They spent every evening, before and after dinner, unlocking all the encapsulated memories as they could. It took them a few days to get everything. It only had some of the most important information. Aside from the partial temporal beacon upgrades, he had sent himself information on the known Horcruxes (A ring that would injure Dumbledore; Slytherin's locket, which was fake; the diary, which was already destroyed; Ravenclaw's Diadem and Hufflepuff's cup), and the prophecy. Hermione had sent herself information on where to find the Room of Requirement, as well as the rune setup required to actually send a person's memories back. Hermione was excited with this information, as she said it was the "harder" part of her project, and she had expected to keep working on it until her Runes OWL project was ready to hand in.
Both of them had sent themselves back memories of how to actually encapsulate memories in their own Occlumency barriers. Apparently, it was the only way they could figure out how to ensure a memory would be retained clearly. There was a very limited amount of memory that could be sent back with this method, so they only stuck to the most pertinent information- and dedicating entire rune sets, with arithmanced measurements and layouts, to memory severely limited the other information.
While they received the memories of the improvements to the temporal beacon, it took them (mostly Hermione, actually) several more days to understand its new functions. The Clarity runes, linked to every Memory rune, were obviously there to make sure the memories arrived in the past distinctly. The Experience, Control, and Dominance runes had an interesting function- they ensured that the last memory to arrive would be the "dominant" memory, so they would arrive in the past remembering what they have done, instead of feeling like they had a bunch of images from the future shoved into their heads. On top of that, the Sequence, Order, and Counting runes tied to the Dominance memory also allowed them to fully experience each "trip", in order, instead of receiving an overwhelming flood of every single trip through at once. The last modification had little to do with the runes themselves, and everything to do with what they were carved on. Hermione had, in one final, tiny encapsulated memory, reminded herself that her original runes were carved in soft sandstone, the standard stone used in Ancient Runes class. To make a much stronger, more powerful, and durable rune, they were to use marble. And there was plenty of marble within the chamber of secrets itself. The weaker material was the real reason they only dared to go as far as three years ahead before returning.
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Carving the runes was quite simple, once they figured out how to do it. The advantage of marble over sandstone was also the main problem. It was incredibly difficult to carve, but the carvings would be able to channel several orders of magnitude more magical energy than a sandstone rune would. The basic runic carving kit that Hermione had purchased was only good for making the barest scratches on marble, damaging the tools more than the stones. Then she realized why she had locked the memory of Room of Requirement, and the procedure to open it, away so tightly in her mind. It would be the key to their success. The room provided a large, fully furnished, professional warder and enchanter's workshop. They were the two main industries in the wizarding world that used runes on a daily basis. Warders often worked on large stones, etching deep, powerful runes that would protect large properties. Enchanters, however, carved small, delicate runes for permanent enchantments in small objects, such as brooms. Hermione had use for both sets of tools, apparently.
The next four nights involved much use of the invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map. They waited until after curfew each night, levitating large, heavy slabs of marble from the depths of the Chamber and running all the way up to the seventh floor to the Room of Requirement, often taking detours to avoid Filch, Mrs. Norris, professors, and prefects that were patrolling the halls. After that, they spent a few hours each night carving the runes into the slabs. They decided to sleep in the room itself, partly because they didn't want to risk an extra trip through five floors of the school, and partly because they were too tired each night. Setting an alarm early in the morning just before sunrise, they got up just before sunrise to transport the completed slabs back down to the chamber. There were almost no patrols at all that early in the day, so the trips back were much easier. Finally, they would sneak back into Gryffindor Tower and crawl into their beds for an extra hour or of sleep.
On the night they carved the final runes, they decided to forego sleep to activate the new beacon as soon as possible. They laid everything out, checking every rune, every rune phrase, and every cluster to make sure they were carved and placed correctly. Satisfied, they activated the runes, and a dull, pulsing glow began to emanate from the runes. It was charging up much more slowly than the original one, so they decided to sit down against a wall and rest. The rhythmic glowing from the runes in front of them was very calming, and they soon fell asleep beside each other.
Several hours later, with the runes fully charged, they flashed brightly and disappeared. During the course of their nap, they had shifted from their sitting positions. Harry had tipped over in his sleep and ended up using Hermione's lap as a pillow, while Hermione's head was drooping down over his, only a centimetre away from bumping into each other. Harry reacted to the flash of light first, waking up with a start and jerking his head up. This, unfortunately, caused him to smack his mouth straight against Hermione's, rather painfully. Harry rolled away, clutching his mouth while Hermione jerked up, quickly coming to full alertness. They looked at each other, realizing what happened. In a flash, there was a ten-foot gap between them.
Oh, flaming Morgana's underpants, what the hell just happened? Hermione swore in her mind. That hurts! She touched her lips, which were still feeling sore. Did Harry just kiss me? Was that my first kiss? Does it even count as a first kiss? My god, that hurt! She glared angrily at Harry. That has got to be the worst first kiss in history! I mean, Harry's certainly brave... and noble... and the best friend I've ever had... but OW THAT HURTS. Is my lip bleeding? Touching the inside of her lip, she realized that that yes, in fact, she was bleeding slightly. Her glare turned to an outright blazing flame that burned from her eyes straight into Harry's. He shrunk back, looking extremely fearful. No, Hermione continued. I refuse to accept that. That doesn't count. It wasn't a kiss at all. He'd better give me a proper one to make up for it... Hermione's heart fluttered at the image of a proper, tender, passionate, and real first kiss from Harry. Wait, what am I thinking? Kissing Harry? Oh no, stop, stop, stop! She turned bright red in embarrassment
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