As Hermione stormed through the corridors of Hogwarts, she clutched the heavy tome tightly against her chest. She didn't know why. Perhaps it was an attempt to stop the butterflies from fluttering in her stomach. She was feeling nervous and every step took focus and determination. One foot down, one step closer to the impending confrontation. After having read what she was sure she had been looking for, the bit of information that had to connect Matthew to his past, she had thought of nothing else. At this time of year, Christmas was all that most kids would think about but learning the truth was the only present she was wishing to get. With Harry still struggling to contend with his latest revelation, which was perfectly understandable in her eyes, Hermione had decided that it was the ideal time to contend with her own. It wasn't as if she wanted to keep Harry out of the loop, far from it. But this was always going to be easier on a one to one basis, both for her and Matthew.

The only issue, barring the constant barrage of her nerves, was that she didn't know where her friend was. Waking up early, she had expected to find him in the common room, or at least to spot him coming down the stairs when he eventually chose to show his face. No such look. There was something within her telling her that he was hiding away from her, as if he knew that she had discovered something, which she would have considered if it had been any other person. But there was no place for him to hide, at least in Gryffindor Tower, especially since most of the students had left for the festive season. For some reason, her parents hadn't been overly distraught at the fact that she had chosen to remain at Hogwarts once more, wanting to stay around her friends whilst danger still lurked around every corner. It was something she would have thought about more if she hadn't been so preoccupied.

The only logical place for Matthew to be was the library, which was where she was heading to now. There was no chance that he would be outside considering the weather, in which a thick blanket of snow had painted the rolling valleys around them and added a frozen layer to the top of the Great Lake. Madam Pince nodded her head at Hermione as she strolled in; it wasn't that startling an occurrence to find Hermione amongst the school's books. The library was her favourite place in the school, which wouldn't have shocked most of the people who knew her, but the atmosphere felt different. It felt like a foreign landscape, with something skulking away. This was to be the site of the moment she'd been preparing for, she just knew it. She looked around every shelf, expecting to find him. She went by every desk, disrupting the few people that had chosen to get a head start on their work before Christmas properly arrived (predominantly Ravenclaws). Until, when she was ready to search a different part of the castle, she walked past a table towards the back of the library, tucked away in between two rows of shelves, all lined with dusty books. She wouldn't have paid it any attention if it hadn't been for the boy sitting there, reading glasses on as he casually perused a novel.

Since the area was so quiet and isolated, Matthew picked up on her presence straight away. Hermione half expected him to be nervous or to look guilty for hiding, but he showed no such emotions. In fact, he smiled. It was pure and genuine, and the sort of smile that Hermione had never anticipated being on the receiving end of when it came from someone of her own age. It spoke of affection and a real happiness to see her, making her question whether this was the right thing to do. But she knew that she had to, otherwise their friendship wouldn't quite be the same. That was if their friendship survived this, another reason why she was doubting her decision now. Could she afford not knowing something for once in order to maintain one of the relationships she held dearest?

"Hermione!" he exclaimed. They could be a bit louder in this section, far away from the strict librarian. "I didn't expect to see you down here. I know it's not my usual table but it's been difficult with Harry lately, so maybe I was trying to avoid seeing him. It's just…I don't know what to say to him. Every time I try to give him some comfort, he takes it the wrong way. It's best for the time being if I keep my mouth firmly shut, which isn't something I normally do." He attempted a smirk before shaking his head. "Anyway…you don't want to hear all about that. Can I do something for you? You can sit down if you like. We could read together, or chat, or maybe…"

She had to bite the bullet. Because he was being too nice and if he was any sweeter, she would have just run away and forgotten about the whole thing. Instead, Hermione slammed the book onto the table with more force than she had been expecting. It shook against the wooden surface and both of them simply looked at it in silence for a few moments.

"Ah."

Was that all he was going to say? Really? When she was on the verge of hyperventilating? She waited for him to elaborate but it was clear that he was trying to choose his words carefully. He was focusing hard, chewing on the corner of his lip. Because she knew him well, Hermione could sense a new wave of nerves washing over him, and that was something she hadn't seen a lot from him.

