Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Thank you to my Beta Paz!

It took a long time for the feeling to come back to Hermione's body. It was a while before she noticed that she was still, indeed, breathing. Not willing to risk opening her eyes yet, Hermione began mentally checking her body; feet, legs, hips, stomach, torso, arms, hands and head all still attached where they should be. Bile rose in her throat and she forcibly swallowed it down, fighting to remain calm.

Something was wrong, something was really wrong, but she was too dizzy and it didn't make sense. How did she become like this? Was that a spell backfire? It was unlike anything she had ever felt or read about. Another wave of nausea hit her and, unable to hold it back any longer, she promptly vomited over the side of her bed.

The energy it took to move was draining. She laid there for at least an hour whilst blinking slowly, gazing at the puddle of sick on her bedroom floor, nose wrinkling in disgust. Moving languidly, she pulled her arm out from under her body and attempted to push herself upright.

The room swum in and out of focus, but a little voice at the back of her head recognised it as her old bedroom.

Her old bedroom at her parent's house.

Her old bedroom at her parent's house, that she had when she was eleven.

A strangled yell echoed around the space as she flailed her arms in an uncoordinated attempt to get away. This only led to her landing in a pile on the floor, narrowly avoiding the sick puddle, legs tangled in the duvet.

She was eleven. Her body was eleven! She backed up against the wall in a sort of backwards crab crawl, dragging the duvet with her. Breath coming in gasps, her eyes darted over the room. Her brand new school trunk was neatly placed in the corner. Stacks of magic books lay all over the room, many with little post it notes sticking out from between the pages. Her new school robes, without the red Gryffindor trim, were sitting in front of the trunk ready for packing. Her eyes flew to her wand, sitting in its box, waiting for her. Without thinking she flew towards it, fingers scrambling as she tore it from the box. It warm presence immediately calmed her, offering a reassuring feeling that everything would be all right.

And this was the way her mother found her, hours later, slumped against her school trunk, tightly gripping her wand.

After being woken up and bathed, Hermione's parents helped her get ready for her 'first day' at school. They had woken her up extra early, as they did all those years ago, so she could get to the train with plenty of time to spare. After playing off her sleeping on the floor and throwing up as an extreme case of nerves, Hermione tried to act as normal as she could. If she was truly back in time, on her first day of Hogwarts, then she had to be very careful! Just as before, with Scorpius and Albus, any little thing she changed could affect the future. The thought made her feel ill again, but she quashed it and tried to focus on a solution.

She could go to Dumbledore…But then that might change the way he handles the past…Or future? Letting out a sigh, she tried to remember what she had spoken about with her parents on their way to Kings Cross station. Suppressing the nerves and panic, Hermione continued to talk about the spells she would like to learn, classes she was looking forward too and house she would hope to be sorted into.

Eventually they pulled into the car park and she ran off and got the trolley, as she did before, skipping on her way. Odd-looking luggage loaded, they made their way to platforms nine and ten. Where, after an encouraging smile from her parents, Hermione led the way through the wall between the two platforms.

Steam filled her vision. It whirled around her, twisting the shapes and colours of everything. Moving forward she headed towards the gleaming red train. The sight was truly beautiful. For a moment overwhelming feelings of awe and excitement swelled within her body, almost bringing tears to her eyes. It was how she had felt the first time seeing the Hogwarts Express, the exact same feelings. Very odd, definitely something to investigate later. For the time being however, she had to continue on as normal until she got to Hogwarts. That was as far as she had gotten with the plan; act normal, get to Hogwarts, hit the library.

There wouldn't be much she could do until tomorrow, the welcome feast continued on until quite late if she remembered right, which she did. Parents in tow, she headed towards the student compartments and kept her eyes peeled for Neville. She was in his compartment the first train journey, she remembered looking for Trevor the toad. This of course led to her first meeting with Harry and Ron.

A sigh left her lips. She wouldn't be friends with them until after Halloween. The memory of her first two months at Hogwarts were extremely lonely.

"Is something the matter, sweetie?" Her mother was peering down at her with a concerned expression. "I'm sure you'll make plenty of friends, don't you worry!" She said with a smile, stroking Hermione's hair.

"That obvious?" Hermione smiled sadly at her parents. It always amazed her how her mother knew what was on her mind. "I'm going to be so lonely without you both…I just," a sniffle, "I'm going to miss you".

Arms squeezed her tight, as she sniffed again. "You can come home anytime Hon," came the voice of her father through the tangle of arms. "You can do anything you set your clever little mind to Hermione, just you wait and see. Give it time and you won't even think about us boring ol' moogles!" The laughter in her father's voice got her giggling.

