I'm sorry it has been awhile since I updated this story and I wanted to update it early this month but have been swamped with coursework but here is her 10th and final future.
Hermione nodded and stood. She wanted to walk to the last Orb but her feet wouldn't let her. She didn't know if she could face anymore heartache. Knowing when she went back to bed and awoke once more that this would have just been a dream made her feel weird. "Not a dream more like a nightmare," she mumbled under her breath as her feet finally allowed her to move towards the final orb.
"Go on my dear the quicker you get this done the quicker it'll all be over." Julietta said smiling. Hermione took a deep breath before placing her hands on to the Orb allowing the sensation to pull her through time.
They landed in a room that looked as though it was a photo studio. Along the walls were different images; nature, people, vehicles and buildings. There were different cameras scattered around the room which was decorated in dark colours. The room looked small but with different deco it would look much bigger.
"Julietta? Where are we?"
"We are in the countryside in Surrey in the dark room that your husband uses to develop his photos that he takes for a living." Julietta explained.
"So my husband is a photographer but that could mean he could be from a Muggle heritage or a Pureblood one. Hell I'm not even going to take a Slytherin out of the equation I've already had three of them," Hermione exclaimed as she followed Julietta out of the room. Heading down the staircase she was surprised that the house looked like a semi-detached one that they would find in the Muggle World. "Julietta are we in the Muggle world or the Wizarding one?"
"Muggle my dear," still confused Hermione followed Julietta into a room where she spotted someone she knew.
"Daniel what are you doing," laughed Hermione looking at the brown haired boy with large brown eyes.
"Drawing," he mumbled as he picked up a blue crayon.
"That's lovely sweetie but what are you drawing?"
"Me, you, Jessica and daddy," he said placing the crayon onto the floor before picking up a brown one.
"Can I have a look?"
"Later mummy it not finished yet," he said taking another crayon. Hermione nodded her head and sat watching the television.
"Please tell me about Daniel."
"Daniel James was born on the 13th of March and is 3 and half years old, he is rather imaginative and creative but lacks in intelligence often struggling with the basics. Because of this you and your husband have decided that you will enrol him in school when he turns four to see if he can learn a little more before going to Hogwarts. He'll often follow his father around and will want to join in with what he does. He doesn't know too much about Hogwarts and magic but he is beginning to show accidental magic."
"I want to know who the father is." She mumbled watching the scene.
Five minutes later Daniel jumped up and rushed towards his mum. "Finished it," he pushed the piece of paper closer into her face before she took hold of it and looked at it at a farther distance.
"This is really good Dan, you going to tell me who is who?"
"Don't be silly mummy. That is you," he pointed to the drawing in the middle of the page with wild brown hair and funny length arms. "That's Jessica and me," he pointed to the girl next Hermione and then himself. "And the last one is daddy see," Hermione looked at the pictures once again and nodded.
"I see, there really good hunny. You going to show daddy before mummy has to go to work," He nodded his head and ran out of the room.
"Julietta they mentioned my work but what is it that I do?"
"Well seeing as it was mentioned I'll tell you. You my dear work in the secretive job of an Unspeakable,"
"I've always wondered what one did. I guess now is my time to see. Do you know where Daniel went Julietta?" Julietta didn't speak but nodded her head and drifted off towards the doorway. She looked back to see if Hermione was following and continued to float to her destination. They travelled up two floors of stairs till they reached a room Hermione had not yet seen.
In the room was Daniel sat on the knee of a man that looked double of him. The man had short dark brown hair with brown eyes he had a chiselled face and looked to be in good shape. But Hermione didn't know where she had seen him before.
"Daddy does you like it?"
"I think this is very good. You did a good job here Dan." The young boy grinned up at his dad from the praise. "Tell you what can you draw me a camera." He said as he handed Daniel a piece of paper and a pencil. He took the paper from his dad and lent down to start drawing. From above Daniel's dad sat and watched chuckling as Daniel drew the image his tongue sticking out of his mouth.
"I've seen him before but I don't know where or when for that matter."
"His name is Adrian Pucey he was a year above you at Hogwarts and a Slytherin student. You know his cousin she was in the same year as you Pansy Parkinson. You were married four years after leaving Hogwarts and had your eldest daughter Jessica two years later and Daniel three after that. You first met at a party that the Ministry placed a year after the war had ended; both the Pucey and Parkinson family were there because they were both on the light side. Adrian came up to you and you asked if you would like to dance, you eventually said yes and one thing led to another and he asked you on a date once the night was finished."
