The Time Turner

Disclaimer: Standard Disclaimers Apply.

A/N: Yeah, yeah, I know. I owe you people the last chapter of Accidents, I’m 20 billion years past finishing TDoLD…but I just HAD to give y’all a nice little Halloween treat.

So you can’t be angry with me. J

Thanks to Rini for being efficient and timely and wonderful. After all the times you’ve pulled through for me, do you think my soul is enough of a payback? (Not to mention the leather pants wearing escapades at the WB studios…)

*~*~*~*

I was starting to regret the fact that I had married him.

Oh, really! He’d been nagging me all morning about his mother’s set of pearl earrings…where on earth had he learned to nag in such a fashion?

He had given them to me on Halloween--for safekeeping, he’d said. He’d been poking around his vault and found them there, and he had trusted me to look after them! Of course, why shouldn’t he have trusted me? I’m a responsible person. Responsibility is a word that people often associate with me. Random people point at me and say, “That’s Hermione. She’s very responsible.” He was depending on me to take care of his mother’s treasures…

And I went ahead and LOST them!

The clincher: he gave them to me on Halloween…10 YEARS AGO!

Ten bloody years ago! He gave them to me on Halloween night, right after we’d gone to visit his parents’ grave. We got home pretty late; it had been raining heavily. I remember this because Crookshanks appeared out of nowhere, soaking wet and shaking. I was about to go to my room and look up a pneumonia-preventing spell for kneazles (or in this case, my very-susceptible to-pneumonia-half-kneazle), when Harry stopped me.

“Hermione,” he said, in that quiet tone of voice that usually preceded a very dire announcement. He had used that voice many times before during the war…

“Yes?” I replied, half expecting him to say something like, “I’m off to fight the evil wizard that is trying take over Brazil. I might die once I get there, because he’s really powerful and all that. Promise to cremate me once you get my bedraggled body back? That is, if there is enough of me to cremate once he’s finished me off...”

No such luck.

“I sort of…found these today…could you look after them for me?” he avoided my eye as he stretched out his hand to show me the pearls. I’d always hated the way Halloween always made him sullen and uncomfortable. But it wasn’t like I could blame him; it was the anniversary of his parents’ death after all.

I looked at the two beautiful pearls in his hand, and instantly, an image came into my mind of James happily giving them to his new bride, thinking that they looked beautiful against her red hair…

“Why are you giving them to me?” I asked, pointedly. “Why not…?”

“You’re here, with me, tonight, aren’t you?” he said simply.

I nodded. His relationship with Ginny had always been rocky at best…more so than mine with Ron. The problem with them was that they never knew when to quit, when to just say no. Early on, Ron and I decided that we’d never try to force ourselves into a relationship. If we ever wanted it to end, we’d end it. We wouldn’t kill ourselves trying to make it work; preserving our friendship was the most important thing.

Harry and Ginny had never understood that. That was why whenever they were together, they were happier than everyone else in the world combined. But whenever they were estranged…it was like a black cloud was hanging over everyone associated with them.

That Halloween was the last Halloween Harry and Ginny would be ‘together.’ Shortly afterwards, Harry and I started realizing some things…

And now, ten years later, I was married to him. It wasn’t going to last much longer though; I was positive that as soon as he found out about his mother’s lost earrings, he’d divorce me.

Where on earth could I have placed them?

I remember seeing them the morning after he gave them to me. I had put them in my jewelry box the previous night, in the false bottom. I wanted them to remain extra secure. I had even put a curse on the box; no one but I could ever open it, and if they tried, not only would I be immediately notified by an elaborate alarm system, but the perpetrators would end up spending the rest of their life suffering from boils on their arse. (Appropriate, don’t you think?)

I know I saw them the morning after because I tried them on. I took them out of the box, and I put them on--just once. I wanted to see how they would look on me. I thought they suited me wonderfully, and because of this, I made a vow: I would not take them out again. The temptation to wear them would be too great, and I couldn’t very well borrow them one night and end up losing them somewhere, could I? Harry would have a heart attack! So I sealed the false bottom and decided to forget that I had ever put those earrings there…

And for ten years, I did forget. It’s easy to forget something when you never see it, especially if you make a conscious effort to forget it. Harry never asked me for them either, which I understood. He didn’t need to be reminded of his dead mother; I’m sure he thinks about her enough as it is.

