Plot, new characters, new magical terms and abilities etc. are my intellectual property. If you want to borrow then please kindly ask. JK Rowling's characters and Wizarding Universe are all uniquely hers.

Summary: It's 6 years Post Book 7 & most of our favourites live on.

Hermione's determination to create spells lands her and Snape in an alternate universe, one unknown by the Ministry of Magic & Muggles alike. How will they get back to all that they know? – SS/OC pairing!

Notes:

Alternate Universe (literally), Fantasy, Drama, Angst. This is a story I've had in mind for years. It was inspired by the "Dead Realm" and "Haunted" Series of Photomanipulations by J-Master on deviantArt.

Alternate Universe

by NativeMoon

Chapter 3: The Rebellious Gryffindor

'Are you sure about this?' Snape asked several months later as he peered at the Time-Turner Hermione placed on the lab table in front of him. It was a duplicate of the one she was now wearing.

'Absolutely! I did three tests and detailed what was done; the results of which are in this report. There were no problems at all,' Hermione said excitedly as she slid the report across the table. 'The DoM Research Library is a gold mine of invaluable information – all I had to do was follow the revised specs filed by Unspeakable Parminter Darkglass from when the last batch was made. As it turns out, the one I had in my Third Year was one of those.'

'Very well then, Miss Granger. You were still very lucky that there were no mishaps (that we know of). Though there haven't been any Time-Turners in existence for eight years the same Ministerial Laws about their use still apply. The next time you do actual Time-Testing it is best to have at least two others present not including myself; these persons should already be proven skilled practitioners of Functional Magic. They should also be imminently trustworthy. To make it worth their while and to be entirely fair, they will be awarded Master's Lab Credits for their efforts and acknowledgement of their contributions in your final Master's Thesis along with a commensurate stipend.'

'So – you're saying I can move forward with the next phase?! Don't you want to read the report and...'

'…the first move of your "next phase" should be submitting the names of at least two persons for my approval.'

'But…'

'As your work cannot move forward without copious amounts of Time-Testing every step of the way with the invaluable tool you have redeveloped, the most logical thing to do is to secure the necessary additional Research Associates. I think that even you can see the sense in not directly involving anyone from the Department of Mysteries – with the notable exception of any employees from the Time Room who have already shown themselves to be very useful and above average. Unspeakable Darkglass has a descendent employed in the same role as his eminent grandfather. And it is undoubtedly he who led you to the appropriate manuscript in the DoM Research Library and to whom you owe a great deal of gratitude for your achievement. Knowing him as I most certainly do – his assistance extended beyond telling you the appropriate stack from which to retrieve the official record of his grandfather's work. Do we understand each other?'

'Uh, yes, of course. Yes we do, Sir.'

'The other name, Miss Granger?'

Hermione thought for a moment, ignoring the searing heat of the Potions Master's black eyes boring into her.

'Viktor,' she said at last, breaking the tense silence. 'Viktor Krum. He is unbelievably gifted in Advanced Functional Magic, much better than anyone here I could think of (present company excluded). I wouldn't even be doing this if it wasn't for him.'

'An excellent choice, especially given the international recognition Mister Krum has gained recently for functional applications of his Herbal Grimoire. He has turned down research opportunities many in our world would willingly be hexed for. You are…romantically involved, so I understand from the gossip pages of The Quidditch Quarterly Review. I cannot imagine that he would refuse you.'

'Your understanding is correct – and yes, Viktor wouldn't hesitate to work with me on this project. I'm the reason he's said no to everyone else for research projects and transferring to a North American Quidditch team. Not my doing, you understand, but he…'

'…then that settles it. I will leave it to you to make the necessary overtures to your boyfriend and I will get the necessary contract and remuneration package from Minister Shacklebolt's Office, making no mention of your decidedly errant testing methods and rule-breaking thus far.'

Hermione let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding as Snape swept from their shared laboratory without further comment about her risky behaviour.

xxXXOOXXxx

Once again, Snape's instincts hadn't failed her.

