Chapter 166: Timeless by alexandra_emerson (Harry Potter)
*HermionexDraco*
Summary: Draco breaks a time turner and starts jumping around in time (very similar to the premise of the Time Traveler's Wife). At first when he sees he's married to Hermione in the future, he's horrified and fights against it any way he can. But the love he sees in the future is unlike anything he'd ever imagined for himself. Meanwhile, his future self is coming to the past to charm Hermione.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27061102?view_full_work=true
Word count:324k(COMPLETE)
Chapters: 50
Chapter 1
Present Time: January 2000 / Draco's Time: Same as present
Draco Malfoy
The wind was howling outside and began to rattle the windowpanes. Draco looked up from the desk and watched the grey sky. He guessed it would be snowing by the time he left the Manor.
He hadn't checked the weather in London before he left, since he'd apparated from his flat directly to inside the Manor, but he wondered if it would be snowing there too. He'd planned to visit Diagon Alley to get a few items to restock his potions stores after helping his father, but would skip that errand today, if there was a storm.
He focused back on the objects laid out on the desk before him. The sooner he finished cataloguing these, the quicker he could leave.
Draco and his father were still on probation for the role they'd played in the war. In addition to notifying the Auror office anytime they left England and attending bi-annual check-ins, Draco and Lucius had been tasked with purging Malfoy Manor of all dark artifacts. They'd spent months combing through the house and were finally on the last few items.
They attempted to identify them and ward them before turning them over, but in some instances, the item was so arcane that neither Draco, nor his father, could figure out what it did. In those cases, they left it alone and called the Aurors to pick it up - aware of how dangerous it was to handle an unknown dark object.
Draco didn't mind the quiet hours with his father but would still be glad to see the task finally done. Astoria would be happy too. She was constantly complaining that he had to spend most of his weekends away at the Manor. She'd offered to come help a few times, but he'd refused. It was too dangerous, which was why his mother wasn't in here either.
Draco felt for his wand to confirm it was close in case any of the dark objects went off. It was in an inside pocket, so he moved it to an outside pocket that would be more accessible, then went back to one of the reference books he was using to identify the objects. The current one, which looked like a black, over-large sextant, had stumped him for almost an hour.
"Do you have any idea what this is?" Draco eventually asked his father.
Lucius looked up from his book and focused on the unknown object. "Isn't that used for star charting?"
Draco sighed, "No, it just looks like a sextant. It doesn't have any of the right markings, though." Draco carefully moved the unknown object to the side and went to grab the next object. He studied it for a moment, then froze when he recognized what it was.
A time turner.
He'd read that all the time turners in Britain had been destroyed following the war, but here one was, clearly missed. He figured that was the point of the Ministry demanding a cleanup of all the old pureblood estates. They must know there were plenty of objects left out there that could cause harm.
Draco studied the object, then noted there were different rings for years, months, and days. He spun the hourglass to line up with the ring for years, then slowly started turning it, counting in his mind and thinking how incredible it would feel to be able to travel back in time.
1999, he thought. This last year was an awful year. He'd been extremely depressed and had cut himself off from all his friends. The biggest thing of note that happened in the year was that he worked up the courage to apologize to Harry Potter.
Then, just a few months ago, he'd finally moved into his own flat in London and started dating Astoria. He admitted the year hadn't been an entire waste, though he would never choose to go back and relive it.
He spun the hourglass another turn.
1998. The year Harry Potter nearly lost, then, unbelievably, defeated the Dark Lord. Then Draco and his parents stood trial and barely escaped with their freedom.
No thanks, he thought as he turned the hourglass a third time.
1997. He didn't even bother stopping on that year. The year Dumbledore died and the Dark Lord moved into his house. Absolutely not. Draco was beginning to rethink his initial fascination with time travel.
1996. That year was shit too. He'd taken his Dark Mark and been terrified all year that the Dark Lord was going to kill his mother.
1995. Draco paused. This year was decent. Before his father went to jail, that is. That bint Umbridge had run the school and although she had been annoying as hell, she'd favored the Slytherins.
1994. The year Diggory died, that was depressing. And having to watch Potter excel in the Triwizard tournament - that had not been Draco's best year.
1993. This was the best so far, Draco reasoned, as he began to turn the hourglass a seventh time. There was the incident with the hippogriff, but it wasn't so bad. The Dark Lord was gone, his father wasn't a nervous wreck-
Draco's thoughts cut off as he remembered his father. He looked over to find him watching Draco with a curious expression on his face. When he saw Draco looking at him Lucius asked, with a hint of amusement, "Considering time travel?"
