Epilogue: Five Years Later
Black Lake, Scotland, August 20th, 2011
Ron sighed when he left the bathroom. That shower had been just what he needed after his morning run with Hermione.
"Is something wrong? You look tired. Should I reschedule the briefing?"
Ron didn't startle at the sudden interruption but sighed again as he turned to look at the translucent figure standing beside him. "No, Jeanne, I'm just relaxing a little."
"Are you certain? You are usually more alert in the morning. Or... did you and Hermione have a row?"
"No, everything's fine," he told her. "I am sure."
"If you say so." The projection nodded. "If you need assistance, just speak to the picture."
"Yes, I know," he replied as the figure faded from view. And sighed once more.
"Is something wrong?" he heard Hermione ask from the bedroom behind him.
"No," he told her. "Jeanne's just been hovering again."
"Ah." Hermione nodded. "She's still young," she said.
"It's been three months," Ron pointed out as he entered the kitchen and put some bread in the toaster before grabbing the teapot - always hot and ready thanks to a few charms. He ignored Crookshanks's begging - the cat had already been fed, before they started on their morning run around the lake.
"She's still, fundamentally, a portrait. They can't learn things as easily as actual humans. Oh, are you hungry, Crookshanks? Are you? Here! Have a treat!" Hermione fed the little monster, then grabbed The Times from the table and sat down.
Ron grunted and took a seat himself. At least Hermione had limited the new 'Projecting Portrait' to the living room and hallway. If the portrait was able to come into their kitchen - or their bedroom… In hindsight, reverse-engineering the effect that created looped 'ghosts' hadn't been a good idea. Wizarding Fred and wizarding George, of course, would disagree, but you never really realised how annoying a magical 'holographic portrait' could be until you had to live with an overeager one for months.
Well, the students at Hogwarts would know, of course - Hermione's portrait enjoyed being able to project itself out of a painting as well, as did other portraits. And once they figured out how to let such projections manipulate things… Ron was very glad that portraits couldn't cross worlds.
He snorted as he grabbed the Daily Prophet and skimmed the headlines on the front page.
Minister Declines to Comment on Status of Azkaban
Arthur would know better than to touch that. Let the International Committee for the Protection of Magical Creatures sort out that mess. Once they had made up their mind whether or not the site still counted as a reserve after two magical species had - seemingly, in the case of the Firestone Lice - gone extinct on it. Then they could discuss whether or not a memorial would be erected there - and whether or not it should cover the prisoners or the creatures.
"Something funny in the news?" Hermione asked.
"No," he replied. "Just the usual about Azkaban." The ICW and the Ministry had been at it for - literally - years without finding a solution. That the Unspeakables still hadn't - officially - come to a verdict didn't help, of course.
"It's the middle of summer; they're always starved for news," Hermione commented. "Like The Times spending two pages on the 'recovery of the rainforest in the Amazon basin' while avoiding any mention of the change in Brazilian government policy that made said recovery possible. They did the same last year."
Ron nodded. They both knew what was behind this 'change in policy', of course. But that was a touchy subject. He grabbed a fresh slice of toast and started buttering it.
"Any actual news?" Hermione asked.
"No," he replied. "Just the usual rumours, gossip and the sports news."
"Good. I'd hate to leave if there's a crisis in either world." Frowning, she added: "Though I wouldn't mind leaving before Coraker's next recruitment offer arrives."
He nodded in agreement. Unfortunately, the Head of the Department of Mysteries had only grown more insistent on recruiting Hermione after the Fidelius Charms had been cast - he apparently couldn't stand the thought that she was wasting her talent doing unimportant research. At least last year the Ministry had finally closed its investigation into the destruction of Azkaban without results. The rumors were still around, though.
And he had his doubts about whether Hermione minded the recruiting attempts or the rumours as much as she claimed she did - after all, compared to how her reputation as a scientist had all but vanished in Ron's home world, it was quite flattering.
But that was also a subject better left alone.
*****
"I'll fetch the others," Hermione told him when they finished breakfast. "See you in the briefing room."
