Chapter 39: Crazy Timetables

When I woke up the next morning, I rushed through my morning routine as quickly as I could, eager to start my classes. I made sure my time turner was hidden and made my way down to the common room to meet up with Ron and Harry. They were running late, as usual, so I sat down in an armchair to wait for them.

I pulled out my copy of Numerology and Grammatica to get a head start in reading it, so I didn't even notice Ginny approaching.

"Good morning Hermione," she said, causing me to jump and drop the textbook.

"You scared me!" I exclaimed, leaning over to pick my book up again.

"Oh, sorry," Ginny said. "I'm going down to breakfast; do you want to come?" she asked.

"I'm just waiting for Harry and Ron," I replied. "We usually go down together."

"Oh, okay," Ginny replied, turning to leave.

I noticed she was alone, and I felt bad, so I called out. "If you want, you could wait with me and come down with us after."

"Oh, no, I don't think so," Ginny said, panic appearing in her eyes. She said a quick goodbye and rushed out of the portrait hole.

I immediately regretted my choice. Ginny was clearly trying to bond with me since she didn't really have too many friends of her own, and I'd rebuffed her just like girls had always rebuffed me when I'd tried to befriend them. Obviously, she didn't want to go down to breakfast with her brother and secret crush. She'd been hoping to get some time with me one-on-one. I made a mental note to accept her invitation the next time, should the opportunity occur.

"Come on, let's go," Ron said when he arrived in the common room, as though I had been the one who took forever to get ready. "I don't want to miss breakfast, I'm starving!"

"You're always starving," Harry replied, while he finished tying his tie.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of food left," I said, leading the boys out of the common room.

When we arrived in the Great Hall, Ron headed straight for the Gryffindor table and began shovelling food into his mouth. George, who was sitting across the table from us, handed over our timetables, and I immediately tuned out of whatever conversation had just begun as I hungrily began to read over my timetable.

I saw that I would need my time turner right away. First period I had divination, muggle studies and arithmancy. I also noticed that third period I had both ancient runes and care of magical creatures. I would get to start all five of the new subjects today!

I voiced my excitement about the new subjects, which caused Ron to lean over to check out my timetable. I tried to angle it away from him but it was too late. He'd seen the mess that it was and attempted to call me out on it, noting that there was no way I could attend all my classes with the limited time that I had today.

I began by trying to laugh off his comments, and when that didn't work, I changed the subject. Though he dropped the subject, I knew that this conversation wasn't over. Ron wouldn't like being in the dark.

I hated that I had to lie to him, but I'd promised Professor McGonagall. I decided that my best bet was to be as honest as possible without outright telling him or Harry about the time turner and then to divert their attention whenever I felt myself being backed into a corner.

Thankfully, Hagrid came over at that moment, to tell us how excited he was about his first lesson, and Ron was distracted. I took the opportunity to grab a bit of breakfast and then Ron suggested we get going to divination, my puzzling timetable all but forgotten.

It took about forty-five minutes, a few dead ends, and a crazy portrait of a knight who called himself Sir Cadogan before we finally located the North Tower, where divination class would be held.

My first impression of Professor Trelawney was that she was putting on a show. She had enormous glasses, a large shawl was draped over her shoulders, and she had on enough jewellery for ten people. She reminded me a lot of muggle fortune tellers, who I held in contempt, believing them to be frauds.

To my dismay, she started the lesson by telling us that books would be of next to no use to us. Already I was sensing that I would have some difficulty with this subject. As she continued to introduce the class, she interrupted herself frequently by making very generic predictions. It seemed to me that she was trying to impress us, but her prognostications were broad enough any class of our size would surely fulfill most or all of them.

As the class progressed, I tried to keep an open mind, I really did. But when Professor Trelawney tried telling Harry that he had a deadly enemy as though it was brand new information, I lost it. Of course Harry had a deadly enemy. Books had been written about it. There wasn't a witch or wizard over the age of eleven that didn't know about Harry Potter and Voldemort.

The lesson finally came to an end when Harry reached the end of his rope with Professor Trelawney for spending the majority of the period predicting his death. As we packed up and headed to transfiguration, Harry and Ron began to discuss the lesson as well as the new teacher. Neither of them noticed when I slipped around the corner and into an empty bathroom.

