True to her title as the ultimate overachiever and know-it-all, Hermione's first instinct with the electives was simple: I want all of them.
But her plan—and Ron's attempt to talk her out of it—suddenly reminded Lucien of something important.
Taking all five electives wouldn't be very useful for him in the long run. But if he did sign up for everything, he'd get access to one ridiculously powerful magical item.
The Time-Turner.
Exactly what it sounded like: a device that let you travel back in time so you could relive a stretch of it. One person could be in multiple places at once—finish class A, turn the Time-Turner to go back an hour, then go take class B.
Of course, the Ministry kept these things under extremely tight control. You needed special approval just to use one.
Lucien couldn't help wondering if the thing was just too broken. That would explain why it only showed up in third year and never again afterward. If you could actually reverse time, you could change almost anything—bring back the dead, stop disasters before they happened…
Or maybe there were serious limitations he didn't know about.
Even with restrictions, the concept was insane. Time magic. He really wanted to get his hands on one and study it. Probably an alchemical creation. If he could reverse-engineer it…
Lucien's thoughts drifted for a second before Hermione's voice pulled him back.
"Lucien, what do you think?" She was watching him with hopeful eyes.
He smiled. "If you want to try them all, go for it. You can drop any class you don't like in the first two weeks. It won't affect your grades."
Hermione nodded quickly, clearly relieved.
"As for the scheduling conflicts," Lucien continued after a short pause, "you should ask Professor McGonagall. As deputy headmistress she handles most of the day-to-day school stuff. She'll know how to work around overlapping classes."
He'd almost said "Dumbledore" out of habit, but caught himself. Dumbledore had barely been at Hogwarts lately—too busy chasing Voldemort's past and the Horcruxes. McGonagall was basically running the school on her own at this point. The "deputy" part of her title was starting to feel optional.
Hermione blinked, thinking it over.
"Also," Lucien added, "if I end up taking both Divination and Arithmancy on top of the other two, I might run into the same problem. We can go talk to McGonagall together."
Hermione's face lit up. She'd known Lucien would back her and help find a solution.
They immediately launched into an excited discussion about the classes—how strict the Arithmancy professor was supposed to be, how much memorization Ancient Runes required, and how Professor Trelawney was apparently a little… eccentric.
Ron watched them with helpless frustration, scratching the back of his head.
He'd tried to warn them. One person literally couldn't be in two classrooms at the same time. You could only pick—
Ron suddenly froze.
Three classes. Four. Even five.
Wait. His older brother Percy had taken multiple electives. At least four, maybe five. Percy had been top of the year every single year and had never once mentioned dropping a class because of scheduling.
So how the hell had Percy managed it?
Did he have some kind of duplication spell? Could he split himself in half and send copies to different rooms?
Or was there some special timetable arrangement?
Ron decided he was going to corner Percy the second he got back to the common room. He could ask on behalf of Lucien and Hermione too—find out exactly how their ridiculously hardworking brother had pulled it off.
Harry stayed quiet beside them, chocolate frog slowly melting in his hand. He hadn't even noticed.
He was still stuck on his own choices. Care of Magical Creatures was a definite yes. The second class… he had no idea.
Ancient Runes sounded way too hard. Arithmancy already gave him a headache just from the name. Divination seemed easy, but Lucien had said it came down to talent. Muggle Studies?
Harry decided he'd pull Lucien aside after the gathering and ask him privately—not just about which class to pick, but about future plans too.
Lucien was the smartest person he knew. He understood both the wizarding world and the Muggle one better than any of them. If anyone could give him solid advice about what to do after Hogwarts, it was him.