Draco shook his head, but still asked, "Which way is backward?"
His father squinted to get a better look at the object, then started to say, "The other-"
Before he could finish his statement, many things happened at once. The wind finally burst through the window and the sextant-type thing and a few other objects fell to the ground. As soon as they hit the wooden floor a large, black hole filled with stars appeared in the room and Draco felt a pressure like all the air was being sucked out of the room.
Every piece of glass in the parlor shattered, including the time turner in Draco's hand. The shards of the time turner seemed to burrow into his palm and he winced at the pain and saw a nasty cut appear there. He dropped the time turner instinctively then flung himself to the ground, narrowly avoiding a large shard of glass that was swirling around the room toward the hole.
He looked over at his father who was also on the ground, grasping behind him for his wand, which was just out of reach. He saw a flash of something against the bookshelf that seemed familiar, but before he could place it, he disappeared.
Present Time: March 2006 / Draco's Time: January 2000
Draco appeared in a garden outside an unfamiliar house. He guessed from the style of the homes around him he was in London, but he had no way to be sure. Draco looked around and was instantly alarmed by the still, dark sky.
Where had he Apparated to? It had been midday the last he remembered, and it wasn't possible to Apparate to any locations with a six-hour time difference. So maybe he'd passed out, then Apparated?
Draco shook his head, unsure what was going on. He strained his ears, but except for the faint sounds from the street, it was quiet. He patted his robes for his wand before pulling it out, but he was unsure which spell to cast.
He noticed then his hand was still bleeding from where the time turner had broken and he quickly healed it with a spell. Then, he checked for wards and found a faint outline around the edge of the garden. Okay, so this was a wizard's house.
Draco cast a quick Hominem Revelio spell to check the house for inhabitants and found that there was one person inside. He let out a sigh of relief. He could likely take on one person. As long as it wasn't anyone incredibly powerful.
Draco made his way to the door of the house, then hesitated outside for a few moments before trying the knob and finding the door unlocked. He slowly turned the knob, opened the door, and found himself in a kitchen.
There was something in a pot on the stove that smelled incredible, but the sight confused Draco. This kitchen was mostly Muggle. He didn't know anyone with a kitchen like this. Whose house was this?
He crept further into the house down a long hallway and stopped at the sight of Hermione Granger at the end of the hall standing next to a flight of stairs.
Her face was fuller than he remembered, but then again, he hadn't seen her in years, with the exception of brief glimpses on the street. And then, even when he had last seen her, he'd never taken the time to properly look at her.
She stepped closer to him and her eyes widened, then turned sad. She burst into tears and collapsed on the ground, dropping the empty vase she'd been carrying.
Draco looked around, alarmed, but they were alone. She must have been reacting to seeing him. But this didn't make any sense. He knew she hated him, but shouldn't she be yelling? Not crying.
Draco approached her slowly and used his wand to repair the vase and levitate it onto a side table before crouching down next to her.
"Uh, Granger? What happened?" She kept sobbing and had started shaking her head.
"Do you need something? Or someone?" Draco asked.
Granger finally looked up at Draco and began to wipe her eyes. When Draco looked back at her, the tenderness he saw in her gaze drilled down to his core. He stopped breathing, and time stood still as he became lost in her large, brown, and sad, but caring eyes.
Before Draco could place the odd feeling, she flung herself at him. He tried to push her off, but it was futile, so instead he remained completely still and let her hug him as they both knelt on the ground.
Draco placed his hands on her arms and tried again to push her off, but she tightened her grip on him so he sighed and gave up. He began rubbing his hands comfortingly up and down her arms before he realized what he was doing and pulled them away.
"I love you, Draco," Granger started to say and he felt her breath against his neck. "I know you have no idea what's going on, but I love you, I love you, I love you."
He finally managed to push her back so he could see her face and asked, "What do you know? What is going on?"
"It was worth it," she continued, ignoring Draco's questions. "All the tears, all the fights, the uncertainty. All of it. I'd do it all again."
Draco felt tears sting his eyes as he witnessed this desperate sadness and he looked away from her. His gaze scanned the room again. He was sure she couldn't possibly be talking to him, but she was saying his name.
"Who are you talking to, Granger?"
She ignored him again. "You asked me once who I love most."
