Author Note: Between work, life and trying to get the various ideas out of my head things are busy. Which is good. Here is another quickie alternative idea for the night of the wolf. BTW a brief bit of research shows the full moon of June 1994 was the 23rd, while the full moon of May that year was the 25th.
===xxx===xx(Begin)
Hermione's heart was beating fast as she tried to pick herself up. She had fallen down an embankment and twisted her ankle. She was on her hands and knees crawling for her wand when she heard a loud thump from behind herself. She glanced over her shoulder to see Professor Lupin stalking her. His transformed mind did not see her as a student and friend. She wasn't sure what he saw her as but it was not going to be good.
She had almost reached her wand when she felt the first claw rakes across her back. Tearing into her flesh, immediately followed by a fierce bite on her left thigh. She screamed as the werewolf professor's fangs sunk into her flesh.
She began to kick with her other leg, smashing him in the face over and over. Causing him to growl and rake her legs with his claws. She felt the blood pouring from her leg in fast hot spurts as her heart pounded. Just before she was ready to give up something bright and red struck the professor in the side of his head. He shook it off and turned but another burst of red light and another and another drove the professor off.
Her savior fell tot he ground beside her, revealing himself to be Harry Potter. "Harry! Where is Sirius?"
"I don't know. We got separated then you fell down the embankment so I had to double back to find you."
"But Sirius." Hermione started to say when Harry began to cut her trouser legs off.
"You're more important than he is. Why won't the bleeding stop?" Harry worriedly exclaimed.
"Its a werewolf bite. You need to put a poultice of powdered silver infused dittany on it." Hermione explained in a detached tone of voice. "I've already lost a lot of blood. I'm feeling cold and dizzy."
"I need to get you to the hospital wing."
"Its too late. Even if they save me I'll be a werewolf. They'll kick me out of Hogwarts. Take me from you." She was starting to slur her words slightly. "Around my neck. Time turner. Put chain around you and flip the hourglass. Each turn takes you back. Takes you back an hour." She was reaching for Harry.
Harry reached out and grasped her hand, her grip was weak and slick with blood but he held her hand tightly.
"Harry. Use the turner. Go back and save, save us. I lo..." Her voice faded and fell off in a long drawn out sigh. Her hand unclasped and fell limp in his hand.
Harry felt his breath catch as he waited for Hermione to say something, anything. To get up, to turn into a ghost even. Something anything but lay there in her own blood. He began to cry for a few moments before he heard the howls of Professor Lupin in the woods again, he heard the strange rasping moans of Dementors in the shadows of the forest. He realized that this time turner thing Hermione had told him about, she had wanted him to use it.
He felt awkward reaching around Hermione's neck to pull the strange object over her head. He tried to do it as gently and tenderly as he could. He was soon holding the time turner. It had a gold chain attached to two disks that could spin around each other with a small golden sparkly sand filled crystal hourglass in the middle. They were prevented from accidentally spinning by a small locking pin.
Putting the chain around his neck he paused and folded Hermione's arms over her chest and closed her eyes. He hesitated a moment then leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. Standing up he walked a few feet away. Taking a few deep breaths he unlocked the hourglass and spun it backwards. It went around several times then froze. He felt a strange tearing whirling sensation as things started reversing themselves in a blur. The moon went backwards across the sky as he could see through the trees followed by the sun rising just moments later. Soon it was hanging low in the western sky.
He looked around and Hermione's body had vanished, there was no sign of the struggle. Taking a deep breath he turned and sprinted for the castle. He knew where they would be that evening, and judging by the height of the sun he had a few minutes to get there
===xxx===xx
Harry came skidding around the corner of the corridor literally running into himself. Falling down in a tangle of arms and legs Harry rolled and tried to pick himself up.
"Blimey mate. How's there two of you?" He heard Ron exclaim.
"I used Hermione's time turner to come back." Harry panted as he stood up.
"You used my. Harry you shouldn't have done that. You've caused a major paradox." Hermione stridently said.
"Hermione I had to. I had to save your life." Harry cried out taking her arms and staring into her eyes for a moment before he composed himself.
The other Harry, the one native to this time frame asked, "Whose blood is this?" Wiping at his shirt.
Harry sighed, "Its Hermione's. Lupin forgot to take his potion tonight and transformed. He attacked and killed Hermione."
Original Harry nodded, "Okay. We need to go somewhere so you can explain all of this."
"Oh don't tell me you two are believing this codswallop are you?" Ron huffed. "I bet this is Malfoy under poly-juice."
Hermione's hand went up to her chest just below her throat with a confused look. "I don't think so Ron. Harry's wearing a time turner around his neck." She reached into her own shirt to pull out the same device.
