Chapter Fifty-Six: Forever in a Day
Wednesday, 6th December 2000 - Loop Day 124.
Vala stretched her arms above her body, yawning as she looked out the large window of her new bedroom. The view was certainly more impressive than that of the pyramid on Iken.
Despite its meagre size and generally unimportant galactic position, the world had brought Qetesh a great deal of satisfaction to possess. Mostly because it had once belonged to her mother Hathor. Before Ra had confined her to Earth so many millennia in the past.
This world, however, was about as different to Iken as it was possible to be. Green forests stretched as far as the eye could see, far past the shimmering spires of the city in which she currently resided. Prisoner she may be. But as far as prisons went, this was certainly the most comfortable one Vala had ever been in.
Even the regal chambers of Ra's throne worlds would struggle to match them for comfort. However, the lack of servants was a step down in her opinion. It was part of the reason she was taking such delight in summoning her captors for the smallest of things. Although the blonde one had quickly seen through the ruse.
She worked her neck, as it had stiffened somewhat during the extended boredom that was their control sessions. Sitting in one place for hours on end was not Vala's idea of a good time. But she had to admit that the techniques that the child was instructing her in had proven useful already. She could now see the livid presence of Qetesh within her own mind, struggling under the force of the halo.
Closing her eyes and focusing on that image brought her face to face with the presence again. Something Luna had suggested she avoid doing until Vala was more comfortable exploring the depths of her mind. But she found that there were few things that cheered her up more than seeing the suffering of the one who had held her prisoner in her own body for so many years.
The pure hatred mirrored back at her whenever Vala looked upon Qetesh reinforced her joy that she had been so intimately entwined with Black the day these children had come calling. How much longer may she have remained trapped in her own mind, privy only to what the malicious intent of the snake within saw fit to grant her otherwise?
Now that the shoe was on the other foot, Vala was going to make the most of it for as long as possible. Even if it meant 'meditating' for days at a time. The revenge was well worth a little physical discomfort.
Especially given how comfortable her new bed was. Perhaps, she might even consider sticking around here for a while once these lessons had run their course. Who knew what she might be able to uncover and 'borrow' on her way through the stargate.
ϟ
Friday, 4th August 2000 - Loop Day 126.
Croaker looked over the glowing walls of the room.
It had taken most of the day, and every single capable warder in the entire Ministry, but he thought that maybe the Time Room might finally be adequately contained.
His first meeting of the day had been interrupted and he had been rushed to the room to find it already on the verge of collapse. The clocks that had once lined every surface had turned into what one of his few muggleborn employees had called a Salvador Dali painting.
The Time Turners had all cracked completely, spilling their Sands out over the floor where they had then gathered up into a dozen random chaotic whirls that would do horrific things to anything they touched.
The Time Jar had entirely melted and was flowing upwards into the ceiling where it would splash outwards, before oozing back down. Cycling in a perverse and deadly mockery of its former state.
And the Time Room was not alone in its misbehaviour. Several of the celestial bodies in the Space Chamber were juddering and shifting out of place. It seemed that something terrible was affecting many of the magics being studied within his domain. Thankfully, there was no sign of any such malfunctions or deterioration within the Death Chamber.
Everything was on the verge of absolute catastrophic failure. If the wards they had now erected failed, the Time Room might very well take the entire Ministry with it.
Along with a significant chunk of Muggle London above.
ϟ
Daniel felt his heart go out to the poor man.
Just wanting to see his own wife again had been a driving force behind so many of his actions with the SGC. He didn't want to think about how he might have turned out if that mysterious energy being on Kheb had not brought Sha're back to him.
They all started as the altar began moving, power building up in the ruins all around them.
"Listen to me," Jack said over the noise, pausing for a moment. "I know what it's like."
"You can't!" Malakai yelled back, pain evident in his voice.
"I LOST MY SON!" Jack snapped angrily at Malakai. "I KNOW!"
Daniel could feel the pain in his words. And was reminded of the conversation the pair had on his first night back on Earth. After his return from Abydos in the wake of his own wife's kidnapping a few years earlier, when he had asked about Jack's ex-wife.
"Yes, when am I going to meet your wife?" Daniel had asked, looking around the place, curious at the absence given they were hardly being quiet despite the hour.
"Oh, probably…uh, never," Jack replied and Daniel had deflated immediately. "After I came back from Abydos the first time, she'd already left."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah, so was I. I think in her heart she forgave me for what happened to our kid, she just…couldn't forget."
"And what about you?" Daniel had asked him concerned, as he recalled the way Jack had been on Abydos, so ready to die. Almost eager for it.
