This story was written for Liza (NeonDomino) as part of the Gift Giving Extravaganza, for the month of February! I hope you like it, Liza, and I hope to get the entire fic done by the end of Feb (it's going to be a long one and I only have 28 days, lol, so crossing my fingers).

Please, if you review, have an account with PMs enabled so I can reply!
Thanks to luvsanime02 for putting up with my brainstorming rambling madness and for your madd editing skills. All remaining mistakes are my own.

Hermione doesn't see Harry when they get off the Hogwarts Express and make their way to the carriages. Harry had wandered off near the end of the train ride but he hadn't come back. Ron makes an impatient noise and grabs her hand when he sees her starting to lag behind.

"He must be with Luna or Ginny," Ron says as he pulls her along to the nearest carriage. "Come on, I'm starving!"

Hermione doubts Harry wouldn't try to find them once off the train – they always take the carriage together – but students are milling around, eager to get in the carriages and head up to the castle. It's chaos, and Hermione can't even see Ginny or Luna or Dean so she lets herself be pulled along.

But now, in the castle, Hermione is standing a few feet away from the entrance to the Great Hall, watching students pile in. Everyone is talking loudly, excitedly. Most have caught up with their friends that they haven't seen over the summer, and stories overlap each other and echo as they step into the Great Hall.

Hermione had told Ron to go in without her and to save two seats; she's not about to go in without Harry. There's no reason for her to panic, she saw Harry on the Express, after all, and nothing has ever happened on the train before… but, no, that's not quite true, is it? Hermione remembers the Dementors, a few years back, and the bad feeling in her gut grows heavier. It would take some pretty serious Dark magic to get Harry out of a moving train undetected, but it's not like they're unaccustomed to Dark magic, and now, with the Voldemort revived…

Hermione mentally slaps herself and tells herself to stop thinking of the worst. Harry probably just got sidetracked talking with Ginny or somebody, and by the time he realized the ride was ending he figured it would be better to just go up to the school with them rather than risk losing his way in the crowd and making the carriage trip up to the school alone. It's not the shortest of rides, and riding with a stranger is awkward at the best of times. If that stranger happened to recognize Harry, and by now few wouldn't, the ride would be torturous for him. Hermione smiles and almost chuckles at Harry's hypothetical fate when she spots a head of red in the crowd and beside her a girl with long, flowing blonde hair.

"Ginny! Luna!" Hermione fights her way through the students. The two girls stop when they hear their names and others bump into them. Grumbling, the two of them make their way around to her. Hermione pulls them to the side of the hallway before they start a mob. It's dangerous to get between a Hogwarts student and the impending feast.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asks.

Ginny shrugs. "I haven't seen him since the beginning of the ride."

"We thought he must be with you and Ronald," Luna adds.

The clump of dread grows bigger and Hermione can start to feel herself panicking. She keeps an eye on the students entering the Great Hall, but still no Harry. "He wandered off at some point and he never came back. I thought he was with you, but now…"

"What do you mean wandered off?" Ginny asks, suddenly concerned.

Hermione shrugs. "I thought he'd gone off to the loo or something, and when he didn't come back I figured he must have bumped into you guys."

The last of the students walk into the Great Hall and then it's just the three of them in the hallway. No Harry. Surely, even if she'd missed him going in, he would have spotted her and left the crowd to come get her.

"Do you want us to wait with you?" Ginny asks.

Hermione shakes her head. "No sense in all three of us missing the feast. You guys go in and I'll wait out here until he shows up."

Ginny squeezes Hermione's arm and gives her a small smile. "It's Harry," she says. "I'm sure he'll show up all ruffled up and out of breath, but fine."

Hermione nods. "Yes, possibly. But I'd rather wait here all the same." She watches them as they head into the Great Hall. Hermione wishes she hadn't had to concern them. She knows that Ginny especially will worry until she sees Harry enter the Great Hall. And no doubt Ginny is right, too, that Harry will show up fine. But the discomfort that's been nagging her since they got off the train has only grown in gravity. If there's one thing Hermione has learned in all her years as Harry's friend, it's been to trust her instincts.

