Chapter 5
Hermione sat forward in her chair, as she fiddled with the hem of her shirt slightly. Scorpius was still squirming around in her lap, and while it was a strange sensation, it was not an unpleasant one. She didn't miss the glances Malfoy sent her way as he watched her and their apparently son interact, but she tried not to put too much stock into it as she settled for simply holding the child closely to make sure he didn't accidently fall off the chair. The last thing she needed was to injure him after being a mother for all of a few hours.
"We don't really know much of how it began," James spoke softly, as he began to explain to them what had happened to cause the children to come back. "We were really young when it started, and to be fair, I don't know if any of you guys made all the connections in the early stages. There were a series of strange things happening over the world, and it seemed like they were random things that happened. But we remember what happened in the last year or so. That was when it started to get really bad."
Hugo whimpered slightly, and Hermione could see fear in his eyes as he seemed to be thinking about a fact that he had tried very hard to forget. Ginny noticed it too, and she placed a comforting arm around her future nephew to hold him tenderly. The boy seemed to relax slightly at that, but it hadn't changed his demeanor much.
She half wanted to stop and take the other two boys out of the room while James spoke, but she figured it would be best to separate them as little as possible after everything that had happened, to offer them a little bit of stability in their lives.
"Dad said it wasn't safe after a while for us to go out to Diagon Alley anymore," James continued. "We only ever went to the homes of our family. Aunt 'Mione told us one day that we had to promise to be careful with everything we did. After a while you stopped going to work too, and even though you wouldn't tell us what was happening, we knew that it was really bad."
"I stopped going to work?" Harry asked, slightly worried. Hermione could understand. Harry's job might have been offered to him for his efforts during the war, but it was clear to everyone that he deserved it. He worked hard every day, and had helped with the capture of numerous Death Eaters. For him to stop going to work meant that whatever was happening in their world would have been of disastrous consequences.
James simply shook his head, "All of you stopped working. It was terrible for you. Aunt Mione and Mom hated being cooped up all day, and Uncle Ron used to borrow Dad's cloak to try and go out without being spotted by them…" he said, voice trailing off. She gave Malfoy a worried glance as Scorpius began to squirm in her lap as he tried to occupy himself with playing with her hair.
Hugo started crying softly, and the room grew very silent, wondering what would cause such a reaction. The six year old reached for Ron, and while her friend looked highly uncomfortable with the tears, he picked up the boy from his chair and held him tightly against his chest to offer a bit of comfort for the child.
"It's okay, Buddy," Ron tried to console him. "You're safe now. I got you," he said, rubbing the young child's back.
"Uncle Ron, you died during one of those outings," James whispered softly. "It's been weird seeing you back here. And it's been really hard on Hugo. He was only four when it happened and he didn't understand at first, and Aunt Luna tried to explain to him that he was gone, but it took a while. He didn't get that you were gone. I don't think he still understands what it meant, but he knows he didn't see you every day, and that hurt him a lot."
Ron was silent at that, and she could see him look upset. She didn't really blame him too much. While she suspected that something could have happened to her in the future, it hadn't been confirmed like Ron's had.
He settled for holding his child tighter, to reassure both of them that he was currently alive and well. Harry wrapped his arm around his wife who was shaking slightly at the news of her brother. She felt it too; the fear that if it happened once, it was possible it could again. Sure, now that the kids were here everything would be different, but that didn't mean that certain things wouldn't happen again. And that thought was terrifying. What if they failed again?
"Dad was the most upset by everything," James said as he glanced at his father. "You blamed yourself for allowing him to go out by himself. You thought you were letting him get some freedom by leaving, and when he died, you blamed yourself for not stopping it. You became reckless with your actions; seeking fights with anyone and everyone you suspected of being involved. And it ended up costing you movement in your legs."
Harry choked slightly at that, and Hermione frowned at the idea that her friend could become paralyzed. It was a painful thought and she wasn't quite sure how to deal with it. Ginny looked extremely upset as she held her husband's hand softly.
She looked down to see Scorpius, who had gotten very quiet, clinging on to her tightly, refusing to let go. He had turned around so that he could press his tiny body into her chest, and she wrapped her arms around his back instinctively and pulled him in closely. She wondered if it was a good idea for him to be in the room at the moment. While James was only a few years older than her own child, he was handling everything the best out of the children. Her heart broke for him having to mature far beyond his years to deal with everything that had happened. She had often hoped, when she thought about the future, that her own kids would never have to prematurely face things that were as harsh of a reality as what she and her friends dealt with.
