Chapter 2: Hide and Seek.
"Why did you drag me in here Granger?" Draco hissed as he glared heatedly at her in the lift.
"Because, Harry is still keeping an eye on you here, Draco. Have you forgotten you're still under house arrest and probation? I'm good as any, next to Harry, to keep an eye on you!" she seethed back.
He remind silent as her words rang with the truth. If he left, he would get even more probation time added on.
"Fine. But know that you don't have to hold my hand. You're not my mother," He snapped in a low whisper.
His words hit her hard as they intended to do.
It was silent until the lift came to a lurching halt and the woman's voice said "Welcome to level 3, Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Muggle-worthy excuse committee and Obliviator Headquarters,"
Draco glided from the lift as Hermione followed slower behind him. It looked like any office: four walls, a maze of smaller desks and other rooms, but it was in a circular shape.
Since this area of the Ministry was closed for the day, everything was shut off. The room was dim, forbidding to be there or wanting you to be there for any source of life.
Hermione's eyes flickered to the center of the room, where she gasped in awe.
With no railings to hold someone back, there in the middle of the room was the ocean. Well, an ocean. It wasn't named after the great 4 or anything like that.
It was overlooking downwards in a circular marble white stone wall that was a lower level. But why would an ocean be here? What was it for? Reaching out, Hermione wanted to touch for some odd reason.
A Hand yanked her backwards and she landed on her butt with a "Oof!"
"Don't go near that Granger," Draco calmly but seriously said, standing over her with a glare.
"You could have-"
"I did. You weren't hearing me, so the only course of action was to pull you back. That thing that you saw, that you were heading towards? It would have oblivated your memories and you would never know who you were after you were fished out. Stay on the edges, I won't be saving your life a second time," he cut her off, spinning on his heel and walking away.
KABOOM!
Some sort of spell exploded next to Hermione as glass, wood and manmade material went flying all around her as she ducked down. Draco snarled as he hid behind a desk and fired a spell in the direction where they were getting attacked from.
"Granger," he hissed.
A bolt of light went sailing through the air and collided with the next office that was close to Hermione.
"Merlin's balls!" Draco said, tackling Hermione to the ground and behind a desk.
"Malfoy," she began.
"No. You get out of here. Apparently she's aiming at you for her mental cause," He hissed in irritation.
WHAM! BOOM!
Hermione bit her lower lip to keep herself quiet as Draco sent a few spells back. One of the spells actually hit an office where they heard a scream.
Moving as one, Draco and Hermione left the safety of the mangled desks, sending more spells at the office now.
"GO!" they heard and then they heard the sliding of the lift doors.
"NO!" Draco shouted, running fast to the lift.
It was too late. The two escapees were gone.
Draco slowed himself down and then kicked the wall in frustration.
"Malfoy, come on! You can't act like a child now; we have to go after them!" Hermione said, pressing a button to the other lift.
"You don't think I don't know that Granger? I'm trying to keep you alive here! Why not-"
"Because if I leave, it will show to them that I am scared and I am not scared of some run away death eaters! I faced your hell bent aunt, I got tortured by her, nearly got killed by one of them in this very ministry! I am not running away from these two cowards," She cut him off while glaring at him.
The lift came and opened the doors, Hermione walked in, pressed level 7, and said "You coming or not?"
Draco, shaking his head, stepped into the lift and he said to her "I'm not Potter. I can't pull magic out of my sleeve to save you if you do die,"
"Harry knows that if I do die, it's all the more reason to get them. And I've lived my life, Malfoy, there's nothing more for me now," Hermione told him, hanging onto the railing.
"What do you mean by that?" Draco asked, turning to her in utter confusion.
Hermione didn't say anymore when the lift arrived at level 7.
"Level 7: British and Irish Quidditch league headquarters, Official Gobstones Club and Ludicrous Patents Office," the woman's voice told them.
Hermione crouched down as did Draco when they left the lift. They hugged and stuck with office desks, chairs, anything that could provide protection in the very dimly lit area of the ministry.
The hallway that they came to was different than the rest. The carpet was replaced with marble tiling. Open offices were filled with glass tubes of something.
"What is this level again?" Hermione asked, perplexed to see a lot of marbles.
"This is where you get your Gobstones," Draco muttered back, his eyes darting around.
