Severus Snape had seen many strange things in his life, but never like this. And as his wits snapped back into action after his momentary lapse, he ran to the source of the explosion he had just heard.
It had been a normal nightly round that evening. He had just met Miss Granger in the Library and were on their way to their rooms. 'Mrs. Snape, not Granger' he corrected himself for the thousandth time. That was when they heard it, a bang, too loud to be a prank from a student but too quiet to be a bomb.
They both took their wands out, ready for action, but nothing happened. But when Snape caught sight of a purple fire and haze just outside the castle he ran to the exit. Sensing Hermione was running after him, as soon as they reached the outside door he ordered:
"Stay behind me and in any case of a fight you run and get help"
"I'm not going to leave you behind" she said courageously, but Snape could hear the fear in her voice.
"You will do as I say" he said, sternly and he knew that she would obey.
They walked quickly to the source of the noise, wands at the ready. The school grounds were colder than he thought. It was very dark, the almost full moon was covered by some thick clouds and the wind was blowing strongly.
But when they reached a certain distance they didn't see any signs of destruction. Only two bodies lying in the dirt, with purple smoke around them. They weren't moving.
"Purple smoke?" whispered Hermione "I didn't know that was possible".
"It is. It's just very rare" answered Snape as they got closer. 'Rare and dangerous' he thought but kept it to himself. It wouldn't do to scare Hermione more than necessary. "Stay back" he added as they reached them.
Snape quickly scanned the bodies. Both of them were very young, in their twenties. They both had black, straight hair and about the same skin tone, so he figured that they must've been related. But they wore strange clothes. The girl wore dark robes, but Snape couldn't tell what fabric was used. And the boy wore some sort of jeans that became narrow at the knees and ankles and a sweater that seemed too big for him but also became narrow at the elbows and wrists.
Muttering a few enchantments he passed his wand over them, checking their vitals. He felt Hermione trembling behind him, so he said:
"Their vitals seem steady. Better take their wands and take them to Madame Promfey" Snape casted two stretch beds and levitated the bodies on to them.
"Who do you think they are?" asked his wife, looking intently at them.
"I'm not sure, but we will soon find out" he said, moving the beds with his wand.
Alexander's head was spinning. His whole body hurt, especially his wrists and he felt very weak. He tried to open his eyes, but the light in the room was too strong, so he tried to control his thoughts and figure out what was happening. He knew he was resting in a soft mattress with thick blankets over him. But something was off. The smell was wrong. Being a mediwizard student, he recognized the faint smell of medications in the air. 'So I'm in a hospital. Why?' he thought 'come on Alex, think, what happened?' He started to remember the previous pain before fainting, the screams. But what was the cause? His head began to hurt more acutely. 'Elizabeth's potion!' he remembered. The cauldron exploded. 'It must have been bigger that I thought if this is a infirmary bed' he figured.
He tried to move his hands, but to his shock they were tied to the post. 'So that's why they hurt' he thought, but panicking a little. He knew tying patients onto beds was a common practice in St Mungo's for when they thought they were violent or may attempt to escape. 'But why would they think this of me' he wondered. Most of the nurses and mediwizards in the place knew him ever since he was a boy, so what was it?
'Perhaps the potion infected me with something' he thought, freaking out more.
Opening his eyes more slowly this time Alexander quickly checked his body. No third arm, no tail attached the small of his back and no scaly green skin. 'Thank God for small favours he thought before observing his surroundings.
He had been right; he was in an infirmary that looked somewhat familiar. The walls were made of stone and the lights were provided by big chandeliers that hanged from the ceiling. He realized that he was alone in the place but for another person on a bed to his right, who he quickly recognized as his sister. She too had her hands tied to her bed, but other than that Alex was relieved to find that she was fine.
To his left he saw a little night stand were the healers had left his medicines. There was some nourishing potions and other like that, but the lack of blood replenishing and bone mending really calmed him down. Looking over to his sister's table he saw that her potions were the same, except one that looked a lot like a salve used for skin burns. Alexander was a little startled, but then he remembered that Liz had used her body to covers his from the explosion, so she was bound to have more injuries than him.
