"Bloody Hell. Hermione come here!"

Both of them had been looking around the room for some clue. They had decided that even though the sensible thing to do was to return, they did not know what lay ahead of them, outside the Marshlands now.

Malfoy was crouched on the floor. As Hermione drew closer, she realised he was looking at something under the floorboards or rather something that used to be under the floor boards. He had managed to pry away a board to reveal a pair of earrings that clearly belonged with the necklace that they had earlier found.
She squat down next to him to get a better look. The earrings glimmered in the Lumos spell that Malfoy's wand was casting. "I saw something shine under the floor boards through the cracks. And even though they look like they match the necklace, I have never seen these in my entire life. My mother may have had too much of jewellery, but I would at least remember this set for sure. She has shown me the necklace many times to remind me that it's high time I get a bride home." He said looking at the earrings.

Hermione felt self-conscious for a second. She had absolutely no idea why. Draco had not even looked at her but his tone made her feel butterflies. He had not even implied anything! She must be losing her mind. That is what the spell must be at this place!

"You think we should pick them up?" She asked.

Draco and Hermione carefully moved and lifted the box together.

'Nos tempus est huius'

Hermione whispered the words as she read them off the side of the box, giving a questioning look to Draco who just shrugged. It seemed familiar to Hermione, but she could not place it. She was sure she hadn't used it before or read it recently, but she definitely had read about it at some point in her life.

Suddenly, there was a flash of lightning outside the cottage. The light was so powerful that it blinded the duo. It wasn't like the lightning that came with a storm, rather it was like the powerful flash of a camera that made you blind and sway for a few moments. Hermione put down the earrings next to the necklace as they rushed outside, wands ready in their hand.

"Who are you?" they heard an alarmed feminine voice from behind them. They turned to see a young girl, in her late teens, standing there looking perplexed. She wore dark robes under which one could see a full-length dress in gauzy fabric. It rather reminded Hermione of the nightgowns her Grandmama used to wear.

Hermione stuttered. She did not know if they were trespassing and she was still hoping that she was wrong and they were still in the present times. She stole a glance at her watch and saw that the second's hand was now moving and the time had moved a little beyond 1:25. This meant that they were now stuck in time!

Draco moved towards the girl, who by now looked extremely scared of the witch and wizard standing before her with their wands drawn. "I won't hurt you. I just need to ask you something. What is your name? We promise we won't hurt you."
Draco knew her name was Lydia. And that she was here to find Adelia. He realised it the moment he had turned around and looked through her mind. Draco was skilled at both Legilimency and Occlumency. Living around Death Eaters and with the Dark Lord himself had taught Draco constant vigilance, like Moody, would say. Vigilance even in protecting his thoughts. They were back in time. They were bloody well back sometime in the 1800's! He was panicking, but for the sake of Hermione and the girl in front of him, he had to act collected.

"I am Lydia. And who may you be?"

"I am Draco. Draco Malfoy. I am a distant relative of Silvius Malfoy. I hail from France. We have never met before but I wish to see my cousin on some business. The village folk told me he might be here." Draco fibbed. Hermione's eyes widened and she almost gave a panicked shriek before she decided they must play along. Wherever they were, whatever time period it was, they had to keep their heads safe.

Lydia seemed to weigh in his statement but looked distrustful of them. "What business do you have with Master Silvius, Sir?" The girl was smart and though she looked meek, she had courage. Draco had to admit that much.

"There are some family jewels that I must take possession of. I was told he knows the whereabouts of those. I am to get married soon and my bride must wear the Malfoy necklace on her wedding day."

Hermione was fairly impressed how Draco was trying to find out about the jewellery as well as Silvius from Lydia, without making it sound suspicious, all at once.

"How do I know you are not lying?" Lydia said in a haughty manner.

"He is a Malfoy. Can't you see the blonde hair, pale skin and pointy face? Of course, he is a Malfoy. They all look the same." Hermione said. She wasn't even lying. He was a Malfoy, just from a different era.

"And who are you? And why are you wearing these strange clothes?" Lydia gave Hermione a suspicious look. Hermione stood there trying to think of something to say, in her muggle clothing of a pair of denim jeans, a blouse and a jacket. Hermione was at a loss of words as she looked at Draco. "Her clothes and all our possessions got stolen while she was bathing at a lake on our way here so we had to make do with whatever was left with a vagabond who was nearby."

Lydia seemed satisfied with his explanation. "So you are his bride? The one who has to wear the Malfoy necklace?" Hermione opened her mouth to say no, but Draco beat her to it. "No. She isn't the one. Unfortunately not. She is a dear friend of mine since we were, but children. She insisted on coming with me on my little journey."

"Ladies don't come alone without an escort or a carriage. We might not be muggles but there are some rules to the society even in the Wizarding world, Sire!" Lydia sounded appalled.

"Fine. We will tell you the truth." Hermione retorted. Draco turned around to glare at Hermione as if she had completely lost her mind.

"We wanted to elope. We love each other dearly, but I am a common muggle born witch, you see. And he is a French pureblood wizard. He really is getting married to a wretched pureblooded girl soon and was supposed to take that necklace from Silvius for his wedding, but I joined him so that we can take that necklace and run away. We plan to sell it so that we can start a new life and get married. We hoped to meet Silvius because we were sure he would understand our plight. After all, he loves Adelia equally. News travels fast between the Malfoy Manor and Draco's home."

Draco was blown away with Hermione's story. She had come up with a brilliant backstory. They had both read the journal and knew that the unnamed girl who used to help Adelia was sympathetic towards the lovelorn couple and wanted them to have a happy ending. Hermione had used that very sympathy to gain her trust.

Lydia visibly relaxed a little. "Come inside. I will give you a change of clothes."

