Chapter Six
She turned around to go back through the hole that she'd entered through, but all she saw was a brick wall. The exit had disappeared. She turned around and looked for another doorway, but there wasn't even a window to look out of.
She walked around the room taking in her surroundings. The room was circular. Which means I'm probably in one of the towers, she thought. The only light in the room was provided by a roaring fire and strategically placed old-fashioned torches. There were a couple of curved sofas against the walls. In the centre of the room there was a table laden with sandwiches, plates, pitchers of water, pumpkin juice and Butterbeer and some glasses. Three high-backed chairs had been placed around the table.
A sound came from one of the chairs and Tara looked to see what had made it. There was a person sitting in the chair, staring at her.
Severus.
"Hello Tara," he said.
She sat down in the chair opposite Severus, and swung her legs over the side so that she didn't have to face him.
"Ignore me all you want, we have all the time in the world, and I don't think we'll be getting out of here until we've sorted out our problems," he said.
"What did you do?" she asked, instantly suspicious.
"There's a portrait in Hogwarts, if you walk in front of the wall opposite three times and concentrate on what you want the room provides it. I needed somewhere that I could sort out my feelings and the room provided what I needed."
"So then why the heck would I be here? After all, according to you I'm a Gryffindor Mudblood and your problems aren't my concern!"
Severus' looked stung by her words, and Tara immediately felt guilty.
"I'm sorry," said Severus quietly, his voice barely above a whisper, his head in his hands. "You hate me and I'm sorry."
"I don't hate you at all. I'm sorry I said that…" she said turning to face him. "I shouldn't have lashed out like that. It's just that when I tried to talk to you before Christmas… and you… it hurt… it really hurt… and then I got angry. But I never hated you."
"And now?"
"And now I don't know… I know I'm not angry… when I see you I… I feel confused."
There was an uncomfortable silence as each of them tried to think of something to say.
"Did you like your Christmas present?" Tara asked finally.
Severus took something out of his pocket and stared at it. It was the Pensieve that she had bought him, but it wasn't empty anymore. There was silver liquid inside.
"It came in very useful. This is our chat the morning after the sorting. I really am so sorry." He paused for a moment, turning the Pensieve over, the liquid not spilling. "Did you like the robes?"
"They were beautiful."
Severus raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at her robes.
"So..."
"So...?"
"Why aren't you wearing them?"
Tara flushed. "Peter was practicing spells before the ball and he accidentally set fire to them."
"Are you sure it was an accident? Maybe Sirius and James put him up to it."
"Considering that I was wearing them at the time, I don't think so. They're not that reckless."
Severus snorted, anger flashing through his eyes. He stood up and walked over to the fireplace and stared into the flames.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Tara, wondering what could have caused him to have that reaction.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter," he replied, not wanting to sound vindictive. This was the first time that he and Tara talked civilly for a month. He didn't want to blow it by insulting her friends.
"That's a story for another time. So, where did you get the other robes? Did Sirius give them to you?"
Tara smiled when she heard the slightly jealous tone in his voice.
"I got them in Hogsmeade before Christmas."
"You and Sirius dating?" Severus asked, a scowl on his brow starting to form on his brow when he mentioned Sirius's name.
Tara broke into a grin. "What happened to that slyness that you Slytherins are so famous for?"
He turned his back to the flames and looked at her. "Your Gryffindor ways are corrupting me," he replied with a smile.
Tara laughed.
"And don't think I didn't notice how you avoided my question," said Severus.
"Sirius and I are just friends."
"Are you sure he knows that?"
"Yes, he asked me to go as a friend, that's all," she replied earnestly. "So how is life in Slytherin?"
"Business as usual. Malfoy's still acting like he's Lord of Slytherin," he said with a sneer. "But it's not the same… I miss you…"
Tara felt a smile form on her lips, pleased at the words she had just heard Severus utter.
She stood up and closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I missed you too."
"Where were you last night?" Lily asked, jumping up onto Tara's bed.
