A/N - Hi everyone! Hope you all enjoy this chapter and thanks for reading and reviewing!
Chapter 5
1 July 2003
Hermione's mind wandered as Mi and Padma looked over the notes Theo had provided. Hermione didn't know exactly what had happened when Theo had told Mi about their existence but she hadn't seemed overly upset when she arrived. Hermione had wanted to ask but she decided it was really none of her business.
"Hermione?" Mi said and Hermione looked up.
"Sorry, what?"
"Is everything all right?"
"Yes, I was just thinking about something Theo said."
Mi frowned. "Something about the universe hopper?"
Hermione laughed. "You're calling it that now too?"
Mi smirked. "Seemed appropriate."
"No, nothing about that. Something else he said to me."
Mi looked curious, Padma as well.
"He told me I should break things off with Ron whenever I get home," Hermione said.
"Sound advice," Padma said.
Mi nudged her but Padma was unrepentant. Hermione couldn't help but chuckle. "As I said before, I was thinking about it before my accident anyway."
"I told Theo about you and Ron, I'm sorry about that," Mi said, her cheeks flushing.
"Don't worry about it," Hermione said waving her off. "Did you mention that he was with Daphne in my world?"
Mi laughed. "I did. He didn't speak for about ten minutes. He sees Daphne as more of a sister so it was a bit disturbing for him."
"She and Harry, are they happy?" Hermione asked, biting her lip.
Mi nodded as Padma rolled her eyes. "They're nauseating is what they are."
"Hey, just because you're currently single, don't knock your coupled friends," Mi said.
"Honestly, Hermione, you have to agree with me. I thought you and Theo were bad but those two," she broke off and shook her head.
"I think it's sweet," Mi said.
"Of course, you do," Padma said with another eye roll.
"Anyway," Mi said with a mock glare at Padma. "Let's get back to these notes."
Hermione couldn't help but smile at their banter. Her Padma was a bit more reserved than this one but they still had similar conversations. Her smile fell from her face. She missed her friends. She missed her parents. She missed her flat and her job. She even missed Ron, although maybe not romantically. She just wanted to go home.
"Hermione?" Mi said.
Hermione looked up and Mi reached over and took her hand, giving it a squeeze. "I think there might be something here." She indicated the parchment on the table.
Hermione nodded and refocused on their task. If Theo's father's notes held any answers, she was going to find them.
2 July 2003
They'd been poring over the notes since Theo had turned them to Hermione. Padma knew a bit about Time-turners as she had observed on a project during her training with the DOM. After the destruction of the Ministry Time-turners in Hermione's fifth year, the DOM had been working towards producing more. According to Padma, besides making a few of the basic short-range Time turners like the one Hermione had used her third year, they were also experimenting with travelling both to the past and the future, as well as longer range.
While Hermione knew the DOM in her world had restored a few of the basic Time-turners, she didn't think they were working on anything other than that. She couldn't be sure, of course, no one ever knew what everyone else was working on, save the Head of the department. But given Croaker had assigned Hermione the Universe hopper, Merlin, she was calling it that now too, she assumed that he would have at least had her assist on any other Time-turner projects that were happening previous to that.
Personally, Hermione wasn't sure why this universe's DOM wanted to experiment with long-range Time-turners after what had happened to Eloise Mintumble. She'd gone back in time five centuries and affected the timeline so much, people that were supposed to have been born weren't. When Eloise returned to the present, she aged five hundred years and died. The Ministry had outlawed long-range time travel after that.
It became clear to them after looking more closely at the notes that Thaddeus Nott had been experimenting with long-term time travel. He'd obviously wanted to invent something that could take him years into the past. Like Hermione had discussed with Theo, it could have been failsafe to prevent Voldemort's defeat or he could have wanted to kill Lily Potter to prevent Harry from existing, Alice Longbottom too, most likely.
"Do you think he succeeded?" Hermione asked. "In making it I mean. Obviously, he didn't actually use it."
"If he did, it probably hasn't been found. If it had I would think that the DMLE would have turned it over to the DOM," Mi said.
"They might have. Davidson could have assigned someone to it and not told anyone. Or she could be working on it herself," Hermione pointed out.
"I don't think he was quite there yet," Padma said. When Hermione and Mi looked over at her she continued. "Think about it. If he had finished it, wouldn't he have used it? If his intention were to go back and prevent Voldemort from losing his body in 1981 and he had a working Time-turner, I can't imagine he wouldn't have used it."
