Previously: "Oh shut it, Severus. You know I've got the best chance of defeating Voldemort, which solves all your problems. Plus, I only withheld the whole truth because Draco requested it. And I'm telling you now, because you need to know." Her hair, usually pretty tame under her charms, had turned wiry, small sparks flying through the strands. "I don't care if you think I'm a foolish little Gryffindor, I don't care if you don't like me. All I ask is you help me save your godson from his own mind!"
Snape looked at her impassively. She breathed deeply, and the sparks settled in her hair. "You are right, of course. He is an important ally to have, and it would be quite unfortunate if his mind were left to rot; it might even garner some attention from unsavory sources, and put us both in danger. I do insist you tell me the whole picture when you do bother to inform me of events, Miss Granger. Even Albus is skilled enough at Legilimency to recognize the symptoms, if he knew the situation."
"So you'll help him?" Hermione said hopefully.
Snape nodded. "I will."
Severus thought it would be better for him to go alone to talk to Draco, confident that he could both fix the problem and convince him of his reliability. Hermione disagreed strongly on principal, but had to give up when he mentioned it would take place in Draco's dorm. The head of Slytherin giving his godson a late-night visit was much less conspicuous than a Gryffindor girl invading the fourth-year boy's dorms.
She desperately wanted to steal Harry's invisibility cloak to supervise, but she realized with a jolt that she had to maintain the timeline before doing anything else. It actually took her a considerable amount of time to figure out where all the copies of Hermione were at any given point, as she'd been too wrapped up in what she was doing to check the exact time.
The "original Hermione," the one who had spent the day talking to Draco, was just about to turn back to start researching. At the same time, "researcher Hermione" needed to be knocked out at ten o'clock, for she had woken up at two after having slept for four hours.
Then that Hermione would be turning back time to talk to Snape, and then become the current iteration – herself. It was dizzying to think about, but the last thing she needed was to mess up the timeline and have to go back a fourth time to clean everything up. She was already exhausted thinking about staying up six more hours to replace the version of her in Myrtle's bathroom.
She ended up running to return in time to knock herself out – she set a disillusionment charm and snuck behind the bed. It was really quite bizzare, as she scuffed the ground and heard her former self say, "Dobby?"
She stayed silent for a few seconds, then scurried backwards to the head of the bed.
"Who are you?" came her panicked voice. Hermione heard the shuffle of her wand leaving her holster and the curtain was thrown aside.
"Bloody buggering fuck!" She said emphatically, screwing her eyes up in concentration. She was trying to use the same intonation as she had before, and it was more difficult than she'd imagined. "You're not supposed to see me!"
Other Hermione looked incensed at this. She stared at herself in wonder – was this what she looked like, spoke like? Blimey, but she never realized that she was scary. "What the bloody hell are you doing in my skin? How did you get my hair for Polyjuice? I keep a proximity ward up at all times." The other girl finished passionately. Hermione kept herself from snorting.
Out of the other-Hermione's vision, she clutched at the lamp by her camp bed. Hermione replied hotly, "I know you have a proximity ward. Just like I know you've got an invisible shield up that you think can stop me, and just like I know that this will work." With a satisfying slam, she brought the lamp around and smacked Hermione on the head.
She winced, feeling an echo of the pain in her own body. It was still throbbing, but damn her if she didn't just hurt herself a little more by hurting her past self.
Careful to avoid both magic and touching her other self (she wasn't sure how that would affect the timeline at all, and didn't really want to know the answer), she tucked herself into the covers. It was a bit weird, she thought to herself, that she didn't find this altogether insane. Perhaps she was insane already, from all the time travel; how else could she comfortably tuck herself in to maintain the timeline without seeing it as the strangest thing she'd ever done?
Well, she had done stranger things, she mused. Perhaps it was overexposure to strangeness, she'd just learned to roll with the punches at this point. She wrote the note to herself, giggling as she wrote, "A considerable amount of pain can be saved tonight. Seven turns should do it. – AD," and placed it on the blankets of her sleeping self.