But then something very peculiar happened yesterday…yesterday was Halloween. And we did what we usually did: we went to visit his parents’ grave. And just like ten years ago, he stopped me with my name.

“Hermione.”

We were just walking through the door; I was a bit ahead of him. I recognized a request in his voice instantly, and turned around to look at him. “What is it?”

“Could you come here for a second?”

I nodded, and made my way over to him. I saw him reach into his pocket and pull out a long string of pearls. A necklace, a necklace that obviously matched the earrings.

“They’re lovely,” I said.

“They’re yours,” he replied, handing them over to me. “They’re yours to keep, along with the matching earrings. I’m sure mum would be happy to see them on you.”

He gave me a crooked grin, and I couldn’t help but melt into a puddle on the floor. Curse that grin!

“In fact,” he continued “I was kind of hopping you would wear them tomorrow, with that little black dress I love so well,” he said with a different grin, a more suggestive grin.

“What’s tomorrow?” I asked, playing with the buttons of his shirt.

“Malfoy’s throwing some type of gala or other; he always has Ginny decked out in all kinds of jewels at these things. Can’t have Malfoy show Harry Potter up.” He winked at me, and I pretended to choke him with the necklace.

“No, I guess we can’t…” I replied. I took him by the hand and led him upstairs, to do what we always did on Halloween night, ever since we were married. It became another way to express how happy and lucky we were to be alive, and together…

Not for long, though. He’d divorce me. I was sure of it. . Heck, I’d divorce me. And then he’d regret not having given the earrings to Ginny, who probably would have taken way better care of them…

Blast it all! Where could I have put them? I know I never took them out of the dratted box! Not even when we moved into our house, and I had tinkered around with everything. I knew it was safely inside, so I never thought to check. Who could have bypassed my excellent magical security? Except for maybe Harry himself…

But he wouldn’t be asking me for the earrings, would he?

When I first realized they were not in the box, or anywhere else in the world for that matter, I tried to get out of it. I tried to make excuses as to why we couldn’t go to the gala: I had work; I’d be too tired; I wanted to stay in and play with him…

Not even that last excuse garnered anything more than a simple, “We can play after the gala.”

See, and I always thought of him as the impatient one.

Why was he so hell bent on going to this function? Usually, he hated them. Usually, he was the one making excuses. And it’s not like there wasn’t an overabundance of them; Malfoy always had an excuse to make a grand show of himself. Ginny’s birthday = big party. His own birthday = even bigger party. His house elves birthdays = usually always good-sized celebration (He has about 30 house elves, all with different birthdays. He actually pays them, too). The feast of Ulrich the Oddball = always a grand tradition. But do you get what I’m saying? Any excuse to get smashed--in style of course.

So why was Harry insisting on attending this thing? It made no sense! Who cared if it was the feast day of Ursula the Undeniable (an ancestor of Malfoy’s)? How was that relevant to anything? Nag, nag, nag, I tell you. I don’t know where he gets it from…

After the millionth time of rummaging around my closet, I collapsed onto the floor. Those earrings were nowhere. They had magically disappeared off the face of the earth, I was sure of it. I was on the verge of tears, and hearing Harry’s random yell from downstairs wasn’t helping.

“Have you tried the necklace and the earring on?” he hollered. “I want to see them on you!”

Damn.

I began looking through the jewelry box again, spilling out it’s contents for the umpteenth time. They HAD to be in there somewhere. Even if I had to crack the thing into a billion pieces, I’d find them!

That was when I saw something golden blink at me.

It was The Time Turner.

Yes, The Time Turner. With appropriate capitalization. After all, don’t you think it deserves appropriate capitalization? It saved the life of Buckbeak and Sirius. Why shouldn’t it be appropriately capitalized?