"I remember him now," she said the image of a man flying through the sky playing Quidditch dressed in Slytherin robes. "He got the nickname the handsome Slytherin."
"What do you think daddy?" Daniel said holding up the picture. Adrian looked quite surprised when he saw the image.
"You know what kiddo that looks really good; I think you may have a talent in drawing." Once again Daniel looked up at him smiling.
"Mummy said my picture was good too," Adrian nodded his head agreeing with his young son.
Adrian then lifted Daniel on to the floor before heading down the stairs holding on to Daniel's hand as they went. He headed into the living room where Daniel let go of his dads hand and rushing over to show his mum his new drawing.
"It's a camera, I'm proud of you hunny mummy can't draw like that." She told him shuffling his hair. In the time Adrian and Daniel had been upstairs Hermione had changed out of her jeans and t-shirt into a smart suit and ballet pumps.
"Mummy are you going to work now?" He asked sadly.
"I am darling but I'll be home soon. Can you go and get me your sister so I can say goodbye please Dan." He nodded his head before rushing off to find his sister.
"If you didn't love your job so much I would force you to stay here and not go and work," said Adrian as he wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist.
"I know you would but it's something I'm passionate about and I'm so close to doing what I've been trying to do for such a long time."
"Promise me once you've done whatever you need to do that you will take a little less time off work and stay home with the kids and I more."
"I promise you Adrian I will do that I'm looking forward to having more time at home with you all."
"Don't forget we've got to go to my mother's for tea tomorrow evening."
"Oh shit, I totally forgot thanks for reminding me, I'll leave early tomorrow."
"Alright," he whispered burying his head into her hair swirling her around so she could rest her head on his shoulder. The couple stood holding one another for quite some time before they heard footsteps heading down the staircase. Pulling apart Hermione stayed standing as Adrian sat down on the sofa, two heads appeared through the door.
"Jessica, come and give me a hug before I go to work. You should be in bed when I get home again," Jessica walked towards Hermione and gave her a hug.
"Wish you didn't have to go all the time mum." Jess mumbled sadly.
"I know you do sweetheart but I'll be taking time off once I've finished what I was working towards. It won't be too long now Hun and keep smiling for me." Jessica nodded her head looking up at her giving her a large smile. Hermione kissed the top of Jessica's head and before smiling down at her daughter. She gave Daniel a kiss on his cheek and then leaned into Adrian placing a loving kiss on to his lips, pulling away she smiled down at him before saying her goodbyes and apparated out of the living room.
"Let us leave here for now Hermione and when we reach the Ministry of Magic I'll explain more about your daughter and your job." Hermione nodded before taking one last look at her children and husband before her surroundings disappeared and turned into the Ministry. She couldn't see herself but followed Julietta closely.
"Jessica Anna-Marie was born on the 24th of April two years after you married Adrian she like you is very interested in her literature and is enrolled in the local Muggle School. She claims to want to be an English teacher but you and Adrian are expecting this to change when she goes to Hogwarts. Many say she is like you in her attitude as well as her appearance you always say that you are sorry for giving her your hair."
"I always feared I'd give my daughter this blasted mane." Julietta chuckled at Hermione's words as they arrived on a floor that was heavily bolted.
"Inside this door is where all the Unspeakables work," Julietta told her.
The room was large with bottle floating around the ceiling, there were draws organising themselves and papers being shredded, burnt or filled. People hurried backwards and forwards with hardly anybody speaking. At one end of the room was a potions lab that had potions simmering away, some were being created and one blew up. In the centre of the room was heaps of paperwork with Muggle tape recorders, small bottles that held floating mist and sparks that were trailing dark blue coloured smoke. On the opposite end to the potions in the room were books in the thousands ranging for many different topics. Hermione was sat in the middle of the room testing the different bottles of mist with a spark. Around her were two other witches and an elderly wizard, their voices were hushed and they seemed to be impressed with what they were seeing.
"Julietta what are they doing over there?"
"Hermione as an Unspeakable your job is very secretive, and what you are researching is very dear to your heart. Do you remember in your fifth year when you went to the department of mysteries, when Sirius Black disappeared into the arch?" Hermione nodded. "The department of mysteries is known as this because it is a mystery, and it is rare for someone to enter this department. When Sirius lost his life to the arch way you chose to work in the department of mysteries Death Chamber. The Death Chamber is the second worst of all the sections in the Department of mysterious as the ever locked room is the darkest and cannot be opened by a spell or a knife like Sirius had; behind that door is the love chamber. Ever since you started your work here you have research the arch way and the horrors and dangers it holds. You are now very close to knowing what it does, how it does it and how to reverse the effects." Hermione looked at Julietta shocked but the memories of her fifth year Ministry experience still fresh in her mind.
