Across Times

A/N: this is just the beginning, it will get much more...detailed...later. I wanted to post this to get some opinions, it's really just an intro.

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The dungeon smelled putrid. Hermione scrunched up her nose in disgust and rushed towards her usual table. She had left her spare potions ingredients at the desk after class, in such a hurry to get away from the smell. Harry and Ron had gleefully taken the rest of her things up to the Gryffindor common room, leaving her to return to the class herself. She had been in a rush, as the disgusting smell had come as quite a surprise. Neville had spilled his potion, again, but only after he had horrendously messed it up. The veritaserum potion, that was supposed to be color and odorless, had turned a harsh orange and smelled like rotten tomatoes before the cauldron had tipped.

After gathering her items, Hermione looked around the classroom, with obvious disgust that Snape had not cleaned it yet. She quickly pulled her wand from a pocket in her robes and flicked the tip and said, “scourgify.” Without looking at the effect, Hermione took a sift step and was surprised to have it land in a puddle of remaining potion. Not reacting fast enough, Hermione slipped and fell face first, turning and the last minute to land on her side. Her extra ingredients hit the floor sharply and broke, their contents mixing with the mangled potion. The smell increased around her and muttered a curse under her breath at her luck.

With her eyes closed, Hermione took a deep breath and pushed herself into a sitting position. Bloody hell, she thought as the blood rushed out of her head, making her dizzy. Hermione opened her eyes and surveyed the classroom. The mess she slipped in was gone and the smell went with it. “Finally,” she said to the empty room. She’d never had a spell delay so long before but she simply shrugged and stood up. Since her ingredients had spilled when she fell, Hermione turned around and walked back out of the class. The dark corridor was quiet; the majority of the students were probably in their common rooms or in the great hall for an early dinner. Hermione made her way to the great hall, assuming that Harry and Ron would be waiting for her after dropping off her bag.

When she reached the entrance hall to Hogwarts, Hermione was surprised to see no students milling about on the stone steps or even entering and exciting the hall. The doors to the great hall were closed and very little noise was coming from behind them. Hermione scrunched her nose in thought and made her way up he grand staircase to Gryffindor tower. There was nothing on her way to the fat lady to alert her that anything had changed. She supposed she could have blacked out for a moment when she fell, but that wouldn’t explain why the hall was closed completely. Students could always enter the hall around meal times, she’d only seen the doors locked once before.

Hermione pushed aside a tapestry to reveal the shortcut to the fat lady’s portrait, being careful to avoid the vanishing step approximately halfway up. The corridor was once again empty, giving Hermione a peculiarly feeling that something was out of place. The fat lady was in her portrait though, and she tried to come to her senses again. “Butterbeer,” she said to the portrait, excited to be in the busy common room once more and to be rid of the foreboding thoughts in her head. Hermione looked up at the fat lady when the portrait didn’t open, making sure she was awake.

The woman in the portrait was very much awake: looking down on Hermione and shaking her head. “I’m sorry dear; you might have the wrong place.”

“You just changed the password this morning, looking forward to the upcoming holiday,” Hermione reasoned. “You were talking about your friend coming to visit and thought it would be fun.”

The Fat Lady shook her head once more. “I don’t change the password so soon before the end of the year, it throws off study habits. You are mistaken.”

Hermione glared at her in disbelief. “The school year isn’t ending for another two months, I don’t understand. Are Harry and Ron putting you up to this?” She couldn’t fathom the portrait taking orders from a student just to pull a prank, but the whole ordeal wasn’t making any sense. “Just let me in!”

“I’m going to alert the Headmaster if you don’t calm down or remember the right password.”

“I’m going to tell Dumbledore if you’re playing a trick on me and won’t let me in,” Hermione said, glaring at the portrait.

The Fat Lady hiked up the hem of her dress and said, “Very well,” before waltzing out of her frame. Hermione could see the woman push her way through neighboring pictures until she was out of sight.

Before Hermione could follow suit and stamp her way to the Gargoyle protecting Dumbledore’s office, somebody made a noise behind her.

“Great,” a boy moaned. “She’s not here. I thought she wasn’t allowed to leave during exams.” Hermione sucked in a breath and kept listening, completely unaware that they were walking right towards her. The footsteps stopped and she closed her eyes. “Oi, you there,” the voice called out. Hermione turned on the spot, eyes closed and elbows in like she was about to apparate. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just…” she started, resigning herself to the fact that she had to open her eyes. Freaking out, she finished her sentence in her head. A group of boys were standing in front of her, looking all too familiar. “Uh…” she continued stammering.

“Where’s the Fat Lady?” the tallest of them asked, long black hair shaggy and rugged.

“The… Oh,” she stopped, closed her eyes again and opened them once more to the group of boys who were now looking at her like she was crazy. “She went to see Dumbledore, she wouldn’t let me in.”

One of the other boys surveyed her wearily. “Let you in? I’ve never seen you before. Are you trying to play a joke on us?”

“More like the other way around,” she said, obvious annoyance in her voice. “I have been in this house for five years and I –“

A roaring laughter from the whole group cut her off mid-sentence. “I don’t think so. We’ll have this settled when Dumbledore gets here.” The second boy stated.

“And don’t think of leaving,” added another boy: the one that if it wasn’t for the eyes…