SHAMELESS PLUG!
My first original novel, Strangers In Boston, is now available on Amazon under my pen name, T.S. Mann (get it?). It's free to Kindle Prime members and $4.99 to people who want to download the Ebook. Paperback copies are available for $12.99. Check it out, and if you like it, please leave a review. Basically, it's American Harry Potter. Except there's no school, no wands, and if you use magic improperly, it can drive you insane and possibly destroy the world. No pressure or anything.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled fanfic.
Chapter 43: Speaking of Time
Hogwarts
28 March 1994, 8:50 a.m.
(263 days ago)
With a sad expression, Hermione Granger exited the Great Hall after a quick breakfast. Tomorrow, she would leave Hogwarts for the Easter Break. And most likely, she would never return. The prospect of starting over again at Ilvermorny in America was frightening, but not as much as the thought of staying in Britain for even one more day than necessary. She just hoped that the Creeveys followed her and Justin's advice, young Finch-Fletchley having already formally rejected his Prince inheritance before transferring to Beauxbatons.
In the foyer outside the Great Hall, the witch paused to look at the memorial. It was a table decorated with moving pictures and a simple banner: "Gone but not forgotten!" While looking sadly at the pictures of those she'd lost (and many of those depicted were once her closest friends), she couldn't help but feel a flash of anger for the one friend whose name and image were absent from the tableau.
"Even in death," she thought to herself bitterly, "the Purebloods still don't want to even think about The Outcast!"
Suddenly, her reverie was broken by a sharp Stinging Hex to her leg that caused her to drop to one knee and let out a soft expletive. There was laughter from behind her.
"Such language!" sneered Pansy Parkinson. "You should learn to hold your tongue, Mudblood, or we might have to wash your mouth out with soap!"
The Slytherin girl laughed cruelly while still pointing her wand at Hermione in a hand that was covered in the long satin glove that went almost all the way to her shoulder. Despite the best efforts of St. Mungo's top Healers, the scars never did heal, and Pansy's disfigurement had only made the bigoted Slytherin grow even more vicious.
Beside her, the other members of her Pureblooded pack also laughed at Hermione's pain: Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, Marietta Edgecombe, Cho Chang, and Lavender Brown. Of those, Lavender at least had the decency to look slightly embarrassed at her involvement. But a nervous laugh was still a laugh, and Lavender's fairly recent decision to ingratiate herself with Pansy was a clear sign of which way House Brown was leaning in the current political crisis.
"Is there a problem here, Miss Parkinson?" came a stern Scottish brogue from further down the hall.
"Not at all, Professor McGonagall," Pansy said with a smug smile.
"Then be off to class with you, young ladies."
Pansy and her gang swiftly departed while Hermione rose unsteadily.
"Are you alright, Miss Granger?"
Hermione took a deep breath and then looked to her teacher with her usual mask of confidence. "I'm fine, Headmistress," she lied.
"I am pleased to hear it." The newly installed Headmistress of Hogwarts moved closer and spoke quietly.
"Miss Granger … Hermione …." The older witch trailed off uncertainly. Then, she took a deep breath before continuing with her usual confidence. "I am here to inform you, Miss Granger, that there are some gentlemen from the Ministry here asking to meet with you."
At that news, Hermione went deathly pale and took a step back. "The Ministry?!"
She'd honestly thought that nothing like this would happen before the Summer, and she wondered if she'd be able to make it to the Quidditch pitch and the broom lockers before she was caught. Thank goodness, Fred Weasley had insisted that she learn to fly a broom "just in case." She still owed her friend (and perhaps more than friend, if circumstances had allowed her the luxury of a first romance) for that. Just as she owed Professor Snape for his secret Occlumency lessons – she wasn't a true Occlumens, but he assured her that she should be able to keep out all but the most powerful Legilimens now.
"Miss Granger! Please calm yourself!" McGonagall did her best to reassure the frightened girl. "While technically from the Ministry, these men are from the Department of Mysteries. And they have come to Hogwarts bearing a letter of introduction from the Headmaster…." She paused with a wince. "That is … from Albus Dumbledore. I have reviewed it carefully and believe it to be genuine. And according to Albus's letter, they mean you no harm and may do you much good. Will you please meet with them?"
Hermione stared up at the woman she'd come to admire so much. Minerva McGonagall had been her favorite teacher since her first days at Hogwarts. But in the end, could Hermione really trust her? But then she realized – given the state of the country, subterfuge would hardly be necessary if Minister Yaxley had chosen her for "reeducation."
"Very well, Headmistress," she finally said. "If you think it's for the best."
Moments later …
The Headmistress led Hermione into the small rarely used classroom but did not follow her in. Inside the room, the young Gryffindor was met by two adult wizards, the elder of whom looked vaguely familiar. They were standing on the other side of a round table upon which sat a large cube-shaped object covered by a thick cloth. Once the door closed behind her, the two wizards enacted several privacy Charms, most of which she did not recognize. Only then did they seem to relax. The older man spoke first.
"Now that that's done, allow me to introduce myself. I am Saul Croaker, the Public Relations Officer for the Department of Mysteries. Also known colloquially, if a bit overdramatically, as the Voice of the Unspeakables. My associate here … well, for purposes of today's meeting, you may address him as Seventeen."
Hermione nodded but said nothing.
"Before we proceed," said Seventeen. "We have a few preliminary questions. First, you are Hermione Jean Granger, a Third Year Muggleborn Sorted into Gryffindor in 1991?"
