The Stranded Hole: Part One
`Every time you go home you come back with twice as much!' Harry said half exasperated half laughing.
`I do need to get things washed form time to time, or would you like to have a smelly, dirty friend travelling with you everyday?' Hermione shot at Harry as she threw all of the clothes she had packed into two large holdalls onto the floor of the Anglia and sighed as she enjoyed the weight being of her shoulders before adding `and its not my fault my mother had bought a few things more for me to wear, is it?'
`Not even I could blame you for your mother!' Harry said rocking slightly on the balls of his feet as he laughed `the burden would be too much for anyone to carry, you'd go crazy!'
`She's not that bad really' Hermione said, relaxing as she looked around the cosy interior of the Anglia, feeling doubly grateful as it had helped her escape the November chill `she has stopped referring to you as him and it…'
`Don't forget my personal favourite…' Harry chipped in brightly and said the last part in a high pitched comical impersonation `why oh why!'
`I miss that one too!' Hermione said reminiscing about her mother saying that every other sentence, Harry bent down and looked at the holdalls, each seemed about to burst with clothes.
`Seriously, Hermione…' Harry said, his face screwed up in a mix of awe and surprise `I know the Anglia is practically limitless and can hold pretty much anything, but you don't have to test that theory with your wardrobe!'
`We can't all be the very fashionable I like to wear black kind of person you happen to be' Hermione shot back making Harry laugh.
`True true' Harry said shaking his head `it is very hard to pull off and it wouldn't be fair of me too ask you to try'
`Harry, dear, foolish, Harry…I'm a breathe of the times' she started toe explain in a fun aristocratic, arrogant voice `forever changing to fit fashion, merging with what I already know… consequently I am forever perfect'
`While my look is more a timeless beauty' Harry said laughing
`By timeless do you mean old and scraggy looking?' Hermione teased making Harry fake looking hurt and pretend to put a dagger through his heart.
Hermione laughed as he managed to recover from his stabbing and walked over to the pensieve. She looked at what he was wearing, another pair of dark jeans, dark converse, dark plain t shirt and a dark, not too long, jacket. Harry was right, it was a timeless look, perfect for fitting in everywhere. It also helped that he looked, in Harry's word, fantastic, in it. He showed just enough of his lean feature that most women could get lost in her thoughts as they stared…But she would always prefer colours to practicality. As she saw it, they were fighting for their lives so often that they needed a bit of colour
Harry bent over the pensieve and looked into it, whirling his finger around in the silver smoke that layered the bottom of it. Hermione had found herself often throwing glances at the machine, wondering how exactly it worked, and more importantly if she could ever be taught to use it…but she had so far stopped herself from asking. She knew, somehow, that this would be one of the things Harry was strangely strict over, probably telling her that if she messed things up the universe would shatter and time would end. Some sort of lame excuse like that anyway. She made a mental note to try and bring up the conversation if she ever got the chance.
`Where to now, sweetie?' Harry cooed softly as he continued to run his finger through the mist, and as she went to answer she burst into laughter having realized that Harry was in fact talking to the pensieve itself. Boys and their toys.
Harry suddenly snapped back and withdrew his wand, looking straight into Hermione's eyes with a boyish grin on his face.
`Ever been to the year 320,986?' Harry asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he had obviously thought of something which he considered fun. And consequently dangerous.
`Um…' Hermione pretended to think `can't say that I have!'
`Ah! You missed a treat!' Harry said laughing `the first Olympics between Earth and Mars since the Freshdan incident of 290,000 something or over!'
`Martians have their own Olympic team?' Hermione said, eyes widening as she tried to picture them. However much she had seen she couldn't help but see them as small and green with large dark circular eyes, like a horror movie from the 60s.
`Well, obviously their not real Martians' Harry explained rapidly as he pushed the wand up to his temple.
`Obviously' Hermione said under her breathe as she rolled her eyes.
`Just a colony of the Forth Great and Bountiful Earthian Empire…' Harry carried on explaining `so its more like the early Commonwealth Games than the Olympics…still a lot of fun to be had here… a two foot asexual engineer from Alpha York wins the long jump by 7 metres!'
