Prologue

Professor Dumbledore walked away from his Pensieve and sat down at his desk, shaking his head in amazement. The experience he'd just had was—well, extraordinary. He hadn't even thought himself capable of such a thing, but just as he was reflecting on a matter for the fledgling Order of the Phoenix, a figure had spoken to him from the wall of his office—from a painting of himself.

The portrait had informed him that an unusual and unexpected event was about to take place. A student from twenty years in the future would be appearing in this very room at some point that day, having discovered the Desideria in his office at exactly the right—or wrong, as the case may be—time. Albus wondered exactly what events had transpired between then and now, that a Seventh Year student's heart's desire would be to travel twenty years into the past…

INTRODUCTION

While this story will make sense without this introduction, I fear that some alterations may be too obscure or require too much time to explain without it. If they do, you can always choose to come back to read this. It should also be noted that this story is/will be very long.

Extended Summary: While waiting to travel by floo to #12 Grimmauld Place for Christmas, Hermione Granger is tempted to explore the Headmaster's Office. What she finds there sends her twenty years back in time. The device can work in reverse—with a catch. She must spend nearly four months in the Marauders' time before she can be sent home! During this time her sense of duty and her heart are sorely tested as she seeks to keep her future intact in the face of a deep love that develops between herself and Sirius Black. Once she is brought home, Hermione has a whole new set of challenges as she must adjust to life in her own time as well as help prepare Harry and their friends for the final confrontation with Voldemort.
Strong characterizations, lengthy plot arcs, and heaping doses of humor, drama, and adventure can all be found in this story. The author intends to fully flesh out both the past and present timelines, as well as include a description of the battle with Lord Voldemort.

This introduction contains spoilers for book six. The story DOES NOT. If you have not read book six, you may proceed with the story without reading further, as it will make sense to you without these explanations.

This is NOT a 'Time Turner' piece. I don't have anything against such stories, but I sought to have a more unique method of travel here, and I think you'll like it a lot! So, if you have a horror of 'Time Turner Goes Wrong, Romance Ensues!' stories, you can relax and enjoy the read.

Each section, chapter, and the story itself has a quote, lyric, or poem. I have made a special attempt to make them appropriate to the upcoming content of the chapter—a little hint as to what may happen, you might say. Edit 04-25-07: As lyrics not in the public domain are disallowed from this site, I have gone through and removed the ones that are not. To view the quotes for each chapter as originally meant, go to livejournal(dot)com and search for tsik(underscore)inscribed. (link in profile, if I can get it to work)

Then Shall I Know is a story in an AU (Alternate Universe) format. What I mean by this is that it is canon up until the end of book five (The Order of the Phoenix), and then branches into its own 'canon' afterwards. The world of book six (The Half-Blood Prince) and TSIK is the same, but the events differ, sometimes greatly. The most notable of these changes is that no one died, no one became a murderer, and no one betrayed the Order of the Phoenix. As much as I would have liked to retain book six canon, the emotional changes that would have been required would have changed the tone of the story too much. Instead, I kept some things and altered others. Some things that may be too obscure to understand in the story that readers may want explained:

-Severus Snape was shifted to be the the DADA professor in Seventh Year, instead of Sixth, moving Slughorn's addition to the faculty to Seventh Year as well
-Bill Weasley was the DADA professor in Sixth Year, ending when he was attacked by Fenrir
-I've given the 21st of December as Sirius Black's birthday. The star he's named for is particularly bright that day, and given that the author hasn't told us when his birthday really is—and this particular choice fits the storyline importantly—I hope that no one minds.
-The years of attendance at Hogwarts for quite a few of the adults in the books were never given, so I have placed those that appear in my story as I saw fit. If they are revealed at a later date, I apologize for any discrepancy.
-Rowling has told us that Lily and James began dating during their Seventh Year at Hogwarts. I've chosen to move this back to the end of Sixth Year, as the story centers around Sirius and Hermione, not James and Lily
-The method of time travel is not explained until the latter half of this story. This may bother some people—if it does, I will explain it here:

—Story Spoiler—

Dumbledore has an item in his office with a transitory nature. This item will grant someone their heart's desire—but only on a solstice. The method differs depending on the desire and what the person is thinking about at the time—by which I mean, it changes itself to make the experience as realistic as possible. No genie-popping here! The catch is that the person cannot consciously know what is happening. You cannot walk up to this item on the 21st of December and tell it what you want… I named it 'Desideria' as the Latin word for dreams is desiderium.

—/End Story Spoiler—

Finally, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, these characters are NOT mine. I love them dearly, and I send them on grand adventures when I can, but in the end, I'm not profiting from these stories in any way other than emotional and creative gratification. However—the story itself, the original supporting characters therein, and the plot…those ARE mine. If you want to archive this story somewhere, that's fine, but please send me a message (you can even leave it in a review of a chapter) so that I know where it is. Thank you!