'That brave little fool' he thought smiling to himself while looking tenderly at his sister. He would have done the same for her and he was glad that she was more or less alright.
"Ah, finally one of you is awake" said a woman in a nurse's clothing. She came up to Alex and placed her hand on his forehead. "You fever has gone down" she said "You gave us quite a scare young man".
"I know, I was scared myself. But it happens, with potions. When will the possible side effects show? I do not particularly like having my hands tied" he asked the nurse.
"Side effects of a potion accident? I didn't know that, I would have done more tests! What potions are we talking about?" she asked, quickly taking her wand to examine him further.
"I'm not sure about the potion itself, my sister was experimenting on one. All I know was that at one point there was purple smoke coming out of it and I blacked out" he said, wondering why she didn't know. Hadn't his parent filled in the nurse of what happened?
"Did you say purple smoke?" asked the nurse, looking at him with her eyes wide.
"Yes, and then an explosion. I can't seem to remember what it meant, though" he answered, looking suspiciously at the woman.
"Never you mind dear, you are safe now. And about the security matter, I'll have it sorted with the Headmistress" she said, walking away from him.
"Wait! Headmistress? Where am I?" Alex asked.
"You are in Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Didn't you know that?" she answered, looking surprised.
"No madame. I did not" he told her, frowning. 'Hogwarts? But this isn't the schools infirmary' he thought 'Just what the hell is going on?'
Sometime after the nurse had gone Alex heard several footsteps and shortly after three people came in to the healing room. The nurse who had just spoken to him, a tall woman in a tartan robe and a man with dark hair and black robes. Both the woman and the man looked oddly familiar, but he couldn't place where he had seen them.
But when they got really close he recognized the woman.
"Minnie?" he asked, looking intently at her, figuring out if it was her indeed. The woman looked shocked to say the least.
"Excuse me? Have we met?" she asked him in a strong Scottish accent.
"Of course we do. Don't you recognize me?" he said, baffled. Minerva McGonagall was his godmother, how could she not know him?
"I believe you are mistaken and would gladly appreciate if you didn't refer to me as informally. I am Minerva McGonagall, headmistress of this school. I'm here to ask you some questions" she said sternly.
"What are you talking about Minnie? Where are my parents? Why am I tied like a criminal?" asked Alex confused and getting a little angry.
"We checked your identity thanks to the evidence that was in your wallet, but it turned out to be false. Your companion didn't have any information on her on who she was. Since I have my students safety to take into consideration, the fact that your don't have any reliable material as to who you are and the suspicious way we found you, I thought it best to have you tied and your wand removed" explained the woman, then added "Now, are you well enough to tell me who you are and how did you get past my securities preventing anyone from aparating within the castle grounds?"
"I'm sorry, but I won't answer any of your questions until I have figured out what is going on here" said Alex, very slowly sitting up on the bed. It made his head spin, but he felt less vulnerable like that.
"You will answer my questions or I will force them out of you" she said, exasperating.
"Alex, not another word" said his sister's voice behind him.
"Liz! Are you alright?" asked Alex, immediately looking at her.
"I feel like a train just passed over me, but other than that I'm fine" she said, making an effort to sit up. The nurse ran to her side.
"Oh darling, there is no need to sit up yet, let me check your vitals" she said waving her wand over her.
"No madame, this takes precedent" she said coarsely. She looked at Alex "If what I think is true, then we are in big trouble, so trust me when I tell you, do not open your mouth again until I say otherwise. From this point on I'll do the talking" she ordered him. Alex knew that look her sister gave him and realized that she wasn't joking.
"Madame, you claimed to be the headmistress of this school" she said to McGonagall. "My brother and I have been involved in a serious potion accident. Following the protocol instated by our government I have to ask you if I may speak with whoever is in charge of potion making in this institution".
The man in the black robes stepped forward.
"That would be me" he said.