"Yes."
"And you are also the daughter of Dan and Emma Granger, who reside in Crawley and work in London as dentists?"
"I am," she said quietly.
"And were you born on September 19, 1979 at 2:47 p.m. which makes you a Virgo?"
The question about her Zodiac sign was a bit unexpected. "Y-yes."
Seventeen looked at Croaker, who nodded. Then, they reached towards the covered object on the table, with each of them grabbing a corner of the cloth before yanking it away. Underneath was a solid cube completely covered in a chrome-like metal with an obvious button on the top.
"Have you ever seen this object before, Miss Granger?"
She looked up in confusion. "No, I haven't. What is it?"
The two men looked at one another almost nervously.
"Miss Granger," said Croaker. "Would you … would you please press the button in the center of the cube for us?"
Hermione looked at the man suspiciously. She knew Saul Croaker was the man who had planned to snatch Luna Lovegood away from her mother and draft her into government service at the age of seven before Pandora Lovegood intervened with literally world-altering magic. It did not leave her with a positive impression of the Unspeakable. And yet, there was a strange and terrible earnestness to his expression, as though he needed her to press the button for her own sake as much as his, and perhaps for the sake of many others besides them. Despite her misgivings, she reached out and pressed the button.
The cube floated up into the air and went through a dazzling array of shape changes before finally returning to its original cube-shape. Then, it floated back down before dividing itself into hundreds of much smaller cubes which then unfurled away from the central mass like a blossoming flower. A shaft of light shot up to the ceiling, and then, after a few seconds, a tiny object floated up until it was eye-level with Hermione. It was oddly shaped, a glass tube that twisted and turned back in on itself, frequently in ways that seemed to defy Euclidean geometry.
Hermione's eyes widened. "Is that … a Klein bottle?"
The two Unspeakables were startled. Apparently, neither of them had expected the girl to have any useful information about the object at all, let alone information they did not already know.
"What is a Klein bottle, Miss Granger?"
She grimaced. "I'm not sure I can explain it, Mr. … Seventeen. I saw a Muggle science program once that talked about it. It's a curved object that only has one surface because it folds back inside itself. Sort of like the bottle equivalent of a Moebius strip."
The wizards' expressions indicated they didn't know what a Moebius strip was either. She ignored their dumbfounded expressions and continued.
"I don't fully understand the maths or geometry involved, but as I recall, a true Klein bottle can only exist in the Fourth Dimension, though you can imitate it as a three-dimensional object."
"But … this is extraordinary!" said Seventeen excitedly. "Tell us more!"
"Seventeen!" Croaker snapped. "We're on a schedule!"
"But … she recognizes its shape! The idea that Muggle science might actually know something about it, more than we do anyway, is …."
"Seventeen!" Croaker interrupted before speaking more gently. "It doesn't matter, Seventeen. You know it doesn't because in a few minutes this conversation won't have happened!"
Seventeen deflated at that news. "Yes … yes, of course," he said dejectedly. Hermione watched all this with obvious confusion.
"So, um, what is this thing supposed to be? And why did you need me to open the … box thingy?"
"Miss Granger, the 'box-thingy' is called the Cryptohedron. It has been in the possession of the Unspeakables for as long as our order has existed, and it was in the possession of the mystagogues of the pre-Roman druids for far longer than that. Its true origin is unknown and unknowable. But its purpose is to identify the one person who can open it and direct us to that person at the appointed time so that it can be opened and its contents released."
He then gestured towards the small Klein bottle floating in mid-air. "And that, Miss Granger, has many names, but we usually refer to it as … the Time-Turner!"
At that, Hermione actually laughed. "Time-Turner?! But that's just a myth!"
"Not a myth, Miss Granger," said Seventeen. "More of a misdirection. You see, the Unspeakables have spread the idea of a Time-Turner that would allow physical travel back through time. We even spread the absurd rumor that Time-Turners were sometimes loaned out to gifted Hogwarts students so that they could take extra classes. A nonsensical idea, I'm sure you agree."
"Wait a minute," Hermione interrupted. "Do you mean to say that time travel is possible? But what about the Fifth Principal Exception to Gamp's Law?!"
The two Unspeakables looked at one another again and smiled. The fact that the Third Year was already knowledgeable enough to reference Gamp's Law was a good sign. It meant they wouldn't have to explain everything.
"The Fifth Exception holds true, Miss Granger," said Seventeen. "Physical time travel is impossible because such magic would require whatever was transported, whether living or inanimate, to either exist simultaneously with a duplicate of itself or else to exist at a time before its own creation. The Fifth Exception tells us that something that is real rather than conjured can only exist in the physical world from the moment of its creation to the moment of its destruction and cannot co-exist with itself. Copies fashioned of raw magic can be forged with Charms such as Gemino Charm or the Doppleganger Defense Charm, and such copies may last for quite a long time if cast well enough. But an actual person or thing can neither be truly co-located nor exist at any point prior to its own existence."
"Move along, Seventeen!" Croaker said through gritted teeth.
"Sorry, sorry." Seventeen looked embarrassed to have wandered off into a lecture. "Well anyway, it turns out that there is an exception to the exception. You see, the soul, once it has been separated from its physical vessel, has no material component to upset the system of magical balances governed by Gamp's Law. This characteristic is what allows for phenomena such as Horcruxes…!"