"True," Mi said. "But he could have tried and failed."
"It's possible," Padma acquiesced. "And we obviously have no way of knowing for sure without questioning Nott."
Which would present a problem. They wouldn't be able to get into Azkaban without going through official channels and that would mean revealing her presence here. Even if Harry, as an Auror, could get them in, there would be a parchment trail of their visit. Which would eventually reveal her presence anyway. She wouldn't let anyone lose their jobs over this.
Theo, as Nott's son, could get in to see him, but family visits were monitored. They would find out about the notes and Theo could be arrested for not turning them over. Given everything he'd told Hermione about how this universe had treated the children of Death Eaters, Hermione wasn't even going to suggest it.
"Look at this drawing," Padma said. "There are five rings just like on the Universe hopper." They were all calling it that now. "And some of the symbols and runes are the same."
"Makes sense," Mi said. "Travelling through time and travelling through universes is still travelling."
"Right," Padma agreed. "But if we isolate which runes and symbols are different on the Universe hopper, maybe that can tell us something."
"There are instructions on how to use Nott's Time-turner, aren't there?" Hermione asked.
"Yes but they're all speculative as we don't know if he actually made the thing or not," Padma said.
"Still, it might give us an idea as to how to control the universe hopper."
"It could," Mi agreed. "But these are two different devices, Hermione. I don't want you to pin all your hopes on these notes."
"I'm not," Hermione assured her. "But we know how a standard Time-turner works. The differences between that and this long-term one might give us some ideas on the Universe hopper."
Mi nodded in agreement. "I suppose."
"Let's just start with the runes and symbols," Padma said. The other two nodded in agreement and they set back to work.
"How many do you think there are?" Padma asked.
Hermione was sprawled on the couch, Padma curled up in the armchair. They'd given up on the project a half hour ago when Theo had Flooed because he'd been worried about Mi. It was after midnight and none of them had realized. Mi had gone home and Padma had assured Hermione that Mi wasn't upset with Theo over the notes.
"Universes?" Hermione said now in response to Padma's question.
Padma nodded.
"It's got to be unlimited, don't you think? With all the decisions people make every day?" Her mind really couldn't even fathom it, to be honest. "We probably don't even exist in some of them. If our parents never met or did but at a different time and had different children."
Padma shuddered at the thought. "I wonder what would happen if you ended up in one of those."
"Gods, I don't even want to think about it," Hermione said.
"Or what if there wasn't any magic at all?" Padma continued.
"I've thought about if I ended up somewhere that I wasn't magical, but not if there wasn't magic at all. Would the Universe hopper even work in a world with no magic?"
"Maybe not," Padma said. "I never thought about if you were non-magical though. That would be an interesting conversation with your other self."
Hermione laughed. "Knowing myself, I cannot imagine trying to convince a non-magical me that magic not only existed but that I have it. I mean, when Professor McGonagall came to my house, even with all the things that had happened around me that I couldn't explain, I still couldn't really believe it. Magic was the thing of fairy tales. It wasn't real."
"What convinced you?" Padma asked.
"She turned into a cat," Hermione said. "Can't really argue with that."
Padma grinned.
Hermione's smile fell and she chewed at her bottom lip.
"What is it?" Padma asked.
"What if I end up somewhere that Voldemort won?"
Padma drew in a breath, neither of them wanting to contemplate what that would be like. They had both heard the horrors of things that happened at revels and when Death Eaters raided homes, both wizard and Muggle. Hermione could imagine what they would have done to their enemies, the spoils of war, as it were. And she didn't think they would be happy with just throwing the Light into Azkaban, especially the women.
"Let's not worry about that," Padma said. "Because we're going to get you back to your own world so it won't matter."
Hermione gave her a wan smile. She knew they had a more of an advantage this time, knowing what hadn't worked last time. And while she wasn't convinced, she supposed Nott's notes might help them, at least a little. Still, they really were flying blind as far as how it all worked. And while they might have convinced themselves that it was going to work, there was no guarantee.
"I've got to get to bed. Still have to work tomorrow," Padma said as she stood. "You coming?"
"In a bit," Hermione said. "You use the loo first."
Padma nodded and began to walk towards the bedrooms. She stopped as she reached the corridor and turned back. "Don't give up hope, Hermione. We'll get you home."
Hermione nodded, unable to speak over the lump in her throat. She wasn't so sure.
3 July 2003
"Are either of you close to McGonagall?" Hermione asked.