Ron looked at the two devices around his friends' necks. He asked in a confused voice, "You really traveled time?"
"I've been doing it all year. Carrying twice the normal load of classes." Hermione confessed.
"SO that explains it." Ron glared at her through hooded eyes.
"We need to get out of the public view. Malfoy and his cronies will be along soon. They've been down to Hagrid's to torment him about Buckbeak." Harry said.
"Right. And you need to explain what happened to cause you to do this." Original Harry said.
===xxx===xx
They had stepped into an unused classroom where Harry described everything that had happened since dinner to the point where Hermione died. His voice caught several times as he told them about her death. He refused to look at Hermione when he did so.
She had tried to argue about paradox and how the Blinovitch limiting effect should have prevented all of this. Both Harry's let her wind down before smiling at her with a shrug.
"So you watched me die?"
Harry looked at the floor before nodding, "Yeah."
"I'm sorry. I suppose I can forgive you for coming back to try and save me." Hermione quietly said taking Harry's hand.
Harry looked up awkwardly and smiled at her. "Yeah. I had to."
"So. How are we going to change all of this?" She said letting go of Harry's hand with a blush.
"Well you three are the ones that are supposed to be here so you guys go down and wait until Dumbledore and the people from the Ministry show up. You'll have to sneak out the back and then use the time turner to go back and get your attention again."
"Right and what will you be doing?" Original Harry asked.
"I'll go make sure Lupin takes his potion for the night and when you get Scabbers make sure you stun him and put him someplace that will secure him."
Hermione bit her lip for a moment then grinned, "I have a plan. You go do your idea and we'll get on with ours."
"You sure?" Both Harry's asked in unison. Before chuckling at each other.
"Yes. I am." Hermione said. "Obviously either paradox is not as dangerous as they explained or this is the way the time line went. Either way there are going to be a lot of questions asked after we get done with this."
"Okay." Harry turned to leave but Original Harry stopped him.
"Better get cleaned up. If I get seen running around the school covered in blood that might cause some issues."
"Right. Even if we do wind up getting injured more often than we really should." Harry joked.
Original Harry cast a cleaning charm on his future self then once he tucked the time turner in his shirt he left.
"What you think's going to happen to him?" Ron asked watching the future Harry walk off quickly.
Hermione bit her lip, "I have no idea but I hope this works. C'mon."
===xxx===xx
Harry jogged to the Defense Office. Not bothering to knock he entered quickly and found Lavender talking to Professor Lupin.
"Harry? Is there something wrong?" Lupin asked in some concern.
"Sir I was needing to talk to you. Its about something important."
"Well as you can see I was helping Miss Brown with something." Remus stated, "Can it wait?"
"It won't sir. Its about Wormtail. I know where he is."
"I can come back later sir." Lavender suggested.
"Well I suppose so. Just remember grip and wrist action is important."
Once Lavender had left Remus gestured towards the chair. "I have so many questions about this Harry that I'm not certain where to begin so why don't you?"
"Have you taken your wolfsbane potion yet sir?" Harry countered.
Remus raised his eyebrows in surprise, "So you know about my condition?"
Harry shivered a little bit, "Uh yeah. Way too closely."
Remus examined Harry closely, "How did you find out?"
Harry sighed, he explained about the events of the evening once more. About how he had forgotten his potion and killed Hermione at the very least if not anyone else. How he was from the future and using the time turner from the dead Hermione.
"Harry you are somehow breaking every rule of time travel that has ever been discovered by the Ministry." Remus whispered in shock.
Angrily letting his voice rise Harry exclaimed, "If it saves Hermione's life I'll break any rule, do anything. So you will take you potion and curl up like a good boy in front of the fireplace or else." Harry paused a moment then added as if an afterthought. "Sir."
Remus sat and stared at him for a moment then gave him a sad smile, "Your mother had a fierce temper too."
Harry felt a bit of regret for snapping at his dad's friend like that. "I'm sorry sir. I. I have strong feelings for Hermione. I'm not sure what they are yet but I do know that I won't just stand by and let her die. It hurt too much watching her die like that."
Remus took a deep breath then nodded, "I think you know what your feelings are, you just haven't accepted them yet. When Severus gets here you can watch me take the potion and then do what you must to help them. Although depending on how things go you might not exist once you reach the point where you came back in time."
Harry shrugged, "I have no idea."
===xxx===xx
The trio had gone to Hagrid's hut. Sitting and chatting with him sympathetically about the fate of Buckbeak and how unfair it was. Hermione had told Harry to keep a watch out of the window for the executioner's party.
When Hagrid gave Scabbers back to Ron he tried to look excited but finding out that this was the man who had killed his friend's parents made him feel awkward and unclean. Hagrid misunderstood that as being upset still about Crookshanks.
