Part 2
"Good afternoon, Miss Granger," Dumbledore greeted the woman who was now sparkling clean and looking much more relaxed. She was wearing a different set of clothes that we're not torn or unclean in any way and Dumbledore wondered if she had simply transfigured something. The clothing was certainly unusual for this time, especially for the wizarding world, but Dumbledore assumed that this was normal for her time.
The Prewett twins couldn't help but look at Hermione admiringly, even though the girl in question didn't seem to notice.
"Good afternoon, sir," Hermione said politely. "Shall we get started?"
"Perhaps we should eat first," Fabian suggested. "You're way too thin and you haven't eaten since you woke up."
"Let's not waste the headmaster's valuable time I can eat afterwards," Hermione said firmly.
Dumbledore took that in the way it was meant and that was this young lady from the future was willing to work with him, but wanted to spend as little time with him as she could manage and he couldn't really blame her considering what he had learned.
He had apparently made many mistakes not to far in the future and apparently continued to make those mistakes, even as they got bigger and bigger every time. He had apparently ignored every sign of a child needing help, simply because he was part of a much bigger picture. He had likely brushed aside that child's concerns as he apparently hadn't listened when Hermione's friend had tried to tell him about the abuse. It was, of course, possible that it had been Madam Pomfrey, the school Healer who had tried to warn him.
If that was what had occurred then he had likely brushed aside Poppy's concerns and told her half truths in order to get her to not report said abuse, something he knew he was capable of if he felt it was the best course of action. He had no doubt that his friend Minerva had torn him a new one if she had learned of his actions and what had occurred because of them, as she was very protective of her cubs and he had no doubt that Harry Potter had been a Gryffindor like his parents.
She also apparently knew that he used Legilimency on a regular basis and that was another reason she didn't trust him, mostly because she already knew that he was willing to use it against people for no particular reason. He did like to have as much information as possible and he knew it was wrong to use Legilimency on people unless he suspected them of some kind of crime and even then, it was on the borderline of being illegal. Even a passive scan was not exactly legal except in certain situations.
It was a bad habit to get into, using such a talent all the time and he now realized he had fallen into that trap. It was just so much easier most the time to read somebody's thoughts the ones that weren't protected by Occlumency, which included at least 98% of the magical population. Legilimency was a very rare talent, but then so was Occlumency, as both took patience and dedication to learn and most of the wizarding population simply didn't have either one and short attention spans as well.
He would just have to prove that he wasn't the same man that he was 20 years from now and hopefully, he could get this Hermione Granger's trust. He had a feeling that Miss Granger didn't trust very easily and that that trust had to be truly earned, but considering what little he knew about her at the moment he couldn't blame the young woman for that.
"Very well, I have brought my Pensieve," Dumbledore said calmly not revealing his own turbulent thoughts. Dumbledore unshrunk the silver bowl that was etched with runes and put it on the kitchen table
"Do you know how to remove your thoughts, Miss Granger, so they can be viewed in the Pensieve?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, sir," Hermione answered ever so politely. Hermione proceeded to remove quite a few memories from her mind and dropped each one into the bowl.
"I think it is better if we watched them above instead of actually entering the Pensieve itself," Dumbledore said.
"Whichever way is fine with me, sir," Hermione said.
Dumbledore proceeded to push some runes on the side of the bowl and the memories preceded to play one by one.
All four of them watched as a much younger Hermione entered Hogwarts for the first time making friends with Harry and Ron, all their adventures and where the staff dismissed whatever the danger was that year, just because it came from kids, kids who tended to know more about what was going on in the school then the adults. They watched, as the three children passed all the traps that led to the Sorcerer's Stone and how Harry went on alone through the final doorway. Hermione showed every memory she thought was relevant and it took several hours to view them all.
"I also have Harry's memories as he had me extract them one by one and put into crystal vials," Hermione said once everything was shown. "He gave them to me and I put them into my beaded bag."
"How?" Dumbledore asked, as he saw how small the bag was.
