A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I've been anticipating this one basically from the beginning, so I can't wait to hear what you think about it. 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 thirty-one and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-two soon!

June 1969

Once Hermione was back at the Weasleys, she was pleased that it didn't actually take Rodolphus too long to reach out to her. Hermione had spent one week picking Will, Septimus and Cedrella's brains, trying to determine a place where she could find gainful employment to no avail when she finally got an owl from her boyfriend, inviting her to come over to her place for dinner and drinks.

"Is that from the lovely St. Clair girl?" Cedrella asked, not trying to hide her nosiness one bit. "I saw her engagement announcement in the Daily Prophet back in April! What a gorgeous ring she has. Oh, her mother is so lucky to know that her child is making the right sort of match," she added, a dark look on her face.

It seemed that while Hermione was gone at Hogwarts, Arthur had moved out of the family home, having purchased a little cottage with the intention of saving up to ask his long time girlfriend, Molly Prewett, to marry him. Cedrella was less than pleased that her son was so serious about the witch, frequently complaining that he was making a horrible choice, throwing his life away on a Prewett.

"No actually, it's from Fawn...Fawn Faucett," Hermione lied, trying not to feel too guilty for fibbing about Rodolphus again to the Weasleys. "She is moving to Switzerland and has invited me over before she leaves tonight."

"Switzerland, how unusual," Cedrella said, eyebrows raising.

"Yes, she has an Aunt there, apparently," Hermione explained. "She is going to be a secretary of sorts."

"You know, I could set you up with someone in the Wizengamot if you wanted to be a secretary," Septimus said, sounding magnanimous. "I am sure that they would be very pleased with your work, especially with the number of NEWTs you attempted."

Hermione had to bite the side of her mouth to keep from snapping back at him. She didn't want to offend Septimus by suggesting that secretarial work was beneath her, but she couldn't imagine doing something like setting up appointments for an old, prejudiced wizard. "Thank you, I will keep that in mind," she said, only to stand up from the table. "Well, I better go get ready to see Fawn."

After getting ready in record time, Hermione apparated to Diagon Alley before making the short walk over to Rodolphus's flat. The summer air was warm and humid, signalling an incoming thunderstorm, but it was still pleasant for her to walk on her own. She knew the way to his flat by heart, and she was bounding up the stairs by the time that the first raindrops started to fall.

She was barely able to knock on the door before it was being swung wide open and Rodolphus was wrapping her up in a tight hug, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I've missed you so much," he said, his tone sincere. He shut the door behind him, and for once did not press her against the first flat surface he could find. While it was nice to know that he was normally so insatiable for her, it was also nice to have a moment for him to appreciate her and not just her body.

"I missed you, too," Hermione told him, her eyes softening when she looked at him, all dark hair and intense blue eyes. "These last two months somehow felt even longer than all the months before."

"Let's go sit down. I want to hear about how your exams went," he said, leading her by her hand to the living room, where he had champagne and a cheese board out that his house elf had undoubtedly helped him with. "Tell me everything."

"Do you really want to know everything?" she quipped.

"You know that I never want to think about exams ever again," he told her honestly. "But I know how important they were to you, so that means I want to know everything."

It was touching to know that he would show interest in something that was undoubtedly boring for him to rehash, but she told him about all the ups and downs of her exams, and how she was utterly dying waiting to get her results. She also added that she hoped scoring well would make potential employers take her more seriously when she was looking for jobs. "Thank you for the notes - I'm not sure how I would have been able to get through it without you," she told him.

"And now that you are done with school, have you thought about what you might do?" he asked.

"Well, I am back at the Weasleys," Hermione said, grabbing a glass of champagne for a bit of liquid courage. "Just until I can find more permanent accommodations. Dumbledore offered to help me. Unless..." she trailed off, wishing that she wasn't going to have to come out and just say it, wishing that Rodolphus would just offer for her to move in with him now.

"Unless?" he prompted.

Hermione wondered if he was just clueless about what she was hinting at, or if it was a sign that he didn't want to ask her to move in. Was he really so old fashioned that perhaps living in sin with a muggleborn was just not something he could abide by?

"Unless there was...somewhere else that I could move in?" she asked, finally making eye contact with him again, hoping that she didn't look too much like a sad little puppy.

Before Rodolphus could answer her query, though, his fireplace was flaring a brilliant green and a wizard was stepping out in a full set of robes. Hermione immediately recognized him as Edmond Lestrange, Rodolphus's father. He was an imposing man in general, but now he had a fury in his eyes that she'd never seen before and it was enough to have her drawing her wand in fear.

