Chapter 7: Little Secrets
That night, before the Marauders had finished their plans of another prank, Lily snuck into the boys' dormitory, and located Harry's bed immediately. He appeared to be sleeping, and she watched him for a while, but then remembered that she was supposed to be working, not daydreaming. She shook him awake, and it took her a while. "What do you want? Do you know what time it is? What are you thinking waking me up this late?" Harry blurted out. "I was sort of wondering why I hadn't seen you around lately, so I thought that I would come up and see what was wrong with you. You miss your friends, don't you?" Lily asked. Harry nodded, looking off in the distance.
"I'm sort of thinking of going back, just for a little while, though. I still have a few things to do before I leave." Harry said sadly. "Why don't you go now, and come back in about...a week?" "Well, I'm not exactly sure. I mean, you know, really don't know if I'm physically ready enough to go back to Ron and Hermione...Hermione, especially. She's been worried sick about me, because I'm too thin, or I look too tired. But, someway, she seems to be able to make everything better. She's my best female friend, besides Ginny. But I met Hermione first, so that makes her more special. Well, of course, out of three, I met Ron before Hermione, but-" Harry was cut off by a horrible pain that made him clench his chest with his hand. "My God! What happened to your lungs?" Lily asked. "Nothing, I just...ran into something." Harry lied. But in all truth, he did run into something—James's fist. "Really? Would you mind showing the 'Nothing'?" Lily asked. "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I would. Now, don't you have anything better to do than come and asking me questions?"
Harry asked Lily irritably. "As soon as you show me, you'll be free." Lily said sharply. "NEVER!!" Harry said loudly, as he attempted to jump off the bed, but the pain caught in his chest made him fall hard on the ground upside-down, and revealed the black-and-blue bruise. It was huge! "There's no way you got that from running into something. And if I have to, I'll give you Veritaserum, and you won't be able to lie to me. You're just as good of a liar as James, and—" Lily paused, seeing the expression on Harry's face. "James? James did this to you, didn't he?" Harry softly nodded.
"That's it, young man! You are going back to the future, and you will take care of your problems, come back, and make amends with James, and I'll go talk to the fool!" Lily said, storming off. Harry got the Time Turner out from under his pillow. He turned it twice, just like he had before, and before he knew it, was back in his own time. Except, he wasn't in Dumbledore's office. He was in the hospital wing. He looked to his right to see Hermione sleeping in the chair, and Ron on his left. He smiled.
He saw his wand sitting on the nightstand, and his arm hurt too much to reach out himself, and got his wand off the table, and began poking Hermione's arm with it. At last, she woke up. "Harry!! You're awake!! You've been out for forever! What happened to you, anyway?" She stopped when she noticed the look on his face was just as blank and pale as she had seen it twice before. She sighed.
"Are you having any trouble...breathing, or moving your arm?" Hermione asked. Harry shook his head violently, and Hermione said, "Okay. You looked like you were having trouble moving your arm there for a second. Oh well, now that you're awake, we should go to the nurse and have her check you. You don't look like you've been doing very well, and I know for a fact you haven't." Hermione said, walking away.
Ron woke up and sat up straight in his chair. "Hey, Harry. Once again, you have begun to break your record of being in the hospital wing since the reign of You-Know-Who." Ron joked. There's nothing that Harry was going to speak truthfully about either of his friends in such an open place. "So...how have you been lately?" Harry said, trying to make conversation. "Oh, fine. There's really not much going on, except for the fact that you've been out for about 2 weeks after they found you passed out in Dumbledore's office." Ron said casually. Harry looked over at Ron in disbelief.
"I've been out for two weeks???" He said, as if it were the end of the world. Ron nodded. "Well, wait a minute," Harry said, trying to calculate all of the problems. "Ron, I think I'm going to need to sleep now, and, uh...you should go to class..." He trailed off, and Ron said, "Okay, but, I'll see you later, okay mate?" Ron said, grinning. Harry nodded, and turned over. "If I was out for two weeks, then that means...that could have just been a dream, or..." Harry said to himself. He thought for a minute, and pulled down the sleeve from his shirt and saw a thick, dark red line running the length from his wrist to the inside of his elbow. "OH MY GOD!! I've been knocked out for 2 weeks after I was in the past. That means...I'm a week overdue." He said to himself.
Hermione came back to the hospital wing a few hours later, only to find her friend sleeping calmly on his bed. The nurse came in, and immediately stopped what she was about to say rather loudly, and instead said it quietly. "Miss Granger, I'm afraid your little...friend has 2 very bad injuries. There is one on his arm, and one on his chest. The arm problem is about 7 inches long, and there is a lot of blood missing. We took care of the blood problem, but there is still the pain. His chest has 2 broken ribs, and his sternum is damaged, as though hit on something, apparently from a Muggle fight." Madam Pompfrey snorted in disgust.
The thought of Muggles made her want to vomit. Hermione asked what she should do, and Madam Pompfrey said, "Simply rub this" she indicated a bottle of blue fluid, "On the infected areas. The pain will clear, and the places will be completely healed in 4 days' time." Hermione felt okay with the arm, but it was the other part she was worried about. Hermione took the bottle and uneasily, she said, "Well, you might as well go somewhere else to do this. Harry? Harry? Wake up, you prat. Hurry up, will you?" She said, shaking him.
"Hmm? What? What is it, Hermione, I want to sleep..." Harry said groggily. "We need to go up to the dormitory so that I can help you feel better, so get up, you git." Hermione said, annoyed. "Oh...fine. But I don't see anything that needs to be taken care of..." Harry said, sitting up in his bed.
"OOOHHH, I think there is..." Hermione protested. "Look, Hermione, I can walk just fine, and—" Harry spoke too soon, for when he tried walking, he nearly collapsed sideways. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You CAN'T walk just fine, so I'm going to have to help you all the way up to the dormitory, and you're going to be so difficult, I can tell." Hermione said, staring at his thin figure. She sighed. "Well, give me your arm and we'll go upstairs." Hermione said. "OUCH!! Wrong arm!! You can only hold the other one." Harry said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. Hermione continued to drag Harry upstairs, and when she finally reached the boys' dormitory, she collapsed on Harry's bed.
"First of all, you need to sleep. When you wake up, you should feel all better." Hermione said happily. "Okay, goodnight, Hermione." Harry said, turning over on his right side, trying to avoid the pain, and suppressed a groan of pain when he turned over on his ribs. Surprisingly, he slept well. After a while, the pain in his arm subsided, and he was sleeping just fine until he realized that something was moving him. He wasn't having any out-of-the-ordinary bad dreams, so he couldn't imagine why someone would want to wake him up. He opened his eyes a little bit. He realized it was only his chest moving, but couldn't think why. He opened his eyes more, and then saw that it was Hermione who was the disturbance. "Mione, what in the world are you doing?" Harry said, meekly.
"I'm sorry I woke you up. It's this bruise on your chest. I'm afraid that it won't seem to go away. What in the world happened here?" Hermione asked anxiously. Harry couldn't tell her that his father had done this. It would only upset her, and she wouldn't allow him to go back to the past. "I ran into a...door." Harry said, avoiding eye contact with Hermione. "Oh, bull. I can tell that that was NOT caused by you running into a door." Hermione said, her arms crossed against her chest. "Nothing, I swear. Now, continue, or else that bruise will never go away." Hermione glared at him, and then put more of the blue liquid over the bruise rubbing it again. Harry winced in pain at her touch, but suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be Mr. Strong, so he just allowed her to continue. "You know, Hermione, there's not that many people I would allow to do this. You are a very privileged person, you know that, right?" Harry asked suddenly. "Of course I do. Besides, out of hundreds of students, you chose Ron and me to be your friends. Just that has to be a privilege. But...who would you let do this, anyway?" Hermione asked him.