"Undetectable Expansion Charm," Hermione answered simply, as she reached into the bag, much deeper than she should've been able to go.
"It's her own invention," Fabian told Dumbledore. "She said she needed a way to carry a lot of things as she knew she would likely have to carry numerous items when she and her friends left to go on the run."
"Backpacks would've been too heavy and wouldn't of carry as much, even with Feather-light Charms," Hermione explained simply. "I have everything from camping supplies, to books, to clothes in here. Since I knew in advance that Harry, Ron and I would likely have to camp a lot I came up with this idea. It used to have food too, but we ran out of that quite a long time ago."
She didn't mention how Ron kept complaining that he was hungry all the time so she had fixed more than was advisable.
"Your friend looks like one of my nephews?" Gideon said, asking for confirmation.
"He is," Hermione confirmed. "He won't be born for months. Your sister will be pregnant with him soon."
"So anymore after, Ron?" Fabian asked curiously.
"One more and this time, its the girl, that both your sister and her husband wanted. I won't tell you anymore than that not even her name. You'll just have to wait and see."
Both twins looked disappointed, but they also understood that Hermione was trying not to tell them any more than necessary about the future as it might change things that shouldn't be.
"So seven kids," Dumbledore said amused.
"Yes, you'll have a lot of trouble from the twins in particular," Hermione said with mischievous sparkling eyes. "Lucky for you, they won't be coming to Hogwarts for quite a few years yet, so you have time to prepare."
"I'll take your advice under advisement," Dumbledore said his eyes twinkling as well.
Hermione simply rolled eyes and didn't respond.
"If you want to continue we can watch them now or whenever you're free as it's not like I have much to do right now. For one thing I never even finished my N.E.W.T.s because I was on the run. Voldemort took over the school my last year and they weren't allowing people with my blood to attend anyway and in fact, from what I understand those that didn't know what was happening got on the train like normal, but were removed. Those Muggle-borns were never seen again, though they were likely shipped to camps where they were being placed, much like the Nazi concentration camps of decades ago. The only difference really is that the German Nazis hated Jews instead of Muggle-borns, but as you can see the idea is basically the same. In fact, Muggle-borns were thrown into Azkaban without a trial because as I said they took over the government. Dolores Umbridge took great delight in doing so, as she's a blood purist and hates anybody who isn't a pureblood. They actually had a Muggle-born registration committee. I heard that many people died while in Azkaban before Voldemort was killed and they could be released."
"We will prevent that from happening," Dumbledore said firmly and Hermione looked at him in surprise.
"I can't change what happened in your future as technically, the timeline you came from doesn't exist anymore," Dumbledore explained Hermione's questioning gaze. "I don't know how I became so...uncaring and manipulative. Perhaps it was just old age and stress, so that I just didn't have time to take in the little details, but even if that's true it doesn't absolve me from the part I played in your timeline. I'll try to do better, I promise."
"Alright then," Hermione said. "For now, I'll trust you, but that doesn't mean that I won't be watching you, very closely. I certainly want a better future, not just for myself, but for everyone, then what mine turned into. I already knew that I would likely be stuck here as I've read about time travel including every theory that somebody has come up with. So long as Harry grows up happy and I can save as many people as I can I'll be satisfied. I'll find a way to take my N.E.W.T.s."
"I can help you with that as well as establishing an identity in this timeline," Dumbledore offered.
"Thank you," Hermione said gratefully.
"So what house will you in and what were your grades for your O.W.L.s?"
"Let's see I took Defense, Charms, Transfiguration, History, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions. I got an O in all of them."
"That's quite impressive," Gideon said truly impressed. "That's nine O.W.L.s and that they were all Outstanding is astounding."
"Thank you, I would've taken Muggle Studies or at least the exam, but it's dreadfully out of date as I did take it for a few weeks."
"Out of date miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked.
