Author's Note: I am so happy to hear that so many of you are enjoying this updated version of the story! Thank you for all of your kind reviews and feedback.
The Marauders were so different than Hermione had imagined them to be. Yes, they were loud and boisterous and full of themselves, but they were also kind and observant and surprisingly mature in the way they carried themselves. She was grateful for their company, knowing that she would not have been able to get any more sleep that night and needing to get a better understanding of where or when she was. The Marauders were more than happy to serve as a distraction for the lovely witch. They were even more happy when she cracked a few smiles at their antics and her eyes lost some of that lost look that seemed to haunt her.
"And then Dumbledore threw a pie right into Minnie's face! We thought she was going to hex him right then and there!" Sirius retold the story dramatically, even going as far as to imitate Minerva's face as she was hit with the pie.
Hermione surprised herself and the boys by laughing loudly at the mental image this conjured up. Hearing about the Marauders favorite pranks and adventures throughout their Hogwarts years made her heart ache for her boys and the things they had gotten up to. Granted, most of their adventures either began or ended with destruction and fear, but she would not trade her memories for the world. It was refreshing to see that in this time, students were able to be reckless and careless and pull pranks and live.
A loud creak sounded suddenly and the boys froze, looking at Hermione with fear in their wide eyes.
"Accio cloak", Hermione whispered, shooing the boys off her hospital bed and quickly draping the invisibility cloak over them. "Stay quiet and don't move too much. You boys are too old and too big to all be hiding under this thing."
Madame Pomphrey entered the Hospital Wing, rubbing sleep out of her tired eyes. She moved towards Hermione and let out a small 'tut' when she saw that Hermione was awake.
"The Dreamless Sleep Potion I gave you should have lasted through the whole night, Miss- "
"Granger. Hermione Granger, ma'am."
"Welcome to Hogwarts, Miss Granger. I must say, I have a lot of questions about how you came to be here, in the state that you were in." Madame Pomphrey began taking more vials of potions out of her apron, lining them up next to Hermione's bed. She sighed. "But perhaps we best wake the Headmaster before we begin you tale."
Dumbledore.
If Hermione truly was in the past, as she was mostly positive she was after her interaction with the Marauders and the information she was able to gleam from them, she would need Dumbledore's help. Yet, part of her was hesitant. That must have shown on her face because Madame Pomphrey backtracked slightly.
"As long as you are feeling up to it, my dear. Your health comes first." The kind matron's eyes made Hermione's own fill with tears, but she blinked them away. She would have time to process and to cry later. Now she had to come up with a plan.
"If the Headmaster is available, I think I would like to get this over with." Hermione said, her voice strong. And it was true. The sooner Hermione could tell Dumbledore her story, the sooner she could work to get back to her time.
But as Hermione's mind whirled, she realized that the odds of her getting back to her own time were slim.
The Ministry rarely sanctioned the use of time turners. Hermione had gotten extremely lucky that she was able to have one in her third year to assist her with her classes. Even then, the Unspeakable who had given it to her had stressed the importance of only going back up to five hours, of ensuring that no one saw her using it, that she never came across herself, and that she did not change anything. According to her research on the subject, the only reason Hermione and Harry had been able to save Sirius was because they had already done so. Most of the books Hermione was able to get her hands on stressed the fact that time was a loop.
But, that wasn't the only Time Turner Hermione Granger had. When she was in the Department of Mysteries, fighting the Death Eaters in the Time Room, a golden Time Turner on a chain had drawn her attention. It was different from the one she was given in third year. For one, it hadn't been engraved with the usual message of Time Turners. The time turner she had used in third year had "I mark the hours, every one. Nor have I yet outrun the sun. My use and value unto you, are gauged by what you have to do". This one was marked with runes and filled with a blood red sand. Hermione had grabbed it as she ran by with no one else the wiser. After all the Time Turners were destroyed in the fight, no one even questioned where this one was. She knew it wasn't good to steal from the Ministry, especially something as valuable as a Time Turner, but Hermione had felt safer with it on her. She knew that if things ever got really bad, like end of the wizarding world as she knew it bad, she could use it as a last resort.
Hermione froze, thinking back to the Battle of Hogwarts and her strange arrival. The choice must have been taken out of her hands when she was thrown into the wall by Bellatrix's spell. Hermione could foggily remember something bright falling out of her beaded bag and into her hands before the world went dark.
"Madame," Hermione called, motioning Madame Pomphrey over. "Did I have anything with me when I arrived?"
