“It’s your own fault, you shouldn’t have drunk so much!” Hermione scolded, smirking as Harry stumbled into the room, looking worse for wear. She knew they would be like that, particularly after how much they had drunk. Harry groaned and slumped down onto the seat next to Ron. Hermione had heard both of them earlier making new best friends with the toilet.
“Serves them right!” she muttered as she washed the plates she had used earlier.
“I don’t feel so good!” Harry complained. He looked awfully green.
“Join the club,” Ron mumbled. “I am never going to drink again!” From the sink, Hermione snorted with laughter.
“Hermione, please can you mix up your magic hangover potion?” Harry said, wincing as Hermione started to set the table in what he thought was an irksomely loud manner.
“Let me think . . . no.”
“But I have to meet Remus in an hour and I can’t go like this!” Harry moaned, pointing at his head.
“As I have already said to Ron, it’s your own fault!” Hermione replied.
“But””
“Tough. Make it yourself,” Hermione said tartly. She was still smirking.
“Oh that’ll be good, we’ll really be able to do that. We‘ll just cut to the chase and poison ourselves,” Ron said sarcastically.
“Nice to hear that even though you have a hangover, your sarcasm is still intact,” Hermione said breezily as she flicked the kettle on. She had convinced Harry to buy some Muggle appliances, as they were so much easier to use. A kettle was just one of those things.
“You did sleep over in my house and are eating my food,” Harry said pointedly. When Hermione didn’t react, he tried his last tactic with his most pleading voice. “We love you?”
Just the sheer hopefulness of the tone Harry was using caused Hermione to soften. Hearing Harry beg was always great fun. “Okay, just this once. Next time, you will have to make it yourself!”
“Thank you, thank you!” both Ron and Harry exclaimed, standing up and hugging Hermione. Then they both had identical looks of agony on their faces as Hermione purposely patted their heads. Banging their heads together would have been too mean.
“Where’s the future girl?” Ron asked, suddenly noticing that Holly was missing.
“Holly was up hours ago. She went for a walk,” Ginny said from the other side of the table, peering over the top of her newspaper. Ron and Harry jumped ” then winced because they moved their heads too fast. Ginny walked over to them and handed them each a vial of luminous green liquid.
“What’s this?” Harry asked, holding up the lime coloured vial.
“It’s a hangover potion, of course. Hermione and I made some before you lazy boys got up,” Ginny said, almost laughing at his slowness.
“Thanks a million,” Harry said. Ginny’s cheeks started to turn ever so slightly pink.
“No problem,” she replied.
“I swear it was purple last time,” Ron mumbled musingly.
“It was, it was a different recipe,” Hermione explained.
“If you already made it, then why did you make us beg?” Harry asked accusingly.
“Don’t take that tone with me Harry James Potter,” Hermione said sharply. “We thought that you deserved to suffer a bit.”
“Bottoms up!” Ron declared, then tipping the whole bottle down his throat in one. The he pulled a disgusted face.
“Well it’s not going to taste like Butterbeer is it?” Ginny said tartly.
“That stuff tastes worse than Skele-Gro!” Harry announced, also pulling a face.
“What do you want for breakfast?” Hermione asked, ignoring Harry’s complaints. It wasn’t usual for Hermione to cook everyone breakfast, but today she was in quite a good mood.
“Just toast please, I need to leave soon,” Harry said, the colour returning to his face as the potion started to kick in.
“Same here,” Ron said, also looking better.
“Well, you’re finally up!” Holly said as she walked into the room.
“Where have you been?” Harry asked.
“I just fancied a walk,” Holly said airily, turning slightly pink as Harry stared intensely at her ” which was strange, as she hadn’t before.
“So do you feel like telling us who you are yet?” Ron said bluntly.
“Ronald!” Hermione hissed, smacking him on the back of the head. “Don’t be so rude! If you thought your hangover was bad, I can do much worse than that!”
“I know I’ll have to tell you all of it … at one point ... but only some of it now,” Holly muttered. The others weren’t sure whether she was talking to them or to herself. It was quite clear it was distressing her.
“Go on,” Hermione urged gently.
“You can’t do anything about it though for months ... years,” Holly explained, a pained look on her face.
“Then why did you come back yesterday?” Ron asked.
“Well, that’s part of what I wanted to change. In my time, yesterday, not all of you got out of the fire alive. Ron died,” she said, looking away from everyone. No one spoke, only the sound of the clock ticking insistently was heard. Hermione clutched Ron’s arm tightly.
“So ... you didn’t just save us from getting burnt yesterday ... you saved my life?” Ron croaked. They all knew Holly had saved them, but they never actually thought any of them would have died anyway. The idea of any of them dying had never even entered their minds, but now that she said it, it hit them. Hard. Holly nodded.
“I wanted to come back and stop you dying ... all the pain that caused ...” Holly explained somberly.
“Is there anything else?” Hermione asked, even though she already knew the answer. She could tell from the look on Holly’s face.
“Yes,” she replied softly. “I came back to stop the new Dark Lord.” Her eyes were filled with pain and anger. Harry was the first to react to the latest bombshell.
“Who is it?” he asked urgently.
“I can’t tell you, you’ll go after him and everything will get messed up!” Holly explained, sounding distressed.
“Then how are we meant to stop him if we don’t know who he is?” Harry demanded.
“You need to ... wait, he needs to gather up all the old Death Eaters in one place first. If not then you’ll never be able to get them all. They’ve fled all over the world. They’re like bloody flies,” Holly said, sounding irritated.
“If we promise not to go after him, will you tell us?” Harry insisted. Holly looked at him with a strange expression.