"You, because...for one, you're my best female friend, and two, because it looks like it's too late; Ginny, because she's my second best female friend. Mrs. Weasley because she's my second mum, and Madam Pompfrey, because...well...what part of me hasn't she gotten, anyway?" Harry shrugged, his hands behind his head. Hermione laughed at this.
Hermione finished her job. Harry wasn't too happy about that. "Well Harry, that's it. You're finished." Hermione concluded. Harry groaned. "Oooh, Hermione, my chest feels like it's on fire. It's like...someone just snapped my ribs in half." Hermione looked at him sadly. Although she didn't know that Harry was doing this for more attention, she just shrugged, and continued with her job.
Harry was roaring with laughter inside his mind, but was good enough at acting to stay looking pained on the outside. Hermione was soon done with kneading Harry's skin, which started to turn red, and just settled for smoothing the potion out on his chest. Harry sighed happily with satisfaction. Just as Hermione turned to leave, she saw something under Harry's bed, which was the Time Turner. Harry hadn't remembered putting it there, but he obviously had. "Harry...is that what I think it is?" Hermione said, suspiciously. Harry shook his head violently. "NO!! Well, actually, what do you think it is?"
"I think that's a Time Turner."
"No it's not."
"Is to." "Listen, if I say it isn't, then it's not." Harry justified.
"Then why don't you show me?" Hermione said, her eyebrows raised. "Well...uh...okay..." Harry said, slowly pulling the chain. He tore the chain off of the Time Turner, and wrapped it around his wand. "See? Just my...wand." Harry said nervously. "Oh, uh-huh...sure..." Hermione said, eyeing Harry's pillow. Before Harry could think, Hermione had the Time Turner in her hand, and then said, "What on Earth have you been using this for??" Hermione asked him. "Nothing, I was just..." Harry began. Hermione read the label on it. "DECADES? Where in the name of Merlin have you been going? Let's think here, Hermione...uh...10 years, 6 years old, ummm...20...not born yet, and parents were in school..." Hermione looked at him in disbelief. "Oh my god. This is where you've been, isn't it?" Hermione said, looking into Harry's deep green eyes. Harry nodded, and looked away from Hermione.
"Who did this to you?" She asked, pointing at Harry's chest. Harry's heart broke at this question.
"It was—D-D-Dad." Hermione gasped.
"Harry, will you please look at me right now, and tell me why you've been lying to me?" Harry refused. The tears that were now streaming down his face made him feel even worse than he had before.
Not one to give up hope---on much, Hermione put her hand under his chin and lifted up his head. Her angry face softened, and she rested her head on his shoulder, and Harry followed suit. "It's not that bad," she said softly. Harry lifted his head from Hermione's shoulder and said, "I guess the reason I make such a bad shoulder to cry on is because that's what I needed." Hermione laughed. Harry avoided eye contact with Hermione, and was looking off into the distance. The door was open, and the light from the fire in the common room was somewhat reflecting on the stone. "Now, because of your small attention-span, you have now been promoted from one to two questions asked. So, like I said before, why did you lie to me?" Hermione said suddenly. Harry hesitated. He still avoided eye contact, and sighed. "I just...didn't want you to, you know, worry about me." Harry said quietly. "I'm always going to worry about you, and you should know that by now, and you've never lied to me before. What makes this any different?" Hermione asked. "I guess that I pretty much figured you wouldn't let me go back if I told you where—when I'd been." "Oh, please. If I never let you do things just because I worried about the consequences, you would still be stuck in the sidelines of a Quidditch game," said Hermione. Harry smiled, and then his smile faded. "What were you doing there, anyway?" Hermione asked.
"I was kind of...wanting to actually get to talk to my parents for one of the few times I've been able to, and even when I could before, most of the times I probably didn't even know what I was saying. And with Sirius...a few more conversations with him were okay, too. As selfish as it seems, I was actually happy then," Harry finished sadly, before more tears pooled in his eyes. "Hey, it's not as selfish as you think." Hermione said softly to him. "Now, I think you've had a long day, and you need to go to sleep." Hermione said in a matter-of-fact tone. "But Hermione, I'm not tired yet." Harry said. Hermione frowned. "You never seem tired, although I know for a fact you are, you're just hiding it. Now, GET TO BED!!" Hermione said as if she were his parent. "No." Harry said simply.
Hermione jokingly glared at him. As funny as the silence was, she was anxious to get to bed herself. In a split-second, Hermione lunged at Harry, and turned him over so that he was lying on his stomach. "Go to bed!!" She said again.
"No!" Harry said. "Yes!" "No!!"
"Yes!!!!"
Before Harry could answer 'no' again, his back was met with something soft, which he realized was Hermione's hand smoothing his back. Harry sighed. He turned his head so that he could see Ron's bed. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Harry could have sworn he heard Hermione say, "Finally."
On her way back to the Common Room, Hermione met up with Ron.
"Be quiet when you go up there. Tell Dean, Seamus, and Neville the same thing. It was too hard to get him to go to sleep once, and I'm not going to waste one more minute doing it again." Hermione said. Ron looked puzzled. "Harry, you nitwit!" Hermione exclaimed. Ron mouthed an 'Oh' and walked quietly up the stairs.
When Ron reached the dormitory, he walked over to Harry's bed and quietly kneeled next to him. "Oh, you're lucky. So rich, powerful, well-known, ugh...why couldn't it be me?" Ron asked quietly before walking over to his own bed. Ron found what he was looking for, his quill, and walked back out the door, forgetting to be quiet, and slammed the door. As soon as he reached the bottom stair, Hermione came right up in his face. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? DON'T YOU KNOW HE HASN'T SLEPT FOR A LONG TIME NOW???" Hermione yelled. Ron moaned. "Why me?" he asked himself. "You're going to regret ever slamming that door. You get to sleep in the common room tonight. It's going to take me way too long to get him to go back to sleep again." Hermione said venomously before stomping up the stairs.
Opening the door, Hermione walked over to see Harry sitting up in his bed. Hermione sighed and sat down on the bed. "How come you're still up?" Hermione asked. She smiled at Harry so that she didn't seem as upset as she did with Ron. "I heard something slam. It just—woke me up. I was asleep for a few minutes, though." Harry said simply.
"So...what do you want to do, then?" Hermione asked him.
"First of all, who slammed the door?" Harry asked her. "Oh, it was Ron. He gets to sleep in the common room tonight, because I'm being forced to stay up until you go back to sleep." Harry's put on a façade of mock hurt. "What's wrong?" Hermione asked. "You don't like staying up with me?" Harry said in a high-pitched voice. Hermione looked stunned. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's not that, it's just--- well, uh, I don't know, it's not exactly what I'm paid to do, and- what's so funny?" Harry had burst out in laughter at Hermione's miniscule excuse. "I was just joking, 'Mione. But I will pay you to put me to sleep every night." Harry said when his laughter subsided. "Trust me, I have plenty of fun staying up and talking to people, at least when it's not Parvati and Lavender, who do nothing but talk about Ron, Malfoy, Dean, Seamus and you." Hermione said.
