LEAP

Summary: Hermione knew she was destined for something other than house-wifery and playing law. Instead, she was determined to fit the shattered pieces of her world back together even if it cost her everything she held dear. Time Travel.

4

August - 1981

Hermione sat with her feet tucked beneath her bum with the quilt from the bed thrown over her long legs while she nursed her third cup of tea in as many hours. All around her milled unfamiliar faces, many of whom stared openly at her in plain suspicion and mistrust. Fabian stood nearest the kitchen, leaned back against the wood frame of the archway, placing himself protectively between Hermione and Molly, who hobbled from room to room puttering about to clean the house as more and more people filed in from outside. The chestnut haired man had confiscated the curly haired witch's wand and had it tucked into a holster at his thigh, to which Hermione was grateful when the door opened again for the (seemingly) 100th time and a familiar face entered, flanked by four others.

Peter Pettigrew - pudgy, red-faced Peter - though younger and slightly less rat-like, was still recognizable to Hermione as if she'd seen him just the day before, and the man made her fingers itch for her wand as the hairs on the back of her neck rose. Given the chance, she did not know if she'd have killed him in that instant or not; she didn't put it past herself, if she was truthful. Her suddenly trembling fingers tightend around her mug, and she took a deep drink of the cooling tea to calm herself, her chocolate orbs leaving Peter's face to take in the sight of his companions.

A man that could not be mistaken as any other than James Potter stood beaming beside a red haired woman holding a small, squirming bundle in her arms, and Hermione's breath caught in her throat. Lily and James, a duo that she had only ever seen in old photographs on Harry's mantle, were glowing as they greeted their friends, Lily waving Harry's pudgy arm in hello.

"I thought you were supposed to be in hiding?" laughed Fabian as he embraced the witch jovially, giving her a quick once-over as he took a step back.

James tapped him on the shoulder with his knuckles in a playful gesture. "Dumbledore wants all hands, apparently. I guess your little house guest has some information he finds important, even to us." He shrugged his shoulders in nonchalance, and Hermione wondered just how differently Harry would have ended up if she had been given a chance to grow up alongside his father who seemed to be her best friend's polar opposite. She sent a silent prayer up that she would find out.

Behind them, she recognized Sirius leaning heavily against the door while another man, who could only be Remus, spoke to him in low, hushed tones. He shoved his limp black hair out of his face, and Hermione's lips turned down in a frown when she noticed the deep bags under his eyes and the gauntness of his cheeks.

As she moved to rise from her chair to perhaps approach the mysteriously grave-looking Sirius, the door opened once more and Dumbledore strode in, commanding all eyes as he crossed the threshold. Hermione's breath caught in her suddenly aching chest as she drank in the sight of her former headmaster, head spinning a bit as she took in the presence of so many people she had never known and had lost.

He stroked his white beard thoughfully as he surveyed the room over the tops of his half moon spectacles. "It seems as though I'm the last to arrive," he mused. "Excellent. That means we can get right to it."He turned his focus to Hermione and beckoned to her. "I don't recognize you, which means you must be Jean. And I feel as though you have quite the story to tell." His blue eyes bored into her, twinkling in that mysterious way of his, and she averted her gaze uncomfortably.

Attention turned to the curly haired witch and she set her tepid tea aside as she went to rise once more, pushing the blanket off of her knees as she went. All eyes focused on her with a mix of awe, interest, and distrust, and she tried not to allow the shaking of her hands to show as she went to address them all. She ignored the mistrustful glower from Fabian altogether by turning her back to him.

Without further ado, and feeling as though she should simply rip the proverbial bandaid off, she decided to jump right in, her nerves making her hands shake a tad. "Firstly, my name is not actually Jean; it is Hermione."

Fabian grimaced at her back, his fingers tightening over the hilt of his wand as he studied her. "And apparently a liar. What else have you got hidden up your sleeve?" The witch didn't miss the double enteundre, and she glared at the man.

"I have a lot hidden up my sleeve, if I'm honest," she scowled. "But I'm not the only one here with an agenda."

Dumbledore lowered himself to the Weasley's couch across from her, steepling his fingers as he addressed her with a curious glint to his gaze. "Miss Hermione, I must ask that you speak frankly. There are many of us here with things that we must do and accomplish."

She shifted on her feet restlessly. "First, I must ask that you allow me my wand."

The outrage was immediate, and expected, and caused Hermione's eyes to practically roll into the back of her head. "So you can turn it on us? I don't think so," scoffed Fabian, and she got the distinct impression he disliked her for reasons beyond the typical.

