"I must ask you, Harry, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me," he said gently. "Anything at all."
_Professor Dumbledore, Chamber of Secrets_
When Hermione reopened her eyes, she did so with extreme surprise. Had she not just fallen from the Astronomy Tower? Had she not just thrown herself into oblivion? She shook herself quickly; it wasn't worth thinking about that. Hermione didn't believe in the unexplainable and she was very clearly still alive. As a result, she got up slowly from the floor of the library and dusted herself down. How was she now in the library?
As she was questioning this, there came a rustling from around the corner and Professor Dumbledore appeared with Professor Snape. They both paused upon seeing her.
"Miss Granger, it is beyond curfew," Professor Snape stated.
Strangely, Snape sounded neither angry nor suspicious. Instead, he appeared to be waiting for a response of some kind.
"Sorry," Hermione muttered, lowering her head.
However, as she did so, realisation flooded through her.
"Sir," she said quickly, looking up again. "You_ Is this 1996?"
Snape seemed satisfied with this reaction and looked sideways at his colleague. Dumbledore spoke up.
"Yes, Miss Granger, it is. Do you have something you need to tell us?"
As was typical Dumbledore, he didn't seem annoyed either. Hermione noted that he was far calmer than his past self and supposed that time could change anyone.
"Yes," she frowned, "I think I do."
"Did you fall through Tom Riddle's diary?"
Yet again, Dumbledore seemed nonchalant, as though this kind of thing happened every day.
"Yes."
"You may be confused, Granger," Snape commented, "But this is all logical. The headmaster has already lived through your year in 1943."
Her mouth made an 'O' of understanding. Snape sighed, no doubt cursing her stupidity in his head. Hermione had never doubted the Potion Master's intellect but now she was questioning her own.
"How am I back here?" She asked. "I_ There was no way I could have returned."
Dumbledore massaged his temples.
"Abraxas Malfoy informed me that you had, regrettably, jumped off the Astronomy Tower. Coincidentally, your body was never found. This means that your reappearance here now confirms suspicions I have harboured for the last fifty years."
Professor Snape was clearly not one for riddles or wasting time and Hermione remembered his habitually irritated disposition in an almost nostalgic way.
"I will explain, Miss Granger, since the headmaster is incapable of getting to the point."
Hermione smiled reminiscently.
"A diary's length spans one year as you will well know. January to December. That was the same amount of time you were in 1943 – exactly one year. Professor Dumbledore and I believe that the diary's extraordinary capabilities made this event possible. As you will have seen, Riddle was an extraordinarily gifted student."
Hermione felt an odd twang of loss. Two friends (if she could call them that) – Abraxas and Tom – were now gone forever. Abraxas was dead and Tom was no longer Tom. He was now a complete monster, far more inconsolable and irredeemable than before.
Dumbledore gave her a sympathetic gaze as she zoned out and Snape simply appeared to be emotionless.
"Miss Granger," the headmaster eventually spoke to wake her out of her reverie. "This will undoubtedly be difficult to get past, this bizarre occurrence, but you can always speak to myself or Professor Snape. Also, if you ever want to speak to someone about what happened last night_"
Hermione shook her head fervently, trying to rid herself of that memory.
"No thank you, professor. I was in a tough place then. I was surrounded by strangers for an entire year and my closest acquaintance was a murderer."
She swallowed.
"Myrtle died. Three Muggles died. Hagrid was wrongly accused of murder. I was tortured and almost killed."
Snape's face was still inscrutable but Dumbledore looked stricken.
"Here," Hermione continued, "I have my friends. Yes, they won't ever be allowed to know what happened in that time. I won't have anyone to talk to that I can relate to. I'm a year older now and I was revising for NEWTs which I now have an extra year to stress over. Yes, everything has changed. But no, thank you. Tom called me a coward. I need to prove, not just to myself but to Voldemort, that I am brave and that I can do this."
Hermione's lip quivered but she wouldn't let the tears fall.
She may be a Mudblood.
She may be the daughter of Muggles.
She may be traumatised and alone.
But she was a Gryffindor.
Gryffindors run with the lions and fight with the snakes.
They never give in.
They take care of their friends.
And, above all, they are certainly not cowards.
Not if Hermione Jean Granger had anything to say about it.
*****
A.N. Eek! This is the culmination of YEARS of writing and thinking I would never finish a story. But now... It is time to celebrate. After all, 30 chapters and 27K reads is more than I ever expected when first publishing this in December, 2017.
This journey has taken the many notebooks of an eager little girl scribbling away about Tomione and multiple months of discontinuation during the times of intensive revision, laziness and pure procrastination. I want to thank all of you for reading this, voting and commenting, but especially I want to thank my good friend @Cassie20052 for commenting everywhere and continually reminding me to update and complete Hermione's journey. This chapter is dedicated to you and I apologise for confusing you so much with the names Ginevra and Hermione! xD
Please read my other works if you like and stay tuned - you never know, the magic may continue...
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A Little Trip Through a Diary / TOMIONE (COMPLETE)
Fanfiction(Best ranking: #1 in TOMIONE and #1 in GRANGER) Hermione finds Tom Riddle's diary in the library and, intrigued, she picks it up, only to find herself falling through to 1943, the year of the previous basilisk attacks. In the past, she not only mana...