"Dreadfully so," Hermione confirmed. "Both History and Muggle Studies are utterly useless, but I needed the history for the career I wanted to go into. It doesn't have any modern examples from the last century. It doesn't mention space travel, televisions, computers, telephones, satellites or worldwide communications. It barely mentions automobiles or planes, which are far more advanced in the 20th Century then they are back when they were first invented. Now, I know, that some of the things I mentioned don't exist as of yet but they will. The course really needs to be updated if it's to be relevant to modern society. Magicals are starting to stand out more and more in my time because they don't know how to act, they don't know how to dress and that's only a couple of the problems. Of course, that's mostly the purebloods not the Muggle-borns or the half bloods unless those half bloods grew up entirely within the wizarding world. The Muggle world has advanced much more then the magical one in the time I came from. Witches and wizards are so stuck in the past that it's practically still the Victorian era instead of advancing like they should. If things don't change soon Muggles were going to find out about us due to sheer stubbornness and stupidity of a lot magicals who have supposedly refused to lower themselves to learn the basics at the very least."
"You have given me much to think about Miss Granger, Dumbledore said.
"I'm glad and I hope I'll see some changes being made," Hermione answered simply. "Of course, if you need advice you know where I'll be, but I say let us stop a war before we go about modernizing the wizarding world.
"Yes, let's concentrate on one set of problems at a time," Dumbledore agreed already seeing how brilliant this Hermione Granger was. "You are extremely intelligent Miss Granger something I don't see very often."
"I was considered the smartest witch of my age in my time," Hermione said modestly. "It's not that others aren't just as intelligent they just don't know how to think logically. They're not taught or encouraged to think for themselves so they mostly follow the party line. In other words, the strongest leader. Following someone who's on the right side would be fine, but it leaves you open for those who are to corrupt to take advantage of you. That's the way those in power want it, as they don't want change coming to the wizarding world, so they keep the status quo. More and more Muggle-borns are leaving the country in my time because they can't find jobs or mates because they don't have the proper bloodlines. The purebloods really have a tight grip on the country and refuse to give those they consider inferior to themselves any advantage. If one of them joined the ministry for example their advancements won't be as fast no matter how well deserved and that's only if they're allowed to advance at all. Often people who are unqualified for the jobs available are hired, just because they're purebloods, so it's no wonder that the ministry of my time is so messed up. Nepotism is often the name of the game."
"It's not quite as bad now, but yes, I know of the corruption you speak of and it apparently gets much worse 20 years or so from now," Dumbledore said.
"That's because you refuse to let your Order of the Phoenix kill all those who were Death Eaters no matter how many crimes they commit. Rapist and murderers are not going to turn back into upstanding citizens headmaster, not the ones that truly enjoy having that type of power. That's one of the reasons I dislike you so much. You seem to have this idea that you can reform the bad guys while you leave the good guys to try to fight with tools not adequate for the job. People have to want to change and these people are fanatics. They're not going to change just because you want them to no matter how hard you try. A lot of rapists have a compulsion to do it again and again and you're not going to change them into decent citizens. Voldemort, better known as Tom Riddle, is a psychopath and he is not going to suddenly change his ways and turn into the boy you knew as a student. The same principle applies to all his Death Eaters, except those that were forced to join or thought they had no other choice. I know you don't like to hear that you're going to get people killed unnecessarily as the bad guys buy their friends who are less flush out of trouble."
"Murder is wrong," Dumbledore protested and Hermione gave him a look of total disgust.
"For the most part I agree with you," Hermione said and Dumbledore looked startled that the young woman in front of him agreed with him, "but this is a time of war and you can't go just knocking out your opponents and put them in prison because there will be a prison break unless we prevent it. Even if we do a lot of Death Eaters buy their way out by claiming the Imperius Curse including Lucius Malfoy who then uses his gold to great effect to get even more bigoted laws passed among other things."
Hermione suspected that Lucius Malfoy had bribed the Minister of Magic to not give a trial to Harry's godfather, but she didn't know that for sure so she said nothing.
