This is the final installment of Threads of time. I don't feel like i particularly rushed it so i hope you don't either. There is no epilogue chapter but a small epilogue at the end of this one.
Reviews are more than welcome.
Side note i will be coming back to edit all of these in the near future the issues are abysmal i know.
Hermione was lead into the centre of the room, no seat was offered too her. Clearly this was to be a standing trial for her. She looked around at the faces before her and sighed softly before looking to a man she wasn't particularly familiar with who stood and gestured for silence from the others.
"Hermione Granger. Do you know why you are here?" The man asked once he had the room.
"I would assume I'm here to stand trial." Hermiones tone was somewhat pleasant though her word choice was decidedly snide.
"Indeed and do you know your charges?" The man seemed unruffled.
"No but I'm sure you'll tell me." Hermione half shrugged.
"The charges are as is; Treason in the form of temporal interference. 24 counts of secondary murder. Possession and use of an illegal artefact." Hermione shifted, the murder charges were a shock.
"Murder, sir?" Hermione swallowed hard.
"As you are in possession of a time travelling artefact and have admitted in public with multiple witnesses to travelling back in time to change the outcome of the war it was strongly encouraged that you be charged with the lives you felt no need in saving." The man sounded as though he had been reading from cue cards.
"Well… then why am I here?" Hermione shifted on her feet, her voice raising a little.
"You are allowed a fair trial." The man offered in what she was sure was an attempt at a kind tone.
"I would hardly count this as fair, sir. If it were fair you might consider the fact that I have effectively saved everyone currently alive, not on Voldemort's side." Hermione was frowning deeply.
"A fact that won't be overlooked in your sentencing. We require your permission to question you under the veritaserum effect." The man continued on and Hermione shifted again.
"What is the point? Under the charges you've laid on me I'm set for Azkaban either way." Hermione swallowed again as emotions were rising.
"Are you refusing?" The man asked and after a moment Hermione shook her head.
With a murmur through the wizengamot Hermione watched as a man walked towards her with a vial, unstoppering it and holding it out for her. Hermiones hands shook as she reached for a vial but she managed to take it and lift it to her mouth downing the small vials contents. Those watching her ranged in expression from clearly justified to sympathetic while some looked entirely indifferent. Only when she was alone in the center again did the questioning start.
"Miss Granger are you are not in the possession of a artefact capable of moving the user through time?" The first question.
"No sir, I hold a Blood Opal, an ancient magic imbued stone that is tied to my blood and will take only myself through time." Hermione offered honestly and the shifted on her feet again.
"What would happen should someone else attempt to use this artefact?" The man queried.
"It depends on the intention sir. Most of the time nothing, the magic used to imbue the opal is somewhat sentient as like the Hogwarts Sorting Hat. If you had the intention simply to see time nothing would happen. If you had the intention to manipulate time for your own benefit… possible death." Hermione explained after a moment.
"What was your intention for going back as far as you did?" The man asked curiously.
"Sir as I said; the magic is somewhat sentient. I cannot chose where it takes me. It's more of a riddle. Clearly there was something in '67 that the Opal thought I had to make happen before bringing me forward again." Hermione offered honestly yet somewhat vaguely.
"What did you have to change?"
"There were exactly two… three things that was done that would change the course of the future. Firstly I warned Dumbledore of the future I had came from and gave him a list of the Dark Lords horcruxes. Secondly I wrote a somewhat vague short story of the things I knew would Change Bellatrix Black. Thusly she went to Dumbledore and became a double agent." Hermione swallowed trailing off.
"And the third?"
"I engaged in a sexual relationship with the younger Professor McGonagal which has resulted in a pregnancy." Hermione ignored the shock and disappointment on the faces before her.
"What happened then?" The man seemed to be taking note.
"The opal moved me forward, closer to the correct timeline. I saved Neville Longbottom from dying so he was able to destroy the Snake Nagini which was also a vessel for one of Toms soul shards." Hermione shifted again.
