A/N: Here's a new one — time travel au, of course. I expect this to be around 40 chapters, but I don't have a firm number yet. Huge thanks to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter one and be on the lookout for chapter two in a few days!
Godric, following Harry to the brink and going to the Ministry of Magic had been a stupid idea. If only she had slowed down, talked things through and considered the possibilities, she might have figured out that this was nothing more than a trap. After all, Professor Snape had been warning Harry that Voldemort was going to use their connection against him sooner rather than later. But, Harry had been so manic and insistent, thinking that Sirius was in danger.
And, he'd been right about Mr. Weasley at Christmas time...
Well, speculation didn't matter anymore. It had been a trap laid by Voldemort after all. Sirius wasn't being tortured. He wasn't even at the Ministry at all in the beginning. Instead, it was a handful of foolhardy Gryffindors and Luna waltzing into confrontation with Death Eaters who had more dueling experience in their little fingers than any of the students had. And, despite Hermione's repeated warnings not to, Harry had picked up his prophecy anyway, doing exactly what Voldemort had wanted.
The fighting broke out after that. Dumbledore's Army worked well together, having spent much time holed up in the Room of Requirement together, practicing, but it was an entirely different beast to face off against someone who wanted to kill you. Hermione found herself up against an unrelenting Antonin Dolohov, throwing curse after curse her way.
She ran with Luna, Neville and Ron through a room that appeared to be dedicated to time magic, based on the deafening ticking of clocks that filled the empty spaces. Hermione watched as a jinx went over her shoulder, the red magic singeing a bit of her hair as it zipped by, before she threw a Silencio back at Dolohov. That only infuriated him more.
By some luck, they ran by a cabinet full of time turners. Unable to help herself, Hermione grabbed one at random and threw the chain around their neck. They needed time now more than ever — time to think, time to regroup, time to stop all of this from happening. She was sure that if she just had a moment, she could go back to when they first showed up at the Department of Mysteries and turn them away.
But Dolohov did not let up and they did not have a minute to spare.
Instead, they were chased into another odd room, more mysterious than the last. In the center there was a large stone archway with a translucent veil hanging in the middle, moving by some unseen wind. And the whispers... the whispers were enough to unsettle all of them.
Luckily, this room seemed to be their salvation. Order of the Phoenix members began popping in and entering the fight. Hermione felt her shoulders sag in relief when she was no longer solely tasked with fighting off Dolohov. For a moment, she was able to huddle with Luna and investigate the time turner that she'd grabbed, studying the rings so she could begin to calculate how many turns she would need to take.
How long had they been there? Time seemed to stretch on, the minutes turning to hours with each subsequent curse dodged. Hermione wasn't entirely sure, but she knew that time magic was fickle. She couldn't just randomly turn the thing and hope for the best. She had to be somewhat precise if she was going to make this insane idea work.
But, before she could figure it out, Hermione heard Harry let out a heartbroken, crushed sound. Looking up, she watched as Sirius — Harry's last hope of a real family — fell back into the veil, apparently killed by Bellatrix Lestrange.
The woman eagerly began cackling as Harry chased her from the room that they were in, sending a flurry of angry curses at her himself. Hermione didn't even think before she ran after the pair of them, determined to stop Harry before he did something stupid. Looking around, Hermione realized that they were back in the main atrium of the Ministry, where the walls were lined with numerous communal floos.
Hermione gasped when Harry tried to Crucio Bellatrix, who only giggled and laughed at his feeble attempt. "Harry, don't!" she shouted at him, but he didn't even acknowledge her. Instead, he was too distracted by the sudden appearance of Voldemort, who was whispering cruel nothings into his ear, prodding him to just kill Bellatrix, that she deserved it.
But, Bellatrix... Bellatrix's eyes were suddenly locked on Hermione's form, realizing for the first time that they had an audience. Her head tilted to one side, looking at Hermione as though she were some sort of interesting science project, before her face was transformed into something sinister with an awful smirk. The crazed witch stood up, knowing better than to interfere with her master's duel with Headmaster Dumbledore. No, it seemed that she had a new prey in her sights.
The Gryffindor witch could feel her heart hammering against her ribcage in sudden fear. She knew that Harry was untouchable by anyone other than Voldemort, but she knew that that 'protection' did not extend to her. She was fair game for anyone to hurt, to kill.
So, when Bellatrix lunged for her, Hermione took off like a frightened rabbit, determined to get out of there if she could. Grabbing her wand in her hand, she tried to make it to the nearest floo, wanting to return to Order Headquarters where she would be safe. It was under the Fidelius charm, afterall, so it wasn't as if Bellatrix could follow her there.
Hermione finally made it to the floo and its green flames flared up. She whispered the words Grimmauld Place, so that Bellatrix could not overhear and follow her. She would be free as soon as she stepped through.
Only, at the last second, a hand reached out and grabbed at her. Bellatrix had caught her, fingers tangling up in the chain that hung around her neck. The chain that held the time turner. Forced to face her attacker, Hermione's eyes widened when she heard the crunching of glass. Bellatrix looked gleeful as she let go, the rings suddenly spinning wildly.
Hermione could feel the pull of magic, but if it was from the floo or from the time turner, she couldn't be certain. And in the next moment her world went black.
