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The Paths We Take	By : Luckycharms Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 18436 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. That right goes to the AMAZING JK Rowling. No profit is made off this story. Shout out to Scorpia11 for being my awesome Beta!!

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
Chapter 2- Ties to the Past
Wednesday May 5^th, 1999
Draco grabbed a hold of Hermione’s bicep just before a green light burst from the heart of the jewel, knocking all four of Theo’s classmates backwards. The energy surged through the room forcing Theo to shield his face momentarily with his arm as glass display cases exploded to pieces around him and his friends cried out in fear.
“Oh shit!” he began to chant as he watched the four people in front of him disappear into absolute nothingness before his eyes. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! FUCK!”
Looking around the room at the glass shattered all over the floor, Theo grabbed his hair and began to sob as panic started to set in. Minutes later, Professor McGonagall, along with security from both muggle and wizarding worlds, rushed into the room with expressions of shock and disbelief etched over their faces.
“Wh-What in the name of Merlin happened here?” McGonagall gasped with a hand clasped to her chest. She looked around the destroyed room slowly before her eyes flickered to where Theo was knelt on the floor sobbing into his hands. “Godric!” she expressed as she rushed towards the Slytherin boy and cradled him into her arms. “What happened here? Are you hurt?” she questioned as she pulled back some and clasped Theo’s face between her palms.
“I-It’s all my f-fault” Theo sobbed uncontrollably. “They’re g-gone and it’s all my fault! They’re gone!”
“Who’s gone? Theodore, who is gone?”
Theo lowered his head and continued to cry just as Harry, Ron, Neville, Luna and Pansy came barreling into the room with worry etched on their brows.
“What the hell happened here?” Ron asked as he took a bite of a granola bar he had kept hidden in his pocket. “And what’s with Nott crying his eyes out?
Professor McGonagall whipped her head around and gazed at the individuals while security began to survey the damage. It suddenly occurred to her that four students were missing from the group of seventh and eighth years and she slowly turned her wide eyes back to Theo before waving down a wizarding guard.
“Get all of the muggles out of this building. Tell Professor Sprout, you know which on she is, right?” The thin guard with a large mustache nodded his head before the Headmistress continued. “Okay, good…Tell her to Portkey all the seventh years to Hogwarts and then have Professor Flitwick come up here to take the remaining students back.”
“Whoa, take us back?” Harry cut in confused. “Professor, what’s going on? What happened here? M-maybe we could help in some way.”
“What…in the…world!” Ms. Woodrow exclaimed as she gasped through heavy breaths; evidence that she had ran as fast as she could up multiple levels of stairs “Wh-Wh-What in Helga Hufflepuff is going on here?” she demanded in a mixture of shock and anger. “What did you do?” she looked to Theo on the floor in McGonagall’s arms. “What the heck did you do?”
“I’m sorry!” Theo stated loudly through his sniffles. “It was just a bet! I didn’t know it would kill them!”
“Kill them?” Harry inquired while taking a step forward.” Kill who, Nott?”
“D-Draco…Blaise…G-Granger a-and Weasley” he answered sadly. “It was just a bet…”
“YOU KILLED MY SISTER!” Ron shouted in fury as he dropped his snack and began sprinting across the room towards the brunette Slytherin. But Harry and Neville reached out to stop him as the Headmistress released Theo and stood up firmly to block the redhead from getting to the boy on the ground. “SHE’S MY SISTER, YOU PIECE OF SHITE! WHAT’D YOU DO TO HER?”
Luna and Pansy’s eyes began to water as they thought about the deaths of their friends and unconsciously held onto each other’s arm for comfort; no longer caring that they were enemies or the fact that had they never really like each other.
“No one is saying they are dead, Mr. Weasley” McGonagall interrupted before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “Security and I will figure out what happened. Until then, you five are to go back to Hogwarts and stay in your common room unless told otherwise. Once things have settled down, I will personally see to it that you are informed of-”
“No disrespect Professor,” Harry cut in a bit crudely as Professor Flitwick entered the room “but we aren’t leaving until we know what happened to our friends. You of all people know we will do whatever it takes.”
Professor McGonagall sighed deeply knowing full well that Harry and his friends would not listen to her when it came to their loved ones and that she had no choice but to involve them; otherwise she would have to deal with the chaos of their actions on top of everything she was about to deal with now. She just really hoped that the four students in question…weren’t actually dead.
She quickly scanned the room as she thought about what to do next before focusing her gaze back to the group in front of her.
“Alright, listen up” she began in an authoritative tone before pointing to a guard that wasn’t a muggle. “You, gather up all the security footage from the past hour and get others to help you obliviate any muggles who witnessed the event that occurred. Ms. Woodrow, I know that this is shocking and I completely understand, but I need you to bring some water to Mr. Nott here so that he can calm down enough to tell us what happened.”
“Yes, ma’am” Woodrow answered quickly with a small bow before rushing out of the room.
“Professor Flitwick, was Professor Sprout able to set the Portkey up alright?” the half-goblin raised his stunned eyes to the Headmistress and with a nod of his head McGonagall continued. “Good, I want you to go down to the surveillance room with Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, who could use some cooling off of his own, and go over the footage.”
“But Professor…”
“Do not argue with me Mr. Potter. I am already allowing you to be a part of this mess. I do not need to worry about you and Mr. Weasley while we talk to Mr. Nott. Please, just do as I say; think of it as some training for when you begin at the Auror Academy.”
Harry reluctantly sighed before pulling at Ron’s arm for him to follow, however the redhead refused to move as he glowered furiously at Theo who was now wiping away tears from his cheeks.
“Mr. Weasley” McGonagall stated firmly, with a touch of warning in her crisp voice, causing Ron to glance up at her in fear and anger before hesitantly backing away in order to follow Harry.
Ms. Woodrow came rushing back with a full paper cup of water just as Harry, Ron, and Professor Flitwick left through the large archway.
“I got the water!” she exclaimed, completely out of breath from running down the hall while holding the cup in the air.
