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Pansy POV

She was beginning to wonder how Ron and Harry had ever dealt with Hermione. It was impressive really, and she started to think that maybe the reason they were both so self-righteous all the time was because they were dealing with someone even more so. Two seconds after saying she knew everything that was going on, Hermione had let go of my hands and immediately bolted out of the bed and through the doors of the hospital wing despite my protests.

I hadn't seen her all the rest of the week, she wasn't even in potions, and I had previously believed Hermione never skipped class. One day in the great hall I thought I made out her silhouette amongst the crowds but when I called out her name the figure quickly disappeared into the mass of black robes. It wasn't that I expected Hermione to become my best friend immediately following the whole incident with Phae, I didn't expect or think she owed me anything. I did however, feel entitled to at least some acknowledgement. At minimal I had thought we were now acquaintances, but apparently Hermione believed otherwise.

"Where's Hermione?" I jump at the sound of Phae's voice behind me.

"Fuck!" I whirl around to see her standing by the fire in the Slytherin common room. "How did you even get in here?"

She shrugs, nonchalantly. "Rowena let me in."

"I haven't seen Rowena for like weeks and she definitely didn't come in here tonight." I cross my arms.

Phae sits herself down in the chair opposite me. "What is this, an interrogation?" Then in the same sentence she adds, "Where's Hermione?"

"I don't know." I say the words harshly. "Not everyone from other houses just waltzes into other common rooms."

Phae rolls her eyes. "No I mean where has she been all week?"

"So now you're concerned about her? Where was that when you almost killed the both of us?"

"Actually," she drawls. "You're the one who hit our broomstick. Hermione fell of because you hit us. I had nothing to do with it."

I scoff, "That's a little far-fetched. You hexed me off my broom!"

"You started it!" Phae mimics my voice sarcastically. "Is that really your argument."

"Merlin. I'm leaving." I start to stand up.

"Wait!"

I glare at her. "Hermione has clearly no interest in being friends with you, why can't we just be friends again?" She says calmly.

I look at her with hesitation."You didn't do anything to her right? Tell me she didn't disappear because you have her locked in a dungeon or something."

"For Merlin's sake!" She exclaims. "Look, I'm sorry. It was a prank gone wrong. I feel awful about it."

I'm caught off guard by how sincere she sounds. She's dropped her eyes and her hands are twitching.

"I don't trust you." I say plainly.

"You shouldn't." She sounds more upset than angry. "You should trust Granger about me."

"What?"

"I know she brought you to Hagrid's." She lifts her eyes. "And told you all those rumors about me."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Look." Phae goes on. "You can believe who you want. But she's doing the same thing to me as she did to Draco. This time though, you're just desperate to be liked by her."

It's my turn to look down. "That's not at all true."

Phae's amber eyes seem to burn. "I know you like her."

"We study well together. That's all I would call it."

Phae smirks. "Study buddies. How cute. Just admit you want to fuck Granger."

I'm caught completely off guard by Phae's use of language and I reel back.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"That's insane! You're fucking insane." I stand up.

"Call me what you want." She is still smirking. "But I'm not a liar."

She stands up and paces across the room as I watch her, mouth still agape. She turns to me before leaving.

"You're pathetic." She sneers. "You think Granger doesn't know that? What could possibly make you think that a girl like Granger, who defeated Voldemort, could be with a girl who wanted to give Potter up. With a girl who still calls Voldemort "the dark Lord"".

"I don't…." I stammer. "I don't want to be with her."

"Sure." Phae rolls her eyes. "But even if not, it's too late anyways."

"What do you mean?" My heart quickens.

Phae smirks, this time her smile curves from the left to the right slowly as if her expression is the anticipation of my own emotional reaction to come.

"Well I told her."

"What?"

"I told Granger you liked her."

I stand up. "That's not true."

"Think about it." Her smile becomes softly. "Explains why she's been avoiding you."

And with that Phae disappears out of the common room leaving me frozen in place.