"I'm the opposite, I'll never forgive myself, but sometimes I can forget." Jack had replied, sipping his beer. "Sometimes."
Daniel had thought, after the incident with the Unity crystals of P3X-562, that perhaps his friend had finally made peace with the loss, but evidently, it was still a tremendously sore point in his friend's heart. He truly would never forgive himself.
"And as much as I…" Jack continued, deep pain etched on his face as he paused to calm himself, hoping to get through to a similarly broken man. "I could never live that over again. Could you?"
Malakai looked broken as his eyes fell. Daniel wished that there was more he could offer the man, to help ease his burden.
"No," Malakai replied, his tone a soft whimper of the pain he was feeling.
"Let her go," Jack whispered, barely audible above the rising whine of the machine.
Malakai didn't move for several long seconds, and Daniel could feel the energy rising in the air around them. Without warning, the man reached forward and corrected a few of the controls on the altar, before hitting a button on one of the raised arms.
The crackling energy surging over the ruins quickly dissipated and then fell silent. The only sound was the building storm still crackling all around them. Malakai lowered the shield, the red shimmer vanishing away.
Jack slowly walked over to the altar. Daniel and the others did not follow, knowing that they could not offer the same comfort as Jack would right now. Daniel still personally felt the guilt though, as if they had murdered the poor woman themselves, despite her passing on being a natural death.
His friend fished something out of Malakai's bag and passed it over the altar to the grieving scientist. Daniel had no idea what it was, but it seemed to bring a sliver of both pain and comfort to Malakai.
He felt Carter move behind his shoulder and he could hear her softly pressing the buttons on her sensor device, clearly checking that the loop was broken and the storm was not so close as to pose an immediate threat to their health.
But all he could do was watch as a man he cared a great deal about offered silent comfort to a similarly hurting soul.
ϟ
Harry entered the text string into the terminal, Seber and Lia watching as he altered one of the access threads through which the Mind Palace connected to the main systems. The group had agreed that it needed to be widened to allow more of the crew to be involved with the work that they were all doing in the city, as they had found that the openings were a little small for the numbers that were now helping with the different tasks each of them was undertaking.
As the alteration completed the hash check, Harry noted an alert on the edge of the display indicating that the stargate had just activated. He tapped the alert and the empty gateroom came into view on the display.
After the incident that had led to Ronan joining their team, Neville had set the system to auto-activate the shield whenever the gateroom was empty during an incoming connection. The team's remotes automatically sent a disable command for them as they stepped through, and the vulta did not return to the city when they had completed their scan, simply dumping their data buffer into the system through the wormhole before receiving their next coordinates. If something tried to pass through, it would simply be stored in the gate's buffer until one of them gave the okay to reintegrate it. With or without the shield depending on what the stored pattern was.
But there was no incoming traffic being detected. Nor had anything been stored in the buffer of the gate to prevent its incidental destruction by the shield. Given their ability to reintegrate anything that ended up in there, they had agreed it was a suitable safeguard against some innocent accidentally dialling the city and dying, unaware of the mistake they had made.
"That's odd," Harry said aloud, and the two holograms shuffled closer.
"Nothing is happening," Seber noted, staring at the screen.
Harry was about to say something else when a data stream began to be received, but it did not channel into the database for analysis. Instead, it activated a hologram that shimmered into existence in the centre of the room.
Harry's eyes widened and without thought, he apparated loudly into the space. The hologram was looking around the room in confusion but turned to focus on Harry when it heard the loud clap of his arrival.
It smiled at him and Harry was left stunned for a moment as he heard footsteps coming from the upper and lower floors.
"Hello, Harry. I see you have made some modifications." Merlin said.
"You're here. Does that mean…?"
Merlin nodded. "I have completed a thorough scan from Aether, and the usual time for a reset has long since passed. It certainly appears that Earth has been freed from the time loop."
"Merlin?" A voice said from Harry's left, but his attention was far from here now.
"Moros?" Two other voices asked as several more figures appeared in the large open room, staring at the hologram being broadcast to them through the intergalactic wormhole.
Realization filled Harry and his right hand was entering a command string into his remote before his brain had fully engaged. Merlin shimmered and vanished as the incoming wormhole was forcibly disconnected and an outgoing one took its place.
Ignoring the shouts from behind him, Harry dashed forward and shot into the event horizon. The wormhole whisked him over three million light years back to Avalon in a moment.
Familiarity washed over him as Harry stepped out into the gateroom in Aether, the icy expanse of Antarctica still spread as far as the eye could see through the windows around the gate. The soft tinkle of the water fountain filled his ears and Harry smiled wide as he could see the distant Mt Erebus beyond the far windows.
