Hermione chose Diagon Alley as her point of arrival, because as far as she knew from all the history books she read in the last weeks, mostly all the shops would be the same with only the owners having changed over time. She quickly checks her surroundings, making sure that she was where she wanted to be. The streets were quiet, and Hermione only saw two people wandering down the street, seeing as it was late already. She slowly walked down Diagon Alley, comparing everything she saw with how it looked during her own time. The buildings all looked the same, some were painted in a different colour or had a differently styled logo, but all in all, Diagon Alley was the same. Much to her relief, the newspaper stand just outside the main office of the Daily Prophet, was stacked with the newspaper for the following day. Hermione pulled out her purse, paid for one copy and continued walking down the Alley, towards the Leaky Cauldron. She knew that Tom was already the landlord and innkeeper of the Leaky Cauldron and that he most likely had a room available to rent. Hermione had first thought that going to stay at the Leaky Cauldron would be a terrible idea, because Tom would most likely know almost everyone and would question her presence, but it was also a place for travelling witches and wizards to stay if they live far away from London, so there must be a lot of people in and out of the Leaky Cauldron for Hermione to blend in.

She tapped the stones at the end of Diagon Alley and the tension in her shoulders and back left her when the wall began to shift. She could not wait to have a hot soup and a bed to sleep for the night. Time Travel is not as easy as she thought it would be and she was rather tired – it must take a lot more to travel so far back in time, she thought to herself while making her way over to the counter. Hermione noticed that only three people were still present this late at night. Two men sitting by the fireplace a game of wizarding chess between them and one woman sitting by the window seemingly staring into nothing.

"Good evening, Miss", a much younger looking Tom greets her, his familiar sounding voice putting a small smile on Hermione's face.

"Good evening, Sir. I wish to rent a room for a couple of nights, though I do not know how long I will be staying for", she says, pulling her purse out of her bag.

"Alright, I have a room for you, payment is due upfront on a weekly basis. If you leave early, you shall get the rest back", he replies after eyeing her for a short moment. She was dressed appropriately she knew so he was probably weary because of her late arrival.

"Thank you, Sir. Do you still serve food at this time? I have had a rather long journey and was hoping for a bowl of warm soup if you wouldn't mind", she smiles at him. He nods, while jotting something down on a parchment behind the bar. It could not be her name, because he never asked for it. Tom was a discreet man and as long as he got paid, he did not bother about people's business and Hermione was grateful that he had not asked for her name, the less people knew her name the better. It wasn't a common name after all, and Hermione wasn't sure how her stunt to travel this far to the past would affect her future.

"This is your key, room number 11. Second floor, stairs on your left."

After Hermione had paid him for the room and the soup, she made her way over to the second, unoccupied fireplace and sat down on the old leather couch. She opens the Daily Prophet to find that she had indeed succeeded with her travel through time. Tomorrow would be the 2nd of May 1942. Hermione merely skimmed the newspaper; she knew roughly what was going on during that time. Not only was the muggle world war still raging, but Grindelwald was also at his height of power and at open war with the world. It would only take two more years before Dumbledore would defeat him in an epic battle. She wondered what a younger Dumbledore would look like, but she knew that meeting the meddlesome headmaster from her time would do no good to her cause. She was not here to change the past and Dumbledore would most likely want to use her knowledge of future for his cause and Hermione was sure that he would not hesitate to get what he wants even if she were to refuse.

She deliberately chose the year 1942, not only because she knew that by this point Sarpuck was working as an Unspeakable, but also because she knew that Dumbledore and the rest of the wizarding world were too focused on defeating Grindelwald that they had time to pay attention to one witch minding her own business. At least she hoped that this would be the case.

When Hermione was finished with her soup, she thanked Tom and headed to her room. It was not very clean and rather small, but it would do for the next couple of days. When Hermione fell into her bed that night, she was out cold within seconds. Time travel was very taxing after all.

The next morning, she got up early, got dressed in more formal robes and prepared all her paperwork for her first meeting with Sarpuck. She knew that while it was very dangerous to reveal who she was to an ordinary witch or wizard, Sarpuck would believe her and he would be forced to keep the information to himself, due to his oath as an Unspeakable. Still, Hermione was nervous. It could take a while to get him to listen to her and what if he thought of her as nothing more than a delusional witch and got her admitted to St. Mungos? No – she could not think like that. Sarpuck seems to be a reasonable man and when she shows him her paperwork, he will believe her. She even has his own notes with her, to prove her point.

