Timeless
Disclaimer: You know it. I know it. The whole goddamn world knows it. I do not own Harry Potter or anything Harry Potter related. Never have. Never will.
Full summary: Both Hermione and Sirius fall through the veil in the Department of Mysteries on separate occasions. They become lost in time on the other side, desperate to find a way home. But what they might discover is just how intricately their lives have been weaved together. Together they become lost in the creases of time. They become timeless.
What you need to know for the purposes of this story: Initially it is set post-Hogwarts. Harry and Hermione are 21 and fully trained Aurors. They are partners (in the Auror sense not the romantic sense) and it is their job to round up the last of the Death Eaters. Bellatrix Lestrange was not killed in the final battle but escaped along with some others. Also Sirius Black fell through the veil at the end of Harry's 5th year, as the book dictates. I think that's everything, so on with the show.
Chapter One
Through the Veil
The battle was eerily reminiscent of one they had fought side by side in 5 years ago. The Death Eater resistance had infiltrated the Ministry of Magic at midnight, hoping to retrieve their foul instruments of torture being held in the Department of Mysteries.
Aurors Harry Potter and Hermione Granger were first on the scene. Having tracked this group for the last 24 hours they had anticipated the attack. Hermione owled for urgent assistance, but all they could do until help arrived was to try and capture the Death Eaters alone.
Pursued to the lowest level of the Ministry the group lead by Bellatrix Lestrange frantically tried to decipher their way through the revolving room and took a door which lead to the Time Room. Through the beautiful and incessantly ticking room they were steered towards the Hall of Prophecy.
Orbs smashed all around them in a frenzy of magic. Harry and Hermione swept the rows of untold fates chasing down their evasive enemies.
Hermione did not like this, it was too familiar. Had they just been lured here again? Even after all this time the memory of what Harry had lost that night was too raw.
Her worries were reflected in the recklessness with which Harry duelled. These people were responsible for killing the last of his family, he had been too weak to save Sirius then. But not now. They would pay for the murder of an innocent man.
Harry's guilt over his Godfather's death had never diminished and the scene of this battle could not have been worse. He was distracted. Unfocused by former failures, or perceived failures, on his part. Hermione had been obsessed with capturing Bellatrix. It was almost a personal vendetta. But it was clear that unless she got Harry to concentrate on the present his carelessness would become dangerous.
The Death Eaters had fled the Hall of Prophecy with the young Aurors hot on their tail until Hermione held Harry back.
"Hermione what are you doing?"
"They'll never escape the building."
"How do you know?"
"I cast defensive spells all around the Department as soon as we arrived."
Harry smiled. Hermione's keen intellect was a constant amusement to him, especially at times like this. She was the sister he never had, he didn't know what he would do without her.
"So we've caught them? We've finally caught them?"
"I think so, yes. But Harry listen to me, we still have to be careful," she said as she squeezed his hand. "This is not a safe place for us to duel. Not just because the surroundings are dangerous, but what happened all those years ago..."
Harry stiffened. He still blamed himself.
"It wasn't your fault."
"No it was there's!" he spat as he raised his wand.
Hermione smiled sadly as she let him go. "You need to remember that."
Harry nodded, understanding her meaning completely. This was no time to be distracted by the past.
So the hunt resumed. Panicking the Death Eaters realized their was no escape, they lost all order and the group fragmented, separating through different doors. It was sad to see how destitute these poor souls had become in the years following Voldemort's downfall. They truly were pathetic.
Two cloaked figures Hermione did not immediately recognize disappeared into the Brain Room where she followed them. There was nowhere for them to hide, although this didn't stop them from trying to behind the large tank. Trapped they lashed out like caged animals, erratic and scared. Hermione identified one of them as Antonin Dolohov, the Death Eater who had incapacitated her the first time they met in the Department of Mysteries. But she was stronger now, she was little more than a child then.
They were no match for her, she stunned and bound them, leaving them to be dealt with later. She had to rejoin Harry, she hoped he wasn't fighting Bellatrix alone. It wasn't just her power that made Lestrange a fearful aponent, it was that combined with her insanity.
The main room was revolving around her when she began to truly worry. If something happened to Harry she would never forgive herself, which was exactly how Harry felt about Sirius now. Making Harry's grief an easy target for Lestrange's wickedness. Hermione felt her composure slipping. The doors were spinning all around her and she had no idea which one Harry had gone through. What if she could not find him in time? She knew she had to remain as logical as possible, but the thought of Harry being injured, or worse, by Bellatrix was too much to bare.
These were the concerns which eating away at her rational mind. The circumstances of this battle forcing her to mentally shrink back to a younger version of herself, when she saw it. On the door which stopped directly in front of her eye line.
A blazing cross, just like the ones she had used to mark the doors they had already entered when she was 16. Harry had signposted the door for her to follow him through. She sighed in relief and ran straight for the door.
Yet the relief soon deteriorated as she realized what door she had ran through. The air was cold and still, the large stone room dimly lit. It was her biggest fear. Harry was duelling Bellatrix Lestrange in the Death Chamber. The same room Sirius had died in.
