Chapter 5
Hogsmeade
"We will need to transfigure each other before we go inside the pub, or people may recognize us." Hermione pointed out.
"Or worse, we may recognize ourselves!" Draco quipped, referring to the fact that they may be alive in the time they had jumped to.
"I don't fancy explaining to myself why I'm associating with Draco bloody Malfoy," Hermione commented, and Draco rolled his eyes at her.
"Thank your lucky stars you're with the best Auror in the department," Draco said with a smirk.
"I didn't say you were the best."
"Let me guess who you think is the best…" Draco pretended to be deep in thought, "hmmm….oh! I know! I bet it begins with 'P' and rhymes with 'otter'."
"Are we really going to go there?" Hermione sighed. "Are you still spending your life feeling inferior to Harry?"
Draco stopped walking and turned to look at her. "Inferior to Harry?! Are you joking!"
Hermione shrugged. "Yes, you always wanted to beat him. You tried to be better at Quidditch, a better student, a better wizard. And now, it's still a competition to see who the best Auror is."
"I don't and have never felt inferior to Potter," Draco answered her firmly. "But it doesn't matter what anyone else does, he has his reputation to give him a piggyback in life. He doesn't need to be excel at anything; he'd be admired anyway."
"This really should have been filed under 'old, pointless feuds' by now!" Hermione pointed out.
"I have 'filed' it," Draco took a step closer. "You're berating me about not letting go of history but you're the one who is still judging me on mine!"
Hermione frowned. "I am not at all!"
"It doesn't matter who is the best Auror or Quidditch player! I actually don't care!"
"So why are you so angry then?"
"Because you are presuming an awful lot."
"Such as?"
Draco stared at her for a moment. "I don't think I'm the best Auror. I think I'm good at working out problems logically and at staying calm, but I jump in too quickly, lose my patience, try and rush things."
Hermione opened her mouth to speak but he shook his head.
"No, let me finish. I don't think Potter is the best Auror either – he's great in the field but he isn't interested in working through a problem, he'd rather be acting upon it."
Hermione hid a smile because Draco's assessment of her friend was spot on. All the situations she had ever found herself in with Harry and Ron, that had been her only frustration with them both.
"But that doesn't mean I don't think he's very good, because he is!" Draco looked at Hermione and shrugged. "You just never bothered to ask me what I thought!"
Hermione bit her lip. He was being open and honest and saying things that he didn't need to tell her. And he was right, she had been presuming what his opinion was. "Okay, you have a point," she admitted, reluctantly. "I apologize for presuming."
"We need to stop arguing," Draco said, quietly. "We are going to need each other."
"Yes, I know. You're right," Hermione offered him her hand. "Truce?"
"I wouldn't go that far!" Draco joked, wrinkling his nose at her outstretched hand in an exaggerated fashion. She found herself giving a little chuckle.
Hermione looked around. "We really need to get moving again."
Draco grabbed her arm, then let it go immediately. "You're the best Auror we have."
Hermione stared at him in shock. "Me? Now I know you're not being serious."
"Brightest witch at school, that has translated to someone who can work through things with a very clever logic, look at situations from an entirely different angle. Plus, you're not bad with your wand," Draco gave a little smirk, now looking up at her from beneath his fringe, "and you know every spell there is. And obviously you're annoyingly Gryffindor!"
"You just had to spoil it, didn't you?" Hermione said but she was giving him a small smile. How could she not after he was being so shockingly complimentary?
"That's quite enough of me being nice, let's get moving." Draco started walking again and she followed him for a few seconds before stopping.
"Draco?"
He turned and looked at her. "What?"
"Thank you."
She saw his eyes soften and suddenly the atmosphere of barely tolerating each other, seemed to change. He was right! They needed to get along, they only had one another to rely on. She wasn't going to tell him, at least not yet, but there was no doubt in Hermione's mind that he was by far the best Auror in the department. So, if she was going to be stuck in this conundrum with anyone, he was the best choice.
"It's all true but don't expect me to repeat myself anytime soon. I will firmly deny having said it." He flashed her a grin and then started walking again. "Not having any idea 'when' we are is not great. We need to try and find that out."
"Hmmm, well I can tell you when it's not," Hermione said. She was staring up at the large building they are passing.
"Tell me when it's not?" Draco sounded puzzled.
"It's not in the last 12 years, because Zonko's is still Zonko's." Hermione pointed up to the big sign above them.
"Great – I was hoping we'd be a bit further forward!" Draco sighed.
