Sold-Chapter 34-Smart Witches' Smart Plan

By Marmalade Fever

The two Hermiones sat together, discussing their options. As they had thought, they had both been thinking the same thing the other was thinking: time travel. It was by far the simplest method of achieving their goal. Granted, to almost anyone else, time travel would be one of the most difficult and obviously least simple things to do. However, this was Hermione Granger… and Hermione Malfoy to boot. Both were head girl at Hogwarts in their day and both were, simply put, the same person. Two absolute geniuses! Any wrinkle in their plan that one would come up with, the other could iron out easily. After using the extent of their knowledge gained from their previous time travel experience from their third year, they were able to concoct an almost fool-proof recipe for a potion that would be able to send all of them back to the night in question, when Harry had mistakenly turned left down the corridor. In short, Hermione, regardless of marital status, was one hard witch to stump.

"So," the presently short-haired, married Hermione began, giving her counterpart a sideways glance, "I've been wondering, Hermione…"

"Yes?" the presently long-haired, unmarried Hermione answered, suddenly somewhat nervous with her counterpart.

"Do you think you and Draco, your Draco, not mine, will be… a couple anytime soon?" she asked, a glint in her eye.

Hermione gulped. "W-what, what would make you think that?" she asked, pretending to busy herself by chopping up exactly eleven green cardamom pods.

Her other half smiled. "Call it… Hermione intuition." She winked. "You do fancy him, don't you?" she asked.

She continued to chop up the cardamom, her hands shaking slightly now. "Maybe…" she said, before looking up sheepishly.

The first Hermione clapped her hands together. "Oh! This is just like reading a romance novel! Well, sort-of…"

She snorted as she set down her knife. "When have either of us ever read a romance novel?" A small grin was beginning to form on her own face.

"Well… never, but still," her counterpart said, unable to suppress a small fit of giggles. "How about I say it's just like a fairy tale? With a happy ending in view?" she said, gesturing to her potion.

Hermione's face fell at her words. "Except for one thing," she said. "You're forgetting… after we change the past, neither myself nor Dr—Malfoy will remember any of this. We'll be completely new people, now won't we?"

The other Hermione proceeded to mull this information over. "Unless… you put a note in our younger form's pocket suggesting she ask young Mr. Malfoy out on a date…"

Hermione laughed so hard at this that she had to clasp at her glands in her neck because shooting pains had gone through them. "My dear self, you seem to be neglecting a very important piece of information, two, actually. First off, that still wouldn't solve the problem of all our memories disappearing, and second… I really don't we'd listen to a mysterious note we found in our robe pocket! Never mind that he'd turn us down flat!"

The other Hermione remained sober at this. "OR," she continued, "put the note in young Draco's pocket and insist he ask you out."

"And his incentive?"

She stopped to think. "We're pretty?" They exchanged a look and burst into laughter.

From the room next door the three men exchanged a look and shrugged, wondering why women were so… weird.

…

"Lucius, no!" Narcissa screamed, her breathing so haggard that she fell from her chair onto the floor and clutched desperately at her own chest. Quickly, her husband aimed his wand at her and her breathing returned, somewhat, to normal.

"There's nothing to be done, Narcissa. It is his will. It is… it is…"

"But why?" she wailed, tears streaming from her eyes. "Why? You have always been a faithful… a faithful servant to him." She bent over and coughed, her hands now spattered with small droplets of red.

Lucius bent and rubbed at her back, slightly alarmed. He had to think about her question. Why was his master killing him? The image of begonias and tiny pieces of charred paper flashed through his mind. "He believes that I'm insane… and that I am a liar, as well."

"In-insane? W-why?" Narcissa asked, trying desperately to breathe.

Lucius stared out the window. "I read something he could not," he muttered, his eyes now trained on his hands… his very mortal hands.

"Read?" Narcissa asked, calming. "Read what?"

"It was a few days ago…" he began, "I was in the garden… and I saw something fluttering and I blasted at it. It thought it was a bird… it was parchment. It was too charred… but I saw it anyway. 'Albus.' It said, Albus, Cissy."

Narcissa turned dazed eyes onto her husband. "I saw it out the window," she muttered. "I saw a flying… something. I thought I had imagined it. I thought… I thought…" She rubbed at her eyes, smearing blood onto her eyelids.

"Shh…" he said, gently, holding her in his arms. "I have… time," he added. "Th-three months, Cissy. We can come up with something, I promise."

"Lu," Narcissa said, using the nickname she so rarely used, "I feel so b-bad. I shouldn't have b-been worrying about D-Draco. I… I need you. Not grandchildren. You. I love you, Lucius. A-and Draco should marry for love. Love…" she said, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, "everyone des… deserves love. I wish…"

"Yes?" her husband prompted, fear dripping in his voice.

"I… wish he'd never w-won. I wish…" her last words came so softly Lucius had to use a pensieve later in order to hear them clearly, "the world was free." And Narcissa Black Malfoy died in her husband's arms, never having seen her grandchildren, or ever knowing how close her final wish was to coming true. When Lucius Malfoy stumbled into his son's living room to be greeted by the most unlikely set of witches and wizards ever, he knew it was time to change his fate and that of the entire world.

A.N.: I had no idea I was going to do that! Helps tie up some loose ends, though.