She turned to him, then, eyes snaring him where he stood and she thrust out her arms to gesture at the dozen or so witches and wizards in the room. "I'm surrounded by accomplished witches and wizards; I'm sure you can handle me if I step out of line." She rolled her eyes at him, holding out her hand for the wand in his grasp.

Dumbledore regarded her, then motioned for Fabian to hand over the length of wood. She took it eagerly from the man, feeling the energy pulse through her arm as she grasped it. Pausing just briefly, she rolled up her left sleeve, causing those in the room to stiffen and grasp their own wands.

"As I said: my name is not Jean, but Hermione," the tip of her wand traced her skin from wrist joint to elbow crease and the word MUDBLOOD, which Bellatrix had carved into her skin so many years prior, seemed to fade into her skin. A slight murmuring rose up around her, and she made direct eye contact with Fabian across from her, who wore an inscrutiable look on his face. "Hermione Jean Granger. Some years ago, I was tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange in Malfoy Manor, while helping my friends to search out and destroy artifacts that would prevent He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named from truly dying."

Her old headmaster nodded his head grimly. "I had my suspicions, but I had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that he had not dabbled in that magic."

"Unfortunately for us, he has, and that isn't all. But before I get more into my story, I must tell you," Her eyes flashed up to pin Peter Pettigrew to the place he stood, shocked. "You have a traitor amongst you."

"Blasphemy!" shouted a rotund man from the back.

"Hush, Elphias," came the immediate snap of a black haired woman with an exotic look about her.

Peter was easing slowly towards the door, and Hermione's arm shot out as she shouted, "Incarcerous!" Ropes seized the man and he collapsed to the floor, wriggling in an attempt to free himself, as Hermione felt her wand fly from her hand in the same instant. She turned her scowl to Fabian, who clutched her wand in a firm grip, his wand pointed at her chest.

Remus and Sirius were crouched protectively over their friend, trying to tug the bonds off his immobilized body. "Leave him!" Hermione snapped, not taking her eyes off the point of Fabian's wand. "Check his left arm and pray I'm wrong."

"What in Merlin's name is wrong with you?" Sirius snapped as he gripped his own wand. "Peter has been with us since he was eleven years old!" Remus was tugging at his arm in an attempt to prevent him from raising his wand at the witch.

"Check his left arm." Hermione snapped again, her eyes wild, as she raised her hands in a non-threatening gesture.

"We'll do no such thing!" Sirius bellowed, wrenching away from Remus to stride towards her. "How dare you turn your wand on Peter! He is good, and kind, and -"

"-Sirius." In the confusion, James had crouched down beside Remus and done as Hermione had bid. His face was pale as he gripped Peter's left wrist in a vice-like grip, the damning black mark on his friend's skin bared to the group of gathered Order members. "Sirius, she was right."

Lily was shell-shocked, standing in the protective embrace of Molly some feet away from the bound and gagged man she had once called 'friend'. A burly man with green eyes and a head full of mussed red-brown hair seized the ropes around Peter's chest and hauled him to his feet, thrusting him towards Fabian, who caught him by the arm roughly.

Hermione pinned the traitor with a look that could kill before addressing the room. "Keep a good eye on him," she warned. "He's an unregistered animagus, and he isn't above cutting off a finger or two to get away." She didn't miss the way Sirius and James fidgetted a bit from where they stood beside Remus.

Dumbledore was standing, she then realized, and his blue eyes froze her in place. "It seems you have quite a bit to explain, Miss Hermione."

She raked her hand through her hair, partly in agitation, partly to soothe her nerves. "Of course professor."

Without further ado, she launched into the retelling of her story, feeling the mistrustful eyes of the original Order of the Phoenix boring into her from all sides.

"I know this will sound...asinine," she warned, "but I need you to hear me out. Entirely.

"My name is Hermione Jean Granger - please, call me Jean - and I was born on the nineteenth of September, 1979." Inhales of shock and disbelief greeted her words, but no one sought to stop her, even as a few muttered amongst themselves, so she continued on relentlessly.

"I work for the Department of Mysteries under one Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt, and I was granted the permission of coming to this time to stop He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named from committing a grievous error that will result in a second war, as well as to destroy several artifacts that have granted him near-immortality." She inhaled deeply. "In order to do that, I aim to also save the lives of James and Lily Potter."

"I-I don't understand," Lily trembled, clutching baby Harry to her chest. James pulled her into the security of his broad arms, his eyebrows wrinkling in concern.