“Why didn’t you just conjure some?” Pansy asked with a raised brow.
“I don’t carry my wand while at work. It’s policy; no concealed weapons unless authorized.”
But Pansy just rolled her eyes as she let out a sigh and walked over to Theo who was now sitting in a chair that a guard had given him. Luna joined her as Neville rubbed the back of his own neck and began pacing back and forth.
“Theo” Luna began as she crouched down in front of the Slytherin staring unseeingly at the floor “Theo can you look at me, please?” the dark-haired wizard slowly raised his eyes to her, making the Ravenclaw smile warmly as Woodrow tried to hand him the water. But he didn’t even lift a finger as his gaze lingered on the blonde girl in front of him. “Can you tell us what happened?” she continued while taking Theo’s hands in hers, but the boys’ lips declined any sort of movement. “It’s really important that you tell us what transpired here. Our friends could very well be fine, but we won’t know that unless you talk to us” she inquired gently.
However, Theo simply continued to stare sadly at the Ravenclaw and everyone started to think the worst.
“He’s in too much shock” Neville claimed while running his fingers through his brown hair “He’s not going to tell us anything!”
“Give him a moment, Longbottom!” Pansy retorted in disgust before brushing a strand of Theo’s hair out of his face.
“He doesn’t want to talk to us!”
“Enough!” McGonagall yelled in annoyance. “Bickering is not going to get us anywhere. He is just a boy…a boy who has witnessed something unimaginable. Give him a-”
“It was just a bet…” Theo muttered, still gazing at Luna. She squeezed his hands lightly, urging him to continue as everyone in the room went quiet. “We were having fun” he continued softly as he lowered his head “nothing bad was supposed to happen. Draco picked it up because the girls didn’t want to…”
“Picked what up, Theo?” Pansy asked tenderly while rubbing his back.
“The necklace…” he stated, raising his eyes to the empty display to his left. “Weasley wanted to touch it s-so Draco let her. We didn’t think the curse was real…but Granger wasn’t sure, so she grabbed Weasley’s hand to stop her…”
“What happened after that, Theo?” Luna questioned delicately when he stopped talking for a moment.
“D-Draco must have let go when Weasley did because it fell to the floor. Granger and Draco bent down to pick it up when a bright green light lit their faces. Then the ground started to shake and there was this…this loud piercing noise, you know the kind that makes you cover your ears, before everything…went quiet. I could hear Draco tell them to get away from it, but it was too late. Some sort of green energy burst through the necklace, throwing all of them backwards before…” he turned his amber eyes back to Luna “before they just disappeared in front of me. It was just supposed to be a stupid bet.”
The Headmistress lowered her hand from her chest as she breathed a sigh of relief. In all her years of teaching, there was never a moment when someone vanished during death or even died from disappearing into thin air. She became hopeful once more that four of her most intelligent students, were still alive.
“Alright,” she began after swallowing hard and Luna stood up and walked over to Neville to comfort him “Ms. Woodrow-”
“Please…call me Bethany. After all, I feel we are going to be seeing a lot of each other.”
“Very well…Bethany…Can you search through you records and find out what that necklace was and what sort of curse was placed on it?”
“I-I wish I could, but that amulet was a donation from an anonymous benefactor. We have no firm background on it or the curse. This is a muggle museum, there shouldn’t have even been any enchanted objects placed in here. Our magical security team scans every artifact before it is put on display, so unless the curse was undetectable…”
“You have no source of information that can be obtained on it; nothing at all?” McGonagall asked incredulously.
“There is a brief history that was put on the display…Just a second!” Bethany ran over broken glass scattered on the floor and picked up the fallen plaque. She tilted the shattered frame to the side to remove the glass particles, but her lips fell as she realized the label was unreadable. “Is…Is there a way you can fix this?” she asked holding up the broken frame. “All I can read is something about a Pharaoh.”
“I can certainly try…but for all we know, the curse could have rendered it and everything else in the room irreparable, unless done the muggle way.”
“Professor,” Luna chirped “Perhaps myself and Professor Flitwick, could search the Library at school for any information on the amulet. If it really had magic placed on it, then there has to be a written record of it.”
“That is an ingenious idea, Ms. Lovegood…and do check the Relic’s Archive in the restricted section as well. Bring all the books you can on amulets, jewelry, Pharaohs, and Egypt. We can all sort through them together.”
Luna nodded her head before kissing Neville good-bye and racing out of the room with the Charms Professor.
Over the next hour, Professor McGonagall tried her best to restore the information label but it was to no avail; the curse had stopped all magic from penetrating its barrier and refused to be fixed. Harry and Ron however, found their way back to the exhibit and quickly informed everyone of what they had seen on the footage. The raven-haired boy-who-lived, retold the same events as Nott had described, causing anyone who had held doubts about the Slytherins’ honesty, to accept the story as fact.
By the time Luna and Professor Flitwick returned with a hoard of tomes, the group had managed to tidy up what they could of the room before grabbing multiple books and searching every page for an amulet that resembled a scarab beetle. They were worn out and tired from reading after hours had passed but everyone refused to give up. Even Pansy, who hated reading, had flipped through fourteen books in three hours before finally taking a break with the others when the words began to blur together.
Nonetheless, Luna and Bethany refused to stop their search, even going as far to translate multiple passages for those who couldn’t read other languages, but neither of the women could find the amulet in any of the tomes. It wasn’t until Luna flipped through her twenty-sixth book that she found what they were looking for.
“Hey Theo…” she called out while studying the old dusty page “is this the necklace Draco picked up?”
The group quickly removed themselves from the tasks they were preforming and crowded around the Ravenclaw as Theo squeezed himself towards the front to confirm or deny Luna’s question. He studied the relic in the book carefully before nodding his head.
“Y-yeah…but I can’t read any of what this says. It’s all in pictures a-and some strange language.”
McGonagall and Flitwick both sighed in relief as they leaned in closer to get a better look.
