Aug 19 1612 (Sunday)
The silver object in her hand glistened under the light. Her firm brown gaze fixated on him, perceiving his every muscle movement. Draco kept his face straight, perfectly concealed his astonishment. Letting anybody from a different timeline learn that you're a time-traveller was unacceptable by the Ministry; knowing how much of a stubborn, righteous person Hermione Granger was, it's hard to believe that she did something against the laws by showing him her Time-Turner, admitting that she indeed didn't belong here. The Hogwarts teacher's pet didn't play by the rules was like the sun rose in the west. The possibility of her going to tamper with his memory after her revelation was extremely high.
Still holding his golden Time-Turner before her, he slipped his free hand into his pocket cautiously while his alerted eyes remained on her, in case she made any offensive moves against him. His grasp tightened around his hawthorn wand before he spoke, not letting his guard down meanwhile.
"So, why are you here?"
She chewed on her lip; her brows squeezed together and formed wrinkles between them. Anxiety and hesitation were obvious. After a brief moment of contemplation, she replied in a shaking voice, "It's an accident. In my timeline, my job is to fix unusable Time-Turners. Unfortunately, I accidentally travelled back in time to here. I can't tell you the details since it's basically spoiling the future for you. Knowing what will happen in the future may impact the way you think and the way you behave. I can't risk that."
With the little information from her, Draco was certain about one thing—she's an Unspeakable. After the war, he'd been detached from most of his schoolmates and away from the gossips. He didn't care and had no idea what the others did for a living, except the ones who appeared on the newspaper frequently, such as Saint Potter—the Boy Who Couldn't Die, who had become the famous, invincible Head Auror recently; he'd been on numerous dangerous missions with his gangs, reminding the entire Wizarding World that he's indeed invincible every single month.
"Basically, you came here by accident and you can't find a way back to your time, am I right?"
She nodded her head as her arm dropped to her lap along with the silver device. "Right. You said you know how to create a Time-Turner earlier. Do you think it's possible to make a Time-Turner that can take its user to the future?"
If I know how to make that kind of Time-Turner, I won't be talking with you in this bloody place and time. I wouldn't be staying in this fucking hell, namely 17th Century for months, he cursed inwardly while making sure that none of his frustration was displayed. In fact, for the past month when he's alone, Draco had been trying to invent a Time-Turner like that, but, of course, he hadn't succeeded.
"I'm not sure. Never made something like that before. I only know how to make a regular one that can reverse time." He kept his voice low and peaceful to make it sound genuine and convincing. "But I won't say it's impossible. We can try."
Hermione's stiffen shoulders relaxed as her once dull eyes sparkled with optimism, causing him to loosen his grip on his wand. "You know, we aren't even friends, but you've helped me so many times. Thank you so much, Malone," she smiled. Her hopeful expression clenched his stomach while guilt devoured him bit by bit; he had to stop looking at her.
"As I've told you before, you look like someone I know. Helping you is only a way for me to redeem myself," he mumbled, avoiding meeting her eyes.
"I don't like feeling indebted to anybody. So, let me know when you have anything in mind that you want me to do."
"Did you find anything useful in that book?"
"It's totally rubbish." He threw the book on the floor casually; a loud thud echoed throughout the room as the hardcover collided with the floor. Outstretching his arm for another book, he drawled, "I can write better than him."
They spent another day in their room, scanning the four books Draco had brought from the bookstore. However, none of them had found anything useful. Although he had read a lot during his making of the Time-Turner with Theo, he hadn't seen a single book that mainly focused on the topic of travelling to the future. There were only fragments of assumptions and hypothesises of how to speed up time and the possible consequences of doing so since no one had ever succeeded in making a device for that purpose. Considering magic wasn't as advanced four centuries from the present, Draco doubted any book covered the subject, what they're doing was most likely wasting their time. Therefore, he called a halt to the futile reading marathon and suggested to figure out everything on their own, which Hermione agreed without any complaint.
"Tell me, what is a Time-Turner?" Draco initiated the discussion with the simplest question, sitting on the couch beside the witch which had been moved to the front of the dressing table.
She squared her shoulders, keeping her chin high confidently, before reciting the definition of a Time-Turner. "A Time-Turner is a magical device used for time travel. It can reverse time by creating a passage that connects the present and the past to take its user to a different spacetime."
Well done, Miss Granger. 10 points to Gryffindor, he mimicked what the professors always said whenever Hermione Granger had answered a question.
"Right." He scribbled down a few notes on a piece of parchment. "So, how does a Time-Turner create a passage like that?"
"In our universe, we have tiny, minuscule quantum fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime on the smallest scales. A Time-Turner compresses the energy fluctuations in both the positive and negative directions—a very strong, dense, positive energy fluctuation would create curved space in one particular fashion; while a strong, dense negative energy fluctuation would curve space in exactly the opposite fashion. Connecting the two curvature regions, the Time-Turner forms a passage that you can transport through it, allowing you to disappear from the present and reappear in the past," Hermione fluently showcased her knowledge.
"Correct." After jotting down the key points of what she said, Draco continued, "But how exactly does a passage take us from the past to the future?"
Hermione frowned and stayed quiet this time. For once, Little Miss Know-It-All encountered a question that she doesn't have an answer, he thought, suppressing a smirk. If he hadn't worked with the smartass inventor Theo Nott before, he wouldn't know the answer either. They had spent a year organizing all the information from every time-magic book, having infinite discussions, analyzations and experiments before they'd come up with a thorough, logical explanation. Unlike Charms and Transfiguration, which the concepts couldn't be explained by words; Time-magic was more like Potions, there were theories and reasons behind everything—it's pure science.