"She's right Dumbledore and you know it," Fabian finally spoke up. "Trying just to knock your opponent out while at war is a bad habit to get into. Dead men cannot come back and get you from behind nor can they be broken out of prison. In war things are different and if you manage to convince the Wizengamot to only allow Magical Law Enforcement to stun their opponents instead of killing them when they're trying to kill you then I'll quit first and I'll make sure most of the other Aurors follow me. I refuse to put my life on the line when we are not allowed to use lethal force. These Death Eaters aren't shoplifters headmaster they're deadly opponents that will kill you if they can."
"That's exactly what happens actually," Hermione said. "The Death Eaters kill so many Aurors that there isn't an adequate force to fight him, even when he returns over a decade later. Cornelius Fudge becomes Minister of Magic soon after the war and is so corrupt that he refuses to let Amelia Bones add more Aurors and says that Voldemort is dead. Because of his hiring freezes the ministry's forces are inadequate to fight Voldemort when he returns and they expect Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived to do it for them with hardly any help at all. Because of your policy that most everybody follows there are many more death then there needed to be, not that you seem to care about that in my time. You always say it's for the greater good when it really isn't. I think you become so corrupted by all the power you hold that it goes to your head."
Dumbledore looked like he was about to protest an almost instinctive reaction, but suddenly he hung his head, because he knew very well that Ms. Granger as well as Fabian were right. He didn't like it and he knew that none of the others did either, but you couldn't just knock out your opponent, as it was way too dangerous. Apparently, he had never seen this in Ms. Granger's original timeline, as there had been no one to talk sense into him and if anybody had tried he hadn't listened. Now that he had seen what the future would be like unless certain things were changed made his opinions change. This was war and sometimes killing was necessary just to survive.
"I'm well aware I will be knocking out pureblood families, but it was their decision to join this maniac. A lot of pureblood families on our side were totally decimated doing the war including the McKinnons, the Meadowes and the Fenwicks. Totally wiped out. There were, more, but you get the point. Others were hanging by a thread with only one heir to the Potters, the Blacks, the Bones. If we don't kill off as many of the dark pureblood families as we can or at least imprison them they will keep blocking progress, progress that needs to happen if we are to survive as a society. I'd rather that happen when I'm fighting for my life rather then do so casually, because they are in the way of society advancing. In wartime atrocities such as murder can and are forgiven by governments, as it's considered patriotic at least in the Muggle world. It's considered defense of the country from people who are trying their best to take it over and suppress the peoples freedom's. This is the attitude we must adopt if we are to put these people exactly where they belong. By the way, when you register me with the ministry you can call me Mia Granger instead of Hermione."
"Why Mia?" Gideon asked immediately.
"It's what Harry used to call me," Hermione explained simply. "Ron often called me Mione, which only annoyed me and the twins called me Herms when they wanted to be hexed. I'll simply be Mia Jean Granger, as Granger is a pretty common name in the Muggle world, so it won't be at all suspicious. By the way, I was a Gryffindor just so you know."
"I'll see that you are properly registered," Dumbledore promised.
"Thank you," Hermione said politely.
It was then decided that they would view the future Harry's memories in a few days to give them time to absorb what they had learned so far and also to come to terms with all the violence they had witnessed.
Dumbledore left soon after taking his Pensieve with him and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief once he was gone.
The twins watched saying nothing as their guest wandered into the kitchen and begin fixing herself an early lunch.
Fabian looked at his brother raising an eyebrow and Gideon instantly understood what his twin was saying, even though he hadn't spoken a word.
"Can I fix you gentlemen anything?" Hermione asked suddenly startling the twins.
"Sure," Gideon said.
"We'll just have what you're having," Fabian added.
"Whatever you don't eat we can always preserve for later," Hermione said. "However, I've never known a Weasley that didn't have a bottomless pit for a stomach, except perhaps the girl that will be born in a couple years."
"Hey! We're Prewetts not Weasleys," Gideon protested with laughter in his eyes.
