A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Well, I bought a house - whew...that is a huge load of stress off my plate, once we officially close and move. I'll be excited to get my evenings and weekends back now that I am not going to so many showings. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-seven and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-eight soon!

February 1969

Hermione was both dreading the end of the school year and looking forward to it with something akin to hope. After her wonderful holiday romp with Rodolphus, she began to wonder about what her life might be like after schooling. She would get a job, of course, but would Rodolphus still be in it? He seemed to think that it was a real possibility, but she wasn't sure if she believed it yet, no matter how much she wanted to.

Her nearing exams did bring up the dragon in the room - the fact that she had been stuck in the wrong time for over a year and she had made serious changes to the timeline. She had rapidly lost all faith in the Ministry and Headmaster Dumbledore. It seemed that they had absolutely no plan to get her back where she was supposed to be, and even if they somehow could, events were likely to have changed so much that she wasn't likely to recognize anything. In any case, it didn't seem like it was a priority to those in charge.

So, she was surprised when Headmaster Dumbledore approached her one day, asking for her to meet with him after dinner. She agreed readily enough, curious to hear what it was that he had to say, even if the walk to the gargoyle that guarded his office was filled with dread that she might have to leave.

Dumbledore was out when she got there, so Hermione contented herself with looking out the large window at the back of his window, looking over the grounds. She thought about how long Hogwarts had been there, standing sentinel over the landscape, putting her momentary blip of life into perspective.

"Good evening, Miss Granger," Dumbledore greeted when he finally stepped out of the fireplace, dusting off his robes. "Anything catch your eye? I've heard that the centaur herd is expecting foal soon."

Hermione shook her head, before coming around to sit in the chair across from him. "No," she answered, sadly. "Did you just return from the Ministry? Have they given you an update about my return to my correct time?" she asked, trying to keep her voice neutral.

"I was just at the Ministry, but unfortunately, they seem to be struggling, even though they have a whole wing of unspeakables investigating your situation. I wouldn't give up hope on your return yet, though," he updated her, being more forthcoming than he'd been in nearly a year. "But...what I wanted to talk to you about was something that is...not in the Ministry's purview," he explained, leaning his elbows on the table, steepling his fingers together.

That had Hermione intrigued, and she wondered just what he was getting at. "Oh?"

"When you and I first met at the Ministry, you tried to explain things about a certain wizard called Voldemort," Dumbledore started cautiously, his blue eyes boring into her, making Hermione wonder if he would ever try to use Legilimency against her. If she remembered correctly, Dumbledore had suggested that Harry learn to shield his mind, but was not the person to teach him. Was Dumbledore capable of those abilities? "At the time, I didn't want to hear anything you had to say about the matter because I was concerned about the timeline, but even know I have to face the fact that many aspects of your future are unlikely to remain untouched now that you have been residing here for so long."

"That's a conclusion I've come to myself," Hermione said, eyebrows furrowed together, remembering all the times that Dumbledore had told her to act like a normal teenagers and not concern herself with the timeline. If he was going to insinuate that she had done something wrong, she would be furious. "But also somewhat inevitable since I've been encouraged to mingle with people here."

Sensing that she was on the defensive, Dumbledore held up his hands. "I am not trying to accuse you of anything, Miss Granger. As you say, it is inevitable," he agreed. "Have you noticed anything that might have changed?" he asked.

Hermione couldn't think of anything in the news that had changed overly much, having not learned much in detail about the time period before coming here. Instead, she noticed mostly social changes - like how she'd almost prevented Molly and Arthur from being together and forming their family. Or, perhaps more seriously, that she seemed to have broken up the future Lestranges. She very much doubted that Rodolphus had gone against his family in the future she'd come from. Blushing, she shrugged her shoulders. "Some things have changed, but they seem mostly confined to...romantic partnerships," she explained. "People who were married in my time might not be now..."

"Ah," Dumbledore said, nodding his head. "You speak of Mr. Lestrange."

There was no hiding the pinkness of her cheeks then, remembering all the whispered promises that Rodolphus had given her. "I very much doubt that he will end up with the woman he did in my timeline," she said, quietly. "How much his life path will deviate remains to be seen."

"It has been hard for you to know what is to become of your classmates," he said, sounding sad. "It's a burden that I cannot fully contemplate."

"No, you can't," she snapped back, remembering all the times that he told her to just live her life as normally as she could without really realizing what he was truly asking of her. But, she couldn't act as if she would have known what to do with herself...it wasn't as if she could have just hidden away for over sixteen months, could she? "But, I doubt that we are here to talk about my love life, Headmaster."