A plan started formulating in my mind as I looked at it. It had helped me before…it could help me again. Why else had Dumbledore given it to me? He thought me responsible enough to use it. Sure, what I was planning was far more…ambitious than going a few hours back in time to get to Herbology, or drive off a couple of Dementors, I was still responsible enough to use it…(Hey! Don’t judge me on those lost earrings! Everyone is allowed one mistake, no?)

If I went ten years back in time, exactly ten years, I’d be right on the day I had last seen them, the day right after Halloween. It was perfect. I could go back in time, take them from myself, wear them to Draco’s gala, and then I’d go back the next day and return them. They’d only be gone for a day. I’d never notice. For crying out loud, I didn’t even notice it when someone stole them right out from under me!

I couldn’t very well disappoint Harry, could I?

I placed the chain around my neck, and set the time so that one turn would equal one year instead of one hour. I turned the hourglass over ten times….

*~*~*~*~*

Bloody hell! I had forgotten that ten years ago, Harry and I didn’t live here. This fact was made all the more obvious as I looked around the room, and saw furniture completely alien to ours. We had bought this house from muggles, I remember. Goodness, we had far better taste…

“Laura, dear,” came a male voice form downstairs. “We are going to the function tonight, regardless of what you have to say.”

“But Jonathan!” came a woman’s voice. “I don’t want to go! Your colleagues are all so boring.”

I smirked. Domestic squabbles were always the same, weren’t they? Muggles or not…

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and decided that I didn’t want to be around when Laura or Jonathan sprang in. So I concentrated as hard as I could, and apparated out to our old flat.

I arrived smack dab in the middle of our living room. As soon as I did this, I realized how stupid I had been! Dear lord, anyone could walk on me, standing here, at any moment! I’d be seen! I’d change the future…

Luckily, everything seemed to be still, and quiet, which meant none of us were home. With a sigh of relief, I turned to look about the room. Our old flat. It wasn’t big, but it wasn’t small; it was a comfortable size. There was a kitchen, a living room, and our three bedrooms right next to each other. Harry’s was in the center. There was only one bathroom, and I remember the arguments over shower time…

I couldn’t help but remember fondly how it was to be twenty years old. I wouldn’t for all the world give up the life I currently had, but being twenty sure was wonderful! The future held such promise, and even though I’d accomplished everything I could have ever hoped, I always thought that life wasn’t about the success, but about the struggle.

Not wanting to waste any more time on thinking about the past, I purposefully headed to my room, the furthest to the right. I paused, thinking that maybe I was inside, asleep, but then I looked at the clock on the wall and came to the conclusion that I never slept in this late, so I took a chance and peeked inside.

Empty.

I stepped in, not believing that I was looking into the bedroom I had ten years ago. Where had all my furniture ended up? Harry and I had decided to get all new stuff when we moved (or rather, I had decided…).

Realizing that I should be hurrying along on this little mission, I made my way over to my old bureau to look for my jewelry box. It was sitting there daintily, exactly as I had left it that morning. If I remembered correctly, I wouldn’t be home until later that day…I was out with Viktor Krum (as friends!), who was visiting from Bulgaria. Harry was out with Ginny, and Ron was out with…whomever Ron was out with. He’d spent the night before at some Halloween party and didn’t pop up until later on that day.

I opened the box, and took out the false bottom. There they were. The pearl earrings that were the cause of the greatest headache I had ever had. I took them out, delicately, and put the on. They still looked as good on me as they had…this morning? That morning? That morning that was but is now?

Good grief.

“Hermione.”

I turned around at the sound of my name. In my anxiousness I had been stupid enough to leave the door ajar, and there stood Harry. Nineteen-year-old Harry.

“Hermione…?” he asked again, stepping in warily. He was looking at me strangely, which was quite understandable. Sure, we magic folk do not age as quickly as muggles, or how else do we get to live healthy, active lives into our hundreds? Still, I was muggble-born, and I knew I had changed quite a bit since I was twenty…

“Harry, before you panic, let me explain-”But before I could finish my sentence, I saw him glance down at The Time Turner hanging around my neck.

“Oh,” he said simply.

I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that he had experienced third year with me. Otherwise, he wouldn’t understand what was happening, and would’ve probably done something stupid.

