Minnie Ranger Snape

Minnie Ranger Snape

The Years Before

As she had expected, the next seven years were torture for Hermione. During her first year she watched herself work non stop, not having any friends to tell her to take a breather. She wanted to go comfort her younger self, telling her that she would make friends very soon and that her life would gain a purpose. But of course she couldn't.

She treated Quirrell like she would any other teacher who she wasn't particularly fond of, making sure that she didn't treat him with obvious hate. He already was being very careful around her, scared that she might know something about him and spill the truth out to Albus.

Hermione listened to Severus' grumbling about how obviously traitorous Quirrell was, and had to bite her tongue to stop herself from agreeing. Every night before she went to bed and every morning before she ate breakfast Hermione reminded herself of her vow not to disclose anything.

On Halloween, Hermione lurked near the girls' bathroom, wanting to know exactly how loud that commotion had been, and to make sure that the troll really was knocked out and couldn't do too much damage.

But the hardest was the day when the 'dream team,' as she heard the faculty calling her and her friends, had gone to find the Sorcerer's Stone. Scared that she would reveal something, Hermione locked herself in her room and refused to talk to anyone from the morning of the event until she knew that Albus had gotten Harry safely into the hospital wing.

*******

In second year Hermione got to see exactly how angry Severus was about the flying car incident. She also felt some relief after her younger self had been petrified because she did not know exactly what would happen every day. Another benefit of her younger self being petrified was that she got to get up close to herself for the first time. Many nights, having made sure that she was alone, Hermione would go up to the hospital wing and discuss the future with her unmoving self.

When she saw Ginny in the hallways Hermione would always give her a sympathetic look, but she mainly avoided her so she could control her urge to give away the future. When the teachers had meetings discussing the opening of the Chamber of Secrets Hermione never attended, listening to Albus' wishes.

When the Chamber incident actually happened, Hermione did manage to hint to Dumbledore that both Harry and Ginny would be ok, he just had to let all this happen.

*******

During third year Hermione had another problem. While she occasionally saw Remus, the tragedies over the years had separated them somewhat, and he had no idea about her true identity. So when he arrived at school having come on the train, Remus had headed straight towards her and said, "Minnie Ranger, why the hell didn't you tell me? Do you think that it was easy 'meeting' you on the train today? I almost let something slip!"

After that he was pretty ok about it, although there was the one time he mentioned that she could have saved Lily and James. . .

When the rumors of Sirius being loose in the castle started to fly, Hermione had even more trouble being quiet about it. The last time she had seen Sirius, which had been before Lily and James' death, she had told him that she believed him. He had no idea what she meant, but if she saw him now he would probably be angry that she had let him sit in Azkaban for twelve years.

But she managed to see him before he was taken to the dementors and then set free, and then she saw him again in fourth year.

*******

In fourth year she couldn't tell anyone that Voldemort was coming back, and she had to deal with Severus constantly berating her about going to the Yule Ball with Victor.

*******

In fifth year she had to watch Severus going off to the Death Eater meetings and come home bruised and broken. She never went to headquarters because her younger self was starting to look more and more like her, and that would prove more of a problem at close quarters.

Umbridge was never told the truth about her, but her classes were inspected by her, and the questions she was asked made her blood run cold. It was also she who had purposely left the book containing information on murtlap potion in her younger self's path.

*******

Over the years she had become more adept at keeping information to herself, and was just waiting for that moment when her life changed forever to occur. She spent every day of her younger self's seventh year until the incident just waiting for it to happen. She became short tempered because soon it would be over and she could just live a real life for the first time since before she went back.

Finally the day arrived, and Hermione was sitting in Severus' office listening through the door to what was happening in his seventh year Gryffindor and Slytherin class. The lesson started out normally enough, with Severus snapping at the Gryffindors for every little mistake they made, but soon she heard it. Neville's cauldron had exploded, soaking seventeen year old Hermione Granger in its contents, causing her to disappear.

Hermione opened the office door a crack and saw Severus staring in shock at the place where her younger self had been standing. Looking around, he saw Hermione watching him from the door and looked at her questioningly, to which she nodded, smiling weakly at him. "Class dismissed" he barked at the seventh years, who, having been staring at the place from which Hermione had disappeared, had missed the exchange between husband and wife.

"Where's Hermione?" Ron demanded, glaring full out at Severus.

"I said class dismissed," Severus roared.

"We're not going anywhere until you tell us where Hermione is and if she's ok," Ron said stubbornly.

Hermione watched, fascinated at being back where she should be, and witnessing something that had never happened before for her.

"I assure you," Severus said slowly in his most dangerous voice, "Miss Granger is perfectly all right and you will see her very soon. Now GET OUT!"

Still glaring at Snape, Ron and Harry left the room with the rest of the class and after Severus had shut the door, Hermione came out and sank wearily into a chair by the desk.

"So that's how it all happened?" Severus asked. "You are now in the past?"

"Yes," Hermione wearily replied. "And now I have to go take care of something. This is the only way I can tell them what happened. I just hope that they don't hate me."

Severus came up behind her and squeezed her shoulders reassuringly. "I am sure that they won't, although I must admit, I hope that they don't expect you to go back to the way you were. Because I think I would have to murder them then."

Hermione smiled up at her husband, "Well, I hope so. But there's only one way to find out." And she left the classroom and set off for their rooms. When she got there she went to her desk, pulled a key out of her bag and inserted it into the lock. Having opened the desk, she pulled out a large, leather-bound notebook, scribbled a note, and headed towards the Owlery.

*******

The next morning Hermione lurked in the entrance hall under Severus' invisibility cloak, waiting for them to arrive. When she saw her two best friends headed towards the great hall for breakfast, faces screwed up in worry, Hermione followed them, still under the cloak, being careful not to bump into anyone. She stood a distance behind them as she waited patiently until the owls came.

When the first hoot could be heard announcing that the mail was arriving, Hermione looked up, praying it would hurry up. Finally she saw a huge school owl carrying a big parcel enter the room and swoop down until it landed between Harry and Ron. She watched Harry pulled off the note and Ron bent over so they could read it together. They looked at each other in confusion as they recognized Hermione's handwriting.

Dear Harry and Ron,

This book will explain everything, but do not open it here. Go up to Gryffindor Tower and go into my room so you can have privacy. The password is 'crookshanks.' I want you to read it all and understand. Skip classes if you must, I will make excuses for you. But don't stop reading it until you have finished. I hope that one day soon you will be able to forgive me.

Love,

Hermione

Hermione watched as the two boys exited the great hall, and followed, except instead of heading up to Gryffindor Tower with them, she went down to the dungeons to wait.

"What do you think is going on?" Harry asked Ron as they made their way towards Gryffindor Tower. "I mean, it sounds as if she is very near but doesn't want to say anything to us!"

"I don't know," said Ron slowly. "But if Hermione is telling us to miss class, it must be important."

They didn't say anything else to each other until they had reached her room. When they got there they sat down on the floor and opened the book, which immediately grew in size.

"Does she expect us to read this in one day? It must be over a thousand pages!" Ron exclaimed incredulously.

"I don't know," Harry replied shaking his head at Hermione's belief in their abilities to concentrate for a thousand pages, "but I think we should get started. It probably has something to do with what happened yesterday."

Ron nodded, and opened the book to page one. When they read the first few lines, Harry and Ron stared at each other in confusion and amazement.

January 15^th, 1978

Dear Harry and Ron,

Today was the strangest day of my life. . . .