Hey! We made it to finals! Now we can compete for the crown! This is the round 1 finals fic. I'm still captain of the Wasps and the task for this is to use a type of Time Travel to write the fic. I have the multiverse version, where if you make changes the timeline totally changes each time. So what they used in Cursed Child essentially.
Enjoy!
Word Count: 1003
Hermione was having an unusually nice dream, where she was talking with her parents and they went on a trip to the waterpark. She was so invested in the dream, it took her a moment to realize that she was not sleeping anymore, but that a bright blue-white light was shining beside her bed. She stared at it for a minute, not comprehending what was happening. Then she realized: it was a Patronus. She saw that it was fully corporeal, taking the form of a young doe.
Somehow she knew that she had to follow the creature. She didn't know why, but it seemed to stare at her with urgency and almost desperation.
Following it out of the tent, it led her through the woods and to the boundaries of their protective enchantments they had placed over their campsite. Eventually, the doe disappeared, and she stared around. Why had it led her here? It was just another stretch of woods like all of the woods surrounding them.
Then a figure stepped out of the cluster of trees next to her. It was someone that Hermione knew very well. Snape.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione hissed, raising her wand to defend any attack. "Luring us out to get rid of us? Where is Harry? Have you already sent him to Voldemort?"
"Potter drowned attempting to get the Sword of Gryffindor which I placed there for him to retrieve. Weasley tried to aid him and failed to save him, drowning as well. I was unable to help them now, but if you will aid me, we can save them."
Hermione didn't know to believe him or not. Dumbledore had trusted Snape, and looked where that had led him. Yet, there was something urging her to allow Snape to explain, at least.
"Why should I believe you?" she demanded, keeping her wand on him. In response, he took a small potion vial from his pocket.
"This is Veritaserum. You will know if I am lying under its effects. Once I take it, you will know the truth, and we can get on with saving your friends."
Hermione took the vial from him, examining it closely to check that it was actually Veritaserum. It looked just like the books said it should- colorless and odorless, with small flecks within it. She handed it back to him, and he took a small sip of it.
"Why are you here?" she asked him again.
"I am here to help you save your friends, who have drowned nearby." he responded.
"How are we supposed to save them then?"
"I have researched a potion that will allow you to travel back to a short time before they drowned and save them," he answered the question calmly, with no trace of deceit.
"And why are you helping us? Aren't you basically You-Know-Who's right hand man?"
"I have been a double agent for the Order of the Phoenix since before Potter's parents were murdered." Snape's voice turned morose, and Hermione could sense the regret in his voice.
"All right," Hermione relented. "Where do we need to go to make this time traveling potion?"
In answer, he held out his arm. "We shall Apparate to my Potions lab, I have all the ingredients there."
With only a moment of doubt that he could be Apparating her to the Manor or to the Ministry, she touched his arm, and they Apparated away.
Hermione stared at Professor Snape as he placed a few sprigs of dried nettles into his brewing potion.
"Will this work, professor?" she asked, staring at the dark red potion. "The ingredients really make no sense."
Snape gave her such a disdainful look that she stopped speaking. "Miss Granger, the ingredients make no sense because time travel makes no sense. This potion will serve your need just fine, trust me."
Hermione didn't like Snape, but after the revelations she'd discovered while he was under Veritaserum, she did trust him now. "All right. Is it ready then?"
"Nearly," Snape replied. "Pass me that vial of Venomous Tentacula venom. Adding that will complete this potion. Exactly as many drops as hours you intend to travel. As you can guess, traveling far into the past is impractical."
Snape had been working on the potion for several hours now. It was a miracle that all the ingredients were prepared, and yet they were. He was obviously quite weary, but his work did not falter.
Hermione handed him a vial of purple liquid, careful not to spill any of the poison within. She knew perfectly well what Venomous Tentacula poison could do to a person. Taking the bottle, Snape poured a tiny drop of it into the cauldron. Immediately it turned a shade of dark mauve, just as the potion instructions said it should.
"Now it is ready." Snape ladled a measure of the potion into a small cup and pushed it across the table to Hermione. "You know what your mission is, Miss Granger?"
Hermione nodded. He had explained the situation in even greater detail while the potion brewed. She now knew all that needed to be done in order to destroy Lord Voldemort. Now all she had to do was save Harry and Ron. Then she could be angry at Ron for having left them, and be glad that they were both okay.
"Yes, sir," she answered. "So this will take me back to shortly before the boys drowned, and the I save them and we continue to search…" Hermione stopped herself from revealing the Horcruxes. Though she may have trusted Snape now, but she didn't want Voldemort to employ Legilimency on Snape and find out that they were searching for them. "We will continue to find a way to defeat You-Know-Who. In this current timeline, we will lose, because Harry will be dead. When I save them, that's a new timeline that will result in us hopefully winning."
Picking up the glass, she steeled herself. "On three then," she told herself. "One, two, three!"