“It’s Arabic” Luna replied with a wide grin. “I can read it…”
“Please do, Ms. Lovegood” Bethany requested eagerly. “Latin and Greek are more my strong suits, however I am still learning Japanese and the Arabic dialects, so I’m not very good.”
“It would be my pleasure” Luna chirped excitedly “I just need a minute to refresh my memory.”
“Take all the time you need, Luna” McGonagall replied as she adjusted the spectacles on her nose. “Just do try not to take too long. I need some information to go on before I inform a few parents that their children are missing. Merlin knows they won’t be pleased…”
While Luna nodded her head and began to read the passage first to herself, before translating it, Draco, Hermione, Blaise, and Ginny were trying to get comfortable in a small cave they found on the edge of a cliff by the beach. They had collected clean water from the river, but were caught in the torrential downpour caused by the storm they’d seen brewing merely an hour before.
They were soaking wet and freezing as they stumbled into the cave clutching their arms close to their chests. Before starting a fire, Hermione flicked her wand and charmed everyone’s clothes dry and clean to stave off illness. As the brunette lit a fire, Ginny first suggested they use the warming charm to keep themselves from freezing to death; however, it was Draco who told her that that spell only lasted for about an hour before it would have to be reapplied and they couldn’t continuously preform it if they were going to try and get some sleep. He even added, that multiple uses of the charm will render it ineffective after a while due to the body growing accustom to the magic, and that is was better to save it just in case they needed it later down the line.
Hermione was a little irritated that the blonde had beat her to the punch, but she was grateful that someone other than herself, knew survival skills; she just wasn’t fond of the idea that it was Draco Malfoy who was just as intelligent as her. Though the thought wasn’t due to hating the ex-Death Eater sitting against the cave wall across from her, because she didn’t, she just didn’t really know him outside of the prat who used to make her life a living hell growing up. Ginny was right however, he had matured since the war and he didn’t call her Mudblood anymore, but she was still weary of what he could and even would do, if anyone ever crossed him.
She could definitely hold her own against him if it ever came down to it, which she hoped would never happen, and she wasn’t afraid of him like everyone else in school was. There was simply a dark ominous shadow that loomed over him making him seem deadlier than he was, and she sort of felt bad for the rich pale boy who only had a few real friends.
“What are you thinking about?” Ginny whispered as she nudged Hermione gently with her shoulder. “I can tell when you’re thinking about something serious.”
“It’s nothing like that, Gin” she replied as she looked away from the blonde talking to his best friend and down at her hands. “I was just thinking about what we’re going to do. We can’t charm mattresses to sleep on because if we somehow find a way to get back and we leave behind anything from the future, we can really mess up our present timeline.”
“Mattresses, that’s what you’re thinking about? We can use the cushioning charm and be fine. Why don’t you tell me what’s really on your mind and not try to make up some ridiculous lie to deflect from you staring at Malfoy.”
“I wasn’t staring!” Hermione whispered in surprise.
“Please,” Ginny scoffed as she leaned her red head back against the rocks behind her “it’s obvious you were and I can tell there’s something going on in that large brain of yours. So, just tell me.”
“Was it really that obvious?” Hermione questioned worriedly as thunder reverberated around them.
“He didn’t notice, if that’s what you’re concerned about” Ginny answered as she bent her legs up and rested her forearms on her knees while the rain continued to pour outside the cave’s open entrance. “But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know. I think he has a thing for you, Mione.”
“No, he doesn’t!” Hermione laughed as she play-pushed her best friend.
Ginny giggled softly as she shuffled her feet across the dusty stone floor before taking in a deep breath.
“He does though, I can tell...He voluntarily helped calm you down from an episode and you yourself told me how he protected you from that freaking dinosaur before it started chasing after you both. He might have been a major dick to you before the war, but no one does something like that unless they have reason.”
“He just didn’t want my death on his hands, Gin.”
“Mione…think about it. Draco Malfoy was a coward for the longest time. He was selfish and only thought of himself. He would push someone from his own house in front of Death if it meant he could escape it; you are no exception. But now he not only shielded you from a giant reptile, he literally tried his best to take away the memory you were reliving. Something I still have trouble doing to this day.”
“He was just being nice since his side lost.”
“A side he betrayed to fight for the light…” Ginny smirked as Blaise walked over to interrupt them.
“Hey Red, Draco needs your help with putting up some defensive charms around the cave to ward off any lingering animals. I suck at barrier spells and he was going to ask Granger, but we all know she’s been through a lot in the past few hours, so he wanted to give her a chance to rest.”
Ginny turned her head to Hermione and winked making her best friend roll her eyes and smile before standing up and walking over to Draco who was now watching the rain fall heavily outside. Blaise took Ginny’s seat and pulled out the amulet the blonde Slytherin had given him and handed it over to the Gryffindor bookworm.
“Draco said to give you this. He found it on the ground when we all fell, but he hadn’t had the chance to hand it over to you until now” Blaise stated softly. Hermione took the scarab in her hand and began studying it as the dark-skinned wizard took the same position the red-headed girl had sat in moments before. “So, whadda think? Can it be fixed?” he asked while pointing to the necklace.
“I don’t know” Hermione replied as she brought the amulet closer to her face to get a better look at it. “Maybe…Though, I don’t think it would do us any good if we don’t know how it works; plus, the stone is missing and I highly doubt we are going to find it now” she sighed as she lowered the golden beetle to her lap. “For all we know, breaking it released something that we have no clue how to put back in and if by some miracle we find the stone and put it back together, we can’t know if it would even send us home.”
“Blimey, we are so screwed. I am not built for this era” Blaise claimed with a small laugh as he tilted his head back.
“No one is, Zabini, hence why it’s the age of reptiles. Sixty-five million years of roaming the Earth with no humans to concur them. They were kings and queens that ruled the world until a comet wiped them out and the age of mammals took over.”
“How do you know all this? They didn’t teach any of this at Hogwarts.”
“Reading over the summers, watching documentaries on the telly…museums; it’s all a part of history and I love learning everything I can. And they do teach it at Hogwarts. It’s called Muggle Studies, remember?” she chuckled softly.