"Alright."
There was the familiar sound of Disapparation, and he continued clearing the table. Perhaps a projection that could do this would come in handy, he thought. It would feel a little bit like living in the Star Trek universe.
He finished in the kitchen and left their apartment - through the door leading directly to the laboratory. Hermione and Sirius had still beaten him to the briefing room.
"Morning!" Sirius greeted him. "Harry and Ginny send their regards."
"Thanks," Ron replied, taking his usual seat. With the US Open starting soon, Ginny wouldn't risk a trip to another world - she really wanted a second major. And that meant Harry wouldn't come, either - the last time he hadn't shown up at an important tournament, the divorce rumours had flown faster than Ginny's smashes.
That left… ah! The Lunas had appeared in the middle of the room. "Hello!" Luna smiled and waved. "Sorry for being late, we had to treat a wounded bear."
"Oh? It's OK now, I hope?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, yes - we closed the wound. But we still have to keep him for further examination. And Barney must be feeling lonely now," wizarding Luna said. Then she perked up. "He's a brown bear, and your backyard could easily harbour him for a week or two!"
Hermione grimaced. "But we won't be home since we're going on this mission, remember?"
"Oh, right." The witch sighed. "It would've been perfect. Your garden is, after all, a modified habitat - so all we would need to do would be to modify it back!"
Ron frowned a little. This wasn't the first time the Lunas had tried to get them to keep more animals.
"But it wouldn't be good for Crookshanks," Hermione retorted. "He's getting a little old, and he doesn't like major changes. Such as having another animal in his territory."
The little monster was anything but getting old, in Ron's opinion. The cat was just lazy and a glutton. But as long as it kept their extended garden from being turned into an underground animal shelter, he wouldn't contradict Hermione.
"Oh, right." Wizarding Luna nodded. "But you could get him used to the idea by slowly introducing other animals. We've also got a jaguar cub that could use some feline company."
"But they would learn the wrong behaviour from Crookshanks," Ron cut in.
"Crookshanks is a good hunter!" Hermione protested.
"I meant with regard to humans," Ron told her.
"Oh."
Before Luna could attempt another argument to sway Hermione, the door opened and Dumbledore entered. "Sorry - I was delayed by some business. Business business," the old man told them. "A slight dispute about taxes. And also the report from Moscow - Putin continues to show no sign of regaining his memories." He smiled at the Lunas. "Did you receive my latest briefing about the Ugandan government?"
"Oh, yes! It was very helpful, thanks!" Luna beamed at the old spymaster. To see those three working together still seemed weird to Ron. Though he knew that Dumbledore's intel had been responsible for the Lunas' success in Brazil. At least Dumbledore was using his influence on the two Lunas to restrain them somewhat. And, hopefully, keep them from doing anything rash, like an uncontrolled growth of the Amazonian rainforest.
"Right. Let's get started then," Hermione said. "We're about to enter a new world. Preliminary excursions by autonomous drones looked promising. The world has a breathable atmosphere, the same climate as we have here, and not much pollution as far as we can tell. No pathogens either, according to our analysis. Background radiation indicates no or very few nuclear tests. We didn't detect any radio transmissions, though. Nor did we spot any structures at Hogwarts' location."
Ron nodded. He already knew that.
"So… another 'virgin earth'?" Sirius asked. "Can we call it Mary this time?"
"No," Hermione told him with a glare. "However, it might be another world devoid of human life. There's no way to tell until we've covered more of it."
And it would be better not to leave that to drones.
"Perhaps it's a world where everyone's a wizard or witch!" Sirius suggested with a grin.
"Perhaps," Hermione said - in a tone that showed she didn't think so. "So we'll go through the portal and explore the surrounding area which hasn't been covered by the drones."
Using drones could potentially alert the residents to their presence by their radio transmissions - they had learned that the hard way in that world where the Cold War hadn't ended in 1989. And where the Black Lake was a top secret military installation.
"So… tank time?" Sirius asked with a wide grin.
"Tank time!" wizarding Luna agreed.