"Then?" The man urged.
"Then I was moved forward again maybe an hour. Ginny and Molly Weasley were attacking Bellatrix whom was only using stunning spells against them. I prevented her death also."
"This bought you back to the present?" The man was still scribbling things down.
"This corrected the timeline and formed my new present on the correct path." Hermione explained.
"You make it sound as though you couldn't have saved anyone else." A different person spoke now, a woman off to the questioners left.
"Yes ma'am. I could not." Hermione nodded looking at the woman.
"You're an extremely smart Witch Miss Granger. That has never been a secret. You could have figured something out and saved countless couldnt you?" The woman continued.
"Only with time that I did not have." Hermione was frowning, she'd had hope for a minute there.
"But you do have time. You hold it in your hand." The woman pointed out.
"But I don't. Not the way you think. I cannot control what the Opal does with time." Hermione shifted, now a nervous habit.
"All we have heard so far is that you refused to help those who needed it most, you manipulated a two time war heroine into giving you a child and you used highly restricted Magic's in order to make all this happen. It is because of this that you will be sentenced wholly and fully with the charges laid against you. A single year for each murder charge, 6 for the temporal interference and a further 5 for the possession of an illegal artefact." The man read out finally and the breath left Hermione in a rush.
"35 years in prison." Hermione murmured.
"What about my baby?" She spoke louder.
"The baby will be given into the custody of its other parent." The man spoke finally and Hermiones knees finally gave out and she fell to the floor slumping forward to her hands as she struggled to draw breath, hyperventilating as those around her watched. Blissfully unconsciousness took over.
HGMMHGMMHGMM
It had been a week and so far none of the had been able to make a difference. Bellatrix had cried, had actually begged the Gamot to let Hermione out, to give her a retrial. It hadn't made a difference. Pansy and Luna had posed a strong argument but it too had made no difference. Minerva had waited a couple of days constructing her own argument in favour of the witch. The woman she had effective put in this position.
"This is your fault!" Bellatrix raged, she and her sisters and niece were at the cottage. Hermiones cottage where Tonks and Teddy now lived having taken over Hermione's responsibility of Bellatrix's patrol.
"You're right." Minerva didn't even try to deny it.
"They gave her 35 years!" Bella hadn't calmed down a bit with Minervas admittance of fault.
"Bella calm down." Andy urged gently only for the older Black sister to turn on Minerva again.
"She fell in love with you. Yseult did and Hermione still is and she was damn well going to leave you be. She had no expectations. She just wanted to be honest with you." Bella's tone was rather quiet.
"Bella…" Narcissa urged her to leave it alone in a soft tone.
"No! Hermione managed to save everyone of us alive today and she did that alone! She would have raised this baby alone too but this… this coward couldn't even get over herself for a minute." Bella waved a hand at Minerva as she called her a coward.
"I didn't mean for this to happen! I was hurt and confused!" Minerva argued back finally.
"You was hurt and confused? You'd had thirty years to get over it! She left you and was back with the next hour having to see you again. Older sure, she still the same person she loved. Loves! I bet even now she'd forgive you the world." Bella grits out getting in Minervas face.
"I had thirty years and still didn't get over it! How could I get over someone like that!? It's impossible and what I feel for her is so wrong now. I'm so old and she hasn't aged a day from the Yseult I remember! Yet I remember watching that bright little witch grow from a 12 year old to the stunning woman she is! You'll excuse me from having trouble reconciling the fact that I've fucked that little girl I watched grow! I got her pregnant!" Minerva had shoved Bella back in her anger and the older Black sister was trying to rein in the rage flowing through her.
"You fucked Yseult. You fell in love with her. Yes you watched Hermione grow but at no point was that witch a simple 'child', age is a cop out you're clinging too and I don't understand why when you claim you love her. Or is that just bullshit?" Bella grit out her fists clenched and the other three women present watched tensely.
