Travel and Power : Part One
Hermione landed on her feet, her stomach spinning violently as she tried to keep her balance. As she looked around she was slightly confused, the last thing she had known was taking Harry's hand at her front door, and then the feeling of being pressed through a long tube came over her, and now she was here. But where was here?
The room she was standing in was huge, a large spiral staircase leading all the way up to the top floor, probably about three or four floors up judging by the height. The room was brightly lit, looking rather inviting with dark red carpets and blue walls.
`Welcome to my, not so humble, abode' Harry said pointing around at the place they had appeared.
`It's beautiful' Hermione said walking forward to look at the furniture in the room, everything was exquisite and brilliantly made. The place must have cost a fortune she figured.
`You should have seen it a few years ago' Harry said sighing as he followed her around, peering at an object for a few moments before moving on to the next thing that grabbed his fancy `dilapidated wasn't strong enough a word for this old dump'
`So you fixed it up yourself?' Hermione said eyeing him, for some reason she couldn't picture him as the DIY sort of guy, unless the thing he was doing was dangerous anyway.
`You could say that' Harry said, a tiny bit too casually.
`So, that's pretty much the tour over' Harry said brightly, dropping a broken necklace back onto a table and turning to her, a mischievous smile playing on his lips `Wanna see my favorite thing?'
`Sure' she said quickly, excitement and curiosity at what his favorite thing could possibly be as so far he hadn't proved the most normal of people.
`Fantastic' Harry said grabbing her hand and leading her through a door and into a corridor `you must forgive the size of this place, going to the toilet after breakfast can be terribly tricky' Harry said all this conversationally as he led her down another corridor down a left turning. Hermione was, once again, amazed by this Harry, and amazed at the pure scope of this house.
`Where are we going exactly?' Hermione asked curiously, remembering the last time Harry had led her somewhere had nearly resulted in both their deaths wasn't too comforting.
`To see something' Harry said vaguely `and after that wherever you want'
`Anywhere?' Hermione asked.
`Anywhere and anytime' Harry said brightly looking at her for a moment before stopping dead still, making Hermione almost lose her footing and fall `We're here'
Hermione was stood in front of a large wooden door, seemingly normal but that somehow brought up the hairs on the back of her neck. She reached forward and put a hand on the door knob, she knew that Harry wouldn't lead her, deliberately, into danger, and opened the door, stepping through with him as she did.
Before her was the last thing she could possibly have imagined to be Harry's favorite thing, an old looking Ford Anglia.
`What?' Hermione said confused, making a conscious note that she was seemingly incapable of stringing two words together at presents.
`Not just a car, but also the way we can travel back and forth, through time and space' Harry said brightly walking up to the car and opening the passengers seat for her.
She looked at him cautiously, maybe this man was brave and all, but he sure was a lunatic as well.
`So… this lets us travel forward and backwards in time?' Hermione said walking up to him but not getting into the car.
`Yep' he said brightly, flashing a happy smile.
`Do we have to reach 88 miles per hour first, like in Back To The Future?' she said sarcastically.
`Oh!' Harry said excitedly punching the air `That's the film! You don't know how long that's been bugging me, thank you so much!'
`That's ok' she said nervously, watching as Harry's eyes beamed with excitement as he indicated for her to get in.
She paused for a moment, unsure where taking the next step might take her, but she figured she had already come this far, and she stepped into the car.
She exhaled her breather in shock as she looked about her, the inside of the car was at least a good fifty times the size of the outside, and looked more like a house than anything else with its various doors and corridors.
`What do you think?' Harry said brightly as he appeared by her side. Both of them were standing up, and even with Harry's extra height he still had room to jump up and down. Hermione sighed, she had accepted seeing the miraculous, so why should a car be any different she reasoned.
`It's nice' she said turning her attention to him, a happy smile on his face `So, did you really mean I can pick where to go?'
`Definitely' Harry said cheerfully, walking over to the centre of the room where a large silvery basin was kept `Although you should be careful where you choose and blah blah all that warning stuff that I hate' Harry said making Hermione laugh.
`How about…' Hermione said excitedly, thinking of what she wanted to see `…there's a lot of choice, ain't there?'
`You don't know the half of it' Harry said, almost pensively `Past, Future, present or…different?'
