Time Travel = Questions and Consquences
Minerva McGonagall is exhausted as she sits at her desk in her new office. As the new headmistress, she oversees everything, including organizing the cleaning/repairing of the school after the final battle.
For the past two weeks, there have been many things to attend and organize; At least 50 funerals; 50 lives lost to a senseless war. Many injuries, many childhoods lost, and the safest place in the Wizarding World is destroyed but not conquered.
After all, the light did win this war, but it came with a cost that was too high for any one person to carry. She sits in silence to take process everything that has occurred and all the work that is left to be done.
After a few minutes of silence, she gets to work on organizing how to repair this school, who to ask to volunteer to help, what areas need the most work, and what areas just need a good cleaning. At this point, she has had many people say that they would volunteer to help after some of the funerals but all who asked were students that fought in the final battle. She feels terrible making them come back and remember everything they have lost and reliving all those horrifying memories of the past year.
But work must get done and she needs volunteers, so she makes a list of people who have already asked to help and designates where they will work in the castle. After a while, she takes a break for lunch and calls for Tilly, who works in the kitchen, to make her a sandwich, some chips, and tea as it has been a long day already.
Just 10 minutes later, Tilly pops in with her order and sets it on her desk. She was glad that the first action she made was to bring the elves back and fix the kitchens first. If anything is going to get done around here, people will need food. Looking over her plans while finishing her lunch, she hears a popping sound, as if someone has just apparated into her office.
She looks up from her desk to the location of the noise and what she sees gives her a shock.
In the middle of the room, five people have arrived. Three children and two adults which could be the children’s parents but it's impossible. The man is holding what looks to be a three-year-old little boy and holding another little boy’s hand who looks to be about five years old. The woman is holding another three-year-old, but it is a little girl. All three children look tired and scared and their clothes are all tattered and dirty. Also, all three have grey eyes like their father and curly hair like their mother except it is blonde.
At last, she looks at the man and woman, who knows more than anyone. Draco and Hermione, look just like the children in the state of their outfits and expressions except for Hermione. She looks determined and, on a mission, just like she did when fighting in the battle not even two weeks ago.
Hermione looks at Minerva and says, ‘What year is it?’ Her voice is deeper than the last time she talked with her. Almost like she has been yelling too much
‘It is 1998, the final battle was two weeks ago.’
Hermione gives a relieved look to Draco, and he walks with her to come to sit down on her couch. Hermione follows and sits down while letting the little girl sit on the couch. After the children get situated on the couch, Hermione stands and hands me a letter and a journal. I take the objects and then look up at her. I notice that she is silently crying while she reaches for a familiar necklace. She holds on to it tightly before she takes it off and hands that to me as well.
She walks back to the couch, takes the little girl into her arms, and sits down closely with Draco and the other children. She takes a big breath before facing me.
‘At this point in time, we have an opportunity to change everything. The note is what needs to be done right away, the journal is a plan on what to and not to change, and the time turner. Which will allow the traveler to go years into the past. The journal, lists who will go to the past and what objects they will need to bring back to them. Minerva, please help and change what needs to be fixed. I know we talked about the dangers of time travel but at this point, it is our only hope.’
Hermione stops speaking and turns to her family with a small smile, ‘Okay loves, it's time to close our eyes and hold on tight.’ All the children close their eyes and get closer to their parents, Draco looks down at Hermione and reaches over the children to give her a kiss.
Once he does, the small family starts to disappear before her eyes. Hermione and Draco look towards me with a small smile while Draco says, ‘Thank you, for everything professor…..’ And with that, the small family disappears almost like they were never there in the first place.
She leans back in her chair astonished about what has just happened. She looks at things that Hermione has given her and reads the letter first as she said.
“Minerva,
I know this all came as a shock, but this was our last chance to change everything. Our world at this time, is destroyed. The Wizarding World is torn apart, muggles are dying every day, and we are all that is left of fighting. We had five years of peace, and we were all able to move on. Draco and I fell in love in our last year of Hogwarts, we moved away from England and settled down to start a family. In all this time, the Ministry never changed instead it got worse. There was forced registration of blood status and creature status. People were killed for no reason every day.
Only students allowed at Hogwarts, or any school were half-bloods or purebloods. All muggleborns were stripped of their magic which means it was blocked and then they were obliviated. Families were being torn apart left and right, every day. We lived at Malfoy Manor with Narcissa for a couple of years during this until they had a summons for me to come before the Wizamont. Narcissa went in poly juice as me and Draco and I went on the run with our kids.
With our children, Scorpius, Leo, and Lyra, we went on the run. We found a hiding place and Harry was our secret keeper. While there, Draco found a time-turner that we were able to alter to go back years instead of hours. One day, the sorting hat appeared to us and told us to fix everything that has happened then burst into flames. So, that’s what we did. We planned for what needed to be changed and we wrote it in the journal. We had everything ready to go when we needed to time travel. If you are reading this, it means Harry and his family have died and we have been attacked. Please follow the journal and talk with the sorting hat. I have a feeling it knows more than it should. You are our last hope in fixing all of this.
Love your favorite student,
Hermione Malfoy.”
Minerva set down the letter. Her eyes are full of tears that refuse to fall. How could everything go so wrong? Haven’t we been through enough? In all my life, I have fought in three wars and lived to tell the tale, but something tells me that I don’t survive the fourth in the next coming years. Hermione’s message is alarming but also humbling. I remember giving that girl the time-turner in her third year.
