Happy Thanksgiving! If you're American and celebrate, anyway. Otherwise, Happy Thursday!

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

'What are we going to do?' Ginny asked him the next morning, when he told her at breakfast (under protection of muffliato) what he had discovered about the map. There weren't many other people in the Great Hall yet as he had awoken very early to make sure he found Wormtail (who had been cowering behind a toilet) before anyone else so that he could stun him and erase his memory of the previous evening. The last thing he needed was for Wormtail to suddenly panic and run off as he had done in Harry's previous third year experience. They might never find him – or worse, Sirius might find him – which would make every effort they had made over the last two and a half years to keep things relatively predictable worthless. They'd have left Sirius in prison for nothing.

That was twice now he'd had to modify the little rat's memories. He'd tried to do it with as light a touch as possible. He knew that Voldemort could break memory charms – even powerful ones – but only if he knew there was one present to break. There shouldn't be any big enough holes in Wormtail's recollections to arouse suspicion, but every time he had to do it the number of those holes increased, and so did the chances of their detection by Voldemort.

It wasn't as if the memories themselves showed anything he didn't want Voldemort to see, it was merely the fact that Harry thought they were important enough to erase (and was capable of doing it) that would be less than ideal for the dark lord to realize.

'Our whole plan revolved around that map. This changes everything,' Ginny continued.

'Thanks, Ginny; I hadn't realised that,' Harry deadpanned. Ginny scowled at him.

'Don't get snippy with me,' she said. 'This isn't my fault.'

'I know; I'm sorry,' he said. 'But you're right; this throws all our plans up in the air. Though I suppose the silver lining is that we're learning about it now and not later when it would have been too late to do anything about it.'

'That's true,' she said.

Their plan had hinged on Harry "noticing" Peter Pettigrew on the map and, under the pretense that he was familiar with the story of Pettigrew's supposed death and the reasons for it, he would approach Professors Lupin and Dumbledore with his concerns, revealing the map in the process. They would then (with some prodding by Harry should it have proved necessary) hopefully draw the correct conclusions and use the map to find Sirius, whereupon they could properly establish his innocence.

None of that would work now. For one thing, if only Lupin was capable of seeing either Wormtail or Sirius on the map, Dumbledore would have to take his word for it that they were there. That was easy enough – Dumbledore did tend to trust people, or at least hear them out, unless he had a very good reaosn not to – except that now there would be no pretense to show them the map in the first place. Harry could not well claim to see Pettigrew on the map when Lupin would know perfectly well that he could not, nor would his claims carry any weight with Dumbledore who wouldn't be able to see him either.

'This is going to take some serious thought,' Harry said. 'We need them to discover Wormtail or else none of the rest of it is going to work.'

'Maybe they still can,' said Ginny.

'What do you mean?' asked Harry desperately, ready to grasp at any concept of a new plan she might have.

'Well, if Sirius and Pettigrew don't show up on the map, Lupin won't either, right?' she asked.

'Right,' he said. 'So?'

'So, that's at least a reason for you to talk to him about the map,' Ginny said. 'Better than the one we had before, actually. Just go to him directly and ask him why he doesn't appear on it. It's not unusual that you wouldn't think twice about Sirius not being there; you'd just assume he hadn't entered the castle again. And you're supposed to think Pettigrew is dead. But you talk to Professor Lupin all the time. It'd be perfectly normal for you to notice you'd never seen him on the map.'

'Merlin's beard, I could kiss you,' said Harry. 'I mean, I always want to anyway, but now...'

'You know how I feel about that,' said Ginny, smiling wickedly. 'Twelve isn't too young for a quick peck every now and again.'

'Maybe not in the middle of the Great Hall though, eh?' said Harry, gesturing with his head at their surroundings. More and more people were filing in for breakfast now. The time for private conversations was ending. 'Besides, a "quick peck" wasn't exactly what I had in mind.'

'I know what you had in mind,' said Ginny, her grin positively devilish now. 'But yes, maybe not the proper venue for it.'

