The next morning, Hermione was surprised to find that Ron was underneath her fast asleep, snoring rather loudly. Feeling a flicker of embarrassment and nervousness, she shot up from the couch and quickly trotted off to her dormitory. Luckily, she entered the room to find that no one else had awoken yet. Still recovering from the shock, Hermione took out A History of Magic and began to read. But she could not focus on the text n front of her. After she calmed down about falling asleep in Ron's arms, she quickly got right back into the mind set of how she was going to make sure that Snape would only serve Dumbledore. He was a vial man in her time, always putting down the Gryffindor house and specifically Harry Potter. How on earth would she gather the nerve to talk to him when he was going to be her age? Was it true that he was capable of being sincere? It was hard for Hermione to grasp that Snape was in love with someone. In love! And with Harry's mother of all people! It was utterly absurd. It was not possible…could he have been lying to Dumbledore just to have a place to stay? Or to spy on him for the Dark Lord? That was certainly possible… With so many questions and doubts, Hermione could not find any other way to solve her problems than to go back in time and find out for herself if what Dumbledore had shown her was true. But when to do it was the real question. She wasn't ready to leave her time for good. What if everything changed? What if her friends no longer knew who she was? Still staring at the book in front of her, she decided that she would only go back for a little while and just observe. After all, there was no harm in going back if she wasn't seen. She needed to set aside a time and a secret place to do this where no one could find her disappearing. Then she thought of the perfect place, The Room of Requirement. Excited by her plan, she slammed her book shut with a little too much force. Half the girls in the dorm were startled awake, one of them being Ginny Weasly.
"Oi! Do you mind Hermione?" Ginny moaned and she unwillingly rose from her bed. Her long red hair was sticking up in various places and her eyes seemed to be glued shut by the crust lining them. But even with her bed head and an unpleasant frown upon her face, Hermione could not help but feel a ping of jealousy at how beautiful she was.
"Sorry." Hermione apologized. Ginny flicked her wand at her hair and her eyes and in an instant, her hair was brushed and flowing down her back as she got out of bed and her eyes seemed to have brightened and wiped completely clean of the crusts. But her frown still remained as she made her way to the bathroom. Slowly but surely, the other girls in the dorm followed her, fixing their hair and eyes and making their beds as they waited for the bathroom.
"What are you doing up so early anyways?" asked Patil Pavarti. She had just finished making her bed and headed over to her trunk to get out her Dinivination book.
"I was just-"
"Studying?" Ginny finished for her. She was fully dressed and cleaned in her Gryffindor robes.
"You seem to be studying a lot harder than usual. I mean, it's not like you even need to study so, why bother?" Ginny asked almost rudely. Hermione could not think of an answer that would keep her satisfied enough to drop the subject of her studying altogether. What was it with these Weaslys and being so secretly smart?
"Whether I need to or not is not the question. It's important to study! It ensures good grades and besides, I have O. coming up, I cannot afford to let my grades slip now!" Hermione backfired. Ginny rolled her eyes and gathered up some books for her next class.
"Ok, if you say so." And with that Ginny headed off to the common room.
Hermione waited until all of the girls did the same then hopped off her bed, got changed into her robes and fished in her trunk for the time turner. She clasped her hand around the cool metal of the base of the time turner and tangled her fingers through the chain. She pulled it free from the depths of her trunk and untangled the chain from her grasp and placed it around her neck. Fastening the front of robes to hid the chain, she made her way down the steps into the common room. The moment she had a full view of the common room she paused to find Ron still stretched out across the couch. Just then Harry appeared from the other side of the room apparently coming from the boys' dorms.
"Hey Hermione." Harry greeted as he adjusted his tie.
"Morning Harry. Sleep well?"
"Yeah, but it looks like Ron didn't make it to the room." Harry laughed. Hermione managed to smile and unconsciously started playing with her hair. Harry strode over to Ron and started shaking him to consciousness.
"Rise and shine Ron!" Harry teased as Ron stretched his arms.
"What? Where's-"
"Morning Ron!" Hermione interrupted nervously. Her heart beat ten times faster as she met Ron's gaze hopping he would see the panic in her eyes.
"Oh, hey Hermione." Ron said sullenly. He dragged himself up from the couch and waved to Harry on his way up to their dorm. Harry gave Hermione a quizzical look and asked, "What's his problem?" Hermione bit her lip wondering if she should tell him about their "slumber party" last night. Still not sure, she simply shrugged her shoulders.
"Want to head down for breakfast?" Harry suggested.
"Sure. But I have to meet up with Professor Flitwick about my Charms essay first. I'll meet you and Ron there." Hermione lied. Harry nodded and headed through the portrait towards the Great Hall. Hermione waited for a few minutes until she was sure that he was off the seventh floor corridor and then made her way to the Room of Requirement.