A/N: Okay, guys, sorry that it took a little longer than expected to get this up. It really was only a week, but still. This chapter isn't all that great, but it's necessary for the story. I have to get all this stuff out of the way before I can get to the juicy stuff! So, I hope you like it ok!
Oh, and to all you who reviewed: Thank you so much! I've been replying to everyone who gives me a signed review, but I can't to those who don't sign them. If you don't want to sign them, put your email address so that I can respond to your review anyway. I really appreciate y'all's reviews, keep 'em coming!
On with the story!
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Hermione jumped up quickly and scanned the whole room worriedly. It was in vain, however, because Harry, Ron, and the cauldron were a long way away. Hermione fought the urge to panic, and despite her alarm, she couldn't help noticing a few things about the room. When they first began their potion it was dusty, with the windows boarded up, and old, unused desks strewn everywhere. Now, however, as she looked around she realized that sunlight was streaming in through open windows, there was not a speck of dust anywhere, and all the desks were arranged in neat rows. To top it all, the sunlight that was coming in wasn't the reddish hue of the afternoon sun, but the bright, blinding light of the morning sunlight. This was odd indeed.
Suddenly she realized Ginny was stirring and the movement brought Hermione out of her reverie. As Ginny sat up groggily, mumbling something about someone being a baby, she looked around in surprise. She looked at Hermione and said, "What the heck just happened?"
Hermione, however, didn't have an answer. Instead she just shrugged and said, "I have no idea. There's no sign of the potion, and this place is cleaner than when we blacked out." She couldn't bring herself to mention the fact that the boys were seemingly gone, without a trace.
Ginny, very panicked, however, could. "Where are the boys?" she demanded, her voice cracking slightly.
"I don't know, Ginny," said Hermione, equally worried about her friends but trying to stay calm. "I don't understand any of it. We need to go to Dumbledore; he's probably the only one who can figure this out. Or maybe Slughorn, he might know what could have gone wrong with the potion."
"I say we go to Dumbledore," said Ginny quickly and headed to the door.
The girls began heading in the direction of the headmaster's office, both trying to figure out what had happened, but neither having the slightest idea of what it could be. Everything was just so bizarre.
They reached the stone gargoyle, but neither knew the password. They stood there dumbly for a moment, looked at each other, and right as they were about to speak, a voice interrupted them.
"Well, it seems awfully early for anyone to be in trouble. You can't have even finished your breakfast yet, not to mention, the term doesn't begin for another three days."
The girls spun around to find Albus Dumbledore behind them, smiling happily, but looking slightly surprised. There was something strange about him though. It almost looked as if he were… younger. He didn't seem to have quite so many wrinkles and his hair was a much darker silver, rather than the almost white silver he normally had.
But dash his appearance, why was he talking nonsense? The term began a week ago! Was Dumbledore finally losing it? No, that would never happen.
"Um, Professor?" said Hermione, looking somewhat befuddled. "We had lunch three hours ago, and we've been in classes for a week, but that's not important right now," she added quickly, wanting to get to the point. "Something's not right, Professor. We were making our potions project and we were all getting upset and we made Ron mad and–"
Before she could finish explaining everything, Dumbledore held up a hand and was looking at her as if she were not quite well. "My dear," he said, "I am afraid you are somewhat mistaken. You see, term has not begun, and even if it had, I do not recall either of you enrolling here at Hogwarts. May I ask how you got in the facilities?" he asked politely.
Now Hermione and Ginny were more confused than ever. The room was different, Dumbledore was different, apparently the time was different…. and then it hit Hermione.
"Professor," she said uncertainly, "as strange as this may sound, could you possibly tell us what the date is?" she asked, dreading his response.
"Oh, well, of course. It's August 30, 1978" he responded, now genuinely surprised by these two strange girls.