'But seriously, this is perfect,' said Harry, circling back to her genius suggestion. 'I can ask if there's some magic he's doing to keep himself from showing up on magical maps, and pretend to be worried that Sirius Black might know how to do it, too. All I have to do is make sure I have Ron and Scabbers with me when I go see him about it. We can expose the little rat right then and there. It'd be better if Dumbledore were around too, but it can still work.'

'When do we want to plan it for?' Ginny asked.

'Not during a full moon,' said Harry emphatically. Everything could have gone perfectly last time, and Wormtail might not have even gotten away, had it not been for Lupin's untimely transformation.

'I assumed that went without saying,' said Ginny. 'I was thinking more like, what month? May? Is April too soon? Do we risk waiting until June?'

'It should be close to the end of the year,' said Harry. 'We still need to figure out what we're going to do about Crouch Jr., and we also don't want to give Voldemort too much time to plan or he might come up with something better than the ridiculous plan he had last time, and where would that leave us?'

'Maybe the end of May, then? Just before final exams?'

'That could work,' said Harry. 'I remember it was just after exams when it all happened before, because my last one was Divination and that was when Trelawney gave me her prophecy about Wormtail getting away. Of course I thought she meant Sirius at the time. If we do it before, then it'll give us enough time to fix it if something goes wrong.'

'Not much time,' Ginny pointed out.

'No, but enough. The hardest part will be keeping Sirius at bay until then. I was counting on the map to be able to keep tabs on him. Now we're basically crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.'

'Aren't you a Cannons fan?' Ginny teased. 'You should be used to that.'

'I'm a Harpies fan first and foremost, thank you very much,' he replied, refusing to rise to the taunt. Sure, he liked the Cannons, but that was mostly just because Ron did. There was no call for using their motto against him.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

The quidditch match against Hufflepuff wasn't nearly as exciting as the one against Slytherin had been. Cedric's team was good, but their chasers and keeper were no match for Ginny and Cedric was talented but Harry had a over a decade's worth of experience (and a Firebolt) on him. Suffice to say, Gryffindor won handily, even with Malfoy and his friends attempting to disguise themselves as dementors to sabotage their chances. Honestly, did they think it was merely the sight of dementors that was frightening?

Harry let loose a fully formed Patronus to chase them off (he didn't need to, but thought it would be funny) and they tripped over themselves trying to avoid it, even though it couldn't actually hurt them. They were given detention for their sabotage attempt on top of it, putting the perfect finishing touch on an all around excellent day.

The mood in the Gryffindor common room was jubilant. They were now one match away from their third perfect season in a row. Fred and George disappeared and reappeared with piles of sweets and drinks from Hogsmeade, winking at Harry when they returned. Harry had to wonder not how they managed it, since he knew perfectly well, but how they'd paid for all of it. He hoped they weren't stealing it. Odds were they'd taken a collection among some of the older students, but it still gave him pause.

The only person not enjoying the festivities was Hermione, who was buried in a corner behind a veritable mountain of books. Harry pulled himself away from the drinking game (with butterbeer) he'd been playing with Seamus, Dean, Lavender, and Parvati to try and coax her into relaxing a little.

'I can't, Harry,' she said. She was looking extremely frazzled. 'I'm thrilled we won the match, of course, but I've got four hundred and seventeen pages to read by Monday.'

'Hermione, you're cracking up,' he told her as gently as he could. Honestly, he was having trouble fathoming how his old memory of Hermione hadn't snapped under the pressure, what with the added strain of trying to research case histories for Hagrid and Buckbeak. And at least this version of Ron was still speaking to her, though their relationship was admittedly strained due to Crookshanks's repeated attempts on Scabbers's life. How had the original Hermione done it?

'No, I'm not!' she said, though the squeak in her voice when she said it implied otherwise.

'I keep telling you; you're trying to do too much,' he said. 'You're going to burn yourself out.'

'And I keep telling you that I've got it under control, Harry,' she said, sounding very cross now, 'and that you should mind your own business. We can't all be natural geniuses for whom everything comes easy. Some of us have to work for our success.'

Harry chose not to be offended by her remarks, since he could see how from her perspective it could easily look like he succeeded in everything without effort. She couldn't know that it was simply because he'd done it all before.

'Hermione,' he said kindly, 'you're smarter than everyone in our year by a mile and you still work three times as hard. It's okay to take a break every now and again. You don't have to do everything.'

