We're Not Baking Cookies
Harry and Ron had decided to simply enjoy themselves while they could, taking advantage of what was left of their break by being as lazy as possible. This all came to a screeching halt the minute Hermione returned.
"There you two are!" she exclaimed as she burst into their dormitory. Neville, Dean, and Seamus were off relishing what time they had left before classes started up again, so Harry and Ron were able to enjoy their privacy for a bit. Truth be told, hanging out with them these days felt more like babysitting than actually spending time with friends. If they didn't find a way to get back to their own time soon, that was a feeling they were going to have to get used to. Even when time did finally catch up to them and they had their 16-year-old bodies back, by that point they would mentally be 21. And what 21-year-old wants to hang out with a bunch of teenagers?
"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed as he and Harry hopped up off of their beds to go greet their friend.
Hermione allowed them a quick hug but didn't seem to be in the mood for pleasantries. "Yes, it's great to see you both too but we wasted enough time over the holiday already!" She crossed the room, settled on Ron's bed, and immediately began fishing around in her bag for something. Harry and Ron exchanged glances.
"Slow down, we've got loads to tell you-" Harry began before Hermione cut him off.
"I've got loads to tell you too!" she exclaimed as she pulled a book out of her bag, set in on her lap, and began flipping to the correct page. "My parents obviously know I like to read, so it was no surprise to them that I wanted to spend a lot of my time at the library. Obviously I didn't have access to the same books you both had here in the wizarding world, but I've still managed to find some relevant information. It turns out muggles were interested in the Sorcerer's Stone too. I think many of them who wrote about it may have had magical friends, or were even wizards themselves who chose to publish their findings in the muggle world. Clearly muggles would have been more open to the idea of magic back then, or perhaps even thought alchemy could be considered science…"
"Dumbledore knows that we traveled back in time," Ron blurted when it became clear that Hermione wasn't coming up for air any time soon. This seemed to do the trick, as Hermione stopped talking for the first time since she had entered the room.
Harry and Ron told their friend everything, from the mysterious note their headmaster had left with the cloak to Harry's conversation with him in front of the Mirror of Erised. Ron even did his best impression of the look on Harry's face when he read Dumbledore's note for the first time, complete with a reenactment of him dropping the note on the floor and pointing at it in a complete loss for words. Harry considered getting back at him by describing the exact shade of red Ron's face turned when he looked at his reflection in the mirror, but thought better of it.
"Holy cricket," Hermione muttered. "I suppose we couldn't possibly have kept this a secret from him forever, he's too smart not to realize something is wrong. But to give ourselves away in the first five minutes…"
"Yeah, we're not sneaky," Ron agreed.
"But this is good, isn't it?" Harry asked. "We've got Dumbledore as an ally now."
"If it were anyone else I'd be concerned," Hermione replied. "But it's Dumbledore, I'd trust him more than anyone else when it comes to meddling with time. He's right, though. We really shouldn't tell him more than we absolutely have to, just in case."
"Not that it matters much right now anyway. We still don't have a plan," Ron pointed out.
Hermione grinned and turned her attention back to the book on her lap. Harry and Ron, who were all too familiar with the look on her face, both sat down in anticipation of a long scholarly discussion.
"Actually, I may have thought of something," Hermione began. "As I was saying, muggles were interested in the stone, too. After doing some research on it in my local library, I came across a few recipes for creating the stone and I think I found one that we should try out."
"What?" Ron blurted.
Harry was sure he hadn't heard correctly. Did Hermione really say they were going to try and make another stone? "Are we talking about the Sorcerer's Stone or cookies? You want to just 'try out' your little alchemy recipe? What for?"
"Well obviously we aren't going to be successful," Hermione replied as if that explained everything. "It's extremely complicated to make, takes skill well beyond our capabilities. Just think, something that powerful? Loads of people would want one, but there's only one in the whole world. Voldemort himself is set on stealing it instead of just making a new one. Clearly it cannot easily be done."
"So… you want us to not make a new Sorcerer's Stone? Aren't we already doing that?" Ron asked, clearly not understanding what Hermione was getting at. Harry found himself equally lost. Even if they could actually make the stone, having two of them wouldn't exactly solve their problem. That would make it worse if anything.
"What we need is a fake stone that we can give to Taylor," Hermione said, finally beginning to explain a part of the plan that made sense. "We make Taylor think we've given him or her the stone, and then we can go home."
"Unless Taylor is lying to us about letting us go," Ron pointed out. The idea of going home to their own time was a deep desire in each of their hearts, but there was always the possibility that Taylor was not a man-or woman-of his or her word. Still, they didn't have much to lose if they were only giving up a fake stone.
