Chapter 7 - The Napkin
"You had us all fooled, Miss Granger." Severus said through a sardonic smile, looking down at the object in Hermione's hands. "There I was thinking it was Potter who kept dragging you into trouble," he paused for effect, "when you were the most egregious rule breaker of the bunch." While his words sounded cutting, the look in his eyes pointed to an emotion completely different. In Hermione's interpretation, it came closest to a look of pride. She reveled in finally having been able to surprise Severus the super spy.
"I thought, Severus," she emphasized his name as if in reprimand for having regressed to calling her Miss Granger, "that a propensity towards rule breaking was on of the only shreds of common ground between Gryffendor and Slytherin. Plus," she emphasized the word with a gentle poke in one of the few uninjured areas of Severus' chest, "you haven't even heard my plan yet, so hush."
For once, Severus was silenced. I could definitely get used to this woman. Severus thought before he could stop himself. He had only experienced the side of Hermione after she had been apprehended breaking the rules. Being present for the plotting phase of things was, he admitted to himself, greatly amusing.
"You say this list is what keeps you tethered to the past. Keeps you from moving on." She continued, trying not to let the end of her sentence drip with the loaded meaning she wanted to place there. "This is our way to fix whatever's on that list." She gestured to the small golden charm hanging from the chain in her hands. "But I'm still not entirely certain what each item means. You will have to do some explaining there. Take this one, for example," she gestured to one of the items on the list, "what does 'Ginny Weasley' mean?"
She finally paused and took the breath that had been mysteriously absent as she went from sentence to sentence without pausing for air. Severus sighed, knowing that this flight of folly would eventually lead nowhere, but as her enthusiasm was so infectious he decided to humor her. Taking another deep breath, he began to explain.
"Last school year, while you were out hunting for horcruxes, Hogwarts changed a great deal. As headmaster I had the duty to protect my students, but as an undercover Death Eater I was unable to do so. Had Voldemort let me run the school by myself I could have walked a thinner line between my cover as his faithful servant and my actual duties to protect the school, but I was not so fortunate." He paused as if watching a painful montage of events. "The Carrows were brutal. They were merciless and cruel, even by Death Eater standards. I tried to protect students as best I could, but there were instances where intervening would have tipped them off as to my true loyalties. Sacrifices had to be made. Innocents were hurt. I am afraid Ginny Weasley was one of the students I was unable to protect."
He could see the wheels begin to turn under the bushy curtain of her hair. He tried to step ahead of her thoughts and catch her before she got too far in the wrong direction. "You know, Hermione," electricity shot through her stomach as he said her name, "that any use of the time turner, especially that far back might alter the present in very upsetting ways. We could accidentally upset the balance and create" he shuddered slightly, "a very undesirable future."
He expected resistance. He expected promises of caution. He did not expect the almost self-satisfied smile he saw spreading across her face. "I've actually got that one covered," she said smugly. "If anything goes wrong, if anything gets changed for the worse, I hereby decide," she sounded as if she was addressing the universe, "that I will go back and leave a very explicit warning sign for us not to attempt this. I will put a note…let's see, somewhere safe…inside my mother's jewelry box. I will go back to before the change, hide a note for us to find, so we never attempt to make a change in the first place, which is actually the second place." She smiled again, a radiant, cat-that-ate-the-canary smile.
He had to hand it to her. That actually sounded like a sound safety check. "If you're quite finished patting yourself on the back, would you like to take me to check if we are considering destroying the wizarding world as we know it?" As she stood up, she glared her unspoken challenge at him with a look of pure determination mixed with mild amusement. I haven't enjoyed myself like this in ages. Severus was careful not to let his enjoyment show on his face.
He followed her with long strides as she practically jogged down the attic stairs and into her parents' bedroom. She entered a fairly large closet and began rummaging under a pile of old sweaters. "Key," she said as an explanation as she dug out a little silver key and unlocked the top drawer of the dresser. She pulled out a little wooden box. Opening it gingerly, an enchanting tune Severus thought he had heard but couldn't place began to play. However, before he could pinpoint the melody, both of their attention was drawn to a little white muggle napkin placed on top of the selection of rings inside the box. Hermione, still smiling but now with wonder, presented the box to Severus.
