Chapter 6: Born to be a Witch
She simply stared at him.
"Who is it, honey?" said a sweet female voice from inside.
"Who are you?" Hermione finally asked.
"I'm Harry Potter. I have to talk to you," said Harry, much more bravely than he felt introducing himself to someone that was - or used to be - his best friend.
"Okay, come on in," she said hesitantly, holding open the door. Harry leaned his bedraggled Firebolt against the side of the house and entered. The house was decorated very warmly and luxuriously - colors of red, gold, and brown everywhere, making it seem welcoming. She led him into the family room where her father was watching television.
"Please, take a seat," said Hermione, sitting down on a love seat next to her father's recliner.
"What's all this about?" Hermione's mother asked as she entered from the kitchen. She was an attractive middle-aged woman with Hermione's hazel eyes and looked him over curiously. "Who is this young man?"
"Harry Potter, Mom. He says he wants to talk to us."
"You," corrected Harry. "I want to talk to you. It's very important and I would like to talk to you alone." For a moment, Mrs. and Mr. Granger stared at him; Harry thought they would forbid him from speaking to Hermione.
"Tell us who you are," said Mr. Granger forcibly.
"Harry Potter, sir. It's about, er, school," Harry lied blandly. He figured that since Hermione was a top student, school was pretty important to the Grangers, and they would want her to be going to the best schools.
Hermione was giving him a perplexed look as Mrs. Granger huffed a little and herded her husband into the kitchen.
Once the door was closed, Harry turned to Hermione and prepared himself for the worst.
"What did you want to talk to me about that's so important?" she asked coolly. Harry started to explain everything to her - about Hogwarts, how they were best friends and what they did all throughout their years at Hogwarts, about the Time Turner situation and Voldemort and the Wizarding World and how she as the best Witch of her year - everything he could think of.
"Wait - I thought this was about school?" she interrupted.
"I lied, okay? I need to talk to you and that was the only thing I could think of to get your parents out of the way."
"How am I suppose to believe you?" said Hermione loudly. "I don't even know you. I've never even seen you in my life before - "
"Don't I look familiar to you?" asked Harry, hoping that Hermione could at least remember him a bit, like a vague dream.
"Well, to be honest, it's kind of like Déjà vu. But that doesn't mean I know you, and most importantly doesn't mean I can trust you!"
"Alright. I didn't think I'd have to come to this, but - " Harry pulled his wand out from his pocket and muttered "Wingardrium Leviousa" at a mug on the coffee table. It rose a few feet in the air. Hermione gasped.
"How - if you're wand is down there, it can't be holding it up - " she grabbed at the mug, and waved her arms above and below it, searching for an explanation as to why it was floating in mid-air.
"Do you believe in magic now?"
"Do something else!" she demanded, but Harry saw her confidence falter.
Harry immediately pointed his wand at the bookcase in the corner and said "Accio book!" One blue book came pelting out into his outstretched hand.
"Do you believe in magic - and in me - now?"
She looked at him uneasily. "So, what your saying is, you want me to help you defeat this guy, Voldemort?"
"Sort of. I want you to tell me what to do. Advise me. Please," he begged.
"Mr. Potter - "
"Harry. Call me Harry."
"Harry, how am I supposed to believe anything you're saying is true? I'm not a Witch, I've never heard of Hogwarts or Voldemort and I'm not smart - "
"Hermione, you are a Witch," interrupted Harry. "It's in your blood. You have magic running through your veins and you are the best Witch of the century. Please don't doubt me," Harry said quietly. He ran his fingers through his damp hair and sighed.
"How do I know that? Let me try to do some magic with your wand so I know that it's not a trick." Harry handed her over his wand and instructed her on how to do the "Alohomora" spell because he remembered her being quite good at that.
"So, I point it at the door, and say "Alohomora" and flick it like this, and it will lock?"
"Yes." Hermione did so successfully. She inspected the doorknob hastily, and then turned back to him.
"You always knew how to do it the first time you ever tried," remarked Harry.
"Tell me about this Voldemort person again?"
~*~
Hermione and Harry spent the night talking and eating (Harry had been starving since he had not eaten in a day). Her parents had come in a little bit later and asked what was taking so long and suggested Harry to leave. Hermione stubbornly insisted that Harry was her friend from school and he was having "family issues" so he had to stay there for the night. Needless to say, Hermione was a good liar.
"What you need to do," she told him, after long hours of talking into dawn, "is this. Find a Time Turner and go back sixteen years ago, when you were just a baby, exactly like Neville did. Then find out where Neville is, because he has to be there to, since he went back also, and stop him. From what you've told me, the Wizarding World is a wreck because Voldemort's Avada Kedavra spell didn't backfire on Neville as it did to you."
"Right. Okay. I can do that . . . I think."
"Some confidence here, Harry," said Hermione seriously.
"You've caught on very well to what I've told you," observed Harry, rubbing his tired eyes. "I told you that you were smart."
Hermione looked sheepish, "I still don't get all of it."
"And you don't need to," said Harry. "I appreciate all of the advice you've given to me and I'm definitely going to do it. But I'm afraid that you won't see me again after I leave, even if it will or will not be a success."
"If it's not a success - "
"I'll probably die."
"Don't say that."
"It's true."
