A Turn for the Better

Chapter 3 – The Problem with Paradox

Severus Snape sat in his private study in front of the fireplace, a glass of Firewhiskey on the small table between two armchairs and the wizard occupying one of those chairs, his large nose firmly in a book.

The title of the book was "Paradoxically Speaking" by Matera Thyme.

It was a book of theories about time travel. There was no definite, hard evidence as to exactly how it worked, some theories stating that traveling in time would cause a permanent loop, others stating when the point of paradox was reached, the world would explode and so forth.

Snape hadn't been sure what would occur when Hermione reached the paradox point of when she returned to the present world, but he did know the date and time she left him and trusted that not to have changed, because the rising and setting of the sun and the earth's spin were immutable, unchangeable unless one was a god.

He also knew in the past timeline, Harry Potter was dead and not the Head boy. But in this timeline he was, so she would end up in the Head boy quarters with a very different Head boy. In this reality, Harry and Hermione didn't get along at all. She had been a target of his and Draco Malfoy from the very beginning of her term at Hogwarts. So the Potions master knew that their meeting up would most likely not go well, and made sure to be at Potter's room at the proper time.

And the world didn't blow up.

Seeing Hermione return safely made the wizard ascribe to the Alternate Universe theory, but with some interesting premises of his own, based on observation. If Hermione had been a full-blooded witch, she might have caused more disruption in the timeline than she did, tampering somehow with her own past. But she came from a line of Muggles, so there was no effect on her world at all when Voldemort died. There were no sudden survivors or additional siblings. She didn't enter the wizarding world until age eleven and her parents hadn't been affected by Voldemort or the wizarding world at all. A pureblood could have caused great changes.

Plus, Hermione didn't belong in that alternate past, and her appearance in it was a very small ripple that dispersed when she returned to her own time. She had only interacted with him, so there were no residual changes emanating from any other encounter. What her appearance had done was to set another alternate time line into linear existence, the original timeline fading into the realm of possibility.

If time were seen as a flowing river, Hermione's appearance would be shown as a new branch of the river flowing parallel to the original. Imagine that original river being blocked at the mouth, the only way forward would be to navigate that new branch which would reconnect to the original timeline at the point Hermione returned to the past.

When she met his younger self, that was the point at which the river of time formed a new branch and closed off the old one. Hermione was not part of that branch because she didn't stay but returned to her past, an altered past that followed the new timeline.

Everything changed but she did not acknowledge that change because everything from where she stood seemed a quite normal progression of time, as it did for everyone with the exception of Snape, who knew the timeline had changed. He was the only one aware of it, because he knew what happened originally.

What had concerned the wizard was what would happen to the witch once the new timeline caught up to the point where she went back in time? Would it end?

Obviously not, because the new timeline was now a reality, and the old timeline only an alternate possibility. In other words, a shadow . . . insubstantial, unable to touch or interact with the new reality physically.

At least for those who had not disrupted the timeline.

Snape's brow furrowed.

Hermione might be physically set in this reality, but man was more than a body. His mind could freely travel to the past, present and future with just a thought and without the body moving from the place in space it occupied. The mind wasn't relegated to the present. Linear thinking could be changed quite easily. And he was relatively sure that if there were to be any change in this reality, it would only be in Hermione Granger's mind.

In other words, she would become aware of the alternate timeline, and possibly remember it, even if it never happened in this reality. Hopefully, she wouldn't be hit with those memories all at once. She had seemed fine on her return, if befuddled by exactly why she was in Potter's room.

He had wanted to get to her for precisely that reason. She could have returned babbling like an idiot, wanting to know how Harry was alive.

Fortunately, that didn't happen.

Yet.

Maybe there was some safeguard, some temporal protection in the brain that kept her from being deluged with alternate memories. The human mind was an amazing thing and quite adaptable. It was very possible that those alternate memories were stored in her subconscious. But would they stay there?

Snape was of the mind that they wouldn't since she was now at the point of paradox, physically overlapping a single moment in time from two perspectives. If his theory was correct, then those memories would return to her. From what he'd seen today, she wasn't conscious of them . . . yet.

But how did the subconscious mind make itself known? Through images. Through dreams.

The Potions master sighed and closed the book, finishing his Firewhiskey.

He had a feeling Hermione Granger wouldn't be sleeping well for a long, long time.

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In her bed, Hermione Granger tossed and turned, caught up in a strange dream. She was in the Head boy room, with a tall, pale young wizard, quite thin with long black hair and sharp black eyes. They were talking, but she couldn't hear what was said, and everything seemed stuttered, jerky.

Suddenly the wizard was on top of her, talking to her. Finally, she was able to focus on his face . . .

