Chapter 9: Time Travels Forward

Days go by…

Parvarti was having a perfectly lovely conversation with Neville. The two had gone to study Herbology together and ended up walking back to the Gryffindor common room together.

"Yeah, so after that Professor Sprout said that she would recommend me for an internship at the research plant associated with St. Mungos once I graduate."

"That's really wonderful, Neville! Of course, I'm not surprised, you have been the top…"

"Parvarti! There you are!" Lavender shouted to her friend as they came through the portrait door. "I've been looking all over for you!" The blonde had no trouble leading her friend over to the couch. She seemed to not mind that her friend was in the middle of talking with shy Neville.

Parvarti turned back to Neville with a look of apology on her face, but Neville had already started to walk away, his head slumped and his hands in his pockets.

"Lav, that was very rude!" She said to her friend in a low voice. "I was talking with Neville."

"Then you see my point." The girl huffed

Point? What point? An irritated Parvarti thought.

"Really, you could do much better than Neville! You should be talking with boys much better looking than he is."

Parvarti sighed. Her friend was really beginning to get on her nerves. First with her jealousy and unfriendly attitude towards the new Head Girl, and now with her being friends with Neville. And she was really growing fond of the boy. No wonder she hadn't told Lavender who she was going to the Halloween party with. She'd be a social outcast in no time, although that reason was growing old fast.

Parvarti was so into her thoughts as Lavender continued talking about this and that she completely missed the portrait door sliding open. She also failed to notice Lavender taking a glance, who saw that it was the Head Girl herself coming through with Harry.

"I'll go up to our dorms and see if he's there." A voice said, belonging to Harry.

"So at least Ron's finally coming back to his senses." Lavender continued. Parvarti snapped her attention back to her friend. "I mean, after that kiss the other night."

"But Lav…"

"I'm sure he'll ask me to the Halloween party. Who did you say you're going with?"

"I didn't. How do you know whether anyone has asked me?"

"Well, you did turn down poor Anthony the other day."

From there Lavender continued on. She knew Hermione had heard what she had said.

Just then Harry came down from the boy's dormitories. "He's not there. Should we go and check the quidditch pitch?" He then lowered his voice for Hermione. "I checked the map. He's not in the castle."

Hermione just mumbled "No, that's okay Harry. It's getting late, and I've got things to do. Head duties, you know."

"All right, I'll see you tomorrow?"

Hermione nodded, then left. As she walked back toward the Head dorms, Hermione felt something stir in her. Her heart had taken an unexpected turn for the worse. She felt a tear form. Just when she thought that maybe there was something between her and Ron, he goes and starts something again with that tart! And Ginny said he never really liked Lavender.

When she reached her destination, Hermione went straight to bed and cried. She hadn't even realized she liked the tall red-head so much!

The next day Seamus was ready to make another move. He had almost given up on the sexy new witch, but after a quick talk with Lavender the night before, he was ready to try again. As he approached the Gryffindor table, he was in luck! Hermione was already there, eating her breakfast. Harry and Ron hadn't arrived yet, and after receiving a wink from Lavender, Seamus went to sit down next to her.

She looked sad as she smiled at him, so he struck up a friendly, casual conversation with her about their upcoming special session with their head-of-house, Professor McGonagall, which was to be a history review.

When Harry and Ron joined them, Ron sent him an irritated look. Seamus smirked at him, then struck. "So, Hermione, seeing as most everyone has dates this weekend, I was wondering if you would like to cash in that rain check and go with me to Hogsmead."

Hermione stopped what she was doing, which was taking another small bit of her cereal. She looked up at Ron for a second, who was looking at his food as if he was irritated with it.

"All right, Seamus. I'll go with you."

"Great! How about I meet you at the entrance at ten?"

Hermione nodded, not noticing the sour look Ron cast her.

Harry just sighed. Suddenly he didn't want to spend the whole day in Hogsmead with just Ron. His best friend would most likely act like a prat, or act so miserable that Harry would also have a rotten time. And he wasn't about to waste his good time on a friend who was too stubborn to see what was right in front of him. He turned to Ginny who already had her attention focused on the boy-who-lived.

"Say, Ginny…you want to hang out in Hogsmead with Ron and I this weekend?"

Weeks fly by

Hermione did not want to strain her friendship with Ron, but she was more casual with him as the weeks went by. She didn't want any more situations where she thought he might like her as she did not want to interfere with whatever was going on between him and Lavender. Although she did notice that she never saw the two together, and when lavender approached Ron he never seemed to give her his attention.

She had also noticed that when the blonde was not around Parvarti was more friendly with her. One day, while they were in Advanced Potions, the girl said to her "You know, sometimes things aren't as we're led to believe. Take my friend Lavender, for instance, she sometimes says things that aren't quite true, just more for her own liking."

