Chapter 105: Summons, Repayment, Negotiation

[The chapter is edited by my Editor: Alan_Loo/AlanL]

Quinn entered the A.I.D. office limping. He had conjured a shirt and pants over his body and under his robes in the time he had traveled from the Great Lake's shore to the A.I.D. office.

Other than his punctured lung, which he mostly had patched at the lakeshore, most of Quinn's injuries were still raw. All the muscle wounds were being protected and being medically stabilized by magic.

The fractured bone didn't lose any bone fragments, so Quinn was able to completely fix it. But the muscles were torn and ripped apart by the pressure jet. To fix them, Quinn needed to drink a muscle-protein nutrient potion that would provide the body with the material to restore the muscles.

Quinn slumped down in one of the client chairs and leaned into it before diving into his mind and recalled the information about his potion inventory. "I don't have enough doses. Two standard dose vials won't work." He looked at the red workshop door and sighed, "I will have to make it work for now."

Quinn raised a single finger, and a painting on the wall levitated and from behind a rose-gold key flew out. The rose-gold key flew towards the red workshop door and entered the key slot before turning to open the door.

This rose-gold key was a spare as Quinn's clothes were still hidden near the lakeshore. Quinn had built detachable pockets that he attached to his clean robes every morning. The primary key was in one of those pockets, so Quinn had to use this spare key.

The door lock unlocked with a click, and with an act of magic, Quinn manually opened the cylinder bars lock system that kept the door extra secured in case someone found a key.

After the door opened, two vials of dull, dark red potion flew out towards Quinn. Quinn grabbed one vial while the other one entered the conjured pants' pocket.

Uncorking the vial, Quinn drank the potion in one gulp and set down the empty vial on the table. He closed his eyes and felt the muscle-protein nutrient potion immediately took effect. The potion provided the muscle-protein nutrient to the body, and Quinn cast Healing Magic to utilize that concentrated intake of the nutrients.

With the Healing Magic doing its work, Quinn got up from the client chair and moved to his barstool behind the table. Opening the stationary drawer of his table, Quinn took out a sheet of black paper and a fountain pen with golden ink inside it.

It was the same color scheme as the A.I.D. cards; gold on black.

But before he used the pen and paper, Quinn opened another drawer and took out a fake silver sickle. He pumped magic into it; previously, he hadn't wanted to risk diverting focus and magic because the injuries were severe, but now he was comfortable diverting magic and focus as his wounds were stabilized.

The fake silver sickle transformed to say 'OFFICE' on both sides. Quinn put the coin back into the drawer and turned his attention back to the black paper.

"Let's keep it simple and authoritative," said Quinn as he uncapped the pen and thought about what to write on the black paper.

After forming the words and sentences in his mind, Quinn began writing.

To,

Ms. Hermione Granger,

Date: May 16, 1994.

Subjects: Summons for repayment.

Ms. Granger,

You are duly summoned and required to report at the A.I.D. office on the main corridor, west sections, fifth-floor, for repaying the debt owed to me for helping you in your time of need.

You are required to appear within 30 MINUTES of receiving this letter. The moment you open the envelope this letter came in, I would be informed, and the clock would start.

For your sake, please comply with the instructions to the point and without any delay.

Regards,

Q. West,

Proprietor,

A.I.D. consultations.

"This will do," nodded Quinn, folded the black paper into thirds and put it into a white envelope, and addressed it to Hermione. As he sealed the envelope, Quinn charmed the lip of the envelope in such a way that when it was opened, Quinn would know.

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As he completed the letter, the office door opened, and his assistant, Luna Lovegood, entered the room.

"You called?" asked Luna as she skipped into the room. She raised her arm to show a leather and sterling silver bracelet on her wrist. The silver piece on the bracelet showed the words 'OFFICE' on it.

The sterling silver piece was charmed with the Protean charm connecting the bracelet with the fake silver sickle. It was a way for Quinn to summon

Quinn raised the letter in his hand and asked. "Yes, can you go to the library and hand this to Hermione Granger. She will most probably be there, but if she isn't, go to the Gryffindor common room and ask a Gryffindor to call Hermione Granger out."