Yep, she was probably quite insane. But now she had two hours before she needed to replace herself in Myrtle's bathroom, she could go and check on Draco and Severus.
To someone with Hermione's skill in sneaking about, getting to the Slytherin common room was like taking a walk in the park. She used a variation of a Disillusionment charm that hadn't been invented yet – wouldn't be invented for five years – and walked calmly downstairs. She doubted Dumbledore could even find her, as she was. The paintings certainly couldn't, nor could Filch on patrol.
But when she reached the Slytherin common room, she hesitated. Was this the right choice? Should she just trust Snape, like he asked her to, and catch a nap?
Trust was the issue here, and trust was something she found very difficult to come by. Especially from the Potions Master. He had proven himself trustworthy in the past – she knew he could've reported to a multitude of people, but he hadn't. He didn't even give her up to Dumbledore, which she had half expected.
But Draco didn't trust him, not yet at least. And she wanted his trust, too. Would he feel like she doublecrossed him, without consulting him first?
But her Arithmancy equations were so telling, the situation was so dire – he would forgive her, wouldn't he? Like he forgave her for her actions in this new timeline, and for causing the pain in the first place?
She stood there, wand still held aloft to brush the painting aside, thinking.
No, she would let this play out. She turned on her heel and stalked down the corridor, around the corner, and almost walked up the stairs. But before she did, she took a glance back, and saw the door to Snape's quarters. That was where she'd wait.
Without wasting any more time, Hermione wiped away the wards and stepped into the room. She sat in her traditional armchair, and poured herself a cup of Earl Grey for good measure. And she waited.
Her eyes started drooping, lulled out of awareness by warm tea, physical exhaustion, and the peace that came with finally dropping her shields.
"Hermione," she heard distantly. Something was shaking her shoulder, and she brushed it away angrily. "Hermione, wake up."
"Good bloody luck, Godfather. She sleeps like a petrified troll." A snort came from above her, and she slowly became aware of the world around her. Ah yes, she was in Snape's quarters, and apparently Draco was here.
"I heard that, you ass," she said, opening her eyes finally. Above her stood a tired-looking Snape, holding her cup of tea. Draco was seated in the armchair farthest from her, looking every bit the pompous ass. "What time is it?"
"One in the morning. How long have you been here?" Draco said, seemingly baffled that Hermione would step foot in Snape's office, much less take a cat nap.
She smiled humorlessly. "Around an hour, then. I meant to wait till Severus returned and see what the damage was, but it seems I got two Slytherins for the price of one."
Snape rolled his eyes and retreated to his own chair, setting the teacup down on the desk. "A bargain," he drawled, "Fortunately, your calculations were correct. Draco is no longer experiencing pain, but his mind was not very far off from self-destruction. Apparently," he gave Draco an annoyed glance, "this dunderhead planned to make his memories dormant without someone to trigger the restoration process."
"You're not saying he used a timed obliviate on himself, are you?" Hermione asked, looking at Draco with a combination of worry and exasperation.
"He's right here. And of course I did. I didn't want to muck up the timeline before I had to act."
"Oh of course," Hermione quipped back. "So useful, you didn't even wake up in time to change the timeline for the better. Draco, there was a reason we were to cast the obliviates on each other, instead of on ourselves. Didn't you listen to my explanation before we left? It's only effective if cast on another person!"
Draco rolled his eyes. "I've seen you do far worse things, Mione. And we're here, aren't we? Maybe we stumbled along the way, but we're in better shape by far than we were in the past. Erm, the future, I mean. It's all water under the bridge."
"As enjoyable as this is," Severus interrupted, "It is still one in the morning, and I have been forced into decorating for the blasted Yule Ball tomorrow. Feel free to continue this conversation, but do it somewhere else."
They both glanced at Severus, seeming to have forgotten that he was in the room, too.
"Right." Said Draco briskly. She realized he probably felt a bit awkward with Severus, especially because he must have gone through Draco's head in the last hour. She would have to ask Draco about it, after she finally got some more sleep. Hermione had been awake for about forty hours, by her count. "Well," Draco interrupted her thoughts, "We'll be going, then. Thanks for the help, godfather."