Hermione wondered if this might mean Lavender's "relationship" with Ron. She remembered her "date" with Seamus. They had a pleasant enough time in Hogsmead, but when she saw Ron he was with Harry and Ginny, not Lavender.

Her job as Snape's "assistant" took up more time than expected, and the two were very close on brewing a potion that could be put into a fake locket. It was a mixture of old, dark magic along with a confidence booster and a charmed placebo. Hermione and Snape had theorized that a strong spell similar to the one supposedly in the original locket could be negated by the placebo. They ran trials on a few other potions, such as veritaserum. Hermione as able to lie without realizing it. Their trials were also documented for publication, for after the upcoming war.

The forgery had been made from another artifact in the Malfoy family, and pendant that was nearly as old as the locket. It was Narcissa's favorite, but she had no problem parting with it for the sake of her son. Hermione had suspected that there was more to her professor's relationship with the elegant Mrs. Malfoy than he led her to believe, but that was none of her business.

The first time Hermione met Mrs. Malfoy, the woman was rather cold with her. Being a muggle born, Hermione expected no better. By the third meeting, the woman was warming up to the Head Girl and during the most recent encounter the woman hugged and thanked her for "saving my son." Not that Draco had been saved yet, the Head Boy had no idea what was really going on. Just some hints…courtesy of his Godfather, Professor Snape.

It was a late October day, actually, the day before Halloween, when Hermione had her second flying lesson with Ron.

Both had been too busy until now, Hermione with her "job" assisting Professor Snape, and Ron with the start of the Quidditch season. There some new players to train, and he had to pull in extra time helping Harry.

Hermione still needed to ride with him, and he could feel her stiffness as he wrapped one arm around her. The other he tried to not touch her with, not wanting her to be even more uncomfortable with him.

The first few moments they rode in silence, still staying near the ground.

"Here, now you try steering for a bit." Ron told her.

Hermione, who was already gripping onto the broom with all her strength, tried but only ended up jerking the broom back and forth. "Oh, I'm absolute rubbish at this!" She cried out.

"No, you just need to relax. Here, let me lower us first." He brought them down a few feet, just enough so that their feet were barely over the ground. "Now, you try." He said gently.

He felt her body relax, and gently put his steering arm around her waist with his other. "Now, make a slight turn to the right."

Her hand obeyed, and she made a nice turn. "I did it!"

Ron chuckled. "Of course you did. Now do the same, but to the left." And they went left. Soon Hermione headed toward a small patch of sparse trees and dodged them effortlessly. She flew forward for a bit, then turned around and repeated.

"Good! Now, how about taking us a little higher." Again, success. He started to take one hand away.

"No! Please don't, not yet." She begged him.

Ron felt that feeling creep up again. He had thought he had resolved this problem. With Hermione busy all the time, not to mention ignoring him most of the time, he had thought his choice was clear. Maria. But now…and Hermione's hair smelled just as enticing as before.

"So I hear that you are hanging out with us at the dance." He said after she lifted them up a bit. "I thought you would be going with Seamus." Just give me a reason not to think…not to hope…

She shook her head, and was obviously still trying to concentrate. Finally she answered. "No, he's nice enough but I told him I'd rather just stay friends. Besides, he's really not my type."

Ron felt his heart speed up. "That's not…I mean, I just assumed you would go with him. After he took you to Hogsmead." He wasn't about to tell her how the Irish boy had gloated she would soon be his girlfriend. No wonder Harry had rolled his eyes whenever Seamus said so.

"I thought you would be going with Lavender." Hermione said pointedly.

"Lavender?" Ron spat out. "What would make you think I would go with her?" Neither seemed to notice they were now flying about twenty feet over the lake.

"She said…"

"What the bloody hell did she say?" Ron yelled. Ron had now let go of Hermione and was furious. Without his hold, her steering became irradic.

"There's no need to yell! I…ahhh!"

splash!

The two had gone head first into the lake. Or rather, broom head-first. In a matter of seconds the two submerged, both spitting out water. Minutes later the two reaches shore, sumbling and both dripping with water. Without first asking how she was, Ron accio'd his broom. "My new Firebolt!" He wailed.

"Ronald Weasley! I hate you!" Hermione yelled at him. Dripping wet, the Head Girl staggered up the bank toward the castle.

"Bloody hell," Ron grumbled, then followed.

Later, in the Gryffindor common room…

"Mate, you really did it this time." Harry said to Ron, who were now engaged in a vicious game of chess with one another. They were in their own corner, while other students either studied or chatted aimlessly. Ginny was with Hermione, but had earlier given her brother a tongue lashing for what happened.

"It wasn't my bloody fault!" He had yelled back at her.

"She trusted you!" Ginny had spat back.