In lieu of a reply, she merely angrily turned her back on him and harrumphed. He knew pushing this issue any further now was going to be counter-productive, so he decided to leave it for the time being. For the first time he worried that without the extra stressers from his original timeline, Hermione might never be pushed over the edge, so to speak, and actually carry on with her insane schedule even after this school year. He didn't want that for her; he could see what it was doing to her.

Also, if he were honest, he didn't want that for Ginny and himself, either. Being caught up in the Time Turner shenanigans had ended up working to their advantage, it was true, but it was still a massive headache to deal with and he didn't think the trade-off was worth it beyond a single school year. If they had to keep putting up with this year after year, he was going to crack under the pressure.

The party ran so late you'd think they'd already won the cup instead of just the second match, but everyone was thoroughly tired out when Professor McGonagall finally came up and yelled at them all to go to bed.

Harry was worn out that night. He'd played a quidditch match, partied to celebrate that quidditch match, and then been dragged back to relive two hours in the Room of Requirement (presumably so Hermione could finish her couple hundred pages of reading). He was out like a light and didn't dream once, or if he did he didn't remember it. That was a rare occurrence these days.

In the morning there was a bit of a commotion in the dormitory. Still a bit groggy, Harry couldn't quite figure out what was going on, though there was a lot of running around and he heard anxious voices.

'He's got to be somewhere,' someone was saying. Ron. That was Ron, surely.

'We know, mate, we're looking,' said someone else. It sounded like Dean.

'What's going on?' Harry asked, fumbling for his glasses and slamming them rather roughly onto his face.

'Scabbers!' Ron cried. 'He's gone! And there was blood on my sheets!'

Oh bloody fucking hell.

Harry could feel the blood draining from his face; it was a wonder none of the others gaped at him and asked when he'd become a ghost.

'What happened?' he asked, keeping as much control of his voice as he could.

'I don't know! I just woke up and he was gone and I saw the blood!'

'It wasn't Hedwig; she sleeps in the owlery,' said Harry, trying to come up with something that sounded commiserating while inwardly suppressing his panic. If they lost Wormtail…

'I bet it was that stupid bloody cat!' Ron growled, his teeth bared in a snarl. 'She just lets it go wherever it wants –'

Harry realized his mistake too late. By putting the idea of another animal eating Scabbers into Ron's head, he'd led Ron to the conclusion that it must have been Crookshanks. It was a conclusion he probably would have reach on his own eventually, but Harry hadn't really wanted to speed it along.

'It can't have been,' said Harry. 'Hermione took Crookshanks to bed with her. I saw them.' He hadn't, but there wasn't anybody who could contradict him.

'It must've got out or something,' insisted Ron furiously.

'There are other cats in the tower, Ron,' Seamus pointed out.

'That bloody animal of hers has had it in for Scabbers from day one,' Ron retorted, as if Seamus simply didn't understand how obvious it all was.

'Or it's just a cat, and cats like chasing rats,' suggested Dean, shrugging. Ron jerked his head toward Dean and glowered.

'We'll find him, Ron; I promise,' said Harry. Because I don't know what to do if we don't.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

All of Gryffindor House knew Scabbers was gone by late that morning, because Ron had very loudly (and very publicly) accused Crookshanks of eating him right as everyone was milling around the common room getting ready to go down to breakfast. He had also accused Hermione of never having cared enough about her cat's attempt to eat his pet. Basically all the things Harry remembered that he had hoped not to have to deal with this time around. There had been tension between the two of them over Crookshanks to be sure, but never anywhere near as bad as what Harry remembered, and without the added strain of the Firebolt, he had thought he'd dodged a curse.

Evidently, Ron had been letting his feelings fester a lot more than even Harry had suspected, however, because his anger with Hermione now was just as intense as anything he or Ginny remembered from the first time.

'I really thought we'd managed to avoid this,' said Ginny that evening in the Room of Requirement.

'So did I,' said Harry. 'But as bad as it is, we've got bigger problems.'

'I know,' Ginny said. 'If Pettigrew gets away, everything's up in smoke.'

'Same as if Sirius gets him, but if Wormtail's good at anything, it's lying low. The question is: how are we going to find him?'

