Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you? I am not Jo Rowling. I do not own anything that remotely looks like Harry Potter and if I can get over it, I am sure you can.
Chapter 11 The Way It Should Be
It was Thursday and the day before Harry's meeting with the beautiful Ginny Weasley and his detention with the potions master. Harry was frantic. He still didn't know what he would do, should he go down to the kitchens tomorrow night or enter Snape's office at promptly 7:00. If he didn't go to his detention then he would probably never see the sunshine outside again; he would be serving detention until he was 17. However, if he didn't go to the meeting with Ginny, he would probably never have another chance to date her again. Harry was lost deep in thought when the lovely redhead's older brother interrupted him.
"Harry! Are you okay mate? You've been acting strange all week." Ron was looking at him; he was concerned.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I'm fine, I'm just a bit tired." Harry was shaken out of his reverie.
"Well, if we don't get a move on, we are going to be late for Transfiguration, and McGonagall has not been in a good mood today." Ron said, still looking at him as if he was ill.
Harry gave a start and looked around. He realized that they were the only ones left in the classroom, even professor Binns had left.
Harry gathered up his books and with a hurried "Let's go." took off at a run for McGonagall's class.
They got there a minute late and slipped into their seats quietly, hoping no one would notice. Luckily, nobody but Hermione did.
"Where have you two been?" Hermione asked in a whisper.
"Couldn't get Harry to wake up. But we're here now so don't worry. You're the only person who noticed, so just leave it." Ron whispered back and left the conversation there.
Hermione opened her mouth as if about to say something but Professor McGonagall started to speak and she bent down to get parchment and a quill out of her bag and started to take notes.
They were learning a rather funny charm that day. It was the canary transfiguration hex. It caused anyone hit by the hex to change into a giant canary. After a few moments the person would molt and change back to their original state.
They eventually partnered up and Harry was with Ron, Neville with Hermione. They spent the rest of the class period which admittedly wasn't that long practicing the spell.
An hour later when the bell had rung and they were walking to lunch the trio passed by Ginny and Hermione saw Harry and Ginny exchange furtive looks. She guessed that they still were not on good terms and wished she could do something about it. If only… her mind clicked into overtime and within minutes she had a plan formed. She smiled. She was thankful that Ron and Harry were best mates again, not only had it been extremely annoying to have her two best friends not even talking to each other, but Ron would have never agreed to the plan if he was still mad at Harry. She decided not to say anything just yet; she would wait until that night when they were alone.
After lunch, they walked outside towards the Black Lake. They were sitting down to do some overdue homework, (in Hermione's case homework due in two weeks) when a sneering voice spoke.
"Oyi, Potter!" The voice belonged to Draco Malfoy.
"What do you want, Malfoy." Harry said, looking up from his History of Magic essay.
"Oh, I was just placing a bet on you. What are you going to do Potter? Quite a fix you're in huh?"
Harry's heart stopped. The only thing that he could think about right now having to do with a fix that he was in was…his detention with Snape and the clashing meeting with Ginny. Malfoy couldn't know anything about the meeting though, could he? Then it all came rushing back to him; what Ginny had said in the corridor.
"Malfoy, leave me alone, I swear-"
She had stopped there, seeing that it wasn't Malfoy. Had he somehow found out about the meeting and that was what Ginny was talking about? However, that had been before the note, how could he have?
He realized that he had been sitting there with his mouth open for several minutes now and Malfoy was standing there looking nastier by the second. Harry spoke.
"I have no clue what you are talking about Malfoy. Now go away, I'm trying to work and you and your two goons are distracting me."
Malfoy said nothing; he just looked at him funny for a second and then muttered "Come on." to his two cronies, Goyle and Crabbe. Their job was to stand there and look threatening, which they had been doing quite well.
"Harry, what was that all about?" said Ron and Hermione at the same time.
Harry's head turned to look quickly at them and then he relaxed. "Oh, you know Malfoy; I have no idea what he was talking about." he told them, with a little scoff.
"Then why was your mouth hanging open like a fish out of water? It was like he knew something that you didn't want anyone to know and he somehow found out." Hermione said gently.
