Chapter 34
"The future?" Harry asked incredulously. "What are you talking about?"
"This really isn't how I wanted to do this," Hermione said as she began pacing.
"I'll leave you two alone, unless you'd like me to stay?" Fred said, turning to Hermione.
"No, we're okay," Hermione answered, squeezing Fred's arm gently.
Fred walked to the door glaring at Harry as he passed. Sirius and Remus were standing at the door, having come to check when Harry started shouting. Fred said something to them quietly and the three of them left the kitchen.
"Please sit down, and just listen," Hermione said as she sat heavily into one of the chairs at the table. "Fine, stand if you'd like, it's a bit of a long story though."
Harry looked from the chair to Hermione, though he couldn't seem to look her in the eye. After a few minutes of silence he pulled the chair a bit further away from the table and sat down keeping his arms crossed tightly. "Just tell me one thing, whose side are you on?"
"I'm on your side Harry. I've always been on your side. I've made mistakes, Merlin knows, but everything I've done since I got back was to try and make things better."
"Got back? Right, you're from the future... You know that's impossible."
"Who's to say what's possible and impossible? We both have seen and done impossible things since the day we received our first Hogwarts letters."
"Okay, fine," Harry admitted. "But the future? That's a stretch."
"You've seen me time travel before, you've even gone back to the past yourself."
"So this is some sort of time turner thing? I thought they were all destroyed."
"It wasn't a time turner, it was this," Hermione pulled the necklace from under her jumper and showed it to Harry. "This is called a Volo Lapis, I haven't been able to find too much about how they work, they are extremely rare, but it basically translates to wishing stone."
"A wishing stone? You wished to go back in time?"
"Not exactly, I didn't know what it was, I found it in my old bag. It was from Fred, he stuck it in there before we; you, Ron and I, left to go hunt for horcruxes. I didn't find it until after the war was over."
"Wait, when the war was over? Did we win? Did Voldemort die?"
"Oh I'm not telling this well at all. Yes, we won, so far as defeating Voldemort. But it's a very long story, let me start from the beginning."
Hermione told Harry everything. She started from the night at the Department of Mysteries, the night Sirius should have died. How she had managed to keep her parents safe without sending them told him how she had done her best to only change things that she thought needed to be changed. She explained how Severus was involved and why she was skeptical of Dumbledore, though that bit didn't go over so well. She told him Mad Eye and Hedwig were still alive and George had been spared losing his ear because they had taken Harry from the Dursleys differently.
"And now, we will be able to save so many lives, save so much time because I know what and where every Horcrux is. We won't have to go wandering through the woods for a year without a single clue about where we are going or what we are supposed to do. We don't need to get caught by snatchers and watch Ted Tonks die simply because he is a muggleborn who ran away from the Ministry. Maybe I won't get tortured by Bellatrix to get information. We will be able to keep children out of the fight, like Colin Creevy who died fighting in the last battle."
Harry sat silently for a few moments and just stared at Hermione. His face was blank, showing no hint to his feelings. Then he took a breath, "How could you not have told me? You say Dumbledore was bad for keeping secrets and making decisions about everyone else's fate, but you did the same thing. You chose to save your boyfriend and let Dumbledore die instead. You claim to be my best friend and yet you can't tell me that you have already been through the war, you know how to end it and you tell Sirius and Remus and even Snape everything. How am I supposed to trust you? How am I supposed to just believe you have told me everything?"
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself, mate. She had very good reasons, and she's telling you now." Fred was standing at the doorway with Sirius and Remus. Neither Harry nor Hermione had noticed them reenter the kitchen.
I think the important thing to take in here, Harry, is that Hermione knows how to defeat Voldemort," Remus said quietly.
"I killed him? In the end?" Harry asked after a moment of considering Remus' words.
"You did, you saved the entire wizarding world from a horrible fate. There is something else you need to know. This is something I haven't told any of you," Hermione took a deep breath and soldiered on. "When Voldemort killed your parents, something unexpected happened. Yes, your mother's sacrifice saved your life, but something else. When he killed Lily, a part of his soul broke off, it already was unstable from making so many Horcruxes. It latched on to the only other living thing in the room. You, Harry. Voldemort made you into a horcrux as well. He didn't mean to, there is usually a bit more involved when making them. Voldemort doesn't even know he did it."
"S-so, that means I have to die," Harry said, no question in his voice.
"Listen to me, when you went into the forest that night, he used the killing curse on you. It killed the horcrux living in you, but you came back. You said that you were given the option to die or come back and you chose to come back, you chose to finish it. I don't know if things are different now, but I do believe that if you do things the same way, willingly accept that you need to die to save everyone else, that you will be given the choice once again."
