Hermione's Letter

Chapter 2

Dear Hermione,

You might want to sit down before you read this. If I've sent it at the right time, you should probably be in your bedroom. The butler should have just delivered this letter to you.

I know you'll find this hard to believe. Logical of the mind as you are, it will be difficult for you to accept. But you must believe it. Your safety, the safety of your friends and family, of Hogwarts, and indeed the entire world is at stake.

I don't know how to say this, so I'll just say it: someone has surreptitiously used their abilities to send a disruption wave through time. The world suffered incredible damage, and the spell rendered Dumbledore and most of the world's greatest wizards and witches helpless. A lot of Hogwarts' finest, both students and teachers, were lost in the attack, which, although swift, loses none of its brutality in the speed of its destruction.

Myself and Ron survived, but, and I'm sorry to just hit you with this; trust me, I know how much you like him, but Harry did not survive the attack. He was too weak at the time.

Allow me to explain further; at the end of this year, you and Harry will making a daring move that will allow a Hippogriff and Harry's godfather (you'll find out more as the year goes on) to escape the clutches of a wrongful execution.

However, the real criminal will escape. We believe he was the one responsible for the disaster: he owed something to Harry, and by killing Harry, and incidentally altering history, he has eradicated that burden, leaving him free to support certain... causes, when the time is right.

The person I am talking about is Peter Pettigrew. Harry will dispute this if he ever finds out, the whole world in your time believes he's dead and that he's a hero, but trust me, it's true. He is not what he seems to be. Should you have an opportunity to capture him, do so.

How he had the power to cause the alterations is unknown, although I expect it has something to do with Lord Voldemort. Everything that has happened before has, hasn't it?

However, Hermione, you must stop all of this happening, and I hate to have to place such a burden on your shoulders, but everything is at stake. Be careful though; since the spell was easily able to overcome Professor Dumbledore, it most certainly could stop you. You must stop the culprit before the spell is initiated, or all is lost.

Attached to this letter you will find all the instructions you need to prevent this disaster. You must use conviction when attempting to cast these spells or they will not function correctly.

Tell no-one. Not even your teachers. If no-one is aware, it will be safer and easier for you to carry out your task.

I will not be able to contact you again. Remember, you must execute the plan at the specified time, or it will really be the end.

Good luck. I know you can do it.

Yours, Hermione Granger

Hermione sat down on her bed in shock, dropping the letter as she did so, her body oscillating like it had never previously. She found herself unable to move as her mind wandered over the contents of the message. The world destroyed by a hero? Professor Dumbledore rendered helpless by one spell? Harry dead? She couldn't believe it. It seemed extremely unlikely. It was more likely that it was a prank. But something about the letter had affected her. Although unbelievable, she had definitely recognized the handwriting as her own. Now sure, it wouldn't take much to forge it, but the language and grammar present also seemed to concur with the conclusion that the letter was genuine. Furthermore, she knew that if she had the opportunity to prevent a disaster, she certainly would do everything within her power to do so.

The letter seemed to be full of holes. Firstly, Hermione was not a powerful witch, and it would have been more logical to have contacted another to carry out the task, such as Professor Dumbledore, or Professor McGonagall. Secondly, Peter Pettigrew was a known hero; it was not likely that he would intentionally cause harm to the world. He had been awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class, for his self sacrifice in defence of the Muggle population, and he had never shown anything but loyalty to the parents of Harry Potter, Lily and James.

She picked up the letter again, and glanced at the attached instruction page. The magic was above and beyond any level she had ever seen; some of these incantations were outside the abilities even of seventh years, according to the Hogwarts curriculum Hermione had managed to acquire a copy of. There was a good chance that the incantations would fail if Hermione tried to perform them; she did not have the magical prowess necessary for their implementation.

Additionally, acting in secret would be difficult; if she performed these spells it would not go unnoticed, especially not by Dumbledore, who seemed to be omniscient. She could hide her actions from Snape, or possibly McGonagall, but definitely not the Hogwarts headteacher.

Hermione needed to confide the information in someone. She certainly couldn't work alone on this, despite the letter's warnings. Her next decision, therefore, had to be the person to whom she would reveal the existence of, and the contents of, the letter. If she mentioned it to any of her teachers, they would do one of two things: either claim it to be nonsense, give her detention (in the case of Professor Snape, the somewhat disrespectful and rude Potions teacher), or take it off her hands and execute the plan themselves. Neither alternative was acceptable, if the letter's instructions were to be followed, and Hermione was to execute the plan.

She thought about speaking to Hagrid, the groundskeeper at Hogwarts, and friend of all three of Harry, Ron and Hermione, but although she could trust him to be a little more understanding, he would probably do the same as the teachers, and would take it out of her hands, which, again, was unacceptable.