Unfortunately, Quinn didn't have Recon on his person, or else he would have told Luna Hermione's precise location. But fortunately, Quinn had a lot of key people's regular routines memorized.

Luna took out the envelope from Quinn and looked at the Hermione Granger written on it.

"Okay," shrugged Luna and put the envelope inside her robes.

"Luna, please make sure that she gets the envelope immediately and tell her that she is to open it immediately. You have to give it to her as soon as possible," insisted Quinn, as he only had a little over four hours before the window closed, and he wanted this to end within an hour or two. "Also, after you give it to her, don't return to the office for today. When you go to dinner, tell Eddie and Marcus that I am busy and won't be attending the meal today. Tell them it isn't something to worry about and to not look for me."

Luna tilted her head and seemed confused about why Quinn was asking these things. But the serious tone in his voice told her that she should just comply. She did stare at him observantly, but nothing seemed out of order.

"Now, go on and hurry," instructed Quinn.

Luna nodded and exited the office to find Hermione Granger to hand over Quinn's letter to her.

Quinn sighed in relief and dropped the glamor spell, revealing a slightly pale Quinn. "Good thing I thought of disguising myself."

He closed his eyes to concentrate on the Healing Magic to direct the healing process, waiting for Hermione to arrive.

- (Scene Break) -

As Quinn had predicted, Luna found Hermione in the library, reading away from a thick tome with brows furrowed in concentration.

And even though she looked severe, Hermione was having a good time as she read the book.

"Hermione Granger."

The mention of her name made Hermione look up from her book and notice a girl with blond hair and silvery eyes looking at her, standing really close to the table, which surprised Hermione.

"Yes?" asked Hermione tentatively. She recognized the girl in front of her and knew who Luna was. She had noticed the younger girl because she usually hung out with Quinn West's group of friends.

Luna frowned at the tone and asked. "You are Hermione Granger, right?"

Hermione blinked and nodded in response.

"Oh, good. I thought I found the wrong person."

Luna took out the envelope that Quinn gave to her from robes and presented it to Hermione. "This is for you."

Hermione confusedly received the white letter envelope from Luna and read her name written in beautiful cursive calligraphy with gold ink.

"Who is this from?" asked Hermione. Something told her that the letter envelope wasn't from Luna.

"The letter is from Quinn," answered Luna.

"Quinn?" The person who was sitting at the table with Hermione, reading her own books, spoke up. She had been listening to the conversation, but when Quinn came up, she joined the conversation. "Quinn West?"

Luna looked at the person and saw a girl with red hair and green eyes, a sharp look in the girl's eyes as she stared at her.

"You are Ivy Potter. You are pretty," commented Luna, complimenting the girl. "From what I know, there isn't another Quinn in Hogwarts. But yes, Quinn West."

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"What does he want?" asked Ivy, briefly glancing at the letter in Hermione's hand.

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Luna shrugged her shoulders as she replied. "I don't know. He just said to deliver the letter." She turned to Hermione and instructed, "He said to open the letter immediately."

"And now I am done, so bye." After saying that, Luna turned and left without giving the two girls a chance. She would have stayed and talked to the two, but she had an article to write for Quibbler, and Quinn wanted Hermione to read the letter immediately, so she didn't want to delay that.

Luna's abrupt exit surprised Ivy and Hermione, and they just stared at her back as she walked away. Only after Luna had disappeared from their sight did Ivy and Hermione look at each other with surprise.

"That was... I don't know what that was," commented Hermione, still taking in the meeting with eccentric Ravenclaw.

"Yes... it was rushed." added Ivy and then pointed at the envelope in Hermione's hand. "Open it. Let's see what he wants?"

Hermione opened the envelope and took out a thicker than usual black paper. "This is definitely from him," said Hermione, immediately connecting the black sheet with the black A.I.D. cards. Her guess was strengthened when she saw the gold words upon unfolding the letter.

Ivy watched as Hermione read the letter and noticed that her eyes widened almost immediately.

"What is it? What does it say?"

