Chapter 2

Hermione Granger gazed upon the pristine beaches of Minami Iwo Jima from her dormitory in Mahoutokoro. At the age of thirteen, she had just finished her second year of education there as a British transfer student. Although initially observed with scrutiny due to coming from a country recently ravaged by war, she soon gained the respect and admiration of the staff and her fellow students with her rigorous work ethic and stellar spell casting. Of course, the latter was helped by her knowledge of repeated time loops, but as Ron and Harry always said, "a win's a win." As such, she decided to rest on her laurels for now; after all, hearing a compliment that she hadn't heard before was quite refreshing, given how often she'd gone through time.

Additionally, although she had only been a student at Mahoutokoro for only two years, Hermione held the opinion that the Japanese Wizarding school was a much better academic environment than its counterpart in Britain was. For one thing, students at Mahoutokoro took their studies much more seriously than the students from Hogwarts; as such, Hermione felt less like an outsider here for striving to achieve good grades. Another appeal the school held was the lack of discrimination against either muggleborns or the muggle world in general; in fact, it was almost comparable to the policies held by the American Wizarding school Ilvermorny. Although Hermione didn't know the exact reason why, she was nevertheless grateful that she didn't have to deal with the same stigma that she suffered from at her original school. If Harry and Ron could see her now, they would probably joke that she was in her element.

The thought of her two best friends sent a pang of melancholy through the bushy haired witch. Although they often annoyed her to no end, Harry and Ron had become her rocks, the only constants she had from the time line continuously restarting. Although traveling through time sounded cool on paper, it lost its appeal rather quickly, especially if you were continuously sent back to the same starting point after your death, no matter your actions. This was one of the main reasons why the 'Time Trio', as they affectionately referred to themselves as, often associated only with each other and none of their Hogwarts schoolmates. Befriending individuals outside of the time cycles began to feel pointless after many years, as with each reset, said 'friend' lost their memories of any bonds forged between them and the time travelers.

Being stuck in an eternally repeating time loop may have been a cause for despair, but having Ron and Harry at her side made the whole ordeal much more bearable. That's why, even though it had already been a couple of years in this cycle, Hermione was still saddened when she and her friends split up to attend different wizarding schools to experience different cultures and how they used magic.

Letting out a small sigh, Hermione rose from her seat by the window and walked over to her desk. Idly fiddling with the leaves of her sakura bonsai nearby, the teen thought back to when the cycles had begun. The first several loops had not been very pleasant to say the least; having not yet outgrown their hot-tempered mindsets, Harry and Ron had insisted on using their do-overs to get rid of their dangerous enemies, such as Quirrel and the basilisk, as early as possible, forgetting in the process that their (at the time) third year education wouldn't be enough to subdue fully trained adult wizards or ancient magical creatures.

Needless to say, the three found out there were many methods of dying at the hands of their adversaries. None were experiences they ever wanted to live through again.

Aside from the lessons about death, another unpleasant memory that came from their earliest cycles was the feelings of imprisonment the three felt. Most stories involving time travel usually have said time traveler at an advanced age before they are sent to the past. In the case of Hermione and her two friends, they had barely reached the age of adolescence before they became unwilling travelers through time. Back then, they hardly had the abilities necessary to break out of their school, much less travel the world without worrying about expenses. Thus, they were stuck at Hogwarts.

The experience wasn't entirely without benefit however; once the three had gotten a good grasp on all seven years of the Hogwarts curriculum, they would spend the following cycles alternating between stunning their classmates with their sudden magical knowledge and skipping classes altogether to sneak into the library's restricted section in order to further their knowledge on anything that might help in their escapes whenever the cycle restarted.

One of their best finds was an obscure cloning spell. Once commonly used by Roman wizards, this particular charm allowed its user to create an identical clone that was linked to the their mind, allowing the original person to control the clone mentally from a distance. As an added benefit, not only was the created clone indistinguishable from the caster, they also had no will of their own, allowing said caster to use the spell without fear of rebellion. The charm's major downsides however, was that the clone was not very durable (only able to withstand a couple of bludgeoning hexes at the most), and that the spell required a pint of the user's blood per created clone. As a result, the charm was ill-suited for casting repetitively in a short time, even with the aid of blood-replenishing potions.