Viktor said yes to Hermione's offer without the need of a hard sell and Jedediah Darkglass was thrilled that his family was finally getting overdue credit and recognition for their significant contributions to the Wizarding Community. Rather than waste money on lodgings, Viktor moved into Hermione's large flat in Notting Hill Gate and their relationship was flourishing despite spending so much time together on a daily basis.

Hermione was surprised at how easily Viktor separated their work and home lives. He was very insistent that once they were done for the day anything related to work remained at work. He'd accepted the job because he loved Hermione and respected what she wanted to achieve. Something needed to give so that their lives merged and it so happened that her Master's programme was it. What they were doing was important, he'd told her more than once, but they were entitled to downtime that wasn't dominated by the Ministry.

Working with her boyfriend was turning out to be as revelatory as living together was. Hermione realised very quickly that she had always underestimated Viktor's intelligence and magical skills along with just how much a "people person" he really was. He wasn't overly talkative, but when he did speak it wasn't to slay everyone in the room with how much he knew. He was always able to get his points across and stand his ground without seeming arrogant or over-confident – and not once did he get Snape's back up.

Viktor had also made a good friend of Jedediah Darkglass and the two bonded over their mutual love of Quidditch and English ales and lagers. They even spent time together outside of work attending matches though they could have easily gone their separate ways. Knowing that Hermione wasn't the biggest fan of sport, Viktor encouraged her to spend time with her friends on match days – and took it for granted that she was doing exactly that.

xxXXOOXXxx

'Not only does it work, it functions beyond the original maximum travel time of a several hours!' Hermione said excitedly. 'Tweaking the original Darkglass Time Formula made all the difference and…'

'So not only were you experimenting with the Time Essence Formula on your own, you were doing more unsupervised Time-Tests,' Viktor said exasperatedly. 'This is exactly why your Ministry were happy to not bother replacing the ones you and your friends destroyed! I can't fault your enthusiasm but your success is down to sheer dumb luck and the work of other people before you more than anything! Your luck will not last forever, Hermione! It won't! That is the nature of magic and magical experimentation!'

'Fear of how Time-Turners might be misused is no reason to not re-develop them – and make them even better than they were before!' Hermione argued. 'The Laws of Time and Dispensation requirements would still apply, as Professor Snape reminded me when we had NONE to work with at all!'

'And whose interest would be served by a Time-Turner with an extended range?' the man himself hissed as he barged into the laboratory after hearing more than enough. 'This is not what we agreed on, Miss Granger!'

'"Sometimes we are forced to create what we need out of sheer necessity, Miss Granger. It is how many functional objects came into being which Wizardingkind now takes for granted. Our wands are a prime example of the old Muggle axiom "necessity is the mother of invention"",' Hermione parroted, glaring at Snape as she did so.

'"Unexplored Implications of the Misuse of Time in Functional Magic", Snape parroted in return,glaring at the rebellious Gryffindor. '"Unexplored Implications of misuse" are one thing, Miss Granger, wilful exploration of misuse is something entirely different!'

'Have you not heard a word I've said from the very beginning?' Jed said angrily. 'Setting the time limit as my grandfather did was a conscious choice! He knew all too well how Wizardingkind would let go of what little common sense they have to change things that ought not to be changed and go places that are better left alone! A few hours' time travel is more than enough for anyone! The only reason anyone would try to make a case for needing more is for purely selfish reasons! There isn't a spell in existence or any variation that requires a significant Time Jump!'

'Perhaps,' Hermione said calmly. 'But I discovered something really interesting, quite by accident…'

'…and did you document your "Happy Accident" after you were done playing with fire all by yourself?' Snape snapped.

'I've been meaning to but it struck me as rather pointless since the requirement was that all Time-Testing required observation and validation by you and our Research Associates.'

'Concerned about breaking the rules now, are we?!' Jed snorted.

'You will provide me with a report, Miss Granger, a meticulously detailed one. To be delivered to me no later than Thursday morning.'

'Thursday?! But that's less than two days away!'