Harry did not think that Hermione knew how close she was to the truth but nonetheless kept everything a secret and still said "I don't know what he was talking about and I don't really care. Just forget about it and let's go back up to the castle and into the common room for a bit of rest before my detention with Snape and… dinner." he said quickly, he had almost let his secret slip, despite just telling himself to keep to keep it quiet.
Ron and Hermione nodded and closed their books and put them back in their bags. They headed back up towards the castle.
Right before dinner, Harry was in a bind. He still hadn't figured out what his plan was, still hadn't figured out whether he was heading towards the dungeons or the kitchens. He had taken more time than Ron putting his bag away in order to give himself more time to think and they were waiting for him in the common room, soon they would be wondering what was taking him so long…
"Harry, are you coming down for dinner?" Ron called up the staircase.
"Yeah. Wait up." Harry yelled, sighing. He gave one last look around the dormitory and then headed downstairs.
At dinner, Harry could hardly eat, because Malfoy kept casting him knowing glances.
"Just ignore him." Hermione's advice was simple, although she looked as though she could do with knowing what in the world Harry was up to, much less knowing what he was going to do about his predicament.
Finally, at around the end of dinner Ron turned to Harry, a look of determination for his best friend on his face. "Better get going Harry or you will be late for Snape's detention."
Harry looked at the clock and saw that Ron was right. He had 15 minutes to get to Snape's detention. As Harry walked out of the Great Hall and towards the dungeons, he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He was going to miss the meeting with Ginny; he would never get another chance. These thoughts made him turn around and take off at a run to the kitchens.
He got there with 10 minutes to spare. Ginny wasn't there. Harry cursed under his breath, rummaged in his pockets for a scrap piece of parchment and a quill, and hurriedly wrote a note, praying Ginny would understand.
Ginny,
Please understand. I have detention with Snape at 7:00 tonight also. I will be down here as soon as possible, if I can get away from Snape. Please wait for me, I would have given anything to be here in 5 minutes but I just can't. Please understand and I will be down here as soon as possible. I hope you're here when I come,
Harry
He left the note in plain sight, hoping that no one but Ginny would find it. He then ran back down to the dungeons, entering Snape's office just as the clock struck 7:00.
"I'm here professor." Harry gasped, clutching at a stitch in his side.
"Yes, I see that much." The potions master looked up from marking papers, sneer firmly in place. "Well, here is your detention. You must scrub out all the bedpans in the hospital wing-without magic. I will be there with you watching you do it to ensure that you don't try any… funny business shall we say." Snape quietly said the last few words to ensure that Harry got what he was saying.
Harry did. It meant that he wouldn't be able to sneak off early to meet Ginny.
"Fine, sir. How long will this detention last, sir?" Harry asked, putting emphasis on the word 'sir'.
"It will last as long as I say it will last and no sooner will it end." Snape hissed, with a hint of venom in his voice.
"Yes sir." was all Harry said before trooping off to the hospital wing.
XxXxXxXx
Ginny had arrived down near the kitchens right after Harry had left. When she had seen that Harry was not there, she had turned around to go back upstairs but then she saw the note.
Ginny,
Please understand. I have detention with Snape at 7:00 tonight also. I will be down here as soon as possible, if I can get away from Snape. Please wait for me, I would have given anything to be here in 5 minutes but I just can't. Please understand and I will be down here as soon as possible. I hope you're here when I come,
Harry
She decided to wait. He couldn't help that he had detention with that horrid professor, and he sounded like he meant what he said in the note, he would be down here as soon as he could. In the meantime, she decided that she wanted some food. She tickled the pear and was immediately met by a dozen or so house elf's, all wanting to help her in any way that they could.
"May I get you some tea miss?" inquired one elf.
"Or how about a piece of cake?" squeaked another one.
"Umm…I just need some snacks to eat while I wait for a person that I am meeting." she said timidly and the house elves immediately had all kinds of snacks at her service.
"Thank you, this will be enough." she said, and walked out of the kitchens with the house elves saying to come back anytime.
She sat down with her back to the stone wall to wait with the big pile of sweets next to her. She would wait, she decided but not for long.