"Seventeen!" Croaker snapped angrily. Seventeen coughed and then blushed nervously.
"Er, yes. Forget I mentioned that, please. But anyway, it turns out that if an intact and undivided soul is removed from the body and deprived of all physical and metaphysical connections to this world, it is possible to send it back to any earlier point within the span of its own existence to then merge with the soul of its past self. The result would be that the earlier version of the person would instantly obtain all the knowledge and experience of the older version and with it, the ability to make changes to future history!"
Hermione stared at the man as if he were mad. "Change … history?! But that's impossible! It would cause a paradox! If you change history in the past, the future you came from would be different and then the future-you wouldn't have a reason to go back and change the past!"
Both men blinked at her in surprise. "Bledsoe's Paradox!" Seventeen exclaimed delightedly. "Where in blazes did you hear about that concept?"
"Muggles call it the Grandfather Paradox," she said before continuing in mild embarrassment. "I heard about it … well, on Doctor Who, I think."
"Well, I don't know anything about Muggle medicine, Miss Granger," said Croaker. "But that's not an issue with the Time-Turner. All our available research into this artifact leads us to believe that it will not cause a paradox. After the user's soul has been sent back in time, our reality will alter as needed to accommodate the changes the user introduces in the past."
"Impossible!" Hermione sputtered. "Absolutely impossible! I cannot believe that the Unspeakables or any other group of wizards has functioning time travel. It can't be. The world would simply look nothing like it does if you could go off willy-nilly into the past whenever you wanted to change things. And especially not to satisfy the dictates of some government conspiracy!"
"Well, that's the thing, Miss Granger," said Seventeen reassuringly. "We can't use it, as you put it, willy-nilly. The Time-Turner allows for time travel and is the only thing known to us that does. But it is the Cryptohedron that determines when it can be used and by whom. And it only does so when it has predicted an imminent disaster, usually one that will result in catastrophic loss of human life, but which is of a character such that it could be averted if a particular person in the recent past were given advance knowledge of the future! Until the Cryptohedron opens at the touch of its chosen user, who is the only person who can open it, the Time-Turner is completely inaccessible because, metaphysically speaking, its container doesn't fully exist in our universe until the user summons it. And that user, in this instance, is you, Miss Granger!"
The girl looked at the two men as if they were utterly insane. "I'M FOURTEEN! I HAVEN'T EVEN FINISHED MY THIRD YEAR AT HOGWARTS! HOW ON EARTH DID I GET PICKED FOR THIS?!"
"Calm down, Miss Granger," Croaker said reassuringly. "I freely admit – you are not the sort of candidate we Unspeakables would have chosen to save the world had we had our druthers. But the Cryptohedron does not choose the most powerful candidate nor the wisest one. It chooses the person who, at the appointed moment in the past, would have been the right person in the right place to affect the needed changes if only they had known what was coming. And since you were, in fact, able to activate the Cryptohedron and release the Time-Turner, that person in this instance is you."
Hermione was speechless, so Seventeen continued.
"I suppose some background might assuage your fears. This device has been in the possession of the Department of Mysteries ever since the conquest of Britain by the Roman wizards who invaded these lands in the 5th Century. Indeed, it was in part because of this device that the Romans won. You see, the outcome of the conflict was in serious doubt, and it seemed possible that the Romans and the indigenous wizards might destroy each other in a magical war. But the the druid mystagogues were afraid that the ancient artifacts they guarded would be destroyed or that knowledge of how to use them would be lost, with potentially disastrous results for the whole world. And so, they betrayed their own people to the invaders in exchange for a promise that our ancestors would set ourselves to preserving and defending their secrets, secrets which they claimed had been passed down since the fall of Avalon – their name for fabled Atlantis!"
Hermione's dubiousness only grew at the mention of "fabled Atlantis," but she held her tongue.
Croaker continued the story. "In the fifteen or so centuries since then, the body of wizards which became known as the Department of Mysteries fulfilled our tasks faithfully. The Cryptohedron activated on average once or twice a century, and we always delivered it and the Time-Turner to the individual chosen. Only once did we fail to do so. In 1924, the Cryptohedron identified as its chosen user a dark witch named Jocasta Flint who, by that point, was serving a life sentence in Azkaban for some of the most horrific abuses of magic the world had seen since the fall of the Dark Lord Ekrizdis. For the first time, we Unspeakables balked at honoring our vow to our druid predecessors.
"Surely this is a mistake, we said. Surely, we cannot be meant to deliver the power of time travel to a Dark Lady who was only defeated by good fortune before she could unleash devastation across Europe. The matter was put to a vote by our governing council, and after much heated debate, the Unspeakables decided by a margin of 4-3 not to deliver the Cryptohedron to Jocasta Flint."
A wave of shame and regret passed over the old man's face.
"It was not until years later that we finally understood the magnitude of our folly, a miscalculation that led to the deaths of millions. You see, Jocasta Flint was captured and brought to justice through the actions of a brave French Auror who went undercover within her organization and secretly spied on her for the ICW. But she never knew that. Flint went to her grave utterly convinced that the person who betrayed her was actually her chief lieutenant and apprentice – Gellert Grindelwald!"
Hermione gasped, and Croaker nodded.
"Yes, that Grindelwald. Had we delivered the Time-Turner to Flint – had we just fulfilled our oaths and done our jobs! – she would have traveled back in time and immediately slain Grindelwald as a traitor before he could come into his power … and then, she still would have been betrayed and brought down by the spy she never knew about!
