Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

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
- 50
- 51
- 52
ANNOUNCEMENT (AKA SHAMELESS PIMPING): For those of you who are interested in finding out more about the alternate timeline that they had created, I point you to a different "story" under my profile, "Somewhere in Time Outtakes." That will be where I post snippets, scenes, and other stories not relevant to the main story but might be fun to read. So check it out. ;)

~-0-~

Chapter 51

The twenty-year-old Tom narrowed his eyes at the man who was now cowering on the floor. This was disturbing, to say the least. He had expected to find his future counterpart the moment he traveled here. He hadn't spent nearly two year mastering the art of time travel to have some idiot shiver and watch some kind of face evaporate. He wanted to know where his witch was. This time, he was taking her back to the past and she was going to stay there. Permanently.

"Where's Lord Voldemort?" he asked the moron on the floor.

The man glanced around quickly before answering, "Who—who are you? What do you want?"

A trace of impatience flashed through Tom's face, but he quickly recomposed himself as he pulled out his wand. "I asked you a simple question and I expect an answer. Where is Lord Voldemort?"

"But—but this is impossible. There's a Taboo on the Dark Lord's name. Even if this room is warded, the Aurors should have been able to Apparate in here."

Tom raised an eyebrow. So … there was a Taboo on his name. It seemed like he was in power then, since even now—well, back in 1947, his followers started to call him "the Dark Lord" instead of his true name. They were not worthy enough for that privilege. Therefore, it would make sense that he was the only one who was allowed to say his name without triggering the Taboo.

However, the imbecile had gone against his wishes and hadn't answered his question.

"Crucio." The word slithered out his lips and coiled around its victim, eliciting a scream from the man.

Tom looked on emotionlessly, as if he were merely an onlooker, until he finally broke off the curse.

"I'll say this one more time, and I should warn you that it will be inadvisable to let me repeat this again. When I ask you a question, you will answer without holding anything back. If you do …" A vile smirk appeared on Tom's face. "… the Cruciatus Curse will be the least of your worries."

The man seemed reluctant. Tom considered giving him more "incentive" to talk, even though his refusal to speak proved that he was somewhat loyal and trustworthy. He needed answers, and he would not allow anything to stop him. Perhaps he should give the imbecile one last chance.

Crouching down in front of the man, he tilted his head slightly to one side. "One final chance. Tell me what you know, or you will learn how merciless Lord Voldemort can be."

The man was confused, especially after Tom said the Tabooed name twice, and then some kind of realization passed through his eyes. His face was so easy to read that Tom didn't feel the need to use Legilimency on him: He was most likely wondering how Tom was related to Lord Voldemort. Probably thinking along the lines of father and son.

Tom nearly snorted to himself at that ridiculous notion. He was going to live forever, so he did not need some insignificant pillock inheriting his kingdom, and the notion of having babies for the sake of having babies had always been stupid to him. He did not need radish-headed brat drooling and crying all over him.

Nonetheless, after the man believed Tom to be related to Lord Voldemort somehow, he answered Tom's questions without hesitation. By the end of the questioning session, Tom almost regretted asking. Nonetheless, it also gave him vital information about his future. It appeared that the Lord Voldemort of this time period had sent Hermione back into the past, and the so-called Chosen One, Neville Longbottom, had thwarted him.

This was … unacceptable. Completely, utterly unacceptable. At least Potter's dueling skills were well above average. But a Longbottom. This disgusted Tom to no ends.

He had Horcruxes, and he had made sure to protect each and every one of them with some of the darkest spells possible. It couldn't be possible that Longbottom and Dumbledore had discovered each and every one of them, could it?

"They—they've found—the Dark Lord's—some objects that belonged to the Dark Lord. I don't know what they are, but it seemed important to the Dark Lord," the man—Felland—answered shakily.

It must have been his Horcruxes. Tom felt a surge of anger rush through his body, and he nearly took it out on Felland, but he must not. He still needed information from him.

"And then?" he asked quietly.

He swore he was going to kill every last Longbottom when he went back to 1947. He was going to hunt down every one of them and they would feel the wrath of Lord Voldemort before he ripped them apart.

"I—I'm not—not really sure. The Dark Lord required the use of my body after—after Dumbledore was defeated and Longbottom Disapparated," Felland replied.

He had let a Longbottom Disapparate in front of him. After he had finally gotten rid of that meddlesome old fool, he let a Longbottom Disapparate. The rage in Tom finally reached a certain point, and pointing his wand towards the table in the center of the room, he blasted it into pieces before turning back towards Felland.

"And Lord Voldemort came here to send Hermione Granger back in time," Tom concluded coldly, his temper somewhat under control though still lurking just beneath the surface.

Felland nodded, despite that he was shaking harder than ever now.

"When and where did Lord Voldemort send her?" Tom asked.

"The—the year 1948, Ger—Germany," Felland answered.

Well, that wasn't too bad. Once he returned to the past, he would only have to wait a year.

