Prologue
It hadn't been hard to convince Minerva to let her use the Time Turner again when she returned for her backdated Seventh Year, Hermione mused. Hogwarts kept a few of them stored for students such as herself, and after what had happened at the Ministry during her Fifth Year, they were among the select few Time Turners left in existence, although Hermione thought it was likely that the Department of Mysteries was working to create more. She very much doubted that they'd lost the directions on how to construct them, although she did imagine they were very difficult to make.
The summer after the war had been one full of revelation. With so many losses, Gringotts had begun putting a call out for Muggleborns to try and align them to defunct family lines so that they had someone on vaults that were otherwise being left untouched. For some, that meant a discovery of heritage and a claiming of a Lordship. For others, like Hermione, it had been less about claiming a title and more about connecting with a branch of family she'd never known she had. She vaguely recalled, Sixth Year, Professor Slughorn asking if she was related to the Dagworth-Grangers. She'd said she didn't think so, given she was Muggleborn, but it turned out that she was. A few generations up there had been a Witch called Constance Dagworth who married a Muggleborn Wizard called John Granger. The two of them spawned the Dagworth-Granger line, and their Squib son, John Granger the second, had gone on to return to the Muggle world and father John Granger the third, who had been Hermione's own father. The magic had blossomed in her after three generations of being dormant. Hermione had spent a good deal of time these last few months getting to know what was left of the Dagworth-Grangers, Constance in particular, who while getting older at this point, was still living.
On the downside, Constance was a perceptive woman and didn't believe for a second that Hermione's desire to return to Hogwarts had anything to do with wanting to properly finish her education. She'd deduced quite quickly that there was someone also returning to Hogwarts who had Hermione's attention in the romantic sense, and while Hermione had begrudgingly admitted to her grandmother that she was right on that count, she hadn't divulged the name. Simply put, there was no point in it, as nothing would ever come of what she felt. There was little to no chance.
Minerva McGonagall would never look at her the way she wanted her to.
Still, it was nice to have one more year to be close to the woman. They took teas together in the Scottish woman's quarters a few evenings a week, and Hermione was learning a great deal about the Witch she held in such high regard. Minerva admitted to having had a Time Turner herself in her Fifth Year at Hogwarts, and told stories about her youth and the friends she'd had, even sharing tales about people with whom Hermione could somewhat relate, such as Minerva's girlhood friend Genia Flitwick, who would go on to become the mother of Filius. She also mentioned in passing that she'd been yearmates with Oliver Wood's father, Roland, and that they'd played Quidditch together, along with Molly Weasley's father, Ignatius Prewett. From the sounds of things, Roland, Ignatius, and Minerva were not so different from Harry, Ron, and herself with as much trouble as they got up to.
Hermione sighed a happy sigh as she uttered the password to Minerva's quarters, looking forward to another evening with the Scottish woman. "Good evening, Hermione," came the familiar greeting. "Make yourself comfortable."
"So what stories are you going to regale me with tonight?" she teased. She almost always got some tale of Minerva's youth when they talked.
The older woman smiled softly. "I suppose I could tell you about Elise and I meeting Professor Dagworth for the first time. That was something of an occasion."
Hermione perked up. She'd heard about Elise Ollivander before. She was the daughter of Garrick Ollivander, the Wandmaker. "You never said you had a Dagworth as a Professor," she said pointedly.
Minerva raised an eyebrow. "Haven't I? In fairness, she was only our Professor for my Seventh Year. Defense. Honestly I'm not certain I'd have survived this long if not for what she taught us that year. Dagworth was only a few years older than us, but she'd been on the front lines during the mess with Grindelwald, from what we were told. To say the least, that earned her instant respect in the classroom, despite her relative youth. The young men did test her, though."
"Why is that?" Hermione frowned.
Mirth sparkled in the older woman's eyes. "She was an attractive woman, my dear. They were hormone ridden boys. Of course, she wasn't interested in any of that, and if any of them dared attempt anything ungentlemanly, well, she was frightfully creative with hexes."
"Sounds like my grandmother," the younger Witch mused, thinking of Constance.
"They were related," Minerva pointed out. "If memory serves, Professor Dagworth said Constance was her elder sister, although Constance was quite a bit older. They might have been mistaken for mother and daughter, honestly."
Hermione shrugged. "So, what's the story? The day you and Elise met her?"
Minerva's eyes gleamed. "Well, we were getting ready to hop in the carriages to head up to the school after getting off the Hogwarts Express, and Walburga Black and Jillian Carrow were being the usual cows they were and giving Elise and me a hard time. Then, out of nowhere, this voice comes up from behind us, and very casually says, Miss Black. Miss Carrow. I'm not sure if you're aware, but you're standing in a large pile of Thestral shite…"
PLEASE REVIEW!
