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Hermione Granger’s relationship with time was complicated.
It had started when she had selected the classes she wanted to take in her third year in Hogwarts, when Professor McGonagall had visited her during the summer.
“Miss Granger, your enthusiasm is commendable, but you simply cannot take all the classes you wish to take.” Her voice had been stern while she had tried to explain to Hermione why it was impossible.
But it wasn’t truly impossible. Hermione had been heartbroken over having to choose which classes to drop, even though she wanted to learn as much as she possibly could, when a second visitor had graced her parent’s doorstep. Headmaster Dumbledore himself came to pay a visit the young witch.
“I cannot begin to express how dangerous meddling with time is,” he had told her, but his eyes had a strange gleam to them.
Over the next year Hermione had understood what the headmaster had meant but she also had her suspicions for why she had been handed a time-turner.
Her third year was a long one, at least for her. Sometimes she lived through a day not once or twice but three times. After all she not only had classes to visit but also to study for! And her homework needed to be done!
So, Hermione Granger spent a lot of her time studying. Sometimes rescuing runaway prisoners, but mostly studying.
Her friends, and Professor McGonagall for that matter, thought she had given the time-turner back to Professor Dumbledore after her third year had ended so horribly, but she had never actually done it, nor had he asked for it.
Maybe she would need it one day?
Throughout her time in Hogwarts she sometimes used it for studying. Nothing major, nothing where she ever got caught.
Her live changed quite abruptly a year after the battle of Hogwarts, and so did her relationship with time.
She had not used the golden necklace since she had passed her NEWTs and she had not planned on using it either, but sometimes life had different plans.
It had been when she walked through the streets of New York, her beaded bag at her side. Nothing spectacular happened, she was not struck by a spell or hit by a bus, she simply bumped against a lantern with her beaded bag.
When she heard the sound of shattering glass Hermione sighed, stopped – she was on her way to the MACUSA, but she had a few minutes to spare – and dug through her bag. She did not see what had broken, but she soon felt a shard of glass cutting her finger.
Hermione cursed, pulled her hand bag and put her bleeding finger in her mouth. She instantly felt light-headed. Strange, she usually did not mind the smell or taste of blood, having gotten used to it way too long ago. Before she could think too much of it, blackness overtook her.
When she woke up, a man stood over her, looking massively uncomfortable.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
Hermione had to take a moment to take stock of her situation. She was lying on a public street, had passed out, and her finger was still bleeding. Her eyes searched the man’s incredulously.
“I’m sorry, it’s just, you appeared… in the middle of the street and I don’t think the MACUSA is going to like that…” he drifted off, his eyes flickering to hers and then back to their surroundings.
“Come with me,” he held a hand in her direction and Hermione instinctively grabbed it.
They ran off before the MACUSA arrived or Hermione got his name. After they ran through the streets and finally stopped to catch their breath, the witch finally got a look at their surroundings.
The city surrounding them was definitely New York, but at the same time it definitely was not. She finally took a good look at her companion – he was not exactly dressed like the people she was used to, not even by wizarding standards.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Newt. Newt Scamander.” The man with the blond curls replied, his hands fidgeting.
“Scamander. You are. Newt. Scamander.” She replied very slowly, thinking she might have hit her head when she passed out.
“Yes?” He sounded confused.
Hermione ripped her bag open and stared inside.
“Accio time-turner!” She exclaimed, her hand placed in front of the bag. With a soft noise the necklace flew into her hand. The glass, holding the time-sand had splintered.
“Oh no.”
She wondered if time wanted to punish her for messing with it when she was younger. She never had the easiest relationship with it of course, but this was more than she had anticipated.
She finally turned back to her companion. “I’m Hermione Granger. Lovely to meet you. I might have a tiny problem.”
A couple of days later Dumbledore had told her that she should not expect to be able to travel back to her time, she had helped Newt Scamander of all people to hunt down the creatures that had escaped from his case, simultaneously avoid the MACUSA and had faced Grindelwald at his side.
When he proposed that she should travel with him, she did not even hesitate. “Is it always like this?”
He had sheepishly shaken his head. “Just… sometimes.”
While her relationship with time was more than complicated, Hermione Granger was immensely grateful for it. It had given her her friends, her childhood with parents who had loved her, and it had given her the man she loved more than anything.
She didn’t know that yet when she had put her hand in this, but it wouldn’t be long until she knew. She could have done research, could have pressed to find a way to go back. But something about being here, with Newt, felt just right. And travelling the world with him while learning more about magical creatures was the most beautiful thing she had ever done, so she decided that this was exactly where she should be.