"What is it I am doing over there?"
"Why don't you go and see for yourself?"
"Hermione do you really think we are ready to test our theory on the matter what if we are wrong, and cannot bring him back, a life is a life in a strange way."
"I understand that Zoe but we have to do a test and it's cruel but in the Muggle World people use animals for experiments if this doesn't work the rat will not feel any pain it'll just drift away." Everyone looked at one another before taking a deep sigh and nodding.
"I'll get Squiggle then." Arnold said who stood and headed through a door.
"I hope you are right Hermione I really hope you are,"
"So do I," Hermione waited for Arnold to reappear before standing and walking towards the heavy barricaded door. Hermione tapped her wand six times on a small square and then placed the tip of her wand into the small marking that had appeared. She stood on a spot in the door before she disappeared from the room. She reappeared on the other side of the door and waited for her co-workers to join her. Together they walked out of the corridor and headed towards the department of mysteries. It took them five minutes until they reached the Death Chamber.
"Arnold will you place the chipped band around Squiggle's neck please," Amanda asked before turning to approach Hermione. "If our calculations are correct we will get a minutes information before we have to pull him out of the arch. If either you or Zoe loses concentration on the task at any one given moment the information and rat will be lost in the archway. We cannot afford this to happen. However at any given moment the rat can break away from the spell and that will be the end of the experiment. Are you both ready?" Hermione and Zoe looked at one another before saying yes and looked towards the archway with wands at ready.
Arnold held the rat firmly in his hand as Zoe and Hermione whispered the spell that would attach them to Squiggle. Taking a deep breath he carefully moved close to the archway and placed Squiggle on to the ground before quickly rushing away. Squiggle looked at the arch before scurrying forward causing Hermione and Zoe to feel a sudden force they had not expected but they continued to concentrate and put all their energy into their wands. From the other side of the room Amanda and Arnold sat watching the small magical screen that had appeared in front of them. While it was on Amanda recorded the scene by her wand, as the minute came close to an end she addressed Hermione and Zoe quickly.
"Get ready to pull back ladies the minute is almost up, 5, 4, 3, 2, and on 1 the two women opened their eyes and pulled back their arms so their shoulders jerked backwards. As this happened Squiggle hurtled out of the archway and raced towards the wall suddenly he stopped in mid-air as Arnold lowered him to the ground and then towards him. Amanda saved the information and raced over to Hermione and Zoe who were laid on the floor alive and conscious but out of breath.
"Well done ladies we've got the information, we'll wait for you to get back to your right selves before we head off back to the office to re-watch the footage. We've taken a big step today and I am proud of us all." Amanda announced before settling down next to the girls helping Hermione to sit up.
Hermione stood bewildered with what she had just witnessed before looking over to Julietta who looked very impressed.
"I can't believe that even worked," she whispered in awe.
"But it did and now you are a step forward to what the arch holds." Julietta said as she saw the four stand and make their way towards the exit.
Once back in the office they surrounded a table and Amanda released the information from the bottle and the minute clip appeared in front of them. They could see the outline of Squiggle but they could see many other outlines of shapes in the arch that were visibly moving and were also moving what looked to be on their own accord. But around each of the images was a slight gold dust/glitter that seemed to emit from every outline. The line then went black and Amanda placed it back into the bottle.
"Well that was interesting but do any of you have any views on the matter?" she then asked them all.
"If I may suggest the gold dust or glitter that was around each of the outline looked very similar to what the sand in a time turner looked like." Hermione said.
Zoe quickly wrote what Hermione said before addressing the quartet.
"I think it would be safe to say that the outlines are people that are dead. We could see Squiggles body outline in the image because it looked like a rat, everyone else in there looked like a human which must mean that they are in fact the deceased." Amanda nodded and Zoe wrote this on to the paper.
"I think Amanda we need to speak to those that are working in the time room and see if they agree with what the gold dust looks to be. If it is similar to the dust of a time tuner then the Arch way may lead to time travel." Amanda looked at Arnold before agreeing and went in search for someone who worked in time.
Amanda returned later on and informed the group that there would be having a meeting with the main man from the time room tomorrow at 2pm. She then told the group they were free to leave as they could do nothing more without knowing more on the mystery the Archway had revealed.
"Amanda, I hate to be a bother but I cannot stay too late tomorrow as I have to go to the mother in laws for tea and I'm sure you have heard that Felicia Pucey hates to be left waiting," Amanda chuckled but said she was allowed to leave early. Thanking her she headed to higher floors where she used the floo network to get her out of the building and to home.
