Chapter 3: Whenever they land.
Screaming.
That's all she could hear was screaming.
But who was screaming? And why did it feel so hot?
Hermione never really felt or heard this when a time turner had happened. Professor McGonagall never brought this up to her during her 3rd year at Hogwarts.
She soon came to realize that the screaming that she kept hearing was from her. Where Draco was in all of this, she couldn't tell since all she could see and feel was nothing.
WHAM!
"Oooh," she heard moaning beside her.
Then like a light switch, she felt everything all at once. The tingling of pin needles stabbed into her body so painfully that Hermione did not want to move.
THUD!
Draco had to force himself to roll away, coughing from whatever landed next to him.
"What is that?" he asked, coughing more heavily now.
Hermione didn't see anything at first, the journey to get wherever they are at was enough already.
"Granger? Granger?" Draco said, stumbling and falling to his knees to the ground.
"Granger!" he said again, worry laced with face.
A hand shook her shoulder as she opened her eyes, blinking rapidly.
Where were they?
Laying somewhere far in a field, they were nowhere near any towns or cities.
Draco could see that she was hit the hardest from whatever they just passed through. So he let her be.
"Where are we?" he muttered, looking all around him.
"No idea, but what is that smell, Malfoy?" Hermione asked him, standing slowly up.
"I…I think it's Rubia Brevil," he said, looking over at the charcoal burnt thing.
Hermione slowly walked over to it and nearly threw up. It was Rubia Brevil.
"She died while we didn't?" she asked, backing away now.
"Sometimes fate just picks randomly Granger. We got super lucky, unlike her," Draco sneered at the corpse.
Hermione just shook her head and pulled out her wand. With a quick glance, she moved some dirt from the ground that was about 10 feet deep.
"Why that deep Granger?" Draco asked, watching her.
"Do you honestly want to explain to the muggles if they stumble upon her, what actually happened? To tell them that …wizards and witches and all that is magical to them is real?" she asked him in return.
Draco remained silent as she did have a point.
So Rubia Brevil was laid to rest with no gravestone in sight.
They walked away from their landing and soon found themselves upon an old paved road.
"I wonder if we will get back," Draco started up a conversation after a few minutes of silence had gone by.
"I don't know if we can. We got sucked into that Time turner that looked like a pocket watch. One of the Auroras said that it was reformed after Harry and we destroyed that room," she said, remembering what had happened so far.
"Can something like that happen on its own?" Draco asked her, trying to understand.
"The Department of Mysteries has always been forbidden to everyone. There's a room, with just a door that is locked. No one can enter it with no more how many spells are casted at it. There's a Death Chamber in there too. When Harry and us first walked through it all, we were in awe because the magic that held everything together was mind blowing. With the pocket watch Time turner, I would say anything is possible in that level of the ministry," Hermione explained to him.
"The Death Chamber which you pulled me back from," Draco said, remember how he saw far down below a lot of rocks with a single archway in the middle of it.
"Yes. That's where Sirius died that night, by your aunt," Hermione informed her Slytherin friend.
Draco paled at these words. He knew that Sirius had died, somewhere in the Ministry of Magic, by his aunt but not exactly where.
The road soon started to incline as they walked up a gentle sloop of a hill. At the crest of it, Hermione looked around the small town close to the water?
"What is this place?" she asked aloud.
"We'll see soon enough. Come on," Draco answered her, walking away.
They soon reached the little cute town by the water.
"Dufftown?" Hermione mumbled to herself, looking around it.
There really wasn't that much to this town. Little tourist shops, a massive brewery, ruin castles dotted around next to the river and lake.
"Let me go and see what time we're in," she told Draco.
"I'm sticking with you, Granger," He told her, taking her hand in his.
A faint blush appeared on both of their faces but, they soon walked over to a muggle inn and pub.
"Hello! And welcome to the McDuff Inn and pub!" a man greeted them from the bar.
"Hello, I would like to know if you have the latest newspaper and if I could buy it?" Hermione politely greeted him back.
"Certainly! But I would be careful being out late at night now-a-days. They say that a mass murderer is on the loose and to call that phone number there. So if you two need a stay for the night, there is a room available for you two," the man said, handing the newspaper to Hermione as she gave him some money from her pocket.
"Erh, we'll think about it sir," Draco spoke up then.
Hermione saw how uncomfortable Draco looked, but it could have passed off with what they were just told.
They made their way over to a corner of the pub and looked over the newspaper.
"October the 4th, 1993," she said, looking up at Draco.
"Third year," he muttered back to her.