They took a few more steps and suddenly Draco swung around, grabbed Hermione around the waist and pulled her down the side of Zonko's. He put his hand across her mouth and nodded towards the street. There was the clear sound of voices and they were coming rapidly closer.
"I still don't know why ya had to bring me here." An elderly voice said.
"It's where the sampling takes place – we bring everyone here."
Hermione frowned her puzzlement at Draco who looked the same. Sampling? What in Merlin's name was that?
"I'm not as young as I used to be, I like my comforts. I don't have the energy to go gallivanting about using weird contraptions." The elderly voice sounded confused.
"Well, it's all done now isn't it and we can take you back." This younger voice sounded impatient.
"We've got to use that thing again?"
"Yes, but it'll be very quick.
"I don't like it – I never did trust anything like that, it isn't natural."
The voices drew nearer, only around the corner and Hermione held her breath, pressing her back against the wall, with Draco pressed up against her. In normal circumstances this would have been a very awkward situation as she was not inclined to get anywhere as close as this to Malfoy, but they didn't really have any choice.
"Let's do it now – then you won't need to walk as far." The younger voice said.
"I suppose so. What did ya do because I can't remember what happened? My memory isn't good anymore, I can't remember a thing."
"Don't worry – it was just a simple medical routine. It's all over now, you can forget all about it. Are you ready?"
Hermione saw a flash of light from the street and then it went silent. Draco indicated for her to keep her position while he crept to the corner and slowly peered around.
"All clear," he said, and Hermione walked over to join him.
"Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?" she said. "That flash was them using a Time Turner."
Draco nodded. "I think whoever the elderly wizard was, they had used a time turner to fetch him and bring him here, did whatever it was they did to him then used the Time Turner to take him back again."
"I agree – what exactly did they do to him? He seems to have no memory of it, and I couldn't decide if it was because he is elderly or if they'd wiped his memory?"
"I think even an elderly person can remember what happened to them in the last few hours. They must have wiped his memory of it."
Hermione shuddered. "I don't like this at all – what kind of weird thing are they up to?"
Draco looked over at her. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" Hermione, surprised by his concern.
Draco held up his hands defensively. "I was just checking."
"I want to know what he meant by 'sampling' and 'simple medical routine'," Hermione started walking towards the Three Broomsticks and Draco followed her. "It sounds like some sort of human experimentation!"
Draco stopped walking and put his hand on her arm. "Hold on." He was fumbling around in his pockets until he pulled out the small pouch that had fallen out of the wizard's pocket. It reminded Hermione of the kind of pouch that they served ketchup or vinegar in at a café. "We need to open this," Draco said.
"It could be dangerous."
Draco ignored her and took out his wand, placing the pouch on a low wall and using his wand to open it. The contents, deep red, spilt onto the wall.
"Blood?" Hermione bent closer. "I'm sure it's blood."
Draco put his finger in it and held it up. "I agree, it's blood."
"This is getting weirder and weirder!" Hermione flicked the packet over with her wand. On the back, someone had written some letters. "What's it say?" she flipped it around as it was upside down and then gasped. "Longbottom?" She looked up at Draco who bent closer.
"Yep, Longbottom," Draco confirmed.
"Longbottom? Neville?"
"It would seem so."
They stared at one another both completely confused. Why had a wizard they had never seen, travelled back in time to collect a tube of Neville's blood? And how did they do that without him knowing about it?
They both heard the voices at the same time this time and Hermione looked around frantically for somewhere to hide. There was no convenient alleyway.
"Get over by the shop front, I'll do a Disillusionment Charm," Draco whispered, pushing Hermione gently towards the shop.
"No, let me," Hermione stepped to one side pushing Draco against the shop door and then stood right next to him, raised her wand over their heads and whispered the spell.
The wizards they had heard speaking appeared from around the corner. Hermione held her breath, scared that even the slightest noise would alert the strangers of their presence. She could feel Draco right next to her and was sure he wasn't taking a breath either!
"So, what happened to Somerfield? Where had they sent him?" the taller wizard said.
"Don't you mean when?" the shorter wizard quipped, and they both laughed.
"I heard it was way back, further than anyone has been sent back yet."
"What bloodline?"
"Gaunt, I think."
"Gaunt! Well, you know why that one is important, don't you?"
Hermione felt Draco move beside and knew he recognized the name the same as she did. Tom Riddle Snr and Merope Gaunt were Voldemort's parents.
"He's not back yet and I think Jordan's worried."
