Chapter 2
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Time Is Running Out
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1215 hours
2 May 2002
Department of Mysteries
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She took a last long drag before she vanished her fag wandlessly, leaving no residue ashes and smokes.
"Hermes!" A woman in black hooded robe called her.
Seeing the frowning lips, Hermes straightened her body and righted her hood, ensuring her curls hidden behind them from eyes that the new woman's yell had attracted.
"How many times do I have to tell you? No smoking at your workplace!" She huffed.
"Sorry, Moon. Pretty nervous for today. Excited! But, nervous. Especially nervous. Very much so nervous," Hermes started to blabber.
"I can see that," Moon sighed and walked to stand beside her blabbering friend and took her hand, "Come on. We have place to go."
"Yeah. Thanks, Moon," she said gratefully, "And by the way, I won't smoke here again. Promise."
"You've been promising for almost two years, love. i've lost hope!" Moon flapped her free hand exasperatedly, knowing too well that her promise was meant to be broken.
They walked side by side silently, only accompanied by the clanking noise of her heels hitting on the black tiles. It echoed the dimly-lit corridor ー which connected to more than the five knobless doors.
"You know," Hermes' voice broke their reverie, "I'll miss this."
Moon stopped walking and as their hands were still entwined together, Hermes was suddenly jerked to halt. She looked at Moon inquiringly.
"You still can say no," Moon mumbled.
It was dark, and their only source of light was the floating blue flame that had been placed quite further apart from each other along the corridor. Yet, the flame was enough to be reflected enticingly in Moon's blue-silverly eyes.
"You know I have to do this. We have to do this," she tightened her grip on Moon's hand.
"Why can't we just send Unspeakable Seal? He's our senior. He did the 24-hours crossing. He can easily ace this," Moon squeezed her hand back.
Hermes couldn't stop herself from letting out an amused laugh. Seal was their senior, had been one of the best Unspeakable since 1996. Whilst both her and Moon had only joined for two years as it was on their official record, and one year under the radar before they'd registered.
Once she has came down from her high, she cleared her throat at Moon's annoyed face, and said, "Well, not to brag, but, we both know I am better than Seal," she let out traces of what was left of her previous laughter, "And we both know that I know this project best. For Merlin's sake, we've worked on this for almost three years!"
"Yes! And we've lost Nerve just last year!" Moon countered.
Hermes looked up to the seemingly endless pitch-black ceiling, and sent her silent prayer for Nerve's safety ー wherever he was ー to all the deities above.
"Don't do that," she said half-begged.
"It's the truth, Hermes. Accept it. We lost him! This project couldn't take that much of magic. For all we know, he could be stranded in Time Space instead of 1977!
"Time Space is noiseless and endless. It'll drive you mad, pulling out all of your sanity just like Dementor, but in a much slower manner, way slower. You'd wish for death," she calmed down and continued softly, "And you can't even have that. You don't die, Hermes."
"You know, we never actually tried the Killing Curseー" she couldn't finish her sentence as Moon's pale palm made contact with her cheek. It stung.
"Don't you dare," Moon warned her.
"What I'm trying to say is," she rubbed her reddening face, "If, if, I ever stuck in the void, I'll try the Killing Curse on me."
She recognized the guilty look on Moon's face and Hermes tried her best to pushed down the grin that almost made its way to her face. Almost.
"Stop being a jerk," Moon said, clearly noticing the slight upturn of her corner mouth, "I'm sorry for slapping you." She held her hand back to continue their walk. "There's nothing I can do to stop you, isn't there?"
Hermes stared straight forward. "None."
She wasn't looking, but, she could perfectly picture Moon's relented face.
It was a crazy project, she admitted. Creating a magical Time Portal that could send a person to cross time, The Crossing as they called it, was created by their group, led by Unspeakable Seal. A set of ancient magic that she'd found back in 1999.
Thry stopped in front of a knobless red door. She was about to tap her wand on it but Moon grabbed her wrist and put on a gold bangle.
"Moon?"