"Hermione, I'm sorry I lied to you." Harry said apologetically. "That's okay. I understand, so don't worry about it." Hermione said happily. "I have to go back. I promised my mother I would." Harry said sadly. "I understand that, too. How long do you think you'll be there?" Hermione asked. "Probably only a week. But if anyone asks, I left to...go and find Hedwig." Harry added. "I can say that." Said Hermione. "I'll miss you, though." Said Harry.
"I'll see you next week, then. Goodbye." Harry said picking up the Time Turner from the bedside table. "WAIT!" Hermione said before he could turn it. "Let me come with you. Please?" Hermione asked. Seeing the pleading look in Hermione's eyes, Harry nodded. Hermione smiled.
"Come on, or we'll be late." Harry joked.
Meanwhile (sort of) in the past, James is still trying to figure this whole thing out. "How are we so sure that he is my son? What if he's just a liar who uses manipulative ways and Transfiguration to get what he wants?" James asked Sirius and Remus one night. "He can't be my brother, because I saw my birth in a Pensieve, there was only me, and the memory continued from being born to the minute I got home." James said. "Maybe he's like...a stepbrother, or...a cousin or an uncle, or...yep, that's about all the things I could come up with." Remus said. "There's no way to be able to analyze it logically, James." Sirius added. "And now he's gonna come back, too. I can't believe Lily. Telling him he needs to come back. It's not like I'm gonna say I'm sorry or anything." James concluded.
Harry opened his eyes. He was lying on his bed. Hermione was next to him, and she was sleeping. "Hermione? Hermione?" Harry whispered, gently shaking her shoulder.
"Hmm?" she asked. "Get up; we've got a lot to do today." "What makes it different from any other day? We have the same classes, don't we?" Hermione said groggily. "No, today we have to go talk to my parents."
"OH!! RIGHT!! Sorry!" Hermione said, sitting up in her bed.
"Come on, get up, and be quiet, I think everyone's already asleep." Harry whispered. He could hear Peter's snoring. He froze in mid-step when he heard someone talking in the common room. He recognized the voice as his father's, and looked carefully around the corner of the wall. His body was shaking with nervousness, and he lowered himself below the balcony and looked through the stone 'bars'. He saw James, Remus and Sirius on the hearth rug, and they were all talking.
"I'll bet that if he is my son, that in his little future time, he always sucks in the fame like there's no tomorrow." James said. Remus and Sirius laughed. Harry was stunned. Fortunately, he was wearing dark clothes, because Lily came out of the Girls' Dormitory, and stood at the top of the stairs, and said, "I told you to shut up about him, he's supposed to be here soon, and if you say one thing like that to or about him, I will have your head, and there will be no 'him'!" She said before she noticed that the fire was reflecting in Harry's glasses. She smiled. Opening and closing a door, she made it sound as if she had gone back to bed, and then knelt down on all fours and crawled towards Harry and Hermione.
"Let's go upstairs." Lily suggested. Harry and Hermione nodded.
Sitting on Harry's bed, Lily said, "I talked to James. He says that he wasn't thinking when he did that, and that he was sorry...sort of. But he still says you're a-" "...Self-absorbed, arrogant brat." Harry finished for her. Lily nodded. Hermione only listened. "I'm sorry I didn't come earlier, but I didn't really have much of a choice." Harry said. "Well, that's taken care of, now, so aren't you going to introduce me to your friend, here?" Lily asked. "Oh, right! Uh...Mum, this is Hermione Granger, and she wanted to come, so I let her." Harry said. "Oh, like Helen of Troy's daughter?" Lily asked. Hermione smiled and nodded. "Well, she's just as beautiful as you described her. She's got the really nice eyes, the hair to match, and the great smile." Lily said. Harry felt the blood rush to his face, more from humiliation than anything. "Oh, Harry, you really said those nice things about me?" Hermione said. "Well—uh—I—I-" Harry stammered. "Sure, he talks about you all the time. He says even more stuff than that, but he's pretty complimentary. He says you're just as pretty as his owl. He says so much sweet stuff like that, and I'm pretty sure he means every last word, but he's a damn good liar, and you know, you could probably ask him if he means any of it." Lily said, looking over at Harry. Harry nodded vigorously.
'Why can't I just die now?' Harry thought. "Well, I can say a lot of things that are nice like that about him, you could probably ask Ginny. She says a lot of things, too." Harry was blushing furiously, and felt as though he were going to have a heat stroke when Hermione kissed him. When she was finished, Harry gasped for air, and said, "You should think about doing that in a week when I feel better, or when I finish and win a Quidditch Match." Still breathing heavily, Harry said, "Well, I guess saying nice things really does benefit the people that say them."
"It's time to go talk to James, now, Harry." Lily said. "I don't wanna go!! He'll hurt me again, and then he'll insult me and make me sad!" Harry said. All three of them were stunned at what Harry had said. 'Where on earth did that come from?' Harry thought. "Oh, come on, if you can fight Voldemort, then you can face your own father." Hermione said. "No! This is different! It's completely different!" Harry said. 'Come on, you're not afraid of him, you weakling. Come on, say I'm not afraid of my father! Say it! Say it!' He thought. "How is it different?" Lily asked. "I'm too worried about people hating me for getting their lives taken over by Voldemort and screwing up in the war, but nobody will hate me for losing to my own father!" Harry exclaimed. "Do you know how I feel right before I go face Voldemort?"
"Nervous?" Hermione suggested. "No, Hermione, when I go to face him, I'm scared half to death. Don't you get it? I can't be brave on the inside Hermione, I didn't mean to survive, but I did. I have to make everyone think that I'm brave so that they don't lose faith in their lives." Harry said, and he looked like he was on the verge of tears. "I'm not as brave as everyone thinks, and ever since last year, I've been just about as confident."
'This girl looks like she's dealt with this before, I should go.' Lily thought. "Uh...I think I should go back to bed now, goodnight." Lily said quietly before walking out of the dormitory.
Hermione looked over at her friend. Her heart broke at the sight of her friend crying again. She awkwardly put her arm on his shoulder, pulling him to her side. "You don't have to be afraid of him, you know." Hermione said calmly. Harry nodded; "Yes, I do." Hermione shook her head. "He's only your dad, and you should feel comfortable around him. I mean honestly, are you afraid of the Dursleys?" Hermione asked. Harry shook his head. "Then why should you be afraid of him?" Harry pondered on this for a moment. The awkward silence was broken when they heard footsteps coming up the stairs. To avoid any problems, Harry and Hermione rolled off of the bed, and hid there until the Marauders were asleep. They sighed. "Why don't we go down to the common room and talk about this?" Harry suggested. Hermione nodded.
