Chapter Three

In the few moments that Hermione had to herself in the Gryffindor dorm while the girl --- no, Lily --- went to fetch Professor Dumbledore, her mind was reeling over the situation she'd gotten herself into. It was 1978, and she had just met Lily Evans, soon to be Lily Evans Potter, her best friend's deceased mother. Only Lily was definitely not deceased yet. No, Hermione realized, it would be another three years before Lily and her husband James would die at the hands of Lord Voldemort, leaving the infant Harry an orphan and the unwitting savior of the wizarding world. But right now, Harry wasn't even born; Lily and James weren't married, and might not even be an item yet. And Lily had just stood in front of her, as vibrant and full of life as anyone could be.

How come I didn't recognize her eyes?, Hermione thought. Harry's are exactly like them, just like everyone always said. And then, with a sudden surge of anger: It's not fair. It's not fair that I got to meet Harry's mother for even a second, when he was too young when she died to remember her. And I'll never forget this…

For a moment, Hermione considered just picking up the Time Turner and going right back to 1998. To just disappear, before Lily and the Headmaster could get back to the dorm, leaving them to wonder what had become of the strange girl who'd shown up mysteriously in the castle and then left just as quickly. She'd already done enough damage; wasn't it time to go home?

But something told her that she should stay where she was until she could speak to Dumbledore. She couldn't put her finger on what it was, but for some reason she had a strong reluctance to use the Time Turner again so soon. Isn't that what got you into this mess, anyway?, she admonished herself. And she was still too dizzy and overwhelmed from the shock of what had happened to her to do anything but sit on the floor, propped up against her bed --- which she now realized had also been Lily's bed two decades earlier. For all of her seventh year she'd been sleeping on that mattress, not having the slightest clue that Harry's mother had slept on it for an entire year as well. It made her shiver to think about it.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps getting closer and closer --- Dumbledore's loud, stomping ones, combined with softer ones that must have been Lily's --- and the red haired girl and the Headmaster entered the room. The first thing that Hermione noticed about 1978 Dumbledore was that he still looked very much the same as his 1990's self. Though, when you're already as old as he is, it occurred to her, twenty years probably doesn't make a lot of difference.

"Thank you for bringing me to her, Miss Evans," Dumbledore said, an intrigued look crossing his face as he slowly stepped closer to Hermione. "Young lady, do you think you can stand up?"

"Yes, I…I think so," Hermione said softly. She began to lift herself off the floor, but she was still trembling, and she found herself immediately being helped up by the surprisingly strong arms of Lily.

"Professor Dumbledore's going to bring you to his office, and he and Professor McGonagall --- she's our Deputy Headmistress --- are going to try to help you," Lily said gently. Turning to Dumbledore, she said in a concerned voice, "Do you think she'll need to go to the Hospital Wing first, Professor?"

"I don't know, Miss Evans. --- Do you think you need to go to the Hospital Wing, young lady?"

Hermione shook her head. "I'm fine, just a bit shaken, sir."

"Very well, then. Miss Evans, if you will continue to assist the young lady to my office…"

"I think I can walk just fine, thanks," Hermione interrupted, speaking abruptly but not rudely. Dumbledore nodded obligingly. "Thank you so much though, um, Lily," Hermione said, not looking at the other girl as she spoke.

"You're welcome," Lily said quietly. Hermione cast one more glance at the red haired girl standing there, before she walked out of the dorm and followed Dumbledore to his office.

Hermione later didn't remember much about that walk through the castle, except that every now and then they'd pass a throng of chattering students and each time she'd turn her head, wondering if any of those students were people she knew from Harry's parents' generation. She could have probably recognized Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, of course, but she had no way of knowing if any of the other young men and woman would grow to become members of the Order or Death Eaters, or if they were her classmates' parents, like Frank and Alice Longbottom…it gave her a bit of an adrenaline rush to realize that not only had she traveled twenty years back in time, but she'd traveled to a time that was very important to just about everyone she knew. In 1978, Voldemort and his followers were very strong, and the First War had well begun. Right now these students were so fresh-faced and young, but in the next few years they'd have to make vital decisions on where they stood in the fight against Voldemort. Soon, their fates would already be sealed for them.

