Greyline

September 2nd, 1997. 11:39 am. 

The gate lifted to a dimly lit and long narrow hallway. Hermione cast a detection spell before she stepped off of it and was relieved when it came back clear and turned to the lift boy. She studied his pale, unmoving face for any signs of her mental hold on him breaking. Satisfied with what she saw she spoke to him in that same soft and sweet tone as before. 

Go back to the main floor and continue with your day as you normally would. You will not say a word of coming to this level. Go now. 

The boy's acknowledgement was swift and in another moment he was gone. Hermione rolled her shoulders to release the tension she held. She dropped her disillusionment charm. Her strength needed to be saved for dismantling whatever wards were placed on the Time Chamber and for actually traveling through time. 

A memory from her third year sprung to the forefront of her mind. Dumbledore owling her to come up to his office where he presented her with the option of a time turner so she could complete all her classes. McGonagall had gotten special permission from the Ministry for her to use it. 

“I mark the hours, every one, Nor have I yet outrun the Sun. My use and value, unto you, Are gauged by what you have to do.”

The inscription from her old time turner ghosted past her lips. 

Hermione wondered briefly if perhaps being near the Time Chamber was having an effect on her memory. The words she had just spoken felt seared into her brain, like they were flashing on repeat on the back of her eyelids. 

Did the chamber recognize her magical signature, as someone who used to travel time?

She was still standing at the far end of the hallway and the closer she walked she felt the air start to ebb with magic. It was pulsing, breathing, flowing down through her hair and looping back up around her torso. It did not feel malevolent and was probably a result of the vast and old magic she was about to encounter. 

Another memory assaulted her out of nowhere, this time making her feel as if she were swept along with it. 

It was sixth year. Hermione was finishing up in the library for the night, gathering all her loose parchment and banishing the quills she had snapped while writing too fast. She cast a tempus and hurried out of the place, finding it to be near curfew. Harry had given her the Marauders map for the night, claiming she needed to be on the lookout for Malfoy. 

She stopped outside in the hall to take a moment and unfurl the map, whispering the words needed to reveal its secret. Her heart stuttered when she saw the tiny dots of Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott pop up near the room of requirement. Maybe Harry was right and Malfoy was planning something. She banished the thought as quick as it came. How many times had she and the boys been out late at night, just because they could? 

Hermione pushed her fear aside and cast a quick spell, the odd sensation of eggs running over her head. She would go see what the two slytherins were up to and either put an end to Harry’s accusations or confirm them. She debated stopping by Gryffindor tower to wake the boys but the two slytherins were already moving again. Hermione bit her lip anxiously before turning in the direction of the stairs leading to the hidden room. 

The trek didn't take as much time as she thought it would and she kept an eye on the map the whole time. The halls were eerily silent for it being a Wednesday night and she cast a silencing spell on her shoes the closer she got to the two dots. 

“Really, Drake, why won’t you let me help you? This would be a lot easier with two of us working on it.” She recognized the desperate tone of Nott’s voice and stopped walking to duck behind a tapestry. 

The map showed the two dots walking closer, around the corner and towards where she was hidden. Hermione peaked around the fabric to see Malfoy’s blond head appear in the hallway. She studied him, taking in his usually coiffed hair that was currently messy and loose. He looked like shit. She couldn't quite place when he had stopped playing quidditch, was it this year? Either way he seemed thin and his cheeks were just the littlest bit gaunt. 

She wondered if he usually wore a glamor charm during classes and at meals. Harry would have noticed and said something if he looked like this normally. She had to admit it played well into his theory of Malfoy being up to something. 

Malfoy ran his hand through his hair, brushing limp pieces away from his eyes and turned to look at Nott who had just rounded the corner as well. Her eyes flicked over to Nott to take in his appearance. The slytherin looked as normal as usual, sharp jawline with his round cherub cheeks. Hermione noted he was anxious - or upset. She couldn't tell. He was furling and unfurling his fingers on his left hand and pacing in the small area Malfoy had stopped. 

“You know why, Theo. It’s not worth it.” Malfoy sighed in anger and turned away from Nott. “If my occlumency becomes solid, then maybe.” His shoulders slumped down and he leaned against the wall directly across from her. 