"So it's actually true," he snarled, taking one look at Hermione, before crossing the room and picking his son up by the shoulders. "I swore to Cygnus Black that there was no way my son was making a mockery of our family name, running all over with a mudblood slut, but I see now that I was terribly mistaken."

"Father," Rodolphus said, working his way to get free. Once he was out of the other man's grasp, he stared down at his feet in apparent shame, doing nothing to correct the horrible way that he was talking about her.

"And even worse, you had Rabastan acting as a little errand boy, running notes to this woman. Do you even understand the harm that you've done?" Edmond questioned harshly. "Black wants to end the betrothal to his daughter, and quite frankly, I don't blame him. How could he give her to you when you've sullied yourself with this filth."

Tears sprang up in Hermione's eyes. Of course, she knew that this was what Rodolphus's family thought of her, but it was another thing to hear the abuse hurled directly to her face. Even worse, Rodolphus was just standing there, not contesting anything his father was saying. Her boyfriend was just crumbling under the shame of being caught with her.

"This ends now," Edmond commanded with finality. "Get her out of here, and I swear if I ever hear of her being in another Lestrange property, I will make you watch when I kill her."

Rodolphus turned to look at her, his cheeks red and his eyes looking guilty.

"Rodolphus?" she asked, her voice catching in her throat. He'd promised her that he was going to finally stand up to his father for her, to tell him about their relationship. But it seemed like he had kept the wool over his father's eyes, ensuring that there was no avenue for them to be together, not really.

And then, Hermione was angry. She was furious. Her fingers tightened around her wand. "Are you just going to let him speak to me like that? Are you going to let him call me all these hideous names?" she asked. "Is this how you really think of me?"

"Of course he does, mudblood," Edmond told her, a smirk on his face when he showed that he really knew his son better than she did. "How could he not? We come from one of the oldest, purest bloodlines, and you are nothing more than mudblood filth."

Nostrils flaring, she wanted to give the man who she had come to love over the last two years one more chance. "Rodolphus?" she asked, wanting him to look at her, to give her any hint that he was a man and not just a scared little boy. When he couldn't even meet her eyes, Hermione turned on her heel and left his flat, slamming the door behind her, feeling absolutely crushed. The sound of Edmond's laughter followed her out.

The tears flowed freely down her cheeks once she got into the hallway, running down the stairs as quickly as possible. Stepping out into the downpour, out into the alley, she wasn't sure where she could go. It wasn't as if she could just go home to the Weasleys, not when they would have so many questions about why she was upset.

She was so ashamed of herself, for ever thinking that Rodolphus could be more than the man she knew from her future. How could she let herself get so caught up in his web that she would forget that he was devoted enough to the pureblood cause to torture Neville's parents? Hermione longed for the future more than she ever had, wishing that she'd never spent one second in the past - wishing that she'd never set eyes on Rodolphus Lestrange. She couldn't believe that she'd actually let herself think that he might have changed...think that he might see her as more than a muggleborn.

Her heart breaking, Hermione knew that there was only one place that she could go.

It was too far to apparate to Hogsmeade, so she walked to the Leaky to use their floo. Tom looked concerned from behind the bar, but gave her leave to use it to get to Hogsmeade. Stepping out at the Three Broomsticks, Hermione gave herself a few minutes to dry herself off, before making the long trek up the castle. She was surprised to find it open to her, and wondered if Dumbledore somehow had advanced notice of her arrival.

Trudging up to the Headmaster's office, she was pleased when the gargoyle didn't ask her for a password, simply moving aside so she could continue up the spiral staircase. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, reading from a book with a magnifying glass when she entered. "Miss Granger, what a surprise," he said, with a tone that suggested it wasn't a surprise at all. "You look like you could use some tea and a lemon drop."

A fresh round of tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, and she tried desperately to blink them away, knowing that this was a hurt that wouldn't be fixed with a cuppa. She shook her head, unable to find the words that she wanted to say.

"Well, come now, sit down. You obviously have a lot on your mind, let's talk it over," he suggested, flicking a hand at the chair across the desk from him so that it pulled out, offering it up to her.

Hermione shook her head. "No, Headmaster. I am done talking about things. I am done waiting. I am done trying to just enjoy my time here," she insisted, wishing that the Headmaster never would have given her the stupid idea to just be a teenager. She had already ruined too many things by ignoring what she knew from the future, and she wasn't going to let anything else change. "I want to go back to my proper time, and I want to go now," she demanded, hands on her hips.