Hermione scowled as she scribbled furiously in her cramped handwriting, her essay surrounded by four open textbooks.
Professor Snape was not usually a helpful man, but today he must've been in a foul mood. He'd assigned a paper due in two days' time, one and a half times as long as it usually was, and he'd not provided any clues as to how to write such an essay on the functions of doxy eggs in poisons and antidotes.
It wouldn't have been too much trouble had her schedule not been as full as it was. But she'd manage. She was sure she could do it, no matter McGonagall's warnings.
Someone cleared their throat from right behind her.
She whirled around, coming face-to-face with Professor McGonagall's stern visage, seemingly carved out of granite. Hermione could feel the blood drain from her face as her mind unhelpfully pointed out all the warning signs in her expression.
Had she accidentally summoned the professor?
"Miss Granger," said McGonagall, her lips very thin.
Oh, and there was Lyra, too. Trying not to laugh at Hermione. Because of course she was.
"Professor," said Hermione weakly.
Professor McGonagall stared at Hermione for a long moment in complete silence, not even blinking. Hermione quashed her urge to fidget and shuffle her feet. Then, the professor jerked her head towards a disused region of the library with such irritation that Hermione flinched at the abrupt movement.
Hermione scrambled after Lyra and the professor.
I'm going to be expelled, she thought.
Hermione followed Professor McGonagall deep into the least populated area of the library (Philosophy and Religion) and waited for her to speak. When no words were forthcoming, she summoned the last tiny bit of her courage and spoke.
"Am I in trouble, Professor?" Hermione squeaked. "I don't think I've done anything wrong…"
"No?" said McGonagall, then she jerked her head at Lyra. "Then why does Malfoy know of your Time-Turner?"
Hermione opened her mouth to say something but her mind had gone blank. Her stomach felt like it was made of lead. "I — she couldn't — I —"
"She didn't tell me, Professor," said Lyra. "It's just that nothing gets by me."
"Shut it, Malfoy," McGonagall snapped irritably.
Lyra took a step back, as if stepping away from her fury, but then Lyra stuck her tongue out and made rude hand gestures to McGonagall's back.
"I —" began Hermione.
"You didn't tell Potter or Weasley, did you?" said McGonagall, cutting across her.
"No, Professor, I swear," said Hermione.
McGonagall stared at her again for an uncomfortably long moment, and then clicked her tongue.
"Very well. I suppose it matters not in the end. Our esteemed headmaster," she said, as if sucking on a lemon, "has agreed to Malfoy's request."
"Request?" Hermione glanced at Lyra, who for her part, was looking very smug.
"To study the artifact," McGonagall said.
"What?" said Hermione, unable to believe the headmaster would do such a stupid thing. Lyra was her beloved friend, but Hermione would sooner give the Time-Turner to Harry and Ron.
"Thankfully, I was able to make the Headmaster see some sense," McGonagall continued. "Your studies are of paramount importance, so I told him that I would not allow the object to be passed around like some toy without your explicit permission."
"O-oh," said Hermione. She really needed to sit down.
"Is that arrangement acceptable, Miss Granger?" McGonagall said. "Malfoy will only borrow the Time-Turner with your permission, and I trust you will prioritize your own study over whatever cock-and-bull scheme Malfoy has conjured up."
"I — yes, Professor," Hermione said tiredly.
"Malfoy," said McGonagall, turning on the Ravenclaw with a very firm tone. "You are to study it. Do you understand? You will not use it. You will not travel through time. You will use it for the purpose you explained to Dumbledore: to further your knowledge of magic. Nothing more."
Lyra nodded, looking more serious than Hermione had ever seen her; and it looked so out of place on Lyra that even McGonagall realized she wasn't taking it seriously enough.
"Malfoy, I am serious," she said. "You may think you are extraordinary, but Time will be more than happy to erase you from existence if you meddle too much with it. Should I hear even a rumor of there being two Lyra Malfoys in the castle, I will personally ensure you are expelled, no matter what delusions of superiority fill that otherwise empty head of yours."
