AN: Chapter 4 is now here! As per usual nothing recognizable is owned by me. Please leave a review!
Hermione landed with a soft yet sudden thud, landing on her backside. The golden light that had enveloped her in the kitchen, slowly dissipated to a fine golden mist, leaving her blinking several times to regain her focus. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees with her head hung down between them for several minutes, trying to catch her breath from the squeezing feeling that she felt as the light that had previously surrounded her, had suffocated her within its casing. Once Hermione could take a few deep, calming breaths and her vision cleared of the spots, she slowly rose to her feet.
She took in her surroundings once she was standing and was very confused at what she saw. She had gathered right away that she was no longer in the kitchen where she had been cleaning in preparation for supper. She hand landed outside, on a seemingly random grassy hill. She turned around and saw a large lake. If she hadn't been analyzing the situation so logically in an attempt to determine where she was, she would have remarked how pretty it looked in the twilight as the stars glittered off its dark surface. What she did note was that somehow, it looked incomplete, as if something from this scene was missing to make the sight before her finished.
She looked further past the lake and gasped. In the near distance stood the silhouette of a large castle. Several lights shining within the castle made it seem as it was alive and glowing with warmth. Hermione silently brought both her hands to her mouth in quiet astonishment. She had thought those thoughts before. It was the first time she had seen Hogwarts shining above her as she rode towards it on the boats that ferried first years from the train.
Hermione, for the first time that she remembered, didn't know what to do. The amount and speed of thoughts that ran through her mind made it impossible to think coherently. She spun wildly around, looking for anything that could possibly help make sense of the sights before her. As she desperately looked around for something she noticed the journal and satchel that she had been attempting to clean up. They lay a few yards from where she herself had landed. She jogged on her still slightly shaky legs towards them and picked them up.
She turned the journal over in her hands looking over the hard covered binding before tucking it securely under her arm so she could use both hands to open the satchel first. Upon first glance Hermione saw a very familiar sight. Hermione took the gold chain that held the time turner from her third year out of the satchel. She turned it over in her hands, feeling the cool metal against her skin once again. She had given it back at the end of third year, opting to continue on in her school with a normal course load. She reminisced briefly before looking into the satchel again. Its weight indicating there was something else inside. She opened the mouth of the bag wider and she saw a vial of sand. At first she thought this strange. Why would the Order care about a vial of sand?
She brought the vial up to her eyelevel and twirled is slightly. A slight golden glint caught her eye. This was not the first time this glint had caught her eye. Her eyes had caught the same golden flecks many times when the time turner hung around her neck. This was a vial of pure, concentrated time turner sand.
Her mind processed what she found but couldn't make any sense of it. What could this mean? What could this do? As she rotated the vial in her hand she noticed a small, hairline seam. As she inspected the vial more closely she noticed sparse sand particles had leaked into the bag. She carefully put the vial and time turner back into the satchel and directed her attention to the journal.
She opened the cover and instantly recognized Dumbledore's neat writing. Hermione's eyes grew large as she read the simple title 'Tom Marvolo Riddle – Lord Voldemort Time line.' She quickly leafed through the book and recognized many of the entries as events that happened while she was at Hogwarts or second hand from Harry. And suddenly everything came together for Hermione, the clues fitting together in her mind like puzzle pieces. This is why the Order needed time travel elements. She looked around her surroundings again, this time with new understanding. The scene looked incomplete because, in her time, the Whomping Willow stood tall beside the lake.
All the air in Hermione's still recovering lungs blew out at once as she swiped her hand over her face landing on her forehead. The unstable magic elements of the pure time turner sand had imprinted on the subject matter of the book. When Hermione moved the journal and satchel in the kitchen some of the loose sand from the crack in vial must have fallen through the weave of the fabric of the satchel. With a human being connecting the circuit, she was transported to the point of time and location predetermined by the sands purpose.
Hermione sucked in, air burning her lungs. She searched her back pocket, finding the small beaded bag that she had taken to carrying on her person at all-time due to the impending war. Never knowing when suddenly she would be on the run, she had been carrying everything she may need in the small bag. She opened the bag and dug around it to find her wand. Once in her grasp, she wordlessly waved it. A red fog streamed from the tip and slowly took form. A small gasp burst from her lips as she took in the date. The fog had formed into bright red letters. Hermione was now standing outside Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry but not in 1996 like she should be.
The red letters that hung in midair seemed to scream at her, September 5 1942.