"So no, Miss Granger, you are hardly the most unlikely candidate for this job."
"In fact," Seventeen added, "compared to most of the recorded users, your recent life history makes you uniquely suited for this role. After all, all our current problems started with the Azkaban break-out followed by what happened to the Boy-Who-Lived. You were actually on the train when that happened, weren't you?"
Hermione nodded. "You mean … I could use this to save Jim and … the others?"
"I believe so," Seventeen said. "Mind you, we cannot say for certain. You won't have carte blanche in the past, after all. From what we know from interviews with past time travelers, the Time-Turner itself will act as a governor on your actions. Some events will have to happen in order to achieve a positive outcome in the future, and the Time-Turner can and will influence you against interfering. Thus, we cannot guarantee that the death of Jim Potter, or any of your other friends and associates who you somehow lost recently, are not events that are essential to the proper flow of history. You will have a sense of what you can and can't do. And in extreme cases involving events that must take place, the Time-Turner may even be able to physically prevent you from acting, though our records of what that means are, well, vague and spotty, I'm afraid. On the bright side, it will also occasionally encourage you to do seemingly innocuous things, and only much later will you understand how those actions benefited both you and the timeline. Beyond that, however, I regret to say we can give you little guidance."
Hermione looked back to the Time-Turner itself. She could feel its unnatural power calling to her. As absurd as this whole thing seemed, she could also feel a disturbing sense of rightness, as though she truly was meant for this.
"Why did you ask me if I had seen this before?" she asked.
"You asked about paradoxes," Croaker said. "We believe the Cryptohedron itself is what prevents such temporal anomalies by somehow preserving the time stream against catastrophic disruption, though its mechanisms for doing so are incomprehensible to us. It first alerted us to an imminent activation last July, with regular follow-up warnings that let us refine our search for the intended user. When you go back into the past, the Cryptohedron will still activate itself at the appointed time and progress through the same process of activation until finally, it brings us to meet with you again here and now in the new timeline. At that point, we – for some value of 'us' – will be here to meet with you again. By longstanding tradition laid down by the druids, we will confirm your identity and then reveal the Cryptohedron to you again."
"At that point, Miss Granger," continued Seventeen, "you will advise us that you have seen it before and used it successfully before restoring the Time-Turner to its container. We will not fully debrief you as our records strongly discourage us from trying to find out too much about the device's inner workings. But we will likely ask that you provide at least a thumbnail sketch for our records of the nature of the disaster that led to the Cryptohedron's activation." Seventeen coughed into his hand.
"And on a personal note, if I am here to meet with you again at that time, I should be very grateful if you would mention the phrases 'Klein bottle' and 'Doctor Who' as potential areas of study."
"Seventeen…!" Croaker said warningly.
"Alright, alright! Anyway, once you have returned the Time-Turner to the Cryptohedron and closed it, we will return it to the Department of Mysteries for safe keeping. At that point, your role in this affair will be over."
Hermione had gone back to staring at the Time-Turner almost as if hypnotized by it.
"What if I say no?" she asked. The two men looked at one another nervously. "Has that ever happened before?"
"… yes," said Croaker. "The Cryptohedron has been activated on thirty-seven documented occasions over the last 2500 years. Excluding the Jocasta Flint incident, three identified users have … declined to use the Time-Turner." He swallowed. "And in each case, the resulting death toll over the course of the following years ranged from a minimum of just under a hundred-thousand people to … several million."
She nodded slowly. "And what is the disaster I'm going back to prevent? I certainly agree that Wizarding Britain needs some changes, but I hardly see how a fourteen-year-old Mudblood girl is going to defeat the forces of entrenched bigotry by herself."
Croaker grimaced at the girl's bluntness. "A valid concern, I suppose. The truth, Miss Granger, is that I'm afraid the nature of the disaster is more … concrete than merely a steep rise in anti-Muggleborn sentiment. Based on our internal analysis, within the next six months, one of the following three scenarios will inevitably occur. In Scenario 1, the political alliance that presently controls the Wizengamot successfully resurrects You-Know-Who and then immediately turns the entire government over to him, with the end result being a global magical war by the end of the year."
Hermione gaped.
"In Scenario 2, that alliance's efforts to resurrect You-Know-Who will fail but have the unintended side effect of freeing the Dementors of Azkaban – which presently number several thousand – to ravage Britain and Europe."
The girl put her hands on the table as if to steady herself. "And Scenario 3?"
"You-Know-Who is resurrected … and he gains control over those thousands of Dementors which then break free of Azkaban to serve as his army!"
The room was silent for a moment.
"What do I do to activate this … Time-Turner?" the Gryffindor finally asked.
"Nothing, really," said Seventeen. "You just reach out … and take it."
And so, she did.
And then, in a blaze of Wild Magic, Hermione Granger's body was vaporized. But her soul carried on.
The Zabini Villa, Florence, Italy
9 July 1993, 3:30 a.m.
(262 days ago)
Hermione shot up in her bed gasping for air as if she'd awoken from a terrible nightmare. She whispered the word Lumos and in response the bedside lamp came on, softly illuminating her room. She studied the bedroom for several seconds as if to remind herself of where she was. Then, she rose and went to the en suite bathroom to splash some cold water on her face. She looked up at her reflection in the mirror and stared at it silently for a long time.
