Tempus Magia

Part One

Chapter 7: Family Matters and Death Eaters

Hermione Granger made a grave error during the final battle that resulted in Remus's death. Working as an unspeakable she spends two years working on a spell using powder from time turners to go back to Remus's greatest hour of need. What if Remus's greatest time of need wasn't in *this* war?

Hermione spent most of Sunday sitting miserably in her room. She apparated directly from her bedroom to a Chinese takeaway place in the south of London and then apparated directly back into her room. She ate under her covers while she read Narcissa's book.

The book was actually helping her with her wand movement problem and she already had a hunch she knew what her problem was. She spent an hour plugging in the equation. She smiled and jumped up in happiness.

She still couldn't believe it was so simple. Magic was supposed to be natural, a part of you. Nothing about time travel was natural or within the natural order of things. Switching her hand that she cast with was a simple and eloquent choice.

She was ever thankful she wasn't ambidextrous like her father. According to the book, those who were, 'with the gift of both hands' could not cast spells that required the caster use the 'wrong' hand.

She spent hours re-evaluating her equation. She was so close, she could taste it. Grabbing a sharpie pen, she began to draw the equation in large on the left wall. She squared off the areas that were either confusing or she wasn't sure the proper answers. She left them empty or wrote the possibilities above the square in cursive.

So far she was down to only seventeen squares. Yesterday she had thirty-two so she was counting it as a win.

She sat back in her chair surveying her work proudly. Little Teddy's eyes filled her mind. She buried her need to go back to the small boy. No wonder Harry was always over there if this was how Harry felt she understood why the Auror kept a framed photo of the rambunctious boy on his desk at home and work.

Hermione shivered and hugged her arms. She'd been so cold since she got home. No matter how high she put the heat she couldn't warm herself. It was as if her very soul was cold.

Hermione was contemplating the reason for her bodies odd reaction when a hammering came from her door.

"Hermione!" Hermione bolted up when she heard Saul's voice. Saul Croaker was at her door. On a Sunday. How the hell did he know where she lived?

Hermione drew her wand and sent a Patronus to Harry before walking cautiously towards the door. As she passed her phone in her kitchen it rang. She answered it as she checked the back of the house. There were no visible threats, she most likely wasn't Saul.

"Hello?"

"Hermione, dear! It's Bertie!"

"Hi Bertie, how are you?" Hermione responded conversationally.

"How am I? There's a blackout in the neighborhood and Arnold went to look in on you and he got confused and came right back! Is it happening again? Hermione, I want you to come over right now!"

Hermione heard her front door unlock. She took a step forward the cordless phone in one hand held against one ear, her wand in the other. She rounded the corner to come face to face with Saul.

"Sir? What are you- I mean is something wrong?"

"We have a code 2-77-4," he said his face was pale.

Hermione leaned her ear into the phone. "Bertie, I have a work emergency. Get Arnold back inside the house and do not leave. I'll call you when I get back in."

Hermione hung up the phone effectively silencing Bertie's protest. She turned to Sol, who was surveying her home. "Where?"

"Bardsey Island, an island off of Wales. A muggle called it into the Police when she recognized one of two Death Eaters from a wanted poster. They called the 'special forces' and are expecting us."

They were walking towards Hermione's Floo. "Saul, one question."

"Yes?"

"What did we talk about before I left on Friday?"

"Those two crazy bints? Shauna has been sacked and Fauna suspended pending an investigation. Why?"

"Just checking it was you."

Hermione threw powder in the Floo. Saul stepped in the grate. "Kingsley said you would ask a security question. Surprised you didn't ask earlier," he threw the powder down. "Ministry of Magic. Emergency Auror's division."

Hermione followed her boss through the Floo. To say the Emergency Auror office was a mess was an understatement. Hermione hadn't heard this much-panicked shouting since the war.
Harry pushed through a bunch of Aurors, "Hermione, thank goodness you're here. They found two Death Eaters with a time turner in Wales. Every Auror is partnering up with Unspeakable. You're my partner. Let's change into gear."