The interrupted hologram formed in front of him once again, and Harry nodded at the confused look Merlin was giving him.
"Thanks." He said briefly, before activating the transport beam built into the advanced structure and Harry was once more carried away, this time landing unannounced in a living room in southern England.
"Bloody hell." One voice said.
"My goodness." Another added.
But it was the third Harry was most interested in. "HAWWY!"
The tiny toddler shot off the mark and leapt into Harry's arms. He wrapped the boy up tightly and Harry could feel the rampant giggles sinking into his chest. His godson was alright. Safe and sound and in his arms. He had not failed them. With the person he most immediately needed to see accounted for, Harry turned to the other voices and saw Nym staring at him with a confused smirk and Andromeda looking rather cross at his rude entrance.
"Hi." He said bashfully. But his heart was not yet settled. His immediate concern sated, Harry knew where he needed to go next. "Up for a trip to the Burrow?"
Tonks began to laugh at his behaviour, and Andromeda just shook her head in disbelief. "Sure, ya nutter," Tonks replied, and Harry shifted Teddy onto his hip, allowing him to reach the remote on his left arm again.
The four figures were covered in light and a moment later they were standing in the same arrangement, but in someone else's kitchen.
The glorious smell of a home-cooked meal filled Harry's nostrils and he couldn't help but moan aloud.
"Oh… I have missed that." He muttered as Molly Weasley seemed to re-engage her brain after the shock of four people appearing in her kitchen unannounced.
"Harry? Andy. What are you doing here?"
Harry rushed over and threw his free arm around the woman, who instinctively wrapped him up in return. Teddy chuckled and sputtered, most amused at whatever was going on. Not caring that he had been ferried away from home without explanation. He was with his Hawwy, and they were popping about visiting other friends.
Molly pulled Harry back and held him at arm's length. "What's wrong, dear? You look a mess."
It was then that Harry realized he was crying, and he hurriedly wiped at the tears in his eyes. "Nothing is wrong, Molly. I'm just happy to see you, is all."
"I'm happy to see you too. All of you. A little warning would be nice though. I was not preparing for so many. But of course, you are all always welcome. It's too quiet around here these days. I miss a bit of hustle and bustle."
"Forgive our rudeness, Molly," Andy said, stepping forward. "I've no idea at all what has gotten into Harry's head. He just appeared on us as well."
"I'm sorry. I missed you all terribly." He replied, stepping back and feeling his legs knock against the long bench seat by the table.
He allowed gravity to take him and plonked heavily onto it, Teddy cheering at his behaviour once again before squeezing his eyes and matching Harry's appearance as he often did whenever his godfather visited.
"That's lovely dear, but we just saw you on Sunday," Molly replied, turning back to the stove and flicking her wand to settle the chattering pots that were beginning to boil over in her distraction. "Was the trip that awful?"
Harry felt a wave of realization wash over him. Sure, for him and the others in Atlantis, it had been months. But if Thor was correct, and Earth had been in a time loop of about a dozen hours, for everyone here it was still only Friday the fourth of August.
"Oh, wow. That's gonna take some getting used to." Harry said as another column of energy appeared in the room before Hermione appeared from within and stepped over to Harry. He looked up at her and, realizing how his escape from Pegasus must have looked to the others, mumbled, "Sorry."
"It's alright. Neville lasted about sixteen seconds longer than you before he rushed through as well. He was beaming away when I stepped through. Merlin seemed quite amused by it all." She said, sitting next to him on the bench and allowing Teddy to grasp her hand. "Evening Mrs Weasley. Mrs Tonks. Tonks."
"Wotcher," Nym said back, watching the three of them as Teddy played with two of his favourite people in the whole world.
"So, I take it we have a few staying for dinner then?" Molly asked, waving her wand about and summoning additional ingredients. "It was going to be just Ron, Mary and myself. But the more the merrier."
Hermione stood once more and moved over to where Molly was tutting about the kitchen, preparing new sets of ingredients for the larger meal now planned. Anyone else might have been upset to have to increase their workload, but when that person was Molly Weasley, who was used to preparing meals for nine over the years, she actually seemed to appreciate the work these days.
"How can I help, Molly?" Hermione asked, drawing a surprised look from the woman.
"Oh, I'm sure I can manage, dear."
"I know you can. But we popped in unannounced, the least I can do is help."
