All the Time in the World

Chapter Twenty Three

Harry, Ron and Hermione fidgeted all the way through the sorting. They wondered how they would be sorted once their turn came. Would they be sorted at all? But how else to put them in a House? Surely, Professor Dumbledore didn't have that much influence to have them sorted without the hat? And if the hat put them all in Gryffindor, then how were they supposed to get close to Tom Riddle?

Hermione frowned slightly. It was not an ideal plan, but it was the best they could come up with. They could try and get close to Riddle, be his friends, but not his followers. He was a loner, but if they could break through that barrier, perhaps they could break Merope's spell? It was a long shot, but they had no other ideas.

Hermione knew Harry and Ron would be lost without her. They needed her here, to prevent them from tripping up. But she wondered who was going to keep her from tripping. Harry would give his life for them both, but what they needed was to think through everything. They had to be careful of their words, of everything they would speak, they had to be constantly on their guard. Somehow she did not think it was going to be as easy as it sounded.

She watched the line of first years getting shorter and shorter. She had paid no attention to any of them. It was not as if she was going to be here for long anyway. She didn't belong here. The Hogwarts that she belonged to, was more than fifty years in the future. It occurred to her that the education she was going to get here might be out dated. A lot of magical discoveries had happened in the intervening years, and she was going to miss all that. The only relief was that Professor Dumbledore had assured her that she would not miss a single lesson back in her own time.

"It'll be as if no time has passed here," he had said. "So you need have no worries on that score."

Ron had rolled his eyes at her. He could not understand her worry about missing classes. And even Harry felt that she was not giving their adventure the importance it deserved. Harry might choose to call it a mission, but Hermione felt it to be an adventure. And she really didn't have much hopes for its success. What if they broke the spell? Would it make that much of a difference? Besides which, they could not stay back in this time. They had to return to their own time. And when they do, how will Tom Riddle take it? If they somehow managed to befriend him, how would he feel on losing them? They could tell him the truth, but how would he feel about being lied to? She sighed. There were too many variables, and they all depended on Tom Riddle. Was she the only one who saw all that?

Harry and Ron did not want to hear any of it, not that it stopped her from telling them. Fat lot of good it did. "We'll figure something out," was Ron's refrain. She didn't think Harry even listened to her. He was too caught up in his idea of how it would turn out to really apply thought to her objections.

She was startled as Professor Dumbledore called out her name.

"Miss Granger, please put on the hat," he said, smiling.

Hermione went forward, hiding her fears behind a nervous smile. She kept her eyes on Professor Dumbledore, and mentally contrasted him with the Headmaster she knew. It helped calm her and she sat on the stool gingerly. The professor placed the hat on her head and Hermione drew a deep breath of apprehension.