Chapter 53: Arresto Momentum, Part II

25 June 1978

The Den

"This is the worst," Hermione exhaled as she slumped onto the couch next to Remus. "How is it that I hate every single place we've seen? Every single one. I mean I'm not asking for a lot. Just a bedroom, a toilet, maybe a bathtub. That would be nice. A window would be nice, too. Some space to sit and read—"

"It's the places we can afford, Pup."

"Are we so cursed that we're destined to live in squalor?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Remus raised an eyebrow. Hermione shook her head before resting it on his shoulder.

"You could always move in here, dear, until you find a place," Remus' mother's voice carried in from the kitchen.

"Mum!"

"As much as I hate to say it, I may have to take her up on the offer," Hermione whispered to Remus.

"Merlin, don't let her hear you," he groaned. "She'll start planning our wedding before you know it."

"I just don't understand. Sirius said this locator was the best, but she's only found the most horrendous places."

"And he didn't even come to see them!" Remus cried, exasperated. He narrowed his eyes. "I'm beginning to get suspicious."

"No," Hermione shook her head. "You should probably give him more credit. After all he is the only one of us with a job."

"Ugh, don't remind me." Remus shuffled down into the couch, snuggling next to Hermione. "Just one more thing to worry about."

27 June 1978

The Evans Home

"Petunia?" Lily approached her sister with all the confidence of a beginner dragon tamer. She waved her mother into the kitchen, both hoping and dreading to talk to Petunia alone.

Petunia barely glanced at Lily as she tried to sidestep her and escape. Lily stepped in her way and grasped her shoulders.

"Petunia, please."

"What?" Petunia huffed. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to ask you," Lily took a deep breath. "Will you be my matron of honor?"

The two sisters stared at each other. Lily hopeful while Petunia was shocked into silence. For a moment, she looked disappointed.

"You're really doing it." She spoke in a whisper. "You're marrying one of them."

"What are you saying?"

"I don't know," Petunia snapped. "I guess I just thought you'd give this nonsense up one dy. Come to your senses and come home."

"Give it up? Nonsense?" Lily's face clouded with wonderous disbelief. "How could I ever give up magic? Could you?"

A cold shadow passed over Petunia's face. She looked down her nose at her sister and left the room without another word.

28 June 1978

The Potter Residence

The owl arrived in the middle of lunch. Hermione had finally convinced James and Lily to take a break from planning their wedding to eat. The three of them had just tucked into their meal when a strange owl flew in the room and dropped a letter on Hermione's lap.

At first she thought Regulus had come around to writing her, but one look at the messy handwriting on the envelope told her otherwise.

Alright, Granger. Time's up.

I'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron this Saturday at 7pm. Looking forward to seeing you.

-Ben

She blinked at the note.

"What is it? Who's it from?"

"It's from Ben," Hermione muttered still looking at the words. Lily squealed.

"What did he say?" Lily asked, her smile growing as Hermione read the note aloud. "Oh, this is exciting."

"Slow down, Lily. I don't even know if I'll say yes."

"What?" Lily's jaw dropped. "Why wouldn't you say yes?"

"I don't know," Hermione began, looking down at her plate. "I mean, we've only just finished school. It doesn't really seem like the right time to start dating someone."

"Oh right time, shmight time," Lily scoffed. "And it's not like you have to start a relationship with him. It's one date. You need to go on dates. Otherwise you'll get rusty at talking to boys."

"What? I talk to boys all the time."

"Oh please," Lily rolled her eyes. "James and all them – no offense, love – don't count. It's not like you'll actually date one of them."

"I just don't know if I'll say yes, Lily." Hermione stood up from the table, grabbed her letter and left the room.

Lily looked over a James. He sighed before patting Lily on the shoulder and kissing her cheek.

"I know you mean well, Lil, but maybe go easy on Pup."

"I just want her to have what we have. I want Remus and Sirius and Peter to have it, too. But Hermione's never going to find it if she doesn't branch out a little."

"You never know. Maybe it'll just find her."

Hermione sat in her room staring at the letter from Ben. Right time, shmight time indeed.

Seeing Harry and Ginny and Remus and Tonks struggle, Hermione had long thought that sometimes you just had to push through timing for love, for relationships. No, it wasn't the timing of it all that had her hesitant.

Or rather, it was.

It had taken Hermione longer than she cared to admit to realize ben Goldstein was the father of Anthony Goldstein. Hermione hadn't known the Ravenclaw well outside the D.A., but she now found herself scouring her memories of him.

Had he ever mentioned his family before? His dad? His… mum?

Hermione cursed under her breath. There was a reason she stuck to people she knew from the future. She knew their histories, their paths, their destinies. Despite her temporal interruption, she knew that with them she had a smaller chance of creating a mess. Hermione was familiar with the study of time travel, but it was all theoretical. Could the timeline be affected at all by her existence? The only way to know would be to prove it and that was unthinkable. So Hermione stuck to the script.

But Ben… Ben was very much off script. She didn't know what happened to him at all.

Merlin's sake, what if she really liked him? What if they fell in love? And of course there was the absurd, irrational, terrifying, possible yet delusional question at the root of her hesitation.

What if she was Anthony's mum?

Before Hermione could fully spiral down into her thoughts, someone knocked on her door.

"Come in."

James peeked his head in and smiled before slipping through the door. He took a seat on the bed beside her.

"Listen, Pup," he sighed. "Lily means well."

"I know."

"She just wants you to be happy."

"I know."

"At the end of the day, you don't have to go. You don't have to say yes."

"But?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at James.

"But what's the worst that can happen? You don't like each other romantically? No big deal. Listen, Pup, you're in control of this. You don't have to date him. Hell we're not saying marry the bloke and have kids with him. But if your only reason for saying no is that you're afraid? Well, you're a Gryffindor for a reason."

"Just think about it, okay?" He stood and walked to the door. Opening it, he looked back at Hermione. "And not to add any pressure, but Lily's sister isn't coming to the wedding and this would help distract her from that."

Ben -

7pm at the Leaky. I'll see you there.