Disclaimer: Harry Potter and any characters within the movie or books belong to NBCUniversal. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ronald Weasley are their characters and anything you recognize belongs to them. I own my original characters and my plot. I am not trying to pass any of these characters or copyrighted ideas off as my own and therefore it isn't plagiarism or copyright infringement. Also, I am not profiting off this work other than the practice of writing.
21. Time Warp
Hermione continued to research like she hadn't in years. She was a little surprised about how well the information flowed into her head. She went through one book after another then she was scavenging the older scrolls. She couldn't get enough information and before she knew it she had read her way into the next day. She knew she needed to take a break. She stood from her seat and groaned in pain. Her back was sore and her hips ached from sitting for far too long. She didn't notice while she was researching, but as soon as she moved her body made its displeasure known. The last time she was that sore from research was during her OWL year when she practically lived in the library. Third year was just as bad, but she was able to use the Time Turner to go back in time and sleep.
"So I see you reached the apex of your nights study, Ms. Granger." Nicholas looked up from his reading and smirked at her.
"For the moment, yes, Nicholas," Hermione stretched and looked over at him. His eyes were wide and she didn't know why. "What is it, what's wrong?"
"Where did you learn that language? Nicholas slowly stood and walked towards her.
She didn't realize it but she spoke to him in Ta'Entian. "Didn't Perenelle tell you?" He stepped toward her, and with each step, he appeared to grow in size.
"She didn't fill me in with this much detail." His eyes had a slight glow to them as he stopped and looked into hers. "Do you know who my true self is?"
Hermione's heart sped up as she nodded. "Yes…Grundfrund." The atmosphere in the library intensified.
"So…you know our history?" Nicholas folded his arms and stared at her. His burgundy eyes were aglow with his intense stare.
"Mon Amour, il faut, que tu te retiennes." Perenelle's voice sounded from their left. Instantly, the atmosphere returned to normal.
Nicholas blinked and stepped back. "I'm—I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. It's just when I heard the old language it awoke an old part of me. Please accept my
apologies Ms. Granger."
Hermione's mind flashed with images of the old Grundfrund and when she looked at this man she saw a small piece of him still existed. Yet, she knew even in the present moment he was nothing like the beast she knew. "Think nothing of it Nicholas. I didn't realize I spoke Ta'Entian. My mind was so muddled from all the studying I did."
"Hermione, maybe it would be best if you cleared you mind with a walk in the botanical garden. I'll take Nicholas to the pensive pond and let him experience what I saw, celafera-t-il?" Perenelle suggested as she took Nicholas' hand and led him towards the pond.
Hermione nodded. "Perhaps you are right. Thank you." Hermione went out a different door that led to the large gardens. Every kind of plant that existed in muggle and magical world was on display. There was Shrivelfig groves, a pond full of Gillyweed, an enclosure for Leaping Toadstools, a large number of different varieties of flowering plants she had never seen before and many more. Her mind went over her experience with Nicholas with each step she took.
From the far side of the gardens she heard the sound of a woman singing while she continued down the path. The voice floated in the air like it was a part of it. She followed the sound and came upon a woman, no a witch. Hermione got the feeling she was a witch that specialized in plants and animals. Her chocolate hued hair was long and flowing down her back, it took her a moment to notice it was slowly undulated as if a gentle breeze was present. Yet Hermione felt no breeze. As she examined her more, she noticed she wore a dress that looked like birch bark that stopped short of her knees. Kind of an odd place to wear a pencil skirt, but who was she to judge? It was the song she recognized as the 'Parable of the Three Brothers.' However she never heard it put to song before. "Excuse me, do you tend these gardens?"
The woman stopped her song and turned to greet Hermione. She was beautiful and had a radiant smile. Yet it was her eyes that caught Hermione's attention, they resembled two opals and their color changed randomly. "I tend many gardens my child." The woman turned and lifted a seed into her hand. Instantly, it sprouted into a sapling. "You could say I am very skilled at it."