Her mind moved on to Dumbledore; Hermione regarded him as wiser than the rest of the staff at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and probably the rest of the world too, but although he would ultimately support her in her quest, she decided he may also follow the technically correct path and would complete the mission himself.

Although, she thought to herself, he probably already knows about this...

So that seemed to leave one option: her two friends in Gryffindor House at Hogwarts. She would see them later today, and the triad had succeeded in defeating incredible forces of Dark Arts twice before; once in their first year where they successfully managed to pass Fluffy, a three-headed dog, win a life size game of Wizard Chess, and solve a riddle to allow Harry to pass through a flame barrier, after which he defeated Lord Voldemort once again, and once in their second year, when Harry and Ron discovered the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, and Harry went on to defeat a Basilisk and the living memory of Lord Voldemort. Furthermore, they would understand the need for secrecy and would protect the knowledge of the existence of the letter. Hermione would trust them with her life; and this information was as valuable as the life of this young Gryffindor, if not more so.

She was interrupted as before by a knock on the door. This time it was her mother. "Who was your letter from, darling?"

Hermione looked up. "Oh, just a friend from school." She lied intentionally; she did not want her parents to worry incessantly about what they would most likely deem a prank letter, sent by 'that white-haired kid you mentioned' to try and upset her.

As Hermione continued to drink her tea, she couldn't stop thinking about the letter. Her mixed opinions clashed like the swords and shields of ancient armies; she felt for the death of the one she loved, she knew she had to prevent the disaster, she knew that she wasn't to tell anyone, but she knew she couldn't do it alone...

She put the thought to one side as she realised she didn't have long to go until the train departed from Kings Cross in London for the station in Hogsmeade. Hermione, ever the efficient little witch, had packed most of her things a week before the date she would have to return to Hogwarts, but her final few books still needed packing. She had a great deal of shopping from this year's visit to Diagon Alley, as she was taking more subjects than anyone else in her year group. How she was going to do it? Well, this was still a mystery to her. She had no idea how the school would arrange for her to fit in all her subjects in the limited time she had available, although, as she was now aware after two exceptionally interesting years in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, anything is possible.

She pressed a button on the wall, above which a red bulb lit, shining brightly. A few minutes later, the butler knocked on her door again. She opened it and looked up at the somewhat tall butler.

"Hello again. Umm, could you carry my suitcases down to the car please?" she asked politely, smiling at him.

The butler nodded graciously. "Certainly, Miss Hermione," he said, picking up the two suitcases and carrying them effortlessly down the stairs. Hermione picked up her wand, inserting it into her inside pocket carefully, lest the Muggles were to notice it, and after taking one final look around her room, she walked out and closed the door silently, following the butler down towards the ground floor.

***

Barely an hour later everything was loaded into the car, which was still empty for its size. It was a very large multi-personnel vehicle, modified by Hermione's family to include additional facilities and comforts. The controls of the vehicle were highly automated, and certain systems accepted voice input. All that was needed was a quick 'window down' to have the window wind itself down automatically.

Hermione however, didn't take advantage of many of these comforts during this trip. She had busied herself earlier with preparations for her departure, but now, when she had to do nothing but sit in the car, her mind lapsed into the thoughts of wonder about who the mysterious figure of her dreams was, and additionally, of course, the letter and its contents.

The thinking process rendered Hermione unusually quiet, and her parents noticed the change. They expressed concern at Hermione's sudden behavioural alteration, but Hermione again hid the real reason, saying that she was simply feeling anticipative and nervous at the thought of seeing her friends again. Which wasn't exactly a lie; she had a lot of nervous thoughts running through her head regarding her friends, especially about Harry. She had decided that she was going to try not to feel uncomfortable around him, although she knew that she probably would feel this way, whether or not she tried to suppress her emotions. But for the sake of their friendship, she would try.

The journey did not last long, and eventually Hermione arrived at the station, the butler assisting in carrying the luggage Hermione had brought onto the platform and onto a trolley, so that Hermione could pass through the barrier onto Platform 9¾ prepared and ready to go.

She said her goodbyes to her parents, promising to return to see them at Christmas, and finally pushed her trolley through the wall connecting Kings Cross with Platform 9¾.

It was still a while until the train would set off; the time was only ten-ten hours, so Hermione was very early. She left her luggage in the appropriate compartment of the train, which boasted its usual fabulous red colouring, boarded it and found an empty cabin. Entering the room she sat down window side, and rested her head on the soft seat, finding herself a comfortable position in order to wait for her friends to arrive. Very soon, she found herself lapsing into sleep again.