Draco looked back at her confused, but she continued anyway. "All of them. I love you regardless of the time, or your memories, or whatever is going on around us." She placed her palm against his heart. "I love your soul, Draco. Even now. I know you hate me."
She paused to give him a sad smile. "And maybe you think this is a bit repulsive."
Draco thought to himself that that was the last thing he was feeling, though he remained still.
"But I still love you, and I promise I'll never stop."
The look in Granger's eye was intense now and Draco thought he'd crumble under the weight of it. He crawled back out of her reach and stood up. "You're not making any sense, Granger. I don't know what you're trying to do here, but I don't want any part of it."
He took his wand out of his robes and started to turn on the spot. She seemed to realize, belatedly, that he meant to leave. "No, don't go, I-"
Draco Disapparated back to his flat, but as soon as he appeared in the main room, he knew it was wrong. None of the furniture was his, but it seemed familiar. Before he could place it, Blaise walked into the room.
"Draco?" When Blaise saw him, his eyes widened and turned sad, which had been Granger's exact reaction. He wondered if Blaise was going to start crying and babbling too, but he remained still.
"What are you doing in my flat, Blaise?"
Before he could answer, Draco heard a woman's voice call indistinctly from the bedroom. Draco rolled his eyes and turned again, not wanting to talk to this odd Blaise or his slag. He Apparated to his bedroom in Malfoy Manor and was relieved to find it empty.
He walked around and noticed the fire was recently used and the room was warm. It was also clean. When he'd visited his room last, it had been covered with a layer of dust. Had he been expected?
Draco eyed the door, but decided to stay in the room, not wanting to know what he'd find outside. He climbed into the bed and watched the second hand go by on the clock. An hour later, he disappeared again.
Present Time: January 2000 / Draco's Time: Same as present
The next place Draco appeared in was a bed. It was daytime again and he could see a cloudy grey sky out of the window to his right. He sighed and sat up, leaning against the headboard. He was in the Manor, but not in his bedroom. He was in one of the countless spare rooms.
Draco checked his robes for his wand and it was still tucked in the pocket where he'd stowed it after arriving back in his bedroom after seeing Blaise. The door flew open and his mother rushed in and he felt her cold hands on his face, then she was casting diagnostic spells on him.
"Mother? What happened?"
"There was an accident," she muttered as she checked the diagnostic readings being projected from her wand.
Draco thought back to the black hole in the parlor. So, that had certainly been real. He saw his father in the doorway but his expression was clouded by shadow. "Father?"
His father moved closer to the bed and Draco was surprised to find his expression blank, like he was using Occlumency. Draco cast his mind back to the explosion - or, implosion? Glass had been swirling around the room and his father had been reaching for his wand.
He studied his father then, but he seemed fine, so he'd made it out okay. Had he disappeared to? Draco guessed if he had, he probably hadn't ended up with Hermione Granger clutching him and telling him she loved him.
"You're, uh, okay?" Draco asked his father tentatively.
His father responded with a curt nod. "You pushed me out of the way. I'm fine."
"I don't remember that…" Draco trailed off.
"It's fine. You're fine now," his mother said, finally standing up now that it seemed Draco wasn't injured.
His father took her spot on the bed and was staring at Draco intently, scanning his body with his eyes. Draco looked back at him questioningly, but his expression was still blank. Once his father was finished with his inspection, he stood and left the room without an explanation for his odd behavior.
Draco stayed at the Manor that night instead of returning to his flat but was not able to sleep. After tossing and turning in bed for hours, he rose to go back to the parlor where the black hole had appeared.
On his way there he saw the light on in his father's study and stepped inside, but the room was empty. The pensieve was out on the desk and Draco wondered what his father had been using it for.
Then, Draco remembered something from the war. His father had once said of Bellatrix, who he'd always hated, "Her delusions are so real to her, they'd probably show up in a pensieve."
Draco had questioned him further, since he hadn't realized hallucinations wouldn't work in a pensieve.
"Yes," his father had said. "It works for memories only. Not dreams or hallucinations. Though there is a theory that if the person believes the false memory to be fact, it may still appear there. That hasn't been proven."
Draco took a deep breath and walked to the edge of the pensieve. He could use this to check whether his memory of Granger and Blaise had been real, or just a hallucination his mind had created after he'd been knocked out in the parlor. He certainly didn't believe it enough for it to appear as a memory if it wasn't one.
Draco pulled his wand out of the pocket of his robe but paused. He didn't know what to do. He'd seen this done many times but had never done it himself. He looked around the desk, then back on the shelf where the pensieve usually sat. That's when he saw the small volume he was looking for: Remembering How to Remember.