“Harry…” I didn’t know what to say to him. I really didn’t know what to do at all. There was nineteen year old Harry, standing before me, looking quite confused, and all I wanted to do was reach out and tell him to trust me, that everything would be all right. I remembered him well at that age…he was still just a boy. A boy that had suffered a lot, and was quite surprised to find that he had come out of it alive. For him, it had only been two years since Voldemort’s fall, so it was all quite new still; the wounds were still fresh. You could see the vulnerability in his eye, and the insecurity…he had thought he was going to die fighting Voldemort. He had been resigned to it, in fact. And at that age, with all the trials behind him, he didn’t quite know what to do with himself. You could see the uncertainty in his stance…

“Harry, please, don’t ask me anything. You know it’s best.” It was quite a me thing to say. I figured I should act as me as possible…I didn’t want to freak the poor boy out.

He didn’t say anything; he just looked at me, most likely trying to figure out what I was doing there.

“How old are you?” he asked. I wanted to slap him.

“Harry James! You never ask a lady her age!” I snapped. I saw his eyes widen; at that age, I never called him Harry James. That was something I picked up after marriage.

“I’m sorry!” he said, raising his hands defensively. “I just…well, you don’t look a lot older, and I’m trying to figure out…I can’t help it. I need to know why you’re here!”

I rolled my eyes. Honestly! He was eternally curious about everything; he just had to know, did he? Why oh why of all the people did I have to run into him? I would have rather much liked running into myself…I’d obey myself…I think…

“You know I can’t tell you!” I replied, snapping the jewelry box shut. His attention immediately snapped to the jewelry box, and I felt like smacking myself for my idiocy.

“You’re taking something from yourself,” he said. It wasn’t a question; it was a statement. His eyes narrowed, looking for a watch, a bracelet, anything that could have just come out of that box, and his eyes focused on my ears…

“My mother’s earrings!” he exclaimed.

“Shh! Harry! Calm down, and shut the door. What if Ron comes?” I was mostly only worried about Ron; I was quite confident that I wouldn’t show up until a lot later.

“Why are you taking my mother’s earrings?” he demanded once he had the door shut.

“I can’t tell you!” I said, eyes pleading with him to understand. “I have to go now…”

“Wait!” he cried, grabbing my hand to stop me. I turned to look at him, and I saw the look on his face. He was holding my hand, and he was concentrating on something…

He was holding my ring hand…

Bloody hell.

“You’re married?” he asked. I tried to wrestle my hand away, but he was Harry, at nineteen. Six feet of boyish strength…

He took one look at my ring, and gasped aloud. I felt like crawling into a hole and dying.

“That’s…that’s my mum’s wedding ring!” he shouted. “I know, because I saw it last night, when I found the earrings! We’re…we’re married to each other, aren’t we?”

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why didn’t I take my ring off before coming? I really should’ve thought everything over more…being married to a crazy, spontaneous, thrill-seeker had made me lose my marbles.

I wrenched my hand away. “Harry! You’re not supposed to know these things! Just let me leave…it’s bad enough with what you know.”

He plastered himself in front of the door, and put his right hand on your shoulder. “I’m not letting you apparate anywhere, or go anywhere until you tell me why you’re here.”

I was acutely aware that it wasn’t good to want to kill my husband. Or rather, the boy who would one day be my husband. Still, if I killed this one, I’d automatically be killing the one I had, so in the end it’d be the same thing, no? Of course, I didn’t have to resort to killing him. A nice obliviate would fix things up wonderfully…

“If you’re thinking of obliviating me, you might as well stop. Future wife of mine you may be, but I wouldn’t hesitate to stun you.”

Blast him!

“Harry…” I said pleadingly. “I need to go. Ron could appear at any moment, and that’d only make things much worse. I wonder how much of the future I’ve already changed…”

That was freaking me out the most. Did I have a future to go back to? Would things be the same as I had left them?

He sensed the fear in my voice, I presume, for his eyes softened, and his hold on me loosened. “If you just tell me what you’re up to, I promise you I’ll let you go quickly.”