After a quick breakfast and a very short exchange of words with Tom, she pays him for the use of his floo powder and arrives at the Ministry of Magic at 10 am sharp on the 2nd of May in 1942. Her Head of Department had given her a little badge and told her to keep it on her person when walking through the Ministry. This way she would not have to sign in as visitor and she would not be detected as a person who should not be there. It was currently sitting in the right pocket of her robe and Hermione prayed that it would work as promised. Her Head of Department was not very clear about its origin and did not want to answer any of her other questions.

Knowing her way around the Headquarters she confidently walks over to the elevators, making her journey all the way to the ninth level. Confidence is your best friend, Hermione. She told herself repeatedly. Let them think that you are supposed to be here, they will think that you are supposed to be here.

Arriving in the corridor of the Department of Mysteries, she heads over to a little nook on the right-hand side of the only door. A little copper button, just like she remembers, was waiting for her to be pressed. This was invented only a couple years prior to her arrival here because the current Head of Department finally saw that to keep their work a secret, they had to keep unwanted visitors out. So, instead of barging into the most secretive Department inside the entire Ministry, you press the button and state the nature of your visit.

"Hermione Jean Granger, here to visit with Mr. Sarpuck to speak on an urgent matter", she says, after checking that the corridor is clear.

After a short while a short man with a beard opens the door and ushers her inside. The next stage of gaining entry to the Department of Mysteries was a meeting with the current Head of the Department as well as the person you wish to visit. You will be asked a couple of questions under the use of Veritaserum. They never ask questions about your personal life, only about why you wish to visit the person of your interest.

"Good morning, Miss Granger. My name is Mr. Sarpuck and this is our current Head of the Department of Mysteries. You have asked to meet me to speak on an urgent matter?", the short man with the beard begins, sitting down on a table opposite of her, while the Head of Department stands in the corner.

"Yes, thank you. Shall I take the Veritaserum now, before we proceed?", she asks innocently, earning herself a raised eyebrow from Sarpuck. The use of Veritaserum was not common knowledge these days and if someone knew they usually did not go blabbing about it.

"Here you go", he says, handing her the little vial.

"A drop should do."

"Alright. Now, my name is Hermione Jean Granger. I was born on the 19th of September in 1979 to two Muggle Dentists, and we lived in London, England. After graduating Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1999 I went to work for the Ministry of Magic at the Department of Mysteries. My assigned Room was the Time Room", she explains with a calm and steady voice. Sarpuck's eyes grow bigger with every word and the Head of the Department steps closer to the desk, before finally taking a seat next to Mr. Sarpuck.

"How was it possible for you to travel this far back in time?", Mr. Sarpuck asks her, the excitement in his eyes making Hermione wonder, if she looked like that when speaking about something she is passionate about.

"It is better that this information stays inside my head as it is too sensitive to be brought to light. This means of time travel was discovered in your future, so it is imperative that it stays this way, otherwise we would disrupt the entire timeline. I can however tell you as of why I came to this point in time", Hermione states, hoping that Mr. Sarpuck and the current Head of the Department would understand her reasoning.

"Do you have proof that you are indeed who you say you are, Miss Granger?", the unknown man asks her. He was tall, dark hair and vibrant green eyes.

"Yes, sir. My Head of Department handed me this letter and advised me to give this to the current Head of Department. He told me you would know", she says, pulling out the letter that was given to her on the Friday that he agreed to let her travel back to 1942.

The man quickly scans the letter, his face not giving away any emotions. He folds the letter neatly and puts it back into the envelope, before placing his hands on the table in front of him.

"Miss Granger, my name is Pollux Black, and I am the Head of the Department of Mysteries. We would like to welcome you to the Department and wish to accommodate you in any way possible during your stay with us. Mr. Sarpuck will be at your disposal and will be happy to assist you in anything you may need. I would suggest we take this conversation into the Time Room. While I do believe you are who you claim to be, I am most interested in hearing the why of your explanation", he says with a smile on his face.

Hermione was trying hard to keep her composure. This man sitting in front of her was the grandfather of Sirius Black. This man is part of the noble and most ancient house of black. He was also the grandfather to Bellatrix Lestrange, the woman who tried to torture Hermione into insanity. Hermione wondered what his views on Blood Purity were. She never heard much of him during her time at Grimmauld Place as he died during the time that Sirius was locked away in Azkaban. Either way Hermione knew that if she were to travel back in time it would do no good to reveal her blood status to anyone.

Hermione follows the two men down the corridor to the Time Room, where they all sit down on a set of couches that would not be there when Hermione would start working there.