"We'll take our
transport with us, of course," Hermione sort-of-agreed. "But I stress: This is just a short scouting mission to establish a baseline and get a picture of the area around the portal in the new world."
"Yes, yes." Sirius nodded.
"And to take biological samples," Luna said.
"The mission objectives can be adjusted, of course, if the situation should warrant it," Dumbledore added. "But discretion is paramount at this stage."
"No blowing up the local's holy rocks, got it," Sirius said - much too flippantly for someone who might do exactly that, in Ron's opinion.
"Then let's go," Hermione said.
*****
Of course, they couldn't go immediately - they had to wait while Hermione prepared the ritual in the main portal room, then wait some more while she performed it. It wasn't as if they could keep the portal open around the clock, like they did with the portal to Hermione's world in the secondary portal room. An unknown world? With the portal opening to an unsecured location? That would be asking for trouble. Trouble that they might not be able to handle.
*Did you add another room?" Sirius asked, looking around. "I think it took us a little longer to reach the portal room than last time."
"Not to my knowledge," Ron replied, glancing at wizarding Luna. She had promised not to add any more rooms without asking first, and he hadn't noticed anything different, anyway.
"It's a veritable bunker complex now," Sirius went on. "I think we could fit my entire old regiment in here, tanks and all, with everyone having a room of their own, and we'd still have room to spare!"
Ron snorted. It wasn't that big, but it came close. And having as much space available as you wanted came in handy, at times. Like when it came to housing all the generators that powered the portal rooms.
Magic made so many things easy. It allowed Ron to carry enough weapons and ammunition on him to fight a war for years, and Sirius to carry a tank in his pocket.
And they might need all of those weapons if this world turned out to be as dangerous as the Cold War World, as Ron had dubbed it - Hermione called it 'Earth-4'. "Let's hope that this is going to be a milk run."
"Another virgin earth would be great," wizarding Luna said. "Perhaps one where dinosaurs survived? Imagine if we could get a T-Rex!"
And Ron had thought that giving the Lunas access to megafauna - on Earth-3, as Hermione had labelled the virgin Earth they had found first, a number of species extinct in this world had survived, which strengthened the theory that humans had hunted them to extinction - was the worst they had to fear. "I doubt that you could convince anyone that dinosaurs survived on a remote island or valley," he told her.
"It worked with the Haast's Eagle and the moa," Luna replied.
"Several top scientists still think either species is the result of genetic engineering," Ron pointed out. And he strongly suspected that wizarding Luna had influenced the scientists supporting the theory that the two species had genuinely survived in a remote part of the islands.
"Obviously delusional conspiracy theorists," Luna said.
Ron gaped at her. Did she just…?
"But we could go that way with the dinosaurs!" wizarding Luna added, smiling widely. "We'll claim that we cloned them, like in Jurassic Park. Just without the dinosaurs eating people, of course - that wouldn't be good for their digestion; they aren't used to humans."
Ron could never tell how serious wizarding Luna was being, but this time she had to be joking. "Well, we don't know yet if there are any dinosaurs. And if we find any, odds are they won't be the dinosaurs we know about." He grinned. "They might've evolved into giant chickens!"
Both Lunas frowned at him. "Don't crush our dreams, Ron!" Luna scolded him. "Sooner or later we'll find dinosaurs!"
"I don't think that's how probability works," Ron told her. "So far, all the worlds had the same geological age."
"So far," wizarding Luna said.
"And it takes Hermione a long time to connect to a new world," he pointed out.
"The time she needs to find a new world and connect to it is growing shorter, though. Soon we'll have a world per month, I think." Wizarding Luna smiled. "Which means more chances to find dinosaurs!"
"Why don't you just transfigure birds into dinosaurs and enlarge them?" Ron asked.
"What? That would be
cheating!" Wizarding Luna glared at him. "Daddy taught me better than that."
"Yes," Luna chimed in. "You can't just make up new animals like that. Well, you could, but it would be fraud."
Ron shook his head. Whenever he thought he understood the two of them… "Anyway, how much longer?"