"But what if someone steals a hair of mine and becomes me with Polyjuice Potion?" said Lyra immediately, as if this was a worry constantly plaguing her.
"Then I shall gain a convenient excuse," said McGonagall with a sense of finality.
"Professor!" Hermione gasped, but immediately clamped her mouth shut when McGonagall turned to look at her.
"Now, this matter has taken up enough of my time, and patience," said McGonagall. "I don't wish to speak of it further. You both understand your limits. I will be furious if this is brought up again before the very end of the year. Do you both understand?"
"Yes, Professor," Hermione said.
"If I was dumb enough to mess around with that kind of powerful magic," said Lyra, "I'd have learned fiendfyre by now." She held her hands up. "You have every right to expel me if I use the Time-Turner."
McGonagall glared at Lyra, then said stiffly, "You'd best return to your studies, Miss Granger."
After she left, Hermione finally glared at Lyra herself, then pushed past her to return back to her table.
"I can't believe you!" she said as she sat down. "How did you find out? It's been only a week!"
Lyra shrugged as she pulled out a chair. "I overheard Ron talking about your schedule, so I looked into his mind out of curiosity."
"Lyra!" said Hermione, scandalized. "You can't just do that!"
"Sure I can," said Lyra in that maddening tone of hers, of utter indifference. "Okay," she said, holding her hands up in surrender when Hermione looked ready to strangle her. "In my defense, I have serious psychological issues."
Hermione had no idea what to say to that. Was she supposed to agree?
"Anyway, I saw what Ron saw," said Lyra. "There was no way for you to be taking two classes at the same time. And I'm really smart, so I figured it out pretty quickly. All right, fine, it was James who figured it out. Blame him."
"He didn't dream up some scheme to take my Time-Turner from me," she hissed.
Lyra hummed. "No, no he didn't... And neither did I. Hey, you're not using it until tomorrow, right?"
Hermione made a somewhat strangled noise. "I know you're going to use it. I just know you are."
Then Lyra's uncaring attitude dropped, and she looked seriously at Hermione.
"Do you honestly think I don't know the dangers of time travel, Hermione?" she said. "Half the advanced magic you know you learned from me. Just because I like to act like an idiot doesn't mean I am one. Do you think I'm an idiot?"
"I — no, of course not," said Hermione.
"Then what's the problem? I'm not asking to take it. I'm asking to look at it, here, in front of you. How's that so bad?"
Hermione gave her a flat look.
Lyra narrowed her eyes. "What, do you think I'll act all genuine to get you to hand it over, promise I won't ever use it, then immediately put it on in front of you and disappear?" She seemed to consider this for a moment, looking at Hermione as if wondering if it was something people would actually expect her to do.
Hermione sighed, looked around to make sure they were alone, and pulled out the Time-Turner from around her neck, and held it out to her by the chain. But Lyra didn't take it. She glanced at Hermione's face, which must've shown her true feelings on the matter.
"Well, now I don't want it," said Lyra.
"What?"
"You're just making me feel bad about it now. I didn't think you'd have an issue with it if I got a teacher's permission."
"It's just —" Hermione took a quick breath. "I'm given this whole lecture, nearly an hour long on the dangers of time travel, all because I've had perfect grades and perfect attendance, and I've never gotten into any serious trouble. And then you just come along and — they just gave it to you."
"No, they gave it to you, and it's your choice whether to let me study it. In your presence, mind you," Lyra added, plopping her feet up on the desk. "They still hold you well above me. Kind of annoying, really. What did I ever do besides act a little stupid?"
"You still could've asked me first." Hermione glanced at Lyra's feet. "And stop doing that."
Lyra dragged her feet off the table. "You wouldn't have let me so much as look at it and you know it."
"Yeah, because that would have somehow been enough for you to go do something insane, like — like figure out how to create your own just from a glance, then go and unbirth someone you don't like and then somehow successfully convince everyone around you that you didn't practically murder them!"
"Like Sally-Anne?"
"What?"
"What?"
"Lyra, this is serious!" said Hermione. "I could've been expelled just for showing you!"
