Author's note: I'll try to update as often as I can, but life is getting pretty busy, at least for the next 4 weeks, so… Your reviews will, of course, motivate me to push writing to the beginning of my to-do list.

When future knocks

He grasped her arm protectively as he thought of the best course of action.

"It's my mom!" she repeated in an angry whisper, shaking both his hand and his concern and fleeing.

Harry couldn't but follow.

He got downstairs a breath after her, wand at the ready, pointing over her shoulder at the two figures who stood immobile in the middle of a dusty room adjacent to the one they were in. Closer to them was Snape, his own wand aiming at the female figure who stood, wide-eyed and hands in the air, in front of him. A woman very much like Hermione. It was slightly disturbing to recognize her in the much older muggle, and the similarities were enough that he felt compelled to protect her too. She was only a muggle, and Snape was not to be taken lightly. Yet this one was on their side… right?

Hermione had run straight towards the pair, and was currently standing between her mother and Snape, effectively shielding her; so Harry, too, had to step in front of them both. He didn't dare raise his wand, though. He couldn't measure himself against a professor, so better not to provoke if he was half-sure Snape meant no harm. If he was hexed, Harry hoped Hermione had a moment's notice to respond to the next attack.

"My, my…" the professor sneered. "A family reunion"

Only his mouth had moved. His eyes were still narrowed towards the elder woman he faced.

"It's just a muggle, professor" the boy explained. "Could you please lower your wand?"

"Luckily for we all, I haven't lost my wit. You are way too trusting, Potter, and so is your girlfriend here. Have you even considered the possibility of that woman being polyjuiced? Under Imperio? Isn't it clear enough that muggles simply don't reach the Shrieking Shack unaided?"

Harry had spun after the first question, bending, wand half-ready.

"Hermione" the boy whispered, stretching his left hand towards his friend.

The girl had eyed the woman warily and stepped away from her, yet she was still shielding her effectively; and though the stranger hadn't moved to attack, she hadn't moved to stand between the wand and her daughter, either.

"Yet, she isn't wielding a wand, as you are" Hermione pointed out to the professor, ignoring his friend's attempts, "and how are we to know that you are indeed who you seem to be?"

"He won't harm me, pumpkin" came the woman's voice, though it cracked slightly.

Snape snorted but suddenly lowered his wand.

"It is indeed fortunate that she is who she seems to be. You may live another day"

"And how do you know that, professor?"

"Legilimens" Hermione answered for him. "But that takes us to square one: the identity of them both relies on if he is who he seems to be"

"Twenty points from Gryffindor"

"Wait, why?" Harry exclaimed.

"For being insolent enough to demand prove of identity from a professor on school grounds"

"This is not technically…"

"Shhh" Hermione quieted him grabbing his hand.

"If I am not who I seem to be, you have nothing to worry about, for no ruby will be lost from your hourglass"

His smirk was nauseating.

"I thought you wanted us to be alert!"

"Be quiet, Miss. Granger. A loss of twenty more points would prove even more effective to demonstrate my point"

"Doubtlessly" Harry whispered.

The professor's eyes fixated on him.

"Perhaps, in the spirit of building a trusting relationship" the professor suggested slowly as he joined his hands by the tips of his fingers "I should prove my identity by allowing you to ask something only we know. And since there are few such elements we all know –potions not being among them, judging by you grades in previous years- we could share the real nature of your current relationship with Miss Granger…"

Harry's eyes widened, suddenly aware of what he meant. This was NOT a way to earn his mother-in-law's heart, and he had absolutely no way to control what the professor was to say. Calling him names in his mind was probably not helping. During a second or so, he willed the ground to crack open and swallow him; it didn't oblige.

"Hermione" came the woman's voice, again.

The witch's gaze was still somewhat wary as she turned to her mother. There was a silence. Harry couldn't remember having held his breath for so long. Finally, it was Hermione who spoke.

"Where do I keep my teddy bear?"

"You haven't had one since you were in kindergarten" the woman answered. "You do have an elephant, and you keep it in the top drawer, to the left. You don't want Sam to think you are a baby by keeping him on your bed"

By then Hermione had already launched herself to her mother's arms.

"Why are you here? Is dad all right? What happened to you? There must be an emergency, right?"

Harry noticed both adults crossing strange gazes over both of their heads.

"Do I look that bad?" Mrs. Granger was saying.