Hermione was surprised by the witch's skill. It reminded her of Neville and his skill with plants. Sometimes people have felt the touch of the Green Man more than others. She raised an eyebrow as the woman created plant after plant and placed them into the dirt of the garden. She cleared her throat, "Are you Master of Herbology?"
"I am much more than that. My name is Ambika and I am not a witch my child. I am Mother." She smiled at Hermione and her eyes changed colors again.
"Mother? How—what are you doing here?" Hermione couldn't believe her eyes. She remembered the stories Eralina had shared with her, but to see her with her own eyes was like meeting God herself!
"I like to come and be with my children. Its peaceful here, helps me focus on when existence was simpler." Hermione watched as she looked out upon the young plants and the grown plants. "Before the merger with my love, I would spend year upon year creating new life and welcoming more of my children into existence."
"It sounds ideal. I can see why it fills you with happiness." Hermione could feel love emanating off Mother. She felt as if this person she just met was her true mother. She wanted to sit next to her and just hug her. She couldn't help but wonder, "Is this a spell, why would I feel this way?"
Mother walked to a bench and sat down facing her. "Come, we have much to talk about."
Hermione almost ran to the bench as she sat next to her. She was like a child coming home from school and all she wanted was to see the smiling face of her parents. "I—I'm sorry, I can't explain myself. Why do I feel such joy at being around you?"
"Oh my child, it is because I am your Mother, I am Harry's mother, and Nicholas' mother. I am the mother to everyone and your souls all recognize that fact." She leaned over and embraced Hermione.
In Mother's arms all the worry, all the sadness, all the anxiety disappeared and she felt true peace for once in her life. Hermione pulled back with the largest smile on her face as tears of happiness flowed from her eyes. "What is this magic you possess? You make me feel so wonderful I can't express it with words."
"I am the source of the spark from which all life exists. Being near me is as close to being whole without crossing into the glen. Yet there is more that we must address my daughter, we need to discuss poor Chronia."
Chronia, that's right she had forgotten in all the euphoria. "Yes, that's right! Mother why do you allow Chronia to alter the timelines? She's causing untold damage to people and lives. She sent Harry, Ron, and I back in time and to a different universe. We lost Ron because of her abuse of time magic."
Mother's eyes shifted color to a dark blue and sadness flooded her face. "I grieve the loss of dear Ronald and I was aware of what Chronia had done to the three of you. All I can say is the actions taken were all part of my plan to reset the timeline to its proper place."
"Proper place, how do you mean?" Hermione was now more intrigued than before. What was her true plan?
"I will tell you this much. Follow the lessons for you in the great library. Learn what you can from Nicholas and when the time comes to confront Chronia I know you will be ready." Mother stood and her eyes changed to warm colors as she smiled. "I will be here if you need me."
Hermione stood and closed her eyes as she hugged Mother. When she opened them, she was gone with nothing more than leaves floating in the air. Hermione drew in a breath. There was still a question that no one could answer about the Time Witch. Who was she? From where did she come? Chronia appeared out of nowhere much like how Lord Voldemort did after returning from his travels and shedding his childhood name. However, those who were a part of his Knights of Walpurgis group in school knew of his name change. Chronia had no followers. It was like she just mysteriously appeared in their timeline and started wreaking havoc. Hermione sighed and made her way back to the library wondering if she could dig up information on the Time Witch's past. What school did she say she attended again?
Hermione grunted as she set down another book. Her mind was racing as it absorbed more information. She was surprised when she discovered the contacts scanned and uploaded all of the information in a book with her just touching it. She wasn't sure how it was possible and she found more new shelves in her mental library filled with the new knowledge she gathered. However, she was currently combing through any books the Flamel library had on Durmstrang. If Chronia when to Durmstrang, then she had to be at least a half-blood as they didn't admit muggleborns.