"How could I not!? Yseult was everything I wanted in a partner, smart, funny. Comfortable with long silence, willing to help mark papers. Extremely engaging and yeah, she was incredible in bed. But I didn't fall in love with her." Minerva made the confession that seemed to startle even her.
"I'm sorry, what?" Bellatrix blinked at the woman.
"I… I liked Yseult yes, a lot. But I didn't fall in love with her… I fell in love with a young woman willing to stand up for what she believed in. A young woman willing to unerringly support not only her friends but her peers in general. A fell in love with a young woman who was willing to put her life on the line time and time again for what she believed in. And she was my student, she was a little girl when my admiration first began to build and then it twisted into something else, something more. Something an old letch like my shouldn't have been feeling for a 15-16-17 year old. I fell in love with Hermione. Well before the battle." Minerva murmured the last and sat heavily In the armchair behind her.
The sisters and Nymphador all stood or sat and stared at the indomitable Scot as tears rolled down her cheeks. Minerva realised full and well that she had mad a huge mistake and no one would feel worse for that than she herself. The woman she was in love with, the woman baring her chance at being a mother, was in prison and it was Minervas fault.
There was a sudden knock on the door. The sound startled the woman but none of them moved initially until a second knock prompted Tonks to move over and answer it.
Standing there on the other side of the door was a young woman of perhaps 24. She had curly black hair bright green eyes and a friendly smile, a small spattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks.
"Hey Tonks!" The young woman chirped happily.
"I'm sorry… do I know you?" Nymphadora frowned at the woman who blushed.
"Oh right, um… sort of. I'm Iris Jean McGonagal, I believe my máthair is here." The woman smiled and Tonks stepped back wide eyed as the woman stepped in and seemed to brighten seeing them all their.
"Máthair, Aunties." The woman greeted looking from Minerva to the Black Sisters.
"Who are you?" Bellatrix asked frowning slightly, she could see who it was but how.
"It's me! Iris!" Iris smiled brightly even as Bella looked from the young woman to Minerva.
"Iris was my mothers middle name." Minerva stood looking stunned at the young woman who had her eyes.
"Aye, and Jean is my mums middle name. That's why you gave me it." Iris smiles looking at Minerva but the smile turns sad.
"What's happened?" Minerva frowned at the young woman. Her daughter.
"There's a time fray. In my present time my mums just… just died. It wasn't supposed to happen." She admits frowning.
"Hermiones dead?" Bella latched onto that.
"Yes I was due to visit with her in Azkaban like I do every week. But when tried to wake her up…" Iris trailed off with tears her eyes.
"No… how." Minerva chews her cheek.
"She just… gave up. I'd told her the week before that I was engaged to be married… that I was happy and that you had… been seeing a wizard. She was happy for us. Both of us. I don't understand why she's give up." Iris sniffles and Bellatrix growls.
"But then why are you here?" Narcissa asked wondering how the girl was here.
"Because there was a fray in the timeline connected to mum. This is where the Opal bought me." Iris explains.
"The Opal?" Andy tilted her head and Iris pulled her hand out of her pocket and opened her fist showing the red and black Opal in her palm.
"I work with the Weavers for the Ministry of Magic." Iris explains.
"Weavers?" This was a new one for Tonks.
"We're a relatively new division. We monitor the timeline." Iris explains putting the Opal back in her pocket.
"Monitor the timeline?" Bellatrix frowns.
"Yes. Since mum was put in prison there have been more frays more often. Small things people would notice to begin with. Friends there were the best one minute having no idea who each other is the next. This went on for almost a year from now before the Ministry extracted information from mum about producing the Opals. They realised the hard way that they had to have pure intentions for the opals to work. Two ministry officials died and one other was stripped of their magical core entirely before they decided to ask mum about it. My division was founded off her information." Iris smiled gently.
"So naturally you chose to follow in her footsteps." Minerva smiled a little proudly.