...
When she woke, Hermione could already feel the beginnings of a splitting headache, made all the worse by the furious whisper argument that seemed to be happening in the room with her. Unsure of where she was, she kept her eyes closed, relaxed, not wanting to tip whoever was with her that she was awake until she had a better sense of what was going on.
She was in bed, it seemed. A rather comfortable one, if she was being fully honest, which was nice. But, she also knew that meant she was not in the hospital wing of Hogwarts. And, she'd been tucked in, which seemed to suggest a certain level of care from whoever it was she was with. Straining her ears, she tried to listen to the words being said, even though she was still disoriented by whatever it was that she'd gone through.
"— no way she could have gotten past the warding—"
"— maybe your magic is not as foolproof as—"
"—established using family blood, it doesn't lie—"
"—stranger into our home, this can mean nothing but—"
"—blood magic doesn't lie, Walburga!"
The last sentence was enough to have Hermione gasp in shock. Unfortunately, it seemed that her sudden intake of breath was noticed by the other two in the room as well. They immediately stopped talking.
"Are you awake?" the male voice demanded. "Reveal yourself to us."
Knowing that there was no point in continuing the charade any longer, Hermione took a deep breath and opened up her eyes. Pushing herself up into a sitting position, she let her eyes focus. And what she found was enough to horrify her. The blonde woman looking at her with a deep frown was too recognizable, even if she was younger than Hermione was expecting. After all, her visage in portrait form had spent most of the summer and christmas holidays shrieking at her that she was a stain on her father's house.
"Walburga Black," she breathed out, unbidden. Never in a million years did she think that she would actually meet Sirius's mother. Because, of course, that meant that she must have gone into the past. She remembered then that Bellatrix had grabbed her time turner. Her fingers jumped to her neck, feeling for the offending device, only to come up empty handed.
"Looking for this?" asked the other occupant of the room. On his finger dangled the crushed time turner, all of the magical sand completely gone.
"Yes," Hermione admitted, while she looked him over. He was handsome in a regal sort of way, his wavy black hair styled in a rather old fashioned way. She could see the beginnings of grey hair at his temples. But his eyes were unmistakable — mercurial and grey. They were Sirius's eyes. "And, if that's Walburga, you must be Orion," she deduced.
"How do you know who we are?" Walburga demanded, her voice bordering on hysterical. "And how did you get into our home?"
Hermione wanted to keep the upper hand as long as she could. "Through the floo, as I am sure that you are already aware," she answered snidely, remembering the rude way that Walburga's portrait had always treated her. "What year is it?" she asked, hoping to get her bearings.
"Why do you want to know that?" Walburga demanded, her voice going even more shrill than it had been before.
"I assume that you already know what it is that you are holding in your hand, Mr. Black," Hermione said, hoping to seem respectful for the moment. She obviously didn't have her wand at the moment, so that meant that she was somewhat at their mercy for the moment. And she remembered Sirius saying for all his faults, his father was still an exemplary wizard, with a suspicious mind.
"A time turner," he answered, his lips quirked in curiosity, highlighting the thin black mustache across his upper lip.
"So that should surely answer at least some of your questions about where I've come from," she explained, looking between the two of them. "I'll ask again. What year is it?" She wished that she'd spent more time exploring the Black family tree. At least then she'd have a better idea of when Walburga and Orion had died, so she wouldn't be quite so dependent on them.
The married couple looked between each other, having a silent conversation with one another. Finally, Orion returned his attention to her. "It is 1977," he answered.
"19—fuck," Hermione whispered under her breath. She had never imagined traveling back nearly two decades through time. In fact, time travel of that length was not even theoretically possible! Everyone who had attempted it had never been seen again, on account of not being able to move forward in time.
Godric, she hated Bellatrix. She wasn't sure how she was going to get back to Harry, but she needed to.
"I take it that was further in the past than you were expecting?" Orion asked, cataloging her every emotion.
She nodded. "Uh, yes, unfortunately," she agreed.
"What is your name, witch?" he asked her, still looking at her cautiously.
"Erm, Hermione Granger," she explained. "I know that your house is under the Fidelius charm, but obviously the secret keeper has given me its location in my time. I was trying to get back to Grimmauld Place when... someone grabbed and broke my time turner, leading me here. So, that's obviously how I got here."
Orion shook his head. "I'm afraid that it's not so simple as all that. You see, I've got blood wards on Grimmauld Place," he explained. "And the only way that you could have crossed them is if you were blood related to the Black family."
"Impossible," Hermione answered, raising her chin in the air. "That's not how it works in my time."
"Well, it is how it works now," he countered, obviously affronted that she would question his magical ability. "Blood magic doesn't lie."
"But, I am a muggleborn," Hermione answered, crossing her hands over her chest.
Walburga made a noise of revulsion, taking an unbidden step away from her, like Hermione might contaminate her with muggle germs if she got too close. But, to her surprise, Orion just smirked at her. "Maybe not so much as you suspect," he argued back. "As I say, blood magic does not lie. I suppose, there is only one way to settle this, though."
"How is that?" Hermione asked, perplexed.
"We will just have to figure out who you belong to," he said with a smirk. Dread settled into Hermione's belly. She did not like the sound of that one bit.