The three of them had finished going through Nott's notes for his Time-turner and found the runes and symbols on the Universe hopper that differed. The problem was, they'd gotten no real clues from what remained.
"I don't know if you'd call it close, but she and I talk from time to time," Mi said. "Why?"
"If you asked, would she let you use Hogwarts' Pensieve?" Hermione said. She was sure, had she asked in her own universe, the Headmistress would have gladly let Hermione use it. While she knew that trying to reverse what had brought her to the first universe hadn't worked, she wanted to see if anything different had happened when she'd left that universe and arrived here.
They couldn't use the Pensieve in the Department of Mysteries for obvious reasons and Gareth Atkinson hadn't survived the Final Battle in this universe. Which made sense since Rookwood was still alive. He'd been the one to kill Gareth in Hermione's world. She had asked Mi about him in private one evening, not wanting Padma to know what could have been. Padma had already been surprised that her counterpart in Hermione's world was still dating Ernie McMillan. Apparently, this Padma had broken things off with him long ago and that had been it.
"Hogwarts doesn't have a Pensieve," Mi said, brow furrowed in confusion.
"But Dumbledore used to use it all the time. It's how he taught Harry about Tom Riddle," Hermione replied just as confused.
"Yes, Dumbledore had a Pensieve. It didn't belong to Hogwarts."
Hermione's face fell. "Do you know what happened to it?"
"He willed it to Harry," Mi said.
Hermione stared at her in surprise. "Harry has a Pensieve?"
Mi nodded. "Why do you want to use it?"
"I want to look at what happened when I jumped from the last universe to here. We know that reversing what happened in the DOM in my world didn't work to take me back but I wanted to see if anything was different between the two jumps."
"it's a good idea but how would we explain that to Harry?" Mi said.
"Padma and I could go on our own."
"That's not a good idea," Padma said immediately. "You have no idea how this Hermione and Harry interact. You don't know their history, at least since the end of the war. And as much as the two of you look alike, you're not twins."
Mi looked slightly different than Hermione did just as the other Hermione had in the first universe. At a quick glance, or if they were trying to fool someone who didn't know them well, they could pass for one another. But anyone who looked for more than a few minutes would see the differences. Harry would definitely know.
"You could glamour me like we did in the other universe," Hermione said.
"Harry will still have questions," Mi said.
Hermione sighed. "I don't know what other option we have. Unless you know someone else that owns a Pensieve."
They both shook their heads.
"I can use Legilimency," Mi said. "If you'd let me, of course."
Hermione looked at her. It wasn't that she didn't trust her. Hermione knew that Mi would only view the memory and not go looking for anything else. But that wouldn't help Hermione to see the memory herself. She had no idea if Padma knew Legilimency either. Her Padma could do it if pressed, but she didn't like to.
"I don't have a problem with that but that doesn't help me see it," she reminded Mi.
"You could do Legilimency on me afterward and view it that way."
"I could but you know as well as I do the original memory is more accurate and that doesn't help Padma." Hermione looked at the other woman. "Can you do Legilimency?"
"Not well," Padma admitted. "I've never been comfortable with it, to be honest. Mucking about in someone else's head."
The three of them fell silent for a few moments. Hermione bit her lip in thought. "Would Harry let you borrow it without you telling him why?"
Mi sighed. "Of course, he would. I just hate lying to him."
"You're not lying to him, you're just not giving him all the information," Padma said.
"I thought you said this was a bad idea," Mi said, eyes narrowed.
"It's a bad idea for this Hermione and I to go by ourselves. I have no problem with you asking Harry to borrow it," Padma said. "And Hermione has a point. It would be best if we could all view the memory, both of them actually, to see if there were any differences. There's no easy way to do that without a Pensieve."
Padma looked at Mi expectantly and she scowled. "I hate this."
"But you'll do it anyway, won't you?" Padma asked.
"Of course, I'm going to," Mi said with a sigh.
"Can I ask you something?" Hermione said to Padma once Mi had left to retrieve the Pensieve from Harry.
"Sure," Padma said, looking up from the book she was flicking through.
"The other day, you said that Harry and Daphne were nauseating."
"I mean, nauseating is probably a little strong. They're so happy all the time, you know? I've never seen them argue, or even disagree really. Not that that's a bad thing, I'm not saying I want to see them screaming at one another either. It's just, I don't know," she trailed off shaking her head.
"Nauseating?" Hermione asked.
"Right," Padma said with a laugh.
"Do you think it's an act? Like they just put on a public face or something?"
