The next day was the first day of classes. While going over schedules at breakfast, Ron pointed out that Hermione's showed three classes in the same time slot.

Ginny expected this discovery of a flaw in the careful ordering of Hermione's life to result in at least a small meltdown, but Hermione dismissed it, saying she'd sorted it out with Professor McGonagall.

Ginny considered this answer. What was Hermione going to do, rotate her attendance between the three classes? Go for part of a class and leave in the middle to run to the next? She couldn't see McGonagall signing off on either option, even for a student as good as Hermione.

Ginny leaned to get a better look at Hermione's schedule for herself.

Hermione noticed, and tucked it away. "You know, Ginny, it's not too soon for you to start planning which electives you want to sign up for next year. Have you given it much thought?"

"I don't know enough about the choices yet. Maybe you can explain it after you've had your first lecture in each. When would that be?"

Hermione stood. "Oh… I'd be happy to help you, but we should hurry to Divination if we're going to get good seats. See you at lunch."

Hermione shot impatient looks at Harry and Ron. They grudgingly put down their forks, gathered their belongings and rose to follow her. Harry gave Ginny a shrug as the three of them left.

Ginny knew about keeping secrets. Doing so had been as much a part of her first year experience as classes and homework. Things would have worked out a lot better if someone had pried into those secrets sooner. She had no reason to believe Hermione's secret was anything sinister, but when did mysterious events happening around Harry ever lead to anything good? This demanded further investigation.

Hermione had said she was on her way to Divination with Harry and Ron, so Ginny could check with the guys later to see how much of the class Hermione stayed for. Ginny had first period free, so she could watch one of the other classrooms, assuming she could find them. She looked around and spotted Percy. He would know.

Getting the information she wanted turned out to be easier than getting away from Percy, who took the opportunity to share his thoughts on which electives she should take next year. Even so, she managed to escape without wasting too much time.

Rather than staking out the Arithmancy classroom, she decided to head for the Muggle Studies one, as she wanted to see which students were willing to risk the sneers of their more traditional peers by taking the course.

She hurried through the halls, and managed to reach the classroom in time to see students still filing in, one bushy-haired witch standing out among them.

Ginny considered the possibilities. Hermione could have split off from Ron and Harry after leaving the Great Hall, to attend this class instead of Divination. But for what purpose?

No, that didn't make sense. Okay, so assume Hermione, or someone who looked a great deal like her, was at Divination right now. Ginny could check with Harry or Ron later. But if Hermione was also here, or appeared to be, then one of them must be an impostor–which meant Polyjuice, a Metamorphmagus, or some other form of disguise.

That didn't make sense either. Hermione would want to take every class, not just look like she was. What kind of magic allowed you to be in two places at the same time? No, three places at the same time, judging by Hermione's schedule.

The same time. No. No way. The Ministry would never allow even the most responsible student to get their hands on such a dangerous magical artefact.

Though if anyone had the influence to make it happen, it would be Dumbledore. But why would he?

Ginny tried to see the situation from his perspective. Suppose you're Albus Dumbledore, and you're worried Harry might have to face Riddle again, probably with the new Defense teacher mixed up in it, and possibly Sirius Black as well.

For whatever reason, you may not be on hand to intervene directly. The next best option would be to have your agent in place, ready to act. A student wouldn't be your first choice, but it would be an easy way to keep someone close to Harry, without raising suspicion… If you could give that student an extra boost, an emergency option Riddle or his own agent would never expect…

Damn. It actually made a sort of sense.

And of course Dumbledore would pick Hermione. As risky as putting a Time-Turner in her hands might be, the idea of giving it to Ron… With all the accidental un-births he'd probably cause, Britain would be lucky to have enough people left to field a Quidditch team by the end of term.

Mulling it over further, Ginny decided she didn't hate the plan. If something bad happened, she'd rather have the only wizard Tom Riddle ever feared come storming in himself, wand blazing. Failing that, his indirect help could still make a big difference. Had he done something similar last year, by leaving his phoenix at Hogwarts when he couldn't be there himself?

If she was right, she wanted in. She'd promised Harry she would return the favor and save him from certain doom some day, and this looked like a good place to start.

