A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! Still working through reviewer responses, but should get to them tonight! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Please let me know what you thought of chapter seven and be on the lookout for chapter eight soon!
Successfully retrieving the first horcrux had invigorated Hermione and Theo, reinforcing that they were actually doing the right thing. Hermione had nursed Theo through the night and the next morning he'd thanked her with watery eyes. She was sure that it had been difficult for him to be in such a compromising position, so helpless without her, but if anything it only made their budding relationship stronger. It was as if some of their insecurities, fears about what the other person would think of them, were stripped away. Theo knew that he could trust Hermione to look after him, but even more, not to hold his weaknesses against him afterwards.
They hid the horcrux in the basement with the veritaserum bubbling away. "We will need to talk about how to get rid of it, eventually," Hermione said with eyebrows drawn together in concern. They had used basilisk venom mostly, but maybe she and Theo could learn to master fiendfyre as well? "There are… options, but none of them very good."
Hermione grew to enjoy brewing alongside Theo. After the way that they had worked together in the cave, it seemed as if they brewed better than before. Theo always seemed to know when to step in, and Hermione no longer fretted or questioned him over his methods. They were efficient and smooth.
Efforts at home were further aided by the new house elf in their employ that Hermione had purchased with the help of Walburga Black. It had been nearly all Hermione could do to keep a straight face when she handed over the galleons to buy the poor creature, absolutely disgusted with herself that she was buying another living being, barely able to grasp at her promise to do anything to win this battle.
Purchasing Tilly was certainly a right step in the eyes of Walburga. "I am so glad that you've done this. I must say that Orion and I were a little concerned when we first met you...you and Theo just seemed so foreign and flighty and we were worried that you weren't really the right sort of family, if you catch my meaning," she said with her lips twisted into a mean sort of smile. "But, now I think you will fit in nicely with our circle."
"I'm glad that you feel that way," Hermione had said, disguising a grimace as a smile. "We just so wanted to make a good impression. London is so different from home for me."
"You must come to my family's holiday party. Absolutely everyone who is anyone will be there," she added, giving Hermione's shoulder a pat. "We can introduce you to all the right people."
Hermione had rushed home to Theo, with Tilly in tow, and told him about their invitation. "Do you think that he could be there?" she asked, feeling breathless. They had not heard any rumblings of the wizard who was either called Tom Riddle or Lord Voldemort since they had been in the past, but they also realized that they might not have made enough in roads to have had the privilege.
"It's as good as a chance as any," Theo said, scratching at the slight five o'clock shadow on his face. He'd been practically locked into the basement while the veritaserum was in it's last stages. "Bet my father will be there, too."
She reached up, almost unthinkingly, to touch the slight stubble at his jaw line. "Would that be terrible?" she asked, eyes drawn to his lips. They had still not been intimate, but there was no more awkwardness when they touched one another, having grown comfortable with each other over the past months.
"I don't really fancy coming face to face with him," he admitted, his blue eyes flicking up to meet hers. "But it was inevitable. I've been mentally preparing for it."
She still did not know what had happened between Theo and his father, but she wanted to know desperately. Still, she couldn't find it in herself to just come out and ask him, too worried that it would be crossing an imagined line between them. She bit her lip. "When was the last time that you got out of the basement?" she asked, knowing how much he'd been working.
His cheeks flushed. "It's been a while, but…" he trailed off, before holding up a small vial with a dropper in it. "It's actually finished, finally. There is enough in here to last us at least a year or two. Do you want to go give it a try?"
Hermione had to admit that she was curious to see the fruits of their two months of labor and eagerly bounded up the stairs, asking Tilly nicely to make them tea. They sat at the dining room table, waiting for their drinks. Once they had been dropped off by the dutiful house elf, Theo administered barely an eighth of a drop into each cup. Then they each took a sip, waiting to see if anything happened.
Frowning, Hermione set her cup back down when she didn't feel any differently. "How do we know that it's worked?" she asked.
Theo rolled his eyes. "Did you ever have a crush on a Professor?" he asked.
"Yes, of course. I think everyone knew about Professor Lockhart," Hermione babbled away, completely against her will. "But I also had the biggest crush on Professor Lupin in third year. He was just so...so academic-" Before she could spill any more of her innermost secrets, she slapped a hand over her mouth, not wanting to embarrass herself further.
Her husband laughed at her. "Lupin? Really?" he asked, with his nose scrunched in amusement. "I better Potter and Weasley don't know about that," he quipped.
Hermione shook her head, still not trusting herself to speak, but feeling impressed that she didn't just blurt out what she was thinking. "I've resisted answering that," she told him, feeling a rush of pride that it was working.
"That's good," he said in agreement. "Ask me something."
