A Paradox In Time

Eternally His

It was like slipping back into an old nightmare.

For a moment, Harry just marvelled at it. Marvelled at the fact that he'd become accustomed to a world that didn't feel like this. He hadn't fully appreciated at the time the very heaviness of the atmosphere, of the leaden nature of an air so coated with oppression and anxiety that Harry, used to his freedom, found difficult to breathe now.

He looked over at Hermione, who seemed weighed down with the pressure of their latest jaunt to the past, too.

"Do ... do you remember it like this?" Harry murmured.

Hermione looked over, eyes wide and heavy and dark with fear. "All too well."

"I suppose I just never noticed," Harry went on. "My entire life has been lived under this cloud. I don't think I realised it wasn't there until just now, when I felt it wrapped back around my shoulders. What does that say about me?"

"Only this ... that what should have been wrapped around your shoulders were my arms, to protect you from all the darkness. I'll put that right, Harry, I swear it."

Then she stepped close and made good on her promised, enveloping Harry in a Hermione-hug, only one with deep tenderness replacing her usual bone-shattering ferocity. Harry thought he could get very used to this new version.

But that was ll for later. He turned to Hermione as they slipped apart. "So, what's the plan? I know my bit, but what are you going to do in the meantime?"

Hermione scrunched her eyebrows. "I don't like your bit at all. I don't like the idea of you going off on your own, to somewhere that I can't protect you."

Harry chuckled at that. "I can look after myself, you know? And don't roll your eyes with that barely look! I have to get into position to replace myself, don't I? Besides, it will give me time to rethink that godawful speech I made the last time I did this!"

"Don't joke, Harry!" Hermione yelped. "How can you make jokes at a time like this?"

"Because they're still funny?" Harry teased. "But enough about me. Are you finally going to tell me what this big thing is that you have to do? Where are you going to be, while I'm huddled down on the lawn by the castle?"

"Off stopping the biggest mistake I ever made," Hermione huffed. "You plan to replace yourself ... and I plan to do the same."

"Why?" Harry asked with a frown.

"So that I never kiss Ron," Hermione announced briskly. "I'm going to get my other self out of the way somehow, then take her place for the rest of the night."

Harry shuddered at the idea. "I don't like that. Not the not-kissing-Ron bit, I'm totally onside with that part, but as for the rest ... it's too risky. So much happens after that and you could get hurt, or worse. We got by on sheer luck last time."

"And we will again," Hermione replied brightly. "Don't worry ... I'll be fine."

"What makes you so confident? You'll be changing history and who knows how that might affect things."

"I'll be fine," Hermione repeated. She stepped forwards and cupped Harry's cheek in her right palm. "And how do I know? I'll be with you, that's how. You're the safest place for me to be in any time period. I'll replace myself after me and Ron find our way to the Chamber of Secrets, then I'll make sure I don't kiss him, then by the time you get to the final fight in the Great Hall I'll be there waiting for you."

Harry huffed and crossed his arms. "There's no talking you out of this, is there?"

"Not a chance in hell," Hermione confirmed gravely. "I might even give you a hint of my affection for you, see if it hurries us along at all."