"Which is precisely why I went to Dumbledore," said Lyra in such a casual and final tone that Hermione nearly growled at her. "Also, it's weird I have that reputation without having been caught actually doing anything insane. Do you know how maddening it is that my greatest schemes have to be kept secret? I mean, you're worried about being expelled, I'm worried about Azkaban!"
Lyra laughed as if all that probably wasn't true.
Hermione sighed and looked tiredly at her. "Lyra... You're one of my closest friends, but..." She hesitated. "You are rather irresponsible sometimes."
"Name one time," said Lyra.
"You snorted pixie dust!"
"Name three times."
"You were playing with slime in the library and accidentally slimed Madam Pince, then blamed it on Cedric," Hermione said promptly. "Then you got caught… under the influence by the headmaster that one time. Then there was the time you decided you wanted to go to class while still in bed and animated your bed to carry you around but crushed Roger Davies — probably on purpose, now I think about it."
"Okay, that time with the headmaster was the time I snorted pixie dust, you can't count it twice."
"I'm not talking about that time!" said Hermione. "I'm talking about the Potion of Euphoria!"
"Snape taught us how to brew it, why shouldn't I have used it?" said Lyra as if it made all the sense in the world.
"And then there was the time you tried to steal Professor Moody's fake eye at Grimmauld Place and burned down half the living room as a result."
"Now that's just unfair," said Lyra. "How is it my fault that Mad-Eye overreacts to everything? I wasn't even trying to steal it. He left in a glass of water and I was just curious as to how it worked. Speaking of how powerful magic works —"
"Oh, and remember when you made Ginny cry after baiting her and Ron into a fight by asking which of them had a bigger crush on Harry?"
"That's not irresponsible," laughed Lyra, "that's just hilarious."
Hermione crossed her arms and glared at her. "You're horrible."
Lyra sobered immediately and grimaced. "Yeah, I know. But none of those things led to disaster. Nobody was hurt!"
"Davies?"
"Yeah, one nobody was hurt," said Lyra. "Oh, c'mon, he walked away fine! It was a bed, not a boulder." She made a dark face. "He was lucky."
"Lyra."
Lyra threw out her arms. "None of it mattered, Hermione! Davies was fine, I'm fine, Ginny and Ron are fine, Moody's fine — well, I haven't made him worse, at least." She rolled her eyes. "Half the things you listed were only bad because people overreacted. James regularly makes jokes about fucking my own mother and you don't see me crying about it like Gin — that implies I have a crush on my mother, which —" Lyra shook her head. "No." She shook her head again. "Besides, James has been far more irresponsible than me, and he got a prefect position. He was possessed by Voldemort. He fought a basilisk, Hermione."
Hermione covered her mouth. "Was that true? Poor James! Does he… does he have anyone to talk to?"
Lyra, for the first time in this conversation, looked a little insulted. "He has me, Hermione."
"I meant someone more... well, never mind."
Lyra reeled back. "Where did you learn this attitude?" She held up a hand before she even finished speaking. "Wait, no, don't say it."
"I won't," said Hermione. "I'll keep you guessing. In any case, I think we've established that you don't have the best record. And seeing as you're absolutely shameless, forgive me if I can't take you seriously."
"About trivial things, sure," said Lyra. "But this isn't trivial. This is time itself. Even if I could use a Time-Turner, I wouldn't." She frowned at Hermione's face. "I wouldn't!"
But Hermione stayed silent. She felt a little triumphant, actually, irritating Lyra like this. Maybe this was why Lyra did it to everyone else — the difference being that she did it mostly unprovoked, because she was just mean like that. Maybe it was just a raised-by-Malfoys thing.
"Okay," said Lyra suddenly, with a nod as if it were inconsequential. "I just wanted to study how they managed to capture such a powerful spell in something that could fit on a necklace, that's all. I want to do it with another spell. But hey," she said, standing up and shrugging, "if you're not comfortable giving it to me, that's fine." She clicked her tongue. "Man, I wish I was a worse person so I could just pressure you into giving it up. Or beat you up or something."