`Sounds like history in the making!' Hermione chuckled as she looked at Harry, all full of life again now her visit home had been finished.
Harry extracted the long wispy silver smoke from his temple and looked at it for a few seconds, and as he did Hermione sat down in her chair, preparing to be crashed through time and space to wherever these games would be held. She hoped it wouldn't be held in Mars, she had been told once in a pub in the year 502,981 that all Martians were crooks and lazy, and she didn't feel like putting the words of an old drunken man to the test.
Harry was still staring at the wisp, and suddenly he nodded and tossed it into the pensieve, and as Hermione knew at that very moment the ground started to shake beneath her feet.
But something was wrong. Her chair toppled over, and the shaking carried on and on, rougher and harder than it had ever been before. From under her chair where she was pinned she counted that more than twenty seconds had passed, and she was starting to wonder if she would spend the rest of her life under this chair.
But, finally, the rumbling stopped, and the earth was still once again. Pushing the heavy chair of her with all her effort, she stood up quickly in an effort to find out what had just happened, and how a chair that was supposed to be stuck to the ground could topple over. As she saw Harry she realized he was standing stock still, exactly where he had been before their trip through time and space, and was looking around with a confused look in his eyes.
`What was that?' she asked straightening her clothes, incredibly relieved that the shaking had definitely stopped.
`I don't know…' Harry said, so quietly that Hermione had barely heard it. And without another word to her or a look around he ran forward and passed her to the door to the outside world. Hermione chased after him but by the time she had reached him he had already stepped past, so without a second thought she bounded out after him, barely remembering to shut the door behind her.
Harry stood to her right looking around the street in front of him. It was light and familiar. She looked closer and realized familiar didn't cover it, this was exactly where they had been a few seconds ago. Just in the corner of the street outside her mothers flat, this spot had now become their regular parking space whenever they were in town.
`We're back home?' Hermione said out loud, but really meaning it to herself, and she added `and it looks exactly the same as it did in 2006?'
`That's because we haven't gone very far' Harry said, his voice still low and soft as he scanned the street and looked at his watch. Kids were playing football, having to get out of the road for every passing car, and old ladies were carrying their shopping home in Tesco bags.
`When are we then?' Hermione asked. She guessed that it was being back home that made her feel that way, but the question sounded strange in her mouth.
`Hey, Madame!' Harry called out as he ran over to one of the many old woman on the street, she seemed completely taken aback and scared that a man under 25 was talking to her and Hermione knew from the area they lived in that the woman was quite right to be `Would you mind being a doll and telling me what day it is?'
`I can tell you that's it's not 1960, so no need to use the term doll' Hermione said warningly under her breathe, but Harry wasn't taking any notice.
`November 4th, love' the old woman said quickly and tried to move on but Harry stepped closer to her, slightly rudely, to let her know he hadn't finished.
`And the year, treacle?' Harry asked as kindly as he could, but his words sounded rushed, panicky even.
`Its 2006' the old woman said as she, leaning as far away as she could from Harry, struggled along the street, desperate to reach her destination before it got any colder.
`We didn't even move a single day!' Harry said in amazement as he watched the old lady wander away.
`I'd say that we didn't even travel a single second actually' she said looking around at the day that was as bright as it had been when they had left with her clean clothes.
Harry started to walk back towards the Anglia and although his steps weren't fast, they did somehow seem to hold some importance and urgency.
`5th of November tomorrow' Hermione said conversationally as she caught up and got in step next to him but Harry didn't respond `amazing to think we were at the original one only a few months ago'
`Was it that long ago?' Harry said stopping in his tracks to look at her.
`Just over two months actually' Hermione said with a smile and added `2 months and 8 days, I think'
`How time flies' Harry said brightly taking another few steps upwards to the Anglia `even when you're not the one making it do so!'
Harry reached out and lifted the handle, but the door strangely didn't move. Hermione looked up at him and saw real panic on his face. He quickly removed his key from his pocket and tried it on the lock but to no avail and turned to Hermione.
