Oh my gosh... it's chapter four!! Who would have thought this would EVER get done!? Thanks so much to everyone who's reviewed! They really light up my day! Colli- I couldn't have done this without you... if I had tried, the word 'then' would have been in this chapter waaaaaaay too much. Thanks for helping me rewrite the ending... or well encouraging me to rewrite the ending.
Sequel? Hmmm yes! I'm writing one right now... well I will once I get started on it!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Co. belongs to JK Rowling... I am making no money off of this story.
Now... on with the final chapter!
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Chapter 4
'The Long Way Home'
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Hermione got little sleep that night. After leaving the dungeons she retreated to her room where she sat by the window and watched Severus leave the castle. For three hours, she watched the grounds for signs of his return. When she finally crawled into bed and fell asleep, her dreams were haunted. Images of James and Harry together were interrupted by a flashing green light and an evil laughter. Her nightmare ended with an image of Severus kneeling before the bodies of James and Lily.
At six in the morning, the dreams finally woke Hermione up. She showered and dressed in black robes, then headed to the Headmaster's office. As she moved through the halls with a determined look on her face, she realized that several students stared as she passed by them. She smiled to herself and thought that she must look like a female version of Severus, stalking through the halls. She would have found the situation amusing if she wasn't already so preoccupied with the task of finding the Headmaster.
Hermione ran as fast as she could without attracting anymore attention to herself. She stopped in front of the phoenix statue guarding Dumbledore's office. "I need to speak to the Headmaster, but I don't know the password."
The phoenix turned its and seemed to look right at Hermione. "The Headmaster is in the staff lounge, Miss Granger," it said in a deep voice.
"Hey, don't say that so loud," she hissed. "Thank you," she called over her shoulder as she jogged down the hall then down a series of stairs. She knocked on the door of the staff lounge and then immediately entered. Minerva and Albus were the only occupants.
"Hello, Mia," Albus smiled. "What can I do for you?"
"Albus, it's about my leaving," Hermione said urgently.
Albus nodded in understanding. "Minerva, would you please excuse us?"
"Of course," she said. Minerva approached Hermione and smiled. "I do hope that this is not the last time that you will be visiting," she said.
"I can honestly say that you will be seeing a lot of me in the future," Hermione said. Minerva smiled and left the room, giving Hermione a gentle squeeze on the shoulder on her way out.
"Now then, you're leaving? I take it that the hour glass is nearly balanced?"
"I was in the dungeons," Hermione said, pulling the time-turner out of her robes and showing it to Albus. "It did not look like this earlier in the day. I noticed that the sand was falling slowly while in my room in the tower, but when I was in the library the sand seemed paler. Then, when I was in the dungeons practically all of the remaining sand had fallen into the bottom chamber."
Albus examined it carefully. "This is indeed a very strange artifact."
"I've been doing research on time-turners, but none of the books I've read have had any kind of an explanation for this."
Albus sat down and stared at the time-turner before him. "Perhaps..." Albus paused in his thinking.
"What? I'm open to suggestions," Hermione said, leaning her hands on the arms of the chair she had sat down in.
"You said that the sand fell more rapidly when you were in the dungeons, correct?" Hermione nodded. "And when you initially fell, you were falling to the earth at an alarming rate, correct?"
"I fell off a broom, so yeah I was falling pretty fast!" Hermione agreed.
Albus leaned forward and looked up at Hermione. "What if it's the gravitational pull of the earth that's causing the sand to fall?"
Hermione nodded a few times and stared at the time-turner. "If that's true, then the lower I travel... the closer to the center of the earth, then the faster the sand will fall," Hermione rationalized. "But how?" she whispered.
Long moments passed as the old wizard and the young witch stared at the time-turner. The silence gave Hermione time not only to think about the time-turner, but it allowed her to think back on recent weeks. She thought about James and his young son, Harry, with sadness in her eyes. She thought back on the hours she'd spent locked in her room or the library trying to hide from Severus with a twinkle in her eyes. She remembered the Polyjuice Potion she had helped Severus brew with a smile playing on her lips. Hermione realized that she would have never had any of these memories had Minerva and Albus never dug up the time-turner in the first place.
"Dug up," Hermione whispered, and sat up straighter. "Sir, I think I've come up with an idea," she said. "If you're right in that the sand will fall as it gets closer to the earth's core, then the only logical thing to do would be to bury it."
Albus nodded, thinking it over. "It would also solve the problem of what to do with the time-turner once you were back in your time. You would be hiding it in the past."
"Only to be dug up in the future," Hermione said excitedly. "This has to work."