She knew Lyra was being genuine, that she didn't really care that much, but also that Lyra was probably still hoping that very fact would convince her to give up the Time-Turner; because if it's not a big deal to Lyra, then it shouldn't be a big deal to Hermione.
She didn't think she had ever met someone who could be so casually conniving.
"Well, what did you want to do with it?" said Hermione, not expecting an actual answer.
But Lyra sat down and leaned forward and looked actually a bit excited about whatever nonsense was probably whirling around in her mind.
"I want to call it the Patronus Pendant," she said. "Because casting a Patronus is difficult, and it's even harder when surrounded by dementors. And Voldemort made use of dementors. I mean, it can't be easy keeping happy memories in your head while otherworldly demons born of misery are trying to suck them out, right?"
"Yes…" Hermione knew where she was going already, and leaned forward too.
"So what if people could load up some necklace with a Patronus before they encounter dementors?" said Lyra. "Either their own or someone else's. Like a battery. And if it's done right, the pendant could strengthen it so it doesn't constantly rely on happy thoughts. I'll have it made of gold too, so it's stronger and more resilient to failure from outside forces."
"That sounds interesting," said Hermione, but then she paused and frowned. "Why do you need a Patronus Pendant?"
Lyra shrugged. "Dementors are allies of Voldemort. If they side with him again, a Patronus Pendant will be a serious blow against their effectiveness."
"But they've only ever stayed in Azkaban," said Hermione, trying to remember if she had ever read about them doing anything horrible in the last few centuries.
"The ones the ICW has managed to round up and convince to stay in Azkaban, sure," said Lyra. "But dementors are born out of misery. They're manifestations of the worst life has to show. It takes a whole lot of anguish to create one but the thing is, they never die off. Even after centuries, wizards haven't figured out how to end them."
"So — does that mean the ones around today — they're..." Hermione trailed off, feeling uneasy.
"There are myths," said Lyra quietly, "myths from long ago speaking of beings of death and horror walking the fields of great battles. There are others, from the 14th century, where people reported seeing the Devil among the dead."
"The Black Death."
"Even earlier, these things were so rare that they were viewed as gods, coming to collect the souls of the miserable, the hopeless, the desolate. But then sightings increased. Our population grew, and with them naturally came higher numbers of deaths, from war, disease, famine, all with more frequent reports of these cloaked fiends. And suddenly we had names for these beings."
"Dementors," whispered Hermione.
"One or two here or there with every big war," said Lyra, "and a good few with every more horrible event in history: the World Wars, the Great Leap Forward, the Black Death. If you go into Azkaban, you'll probably come across dementors that have been around for hundreds of years, maybe thousands."
"But I've never heard of any of this in the books I've read here —"
"Of course not. You don't venture much into the Restricted Section, and even there you won't find too much on it. Dementors are considered the vilest abominations, Hermione. People don't like to think or write about them, especially not the truth about them."
"The truth?" said Hermione, feeling like the lights in the library had become dimmer, and the shadows greater.
Lyra leaned forward. "The dementors aren't trapped in Azkaban. They're free to leave whenever they want. They just happen to like the misery the place holds. Magical Ministries paint it all as if the ICW forces them in, but they more beg the dementors to stay in Azkaban. But nothing holds them there. If someonecame along capable of turning the whole world into something like Azkaban, and they were offered to help with such a thing, they'd take the deal in a heartbeat."
"So..." said Hermione uneasily. "Azkaban is... it's just a —"
"A compromise," said Lyra, leaning back again. "Like much of the darker side of magic, their kind isn't contained — not fully. Some things just can't be."
"What other things are like dementors?" Hermione couldn't remember any other dark creature that instilled such a deep sense of terror in wizards' minds.
"I don't know." Lyra seemed disquieted with the conversation too, her brow furrowed and her crossed arms tight. "But there are old books in the deepest parts of my family's library that only give hints of eldritch things beyond evil and otherworldly, even for the wizarding world." She paused. "Did James ever tell you about that statue he found?"
"N-no. And I don't know if I want to hear about it, Lyra."