'Then you had best get to it and stop wasting precious time!'

Snape stormed from the lab, slamming the door behind him.

xxXXOOXXxx

Hermione paced the floor of her sitting room, glancing anxiously at her boyfriend as he read the report to be turned in the following morning. There had been nothing but tantrums and tears between them since she'd come clean about spending her downtime at the Ministry, boldly going in directions she was certain Minister Shacklebolt and most of the Wizengamot wouldn't want her to travel.

'This…Veil…you believe it has more than one function?' Victor gasped, his face betraying the horror he felt.

'That thing has always given me the creeps; from the moment my schoolmates and I discovered it in our Fifth Year and Harry's Godfather accidentally fell through it. We've never had an adequate explanation for what it is and where it came from.'

'What were you even doing in that room in the first place then if you of all people know how dangerous it is?!'

Hermione looked away.

'I was trying to figure something out,' she finally answered. 'Something one of our Order members who taught Defense Against The Dark Arts at Hogwarts said. Remus Lupin; he told me once that the Veil existed long before the Ministry did and rather than destroy it the Ministry was just built around it. He'd known it existed long before we did…and when Harry's Godfather fell into it, Lupin had to physically hold Harry back from going after him. It was so horrible… he couldn't even come right out and say that Sirius was dead even though it was clear that he was gone…for good. It took a good while afterwards before I had the guts to ask Lupin about it.'

'So Harry was going to go through the Veil himself…after his Godfather.'

'Yes. And the thing is – of everyone in that room that night, only a few of us could hear whispering. The closer you were the louder it was, from what I remember. The people affected were had witnessed Death, had seen people die and they were drawn to it. Before the Death Eaters found us there Harry, Luna and Neville could hear whispering but the rest of us…nothing. They kept getting close to it and Harry even walked around it at one point. It made no sense to me; as far as I was concerned we just needed to get away from it and forget we even found the thing. What happened in that room has haunted all of us ever since, but Harry the most and Lupin too, I think.'

'So what is it that you were you trying to figure out?'

'Well – it was obvious that the way our ancestors figured out the Veil was dangerous was probably like what happened that night; someone accidentally fell through and that was it. The assumption was that it's an instrument of Death, instant and painless, and that's always been the case ever since from what I understand. Of everything that the DoM Library has documented, there's very little about that Veil, not so much as a record of whom the Ministry might have deliberately sent through it let alone anyone who "fell" into it by accident. It's the one artefact in our World this is thought to be "Timeless"…'

'A Death Portal that's just always been around? That's impossible, Hermione. Someone or some group of people had to have created it and something tells me they weren't "good people" as such. We don't know who but…'

'But what if they were trying to find a way to travel through time itself – and got something they hadn't bargained for…'

'…like creating a transporter to the Otherworld?! Holy Merlin!'

'Let me spare you reading the rest of that. The night of the Cannons versus Gunners game I was in the lab and feeling, I don't know – restless… I went for a walk and found myself in that room. I sat down on one the benches – not too close. I was thinking about what Lupin said and I had the Extended Time-Turner in my hand. All I was doing was pinging it; just my thumbnail against the hourglass, kind of "thwacking" it, but not actually turning it. All of a sudden it started spinning the way that it does when you're using it to travel back in time – and I looked over and the Archway wasn't filled with that creepy thin black Veil anymore, not completely. I could see…'

'What?!'

'I could see…. I know it sounds crazy but I could see land and mountains and trees in the distance – and they didn't look like anything I'm familiar with in our World… including our Muggle World! I don't know what it is exactly, but the Realm of the Dead it definitely isn't! The Otherworld doesn't look – well…livable…'

'No one has ever returned from the Otherworld to confirm one way or another so that's a moot point.' Viktor said hollowly. 'All this time… All this time that VEIL was the real focus of all this! Never in a million years would you have gotten approval to research it so you completely re-wrote the script just to be able to break the rules and rationalise why it's one thing for you and something else for the rest of us. And the sad thing is – you don't care who you have to use or who might get hurt because of you.'

