Chapter 16:
Once they had successfully returned to 1993, the duo began the long trudge up to the hospital wing. Something must have taken pity on them because they met no one along the way, except a wayward ghost who gave them an odd look before darting through a wall.
Hermione stopped him outside the door to the hospital wing. "We can't go in there looking like this." She gave a sweeping gesture to their grass stained and sweat soaked clothing. "Tergeo" she muttered.
Clothing fixed, they crept back to Harry's bed and retook their positions, where they had been not even an hour ago from their perspective.
Hermione twirled the flower she had taken from the meadow, that used to be where she was currently sitting. Neither of them knew what to say.
Harry broke first, desperate to fill the silence. "Earlier, in the classroom, you were wearing a necklace, it was glowing green? What was it?"
"Oh" she looked down, clearly not expecting that line of questioning. She pulled out a gold chain with what looked like a little hourglass on the end. "It's a time turner. Professor McGonagall gave it to me to help me keep up with my workload and go to all my classes. It lets you travel up to five hours into the past." She started to chuckle. "And it sounded so impressive at the time! Me going back five hours! Can you imagine that?"
They both burst out laughing. It wasn't funny laughter; it was more bordering on hysterical. Like they needed to fill the silence with something.
"And to get it, I had to sign all these forms and sit through a lecture on the dangers of time travel. How I should never even think about changing anything or go back further than fours. And here I am, holding a freshly picked flower from 503 AD, having seen the damn castle being built. I think I want to wake up now Harry. This has been a good dream, but I think its time."
She looked around, the laughter still echoing and sighed. "It's not a dream, is it?"
"No, I think it's real."
"Harry? How are we going to explain this to Dumbledore?"
"Explain what?"
"This! The whole-Time Stone thing? The trip we just took? How are we going to explain that in the morning?"
"I wasn't planning to explain anything. I wasn't going to tell him."
Hermione looked shocked. "But you cracked the secret to time travel! True, unlimited time travel! Not this silly thing." She shook the Time Turner for emphasis. "You are just going to keep that to yourself? You could benefit everyone! Think of the applications! Think of the magical discoveries"
"Hermione…"
She was on a roll now. "It's so dangerous! We got lucky this time but what if we had been stuck there? Or our bodies got warped by traveling together? Or we overshot by thousands of years to a dead earth. Or…"
"Hermione."
"And what about that purple guy? People aren't purple. I could feel him in my head! What was that about? That wasn't normal..."
"HERMIONE!" She trailed off.
"It's alright, can I just explain what I'm not giving it up before you jump down my throat?"
She nodded.
"Ok well I can't actually explain the purple guy. I haven't ever seen him before now. I only just learned his name. You will know as soon as I do. I was hoping for some help with that research."
She nodded absently, more at the mere prospect of research than actually considering the topic.
"As for everything else. This thing, this stone, it's part of a set. Infinity Stones they are called. There are six of them. I read about them in that journal I was telling you about earlier. With those stones, you could do anything. I mean literally anything. One of the stones lets you rewrite the laws of reality, so if you wanted you could get rid of gravity. Snap of your fingers, no more gravity."
"So you would be God?"
"Yeah, in a way"
"But why would you want that much power? I mean you specifically. You hate being famous in one country. Why would you want to be God?"
"I don't want to be god. I just want the ability to defend myself."
"Ok you're going to have to explain that one for me."
"My whole life, I have felt weak, powerless. Picked on by my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, even the adults at my old school picked on me. Worse they pitied me. 'Oh look there goes that poor Potter boy in his rags, with his broken glasses. His parents are dead the poor dear He's so small and skinny, practically a waif.'"
"Then I found out I was a wizard, and I thought things would be different. Here was this thing that would finally give me a leg up. I had the power, and I wasn't ever going to be pushed around again. But then, oh no, when I got here, I found there were bullies and madmen who could do magic I can only dream of. And they use that magic to pick on the weak. And to come after me. So I needed to be better to survive, but there is no way to close the gap with adult wizards who have decades on me."
He released a breath he had been holding. "Hermione, I'm 13 years old. I have almost been murdered by the same man three separate times so far. And now he's sent his man Sirus Black after me to finish the job. At this rate, I won't live to graduate let alone see twenty. I need an edge, something no one else has or I will die. I. Will. Die. And so will every other muggle born if he wins So I picked the most powerful thing I could find. I need those stones; I just need them. Do you understand."
Hermione was ashen. "Let's say I agree with you that your outmatched and need to find these things. Hypothetically. How could involving Professor Dumbledore possibly hurt? There is literally no downside. These stones could be anywhere in England, heck anywhere in the world! You will never find them. You were lucky, absurdly lucky to find this one. If these things are so essential to you surviving, we need to involve Professor Dumbledore. And Professor McGonagall. And anyone else we can find."
"I don't trust anyone with that much power, minus the two people sitting by this bed. Oh, and Ron of course. If we tell people, that will try to cheat us."
"Ok then, just Dumbledore. We can trust him right?"
"If we involve him, I will never see the stone again. He will thank me, take the stone, and I will never hear about it again. I can guarantee you."
"If you just explained, I'm sure he wouldn't…"
"Oh yes he will. He still considers me a child. He's the one who keeps insisting I go back to the Dursley. Nice and ignorant."
Hermione looked stumped but still not convinced. "I think you are underestimating him. He's a good man, a professor for Morganna's sake. I think it would be so helpful to have his expertise."
Harry sighed. Clearly, he wasn't going to get through to her on the whole professor doesn't always equal good thing. It looked like he would have to try the carrot.
"Look I'll make you a deal. If you don't tell Dumbledore, I will share Slytherin's journal with you. Think about it, all that ancient firsthand knowledge at your fingertips." He tried to sound enticing.
"That deal does nothing for me. You were going to share that with me anyway. I would have nagged you until you handed it over or I would have stolen it. Either way I'm going to read that journal."
Damn she was right. He needed something else. He needed more time to think of something. Huh. More time…
"How about this. You are drowning in your classes. Drowning. Too many classes, too much homework not enough time. You need more hours in the day, I need practice with the stone. We can do both."
She looked skeptical "Go on"
"How about this? Every Friday, I'll stop time for you and me as long as I'm able. That way you have all the time in the world to do homework and write your essays. Maybe even sleep in there. You get your extra time, I get my practice. Everybody wins. But not if I have to hand the stone over to Dumbledore."
She looked tempted, really tempted. "You can do that? Just stop time?"
"I won't know till I try, but yeah I think I can." Harry felt like an asshole, but he knew he had to drive this home before she changed her mind, and that involved hitting her insecurities. "Look, I know your homework isn't up to your standards lately. There is too much of it to do perfect. Think about how much effort you could put in to each one with more time. You could also get a full night's sleep. I know you are tired."
Her expression told him she was sold or at least as close as Harry was going to get.
"Ok, ok just for a while, until I get caught up. Then we revaluate. You promise you will stop if you are pain? Or if it gets out of your control? I don't want to be stuck in world of frozen time with just you forever." She fixed him with a hard glare. "Swear on something that matters that you will keep control."
"I swear on troll boogies."
She snorted. "Fine, but could you have picked something that mattered that was less gross?"
"Are we in this together?"
"Yeah. Yeah, we are."
They shook on it.
And that was that.