"True, but I thought that Ron at least might've gotten his appetite from your side of the family," Hermione said. "He could practically eat his weight in food or at least it seemed that way. He always seemed to be hungry. Now, I know part of that was just being a teenager, but I suspect that he always would have been a bottomless pit."
"Can we help?" Fabian asked.
"Sure, you can chop the tomatoes and onions for the salad," Hermione said.
The three of them worked in companionable silence for awhile and it wasn't long before Hermione was putting a well balanced meal on the table.
The three of them ate chatting cordially as they did so and Hermione thought that this was the most relaxed and happy feet at been in what seemed like 10 years. She knew that she didn't have to worry about the Death Eaters coming after her because they had no idea she existed at the moment. Of course, they would soon learn that she was a formidable opponent, but for now she could just relax and enjoy her meal in peace. A luxury that she had no intention of taking for granted.
~~~Gideon, Hermione, Fabian~~~
"Now that we have had a chance to recover from the other day I believe that you know where we need to go from here, Miss Granger," Dumbledore suggested.
Hermione, Fabian and Gideon were standing in the headmaster's office which was much better protected then the twins apartment.
"First do not trust Peter Pettigrew," Hermione began. "He is a spy and James and Lily will ask him to be their Secret-Keeper. He then betrays them and they are murdered by Voldemort just a few days after they go under the Fidelius Charm for their safety. Harry survives, but then as you know you made the lateral decision to place him with Lily's sister and her husband, because you believed that he would be protected."
"This was a very poor decision on my part apparently," Dumbledore sighed looking rather sad.
"You have a chance to correct that now," Hermione reminded the headmaster. "The Dursleys are not suitable guardians for a magical child or for any child really, not even their own son. Their son Dudley will be so obsess that he'll be in danger of serious health problems. A person can only have so much weight on their frames before they're in danger of strokes, or heart attacks or diabetes. Of course, that's Muggles, as I have no idea if magicals can get any such diseases. Secondly stop Sirius from going after Peter if he happens to escape, even if you have to stun him, as that's what happened last time you know. Hagrid refused to hand over Harry to his godfather on your orders and instead Sirius went chasing after Pettigrew. The Aurors didn't even bother to question him because he was just laughing in the middle of the street, but that's because Pettigrew had managed a fool him turn into his rat form and escape down a sewer pipe. They simply stunned him and when he woke up he was and Azkaban, no questioning, no trial. Pettigrew cut off his finger in the process on purpose so that that authorities would believe that Sirius had blown him up so that there was no body."
"I believe that James and Remus will stop him from doing anything so foolish because James and Lily won't die this time," Gideon said.
Hermione considered that and nodded. "You're right, I won't allow the Potters to leave their son an orphan this time and they can help control Sirius, as I know he has a wicked temper. He'll take Peter's betrayal personally, which will cause him to be rash. If you check Peter's inner left forearm you'll find the Dark Mark, though I don't actually know if he's taken it yet, so I would wait until we are absolutely sure he has," Hermione added to the headmaster who nodded solemnly. "I think he took it when he was in school, but I'm not positive."
"If I may ask why did Sirius refuse to be their Secret-Keeper? Dumbledore asked. "I am sure that James and Lily would have asked him first."
"He thought he was too obvious, as it was well-known that he and James were close as brothers. He agreed to play decoy while the real Secret-Keeper remained protected," Hermione explained. "One of the faults with that plan is it was believed that Remus was the spy and so they chose Peter thinking that no one would ever suspect him. Also another problem with the plan was the fact that they didn't tell anyone that they had switched Secret-Keepers at the last moment, which I believe is one of the reasons the future you thought Sirius was guilty headmaster. I suspect one of the other reasons is because he's a Black and most Blacks have been dark bar very few. Also, you knew how close Sirius was to James and couldn't even conceive of the fact that he might not have been the Secret-Keeper. While I can't blame you for making that type of assumption, I can blame you for not affording Sirius a trial despite the evidence stacked against him in my timeline.