“Why do you need to know?” I asked him, feeling the exasperation starting to overwhelm me.

He gave me a pointed look.

I rolled my eyes. “Look I…hold on. Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be out with Ginny right now?”

At that question, he took a step away and let go of me completely.

“I…err…I was out with Ginny. But I came back early, because, well-”

“You had a fight about last night, didn’t you?” I asked, feeling curious. Merlin’s beard! This was the perfect time for me to apparate out, but there I was, probing into Harry’s psyche regarding something completely irrelevant as far as thing go. It wasn’t like I could fix his relationship with Ginny even if I wanted to. Which I didn’t.

“Look, just tell me why you’re here and you can go!” he snapped.

“Harry James, you best lower your voice when you talk to me, or else-”

“When did you start calling me that?” he asked, looking mildly amused, even as I reprimanded him.

“Huh? Oh, umm…that started…”

“After we marry?”

I nodded.

“You know, I kinda like it,” he said with a grin.

I felt the beginnings of a blush on my face. And it wasn’t the type of blushing Harry made me do now, (you know, the kind of blushing that has to do with wiggling eyebrows) it was the type of blushing I did when I first started dating Harry. The slightly infatuated type blush…

I was beginning to suspect I was a bit besotted with the younger version of my husband. And because of this, I unraveled like an old, tattered Egyptian carpet.

“I lost your mum’s earrings,” I began. I felt like blushing again, when his eyebrows arched. “I know, I know…I’m horrible. I don’t understand it myself either, as I had that jewelry box heavily charmed. Today was the last day I remembered seeing them so I…”

“Came back to get them,” he finished for me. “Did I ask you for them?”

“Well--yes. You see, it’s quite strange. I had these earrings for ten years, and you never asked me for them once. And yesterday, quite suddenly, you show up out of nowhere with the necklace that matches these earrings, and then you start rambling on about Malfoy and Ginny and how he always has her completely bejeweled and how I should wear the set at tonight’s gala at Malfoy Manor…”

“Wait, wait, wait,” he commanded. “Malfoy? Ginny? How on earth did that ever…”

“I don’t know!” I replied, feeling a bit jealous, thinking that he might be jealous.

“Don’t be jealous,” he said, looking quite smug with himself. “It doesn’t really bother me, considering, well, I get to have you…”

I felt that blush creeping up again. Damn him. He very well knew he could charm me into doing or saying anything he pleased, even at that age.

“Well, now you know how everything turns out. I best be on my way now. I need to go wear these for you before you go into cardiac arrest,” I said, pointing at the earrings.

“Wait!” he said, grabbing my hand again.

“What is it now?” I asked, wanting to get back to my time as soon as possible.

“Can I…can I kiss you?” he asked, much to his own horror, as told by that terrified look on his face.

I bit on my lower lip, all the while feeling that abominable blush take over. “Harry, you—I’m married!”

“To me.”

“Yes but…not yet! And you’re with Ginny!”

“But you’re my wife…”

“Yes, but not yet!”

“Hermione, please just—let me have a taste of what’s to come,” he said, eyes begging. “I want to know what it will be like…I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait until, you and I--you know. And…”

That was it. He looked so incredibly vulnerable and boyish and insecure and curious and I just could not resist it. He was right; I was his wife after all…

So I grabbed his face and brought his lips to mine. He was mid sentence, but he didn’t seem to mind. At first, I didn’t think he quite knew what was happening, but soon enough, he relaxed into the kiss. I no doubt helped the process; I had spent the better part of a decade snogging him. I knew quite well how he liked to be snogged; I knew what region of his ear was most sensitive; I knew exactly how he liked me to tease his hair. I knew it pleased him greatly when I trailed kisses along his jaw line…

And I knew exactly what that little poke against my hip meant.

“Merlin, Hermione…” he whispered in my ear.

“Harry, I really have to be going…”

“No, please, don’t…” he pleaded. “Stay. Stay the night.”

“Harry James!” I exclaimed, aghast at the request. (Albeit, a bit intrigued.)

