A Turn for the Better

Chapter 2 ~ The Return

As the world spun around her, Hermione Granger felt rather odd. Traveling by Time Turner was always disorienting, but this was almost like she was tripping on some kind of hallucinatory drug. Images of her life were all around her, overlapping, melting, flying at her, whirling and fading, and things that never happened were suddenly happening and the familiar became unfamiliar, then suddenly familiar, replaced by a completely new reality. She saw Harry, Ron, Dumbledore, Snape, Hagrid, a three-headed dog, a basilisk in a small mirror, and now she was a cat-thing, now she was flying on a hippogriff, now Ron was being dragged away by a huge black dog, screaming at the top of his lungs as he clutched his rat Scabbers. The reality of her life was being broken like a jigsaw puzzle, bits and pieces of her past taken apart and rearranged to form another complete and different picture.

A picture that included nothing concerning a despot named Voldemort, nor a close friendship with a boy named Harry Potter.

In fact, Harry Potter was a bloody, insensitive git of a Slytherin.

So he was quite surprised when a nearly nude Hermione Granger appeared in his Head Boy room with only her wand in her hand.

The boy-who-always-lived had been looking at some nude pictures of Pansy Parkinson that his friend Draco Malfoy had slipped to him. He'd taken them without her knowledge while shagging her from behind.

Her face wasn't anything special, but her body . . . it was more than passable.

So Harry was already randy when Hermione appeared. He sat up and adjusted his glasses as Hermione looked at him with round eyes, so startled to be here she made no attempt to cover herself.

"Granger!" Harry said, standing up immediately and grabbing his wand off the nightstand next to his bed.

"Potter? What am I doing here?" she demanded, her brown eyes narrowing.

"I don't know what you're doing here," the wizard said, his green eyes drifting down her body, his mouth twisting into a leer, "but it's pretty obvious to me why you're here. I never knew you were into snakes, Granger. And to think I thought you hated me."

"What? Are you insane? I do hate you!" Hermione hissed, then looked down at herself and gave a little scream. "Oh my gods!"

She started to flick her wand at herself to charm up some robes when Harry pointed his own at her and cried, "Petrificus Totalus!" freezing her in place and catching her before she fell. He dragged her over to his bed and let her topple into it, face first before rolling her to her back

He pulled her wand out of her stiff hand and stared down at her.

"You don't think I'm going to let such an opportunity pass just because you got cold feet, Granger. It's obvious you came here to get shagged, and I'm an equal opportunity Slytherin. I'd do someone from Gryffindor house just as easily as someone from Slytherin."

Hermione watched in silent, frozen horror as Harry took off his glasses, put them and her wand on his nightstand and began to unbutton his robes.

"I might have to Obliviate you afterwards," the wizard said, pulling his robes open and revealing a tented pair of Slytherin green boxers.

"No! No!" Hermione screamed internally, unable to move as he began to slip his robes off his shoulders.

Suddenly the door to his bedroom door flew open and in walked Professor Severus Snape, his black eyes narrowed as he looked at his Slytherin and the young woman petrified on his bed.

"What are you doing with a witch in your room, Mr. Potter?" he asked him silkily.

Harry reddened and quickly adjusted his robes.

"I . . . I . . . er," he said lamely, trying to come up with something.

Snape swept by him, pointed his wand at Hermione and hissed, "Finite Incantatem," releasing her from the spell, then flicking his wand at her, covering her in black robes as she sat up and grabbed her wand off the nightstand. She immediately pointed it at Harry.

"I should hex your bloody balls off!" she snarled at Harry.

"Now, Miss Granger, if you would kindly tell me what occurred, I will be happy to punish Mr. Potter if he did anything untoward. Tell me, did he force you to come here? Kidnapped you, perhaps?" the Potions master purred, perfectly aware Harry hadn't.

Hermione lowered her wand.

"Ah, I can't say. I don't know. It seems as if I were suddenly just here," Hermione said, her eyes confused.

"I didn't bring her here. I swear, professor. She just appeared, dressed like she was. I thought . . . I thought she wanted me to give her a go. What else was I to think?" Harry said to Snape, who shook his head slightly. He really had done a job on the boy. He had practically no conscience or scruples.

"And that's why you had her under the Petrificus Totalus spell?" he asked the boy, who reddened.

"I just didn't want her moving around too much," Harry lied.

Snape arched an eyebrow at him.

"I’ll deal with you later, Mr. Potter. Apparently, you have a lot to learn when it comes to engaging witches. Now, come along Miss Granger. I will escort you to Gryffindor Tower," he said to the witch softly.

"Thank you, Professor Snape," Hermione said gratefully, scowling at Harry before walking out of the door.

Snape looked at him.

"What goes on in Slytherin, stays in Slytherin, Mr. Potter. If I hear a word of this incident outside of this room by anyone, you will be reported to the Headmaster and consequently, to the Ministry. I know what you were intending to do, and attempted rape is just as much a crime as rape itself. I know you don't want to be cooling your heels in Azkaban for an act you didn't have the chance to complete," he said to his charge.

"No sir," Harry said, hanging his head. "I won't say a word to anyone."

"See that you don't. I'll get back to you later," the wizard said, exiting the room.

Hermione was standing just outside of it. Snape studied her for a moment, then flicked his wand at her, coldness washing over her body as he Disillusioned her.

"This is much simpler than having you walk through the Slytherin Common room in all your Gryffindor glory," the wizard purred, pressing a hand to the young woman's back and guiding her up the hall.