She nods continues to look through the muggle newspaper. Nothing out of the ordinary was put in it, except that Sirius Black had taken up just a single article worth of what to look out for and to call the number that was listed.
"Here you two go, on the house," the same man as before came over with some alcohol free drinks for them.
"OH, thank you so much!" Hermione told him, smiling.
"Thank you, sir," Draco followed Hermione, nodding to him.
"Most welcome," the man said and walked back to the counter.
"Granger, what is this?" Draco whispered low, inspecting the drink.
"I don't know. But it looks wonderful after what we've been through," she mumbled back, taking the large stein in her hands and sipping from the top of it.
Draco looked at her, wondering if it was OK for them to drink.
"Mmm! Wild berry watermelon juice. It's really good Draco, try it," she told him, licking her lips.
Draco was hesitant to drink from this pub, but if the barman thought that they were still kids to have this kind of a drink, he picked up his stein and drank a very tiny sip of it.
Hermione was right, it was delicious to drink.
"Not bad," he said, nodding in approval.
"I'll be right back, I need to use the bathroom," she softly told him and stood up.
Draco watched her carefully as she found the ladies bathroom and slipped in. His eyes stayed glued on that area of the pub.
When Hermione appeared again, Draco saw that she was a little pale.
"You alright, darling?" he asked, faking them to be a couple.
"I'm fine," Hermione said, sitting down in her chair again.
Arching an eyebrow up at her, Draco just let it be for now.
A few people walked in as did a dog.
Hermione looked up at the creature and swallowed nervously. She knew who it was, but to any muggle it was just a normal looking black dog.
"Hermione?" Draco mumbled low, looking at her with sharp eyes.
"Draco, we need to go outside," she mumbled back, thinking of a spell that puts the drink in a container and shrank it down.
"Alright. I know that you always are restless, darling," he said, nodding to her.
They got up; the dog slowly followed them outside as a crowd walked in.
Walking until they were far enough away from the muggles, Hermione turned around saw Sirius Black standing there in his prison uniform.
"I take it you know who I am?" he said slowly to the pair.
"We do. You're in the muggle newspaper," Hermione said, biting her lower lip in nervousness.
"Hogwarts isn't that far from here, is it?" Sirius asked them, eyeing Draco up.
"Just a few miles or so that way," Draco nodded in the direction of Hogwarts.
"You're Lucius's boy, Draco," Sirius said, looking him up and down.
"Yes, and Potter is your godson," Draco told him, irritated.
Hermione gasped and said "Draco you know you can't say things like that!"
"Granger, we both know that within a year from now, Potter will face …him… in that blasted Triwizard tournament thing thanks to Weasley's rat!" Draco snapped at her.
He had come by this information thanks to none other than Harry revealing to his parents and him on how Lord Voldemort came back in a human form.
"EER! I wish Harry didn't tell you how this all went. Sirius, you can't do anything with this information," Hermione said, looking over at the man.
"Why ever not, Miss Granger?" Sirius asked her curiously.
Sparing a glance at her, Draco then said "Because, it could ruin whatever this is,"
"I take it you two aren't supposed to be here?" Sirius asked them then.
"No, we're not. We're supposed to be at Hogwarts by now, but with the news of you being at this town will reach the Daily Prophet," Hermione said to him.
Sirius nodded and said "Well, I will go about this information was caution. But you are without doubt certain, that he is within school?"
"Just transform into that dog again and the dementors won't know it's you. And for Merlin's sake use the fireplace if you're found. Locking down the school wasn't an ideal thing for us," Draco drawled at him.
Hermione smacked him across the shoulder but Draco just shrugged.
"Hmm…I'll keep that in mind. You know you really aren't like your father, from what I've heard from your aunt," Sirius told him then.
"Just don't get killed by her in the Death Chamber of the Ministry," Draco then said.
"Malfoy!" Hermione snapped at him then.
Sirius nodded and then transformed into his dog self and trotted back into town.
That sensation of being pulled was at it again. Draco grabbed Hermione's hand as they felt being yanked away from this timeline.
Spinning around and around was all they felt. Hermione tried to hold onto Draco as best as she could, but it wasn't enough. They separated from one another as Hermione screamed loudly again.
Brightness.
Fleeting brightness.
Dancing among the stars?
Hermione would never know what caused the time turner to do make the time jump like a shooting star or comet.
It wasn't supposed to do this.
BEEP.
Where was Draco? Wasn't she holding onto his hand with all of her might?
BEEP.
With great effort, Hermione opened her eyes found herself in a…hospital room?
BEEP.
Her eyes looked as far left as she could possibly do at the moment as she saw the heart and vitals monitor beeping and keeping track of her.