“Huh…I never took that class, but it sounds interesting” he replied, honestly beyond fascinated. “So, are you able to tell us where we are?”
“Not really. I don’t exactly know when we are so if I had to guess, we could very well be on Pangaea.”
“What the hell is a Pangaea?” Blaise questioned with scrunched brows.
“Pangaea? It’s when all the continents were one. A three-pronged fissure grew between South America, Africa, and North America…” Hermione raised a brow and giggled softly when Blaise’s furrowed brow deepened in further confusion. “Basically, giant earthquakes separated the continents until they became what we know today.”
“Oh! Got ya. That’s pretty neat.”
“Not if you were present when it happened. Lots of volcanic eruptions, magma…lava…flowing everywhere, shifting land mass, and oceans spilling into the cracks; it was messy.”
“I’ll say…” he replied intrigued. But as the duo sat in silence for a few minutes, Blaise thought about what to say next. He had never really talked to the Gryffindor Princess and always thought of her as a prissy know-it-all that just had to be right about everything. However, sitting down and actually having a conversation with her was a whole different story. She was nice and she wasn’t pushy with her knowledge like Pansy claimed for years. He actually liked talking to her and he was learning new things his travels around the world had never taught him.
“How’s Malfoy doing?” Hermione asked, interrupting his thoughts and catching him off guard.
“Why do you ask?” he questioned, now realizing he could potentially see if the Gryffindor Golden Girl shared any sort of feelings for his best mate.
“No reason…” she replied gently as she looked down at the amulet in her hands before putting it in her beaded bag for safe keeping. “I just figured since the war…”
“That he was in therapy too?” he finished for her. Hermione nodded her head as she felt embarrassed for even asking, but something inside her really wanted to know if the sessions with Healer Marcum helped the Slytherin Prince any. “Well,” Blaise continued “I think he’s a lot better than he used to be. He sort of lost the urge to be a bully and instead focused more on protecting those he deemed worthy to be in his life…” he looked to Hermione who was watching Draco and Ginny place shield charms at the entrance of the wet cave, and leaned in as he too watched the pair laughing and talking to the left of them.
“You know, if you keep staring, I’m going to have to assume you like him” Blaise whispered as he tried to hold back a smirk.
“I do not like him!” Hermione rebutted as she snapped her face to the dark-skinned wizard, forcing him to chuckle as he backed away.
“Could have fooled me”
“I don’t like Malfoy! I just feel…I don’t know…bad for him?”
Blaise raised a brow in confusion before looking to Draco who now seemed sullied as he talked to Ginny quietly.
“Don’t feel pity for him, Granger. He may have had a tough life growing up, but he’s learning from it. His father is in Azkaban and his mother is finally showing him the love she wasn’t allowed to give him as a child. What he needs more than anything right now…is forgiveness. Forgiveness from hurting people his father forced him to hate. He’s still learning to change from the prejudice ways instilled in him, but at least he’s trying.”
“Still…it can’t be easy for someone to grow up the way he did; to always try to please the one person who should have been proud of him regardless of what he did or didn’t do.”
“Life is never easy, Granger, and unfortunately Draco was dealt a bad hand in the family department. He may be the richest guy at school and in the sacred twenty-eight circle…but, no matter how much money he has, it will never buy him the absolution he needs…from you.”
“Me?” Hermione asked with a perplexing brow.
“Don’t say that I said anything, but Healer Marcum has been badgering Draco for months now to talk to you. You’re the last person on the list for him to ask forgiveness from. He’s hurt you the most and has pushed it off because he feels like he doesn’t deserve to ask that of you…not after everything.”
“H-how many people were on his list?”
“More than there should have been. Surprisingly, Potter forgave him, but he sort of gave up on Weasley. He at least tried though; next to you, Weasley is probably the hardest person to ask.”
Hermione chuckled gently as she thought about Ron’s reaction to Draco asking for forgiveness. He most definitely would not accept him so easily. But she knew over time, the redhead would eventually give in; it just might be years before that would ever happen.
However, she began to think about if she would be so welcoming to the idea of being lenient with the blonde Slytherin. Blaise did say he was at least trying to change, but the past can’t easily be forgotten. Draco had caused her more than enough pain for two lifetimes and seemed to revel in inflicting it. Though at the same time, she could recall seeing the brokenness inside his eyes when he watched her suffering on his Drawing Room floor. It was only the second time in her life that she had ever witnessed him show remorse. That moment showed a side of him that he kept tucked away from the rest of the world, a side that proved he was human.
“I…I don’t hate him” she finally spoke through the encompassing silence. “I just don’t know if I can forgive him yet.”
“Understandable” Blaise shrugged. “But think of it this way…Would you want your entire life to be judged-to be summed up by the worst thing you have ever done? The worst thing you didn’t even want to do in the first place?” Hermione bit her bottom lip slightly as she thought hard about what Blaise was saying and he was right. If it came down to it, she wouldn’t want people to hate her for things she had no control over. Although, Draco did have control over the teasing and torment he forced upon her…But could she still forgive him if he was actually trying to rectify his past deeds? “Will you at least try to get to know the new him…the real Draco Malfoy, before you judge him too harshly?”
“I can’t promise anything will come of it, but…I’ll try.”
“That’s all I ask” he smiled warmly before picking up a stick and began poking at the fire in front of him.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” Draco asked Ginny as he lowered his wand, crossed his arms, and leaned up against the driest edge of the cave entrance.
“Probably you” Ginny replied with an eye roll as she finished placing the last charm and slipped her wand back into her thigh holster; a gift from her brother, Charlie, who wanted to make sure she always had perfect access to her wand in case of emergencies, but still able to keep it hidden.
“She hates me, doesn’t she?” Draco questioned somberly while looking out at the rain pouring down just beyond the barrier wards.
Ginny softened her features and sighed while crossing her arms before staring out at the ocean pounding away at the beach below.
“She doesn’t hate you, Malfoy. She just doesn’t know you.”