`Try your key!' he growled in frustration `now!'
Hermione rummaged through her pockets and withdrew the little silver key with the electronic alarm button and pushed it into the lock, but as she tried to turn it the key wouldn't move. It was like it was the wrong key.
`No no no!' Harry growled as he whipped out his wand and hovered it over the lock, this time though it sprung open and Harry charged in, Hermione following right behind him.
Hermione watched as Harry ran over to the pensieve, ignoring everything else as he stood with his hands on the sides, looking straight down in the basin.
`Why wouldn't it let us in?' Hermione asked as she wandered up slowly to him. The Anglia had never done anything like that before, always worked first time on anything, although usually a little bumpy.
`Security measures' Harry said softly, his eyes not moving as he stared down into the basin still, obviously something had attracted his attention and was able to keep it.
`Isn't a key enough protection…' she started but the words and thoughts died away as she reached Harry and looked into the pensieve.
Where there once was fog now there was nothing. Just the smooth stone carving of a dip that someone had once made. No mist. No Pensieve. And Hermione instantly knew that this mean no time travelling.
`The security measures are automatically started when something goes wrong…' Harry said, his eyes slowly moving up to look at Hermione `everything in the Ford Anglia is the same in essence, the doors, the chairs, the pensieve, all the same thing, one large instrument…a potentially very dangerous one at that…and when its…hurt…it stops any outside influence…even me'
`Can you help it?' Hermione asked, she hadn't realized how attached she had become to this remarkable vehicle, but the welling up of her eyes was kind enough to make it evident for her.
`I don't think so' Harry said removing his wand from his pocket and waving it over the pensive for a while `we knew that it would eventually run out of power, that'd it'd…but I thought we had a long time yet…hundreds of years even'
Hermione wrapped her arm around Harry's waist, she didn't know if he wanted to, but she needed to feel him at this moment. Harry's physical closeness had meant safety for so long now that her body had become like a switch, being changed instantly by his arrival or exit.
Suddenly a low humming came over the room and Hermione looked around for what was making the noise but couldn't find it.
`That's the Anglia' Harry said making the sound take on an almost human quality in Hermione's mind, like a person screaming and whimpering before the end.
She blinked rapidly thinking the tears coming in her eyes was affecting her sight, but however much she did the room was still picking up glare, and slowly she realized things were becoming transparent. She could now see the whole outline of Harry's chair, which was supposed to be practically hidden by the pensieve.
She looked up at Harry and saw him gulp, his soft green eyes glistening in the sunlight that was now able to come through the walls.
Now kids seemed to be playing football inside the Anglia, but she knew this was a trick of the eye, that the Anglia took up so much room that it just appeared to stretch out across the road.
She looked back down at the Pensieve and realized it was gone, and all that was left was the barest outline of Harry's chair, disappearing by the second until that too had gone.
And as she looked up she saw that the walls had fallen, the ceiling was gone, and all that was left was her and Harry, standing alone in the middle of the pavement in a street in London.
Hermione didn't want to talk, and couldn't help but sob slightly. Too many thoughts were running through her head, what had happened and why. What it meant. And what they would do now.
`She took my wand' Harry said softly `she took every piece of magical equipment inside'
`Where did it go?' Hermione asked. Her voice was breaking slightly as the words came out dry as they inched up her throat.
Harry paused and looked at her. He took both her hands in his for the same reason she had held him, because it meant safety.
`It's dead' Harry said, his face still with just the faintest outline of tears in the corner of his eyes.
`The Ford Anglia's dead'
*
Hey, hoped you liked it…and hoped you don't mind being back in good old 2006? Seems like bad news for the Anglia…But on the plus side to this we get to see some old friends…
Anyway, the new chapter is being written up now, I had a lot of ideas for dialogue I want to use so have about 3,000 words of the adventure now! Thus, the next chapter shouldn't be too long…hope you like this adventure…only this one and the next left before the finale…
Till next time…
Jms Granger…
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