Chapter 6

Harry and Hermione had been hard at work for about two weeks before they finally managed to make some progress on the time turner. Thankfully with Harry's help, Hermione was able to put more focus on the other key part of her plan, an anti-venom.

Hermione had befriended a potions master from America about five years ago. Ignacio Ironwood was a graduate of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, growing up right there in Massachusetts where the school was located. His name became well known with some of the revolutionary work he had been doing, coming up with some of the strongest Anti-venom potions and antidotes the wizarding world had ever seen. She had owled him shortly after her talk with Harry, and was pleased to hear back so quickly. Without him inquiring too much about what her true plans were, he said he would get right to work on brewing and sending over the anti-venom she needed.

"Hermione?" Senna called from the doorway to Hermione's office. Hermione was chewing on her lip, deep in thought and her eyes fixated on the documents sent to her office that morning, trying to determine what was going to be her next task at hand - Aside from the main one she was working on with Harry.

"Hmm?" Hermione replied, not even looking up from her paperwork.

"Ignacio is here to see you."

Hermione immediately shot up from her seat at her desk, surprised. "He's here? In London? Right now?" Senna chuckled at the repeated questions. "Yes Hermione, he's here. Shall I let him in?"

"Of course of course!" Hermione replied excitedly, motioning with her hand to bring him in.

Ignacio walked in with a big smile on his face. He was a very tall man, about six foot four, and just a few years older than Hermione. He had sandy blonde hair, ice blue eyes and a full beard that was kept nice and trimmed. Not anything long, but it was definitely different from the last time Hermione had seen him when it was just stubble.

"Minister Granger in the flesh!" Ignacio exclaimed in his slightly deeper toned voice. "I must be the luckiest wizard in the world right now to be face to face with such greatness." Hermione laughed and blushed slightly at his words as he bent forward to give her a hug.

"Ohhhh will you knock it off!" She said with a playful smack of his arm. "you've known me for a long time, don't go trying to kiss my feet now." She teased.

"I was just greeting you the way I thought everybody would." He joked back, taking a seat in the chair opposite Hermiones.

"How is your wife Ilia doing?" Hermione asked.

"Better than ever," He replied. "We're expecting our first child in the Spring."

Hermione clasped her hands together. "Ohh Ignacio that is wonderful, congratulations!" "Boy or a girl?"

"We decided to keep it a surprise, but she and I both are partial to having a girl, I can already see her being a little daddy's girl." His eyes glistening with the thought of having a daughter.

Hermione smiled back at him. "It's so lovely to see you happy my friend. Please let me know if either of you need anything in the following months! I'd love to send a gift or a necessity of some sort."

"I will of course," he replied. "by the way, I'm very sorry to hear that things didn't work out with you and Ron. I know you've cared about him very much."

"I appreciate that Ignacio, thank you. It has been tough and trust me, sometimes I wish I could be anywhere else in the world to get away from this chaos. But I'm happy to move on to better things."

Like possibly bringing someone back to life and bringing them to our current time...

"Well I won't ask anymore questions about anything that could upset you," Ignacio began. "But I figured what you had asked for would give me an opportunity to visit again. With that being said..." He reached down into his bag, pulling out a phial and holding it between his thumb and pointer finger. The contents were an iridescent green, looking similar to green velvet swishing around in the bottle.

"I believe you requested an anti-venom?" Ignacio spoke proudly. Hermione's eyes lit up, and she carefully took the phial from his hands, looking at the contents in awe.

"So are you going to tell me what this is for? It's not often someone requests an anti-venom this strong you know..."

Hermione glanced up at him, looking slightly worried and conflicted. She wasn't sure if she was quite ready to explain the whole situation to Ignacio, especially with how complicated the whole thing was and not even knowing if it was all going to work.

"It's for a...friend."

Ignacio raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "A friend, huh?" he asked. "Are you anticipating some kind of attack?"

"No, not exactly. . .it's rather complicated, Ignacio. I really would love to tell you more, but in due time. Just be patient with me." she said with a smile.

Ignacio shrugged as he stood. "Fair enough. But I better hear about all of it soon, I want all of the juicy news if your...plan or whatever you'd like to call it works!" He chuckled. She chuckled with him.

"Yes of course, I'll be sure to let you know my progress. Thank you, my friend."

"Anything for the Minister for Magic!" He teased again, giving her a bow. Hermione playfully rolled her eyes at him, chuckling even more.

"Until we meet again. Stay well, Hermione." He said on his way out the door.

"You as well!" She replied.

Now if we can just get things finalized with that new time turner, I can try and make this happen!

"I come bringing good news, 'Mione!" Harry said as he entered her office, holding his hand behind his back.

"Did they finish it already?!" Hermione exclaimed.

Harry smirked and nodded, bringing his hand from behind his back to show a small red box. Hermione took it from his hands, flipping it open to reveal a silver time turner.

Given the loss of all of the time turners at the Ministry back in 1996, Hermione and Harry were both worried that their request wasn't going to be possible, but thanks to the help of some genius witches and wizards in the Department of Mysteries, and with a helping hand from Hermione at certain times, they made it possible.