"What are you?" she asked after he still hadn't chosen to speak. He was making this more difficult than it needed to be, and that just made her worry more about what he was hiding.

"What do you mean?"

Hermione let out an uncharacteristic growl that spoke of her mounting frustrations. "Stop playing games with me! I heard you at the end of last year, when you were speaking with Professor Dumbledore. You said that you weren't a wizard, not technically. But I kept that to myself because I didn't want to pressure you, because I didn't want to force you to speak about something so personal. And then you give me this book, claiming that you want to give me the answers, and I believed that maybe you would finally discuss whatever this is…but it has just left me more confused than ever! I don't deserve to be messed around like this!"

His face fell again. "No, you're right. I guess…it's about time I was brave." Matthew looked like he didn't know what to do with his hands. He fumbled with them on the desk, distracting himself from Hermione's piercing gaze. "So you heard that conversation with Dumbledore then?"

"Enough of it."

Matthew let out a long sigh. "I didn't want you, or anyone, to find out like that."

"And this was your preferred method?" she shot back, gesturing to the book lying between them, a barrier right now. "To give me some cryptic clue and hope that I fell upon the answer myself."

"I thought that…if you were to figure it yourself, then that would force me to tell you. Do you understand? I needed that push. There were times where I really wanted to tell you, trust me, but I could never go through with it. Maybe I was scared of what would happen when you knew or how you'd probably treat me differently. I didn't want to face that reality. But now I can't run from it any longer and that's for the best, whatever happens now."

"The only issue with your scheme was that I've barely discovered anything that enlightens me on who you are."

Matthew pondered that. "Has anything stook out though?"

"Are you testing me?" Hermione arched an eyebrow.

"I'm just curious. I'm done with testing you."

"So you do admit that you have been doing that."

He sat forward in his chair. "Maybe. Maybe a part of me has always been doing that since we first met, trying to see if you were worth opening up to. But of course you are. You're brilliant and intelligent, caring and understanding. You're the person I want to know about this because I feel you're the one person who could possibly understand what I have to say without judgement. I saw that on that first day on the train platform, and every single day has made me realise that I was correct in that assessment. But that doesn't mean it's any easier for me to do this, because now there's the potential of losing you."

"You're not going to lose me." It was the sort of declaration that should have taken more forethought, and yet it had spilled out of her mouth alarmingly easily. Because she meant it, which was terrifying. Here she was, in front of someone she potentially didn't know at all, admitting that she wanted to be by his side no matter what. It was the sort of declaration that came with the naivety of youth and perhaps she didn't fully appreciate the sentiment, but it felt like the truth to her. She couldn't imagine her life at Hogwarts without him.

"You don't know that. You can't know that. I appreciate what you're trying to do but you can't promise that. You can't give me that hope and take it away later. That's not fair. It'd hurt too much."

"There's only one way of finding out and that doesn't involve skirting around the topic anymore." She was pressuring him, not letting him wriggle out of this one. Far too many times he had used his charm and way with words to get out of properly talking about himself, but she had mastered his tactics by now. She had been preparing for this moment in her head for a long time, even if she'd never known what to expect (she still didn't).

Matthew stood up abruptly and, for a second, she thought he might be trying to run away, to physically run from his problems rather than just metaphorically doing it. But then he gave her a small smile as he faced her. "Come with me." He held his hand out, a signal that he needed her to meet him halfway for him to be able to do this. She complied without much thought, as if it were simply second nature. They'd held hands before, normally when Matthew had tried to comfort her. But never when they were walking. This felt different as they walked through the library, Hermione oblivious if anyone chose to look at them. Matthew was basically clutching her arm as he led her in whatever direction he wanted, weaving through corridors. All she could focus on was the sensation, as if the touch was electric. It was more intimate than it had any right to be and she doubted he even saw it as such. He was hell bent on taking somewhere, heading down corridors she had barely ever seen, let alone used. She should have been scared. She was being taken away from any prying eyes by a boy who was still a mystery to her. That raised enough red flags. It sounded like it came straight from the stories her parents had told her when she'd been growing up to warn her about dangers that plagued the world and teach her how to avoid them. And yet she still felt safe because she knew that the boy in question would never knowingly hurt her. Maybe that was a sign of her youth too, that she fully believed that without any proper evidence. Her usual tendencies to fully research a hypothesis were being thrown out the window in favour of trusting Matthew, and she was hoping the betrayal of her instincts would be worth it.

