A/N - Thanks for all the great reviews on the previous chapter. Next chapter will deal with what exactly is wrong with the book but this chapter deals with the two hours that Hermione spent in the book. A lot of people did guess the extent of the book's problems, but I hope you all still enjoy this chapter.
Two Hours Earlier.
Albus Dumbledore finished up the last of his paperwork and began tidying his desk. Since it was Saturday night he was planning on heading to his private chambers, where he was going to make himself a mug of hot chocolate and curl up with a book. The Headmaster was just about to stand up and leave his office when he suddenly felt strange.
Remaining in his seat, Dumbledore slowly zoned out and within a minute he was sitting perfectly still, staring blankly into space. Dumbledore remained like that for several minutes, until all of a sudden he found himself coming to his senses.
"What was that?" He muttered to himself as he shook his head.
One minute he had been sitting in his own office and the next he had been pulled into some sort of medieval setting where he was a King. Dumbledore had been rather taken aback to find that not only was he King, but he was married to Minerva McGonagall and his daughter was Hermione Granger. He was also less than impressed to find he had no control over his actions and words, all he could do was sit back and watch what happened.
Dumbledore was just getting an idea of what was happening when Severus Snape entered things as the King of Slytherin. He was then totally bemused when a change of scene resulted in his enjoying the wedding feast of Snape and Hermione. Luckily he wasn't around long enough to witness too much interaction between the couple before he found himself exiting the scene and moments later he was back in his office.
Dumbledore was trying to work out what had happened when there was a knocking on the door, followed by Professor McGonagall rushing into the office. The deputy headmistress looked extremely flustered but Dumbledore barely had time to register it before she started telling him about what she had just experienced. Dumbledore listened in surprise as McGonagall described experiencing the exact same thing as he had just done.
"Interesting." Dumbledore mused. "It would seem we've both experienced the same phenomenon."
"But what was it?" McGonagall questioned.
"I have no idea." Dumbledore admitted. "But I suspect Miss Granger holds the key to what has happened."
McGonagall was just about to ask if she should go and get Hermione when the door to Dumbledore's office burst open and a paler than normal Severus Snape burst in.
"I've just experienced something strange." Severus announced, not even bothering to greet his colleagues. "Or more accurately, I've just experienced something truly horrifying."
"Let me guess, you suddenly found yourself as King of Slytherin marrying Miss Granger." Dumbledore said.
"How did you know?" Snape asked, looking at the headmaster in bewilderment.
"Minerva and I experienced the same thing." Dumbledore replied. "Not that I'm sure what it was we were experiencing."
"Maybe we can work that out later, but I think we need to see if anyone else is experiencing this phenomenon." McGonagall piped up. "Maybe we should try and gather the students that we encountered."
"That's an excellent idea." Dumbledore nodded at the witch standing opposite him. "But I'm not sure it's safe for us to go wandering around in case we zone out again. I'll contact Filius and Pomona and get them to gather the appropriate students."
Getting up Dumbledore used the floo network to talk to the other two Professors and ask them to gather up the students they had encountered in their visit to medieval times. Once the message was delivered, Dumbledore began gathering chairs that he arranged around his desk. Snape and McGonagall settled into seats and once Dumbledore had finished fussing, he returned to his own seat behind his desk.
"Hopefully someone will be able to provide us with answers to what's happening." Dumbledore remarked as they waited for everyone to arrive.
Luckily they didn't have to wait very long before Professor Flitwick arrived with four Slytherins, Blaise Zabini, Theo Nott, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. The Slytherins settled themselves in seats as they confirmed to the headmaster they had all experienced a trip to a medieval kingdom where they were knights.
"I also called by the head dorms." Flitwick said to Dumbledore. "The portrait confirmed that both the Head Boy and Head Girl were inside but I couldn't enter without the password and I was getting no response to knocking."
"I think we just have to hope Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy have the sense to remain in their dorm." Dumbledore sighed. "I think we also have to hope that one of the Gryffindors know what's going on."
"Now's our chance to ask them." McGonagall commented as the office door opened and Professor Sprout trooped in with six Gryffindors.
As well as Harry, Ron and Ginny, Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan were present. Like everyone else the six Gryffindors confirmed they were experiencing the exact same thing. All five boys had been knights of Gryffindor whilst Ginny confirmed she had experienced being Hermione's maid.
"Do any of you have any idea what's going on?" Dumbledore asked, once the Gryffindors were seated.
"I think we're in an immersion book." Ginny replied when all the boys shook their heads. "Hermione got one for her birthday and it was set in medieval times."
"If it's an immersion book, why are we all in it?" Blaise asked. "Only the lead character experiences the book."
"Clearly something has gone wrong with the spell." Dumbledore replied.
"Well then we should go to the Head dorms and stop this now." Snape insisted.
"That could be dangerous to Miss Granger." Dumbledore argued. "Because we don't know exactly what we're dealing with, it would be unwise to break the spell."
"Are you suggesting we do nothing and carry on with this?" Snape questioned, looking worried at the prospect.
"That's exactly what I'm suggesting." Dumbledore smiled at the assembled group. "All we can do is sit back and enjoy the story."
"That's easy for you to say, you're not married to one of your students in it." Snape muttered, causing the Slytherins to chuckle quietly amongst themselves.
Dumbledore also looked amused by the mention of Snape and Hermione's marriage in the story, but he refrained from saying anything when the Potions master glared at the chuckling boys in his house. Instead of dwelling on Snape's marriage he began asking the others about their experiences in the story, now he knew they couldn't do anything but wait it out he wanted to know what was happening when he wasn't a part of the tale.