Malfoy looked worried as well; he reached over slightly and stroked Scorpius' hair in an effort to comfort him slightly.
It was almost as if for yesterday Scorpius had felt as if he were living in a dream where everything was fine again, but with James talking about all that had happened, her son was reliving what he had desperately tried to forget.
She held him tighter and softly whispered reassuring things to him. Hugo wasn't doing much better himself and Ron looked helpless to his plight.
"How did you come back here?" Hermione asked, to try and save the children any more trauma or pain.
"We were at your house, playing with toys when you ran into the room," James said to her. "You had been really badly hurt, but were trying to seem like nothing was wrong. You had a potion in your hand and said it was important that we drank it right then. It smelled terrible, but you said it was really important," James hesitated. "I think something happened to Uncle Draco, because you were crying, from more than just pain."
Malfoy squirmed nervously beside her, and she wanted to reassure him as well. She figured that if she had been badly injured in the future then she didn't think she would have a lot of time left. Had she known she wouldn't make it? Did she send them back because she was dying, and her husband was already gone, to given them a chance to change things?
"Where was I?" Harry asked softly.
"Gone," James said hollowly. "We were at her house because you and Mum were targeted a few days before. You were gone."
Harry looked at his wife, whose hormones must have kicked in, because she was crying silently. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in tenderly. With his other hand, he pulled James in against him as well, to offer comfort to his child.
Malfoy kept rubbing Scorpius' back, in an attempt to soothe the two of them, and she didn't try to stop him.
They still didn't know what had happened in the world to cause the events to unravel as they did, nor did they know who was responsible. But they did know their fates, and that their children came back to the past to try and stop it.
Her arms tightened against her child and Scorpius simply hugged her back.
It still was a strange concept that the blonde in front of her could be hers, and she had yet to think of what it meant. She knew she would have to eventually tell others what happened, and she wasn't quite sure how to explain that apparently she had a child with Malfoy.
She had never been against motherhood, and children were always something she wanted. She might not have been ready for it, but it felt right to have him here in her lap. She cared for the child deeply and it had barely been twelve hours since everything had happened.
If there was one thing she knew, it was that she was going to try her hardest to put a stop to the way the future was meant to turn out. She would keep her life, her friends' and her family's. If she could help it, no one would be dying any time soon.
Hermione stood beside Harry outside the Burrow as they knocked on the door. Ginny had stayed home with Malfoy and Ron to keep the children occupied while they went to inform the remnants of the Order what had happened. While it was important to keep the news that the children had come had come back to the past, if they wanted any sort of a chance of preventing that future from happening, they would need all the help they could get. They had already sent out letters asking everyone to gather at the Burrow, saying that there was something they needed to talk to them about, but due to fear of interception, they didn't provide much more details.
"It's going to be okay, Hermione," Harry reassured her softly.
"How do you know?" she said in a soft voice. "You know how the Weasleys feel about the Malfoys! I'm surprised Ron hasn't tried to hex Malfoy already for apparently being married to me in the future. What if they want nothing to do with me because of it? You know Molly has been secretly hoping Ron and I would get back together! You see her at every social gathering finding reasons to try and put us together, either seating wise or in terms of chores, hoping it will lead to reconciliation."
"Because they love you," Harry said firmly. "They love you regardless of whether you're with Ron or not. And maybe they might be upset that you're with Malfoy, but they wouldn't hate you for that. He's a good guy, Hermione. He's had a rough couple of years, but he's proved over and over again that he's changed. It surprises me every day to see how far he's come, but he's a good person. Otherwise I would have been the first person on the list to kill him for finding out that he apparently marries you."
She smiled at that as she reached up to knock on the door. When Molly opened the door, she instantly looked worried at the sight of them.
"What is it? Is everything alright? Did something happen to Ginny?" she asked, sounding flustered as the first thought seemed to rush to her mind, despite being informed why they were coming.
"She's fine," Harry assured his Mother-In-Law. "We just needed to talk to everyone about what's been happening since yesterday. There have been some developments that I thought we should share."
