A/N: Just to let you all know, this is only going to be 3 chapters long.
And please remember that this is one of the first stories I ever wrote, so it isn't exactly quite up to the standard of my more current ones.
Please enjoy!
Chapter 2 - Explanations and a Decision
I bottled my anger so I could release it on Hermione later. I sat there, simmering in fury, for the last couple hours of the party. Once everyone had left, James bade his…mother…goodnight, and Hermione started cleaning up.
I silently stood up. I walked up behind her, took off the invisibility cloak, and said evilly, "Hello, Hermione."
Hermione jumped and turned around, her eyes widening in horror as they met mine. She opened her mouth to speak but I snapped, "Shut up and sit down!"
Hermione meekly obeyed, sitting in a plastic chair, never taking her eyes off me. I paced in front of her for a good 30 seconds, trying to formulate a new speech, because my old one was shot to hell now thatmychild was brought into the equation. I finally prepared something elegant and implemented it.
I walked up to her, put my hands on the arm of her chair, brought my face to within an inch of hers, and shouted, "WHY?"
She flinched and opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water. "I…I…I…"
I kicked the chair next to her and shouted, "What the hell, Hermione! What the hell gave you the right to go and DO THIS?!"
She finally found her voice. She stood up and shouted, "Because I wanted you to be free! Because I love you and didn't want you to have to deal with the responsibility of raising a child less than a year after you defeated Voldemort!"
I got back up in her face. "And you didn't take into consideration what I wanted! All I wanted to do in life was grow old and raise a family with YOU! Iwantedchildren!"
Hermione slowly sank back into her chair, her eyes rapidly filling with tears. She started full on sobbing, and I continued. "Instead, I spent the last 15 years trying to track you down! I've never even met my own son, and he's fifteen years old! I can't BELIEVE YOU!" I sank back down on the grass and said softly, "My whole life, Hermione. This is worse than Voldemort," I said with a disbelieving laugh.
Hermione tried to speak thickly through her sobs. "H-Harry…I…I didn't know…I'm so s-so-"
"Mom?" asked James from the back door. "I thought I heard yelling." He walked out and saw his mother crying, with me sitting there. He bunched his fists and said, "Who are you and what did you do to my mom?"
I stood up and energetically shook his hand, much to his bewilderment. I spoke with mock enthusiasm to pour the salt in Hermione's wounds. "Hi James, nice to meet you. Happy birthday, too. I would've got you something, but I didn't even know you existed." Hermione was sobbing again. "Did you know that my father's name was James, too? I'm sure your mother told you all about me! Probably not, though, because she never bothered to tellmeaboutyou."
"Um…" James was looking at me like I was crazy. "Who are you?"
"The name's Harry. Harry Potter. What's your last name, James?"
"Potter," he said slowly. "James Potter. Are you telling me…that you're my father?"
"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" I turned to Hermione and yelled, "Did you hear that, Hermione? Fifteen years old, and he had to ask me if I'm his father!" Hermione sobbed harder.
I took a deep breath to calm myself-I felt like an arse for using James to hurt Hermione-that wasn't fair to him. I looked at him seriously, and said, "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, James. Your mother thought she was acting in my best interest when she vanished without a trace without telling me about you." James's mouth opened in shock, and I said, "All I ever wanted were kids, and your mother took that choice away from me."
James's jaw clenched and he asked through gritted teeth, "Mom? Is that true?"
Hermione looked up, face tear-streaked, at her son. "I…I didn't know. I thought…I was doing it for him."
"What the hell, mom! I can't believe you! I…I…I hate you!"
Hermione's mouth opened and her face contorted into an expression of the deepest pain. My stomach clenched in painforher. James made to leave, but I grabbed his bicep. "Apologize," I growled.
Once again, James looked at me like I was crazy. "What? No!"
"Apologize, goddammit. You shouldneversay that to your mother!"
Hermione looked up quizzically and thankfully at me. James sighed, and said, "I'm…I'm sorry, mom. I didn't mean it. I won't deny that I'm angry with you, but I…I don't hate you. I'm going to bed."
James trudged into the house, and Hermione and I were silent for a couple minutes. "Thank you," Hermione's whisper broke the silence.
"I didn't do it for you. I did it because it's wrong."
A couple minutes of silence passed before Hermione suddenly brightened and said excitedly, "Let me go get something."
I sighed, exhausted, as Hermione quickly walked into her house. Besides the little slip-up with James, that had gone quite well-I had said everything that I wanted to. Hermione came back less than a second later with something that looked somewhat like a time-turner. She tossed it in my lap as she sat down again, and I inspected the necklace. Itwasa time-turner, except it had two hourglasses forming an X. "What is this?"
Hermione grinned smugly and said, "My newest invention. And the key to fixing all of this." I looked at her blankly, and she continued. "Think of when you want to go, turn it once, and you're there."
"So itisa time-turner, except you only have to turn it once."
"Kind of. Except this one is permanent. It transports yourmemoriesback into your body of the when of your choosing. Your current body just…disappears."
I felt hope bubble in my chest. "So I can go back 15 years and still remember this past 15 years?"
"Exactly. You'll be 18, and you can stop me from making the biggest mistake of my life."
"Wait a second," I said. "Why aren'tyougoing?"
"I wouldn't be able to live happily if I remembered what I put you through. I'd be too guilty."
"I think it might be better if you went back. My past 15 years haven't exactly been a walk in the park either."
"I'm not saying they were," she said a touch desperately. "I just…I know thatyouwill be able to forgive me, butIwon't."
She was right. It would be easier for me to pretend like this never happened…after all, she hadn't done anything wrong in the past yet. I would forgive her and be grateful for this second chance. "Are you sure this thing works?"
"Oh yes," she said excitedly. I've tested it myself-went five minutes into the past. Of course, I had to build a new one, which was a tad annoying…but yes, it works."
I put it around my neck. I gave Hermione a grim smile and said, "I'll see you, I guess."
She grabbed my wrist as I made to turn the hourglasses. She gave me a sad smile and said, "Harry. I'm sorry, just so you know. About all of this."
I grinned cockily at her. "About all of what? You haven't done anything wrong. None of this ever happened."
I turned the advanced time-turner while thinking of the night I told her I loved her. My last sight of the year 2014 was of Hermione smiling radiantly.
As everything came into focus, I knew that it had worked. I felt…much younger and more lively. But I knew that I wasn't at the right moment.
This model must've been faulty, because when I looked at my digital watch, it read: 7:40 AM, August 12th, 1999.
I was 19, and my son was going to be born in one day.
A/N: Before you try to flame me for having James call Hermione 'Mom', remember that he was raised in America and has an American accent.