U-2358
After spending ten years cooped up in a lab, Hermione should’ve known that her defensive spellwork would be sloppy. She should’ve followed the stupid training regiment Malfoy had told her she needed instead of being offended by his insinuation. She should’ve taken his advice and stayed in her lab instead of insisting she needed to go as well. But Hermione was stubborn. She didn’t like when her flaws were pointed out and she certainly didn’t need the blonde adonis she worked with to be the one to do it.
She simply wanted to be there as the culmination of her entire life’s work came to fruition in front of her eyes. She had spent years earning her Ph.D. in quantum mechanics and working on combining magic with science to prove that parallel universes existed. After several failed attempts, she had finally perfected the potion that would allow for travel through the infinite multiverses. She knew it might be dangerous, but she refused to let Draco Malfoy be the first one to test it even though he was the trained auror. This was her moment. She never thought that U-2358, the path she had chosen at random and their first jump, would lead to this.
“Don’t touch her!” she heard Malfoy scream as the needle entered her skin. She stared at the man strapped to the chair across from her as he tried to resist his magical bindings.
“Don’t worry. We’re not going to kill her,” she heard herself say as she watched Hermione U-2358 stick a needle in Draco’s neck. “We’re just going to switch places with you two. You should wake up in twenty minutes. We’ll untie you to give you the best chance of survival, but you should run immediately. Oh, and you’re the most wanted couple in England.”
“Why?” Draco asked as her vision started to blur.
“You’ll soon find out,” Draco U-2358 barked before he and Hermione U-2358 swallowed their return potions.
She whimpered as she felt tears prick her eyes. “We’ll figure this out, Hermione. I promise,” her Draco whispered to her before she passed out.