`What do you mean by different?' Hermione said raising an eyebrow at him and wondering what part of anything she had seen could be classified as `normal'.
`Something you've never seen before' Harry said laughing `Although I guess that counts for the past and future, doesn't it?'
Hermione looked at him as he withdrew his wooden thing again, and after pointing it at the silvery basin for a few moments he turned his head up and looked straight at her, a smile from one ear to the other.
`So, what's your choice Hermione Granger?' Harry said all this like a school kid, like having her choose for him was a dream come true.
`I guess…' Hermione said, putting her hands up to her head like they helped her think `…Something different!'
`Fantastic!' Harry almost shouted with excitement `Now hold on!'
Hermione looked around for something to hold onto but came up short, the room inside this car might be huge, but it wasn't exactly well furnished. She instead chose to stand as solidly as possible and watch as Harry put his stick to his head holding it there for a few seconds before withdrawing a long, thin, strand of something that looked like a cross between steam and silver. Hermione gasped a tiny bit, but held it in, this was absolutely normal compared to everything else, and steadied herself as Harry dropped the silver steam into the basin.
The moment the silver steam hit the basin she was thrown to the floor violently, feeling as if the world itself was being thrown through space, with her holding onto the floor for dear life. As quickly as this had started it had stopped, and she was lying on her back, gasping for air. A moment later Harry came into sight looking down at her.
`I know I told you to hold onto something but I didn't mean the floor' he said teasingly, holding out his hand.
`Oh, ha ha!' Hermione exclaimed as she took his hand and stood up. She pulled her top down a bit as in the fall it had slipped up and looked around her, she was still in the same room.
`Come with me' Harry said walking towards what she assumed to be the way out.
`What was that silvery thing?' Hermione asked looking at him.
`That? Just a control' Harry said absentmindedly `Easier to control this by thoughts than buttons, and one hell of a lot safer as well'
As they reached the doors Harry went to open the door but she stopped him, grabbing his hand just before it reached the knob.
`You've done this before, it's my turn' she said giving him a small smile that he returned, and with that, and her heart hammering inside her chest, she opened the door and stepped through to witness the most amazing and beautiful sight she had ever seen.
In front of her was a huge field, perhaps miles big, full of colors that usually didn't move. Gold's and silvers jumping about in unison in front of her eyes.
`Their unicorns' Harry said softly, eager to let her have the moments to herself.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of gold and silver, small and big, young and old unicorns lay in front of her. She watched as the smaller gold ones jumped across a small river, making the most wonderful sounds, sounds that could only mean beauty. Looking the other way she saw a group of the silver ones, larger and presumably older, huddled together, seemingly lost in conversation, or maybe just each others company.
`Now this is different' Hermione exclaimed happily, unable to control her voice form going higher as she was so excited. She spun around and threw her arms around Harry, the man who was solely responsible for the sight before her. She rested in his arms for a few moments, too giddy and content to move, before his voice broke the silence.
`Let's go down to the village' Harry said withdrawing her from him and pointing down towards the edge where Hermione saw a group of houses next to a forest. The houses looked like heaven to her, flowers of all colors visible even from where they were standing, which was a good five hundred meters away.
Harry gave her a quick smile and started to walk towards it, her keeping step with him effortlessly. She couldn't help but watch as the unicorns galloped around them, obviously curious as to whom they were.
`Their beautiful' Hermione said as she looked at Harry `But where are we?'
`Actually your question should technically be where and when are we' Harry said brightly, not breaking step as he made his way towards the settlement.
`You mean we…' Hermione said in anticipation `time traveled'
`Yep' Harry said normally giving her a quick look `although not very far, this is only 2050… and only Cornwall'
`2050?' Hermione said, strangely not shocked by this news but intrigues `So I'm about 70 or so?'
`No' Harry said in his serious voice again `you are about 20, someone else who looks like an older version of you, and who you will one day become, is 70 at the moment'
`Isn't that the same thing?' Hermione asked, eager to learn as much about this as possible.
`You would think so, wouldn't you?' Harry said stopping dead in his tracks to look at her for a few moments before he carried on walking `But that's not the case… if you traveled back and saw you a week ago even, that wouldn't be you'
`I'm not quite sure I follow' Hermione said trying to work out his words in her head.
