Time Boat

{7}

{7-Idiotic, Babbling, Coot}

Hermione looked blankly at Severus, who was impatient at best, and breathed in heavily.

Nothing in her right mind prepared her to answer a question like the one he'd posed. In all honesty, she probably should have had a safety in place for this, but of course it was not to be.

"The subject of time travel interests me quite thoroughly."

"That's risky business," he retorted immediately, his worry abating slightly, but not to a great degree of calm.

"I know," Hermione sighed, pushing the books away from them, feeling like the incriminating things should not be so close to either of them.

"You don't plan on... oh, I don't know, but you're not doing anything bad, correct?"

It was a complete lack of eloquence on his part, and Hermione found it appealing how his cheeks burned with embarrassment from his outburst. She hated to be caught in such thoughts, but they wouldn't leave her alone since Mary had made such a possibility apparent.

No, she hadn't butchered time yet, and she wasn't going to now.

"The quite opposite, I hope. I merely want to be careful. When I was in school before, I actually used a time-turner to attend double classes. No one was supposed to know, so keep it on the low, if you will," she joked lightly, hoping he would ease off and see she wasn't bothered by his mishap.

"That's quite a privilege. I reckon you were drowning in work though?"

Hermione laughed, remembering the evening he stepped in front of her and her boys to protect them from Remus, feeling quite the daring one to have called him away from herself. Time was sturdy, and if she didn't muck things up too bad, she supposed that maybe she could get away with being around for twenty years, merely wasting time. That of which was still the final option.

"I... certainly had taken a bite of something I struggled to chew."

The muggle reference only made Severus weary of her, but he left the topic after that, and Hermione was very thankful for it.

The day progressed, and she continued to read her books of time-travel, accompanied by her black-attired companion. It was nice, to read and not ever be bothered, for when Severus completed his Ancient Ruins work, he moved on to a novel pulled from his bag and sat down to it. The damnable thing was no less various potion's recipes and theories, but she was not one to comment.

Before dinner was ready, Hermione received an urgent letter that seemed so important, McGonagall had delivered it herself to her.

Severus merely stuck his nose further into his book, trying very hard to act like he wasn't hanging off of every word that was being said between a Head of House and her student.

"This is from the Headmaster, I suggest you do not take it lightly, as he seemed mildly displeased to have me contact you. I hope you have not upset anything, Mr.Granger, I was very happy to see your studies going so well."

She extended her hand, and Hermione took the letter with little happiness. Usually any problems were dealt with by McGonagall misconduct wise, but it seemed Hermione was not afforded the luxury.

"What's it say?" Severus asked the moment the Transfiguration professor was gone from the aisle.

"I haven't opened it yet, Merlin," she huffed, pushing her fingers under the seal and carefully reading over the words. "It's just an... invitation per se, to his office."

"Odd, don't students usually answer to their Heads of House?"

"He likes to watch me closely because I transferred in so late. I didn't think I was causing any problems, but apparently, he must."