Chapter Text
Harry James Potter stepped forward, though admittedly he felt more like he was swimming. He was close, he could feel it, alongside the presence of his friends, the only thing he could sense was the Exit. Feeling it draw closer and closer, Harry paused for a moment, catching his metaphorical breath and gathering his courage. He stepped out, ready to carve a new future for him and his family.
Or that was the plan at least.
In reality, he had barely got a foot out of the Exit before something crashed into his front and he was sent careening backwards. Before his vision faded into darkness, Harry barely had the time to look up into the shocked, grey eyes in front of him and realise it wasn’t a something it was a someone.
30 minutes earlier
Hermione stepped back from the bags she had been meticulously packing for the past two hours, her boys had tried to help her, though she had had to shoo them away when she realised how much they were slowing her down. She loved them both dearly, bless them, but they were not made to be doing menial tasks for hours on end, and had almost started to snack on the provisions she was packing for a just in case scenario.
As she was admiring the three Mokeskin pouches, all with added undetectable extension charms, blood wards, muggle-repelling wards and runes to protect them from the elements, the sound of two sets of footsteps, one heavy and one careful, filtered in from the hallway behind her. Hermione turned around as the footsteps stopped and looked into the eyes of her partners. Not romantic partners, Merlin, that ship had sailed with Ron when they had realised, they much preferred just being friends, and how much better they worked like that. Harry, of course, was more like a little brother to her than anything, even the thought of having that kind of relationship with him made her feel slightly nauseous.
Realising she had let her thoughts get away from her for a moment, Hermione shook her head slightly before announcing “They’re ready” and after a moment’s hesitation blurts out “Are we absolutely sure this is going to work? And if this is a good idea, I mean this could all go horribly wrong, we might even create a future worse than this one, with no way to reverse it. And what if-”
Ron cut her off “’Mione, calm down yeah, I mean c’mon, how could it not work when we’ve got the smartest witch of our age on the case”. He had said the title mockingly, but the undercurrent of seriousness was evident from the look in his eyes. “And of course there’s always that good ole potter luck to rely on, right mate”
“Ah yes” Harry replied, in a deadpan tone, “The potter luck, which has never once steered us wrong, or got us into any remotely dangerous situations. I’m so unbelievably glad that that is our backup”
Ron and Hermione both let out a small laugh and felt their shoulders relax at Harrys deadpan. Hearing their reaction, Harrys own lips began to twitch into a small grin, glad that he could relieve some of his friend's anxiety, even if it was only for a moment.
He glanced over to his left where a large wall mounted clock rested. There weren’t many of those in the large ancestral home of Grimmauld place, the Pureblood family seeming to prefer ancient grandfather clocks passed down through the generations. This clock was peculiar, Harry had noticed the first time he had seen it, nothing malicious, all three had checked, just annoying, as all the numbers were around 66.6 degrees from where they were supposed to sit, the number seemed a bit too on the nose at first but hey, if the shoe fits, right. And maybe you’re thinking Harry just turn the clock, it can’t be that hard, yes it can. They turned the clock. Many times. The numbers always move. They even turned themselves to see if that would work, but alas, nothing. The only thing they gained from that was many bruises whilst trying to do a handstand.
After taking a few seconds to work out the time, Harrys eyes widened as he realised “we’re running late”
“we’re running late?” questioned Ron
“We’re running late!” Hermione shouted, in a much higher pitch than necessary.
They all flung themselves into action at once, Hermione passing out the Mokeskin pouches, blue for her, yellow for Ron, and green for Harry. Ron set to accio their shoes from the front door, and Harry started to close down the wards around the property. After they left no one could enter Grimmauld place except for the Black heir, of which there was none.
The flurry of motion barely lasted a minute before they were ready for their departure, standing in the entrance of Grimmauld, Harry felt a pang of regret for leaving behind one of the few places he had ever called home.
Surprisingly, it was Ron who spoke up first “Y’know, ’m not sure if I quite believe it, but I think I’m gonna miss this place”
“Well, there where a lot of good memories here” Harry replied softly
“Oh, like that time you disturbed a doxies nest, and they almost took your remaining eye sight, Harry” Hermione snarked with faux innocence, “And, of course, I can never rid myself of the precious memory of feeling myself start to burn from the inside out because I touched a slightly temperamental book with my dirty-blooded hands. Or that time when Ronald almost had a panic attack when looking into that ghastly mirror.”
“Hey, the mirror of Erisednu showed me your dead bodies, it would have been rude not to panic at least a little” Ron defended
“For the last time we are not calling it that”
“c’mon mate back me up here, names pretty appropriate if you ask me”
“Well it does show some pretty undesirable stuff ‘mione, so…”
They shared one last grin, knowing they had to leave now, before their window of opportunity passed them by. Harry held out his hands at his sides and felt Ron and Hermione’s hands grasping them tightly. Harry took a deep breath, twisted, and all three disappeared.