"They're coming." Harry called out from his position by the window.
"Blimey. You three need to nip out the back. You. You shouldn't be here for this." Hagrid sniffled.
"Take care Hagrid. Things have a way of working out." Hermione said.
The trio snuck out the back as the the Headmaster and the Minister and executioner came in the front door. They ran over into the edge of the forest before Hermione sent Harry to retrieve Buckbeak while she stunned Scabbers into submission. She then took a nut and transfigured it into a small cage to put him within.
"Okay rat secured and here comes Harry with Buckbeak." Hermione proudly declared.
"Right now what?" Ron asked as Harry stroked Buckbeak's neck.
"Well Sirius intercepts you near the Whomping Willow and drags you into the Shrieking Shack, Ron. So we should avoid that area. We need to keep Buckbeak hidden until after dark so we stay in the forest."
"Well why don't we use that time turner thing to go back and give the rat to Dumbledore and get Sirius before all this began." Ron suggested.
"One it only goes back five hours at most, two there have already been too many paradoxes formed tonight I'm sure. If we keep pushing our luck we could rip space time into shreds and three if we did go back and change the past too much who knows what sort of ripple effect that could have."
"Now you care about paradoxes. You've been using that thing all year." Ron huffed, "You realize what we could have done with that thing?"
"Exactly why you were not told about it. I was sworn to secrecy by the headmaster and given a comprehensive set of rules to avoid paradox and damaging the time stream." She glared at Ron.
"Okay you two. Just relax. We have several hours before we can go back and deal with any of this." Harry sighed sitting on a rock beside Hermione.
===xxx===xx
Harry was sitting chatting with Professor Lupin when Snape entered the room. He was bearing a smoking cup of a foul smelling liquid. He looked at Harry in surprise but said nothing to him. Sneering at Remus he set the cup on his desk, "Now make sure you get it all drunk. It'll put hair on your chest." He then left snickering to himself.
Remus rolled his eyes but picked cup up and swallowed the contents as quickly as he could. "Oh that is foulsome but there isn't much you can do with it. Sugar makes it not work at all."
"So you're set for the night?" Harry confirmed.
"Yes Harry. I will be as docile as a sheep. Good luck with everything else though."
"Thank you sir. At least you won't be killing anyone tonight."
"Thank heaven." Remus heartfeltly sighed as he yawned and stumbled off for his bedroom.
Harry waited a moment until he heard the professor deeply snoring. He turned and left heading to find Sirius. He knew that he should be waiting for them to come back not far from the whomping willow. He'd have to go get his invisibility cloak for the next idea to work.
Entering the common room he was able to evade or otherwise be ignored by most of the people in the room. Entering the dorm Neville was sitting up reading a book.
"Hey Harry. I thought you were with Hermione and Ron."
"I am. You didn't see me okay?"
Neville sighed, "Oh Rule breaking again?"
"You have no idea how much." Harry said pulling his invisibility cloak out of the trunk, "Just forget you saw me okay?"
Neville shrugged. "Okay fine. But one of these days I'd really appreciate it if you'd explain what's going on around here."
As Harry left he gave a sarcastic laugh, "When I figure it out I'll let you know."
Neville shook his head as he went back to his book muttering, "When he figures it out I'll be older than Dumbledore."
===xxx===xx
Harry moved through the school under his cloak, thinking briefly that since he was from the future was this his cloak or was this the Harry who was supposed to be here. He chuckled as he thought about the conversation with Hermione this would cause. He scared a first year Hufflepuff when he laughed out loud at the thought of what the Dursleys would do if two of him came back from the school. He realized he needed to get himself back in focus and find Sirius before he did vanish or who knows what would happen.
Moving outside he went to the area where they had been jumped by Sirius earlier tonight. Moving carefully and quietly he eventually found the animagus in his hound form. Thinking about the situation he didn't know any spells that would let him quickly capture the man. Especially as he was a fully trained and probably a bit mental wizard.
Harry got as close as he could before flipping the hood of his cloak back, Hissing quietly "Sirius. Sirius don't run. It's me Harry."
The dog spun growling briefly before he froze. Staring at Harry the dog shifted back to the human, "Harry?" He awkwardly called out.
"Yeah its me." Harry said taking the cloak off. Standing in the moonlight he saw the face of Sirius tremble as he fought back tears.
"Harry. We need to find him. He's around here somewhere."
"We have him Sirius. We have him." Harry reassured his godfather.
"You have him? I need to see him. I need to kill him. To punish him for what he did!" Sirius had stepped forward and grabbed Harry by the arms.
Harry pushed back causing the bigger man to fall down, that reminded Harry of how fragile he was. "Look you need to go to the hospital wing. Take the cloak and go there. Find the Headmaster and get the help you need. Please Sirius. Go get the help you need. I'll take care of him. I'll bring him to justice."