Draco flipped through the book until he found the spell to extract memories, then practiced it a few times before going back to the pensieve.
He lifted his wand to his head and thought of the memory of Granger as he touched the wand to his temple and whispered the required incantation. When he lifted his wand away a silver string appeared and he lowered it into the pensieve. Granger's face appeared there and Draco's heart dropped.
Shit, does this mean it's a real memory?
Draco raised his wand again and took another memory out of his head and put it in the pensieve. He'd look at this one first. He took a deep breath and touched his hand to the liquid, then was transported to the parlor.
He watched himself with the time turner and counted the turns. Just over six. He asked his father which way was backward and his father had been responding that it was the opposite way Draco was turning it, when the time turner shattered in his hand.
Draco leaned in and watched the sand from the time turner mix with his blood. He winced, remembering the pain, but when he looked down at his hand now, it was fine.
He looked over at his father and saw him reaching for his wand. He saw something else he hadn't noticed at the time. Three large shards of glass were flying right toward his father, but his father hadn't noticed. He was just focused on getting to his wand.
Draco shouted out, forgetting for a moment that his father couldn't hear, but then the memory ended. He was in the garden now and he watched himself look down at his hand and heal it.
He spoke the incantation to end this memory playback and was thrown back into his father's study. Draco began pacing the room, thinking through what he'd just seen. He'd been turning the time turner forward, just over six turns, when it shattered and burrowed into his hand.
Then, he'd appeared in the garden of that house. The only logical explanation was that he'd time traveled. Probably to a future just over six years forward to match with the turns of the hourglass.
But if that were true, then that meant that six years in the future, he was living in a house with a version of Hermione Granger who claimed to love him. That didn't make any sense.
Draco spotted a bottle of whiskey on the opposite shelf and summoned it, then conjured a small glass and poured himself a shot. He drank it down quickly and winced as the alcohol burned his throat.
He took another shot and waited for the alcohol to work through his system and cause that familiar, tingling feeling before he finally felt ready to face the second memory.
Draco was back in the garden and watched himself approach the house and enter the kitchen. He walked into the hall where Granger was standing. He looked away from her and scanned the room.
On the side table he saw a copy of the Daily Prophet. The date was covered by a pile of mail, but he saw the front page article clearly. New Gringotts Branch Now Open. Draco started and stepped back, then saw memory Draco repairing the vase and crouching down next to Granger.
He knew the goblins were talking about opening a new Gringotts branch, but that project was years off. They still hadn't secured funding.
He turned back to Granger and watched her talk to the memory version of himself. The look on her face was inconceivable. Even if she hadn't been rambling about how much she loved him, he would have known it from how she was looking at him now.
So, in the future, Hermione Granger loves me? I'm sure Astoria will get a kick out of that...
When Draco returned to the study, he took another shot of whiskey and watched both memories again. He left the study, then went to the parlor and started when he saw his father inside, sitting on one of the chairs, lost in thought.
The room was empty and the glass in the windows and bookshelves had been restored. Draco sighed, unsure what he'd been expecting to see. He wondered what had happened to the dark objects.
Lucius nodded at Draco when he finally noticed him, motioning for him to take the seat next to him. Draco sat in the chair and looked back at his father.
"You remember nothing?"
Draco shook his head. "I was holding a time turner. Do you know what happened to it?"
Lucius studied him, then said in a flat voice, "It was destroyed. Everything was destroyed."
Present Time: February 2006 / Draco's Time: March 2000
Two months passed without any strange disappearances and Draco assumed the odd time jump was a one-time thing. He was also convinced that he'd been transported to some type of alternate reality, since there was no logical way he could end up with Hermione Granger. He hadn't seen her in years. How would that even happen?
He was on his way to Flourish and Blotts when he saw a familiar head of brown curly hair approaching the store from the other side of the street. He threw himself against the wall and peered over his shoulder. Granger entered Flourish and Blotts and Draco turned back the other way, deciding to take care of this errand later.
She was the last person he wanted to see right now. Just then, a feeling of vertigo overtook him. His head began to spin and his stomach felt queasy. Draco leaned against the wall to keep from falling over. He looked at his arm and cried out in alarm. It was flickering in and out, like someone had cast a bad invisibility charm on him.
Draco looked around to see if he could spot the spell caster, but he was alone on the street. He took a few deep breaths, trying to regain his composure, and then he disappeared.
