logistics

Parvati returned to Grimauld Place to find that everyone had moved from the sitting room down to the large table in the room right off the kitchen. Hermione had acquired a large, rolling whiteboard from somewhere and was sketching an outline of a plan onto it, while taking suggestions from the others.

Mostly, it looked like a list of goals up in one corner, and the steps required to achieve them taking up the rest of it.

“Death to Riddle” had the top spot on the list, as well as the outline of the plan they already had to at least delay his return while they hunted down some objects that were apparently keeping him alive. “Capture Pettigrew” and “Clear Sirius” came next, then “Find somewhere to live”, “Make sure Teddy gets into Hogwarts”, “Dumbledore?”, “Tonks memories”, “Identities”, “Wizengamot”, “Creature Legislation”, “Education Reform”, and “Separate from Muggle World?” was at the bottom of the list.

“Looks like you lot have been busy,” Parvati observed, setting down her bag on the bench on one side of the table.

“Harry made sandwiches, if you’d like some,” Hermione told her, gesturing at the platter on the table, “And we left you that end of the table to work if you need it so you could also be part of the discussion, if you want.”

Parvati nodded and sat next to Neville, who was staring at the board, absently chewing on one of the sandwiches.

“I’ve had a thought about the names you go by, if you haven’t already come up with a solution for that.” Parvati offered, grabbing one of the sandwiches.

The look Hermione gave her indicated that they had, in fact, not come up with a solution for that, so Parvati continued.

“If Harry has been able to go by only one of the names he has a claim to, doesn’t it stand to reason that you could as well? Jean Ravenclaw, or something. It’d certainly be suspicious, but not as suspicious as having two Hermione Grangers. And Harry could go by whatever-his-full-first-name-is Peverell, since James would probably be a bit weird.”

Harry wrinkled his nose but nodded. “Hadrian Peverell. Could be worse.”

Hermione hummed. “I could go by Jean Dagworth, would be a bit less suspicious to anyone that isn’t younger me.”

“Dagworth?” Narcissa asked, brows furrowed. “I thought that name died off with Hector Dagworth…Granger.”

Hermione shrugged. “I guess he was my grandfather’s brother. My dad decided to drop the Dagworth on most things, though it is still legally his name. Mum just took Granger when they married. Legally, my name has always been Hermione Jean Dagworth-Granger, I just wasn’t aware of that when I received my Hogwarts letter. And since Hogwarts letters are the first form of magical legal documentation most muggleborns have—“

“Nobody in the magical world has any idea.” Harry finished. “Same reason why most people seem to think my full first name is Harry. I didn’t know it wasn’t until I was eighteen.”

Narcissa pinched the bridge of her nose as if to stop an oncoming headache.

“That won’t work for Draco though,” Hermione said, “Will it?”

Draco was about to shake his head when Narcissa nodded. “It will, actually. Legally, Draco’s name is Draconis Orion Abraxas Black Malfoy. It was written into my marriage contract to Lucius; all of my children would be Blacks first and named as such.” She smirked. “Not that Lucius remembered that. He’s never seen your birth certificate.”

“Why didn’t I know that?!” Draco asked, taken aback.

Narcissa shrugged. “It never came up, which may be for the best.”

Parvati just sat back and watched the ensuing drama, munching on her sandwich. It was nice to be in the thick of things again.

She stopped, letting that thought buzz around in her mind for a bit. What had she really been doing for the last few years?

Sure, she got her shop, and it was even doing well, but that dream had always been Lavender’s more than hers. Mostly, she had done it in memory of her best friend, and while she enjoyed the work, she had felt a bit…stagnant, lately. Starting the shop had been a purpose, keeping her from drowning in the grief of losing her best friend and twin sister all at once. Now that it had been up and running well for a while now, however, she had found herself itching for months, somewhere deep in her bones.

Like she was waiting for something.

She looked back at the board again.

Divination had always been her favorite subject, even if her inner eye was squinting at best. The last time she remembered having a feeling like this was the night before Harry, Ron, and Hermione had crawled through Ariana’s portrait into the Room of Requirement. Before that, it was in the weeks leading up to joining the DA.

Change.

Good or bad, she wanted to be part of it.

Well, she thought. Gryffindors rush in.

“I want to go with you.” She declared, silencing the conversation that had stemmed from the Malfoy’s bickering.

“Sorry?” Harry asked.

“I want to travel back with you.” She told him plainly. “I’ve been waiting for something for months and I think this might be it. I thought it was going to be something like the Battle of Hogwarts again, but then you wrote me last night. I think this might be what I’ve been waiting for.”

Across the table from her, Luna Lovegood smiled.

Parvati took that as a good sign.

”But what about your shop?” Hermione asked, brow furrowed in concern. “You’ve been working toward that for years!”

Years ago, Parvati might have assume that this was Hermione not wanting her along. Now she knew Hermione well enough to recognize genuine concern when she saw it.

”Why did you three suddenly decide to do this?” Parvati countered. “Why is it suddenly so urgent? Hermione’s been carrying those time-turners for over a decade, so why now? Why did Hermione feel the need to take them in the first place? Why does it need to be you? Why the sudden urge to go back? To work toward more separation from muggles when two of you were raised by them?” She studied their expressions for a moment as the realization hit them. “I think that something’s coming. Something big. And I think that this is magic’s way of defending itself from it.” She said, before she even realized it was true. One glance back at Luna told her she was right. 

“A great sickness.” Luna said in a voice not quite her own, and the room fell quiet to listen. “A great sickness will spread across the world. The nonmagical people will suffer losses, millions, but the magical people of the world will be annihilated.” That word echoed around the room and suddenly, everyone understood what Parvati meant when she said her bones itched. “You know that you must go, and you know what you must do. I will guide your hands when I must, but I have given you all the tools you will need. You will have twenty-four years from the date you arrive. Do not rush, and do things right, but keep that limit in mind. You have my blessings, and you have my faith. Do not disappoint me.”

Luna slumped in her seat and Ron’s reflexes saved her from falling to the floor.

”Fucking hell.” Harry groaned. “And here I thought I could go a lifetime without facing another bloody prophecy.”