"It... it's essentially a blood ritual!" she cried. "I'd have to carve the entire Return Cluster into your body, along with a few extra ones... and they'd need to be permanent, so they would have to be scarred. I didn't want to do that to you!"
Harry goggled at her, but kept calm. "But there's... some advantage to it, right? I mean, more than keeping it with me all the time, because we could always just make the Return Cluster into a necklace or something if we needed to keep it nearby. You wouldn't have invented it if there wasn't some huge advantage, would you?"
"Um... well, it's supposed to be bound to your life," said Hermione. "If you ever died or came close to dying, it would activate automatically without your having to charge it up."
Harry's jaw dropped. "You're telling me that there's a way to automatically come back if I die? We're testing this thing out. As soon as possible. How long will it take?"
Hermione was shocked at his sudden acceptance of the idea. "Um... it could take a couple hours... wait, we don't have time to do this! We'll miss the train!"
Harry had completely forgotten what they had come back to. They would always come back to an unpacked trunk just before it was time to go. "Gah! He cried, bolting to his feet. How much time have we got this time around? Calentempa." The time spell showed 1994, June 30th, 11:40 AM. Both of them stared at the time. The Hogwarts Express had left the station well over an hour and a half ago. "Why did we wake up so late this time?" he asked Hermione.
"I think... maybe it was because we were both unconscious when we got sent back. Our most recent experiences and memories dominate, remember?"
Harry nodded. "Wait, how about the new design that you sent back to yourself? Won't that kind of send us back... er... dead?" he asked awkwardly, unsure of how to phrase it properly.
Hermione shook her head. "No, that has to do with a few of the modifications for this one. I'll explain it in detail, but essentially it continually makes a copy of your memories, so if you die, it sends back your memory and experience of about five minutes beforehand. The other runes monitor your health and keep the whole thing permanently charged up."
Harry understood. "Well... since we've already missed the train, why don't we sneak up to the Room of Requirement to try it out?"
"Harry! What about getting home? Should you be worried..." Hermione stopped, realizing that Harry had no desire whatsoever to go back to the Dursleys unless he was forced to. Harry, on the other hand, realized his mistake when Hermione mentioned home.
"Oh, I forgot about your parents! I'm sorry, Hermione... maybe we should leave this until we get back at the end of summer..."
"No, Harry! This is more important! We didn't even make it all the way through the summer last time! We have to do this now," she said firmly. "But maybe I can borrow Hedwig and owl my parents telling them I missed the train... and that we'll meet them some other way."
Harry pulled out his cloak and the map. "Well, Hermione. Shall we?"
It took them nearly an hour to get to the Owlery, send off the note, and sneak into the Room of Requirement. Obviously Professor McGonagall had noticed that Harry and Hermione's belongings were still unpacked when she checked Gryffindor Tower, and she had alerted the rest of staff. Not wanting to explain how they were sneaking around school and preparing to perform a blood ritual, they decided to be as cautious as possible and stayed under the cloak, using the map to take detours as much as possible.
Arriving at the hallway of the Room, they waited until nobody was nearby, and Hermione led the "summoning" of the room. I need a room to secretly etch blood runes into Harry's body for the next few hours without hurting him, she thought as specifically as possible, while walking past the blank wall three times. A tiny doorknob appeared in the stony wall, but no door appeared. Curious, she twisted the knob, and the camouflaged door opened up, and they both ran inside. The door sealed itself quickly behind them.
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