Chapter 1: Prologue

Disclaimer: Do not own.

Hermione Granger ran into the bathroom, sobbing. She had thought it would be different at Hogwarts, that she would make proper friends. But it was the same. The ridicule, the shunning. Her classmates only came to her so she would think and work for them. She wasn't sure how much more she could take. In the past she could go home, to her loving parents and her novels. Curl up in the big chair in front of the fireplace and read a good book. But now? She had to share a dorm with these strangers.

Magic was great, but the rest of the things she liked were gone. Her Lackey Mercedes books, her computer, her Usenet discussions and e-mail pen pals. She hadn't written a line of code in weeks.

She tried washing her face to calm down but couldn't. It was just too much. What could she change? Her academic excellence was a part of who she was. Should she cave in? Become someone's homework servant in exchange for friendship, or at least appearance of one? She knew enough about social networking to understand the pitfalls of ending up alone. She had learned that lesson the hard way.

Every time she thought of giving in and becoming a useless vapid girl her tears welled back until she finally gave up on calming down and slid to the ground, hugged her knees and just cried. She wasn't sure how much time had passed before she felt something, like a wind in the air and a strange humming noise. She looked up and saw it, several feet in front of her, a blue vortex swirling into existence in front of her, impossibly real in the middle of it and wafting into smoky nothingness along the edges.

'Oh, that's just like what a stable micro singularity would look like.' She thought and didn't find it at all unusual that she, a mere eleven year old would even know what a micro singularity was. For Hermione Granger liked to know things. She wanted to know everything she could learn, and she learned quickly.

Plus her father was a science fiction fan.

The small whirling blue vortex just hovered there for a moment, until a small, flat, white square hurled out of it and hit her in the forehead and fell to the floor. For moment she stared at the offending improbability as it hung in the air in front of her practically mocking her in it's magnificence and then the moment passed the swirling stilled and the barely stable space time construct just collapsed into itself with a whooshing sound.

Everything was quiet again.

"That was a bit more odd than usual." she muttered to her self as she rubbed her forehead and looked at what had hit her.

She would have been more disturbed a few months ago, before she was let into the secret of the magical world. She had already seen too many impossible things lately to feel the wrongness and dread that had permeated her when Professor Sprout pulled out her wand at her parents house and proved magic existed. She understood the basic principles now, even if they were a little on the vague side.

Never the less something about the small but thick envelope, perhaps eight inches across set her teeth on edge and made the hair on the back of her neck raise on it's own accord. Perhaps it was the letters H. J. G. that were written on it in familiar cursive writing. Her own handwriting.

She stared for along moment and then quickly, afraid she would change her mind and take this to a teacher she opened the envelope. A small leather necklace with a small blue stone fell out. She gasped and picked it up.

Hanging from the leather strap attached by a fragile and totally inadequate looking setting was a blue gem of some sort that glittered in the light. A tiny silver dragon wrapped itself around the stone protectively.

She extracted the letter from the envelope and started reading.

Dear Greenhorn Mirage

Get a hold of yourself and stop panicking.

Now, If I timed this right (And my calculations are perfect, thank you

very much) then you need a little metaphorical kick in the buttocks.

I know it's bad but it gets better. Honestly you should know better than to

expect respect from children. They won't change until they are older.

And some won't change even then.

Good news though, if you are reading then I just became the first

person to completely circumvent the tempo-spatial barrier.

Guess what! It is possible to manipulate the time line through high

dimensional physics. Who's the most brilliant magitech sorceress in

the world?

We are. Well. I am. You might be.

I know, I know, but what about temporal paradox? I call it the

branching world theory. Basically, I never received the letter you

are reading.

And thus a new temporal branch has formed to accommodate your

universe. Or perhaps more accurately our universes touched at one

specific moment so they could interact.

Unfortunately the power levels rise exponentially with mass of the

object sent. Honestly you wouldn't believe how much power this

experiment is going to need. Let's just say it takes really big effort

and avoid the use of the prefix penta in the sentence.

Hermione's mind boggled. She understood the idea of time travel but she believed what Einstein said about the impossibility of it on a macro scale.

She wanted to know how it was possible. And she would not find out until she could duplicate her counterparts achievement. And she was sure her counterpart knew this. She was evil.

She shook her head to prevent her thoughts going off on a tangent and continued reading the letter.