"About an hour," wizarding Luna replied at once. "Unless Hermione's found a way to further optimise the ritual."
She hadn't. And he knew exactly how long the ritual took. But he also wanted to change the subject.
"I wouldn't mind riding a dinosaur, fake or not," Dumbledore cut in. Of course he would want the subject to continue - the old man was already far too close to the Lunas, in Ron's opinion.
"Well, we could probably conjure one, if we studied it enough," wizarding Luna said. "Or if we studied a dragon. They're similar to dinosaurs, just magical, you know - but they're not related."
"Oh, to ride a dragon!" Dumbledore sighed, then grinned. "I think that might even convince Gellert to join us on one of these expeditions."
Ron doubted that - the old German was usually far too cautious to risk life and limb like that.
*****
Ron watched as the portal appeared and flickered a few times before stabilising. He checked the computer display next to him. "Power demand is stable," he said. "And within expected parameters."
"It better be," he heard Hermione mutter as she left the ritual circle. "My calculations are correct."
Ron left the waiting room - or the control room, as Hermione liked to call it - and joined her in the portal room, followed by the others. "Any trouble?"
"No. Everything went as expected," she replied, running a hand through her hair, which had come loose during the ritual. Sighing, she pulled it back into a ponytail, fixing it with a conjured scrunchie.
Wizarding Luna was already peering at the portal, not bothered by the weapons aimed at it, and, since she was in front of it, at her. Ron had stopped asking what she was doing - she couldn't actually see through the portal. Not without the drone that Luna was starting up.
And here it came. The hovering drone, trailing a glass fibre cable, flew a circle around the waving wizarding Luna and vanished through the portal. Ron joined the others with Lina, staring at the screen in front of her. It showed the forest they had seen before.
"Nothing's tried to eat Ms Drone," Luna stated the obvious. "Good."
"It means whatever animals might be present aren't hungry," her counterpart added.
"Or they can tell a machine from an edible organism," Hermione corrected them.
"If you have the right digestion system, anything is edible," wizarding Luna retorted.
"Well, it does look safe. Safe-ish," Sirius said. "Let's go?"
"All readings are in the safe range," Hermione said after checking another screen. "I guess we can risk stepping through."
Ron nodded and stepped up to the portal. A last check of his fatigues and webbing as well as his enchanted ballistic vest - everything was in order. Not exactly the most peaceful sight, should he stumble upon any natives, but better safe than sorry.
"A small step for you, a huge step for dinosaurs!" wizarding Luna said
"The vegetation doesn't match the time of the dinosaurs," Hermione told her.
"Going in," Ron said, before taking a deep breath and stepping through the portal, dragging a fibre cable behind him.
The slight unease turned into slight nausea - quite a strong reaction, he noticed, for someone with his experience with portals. He ignored the slight urge to vomit and looked around, hand on his gun.
It looked like a normal forest in Scotland. No sign of megafauna - no huge claw marks on any of the trees, at least. Or a path of uprooted trees as wide as a highway. Still… he pulled a rifle out of his pocket. "Looks normal and safe, but I've got a bad feeling about this," he told the others through his communicator.
"Is there enough space for the tank?" Sirius asked.
Ron looked around, "Barely, but yes."
"Coming through!" Sirius appeared out of the portal and almost collapsed. "Ugh…" He held his stomach. "That's far worse than I expected."
"Hermione theorised that the greater the differences between worlds, the more pronounced the nausea is," Ron told him.
"Well, that would explain why I feel worse than when I first stepped through a portal." Sirius shook his head. "OK, let's deploy our tank!" He reached into one of his belt's pouches and pulled out a tiny tank. "Fly, my precious!" he called out as he threw it into the air.
Ron took a few steps back as the tank rapidly grew to its real size while floating a foot above the ground. He trusted magic, and the tank's enchantments had proven their worth and safety many times, but… it was still a tank appearing in mid-air.
No sane person liked standing beneath that kind of thing.
Of course, Sirius was already climbing up the still descending ramp.