Hermione committed his words to memory. She held her breath as Nott made another round of the hallway and came to rest against the wall right next to her. She felt oddly exhilarated and sad all at the same time. It was an adrenaline rush to be this close to an answer but she felt the heaviness of Malfoy’s emotions penetrate the air. It was suffocating and dark. She thought perhaps if she looked any closer she would be able to see his magic sparking in the air. 

Something foreign to her when it came to Malfoy twisted in her gut. She didn't normally feel bad for the slytherin boy.  He had bullied her for many years and was still a menace when he wanted to be, but something about him this year was off and she wondered what his life was actually like with the Dark Lord coming into power again. 

“So we’ll both learn it together. I’m not letting you go through this alone, mate.” Nott’s head was tilted down as he spoke but as he finished he lifted his head and shot a weak smile at Malfoy. 

Hermione was surprised by the action and the words he spoke. She knew they were friends, sat in the great hall together and partnered up in classes when they could. She didn’t realize how obviously loyal they were to each other and wondered what else the two slytherins would surprise her with. 

Malfoy was staring off into the darkness of the hall and hadn’t replied to Nott yet. He didn't get a chance to - wind shot through the hall and Peeves followed soon after cackling with glee. 

“Students out after curfew! Students out after curfew!” The ghost's booming voice echoed loudly before he shot a wink to the boys and fled the hall. 

Nott groaned and rubbed his hands over his face. “That stupid fucker. If Filch finds us I’m going to kill him all over again.” His humor seemed to be waning and he actually looked tired. 

Malfoy sighed, nodding his head towards the other end of the hall and walking over to Nott. “Let’s go for tonight. We can discuss things in the common room.” 

Nott perked up and pushed off the wall. “Want to sneak into the kitchens and grab some apple pastries on the way there?” She could hear the mischievous glee in his tone. 

Hermione felt herself coming out of the memory, but there was something still leaving her there in the hallway behind the tapestry. She opened and closed her eyes hoping to filter reality from memory. 

Malfoy had stopped near the end of the hall, where she was hidden behind the tapestry. He was staring off in the distance again. Hermione dared not to breathe or move in the slightest. Nott had noticed Malfoy had stopped and back tracked a few paces. 

“What’s up?” Nott rubbed at his shoulder in unease. 

Malfoy turned to look at him and tilted his head as if he was seeing Nott but looking past him. 

“I thought… “ He trailed off and swept his mercurial gaze across the tapestry she hid behind. She didn't dare move her face for fear of rippling the disillusionment spell against the cloth. 

He shook his head and shot a wane smile at Nott, his teeth showing a bit. Hermione thought he looked somewhat feral. “Nothing. I thought I caught a bit of something sweet but it must be the pastries on my mind.” He shrugged and started walking away. 

Nott stood there for a moment, took a deep breath and nodded before taking off after Malfoy. 

Hermione did not move for a while, she pulled the map out and followed their names as they stopped at the kitchens and then disappeared into the dungeons. 

Her eyes snapped open and she found she felt breathless as if she had actually been holding her breath. She looked around the hall. Still alone and - she cast another tempus, it had only been ten minutes since she entered the hall. Ten minutes too long. 

So this was the enchantment she had to face, memories that felt like they took her back in time. Her mind flitted around on why she had seen one of Malfoy and Nott. Perhaps because they were the last people she had seen that she knew. She was curious to know if magical signatures could linger on others. Nott’s hand brushing against hers flashed in her mind. It was possible. 

Her hand lifted to trail along the wall as she walked, and walked. The marble was cool and smooth and grounded her in a way that reminded Hermione to raise her occlumency shields once again. It was the only way to make it to the door. 

The clarity she felt was immediate. So the chamber was messing with her. She would have to be conscious of how much effort was going into keeping up her mental shields now. She drew her hand away from the wall and picked up her pace, jogging towards the simple bronze colored door at the end of the hall. 

Her grip tightened on her wand as she stood before the door. It did not feel as if there were any enchantments placed here and oddly she could not feel any thrumming of magic behind the door. Trusting her intuition, Hermione raised a cautious hand and placed it ever so softly against the cool metal. Nothing shot out at her or moved to harm her, but she could feel a gentle acceptance from the door in the form of pale light emanating from her palm. Perhaps it was somewhat sentient. 

She put more weight onto the metal and pushed, trusting that she would not be harmed. In hindsight, maybe she should have at least had a protego ready. The moment the door fell open a loud clang echoed in the hallway. She turned to see the lift coming down. 

