{16-Are My Hearing Aids Working Right?}

There was silence that day, as everyone had gone to Hogsmeade that evening for a breather from studying, but not Hermione. No, she sat in the library with Severus, not entirely sure how he'd forgiven her for forgiving Remus. 

It was so silent in there that Hermione almost fell from her chair when Severus spoke to her briefly. Now, it had been a rough week, but surely that didn't mean she was hearing things. 

"Could you repeat that?" She asked him calmly, still not sure whether or not her ears were working. Was it a jinx she'd overlooked in her studies? For he certainly had not said the words she thought he had said. The world hadn't fallen in either, so maybe she really was hearing things. 

"I think I want to apologize to Lily Evans." It was stern this time, black eyes looking at her as though she'd just gone off her rocker... or chair in this case. 

Hermione drew in a quick breath and held it, feeling as though the world had just turned upside down. He couldn't possibly want to do that, not now, not ever, if she didn't want to go down as the woman who ruined time and well... existence. 

"I don't think you do," she said firmly, going back to her books and hoping he would spectacularly believe she was right! 

It earned her a laugh, one of actual amusement, and he put his hand over her book, "No, I mean it, Zel. I've been thinking about it for months now, and before we all graduate, I think I'd like to apologize to her. It wasn't right what I did, and bad things are starting to happen, I'd hate to get caught up in something like that. Forgiveness is something that everyone deserves, and you've taught me that. If you can forgive Lupin for the terrible thing he did to you, I think she can forgive me." 

The sincerity in Severus' voice was terrifying. He truly wanted to do this, didn't he? And suddenly it was Hermione's job to fix it. It didn't much sound like fixing if she was going to tell him not to do a good thing and follow a bad path down to Death-Eater-ism, but you have to do what you have to do. 

"I forgave Remus because he'd been straight up with me, hasn't it been a few years for you two? She hates me, and it's only because I'm friends with you, so I can only imagine that that doesn't mean anything good." 

Severus seemed downtrodden for a moment, but then picked himself back up, "I don't care. I want to make things right. And if she doesn't accept my apology, then at least I can sleep at night knowing I tried." 

He stood viciously, earning them a few silently scathing looks which she tried very hard to ignore. Of course she just had to follow. She couldn't let him run off and attempt to do such a foolish thing int hat very moment. Who knows what would have happened. 

"You're not going to do this right now, are you?" She asked him, running to keep up with his long legs and unnatural speed. Since when was he so lithe? 

"No moment like the present, as the muggles would say," he replied, very unlike himself. 

Hermione could have hit herself on the head... or him, whichever got the job done faster. As long as he didn't go through with this! Her heart was racing at the absurdity. Would she get caught if she hexed him right in the middle of the corridor? 

"She could just laugh in your face," she offered, quite unhelpfully to her own case as he was walking so fast he certainly didn't care to hear her. 

"I'd deserve it, then," he called over his shoulder. 

"No, I don't think so, but to each their own, I suppose." 

"Why don't you want me to apologize, Florizel?" 

He stood still, suddenly turning around, and she ran flat into his chest, stumbling back a bit before making a frustrated face. Great, now she was going to seem like an awful friend. They were so close, why did he have to make her job obliviating them at the end of the year that much harder? 

"I... do! I want you to apologize, Severus, I want you to have your friend back, I just..." she stumbled for words to say because confessing she was a time-travelling girl that was disguised in several different ways was probably not beneficial at all to his health. "I don't want you to get hurt again. It's a bad time for all of us, we're all in terrible moods...."

He put his hand on her shoulder, just like he had when trying to convince her Remus was no good and said, "I'll get what I deserve, I just hope that, like your friend there, I deserve forgiveness."

Hermione could have punched him. 

He ran off, leaving her in her stunned state, looking quite the fool. She had to talk to someone immediately about the fact that time was changing right in front of her eyes. It couldn't be kept a secret, especially when everything she knew and loved could be in danger. 

Her feet took her towards DeLancey's office without even asking, but then she wondered if she should even tell him. The world would be a mess in moments anyways, wouldn't it? Existential dread hit her like a swift stunner. Still, she traveled to DeLancey's office and knocked on his door, praying that he was here and he would be able to help her. When the door opened, she breathed a sigh of relief, but this man seemed to be on cloud nine. 

"Miss Granger!" 

"Professor," she replied, looking at him dismally. 

"I was actually just coming to look for you! I have found you a way home!"

Hermione had been told two positively insane things that day, and suddenly she felt rather faint. 

