Chapter 8

Another Time

She felt a brief stab of relief at the sight of her beloved school, but it faded quickly. Draco was barely conscious; it was pitch black and Hermione still had a pounding headache.

They weren't in the same place as previously and this puzzled Hermione because if they used the time turner Harry had left them surely it would return them to exactly the same place and time. It wasn't even the same time of day, it had been daylight when they had first time jumped to Hogwarts, now it appeared to be the dead of night.

Something wasn't right but Hermione knew she would have to deal with that problem in a while. The first priority was making sure Draco was okay and then getting them somewhere safe and out of sight.

She bent over him and gently felt his arms and legs to see if anything was broken. It seemed to be okay. He was groaning though, drifting in and out of consciousness.

"Draco?" she whispered. "Can you hear me?"

He didn't respond except to groan loudly again, and Hermione looked around nervously, knowing that sound travelled this time of night.

"Draco?" she repeated. "Show me where it hurts."

Draco moved his arm, crying out as he did so but he pressed on his ribcage. Hermione gently opened his jacket and lifted his top before gently running her fingers across the side of his torso. He flinched as she touched him, and she knew that was where he had been hurt.

Her guess was he had broken a rib and as all she could do was guess right now, she would have to try and repair that and hope for the best. Not exactly a comforting medical diagnosis but Draco was in too much pain to care.

She held her wand over his body, running her fingers over the area and carefully repairing what she thought was broken. She was no medi-wizard and her skills were seriously lacking in that department but she didn't have a choice but to try.

After a few moments, Draco lay still, appearing to be in less pain. His eyes kept flickering open and she knew that his state of consciousness would be caused by the spells they had bombarded him with. She had no idea what spells they had used but they had been numerous. She did Finite Incantatem several times, each time making Draco flinch. She then did Reparifors and Episkey on his neck, face and head.

Finally, she cast Rennervate and then sat back on her knees, exhausted. For a few moments none of the spells seemed to have any effect on Draco who lay still and silent and Hermione began to worry that she'd actually made him worse.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and coughed, and Hermione bent over him anxiously.

"Draco?"

He coughed again. "Hermione?"

She breathed a sigh of relief. At least he could speak! "Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, where are we?" Draco coughed again, holding his ribs.

Hermione grabbed the bag and rummaged around for the water they had packed, gently lifting his head so he could drink some. After a few more minutes, Draco spoke again.

"Are you okay? Where are they now?"

"I'm fine, apart from a stonking headache. We jumped again; I used the time turner Harry gave us."

Draco sat up with a groan. "How?" He looked around, groggily. "Is this Hogwarts?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, but it's dark and we aren't in the same place we were the first time."

"It's the dials," Draco coughed again. "Check the dials."

Hermione realized what he meant and grabbed the time turner. He was right! The dials no longer read a row of zeros. Instead, it now had numbers on several of the dials.

"The dials have moved," Hermione handed the time turner to Draco who looked at it.

"Let's hope those numbers refer to jumping minutes and not decades!" he said, "and that 1128 isn't the year we've jumped to."

Hermione looked around again. "We need to move out of sight, preferably somewhere warm so you can recover. Are you able to walk, do you think?"

Draco nodded, gingerly rising to his knees, then with Hermione's help to standing position. They walked slowly up the hill towards the castle, Draco leaning heavily on Hermione.

"Where are we going to go?" Draco asked, still groaning as he moved.

"I was thinking a storage room or classroom, maybe the one by Snape's office?"

Draco didn't put up any protest, so they made their way to the Quadrangle and Hermione sat Draco on a wall while she tried doors and windows.

"This one is open," she whispered, helping him stand. It was a slow journey through the dark and silent castle, but Hermione knew the corridors like the back of her hand, and they met no-one. As they walked, Hermione knew this wasn't the Hogwarts that they were familiar with. Things looked different, she couldn't pinpoint it, but something wasn't the same.