Having access to a Time-Turner would be useful for other stuff too, while waiting for whatever catastrophe the year might bring. They'd all be able to sneak away to practice the sort of magic some might frown at, without worrying about anyone noticing their absence. Not to mention creating alibis for whatever else they might get up to. Yeah, she definitely needed Hermione to share her new toy.

Ginny passed the time waiting for class to end by trying to devise ways to get Hermione to reveal her secret, but without much success.

When the Muggle Studies class let out, she followed Hermione–who had stayed for the whole thing–and watched her enter one of the girls' bathrooms.

Ginny waited long enough to be sure Hermione wasn't coming out, at least not now, then went in and verified the bathroom was empty. A secret passage was always a possibility at Hogwarts–even in a bathroom–but she didn't think the answer was anything quite so commonplace.

Maybe Hermione would open up in a private chat, once Ginny revealed she'd already guessed her secret. It would be easy to arrange, as Hermione's movements were nothing if not predictable. During her peek at Hermione's schedule, she'd seen that Hermione had even added notes on what time to get up and get ready every morning, to allow for extra study time before breakfast.

An idea struck her. The best way for Hermione to keep such a powerful artefact secret would be to keep it with her at all times, and if she had nowhere to hide it… The idea could work, though it would be more than a little awkward for both of them.

This required more thought. She had the rest of the day to consider other options, but right now, she needed to get to her first class.

~*~

When Ginny met up with her three friends again at lunch, they were less cheerful than she'd seen them at breakfast.

Harry was brooding. Their Divination teacher had foretold his doom, and Ron had bought into it, despite McGonagall dismissing it as nonsense. It didn't help that Harry was still ruminating over why the Dementor on the train affected him more than anyone else.

Ginny wasn't sure how to comfort him. Ordinarily you didn't need to worry about encountering a Dementor, but with a bunch of them surrounding the school, his reaction to them was a genuine problem.

Hermione had been scornful about the image of the Grim in Harry's tea leaves, which led to a row with Ron. Then Trelawney had offended her by saying there were limits to what one could learn from books, and that one needed to be born with 'the Sight'.

Ginny sympathized. The idea of needing inborn talent sounded uncomfortably close to pure-blood supremacy shite. The trouble was, there might be some truth to it, given her own experiences with the awakening of the fire inside her and what she had learned about her family history.

Despite Hermione's foul mood, Ginny couldn't miss the chance to poke a bit more into her impossibly busy morning. She asked, "Since Divination and Arithmancy both teach you to predict the future, does that mean Arithmancy is just as dodgy?"

"Oh, not at all!" Hermione answered, brightening. "A big part of Arithmancy is actually probability theory, like mathematicians study–Muggle mathematicians, I mean. The magic comes in when you use numerology to encode events as numerical values to plug into the formulas. There's a bit of an art to the encoding step, but you at least have helpful rules to guide you. Even from the first lesson, I can already tell Arithmancy…"

Hermione trailed off, realizing what she'd revealed about how she'd spent her morning. "Er, from what I've read, that is."

She shot glances at Ron and Harry, so Ginny took the opportunity to note their reactions as well. Neither had noticed. They had their own concerns, and Hermione rambling on about her academic passions was a common theme, and one which didn't require their full attention.

Hermione turned back to Ginny. "I do want to help you plan your electives for next year, but I should probably see more of each class. You know, to make sure I give every subject a fair chance."

"Sure. I can wait. There's always plenty of time, if you know how to make good use of it."

Hermione gave her a long look. "Yes. Good time management is important."

"Absolutely."

The rest of the meal passed with little conversation.

~*~

Harry, Ron, and Hermione trudged into the Great Hall for dinner with their moods sunk even lower than at lunch, this time due to an incident in Care of Magical Creatures.

When they related the story to Ginny, she decided Draco deserved his injuries, partly for being too full of himself to follow directions, partly just for being a Malfoy.

What puzzled her was how upset they were over the Hippogriff's likely fate. Having grown up on a farm with pigs and chickens–with all that implied about knowing how food makes it to the table–she had a pragmatic attitude towards animals that weren't pets. Ron's distress surprised her the most, given their shared upbringing.

"It's not right!" Hermione insisted.

"Hermione," Ginny asked with as much sympathy as she could, "in the Muggle world, how do you deal with animals which attack people?"