`Don't worry about it' Harry said shrugging `You'll pick it all up along the way'
Hermione kept in step with him, watching as a pair of older unicorns drank slowly from the stream. The way the two were next to each other she could tell they were mates.
`So how exactly did we get here?' Hermione asked, her brain eager to understand everything about the position they were in.
`Oh, now that's a bit tricky to answer' Harry said thinking hard to himself `…well, you saw how I apparated with you, I mean disappeared and reappeared?'
`Yeah' Hermione said nodding, making sure she kept up with everything he was saying.
`Well there's a…I guess the word is device…that follows the same principals of folding space as appirition, but only between two preordained points, you following?' Harry asked.
`I think so' Hermione said.
`Anyway, The trouble with a portkey… that's the device by the way… is that only a part of a persons power is stored in it, where as with apparition it has a never emptying stock, if you're powerful enough anyway…' Harry said brightly, deliberately pausing so she could keep up, which she was very thankful for.
`So you needed to somehow transfer enough power to the car so it can travel freely from any point in space to anywhere else, just like you can' Hermione said, hoping that she didn't get this completely wrong.
`Fantastic!' Harry said extremely happily `That is incredible Hermione!'
`Thanks' she said blushing slightly, with his response she knew it would have been childish to be modest.
`So, that was the problem with the space, now time was roughly the same…' Harry started again, speaking quicker this time as he evidently thought she would be able to follow `…a timeturner creates a small field which can be pushed through time, but as you can see from my car I needed a much bigger field, and so needed to transfer some truly ridiculous amounts of power to the device'
`That makes some sense' Hermione said slightly confused making Harry stop dead in his tracks again.
`What part doesn't make sense?' Harry asked eyeing her intently, a weird glowing behind his eyes barely visible.
`I guess I don't know why you'd want to create such a huge field…' Hermione started nervously at first but gaining confidence `…Where a smaller area would need a fraction of the power'
`Fantastic once again Hermione Granger!' Harry almost yelled in joy at her answer. He stopped and looked at her, a smile all the time on his face but a hint of sadness in his eyes.
`Who are you two!' came a harsh voice, breaking their conversation instantly as Harry tuned to greet the man. He was about sixty or so, Hermione figured, and seemed a mix between a farmer and a hippy in his straw hat and green dungarees.
`Hello there!' Harry said brightly holding an outstretched hand to him, which the man took after a small moment of hesitation.
`You're not supposed to be ere, this is private property' the man said roughly at him, eyeing Hermione weirdly.
`Oh, I'm sorry' Harry said abashed as he took out a piece of paper and passed it to him `I always end up greeting someone before showing my credentials, it's a bad habit that my co-worker here…' Harry said signaling Hermione with an outstretched hand `…is always trying to break me off'
`Ain't you two a bit young to be at the WMWF?' the man said raising an eyebrow at them. This time he spoke in a much softer voice which told Hermione that whatever that piece of paper was it had somehow worked.
`The World Magical Wildlife Federation doesn't care for age' Harry said looking at Hermione pointedly to let her know the cover story as he took the paper back form the man.
`If you're good enough, you're old enough, we always say' Hermione added in as much of a friendly voice she could muster. The old man looked at her for a few moments, then at Harry who was beaming back at him ecstatically before he nodded `Guess you better come inside then'
As soon as he said this he started walking off towards the settlement, Harry and her following behind him. Harry turned to her and showed her his credentials, amazing Hermione as it turned out to be nothing but a blank piece of paper.
`How did that work?' Hermione asked, for a moment thinking that the old man must be senile.
`Special paper' Harry said folding the piece of paper and putting it back inside his jacket `shows whatever I want it to…fantastic invention'
`Impressive' Hermione said laughing, nothing was ever straight forward with Harry, even a blank piece of paper.
She walked quickly after the man into the settlement, it seemed very basic but also very clean. Hermione laughed to herself as she realized this must be the hippy way of life in 2050. The man turned left suddenly and walked up a set of stairs to the largest house in the settlement, but not by too much. Harry followed up the stairs first as she followed, Hermione trying to look around the village as much as possible before going inside. Nothing from what she could see would make her guess it was 2050 anymore than 1950.
