Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Les Mis. I don't make money from this fic. Please don't sue me.
November 28, 1996 Hogwarts School, Scotland - Seventh Floor Corridor
Hermione tucked herself into a corner of the corridor, watching Draco pace back and forth along the hall in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, four or five books in his arms. She recalled that he normally had Crabbe or Goyle stand watch, polyjuiced as a girl holding a set of scales, though she and Draco were the only people on the floor now. She frowned, wondering why tonight was different. She scanned the face of the boy that would become her boyfriend. His brow was furrowed in concentration, but she was sure he wasn't concentrating that hard on the request for the Room of Hidden Things.
Hermione checked her watch, noting that she only had four and a half hours left. It was nearly five in the morning; she figured that he'd had to stop working to retrieve books from his room, based on what Draco had told her about that day. She knew that Draco had found Theo around sunrise, and that he'd gone to locate another book in the Room of Hidden Things at some point, but she had no real idea what the timeline was like.
She looked up, noticing that Draco had just made his third round and the door sprung up on the wall as though it had always been there. Hermione slipped down the hall, sneaking in just before Draco closed the door behind him. She followed him down the twisting aisles, keeping a few feet behind him so he didn't grow suspicious of her. She knew he was always on high alert when working on his project, so she was sure to do everything in her power to avoid his detection.
She settled into a little alcove, across from the vanishing cabinet and watched Draco carefully. She'd forgotten how pale and drawn he'd been, and she never knew him to work so tirelessly on a project. He sat cross legged before the cabinet, three or four books open in around him and his wand held loosely in his hand. Occasionally, he'd cast a spell or two, but when the cabinet rattled briefly then halted, Draco would curse, tucking his head back into the books and renewing his search in earnest.
Hermione smiled a bit at that; she knew that side of Draco well. The weeks he'd spent slaving over the particle accelerator in her pocket leaped to her mind, reminding her of his utter determination to finish what he started.
As the night wore on, Hermione began to wonder if she was going to have to create a distraction to get him away from the cabinet. She remembered Draco telling her that he'd had to grab a book from his personal cache in the Room of Hidden Things, but he never told her where it was. She checked her watch, realizing it was nearly seven. She glanced back up at Draco, who showed no signs of moving any time soon.
Then something caught her eye. A glimmer moving through the aisles, like a mirage rising from hot pavement. Someone else was in the room with them. Hermione moved on instinct, hurrying to Draco's side and performed a curse that she'd never imagined she'd have to use.
"Imperio." She muttered. Draco looked up, frowning, before pulling himself up to wander towards the back of the room, seemingly searching for something. Just as he was out of sight, Hermione watched the shimmer move to the cabinet, and saw a parchment seemingly appear out of thin air and stick itself onto the door of the cabinet. The shimmer then moved away, just as Draco was returning. Hermione looked to the note, verifying it was the same that Draco had told her about. When she was satisfied that it was the same, she followed the shimmer out of the room.
She was fairly certain whomever was under the Disillusionment charm knew they were being followed, as they took the most complex path in the castle, before ducking into an empty classroom. Hermione prepared herself to be confronted before entering after the shape.
In the middle of the room, Hermione came face-to-face with one Severus Snape. She gasped, then mentally cursed herself for the slip up. Snape obviously heard her and his eyes locked onto the spot where Hermione stood under the cloak.
"Reveal yourself." He enunciated quietly, his deep voice evoking memories that Hermione would have rather left undisturbed. She took a deep breath and let the cloak drop to her feet, meeting Snape's gaze. He looked rather confused as he looked over his former student, one that he had seen just a few hours earlier in the great hall. His brow creased uncharacteristically at the changes that he didn't quite understand in the woman he saw before him. Hermione's eyes locked with Snape's and she tried not to squirm under his gaze. She knew he was likely rifling through her memories to explain her presence.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's dangerous to mess with the flow of time, Granger?" Snape quipped, eyes still scanning her face.
"Frequently, Professor, but as one of the leading minds in the field, I believe I know better than most." She returned, cooly. Snape looked away, turning to the windows that shown out on the grounds, brightening by the moment in the early morning.
"Do they live?" He asked softly. Hermione's heart broke a bit at the pain in his voice when he asked the question.
"Yes. They both live, and are free in my time." Hermione told him, answering the unspoken question she knew he was thinking. Snape nodded once.
"What is your interest in my godson, Granger?" Snape asked, turning back around to scrutinize her again.
"He's my boyfriend." She told him, her head held high. Snape looked her over, the corner of his mouth twitching up slightly when he determined she wasn't lying.
"He finally came around, then. Good to know. And Nott?"
"He's my partner at work, and one of my best friends." She told the older man. Snape looked her over, as though inspecting something for a flaw.
"I'm impressed. Those two stick together; the fact that you seem to care deeply enough about them to risk altering history speaks volumes of your own maturity. I'm not sure what you've been through in your time, Granger, but thank you for keeping those boys safe." Snape told her. "I would ask a favor, though. I don't anticipate making it out of this war alive." he said, pulling a scrap of parchment from his robes.
