Chapter 1
“Are you ready?”
“Yes”
It had been 6 months since the Battle of Hogwarts. Six months since Josephine had watched Hermione Granger, her fiance, die in her arms. Since then, she hasn’t been the same. Everywhere she went she was reminded of Hermione, and it had started to become too hard for her. So it was a blessing in disguise when the ministry came to her with a special mission to go back in time over 130 years and help the Wizarding World- again.
While Josephine wasn’t too excited to have to go back into battle again, she just needed something else to do and somewhere else to be - or sometime, to be more accurate.
She wasn’t told much by the ministry except that there was a murderous Goblin called Ranrok who had teamed up with an equally dangerous wizard, Rookwood, and that the two of them were on a rampage together and needed to be stopped. So, Josephine had to have an emotional goodbye to her boys- Harry, Ron, and Draco - whom all were sad to see her go but understood that this was ultimately the right choice.
Since the war the three of them had moved on while Josephine hadn’t. Ron was in training to become an Auror as well as courting a muggleborn Hufflepuff who Ron had met in training. Harry and Draco had recently gotten married, and they were both starting to advance in their careers- Harry had become the new DADA teacher at Hogwarts whilst Draco was working with the ministry to help abused children of high nobility Wizarding families.
So, with a teary goodbye, she took the portkey-time turner that the ministry had given her and off she went.
The first thing she noticed was that she was standing next to a carriage being pulled by a bunch of thestrals as well as someone she immediately recognized as Professor Fig, a long-previous professor at Hogwarts whom she had read about when she had stolen Hermione’s copy of Hogwarts: A History all those years ago.
It was then that Josephine finally looked down at herself and was completely taken aback. She was younger- she couldn’t tell how much but definitely a few years at least. Secondly, she was wearing a clean set of Gryffindor robes that definitely weren’t the ones that you could get at Madam Malkins nowadays.
Upon Professor Fig’s friend, George Osric, arriving, the three got into the carriage and it took off towards Hogwarts.
“Who is your friend,” Osric asked, gesturing towards Josephine.
“A new student,” Fig supplied, “She’s started as a fifth-year, though.”
‘Oh, so I’m fifteen’, Josephine thought
It was then that Oscric went into discussing how Miriam, Professor Fig’s wife, had left him something before she was murdered by Ranrok. Osric then pulled out a metal tube with a symbol in the center of it.
“The symbol, it’s glowing,” Josephine said upon looking at it closer.
“I don’t see a glow,” Fig said concerningly
Before Osric could say anything a dragon attacked the carriage, chewing off the part that Osric sat in and before Josephine could even process what was happening Osric was gone and her and Fig were falling to the ground.
When they finally landed hard on the ground, Fig immediately got out two Wiggenweld potions and gave one to Josephine which she greedily drank. She then, with the help of Fig, used her newly discovered ancient magic to find a cave where she easily fought off animated armory with a wand she had never used before. Once she reunited with Fig at the exit of the cave, the two made their way to Hogwarts.
After meeting the Headmaster, Josephine made her way to the familiar Gryffindor common room, which hadn’t changed too much. It still felt like the same place she had spent so many years in. Although this time there was a whole new set of students to meet and socialize with.
“All I need is a Fwooper feather!”
Turning towards the couch, Josephine saw two students in a friendly argument with another. When she approached, they both stopped and faced her- everyone here knew her as the new fifth-year transfer.
“Hello. I’m Josephine.”
“It’s so cool to finally meet the new transfer,” the boy with ginger hair said, “I can finally rope another person into my potion-making experiments!”
Josephine smiled as this boy reminded her of Fred and George, always doing crazy experiments in their youth.
“I'm Gareth, by the way. Gareth Weasley.”
Josephine simply nodded while her heart swelled in understanding at why she was reminded of the twins. Of course one of the first students she would meet would be a Weasley.
“And I’m Natsai Oni,” the girl sitting opposite Gareth on the couch said, “but you can call me Natty.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, Natty. And you too Gareth.”