"Antipodean Opaleye," Moon answered as she locked another one around the same wrist.
"Why dragon scale, Moon? When did you have the time to find one?" Hermes ran her thumb on the beautiful shimmering scale.
"Charlie helped me. You are too feisty for crystals, Hermes. The crystals told me they couldn't match their energy with you," Moon sighed.
"How's Charlie? Is he still helping Bill cleaning the new safe house?" Hermes stressed on the word cleaning. It was one of the procedure to clean any newly-found possible safe house from dark curses and putting up the needed wards before they started moving fugitives in.
"He's alright. He looked tired though. Bill asked him to find a curse breaker, or at least, someone who has vast knowledge of dark curses. It will take them maybe one full month just to clean that place, if it's only the two of them. It's massive. The new house has twelve bedrooms."
"A mansion?"
"A manor. It's somewhere around the outskirt of Rothbury."
Hermione hummed thoughtfully. "Ask Theo to join them."
"But I thought Theo has his Auror's mission?"
"He finished yesterday. He already gave me the full report of it. Rounding up criminal wizards and witches is so much harder than those criminals in Muggle's tv show!"
Moon nodded. "Noted."
"This dragon scale is just too pretty, Moon. Thank you." Hermes hugged her.
"Antipodean Opaleye fits you just perfectly well. The most beautiful dragon for the most beautiful woman I know," said Moon as she buried herself deeper into her embrace. Sombrely, she continued, "They work like deluminator. They'll help you find your way so you won't ever get lost without me around you anymore."
Hermes peeked at her from behind her hood and she could see Moon's tears ready to make its appearance. She felt a prick at the corner of her own eyes.
Moon refocused on the knobless red door and took out her wand, tapping it on the door twice. The door vibrated as it recognized her magic and disappeared only to reappear right after both Unspeakables walked into what they called the Red Chamber.
Hermes nodded her head to Unspeakable Vigil ー guardian of said room ー only to be met by his flared nostrils. Why is he always sour?
"This room has no windows, no doors; nothing, Hermes. Of course he'd be moody. I would be, too, if I had to work in this red box everyday," Moon answered her thought.
It was frightening how Moon always seemed to know what she was thinking. Moon didn't learn Occlumency. She was just too much of an observant. A seer, she dared to say. She was no believer, but Moon? She believed Moon. She had stopped counting the times when her and the team, saved by Moon's offhanded-like comments.
"Don't you think his hair is a different shade of red today? Yesterday it looked like wine red. Today it looks like the first day of menstruation blood red."
"The thing seems a bit too woozy to fly."
"Even Warksprut wouldn't drink from that waterfall."
She asked her once, if there was any seer in her family, or anyone close to that ability. Moon had shook her head and told her it was all about reading Nargles and Warksrputs and Heliopath and whatever unknown magical creatures that apparently only had been seen by her and her father.
She remembered last year, when she was getting ready for a mission at Arendelle the next morning, Moon had furrowed her eyebrows and kept pulling the hem of her sleeve, muttering, "Tomorrow seems like the best day to lie in."
She'd pulled her sleeve back and gave Moon's her assurance, promising that she would be careful and would be back before midnight.
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2152 hours
January 2001
North Mountain of Arendelle
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"Shame. Shame that you're strong-willed. Shame that you're fighting the spell. Shame that you lived. Oh, you poor soul. You should've been better off dead. Now, you'd regret it that you lived. You'd watch everyone, each one of your family, each one of your friends, withering away with old age, but you, you'll stay and watch them die, one by one."
The witch with her snow-coloured hair, looked dreamily at the other aurors, but her eyes were unseeing as she whispered.
"She filled with poison but blessed with beauty and rage."
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Hermione shook the memory away and clutched on the pack of Marlboro in her pocket. It was a memory of when she had lost part of herself. She closed her eyes and practised slow breathing to calm her nerve. She opened her eyes and realized Moon was talking to her the whole time.
