A Question of Loyalty

Hermione woke up. With a wince, she lifted an arm to rub her shoulder. Dimly, she heard voices around her. Blinking, she tried to clear her vision. Finally, a few murky figures swam into view in front of her. "Who are you?" she managed to say, her voice raspy.

"Who are you?" one of the people countered.

Hermione frowned. His voice sounded almost familiar. As if she had heard it before, just not with this particular timbre. "Hermione Granger," she said. "I was in Hogsmeade and?

"I've never heard of a Granger before."

Before Hermione could say another word, she found the tip of a wand pressed to her throat. She gasped and it relented slightly. "What are you doing?" Her voice was slightly stronger. "Who are you?" she tried again.

One of the taller figures reached down and with a rough motion, hauled her to her feet. Hermione blinked a few times. Her vision was clearing very slowly. The boy was beginning to seem very familiar to her. Black hair. Dark eyes. Slightly arrogant stance. "Sirius?" she whispered.

Immediately, she found the pressure on her throat increase. Turning slightly, Hermione's eyes widened as she took in the other people around her. "The Marauders?"

"And, pray, how in the name of Merlin did you know that?" James Potter said coldly. He pressed the wand further into her throat. "Answer me, girl, or you may find yourself unable to breathe."

"Shit," Hermione muttered, feeling her knees go weak. She held up her hands in a gesture of peace. "Look, I'm not going to hurt you." Her upper lip twisted slightly as she considered what a ridiculous notion that was. She wasn't going to do anything to Harry's father or his friends. "I'm? she paused. "I had a bit of an accident."

Peter sneered at her. "You look perfectly fine to me."

Hermione didn't like the silent leer. "It wasn't that sort of accident," she said sharply. "I'm from the future. There was an accident with a Time Turner."

"Oh?" James arched an eyebrow at her. "And where is this Time Turner then?"

Hermione reached up automatically to where her Time Turner hung, but with a sinking heart, felt that it wasn't there. Malfoy must have managed to rip it off, she realised, horrified. "It must have fallen off in the future."

"Not a very likely story." The quiet voice belonged to Remus Lupin. "Everybody knows that Time Turners will never be made to travel back in time for more than a day. It is just far too dangerous."

"But it's true!" Hermione burst out. "It was a New and Improved Time Turner!"

"As my dear friend here said," James said grimly, "a likely story."

"What other reason do you have for me appearing here without warning, then?" Hermione hated the rising note of her voice. What would happen if she was stuck here in the past? She had read enough about time paradoxes to know that she never wanted to be in one. She looked from one face to another, all staring at her with suspicion and paranoia etched onto their features. These were no normal students, she realised with a sinking heart. Strangely, they reminded her of Harry as he had been for the past two years.

"Perhaps you belong to one of those new rising groups. Perhaps the Death Eaters?" Remus said calmly. "We can never be too careful, these days."

Hermione snorted. "Why would I belong to the Death Eaters? They hate Muggle-borns!"

"But, we only have your word that you are Muggle-born," James said, twitching the wand slightly.

"W-what are you going to do?" Hermione said, voice quavering. An idea suddenly struck her. "Take me to Dumbledore!"

Remus tilted his head and looked at her curiously. "I think that is a good idea," he said quietly. "Dumbledore will know what to do."

"But that'll be taking her within the wards of Hogwarts," Sirius pointed out.

Remus shrugged. "The dampeners will stop her from doing anything too destructive."

"But she could be a Death Eater!" Peter burst out, angrily. "How can you just take her inside Hogwarts!"

Hermione glared at the slightly shorter, pug-faced boy. "And what would you care, rat!" she spat. Hermione wasn't going to risk changing time completely by telling them that Pettigrew was the traitor, but she couldn't help but bristle at the self-righteous tone in the boy's voice. She watched as his face paled, but this was unnoticed by the other three boys.

"So, you seem to know quite a lot," Remus said mildly. "Interesting."
"That would be because I came from the future," Hermione tried to explain again but James simply flicked his wand.