Harry blushed at the indirect reprimand. But he was not sorry. There were precious few people he loved dearly, and he'd been cut off from several of them for four months now. He sat Teddy on the edge of the table as Nym joined him. Watching quietly as Teddy giggled and performed as the centre of attention at the table.
"So… wanna talk about it?" She asked quietly enough that not even her mother across the table would have heard.
Harry frowned for a moment, recalling what Molly had said about Ron and Mary being on the way. "We will, but might as well wait for the others to arrive."
Harry turned to face the woman and she was watching him with a curious expression. "I am sorry for barging in like that. You'll understand soon enough, I promise."
"Sure. But what's it like?"
Harry just returned her gaze with a confused expression. "What?"
"Pegasus? A whole other galaxy?" Tonks replied as if it were the most obvious question in the world.
"She told you?" Harry asked, suddenly a little put out that his girlfriend had apparently managed to tell everyone exactly where they were going and that he had still been unable to figure it out.
"Course she did. Accosting away with my child's godfather by three million light-years. Not that I properly understand how far that really is just yet. Was it the best present you've ever had?" She asked, a cheeky grin on her face now.
"Nymphadora, not at the table." Andy chastised as Nym started waggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Harry could not stop another blush from flaring on his face as he turned to see a giggling Hermione watching him from the nearby kitchen bench as she helped chop vegetables. A slight shift of her shoulders told him that she didn't mind him sharing with Nym.
"Er, yeah. You can say it was one I'll never forget." He replied, trying to focus on Teddy once more.
Nym slapped him heartily on the back before the group fell into a comfortable silence. Occasionally broken by mentions of upcoming points of interest or the sounds of Teddy and the utensils being used nearby.
Harry had no idea how much time was passing, simply absorbing the feeling of being back amongst his nearest and dearest. It was a shock when the fireplace roared and Mary stepped out, looking well-mussed. Ron followed her and Harry quickly passed Teddy back to his mother.
He was up like a shot and slammed into his friend, who seemed very surprised to see him.
"Harry? What are you doing here?" Ron asked, hugging his friend back and looking at his wife in shock.
"Missed you, mate. How was the game?" Harry asked, recalling that if today was still the Friday after they left, it was one of the Cannon's matches.
Ron broke out into a huge grin. "Finished with a clean sheet. It was brilliant. Barney and Tullers only put two back in the other goals, and their side caught the snitch, but I didn't let a single shot through."
Harry was proud of his friend. It hadn't been that long ago that Ron's confidence was easily shaken leading up to a match. So a clean sheet would certainly help to boost his self-confidence.
"Nicely done. Hi Mary." Harry said, greeting the woman with a hug as well.
"Hello, Harry. It's lovely to see you. Back from your trip already?" She asked and Hermione gave a soft chuckle from the kitchen.
"Herms… you're here too?" Ron said and Harry noticed the knife Hermione was wielding slipped loudly at the terrible nickname. "And Tonks. Mum, you didn't have to."
Harry tried to suppress a chuckle at Ron's misreading of the situation but chose to let him think they had all gathered to celebrate his achievement. It was a thing worthy of acknowledging.
"Have a seat. Dinner won't be long, dears." Molly said, hovering over the stovetop.
"Now that everyone is here, are you ready to explain yourself?" Andromeda asked as everyone but Hermione and Molly settled down around the table.
"We do love seeing you, but it's been a week since your birthday party, Harry," Nym added as a wave of plates hovered through the air, directed by Hermione onto the table in front of each of the people seated there. "You're acting like you haven't seen us in years."
Completing the spell, Hermione gave Harry and smile and a nod, indicating that he should begin.
"Months, actually," Harry replied, before pausing and taking a deep breath. "You, all of you... All of Earth, has been trapped in a time loop for the past four months. You think that it's the fourth of August, but in actuality, it should be the seventh of December." He stated, right out of the gate.
Everyone was silent for a moment before Ron laughed. "Good one, mate."
When Harry's face did not change in the slightest, Ron's laughter died off fast. "You are kidding, right?"
Harry shook his head. With a couple of taps on his remote, he brought up a hologram of the stars, which made Teddy very happy as he swiped at the passing balls of light. "Does this look right for August to you?"
One of the advantages of a magical education was that they all knew the positions of the stars fairly well. Celestial positions often affected the picking of certain potion ingredients or needed to be accounted for in ritual magic. Everyone at the table knew enough to recognize that what they were seeing was far out of sync with where it should be.
"That's impossible." Andromeda denied.
"But it is the truth," Hermione said as she began bringing over the food and cutlery, unwilling to dance knives and forks through the air. "We've been unable to even approach Earth for months. For us, it is the seventh of December. Luna was already planning Christmas."