Severus gave him a nod, as much of a 'you're welcome' as she expected he ever gave.
She gave the man a small smile. "Thank you, Severus. Your help has been really invaluable."
"You can both thank me from getting out of my quarters."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright, we're going! Mione, are you awake enough for a chat?"
"Yes." She said certainly. If Draco wanted to talk, she would be happy to stay awake for a few more hours. But there was something she was forgetting, she was sure of it.
"Dammit!" She yelled, startling both of the Slytherins. "I've got to run, sorry. Draco, we can meet later, alright?"
"Yeah, but where are you going?" Draco looked startled by her sudden change in demeanor.
"I've forgotten to go replace myself in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom!"
"Moaning Myrtle… replace yourself? What do you mean?"
She smacked a hand on her head. She needed to leave, now, but she also wanted Draco to understand – their relationship was still too tenuous, too uncertain. "I took the time turner back again to replace myself after figuring out what was wrong, erm, what was going on with your brain. So I need to go replace the Hermione who replaced earlier Hermione, because I've already gotten her. It's my one last loose end."
"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom?" Draco said, apparently stuck on the idea. "Hang on, it must've been empty. If no one saw you, can't you just continue on with your day?"
She rolled her eyes despite herself. "You of all people should understand time theory. You can't just disappear out of thin air in the timeline. If you've traveled back in time, you have to physically travel back there to complete the circle. Otherwise, Whipple's Laws of Time Consistency would be broken, and time itself would try to make up for the discrepancy."
"I know Whipple's Laws of Time Consistency. Do I look like an idiot? But Hermione number three - or however many of you there are running around right now – had to appear out of nowhere too, right? Why isn't that a discrepancy to the timeline?"
"It just isn't, Draco." She said impatiently. "There's a lot of theories as to why it happens, but appearing in one place is much different than disappearing in another. And it's not like disapparating, before you ask. It's due to the actual fabric of reality, if you don't replace yourself after time traveling, you're displacing events that would happen while you're there. That's why time travel is difficult, you can't just spin a wheel and turn up wherever you want. It's time manipulation."
Severus re-entered the conversation silkily, saying, "It's the same discrepancy that caused you so much pain recently, Draco. You and Hermione created a rift when you traveled back in time, she just had the benefit of being unconscious while her unconscious assimilated the ideas. Because you decided to hide the memories in your own mind, you put even more stress on the memories. They had to be reconciled or they would have torn your brain apart."
Hermione looked at him with what must've been disbelief, because he continued defensively, "I know Whipple's Laws just as well as you do. Did you think I wouldn't learn more about time travel after you revealed your secrets to me?"
Hermione shrugged. "It doesn't surprise me."
"Hang on, hang on, so every time Hermione travels through time, she could cause the same rifts that almost broke my memories?" Said Draco, looking a little sick.
"Well, yes," Hermione said quickly. "It does have a bit of danger to it, but it's generally so simple that it's not a problem. I just have to replace myself at the end of the day, that's all."
Draco snorted. "So they gave a thirteen-year-old a device that could destroy not only her own mind, but also the rest of reality?"
"I'm trustworthy!" She said defensively.
"You are Minerva's golden girl, and exceptions can be made for exceptional students with proper amount of drive." Snape said drably. "It's much more common than you might believe, Draco.
And I suggest you go finish your time cycle, Hermione, before you two wreck time twice in one year. But most importantly, get out of my quarters."
AN: I'm a little concerned that this chapter is hard to follow. It's got a lot of jumping around going on, but Hermione had to clean up after her own stumbles in time.
Also, some commenters from here and AO3 have been sending really short messages saying only *highly unamused* and "great anger" - I'm not sure what exactly this means, but I get a bit of a kick out of them. If you're writing these, I can never decide if you have great anger at me or at the characters, but it's pretty funny all the same. For you and for everyone else, thanks for reading and reviewing!