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Somewhere in Time	By : serpentinred Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Hermione/Voldemort Views: 64471 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 8
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 38
- 39
- 40
A/N: Huge thanks to catcachoo (from PI) for beta-ing this chapter! Special thanks to Nerys for looking over the chapter for logic and flow. Many thanks to those of you who read, rated, and especially those of you who reviewed: Rena, Lady Miya, Tourniquette, SarahLuvsZombehs, mirrorofrapture, ViolettMichelle, and Angel1988!

Review replies can be found here: http://serp-replies.livejournal.com/10022.html

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This chapter is dedicated to IceAgeSurvivor123 from FFnet (for making beautiful banners for this fic) and to volte-face from FFnet (for tweaking beautiful graphics for different scenes of this fic).

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Chapter 39

"Oomph," Draco groaned as he fell down, scrunching up his face in pain.

It appeared that they were all thrown through the air and on to the floor. Not the best way of travel, if you asked Draco, and Salazar knew if they had travelled at all, since the Dark Lord looked worried right before they were propelled across the sky. If Draco found out that they had not travelled at all and had only been merely thrown across the Forbidden Forest … well, he would find someone unrelated to Salazar Slytherin to take his anger out on.

Inhaling deeply, he tried to push himself off the floor, but found it impossible to do so. His limbs were not listening to his commands, as if something sucked every drop of energy out of him. Horrified, he opened his eyes, and he wished he hadn't done so because the scene that greeted him was even more terrifying than the fact that he had lost his energy.

Bloody hell, he fell on top of the Dark Lord. Again. And said Dark Lord looked most displeased with him.

The worst thing was that he would have scrambled off Riddle immediately, but he did not have the strength to do so.

"For heaven's sake, you're heavy, Malloy," Harry muttered beneath the Dark Lord. Somehow all three of them managed to land right on top of one another.

Brilliant. This was completely brilliant. On some other occasions, Draco could have laughed about the fact that he landed on top and fell on the Boy Who Lived to Annoy All Others Who Lived. Now, however, if he dared to laugh, the Dark Wizard Who Got Vanquished by the Boy Who Lived might get the wrong idea and have another reason to torture and murder him.

"It was an accident, I swear," Draco all but whimpered.

As if Riddle cared, and it was pretty obvious that Draco had better stay as far as he could away from him on every occasion.

As soon as Draco mustered enough strength, he rolled over to the side. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Dark Lord roll off Harry, too, and the three of them remained there, sprawled on the ground under the slowly brightening skies.

"Where are we?" Draco murmured, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings.

Although everything was still trees and snow, it was obvious that they were no longer in the Forbidden Forest.

"Germany," answered Riddle. "Hopefully."

"Hopefully? It was your spell, Riddle," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"And the eclipse interfered with it," the Dark Lord replied.

"Right, like you are likely to forget something that we've been talking about in class for weeks," Harry retorted.

"Pray tell, Evans, what do I gain from doing this on purpose?" asked the Dark Lord in a voice one usually reserved for children.

"How am I supposed to know? It's probably one of your 'brilliant' plans gone wrong. Besides, if you hadn't known that there was something wrong, why did you tell us to step out of the line of rocks?"

"Exactly, Evans. If it were, as you've so wonderfully phrased it, one of my 'brilliant' plans, why would I bother to tell you to get out?" asked Riddle. "The colors of the light surrounding us were not right, and I deduced that the eclipse was interfering with the spell."

"You would think that this was something to check before putting all of us in danger," Harry said.

"Intelligent, Evans. Do tell me: Have you actually seen the spell that I've used in another book? No, because only one book has it documented, and the spell hasn't been tested with an eclipse before," Riddle said, not bothering to look at him, "and I doubted you would've wanted to wait another month before traveling."

"Well, if you would've told us that this was going to happen, we would've waited!" fumed Harry.

"Are you even listening? If the spell hasn't been tested with an eclipse before, of course I wouldn't know that this would have happened," replied Riddle.

And somehow, the two of them managed to have a full blown argument as they lay in the snow. Draco, on the other hand, was more concerned about the strangeness of their current situation. It was obvious that their energies were not depleted to the point that they could not talk to one another. So why wasn't Granger stopping them from rowing with one another?

"Granger? Weatherby?" Draco tested calling out.

The only sounds that met his calls were the raising voices of Harry and the Dark Lord, and Draco was pretty sure that if they could help it, they would have drawn out their wands and pointed it at one another already. When Draco could not hear answers from the girls, his worry increased at a rapid pace.