With no one in the entrance, Hermione reaches a hand through the collar of her robe and pulls out her necklace. A large ring is attached to a gold chain. Within that golden ring is another, smaller ring, and inside of that, a small hourglass.

Hermione makes a fist around the time-turner. She looks at the clock above the Great Hall. The doors are still open and the sounds coming from within are nearly ear-shattering. It's a curious thing, Hermione thinks, how she never realized just how loud they are when she was amongst them, joking and laughing with Ron and Harry and the rest of the House. She suspects that even someone standing on the Quidditch pitch would hear the ruckus coming from the castle. Possibly, they'd only hear a low rumbling, like a beast about to awaken. It would an impressive thing to hear.

The clock above the Great Hall was charmed and added by Dumbledore after Umbridge's departure from the school. A small act of rebellion, the way Dumbledore does everything. Hermione watches as the thinnest needle counts off the seconds: the testimony that small acts accumulate into great ones, Hermione thinks, smiling fondly at the thought of their Headmaster. The sorting would begin any moment now, and then Dumbledore would be giving his speech.

Still no Harry.

Dumbledore had given her the time-turner back at the end of her third year. No one knew, not even Ron or Harry. Dumbledore had sworn her to the strictest secrecy. "Only to use in the gravest of situations," he had told her. Since then, Hermione had kept the timepiece on her person at all times. Even during the summer, she'd kept it on her. With Harry as a best friend, Hermione really couldn't know when the 'gravest of situations' would arise.

Hermione unclenches her fist and stares down at the device. It really is a beautiful piece of work, she muses. If only it was an accessory and not a very powerful magical artifact Hermione would gladly wear it. As it is, it only brings her added stress. She's always conscious of it around her neck, always terrified she'll snag the chain on something, or break it without ever noticing and only realize later when it's too late to retrace her steps.

Hermione glances back at the clock. Only two minutes have gone by. Surely this is what Dumbledore meant. Harry could have inadvertently touched a Portkey or something, and could even now be facing peril or death. If that isn't the gravest of situations, Hermione doesn't know what is.

Mind made up, she slips the time-turner around her neck again. This time, instead of putting it back under her collar, she grasps the largest ring on either sides with her thumb and index finger. She only needs to go back two hours, since it was around that time that Harry left their compartment. Hermione hadn't been paying attention at the time, but if she goes back to just before Harry gets up to leave, she can follow him from a safe distance. It's a dangerous gamble to be making; she'll have to avoid being spotted by any of her close friends and Harry. Thankfully, she and Ron hadn't left the compartment, so the only danger on that front would be making it past their compartment without Ron or herself noticing.

Hermione watches the clock. If the big hand makes it to the five before Harry shows up, she's doing it. It's the three longest minutes of her life, and Hermione's had some pretty darn long minutes. Still, the entrance doors to the school are not swung open, and so when the big hand strikes five Hermione turns the time-turner twice.

Using the time-turner is similar to waking up, when you know that at one point your conscious mind finally drifted off but you can't pinpoint the exact moment it happened, and all you know is that now you're awake again. Except with time-turner, you know that you didn't fall asleep, but that your whole body was propelled into the past. And you don't wake up feeling tired but in the same condition as when you turned the hourglass. In Hermione's case: hungry and on edge.

She recognizes the train as soon as she can take in her surroundings. She's in a compartment on her own, sitting on the plush cushions. The time-turner is resting in her open palm. Without looking at it, Hermione puts it back under the collar of her robe and stands. She feels too exposed in the compartment. Anyone could see her through the window, and if anyone has just seen her sitting in another compartment then Hermione's blown her cover before her work has even started. Thankfully, she doesn't recognize the few students who pass by her compartment.

The train will arrive at Hogwarts in a couple of hours, and outside the sun has already set and everyone is busy changing into their robes, so thankfully there aren't too many students walking idly about the train. Most visiting is done the first few hours after the train has left the platform and after that things usually quiet down.

