Disclaimer: The same stuff again: I only own the plot, nothing but the plot.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed and please keep reading and reviewing.
To the people who are reading the story but aren't reviewing: Thanks for reading and please continue to do so, but please, leave me a review, just a short one telling me that you have read the chapter and if you liked it or not.
To Toodles: I would be really glad to have you as a beta. Please send me a massage with your e-mail address to discuss the details 'cause I have no clue how this beta thing works. Thanks.
Now, on with the story:
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Past, Present and Future, it depends on the onlooker
It was well past dinnertime and there was still no sign, neither from Harry, nor from Hermione.
The Trio was waiting in the Gryffindor common room doing their homework (in Hermione's case) and playing chess. Even though they looked calm for an outside viewer, truthfully they were very nervous.
Hermione was trying to read her book on Potions while Harry was thinking about the next move and trying for the millionth time to defeat Ron, and Ron…well, he was staring at the back of the portrait of the Fat Lady willing it to open.
Every time the portrait opened the trio would look up at once and continued to do whatever they were doing previously. Each of them wondering about the upcoming conversation or whatever it would occur at all. Once an hour one of the friends tried to start a conversation, but all of the efforts seemed useless.
When the clock chimed ten, and there were only about ten students sitting in the common room reading or playing by the dim light of the fire, the portrait hole suddenly opened and the two awaited figure showed up, looked around and after noticing the trio went to them and sat down on the couch facing them.
The remaining student of the room, mostly first years, quickly grabbed their things and hurried towards their dorms, too scared of the strangers, mostly Harry, to stay at the common room.
For almost five minutes both sides just stared at each other, daring the other to stay something.
In the end the Hermione of the future decided to break the silence:
"Sorry for coming so late, but we had had some very important things to do." said she with an apologetic smile, not taking her eyes off of the past herself.
It seemed that other than the last sentence no one had anything to say, or rather no one dared to. The trio of the present time was too afraid to say anything and the future duo thought it was better to let the younger ones start the conversation. That or they were simply lost in their thoughts.
It appeared that the younger Hermione was the savior of the night, as she asked the fist question, starting a discussion.
"How far from the future are you exactly from?" she inquired, startling all the occupants of the room from their thoughts.
"Eleven years." It looked like the elder Harry won't be the best partner for a conversation that night. As Hermione looked at her husband she saw instantly the reason too. He was again thinking about the past, the things he could change right then, just with only a few words. But he won't. Hermione put an assuring hand in the thigh of Harry which raised the eyebrow of her younger self but she remained silent, putting that tiny bit of information away in her mind for later.
"Look, we don't expect you to be friendly and all to us and I can understand, that this situation is really awkward to you, and believe me, it is for us too, but coming here wasn't our choice and we want to go back to our time just as badly as you want us to, but we have to put up with each other's company for quite some time, so accepting our presence would be good. Now, we came here to answer some of your questions, the ones we are allowed to, so ask, and if not, then we would like to leave, because we had a rather tiresome day." said the older one of the two Hermiones, letting herself to become angrier than she intended to.
In the end curiosity won over the fear and, surprisingly, Ron started to speak:
"Why are you two here? I mean I know that you don't know why you are here, it is just you are Harry and Hermione…"
"Well obviously," said a slightly amused Hermione as she started to have a clue what Ron was getting into.
"I mean, that…" started Ron again, not knowing to be scared or happy because of Hermione's seemingly happy mode.
"We know what you mean. And to answer your question you, or rather the Ron of our time had been…somewhere else." said Harry, obviously trying to hide the exact place of the future Ron.
On the first night of the arrival of the two "strangers" the trio had a long talk:
FLASHBACK
"Do you believe them?" asked a very tired and shocked Harry from his friends who were sitting with him at the far end of the Gryffindor common room, discussing the events of the Sorting, or rather the ones that happened in the middle of it.