"Who was a better friend? Malfoy or Zabini?" she asked, cocking her head to one side, finding that she did have some curiosity about the dynamics in the Slytherin common room.
"Easy, that's Malfoy," he answered, before scowling at himself. "We should ask emotional answers, because those will be the hardest to block...but it was hard for me to stop from telling you the truth."
Hermione bit her lower lip, before asking a question that had been on her mind basically since they had come back, hoping that Theo wouldn't be too furious with her. "Were you a virgin when we were married?" she asked, her heart hammering against her chest.
Theo's lips were screwed together tightly while he struggled not to answer. It felt like an eternity before he finally looked her in the eyes again. "Yes, I was a virgin," he said quietly. A few beats of silence passed between them, before he let out a sigh of relief. "That was a lie."
She wasn't sure what to believe, but she was fairly sure he was telling her that she hadn't been his first. It took some pressure off of her, certainly. "Who was it?" she asked, unable to stop herself. She wasn't sure why she needed to know, but she did.
"Daphne Greengrass," Theo told her, clearly unable to help himself from answering her question. "That wasn't a lie," he added as an afterthought, looking more annoyed with himself for not being able to fight off the veritaserum, rather than being embarrassed.
Hermione wanted to ask more questions about it. Had Theo been in love with Daphne, a pretty blonde who seemed more concerned with looking good than doing well in school? They seemed too disparate of people to ever work together, but then again, didn't opposites attract? Did he still have lingering feelings for a Slytherin girl who hadn't even been born yet? It made her stomach twist with the possibilities, but it felt too intrusive to continue down that path with him, especially when he was so vulnerable.
"Well, you obviously weren't a virgin when we married," he said, without any tact, but not meaning to offend. "Who did you lose it with?"
She felt her mouth moving, but swallowed up the sound, wanting to stop herself from spilling the truth. "My first time was with Vik-Vik-Vik-" she stuttered, trying to get the lie out, but finding the truth telling potion difficult to overcome. The truth came spilling out. "It was with Harry. Ron left us while we were looking for horcruxes, and neither one of us wanted to die without knowing what it was like."
Her face flushed. It wasn't as if Hermione was embarrassed or regretted her time with Harry, but the way that it came out made it sound rather unromantic. Like she'd only been chosen because she was the only girl around, which she supposed was at least partly true.
Thankfully, Theo sensed her discomfort. "That's probably enough for tonight. We aren't going to build up a tolerance all in one night," he said, diplomatically. "We should both get some rest, if we are going to go and speak to McGonagall tomorrow."
Nodding, Hermione agreed with him. She needed to put a bit of distance between them.
It was odd going back to the Three Broomsticks and seeing it warm and cheerful once again. There were no children there as it was not a Hogsmeade weekend, but it was still close enough to Hogwarts to act as a good meeting spot with Minerva McGonagall, not yet Deputy Headmistress, over false pretenses. Hermione had written to ask about an area of Transfiguration research that Minerva had recently published about. The young witch had only been too happy to agree to meet and chat. Hermione waited in a booth with a half-drunk butterbeer while Theo waited up in the room that they had rented.
"Hello? Are you Mrs. Nott?" Minerva's familiar voice asked when she arrived at the table, looking far younger than Hermione could have ever imagined. Her hair was still a shocking jet black and her eyes were bright and green.
Hermione pulled her wand from under the table before the other witch even noticed, using the confundus charm against her. "Don't you want to come with me, Miss McGonagall?" Hermione asked softly, wrapping and arm around the other woman and guiding her up the stairs towards their rented room. Keeping her wand held at Minerva's waist, she knocked on the door in it's predetermined pattern.
The door swung open, revealing Theo inside. Once Minerva caught sight of the room's other occupant, the charm quickly began to fade as her thoughts became clearer. But Theo was ready. "Expelliarmus! Petrificus totalus!" he cast in quick succession, easily catching the other woman's wand and giving Hermione a chance to lock and silence the room so that they wouldn't be disturbed.
Once that was handled, the pair worked to settle Minerva into a chair, securing her to it, before dropping the charm to hold her in place. Hermione looked into her wild green eyes and knew that she was panicking, so they would have to work quickly to get a hold of the situation. "We mean you no harm, Minerva," she said, hoping that her favorite teacher wouldn't hate her too much for kidnapping her. "But we needed you to listen to us. We are going to explain, but you need to calm down."
"We know that you are concerned about the man calling himself Lord Voldemort. You worry about what he means for the wizarding world, and we can tell you that your fears are correct," Theo said. "We have come from a future in which he has won and we are the wizarding world is left in ruins. We are not going to allow that future to come to pass."