She followed Harry through the door and was met by a pleasant surprise, this room was different. Across the walls were flashing lights and monitor screens, and a lot more of the inside was made from metal. True it didn't look too much like the movies she had watched, but at least it was something like the `future'.
`I like what you've done with the place!' Harry said smiling as he looked around the room. Hermione knew he was being honest but the old man seemed to think he might have been being sarcastic and looked ready to say something.
`So…' Hermione said grabbing the mans attention with the first question she could think of `…What do you do here?'
`Shouldn't you already know that?' the man said roughly.
`Of course she does' Harry said aggressively making the man fall back slightly `But she wanted to hear it in your own words…see if what we believe you to be doing adds up with what you are actually doing'
Harry had said all this very quickly and with such authority that even Hermione, who knew he was making it all up, was inclined to believe him.
`Ohh…um…sorry…' The man said taken back before he regained his composure and spoke in his usual rough voice again `Is this an inspection?'
`Even if it was, I wouldn't be able to tell you' Harry said, talking brightly again as he looked at the consoles `Why if it isn't!'
`Huh?' the old man grunted slightly at Harry's words, Harry though was peering at a monitor, seemingly lost in amazement. Hermione took quick steps over to him and looked at it to, but all she could see was a few buttons, and a screen with a unicorn on.
`You managed to clip a neural tracker onto them?' Harry said impressed as he turned to look at the man again. Hermione wasn't sure if Harry caught it but the old man seemed a little bit nervous as Harry spoke these words `I have no idea how you managed that feat, but I guess it keeps the boundaries and audio ability well within statutory guards, and the decibel frequency from these surroundings would be excellent'
`Um…well…' the man said a little shocked at Harry's knowledge of this just from one look `…It took a couple generations…when their first born we do it, mothers too weak to and disorientated to realize'
`Fantastic!' Harry said incredulously `and the chip itself, working at an audio and boundary level, wouldn't change a cell or action…Fantastic!'
Harry looked almost ready to burst with joy at this news, and Hermione had to fight hard to suppress a giggle at the sight of him walking back and forth in excitement.
`Well it does what we want it to.' The man said walking over to the monitor and turning of the screen.
`Does more than that, and you know…why hello?' Harry said happily to a new person who walked into the room. It was a girl, no older than Hermione, with a simple yellow dress on and her blonde hair just combed out long behind her. The girl looked at the three of them and blushed.
`Oh, I'm sorry…' she said nervously `…I didn't know you had company…Sir…Miss…'
`You should be getting back to work' the man said strictly terrifying the young girl.
`Nonsense!' Harry said quickly `She can stay here and keep Hermione company as you show me the set up here'
As Harry said this he gave her a knowing look, a look that told her he wasn't just saying this but that there was a reason, although for the life of her she couldn't guess what it was. At the same time as this Hermione realized that the lights dimmed, only slightly, but just enough for her to notice the difference. Hermione figured that living in a village, even in the year 2050, must still come with some problems.
`You wanna see the…' the man started, his eyes almost coming out as he looked at Harry who walked towards the door.
`Definitely, how else could I write an evaluation on the set up here…that's if I had been ordered to write an evaluation of course' he said this all very quickly as he stopped at the door, taking one last moment to turn and wink at Hermione before leaving, the man almost jogging to keep up with Harry.
Hermione looked at the girl, who seemed almost terrified to tears at having been left in the same room as her.
`Hi' Hermione said gently, feeling sorry for the girl. She could just picture what her life was like here, with that disgusting rude old man as her boss.
`Hello' the girl said, almost squeaking the words out instead of speaking them.
`My names Hermione' she said as friendly as possible, she felt even more sorry for the girl, especially as she realized the girl saw her as a boss now, and consequently just as scary as the old man `What's your name'
`It's Emma' she said, her eyes meeting Hermione's for the first time.
`Do you want to sit down?' Hermione said gently signaling a table with chairs, sitting down herself in the hope that the girl would follow her. The girl eyed Hermione apprehensively for a few moments before sitting down quickly, her hands balled up together `So…how are you?'
`I'm fine, Miss' Emma said looking at her hands.
`My names Hermione' she said nicely.
`I know it is, Miss, but I don't feel comfortable using it, miss' she said quickly, glancing up a few times as she spoke.
