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The Lost Time	By : kate0404 Category: Harry Potter > Round Robins > Round Robins Views: 13262 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: All works published herein make no claims on the ownership of the characters of Harry Potter, which is the rightful intellectual property of J.K. Rowling, Paramount, Scholastic and Bloomsbury.

Chapter List
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Opening her eyes, Hermione watched as the waves crashed over the rocks in a never ending cycle, just as they had since the beginning of time, just as they would long after she was gone.
She supposed somehow that thought should bring her comfort.
Someday she would be gone too. The universe would still exist, the earth still rotate on its axis, much the same as it always had.
There was some constancy in the repetition before her, the balance the earth managed to find in spite of all the goings-on of its occupants, Muggle and Wizard alike.
Hermione watched the tumult of the water, the waves cresting white and breaking hard against the stony edge of the cliff. After a time, she raised her eyes to witness the impending storm clouds move closer; they were the blackest of black, with hints of deepest purple. Thunder threatened, and distant cracks of lightening littered the horizon.
In the distance, she could see the showers over far-off waters, and she wondered if those drops cleansed what was beneath it or rather the drops themselves were being banished from the cloud for some unknown offense.
She shook her head at her own miserable thoughts. They would get her nowhere. It was time to move, again.
Looking around the rocky cliff she had landed on, Hermione saw, not to her surprise, that she was quite alone.
She always came back alone.
Staying without him was never an option; it couldn't be.
With what she knew now, she had to go back.
The cost could be high; she knew that, if she knew nothing else. But he was worth it. They were worth it.
So with a shaky breath, she closed her eyes.
Swirls of color and light surrounded her, but the effect that was once dizzying now only annoyed her. She did not accept she might fail again.
After all, Hermione was not accustomed to failure.
And when she opened her eyes some time later, she saw familiar surroundings, and sighed.
This was her last chance.
This was his last chance.

Four Months Ago:

Becoming an Unspeakable was the best thing Hermione had ever done with her life. The complexity of her work suited her exactly and kept her busier than she thought possible. It was an excellent career path for her, as the Ministry had enough brains to see she had more than the lot of them combined, and let her do what she liked.
And Hermione liked Research.
Over the years, she'd worked her way through the necessary positions, and faster than any other witch or wizard in recent memory. Now she was where she wanted to be, the head of her own department, which is a funny way of saying she had no boss.
Well, she did, technically. But Percy Weasley, current Minister of Magic, left Hermione to her own devices.
Which is just the way Hermione liked it.
After securing permission for her newest research project, Hermione settled herself in the one room no one else ever bothered entering and wrote her plans. Her theories and ideas would have amazed the more brilliant of minds, had she been able to find any, but as it was, she simply tested what she wanted to on her own.
The Aurors had only been called upon once, a few years ago, and Hermione had learned from her single mistake. For upon arrival, after helping her out of a small snag, Harry, Draco, and two of their co-workers questioned her for an hour on what had happened.
No, Hermione didn't care for that at all. She'd been too used to doing what she liked for too long, and having to answer to anyone else, even if it had been for her own safety, simply rubbed her the wrong way.
Presently, she conjured a small owl, attached the piece of brass she'd been working on for more than six months to its leg and said, "Here we go, old boy. If I don't see you again, it's been nice knowing you."
No matter that she'd magicked the scrawny bird out of thin air only moments ago, but Hermione felt better saying something to it.
After all, she was about to send it through time.
Having known both the benefits and risks of using a Time-Turner, Hermione was not at all pleased that every single one of them had been destroyed during that fight here during her fifth year at Hogwarts. Initially, she was sure somebody somewhere would have borrowed one, like she had, and that if they would only return it to the Ministry, then she could duplicate more from it.
But after months upon months of inquiries, either there weren't any more, or whoever had one was reluctant to come forward. It came to the same thing, though; the magical community could no longer travel through time.
To Hermione's surprise and chagrin, the general population didn't seem too fussed about that. Too many horrible things happened to those who weren't careful enough, and most people thought it was best left alone.
Not Hermione.
So she began her task of recreating a time turner. Down in the Department of Mysteries, in the room where time existed in a jar, Hermione sat alone, day after day, and sometimes night after night, working on furthering her theory.
And now, here she was, waiting for her owl to return. It was scheduled to in exactly four minutes and eighteen seconds.
If the owl was successful, as the previous seven had been, Hermione would ask Percy for a wizard volunteer. Or a witch � she didn't really care which it was, as long as they were willing, and understood the risks.
For time was a very funny thing.
While she waited, Hermione took the opportunity to write Ron a short little note, telling him she couldn't make dinner that night. He'd be disappointed, she knew, but it really couldn't be avoided.
They'd broken up years ago, amicably, and had stayed very close friends.
The note on its way, Hermione began tapping her foot. The clock said just over one minute to go.
The real genius, or at least in her opinion, of her new brand of time turner, was that you could choose to just let time catch up with you, provided you stayed out of the way properly, or you could set the turner to 'return you' to a specified time. That's what she'd done with the owls; attached a turner to them, programmed it to send them forward so far, have the modified turner record the date they arrived at, and then return them to her a few minutes later.
Hermione watched as the seconds ticked closer, and finally, with a small 'whooshing' sound, the owl appeared directly in front of her, exactly as it was supposed to.
"Welcome back," she said with a smile, and put a dish of treats next to the owl.
Now she could obtain permission for a real volunteer. Someone who could explain what the travel part felt like, what they saw or didn't once at their destination, and if they felt any side effects.
It wasn't enough to go back; Hermione thought they should all have the choice about going forward, too.
Alright, so Percy hadn't quite approved that second part. Time-Turners of the past had always worked backwards, so he had simply assumed Hermione's would too.
You know what they say about assuming.
She patted the owl gently on the head and headed toward the door, intent on seeing the Minister at once. Hermione was very nearly there, too, when an odd, high pitched noise emanated from the Time-Turner.
Turning at once, she saw the owl trying to shake the thing from its leg, hooting frantically. Hermione ran, trying with fumbling fingers to remove the shiny piece of brass, and then she heard it.
The alarm.
Something this wrong certainly triggered the alarm, and she knew she only had a minute, maybe less, before the Aurors arrived.
What triggered the alarm, Hermione never quite understood, but she couldn't think of that now.
The sound from the Time-Turner was getting much louder, and the owl was screeching right along with it. Hermione's shouts added to the fray, and before she knew it, three robed Aurors crashed through the door.
"What's happened?" Harry shouted in her ear.
"I don't know! I need to get this off of the owl's leg, and then we can�"
The next moment changed her life forever.
A different hand covered hers as they tried to pry the metal off together, accidentally spinning the piece faster than they could fathom, and then, all too quickly, Harry and one partner were left standing there, alone in the deafening stillness.
There was no more owl screeching, no noise from the Time-Turner. There was no more Hermione.
And no more Draco.
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The Lost Time