Sea of Constellations
Rose_Quartz_Cloud
5. Ambition
The snow melted and spring blossomed, before she knew it Easter was upon them and her first year at Hogwarts was about to come to an end…
Hermione remembered stressing out the first time as the boys hadn't submitted a lot of the outstanding assignments and they also procrastinated on their study for the exams which were now less than two months away and she couldn't hold the boat for them… miraculously they got it together last minute and passed with okay grades but now she wondered how they planned on coping this time around?
To her utter surprise and mild disappointment, they flocked to her last minute begging for help, claiming as their bestest Ravenclaw friend she would want to help them…
She wanted to deny them as it was very last minute but her fellow mates Mandy and Su convinced her that the Gryffindor's could use their wisdom….
Hermione granted Harry and Ron two hours of her time in the library and beyond what she planned on tutoring, they would have to figure the rest out themselves as they had left it so late in the term. Hermione was clever… not a miracle worker.
Harry had decided to work on his friendship with Ron with Hermione's help in learning new social skills and how to navigate when disagreements happened or to better sense how others could feel around his own achievements, like being allowed on the house quidditch team in their first year which others were not allowed.
Ron came around and forgave Harry but wanted to be included in how practices were going and be like his number one support in that regard as he basically lived in Quidditch and could help him improve.
Hermione thought the whole thing was silly but it was basically wizard sports and well she just let the boys do what they wanted.
Ron, tried to tell Harry that Hermione was a bad influence and he couldn't understand how they were best friends with a Ravenclaw when she wasn't even in the same house but Harry had asked him what he liked about her and if he could stop criticizing her for one moment and look towards the good?
Ron resigned his bad attitude and agreed to start over and would stop judging her on her other friends for the moment…
It was a step in the right direction and Hermione decided to be civil for now… but she wondered what kept them being friends in the first bit besides both wanting to be Harry's friend….
Hermione told them what exams they were going to be taking, and went over which ones they thought they had a handle on and what exactly they needed help with.
Ron was blunt and said everything… as he was super behind and hadn't been listening in half of the lessons already…
Hermione thought back to 'her Ron…' and knew that he wasn't this dumb… he had at least half of their first year exams figured out but only wanted a detailed review booklet to help simplify things to memory, same with Harry, she helped them but they had some handle on the exams prep themselves…
She shifted her gaze to Harry and silently pleaded that he wasn't as… helpless as Ron…
The Harry of this alternate reality shook his head and explained that he just wanted to compare some notes in the harder subjects but he thought he was prepared for them already.
Hermione mentally sighed with relief… it seemed like Ron was more different compared to Harry this time and she then wondered if that would make things worse? Was he still a chess prodigy?
For their study block with her, she lent her notes to Harry to read over to give him a chance to ask what he needed to fill in the gaps of his study guide and Ron… she almost couldn't help in the time that was left. She tried to come up with summaries of things they needed to remember or know for the exams but she encouraged him to so some work on his own if he wanted to pass them this year, a lot of work was on him to do know since he had wasted so much time of the lessons not taking it more seriously.
The boys thanked her at the end of the session and headed down to the great hall for lunch as it was a weekend and they had the rest of the day to do their own studies…
Hermione wanted to join them as this was the first time since the new year where they were friends again. She decided to do a half lunch and continue her own research into basilisk's… if she survived this year and hopefully thorted Voldemort's return to power… then next year was the year that the Chambers of Secrets reopened and the muggle borns were in trouble… she had found out about the terrible beast much too late, originally as she ended up being petrified on the way back to finding Harry and Ron from the library…
Luckily they discovered the page she clutched into her one hand and managed to figure out the rest and saved the petrified, her included.
Tom Riddle's diary had found its way into Ginny Weasley's position and that's' where all that started… Malfoy Sr. most likely the culprit…
The thing was that Hermione considered. She wanted to stop it getting to Hogwarts and keeping the chambers sealed and would save them for at least one year… but on the other hand… if she stopped that from getting into Dumbledore's hands at the end of the year… she wasn't sure if he would come to the conclusion of Voldemort's possessed dark artifacts known as horcruxes.
It was possible that he had already considered it and the diary was of no consequence but Hermione had no way of testing that theory…
Unfortunately unless she could prove it wasn't important, Hermione would need to let that particular narrative occur and she would have to see if she could intervene earlier and prevent more of them from becoming victims…
Ever since Hermione Granger had tipped him off about Harry Potter trying to get around the forbidden corridor and seemed like she knew what they were hiding… Severus grew very wary of her and consulted Dumbledore and Granger's head of house, Flitwick.
"She came to me out of concern for her friend, like she knew that he would attempt to go back there again… without her so she told a teacher…." Snape summarized.
"Why do you think she went to you instead of Filius?" Dumbledore asked the obvious…
"Or Minerva, as she is Harry Potter's head of house" chimed in Flitwick.
"I do not know" Snape answered sourly.