Tom scowled upon remembering the fact that the evaporating face had been him. Him in the future. He had just … disappeared. Like that. Tom closed his eyes and mentally counted to ten. He needed to remain cool-headed if he wanted to win this war. Yes, this was merely a battle that he had lost. His future self had mentioned something about this time … that meant that his future self had known that he would travel into the future because his future self had traveled into the future when he was younger. However, he had said "this time I am earlier …"

That meant that time had changed once again. It appeared that time could be changed because Hermione and her friends were traveling through time. It was also why Voldemort had chosen to send Hermione through time again—to prevent himself from losing, to give himself a second chance.

He would have to go back to his time. He was sure that the Voldemort of this time period would have thought of a way to break down the walls that were preventing him from using Legilimency and obtain information from the time travelers about Hermione's timeline. He would have to wait the one year and then search for his witch. This time, she wasn't going to hide anything from him anymore. This time, he was going to win. Completely and without failure.

But, first things first.

Tom looked back at Felland and found him uneasy, as if he weren't sure if he should say the next bit or not. Tom's eyes narrowed. The fool would learn it the hard way if he dared, and this time, Lord Voldemort did not plan on using the Cruciatus. There were other ways that could make the Cruciatus seem like a kinder option.

Fortunately, the idiot was not missing his whole brain and decided to tell Tom what he had thought of.

"The Dark Lord—the Dark Lord initially only wanted to send Hermione Granger back. But the other three people who were in the room also got sent back with the spell," he confessed.

Tom felt a sinking feeling in his stomach because he had an eerily good idea who those three people were.

They had to be kidding him.

~-0-~

She was going to kill him.

Hermione Granger swore that one of these days, she was going to murder Tom Marvolo Riddle. Who cared if he were the Dark Lord extraordinaire or the cleverest student to walk through the halls of Hogwarts? If she couldn't defeat him in a wizard's duel, then she would use other methods: poison, curses, assassinations … There had to be a way.

"Tell me we didn't go through time travel. Again," Ginny deadpanned.

Hermione cracked open one of her eyelids. No good. She was staring into a forest—again. Out of all places, he had to send her into another forest.

The difference was, in contrast to the Forbidden Forest they had fallen into when they traveled into the past, this forest was snow covered, much like the one in Germany. From the position of the sun on the sky, Hermione deduced that it was sometime in the morning, perhaps early morning.

She was definitely going to kill him, if Neville or Harry did not get to it first, since neither of them seemed capable of making the death permanent.

"We did," Harry answered her tiredly.

"Someone kill him," Ginny said.

"Easy for you to say, Weaselette. Every time someone kills him, he comes back again. And again. And again. Recall that your boyfriend did kill him in our timeline, but somehow someone sent us back in time to screw it up all over again," Draco's voice sounded from somewhere next to Hermione.

However, like the other times she had gone through time travel, she did not have enough energy to turn around to check.

"Merlin, I'm freezing," Ginny said softly.

Seconds later, Hermione heard the sound of something scraping on the snow, followed by the sounds of Harry's grunting. Mustering her strength, Hermione turned her head around to see what was happening and found that Harry had pushed himself over to where Ginny was and was now hugging her, keeping her warm.

"Thanks," Ginny murmured, grasping his hand weakly with hers.

"Oh great. Who's going to keep me warm?" Draco complained.

"Well, there is Hermione," Ginny said slowly and gave Hermione a halfhearted wink when she glared at her.

"Do I look like I want to get shredded into pieces?" Draco asked.

"Oh, you don't have to worry. Hermione is such a nice person. She wouldn't shred you to pieces for trying to keep warm," Ginny said wryly.

"Weaselette, stop being daft on purpose. I could already imagine Riddle saying, 'Oh, you're cold?' and then casting the Fiendfyre curse on me," he said, causing Ginny to snort.

Hermione had no idea if it were her imagination or not, but it felt much colder than the last time she had to remain lying in the snow. She hoped it wasn't because now was just not the time for one of them to get injured or sick. Gritting her teeth together, she pulled out her wand and muttered a spell. Immediately, the snow they were lying on melted away, leaving them on top of the grass beneath it.

"Thanks, Granger," Draco said, exhaling a shuddering breath.

"If I die here, I am going to become a ghost and haunt Tom freaking Riddle forever," Ginny muttered.

"I'll join you, Weaselette," Draco murmured.

"Thought you were afraid of Riddle," Ginny mocked.

"Well, if I were a ghost, I wouldn't be any longer now, would I? He can't possibly Cruciate a ghost," Draco reasoned. He then frowned. "Or can he?" He looked at Hermione inquisitively.

"Do I look like Moaning Myrtle?" she asked tiredly.

"No, but you always know the answers," Draco replied.

Hermione sighed and tried out her limbs a bit before answering. "According to Ian Hawnt, objects can go through ghosts because the atoms of ghosts are less condensed, which makes the empty space between each atom large enough for solid objects to be flown through them. Therefore, technically, it is possible to hit ghosts with spells, or else how did you think the basilisk was able to Petrify Sir Nicholas during second year?"