Now that she mentioned it, and though Harry's memories of the woman were restricted by their limited and at the time unimportant short meetings in King Cross's platform, he seemed to remember less gray in her hair, less wrinkles in the edge of her eyes. The elegant dress she was wearing –way too beautiful for this place- wasn't enough to mask it. How and why had she come? Snape was right in that just a significant emergency would have justified her presence in wizarding grounds in the middle of the school year, and even then, she would have needed significant wizarding help to get to the castle. She didn't have a single reason to be precisely here, in a supposedly abandoned shack, in the middle of the night.

The answer to that came in the form of a curious hourglass around the woman's neck, which was now held by the girl's trembling hand.

"Is this…?"

"A very advanced time turner" the woman confirmed. "I can't activate it, a wizard must do so when I'm done here"

"So you basically come from the future?" Harry muttered, still unsure, though he had the feeling Snape was not about to expose them to his mother-in-law… further.

The woman cast him a cold glance as the professor pinched the bridge of his nose, irritated.

"If we could avoid losing even more time… Mrs. Granger, what is this message you came to deliver?"

As Harry and Hermione crossed gazes, the woman delved in her beaded bag, extracting a piece of parchment and a cracked stone. The professor's extended hand received only the parchment.

"This is for you" the woman said to the younger wizard. "You should be able to activate it, it's attached to the magic of your future self and yours should be no different"

Harry looked from the piece of grey rock to the woman's face. He hadn't had time to remember that he should be seriously scared of the woman, was this a good moment to start?

Hermione came in his help –as usual- taking the stone from him with a puzzled expression.

"But this…" she looked between a diagram in the rock, and the stairs beyond the door, her expression skeptic. Harry seemed to remember having seen that symbol somewhere.

The professor, who had opened the envelope and read it quickly, his expression as plain as always, raised his gaze then. Harry didn't like his pallor.

"Mom?" Hermione's voice coerced him into looking away from Snape's curious expression. "Can you please tell us anything?"

When the woman didn't answer immediately, the girl enumerated:

"You come from the future with messages for wizards? I don't know, I would expect…" someone from the Order Harry thought, someone capable of activating the time turner himself, at least. There must be a top line even for surreal when it comes knocking at your door.

Mrs. Granger was looking at her with a sad smile.

"You know how dangerous time travels are, I cannot intervene too much even by answering innocent questions. Let's say there was no one who had as many reasons to be here as I have"

Even as she said so, she was putting the girl in a tight embrace. Harry saw Hermione tighten and then relax as if she was letting go of her anxieties; a response of which he had always being vaguely envious, as it could be found in such a complete form only when interacting with one's mom, and he didn't have one. He wondered fleetingly if Hermione felt strange, what with meeting her mom for the first time after… after. The woman held Hermione with one arm as she caressed her face with the other.

"No mother wants to miss her daughter's wedding, after all"

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Looking back, Harry later thought he should have guessed; but at the moment, he only froze. He wasn't the only one: Snape kept wearing his mask of flesh, Hermione stiffened in her mother's embrace but took advantage of that cover to think. But Harry was the only one meeting the woman's chilling gaze –out of shock, more than anything- as this one caressed her daughter gently.

"Let's bring forth your beauty, should we?" she addressed the girl in her arms, who parted from her but avoided her gaze –she'd do that until knowing what to say, Harry presumed. "Guide me to the bedroom, would you?"

Hermione eyed the professor who didn't raise an argument, then she crossed gazes with Harry. So we're really doing this, like… tonight? Pixies' wings were flapping against the walls of his stomach, though it didn't feel bad. That she needed to talk to him was plain in her gaze, but then she looked vaguely towards her mom. She hadn't figured out how to deal with her… still. How much the visitor knew was still to be defined, and being this her mother, Harry knew she'd very much like to have her approval –her elders' appreciation had always been important to her-. Harry dipped his head in understanding and consent.

Well, at least one of those questions was to be answered soon enough, and to him. As Mrs. Granger walked by Harry, she stopped and clarified in a heated whisper:

"I know. Everything." He gulped. "Consider yourself the luckiest wizard alive, that I'm already past the worst part of the shock and anger. You will treat my daughter and her sacrifices with the utmost respect and use your life for her sake and that of others. Having medical knowledge, I know precisely where your carotid artery is. Remember that, always"

Amazingly enough, that didn't scare him further. So the woman knew, and had chosen to give him a reprieve; that had to be a relief. When Hermione looked back from the stairs -he suspected she hadn't heard almost anything- he smiled to her wholeheartedly. I want you to have choices… to marry at the proper time… to be given away by your dad… he had said once, and he meant it. It seemed as if at least one of those could be fulfilled now –sort of-, and through the anxiety, he was rather glad he could give her this. There was something sparkling in her eyes, and she dipped her head then, and smiled.