"Daaaaad! It's Muggles!"

With a few more hugs for good measure and some words of encouragement from her mother, Hermione boarded the train, trunk in tow.

It was then she remembered with a jolt, that she wasn't eleven.

That this wasn't her first ride on the train.

That she was a grown witch, with a family and a job. The Minister of Magic to be precise.

For a moment, she had acted exactly like her eleven year old self would have. It wasn't like she forgot who she was, just that it was pushed aside. Just like the swell of emotion she felt upon seeing the train. Maybe some sort of emotional memory?

Someone barged past, their voices muttering about first years clogging the train. Bringing her back to reality, Hermione quickly moved past the compartments. If she remembered correctly - and she always remembered correctly - she shared with Neville and some older students on her first trip. Eyes peeled for the chubby boy she set about peering into each section as she passed. It didn't take long to locate him. He was standing awkwardly in front of an almost empty compartment, nervously shuffling his feet and glancing in. Taking pity on him, Hermione walked up to the compartment and slid open the door.

"Excuse me," she said confidently to the two girls sitting in the compartment. Ravenclaws, she recalled. "Do you mind if I..." a quick glance at Neville, "if we sit in here with you?" She saw Neville shoot her a fleeting smile of gratitude as the two upperclassmen helped them with their trunks.

After some brief introductions, Hermione excused herself so she could say goodbye to her parents. Neville followed her lead, tripping out of the compartment after her. He was muttering slightly and looking around on the floor with a very worried expression.

The realisation hit her and she almost laughed out loud. Schooling her face into something neutral, Hermione spoke up. "Have you lost something Neville?"

The red flush that consumed his face was all the confirmation she needed.

"My toad..." he admitted glumly, scuffing his shoe against the floor. He looked rather upset and before she knew what she was doing the words came tumbling out.

"Tell you what Neville, let's go say our farewells and I'll help you look for him". This seemed to brighten him up and he jumped to the platform to say goodbye to his Gran.

Finding her own parents was relatively easy, their obviously muggle clothing made them stand out like sore thumbs. Picking her way towards them quickly, she gave them one last farewell, guiding them towards her cabin so she could wave from the window as before.

It didn't take long before the platform was swarming with students and parents, arriving just in time to make the train. Her eyes scanned the crowd, identifying people she knew as they arrived.

At ten minutes till departure time, the first of the Weasleys appeared from the iron was Percy. Fred and George followed, both of whom immediately ran off towards the end of the train.

It wasn't long before a skinny boy with scruffy black hair and round glasses came barraging through the gateway.

Hermione's hands gripped the windowsill tightly as she fought the urge to run towards him. His eyes wide with wonder, Harry set off towards the very end of the train. Almost immediately after, Ron came through, followed by the rest of his family.

Her heart jumped into her throat. Ron was so close, but he wouldn't recognise her. He wouldn't know what they were to each other. It would be years before he even realised she was, in fact, a girl. The horror of her situation struck her. It was a struggle to even breathe as she stared out of the window. Her hands turned white as she held herself upright against the window. The other students had not returned to the compartment yet, and she allowed herself a small choking sound to crawl from her throat. If she changed anything, the slightest thing, everything could come undone. Voldemort could live, her children might never be born, and so many more people could lose their lives.

Her parent's faces came into view, and she plastered a smile onto her face. She felt the panic pushed to the side as a totally new set of emotions rose to the surface and a type of autopilot took over. Before she knew it, the train was screeching and pulling from the station. The smiling and waving people vanished under waves of steam as they shrunk from sight. Keeping the sense of excited nervousness, Hermione changed into her robes quickly and went with Neville to search the train.

She could, of course, perform a finding spell that would find Trevor in a matter of minutes. However - as she was supposed to be a first year - and ignorant of more advanced spells, she was resigned to traipsing round the train carriages looking for the toad.

It was hard, talking to Harry and Ron like they weren't best friends, like they hadn't survived a brutal wizarding war together. It was only the strange memory autopilot that got her through that first encounter. Now all she had to do was wait until she heard the screaming before going back and telling them off for fighting.

It didn't take long. A muffled shriek echoed through the train. Begrudgingly she started walking down the corridor, dodging out of the way as Crabbe and Goyle came running up the hall. The latter waved his bloodied finger around as he escaped, but Malfoy was nowhere to be seen.

A frown creased her forehead. That wasn't right; he should have shoved her out of the way too. She turned into the boy's compartment, told them off for fighting and reminded them to get their school robes on.