Yet again she saw the indefinable figure in her dreams. He was closer this time, and she was able to regard his features alittle, but she couldn't quite determine who it was. The person however did have a sense of familiarity to Hermione. It was definitely someone she knew, or at least had seen somewhere before. But with her vast knowledge and the wide range of observations she made, she would have a hard time figuring it out, as many names and faces were present within her.

And as soon as he saw her, the figure ran again, seemingly faster this time. Once more Hermione tried to catch him up, matching his speed with the use of an Acceleration Charm, but to no avail. He disappeared in exactly the same manner as in her previous dream, leaving no traces that he had ever been there...

She didn't wake up till just before eleven o' clock, when the train was ready to depart for the school. The door to her cabin had opened, and Harry Potter, the person Hermione had wanted to see, was in her cabin, stood in front of her, smiling at her as her eyes twitched and eventually opened. Her eyes eventually recognized the face in front of her, and she regained her strength instantly, practically charging at him and almost knocking him over as she pulled him into a hug, accidentally winding him as she did so.

Harry was a little overwhelmed by her actions, but he put his arms around her too. "It's great to see you too Herm. I've missed you." He choked for air a little as she squashed him in her hug.

Hermione realised how much she shared the sentiment that Harry had expressed in the moments of the hug. "You have no idea how much I've missed you Harry. The months were a real drag without you and Ron, and of course you two are my best friends." She continued to hold him close until he pulled away, gasping for breath.

"Hermione, I've missed you too. I really have. I wish I could have come and seen you, but as you know... with the Dursleys, it's not really possible." He looked a little glum at the thought of continued life with his aunt, uncle and cousin.

Hermione put her hands on either side of his face, and raised his slightly sunken face so that his eyes were in line with hers. "Harry, why don't you come to my place at Christmas? Ron too if he wants. And if I can arrange it, perhaps during the summer, we might be able to go on holiday, in the Muggle world, for a while. Just the three of us. At least you would be away from the Dursleys for a week or two that way."

Harry considered her offer for a moment, before conceding to her that it probably wasn't possible because Vernon, his uncle, would never permit it.

"We'll do something about that. Perhaps we can get Dumbledore to talk to them."

Harry shook his head. "That'll only make them madder. But I do know someone who might be able to... I'll have a word with him later."

Ron entered at that moment. "Hey Hermione, Harry, break it up. Is there something I should know?" Hermione quickly removed her hands from Harry's cheeks, as both of them blushed.

"Look what I've got!" Ron exclaimed. He showed them a brand new wand. It was black and glossy, a high-class wand if ever there was one. "And watch, Hermione!" He swished and flicked his wand, then proclaimed the words "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Harry's wizard hat rose gracefully off of his head and hung in the air. Back in first-year, that spell had been a tricky one for Ron to master, and although he had successfully performed it once, using it to defeat a troll by raising its own club out of its hand and dropping it on its head, he had never really mastered the spell's use.

Hermione smiled as Ron then performed his next spell.

"Spectrolia cambra!" He gestured with his wand to the hat again, which was now radiating with sparkling colours; every colour imaginable passed through that hat as it continued to glide in the air. Finally, Ron brought it down onto Harry's head with a further gesture of his wand.

But before he could continue to demonstrate and impress Hermione further, the blonde-haired Draco Malfoy of the house of Slytherin arrived with his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, both with fists clenched, ready to fight.

"Alright Potter?" Draco asked scornfully. "See you're still friends with the Mudblood and the Weasel? You know, I wouldn't have to annoy you if you hung around with me."

Harry didn't hesitate in his response. "You don't annoy me Malfoy. Your acts don't bother me at all. They're not impressive enough for that."

Ron nodded in agreement. "Why don't you take your little friends elsewhere? We're busy."

Crabbe and Goyle moved forward at Ron's remark of them being 'little', raising their fists. But before they could fire, Ron had whipped his wand out.

"Locarnum Terradare!"

Stones, twigs, leaves, and mud flew out of Ron's wand and smashed across the faces of Crabbe and Goyle, leaving them with bruises and a horrified Malfoy running down the corridor.

"Right, now then," said Ron, when the wand finally stopped spitting out earth, "let's continue. Locarnum Infla..."

But before he could finish the spell, they had dashed off to follow Malfoy.

Hermione nodded. "I'm impressed! Your magical technique has certainly improved, Ron. And the way you dealt with those three was most impressive. Maybe I'm finally beginning to rub off on you."

Harry raised an eyebrow, but quickly lowered it again before Hermione could notice it. His face betrayed him, however, and a little blush washed over his face like the waters of the sea wash over the beaches present at the shores of the land.

"However, we're going to need more powerful spells this year. Have a read of this."

She handed them the letter, her hand still slightly shaking, and waited for their responses to it, her stomach churning massively as she waited for them to react...