"Let's imagine time is usually like"—he drew a straight arrow on the paper—"this, we usually move forward in the same direction along with time. Going back in time means we move in the opposite direction or stay at the same spot. Time-Turners can bend spacetime to make timelines turn back on themselves to form a loop by compressing energy fluctuations and creating two curvature regions—we call them wormholes—and connecting the two wormholes to form a passage. The two ends of the passage, the wormholes"—he drew a circle slowly, leaving a gap between the start and the end of the line—"represent the past and the present respectively. Time usually goes from the past to the present, but not vice versa. But when a Time-Turner bends a timeline like a circle, the present is connected to the past."
Seeing Hermione nod her head, he continued, "But it's a completely different case if we want to travel to the future. Theoretically, travelling to the future should be easier since we're heading the same direction as time is." He pointed the straight line with his quill. "We've been travelling to the future every single second since we're born. I'll say—we must move faster than time itself. The device we need for a trip to the future should be able to create a space that time goes faster than normal."
"Sounds reasonable. But how?" murmured Hermione with her brows furrowed.
"Still don't have a clue," he replied absent-mindedly while staring at his own handwriting. "Time is beyond common sense. It's not something a human mind can fully understand."
"This book says 'the two components of a Time-Turner are a metal case and an hourglass. The sand in the hourglass is a mixture of various powdered materials, such as Pixie dust, Graphorn horn, Chizpurfle carapace, dragon eggshell, fire seed, fairy wings...' I think we can get everything in Diagon Alley!" chirped Hermione as she closed the book.
"The shops probably won't open, considering the current state of the Wizarding World."
"But most shop owners live above their shops. If we're lucky, we can find the owner of the Apothecary."
The next day, they returned everything of the inn room to its normal state; the bed was two times smaller now and the wardrobe was empty, the couch had been moved back to its original spot. They'd packed all their belongings into Draco's enchanted suitcase before they checked out. To not arouse any suspicion from the villagers, they avoided Apparation in the village so that they wouldn't "suddenly disappear". They decided to take a carriage to Lancaster, the neighbouring town first before they apparated to London.
Sitting across him, she's reading her copy of Shakespeare's Othello. He leaned forward with his elbow on his thigh, resting his chin on his fist. His gaze fixed on her face, watching her read. Her brown bushy curls bounced as the carriage travelled along the rock-strewn road. He didn't have anything to do while Hermione's focus was completely on the book as if he's invisible. The feeling of being ignored was somehow infuriating him. He realized he'd been too used to her company after spending most of the time together for a week. She'd crept into his habit and he didn't like it. Still, at the same time, he wanted to talk, or to be precise, he wanted her to talk to him. He wanted her attention.
About fifteen minutes later, she finally noticed his intense stare and to Draco's relief, she initiated a conversation. "What is it?" muttered Hermione, shooting a glance at him before resumed her reading.
"Talk to me. I'm bored," he demanded sourly.
"If you ask nicely, I will." She turned to the next page.
"Tell me about your life in your time." His pompous tone didn't change a bit after he heard her words.
Still keeping her eyes on the text, she replied softly, "I can't tell you. You know that."
"I don't see the reason."
"I don't want to change the way you think and behave by disclosing the future to you."
His rage suddenly overflowed as if lava gushed out of an erupting volcano. "This is what I don't understand," he burst. "From the moment you showed up here, letting someone see you, you've already meddled with their mind to influence their judgements and behaviours. Changes are unavoidable when you time-travel, the greater the distance you travel, the greater the changes are. Even if you disillusion yourself, you still have the chance of changing the past; your footprints, your fingerprints, your breaths, every tiny sign of your existence can change things in a certain degree."
Eventually, she turned her attention to him, scowling. "Still, I don't want—"
"Your existence in a timeline that you don't belong to is already a kind of damage to time itself. If you've already exposed your identity to a person, I don't see the need of still being so careful with anything you do, since you've already tampered with the time a lot. Let me tell you something—you're only refusing to accept the fact that you're making great harm to the universe. You're only trying to maintain the Little Miss Perfect image to yourself, to delude yourself into thinking that you're a virtuous, principled person and you're better than anyone else. This is called hypocrisy—" and this is what I hate the most about you and your Gryffindor lots, he shouted the last sentence in his head, pouring all his fury out in the form of words.
Hermione glowered at him; her lips created a thin line as they pressed together, feeling offended. Although everything he'd said was his true thoughts, deep down he knew that he's merely venting his spleen on her. Draco himself had no idea why he's overwhelmed with anger out of the blue. The way she thought and acted was none of his business, she had the right to do whatever she wanted.
For the rest of the ride, they both looked out of the window, though none of them paid any attention to the picturesque sight. They're occupied with their own trains of thoughts, reflecting on their certain behaviours, surrounded by tense quietness.
Author's note:
It took me a lot of time to come up with some reasonable theories behind the time-turners. I hope the information isn't too boring.
Someone said that this story wasn't Dramione, it's actually a Hermione/OC pairing thinly disguised as a Dramione fanfic. Honestly, I'm pretty confused because I thought I'd already pointed out very clearly in the story that Ladon Malone = Draco Malfoy, Helen Grantham = Hermione Granger. I don't see why a character in disguise would turn him into an OC.
Thank you so much for all your support. It means so much to me.