Chapter Two:
Two years, ten months and two days. It was hard to believe that several hundred miles away, their younger selves were sitting down to lessons at Hogwarts. The two days since their arrival had been packed with activity as they settled themselves into the timeline. They were now renting a ground floor flat in a converted Victorian house with lovely big windows and a small walled garden in a town not far from Godrics Hollow. Or, it would be more accurate to say that Rose and Henry Smith were renting the flat.
Hermione smiled to herself as she remembered the night they had finalised their new identities, sitting in cramped hotel rooms finalising details with repeats of Dr Who on in the background. Harry had become rather addicted to Dr Who as they prepared themselves to become time travellers. It had seemed obvious after weeks of silly jokes between them that they would be Mr and Mrs Smith once they travelled in time, and when Hermione gave in to the fact that she was going to be a blonde Harry had declared that she could only be called Rose. Hermione had laughed along with him and agreed, but a little spark of hope appeared deep down as she thought of the implications of the name he had chosen for her. Henry seemed an obvious choice for him as she didn't know if she could bear to think of Harry as anything other than Harry, and if she slipped up then Harry was a perfectly acceptable contraction of the name Henry.
They had brought a lot of the essentials as shrunken down items in their backpacks and these were now unpacked in the part furnished flat, making the place seem like home. For Harry this was the first place he had ever had the freedom to do with as he pleased and Hermione had subtly encouraged him to do exactly what he wanted with their living space. His choices reflected so much about himself though he was unaware of how Hermione watched sadly as he choose clean bright colours to emphasise the space they now called home. He had for so long lived in cramped conditions with strict rules governing his life, whether they be the rules of Hogwarts, the chaos and lack of privacy in the Burrow, the secrecy and darkness of Grimmauld Place, or his stifled life with the Dursleys.
Some would say that their new flat was rather minimalist with vanilla walls throughout, but there were hints of colour throughout the flat, with neat, colourful stacks of books at intervals in most rooms, warm comforting cushions and blankets draped across the chairs, sofa and bed. There were small hints of home, friends and family hidden in plain sight throughout the flat with a large framed photograph of the Scottish highlands hanging in the hallway, an antique pocket watch displayed simply over the fireplace reminding them both of the time turner that had changed their life so many years before. Photographs of friends and family were too dangerous to have exposed so the few photographs they risked having in the flat were doctored so they appeared as strangers to anyone other than themselves. Any books referring to magic or magical items had mild muggle repelling charms cast over them so that a muggle visitor to the flat would simply glance past the items.
Monday morning found the two of them sitting on opposite sides of the large table they'd squeezed into the kitchen (with the help of a few sneaky charms), books, maps and parchment scribbled with notes spread out before them.
Hermione was currently poring over a large map of the UK where they'd marked all the places they'd already searched in addition to where the other Horcruxes had been discovered and places they needed to search. With the diary and ring destroyed and the locket in their possession there were a number of key locations which could potentially hide a Horcrux. Top of their search lists were the Riddle house, graveyard, a small forest in Albania and the home and bank vault of Bellatrix Lestrange.
Voldemort trusted only his closest circle and Bellatrix was the closest of all. They had to assume that Snape was not part of this inner circle for surely Dumbledore would have discovered it. Malfoy had already betrayed Voldemort by squandering the diary and it seemed that Avery, Goyle and Dolohov were more usually used as hired thugs/hitmen rather than trusted allies.
Dumbledore had ruled out the orphanage, and neither Harry or Hermione felt that Voldemort would place a part of himself in a place he had despised so much. It made far more sense that he had placed a portion of his soul in the place he began his rise to power: Hogwarts. Both agreed that it had to be there somewhere and Dumbledore must have missed it, Hogwarts was enormous and the castle was full of secrets, and concealed spots where an item could be concealed.
