He made it out the front doors running, heading straight for the Whomping Willow. Everyone knew to avoid this tree and steered clear of it. He slowed down as he approached it, and decided to sit a rock near the tree, but just outside its range. Whomp! The tree sensed his presence and quickly smacked the ground three feet in front of him. Harry smiled. This was the perfect resting spot. Thump! The tree tried again to hit him, this time with another branch, but its reach was even shorter. Whap! Again and again, the tree flailed in his direction, never quite reaching Harry. This is actually kind of relaxing, thought Harry. It almost has a kind of rhythm to it.
Thump
Crash
Bang
Crack
Donk
Harry waved his arms as if he were conducting a symphony. Leaning his head back, he stared at the clouds overhead. I might as well enjoy this as long as I can before I go back with the Dursleys, he thought. After half an hour, his tree-assisted drum solo ended with a head of bushy brown hair.
"Hermione?" Harry was still staring straight up, as his female best friend leaned over him.
"Hey, Harry. I heard from Ron that you weren't feeling very talkative."
Harry frowned. "It seems to me you're not telling Ron much, either."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Harry turned around to face Hermione. "The time-turner? He still doesn't know about that."
"Oh. Right." Hermione turned her eyes down, looking sheepish. "Well, I thought that I would wait until you told him about the whole rescue mission, first. I mean, I'm not supposed to talk about the time turner, being a Ministry secret and all... you only found out about it because we didn't have another choice."
"Is that why?" Harry started to chuckle to himself. "I was waiting for you to tell him about the time-turner first, because I knew I couldn't possibly explain it to him without bringing the whole mess about time travel into the story."
"So... I guess... we're just not going to tell him, then?" Hermione looked perplexed. Is this a secret they would have to keep from a friend? Out of convenience? She never had any good friends before Hogwarts, and Harry was the best friend she could ask for. Ron was... her other friend. No! she scolded herself. Don't think like that! Ron's a perfectly... adequate friend. With that thought, she scolded herself some more.
Harry, seeing conflicted feelings crossing Hermione's face every second, told her, "No, we'll tell him eventually. I mean, if we ever get to see Sirius again, then he'll let the cat out of the bag, won't he? I just don't feel like talking about it now. No... wait, that's not right. I guess I just don't feel like explaining everything now."
He looked at Hermione before continuing. "You know, you're the only one who I can talk about the whole incident openly. With Ron, I'll have to deal with the whole mess about going back in time without him... and you know how he'll feel left out that we travelled through time and didn't bring him along."
Hermione smiled. Yes, that was definitely Ron. She added, "There's also the fact that you gained a godfather and saved a hippogriff, while all he managed to do was get dragged into a hole by a big dog and then he lost his pet rat. Ron just has the worst luck sometimes..."
Harry bowled over in laughter at that point. "When you put it that way, Hermione, I don't think I'll ever want to explain everything to him." They both continued to chuckle quietly for a short while, until Harry frowned.
"Do you think we could have caught Pettigrew?"
"We would have seen ourselves, Harry. That would have messed things up."
"Well, we could have waited a sec and then searched the grass..."
"For a rat? Harry, you have to let it go. He ran away from us, and to catch up to him, we would have had to... well, run right past everyone."
Harry sighed. There was no arguing with Hermione- she always thought things through. "It just really annoys me, Hermione. If only we could have been hiding on the other side of the field..."
"We didn't have time to bring Buckbeak with us, Harry. And he's a bit big to hide... We could lay down flat on the grass, but then Buckbeak would have been sticking out like a sore thumb."
"What if we used the time-turner again? Then there would be three sets of us..."
"Harry, time-turners can't overlap their... time turning. The magic that's tied to the spatial folding within the device has to sustain it for..."
Harry's eyes were glazing over, much like Ron's were whenever Hermione attempted to get him to do more reading. "Err... Hermione, is there a simpler way of explaining that? It means no, right?"
Hermione scowled for a second before smiling again. "Yes. I mean no. Wait... I mean no, we can't turn back a second time. The earliest we could turn back to after that would have been the moment we turned the first time in the infirmary."
"I just wish there was some way to... I dunno, retry it a few more times until we get it right." Harry looked sullen, now.
Hermione perked up when Harry said it. "You know... I might be on to something with that... it's actually the reason why I came looking for you today, Harry."
"What?" Harry was shocked out of his mood, as his mind raced. "You mean we could catch Pettigrew? What do you have in mind? Why do you need me?"
"Harry... no, I can't catch Pettigrew with the idea I have. I can't go back in time that far, unfortunately. But I need you to take me to the Chamber of Secrets."
"Wait, what? You're doing your own time travel or something? What do you need the Chamber of Secrets for?"
"I'll explain when we get there." Hermione smiled, picking up her rather hefty book bag, which didn't seem to be filled with books this time. Harry got up with her, waving one last goodbye to the Whomping Willow, and they marched into the castle.