Two voices cried out in shock. Two bodies scrambled away from each other: Hermione backing up against the headboard, tugging the blanket up to her chin; Lupin falling over the edge of the bed, pulling bed curtains and Hermione's blanket down with him as he crashed to the floor.

Hermione shrieked as she was uncovered. She felt remarkably exposed in her summer sleepwear—a lilac-colored tank top and girl boxer shorts. She jumped out of bed to retrieve her robe, but it wasn't there. Hermione looked all around her. She wasn't in Ginny's room or anywhere else at the Burrow. Instead, she was in a circulatory dormitory containing five four-poster beds with crimson curtains.

How in Merlin's beard did she get to Hogwarts?

Hermione's gaze traveled across the bed she'd vacated moments before. On the opposite side stood Lupin in his gray pajama pants and white t-shirt. He stared back at her with an expression of mingled shock, confusion, and wariness.

"Who are you? W-what are you doing in the boys' dormitory?" he questioned her.

Hermione didn't answer. As she looked at him now, she perceived something wasn't quite right about her ex-professor. This wasn't really Lupin...

Fear gripped her. She began to back away from the imposter, away from his bed, but her foot caught on something on the floor, and she fell down. The imposter took a step toward her but quickly retreated when Hermione recoiled from him.

"Who are you? Why am I here?" she demanded, her voice trembling.

With apprehension etched on his features, the imposter glanced around the room currently unoccupied by anyone besides themselves. Then his searching eyes fell upon her again.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know what's going on either."

He began to move toward the trunk at the end of his bed, and Hermione thought he was going for his wand. Defenseless without hers, she was ready to take cover behind the nearest bed. The imposter, however, didn't go for his wand. He picked up his cloak. Slowly, cautiously, he stepped toward her, holding it out in front of him.

"Here, take this," he offered.

Hermione realized she was shaking, whether from cold or fear she didn't know. She stood up and looked timidly into the imposter's face as she took his cloak. His sage green eyes regarded her in concern. Those eyes… She knew those eyes.

He wasn't an imposter. Though he wasn't Lupin as she had come to know him, she was certain the person before her was Remus Lupin. The lines on his face were absent, and he didn't have the characteristic gray in his presently tousled, sandy brown hair, but he was definitely Lupin. He just looked…different.

Hermione wrapped his cloak around herself tightly.

"You look very pale," he said, examining her face with worry.

She didn't reply. She didn't understand what was happening. If this person was Lupin, if she was in his dormitory at Hogwarts, then had she…? But how?

"I think we should go to the Hospital Wing," he suggested.

Hermione shook her head. This couldn't be happening, could it?

Lupin stared at her in concern, and she didn't know what to say to him. She couldn't comprehend what was going on. She didn't know what to do.

So she ran.

Hermione bolted toward the door, swung it open, and left the bewildered Lupin behind. Hoping he wouldn't follow her, she hurried down the staircase and across the Gryffindor common room, nearly bumping into a girl in her haste.

"Oi! Watch it!"

Hermione didn't apologize or look back. She jumped out the portrait hole and started down the corridor, weaving through students as she went. She didn't care that they were giving her funny looks. She kept running along, hardly knowing where she was going, her thoughts racing as her feet pounded the floor.

Why had she woken up in bed with Lupin at Hogwarts? And why did Lupin look so…young? Why did it appear that he was a student and not the teacher she knew him to be? This had to be a dream, please let it be a dream. Hermione pinched herself. It hurt. Well, if this wasn't a dream, how and why was this happening? What was she supposed to do? Panic was overcoming her.

Then, when she nearly crashed into a tall, old man with long silver hair and beard, she stopped in her tracks. She suspected her subconscious had been leading her to his office all the while, taking her to the person who always knew the answers. Some part of her had known that she would find him — alive — even though he was supposed to be dead. Here he was, blue eyes twinkling behind half-moon spectacles perched on his crooked nose. He was alive back then, and so he was alive right now, and Hermione's head was spinning.

"Hello, there," the wizard greeted her cheerfully. "Were you, perhaps, looking for me?"

Hermione somehow managed to nod. She couldn't believe Albus Dumbledore was standing before her. He was seemingly revived, back from the dead, or more accurately, never dead at all. This was unreal. This was too much. Her knees went weak, and everything went black.

