Okay! Here goes nothing! I've prepped this fairly nicely in my opinion. Sorry it took so long!

Change is good.

Hermione blearily opened her eyes, and had to squeeze them shut again. The golden light filtering into the room was unbearably bright.

"Ms. Granger? Oh good! The headmaster will be so relieved!" Madame Pomfrey looked over her. Hermione sat up as she skirted around the bed and down the line of beds to a very sick looking 4th year girl.

"You may go, Lindsay. Your parents will pick you up tomorrow. Maybe you can come back next year and continue your education. Terribly irresponsible." She said as she rushed past the blond girl, who's head was dropped onto her hands. Hermione tried to call after the Matron, but the heavy oak doors had already slammed shut.

Throwing back the covers, Hermione checked her hands. They were there. Pale and elegant as normal. Angry, Hermione stomped across the cold stone floor, fully intending on going to find out WHY she wasn't watching herself during breakfast this morning.

The girl called Lindsay let out a sob.

Hermione stopped and looked at her. Glancing at the door, she felt the urge to go roaring after the healer, but sat on the bed beside the girl instead.

"Uhh…Lindsay, is it?" Hermione asked quietly, while noticing the snake symbol on her robes.

She looked up, and her bright blue orbs met Hermione's chocolate brown ones.

"Y-Yes. Lindsay Chase. You're…Hermione Granger." She said, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"Yeah, I am." Hermione said gently. The girl was obviously in distress about something huge.

"Hi." She said, trying to laugh through a hiccup. Hermione smiled slightly.

"Hi. Do…you wanna tell me what's wrong?" She asked hesitantly, treading on Pansy Parkinson's territory of henning the younger girls of Slytherin. Lindsay shook her head.

"Not really. I'm going to anyways, though."

Hermione waited. Lindsay took her time, her face screwed up, thinking.

"Slytherin isn't the greatest of places at times. In others, it's the best place in the world, but sometimes, it's like a shadow of hell settles over the place." Lindsay began, exhaling slowly. Hermione sensed a very quick summary approaching.

"And that's how I got pregnant. The boys get restless, and I don't know any spells…" she began to cry again.

Hermione's first instinct was to get up, tell her it was her fault, and walk away. Quick as a flash she saw the embarrassed faces of the third years she had scolded, and the mortification at her uptight tendencies. She suddenly felt very guilty about wanting to leave the girl in her world of pure hell.

Draping her arm across Lindsay's shoulders, she began to murmur words of comfort, rocking them slowly back and forth. The small blonde's sobs raked her body and forced her to shake.

They sat like that for a good 15 minutes, before she sat up.

"Thank you so much for doing this. You're the only one I told…Everybody else thinks I was careless." She smiled wanly.

Hermione grinned back.

Lindsay hugged her before getting up, shouldering her bag, and walking shakily out the door with a quiet thanks and goodbye.

"Ms. Granger, I dearly hope you did not go running around, you're unstable."

"Thank-you Poppy, Ms. Granger and I need to have a…talk."

Hermione winced as the Headmaster's voice overrode the elderly woman's.

As Pomfrey stalked away, Hermione made her way back to her bed, before sitting down. The head master perched himself on the bed next to hers, and gave her a long, calculating look.

"Ms. Granger, it has come to my attention that you have recently taken a potion that induced time travel. Back, in time, if Severus was correct." He said, peering at her curiously over the top of his spectacles. Hermione shifted.

"It was a Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter who found you on the Quidditch pitch, and carried you back up here in quite a panic." He continued.

"Professor, thank-you but I…"

"Ms. Granger, all I am doing is asking you what it was you ingested. That is all. I have no need for long-winded explanations for actions. It takes up the time of day that could be used for breathing." He said, the twinkle in his eye going nuts. Hermione almost smiled.

"I took the hours of judgment potion. Made by elves for goblins back during Merlin's War." Hermione said quietly.

"A complex potion."

"Not exactly tasty either." Hermione added, causing Dumbledore to chuckle.

"Poppy had you brought back, so I imagine you didn't get to complete your journey."

"No, not really." Hermione answered, a hint of testiness creeping into her voice.