"Oh" Mrs. Granger interrupted, "and can someone go fetch Ron? He must be coming through the passage about now, and he'll need an update"

"Has Gryffindor Tower ceased being a fitting place for students to be at night?" Snape groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Harry muttered an excuse before darting through the room, but then the woman stopped him:

"Not you, dear. You have other guests to entertain"

Looking around, Harry found none, apart from the professor, whose disapproval was plain in the paleness of his tight lips. If while coming through the passage Ron saw the bat, he'd just turn around and flee.

"I'll go!" Hermione promised from upstairs. "Let me just show you…"

As her voice came rarified by distance, the muggle looked back at Harry:

"Turn it over three times" she suggested as she followed her daughter; the boy didn't understand at first, until her chin pointed at the stone he still held in his hand just before disappearing. "We'll gather at dawn" she yelled from the upper floor.

It was with great trepidation that he examined the stone, then. Snape looming over him couldn't make things easier. He cringed and passed the grey stone to the professor, who took it with the top of his fingers, moved it to right before his eyes in a slow motion, and examined it closely.

"Do you know what it is?"

"A piece of a fairytale" the wizard answered.

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"Harry?"

"Ron!"

"Hermione. Thank Merlin" he was peeking through the small opening of the passage, his Lumus making her blink.

"What are you doing here?"

"I peeked at the map just in time to see Snape coming through the passage. You are not in trouble, are you?" She failed to answer, but he was too occupied pulling himself out of the hole, to notice. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything. It's just that Harry never came to the dorm, and ever since Hogsmeade I've had this weird feeling… I hope Harry doesn't mind my using the map"

"That's a big risk you were taking"

"I guess I was half asleep" he chuckled. "By the time I fully realized I was in the corridor with no invisibility cloak, I was halfway here. Where's Snape? What was he doing here? What are you doing here? Coming here is way too much trouble just to… you know…"

"Harry had something to show me" she interrupted, almost as red as he was. "Snape… I don't know… Maybe he was keeping an eye on the shack or something; this place has always been a risk to the school, as proven in third year"

"So he's here" Ron whispered, looking around as if expecting a spider to drop from some part of the ceiling at any given time. "I don't expect you can sneak me under the cloak without him noticing?"

"Ron…"

"I can always hide until he leaves, then follow you back to the dorm."

"Ron…"

"It was stupid coming here, wasn't it?"

For the first time he was actually waiting for her to answer, and she didn't know how to tell him.

"We won't be leaving tonight"

"No?" he asked stupidly, saw her shake her head. "What, is this a pajama party or something? With Snape?"

He laughed at his own quip as she answered quietly:

"I guess you can call it that way" then she looked back, thinking of Harry alone with Snape until dawn. "And I bet Harry couldn't be happier that you've joined" she thought aloud.

"Well… as long as I'm not in detention for the next century…"

She sighed.

"Ron… You remember what we were speaking about today?"

"More like yesterday" he pointed out, yawning widely.

"Well, it's happening today"

It took a whole minute for the concept to settle. During that time his hazy gaze turned progressively more focused and went through a myriad of expressions: disbelief, humor, doubt, sadness, worry. The witch kept eye contact at all times.

"You sure?"

"We drew a contract" she answered "but I figured the actual bonding was to be performed after he officially met my parents. Then, my mom came from the future…"

"What?! You sure it's her?"

"A Legilimens said so, and I double checked with a question only she could answer, so… yeah, pretty sure"

"But… Hermione… tampering with the past just to be in a ceremony? No offense, but…"

"I did so just to be in class" Hermione reminded him. "Repeatedly. But anyway, she had a message to deliver –for Snape, she won't let me anywhere near it-, I guess that's her mission and the wedding part is just a plus"

"Guess you had worst reasons" he muttered thoughtfully. "But… couldn't she choose another date? Or hour?"

She half expected him to yawn again.

"Judging by her words, the timing had something to do with me, too" Hermione thought aloud, then blushed. "I guess this is as early as she could come for me –since Harry and I had just… decided… you know- and as late as she could come to deliver the message without it becoming useless. This is also a moment in which we all are officially outside of Hogwarts, together, alone, at night; there aren't many of those, and that way she could kill two birds with a stone…"

"… and there's always the time paradox" he completed. "She had to be here as a future version of her had been in her daughter's wedding"

"That, too" Hermione shrugged.

Ron was looking at her enigmatically.

"What?"

"You sure?" he repeated meaningfully.

"Shouldn't you be asking that to your mate?" she smiled.