The next day in the Great Hall I decide to sit next to Phae. A few members from Ravenclaw give me strange looks but if Phae can come into our common room then I can allow myself the privilege of sitting with them for breakfast.

"Hey." I mumble as I sit down.

Phae takes another bite of jam and toast and smirks back at me as if she knows the reason why I'm here. Because Hermione hates me.

Think of the devil, someone taps me on the shoulder and when I turn around there Hermione stands.

"Pansy." Her voice sounds desperate and she grabs my shoulder, an act which I visibly turn from.

I don't know if Phae was right, or how she knows what she knows, but there is something to what she has said about me and Hermione. There is some truth it all, there has to be. I think for a moment that maybe that's why I constantly fell all over Draco, he was a distraction, an easy out….

But no that can't possibly be it. I feel like Phae is in my head, to the point where I don't know anything but what she's told me.

"Come with me." Hermione's words jolt me out of my thoughts.

"Why would she?" Phae speaks with her mouth still half full of food and I shoot her a look.

"Why would she want to sit with you?" Hermione retorts.

Phae just shrugs and goes back to eating. I think that's one of the reasons why I can't bring myself to get away from Phae, her ability to under-qualify everything fascinates me, as if I am constantly interested by how uninteresting she assumes everyone else to be.

"Pansy." Hermione's voice sounds pleading.

I open my mouth to tell her to fuck off, or go away, but the words I hear myself say instead are "fine".

I stand up thinking that maybe Phae is right, maybe she has always been.

Hermione drags me out of the great hall and into the corridor. We walk a few paces until we reach a hall that is empty. She yanks me close to the wall and I flinch as my own chest hits hers. She seems unaffected and simply pulls me in closer to her.

"I thought she got to you. When I saw you sitting there, I thought she got to you." She whispers to me.

I shove Hermione off of me and she stumbles backwards.

"Where the fuck have you been?" I angrily say.

Somehow Hermione's complete un-acknowledgement of her very own lack of attention to me manages to make me more upset than I previously was.

She looks at me strangely.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh! I dunno." I exclaim. "Maybe the fact that you've been avoiding me for an entire fucking week. I mean what the…." I don't finish my sentence as I see Hermione's face drain of color, as if she is realizing some previously untold secret.

"Pansy," she states very carefully and her words are more timid than I've ever heard her tone. Usually Hermione Granger speaks with absolute authority. It's one of the qualities I've always found simultaneously most annoying and most admirable. "When was the last time we spoke?"

I want to swear at her again or just leave but something stops me. "A week ago at the hospital wing."

She looks as if she is about to cry.

"Hermione," I say softly. "What's wrong?"

I flinch as the words escape me, thinking that Hermione now has confirmation of what Phae has told her. That maybe I am starting to like her. I half expect Hermione to laugh in my face and tell me this is all a joke but instead she just touches my arm lightly as if to stabilize me.

"Pansy we've been talking all week."

I laugh. I can't help it. "That's insane!"

But Hermione is completely stoic.

Maybe this is all a prank to get back at me for what? Liking her? Do I like her? For what Phae told her?

But glancing at her body language she seems far too afraid both of what I am telling her and what she is saying for this to be any sort of joke.

"She did get to you. Pansy I'm so sorry. You must think…." She shakes her head. "I haven't been avoiding you?"

I cross my arms shrugging her arm off my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure you have."

"No." She shakes her head again. "I didn't want to tell you everything because I was worried Phae would find out and hurt you. I made up an excuse about my revelation at the hospital wing being a result of my trauma and didn't tell you what was actually going on. I was scared. I'm so sorry…" She trails off. "I thought she wouldn't get to you."

"Can you please explain what you're talking about." My voice sounds exasperated but more desperate than I would like. "We never had that conversation."

Hermione looks upset. "Yes. You just don't remember….I suppose you don't remember anything we talked about."

"We never talked!" I scream at her.

She glances furiously down the hall. "Someone could be listening."