As intended, their apparition hand landed them on a street corner in London, just out of view of a certain red telephone box. Hermione began to recite the plan as the three of them kept a close eye on the telephone box. “Now, we’ll have to wait until the last of the shift leave, this late at night the ministry has a few minutes whilst it is completely empty, based on the surveillance we’ve done the last employees should be leaving within the minute”
Ron continued for her “We’ll take the lift down to level seven, those folk in games and sports are least likely to stay late, it’ll also help us avoid the atrium, which is where we were most likely to face any problems. After that well take the stairs down to level nine, we need to be on the lookout for any Unspeakables that might still be hanging around, but I figure it was easy enough the first time round and we were fifteen then”
Harry finished of reciting the plan “We’ll get into the room of doors and use the same strategy as last time, mark the doors until we get the right one. Our target is the death chamber, once we’re there, our plans as good as done, all that’s left to do is pour some of our magic into the runes, and step through the arch”
The runes they, mostly Hermione, had chosen to use were:
- Fehu – for the fulfilment of their ambitions
- Uruz – they had debated this one, though eventually they had agreed that the connection to results of past actions seemed relevant.
- Thurisaz – for making room for new beginnings, which this plan was certainly meant for
- Raidho – to power their journey to when they wished to travel
- Eihwaz – for the life they were sacrificing, and the death that breathed life into the Arch
- Algiz – just in case the potter luck decided it wasn’t needed, it should also strengthen their life force that would be continuously weakened the longer they spent in the Arch
- Berkano – all about the transitions of life
They stood in silence for a moment, their matching black cloaks, eerily reminiscent of the Death Eaters, swaying with the wind. Quiet chatter drew their attention back to the phone box, as two men stepped out.
“This is it then” muttered Ron “Ted Davis and Theobold Fennimore of international magic cooperation. Stayed behind late for a meeting with their counterparts over in Australia, the last to leave.”
The three waited until the chatter had completely faded away, before resecuring the hoods of their robes with a sticking charm, applying disillusionment charms, and throwing the invisibility cloak around themselves. Creeping along the shadowed edges of the buildings, avoiding any light from the passing lampposts. They stood stock still as a lone woman rounded the corner of an alley way a couple of meters in front of them, she was rifling around her bag appearing to be searching for something, they attempted to use the sound of this to cover the sound of patter of their shoes as they shuffled out the way. their attempts proved unsuccessful as the woman’s head snapped up, moving left and right looking for the source of the sound.
“This is why we don’t stay at work after midnight” she tsked
The woman hurried off, looking behind her every few steps, until she disappeared behind the corner at the end of the street. The three wixen waited a beat. Two. Before rushing over the telephone box, they were in.
Hermione burst into giggles and ripped of the cloak the moment the door had closed behind them. “tha-that was ridiculous” she sputtered “we are absolute imbeciles”
“Hermione, what are you going on about?” Ron questioned “the plans worked so far hasn’t it, can’t be that dumb”
“oh, but we are” she shot back.
Ron and Harry shared a confused look, that only caused Hermione’s laughter to return. They shrugged at one another before Harry bit the proverbial bullet.
“Right go on then, what glaringly obvious thing have these two lowly peasants missed”
A snort “what all three of missed over the course of months and months of planning is the fact that there was no point of all that sneaking we just did.”
Harrys brow furrowed “of course there was, we didn’t want to be caught before we could even get inside”
Rons lips twitched as he made the same connections Hermione had “we wouldn’t” he stated “but what’s the point of sneaking around, in muggle London, where most people don’t even know there’s a ministry around here for us to break into. We watched the last people leave, we could have just walked straight in here no problem, not like we’ll be around long enough to arrest even if we are seen.”
“oh”
Between giggles Hermione spluttered out “and we- we forgot silencing charms”
Soon they were all holding onto each other cackling with laughter as the adrenaline left their systems and the situation set in. The laughter slowly petered out and Harry reached over and dialled the remembered number. 62442.
The automated woman’s voice rung out “Please state your name and business”
Harry grinned, a mischievous glow in his eyes “Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, all here for the single purpose of causing problems for anyone who’s in charge.” A slap on the arm from Hermione. A pause “on level eight”
A series of dings sounded from the telephone apparatus, “Please take your badges.”
Ron reached out to take the badges, before handing them out. They all read the same, except for the change of names. The print was so fine Harry was struggling to read it. As they clipped the badges to their robes, the lift stared to descend. Harry pulled out his wand, and the others quickly followed suit, prepared for any wizards or witches that may be waiting for them.
Ping. The door opened on level eight, revealing a deserted office space, the dim lighting adding to the eery feeling of their surroundings.