Assumptions are dangerous headmaster as they are not based on logical facts, but then I noticed that most magicals lack logic and don't know how to think for themselves. They make assumptions that often turn out to be wrong with no evidence whatsoever to support their conclusions."
Dumbledore didn't like hearing that, but he also knew that Hermione spoke the truth as most wizards seriously lacked any logical thought processes, something Miss Granger appeared to have figured out for herself.
"Second and this is very important, is you need to get magical oaths from members of the Order of the Phoenix so that they will not talk about the Order's business outside of meetings. This is something you didn't do before, which you should have, as it would have stopped anybody from betraying the cause. Even if they had decided to leave the group they never would have been able to talk about anything dealing with the Order to outsiders. I know you have a thing about trusting people, but this will also protect the members of the Order as well, because they cannot reveal anything, even under torture. Also, using Veritaserum to make sure that those joining the Order are doing so for the right reasons and are not spies would be prudent. Yes, I know very well it's illegal, but this is war and this will help protect people later on. Once you have been assured of people loyalty I will tell them about the future I come from."
"And the Horcruxes you mentioned?" Dumbledore asked.
"There should be four so far I believe. He makes a couple more later, but if he is taken out permanently they will never be created. They are Slytherin's Locket, Rowena's Diadem, an old diary that belonged to him as a teenager and Hufflepuff's Cup. He never did manage to find anything of Gryffindor's."
"How in the world did Tom ever discover three artifacts that have been lost for centuries," Dumbledore his expression rather perturbed. He knew that each precious artifact should belong to the school would need to be destroyed.
"I've never heard of any of these items that Mia is talking about," Gideon who had been listening commented.
"They are artifacts of the founders of Hogwarts. They are absolutely priceless, but unfortunately, we'll now need to be destroyed by Fiendfyre."
"Fiendfyre is considered Dark Magic and is very hard to control," Fabian protested.
"There's also basilisk venom and I know just where to get some," Hermione mentioned. "I'm sure we can hire someone to render the carcass down once we kill the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets."
They had all viewed the alternate Harry's memories last week so they knew all about the basilisk that was in the chamber.
"But you need Parseltongue to get in," Gideon mentioned.
"And none of us are Parselmouths," Fabian said.
"Still, the basilisk needs to be taken care of before somebody comes along and opens the chamber."
"That's a good idea if we can see you out a way to get in," Dumbledore said. "Maybe it's possible to replace the password that's in Parseltongue."
"I'll think about it," Hermione said. "Still, we've got to figure out a way to get into the chamber where the Basilisk sleeps as it's a danger to the students and there is no one that knows the language at least not that I'm aware of in the British Isles."
"Maybe we can trick that diary you mentioned into opening the chamber for us," Gideon suddenly suggested. "You said that all these artifacts contain pieces of Voldemort soul."
"Or trick it into at least revealing whether of not there is another entrance."
"We may just have to blast our way past ancient enchantments in order to get access," said Hermione, "but still that is so crude and would destroy part of this ancient castle so I really don't want to have to do that."
"We should be able to repair most of the damage so it is barely noticeable if we have to," Dumbledore said and Hermione nodded slowly.
"I'll try to think of something with a little more fineness before we take the crude approach," Hermione said.
"So where are the other artifacts located?" Fabian asked.
"The locket should be in a cave that is protected by Inferi. The cave should be close to where those in charge of the orphanage where Tom Riddle resided took them on vacation."
"I thought you found it at Grimmauld Place?" Dumbledore asked.
"That was years later and we have a chance to save the life of Sirius's brother Regulus. He died this year, although I'm not precisely sure what month. He is beginning to doubt his allegiance to the Dark Lord and really his parents forced him to take the Mark, particularly his mother and unlike Sirius, he just wasn't strong enough to go against what his parents wanted. That is one life I can immediately save. In my time, Regulus stole the locket and replaced it with a fake. It will be contained in a potion that has to be drunk in order to get to the locket and that made you want to die and weakened you considerably. You never really had time to recover from consuming the potion. I remember Harry telling me that you demanded water after you finished drinking the potion, but that every time he tried to do the Aguamenti Charm on the cup the water disappeared as soon as it landed in the bottom as there was apparently an enchantment in place to prevent the water from staying."