Ron shook his head and pushed the button on his microphone. "The tank's been deployed."
"Coming!" Luna stepped through the portal, followed by her counterpart, and both stumbled almost in sync. "Oh… I feel as if I had eaten too much dessert," Luna said.
"Yes…" wizarding Luna agreed.
Then Hermione appeared behind them, stumbling a little, but otherwise not showing any reaction - just like Dumbledore. The old man nodded. "A slightly more noticeable transition than usual."
Hermione was kneeling, but only to set up a radio relay connected to the base by a cable running through the portal. Once they deemed it safe enough - or in an emergency - they would be able to contact the others in the laboratory. Provided this world's United Kingdom didn't react to unknown radio transmissions in restricted areas with a volley of anti-radiation missiles.
He shook his head again. They would've picked up radio transmissions by now. Unless this world was so technologically advanced that no one used radio any more. Which would be… probably dangerous, but Ron would really love to visit such a world. Science fiction, but no longer fiction...
"Come on, Ron! We're about to take off!" Luna yelled at him from inside the tank.
"Coming." The ramp started to slowly close as soon as he stepped on to it, but he was used to such antics and easily climbed inside and made his way to the driver's - or pilot's - seat. "Ready for take-off," he reported over the intercom once he was buckled in.
"Take us up!" Sirius replied.
Ron pushed the altitude controls up, and the tank rose up until it passed through the canopy above - breaking off a few branches in the process.
"It looks like the drone pictures," Hermione said. "Just an empty spot where Hogwarts would be."
"Looks like a virgin earth." All the worlds with humans - though they only had visited three so far - had had a man-made structure on this spot. Hermione had a theory about that, but she needed more data to confirm it, or so she claimed.
"Fly us over it anyway," she told him. "Just to check."
Ron did so, flying at a slow pace over the treetops, then over the lake, towards where the castle would have been.
And suddenly, ruins appeared in front of him.
"Oh! There's Hogwarts! But I only see ruins!" he exclaimed. "The Muggle-Repelling Charms must be active."
"No," Hermione said in a strangely soft voice. "I can see the ruins as well."
Oh. "But that…"
"There were active spells that hid the castle… the ruins… from us before we crossed the wardline. But no Muggle-Repelling Charms," Hermione went on. Ron thought he heard someone sob over the intercom, but he wasn't certain.
"Do you think this was the work of muggles?" Sirius asked. "A modern witch hunt? Or a siege?"
"I can't tell from up here," Hermione replied. "But the destruction doesn't seem to be the result of modern weapons. I don't see craters."
"A few well-placed explosives could bring down the castle," Dumbledore said. "If a saboteur managed to sneak inside…"
Of course Dumbledore would consider that. He probably had been on such missions.
"We'll find out. Take us down!" Hermione snapped.
Ron slowly guided the tank down, to hover over the remains of the courtyard. "Can you see anything?" He couldn't see anything on the screen - the mirror - which was enchanted to show what was below them.
"Something's moving in the remains of the Astronomy Tower," Luna reported.
"On it!" Sirius replied, and Ron heard the turret swing around.
"Don't shoot! It's an owl!" wizarding Luna yelled. "And another!"
And indeed - half a dozen owls appeared, leaving the ruins of the broken tower to fly around the tank.
"Native species," Hermione said. "Are they post owls?"
"They don't seem to be afraid of humans - or tanks," wizarding Luna replied. "But that could be simple curiosity. We need to show them a letter to see if they have the instincts of a post owl!"
Ron suppressed the urge to question the witch. She was the expert on magical creatures, after all. Still...
"The presence of owls, presumably resting and nesting in the ruins, might indicate that no large predators are present," Hermione said.
"Unless the large predator likes owls. Or doesn't like how they taste," wizarding Luna told them. "Some creatures are very finicky eaters. Some only eat humans. Vampires, for example."
And wasn't that reassuring?
"I don't think we'll be meeting any vampires in broad daylight," Sirius commented.
"Unless they manage to hide from it," Hermione replied. "The castle might be in ruins, but the dungeons might've survived. And there are other dangerous magical creatures who could hide down there."