Hermione was jolted out of her thoughts when she heard the sounds of the school's bells, signifying it was time for breakfast. The young girl from Britain quickly donned her school robes and rushed out of her room. Her goal for this cycle was to be the first transfer student to turn their robes golden through top marks, and she was more than ready for the challenge.


Ronald Weasley ascended a mountain in an open grassland at an astonishing speed, going much faster than an average mountain climber.

Of course, Ron was different from normal climbers in that he was currently a bird.

Stopping his flight on a ledge relatively close to the mountain's summit, Ron shifted out of his red-breasted robin form and lay back on a soft patch of grass, looking up at the night sky. Given how he'd never even heard of the place until well after he and his mates had become seasoned time travelers, Ron didn't know what to expect when he enrolled in Uagadou as a transfer student. However, the freckled lad was pleasantly surprised to discover that he greatly enjoyed his time in Uganda, despite having only been there for such a short time.

One of the biggest reasons for Ron's joy was how indifferent Uagadou was to wealth and family connections. Back at Hogwarts, the sixth Weasley was often mocked by others (the most prominent of his tormentors being Draco Malfoy) for his family's poverty, which led to him developing a sort of charity complex, simultaneously yearning for more yet reluctant to receive if he saw it as pity. However, at the Ugandan Wizarding school, the students and faculty had a relationship that was less like a traditional school and more of a surrogate family feeling. If someone was happy, then they were all happy; the same was true if someone was sad, anxious, etc. For someone who had always felt like an outsider even amongst his own family, this sense of connection provided Ron with a sense of ease and contentment.

Aside from opening up more, Ron was also enjoying the classes at his new school, though he would never admit it out loud. The red haired boy found the way Uagadou taught astronomy and potions to be absolutely fascinating. Unlike at Hogwarts, where astronomy classes consisted mainly of mapping the stars, planets, and their moons, astronomy classes at Uagadou went into detail about the etymology behind the names of the different celestial bodies and constellations, as well as how they affected life on Earth based on the names given to them. In regards to potions, students did not start brewing right away; rather, they were taught the details about each ingredient, and how they interacted with each other to create the potions known in modern time. Ron was just happy to have a professor who didn't show blatant favoritism or mock his best friends.

Speaking of Harry and Hermione… the two were the closest people to the youngest male Weasley. They had stuck by him, even when he was at his lowest. Ron suppressed a shudder at the memories. He had always been an insecure individual, but after the cycles had started, the source of his insecurities had changed from wealth and standing out from his siblings to being the cause of their current predicament. It was hardly a secret amongst the three that Ron's burst of accidental magic had caused the time turner to malfunction and trap them in repeating time.

Although both had insisted that the ordeal was not his fault in the slightest, Ron couldn't help but carry the feeling of guilt within him, his inner monsters constantly taunting him about his burst of magic, saying how Harry and Hermione should never have befriended him… the stress of it all began to fester until one day, the trio ran into Malfoy and his gang of fellow pureblood supremacists, who unsurprisingly began to belittle the three. When they began to mention how worthless Ron was and how Hogwarts would be better off without him, the sixth Weasley finally snapped.

Moving at a speed almost too fast to follow, Ron shot off a dark cutting curse known as Sectumsempra, which the three had found in Snape's old potions textbook during a previous cycle. Malfoy and his associates managed to dodge the spell, but not completely; Crabbe in particular had gained a huge gash across his face, while Pansy's left ear was horizontally sliced in half. The supremacist gang turned and ran, but when Harry and Hermione turned to look, their friend had already disappeared, having flown out of a nearby window.

For the next several months, Ron hid in the forbidden forest, overcome with guilt. He hated Malfoy and his gang more than anyone, but he never wanted to hurt them like that. Heck, if they stayed still for a second sooner, they could have died, and that was something Ron never wished to inflict on his schoolmates, no matter how much he despised them. The ginger had tried his best to avoid those searching for him, although his two friends finally managed to locate him at the foot of Aragog's den. Once the three were face to face, Hermione and Harry each made their own heartfelt pleas to their fellow time traveler, although before Ron could respond, he was suddenly jerked and dragged backwards.