"Yeah… except this has bought me too far back." Iris frowned finally.
"When exactly is this?" Iris looked at the women.
"You mum was put in prison a week ago." Bellatrix offered her tone hard as she looks at Minerva.
"Oh. You stop blaming mathair eventually. Mum never did." Iris smiles at her godmother.
"What?" Minerva frowns deeply.
"Mum never blamed you for being put in prison." Iris smiles gently and tears welled in Minervas eyes.
"Don't be sad." Iris spoke soft reaching for Minervas hand yet no sooner did the two touch were they simply gone.
HGMMHGMM
"When is this?" Iris was standing at the gates of Hogwarts with Minerva.
"This was… a few weeks ago. Hermiones about to come and tell me about you. This is where I messed up and ended up getting her sent to prison." Minerva shifts a little.
"Come." Minerva tugs Iris up through the gates towards the castle.
"What are we doing?" Iris asks curiously.
"We're going to stop me from making a scene." Minerva frowns.
"We can't. This is a crucial point, this has to happen. The Fray happens when you don't show up at her hearing." No sooner had Iris spoken did the timeline shift this time they stayed outside of it. Observing.
The pair watched Hermiones trial, understanding the full scope of her charges as they were laid out before the witch. The callousness of the trial she was given with no witnesses and no time to prepare an argument. Hermione concerned more for her baby than for herself and the full impact when the sentencing was passed. When Hermione blacked out they went back two hours in time to arrive at the castle where Minerva was in her office.
The older woman startled almost violently to see herself and a familiar yet unknown woman standing before her. She felt even worse when her older self strode forward and slapped her in the face. Hard.
"What in the world!" Past-Minerva all but shrieked.
"You're an idiot! In half an hour you're going to be told that Bellatrix and two students are here and want to speak with you, youre going to ignore them and Hermiones going to be put on Trial and sentenced to 35 years in Azkaban where she will die In… 20 odd years." Minerva growls at herself angrily.
"What?" Past-Minerva looked wide eyed at them.
"It's true. I've come back to fix the fray that occurs when you don't show up to help her." Iris explains gently.
"Why would she be sentenced. She didn't do anything." Past-Minerva could guess who the stunning blend of herself and Hermione was especially as there was time travel being mentioned.
"Because she has no support. Now pull up your big girl pants and let's get over ourselves. Believe it or not it's come to my attention just an hour ago that we are actually allowed to love her back." Minerva told herself firmly.
"Maybe take the pensive. Show them the past mum saved them from." Iris offered with a smile. Both Minervas stared at her for a moment before an elf appeared.
"Mistress. Madame Black is here with Misses Lovegood and Parkinson." The little elf squeaked staring wide eyed at the frayed Minerva and Iris before looking at past Minerva.
"Thank you Winky. Collect them for me please and bring them here." Past Minerva smiled and the elf nodded and disappeared.
"Time for us to go." Iris smiles gently and takes the frayed Minervas hand again. Before past Minerva could speak the pair disappeared.
HGMMHGMMHGMM
"Only with time that I did not have." Hermione was frowning, she'd had hope for a minute there.
"But you do have time. You hold it in your hand." The woman pointed out.
"But I don't. Not the way you think. I cannot control what the Opal does with time." Hermione shifted, now a nervous habit.
Minerva McGonagal appeared in that moment directly beside a small Elf and the pensive from the Headmistresses office at Hogwarts startling all those present bar perhaps Hermione who had had to turn to see the woman. Winky shifted as everyone looked at the new comers and Minerva scowled at everyone.
"This is your idea of fair trial Jorgen? She wasn't even allowed any witnesses!" Minerva barked.
"As this is a time travel case I did not expect she would have any." The man who had been questioning Hermione spoke.
"What business is it of yours Minerva. You made it quite clear you wanted little to do with the woman carrying your child the way I hear it." It was someone else in the back.