"No," Padma said immediately. "Theo and Daphne are really close, like siblings. Hermione and Harry are the same. If Daphne and Harry weren't happy, Hermione and Theo would know."
Hermione nodded.
"Why do you ask?"
"I think because the Harry in my universe wasn't happy. Neither was the one in the last universe I was in. He's my best friend, even if he's not, if that makes sense."
Padma nodded.
"I just need to know that he's happy."
"As far as I can tell, he is. I know that he wants to ask Daphne to move in with him, although she's there so much, it's like she already lives there."
Hermione smiled. "Do you know if he still sees the Weasleys?"
"I think he sees them a fair bit," Padma said. "He and Ron are still good mates. The Greengrasses were neutral in the war meaning Daphne doesn't have any Death Eater baggage, so they didn't have too hard a time accepting her. Although, according to Mi, Molly Weasley was still pushing for Harry and Ginny to get back together for a while. Even though Ginny was with Neville."
"What about Mi? Does she see them too?"
"Yes, but not as often. Ron, of course, had issues with Theo at first. I think Molly did too but that might have been more about Ron and Hermione than Theo. They're all okay with Theo now but I know it hurt Hermione. She doesn't do the weekly family dinners or anything."
Hermione nodded. She wouldn't be going to any of those family dinners herself if she got back to her own world and broke things off with Ron. Even if the Weasleys didn't reject her outright, Ron certainly wouldn't want her there. And it was his family. She wondered if it would be the same for Harry if things didn't work out for him and Ginny. Ginny would likely feel the same as Ron but she wasn't always at the dinners given her travel schedule for the Harpies. Would Harry be welcome if Ginny weren't there? Molly definitely loved him as if he were her own but Hermione didn't know what would happen if he were no longer with Ginny. Especially as Ginny hadn't seemed to think they really needed to work on their relationship.
"Any particular reason you're asking about the Weasleys?"
"Just wondering what might happen if I'm no longer with Ron."
"Ah," Padma said in understanding.
"Although, it will probably be different anyway since the Hermione here was never with Ron in the first place. She was never blamed for breaking his heart."
"And you think you will be?"
Hermione shrugged. "Ron doesn't think there's a problem with us. Nothing that he wants to work on anyway. If we broke up, it would, of course, be my fault."
"You don't know that for sure," Padma said.
Hermione huffed a laugh thinking back to what had happened her fourth year during the Tri-Wizard tournament. "Trust me, Molly Weasley does not forgive those that she thinks have wronged her children. At least not easily."
"I've heard that," Padma said with a wry smile.
"Anyway, I'm glad that both Harry and Mi are happy here. It's a far cry better than what we are in my world."
Padma reached over and gave Hermione's hand a squeeze. "You'll get a chance to change that."
"I hope so."
Mi sighed as she set the Pensieve on Padma's kitchen table.
"How did it go?" Hermione asked.
"He's suspicious, of course. I promised him I would tell him what was going on when I could."
"Once we get Hermione back to her own universe, you can," Padma said.
"I know, it's just-"
"You hate keeping it from him," Hermione finished.
Mi nodded.
"Let's take a look then," Padma said.
"I'll start with my first jump," Hermione said as she raised her wand to her temple. She drew the memory out and flicked it into the bowl. "Ready?"
The three of them stuck their faces in and fell into the memory.
Once Padma and Mi felt they had gotten a firm idea of what had occurred, they left the Pensieve. Hermione returned the memory and pulled out the second. They all entered the Pensieve again.
Hermione watched herself take the Universe hopper from the box and put it around her neck. Her memory self took a deep breath and then turned the rings as they had been in the first memory. Then she winked out of one universe and landed in another.
On the second watch through of the memory, Hermione realized what was different. In the first, the rune for destiny had glowed but in the second, both destiny and journey had glowed. She wasn't sure what that meant, if anything, but it was a difference.
When they came out of the Pensieve after the third repeat, Mi moved quickly to where the Universe hopper sat in the living room. She cast a magnification charm and then squinted as she looked closely at the runes. Hermione assumed she had noticed the two that had glowed and was trying to identify them. She opened her mouth to tell Mi which they were when Padma spoke.
"You saw that too?"
"This one?" Mi said, pointing to something. Hermione joined the two other women in front of the device.
"Yes," Padma agreed.
Mi was pointing to the symbol that wrapped around the edge of the Universe hopper.
"What about it?" Hermione asked.
