188authorsnote: oh my godddd, I know this is another harry potter WIP, I know the others need updating but I thought of this and couldn't not write it! I had, had, had to! hopefully you'll get to the end and agree!
now this little WIP is something done before but with a big ole twist, lots of twists even and lots of stuff we haven't seen before. I've started mapping it out and I am so hype for it!
now, without further ado, please enjoy, follow/fav if you do and review to let me know your thoughts!
songrecs: home - dotan (check out bells yt video on the marauders to this song, it is awesome).
The war has been won, and yet everything in her feels like they lost.
There are too many dead, too many bodies litter the floor of their school, their home. And that is not all, she thinks of Sirius, Dumbledore, Mad Eye, all the people who didn't even make it to this battle.
The war had claimed many, too many, and she feels empty. As people sit sombrely, not even celebrating, as they mourn loved ones. As Ron sobs over the body of his brother, as the Malfoy's shiver in the corner without wands, as Pavarti wails over Lavender's body, as Dennis and Colin's parents sit comatose next to the bodies of their children. It is too much, too many dead, too much lost.
She slips out of the Great Hall, for the only thing worse than seeing the dead is hearing the sobbing of the mourners. She feels too numb to cry, and she knows tears will come, later, soon even, but for the moment she is too empty to produce tears.
So many lost … Fred, Remus, Tonks, Lavender, Colin, Dennis, so many gone. Tears trickle down her cheeks as she slips out but nothing more, the tears fall but no sound leaves her lips. The tears have started now, she wonders when she will start wailing. Soon? She's not sure.
She doesn't glance back as she walks outside, into the courtyard, to the bridge, where she sees him.
Of course, he slipped out, he couldn't stand to see those who'd died, probably blamed himself for their deaths. She knows he doesn't want to have to recount his story, be at the centre of attention when so many mourn. That's just Harry, always thinking of others, even when he was affected more than most.
He is the person who gave them victory, stepped into death as selflessly as he did everything else, and yet he sits alone, blaming himself, as empty as she is.
"Hey" Her voice is gentle, and he turns to smile at her, though it is a smile filled with pain. He sits on a small pile of rubble and she joins him.
Whereas she can't stand to be around anyone else with Harry it had always been different, it had always been easy and comfortable, it had always felt so right. She sits next to him, rests her head on his shoulder without a worry and she feels him rest his, as comfortable with her as she is him.
"I was about to ask if you're okay" She snorts then, and she can feel him smile into her hair. They sit for several minutes, just tucked together, Harry twirling the Elder Wand in his fingers, sat, quiet, comfortable, as comfortable as they can be with so much pain around them. Though being next to him makes it a little easier.
She loves Harry like no one else, they have a bond, a deep bond that she knows she'll never have with anyone else. Not Ron, with whom the kiss felt odd and she could see he felt the same, not anyone else. She has a deep connection with Harry, and she knows he feels the same with her. She wonders idly if they are soulmates, if such a thing exists, she's sure Harry is hers.
Before their horcrux hunt they, had been close, but after? After months in a tent just the two of them, dancing the pain away, holding one another at night for warmth and comfort, spending every minute together in determination and concert? Now they are as close as two people can be.
"We could leave" She offers, even though she knows he'll refuse. Harry is too good, too selfless to ever pick up and run when people need him. She feels him shake his head against her hair and it makes her smile, she knows her best friend well.
"We have to stay" Such innocuous words, not meaning anything more than the base meaning, and yet as Hermione considers it …
'We have to stay'
Did they?
It's a stupid idea really, one she had considered once, when her and Harry had shivered in a single camp bed, clinging together for warmth when Ron was gone. She had considered it once or twice when all hope seemed lost, when even Harry seemed to wane in his belief everything would be okay.
She knows others have considered it, it had just simply never been done, never could be done, and yet as she looks at Harry, her best friend, her soulmate if such a things exists, as she looks at him twirl the Elder Wand in hand she thinks … if anyone can do it…
She stands up and Harry looks at her, doesn't ask where she's going but to just looks. She holds out her hand for him and it warms her when he takes it without hesitation.