'Where did you find him last time?' Ginny asked.

'At Hagrid's, though I don't remember when. We were...oh! It was the same night everything happened! We were down there for Buckbeak's appeal, and we found him in...I think an old milk jug or something. We were on our way back up to the castle when he ran off and Sirius appeared and dragged him and Ron into the tunnel under the Whomping Willow.'

'So he was just...hiding at Hagrid's for what, four months?' Ginny asked.

'I don't know. I don't remember when he disappeared last time either, though I feel like it has to have been before this. But who can say whether he went straight there, or if he'd just made his way there the day we found him, or anything in between?'

'Can you think of anywhere else he might go?' asked Ginny.

'None,' said Harry. 'For what a big role he played in our lives, I know next to nothing about the man other than one, he was a death eater,' he held up his thumb, 'two, he can turn into a rat,' his index finger, 'and three, he used to be friends with my parents and Sirius but betrayed them to save his own skin,' and his middle finger. Other than that, I have no insight whatsoever. I never even understood why he stayed on the school grounds in the first place. He knew Sirius was here looking for him; why not run as far away as possible?'

'Maybe he's afraid of the dementors?' Ginny suggested.

'Maybe,' Harry said, agreeing it was a sensible point. 'But why would he be? They're not after him, and anyway would they even recognize him as a rat? Sirius was able to sneak past them as a dog; being a rat would have to make it that much easier.'

'But would he know that, though?' said Ginny. 'I mean, he doesn't know how Sirius escaped. And is it common knowledge that Dementors don't recognize animagi in their animal forms? We only know because Sirius told you; he could well be thinking that they'll go after anyone trying to sneak out of the grounds, and he'd be right about that.'

'That does make sense,' said Harry. But then another thought struck him. 'But what about the secret passages? He obviously knows about them; he helped make the map!'

Ginny thought for a moment.

'How many are there?' she asked finally.

'Seven. Including the one under the Whomping Willow.'

'Well we know he wouldn't use that one because it's the one Sirius is using,' said Ginny. 'I'm sure he'd be able to tell. How do the others work? He wouldn't be able to press the button on the mirror or say the password to the one-eyed witch as a rat, and turning to his human form in the castle where anyone could see him after hiding as a pet for twelve years seems uncharacteristically risky.'

'You're right!' said Harry, putting all the pieces together. 'All the passages except for the one to the Shack have some sort of triggering mechanism that you need to be human to activate. He couldn't use any of them! You are an absolute genius.'

'Well I don't know about that,' she said, grinning nonetheless, 'but it does mean we should be able to find him.'

'That's still a maybe,' said Harry. 'The school grounds is a big place, and he knows the forest better than we do. Before, I would have said we could use the map to find him, but now...'

'Should we consider having Lupin do that as a last resort?' Ginny asked.

Harry considered this. It could work, but they'd have to approach it carefully.

'As long as we could come up with a plausible reason for why we're asking him,' he said. 'Why would we tell a professor about the map just to look for Ron's rat, and why him instead of Hagrid or McGonagall or anyone else?'

'We'll have time to think of something,' Ginny assured him. 'Like I said, it would be a last resort. We still have time to find him on our own. And if you ask me, the first place we should look is the place you actually found him last time.'

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

As it turned out, Scabbers was not hiding at Hagrid's. He'd invited Ron and Harry down for tea the Tuesday evening after the rat's disapperance. Apparently Hermione had been to visit him the day before and was very upset. Hagrid was of the opinion that Ron was being too hard on her.

'If she'd just get rid of that cat, I could maybe let it go, but she keeps sticking up for it! It's a maniac, but she won't hear a word against it?'

'Ah, well, people can be a bit stupid about their pets,' said Hagrid sagely, as petting Fang on the head as the boarhound drooled all over his lap. 'But it seems ter me, Ron, you're the one bein' unfair. Yeh got no proof her cat at Scabbers, do yeh?'

'What else could have happened?' Ron insisted furiously.

'Oh, I dunno,' said Hagrid, mildly sarcastic, 'maybe one of other hundreds of cats or owls in the castle got 'im. An' anyway, it's a bit rich of you saying she should get rid of her cat, when the whole reason you're upset is that your rat's gone, innit?'