"Yeah, but they can't eat, can they?" Draco pointed out.

"No, unfortunately, they can't," Hermione confirmed.

Then, they fell silent. As they lay there on top of the frostbitten grass, Hermione could not help but wish she had thought to bring her beaded bag with her. She still had a tent, potions, and books inside, just in case she needed to go somewhere on short notice. Unfortunately, she had no idea in advance that she was going to be thrown around the timeline for the entertainment of some idiots, one of whom she was going to murder when she got her hands on him.

The time travel spell must have been an altered version of the one Slytherin had used, since Voldemort did not need any type of potions. However, he had only cast the spell on her. Why did Harry, Ginny, and Draco travel back with her?

After a while, she realized that she could only speculate on the possibilities, since there was no one to tell her the answers, and her current conditions also made it hard for her to think clearly.

Though she had gotten rid of the snow, the occasional drafts were still chilly, and Hermione could sense her feet and hands turning numb. The sunlight that shone through the branches of the trees was hardly enough to make them warm. Finally, she tried her energy again and was thoroughly thankful when she managed to sit up. Flicking her wand rapidly, she cast warming spells over each and every one of them.

Draco let out a relieved sigh. "I could kiss you now, Granger."

"I dare you," Ginny snickered, to which Draco answered with a dirty look.

"We should find out when and where we are first," Hermione said.

"Perhaps we ought to pick a general direction and walk. At least, if we meet someone along the way, we can ask them," Harry suggested.

Hermione nodded her head in agreement, and after a short discussion, they decided to head north, using the Four-Point Spell as their guide.

After a long period of walking, they finally saw some houses in a distance.

"Finally," Draco huffed, thoroughly worn out by the amount of traveling they had done within the last few hours.

Without a second word, they hurried towards the first sight of human development they saw after traveling to this time period. It was not very easy, since even though they could keep themselves warm with magic, the snow was hard to travel through, even with anti-slipping spells on their shoes.

"Remind me to use the Cruciatus on Riddle, too," Ginny muttered as they made their way towards what appeared to be a village.

Draco, in a mocking voice, asked, "Stooping down to the standards of the Death Eaters?"

Ginny snorted. "Just so you've forgotten, Draco, I'm from a family of Death Eaters in the new timeline. You're part of the Order of the Chicken."

They shared a look with one another, and the corners of their lips quivered before the two of them burst out into peals of laughter, which was soon followed by Harry and Hermione. While they were back in the wacky future, they had been so worried about everything happening around them, as well their own well-being. Now that they were somewhere else, it was as if they had just seen, or rather, had been part of some outrageous comedy.

The four of them fell over themselves as they continued to laugh until tears streamed down their faces.

"Oh, this is—this is pathetic—and funny—how—how in the—the world—did we end—end up like this?" Draco asked through his laughter.

It was a bizarre feeling. On the one hand, they found their whole situation ridiculously hilarious, while on the other hand, there was an empty feeling at the pit of their stomachs—Hermione had no idea if the tears were because of the laughing or because of their sadness. The world had turned upside down on them, and the future was going to change again. It was frightening, upsetting, and hilarious all at the same time, not to mention the pressure that came along with the feeling that the future depended on every move they took.

Yet, no matter what they did, they couldn't stop laughing. When they did stop, they would share another look with another and break down into another round of laughter. To an outsider, they might appear as a group of lunatics, but at the current moment, they were beyond caring.

After what seemed like an eternity, they finally calmed down. Sitting down in the snow, they no longer felt the coldness seeping through their clothes to cling onto their skins. As they shared another smile with one another and helped each other up, Hermione knew that somehow, the wall had officially broken, and something had finally clicked between the four of them, connecting them to one another.

~-0-~

The cutting wind made it somewhat hard for them to keep their eyes open, but it was still not difficult for them to realize the strangeness of the town they had arrived in.

The dirt road turned into a paved one once it led into the village. Snow-covered cabins were on either side of the crooked pathway. It gave off the image of being a frozen picture in time; the four time travelers could not see a trace of light coming from any of the houses. The lack of light and moisture absorbed from the precipitation turned the logs of the cabin a dark brown, almost black, color. Snow piled in the lawns and on the steps leading to the door, as if nobody had bothered to clear them away. From where they were, it almost seemed like there weren't any footsteps in the snow on the street.

"This is … the village that we came to last time, isn't it?" Ginny asked Hermione.

Hermione nodded with a frown after taking in the surroundings. This was the place she and Ginny had first met Herr Paulos Meinhardt. It made her somewhat more at ease to know that they were, at least, somewhere where they had been to before. However, it seemed … different. There was something off about the whole thing, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Additionally, another worry rose in the pit of her stomach. What if they ran into their past selves? They still had no idea what time period Voldemort sent them back to, so this could very well be before they had met Dietfried and Slytherin.