At that moment Harry was tired and had enough. First he had found out that a convicted murderer, Sirius Black, wanted his hide and then came these two people claiming to be him and one of his best friends, Hermione, from the future.
'Oh yeah. Of course. Why not make Harry Potter suffer a little bit more. Send his future self back to his time, why not? It could be fun.' thought Harry bitterly.
"I think they are telling the truth." Said Hermione after a minute of silence,"And if they aren't, then Dumbledore will find it out, so I wouldn't worry about it."
"You wouldn't worry!?" exclaimed Harry "They are claiming to be us, and most likely form the future and you are telling me not to worry!?"
"And have you even looked at them, Hermione? They looked nothing like you two. You saw that scar on the guy who claims to be Harry? And that girl, no woman, she can't be you, I mean she is…." Started Ron but Hermione interrupted, almost shouting:
"She was what!? Go on, finish it, Ronald! Too beautiful, too feminine? Do you think I have no feelings!? Oh, no of course you don't think about others! I'm off to bed. Good night!" and with that she stormed away, towards the girls' dormitories.
"You've really done it this time, mate." said Harry and went to bed too, feeling too confused himself, to stay and continue the conversation.
END OF FLASHBACK
"It seems like we won't get from one to two, so what do you say if we tell you the things about our future that can't change it. I mean the way we got here. Feel free to interrupt, if you want to," offered Hermione, getting tired of the pointless sitting there in silence, so she offered to tell their story the third time in only two days' time.
"Where to start… First of all, you must know that the future is very different from this time. There is a war going on, I think it won't do any harm if I tell you this, you can't change the future with this little information. So, Harry was brewing a potion in the Great Hall and…" started Hermione, but her younger self interrupted almost instantly, trying to get as much information as she could.
"What kind of potion?"
"Now that we can't tell you. You will know it in the right time," said Harry this time. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you. I do not support this 'telling-you-almost-everything' thing at all. There are things that I would like to change, but I can't." said Harry darkly, visibly scaring all three members of the trio.
They looked at him in disbelief, neither of them recognizing the Harry they all knew so well. This Harry was distant and gave the impression of a powerful and dangerous man without feelings that weren't hate, anger and such. If they looked him in the eyes they found those unbelievably green eyes, now without glasses, dull and lifeless.
That was what scared the thirteen-year-old Hermione the most. She liked to think that she was the person who knew Harry the best in the world. It was enough for her to look into his eyes and she could read him like an open book. But this Harry…he seemed distraught and like he lost everything worth living for.
While her younger self was observing her Harry, the future Hermione was thinking, too. Even though she couldn't see the eyes of her husband she had a very good clue how he looked like.
After he returned from his training, his eyes always looked emotionless and he hid all of his emotions under his hard mask, not showing any of his feeling, not even to Hermione. Those days she was beyond worried and always tried to get to Harry, to get him to tell her what he went through, but he wouldn't.
After a month of this Hermione finally had enough and one night she went straight to Harry's room, blasting his locked door open, demanding answers, but what she saw there was beyond belief and made her speechless. Since his return none had been in the room of Harry Potter, he wouldn't let a soul in and in that moment Hermione Granger understood his reasons, too.
FLASHBACK
Hermione stood in the entrance of Harry's room, observing her surroundings. All of the curtains of the room had been closed and there was no light in the room at all, expect for that little light that came into the room from the doorway where Hermione was standing. There were no bed, to be precise nothing in the small room, except for Harry in the far corner of the room, seemingly in some kind of trance, not noticing Hermione in the doorway at all, but as she was about to go and sit next to Harry he looked up, his eyes tired with circles around them and he looked like he hadn't had any sleep for at least 4 days in a row, his clothes dirty and overused.
"Close the door," he managed to say, before Hermione got too close. After repairing the door and conjuring some candles to light the room Hermione closed the door and sat down next to Harry, waiting for him to say something. Anything.