Harry could not remember Hagrid ever being this blunt before, but he was thankful for it. He'd stayed out of the conversation mostly, helping preparing more tea after he'd "accidentally" knocked over the first kettle. Ron got the talking to he needed, and he had time to look for Wormtail. To no avail, however. He'd looked it up to be sure, and "homenim revelio" would work on animagi, as long as you specifically intended it to. Otherwise it would overlook them. In other words, it would only detect animagi if you already suspected one was there, or if you were just paranoid like Moody and checked every time anyway.

It had come up empty. He'd even double-checked by hand when going through Hagrid's cupboard, but no rat.

'I tried to tell him the same thing, Hagrid,' sitting down at the table with a new pot of tea. 'I know he's upset; I'd be too if anything happened to Hedwig, but I really don't think it's fair to blame Hermione.'

'She never once took me seriously when I told her that cat wanted to eat Scabbers,' Ron insisted. He wasn't one to let go of his anger lightly.

'She hasn't brought him into our dorm since Christmas, when you told her not to,' Harry pointed out.

'She barely comes in there anyway,' said Ron stubbornly.

'Maybe that's why.'

'Well, it's up ter you, Ron,' said Hagrid, pouring the tea. 'I'd've just though yeh'd value your friendships a bit more, that's all. Let's talk about something else.'

They talked about quidditch and Gryffindor's chances in the cup (now very high), and about the lack of sightings of Sirius Black and if maybe that meant the school would be going back to normal. Harry knew Fudge better than that, but didn't say so.

By the time Hagrid escorted them back up to the castle at nine, Ron was in a comparatively good mood. He'd even promised Hagrid that he'd "consider" making things right with Hermione, which Harry recognized as progress. It meant Ron had already decided he was going to do so, and was only dragging it out for the sake of his pride.

When then made it back to the common room, a large crowd was gathered around the notice board. Ron craned his neck to see what they were looking at.

'Hogsmeade this weekend!' he announced to Harry happily.

'Oh,' said Harry, thinking quickly how to use this information to his advantage. 'Maybe if you're feeling up to it, you can see if Hermione wants to go,' he said.

'Oh, yeah, maybe,' said Ron uncommittedly. 'But you can come, right? Sneak out with the map like you did last time?'

'I don't think so,' Harry said. 'Too much of a close call last time. Maybe I can do the next one, if things have died down a bit.'

'Seriously?' asked Ron, clearly disappointed.

'We were almost caught by two teachers and the effing Minister for Magic,' Harry reminded him. 'That'd be bad enough on the face of it, given I'm not allowed out of the castle, but can you imagine how much worse they'd be – especially McGonagall – if they caught me sneaking out while there's a murderer out to get me? They'd still be lecturing me this time next year.' He distinctly remembered the guilt trip Snape, of all people, had laid on him after doing just that, followed almost immediately by one from Lupin. It wasn't as if the act itself would weigh on his conscience – there was no actual danger, after all – but Lupin's disappointment and Snape's smug derision would be just as bad as guilt.

Besides, he had other plans for a weekend when everyone else was out of the castle. Plans which, ironically, would get him into a lot more trouble if anyone found out about them.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

'And you're going to what, travel to the south of France, find a man you've never seen before, convince him to come to Gringotts in London, and then get back to Hogwarts all in under three hours?' Ginny asked him the next day when he explained his idea. Her derision was so thick he could have spread it on his toast.

'Of course not,' said Harry calmly, opting for marmalade instead. 'I'm going to write him a letter.'

'A letter,' Ginny repeated.

'You know, if you keep using that tone, your voice will get stuck that way,' mocked Harry.

'Ha ha. Are you telling me I have no reason to be incredulous? What kind of letter are you planning to write?'

'It's bait,' explained Harry, pouring himself some pumpkin juice. 'We did it all the time as aurors when we were trying lure somebody out. I write him as a concerned potential friend. Strike up a correspondence. Build a rapport. Then cycle back to my "concerns". He believes me just enough to come have a look for himself. That's all we need. We have three months maximum to make this work, so I should get started as soon as possible. I'll use the extra time this Saturday to do the research I need to make the letter sound believable.'

