Author Note: My brain kinda went off on its own trip and this came about. Episode 3 of the Slide by Slide series.
Episode 002 Hello New Friend
===XX
Starring:
Hermione Granger as the Head Honcho
Harry Potter as Alpha Team leader
Ron Weasley as Alpha Team first officer
Jane Granger as Alpha Team scout
Neville Longbottom as Beta team leader
Ginny Longbottom as Beta team second in command
Luna Lovegood II as Beta team consultant
Introducing:
Hermione Joan Granger as the new arrival.
===xx
Brought to you by Sluggo Cola. The slimy yet satisfying beverage choice of discerning Goblins everywhere.
===xx(Episode Begins)
It was a fine afternoon in March of 2010. The Granger Institute for Techno-Magical Research was humming as the various labs and engineering departments were filled with experiments and people probing the deepest secrets of the multiverse.
The crack team of the Interdimensional Division had with the help of several off-world teams had begun to develop ways to travel across the dimensional barrier without the original Atlantean device. The Quantum Reality Shift Devices, dubbed jump gates by Ron and soon the entire team except Hermione, were becoming more common. Alpha-verse had two such gates to increase the ability to travel among the worlds they had made alliances with and one for exploration for a total of three gates plus the original Atlantean device.
Trade, tourism and information flowed among the worlds peacefully. Items that one world did not have would be traded for items another did. Movies and television shows were a big commodity as the various worlds had different stars in some of them. Daniel Granger made sure to ask his daughter which world had what actor as the Doctor discovering some of the more interesting variations to be enjoyable. Although the Star Trek series with Jenny Agutter as Genevieve Picard was becoming one of his favorites.
Hermione was looking over the records of the nine worlds they had directly encountered and updating them. She had revised the serial number assigned to each world after the rest of the teams had rebelled against the more descriptive ones she had developed. Claiming that you had to have an IQ of four digits to be able to memorize them.
Padma's voice called over the intercom, "Hermione to Control Room 1. Alpha Team to Control Room 1. Condition 2."
Responding with her wrist comm Hermione barked out, "Report!"
"We detected a off-world activation of a wormhole. Trying to triangulate its location."
"I'll be right there."
===xxx===xx
Alpha team rushed into the control room moments behind Hermione, they were ready but relaxed still.
"Have you found it's end points?"
"Our end was located in Crawley. 845 Oak Lane. Other end was unable to be determined too much noise in the signal." Padma reported.
"Hey isn't that where your parents live Hermione?"
"Yeah. Padma I want a containment team on standby. Keep working to backtrack that signal! C'mon guys, mum and dad should still be at the office for a few more hours. So let's go find out what's going on."
"Oh boy." Harry sighed.
===xxx===xx
Arriving in Crawley at Hermione's front garden Alpha team spread out in a wedge casting spells and scanning to see what was going on.
"Nothing going on, no magical signature in the location." Ron called out.
"One human life form detected. Female." Harry called out.
"Guys its Hermione!" Hecate called out from the porch. She was using the magical communicator since she was in her cat form.
"A Hermione? Still be careful." Hermione said as they moved up on the porch.
Sitting in the deck chair on the porch they found a Hermione who was wearing a pair of glasses, an Asda uniform and had a note pinned to her vest.
Hermione reached out and plucked the note carefully reading it she passed it to Harry.
"Hello friends. I come in peace and heard about you from a mutual friend I encountered on a rather interesting world. He has settled in quite well I'll let you know. I am sure you are curious about your new young lady. She has recently suffered some serious set backs and I hope you will welcome her into the fold as happily and lovingly as the others. She has been stupefied so you'll need to awaken her with an rennervate otherwise she is physically unharmed. Sincerely your friend H."
Harry looked from the letter to Hermione and frowned. "That handwriting looks familiar but I'm not sure I recognize it."
"Yeah I know. Well let's revive her. Be ready for any bad reaction." Hermione said as she cast a rennervate.
The other Hermione yawned and as her eyes fluttered she stretched a moment then froze as she saw the three people standing on the porch staring at her. Her first reaction was screaming, her second reaction was to faint.
