Hermione didn't get very far in her research, before realising that the answer she was looking for was unlikely to be in a book; she needed a specific person, and people tended to know people better than books, which tended to rather overinflate the abilities of famous magical folk – the lack of objectivity was a frequent source of annoyance for her; Hermione was getting really sick of dealing with entitled purebloods self-proclaiming their abilities and extending them by a mile.

Whether it was the need for a friend, or the desire to speak to someone actually down to Earth, soon enough Hermione found herself at Harry's.

"In our year, Theodore Nott was pretty gifted at charms."

Hermione looked at him more sceptically than she meant to.

"Harry, I don't think-"

"Believe me Hermione, I wouldn't be suggesting him if I thought there was a better option. I remember Flitwick was always giving him points for Slytherin; it was annoying actually."

"I could invent it myself! In fact I would rather-"

"Hermione-"

"Look, I'll only go back five minutes and if it backfires then I'll just bring a regular time-turner with me and-"

"And if you go back 100 years?"

Hermione paused, before letting out a sigh, that would be slightly inconvenient.

"Just, let Nott try to figure it out first? You could work on it together, your skills combined you have a better chance-"

"And he's going to attempt it, if I ask him?"

Harry smirked, "who says you have to ask him as you?" He got up and went over to a set of drawers, rummaging around in one, before finding what he was looking for.

Hermione looked at the clear plastic bag Harry held out; in it was a single strand of long blonde hair.

"I figured this would come in useful."

"Malfoy?!"

"Lucius, not Draco," Harry was quick to say.

Hermione spluttered, not quite being able to fathom becoming Lucius Malfoy – he would taste awful - let alone how Harry had gotten a strand of his hair.

"Think about it, who would Nott listen to? He might not listen to Draco, but he wouldn't think to try and trick Lucius," Harry continued, regardless of Hermione's incredulous look. "Besides, worst case scenario he says no, and no one's any the wiser."

"No, the worst case scenario is if he tries to use it?!"

Harry paused, "remember when you first got that time-turner from McGonagall in third year? Dumbledore said that some things were fixed. I'm pretty sure Voldemort's death is one of those things."

He could see Hermione was still unsure.

"What if he just makes the one, then you can Obliviate him and he never needs to know?"

Harry had said it half-jokingly, but the look on Hermione's features was one of serious consideration.

"For my parents," she grit her teeth, "I could become Lucius Malfoy for a little while."

Harry grinned; there was the rebel side of Hermione he had been counting on, and truthfully, begun to miss.

After spending the rest of the afternoon with Harry, catching up and splitting his pretty delicious attempt at a lemon drizzle cake, Hermione headed off, back towards Diagon to get the ingredients for a polyjuice potion and a passably fancy cloak from Madam Malkin's. After acquiring what she needed, Hermione apparated to the Hogwarts gates and began the climb up to the castle. She brewed the polyjuice in the same girl's bathroom she had the first time, before leaving it to stew and heading off to the dungeons. Carefully, balanced on a ladder that had to be as old as the castle itself, judging from the splinters that ran along its sides, she selected the vial of polyjuice and tipped a reasonable measure into her own little vial. She didn't have the patience to wait a month for the polyjuice to be ready, but she figures she would replace the potions cupboard stock when hers was properly finished brewing and no one would be any the wiser. Climbing down from the ladder, she headed to the room of requirement. Once there, she took a deep breath, put Lucius' hair into the vial, and drank the slimy, coppery-tasting concoction.

Concealing her face in shadows with the hood of the cloak, Hermione slipped out of the room of requirement and headed downstairs. She sent an owl ahead, asking Nott to meet her at the entrance to the Great Hall, from where it would be easy to direct them down one of the less well-lit passageways. where it was a lot more unlikely for them to run into someone who would question Lucius' presence at the castle. It was rather lucky really, that Nott had decided to redo his seventh year and was still around the castle, it would've been a lot harder to track him down otherwise.

As Hermione walked along the corridor, she could see Nott, hovering at the steps by the large, open, oak doors and she tried to think what Lucius would do. "Theodore Nott."