"With Sev," Tara replied sleepily.
"You two made up?"
"Yes," she replied with a light smile. "So, what did you and James get up to after we left?"
"Guess," said Lily, with a smile so wide, it looked like it would hurt if she held it for too long. "You'll never guess!"
"No idea," said Tara, with a feeling that the answer was dancing on the outside of her conscious mind, but frustratingly, she couldn't remember it
Lily replied lightly. "We took a romantic walk down to the lake… and we talked for a while… then we kissed for a while…" Lily paused, obviously excited about what she was about to say. "Then he proposed."
Tara shrieked in excitement as she grabbed Lily and they both started bouncing on her bed.
"I hope that everyone is well rested and full of happy memories after the weekend," said Professor Davies as he greeted the class.
There was an unenthusiastic murmur of agreement from several people within the room. Severus just smiled and thought of the time he'd spent with Tara who was sitting next to him and listening intently to every word the professor was saying, quill in hand, ready to take notes.
"Well, I hope that answer wasn't a sign of things to come in this lesson, because today you're going to need all the concentration you can muster."
This got the attention of some of the class who sat up straighter and picked up their quills.
"But first a quick review. Who can tell me what makes Azkaban prison so feared by all Wizardkind?"
Severus raised his hand.
"The Dementors."
"Correct Mr. Snape. Five points to Slytherin. And who can tell me why the Dementors are so feared?"
Severus raised his hand again.
"Tara?"
"Because they suck peace, hope and happiness out of the space around them. If you're around them for too long they can turn you soulless and evil. It's horrible."
Severus felt Tara shiver next to him, as if from the thought of the Dementor. He put his arm around her shoulder and rubbed her arm to comfort her, earning a raised eyebrow from the professor. He took his arm away.
"Five points to Gryffindor. Now who can tell me what is the worst weapon a Dementor has? Mr. Black?"
"The Dementors Kiss."
"And what does the Kiss do, Mr. Black?"
"It sucks your soul out. Leaves you like an empty shell. The lights are on, but no one's home."
"Five points to Gryffindor. Now, something we haven't covered yet. Is there any defence against a Dementor?"
Severus looked around; no one had raised their hand. No one except Tara.
"Tara?"
"The Patronus. It drives the Dementor away. The incantation is Expecto Patronum, but that's not all you need to cast the spell. The caster has to concentrate on a happy thought as well. The happier the thought, the stronger the Patronus."
"Very good. Ten points to Gryffindor."
"The Patronus is a very difficult charm to cast and even harder if there is a Dementor around, and for obvious reasons we will not be bringing a Dementor into the school. If you cannot cast the charm then do not worry, there are many fully trained, experienced wizards who cannot make a proper Patronus, even producing a silvery mist is hard. We will be spending some time in lesson trying to produce a Patronus and it will be a part of your NEWTS. And I do not want anyone trying to practice this charm alone. Now I would like all of you to say the incantation that Tara provided earlier."
"Expecto Patronum," said the class, some getting it more right than others.
"Now think of the happiest thought that you can muster, like your favourite Christmas, or winning a Quidditch match. I'll give you a few moments."
My happiest moment? Severus thought. Leaving that place I used to call my home? No. Getting Sorted into Slytherin? Not really. Feeling loved for the first time? Tara. Yes that's it. Tara.
"You will be glad to know that there is no particular way that you need to wave your wand for this incantation," said the professor. "You just hold it like this," he wrapped his hand around the bottom of the wand, apparently gripping it quite tightly, "and say the incantation EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
Suddenly a silvery light charged out of his wand and took form; it was a wolf. After a few moments it dissipated and the Professor was panting slightly.
"That was my Patronus, it is different for everyone, said the professor. "Uusually the Patronus will take the form of something you feel protected by or something you admire, whether consciously or unconsciously. But there are occasions where it might turn out to be something else entirely. Now, everybody stand up and move to the front of the class room."
Everybody did as they were told.