"It is a summons for repayment. He is going to ask me to do something for him, just as he said he would," said Hermione, passing the black letter to Ivy for reading. "I need to be there within thirty minutes, and he knows that I opened it, read it."

Hermione had always told Ivy not to worry about the incident as they couldn't change what had happened, and they would worry about it when Quinn asked them for repayment. But now that time had come, Hermione started to worry about what Quinn would ask from her.

Ivy read the letter twice and then looked at Hermione. "Let's go. I will come with you." She held the worried Hermione's hand and assured. "I will be there for you, don't worry."

Hermione breathed and nodded, thankful for her best friend's support.

- (Scene Break) -

Quinn opened his eyes when he heard the door chime ring. He immediately put on a glamor so that everything seemed normal. It masked the pale skin with some exhaustion with magic, and Quinn looked no different from the norm.

Hermione Granger and Ivy Potter entered the office with different expressions: Hermione had nervousness on her face which she was trying to hide whereas Ivy Potter had caution and vigilance flashing in her eyes.

The two girls looked around the office, and the two couldn't get used to the fact that the A.I.D. office was lit up with white light coming from an unknown source instead of candle chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

"Welcome, Ms. Granger, please come in, and I would be lying if I said I didn't expect you to tag along with her, Ms. Potter," sighed Quinn when he saw two people enter his office instead of one. "Now that you two are here, please take seats so that we can start. We have much work to do."

Ivy didn't reply and followed Quinn's instructions and sat down in the client chair, with Hermione sitting in the other chair.

Quinn raised his hand towards Hermione with palm up.

Hermione looked at the hand with confusion, but a split second later, she understood the meaning, retrieved the letter Luna had given her and placed it on Quinn's hand.

Quinn gripped the letter and threw it above his head behind him. The letter was incinerated into nothingness and smoke immediately after.

He ignored the astonished expression from the Gryffindor girls and started. "So we all know why I have called you here."

"To repay the debt," answered Hermione shortly. She glanced at Ivy, who was staring at Quinn, who wasn't paying any attention to Ivy.

"You are correct. And before we start, I can see that you are nervous. So I would like to reassure you that what I am about to ask will affect nobody other than myself. What I am trying to convey is that your lives won't be any different from before you received the letter today; you can pretend that nothing happened, and it won't make any difference."

Ivy narrowed her eyes: Quinn's words didn't reassure her one bit. "What's the task?" She would decide if the task would affect people after listening to what Quinn had to say.

Quinn locked eyes with Hermione and opened his mouth to say a phrase that revealed a lot.

"... I need the Time-Turner."

Hermione and Ivy's eyes widened to the size of saucers when the words came out of Quinn's mouth.

"T-Time-Turner? W-What do you mean? I don't understand," stuttered Hermione, trying very hard to pretend to be clueless.

Ivy, on her side, closed her eyes when she heard the shakiness in Hermione's voice. The obvious yet poor attempt to hide didn't help one bit.

"That stutter reveals everything, Ms. Granger. You need to practice lying if you want to fool anyone." A ghost of a smile graced Quinn's lips. "Ms. Granger, you have been attending classes for twelve subjects; without special circumstances, there is no way you would have been able to attend all those classes."

"You have to understand that twelve O.W.Ls are rare but not unprecedented. A lot of to-be Headboys and Headgirls have attempted and succeeded in accomplishing this feat. But the difference between them and you is that those people didn't sign up for all the subjects. Whereas you? You signed up for every subject class, and from what I have gathered, you attend every single subject."

It wasn't compulsory to sign up for all classes to take O.W.L exams. In theory, a student could give all twelve O.W.L exams without attending a single session of all subjects. Most of the students who got twelve O.W.Ls did exactly that.

Hermione rubbed her temple as she asked with a sigh. "But how did you know that I was using a Time-turner?" Time-turners weren't mainstream knowledge, it weren't the first thing that popped into one's mind when thinking about Hermione's situation.

Even when Ivy Potter noticed something weird about Hermione and noticed that her timetable didn't make sense. It took Ivy to pry the answer off of Hermione to know how she managed to attend classes from twelve subjects; Ivy wouldn't have figured it out on her own.