"You didn't see it?" Mi said.
"Clearly not," Hermione replied in annoyance.
"Here, watch again." She tugged Hermione's arm and they went back into the Pensieve.
This time when she watched the memory, Hermione ignored everything else except where she knew that symbol to be. Just before she disappeared, it seemed to move. Moved? How was that possible? It was etched into the surface of the rings.
They watched the memory again and this time Hermione realized that it hadn't moved. It had changed. The glow of the other two runes had distracted her and masked it somewhat, but it had definitely shifted shapes.
"Wait a minute," Hermione said when they came out of the Pensieve. She pulled out the second memory and replaced it with the first. Then all three of them went back into the Pensieve again. As they watched the first memory, concentrating this time on that particular rune, they saw it again. Just before Hermione disappeared from the DOM, the rune shifted shapes.
They exited the Pensieve again and stared at the Universe hopper in silence.
"What does it mean?" Padma eventually asked.
"And how does it shift?" Hermione said.
"It's got to have something to do with the runes that glowed," Mi said. "The first time it was only one but the second time there were two."
Hermione nodded. "Destiny the first time, destiny and journey the second."
"That's probably why we haven't been able to figure out what the symbol means," Padma said. "It changes when you jump."
They had been focusing on that particular symbol, no longer calling it a rune as they couldn't find it anywhere. Hermione had suspected that it was either a combination of two runes or symbols or it was something that had been wholly made up by the creator of the device. But they hadn't been able to determine which two.
"It could be half destiny, half journey," Mi said as she leaned in to look at the symbol again, brow furrowed. Hermione didn't really think so but she would have to get a closer look to be sure.
"But that would mean that the first time, it would have been wholly destiny as that's the only rune that lit up. It definitely wasn't because I would have recognized it when I finally flipped the thing over," Hermione said.
Mi bit her lip in thought. "Unless it changed again when you landed."
Hermione's heart sunk. If it changed again, they wouldn't be able to determine what was on the underside from the memories as they couldn't see it.
"Maybe that symbol is what determines where you end up based on what runes actually do activate," Padma said.
"But how could you possibly know what the symbol was for which universe you wanted to travel to?" Mi asked. "There are an infinite number of possibilities."
Hermione bit her lip, her stomach clenching. She was never going to get home.
"Not necessarily," Padma said. "The destiny rune has been bothering me this whole time. Shouldn't your destiny be to stay in your own universe? I mean, why go somewhere else where there already is another one of you? You couldn't live your other self's life."
"But the destiny rune lit up on its own the first time," Mi argued. "If what you're saying is true, then shouldn't Hermione have stayed in her own universe?"
"But there's another destiny rune," Padma said.
A look of understanding came over Mi's face as Hermione spoke. "You think if we activate both destinies at the same time, I'll get back."
Padma smiled widely and nodded.
"But how do we get them both to activate?" Hermione asked.
"That's what we need to figure out," Padma said. She turned to Mi. "How long can we keep Harry's Pensieve?"
"As long as we need," Mi said. "He told me to take my time."
"Then let's get to work."
4 July 2003
They actually hadn't spent much longer working with the Pensieve the night before. None of them had realized how late it had gotten and both Mi and Padma had to work today. They'd watched both memories one last time and made a few notes, then Mi had left for her flat. Padma had gone to bed as well, but Hermione had stayed up studying Padma's drawing of the device.
There were two destiny runes, one on each side. They were on different rings but Hermione couldn't figure out how they could get them to line up, if that were what they were supposed to do. Maybe they had to turn the rings the same number of times or in the opposite direction or maybe something completely different. She had no idea how they were going to figure this out.
She'd laid listlessly on the couch for almost two hours staring at the empty fireplace and imagining jumping from universe to universe with no hopes of getting back to her own. Maybe she should just give up now, go somewhere else and start a new life. She could go back to Australia. She hadn't seen that much of it when she had restored her parents' memories but they still spoke about it fondly.
The tears had begun rolling down her cheeks without her noticing but eventually she gave into her sadness and began to sob, casting a privacy charm around herself so as not to disturb Padma. She'd fallen into an uneasy sleep plagued with strange, disjointed dreams and had woken when Padma came out of her bedroom in the morning.
After mumbling an excuse about falling asleep while studying their notes, something she didn't think Padma believed for one minute, Hermione had stumbled into her room and fallen asleep for a few more hours.