"Ah, here we are," Dumbledore said, his cheery voice pulling her out of her thoughts. He spoke the password (which apparently back in February, 1978 was "Chocolate Frogs"), and the wide doors of his office opened to them. "If you would take a seat, please," he requested, pointing to large, dark red leather chair that sat in front of his enormous desk. Hermione did as he asked, and he took the seat facing her, behind his desk.

"Now," he said, folding his hands and staring pointedly at Hermione, "I'm sure you have much to tell me, for I have many questions to ask you. But I hope you don't mind if I say a few things first."

"Not at all, sir." Hermione swallowed nervously, waiting for the Headmaster to go on.

"I must tell you that you gave Miss Evans quite a fright," Dumbledore continued, a small smile creasing his elderly face. "At times like this, I'm reminded why Professor McGonagall and I appointed her Head Girl --- she has so much compassion for other people. She believes that you must have suffered amnesia or something of that sort, and that you somehow wandered into the castle, and now you don't know how you got here. She even told me that you did not know what year it is, is this true?"

"That…that I didn't know the year until she told me?" Hermione paused for a second before she answered, "Yes, sir, that is true."

"I see. Well, I think that Miss Evans is actually quite mistaken. I don't think that you are delusional or amnesiac at all. And do you know why I think this, young lady?"

"No, sir."

"Well, for one thing, there is the rather curious fact that you're wearing a Gryffindor necktie and skirt, yet I have never been aware of you being a student at this school, in any of the four houses. And then there is the fact that I can recognize the chain of a Time Turner when I see one."

Hermione let out a small gasp, and instinctively put her hand up to her chest to touch the same chain that Dumbledore had spoken of. Although the hour-glass of the Time Turner was tucked hidden away in her white button-down shirt, the silver chain was still clearly visible around her neck. Leave it to Dumbledore to deduce immediately what was going on, no matter the circumstances.

"And so," Dumbledore went on, "I have come to the interesting conclusion that you are a Hogwarts student, but not in this present time, and that you somehow used that Time Turner to travel much further backwards or forwards than the device usually allows. Am I correct?"

"Yes," Hermione whispered, her eyes cast down to the floor. For some reason, she flushed and her palms began to sweat; she felt very ashamed.

"Young lady, what is your name, and what time period do you come from?" the Headmaster asked, not unkindly. Hermione lifted her gaze off the red carpet, and stared into the old man's blue eyes.

"Hermione Granger. And I'm a seventh year in 1998."

"Ah!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "1998 --- twenty years from now, that's very precise. Would I be wrong in guessing that you did not arrive here totally by accident?"

"Well, no, it wasn't a total accident, Professor. You see, I've come from March 16, 1998, and I meant to go back just one month earlier, to February 12, 1998 --- but, well, I must have not spoken the date clearly enough, because here I am."

"Here you are, indeed," Dumbledore murmured, drumming the tips of his fingers on the top of his desk. For about a minute, both he and Hermione were silent as he stared ahead, apparently deep in thought. After awhile the silence began to make Hermione very uncomfortable, and so she piped up,

"Please, Professor, may I just go back? I'm sorry to have disturbed your…your time period, but my friends, they'll be missing me soon, and…"

"Go back?" Dumbledore said, his eyes fixating back upon her, a curious look on his face. "Miss Granger, I cannot allow you to do that before I know exactly how you arrived in this time --- how you have possession of a Time Turner, and for what purpose you were intending to use it. Time Turners are heavily regulated by the Ministry, as I hope you know. They don't just hand them out to anyone to do whatever they wish with them. Time travel is very serious business."

"I do know that, sir. I can explain. You see, in my third year Professor McGonagall gave me permission to use this Time Turner so I could take more than a full schedule of classes. It ended up being more than I could handle, though, so I didn't use it again after that year," Hermione said, deliberately leaving out the whole business of using the Time Turner to save Sirius and Buckbeak. She figured that it would be too much to explain all that at this point, and besides, she was well aware that Time Traveling laws forbid letting people in the past know too much about their future.

