𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 ❧ sirius black

III - Thirty-Eight Turns

With everything from her morning meeting with Dumbledore still pressing on her mind, Hermione did her best to join her friends in Hogsmeade without creating suspicion. Suddenly it hit Hermione that in less than a day, she would be living in a timeline where she didn't actually exist. There would be no Hermione Granger until she got back, however long that would take. A split second in 1996 could be months in 1977, all depending on how long Hermione took to severe their ties with Peter. And would her existence as Harper Slughorn become erased from time, just like that? Would James and Lily remember her, or would she fade to less than a memory?

Not even a glass of butterbeer took away the what-ifs Hermione continued to think about as she tuned out her friends. It was so hard for her to believe that technically, she would only be gone for a moment, if she time-traveled correctly, of course.

Another butterbeer for herself and Ginny allowed for Hermione to calm down a tad more than before. Harry and Ron had never seen Hermione drink something so fast. Walking back to Hogwarts next to the boys was more relaxed than Hermione had expected. Despite being slightly under the influence of the butterbeer, she did her best to take in every last moment she could with Harry, Ron, and Ginny before nightfall.

The start of a new term marked one of the only times throughout the year in which the four of them were less worried about the Dark Lord and his tactics than before. However, it would be a much newer beginning for Hermione, starting tonight.

Even though Hermione wanted to spend time with her friends now more than ever, she had packing to do. Everything that she had so neatly placed into the cupboards, hung up in the closet, and unpacked onto her nightstand had to be shoved back into her trunk. Luckily for Hermione, she was alone during this process. Lavender and Pavarti walking in on her would only lead to another string of lies that Hermione was nowhere near ready to tell.

Borrowing Harry's invisibility cloak, however, caused Hermione to tell even more lies than she intended to. "I want to get to twins back for when they pranked me at the end of last year," she lied, yet again, "and I need to be invisible for it." Now, on top of saving Harry's parents' lives, Hermione had to prank one of the hardest two people to prank, as soon as she got back.

But Hermione was confident in the cloak's powers and knew that it would be of great aid to her back in 1977. And, she would technically only be borrowing Harry's cloak for no less than a day.

Soon enough, the time for dinner came along. Ravenous, Hermione savored both the amazing food and the last quality time with her best friends for a long while. They laughed. They joked. They messed around all evening until an older prefect ordered all Gryffindor students to get ready for bed. All Hermione had to do was wait.

It was another sleepless start to the night for Hermione. After quite a bit of reading and listening to Pavarti's loud snoring, it was time for her to grab her belongings and make her way back down to Hagrid's hut. Coming in handy for the first time of many, Hermione swung the invisibility cloak over her head while still in the dormitory. Wingardium Leviosa helped float Hermione's trunk while she snuck out of the room without a sound.

She took one last look at the Gryffindor common room that she had grown to love over the years, and prepared herself for a different, older one.

After dodging Snape, creeping past Filch, and hiding from a few Hufflepuff prefects, Hermione successfully made her down to Hagrid's small house without being seen. Standing over by Hagrid's large pumpkin patch, was the wise headmaster, dressed in his usual pale grey robes.

Dumbledore wasn't shocked to instantly see Hermione once she removed Harry's invisibility cloak and set down her trunk.

"Are you ready Ms. Granger?" he asked in a scratchy voice as she walked over in his direction with her trunk in hand.