Hermione and Albus left the lounge and headed for the Entrance Hall. Hermione looked all around at the decorations. There were several large carved pumpkins with candles in them in the Great Hall. Hermione stopped in her tracks. "Albus..."
"No, Miss Lindon," he said as a student walked by them. He took her gently by the arm and led her away from the students. "I know you want to warn me about this evening, but I cannot allow you, just as I cannot allow you to tell me where you are going to bury this time-turner. I would not want to be in a position where I could possibly tell someone where it is."
"But Albus," Hermione pleaded, "it's about Severus."
"If you change the past, you affect the future," Albus said. Hermione stared up at him in wonder. She could hear Severus saying those same words to her. A single tear slid down her cheek. "Once the sand has fallen into the bottom chamber, you should be transported back to the exact time you left. The only unknown factor is where you will end up once you are back in your own time."
Hermione nodded and wiped at the tears. "Please tell Severus that I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt him."
"It will take time, but he will understand why you had to leave."
Hermione let out a snort. "He'll understand in ten years when he sees my eleven-year-old self in his potions class."
Albus smiled. "I always knew he would teach," he said with a wink.
"Thank you for everything, Albus. Now and in the future," she said and embraced the older man.
"Until next we meet," he said, releasing Hermione.
Hermione pulled the time-turner from her robes and walked out the front door. She rounded the castle and stopped near the hidden entrance that Severus used to enter the dungeons. She pulled out her wand and murmured a spell to dig a deep hole. After charming the time-turned to float to the bottom, Hermione said another spell to close the hole once the time-turner hit the bottom.
Hermione straightened and watched the time-turner begin its decent into the dark hole in the ground. She took a shaky breath. If their idea was correct, then in a few minutes time, she would be back in her own. Hermione turned and looked around at the quiet grounds. As she turned towards the front gates, she saw a flurry of black robes. The person was running and closing in on her fast.
"Severus," she whispered. Hermione looked back to see the hole she had dug beginning to darken as it closed. She looked down to see her hands shimmering and she began to feel weightless, like she was falling. "No!" she screamed, "I need more time!" Turning back around, she saw Severus only a few meters away from her. They reached for each other, but in that moment Hermione faded out, leaving Severus grasping at nothing but air.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Hermione!" Harry screamed. He watched Hermione tumble head over feet several times before he swung the broom into a steep dive. He flew under her and caught her in his arms no more than three meters from the ground and then pulled the broom up before they crashed. Harry circled and landed them safely. Hermione was passed out in his arms. He laid her down gently on the ground. "Mia, can you hear me?"
Hermione groaned and opened her eyes. "What year is it?"
Harry laughed, "It's the same year it was two minutes ago."
"Oh, Harry!" she said and threw her arms around his neck. "You're never going to believe what happened," she mumbled into his neck.
"Trust me, I'll believe most anything. Remember who you're talking to? Come on, let's get you back to Hogwarts. Poppy will want to look you over." Harry lifted her into his arms, picked up his broomstick and Apparated them to the gates of the school.
Hermione didn't put up a fight and was very quiet while Madame Pomfrey looked her over. Dumbledore came in just as the medi-witch was finishing her exam and pulled Harry out into the hall. A few minutes later Harry reappeared and went to Hermione's side. "Dumbledore's told me that you no longer need to go to the Ministry. He told me that I've been called back in on another assignment."
Hermione reached out and took him in her arms. "Thank you for saving me," she said.
"Anytime, Mia," he smiled. He felt Hermione tense slightly at him using the nickname, but blamed it on the stress of the fall. "I'll owl you as soon as I can."
"Give Ron my love. Tell Ginny that I'll come to visit at Easter then stay for a few days after the holiday," she said. Harry gently kissed her cheek and left the hospital wing.
Albus appeared again shortly after Poppy finished her exam of Hermione. "I see you arrived safely."
"I'm never riding a broomstick again so long as I live," Hermione said seriously. She took a deep shaky breath. "I need to know if..." her voice caught.
"Yes, Hermione," Albus said quietly, "James and Lily died that night." Hermione nodded solemnly. Albus moved to her side and sat on the edge of the bed. "Severus came to me and said he watched you disappear." Hermione nodded again with tears forming in her eyes. "The image has haunted him for over twenty years."
"I tried... we reached for each other but the time-turner..." Hermione gestured out the window to where the time-turner had been buried. Hermione swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. For the first time, she looked down and noticed that she was back in her red satin robes that she had been wearing when she had first left with Harry over three weeks ago, in her time. She angrily swiped at the tears in her eyes and turned back to Albus. "I have to see him."