Down in the common room, Hermione and Harry sat on the couch and were still in silence before Hermione said, "So, you never answered my question." Harry hesitated. "I guess............because the Dursleys will get in trouble if they hurt me, and...Dad's different. He won't get in trouble for it." Harry answered, staring into the now dying flames of the fire. "Well, if you told somebody else about it, then-" Hermione began. "If I told somebody else, then they would know exactly where and when I'd been, and then I'd get in trouble, along with people thinking that I was a wimp and couldn't carry around my problems." Harry said, irritated. "I know. I don't know what I was thinking. Honestly, it was only a punch, I mean; the bruise is gone, isn't it?" Hermione asked. Harry avoided eye contact. "I...er...haven't looked per se, and...you know...it was somewhat of a large bruise, and..." Harry said, carefully choosing his words. "That bruise is still there, isn't it?" Hermione asked in disbelief. Harry nodded. "But I could have sworn—Madam Pompfrey gave it to me herself—she said that Snape had a student make one in class—and that it was completely a perfect potion, but...I don't understand." "Hermione? Do you even know which student made it?" Harry asked. Hermione shook her head. "Well, there's your answer then. See, what if it was Malfoy...or someone else?" Hermione shrugged.
"Anyway, forget about it, Hermione. That was the only thing, and it was the only injury on me." Harry concluded. "Actually...I've kind of been wondering...what was that impossibly large, thick line on your arm?" Hermione wondered. Harry looked around nervously. "Uh...it-it-it was just a scratch. I got it when I was...er...running down a corridor, and I fell on a quill. It got stuck in my arm, and I just pulled it up, and-" Harry could tell his story wasn't good enough, because Hermione was not buying anything that he said. "Well, okay. I was looking through my bag when I got stuck with the quill, okay? Is that good enough for you, now?" Harry asked. Hermione once again shook her head.
"Listen, Hermione, I promise you, that is what happened, okay? Just go to sleep, now. You can sleep out here. Trust me; I've pretty much spent a lot of time sleeping in the chair. It can be pretty comfortable when it wants to. I'm going to go up to the dormitory and sleep. I'll see you in the morning, okay?" Harry asked. Hermione gave a fake smile and nodded, but her insides were screaming, 'LIAR, LIAR, LIAR!!'.
Harry walked up the stairs to the dormitory, and got into his own bed. His head fell against his pillow, and he was asleep before he knew it.
The next morning, he heard several people talking, but weren't sure who they were. He finally recognized Hermione's voice, then James', then Sirius', Remus' and Peter's voices. 'God, she's brave. I won't even talk to that jerk.' Then he finally realized something else...they were talking about something special. A certain topic that nobody, even in the future, ever dropped—him. 'WHY ME??' Harry's brain screamed. "He's normally really brave, and nice, and he's really a great guy and all, but...normally he's up by now, too." Hermione said. 'NOO! Why must she say such nice things? WHY?' Harry's thoughts said desperately. 'Wait a minute, what time is it?' Harry thought. "I mean, honestly. 11:00 in the morning, and still sleeping. He's worse than Ron." Hermione said in her disapproving tone.
'I never sleep this late,' Harry thought. 'Something must be absolutely wrong with me. Either that or...maybe I was just really, really tired. Well, time to act upset in my sleep. The only people who will think anything of it would be Dad...evil Dad...why must I have shown Hermione? Why?' Harry let out a soft whimper, and started breathing hard. 'This is going to work so-o-o-o well.' Harry thought. 'I'm such a good actor, too.' Harry could feel the sweat dripping from his forehead already. 'Ha, ha, ha. It's going to be such a good wake-up call when I don't have to act as if I've been sleeping just fine.'
Harry felt a cold hand on his forehead, and stopped letting out the fake cries, but continued to breathe hard. His breathing subsided and he felt his shoulders being shook softly. "Hmmmm?" he said weakly, opening his eyes. His vision was blurred, and he saw five people sitting in front of them, but couldn't distinguish any of them except for Hermione. "Glasses..." he whispered. He felt them being slipped on, and could now tell them all apart.
From left were James, Remus, Peter, Sirius, and Hermione. Avoiding eye contact with James, Harry groaned in annoyance and turned over on his stomach. When Harry heard the other boys leave, abandoning Hermione, he turned back over and propped his back up on several pillows. He saw Hermione's face, and looked half-surprised. "Your scar felt fine, you little faker." Hermione said simply. Harry grinned; ah, the sweet satisfactory of annoying people. "Well, I had to get some way of getting rid of...him." Harry said, closing his eyes in happiness, and shrugging. "Yes, but I still think you're both being absolutely childish about the whole thing. I mean, you're practically both grown up, and you should learn to face your problems, instead of chickening out of them." Hermione answered. "Hermione? Do you see any grownups around here? NEWSFLASH! I am a kid!" Harry said loudly. *Yes, I did get part of that line from Uptown Girls.*
"No, you're supposed to be 16, and yet you act like you're 8! Listen, I don't care if you are a kid, you should be, and are smart enough to get over this problem and be friends with your father!" Hermione said. Harry glared at Hermione. "I don't need you to tell me that, or tell me anything else, for that matter. I can take care of myself. You seem like you're best friends with him, so why don't you keep him, congratulations; he's yours! And by the way, you can stay here, because I'm leaving!" Harry said, now completely fuming in anger. He stood up, and picked the Time Turner up off of the table. "I hope you have fun. I know I will without the Hermione Problem still lurking around the school." Harry said, turning to face her. "No! You can't leave me here! Now you're just running away from two people- problems, and that isn't getting you anywhere, is it?" said Hermione, grabbing Harry's wrist from the Time Turner. Harry's eyes were burning with anger, and Hermione shuddered at the site. "Hermione, I am absolutely sick of this. If you really want to know why I'm not really too happy about the idea of making up with him, then think about who his secret-keeper was, and why you ever bothered to talk to me in the first place---beside Neville's toad." Harry said, staring straight into Hermione's eyes. Hermione thought about this for a moment. "His secret- keeper was Peter Pettigrew. If you become friends with your father, he'll listen to you, and switch secret-keepers. You won't be the Boy-Who-Lived, and I wouldn't have even spared a passing glance." Hermione said quietly.
"Exactly." Harry said. At that, he turned the Time Turner, and was leaving Hermione in the past. Alone. Harry was immediately sent back into his pile of pillows on his bed. He sighed. 'I can't just forgive her like that. Stupid Hermione. Stupid Hermione for defending Dad. Stupid Hermione for defending Stupid Dad for insulting me. Hmmmm......Dumb Dad...' Harry laughed at this.
Ron came in a few hours later, and Harry looked really tired. "Harry, how come you're still up?" Ron asked. "I'm just... not that tired." Harry explained. Ron looked completely unsatisfied. "Oh, what do you care, anyway?" Harry asked. "What do you know, anyway?" Harry muttered under his breath. Ron pretended that he hadn't heard that. "Have you seen Hermione today? She seems to be missing. I don't think anybody's seen her all day. Have you?" Ron asked. "No." Harry answered, possibly, a little too fast. "Really? Hmmmm..." Ron said. Harry yawned. "Time for bed, Ron. Goodnight," Was all he said before drifting off to sleep.
A/N: So, are you people liking so far? I'm really sorry it's taking so long to update this story, but I keep forgetting to post new chapters. Well, this is the longest chapter I've written so far. It's a whole 5,799 words, not including the author's note. Well, it's time to get started on the next chapter. And, I forgot at the beginning. I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS WHATSOEVER, AND DID NOT MAKE ANY UP, EITHER!! IT'S ALL J.K. ROWLING'S! HER BEAUTIFUL WORK!! NOT MINE!! I JUST WRITE STORIES THAT WILL NEVER BE, BUT STILL, I LIKE WRITING THEM. GOODBYE. READ AND REVIEW...please?