"Why is it so quiet here?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow.

Now that he had mentioned it, Hermione knew that that was precisely what was wrong with the picture. The last time she had been here with Ginny, the town was not exactly swarming with people, but there had been villagers walking to and fro.

"It's not supposed to be this quiet," Ginny said slowly, alertness working its way into her eyes. "There must be something wrong." She turned towards Hermione. "Do you remember how to get to Meinhardt's house?"

Hermione nodded. "But I doubt we can go there uninvited. Besides, I don't think it's a good idea to look for Meinhardt. Tom killed Dietfried … we have no idea what people would think, since we disappeared right after his death, and we have no idea when we are, so this could possibly be before everything happened. We have to watch out not to run into our past selves. Perhaps we should just ask around for information first, just to be safe."

"Wait … do you think it's even safe to walk through the town like that? We don't even know why it's so quiet, and I don't know about you, but it looks abandoned to me," Draco pointed out.

Biting her lower lip, Hermione nodded again, agreeing with his words. "But still, it doesn't hurt to try and find help. Harry and Ginny can go under the invisibility cloak; the two of us can use Disillusionment Charms. That should at least give us an advantage."

Harry quickly took out his invisibility cloak, and after staring at Hermione for a while, he pulled her off to the side.

"What's the matter, Harry?" she asked, keeping her voice low unconsciously when she noticed the cautious expression on his face.

"Go under the invisibility cloak with Ginny," Harry whispered.

"Harry, it's alright—"

"No, it's not alright," Harry interrupted her. He noticed Draco trying to listen in on their conversation despite Ginny trying to stop him and pulled Hermione a bit farther away. "We don't know why the town's this quiet. There might be spells and wards around it, and we don't know if they can detect the Disillusionment Charms. I can't let you take that risk."

"But—"

"No, Hermione. We don't know what period we're in right now. If we're in the forties, Grindelwald could still be in power, and his agenda was similar to Riddle's … well, the Riddle in the original timeline. I can't let you get into that kind of danger. If there are wards against Disillusionment Charms, at least Malfoy and I are not in as much danger as you are," Harry told her.

Hermione hesitated. It didn't feel right. She didn't want Harry to be in more trouble than he had to be. On the other hand, she knew that he did have a point. He was, after all, considered a half-blood, while she would have been probably executed on sight for being Muggle-born.

"Look, if anything happens to Malfoy and me, at least you have the brains and can probably find some clever way to get us out of it," Harry said.

"You shouldn't be so harsh on yourself, Harry. You did spectacularly against Voldemort," Hermione said.

Harry gave her a smile. "Which is even more of a reason you shouldn't worry about me being caught."

After another moment of hesitation, Hermione knelt down and started searching for rocks.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"I'm—" Hermione started to say before catching sight of Slytherin's necklace that was still hanging around Harry's neck. "Oh! Take the necklace off first."

"What are you doing, Hermione?"

"Never mind me. Just take it off first," she said as she straightened her body up and held out her hand.

After Harry handed her the necklace, she went over to Draco and Ginny and requested for their necklaces. She then took off her own and placed them in the palm of her hand. Muttering the incantation under her breath, she tapped each of the pendants in turn.

"What did you do?" Harry asked as he took his necklace back from Hermione.

"I placed an altered version of the Protean Charm on it. If we get separated, all you have to do is tap on the pendant like this—" She tapped her wand on her necklace. "—and concentrate on the message you want to send."

"Granger, pray tell how are we going to read the messages on something this small?" Draco asked, dangling the pendant in front of her face.

"Hold the pendant in the palm of your hand," Hermione instructed.

With a single eyebrow raised, Draco did as he was told. The moment the cylinder stopped moving in the center of his hand, a foggy white cloud the size of a Quaffle appeared on top of it, and the words "Ferrety ferret, this is how." appeared in red in the middle of the mist.

Ginny and Harry snorted, while Draco rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, very clever, Granger. That ferret joke's getting old."

"Not really," Harry answered with humor twinkling in his eyes.

Giving Harry a dirty look, Draco stuffed the pendant back under his robes while the other three did the same.

"Right then. Harry and Draco should go in front of us, and we'll prod you in the back if you're going the wrong way," Hermione said.

"Do tell me how you're going to see us when we're Disillusioned?" Draco asked.

"We'll concentrate on the footsteps in the snow," Hermione paused. "Well, one of us will, and the other will have to get rid of the footsteps. Don't walk too fast, or we might lose you."

"Does anyone else other than me see how this can go terribly wrong if there is really someone monitoring the activities of this town? It's just a tiny town; did anyone think about why this is happening? What if it's a trap for us?" Draco hissed.

"If you keep hissing like this, Draco, we'll get caught before we take five steps into the town. Now just hush and put the Disillusionment Charm on yourself," Ginny said.

After giving the invisibility cloak to Hermione, Harry pulled out his wand and cast the Disillusionment Charm over himself. Heaving a deep sigh, Draco followed Harry's suit, but not without muttered complaints under his breath.