They both stopped when they heard some kind of noise. Hermione looked behind her and then pushed Draco forward.
"GO!" she said, running from what was behind her.
Draco glanced over his shoulder and soon started running too.
The floor to ceiling glass tubes of all shapes of Gobstones was falling to the ground!
SMASH!
Glass went flying everywhere. The Gobstones bounced and rolled all around their feet as they ran further and further into level 7.
They didn't stop until they were safely behind a front office receptionist desk.
Panting, Draco looked over at Hermione and asked "You alright, Granger?"
"I got a cut on my hand from protecting my head but, other than that, nothing too serious," She said, showing the red glaring throbbing cut across the top of her hand.
Draco gently reached for it, holding his wand and thought of a healing charm. The skin slowly grew and healed itself into days old scar.
"Until this over with, that will have to do," he whispered, carefully looking over the desk.
Hermione had to agree with that as she followed him from their safety of the receptionist desk. They walked down a corridor that soon started to get very messy.
"Hang on, I remember this place," Hermione whispered to Draco.
He stopped and looked over at her questionably.
"When your father was chasing us for the Prophecy. We darted in here, hid and-" what she said was silenced by a spell slamming into the ceiling above them.
"RUN!" Draco yelled, pushing Hermione forward.
"The lifts are this way!" Hermione ran faster than him as the ceiling then started to collapse.
Draco shot a spell at the lift's buttons as they were running. It seemed like a domino effect had happened: The ceiling falling exactly where they were running, the lift doors slid open and they made a jump for it.
Falling and colliding into the metal, Hermione hit a random level. The doors slid shut just as the ceiling was just two feet from them, lurching them backwards.
"AH!" they said when hitting the back wall of the lift.
"When we're done with this, remind me to thank you for such a lovely time," Draco sarcastically said, slowly standing up.
Hermione then said back "You're welcome in advanced,"
Draco stood up too and shook his head, asking "What floor did you hit?"
"I don't know…level…level 8," she said, getting her breathing under control.
"What's level 8?" Draco asked her curiously.
"Neville has always said that there was this massive forest within the Ministry, when we were here that night. None of us believed him," she said, trying to wrack her brain for more information but there wasn't any.
Draco held onto the railing as Hermione held onto him when the lift came to abrupt halt forward.
"They have got to get a normal lift," Hermione muttered into his shirt.
"Yeah," He whispered, swallowing hard of her being this close to him.
"Level 8, the Atrium," the woman's voice declared.
When the doors slid open, Hermione gasped at what was before her.
The entire level was nothing but trees, bushes, plants, flowers of all sorts from all over the world.
"I guess Longbottom wasn't lying after all," Draco said to her.
"I will have to apologize to him when we get out of here," she mumbled, walking along the stepping stones of the path.
It was then that they remained silent. The air was humid and warm. Soft trickling sounds could be heard from the many streams that cut through the landscape of the floor.
When they heard the doors of the lift from somewhere within this level opened and the woman's voice could be heard, Draco and Hermione quickly got off of the path. Hiding behind a massive boulder for safety, with their wands at the ready.
"They could be in here," they heard the woman.
"Shut up if they are," the man from before snapped at her.
The two were a lot closer then Draco and Hermione had thought. They remained where they were for the moment.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
"Take those blasted heels off of your feet! They will give us away on where that mudblood and blood traitor went!" the man rounded on Rubia.
She didn't answer him, just continue to walk forward.
"Brevil, I'm warning you," The man said, losing his patience with her.
"They're not here or they would have attacked us," she calmly said.
Alarm bells went off in Hermione's head as she glanced over at Draco. He put his hand over her mouth when they both heard the torturous screaming from the man.
Closing her eyes didn't make the sound of his voice go away. Nor did it help with her stomach when they heard gurgling sounds now coming from him.
Draco was very pale from this, looking down at his feet.
A bright green light then flashed and the sounds were no more. The clipping of her heels could be heard as she walked right past them. The stream next to them ran blood red as Hermione had to force herself from throwing up. Draco had to do the same thing.
The lift's door slid open from up ahead, but Hermione wasn't letting her guard down.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
Draco quickly put a hand over his mouth as they knew what was crunching.
A bright flash and BOOM!
Hermione locked eyes with Draco, pleading him to get out of here.