Hermione followed Harry's lead. Deep down, she couldn't help but feel dismayed. She had joined the department of mysteries because she didn't want to have to do this again. She didn't want to have flashbacks of the war every time she went to work.

"Hermione, are you a small or a medium? I can't remember and we need to get you in field gear."

"Small, let's move. We have death eaters to catch."

Ron was sitting in the Burrow's kitchen staring out of the window. He knew she changed the night after the final battle. It was the first time they had ever been intimate and Ron thought it was perfect.

He thought she would shake out of her funk but after three weeks of living with a ghost, he packed his bags. At the time he thought it was to give him time to mourn his brother, he lost. It took him almost a year to realize he had left to give her time to mourn.

Her boyfriend, at the time, was one of the few people that she told about Remus's death. Ron knew she felt responsible and that it was eating her up inside. Her guilt, combined with his guilt was too much and turned their relationship toxic. Ron left before it could ruin them forever.

Today, after their family brunch Ron was convinced that he had ruined it. It was the seventh consecutive Weasley family brunch she had missed. His mother had cried while she was washing the dishes.

He needed to fix this.

He broke up with Hermione to protect her. So, she would help herself rather than use him as a crutch. He thought he had done the right thing until Harry called from Saint Mungos. Tears burned at his eyes when he remembered that night.

At no point in his life had he ever been so scared. How did you save someone from themselves? The answer was that you couldn't. You could drag them to therapy and sit on top of them but if they didn't want to live there was nothing you could do but be supportive. He was as supportive as he could be when she was constantly telling him that she needed space.

That was what Healer April Abbott had told him anyway. Hannah's mother was really sweet and Ron was grateful that Neville had introduced them. His mother-in-law was a huge fixture in his friend's life, as well as the entire magical community.

Ron shoved the chair back and hurried to the Floo. Ginny mentioned that Hermione had started locking her Floo. Frowning he tossed some Floo into the pot and called Hermione's address. Surprisingly, it was open and he went in.

He walked in and found the house dark except for a light coming from her room.

"Hermione? It's Ron. The Floo was open."

There was no answer.

"Hermione?"

Ron stormed into her room, his wand out. "Hermione?"

The room was empty but it was also not the source of light. There was an open closet-

Wait, there was never a closet there. Ron cast several charms before walking into the room. He lost his voice when he looked around the room. There were several extension charms that enlarged what should have been a closet into a room the size of the Burrow's kitchen. There papers and documents pinned everywhere.

The numbers and the times and dates scrawled on the wall weren't the worst of it though. On the table was a glass vial with gold sand, that was moving entirely on its own. It was almost as if it was trying to escape the vial. Every half a minute the vial would turn upside down and then right itself again.

Ron didn't need to be an Unspeakable to understand what Hermione was doing. What he did need was immediate help from someone more level headed than him. Ron drew his wand and greeted his jack russell terrier. "Get her, tell her it's an emergency and to Floo directly into Hermione's house."

Twenty minutes later Ron stood with Ginny poured over Hermione's papers. "Honestly Ron, I barely understand most of the basic principles of most of this stuff. Hermione has literally created a new field of science."

"So you can't make heads or tails either?" Ron asked. He should have been relieved that he wasn't the only dumb one but it only increased his worry. What was Hermione doing?

"Ron," Ginny fumbled. "What Hermione is doing is illegal for a reason. I… I… We can't tell anyone. It stays with the two of us."

Ron's eyebrows rose. "The two of us?"

"If Harry finds out he will have to report it. Best we keep him out of it."

"We can't just let Hermione fuck around with the timeline, Ginny!"

"Ron…" Ginny looked down at her shoes. She was hiding something.

"What? Are you two keeping things from me again?"

Ginny's head snapped up. "No! It just happened and the only one I talked to it about was Draco Malfoy."

"Malfoy?"

"Yeah, after the Quidditch game." Ron waited for her to continue. "Hermione came to Teddy Lupin's birthday."