Then, the witch returned to the bedroom and sat down at her writing desk. Pulling out a notebook and pen, she turned to a clean page and made a "to do" list for herself. Once complete, she opened her Charms textbook and began taking notes.
Hogwarts
28 March 1994, 9:00 a.m.
(20 minutes ago)
The Deputy-Headmistress led Hermione into the classroom that had been claimed by the Goldstein Group for their experiments but did not follow her in. Inside the room, the young Gryffindor was met by two adult wizards, both of whom she recognized. They were standing on the other side of the same round table she'd been working with for months, upon which sat a large cube-shaped object covered by a thick cloth. Once the door closed behind her, the two wizards enacted several privacy Charms, most of which she'd been able to track down and master over the last few months. Only then did they seem to relax. The older man spoke first.
"Now that that's done, allow me to introduce myself. I am Saul Croaker, the Public Relations Officer for the Department of Mysteries. Also known colloquially, if a bit overdramatically, as the Voice of the Unspeakables. My associate here … well, for purposes of today's meeting, you may address him as Number Seventeen."
Hermione nodded but said nothing.
"Before we proceed," said Seventeen. "We have a few preliminary questions. First, you are Hermione Jean Granger, a Third Year Muggleborn Sorted into Gryffindor in 1991?
"Yes."
"And you are also the daughter of Dan and Emma Granger, who reside in Crawley and work in London as dentists?"
"I am," she said calmly.
"And were you born on September 19, 1979 at 2:47 p.m. and a Virgo?"
This time, the question about her Zodiac sign was completely expected. "Yes."
Seventeen looked at Croaker, who nodded. Then, they reached towards the covered object on the table, with each of them grabbing a corner of the cloth. But they had barely pulled the cloth away from the object enough to expose the chrome cube underneath when Hermione unexpectedly yelled out: "MORPHEUS!"
There was a flash of light from the table, and both Unspeakables instantly fell to the ground unconscious. Hermione quickly took their wands just to be on the safe side. Only then, did she press the button on the top of the Cryptohedron to reopen it. When it was fully blossomed, she placed her hand in the resulting light stream, and the Time-Turner reappeared and slowly lowered itself down into the depths of the Cryptohedron. But before the unearthly container could close once more, she reached inside and pressed a tiny recessed button that caused the Cryptohedron to freeze and the column of light to wink out.
Then, the girl reached into her bookbag, and from it, she withdrew the horoscope that (on sheer impulse!) she cast for Harry Potter two days earlier. Inside the depths of the dormant Cryptohedron, she could see dials and buttons that she recognized from Professor Trelawney's descriptions of various famous astrological orreries of antiquity. Ancient mechanical constructs created by forgotten if not mythical civilizations that allowed one to manipulate astrological information in order to improve divinations.
And apparently, it seemed, for even more obscure purposes.
Hogwarts
28 March 1994, 9:20 a.m.
(Now)
"Time travel," Harry said in a tone that implied he either thought Hermione had gone mad or that he himself was having some sort of breakdown.
"Yes," Hermione said placidly.
"So … you're from … the future."
"Yes. Well, no. Not anymore, I mean. I traveled from about five minutes ago in a different timeline to a specific moment in July of last year. I've basically lived through the last seven-and-a-half months twice, though it was different each time."
By this point, Harry had his eyes closed and was rubbing his forehead with his fingers. "This is … impossible."
"Harry," Hermione said patiently. "Look at that twisted, warped four-dimensional hour-glass thing floating in the air in front of you and tell me again about something being impossible."
He looked over to the witch in consternation, but to do so, he had to look past the Time-Turner itself. And it did indeed look (and feel) like something utterly impossible.
"Wait a minute," Harry said suddenly. "You've been here since last July and have been using advance knowledge of the future to change things around." He suddenly looked at her with grave suspicion. "Did any of your changes play any role in what just happened over the last day or so?"
The witch suddenly seemed apologetic. "Well, only in the broadest sense …."
"What?! What does that mean?! Did your time travel cause any of last night's mess? Yes or no?!"
"Harry," she began, but the boy cut her off.
"No, Hermione! I watched a friend die last night and then had to kill another friend in self-defense! And then, my own father hit me with the Ultimate Sanction that will make me one of the most hated people in Britain! Now, I want to know – was any of that because of you!"
Hermione crossed her arms and returned his glare. "Only in the sense that this time you were actually still around so that those things could happen to you!" she snapped.
Harry opened his mouth for an angry retort, but then, he grasped the significance of his friend's words. The reply froze in his throat, and he slowly closed his mouth as his eyes widened. Then, he raised a finger for emphasis and started to speak again, only to close his mouth a second time. Finally, he took a deep calming breath and was at last collected enough to speak.
"Hermione," he said with remarkable calmness. "What exactly have you been doing since last July?"
She huffed loudly. "Well, in the original timeline…." Then, it was her turn to stop in mid-sentence. She closed her eyes and softly muttered "No. Sloppy thinking." She opened her eyes and tried again.