Professor Davies waved his wand and the tables and chairs disappeared. "Now everybody spread out."
The class moved through the room, each student quickly finding a space to themselves.
"Now, concentrate on your happy thought."
There was a lot of muttering throughout the room, as people brought their thoughts into focus.
"Now, say the incantation... Expecto Patronum."
"Expecto Patronum!" said the class.
Severus was pleased to note that he was one of the few who managed to cast the silvery mist.
"Oh, Miss James, fifty points to Gryffindor! What a wonderful Patronus!"
Severus had to smother the smile that was playing on his lips, because Lucius Malfoy was looking absolutely furious.
"Today, we are going to test your memories, see if your brains are working properly. I hope you've all been revising for your Potions NEWT," said Professor Slughorn, rolling up the blackboard.
"On this board there are two potions, the ingredients and the instructions are all mixed together. Your task is to separate all the instructions, put them in the right order, and then to show them to me. One potion will make a simple swelling solution, the other a more complex aging potion."
"After I have seen your answers you are to follow your instructions to the letter. I will not be telling you whether your potion is correct or not, I will merely be making sure that you will not be creating anything toxic or otherwise dangerous. The first person to make the swelling solution will receive a five Galleon the voucher from Honeydukes sweet shop. The first person to make the aging potion correctly, will receive a potion of their choice from my private store."
"For anyone else who brews either potion correctly, five points to their house. But, anyone who fails to make either potion correctly, will lose five points for their house."
"You will find all the ingredients in front of you in their correct measurements. You are to work separately, and in silence."
Tara recalled the revision she had done so far. She'd only managed to study the Swelling solution, so that one would be easy, the aging potion would be a lot harder, but she thought she could remember most of the instructions from when she'd read through the text book, maybe once she got the Swelling solution out of the way it would come back.
She listed out the ingredients in their mixed order on her parchment and started listing them in columns.
Right, she thought, porcupine quills, swelling solution, puffer-fish eyes, caterpillars, tube worms, daisy-roots and lacewing flies. That means the knotgrass, scarab beetles, ginger roots, mandrake, bundimun secretions, and armadillo shell are in the aging potion.
Slice the daisy roots, add them to the boiling water along with the puffer-fish eyes, wait five minutes for the water to turn green and crush the caterpillars into a paste and mix it with the lacewings and add them to the cauldron and stir them thirty rotations anti-clockwise, take the cauldron off the heat wait for it to cool and turn pale yellow, add the porcupine quills.
She noticed that Professor Slughorn was already taking a look at Sev's work.
Ok, aging potion, that should be easy, yeah right. Ok first the ginger roots are chopped and boiled saving one handful because that needs to be put in whole after the scarab beetles go in… then the bundimun secretions, stir it twelve times and let it boil for ten minutes, hold the mandrake root in the solution for three minutes and take it out, then the scarab beetles, wait if I put the beetles in before the knotgrass it'll make the cauldron melt, the chop the knotgrass and let it simmer, then the beetles and after two minutes put the rest of the ginger roots in and then in goes the armadillo shell. Lastly add one porcupine quill for each year you want to age and stir three times clockwise
She finished her write-up and raised her hand.
"How are you doing Tara?"
"I think I'm done."
He took the parchment from her and seemed to study it.
"Hmmm, they look alright. Which one are you going to try?"
"Is it right?"
"I told you I wouldn't say, nevertheless neither potion will kill you."
"Okay, I know the swelling solution is right, so I'll try the aging potion."
"Then I suggest you get started."
Tara lit the fire under the cauldron with her wand and sorted out her ingredients, pushing the ones she didn't need to the end of the bench.
When she was a little over halfway though her potion, she looked over and saw that Sev was completing the final stirs on his potion.
Professor Slughorn came over again and looked at her progress.
"Very good Tara." He made his way over to Severus's workspace. "Ready to test yours Mr. Snape?"
Tara added her lacewings and counted her stirs as she watched Sev take a sip of his potion.