"I've had the sense slapped into me and I can assure you the very last thing I plan on doing is watching the mother of my child thrown in prison for this cock and bull charge you've got her on." Minerva almost stomped her foot.
"Min?" Hermiones soft voice drew the hesdmistresses attention and Minerva felt her heart clench at the hope shining there in those brown eyes.
Minerva walked directly to Hermione then, ignoring the people surrounding them and gently cupped the young woman's cheeks in warm hands. Hermione looked back at her searching and emerald eyes softened.
"I'm so sorry. I've been such a cow." Minerva spoke finally and Hermione shakes her head a little.
"It's not your fault." Hermione spoke softly.
"It is though, I was too proud and stubborn to see past myself. I'd had a lot of years to get over you but I never did." Minerva speaks softly, honestly.
"You didn't?" Hermiones expression was so full of hope that Minervas filled with tears.
"Not a chance. Can I show them? Will you give me the memory?" Minerva asked dropping a hand to take her wand from her sleeve.
"I'd give you the world if you asked." Hermione murmured softly and takes the offered wand.
The group of people watching on shifted uncomfortably seeing the young woman with a wand in hand while on trial. Hermione however moved the tip of the wand to her temple before drawing away slowly pulling the memory from her mind and handing it to Minerva. Minerva gently took the wand and put the memory in the pensive before looking at Winky. Winky shifted and clicked her long fingers and suddenly the pensive was projecting like a large screen to the whole room.
Shocked gasps ran through the room from everyone bar Hermione at the things they were seeing. So many friends and family killed or dying on the battle field. Their enemies laughing at the dying, capturing those who survived and binding them, locking them away. Men and women lining cages naked living in their own filth, men forced to sleep with women and left subject to the torture curse when they couldn't or refused.
The plague that was Voldemort spreading, slowly taking the rest of Europe and leaching into Africa, across the seas to America, Asia, and gradually Australia. Memories of Hermione finding her parents who were supposed to be safe in Australia found and tortured. The tribe requiring months of developing a relationship with Hermione before trusting her and finally Hermione being able to go back and change things.
"I couldn't save everyone." Hermione mumbled and drew a shaky breath.
"Everyone thinks I chose and played god on who should live and die. But I had no choice. Tonks is one of my favourite people. I'd have saved her Husband if I could have. Bella is my best friend, Molly was like a mother to me. I'd have happily saved Fab and Gid! But I couldn't. It wasn't my choice. Colin Creevey! Lavender Brown! Severus Snape and Fred Weasley and countless others! You really think that if I had been able to I could have chosen to allow them to die?" Hermione had tears streaming down her face.
"I did the only thing I could do after the time turners were destroyed. I found a way to go back and save who the Opal would allow. I wouldn't trade the lives I saved for the ones I lost. It's an impossible choice. But I tried. I did what I could." The little rubbed at her face and Minerva couldn't stand aside anymore. Moving forward she wrapped her arms around the woman pulled her close.
"I suggest you think very hard about what your next move is." Minerva spoke coldly to the gamot who all looked distraught. There was a hushed deliberation.
"All those that move to have Hermione Granger Acquitted of all charges?" The man spoke to a chorus of 'aye' a unanimous vote to acquit Hermione of all charges had the little witch sobbing. Minerva looked at them all for a moment before looking to Winky who took them back to Hogwarts with a click of her fingers.
HGMMHGMMHGMM
Bella and Pansy and Luna had all been sitting in Minervas office now for the better part of an hour and Bella was getting extremely anxious. She had just stood and started pacing again when there was a low popping sound and Headmistress, Hermione and Winky all returned. Luna and Pansy were pleased to see the young witch but Bella was over the moon and raced across the space and pulled the young woman into a hug. A hug Hermione returned burying her face in Bellatrix's shoulder.
"I thought they were going to put me in prison." Hermione mumbles.
"Me too. I'm glad they didn't." Bella spoke gently pulling back a little to look over Hermione.