"Granger? Weatherby?" he tried again in a louder voice.

This time, Riddle and Harry's near shouting voices stopped. However, there was still not a peep from the girls. Digging his elbow into the snow beneath him, Draco struggled to sit up and was somewhat relieved to find that he had enough energy to do so. Nonetheless, the moment he looked around, his heart dropped. Beside him, Harry and the Dark Lord pushed themselves up, but there was no one else in sight. They were the only three people present in the forest.

"Where are they?" Draco asked in a hushed tone of voice.

However, no one answered him. Instead, a sound of outrage escaped Harry.

"You did this on purpose, didn't you, Riddle?"

A raised eyebrow met Harry's accusations, and it only served to make him angrier.

"Don't even think about lying, Riddle. You did this on purpose. I know you did. Where did you send them?" Harry demanded.

"For once, Evans, do you mind using that thing in your head called a brain? Or is it, like your ears, malfunctioning? Do tell me the point of sending them somewhere else?" asked the Dark Lord.

"Because you're you, and I don't believe that this has nothing to do with you. It was your plan all along, wasn't it?" Harry accused him.

"Right, Evans. That makes so much sense," Riddle mocked, leaning towards him, "because there's nothing more fun than staying in the snow, sandwiched between two idiots, without an ounce of energy left in my body."

"And how am I the idiot? I'm not the one who landed us in the middle of nowhere," Harry retorted.

"Perhaps you also need new glasses, Evans. There's snow beneath us, trees surrounding us, and the skies brightening above us; this is apparently ‘somewhere’ and not ‘nowhere,’" Riddle said, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"For all I know, we could still be in the Forbidden Forest," said Harry.

"Your intelligence overwhelms me," jeered Riddle. "Even though I accept the fact that you've probably never travelled throughout the entire Forbidden Forest, it doesn't take a genius to work out that we are no longer there. This is clearly somewhere else."

Draco had no idea how the two of them had so many things to argue about. However, his main concern right now was certainly not how to break up the row between them. He first needed to find out where Hermione and Weaselette were. He did not fancy camping out with either Harry or Riddle, the latter of which might take this opportunity to off him once and for all. But try as he might, he could not find any signs of Hermione or Weatherby.

When they finally gathered enough strength, they pushed themselves up (with Harry and Tom still throwing insults at one another) and peered behind every rock and tree in the approximate area. Though Draco doubted they would find them there, it was still, in his opinion, worth a try. The girls might have been knocked out and couldn't answer their previous calls.

When they regrouped again without finding any trace of the girls, an expression of deep thought appeared on Riddle's face while Harry muttered something about "sneaky, untrustworthy Slytherins." Ignoring Harry, Riddle started pacing back and forth in front of them.

"The spell must have somehow separated us. When we carved the runes into the rocks, the location had to be stated. So unless I'm very much mistaken, we are in Germany, but merely in different parts of it," Riddle said, though Draco had the distinct feeling that he was talking more to himself than to the two of them. "I've specifically designated the transportation to take us to the village on the north side of the forest and not the south side … perhaps the eclipse overrode the instructions and sent the three of us to one side and Hermione and Weatherby to the other side …"

Blimey, how in Merlin's name were they going to find the girls then? Now Draco was extremely worried.

"So we should first find a town and find out if we're on the north side or the south side. If we find Dumbledore's contacts, we could wait for Hermione and Weatherby there," Riddle continued.

"And walk into some trap you've set up for us? You wish, Riddle," Harry cut in.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Riddle stared at Harry with a mocking smile. "Oh? Does the ingenious Harry Evans have another mind-blowing plan then? Do enlighten us."

Annoyance was written all over Harry's face, but he did not say anything in return.

"Do you have any other plan?" Draco asked Harry in a low voice.

When Harry did not answer, Riddle pulled out his wand and cast a Four-Point Spell. Staring off towards the north, his smile turned into a sneer.

"Perhaps his plan is to stay sitting in the snow. Can't say it definitely won't work, since there's a mild chance that Hermione and Miss Weatherby might walk through this part of the forest and encounter the two of you. Best of luck."

Casting one last condescending look at them, he turned around and trudged through the snow, leaving behind a disgruntled Harry and worried Draco.

~-0-~

A few hours of walking later, Hermione and Ginny finally arrived at the foot of a village. Upon seeing the signs on the shops, they nearly shouted out in glee; the only thing stopping them was the fact that they were afraid that people might look at them strangely. It appeared that they were, indeed, in Germany and luckily, in a German wizarding town. With the money they had borrowed from Dumbledore for Hogsmeade, they bought some food and drinks in what appeared to be an inn.