Together they passed through the Slytherin Common Room, the students looking at their Head of House curiously as he passed with an obviously disillusioned person in tow. But they knew better than to ask who it was. If Snape wanted them to know, the person wouldn't be Disillusioned. They returned to what they were doing as Snape and his nearly invisible companion walked up the damp corridor to the Slytherin entrance and out into the dungeons proper.

Snape stopped in front of his office door, opened it and gestured for the witch to go in. Hermione entered and he followed behind her, closing the door, then removing the Disillusionment spell from the witch.

"Are you all right, Miss Granger?" professor Snape asked her, concern in his dark eyes.

"Yes, I am. Thank you sir. If you hadn't arrived when you did, I . . . I don't know what would have happened," she said to him softly.

"I do," he said to her thoughtfully, "I guess you didn't think everything through . . . such as what would happen on your return."

Hermione blinked at the wizard. Professor Snape was her favorite teacher. He was always patient and reasonable with her, despite how harsh he was with everyone else. If professor Snape could be said to have a "Teacher's Pet," Hermione Granger was definitely it. Most thought it was because she was so blasted smart that he treated her as he did. Not once in all seven terms had he taken points from her in the classroom or assigned her detention. She was the only Gryffindor in the school who passed through his class totally unscathed. And he gave her as many extra assignments as she asked for.

The wizard was grooming Hermione to be his first apprentice. She was more than capable of becoming a fine Potions mistress, and he intended to make her a success.

She had changed the course of his life after all, and Severus Snape never forgot a kindness.

"What do you mean I didn't think everything through, professor?" the Gryffindor asked him, her brown eyes sober.

Snape quirked his lip at her.

"Suffice it to say, Miss Granger, I did think it through, and that's why I was able to be there in your time of need," he said cryptically. "One day, I'll tell you a story. After you leave the confines of Hogwarts . . . then you'll understand what happened today. Until that time, I ask you not to make mention of this incident to anyone. If you do, you will never know the truth of the matter," he said to her softly.

She looked just as she did the night she came to him, and he couldn't help feeling some attraction to the young witch. He'd had her before. Possibly, he'd have her again once she graduated.

Hermione blinked at him, confused but curious. But she trusted professor Snape implicitly, despite everyone else's low opinion of him. He was a good teacher and she knew it. The only reason he was so harsh was because Potions was an exacting science, and errors could cost lives. She didn't understand why no one else could see that. He didn't yell at her because she listened carefully and applied herself.

Well, that's what she had thought. In another world and another timeline, she would have caught just as much hell as anyone else, and maybe a bit more.

"All right, professor, but . . . but you will tell me, won't you?" she asked him.

"Yes," he said, reaching out and drawing the Time Turner over her head. Hermione didn't even realize she had one on.

"A Time Turner? What in the world was I doing with that?" she asked him.

"You'll find out at the proper time. Now let me get you back to Gryffindor tower," the wizard said solicitously, opening the door and letting the witch out, his black eyes resting on her thoughtfully as he followed.

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Hermione had just made it back to her room, when suddenly she felt a sharp pain between her legs and let out a shriek. It felt like something had impaled her. It was a quick pain, and then it was gone.

She quickly removed her robes, pulled down the front of her knickers and slipped her fingers between her thighs. When she pulled back her hand . . . there was blood on it.

Her period had ended a week ago. Frightened, she went to see Poppy.

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After examining Hermione, Poppy looked at her soberly, then told her to get dressed and exited through the privacy curtain. Hermione put on her clothing and sat on the end of the cot. Poppy returned, her arms full of pamphlets among other things.

"Here," the medi-witch said, frowning at Hermione slightly. "Read through this material. It's all about protecting yourself from pregnancy and wizarding STDs. And here is a contraceptive patch, put it on and be sure to come back next month to have it replaced."

"What? I don't need these!" Hermione gasped, "I'm not sexually active!"

Poppy arched an eyebrow at her.

"Miss Granger, I know that it can be embarrassing to let others know you aren't pristine, but it happens in the heat of passion. My examination shows only that you've been recently deflowered. There is no ejaculate however, which leads me to think you must have had second thoughts and not completed the act," Poppy said evenly.

"But no . . . I didn't! I swear Madame Pomfrey. I haven't had sex with anyone," she declared, her eyes round.

Poppy simply shook her head.

"Perhaps you were engaging in a bit of self-gratification then," the medi-witch suggested.

Hermione turned all kinds of colors.

"No! I wasn't," the young witch said, mortified.

"Well, something went in there," Poppy said, "whether you admit it or not. Denial isn't an answer, Miss Granger. I've seen enough deflowered young women to know the signs of penetration. However it happened, your hymen has been broken and recently. I suggest you put on that patch and read those pamphlets. You can return to your house now."

The medi-witch exited the enclosure, and Hermione sat there with a bewildered look on her face. She hadn't had sex with anyone and she didn't insert things inside her, although she had masturbated on a couple of occasions, just because she liked how it felt. But that was just rubbing.

She hopped off the cot, reduced everything Poppy brought her and exited the Medical Ward, thoroughly confused.

This had been the strangest day of her life.

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A/N: This came to me this morning. I'm going to have to backpedal though, because I want to show how different life was in Hogwarts and the wizarding world when Hermione was growing up, who she now associates with, her run-ins with Harry and Draco . . . if Ron is anywhere in the picture, if she is as social now as she was in the other timeline, things of that nature. There won't be fast updates, but there will be updates. Thanks for reading.