"Most people, when hearing about your situation, wouldn't think about it if they aren't close to you. Most people would just sigh thinking about the load that you were taking and then move on with their life." Quinn pointed at himself and continued. "Unfortunately or fortunately, I am not like most people. When I heard what you were doing because I am a busy person and have a strict time management schedule, I immediately thought about how you were doing this. And one day, I decided to investigate, and after some days of eliminating multitudes of viable and nonviable scenarios, I was able to figure out how you were doing this. The last remaining theory was a Time-Turner."

Then Quinn decided to plug an event that would strengthen his made-up argument. "Do you remember the first day of school when you and Harry Potter were called out to professor McGonagall's office by her?"

Hermione nodded as that was the day she got the information about the Time-turner.

"I understood why Harry Potter and I were there, but you didn't have to be there, so while investigating, that thought popped into my mind. It made me assume that professor McGonagall assisted you in some way, that you didn't find a way on your own, and that made the search radius a lot shorter. Professor McGonagall is a busy person and wouldn't be able to help you out every hour, so I was able to deduce that you were using a magical item from that."

Hermione and Ivy sat in their seats and watched as Quinn went on to state surprising insights about how he was able to narrow his final guess to a Time-Turner, all while keeping an expression that seemed to appear that what he did wasn't anything special.

"... And that is how you got the Time-turner, but enough about this, let's come to why I have called you here," explained Quinn before putting on his business face and stating his demands. "I want to go back in time. You have the means to accomplish that and will provide me with the Time-Turner."

"No," came Hermione's immediate answer.

Lending out her Time-turner wasn't an option in Hermione's mind. Once Ivy had asked to take the tag along because she wanted to see how it felt, but Hermione had put that idea down before Ivy could finish a single sentence.

"... I understand your apprehension. The ministry has tight control over Time-tuners; I assume that professor McGonagall got your Time-Turner from the ministry. You are only allowed to use it only for your studies and nothing else," stated Quinn, knowing that he would face some resistance. "But as I told you. What I will do while back in time wouldn't affect anyone but me; my actions are extremely isolated and won't affect anyone. The only people who even know that something happened are already in this room."

Quinn could still see the resistance and unwillingness on Hermione's face, so he decided to give her another piece of reassurance that could possibly convince her to allow him to time travel.

"Ms. Granger, how about this? You and Ms. Potter here can come with me. I won't go alone, and you can see firsthand what I do while in the past. If you think I am doing something that you aren't comfortable with, you can ask me to stop, and I will give you my word that I will stop."

He gauged Hermione's expression and thought as he waited for her response. 'Don't make me stun you and steal the Time-Turner. I don't want to erase your memories. I would have to erase Luna's memories, Eddie's and Marcus's to tie loose ends, and I don't want that.'

Luna had delivered the letter to Hermione, and Quinn had instructed her to inform Eddie and Marcus that he would miss the meal. So to effectively tie all loose ends, he would have to erase that Luna was ever called into the office and asked to deliver the letter. And by now, she would have met Eddie and Marcus, relaying the information, so he would also have to erase their memories to complete the erasure of the entire incident.

Hermione took a while to make her decision. Ivy Potter sat by her side, silent; this was Hermione's decision, and if Hermione wanted some advice, Ivy would offer it, but not before asking.

Ivy had listened to the entire conversation, and if she was in Hermione's place, she too wouldn't have been comfortable allowing Quinn to go back in the past. But the conditions that Quinn was putting forward were favorable to them. If she didn't have a choice to refuse, then Ivy would agree to Quinn's demand, given that he followed through with his promises.

"... I agree with your demands. All three of us will go jump back to the past," declared Hermione with a half-resigned and half-determined expression.

Quinn smiled and responded,

"Excellent."

Quinn West - MC - Negotiating a deal - Tik-tok, Tik-tok, Tik-tok.

Hermione Granger - Frequent Time-traveler - Holds the only Time-turner currently in Hogwarts.

Ivy Potter - Moral support - Vigilantly watching Quinn's every offer.

AlanL - Editor - Watching everything unfolding while eating popcorn (*´ω｀*)

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Nani!

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