We Know Where You Were Last Summer
Chapter 8 Time for Answers
The wizard waved his wand, and the gates opened. In the meantime a dignified-looking witch walked in from the side to join the wizard. "Please come in."
Will you walk into my parlour, said the spider to the fly, thought Hermione. Not only could they lock the gates behind the girls once they were in, but they might have a spell to prevent Apparating out, as Hogwarts did. She looked at Tonks. The older girl looked apprehensive, but said: "They knew we were coming. They could have captured us last night in the cave if they wanted to. I suppose we can trust them."
So the girls walked forward, through the gates. They found themselves in a large paved plaza, like Trafalgar Square but circular in shape. It was ringed by houses and other buildings in the Hogsmeade style. The largest building was at the far end, and looked like a temple, but with no explicit religious markings on it. The railway tracks ran to the middle of the plaza and simply stopped. Obviously this was their destination.
"Welcome to Temporary Town. My name is Tempothy," said the wizard. "This is my wife, Chrona. Please forgive the others for staying out of sight. They don't want to be recognized, if you saw them out in the Wizard or Muggle worlds."
Which was an admission that they were doing SOMETHING sneaky. Hermione also noticed that they didn't give surnames. Why were the first names so wierd, instead of calling themselves Timothy and Rona?
"How did you know we were coming?" asked Tonks, who obviously didn't like being predictable.
"We'll explain," said Chrona, "but first, let us offer you breakfast. You had nothing to eat yesterday but cold snacks on the trail."
How did they know that? Hermione wondered again. But she followed them.
They guided the girls into the house next to the temple. A short hallway led them to a kitchen/breakfast room. It looked like a wizard house, with old fashioned furniture that Muggles might consider antiques, but Hermione was startled to notice that they had electric lights, and there was a small telly sitting on a shelf in one corner ( Years later, she was to realize that it was more likely a computer monitor) Somehow their hosts had discovered how to protect electricity from being disrupted by magical energy. If wizards in the outside world were to learn this, it could revolutionize their way of life, allowing them to use modern technology instead of depending on magic for everything. But Hermione had more immediate concerns.
There was an ancient myth about a girl, Persephone, who had visited a magic land and discovered that she had to stay there forever because she had eaten its food. Was it all right to eat breakfast? But the situation in the myth didn't really resemble modern magic, and so she decided it was safe. So she ate the scrambled eggs and toast, and found them delicious.
Afterward the hosts offered the girls the use of their loo. Having had to pee under rather primitive conditions the previous day, Hermione was grateful, but it was something very prosaic to find in a magic land.
They walked next door to the temple next. The front doors let them into a long hallway. All doors were closed and there were no people in sight, and Hermione remembered their hosts' admission that they didn't want the visitors to see everything. There were double doors at the far end, and the hosts let them in. Hermione noticed that their hosts never used keys at any point; everything was unlocked. Apparently the people of this town trusted each other, and thought that they had their visitors under perfect control.
They were now in a round chamber. In the middle, on a pedestal, was what looked like an hourglass, but in an odd shape, and what was inside was a smoky mist, rather than sand.
"Do you know what this is?" asked Tempothy.
"It looks like a Time Turner," said Hermione. "A big one." She had been told to keep the Time Turner spell secret, but she suspected the hosts already knew about it.
"A wot?" asked Tonks.
"It's a charm that can send you back in time," explained Hermione. "I used one during the last school year."
"Armida's arse!" swore Tonks. "Marauder's Maps, Time Turners, I missed out on all the cool stuff in school!"
Hermione wondered who Armida was, but this wasn't the proper time to ask.
"We were doing research on temporal spells in London fifteen years ago," said Chrona. "Then the Dark Lord came into power. We didn't want him to get his paws on this magic, or even to know that it existed, so we went into hiding. Dumbledore recommended staying here in the mountains, at the end of the Hogwarts Express Line. So we came here, and built Temporary Town, and perfected our research."
"So you built the extension to the railway at the time?"
"Not precisely," said Tempothy. "We went back in time and persuaded the original builders to add it on. But few people ever noticed that."
"Awesome!" she exclaimed at the clever idea.
"We can travel into the future, too. Our future selves showed us a log of visitors to this site. Two of them were James Potter and Lily Evans, back when they were students. And now you two. It had the date of your arrival - today - and your names, and some other information that you had told us."
"We haven't told you much yet," said Tonks.
"No, but you are going to."
Tonks looked dizzy. If there was any unattached objects nearby, she probably would be knocking them over.
"Time loops are hard to get used to, I know," said Chrona sympathetically. "When you can travel into the future and back, you can find out what is going to happen, and so there are no surprises in our way of life. Particularly since it may be impossible to change the course of events. They will always happen the same way, no matter how many trips you take."