Hermione gave her a blank look. "What do you mean?"

"Don't get me wrong, getting rid of any Malfoy would be doing the world a favor. But what if next time, the same Hippogriff attacked someone that people might actually miss?"

"That's not very nice to say, even about Malfoy, but what's it got to do with the Muggle world?"

"I'm assuming it's the same there as here, but maybe not, with the way you and Harry are taking this. Where you grew up, aren't vicious animals usually… well, put down?"

Hermione gasped. "Buckbeak is not vicious! Malfoy provoked him by being rude on purpose!"

"You weren't there, Ginny," Harry snapped. "Buckbeak is more than some dumb animal. I looked in his eyes, and I could tell there was more there." He turned to appeal to Hermione. "We bowed to each other. Doesn't it show intelligence if he can communicate like that?"

Hermione nodded. "I think so. Anyway, we deal with dangerous things in class all the time. Or rather, things that are dangerous if you don't follow directions–cauldrons exploding in Potions, plants attacking you in Herbology, and so on. And we carry wands, which are always potential weapons, whatever positive uses they also have."

"Sorry. I didn't get it," Ginny said, looking down at the table.

She could handle Hermione lecturing her. She'd been around her enough to know it didn't take much provocation for Hermione to launch into an impassioned speech. But Harry had never spoken harshly to her before. She didn't care for that at all.

"Harry," Hermione said in a softer tone.

"What?… Oh. Uh. Sorry, Ginny." He bumped his shoulder against hers.

"Listen…" he said, "Buckbeak isn't exactly safe to be around, not if you're careless, but Malfoy was outright asking for it. What makes it worse is this was Hagrid's first class, and to have it go so wrong, with the way he feels about animals, even the dangerous ones, maybe especially the dangerous ones… But I shouldn't take it out on you. Sorry."

"It's okay," she said. "I get it now."

And she did, which meant now she had to do something. Hagrid. The way Harry felt about him would be reason enough, but more than that, she owed the man for getting him sent to Azkaban to suffer in her place.

The year was off to a hell of a start. As if Dementors, Sirius Black, and whatever dark secret lurked in the heart of the new Defense teacher weren't enough. Not to mention how it all probably connected to Riddle. And now she had to sort out that posh fuckwit ponce Malfoy, too.

She tried to look at it positively. Maybe instead of seeing this as an added burden, she could use Malfoy as a target to work out her frustration on.

Harry was watching her anxiously, so she gave him a smile and said, "It's okay, Harry. Really."

It surprised her to see how relieved he looked. He must worry about Hermione's disapproval more than she thought.

He said, "Good. I guess we should all go check on Hagrid."

Ginny froze. She'd planned to keep her distance from the groundskeeper. Beyond whatever discomfort she felt around him due to her guilt, she didn't think reminding him of her existence would be doing him any favors either.

She said, "You all go ahead. I don't actually know him."

"He didn't know Ron and Hermione the first time I brought them. I'm sure he'd be happy to have another visitor."

She leaned in closer to him and lowered her voice. "Ron and Hermione didn't get him sent to Azkaban."

"He doesn't blame you. No one does."

"Let's give it time. He's already going to be in a bad mood because of what happened in class."

Harry looked at her uncertainly. "If you're sure…"

"I know he's important to you. I'm not saying I'll never go with you to visit him. Just not this time, okay?"

"Okay. See you back in the common room?"

"Sure, see you."

As the three of them set off for Hagrid's hut, Ginny headed back to Gryffindor Tower to consider the private chat she needed to have with Hermione the next morning.

~*~

Ginny rose early the next morning, changed into her bathrobe, and headed for the girls' showers. As expected, one shower was in use.

She paused outside the door to that stall and took a deep breath.

She didn't want to antagonize Hermione–not after how forgiving and accepting of her presence the other witch had been–but she needed access to that Time-Turner. Besides, it wasn't that big a deal. They were both girls. Once Hermione got over the surprise and heard her explanation, Ginny was sure they'd share a laugh about it later.

Without giving herself a chance to reconsider, she shrugged out of her robe, and hung it next to the one already there. She opened the door to the stall, and stepped in.

"Good morning, Hermione!" she sang out.