"Well thank you for bringing this to my attention, Severus but I will take it from here" Dumbledore dismissed the potion's master before continuing the conversation with Flitwick, alone.
"..hmm I bet you already know what I was beginning to think, don't you?" Dumbledore chuckled at the other man.
"If you were thinking about time travel then yes, headmaster" he answered.
"Though based on what she seems to know…. There will be no current record of her ever being given a time tuner? Curious if this is also a bit beyond what we think is possible too?" he theorized out loud.
"Parallel universe theory? Oh that's never been fully proven, probably because the wizards that attempted it in the 70's were lost and were never able to return to ours…." Flitwick gasped in surprise.
"I can only imagine that something terrible occurred for her to risk it…I think we should observe a little bit longer." he decided before leading the other professor down for the daily lunch time.
Pansy and Daphne were having lunch with Draco and Theo but the duo were duly distracted by the Ravenclaws who were setting up for their weekly exploding snap tournament that anyone could join but they hosted the lunch hour once a week.
Everyone turned once it was announced that Hermione Granger decided to try it out, and she never participated in extra activities outside of classes.
She went against a seasoned Hufflepuff who was several years older and she won two out of three rounds before he conceded defeat.
Hermione then went up against an older Gryffindor who was sure they would win. By this time the girls had abandoned their housemates and gone to support her with their other house friends who were backing Hermione too.
Theo glanced at Draco who was very focused on her and interested to see if she would win.
Theo rolled his eyes before knocking his friend in the arm.
"Obvious staring isn't going to grab her attention, Draco and it makes you look foolish" Theo drawled lightly.
"Shut it Nott, I am watching her opponents strategy not Granger's" he bit back
Theo had noticed that bit but he let it go, Malfoy was not going to admit that he admired the muggle born Ravenclaw, maybe he didn't even realize it yet?
He was a backseat observer and looked across the hall to the Hufflepuff table to see Justin Finch-Fletchley also staring at Hermione.
Theo wondered if Hermione had an inkling as to how much attention she gained by one being Harry Potter's best friend but also by befriending someone from every house, that too made her well known and popular… well they see how this would play out in years to come…
Harry was reading the latest in the newspaper when Hermione came down and surprised them all by joining one of the lunch time tourneys.
Ron elbowed him, gesturing that they move closer but Harry shook his head. Hermione had their support but this was one of those things she needed to do on her own and not have him overshadow her.
Whether he meant to or not, if he moved over there, more people would think that she was doing it for him and he knew that she wasn't.
Neville overheard their conversation and just quietly told them he would go over in a show of support on behalf of both of them and that was that.
Hermione wasn't sure what led her into playing in a silly tournament when she needed to eat but perhaps it was that she needed a break from stressing out and the never ending impending doom…
Since arriving here, she hadn't been sleeping well and would wake before dawn and take an early morning stroll around the black lake to clear her mind and remember that her nightmares hadn't happened yet and she would succeed in making a better future for herself and those that she loved…
She needed solitude, a portion of the day where she didn't need to pretend that wasn't actually 11 but a 17 year old stuck in her younger body.
It was beginning to drain on her mentally in taking time to consider what to say when she talked to people, how she responded in lessons and not show how much more she knew to everyone else that really was 11.
Naturally she slipped up a few times and wondered if anyone noticed?
After she had acquainted herself with Nott he seemed to notice her early morning strolls and would invite himself some mornings.
The notion had irked her as she wanted no one to know about her morning but he didn't want to talk that early he too was haunted by thing she'd rather forget and only asked for her silent company every once in a while which Hermione relented in getting him to not ambush her sometimes, it was just what he did.
"Don't you worry if someone thinks this is the beginning of something more , between us?" Hermione asked one morning.
"No, because there isn't anything. I just want your friendship and nothing more, Granger… trust me… you don't want anything to do with my dark family… and I wouldn't want to drag someone as sweet as you down into its misery." he replied, going quiet again.
Hermione knew that his family followed Voldemort and his father was one of his closely bonded death eater's like the Malfoys' but when Hermione thought about the final battle at Hogwarts, she couldn't recall if she had seen him fighting them or what had happened to him… Theodore… might have had it hard in his childhood and maybe wasn't one for the dark side… she may never truly know but she settled for being one of his silent companions, Time would tell her more.
If more Slytherin's next year flocked to her side… then she would have to see what she could do to ensure that they wouldn't have to fight in the battle between light and dark if Voldemort came back like he did in her universe…
All these kids were forced to follow their twisted family ideals but that didn't mean that they were evil… no one wanted to do what she was sure that they must have gone through, and no one was even willing to help them find another way. She didn't back then… she judged them like all the others…
Hermione dragged herself out of her thoughts of her morning memories and dragged Pansy and Daphne in with her whilst playing in the exploding snap tourney.
"Let's win this together for Slytherin" cheered Hermione.
Daphne and Pansy gave her shook looks before cheekily smiling and agreeing with her.
cross-posted at A03 as well 🐍