"Not a word Alex" said Elizabeth sharply looking at her brother who seemed puzzled and surprised. She turned to the man and said "Sir, I am summoning the protocol for a potion accident class 3 involving purple smoke. Do you know the procedure?"
"Did you just say class 3?" asked the man, appearing rather surprised.
"Yes. Do you know the procedure?" Liz insisted.
"The time is 3 in the morning and the date is September 4th, 1997. And my name is Severus Snape" he answered and the twins gasped.
"1997?" said Liz, closing her eyes to calm down. Alex was trying very hard not to say anything. '1997? Are you kidding me? Dad, what the hell?' he wanted to shout out, but kept his word and stayed silent as his sister started asking.
"The spell for light? And the one to open locked doors?"
"Lumos and Alohomora" answered Snape.
"The so called Unforgivables?"
"Crucio, Imperio and Avada Kedavra"
"What's a boggart and how do you get rid of it?"
"It's a creature that likes living in dark places, no one knows what it really looks like because it changes it's form to morph into whatever the person fears the most. To get rid of it you use the spell 'Ridikulus'"
"Excuse? What is this?" asked an angry McGonagall.
"Protocol. Asking questions to rule out memory distortions, amongst other things" answered Liz. "Who is the current Prime Minister?"
"Kingsley Shakebolt" answered Snape.
"And the last war amongst wizards?" asked Liz and there was an uncomfortable silence.
"It finished on the 7th of May of this year. It was against a warlord commonly known as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his Death Eaters" answered very gravely Snape.
"And is there a name for the team opposing him as to a particular hero?"
"The Order of the Phoenix. As for a hero, you could say Harry Potter"
"What award did he get?"
"Order of Merlin, Platinum Class"
"Who else got it?"
"Ronald Weasley, Hermione Granger and himself"
"Congratulations then. Now, as for more ancient history, when was the last goblin rebellion…
They went on for at least 10 more minutes, with Liz asking questions about spells, potions, history and of Hogwarts and Snape answering them. McGonagall and Alex were getting restless and the nurse went back to her office to write her report. When they finally finished, Liz let out a sigh.
"Well, the good news is that we are in the same dimension as before" she blurted and Alex gave a cry and spoke.
"Dimension? Are you kidding me? What's going on sis?"
"Potions accidents class 3 involving purple smoke means there was a break in the magic spectrum. There are many possible outcomes that can occur to whoever was involved in the accident itself. Those can vary from severe trauma, losing his magic completely, time travel and dimension travel. We already checked that you still had your magic, but we had to make sure of the time and place was right" explained Snape.
"In the worst case scenario we could have been dead or sent to another dimension, given the class 3 of our accident. Thankfully, we got the best scenario, which is time travel" said Liz as calmly as she were talking about food.
"Best case scenario? Liz, if we were talking about a year or two it could be, but if this is really 1997 we have travelled back at least 24 years! How is that the best case scenario?" yelled Alex.
Both Snape and McGonagall were astonished at this.
"24 years? Is that even possible?" asked the headmistress in a whisper.
"It was unlikely, but we have just proven it possible. But we are on new ground here, there hasn't been any record of any time travellers going back this amount of time" explained Liz. "Thankfully, we are fine and my hands seem steady enough, so I'll be able to keep on doing potions. With time I'll figure out what happened to the one I was working on, reverse the effects and see a way to get back home again".
"You seem awfully calm" said Snape suspiciously.
"Protocol in these cases says that the travellers should contact their closest family, since they have the most to lose if anything would happen to them. Be that as it may, I must ask you Professor, are you married?" she said, not paying attention to Snape's enquiry.
"What has that go to do with anything?" he said but figured it out and showed her his wedding ring on his hand "Name her". His face was passive and showed no emotion, but the mood of the room was tense enough for everyone to know what was being said.
"My mother, Hermione Granger. My name in Elizabeth Snape and this is my twin, Alexander. You are our father. Or will be, since we haven't been born yet"
Thanks for readings! It's along chapter, but I will try to get the next one quickly.
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