Hermione looked around her, the room looked like it was fully automated, if blinking lights meant that anyway, and she couldn't understand why a village was built.
`What do you do here, Emma' Hermione asked, trying to look at her in the eyes, and maybe break down her fear slightly.
`I'm a feeder, Miss' Emma said nervously.
`That sounds…' Hermione tried to think of an adequate word to describe someone's whole life word for a moment but was interrupted.
`Why did you come here, Miss?' Emma said quickly, keeping her voice low but urgent.
`I…The WMWF sent me…and Harry' she said a little confused at Emma's sudden change.
`I mean why did you come here?' She said more urgently and louder than before adding `Miss' almost as an after thought.
`I…' Hermione was lost for words, she didn't understand what the girl meant, but knew, somehow, that it wasn't good `Is something wrong here?'
`Yes, miss' Emma said, her eyes shooting back to her balled hands which were now turning red under the pressure.
`Emma, if something is happening, then Harry can help…' Hermione started but Emma interrupted.
`No, he cant, Miss' Emma said, her hands working so furiously against each other she was worried blood might come.
`Emma, tell me what's wrong' Hermione said confidently, but still worried at what she might hear.
`They say it's a wolf, Miss' Emma said in a whisper, her eyes darting up to Hermione's again, this time unmoving as they looked into hers.
`A…Wolf?' Hermione said confused.
`A Bad Wolf, Miss' Emma said in barely a whisper, making Hermione lean closer to hear.
As the words worked there way through Hermione's brain something happened, something that took a few moments for her eyes to register, the lights on the panels that surrounded them had stopped, each and every one of them had become black. Hermione stood up quickly, looking around for at least one which was still on, but found none. And then in front of her eyes the lights began to dim, darker and darker the room grew until all she could make out was Emma in front of her.
`Emma…what's going on?' Hermione said, trying to keep panic from her voice.
`It's…It's…' Emma stuttered in complete fear, but Hermione never found out what the rest was as a sobbing scream came rattling through the room, coming from outside.
Hermione couldn't move, her legs unable to take a single step, only her heart beating rapidly in her chest and her breathe coming quick and fast.
`Hermione!' she heard Harry call loudly, banging on the door, still she couldn't move, Harry's voice alone couldn't awaken her limbs from its panic. A second later she heard a click and the door was slammed forward with power, Harry standing before her at the door, the light of the day outside coming in from behind her. She could see him perfectly, highlighted by the sun against the darkness of this room. She saw a huge grin on his face as he looked at her, the green of his eyes so vivid they looked almost alive.
`Now this is more like it!' Harry said with mischievous fire burning in his eyes, and with these words Hermione took a step forward, knowing that Harry was here with her she knew she was safe. He turned and left the room, Hermione running after him trying to keep up, sprinting through the now full village towards a group of people, circling something, all crying. Hermione watched as Harry pushed through the crowd and stopped dead in his tracks, the cue she needed to stop as well. She watched as he took a few steps forward and fell to his knees by something.
`Did anyone see what happened?' Harry shouted angrily at everyone gathered, making them all step back in fear of his anger, his tone telling her something was very wrong.
She pushed easily through the crowd, each one of them letting her past like she was a doctor or something, but as she reached Harry she stopped, the sight in front of her almost making her heart bleed.
A silver unicorn lay across the floor, its hoofs at impossible angles. All of it surrounded by a pile of silver blood. Dead. Hermione took a few steps forward and put a hand on Harry's shoulder, making him momentarily jump before his eyes locked onto hers.
`What did this?' Hermione said quietly, feeling tears beginning to form in her eyes.
`I don't know' Harry said quietly, running his hand along the unicorns back like he was trying to calm it.
`I've never seen one killed!' a woman in the crowd wailed.
`No one has…' a boy said, his voice shaky.
`They say it can't be done' the woman wailed again, her words barely audible.
`I've seen it before' Harry said quietly and at his words everyone gasped, shocked that Harry could be telling the truth.
`And what happened?' Hermione asked nervously, not sure she wanted the answer.
`Disaster…' Harry said, his head drooping low, like a man who had been defeated.
*
Ok, that's Chapter 2, and also part 1 of 2 of this Adventure. Hope you enjoyed it? Let me know what you think…
Jms Granger
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