Molly seemed relieved, "Ah your letter. Well come in, come in," she ushered as she lead them to the kitchen.
Hermione sat in a free seat as Harry leaned against a counter. It didn't take long for the rest of the Weasleys, McGonagall and a few others to make an appearance, and within half an hour, everyone was seated and ready to go.
She and Harry were sitting beside each other at the long table as the others faced them.
"So I suppose you're going to tell us what the hell happened yesterday?" George asked, a brow raised.
Harry nodded slightly as he spoke, "First I need you to know that what we're about to tell you is confidential. No one can know anything said in this room if they weren't present. The public will not be privy to this, and only to details of what happened in a vague general sense."
She saw nods of understanding around the room as she spoke next, "The earthquake, the discharge of magic, all of it was the result of a potion."
"Like an explosion?" Bill asked as Fleur worriedly placed an arm around her husband.
"A time-travel potion of sorts," she corrected. "The discharge was the result of a future reality collapsing."
"Does that mean someone came from the past?" the Headmistress of Hogwarts asked with a frown.
"From the future," Harry said, "And not a person, but people who came from the future; more specifically, three children arrived last night at Malfoy Manor."
The air around the room became dark as the minds of the people automatically jumped to the worst possible scenario.
"It wasn't his fault," Hermione rushed to say, to stop their train of thought. "Malfoy had no part in it. He didn't even know what happened until after he arrived."
"How can you be so sure?" Charlie asked with a frown.
"Because of who the children are," Hermione informed them. When they looked at her expectantly she said, "They're our children. Harry, Mine, and Ron's sons all came back from the future. Malfoy, or the one here at least, didn't have a part in them coming back."
"Each of us had a child appear," Harry continued. "It wasn't dark magic that brought them back, since from what we can tell, Hermione was the one who sent them back in the first place."
"Why would you have needed to have done so?" Molly asked, wrinkles showing up on her face as her forehead creased.
Harry and Hermione exchanged a look before she said, "I don't know. We still have no idea what happened to cause us to send them back. But whatever it was had devastating consequences. There were…a lot of personal loses."
Harry wrapped an arm around her softly and Arthur was one of the people in the room who looked upset at the news.
"What does Malfoy have to do with all of this?" Percy asked. "How do you know he wasn't the reason something happened in the future?"
"Because…" Hermione's voice trailed off as she helplessly looked at Harry for help.
"Because he's the father of Hermione's future son," Harry filled in for her, earning gasps around the room.
Molly looked devastated but she tried to cover it up as she realised what Hermione had been fretting about earlier.
"I can't believe you marry him!" George exclaimed in surprise. "I mean from all the tension between the two of you at school, the idea of you two being married is just so-"
"Weird," Bill filled in.
"Strange," Charlie added.
"Unpredictable," Percy said solemnly.
She couldn't help but smile at that, "Trust me, I know. We're not even sure that we'll be even friends in this time line, so nothing to worry about," she said. Hermione was relieved to see that no one was getting up and accusing her of 'sleeping with the enemy' or something along those lines.
While the Weasley family was quick to anger with their short tempers, she could tell that in the years following the war, they had all matured greatly. And for that she was thankful. While she and her parents were on speaking terms, they didn't always understand her life or her choices. They tried their best to comprehend different things that happened in her life that were magic related, but it wasn't the same because they could never quite be sure the significance of certain things.
It was probably why she felt so close to Harry and the Weasley family; because they had been there for her and helped her when she needed it. It had been slightly weird the first few weeks at the Burrow after her break up with Ron, especially with Molly's attempts at meddling, but they had been there for her despite it all.
"So what's our next move?" McGonagall asked, bringing the meeting back to the original direction it had been heading.
"We need to see their memories. Maybe the children know something that they've seen or heard but couldn't fully process it at the time. Hopefully we can get a better idea of what's happening," Hermione informed the group. "Then we have to see where to go from there."
Harry nodded, "Can some of you look into other channels to see what others know as well. I want to know what others are speculating about what happened. Maybe whoever causes the future to turn to shit already has something up their sleeves and we can learn something about it."
The room buzzed silently, and Hermione could tell that the meeting had come to an end. She and Harry stood to leave, saying their good byes to the others, before leaving the room and apparating back to her friend's home.