"Do you trust me?" She asks, even though she knows the answer, for if she had to put her life in anyone's hands, she knew Harry would see it safe, and she knows Harry would put his in hers, and she would defend it with everything she had.
"Of course," He responds, as though baffled she'd even ask, and she smiles.
"If there was a way, to go back, to stop all of this, to stop the battles, the war, Dumbledore, Sirius, Remus, Fred, everything, would you take it?"
For just a second Harry's brow furrows and he looks doubtful, not at if he would do it, she knows, but if it could be done but then he nods all the same.
"Absolutely" She nods and holds out her other hand for him, he hesitates to give her that look that she needs to explain because he feels he's missed something.
"Even if it meant we'd never see anyone we know again?" She asks, her voice has dropped to a whisper now, and she can feel the tears trickling down her cheeks, she can see them on his too as he understands, as it clicks.
"Yes" His voice is a whisper, and she gives a watery smile, of course he'd say yes, for the death of so many could be reversed … who wouldn't? She would, she'd join him, even if she doesn't have as much to gain, but then with Harry happy, she's happy, so maybe she does.
"Then take my hand" He does, without a second of hesitation now. "Repeat these words"
"Ad initium revertar" Her voice is a whisper again, but he catches it. He holds up his wand but pauses.
"Is it dangerous?" He asks then, the concern in his eyes is for her, not himself, selfless Harry who deserves so much more than life gave, and perhaps this would give it, perhaps this could give it.
"I don't know" She is honest, and she even laughs a little as she says it, "It's probably mad" At that Harry laughs a little too, and she thinks Ron would call them 'barmy'. At that she looks guiltily back at the Castle, and she can see Harry do the same when she turns back.
"He would" She says, "He shouldn't"
"No" Harry agrees, "He has stuff left to lose" Hermione nods, they are agreed, the third member of the trio, whom they love so much, who would drop it all to come with them on this mad quest, they can't ask him that, for he has a family here, he has loved ones. Harry's are dead, hers are as good as.
"Where did you find this?" He asks and she shrugs.
"In some book" She laughs again and so does he, "I don't even know if it works. The book said it needs an immense amount of power, it's never been tried"
"Ahh" He fingers the Elder Wand then and holds it aloft, "Well if this doesn't do it…"
"Exactly" She nods, so does Harry and then just a second passes between them, of understanding, of acceptance, that they'll do this, that they can do this, should do this, that this could fix all that had gone wrong.
"Okay" He clasps her hand hard, and she does the same, before a thought occurs to her.
"Wait" She steps forward, and Harry understands her immediately, they do that, they get each other like no one else does, he understands and wraps one arm around her waist, and she wrap hers around his neck, she does not want him going without her. "Okay, ready"
"Ready"
And then he's chanting, the words once, it doesn't work, so again, and again, he chants, ten or twelve times, and just as Hermione is about to step back, as his voice grows frustrated, as the tears slip down her cheeks again, on the 13th cast and swish of the wand they begin to glow.
"Oh god" She says, and she smiles in utter fear, and Harry does too, terrified and elated all at once, as they glow, gold, a brilliant gold, and Harry lowers his wand, wraps both arms around her waist, and curls into her, as she does him, as they hold onto one another, tightly, so tightly they almost become one, as the glow around them intensifies, brightens.
And then they are gone.
At least to the present students of Hogwarts, to the current they are very much present. Too present even as they appear with a thud, and a whip of air to land smack dab in the middle of the Great Hall of Hogwarts.
It is empty, dark, it must be night-time, and as she peers out the window, she can see it is, and yet this hall isn't broken and smashed like it should be. This hall doesn't have the pile of bodies, of those mourning, of the blood splashed on the walls.
She realises if it were daytime the hall would be full of students, the table fall. She glances to her left and see's the Gryffindor table, hell she can even make out a notch at the seat Ginny would usually sit at. All the same.
This hall is pristine, empty, the candles floating overhead not lit. The moon offers some light through the window, and Hermione lifts her wand, "Lumos" She hears Harry do the same, "Lumos".