The next moment, he was in an empty alley in another part of London. It was snowing and he pulled his cloak up, then peered out of the alley and saw he was on a Muggle street. Draco sighed and returned to the alley to transfigure his outer robe into an overcoat.
He cast a spell to check the date and exhaled heavily as he read the result of the spell. February 20, 2006.
Draco cast the spell three more times, but the date came back the same. He sighed and leaned his head against the cold stone wall. He'd time jumped again. That much was obvious. So, this wasn't just a one-time thing.
Then, Draco's thoughts were drawn back to an odd dream he'd had about a month before. He'd gone to bed late, but when he'd awoken in his flat it was the middle of the day. He'd walked around the flat and noticed a few items out of place, but was exhausted and closed all the shades before returning to bed.
About an hour later he'd been awoken again by a tapping sound on the window. It was his father's owl. He'd removed the letter from the owl's beak and placed it on the table, then returned to bed. When he woke up, it was morning, his flat was back to normal, and the letter was gone.
Draco had written it off as an odd dream at the time, but maybe that had been time travel too. Maybe that was why his flat had seemed off. He wished he'd had the presence of mind to use the date checking spell then.
What the fuck is going on? Is this going to keep happening? And where is my future self? Will I run into him one day?
Draco walked around in the snow for hours, hesitant to return to his flat, since he remembered Blaise seemed to live there now. And he didn't know how to find that house from earlier, where he's seen Granger, though he wouldn't return there even if he could.
When Draco felt the feeling of vertigo again, he counted the time and it was almost a minute exactly before he appeared back in a dark road. He looked around and recognized Diagon Alley. He checked the date - March 7, 2000.
Present Time: March 2000 / Draco's Time: Same as present
Draco walked absently around Diagon Alley for another hour before returning to his flat. When he went to remove his cloak, he was confused to find the clasp missing, then remembered he'd transfigured it into a Muggle overcoat. He turned it back, then dried it since it was still wet from the snow from the other time.
He turned toward his bedroom, but his eye was caught by a letter on the table. He approached it warily and recognized the handwriting on the outside instantly.
Fuck. I wrote this.
Draco's head began to spin and he took a seat on the couch, still eyeing the letter, trying to work up the courage to open it.
As he'd walked the streets of London he'd been trying to figure out what happened to his future self and what would happen if he ran into him. But he'd never considered that his future self was coming back to this time.
Had his future self written that note? Or maybe Draco had written it and forgotten? He dropped his head into his hands.
Fuck.
Well, there was one way to find out. He stood and grabbed the letter, then tore it open and began reading, as if getting it over with quickly would make it easier somehow.
Draco,
It's me, Draco from the future. When I left, I was walking through Muggle London on my way to the grocery store on February 20, 2006.
As I'm sure you've noticed by now, we are afflicted with a time jumping condition that we cannot control. When the time jumps happen, the two Dracos switch places.
It was odd. After I visited the bookstore and checked the date, I thought that maybe I should write you a letter, explaining what was going on. Then I remembered receiving a letter from my future self years ago and figured this was when I wrote it.
It's a strange feeling, when you begin to act out things you remember from your past, but you'll get used to it. The time jumps are random, but typically occur once a month and they last anywhere from three hours to three days.
You will learn to feel them coming and you'll have about a minute to get out of sight before you disappear. Everything you have on you will travel with you, so always make sure to have your wand and a change of clothes.
I recommend practicing with clothing transfiguration now as that will be a very useful skill. Also, start keeping track of the dates and length of the time jumps; you'll want that information later.
And finally, be nice to Hermione Granger.
Good luck. If you can believe it, you'll come to appreciate the time jumping.
-Draco
Draco read the letter a few more times before placing it on the table. He went to his desk, looking for a notebook. He found one he used to track investments and cleared the pages with his wand, opening it to the first page and picking up a quill.
He wrote the details he could remember from his first two time jumps but frowned, wishing again he'd thought to check the future dates. Then, he wrote the dates from his jump from today.
March 7, 2000 to February 20, 2006. Duration: 3 hours. Notes: Walked around the snowy streets of Muggle London.
Draco pushed back from the desk and sighed before going to read the letter one last time. When he reached the line about Granger he frowned. He committed to taking the practical advice from the letter but would ignore the part about her.
He balled up the note and threw it in the fire, but no matter how much he tried to push it from his mind, the image of Granger's face, staring at him lovingly, wouldn't go away.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27061102?view_full_work=true
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