She shrugged. "Well, if you're ever curious when you're older, ask him. I don't know what he learned about it, but he's not telling me. He got all spooked when I asked. At least he'd learned his lesson with that diary." She gave Hermione a curious look. "You ever read Lovecraft?"
Hermione shook her head.
"Well, give his books a read. He's a muggle author, disappeared in 1936." Lyra's face turned dark, as if something sinister entered her thoughts, and then she caught Hermione's expression and she put on a weak smile. "It's all fictional, don't worry. His style of horror is just... relevant, to the discussion."
Hermione nodded and then took a deep breath. "You're just messing with me, right? You're doing that thing where you freak somebody out for your own amusement?"
"Go ask Dumbledore," said Lyra, shrugging. "He has some ancient tomes hidden away in his office. No idea what's really in them, since I couldn't open any, but Dumbledore's warnings were enough. I think one was made of human skin." Her lips twitched upward. "Not really." Then she gave a considering tilt of her head. "Maybe."
"The headmaster doesn't have time for all that, and if it's really as bad as you say, he's not going to tell me anything," said Hermione, feeling a little less chilly as they returned to more lighthearted topics.
"It's all pretty horrible, though, isn't it?" said Lyra.
Hermione nodded absentmindedly and looked over her essay, wondering what she was even writing about.
"Which is exactly why I wish to create a tool against such evils," said Lyra, again in that stupid casual and final tone of hers. "So? Can I study the Time-Turner?"
Hermione's own lips twitched a bit, and she closed her eyes and shook her head good-naturedly.
"Why do you need a Time-Turner again?" she said. "Why that specifically?"
"The Hour-Reversal Charm is powerful and... hmm," said Lyra. "And kind of fragile, I suppose. The fact they've managed to stabilize it in a tiny object the way they did is nothing short of a miracle, honestly. The Patronus is also a very powerful and yet fragile spell. If I wanted to do something similar, I'd need to see how it works. It's not really something they teach in Charms."
"And how long would you need it for?"
Lyra shrugged. "No idea. It might take a few minutes, it might take days. I've never had a close look at one before. I can do it here."
Hermione shook her head. "People might see it. Take it somewhere private. I don't need it until tomorrow morning anyway."
Lyra blinked. "You're, uh, you're going to let me have it?"
Hermione shoved the artifact into Lyra's chest. "Don't be irresponsible," she said, idly wondering how long it would take for Lyra and Hermione both to be expelled. A week, maybe. An hour, more likely. "Please," she added, with some desperation leaking into her voice.
"You wouldn't ever talk to me if I was irresponsible with it," said Lyra softly, and she stood up to leave. "And that's far more important than using this to assassinate Dumbledore."
"Lyra," said Hermione, rolling her eyes and trying not to smile as what might have been the worst mistake she ever made walked away from her.
The first thing Lyra saw as she entered the Room of Requirement was McGonagall's form, sitting sideways on a recliner with her feet hanging in the air, drawing lazy figure-eights with her toes as she idly turned a page. In Lyra's opinion, she was showing far too much old-lady skin.
"That's disgusting," she said.
"Careful, Malfoy," she said curtly. "That's your professor you speak of."
Lyra sighed and flopped down on the seat across the table. "I actually feel terrible about this, you know."
"You're the one who made up this insane plan," said James, turning another page. "'Hey, James, let's go gaslight Hermione so we can use her Time-Turner!'"
She flung the Time-Turner at him, and he dropped his book to catch it, the gold device hopping on the edges of his fingertips until he finally caught it.
"That was stupid," said James. "What if you broke it?"
Lyra rubbed her hand down her face and groaned. "I'm actually a horrible person. I just — I need that alibi."
"We need that alibi, you mean."
"Have you decided to come, then?"
"Lyra, as much as I hate your smug little face, I'm not going to let you do this on your own." McGonagall's face softened a bit. "You're my friend."
Then he frowned and raised his hand, where the skin began to bubble as the effects of Polyjuice wore off. He turned to Lyra, McGonagall's face turning a bit green.