Albus stood and looked down at the young woman. "You must understand that while twenty minutes have passed for you," Albus' eyes had lost their normal twinkle, "twenty years have passed for him." Hermione stared at him for a long moment, then turned and fled for the dungeons.
As she ran down the stairs, passing students as she went, Hermione could think of nothing but the last moments she had seen Severus. She tried to block out the image of them both reaching for each other but reaching nothing. Hermione didn't want to think about how she would feel if she reached this time but reached nothing at all.
Hermione knocked on the door to Severus' office but there was no reply. She tentatively opened the door and stepped inside. Looking around, she found the dark brooding wizard hovering over a smoking cauldron. "You shouldn't be here," she heard him say in a voice barely above a whisper.
Hermione took a deep breath and resigned herself to the fact that it was going to be a long night. "No, I should have never left to begin with," she replied. "Severus..."
"No," he said, turning around and looking at Hermione for the first time.
Hermione approached the lab table he was working at and it was all that separated him from her. "I need to know how you did it," she said softly.
"You're speaking in riddles," he hissed, turning around.
"I need to know how you survived these last twenty years!" she yelled. "Severus, please talk to me." She walked over to the other side of the lab table and touched his shoulder and he flinched. "Severus," she said.
Severus whirled on her and Hermione stepped back. "You really want to know?" he hissed. "For the first ten years I hunted for a way to get you back. I thought someone, probably Voldemort or one of his goons, had taken you because Albus wouldn't tell me anything. Imagine my surprise when a Miss Hermione Granger, age eleven," he spat, "turns up at the Sorting Ceremony and bears a striking resemblance to Mia Lindon. For seven years I had to endure teaching you and watching you put your life in danger with Boy Wonder and his trusty sidekick." Severus turned away again.
Hermione laid her hand on his shoulder and when he flinched, she only held on tighter. "Last month," Hermione paused and shook her head, "this morning when you warned me about changing the past... that was all I could think about for the month I spent in the past. Your words echoed in my head."
"As far as I know, you didn't mess anything up," he said with acid in his tone.
"Severus, please look at me," Hermione pleaded and tried to step between him and the lab table to look him in the face. Severus stood his ground and refused to let her get closer. Hermione let out a quiet sob and released his arm. "All right," she whispered, "I'll go."
She crossed the dungeon and stopped in the doorway, turning back to see Severus still hovering over his potions. "Before I go, I want you to know something," she paused but he said nothing. "Even if I hadn't gone back in time, I would have fallen in love with you. That's been a long time coming." She saw his body visibly stiffen. "And while I may have fallen in love with a slightly different version of you, it's you I want. All I kept thinking about while I was there was how you were going to react to this." She shook her head and looked down at the floor. "Even though I had you," she whispered, "all I wanted was to get back to... you."
She slipped out without a sound, and when Severus finally turned around, she was gone. "Oh, Mia..."
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The next day, Hermione left Hogwarts with a heavy heart and traveled to Godric's Hollow where she spent the days following the Easter Holiday with Harry, Ginny, and their daughter Lily. After five days of reminiscing about their days at Hogwarts and spending quality time with her goddaughter, Hermione realized that she needed to return and face Severus once again.
"Must you leave so soon?" Ginny asked as she helped Hermione pack her clothes. Hermione nodded but said nothing. "Who is he?"
"Is it a sixth sense?" Hermione laughed.
"Perhaps, but I saw you last night, wandering around the house with a far off look in your eyes. I had the same look in my eyes when Harry and I were engaged... I still have that look in my eyes sometimes," Ginny smiled, listening to her husband chase Lily around the yard.
Hermione smiled sadly at Ginny. "He doesn't love me back, Gin."
Ginny laid a hand on Hermione's forearm. "Then maybe he isn't worth it."
"I risked so much to get to him," she whispered. "I'm not letting him get away from me." Ginny nodded and helped Hermione finish packing.
"Come visit again, and bring Ginny and Lily," Hermione said to Harry when they arrived at Hogsmeade a few hours later.
"We'll visit once the baby is born," he promised, wrapping Hermione in a hug. "Take care of yourself, Mia." Hermione nodded and watched him apparate back to Godric's Hollow.
She shrunk her bags down and slowly walked down the path to Hogwarts. She paused at the top of a rise to take in the scene of Hogwarts. "I won't hurt you again, Severus," she vowed as she continued on her way.
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That night at dinner in the Great Hall, Hermione conversed with Remus Lupin and tried to keep her mind off of the fact that Severus had yet to show up for dinner. "You're off somewhere else," the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor pointed out.