"I don't reckon it matters if I get the choice or not, does it? Voldemort needs to be stopped. I can make that happen. What's the plan?" Harry asked.
Percy Weasley walked through the lobby of Gringotts, his heels making muffled thuds on the polished marble floor, he was nervous, though no one would know by looking at him. Since he had secretly reconciled with his family he had been quietly passing them information, but now was time to make a more public contribution to the destruction of You-Know-Who. He just hoped he would be able to hide behind his position at the ministry a bit longer, it was important that he not tip the other side off of his true alliances just yet.
"Percy?" A voice questioned from behind him.
"Herm- Miss Granger, I'm afraid I'm on official Ministry business, I don't have the time for pleasantries," his voice was cool, he was nothing if not excellent at playing his role.
"Are you here to escort Sirius and me to his vaults? As part of his guardian duties?" Hermione was quite the actress as well.
"Hmmm, I was unaware it was Mr. Black I would be escorting."
Sirius had put in a formal request to take Hermione on a tour of all the Black family vaults, it had taken a simple confundus charm from Percy to ensure he was the one put in charge of the tour. It fell in his purview at the ministry, though he usually delegated such tasks. Today, however, it appeared he had been unable to get out of the tedious task.
Bellatrix Lestrange, as a convicted death eater, was unable to claim ownership of a vault at Gringotts, it had transferred to the oldest living male member of the Black family, Draco. Narcissa had been made head until Draco came of age. Once Sirius had been exonerated, however, ownership had shifted to him.
Percy, who had a good relationship with the goblin in charge of wizard affairs had called in a favor. This was not something he did lightly, being indebted to a goblin was a tricky business indeed. It was necessary, however, as the goblin had somehow forgotten to inform the Malfoys of the change in ownership of all Black, Malfoy, and Lestrange vaults.
Percy muttered a bit to himself, looking through the paperwork he had and with a grim face moved to the nearest available goblin. He explained why they were there and set up passage through the deep tunnels below them.
It had taken the better part of the day for them to be finished with the tour. There were several vaults to go through, as each of the families had multiple vaults set up. Sirius had had the time of his life. He went through the Black vaults first, marking different items to be sold, to be sent to Grimmauld, or to be destroyed. Next came the Malfoy's vaults, where he again marked different items for different purposes. Hermione was rather impressed, he had the authority to leave the family completely destitute, but he didn't. Sirius had only the truly dark artifacts destroyed, but he left the rest alone.
Then they made their way to the Lestrange vaults, there were only two, the first held only gold, though far less than Hermione had suspected. Wars were expensive, on both sides and it seemed Voldemort's most loyal was only too happy to help foot the bill. The second was walking into a memory for Hermione and she immediately felt a bit sick.
"All protective curses and charms have been removed from this vault?" Percy asked their goblin escort, who grunted in the affirmative.
"Lovely, alright kitten, see anything you like?" Sirius asked Hermione, as he had each time they entered a vault that day.
Hermione, who was now in possession of a beaters bat signed by some famous old Quidditch player, a lovely jewelry box, a few books, an old tea service and a beautiful pearl necklace, all of which had been tested for curses, looked about the room. She hadn't wanted it to look obvious when she asked to remove Hufflepuff's cup, so she had taken a thing or two from each vault, she thought of it as an early start on Christmas shopping. She stopped when she saw Gryffindor's sword, or the copy anyway, the original was back at Grimmauld, thanks to Severus. Hermione picked up the sword, it really was an excellent copy. Then Hermione saw what they had come for, sitting in the back of the vault, half obscured by other items.
"That cup, there," she said pointing it out. "Could I see that please?"
The goblin snapped his fingers and the cup sailed gracefully right into Hermione's hands. She inspected it carefully and looked up at Sirius with a small smile.
"I think this would be a lovely gift for Andromeda, don't you? Wasn't her husband a Hufflepuff?" Hermione asked Sirius.
"I do believe he was, kitten."
The rest of the afternoon went quickly after that. Hermione and Sirius bid Percy a cold goodbye, though not before Hermione slipped him a piece of parchment and a coin as they shook hands.
Once they arrived back at Grimmauld, Harry nearly bowled them over, he was getting increasingly irritated at his lack of participation in this hunt for horcruxes. This was the last one that they could get to, without direct contact with Voldemort, so Harry was going to soon get his wish. He would be participating in a very large way.