"Are you two…?" Minerva trailed off shifting a little, she had questioned the relationship in the past but perhaps things had changed.
"I like men, strictly. Hermiones like a little sister and easily my best friend." Bellatrix informed a little annoyed Minerva even asked the question.
"Is everything ok though? Nothing can come back to this?" Pansy asked curiously.
"Hermione was acquitted of all charges." Minerva explains to the young women whom seemed to be on team Granger in all of this.
"That's fantastic news." Luna smiles happily and Hermione smiled softly at them as well.
"Would… you three mind giving Minerva and I a few minutes?" Hermione asked gently looking at her friend. Bella narrowed her eyes at the Headmistress for a long moment.
"Come on you two. You can show me the quidditch pitch, I'm set for a job next year." Bellatrix turned and ushered the other two young women out of the office. Only when they were gone did Hermione turn to look at Minerva.
"You came to help me. Why?" Hermione asked gently.
"Because someone knocked some sense into me. I… I don't know how to apologise." Minerva admits softly.
"Apologise for what?" Hermione shifted slightly, unconsciously closer to Minerva.
"For being so pig headed. I was… so close to loving Yseult, but I couldn't and she left. But I couldn't not think of her either. I married Elphinstone for the distraction. Of course I loved him but not… not in the way he wanted. Then you came to school and you were so like her and I felt oddly protective. I didn't want to see you hurt but you put yourself in harms way constantly and i … I didn't love Yseult, not in the way I've come to love you." Minerva moved closer to Hermione.
"I hate myself for it though, cause you were so similar to her, for obvious reasons. Before I really considered it I felt like I was doing both you and her an injustice. You deserved better than comparison." Minerva sighs lightly.
"And then?" Hermione stepped closer to Minerva still and looked up at the woman.
"Then I… then I hate myself for having these feelings for a 16 year old girl. Being in love with a young woman I'd barely had more than a professional relationship with. And I was so relieved when you came out of this war whole." Minerva tilted closer to Hermione.
"I was scared." The Scotswoman admits after a moment.
"Scared of what?" Hermione had reached out her hands moving to Minervas arms gently.
"Of you. You gave me this chance I never expected to get and I didn't know what to do with it. I'm so old. I'm so much older than you than I was Yseult. You have your whole life ahead of you and I'm just old." Minerva spoke lightly her expression slightly pained.
"I might, but my life has felt incredibly empty without you in it. I don't… I mean to say, I love you Minerva, but I love you enough that if you don't want… if you can't have a romantic relationship with me then I'd accept that. I just, I want you to have the chance of being parent to our baby." Hermiones voice grew strained. Minerva could see the honesty in the young woman's expression but she could also see hope.
"I can't be your friend Hermione." Minerva states after a moment seeing hurt flash in chocolate eyes.
"What?" Hermiones tone was pinched.
"I can't be friends with someone I'm so hopelessly in love with." Minerva hands lifted gently to Hermiones waist as eyes widened in realisation, Minervas lips were barely able to lift into a smile before they were pressed firmly against Hermiones.
Minerva melted into it, it reminded her so much of the kisses she had shared with Yseult but this was better. This was a young woman she wasn't just having fun with but that she felt she could actually give her heart to and know it was safe. Her arms wrapped around Hermiones waist pulling her close as Hermiones moved up around Minervas neck as the kiss deepened even more.
"Stay with me tonight?" Minerva surprised herself as she asked this.
"Please." Hermione breathed out softly before Minerva lead her witch through to the sleeping quarters.
HGMMHGMMHGMM
Not all that long later Hermione found herself naked on Minervas bed looking at a decidedly well dressed Headmistress who seemed more than hesitant. Hermione propped herself on her elbows, a very slight bump of stomach telling of her pregnancy. Looking up at the woman Hermione waited and watched indecision play out on Minervas face.