Hermione smiled sadly, wringing her hands before her in an almost nervous gesture. "Growing up, my best friends were Ronald Weasley and one Harry James Potter," she murmured softly. "Harry was orphaned when the Dark Lord received word of a prophecy depicting him as the one that would save the wizarding world; his parent's gave their lives to save him, which resulted in the Dark Lord to be...temporarily vanquished when his avada rebounded off of Harry." She shook her head sadly. "Unfortunately, he returned in our first year at Hogwarts, and gained strength in every year that followed. Harry...nearly died to end the Second Wizarding War, and it came at a steep price. For all of us."

"And these artifacts," Dumbledore queried. "what are they?"

Hermione turned to him solemnly. "Horcruxes. Right now, there's only five, but in my time...there were seven."

The aged man looked almost dumbfounded. "Seven," he whispered. "Are you certain?"

She nodded gravely. "Yes. And one of them costs you your life. I'm hoping to prevent that, as well. In fact, I'm hoping to stop as much death as I possibly can, if I'm honest. I know I will likely fail, but...I can at least try."

The exotic woman from before spoke up softly. "Do...I mean to say...how many of us are still...around...in your time?"

Hermione fumbled a bit with the hem of her shirt. "In my present time...not many. Most of you were killed before the end of the first war, but some of you...some of you don't make it out of the second. Many of you I've only seen in photographs." She could see the comprehension of what Hermione's lack of recognition meant cross Fabian's features just briefly before his stony mask fell back into place.

Sirius' face was turned down into a snarl, his fists shaking. "So you're telling me you came all this way to help save us, but you couldn't even save Marlene?"

Hermione reeled back in shock. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Marlene McKinnon!" shouted the wild-haired man. "She was killed just a day ago while you lounged around the Burrow with your feet kicked up!"

"I-I didn't-"

"-you didn't know?" Sirius snarled. "How are you supposed to help us if you don't even know when we're all supposed to kick the bucket?" Spinning on his heel, he stormed from the room, leaving Hermione feeling a tad empty as she watched Remus follow quietly after the raging man.

She looked down at her suddenly shaking hands. "Many of you don't have death dates. I just know some of the details."

"Miss Hermione," Dumbledore said, "Mister Black is feeling extreme guilt over the death of his girlfriend. Do not take what he says to heart, at the moment. He is grieving, and we all say and do things that are not becoming of our true selves when we are mourning the loss of a loved one." She felt herself start at that.

Girlfriend? She wondered. I wasn't aware Sirius had had a girlfriend!

Tears pricked her eyes, and Dumbledore patted her back soothingly. "My dear, how about we take this to a more private location? Upstairs, perhaps?" She nodded, and the old man gestured for Fabian, James, and another man with red brown hair to follow after them as he led her up the stairs to the small sickroom she had occupied for several days.

Taking the seat across from the small bed while Fabian warded the room with silent spells - from what, she wasn't certain - the broad man and James took up standing at either side of his like two well-trained dobermans. She sat at the edge of the - her - bed and wrung her hands together nervously.

"Well, then, Miss Hermione," Dumbledore said softly. "Tell us what you know of these horcruxes and how we may find and destroy them."

A/n: I apologize profusely for the tardiness of this chapter. I wish I could say it won't happen again. Life kind of stuck me a fat one - break up, 2 moves, lost my job, got a new one... - but I think I'm back on my feet again. On top of that, this chapter absolutely refused to be written, so I had to drag it out kicking and screaming. I tried to make this as realistic as possible. No one is going to take someone claiming time travel at face value, but they are wizards, which makes it slightly more plausible. Plus, Dumbledouche - I mean, Dumbledore.

1) Just like cops take away a suspect's weapons, it is to be expected that Fabian would have taken Hermione's, err, Jean's. But she was surrounded by a dozen + other magical being, so giving it back wasn't that much of a risk unless she suicide bombed them all.

2) Yep. Peter is out of the way. I have always hated him. But it will lend to the plot a bit more later on.

3) Yes. You've seen Gideon. He just isn't named. He's a quiet one, he is. Unlike his douche canoe twin who just can't seem to pry his eyes off of Hermione. Do I smell a possible love triangle? (Probably not because I suck at writing cliche's).

4) Marlene. I had to do it, and I'm sorry. It is going to lend a bit to Sirius' madness, but there's a reason for her going so early on. I need to make room for character growth, which Hermione is going to witness firsthand, thanks to his non-imprisonment at Azkaban. I'm so excited, to be honest.

Much love, Em.