"Maybe," I whisper harshly. "If you could just tell me what the fuck is going on I wouldn't have to scream."

"Okay." She mumbles. "Ok fine."

She takes a deep breath.

"Merlin get on with it!"

"I'm pretty sure Phae wiped your memory." She blurts.

I smile despite myself. "That's literally impossible. I remember loads." I stop smiling. "Just not you ever talking to me after we were in the hospital wing."

"That's what I'm saying," Hermione hisses. "I'm not exactly sure how she does it but she seems to have a way of blanking out people's memories for certain points."

"That's not possible." I repeat.

"It would be if…." She drops her voice but doesn't finish.

"If what?" I'm starting to get frustrated.

"Pansy." She grabs my hand. "I'm telling you this girl, Phaedra. She's evil."

I laugh though without humor. "Have you ever thought that maybe you make all your own villains?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" She reels back.

"All you and Potter ever did was sort people into categories of good and evil. Once someone was in the latter you wrote them off completely."

"And you were the pinnacle of accepting?" She retorts.

"That's not what I'm saying."

"No!" This time Hermione shouts. "You're only saying that because she's in your head."

I'm quiet.

"Think about it." Hermione goes on. "Where does her friend Rowena go half the time? Why does no-one seem to know anything about her? Why do none of the professors talk about her!"

I smirk. "Someone sounds jealous."

"Oh my fucking god!"

The words startle me and I blink a few times. Hermione glances at my expression and keeps talking, knowing she's forced me into a momentary silence.

"I've talked to other people too, it's like they all know her but no one can quite figure out how they know her. Like she's not really here." She says the last line quietly.

"I have no idea what you're saying." My own tone is even.

"Of course you wouldn't." She sighs but the words aren't said in a harsh way, rather like she's angry at herself for not explaining things better to me. She should be upset, I think. Because I'm still lost.

All of a sudden Hermione is extending her palm towards me, in it lays a small gold object.

"Do you know what this is?" She asks slowly.

My heart feels like it's been split open. "Where the fuck did you get that?"

"That's not important."

I open my mouth to object and can feel panic spreading through my limbs. "If someone sees that…."

"No ones going to think that I'm trying to bring back Voldemort." She says with sarcasm.

"Okay but what about me?" I screech almost hysterically.

"Calm down. Ok it's not even real. It's just a fake one from my class." She rolls her eyes.

"You could have said that before pulling it out? What the fuck does this even have to do with Phae?"

"I think she's been using one." Hermione's words are carefully calculated, as if she's been practicing telling me this. Knowing Hermione she probably has.

"Thats impossible." I say. "All the time turners were destroyed."

"I know. Unless she's not using it to go back in time." Her last words are again said at a whisper.

"What?" I begin, then it dawns on me. "Granger you know as well as me that those…."

"I thought so too but its the only thing that makes sense!"

"How would she even have one like that?"

"I haven't figured it all out!"

"Well it sounds like a lot of theories Hermione." I keep my arms crossed.

"If you hadn't noticed from going to school with me for seven years that's kind of all I ever have." She gives a slight self-condemning smile. "And it worked." Her smile turns confident. "Look where we are. Voldemort's gone…"

"And we're apparently doing the same shit you and Potter did a year ago." I blatantly state.

She just glares at me and I sigh speaking again.

"Ok so your theory is that Phae is using a time turner to travel forwards in time, to now?"

"Yes." She gives a slight nod.

"That doesn't make any sense though. The battles over. If she was trying to bring back the dark lord…."

"Dont." She cuts me off and I think of Phae's words to me.

"What?" I mumble softly.

"Call him that."

I'm silent so Hermione speaks again.

"Pansy dont. You don't have to."

It's the first time anyone has ever told me I don't need to speak that way. The first time anyone tells me that what I believe is up to me, that what I do is my decision.

"Whatever." I can tell I'm blushing. "Anyways you know who is already dead. Why bother coming here?"

