Making Plans
Minerva wakes the next morning with a splitting headache. She reaches into her bedside table grabbing a potion to relieve her of this ache. After a few seconds, it starts to kick in, and she lays in bed for a little bit longer. As tired as she is, she just can’t find the energy to get up. Uncertain as to why she feels lazy, she continues to lay for about 5 minutes until Tilly pops into her room with her morning tea.
‘Good morning, Headmistress! Tilly has your tea and will have breakfast ready for you in your office. Tilly would like to remind you that Mister Longbottom will be coming this afternoon to work in the castle. If that is all yous need, Tilly will be on his way.’
Sighing, ‘Uh, yes, that will be all Tilly and if Mister Longbottom comes early, please bring him to my office right away.’ Tilly bows his head and pops away.
In taking a sip of her tea, she gets out of bed and gets ready for the day. After 20 minutes, she is on her way to her office. Once she arrives, she walks to her desk and sits down to eat her breakfast that is waiting for her. Simple fruit salad and cinnamon oatmeal. She takes a few bites and looks up and realizes that yesterday was not a dream and there is a journal, two notes, and a time turner on her desk.
I am not touching any of that until I finish my breakfast and quite possibly will need a strong Scottish Tea.
Eating her breakfast slowly so as to delay reading and learning how bad the future is, Minerva thinks about her plans for today. She knows that Neville will arrive today to make plans for the greenhouses, groundskeeping, and anything to deal with the land that Hogwarts sits on. At some point today she will need to start compiling a list of volunteers, what days they will be here, and what areas need to be fixed first before others.
After taking her last bite of breakfast, she stares at the future journal, not ready whatsoever. But as headstrong as she is she grabs the journal noticing that it is heavier than she thought. Holding the journal in her hand she sees that the leather is worn and frayed on the pages as if it was homemade. There is a strap with a small lock to hold it closed. She unlocks it and opens the journal.
She flips through the pages of the book and sees that there are only three pages of writing. When she flips the fourth page, she notices that there is a cutout hole in the journal and two vials inside of it. She pulls out the two vials and sets them on her desk. They look like the vials that are in the secret closet that she saw yesterday. Each vial has a label;H.M. 2005; D.O. 2006.
Hearing a chime from the clock, she notices that Neville will be here in four hours which gives her more than enough time to start on this. She looks at the first page and notices that it is not in Hermione’s handwriting but in Draco’s. She starts to read….
January 2007
Hello,
Well, I guess to start
Things are crazy here in hell
Hermione just yelled at me for messing up writing this entry. But how do you start an entry when the world has gone to hell. As Mia tells me, I must suck it up and just write so that is what I will do, as my wife is always right.
We have finally finished the time turner and now it is a waiting game until Potter and his family arrive. The plan as Mia tells me is that we will go back in time and fix everything. She thinks that we need to go back to the time after the final battle, but Potter says that we go even farther. They have been going back and forth on what date we travel to, what to change/not to, and how long we will be in the past.
But if you take my point of view we should just go and kill Voldemort before he even steps into Hogwarts but that got shot down immediately as it would change way too many things and then the chance that we would not be born could be a big problem.
Bloody hell, time travel is insane. But I know how important this is and why we must do this. I can’t believe how bad this has gotten. My whole life has been about darkness, war, and death. My mother and father have both died, and all my friends and my family have been on the run for more than two years. There are too many taboos. We just moved to our new spot two days ago because Mia’s and Potter’s names are taboo.
Mia and I never wanted this for our kids. We thought when the war ended, we could stay out of Ministry, leave Britain, and just be together. We were so happy those first five years. We traveled all over the world, got married, and worked on our masteries. When we found out that Mia was pregnant with Scorpius, I was so scared that I held him in my arms, and I felt complete. I had the love of my life, my mother was safe, and everything would be okay.
Then Potter told us that we needed to come back to Britain as the situation was getting worse. Scorp was two at the time and Mia was pregnant with our twins, Leo and Lyra. When the twins were born, the Ministry fell. This group took over and the world as we knew it came to an end.
