"That was a complete fiasco," Harry sighed, accepting a cup of tea from Hermione with a grateful nod. "Every time we go to the Ministry..."
"Yes, I know," Hermione agreed quietly, sitting down in the other armchair with her own tea, after checking on the snoring Ron for about the seventeenth time. "But I've had an idea."
As the last plan had been Hermione's idea as well, Harry was a bit doubtful, but decided to hear her out. "Okay, what is it?"
"What if we used a Time Turner? Now listen, Harry," she added, as he showed signs of interrupting. "We could go back and save ourselves from Yaxley, and then we could still use Grimmauld Place for our headquarters instead of having to camp. Ron wouldn't get splinched that way either," she added, with a glance at his bunk on the other side of the tent. "That is, once we got back."
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure about this?"
Hermione nodded emphatically. "Absolutely. But we'll need to wait a few days to get the plan formulated. I think I can charm it to make it count back days instead of hours. Of course we'll have to drink Polyjuice Potion before we go back, and then we'll need to make sure Ron's well enough. We should be ready in a week at the most, assuming-"
"Hermione," Harry interrupted, "where are we going to get a Time Turner?"
"From Hogwarts, of course! Professor McGonagall has one, I used it in third year to get to all my classes, remember?" Hermione gave Harry her signature you should know this look, which she had used so frequently back at school. "So I can summon it because I know where it is. That should be all we need, then."
"Assuming it works, how are we going to make sure we don't see ourselves if we're saving ourselves?" Harry objected.
"Honestly, Harry." Hermione sighed. "Polyjuice Potion, of course! We'll change into workers who are supposed to be sealing off the fireplaces, then we'll Floo out before they get the chance to fire us."
"You know what, Hermione?" Harry said, getting up from his armchair. "This might actually work."
Hermione smiled. "That's what plans are for. Night, Harry."
"Night, Hermione."
Five days later, Hermione judged that Ron was well enough, and they were all ready enough, to carry out the new plan. "We leave tomorrow morning. Get some good rest," she instructed.
"Like you don't stay up late reading Beedle the Bard under your covers every night," Ron put in.
Hermione blushed slightly but ignored his comment. "Just go to bed," she sighed, waving the boys toward their bunks.
Ron was still awake long after Harry and Hermione had gone to sleep, due to his having forgotten to put any dittany on his arm, which was rather painful. His thoughts kept wandering to the students stuck in Hogwarts with Snape for a headmaster, including Ginny. If only Snape wasn't such a grouch. Blimey, hang on a second, I could do something about that!
Ron slipped out of his bunk and drew his wand, lighting the tip and shielding it with his hand as he crept over to Hermione's bed. He stuck his wand inside her bag, muttering, "Accio Time Turner." The pendant flew at him, smacking him in the nose. With one hand holding the pendant and his wand, and the other holding his nose, he slipped outside where he could talk to himself without being overheard.
"Now what did Hermione say? You have to tap it three times to make it go back days, and five times to make it go back months. It must be seven times for years, then."
He went back inside, summoned a set of school robes from Hermione's bag, and slipped them on over his sweater and jeans. After a bit of scribbling on a scrap of parchment also summoned from the bag, he Apparated right outside the gates of Hogwarts, leaving a note behind in case the others woke up. Once there, he started tapping and flipping the Time Turner, until he reached the date he was looking for.
The Hogwarts Express had arrived in Hogsmeade, and Ron was easily able to blend into the crowd of students heading up to the castle. He managed to find a seat close to the front of the Gryffindor table, in plain sight of where the Sorting would take place.
As the first years filed into the Great Hall, he scanned their lines for a suitable target. His gaze was drawn by a girl with dark hair and bright blue eyes, who must have been a transfer from another school, as she was obviously the oldest student there. She looked nice enough, and she'd be sure to get people's attention with those eyes. Hopefully she wouldn't mind...
He watched the Sorting closely until the girl went up, in response to "Connors, Rachel!" Then he drew his wand again, took careful aim, and whispered, "Confundus!"
After a few moments of silence, the hat shouted, "SLYTHERIN!" and, with half the room staring at her in confusion, Rachel Connors joined the Slytherin table, ending up, as the first student sorted into Slytherin, next to none other than Severus Snape.
Ron idly continued to watch the Sorting, then glanced back over at Rachel, who was in conversation with Snape. Deciding he had been successful, he left the Great Hall, muttering to the boy in the seat next to him that he needed to use the bathroom.
Once outside the castle, Ron took out the Time Turner again, and pondered his options. He could just go back to Harry and Hermione, or he could do a little more interfering. Deciding on the latter, he Disapparated, appearing a moment later at his next destination, the Pettigrew house.
Ron found himself in a small kitchen, pristine except for the large pile of dishes in the sink. There was a piece of parchment on the refrigerator, with a large, flourishing heading: To-Do List. This gave him an idea. Now hopefully I can remember how to perform a Confundus Charm...