He hasn't always felt brave, but for some odd reason he did. He knew that they couldn't stay there.
Taking her hand, Draco threw a spell in the opposite direction of them and forced them to run.
Rubia had ran towards the blast of the spell, sending her own at it.
It could have worked.
PING!
She whirled around as she saw Hermione and Draco slip into the lift.
"Damn it!" she scolded herself, taking off and sent a spell at them.
Hermione and Draco ducked as the lift doors slid shut.
When the dust had settled down, Hermione just sat down.
"Come on, Granger. We're not out of the woods just yet," Draco said, holding his hand out to her.
"I can't take much more of this, Malfoy," she admitted to him, batting his hand away.
"Well, that guy won't be after us anymore," he said, soon joining her on the floor.
"I can't believe that happened to him," she said, staring at her hands.
"It's a part of the Death Eater scheme. Either you enjoy this or you're not a part of us," he mumbled, knowing that they will have nightmares of this in some form.
"But, Neville was right, it would have been beautiful to see," Hermione said next.
"How so?" Draco dared her to explain further.
"You didn't see the ceiling? Where the wood arches were with the sunlight coming through the windows?" she asked him curiously.
"How can there be sunlight when we're miles below ground?" Draco asked her that.
"Just the same reason that we can use a wand: Magic," she said smiling a little.
Draco didn't know how to answer that except "Well played,"
They stood up, holding onto the railing for the abrupt stop.
"Level 9: The Department of Mysteries," the woman's voice told them.
Hermione felt like her blood had drained as every memory of her night here surfaced. Where Sirius had died. Where Dumbledore and Voldemort had a battle.
"Come on, Granger," Draco said, pulling her forward.
The hallway was exactly the same: nothing in it but a door on the other side of the room. They walked until the middle of the room.
PING!
Their hearts started to race wildly as they took off running.
Spell after spell, after spell was flung their way.
"Keeping Running!" Draco shouted over the blasts hitting the walls.
KABOOM!
Hermione screamed when the spell hit too close to her, but she kept running.
On and on they ran. Rubia running not far behind them.
It felt like forever for them running, but Draco had used his wand to open the door when they were close to it.
The door slammed and locked shut as Draco didn't know where he was going now but, he didn't care. He grabbed Hermione's hand and went into the rotating doors.
"Malfoy stop!" She yanked him backwards.
He fell backwards and looked up at her.
"You would have fallen into the Death Room. Just hold onto me," She said, holding onto the door with all of her might.
The door shut on its own as they were taken somewhere else.
It spat them out into a corridor with a narrow hallway that lead left. Hermione hurried down it with Draco soon after her as they ran towards the only door on the very far side of the room.
"Where are we?" Draco asked, looking around.
"Department of Mysteries," Hermione said, slowing to a hurried walk.
"This is where you and Potter were that night?" he asked her, looking over his shoulder.
"Yes. This room should be completely destroyed. No one should have been able to put it back together," She said, looking also over her shoulder.
"Like you said earlier, Granger, Magic," Draco reminded her.
Rolling her eyes, Hermione fell silent. The door was a lot closer now and they didn't know where Rubia Brevil was.
Hermione slowly opened it as they were then plunged into darkness. The soft glow came from the prophecies that were put back in place.
Draco looked on in awe as he saw row after row after of prophecies.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
Hermione grabbed Draco's hand and pulled him through a door that was barely lit up. They ran through a couple of offices as the wall exploded from a spell sent their way.
She led Draco through another door, coming to a stop. She knew this room as well.
This room, Hermione knew that they changed it. Instead of things being born, growing up and dying in a constant loop, there were just clocks now. And the clocks that were there are now Time turners.
"What room is this?" Draco asked, looking around.
"The Time Room, Young Mister Malfoy," Rubia's voice fell over them both.
Turning around, Hermione stood her ground. She was done running from this mental case.
"Ooh, so you're going to stand and fight huh?" Rubia sweetly smiled at Hermione.
"I'm tired of running from you today," Hermione said back.
"I wonder how dear Bellatrix will feel when she see's you again, mudblood?" Rubia lightly inspected her wand.
Hermione gripped her wand but didn't say anything back as she slowly moved backwards.
Draco sent the first spell off.
Rubia easily dodged it and sent one back to him.
