Riddle's Riddles

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Chapter 1: Back to the past

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"Mysterious thing, time. Powerful... and when meddled with, dangerous."
- Albus Dumbledore

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Hermione released Harry and Ron's arms and looked around, still a little bit dizzy from the Apparition, thankful that no one on the street had noticed how they had appeared out of nowhere.

"Where are we?" she heard the red-haired boy asking, but didn't bother to turn around to look at him to answer him.

"Tottenham Court Road. Walk, just walk. We have to find somewhere for you to change."

She dragged Ron and Harry along the street, ignoring the fact that they were starting to attract the attention of the various people who were crowding the street that night. "Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into!" She heard Ron say, but kept walking.

"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me? All last year I kept it on me, and now…" Harry complained, following Hermione as she seemed to know where she was going.

"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, and I've got clothes both of you… Just try to act naturally until- this will do."

Hermione guided them into a dark alley where she hoped no one would be able to see them. The boys seemed to be torn apart between watching her to find out what she was up to or keeping an eye on the street to make sure no one would attack them.

"When you say you've got the Cloak and clothes…" the Boy-Who-Lived started to say when Hermione opened her small beaded bag and somehow managed to stuff her whole arm into it.

"Yes, they're here." She drew her arm back and handed them some clothes.

"How the bloody hell-?"

"Undetectable Extension Charm," said Hermione, pointing at the bag and smiling. "Tricky, but I think I did it well enough. Anyway, I was able to fit everything we need in here."

"When did you do all this?" Harry asked while he and Ron changed their clothes.

"I told you at the Burrow. I've had the essentials packed for days, you know, in case we needed to make a quick getaway. I packed your rucksack this morning, Harry, I just had a feeling…"

"You're brilliant…Really, you are," said Ron, smiling and handing his robes to her.

"Thanks." The witch smiled softly while she packed their clothes. "Harry, take it." She put her arm inside her bag again and took out the well known Invisibility Cloak that belonged to her friend.

"The others… Everyone at the wedding…" Harry said as he pulled the Invisibility Cloak over him.

"We can't worry about them now," Hermione said quietly. "It's you who they're after, Harry… We'll only put them in much more danger if we go back there."

"She's right," said Ron.

"Come on, I think that we should keep moving." the girl pointed to the street.

The three of them went back to the street and then to the main avenue, where a group of men on the opposite side were singing and laughing loudly, obviously drunk.

"Just a matter of interest, why Tottenham Court Road?"

"I have no idea, Ron. It just popped into my head, but I'm sure we're safer here in the Muggle world. It's not where they'll expect us to be."

"That's true," Ron looked around and pulled a face when he the group of laughing Muggles passed by them. "But don't you feel a little exposed?"

"Is there any other place where we could go?" Hermione asked, shrinking a little when a man started to whistle at her from across the street. "We can't book rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, can we? And Grimmauld Place is out of question because Snape can get in there… I think we can stay at my parents' house, but someone may check there too… Oh, I wish they would shut up!"

"Are you alright, dear?" One of the drunk men shouted, waving his hand at her. "Wanna drink something? Ditch the ginger and come here!"

"Let's sit somewhere," she said when Ron opened his mouth to shout back at the man and pointed at a small café. "Here, it'll do…"

The three of them entered the café and looked around. The place wasn't pretty; it was quite dirty and messy. Hermione went to a table and was disgusted to see that there was a layer of dirt and oil on the top of it, but she sat down anyway. She turned her gaze to the waitress, who seemed to be too busy with picking at her nails to pay attention to them.

"So, what do we do now?" Ron asked, sitting down next to Harry, who was still wearing the Cloak.

"I have no idea." The girl sighed. "Let's think: what do we have that can help us find the Horcruxes?"

"We have only the great information that Dumbledore gave to Harry," the Weasley muttered, rolling his eyes. "But that doesn't really help…"

The young girl opened her small bag and took out the Deluminator that their former headmaster had left for them, looking at it for a few seconds.

"Seriously, I can't see how this thing will help us," the red haired boy complained, poking the object before the witch could get it out of his reach. "What else did he left for us? A sword that we can't have, a children's book and an old snitch…"

"And a time-turner," the girl said quietly, and she raised her hand, showing them a golden chain entwined around her fingers, a tiny hour-glass hanging from it.

"What! ?" They heard Harry's voice echoing from the empty place next to Ron, who poked his friend's side in an attempt to remind him to stay quiet.

"Scrimgeour called me after you two left. He asked me a lot of questions and then gave it to me." She moved her hand, making the time-turner sway in the chain. "He wouldn't stop telling me how dangerous it would be if I used it for anything… As if I didn't know the consequences! But I don't know why Dumbledore…"

"Why Dumbledore left it? It's obvious, Mione! He wanted us to use the time-turner to stop Snape from killing him!" Ron grinned and reached for the small object, which was quickly snatched away from his hands by the witch.

"No! Dumbledore knew how dangerous time-travel can be!"

"Then of course, he left this as a souvenir!"

"Ron, time-travel is a dangerous thing! Ask Harry…"

"Harry wants to save Dumbledore too!"

"Ronald!"

"Shut up, both of you!" They heard Harry whisper from under the Cloak and stopped arguing. "Hermione, what else did Scrimgeour say about the time-turner?"

"Nothing more." She rose the hour-glass to her eye's level. "Merlin! Look!"