'Okay,' said Ginny. 'Supposing I buy that this is a real auror strategy that actually works. What exactly are these "concerns" you're going to express to him?'

'Well something about the bank, obviously,' said Harry. 'That's what we need him to come for, after all.'

'"Something" about the bank,' Ginny repeated again.

'You haven't been hit by a parroting jinx, have you?' said Harry. 'Yes, something. That's where the research part comes in. I need to see what I can find out about him and his relation, if any, to his family in Britain. Something we can use.'

'How will you be going about this?' Ginny asked.

'Well, my hope is that Ron comes around and starts talking to Hermione again. Then I'm hoping I can convince them both to go to Hogsmeade – probably with Stephen and Natalie – while I'm stuck here "for my own safety" or whatever. I'm banking on Hermione wanting to go because she's lonely, and with her using her Time Turner when she gets back because that's a whole day of homework and revising she'll have missed.'

'There's an awful lot of "ifs" in that plan,' Ginny pointed out.

'I know,' said Harry. 'Which is why I need your help working on Ron to get over himself by the weekend. And also on Hermione so that she doesn't turn him down out of spite because her feelings are still hurt.'

'So it's back to good old emotional manipulation,' said Ginny.

'This from the woman who's been conspiring for two years to get two of her dormmates to not hate each other and be best friends instead,' said Harry.

'Hey, I'm not denying it's for the best,' said Ginny, 'but I don't have to enjoy doing it.'

'That's fair,' said Harry. 'Honestly I'd be a little worried if you did.'

'So assuming we pull that off, what do you need from me afterward?' Ginny asked.

'Just help with the research, and truthfully, help writing the letter,' said Harry. 'I know what I'm doing in terms of putting it together and targeting the results we want, but you have more of a flare for words than I do; we have to make this look as good and convincing as possible since we have so little time to do it in.'

The Great Hall was filling up by this point, so even with muffliato it was no longer a suitable place to continue this conversation. Nevertheless, he and Ginny both had rough ideas of what they were going to spend the week doing. Luckily, Hagrid had done a lot of the legwork regarding Ron; Harry just needed to make sure it bore fruit sooner rather than later.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

It took the remainder of the week of cajoling, pestering, and soothing hurt feelings to convince Ron and Hermione to try to make peace and go to Hogsmeade. Stephen and Natalie were roped in, because both Ron and Hermione refused to go without anyone else to act as a buffer between them, and Hermione, at least, was more in agreement with Harry's reasoning about not going than Ron had been.

'I think that's very sensible of you, Harry, and if you'll forgive me I'm a little surprised you've made such a responsible choice,' she said when he told her.

'Don't give me too much credit,' he said. 'I still plan on using the map in the future if I need to; I just don't think it's the best idea right now.'

Hermione huffed. 'Tsk. Typical. Well, I suppose I can't ask for too much from you. I expect Ron wasn't quite as on board with your decision?'

'He was disappointed, yeah, but at least he didn't try to talk me into it,' said Harry. Much.

'Perhaps he's maturing,' she said in tone that indicated she hightly doubted it.

'Does that mean you'll go to Hogsmeade? You know you'll have fun, and you two can't keep this up forever.'

'I'm not "keeping anything up",' she bristled. 'He's the one who's decided my cat is the only creature in this castle who could possibly have done anything to his stupid rat.'

'Hagrid's already had a go at him about that,' said Harry. 'I think he's on the verge of letting that go, but would it kill you to at least say you're sorry Scabbers is gone? I'm not talking about apologizing,' he added quickly, because Hermione had looked ready to dig her heels in again, 'just letting him know you're sorry he lost a pet, that's all. You know, like a friend.'

Hermione's face softened and she had the grace to look at least a little ashamed of herself.

'You're right, I should probably do that,' she said. 'But he won't let me get a word in! He immediately starts going off about how it's my fault and I end up on the defensive before I can even say anything!'

'Maybe lead with it,' said Harry. 'Say it before he has a chance to say anything. I'm willing to be ninety percent of why he's upset is because he thinks you don't care about Scabbers dying.'

'We don't know he – ' Hermione began fervently, but Harry cut her off.