Not wanting to break the silence, Hermione whispered “the stairs are over to the left near the back of this room. Follow me”
With Hermione taking the charge, they crept forward, pausing whenever they heard a sound. By the time they had reached the door to the stairway, Harry was gripping his wand so tight he knew there would be indentations on his palm if he looked. The door creaked as it was pushed open, but when no one came to investigate, they continued with their journey. Running down the stairs, taking two at a time, the golden trio arrived at the desired floor in a matter of seconds. This next stage was the riskiest, the Department of Mysteries was bound to be the most well protected in the ministry. They hadn’t had an opportunity to investigate the goings on of level 9 without arousing suspicion, so, for all intents and purposes, they were going in blind. They had known they would have to be silent for this from the start, so applied silencing charms to themselves, and the door for good measure after the screeching of the previous one.
Hoping there was no one around to see the door open, Hermione gently pulled it open, peeking out to see if there was anything of note outside the stairwell. Not seeing anything, except the dark parlour, she inched out, noting her boys following her, as this went on her confidence grew and her pace picked up, until she stopped dead. Her abrupt stop caused Ron and Harry to both collide with her back, looking at her curiously until they too realised their location. It was the hallway, the one from Harrys dreams back in fifth year, the one that led them here the first time. The one that led to the arch.
Sharing an anticipatory grin, they hurried down until they arrived at the door that would allow them entry to the room of doors. Not wanting to waste any time or give them time to turn around, though she knew they would never, she forced the door open, and advanced into the room beyond it. She turned around as she heard her two dearest friends follow her. “Remember to mark the door before you close it” she instructed
Ron raised his wand and cast the Flagrate spell, a bright red X appearing on the door in front of him. “Might wanna close your eyes for this bit” he grimaced, before slamming the door shut.
The world spun around Hermione, who had regrettably chosen to keep her eyes open. Once the spinning had stopped and Hermione was feeling slightly less nauseous, she questioned “Who wants to pick the first door?”
Ron put a confident grin on his face and sauntered towards a door on their left “dunno what you mean by first door, gonna get it right straight away me” he smirked as he grasped the door handle, firmly pushing it open.
Harry and Hermione wander over to him at the sound of despair that leaves his mouth. “First try was it” snarked Harry.
“Flagrate” Ron drew the red x on the door before slamming it closed.
The room span.
“It was the brains” Ron whined “again.”
“Didn’t feel like taking one out of the tank this time?” Hermione wondered with faux innocence.
“Shuddup” he grumbled “you go for it then”
Hermione smiled as she made her way over to another door, she took a hold of the handle and pushed. She lost her hold on the door as she let out a wondrous gasp. “Oh my. This is…it’s beautiful” the room before her was filled with a mismatch of vials, seemingly filled with different coloured lights. There were big jars, small jars, thin and fat, all looking like they were holding miniature stars. Hermione felt as if she were staring into a galaxy, a seemingly endless space, surrounded by the stars.
She sensed the presence of Ron and Harry right behind her and felt their breath tickle her hair as they let out astonished breaths.
“This is… wow” Harry whispered
“Yeah” Ron replied “definitely didn’t see this room last time”
Hermione took one last glance around the room, taking a deep breath before marking the door and pulling it closed.
“My turn then” Harry announced when the room finished rearranging itself. He took a brief look around before deciding to open the door that had replaced the one they’d just opened. He looked behind him, to Ron and Hermione, with a grin “third time– “ he turned back. “Huh. I guess it is the charm”
“Bullshit” Ron exclaimed “no way you got it first time”
Harry opened the door fully and stepped to the side, allowing his friends to see past him to the chamber.
“First.Time” Harry grinned smugly. He lit up his wand with a wordless ‘lumos’ and began his descent towards the veil. He could hear the patter of footsteps behind him, letting him know Ron and Hermione were following close at his back. He came to a halt as he reached the dais the veil rested upon. “We’re here”
Ron let out a choked laugh a few pitches higher than usual “I can’t believe we’re about to do this. I know you two’ve done a bit of time travel before but twenty years…. anyway, nothing is gonna go wrong. We got this.” Ron put on a reassuring smile.
It was not reassuring.
Hermione slapped a hand over her face as she let out a snort and let a severe expression slide onto her face “we can still back out” she warned them “it’s not too late yet”
The wizards shared a look, “no way were backing out. Especially not here, one step away.”
“Then power your runes, the both of you”
The three wix relaxed the hold on their magic directing it over their bodies towards the runes they had painted on each other. The feel of their magic was heady in the air.
“I’m ready” Harry declared solemnly.
“Me too, mate” Ron said, arm outstretched on his right.
“Let’s go” Hermione stated confidently, her hand reaching out to Harry on his left.
Harry potter firmly grabbed the hands of his two best friends and felt them squeeze slightly in response. There was a brief pause until, as one, they stepped forward. This was it.
Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley were gone, and they were going to fix all the wrongs they could.