"Hermione!" said Mrs. Granger's voice as she walked into the family room. "What are you doing and why is this boy still here?"
"Sorry, Mother, we spent all night talking and catching up with each other on things. Would you mind if Harry slept here for a while and then left?" Hermione asked.
"Hermione, I don't - "
"Shush, Harry," she hissed at him. "Mother?"
"Sure, I don't mind, he could sleep in the guest room," Mrs. Granger replied and walked back into the kitchen. "I'm going to start breakfast."
"I will show you to the guest room." Hermione told him and headed up the stairs and along to a doorway about halfway down the hallway. "Here it is." She opened the door to reveal a small room with a queen size bed and large window. Harry walked in and looked around.
"Thanks Hermione. Thanks a lot."
"No problem." She grinned as she closed the door. Once he heard her go down the stairs Harry started undressing and since he didn't have any pajamas, he just slipped into the rather stiff bed in his boxers.
It was mid-morning when Harry trudged downstairs, dressed fully and ready to set out on his journey. But before he could reach the door, Hermione had interposed herself between Harry and the front door.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm leaving to change everything," he said.
"I'm going with you."
"Oh no, you're not."
"Oh yes I am." Hermione's face looked set.
"Hermione, you know the danger in coming! You are not coming with me and that's final."
"I don't want to go back in time with you. Just help you find the Time Turner. Oh, come on, I won't be able to sleep without knowing if you were able to get the Time Turner or not . . . Hell, I'm not even going to be able to get to sleep now that you've told me about everything . . ."
"Well, you better," Harry advised. Hermione looked at him pleadingly. "Okay, okay! But how are you going to get back?"
"Your broom," she said, gesturing out the door to where it was leaning against the side of the house. "You're not going to need it after you go back in time."
"Hermione! You don't know how to fly! You're afraid of flying and think Quidditch is a waste of time."
"What's Quidditch?" she asked. Harry grumbled. It was like teaching a two-year old something new.
"See? This is what I'm talking about. You don't know anything about the Wizarding World. You can't come with me."
"Watch me." She opened the door and grabbed his Firebolt and ran down onto the long driveway. Harry chased after her, thoroughly convinced that she would not to try to fly - but like always, he was wrong. Numbly he watched her straddle the Firebolt between her legs and awkwardly pushed off from the ground. She gave a little squeak of nervousness as the broom began to gain altitude. "Harry! Harry! Help me, I'm going to die!" she shouted as the Firebolt steadily progressed higher into the air and she struggled for balance.
Laughing slightly, Harry walked to a point just underneath her. "Put your hands on the end of the broom and push down. Slowly." She obeyed and began to descend. Luckily, she lost her balance when she was only a few feet above the ground and Harry was able to catch her..
Harry was holding her in the position he would hold a baby, with one arm underneath her knees and the other under her arms. The Firebolt clattered onto the driveway unnoticed by either of them. He stood still as they locked eyes - and the feeling he had felt behind the bushes with Hermione Christmas Eve came back more strongly - the hope, the certainty, and the feeling he now recognized as love.
"I think I'm perfectly happy being your friend," breathed Hermione, her eyes swimming in Harry's dazzling green ones. "In fact I love it. But sometimes I have this incredible urge to kiss you that won't go away."
"There was something I forgot to mention," whispered Harry. "We were in love."
~*~
The feel of Hermione's hands hugging his waist and the sense of her behind him was enough to spur him to keep going. They fly tandem on Harry's Firebolt towards a red dot on the map labeled "Time Turner." It was very far away and Harry figured it probably resided in one of the Death Eater's mansions - or maybe even Voldemort's abode itself.
After Harry had told Hermione that they had been in love in the other world, she had gotten down from his arms and said very defiantly, "I knew it," and walked away towards the house. However, she appeared a few moments later with warmer clothes on and a basket of food: prepared for a long journey. "I left a note on the table for Mom and Dad," she had said. "I told them I might be gone for a couple of days because I'm staying with my Auntie. They had wanted me to go visit her for a while, anyway, so I don't think they are going to fret." Harry nodded and they had set off to find the Time Turner.
Hermione was now carrying the map (which had changed now to show the way to the Time Turner) and was often correcting him to which direction they should travel. They wanted to reach at least walking distance to wherever the Time Turner was located (in whose mansion, Harry could not tell, but he knew it was at least a mansion), and they knew it would take them up to dusk to reach that. Hopefully, they would find somewhere to sleep and set off for the Turner in the morning. After Harry had retrieved the Time Turner, he would hand over the Firebolt and the map to Hermione and turn the Time Turner as fast as he could to get into the past to stop Neville.
The hours passed slowly as they traveled. The temperature decreased dramatically so that Harry was suddenly envious of Hermione's extra layers of clothes as he shivered in the cold, but was perfectly content to have her snuggling against him.
When they were finally to their target distance from the mysterious mansion, Harry descended vertically until they could hop off easily.
"Well, that was uncomfortable," said Hermione, rubbing her back.
"It is when you have to fly for ten straight hours." Harry grinned. "but it isn't usually."
"You never explained Quidditch to me," she piped up. "Oh, come on, I want to know!"
"Okay," said Harry. He began to explain to Hermione to the wonderful sport of Quidditch as they made a makeshift shelter to camp until dawn.