Turning and marching back towards the front of the train, Hermione gave out an indignant yelp as someone grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into an empty cabin. Wand in hand she spun, stopping with her wand poised at the person's throat.

"Easy Minister, you could take out my eye," came the childish drawl of one Draco Malfoy. He stood in his school robes; arms raised open palmed in a gesture of surrender. He was watching her reaction warily, his gaze darting from her wand to eyes, a nervous smile played on his face.

"You..." she breathed, frozen to the spot. It took all of two seconds before Draco's words processed through her mind. "YOU!" Her words came out as a shrill screech, causing Draco to flinch. Her wand dropped from her fingers as she threw herself at him. Her fist connected with his shoulder and he fell into the bench behind him, his hands scrabbling for purchase.

"THIS. IS. ENTIRELY. YOUR. FAULT!" Every word was punctuated by a sharp punch to his body. They lacked power though and were rather half hearted by the time she reached the last word. Eyes filled with tears Hermione flung her arms around Draco's body and began to shake with silent sobs. The anger at seeing him was replaced with the relief that she wouldn't have to deal with this alone. She could feel him shuffling beneath her and his arm, the one that wasn't pinned to his body, before he awkwardly patted her side.

Sniffing in a completely undignified manner, she rolled onto the bench and sat next to him. He was rubbing his shoulder where she first hit him, and looking at her from the corner of his eye. They sat there in silence; Hermione was too tired for words. She let out a sigh as the train began to noticeably slow. They would arrive soon and it would be difficult for the two of them to communicate.

Draco cleared his throat before he spoke up. "We're going to have to talk, you know…" She sent Draco a half hearted glare, but he continued anyway, "Hermione, this…whatever this is…whatever happened to us. We have to fix it". His eyes were searching hers desperately.

"I know…I know Draco, I just have no idea what to do."

Moving jerkily Draco pulled some scrap paper from his pocket, it looked like he had torn them from a book. He took in Hermione's scowl and shook his head at her. "Seriously? We're stuck in time and you going to tell me off for this?" She only huffed in response. Ignoring her, he carried on. "You can do a really good protean charm right? If you can bind these sheets we can at least communicate for the time being, until we find something better."

Hermione hesitated as she reached for the pages. What if she couldn't do it? This was her eleven year old self after all; she didn't master the protean charm until fifth year. He seemed to sense her hesitation; thrusting the sheets into her hands he moved to the floor and grabbed her wand. He held it out to her with a determined expression. "You know full well we will not get a chance to speak alone like this for a while. At least this way I won't go crazy. Plus, we can use it to plan meetings," he paused as a slight grin ghosted his face, "secret meetings, just me and you Granger, sneaking around, sharing ideas…" His eyebrow raised in a slightly suggestive manner that looked completely out of place on an eleven year old.

She couldn't help it, she snorted with laughter. Grabbing her wand from him she rolled her eyes. "Give me a few minutes, make sure no one disturbs me."

"Room's already warded," came the smart reply. He was smiling in an accomplished, self-satisfied manner, the anxiety only visible on his face if one looked for it.

Closing her eyes, Hermione focused her intent on the two sheets. Moving her wand above them in a circular motion she whispered the incantation "PRO-tee-an". Once the magic took hold, she began twirling her wand in complex movements, adding layer upon layer of protection and concealment charms. Placing her left hand onto one of the sheets, she indicated that Draco do the same with the other. "I'm going to bind them to us, anyone who looks at these will only see something uninteresting and expected." She lightly rapped her wand on the back of their hands and a burning sensation seared through her palm. Draco winced, but made no move to remove his hand. Only once the burning had subsided and a slight tingling was the only feeling to remain, did Hermione remove her hand. The imprint glowed for a second before vanishing, leaving the parchment bare.

"Well?" She said, holding up her parchment at Draco. "What do you see?"

He paused in examining his own sheet to glance at hers, his face twisted with an expression of mock disgust. "Looks just like that rune alphabet I had to study during fifth year, mine?"

Hermione copied his expression "Quidditch team statistics".

Pulling a biro from within her robes and, after glancing at Draco's bemused expression, she quickly drew a smiley face on her parchment. "Can you see it?"

"Smiley face? Yep. Coming through clear." He coughed slightly, glancing out the window. "We're here."

"Yeah..."

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"I…" He looked nervous, shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot. "I'm sorry, for how I was…At school I mean. I…"

"It's fine," she cut across him quickly. "Let's just, get through tonight and we can decide what to do tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Talk to you later?" He looked slightly disheartened, his question hanging in the air with uncertainty.

"Sure thing Draco"

This was going to be a long night.