"I can't-" She started, but stopped when Snape held up his hand.
"I'm not asking you to divulge the secrets of the future, Ms. Granger, merely asking you to deliver a message from beyond the grave." Snape snapped, scribbling something on the parchment and handing it to her.
"In the basement, behind the painting of the raven. Take them with you." he told her. She nodded, tucking the parchment into her back pocket before checking her watch. She had just over an hour. She picked up the cloak, covering herself again before turning away from Snape. She paused at the door.
"Thank you, Professor. For everything." She said. She saw Snape duck his head, and knew that was the closest she'd get to an acceptance from him. She hurried away, up to the tallest tower where the past versions of her best friend and boyfriend were. She'd promised that she'd watch the interaction, allowing Draco to have the memory back.
She reached the top of the stairs just as Draco called out to Theo. She'd never seen Theo so torn up. The interaction between the two was so natural, Hermione finally understood why the two considered each other brothers. She watched them quietly in the cool morning air, the reddish light glowing around the two as the sat and talked. She marvelled at Draco's composure as he held Theo while he broke down. She glanced at her watch and sighed softly, realizing it was time to go.
If she stayed any longer than time the memory had allotted, she risked altering the time stream. She didn't want to mess around with the time stream of the pre-war world if she could help it at all, so she found herself tiptoeing quietly down the stairs of the tower and slipping into a little alcove a few stories below. She pulled out the particle accelerator and her wand, reminding herself how they'd designed the little orb.
She tapped the top of the snitch-sized silver ball twice with the tip of her wand and watched as it flipped open from the middle, hinged on one side. She laid the two halves in her hand, examining the internal structure. She hadn't had a chance to see the finished product since Draco had finished with it, but she knew well enough how it worked.
One side of the ball looked very much like the basin of the Patera Temporis, complete with the crevices through which memories flowed. On the other, however, the little ball very much resembled the innards of a clock, with gears and channels and moving parts galore. The most prominent piece was the bronze tube that spiralled throughout the half globe. She knew that was the business end, the part that would treat her body as a particle, which would be sped up to approaching the speed of light before gradually slowing back down, depositing her in her own time.
She wasn't looking forward to the trip, seeing as how the first one left her stumbling and vomiting. Nevertheless, Hermione pulled out the little vial in her pocket. First, she pulled out the memory of Draco and Theo in the tower, placing it in the vial and corking it before replacing it in her pocket. Then she trudged up the memory she most wanted to forget, the one she actually didn't mind losing. She normally wouldn't go through the pain and suffering of purposefully reminiscing about her torture at the hand of Bellatrix Lestrange, but it was a strong memory, and that was precisely the kind of power she needed for the particle accelerator to function.
She felt lighter as she pulled the white-blue strand from her temple with her wand, then prodded the wispy strand into the miniature basin in her palm. As the basin glowed a bright white-blue, the silver gleaming brightly, the clockwork in the other half immediately came to life, whirring and ticking softly. White text was emitted from the center, vaguely resembling Draco's messy scrawl. She tapped her wand on the center once.
"January 16, 2001. 11:15 am, Time Office, Department of Mysteries, London, England." She said clearly. Draco had told her the more specific she was about the when and where when using the device, the better the results would be. She hoped she wasn't overly specific, but the display showed her exact time and date, and even her chosen location. Hermione stowed away her wand again and spun the little dial in the middle, bracing herself for the dematerializing feeling she'd experienced before, though it never came.
Instead, she felt a sensation very similar to apparition, as though she was being squeezed through a rubber tube. She felt dizzy, hearing a slight buzzing around her as she was enveloped in darkness. She counted backward from one hundred, trying to keep her focus off of the tightness in her chest and queasiness in her gut. By the time she reached forty, she found herself being dropped back onto her feet, in the very place she left. Her ears were ringing and the force of her landing caused the invisibility cloak to drop from her shoulder, but she noticed the particle accelerator snap shut and rejoin its parent device the moment her feet hit solid ground, just like it was designed to. She staggered for a moment, then looked about, meeting the surprised faces of both Draco and Theo.
She looked down at her watch. 11:15 am. Then she felt Theo crash into her, catching her up in a huge hug. Hermione giggled and hugged him back, looking over at Draco who had crossed his arms over his chest. Hermione extracted herself from Theo to figure out why Draco looked so pissed.
"Um, Draco? What's wrong?" She asked cautiously. He huffed, looking her over.
"You're five minutes late." He said, unable to hold back the smile on his face any longer. She chuckled, moving forward and hugging him. When she could finally bring herself to extract herself from the man, she plopped down in Theo's chair, as it was closest. She looked between the two men gravely, contemplating how each had grown.
"You'll never believe what happened." She deadpanned, settling in for a long conversation.