'What happened?' she thought as she looked around the empty room.
The door handle slowly turned and in walked a very exhausted man nurse. Hermione didn't know why he was exhausted or him not seeing that she was awake. Yet.
Slowly moving her arm upwards at him, he gasped, taking a step backwards.
"….how…how is this possible!?" he exclaimed in fright.
What was he talking about?
He was soon near her monitor and was fiercely taking down notes before he nearly ran out of the room.
"Yes, I need him here! She's awake," she heard out in the hallway.
What happened to her?
"Can you please get to room 934? Miss Granger is awake, Doctor," she then heard from the man nurse.
Soon the man nurse came back in and was smiling with tears trickling down his face, as he said "I'm so glad that you are awake, Miss Granger,"
"Mm…" she tried to speak but found that her throat was extremely dry.
"I'm David, your main nurse and until the doctor gets here, I can't have you drinking any fluids or in an upright position. For now, I would like to go through some simple tests," David introduced himself to her.
She nodded 'yes' with a sigh for she really would like some water.
"Blood withdrawn, if that is ok with you Miss Granger?" he asked her uncomfortably.
She nodded 'yes' again at him.
He smiled with a relief as he gently took a look at her small arms.
'Small arms!?' she thought, looking down at herself.
"Deep breathes; it's okay. I know that needles are not a kid's favorite thing these days, but it won't hurt, I promise," David calmly spoke to her.
Hermione slowly did what he was instructing her to do, but how can she be a kid again? Pretty soon she was calm and felt a light pressure point on her elbow area of her arm.
"There, see? Nothing to it!" David said, smiling again.
Her mind was very much confused. Why was she here? What happened to Draco? Where was Draco? How did she get to be a kid again?
She didn't feel the needle withdrawn from her or David let the Doctor into the room.
"Well, this is a good morning," the doctor's voice greeted Hermione's ears.
Her brown eyes looked over at him from her stiff hospital bed.
"I just took some blood from her to be on the safe side," David whispered to him.
The doctor had gotten the medical notepad of what had happened to her so far. Hermione reached up and pointed to it.
"I'm Doctor Bradley, and let's get her into an upright position. I'm sure that you would like that, eh?" Doctor Bradley said, smiling again at her.
"Stop," she forced herself to say.
Both men did just that, looking bewildered that she was speaking.
"Stop…fake smiling at me and may I please have some water?" she again, forced her sore vocal cords to work.
"David, go get some water," Doctor Bradley told him as the man nurse nodded.
Doctor Bradley gently got her to sit up with the bed, as Hermione saw that she was up on a high floor.
"Where's Dr…erh…I mean, my parents?" Hermione forced herself to speak again.
"No more speaking until you have some water. And they will be here shortly," Doctor Bradley ordered her to not speak.
Hermione didn't have to wait long when David came back in with a tall glass of water with a bendy green striped straw. She then smiled at him in thanks, taking the cup and drinking long from it.
"I think that's enough," Doctor Bradley said to her.
She wanted to drink it all down but she also knew that she wasn't a doctor, so she listened to Doctor Bradley.
"How did I get here?" she asked them both.
"You came in with a head trauma," Doctor Bradley simplified it for her.
"But how? Did I fall off of something? Get pushed into something? What happened to me, Doctor Bradley?" she pressed for more information than just that.
Doctor Bradley sighed and said "You were balancing on a brick wall, at least that's what your parents told us. And a boy threw it at you. It hit your ankles and you fell over into the neighbor's yard where he had garden gnomes around a fountain,"
Hermione suddenly remembered this memory. She remembered that she had jumped up and landed in her yard with the boy missing her. But, why would she not jump up when he tried to hit her with the ball?
"That's…no. I jumped up and it missed me," she said to them both.
Doctor Bradley shook his head 'no' at her and said "That's not how it happened, Miss Granger,"
Hermione let that sink in for a minute before asking "How long have I been in here? And where is here?"
"You were admitted to the public hospital in March, before being transferred to the children's hospital for special trauma cases after a month of nothing helping you," Doctor Bradley truthfully told her.
"…Doctor…" she dreaded to ask him this but had to. "What…What year is it?"
Doctor Bradley was silent for a moment and then said "It's June 30th, 2001,"
Her heart monitor started to pick up as Doctor Bradley started to hum. The humming seemed to calm Hermione down a lot.
Any other questions that Hermione wanted to ask was put to the side when the door opened to see her mother in tears with her father.
"Hermione," her mother breathed, rushed over to her, and wrapped her arms around her daughter.