"Would you like to do the honors?" He slowly removed the napkin from the box as if it would explode with any sudden movement. He flipped it over and his mouth dropped open. What he recognized as his own penmanship was scrawled across the napkin. "Listen to her." Even more surprising was the text below it. In what was now easily distinguished as Hermione's neat writing, he read the words "…and they all lived happily ever after." They both froze as if carved in stone. They both sat quietly, rereading the two short lines as if preparing for an exam on the material. Hermione's smugness had disappeared in the face of her utmost shock.
"What's the Corinthia?" Severus asked, finally breaking the silence.
"It's a muggle hotel by Whitehall Palace, actually quite an expensive one," Hermione muttered, not taking her eyes off the napkin. "That's what you noticed?" she asked. He didn't answer, not knowing what to say. They stood a few minutes longer, each pondering the ramifications of what they were seeing. Finally, Severus placed the napkin back in the jewelry box, placed it back in the drawer, and returned the key to its hiding place. Turning to a still-stunned Hermione, he looked her in the eyes with an intensity she had never before witnessed. "Okay, what next?"
They each had a cup of tea and a notebook in their lap. He was in his normal spot on the couch and she was occupying the seat next to him so they could compare notes. Severus was reading her scribbled notes over her shoulder as she flipped feverishly through a heavy book of spells. "Got it!" she proclaimed, almost making Severus jump. "That should be simple enough for me to perform. And you're sure it will block the curse in question?" he asked, now peering at the paragraph to which she was eagerly pointing.
"Yes, if cast preemptively and the curse follows within ten seconds, this will absorb the curse, neither letting it rebound nor reach its target. It says it's sort of like a sponge." He reread the paragraph she was indicating and nodded in agreement. He couldn't believe a plan had materialized so quickly. He jotted down the spell on the messy timeline they had created after a careful review of the memories he had rehoused from her head into a make-shift pensieve, still resting in the middle of the coffee table. "So that's it? We're ready?" she asked nervously. He was amazed as well, but after double checking the calculations he nodded his assent.
They both moved their books onto the table and stood up. As she walked to the mantle to retrieve the little gold hourglass that had been watching them work, Severus began to quiz her. "And you remember your charm, yes?" She rolled her eyes, "Yes, Severus. I remember my charm. I practiced the wandwork until I was blue in the face. I also remembered to send Pigwidgeon back with a message that we would come visit the Burrow at seven o'clock tonight. Well, I didn't mention you. That will just have to be an unexpected surprise." He groaned internally, "if they allow me to set foot in the house…" she cut him off with a hand on his shoulder. "They will. They will welcome you with open arms. Especially if all goes according to plan. Now are you ready?"
She stepped close enough to him to throw the thin golden chain already around her neck over his as well. The chain, only just long enough to fit both of them, pulled him in so tightly she was pressed to his chest. Her breath left her as she felt every part of her body tighten at the contact with his form. She looked up into his eyes to find them burning dark with a fire she hadn't seen before. She noted that the palpable electricity between them wasn't allowing him to breathe either. They remained frozen. He couldn't find the willpower to pull away, but feared he would be incinerated if he dared get any closer.
"Focus" he breathed, his silky voice lower than she was used to hearing it. "Focus" she exhaled her repetition, not moving an inch or dropping her eyes. A second later she seemed to internalize the word she had just uttered and broke the spell by looking down at the hourglass in her hands. "Cloak on?" she asked. He was still amazed Potter had given her his invisibility cloak. She had explained that after everything he had gone through he wanted nothing to do with any of the Deathly Hallows, but Severus could not imagine voluntarily parting with such an invaluable magical object.
He pulled the cloak over both of them, wrapping one arm around her waist to secure that the cloak covered their bodies completely and stayed put. When she was sure they were covered completely, she began to turn the little hourglass. As she finished the last turn and the world began to spin backwards, he apparated them both out of the room.