"In my own personal timeline as it existed before my use of the Time-Turner, Blaise Zabini was murdered by a relative in an inheritance dispute last July. On September 1st, you and Jim were both Kissed by a Dementor on the way to Hogwarts. Classes were cancelled for the first few days of school to allow students a chance to grieve, but when they resumed, Pansy Parkinson insulted a Hippogriff and had most of her arm torn off. This led to Buckbeak getting executed and Hagrid being sent to Azkaban on a three-year sentence for 'recklessly endangering the life of a Wizengamot Heir.' On Halloween, werewolves and Death Eaters still attacked Hogsmeade, but this time, Ted and Nymphadora Tonks both died along with the house elf Iris, and Theo only narrowly escaped. Nearly a dozen other Hogsmeade citizens were also killed in that attack, and scores of others were seriously injured. Amy Wilkes was also kidnapped by Fenrir Greyback that day and was never seen or heard from again. Finally, later that night, Theo No-Name, depressed over the loss of so many friends and by rejection from most of the school, killed himself by jumping from the top of the Astronomy Tower."
She paused to take a breath.
"After that, things got really bad!"
At that, Harry literally stepped back in shock. "All … all those people dead or hurt or Kissed or whatever … and then things got really bad?!"
The witch nodded. "As a result of all the scandals that seemed to take place under his watch, Professor Dumbledore was forced out as Headmaster and also stripped of his Chief Warlock position, while Minister Fudge fell to a No Confidence vote. In the ensuing political vacuum, a new power bloc emerged in the Wizengamot. An alliance of House Selwyn, House Nott (now supported by all of Lucius Malfoy's former vassals) … and House Potter under the Regency of Peter Pettigrew! You see, after you and Jim were Kissed, your father had a complete mental breakdown and had to be committed to St. Mungo's, while your mother was overcome by grief and went into seclusion."
She stopped to think for a moment. "Although, now that I know Pettigrew is a Death Eater, both of those outcomes suddenly seem a lot more sinister. But regardless, Pettigrew did show up with papers signed by your father that gave him Regent status in such circumstances, a status he would have held for as long as you and/or Jim lived even in a comatose state. Of course, it didn't help the political situation that over the Christmas Break, Neville and his grandmother simply disappeared altogether while Lucius Malfoy abruptly sold all his British assets and emigrated to Brazil.
"Anyway, the new bloc got a man named Corban Yaxley chosen as Minister and a horrible old fiend named Merihem Selwyn appointed as Chief Warlock. By the end of February, they had successfully blamed everything that had happened, from the Azkaban breakout to all the deaths at Hogsmeade, on 'radical Muggleborn insurrectionists trying to stoke fear by posing as Death Eaters,' and they passed a whole raft of anti-Muggleborn laws!"
"How bad did it get?" Harry asked cautiously.
"I'll put it to you this way," Hermione replied. "I was preparing to flee Britain and emigrate to America with my parents when the option of escaping back through time presented itself instead. Dozens of convicted Death Eaters were released from Azkaban based on 'new evidence' while dozens of prominent Muggleborns were sent to Azkaban on incredibly flimsy claims that they were somehow involved in the original breakout! Oh, and by the time I left, it had already been announced that starting in the Fall of 1994, Muggleborns would no longer attend Hogwarts but would instead be enrolled in a special remedial school year-round to prepare us for our proper place in Wizarding society!"
She paused to catch her breath. "And best of all, when the Unspeakables came to deliver the Cryptohedron to me, they speculated that everything that had happened to that point was only a prelude to Voldemort's imminent return. That or a Dementor apocalypse. Or a Voldemort/Dementor joint apocalypse."
Harry stared at his friend dumbly. "Hermione, could you summon a chair for me? I don't feel up to it, but I really need to sit down."
She gave him a wan smile, and with a flick of her wand, one of the chairs against the wall slid over to him. He sat down slowly.
"Okay, so you went back in time to … save us all. Thanks for that … I guess." Then, he blinked repeatedly. "Hey, waitaminute! You didn't save me from the Dementor! Neville did!"
Hermione summoned her own chair and sat down. "True, but I made a big scene in our compartment about going to investigate things, so naturally, chivalrous-to-a-fault Neville followed along. If he hadn't, my backup plan was to find one of the upper-year students who knew the Patronus Charm and manipulate them into coming along. I knew from the beginning that Dementors would be at Hogwarts, so over the summer, I asked around to find out which students could cast the spell besides Neville. Happily, Neville did come along, so that part wasn't necessary.
"I found out very quickly that changing the past seldom required grand gestures. It was more about little things that felt like a good idea at the time and also making casual suggestions to people who could change things more effectively than I. For example, I didn't really do anything to save Ted and Nymphadora Tonks, either, but I knew I had to be present at the scene somehow. Ron told me that he was interested in becoming a Healer, so I talked him into coming along so he could ask Ted questions about subject just so I'd have a pretext for being there. Then, when the attack happened, he ended up being the one to save Ted!"
"And Nymphadora?"
"I'm pretty sure that it was indirectly because of you. Of course, you were the one to save Amy Wilkes. But the first time through those events, neither Alastor Moody nor Malachi Sturgeon were present in Hogsmeade on the day of the attack. Sturgeon wasn't even in Britain by that point. I gather he was Jim's martial arts instructor back in Shamballa, and after Jim was Kissed, he returned to the Far East only a week or so later. In the second run-through, you and Jim still had your souls, so Alastor Moody was in Hogsmeade that day to meet with you, and he physically prevented Nymphadora Tonks from running into the clinic to her death. Meanwhile Mr. Sturgeon was still at Hogwarts for Jim, and so he was on hand to summon Aurors from London and to fight against the werewolves. Also, your mother and father were both in Hogsmeade that day, and they also saved many lives."