As they entered the cottage, they realised everything was exactly the same. However, the floorboard that they had taken off and the necklace and earrings that were kept on top of a chest of drawers were all gone. But nobody had stepped in or out after them! But this hardly surprised them. They had managed to travel back in time so this could hardly be the most shocking incident of the day!

"These are Lady Lydia's. You can change in the bed chamber." Lydia said as she handed Hermione a blush pink chemise gown. Draco made himself comfortable on the sofa while he kept his eye on Lydia. A few minutes later, Hermione stepped out looking rather out of place if one were to go by her expression. But she looked every bit a true lady to Draco. He was instantly reminded of the Yule Ball when she had showed up looking radiant in a blue gown on Viktor Krum's arm. Despite his bigoted hatred for her, he had had to admit to Blaise that he would have snogged her that night, if, given the chance, blood prejudice be damned.

"Excuse me m'lord, m'lady, but you two remind me so much of Master Silvius and Lady Silvia that I cannot quite contain myself. I have kept this to myself for a few days now, but I must tell someone. I need help!" Lydia suddenly looked like her meek, scared self again.

Hermione moved towards her and put a hand on her shoulder. "What is troubling you, dear Lydia?" It was rather weird for Hermione to speak like she belonged in a Jane Austen novel, but thank God for all the time she had spent reading those and analysing the women characters. She could at least pretend to speak like she belonged in this era. She was sure she had heard Draco stifle a laugh at her attempt.

Suddenly Lydia broke down into a flurry of tears. In between sobs, she started to narrate her tale. "Lady Adelia is supposed to reach the Fawley Estate by sundown, tomorrow, to treat Lady Fawley. But she wanted to meet Master Silvius before she left. I stayed here to give her company but left them soon. I did not want to be intruding on the little time that they had for each other. I returned after collecting a few herbs and they were gone. There was absolutely no trace of them anywhere! I have been trying to look for them ever since! What should I do?"

"When did they vanish?" Hermione asked. The journal entry had ended at two months of her pregnancy after Adelia had spent a few weeks at the Estate. But as per what Lydia was saying, Adelia never made it to the Estate!

"It was a day after the Summer Market, so it should be the eleventh of April."

As far as Draco remembered, the last journal entries were somewhere around the end of May. Which meant that as of eleventh of April, neither was Adelia supposed to be in the Estate, and nor did she know for sure about her pregnancy.

Hermione gave Draco a knowing look as she tried to console the girl. "Shh..it doesn't become of a young girl to cry like this Lydia."

"Sorry M'lady." She sobbed. "I don't even know your name! And here I am busy crying. I apologise! It's just that if Lady Adelia does not turn up at the Estate in time, they will start a man-hunt for the two of them and the hunt won't end in anything good. I fear for their lives!"

"What if we send better healers? Or any other skilled healers in her place? I am sure they wouldn't bother to send a search party for a healer who has been banished then." Draco said in a thoughtful voice.

Lydia looked up with tear filled eyes, now brimming with hope. "Yes, that should work. But where will we find such healers!"

Draco gave Hermione a pointed look. "My Lady here is rather well versed with a lot of healing spells and am pretty good with potions even if I do say this myself."

"Draco I can heal injuries, not ailments!" Hermione said.

"But you are a fast learner, aren't you? And if you have the gist of healing spells, they are not very different from each other, are they?" He picked out a book from one of the shelves.
"Hermione there are no real mediwitches here yet. St. Mungo's is an infirmary, so whatever you know, combined with your muggle knowledge, it is still superior to whatever anybody else of this time would know." He whispered leaning in.
Hermione turned towards him and hushed him. "But why do you want to get involved?"
"How else are you planning to gain a fake identity to get us access to the either the Manor or the Estate so that we can figure out what to do and to return in our own time? You surely don't expect that we can keep sitting here and things will fix themselves?"

How dare he treat her like a daft dimbo. Of course, she was not planning to sit here idle! She just wasn't gifted with the cunning and wicked Slytherin way of thinking as he was. She gave him a sour look and reluctantly agreed.

Lydia looked relieved but jumped into action once she realised she had to prepare trunks of clothes and belongings for the alleged healers. She set to work. "What will you tell them? Who are you? I can tell them that Adelia sent for you as she felt you both were even better than her and she wanted only the best for the Fawley matriarch."

"That should do. Whereas for us, you can say we are travelling healers. My name can be Draco...uh...Zabini and this is my wife Hermione Zabini." He was reminded of his best friend Blaise. It felt weird that the Zabinis did not even exist in Britain yet. They were still only there in the villas of Italy. Thus, he thought it would be safe surname to use. If anyone asked, he could always lie that his Father was an Italian who had abandoned him as a child. His own Father was even worse, anyway.

"I am no wife of yours! And we must not change the order of things!" came Hermione's reaction.

Draco pinched the bridge of his nose and he sighed. He knew that she was right and they should not toy with the chain of events but things were already strange in this reality. "Do we have any other choice?" He simply asked. Hermione was always righteous and courageous, however, she was also gifted with a rather sensible head. She knew this was the only option they had, so she reluctantly said yes.

Draco had eyed the floorboard and knew that the earrings were not there. But they had been there a while back. The floor board was a little loose he could make out like someone had forgotten to fit it back properly. As Lydia left for the bedroom, Draco quickly opened the drawer and saw the necklace. Carefully without touching it, he put it in a pocket inside his robes.

Within an hour, they were ready to leave. As they left the cottage, they decided they must visit it as much as possible under the pretext of collecting herbs every day. They did not want to miss any clue or opportunity. As the Sun went down that day, the two embarked on a journey, with Lydia leading them through the Marshlands, as man and wife, even if it was all a ploy.

(A/N)

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