"You what?" she muttered, falling back into a chair, coincidentally, his chair, but that didn't matter when one felt faint. In fact, Hermione Granger felt as though someone could put her six feet under the ground in a matter of moments. 

"I found you a counter-curse: I know how to send you back to your timeline. I'm sure you have some loose-ends you'd like to tie up, like that poor Lupin boy, but everyone will be fine. You belong at home with all of your real friends and family," he said kindly, kneeling before her. 

"That's great, but... I think you might be too late." 

He squinted at her as though she were insane. 

"What's happened?" DeLancey asked, standing back up and placing himself on his desk, opposed to the chair she was occupying. 

"Severus, he's going to do something he isn't supposed to... and I can't stop him. I tried, I really did, but he's so stubborn and..."

She fell into a fit of tears. So much for brightest witch of her age. This was it, the end of everything as she knew it. Maybe it would only happen to her... maybe time would spare everyone else and she wouldn't be the cause of things going completely haywire. Maybe Lily would reject Severus....

"I've been doing a lot of research lately, and I think you might be overreacting a little bit, Hermione," Professor DeLancey spoke quietly, probably attempting to soothe her. There was no opposing to research to Dumbledore saying, 'Bad things happen to wizards who mess with time!'

"I've screwed things up, my third year... in the future, I was told all the rules of time-travel, everything works out the way it's supposed to, time doesn't change." 

He made that face that said she was wrong, one Hermione was not used to receiving, and then he took his turn to explain. 

"I understand that you must think you've done some terrible thing, that your being here has influenced time in some way, and in doing so made irreparable changes to the sanctity that is our world, but that isn't so. If Mr. Snape has, indeed, gone off to do something he had not done previously, then we are simply creating a new timeline. The other will merely only be a memory. The reason witches and wizards don't do this is because it drives most mad. 

"I don't think you're like most wizards and witches, however, Hermione. I think you've uncovered an opportunity that no one else has been able to access before." 

There was a lump in Hermione's throat that wouldn't go away that came with the things Professor DeLancey was telling her. She could stay here... tell everyone who she was... change the way time went by. But why wouldn't it drive her crazy? That was the point of the curse, was he saying she could beat the curse and come out all the better for it? 

That couldn't be... could it? Hermione thought that it was too good to be true, what Professor DeLancey was saying was out of the realm of possibility. But if it wasn't... she had a whole world to change... and preferably before Harry was turned into a horcrux....

"Do you really think I could change the world, Professor?" 

"Only as much as you want to. Just don't go crazy in the process. I have a feeling you do not intend to rule it, however, and I trust you to take down those who might. DO you have any idea how to do that?" 

Hermione suddenly had a trillion ideas roll through her head, not just for defeating Voldemort, and the first of them was that Voldemort needed to fall... and she needed to pass her N.E.W.T.s.

"But, Professor," Hermione wondered suddenly, "What happens when we get back to the time where I should be and the other me of the future shouldn't?" 

"She will disappear and you will take her place. You'll have to study her, make sure you know everything about her to do that seamlessly. Although, with everything that you know I don't think it will be positively seamless. We can only ask for so much." 

Hermione felt the pressure of a million worlds fall onto her shoulders, but something small had been lifted as well. She wouldn't necessarily have to erase her friend's memories.. only tell them the truth. That wasn't too hard, was it? 

It was terribly inconvenient, but not exactly the worst thing she'd ever done. Her parents had been a much harder feat, and that was no damage that could be undone so to speak. 

"This is... terrifying, wonderful, but terrifying. There are many things about the future I am unsure of, but few that are very certain which I need to handle the moment I graduate."

"You're still going to go through with your education?" He asked, amused. 

"Of course!" Hermione exclaimed, standing up, renewed from her earlier faintness. "I need my N.E.W.T.s to do well in the future! I have to have a career, and I'm sure I can do that by being Florizel. I'll have to fake my own death, but that is so many years in the future I can hardly describe it... I have so much to do, I'm going to need an enchanted notebook to put it all in."

Looking at him, she expected that to be funny because of the horcrux Ginny had had in her first year, but Hermione realized Professor DeLancey wasn't int he know for that occurrence. 

"Anyways," she repaired, "I'm going to go, have a good day, Professor!" 

Hermione gathered herself up and smiled at him one last time.

"Do good things, Miss Granger. I have faith in you."

She left the room, going to look for her friends. Oh, how nice it would be to spend time with them and not have feel like she was betraying them. For once they graduated.. she would tell them who she really was. What a wonderful day this had turned out to be! 

A/N

Sorry this took me so long, I just wanted to make sure this sudden transition from what y'all thought was going to happen was perfect! Hope you enjoyed!