Suddenly Hermione tangled up in the bed sheets wildly, flailing and arching upward before she awoke, covered in sweat, her entire body tingling as she sat up and wrapped her arms around herself, breathing heavily.

She had dreamed about Professor Snape! But . . . he was young, around her own age. And she was having sex with him.

"Oh my gods," she breathed, unable to shake the feeling. The dream had been so lucid, so . . . so real.

"Am I having erotic dreams about professor Snape?" she asked herself, falling back on the bed.

Hermione did have a small crush on the older wizard, but thought it was rather normal for a student to feel attracted to a brilliant teacher. It was a classic crush case, nothing she ever remotely thought about pursuing. Professor Snape would never be interested in her that way, and she didn't want to ruin a good teacher/student relationship.

But then again, she had never dreamed about him so erotically before. It had to be her subconscious working at her. She believed it was, making him younger so it would be more . . . well . . . possible that he would engage her sexually. It made the fantasy more feasible, logical. Hermione didn't doubt a bit of logic could creep into her dreams.

But, wow. Wouldn't her mind have prettied him up a bit? He wasn't anyway as near as attractive as he was now. He was skinny, gangly and had acne. He still had those beautiful dark eyes however, long lashed and penetrating. Still, she had felt . . . pleasure.

Slowly, she lay back down, sure it was just her mind acting out. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any more dreams of shagging a young Professor Snape.

It was . . . disturbing.

Unfortunately, her hopes were dashed, and she spent the entire night being ridden by the young dark wizard, hearing him speak but not being able to understand him.

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The next morning, Hermione was awakened from a fitful sleep by a knocking on her door. Tired and irritable she yelled, "Who is it?"

"It's Neville," Neville Longbottom called through the door, his brow furrowed at how crabby the witch sounded. "I've come to walk you to breakfast."

Neville and Hermione had been friends since they first met on the Hogwarts Express. He had lost his toad and familiar, Trevor. She helped him look for it. She had met Harry Potter and Ron in one of the cars, and Ron was trying to turn his rat Scabbers yellow.

Harry and Ron had been friends for years, meeting each other when they were children. Harry liked Ron all right, but his family was so poor. Back then, sometimes Harry was ashamed to be seen with Ron, because all his clothes were second hand and patched and it seemed people looked down on him and his family. Still, he played with him. Ron was enamored of Harry and his family because his father was a seeker for the Bigonville Bombers Quidditch team. Because he knew James Potter, naturally the Bigonville Bombers were his favorite team.

It was cool to have a friend whose father was famous.

Hermione had thrown the doors open and asked if they had seen Neville's toad, then commented on Ron's poor spell work and told them her name. Harry scowled at her, thinking she looked like a chipmunk with those big front teeth, but reluctantly gave her his name. Ron did likewise. Then she left.

"She's going to be a horror," Ron commented after the bossy little witch left. "Did you see her hair? What a mess!"

Harry stuck out his front teeth and made chipmunk noises. Ron nearly fell apart with laughter.

"Let's hope she doesn't bite," he quipped.

No, they hadn't gotten off to a stellar start at all. But Neville was nice. He was short and rather pudgy, but he was a proper wizard and made sure Hermione didn't feel ostracized. She was smart and he really admired her for that. People started to pick at her because she was so vocal and so brilliant and it was Neville who stood up for her, threatening to do some bodily harm to anyone who hurt her feelings.

In fact, he and Ron got into a scrap when Ron said what a terror she was after Charms class, when Hermione tried to help him by telling him how to pronounce the Wingardium Leviosa spell.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Dean Thomas as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "she's a nightmare, honestly."

Neville had been walking behind them and frowned when suddenly someone knocked into him as they hurried past. He heard a small sob and saw it was Hermione. Now Neville really scowled and caught up to Ron.

"Hermione heard you, you know," the Gryffindor said, "you made her cry."

Ron shrugged carelessly and laughed, as did Dean.

"So?" said Ron, grinning at Neville. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."

"She does have friends. I'm her friend," Neville snarled at him.

"That's probably why you're not so popular either," the redhead said, "Granger is a big, fat show-off and nobody likes her, including me. She tries to make everyone think she's smarter than real witches and wizards when she's only a bloody Mud—"

That's as far as Ron got before Neville punched him square in the mouth. The brawl was pretty bad and broken up by Professor Snape. Once he found out why they had been fighting, they both received detentions.

Neville received one detention and lost five points. Ron on the other hand, received three detentions, and lost fifteen points. Ron scowled after Snape as he billowed away.

"The greasy bat. Neville started it," he groused as he headed for supper.

Neville found Hermione in the girl's bathroom and comforted the crying witch.

