Disclaimer: JK owns HP. always.
1989
Chapter 7
It was late Friday evening, or more likely very early in the morning on Saturday, and Hermione was the only one still awake in the common room. She'd been attempting to keep Charlie off her mind since his angry departure from the Library earlier in the week, but she wasn't having any luck. He had stopped seeking her out and started avoiding her instead.
She should be glad that he had decided to ignore her. It would be better in the long run if he forgot about her and moved on with his life, but it seemed that in itself is what was keeping Hermione up so late the evening before she was supposed to meet with Dumbledore and the time turner expert.
Deep down she didn't want Charlie to forget about her. As much as she wanted to keep her distance, she was beginning to grow attached to him, and wanted him to feel the same about her. She briefly wondered what future Charlie would say when she returned to her own time. Would he remember Jean Walters, or would she just be a long forgotten memory?
As these thoughts took over her studying, a sudden scuffling noise brought her back to reality. Hermione stood from her armchair by the fire and looked around. As far as she could tell she was alone, but there was still that same shuffling noise which she now realized was coming from the far wall.
"Lumos." She held her wand out as she approached the noise.
With the extra light she could suddenly see two small eyes turn toward her, and then try to scurry away in the opposite direction. In one swift movement she reached down, and caught the small rodent by the tail, letting it hang upside down in the air by her fingers. It squealed in protest and tried to wiggle free without success.
Her blood instantly began to boil as she looked at the familiar rat with only nine front toes. "I know exactly who you are, you slimy little rat bastard." She seethed at it. "Be glad I'm too smart to try and change the past you despicable-"
"Jean?" Charlie was suddenly at the bottom of the stairs several feet behind her.
Hermione turned abruptly toward him, with Scabbers still dangling from her fingertips.
"Are you... are you talking to my brother's rat?" He was looking back and forth between her and the startled rodent with narrowed eyes.
She gulped, knowing she had been caught red handed. "Oh, is this Percy's?"
"Yeah." He confirmed, still looking at her as if she had a third eye. "How did you know which brother I was referring to?"
"Lucky guess?" She lied unconvincingly. She let the terrified animagus return to the floor where he scurried underneath the closest piece of furniture.
He stared at her blankly for a few moments before turning to go back up the stairs. "I have not had enough sleep for this."
Hermione suddenly felt empty. She didn't want to leave things this way.
"It's not that I don't want to tell you why I'm so strange Charlie." She called after him.
He stopped abruptly but didn't turn around to face her.
"It's that I'm not allowed to." She continued. "Not yet at least. Very bad things could happen if anyone finds out where I really came from."
His head snapped toward her at that admission. "So Ilvermorny was a lie then?"
She nodded and bit her lower lip.
"But that's all you can tell me isn't it?"
Hermione nodded again. "For now."
"If not now?" He asked. "Then when?"
"I'm not sure." She responded honestly, hoping he would see how sincere she was being. "But I promise one day we will talk about this, and we will laugh at this entire situation."
"I find that very, very hard to believe." He stared at her as if he was trying to read her for a minute but eventually gave up. "I've got Quidditch tryouts to run in the morning...Goodnight Jean."
And with that, he left her and a very terrified Peter Pettigrew alone once more.
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Early the next morning, Hermione went through her things to make sure she had everything packed into her trusty beaded bag. If Mr. Harper, the time-turner specialist, was able to fix her broken one on the spot she wanted to be ready to leave immediately. She had everything prepared for her return trip, and knew what she needed to do once she got there. She had to make sure she ended up with the diadem, and Malfoy ended up incarcerated.
If things went as she hoped, she would be the victor in that particular duel, and she'd be having that conversation with a much older Charlie Weasley by the time her day was over. This made her realize that if she made it back to 1998 today, she would never see this Charlie again. He would be twenty-six the next time she saw him. For some reason this saddened her more than she thought it would.
Checking her watch, she saw it was just past nine; he would already be down at the pitch starting tryouts. Realizing that she still had almost four hours until she needed to be in Dumbledore's office, she decided to go watch his tryouts after all. It would possibly be her only chance to say goodbye to him. She knew it was silly, and he would be better off if she left without a word, but she just couldn't bring herself to leave things the way they were. So with her freshly packed bag of belongings thrown over one arm, she exited the portrait of the fat lady for what she hoped would be the last time.
Fifteen minutes later, she joined the group of Gryffindors that had gathered in the stands to watch. Lilac Brown was giving her a distasteful glare, but she ignored it, instead deciding to focus on Charlie. He was currently busy trying to shoo Fred and George away from the beaters bats for what she assumed was not the first time that morning. They weren't allowed to try out this year, and Charlie was keeping the same beaters from the year before anyway.
A very young looking Oliver Wood was hovering on his broom in the center of the goal posts; he was obviously next to tryout for the keeper position. By the looks of things she had already missed one or two of the candidates, but it didn't matter because she knew that the one currently guarding the hoops would be the one to win the position.