Matthew glanced at her with an unreadable expression on his face as he came to a stop at a nondescript door. Hermione would have walked past it without a second glance if she'd been on her own. It was identical to all the other classroom doros they'd walk past on this corridor but he had known it was the one he wanted straight away, telling her he'd been there a lot. A second passed before he opened the door and Hermione didn't know what to expect as she stepped inside. She certainly hadn't been anticipating walking into an empty room. There were no tables or desks, no chalkboards to signify that classes had once been taught in there. The air was musty and stale, dust collecting on any surface it could find. She wore a deep frown as she scanned their new surroundings. Maybe a part of her was now believing he was going to do something to her because why else would they be here?

But Matthew walked right past her, ignoring her confused looks. He halted in the middle of the room, baffling her even more. And then he reached out with his hand, knowing exactly where to put it as it came to land on a solid object. It was invisible but it was there, Hermione could tell now. Its disguise shimmered ever so slightly when he touched it. And then the facade dropped completely as if it had been waiting for Matthew to return. The room was no longer empty. A large blue box now sat just in front of where Matthew was standing. Hermione took a step back in shock. Something being hidden from the naked eye was not a new experience for someone who lived in the magical world, but what had been uncovered was definitely not normal. She stared at the wooden object with her mouth hung slightly open, reading the inscription at the top. Police telephone box . Was this Matthew's big secret? If so, she had more questions than ever.

"Is that…is that a Tardis?" she asked in a small voice, more of a squeak. Nothing made sense anymore, not that it really had done since she'd joined Hogwarts.

Matthew was puzzled by the question momentarily. "How did you…oh, I forgot that you have a Muggle family." He prowled around the edge of the magnificent box. "It is."

"But…that's from a show. Doctor Who. My dad was a massive fan when it was on tv, before it was cancelled. He made me watch a few of the tapes he has."

"Who do you think gave them the idea for the show? Do you really think they could have come up with something like this on their own?"

"So you're a…oh, what did they call it…a Time Lord?"

Matthew chuckled. "Of course not. There's no such thing. They added all that detail well after I was gone. I just gave the initial pitch. I was having a bit of fun really."

"I'm so confused."

"I thought you might react like that. It's a lot to take in. But I thought seeing the old girl would make things easier to explain in the long run." He leaned casually against the door. "Fancy a look inside?"

Matthew was already opening the front doors before she'd thought of an answer, though she was never going to turn it down. He allowed her to take a few steps inside first and she could feel his eyes on her, watching her reaction. The magical world had the ability to make things larger on the inside so she shouldn't have been so shocked by what she found. The blue box held a chamber within, cavernous and imposing. It was quite dark though it brightened somewhat for its visitors. The chamber was split up into levels. The doors opened up onto the floor, with a set of steps leading up to a platform on a raised level. The stairs themselves were varnished wood, a contrast to the mostly metal decorations. Looking back at Matthew, who nodded his head encouragingly, Hermione tentatively began to make her way up the steps, gripping the thin bannister tightly. The platform was higher up than she'd realised but the grey floor underneath her feet obscured what lay underneath.

She was more focused on the beautiful console in front of her, in the middle of the platform. Seven thick metal panels ran around a central cylindrical column, all holding a whole host of buttons and levers. She could feel it thrumming with life and potential , as if the place was alive somehow. As Hermione stepped closer, the circular lights along the curved walls glowed a warmer hue, enticing her to step forward. She soon realised that Matthew was behind her, still watching silently, observing how she was taking this all in. She felt like she was doing alright given the circumstances.