We used to go back and forth on the dangers and advantages of time travel. For her to risk everything to come back to the past in order to fix the future, it must be bad. So, I must do everything to stop it from happening, first to conquer is the sorting hat.
She looks around the room and finds it on a hat stand that is anchored to the wall. She picks it up and brings it back to her desk to examine. In all her years at this school and her interactions with the hat is that it is sentient and will only speak when it wants to or needs to.
Since the hat was used in the final battle, it is torn and frayed around the rim of the hat. Some parts are still a little burned and it smells like burnt leather. While using her wand, she examines and runs a dialogistic spell to determine what is wrong with the hat and how to fit it.
A roll of parchment forms in the air next to the hat to list all charms, modifications, and damage that the hat has sustained. While waiting for the parchment to complete its analysis, there is another small pop in the room. Worried that it is one of her students from the future again, she looks around the room and notices out of the corner of her eye, she sees a door slowly opening. It is the same door that has the hat stand hanging on the wall. She watches as the door creaks open, then it stops.
She stands from the desk and walks over to the door. Once she reaches the door, she opens it and looks inside. As it is dark in this room, she casts a simple Lumos to bring light to the room.
In the room, there are thousands of vials with names on them. They are all organized in a row by year and house. In the middle of the room is a pensive. Looking at the vials a little closer, she notices on the Gryffindor column, she sees all her students’ names. Curious, she looks at all the shelves around the whole room. The last shelf in the room has no vials only books and journals and there are at least 10 to 20 different journals here.
Minerva picks up a random journal which is labeled, “1979 – AD”. She thinks that she could read it now but with how many journals there are, it will take quite a while. She sets the journal down and walks out of the room, closing the door in the process. She sees that the parchment is laying on the desk which means that the analysis is complete.
She picks up the parchment and begins to read;
Created in 993 A.D., By Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, and Godric Gryffindor.
Magic/Purpose of object
~Memory Charm – Rowena Ravenclaw
~Divination Vision – Salazar Slytherin
~Gift of Freewill Choice – Helga Hufflepuff
~Sentient and Ability of Decision Making – Godric Gryffindor
~Undetectable Extension Charm – Headmaster Dippet (c.1923)
Blocks on Magical Object
~Memory Charm - 50%
~Vision – 80%
~Visions sent to Memory Vial – 100%
~Freewill Choice – 90%
~Decision Making – 50%
All blocks applied in the Summer of 1960 by Albus Dumbledore
Broken Blocks by Students
~Sirius Black – 1971 (Freewill Choice)
~Marlene McKinnon – 1971 (Memory Charm, Freewill Choice)
~Lily Evans – 1971 (Vision)
~Harry Potter*^ – 1991 (Memory Charm, Freewill Choice, Decision Making)
~Ronald Weasley* – 1991 (Vision)
~Draco Malfoy** – 1991 (Decision Making)
~Hermione Granger***- 1991 (Undecided)
The parchment was writing the last line, but Minerva had to take a break and process everything that she has read so far. How could that bloody idiot do something like this? Why did Albus put all these blocks on in the first place? This doesn’t make any sense!
How have I been so blind? I never questioned how short the sorting was. I thought that maybe the visions got shorter but instead, it was all Albus controlling and manipulating the hat to his every whim.
This is almost too much to take. How many lives did Albus destroy and change? I have known this man for many, many years and I have never suspected him of doing something like this. In denial, Minerva looks back at the parchment, looking closer at the list of students. All of them besides Mr. Malfoy were in her house. What is also alarming is that Hermione Granger is undecided and what did those symbols mean?
As I remember, Miss Granger was in a hat stall for at least 6 minutes. Which is the longest hat stall on record that she can think of. But come to think of it all these students were hat stalls except for Mr. Malfoy who only wore the hat for less than 10 seconds. Mr. Potter was around 5 minutes, Mr. Weasley was 3 minutes, Sirius was 4 minutes and Marlene was 5 minutes. Now why would all these students be affected by the hat and break blocks when they had no previous knowledge of said blocks?
Looking at the bottom of the parchment, there was a glowing sentence before it listed the instructions on how to restore the hat to its main purpose.
*^All magical blocks, glamours, alliances, and potions stay intact. Approved by Albus Dumbledore. *
All she can think is about bloody Albus Dumbledore. Oh Albus, what have you done? What does any of this mean? All this time and he said nothing. It’s all too much.
Minerva looks up from the parchment to notice the room is dark and there is an elf in the room with dinner. She sets the parchment down and walks over to the elf. ‘Thank you, Tilly. Would you put that meal in my chambers, I will be there soon.’ With a nod and soft smile, Tilly pops out of the room.
With everything that she has seen, heard, and read today, Minerva is done for today. She decided to tackle it all tomorrow and she may need some assistance. She leaves everything where it is in the office and walks to the door to go to her chambers which are close by. Luckily, it was not damaged during the battle. She uses her wand to tap the blocks that turn into a door that leads her to her living room and small kitchen.
She grabs a bottle of whiskey and a glass and heads to the table where Tilly put her food. She eats and drinks her whiskey. Letting everything she had learned wash over her, Minerva retires for the night with the hope that tomorrow brings a better day and fewer surprises. But she knows this is only the beginning.