"It's not the same as you remember it." Minerva offered after a moment and Hermione moved to sit up on her knees in front of Minerva.
"Does that bother you?" Hermione reached out gently and started to push the woman's robes off of her shoulders onto the floor.
"I fear you won't find it as fun as you did in the past." Minerva didn't stop Hermione as the young woman started in the buttons of her shirt.
"I'm not looking for fun, Minerva. I'm looking for love. Besides, I've seen the way you can move, you're not giving yourself credit." Hermione leaned forward and kisses lightly along the woman's jaw.
"I have wrinkles. Like everywhere." Minerva was lying, Hermione could see that much for herself. The woman's skin was slightly softer in places but it was still smooth and wrinkle free, Minerva seeming to hold most of her age in her face though Hermione still thought she was gorgeous.
"I'm really not in this for your body Min." Hermione pushed the shirt off and reached around undoing the woman's bra and pulling off as well.
This was one area where age had gotten to the woman. Hermione remembered how full and firm the professors breasts were where now they had been beaten by gravity yet it definitely wasn't something that bothered the younger woman. Hermione stopped in her quest to undress Minerva in order to cup the woman's breasts in her hands teasing nipples into stiff peaks.
"You're certain?" Minerva's tone was more husky now and slightly breathless.
"I have never been more certain. Stop questioning everything and just let me love you. Please?" Hermione sounded desperate even to her own ears.
It was enough though, as Minerva took her wand and magically divested herself of her pants and remaining undergarments. Hermione sucked in a breath, Minerva may have been a lot older now that she had been the first time but the woman still seemed to neatly trim the hair at the apex of her thighs and honestly the sight was incredibly sexy to Hermione.
Hermione readily pulled the woman down onto the bed and into a searing kiss. Things escalated quickly there on and Minerva soon forgot all about being insecure the moment she first heard the young woman's pleasured moan again. Lips and hands explored mapping every inch of Hermione all over again, tongue tasting and teasing. All to hear those moans and eventual screams of the ultimate pleasure.
No sooner had Minerva managed to get that sweet release from Hermione was she flipped over only for the younger witch to happily return the favour and take her time doing it. Minerva hadn't felt so good in such a long time that she really shouldn't have been as surprised as she was that Hermione had managed to bring her over the edge within a matter of minutes. The older woman laying there breathing heavily as she came down while Hermione kissed her way back up the woman's body and finally pressed a kiss to thin lips.
"I forgot how good you are at that." Minerva pants out softly and Hermione chuckles breathlessly in the witches ear.
"Mm I forgot how good you taste." Hermione purred the words.
"You… wanna use the spell for old times sake?" Minerva asks with a little grin now curling at her lips and Hermione actually laughs in delight.
"You think you still got it, Minnie?" Hermione taunted softly pleased to see this side of Minerva coming out again.
"Only one way to find out." Minerva smirked and stood up off of the bed.
Minerva flourished her wand for a moment and was then standing sporting a decidedly proud cock. Hermione eyed the woman with a hungry little grin before her ankles were gripped and the Headmistress rather bodily pulled the witch to the edge of the bed, stepping between her thighs.
"Mm gods." Hermione groaned lowly as Minerva wasted no time by pushing in and settling deep.
"Still as tight as I remember." Minerva's tone was soft and breathless.
"I should be. You're the only person I've been with." Hermione purred the words and Minerva leaned down and kissed her deeply before she leaned back and started to move.
HGMMHGMMHGMM
"I can't believe you still want me like this." Much later that evening both women were laying sated and content.
Hermione was facing away from Minerva with the older woman, now in her natural state, pressed to Hermiones back with her knees tucked into the back of the younger woman's and her arms around her, a hand splayed gently on the small bump. Hermione was laying completely relaxed stroking her fingers lightly along Minervas forearm.
"How could I not? I had the biggest crush you while I was a student here." Hermione hums.
"Is that why propositioned me back then?" Minerva asked after a moment.