Keeping as quiet as they could, they started to head towards the village. Much to their surprise, Harry and Draco's Disillusionment Charm remained. Without stopping, they continued over to where the inn was, with Hermione and Ginny giving Harry and Draco an occasional poke whenever they were going the wrong way.

"This is creepy," Ginny said softly.

Hermione had to agree. The last time they were here, though there hadn't been crowds of rowdy people, it still felt cozy and welcoming. Now, it just felt like a ghost town. With the uneasiness crawling up their skin, they finally reached the inn. There were no signs of it being closed, but all the same, it didn't appear opened either.

"I'll go knock," Hermione heard Harry whisper.

She was about to protest when Ginny gave her a look, and at that moment, Hermione realized that Ginny was concerned about the same thing as Harry was. They knew she was in more danger than anyone else if Grindelwald were in power, so she couldn't be the one to knock.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Hermione watched as Harry reverse the Disillusionment Charm and walk towards the inn. Three heavy knocks were placed on door, and then, they waited.

A few minutes passed, and Harry was about to knock again, when the door opened a crack, and a single, pale blue eye appeared between the gap and stared at Harry.

"Um … hello," Harry said, at a loss of what to say, since he wasn't fluent in German at all. "Can you please help me? I'm sort of lost," he continued, completed with hand movements and such, just in case the person behind the door didn't know English.

The person replied something in German and then closed the door with a click, leaving the four of them standing there. They hadn't seen the expression on the person's face, and the interaction was so brief that they could not determine whether there was animosity present in the person.

"So what now?" Draco asked quietly.

"We wait," Hermione answered, her voice more certain than she really felt.

Somehow, her instincts were screaming for her to run the other way; there was something wrong with this. However, her feet didn't move, stumped there like something was holding her back. She glanced at Ginny from the corner of her eye and found her complexion paler than usual. When they made eye contact, Ginny gave her a worried smile. It seemed like there was something bothering her, too.

"Harry, I think we should—" Hermione was about to whisper when the loud crack of Apparition resounded through the air.

With some difficulty, since they were still under the invisibility cloak, Hermione and Ginny managed to turn around and were more than relieved to find Meinhardt standing there, until they saw that his wand was pointed towards Harry.

"I've never seen you before," Paulos Meinhardt said coldly, a term Hermione had never associated with him before, and that made that bad feeling stir to life again in her.

"I—" Harry started to say.

"You must be one of Albus's students, just like the other two girls," Meinhardt continued to say.

His statement made Hermione realize that this must be after she had met Meinhardt and very possibly after Dietfried's and Slytherin's death. Oh, this was not good.

"Yes, sir, and—" Harry was about to say but was cut off by Meinhardt.

"Where are they?" Meinhardt asked calmly.

There was something very, very wrong with the situation. Hermione did not recall telling Meinhardt that she had traveled with others; he had just seen Ginny and her. The niggling suspicion that Meinhardt thought that they had had a hand in Dietfried's death began to grow in Hermione's mind.

That made Hermione almost want to just grab Harry and Apparate away, but to where? She had no idea. Additionally, the curious side of her egged her on, wanting to find out precisely what happened.

Harry stared at him for a moment, and Hermione almost thought he was going to tell him. "Who?"

"The two girls," Meinhardt answered.

Harry paused, his eyes alert. "I've gotten separated from them."

"Did you?" Meinhardt asked, his youthful face a blank façade.

Without warning, he suddenly attacked, but Harry seemed to have been prepared, since the second a spell left Meinhardt's wand, Harry had already put up a Shield Charm. Upon seeing this, Meinhardt said something in German—Hermione presumed that he was cursing.

Ginny grabbed onto a part of the invisibility cloak, ready to throw it off and help Harry if need be. Hermione couldn't see where Draco was, but she was sure that he was somewhere he deemed safe.

Harry seemed like he wanted to say something a couple of times, but his words were always cut off when Meinhardt sent another couple of curses towards him. In the end, Harry was forced to fire back a couple of his own spells instead of just dodging. Red clashed with purple, and brown clashed with pink; yet, neither side seemed able to gain an upper hand.

"Avada Kedavra!" Meinhardt cast, causing Ginny to release an angry growl and Hermione's eyes to widen in fear.

Thankfully, Harry jumped to the side, avoiding the spell by milliseconds.

The invisibility cloak was off Ginny the next instant, and she, too, fired a number of non-verbal spells towards Meinhardt.

A derisive sound left Meinhardt when he saw Ginny, and Hermione knew that whatever they said would become a lie in Meinhardt's ears after this. By now, Hermione was even more certain that he was attacking them because of Dietfried's death, but under current conditions, she had no idea how to explain things to him.

Gritting her teeth together, Hermione pulled off the invisibility cloak, too, and slowly maneuvered towards Harry's side while throwing spells of her own towards Meinhardt.

