Time is Frustrating

It was a strange sensation for Hermione to be sitting in the hospital wing on the second of September in 1977. She could hear the sound of the students going to and fro to their classes in the corridors. The first official day of term, a day that had once been the best thing to her mind, now held nothing but boredom for her. It wasn't as if she was in her right time. And besides, she was eighteen...nineteen in a few weeks thanks to the Time Turner she used in her second year.

The thought of a Time Turner made her stomach turn over. She wanted to vomit.

"It's my birthday soon," she said to no one in particular. Of course, the only one within hearing distance was Ron. He just nodded, not quite sure where she was going with it.

A few minutes of silence permeated the room before Hermione spoke another word.

"I'm turning nineteen two years before I'm even born."

Just thinking about it made Ron's head start to hurt. Hermione sat up in the bed and pulled her knee up to her chin, looking dejectedly down at the foot of the bed. There were dark circles under eyes that were puffy and red from crying all night. Ron had fallen asleep long before Hermione had the night before. It was almost too much for him to listen to her crying over that lousy git.

It made him want to hit something.

"What was the point of all this, anyway?" he said aloud. The words were no more out his mouth than he wished he could call them back. Ron knew it wasn't the best thing to say to her...now or ever, even if they got back to their own time and set things right. But, of course, sometimes Ron Weasley was good for nothing more than opening his mouth and sticking his foot straight in it.

For a moment, Ron thought he'd made Hermione so angry that she wouldn't speak to him. Then there was the sound of creaking springs and the mattress beside him dipped as she sat down, leaning her head against his shoulder. She sighed, and it was obvious that she was trying very hard not to cry again.

"I thought..." She stopped and took a steadying breath. "I thought that going back would change things. If I could get to him fast enough, if I wasn't in that damned basilisk chamber when it happened..."

Ron put his arm around Hermione's shoulders and gave her a quick, firm squeeze. "Something happened while I was away being a bastard, didn't it?"

Her only response was a nod. Hermione's lips were trembling too hard to be able to make more than a squeak of soul-deep pain.

"Right, then," Ron said encouragingly. "I suppose we'll have to try to take the git out of him, won't we?"

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Lucius Malfoy spent the entire day fighting the urge to go to the hospital wing and find out who exactly the mystery girl who had wormed her way into Severus' attention actually was. The problem, of course, was that it was almost impossible to slip away from Severus in the first place. And Merlin only knew what kind of hell he would catch if he was caught snooping around the mystery girl.

Perhaps the only time he would have had to go take a look was squandered by the fact that he left his textbook and most expensive quill in Professor Slughorn's dungeon. Severus went on ahead while Malfoy doubled back to retrieve his things, cursing the whole time that he was going to miss the break.

It was a few minutes later, when Malfoy appeared at the top of the dungeon stairs, that all nine rings of Hell broke loose. Severus was sprawled on the floor of the entrance hall, a bottle of ink splashed over his books and bag, a welt the size of the Golden Snitch starting on his forehead. It looked as if Severus had been caught by surprise, his wand knocked to the other side of the hall by a well-placed disarming charm.

Malfoy felt something like white hot fire rush through his veins as he looked across to the stairs leading to the upper floors. There, struggling valiantly against the grip of Potter and Lupin, was Black shouting curses and insults at Severus' limp form. For a moment, Malfoy was afraid that Black had knocked Severus out completely.

"Filthy, unforgivable, waste of a wand..." spat Malfoy as he took three great running strides across the great hall. He thrust his hand into his bag and wrapped his fingers around his wand, every inch of him practically thrumming with the desire to curse Black into a pile of cinders.

Black turned his attention from Severus to take in the way that Malfoy stood, practically ready to duel. A sneer turned the corner of Black's lips.

"Oh, dear, Lucy... are you going to hurt me?" Black pulled at the hold his friends had on him, getting close enough to hiss in Malfoy's face. "Are you going to defend him? Is that what they do down in the Slytherin dungeons?"

A flash of complete and consuming rage shot through Malfoy like a bolt of lightning. His fingers ached from their grip on his wand. There were a dozen curses floating around the back of his mind, ready to turn Black into a bouncing bucket of slugs.

"Blood traitor." Malfoy's voice dripped with venom and ice. The edges of his words were sharp enough to flay Black alive had he come close enough.

The word that slipped into the air between Black and Malfoy was as filthy as it was truthful. Malfoy flicked his wand into position just as a voice boomed from the top of the stairs.

"What is going on here?" came Professor Dumbledore's voice, the sound magnified magically and echoing around the entry hall. He stood like a sentinel, looking every bit the formidable wizard he had been when he defeated Grindlewald all those years ago.

Malfoy quickly jammed his wand back into his bag and took two steps away from Black, trying to put himself closer to Severus. He glanced at his friend from the corner of his eyes, hoping that the pallor of Severus' face was due to the fact that he was covered in ink and not because he was bleeding from somewhere. Severus groaned, his head lolling on his neck.

"Severus was attacked by Sirius Black, Professor," Malfoy said cooly. He kept his head high, almost as if he were too good for the entire conversation. "And then he attempted to attack me."