First he grew a few inches and then his face started to change. His nose became more prominent. Wrinkles surrounded his eyes and creases formed on his forehead.
He looked foreboding. He looked familiar.
Suddenly there was an explosion behind them. Peter's potion had exploded. Several students were now covered in a thick pink slime, the affected parts swelling.
"Mr. Pettigrew, there are more effective and less dangerous ways to test a swelling solution. Ten points to Gryffindor, for making an effective swelling solution. Twenty points from Gryffindor for your testing methods. And see me after class for your detention."
Somehow the scene seemed familiar. But why did she have the sudden urge to get boomslang skin?
"The rest of the class is cancelled. Everyone is to come to the front to get some on the antidote I prepared earlier. Your homework is to revise how to make Wolfsbane Potion, the Polyjuice Potion and the Animagus Potion. And I want you to write me an essay comparing the various Invisibility Potions. Ten inches. You will be tested on your revision. Points will be awarded depending on how well you have revised!"
Soon the Easter holidays arrived. Though they couldn't really be called holidays.
The teachers had piled on so much homework that they wouldn't be able to have much of a holiday. They would have to work almost constantly to get it done.
Hermione picked up her Defence Against the Dark Arts book for the fifth time that night and Sirius came bounding over yet again. It was Friday night and Sirius was restless.
"Come on Tara, one more game of Exploding Snap," he said pouting at her.
"No Sirius, and if you come over here again I'll hit you with the Curse of the Bogies."
Sirius gave her his best puppy-dog look and Hermione felt herself weakening slightly.
"Ok, if you let me study for two hours uninterrupted I'll play two games of Snap with you."
Sirius smiled. "Okay," and with that he bounded off to the corner where Peter was practicing his summoning charm on a Sugar quill.
"Where were we?" she asked Remus, who was the only other person in the common room who had felt up to studying with her.
"We'd just finished the chapter on Red Caps, and it's your turn to decide on a chapter."
She flipped to the index at the back of the book and scanned the list to find something that they hadn't covered. "Still on dark creatures... how about werewolves?"
But she didn't get a reply.
Remus looked a little paler than he usually did.
"You okay Remus?"
"Fine, werewolves was it?"
And they both flicked to the relevant pages.
"Me first?" she asked.
Remus nodded. "What makes werewolves so different from a wolf?"
"A werewolf is only a werewolf around the full moon, for three days in fact, the rest of the time they are human. Even when there is a full moon they are only werewolves when the moon is out. There are subtle physical differences, for example a werewolf has a slightly longer snout than a wolf Due to the extreme stresses of the transformations, during and after a full moon a werewolf can display signs... of major fatigue..."
It hit her like a tidal wave.
Remus was a werewolf.
Suddenly the memories came Flooding in. She was Hermione Granger, seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She saw her parents at the Eiffel Tower… her acceptance letter to Hogwarts… Ron and Harry playing chess… studying with them in the library… arguing with Ron… watching Harry take on the dragon in her fourth year… her tenth birthday… her first trip to Diagon Alley, Flourish and Blotts… Christmas with her family when she was eleven… Hogsmeade in her third year… Sirius and James… no Harry, but they looked so alike… Sirius transforming, the Shrieking Shack… Professor Lupin… Lily and James… Sirius's funeral… Voldemort… Ron throwing himself in front of her… Harry and Ron's funeral… Mrs Weasley crying at their funeral… the battle… the curses flying at her… the time-turner…
Harry and Ron! they saved me and I forgot, she thought angrily at herself.
Lily and James are dead… she remembered, looking sadly at the two holding each other's hands.
Sirius got sent to Azkaban…
Scabbers… Wormtail…
Snape killed Dumbledore!
Suddenly her blood started to boil,
And I've been dating him!
She could feel the anger bubbling up within herself, along with something else… She bolted for the bathroom, locked the door, put her head into the toilet bowl and threw up.
"Tara?" called Lily through the door. "Are you alright?"