Sirius looked at Harry before nodding, "You'll do that. You'll take care of him for me?"
"Yeah Sirius. It'll be okay." Harry smiled holding the cloak out. "Just go get the help you need, for me please."
Sirius cried.
===xxx===xx
The trio were sitting around awkwardly quiet waiting as the sun continued to set. Hermione and Ron had argued several times about how useful the time turner would have been or how much Hermione had been annoying for not telling them. When Harry told Ron to sod off and shut it as he had been helping hide the person who killed his parents Ron did look properly abashed at least. When the moon rose they untied Buckbeak and let him go free.
"So you think it's safe to go back to the castle by now?" Ron asked.
"Let's give it a few more minutes." Harry suggested
Ron sighed as he looked at Harry and Hermione who were sitting staring off into the gloom of the forest without looking at each other. "You know you're going to have to talk about this with each other at some point."
Hermione frowned at Ron but said nothing. Harry sighed, "What's there to talk about."
Ron snorted in derision, "Like the fact you came back to save Hermione's life. How excited you were to see her alive."
Harry shrugged, "Of course he'd be excited to see her alive, he'd watched her die." His voice carried the tone that he was not as unaffected by that thought as he was trying to pretend to be.
Hermione looked up with a gentle smile, "Harry he's you. Just from several hours in the future."
"I guess. I just feel like I'm me so he can't be me." Harry frowned.
"That's one of the reasons why the Department of Mysteries doesn't recommend people time travel and contact themselves." Hermione stated.
"Still Harry, the other Harry was awfully excited to see you Hermione." Ron pointed out.
"Well if I did watch Hermione die I would be upset. Then if I did come back from the future I'd be very excited to see her alive. What else would you expect?" Harry stated with some heat.
Ron grinned at them but stopped talking. If Harry was going to ignore or pretend to ignore this he wasn't going to push him. Although with the way Hermione kept looking at Harry approvingly Ron thought she had figured it out. He sighed and considered what other girls were attractive and interesting.
Future Harry showed up a few moments later.
"Did you get the rat?" He demanded.
"Yeah we did." Hermione said holding up the nut cage.
"Good job, Professor Lupin is asleep in his office and Sirius should be in the hospital by now." Future Harry said quickly.
"Okay. We better get this guy up to the headmaster. Hopefully this'll get Sirius exonerated." Harry declared.
"Ron could you give us a moment please?" Future Harry asked.
Ron nodded, "Yeah, sure. I'll be up that way a bit okay?" He said.
Once Ron was a bit out of ear shot Future Harry winced a bit with a groan.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked quickly.
"I'm not feeling so good." Future Harry grunted, "I think its getting close to the time I went back originally."
"Oh. I don't know what'll happen." Hermione confessed working her lip over.
Future Harry smiled at the two of them, "Its okay. I saved your life. That's all that mattered."
Hermione smiled then gave Future Harry a hug, "Thank you. I'll always appreciate that."
Future Harry hugged her back then gave a shuddering gasp. "Look I don't know how much time I have left. But If he won't tell you I will." Future Harry threw a nod at Harry, "I like you a lot. I think it might be love. I don't know. I'm not sure what love is really. And I know you were trying to tell me something when you died. I hope it was that you felt the same about me."
Looking at Future Harry with tears starting to roll down her cheeks Hermione nodded, "I think I'm beginning to have feelings for you too. I might even describe them as love."
Future Harry smiled with watery eyes at her, "Thank you." He grimaced and collapsed to his knees before gasping, "I think its time to go. Looks like you were right Hermione." Future Harry collapsed to the ground.
Hermione knelt to hold Future Harry's head. "Thank you Harry. Thank you for all you've done."
Future Harry smiled then looked past her to the sky before he got a curious expression and said in a soft tone, "Oh, that's interesting." as he faded out of existence.
Harry knelt beside the crying girl not sure what to do he took her hand and helped her stand. With his free hand he picked up the cage with the sleeping rat-man. Turning they walked down the path to join Ron on the journey to the castle and the future.
===xxx===xx(Review Responses)
OfficerDonNZ: Glad you liked some of it at least. I did try to add some humor in it for everyone. Its all cool not to like big girls, there are plenty of beautiful people of all sizes to love.
Manwe Illuvatarian: yes it was. Glad you enjoyed.
Dennisud: That might happen. Who knows. True it was a bit over the top but then that was the goal I was aiming for. Glad you enjoyed.
IdlemanRPG: True it was just an odd idea I had after seeing this one girl at the Burger King, mostly, in a sundress. As for the going back to their original sizes I flipped a coin so blame the fates. Lol.