"I don't know." She frowns. "But Pansy, Hagrid had Phae during her second year. Who knows how long she's been doing this?"

Even though I don't fully believe Hermione, the thought of Phae meddling in time for years makes me nauseous.

"If she has then why did we win? Why is everything fine now?" I ask the questions half to convince myself that she couldn't have possibly been doing this for that long.

"I don't think she could change that much. I think she's just been changing little things but even in time travel those would have profound consequences."

"Then why haven't we seen any!"

"Maybe we have!" She pauses. "You didn't realize that things had changed. That all our conversations were gone."

"Yeah but how come I seem to be the only one affected. You seem to know things I don't know."

"I.." Hermione frowns as if in deep concentration. "I think Phae goes forward in time and wipes people's memories. So that it doesn't matter what happens, she doesn't need to change anything because you won't remember it anyways. Like a safety net guarantee…." She trails off. "Slightly brilliant." She adds softly and I roll my eyes. Someone could have blown up half of Hogwarts and if they had any semblance of intelligence Hermione would find it and say something kind about that quality. It pains me to think she hasn't said anything about me...but I can't dwell on that fact.

"That doesn't explain why the dark lord…..you know who is dead!" I inwardly curse at my usage of the dark lord, no wonder she thinks I'm an idiot. "Why wouldn't she go to the battle!" I continue.

"I can't figure that out. There must be something significant about this time."

"I can assure you there's nothing significant about this time and all this conversation seems to be is a complete waste of it." I move to turn away from her.

"Pansy! Please….I need you." She sounds even more vulnerable than she did in the hospital.

"Why don't you just call up Weasley or Potter?" I retort.

"We're not really speaking." She drops her eyes. "I told you that before…" she trails off but I interrupt her.

"So I win by default. Great."

"No. I…please."

"No answer my question. Why are you trusting me with this?"

"Because," she sighs. "Look, in the week you don't remember we actually….we kind of became friends."

My heart quickens. "I don't believe you."

"Great Expectations." She says.

"What?"

"That's the first muggle book you read. You told me that."

I stammer to find words.

"Yeah. It was."

She steps closer to me.

"And I know that you read all of Dickens books when you left your parents."

I look down but her fingers rest on my cheek and drag my eyes back to hers. "Yeah." I say softly. "I did."

Hermione goes on, "I know that you looked up what dentists were so that you could talk to me about my parents, but you said you didn't want to ask a million stupid questions like the rest of the wizarding world so you had to look them up. You just wanted to know about them and about me."

I feel my cheeks heat up. "I don't remember that part."

Hermione just gives me a small smile and leans in cupping my face with her hands. I can feel my heart quicken and re-adjust in my chest so that it's pounding against my flesh. She kisses my forehead and her lips spread heat over my body. I wish she would pull away and move down to my own lips but instead she just pulls back.

"Well you did." She smiles at me. "There's more to you than you think Pansy Parkinson."

"I want my memories back." I say and while at one point I would have hated how vulnerable I sound, now I don't seem to mind it as much with her.

"What do you propose we do?" I find a slight confidence this time for my words.

Hermione looks at me intently. "We need to steal that time turner."

Hermione's plan is doomed to fail, not necessarily because it's not a good plan, but because we're missing a critical aspect and that is Rowena.

"We use polyjuice potion." Hermione says to me over the table at Hogsmeade.

It's weird being with her here, like a flashback to a time earlier where everything is different. I can almost see myself at a table in the distance, the old me staring at the present me with incredulous disbelief.

"Are you listening?" Hermione snaps me back to her.

"Sorry. I was just…" But before I can finish Hermione has already launched into detailing her plan again.

"We use polyjuice potion, I can go in as Rowena. You can be, I dunno some random ravenclaw. We could try one of those fifth years who's always breathing down my neck, should be easy to steal one of their hairs. We…."

But she trails off when she sees a figure lurking over us.

