Chapter Five: Maurader's Playbook
Despite the frightful night of sleep, Hermione was the first awake in the Gryffindor dorms. She kept going over her list in her head. She headed down to the Great Hall to find Professor McGonagall who had her timesheet. While she already knew what her schedule would be like, she knew she wouldn't have an explanation for the highly observant witch. Realization quickly dawned on Hermione. She earned her reputation as the "Brightest Witch of their Age," but it did not seem prudent to draw any unnecessary attention with her vast knowledge of magic that exceeded most N.E.W.T. studies.
Well, this just gives me an opportunity to explore other subjects or advanced theories that I had to put on hold since classes will be far less difficult this time around. Hermione smirked to herself before horror washed over her. What about Harry and Malfoy? Surely they have to be careful not to draw too much attention to themselves and make the most of this second go around.
Quickly, she made her way to Professor McGonagall and received her timesheet. Taking it in one hand and grabbing a piece of toast with the other, she dashed off to the library. She had quite the load of work to do this morning.
As she walked into the library, she scanned the entire room. Though it looked like she was taking in the magnitude for the first time, Hermione was reliving the damage sustained to Hogwarts during the battle. Just as quickly as the tears well, she blinked them away. She couldn't break down- not when they have another chance.
She heads to the stacks where she selects several old, large books and begins to make her way to her favorite spot. Taking the corner table by the window that overlooks the grounds, she begins to set up her space. She gingerly removes a piece of parchment and three journals from her bag and flips one of the books to a page labeled fidelius charm.
Smirking to herself, she felt a rush of relief as she read the page. I knew it. The Marauders borrowed some aspects of the fidelius charm. Deducing which parts they had borrowed, Hermione waves her wand and begins a modified incantation over each one of the journals and the parchment.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to good." She taps her wand once.
"Until the very end." She whispered and tapped her wand once again. Finishing her incantation, she began adding new spells to the three journals.
Satisfied with her work, she selected one journal from the pile of three black journals. She decided to charm her initials onto the front cover. She tapped her wand on her journal, whispering "I solemnly swear that I am up to good."
The page glowed gold and she began copying the information from the piece of parchment into the black journal that she had charmed her initials onto the cover.
Major events:
Defeating Quirrell/Voldemort in first year
Destroying the basilisk and the diary second year
Peter Pettigrew escapes third year
Graveyard resurrection fourth year
Voldemort returns and Fudge denies it throughout fifth year
Dementor attack on Harry in fifth year?
Harry seeing Nagini attack Mr. Weasley
Ministry of Magic prophecy event
Dumbledore's death?
Ministry falling?
Horcrux hunt
Final battle
Horcruxes and locations:
Diary (Malfoy- second year)
Ring (Dumbledore did not say)
Locket (Black's house not the cave)
Nagini (unknown now but with Voldemort when he returns)
Ravenclaw's diadem (Room of Hidden Things)
Hufflepuff's cup (Bellatrix's vault?)
Hermione stiffened, instinctively reaching for her arm where mudblood had been carved by that deranged woman. Taking a few calming breaths, she reminded herself of the plan that she had been formulating since the day she woke back up seven years in the past. Despite being unable to use magic, she made due the muggle way- deducing the major events that she felt had to happen again. It wasn't that she wished that they would happen again. Rather, she realized that these events all built upon each other and most, if not all, were out of their control. The presence of Quirrell was put into motion long before she theoretically knew about Hogwarts, so Harry had to face him again. Then in second year, the diary set in motion Dumbledore's deductions about horcruxes. However, Hermione believed that the diary did not need to take over Ginny's life. If everything happened the way it did last time, Lucius Malfoy would slip the diary into Ginny's basket while everyone was distracted by Lockhart. While Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy brawled, she figured that she or Harry could take it out of Ginny's basket to take care of it. Pettigrew had to escape to bring back Voldemort because it was the only way to defeat him once and for all after the horcruxes were destroyed.
Though she was fairly confident in her reasonings, she still had wished several times she could reach out to Harry over the summer for his input. However, she had no magical way to communicate with him as she did not have an owl. Her parents felt that she needed to get acclimated to the magical world before adding on any additional responsibilities like a pet. She couldn't convince them that it would not be too much extra work as the knowledge she had was from a previous timestream and there was nothing in Hogwarts: A History of Magic that she could refer them to read. She knew Harry's address, but wasn't sure how the Dursley's would react to him receiving another letter besides his Hogwarts letter. Plus, what would Harry tell them? No, as painful as it was, it was better for her to plan and find ways for them to communicate in the future without being caught.
Finally calmed, she tapped her wand, whispering until the very end. The writing disappeared from the page. She grabbed one of the remaining journals and tapped it with her wand, whispering I solemnly swear that I am up to good. Sure enough, the writing from her own journal appeared onto this journal's page. She tapped it again with her wand and whispered until the very end.
She turned to the piece of parchment and performed a shrinking charm on it. Shrunken down, she placed it in an enchanted locket that she had convinced her parents to buy her on their trip to Diagon Alley to get her first year supplies. While she was quite certain she would be able to take care of the journals, she wanted a backup copy of the information in case the journals became compromised or needed to be destroyed.
Realizing the time, she ran to Madam Prince to check out the remaining books that she had yet to read. She needed to find Harry and Malfoy to give them their journals, so they could really start working out all of the details for their plan.
A/N: Sorry everyone. Thought this got posted last night, but I guess not. I hope you liked this chapter. It is a bit of a filler chapter but I wanted to make sure that the very thoughtful questions some lovely readers commented were being addressed. Also, I just wanted to add it was never my intention to show Ron so harshly. He's not going to turn into a villain (at least I don't have a reason to do this). But Ron has always had a temper and, as a reader pointed out, he just found out that his family had died, so he is angry and hurting. I was basing him both off of the books as well as my own personal grief when I lost a loved one- I was so angry I shut down just like Ron. As always, thank you so much for the love and support!