Yesterday is Tomorrow (Everything is Connected)

Six: Relativity

Yesterday is Tomorrow (everything is connected)

VI

*

Lt. Ford: Is time-travel possible?

Dr. McKay: Well, according to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, there's nothing in the laws of physics to prevent it. Extremely difficult to achieve, mind you – you need the technology to manipulate black holes to create wormholes not only through points in space, but time.

Maj. Sheppard: Not to mention a really nice De Lorean.

Dr. McKay: Don't even get me started on that movie!

Maj. Sheppard: I liked that movie!

- Stargate Atlantis, "Before I Sleep," 1x15

*

The worst thing about travelling on the Hogwarts Express back to London for the holidays was the fact that Hermione's (new? Second? whatever.) parents lived in Yorkshire.

After leaving Hogwarts in the morning, they'd arrive sometime early afternoon. Disembarking, saying goodbye to friends (when one was Lily; Hermione didn't have many friends), collecting their trunks, and then making their way surreptitiously through Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, purchasing their train tickets, the inevitable wait, and then the four-hour train ride north... it was past dinner when they arrived in Hull.

Leo Evans was waiting for his daughters at the ASDA parking lot adjacent to the train station in his car, the window cracked as he smoked and read a newspaper by the light of a streetlamp.

"Hello girls!" he greeted his daughters when he spotted them coming over the metal bridge, exiting the car and greeting Lily first with a tight hug. The redhead laughed happily, dropping her trunk and squeezing their father back tightly.

"Daddy!"

Then Leo turned to Hermione. "Hello, sweetheart," he said, and gently, tentatively, reached for Hermione to draw her into a careful hug.

Stunned, Hermione could only think, have I truly been that closed off to everyone, including my own family at this time? Resolved, after her talk with not-Harry, Hermione reached around her father and tightly hugged him back.

The man exhaled loudly and brought a hand up to cup the back of Hermione's bushy curls. "Oh, my little Queen..."

Hermione's eyes burned and she furiously blinked back tears. She sniffed as she withdrew from the hug and saw her father's eyes were shining a bit brightly in the streetlamp. He cleared his throat and roughly said, "Let's get your trunks into the boot then, shall we? Rose has a stew on for you both."

Lily clambered into the front seat next to her father, chattering away about the fall semester with all the spells they were learning and the latest gossip from Gryffindor. Hermione, quietly, settled in the back, letting Lily take the spotlight.

It was habitual, but something was different this time: Leo glanced at his youngest daughter in the rear-view mirror and smiled.

This time, instead of pulling out a book to read or turning away from the look to stare out at the un/familiar hometown, Hermione smiled back.

A few days later, Hermione's eyes followed the confident forms of her mother and Lily as they effortlessly moved from one part of the kitchen to the other. She leaned against the wall at the kitchen entrance, eyes moving back and forth, as Lily stirred something on the stovetop, and her mother chopped vegetables at the counter.