The Time-Turner

Thank you to my lovely beta hp4freek!

Chapter One: The Time-Turner

She unrolled the socks, taking particular care with them. She still had the Time-Turner that was issued to her during her third year. She had never actually returned it to her Head of House, Minerva McGonagall. Hermione hadn't used it since Harry and she had gone back in time to save both Buckbeak from his execution and Sirius Black from the dementor's kiss. She held the precious piece of time in her hands, gently caressing the hourglass shape. She wanted to go back in time to prevent what happened to her mother.

Honestly, if she was going to start meddling with time, there are a lot of things she would change... However, one of the stipulations to being issued a Time-Turner was that you weren't to meddle with time lines intentionally.

Hermione stood at the foot of her bed thinking; an internal battle was raging within her. Part of her wanted to go back in time and prevent Lord Voldemort from ever coming into power, the other half of her, the more sensible half was telling her that she shouldn't meddle with time. It's against the rules!

Hermione was lost in her thoughts when she felt a familiar sensation. She felt time speeding up around her, though it wasn't going forward; it was going behind her. She must have been absentmindedly stroking the Time-Turner and set it to go backwards. Time kept spinning, though. It didn't stop after only going back an hour to two. Where the hell am I? Ignore that question; I'm in the girls' dormitory in Gryffindor Tower. The better question is; what time is it? What year is it, for that matter? I don't recognise a single girl here!

"Who are you?" a blonde girl with a heavy Scottish accent asked Hermione.

"I could ask you the same question." Hermione had let the snide comment out before she could so much as bite her tongue, let alone satisfy her curiosity.

"Don't give me any cheek, girl. I could call the Head of House in after you."

"Please do call Professor McGonagall in; she'll know exactly what to do!"

"McGonagall? Who the bloody hell is Professor McGonagall? Professor Dumbledore is the Gryffindor Head of House."

"No, Professor Dumbledore is the Headmaster." That's when it dawned on Hermione. It hit her harder than a ton of bricks. She quickly added to her previous statement, "What year is it?"

The blonde girl looked confused, but answered the strange girl anyway. "The year is 1977. It is September the first, and I am a sixth year. You can call me Sam."

Hermione thought rapidly. How in the name of Merlin had she ended up travelling back nineteen years? She had only been fiddling with her Time-Turner. Even if she had managed to accidentally turn it backwards, it should have only sent her back a few hours at best! Nineteen years? She needed to talk to someone, and quick!

Hermione decided that her best option was to be kind to this Sam girl, and ask to speak to someone straight away. "Sam. My name is Hermione. I'm not sure how I ended up here," she lied. She knew how she had gotten there; well, for the most part anyway. "If you could just take me to Professor Dumbledore's office..." She wasn't sure what else to say. Luckily, Sam decided not to put up a large fight.

Hermione felt a hand clench around her arm as she was pulled down the stairs to the common room and brought to the office; she had only known a grip like that to belong to Professor McGonagall herself. Sam knocked sharply on the door, hoping the owner was indeed sitting within. If Professor Dumbledore wasn't, Sam made a silent oath to herself to take Hermione to each Head of House, until they found someone home.

Just as Sam had been about to turn on her heels and drag Hermione with her, the door opened. Hermione examined Headmaster Dumbledore...no, in this time he's Professor...Professor Dumbledore looked younger. His hair was still a silver grey, but there were noticeably less wrinkles on his face. His brilliant blue eyes twinkled just as much as she remembered, if not more so. He stood proud and tall, but there was a smile on his face.

"Professor! Sir, I'm glad you were here!" Sam hadn't been able to say much else before she was cut off.

"And who is this, Miss Pikett?" Professor Dumbledore asked with genuine interest.

"This, sir," she nodded in the direction of her clenched hand, "is Miss Hermione..."

"Hermione Granger, sir," she answered for Sam.

"Miss Granger. To what do we owe the pleasure? I don't recall seeing your name in the book, which held all the names of the incoming students. I also don't recall seeing you being sorted at the feast this evening. Nor do you look the part of a first year; if I had to guess I'd say you were a sixth or seventh year."

"I was...am a sixth year, sir."

"Here? At Hogwarts?"

"Yes, sir. I... May I come in?"

"Certainly, dear." Albus moved aside and let the girls shuffle into his office. He gestured to the chairs facing the front of his desk. "Lemon drop?" He presented a bag towards the girls. Sam shook her head.

"No, thank you." Hermione sighed, trying to figure out the best way to phrase her 'accident,' though nothing was really coming to mind that didn't sound crazy. I guess I should start at the beginning. "Well, sir, when I was in my third year I was taking too many classes to make it to all of them at the same time. I wanted to learn everything! My Head of House, Professor Minerva McGonagall, went through the proper Ministry channels. She obtained for me a Time-Turner. I used it to get to all of my lessons on time. It came in handy at the end of the year, when Harry and I saved..." Hermione realised she was telling too much, and abruptly stopped herself. "Well, anyway, I never turned it back in, which is wrong, I know. Well, I came across it just after I had moved back into Hogwarts. I had brought it out and got lost in my thoughts. I can only guess that I must have been stroking it absentmindedly. I felt like I was being pulled through time quickly. Next thing I knew, I was being accosted by Sam here, for being in her dorm room."

"What year was this? It was September the first in 1996," Hermione answered the question before he had time to ask.

"Why, Miss Granger; that means you've travelled back nineteen years!"

"Of that I am aware, sir." Hermione couldn't help her statement from sounding so snide.

Ignoring her blatant rudeness he pressed on. "Tell me, what house were you in?"

"I was in Gryffindor, sir. Though with recent events that have happened in my life, I think it would be in my best interest to be resorted..."

"I hardly think unintentional time travel warrants a resorting." Despite his appearance of dissuading her, he couldn't help but note the similarities in personality to a certain Slytherin he knew.

"With all due respect, sir, there have been a lot of changes in my life over the past five years I've spent at Hogwarts. The most drastic of which have been in the past four months. I think the most recent changes are worth a chance at being resorted."

"What changes do you speak of, Miss Granger?"

Hermione couldn't help herself. This very thought had been nagging her for four months, with no one to tell. "I think my father killed my mother. It was a violent death; a terrible tragedy, and completely devoid of magic. It wasn't Voldemort's style, if you know what I mean."

"You're fighting Voldemort in the future? He's nothing more than a lousy politician right now."

"He's far worse than a politician, sir. He slowly gains power over the next ten years...maybe I shouldn't be telling you this; I've already said more than I should have."

Professor Dumbledore nodded solemnly at the girl in front of him. "Well, I can take you up to the Headmaster's office. You may speak with him and try to figure out why you were brought back so far. If we can't find a suitable solution, we'll see about getting you resorted."

"Thank you, sir."

"Miss Pikett, you are excused back to your common room. I daresay I'm capable of handling this situation from here." He smiled at his student and she murmured a 'Thank you, Professor.' She scampered back to the portrait of The Fat Lady to enter into her common room.

~~~

Notes: Dates are based on the HP lexicon timeline. I know it's out of canon with Dumbledore as Head of House, but I wanted to write him in that role while leaving the previous Headmaster in that role as well.