddess Michiru for the Favs (and thank you Smurfgirlz for the Author Fav).

I hope I left no one out. Are you curious to see who the other witches at Hogwarts are?

REVIEW PLEASE!