Professor Dumbledore made his way down the stairs until he was standing next to Black and his friends. The Headmaster's crisp blue eyes swept the hall, taking in the sprawled form of Severus Snape in the floor and the look of unadulterated rage on Malfoy's face. Then he took a long moment to examine Sirius Black, who was still weakly struggling to get out of the grip of his friends.

"Mister Malfoy, Mister Nott," Dumbledore gestured to a tall, pale faced boy with a slightly squashed nose, "please see Mister Snape to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey will take care of him."

A sort of seething rage began to pump through Malfoy, slushing through his veins with each beat of his heart. It was as if he could see what would happen the moment he carried Severus out of the entry hall. Dumbledore would have a little talk with Black, lament his behavior but explain it away due to his upbringing, and then send him off to do a detention without further punishment. No points lost, no concern about the fact that Black and physically attacked another student.

Stupid bloody Gryffindors, Malfoy grumbled as he and Nott helped Severus to climb the stairs to the hospital wing. Nott rapped on the wooden door and waited for Madam Pomfrey to answer. When the matron appeared, she tutted and bustled the three of them over to an empty bed.

Severus groaned as they put him down on the bed. A smear of bright red blood appeared on the pillow as Severus turned his head, his brows furrowing in pain. "Shite," Malfoy swore, looking over the length of his friend for further damage. "I will hex Black until his head is permanently stuck up his arse for this."

Madam Pomfrey gave a shocked gasp. "Language, Malfoy!" Then she rushed across the room, muttering a list of potions and bandages that she would need to put Severus to rights.

Malfoy was just about to send Nott away when he saw a girl sitting up on a bed across the aisle. Her bushy brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her face pale white as one hand pressed to her mouth. Her other arm was bandaged and bound to her chest in a clear indication that it was severely broken. She looked very plain.

For a moment, she stared. Her eyes were fixed on Severus, some kind of unfathomable expression bleeding over her features. As if under the Imperius Curse, she rose from the bed in a fluid motion, as if she had no control, no will or way to resist. She crossed the room, coming closer and closer to Malfoy with each passing second. His lips turned to a sneer even as he saw her tawny brown eyes glistening with tears.

Nott stood up, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably. The girl stepped past Nott to stand next to Severus' bed. Two fat tears rolled down her cheeks as she reached out a trembling hand toward his head.

"Don't touch him!" Malfoy hissed, slapping the girl's hand away. His breathing quickened, his heart thundering painfully in his chest. His fingers itched for his wand.

The girl met his eyes, and he felt an unfamiliar sense of kinship with the pain he saw reflected in her gaze. Malfoy steeled himself. This was the girl Severus had mentioned the night before. This was the girl he wanted to hate simply because she had caught Severus' eye.

"Is he going to be okay?" she whispered softly. Her gaze flicked to the smear of blood, the pale sheen of his skin. "Is he going to be alright?"

Malfoy could not bring himself to speak about what happened to Severus. He didn't want to entertain the idea that he might not be alright. Instead, Malfoy examined the girl up close. He turned his nose up at her. "Who are you?"

The girl wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. She took a deep shuddering breath and backed away. "Nobody. I'm nobody."

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The hospital wing was a deep, shadowy black when Severus finally came to. He tried to sit up, but a wave of nausea and vertigo made him fall back against the pillows. His head felt heavy, like it had been stuffed with cotton. Severus touched his head and found his hair slightly damp as it poked out from a set of gauze bandages wrapped around his head.

He barely remembered what had landed him in the hospital wing this time, but he knew it must have been a hell of a hex that made Madam Pomfrey bandage him up the way she had. The last thing he recalled was coming up the stairs from potions and calling back to Lucius that he'd save him a seat in Transfiguration. Everything after that was blurry.

Thinking too hard to figure out what happened in those fuzzy places in his memory made his head start to throb. He closed his eyes and tried to relax, but his ears caught the sound of faint whispers. He'd almost forgotten about the girl who had been in the hospital wing yesterday. Severus strained his ears to pick up the sound of her voice.

"... never thought he was like that. We heard the stories, but I never thought it was this bad."

"I always thought he was a bit like Fred and George," came a masculine voice. The red-headed boy who was with her. "Playing harmless pranks. I didn't think he was so... vicious."

"You remember what happened third year. You know what he did with the Whomping Willow, Ron. Sirius almost got him killed once before for a prank," she whispered hurriedly. "I suppose I don't put it past him now to do bodily harm. No matter what Harry says, there's something very wrong with Sirius."

Severus let the words turn over and over in his mind. The girl and her companion knew about Sirius, they knew about the Whomping Willow and how Sirius had almost sent him into the clutches of a werewolf on the full moon. But how did they know any of it?

Who were they? And where had they come from?

"I'll hex him six ways from Sunday when they let me out of here," the girl vowed. "I don't care if Harry never speaks to me again. What he did today was unforgivable."

"Hermione, you can't go hexing people. You know what Dumbledore said the last time..."

A feeling of warmth settled in Severus' stomach. Hermione. Her name was Hermione.

Notes from The Mistress: I'm so sorry for the long time between chapters. Work and real life have gotten in the way of writing, but I hope the chapter was worth it! Please review!