Harry considered her words. "You were very resistant to the idea that Pansy owed you a life debt. Was that because she didn't die before?"
"Yes, I was pretty sure that if I'd done nothing, she'd have only been seriously wounded. I was actually more concerned with saving Hagrid than Pansy. Though the fiction that she might have owed me a life debt paid off later."
"How so?"
She grinned. "I used it to blackmail Lord Parkinson into remaining a vassal of Lucius Malfoy's for the next several years. Without Parkinson's votes, Pettigrew's bloc wouldn't have enough votes to pull off their coup."
Harry looked around the room in amazement. "Is this why you really joined Anthony's group? Or did you just happen to spend months carving a Stunner-based rune trap onto a table in the room where you would eventually meet up with the Unspeakables again?"
Hermione shrugged. "Honestly, I had no idea why I felt such a strong impulse to join Anthony's group. I knew, of course, that the room Anthony had already chosen for his experiments was the same room in which I'd previously opened the Cryptohedron. And the first time through, I joined the Goldstein Group because you and Blaise were — well, you know — so I was already familiar with Anthony's project. But until last night, it had honestly never occurred to me that I could use it to, how did you put it? Mug the Unspeakables and seize control of the Cryptohedron!
"Oh, and since you asked me repeatedly about that book about magic interfering with Muggle technology, the truth is that I'd never even read it in the prior timeline. Anthony found it and mentioned to me that magic interfered with plastics and electricity, but he didn't mention the name of the book it was in. I remembered the information but had no idea where it came from.
"Similarly, I had no idea all this time why I felt compelled to stay in Divination – or as I like to call it, Advanced Charlatanism. Originally, I dropped it after the first session after concluding that Professor Trelawney was a fraud who just did cold readings fairly well. But then, I ended up casting your horoscope earlier this week, and I realized I could use it to reprogram the Cryptohedron to identify you as the next chosen user."
Harry paled and looked up at the floating Time-Turner with trepidation. "You want me to go back in time?!"
"Naturally! I was sent back to undo the disasters that led to a fascist Pureblood takeover of Britain. By a remarkable chain of events, my work comes to an end just in time for another disaster to arise that my best friend is uniquely qualified to undo if only he can be sent back even a few days."
"And you don't see any dangers with arbitrarily deciding to do this?"
"Nope!" she said confidently. "Mainly because the Time-Turner itself never gave me any sense it was opposed! Just as it can nudge the user to perform seemingly pointless actions that only pay off in the future, it can also discourage the user from doing things that would be detrimental for the mission."
"What do you mean?" Harry inquired.
"Well, for starters, when I arrived last July, I assumed that the simplest and most direct way to change things would be just to let the Ministry know about the Azkaban breakout ahead of time."
Harry had sudden coughing fit in response to that comment, but the girl ignored it.
"Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy. Random events continually distracted me from contacting the Ministry and even forgetting the idea completely. When I finally found a stack of letters to the Azkaban Warden that I'd written and then stuffed in a drawer in my bedroom and forgotten about, I gave up and decided that the breakout itself was just something that had to happen."
She grew thoughtful for a moment while Harry marveled at the idea that Fate itself wanted the Azkaban breakout to occur.
"On a less dramatic note, I also developed a powerful aversion to sweets. I assumed it was because in the last timeline, I had three cavities over Christmas due to all the chocolate I ate at Hogwarts. This year, I had a clean bill of health instead. But then, it also led me to not eat any of the poisoned cake at the SPAM meeting the other night, and as a result, I was able to get everyone to the Infirmary before anyone was seriously hurt, a connection I didn't even make until well after the fact."
Harry looked at the Time-Turner suspiciously. "It must have been infuriating to have been driven by impulses you didn't understand." Oddly, the idea made him think of his own issues of advanced vocabulary and his Oscar Wilde fixation.
"Oh, you have no idea, Harry. Here's another example. The Time-Turner and the Cryptohedron have both been in the possession of the Unspeakables for the better part of 2,500 years. It was in the possession of the druid mystagogues for at least 4,000 years before that."
She also looked up to the Time-Turner almost angrily.
"And yet … and yet, I am somehow absolutely certain that neither the Time-Turner nor the Cryptohedron have been created yet."
Harry looked at her google-eyed. "What?!"
"What I said! The Time-Turner and its container will be created at some point in the future and then sent back to the distant past where it will influence the timeline until it inevitably comes into our possession! I have no idea how I know that, Harry, but I'm certain it's true! It's maddening, and I am eager to be done with it! From now on, I only want to know things that I've actually learned somehow!"
There was a groan from Unspeakable Seventeen.
"Any more questions, Harry? I can stun them both again if we need more time, but we don't have all day."
Harry rose from the chair. "I don't think so. But if I do later, can I talk to you … past you, I mean?"
"Maybe. Come and find me when you can. If you have a strong instinct that you can reveal the truth to me, do so. If you have a strong aversion to doing so, then don't. But I will leave you with a few final bits of advice: You may be able to save everyone you care about, but not necessarily. I couldn't save Iris or the Auror who died in the Hogsmeade attack, even though I knew they'd died the first time. Oh, and be prepared for events to spin out of your actions in unpredictable directions, because changing the future can affect your life in unexpected ways. And perhaps cost you things you weren't expecting to lose."
"Like what?"
