Author's note: Thanks for your reviews guys, and please keep 'em coming!

Chapter Two

It took a few seconds for Hermione to regain enough of her focus and balance to get up off the floor. When she did, she was glad to see that she was exactly where she'd been before --- the seventh year Gryffindor girls' dormitory. But right away she noticed that something about the large room was very different, as if it had been redecorated. The first aspect of the room that sprung out at her was that Lavender and Parvati's fashion magazines for teenage witches were not strewn all over the floor around their beds; in fact, their entire area seemed much neater. Hermione knew all too well that her dorm mates were not tidy people at all.

Maybe they actually cleaned up while I was out that day, she thought. No matter…I've got to go and find Ginny before she and I go to Hogsmeade! But then she also noticed that the area surrounding her own bed also looked different from usual. Most notably, her bookshelf containing her copy of Hogwarts: A History, among other large books, was missing…and someone else's clothes were hanging in her closet, including a Gryffindor uniform that was slightly too large for her and Muggle clothes that appeared to be rather dated.

What's going on? Maybe I'm not back in the Gryffindor dorm after all. But that didn't make any sense; all of the curtains and other decorations on the walls were in the Gryffindor colors of red and gold. Had someone taken all her things and replaced them as some sort of prank? The idea seemed ludicrous, but it was all that Hermione's dazed mind could come up with at the moment.

She was still staring at the room in confusion when she was startled by the sound of the door creaking open. She spun around quickly and saw a girl with long red hair and wearing Gryffindor robes enter the dormitory.

"Ginny!" she said instinctively. But then immediately she realized that this person was not her former lover. Ginny had an athletic build, lots of freckles, big brown eyes, and messy, wavy ginger hair that was almost always up in a sloppy ponytail. This girl was taller and thinner, and had pale skin with no freckles. Her almond-shaped eyes were a dazzling green, and her straight, neatly-combed hair was a much darker, more vibrant shade of red than Ginny's had ever been. She looked old enough to be a seventh year (in fact, she looked even more grown-up than most of the students at school), but there were only a few seventh year Gryffindor girls and Hermione knew them all very well. She had never seen this person before in her life.

"Who are you?" Hermione asked in bewilderment.

"Who am I?" the girl responded, looking equally surprised. "Who are you and what are you doing in my dormitory?"

"I live here! This is my dorm, not yours! I've never seen you before! Did you take all my stuff and replace it?"

"What? Why in the world would I do such a thing?"

"I don't know, I just know that this is my dorm and now all my things are gone and a complete stranger is in it!" Hermione cried, starting to lose her composure. Her trembling body crumpled to the floor, suffocated by the weight of her rising anxiety. Oh, no, she thought, I must have done the spell wrong. I went back to the wrong time period, that's the only thing that can explain this... Her realization of how rash her decision had been to travel back in time suddenly came crashing upon her. Oh my God, how could I have done something so stupid?!

All of a sudden the strange girl was kneeling down at Hermione's side, a look of concern crossing her face.

"Look, are you…okay?" she asked, reaching out to gently touch Hermione's shoulder. "Do you know where you are and how you got here?"

"Yes, I'm at Hogwarts, in the seventh year Gryffindor girls' dormitory," Hermione said miserably, crossing her arms over her knees and resting her chin on top of them. She decided it was probably wise not to answer the girl's other question on how she got there. Saying, 'I'm from the future and I time-traveled here using an illegal Time Turner so I could get my girlfriend back,' would probably make things even more awkward. So instead she continued, "But…but I'm not sure I know what year it is."

"Oh." The girl continued to stare at Hermione, her thin eyebrows furrowed. It was obvious that she thought that Hermione had hit her head or something and was now delusional. Hermione had started to wonder if that wasn't true.

"Well, it's 1978," the girl told her. Hermione groaned; she must have not spoken the year clearly enough when she did the spell. Now she had gone back 20 years before she intended to. I'm so stupid, so stupid… "And," the girl went on, "I don't know who you are or what's happened to you, but I'll help you if I can. I'll go get Professor Dumbledore --- he's the headmaster here."

"I know," Hermione whispered. The girl started to stand up and leave the room, but Hermione reached out and grabbed her sleeve. "What's your name?" She wasn't sure why she needed to know this, but a sudden and profound curiosity to find out who the girl was had suddenly come upon her.

The girl hesitated a few seconds before replying, as if she wasn't sure she wanted to humor someone who might be insane. But finally she said,

"Lily. That is, Lily Evans."