Hermione looked up. I can't warn them can I? Who knows what might happen if I do. The wizarding world might not get the respite from Voldemort. He might kill Harry…
"Fine, I'm fine, something I ate," she lied.
"Okay," said Lily sounding doubtful. "We'll be in the common room."
After a few moments Tara unlocked the bathroom door and slid down on the Floor and stared into space… Dumbledore… I should go and see him… she thought, but didn't move.
Lily and James…
Harry alone…
Sirius in Azkaban…
Escaped…
Harry dead…
Peter killed Lily and James! He wrecked Sirius's life. He wrecked Harry's life. I know what's going to happen and I can't warn them. Dumbledore.
She got up and looked at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes were red from the tears that had welled up in her eyes. She wiped her eyes and splashed water on her face, feeling the heat drain away slightly.
She noticed Lily's make-up case on the side. Thank god for small favours.
She carefully applied a small amount of foundation to hide the red skin under her eyes. There. Perfect.
She exited the bathroom quickly and headed to the portrait hole.
"Where are you going Tara? We have to revise," Remus called from their revision spot.
"To see Dumbledore, he told me to go to him if I remember anything. We'll finish this later."
"Wait a minute," said James motioning for her to go to them. "We think we've finished the map."
Hermione smiled, remembering all the times she, Harry and Ron had used the map.
Sirius pushed the piece of parchment towards her. "Try and guess the password."
Hermione took out her wand and tapped it on the map. "I do solemnly swear I am up to no good," she whispered. And the message appeared, with the map underneath.
"Hey! How'd you know?" Sirius asked, surprised.
"I overheard you earlier," she lied, not looking up from the map.
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
In Partnership With
Petals and Books
Are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP
"Petals and Books?"
"Well you and Lily helped us so much that we agreed that you two should be put on it, after all you gave us the inspiration."
How much of the time line have I already corrupted? Hermione asked herself heading to the portrait hole again.
"Want to take it for a spin?" asked Sirius, picking up James's Invisibility Cloak and following her. "Filch is lurking around."
"Thanks," she said taking the cloak from him and she stepped through the, he moved forward to go with her but she pulled on the cloak and took the map from him and went to find Dumbledore's office without him.
Hermione had found the Headmasters office easily enough. But she didn't know the password. Oh, she knew that it was always a type of sweet, but she'd tried lemon drops, coke cubes, marshmallows, Snickers, liquorice, sugar quills and all the other ones that she knew. After an hour of repeating different names she'd finally given up and slid down the wall onto the ground.
So she just sat there, not paying attention to time, not caring if she was out past curfew. Just sitting there, waiting for Dumbledore to come out of his office.
"He didn't do it. He didn't do it. I shouldn't have forgotten, they died and I forgot," she muttered to herself, not for the first time since she'd arrived.
"Tara?" said a voice, waking her out of her trance. "What are you doing here? You should be in Gryffindor Tower!"
"Professor McGonagall!" she banged her head on the wall in surprise. "Ouch!"
"What's the matter dear?" Professor McGonagall asked, her eyes hard and her lips tight.
"I need to see Professor Dumbledore, it's important. Please," she said her eyes pleading with the professor.
The look in the professors' eyes softened at the plea. "You are almost out after curfew, you should go back to the Gryffindor Tower immediately."
"Please, I need to see him," she pleaded again, and the professors' expression softened completely.
"Okay, but the Headmaster is a very busy man, I cannot be sure that he will have the time."
"Hazelnut Swirl."
The gargoyle sprang to life and moved to one side, to reveal a spiral staircase.
"Go on then Tara."
She stepped onto the staircase and Professor McGonagall followed, which started to move like a Muggle escalator. And in no time at all she was standing at the headmasters' desk.
"Hello Minerva, what brings you here?"
"I found this young lady sitting outside," Professor McGonagall indicated to Tara. "She was quite persistent that she see you."