Ginny, who hadn't quite considered the possibility of being in the wrong time and thought there was something wrong with the man, said, "Professor, are you sure you're feeling well? You're at least thirty years off, the date is–"
But before she could continue, Hermione cut her off. "Ginny, wait just one moment," she said, then took a deep breath and turned back to the professor. "Professor, this may seem unbelievable –I myself find it difficult to believe– but it would seem that due to a severe potions accident, my friend and I have gone back in time. We go to Hogwarts in the 21st century and-"
"Stop," commanded Dumbledore, no longer looking concerned for the girls, rather looking somewhat suspicious. "If you are indeed from the future, then I would like to know as little as possible about it. However, at this point I have no reason to trust either one of you, if you would be so kind, I would like you to step into my office and explain the situation."
Ginny was completely bewildered. When Hermione mentioned time travel, her mind practically stopped working. It was completely impossible, yet, considering all the strange differences in that room and in Dumbledore, it seems believable.
Dumbledore said the password ("Cauldron Cakes") and led the girls up to his office. When they entered the circular room, Dumbledore went around and sat in his chair behind his desk, and the girls took the two seats opposite it.
"Now then," he began, "perhaps we should start with your names, and take it from there." He smiled encouragingly, for neither of them struck him as anything other than two frightened girls who were lost. However, if what they were saying was true, then he knew he had a big problem on his hands.
"Okay," said Hermione, taking a deep breath and releasing it before saying, "my name is Hermione Granger, and this is my friend Ginny Weasley. We both go to Hogwarts in the year 2003; I'm in my sixth year and Ginny is in her fifth. It was one week into term, and two of my yearmates and I were brewing the Reverso Remedy and Ginny was with us as well. And then Ginny and I both upset one of the boys who was putting in the ingredients, and he got so angry that he pored in an augurey claw that wasn't entirely powdered. Then there was a sort of explosion and everything went black. When we woke up, the room was completely different and there was no sign of an exploded cauldron nor of our two friends," Hermione finished.
"Hm," said Dumbledore, thinking. "I cannot say how the potions blunder could have sent you to the past, to my knowledge, no one has ever managed to go back more than a day. I will study the Reverso Remedy and it's ingredients to see if there is some way to send you forwards in time, but it could take a while. In the mean time, you may stay at Hogwarts. As for your two friends, I cannot say what has happened to them. They may still be in the present –well, your present– or they could have been sent into any time or they may be… Well, yes, it's impossible to say, we can only hope they might turn up."
Both Hermione and Ginny paled at the thought of Harry and Ron stuck in some period of time by themselves. Who knew what kind of trouble they could get themselves into? They weren't much comforted by Dumbledore not finishing the last possibility, but they didn't want to consider what he might have been about to say.
Even aside from their worries about the boys, what about their own problems? They were stuck in the '70s without the slightest idea of how to get back to their time. There was no time to dwell on it, however, as Dumbledore began to ask them more questions.
"Judging by your uniforms, I'm guessing you are Gryffindors, correct?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," they murmured in response.
"Very well, you may remain in that house, but rather than putting you in your separate years, I'm going to put you both in fifth year. Yes, Miss Granger," he said before Hermione could interrupt him, "I am making you repeat one year, but I assure you this is for the best. You both should be together as much as possible so that you don't go telling different people different stories. You must come up with one story of your past, and stick to it. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir," they responded, neither sounding too excited.
"Now then," he continued, "you may spend the next three days here at Hogwarts, but I think it would be a good idea if on September first you went to King's Cross Station and rode the Hogwarts express, just so you can go ahead and meet the students of this time. And I shan't be announcing your enrollment to the entire school like I normally would if students transferred from another school, because I don't want to draw attention to either of you. The less noticed you are, the better. Oh yes, and I thought it might be good for you to know who is in Gryffindor in your year. There are only three girls: Katya Rollins, Lily Evans –she's the prefect– and Jen Corley. The boys' names are James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Frank Longbottom."
Dumbledore looked up to see both girls wide-eyed with their mouths slightly open. "Sirius Black? James Potter?" breathed Ginny.
"Do you know them in the future?" said Dumbledore sharply.
They both nodded and Hermione said, "In a manner of speaking, yes." And she tried to hide the sadness she still felt from the loss of Sirius.