'See, you're doing it again,' he said. 'All signs show that he probably is, and when you keep arguing the point it makes it seem like you care more about being right than you do about Scabbers being gone. That's why Ron's upset.'

It was not lost on Harry that he had developed most of his emotional intelligence from Hermione herself, so it was more than a little bizarre to be coaching her on what she herself had taught him. But whatever worked.

Hermione crossed her arms and pouted, but did not retort. A few moments of silence passed while Harry waited to see if she would say anything.

'I don't like it when you make sense,' she finally said.

'You don't like being wrong,' Harry said. 'And that's fair; nobody does. But everyone is, sometimes.'

'Fine, fine, you win,' she said. 'I'll go to Hogsmeade if Ron can stop being a prat long enough for me to talk to him, and I'll stop arguing about Scabbers. Are you happy?'

'And you'll tell Ron – '

'That I'm sorry Scabbers is gone, yes, yes, of course I will. And of course I am. I just...I don't know. I just get so irritated with him sometimes that I can't remember what I'm supposed to say.'

'I think we'll get into that another day,' said Harry.

'Yes, good idea,' she agreed at once. 'And Harry, I'm sorry you're not able to come; really, I am. We can bring you back something if you like.'

'Maybe some butterbeer and some sweets?' he suggested. 'I'll give you some money. Don't tell Ron about that part.'

She rolled her eyes. 'Maybe this isn't such a good idea. I think maybe I'll want Stephen and Natalie with us, just in case.'

'Not a bad idea,' said Harry. 'I bet they'd agree.'

That was how Harry managed to talk Hermione into it. Seeing as he and Hagrid had already said their piece to Ron, he left it to Ginny to continue badgering him for the rest of the week. Whatever she said must have worked, because on Saturday morning Harry and Ginny were down in the Entrance Hall seeing off the foursome of Ron, Hermione, Stephen, and Natalie. Colin, who happened to run into them on their way back to the the common room (Harry allowed for the pretense that it was coincidental), asked if they wanted to hang out as they had done during the first Hogsmeade trip, which Harry had also not been permitted to attend.

'Sure, Colin,' said Harry. He hadn't had a bad time previously, and this would help establish his and Ginny's alibis for later (earlier? Time travel hurt his brain) in case anything went awry.

Most of the second year Gryffindors were there, including Sharon and Rikissa who looked to be getting on very well by Harry's estimation. Ginny was visibly pleased.

Also present was Neville, who had been prohibited from attending Hogsmeade this time due to his "extremely irresponsible" decision to write down all the Gryffindor passwords and leave it lying around while an escaped murderer with a record of trying to gain entry was on the loose. He remained in relatively high spirits that it was only for one trip and that the school hadn't felt the need to inform his grandmother.

'I'd have gotten a howler for sure, even though nothing happened,' he told them. Harry, who remembered that particular howler very well, couldn't help but agree with Neville that missing out on a single Hogsmeade visit was probably the best outcome he could have hoped for.

All in all it was a fairly enjoyable way to spend the day. He was getting to know the students in Ginny's year decently well by this point. The most difficult bit was making sure they'd made their exits in time to be back down in the Entrance Hall by the time visitors to the village started returning. They didn't know when Hermione would opt to use her Time Turner, but they wanted to make sure they were both in her vicinity when she did.

Given that neither of them was currently afflicted with a deblitating splitting (almost literally) headache, they could at least be certain they hadn't messed up and had only one of them go back. That would have complicated things.

Unfortunately this left them with no way to confirm the plan had worked correctly; neither of them had noticed an ill effects the time they went back together, so they couldn't yet be sure they'd managed to go back at all. Harry had an idea that they'd start to notice some effects if they got far enough away from each other, but so far it was just an idea, and one he wasn't keen to test.

They left separately, so as not to arouse too much suspicion (Ginny teased him about being as paranoid as Moody, but he'd rather not take anything for granted, thank you very much), and met back down in the entrance hall. There they waited in the broom cupboard just off to the side under the invisibility cloak, intently watching the Marauders' Map for signs of Ron and Hermione's return.

'This brings back memories, doesn't it?' said Ginny. 'The two of us hiding in broom cupboards together?'

