Differences

AN: Thank you to all reviewers. Responses can be found at the end of the chapter. As always, I don\'t own, you don\'t sue.

CHAPTER TWO

Hermione Granger stared moodily into the crackling fire dancing in her fireplace. Old habits die hard, and though she had not done this since she had married Severus, the impulse was still there. Granted, in a way the two were still newlyweds, not yet married a full year when...well, until this happened.

The fire flared green, and a cream-coloured envelope sealed with red wax, stamped with the Hogwarts crest, shot form the flames, streaking out to hit a leg of the table at which Hermione was silently seated.

She leaned down to pick up the envelope, and as she did so, she slid a nail under the red seal to break it. She pulled out a sheet of parchment bearing familiar rounded handwriting in a moremore familiar shade of emerald green ink.

Hermione:
Please come to my office when you receive this. We have gathered the Heads of Houses as well as Professor Vector so that we may make the final arrangements. This is very urgent.
Everything will be explained in more detail when you arrive. Please have a glamour in mind.

Regards,
Albus Dumbledore

Hermione nodded and smiled to herself. She had, indeed, already chosen a glamour for herself, one which she knew she would find and learn this year. Standing, she whispered the extinguishing spell for the fireplace, and exited her quarters.

*****

Hermione found herself standing in the doorway of Albus\' office in no time, and four professors sat there with the Headmaster himself.

\"Please, come in, my dear.\"

Hermione smiled and entered, taking the seat nearest the fireplace. It was August, and though Hermione preferred the comfort of a fire no matter what season (with charms, of course, one could alter temperature though it was considered unnecessary and almost wasteful of one\'s energy), it was obvious that Albus much preferred the warm sunlight, which poured in through a window behind his desk.

As she looked around, she realised that one person was missing, the one person she was both dreading and looking forward to seeing.

\"Albus...where is Severus?\"

Albus frowned slightly. \"Ah, yes, there is that...he will not be joinin. H. He was called away on urgent business.\"

Hermione observed Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick sharing significant glances, and she knew exactly what \'urgent business\' entailed. Pomona Sprout, however, seemed unaffected, and Thalia Vector looked similarly unperturbed. Hermione wondered just how much of her speculation as a sixth-year had been based on nothing. She had assumed, until her own induction into the Order of the Phoenix, that Thalia Vector, of all people, had to know exactly what was going on. The perceptive Ravenclaw, however, looked blissfully ignorant at the moment. Although if Hermione\'s other suspicion (that Vector had a great deal of Slytherin in her) was correct, then Vector probably was quite aware of the goings-on surrounding the Potions Master.

\"I...see,\" said Hermione lamely, unsure of how else to react. Certainly she knew how it was, possibly better than anyone else - having to come home to an empty bed, knowing ther her husband was away, on business not only urgent but possibly life-threatening, hoping that he would come home later only to drink himself into a stupor and wake up the next morning, head throbbing and limbs aching. Merlin knew she had done the best she could but sometimes she had had to wonder - still had to, for that matter - if it made it worse for him, now that he felt he had to \'take care\' of her, as well. Sometimes she wished that he was not the person he was, but she also knew at the same time that were he not the same person he was, she would not only not be the person SHE was, but they would probably not be together.

\"...Hermione?\" Albus had begun to talk, to take everyone\'s mind off of Severus, but he had failed in her little corner. \"Hermione.\"

She smiled weakly. \"I...sorry,\" she said apologetically. \"My mind was elsewhere.\"

\"We were asking if you had a name in mind.\"

\"Espoir,\" she said unhesitatingly.

Minerva for once looked confused, but a smile had lit up Albus\' vaguely somber face. \"Hope,\" he said triumphantly. \"What an inspired choice! And for a first name?\"

\"Melpomene.\"

Now Minerva looked disturbed. \"Melpomene? The muse of tragedy?\"

Hermione smiled. \"The perfect counterpart to Thalia, muse of comedy, isn\'t it?\"

Thalia Vector looked surprised. \"That is...an interesting choice,\" she allowed. \"But I don\'t believe it matters. Except for your own younger counterpart and those who actually pay attention in Astronomy - that is, if mythology is still in the Astronomy curriculum - no-one will understand the symbolism. Not that anyone remembers my first name anyhow.\"

\"Then welcome to the staff, Professor Melpomene Espoir.\"

\"Thank you.\" Hermione smiled.

\"You\'re positive you want to use a glamour?\"

\"Yes.\" Hermione glanced down, then looked up again abruptly. \"Before we go on,\" she interrupted Albus\' open mouth, \"I want to bring up the fact that Espoir is an old Pureblood name.\"

\"So it is, isn\'t it...\" mused Flitwick, not only a Charms Master but well versed in Magical Geneaology, something he was avidly interested in on the side.

Hermione looked askance briefly at Albus. \"I want to join Severus.\"

TBC

Susan: Thanks so much for your review. What one might tell one\'s future self...that\'s a very good idea, I may toy with it a bit, I hadn\'t thought of that. Another one to think about, along those same lines, what would you tell your past self, if you had the chance? Little \'fortune cookies\' of wisdom, perhaps?

Elementaldeity: Well - not that it will give anything away, but - Hermione didn\'t intentionally come back in time. I\'ve always liked the idea of time-travel by \'non-conventional\' means, as it were, or accidentally. What I was aiming for with this, along those lines - when you take the Floo, how does it work? And if someone tweaked with it (heck, it\'s magic, anything\'s possible!), then couldn\'t you theoretically move in time, and not space? (Think Madeleine L\'Engle\'s \'A Swiftly Tilting Planet\', or at least I think that\'s what it was.)

Glenda: I\'m trying! Sorry for the long wait!

Kiristeen: Another author I adore! Thanks so much for reviewing; you\'ve made my day!

Elvirasnape: Of course it\'ll be an SS/HG. They\'re married in the future, for Merlin\'s sake! *veg* Thanks for reviewing.

Deb: This is also on LnLS in case you would rather read it there, I know you reviewed all my other stories on LnLS and thank you very much for reviewing this one as well! I was getting tired of the \'Hermione travels back to Severus\' school days\' or \'Severus travels forward to Hermione\'s present\', etc. etc. (And also the \'HG/SS\' child travels to Hermione/Severus\' school days one, but we won\'t get into that! ^_~)

BlaqueTonik: Thank you very much for reading/reviewing!

spaz141: I love the name! (In case you hadn\'t noticed, I am a complete spaz myself!) Thank you so much for your review!