Ron grunted in amusement, "Well heart of lion this one."
===xxx===xx
The team was sitting in a briefing room at the base clinic. Lavender was giving them a report on their new guest. Padma was sitting beside her waiting her turn to report.
"Well she shares the same full genetic code with Hermione. Physically she is the same except for an appendectomy scar and no tonsils."
"Wait a second. I thought magicals didn't have those kind of problems?" Ron sat up.
"No we don't. But she's not a magical. She has zero magical energy. No core, no anything. She's not even a squib."
"Is this like Jean the second?" Hermione asked.
"No. She had her energy bound. So we could still detect the potential only she couldn't access it or use it. This one has nothing. She's a mundane." Lavender declared.
Hermione looked thoughtful, "Well we encountered a world where Ron was the hero of Hogwarts so why not?"
"I suppose. Her identification says she is Hermione Joan Granger. She has a cell phone with several people's names in it including mum and dad."
"Is she awake?"
"Yeah. She's awake and confused. She thinks she had an accident and hallucinated you guys. We haven't told her the truth yet."
"And she hasn't recognized you?" Harry frowned.
"No. She didn't react at all to my presence. She called me Doctor." Lavender stated.
"Okay. Go back and keep an eye on her. We'll send someone to talk to her in a few."
"Yes ma'am." Lavender said as she left.
"Padma what about the source of this wormhole?"
She shook her head, "No idea. The signal to noise ratio acted like someone was masking the signal. Very tricky as it seemed like they used a bi-coherent multi-phasic decoupler on it."
Hermione frowned, "Great. Okay so we're not looking at a ancient Atlantean artifact or something."
"No. It was highly directional, powerful but scattered. Definitely technological not magical."
"Great. Just great. So no magical signature involved. Do we have a quantum signature off of the new guest?"
"Yes we did manage to read that. Also we took a reading off of the note. It came from D03.
"D03?" Hermione asked.
"Isn't that where we left Snape?" Harry asked.
"The friend who has settled in. Great. Ron you and Hecate go talk to him. Harry you go talk to our new guest. Use your judgment on what you tell her. I'm going to work with Padma to try and track down this wormhole."
===xxx===xx
Harry entered the medical wing smiling and nodding to the people on duty. Jean Granger II had decided to study to be a healer after her experiences. She gave Harry a friendly hug as he entered the ward. Their relationship having developed over the last several months. She was an apprentice healer on the wards as she still had a few minor glitches with her magic at times but was getting better daily.
"Hey how's it going?"
"Okay. I've been making rounds and having a pretty good day."
"Hey that's good. What's the word on the new one?"
"She's interesting. I'll let you make up your own mind on her. I've of course not seen her."
"Yeah she might not react too well."
"Yeah. Well I better get going." She said with a smile.
Harry sighed then went to the room of their latest guest. Knocking he entered a moment later.
Sitting up in the bed wearing the hospital issue pajamas was the new Hermione. She was watching the information channels on the television. She turned it off as Harry came walking in. She looked at him expectantly but not with any real sense of recognition Harry noticed.
"Hello. I thought I saw you earlier?" she asked.
"Yeah. I was one of the people that found you. What do you remember?" He asked.
"Are you a detective?" She asked suspiciously.
"Something like that."
"Oh well let me see some ID." She demanded.
Harry pulled out the magic ID wallet and thought of a warrant card and Detective Inspector rank. She looked at it then handed it back.
"Okay DI Potter, what can I help you with." She smiled. One problem resolved in her mind apparently.
"Okay can you tell me what day it is?"
"Well its Friday march 12th." She replied off handedly.
"Okay and what's the last thing you remember?"
"You mean before I woke up in hospital here?"
"Yes please."
"Well I got off work at Asda. I was going to go home and meet up with Grace and Alice then we was going to hit the bar. Since that bastard David dumped me. I've never had real great luck with guys."
"Oh I see. And how long have you worked at Asda?"
