Chapter Text
Time and Time Again
Chapter 1 - Department of Mysteries
It was a trap. This entire mission was a trap! Deep down she had a feeling that it had been one all along, but for the first time in her life, Hermione Granger was angry that she had been right.
Hermione, Harry, and Neville were now hiding under desks, deep within the Department of Mysteries as Death Eaters stormed into the room. They were surrounded by darkness, and the only light in the room came from a glittering crystal bell jar on the far side. There was the incessant ticking from the clocks lining the walls and Hermione’s heart was beating rapidly along with them.
She could just make out the outline of Harry under the desk in front of her, but she did not have the faintest idea which one Neville had taken refuge under. Wherever Ron, Ginny, and Luna were, Hermione could only hope that they were alright.
“Check under desks,” grunted one of the Death Eaters.
A pair of legs moved in front of her and Hermione felt herself begin to tremble. As silently as she could, she slowly shifted to watch as the legs continued until they got to the desk that Harry was under. Feeling her heart hammering in her ears now, Hermione aimed her wand and was about to say a spell when Harry stuck his wand out from under the desk and yelled, “Stupefy!”
There was a burst of red light and the form under the black robes collapsed backwards into one of the many grandfather clocks, just as the other Death Eater jumped out of the way. In his haste to avoid the charm, the other cloaked figure bumped into the desk Hermione was crouched under, and that’s when he noticed Hermione.
A gasp escaped her lips as she tried to maneuver herself out from under the desk so she could take aim, but she hadn’t moved fast enough. The killing curse had barely formed on the Death Eater’s tongue when a dark shape threw itself at the Death Eater’s legs, knocking him to the floor.
Harry.
Shaken, Hermione could only stare wide-eyed as Harry and the Death Eater wrestled on the ground.
“Expelliarmus!” cried a voice from behind her.
Hermione turned to see Neville standing behind an overturned desk. He had a wild look in his eyes but his expression quickly changed to horrorstruck as both Harry and the Death Eater’s wands flew to the opposite side of the room. There was a struggle as the Death Eater scrambled to get his wand with Harry right behind him.
“Get out of the way, Harry!” yelled Neville, who was running after them. Harry dove to the side as Neville yelled another spell. “Stupefy!”
The spell had only just missed. The jolt of red light flew past the Death Eater’s shoulder and smashed into a cabinet on the wall that was holding an assortment of what appeared to be hourglasses. The glass doors erupted where the spell had hit and the cabinet crashed to the ground and shattered, sending broken glass in every direction. Then, it somehow seemed to repair itself and was back on the wall, before suddenly falling again. More glass rained down all around her and Hermione shielded her eyes as shards of glass exploded around the room. When the glass finally stopped falling, Hermione saw that the cabinet was back on the wall, until it again exploded in what seemed to be a never-ending cycle.
Realizing it was now or never, Hermione crawled out from under the desk and ran to follow Harry and Neville, dodging more shards of glass. Harry, who was still wandless, ducked behind another desk as the Death Eater retrieved his wand. But the Death Eater who had turned to face him had moved too quickly and his mask slipped down his face, blocking his vision. He blindly tried to shoot a spell at Harry when Hermione saw her chance and aimed her wand at the Death Eater, screaming, “Stupefy!”
She watched as the Death Eater froze in place. His wand slipped from his hands and slowly his body began to fall towards the bell jar. Hermione expected the bell jar to break when his head hit it, but instead it seemed to mold around his head like it was made of foam.
It made no sense. The Death Eater was lying flat on his back with his head now fully surrounded by the glass jar; what appeared to be glitter was spiraling around his head.
Hermione gave her head a little shake and then raised her wand and yelled, “accio wand!”
Harry’s wand flew through the air and she caught it in her other hand. She turned to face Harry and tossed it back to him, which he caught easily.
“Thanks! Right, let’s get out of -” began Harry, but he never got to finish.
“Look out!” yelled Neville with an expression of pure horror.