Ron sighed. "Now she's never going to speak to me again!"

Harry chuckled. "I doubt that. Besides, she's friends with me so you two will just have to learn to make peace. But I'm not likely going to let you two always bicker."

Ron suddenly smiled. "Checkmate!"

Harry groaned. Just once he would like to see the "king" of chess lose and be dethroned! "One more?"

The dance came and went. Prvarti and Neville came together, but spent half the night snogging on one of the balconies.

Hermione busied herself at the event by dancing with just about everyone, Ron too for that matter. Harry found himself dancing with Ginny far too much for Ron's liking, his glares at his best mate earning him a smack on the shoulder by Hermione who happened to be dancing with Justin at the time. Ron's dance partner, Susan, glared at her.

Hermione rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time that night.

November also flew by, and so did many letters between the trio.

Dear Maria,

Things are moving fast. As we write this, the item we wrote you about months ago is being prepared. In less than two weeks it will be delivered. We can't write more, for it is far too dangerous. Once again, your words of wisdom have helped us tremendously, although we can't bear to think how things would be without our Professor and Head Girl. We still don't know about the power of three, but our mentor has told us to be patient. Hopefully, the end will finally be near.

Your good friends,

Harry and Ron

After his classes Harry was meeting with Dumbledore, about Order news. The Headmaster hinted to the boy that they were nearly prepared for the upcoming meeting with Voldemort regarding the locket, which Harry knew more about thanks to Hermione.

As their meeting ended, Dumbledore suggested to a weary Harry that he might want to take a walk. "Perhaps in the clearing just beyond Hagrid's. I believe the air would do you some good, and that way I know you'll be in safe company."

Harry nodded, and made his way there without realizing that sometimes, just sometimes, Professor Dumbledore knew too much.

As he strode past the giant's hut, he noticed Hedwig flying above. That's odd, I just sent her off with Maria's letter hours ago. Surely she can't be returning already! That was when he noticed said letter was still in her beak. He hurried to follow, not realizing Hedwig was traveling to the very place Dumbledore suggested he go. As he neared the clearing, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Hermione was sitting against a tree by the clearing with one of her texts in her lap. She looked up as she heard Hedwig's call. "There you are, my friend. I thought you might find me here." She said as she stood up and reached for a treat in her pocket.

Hedwig landed gracefully on her shoulder, letting the letter go to one of Hermione's hands, and picked up the treat in the girl's other. Just then Hedwig gave two calls. Hermione snapped her head toward the trees.

"Harry!"

Harry shook his head from his own surprise. "Hermione! What the bloody hell are you doing with that letter!" He yelled as he strode forward.

"I…I can explain!"

"That…that letter…"

Tears brimming, Hermione could only meekly reply. "Harry, I am so sorry. I wanted to tell you, honest I did."

Realization hit Harry like a ton of bricks. "You're…you're Maria."

Tears now falling, "Yes, Harry. I am."

"You lied to us!"

"I never lied!" She cried. "I couldn't tell you! Dumbledore made me swear a Wizard's Oath!"

"And you think that's good enough!" He was angry, not sure whether it was at the girl in front of him or Dumbledore for once again manipulating him.

"I think not wanting to risk the consequences is bloody hell good enough!"

The two glared at each other. Finally, Hermione took in a deep breath. "After I found out…found out who you were, Professor Dumbledore came to see me. That was when he made me take the oath. I swore to him that I would never reveal myself to you or Ron. I never…I never lied, Harry. I just couldn't tell you!"

"Dumbledore…he…he told me to come here. To this clearing."

"Then I suppose he wanted you to find out, Harry. Please, please don't be upset with me! I know you have every right, but I never meant…I never betrayed you." She started to cry now, and this seemed to break Harry. He pulled her in for a hug. After letting her sob for a few moments, he gently pulled away.

"What now, Harry?"

"Now?"

"Ron? Are you going to tell him?" Both seemed to know that if Harry was initially upset, Ron's temper would likely explode.

Harry shook his head. "I don't know. I mean, he should know…" his voice trailed off as he thought about Ron's conflictions between the "two" girls. But then he realized something else. "Dumbledore would have let both of us find out together, I mean, if he had wanted Ron to know. Why would he let just me find out? And why now?"

Hermione shook her head as she wiped her eyes with one sleeve of her uniform. "I don't know. But you have a point." Her thoughts, too, lingered on the strained attraction between her and Ron, even though the two of them were still distant with each other since the disastrous flying lesson. And his obvious feelings for "Maria" were even more apparent in the letters he alone sent her, without Harry. "He can't find out this way, Harry. I won't let it happen." She whispered dangerously.

It was then that Harry knew for sure. Hermione was just as much in love with Ron as Ron was in love with her.

To be continued…and please review!