"Then you are not, under any circumstances, to tell them anything about their futures. Telling them what is to come could be devastatingly dangerous," he told them warningly.
"Well, I suppose that's all for now. You may both go to the Gryffindor common room and start working on a plausible story to tell the students. The password is 'periwinkle.' Off you go," he dismissed them with an encouraging smile.
"But what about my brother?" Ginny demanded.
"I am sorry, Miss Weasley," he replied sadly, "but right now I am afraid there is nothing we can do for him and your other friend. We can only hope they are safe, wherever or whenever they are."
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"I say we should be from Beaubatons," began Hermione.
They were sitting in the Gryffindor common room discussing their invented past. Both were still out of sorts, still not quite used to the idea of being stuck in the past and trying to not think about Harry and Ron. Also hovering in their minds was the thought that they would be seeing a young Sirius and Remus, not to mention Harry's parents. And of course the traitor, Wormtail. They couldn't help but wonder what all of them would be like. Neither felt like talking, but continued brainstorming only because Dumbledore told them to.
"No," said Ginny, before Hermione could even finish her thought, "we don't speak French, and people might wonder how we learned anything if we didn't speak the language wouldn't they?"
"Excuse me for saying so, Ginny, but you don't know much about foreign schools of magic," said Hermione, slightly on edge. "At Beaubatons, all the classes are taught in English. The students are already taught the language in primary school, so that they know it by the time they begin their secondary education. Muggles sometimes have a similar system, but it's usually only the rich ones that put their children in programs like that. How did you think that all the Beaubatons students knew English when they came to Hogwarts?"
"I had no idea. But why do they bother with it?" queried Ginny.
"Because they realize that English is the most widely spoken language in the world, I suppose," responded Hermione. "So that settles it. We went to Beaubatons for the first four years of our education because our parents thought it would be a good experience for us to study abroad, but now we're finishing our studies in England because we're going to work here after we finish school."
"It doesn't seem altogether likely, but I doubt many people will care very much, they usually don't," said Ginny, "But what are we going to do about our names? Do we have to change them?"
"You'll need to change your surname because people here might know your mum and dad," answered Hermione. "I can keep mine because I'm muggle-born anyway."
"I suppose I can be 'Ginny Bennett.' I never did much like 'Weasley' anyway, it sounds a bit too much like 'weasel,'" said Ginny.
"Well, I don't think there's really anything else to discuss," said Hermione, "We still have two more days before term begins anyway."
At that moment a house elf appeared right next to Hermione's chair to inform the girls that Dumbledore wished to seem them in his office once more.
So, without much enthusiasm, the girls returned to Dumbledore's office. He wanted them to tell him what their contrived past was, and then, once he was satisfied with it, he told them one more thing they would have to do. Since Dumbledore wanted it to be as convincing as possible that the girls were new, he was going temporarily remove their knowledge of direction in Hogwarts. Everyone who came to Hogwarts got lost at least twenty times in their first three weeks, so it really wouldn't do for two new girls to arrive to all their classes on time during their first week. The spell was a simple one, much like the way of putting a memory into a pensive, and they would regain all knowledge of directions in Hogwarts after three weeks. Both girls protested a great deal to this, but nothing they said could dissuade the headmaster. He also gave them an allowance of money to get their supplies for school and to use during the year.
And so, over the next three days, the girls got their supplies from Hogsmead, until September first when they went to King's Cross Station so ride the Hogwarts Express with compartments full of students they didn't know, and a few whom they did.
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A/N: I know, you have to read about all that stuff in the other time travel fics, but it's necessary to the story. Okay, now that that's out of the way, we'll move onto better and more interesting things. The next chapter will see the marauders (and what fun it will be!) and I'm pretty sure you're gonna enjoy it!
By the way, were y'all (yes, I'm from the south, I just can't help it) surprised by the missing Harry and Ron?
Let me know how y'all think it's shaping up! If I missed something in this chapter, let me know and I'll do a quick edit. I love any form of review (except flames, please no flames), even if it's just a simple 'update soon.' It's nice to know the hours of typing are appreciated!
Muchas smoochas,
Twinkling Blue Eyes