"Ah. Well, you wouldn't be the first one to use the device for that purpose and still found yourself without enough hours in the day. That I can understand. But I'm curious, Miss Granger --- if you stopped using the Time Turner for academic reasons that year, then why do you still have it now? Shouldn't you have returned it to Professor McGonagall --- who I'm glad to hear is still teaching in 1998?"

Hermione flushed in shame again. "Yes, sir, I should have returned it to her. I…I don't really know why I didn't. I just had a feeling that I would need it again someday. So I told her that I handed it over to my friend Ron's father, who works for the Ministry. I guess she never asked my friend's father about it, so she never knew that I still had the Time Turner."

"And what were you using it for today, Miss Granger...Miss Granger?"

Tears were falling from Hermione's eyes. The look on Professor Dumbledore's face made it obvious that he hadn't expected the young girl to start crying.

"This was the first time I used it since my third year," Hermione said, her voice shaking. "It was sitting in my drawer the whole time. I swear to you, sir, I never used it for…for mischief, or dark magic, or anything like that. I would never do that, I'm Head Girl!"

"Ssh, calm down, child --- I believe you. I don't know why, but I feel that I can trust you." Dumbledore opened up one of the drawers of his desk and pulled out a piece of wrapped candy. "Would you like a lemon drop?"

Hermione couldn't help but laugh, even through her tears. The old man really had always been the same, she thought. She took the candy from him but didn't unwrap it.

"Well," she continued, wiping her eyes, "When I used the Time Turner today it wasn't for a good reason. I'll admit that. But I was so desperate…I…I don't know how to explain it to you, sir. It would mean divulging my personal life to you, and I'm not sure if that's appropriate."

"Just tell me what you feel comfortable with."

Hermione hesitated. She'd had a hard enough time coming out to everyone about her sexuality; how could she tell a twenty years younger Dumbledore about her relationship with Ginny? Finally, she said softly, "Let's just say that I loved someone very much, but I did something wrong and ruined my relationship with this person. So I thought that if I could go back in time to when things went wrong, then maybe I could set them right again. I used a spell I read about one time when I was in the Restricted Section of the library. It was stupid, I know."

"Stupid? No, Miss Granger…you were certainly being foolish, but it doesn't seem to me that you are stupid," Dumbledore said. " 'Love makes fools of us all,' as a famous Muggle playwright said once."

"Yes, I know, sir --- I'm Muggleborn," Hermione said, laughing a little.

"Are you really? So is Miss Evans, our current Head Girl! It would seem that you two have much in common." Hermione squirmed uncomfortably when he said this, though she wasn't sure why.

"Please, sir," she said once again, "now that you know how I got there, and that I wasn't up to anything wrong, would you mind if I just went on my way home? The less time I spend in your time period the better, and I really want to get back."

"I'm sure you do, Miss Granger. But I'm sorry," the Headmaster said, shaking his head, "I can't let you go back at this time."

Dumbledore's answer shocked Hermione. "Wh-what?" she stammered. "Why not? Sir, you said you trusted me!"

"I do. I don't think that you had bad intentions; indeed, it seems to me that you had very good intentions. But that doesn't change the fact that you did do something that was very, very, foolish. You not only used a Time Turner illegally, with a spell that most students are not supposed to know about, but you also admittedly lied to a teacher about your possession of it. I know that Professor McGonagall must have told you about the laws of time travel when she let you use the Time Turner for your studies in your third year. So, you must have been aware what risk you were putting us all in when you used it for your own purposes. The proper protocol would be for me --- in your time period as well as mine --- to take the Time Turner away from you. And that is what I must do now."

Fresh tears began to well up in Hermione's eyes again. She'd never been punished by her Headmaster before; in her entire time at Hogwarts, he'd always overlooked it when she, Ron and Harry had broken the rules because he seemed to understand that they had done it for the right reasons. Now, she was finally being forced to deal with the consequences. Oh, God, this is even worse than I thought. I've already managed to disappoint Dumbledore, and I'm not even technically his student yet. And now I'm stuck here…

"What…what am I going to do here, until you let me go home?" she asked, struggling to keep her voice steady.