"Are you working at the Time Room alone, Mr. Sarpuck?", Hermione asks with a small smile.

"Yes, Miss Granger. For the moment. Mr. Black is currently scouting at Hogwarts to see if any of the graduates of this year would be a good fit for our Department, but not many witches and wizards want to become Unspeakables", he explains, and Hermione nods her head in acknowledgement. The less people that knew about her existence the better.

"I came to this year particularly because during my work in the Time Room I have come across your notes on the concept of Time Travel. With a few altercations and over three years of work I was able to create a way to travel back to a specific time and place. During the last year I started to research a way for the traveller to travel back to the point where they left. I wasn't able to uncover this particular magic of Time Travel and after consulting with my Head of Department we decided that it would be a good idea to travel back to 1942, where we knew the most successful researcher of Time Travel would be working for the Ministry", she starts explaining carefully.

"To do what exactly? Work together to find a way to send you back to your time?", Mr. Black asks with a shake of his head.

"Not quite. It simply would not do to send one back to their own time. Me simply being here could have cause massive changes to the future I come from. We do not know how my arrival here has affected the future that I knew. Theoretically speaking should not have changed all that much so far. The only people who know who I am by name are you two and I have rented a room at the Leaky Cauldron without giving a name. But seeing that over 50 year lie between here and there, even the smallest conversation could change the entire future. Small acts, developing into something so much bigger – something we could never predict", Hermione tries to explain her understanding.

"It's called the Butterfly effect", Mr. Sarpuck speaks, looking at her amazed. He theorized about these things in his head, but seeing a young witch of her age, sitting before him and having such a vast understanding of it and grasping the concept of Time Travel in such a way astounds him.

"Exactly. So, it simply would not work to send me back to my time. We would have to find a way to undo the time travel completely. You could say we should attempt to travel back in time, but not to the past or the future, but back to the origin of the time travel, while also erasing my presence here and undo everything that I unintentionally changed already", she explained.

"Hold on a second, Miss Granger. Should not have everything happened already? As far as we understand, when one travels through time, they cannot really change anything as it had already happened anyway. How would you being here disrupt the timeline?", Mr. Black ask, but before Hermione could reply, Mr. Sarpuck has taken over for her.

"Not quite right, Mr. Black. Time Travel is such a complex matter that we have not even discovered half of what it means to meddle with time. While we have been able to travel back for a couple of hours, we only ever been to places that we knew we were before. So, we knew what was to happen at what exact moment. With us knowing these things, we made sure that these events would happen as they did the first time around in order to preserve the timeline. We would only change small things knowing that their outcome was not yet decided, so we did not disturb the timeline dramatically. We do not know what would happen if we decided to not go where we had been before – would that mean that it would not have happened or that it would have happened differently? If we were to change our plan on where to go in the past and what to do the last minute, would not that mean that we would create a new timeline altogether?"

"What Mr. Sarpuck is trying to say is that Time Travel is dangerous and there is a reason why bad things happen to witches and wizards who meddle with time. It could be possible that me being here has created an alternative timeline altogether. The goal would be to undo the creation of said timeline and jump back to the point where my own timeline was still intact", Hermione explains.

"And what is supposed to happen if you were unable to find a way to send you back to your own timeline?"

"I would give myself no more than three years to complete my mission and if I were not successful, I would place myself under a stasis charm and be stored here at the ministry until my Head of Department in my time would take if off", she replies, wringing her hands in her lap.

"And if your time here has changed your timeline too much already?"

"Then I would give my life to the research of Time Travel."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to this", Mr. Black huffs. He was not against her being here, but he could tell that she was a bright witch who had the potential to do great things and knowing there was a chance that she would give her life so young was somewhat unnerving to him.

"Why did you choose three years?", Mr. Sarpuck asks.

"Certain events happen during those three years that give me reason to believe if I live carefully and stay out of trouble and the spotlight, I would be able to blend just in. With my knowledge of the future, I should be able to manoeuvre around as many possible threats to my timeline as possible", she explains, and he nods. Hermione knew that with the current war against Grindelwald and his downfall in 1945 she had three years to blend in. A travelling young witch would not cause too much trouble and the happenings inside the Department of Mysteries were always closed off from the public eye.

Mr. Black eyes her carefully for a minute before speaking.

"You have my approval to conduct your research; You are welcome to come and go as you see fit. The Time Room and its content will be at your disposal. I shall have your credentials and the appropriate robes for you within the hour. You are free to get acquainted with Mr. Sarpuck and his current work. I only have one request: Try not to get yourself killed!"