Hermione opens the door and looks out into the hallway. The coast is clear. She steps out just as a compartment door opens and a boy with black hair that sticks up in the back walks out. Hermione's heart jumps into her throat and she quickly retreats back into her own compartment. That was Harry, of course it was. Hermione would recognize him anywhere. She takes a few deep breaths to calm her nerves. She remembers Harry turning right when he left them, so luckily she's not at risk of him walking by. She sticks her head out into the hallway to see Harry's back making its way down the corridor. She needs to go after him before she loses sight of him.

It's now or never. Hermione tries to walk down the hall casually, like she has a purpose, but when she nears her compartment, she slows. Ahead, Harry takes the door that leads into the next car. Where is he going? Now that she thinks about it, the closest loo to them is back the way she came from.

Hermione passes her compartment like ripping off of a Band-Aid. She closes her eyes, crouches below the window and dashes past the door. It's not the most subtle approach, but no one shouts or comes running after her, so Hermione straightens out again and quickens her step to catch up with Harry.

When she reaches the next car, she sees Harry open a compartment door and disappear inside. The door shuts behind him. Hermione frowns. The only people she can think of that Harry would visit with are Ginny and Luna, but they said that they hadn't seen him. Suddenly, Hermione feels very irritated – it's like something scratches at her nerves and all she wants to do is give it a good kick in the ribs. How dare Harry take off like that to make a social call with someone he's not even close friends with, leaving Hermione feeling flustered and worried to the point of breaking the law to come and find him!

Hermione is ready to give Harry a piece of her mind. Forgetting that she's in the past and mustn't draw attention to herself, Hermione stomps forward to the compartment Harry entered. She slides open the door with too much force, causing it to slam loudly against the wall.

There are three other boys in the compartment with Harry, but other than noticing their presence, Hermione doesn't spare them much attention. She only has eyes for Harry and she doesn't spare a second before letting him have it.

"There you are, Harry, I've been looking everywh-" The letters die in Hermione's throat as the boy's appearance in front of her finally makes its way to her brain. This isn't Harry. The resemblance is striking, the same hair, the same glasses, but it's not Harry. His resemblance to Harry is like someone's appearance when the effect of Polyjuice begins to wear off. Details of their real appearance begin to shine through, mixed in with the appearance of the person they're disguised as. It's not until Hermione looks at the boy's eyes – brown, not green – that the reality of her situation slaps her in the face.

That's when her eyes snap around to look at his companions. One is small and chubby, with a dumbstruck look on his face. His mouth is hanging open and he's not particularly handsome. It's not until she looks more closely at the other two boys – one has brown hair, the other black – that she realizes she knows who they are: Remus and Sirius. They're younger, more handsome, but they're definitely themselves.

And that's when Hermione fears her heart stops and she's going to have a heart attack. She opens her mouth but only a few gurgling noises come out. Remus looks at her with a calm but confused look and Sirius just looks annoyed. A good minute must have gone by and no one has said a word. All four boys are staring at her expectantly.

Finally, James – because that's who this must be, who he is – speaks up. "Are you looking for someone?"

The silence is shattered and Hermione panics. She turns and runs out of the compartment. She runs until she reaches the loo and then she slams the door behind her and locks it. She collapses on the toilet seat and covers her mouth with her hands.

What the hell is going on? Hermione wills her brain to calm down and think. James left Hogwarts in 1978. Hermione knows this of course because he joined the Order of the Phoenix the same year. She meant to go back in time two hours, yet somehow she's gone back in time about twenty years.

Her hands are shaking as she takes out the time-turner. It doesn't look broken at first glance until Hermione takes a closer look at the hourglass. There's sand in both the top and the bottom and it doesn't appear to be flowing. Without thinking of the consequences, Hermione tries to turn it, but it won't budge, as though the two rings have been welded together.

The time-turner sent her back in the past at least eighteen years instead of two hours and now, the device is broken.

The dread Hermione has been carrying around in her all evening multiplies tenfold and consumes her totally. She can't bring herself to think of a plan or to rationalize the situation. There's only one thing going through her mind, a single thought stuck permanently and overriding every other. What in the world is she going to do now?