Hermione blinked a few times. "I'm sorry. It's been a long day, Remus," she said and spooned some mashed potatoes up, but did not eat them. Remus laughed and went back to eating.
Hermione ate a few bites of her food when suddenly a rolled piece of parchment magically appeared before her. Her fork clattered on the table as she dropped it in surprise. Picking it up, Hermione unrolled the parchment and read the quickly scrawled writing. 'Please come to the dungeons' it read.
Hermione made her excuses and left the Great Hall. She took several deep breaths before she once again entered the dungeons. It was dark but there was a light coming from the back room where Severus brewed his personal potions. "Severus?"
"I'm in here, Mia," he called. Hermione was taken aback at his use of her nickname. "I must confess that I don't want to have this particular conversation, Hermione," he said, and she pounced.
"Why you insufferable overgrown bat!" she screamed and pushed herself to stand between Severus and the lab table. Severus stepped back and looked her over. Her cheeks were flushed with fury. "I risked my life to get back here! I could have been sent to the future or back to the Middle Ages! I did it for you!" she screamed. "I said I had things to get back to at home and I meant it."
"Miss Granger," he started.
"Don't you 'Miss Granger' me, Severus," she said. "Now I left you to think things over for a few days, I backed away, but no more! Don't you get it? I fell in love with you."
"Mia," he said softly, trying to get her attention. "May I speak?" Hermione nodded and leaned against the lab table. "I was trying to tell you that I did not want to have this particular conversation because..." his voice trailed off and he scowled down at her.
"What Severus?"
"Hermione, you have been out of my life for over twenty years. I don't think I could survive if you left me again," he said and sighed. "Even when you came to work here, I knew I couldn't tell you the truth. Albus had talked about paradoxes and rifts in time; he did it to piss me off. This morning, I knew it was time."
"Severus, I..."
"No, wait I'm not done," he insisted, taking her hands in his. "You were right. Even if you hadn't gone back in time, I would have fallen in love with you. You were always there for me, even we just talked in the library. Just your presence these last couple of years was enough for me," he said, running a finger down her cheek. Even when my world was falling apart, you were my constant... my touchstone."
"And you are mine," she whispered.
Severus stared at her for several long moments. After what felt like an eternity to Hermione, he reached out and drew her to him. He kissed her with all the love and passion he had kept to himself for the past twenty years. Hermione snaked her arms around his back and tilted her head up to him, fusing her lips to his. After several moments, they pulled away, desperate for air.
Severus tucked her head beneath his chin and ran his hands up and down her back in gentle caresses. "You cannot imagine what these years have been like without you, Mia," he whispered, kissing the top of her head.
Hermione rested her cheek on his chest, holding him tightly. "I never meant to hurt you," she said.
"Albus came to me the day you started your education at Hogwarts," Severus said, entangling his hands in her hair and tilting her head up to look at him, "and he told me what you said to him before you left. I know you didn't mean for me to suffer." He was silent for a few moments. "Hermione?" A single tear streaked down her cheek. "I would have waited another twenty years for you," he said. Hermione smiled as he bent his head and kissed her sweetly on the lips.
"You know it's funny," Hermione said, pulling away from him.
"Kissing me is funny now?" Severus asked, brushing stray hairs away from her face.
"No, never," she laughed. "Being in the past and seeing people like Harry, Albus, Minerva, and you was like looking though a piece of fractured glass."
"I don't think I understand, Mia," he said.
Hermione smiled at his use of the name. "Well, the image was familiar but everything was distorted like piece of imperfect glass. I knew everyone that I came in contact with, and I knew where I was, but everything was different. Like looking through fractured glass," she said.
"Very poetic," he said, bending down to kiss her again.
"Speaking of poetic," Hermione said, breaking their kiss and taking his hand in hers. "I seem to remember a certain author I thought we both liked. You only like Du Bois because of me, didn't you?"
"Hermione, could you honestly see me reading that before you pointed it out?"
"We still need to work on this trust and truth thing," she laughed.
"I think we've got the trust thing down," he said. "And truthfully," he said, looking at her seriously, "I love you, and I think it's just as noble as truth."
"Agreed," Hermione said and kissed him once more. "So, what are you working on?" she asked, looking over the ingredients he had lying out on the table.
Severus looked at her with a solemn expression. "I don't know if you're ready to hear this particular truth," he said.
"Severus," she said seriously, "I love you and I'm always going to love you. I'm ready for whatever you're willing to tell me."
"Well then," he conceded, moving to stand beside her, "I have a lot to tell you." They both hovered over the smoking cauldron, heads close and hands clasped together.