Just in case, I checked each of the stalls to make sure I was really alone. Then I peeked out into the corridor to be certain nobody was going to walk in on me. I pulled the time turner out from under my robe, suddenly nervous. I remembered what Professor McGonagall had told me, so I was sure I wouldn't mess it up, but I didn't know what to expect. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and turned the small hourglass once counter-clockwise.

After a few seconds, I opened my eyes and looked around. I hadn't felt anything, and everything looked the same. Wondering if maybe it didn't work, I walked out into the hall and grabbed the first student that walked by.

"Excuse me," I said, "but what time is it?"

The student I had pulled aside was a Ravenclaw girl I didn't recognize, probably a sixth or seventh year. She rolled her eyes and told me it was five to nine. I thanked her and ran off, tucking my time turner away as I ran. It had worked! I had gone back in time. Now I just had to make sure I didn't run into myself. It shouldn't be a problem since I was up by the North Tower.

I arrived to arithmancy just as Professor Vector was starting the class. I slid into my seat at the front and pulled out my textbook. The lecture started immediately, with none of the wishy-washy introduction business like we had in divination. I could tell already that I liked this subject much better than I liked the previous one. Everything in arithmancy was logic and facts and using your brain, perfect for me.

Though both divination and arithmancy concerned themselves with predicting the future, arithmancy was a much more concrete discipline. Where divination was all about perceptions and emotions and sensing auras, arithmancy was about numbers. There was no room for debate or discussion when it came to numbers. You were either right, or you were wrong. It was much more my speed.

By the end of the hour, I had a pile of parchment filled with notes, a bunch of homework and a cramped hand, but I was happy. I gathered my things as quickly as I could and hurried to the nearest bathroom. I still had to go back in time to muggle studies.

I had to wait while a first year came out of one of the stalls and washed her hands. I think I made her nervous, standing in the corner and watching her, but I didn't have time to find another bathroom. When she was gone, I pulled out the time turner and turned it counter-clockwise.

I didn't close my eyes this time, and I watched, fascinated, as everything around me rewound. I watched the first-year girl walk into the bathroom backwards, wash her hands, go to the bathroom and then leave again backwards. A few more students came and went, and before I knew it, everything had stopped. I tucked away the time turner and heard a scream from behind me.

A girl was standing behind me, staring at me, her eyes wide.

"Where did you come from?" she asked.

I realized that for her, it must seem as though I had just materialized out of thin air. I quickly made an excuse about being really fast and really quiet and ran out of there. I needed to remember to be more careful in the future. I wouldn't be able to get away with this for long if word got out that Hermione Granger was materializing out of nowhere all over school.

When I reached the muggle studies classroom, I settled in and found that my stomach was rumbling. Even though it was technically nine o'clock and breakfast had just ended, it had been over two hours since I'd actually eaten and by now, I should be eating lunch. I tried to ignore my hunger, which was hard considering I still had to go to transfiguration after this.

Professor Burbage seemed nice enough. She introduced herself and then had everyone else introduce themselves to her. I decided that Professor Burbage was one of those teachers that try to be your friend instead of your instructor. I wasn't completely impressed, but I liked her a lot better than Professor Trelawney.

We didn't learn anything in that first muggle studies lesson, and we didn't get assigned any homework, but Professor Burbage did give us an overview of what we would be covering over the course of the year and it seemed like it would be an interesting course.

When class was over, I ran back to the first bathroom I had disappeared from. I peeked in through the door, and watched myself disappear. Once I was convinced nobody had noticed anything, I ran back the way I had come and snuck up behind Harry and Ron. They didn't even seem to have realized I had disappeared. I rolled my eyes to myself.

Ron said something about tea and I had to remind myself that they had just come from divination and I tried to put myself back in the headspace I'd been in two hours ago. It was going to take a while to get used to this. Against my will, my stomach rumbled.

"Hungry already, Hermione?" Harry joked. "Don't go turning into Ron now."

I laughed along with Harry and Ron and slid into my seat in the back of the transfiguration classroom. I was definitely going to need to remember to pack myself snacks in the future.