The group around the table fell silent for several moments before Ron once again broke the mood. "And you rushed over to see us?" He asked, with a wide smirk.
"Technically he rushed straight for his godson," Nym said, prodding Harry lightly in the stomach. "Remus picked well."
Harry blushed once again but did not know how to reply.
"Neville is probably sitting at St Mungo's right now," Hermione added, taking the open spot next to Harry and shrinking his hologram as Molly set a steaming pot on the table and took her own seat. "We all dealt with the anomaly in our own way."
"You really aren't kidding, are you?" Mary asked.
"No. Completely serious." Harry replied before a grin grew across his face. "In fact, while you were trapped we even found him."
"Who?" Molly asked as she used her wand to disperse the meal.
"Sirius Black," Hermione replied. "He's on Verda right now. Probably midway through a meditation session with Luna."
Nym and Andi just stared at Hermione as if she were insane, but when Harry simply started feeding Teddy some of the food off his plate rather than correcting her, they were forced to believe that it was true.
"So, who wants to hear about the Pegasus galaxy?" Harry asked, feeling the knot that had been ever present in the pit of his stomach release after so long. Earth was free again at last.
ϟ
Kingsley rubbed his bald head as he leaned over his desk, the still-open office door at his back. Croaker was in a right state, rushing about trying to put things to rights. And no one had been able to offer the slightest idea why things had gone as catastrophically as they had out of nowhere.
The day before, everything had been fine. None of the dozens of supposed experts in the Department could even theorise on why any of this might be happening.
He was reminded of a short visit that Harry Potter had made the year before, where he had shown unusual interest in the Veil of Death, before departing. Some of the odd things the lad had said then… perhaps he knew something about what was happening now. But Shack had no direct way of contacting him.
He would instead need to pass a message through the chain and hope it reached the boy quickly. Swinging the door shut, he turned to his fireplace and tossed in the needed powder, turning the flames green. He paused for a moment, considering his options. In the end, he came up with two most likely contacts. Picking one, he knelt down.
"The Burrow." He said, placing his head into the fire.
Surely there had to be a better way to communicate than this, he thought as his knees rebelled against the treatment. Sure, a Patronus message would suffice to get the word out, but it was a very slow and cumbersome way to have an actual conversation. After a few moments of spinning, his head settled and he looked out into the crowded Weasley dining room.
"Molly? I'm sorry to interrupt." He said, his voice booming through the room.
"Kingsley? What's the matter?" The woman asked, stepping away from the table and joining him.
"There has been… an incident at the Ministry. I am trying to contact Harry Potter. Would you happen to know where he is? Or be able to pass a message along to him?"
A groan and a laugh came from the table at the same time, and Shack glanced in that direction before focusing once more on Molly, who was smiling not at him, but in the direction of the table as well.
Harry Potter stood, Tonks's little boy on his hip as he walked over towards the fire.
"Hello Shack," Harry said, looking down at the fireplace.
He was joined a moment later by Hermione Granger, and Shack figured that it would be worthwhile getting her input on matters as well. She had more personal experience with time travel than most, after all.
"I need you to come to the Ministry as soon as possible."
Harry groaned again. "It never ends." He said, more to the woman at his side than to Shack.
"Harry. It's probably important. We have no idea what this anomaly could have done to the magics there."
Shack's eyes narrowed at the words. They were aware of something that could have caused this already and yet were just sitting down to dinner at the Burrow?
Harry sighed in response. "Fine. Sorry, Teddy. Hawwy's got to go for a bit."
The toddler hugged him tightly for a moment before Tonks was there pulling him into her arms.
"Do me a favour?" Harry said to the ex-Auror. "Go to Aedis for a bit. Introduce Teddy to Sirius. I'm sure the others will be along there soon."
"Course," Tonks replied, stepping away.
Harry turned to face Shack again and seemed to pause, waiting for something. "Well. Are you going to move and let us through or what?"
Shack was thrown. He had not expected to even find them at the Burrow, much less for them to be willing to come through immediately. "Yes. Just a moment." He replied, pulling his head free of the swirling flames.
It was an even weirder experience ending a floo call. And Shack fell backwards, his head spinning wildly as he fell onto his haunches. A whooshing sound drew his attention back to the fireplace and both Harry and Hermione exited into his office.
"Shall we?" Granger asked, extending a hand and helping him up from the floor.
"Thank you," Shack said, brushing himself off quickly before gesturing the two of them out of the room. Linda seemed surprised to see the war heroes passing by unannounced, as both seemed to do their utmost to remain hidden from public view, but Shack just escorted them towards the lift at the end of the hallway.