"Did it work?" He asks and she shakes her head, she doesn't know, as they both come to stand, glance around, this room tells them nothing, except it must have worked in some way, this is the same hall but repaired, they must have gone back some, she's just not sure to when.
"When was it supposed to take us back to?" Harry asks, evidently on the same wavelength as her, which she appreciates, it can be tiring to constantly coming to the conclusions before everyone else, Harry is many things but slow is not one of them.
"To your start, your birth" She says with a nod, "I figured we could intervene somehow, stop him early, go from there" He nods then, and they take a step together as they hear the wind outside, it is eerie which hurts, Hogwarts has always felt like home, even in the middle of the war, she hopes that doesn't change now.
"Then why are we at Hogwarts" He asks, and she shrugs, before taking a step forward, Harry follows and he takes her hand, she smiles as she knots her fingers with his, they are in this together. For a second, she misses Ron, but it wouldn't have been fair to tell him what they intended to do, he would have come in a second, even though he had much more to lose, much more to sacrifice for this.
"I don't know" Harry shrugs then and they walk to the main doors, open which is odd, usually they shut at night, she had been involved in enough mischief with the man beside her to know that.
"I think we need to be careful, really careful" Harry says, and she nods, clutches his hand tighter and waves her wand. "Don't move from each other's sides"
"Agreed" They walk through the open door, and they are met with the same dark corridors and nothing seems to have changed, except that the Castle is intact, not smashed and half destroyed from the battle.
"It's weird" Harry says and she nods, it is weird, she felt they'd land in Hogwarts, but they'd be able to tell when it is, not in the middle of the night with the Castle the exact same as it had been pre-battle. It does not help, and she feels nerves curl in her stomach, Harry is right, they have to be extremely careful here.
"I know" She says, "I'm not sure what we do here" That was a rarity, Hermione coming up stump, but thankfully when Hermione couldn't find a plan guided by logic, Harry could certainly find one guided by bravery.
"Let's walk some more" He says, "Perhaps the portraits or ghosts can tell us something" That seems as good a plan as any and yet she pauses, holds her wand aloft for a moment.
"Tempus" The clock tells her it's 3am, and so the prefects have finished their rounds. There may be a teacher or two she knows, but they know enough secret passages and hidden alcoves to avoid them she's sure. Then she has an idea.
"Do you have your cloak?" Harry pats his pockets and grins as he pulls out the silvery material that has saved their asses more than once. Hermione grins then and he throws it over them. They have to crouch a little, but it's better than being out in the open.
She remembers a time when she, Harry and Ron fit under the cloak without needing to squat, she smiles a little then, ahh how they were as children, so unaware of what was to come, and yet also aware in a way children shouldn't be.
That was why she had suggested this, if Harry could be unburdened, if he could live without years more of expectation and pain … they had to try.
"It's weird to think I've got two of the hallows now" Harry whispered, and Hermione turned to look at him, she hadn't even realised that.
"It is weird" She said, because it is, and then they began to creep through the corridors, silent, holding the cloak over their heads, pressed to one another's sides, not speaking, barely breathing as they tried to figure out when they were.
Because the spell had clearly worked, this was a Hogwarts untouched by war.
But there was nothing that could tell them what year it was, what decade even. If the spell had gone right, they should be in 1980, she'd be almost a year old at this point, and Harry would be a new-born. And yet, nothing in the castle told them when it was, nothing at all. She'd always loved Hogwarts, the timelessness of it, but now the fact that the Castle never changed was downright inconvenient.
They walked through the corridors for a good ten minutes, keeping an eye out for ghosts, a delinquent student or a portrait awake and willing to talk. It was difficult, Hermione could see a few portraits missing here and there, the one of Sir Rigby being roasted by a hungry dragon, the three ladies dancing ballet whilst a centaur watched, the one of a barn owl looking ahead, all missing. Hermione noted them but their absence didn't offer answers.
"Harry we can't walk all night" Hermione hissed, she should probably feel more tired after the battle, but she is running on adrenaline now and feels wide awake, "What do we do?"