That night, before the Marauders had finished their plans of another prank, Lily snuck into the boys' dormitory, and located Harry's bed immediately. He appeared to be sleeping, and she watched him for a while, but then remembered that she was supposed to be working, not daydreaming. She shook him awake, and it took her a while. "What do you want? Do you know what time it is? What are you thinking waking me up this late?" Harry blurted out. "I was sort of wondering why I hadn't seen you around lately, so I thought that I would come up and see what was wrong with you. You miss your friends, don't you?" Lily asked. Harry nodded, looking off in the distance.
"I'm sort of thinking of going back, just for a little while, though. I still have a few things to do before I leave." Harry said sadly. "Why don't you go now, and come back in about...a week?" "Well, I'm not exactly sure. I mean, you know, really don't know if I'm physically ready enough to go back to Ron and Hermione...Hermione, especially. She's been worried sick about me, because I'm too thin, or I look too tired. But, someway, she seems to be able to make everything better. She's my best female friend, besides Ginny. But I met Hermione first, so that makes her more special. Well, of course, out of three, I met Ron before Hermione, but-" Harry was cut off by a horrible pain that made him clench his chest with his hand. "My God! What happened to your lungs?" Lily asked. "Nothing, I just...ran into something." Harry lied. But in all truth, he did run into something—James's fist. "Really? Would you mind showing the 'Nothing'?" Lily asked. "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I would. Now, don't you have anything better to do than come and asking me questions?"
Harry asked Lily irritably. "As soon as you show me, you'll be free." Lily said sharply. "NEVER!!" Harry said loudly, as he attempted to jump off the bed, but the pain caught in his chest made him fall hard on the ground upside-down, and revealed the black-and-blue bruise. It was huge! "There's no way you got that from running into something. And if I have to, I'll give you Veritaserum, and you won't be able to lie to me. You're just as good of a liar as James, and—" Lily paused, seeing the expression on Harry's face. "James? James did this to you, didn't he?" Harry softly nodded.
"That's it, young man! You are going back to the future, and you will take care of your problems, come back, and make amends with James, and I'll go talk to the fool!" Lily said, storming off. Harry got the Time Turner out from under his pillow. He turned it twice, just like he had before, and before he knew it, was back in his own time. Except, he wasn't in Dumbledore's office. He was in the hospital wing. He looked to his right to see Hermione sleeping in the chair, and Ron on his left. He smiled.
He saw his wand sitting on the nightstand, and his arm hurt too much to reach out himself, and got his wand off the table, and began poking Hermione's arm with it. At last, she woke up. "Harry!! You're awake!! You've been out for forever! What happened to you, anyway?" She stopped when she noticed the look on his face was just as blank and pale as she had seen it twice before. She sighed.
"Are you having any trouble...breathing, or moving your arm?" Hermione asked. Harry shook his head violently, and Hermione said, "Okay. You looked like you were having trouble moving your arm there for a second. Oh well, now that you're awake, we should go to the nurse and have her check you. You don't look like you've been doing very well, and I know for a fact you haven't." Hermione said, walking away.
Ron woke up and sat up straight in his chair. "Hey, Harry. Once again, you have begun to break your record of being in the hospital wing since the reign of You-Know-Who." Ron joked. There's nothing that Harry was going to speak truthfully about either of his friends in such an open place. "So...how have you been lately?" Harry said, trying to make conversation. "Oh, fine. There's really not much going on, except for the fact that you've been out for about 2 weeks after they found you passed out in Dumbledore's office." Ron said casually. Harry looked over at Ron in disbelief.
"I've been out for two weeks???" He said, as if it were the end of the world. Ron nodded. "Well, wait a minute," Harry said, trying to calculate all of the problems. "Ron, I think I'm going to need to sleep now, and, uh...you should go to class..." He trailed off, and Ron said, "Okay, but, I'll see you later, okay mate?" Ron said, grinning. Harry nodded, and turned over. "If I was out for two weeks, then that means...that could have just been a dream, or..." Harry said to himself. He thought for a minute, and pulled down the sleeve from his shirt and saw a thick, dark red line running the length from his wrist to the inside of his elbow. "OH MY GOD!! I've been knocked out for 2 weeks after I was in the past. That means...I'm a week overdue." He said to himself.
Hermione came back to the hospital wing a few hours later, only to find her friend sleeping calmly on his bed. The nurse came in, and immediately stopped what she was about to say rather loudly, and instead said it quietly. "Miss Granger, I'm afraid your little...friend has 2 very bad injuries. There is one on his arm, and one on his chest. The arm problem is about 7 inches long, and there is a lot of blood missing. We took care of the blood problem, but there is still the pain. His chest has 2 broken ribs, and his sternum is damaged, as though hit on something, apparently from a Muggle fight." Madam Pompfrey snorted in disgust.
The thought of Muggles made her want to vomit. Hermione asked what she should do, and Madam Pompfrey said, "Simply rub this" she indicated a bottle of blue fluid, "On the infected areas. The pain will clear, and the places will be completely healed in 4 days' time." Hermione felt okay with the arm, but it was the other part she was worried about. Hermione took the bottle and uneasily, she said, "Well, you might as well go somewhere else to do this. Harry? Harry? Wake up, you prat. Hurry up, will you?" She said, shaking him.
"Hmm? What? What is it, Hermione, I want to sleep..." Harry said groggily. "We need to go up to the dormitory so that I can help you feel better, so get up, you git." Hermione said, annoyed. "Oh...fine. But I don't see anything that needs to be taken care of..." Harry said, sitting up in his bed.
"OOOHHH, I think there is..." Hermione protested. "Look, Hermione, I can walk just fine, and—" Harry spoke too soon, for when he tried walking, he nearly collapsed sideways. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You CAN'T walk just fine, so I'm going to have to help you all the way up to the dormitory, and you're going to be so difficult, I can tell." Hermione said, staring at his thin figure. She sighed. "Well, give me your arm and we'll go upstairs." Hermione said. "OUCH!! Wrong arm!! You can only hold the other one." Harry said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. Hermione continued to drag Harry upstairs, and when she finally reached the boys' dormitory, she collapsed on Harry's bed.
"First of all, you need to sleep. When you wake up, you should feel all better." Hermione said happily. "Okay, goodnight, Hermione." Harry said, turning over on his right side, trying to avoid the pain, and suppressed a groan of pain when he turned over on his ribs. Surprisingly, he slept well. After a while, the pain in his arm subsided, and he was sleeping just fine until he realized that something was moving him. He wasn't having any out-of-the-ordinary bad dreams, so he couldn't imagine why someone would want to wake him up. He opened his eyes a little bit. He realized it was only his chest moving, but couldn't think why. He opened his eyes more, and then saw that it was Hermione who was the disturbance. "Mione, what in the world are you doing?" Harry said, meekly.
"I'm sorry I woke you up. It's this bruise on your chest. I'm afraid that it won't seem to go away. What in the world happened here?" Hermione asked anxiously. Harry couldn't tell her that his father had done this. It would only upset her, and she wouldn't allow him to go back to the past. "I ran into a...door." Harry said, avoiding eye contact with Hermione. "Oh, bull. I can tell that that was NOT caused by you running into a door." Hermione said, her arms crossed against her chest. "Nothing, I swear. Now, continue, or else that bruise will never go away." Hermione glared at him, and then put more of the blue liquid over the bruise rubbing it again. Harry winced in pain at her touch, but suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be Mr. Strong, so he just allowed her to continue. "You know, Hermione, there's not that many people I would allow to do this. You are a very privileged person, you know that, right?" Harry asked suddenly. "Of course I do. Besides, out of hundreds of students, you chose Ron and me to be your friends. Just that has to be a privilege. But...who would you let do this, anyway?" Hermione asked him.