"Right out of school. Dad and Mum had hoped I'd go to Uni like them but I didn't have the grades for it. I'm a department manager now. I worked my way up there."
"Ah good for you. And your parent's names?"
She frowned, "What's this all about?"
Putting as much authority into his voice Harry stated, "Just answer my questions ma'am. I need to get the information from you then I'll answer your questions."
"Okay. Well my Dad was Charles Granger. Mum was Angela."
"Was?"
"Well yeah they got killed last year in a train wreck. Was there something suspicious about that? I was wondering."
"Have you ever heard of a place called Hogwarts?"
"Hogwurts? No. That's a funny name for a place." She laughed.
"Have you ever heard of a person named Ronald Weasley?"
She shook her head, "No."
He ran down the list of their teachers, friends, classmates, members of the ministry and she said she had no idea who any of these people were. The same was for several places in the magical world. He asked her a few more questions about her life and things she had done.
Harry excused himself for a moment.
Calling Hermione he told her what was going on, "I don't think she has ever encountered the magical world. What should I do?"
"What kind of person is she?"
"Really average. She is proud to have made Department Manager at Asda. She has had a string of boyfriends since school. Didn't get high enough grades to get into even tech school. Was a bit of a bad girl who smoked and cut classes with her girlfriends. Lost her virginity in her late teens. Had a couple of pregnancy scares. Misses her parents as they died in a train wreck last year. There's a few other things she is evasive about but I don't want to press too hard."
"Understood. What do you think her reaction to the truth will be?"
"Well I doubt she's going to be an easy sell. This H person sent her here for some reason. Do you have a team going and checking that out?"
"Already on it. I called Neville and Ginny to go take a look at that world with Luna 2."
"Okay good. I'll let you know how it goes when after I tell her."
===xxx===xx
Ron and Hecate popped through the wormhole to Hogsmeade. It had been rebuilt after the end of the war. Looking around Ron did only a minor amount of transfiguration on himself as there were no more Weasleys. If they had not used this world to test the cooker device it would have fallen to Voldemort.
Hecate was riding on his shoulders as they looked around. The village seemed to be thriving and it was a school visit day it seemed like. Ron checked his scanner to try and find Snape as they had opened the wormhole as close to him as they could without it being spotted.
They found him sitting in the corner of the three broomsticks nursing a butter beer as he watched over the students enjoying their afternoon. Ron had to take a second look as the man had cleaned up quite nicely. His long hair was glossy and clean, pulled back into a pony tail that hung to his back. A small goatee adorned his face as did a bored smile.
Approaching the teacher who looked up at him Ron smiled, "Professor Snape. Wow sir. You've changed."
"Do I know you?" He frowned as Ron walked up and sat down across from him
"Well Selene sends her regards." Ron quietly said.
Snape cast a muffling spell. "Mr Weasley. Who is the cat?"
"Jean Granger. She can go from human to cat with the in between form too."
"So it did work. Well I'm very pleased. And for your information I am Headmaster Snape." He said with a smirk.
"Well congratulations. I'm happy for you. Have you had any encounters with anyone recently?" Ron bluntly asked.
Snape raised his eyebrow as he stared at Ron, "Why do you wish to know?"
"Because we got a letter that Hermione thought referred to you from someone who signed it H. They came from someplace else."
"Interesting. So Mr Potter did not come to speak with me?"
Ron shook his head, "Harry's been dealing with some issues over on RW108."
"I take it you have visited enough worlds that you now have to have an index system for them?"
"Yeah Hermione came up with some weird complicated system at first but we all rebelled against it and she narrowed it down. R means restricted, W is world and then the order we explored it."
"Fascinating. So Mr Potter has not visited me. Yet we met only a few days ago in my office. It would seem you may have a rogue Potter. What has he done?"
"Well he brought us a Hermione Granger that was a muggle."
"A muggle? Not muggle born?" Snape asked in surprise.
"Yeah not even a squib. Nothing." Ron held his hands out for emphasis.
"Curious. I suppose that confirms her theory of infinite possibilities."
"Something like that. But you say Harry Potter came and spoke with you? What about?" Ron asked in confusion.
