Chapter Text
August 16th 1976 – Diagon Alley
Hermione didn’t even know how to process this sudden turn of events. Of course, she’d already come face to face with two people she knew in her own timeline, but this was different. This was Molly Weasley, her second mother. The woman who was essentially her mother in the magical world where her real mother couldn’t be for her. The woman who had watched her grow up. If Hermione had to guess, this Molly looked around twenty five years old. Still young with only her third child on the way. If Bill was the little boy running past her and Charlie was the toddler on her hip, then the baby was Percy.
It was so weird to see this. She knew Bill and Charlie as fully grown wizards, not little boys with endless energy. Merlin, in her time Bill was married with a baby on the way. Instead of being out taming real dragons, Charlie was clutching a stuffed dragon plushy, one of the horns in his mouth and his big blue eyes fixed right on her. Hermione held out her hand to stop the eldest Weasley child from running further away from his mother and gave Molly a smile as the woman gave her a relieved look and grabbed her son by his hand. “Thank you so much. They can be a bit much but it’s even harder to catch up to them now.” She gestured at her large stomach. Hermione gave her an understanding smile. “It was no problem, M-“
She quickly cut herself off, having almost called her by her name despite the fact that she wasn’t supposed to know it yet. Hermione cleared her throat and smiled. Molly was busy trying to get Bill to keep a hold of her hand, so Hermione took the opening to leave. She breathed slowly as she walked away. She felt the oddest surge of panic building up in her chest. It seemed out of place now, after being in this time for a day already. This kind of panic would have made sense in the first hour. But running into Molly made it all so much more real and she suddenly felt short of breath. She warded off the black creeping into her vision and was humiliated to feel wetness gathering in her eyes.
She quickly wiped at them and sniffed, eventually regaining her composure. She couldn’t just break down like that in public, which would draw unwanted eyes. She sighed a little and looked around, trying to think of anything else she needed to buy. After a moment of contemplation she made her way into Flourish and Blotts. She went directly to the section dedicated to studies of time and time travelling, grabbing the ones that looked the most promising. Her eyes moved over the titles as she nodded A Study in Traveling Through Time by Robin Coates, Tricky Terrible Time by Olivius Batherun and Memoirs of A Time Traveler by Frederick Van Oosterlaken.
She held them carefully and proceeded to browse around the store, looking for any other potentially relevant books. That didn’t happen though so with her purchases in hand she headed up to the counter. She purchased the books and left the store with them in a bag hooked around her wrist, desperately hoping she would find some kind of answer within the leather bound tomes. The woman in her dream was weighing even heavier on her mind. She was convinced that she had something to do with her current situation. It was just too much of a coincidence to be anything else. She sighed and rubbed the side of her face tiredly.
Days passed by. Every time she closed her eyes to sleep, the woman was there, lingering in her peripheral. But she always disappeared before Hermione could face her full on. It grew increasingly frustrating. The books had not proved to be of much use other than being interesting to read. She grew restless as days passed and eventually began to accept that maybe she truly was to be stuck here in 1976. She sat up in the bed at the Leaky, staring at the lazy sunshine drifting through her windows. She changed into a new set of black robes that she had purchased the day before, heading down into the pub for breakfast. After that, she used the Floo to go to Hogsmeade. If she truly was stuck here, she was going to change things.
“Terrible things happen to wizards who mess with time.”
The words bounced around inside of her skull, making her nerves flicker with distress constantly. But, as she firmly told herself, she would risk it. If there was even so much as the slightest chance that she could prevent hundreds of innocent people from dying, if there was a chance that Harry would never have to be put into countless life or death situations… it was worth whatever may happen to her. She couldn’t worry about her own life at the cost of hundreds of others.
If she was going to change things, she knew exactly where she had to be. Hogwarts. It was the best place. People like Snape and Regulus Black, they would be there. And perhaps she could guide them back into the right path before the dark side swallowed them whole. She personally still held a grudge towards Snape. Being a spy was not an excuse for the way he had treated the students. But her hatred had dimmed with the news and she was ready to help him, personality flaws and all. Of course there was always the chance that they would still make the wrong choice. She could just try and urge them in the right direction.
And Pettigrew… well, she didn’t know what to think of him. On one hand, she just wanted to rid the world of the snivelling rat that had caused so much hardship in the life of her closest friend. On the other hand, she wanted to try and save him too. She knew that at some point during this school year, he would start to spy for Voldemort out of fear. That would continue on for the next four years, leading up to the death of James and Lily. But if she could change that… James, Sirius and Remus would never have to know the betrayal of a friend. Peter could live a better life, one of honor instead of cowardice. Unlike Harry, she believed with all her heart that a bad person can become good and a good person can go bad. All it took was a nudge in a certain direction to trigger that.
She stepped out of the flames and into the Three Broomsticks, where a much younger Madame Rosmerta was carrying a tray of foaming butterbeer to a table of wizards all dressed in the same shade of purple, cloaks fastened with a silver exploding star. Some sort of club perhaps? Her eyes focused on them for another moment before traveling to a young couple in the corner booth. A pang in her heart made her think of Ron. The boy was tall, with fiery red hair and bright blue eyes. While things may have been awkward between them, he was still her friend and she missed him very much at times.
She looked elsewhere, heading out of the pub and into the sunny streets of the wizarding village. Cheerful people were travelling to and from the shops, basking in the late summer sun. Hermione breathed in the fresh air, allowing it to wash the lingering smoke in her throat and soothe her mind. The air carried the warmth of summer and a hint of wildflowers, along with a tinge of chimney smoke. Overall pleasant, it was so familiar that it made her feel much better. She held on to the papers in her hands. She had visited the goblins at Gringotts and spoken to the goblin in charge of identification paperwork.
He had listened to her story and all it took was a stack of Galleons and some compliments to get what she needed. Paperwork that gave all of her correct information, with slight edits to her birth date, were made and given to her. They were hopefully enough to make her plan work. According the papers, she was seventeen years old, the daughter of a muggle and a squib who had been homeschooled by her magical relatives. She feared that Dumbledore would see right through her, he always seemed to do exactly that. But it was her best shot. Besides that, she had strong mental shields that would hopefully keep the truth locked away.
She walked the familiar path that would lead her back to Hogwarts, the one place that had meant so much to her during the early years of her teenage life. She hummed to herself, pushing back any negative thoughts about what she was about to do. If you go into something believing that you are going to fail, then you will. It was as simple as that.