'It does,' said Harry fondly. 'Though in the best ones I distinctly remember both of us being a lot taller.'

'You were a lot taller. I was a bit taller,' said Ginny, who had always found that poking fun at her own height was the best way to keep others from doing it (that didn't involve cursing their bogies to turn into bats).

They waited for half an hour, until finally some dots with familiar names next to them appeared on the pathway headed up to the castle from the entrance to the grounds.

'About time,' said Ginny.

'This could be good for us,' said Harry. 'The more time Hermione feels like she's lost, the farther back she's likely to go. Gives us maybe an extra hour or two to work with.'

'I don't know how long you think this is going to take,' said Ginny. 'Unless the plan's changed and we really are going to the south of France and back.'

'Ha ha,' said Harry. 'I have no idea how long it's going to take, but I'd rather have extra than not enough. Quiet now, here they come.' Dots labeled Ronald Weasley, Hermione Grange, Stephen Cornfoot, and Natalie Moon crossed the threshold of the castle, and as they did, Harry and Ginny could hear their friends' voices conversing out in the entrance hall.

'All right, let's go,' Harry whispered. He made sure to silence the hinges on the door to the broom cupboard, just in case.

'It's all right, Ron; I told you,' Hermione was saying. 'It was perfectly reasonable to assume he'd died. If anything I wasn't being sensitive enough about it.'

'Yeah, well, you ended up being right anyway, didn't you?' said Ron, very cheerfully by the sound of it. 'As usual. I'm sorry I blamed your cat.'

'Well, he is a cat, and cats do eat rats,' said Hermione reasonably.

'Yeah,' said Ron. 'Yeah.'

'Oh, for Merlin's sake, would you two just snog and get it over with already?' said Natalie. Harry could practically hear her eyes rolling. He and Ginny crept behind them under the invisibility cloak. Could they possibly be talking about…?

'I'm surprised he is alive, to be honest,' said Stephen. 'Crookshanks or no Crookshanks, there are plenty of things around here that would love to eat a rat for lunch. You're lucky you found him when you did.'

They were! They must have somehow found Wormtail! Ginny and Harry shared a triumphant glance under the cloak and kept following their friends at a distance.

'He found me, more like,' said Ron. Harry was definitely going to have to get the story on this later. For now, there were other things to be concerned with.

'Wonder why he ran off in the first place?' said Stephen.

'Who knows? There was blood, so maybe he was attacked but managed to get away and he's been hiding ever since.'

More likely he tried to get away from where Sirius knew he would be but then panicked and changed his mind when he realized he couldn't leave the castle grounds, thought Harry. For Wormtail, being inside the castle, even if Sirius did know where he was, had to be preferable than being out on the grounds where Sirius or Crookshanks could sniff him out and snap him up at any moment. Harry wondered why he hadn't tried hiding at Hagrid's as he had before, but at the moment that wasn't relevant. The important thing was that he was back under their eye. Though it might mean they'd have to accelerate their plans if it looked like he was going to do a bunk again. He didn't know how that would affect later events, which made him nervous. One less thing to worry about replaced by a new one. As usual.

Hermione was splitting off from the other three now, saying she needed to use the loo. Harry and Ginny looked each other and nodded. If she was planning to use the Time Turner, this was it. The left Ron, Stephen, and Natalie to their conversation about where Scabbers might have been hiding and peeled off to follow Hermione. Harry hoped that standing outside the door was close enough for the time magic to take effect. He didn't feel right about sneaking into a girls' toilet in an invisibility cloak (one that wasn't haunted, anyway).

Less than a minute after Hermione entered the room, Harry felt the now familiar sensation of being forcibly dragged backward several hours. Hopefully several. It was time to start putting things in motion again.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

One of the awkward things about writing from only Harry's perspective is that it's sometimes impossible to explain other characters' reasons for things. Sometimes, like when Sirius burst in on Ron with a knife, this works to the author's advantage. Other times, I need characters to do things, they have perfectly valid reasons for doing those things, but unless we can see into their heads it looks random and arbitrary.

Why am I bringing this up? Oh, no reason. Hope you enjoyed the chapter; please leave a comment if you did!