A/N: Well shit. (bigger explanation at bottom of page)
Chapter 18
Hermione was confused.
In fact, she had spent the last two weeks confused.
She could find nothing in the library that referred to the Essence of Time! Zilch! Zip! Nada! It was like it didn't even exist.
She groaned as she closed the back cover of yet another useless book, and dropped her head onto the desk in front of her.
Just as Hermione was considering whether she could bang her head against the desk hard enough to jolt her back to her own time, she was distracted by a faint scuffling behind the bookshelf.
Lifting her head up slowly, she listened intently, before grinning.
"You can come out now, boys."
There were muffled groans, paired with the sound of tussling, before the four Marauders trooped out from behind the stacks, with moderately sheepish looks on their faces. Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at them, appraisingly.
"Hey Hermione," Began James, running his hand through his hair, "We were just…uh…"
Peter rolled his eyes at his friend, walking over to the desk Hermione was at and kicking out a chair, "We were spying on you." He said matter-of-factly as he sat down.
Sirius groaned, "You're not supposed to tell her that, Wormy."
Peter just shrugged at Sirius, unconcernedly, and Hermione couldn't help but grin at his nonchalant manner.
"Thanks, Pete. At least one of you is honest with me." Hermione joked.
Peter nodded seriously, "You're most welcome, Hermione." He cracked a grin after a moment of maintaining the serious expression, and Hermione giggled, her attention now successfully diverted from the mystery which had been bothering her the past two weeks.
As she settled down, the other three boys gathered around the table, Sirius leaning back against the nearest bookshelf, Remus sitting on the spare chair, and James perched on the edge of the table. Remus picked through the pile of books Hermione had accumulated, brow furrowing as he read the titles.
"Why are you looking up Time Magic?" He raised his eyes curiously to Hermione's.
Hermione shrugged, "It's interesting. I used a time-turner to take extra classes a few years ago, but I don't really understand the mechanics of the whole thing."
"You used a time-turner?" Peter asked incredulously.
"More importantly," Sirius interjected before Hermione could answer, "You used a time-turner to take extra classes? You are so boring."
Hermione drew herself up, and replied haughtily, "Education is extremely important."
"But extra classes? Of all the uses of a time-turner…" Sirius trailed off, his eyes glazing over as he stared in wonder – most likely envisioning all the shenanigans he could get up to with such a magical device.
Hermione snorted at the faraway look on his face, "You probably don't want to hear about how my best friend and I used it to go back in time, saved a hippogriff, faced off against a fully-grown werewolf – twice – and then rescued a man from the dementors kiss, do you?"
"What?" Sirius asked, with a dumbstruck look on his face.
"Nothing!" Hermione sang with a grin.
James let out a laugh, slapping his hand on the table as he announced, "Right. It's time to go to dinner. Who's in?"
"Me!" Peter stood up so fast the Hermione didn't have time to blink.
Remus chuckled weakly, standing up slowly. Before he could move from the table, Hermione grabbed his arm. He turned back to look at her warily.
"You know, I don't have a problem with werewolves, Remus. I just wanted to make that clear. I hate the discrimination against them. It's unfair and cruel, and I will defend that stance until the day I die."
Remus swallowed as he looked at Hermione, "W-Why are you telling me that?"
Hermione smiled gently, "You just looked like you were affected by it. I saw you go blank when I mentioned the werewolf and I wanted to assure you that I didn't mean it in a discriminatory way."
Remus stared at Hermione a moment longer, before nodding briefly and joining Sirius, who was waiting on the other side of the table for them.
Hermione smiled reassuringly at the questioning look Sirius gave her, gesturing for him to leave.
She was about to follow the boys out of the library, when she caught sight of a book that had fallen from the shelf. It was nothing more than a sliver of garish yellow peeking out from under the bookshelf, but it grabbed her attention.
Crouching down, she tugged the book towards her and turned it over. She stared at the cover in silence for a moment.
She groaned.
Essence of Time for Dummies
Not cool, guys. Not cool.
A/N #2: Just wanted to pop in here with the reason this took so long to get out...
So basically a great deal of Australia is on fire. And it has been for quite some time. NSW, for instance, has been on fire since September. And it is largely uncontrolled by the VOLUNTEER firefighters who have been on call, working it since the start. These guys are absolute legends; leaving their families and loved ones at the drop of a hat in order to get out there to protect our lives, homes and wildlife from the red devil.
New Years Eve brought another bout of devastation to the country. People have fled to the beaches, and to lakes and ponds, to escape the fires. So many people have been evacuated, some of them with their homes lost to flames. Communications went down along the South coast, where a literal path of destruction has been cut across the land. Over the past months, the sky has been painted red, and the land coated in smoke thick enough to need respirator masks even kilometers away from the fire fronts.
This is a climate emergency.
This is not normal.
I don't say this to preach at you, or even really to startle you into action, I simply want to convey the terror that so many people are facing this New Year, and to beg you not to normalise this. Devastation should never be normalised, not to this extent.
Please don't ignore or deny this emergency. Even if you simply take a moment to think over these events.
I have lived in this country as long as I can remember, and I've never seen anything this terrifying. Sure, we have a fire season every year; this is Australia, bushfires happen. But this? This is extreme and catastrophic.
I give thanks to our amazing firies, and implore our leaders to do more than send out 'thoughts and prayers'.
With hope, we look to the future, but know that no change may come about by idly wishing.
- PPP xx