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End Chapter 4
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Epilogue... epilogue you say? We'll see ;)
Thanks for reading and please review!
Keep and eye out for a sequel sometime later in the summer!
Sequel? Hmmm yes! I'm writing one right now... well I will once I get started on it!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Co. belongs to JK Rowling... I am making no money off of this story.
Now... on with the final chapter!
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Chapter 4
'The Long Way Home'
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Hermione got little sleep that night. After leaving the dungeons she retreated to her room where she sat by the window and watched Severus leave the castle. For three hours, she watched the grounds for signs of his return. When she finally crawled into bed and fell asleep, her dreams were haunted. Images of James and Harry together were interrupted by a flashing green light and an evil laughter. Her nightmare ended with an image of Severus kneeling before the bodies of James and Lily.
At six in the morning, the dreams finally woke Hermione up. She showered and dressed in black robes, then headed to the Headmaster's office. As she moved through the halls with a determined look on her face, she realized that several students stared as she passed by them. She smiled to herself and thought that she must look like a female version of Severus, stalking through the halls. She would have found the situation amusing if she wasn't already so preoccupied with the task of finding the Headmaster.
Hermione ran as fast as she could without attracting anymore attention to herself. She stopped in front of the phoenix statue guarding Dumbledore's office. "I need to speak to the Headmaster, but I don't know the password."
The phoenix turned its and seemed to look right at Hermione. "The Headmaster is in the staff lounge, Miss Granger," it said in a deep voice.
"Hey, don't say that so loud," she hissed. "Thank you," she called over her shoulder as she jogged down the hall then down a series of stairs. She knocked on the door of the staff lounge and then immediately entered. Minerva and Albus were the only occupants.
"Hello, Mia," Albus smiled. "What can I do for you?"
"Albus, it's about my leaving," Hermione said urgently.
Albus nodded in understanding. "Minerva, would you please excuse us?"
"Of course," she said. Minerva approached Hermione and smiled. "I do hope that this is not the last time that you will be visiting," she said.
"I can honestly say that you will be seeing a lot of me in the future," Hermione said. Minerva smiled and left the room, giving Hermione a gentle squeeze on the shoulder on her way out.
"Now then, you're leaving? I take it that the hour glass is nearly balanced?"
"I was in the dungeons," Hermione said, pulling the time-turner out of her robes and showing it to Albus. "It did not look like this earlier in the day. I noticed that the sand was falling slowly while in my room in the tower, but when I was in the library the sand seemed paler. Then, when I was in the dungeons practically all of the remaining sand had fallen into the bottom chamber."
Albus examined it carefully. "This is indeed a very strange artifact."
"I've been doing research on time-turners, but none of the books I've read have had any kind of an explanation for this."
Albus sat down and stared at the time-turner before him. "Perhaps..." Albus paused in his thinking.
"What? I'm open to suggestions," Hermione said, leaning her hands on the arms of the chair she had sat down in.
"You said that the sand fell more rapidly when you were in the dungeons, correct?" Hermione nodded. "And when you initially fell, you were falling to the earth at an alarming rate, correct?"
"I fell off a broom, so yeah I was falling pretty fast!" Hermione agreed.
Albus leaned forward and looked up at Hermione. "What if it's the gravitational pull of the earth that's causing the sand to fall?"
Hermione nodded a few times and stared at the time-turner. "If that's true, then the lower I travel... the closer to the center of the earth, then the faster the sand will fall," Hermione rationalized. "But how?" she whispered.
Long moments passed as the old wizard and the young witch stared at the time-turner. The silence gave Hermione time not only to think about the time-turner, but it allowed her to think back on recent weeks. She thought about James and his young son, Harry, with sadness in her eyes. She thought back on the hours she'd spent locked in her room or the library trying to hide from Severus with a twinkle in her eyes. She remembered the Polyjuice Potion she had helped Severus brew with a smile playing on her lips. Hermione realized that she would have never had any of these memories had Minerva and Albus never dug up the time-turner in the first place.
"Dug up," Hermione whispered, and sat up straighter. "Sir, I think I've come up with an idea," she said. "If you're right in that the sand will fall as it gets closer to the earth's core, then the only logical thing to do would be to bury it."
Albus nodded, thinking it over. "It would also solve the problem of what to do with the time-turner once you were back in your time. You would be hiding it in the past."
"Only to be dug up in the future," Hermione said excitedly. "This has to work."
Hermione and Albus left the lounge and headed for the Entrance Hall. Hermione looked all around at the decorations. There were several large carved pumpkins with candles in them in the Great Hall. Hermione stopped in her tracks. "Albus..."
