Chapter Text
Hermione was very young when things started to come back to her. Everything had been fuzzy, and there was the distinct feeling that things were... off? Not wrong, but certainly different. When she was five years old, deep in a nap, dreaming of magic, friendship, and something called... fanfiction? She jolted awake as a female voice yelled that she needed to “get a life.” Whatever that meant? When she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she found that she was still in her bedroom, alone.
At first, Hermione dismissed the memories as dreams, but eventually the feelings and similarities were strong enough that she couldn’t ignore them. When she slept, it felt like she was reading a book, well, several books, and one of the main characters had the same name as she did now. That’s not where the similarities ended, however, things just kept getting creepier. The more she dreamed? remembered? the more it felt like she had already read about the world she lived in and her potential future. Instead of being scared, she bravely went to review what she had in common with storybook Hermione:
1. Their full names
2. Their ages
3. Their birthdays
4. Their hometowns
5. Their parents’ names
6. Their parents’ careers in dentistry
7. Their appearances, although, c’mon, brown curls and amber eyes? Plenty common, right? Hopefully...
8. When she felt strong emotions, sometimes things happened, almost like magic... This was starting to be a bit much.
In the dreams, she wasn’t Hermione, but she could feel the longing to be in the world the stories took place in. She had only seen hands holding the books, but somehow, she knew they were hers. She could tell she was in a teenager’s bedroom and also knew that it was hers. Sometimes her dreams would be interrupted by a voice she discovered was her older sister’s. Sometimes the room was dark, and she was reading with a flashlight under a duvet. Time was clearly passing, but she could never do anything besides read. Despite this dual reality, she always woke well rested, like learning more about her potential future gave her peace.
Eventually, Hermione slept enough to finish the books. That’s when the fun really started. The room had aged, there were posters on the walls and she started reading on something called a laptop. The stories were different, but the characters were the same. All of the new stories were based on the original books she started with. The books focused on the adventures of her and her two friends, Harry and Ron. While she enjoyed the original series, she was glad the laptop stories revolved around alternatives. She hadn’t been thrilled with the ending of the series. I mean, Ron? Really? Couldn’t Hermione have ended up with someone a bit more... intellectual? Living Hermione knew that she hadn’t confirmed that the things from the books would even happen in this world, but enough lined up that she didn’t want to accidentally end up with a goof she would need to mom. No one deserved that.
Now that she had the stories down pat, the next step should probably test out some theories about if she was really THE Hermione. Thankfully, over the years of memories, she had thoroughly journaled her experiences (her parents had recognized her oddities and brilliance early on and were not thrown by their five-year-old asking for journals), important facts, and every spell she could remember. If she really was THE Hermione, magic existed as well as several important wizards she would need to keep an eye on.
The goals were quite simple: (1) Confirm magic existed, (2) Verify the people were the same in at least name and appearance, (3) Save the world from Voldemort’s repeated attempts to rise to power. Super casual.
There were also some other obvious things she’d like to avoid: having to obliviate her parents, getting tortured by Bellatrix, having romantic feelings for Ron (had she already said that? It felt important enough to be said again), and then hopefully prevent Draco from all of that darkness and evil. Ideally, she could also get to know people outside of her house better. Pansy and Theo seemed like very interesting characters based on the fanfictions she had remembered even though they hadn’t been as defined in the books. She also wanted to be better friends to Luna and Neville, and Blaise if he let her. She was getting ahead of herself though. First things first... magic.
Truth be told, her first goal would be pretty hard to achieve without a wand. She had accidentally made things happen when she felt strong emotions, but without executing the spells she remembered, there wasn’t a great way to tell if the magics were the same. Sure, it was a good step to know it existed, but what good was practicing spells that could be useless. Wandless magic was super hard, so that was out for now. The other problem was that she was a nine-year-old muggle-born. If she tried to use specific spells, she guessed that there would be major questions by the ministry. Best not to raise too many questions about the whole “I think I’ve read this book before” situation. Her parents were already more than a little blown away at her level of thought and comprehension.
The second goal on her list may actually be the easiest. To be fair her last goal was to save the world, perhaps she’d need to flesh that out a bit more later. She started with a list of people to look up. After writing down “Harry, Ron, Luna, and Neville”. She realized they would all be incredibly difficult to find. Since it was January of 1989, she couldn’t use the computer from her dreams. Nor were Wizards likely to be listed in the phone book. She could probably find the Dursleys, but she couldn’t call. She’d get Harry in trouble, and beyond that, she had no idea what to say. She knew Harry went to the zoo on Dudley’s birthday, but that was years away.
Then it hit her. She may have an easier time finding some of the Slytherins. Given their long, detailed family histories, extensive estates, and web of influence, something should be in muggle records. The names Malfoy, Nott, Zabini, and Parkinson soon found their way onto her list too. There were others she could have included, but these were the characters that had the ability to change if her fan fiction was any sort of indicator. Plus, the stories with those four always had been her favorite in her previous life. They’d need to get over the whole muggle-born bias nonsense, but she refused to be deterred. She’d be doing this research the old-fashioned way by digging through historic records, land purchases, and whatever else she could get her hands on. God bless the local library.
The library trips were long. Since she was in school, she could only go to the library on weekends when her parents were free. January and February passed with no real leads, but things changed when she was able to request some books and documents from a neighboring library. When the books came in a week after she ordered them, she struck gold. The addresses, and land plot details for both Malfoy and Nott Manors. She copied everything down, but didn’t really know where to go from there. It would be over a two-hour drive for her and her parents to go to Wiltshire or Suffolk. If only she had access to an owl, or they had a phone. For now though, she’d go back to the drawing board and celebrate that she now had some addresses.
A week later, she found Blaise. Well, found is a strong word. She found his mother. She had recently starred in an indie film that did quite well. It did well enough that the clerk at the local video store put a copy aside for her, remembering her seemingly weekly request for updates about a possible Zabini actress. Hermione lucked out that the actress hadn’t changed her name in her marriages. The excitement over the movie was enough for the lead actress to star in several interviews. After finding some in magazines and others on tv shows, she put together that Blaise existed, and he lived in Italy, but they traveled frequently, often to France. Hermione also found a fan mail address for his mother.
With the three Slytherin’s addresses in hand, as well as the Dursleys for Harry, she started writing letters. She made the rather large assumption that if the families existed, then the kids hopefully did too. It was April by the time she was ready to send them off. Each of the letters were about the same in content. They didn’t mention magic, except about replying via owl for the Slytherins, only a little about herself and that she had found their information when looking for a pen pal. She had included her address and extra postage in all the letters, hopeful that someone would reply. With that, she crossed her fingers and dropped them with at the post office.
This was the hard part, waiting. She sucked at it. There was so much that could go wrong, and for once in her life, Hermione didn’t have a backup plan. She wasn’t even sure if trying to make contact had been the right call. There were so many “What if’s” she kept trying to remind herself that some of the “What if’s” ended in positives.