Now, she was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping a cup of tea, and pointedly ignoring the device which sat across the table from her. She had berated herself for quite some time last night about why she'd attempted to look at the underside by herself, it would do no good to do it again. It wouldn't change anything anyway.
She'd gone back into the Pensieve, wholly focused on the rune that wrapped around the edge of the device, trying to determine what it was. After watching it numerous times, Hermione had sketched out the half she could see from both memories.
They were different, that much was certain. But neither appeared to be half of destiny or journey. And the problem with the memory was Hermione could only see one half.
Sighing, she decided to forget about the symbol for now. Maybe Padma was right and they needed to activate both destinies somehow. Hermione pulled the stack of notes Theo had given them towards her, deciding to look through them again. Maybe something about how the Time-turner was used would help now that they had a theory about the Universe hopper.
An hour later, she sat up straight in her chair and reread the last sentence again. Because the Time-turner could go so far back in time, it did not use the usual method of just turning the hourglass in the middle. Instead, the rings were turned as well, one for the number of years, one for months, one for days and then the hourglass for hours. It could be extremely accurate if it worked.
But there were five rings on the Time-turner. If only three of them were used for the actual travel, what were the other two for? They had runes and symbols etched into them just as the Universe hopper did, albeit not all the same ones.
Nott's notes said something about the runes on the two outermost rings, the ones that weren't used for the time travel. Something about them mirroring each other in order for the time jump to be successful.
Hermione looked at the drawing in the notes again. The runes and symbols etched into the outer two rings did mirror each other in that if the outermost ring were turned and the next one wasn't, the same runes would line up with one another. It was the same if the fourth ring was turned but the outermost wasn't. Not only that, the symbols and runes that were etched on the three rings that were used to set the time also matched up when the outer two did. No matter which side they were on.
Maybe Padma was right but they hadn't gone far enough. Maybe it wasn't just destiny but all the runes and symbols that had to match up. Except not all the symbols were present on both sides. Hermione shuffled through the stacks of notes to find the drawing Padma had made of the Universe hopper. She blew out a frustrated breath when she realized she was right. While all the runes were present on both sides, the symbols weren't.
Maybe that meant just the runes had to match up and not the symbols. Or maybe once the runes did match up, the symbols would mean something. Up until now, they had been trying to read the runes and symbols together as some kind of message. But maybe that wouldn't work until they got the rings in the proper order.
Hermione looked down at the drawing again. With five two-sided rings it would be difficult to try and determine what their placement should be in her head. It would be easier if she had a model. Finding a blank piece of parchment, Hermione began duplicating Padma's work until she had ten rings, for both the front and back of the Universe hopper. She cut them out of the parchment with her wand, keeping the sides separated and went to work.
"Hermione?" Padma called as she stepped out of the Floo.
"In here," Hermione called back. She had pushed the table up against the wall and was sitting on the kitchen floor with the rings she had cut out. She had made another four sets with magic, trying different combinations and as a result, most of the kitchen floor was covered.
"What on earth are you doing?" Padma asked.
"Trying out your theory."
Padma simply stared in confusion at the mass of parchment rings scattered around her kitchen. She couldn't make a bit of sense of what Hermione was attempting to do.
"Which theory would that be?"
"That the runes need to match up in order to send me home," Hermione said, pulling another ring towards her. She looked at it and frowned, then put it back.
"And so you made…a puzzle?" Padma questioned.
"I copied the drawing you made of the device, both sides and cut out the rings. Then I duplicated them so we'd have more sets. It's been a mix and match situation."
Padma shrugged out of her outer robes, laying them over one of the kitchen chairs. "Have you found anything?"
Hermione sighed, blowing an errant curl out of her face. "I've been able to match up the two destiny runes but I haven't found the right combination to match the rest of them."
"The rest of them?" Padma questioned. "I thought we were focusing on destiny."
"We were but them something I read in Nott's notes made me wonder if we don't need to line up all the runes. It's on top of the stack on the table."
Padma went to the table and picked up the piece of parchment Hermione had indicated. Hermione watched as her eyes moved back and forth over the parchment and saw when understanding dawned. Padma looked down at the table and grabbed the drawing of the Time-turner. After a few moments, she grinned and turned back to Hermione. "You're brilliant!"
Hermione returned the smile. "Only if I can figure this out and so far it has eluded me."
"Two heads are better than one right?" Padma said, drawing her wand and transfiguring her pencil skirt and blouse to a pair of track pants and t-shirt. She knelt down on the floor next to Hermione and began to look over the groups of rings positioned on the floor.