After asking what year they were in, Hermione and Ginny tried to act as if their question were a normal everyday question and did their best to ignore the strange looks the waiter gave them while heading back to the kitchen. Much to their relief, they were still in 1945, so the only problems they had left were finding the boys and Dumbledore's contacts. In the limited German they knew, they tried to ask the waiter if he knew a Paulos Meinhardt or a Dietfried Kaufmann. However, perhaps due to their strange question, he would not give them direct answers.

In the end, they gave up on trying to get information from him and asked the innkeeper instead. Either the waiter had alerted the innkeeper that there was something strange about the two foreign girls or the wizards there were just plain suspicious about people—which was understandable, due to Grindelwald being in power at this time—but the innkeeper asked them quite a bit of questions before telling them to wait at one of the tables.

Ginny and Hermione shared a look between one another as the waiter who had served them shot them one last glance before rushing out the door. Hopefully, he wasn't going to Meinhardt or Kaufmann to tell them to go into hiding. The girls didn't think that they looked that dangerous to warrant that kind of reaction from the people here.

Nearly half an hour later, the waiter returned with a house-elf, causing Hermione and Ginny to blink.

"Either one of them owns a house-elf or that house-elf is one of them," Ginny muttered.

Hermione snorted before she could stop herself. Though the idea of Meinhardt or Kaufmann owning a house-elf really, really bothered her, she composed her expression as the waiter made his way towards them with the house-elf in tow. After a short introduction—it turned out that the house-elf, indeed, belonged to Meinhardt—the girls were told to follow the house-elf to Meinhardt's house, which was not too far away.

"Better keep those S.P.E.W. buttons out of sight," Ginny said softly as they walked through the streets behind the house-elf.

The corner of Hermione's lips twitched and she shot her a good-natured glare.

The rooftops of shops and homes were laden with snow, reminding Hermione of the gingerbread houses. The clouds lay low, and light snow drifted down from the skies like salt being sprinkled. Though it was hardly noontime yet, people were out and about, bustling through the streets. A mother with two children walked passed them, chiding the elder one softly, though Hermione and Ginny had no idea what, since she was speaking in German. A wizard was waving his wand at the rooftop while an older woman, presumably his mother, yelled at him when the snow on the roof turned into a sheet of solid ice. A few stores down, a witch chatted with the shopkeeper, her hands waving and nearly whacking her son in the face.

The house-elf led them further and further away from the crowd, finally steering them into a quiet alley. It led them past a small patch of forest, making a turn at what seemed like a wall of tall hedges. The "house" that appeared behind the barricade made them stop in their steps.

The wrought iron gates unlocked with a simple touch by the house-elf and opened up to a straight stone passage flanked by snow-covered gardens. The path diverged into two paths, encircling an icicle-decorated fountain, before converging and leading up to three-story mansion. The redwood doors opened without the house-elf touching it, so Hermione and Ginny could only assume that it had been magicked to differentiate between strangers and invited friends.

A tall, thin wizard wearing a pinstriped suit stood up from one of the armchairs near the fireplace. His head of white hair was speckled with gray, but his clean-shaved face did not have a trace of wrinkles. A lady, who looked at most in her late thirties, sat in the other armchair, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders and a blanket covering her legs. Both of them had the most welcoming smiles on their faces.

"Welcome to my home. Colbert sent a boy over, who told me that you were looking for me in his inn. Unfortunately, my wife recently came down with a cold, so I did not want to stay too far away," the man said.

"Good day, Herr Meinhardt," Ginny said, bowing her head. "I'm Ginny Weatherby, and this is Hermione Granger …"

A look of realization dawned on Meinhardt's face.

"You must be Albus's students from Hogwarts," he said, much to Hermione and Ginny's surprise. After they nodded their confirmations, he continued, "And I'm guessing that you're here because of Albus's disappearance."

"Yes, Herr Meinhardt. Have you seen him?" Ginny asked.

"Unfortunately, I haven't seen him for quite a while. I must say that I was quite surprised when he came to Germany and hadn't contacted me. I didn’t know he was here until I read in the newspapers that he had gone missing," Meinhardt replied, frowning. "They are speculating that Gellert's had a hand in this, but I highly doubt it, seeing that he's gone into hiding ever since Albus came to Germany."

"Grindelwald went into hiding?" Hermione blurted out before she could stop herself. A furious blush blossomed on her face when Meinhardt turned his attention towards her.