Dumbledore looked at Hermione for a moment. "Tara. Why don't you take a seat?"
She sat down in the chair opposite him.
"Now, why am I to be graced with the pleasure of your company this evening?"
"I… I…" she stuttered. Now that she was sitting in front of the professor she wasn't sure what to say.
"Yes?" he asked, the tone of his voice had a slight calming effect on her nerves.
"I remember."
"What do you remember?"
"Everything," she replied, the words suddenly tumbling out of her mouth. "I know what happens. I've changed so many things… I shouldn't be here… For all I know something major… what if you're supposed to be doing something tonight and I've changed your plans…"
Professor McGonagall tried to put a comforting arm around the obviously distressed girl, but Hermione shrugged it off standing up.
"I can assure you…"
"Hermione. Hermione Granger."
"I can assure you Miss Granger, that all I was going to do today was put my feet up and read a good book, maybe even have some tea. Would you like a cup?"
Hermione nodded and he went over to the just boiled kettle and made two cups of tea. "Now, what did you change? And why is it so bad?"
Her eyes grew wide as she realised that she'd made a grave mistake.
"I… I shouldn't have said that."
"Nevertheless you have… but if it will help I promise not to intervene or mention what you tell me to anyone unless you ask me to, I will follow the time line as you say. And Minerva will too. Won't you?"
Professor McGonagall nodded her assent.
"I suppose…" she replied slowly considering her words. "Where should I start?"
"Why don't you start from the beginning?"
A hundred doubts suddenly popped into her head, but she pushed them aside and started to talk. "There are three unregistered Animagi at Hogwarts. A stag, a dog and a rat."
"Yes, I know. James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. Though I confess I do not know who is what."
Professor McGonagall's lips thinned.
"You do? How?"
"Miss Granger, that is a story for another time."
Hermione swallowed several more questions that entered her mind.
The Headmaster chuckled.
"Lily Evans and James Potter will get married after they graduate, and about two years from now they'll have a child called Harry Potter," she paused, not sure if she was doing the right thing.
"Go on," said Professor Dumbledore encouraging her.
"Things are going to get bad, very bad. You-Know-Who… I don't know whether he wants to them to join him or just to kill them, but he'll go after them… and what's more they suspect that there is a traitor among them. But you get an idea… the Fidelius Charm, they cast it near Halloween… and they make Sirius their Secret Keeper." She paused and took a gulp of her tea.
"On Halloween night… the Potter home is attacked by You-Know-Who and James and Lily are killed… but something happens when he tries to get Harry. Lily died protecting him and it left a mark… When You-Know-Who goes after Harry, he gets weakened and he loses his power, he's weak and bodiless. And he disappears. Anyway, Peter finds Sirius and some Muggles see Sirius kill Peter and twelve other Muggles. Sirius is arrested by the Aurors and is sent to Azkaban, without a trial."
"But he didn't really do it?" asked Professor McGonagall, Hermione's earlier babble making sense.
"No. Sirius convinced Lily and James to switch their Keeper to Peter at the last minute… he thought that no one would suspect it… but they didn't tell anyone. Not you, not Remus because he might have been the traitor… Peter went straight to You-Know-Who and told them what he knew. Sirius went to Peters' place that night to check on him but Peter wasn't there and Sirius realised who the traitor was. He found Peter, but Peter started screaming 'How could you Sirius! You murdered them' or something like that. And then he blew up the street and ran down into the sewers as a rat."
There was a long pause as the two professors let Hermione's story sink in.
"What am I going to do?"
"For the moment? What do you want to do?"
"Turn back the time line so that everything I've changed never got changed."
"Well, it's too late to do that. And we can't very well send you into the future, it hasn't happened yet. That is why nobody goes back more than an hour or two at a time."
"What can I do?"
"Just do what you've been doing. Carry on your friendships as you have. But do not tell anyone else about future events. We do not want anyone finding out about when you are from… especially not Voldemort."
"And act as if nothing's happened? But…" she stopped again not sure if she should mention this.