He smiled, standing up again, and clapping her on the shoulder.

"I'm sure you had enough to climb onto a track that will carry you were you want to go." With a wink, he walked away, exiting the hospital wing. Hermione stared after him, mouth open, and confusion running amok around her head.

"Hermione! Oh gosh! I heard about you, and I was so worried, and I…are you okay? Snape said you had taken a potion to change your life permanently and we all assumed the worst and…" Ginny rambled. Hermione shushed her with a laugh.

The girl was tall, with creamy pale skin, and smooth elegant bones. Her wavy red hair fell to nearly her waist, and was always whipping out behind her. She very much resembled her brother with her chineton blue eyes, and bouncy attitude. Ginny's eyes held something a little more than knowledge.

"I took a potion to see myself in the last 24 hours. Technically, I missed out on the last couple, but…"

"Time travel? Isn't that impossible without a time turner? And didn't you and Harry break all the turners?" Ginny asked, confusion crossing her face. Hermione sighed.

"It was a rare potion, okay? Really rare…Elves for goblins…War for war…"

"Gold and comrades, lore and gore! Merlin is coming, in times of many, but thoughts are running, as far as any! I remember that. Mum used to sing it when she did the washing. Never understood what it meant." Ginny said, placing herself next to Hermione.

"It was talking about the war of Merlin. Elves and goblins were great participants." Hermione told her. Ginny nodded her head.

"The war that wiped out all the verish dragons."

Hermione nodded.

Ginny was quiet for a long time.

Finally, Hermione got up, and began pulling on clothing. She went to do up her blouse, and stopped, thinking about what she had seen in the library while her past self had studied. She left the top 3 buttons undone, and tied the sweater around her waist instead of sweating it out. She slid into her robes, and looked in a mirror.

Too fast, too fast, people will notice…I don't like it…

Her mind was putting on the emergency brakes. Too much change. Too fast. Hermione ignored it.

"Ginny, have you got a hair spell that will help this rat's nest?" Hermione asked hesitantly. Ginny gaped at her.

"Are you still sick? Did that Elvin stuff addle your brains?" she asked, feeling Hermione's forehead with the back of her hand.

Hermione swatted at her.

"No, I'm just sick of looking like a poodle. That's all." Hermione said shrewdly. Ginny giggled, pointing her wand at Hermione's hair.

"Vivaire."

Hermione stared into the mirror in shock. Her hair had kept it's general and natural shape, but had clamed significantly, and now hung perfectly in beautiful waves around her shoulders, looking as thick and healthy as any muggle hair model's.

"Close your mouth, it's not becoming." Ginny's mirthful voice said into her ear.

Hermione gathered her hair in her hand, and pulled it into a high, messy bun, letting natural pieces fall and highlight her heart-shaped face.

"Gin, you just worked a miracle."

"I could have done so earlier, had you unbuttoned your blouse sooner. I see it tends to make you loosen up." Her redhead friend answered. Hermione knocked her shoulder lightly. She looked at herself in the mirror. She didn't resemble Pansy or Lavender in the way they styled their clothes, but she didn't look like the librarian now either. She looked…normal. Slightly on the chancy, carefree side. To comfort herself on losing grips, she did up the third button, so two were only open. There, now she looked normal.

Ginny undid the button she had just done up.

"Three equals open. Four equals slutty. Two equals stuck up. All done up equals a Hermione." She said, making Hermione complain about the reference.

The two began to exit the hospital wing, Hermione still getting used to the way the air her skin on her collarbones, and the way her hair felt tossable, and not like a cotton ball.

Ginny bonded ahead of her, sometimes turning around and egging her on, or grabbing her and dragging her along. Hermione felt a smile coming on.

Screw being embarrassed. She had a life to explore. She raced Ginny up to the tower, yelling and shouting to each other, Ginny making perverted comments that made Hermione playfully scold her.

Change was good, so far.

YAY! Okay. I got this up. Now please be my faithful readers and read and review. I forgive you if your keyboard was broken, or your fingers had an incurable fungus. You can use a library computer, and type with your nose!

I love y'all. Thanks for being the best!

-Suzanne