Hermione hid a smile at the fact that Padma hadn't wanted to take the time to even change her clothes before starting. Her Padma would have done the same thing. That thought sobering her, she turned back to the project in front of her.
Hermione, Padma, and Mi sat sprawled on the couch and armchairs in Padma's living room. After a few hours of work, a parchment model of the Universe Hopper sat in front of them. Not all the runes were a perfect match to one another, but the two destiny runes did line up, as did all of the journey runes. The rest were either diagonally connected or directly opposite one another. It was the only way that they had been able to make it work.
They'd taken a look at where the symbols now sat in relation to the runes but nothing had jumped out at them. In truth, Hermione was exhausted given her disjointed sleep the night before and didn't think she could look at one more rune or symbol without losing her mind. She suspected Padma and Mi felt the same.
Not to mention that they also had no idea if there were an order they were supposed to turn the rings in. Did they start from the outside and work their way in or vice versa? And were they supposed to do anything with the sand-filled disc in the center? Hermione could only hope that the new position of the symbols would give them a clue. Otherwise, she could end up somewhere else again.
Since it was Friday, Hermione knew that the other two women would keep working if she asked. But she needed sleep if she was going to be any good to anyone. "It's late. Maybe we should pick this up tomorrow."
Padma yawned in response. "Thank Merlin. I'm knackered."
Mi laughed. "I've got a few things to do in the morning but I can come over around eleven."
Hermione nodded. "Whenever is fine. I've disrupted your lives so much already."
"Quit that," Padma admonished. "You can't tell me you wouldn't do the same for either of us if we were in your position."
"I know, it's just," Hermione sighed and shook her head. She hated being a burden to anyone.
"I know," Mi said in understanding, reaching over to squeeze Hermione's hand. Hermione gave her a grateful smile.
"I just have to pop out to the shops to pick up something for dinner but that won't take me long," Padma said. "Otherwise, I'm free the rest of the day."
"All right then," Mi said as she stood. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Good night," Hermione said.
Mi smiled and grabbed the Floo powder, then stepped into the fireplace.
Padma looked at Hermione once she'd gone. "Stop feeling guilty. We want to help you."
"I know," Hermione said. "Thanks."
Padma pulled her into a hug. "You can have the loo first. I'll tidy up in here."
"Night, Padma."
"Good night."
5 July 2003
"I still think we should wait," Mi said biting her lip.
"We've gone through everything we can think of and we haven't found anything concrete," Hermione said. "I want to try."
"But what if you end up somewhere else?" Padma asked looking just as nervous as Mi.
"Then I'll know what doesn't work," Hermione said.
They had studied the new arrangement of symbols all morning and into the afternoon. There hadn't been any great epiphany of understanding or even any small ones. The symbols still seemed unrelated to the runes for the most part, although there were a few that seemed to line up with runes that had related meanings – travel with journey for example.
But still, they had no idea if the order the rings were turned in made a difference. Or if they were supposed to be turned more than once or if they went clockwise or anti-clockwise. A Time-turner was turned anti-clockwise which made sense since you wanted to go back in time. With Universe hopping, however, who knew.
Hermione had decided to rely on both the notes from Nott's Time-turner and her previous experience with the Universe hopper. When operating Nott's Time-turner, the rings were turned from the outside in and in Hermione's previous jumps, the rings had turned clockwise. So, she was going to start from the outside and turn the rings clockwise. She was just going to do one turn on each. It might not take her home but at least she would have something to work from in the next universe she ended up in. Although she fervently hoped that she returned to her own world.
"We're not going to know if it worked," Padma said her eyes bright.
"I know," Hermione said, heart clenching a bit. She'd gotten very close to these two women in the few days she'd been here. Closer even than the Padma and Hermione of the first universe.
"Of course, we want you to get home but I didn't think it would be this hard," Mi said, taking in a shaky breath.
Hermione swallowed around a large lump in her throat. A part of her wanted to wait, just stay here and continue to try to figure out how the thing worked. What if she ended up somewhere horrible? But what if they never figured it out and she was trapped here? She couldn't do that either. If she landed somewhere dangerous, she could just leave again immediately. No matter which rings or how they turned, they'd transported Hermione somewhere else.
Mind made up, she squared her shoulders and looked at Padma and Mi. "Thank you for everything you've done. And please thank Theo for the notes."
Hermione had thought about bringing a copy with her but she didn't want the wrong person to get hold of them. She'd read through them so many times, she practically had them memorized anyway. But she did have a copy of the drawing Padma had done of the Universe hopper. No need to do all of that work again.
