Wigtown Wanderers
Chaser 1
Prompt: You Can't Predict it All
Additional Prompts: 6. [creature] cat; 11. [emotion] surprise; 12. [dialogue] "This isn't a game."
Warnings: suicide. She gets better, but still.
I'm keeping this a short story, but maybe one day after I actually finish one of my multichapter fics I'll expand on it and make it full-length.
If she had known what was going to happen, Hermione would never have taken on all the electives Hogwarts had to offer. Probably. She just wanted so much to learn all about magic's various forms. Divination and Muggle Studies were duds, but she had been much too proud to quit. And now she was paying the price. Her predicament had nothing to do with Muggle Studies or Divination and she counted herself lucky that she didn't have either of those classes. In fact, her predicament started on a Saturday. As much as she liked school, she couldn't imagine going through a school day, every single day, for the rest of her life.
It would probably help to mention that she was in a time loop.
She had been for about five months now. Or rather what she processed as five months. She was in a time loop, time didn't move anywhere except from when Crookshanks woke her up by knocking her clock off the wall at six in the morning to midnight. She had eighteen hours every day. The same eighteen hours. She could predict everything that happened that day down to a tee. Harry got his firebolt back from Professor McGonagall and moments after Ron would accuse Crookshanks of killing Scabbers.
Oh, that stupid rat. If Hermione ever saw it she would kill it herself.
It's the reason she was in this mess. Ron made her so upset that she had a fit and ended up breaking her time turner in that fit. Didn't matter if she didn't make that mistake the second time around. She was stuck on this February day unable to move forward to the Quidditch match that was supposed to take place tomorrow. Unable to learn any more in her classes. Unable to permanently mend her relationship with Ron and Harry. Had time been moving normally she would probably be on holiday with her parents. Oh… Was she doomed never to see them again?
"ARGHHHHH NOOOO!"
Hermione stared at the stairs as Ron came storming down, his face as red as his hair. He stuck his finger in her face.
"Your mangy cat killed Scabbers!"
She tested this already. On the fifth loop, she kept Crookshanks with her all day and still Ron had screamed at her for Scabbers' death. She stared at Ron for the longest time, got up from the table, and calmly walked over to the bay of windows. She hardly heard the shouts behind her as she smashed open the window with a flick of her wand and jumped out. The horrified screams were carried away by the icy wind as she hurtled down to the rocks below.
CRASH!
Hermione sat up in bed and clutched her still racing heart. Crookshanks darted across her bed, having scared himself when her clock crashed to the ground.
"Low point," she muttered and slapped herself. "Get a grip!"
She flung back her covers and dressed warmly before going for a walk. Of all the things she'd done in this time loop she hadn't gone for an early morning walk. The morning was miserable with icy fog rolling over the grounds. Shivering, Hermione wondered if maybe the problem was that she was still within Hogwarts grounds. Maybe if she kept walking as far as her feet could carry her she'd walk out of this loop.
A figure suddenly emerged from the thick fog and barrelled into Hermione, knocking her flat on her back. The person stumbled and fell next to her.
"Oww…" Hermione groaned and sat up, rubbing her head.
"I am so sorry!" said the person who ran into her. She looked over at him. She knew this boy. Cedric Diggory. Hufflepuff. Quidditch Captain. "I didn't see you. I don't normally run into anyone out here."
"It's okay," said Hermione. "I mean, I'm not okay, but I'm not hurt. See, I'm stuck in an endless time loop where I'm living today over and over again. However, this is the first time we've officially met. I notice you every day though. You spill your tea in your lap when Fred and George set off firecrackers in Percy's cereal."
He stared at her. She'd told so many people about her time loops and they always looked at her as if she'd lost her marbles. Not even the teachers believed her. Even Dumbledore, in all his supposed wisdom, told her she was studying too hard and needed a nap. Cedric didn't seem to think she was crazy, he was just studying her as if weighing her words.
"Huh…" he said at last. "Alright. I'm not saying I don't believe you and I'm not saying I do, but if you really are in a time loop then I imagine you're feeling quite alone. Luckily for you, I made up a secret word for fun in the event I meet someone stuck in a time loop."
"You just have that on standby?" said Hermione incredulously.
"I'm by myself a lot during the summer," he said defensively, "And I have an active imagination. Do you want to know the word or not?"
She didn't have anything to lose so she nodded.
~o0o~
The next morning, Hermione hurried out to the grounds and peered into the fog for Cedric. He would be running through here any moment now. She heard the sound of gravel flying and danced out of the way just in time. Cedric jumped when he saw her and skidded to a stop.
"I'm so sorry," he panted. "I didn't see you. I don't normally run into anyone out here."
Moment of truth.
"Serendipity," she said.
Cedric gasped and pressed his hands to his mouth.
"I knew time loops were possible," he said. "I have so many questions…"
Pleasantly surprised and just a little bit hopeful, Hermione answered them all and nearly broke down crying. Finally, someone believed her. She didn't have to go through this alone anymore. Once all his questions were answered, he agreed to help her break the time loop so she could move on with her life.
~o0o~
"Serendipity," said Hermione.
Cedric gasped and pressed his hands to his mouth. Even after all this time, Hermione never got tired of seeing his eyes light up. However, on her bad days his excitement could be a bit agitating. She supposed that she could just…not tell him, but then she'd be all alone.
"I knew time loops were possible," he said. "I have so many questions…"
"Is it alright if I don't answer them this time?" she asked in Arabic.
His eyes grew as round as moons.
"I'm guessing we've been through this before," he said. "You speak Arabic very well."
"You're a good teacher."
"I taught you Arabic?"
She nodded. "Plus what you know of Tamazight. Your grandmum is Berber and Sudanese and she taught you. Your mum taught you French but I already knew that as it was an elective."