“Fine! Then just stay a while…” he was leading me over to my bed, and for the life of me I couldn’t stop myself from following. “Hermione, please. I just want to know. I want to have a taste…”

He brought his lips to mine, and I felt that raging battle in my head die down a bit. I wasn’t really being unfaithful, was I? I mean, this was Harry. Just…it was Harry before I married him. But he was still my husband!

I realized with a growing sense of dread that if this was going to happen, I’d have to be the active one. Harry…well, this Harry had never done this with me before. I’d probably done this with him hundreds of times…this Harry didn’t know. This was new to him.

Without a moments hesitation I pulled off his jumper and accompanying shirt all at once. I did this while managing to keep his glasses in place; it was an acquired skill, let me tell you, and Harry looked completely stunned by it.

“What?” I asked, grinning.

Instead of replying, he attached his lips to my neck, and I took the opportunity to fiddle around with his pants. Where at first I didn’t want this to happen, I was now just as randy as he was. I attributed this to the fact that I was snogging the paradigm of every older woman’s younger man fantasies…

I shoved him onto the bed, quite enjoying the look of shock on his face. I bet it must’ve been quite hard for him to get past that bookish girl that he had grown up with; I was in fact quite a different person than the one I was at twenty.

“Get naked,” I commanded. Meanwhile, I busied myself by removing my shirt and my bra…which is where I caught him starring at me, instead of removing his pants like I told him to.

I rolled my eyes, though I was grinning. “Need help?” I asked, and I very saucily reached over and pulled his pants down for him. His boxers came down with them…another skill that had him gaping like a codfish.

The sight of him, nineteen years old, sprawled out on my old bed, looking completely confounded and aroused was enough to make me feel like a lecherous old hag.

Sod it! Who bloody cared anyway?

I internally debated whether I should take all my clothes off for him…after all, I did want him to have some type of a surprise later on, you know, when he really did shag me for the first time. So I opted to keep my skirt on, though my knickers had to go…

The heels could stay too.

Without preamble, I plopped myself down on his lap. I was mindful that this was his first time with me, so the least I could do was please him as much as I could…give him a little taste of what was to come…

I knew that he loved to watch me lick my way down his chest. So I did just that. I suckled on as much of him as I could…his nipples, down to his abs. I was rewarded with the brilliant sounds he was making, and the beautiful way he repeated my name. “Hermione…oh…Hermione…” He sounded so naïve and sweet and young and innocent…

When I wrapped my lips around his penis, I laughed at the astonishment on his face. I think he rather enjoyed me laughing, as he quickly began biting on his lower lip and moaned all kinds of wonderful things. I wanted to please him, really please him…and I knew he was enjoying my tongue, and my hands, but I knew that if I kept the incessant sucking up longer, I wouldn’t get to enjoy anything…

So I stopped and straddled him like I was wont to do from time to time. Ahh yes…the wickedness of it all was very present in my mind…I left my husband at home, traveled back in time, and was now shagging this boy…didn’t matter that I ended up marrying him, he was still a boy…

A very good boy.

In fact, a bit too good. As I rolled my hips around, panting with the delicious feeling of it all, I was quite aware of the fact that he had his hands balled up in the sheets. He wasn’t touching me, almost as if he were afraid too. So I did the honors of grabbing one of his hands and placing it on my breast.

“Touch me…” I demanded of him. And I didn’t need to tell him twice. His other hand immediately slipped under my skirt and onto my bum, where he proceeded to press hard into it and bring me closer to him. It was then my turn to be shocked; he still did that every time I was on top. The familiarity of it made me giddy, and I decided to reward him by sucking on his shoulder.

He was close to coming. I could tell because he put his hand on my hip and squeezed…always a sure sign he was about to come; it completely fascinated me that he exhibited these quirks even then. Because I wanted to make sure he enjoyed this as much as possible, I started thrashing about, trying to clench myself around him as tight as I could. My wish was granted; I felt him shudder…

The exertion left me breathless, and feeling quite smug. I might’ve been ten years older than him, but I still had it!

He looked at me with beautiful, lazy, content eyes. “That was…I,” he panted. “That was-”

“Shh…” I shushed him with a kiss.