She showed them the tiny time-turner. There was something marked on its metallic structure… Letters. Tiny letters.

"Back to the memories?" Harry whispered. "What does it mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ron took the object from the girl's hand and put the golden chain around their necks, ignoring the annoyed shriek Hermione let out when he did it. "We have to stop Snape!"

"Ron, give it back to me!"

"You two have to stop!" The boy who was covered by the Cloak demanded. "First of all, we have to think about Voldemort's Horcruxes…"

The two of them agreed. Ron still had the time-turner in his hands and Hermione looked around, seeing if anyone had noticed their fight. Everything was normal… The waitress was chewing on something, still looking bored, and two work men were entering the café in silence, heading for another counter.

"Alright," the Weasley mumbled. "But it would be a good idea to use the time turner to…"

But before he could finish his sentence, one of the men who had come into the café took out a wand from his pocket. Hermione shrieked and whipped her own wand out from her pocket, but, before she could do anything, the man had already pointed his wand at them and shouted a spell that hit their table and sent them flying through the window.

Then everything happened too quickly… In one moment there were Death Eaters screaming, spells cutting the air, a rain of broken glass and then…

"Where are we?" Hermione got up from the floor and looked around.

It looked like the same street, but this one was slightly different. Several houses were destroyed and everything seemed to be dirty. The buildings' designs looked odd and, when she tried to find someone on the street, Hermione noticed they were the only ones standing there. The girl raised her head and looked up at the dark and cloudy sky, trying to understand what had happened to them.

"Hermione?" Harry, who was still on the floor, half covered by the cloak, called her. "Can you hear that?" The boy took off the Cloak and got up, looking up to the sky, paying attention to a strange mechanical noise that seemed to be coming from there.

"What is that?" Ron asked. "That noise…?"

Before any of them could answer, a loud explosion shook the ground, making them fall again. The red haired boy was now scared, looking wildly around the street and trying to find out what was happening. Harry seemed to have understood what had happened, as he found the scenery oddly similar to some war movies that Uncle Vernon and Dudley used to watch.

"What the bloody hell! ?"

"Come on! Quick!" Hermione grabbed the boys' hands tightly and they felt the weird feeling of apparition, but then they noticed that they hadn't moved at all.

"What! Hermione…"

"I tried to Apparate back to Tottenham Court Road," she muttered, looking panicked. "But… Apparently, this is Tottenham Court Road!"

"And now?" Harry asked.

"And now we run!"

Grabbing both of them by their hands, Hermione started running along the street, trying to run away from the explosions. Sometimes she tripped over her feet, almost falling on the ground with Harry and Ron, but the boys managed to hold her before that happened. The red haired boy was running like a madman. He had never seen anything like this in his life!

When the noise seemed to be fading away, the three teenagers stopped running. The dark haired boy leaned against a lamppost and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He saw that now there were other people on the street, running to find a safe place to hide. Looking at his friends, Harry saw that both of them were, just like him, trying to catch their breath while looking around.

Before any of them could do anything, a young woman ran onto a corner near them and stared at them for a moment, before frantically gesturing for them to follow her. She looked very frightened, but seemed to know where to go, so the teenagers didn't waste time to follow her along the streets. After running for some time, they noticed that they had stopped in front of an old building that the young woman was pointing to frantically.

"You can stay in here… We have a basement where the children stay during the attacks," she panted, looking at the sky and listening to the mechanic noise that was getting closer. "Come on!"

Harry, Ron and Hermione followed her as she walked around the building to a backyard. The woman pointed to a small door that was almost entirely covered by bushes in the back of the garden.

"What are you three waiting for!" she screamed, seeming to be on the edge of a panic attack as she watched the three teenagers stand in front of the door not do anything, and walked past them, opening it and making them enter the basement.

The small shelter was dark and dirty. Lots of boys and girls were crumpled inside, some of them were looking up at the ceiling, hoping that the bombing would stop soon. Others were crying silently, scared of the noises coming from outside, and a few of them were simply sitting down, looking at nothing in particular, waiting for everything to settle down.

"Who are they?" A woman's voice asked.

"I found them on the streets, Mrs. Cole… They looked so scared and lost."

The three of them turned to an elderly woman sitting on a stool in the middle of the crowd.

"Sit down, please," Mrs. Cole spoke. "It'll take some time until we can go out…"

"Excuse me," Hermione called her. "Could you… Could you tell us what place is this?"

The woman smiled sadly before answering her question.

"Wool's Orphanage, my dear."

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A/N: So... this is a translation of my fanfiction Riddle's Riddles that was originally written in portuguese. I started writing this fanfiction in October of 2009 I think... and I finished it in February of 2010, so... Yes, the fanfiction is already finished, I just need to translate it... But when I'm translating I always change somethings XD. Ahm, my English is not the best and one of the reasons why I'm translating Riddle's is that I want to practice my English (:

So, about this chapter... The first part of the chapter is actually a scene from Deathly Hallows, I don't know if I translated it as it is on the book or if it's different. Also, in this chapter, there is an historical incoherence ): The german's bomb attacks on England stopped in 1941 I think... and this chapter takes place in 1944, so... I'm sorry for the mistake.

So, that's it... Hope you enjoyed it.

Tell me what you think about it (:

EDIT: now with the quotation marks instead of the traces on dialogues :D and beta read. Thanks, Shadow6116, for beta reading the first chapters for me.

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Ari.