She waited and waited, but he remained silent. She was about to give up, when she heard him whisper:
"Why are you here? What are you doing here?" he spoke so softly that she almost missed it, but only almost.
"What am I doing here, Harry!? What are you doing here!? Look at yourself for God's sake! You smell and I bet you hadn't had any food for who knows how long! What happened to you? What happened to the Harry I once knew?" she almost shouted with tears in her eyes.
"He died, Hermione, and he isn't coming back, so you can leave now. And I can assure you that I am perfectly capable to look after myself, thank you very much." answered the boy, no, young man bitterly.
"You are telling me that you are able to look after yourself? Then let me tell you something, Harry James Potter. You may have been, once, but it looks like you can't anymore. So you will get up from here and go to the bathroom then eat something." Said Hermione with a voice that suggested she won't accept a no for answer.
He looked up at her and stared into her eyes and she was unable to look away. For a moment she thought she saw some feelings in those emerald eyes, but they disappeared as soon as they came and she couldn't identify them.
"Why are you doing this? You should be down with the others, celebrating." That day was the 20th anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Weasly's wedding. "Go down and celebrate with them and leave me alone." said Harry in a low, but demanding tone.
"I am here because I want to. And I want to help you. Look at yourself. What happened to you? What happened to Harry Potter, because this…this thing before me is certainly not him. And I don't want to be happy and celebrate down with them. Not without you." whispered Hermione the last part of her little speech.
Harry looked up and she saw his questioning and slightly shocked look, the first real emotion since his return.
"I, you know… I mean… you are my friend and…" she had no opportunity to finish the sentence, as Harry suddenly got up and dashed to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him, leaving Hermione alone. She stared stunned at the spot where only a minute ago Harry was, but she hadn't had too much time to think, as Harry came back hastily, sat back onto the floor and without any further thought or word kissed Hermione on the lips.
END OF FLASHBACK
Hermione subconsciously smiled at the memory. Even though it wasn't their best or most passionate kiss it was still her favorite from all of them.
After that hour in his room Harry started to gain back his old self, but Hermione knew that the smiles and happiness were mostly only masks and it took months for her to recognize parts of her old friend. From that night they were a couple, even though only a selected few knew about them being an item.
Their relationship and their feeling for each other had been very deep from the start, even though it took month for Hermione to get Harry to show some of his feelings. They had known each other for almost eight years then, but in spite of this they started really slowly and it took almost two years to finally sleep together the first time. They married at twenty-two and had a happy and content marriage since then, despite what Ron said.
When she looked up again she found herself face to face with four curious faces, one of them her husband's one, but his face and smile (a real smile this time) told her, that he knew exactly what she had been thinking about. He turned away, but a small smile stayed on his face. To the others' questioning look she only answered with a shrug and said:
"Nothing, just an old memory."
"So, let me get this straight. You had a potions accident, you blew up the Great Hall and came here?" asked a quite bewildered Ron.
"Yeah, basically." answered Hermione, still wearing a smile on her face.
"And the time you're coming from, was it summer or some other holiday?" enquired a doubtful Harry.
"No, of course not. Why do you ask? It was September the 1st just like here." replied Hermione, not realizing her mistake until it was too late.
"Then please, tell me, why were you two brewing a potion in the middle of the Sorting?" asked the past Harry, obviously thinking he got the two time travelers that time, and maybe he was right.
"Let's just say that the Hogwarts of our time is very different from this one. It's no longer a school and if we can't go back soon enough, then it will never be either." Answered, to everyone's surprise, Harry, the older. The present time trio looked shocked, Hermione was ready to faint and the older one (I mean Hermione) sent a questioning look at Harry, asking why he told them this, but Harry, completely ignoring everyone, stood up and left the room without a word.
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Thanks for reading and please leave me a review telling me what you think.
I could have continued this chapter, but I thought that I'll put the opinion of the trio and what happens to the duo into the next chapter, maybe the reason they were late from the meeting, but not sure of the last one.
Thanks again and
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!