The school was founded before the first Triwizard Tournament in 1294. It was hidden somewhere in the Arctic Circle. She assumed it was somewhere in the northern stretches of Norway or Sweden. It was established by a Bulgarian witch named Nerida Vulchanova. Hermione's eyes started blinking as she stared at the name. Something about it just didn't seem right. It screamed at her that a name was hidden within. Why did she think she'd find another name much like Tom Marvolo Riddle turned into I am Lord Voldemort. Hermione looked through the menu options of her contacts and found a decryption program. Within moments the contacts solved the riddle. The words, 'Nieva ran duc hoval' flashed on main part of her contact. She wasn't sure that it was the sentence or where the letters came from, and she knew hovel was misspelled. However, the most important word that caught her attention was Nieva. Had Nieva been the one who established the Durmstrang Institute?
A chill ran up her spine when she continued to read what happened to the witch. If Nerida Vulchanova was Nieva, then who killed the supposed immortal witch? Hermione thought her contacts went haywire when they started flashing different colors. It took a bit for her to realize it was accessing some kind of database that differed from the one from the other universe. She gasped when a whole new database opened up to her. It was combing through the vast storages of knowledge with more efficiency than yahoo or any other search engines created by muggles.
It was like she had found her way into the Solamoon archives of her universe. A file popped up out of nowhere and she gasped even more. How was that possible? How could they know something like that? Weren't they at Hogwarts at that time? It quickly flashed through memory like visuals of the battle between Salazar Slytherin and Alaric Blackoak. Hermione couldn't stop but stare. It was more than a large battle, it was downright nuclear. She was surprised that anything lived after the two clashing suns finally burned out. Hermione gasped when she saw Blackoak stab Salazar with a blade that dripped with corruption. She could tell it was a cursed blade. She watched as Salazar ripped the blade out in his anger. The wound was already festering but his emerald fire was burning it away. He shoved the blade into Blackoak's gut before dropping to the ground dead.
Hermione couldn't believe it when she recognized the woman who stepped out from the surrounding trees. Next to her stood another girl who looked so much like Eralina and Perenelle, but she possessed violet colored eyes over Eralina's emerald orbs or Perenelle's lapis. The images were accompanied with subtitles across the screen and Hermione rapidly read the conversation.
"Why do you come to me?" Alaric coughed up blood and fell to one knee.
"You have hurt thousands, my son. You have used a weapon tainted by the evil of Alvaherebos' corruption against your own family. You have become tainted by it and have forgotten why I have forbidden such evil. I will no longer lend you my strength. Forgive me my son." Mother lifted her left hand and Hermione saw energy pour from Alaric's body while he begged Mother not to do so. When all was done, the man died from the stress.
Mother turned and approached the body of Salazar Slytherin, who held the Tree Spirit of Sundra Redoak. She knelt down and kissed his forehead lovingly. She then placed her hand on his chest which lit up with orange and teal flickering white flames. Hermione gasped when the flames quickly burned the body and nothing was left but a decorative urn. It was nothing like the magic humans could create. Then again, Mother was a god. She covered the urn with the earth and a full grown red oak magically burst from the earth like the plants that Mother made grow in the Flamel Manor's garden.
Time skipped through the Crusades which was similar to the other universe. However, Nieva had discovered Tukdra in his new incarnation and raised him as Bertram Blackoak. She stood there with her horrible amulet. After it was ripped from her chest and Tukdra died on the dry desert ground, she escaped. One of the powers Nieva had retained was the ability to change her shape and Hermione watched as she shifted into another person entirely. Hermione was a bit shocked to watch her build a school in the Swedish Lapland, where the sun sets at midnight during the height of summer and colorful lights paint the sky during the long winter nights. Then again, where else would the Snow Witch decided to build a school to teach magic?
Hermione watched as Nieva taught in her disguise for several years. She even taught a familiar eyed wizard. His eyes were black fractured emeralds, which Hermione knew belonged to Tukdra. He was going by a different name. The screen flashed the name Harfang Munter. There was something about that name that seemed familiar. Hermione continued to watch with dread. When Nieva was attending to her duties as Head Mistress, she was confronted by the now grown Harfang AKA Tukdra in the top turret of the castle. All alone and without her wand, the young man hit the older appearing woman with a familiar green curse. He acted quickly and lit her body on fire leaving nothing remaining but ash. Not even an urn formed as she became nothing. Her ashes blew away in the winter winds not even leaving a trace that witch stood on the top turrets of the castle just moments before. Harfang Munter replaced her as Headmaster and changed the direction of the school.