"It's gorgeous," Hermione whispered, turning to face him. She was able to still appreciate the beauty despite not knowing how it was here.

"I know," he replied with a genuine smile, as if he felt like he was truly lucky to have it. "The poor thing has been locked away mostly in this room. It's for the best. I can't afford anyone to find her. That's why she's being so receptive. It's been a while since we had a guest."

"Matthew…are you going to tell me everything or are you just using this as a distraction?"

"Can't it be a little bit of both?" His arm moved quicker than she'd expected, pulling down a thick lever that caused the entire chamber to rock and rumble. The column began to move up and down, the place groaning loudly like a giant beast stretching its limbs. Hermione was forced to hold onto the bannister again, looking down at the floor far below. It made her stomach churn and it was thankfully over after a few seconds. She gave him an annoyed look but he barely paused to smirk at her as he hurried back down to the doors.

"Matthew!" Hermione yelled, racing to catch up with him. "Won't you just stop for a minute and…talk." The words died in her mouth as he unveiled what lay outside. It was Hogwarts, with the sun rising behind it, basking it in a wondrous myriad of golden hues. The Great Lake lay directly beneath them, the Tardis floating in the air. The breeze that should have been there didn't reach her somehow as she risked poking her head outside, gazing at the beauty of their surroundings. No one was up yet in the school and, for the time being, it felt like it was theirs .

"If we're going to do this, we're going to do it properly," he said. "I thought it deserved a nicer setting than an old classroom."

"What are we doing then?" she whispered.

"Finally giving you the answers you deserve." Matthew moved away from the doors, standing next to the steps. "What did you find in the book?"

"Nowhere near as much as I would have liked. But there was one passage that was useful, about pure magical energy. I can't be totally sure but I reckon you must have a form of it."

He slowly nodded his head, though she couldn't tell if he was actually agreeing with her. He held out his hand, twisted his fingers and wisps of golden energy began to form, soon transforming into his recognisable wand. Then the wand disappeared, the golden tendrils morphing into his walking stick. Although she was taken aback by the spectacle, it was beginning to make sense. All the times he had somehow produced those objects out of thin air, because he had actually been doing that.

"The purest form of magical energy is one that every witch and wizard possesses, but they don't realise that they have it. Because it's been taught out of them over the generations."

"Then how do you have it?"

"The book I gave you…the basis of magic. It basically means where magic comes from."

"One of the essays spoke of a start point, which then grew into the magical population. Are you…"

"Part of that start point? It's one way of putting it. Centuries ago, there were a number of people in one small community who possessed such powers. My family was part of that community. I can still picture them now. I was young back then, a kid. It was closed off from the rest of society because we preferred it that way. The sort of power we had, it would have just frightened outsiders. But we grew, developing those abilities. Putting them to good use. My family, in particular, used that magic to have a semblance of control over Time itself." He gestured to the ship around him. "Then, over those centuries, that community began to spread, evolving into the wizards we see now, meaning the powers went with them, diluting with each generation. But only because the wizarding society wanted it easier. It's easier to control magic when it's coming through a wand rather than your own hand. That pure magic is gone now, which might be a good thing. One person having that power could lead to unspeakable things."

Hermione was slowly processing what he was saying. "Does that make you…centuries old then?"

"No," was his only reply, and she picked up on the way his face fell.

"What happened?"

Matthew stared at her for a beat before moving to the doors, sitting down on the edge to let his legs dangle into the morning air. He waited for Hermione to join him before he answered. "The sort of power that we had, it can corrupt people. People got greedy, wanting to possess every aspect of it. Some of those people were jealous that we had a way of bending time to our will, and that sparked a fight. Like I said, I was fairly young and I can't remember a lot of it. But I can still picture my parents putting me in here and setting an emergency course to get me away…before they died too. I'd travelled in here plenty of times before. Making short hops to different time periods was basically my hobby. But that final flight put the old girl under too much strain and her ability to travel through time was knackered. Trust me, I've tried fixing it but I reckon my parents purposefully designed it to happen, like they wanted to prevent me from going back."

