Chapter 3

All over again

They both stared in silence at the imposing building, so familiar to them for a full minute.

Draco broke the silence. "So, is this Hogwarts past, present or future?"

"Future?" Hermoine questioned him. "Can Time Turners take you to the future?"

"Well, as you're far more the expert than me, Granger – what do you think?"

"I didn't think we could travel more than a few hours back in time, but Harry did say these Time Turners were ancient and they didn't know the limitations or rules for them."

Draco nodded his head towards the school. "There's only one way to find out."

They started towards the school, Draco striding slightly ahead. Hermione felt nervous. She had no idea what to expect, what they were meant to be doing here and even 'when' here was. She shook her head to herself. Time travel always blew her mind – there was no logic to it and that wasn't how Hermione's orderly brain functioned.

They were near to the castle now, the hill ahead empty.

"We should keep out of sight," Hermione said, and Draco nodded, moving towards the side of the path. They progressed silently, still not having seen a single person but as they approached the main doors of the school, with the quadrangle off to the left, Draco stopped.

"We need to find a hiding place and observe," he said.

Hermione didn't feel convinced. "Observe what?"

Draco looked at her. "I don't know, Granger but I don't see what else we can do. Potter said about following a trail. So, there must be one!"

For the lack of a better idea, Hermione nodded her agreement. They skirted the main doors, willing them not to open and sneaked along the building into the quadrangle. Luckily there were plenty of doorways and corners to hide in, so they chose one at a corner and waited.

There wasn't a lot of room and even after just a few minutes Hermione was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Plus, it was a slightly weird feeling being quite so close to Draco. Their arms were touching, and she could feel him breathing in and out.

They must have arrived in the middle of a lesson as the courtyard was eerily deserted for a full 15 minutes and then gradually pupils started to appear. Hermione watched them closely, trying to see if she recognised anyone. A couple of small boys had stopped quite close to their hiding place and were chatting excitedly.

"You can see why they had to be 17 though," one of them was saying.

"It was so dangerous," the taller boy replied.

"Well, I hope it involves Quidditch soon," the first boy turned slightly, and Hermione heard Draco gasp.

"That's Malcom Baddcock," Draco whispered, and she turned to look at him, questioning him silently. The boys seemed to hesitate mid conversation, just for a moment, so he shook his head and put his finger to his lips to indicate that he would remain silent until they moved away.

"When is the next task? We should try and get there early so we have a better view…." The boys drifted off and Draco and Hermione exchanged urgent glances, both now having a very clear understanding of where or rather when they were. Those first years must be talking about the Triwizard Tournament!

Hermione felt very uneasy. That means they had travelled back in time much further than the Time Turner she had used in Year 3 would have allowed her to. The further back you went, the easier it was to corrupt time and worse than that, there was a real danger they would meet their former selves. That had huge and far-reaching consequences.

The quadrangle was now full of students, moving between their lessons and Hermione suddenly felt far less secure in their hiding place. It wouldn't take very much at all for one of the students to spot them. She shuffled back into the darkest corner, puling at Draco's arm so that he did the same.

Further back in the corner, they now had a much more limited view of the quadrangle, so it wasn't until they heard a very familiar voice that they realised who was standing not more than a few feet away.

"The Merpeople have been informed about Potter and who he will rescue…" Professor Snape's voice sounded exactly how Hermione remembered it and she was dragged back in time as a full wave of nostalgia hit her. She glanced over at Draco, who was staring straight ahead, blinking rapidly.

Professor McGonagall crisp tones replied, "I have your reassurance that this is perfectly safe?"

"Of course it is," Snape answered. "What are those students doing over there?"

The voices moved away, and Hermione let out the breath she hadn't realised she was holding. The courtyard was clearing rapidly, only a couple of students were on the other side. She turned to look at Draco who raised his eyebrows.

"The Triwizard Tournament," he said. "It would seem we can travel back much further than we thought."

Hermione dared to take a step out of the shadows, feeling hot and bothered. "I don't like this – it's not good," she said. "Travelling back this far…..risking seeing ourselves."

Draco shrugged. "Well, it must be necessary, or Potter wouldn't have sent us here."

Hermione poked her head round the doorway – the quadrangle was now empty. "It was so strange hearing Snape and McGonagall." Draco didn't answer so she turned to look at him. He looked pale, his lips white.

"I didn't like it at all," he said, and Hermione realised how much it had affected him. She decided it was time to move so she cautiously poked her head around the corner to make sure there was no one around. She was about to step out when she felt Draco's hand on her arm. She turned to look at him and nodded his head to the far end of the quadrangle.

"Who's that?" he had lowered his voice again.

Hermione looked over and saw a tall man, with dark hair wearing Wizard Robes walking on the opposite side of the quadrangle. He was dressed like a professor, but Hermione didn't recognize him.

"I don't know…..I've never seen him before," she whispered.

The man looked natural enough, he wasn't looking round suspiciously or anything but something about him didn't sit right.

"We knew every Professor, in fact, we knew everyone at Hogwarts at this time," Draco said. "Come on…" He grabbed Hermione's hand (which Hermione found very unsettling, but this wasn't the time or place to mention it) and they cautiously stepped out of where they were hiding, before following the man who had left the quadrangle and was heading around the castle and out towards the grounds.

It was difficult staying hidden, but the man was walking briskly, not looking around him and striding ahead. He walked past the seedling greenhouses and out towards the forbidden forest and they continued to follow him as quietly as they could.

He rounded a corner and went out of sight, so Draco quickened his pace. They cautiously turned the next corner, but the wizard was no-where to be seen. They were right on the edge of the forbidden forest, by a large clearing surrounded by trees. It would have been easy to see the man if he had been in the clearing but if he'd headed towards the trees then he could be hiding out of their sight.

