A Tale of Two Grangers

Severus looked a bit distracted when they reconvened in the kitchen, but didn\'t mention Hermione\'s bathroom hijinks again other than to ask whether she was feeling well enough to apparate. She assured him that she was, he took her arm in his, and they were off with a bang.



Hermione was startled by his lead, but had only a moment to consider it before she stumbled onto the path just before the Hogwarts boundary. Severus was more sure on his feet as the initiator of the side-along apparition, and immediately walked to the lock and chains holding the gates closed. With a tap of his wand they slithered open, and he waited for her to follow him onto the grounds. She could hear the gates and chains close again behind them.



She was silent for a few minutes of their walk, in awe of the familiar place. She hadn\'t realized how upset she was about her situation until she felt so comforted by the wisp of smoke coming from Hagrid\'s chimney and the lazy wave of the giant squid\'s tentacles. Tears welled up in her eyes when they passed the Whomping Willow, and she wiped them away before Severus saw them. He stoically ignored her.



The doors of the castle opened for them, and the strange emptiness of the entrance hall calmed her. It didn\'t feel so much like a lost home when there weren\'t students shouting and running through the halls. Severus led her up the stairs to the library, still in silence. He\'d been oddly quiet since they left, she noticed. When they reached the open doors of the library, he stopped.



"I have a staff meeting. I expect it to last an hour, but plan for two or more. Albus does enjoy wasting my precious summer hours with his inane chatter," he grumbled. "Find what you can while we\'re here. I don\'t fancy battling Madam Pince for permission to take books off Hogwarts grounds."



"All right, Severus. Have fun." She said this as she nearly ran into the library, leaving him smirking in the hall. Not only would she get to relive her favorite times at school researching in her beloved library, but she didn\'t have to do it under the nose of the vulturous librarian. It was a dream come true, except for the small matter of being stuck in the 1980s.



The restricted section was her first stop, of course, and she spent almost the first half hour simply skimming the titles for anything that might be related to her query. One book she found, Horrible Accidents and Deaths in Time Travel, screamed and moaned when she pulled it from the shelf. Now that she was allowed to be here, she found it almost humorous rather than alarming. She gathered a small stack and returned to the tables.



Most of the texts were little more than warnings against altering events of the past. She found that most of the tales, however, were completely untrustworthy—witches or wizards claimed to have traveled in time and accidentally changed reality, but they could have just as well been lying. Some of the older books had wilder stories, such as alternate pasts of golden cities that were lost due to a wizard\'s seemingly insignificant meddling. One witch claimed to have seen Atlantis in "her" reality, only to have lost it by going back in time and squashing a cockroach.



Hermione quickly became annoyed with the outlandish accounts and lack of helpful information. She put the books back and searched for more in the rest of the library, her hope dwindling. She had always felt that the best books were in the restricted section.



Some time later, after becoming disgusted with another pile of books, she stumbled upon a small textbook on a lower shelf. Reversing Magickal Accidentes seemed promising, although she expected it to contain more methods for cleaning potion spills than anything else. The sixteenth chapter, however, was devoted to "Accidentes in Tyme and Dimension."



According to the author, Wurdle Woopsine, time travel was a relatively difficult field to study. As Hermione had noted, researchers couldn\'t be trusted, and most were thought to be frauds. However, some small experiments had been carried out successfully. Igor Blitzblaven had traveled in increments of minutes and seconds with the cooperation of stationary partners to ensure that he wouldn\'t kill himself. He tried all manner of chance tests, such as flipping coins and tossing balls through hoops. His results were inconsistent, but his work was notable for reassuring the Ministry that no substantial harm came from responsible time travel. His experiments led to the Ministry\'s storage of time turners for emergency use.



Antoinette Ackenforth was the first researcher of memory alteration through time travel. She found that although no one had actual memories of "lost" realities, they were able to perform (to some degree) skills that were only learned in those realities. Her research led to the theory of soul memory, a field of soul research still mostly unstudied but promising.



Hermione forced herself to skip the rest of the interesting background and get to the practical information. It seemed there were a lot of missing persons due to time travel. And now I\'m one of them, Hermione dismally thought to herself. There were also cases of splinching, which could never be fixed unless the splinched part with the time travel device managed to come back. There was one recorded case of a time loop, in which Mathias Thurtlewart somehow managed to get stuck traveling back and forth between two and three-quarters seconds. He eventually died of starvation as he couldn\'t swallow fast enough.



Woopsine recommended not to time travel at all, which was quite unhelpful. Otherwise, there were few solutions. Even if one could find another method of travel and return to their own time, theory had it that they would inevitably have changed something and find themselves doubled in their original time. Even if she were careful not to change anything (which, she noted, I probably did when I showed Severus my naked thighs), there were no methods of time travel outside what she was familiar with. The time turner, of course, an ancient spell so dangerous and complicated even she would never attempt it, and a vague suggestion about slipping through "ribbons of dimension at will." That sounded a bit too much like something Sybill Trelawney would believe in, so Hermione shut the book with a sigh and returned to her search.



Not long after, Severus came to fetch her. She was surprised to find that three hours had gone by (much to his annoyance). They were just walking down the steps to the entrance hall when a familiar voice called after them. "Severus! Oh, I didn\'t think I\'d catch you."



Hermione turned and was shocked to see that old, beloved pair of twinkling blue eyes. Her breath caught in her throat as he strode up to them. Her eyes again began to water, this time with a few tears leaking out, but neither man seemed to notice.



"Severus, I just wanted to remind you about your laboratory list. The board of governors wants it by next Tuesday for approval." Albus Dumbledore spoke to Severus without looking at Hermione while she tried to compose herself.



"If they want to waste their time bickering over the same list every year, then so be it, but I can\'t fathom why I should be expected to—"



Dumbledore held up one hand to interrupt the agitated potions master. "I assure you, Severus, that your diligence in this matter is greatly appreciated by the board and especially by myself." With that, he turned to Hermione. "You haven\'t introduced me to your friend, Severus. Hermione Granger, is it?"



Severus and Hermione both stared at Dumbledore, stunned. The potions master\'s eyes merely widened a bit, but Hermione\'s mouth hung agape in obvious surprise.



The headmaster chuckled. "Don\'t worry, my dear. Your secret is safe with my source and myself. If you would both join me for a cup of tea to discuss the matter, however, I would be delighted."



With that, Dumbledore began walking toward his office, whistling. Severus and Hermione looked at each other, he with one eyebrow raised, then followed.

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How did Dumbledore know who she was? What does he want to discuss? Will Severus ever get any booty? Tune in next time for answers to these questions and more!



p.s. Sorry it took a bit longer for this chapter. Don\'t give up on me! I have a busy life right now, but there is no way I\'m leaving this unfinished. Also, please forgive my cheesy book titles. ;)



p.p.s. Thanks again, reviewers! You\'re awesome as always.