"Yes," Meinhardt answered with an amused smile. "Quite surprising, isn't it? But for those of us who know Albus and Gellert, not really."

Hermione and Ginny shared a quick look, feeling a bit uneasy knowing that Meinhardt was also a friend of Gellert Grindelwald. Well, if Meinhardt was a friend of Dumbledore, they should be safe, shouldn't they?

"It's a long story, too long to be interesting to you I would say, but you see, the only person Gellert has ever been afraid of is Albus. The fact that Albus came to Germany in secret … well, that certainly does not put Gellert at ease," said Meinhardt. "Therefore, I can tell you right now that the speculations of the newspapers are rubbish."

"But if it's not Grindelwald, then who else could've detained Professor Dumbledore?" Hermione asked.

"That is something I would like to find out, too, Fräulein," Meinhardt said. "In fact, I was going to ask a friend of mine and Albus if he had seen him, if my wife hadn't gotten ill."

"Do you mean … Herr Dietfried Kaufmann?" Ginny asked.

"Yes … have you gone to see Dietfried already?" Meinhardt looked at them with worry in his eyes.

"No, not yet," Hermione replied, shaking her head. "We tried asking around at the inn, but …"

"Oh, Dietfried doesn't live in this town," said Meinhardt, his features visibly becoming more relaxed. It was then clear to Hermione and Ginny that he had been afraid that Kaufmann, too, had no news about Dumbledore. "He lives on the other side of the forest."

After a short discussion, Meinhardt offered to let Hermione and Ginny use his Floo network to travel to Kaufmann's house. Before they left, the pale and fragile wife of Meinhardt offered them a place to stay should they ever need it before finding Dumbledore, and each grabbing a handful of Floo powder, Hermione and Ginny stepped into the fireplace and headed towards the house of Dumbledore's second German contact.

~-0-~

Hermione's rage exploded, spewing ash all over her conscience and burying the logical side of her mind the moment she stepped through the fireplace of Dietfried Kaufmann.

The three young men whom they had been looking for sat quite comfortably in front of the fireplace, having tea and biscuits. From the looks of it, they had been in the house for a while already. Additionally, a woman—a provocatively dressed woman to be exact—was half sitting on Tom Marvolo Riddle's lap.

Hermione's hand flew to her wand, and she would have hexed both of them to oblivion if Ginny had not grabbed her arm in time. Though Harry might have noticed those strange actions between Hermione and Ginny, he did not comment on it, much too relieved to see the two of them safe and sound. Draco, however, raised an eyebrow at Hermione's arm before looking back at her face, worry and amusement contorting his features, while a barely noticeable smirk tugged at the corner of Tom's lips.

"Ginny! Hermione!" Harry called out, happiness radiating from his face and voice.

The woman hovering over Tom seemed shocked and taken aback by the appearance of two strangers in her house. However, she was still on Tom's lap, much to Hermione's annoyance, and the urge to hex said woman was increasing by the millisecond. The woman composed herself before shouting something in German.

"Don't worry, Ernsta. They're the companions we were telling Herr Kaufmann about," Tom said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Hermione's hand twitched again, and her mind started to sift through the different curses she could use on the duo in front of her.

"Oh," the woman replied, blinking her large eyes at Hermione and Ginny before placing her attention back on Tom. "You've never mentioned that they were girls." Placing a hand on Tom's chest, she shifted her body, almost like she was trying to get up from her position. "I'm so very sorry, Tom. How very clumsy of me to fall on top of you."

"It's not a problem," said Tom, a faint smile on his face.

"Er … this is Mrs. Kaufmann, Herr Kaufmann's wife," Harry introduced.

"Pleasure," said Hermione stonily, still eying "Mrs. Kaufmann" and Tom with contempt.

She's got to be kidding me. It does not take that long to get off someone's lap, and if she doesn't get up soon …

"Tsk, Harry," Ernsta Kaufmann chided, completely ignoring Hermione and Ginny. She finally got off Tom's lap and sashayed over to where Harry was sitting. Placing her hand on his arm, she slid it upwards and downwards while saying, "How many times do I have to tell you to call me ‘Ernsta’ and not ‘Mrs. Kaufmann?’"

"Er …" Harry stuttered. A shade of red appeared on his cheeks, and he slipped out of his chair. "You're … you're Herr Kaufmann's wife after all … and …"

Ernsta laughed and stepped towards him. "Don't be silly, Harry. I'm not that much older than you."

Beside Hermione, Ginny gritted her teeth and clenched her hands into fists as Harry stumbled backwards towards them.

