It was a rainy December day. Hermione Granger, a 6th year student, was reading a book about time travelling. It was a subject not often discussed in class, but it fascinated her. She had had her own experience with time travelling; on her 3rd year Professor McGonagall had given her a time turner so that she could attend all the classes she wanted. Later on she discovered that Divination wasn't for her... actually, the teacher wasn't for her.

She had just finished a chapter called "Changing the past equals disaster"- nothing surprising in that, Hermione thought to herself. She flipped the page and saw the next chapter was called "The timeless traveller." The title intrigued her. She started reading.

She was utterly fascinated after just the first two pages. She flipped to the next site and saw a drawing. It reminded her of something. Of someone. During her time at Hogwarts, the school had had this substitute teacher helping out, when some of the teachers were ill or gone for a longer period of time. This gorgeous, very nice man who had never given his name to the students. He fascinated Hermione just as much, if not more, than the book she was reading. There was something about him.

Intrigued as she was, she could feel her eyes beginning to itch. She decided to go to bed and enjoy the book the next day.

The next day she joined her friends, Ron and Harry, for breakfast in the Great Hall. She didn't say a word for the first fifteen minutes.

"Hermione, is everything okay?" Harry asked in a concerned tone.

"What?" Hermione said with a hint of shock in her voice. "Yes, sorry, everything's fine. I just have a lot on my mind at the moment."

"Something you wanna talk about?" Harry asked.

"No, it's not important," she replied.

Harry and Ron looked at her.

"Really. It's nothing," she said.

"If you say so," Ron said and took a bite of his roll.

Hermione knew she could trust them, but she couldn't see what she'd possibly get out of talking to them about what she had dreamt during the night. She had dreamt about the unnamed professor, but in her dream he wasn't of this world. He had this machine which made it possible for him to travel in time. She knew it had only been a dream, but still.. it was so odd. It all just fitted so well together: What she had read about the timeless man in the book, what she had dreamt about him, how he suddenly showed up and disappeared without notice. To Hermione, everything about him seemed so strange, but still very intriguing.

"I'm gonna go back to the common room and continue reading my book," Hermione announced as she stood up.

"Okay. See you later then," Harry said.

Hermione walked through the corridors very slowly. She couldn't stop thinking about her dream. When she got to the common room she decided she'd go for a walk outside. She went to the girls dormitory and fetched her coat.

During the night the rain had turned into snow. Hermione didn't mind. Actually, she rather enjoyed it; she liked watching the naked trees and fields getting covered in snow. It was so beautiful. She walked around for a bit, going through the dream in her head, over and over again. Suddenly she heard a sound. A very strange sound, which sounded so familiar. A sort of whooshing. She ran in the direction of the sound. It got louder and clearer. She got around a corner and...