"You, because...for one, you're my best female friend, and two, because it looks like it's too late; Ginny, because she's my second best female friend. Mrs. Weasley because she's my second mum, and Madam Pompfrey, because...well...what part of me hasn't she gotten, anyway?" Harry shrugged, his hands behind his head. Hermione laughed at this.
Hermione finished her job. Harry wasn't too happy about that. "Well Harry, that's it. You're finished." Hermione concluded. Harry groaned. "Oooh, Hermione, my chest feels like it's on fire. It's like...someone just snapped my ribs in half." Hermione looked at him sadly. Although she didn't know that Harry was doing this for more attention, she just shrugged, and continued with her job.
Harry was roaring with laughter inside his mind, but was good enough at acting to stay looking pained on the outside. Hermione was soon done with kneading Harry's skin, which started to turn red, and just settled for smoothing the potion out on his chest. Harry sighed happily with satisfaction. Just as Hermione turned to leave, she saw something under Harry's bed, which was the Time Turner. Harry hadn't remembered putting it there, but he obviously had. "Harry...is that what I think it is?" Hermione said, suspiciously. Harry shook his head violently. "NO!! Well, actually, what do you think it is?"
"I think that's a Time Turner."
"No it's not."
"Is to." "Listen, if I say it isn't, then it's not." Harry justified.
"Then why don't you show me?" Hermione said, her eyebrows raised. "Well...uh...okay..." Harry said, slowly pulling the chain. He tore the chain off of the Time Turner, and wrapped it around his wand. "See? Just my...wand." Harry said nervously. "Oh, uh-huh...sure..." Hermione said, eyeing Harry's pillow. Before Harry could think, Hermione had the Time Turner in her hand, and then said, "What on Earth have you been using this for??" Hermione asked him. "Nothing, I was just..." Harry began. Hermione read the label on it. "DECADES? Where in the name of Merlin have you been going? Let's think here, Hermione...uh...10 years, 6 years old, ummm...20...not born yet, and parents were in school..." Hermione looked at him in disbelief. "Oh my god. This is where you've been, isn't it?" Hermione said, looking into Harry's deep green eyes. Harry nodded, and looked away from Hermione.
"Who did this to you?" She asked, pointing at Harry's chest. Harry's heart broke at this question.
"It was—D-D-Dad." Hermione gasped.
"Harry, will you please look at me right now, and tell me why you've been lying to me?" Harry refused. The tears that were now streaming down his face made him feel even worse than he had before.
Not one to give up hope---on much, Hermione put her hand under his chin and lifted up his head. Her angry face softened, and she rested her head on his shoulder, and Harry followed suit. "It's not that bad," she said softly. Harry lifted his head from Hermione's shoulder and said, "I guess the reason I make such a bad shoulder to cry on is because that's what I needed." Hermione laughed. Harry avoided eye contact with Hermione, and was looking off into the distance. The door was open, and the light from the fire in the common room was somewhat reflecting on the stone. "Now, because of your small attention-span, you have now been promoted from one to two questions asked. So, like I said before, why did you lie to me?" Hermione said suddenly. Harry hesitated. He still avoided eye contact, and sighed. "I just...didn't want you to, you know, worry about me." Harry said quietly. "I'm always going to worry about you, and you should know that by now, and you've never lied to me before. What makes this any different?" Hermione asked. "I guess that I pretty much figured you wouldn't let me go back if I told you where—when I'd been." "Oh, please. If I never let you do things just because I worried about the consequences, you would still be stuck in the sidelines of a Quidditch game," said Hermione. Harry smiled, and then his smile faded. "What were you doing there, anyway?" Hermione asked.
"I was kind of...wanting to actually get to talk to my parents for one of the few times I've been able to, and even when I could before, most of the times I probably didn't even know what I was saying. And with Sirius...a few more conversations with him were okay, too. As selfish as it seems, I was actually happy then," Harry finished sadly, before more tears pooled in his eyes. "Hey, it's not as selfish as you think." Hermione said softly to him. "Now, I think you've had a long day, and you need to go to sleep." Hermione said in a matter-of-fact tone. "But Hermione, I'm not tired yet." Harry said. Hermione frowned. "You never seem tired, although I know for a fact you are, you're just hiding it. Now, GET TO BED!!" Hermione said as if she were his parent. "No." Harry said simply.
Hermione jokingly glared at him. As funny as the silence was, she was anxious to get to bed herself. In a split-second, Hermione lunged at Harry, and turned him over so that he was lying on his stomach. "Go to bed!!" She said again.
"No!" Harry said. "Yes!" "No!!"
"Yes!!!!"
Before Harry could answer 'no' again, his back was met with something soft, which he realized was Hermione's hand smoothing his back. Harry sighed. He turned his head so that he could see Ron's bed. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Harry could have sworn he heard Hermione say, "Finally."
On her way back to the Common Room, Hermione met up with Ron.
"Be quiet when you go up there. Tell Dean, Seamus, and Neville the same thing. It was too hard to get him to go to sleep once, and I'm not going to waste one more minute doing it again." Hermione said. Ron looked puzzled. "Harry, you nitwit!" Hermione exclaimed. Ron mouthed an 'Oh' and walked quietly up the stairs.
When Ron reached the dormitory, he walked over to Harry's bed and quietly kneeled next to him. "Oh, you're lucky. So rich, powerful, well-known, ugh...why couldn't it be me?" Ron asked quietly before walking over to his own bed. Ron found what he was looking for, his quill, and walked back out the door, forgetting to be quiet, and slammed the door. As soon as he reached the bottom stair, Hermione came right up in his face. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? DON'T YOU KNOW HE HASN'T SLEPT FOR A LONG TIME NOW???" Hermione yelled. Ron moaned. "Why me?" he asked himself. "You're going to regret ever slamming that door. You get to sleep in the common room tonight. It's going to take me way too long to get him to go back to sleep again." Hermione said venomously before stomping up the stairs.
Opening the door, Hermione walked over to see Harry sitting up in his bed. Hermione sighed and sat down on the bed. "How come you're still up?" Hermione asked. She smiled at Harry so that she didn't seem as upset as she did with Ron. "I heard something slam. It just—woke me up. I was asleep for a few minutes, though." Harry said simply.
"So...what do you want to do, then?" Hermione asked him.
"First of all, who slammed the door?" Harry asked her. "Oh, it was Ron. He gets to sleep in the common room tonight, because I'm being forced to stay up until you go back to sleep." Harry's put on a façade of mock hurt. "What's wrong?" Hermione asked. "You don't like staying up with me?" Harry said in a high-pitched voice. Hermione looked stunned. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's not that, it's just--- well, uh, I don't know, it's not exactly what I'm paid to do, and- what's so funny?" Harry had burst out in laughter at Hermione's miniscule excuse. "I was just joking, 'Mione. But I will pay you to put me to sleep every night." Harry said when his laughter subsided. "Trust me, I have plenty of fun staying up and talking to people, at least when it's not Parvati and Lavender, who do nothing but talk about Ron, Malfoy, Dean, Seamus and you." Hermione said.