"Why, go to your classes, of course. You're already wearing most of your Hogwarts uniform; we can order you some new Gryffindor robes and jumpers and things, as well as all the school books you need. And you have your wand on you? Good. Miss Granger, I hope you understand why I want to keep you here for a little while longer?"

"To punish me," Hermione whispered, staring at her lap. "And I know I deserve it."

"No, not just to punish you, although you do need to face the consequences of your actions. I'm doing this to help you, Miss Granger."

"Help me? Help me how, sir?" Hermione looked up from her lap, confused. Was the old man finally off his rocker?

"Child, don't you realize that if I sent you back to your time right now, the Albus Dumbledore that exists in 1998 would remember you from this encounter? I would already know you the moment you started at Hogwarts as a first year. It would taint my perception of you for the rest of your school days, and that's not fair to you. Your life at school might be very, very different because you didn't get to start it with a clean slate like the rest of your classmates. You say you are Head Girl at Hogwarts in 1998. How did you manage to achieve this distinction?"

"Well, lots of studying was part of it, I suppose," Hermione said, bewildered. "I…I always had high marks in my classes. I became a prefect in my fifth year. And I followed the rules, for the most part…I always tried to do what I thought was right…and I believed in house unity…"

"So, in other words, you proved yourself," Dumbledore interrupted. "And that's what I want you to do now, in the next few weeks or even months --- I want you to prove yourself to me. If, during that time, you can show me that you really are a hard working and trustworthy student, and that this incident was merely a lapse in your otherwise good judgement, then I will be glad to send you back to your time. And in…1991, I believe it will be, when you start your studies at Hogwarts, I will remember you not as a girl who cried in my office and told me that she used an illegal Time Turner for her own purposes, but as a girl who will later truly deserve to be appointed prefect and Head Girl. Do you understand, Miss Granger?"

"Yes, sir, I understand," Hermione said slowly. He was right; he couldn't just send her back, because their meeting in 1978 had changed things irrevocably. He really was doing her a favor, whether she liked it or not. What if she did go back to discover that she was no longer Head Girl? That would be far worse than having to stay in 1978 for a few weeks.

"Good," Dumbledore said, beaming at her. "The mature and responsible way you've handled this already speaks well for you. But now, we must figure out your schedule, and order your books and clothing…oh, and there is the matter of your name."

"My name?"

"Of course. We cannot call you Hermione Granger while you are here, because the person known as Hermione Granger hasn't technically been born yet. It could muddle up the future in ways that we can't even know yet, so we must come up with some sort of alias for you. What would you like to be called?"

"Oh, Merlin, I don't know, sir. I-I…never thought I'd have to come up with another name for myself…I can't imagine being called anything other than Hermione."

"Understandably. But you must --- and I suggest that you choose something completely different, not your middle name or a nickname of anything of that sort. Come now, do you have a favorite name or a name that your parents almost bestowed on you?"

"Well, my mum loves Shakespeare, the Muggle playwright you mentioned. That's why she called me Hermione --- Hermione is a character from the play A Winter's Tale. Maybe I could…choose another name from Shakespeare?"

"Fantastic idea! But which one?" Dumbledore said urgently. "Quickly, now --- I will need to know what to call you when I introduce you to your classmates and teachers."

"Um…well…" Hermione racked her brain, trying to come up with something, anything. "Twelfth Night is one of my favorite plays. Maybe I could call myself Olivia?"

"Very good! I think the name suits you, Miss Granger. But I mustn't call you Miss Granger anymore, either. What shall be your new last name?"

"Oh. Um…how about Taylor? It's my uncle's wife's maiden name."

"Taylor will do just fine, if that's what you want. And now we can finally make the rest of your arrangements for you here." The Headmaster smiled down at her. "Welcome to Hogwarts, Miss Taylor."

A/N: That was my longest chapter for this story yet, and the one that was the hardest to write so far. What do you think of Hermione's new name? Please hit the review button and tell me what you think, as I'm dying to read your comments. :)