DISCLAIMER: Deep in the jungle there lies a mountainous tree with millions upon millions of leaves. Every year, one leaf falls off. By the time the last leaf falls, I will still not own Harry Potter.

Summary: Through the barrier and into…a different time? Hermione finds herself in the Marauder's time. In a story of hate, lies, and hurt, Hermione finds something else….love.

A/N: Read my Halloween short story called "Twelve" under my other penname, Silenzioso Lupo… and Read the author's note at the bottom…

Chapter 6:

Hermione stood looking at the large oak door leading into Dumbledore's office. Nervousness filled her as her eyes bore a whole into the phoenix knocker. What if she couldn't get back? What if he didn't believe her? What if he sent her away?

Forcing these questions to the back of her mind, her hand rose hesitantly towards the knocker. Grasping it, she forced herself to knock on the door lightly. She waited and heard a faint "come in" from inside.

She opened the door and stepped inside the headmaster's office and stopped. She looked around in shock, her mouth forming a perfect 'o' as she turned around and round. It looked exactly the same!

A chuckle from behind her startled her and she spun around. Her gaze rested on an old man with a crisp white beard sitting behind a mahogany desk. She knew, though he looked younger than he did in her time, that this was Dumbledore, twinkling blue eyes and all.

"I hope you find that my office is up to your standards," he chortled. He peered at her over his half-moon spectacles and Hermione could see the double meaning in his eyes. He knew….

"Usually I'm already down in the Great Hall by now," he continued, "waiting for everyone to arrive, but I thought it would be better to wait on you up here where we could have a little privacy. I assume you are here to tell me something of vital importance."

Hermione studied him cautiously. How did he….? But he was Dumbledore and Hermione learnt a long ago to never question the old codger. "Um…yes sir. My name is Hermione Granger and I am from the future."

"Yes, I know that," Dumbledore said simply, rising from his chair to walk over to the Fawks. "As I said before, I've been waiting for you."

Hermione dismissed the urge to ask how he knew. "Um…will I be able to get back?" she asked instead, her brown eyes watching him closely.

"Yes you will Miss Granger, but not until later." Dumbledore kept his back to her as he answered so she did not see the small smile playing at the corner of his lips.

Hermione looked apprehensive as she asked her next question. "How much longer?"

"Till the end of the year I wager," Dumbledore said cheerfully. He turned towards her and smiled reassuringly. "Lemon drop?" Stunned, Hermione took one and popped it into her mouth, calmness soon racing through her veins.

"Miss Granger, time travel is a precarious thing. It is a very rare thing indeed to know the future and have the power to change it. You hold that power in your hands and you wouldn't have been sent back if not for a reason. There is always a reason, Miss Granger," he stressed. "You were sent back to this time for a reason."

"And what is that reason?" she asked slowly. She grabbed another lemon drop and enjoyed the calming effect it had on her. One day, she told herself, one day she would figure out the secret of Dumbledore's lemon drops.

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "I'm afraid I cannot tell you that. You have to figure it out for yourself, and upon figuring it out, decide what you are going to do with the information you learn."

Hermione nodded, though she didn't fully understand what he meant except for the fact that she was stuck in a foreign time with no clue how to get back and no idea why she was even there in the first place. "Yes, sir."

He reached out a hand a placed it on her shoulder. "I know, it seems like an impossible mission, but you are a smart witch. Think of this as another obstacle that you must overcome to become a greater and more powerful witch."

Hermione nodded, "Yes, sir."

Dumbledore clapped his hands together, "Good, good. Now, as to what we are going to do with you while you are here. You will be kept in your house." His blue eyes met her. "I assume you want to remain in Gryffindor."

Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, sir, I would greatly appreciate that."

Dumbledore nodded his head and waved his wand at her. Immediately, she was in the strait, black robes with the Gryffindor crest proudly displayed on the front. "There you go."

"Sir….?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

"What will I tell the others?" Hermione asked slowly. "Surely they will ask."

"Of course they will, they are teenagers. Teenagers are naturally curious, sometimes annoyingly so," he smiled softly and Hermione knew he didn't think so.

"Naturally," Hermione agreed with a laugh.

"The decision of what to tell them is entirely up to you. I will not force you to lie to them. However, I do impress upon you the gravity of your situation at the moment. You were thrust into a world where everything you know, everything you have ever experienced lies ahead. It has not happened yet, nor may it happen now. The threads of history are thin, and like in a woven line, even the slightest thread out of place can alter the whole picture."

Hermione nodded in understanding. She realized that every word that he spoke was true and she should take it to heart. She had the power to change everything.

But yet, would it be so bad if she changed things even a little? Maybe she could give Harry the childhood he always wanted with two loving parents. Maybe she could let Remus keep his best friends, alive and healthy. Maybe Sirius could live….

No, she told herself fiercely, history is the way it is for a reason and you should not play around with it. Question it, but do not change it. Even as Hermione berated herself, she wondered: could she follow her own rule?

"I will find something to tell them sir," Hermione said to Dumbledore, her eyes trained on her hands, "and I do understand my situation here which is why I plan to be very careful. I will remain Hermione Granger, for reasons I cannot tell you as of yet, and I will do my best to remain inconspicuous and not gain any unnecessary attention."

"However," she continued, her eyes raising to meet his, "I cannot make any promises on that. It is almost impossible to remain unnoticed when you appear out of nowhere, especially during a war. They will ask questions and I will have to answer then, but there is always the possibility that I may slip."

"Oh naturally," Dumbledore said as he continued to watch her, "we cannot guard our words all the time. Emotions tend to rule our mouths, a downfall of being human I guess." He smiled ruefully and walked to the door.