"They wanted to protect you," Hermione murmured mournfully.

"Yeah…I've had to come to terms with that. The only way the Tardis could go to different time periods now is if she was summoned from the intended period, and that can't happen now. She can still obviously move about. You've always wanted to know where I live and now you're in it."

"So when you said that you're not technically a wizard…"

"That's because I basically come from before the term was recognised. I create the facade of the wand to fit in, as well as helping me. It's hard to control at its full level - having the wand or the cane syphons off some of that energy, taking the strain off of me."

"Why didn't…why didn't you ever tell us?"

"Because I wanted to be normal. The Tardis landed a couple years before we started at Hogwarts. Dumbledore was one of the people I first met, and he obviously could tell something was different about me. He allowed me to enrol, keeping the truth away from everyone else. The Mormont name would just be a word on a page in a dusty old book that barely anyone would register, a warning of what comes to those who want too much power. I found you and Harry so quickly that I allowed myself to believe that I could be just like everyone else, but that wasn't fair on you."

"You told me that you'd just been practising magic for a long time, which explained what you could do."

"Well, it was technically the truth."

"All those times when things didn't add up…you were probably just moving about in here."

"...possibly. Remember that troll in first year?"

"You didn't..." She let out a small gasp. "You disappeared and then…you had that…slime on your face, I remember!"

"I may have lent a helping hand in dealing with it."

"You really have been lying from the very start."

Matthew's face fell. He'd known this would be difficult for her to accept but just to hear her say it brought home the fact of what he'd done. "But now you know…it doesn't change who I am. I'm basically the same age. Every experience I've had with you is genuine. I just have slightly different magical powers. But, saying that, you'll still have them deep down. Everyone will. They just don't know, or they can't be bothered to try."

"Could you teach me then?" Hermione asked immediately, her eyes lighting up. "If I can learn something, I want to give it a go. And, with the danger that we're facing, surely it's best if I can tap into this power."

Matthew stood up, slowly going up the steps, moving away from her. "You want me to train you?"

"Yes."

"It'll be difficult. It might not even be possible."

"I should be given a chance to try."

"If I'm going to agree, that involves us both being honest with each other."

"That's all I've ever wanted."

"Is it? Because you're not telling the truth, Hermione. Or, at least, you're purposefully keeping something hidden. I just told you that I was able to travel through time and you didn't bat an eyelid. Most people in the wizarding community would still be astonished by such a feat." He slowly walked towards her and her heart began to pound. "After doing it so often, you become receptive to its feel. I knew I could sense something different about you…that smell. I didn't fathom that it could be that." He reached his arm towards her and Hermione was sure she stopped breathing. His hand gently cupped her chin before sliding down her neck, grasping the obscured object underneath her top. "A time turner…so that's how you've been getting to classes. How you've been popping up unexpectedly, disappearing for other periods. Hermione Granger, breaking the rules. I should be impressed. I am impressed."

She didn't attempt to take it from his clutches. There was no use hiding it now. "It's not technically breaking the rules. Professor McGonagall agreed to lend me it because I was so adamant on doing all the classes I could. Obviously, divination didn't last too long but this thing is still proving to be useful."

Matthew smiled at her defiance and moved back to his seated position, looking at the view beyond them. "Even when we were lying to each other, we were more alike than we could have possibly ever realised. The chances of us both lying about time travel are so astronomical that it's actually funny."

"So you're not angry?" she asked, sitting next to him, looking searchingly at him.

"Are you angry at me?"

"It's difficult…I thought anything like this would mean I'd no longer know who you are…but you're frustratingly the same." She smirked softly, and they both shared the smile for a few moments. "It is nice to have my questions answered. And…all I see is the same boy who was scared of opening himself up, after losing the only people he had."