"That's sounds like Tom," Dumbledore said.
"Still, I believe if we think about this there is a way around it," Hermione said. "I know that the basin the potion is in is protected by magic but Riddle disdained Muggle ways so thoroughly I doubt he thought of a way to prevent it being used. Most wizards would never consider using Muggle ways of prevention, which I think is one of Tom's weaknesses."
"What could Muggle means possibly do against magic?" Gideon just had to ask.
"Well, for one thing, Muggles bottle water in plastic bottles, among other things and I don't see why I can't buy a few bottles in the Muggle world and put them into my beaded bag in case of an emergency. That is at least one way we can prevent touching the lake in order to fill the cup used for the potion up which awakens the Inferi that are in the lake. Water bottling companies make millions and millions of pounds or Galleons if you prefer every year. It's quite the lucrative business."
"I never would've thought of that," Dumbledore admitted impressed. He never would've thought of a Muggle solution to a magical problem, which he knew was a fault of many of the Wizarding populace. He knew that Hermione was right when she had pointed out that a lot of wizards and witches tended to stick out in the nonmagical world, because they didn't know how to act or dress and it was going to become a major problem in a few years he knew.
"I might be able to think of something to get past that potion without someone having to drink it," Hermione said. "I know you can't take the locket without drinking the potion or at least that's what Harry said. We don't need to take too long though or Regulus will find out on accident that Voldemort made Horcruxes in order to prevent himself from dying. I believe that he was already having doubts, but you don't leave the Death Eaters and expect to live."
Hermione paused and look at the Prewett twins.
"What no comments about how an 18 year old boy deserves to die because he was a slimy Slytherin?"
"Why would you think that we would say something like that?" Fabian asked.
"Because your nephew would have in my time and I know that plenty of people shared his opinion of Slytherins in particular. Not even reminding him of the fact that Death Eaters do come from other houses where most didn't believe in joining the Death Eaters made him change it. Harry and I were a little bit more relaxed about it, although we did avoid Malfoy and his cronies.
"I got quite close to Daphne Greengrass and Tracy Davis in my time as we shared a couple of classes and we would study together in the library. I didn't dare mention them around Ron though, as he would've ranted for the next half an hour about how all Slytherins are evil and that they'd drag me into the Dark Arts. He could be very offensive when his temper got away from him and I just tried my best to keep the peace. I'm afraid that your nephew is one that loses his temper easily and takes offense at a lot of things. He's lazy, uncooperative, unmotivated and expects everybody to do his schoolwork for him. His grades were abysmal, because he refused to study and the only thing he was really good at was chess and Quidditch, both of which came naturally to him. He won't have me to help him this time around, so you or Molly need to find a way to motivate him."
"I don't think either Arthur or Molly would teach him to hate someone just because they were Slytherins," Gideon said.
"I don't think his prejudice came from his parents as I knew them quite well and they were two of the most accepting people I've ever known. I'm not sure where he got his opinions from, maybe just overheard conversations when he was young. The young are very impressionable.
"Draco Malfoy and his gang of thugs didn't help because they liked to harass Harry and me in particular, though Malfoy never passed up an opportunity to tease Ron about the lack of his family's money, for wearing secondhand robes or because of the fact that he was poor at magic and usually lost his temper when I tried to help him.
"Of course, the fact he was using a second hand wand didn't help. Ron always reacted to the Slytherins taunting and lost his temper every time as he never could control himself when it came to his pride. Because of Ron's temper he got me and Harry into a lot of trouble.
"That's another thing headmaster you need to crack down harshly on, bullying. Malfoy among others felt they could get away with anything and all because their families had money. Malfoy used his father's name as if it would get him out of trouble every time and the sad thing is that it worked most of the time.
