Tempus

I do not own Undertale or Harry Potter. They belong to Toby Fox and JK Rowling respectively. This is purely for my entertainment and hopefully yours too...

Ch 1 - A Strange Reading

Hermione sighed in relief as she made it to her destination. She may have prided herself as being more in shape than the average witch, but Mt. Ebott was quite the workout, even for an experienced hiker. The witch could only thank her lucky stars for cooling charms or she would be roasting alive under her black Unspeakable robes in the midday sun.

Pulling her wand from its holster, Hermione began a long series of complicated movements over the entrance of a cave. After putting her wand away, she pulled out a notebook and self inking quill. She made various sounds of interest and delight as rune after rune appeared in a ghostly, multicolored kaleidoscope circling the tunnel in a never ending, inward spiral. The rainbow colored symbols faded away into the darkness before her. She was scribbling down her notes as quickly as possible, trying to capture all her thoughts as well as copying down the runes that were close enough to read.

The Time Room Unspeakable was excited to say the least, but also a bit confused. From the readings the Department of Mysteries were getting, she expected a much larger element of time to be involved. The runes here had more to do with confinement, concealment, and spacial alteration. It would take her a long time to decipher the meaning behind the intricate rune series.

She wondered if she should draw on her colleague's input from the Space Room. He would salivate at the chance to research this from what she could tell so far. It was the time aspect that she was interested in though. Interestingly enough, each aspect had its own distinct color lighting it up. If she wasn't mistaken, these runes were anchored with Soul Magic. A type of magic that had long been labeled the darkest arts and banned by all major wizarding nations. One thought of a certain dark lord was reason enough to understand why it had been banned. Well, being an Unspeakable did give her access to certain... restricted research.

It was so interesting, but at the same time frustrating to not be able to decipher the exact meaning behind it all. Reading runes and wards were not like reading a letter to a friend. They were important as a whole to understand the intended use. One symbol at the end of a line of a hundred others could change the meaning to the entire array. And just her luck... this spiral of runes was not one of the repetitive ones used for reinforcement. From what she could see, there wasn't a single repeating line and she could not see the end from where she stood.

After copying down what she could from her position at the entrance, she put away her note book and gave herself a determined nod. "I will figure this mystery out." She promised herself. After canceling her detection spell, Hermione turned on the spot and disappeared with a soft popping sound.

o0O0o

~One year later~

With barely a sound, a darkly robed figure appeared on the cliff face before a familiar cave. "Hello old friend," Hermione said as she set her briefcase down next to the opening. "Are you ready for today?" She asked the cave excitedly.

Ok, so maybe being an Unspeakable was getting to her just a little. She had picked up the bad habit of talking to her experiments like her mentor Croaker. To be fair she didn't talk to many people besides him, and then only on occasion, for days on end. One had to pick up some form of coping mechanism to keep their sanity. At least this one was one of the milder ones. Those Unspeakables in the Love Room for example... well, it would make a sailor blush to say the least.

Back on track, Hermione opened the case and reached her arm in up to the elbow before pulling out a long golden colored tripod. She rreached in again to pull out what appeared to be a strangely designed telescope. She set up the space-time reading device to point directly down the cave's opening. After pulling her mass of curls into a messy bun to keep it out of her way, she got down to work. Over the corse of an hour she took readings from the Quantaniumscope, took energy readings of the fluctuating time magic in the area, reapplied her original detection spell from a year ago, and put away all of her equipment.

Hermione pulled one final item from her brief case before closing and locking it. The device in question was one of her own devising. Its development was difficult and the only reason her foray into this magical expedition had taken a year to truly begin. The witch was quite proud of the slight looking device. Shame she would probably never get recognized for developing such a wondrous device by anyone other than future Unspeakables.

She admired the delicate looking necklace for a moment. At first glance, it appeared to be a silver version of her old time turner. A closer look showed this to be untrue. The hour glass was filled, not only with the plain looking sand from the original Time-Turner, but also with a crystalline liquid that almost appeared to be a glittering mini-tornado. The shimmering vortex seemed to endlessly shuffle the sand from one side to the other in a never ending cycle. She watched the process repeat a couple of times, running her finger along the glass fondly. She then placed the shinning silver chain around her neck and tucked it under her robes for safe keeping.

Where the Time-Turners were able to "turn back time" thanks to a contained hour-reversal charm, her device did almost the exact opposite. It took the property of the Time-Turner that protected the owner's physical body from the time stream and amplified it. There was no hour reversal charm on this hour glass. No, its sole purpose was to protect the wearer from fluctuations in space-time. Though it didn't have an official name yet, she fondly referred to it as her Time-Bubble Generator. Well, if S.P.E.W taught her anything, she was crap at naming things, but she liked it none the less.

Turning back to the task at hand, Hermione mentally prepared herself. This couldn't wait any longer. She had her protection and the problem needed to be understood and resolved ASAP. The fluctuation in time magic coming from the mountain, especially this entrance, were growing increasingly strong and more frequent. Something needed to be done before a hole was torn in the fabric of reality!

The witch pulled her wand out again and stepped directly before the barrier. She reached out with her free right hand and felt the warm buzz of magic directly beneath her palm. With one last steeling breath, she pushed her hand forward and pulled it back just as quickly. She had been startled by the cave lighting up with a bright pulse of light that traveled down its length before disappearing. The strange thing was, the lighted area seemed rectangular in nature and not the rounded natural lines of the cave.

"Fascinating," she breathed. Her honey brown eyes sparked with the delight of a puzzle to solve.

o0O0o

Thanks for reading! Next up... Hermione meets a real monsters ;)