Hermione wished with all her might that when she opened her eyes everything would be normal again. She would be in Ginny's room, and Lupin and Dumbledore would've just been a dream.

Slowly, she opened her eyes. Her heart sank. She was in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. Madam Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore were at her bedside.

"How are you feeling?" Madam Pomfrey asked. "Are you dizzy? Nauseous?"

"No," Hermione answered as she sat up. "My head hurts a little, but I'm fine."

"Drink this. It will help."

The Healer handed her a small vial of potion. After seeing to it that her patient consumed the tonic, Madam Pomfrey exchanged a glance with the Headmaster and returned to her office.

Hermione stared at the living, breathing Dumbledore.

"You gave us quite the scare when you fainted, Miss—?"

"Hermione Granger, sir."

"Are you in some sort of danger, Miss Granger?"

"I'm not sure, Professor. I — I don't understand. Something strange has happened. I think… I think I may have time traveled."

Dumbledore's expression hardly changed.

"What makes you think you have time traveled?" he asked her calmly.

"Well, I woke up here at Hogwarts, and I saw—"

Hermione was unsure whether she should say who given the delicacy of her probable time travel situation and the possible repercussions from it. She decided on the spot to err on the side of caution and speak vaguely.

"I saw a friend. But he looked much younger than I know him to be, like he's a student. And you're— you look younger too, sir."

"What year are you from?" Dumbledore asked, apparently unfazed by the idea of her time travel.

"I'm from 1998."

"Do you know what year it is now?"

"It must be around…" Hermione did some quick mental calculations, and her eyes went wide. "1978?"

"Close. It is 1977," Dumbledore informed her.

He studied her closely with his piercing gaze, as if contemplating the authenticity of her supposed time travel dilemma.

"You do believe me, don't you, Professor?"

Dumbledore took his time before answering her.

"I cannot ask you to tell me about the future in order to prove that you have been there," he said, "because how could I know if what you told me were true? And more importantly, I would not ask you. To tell someone from the past anything about what lies ahead could have dangerous consequences."

"I understand, Professor."

Hermione wondered anxiously what she would do if Dumbledore didn't believe her, but this particular worry was alleviated by his next words.

"I suppose I will have to simply take your word for it, Miss Granger. I have no reason to distrust you."

He smiled and Hermione began to relax.

"You said you do not know how you got here, so I take it you were not in possession of a time turner?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, Professor."

"Were you, perhaps, in possession of an unfamiliar object or performing an untried spell?"

"No, sir."

"Did anything strange or suspicious happen before you arrived here?"

Hermione rubbed her temple. She tried hard to think of something that occurred last night that could possibly explain her time travel, but the problem was she was having trouble remembering everything. Maybe she'd had too much butterbeer. No, she hadn't had that much to drink.

"I don't think so, but my memory is a bit fuzzy, Professor. I don't remember what happened before I woke up here. I don't remember going to sleep last night."

"Can you tell me about what you do remember? What you were doing? Who you were with?"

"I was at my friend's house. We were celebrating another friend's birthday. There weren't too many people there, only family and a few close friends. One of my friends was leaving, and I went after him. I wanted to ask him about a job he'd been offered. He said he wasn't sure yet whether he was going to take it…"

Hermione tried to remember what was said and done next, but her memory was hazy after that point.

"I don't know what happened after that. The next thing I knew I was waking up at Hogwarts."

"Where exactly did you wake, Miss Granger?"

"Er—" she couldn't bring herself to tell him exactly where, so she said, "In Gryffindor tower."

"Where you saw someone you know from the future?"

"Yes, sir."

"Was this person, by chance, one of the people you were with last night in your time?"

"Yes. He was the person I was speaking with right before I time traveled."

"When you saw his younger self, did he recognize you?"

"No, sir."

"Is it possible that he may have cursed you, either intentionally or accidentally, while you spoke with him before in your time?"

"No," Hermione said, taken aback. "I trust him completely. He wouldn't have cursed me."

"Could someone else have had the opportunity to curse you? Someone less trustworthy?"

Hermione immediately considered the possibility of an escaped or still uncaptured Death Eater out for revenge.

"I suppose so," she told Dumbledore. "Not at the party, but when I was talking with my friend. We were outside by the gate."