"He said it was to determine what had been going on and to update your database. I spoke with him at length then he left. Nothing more than that."
"Well that's weird." Ron muttered.
"No more than I would expect. Now will I be having any more visits?"
"I don't know. Do you want any from us?"
Sighing deeply Snape nodded, "I would like to know at least how things turned out."
Ron smiled, "Let me tell you about my kids."
===xxx===xx
Neville, Ginny and Luna2 came out of their wormhole in the Hogsmeade valley. Scans of the signature indicated that there was magic on that world and many of the usual suspects existed. Minus a Hermione Granger of course. The three of them had made a few minor transfigurations to disguise themselves.
Walking deeper into the valley they began to pass farms and small houses. All of them looked like something straight out of the middle ages Neville noticed with a degree of concern. As they entered the village his concern became a seriously unsettled disturbance in his stomach. It looked exactly like something out of the middle ages. Pigs and cows and kids all ran around in the dirt covered streets. Thatched roofs covered most of the houses except for the Three broomsticks which had a slate roof.
Hogwarts castle was a large white stoned edifice sitting high above the village on a rise with the lake
"I thought the time factor was 1 to 1." Ginny muttered.
"Yeah it is. Look." Neville said pointing high over head where the contrail of a jetliner pointed towards far away lands.
"Okay so outside the valley they are the modern world, inside the middle ages?"
Neville looked at his chrono and it was registering normally. "No I think they just have a stagnant culture."
Entering the shopping district they found a few of the same shops as in the normal world. The people generally dressed in robes, tunic and breeches, dresses with corsets. Not one single person was dressed in muggle clothes. They noticed the three newcomers who were dressed in muggle clothes.
"I think we are sticking out. We should leave."
"Yeah." Neville agreed as they began to head for the edge of the village Neville saw Harry Potter and Ron Weasley approaching. They wore tunics with a strange surcoat over them. People were moving out of their way as they moved through the crowd. Although Harry had silver rimmed glasses on.
"Uh oh. Too late." Ginny pointed out.
"Hold there." Harry called out.
"Uh Hi. We're tourists." Neville said in his best American accent.
Harry gave him a no duh look, "Yeah I can tell that. Want to explain yourself?"
"Well we wanted to look around. You know the famous Hogsmeade and Hogwarts."
"And you forgot you're supposed to follow local dress codes? This is a magicals only area. No muggle outfits permitted." Harry sighed.
"Oh right. Sure. You see my wife and her sister kinda got me sidetracked this morning and we forgot. I guess we'll go back to London" Neville grinned while wiggling his eyebrows.
Ron chuckled while Harry sighed, "Fine we'll escort you to the public floo at the post office so there isn't any trouble."
"Great we'd appreciate that." Neville smiled.
===xxx===xx
Harry entered Hermione's room again. "Hello again."
"Oh Hello Inspector Potter." She said turning some soap opera off. "More questions?"
"Well no not really. You wanted to know what was going on and I was given permission to tell you."
"Oh really? Are Aliens involved?" She laughed.
Harry chuckled awkwardly, "Not quite but you may need to brace yourself. So you don't believe magic is real?"
"Not unless you're talking David Copperfield or something."
"Well that's not what I'm talking about." He said drawing his wand. He levitated the water pitcher over to himself along with a glass. Causing the pitcher to fill the glass and the pitcher to float back to her table. She stared at all of that with wide eyes.
"Pull the other one! How'd you do that?" She exclaimed trying to examine the pitcher for wires or magnets.
"Magic. I'm a wizard. I can cast spells and use magic items. I can fly on a broom, really well or so I've been told." Harry smiled.
"Yeah right. That was not. No. This isn't real."
"It is very much real. I can call one of my house elves and take you some place to show you more if you want?"
"House elf?"
"Dobby." Harry called causing the small being to appear. Hermione gasped in shock as her mouth worked with nothing coming out.
"Its okay. He's a friend. You're not hallucinating."