Hermione found that she was trying to delay the final battle, trying to delay the sacrifice Harry would make, because it might not end the way it had before. Now that they had the cup, there was no more delaying it, though they had all agreed to wait until the day after Harry's birthday. They needed to be able to move about without the trace going off all the time. They would attend Bill and Fleur's wedding, but as soon as the reception started they would start their plan.
"So, that's it? That's all of them we can get for now?" Harry asked as he followed them into the library. He was slowly beginning to thaw towards her and they were slowly starting to be comfortable around each other again.
"Yes," Hermione answered as she placed the cup in the enchanted box that held the locket and diadem. She locked the box, warded it and levitated it back to the top shelf. "All that's left is the snake."
"And me," Harry said resolutely.
"So, Ron and Ginny are coming this evening?" Hermione asked.
"Smooth change of subject," Harry said rolling his eyes, though he didn't pursue it further. "Yeah, they should be here soon actually, you lot took a lot longer than we all expected."
"It couldn't be avoided, but I did manage to give Percy the letter from Molly and a D.A. coin. I'm glad Molly is letting them stay for a few days, I'm sure Ginny is going spare with Fleur around." Hermione said, making conversation as Harry followed her up the stairs to her bedroom.
"Are you going to tell Ron? Y'know, about the time travelling stuff?" Harry blurted out as he sat on her bed. Hermione stopped on her way to the closet and sat next to him on the bed.
"I've thought about it a lot, and yes I think we should tell him, though maybe not everything. The life I lived before is over, things have changed, and will continue to do so. What does it matter that in some other universe Ron and I were together, especially when it was so brief? I can only see it bringing up a lot of what if questions for him. He's happy now, with Lavender, I'm happy with Fred."
"I guess I can understand that," Harry allowed, though a small part of him still saw it as a betrayal, a secret kept.
"I honestly think that it is best to start living my life for my new future, not my past future… if that makes any sense." Hermione had made her way back to her closet, which now held far too many clothes, she would need to talk to Sirius about that later. "So, I have a very important question, what would one wear on a date?"
Harry blanched at the question, "I don't think I'm the right person to ask about that. I'd wait for Ginny to get here, if I were you."
"Ask and you shall receive," Ginny's voice came from the doorway to Hermione's bedroom.
"Oh, thank Merlin," Harry mumbled, then called a bit louder to Hermione, "if you're done with me I'm going to go find Ron."
"Very well, you're off the hook. Thanks for understanding about… everything. We will sit down with him tomorrow and explain everything" Hermione said to Harry before pulling Ginny with her into the large closet.
"Do I want to know what that was about?" Ginny asked as she began pulling different articles of clothes from the closet.
"No, I'd say not," Hermione answered laughing at the quickly growing pile on the bed.
"Alright, come out then," Ginny said some time later from her perch on Hermione's bed.
There were clothes thrown everywhere, as well as shoes and random accessories. Ginny was lying on her stomach nibbling on some biscuits Kreacher had brought up with their tea.
Hermione had indulged a bit with the impromptu fashion show, it was silly and frivolous and a very un-Hermione-like thing to do. It was, however, a very Ginny-like thing to do, so Hermione tried on a dozen different outfits. Ginny was her best girlfriend and she was hurting now, no matter how unaffected she tried to seem about Harry's noble break up. Hermione was learning that it was just something girls did for other girls, they did silly things to make each other feel better.
Finally Hermione walked out of the closet for the last time. She wore a tight fitting white tank top that revealed the slightest bit of midriff (because 'Dude, you're hot, show that off!') under a fitted black blazer (because 'I'm still Hermione Granger afterall'). She had on a short black and white plaid skirt with black tights underneath. Red flats and a matching headband completed the outfit.
Taking one last look in the mirror, Hermione tried to smooth down her curls that were already a bit chaotic then she and Ginny made their way downstairs. They entered the sitting room where Ginny veered off to sit next to Tonks and Hermione walked over to Sirius, who was playing a game of wizards chess with Remus.
"Kitten, you look lovely," Sirius said looking up at her.
"Thanks, Pad. Well, I'll be off then."
"Just a moment, I have to do this right. Home by midnight, no drinking and apparating, and be sure to use protection. I assume you know the spells?"
"Merlin Sirius," Hermione said, turning a bit pink. "I, you, well… you don't have to worry."
Everyone in the room laughed quietly at Hermione's discomfort as she stalked off to the fireplace. Percy had made it so Grimmauld was connected only with the twin's flat and The Burrow, with no paperwork showing the connections. She threw the floo powder into the grate and called out the twin's address and with a swirl of ash landed right on top of Fred.
"Well, hello love, nice of you to drop in," he said with a smirk.