The three of them turned to face the Death Eater with the bell jar on his head. Their wands were raised but they just stood there and stared, open-mouthed, at him.
Through the jar, Hermione could see all of the man’s dark hair quickly retreating back into his skull as his head slowly began shrinking in size. His head continued to shrink until it was the size and shape of a baby’s. It then started to grow back and once it reached its normal size, it shrunk again, leaving Hermione feeling sick. It was one of the most horrific scenes she had ever seen: a baby’s head atop a grown man’s body.
And then it struck her, what the bell jar was doing to him.
“It’s time,” Hermione breathed out loud with wonder, looking around the room full of clocks. “Time…”
Everything around them was changing as if moving through time. The bell jar turning the Death Eater’s head back into a baby, the cabinets full of hourglasses falling and then mending itself and falling again… The room was messing with time! The hourglasses had been Time-Turners!
The Death Eater who laid in front of them had his head slowly sprouting more hair again as it began to age back up, before reverting to becoming a baby again. He was desperately trying to shake the jar off of his head, but with no luck. Hermione wasn’t sure whether to be amazed or horrified as she stood there, frozen.
A shout from a room nearby followed by a crash and scream broke the three of them from their trances.
Harry’s head shot up and he yelled, “RON?” He whipped around and faced away from the baby-headed Death Eater, “GINNY? LUNA?”
Hermione, however, had not stopped looking at the horror that was the baby-headed Death Eater. He had finally managed to pull his head out of the jar but the damage had already been done and his head stayed as a baby’s.
“Harry!” Hermione yelled as he started thrashing towards them, the baby’s head violently sobbing. To Hermione’s amazement, Harry raised his wand to send a spell at the Death Eater. Appalled, Hermione grabbed onto his arm and yelled, “you can’t hurt a baby!”
Harry gave her an exasperated look and he took off towards the door with Hermione and Neville rushing to follow him. They managed to get into what looked like a small, dark, and cluttered office and slammed the door behind them. Just as Hermione was about to seal it shut, two more Death Eaters burst through the door.
“Impedimenta!” shouted both Death Eaters as they hurtled towards them.
Hermione, Harry, and Neville were then blasted off their feet. Wind rushed around her as Hermione flew into a bookshelf with a crash. As she hit the floor, heavy books fell on top of her knocking the wind out of her. She struggled to sit up and saw that Harry and been thrown into the stone wall and Neville was nowhere to be seen. A sharp pain went through Hermione’s head as she tried to stand.
With enormous effort, Hermione was finally able to pull herself off the ground just in time to see a Death Eater attempted to call out their location.
“Silencio!” she yelled, and the Death Eater’s voice was cut off mid shout. The other made a growling noise in the back of his throat as he pushed past his fellow Death Eater towards Hermione with his wand raised.
“Petrificus Totalus!” yelled Harry.
The Death Eater’s arms snapped together and he fell over like a board.
Relief and gratitude swelled through Hermione as she turned and beamed at Harry. “Well done, Ha–”
But at that moment, the silenced Death Eater made a sudden movement with his wand and purple flames shout out of the tip. There was no time to do anything as the flames hit Hermione square in the chest.
Hermione looked down, a tiny “oh!” escaped her lips. She could feel a sensation of falling and blackness was taking over her sight. The last thing she was aware of was Harry screaming her name before darkness engulfed her.
~o~
The next thing Hermione was conscious of were strong arms shaking her, bringing her out of her dark haze.
“Hermione? Hermione, please wake up!” said the voice with a sense of urgency.
With a groan, her eyes fluttered open. Everything around her was blurry and she had to blink rapidly to focus on the figure leaning above her. As everything finally began to focus, she saw that staring down at her was Remus Lupin. The Order must have shown up for them!
“Hermione… thank God…” Lupin sighed with clear relief. “We need to get you out of here. Do you think you can stand?”