September 2nd, 1997 11:55 am.

Hermione didn't have much time to think before a red stunning spell was shot her way with terrifying accuracy. The lift hadn't even stopped yet. She had a split second to decide what to do before she leaped into the doorway of the Time Chamber. It seemed like the best bet she had versus facing off in the barren hallway, where time felt and acted weird. 

The Time Chamber was filled with golden light that seemed to wrap and twist and pull in little strings every which way. It blinded her at first, sending little dark spots across her vision. She had to force herself to not analyze what she was seeing. It was impossible and yet everything seemed like it was in sync and breathing. The little wisps of light moving with each heave of her chest. 

The room seemed vast and empty, stretching out for as far as she could see. There seemed to be no end and no beginning to the light filling the space and she could not identify anything that looked like a time-turner. She rolled her wand against her denim clad thigh and tapped it there harshly. Her curls took on sparks of magic, rolling down through the long length and making the honeyed brown look bronze. She felt the room's warmth wrap around her, pulsing with each beat of her heart. 

Something crashed behind her, causing her to throw up a protego charm and twirl on the spot. Hermione aimed her wand at the door as it opened, a curse on the tip of her tongue. She almost rolled her eyes when Malfoy and Nott appeared in the frame. This was getting old, always running into these two or at least it felt like it after her memory in the hallway. 

Malfoy didn’t say a word to her before shooting off another stunner, the fierce red light crackling with the power he used. Her protego absorbed it easily with the pale yellow light turning a burnt orange for a moment. Nott stood slightly behind him studying her with those all-knowing eyes of his. 

“Is that really all you’ve got, Malfoy?” Hermione taunted him, licking her lips before strengthening her shield. 

It was stupid, and brash but she was either going down swinging or not at all. Her gryffindor courage roared through her blood and she felt warm and steady as she aimed her wand at the boys. Given the ferocity in which Malfoy had shot that stunner at her she thought she may have a slim chance to none at all at escaping. 

“Granger.” Malfoy ran his tongue over his lips as if tasting the air. “Let’s get to the point. What are you doing here?” He took one step forward.

Hermione took a step back. As brash as she was feeling, letting him get close was not a good idea. She recounted her memory from earlier, where she had likened him to being slim and gaunt. That was not the Malfoy that stood before her now. He was taut and poised, holding his wand almost lazily, and his silver eyes tracked her every breath. This was Malfoy in his prime, she realized. Whatever he had been up to last year was meant to prepare him for moments like this. He was all predator. 

She chanced a quick glance away from him to look over at Nott who still stood silently behind Malfoy. Hermione recognized the look he gave her. He was just as deadly as Malfoy was presenting to be, looking for her weaknesses and waiting for the right moment. He inclined his head in a mock bow, his dark locks sweeping over his eyes. She swallowed uneasily and flicked her eyes back to Malfoy’s. 

“Not in the mood to talk, Granger? You’re good at that sometimes, lurking around in places you’re not supposed to be.” He shot her a lazy smirk, as if he knew what memory she had seen in the hallway. 

“It was your perfume, by the way.” He added as an afterthought, looking down at his fingernails like he wasn't holding her at wandpoint. 

Hermione shifted her weight onto her dominant leg, trying to ease into a better dueling position. She checked her mental shields and winced to find them open and down. So he hadn't just gotten better at occlumency, but legilimency too. She hadn't even felt him enter her mind or brush through the recent memory. He was still surveying his hand and she flicked her gaze back to Nott’s. 

He had taken to leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed over his chest with his wand barely pointed at her. He peeked up at her through his lashes, shaking his head and letting a smile crack his serious countenance. They were toying with her. 

“So what's got the golden girl - sorry undesirable number three, really they disgraced you with that one, here in the Ministry in the Time Chamber of all places?” Nott pushed off the wall and past Malfoy to stand in front of her, his wand held loosely beside him. 

She stared at him warily, darting back and forth between him and Malfoy, trying to decide who the bigger threat was. Another step back, another step forward. It was a deadly dance. She didn't want to break her silence but she wagered they may be more interested in figuring out her motive than immediately taking her down. Her mind flew back to that memory. 

It’s not worth it. 

I’m not letting you go through this alone.