'Wait just a damn minute…!'

'No – Professor Snape has everything to lose because he's backed you! You're the cleverest Witch ever on these shores, allegedly. You know better than anyone that Snape will be the Fall Guy in all of this. He got you DoM access because it WAS the right thing to do under the terms specified by your Master's Proposal. But this VEIL – that's a whole different kettle of worms and you know it! And so will he! Ignore that at your own peril if you want but stop trying to play the rest of us for fools!' Viktor howled as he grabbed his jacket. 'And what about Jed and me, you think there won't be repercussions for us as your Research Associates?! Even now – you are not going to let this go and be sensible!'

'Where are you going?!'

'Like you really care…'

There was no reply as Hermione slammed the door closed after him and locked it.

xxXXOOXXxx

'You…believe the Veil to literally be a gateway to another world of sorts; one that isn't the Land of the Dead we've always known it to be – well those of us who were somewhat familiar with it,' Snape said tonelessly.

'I know it sounds insane – but I know what I saw! I wasn't tired, or overworked, or letting my imagination run wild!' Hermione said tensely.

'And of course you tried again and your experiment failed.'

'Yes.'

'On the night that you first achieved this – result – what were the exact circumstances?'

'I just went in there to think and absent-mindedly messed around with the enhanced Time-Turner instead of one of the ones based on the original time essence formulation.'

'This is why research assistants are always useful,' Viktor commented irritably. 'There are so many variables to take into consideration!'

'You think I don't know that? Look Viktor…!'

'No, you look! You know this as well as we do Hermione! Have you ever really studied my Grimoire in detail? Did you take any notice of the astrological, arithmancy and meteorological notes and charts in the Apothecarium Appendices? Did you even consider dates, times, and the EXACT locations in latitude and longitude for peak optimisations?'

'I did look them over,' Hermione said dismissively.

'Miss Granger; Mister Krum's meticulously-detailed Appendices are what makes his work so invaluable to the international Wizarding community. Without them his Grimoire would be no more useful than a slightly better-than-average Seventh Year Herbo-Potions Compendium.'

'Which was the whole point of my work and not once did I do anything without having at least one other person there,' Viktor said angrily. 'What if something had happened to you, Hermione? What if you'd been sucked into that thing – no one would be any the wiser? Can you imagine the trouble it would cause for us not to mention the heartache that I would have to live with and your parents?!'

'Well I wasn't so you can calm down!'

'Merlin give me strength!'

'Miss Granger – you will get copies of The Wizarding Almanac, Deluxe Edition along with this list of reference texts,' Snape hissed as he slapped a piece of parchment on the lab table. '…a full set for each of us. Once you have them you will double- and triple-check every relevant Aspect for the date and time range in question and make a full accounting. Then and only then will WE consider what OUR next move is on the matter!'

'But getting all this could take months and…'

'In the meantime, you will take a break from your studies and your stipend for the period will be halved,' Snape spat. 'Perhaps time away from here will enable you to reconsider your continued recklessness, manipulativeness and resisting my authority in the name of "just having a think"!'

Once again Snape stormed out of the laboratory without looking behind him.

OOO

That afternoon The Potions Master ran his fingers across the worn spines of one of the many shelves of books that lined the sitting room of his boyhood home in Northern England. Every so often he would take one down and toss it on the ancient armchair behind him. After he had what he needed he took the heaving pile into the kitchen and arranged them carefully on the only table in the tiny two-up two-down brick terraced house he'd come to loathe long ago.

He took out the black book that he'd made a habit of carrying around in his Master's Robes, grumbling to himself as he made a small spikey black tick mark next to each title comprising the list he'd given to Hermione and began to make notes from each.

Snape had known it would probably come to this as sure as he knew the contents of each and every book on the dilapidated shelves of his tumble-down house on Spinners End in a Muggle dunghole called Cokeworth. It was as plain to him as the overly large hooked nose on his miserable face. He understood it though, being deeply analytical himself. His innate curiosity and superior intellect were both a blessing and a curse. He understood that now in ways that he'd refused to consider until the end of the Second War of Voldemort.