As Charlie began to bark orders at his two current chasers, Hermione realized why he had been the one chosen for captain. He owned the game, and knew exactly what he was looking for in his teammates. She recalled Ron saying that he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons, and she could now tell why. He was a very good flyer, almost as good as she remembered Viktor Krum had been when she'd attended the World Cup a few years ago.
Just as expected, Oliver caught all the quaffles the chasers sent his way. One by one he blocked the hoops as they attempted to get one past him. Hermione clapped loudly for him as he saved the last one and then did a victory lap before landing.
The next four candidates were all different levels of mediocre. Somewhat decent, but nowhere near on the level of Wood. She was not surprised that he'd beat out the competition this year and would eventually play for Puddlemere.
The final keeper tryout for the day was the Irishman Hermione had seen Charlie interact with the most since she'd arrived to the past. Devon was his name if she remembered correctly from classes. As the chasers attempted to get the quaffles through the hoops, he blocked them as easily as Oliver had. Seeing how close they were on skill level made Hermione wonder why Charlie would end up picking the younger man over his best friend, but she assumed she'd either find out later or it wouldn't matter anymore if she returned to her time.
The chaser's tryouts were next. Two seventh years were guaranteed their spots because they'd played for the past few years already, but the third spot was vacant. The chatter that surrounded her implied that the empty spot would likely go to the previous year's alternate chaser. She had apparently helped them win significantly against Slytherin in the one game she had subbed in for.
As the tryouts continued she could clearly see the chatter had been correct. Seventh year Avery Dawson was not only better than the other candidates, but probably better than the two other chasers already on the team as well. There was no doubt that Charlie would choose her, so that only left him with the dilemma of choosing Oliver over Devon.
Eventually the tryouts came to an end, and all the candidates for both positions gathered around Charlie. Knowing once he dismissed them that she would only have a short window to get his attention before he headed to the showers, Hermione left the stands to position herself on the sidelines.
"Thank you all for trying out today." Charlie called out loud for everyone to hear. "I am sure I would be proud to play with any one of you this year, but there are only two positions. I don't want to be too hasty with my final picks, so I have some options to think over. I will announce my selections for keeper and chaser, and the alternates as well, on Monday after dinner."
After he dismissed them, he began to head to where he kept his bag. Realizing she wouldn't have much time to catch up to him before he left the area, Hermione started to run, as he was a good fifty yards away from her. He wiped the sweat from his forehead before grabbing his magically cold water bottle from the bench.
When Hermione finally reached him, he was still taking a long swig from it. "Could I speak to you alone for a few minutes?" She asked timidly, for some reason losing her nerve a little.
"Jean?" He looked up, surprised as he turned toward her. "You came after all."
"I did." She tucked a flyaway curl behind her ear. "I wanted to see you before going to Dumbledore's office."
"Oh?" He asked apprehensively. "And are you going to be honest and tell me what it is you're going there for?"
"Dumbledore is trying to help me." She answered.
"Well, there you go being vague and mysterious again." He was clearly still annoyed with her and started to walk toward the castle, away from her.
She was desperate to right things before she left, so she ended up saying the first thing that came to mind. "Charlie, I'm in trouble."
"What?" He softened to her for the first time in days, as he turned and came back to stand in front of her. "What kind of trouble?"
"The kind of trouble that left me with no choice but to come to Hogwarts without the pieces of my broken wand." She finally revealed that something really was wrong with her being here at Hogwarts in 1989.
"Was someone hurting you?" He asked, and she could tell he was truly concerned about her.
"I can't answer that without being vague again, which will only frustrate you further." She cut him off. "Dumbledore is doing what he can to help me, which is why I have a meeting in his office. Depending on how things go I might end up going back home."
"Oh." He looked disappointed. "And you won't be coming back here will you?"
"No. I won't be." She admitted solemnly. "Which is why I wanted to come say goodbye to you. Just in case."
Charlie didn't seem to know what to say for a long pause. "So, this might be it?"
"I'm not sure. If Dumbledore's help works, yes I would be leaving immediately. Part of me hopes it does so I can get home." She admitted honestly. "But I really didn't want to leave without saying goodbye to you."
He still looked disappointed but he gave her a warm smile anyway. "I'm glad you did."
"You don't have to look so down about me leaving though." She stepped forward as she attempted to cheer him up. "I'm sure we will see each other again someday."
"You don't know that." He sighed as he brushed the same curl behind her ear again, causing the butterflies in her stomach to go into overdrive.
"I'm fairly certain I do." She flashed him a coy smile before placing a small kiss to his cheek. "I'm glad I met you Charlie Weasley."
"Me too, Jean." He said, as she stepped away from him again and left to go to Dumbledore's office as planned. "Me too."