"I will" Ron said seriously. "That's why I was waiting for him, though Merlin knows I didn't have a clue on how to get to the subject. But I'm asking you now. There's still time. If you feel you have to do this just because of… you know" he was blushing to his ears, "well, that's not a good reason, and it's just gonna get worst with a bond"

"I'm not marrying just to… mend my honor or something" she stated vehemently. "I truly love him, you know?"

Ron's gaze dropped for a moment, then he raised it to hers, clear as always.

"I know"

There was a moment before Ron hesitantly stepped forth and hugged her bear-style.

"The golden girl is marrying" he thought aloud.

After a moment, Hermione nodded against his shoulder, and he chuckled.

"Harry's one lucky bastard" he whispered, though she wouldn't know if he knew she had heard.

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"The Resurrection Stone is a legend" Snape elaborated, "it is supposed to bring back the dead which is absurd in itself" Yet even without looking straight at him Harry could say he was being more prone to believe in fairytales since a woman from the future had come bringing them and surely believing them too.

"So you are saying I'm supposed to bring someone from the death"

"It would appear so, Mr. Potter"

There was something in the professor's gaze, something dark and hopeful and hesitant. Harry didn't have to ask who was he supposed to bring. He swallowed, turned the stone once, twice…

His dad was slightly taller than him. That was the very first thing Harry noticed, because that made him suddenly realize that he wasn't much younger than his father had been when marrying and becoming a parent. Sirius sported approximately the same age, Harry could barely recognize in him the godfather he missed, the one who had died less than a year before. They smiled at him, Harry smiled back even before processing that seeing them shouldn't be possible.

A dull sound made him turn around, to see the black imposing figure that a moment before stood beside him, on his knees. His expression was utterly unrecognizable, Harry had to trace it back to the memories of Snape he had seen some weeks ago. Then he lifted his gaze to the half-ghost Snape was looking up to.

He had noticed Lily first.

Lily didn't look a week older than Hermione was. She smiled to Harry, and he stepped forth, drawn by her like a moth to a flame. She opened her arms then, and he ran to her. In other circumstances, he might have assumed she'd be intangible in this world; but this was a night of miracles, and she held him in her arms (1), smelling of flowers and pumpkin and all things that were lovable. There was an echo of something that might have happened beyond the realm of his conscious memories, back when he was a baby and he was held and hugged and fed by her, or even before, as he lived inside of her; he could feel his heart rate decrease, few havens felt as sure as this and he was sure no walls would protect him as her now nearly unworldly arms.

"You have grown so tall, Harry" she whispered as she messed up his hair, "my big, brave little boy" He drew back his head, and in fact she wasn't taller than he was now, he had had to bend to put his head under her chin as a little boy would. The others were right: her eyes were so like his that this felt eerie, like looking at a mirror. He bet the joy was mirrored too.

Then he felt the pressure on his shoulder, and when he turned, it was his dad, smiling at him.

And he discovered that no words were necessary.

But they were given, anyway.

"My mate over there wouldn't shut up about you" he whispered, pointing at Sirius. "Told him I didn't fancy him as a son-in-law…"

Sirius punched James' shoulder, and this one complained, rubbed the place as if in pain as he added:

"Glad you found this girl, though. She's a beauty and a fighter, just like your mom"

Lily chuckled as the men pretended to fight over his earlier comment, but Harry's gaze, on its way from the ones to the other, rested on the dark bulk that was the professor's kneeling form. Her mom had just crossed gazes with him. Harry saw his torture and his greed and her forgiveness, but sometimes words were indeed necessary. She played nervously with her hair for a second before sitting cross-legged in front of the older man, who had never seemed younger than he did now, with his wrinkles in stark contrast with the vulnerability in his expression.

"That, she is" Sirius was saying; Harry could track that to the response to James' comment about Hermione, and couldn't agree more, but after brief hesitation he stepped to the adjacent room, bringing the other boys with him, so they could agree while leaving some privacy to the others.

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(1) If people resurrected with the stone are in fact intangible, well, then I'll just have to appeal to literary liberties again.

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I know having her mom there is a bit of a stretch, but hey, the message she was to bring does sound like a legitimate reason, right?

How do you feel about the elders' reunion? I won't sentimentalize Snape. This was the character that thought me that utter sons-of-a-bitch could actually be heroes, without stopping being SOB. However, when writing this I realized how unfair it was that Snape never had the opportunity of meeting Lily again, being that the stone was around for so long before his death, and he needed the closure that badly. Hey, it's an unfair world. But still.

Reviews, please?