"Can I help you?" I sneer at the individual, a brown haired boy, who sees fit to stand over our table just creepily watching us.

The brown haired boy doesn't smile. "I'm just making sure."

"Of what?" Hermione's voice sounds tired. "I told you Dennis, we've taken enough photos."

Dennis. The name sounds familiar but I can't place it to an event or situation.

"That she" he juts a bony finger at me, "doesn't do anything."

I swat his finger away.

"What exactly is it you think I'm going to be doing?" I sneer.

"Dunno," he shrugs and drums his fingers on the wooden table. "Something evil."

I open my mouth to protest but Hermione steps in for me.

"I can assure you Dennis I am capable of taking care of myself."

I notice the fact that in her defense she doesn't stick up for me, my chest starts to burn.

"You weren't here last year…" Dennis's voice becomes quiet.

Then I remember him. Fuck. Hermione can't listen to this.

"Shut up Dennis." I growl through gritted teeth. "You know what's good for you."

Dennis doesn't flinch. He's no longer afraid of me. There are too many witnesses, too many good people, Hermione is here.

"She," He refrains again from saying my name. "Was acting head girl under the Carrows. Used the cruciatus curse and everything, and one…."

But I've stood out of my seat and I place my hand on Dennis' chest shoving him backwards.

"I said shut the fuck up."

I am vaguely aware of Hermione standing up.

But Dennis was right, here there are too many witnesses, too many good people, too many people glaring at me with my wand pointed at Dennis.

"Hey!" Someone shouts in a mocking voice. "Someone grab that bitch! She's there someone grab her!" Mimicking my words from the battle.

Dennis smiles at me without gentleness. He knows I am outnumbered.

I glance at Hermione as if I'm expecting her to say something but she just sits there staring into her butterbeer.

I shove past Dennis, cheeks burning, outside the pub and into the snow. I don't hear Hermione call after me.

I don't see Hermione again that night and Merlin only knows what she's gotten up to. Probably taking pictures with that creep Dennis. I remember him from the start of the semester, I didn't have much interaction with him outside of that. I told him one time to not scream so loudly, it only made him a more fun target to the sadistic Carrows. But I should have told him to run. I should have run with him. At the end of the semester I had briefly told him he shouldn't come back to school but he didn't listen, was convinced as they all were that Potter was going to show up and save them all. Look where that had gotten his brother.

I lay in bed and press my pillow over my face. I had always avoided doing the worst that year, but I had always been too afraid to do my best for people as well. I didn't know if that made me kind or a coward. There's a reason I think, to why most people aren't cowards, not like me anyways. It takes doing absolutely nothing to be a coward, and most people well, they either do the right or the wrong thing. But not me, if there was a gray area of morality I might as well have had that color painted on my robes instead of the green. I need to do something, for once, I need to do something. I need to steal that time turner.

I forget Hermione's plan to use polyjuice and go to Phae as myself. I walk up the moving staircases to the Ravenclaw common room. As I walk, I get lost a couple of times, with all the stairs switching and with my real lack of knowledge about where exactly Ravenclaw's dormitories lie. I'm starting to realize that I don't really know anything about the other houses, besides their names and mascots. Eventually I find my way to the entrance and as I stand in front of the portrait, my heart sinks. I have no idea what the password is.

"It's my name."

I whirl around to the person who has seemingly answered my interior question. Rowena stands behind me and I blanch at her surprising appearance. It's like seeing a ghost.

"The password." She repeats casually. "Is my name."

I open my mouth but stumble over the one word. She shoves past me.

"Oh move over! Rowena." She says to the portrait and the door swings open.

She turns back around to me. "Don't do anything stupid." I want to respond that I won't but in all honesty I don't have any idea what she's talking about or why she's even here all of a sudden.

"Oh hey!" I see Phae rise from one of the seats near the common room fire and wave us over. "How's it going? Kind of a surprise to see you here," she motions at me which I think is ironic considering Rowena's lack of ever appearing anywhere. "Especially after your shock at me coming into the slytherin common rooms."