"No, Miss Lindon," he said as a student walked by them. He took her gently by the arm and led her away from the students. "I know you want to warn me about this evening, but I cannot allow you, just as I cannot allow you to tell me where you are going to bury this time-turner. I would not want to be in a position where I could possibly tell someone where it is."
"But Albus," Hermione pleaded, "it's about Severus."
"If you change the past, you affect the future," Albus said. Hermione stared up at him in wonder. She could hear Severus saying those same words to her. A single tear slid down her cheek. "Once the sand has fallen into the bottom chamber, you should be transported back to the exact time you left. The only unknown factor is where you will end up once you are back in your own time."
Hermione nodded and wiped at the tears. "Please tell Severus that I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt him."
"It will take time, but he will understand why you had to leave."
Hermione let out a snort. "He'll understand in ten years when he sees my eleven-year-old self in his potions class."
Albus smiled. "I always knew he would teach," he said with a wink.
"Thank you for everything, Albus. Now and in the future," she said and embraced the older man.
"Until next we meet," he said, releasing Hermione.
Hermione pulled the time-turner from her robes and walked out the front door. She rounded the castle and stopped near the hidden entrance that Severus used to enter the dungeons. She pulled out her wand and murmured a spell to dig a deep hole. After charming the time-turned to float to the bottom, Hermione said another spell to close the hole once the time-turner hit the bottom.
Hermione straightened and watched the time-turner begin its decent into the dark hole in the ground. She took a shaky breath. If their idea was correct, then in a few minutes time, she would be back in her own. Hermione turned and looked around at the quiet grounds. As she turned towards the front gates, she saw a flurry of black robes. The person was running and closing in on her fast.
"Severus," she whispered. Hermione looked back to see the hole she had dug beginning to darken as it closed. She looked down to see her hands shimmering and she began to feel weightless, like she was falling. "No!" she screamed, "I need more time!" Turning back around, she saw Severus only a few meters away from her. They reached for each other, but in that moment Hermione faded out, leaving Severus grasping at nothing but air.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
"Hermione!" Harry screamed. He watched Hermione tumble head over feet several times before he swung the broom into a steep dive. He flew under her and caught her in his arms no more than three meters from the ground and then pulled the broom up before they crashed. Harry circled and landed them safely. Hermione was passed out in his arms. He laid her down gently on the ground. "Mia, can you hear me?"
Hermione groaned and opened her eyes. "What year is it?"
Harry laughed, "It's the same year it was two minutes ago."
"Oh, Harry!" she said and threw her arms around his neck. "You're never going to believe what happened," she mumbled into his neck.
"Trust me, I'll believe most anything. Remember who you're talking to? Come on, let's get you back to Hogwarts. Poppy will want to look you over." Harry lifted her into his arms, picked up his broomstick and Apparated them to the gates of the school.
Hermione didn't put up a fight and was very quiet while Madame Pomfrey looked her over. Dumbledore came in just as the medi-witch was finishing her exam and pulled Harry out into the hall. A few minutes later Harry reappeared and went to Hermione's side. "Dumbledore's told me that you no longer need to go to the Ministry. He told me that I've been called back in on another assignment."
Hermione reached out and took him in her arms. "Thank you for saving me," she said.
"Anytime, Mia," he smiled. He felt Hermione tense slightly at him using the nickname, but blamed it on the stress of the fall. "I'll owl you as soon as I can."
"Give Ron my love. Tell Ginny that I'll come to visit at Easter then stay for a few days after the holiday," she said. Harry gently kissed her cheek and left the hospital wing.
Albus appeared again shortly after Poppy finished her exam of Hermione. "I see you arrived safely."
"I'm never riding a broomstick again so long as I live," Hermione said seriously. She took a deep shaky breath. "I need to know if..." her voice caught.
"Yes, Hermione," Albus said quietly, "James and Lily died that night." Hermione nodded solemnly. Albus moved to her side and sat on the edge of the bed. "Severus came to me and said he watched you disappear." Hermione nodded again with tears forming in her eyes. "The image has haunted him for over twenty years."
"I tried... we reached for each other but the time-turner..." Hermione gestured out the window to where the time-turner had been buried. Hermione swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. For the first time, she looked down and noticed that she was back in her red satin robes that she had been wearing when she had first left with Harry over three weeks ago, in her time. She angrily swiped at the tears in her eyes and turned back to Albus. "I have to see him."
Albus stood and looked down at the young woman. "You must understand that while twenty minutes have passed for you," Albus' eyes had lost their normal twinkle, "twenty years have passed for him." Hermione stared at him for a long moment, then turned and fled for the dungeons.
