So, this is the second chapter in what is now known as Silver Time. Though I only recieved three reveiws asking me to make this a chaptered fiction, I decided to do it anyway. So, enjoy.
Chapter 2
They landed with a thud, back on their feet. Hermione looked around the Chamber of Secrets, letting out a breath of disbelief. Ginny and Luna followed her example, looking to each other. What they had just seen had shocked them.
There had been a reason.
Ginny was the first to break the silence. "So, Slytherin was in love..." She breathed, blinking rapidly, as if it were a mere dream.
"And she broke his heart." Luna finished. The redhead and the blonde looked at Hermione, watching as her mind travelled through possible solutions, processing the information.
"We have to stop that." She said, her eyes switching between the two nineteen year olds in front of her. "We can stop the war where it started. There would be no prejudice. There would be no Tom Riddle. We could save everyone." She said, feeling the possibilities warm her from her toes to her nose.
"But how?" Luna asked. "We don't know how to travel back in time, Hermione." She was surprisingly the logical one of the three.
Ever since Harry had been killed, along with many other vital Order members, Voldemort had been winning, defeating them all easily, hope diminishing. Ginny, Luna and Hermione were the rare ones left, free from cages and torture, but running and hiding for their lives, seeking the solution.
Their search had led them to The Chamber of Secrets, on one last appeal for a miracle. And then they had discovered the memory.
It was hidden behind one of the teeth of a sculpture of a serpent. A small vial of silver memory, unlabelled and a mystery. Hermione conjured a Pensive and they cautiously entered the world of this memory, belonging to Slytherin himself.
"That's not true..." Hermione mused seriously. "I do know of a way... but it's dangerous. It could backfire. In fact, there's a giant chance it will." She had abandoned her know-it-all tone recently. It just hadn't suited the situation.
Ginny smiled. "Well then, shall we make a toast, ladies? To death." She raised the vial to the air in salute.
"To death." Hermione and Luna agreed, raising their fists.
"So, what do you need, Hermione?" Luna asked seriously. "How long will it take?"
Hermione furrowed her brows, working it all out in her head. She finally looked up, dark brown eyes shining. "We need to visit Snape's bedroom again." That statement, odd sounding as it was, was actually a very smart one.
"I am never going to get used to hearing that." Ginny groaned as they made their way to the secret door behind the statue. "Can you imagine how Harry and Ron would react, hearing that?" She asked through a laugh as they made their way through the dark passages, already having travelled this path many times.
Hermione snorted. "Ron would go very red and Harry would blast Snape into a million pieces." Luna agreed with a laugh of her own. "Not to mention what they'd do to us."
Ginny smiled. "I miss them, so, so much." She said sadly.
"Me too, Gin, but they're gone." Luna said solemnly. "And sometimes, I wonder if we went with them."
Hermione's eyes hardened. "We're going to stop that. Harry and Ron... they'll live. No more pain." She said determinedly. "We're going to save them. No matter how much it breaks us to make Salazar Slytherin happy." She told them, giving them hard looks. "No matter what, right?"
"No matter what." Ginny whispered. Luna smiled, the first silver of hope lining the clouds that had darkened their days of late.
They reached a small door and pulled it back silently. Luna stepped forward and moved the painting aside quietly and they stepped inside, making their way immediately to the giant bed in the centre of the far wall.
Snape had shown them how to get in before he was found guilty of helping the enemy and murdered on the spot. Luna tapped her wand on the bottom of the left post nearest to the wall and sent a shot of energy at it. And suddenly the bed disappeared.
In its place, there was a great hole, the small stone steps leading the way down into darkness. Hermione took to the stairs, Ginny following after her silently, leaving Luna to bring up the rear and close the porthole, replacing the bed with the tap of her wand. Just in case.
"Okay, I need Dragonsbane seeds, blood of unicorn, sand of thyme and... I think... crushed troll snot." Hermione said, listing them in her head.
"I hope we don't have to drink this." Luna said, making a face.
"Knowing Hermione, we probably will." Ginny said, making a disgusted face of her own.
"Oh shut up, you pair. You don't have to drink it. I'm soaking a time turner in it." She said triumphantly. "It will allow us to go back far enough. And hopefully to the exact time that Eleanor made her decision to break his heart. Maybe we can convince her otherwise."
"Yeah, let's hope so. If not, we'll kill her fiancé." Ginny stated. Hermione and Luna raised their eyebrows at her. "What? I can be violent if I want." She sniffed as they entered the chamber.
Shelves lined the walls, containers, vials and jars adorning the shelves in a clutter of different colours and textures, illuminated by only the dim glow of green flames.
"Right, let's get to it." Ginny said, overly enthusiastic.
It didn't take long for them to find the ingredients Hermione needed, knowing the stores pretty well from previous visits. They packed them into a small cauldron and made their way back to the chamber of secrets.
It took two days for the potion to brew and on the second night, Hermione made a sound of triumph. "I've done it!" She exclaimed, not too loudly.
Ginny and Luna stood from their positions on the floor. "Right, time turner?" Hermione nodded and Ginny gently placed the time turner in her hands. "So, what will it do?" The redhead asked.
"When I let it fall in, the time turner will soak up the potion. The potion allows enough pressure on the time turner for us to go back just far enough. It acts like... like a shield against pressure, if you will." She explained simply, lowering the time turner in gently.