"I know, you've told me already," Harry replied, a forced smile on his face as he held up his hands.

"And yet you still don't call me ‘Ernsta,’" the witch pouted.

On the side, Draco and Tom were looking on with amused smirks, as if the situation was nothing new to them. It made Hermione wonder just how long the three of them had been there and if this indeed happened on regular basis. If this "Mrs. Kaufmann" dared to be so … forward with Harry, then Merlin knew what she had done to Tom. That thought in itself bothered Hermione. Extremely bothered her.

"Um … perhaps I should go and get some more armchairs for Hermione and Ginny," Harry said instead, changing the topic rather clumsily.

Ernsta's lips curved into a smile as she said, "Of course. I'll show you the way."

She turned around and exited through a door with Harry a small distance away from her.

"I'd keep an eye on her if I were you," Draco spoke up when Ernsta and Harry were no longer in sight.

"That," Ginny said, "is obvious."

"And yet you still stand here in front of me instead of following after them," Draco hinted, raising an eyebrow.

The impending drama that might occur caused his smirk to widen as Ginny stomped towards the door that was left slightly open from Harry. Seconds later, a scream echoed throughout the room, and Ernsta rushed out. It took the people in front of the fireplace a short moment to register the fact that the woman was covered from head to toe with critters, and when it did, a wide grin spread across Hermione's face while Tom and Draco covered their mouths subtly with their hands to hide their amusement.

Still howling (though Hermione had no idea if it were from fear, disgust, or pain), the victim of Ginny Weasley's curse ran across the room, pulled open the door, and ran up the stairs, genuinely tripping and falling this time. A loud, resounding bang echoed throughout the house when Ernsta Kaufmann reached the second floor while Ginny and Harry appeared from the doorway they had disappeared through a few minutes earlier. Vicious joy was imprinted on Ginny's face as she stowed away her wand and stalked over to where Hermione standing.

"Impressive," Tom murmured as he leaned back in his armchair and crossed his legs at his ankles.

Harry, on the other hand, had the look of utmost horror on his face as he shuffled towards where they were seated, taking care to keep a small distance away from Ginny.

"She's Herr Kaufmann's wife," Harry reminded them in a hushed tone of voice.

"You, Harry James Evans, have a lot of explaining to do," said Ginny, narrowing her eyes at him as she placed her hands on her waist.

"Ginny," Harry protested, shooting a glance at their current company.

"Well?" Ginny pressed on.

"Well, it's pretty obvious, isn't it?" Draco spoke up.

"Shut it, ferret boy," Harry growled before looking back at Ginny.

Draco raised an eyebrow at him, and a vicious glint passed through his eyes. "You should've seen Mrs. Kaufmann. She just couldn't keep her hands off Evans here this morning at breakfast."

Harry most likely would have hexed Draco on the spot if Ginny hadn't made a strangled sort of noise. Even though it was obvious to everyone in the room that Draco was exaggerating things to get Harry in trouble, it still made Ginny furious.

"Just because she didn't give you her undivided attention doesn't mean that she couldn't keep her hands off me," said Harry, shooting a quick glare at Draco.

The smirk on Draco's face disappeared, and a pink tinge appeared on his cheeks. "It just proves that she has no taste."

"I think that you would find that it has little to do with tastes, Mr. Malloy," answered Tom instead.

"I'm sure you know all about that. Just because she has her hands all over you doesn't mean that she has excellent taste," Hermione retorted before she could stop herself.

Harry and Draco turned their heads around and stared at her, causing her to avert her eyes as her cheeks burned. Tom uncrossed his legs and leaned forward towards her, the smile on his face broadening.

"I'm sure you're very interested in where she had her hands on me."

She was, but it was not something she was going to admit while Harry and Draco were in the room. The two of them were already looking at her with concern and suspicion in their eyes. She did not need to give them more reasons to question her relationship with Tom.

Definitely not. Therefore, she was not going to jump on Tom's baits. It was obvious that he was doing this on purpose. The way his eyes were glinting with mirth was more than telling, and she was not about to give him the satisfaction of being successful.

"What were you doing with that woman in that room?" Ginny demanded, narrowing her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Ginny, you saw her," Harry said, turning his attention back to her.

"We didn't," Draco spoke up.

"Shush, ferret," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"What did she do this time? Sit on your lap? Or throw herself in your arms again?" asked Tom.

"Again? Again?" Ginny fumed.

"Wait – Ginny – look – listen – " Harry cowered.

Alas, there was nothing he could do as Ginny Weasley unleashed her anger.

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Somewhere in Time