He crept out of the kitchen and down a hall, entering the first room on the right, which happened to be an office. There he found several quills and bottles of ink on a desk littered with papers. Ron grabbed a quill and ink bottle, and promptly dropped the bottle, splattering ink all over the desk. "Fuzzywops," he muttered, pulling out his wand. "Reparo, Scourgify, what was the Refilling Charm? Oh, never mind."
He picked up another bottle and returned to the kitchen, where he wrote on the to-do list, as neatly as possible: Move to Africa. He then crept into the bedroom from which loud snoring was coming, Confunded the sleeping Mr. and Mrs. Pettigrew, and Apparated back to the forest. He then tapped the Time Turner with his wand, muttered, "Aversa Pars," and then performed the same sequences of tapping and turning he'd used to get here in the first place.
Congratulating himself on a plan well carried out, Ron started toward Hermione's bed to put back the Time Turner, but before he had taken two steps, she jumped in front of him, with her hands on her hips and looking not unlike his mother in one of her tempers.
"Ronald Bilius Weasley, what in the name of Merlin were you doing, nicking that Time Turner? That is a dangerous object! What if you had changed history, Ronald? Did you ever consider that, Ronald? 'Oh, I'll just go gallivanting off through time and not pay attention to what might come of it!' What were you thinking?!"
Ron hesitated, trying to think up a suitable answer, but at that moment Ginny appeared from behind Hermione. "You sound like Mum, Hermione," she laughed. "Seriously. Now Ron, you do know that was a bad idea, right?"
Ron stood stock-still, opening and closing his mouth like a fish, until he finally found his voice. "Ginny, what are you doing here? Go back to bed. I mean, go back home! When did you get here anyway?"
Ginny gave him the Hermione look. "Ron, I've been here just as long as you have, you know that. Now quiet down, both of you, you'll wake the others."
"Okay, who's 'the others' and what are you talking about?" Ron looked to Hermione for answers, but she was also giving him the Hermione look. "I mean, it's just Harry and us, isn't it? We're Horcrux hunting with Harry so we can get rid of You-Know-Who."
Ginny broke into a laugh. "Nonsense! It was Neville first, obviously, and then Luna insisted on going with him, and then Harry got heroic like he does, y'know, and decided he was going to go along. And of course I couldn't let him go without me to watch his back, and neither could you or Hermione, so, yeah. That's the six of us."
Ron had become more and more confused throughout this speech, and now looked as though he'd been smacked with a Bludger and Confunded both at once. "But Ginny, that's impossible! You're at Hogwarts, and-"
"Does it look like I'm at Hogwarts, Ron?" Ginny raised her eyebrows as high as they would go. "You realize I'm standing right here and you're talking to me?"
"Honestly, Ron," Hermione sighed. "Now go to bed, see, you've woken Harry and Neville," she added as they came out of the boys' bedroom.
"Who was it yelling?" Ron retorted. "Er, good morning, Harry. Tell Hermione she's mental, would you?"
Harry brushed his bangs out of his eyes. "I think you're the mental one at the moment, Ron. You're up in the middle of the night snitching the Time Turner."
Something in Harry's movement gave Ron an odd feeling. He studied Harry's face for a second, before realizing what it was. "Harry, your scar's gone!"
"What scar?" asked Harry in alarm. "Accio Mirror!" He squinted at his face in Hermione's hand mirror, then looked up and down his arms. "I don't think I have any scars. Do I?"
"You're mental, Harry!" shouted Ron. "The scar You-Know-Who gave you when he tried to kill you as a baby, the one that hurts when he's mad!"
Harry pointed at himself incredulously. "Me? No, you're mental. You're confusing me with Neville."
"Harry, it was the prophecy, remember, the one who's going to beat You-Know-Who will be born at the end of July to people who fought him three times and one of them has to kill the other one." Ron paused for breath, but stopped when he saw how bewildered Harry was.
"That's funny, I didn't know Neville told you about the prophecy," said a voice from behind Ron. He whirled around to see Luna Lovegood emerging from Hermione's bedroom. "Did you, Neville?"
Neville shook his head. "No, just you. Did you tell anybody else?"
"No, did you write it down?" Luna started scrutinizing the ceiling. "If you wrote the prophecy down maybe a Nargle took it and Ron found it. Did you find it on a piece of paper, Ron?"
"I didn't write it down, Luna," said Neville before Ron could answer. "I figured you'd remember it."
Luna nodded. "Yes, I do. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies, and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not, and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives." She said this very fast, all in one breath.
Ron stared at her. "How d'you know the prophecy? Harry just told me and Hermione!"
"Neville told me, haven't you been listening?" Luna disappeared into the bedroom and came back out with her Spectrespecs on. "I thought so. Wrackspurts. You really should do something about that. Now, that could have meant either Neville or Harry, and You-Know-Who must have thought it meant Neville, so he tried to kill him."
Ron groaned. "Hermione, I think I changed history."
A/N: I invented the spell Aversa Pars. That's "reverse side" in Latin, and it's what made the Time Turner able to go forwards instead of just backwards. I know that isn't actually a thing, but hey, this is fanfiction!