"Worried about failing the task, not about Somerfield I'm guessing!" the shorter wizard looked around nervously, obviously worried about being overheard berating his superiors.
Hermione held her breath again, knowing that any small movement would reveal their hiding place. She felt Draco put his hand on her arm but didn't dare turn her head.
"Does Flint know?"
"About the Gaunts?"
"No! About Somerfield disappearing?"
"I don't think so or someone would be removed permanently."
The wizard's wondered off and once they had turned the next bend Draco removed the charm.
"Did you get all that?" he asked, and Hermione nodded.
"Yeah. So, they're sending wizards through time to…" she paused, frowning "to collect blood?"
Draco nodded. "A certain someone's parent's blood."
Hermione ran her hands through her already messy hair. "Are they going to try and bring him back?"
Draco shook his head. "No, that's impossible."
"Well, I would have said, splitting your soul into seven pieces and hiding in various places until they could be put back together was pretty impossible too, but I'd have been wrong!" Hermione said, bluntly.
Draco put his head to one side. "That's my point! The Dark Lord has already died and been resurrected once. I really can't see how anything could bring him back again."
Hermione had wondered off a little, looking around. "Where did they come from do you think? They weren't down the street that way," she waved her arm, "or we would have seen them, and they would have seen us. So, they must have come out of one of the buildings."
Draco joined her, also looking at each shop front and door. After a few minutes he grabbed her arm. "Granger, we're wasting our time. It looks like they forgot to put up the 'Evil Wizards Planning Their Dastardly Deads' sign."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him exasperated. "There you go on about time again! If we rush like maniacs from one time jump to another, we will never be able to put all this together. We need to find as much as we can at each stop."
"I'm hoping this will be the last stop, to be honest!" Draco said. "This isn't some school children we're dealing with, Hermione. These people have ancient time turners, have a coordinated plan, seemingly quite a few wizards working together. They aren't going to leave anything for us to find." He stared at Hermione who was now bending over a small object on the floor. "Are you listening to me?"
She turned around and held up a small object in her hand. "You're right! They're far too professional and organized to leave us any clues at all!"
Draco approached her and then stopped. "A Time Turner? Another one?"
Hermione smiled at him triumphantly. "Looks like a big, fat clue to me Malfoy!"
"Looks like a Time Turner to me, Granger. As we already have two, I think we probably don't need another one!"
"It has it's dials set." Hermione raised her eyebrows at him, challenging him to argue with her again.
"That might be where they've just been." Draco said, sulkily and Hermione laughed again.
"Who cares? It's a trail, isn't it?"
"Did they come out of this building?" Draco asked, looking up. His eyes widened. "Bloody hell, how did we not think of this?"
"Think of what?" Hermione stepped next to him and turned around to face the building. "Honeydukes?" She looked at Draco and shrugged her shoulders. "Yes! How silly of us! Of course, Honeydukes is an obvious den of iniquity!"
"You really are not funny," Draco said, rolling his eyes but she could see his lips curving upwards at the edges as he tried not to smile.
"Are you thinking that the Acid Pops do actually contain Acid? Or the Blowing Gum actually blows up?" Hermione teased him, enjoying herself.
He met her teasing gaze and grinned at her. "Hilarious! But you really should leave the sarcasm to me, Granger." Despite his words he gave a little chuckle at her joke, and she found herself staring at his handsome face, surprised by how he looked when he was smiling and laughing like this. He carried on speaking, still grinning. "If you can manage to contain your wittiness for a minute, then you might remember that Honeydukes has a secret passage that leads straight into Hogwarts."
Hermione stared at him. He was right! It did! When she didn't acknowledge this, he crossed his arms in front of himself and put his head to one side.
"I believe that may be an actual trail?" Draco smirked at her. He put his hand around his ear. "Sorry, what was that you said? I apologise Draco, well remembered?"
"Bog off."
Draco burst out laughing. "Well, you said it yourself, I am the best Auror in the department."
Hermione groaned. "You're not going to let that drop, are you?"
Draco laughed again. "Nope."
"We don't know that they were in there yet or that the passageway has any relevance."
"Of course it does. Follow me, there's a back entrance." He scooted off, leaving Hermione no choice but to follow him. As they approached a narrow door at the back of the building, they could hear voices. Draco crouched down behind the door and indicated that she should do the same. He then leant forward, twisting the door handle, allowing the door to swing open of its own accord. Hermione held her breath, wondering if this was a wise move but after a few moments there was no movement from inside, so Draco looked around the door and then signaled for her to follow him inside.