Dumbledore gave her a half smile, and shook his head. "No, I don't think that your entanglement with Mr. Lestrange will aid me in my plans," he admitted. "I am no longer concerned with changing the timeline, and I think now I would be inclined to listen to what you have to say about Voldemort."

His admission made her mouth taste sour, thinking about all the time that she had wasted, cloistered away in Hogwarts when she could have been trying to make meaningful changes, if only he hadn't prevented her from speaking. How many endless nights of agony would she have been saved, not worrying about her betrayal of Ron and dear, sweet Harry, if she'd been doing everything she could to make a better life for them. "Well, I can only tell you what I know," she said, letting some weight fall off her shoulders.

Dumbledore called for tea, and Hermione was glad to have it, knowing that it would take a long time to get everything she wanted out.

"Well, the first time around, Voldemort heard of a prophecy that a chosen one was being born who could stop him," she said, tugging at the sleeve of her jumper. "He took that to mean my friend, Harry Potter. He went after Harry when he was only one-year-old, on Halloween knight. He killed Harry's parents, but Harry's mother's love saved him. The Killing Curse rebounds from Harry and Voldemort is killed instead."

The other wizard looked surprised. "Well, it seems almost as if fate will have everything wrapped up for us," he said with a frown, still not understanding the larger picture.

Hermione shook her head. "No, unfortunately. He was not dead...not truly. A...a piece of his soul survived and by the time that Harry and I were first years, Voldemort was back, having attached himself to a willing host," she explained. "The host was killed and we thought he was dead, again, but we were wrong."

She could tell that Dumbledore was doubtful, but she was going to make him believe if she needed to. "The following year, we discovered that...a bit of Voldemort...or a shade of him, really, had survived in a diary that he kept from when he was a student here, called Tom Riddle," she explained. At telling him the name, Dumbledore appeared convinced, recognizing the person that Voldemort had once been. "He tried to possess another of our friends in the Chamber of Secrets, but Harry went after him and destroyed the Diary with a basilisk fang."

That piece of information seemed to intrigue Dumbledore most of all. "A basilisk fang? A basilisk lives here in Hogwarts?" he pressed.

"Yes, and I can show you where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is, too," she told him, glad that someone was finally taking an interest in what she had to say. It always seemed as if Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall had never taken her, Harry and Ron seriously when they tried to talk about Voldemort.

Hermione skipped over third year, hoping that Sirius would never even need to escape Azkaban if she was about to help it, but told him about the Tri-Wizard tournament in fourth year. "According to Harry, one of Voldemort's servants performed a sort of ritual, using Harry's blood and...he was able to emerge as a horrible, snake-faced man with white skin, from the cauldron," she described. She hadn't been there, of course, but Harry had told her about the experience in the graveyard in whispers in front of the big fireplace in the Gryffindor common room when he hadn't been able to sleep.

"And then, in fifth year...Voldemort wanted the full prophecy from the Department of Mysteries and lured us, and Harry there...you see, Harry could sometimes find himself in Voldemort's mind, through his scar...anyway, he was there, waiting for us with his Death Eaters. We were trying to fight, but that was when I found myself pushed into the time turners by Rabastan Le-"

She cut herself off, never really having thought about the fact that the little twerp who'd sneered at her constantly, even when giving her little notes from his brother, was the one who'd pushed her. Did he recognize her, she wondered? Was there some kind of time loop.

Sensing her unease, Dumbledore cleared his throat. Gathering up their now empty tea cups, he addressed her. "Thank you for all your information, Miss Granger. You have certainly given me a lot to think about, more than I ever imagined," he revealed. "If I may, may I ask on you again should I need any further clarification?"

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Of course, just...please keep me in the loop, Professor," she said. "I'm just as involved in this mess as anyone else is, and I won't let you push me out just because you think it's protecting me." She was not entirely sure if that would be convincing to him, but she had to at least ask.

Once she was released from the Headmaster's office, she made her way back to the Gryffindor common room, only to be disappointed when she found that her roommates were all out for the evening. It seemed that Valentine's day had creeped up on her without realizing it, and all of the girls had dates. Before she could be too upset at realizing she'd spent the day alone, without a word from her boyfriend, she was delighted to find an owl waiting for her on her bed.

Inside, there was a note from Rodolphus. She savored every word that he had written - about twice a week since Christmas - and placed all his handwritten notes into a neat pile at the bottom of her trunk. But this note included a little something extra for her inside - a simple pair of gold stud earrings that she eagerly put on.

Sinking back into her pillows, she read over what he'd written her this time, feeling her heart stutter in her chest at his promises of how they would be together again soon, asking for her to send all the remaining Hogsmeade days so that he might sneak off into the village to see her sooner than at the end of June.