"Well people change." I dart my eyes around the room as if I am seeking the place of the hidden time turner.

"Indeed." Rowena states and I can feel her eyes burning into my back.

Phae seems a little startled at Rowena's word but she recovers quickly and motions for us to sit down. We take our seats.

"Well," She says cheerily. "What is it you two have come for? Didn't realize you were friends?" Her eyebrows lift on the last word.

"Oh ummm," Rowena stumbles.

"We walked in together." I shrug.

"I have to go to the loo." Rowena suddenly stands up.

I give her a strange look, but Phae just stares blankly.

"No. Stay." Phae commands and to my surprise Rowena sits down. "Don't go looking for the loo."

Either Hermione has me paranoid or Phae and Rowena seem to be speaking in code.

"Well," Phae looks over at me. 'Don't you think she shouldn't go looking for anything?"

I've had enough of their tricks. This is hopeless. I move to stand up but Phae moves as well slipping her hand into her pocket.

"Anyways I have what you both are looking for right here." Out of her pocket she draws a golden object which I recognize as a time turner, though whether or not the turner in question remains to be seen.

Rowena pulls out her wand and I have to glance twice at it, paling at its familiar appearance. Hermione's wand.

"Where did you get that?" I say standing.

"The real question is," drawls Phae, "where did you get that?" She points directly at Rowena's face.

I move to open my mouth but find I can't move the muscles in my face or in my body. I shift my eyes to where Rowena is standing and see her frozen in the same stationary hold as me.

Phae giggles, and it's the first time I register her as giggling and not outright laughing. Somehow it seems more cruel.

"You both," she walks around my frozen body, "need to stop snooping. Anyways," she points a finger at Rowena, "if your theory had been correct. Then I would always be one step ahead of you, which" she smiles coldly. "I am."

She flicks her wrist and Rowena's body slides over so that we are eye-to-eye with each other. Phae draws out her wand from her other pocket and points it at Rowena. Her face begins to contort and contract. I want to scream, but I can't find my ability to move my vocal cords. Slowly, Rowena's face shifts into one that I more fondly recognize - Hermione. Her eyes are darting back and forth as well as mine but the rest of her body, like mine seems to be stationary.

"Polyjuice potion, I assume." Phae goes on, the only person with the ability to vocalize anything. "It's an alright plan," her voice is condescending, "but where did you expect to go from it? Maybe if you two could learn to work together." She laughs. "You would think Pansy'd be falling over your feet Hermione."

She pulls the time turner over my neck and then over Hermione's so that we are both wearing the chain. She then begins spinning it.

"Let's see shall we. If you two can ever learn. Can you learn to forgive her Hermione?" She laughs.

Then as the room starts spinning, I hear Phae whisper into my ears.

"Doubtful."

I can't think and for a moment I can't breathe. All there is is the rush of people around us, the world spinning, Hermione's hand in mine (though that can't be right), and all the air leaving the room traveling with us to a different time.

When the world stops moving, I fall flat. The sudden stillness of the world accompanied by my new ability to move jolts me back into reality violently. I fall face first into Hermione and she stumbles back. We collapse on the ground, me atop of her, our faces just inches from each other. We lay there for a second until Hermione flips me off her,

"Move! " She yells grabbing my hand, she drags us both behind a statue.

We're somewhere in one of Hogwart's many halls, though I don't know which one and I don't know what time.

"Hermione!" I hiss.

"We can't be seen by anyone!" She whispers, still clutching my hand. "We need to stay hidden."

"I don't care about that!" I exclaim. "How do we get out of here!" I clutch my neck and watch Hermione mimic my actions.

"Fuck!" She swears. "That bitch took it."

"So we're stuck here. Wherever here is."

As if in response to my statement I hear a cry coming from down the hall.

"Secure the castle! Hogwarts must be secure! They are coming!"

The battle. We've come back to the battle of Hogwarts.