"Not only am I amazed that you and they were able to recreate one, but to be able to have one that can travel you back such a long time frame is unheard of. They did tell me that there is one very important detail that you must know about before using."

"Hmm? And what's that?" Hermione asked.

"You're only going to be able to use this time turner once, 'Mione," Harry stated. Hermione felt her mouth go dry. "Once you travel to that year and back, it can't be used again. You have one chance to make this work and that's it. The power and magic it takes to bring you back that far is too great to be used repeatedly, and certainly too dangerous. They were barely able to make one that would allow you to travel that far back."

Hermione gave a small smile, trying to cover her nerves. She looped the turner around her neck, tucking it under her blouse. "That makes sense. Well, I'll just have to make sure I get this right the first time. Have you made Ginny aware of our plans yet?"

Harry nodded. "I spoke with her yesterday evening. She is one hundred percent behind us in this. She thinks it's a great idea to help save someone like him. She's definitely worried about something going wrong though, as am I."

"Trust me, I'm not without worry either, Harry. But this just seems like something I need to do. I spoke with Senna as well and gave her a brief run down on my plans just so she is able to cover for me while I am 'away'."

Harry nodded again. "Do you think once you return, that we are the only four that are going to be aware of what happened, even when he is here in our present time?"

Hermione nodded her head. "With my experience and reading I've done on these time turners, because I'll be altering things before his attack, the thirteen years that he spends up until our present time will be like his attack never happened, or at least that he survived the attack with the anti-venom. I guess it all depends on how to decide to approach this before I go there."

"Do you have a plan for how you're going to address the anti-venom with him? Honestly I find it kind of humorous picturing you trying to convince Severus Snape that you're from the future and you're there to help save him." Harry chuckled.

Hermione blushed. "I'm pretty sure Minister for Magic, thirty year old Hermione can handle the potions professor everyone finds so intimidating." Hermione said with a laugh.

"When do you plan on doing this, 'Mione?"

"Tomorrow evening. I have a short meeting with McGonagall at Hogwarts tomorrow afternoon, so that way I'll already be on castle grounds when I'm ready to travel. Even after all of these years I can still remember all of the concealed places I used back in our third year to time travel for classes."

"Well, I wish you luck, Hermione." Harry pulled her into a tight hug and the gesture made Hermione's breath hitch as she tried to choke back a sob.

"I know things have been rather difficult for you these last several months," Harry spoke in a softer voice. "but I promise you things are going to get better, and you are going to be happy again."

Hermione allowed a couple tears to fall after hearing what Harry said. "Thank you, Harry. I sure am blessed to have you, Ginny and Senna to call my dear friends throughout all of this." She pulled away from the hug, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"The brightest witch I know with the biggest heart," He said with a small smile. "I have a feeling things are going to be much better for you from here on out."

"Let us hope so." She said.

"I'll see you when you return, Hermione. Try to get some rest before the morning."

"Will do Harry, thank you."

"By the way," Harry started. "I left the invisibility cloak at your flat this morning. Something tells me it may come in handy with this plan."

Hermione laughed. "I didn't even think about that. You may be right, thank you again."

He exited her office, and Hermione gathered up her things to floo home.

Hermione laid in her bed that evening, rolling around the mood ring Senna had gifted her in her fingers, inspecting it. She watched it swirl with a mixture of a golden yellow and orange, playing off of the mixed emotions of excitement and anxiousness she was feeling. She placed the ring back on her finger and turned onto her side, closing her eyes in an attempt to fall asleep. It took longer than she had wanted, of course, but she finally did succumb to sleep that came with some vivid dreams about the possible outcome of what she was preparing to do.

The early morning came, and Hermione sat up and stretched. She made her way to the loo, hopping into the shower. As she let the hot water wet her hair and run down her body, she started to ponder her thoughts. Aside from the antivenom and the invisibility cloak, she packed an extra set of clothes to change into after she was meeting with McGonagall. There was no way she was going to be able to see her former professor and head of house for the first time as Minister in the clothes she was going to wear for her time travel.

Hermione spent the morning and early afternoon having some breakfast and doing some little things around her new flat to make the place feel a little bit more like home. It was her silly attempt to keep her nerves intact, but it did very little to help. Two in the afternoon came along, and Hermione decided it was time to dress for her meeting with McGonagall.

She dressed herself in one of her favorite blue floral blouses. A bright royal blue with white flowers. It was shorter sleeved, so she put on her long black cardigan duster. She put on her black dress pants, and used colovaria to change her favorite pair of heels to match the blue to her blouse. With the best beautification charm she knew, she twisted her hair into a vertical bun and clipped it. She gave herself one final glance in the mirror, lingering just for a moment as she thought about once again what she was about to do.

Merlin, I hope this works...

Making sure she had everything in her beaded bag, she entered the floo.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Headmistresses office!" She announced, and a burst of green flames engulfed her.