Harry moved to enter, but Shack waved him off. "No. Not yet. Maintenance is still checking that magic. We're taking the stairs I'm afraid."
The two young adults glanced at one another before they followed him down, heading deeper underground. The pair remained silent as they followed along, for which Shack was grateful. With the lifts currently out of action, the stairs were full of Ministry employees rushing between floors. And it showed how stressed they were that not one of them even paused to note the presence of two of the most famous magical humans in Britain. It wasn't until they exited the stairwell at level nine that any of them spoke.
"What happened?" Hermione asked, looking ahead into the wide open doorway to the Entrance Chamber of the Department of Mysteries.
Inside, Unspeakables could be seen rushing back and forth into the room directly opposite the entrance and it looked like chaos within.
"Approximately," Shack began, checking his watch before continuing, "two hours ago, the Time Room exploded."
He glanced over his shoulder at the pair, who looked at one another, though they did not seem overly surprised to hear this. Shack led them to the edge of the formerly rotating room where a dozen cloaked Unspeakables were trying to contain the sands that had shot out of the room upon its detonation. Several of the other doors in the round space were heavily damaged by the explosion.
One even had pieces of what Shack assumed used to be the door to the Time Room embedded in it.
"Upon inspection of the other sections, it was discovered that the Space Chamber was behaving very oddly for this time of year, though we cannot solidify why. The Thought Chamber shows an unusually high amount of activity, implying that something is going on with the general populace and the collective consciousness, though definitely not panic. And over three hundred prophecy records were lost when the shelves supporting them cracked under the shockwave that ran through the building."
Croaker stepped out of the Time Room and noticed him standing there. "Shack. We've finally managed to contain the Jar. The rest will take hours, probably days to sort out. What are they doing here?" He grumbled upon noticing who was standing with him.
"Consulting," Shack replied.
It was a difficult relationship he had with Croaker. Technically, the man and his entire department did not fall under his purview. A former Minister had once tried to shut the entire Department of Mysteries down, but had been wholly unsuccessful.
"Messages from five other Ministries have come in so far. They experienced similar damage. All of them studied Time Magic." Shack added, speaking directly to Harry and Hermione now.
"You think?" Harry asked, directing his question to Hermione.
"I doubt it has ever been an issue before. Until now, I doubt any non-magical forms of time travel have been tested. At least, not since before time magic was invented. The reaction could well be this destructive. The Mintumble incident not only resulted in at least two dozen un-born, but deeply affected time after her return. Mintumble herself died from aging five centuries in a day. That following Tuesday lasted for two and a half days. Being forced out of sync with the flow of time for four months… I can scarcely imagine the amount of temporal energy that was unleashed in that room."
"FOUR MONTHS!?" Croaker yelled, pulling his wand and stalking across the entrance chamber. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"Settle down, Saul," Shack advised.
"I will not settle down. Four months!" Saul growled, arms spiralling through the air with agitation. "Anything over five hours is unstable, Shack. FOUR BLOODY MONTHS!"
"We didn't do anything," Harry argued, a stern look on his face as he glared back at the Unspeakable. "We were simply outside the area of effect."
"We've been trying to find a way to break the loop the entire time. But we were unable to get inside the anomaly without the risk of ceasing to exist." Hermione added fiercely.
Every Unspeakable in the room was now staring at Harry and Hermione. Most of them holding their wands at attention, and Shack could almost feel the desire to nab the two rolling off them all.
"Alright, you three. In here please." Shack instructed, gesturing to the door that led to the office area of the department, and then into a small empty office near the front of the section.
All four stepped inside and Shack closed the door, engaging the secrecy charms built into the door. When he turned he found Croaker looking in surprise down a pair of what appeared to be muggle weapons of some kind that Harry and Hermione had drawn in response to the man immediately accosting them with his wand.
Shack stepped over and yanked the wand from Croaker's hand. "Put those away. We're here to work on solving this problem, not to assign blame."
Even under the obscuring charm, Shack could tell that Croaker was on the verge. He had been stressed all day, ever since he had been alerted to the state of the Time Room. He was one of the most prolific studiers of Time Magic in Ministry history. And well aware of the dangers of its misuse. Yet had been unable to do anything to prevent the collapse.
"Sit," Shack said, waving his wand and conjuring four simple chairs in a ring.
Harry and Hermione sat, but they did not return their odd weapons to the holsters he now noticed on their thighs.
"Please, tell us what you know." He asked the pair.