As she ran down the stairs, passing students as she went, Hermione could think of nothing but the last moments she had seen Severus. She tried to block out the image of them both reaching for each other but reaching nothing. Hermione didn't want to think about how she would feel if she reached this time but reached nothing at all.
Hermione knocked on the door to Severus' office but there was no reply. She tentatively opened the door and stepped inside. Looking around, she found the dark brooding wizard hovering over a smoking cauldron. "You shouldn't be here," she heard him say in a voice barely above a whisper.
Hermione took a deep breath and resigned herself to the fact that it was going to be a long night. "No, I should have never left to begin with," she replied. "Severus..."
"No," he said, turning around and looking at Hermione for the first time.
Hermione approached the lab table he was working at and it was all that separated him from her. "I need to know how you did it," she said softly.
"You're speaking in riddles," he hissed, turning around.
"I need to know how you survived these last twenty years!" she yelled. "Severus, please talk to me." She walked over to the other side of the lab table and touched his shoulder and he flinched. "Severus," she said.
Severus whirled on her and Hermione stepped back. "You really want to know?" he hissed. "For the first ten years I hunted for a way to get you back. I thought someone, probably Voldemort or one of his goons, had taken you because Albus wouldn't tell me anything. Imagine my surprise when a Miss Hermione Granger, age eleven," he spat, "turns up at the Sorting Ceremony and bears a striking resemblance to Mia Lindon. For seven years I had to endure teaching you and watching you put your life in danger with Boy Wonder and his trusty sidekick." Severus turned away again.
Hermione laid her hand on his shoulder and when he flinched, she only held on tighter. "Last month," Hermione paused and shook her head, "this morning when you warned me about changing the past... that was all I could think about for the month I spent in the past. Your words echoed in my head."
"As far as I know, you didn't mess anything up," he said with acid in his tone.
"Severus, please look at me," Hermione pleaded and tried to step between him and the lab table to look him in the face. Severus stood his ground and refused to let her get closer. Hermione let out a quiet sob and released his arm. "All right," she whispered, "I'll go."
She crossed the dungeon and stopped in the doorway, turning back to see Severus still hovering over his potions. "Before I go, I want you to know something," she paused but he said nothing. "Even if I hadn't gone back in time, I would have fallen in love with you. That's been a long time coming." She saw his body visibly stiffen. "And while I may have fallen in love with a slightly different version of you, it's you I want. All I kept thinking about while I was there was how you were going to react to this." She shook her head and looked down at the floor. "Even though I had you," she whispered, "all I wanted was to get back to... you."
She slipped out without a sound, and when Severus finally turned around, she was gone. "Oh, Mia..."
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The next day, Hermione left Hogwarts with a heavy heart and traveled to Godric's Hollow where she spent the days following the Easter Holiday with Harry, Ginny, and their daughter Lily. After five days of reminiscing about their days at Hogwarts and spending quality time with her goddaughter, Hermione realized that she needed to return and face Severus once again.
"Must you leave so soon?" Ginny asked as she helped Hermione pack her clothes. Hermione nodded but said nothing. "Who is he?"
"Is it a sixth sense?" Hermione laughed.
"Perhaps, but I saw you last night, wandering around the house with a far off look in your eyes. I had the same look in my eyes when Harry and I were engaged... I still have that look in my eyes sometimes," Ginny smiled, listening to her husband chase Lily around the yard.
Hermione smiled sadly at Ginny. "He doesn't love me back, Gin."
Ginny laid a hand on Hermione's forearm. "Then maybe he isn't worth it."
"I risked so much to get to him," she whispered. "I'm not letting him get away from me." Ginny nodded and helped Hermione finish packing.
"Come visit again, and bring Ginny and Lily," Hermione said to Harry when they arrived at Hogsmeade a few hours later.
"We'll visit once the baby is born," he promised, wrapping Hermione in a hug. "Take care of yourself, Mia." Hermione nodded and watched him apparate back to Godric's Hollow.
She shrunk her bags down and slowly walked down the path to Hogwarts. She paused at the top of a rise to take in the scene of Hogwarts. "I won't hurt you again, Severus," she vowed as she continued on her way.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
That night at dinner in the Great Hall, Hermione conversed with Remus Lupin and tried to keep her mind off of the fact that Severus had yet to show up for dinner. "You're off somewhere else," the Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor pointed out.
Hermione blinked a few times. "I'm sorry. It's been a long day, Remus," she said and spooned some mashed potatoes up, but did not eat them. Remus laughed and went back to eating.
