Chapter Text
They left Ron behind.
They didn’t want to but… he had people to be with when the end came.
It was interesting, looking back, that that was the first time it dawned on Hermione that Ron really didn’t understand what they had given up.
The magic hadn’t taken that long, a couple spells, some words of encouragement and it was done.
Harry was originally chosen to do it, but Hermione volunteered in the place of one of the ministry workers – she thought it was only fair that they got to be with their loved ones, just in case this didn’t work.
The fountain in the heart of the ministry was the place that was chosen for it to happen, with no crowd, no spectators, the hustle and bustle of ministry life suspended since the war and never picked up enough to disturb them anyway. And it certainly wouldn’t be enough today.
Harry looked around at the unforgiving stone of the ministry walls, remembering the battles and the flashes of cameras and all the other memories he had accumulated over the years in this hall. Hermione only watched him watching, a tiredness in her that she could only hope this would reverse.
“Harry?”
“I know. I just…”
“I know, but it’s for the best… everyon-“
“I know, I know. Everyone voted, you don’t have to convince me I just… Kind off hoped I wouldn’t have to be the one to do it ‘Mione.”
She let out a small chuckle at that, “Your starting to sound like McGonagle” she put on a terrible Scottish accent, “Why is it always you three?”
“That was terrible” Harry smiled back, you could tell it was trying to be a laugh but it just couldn’t make it that far. He took a deep, tired breath.
“Is it?”
“Yeah, ready to go when we are.”
“You sound awfully chipper about this ‘Mione.” Harry pushed her arm playfully as he stepped into the fountain behind her.
“I just… too late to back out now isn’t it.” They both shrugged as they turned their attention back to the fountain, Hermione dangling the time turner in her closed fist as she handed Harry a torn piece of paper.
Fiddling with the time turner, it took Hermione a little while to catch Harry’s gaze lingering on her, but she turned her gaze to meet his, leaving the time turner to dangle, loosely in her grip.
They held eye contact for what felt like an age, the silence unmoving around them until a small smile passed over Harry’s lips, spreading over to Hermione as they gave each other almost imperceivable nods.
Hermione dropped the time turner into the water below their feet as Harry chanted the incantation, a deep blue bubble surrounding the fountain around them and a fierce wind picking up.
A hideous bang and they were gone.
Silence echoed through the hall of the ministry once more, a scrap of paper settling onto the floor as if it had never been disturbed at all.
………………………………………..
Slamming hard onto the floor, Harry and Hermione fell into the fountain below them, sitting in the shallow water as it slowly cooled around them in the blazing sunlight of the day.
“’Mione?” Harry called out, they were still alive at least.
“Harry?”
Slowly blinking his eyes open, Harry stared at the world around them in disbelief as birds cawed and tree’s swayed in a curling breeze, sunlight covering every available surface: benches and trees and people out in the sunlight.
“Potter?” A calm voice called out, clearly approaching the fountain that had just landed.
Getting his feet under him, Harry finally stood, offering a hand to Hermione and checking her over as they shared a brief but worried look.
“Potter?” the voice seemed relieved as it approached, and a nagging sense in the back of his head told Harry he knew the owner.
“Saint Mungo’s business I presume?” And their it is, a voice Harry thought he would never here again.
Draco Malfoy found dead in Manor home in, suspected, retaliation attack
He let out a sigh of relief, “Draco?”
“I would think so, you’ve just landed in my garden, in case you didn’t know.”
Hermione was smiling like a maniac as a hint of teasing slipped into Draco’s tone, it must’ve worked.
“Are you two ok, you’re grinning like maniac’s in a fountain in my garden.”
Springing over the side of the fountain, with Hermione following at a reasonable speed behind him, Harry approached Draco quickly, wrapping the blonde in a hug before he could even register what was happening.
“Harry, Harry stop. You’re all wet. Oh my Merlin Harry, I liked this shirt.”
Eventually Harry stepped back with a feral grin and promptly fainted to the ground beneath him.
…………………………………….
It was sometime later when Harry felt the string of consciousness calling him back to the world of the living.
The room around him was bright, unnaturally so and the noise in the room felt deafening to his uncovered ears. In an effort to fix that, however, he shoved his arm over his head, silencing the world around him as he tried to snuggle further into the soft mattress beneath him – it felt like an age since he’d had a decent sleep, not constantly wary of attacks that where prone to happen in the middle of the night.
It was then that he realised that someone was stroking his head, whispering soft words to him as he slowly returned to consciousness.
Looking around the room again, it finally dawned on him that he was in some form of hospital room, and that all the noise had dimmed when he appeared to move for the first time. It also dawned on him that the room was absolutely packed with people.
“’Mione?” His voice was croaky as he called out, a scramble in the corner of the room alerting him to her presence. Though, curiously she was blocked from approaching the bed by someone who looked very familiar, but who Harry just couldn’t place.