"Here" Harry whispered back before throwing off the cloak, and Hermione near shrieked at him if silence hadn't been important to keeping them safe. Instead she glared at him to which he grinned at her apologetically before turning to the painting of a one-eyed wizard, wide awake and glaring at them from one beady eye.
She loves Harry, she does, but he has always been far too reckless for his own good.
"Hello" Harry said, and Hermione offered a wave, the wizard seemed slightly mollified by that, though she still glared at Harry for being so foolish.
"Can you tell us what year it is?" The wizard rolled that one eye then and muttered something about stupid children and standards being stricter in his day.
"What was that?" Harry asked, for as often as Harry pushed his luck, he also got results, she resisted the urge to glare at him again and instead waited for a reply.
"It's 1975" He said with a dirty glare, and then went back to muttering about moronic children and no doubt they were Hufflepuffs.
Not that she or Harry heard a word of his grumblings as they turned back to one another, wide eyed and in horror. Her anger evaporated as the date the wizard had spoke sunk in, to both of them.
"Fuck" Harry said, and she nodded, for what else could be said beyond that? Fuck indeed.
They were six years early! They had meant to land at the moment of Harry's birth, giving them a short window to halt Voldemort, but also meant they wouldn't meddle with anything else. They were early, way too early, they weren't even born yet! Hermione couldn't even get her head around how every many paradoxes they were causing.
'Terrible things happen to wizards who mess with time Harry, terrible things'
Hadn't she said that? Just four years earlier! How had she been wiser in her younger years than now! But then she remembered the hollow feeling in her stomach of the time they had left, so many dead, so many fallen and as she glanced at Harry, she could see he felt the same.
Sure, they had fucked up, monumentally, they had gone too far back and now goodness knows what they'd do … but in this time all those they loved were alive and well, there was no death, no destruction without hope in sight, no pain, no fear.
Sure, they would need to figure out what to do, and it wasn't perfect, but it was better than the loss, the pain, the crying they had left behind, the mourners and the dead. It was better.
"It's still worth it" Harry spoke her thought out loud and she nodded and took his hand again, gave him a smile, as tears clung to her lashes again, he was right, it was still worth it. He clenched her hand tightly and she smiled at him, yes, worth it.
"RUN!" She heard that scream, and her eyes wildly flew to the side, months of being on high alert, having her draw her wand, but she kept a hold of her best friends hand, in case they needed to run. Harry she could see went to do the same but being stood in front of her he saw something he didn't and quickly pulled her into the shadow of a nearby alcove, cloak over them as someone streaked past.
Her heart pounded as Harry threw the cloak over them, as they shoved their backs to the alcove, as she resisted the urge to throw a hex. They were strangers here, they could not be seen until they figured out what to do next, they had to be so careful.
And yet, Hermione would have gasped out loud in shock if Harry hadn't anticipated it and placed a hand over her mouth, as laughter filled the air, as four boys came into sight, clearly out of bed, causing mischief, laughing giddily as a teacher cursed them in the distance.
Her gasp was smothered by Harry as they both watched as James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew stopped just inches in front of them, laughing and wheezing, until a bang sounded down the corridor and they called out again.
"Keep running boys!" Harry's father yelled in mirth, as the rest laughed, Sirius in delight, Peter to be part of things and Remus in resignation, as they took off sprinting down the corridor, followed by a furious teacher she didn't recognise.
As they were gone she turned to Harry and she could see him looking on in awe, she smiled at him, and as confusing as it was, as now she had no idea what to do she was glad, and she pulled Harry close, and as soon as she did he tugged her into a hug, and she repeated his words back to him, warmth spreading through her in his embrace.
"Worth it"
sooo thoughts?
ahhh I freaking loved writing this! the ending made me squeal and I knew what was coming.
I do hope you enjoyed, pls lemme know if you did! I won't ever demand reviews but I'll sure as hell encourage them! fav/follow for updates!
I'll address some logistical stuff in the next chapter too, so keep an eye out for that!
speak soon