Now in the past they were free to explore Hogwarts without the risk of being captured by the Death Eaters patrolling the school in their own timeline. The main risk of entering the castle during their fifth year was being seen on the Marauders map by themselves or falling foul of Dolores Umbridge. Their own copy of the Marauders map combined with the Invisibility cloak should allow them to enter the castle through the secret passageways and protect them for long enough to sweep sections of the castle. Knowing that the search of Hogwarts was likely to take a long time they had divided the castle into sections and agreed to only search for a day or two at a time.
It took several weeks to finalise their plans to start searching Hogwarts. Harry was eager to get back to the place he had called home for so many years, and Hermione was understandably more cautious. The risks of being so close to their younger selves were multiplied tenfold from their adventures with the time turner at age thirteen. Accidentally changing even the smallest detail could alter the entire timeline. Harry had now banned her from even saying the words `butterfly effect', and in a fit of pretend rage had found an empty jam jar in the kitchen, rinsed it out and stuck a label on it saying `butterfly effect'. Hermione smiled to think of the jar which was steadily filling up with coins for every instance she couldn't resist reminding him of it. He was no better though, it had been about a week after the jam jar had appeared on the table that they were sitting working and he sighed `honestly' for around the 10th time in one morning. There were soon two matching jam jars on the table and they were steadily saving up enough coins to have a major night off and order an enormous takeaway.
It probably should have been strange, living together and pretending to be a married couple, but the strange thing was how incredibly easy it was. They continued with the work, their friendship was the same, though it grew deeper and stronger with every day they spent together, but they still joked and laughed about the same things, probably more so than before. They bickered over Harry's habit of leaving dirty socks all over the flat and Hermione's tendency to move bits of paper around. They ate every meal together as they had done nearly every day for many years. The differences in their daily routine and in their relationship were small ones which crept up on them unnoticed over time. Hermione would teasingly ruffle Harry's hair when she walked past him, though over time this became an affectionate greeting. As they walked in the town to go shopping, visit the pub, or just escape the house and make sure people weren't suspicious of them, they held hands. On particularly cold days Hermione would wrap her arm around Harry's waist and his arm would wind around her shoulders, pulling her close to him as they walked.
They learned more so than ever before how to deal with the others moods. Harry now knew when a well timed and honest compliment could change Hermione's mood and when a stupid gift like her favourite childhood sweets from the little sweet shop would pull her out of a funk and make her smile at him. Hermione had always been very attuned to Harry's mood, she'd focused so much of her life around him over the last few years, but she still learnt things every day as her role as one of Harry's best friends evolved into a new role as Harry's only best friend. He no longer had Ron to confide in about boy issues, or things he didn't want to bother Hermione with, and she was relieved that he didn't bother trying to keep things from her anymore. If he had a problem then as long as she waited for him to bring it up, he would.
Their landlords, a retired couple who lived in the house adjoining theirs thought them to be an entirely lovely young couple. Hermione had a soft spot for Mr and Mrs Wright as they reminded her of how her Grandparents had been when she was a child. She baked them a cake for their wedding anniversary and the relationship bloomed and they were often invited for Sunday lunch, Harry would pop over and help around the house and shovel snow from the front path if there had been a heavy flurry.
They had somehow become a part of the community. They were greeted by name in the little shop at the end of the road, they knew the postman and milkman, they knew most of their neighbours and were respected as the lovely young newlywed academics who were both busily working away. It seemed at odds sometimes after an afternoon spent with Mr and Mrs Wright, or a trip to the shops for bread or some other essential that they should return to their plans to destroy the fractured soul of a deranged mass murderer.
It was the perfect cover, and it was the perfect life. As the days approaching their first visit to Hogwarts slipped by, the nerves began to return as the reality of the situation once again began to sink in. The amount of money in the butterfly effect and honestly jars quickly doubled and the pair decided to have their blow out Chinese takeaway the night after their first Hogwarts trip as a reward for their hard work and as an incentive to search quickly, but thoroughly and to return home again.
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