Ch-2: SO IT BEGINGS
She was promptly deposited in her blood splattered clothes, scream still wringing out of her throat in the Shrieking Shack in a different time.
No signs of break in or Severus' body. It was just her. She didn't know when she was. At the moment, she didn't care. She was all alone.
Wherever she looked, she saw blood. On her hands, on the walls, on the floor. She couldn't breathe. She saw blood even when she closed her eyes. She heaved and gasped for air as if she were drowning. Tears escaped her eyes, unnoticed by her as she struggled to breathe.
They had almost done it.
In her panic, she had just focussed on the spell and not a specific time.
She was all alone. Again. Another fallen comrade. WHY?! Drops of blood fell from her clenched fists where her nails had dug into the skin.
She heaved. Time, of no importance. She was lost, she didn't know when. Somewhere sometime she fainted.
That was how Dumbledore found her.
"Renervate."
And her eyes fluttered open. She was in the hospital wing. She could see Poppy and Dumbledore. And she started. Though almost immediately, Madam Pomfrey shoved what she realized to be a calming draught down her throat. Much calmer than she had been in what she felt like were decades, she took a deep breath to steady the madness within her.
From Madam Pomfrey's presence and Dumbledore's almost-greying hair, she could hazard a guess that Dumbledore should be the Headmaster right now. She hadn't gone too far back in time then.
'Headmaster', she meant to say but only a hoarse croak escaped her lips. And Poppy instantly shoved another potion under her nose. And she instantly felt the soreness in her throat and her headache pass away.
"I'm fine now, thank you." She knew she shouldn't be letting on that she already knew them.
"Poppy, perhaps I can talk to her for a few minutes alone."
She glared and said 'five minutes' and then walked off.
"So, Ms...?" he began asking with a kind, concerned smile on his face. She paused. She hadn't thought this far. What should I say?
"Oh, my apologies. Please don't answer that. How about we go with-"
"Hermione Evergarden." She interrupted him, feeling panicky. Did he know something?
After a pause, he began, "Of course. However, am I correct in assuming that you are from the future?"
How does he know everything? As if he had heard her, his eyes twinkled.
"Yes, Headmaster. Can I ask how you know that?" Had he delved into her mind without her noticing?
"You can say that the stars kept me informed", he replied cryptically.
Unsatisfied with his answer, she didn't reply immediately. Instead she paused and finally noticed that she was wearing the hospital gown and that there were no signs of harm on her.
She quickly reached her wand and cast Tempus, 28th august 1976. 24 years in the past.
She had obviously been transferred to the time which Severus had been thinking about. Her eyes watered and she had to swallow the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. She can mourn him later. He had given her the will to fight just recently. She would honor him and grieve later.
She took a minute and composed herself. She turned to study the man in front of her.
The text had not relayed anything, she thought with some frustration. She could have just formed an alternate reality or this was meant to happen, a paradox that would ultimately result in everything happening exactly the way it had no matter what she did or, what happens now can overwrite everything that will happen, a new beginning.
Unknown consequences for the traveller. She could disappear from reality altogether which might undo everything she does now and lead to a whole different future or she could go crazy or get transported back in the future at some point.
There were too many unknown possibilities and variables and no certain answer.
She will have to decide what to do now. She knew her future had been an endless battle with no rewards, she acknowledged sourly that they had been fighting a losing battle. It can't get any worse. And she is going to stick to this thought. She will now be doing things now with the assumption that she is overwriting the future. With her mind made up, she finally addressed Dumbledore.
"As you already know, I'm from the future. And it's obvious that this is not your regular time travel that you have probably heard about in this time. I'm from the year 2000." She ignored his gasp and continued. "I'll make it clear that I am aware of the ramifications of meddling with time and I'm here anyway. The future is too dark for it to get any worse", she told him grimly, shadows of past deaths dancing in her hollow eyes.
She thought he was about to probe her mind but at that very moment Madam Pomfrey came in, "Times up! Let her get some rest now, Headmaster. Her magical core is too depleted for you to be interrogating her right now!"
Oh, so the weakness was because of her magical core being depleted! She thought with horror. Too much depletion can kill you or even turn you into a squib.
"Very well. We shall continue tomorrow, Ms Evergarden"
They would have to work on her cover story, she thought as Dumbledore left.
"Now, dear, take this Dreamless sleep potion, I think you will need it." She thankfully took the potion.
When finally she was alone, she let a few tears escape as she remembered Severus Snape, one of the bravest, an excellent spy and an even better Potions Master.
And with a start she realized that he would be entering his fifth year in 2 days. If she made any mistake, it could change quite a lot of things. Cold spread through her, the future could get worse. If due to some action of her's Snape decides to stay with Voldemort, all would be lost. Without Snape, the war- she shuddered to even think of such a possibility.
No. She had gotten a second chance and she would make all the deaths of her fallen comrades count. Thinking of such things, she didn't even realize when the dreamless sleep potion took effect on her. And then she slept for days on end.
-0-0-0-
"I presume you have the pensieve, Headmaster." She noticed as he looked displeased for the slightest second before summoning the pensieve out.
She will not allow him free reign in her mind just yet.