"Yes, I know. You and Harry uninvited most of the invitation list so she would come. Including me, I might add."

"She doesn't work well with large crowds and Teddy really wanted her to come. When she picked him up… I was with Harry in the other room and his eyes… well, they… turned... gold."

"Gold?"

"Lupine gold."

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"Draco said that Hermione and Teddy's did as well. He said Hermione looked unwell when Teddy was finally coaxed out of her arms." Ginny let the implication drift between them.

"No… How could they possibly be a pack?!" He was being left out again. Was it because he left when they were on the run? Would he never be forgiven? Was it-

"Ron, they aren't excluding you. I think Hermione and Remus had a connection."

"What are you talking about? Do you remember when Professor Lupin tutored you in the third year when you fell behind?"

Ron's ears burned. "Yes, he promised not to tell anyone about it because I was embarrassed then and I still am now."

"Well, I know for a fact that Hermione asked for tutoring as well and he declined. He said it wasn't appropriate and that he would have to do private tutoring for all of the students. Hermione said he was flustered. Why would a fully grown adult be flustered around a thirteen-year-old?"

"Ginny I have no idea what you're talking about!"

Ginny picked up her index finger as if she was proving a point. "And why would he give up his life for Hermione, an ex-student he didn't particularly like, especially when he had a child at home and he had just lost his wife?"

Ron was quiet as the news sunk in. He slumped down onto Hermione's bed. "Because he already knows her."

Ginny nodded and sat down next to him. "Because she already went back and I think on some subconscious level Hermione knows."

"But why would Teddy-"

"Have you heard of the law of the mate?"

"Mates are real?"

"Yes, Ron read a damn book. All werewolves have seven mates based on the seven principle levels. The levels are kindness, passion, harmony, perseverance, humility, intellect, and royalty. They each correspond to different personalities and the ones that are most dominant in a person's life. I believe royalty is the only one that only someone born to an Alpha can achieve but the rest are technically achievable by any werewolf.

"If a werewolf meets even one of their seven mates in their entire life they are considered an Alpha even if they don't have a pack. The mate makes them powerful, however, the death of a mate will make them weaker than even an Omega. Fenrir Greyback killed his mate in some ritual sacrifice and that's what made him as strong as he is."

Ron paled. "Could Hermione be Greyback's…"

Ginny clenched Ron's fingers, "We'd only be sending her back to her death."

Ron squeezed her fingers in return. "You realize we have to go talk to Andromeda. She probably knew."

Ginny nodded. "Given how she treated Hermione, she was probably scared she would claim Teddy and take him. Do you think Andromeda knew Hermione in the past?"

Ron shook his head, "No, but I'm pretty sure she crossed paths with Narcissa Malfoy in the past. Harry mentioned that he came to Hermione's office and she was on a Floo call with her for over an hour. He said most of it was just the two of them debating wand making and charm theory."

Ginny stood and plucked a book off of the nightstand. "This book says that it's the property of Malfoy Manor."

Ron took the book from his sister's hands and opened it to a page with symbols he saw on the wall. "Gin, I think Narcissa is helping her get sent back. We are going to need to speak to both sisters."

"Should we wait for Hermione to come home and speak to her?"

Ron shook his head, "Dad had to run out to the office, apparently, two death eaters were in broad daylight with a time turner and he needs to check out the area to make sure there was nothing that falls into his jurisdiction. I'm going to bet Hermione is with Harry and she'll be exhausted and not receptive of our questions."

Ginny stood while Ron placed the book back. Together, they moved everything back to its appropriate places. Ginny was proud of Ron and how mature he was being with the entire situation. She had a feeling it hadn't processed yet and once it did he would have a… louder reaction.

Grabbing her older brother's hand, they stood side by side in front of the Floo. Ron audibly gulped.

"Are we doing the right thing, Ginny?"

"I don't know but she's planning on going back anyway and I don't think there's anything can stop her."

They left the Floo unaware that Hermione's old school video monitoring system was still working and monitoring the living room and the hallway.