"What's his problem?" she heard Draco's voice somewhere behind her.

As she had thought, he was well out of harm's way.

"He thinks that we have something to do with Dietfried's death, I presume," Hermione answered, all the while concentrating on casting less harmful spells at Meinhardt and blocking off the spells that were shot towards them.

"Tell him it's not us," said Draco.

"Does it look like he's going to listen?" Harry asked.

"Then someone Stun him first," Draco suggested.

"That's what we've been trying to do, and it would help if you at least try to help us," Ginny said angrily.

The sound of multiple Apparitions rent the air, just when spells from Meinhardt, Ginny, Harry, and Hermione clashed right in the middle and shot up into the air like fireworks.

Six wizards in black robes appeared a small distance away from Meinhardt with their wands extended and shouted something in German. Hermione presumed that it was something along the lines of telling them to cease fire or drop their wands. However, she gripped even harder on her wand, hoping that these people were not on Meinhardt's side.

"Oh shit," Draco muttered as Meinhardt replied something back to them in German.

Adrenaline pumped through Hermione's body. She knew they were outnumbered, and even though Draco was still under a Disillusionment Charm, the outcome was not guaranteed; they could still be easily overpowered if the six wizards dueled as well as Meinhardt. Then, her eyes were caught by a small symbol stitched on each and every one of the newcomers' robes. She felt her heartbeat increase as she stared at the triangle enclosing a circle and a vertical line, straight down its middle.

"The Deathly Hallows," Harry said hoarsely.

"Wait, what?" Draco asked.

"The sign … the Deathly Hallows. They're Grindelwald's people," Harry said hurriedly, the grip on his wand tightening as he kept his eyes on Meinhardt and the wizards, who were now conversing rapidly.

Hermione was not alarmed now; she was downright terrified. She recalled clearly that Meinhardt had called Grindelwald "Gellert," and unlike Dietfried, he had not expressed any dislike towards the dark wizard while he had been conversing with Hermione and Ginny. Though Meinhardt was a friend of Dumbledore's, she was positive that he was also a friend of Grindelwald's.

Suddenly, a strangled noise left Draco's throat, and Hermione felt someone tug her robe.

"We—no, you have to get out of here as soon as possible," he said as frantically as he was tugging her robe. "Come on!"

"What?" Hermione asked, looking around.

"They know you're a Mudblood, now get out of here!" Draco exclaimed.

And then, the pressure on her robes was gone, and Hermione knew that Draco had started escaping already. Without allowing herself to think any further, she turned around and blindly started to run in the direction they had come from with Harry and Ginny following closely behind her.

A cacophony of yells erupted from Grindelwald's followers and Meinhardt, and several spells flew over their heads as they ran for their lives. Despite the spells that Harry, Ginny, and Hermione would throw backwards to stall them, the distance steadily decreased, and Hermione knew that it was a matter of time before they were caught. She felt her heart at her throat as the wheels of her mind turned as quickly as they could.

"Draco!" she shouted.

"Ahead of you!" Draco yelled back, slightly out of breath, somewhere ahead of her.

"Grab onto me!"

For a short moment, there was no answer, but then, from somewhere beside her, she heard him pant as he got a hold of her robes, "If I die from this, I'm going to haunt you for life."

Biting hard into the inside of her cheek, Hermione turned around and flicked her wand towards their pursuers. The snow rose up and formed a wall of ice, blocking the attacks and attackers, while Hermione grabbed both Harry and Ginny and turned on the spot.

~-0-~

The four of them crumpled onto the floor the moment they landed, breathing heavily.

"Merlin's pants," Draco panted. "Remind me to never join the three of you on an adventure in the future."

Hermione turned around and slapped Draco on the arm.

"Oye, ow! What was that for?" Draco demanded, rubbing the spot she slapped.

"For calling me a Mudblood," she said.

"You never cared when we were back at school," Draco pointed out, his face still scrunched up in pain.

"That was because we weren't friends then," Hermione answered, and an uncomfortable look appeared on Draco's face. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Or are you saying that we aren't friends?"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Granger," Draco said. He shifted his body around as if bothered. "It's just … well … Father would kill me if … if he knew you're considering us friends."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Oh, so it's only me considering us friends?"

Draco's cheeks turned pink. "You're not going to make me say it out loud now, are you?"

She threw him a good-natured glare and paused. "I thought you didn't know German. How did you know they knew I was Muggle-born."

"I don't know German," Draco answered. "But I heard one of them say 'Schlammblut,' which means … er … Mudblood in German."

"And of course, you know how to say it in every language," Ginny said dryly.

"Very funny, Weaselette. Father almost sent me to Durmstrang before, so …"

"So of course, basic lessons in German always include how to say 'Mudblood,'" Harry finished for him.

Irritated, Draco glared at each one of them in turn. "So now all three of you are ganging up against me for knowing a word? At least it saved her from those Grindelwald's followers."