"Do you know someone who would want to do that, an enemy who would want to send you back in time?"

Hermione instinctively knew she shouldn't mention Voldemort or the Death Eaters, so she answered cautiously.

"There are some people in my time who might have wanted to curse me, but I have no idea why they would send me back here."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful.

"Do you think you can help me, Professor?" Hermione asked after a short silence.

Again, Dumbledore took a moment before responding.

"I am not sure an ordinary Time-Turner would work in this situation. However, I am confident we will find a way to get you back to the proper time, Miss Granger. I do not know how long it will take, but we will figure this out. In the meantime, you are welcome to stay here at Hogwarts."

"Thank you, Professor."

Hermione was truly grateful. She had no clue where she would go if she couldn't stay at Hogwarts. She couldn't go with her parents. They wouldn't know her in this time—she wasn't even born yet! Anywhere else seemed unsafe.

"While you are here, you must promise not to tell anyone you have time traveled," Dumbledore warned her. "You must not tell anyone anything about the future. That is imperative. Time is a powerful and curious thing. Changing the past, even an incident that seems of little importance, could have vast and unpredictable consequences in the future."

Hermione nodded. "I understand, sir. I should probably avoid some people then, the students I know from the future."

"Are any of these students your parents?"

"No. My mum and dad are Muggles."

"Then perhaps it won't be necessary for you to avoid anyone," Dumbledore said, looking thoughtful again. "We may be able to come up with a way for you to be here a short while without necessarily affecting the future."

Hermione didn't know how this was possible, but she trusted her wise headmaster.

"Now, Miss Granger," said Dumbledore, getting to his feet, "you must be famished after all that time travel. Madam Pomfrey will bring you lunch shortly. I need to speak with a colleague of mine, but I will be back later to further discuss our plan to get you back to where you need to be."

"Thank you so much for your help, Professor."

Hermione counted her blessings that she'd woken up at Hogwarts at a time in which Dumbledore was here to help her.

"There is always help at Hogwarts for those who ask for it," Dumbledore said, and Hermione felt certain this situation would be resolved.

Madam Pomfrey advised Hermione to get some rest, but Hermione couldn't turn off her mind. How could she given this mysterious situation she suddenly found herself in?

How had this happened? Had she been cursed? Was this real? Could this be some kind of prolonged dream or delusion she was having? Had she gone mad?

Hermione thought of many explanations for her situation and many possibilities about what was to come, but she had no answers. All she could do was wait for Dumbledore and trust whatever plan he devised would be successful in mending her predicament. She knew she was in good hands. She was positive Dumbledore would be able to fix this, but she couldn't help the feeling of uneasiness at how this had all occurred in the first place.

Hermione couldn't fathom it. It was too strange that out of all the times and places she could have traveled to, she'd woken up in the bed — in the arms — of the teenage version of her former professor. Was this merely a coincidence or was this something else?

If she was going to be staying here at Hogwarts, she would most certainly see Lupin again. She could already imagine how awkward their next meeting would be. She had no idea what she would say to him, how she would explain what had happened.

Hermione thought of all the other familiar people she was likely to see: Professor McGonagall, Sirius Black, James Potter, Lily Evans, Severus Snape… Some of these people she had never met, and a lot of these people were dead in her time. Would she be able to handle this? It was bizarre enough seeing Dumbledore alive; she had actually fainted because of it.

Nevertheless, after the initial shock had worn off, it had been comforting being in Dumbledore's presence again. Hermione knew she was experiencing something most people never could. Most people could only wish for the chance to spend more time with a lost loved one. She had the privilege of actually spending more time with Dumbledore.

She might get the chance to spend more time with Sirius too. She might even have the opportunity to meet Lily and James and the fortune to get to know the younger Remus Lupin as well.

Hermione couldn't believe how young he looked. She had always thought Lupin was a nice-looking man, but he was quite handsome in his youth.

Maybe being stuck here for a while wouldn't be so bad...

A/N: Thank you for all the follows and favs, and a special thank you to each of you reviewers! This is my first fanfic so feedback is very much appreciated.

This story will be divided into two parts. Part one will be shorter and takes place in the Marauders' era. I know the time travel thing has been done many times, but what happens in the past will be important for what I have planned for part two, and I thought it would be fun to write a story where Hermione interacts with both the younger and older Remus.