That was when I heard voices outside. I recognized the male voice…Ron. It was quickly followed by an unrecognizable girlish giggle.

“I need to go,” I said, getting off of him and looking around for my clothes. My legs were unsteady, and I wanted nothing more than to take a nice long nap with my young Harry, but I couldn’t. My Harry was at home, waiting for me…

I fussed about with my clothes, and I had to dress him as well. Then I magically fixed and cleaned the bed, knowing full well how I would react if I thought some strange people had been in here having sex in my bed.

“I have to apparate out, now,” I said, feeling a bit sad at the prospect of leaving him. Even if I was leaving him…well…for him.

“Why? Why don’t you just use The Time Turner here?”

“Oh Harry! We don’t live here anymore, we bought a house-” I paused, realizing that I was giving more and more away the longer I stayed.

But what was the point of keeping things now?

“We—we have a house?”

I nodded.

“And it’s here…now?”

I nodded again.

“Can I come with you? To see it, I mean, right now. Not like, in the future.”

He pleaded most disarmingly with his eyes, and I always…I always gave in to him, didn’t I?

“Oh why not,” I replied, feeling a bit angry with myself even as I agreed. I really did need to learn to control myself when it came to him. Nine and a half years with him and I still hadn’t learned…

*~*~*~*~*

We apparated to the side of Laura and Jonathan’s house…our future home. It looked quite empty; Laura and Jonathan were probably out. Harry took his time starring at it, a look of pure disbelief on his face.

“This…this is our home?” he asked.

I nodded.

“It’s quite big, isn’t it?”

“Well, I insisted on a big house in order to accommodate all the Weasleys that were constantly coming over to visit.”

“There’s a lot of land around the house. It looks like a wonderful place to umm…do we…er...kids? Do we have any kids?”

I grinned. “Harry James!”

“Oh fine. I’ll stop asking questions,” he said with a pout.

I fiddled around with the golden chain. “I need to go,” I said.

“Before you do, just tell me…how much longer do I have to wait for you?”

I smiled at him, smug at that ‘I know something you don’t know!’ feeling. “Trust me. You won’t have to wait long.”

I walked over to him and kissed his cheek. “See you soon, Harry.”

I took a step away from him, and flipped the hourglass forward ten times…

*~*~*~*~*

I stepped into my living room to find that Alexandra was home. She had spent the night with Molly, Arthur, and Fred’s son Richie at the Burrow. She was sitting on her father’s lap, animatedly telling him about the crazy stunt Richie had pulled on an old Comet 360, and the near heart attack Molly had suffered because of it.

“I’m telling you daddy, it was brilliant! Even though I disapprove of it completely…”

“There’s my girl!” I exclaimed, walking in breezily to take my daughter into my arms. I felt a tad horrid, knowing I had just had a tryst with a younger version of her father…

“I thought you were still upstairs,” Harry said, looking baffled. “I didn’t know you were out.”

“Yeah, I only went outside for a minute. I thought I saw a garden gnome, but it was just my imagination I guess…” I couldn’t help but blush at the obvious lie.

“I see you’re wearing the earrings,” Harry said a look of pleasure on his face. “Winky just got back from her day off; perhaps she can give this grubby little munchkin a bath,” he said, picking Alex up and giving her a big kiss, “while we go see how those look with the necklace.”

I nodded. After making sure that Alex made it to her bath, I made my way to our room, where Harry was already set with the necklace.

“Let me do the honors,” he said. I held my hair up while he placed the pearls around my neck. “Gorgeous…” he whispered. “I like them because they aren’t big and ostentatious.”

I didn’t say anything. I was s till feeling all kinds of guilty over the events of my day.

“Where exactly did you keep those earrings all these years?” Harry asked me conversationally.

I cleared my throat. “I—umm, kept them in my jewelry box.”

“Oh,” he said simply. “Why are you wearing a Time Turner around your neck?”

My eyes widened. I knew I stuffed the hourglass into my blouse before I entered the house, but he probably saw the golden chain when he put the pearls on me…

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

“Done any Time Traveling today?” he asked, an unreadable expression on his face.