They edged further round the corner, scanning the trees but after a few minutes, Draco stopped and sighed.

"I think we lost him," he said.

"Who do you think he is?" Hermione asked, still looking around.

"I don't know but my guess is he's not from this time," Draco poked at a large rock with his wand.

"So, he could have simply come around this corner and used a Time Turner," Hermione said. "We have no chance of finding him if that's the case." She gazed around, taking in the looming castle behind them. "We're missing something, we must be!"

Draco didn't reply and she turned to look at him. He was pacing around, holding his chin, deep in thought. She let him contemplate for a minute, trusting his judgement. He looked up. "Let's get out of sight and go through everything before we do something and then regret it."

They made their way stealthy into the forest, sticking to the edge until they came to a clearing with some large rocks, which they sat on. It suddenly struck Hermione that she was thirsty, hungry, and feeling very tired. She didn't like having so little to go on, it was like swimming through mud. As she sat on the rock, it caught her skirt and tore the hem.

"I'm really not dressed for adventure!" she moaned, looking down at her already dishevelled appearance.

"Me neither!" Draco pulled at the tie he was wearing. He held up the time turner. "So, you've used one of these before. How did that one work?"

Hermione frowned. "It was a long time ago. It didn't work like that one. It had an hourglass in the centre that you rotated. Each rotation took you back one hour in time – you could only travel back a few hours."

Draco raised his eyebrows. "Looks like this one works differently. How did you get back?"

"Get back?"

"Back to your own time?"

Hermione stared at Draco for a moment as his words sunk in. "Merlin!" she said.

"What? Merlin what?" Draco stepped closer, his face showing his anxiety.

"There wasn't a way to get back, you just had to relive the hours you'd travelled back again," Hermione gave a gulp.

"In this case 12 years?" Draco's voice had risen. "Are you joking?"

Hermione shook her head. "No, I'm not joking," she paused, trying not to panic then her logical brain kicked in. "We're being stupid - that can't be the case, can it? Harry wouldn't have sent us back in time with no means to return, plus he was using one to come back and forward himself."

She saw Draco relax a little. "You're right." He stood up. "I don't think we have any choice but to head back to the school. See what else we can find and then if we really are getting no-where, we might have to try and get to the Ministry."

"Oh, the Ministry of magic that Cornelius Fudge is in charge of? That one?" Hermione asked, sarcastically.

Draco rolled his eyes and started walking back towards the Castle. Hermione followed reluctantly, feeling exhausted and frustrated. Why had Harry not manged to leave them just a little more information? At the very least instructions on how to use the time turner? She stopped in her tracks, an idea hitting her.

"Malfoy, wait!"

Draco turned round, reluctantly and stared at her. "What is it Granger?"

She ran up to him. "Give me Harry's note."

Draco sighed and produced the now very crumpled parchment and handed it to her.

"It's literally just a row of zeros, it's not the right number of characters to enter a date – I already thought of that," Draco said, sulkily.

"It must mean something," Hermione insisted.

"Of course it means something, Granger! But how we can ever work out what a row of nothing means? We can't and frankly we really don't have time right now!" Draco turned and went to start walking again but Hermione grabbed his arm. He glanced down at her hand, which she withdrew and then raised his cold eyes to hers. "You're being annoying now, Granger."

Hermione glared at him. "Annoying? Why? Why exactly haven't we got time? As you keep pointing out, the only lead we have has gone on a little time trip without us. We don't know what else we can do or how to follow him. We don't know how to get back to our time. So, what big plans do you have that would take priority over trying to work out how to use the only thing that can get us out of here!?" She finished speaking and met his cold gaze steadily.

She saw his gaze falter a little. "Okay, Granger! How about you switch down the Gryffindor a little?" Hermione went to open her mouth and retaliate but he held up his hand. "We do need to work out how to use the time turner but right now we don't know where we need to go, do we? We can't go home as we've so far achieved nothing and from what you told me Potter said, we may well be in danger if we do. So, we need to try and work out why we are here!" Draco ran his hands through his hair. "I'm clutching at straws here but that's the best I can do."

Hermione watched him closely and felt her anger subside a little. They were both tired, hungry and frustrated.

"I think we need to try and get something to eat and rest. Then we can think straight," she said.

Draco nodded. "I agree but let's just check the castle again, I worry if we don't act quickly then we will miss any clue there may be to help us. There must be a reason that Potter sent us back to that particular moment, mustn't there?" He looked at Hermione, who's expression had changed. "What now?"

"He sent us to a particular moment!" she exclaimed.

Draco crinkled his nose. "I just said that."

"Harry sent us to a particular moment," Hermione repeated. "So, why don't we just send ourselves back to that particular moment?"

Draco's eyes widened as he understood what she meant. "So, we enter the zeros into Time Turner again and travel back to the exact moment we arrived here!"

Hermione nodded. "That way, instead of going to the quadrangle, we can go straight to the edge of the forest and wait for our 'friend' there."

Draco stepped closer to her and withdrew the Time Turner from his pocket. "What are we going to do with him?"

Hermione shrugged. "I have no idea, but we can stun him and stop him jumping out of here. Then we can take it from there?"

Draco nodded, turned the dials again to a row of zeros and the next second they were back by the forest again, staring up at the castle. They were back where they had first jumped to.

"Well, that's the first thing that's gone right today so far," Draco commented. "Now we wait."

Authors Note: Hi – I'm am going to try to be as accurate as I can with dates/timeframes/who's who and when but please bear with me as it's a little complicated A bit like time travel!