“She knows me...” he scoffed softly through his nose “as a cold ruthless spiteful evil little cockroach that deserves to be squashed under her shoe. She has every right to not like me.”
“You haven’t even really given her a chance to get to know the real you, Malfoy. You still parade yourself around like you’re some sort of king and she’s nothing but a speck on a map.”
“I don’t think she’s beneath me…not anymore.”
“But you still don’t like anyone who isn’t pure-blooded.”
“That’s not true!”
“Isn’t it? When have you ever been nice to anyone who is half-blood or muggle-born, hm? And do not include everything that happened today.”
Draco stumbled over his words as he tried to think of the last time he was ever nice to someone who wasn’t of the same blood status as him, but his mind went blank. Even though he had decided to stop bullying others he still laughed when his friends pranked or made fun of someone, especially when it came to Neville Longbottom. There was just something about the guy that made it easy to target him. Still though, he didn’t stop them. All he ever did was add fuel to the fire by reluctantly involving himself in some way; even if he wasn’t the antagonist anymore.
“You can’t think of anything can you?” Ginny questioned softly. “That’s your problem, Malfoy. The basis of your kindness are heat of the moment acts that force you to not think for once and just do what you know is right…Look, Harry and I might have pardoned you for the things you have done, but Hermione…she can’t just forgive someone because they say they’re sorry. You have to prove to her that you’re changing. You need to get over your superior ideals and accept that no one is above anyone.”
“It’s not that easy, Red. Growing up, all I was ever taught was how special I was because I was pure-blood and how to hate those who weren’t. It’s not as simple as casting a Lumos spell.”
“And how did your expectations of that teaching turn out? Your father’s in Azkaban, you have little to almost no friends, no one respects you anymore, and Voldemort is dead.”
“Don’t say his name!”
“He’s dead, Malfoy. And even if he wasn’t, I’m not afraid to say his worthless name. Take a look around, Blondie; we’re stuck sixty-five million years in the past. There aren’t any other humans around besides us. He won’t even be a thought for millions of years!”
“That doesn’t change what he did…Because of him and my pathetic father, every muggle-born in the world hates my family.”
“You think you’re the only one who has gone through a war focused on an idiosyncratic trait that was beyond hated, because people were too scared to try an understand it? Because those same people were taught from birth that if you’re different than you’re wrong and don’t deserve to live?”
“I know we all fought that battle, Red. I’m not saying I was the only one to experience it.” Ginny chuckled softly as she touched her forehead with her hand and shook her head in disappointment. She really couldn’t believe that someone as intelligent as Draco, could be so ignorant to the world around him. “What?” he asked, while throwing a hand in the air in annoyance.
“Malfoy, do you really not know about any of the muggle wars throughout history? Muggle Studies was a good class. I learned a lot about the world.”
“I refused to attend Muggle Studies after watching Professor Burbage being eaten by Nagini right in front of me on my parents dining table. Besides, that class is worthless anyway. I already learned about the witch trials around the world and how it affected wizarding society. What more is there to know?”
“Oh, I don’t know, how about the battles fought over slavery? Massacres to Native Americans because English settlers wanted their land and were scared of them? What about men refusing to give women the right to vote because they thought them weak? Oh, or the times people who weren’t rich like you, were thrown into arenas to fight for their lives as entertainment for Royals?” Draco’s eyes suddenly widened at the word ‘rich’ and he discretely checked his trouser pocket for his money bag. When he felt it, he released the breath he was holding and finished listening to Ginny listing off things he wasn’t really paying attention to, to begin with. “What about the genocide during World War II, religious persecution, unjust imprisonments? Any of this ringing a bell?”
“Not really, no…”
“Godric Gryffindor, you’re missing so much history! The two Wizarding Wars, they are nothing compared to the ones that lasted for decades because the color of one’s skin was not up to par with people like you, me, or Hermione. I would rather face a Dinosaur again than have to live through the embarrassment of being looked at as the worst scum in human record after white people realized African’s were no different than themselves. I can only imagine the hate you receive on a daily basis and I know you and your friends only continue to bully people as a coping mechanism, but Malfoy, come on…you’re not the only one who has had the tables turned on them. So many people have found ways to unlearn the shite instilled in them. You can too.”
“It’s-”
“Hey guys?” Blaise cut in quickly as he stared down at Hermione’s hands. “You-you might wanna look at this!” Draco and Ginny looked over at the other two as the pair stood up in a panic and a green light illuminated their faces. “Now!”
“What did you do, Granger?” Draco demanded as he and Ginny raced over to the duo.
“I didn’t do anything, Malfoy!” Hermione retorted firmly while looking up from the glowing beetle in her hand. “It just started shaking in my bag so I pulled it out and the crack was lit up!”
“Well how the hell do we stop it?” he asked with alarm radiating in his voice.
“Get rid of it, Mione!” Ginny yelled in fear as she covered her ears from the piercing noise that was now emitting from the amulet.
“WHAT?” Hermione shouted over the sound.
“DROP THE DAMN NECKLACE!” Draco bellowed as he too covered his ears.
Hermione instantly dropped the amulet from her grasp, but it never hit the ground. Hovering, just inches from the cave floor, the resonating whine instantly went quiet causing the four terrified Hogwarts students to freeze in horror before a burst of energy threw them backwards.
Blaise and Hermione slammed into the cave wall behind them, causing the dark-skinned wizard to hit his head hard against the stone as Ginny and Draco flew backwards into the open air before landing painfully on their backs. The pair began to try and sit up from the dirt speckled floor before a force grabbed a hold of them and began sucking them towards another swirling vortex…into the unknown.
May 5^th, 1999
“What’s it say, Luna?” Harry questioned in impatiently.
“Oh, dear…This isn’t good” Luna replied as she shook her head and continued to read.
“What isn’t good?” Ron asked in a panic. “This is my sister, Luna! What isn’t bloody good?”
“They aren’t dead-”
“How the fuck is that not good?” Ron yelled in anger.
“Let her bloody finish, you oaf!” Pansy demanded before looking back to Luna with worry. “What does it say, Lovegood?”