When she had reached home it had slowly gotten dark and she knew Daniel would be in bed by now. She knew she may be able to see Jessica before she fell asleep. She headed up the stairs to see Adrian sat on the side of the Jessica's bed reading her a bedtime story; she stood in the door way watching the scene and watched Jess slowly fall asleep near the end of the story. When Adrian had finished he placed the book on the table and kissed on her forehead before tucking her in. Hermione walked up behind him wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on the back of his shoulder.
"Have I ever told you how good of a dad you are?" she whispered into his ear. From the front he smiled and stood in the same spot watching his daughter sleep.
"You know what I think you have," she chuckled at what he said before releasing him and they walked out of the room together.
"It's time to leave this future Hermione," Julietta told her taking hold of her hand as Hermione continued to look at her sleeping daughter as they disappeared from the future.
They reappeared back in the familiar room with the same four plain walls and brown sofa and Hermione fell on to the sofa exhausted and hurt. She knew what would come next but before this she wanted to know more about her future.
"I will say that the final future had me intrigued by the job but I want to know if we succeed in whatever we are trying to solve, and whether that gold stuff leads to a time turner. Plus I want to know about the war, my friends and houses my children are in at Hogwarts and if I have any more."
"That is quite a selection there but as you wish. You will not have any more children; Jessica will end up in Gryffindor like you both expected but Daniel surprised you both and was placed in Hufflepuff. Jessica became a teacher but an ancient ruining's one and Daniel worked in the Ministry of Magic in the department of Magical Games and Sports but does continue to draw becoming very talented in it." Hermione smiled when she realised that both her children would be happy and she didn't care what house her children were in as long as they were happy.
"Now from a happy event to a sad one, the war lasted for 2 years and many died one of these was your long-time friend Ginny Weasley she was brutally killed by Deatheaters near the end of the war. Another death was Draco Malfoy he was killed by Fenrir Greyback at the start of the war. However, other than those two friends that died all your other friends lived. Ron married Pansy Parkinson and has a young boy called Pegasus Cecil Weasley. Harry Potter is in a long time relationship with Blaise Zabini.
"I always had a feeling that Zabini was gay but Harry really?" she couldn't help but chuckle as she imagined silent Slytherin and the boy who lived holding hands.
"Now the last thing you wanted to know was about your job. Many have wondered about that arch way and for the last 4 years you have been researching the way it works. From what you discovered on that particular day led to a grand discovery that the person travelled to a different period of time. But the time they travel to they had very little chance of ever meeting themselves again because they wouldn't live that long. As you continue to research you manage to suck out a lining of a person, this person turns out to be Edmond Francolin who fell into the veil over three hundred years ago. He returned to you still dead but you were able to give the body which smelt of no decay and the family was then able to give him a proper burial, for the next year you continued to pull people out of the archway till you pulled out the body of Sirius Black. He was dead but friends and family gave him a funeral and you were able to send him away the way he would have wanted to go. The year before Jessica went to Hogwarts was when the last person was pulled out of the archway. To stop anyone from ever falling into it you placed a curse around the arch which stopped people from getting too close to it. The archway is still in the Chamber of Death but no longer has souls of the deceased living in it." Julietta explained to Hermione.
"That is amazing, and the fact that I was able to participate in that is amazing." She said with a large smile on her face.
"Because you were one of the four that discovered this secret you were paid grandly and you never needed to say you had to work for the money. You took time off like you promised and returned when Daniel went to Hogwarts as Adrian travelled the world taking pictures of landscapes and sites."
"In a way this future sounds perfect but then there is Ginny. I can't do that to her."
"Hermione you now have faced all 10 futures and you now have a decision many people have said is the hardest choice to ever face and I believe you'll be no exception, because you have lost a loved one in each future but in each have gained something so precious. Whatever future you chose you will never be the mother to one of those beautiful children. But now it is your decision and I am sorry to do this but I will need you to give me one soon."
Hermione sat and thought about what Julietta had said and tears flowed from her eyes and streamed down her cheeks. She could see everything clearly in her mind, all her children smiling, the different job opportunities and the news that her friends had died. The horrifying thought gave her the shivers, as she thought about her friends and loved ones and she now needed to decided who she could live without the least and that thought made her feel sick.
I feel rather proud of this chapter, and with her decision left to go I now ask you for your decision. You have read every future but I now want you to review and tell me which two people you will want her to be with. One future she'll chose will be from your decision and then I will pick the second. Thank you for all that have read the 10 futures and please review so the story can go out with a bang.
Lottie :)