"Don't pay any attention to Ronald Weasley, Hermione. He's a prat and jealous because you are better at magic than he is," the young wizard said to the sniffling witch, handing her a bit of tissue. "You do have friends. I'm your friend and I'll always be your friend, don't worry. I think you're brilliant."

Hermione wiped at her eyes.

"Really Neville?" she asked him.

Neville nodded.

"Really, and I'll knock the block off any bloke who gives you a hard time," he added, reaching inside his robes and pulling out a pumpkin pastie. "Here, eat this."

Hermione took it from Neville gratefully and smiled at him through her tears.

"Thanks, Neville," she said softly.

"Aw, it's nothing," he replied and they sat together in the bathroom for a long while before returning to Gryffindor tower.

Ron was in the Common Room, playing Wizarding chess when they entered together. He scowled at Neville, then turned away. He had a huge shiner.

"What happened to Ron?" she asked Neville, who shrugged.

"I don't know. Maybe someone got tired of his big mouth," he replied.

"Good for them," Hermione said, frowning as Neville escorted her to the stairs that led to the girl's dormitory. "He's a git."

Neville Longbottom was much different in this timeline than he was in the former one. He had been raised by his parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom, who were both Aurors. Without his grandmother's constant browbeating and put-downs, Neville grew into a confident, strong young wizard with a strong sense of fairness and a hatred of bullies. He didn't mind a scrap or two. His dad had shown him some moves and he was a fair fighter. He was sure his parents wouldn't give him too hard a time when he told them why he punched Ron Weasley. Picking on a witch wasn't Quidditch.

Neville was treated quite differently by Professor Snape as well in this timeline. He still caught hell from the wizard if he messed up in class, but he wasn't singled out and maligned, and Snape never tried to poison his toad Trevor. And Neville wasn't half bad in Potions, or any class really, because he studied with Hermione and she scheduled his time accordingly. They were fast friends all through school.

Snape saw Neville as a good influence on Hermione, and that he was protective of her, so he cut the Gryffindor some slack. It was obvious that Hermione's brilliance was going to make life difficult at Hogwarts. Hopefully she wouldn't dumb herself down to be more acceptable. To Snape's relief, she didn't. He was very pleased at that.

Hermione stretched and scratched her bum, then said, "Neville, go ahead down to breakfast. I've got to shower and get ready."

"How about I wait for you in the Common Room? It's still early," Neville said through the door. He liked to make sure Hermione ate. She had a habit of skipping meals when she was rushed.

"I suppose telling you no wouldn't make a difference," she called back.

Neville smiled.

"Not a bit," he said with a grin. He heard Hermione give an exasperated sigh.

"All right, I'll be down in fifteen minutes," she said.

"I'll be waiting," Neville replied, leaving to go and wait for the witch.

Hermione walked into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a riot of curly tangles and she had dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.

"I look awful," she breathed, picking up her toothbrush. "Neville's going to be clucking over me like a hen."

Hermione and Neville were close, but just friends. Neville had a thing for Luna Lovegood, something Hermione just marveled over. Luna was smart, she was a Ravenclaw . . . but she had the oddest ideas. Hermione tried on numerous occasions to debate the witch over some of her beliefs, like the existence of the elusive Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Hermione thought it was "elusive" because it didn't exist, but Luna was simply just too mellow to engage in any furious arguments, stating there wouldn't be so many documented sightings if the creature wasn't real.

"We can just agree to disagree, can't we Hermione?" Luna would say to her as Neville stared at the blonde witch with his chin in his hand and sighed dreamily. He was too tongue-tied to tell her he liked her, so admired her from afar. She was the only witch who made him feel that way.

Luna was really special.

"I'll say," Hermione would snort.

Hermione took a shower and tried to look perky and bright. She wasn't in the mood for Neville's lectures.

He might threaten to take away her books again.

**********************************

When Hermione and Neville entered the Great Hall for breakfast, Snape studied the witch, noting the circles under her eyes and the tired look about her as she sat down.

It was clear she hadn't slept well at all.

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A/N: Another chapter. Man, I couldn't help it because I kept thinking about the issue of paradox with Time Travel. I had to go to some sites about it, and locked on to the Alternate Timeline theory, adding a few of my own thoughts. It's not completely feasible, but how could it be? Lol. Still it makes a little sense . . . I just hope I explained it clearly enough. I have a diagram of the timeline as I imagine it at http://theburningpen.com site in the first chapter of this story if anyone wants more clarification. Sometimes seeing it illustrated helps. Anyway, Neville is cool isn't he? I always wondered what he'd be like if his grandmother hadn't raised him. Now, I get a chance to see. Lol. Thanks for reading. ***