I hate that my kids have had to witness all of this, but I wouldn’t trade them for not being here. Lyra the other day was running around and playing with her brothers when she stopped to run to me and give me a hug and demand to play with them. My children are so happy and carefree in a world filled with darkness. As Mia says they are her light in the dark whereas Mia will always be mine.
I have run on a tangent and not writing what I am supposed to. Mia told me that we are bringing this to you, professor. I can’t thank you enough for everything you have done for me. You were able to get me out of going to Azkaban and supported me through my time in Hogwarts and outside of it. I know at the point you are reading this; it hasn’t all happened yet. And if Mia is correct, this should arrive to you at least two weeks after the final battle.
Mia told me that I needed to tell you what to change and I have no idea what to change. When that hat told us to change everything, I felt that something was wrong with the hat. Mia said that it never leaves Hogwarts, so it was strange that it appeared to us. Mia reminded me that Hogwarts always helps those that are looking for it.
But why now? If anything, I would ask or fix the hat. I have this feeling that something is wrong with it or it changed something. After the hat disappeared, Mia started having pains in her chest and her hair started changing colors, but it only lasted for a few minutes. It never happened again since that day. She continues to say that she is okay, but I have the gut feeling that something is wrong.
I don’t know what else to say or write so I will sign-off and hopefully Mia will have more to tell you than myself. I have always looked up to you professor, except maybe 1st and 2nd years. I was a little shit those two years. I never said thank you for everything you have done and continue to do regardless of if you get the thanks or not.
You were there for me in my darkest hour in my fifth year. My sixth year was hard but at least I knew that I had you and Mia, but also, I knew that I needed to fight back even if Dumbledore wouldn’t let me. Wolves protect their pack, right?
I hope to see you again professor,
Draco Malfoy
Minerva takes a deep breath, sets the journal down on her desk, and leans back in her chair. After a few minutes of breathing and silence, she thinks of Draco. Oh, how that young man turned into a loving father and husband. I knew he always would. It makes her feel happy to know that she impacted him enough to make a wonderful life for himself, even though the world went to hell, he at least got the family he always wanted.
She is interested in the fact that he only wanted to fix the hat because it hurt Hermione. Honestly, it makes sense. Not the hat part but the protecting Hermione. Minerva remembers when he started to change in reaction to her. It was his third year, and he came to my office with a bloody nose. Then in the fourth year, he followed her around all the time. It’s a surprise that Hermione never questioned it that year.
The fifth year was the worst for both. If they didn’t have each other, I don’t think either of them would have survived that year. She remembers that year especially all that happened that year. She knew that they were both interested in becoming an animagus. Throughout that year, she trained them and helped Hermione with the DA in selecting material to work on. Draco helped in warning their group of anything that Umbridge was planning.
What she didn’t account for was that Umbridge was hurting her cubs in the cruelest ways. Blood quills, threats, spying, and what happened the Draco. She doesn’t need a pensive the remember Hermione dragging a half-dressed Draco on her back. Her red face with tears running down her cheeks. At that point, she knew things needed to change. Dolores went way too far this time, and she was putting a stop to it. Before she could, Draco woke up and begged her not to. That night was filled with tears and sniffling until all they all fell asleep.
She remembers that day as if it was yesterday. Also, the happiness that came to follow the day after when both students transformed into their animagus's. It seems that she has a lot of planning to do if she is going to save Draco again and she will need Hermione.
Minerva looks around the room to see the hat. Now, Draco said something was wrong with it or that it changed something. Why would he want me to fix the hat? Why did it affect Hermione? When running the diagnostic on it yesterday, she understood that there were many things that were wrong with it, but she is unsure how to get it to talk. Yes, the hat is sentient, but it only talks when it wants to. This may be harder than she thought.