"You might want to look away this time," he said, his voice already becoming deeper. He put the Time-Turner on the table and pulled his witch's hat lower down, hiding the head and face from Lyra's view.
Lyra reached over and grabbed the Time-Turner and swung her legs over an armrest.
"I'm actually kind of tempted to use it right now," she said, grimacing.
James' response was an incomprehensible groan as he curled up on the chair.
Lyra took out her wand and tapped the Time-Turner. "Revelio."
On the slim surfaces, runes appeared for a brief moment, shining silver against the gold. There were far too many to memorize, and they all seemed to be closely woven together, forming complex runic equations that she couldn't even begin to guess about from such a brief glance as they faded away. She wasn't even sure if the runes had been manually put in or if they were her Revealing Spell's method of displaying the enchantments directly laid into the gold and glass.
So as James was transforming back to himself, she began to think about how to craft a device for this problem. The idea was simple: project the image of the Time-Turner with its inscribed runes on display and expand it, perhaps to the size of a small room — and then capture that image into an enchanted crystal or glass or something, which could later be projected again like some wannabe Tony Stark tech. That way their research wouldn't be interrupted whenever Hermione needed to use the Time-Turner.
And the less Hermione had to worry or complain about, the less likely it was for her to complain to McGonagall — the real one, that is. Studying this thing would likely take months anyway. Grabbing the small crystal the Room had just conjured for her, she began to experiment with it, telling James the idea.
James groaned from his seat, and she looked over to see him kick his now too-small shoes off into the air. He then threw off the witch's robes, revealing him wearing a grey undershirt and a pair of enchanted, size-altering leggings. Lyra couldn't contain her snort as James struggled to remove the brassiere from underneath his shirt.
"Now I understand why women hate these," said James, throwing it away.
"That's why I learned to levitate my tits subconsciously," said Lyra.
"Probably doesn't take much effort," said James. "I could iron my shirts on your chest."
Lyra cast him a dark look and went back to fiddling with her crystal.
"The worst thing about all this," said Lyra as she cast spells on it, "is that I'm sure there's some way simpler way to go about my whole plan. I just can't fucking figure it out."
"Simpler, maybe, but not necessarily quicker or as certain to work," said James, hiding behind a Chinese folding screen that the Room had scrounged up from somewhere to change into his usual attire. "Although I don't think there's a 'quick' method to understanding one of the most complex magical machinery I've ever seen, at least from a glance."
"And what did you learn from your glance, James?"
"That it's ridiculously complicated," he said. "Whoever came up with this stuff is a genius. Einstein, or it might be better to say Da Vinci-levels of genius, because that thing is beautiful."
"Uh huh," she said. "Well, you go ahead and glance at it some more while I figure out how to create this thing..."
"Like a Pensieve?" said James.
"But for still, 3D images," said Lyra. "Or 4D. Whatever. There's that spell we learned in Ancient Runes that expands written runes into the air if they're too small or complicated to decypher. I'll just use that to make it look like we're sitting in a dissected Time-Turner, then capture that in this thing" — she held up the crystal — "which will later let us do it again, only without the Time-Turner actually present. I'm also pretty sure there's a way easier way of doing this too, but whatever."
"Not all spells are engraved, though," James said. "You'll have to be careful with those, or you might miss some critical component of its structure."
"Yeah, but we'll save that for when we actually have the Time-Turner. Those runes I saw will take forever to figure out. They're all on top of each other, and I've never even seen some of those letters or equations."
"I know, that's why I mentioned it," said James. "Remember what Babbage said about networks? When it comes to objects as complex as this, all the spells are interconnected and they feed off each other. If one of the keystone spells are invisible, and you miss that, you might accidentally blow yourself up. And maybe the school with it."
Lyra rolled her eyes. "James, Babbage loves to say shit like that as much as Trelawney does."
"That's true," said James. "But Trelawney's predictions are baseless, while Runes is real magic. Real power. Don't do anything while I'm not around. I'm better at this shit than you are."
"Whatever," said Lyra. "I hope I kill everybody in this castle."