XxXxXxXx
Hermione was glad that Harry had detention; it would get him out of her hair for at least the next hour or so. She could hardly wait to do this; she was going to go crazy if Ginny and Harry didn't get back together soon. It was 7:15 and she was waiting for Ron to get back down from the boys dormitories, of course, she could just go up there…just then, Ron came down and solved the problem for her.
"Ron, I need to talk to you." Hermione told him in an undertone, taking a look around the full common room to make sure they weren't going to be overheard.
"Sure, let's go over here." Ron said and led them over to their favorite chairs.
"Okay, I am going mad about Ginny and Harry. They are meant to be together and you know it. We have to do something about it." Hermione explained, getting right to the point.
Ron sat there for a second and then said, "Hermione, I agree with you but what are we supposed to do about it? Harry said that Ginny just blew him off when he tried to talk to her."
"Well Ron, I have a way. But you can't tell anybody, if we got caught with it, we would get in loads of trouble."
"Of course. What do you have in mind?" Ron asked, rubbing his hands together.
"A time turner." Hermione answered and the redhead looked at her blankly. "…Please tell me you know what a time turner is." she added, and saw Ron shake his head in shame.
"I'm sure our favorite witch could tell me though." he said, in an effort to get back in Hermione's good graces.
"It's exactly what it sounds like. It has a little knob on the side and you turn it how many hours-or years, in our case- you want to go forward or backwards in time." she explained, watching the dawn of comprehension cross Ron's face.
"Excellent! Where can we get one?" he asked, and Hermione sighed.
"That's just the thing. Teachers don't exactly just give them out… hardly any students are given permission to have one, there's all sorts of paperwork-" she was cut off by Ron, who was now looking confused.
"Hermione, I don't get it. If we aren't going to get one from a professor and neither of us have one, what are we going to do?"
"You didn't let me finish." the brown headed girl replied haughtily. "It just so happens that I found one. On the stairs, about a week ago. I've been sort of, err, forgetting to turn it in to McGonagall. If we could just use it one time and make them see that no matter what happens in the future they are meant to be together then they would get back together and everything would be okay again." Hermione finished, feeling more foolish by the second.
"Brilliant! When are we going to do this then?" Ron was all ready for a trip into time.
"We can do it tonight, while Harry has a detention and Ginny is out of our hair." she replied, and Ron's features brightened even more.
"When?"
"Um…we could go right now if you wanted to. Remember Ron, we can't be seen. Just think about what you would think if you saw you 3 years younger. You would think that you have gone mad." Hermione was all business now, eyes scanning the common room to make sure they were alone. The common room had mysteriously emptied out in the last 10 minutes.
"3 years? Blimey, we'll be 7th years by that time." Ron told her, looking like he couldn't wait for that day in history.
"I know, it's just a precaution. Ginny's pretty mad at Harry." Hermione replied, getting up from the seat in which she had been sitting.
"Well, what are we waiting for then? Let's go!"
Hermione went upstairs to get the time turner out of her trunk and ran back downstairs. Thankfully, the common room was still empty.
"Okay Ron, come on." Hermione centered them in the middle of the common room, in the middle of a woven rug. She wrapped the time turner's chain around both of them and turned the knob 6 times, then she slipped, Ron had bumped her elbow. The next second, they were in a dark corridor.
XxXxXxXx
Harry was miserable. The bedpans stunk and it was a pain cleaning them without magic. The only thing that kept him going was the thought that Ginny might be waiting for him only a couple of floors away. Snape certainly wasn't helping; he had sat there and inspected every bedpan he had finished, sometimes making him do one over if it wasn't up to his standards. Finally, when the last one was finished and Snape had inspected it, he politely and exhaustedly asked the professor if he could go.
"No, I think that we will get Madam Pomfrey to inspect them and see if they are good enough for her." Snape said with a sneer.
Harry wasn't too worried, Madam Pomfrey wasn't that bad, and she would probably let him go after a quick inspection. He was wrong.
"Well, I think that he should do these three over again, what do you think professor?" it was the wrong question to ask.
"Yes, definitely." Snape was looking malicious.
Therefore, Harry spent another half hour cleaning and then asked if he could go.