He'd already made these mistakes and worse which is why he'd tried to guide Hermione Granger in making the best possible decisions for herself. Of Gryffindor's Golden Trio, she had always been the most sensible and pragmatic as well as the most academically gifted. How ironic it was that after all these years and the conflict that had marked their time at Hogwarts together, Harry Potter had proven far more conciliatory and easier to work with than his best friend. It was as though the worst aspect of their personalities had switched bodies, and Snape had had enough of this dunderheaded wilful obstinacy that currently possessed her.

The Potions Master understood all too well the need to achieve, to be important and the single-minded determination to knock out everyone in sight with one's innate brilliance and talents. He was making notes from Viktor's much-celebrated triple-tome of work when it dawned on him: Hermione Granger was as competitive with the man who'd won her heart as she was with everything else remotely related to academics.

And Krum, the poor lovesick fool that he was, was completely oblivious to the reality that was staring him in the face. His Partner had been relentless in the quest to be the best in her Year at Hogwarts, indeed the whole school. Her Master's Programme was no different – and neither was her relationship with the celebrated ex Bulgarian National and International Quidditch player. Miss Granger didn't care about his prowess in sport, as it was something she'd never taken seriously – and that was the thing that attracted him most and kept his interest for all these years.

But this newfound celebrity of his, this was different…

While Miss Granger faffed around after the war her celebrated jock boyfriend made an even bigger name for himself as a Functional Magic Master and Academic without dropping the ball once in being the top-notch boyfriend Snape was sure she felt she deserved. Viktor Krum not only had more than half a brain – his was quite a breathtakingly superior intellect that even his one true love had been oblivious to.

And it bothered her.

And the fact that she needed his expertise to get ahead bothered her even more.

And now that her boyfriend was helping her, Miss Granger was feeling the self-imposed pressure of needing to prove herself yet again. Being his equal would never be good enough, no. She had to outperform him. Her ego would not allow for anything less. She could not dismiss Krum from the project; that would be cutting off her nose to spite her face and cause more problems than any of them needed.

She was determined to make a mark that had nothing to do with anyone else's efforts but her own. However, was Snape's opinion that Miss Granger was going about it completely the wrong way and would probably end up dead with the choices she was making. The Witch who had long prided herself on being oh so rational in the extreme was now willing to chuck it all in the bin for more glory.

Oh Merlin the irony!

Even as magically gifted as Snape most definitely was, messing around with The Veil in the so-called Death Chamber was the last thing he would ever do just to prove it. There were reasons, very good reasons, why the Ministry had always keep its existence quiet and in the realm of the Unspeakables. Miss Granger and her friends were lucky the Ministry hadn't intervened to Obliviate their memories of that night in their Fifth Year or worse – and that had been down to the intervention of the Late and Greatest Wizard of the Age who just happened to be Hogwarts Headmaster and the Head of the Wizengamot at the time, Albus Dumbledore.

It was Snape's considered opinion that Hermione Granger still took one too many privileges and accolades she'd had as a mere Hogwarts student for granted.

xxXXOOXXxx

'It figures she couldn't leave well enough alone and tonight of all nights!', Snape thought to himself as he crossed the Atrium of the lobby of the Ministry of Magic late in the evening six months later. He'd set personal security alarms of his own on Hermione's Master's Lab to alert him to unauthorised access. There was no need to go to it, however.

There was only one place the rebellious Gryffindor could be.

OOO

Snape squinted as he walked into the cavernous room that housed the Veil in the Department of Mysteries.

Foolhardy recklessness was very Gryffindor indeed, but she couldn't be THAT foolish, surely?!

'COME AWAY FROM THERE! NOW!' he shouted almost hysterically as he forcibly catapulted himself up the ramp a moment later.

Startled, Hermione lost her footing as she half-twisted around to see a furious and frightened Snape charging at her.

The Potions Master reached out and grabbed onto her, trying to prevent her from falling forward.

It was the last thing he would remember before everything went black.