"Should I move to a higher altitude?" Ron asked.
"No, no. It seems safe enough here - as long as we're cautious," Hermione told him.
"I'll keep the gun ready!" Sirius announced. "If we need to, I can reduce the entire castle to rubble."
He wasn't wrong, Ron knew - with the enchantments on the tank's main gun, Sirius could fire it almost constantly and at a much higher rate of fire than possible without magic until the cooling charms on the barrel were overwhelmed. Which took a long time - they had tested that, of course.
"Alright," Ron said as he unbuckled himself. "But let's be cautious." Exploring the ruins of a magical castle - it sounded like a fantasy game. But one where you could easily die.
He moved to the back of the tank, where the ramp was. Hermione was already there, as were the Lunas. "I'll take point."
Hermione nodded, drawing her wand. She would be right behind him, of course. He knew better than to ask her to stay behind. And they needed a witch with them.
But not two. One had to stay in the tank. Wizarding Luna knew that but still pouted.
Shaking his head, Ron let the ramp descend and stepped out of the tank. The ground felt normal under his boots - and the grass reacted as grass would when stepped on. It didn't cry out or change colour or try to strangle him.
Ron quickly walked around the tank. He didn't see anything dangerous, and nothing attacked him. "The protections are… spotty," Hermione said, following him as she waved her wand. "Some spells are missing, despite being crucial for protecting the castle. Then there are a slew of non-essential spells. And yet some obvious spells are missing."
Ron was tempted to make a joke about people having different views of what was crucial, but that would've been stupid. Life was a harsh teacher, so people tended to learn what was crucial and what wasn't. Wizards and witches were no exception.
Hermione suddenly disapparated and reappeared five yards away. "No Anti-Apparition Jinxes." She flicked her wand. "But the walls are enchanted to be more durable… it's a weak enchantment, though. No…" She suddenly frowned. "It's fading. But… how could that be?"
Ron narrowed his eyes at the corner of a broken wall nearby. "Take a look at that," he said, pointing at the cornerstone.
Hermione followed him, then frowned. "What…" She trailed off.
"Half of the stone is withered and covered with moss, the other half is pristine," he told her.
"That's… Did they cast the same enchantment twice, on the same stone, and it only took on one half each? And had one be cast by a student and another by a master?" Hermione shook her head. "That's… shoddy spell-casting doesn't even begin to describe this. I don't actually know how this could work - you can't just enchant parts of a whole like that. Not with the spells I see here."
"Perhaps they found a way around that? Or perhaps magic works differently in this world?" Ron speculated.
Hermione shook her head, almost violently. "Impossible. If it worked differently, our spells wouldn't have worked. The tank wouldn't have unshrunk as smoothly as it did. Or flown. The portal wouldn't have connected to the world in the first place. No, this is impossible, and yet it happened. How?"
Ron shrugged. Sometimes, his ideas were right on the money, sometimes they weren't.
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out," Hermione answered her own question.
She waved her wand around, casting more spells. "It's the same for most of the courtyard here." Looking around, she added: "We need to check the Great Hall. Its remains," she corrected herself. "Then the dungeons."
"And the towers," Ron added. Two of the towers still rose above ground level. Not by much - one and two stories, respectively - but they might contain clues.
"Yes. But the Great Hall first."
Hermione turned round, her eyes darting about, then quickly marched towards one of the bigger piles of rubble.
Ron hoped that their magic worked - digging up all those broken stones and other debris wouldn't be fun.
"Oh! They do like letters!" wizarding Luna exclaimed. "Post owl instincts!"
Ron turned around and saw that she was standing on the ramp and waving an envelope at the owls. Half a dozen of them were flying around her and trying to grab it. When she released it, the owls briefly fought each other until the largest flew away with the envelope in its grasp to the top of a nearby tower.
But there it stayed.
"To whom did you address the letter?" Hermione asked, turning back towards the tank.
"You," wizarding Luna replied. "But it seems they can't read. Hey!" she yelled at the tall owl and pointed at Hermione. "That's Hermione!"