As the group were talking Snape and Ginny regularly zoned out and the other Slytherins did the same thing occasionally. Dumbledore continued asking questions about the story and they established that Hermione was the lead character and Draco was the knight she was having an affair with. Ron was less than impressed with the conclusions and refused to believe that Hermione had cast the blond Slytherin as her leading man. However he had to concede the point as the story carried on and no-one else got romantically involved with Hermione's character.
For a while things passed fairly uneventfully, until the four Slytherins all emerged from the story. The minute they came back to reality Crabbe grabbed at his foot, mumbling about it still being there. Blaise explained about Sir Vincent's accident in the story as everyone looked at Crabbe as though he was mad.
"Don't worry, Mr Crabbe. Nothing that happens in the book happens to you in real life." Dumbledore reassured the panicked Slytherin. "You may have the memory of various things happening to you, but they don't really happen."
"Shame." Theo muttered to Blaise, who nodded along with his friend. "I have some rather interesting memories."
"Me too." Blaise responded, looking at Ginny who was still in the trance.
The two Slytherin boys whispered quietly together for a few minutes, occasionally shooting glances the redhead's way. Harry and Ron both looked towards the duo angrily and Dumbledore had to remind them to behave and that nothing was really happening, it was all just the story.
A few minutes later Snape and Ginny snapped out of the trance and then there was a long gap before people started snapping back in and out of reality. As the fading in and out continued Dumbledore continued to ask questions about the story and he was pleased to hear that a trip to Gryffindor was approaching, meaning he was hopefully in the story again.
Dumbledore got his wish a few minutes later when the Gryffindors started fading in and out as the trip to Gryffindor got under way. By this point Dumbledore was thoroughly enjoying himself and he was disappointed when the trip to Gryffindor ended and Hermione returned to Slytherin.
Once again it was just the Slytherins fading in and out, although after one trip Snape was suddenly looking very uncomfortable. When Ginny returned moments later and the pair hurriedly made sure they weren't looking at each other, speculation started to arise.
"What happened?" Dumbledore asked.
"Nothing." Snape snapped. "The knights were just training for the upcoming tournament."
While it was very clear something more than that had happened, Dumbledore let the subject drop, although he vowed to keep a close eye on the pair. Shortly after that incident Flitwick zoned out and when he returned Sprout followed suit. They had barely managed to explain they had arrived for the tournament when Dumbledore, McGonagall and the Gryffindors all faded out and returned to the story.
For quite a while after that there was no time to talk as people were fading in and out regularly and several times the entire office was in the story as the tournament was held. Despite the regular fading in and out Dumbledore managed to keep an eye on Snape and Ginny, the longer the story was going on the more they couldn't look each other in the eye. Dumbledore was beginning to suspect something was happening between the pair of them in the story but he didn't really like to ask in case no-one else had picked up on it. Once the tournament was over and the comings and goings had settled down in became obvious that the Slytherins knew what was happening between Snape and Ginny. More than once Dumbledore had caught Blaise and Theo muttering quietly to themselves and he was pretty sure it was only Snape's icy glare that kept them silent.
Snape himself was looking increasingly uncomfortable with the story and he had once again asked Dumbledore if they could end the spell. Dumbledore was sure the plea to end the spell was a result of children being mentioned in the story. Whatever was happening with Ginny was torment enough for the Potions Professor and it was obvious he wouldn't cope well with anything happening with Hermione as well. Unfortunately for Snape, Dumbledore once again reiterated that they had to see the story through to the end without interfering.
Fortunately for Snape the story was rapidly coming to an end. After a bit of a lull regarding the people in the office Blaise, Dumbledore, McGonagall and the Gryffindors were in action as Hermione made another trip back home. After they had finished their part in the story it was back to Slytherin where Snape and Ginny were in action again.
Snape, Ginny and the Slytherins soon emerged from the story for the final time, at least they thought it was the final time as Hermione had returned home and they had all stayed in Slytherin. The Gryffindors, Dumbledore and McGonagall all faded in and out a few more times before they also seemed to remain in the office.
"I think it's over." McGonagall announced when no-one had faded out for nearly ten minutes.
"Are you sure?" Snape asked. "We've had breaks like this before."
"Yes, but in the last scene I was in Hermione had just given birth." McGonagall explained. "We jumped months to get there, I'm guessing that was the epilogue."
"What happens now?" Snape asked Dumbledore.
"I want to wait a bit longer to be sure the book is finished, then we should go and speak to Miss Granger." Dumbledore replied.
"All of us?" McGonagall asked. "Surely once we've determined its safe the students can return to their dorms."
"Until I know exactly what has happened I want us all to stick together." Dumbledore said. "We can all go to the Head dorms."
At Dumbledore's words Harry and Ron shared a worried look, not that anyone spotted them. While the Gryffindor duo were wondering if it was the fact they had bought the book at Knockturn Alley was responsible for the spell going wrong, everyone else was reacting to the story they had lived through. Dean, Seamus and Neville were discussing their experiences at being knights, as were Crabbe and Goyle. Blaise and Theo however were discussing their respective flings with Ginny and whispering about her affair with Snape. Snape and Ginny were both ignoring the gossip as they did their best not to accidentally look at each other.
After another fifteen minutes Dumbledore was satisfied that the story had ended and it was safe for the group to leave the office. Leading the way the headmaster led the group of students and teachers to the Head Dorms where he knocked on the door. Minutes after knocking the door was flung open by an annoyed looking Head Boy.