"Hermione, I'm sorry I lied to you." Harry said apologetically. "That's okay. I understand, so don't worry about it." Hermione said happily. "I have to go back. I promised my mother I would." Harry said sadly. "I understand that, too. How long do you think you'll be there?" Hermione asked. "Probably only a week. But if anyone asks, I left to...go and find Hedwig." Harry added. "I can say that." Said Hermione. "I'll miss you, though." Said Harry.
"I'll see you next week, then. Goodbye." Harry said picking up the Time Turner from the bedside table. "WAIT!" Hermione said before he could turn it. "Let me come with you. Please?" Hermione asked. Seeing the pleading look in Hermione's eyes, Harry nodded. Hermione smiled.
"Come on, or we'll be late." Harry joked.
Meanwhile (sort of) in the past, James is still trying to figure this whole thing out. "How are we so sure that he is my son? What if he's just a liar who uses manipulative ways and Transfiguration to get what he wants?" James asked Sirius and Remus one night. "He can't be my brother, because I saw my birth in a Pensieve, there was only me, and the memory continued from being born to the minute I got home." James said. "Maybe he's like...a stepbrother, or...a cousin or an uncle, or...yep, that's about all the things I could come up with." Remus said. "There's no way to be able to analyze it logically, James." Sirius added. "And now he's gonna come back, too. I can't believe Lily. Telling him he needs to come back. It's not like I'm gonna say I'm sorry or anything." James concluded.
Harry opened his eyes. He was lying on his bed. Hermione was next to him, and she was sleeping. "Hermione? Hermione?" Harry whispered, gently shaking her shoulder.
"Hmm?" she asked. "Get up; we've got a lot to do today." "What makes it different from any other day? We have the same classes, don't we?" Hermione said groggily. "No, today we have to go talk to my parents."
"OH!! RIGHT!! Sorry!" Hermione said, sitting up in her bed.
"Come on, get up, and be quiet, I think everyone's already asleep." Harry whispered. He could hear Peter's snoring. He froze in mid-step when he heard someone talking in the common room. He recognized the voice as his father's, and looked carefully around the corner of the wall. His body was shaking with nervousness, and he lowered himself below the balcony and looked through the stone 'bars'. He saw James, Remus and Sirius on the hearth rug, and they were all talking.
"I'll bet that if he is my son, that in his little future time, he always sucks in the fame like there's no tomorrow." James said. Remus and Sirius laughed. Harry was stunned. Fortunately, he was wearing dark clothes, because Lily came out of the Girls' Dormitory, and stood at the top of the stairs, and said, "I told you to shut up about him, he's supposed to be here soon, and if you say one thing like that to or about him, I will have your head, and there will be no 'him'!" She said before she noticed that the fire was reflecting in Harry's glasses. She smiled. Opening and closing a door, she made it sound as if she had gone back to bed, and then knelt down on all fours and crawled towards Harry and Hermione.
"Let's go upstairs." Lily suggested. Harry and Hermione nodded.
Sitting on Harry's bed, Lily said, "I talked to James. He says that he wasn't thinking when he did that, and that he was sorry...sort of. But he still says you're a-" "...Self-absorbed, arrogant brat." Harry finished for her. Lily nodded. Hermione only listened. "I'm sorry I didn't come earlier, but I didn't really have much of a choice." Harry said. "Well, that's taken care of, now, so aren't you going to introduce me to your friend, here?" Lily asked. "Oh, right! Uh...Mum, this is Hermione Granger, and she wanted to come, so I let her." Harry said. "Oh, like Helen of Troy's daughter?" Lily asked. Hermione smiled and nodded. "Well, she's just as beautiful as you described her. She's got the really nice eyes, the hair to match, and the great smile." Lily said. Harry felt the blood rush to his face, more from humiliation than anything. "Oh, Harry, you really said those nice things about me?" Hermione said. "Well—uh—I—I-" Harry stammered. "Sure, he talks about you all the time. He says even more stuff than that, but he's pretty complimentary. He says you're just as pretty as his owl. He says so much sweet stuff like that, and I'm pretty sure he means every last word, but he's a damn good liar, and you know, you could probably ask him if he means any of it." Lily said, looking over at Harry. Harry nodded vigorously.
'Why can't I just die now?' Harry thought. "Well, I can say a lot of things that are nice like that about him, you could probably ask Ginny. She says a lot of things, too." Harry was blushing furiously, and felt as though he were going to have a heat stroke when Hermione kissed him. When she was finished, Harry gasped for air, and said, "You should think about doing that in a week when I feel better, or when I finish and win a Quidditch Match." Still breathing heavily, Harry said, "Well, I guess saying nice things really does benefit the people that say them."
"It's time to go talk to James, now, Harry." Lily said. "I don't wanna go!! He'll hurt me again, and then he'll insult me and make me sad!" Harry said. All three of them were stunned at what Harry had said. 'Where on earth did that come from?' Harry thought. "Oh, come on, if you can fight Voldemort, then you can face your own father." Hermione said. "No! This is different! It's completely different!" Harry said. 'Come on, you're not afraid of him, you weakling. Come on, say I'm not afraid of my father! Say it! Say it!' He thought. "How is it different?" Lily asked. "I'm too worried about people hating me for getting their lives taken over by Voldemort and screwing up in the war, but nobody will hate me for losing to my own father!" Harry exclaimed. "Do you know how I feel right before I go face Voldemort?"
"Nervous?" Hermione suggested. "No, Hermione, when I go to face him, I'm scared half to death. Don't you get it? I can't be brave on the inside Hermione, I didn't mean to survive, but I did. I have to make everyone think that I'm brave so that they don't lose faith in their lives." Harry said, and he looked like he was on the verge of tears. "I'm not as brave as everyone thinks, and ever since last year, I've been just about as confident."
'This girl looks like she's dealt with this before, I should go.' Lily thought. "Uh...I think I should go back to bed now, goodnight." Lily said quietly before walking out of the dormitory.
Hermione looked over at her friend. Her heart broke at the sight of her friend crying again. She awkwardly put her arm on his shoulder, pulling him to her side. "You don't have to be afraid of him, you know." Hermione said calmly. Harry nodded; "Yes, I do." Hermione shook her head. "He's only your dad, and you should feel comfortable around him. I mean honestly, are you afraid of the Dursleys?" Hermione asked. Harry shook his head. "Then why should you be afraid of him?" Harry pondered on this for a moment. The awkward silence was broken when they heard footsteps coming up the stairs. To avoid any problems, Harry and Hermione rolled off of the bed, and hid there until the Marauders were asleep. They sighed. "Why don't we go down to the common room and talk about this?" Harry suggested. Hermione nodded.