"Yes, get out of my sight." Snape was looking very bad tempered; Harry supposed that it was because he couldn't keep him any longer.
Without saying a word, Harry calmly walked out of the hospital wing and as soon as he was out of sight broke into a run once again.
XxXxXxXx
Ginny was getting tired of waiting, it had now been two hours and Harry was nowhere in sight. It couldn't take that long to serve a detention. She got up and started to walk back in the direction of the common room. She almost ran into Harry.
"Harry!" she gasped.
"Ginny! I'm so sorry, I tried to get down here as fast as I could, but Snape was meaner than usual. That was the worst detention ever." Harry said breathlessly.
"Really, what happened? What did he make you do?" Ginny asked, interested in such a bad detention.
And so Harry spilled out the whole story, including how he had gotten the detention. When he was finished, Ginny just sat there.
"Wow, Harry that was pretty nasty."
"Yeah, well what did you want to talk about?" Harry said, his heart starting to pound.
"Oh, well, I wanted to talk about…us." Ginny said and blushed. "Come on, sit down and help yourself to some sweets."
Harry did as he was told, grabbing a pumpkin pastry as he did so.
"Well…"Ginny started on her story.
XxXxXxXx
Hermione and Ron had been walking for almost an hour now, occasionally breaking into a run when they thought they saw something significant. Once, they were almost seen, they had wandered into none other than themselves, but it was okay, older them had been too busy to notice much.
"Ron…" Hermione was blushing furiously.
"Oh, Hermione look, I have to tell you something." Ron said the words and wished he could take them back. Oh well, now that it was said, he would have to go through with it.
"What Ron?" Hermione asked, looking up at the redhead as they walked.
"I've liked you since that day on the train when you told me I had dirt on my nose." Now Ron was also blushing.
Hermione stopped walking. "I like you too." she finally answered.
"Really?" the redhead's features brightened considerably, and then he swallowed. "Well, what would you say if I asked you to be my girlfriend?"
"Oh Ron, yes!" Hermione flung her arms around Ron's neck, then hastily pulled back.
Ron said nothing, just smiled and started to walk again; Hermione followed his lead.
A short time later, they found what they were looking for.
They wandered into a classroom, and stopped cold. They stared for a minute and then turned around on their heels and ran out.
I think we found what we were looking for." Ron said tonelessly.
"Yeah, I reckon we did." replied Hermione, she thought she was blinded forever. There were spots in front of her eyes and she kept blinking. She shook her head and pulled Ron by his hand, saying "Come on, we're going down to the kitchens."
"Why?" asked Ron, bewildered.
"Note in Harry's bag I saw. Let's just go to the kitchens and then go back in time. If they're not there we will go up to the common room." said Hermione.
Ron nodded and followed Hermione.
When they got down to the kitchens, Hermione pulled out the time turner from under her shirts and put it around both of them. She turned the knob and in seconds, they were standing in front of Ginny and Harry, who were standing up.
"Where did you two come from?" Ginny asked, smiling.
"We walked down here, Ron wanted to nick some food and I decided that I wanted to come with him." Hermione quickly made up a lie.
Oh, well, me and Harry worked everything out." Ginny said, her smile growing bigger.
"Really? How?" Hermione was surprised and happy.
Ginny gave Harry a quick glance who shook his head slightly. "Some things you will never know girl." Harry grinned at his girlfriends words.
"Really? Well, I guess I will say the same then. You will never know how me and your brother came to date." Hermione's face was the picture of radiance.
Ginny looked shocked and then disappointed. "Whatever," she mumbled. "I don't want to know."
Hermione laughed and looked into blue eyes. "Come on Gin, you know you want to know. Spill how you guys made up and I'll tell you our story."
"Why?" Ginny asked innocently. "All that happened was that we made out-I mean up. We just made up, he asked me out and I said yes." Harry had given a cough at Ginny's slip of words and Hermione grinned.
"Well, I'm glad you guys made…up." she said and Ron nodded vigorously.
"It really was getting rather annoying." he said.
"Oh haha." Ginny and Harry replied and Hermione laughed again.
Everything was finally right again.
This is not the last chapter! So keep up the reviews and CC please, and hope you liked the latest! Love from-Writerchick13