Hermione studied her companion. She had change a lot since the Great Battle of Hogwarts. All of them had. Sure they won against the vilest wizard of all time, sure the Chosen One lived, but everything was too late. Blood supremacists had made their comeback. Hence, the world they lived in now were just a massive area of deadly landmines for Half-bloods and Mudbloods. This was the world that they wanted to save, the world that they would bet their life on, the world that they wanted to never be a part of.
This was not supposed to be their future.
Moon left Hermes' side and Accio'ed a scroll skillfully without a wand.
"The Crossing," Moon airy voice filled the room.
Hermes kept her eyes on her best friend. "Come with me," she blurted out.
Moon looked at her with wide eyes.
"Moon ー "
"I can't go, Hermes." Moon shook her head, her lower lips quivered as she was holding back her tears.
Hermes knew she was being brave. Moon was never good at being separated from her friends since the war ended. She always needed that assurance, that comfort that she was alright, that she was safe, that she was not alone in this war.
"I can't go with you, Hermes," she continued, but this time, she sounded more confident. "We need someone here to guard this magical portal, to make sure no one interrupts your crossing for at least two hours."
Hermes looked lost. Now that the time to leave came, she realized she didn't want to leave her friend alone. She herself didn't want to be alone. But that was selfish of her. For all she knew, she might dragged her to space oblivion and she wouldn't want that for Moon.
"Yeah. Of course. You're right. What was I thinking," Hermes sounded defeated. Her eyes were closed but she could see Moon's smile as she spoke.
"You were thinking with your dead heart."
Hermes laughed. It was rare for Moon to make a joke out of her miserable predicament. Unfortunately, their laughters were short-lived when a gruff voice yelled at them.
"Ladies!"
All the occupants in the Red Chamber stopped what they were doing and gave the man a curt nod, an act of respect for their Head Office.
"Enough with your girly talk! We come here to work!" Unspeakable Seal made his way to them in no time. His long legs strode straight to Moon and he took the tied scroll off her hand.
She scowled at him. Hermes noticed he came with two different colour folders in his hand; black and red.
"Unspeakable Hermes, Unspeakable Moon," he greeted them and they all nodded to each other.
"Everything's ready here. Just step into the circle and put this Mandrake leaf in your mouth to avoid any unwanted ailments. It will put you in a trance instead. Don't swallow it! You might stuck in coma if you're lucky." Seal said at full tilt.
"Lucky? What if she's unlucky?" Moon was suddenly stood beside Hermes.
"Well, Unspeakable Moon, if Unspeakable Hermes gets unlucky, she will be one useless dead meat. Now drink this." Seal passed a vial filled with yellowish coloured juice. "It's Mandrake roots juice. It will hold your body up, stopping your body from undergoing limbs misplacement during your crossing."
"Still want to do this?" Moon whispered.
Hermes jumped into the circle as her answer. Moon, being a responsible adult she was, stuck her tongue out at her.
"Right. Now. This black folder contains of documents and letters. There are three letters in total. For Albus Dumbledore, for Minerva McGonagall, and for your surrogate family. The letters will explain your predicament to them, with singe of the Unspeakable Office of Department of Mysteries." He pointed the upper left corner of the letters where the singe waxed on. "They will also be sealed with magicked wax that can only be opened by the intended. Make sure you're there when they read it so you can burn it once they finished. We don't want to take any risk, Hermes." Seal waved three letters above his head so Hermes could see them.
"Moving on! These documents are of important events, provided by ours truly, Department of History of Magic.ー " The women snorted. " ーThey provided us with dates, locations, persons involved, list of Death Eaters, number of deaths, and curses used. Pictures and maps are included. What the fuck?!"
He shuffled the three sheets documents irritably. "Preparations at its best… Bullshit! You're on your own, Unspeakable Hermes. Their notes help shit!" He threw the black folder indignantly to Hermes and it conked her forehead.
"Seal, you fucker!" She rubbed her forehead. She didn't curse as much but when someone knew where to push, she would do the honour with passion.
