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+[[!meta title="Chapter 1: Escape"]]
+
+Harry awoke to darkness, discomfort, and impossibility.
+
+He was in the cupboard. Impossible. He and Hermione had personally flattened
+this entire house shortly after the war. The Weasleys had disapproved, saying
+Harry should forgive his relatives, but this was before the love potions had
+kicked in again and removed his free will.
+
+How could he be in the cupboard?
+
+And why was he *small?*
+
+Harry began to hyperventilate. Nothing was making sense, this couldn't be
+happening—
+
+"TIME TO GET UP, FREAK! WHY DON'T I SMELL BREAKFAST COOKING?"
+
+The tiny door was wrenched open, and Harry saw a dead man silhouetted against
+the morning light.
+
+"DON'T MAKE ME DRAG YOU OUT OF THERE, BOY! GET UP!"
+
+Harry started moving on automatic. Even after nearly 150 years of adult life,
+he would never forget the rules and demands of the Dursley household. He
+rushed out of the cupboard and hurried to begin preparing his captors' meal.
+
+As he slaved away in the kitchen, Harry tried to reason through his situation.
+A stolen glance at his uncle's newspaper confirmed the date — July 31st, 1987.
+Seven years old. How was he seven years old again?
+
+He was pretty sure he could still feel his magic, but to be certain he'd need
+to reestablish his Occlumency, and with the damage Snape had done there was no
+way he could manage that in this emotional climate.
+
+An accidental glance at his reflection on a spoon was another shock. His scar
+was *wrong.* After Voldemort's defeat, the scar had rapidly weakened and
+eventually healed over. Now it looked like it was just beginning that process.
+Whatever had caused him to return to 1987 must have destroyed the horcrux as
+well.
+
+Harry struggled through the day, barely paying attention to his surroundings.
+He had to escape, had to get in touch... with whom, exactly? Harry didn't
+trust anybody in power in this year. If only he had Hermione to help him make
+sense of this situation.
+
+By the end of the day, he'd managed to calm down enough to begin to cope with
+the situation. Locked in his cupboard, in the dark, he meditated and put
+together the barest underpinning of Occlumency. It was enough to give him some
+rudimentary access to his wandless magic.
+
+And so, Harry wandlessly and silently unlocked the cupboard and sneaked out of
+4 Privet Drive. His plan was to beg his way into his trust vault at Gringotts,
+and then buy a plane ticket out of the country and hopefully into a real life.
+In a few years maybe he'd find some way to introduce himself to and rescue
+Hermione.
+
+Plans, in general, had never gone well for Harry Potter.
+
+She was waiting for him at the bus stop one block away. "Hello Harry," she
+casually remarked, "sorry for the time travel. I was wondering when you'd
+manage to get out of that house. My parents are waiting in the car just over
+there, if you'd like a ride?"
+
+"Hermione?"
+
+<hr />
+
+"Wake up, Hermione, you need to get ready for school! And happy birthday,
+dear! We'll have a cake and presents for you when you get home!"
+
+"Mom? But you're dead! And it's not my... oh no, it worked. But that means...
+why am I at home? I must have gotten the time travel wrong! What year is it?"
+
+Hermione, let it be known, had always been a very intelligent young girl. Dan
+and Emma Granger had soon gotten used to her breathlessly working through
+problems out loud, and tried to do their best to stay caught up with her
+reasoning and supportive of her curiosity. This was not to say that Emma was
+prepared for this particular line of thought, especially not early in the
+morning.
+
+"Darling, time travel? What are you talking about? Are you feeling okay?"
+
+"No. What year, please, mother?"
+
+"1986. September 19th, your birthday. Darling?"
+
+"My birthday. My seventh birthday. I must have miscalculated, it was supposed
+to be seven months before the ritual, but it was seven years after my birth
+instead. It was only supposed to be if Harry or I died unhappily... but I
+suppose that makes sense," Hermione was muttering to herself while her mother
+looked more and more distraught. Noticing this suddenly, Hermione interrupted
+herself, "Can you go fetch Dad? We need to talk about something as a family.
+And it might be best if both of you cancel your appointments today."
+
+"Hermione? What's going on?"
+
+"Please, Mom. It'll be easier with both of you."
+
+"OK, darling. I'll be right back with your father."
+
+"Thanks." As Emma turned to leave the room, Hermione added, "I love you, Mom.
+I promise, it's happy news."
+
+Now alone in her room, Hermione immediately began checking the state of her
+mind and her magic. Occlumency needed repair, but that was to be expected and
+Hermione had always been skilled at the mental arts. Her magic felt strong,
+stronger than it should for her young age; she had her adult power available.
+First things first, practice basic control.
+
+When Dan and Emma Granger walked back into their daughter's room, they could
+find no words to speak. Hermione was sitting calmly on her bed, with a dozen
+books orbited around her, flying a complicated dance to some unheard tune.
+
+Hermione smiled at them. "Mom, Dad, look! Magic is real, and I'm a witch!"
+
+<hr />
+
+"Just so I can make sure I have this all right, let me summarize."
+
+"Go ahead, Dad."
+
+"Magic is real. You can use magic."
+
+"That's right."
+
+"You're a time traveler, from the future."
+
+"From December of 2124, yes."
+
+"But you *are* our daughter?"
+
+"Yes, Dad, I am your daughter Hermione."
+
+"And you fought in a war at age 17, along with your best friend Harry."
+
+"A war we nearly lost, yes."
+
+"And so because you were worried that you would lose, you arranged for you
+both to be sent back to the beginning of that war in the case of either of
+your deaths, so you could try to warn people?"
+
+"That's right. It was a contingency, in case things went wrong."
+
+"But you didn't die. And you won the war."
+
+"Well, the purebloods were still in charge. But I suppose technically we won
+the war, yes."
+
+"And then Harry and you had unhappy lives because of these purebloods."
+
+"Very unhappy."
+
+"And then you died?"
+
+"I don't remember dieing, although I'm not sure if I would. The magic would
+trigger if either Harry or I died unhappily. We were both old, and I'm sure we
+were both unhappy enough. I know I was."
+
+"And then you came back, but not to the beginning of the war?"
+
+"I miscalculated when I setup the magic. It was supposed to be seven months
+before the ritual, but time travel is not well-studied magic, and I must have
+set the target for seventh year after birth instead."
+
+"So... what do we do? Should we be finding some wizard to warn?"
+
+"NO! All the wizards in power here in Britain are evil! I think this country
+is doomed, frankly; at least the magical side is. We have a few years before
+they'll take notice of me, and I think it may be best if we just leave."
+
+"Leave Britain? Just like that?"
+
+"Well, not just like that. Harry won't be coming back for almost 11 months.
+He's my best friend, we have to rescue him too. But we should prepare, because
+rescuing Harry will probably make someone in power notice us."
+
+"So we need to make a plan?"
+
+"Yes, we need a plan."
+
+<hr />
+
+"Hermione?"
+
+"Yes, Harry, it's me."
+
+"Why are we in 1987?"
+
+"Remember the ritual we performed at the Ring of Brodgar?"
+
+"That was time travel?"
+
+"Of a sort. I'll explain in the car."
+
+"OK. I trust you, Hermione."