Today was the first day of classes for Josephine - well, the second seventh first day for her but at least she had all new professors to look forward to. Her schedule for the day was DADA with Slytherins, Charms with Hufflepuffs, and then Potions with Slytherins again. Although she never really had any sort of vendetta against the house, especially with her befriending Draco in fifth year and getting to know a few more Slytherins. Plus, from what she’s observed so far, everyone at this time doesn’t have as much of a hatred for the other houses that aren’t theirs as much as they did in her time.
Upon rifling through her bag that she had been able to bring with her, looking for the ring that Hermione had given her back in fifth year as a birthday present, she found her cell phone. She hadn’t even realized that she packed it. When she turned it on, it still worked relatively well- although any call she tried to make never went through but instead straight to voicemail. She was suddenly overcome with joy at the prospect of having all her old videos and pictures with her again- she didn’t have to completely let go of Hermione. She could still listen to her voice.
She quickly dressed in her school robes before grabbing her bag and sprinting out of the common room. She was so preoccupied with getting to class on time so she could make a good impression that she accidentally ran right into someone and they both fell over.
“Oh my Merlin, I’m so sorry,” she said as she turned to face the boy.
He had strikingly blonde hair- not all that dissimilar to Draco’s - and was wearing a freshly pressed set of Slytherin robes. Josephine tried to help the subconscious blush that appeared on her face as she helped the boy up.
“It’s quite alright. I can’t exactly see where I’m going.”
It was then that Josephine looked into his eyes and realized that they were cloudy.
“Oh, now I feel even worse! I’ve been here for less than 24 hours and I’ve already knocked over a blind guy!”
The boy let out a chuckle as he went to grab his bag off the floor.
“Well I guess you’re the transfer student then. I’m Ominis. Ominis Gaunt.”
She tried not to flinch when she heard his last name. She knew that not everyone in the Gaunt line was awful, but it didn’t help that the first person she had met was a direct descendant of Voldemort.
“Yup, that’s me. I’m Josephine by the way. Josephine Dawson.”
“Nice to meet you, Josephine….Well, I’m off to Defense Against the Dark Arts.”
“I have that too!” Josephine said a tad bit too excitedly.
She honestly had no idea why she was acting like this. Yes, Ominis was quite attractive, but she could never replace Hermione.
“Lovely. You can meet my friend Sebastian,” Ominis said as the two made their way to class, “He’s a bit of a character, but he’s nice when you get to know him.”
Arriving at the DADA classroom, Josephine was shocked to see a fellow Gryffindor she had met in the common room earlier that morning, Leander Prewitt, being hoisted up by the professor.
“What’s going on,” Josephine whispered to Natty as she walked up to her.
“Leander challenged Professor Hecat about the importance of the spell Levioso, and this is his reward.”
“Oh,” Josephine said, holding back a laugh.
“Josephine-,” Ominis suddenly said
“You can just call me Jo.”
“Well, Jo-” Ominis began, smiling at the nickname, “this is who I told you about. Sebastian Sallow.”
Looking past Ominis, Josephine saw a boy with curly brown locks and wearing a set of Slytherin robes as well as a cheeky smile.
“You’re the new transfer. It’s nice to finally meet you. Too bad you weren’t sorted into Slytherin,” Sebastian said, sending her a smirk
Josephine would usually be afraid of such advances but she could tell from the look in his eyes that this was all bravado and merely to keep up a reputation.
“Indeed it is.”
Before Sebastian could respond the professor announced that today’s class they would be dueling and somehow Josephine had been pitted against Sebastian.
“I want a clean duel. Only Levioso and Accio,” Professor Hecat explained as a platform appeared under Sebastian and Josephine’s feet.
“You ready?” Sebastian asked, smirking
“You bet.”
Josephine quickly levitated Sebastian into the air before hitting him a few times with a basic cast. It was a clean and quick duel, but Jsoephine could tell that Sebastian was shocked at how quickly he was beaten.
“Nice job,” Sebastian said as he walked up to Josephine after the duel, “No way that was your first time dueling.”
Josephine was briefed not to tell anyone about her past and that she was from the future, so as far as anyone knew she was just a transfer student.
“Nope. First time.”
“Wow. Well I’ve got an offer for you to join an unsanctioned dueling club.”
“‘Unsanctioned?’ Count me in.”
“Perfect. I’ll send you an owl when we meet next.”
“Can’t wait.”