I won't tell you the future (make your own)

Here's some free emotional advice though:

1. Ronald Weasley is a git, with an emotional range of a teaspoon.

He will always be a git. He has his good points, and can actually learn

when it's beaten into his head but he's still a git.

Best case scenario to get him to listen is to make him fear you. With his

fiery temper and pure blood arrogance snuffed with a cool dose of

fear he is much easier to get along with.

It took me breaking his arm during childbirth.

Yes I'm married to the git. He's my git now.

True love is a myth and I like him well enough.

Hermione felt faint and vaguely nauseated. Married to Ronald Weasley. "Ah hell no! I'm not marrying that lousy git. I'd rather die!"

2. Potter is a mess. If you make friends with him prepare for a rough

ride.. He had a rough childhood and really wants someone, anyone,

to be there for him.

He'll be a loyal friend though and a good man to watch your back in

trouble. (Don't wear tight jeans in tricky situations, it distracts him

something awful.)

Then there's the whole Voldemort situation. He's a wraith, he'll

want Harry dead. Perhaps a body for himself.

I'll say it again. Prepare for a rough ride. It was fun though.

He's boring in bed though. Too much of a bottom. Ginny is a

top. Surprise!

She blinked and re-read the last sentence. Apparently she had, ehem, relations with Potter. She vaguely had an idea that a bottom had something to do with spanking and wondered if she even wanted to find out what the terms meant.

She paused at the Voldemort part, realising that her counterpart was warning her and felt a vague lump of anxiety and excitement in her stomach. It implied the monster was alive and that she had been involved in fighting it.

She had read about this you-know-who lunatic. She wondered what was wrong with the magical people to try to erase the name of a man, even an obviously made up one. Well, perhaps. Or perhaps the man's parent's were just cruel. She had noticed that names in the wizarding world were sometimes oddly appropriate for a person's profession or outlook on life.

3. Draco Malfoy. His family is dangerous, the boy is spoiled, a bully

and a borderline kleptomaniac. If he crosses the line stomp his ferret

ass. Try to make it a formal duel so he can't run to daddy, or make

certain you have some other leverage.

Get a hold of 'Formal Etiquette' by Amanda Greengrass from F&B.

I wish I read it while I was in Hogwarts. (Your allowance should cover it.)

Pure bloods disrespect us muggle born, partly because, to them, half

the time we act like manner-less buffoons. The other part is sheer prejudice.

A show of power will get you some respect. Showing eloquence and wit will get you more.

Draco is as much of a git as Ronald Weasley. Those two are much alike.

Draco is a much better shag though, all that anger and self loathing is

a nice spice in bed.

Hermione was getting a feeling of a pattern here. Troublesome men that she slept with.

"What was I some sort of a scarlet woman?" she wondered as she continued reading.

4. Luna Lovegood. You won't know her yet. Befriend as soon a you see her.

She is your intellectual equal. Even if she is coming to it from the other side.

Nargles are nine dimensional beings. Don't ask to see them until you wrap

your mind around non euclidean geometry in Arithmancy.

(And for gods sake keep up with your maths. You'd be surprised what a

calculator and college level mathematics will do when used properly.

Not to mention what I got once I ran some "Impossibly long" Arithmancy

equations through Matlab on a fourteen gigahertz quad core processor)

Well, that is for the people that are close to me in my life. Even if Draco is

more like a familiar pet, or perhaps a nosy wild cat that pops in occasionally

for some food and a good scratch, then an actual friend. Poor guy, it took him

until his thirties to evolve into a human being, and twenty more to become a

productive member of society.

And Luna is Luna. Without her I'd have snapped and went

'Dark and terrible,

treacherous as the sea,

all would love me and despair.'

on the stupid corrupt misogynistic bastards that ran the wizarding world

before The Fall.

There are other people in my life but frankly you can handle them on your

own. Keep an open mind.

She felt slightly better, after reading this. She always wanted a friend she could talk to. At least it wasn't another conquest she had to kick in the gonads. Non-euclidian geometry sounded intriguing. Though she remembered reading something about the concept driving people mad or something.

That quote on the end seemed a bit sinister and she wondered where she had read it before.

5. Life debts. Try to avoid them.

When confronting trolls: stay calm, and see if you can escape. If you're trapped,

use Lumos Maxima to blind it and try to levitate something heavy onto their head.

Like a club for instance.

If all else fails just focus, pool your power and overpower a

Reductor curse into it's head. Most things die without their head.

