Taming Time

Disclaimer: Everything belongs where it should, with the amazing JK Rowling.

Chapter 1: Fading Away

The air was filled with the sweet sounds and smells of late August as Hermione, Ginny, and Molly Weasley worked in the garden outside the Burrow. Ginny seemed quaint and content, working next to Hermione and Molly. Molly was also enjoying her afternoon gardening with the girls. But Hermione, on the other hand, found herself in no way at ease with the task of gardening outside.

Hermione couldn't deny the fact that lately, things had been hard. It was summer, and the war had ended, she was supposed to be happy! However, since the war had ended, Hermione found herself falling into a state of depression. First it was her parents, Hermione had failed to find and bring them back from Australia, and then Ron, who broke her heart shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts. She found herself constantly surrounded by happy, care-free people while she was anything but happy.

"Hermione, dear, get me a shovel from the shed, would you?" Molly asked.

"Sure," Hermione nodded, getting up and walking towards the old shed.

As she walked, Hermione felt a familiar, yet strange feeling in her stomach. It wasn't exactly nausea, but more of a turning feeling, as if she was spinning around in circles. She arrived at the shed and tried to forget the peculiar sensation.

The young witch grabbed the shovel and gasped upon seeing her hand. Her eyebrows furrowed as she inspected her hand and arm. "What is this?" She murmured to herself. It was as if her hand was fading away, dissapearing for seconds at a time before reappearing again. This sort of thing had happened to her before, but never so severe. In the past, it was only that feeling in her stomach, but now she seemed to be disappearing, fading away. "Maybe you're just going crazy." She whispered to herself with a slight laugh.

As she walked back out of the shed it became aware to her that the fading was not just some elaborate halucination. It was definitely real. The shed was fading away, just like her hand earlier, soon the bright blue sky turned black, only lit by what appeared to be torches, lining a long corridor.

She began walking, finding her feet on stone rather than the grass she had just stepped on. She still had the shovel in hand, and held it cautiously, knowing that she had not been carrying her wand with her earlier, and she couldn't use spells to defend herslef.

Hermione continued down the dimly lit corridor, finding that it seemed quite hazy and hard to distinguish where she was. "Hello?" She called, looking for any sign of another living person.

It was empty, hallow and quiet, but she recognized it. She had been there before, but she just couldn't place it in her memory.

The hallway went on for a long ways, seemingly never-ending. Hermione walked for a couple minutes.

But then it was gone. The hallway faded and a blue sky took it's place. She was back at the Burrow.

"Hermione, there you are!" Molly said, "What took you so long?"

Hermione once again furrowed her eyebrows. "I- I don't know."

Now Ginny looked up at her, squinting her eyes from the sunlight, "What do you mean?"

"Nothing," Hermione brushed it off, "Never mind." And with that, she joined Molly and Ginny, returning to her work.

A similar thing had happened before to Hermione. But it was never like this. It started when she was just a little girl, she was in third year when it began. But it only happened every few months or so, and it was only ever a feint feeling, like time had slipped up for a moment. But this was so real, and she had actually traveled somewhere else. Yes, this was something different.

Five days later, it happened again. She was just running upstairs to get a scarf before they left for Diagon alley. They were going shopping for books before school started. She skipped the last stair as she ran to the room she shared with Ginny. Her scarf was just hanging on the bedpost, right where she left it. She grabbed the scarf and turned around, looping it around her neck.

"Oh no." Hermione mumbled. It was happening again. That turning feeling in her stomach. She looked in a nearby mirror and found her face fading away.

The mirror transformed into a large brick wall. A train horn blew behind her as children's voices rang in her ears. Hermione turned around and recognized it immediately. It was the Hogwarts Express. She was in Kings Cross station.

It was definitely less hazy than last time, but she still didn't feel like she was completely there. She started considering the possibilities of how she arrived there. Had she accidentally apparated? She didn't think that was possible, especially since it wasn't time to go to Hogwarts yet, they still had about a week until the train would be departing from platform nine and three quarters.

"Excuse me?" She approached a man and woman, obviously parents of a departing witch or wizard. "Do have the date?"

The man looked and her and raised an eyebrow. "September first, 1977, of course! And our little boy is going to Hogwarts!" He grinned, putting his arm around his wife and pointing to a little blond boy boarding the train.

"1977?" Hermione said, shock evident in her voice.

He chuckled, "Yes...1977." The man studied Hermione for a moment, "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yes, I- I'm fine." Hermione took a deep breath, and backed away from the man, "Thank you!" She smiled.

She was in 1977, how did she get here? She walked over to a bench and sat down for a moment, trying to catch her breath and contemplate what was going on. A group of boys, probably seventh years ran by yelling something about "getting good seats" and as she watched them go by, everything started to fade. The last boy, with long black hair dissapeared until all that was left was the sound of footsteps.

"Hermione, are you coming?" Ginny asked, entering their shared room.

Hermione looked around, finding that everything was normal again, just how she had left it, back in her time. "Yeah, Gin, I'm coming." She said, following the red-headed witch downstairs where Molly was giving the same floo instructions they heard every year.

"You excited to get our school things, Hermione?" Harry asked as Hermione approached him.

"Yeah... Very excited." She said with a forced smile.

She had to figure out what was going on. Was she going mad? She decided that must have been the answer since it was physically impossible for her to travel over twenty years back in time.

Hermione eventually forgot about her frightening experience for the rest of the day, pretending it never happened and partly believing it wouldn't happen again.

But it did happen again.

And the next time she faded away, she didn't come back.

A/N: Reviews, Favorites, and Follows are really appreciated.