The scene faded away and Hermione processed everything she witnessed quickly. She mumbled, "Chronia studied magic under the teachings of Tukdra?"
She jumped when Nicholas answered her rhetorical question, "So, you discovered the location of Tukdra's fortress. We're not really sure when he discovered Nieva's immortality trick, but he's been living at Durmstrang since shortly after it was created. One could even suggest that Grindelwald was an innocent seer until Tukdra corrupted him and used him to do his bidding. Do you think he had a hand in Chronia's creation as well?"
Hermione groaned, "She went to Durmstrang in the late 80s early 90s. It's even possible that she was in her final year with Viktor. I wonder if he would remember her. Maybe he could give me a name she went by. I've tried to discover her identity, because I know Chronia is not her real name."
"Perhaps you should take a break from research and practice dueling with Harry. We've just discovered that she was trained under Tukdra at a school known for dueling, martial arts, and the Dark Arts. You cannot underestimate her again. He may have even trained her in the corrupted magics of Alvaherebos. You are going to need to hone every reflex. You have a large repertoire of spells to perform, however, practice makes perfect."
Hermione groaned realizing the ancient wizard had a point. She was sore again and facing off in combat against Harry was one way to get into shape. However, her curiosity continued to burn as she was determined to discover exactly who Chronia was. She couldn't help but wonder if she was an innocent little witch at one time. Could a school change someone so fully? Maybe she grew up in an orphanage like Tom Riddle. Did magical orphanages exist? Too many questions continued to float through her mind. Yes it was time to stop and focus on blasting Harry onto his back while trying to prevent him from doing the same to her.
Hermione groaned as she made her way back into the library as she had for the past month. She had continued to research trying to find out the identity of Chronia. She even managed to send an owl to Viktor and placed a ward up that would redirect any mail addressed to her to Flamel Manor. It would redirect anything, which was for the best because the other her was deep undercover and she didn't remember receiving any mail while they were hunting down Chronia.
She had also started on her meditations with Harry to find their Animagus forms. She was getting closer knowing that her animal was from the African Savanna. She had a feeling it was a predator of some type, but she just couldn't figure out what yet. Harry had described his animal as running through a lush jungle. He had no idea where. She hoped that they could complete the transformation before leaving the Manor under Perenelle and Flamel's instruction. Hermione was so excited when she discovered that both had forms. Flamel was a bit shocking as a large black bear. His wife was a Shaheen falcon with red markings on her white wings. She preferred to rest on Nicholas' head when he was in bear form. It was a weird paring that had Hermione remembering the movie Ladyhawke, however with a Bear instead of a wolf and a falcon instead of a hawk. Of course neither one of them were cursed to take their forms either, but it somehow fit.
She and Harry had been learning martial art fighting styles from Isabella, who was surprisingly a master of many different forms. However, Hermione noticed that many of the styles were of the Japanese forms. Frank was teaching them fighting with a sword like a Samurai, who wielded a katana along with his sword. Hermione thought it was a bit weird for two European looking Americans to be so versed in Japanese culture and fighting styles. It was almost like they were members of the Japanese Royalty in a past life. Harry and Hermione practiced with each other as much as possible.
Hermione knew that it would take the rest of their five months before meeting Chronia to even reach a level where their abilities would assist them in their fight. While moving through the strikes and blocks with Harry, a thought captured her mind. A sudden epiphany that made her feel so stupid. She had spent so much time trying to discover Chronia's true name, which hadn't bared fruit, when Chronia could have made any memory of her disappear the way she did to her own parents. Even Viktor's letter, while entertaining, didn't have an answer to that question. He had plenty to tell her about his betrothed and his desire to have her and Harry at their wedding. Yet nothing to indicate he knew of Chronia.