The last thing he saw was a set of eight milky white eyes and large, glistening fangs, aiming for his neck.

When Ron awoke in the next cycle, he gathered his two best friends in the Room of Requirement, and poured his heart out to them, telling them about the voices he'd been hearing his head, and the guilt he still felt, despite their objections to the contrary. When he finished, Harry and Hermione got up, and gently enveloped their friend in a group hug. Although no words were spoken, the three siblings in all but blood reaffirmed the love between them and the bond they shared in that moment.

Of course, things still weren't perfect; the three had differing opinions and temperaments that would clash from time to time. However bad the fights got however, the moment they shared in the Room was one that Ron would always remember. Aside from the renewal of their friendship then, the freckled lad made a silent vow to himself, that he would learn as much as he could so that he could watch both Hermione and Harry's backs.

Returning to the present, Ron slowly got to his feet, shifted into his animagus form, and flew back toward the direction of Uagadou. He was starting to get the hang of wandless magic, and he couldn't wait to share his knowledge with his fellow time walkers.


Harry Potter (or Christopher Harrison, as he was known to his current school), was sitting in a squashy armchair in the Ilvermorny library, reading a book on the school's founders, Isolt Sayre and James Steward. The Boy-Who-Was-Incognito reached up and rubbed his temples. He had no idea the two faced such hardships to get where they were now. Harry felt a particular respect rising for Isolt; as someone who had an upbringing not unlike his own, she was nevertheless determined to escape her confinement and create her own destiny. Setting the book down for a moment, Harry couldn't help but wonder if he would've done the same thing had he not been caught in the cycles of repeating time.

Although the events he had learned from the book were awe-inspiring, they paled in comparison to the revelations he had learned as a time traveler. One of the most shocking was how Albus Dumbledore, his former hero, had once endorsed discrimination against muggles and had almost sided with the dark wizard Grindelwald before a feud drove them apart. Although Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald and brought temporary peace to Britain, Harry still felt resentment toward the man on a few occasions, not just for his former views but also for some of his decisions.

Another revelation that was more conflicting than anything else was that of his least favorite professor, Severus Snape. Harry's opinion of the man had sunk to a new low when he found out that Snape was the one who told Riddle about an incomplete prophecy, which caused the dark wizard to seek out Harry, killing his parents in the process. At the same time however, Snape held onto the love he had for Harry's mother Lily for his entire life, causing him to turn to the life of a double agent on the side of good. In the end, Harry couldn't decide if Snape was a hero who bravely risked his life or a spiteful bully who only switched sides to give a figurative 'I told you so' to his schoolyard nemesis.

At least he wouldn't have to deal with either of them for the rest of this cycle. Harry leaned back and smiled wryly as he thought about the 'method' he, Ron and Hermione used to escape Hogwarts. Because the school would never let three eleven year olds walk out the door (especially Harry, the famed Boy-Who-Lived), the three had decided to humor themselves by creating outlandish methods to distract the school enough for the three to flee.

This time, their little scheme had involved a certain potions professor, permanently transfiguring him, and memory charming the entire school. It took a lot of work, but it was worth it to see the Hogwarts students and faculty believe that there was never a Severus Snape at that school; there was only their unofficial mascot, Trippy the Tortoise. Dumbledore in particular was horrified when he discovered that there apparently hadn't been a potions professor at Hogwarts for years, and set out to re-hire his old friend Horace Slughorn.

Poor little Snape. The only one to remember his role as a professor but no voice to make himself heard. Oh well, at least he's getting more love now than he did as a human, Harry mused.

Chuckling one last time at the memory, Harry picked up his backpack, returned the book he was reading, and left the library. His new dorm mates were teaching him about Quodpot, and he was determined to prove he was an ace on a broom, no matter the competition.


(A/N): Alright second chapter is done! As you can probably tell, this story won't be told in a completely chronological order; I will instead be writing about the trio's more interesting cycles of time travel.