“You can be very stubborn, can’t you? No, I can’t ... I know that you’ll go after him and I cannot risk that!” Holly said, shaking her head.
“How do you know? You have to tell us!” Harry said.
“But you can’t just”” Ron started.
“Yes I can!” Holly half-yelled, getting up and turning away from them.
“Sorry,” Ron mumbled, shooting Harry a confused look.
“I know it’s just ... everything that’s happened and that’s going to happen ...” Holly said, her voice trembling.
“Why are you telling us all of this, why not someone else?” Ginny asked.
“A few reasons, really. First, Harry did defeat the last Dark Lord, and even though it’s made him pretty cocky about everything, he is still very powerful and you all have experience with fighting Dark wizards,” Holly started, ignoring the outraged look Harry gave her when she called him ‘cocky.’ “And also, you are one of the few people who have a working knowledge of Horcuxes. I’m here to help, not give a history lesson!”
“How do you know about Horcruxes?” Harry asked, shocked. Even the Order didn’t know about them ” only Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny knew the exact nature of Voldemort’s powers.
“I read about them,” she replied. Hermione felt slightly confused. When they were trying to find out what they were, she had spent weeks ” months ” in the library searching every single book, even the ones in the restricted section, and not one mentioned Horcruxes. What book did she look in?
“I think that’s enough questions for now,” Hermione said after deciding to hold her tongue and looking at her watch. “Ginny, you have to meet your mother in ten minutes, Harry you’re meeting Remus in less than half an hour, and Ron, you need to go to headquarters with Holly and I to explain the situation,” Hermione said efficiently. Sometimes she felt like she was looking after a bunch of children!
“No, you can’t tell anyone else I’m from the future, I can’t risk the other side finding out!” Holly said suddenly.
“I know, we’ll just have to say you’re my mothers best friends daughter, and that we recently found out you were a witch and you want to join the order,” Hermione invented, cleaning up the empty table. During the course of Holly’s explanations, the toast Hermione had cooked had all been eaten. Even having a hangover didn’t stop Harry and Ron eating.
“That’s gonna be a bit long to remember,” Holly joked, although she was grateful for Hermione’s quick, logical thinking.
“Aren’t those Hermione’s clothes?” Ron asked suddenly, staring at Holly. Hermione was surprised he noticed. Maybe he was more observant than she had originally thought.
“Well spotted. She’s borrowing them,” Hermione replied. Ron looked confused.
“It’s not like a brought a suitcase with me when I came here!” Holly said, rolling her eyes and laughing.
“I didn’t think about that,” Ron said musingly, momentarily forgetting that he had to get dressed.
“Ron, go and get dressed!” Hermione said, giving him a small push out of the room.
“Thanks for that, Hermione,” Holly said.
“No problem, the boys are like kids sometimes. Thank you for saving Ron,” Hermione said gratefully. Now that the others had left, she was able to talk a bit better to Holly.
“I couldn’t just let him die again,” Holly said, playing with a strand of her brown hair. The two of them chattered until Ginny came downstairs, soon followed by Ron and Harry, all fully dressed. Harry quickly ripped off a piece of paper from a pad on the table and scribbled something down, then passed it to Hermione.
“Oh, remember, Holly is my mothers best friends daughter, if anyone asks,” Hermione explained to Harry and Ginny.
“Ok, will do,” Ginny said, nodding.
“Say hello to Remus for me,” Hermione said, giving Harry a peck on the cheek.
“Okay. Thanks for the potion and I’ll see you all later,” Harry said, grinning at everyone before leaving.
“Well, I should be leaving too,” Ginny said, rushing over to the fireplace, grabbing the glittery powder in one hand. She threw the powder into the fire with one hand, waving goodbye with the other. Although Ginny was much more used to Floo powder, she still had a slight fear that she would get splinched along the way, like she had the first time she had Apparated, leaving her head and arm behind. Ron was staring into space.
“What’s the matter?” Hermione asked.
“Its just ... if it wasn’t for Holly ... I wouldn’t be alive, sitting here ... it never occurred to me that I would die young and I should have ...” Ron said, dazed.
“No one deserves to die young,” Hermione said, rubbing Ron on the back comfortingly. Holly remained silent.
“Thank you for saving my life,” Ron said.
“It was the least I could do,” Holly said softly, smiling weakly at Ron. She had a look of anguish on her face. “It’s still weird being here, everyone and everything is so different. I don’t know anyone, not really.”
“You know us,” Ron pointed out.
“Its not the same,” Holly said, sighing. “But forget about my worries, we need to get going.”
Hermione and Ron watched in amazement as she swept all of her qualms away as if they were nothing, and grabbed her coat.
“I think we’re going to learn an awful lot from that girl. And I’m not just talking about things that are going to happen in the future,” Hermione said, linking arms with her boyfriend, then following Holly outside.
As they started to walk out of the door, Hermione suddenly realised that Holly didn’t know where they were going. Just before Dumbledore had died, he had reset the Fidelius charm, as if he actually knew that he was going to die. That thought had ran through many of their heads, many times, particularly Harry’s, who was now the Secret Keeper. She put a hand in her pocket to where the paper Harry gave her. “The headquarters are-”
“I know where it is,” Holly said curtly.
“How do you know?” Ron asked.
“I was part of the Order in the future,” she explained.
“Oh, so the Order was kept when this new Dark Lord turned up?” Ron said. She nodded.
“Oh, that makes sense,” Hermione said sensibly. Then she remembered something. “What’s your surname? We can’t introduce you properly with just your first name.”
Holly paused for a second. “Rose.”
Hermione and Ron smiled. “Ready, let’s go,” Hermione said. Then there were three loud cracks and they were gone.