Hello all! This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but it's packed full of major plot factors, so I hope you enjoy it. I really put a lot of thought into if this turn of events was a good idea or not, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the matter. I did seriously consider ending this story with one, final chapter, but with as well received as this story has been thus far, I thought it deserved to be taken further, more in depth, and I felt that to do that I needed to add the dynamic of another character. Readers, meet Kade.

Minerva sat in her office drowning a bottle of whiskey. The article in The Prophet had been printed, and despite how well put together it had been, it seemed that the mass of the wizarding world agreed with Arthur Weasley - give the baby up for adoption, and it is spared being called bastard, leaving Minerva and Hermione no reason to continue to engage in their… affair. Hermione had moved away from Hogwarts, deciding that for the time being, she ought to stay with her parents. They still had time to decide if they would or wouldn't marry, and Minerva knew that Hermione was considering the option of giving the children up.

She'd promised Hermione that she wouldn't drink again, but Hermione wasn't here, was she? Minerva took another swallow of the harsh liquid, and the hacking cough that spilled out next almost blocked the sound of someone knocking on her office door. Almost. "Come!" she said, clearing her throat.

A young man, perhaps eighteen, walked in the door. He wore a Gryffindor uniform, though, so Minerva figured he just looked older than he really was, as that would make him too old to be here. That said, the curly dark hair and green eyes were unfamiliar to her, and there hadn't been any students to transfer into the sixth or seventh year classes this term from other schools.

"You shouldn't be drinking," he said in a harsh sort of greeting, eying the bottle fiercely.

Minerva drank the last swig in that bottle, and threw it at the wall, not even wincing as it shattered. "Who the hell are you?" she asked calmly. "Despite your uniform, I do not believe you are a student here."

"My name is Kade," he said, more gently this time. "And while I am a student at Hogwarts, I'm not from this Hogwarts."

Bleary eyes looked at him dumbly. "There's only one Hogwarts."

"There's any number of Hogwarts'," Kade shrugged. "The present one, of course, and then the thousands of past and future ones. I come from one of the possible futures. I am a friend. I'm here to help."

"Help what?"

"Hermione Granger is expecting triplets. Two of the babies are going to die," Kade replied. "I want to help prevent that."

Minerva's face went white. "How? Why?" she demanded, maternal instinct rising above her intoxicated state.

"How?" Kade spat. "Your drinking was the first factor."

Minerva immediately looked ashamed of herself. "I'll never drink again. I swear," she said.

"You said the same thing to Hermione a few weeks ago, and here you are," the young man said pointedly.

"Well if what you say is true, then this time I have a damn good reason to keep that promise."

"That doesn't negate the broken one."

"It's not as if Hermione knows," Minerva ground out, losing patience with this boy.

"Why do you think she left your sorry arse?!" Kade exploded.

His outburst reminded her a bit of her own father, which caused her to shrink back a bit. According to those who knew him, she had inherited that scathing tone of voice herself, though objectively she couldn't really say. "How could you even know that? Have you spoken with her already?"

"No," the dark haired boy replied after a calming breath. "I just know. She told me… in the future."

"I suppose after being with an older woman didn't work out," Minerva spat, "she shacked up with a younger man!"

"Merlin, no!" Kade exclaimed, making a disgusted face. "She's my mum!"

Suddenly, Kade's comment about two of the three children not surviving resurfaced in her foggy mind. Two of the three… "Are you…?" she asked, eying green eyes that she now realized were identical to her own. "Our…"

"Five points to Gryffindor, Mother," Kade replied with a cheeky grin. "Though we've never actually met, in my timeline."

"What do you mean we never bloody met?" the Headmistress gaped. "Even if things didn't work out with Hermione and I, she'd never keep you from me!"

"I didn't meet her till a year ago," Kade replied softly. "She decided to give me up. When she saw you drinking, after promising not to, she decided that she couldn't rely on you as a partner, and therefore she couldn't marry you, and if she couldn't marry you, then the best thing for me and my siblings would be to give us up. That said, she spent the pregnancy depressed, went into labor early because she wasn't taking care of herself, and I was the only one who survived the birth. She told you none of us survived, and you guys haven't spoken since."

"Oh my god…" Minerva breathed. "I've made a mess of things, haven't I?"

"It's not too late to fix it."

"I hope you're right," she replied. "Son…"

Hermione couldn't say she was sure of her decision, but her parents seemed to think she was right to think that marrying a drunk was a bad idea. Yet, she loved Minerva. So, her self imposed compromise to everything was that she'd give her older lover thirty days to come to her bloody senses, and after that, she'd contact an adoption agency. If she and Minerva couldn't make things work, then Arthur was right, and the kids would be better off being raised as "muggleborn" than as "bastards". She didn't want to give her babies up, but she couldn't be that selfish.

"Honey?" her mum called. "There's a young man here to see you. Says his name is Kade McGonagall?"

Hermione's eyes widened. Minerva didn't have any living relatives at all. Either this man was a very distant relation, no relation at all, or… no, it couldn't be. She quickly stood from her desk and made her way down the stairs. When she came to the foyer, she saw a boy, perhaps sixteen or seventeen, with curly black hair and stunning green eyes. Okay, so maybe it could be…

"Do you know how much trouble you are in, young man!" Hermione snapped, instinctively knowing this boy was her son. "What could you possibly have been thinking!?"