Harry and Hermione looked at one another for a long silent moment before Harry turned back and began watching Saul while Hermione started to explain.
"After the party on Sunday, we took a bit of a trip. We'd just finished testing our first interstellar spacecraft and I wanted to give Harry and Neville an unforgettable birthday present. So we took a trip to the Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy. It's about three million light-years away." Hermione explained as if such things were simple day-to-day activities.
"On Friday the fourth of August, I was communicating with a facility we have here when the connection was shut off from this end without warning," Harry added.
"A couple of days later, my parents, who were still here in Avalon, er, the Milky Way, but on another world, noticed that the Patils had not checked in from their celebrations in India yet. This was on Monday the seventh of August. They, and we, tried multiple times to contact anyone we could on Earth only to find the entire planet was out of communication."
Saul was twitching now and Shack worried he might need to stun the man in order to get the full story from these two. Which would be very difficult given the charms on an Unspeakable's cloak.
"You speak as if you have ways of leaving the planet," Shack stated, unsure of how such things could be possible. He knew that the muggles had supposedly travelled to the moon in the 70s, but that it had been inordinately difficult to achieve. Travelling to another planet must be nigh impossible.
"We do," Harry stated matter-of-factly. "A device called a stargate allows us to walk from one planet to another. And we now have several spaceships capable of faster-than-light travel. We used one of those from our new home on Verda to travel to the Pegasus galaxy."
"Anyway," Hermione continued, "we contacted a group of friends of ours and asked them to check in on Earth, as we had a few reasons why we couldn't just rush all the way back from Pegasus. It took them a while, but they eventually figured out that Earth and another dozen star systems were trapped in a time loop. Repeating roughly every ten hours or so. They lost two of their own discovering that information."
"By our reckoning, today should be the seventh of December. You've been trapped in that loop for the past one hundred and twenty-seven days." Harry finished.
"Shack. Give me my wand." Croaker demanded.
Kingsley looked at the man and saw that he was still shaking. "No."
Saul turned to stare at him, but such actions lacked effect when the Unspeakables face was so obscured. "Fine, cast an age detection charm on Potter."
Shack was surprised by the demand, but he acquiesced, casting the magic on Harry that would indicate his age. Given the boy's birthday had been on the Monday just gone, he should be almost exactly twenty years old.
And yet, the response from the spell clearly showed him to be twenty years and four months.
"How is this possible?"
"We still don't know. We were somewhat focused on assuring ourselves that people were safe first. We haven't had the chance to figure out the how just yet." Hermione replied. "But, I think we know a way to find out."
Hermione nodded to Harry who uncovered a small device on his left wrist. He tapped on it a few times before a shimmer in the air appeared, leaving a person in its wake.
"Hey Merlin," Harry said and Saul finally snapped.
"ARGH!" The man leapt forward only for a loud blast to sound and he fell through the figure in the midst of the chairs, slumping unconscious to the floor.
"Sorry." Hermione apologised, resting the weapon she had used on her lap and pulling a wand from her sleeve. She levitated Saul back into his chair. Two more flicks had him tied securely to the chair and awakened him once more. "Are you going to behave now?"
Saul panted heavily but did not speak. Shack was struggling himself, given he knew that Croaker's cloak should have rendered him at least partially immune to stunning spells. Whatever the weapons that Harry and Hermione held were, they were very powerful.
"Please, continue," Shack said, looking at the figure that was between them.
"Merlin. Have the SGC filed a report about this incident yet?" Harry asked.
Shack looked at the shimmering figure, taking in their clothing and general appearance. The figure did seem to match most descriptions of the mythological magician. But there was no way that these two were in communication with someone who had died centuries ago.
"Not yet. SG1 did recently return from the planet they designate P4X-639, but are still conducting their debriefing. I am cross-referencing the address now." The figure paused, seeming to think on the matter, though Shack had no idea what these abbreviations stood for. "This is a former Alteran colony world. once known as Crona. It was one of the earliest settlements afflicted by the plague responsible for their eventual exodus. There is a notation in Videeum about a device on the planet that was an attempt to return a group of scientists to a time before the plague. But the notes do not go into detail, simply stating that the experiment was a failure."
"You think this experiment might still be on Crona?" Harry asked.
"Given what we know of the Alteran, it seems likely."
"And would it be capable of causing this time loop?" Hermione asked.
"I would need to run scans on it directly in order to be certain, but given circumstances, it seems likely."
"Well, there you go," Harry said as if this strange conversation explained everything.
"Given the amount of time the loop continued," Hermione theorised, "I don't think SG1 activated the device. More likely that someone found Crona, deciphered the purpose of the experiment and attempted to use it. Their mission there just happened to coincide. Probably for the best."