Luna looked up at the raven-haired Slytherin as distress formed on her lips before looking at the rest of the worried faces surrounding her.
“They aren’t dead” she repeated. “They are very much alive, but for how long…I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, Miss Lovegood?” Professor McGonagall requested in concern.
“The amulet…it was created by an advisor named Osiris around 55 BC. This passage is an entry from a journal he wrote. He was named after the mythological father of the god Horus, who was rumored to have been killed by his brother for his throne. Anyway, Cleopatra was the next to rule Egypt after Ptolemy XII passed away, but someone high up in her court, spread a rumor that Osiris thought she would fail, and that one of her brothers should have taken the crown instead. It was said that whoever told her this, claimed her advisor was planning to rid her of the title she held. The person hated Osiris because he was English…well at the time Romans conquered much of England, so I guess he was technically-”
“You’re getting off topic, Lovegood” Pansy stated in annoyance.
“Sorry…Anyway, a secret set up was ensued to blame Osiris for the attempted rape and murder of Cleopatra…under her order. The people revolted at the news; persecuting him by saying he hated the queen because she was female and of Macedonian descent. They threw stones at the man, and set his house, with his family still inside, on fire. Luckily his family wasn’t harmed, but the act was enough to enrage the advisor.
“Osiris was a half-blood wizard on his father’s side and took the magic he was taught at a young age to create a protection spell on a necklace that was given as a gift from Cleopatra when he was first brought into her court. He knew he would die by the hands of the people for something he never believed or even did, but he refused to let them harm his family.”
“So, what spell did he cast?” Harry asked calmly.
“I don’t know. The spell used…it’s so ancient that no one knows its origins or how to work it, but there is a warning. It says that any who tries to harm Osiris’s family or fights in front of the amulet, will be thrown through multiple eras; living through his ancestry for certain periods of time, past and or future from his respective time. If there was persecution in his family, then the amulet will decide which period is best for learning from one’s mistakes. Five-time trials will be given as a test; a way to show the evilness of the person’s ways.”
“But no one harmed his family when Draco picked up the amulet” Theo added.
“They didn’t have to. You said that Hermione grasped Ginny’s arm when she went to take it, right Harry?”
“Yeah…The surveillance showed it clear as day.”
“Okay, so what if the amulet mistook her grabbing Ginny as confrontation? And then when Draco grabbed Hermione to get her away from it…when they dropped it…”
“The amulet thought he was going to hurt her…” Neville finished in surprise.
“Exactly! Two rival houses having a disagreement in front of the necklace, started the process” Luna exclaimed with a large smile, making Harry raise a brow at her joy. He always did think she was a little strange for seeming to be happy in life altering times, but he was pulled from the thought when he recalled something he had seen in the security room.
“There’s just one problem” he began while he dropped his shoulders with displeasure.
“One?” Ron interjected. “How can there be just one? We have no idea where in history they even are!”
“That’s the problem, Ronald” Harry claimed, raising his eyes slowly to his red-headed friend. “The beetle broke when it hit the floor. You saw it. It cracked before emitting the green light. For all we know…they never made it to eras they were supposed to. They literally could be anywhere.”
“So, how do we bring them back…If we figure out where they are that is?” Pansy questioned with an unsettled tone.
“We can’t…” Luna answered somberly. “There isn’t any sort of way to counteract the curse…They have to go through the trials, until they are finished…or…or die trying.”
“Rubbish!” Ron yelled in fear. “That is absolute rubbish! Professors, there has got to be something we can do?” he questioned while on the verge of tears. “It’s my sister.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Weasley,” Professor Flitwick wistfully replied “but ancient magic…that goes well beyond the means of any wizard or witch in today’s world. There is no way to understand the magic used and even if there was…the advisor most likely put a signature on the curse so that only his bloodline can remove it.”
“He’s correct Ronald” McGonagall stated as the wrinkles on her forehead creased into sadness. “The only thing we can do for them is pray to Merlin to help guide them through this chaos.”
“I’m not giving up!” Harry exclaimed in anger. “You lot can, but I am going to search this museum from the ground up until I find them! If they’re lost in history then this is the best place to look, wouldn’t you agree? I don’t care if it’s a written record or-or a picture of them somewhere, we can’t just sit around and wait, hoping that they’re alive” he stated lowering his voice as his bottom lip began to quiver. “Mione would leave us clues, I know she would…And if anyone can get through this, it’s her.”
Autumn of 102BC
“Ugh Merlin, my head!” Draco groaned as he sat up straight.
“What the hell happened?” Ginny questioned as she rubbed the left side of her ribs before looking around at a vast oasis desert lit up by an overbearing hot sun. “Where the hell are we? And where’s Zabini and Hermione?”
“HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!” they heard a voice shout from afar.
Scrambling to their feet, Draco and Ginny rushed towards the sound of screaming to find Hermione hunched over Blaise lying on the ground. The dark-skinned wizard wasn’t moving as Hermione held the back of his head in her hands and panic encompassed every nerve in her body. Draco stood frozen a few feet away as Ginny rushed towards the pair and slid to her knees to help examine the wizard lying in the orange-yellow sand.
“Someone grab my bag!” Hermione yelled as she ripped part of her plaid skirt, lifted Blaise’s head up, and pressed the fabric hard against the back of his skull. However, Ginny looked around and couldn’t spot it anywhere in the dusty bare terrain, but Draco did. Pulling himself out of his paralyzed state, Draco ran past the girls trying to staunch the blood that was seeping into the sand and picked up the beaded bag resting only a few meters away. He spotted the amulet next to the bag and quickly scooped it up before racing back to the trio.
“Wh-what do you need?” he quickly asked as he began trying to find his way around the extension charm placed on the purse.
“Uh-there’s uh-the um” she began while trying to remember the right potion needed.
“Granger! What do you need?”
“Wiggenweld! I need the Wiggenweld!” she exclaimed while her eyes began to water. “Harry, hurry! I need to save him!” she snapped out of nowhere; her eyes never once wavering from Blaise’s face.