"Stupefy!"

---

When Hermione woke again, she found herself seated in front of the Headmaster. Lifting her head, she saw Dumbledore looking at her through grave eyes. Hermione could feel a trickle of coldness seep down her spine at the expression on his face. Throughout her seven Hogwarts years, she had never seen Dumbledore ever look like this. It was almost?no, that was ridiculous?but it was almost as if he feared her.

"Headmaster," she said desperately, "you have to believe me! I come from the future. There was a Death Eater attack in Hogsmeade and my Time Turner got snatched off me."

Dumbledore didn't say anything for a few seconds, but just sat there staring at her through his pale blue eyes. "I took the precaution of performing Priori Incantum on your wand," he finally said quietly.

Hermione paled. She remembered perfectly well what the last spell she used on her wand was. "I can explain!" she said desperately.

"I doubt that any explanation would suffice for using one of the Unforgivable Curses, but by all means, go ahead."

"It was you that suggested that we learn them!" she said. "Harry had to master them before the war, so Ron and I decided to learn them with him. I could only bring myself to do the Imperius Curse though." Hermione looked desperately at the Headmaster, hoping for some sort of understanding in his eyes, but she found none.

"You are a child," Dumbledore said, a hint of condescension in his voice. "Do I truly look like the sort of man to - even in dire circumstances - use children in a war?"

"You had to!"

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "An interesting story, Miss Granger, if that truly is your real name, but unfortunately, you will have to come up with something far more convincing for the Aurors when they come."

"The Aurors?" Hermione gasped.

Dumbledore looked at her coldly. "I am simply doing my duty. I discovered that the Imperius Curse was performed by your wand. By your admission, you performed this curse. As you are no doubt fully aware, performance of the Unforgivables is punishable by lifetime incarceration in Azkaban. That however, is up to how the Aurors decide to handle this. I suggest that you come up with less of a foolish tale for them. I'm afraid that taxing the patience of Aurors is unwise."

Hermione's mouth dropped open. "You're handing me over to the Aurors so that they can throw me in Azkaban?" she spluttered. She couldn't believe it. This Dumbledore was so far removed from the Dumbledore she knew and trusted in the future that she might have been forgiven in thinking that they were completely different people. "But but," she prevaricated. "You can use legilimency on me!"

To her surprise, Dumbledore gave a soft laugh. "Do you think me so stupid as not to have tried that already? You have a well protected mind."

With growing horror, Hermione realised that her veritable treasure trove of knowledge from the future was condemning her further as she revealed each and every part. "You have to believe me!" she pleaded.

"I'm sorry, child," Dumbledore said quietly. "But I'm afraid that is out of my hands now. You chose to use one of the Unforgivables, you must face the consequences."

There was a faint knock on the door behind Hermione and she jumped. "Is that? she whispered.

"Come in," Dumbledore ordered.

The door opened and Hermione heard two sets of footsteps proceed into the room. She tried to get up so that she could get a better look at the people, but she found that she couldn't move off the chair.

"I took the precaution of securing you to the chair," Dumbledore told her.

Her eyes widened. It was slowly beginning to sink in that Dumbledore was being completely serious. He truly believed that she was a Death Eater. The Imperius Curse coming out of her wand with Priori Incantum probably didn't help matters.

The Aurors moved in front of her and flanked the desk where Dumbledore was seated. She looked at them and they looked back impassively at her.

"She is merely a child," Dumbledore told the Aurors. "Perhaps a lifetime imprisonment is too harsh."

One of the Aurors - the taller and heavier one - turned towards Dumbledore. "Professor," he said, his voice deep, "with all respect, that is out of your hands. It is up to the Wizengamot."

Dumbledore nodded heavily. "Very well."

The same Auror turned to Hermione. "You are hereby arrested in the name of the Ministry of Magic for performing the Imperius Curse on an unknown subject. If you make a threatening gesture, you may be subject to an accident. You will remain silent. Silenco!"

Hermione found herself not being able to say a word as she was escorted from the Headmaster's office under guard by Aurors.