Hermione ate a few bites of her food when suddenly a rolled piece of parchment magically appeared before her. Her fork clattered on the table as she dropped it in surprise. Picking it up, Hermione unrolled the parchment and read the quickly scrawled writing. 'Please come to the dungeons' it read.
Hermione made her excuses and left the Great Hall. She took several deep breaths before she once again entered the dungeons. It was dark but there was a light coming from the back room where Severus brewed his personal potions. "Severus?"
"I'm in here, Mia," he called. Hermione was taken aback at his use of her nickname. "I must confess that I don't want to have this particular conversation, Hermione," he said, and she pounced.
"Why you insufferable overgrown bat!" she screamed and pushed herself to stand between Severus and the lab table. Severus stepped back and looked her over. Her cheeks were flushed with fury. "I risked my life to get back here! I could have been sent to the future or back to the Middle Ages! I did it for you!" she screamed. "I said I had things to get back to at home and I meant it."
"Miss Granger," he started.
"Don't you 'Miss Granger' me, Severus," she said. "Now I left you to think things over for a few days, I backed away, but no more! Don't you get it? I fell in love with you."
"Mia," he said softly, trying to get her attention. "May I speak?" Hermione nodded and leaned against the lab table. "I was trying to tell you that I did not want to have this particular conversation because..." his voice trailed off and he scowled down at her.
"What Severus?"
"Hermione, you have been out of my life for over twenty years. I don't think I could survive if you left me again," he said and sighed. "Even when you came to work here, I knew I couldn't tell you the truth. Albus had talked about paradoxes and rifts in time; he did it to piss me off. This morning, I knew it was time."
"Severus, I..."
"No, wait I'm not done," he insisted, taking her hands in his. "You were right. Even if you hadn't gone back in time, I would have fallen in love with you. You were always there for me, even we just talked in the library. Just your presence these last couple of years was enough for me," he said, running a finger down her cheek. Even when my world was falling apart, you were my constant... my touchstone."
"And you are mine," she whispered.
Severus stared at her for several long moments. After what felt like an eternity to Hermione, he reached out and drew her to him. He kissed her with all the love and passion he had kept to himself for the past twenty years. Hermione snaked her arms around his back and tilted her head up to him, fusing her lips to his. After several moments, they pulled away, desperate for air.
Severus tucked her head beneath his chin and ran his hands up and down her back in gentle caresses. "You cannot imagine what these years have been like without you, Mia," he whispered, kissing the top of her head.
Hermione rested her cheek on his chest, holding him tightly. "I never meant to hurt you," she said.
"Albus came to me the day you started your education at Hogwarts," Severus said, entangling his hands in her hair and tilting her head up to look at him, "and he told me what you said to him before you left. I know you didn't mean for me to suffer." He was silent for a few moments. "Hermione?" A single tear streaked down her cheek. "I would have waited another twenty years for you," he said. Hermione smiled as he bent his head and kissed her sweetly on the lips.
"You know it's funny," Hermione said, pulling away from him.
"Kissing me is funny now?" Severus asked, brushing stray hairs away from her face.
"No, never," she laughed. "Being in the past and seeing people like Harry, Albus, Minerva, and you was like looking though a piece of fractured glass."
"I don't think I understand, Mia," he said.
Hermione smiled at his use of the name. "Well, the image was familiar but everything was distorted like piece of imperfect glass. I knew everyone that I came in contact with, and I knew where I was, but everything was different. Like looking through fractured glass," she said.
"Very poetic," he said, bending down to kiss her again.
"Speaking of poetic," Hermione said, breaking their kiss and taking his hand in hers. "I seem to remember a certain author I thought we both liked. You only like Du Bois because of me, didn't you?"
"Hermione, could you honestly see me reading that before you pointed it out?"
"We still need to work on this trust and truth thing," she laughed.
"I think we've got the trust thing down," he said. "And truthfully," he said, looking at her seriously, "I love you, and I think it's just as noble as truth."
"Agreed," Hermione said and kissed him once more. "So, what are you working on?" she asked, looking over the ingredients he had lying out on the table.
Severus looked at her with a solemn expression. "I don't know if you're ready to hear this particular truth," he said.
"Severus," she said seriously, "I love you and I'm always going to love you. I'm ready for whatever you're willing to tell me."
"Well then," he conceded, moving to stand beside her, "I have a lot to tell you." They both hovered over the smoking cauldron, heads close and hands clasped together.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
End Chapter 4
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Epilogue... epilogue you say? We'll see ;)
Thanks for reading and please review!
Keep and eye out for a sequel sometime later in the summer!