Meanwhile, miles away from the children's hospital, in an ancient manor with a very different situation, a father with long bright blonde hair in a pony tail was pacing up and down in the hallway.
"It could be worse, Lucius," an older and out of this time, man said to him from the painting.
"But, still! He knows how to fly," Lucius snarled at the painting of the man.
Lucius continued to pace up and down in the hallway until 30 minutes had gone by and the door opened up.
"Well?" he snapped impatiently at the creature in front of him.
"Young Master Draco will survive sir," said a small creature in a dirty old pillowcase.
"Good," Lucius said to it and walked past the creature.
There in the lavish grand room of dark hardwood floors, white walls with a four poster king size bed, laid a little boy with bright blonde hair.
"I don't know how he could have missed it," the woman that was beside the little boy muttered.
"I can't either, dear, but from what Dobby has just told me, Draco will make it," Lucius said to his wife.
"I know. But why would he have missed if he has made that attempt a hundred times, Lucius? You said it yourself, flying is never the cause of injury, unless you are stupid on how to not to fly?" the woman said to him perplexed.
"Narcissa, at times the law of gravity outweighs with one on a broomstick. I'll be in my study," Lucius said, walking out of his son's bedroom.
Narcissa however, stayed next to her only son. She knew that the fall had taken them both by surprise when Draco had shouted at them to watch him. He wanted to remake a move of some sort from a magazine that Blaise had snatched from Diagon Alley.
The move had you up at 50 feet, nose dive to about 20 feet off of the ground, a tight cork screw spin and shooting back up to 50 feet.
Somewhere in all of that, Draco had gone too fast, did the moves wrong and landed face first into the shallow fountain of his mother's garden.
Minutes turned into hours, hours slowly turned into a day. Draco wasn't waking up.
Narcissa was getting worried by the third day.
The silence of the manor was eerie in the middle of the night.
Narcissa was talked into by Lucius to come to bed with him. She was also talked into by her husband to have some creamy soup to keep up her strength. The only thing that sealed it was that Lucius would take Draco to St. Mungo's the next day if Draco wouldn't wake up.
Bright flashing light.
Stars flared and streaked before his vision.
Then, just like the stars were made out of ice, melted away as large flames licked around.
With a jerk, Draco woke up.
Calming his heart down after he stared around the room that he was in, he sat up. Hunched over, rubbing his fingers against his eyes, he tried to remember what happened last.
He was in the Ministry of Magic, Granger was there, and they were fighting against someone.
"Rubia Brevil," he mumbled to himself.
That was when he noticed his voice wasn't his mature voice! Tapping on his arms, he knew it was useless and then threw the covers back on the bed. He ran over to the full length mirror and gasped again.
"I'm a kid again!" he said in awe.
And he was. That 11 year old boy, about to head off to Hogwarts with hopes of being the best for his father. Those dreams were shattered long, long ago.
"Am I really home though?" he asked himself.
The door then, opened with a squeak.
He turned around and saw Dobby the house elf.
His eyes wide, Draco then asked "What year is this?"
"Doesn't Young master know? Dobby was only supposed to check up on young master, not let him get out of bed!" Dobby said, wringing his hands on the pillowcase.
"I will get back into bed, Dobby, but just please…tell me…what year is this?" Draco asked of him, walking over to the bed.
Dobby looked frightened at what Draco had just said, but he closed the door and walked over to him.
"Young Master really does not know what year it is?" Dobby asked him, standing next to the night stand.
"No, I honestly do not," Draco replied as he pulled the covers over his 11 year old legs.
Dobby then said "It's June 30th 2001, sir,"
"2001!?" Draco burst loudly, staring at Dobby in shock.
"Y-yes sir. But you need to keep your voice down or your parents will be awake," Dobby said in frightened voice.
"Actually, go and wake them, Dobby. I think they would be happy to know that I am awake, if they care," Draco told him.
"They do care, young master. They do care. They were not eating or sleeping right for 3 days now. But Dobby will go and wake them up," Dobby said, vanishing into thin air after a sharp crack sound.
Draco's mind was reeling. 2001?! Didn't Lord Voldemort finally die in this year?
And what about-
"Granger," Draco whispered with horror.
If he was here, where on earth was she? Hopefully with her own family.
His door was flung open and in walked his mother and a very irritated Lucius Malfoy.
"Draco," Narcissa greeted him with a soft smile.
Shaking his head, Draco got out of his bed and wrapped his arms around his mother's waist. They weren't in public, this was their home.
Narcissa was surprised but gently wrapped her arms around his small body.
"Mother, Father. Is it really 2001?" Draco asked, looking at them both.