"I only ask you this," he said after some though, "if you do decide to impart your secret onto others, be sure of those you share it with. This information in the wrong hands can prove to be very dangerous to not only you, but those around you. Voldemort might try to take you in order to find out his outcome."

Hermione sucked in a deep breath before letting it out slowly, taking this needed time to decide her next words. "I understand sir. I know of the lengths Voldemort would go to ensure that his power and life go on."

"I take you know Voldemort in your time too then. No, do not answer that question," he said when she opened her mouth to answer. "I should not have asked. For now, everything that you have told me is enough. I shall not need to hear anymore."

"Yes, sir."

"Shall we go then?" Dumbledore opened the door for her and waited for her to head out first. Together they walked to the Great Hall in silence. Hermione was lost in her own quiet thoughts while Dumbledore was thinking of more clever candy passwords for his office that he had yet to use.

Hermione stopped suddenly as a thought suddenly popped into her mind. "Sir, I have no books, parchment, or clothing….how am I to go to class?"

Dumbledore smiled and laughed inwardly at the fact that her first worries had been about not having books. "You will find everything you need in a trunk tomorrow morning at the foot of your bed. I will provide you with enough money so as to go shopping the next Hogsmeade trip."

"So, you will grant me permission to go?" Hermione said slowly.

"My dear, your parents have already given their consent for you to go, though they haven't yet, they will," Dumbledore smiled, "and that is enough for me."

Hermione chuckled. She waited for Dumbledore to open the large doors leading into the Great Hall, but he paused with his hands on the door and turned towards her.

"I have one last question to impose upon you."

"Yes?"

"Do you know any odd-named candy?" Hermione laughed but answered, "How about laffy taffy?"

Dumbledore stroked his long beard for a moment before saying what sounded like, "I would like to try some of them," but before Hermione could inquire about it any further, he had swung the doors open wide, revealing them to the school's student body.

Nervousness and unease raced through Hermione, making a lump lodge in her throat. She held her breath as the students surveyed her, waiting to pass their quiet inspection.

A hand touched her back, slightly reassuring her and she sent a small smile up at the old headmaster. He urged her forward and she walked through the crowd towards the Gryffindor table. She could feel every eye watching her closely.

She quickly spotted James and Sirius as they smiled goofily at her and waved. She smiled in return and rushed over to them as fast as she could without running. They made a seat available between them and she happily excepted it, sinking low in it to try to escape the prying eyes.

"And the verdict is….?" Remus asked slowly from the other side of the table.

She smiled, "I guess I'm going here now."

"Fantastic!" James exclaimed.

"Great!" Sirius added.

"What house are you in?" James asked to which he earned a playful smack to the back of the head from Sirius. "Duh Prongs, she's sitting here…at the Gryffindor table… with us… what house do you think she's in?"

"Oh yeah," James said, his ears a burning red.

Hermione chuckled but her stomach rumbled. "I am so hungry!"

"Don't worry, it won't be long now till we get to eat," Remus reassured her.

"Yeah, we just have to wait for the sorting of the first years," James added.

Sirius groaned loudly. "I don't see why we have to get another batch of first years. They're stupid and annoying and think they're so cool."

"Funny…," Lily said thoughtfully from a few seats away, "you just described Potter and yourself during your first year here. You should get along fabulously."

"Ha, ha," Sirius laughed dryly. Then he grinned at her, "But there is one big difference."

The red-head quirked an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah? And what's that?"

"We were cool," Sirius teased, sending her a flirtatious grin.

"Just keep telling yourself that Black," Lily commented wryly. "Maybe one day you'll be worth more than just a casual lay."

She had gone too far, Hermione knew, and was about to open her mouth when James spoke. "Why don't you just leave him alone!" the messy haired teen said angrily. Everyone watched in shock as James Potter stood up against Lily, the one he had been chasing for years on end now.

Lily was just as equally shocked and leaned back in her seat slightly. "Excuse me?"

"I said to leave him alone. He was only joking and you were being rude."

By now, most of the Great Hall was watching the two fight. Everyone knew of James' infatuation with Lily, even the Slytherins. No one could quite believe, though, that he was getting this worked up and with her of all people.

"It's okay mate," Sirius assured his friend, trying to calm him down. "It doesn't matter what she thinks."

Lily looked hurt and sorry but kept her mouth shut as James sat down and started a conversation with Sirius and Hermione. James and Sirius both refused to talk to her at all.

Lily opened her mouth a few times, looking on the verge of saying something, before quickly closing it again. Any further conversation was delayed as the first years entered, led by a harassed looking McGonagall, and the sorting began.

A/N: Okay, lets have a "peaceful" discussion. Yes, I will try to maintain my peace though a select few have talked to me in the past 2 weeks and know the cause of my anger. That source is fan fiction.

Now, as a few of you have noticed, I have not updated for a while. For me, it has been a while. Well, let me tell you why. I received an email from fan fiction stating that I did something "illegal" and they removed one of my stories from the site and warned me. Now, this meant that I could not update for a given amount of time, which ended today, and that if I do anything else, my account will be deleted. Nice, right? Though I still seethe in anger from this, I will try, TRY, to be civil about it. I was going to wager war, but I was talked out of it so I will simply say that I am sorry for the inconvenience to my readers and I hope you guys forgive me for my "illegal" action.

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THANK YOU FOR TAKING TIME TO READ THIS, IT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!

!AMAYA!

DON'T FORGET TO READ "TWELVE" UNDER MY OTHER PENNAME!