Harmione One Shots

Paradox Lost

Summary: In which Hermione abuses the Time Turner to have an argument with herself about whether to ask Harry out.

Ship: HarryPotterxHermioneGranger

All credit goes to Crediblydivoweredeventsandfeasts on Ao3

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The problem was the summer was coming.

Usually, this would have delighted Hermione – warm weather, hours and hours of sunshine (all the better to read by natural light, of course), and the opportunity to spend time with her parents. Since coming to Hogwarts she had sort of slipped out of their lives. Though they were loving and proud, even getting two or three letters a week wasn't the same thing as getting to hug her mother or have her father surprise her with a trip for ice cream. Legitimately a surprise, considering their vendetta against sugar.

The reason it was a problem was Harry Potter. And that damnable hippogriff.

She found herself daydreaming during class, about her arms wrapped tightly around him as they flew, only this time it wasn't some life-or-death mission. It was more like ... a date? In the sky? She hadn't exactly thought the particulars through, but frankly even a half-baked excuse was enough to enjoy being close to him.

Maybe it was the hugging, or maybe it was that it enabled her (fictionally) to share something with him that he cared about? It made him happy, and through some completely unknown process that made her happy by proxy.

She was not, she hastened to add, in love with Harry. Being a sensible fourteen-year-old, that was preposterous. She merely fancied him. He just happened to be attractive. And exciting. And made her feel safe. It was entirely possible though that he was the kind of person, that given sufficient time and exposure she could come to fall in love with. This, she thought, this is exactly the problem! Having daydreams about falling in love with anyone is not a thing she had previously tolerated, and yet here she was.

This all tied in with the swiftly encroaching summer holidays because it meant she was running out of time to do something about it. With term ending, there would be six entire weeks for her to either drive herself stir crazy or for her to lose her fervour. Either result seemed to her to be an awful waste.

She has been going back and forth for days now, resolving to ask him to Hogsmeade, or just tell him she likes him, or something, anything, to confess and then when she gets to the sticking point she bottles it. She thinks to herself 'There's always tomorrow. Let's do it tomorrow,' or worse, she thinks 'He's going to laugh at me, and then I'm down a friend. And then he'll take Ron with him, so at least that would be a silver lining.' Humour aside, losing her two best friends would make Hogwarts unbearable.

That's why it had to be today, otherwise the opportunity was going to be lost forever. People can change a lot over a summer when you're fourteen.

It was also therefore, why she was hiding in the library – one of the few places she was guaranteed not to run into him. Exams were over, classes were in that delightful period where no one wanted to do anything because the holidays were so close, and your head had that sort of warm fuzz feeling from some combination of the summer warmth and the pressure release of being done with learning, for at least a while.

Pushed to it, she had decided – she was going to talk to him. No more messing about. She could feel it, this time she would actually do it.

It was therefore a surprise to her when a second Hermione lazily appeared out of thin air, already seated on one of the wooden library study chairs, tucking her golden time turner down her shirt.