Draco scrunched his face in confusion before he pulled out his wand and summoned the potion from the bag. He looked up at Ginny with dismay before the redhead ripped part of her own skirt, like Hermione had done, before grabbing the potion from the blonde and pouring it onto the fabric. She quickly handed the material to Hermione, who proceeded to replace the bloody cloth with the potion covered one onto the back of the dark-skinned wizards’ skull.
“Please heal” the brunette witch pleaded. “Please…please heal.”
As Draco watched the scene before him with a sullen expression, he saw something in Hermione that nearly made his heart stop. Her body was trembling from head to toe and she seemed trapped in a trance where her eyes were unseeing and her mind clearly wasn’t with them anymore.
“Granger…Are you alright?”
“Please heal…Please, please, please” she continued, ignoring the worried stares of the two people gazing at her. “Please…”
“Mione?” Ginny cut in as she reached over Blaise and touched the brunette’s shoulder, but the Gryffindor continued begging as she slowly started to rock back and forth.
“What’s wrong with her?” Draco asked curiously.
“She’s having an episode…I-I think she thinks Blaise…is Ron” Ginny replied with a tilt of her head. “They were on the run right before the war and Ron got splinched during an apparition. Harry told me not long after he defeated Voldemort. They were escaping the Ministry of Magic and neither of the boys were prepared when Hermione apparated them a second time so quickly. Yaxely followed them to Grimmauld Place so she had to get them out of there as fast as she could. Ron got splinched in the process and Hermione had to heal him with Dittany.”
“Granger?” Draco began as he placed his fingers on her chin and turned her red tear stained face to him. “This is Blaise. He’s not Ron…I need you to focus because I need you to save my friend, alright?”
“It’s…It’s not Ron?” she asked as she blinked and sucked in a breath, making her bottom lip quiver slightly.
“No. It’s Blaise, Granger…Zabini. And he needs your help right now. You have to tell me if he’s going to be okay.”
Hermione began to steady her breath as she looked into Draco’s sorrowful ocean-grey eyes before looking back down to Blaise in her arms.
“O-okay, um…okay…” she began through a sniffle. “We uh…we need to give the potion a-a f-few minutes to work. H-he should be fine, b-but he’ll have a head…ache for a couple of hours.”
“Alright…Good. That’s good news! Now…can you tell me how this happened?” he inquired tenderly.
“We uh…we were thrown backwards in-into the cave wall…” she answered, but shut her eyes tight and pinched her lips together as she tried to hold back her remaining tears.
“Then what happened, Mione?” Ginny asked sweetly when she didn’t continue for a moment.
“Um…he…he hit his head on a rock. I-I didn’t know what else to do so I grabbed his arm when I felt something start pulling me. W-we landed here but he wasn’t moving. As soon as I noticed the b-blood, I looked around for my b-bag, but I couldn’t find it a-and panicked.”
“Okay, alright” Ginny stated as she cupped Hermione’s cheek. “He’s going to be alright so you don’t have to worry.”
“He pulled me in front of him, Gin” the brunette claimed as she began tearing up again. “As soon as the burst happened, he pulled me in front of him so that he would take the brunt of the wall. He hit his head trying to protect me!”
“Granger…” Draco cut in, making both girls look to him “you should feel honored right now” he smiled tenderly; something he was not known for doing. Usually anytime the blonde Slytherin smiled or laughed was when he was getting joy out of tormenting someone. But it was twice now that he had smiled at Hermione, making Ginny believe even more that the arrogant prat felt something for her best friend…even if it was minor. “Blaise only sacrifices himself for people he’s close to or friends with. I don’t think you can say that you don’t have any Slytherin friends anymore. You’re stuck with him now” he chuckled, causing Hermione to laugh lightly as she wiped her nose on her sleeve.
“He’s not so bad, I guess” Hermione chortled.
“You’re not so bad yourself, Granger” Blaise groaned as he lifted a hand and began rubbing his head in irritation. “Gods, my head hurts.”
“Well you knocked it against a rock, mate” Draco scoffed with a smile, happy that his friend was alive. “You’re lucky Granger had a healing potion in her overly stuffed tiny handbag.”
“Granger,” Blaise began as the group helped him sit up. He turned his squinting eyes to her as he rubbed the back of his head with his left hand. “You really need to stop saving my life. I can only sacrifice myself so many times to repay you.”
Hermione snickered loudly before throwing her arms around the Slytherin and pulling him into a hug…startling him so much that he yelped in surprise.
“Alright,” Ginny smiled “Let’s get you some water and figure out where the hell we are” she finished as she summoned a bottle from Hermione’s bag and handed it to Blaise.
“Well where ever we landed, at least the sand helped break our fall” Draco added as he stood up and looked around. “I would really rather not get the air knocked out of me like that again. Shite hurt like hell!”
“I think that is the least of your worries, Malfoy” Ginny expressed while looking around at the blistering hot dunes around them. “I think our main concern is how the hell we are getting out of a freaking desert.”
“We haven’t tried apparating yet” Draco suggested while looking up to the open blue sky. “Maybe we can get lucky and land in a city close to here. What are the largest deserts in the world?”
“Sahara, Gobi, Arabian, Kalahari, Mojave…” Hermione began listing. “There are so many, but at least we know we aren’t in England anymore.”
“How do you know that?” Blaise asked as Draco stooped down to help him stand.
“England has no true deserts…” Ginny explained as she held a hand over her brows to block out the sun. “Also, we already tried apparating in the Cretaceous era. We just ended up back in the same spot we landed each time.”
“So, we’re stuck here” Draco said while dropping his shoulders, though it was more of a statement than a question.
But Hermione wasn’t listening to the group as she pulled out her wand and cast a locator charm to try and find the closet body of water. Her wand lay flat on her palm and began spinning in circles like a compass, as she rotated her body back and forth to find the right direction. The wand suddenly stopped as it faced west where her bag had lain when she couldn’t find it. She began taking a few steps when something in the sand caught her eye.