Hermione, Ginny, and Harry stared at him for a moment before allowing looks of amusement to appear on their faces.

"We're just teasing you," Hermione reassured him. "Thanks."

Draco's face turned even redder. "Well … if one of you died, that means I might be in even more danger."

Hermione knew that he wasn't being truthful. However, she knew better than to tease him even more about this subject.

"But how did they know Hermione was Muggle-born? It's not as if there's some kind of mark on her," Harry brought up.

Draco shrugged.

"But your parents were always against Muggle-borns, so if there were ways, you would've known," Ginny said.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Weaselette, do you really believe that there's a way to detect it? Riddle didn't know Hermione was a Muggle-born either."

"Then how did Grindelwald's followers know?" Harry asked with a frown.

Hermione shook her head. "I have no idea. Although the basilisk did have the ability to sniff out Muggle-borns. Perhaps there are some other ways to train animals to do that or other kinds of spells and curses …"

She trailed off as she secretly vowed to research more about this when she got her hands on books.

"Oh no," Draco suddenly said, catching their attention, as he gazed around wildly. "Oh no … oh no, no, no …"

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You're joking. Out of all places, you Apparated us to Slytherin's old cottage? As if being trapped in there for three days were not enough?" Draco asked, horrified.

Indeed, they were now in the cabin they had stayed in while they were captured by Slytherin. It seemed like some time had passed since he had died, since on the floor and furniture was a layer of dust as well as other debris, such as pebbles, dry leaves and grass, and dead bodies of insects.

"It was the first place that came to my mind. We can't possibly Apparate to Dietfried's house," replied Hermione.

"But still … Slytherin's house … oh Merlin, I can still taste the white bread on the tip of my tongue," Draco groaned, causing Harry and Ginny to snort.

"At least we don't have to worry about Slytherin anymore, since Riddle took care of him already," Harry said.

"Yeah, your favorite professor," Draco scoffed.

Harry picked up a strand of dry grass and threw it at him.

"What are we going to do?" Ginny asked Hermione as the two boys started a childish debris-throwing combat on the side. "Meinhardt seemed sure that we had something to do with Dietfried's death, and we still don't know what year it is."

Hermione took a deep breath as her forehead wrinkled in thought. "Not to mention that we still need to find a way back to England to look for Dumbledore. If Grindelwald's in power, that's not going to be easy." She paused. "Riddle got the Elder Wand in 1950."

Draco and Harry stopped in their actions and stared at Hermione.

"How do you know?" Harry asked slowly.

Hermione let out a sigh of impatience. "Voldemort was known to have defeated Grindelwald in 1950 in the … in the wacky timeline we just left. If he had defeated Grindelwald, that means that the Elder Wand must have fallen into his hands, too."

"But he wasn't using the Elder Wand when we were in the wacky future," Harry pointed out. "Ginny and I dueled with him, and he was still using his yew wand."

The wheels of Hermione's mind turned. "He used both of them. As the Dark Lord, he used the Elder Wand, and as Professor Riddle, he used the yew wand."

"But he was Snakeface that day. Why didn't he just use the Elder Wand?" Harry asked.

"I …" Hermione frowned and thought about it for a while. Then, it alighted on her. "He didn't know who the true master of the Elder Wand was!"

Harry, Draco, and Ginny stared at her.

"But he doesn't know that Harry had become the master of the Elder Wand in our original timeline. We hadn't given him that information," Ginny pointed out.

Hermione shifted herself to a more comfortable position. "Well, you see, he knows that there's something strange with his and Harry's wands. He knows that we came from a different timeline, and somehow, we knew that the Elder Wand is the only wand that can defeat Harry's wand. Therefore, it wouldn't be too farfetched for him to assume that Harry might've become the master in our timeline."

"But he doesn't know for sure," Ginny pointed out.

"But neither does he want to take the risk," Hermione answered. "With two masters of the wand, he wouldn't want to lose the wand to Harry."

"So … if Grindelwald is in power right now, it means that neither Riddle nor Dumbledore has defeated him yet," Harry concluded.

Hermione nodded. Taking a deep breath, she looked at her friends. "Now, the only thing we have to decide is if we want the wacky future to come into pass."

"What?" Harry, Ginny, and Draco asked in unison, staring at her with identical looks of shock.

Hermione did not seem to notice it and continued to say, "If we want that wacky future, then we basically just have to stay out of trouble, perhaps find a place where nobody knows us and live out the rest of our lives. But if we don't want it to—"

"Wait," Draco cut into her monologue. "Just wait a minute, Granger. I thought you were completely against changing time."

"That was when I wasn't sure about what would happen if we did something that changed the future," Hermione answered. "But now, we know that the future is malleable. It can be changed, and … to be honest, I don't really think the wacky future is a fair one, even though Voldemort was fighting for the rights of Muggle-borns instead of killing them off. The rules and regulations he had passed to restrict pure-bloods are insane. It's … not right. There has to be some way to make it equal for everyone and lower the amount of damage and casualties."