"Are you sure of that?" asked Hermione, trying to wrap her mind around the phenomenon. "I mean, people have free will. Suppose you do something, then go back in time to the same moment and decide to do something different?"
Tempothy looked stern. "We aren't sure. Our strongest taboo is never change the course of events."
"Sorry."
"No, it's a logical question. What worries us is that some outsider might get our spells, break the taboo and deliberately try to change history. We don't know what will happen – maybe nothing, maybe splitting the universe in half. That's why we're careful to keep our existence secret."
"I see. But you're telling us."
"Future records say that you will never betray us."
Tonks had apparently decided to go back to basics. "When we started out, our goal was to find out where James and Lily got the Marauder's Map. I presume that when they came here, you gave them the map?"
"Not us personally, but their official hosts at the time did."
"Where did you originally get the Map?" asked Hermione. "The original creator must have been a brilliant wizard."
"One of our members received it during a visit to the future," said Chrona.
"But where did they get it in the future?"
"A friend of Harry Potter's. We put a cleaning-up spell on the Map and put it in our archives."
"Wait-wait-wait," pled Hermione, now hopelessly confused. "You say you got it from the future, and gave it to the Potters, and one of Harry's friends gave it back to your town, and your town sent it back to the past."
"Yes."
"But where did it ORIGINALLY come from?"
"That's hard to say," admitted Tempothy. "Maybe it has been travelling in a time loop forever. Or maybe somebody did change the course of events, and invented it during one of the cycles. I don't like thinking about that."
Hermione didn't either. She rubbed her head. She rarely suffered from information overloads, but she was feeling it now.
Chrona misinterpreted the gesture. "Maybe it would be nice to get some fresh air. Let's go back to the plaza."
They went back outdoors and strolled around the plaza. Tonks did most of the talking now, because Hermione was trying to figure out time loops, and solve problems of free will and predetermination in her head. Like most of the great thinkers of history, she wasn't having much luck at it.
"The railway?" Chrona said in answer to a question from Tonks. "Yes, we use it to visit the outside world sometimes, incognito. But I assure you that we're not meddling with people's lives out there. It would contradict our taboo on changing things. We do only what's necessary to keep history on track. Actually the most frequent use is simply to import food and supplies, especially in winter. We're scarcely self-sufficient here."
"I think I believe you," said Tonks. Hermione could guess what was bothering the older girl. She was an Auror, charged with protecting the wizard world from criminal activity. Should she report what she had found, or keep it secret? She seemed to be leaning toward the secrecy. Hermione herself wasn't sure whether she wanted to tell Harry or Ron about this.
Tempothy and Chrona invited them in for lunch, and though nobody said explicitly, it seemed that the lunch was marking the end of the visit, just as breakfast had marked the beginning. At the close, Tempothy looked somber.
"There are two things that I would like to ask of you."
"Oh?"
"First," said Chrona, "we must have the Marauder's Map back to close the cycle. Not immediately – indeed, Harry is going to need it in the next few years. But eventually."
"All right," said Hermione. "I'll arrange it."
"The second is this," said Tempothy. "The Ministry of Magic is doing research on Time Turners again. However, it is in danger of landing in the wrong hands, which would misuse it terribly. You must destroy the charms."
"I can't take action against the Ministry," said Tonks. "I've sworn an oath as an Auror."
"I'm willing to do it if I get the chance," said Hermione. "But I'm not likely to be sneaking around in the Ministry any time soon."
They left it at that. The hosts accompanied them back to the gate. Outside, Tonks grabbed the broom in one hand, and Hermione's arm in the other, and Apparated. They materialized in the Hogsmeade street.
"That's how Pansy did it!" said Hermione suddenly.
"Wot's that?"
"How she disappeared from my neighborhood. She had a grownup with her, who could take her along by side-along Apparation, as you've been doing."
Tonks frowned. "I hate that idea. A nasty teenager is bad enough, but to think some adult is encouraging her in her little blackmail scheme – on the other hand, maybe it was an elf. They'd have the power to Apparate, but would be afraid to disobey a human. Even a human bitch."
Hermione realized that she hated THAT idea.
"I'm going to return the broom," Tonks said.
"Good riddance. It was a literal pain in the arse, riding it for several hours. Next time I'll try something comfortable, like a dragon."
"Be careful wot you wish for," said Tonks. "You may get it."
THE END
Epilogue: Two years later, Hermione paid an unexpected nocturnal trip to the Ministry of Magic, accompanying Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Luna. In passing they found the temporal research room, and Hermione destroyed the Time Turners while everybody was distracted, ensuring that they would not land in the hands of Voldemort.