"Dobby did say that you were not yourself when you woke up," Lucius drawled back.
"Of course it is 2001, Draco. I guess that fall really did mess with your head, dear," his mother also chimed in.
"Fall? What fall?" he asked them both.
"You were trying to pull off that famous Quidditch move with your little friends," Lucius said, taking a seat in the armchair next to the fireplace.
"I still don't understand, Father," Draco said, he never heard of this.
"It's the…A Snitch of Time Quidditch move, Draco," His mother then said, hoping it would help him.
"I…what? I've never heard of that!" He exclaimed to them both.
"Of course you have, Draco. It's a high flying move. You start up high up, do a cork screw in the air at lower level and then fly back up high again. You sure you want to go Durmstrang?" Lucius scolded him as if he was stupid.
"What's it called again?" Draco asked, ignoring his father's empty threat.
"A Snitch of Time," His mother repeated to him.
He only nodded to himself as he remembered that move's name.
"Now that you are awake and will get your memories hopefully sooner than later, your mother and I are going back to bed," Lucius declared to him.
"Thanks for caring, Father," Draco snapped at him with a glare.
Lucius just arched an eyebrow up at his only son and walked out of the room.
"We will be going to Diagon Alley soon, Draco. To get your school supplies. Your owl letter came and you are going to Hogwarts, whatever your father says of Durmstrang," his mother told him.
"Mother, while we're there, do you think I could talk to my friend? You see, she's very special to me," Draco asked of her.
"She? I know all of-"
"She's not, Mother. I need to talk to her without father knowing," Draco cut her off.
Narcissa stared at her only boy and said "I will grant this, but do understand that your father will not be happy if he ever finds out about this,"
"He doesn't care if I live or die. He never has, mother!" Draco said to her.
"Draco that is enough. Go back to sleep and we'll discuss more tomorrow. Although you won't be flying any time soon," His mother snapped at him and walked out of his bedroom, closing the door on her way out.
Draco turned around and started to punch his pillows in frustration.
They were his parents just like before. Never wanting to change. Never wanting to accept other people into their lives. Never accepting that they were wrong in all of this crazy mess that they blindly followed a mad man's words into battle and war.
"How can I change this?" he said to himself after he grew tired.
An idea soon came to him. He got out of bed and he got out some parchment, quill and ink bottle over at his desk.
He quickly wrote a letter and looked over at the family owl.
"I know that you are not to deliver letters to strangers, but I know of her. Find the witch that is called Hermione Granger. She has brown bushy hair, brown eyes with freckles on her face. She lives in the muggle world. You will search for her even if it takes days. Find her and deliver this letter to her. It's highly important," he said to it with a stern voice that he saw his father use on it many times before.
The owl hooted, taking the letter in its sharp talons and took flight out the window.
Draco stared after it with hope as he paced around in his bedroom.
'This year I have to do something different then get on Potter's bad side. I can't make fun of Hagrid when we meet in the robes shop. I won't brag of my life to him,' he thought to himself.
A couple of hours had passed of him just pacing around. A yawn ripped across his face as he made his way over to his bed.
Since he had a couch with two matching armchairs, he took a pillow and a blanket. He didn't like sleeping on that bed anymore; not after the battle and war.
Draco fell asleep on the couch.
A portrait of his ancestor soon walked into a painted landscape that never was there before. Watching over the future of the family line.
Author's note:
Hello! Hello! Liked what you just read? Drop a follow, favorite even the best yet! A Review. Don't be shy either.
So I did do some research on what nurses can do with children for a checkup. Blood drawing was one of them. And yes I know that I made the adults talk normally with Hermione, but please remember that Children can sense when someone wasn't acting "normal" around them.
Another thing, we honestly don't know what Hermione's life was like before going to Hogwarts. That also goes for Draco to a certain extent.
The star, blinding part is inspiration from the live action 2003 Peter Pan; when the kids first enter Neverland and the sequence of Gandalf from the Two Towers of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
So, how many of you caught the little reference to the title of this fic? Oh some of you did? Great! Thought of how all of those times that Harry did those moves during the books and movies.
Why did I put the timeline at 2001 and not at 1991? The Books are the 1991 version. We can read those anytime. The 2001 movie versions…trying to put this lightly but, don't hold up to the books in my eyes. Do not send Flaming reviews on my opinion. If you don't like it, go somewhere else with that negativity!
Honorable mention: 66 Million BC, Iridescent Thilbo Bagginshield.
Anyway, until next Wednesday!
Alonia143
PS: Million BC, I think I know you from somewhere but, where?