She steeled herself and met both of their gazes, bouncing back and forth between light and somewhere in the middle. 

“Has it been worth it?” Her voice came out a lot steadier than she felt. “Everything you’ve undoubtedly had to sacrifice, has it been worth it?” Hermione let the words leave her lips in a soft whisper. 

She felt in tandem with the room once again, like having spoken solidified her presence and studied the boys before her carefully. She hoped she could appeal to whatever soft side Malfoy had, and had shown back in that hallway. A brush of heat played at the back of her head and swept down to her toes. She glanced over her shoulder quickly, away from the narrowed eyes of Malfoy and surprised ones of Nott. 

The golden light that had flowed throughout the room was ebbing into a pale silver glow, the room being thrown into shadows and ghostly patches of luminescence. She felt the backlash of a spell against her shield and turned her cheek slightly, trying to keep an eye on what was going on behind her. 

Malfoy was closer than she expected and angrier too. The silver flowing through the room made him look like a statue of shiny glass. All hard angles and smooth skin. A rough laugh escaped his throat and he cocked his head. She could see the outline of his tongue running against the inside of his bottom lip. 

“Here I was commending you for your silence, but you just don't know how to watch your mouth. Do you?” He prowled closer until only her shield kept him at bay. “Don’t speak on things you don’t understand.” 

He didn't need to include the unsaid mudblood, he pointedly moved his eyes to her left forearm where they both knew the scar resided. It had been the one time over the summer she had seen him. Hermione flinched, thrown off by the violence and hostile magic that leaked from him. Nott was watching with barely concealed agitation and was pacing in small steps. She could only liken him to a cat waiting to pounce. 

She shook her head stubbornly and opened her mouth to retaliate when Nott spoke before her. 

“It’s not really any use for you to try and woo us with your self-righteous morals, Granger. We all have to do what we have to, to survive.” He shrugged carelessly and motioned to Malfoy. She thought it might be some sort of signal, but not one to attack. 

Like he was asking the other boy to just wait. Hermione felt an odd sense of having been through this before, having been here before.  

I mark the hours, every one, Nor have I yet outrun the Sun. My use and value, unto you, Are gauged by what you have to do.

The inscription from her old time turner ran through her mind again. Her head was starting to pound and thoughts were flying in a circle, back and forth, everywhere all at once. The room was trying to tell her something, she felt the warmth fade from her back and noticed it had become darker, closer to night, or maybe dusk. 

She thought about everything she knew of the universe, of time and linears and parallels. She couldn't stop thinking of the memory the hallway had shown her. It's not worth it. I’m not letting you go through this alone. And then what Nott had just said. We all have to do what we have to. The first memory she was shown when she stepped off the lift. My use and value, unto you, Are gauged by what you have to do. Her head was spinning and it felt like the room was too, all the vast open space twisting into one. 

She vaguely heard Malfoy and Nott speaking to one another, or maybe to her. She wasn't sure. Confident in her shield and in the chamber itself to keep her safe she turned around and faced the glow of silver light that was slowly waning and flattening into a thin line. Light erupted above the thin string of silver and below it flowed utter darkness. 

Hermione remembered reading about this while preparing for her time-turner in third year. She was witnessing the greyline, the band that consisted of dusk and dawn and that separated daylight from darklight. It had only been theorized that reaching the greyline was like severing a knife between two worlds and the possibilities that came with it were endless. Hypothetically, she could reach her hand out and touch another part of the universe and travel time and space. 

She questioned what the rooms' purpose in bringing the two death eaters along was. Maybe they could be saved. Maybe she needed them to do what she was about to. This whole situation was so much bigger than going back and infiltrating the ministry over again. 

It's not worth it. 

I’m not letting you go through this alone.

what you have to do. 

Malfoy’s voice rang again and again in her head, overlapping with Nott’s and her own. 

Hermione reached her hand out towards the waning thread of silver. The Chamber would take care of the rest. The room was pushing at her, egging her closer and closer to the line between night and day, this time and the next. She felt her wand being ripped from her hand and two warm weights shackling around her forearm. She wasn’t really sure she had much choice over where she was going, it seemed time had its own way of working. Her fingers slipped around the line and she was gone, Malfoy and Nott with her. 

September 2nd, 1997 12:01 pm. 

The light in the Time Chamber extinguished, leaving a darkness that would not break for years to come.