Chapter 6

"Of course I didn't do it deliberately, Miss Granger. If anyone is to blame it is you with your overly dramatic slow reveal of your Time-Turner. 'Severus and I are among a selected few'—I had no idea you needed to stroke your ego with my opinion of you."

"I couldn't care less about your opinion of me!"

"What's done is done!" Snape bellowed at them in his worst Potter-is-getting-away-with-something voice. "We need to figure out how to move forward from here."

Lucius started laughing. "Yes, how do you move forward from here? How embarrassing it must be for the two of you to Time-Travel and yet fail to fix what you wanted to prevent."

The three of them were at Hermione's flat, which was empty as her current timeline self was still out. The news hadn't hit the wizarding world yet. Lucius's manor hadn't been an option, as Miranda had free reign to visit there, and it would involve pulling more people into the know. Not that Hermione had any desire to step foot there again. Snape's house, of course, still had Snape in it.

"We need to handle the media somehow," Hermione was pacing, thinking aloud. "The Muggle media is about to go crazy. What am I talking about, it's already going crazy! Mobiles, cameras, people at the Muggle hospital…"

"I destroyed what cameras I could without creating even more of an incident," Snape pointed out. "And some malfunctioned on their own simply by being in the presence of magic."

"That should cut down on what gets out there," Hermione agreed, nodding as she paced around her coffee table.

Lucius stood near her bookcase, not willing to sit on the sofa. He read titles with a bemused expression as he thought. "You could just let the Ministry play it off as a hoax."

Hermione shook her head. "That's what I did with the baby videos. It wasn't enough to try for the same story twice. Muggles are about to see magic everywhere and enchantments will start failing."

"Then why not link the same story into one?" Snape sat down on the sofa, pulling calm around him as he leaned against the arm and put a leg up across the cushions.

Hermione stopped her pacing to blink at the sight of Snape's lean black-clad body lounging across her sofa. But it didn't distract her from the mission at hand too long. They'd already paid once for getting distracted.

"Yes! That's it. It's been done in the Muggle world before." Hermione strode quickly around the sofa to her bookcase, stopping when she spotted Lucius. "Will you get out of my way?"

Lucius gave her a look and stepped aside. Snape snorted.

"Quite the firebrand, your partner," Lucius said to Snape.

"Have either of you heard of graffiti art?" Hermione asked, her back to them and nose in a book.

"Of course," Snape answered.

"There's a man in London—no one knows his identity—who spreads his political opinion through 'defacing' public property with his art. He's been at it for over a decade and has never been found. He's known only by a pseudonym."

"And the connection to the current turmoil is…?" Lucius prompted.

Hermione shut her book with a satisfying clapping sound and turned on her heel to face the two wizards. "We need to create a prankster."

"Ah," Lucius said. "I like it already. But how are you going to create the presence of a prankster? Painting on brick walls?"

"The internet of course," Hermione answered, but only got a blank look from Lucius. "Muggles have an information network that they are very reliant upon. We use the internet to put it out there that these acts are all part of a deliberate prank and doubt will be sewn. We just have to make our explanations prominent."

Lucius got one of those expressions on his face that made Hermione's spine itch. "Well, I'll simply have to trust you both to be knowledgeable enough to be convincing."

"Trust is working two ways here, Mr. Malfoy."

"Indeed." Lucius shifted his gaze to include Snape.

"Hermione, do you have an idea on how to provide a Muggle explanation for what happened tonight?"

"Not yet." She chewed on her bottom lip. "I'm going to need to find a 24-hour library and look up information on Muggle magicians and the art of distraction. There'll be internet connection there as well. In the morning I'll have to buy a laptop. Damn, how do I do that without past-me noticing the expense? OK, no laptop…" And Hermione got lost in thought trying to figure how she'd get the Muggle authorities to not track down her use of a library computer to set this up.

Lucius picked up the thread of conversation. "Now, Miranda is not likely to give up her campaign easily, particularly if your prankster idea is effective. She might try more prominent breakings of the Statute. I'll do my best to keep you informed. Shall we communicate through Protean Charm, Miss Granger?"

"Hmm?" Hermione looked over and frowned.

Smirking, Lucius held up the bracelet that Verity had been wearing. He must have gotten it off her before she departed. With a sigh, Hermione checked for additional spellwork on it before accepting it from Lucius's hand.

"And here I thought you said you were going to trust me." His amusement was evident.

Snape's lack of amusement was equally so. "That doesn't mean she'll act foolishly, Lucius."