Padma threw her arms around Hermione and hugged her tightly. "I'll miss you."
Hermione returned the embrace. "I'll miss you too."
"And when you get back, tell my other self to get rid of McMillan. It's clear he's never going to commit." Padma pulled away with a smirk.
Hermione laughed. "I'll do that." She turned to Mi, who she was surprised to see had a tear running down her face.
Mi pulled her into a hug as well. "Please be careful."
"I will, I promise. If there were some way to let you know that I was all right, you know I would."
Mi nodded.
"I'm glad you have Theo. He's wonderful."
"I think so too," Mi said with a laugh. She hugged Hermione fiercely, and then let her go.
Hermione stepped back, trying to keep her emotions under control as she looked at the two of them. The worst part of all of this was not being able to communicate with them once she left. Hermione knew that she would wonder about the two of them for the rest of her life. She suspected it would be the same for them.
Hermione donned her Unspeakable robes, then gingerly picked up the Universe hopper and put it around her neck. She shrunk the box and put it in her pocket. Her wand was in her arm holster. She wished she could have it in her hand but it would be too difficult to manipulate the Universe hopper and hold her wand at the same time. She would have to settle for drawing it as soon as she landed.
She took a deep breath and let it out, then nodded to both Mi and Padma. They watched as she turned the rings to the right configuration. Padma raised her hand in good-bye as Hermione winked out of the room.
Hermione landed in her flat again. At least some things were consistent. But she sighed in disappointment. The last two jumps she'd landed where the other Hermione was. If she had indeed gone back to her own universe, she expected to return to the Department of Mysteries. Still, she supposed she should check to be sure.
She reached up to draw her wand and froze. There, on her left ring finger, was a diamond engagement ring. A ring she had definitely not been wearing when she left either her own universe or the previous one. She stared at it in disbelief for a few seconds before she realized she was no longer wearing her Unspeakable robes either. Instead, she was clad in shorts and a t-shirt, neither of which she recognized. Her wand holster was missing as well.
Beginning to panic, she grabbed for the Universe hopper, which, thankfully, was still around her neck. Looking down at herself, she saw her wand peeking out of the pocket of her shorts. Sighing in relief she drew it and searched her other pockets but the box for the device was gone. So was the drawing of the Universe hopper that Padma had made. Which made sense, she supposed, since both had been in the pocket of her Unspeakable robes.
Wand drawn, Hermione looked around the flat. Things appeared the same, although there was once again an absence of Ron and his things. But the other Hermione hadn't appeared yet. Hermione was starting to have a very bad feeling about this. She cast a 'homenum revelio' and waited. Nothing.
This made no sense. Unless she had been brought back to her own world and it brought her to her flat because that's where she left from in the other universe. Hermione looked around the room again. Everything did look the same - the furniture, the carpet, even the stack of books on the table by the couch. She needed to get a look at the photographs on the mantel.
Before moving though, she decided to take off the Universe hopper. She had no idea why things were different this time around but she had no intention of accidentally disappearing again. She conjured a box, then took off the device and settled it gently inside. She warded it for good measure.
She stood in the middle of the room, stomach churning. Something was wrong, she knew it. A quick look at the photographs on the mantel would probably tell her what she needed to know but Hermione couldn't bring herself to do it. Not yet. Instead, she quickly made her way to the loo, pointedly not looking at anything but her feet.
When she reached the loo, she took a deep breath and then looked at herself in the mirror above the sink. She stared in disbelief. It was her, but definitely not her. Her hair was different, her face not quite as thin and a myriad of other tiny differences that only she, or someone extremely close to her, would notice.
All right, she needed to look at this logically and not panic. Was it possible that she had not only moved universes but gone forward in time? Had she indeed come back to her own universe just in the future? Nothing about her previous two jumps had indicated that time travel was also possible but she'd done something completely different this time so she couldn't rule it out.
Her gaze drifted down to her left hand again. If she was back in her own world who was she engaged to? If it were Ron, either he had completely changed his habit of leaving things lying around or he had moved out. Neither seemed very likely. The only way to know was to investigate the flat. She would start with the photographs on the mantel. Then she needed to figure out what the date was and hide the Universe hopper.
As Hermione took a few steps back towards the living room, she heard the Floo activate and someone step through.
"Hermione," a voice called. "I'm home, love." A voice that was definitely not Ron's.