“Harry, I-”

He grinned triumphantly. “Don’t worry Mrs. Robinson. I won’t hold it against you. I don’t think I’d be able to resist myself at nineteen either…”

My jaw dropped. “What? YOU KNOW!”

Immediately, all the laws of Time Travel flashed before my mind. Of course he knew. This was exactly the way it was supposed to happen. That was why the earrings weren’t in the box; I didn’t lose them, no one else stole them from me, I took them from myself…

Only I could’ve bypassed those wards around the jewelry box…

I had to go back in time to that day to get them, that was why I had that memory of seeing them last…and all these years--Harry…HARRY KNEW!

“You git!” I shrieked, rushing over to him and smacking him everywhere. “You made this happen! That was why you never asked for the pearls these past ten years! That was why you were insisting so much on that gala and these earrings…YOU KNEW! You knew because I told you! Me and my big mouth…”

He was laughing delightedly. “Oh come now, don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy yourself.”

I huffed.

“Hermione, you need to understand. If you hadn’t gone back in time and told me everything…I don’t know if you and I would be here right now. Seeing you…hearing you tell me all the things that were to happen in the future, it made me feel…secure, like I had something to look forward to, to stabilize me. After Voldemort, I didn’t really know what to do with myself…”

I looked up at him. “You know, I did think that you took everything quite well for a nineteen-year-old boy. Most boys cringe at the word ‘marriage,’ and you took it all in stride…”

“It made me happy,” he said. “And it gave me courage. It gave me courage to end my on-again, off-again relationship with Ginny. Knowing you reciprocated gave me the courage to finally tell you how I felt…I mean, if it hadn’t been for you, I’d probably be in a very unhappy marriage to Ginny!”

“And I’d be divorcing Ron!” I said, laughing.

“Or you’d be quite happy in Bulgaria with Krum…” he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

“Oh stop it,” I said, rolling my eyes in mirth. “I do have a question, though. If you knew I reciprocated, why did it take you so bloody long to ask me out!”

“Well, it wasn’t like you gave me a timeline of when things happened!” he replied heatedly. “I had to wing it…and I was afraid of screwing up the beautiful future I had had a taste of.”

He grinned at me wickedly. “You know, that shag, that was a spectacular shag. I still think about it.”

I blushed. And this was definitely of the eyebrow wagging variety.

“Before you and I finally got it together, I used to spend hours daydreaming about it…I couldn’t wait to get to that point with you. You were so bossy; you did very well in hiding behind that skirt…I knew what was happening under there, but I didn’t know completely. It gave me something to look forward to…it was just…wow. And you knew me so well...it was amazing. Up to that point, it remained the best shag of my life. And then I married you and you went ahead and ruined it.”

I picked a pillow off the bed and threw it at him. “You know, the first time we made love, I always got the feeling that my body was strangely…familiar to you. I still can’t believe that my first time with you, was not your first time with me. I’ll hold that against you for the rest of your life,” I said teasingly.

“You just went off and shagged a younger bloke while you’re wearing my ring!” he replied in an equally teasing tone.

“It’s his ring too!”

“I say we call it even,” he said, stepping over to me and wrapping his arms around me.

“Agreed,” I replied, snuggling up close to him.

“Although…I hope this penchant for younger men doesn’t see you sneaking off for hours with the Time Turner to have some more fun with me.”

“Do you remember that ever happening?” I asked him seriously.

“Nope.”

“Then I guess I don’t…and for that matter, I hope your obsession with older women doesn’t see you sneaking off into the future with my Time Turner. It’d be rather unfair; I wouldn’t be able to check up on that, would I? As it hasn’t happened yet.”

He squeezed my bum possessively. “You know, I rather feel the need to re-mark my territory. Say we skip this whole Malfoy gala tonight and…”

I wriggled myself free of him. “Oh no. After all that I just went through to get these pearl earrings, I’m wearing them out tonight!”

He pouted.

“We can come home and play afterwards…”

*~*~*~*

Happy Halloween!

Rini: I’m totally borrowing your Naughty French Maid outfit. You can have a turn with the leather pants. ;)