“I-I don’t know…”
He took hold of her hand and easily pulled her to her feet. Dizziness overcame her and she fell back into Lupin’s arms as her legs gave out. After a moment of him helping steady her, she regained her balance and was able to stand on her own. But something felt different inside. There was pain searing through her body, yet everything simultaneously felt numb. It was like her entire body had fallen asleep, but the pins and needles were relentless, as well as her throbbing head and chest. Something was terribly wrong…
“Are you okay, Hermione?” he asked with a strained voice.
She glanced up and saw his face clearly for the first time and she was temporarily taken away from her own discomfort at the sight of him. His usual calm composure was broken. In his eyes where she expected to see his usual compassion and comfort, she only saw fear and pain. They were glossed over and there were streak marks running down his pale and scarred face.
“Professor? What’s wrong, what’s happened?” whispered Hermione. She had a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. Like someone had force-fed her polyjuice potion.
He just looked at her and shook his head.
“Just listen to me. You have to get out of here. Find the others and go. I need to go after Harry,” replied Lupin and he began to lead Hermione towards the door.
“Go after Harry? Please, just tell me what’s going on. Where is everyone?” asked Hermione as she looked at her unfamiliar surroundings.
Hermione wasn’t entire sure what had happened, or why she was no longer in that office. Had someone moved her? Where had Harry and Neville gone? How long was she unconscious? Why did Lupin need to go after Harry? The more she thought about it the more her head began to throb, and she was once again aware of the odd pain throughout her body.
Lupin sighed and stopped walking causing Hermione to trip from the sudden stop. He turned to face her and looked her right in the eyes.
“Harry went after Bellatrix. She sent a curse at Sirius which sent him through the veil. He’s… gone…” Lupin’s voice caught on his last word, and he turned his face away so she couldn’t see it anymore.
Gone? Gone as in…?
Emotion overcame Hermione as it dawned on her what he had meant. No… no… Sirius couldn’t be gone… Harry had just gotten him back. Harry needed him…
Her heart felt like it was splitting in two, both for Harry as well as her former professor, who had just lost his last remaining childhood friend.
“Oh Remus…” whispered Hermione.
The use of his first name seemed to snap him back to reality. He turned back to stare at her with such intensity that she thought it might kill her.
A door at the other end of the hall suddenly opened, and another Death Eater came into sight.
Before Hermione knew what was happening, Lupin made a sudden movement. It seemed like he had attempted to pull her behind him, but he was so strong and Hermione still felt so weak that she lost her footing and went stumbling to the cold, dark ground. Lupin quickly jumped in front of her, sending spells at the Death Eater.
“Hermione, go! Run!” he yelled back at her.
Not having to be told twice, Hermione scrambled to her feet and started running to the first door she could see. Once at the threshold, she turned back and saw the Death Eater and Lupin in a duel. Both of them were shooting colorful spells at one another that blasted off of the walls as they both deflected one another’s attacks. She reached for her wand, desperate to help, and realized it wasn’t there. Her stomach dropped at the realization.
“Stupefy!” yelled Lupin, and the Death Eater collapsed. He turned to see Hermione staring wide-eyed in the doorway. “Go!” he yelled at her.
At that moment, two more Death Eaters came into the corridor and faced Lupin. She had to go and get help… Wandless and terrified, Hermione turned and ran through the door and didn’t look back.
The corridor in front of her was unfamiliar. Like most corridors in the Department of Mysteries, it was dark and cold, echoing with every rushed step she took. There was nothing unique about any of the doors around her and Hermione had absolutely no idea where she was going. Turning a corner, she continued to run down the corridor, trying to open each door as she went, desperate to find anyone. One after another, she found that they were locked and panic was truly beginning to set in.
It was only once she got to the end of the corridor did something stand out. Hermione was panting from fear and exhaustion when she stopped in front of a golden door with a black handle.
In one final move of desperation, Hermione yanked at the handle and was surprised when the door flew open. The room before her was pitch black. Hesitantly, Hermione took a step forward and realized too late that the room must have just been empty space. There was no floor at all.
All she could do was scream as she plummeted into the darkness below.