Down in the common room, Hermione and Harry sat on the couch and were still in silence before Hermione said, "So, you never answered my question." Harry hesitated. "I guess............because the Dursleys will get in trouble if they hurt me, and...Dad's different. He won't get in trouble for it." Harry answered, staring into the now dying flames of the fire. "Well, if you told somebody else about it, then-" Hermione began. "If I told somebody else, then they would know exactly where and when I'd been, and then I'd get in trouble, along with people thinking that I was a wimp and couldn't carry around my problems." Harry said, irritated. "I know. I don't know what I was thinking. Honestly, it was only a punch, I mean; the bruise is gone, isn't it?" Hermione asked. Harry avoided eye contact. "I...er...haven't looked per se, and...you know...it was somewhat of a large bruise, and..." Harry said, carefully choosing his words. "That bruise is still there, isn't it?" Hermione asked in disbelief. Harry nodded. "But I could have sworn—Madam Pompfrey gave it to me herself—she said that Snape had a student make one in class—and that it was completely a perfect potion, but...I don't understand." "Hermione? Do you even know which student made it?" Harry asked. Hermione shook her head. "Well, there's your answer then. See, what if it was Malfoy...or someone else?" Hermione shrugged.
"Anyway, forget about it, Hermione. That was the only thing, and it was the only injury on me." Harry concluded. "Actually...I've kind of been wondering...what was that impossibly large, thick line on your arm?" Hermione wondered. Harry looked around nervously. "Uh...it-it-it was just a scratch. I got it when I was...er...running down a corridor, and I fell on a quill. It got stuck in my arm, and I just pulled it up, and-" Harry could tell his story wasn't good enough, because Hermione was not buying anything that he said. "Well, okay. I was looking through my bag when I got stuck with the quill, okay? Is that good enough for you, now?" Harry asked. Hermione once again shook her head.
"Listen, Hermione, I promise you, that is what happened, okay? Just go to sleep, now. You can sleep out here. Trust me; I've pretty much spent a lot of time sleeping in the chair. It can be pretty comfortable when it wants to. I'm going to go up to the dormitory and sleep. I'll see you in the morning, okay?" Harry asked. Hermione gave a fake smile and nodded, but her insides were screaming, 'LIAR, LIAR, LIAR!!'.
Harry walked up the stairs to the dormitory, and got into his own bed. His head fell against his pillow, and he was asleep before he knew it.
The next morning, he heard several people talking, but weren't sure who they were. He finally recognized Hermione's voice, then James', then Sirius', Remus' and Peter's voices. 'God, she's brave. I won't even talk to that jerk.' Then he finally realized something else...they were talking about something special. A certain topic that nobody, even in the future, ever dropped—him. 'WHY ME??' Harry's brain screamed. "He's normally really brave, and nice, and he's really a great guy and all, but...normally he's up by now, too." Hermione said. 'NOO! Why must she say such nice things? WHY?' Harry's thoughts said desperately. 'Wait a minute, what time is it?' Harry thought. "I mean, honestly. 11:00 in the morning, and still sleeping. He's worse than Ron." Hermione said in her disapproving tone.
'I never sleep this late,' Harry thought. 'Something must be absolutely wrong with me. Either that or...maybe I was just really, really tired. Well, time to act upset in my sleep. The only people who will think anything of it would be Dad...evil Dad...why must I have shown Hermione? Why?' Harry let out a soft whimper, and started breathing hard. 'This is going to work so-o-o-o well.' Harry thought. 'I'm such a good actor, too.' Harry could feel the sweat dripping from his forehead already. 'Ha, ha, ha. It's going to be such a good wake-up call when I don't have to act as if I've been sleeping just fine.'
Harry felt a cold hand on his forehead, and stopped letting out the fake cries, but continued to breathe hard. His breathing subsided and he felt his shoulders being shook softly. "Hmmmm?" he said weakly, opening his eyes. His vision was blurred, and he saw five people sitting in front of them, but couldn't distinguish any of them except for Hermione. "Glasses..." he whispered. He felt them being slipped on, and could now tell them all apart.
From left were James, Remus, Peter, Sirius, and Hermione. Avoiding eye contact with James, Harry groaned in annoyance and turned over on his stomach. When Harry heard the other boys leave, abandoning Hermione, he turned back over and propped his back up on several pillows. He saw Hermione's face, and looked half-surprised. "Your scar felt fine, you little faker." Hermione said simply. Harry grinned; ah, the sweet satisfactory of annoying people. "Well, I had to get some way of getting rid of...him." Harry said, closing his eyes in happiness, and shrugging. "Yes, but I still think you're both being absolutely childish about the whole thing. I mean, you're practically both grown up, and you should learn to face your problems, instead of chickening out of them." Hermione answered. "Hermione? Do you see any grownups around here? NEWSFLASH! I am a kid!" Harry said loudly. *Yes, I did get part of that line from Uptown Girls.*
"No, you're supposed to be 16, and yet you act like you're 8! Listen, I don't care if you are a kid, you should be, and are smart enough to get over this problem and be friends with your father!" Hermione said. Harry glared at Hermione. "I don't need you to tell me that, or tell me anything else, for that matter. I can take care of myself. You seem like you're best friends with him, so why don't you keep him, congratulations; he's yours! And by the way, you can stay here, because I'm leaving!" Harry said, now completely fuming in anger. He stood up, and picked the Time Turner up off of the table. "I hope you have fun. I know I will without the Hermione Problem still lurking around the school." Harry said, turning to face her. "No! You can't leave me here! Now you're just running away from two people- problems, and that isn't getting you anywhere, is it?" said Hermione, grabbing Harry's wrist from the Time Turner. Harry's eyes were burning with anger, and Hermione shuddered at the site. "Hermione, I am absolutely sick of this. If you really want to know why I'm not really too happy about the idea of making up with him, then think about who his secret-keeper was, and why you ever bothered to talk to me in the first place---beside Neville's toad." Harry said, staring straight into Hermione's eyes. Hermione thought about this for a moment. "His secret- keeper was Peter Pettigrew. If you become friends with your father, he'll listen to you, and switch secret-keepers. You won't be the Boy-Who-Lived, and I wouldn't have even spared a passing glance." Hermione said quietly.
"Exactly." Harry said. At that, he turned the Time Turner, and was leaving Hermione in the past. Alone. Harry was immediately sent back into his pile of pillows on his bed. He sighed. 'I can't just forgive her like that. Stupid Hermione. Stupid Hermione for defending Dad. Stupid Hermione for defending Stupid Dad for insulting me. Hmmmm......Dumb Dad...' Harry laughed at this.
Ron came in a few hours later, and Harry looked really tired. "Harry, how come you're still up?" Ron asked. "I'm just... not that tired." Harry explained. Ron looked completely unsatisfied. "Oh, what do you care, anyway?" Harry asked. "What do you know, anyway?" Harry muttered under his breath. Ron pretended that he hadn't heard that. "Have you seen Hermione today? She seems to be missing. I don't think anybody's seen her all day. Have you?" Ron asked. "No." Harry answered, possibly, a little too fast. "Really? Hmmmm..." Ron said. Harry yawned. "Time for bed, Ron. Goodnight," Was all he said before drifting off to sleep.
A/N: So, are you people liking so far? I'm really sorry it's taking so long to update this story, but I keep forgetting to post new chapters. Well, this is the longest chapter I've written so far. It's a whole 5,799 words, not including the author's note. Well, it's time to get started on the next chapter. And, I forgot at the beginning. I DO NOT OWN ANY CHARACTERS WHATSOEVER, AND DID NOT MAKE ANY UP, EITHER!! IT'S ALL J.K. ROWLING'S! HER BEAUTIFUL WORK!! NOT MINE!! I JUST WRITE STORIES THAT WILL NEVER BE, BUT STILL, I LIKE WRITING THEM. GOODBYE. READ AND REVIEW...please?