Kade shrugged. "If all goes according to plan, then it will never have happened. Besides, you're one to talk, mum."

Jean Granger dropped the tea tray she'd been bringing in for them and their guest. "What?"

The young man grinned, eying the grandmother he'd never met. Pulling out his wand, he cast a series of charms to repair the broken items on the tea tray, though he left it on the ground, rather than put it back into Jean's still shaking hands.

"Mum, Kade is from the future," Hermione explained. "My son."

"Where are your siblings, Kade?" Jean wanted to know.

Green eyes looked down for a moment, and Kade took a deep breath. "I'm the only one who survived. My brother and sister never took a breath. That's what I'm here to change."

Hermione's hand moved protectively over her abdomen. "Have you spoken with Minerva?"

Kade nodded. "Yeah, left her feeling very guilty and dumping every bottle of liquor down the drain. Told her that the drinking is what drove you away."

"And what caused your siblings to…" Hermione tried to hold back the tears. She couldn't say the word.

"You love her, mum," Kade said softly. "And while I know you think giving us up would be best for our futures, that choice, plus not having Mother, left you depressed and not caring for yourself. You went into labor two months early, and I was the only one to survive."

"Surely I kept her from…" Jean started to say.

"You tried, Gran," Kade said, stopping her. "But you couldn't force food down her throat, and you didn't know she was eating sleeping pills like candy." The young man eyed Hermione. "Pretty stupid for a supposedly smart witch," he grumbled.

"I'm so sorry…" Hermione apologized, not even thinking it that odd to be remorseful to a boy who didn't even exist yet.

"I'm not here to make you, or Mother, feel guilty," Kade shrugged. "I mean I am, but I'm not. I want you guys to see what your stupidity will mean, so all our futures will be different. I'm not here to just make you feel guilty for the sake of making you feel guilty. See?"

"You ramble just like Hermione," Jean finally chimed in.

"Mum!" the future-mother grumbled.

"What? He does!"

Minerva was surprised when Kade returned to the castle with Hermione in tow, but immensely grateful none the less. "Hermione…" she muttered, looking the mother of her children in the eye. "I'm an idiot, and I'm sorry."

"You are that," the younger woman agreed. "But I accept your apology. That said, you will not be getting a third chance. If what Kade here says is right, then I am more to blame for the death of his siblings than you are, and I do not require you in my life to change that future. I simply have to alter my own way of coping. The fact that I apparently lack the same skills in that department as you do is why you're even getting the second chance."

"Fair enough," Minerva gulped. "I've already removed all the alcohol from our quarters, and my office, and instructed the House Elves to report directly to you should I so much as request a drop of the damned stuff."

Hermione looked impressed, and Minerva finally let out the breath she'd been more or less holding for the last few hours, since Kade had instructed her to wait there while he went to talk to his other parent.

"I'll be here to keep an eye on her too," their teenaged son added. "If the idea is for my presence here to be a catalyst for you two to sort things out enough that my siblings and I all survive the birth, then chances are I won't vanish from this timeline until we are born."

"Honestly," Hermione debated. "I'm surprised you're still here at all. The information you gave me changes how I will behave, ensuring that the pregnancy will be a healthy one."

Kade shook his head. "I know you want to believe that, Mum, but the fact is that you won't decide to keep us unless you are sure things will work out with Mother, and it was the decision to give us up that really buggered you regarding the depression."

"I could just decide to keep you guys, no matter the hardships in may cause."

Slender fingers ran through the mop of dark curls. "You and I debated this already, in the future, and according to your future self, you would have ultimately decided you couldn't be selfish enough to keep us without Mother in the picture, even if it meant that only one of us would have any future at all." Kade paused. "Wizarding society is cruel to bastards. I grew up in a muggle orphanage, and when it did eventually come out at the beginning of this term - my seventh year, that is - that I was a bastard after all, my friends turned on me. I had two job offers on the table by Christmas, before even taking my NEWTS, and they were withdrawn the minute the bloody Prophet ran an article with their stupid speculations."

"How did they even find out?" Minerva asked.

"My own fault," Kade shrugged. "Being kid with no parents blows, so when I turned seventeen I went looking for answers. Someone saw me coming out of Mum's flat, did the math and a bit of research, found out that she only buried two of her three children seven months after the war ended, and well…"

"How'd you get your hands on a timeturner?" Hermione inquired. Minerva nodded in agreement of the question. She had been wondering that herself, seeing how all the time turners were destroyed in the battle at the Ministry two years ago.

Kade grinned. "You made it, Mum."

If Minerva had not already Hermione was brilliant, this might have shocked her. That said, the chocolate eyed witch's intelligence was a big factor as to why she was totally, completely in love with the younger woman. Yes, she was going to do whatever it took to make this work. No more broken promises. Hermione deserved to be with someone she could trust, and Minerva would be damned if she ever gave the mother of her children another reason to doubt her.

Like this turn of events? Worth the wait? PLEASE REVIEW!