However, figuring out when they had jumped to would have to be tomorrow's problem. Right now, she had to get Draco comfortable so he could rest and recover.

They had settled themselves in a large storage cupboard that Hermione had remembered from when she had been forced into helping Professor McGonagall with a task in 4th year.

It was down the end of a quiet corridor and only held what could loosely be termed as junk. Empty trunks, cauldrons, lamps and anything else that should have been thrown out. Thankfully there was also a huge pile of dust sheets that were clean and dry, so Hermione made Draco a semi-comfortable bed and herself a soft seat.

She had used her knowledge of every route through the castle to sneak down to the kitchen, avoid the house elves and bring them back some food. They had both eaten hungrily as this was the first proper, warm food they had been able to have.

Draco was gradually feeling better, and Hermione had tried to heal his injuries again, hoping that it would help. It was dawn when they finally went to sleep, each exhausted, having only been able to grab a couple of hours at Draco's flat.

When Hermione woke and it took her a few minutes to work out where she was. She didn't feel completely refreshed as it hadn't been particularly comfortable and it was cold in the cupboard, but at least she felt a lot better than before she had slept.

"Morning," Draco's voice came across to her and she sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Or should I say afternoon?"

"What time is it?"

"Not sure exactly but I sneaked out to look outside and the sun was high, so mid-morning or early afternoon, I reckon."

Hermione started to stand but before she was on her feet, Draco was next to her, offering her his hand. She had noticed he was always the perfect gentleman, helping her up, holding her hand to guide her. She realized that she knew very little about him personally. His manners were impeccable.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'm fine – my ribs still hurt a little but other than that I feel back to normal," Draco nodded.

"That's good. I can't promise I've done a great job on repairing your ribs, sorry."

Draco put his head to one side. "Oh yes! You should definitely be apologizing for saving my life, attending to my injuries, half carrying me up to the school, fetching us food, making us beds….." his voice trailed off and he grinned at her.

She found herself smiling back. It was nice that he was saying thank you, even if it was in his usual, offhand way. She looked down at herself, making a vain attempt to straighten her hair and clothes but she was sure she must look a wreck.

"I snuck out to the bathroom," Draco said. "I'm sure you could still risk it, especially around lunchtime."

"It's probably too risky," Hermione said, although she was sorely tempted. "Although the one on this floor is hardly ever busy," she paused, realizing she had no idea if it was busy or not because she had no idea what year this was, "or it wasn't when we were here."

"I think you should go; we don't know when we might get the chance again," Draco said. "Before you do, I found out when this is."

Something in his tone caught Hermione's attention. "How?"

"I saw Snape."

"I presume he didn't see you?"

"Well, not really," Draco rubbed his forehead.

"What do you mean, not really? Draco! Have you done something stupid?"

"No – I was being careful, no-one was around. He was the only person I saw. I saw him, he didn't see me I don't think."

Hermione folded her arms in front of herself. "What aren't you telling me?"

"I'm telling you it wouldn't have mattered if he had seen me because he's in 5th year."

Hermione stared, open mouthed at him. "5th year?!"

"Around that, maybe 6th."

"Are you telling me we are at Hogwarts when Harry's parents….when your parents attended?"

Draco nodded. "Yep."

Hermione put her hand to her mouth. "Merlin!"

"That was my reaction too."

"The dials hadn't changed a lot so why have we jumped back this far?" Hermione asked. "Plus, this isn't helpful because we don't even know if they are jumping to this timeline as it was Harry's time turner we used." She sighed, her brain hurting. "I'm going to sneak to bathroom and then try and get us something to eat," Hermione grabbed the bag, reached inside, and threw one of the time turners and the pieces of parchment at him. "You have a go at fathoming out how these things work because I think that is becoming vital. When I get back, we need to try and formulate a plan. Instead of watching them, we need to try and stop them and that means getting ahead of them."

Draco had watched her as she gave this speech. His mouth twisted and he gave her a salute. "Yes, boss."