Hermione sent one at her too and flung herself to the floor when she saw the green jet flying at her.
A massive pocket watch jumped in front of Hermione and Draco.
"What in Merlin's name?" Draco muttered looking confused.
"If you send one more spell at them, Brevil, I swear that this will be your last," Harry's voice washed over them all.
"Oh you mean like this, Potter?" Rubia said, sending one at the top of the pocket watch.
"You don't know what you're doing," a different wizard spoke up in panic.
"Oh? And why ever not?" Rubia questioned him, continuing to send spells at odd times at the pocket watch.
"Because that's not just a normal pocket watch. It's a Time Turner!" he explained to her in horror.
One spell hit the knob and it would change everything for everyone forever.
An electrical force exploded from the pocket watch; knocking people down, as a bright blinding light lit up from the entire watch. Hermione grabbed onto Draco's wrist as he gripped her back.
Rubia then screamed as wind picked up all around them.
Harry had ordered his people back through the door and slammed it shut.
The wind got more intense and stronger to the point where a sucking motion could be felt.
"No! No!" Rubia screamed as she was pulled and dragged towards it.
"Hold onto me!" Draco yelled at Hermione who was slowly lifting off of the ground.
"What do you think I'm doing? Just laying around?" she shouted back at him.
But it was pointless; all three of them were sucked into the pocket watch Time turner and were gone.
The door slowly opened with Harry peaking around the corner after a few seconds.
He and the others walked into the room as they all saw the knob turn fast.
"598…623….635…." the wizard from before counted aloud.
Everyone waited as the man sank to the floor, shaking his head.
"What is it?" Harry asked him.
"800 times. 800 times did it turn? You know how a Time Turner works, Mr. Potter? You only need a few turns to go back within just a day," the man said to him in utter horror.
Harry remembered his third year, where Hermione did just that.
"But if it turned 800 times?" Kingsley then spoke up, looking worriedly at the Pocket watch.
"We don't know where they have gone back in time. We never really used it for that purpose. It appeared after this room was destroyed the first time that Mr. Potter was here. We just left it because it didn't budge on how much magic we used it to try and get it to move," the man continued to explain to them all.
Harry and they all then looked up when they heard the knob turn once more in time.
"289….304…." the man counted again, standing up.
The knob finally stopped and the man was in despair.
"How many turns?" Harry asked him, dreading the count.
"…394," the man said almost in a sob.
"Where could have they gone? Can we get them back?" Kingsley asked, looking around.
"No…we can't do anything. Once you go back in time-" the man began but then Harry yanked him back.
The Pocket watch started to glow brightly, almost like before but differently now. The light burst forth and gold glitter rained down in the room.
Everyone lowered their arms and looked at it. It was dormant again.
"Hermione, Malfoy…" Harry muttered in great sadness now.
They couldn't do anything for them wherever they went to.
Author's Note:
Hello! Hello! I know, you enjoyed the previous chapter and decided to follow along with this tale. Trust me, you won't regret it. Thank you to all those who have read this fic, left a favorite or a follow or a review. It means a lot since we're just getting started.
The levels that I picked are ones that we don't see that much of and wanted to put my own spin on things. Where Hermione nearly lost her memories of who she is was taken from Fantastic Beasts movie. But instead of it being a boxed room, I thought it would be a half circular room. And the "ocean" that Hermione saw is completely different to anyone who is getting their memories swiped.
I know, there was a lot of descriptive of the man being killed. I told you that this will be rated Mature for a reason.
Even though that JK Rowling had put that the Time Room was destroyed for the sole purpose of book 3, I brought it back. This is where the OOC comes into play. This is where you have Draco Malfoy acting the way he is After the Battle of Hogwarts and the Wizarding War II. From here on out, Draco won't be like the little boy that we read about in book 1.
Whew! Long AN's here but, I want to explain as much as possible to you so that you can understand the future chapters that are coming. Which, I think I will be putting up a schedule for the updates. Every Wednesday, there will be an update. And If I don't update, you have my permission to blast me in the reviews. Isn't that fun, right? Just please don't be rude about it. A fun jesting at one another is good but being down right mean and rude is not.
If there are any mistakes, I will go back edit it later.
Don't forget to please favorite, follow or review!
Alonia143.