Grindelwald castle had become a very different place over the past couple of months. It was like constantly being under the microscope - Gellert's classmates were miles ahead of her in anything that wasn't magic - duelling (her forms were non-existent), potions (she wasn't tall enough to see over the brim of the cauldron yet), herbology (plants fought back in the magical world), history, astronomy and ancient runes (it was hard enough translating their German without having to worry about another language).
Yet, despite her age, she was expected to excel. Only Gellert's potion could be better, only Gellert could be faster identifying poisonous flowers and her runic translations had to be perfect. She tried as hard as she could, reading all day in the muggle world and taking tutoring from Gellert in every spare minute in the magical world without making it obvious how far behind she was. Combined with the responsibility of their nightly courts with the citizens in the warren and maintaining her circle of muggle followers and she was seriously beginning to flag.
The weekend was a relief, she spent it with her Longma, who never judged her and never found her lacking. She could polish his scales and comb his silky fine spinal fringe without being pressured of having to pretend she knew more than she did. Gellert didn't join her, perhaps sensing that she wanted to be alone. Kelpie kept tossing his head in his stall, confused that she was there and his owner wasn't.
A movement at the massive stable door caught her eye and she turned to see a girl, about her age. She was slightly built with worn, threadbare clothes. Her dress was grey, the skirt too short and had muggle woollen socks held up by ribbon. She ducked back out when she saw Hermione looking.
Hermione left Longma, slowly making her way towards the door. She peered around the door and found the girl looking up at her with big, dark eyes.
'Hello.' Hermione said with a welcoming smile.
'Hi.' The girl whispered.
'Who are you? I'm Hermione.' She held out her hand tentatively. The girl looked at the extended appendage warily, but at least replied. No name was given, but Hermione didn't plan to press. Instead, she invited the girl to join her in the stable and pet the beast she'd been admiring.
'Look,' Hermione said, picking up a handful of rehydrated beans. She held them out to the Longma on a flat palm and he snuffled them up quickly. The scales on his snout were so small and fine that they felt like velvet and his beard ran though her fingers like strands of silk. Beans were his favourite treat and he would do anything for them, she told the girl as she put some beans in her palm. Katana tossed his head a couple of times, sending the girl skittering back to a safe distance but eventually settled for long enough that she could feed him the beans. Whatever reservations the beast might have had were quickly lost after that and the girl seemed to enjoy it. Hermione showed her how to scratch the base of his antlers and wing joints. The Longma purred like a cat under their ministrations.
She left after an hour or so without ever giving a name but the happy smile on her face was enough to keep Hermione happy for the next hour as she finished grooming and did some light work on the weather charm on Katana's stall. She had managed to get it to rain occasionally, but there was never the associated clouds, just a sudden downpour out of a sunny, blue sky.
Gellert came to fetch her for lunch, after which they went to the library.
Berg was almost as studious as she was and he could often be found in the library. Sometimes she felt he knew everything, but unfortunately he just hadn't been born with the sheer magical power to perform to his knowledge level. Hermione had felt badly for him until she realised that he didn't seem to care. He wasn't interested in being part of the coven or continuing the influential Tunninger line. He had mentioned his children and future marriage with a casualness that had shocked Hermione; she'd been surprised by the way Anneken had spoken of marriage - how she was freed of obligation and how her boyfriend had 'negotiated terms' with her father. But Anneken was seventeen and although young, it was the 1800's. Hearing Berg talk about his parent's disappointment that Lady Grindelwald had turned down an offer for Alice to marry Gellert had her struggling to hold her jaw shut. Gellert was ten, Alice thirteen, they were incredibly young.
Then something occurred to her like a stone had suddenly formed in her gut. Anneken had said Hermione had freed her from the obligation of becoming the next Lady Grindelwald... Hermione had assumed that once she was adopted as Gellert's sister, the title would be hereditary, but what if she meant Lady Grindelwald as in marrying Gellert?
There were so many problems with that that she could scarcely begin to comprehend them.