Hermione managed to visit the bathroom, clean herself up and sneak some food from the kitchen unseen. She could see students outside on the lawns and she presumed it must be lunchtime. She was worried about them jumping back this far but it was weird to think she was here at the same time as Harry's parents, Sirius and Lupin. She would have dearly liked to have seen them or even spoken to them, but she knew she couldn't.

She entered the cupboard and found Draco crouched over all the time turners and the various pieces of parchment. He didn't look up, seemingly engrossed. She flung the food at him and sat down next to him.

"What have you worked out?"

He looked over at her. "That these are the most ridiculously complicated contraptions I've ever seen."

Hermione smirked. "Does that mean you haven't been able to work it out? Here, let me have a go." She went to grab one of the time turners, but he stopped her.

"Wait!" he snapped. "You're not working with amateurs now, Granger."

Hermione held her hands up defensively. "Don't tell me, let me guess. I'm working with the best Auror in our department!"

Draco looked over at her with a grin. "Yes! Well guessed!"

"So how does it work? Can we get home?"

Draco pulled the one piece of parchment towards them. "See these names? I am presuming that the numbers next to them that takes you to a certain date. A date they need to go to collect that person's blood. The numbers correspond with the time turner dials."

Hermione leaned forward. "So, in theory if we set the dials to those numbers, it will take us to that point of time?"

Draco nodded. "I believe so."

"But the numbers aren't actually the date?"

Draco shook his head. "No, it doesn't seem to be anywhere near as simple as that. If we take Neville as an example," Draco pointed to his name on the parchment. "The numbers don't make sense. They're not the year or the number of years we jumped backwards."

Hermione twisted her lips. "I hate time travel; it was bad enough travelling back a few hours."

"Something else doesn't make sense either."

"Go on."

"So, if the numbers on the dials mean travelling, days, hours or even years, why is it we keep ending up at different locations? When you time travelled you always stayed where you were, didn't you?"

Hermione nodded. This hadn't occurred to her. "Yes, you're right. So maybe the other dials take you to a particular location?" She pointed at the smaller dials at the one side of the time turner.

"I think so. I have absolutely no idea how they work though!"

"And the time turner Harry gave us was set to zero! That makes no sense."

They stared at each other, both feeling like they were not really getting anywhere. Hermione stared at the list of names with the tiny numbers next to each one. This was there only lead. They were going to have to pick a name, enter the numbers in the dials and hope for the best. Suddenly, something caught her eye. She grabbed Draco's arm and pointed at the list.

"Draco? It says F Longbottom not N Longbottom."

Draco picked up the list and stared at it closely. "Maybe it's an error?

"Frank Longbottom – that's Neville's father," Hermione said. "So, they hadn't gone back for Neville, they'd gone back for his father?"

"Is his father dead?"

"Yes, he died a few years ago."

"So, they can't get his blood now, they've had to jump back to pay him a visit."

They stared at each other, letting this sink in. There was more noise outside in the corridor now and Hermione waved her wand at the door, sealing it shut.

"We can't stay here much longer without being caught," she said, and Draco nodded his agreement. "I suggest we pick a name off the list, set the time turner and go investigate!"

"I agree although it's always going to be a bit risky jumping straight in," he pointed out. "And I'm going to need a wand."

Hermione nodded. "I know, I'm sorry." She was folding the dust sheets, her back to him, "We can take one on the way out, hopefully. I know it's not the same as using your own wand but it's better than nothing."

Draco's eyes were fixed on her and for the first time she noticed their unusual colour. She already knew the colour of them but this was actually noticing them. Deep grey, long lashes, beautiful. She stopped her train of thought, realizing he was speaking. "Hermione, you really have absolutely nothing to be sorry for. You saved me."

Hermione flashed him a smirk he would have been proud of. "You're right! I did – you owe me, Malfoy and don't you forget it!"

Draco grinned back at her.