"This red folder will be magicked only can be opened by you alone. This folder contains documents for your existence out there. But first, you need Albus to make them official for you. So it is very important for you to see him first before you ventured out into the Muggle World." He wrote 'IMPORTANT' on all said documents with red ink.
"And of course, your Unspeakable identification badge. Stay as low as possible before the war." Seal closed the folder with his only hand and threw it to Hermes.
This time her auror-trained reflex caught it mid air with one hand. She looked at the man smugly.
"You need to change, Hermes. You can't be seen with this new Unspeakable robe," Moon said with her matter-of-fact tone. "They might mistaken you for a Death Eater."
The Unspeakable and Auror's robe was designed purposely to look like the Death Eater's. It purpose was to make it easier for them to hunt and sneak in.
Moon pushed Hermes' robe down.
"What are you going to do about your scars, Hermes?" Seal asked her as she straightened her plain white tee.
Hermes shrugged. The short sleeve tee exposed the scars on her neck and her arms.
"Not going to hide it, Seal. I love my scars too much. Furthermore, it will aid in my story telling session, don't you think? A kind of proof that I came from this never ending fucked up war."
She snorted when Moon passed her a pair of pink flat. "Let's at least do this in style, shall we?" She winked at Moon and stuck with her black stiletto.
"But if I must, I'll either wear something to cover it; long sleeves, sweaters, coats, or simply use that Glamour Charm. The one Lavender taught me back in Hogwarts." Hermes put on her long dark blue velvet cloak to support her point.
"That would be better. Muggles can't comprehend that many scars on a lady, Hermes. Glamour those damn arms and neck every time you're out and about. Just to be safe."
Hermes could feel the tingling surge of Seal's magic the moment he put the said Glamour Charm on her whole body. His paranoia could compete with Moody's, she thought.
"You look beautiful, love," Moon said as she assessed Hermes' look from top to bottom. Her silver hair along with her pale skin made her one brown eye and the blue velvet cloak contrasted beautifully.
"What is it with you women and fashion? It's not even practical! How do you run in that pointy shoes?" Seal complained scandalously.
Both women rolled their eyes and walked to the centre of the circle. Moon pulled down her hood to have a good look of Hermes one last time.
"This is it. This will change everything, Hermes. You have dozens of life on your shoulder. A big task for a small woman! I hate to let you go, but you're right. You are the best choice," Moon paused to cup her face with both hands and kissed her lips soundly, Hermes could feel her trembling lips, she could feel her fears in their kiss.
"There's so many things I want to say, Hermes. So many thank yous and so many sorrys." She chocked on tears. "You're going to meet the dead, Hermes. Please don't lose your sanity, and stay as strong, and as true as the woman you are. Show them not to mess with the brightest witch of our age!"
Hermes laughed.
"But most of all, I want you to be happy. I see it in your eyes, Hermes. Those sadness, loneliness, guiltiness, let it all go. Please. You are literally starting your life anew. This is your second chance of happiness. Be happy. Know for a fact, your friends, even Seal, wants you to be happy. To live your life."
Hermes shut her eyes as she nuzzled her cheek into Moon's dirty blonde hair.
Seal started with the incantation. The written runes now glowed in golden light, blinding them all. He unrolled the scroll from before and muttered the complicated spell to activate their very own creation, the Time Portal.
"Just say the password whenever you're ready, kid. The Crossing will be activated at once," Seal smiled at her softly.
Hermes looked at him with teary eyes and mouthed "Thank you". She tilted Moon's face up, kissing both her cheeks, her forehead, and her lips. She pushed her out of the circle with tender.
"I love you, Luna."
"I love you too, Hermione."
"And, I love you too, old man."
"Shut up! Just go already!" Seal rubbed his face, hiding his teary eyes.
Hermione smiled at them one last time.
"V be damned!" Hermes yelled.
"V be damned!" Echoed Luna, Seal, and other Unspeakables who were present in the Red Chamber.
The golden light swirled around her body. She could feel her energy draining slowly. She clamped her lips tighter so her Mandrake leaf stayed put.
The last thing she saw was Luna fell on her knee, crying uncontrollably.