Hermione was staring at him. He was staring at her. The sunrise outside was long forgotten in that moment. She saw him moving closer and, instinctively, she did the same. There was a brief pause of hesitation from both of them before their lips met, briefly and teasingly. It was the kiss of two young people who didn't really know what they were doing but knew that they wanted to, that this was right. Hermione had no idea what she'd expected from her first kiss, but she'd definitely never anticipated it being in this setting. Perhaps she had known it would be this boy though, deep down. The boy who had gone out of his way on the train platform to help her, the first kindness anyone her age had ever truly shown her. The boy who cherished her characteristics instead of ridiculing them.

When they broke apart after the very short kiss, Matthew's eyes were wide as it dawned on him what he'd just done. He jumped up, putting space between them. Hermione couldn't help but feel insulted. Was she really that bad a kisser? He was pacing around, edging up the steps almost fearfully.

"I'm sorry!" he blurted out. "I shouldn't have done that. I had no right to do that. It's just…I've waited for someone to understand me for so long and you do it without a moment's thought…and…and…"

Hermione held up a hand to stop him panicking, even though she was doing the same internally. She would definitely need to write to her mum about this development. "You don't have to apologise. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Oh," was all he said.

"Okay?"

He nodded his head. If she'd needed any confirmation that he was still just a young boy ultimately as naive as all the rest, then this was providing that.

"Are you going to tell Harry?" she found herself asking.

"About…this?" Matthew lamely gestured between the both of them, and Hermione couldn't resist rolling her eyes.

"No! About who you are. Everything you've told me."

"I have thought about that. But no, not with everything that's going on. You saw what he was like after what happened in the Broomsticks. That sort of revelation rocked him to his core, which is a perfectly understandable reaction. But the last thing he needs is another revelation where he discovers someone else has been lying to him. No, it can wait until after Black is caught…once this has died down and I can sit him down without any distractions. He deserves that."

"That could be a long time away."

"Then I need you to work with me. Please."

After what they'd just shared, she found it difficult to say no. But she was prevented from voicing her opinion because the Tardis was suddenly groaning once more, shaking unexpectedly. She could see the central column flowing up and down again, signalling the ship's departure as the door's slammed shut behind her. Matthew was racing up the stairs to see what was going on and it took Hermione a lot of effort to charge up the steps as quickly as she did.

"What's going on?"

"Dumbledore," Matthew grumbled. "One of the concessions I had to make upon joining Hogwarts. He's basically got a small control on the Tardis, not that he can fly it himself. It was more to keep me under supervision. After all, I'm still a kid who might be tempted to do something stupid. He's summoning the Tardis."

"We're being taken to his office?" Hermione squeaked.

"Yeah…go downstairs, hide down there. He won't like that you know now." Matthew gestured to the flight of steps leading further down below the upper platform and she obediently followed his instructions, bending down behind a metal pillar just in time as the shaking stopped and the ship landed with a heavy thud. Matthew composed himself as he walked back to the doors.

Dumbledore was right in front of him when he opened them. "Ah, hello headmaster." He was doing his best to keep his voice neutral.

"Hello, Mister Mormont. I couldn't help noticing from my office window that you were up and about. I thought I'd check in, especially because, if I could see it, I'm sure others beginning to wake up would have done the same."

"I was just enjoying the sunrise. It can be calming, you know? Things are pretty hectic, what with Sirius Black and the dementors. I wanted a semblance of peace."

"Perfectly understandable." Dumbledore craned his neck to peer inside and Hermione moved further into the shadows. "I am blown away everytime I see this wonderful contraption. Perhaps you will take me on a trip sometime."

"I look forward to it," Matthew said, obviously trying to get rid of him.

"I won't keep you for much longer. You should be able to enjoy this time of year. Have a good day."

"You too, headmaster."

The professor began to walk away. "The same goes for you, Miss Granger."

Matthew's eyes went wide. Hermione's face was impossibly red. And all they could hear was the sound of Dumbledore's chuckles as he turned their back on them.