Hey everyone! Here's chapter three, and I've decided the disclaimers at the beginning of chapters one and two should suffice for the whole story. I am far to lazy to continue writing them, hehehe. I hope you enjoy the next chapter in the story, and the fourth chapter should be coming soon.
----------
Chapter Three - And Now We Wait...
---------
"What we need is another time turner", speculated Draco, ignoring the death glares that Ron was sending him.
"What we need, is to talk with the headmaster; we can't possibly fix this on our own." said Hermione
"You mean Headmistress McGonagal?" Brian asked.
"Where's Dumbledore?!' exclaimed Harry.
"Oh, he retired about ten or fifteen years ago. McGonagal's in charge now." said Brian matter of factly.
"Well then, she's the one we need to see about this mess. Hopefully she'll know how to get us out of here and safely back home." said Hermione, smiling at the thought of one of her favorite teachers being the new Headmistress.
"She'll probably decide to keep us here so that she can give us detention for the rest of our lives." interjected Ron in a rather rueful voice.
"What do you mean we? You broke the bloody thing! The rest of us were innocent bystanders!" argued Draco
"Alright Malfoy, you explain that to her, and while you're at it you can explain to her exactly what it was you were doing in the girl's dormitory of Gryffindor tower after curfew!" said Ron, near shouting, his ears once again turning red with anger. Needless to say that shut Draco up fairly quickly, as well as causing a bright blush to settle on Ginny's face.
"Boys, boys!" Hermione stepped in, "We are going now to find Professor McGonagal because whether we like it or not, we need her help getting back home. So, I suggest that if you two don't have anything nice to say to one another, you can just say nothing at all! We don't have time for your petty bickering!"
Both boys looked away shamefacedly, while the others looked on with amused smiles.
"Wow Hermione, you sound like a mum already!" joked Harry.
Hermione simply glared and said nothing. Soon they were making their way through the empty corridors of the school.
"It's lunch right now, so everyone is in the Great Hall, including McGonagal." spoke Brian, breaking the silence that had settled over the group. They all nodded in response, and drew a collective breath as they reached the large oak doors of the Great Hall; a place they had each been more times than they could count. Somehow it suddenly seemed more intimidating as they mentally came to terms with the potential trouble they all could be in at that moment. Each looked around at each other nervously, wondering what to do, when finally Hermione opened the doors. At first the talking went on in the Great Hall, but as McGonagal looked over to where the doors had opened, her eyes opened wide, and her mouth nearly fell open in shock, but she controlled herself. The five time travelers, led by Brian, made their way up to the Head Table. McGonagal looked down at them, first disbelievingly, then disapprovingly. Harry wasn't paying attention to her, however. His eyes had traveled along the table, and stopped at a certain someone with unruly black hair, and green eyes, and - well, Harry wasn't nearly as good as McGonagal at controlling himself. His jaw dropped, and he stared at himself, 20 years older. The other Harry looked over quickly, and sent a smile towards him, then did a double take. He got up and walked over to McGonagal, wanting to know what in the world was going on. McGonagal cleared her throat, and Harry slowly tore his gaze away from his future self.
"Come with me immediately," ordered McGonagal, sweeping out of the Great Hall, followed by Harry's future self, and the others. When all had made it safely out of the hearing distance of Hogwarts' curious student body, McGonagal turned around, looking positively livid. Ron looked like his execution day had come early. Draco simply looked a bit bored, Harry was still looking at future Harry in awe, and Hermione was looking at McGonagal with a mixture of fear and respect.
"What...." began McGonagal with so much venom that Ron recoiled. "What is the meaning of this? Miss Granger? As you're the only one I can remember physically handing a time turner to, which I assume is the cause behind this complete mess, you must be responsible..."
This was where Ron stepped in, looking extremely red in the face.
"It - it's not Hermione's fault, Professor. It's mine. I saw Hermione lying there, looking - um, well, I saw the Time Turner, and I took it out of her hand to get a better look at it, and that's when she woke up, and yelled, and....umm, I swear it wasn't on purpose Professor, I was scared out of my wits by her! Sometimes she's mental, really, and -"
Apparently, no one had the patience to wait for Ron to finish, and Hermione stepped in.
"He dropped it, Headmistress, and shattered it. And we just suddenly ended up about 20 years in the future, as you can very well see. None of us had any idea that it would happen. What can we do to fix it?"
McGonagal looked down her nose at Hermione.
"Well, Miss Granger - "
Draco broke in, smirking at Ron and Hermione.
"Don't you mean Mrs. Weasley, Headmistress?"
McGonagal decided to ignore this, as Ron sent Draco a look that could have killed, and moved away from Hermione, an uncomfortable look overtaking his face. Hermione began to blush an extremely bright red, but stood her ground, trying to make it seem as if she was ignoring Draco, and failing.
"You will need another time turner. Which, I suppose, I can get for you from the Ministry of Magic. But I won't be able to get it for a while, as there will be letters to write explaining the situation, and there may very well be an inquiry to make sure no damage was done, soyou will have to stay here. Now, I must go back to the Great Hall, I expect Brian can explain things to you, as can Mr. Potter here." she gestured to future Harry, and he narrowed his eyes at Ron. He was still a bit wary of the whole situation, but he didn't get a chance to say anything as McGonagal walked briskly away. The seven of them stood and stared at each other.
"Now what...?" asked Ron, running a hand through his hair wearily.
"Now we wait for the time turner. I suppose I can answer any questions you have about well…the future is what you'd see it as. Geez, Dad, I heard that you were pretty hopeless during school, but honestly...how could you break Mum's time turner?" asked Brian a bit exasperatedly, sounding so much like Hermione that Harry nearly choked.
Everyone gave Ron pointed looks, and he grunted crossly.
"Let's just go back up to the common room or something. Now, tell me, Brian, how many more of you are there again?
"You want to know how many kids you and Mum have? Four, counting me,
and one on the way, from what I've been hearing.." answered Brian, smirking a bit, and walking ahead of the group. Ron looked like he was about to faint, and he sent a look Hermione's way to see if she had heard, and judging by her bright red face, she had.
"Wow, Weasley, you and Granger have been pretty damn busy, haven't you?" said Malfoy, elbowing Ron. "Congratulations."
Ron pushed Malfoy away.
"Shove off, Malfoy..." he said, scowling, but inside his heart glowed with the knowledge that he had married Hermione and she had had his children. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all....