"I see." There was something in his answer to Snape that spoke of undertones to Hermione, but she had no interest in the unspoken banter between the two.

"Lucius, if you are truly going to help, then we could use some money."

Hermione stiffened at Snape's words. The very idea of blatantly asking for money— never mind having to take it from Lucius Malfoy—set her on edge.

"In what way do you need money, exactly?" Lucius asked.

"Muggle equipment, like the aforementioned laptop. Internet prominence costs money… what's it called, Hermione?"

"SEO, search engine optimization."

Snape nodded. "And a place to stay where we can run it all without running into our past-selves."

That produced a chuckle out of Lucius. "You want me to pay for the two of you to get a hotel room. Fine. All of this needs to be done with Muggle currency, correct?" And Lucius Malfoy reached into his pocket, pulled out a Muggle wallet, and handed over a silver credit card. Just like that.

"Excuse me, I need water," Hermione said before going into the kitchen alcove. Once there, she tuned out Snape and Lucius's conversation as she put water in a juice glass. Her mouth was dry from all the talking as well as from the drink she'd had in the club.

It felt good to have a plan, if her latest co-conspirator was a bit unexpected. Still, she'd recruited him herself, even after he'd tried to suffocate her. She was a bit angry with herself about that. She's known that counter-curse since 4th year, and had to be rescued by Snape like a damsel in distress. She was angry with herself for a lot of things.

Snape appeared at the entrance to the alcove. "Hermione."

"Yes, Severus?" Hermione sighed. The evening was wearing on her and she responded in kind without even thinking about it. A very slight smile appeared across his lips.

"Would you let Lucius return Verity's wand? She needs to be in possession of it when the Aurors need to find her."

"Of course." She put her hand on her back pocket, which was empty. "It's um… it's on the nightstand by the door with my keys."

"Thank you," Lucius's ingratiating drawl was back as he picked it up, and put his hand on the doorknob. "It has been… a unique evening with you, Miss Granger. I appreciate you welcoming me into your home."

Hermione decided to take the words at face value. "Thank you."

"Severus," Lucius said with a nod. "I'll be in touch."

"Have a good evening, Lucius."

"Just one more thing before I leave…" Lucius flicked the wand and was out the door, laughing when Hermione started sneezing.

==S==S==H==G==

She and Snape had been awake for … how many hours now? Over 24, that was certain. Hermione just didn't want to do the math. She'd gotten a cappuccino on their way to the library, but the lingering effects of the caffeine had worn off. She had a working plan, but to put it together required a sharper mind. She needed sleep.

"Just two hours," she said aloud as she and Snape entered their hotel room. It was probably the fanciest accommodation she'd ever had, with living room, bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms on opposite sides of the living room. She'd let Snape—no, Severus—handle the booking, and truthfully the surroundings barely registered as she immediately walked through the bedroom door on the right. The alarm clock revealed the time to be 3:30am. "An hour and a half," she corrected. "I want the counter-story out as early as possible for the beginning of the day."

"It's Saturday," Snape said. "You don't need to be up before 6 am. Let's take 2 and a half hours."

"Alright." Hermione agreed on a sigh. She turned around and gave him a sleepy smile. "Thank you."

"For what, exactly?" His voice was abrasive but Hermione didn't care. He could be abrasive all he wanted.

"For everything today… and yesterday. I'm…" Hermione actually wasn't quite sure what she was saying. Thanks for saving her life, sort of? Thanks for being trustworthy? Thanks for just being there so she wasn't doing all this alone? "We'll need to name the prankster in the morning. Something kitschy." She yawned. "Good night."

"Good night, Hermione."

"Sleep well, Severus." Hermione shut the door, set the alarm, and let herself fall face-forward onto the mattress.

(Zero)

A/N: A reader named Snapefan1983 w/o an account asked a question last week about houses which are Secret-Kept. It seems to me that a lot of Muggle-repellent magic relies on Muggle culpability. For the sake of this story, places like Hogwarts, or circumstances like the Quidditch World Cup, would be among the things that appear as shimmery mirages for minutes at a time. A Secret-Kept location, which hides from both Muggles and wizards, and requires a very specific kind of breaking, would still be in effect. However, there's a bit of chaos theory behind this, since each person's (in this case, Muggle's) mental strength is variable. Do they believe because they follow the conspiracy theorists, or because they deduced from their own conclusions? Some would see more things than others, even if they both saw the same thing minutes earlier. And what Snape and Hermione are about to put out there will further affect what Muggles see and believe, whether they are weak-minded or not.

Thanks for reading, asking questions, reviewing!