She allowed Dumbledore to view only a few memories, that is, of the Battle at Hogwarts and what followed. How the law changed at the Ministry. The death and destruction. And she discussed the rest with him. He tried to force her that if they were going to change the future, he might as well know everything.
"Your decisions and the need to do the greater good is one of the major reasons that we are at this point right now, Headmaster. My best friend died because of you. Your greed led you to your own death. So, forgive me if I don't wish to share my memories with you. For despite you being on the so-called Light side, your methods and thinking itself while brilliant, has been rather faulty," she had replied coldly.
He looked as if he had been struck. Even though he didn't try to invade her mind after that, she had no delusions that in the coming time there would come a reason or correctly put, excuse enough for him to try it again.
After a long heated discussion, she had managed to convince him that this was the only way. After he asked her why she ended up appearing in this time specifically, she joined the dots and realized that the one memory with Lily this year had haunted him till his last breath, so filled with regret that it had ended up becoming a clear, distinguished memory that somehow pushed her into this timeline. She had not shown him just how she got here, she was not ready to revisit that particular memory yet.
They had mutually decided that it would be best if she stayed in Hogwarts. It would be best not to unnecessarily compromise information of the future, even if she can probably keep a secret better than anyone.
She considered her position. She needed free-r reign without unnecessary House complications. Also, she thought darkly, the Hat probably won't appreciate how it's end came. It's shrieks had rung throughout Hogwarts. She still got goosebumps remembering it. Something about Hogwarts itself had changed that day, for the worse. She shuddered.
Dumbledore had had to pull a few strings to legitimize her presence in this timeline. They both knew that coming in as a transfer student all of a sudden was going to attract too much attention. After all, Hogwarts had not had a transfer student in a century. Her birth documents and all other documents had been taken care of. His resourcefulness was indeed quite impressive.
She gathered that there was no point in changing appearances now that both Dumbledore and Poppy had seen her and nothing drastic had happened as of yet.
She was officially part of this timeline now and there was much to do.
She'll be joining as potions apprentice under Horace Slughorn and term will be starting the very next day.
-0-0-0-
She woke up bleary with a splitting headache, her throat strangely sore like the time she had woken up in the Hospital Wing. As she tried to get up, she lost her balance and almost passed out again in her new quarters.
She heaved from the effort and forced herself to open her eyes again. It stung. Her gaze landed on the vial of Dreamless Sleep Potion. It was empty.
She frowned with alarm. She didn't remember drinking any of it, let alone finishing all of it.
She dragged herself to the washroom to relieve herself and her horror deepened as she realized that she was taking off soiled clothes. She checked the time. It was noon. She had slept for 19 hours and something had obviously happened.
She felt no appetite for lunch despite how long she had already stayed without any food. She needed to plan and she might have to pass on information in case she lost her mental faculties at some time, she thought grimly.
Evening approached in a second it seemed. She got up and wore some of the black robes she had found in the Room of Requirement after her chat with Dumbledore.
She slowly made her way towards the Great Hall feeling like she may throw up anytime, she didn't tell whether it was from the physical activity or the nerves.
She sluggishly went through the introduction with the rest of the teachers. Slughorn had been very surprised obviously. Minerva was missing, leading the first years she was informed promptly by Flitwick. So much human interaction, while awkward was somehow very refreshing.
The students kept streaming in, a foreign but warming sight from the Heads Table. She actively avoided familiar faces and just allowed herself to breathe.
She snapped out of her haze when Gryffindor burst into thunderous clapping and hooting as a...considerably round and chubby first year boy got sorted into their house.
Her face twitched into a smile, the action foriegn, a tight coil loosening within. She enjoyed each student's sorting and the House cheerings.
It feels like Christmas. Feeling full and finally, famished.
"Attention," Dumbledore's compelling voice suddenly rang out and all the students immediately fell silent. "Welcome to a new year! Just a few rules - Forbidden forest is forbidden. And Caretaker Filch has requested that everyone refrain using magic between classes. We have two new additions this year - Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Thomas Anderson and Potions Assistant, Ms Hermione Evergarden (She rode the coat-tails of catcalls for Andersons). Silence. Quidditch tryouts will begin in 2 weeks. Now let's begin the feast with a few words: Aum, Nam, Kam, Sugarquills!"
She heard snickers and words like 'genius' and 'crazy' from the students; and she had to fondly agree.
Her eyes located the rowdiest bunch in the whole Great Hall pretty easily, the four stood out with the sheer raucous they were creating. And her eyes then flickered towards the Slytherin Table and her entire system physically shook when her eyes met those of a younger Snape's. He was looking directly at her.
She looked away and did not look up from her food for the rest of the night.
After dinner, she had gone to the Hospital Wing on impulse. She felt like something horrible would happen if she did not take a Dreamless Sleep potion. She had to make an excuse that she spilled the previous batch to get this one.
She consumed an extra dose just to be safe this time before sleep this time. She had been given her own quarters which she realized was one of the perks especially after how she had found herself that noon. Staying there as a teacher assistant instead of as a student had turned out to be a wise decision.
As she lay under her covers, she frowned as she realized that she had completely lost control of her body when she had seen Snape. It had been...strange, to say the least. Anxious, she closed her eyes and immediately fell asleep.