(Wand Diagram enclosed, touch the words with a wand to see. Tap again to revert to letter.)

Seriously. I'm stuck with a life debt to Potter, and while he is truly a good friend he

can be a bit of an ass himself at times. The nagging need to help him however I can is

kind of annoying and sometimes counterproductive when he actually need a swift kick in the buttocks.

I cancelled out Ronald's by marrying him. I can hex his arse into a puddle if he annoys me now.

Yes I'm smiling.

Also, and I cannot stress this enough. STUDY WIZARDING LAW. There

are loopholes and vaguely known sub clauses that will make your life easier

if you know them before you are of age.

She eagerly pulled out her wand and studied the spell as a part of her wondered what about wizarding law was so important. The Reductor spell was interesting. It was a type 3 spell with variable yield concussion damage depending on the amount of power channelled into it. Dangerous. And this life debt sounded horrible. She smiled at the thought of hexing Ronald Weasley and then felt sorry for her counterpart for her apparent inability to do so, even for a little while.

6. Hint about magic: Arithmancy is the Assembler while Runes are Higher programming language.

Wanded Spells? Self executables.

But only European and American mages use wands.

Hermione grinned in glee finally seeing an explanation of magic that made sense.

She made a mental note to study runes as soon as possible.

"Needle to matchstick indeed" She grumbled taping the letter to continue reading it.

And last but not least?

7. Power.

Don't listen to anyone in the wizarding world that claims that ones 'magical core' is fixed at birth. Ones natural inclination is but magic is composed from mental energies of the mind, the chemical energies of the body and of spiritual energies of the soul.

Soul is fixed. This is the 'magical core' that everyone is yammering about and is actually not powering your spells directly. Magic is the light of the soul. Let's not get too metaphysical for now.

The other two, mind and body can and will increase with practice. Meditative practice, mental and physical will do wonders for a magic user.

In fact if you focus enough into the mind arts and exercise your body the light of your soul will grow match the energies of your mind and body.

And then there is external magic, channelling the dragon lines, elemental magic, spirit lines, magical focal points,and so on.

You wouldn't believe how much of a rush it is, calling down a lightning strike and absorbing the energies to replenish your own. Don't try it if you don't know what you are doing. A good benchmark is this. If you can produce lightning you can absorb lightning of similar strength

So enough with the inadequacy issues. Seriously. You are a witch, you have it within you to be a sorceress and no one is allowed to bully you!

A warm feeling spread through her heart. She was wrong. Maybe she did belong here.

Work on your mind and your body in your spell casting from the start and you can pretty much write your own ticket.

The enclosed amulet is designed for you protection wear it at all times. It has been charmed with a 'notice me not' enchantment, the cord and the jewel are unbreakable, and no one can take it off you without your consent.

It will help you replenish your energies faster by channelling outside energies into you when yours are low. The net result is that you will naturally heal twice as fast, fight poison, foreign magic influence and disease more easily. The excess energy will also shore up your mental barriers once you have them up and generally help you advance a bit faster then with just your light of the soul doing all the work.

I haven't needed it for a long time now, having learned to channel energies on my own. It is my gift to your future and safety.

I also took the liberty of enchanting the silver dragon with some protective wards of my design, when you learn enough runes you can pick them apart and learn what they do. At that point you may choose to detach the dragon and use it separately. The stone will retain full functionality.

Oh, the stone can also act as a powerful yet undetectable portkey focus when you learn to make one. I call it the ward crasher.

Best wishes.

Rhea, Reign Monger

aka

Hermione Jane Granger (formerly Weasley)

P.S. If and when you choose to have sex do NOT make your first time in a tent with no access to proper shower while hiding from people who wand to kill you.

P.P.S. If your version of Potter tries to name his child Albus Severus hex him until he changes his mind.

P.P.P.S. Please do peruse The Book List and the brief financial overview of the 1990's(I could have extended it into the first half of the 21st century, but why spoil the fun.)

Hermione's mind was a whirl of thought as she looked at the necklace with a new sense of awe.

She knew the letter was true because no one knew of the handle she peddled 'grey' software under. She hesitated for a moment and then placed the leather cord around her neck. She put it under her shirt and sighed.

She always wanted a dragon pendant of some sort.

She took a deep breath and set out to imedeately re read the letter and explore the hidden parts of it. She had much to think about. Least of all what the letter implied on the nature of the universe. Or that she possibly cheats on her husband. Ex Husband? And who was Luna Lovegood?