"So," Harry said awkwardly as they made it up to the portrait of The Fat Lady, "This is it, the entrance to the common room." She smiled. "Thanks." She said, "For not being all weirded out by me being from……well, not from around here."

Harry smiled, "Hey, anyone whose parents help fight Voldemort is a friend of mine, even if they are you know, like twenty years younger than me." she rolled her eyes. "Right now, you're only about a month older than me, Harry." She said, "So pulling the "I'm older than you so listen to me" card is not going to work anymore."

Harry smiled at her as he led her through the portrait hole. " I still am older than you though.' He teased. She rolled her eyes; men, she thought, they are such pains.

Just then, two people rushed up to Harry. A tall gangly red headed boy that could be no one other than Ron and….

"Malandra, these are my friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley." She smiled at them, even though all she really wanted to do was hug her mother and tell her how much she missed her.

Hermione gave Harry a questioning look but Ron- never one to hold back asked- "Who' she?" Malandra smiled. "I'm Malandra, Malandra Dumbledore, Albus's niece." She smirked at their awestruck expressions. "My uncle asked Harry to show me they way to the common room, I'm a transfer student here from--" She thought quickly for a moment. " St. Bridget's school of witchcraft in Ireland." She said, thinking about her friend Kayla O'Conner who had actually transferred from St. Bridget's in third year.

'Wow," Hermione said, "You're Dumbledore's niece.' Malandra nodded. She hated lying about it, she had always been proud of her parentage even though some had looked down on her for it.

"If you don't mind me asking," Hermione said, "Why did you transfer?" Malandra once again put her quick mind to work. In a moment she had her response. " My parents thought it would be wise to send me here where I could be under my uncle's protection. St. Bridget's--like Hogwarts--is a boarding school and my parents are often out of the country during the school year doing work. They thought with Voldemort gaining power it would be wise for me to be close to another family member."

"Oh,' Hermione said, "Well, it's really nice to meet you. If you want, I'll show you up to the girls dorm." Malandra smiled. "Thanks." She said, "that--that would be great." God, she thought, talking to my mum is harder than I thought it would be."

----Meanwhile in Dumbledore's office----

"Albus, how can you be serious, you are completely changing your mind about everything on the word of a child!" Severus raged. Dumbledore looked at him, an amused twinkle in his eye. He had been listening to the same rant for the past ten minutes and--while it was oddly amusing-- they did have more pressing matters to attend to.

"Are you quite finished Severus?" He asked. Snape grunted. "If so, please, sit down, we have much to discuss." Snape sat down in the seat in front of Dumbledore's desk.

Dumbledore looked him directly in the eye. "Severus." He said quietly, "I am no fool, I would not put the fate of the entire wizarding world at risk if I did believe everything that the girl said." Snape made a move to speak, but Dumbledore stopped him.

"You gave me the veriterserum yourself, I administered it myself, I know for a fact that every word that came from that girls lips was the Gods honest truth." Dumbledore sighed as he pulled out the time turner that the girl had given him. "Does this look familiar?" He asked handing it to Severus.

Snape looked ill when he glanced at it. "It's…mine." He whispered. "Yes," Dumbledore it's yours. "And so is she."

-- Back in the Girl's dorm, Hermione's POV--

As I led the new girl up to the dormitory, I couldn't help but feel a strange sense of familiarity. At first, I thought it was merely the fact that she was Dumbledore's niece, but no, that wasn't it. In fact, though I searched her face countless times, I could not find one thing about her that reminded me of the white haired headmaster.

Her hair was long, wavy, and the darkest brown I had ever seen without it being black. Her face was thin, her features sharp. She had dark, penetrating eyes that seemed as though they could look into your very soul. Her nose was large, but not excessively so, it actually fit her face quite well. Her skin was rather pale, almost transparent. She was tall and willowy, and looked as though a strong wind could blow her away and yet, there was a spark behind her eyes, a firey determination, something that told me that, no matter how small she seemed, this girl was not one to be trifled with.

Once I got her up to the dorm room, she immediately laid down on the empty be beside mine. I thought she was asleep, so I pulled out the potions essay I had due tomorrow, time for some last minute revisions.

I had been writing for about five minutes before I began to get the feeling someone was watching me. I glanced behind me and there was Malandra. I let out a yelp of surprise.

"I'm sorry." She said guilty, "I was going to ask you if I could borrow a book from you, I can't sleep and I was going to read a bit before bed; and I noticed you were working, and I didn't want to disturb you…" Her voice trailed off. "That's a Potions essay. you're working on." She said brightly, "That was my favourite subject in school."

I glanced up at her in surprise. "Really?" I asked, "It's mine to." I said shyly, "But I dare not tell that to Harry and Ron, they hate it."

She looked at me, a knowing smirk on her face. "I take it that you and I will be the ones having to help them with their homework in there then?" She asked. I smiled back at her. "I'm normally the one that has to help them, I'll be glad to have another person help me with it." She smiled then glanced down at my essay. "Oh," she said, "You need to put dragon's teeth right there,' She said pointing to the spot, "not Sphinx teeth. If you add Sphinx teeth to that, you get a knowledge potion, not a strengthing potion."

I looked up at her in surprise. "What?" She asked. "Nothing I said, it's just… you remind me a lot of Professor Snape." She smirked. " Funny, that's what uncle Albus said."