"You need to suspend or expel people when they go to far something the older you never did no matter how severe that bullying was. Detention isn't going to change these peoples mind as they look upon it as a badge of honor. A lot of these people are not going to change their opinions, opinions that have been drilled to them since they were small children. It got so bad at one point that Draco and his cohorts could probably have gotten away with murder and you always said that you couldn't prove they were at fault so nothing ever happened beyond a few detentions."
Dumbledore looked rather upset at what he was hearing, but from what he had seen from Hermione's own memories he could understand where she was coming from.
"I'll get the teachers to stamp down on bullying," Dumbledore said.
"That's a start," Hermione agreed. "However you need to do more. Those in the same house tend to take up for each other and so Slytherins in particular always come off the worst, even when it's a Gryffindor that did the attacking first. This happened a lot in Harry's father's time and you never did any real investigating at least from what I understand from an older Sirius and Remus. In fact, they painted a rather grim picture of certain students allowed to get away with atrocities that don't bare mentioning, simply because they came from a certain house. Because of your laxness James Potter and Sirius Black got away with hexing Severus Snape in particular on a daily basis and sometimes several times on the same day.
"Nothing was ever done to truly punish James or Sirius for being bullies. Because of their actions Severus Snape hated Harry when he came to school with a passion just because he was a Potter and because he looked like his father. He made my friend's life absolute hell every time he entered the Potions Classroom and sometimes even outside it.
"He took great pleasure in torturing the son of a man who been dead for over a decade and you never once reeled him in and told him to be professional. He took his hatred against a man that had passed on, out on a child to levels of hatred that never should have been permitted in a professor. He certainly didn't treat the others Gryffindors any better, even if he didn't have any personal hatred towards them. I mean he took points for stupid things like blinking too loudly. Let me tell you headmaster, if something like that happened in the Muggle world that teacher would be given just three warnings before they would be dismissed and yet you did nothing making Snape believe that he could do what he wanted. Teachers are highly vetted in the Muggle world to make sure they are suitable to teach children, but that doesn't seem to be true here in the magical one.
"I don't particularly care if he's the only Potions Master in the British Isles. He needs to act professionally or he needs to be tossed out on his ear. Just because he's good at potions doesn't mean that he's able to transfer those skills to students."
"So I hire Snape then or at least I do sometime in your timeline," Dumbledore said if only to end the rather awkward silence and how my need not.
"I think it happened sometime after the prophecy is spoken," Hermione said thoughtfully. "The prophecy is spoken sometime in 1980, just a few short months before July 31st, which is when my friend is born."
"So he's born in 1980 then," Dumbledore said.
"Yes, and Lily will get pregnant sometime in November this year if my calculations are correct, probably towards the end of the month, since Harry's birthday isn't until the 31st. Alice gets pregnant around the same time and her son's birthday will be only a day before Harry's. I won't allow Alice and Frank to end up in St. Mungo's this time, just like I won't allow Harry to grow up without his parents. Before you ask, Alice and Frank Longbottom were driven insane by overuse of the Cruciatus Curse by some of the most fanatic Death Eaters there were in my time.
"They kept asking questions about Voldemort's whereabouts, unable to believe that their master was dead. This happened after the death of the Potters and Voldemort's disappearance. They had been told it was safe to come out from under the Fidelius Charm, the Secret-Keeper being Frank's mother Augusta Longbottom. Their son was raised by his grandmother."
"That's something else we need to prevent," Fabian said firmly and everybody nodded in agreement.
"We will," Hermione swore.
The discussion continued for sometime before the twins and Hermione finally took their leave. Things were happening very rapidly, but that's the way Hermione preferred it as she knew that the prophecy was due to be uttered sometime before Harry was born in 1980, so she wanted to do as much as possible to prevent that from happening. She didn't want her friend to face what they had in her original timeline or anybody else for that matter and she was determined to prevent it.
~~~Gideon, Hermione, Fabian~~~