"Not as much, actually. I propositioned you because I'd spent months living with the fact you were dead in the frayed timeline. Aside from the tribe I was alone and had lost everyone. You were familiar yet completely new at the same time and I needed to feel something other than hopeless uncertainty." Hermione explains honestly.
"I can't imagine how hard it must have been to have lived that reality." Minervas arms tightened a little around Hermione who snuggled back into her more.
"It was hard. But it was worth it. It's all been worth it. I just wish I could have saved more people." Hermione murmurs full of regret.
"You can't take that on. You said yourself that you had no control over that. The Opal chose when and where and who." Minerva let Hermione roll over to face her.
"I think… that the Opal chose you. Because of this." Hermione placed her hand over her bump.
"Perhaps, but Bella too. She's so on your side just as she was Yseults. It's a wonder she hasn't tried to adopt you and make you an actual Black." Minerva reasons seriously. Hermione chuckles.
"She mentioned it a couple weeks ago actually." Hermione says amused and Minervas hand slides over her bump again gently.
"I don't doubt that for a moment." Minerva chuckles. Hermione hummed softly and brushed black and silver hair back off Minervas face.
"I think I met her you know." Minerva says suddenly.
"Who?" Hermione was a little confused.
"Her. Our daughter. I… ignored Bella and the girls the first time apparently. It created a fray in the timeline and you were sent to prison. You must have died in prison. But myself from the fray and this beautiful young woman with my eyes and your freckles and hair came to me. She called you 'mum'." Minerva explains and Hermione looked at Minerva with tears shining in her eyes.
"You're my last chance Hermione. You're my final choice. You and this baby and our family. I want you with me always. Please. Will you marry me?" Minerva wasn't even thinking now. She was instead letting her her heart lead for a change.
"Min… are you sure?" Hermione breathes out in a strained voice.
"I've never been more sure." Minerva gently cupped the young woman's face in her hands.
"Yeah I'll marry you." Hermione chokes out before sealing this promise with a kiss as happy tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.
Minerva had never felt more at peace than she had in that moment. The witch she loved through time and space loved her back, was giving the old and at times ornery woman everything she'd ever wanted. Love and her own family. Minerva had never been more grateful for a slap in the face than she was for the one she gave herself just the day before. Hermione was giving her everything she needed and she loved the witch so immensely. So much so that they showed each other again before they drifted to sleep in the early hours of the morning.
IJMIJMIJM - Epilogue
Iris stood along side her supervisor watching the large display of a large thread before them. Smaller offshoots of the thread floated around it by the dozen and above each offshoots junction was a small image of a crucial moment in that time line. Yet it wasn't the smaller offshoots that had the young woman's attention. A larger thread had come away from the main thread creating an alternate timeline and it had finally come back to the main timeline.
The image above the thread was two women, one older and one younger than Iris herself laying in bed as the sun rose outside. The two women were doing little more than simply gazing at one another, mapping with their eyes and committing every detail to memory before meeting half way in a slow, sweet and tender kiss full of love and the promise for tomorrow.
"It doesn't bother you? Seeing them like that?" Nymphadora Tonks asked beside her younger cousin.
"No. Not even a little bit. I hope for a love like theirs one day." Iris smiled still looking at the image of her parents.
"Victoire still playing hard to get?" Nymphadora smirked suddenly at the young woman.
"Don't even. I've never seen someone more attractive, she's smart funny and compassionate but because Ma gave her a detention one time she's got to hold it against me like it was my fault." Iris scoffs a frown on her face and Nymphadora couldn't help a laugh.
"Come on, Cuz. Let's get a drink and you can tell me all about it." Tonks says fondly looping an arm around the young woman as they turn and leave. The Weavers around them staying to monitor the threads of time.
"Ok but only one. Mums want me to have dinner with them tonight and last time I showed up less than sober they tried to ground me." Iris says with a grin causing Dora to laugh.