"That might be the dumbest idea I've ever heard in my entire life," Harry deadpanned. "In fact I've changed my mind, it is the dumbest idea I've ever heard in my entire life."
Ron and Hermione sat across from him, matching looks of amusement coupled with an underlying degree of anxiety displayed for all to see.
Historically, the dumb ideas came from Harry himself before they were eventually refined by a member of the Order or Hermione.
If the subject at hand wasn't as delicate for Harry as it was, he would accuse the pair for taking the piss out of him. It certainly wasn't the first time Ron and Hermione came to him with insane proposals, all determined to 'break him out of his shell' as it were, but this one was easily the most outlandish yet. The war left scars on everyone, and Harry somehow always managed to draw the shortest straw when it came time to administer the seemingly daily grievances. It wasn't that he pushed people away, he just didn't want to bring anyone in.
"But if it worked, Harry, if it truly gave you a second chance, gave us a second chance, wouldn't you want to say you tried?" Hermione said, using that 'I've already made up your mind' tone that Harry never understand how she performed so perfectly.
Harry opened his mouth to reply that, yes, he would want to say he tried, but in this situation it was so obviously not applicable it would be like saying he wished he tried to eat a critical mass of chocolate frogs to see once and for all if you really do become what you eat. But the more he thought about it, the harder it was for him to shake the thought from his mind. 'What if', he thought, 'what if indeed'.
Seeing Harry's hesitation, Ron jumped at the chance to put the nail in the proverbial conversation coffin. "And it's not like you'd be alone, mate. If we manage to bollocks the entire thing up, we'll be just as dead as you are," he exclaimed with an enthusiasm that didn't quite seem to agree with the words he said.
Hermione seemed to think so as well. "You're not helping, Ronald!" she bit out through clenched teeth. "No one is going to die. In case you haven't noticed, people dying is what we're trying to prevent, not actively pursue."
Harry wasn't entirely convinced with the whole 'no one will be dying' part of the plan, but he choose to remain silent. He had complete confidence in Hermione's abilities of course, but never before had she, or any of them to tell the truth, attempted something as substantial as what was proposed.
"If we do this," Harry began, "there's no way back, right? Whatever happens, good or bad, we're stuck with it."
There was a pregnant pause while Hermione tried to figure out the exact way to say that yes, there is no going back, and that yes, it could very possibly turn out even worse than it did the first time around, but in the end she couldn't find the words.
It seemed to be enough to convince Harry regardless.
"Fine," he began, "I'll come along on your absolutely bloody insane plan to travel back in time to stop the war from even happening."
And the rest is, as they say, history.