"That seems accurate from the transcript I am collating of the debriefing. An individual from another world was present on Crona. It was he who activated and subsequently deactivated the device." Merlin noted.
"Thank you, Merlin," Harry said. "Can you get in touch with everyone and ask them to check in? Just so we can know that they're alright. We are due to have a council meeting next Monday, but I think we should bring it forward so we can discuss it all in detail then, once everyone has checked in with those they need to."
"As you wish." The figure they kept calling Merlin replied before it vanished once more.
"Looks like all of this was a terrible accident," Harry said, leaning back in his chair.
"The bigger problem is keeping everyone from noticing the changes it wrought. The explosions will likely be one-offs. The more Time Magic a location was studying, the bigger the effect. But that has happened already, and there is nothing we can do to fix that. But as we've already noticed, the stars are out of alignment for when everyone thinks it is." Hermione summarised.
"With the SGC being a secret, they aren't going to be able to explain what happened to anyone. Meaning every government in the world in the know is going to assume this was magic." Harry added.
"Wait," Shack said, stopping the pair who were actively theorizing in front of him in ways he was barely following. "What are you talking about?"
"What do you mean?" Harry replied, glancing at Hermione in confusion. "The stars are very clearly not where they should be. Surely you noticed."
"That can't be right," Croaker replied. "The Space Chamber keeps track of things like that. We've consulted the charts, it is a bit wobbly, but it is correct."
Harry and Hermione turned to face one another. "How would that be possible? Merlin confirmed the results." She asked.
"Could it have something to do with the explosions? Time Magic set loose right on top of the star charts?" Harry offered.
"I suppose it is plausible that the backlash had some effect. But globally?" Hermione turned to face Croaker. "Do all the ministries study space and time side by side?"
Shack glanced at Croaker who simply shrugged, unable to do much else in his restricted state. "I think so." The man replied. "But we who study the limits of magic tend to keep our secrets. I cannot confirm it to be the case."
"Was there any particular logic or reason in the manner that the Ministry here built this structure around the Death Chamber?" Hermione asked.
"How do you know that?" Saul replied, once again seeming very agitated.
Harry sighed. "Maybe that had something to do with it." He said to Hermione, ignoring Saul's question. "It is an unstable wormhole into another dimension. It certainly would have been within range of the explosion."
"Hmmm, I'd need to do a proper inspection to know for sure. Did you take any readings during your last visit?" She asked, the pair once again lost in their own discussion that Shack could only watch taking place.
Harry's eyes flicked to Croaker before he went back to the conversation. "Only what I could do passively with that little scanner that you had found while it was stuffed in my pocket. They were watching far too closely for me to pull it out and do a proper scan."
"Well, I'm sure Merlin has made several over the past year." Hermione mused to herself. "We have a working theory on why you haven't noticed, and it might help prevent a global panic, so it's probably a good thing."
"WILL YOU STOP TALKING AROUND ME!" Saul yelled. "I need to know if my Department is safe."
Harry shook his head at the livid Unspeakable. "Of course it isn't safe. You study the most dangerous aspects of magic down here. But unless we're completely mistaken, it's not likely to explode any further."
"We'll need to come back with the proper gear to check the Veil," Hermione added. "But for the time being, it should be safe enough."
Shack was completely thrown at this point. While he knew Granger to be one of the smartest people around these days, she was talking about things that even Saul was failing to keep up with. And Potter, who was known to be extremely powerful, but not the best of students, was not only keeping up but actively throwing out theories of his own. Had the whole Order misunderstood them the entire time?
"What do we do?" He asked them.
Hermione seemed to pause and give the matter proper thought. "Finish cleaning up any hazardous material." She clearly noticed the Sands of Time spread throughout the entrance chamber. "Once we double-check the Veil, everything should be fine. But I would not cast any serious magic down here for the moment. If we're right, the atmosphere could still be highly charged."
"We'll stop by tomorrow to make our checks. And we'll let you know." Harry said, smiling at the pair.
Shack could think of nothing else to ask, and the two seemed done with the conversation. But it was still a surprise to him when Harry tapped the thing on his wrist again and the two vanished out of what was supposed to be the most secure section of the entire Ministry.
He could hear Saul sputtering with barely contained rage in the chair beside him, and Shack decided that for the moment it might be best to leave the man alone to cool off. This was going to be a mountain of paperwork. He didn't need to waste time babysitting the head of a Department so they didn't run off and assault a pair of war heroes.
This was turning out to be one of the longest days of his career.