The boy spun around, his face seemed paler than usual, though Hermione couldn't be sure, she'd never paid too much attention to the guy.

"Mr- Uh- Mr Malfoy."

Hermione attempted to be intimidating, raising an eyebrow as though bored by him, or whatever silly facial expression Lucius intended when he gave that particular look.

"If you'd follow me," Hermione didn't wait for a response before heading away.

"'Course – I mean, of course, uh- sir."

It was rather amusing to see his reaction to being unexpectedly summoned and seeming so nervous about it, especially after he had laughed with Draco and the other prejudiced idiots at her blood status, not too long ago.

"I hope- I mean, is there- should I get Draco?"

"That won't be necessary."

Hermione-Lucius paused halfway down one of the corridors leading from the Great Hall to the Herbology greenhouses.

"I understand you are rather gifted with charms, boy?"

Nott fidgeted with the hem of his sweater, "yes, sir. I mean, it's what I've been told."

She ignored how he puffed his chest out; fully aware he was feigning humility.

"Good. Right, well, I'd like you to change the charm on an object for me," Nott looked up at her, his head still bowed, "a time-turner."

"What?"

Debating reprimanding him for speaking -that sounded like something Lucius would do? – Before deciding to ignore him and continue regardless.

"I need a time-turner that will allow me to travel further back that the limited hourly charms the Ministry place on the existing time-turners."

Nott's hands seemed to shake a little, "you want to stop Harry Potter?"

"Never mind what I want it for, boy," she snapped at him, partially to get him to stop asking questions she didn't want to lie answers to, but also because she could feel the time ticking by and didn't want to start morphing back into Hermione during this particular conversation. That would be unimaginably awkward.

"Can you do it?"

Nott seemed to think for a moment, then nodded slowly. "I think so, the Restricted Section has some old books on time magic, and if I can get the right-"

"How long?" Hermione interrupted.

"I- I don't know, crafting the time-turner and then finding right spell… Maybe two weeks?"

"Excellent."

"I'll send you an owl when I've got something."

Instantly realising the big, gaping hole in her plan, she almost let out a most un-Lucius-like string of curses.

"That won't be necessary," Hermione's brain was working a mile a minute.

Nott waited a moment for Lucius to elaborate, but when he didn't asked, "how should I contact you, sir?"

"You don't. No one can know of this conversation or what you are going to do for me, do you understand? Your work will be well-rewarded, but if the Ministry hears of this-"

"I understand," he paused, having realised he had interrupted," Sir," he added weakly, trying to weasel his way out of any repercussions for interrupting.

But Hermione was so thankful for the current light bulb idea flashing in her brain, she couldn't have cared less.

"This parchment," she pulled a tiny scrap from her pocket, "will allow you to tell me when it is ready. Whatever you write on it, I will see." Hermione whispered a charm over it, waved her wand secretly within her cloak – she would be dammed if her wand gave her away after all this, she would not allow herself to have drunk Lucius-flavoured polyjuice in vain - tapped the paper and watched it break into two pieces, before handing the right-handed side one to Nott.

"I'm sure I do not need to warn you, boy, how very deadly serious when I say tell no one, not even Draco, can know about this."

Nott nodded, seeming confused but prepared to go along with Lucius' demand for secrecy.

With a very Lucius-like flick of her cloak, she turned on her heel and left, navigating her way back to girl's bathroom once she was sure she wasn't being followed, where she could breathe easy and await the inevitable transition back into herself as the polyjuice wore off.

If anyone had seen a fine-dressed figure with the long, obnoxiously white-blonde hair of Lucius Malfoy heading into the girl's bathroom on the third floor of Hogwarts, they would have rubbed their eyes disbelievingly and most likely, gone to lie down, so even if someone had seen her, she figured she was safe, for now at least. She just had to settle back and wait.

Or, go out of her mind with bored frustration after a few days and try to pester him into doing it faster.

She was going to need a fair bit more polyjuice potion at this rate.