She didn't hesitate a moment longer. Harry was fending off four Death Eaters at once, including Bellatrix Lestrange. It seemed as though Bellatrix was toying with the lot of them, in her manic state she was only prowling and was yet to attack. Hermione sent off a series of hexes in front of her, picking the Death Eaters off one by one before she was even at Harry's side.
"You okay?" she panted when she finally reached him.
"I'm fine. Reinforcements should be here by now. Did you see them?"
Hermione shook her head solemnly. She had requested back up a long time ago, they should have arrived. And they were going to need help.
The Death Eaters had picked themselves up and were readying for themselves for the next round.
"Try to keep the duelling away from the veil," Harry muttered, his eyes not leaving Lestrange's, aware that the real duel was about to commence.
Hermione nodded, like Harry she was trying to avoid looking at the veil. Her treacherous eyes kept trying to pull away from her to see it, but it would be too painful. It was as if she could see Sirius, like he was right in front of her, with his reckless abandon of reason when he saw courage to be more important. His bark like laugh, which to her horror she could actually hear.
Her eyes snapped to the veil. The voices of all those friends lost in the war were whispering to her, but one laugh was dominant and out of place, out of time. That bark like laugh.
"Hermione look out!"
She whipped around as she cast a deflecting spell. She felt ashamed to be tantalized by the veil while Harry was in the same situation with far more reason to be tormented.
As instructed Hermione lead the Death Eaters she was duelling as far from the veil as possible. Flashes of dark magic meeting good filled the air. They were duelling in a haze of fireworks, two against one.
These ones were not as easy to dispose of as Dolohov and his friend. When were the other Aurors going to get there?
Hermione saw in the corner of her eye the way Bellatrix was luring Harry towards the veil in their duel, taunting him like the child he had been all those years ago. Like she had taunted Sirius.
She had to get down there. With a powerful lurch of magical skill she through her two combatants at a stone wall with one spell, she was running towards the veil before she could see them land.
"Little Mudblood come down to play," Bellatrix chanted in her twisted sing-song voice.
Hermione had her wand raised and was ready for the onslaught of magical madness about to come her way as Bellatrix turned her attention to her.
This was the moment Hermione had waited for, dreamt of, obsessed over since that day she had been tortured at Malfoy Manor. She was finally going to get Bellatrix Lestrange to face justice for all the lives she had ripped apart.
But then it happened. Duelling playfully with Hermione one second she span around on her heel yelling, in blood curdling scream, "Crucio!"
Harry had just stunned his opponent when the curse hit him. He fell to his knees in excruciating pain, right in front of the veil.
Bellatrix was cackling hysterically, she was so deranged she didn't even notice the curse lifting.
Hermione was immediately kneeling beside Harry's fallen form, "You okay?"
"I'm fine," he croaked. "I just wasn't expecting it. Are you all right?"
She nodded affirmatively. It was strangely quiet, the cackles had silenced.
On her feet at once Hermione turned to stand in front of Harry, not even 2 metres between herself and the veil.
Bellatrix didn't speak, merely waved her wand to cast I silent spell, and Hermione had not prepared herself in time. It hit her square in the chest, pushing her backwards so she tripped over Harry's feet. Yet that was not enough to stop the momentum of the curse. She was being pulled back. She could feel the coldness of the veil tickling her back.
She was going to fall behind a curtain to which there was no other side.
The whispers were getting louder, locking her into a mist of hushed voices. Long dead voices.
That laugh. That crazed, uncontrollable bark like laugh.
She was close to blacking out when she saw Harry trying to grab her hand, but it was out of reach to him now. There was a bang, and new voices. Real voices, living voices.
Reinforcements had arrived. But it was too late for Hermione, she was through the veil. Into the darkness.
* * *
He had seen this witch before. But where?
She had fallen out of nowhere onto this lonely moor in the dead of night, just like he had done.
He knew he knew her.
Was she a friend or an enemy? He did not know. Even though he knew he recognised her he didn't know why.
She was lying face down on the wet grass, the drizzle of the night getting caught in her thick brown hair.
He knew he knew her.
What he didn't know was where they were. Or when they were for that matter. He had witnessed many different times since he had fallen through the veil, time didn't follow the same rules on this side. He had been trapped there for weeks, maybe even months, it was difficult to judge. All he knew was that he needed to get back, and this women lying unconscious on the ground might have some answers.
Yet he had to be careful, so he transformed into his dog form when he saw her rousing moments later. He wanted to remain disguised until he recognized her.
The rain was falling heavier now.
The witch who appeared from nowhere felt wet grass pressed against her face. Did this mean she wasn't dead?
Gently, for her body was aching, she pushed herself up from the ground to look around. She went pale at what she saw.
It was the dead of night, on a deserted moor in the middle of a rainstorm.
And the Grim was watching her.
The dog stared back. He couldn't believe what he saw either. If his black fur could have paled in shock it would have.
He could only think one thing.
"Mione."
A/N This chapter was only really to set the scene, so stay tuned! I've had this idea tripping around inside my head for the last week. This is my first Harry Potter fanfic so please review and tell me what you think!
Hope you enjoyed it.