"No dear, nothing but the clothes on your back and your wand. Unfortunately, your wand seemed to have broken when you arrived." Hermione wanted to cry at the thought of her wand, the thing that protected her and was with her all these years, broken. Instead, she asked her next question very carefully.
"There wasn't a necklace with me? It was gold and glass and very important."
"A necklace? No," Madame Pomphrey started. Her eyebrows drew together suddenly. "But there was a lot of glass embedded in your chest when you arrived. It could have broken as well." At Hermione's crestfallen look, Madame Pomphrey laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, dear."
Hermione felt a warm hand lay over hers, as if to offer comfort. She almost jumped before realizing that the Marauders were still here, trapped beneath the Invisibility Cloak and not able to leave with Madame Pomphrey so close.
"Could I have some water? I expect this talk with Dumbledore will take some time."
Once Madame Pomphrey was out of site, Hermione turned to the still hidden Marauders. "You need to go before Dumbledore comes. He isn't as easily fooled as most witches and wizards."
"How do you know that?" Remus questioned.
"Everyone knows Dumbledore," Hermione rolled her eyes, begging her heart to slow down and her hands to not start sweating in her nervousness. She was already slipping with information that she shouldn't know.
"Quite right," Hermione squeaked as Dumbledore appeared suddenly in the doorway to the Hospital Wing. "I am glad to see that you are awake, but less glad to see that some of my students are bothering you." Dumbledore fixed his stern eyes on the still invisible Marauders. "Especially when one of those students is my new Head Boy."
Chastised, the Marauders pulled the Invisibility Cloak off, twisting their hands nervously in front of them. It was so different from the spunky attitude that they displayed earlier that Hermione instinctively covered for them.
"They were here for a headache draught, sir, but I asked them to stay." Four heads whipped towards her incredulously. "They do say laughter is the best medicine and these four really did help me."
Her gut twisted at the looks on the boys faces and on the amused one on Dumbledore's. It was so similar to how she, Harry, and Ron became friends after the troll. Maybe friendships started on lies weren't too bad after all.
"Very well, but you boys must get back to your rooms without getting caught. I expect perfect behavior from you for the next few days." Dumbledore relented.
"Perfect behavior?!" Sirius began to protest, but with a jab to the side from Remus, sighed and said, "Yes, sir."
"Bye Hermione," They chorused, waving. "We'll see you soon!"
With a wink from Sirius, Hermione was left alone with Albus Dumbledore.
Hermione tried not to, but she could not keep herself from looking at Dumbledore's hand and remembering the shriveled mess it became, because of his greed and his pain. To see Albus Dumbledore, alive and well, filled Hermione with hope. But it also filled her with fear and anger.
She had always respected the wizard. She, and so many others, trusted him blindly as they carried out his orders and jumped through his hoops, even long after his death. But knowing what she knew now, Hermione wasn't too sure what kind of man the Headmaster was.
The man in front of her had been Grindelwald's friend and had been tempted by selfishness and power. He craved knowledge, but often at the expense of others. He used children to fight the war of an evil man, but a man who had started out as an orphan and had not been given a chance.
The Headmaster ignored the wishes of two parents, who died under his protection, and sent their son, her best friend, to abusive relatives. He never checked in or gave Harry any knowledge of who he or his parents were, instead, he was whisked into a world of magic that he was woefully unprepared for.
He let an innocent man, a man of only twenty-one, who had just lost everything, sit in prison for twelve years. He let the real traitor roam free. And then, when that same man was doing everything he could to protect his godson, he sent two children with a time turner to try and save him. Only to lock him up in his house of horrors, until he too died.
This man in front of her, with his grandfatherly looks and twinkling eyes, withheld vital information from the Order. He sent three teenagers alone to destroy dark artifacts that had to be destroyed for the Dark Lord to be killable. He primed her best friend, the Boy Who Lived, to willingly die.
Hermione felt her anger and anguish flood her system. Her hands clenched at her sides as she struggled to maintain her composure. Because despite all this, all the bad he had done, Hermione wanted to believe that the Headmaster had good intentions. She wanted to believe that he was doing the best he could in an awful situation and that everything really was for the Greater Good.
This man in front of her, was just that – a man. Even more, he was a man who had yet to commit most of the actions Hermione was sitting here, judging him for. If Hermione had her way, and she usually did, none of those events would come to pass.
"My name is Hermione Granger and I was born on September 19, 1979."