The witch looked pensive. "In this timeline, I'm casual friends with Fred Weasley at most. Before I came back, we'd been dating for almost a month." Then, she looked downright distraught. "More importantly … my parents are getting divorced, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the changes I made."
Harry looked at her sadly. "The last time we talked about your parents, you were … a bit ambivalent about them."
She scoffed. "The last time we talked about my parents, I'd just turned thirteen and I was a moody, angst-ridden teenager angry that my parents just didn't understand me. Since then, almost two years have passed for me, and half that time was spent in a dystopian timeline where my parents made it clear how much they loved me and supported me, to the point of being perfectly willing to flee the country and start over in America. But now, there's no dystopian timeline. Just a daughter who's been evasive and secretive about everything she's been doing in the Wizarding World. Any estrangement between us is my fault."
"Hermione …." Harry didn't know what to say. In many ways, he'd been almost jealous of Hermione's relationship with her parents, even though they both had disliked him due to his mysterious condition. He had no words to comfort her in this instance.
"It's alright, Harry. If that's the price I pay to save my friends and the world, so be it. But just be aware – Fate may demand a price from you in exchange for saving the people you care about."
Harry nodded solemnly. "Any other bits of advice?"
"Yes. When you get back, start off by making a to-do list," she said with a smirk. "Proper planning prevents poor performance, as they say."
Both Unspeakables were beginning to stir now.
"It's time," Hermione said. Then she smiled. "No pun intended."
Harry chuckled, but his expression grew serious as he studied the Time-Turner. "So what do I do?"
"Just grab the Time-Turner, Harry, and it will do the rest. Good luck!"
The boy rose and reached out for the strange twisted hourglass that Hermione called a Time-Turner, but at the last second, he hesitated at the enormity of what he was considering. To rewrite Time itself.
But then, he pictured Marcus Flint dying for no reason save a gesture of cruel contempt from Wormtail. He imagined Remus Lupin's kindly face followed by the image of his lupine form ripped apart by Harry's Parselmagic. He thought about Regulus Black's last words and the tears that flowed down Sirius's cheeks as he consigned his brother to the heavens.
"I'm going to save you," he thought furiously. "Whatever the cost, I'm going to save you all!"
Harry grabbed the Time-Turner and then felt its magic rip his body apart at the atomic level before sending his soul back on its journey.
Next: Redux!
AN1: Check out the Sinister Man's web presence on the POS wiki, the POS TV Tropes page, and my Discord server (through which you can see advance previews of this story as it is begin written). Also, the Sinister Man would be profoundly grateful if you checked out my P*****n page and supported my original fiction. Patronage is not necessary to get the free POS previews via Discord.
AN2 (What the Sinister Man is reading): Nothing new, atm.
AN3: Special thanks to my Discord editors:
Adam Sitrich, Anne-athema Codex, Antony444, blowback123, BlueWater5, larix, Fredif, jobber, kami, Luc, Magica, mmailiw, and Pokeflute. Thanks guys!
AN4: Vital Statistics: Reviews: 12,853 (top 13 among HP fanfics). Followers: 13,988 (top 11). Favorites: 12,178 (top 33). Communities: 213. Discord followers: Over 2000! Go Team POS!
AN5: So, the Time-Turner. Regular followers of POS probably know that I'm a big fan of "Oh God Not Again" by Sarah1281, in which an adult Harry Potter is cast back in time to relive his school days and try to make things better. While OGNA is played as a broad comedy, this genre of fanfic (known as a "redo fic" or sometimes as a Peggy Sue fic after the film "Peggy Sue Got Married" in which an unhappy wife is sent back to her high school days with full knowledge of all her future regrets) is fairly common in HP fandom due to the presence of magic in general and Time-Turners in particular. I think the Ur-example is "Nightmares of Future Past" by S'TarKan, though "Sisyphus" by esama is the actual nightmare version. There are scads of them, mostly involving Harry, but sometimes Snape or Ron or somebody else will travel back in time. Another amusing example is "Far Too Many Time Travelers" by Lord Jeram, in which a dozen people (so far) have all time traveled back to Harry's first year from different, mutually exclusive futures, much to the chagrin of little Harry who is not a time traveler and has no idea why everyone is acting so weird.
Anyway, as I was storyboarding DEM, I originally planned to leave out the Time-Turner because, as depicted in canon, it's just ridiculous. But then, I realized that if there's no Time-Turner plot and no Buckbeak plot (because Draco's gone) and no Ron-Hermione feud (because Scabbers isn't around to not get eaten by Crookshanks), then there's absolutely nothing for Hermione to do.
Coincidentally, around that time, I discovered "Potter Ever After" by Kevin3, a delightful little series of short stories that deconstructs some of the plot holes and overdone tropes common in HP fics, and one chapter in it that parodies redo fics (a) lampshades how boring it can be when the protagonist in a redo fic is basically playing through a rerun of his life but on God-Mode and (b) suggests that it would be much more interesting if someone other than the protagonist were a time traveler working secretly in the background to avert some future catastrophe.
And so, here we are. It turns out Hermione did have a Time-Turner after all – which she used to travel to July 1993 in order to avert a future disaster completely unrelated to the main plot because in her timeline, Harry, Jim, Blaise, Theo and many others are all dead or otherwise lost. And even better, she achieved most of her objectives by November 1993 and has spent the time since basically puttering around at the edges of history while waiting for the Unspeakables to bring the Cryptohedron back to her.