Anneken had acted like it was a given and that Lady Grindelwald had already made the decision, that Hermione had no choice in the matter. Hermione wanted a choice in who she married, and she was only eight! She definitely wasn't going to marry anyone until she was at least thirty and children... children were just icky. They pooed and cried all the time and they smelled funny. She definitely never wanted children, but both Berg and Gellert seemed to consider children a given.
Not to mention that she was from a completely different time! Gellert would be long dead by the time Hermione was even born in real life, or if he somehow was still alive, he would be over one hundred. He would be a wrinkly old grandpa.
She felt suddenly queasy as she leapt to her feet. She ignored the concerned words of both Berg and Gellert as she hurried from the room. She brushed her dress smooth as she clattered down the stairs. At the doorway out of the children's wing she paused, realising she really had no idea where to find Lady Grindelwald. She'd always met with her in the Lady's sitting room, but she was reasonably sure that with the current state of the castle, she wouldn't find the Lady there. In fact, she wasn't even sure that the Lady Grindelwald was even in the castle right then.
Hesitantly she called her elf who popped into the corridor after a moment. The elf wore a large pair of oven mitts over her long fingered hands and a wooden spoon was tucked into her belt. Hermione cringed at the memory of that spoon cracking her knuckles whenever she broke some obscure rule of etiquette.
'Missy is wanting to see the Lady Grindelwald.' Flighty repeated slowly.
Hermione nodded frantically. 'Yes, its urgent.'
The elf was still sceptical but agreed to take Hermione to the head of the castle.
Lady Grindelwald was fortunately just returning from one of the raids the coven had been conducting. Hermione only had to wait for a moment before the woman swept into the study, the door slamming behind her an indication of just how displeased she was to have to deal with Hermione now.
For a moment Hermione was struck speechless by the older witch's appearance. She looked like a vengeful Valkyrie in a grey battle dress with gleaming silver light armour strapped over her chest and upper arms. A wickedly sharp knife and sword gleamed at her side, her wand was holstered against her sleeve and a small black leather pouch hung from her other hip, nestled among folds of grey cloth. Her fierce expression completed the image and Hermione had to force herself not to shrink away.
'I must wonder what you considered to be urgent enough for you to request my presence.' Lady Grindelwald spat and if it was anything other than her future marriage at stake, Hermione would have given up already and fled.
'I'm not from here.' Hermione began, then realising that didn't sum up the situation, she elaborated. 'I mean, I'm not from this year.'
Lady Grindelwald paused, fixing Hermione with an intense stare. 'I suspected as much.' She said and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She had been worried the older witch wouldn't believe her. 'When, exactly, are you from? No, don't tell me exactly. I don't want to interfere with the time continuum.'
She had to think for a moment.
'A century.' She finally said, deciding that was vague enough to keep the Lady happy. It suddenly occurred to her that she was in an incredible position, she could change the course of history, she could prevent both world wars, save millions of lives. This was an opportunity she shouldn't waste! Lady Grindelwald seemed to read something of what she was thinking in her expression.
'Time is a tricky thing. What has happened must happen, but what will happen has already happened. Do you understand?'
Hermione looked at her blankly, wishing she did.
'You exist now, so you have already existed in the future. Yet, you still exist in the future. You cannot change the past because events have already unfolded, even if they have yet to happen to us. You cannot change anything. For the sanity of everyone, I would suggest you don't even consider it, or even tell anyone of the future.'
Hermione sat numbly.
'So do I have to marry Gellert?' She asked nervously.
'Why would you think that?' Now Lady Grindelwald sounded surprised and a wave of relief almost had the young witch's shoulder's sagging. 'I suspected you might be from a different time, but I had hoped it would be a decade at the most. I believed that you would eventually marry Gellert but you would be an asset to the family either way. It will be beneficial for us to redevelop our roots in Britain anyway and having a Grindelwald marry into one of their ancient families would certainly do the trick...' The older witch trailed off contemplatively. 'In the mean time, I will speak to your tutor. You will be spending Tuesday evenings with me, learning Occlumency. This will paint a target on your back if it becomes public, so we must make sure it never does.'
Hermione didn't ask what Occlumency was. She was too glad to be free of the obligation of having to marry Gellert and have kids. Even if Lady Grindelwald was still talking about marriage, at least she would have some choice in the matter.