Ginny and Luna grinned in anticipation as the cauldron began to glow. There was an odd noise, like a squelching, and the light died down. When they peered into the cauldron, the red sludge was gone and so was the small golden time turner. In its place, was a red glowing hour glass, the size of Hermione's palm, attached to a red chain.
Hermione grinned and reached in, grabbing it gently. It burnt her skin at first, but she bit her lip and closed her eyes, forcing the feeling away. "Okay, are we ready?" She asked, looking at her friends.
Ginny and Luna nodded. But then Luna stopped. "Wait!" The other two looked at her curiously. "What about our clothing? We need to change that. They'll think we're weird." She said logically.
Hermione nodded, scolding herself for not thinking of that. "Right." She pointed her wand down at her clothes and muttered a spell, transfiguring her ripped jeans and sweater into a blue dress from the founders' era. It flowed from her hips, not quite large and poofy like an upper class lady would wear, with a tight bodice, which wasn't as uncomfortable as the real thing.
Ginny and Luna did the same, Ginny's dress a pale green and Luna's a pale yellow. The three of them looked as if they belonged in a set, each a different colour, but similar in dress style.
Hermione pulled the other two to her and put the chain around them. "I need the memory." She said, holding the time turner in one hand and the other hand waiting for the vial of silver. Luna handed it to her and she uncorked it, carefully tipping it on an angle so a drop of the memory landed on the time turner.
It disappeared within seconds and the hour glass started glowing, the sand within suddenly exploding from the glass and forming a ring around the hourglass, which began to spin.
There was a cracking sound and pain enveloped the three of them, their bones feeling as if they were breaking. Hermione let out a groan of pain and Ginny suddenly escalated to a scream, which bubbled from her lips as her ribs folded in with a mighty crack.
The other two suffered the same fate, their screams echoing through the chamber. It was as if their bodies compacted themselves, and in a painful second, their chests caved in and breath was lost. And they weren't in the Chamber of Secrets anymore.
The dark chamber had disappeared, or rather, they had dissolved from it, and suddenly solidified in another time and place; 1852, Muggle Scotland.
Their bodies became whole again and they gasped down breath. Hermione was the first to recover and take in their surroundings, only succeeding in confusing herself. They were in an alleyway. Facing a large wooden building, lit only by a singular street lamp.
"Where the hell are –" Ginny began, but was silenced by a wave from Luna.
"Shh... There he is." She pointed to a rickety old inn, where a man, with long dark hair tied back at the nape of his neck and a dark green cloak, was storming out of.
"Oh, bugger! We're too late." Ginny groaned.
"No, no. We can't be too late. No." Hermione muttered. "C'mon, we've got to try." She pleaded with her best friends. "You two go up stairs, and I'll go after him, alright?" Ginny and Luna nodded dumbly and Hermione took off after the tall man, just as they quickly headed for the inn.
"Slytherin! Wait!" Hermione shouted after him, running to catch up with his long strides. He was ignoring her, it seemed. He quickened his pace and Hermione pulled her skirts up slightly to catch him.
He turned abruptly into another alley and pulled out his wand, pointing it toward the sky. Hermione reached out for him, her hand catching his robes just as he disaparated.
Seconds later, they landed with a pop and Hermione was flung against a wall. A hand held her at the throat and she struggled for air, her eyes meeting the green ones of Salazar Slytherin.
"Who are you?" He demanded harshly, his grip tightening.
"P-please –" She choked. "Stop." Her fingers clawed at his strong hand.
He looked at the girl for the first time and his eyes widened. He stepped back, the burn of hot coals reaching him again. "Eleanor?" Hermione gasped for breath and leant back on the cold stone wall for support. "I-I – what are you doing here?"
When she regained her breath, Hermione looked him in the eyes. "I'm not Eleanor." She answered coldly, her throat burning.
Salazar tore his eyes away from hers. They seemed so much like... like Eleanor's warm brown eyes. But then he took in the girl's messy brown curls and the slight difference in the curve of her mouth. His eyes became angry again and she was once again restrained against the stone wall, this time, by her wrists. "Who are you?"
Hermione's heart thudded loudly. "I-it doesn't matter. What matters is that you go back to that inn and you make Eleanor see sense!" She said passionately. "Whatever happens, she must marry you."
Salazar snarled at her, his face coming dangerously close to Hermione's. "I will not obey you."
Hermione struggled to get free. "You must!" She said, her voice strained. "Please. I beg of you." Her eyes found his and he stared while she struggled. "Please."
He released her from his vice-like grip and his slammed his fist into the wall next to her head. She let out a squeak of fear and he looked down at her. "I can't." He croaked, collapsing on his bed and covering his pain stricken face with his hands.
"Why not?" She asked testily. "You are Salazar Slytherin! Stubborn and cunning! Not cowardly and without back-bone! Go and tell Eleanor how much you love her!" She told him, her voice thick with emotions that had been building up in the past years.
"YOU DON'T KNOW ME!" He boomed, standing from his bed, hands raised. "You have no idea who I am, let alone who and how much I love!" He shouted at her, expecting her to cower before him, as so many other women had done when they had provoked him. He was taken aback when the unknown girl barely even flinched.
"I know a lot more than you think, Slytherin." She said coldly. "And if you don't go back to that inn and speak with Eleanor yourself, I will go there and do it for you." She said dangerously. "Are you really that weak that you can't stop your true love from marrying another man?"
Suddenly, anger filled Salazar. Nobody, absolutely nobody called Salazar Slytherin weak. Not even the girl with the warm brown eyes, which reminded him so much of someone he loved so dearly.