"We were sent back with your assistance," Hermione said softly, seeing the terror that remained in the other witch's eyes, unable to imagine what was going through her head. "I am sure that you will have questions...you will want proof. I will lift the charm silencing you, but you must promise not to try and get free. I don't want to hurt you."
They waited a brief moment, seeing no change in Minerva's expression. Theo finally shrugged, seeming to say that they would have to lift it eventually. Minerva sputtered the moment that the spell was lifted, before regaining her composure. She was obviously frightened, but trying to project an air of being unafraid to her two captors. "How the hell am I supposed to believe that I helped send you back? How do you expect me believe such a preposterous story?" she demanded, finally.
"Your name is Minerva McGonagall. You were a hatstall between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor," Theo said first.
"That's simple - anyone who was at my sorting could have figured that out," Minerva countered.
"You were concussed in your final game of Quidditch against Slytherin, which allowed them to win the Quidditch Cup," Hermione said with a frown. "It's lead to your hatred of the Slytherin Quidditch team to this day."
Still, she did not look convinced. "After you left school, you were briefly engaged to a muggle," Theo said, knowing that they were quickly getting into territory that would be more difficult to have found out. "But you broke it off, as you hadn't told him you were a witch. You were concerned about repeating the same mistakes that your mother had."
"Who told you that?" Minerva demanded, looking furious and confused. Obviously the fact had touched close to home. "Was it Robert?"
"Your mentored with Albus Dumbledore, who you fell in love with when he was your Transfiguration professor. You developed an unhealthy, inappropriate relationship with him. He never did anything to you, but he wasn't afraid to manipulate and hold your feelings against you," Hermione said, knowing that this would be quite difficult to face, but it was the one thing that future Minerva said would tip the balance for them. "Then you found out about his relationship with Gellert Grindelwald and you could never look at him the same way. Knowing that he could love such a monster meant that you could never fully trust Dumbledore again."
Minerva gaped at her for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "I've never told anyone that before," she said, so quietly, Theo and Hermione nearly couldn't hear the words. "How do you know about that?"
"Your future self told us. She thought your would need some convincing," Hermione said as gently as possible.
"Convincing for what?" the witch asked, sounding defeated.
"We need you to help us," Theo explained. "We know that you are concerned about the way Dumbledore is handling Lord Voldemort, and we know that that is the reason why you have not joined the Order of the Phoenix. We are going to be working from a different angle...infiltrating the dark side to take him down. Dumbledore will never be able to do what we are going to, because he doesn't have the full picture and is held back by the idea of prophecy."
Minerva wet her lips, thinking over her next words carefully. "You are right. I want to do more to help, but...but I need to know who you are and...just what exactly are you asking me to do?"
Hermione laughed, realizing that they hadn't actually told her who they really were. "I'm Hermione Nott, and this is my husband Theo," she said with a start. "I'd love to share all the details with you, but before I do, I need an unbreakable vow that you won't go telling anyone about us or our meeting. We are putting ourselves into a position of great danger and we need to make certain assurances."
"Understood," Minerva said simply. "I'll make a vow."
"If we let you up out of the chair, you aren't going to try and escape, are you?" Theo asked, still looking skeptical of her.
"Only one way to find out," Minerva said with a frown.
Hermione released the binds holding her in place, then, and Minerva sprang up, looking wild and unsure of herself for a moment, looking as though she was actually going to try to get free. But, she quickly thought better of it when she realized that they held her wand. Even if she was incredibly proficient in wandless magic, it would have been a tough situation to get out of. Once she'd made up her mind, the Scottish witch held her arm out in offer.
Taking up her hand, Hermione let Theo walk them through the vow. He chose his words carefully, doing everything that he could to protect both her and himself. Minerva agreed to all of their terms. Once that was completed, Hermione suggested that they all sit down to talk about what was going to happen.
Neither of the time travelers were quite sure where they should begin, but once they had, the whole story came tumbling out. Minerva grew to be increasingly concerned when she heard that there were not only horcruxes, but multiple of them. "We should go the Aurors! Or...are you sure we can't tell Albus? The Order would be a great help," she asked desperately.
"No," Hermione insisted. "We promised each other, we promised you, that we would do anything that we could to make the future a better place, and the Order is never going to be able to do that. We work alone, with occasional assistance from you."
Minerva reluctantly agreed, knowing that she was bound by the terms of their oath not to do any more. They quickly made plans for her to get the Diadem out of Hogwarts and deliver it to them at her earliest convenience. "We would come with you, but we think it's best that we keep as much distance between us as possible," Theo explained. "We don't want anyone to make a connection between the three of us."
Once they were ready to leave, Hermione blushed apologizing for the heavy handed tactics they had used to get her to listen to them. "We just really needed to talk to you," she tried to explain, even though the apology fell flat. "But we did say we would do anything to win."