“Mione…Where are you going?” Ginny asked perplexed when she spotted her friend walking off without them. However, Hermione kept walking and for a moment, the two Slytherin boys thought the Gryffindor was leaving them behind when the bookworm halted her stride and bent down to pick something up. “Zabini, are you okay to walk?” Ginny asked, wanting to catch up to Hermione quickly.
“I’ll be fine. Go ahead, see what’s she’s doing” he encouraged while Draco helped support him up right.
Ginny quickly nodded her head before running off through the sand. She caught up to her friend pretty quickly, but stopped instantly when Hermione held up a large piece of a torn burnt red cloth.
“What the hell is that?” the redhead questioned as she leaned in to take a closer look.
“A flag…I think” the bookworm replied while opening the material to see what was written on it. “Uh…Gin?” she began with wide eyes right as the boys walked up to them. “I have a strong feeling that I know where we are…”
“Where?” Draco inquired while readjusting himself to hold Blaise’s arm over his shoulders better. “Wait…is that…is that Japanese writing?”
“No, actually it’s…Chinese…I-I think we’re in the Gobi Desert…in China.” Hermione answered with astonishment.
“China?” Ginny yelled in shock. “How the bloody hell did we get all the way to China?”
“I don’t know” Hermione replied as she dropped the flag and began looking off in the distance at a large sand dune. “But one thing’s for sure; if we don’t find shelter…and soon, we could freeze to death out here.”
“Freeze?” Blaise questioned with a raised brow. “Granger if you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a desert. It’s hot as fuck out here.”
“For now…” Hermione began to explain as she dropped her shoulders and turned back to the group. “This desert can get extremely hot or extremely cold, there’s no in between. It gets little to no rain due to the mountains blocking the clouds and night time is the worst time to be stuck in a barren wasteland like this because the temperatures drop significantly. Plus, with sand storms to worry about and scorpions…we’re sitting ducks out here.”
“Can we try a locator spell? Maybe find the closest body of water?” Draco suggested as he pulled his wand from his pocket. “Small ponds usually have palm-like trees we can use for shade and then maybe we can conjure a tent or something.”
“I already used a locator spell” Hermione sighed. “The closest water to us is that way” she pointed behind her “but who knows how far away it actually is. And we can’t conjure a tent. I know it’s unfortunate, but if that amulet teleports us again and we leave behind something-”
“Yeah, we get it,” Draco cut in while rolling his eyes “we can mess up the future. But it doesn’t really seem like we have much of a choice here, Granger. There could be civilization around so we can make a tent that is similar to what they used to have in this time.”
“Malfoy,” Ginny interrupted calmly “we don’t know what year this even is. Dinosaurs could still be roaming around.”
“It’s extremely unlikely, Red” the blonde retorted. “Humans and Dinosaurs never appeared at the same time…That flag has writing on it, so that means mankind. I might not know much about muggle history, but I do know my reptiles. The only ones you’ll find around here are snakes and geckos.”
“He’s right, Gin” the brunette witch said softly. “We just need to figure when we are and soon. Let’s just take a count of the supplies we have before venturing off into the unknown.”
Ginny shook her head in frustration before taking Hermione’s beaded bag from her hand and began to search through it.
“Well there are three bottles of water, some granola, potions, books-” she began as she searched deeper and deeper into the small charmed purse.
“How the hell can you even see what’s in there?” Draco questioned with a raised brow. “I had to Accio the potion she needed to heal Blaise. It’s like a dark void in that thing.”
“I helped organize it before we left for the field trip. Besides, I’ve gone through this thing so many times…eventually you just get used to it.”
“Wait, did you say books?” Hermione asked holding out a hand to stop the conversation. “Is my world history book in there?”
“Umm…I think-Yeah!” Ginny exclaimed in excitement as she pulled out a large textbook and handed it over to the brunette witch.
Hermione began scanning through the pages for anything about China and the Gobi Desert as she turned around and began walking west. The trio behind her looked at each other in confusion before trailing after her and up the large sand dune.
“There are so many things that happened in this country” Hermione began as they almost reached the top of the mountain of yellow sand. “It’s going to be hard to figure out what year this is” she continued, not bothering to look up from the book when the group stopped to gather themselves.
But as Hermione kept reading, Blaise, Draco, and Ginny all stared with open mouths and wide fear-filled eyes at the scene before them.
“Uh…Granger…” Draco spoke as he took in a deep breath. “Does that help any?”
Hermione lifted her head to look at the blonde before following his finger to where he was pointing. She looked out into the distance and covered her mouth in shock as her eyes widened at the horrific scene before them. A mangled peninsula city stood only a few hundred meters west with thick black smoke billowing from crumbling towers and buildings. The city wall laid in a heap of rubble with thousands of bodies scattered over the sand stretching to the base of the dune where the students stood rooted in fear. Spears, swords, and arrows could clearly be seen lodged in the corpses of men and horses alike…staining the sand around them a deep crimson red.
Judging by the silence encompassing the battle field, Hermione knew the remaining troops had left only a day or two before. The acrid smell of death and decay filled their noses and churned their stomachs as their eyes flitted over the land. A large pond could be seen to the east, just inside the barricade, the cool crystal-clear waters that glittered in the sunlight, looked completely out of place among the fallen.
“What the bloody hell happened down there?” Blaise asked; his shaky voice cutting through the horrid silence.
“Mione…” Ginny uttered without taking her eyes off the massacre “does this help pin point where in time we are?”
“Um…I uh…I c-can look” she stuttered before tearing her eyes from the mangled corpse of a boy that looked no older than herself, and looked down at the open book in her hands. She began skimming through the pages for anything resembling a massacre or a siege when she stopped flipping and stared in shock. “The Silk Road…” she whispered softly.
“The what?” Draco questioned as he snapped his head to her.
“This is the forty-day battle that helped open The Silk Road…” she repeated. “This is the aftermath…”
“Aftermath? Of what exactly?” Ginny asked in disbelief.
“The War of the Heavenly Horses…”
Story updated every Sunday
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The Paths We Take