"Get out. Get out. You drugged me. This is all drugs. I been sex trafficked or something. HELP! HELP!" She started screaming causing healers to run in. Lavender worked to calm her down as Harry took the opportunity to step out. Thanking Dobby for showing up."
Harry paced for a few minutes before Lavender came back out.
"Sorry about that. She didn't take the appearance of Dobby very well."
"Ya think?" Lavender sarcastically snarled. "She about had a total fit. We had to stun her and obliviate your entire conversation. We'll have to ease her into things."
"Obviously her mind isn't exactly the most flexible is it." Harry sighed.
"She's a mundane. A person whose world has never had any magic in it at all." Lavender shook her head.
"Great. I wonder how everyone else managed." Harry sighed as he turned to head for his office.
===xxx===xx
The briefing room that evening was filled with very annoyed and confused people.
Hermione began the meeting with her own report, "Okay. We cannot clear the signal up enough. It was designed to be untraceable."
"How do you make an untraceable wormhole?" Neville grumped.
"I have a few theories but I am not entirely certain. Luna has a team working on it."
Ron laughed, "Well Snape was in fine form. And he told me who had visited him. Harry Potter. He gave me a copy of the memory of the visit. That Harry had a full beard and mustache, no glasses and was wearing a nice suit." as he said that he pulled up a hologram of the Harry that he described for everyone to see. Everyone studied the image for a minute.
"Interesting. Notice the smile doesn't reach his eyes?" Luna 2 pointed out.
"Yeah Snape did say he felt like that Harry was somewhat melancholy." Hecate agreed.
"Well we went to the new arrival's home world. We found out that their wizarding world is stagnant as ever. Even backwards as its illegal to wear muggle clothes in pure wizarding areas. Their Harry is married to Luna, Ron married Lavender and my counterpart married Ginny." Neville reported. "We did find out that there was never any Hermione Granger in the wizarding world at all. At least not that we could find in the usual sources."
"We did find out though that there is a for sale sign in front of 845 Oak Lane in Crawley. And her parents are dead." Ginny said.
"Yeah. She is a bit worked up about it. Apparently a train wreck." Harry told them.
"So what's she like?" Neville asked.
"Rather common. She likes American pop music. Considers being a department manager at Asda to be one of her crowning achievements, that and not getting pregnant yet. Looking through her purse she has a nice cell phone, her wallet had several pounds in it, ID, employee discount card, a spray tan shop membership, and a few pictures of assorted people. None of them from the magical world."
"So it pretty much confirms she isn't a version that was magical and for some reason got kicked out. She never had magic and was never part of that world." Hermione stated with a sigh.
"Great. Which still doesn't explain why this version of Harry brought her here. Like she was some kind of gift." Ron grumped.
"No it doesn't." Hermione agreed.
Luna2 "Have you also considered that somewhere out there is a Harry Potter that has access to a wormhole generator and has a serious lack of moral control that kidnapping someone and dropping them off on another world is not a problem for him?"
"Yeah that is why she hasn't already been taken back to that world. We don't know what he would do." Harry frowned.
"If he'd just bring her back or something?" Ron asked in an annoyed tone.
"Yeah. That's entirely possible." Harry pointed out.
"Until we know more about his motivations and what he is doing I want all teams to be on the look out. We need to go back and contact all the worlds and alert them. Beyond that I'm not sure what else we can do." Hermione shrugged.
"We can hope he remains friendly." Luna2 stated flatly.
===xxx===xx
On a world in the upper theta band of dimensional realities a wormhole opened. A tall black haired man with a faint lightning bolt scar on his face, wearing a dark suit and long black coat stepped out. Looking around he sighed as he pulled on a pair of dark black mirrored sunglasses and said, "Hello world. What's going on?"
(Review Responses)
Jo cook: Thank you
Officer DonNZ: Good eye. Yeah I thought I'd do the typical love potion trope idea for that one and twist it a bit. We see the ones where they manage to recover him and allow harmony to proceed but rarely do we see the bad guys winning and the ramifications of that. Although her and Luna and Hermione's daughter got a much better life now. I absolutely agree with the rest of what you said though.