A Dance Through Thyme (Harry Potter)

Bedürfnis

Thank you for being patient with me and my lack of updates. They will be reasonably infrequent for the next month and a half, after which I will be on holidays and free to write whenever I want. In the meantime, I've made this chapter a little longer than my normal ones, so hopefully that makes up for it.

Chapter 3: Bedürfnis

Necessity

Placing her feet firmly on the stone stairs, Hermione waited for them to take her up to the Headmaster's office.

Dumbledore had seemed kind enough when he had spoken to her earlier, and she could have sworn she had dim memories of a man with long silver hair, and high-heeled boots.

The stairs glided to a halt and Hermione stood still, facing the heavy wooden doors of Dumbledore's office. Reaching out with a shaking hand, Hermione touched the wood with her bare hand. She was only able to feel its warmth for a fleeting second before it began to move away as it opened and allowed the Headmaster's office to come into her view.

"Welcome, Hermione. Please come in and take a seat. Would you care for a Lemon Drop?"

Feeling suddenly overwhelmed by the recent turn of events, Hermione meekly obeyed, setting herself upon the very edge of a blue chintz chair. Dumbledore, on the other hand, held out a small tin of what appeared to be the aforementioned Lemon Drops.

"I am thinking that you are perhaps a little distracted this evening, Hermione. Are you sure you wouldn't like a Lemon Drop?"

Lips sticking together in nervousness, Hermione replied in a small, shaking voice.

"No, thank you."

Bobbing his head once in acquiescence, Dumbledore placed the tin into an already open drawer. Upon sliding this shut, he turned to face Hermione once more.

"Well, in that case, we had better concentrate on the purpose for which I summoned you here. Although I have very grave doubts on the matter, I must ask if you have any time turners in your possession. Do you?"

Hermione shook her head, brown eyes wide with a mixture of confusion and apprehension.

"No, sir."

Again Dumbledore nodded at her.

"Now that we have ruled out that form of transportation, we can focus on the other possibilities. Poppy has completely ruled out any head injuries, or trauma of that sort, yet you are under the belief that you are from the year 2000. Assuming that you are not under the influence of Dark Magic, this leads us to suspect that you have time travelled... I am merely trying to ensure that all the details that I have are accurate. Does this information sound familiar to you?"

"Yes, sir," Hermione replied in the same quiet tone.

"Good," replied Dumbledore briskly. "Now, I am sure that you have some understanding of the potential disastrous consequences of this situation. Until such a time where you will be able to return to place from which you came, your safety is paramount to me."

Hermione had spent the last few minutes starting at her lap whilst listening to Dumbledore speak, however, her head immediately snapped up when he began to talk about her going back home.

"What do you mean by 'until such a time' where I will be able to go home? Isn't there a spell, a counter-curse, or anything that would send me back? I need to get back home, clearly I don't belong here, nor am I meant to be here."

"I am afraid it is not that simple, Hermione. Unless you have any more information for us, or your memory restores itself, we have no information on how you came to be in this time period. It will only be when we ascertain how you came to be here that we will have any clues as to how to send you back."