There was one thing that still didn't make sense to Harry. "If we're making a fake stone, why do we have to follow the real recipe?"
"It has to be a convincing fake," Hermione explained. "We have to succeed well enough in the creation of this stone so that it really looks like the real thing, but not so well that it actually works like it's supposed to."
"What makes you so sure that we can follow this recipe of yours well enough that we even end up with a stone at all?" Ron asked.
"Nothing," Hermione admitted.
According to Hermione's research, the stone itself only required three ingredients: mercury, sulfur, and silver. The real complexity was in the process, which Hermione described as being a cross between really complicated Transfiguration and really complicated potion brewing. Considering Harry and Ron weren't overly skilled in either discipline, and even Hermione wasn't on the level of the masters who had created this recipe all those years ago, it looked as though they had their work cut out for them.
Of course, the first step was to obtain the ingredients. And although there weren't many to get, none of them could be found inside of Hogwarts. At least, not in any usable form. It wasn't too difficult to identify a small shop in Diagon Alley where they could obtain these items, but they would have to go in person to pick them up, which made things tricky. Even if they figured out how to sneak all the way there mid-term, they couldn't just walk right into the shop as three first year students, especially when one of them was famous. Thus, they'd had to put their plan on hold for an entire month while they secretly brewed a batch of Ployjuice Potion in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, just as they'd done in their second year. This time they'd gotten the ingredients from Dumbledore, who didn't even ask any questions. Having him as an ally was already coming in handy.
By mid February, they were ready for action. Making use of the invisibility cloak and the One-Eyed Witch Passage to get to Hogsmeade, the three of them were able to sneak out of the castle undetected. As it was a Saturday, nobody was likely to notice they were missing. Provided that they made it back by nightfall, everything would be fine. Well, making it back plus actually succeeding in their little errand.
"Spending a month brewing a potion, sneaking out of school, and stealing muggle DNA is a lot of work just to run into a store, grab a few things, and be out in 5 minutes," Ron commented as the three of them quietly walked along the streets of Hogsmeade. The cloak rendered them invisible, and although they probably should have been more quiet, their voices mixed well with the midday crowds so that nobody noticed their speaking, as long as they kept their voices down.
"Do you think anyone in this shop will be suspicious of the fact that we're only purchasing the three ingredients needed to create a Sorcerer's Stone and nothing else?" Harry asked.
"You two really know how to wait to ask the important questions until after it's too late to do much about it," Hermione noted. "We really had little choice but to do it this way, Ron. At least now we'll have some Polyjuice Potion left over in case we need any for anything later. As for drawing suspicion from our shopping list, I've thought of that. We'll go in one at a time, staggering our entrances and each only purchase one item. Maybe throw in a few extra items we don't need just in case."
The two boys both agreed that this was probably the best plan, and the three of them walked in silence the rest of the way to the Shrieking Shack. Harry had told his friends how he had already ripped the boards off of one of the windows so they could sneak inside relatively easily, especially because the area around the creepy old house wasn't overly populated even during the day.
Once they were safely inside, they were able to remove the cloak.
"Is everyone ready?" Hermione asked as she offered each of her friends one of her hands.
Ron hesitated. "Are you sure you can do this, Hermione?" The plan they had all agreed to involved traveling to London via apparition. Although they had started taking lessons at school, none of them had officially taken and passed the licensing exam just yet and were still pretty new to the art. As their instructor had reminded them countless times, apparition could be extremely dangerous if not done correctly. And Hermione would be transporting not only herself, but Harry and Ron as well. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Hermione was a skilled witch, but this seemed a little advanced. She had never attempted side-along apparition before.
"You doubting me isn't exactly helping my confidence, Ronald."
"I'm not sure that running a quick errand is worth risking death for! Why can't we just take the Floo Network? There's fireplace right over there!"
"What would everyone at the Leaky Cauldron say if Harry Potter and two other first years burst into the pub mid term?"
"I trust you, Hermione," Harry said in a voice more confident than he felt. Knowing he really had no other choice but to trust her, he took her hand.
"Thank you, Harry. Ron? Will you be joining us or are you going to sit back and let us handle this alone?" Hermione asked.
Begrudgingly, Ron took Hermione's other hand. "I guess that's up to Hermione. Please make sure that all of me makes it to London."
Hermione rolled her eyes before closing them to concentrate. She imagined every part of her body, allowed herself to fully connect with the energy of the two people holding her hands, and imagined with as much clarity as she could their arrival in a quiet alleyway outside the Leaky Cauldron in London. Three bodies disappeared from the Shrieking Shack, with not even a single hair left behind.