He grinned.
"Wow! I mean, with a time loop you have all the time in the world, literally. You could become an expert in any field!"
"It's not as great as it sounds."
"I dunno, time to do and learn whatever I wanted with no consequences sounds pretty great."
"This isn't a game!" she snapped in English and crumpled to her knees. "It's not fun, Cedric, this is my life! I can't remember the last time I felt proper sunshine or woken up mid-afternoon because I overslept. This is a curse. No matter what I learn or what I do, I'm going to wake up to the sound of my cat breaking my alarm clock. Do you know what the worst part is? I change and learn and everyone around me stays the same. I can know everything about a person and fall in love with them and every day my heart breaks because I know that they're never going to love me back because they'll never get the chance to."
It was a lot to dump on a person, but it didn't matter. He wasn't going to remember this anyway.
"Surely we can figure out how to break the time loop," said Cedric, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Hermione shook her head. "We've tried everything."
"I guess…all you can do from here is whatever you want, then," he replied. "It takes the Ministry of Magic twenty-four hours to process somebody for the illegal making of a portkey. You never have to worry about a hotel room and you don't have to worry about running out of money. It's a big world and maybe some other country has the cure to your problem."
She looked up at him in wonder. Why hadn't she thought of that?
"You're a genius!" she said, throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him. His eyes widened with surprise and she quickly backed away. "Sorry."
"I'm the person you're in love with?" he asked.
It was so obvious to her, but of course it wasn't obvious to him. He'd only known her for ten minutes at this point. Hermione wrapped her jacket tighter around herself.
"Strange isn't it?" she replied. "I've told you I love you about a thousand times by now and each time it's a surprise. I told you Ced, this is a curse. It's okay, you don't have to feel pity for me. You won't remember anyway."
"A thousand times…" he whispered. "How long have you been in this time loop?"
"Long enough that I'm forgetting life outside of it," she replied.
She turned and headed towards the lake. She didn't hit her low points often, but sometimes she found them so overwhelming that resetting was just the better option.
"Hermione."
She stilled. She didn't tell him her name yet today. Normally they have their introductions after she explains her time loop.
"You say I don't know you in the way you know me and you're right," he said. "But that doesn't mean I don't know you at all. I know your name. I know that you never do homework on Shabbat so you and the other kids can light candles and say your prayers. Your favorite spot in the library is near the stacks and you like to sit in the same spot every day for your meals. When you read, you can't keep your hands still, always twirling your quill or playing with your hair. I know that Professor Vector references you as one of her best students and that you're smart as a whip. I also know that you care a lot about your friends and would do anything for them even if it turns the school against you. Sure, maybe I knew all these things and never really considered talking to you. After all, where do our social circles meet? But guess what? I'm glad I get to meet you every day, even if I don't remember these meetings, because you're one of the most fascinating people I know."
He took her hand and squeezed it.
"I'm sorry that I can't know you like you know me and I'm sorry I never spoke to you before you got stuck here. Just say the word and I'll go with you when you see the world so you don't have to experience it alone. Okay?"
Cedric wrapped her up in a hug. Maybe he would never love her like she loved him, but he did care enough to remember those little things about her. And that just made her love him all the more.
~o0o~
"Serendipity," said Hermione.
Cedric gasped and pressed his hands to his mouth.
"I knew time loops were possible," he said. "I have so many questions…"
"You can ask them on the way," said Hermione, taking his hand and leading him back to the portkey she set up just before she fetched him from his morning run. She knew her way better in this morning fog than she did on the clearest day.
"Where are we going?"
"Seoul."
~o0o~
"Serendipity," said Hermione.
Cedric gasped and pressed his hands to his mouth.
"I knew time loops were possible," he said. "I have so many questions…"
"You can ask them on the way," said Hermione, taking his hand and leading him back to the portkey.
"Where are we going?"
"Lagos."
~o0o~
"Serendipity," said Hermione.
Cedric gasped and pressed his hands to his mouth.
"I knew time loops were possible," he said. "I have so many questions…"
"You can ask them on the way," said Hermione, taking his hand and guiding him to the Portkey.
"Where are we going?"
"Hoi An."
~o0o~
"Serendipity."
Cedric gasped and pressed his hands to his mouth.
"Ask your questions on the way," Hermione interrupted. "But yes, I am in a time loop."
"Where are we going?"
"Well, the portkey is for Luesma but we're going to see Santo Domingo. Dominican Republic. They've got Carnival today and we're going. My mum is actually from there. She went to London for college and we used to go visit every New Years before I started school. Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. We can't break the time loop and you had the brilliant idea to see the world. We started off going by country and now we're visiting just about every city in every country. Alphabetically of course. By country, not by city. I couldn't alphabetize them."
She stooped down and picked up the butterbeer bottle she charmed with the portus charm. She hardly noticed the whirl of the travel anymore and was able to glide gently down to the sandy beach with her arm looped in his. The sun hadn't even thought to rise here yet, but that was okay. They could relax on the beach until the sun came up and then make their way into town.
She waved her hand and conjured a blanket onto the sand before laying down. She hardly needed her wand anymore.
"How long have you been in this time loop?" Cedric asked, sitting next to her and removing his winter gear.
"I'm not sure anymore," she said truthfully. "Sometimes, I think I might actually be dead and this is just the afterlife for me."
"That's awful."
"I used to think so, but then I realized I get to spend every day with you."
He was blushing. She couldn't see him in the dark, but she knew he was. He always blushed when she said that. Hermione smiled serenely to herself and looked up at the night sky, telling Cedric how she renamed the stars and created new constellations and stories to go with them until they disappeared and they could enjoy their day before she woke up in her room again. And again. And again.