An appreciative look flashed through Draco's eyes. "Thanks, Granger."

Harry and Ginny remained quiet for a moment.

"Then what should we do now? Get to the Elder Wand first?" Ginny asked, a mischievous smile slowly appearing at the corner of her lips.

"You do know that that means we're officially fighting against Riddle … again, don't you?" Draco asked with uncertainty.

"Scared, Draco?" Harry asked with a challenging smile.

"You wish," Draco muttered. In a slightly louder voice, he said, "I was thinking … you know … he's Granger's boyfriend and everything."

Hermione's cheeks turned bright red when Harry and Ginny shot her glances. "That doesn't mean that I support what he's going to do."

"Yeah, well, that wasn't what you thought in the wacky timeline," said Draco.

"That wasn't me," Hermione quickly said.

Nonetheless, as she spoke, various random memories of what happened in the wacky timeline popped up in her mind, and she had a hard time trying to bat them away.

"I agree," Ginny said firmly. "That wasn't us."

Harry scratched the back of his head. "Yeah … but … I can still feel some of the emotions that were associated with the memories, even when I think about it now. It's as if I was really there."

"Be quiet, Harry. It's not us," Ginny growled.

All four of them fell silent for a moment as they tried to recompose their thoughts as well as their emotions. Hermione realized that this must be far worse for Harry and Ginny than it was for her. It must be mind-boggling as well as disturbing that their parents were faithful followers to the Dark Lord, especially with the things that had happened to Harry and Ginny because of Lord Voldemort in the original timeline.

"So … we have an agreement then?" Hermione broke the silence.

"Wait, isn't there some other way to do this without going against Riddle?" Draco asked, a fearful expression on his face.

"I never knew you liked Riddle that much," Ginny said wryly.

"Weaselette, we're talking about Riddle here, the future Dark Lord. I would feel much safer if we could change the future without attracting his attention," he said.

"It would be easier to change the future for the better of pure-bloods, half-bloods, Muggle-borns, and Muggles if the person we were talking to was Dumbledore," Harry said firmly. "It's harder to talk sense into Riddle—sorry, Hermione."

Hermione shook her head. "No, you're right. The world would be much safer if the Elder Wand wasn't in Riddle's hands."

"So we're really doing this? You—but have the three of you even thought about the whole thing? And what might happen if Riddle finds out?" asked Draco.

"He might make you into a ferret pie?" Ginny suggested.

"This isn't time for joking, Weaselette. It's not only Riddle I'm worried about. Have you thought about who has the Elder Wand right now? It's Grindelwald, and the only people who had—has—would have—" Draco threw up his hands in frustration. "—whatever the right tense of this should be! Dumbledore and Riddle are the only ones who have a shot at defeating him."

"Well, Harry did defeat Voldemort in our timeline, and he fought against Dumbledore in the wacky timeline," Hermione pointed out.

"Yes, but he did that alongside Riddle in the wacky timeline, and he had a lot of help from other people in the original timeline," said Draco.

"And there's four of us now," Hermione reminded him. Her face softened, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know you're scared, Draco, but … we have to do our parts … we're doing this for our parents and our own futures."

"But … but there must be some other way," he said. "Perhaps we can look for Sparkly Eyes. He defeated Grindelwald in our original timeline."

"But we can't Apparate out of Germany right now. International Apparition is strictly forbidden unless we get permission, and with the government right now, we're stuck," Hermione explained, "and I wouldn't be surprised if all owls were read before they reached their recipients."

Draco fell silent, and after a while, he started running his hands through his hair. "Oh Salazar, this is crazy. This is completely insane."

Harry looked at Ginny, who seemed deep in thought. When she glanced up at him, he took her hand into his own.

"We can make this right. Though the ones we loved were still alive in the wacky timeline, Neville's the one who's taking the brunt of the blow, which is unfair," Harry said. He gave her a smile. "We'll make sure that everything works out fine for everyone."

Ginny returned his smile and gave him a nod. Hermione then realized that she must have been worried that changing the timeline would mean that Fred might once again get killed. With the future now ambiguous, anything was possible, and Hermione secretly vowed to herself that she would keep everyone safe.

"It's bound to be difficult," she said, gazing at each and every one of them before maintaining eye contact with Draco, "but we can do this. I know we can."

~-0-~

A/N: So ... if you're interested in what some of the four time travelers' "memories" could be, I point you to "Somewhere in Time Outtakes," also found under my profile.

This chapter has not been grammar beta-ed yet. Special thanks to Nerys for looking over the chapter for flow and logic. Huge thanks to those of you who had read, rated, and especially those of you who had reviewed: Malfoys Bitch, Ikuni Hattori, MrE-Quecky, Lady Miya, SarahLuvsZombehs, Ms Velvela, somebody french, mekom, Fleur K., Alassea Malfoy, and Anon.

Review replies can be found here: http://serp-replies.livejournal.com/18981.html.
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Somewhere in Time