Hearing another chime in the room, she looks to the clock to see that two hours have passed since she last looked at the clock. She has two more hours till Neville gets here and there is only one more entry in the journal. Thinking that she will finish it and have enough time to start planning for her meeting, she picks up the journal again to read the second entry of the journal. Noting that this is written in Hermione’s handwriting she begins once again….
February 2007
I miscalculated. I underestimated how powerful they were and how far their reach went. Minerva, it was all Dumbledore, he is the one to blame for everything that has happened since I stepped into the Wizarding World. I can’t explain it as I don’t know all he did but when I saw that hat, I knew he did something again. Each year it was something different, more menacing, more dangerous, and almost got all killed multiple times. Isolating Harry by taking him under his wings and making him think that the Wizarding World is only his to fix.
It's not! I didn’t tell Drake but when the hat disappeared, I had a vision of Dumbledore and a baby. He was using magic and the baby was crying so loudly and in so much pain that I felt it in my soul. The baby’s features changed, and I saw him bring the baby to my parents and told them to raise me as their own and give me a new name. I was in extreme pain during the vision as if I was the one that was being affected. I don’t know what it all means or why I saw that.
No matter the reason, I know that we must change things so that this world I am in now, never happens. I told Drake to think of something to change and I read his entry….my thoughts are the same as his. The hat needs to be fixed. It knows way more than what we know.
I also think that Dumbledore’s office can tell us more, but we don’t have access to that. Draco and I should have let you kill that bitch when you wanted to in fifth year, would have saved us a lot of heartache. But it is also not as simple as that.
In talking with Harry about the point that we need to go back in time, I am unsure because we don’t know everything that happened in the first Wizarding War. I know that Harry is right in the way that we must change the first wizarding war outcome.
Defeat Voldemort before any of us are born. I have always been hesitant about Dumbledore, so when you collect my current self, just say the words, ‘Dumbledore chess’, and I will know what it means.
The vials are two important memories that you need to watch with me, Draco, Harry, Neville, and Ron. One of them is my memory from May 2005 and Drake’s from October 2006.
In preparing to go back in time, it will only allow you and your guests to stay if you are wearing the turner. Once you take it off, you will disappear, and the turner will stay. When you send Hermione and Draco to the past make sure they understand this and then tell them to destroy the time turner. They will disappear but also the turner will no longer be able to work.
I don’t know what else to warn you about or tell you because I am assuming that you and Neville will figure it all out. Yes, I did say Neville. HE is very important in all of this. I understand all of this is hard to read and process but there is no other way.
When you get my past self-involved make sure you tell her that she doesn’t need to hide anymore. I love my family! Drake and my children are the light of my life, I can’t imagine my life without them. I know that you will do the right thing, no matter what it is. I know Drake’s entry was clear cut and mine is so confusing. Plan for the past and fix all of this. I love you, professor. Wolves protect their pack, right?
Your favorite student,
Hermione Malfoy
Well, that wasn’t very helpful. Except that Albus is behind all of this. I knew that something was off when the golden trio was in school, but I never questioned it. Now, with all the information that has been brought to light, I realized that I never truly knew my oldest friend.
Also, Umbridge is involved in this somehow and it is significant enough for her to mention. This journal entry seems more mysterious than Draco’s, maybe there are more clues than what I can understand. I will need Hermione’s help to decipher her future self-writing.
If I am going to change things, then I need to build a team and get all the information straight before I do anything with that time-turner. Hermione will be easier to track down and get help, whereas Draco may be a bit of a problem. Harry, Ron, and Neville will help because it is Hermione.
I grab a piece of paper and a quill to write notes of everything that I need to do to change the past and who will all be involved. I go to start when I hear someone saying, ‘Headmistress.’ I look up and see Neville is here. I quickly look at the clock and notice that it is time for our meeting. I take a deep breath and motion for Neville to sit in front of my desk. He moves to the chairs that are currently in front of my desk. He sits down, gives me a smile, and says, ‘So you needed my help.’
Chuckling, she says, ‘More than you know!’