Excusing herself from the combat training she ran to the library and quickly grabbed the books that contained family trees of the main magical lines of Magical Europe. She had no idea why she never thought of the self-updating family tree books. She had already determined that Chronia had to be at least a half-blood. It was her best place to look for answers. She pulled the Slytherin book from the shelf. She couldn't help but wonder if it all came down to Sundra Redoak's line.
Hermione traced the beginning of the line at Salazar Slytherin and his wife who had a daughter who married a Peverell. She and her husband had one son who had three sons, Antioch who had a daughter that moved to Europe, Cadmus had a son with his wife in Northern England, and Ignotus had a son in Wales. Hermione was interested, but she wasn't sure she would find the answer in that family book. She traced Antioch's line and was a bit surprised to find that it ended with Gellert Grindelwald. She groaned and pushed away the thought about the man's obsession with the Death Stick. She then moved to Cadmus and traced the line through the Gaunts, Tom Riddle, and she gasped at the three branches from the man who would become Voldemort. One line connected Tom to Eileen Prince and below the two of them were listed Lily Evans Potter and Severus Snape. Lily was tied to James Potter and below their connecting line was Harry Potter. However, she was gob smacked when she saw the name next to him. The line connected to Hermione Malfoy-Black. She was stunned beyond measure, she was a Black and to top it off a Malfoy-Black. She's a cousin to that disgraced family and that bug Draco. She held her head in her hands and groaned knowing it meant that she was adopted. She'd obliviated her parents and was never able to bring them back because she did such a good job of it. Now nobody had a straight answer to the questions about her apparent adoption.
She lifted her head and noticed that the third line was underneath a connection with Bellatrix Lestrange and the name Delphini Black. Hermione wondered if that was who Chronia was until she saw the birth date. Delphini was born the summer of 1997 and it explained why Bellatrix didn't sneak into Hogwarts with the rest of the Death Eaters the night that Dumbledore died. She pushed those thoughts away knowing the little girl was only four years old and far too young to be Chronia. She took a deep breath and then followed Ignotus' line through the Potters and ending with the same two listed at the bottom. That last name combo left Hermione with more questions about her own past than trying to locate Chronia.
She went back to the shelf and grabbed the Black family book. She didn't need to know where the Malfoy came from, but she just had to make sure Bellatrix wasn't her mother. Her finger shook as she flipped toward the back of the book. She need the last two centuries. The people who were most likely descended from and she looked through the list wondering if maybe her parents didn't adopt her and she had a Black Squib as an ancestor. She got to the horrible Walburga and her link to her second cousin Orion Black. Underneath their names were the expected Sirius Black and his younger brother Regulus Black. Hermione's eyes widened when two of her questions were answered simultaneously.
However, a loud whooshing noise stopped her from fulling realizing the implications. Before she could even file away the information she was faced with a whole new problem. Two people apparated directly into the Flamel Library with water like energy splashing around them and their appearance was familiar, however their tactical stances were threatening. The blonde curly haired and short statured Brianna stood with her eyes fully indigo and her longsword in one hand and her wand in her other. Roger stood before her with a fully spiked Forest Green mohawk, his hazel eyes bleeding Emerald green. His wand pointed out and encased in an emerald colored aura that formed a spike around the wand. They were two people she didn't want to fight and they had no way of knowing she knew their counterparts in a parallel universe.
Roger spoke first, "We did not give you those contacts. Where did you get them? How did you gain access to the Solamoon Achieves?"
If his questions were scary enough, the chilling voice belonging to Brianna, who had access to the full power of the cleansed Mind Breaker Amulet stopped Hermione dead in her tracks. "What are you doing here? What have you done with the Flamels?"
A/N: We hope you are enjoying the twists and turns in this story. I know we haven't reached the climax battle, but I hope we're still giving enough momentum during the lead up to it. We would also like to announce that in the celebration of Fred and George's birthday, we have offered The Crusade of Eralina Kindle book for free from 4/1/2019 through 4/5/2019. If you are interested in reading more about what happened in that parallel universe without Hermione and Harry's interference, you will find the answers in that book. It's free to read and we would love if you would leave a review.