"But?"
"Severus… he's supposed to become a Death Eater."
Dumbledore's expression clouded over, as did McGonagall's.
"He… he kills someone… very important…" said Hermione, avoiding Professor Dumbledore's penetrating gaze.
"There is another way to look at your situation… There was a Muggle artist… I think his name was Picasso, he said: "I don't believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents." Maybe you were sent back to change the past, to help us defeat Voldemort earlier, to save lives…"
"No, I was silly enough to wear a time-turner during a battle."
"A battle? At Hogwarts? Never mind. Now that you're here the events of your past may never come to fruition. And it does not matter what happened to send you back, what matters is that you were sent back."
"I suppose…" she admitted reluctantly. "But how do I know what to change and what not to change?"
"That is simple. You don't. But maybe you were the perfect person to choose, the fates know that you will make the right choices."
"But I might end up making things ten times worse."
Dumbledore seemed to think for a moment.
"Destiny always gets it's own way. It is not as easy to change time as you might think. If Severus was supposed to remain the way he was and become a Death Eater then time would have not allowed you to meet him on the way from the greenhouses that afternoon. And I would certainly not have been allowed to encourage him to befriend you."
"If you were to warn me of an event that you think should be stopped, for example, a Death Eater attack on the school tomorrow, and a certain student was to be killed, and destiny objects, it would find a way to prevent that from happening, say change time just enough, so that there would be enough Death Eaters to make sure that the student died, but it would also make sure that those Death Eaters would not be able to kill anyone that was not supposed to die in the first place."
"So," said Hermione slowly, "if I were to tell you that shares in Peabody Publishing would skyrocket in my time, and that you should get in on the ground Floor and buy shares when they start up in 1985 and time didn't want you to, because it would be personal gain, then it would, say, make sure that all of the shares were bought up before you could get a chance to."
"Yes, something like that."
"Is there anything else that you feel we should know?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"Nothing else really starts until a year after Harry is born. But there is an event that I feel you should know about."
"Yes dear?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"The Chamber of Secrets."
"That's just a myth," said Professor McGonagall, her brow furrowing.
"No it isn't. It's real, it opened in 1952 didn't it?"
"How do you know?"
"It opens again. In my second year."
"The heir of Slytherin returns?"
"In a manner of speaking, the heir is You-Know-Who. Tom Riddle. He's enchanted a diary. A student gets hold of it, thanks to Lucius Malfoy and Riddle manages to take over the student. He enchants her and makes her do things, he makes her set a Basilisk on the school and the students are petrified one by one."
"Do you know where the chamber is?"
"Yes, it's in the girls toilets, the one where Moaning Myrtle haunts, she was the Basilisk's first kill."
"That's impossible. I checked the girl's toilets myself. There was no entrance to a chamber there!" said Professor McGonagall standing up.
"Not one that you or I could open. But a Parselmouth could. Voldemort's a Parselmouth, so's Harry, well he will be."
"There are no known Parselmouths in the world other than Voldemort, and I for one don't want to invite him into the castle," said Dumbledore with a slight smile.
"Is there anyway that a person can speak snake language without actually being a Parselmouth?" Hermione asked.
"Not at present," said McGonagall. "But there are charms that will allow a person to speak a different language. Maybe it will be possible to adapt one of them."
"Tara," said Dumbledore in a reassuring voice. "There is a spell that I would like to perform on you that may put your mind at rest if you are worried about changing the time-line. If you were sent here by accident, it will send you back, if you are supposed to be here then it will integrate you into our time however it wants. It will take us a while to prepare. I suggest that you go back to Gryffindor Tower now and try to get some rest, this has obviously been a very stressful day for you."
"Yes, sir," said Hermione, heading for the staircase.
"And Miss Granger… whatever happens to make Severus the way he is in your time… it has not happened yet. I have noticed a change in him since you arrived… I would not like to see him retreat to his former self… It will be possible for you to prevent that."