Rewrite the past

Chapter 32

School was out for the year, and Hermione stood in front of the window of her dorm room, overlooking the school grounds. Her eyes were following the many students in the distance as they all made their way down to Hogsmeade to catch the Hogwarts Express that would take them to London and to their families. 

She looked at the mountains in the distance, and her mind was showing her memories of a time she had not thought about in a long time. The sky seemed to darken the longer she looked out, and finally, when it was starting to get to her, she had to turn around and lean against the windowsill for support. She remembered all those she left behind those many years ago when she first embarked on her journey through time. There were those who died - there were so many of them, she realized, as her mind showed her images of all of them. There was the old and war-worn Minerva from her timeline, there was Mad-Eye and Tonks, there was Ronald and, at the far end of the long queue of people, there was Harry. She had not seen him in so long that it actually shocked her to see him the way he looked before he died: all worn out, emaciated and full of wounds and scars. 

People always told him he looked and behaved just like his dad - and in some ways he did, but in so many ways he also did not, especially when he was showing emotions. He had definitely inherited his mother's fierceness, of that she was sure.

Then her mind spun around and brought her back even further in time, and suddenly she stood in her parent's living room, the two of them sitting on the couch. This scenery brought back so many memories she had not thought about in many months. 

As she slowly started to tear up thinking about all of this, she heard a knock on the door, and so she quickly wiped at the tears in her eyes before saying: "Come in."

The door opened and Minerva stuck her head through the door, looking around the room to find her. "Hermione, are you ready? It's about time that we leave for the year."

Hermione nodded and replied: "I'll be down in a minute."

She heard the door close, and so she turned to face the window once again. Hermione took in the scenery, the view of the Black Lake, the Forbidden Forest and the mountains in the distance. She saw Hagrid's hut, small puffs of smoke coming out of his chimney.

Then, after she had looked around one last time, she closed the window, turned around and grabbed her purse from the bed. As she descended the stairs leading her through the castle, her fingers traced the rails and the walls. Something deep inside her felt as if she was saying goodbye one last time - she did not think she would ever come back. 

Minerva, Severus and his mother were already waiting for her when she had made her way all the way down to the Entrance Hall, where Sev took her purse from her right before he took her arm and led her to the fireplace. He must have seen her stride waver a bit as she walked down the last flight of stairs. She would have never said it out loud, but even just walking down from the Ravenclaw common room had exhausted her to a greater extent than she would have thought it would. 

As soon as they were back in Minerva's house in Cokeworth, she chose to lie down and from that moment on, her health started to deteriorate a lot quicker than it did before when they were at Hogwarts.

Just as three weeks had passed, she found it hard to even get up some days, feeling fatigued almost all the time. While she was sleeping away most of her days, all the others could just watch as she slowly withered away, at least all except Severus who spent most of the days hidden away in his room, experimenting day and night. 

The adults were starting to get worried about not seeing either of the teens. Minerva might not have been Hermione's relative by blood, but after the years the two of them had spent together, she sure felt like the girl's grandmother. And now, having to sit there and not being able to help her made her want to scream in agony. She had now realized she could not just sit there and twiddle her thumbs, so she took to her extensive library in hopes of being able to research something that could help. 

Another week had passed, and an uneasy silence had fallen over the whole house. Not many words were spoken, and the air felt tense as if a storm was soon to hit, wreaking havoc in their lives. Right as things seemingly were about to get worse, a visitor showed up on their doorstep.