The owl remained sitting, however.
"Could it be an untrained post owl? Never learned how to handle letters?" Ron suggested.
"A post owl needs very little training - its magic and instincts ensure that they know how to and can deliver letters and parcels. Most training is in the small details - delivery times, how to avoid muggles and so on," wizarding Luna explained.
"Curious," Dumbledore remarked, using binoculars to study the owl. "It could also be a magpie-like instinct, though I would expect the owl to carry the letter to its nest in that case."
"Or it's just a curious bird," Hermione said.
"A wild bird that doesn't show any fear of humans?" Ron asked. "What if they've never seen a human in their lives?"
"They still should have the instincts of a wild animal," wizarding Luna replied.
"Well, why don't we examine the Great Hall's remains?" Hermione suggested. "Perhaps we'll find some clues there."
"Indeed." Dumbledore stepped off the ramp and joined them. He wasn't holding a weapon, but Ron knew that the old man's pockets were stuffed with an arsenal of the best and deadliest both Phoenix Gruppe and the retired boffins from the SIS he had hired could build.
Not that Ron minded having more firepower and options. Certainly not when standing in the ruins of a magic school in another world.
As it turned out, magic did work just like back home. Hermione had no trouble levitating most of the rubble and checking for anything buried underneath. Such as the remains of plates and silverware.
But they found neither.
"Whatever happened didn't happen during a meal," Hermione said.
"Although it seems that this area was also affected by whatever caused the phenomenon you are so determined to investigate," Dumbledore added, pointing at the remains of a table.
Either someone had taken a saw to it and cut it in half following a wavy, meandering pattern, or magic had gone screwy.
"This is…" Hermione shook her head again. "The other parts
rotted away, yet this part is untouched."
"As if someone took an eraser tool and randomly moved it through a 3D object on a computer," Ron commented.
"With magic, that might be a more precise comparison than you would expect," Dumbledore replied.
"Well, we could search the rest of the ruins that are above ground - or we could look for the dungeons," Hermione said.
"What about the towers?"
"They are above ground, and at least partially open to the elements," Dumbledore pointed out. "We might have more luck finding anything that survived whatever catastrophe befell this school in the catacombs."
Hermione was already walking to a particularly tall heap of rubble, swishing her wand. If modern archaeologists saw the way she was carelessly moving the rubble, they would be appalled, Ron knew. But he didn't want to wait a year for someone to carefully remove the rubble using tweezers, either.
"Ah!" Hermione smiled with evident satisfaction as she finally unearthed the remains of some stairs leading down into a dark but obviously at least partially intact basement.
A dungeon.
"I'll take point," Ron said.
"Wait." Hermione stopped him with a raised hand. "There could be curses on the stairs."
"Together, then."
"Yes."
Dumbledore didn't comment, but Ron knew the old man was smiling behind their backs.
They slowly made their way downstairs. The air smelt… not as bad as Ron had feared. Of course, they still used Bubble-Head Charms, just to be safe.
"This is the part of the dungeon that leads - led - to the kitchens," Hermione explained.
"Yes," Ron agreed. He recognised parts of it from his visits to Hogwarts.
But the kitchen had been… erased, Ron thought. Replaced with the remains of walls and plain dirt.
"That means the Hufflepuff dorms are probably gone as well," Hermione said.
"What's in the other direction?" Dumbledore asked.
"The Slytherin dorms and the Potions lab. Let's hope they survived in a better shape." In a softer voice, she added: "Which would be ironic."
The Slytherin dorms hadn't survived, either, they discovered on the way. The Potions lab, however… It looked mostly intact. Mostly.
"If Snape were to see this, he'd have a breakdown. And blame Harry for it," Hermione said as they stood in the door to a room that looked like a bomb had exploded inside. "The explosion seems to have originated from the potions ingredients cupboard. I wonder…"
"Hello? Who's there?"
Ron froze. As did Hermione. Even Dumbledore twitched.
That was Dumbledore's voice.
Ron tensed. He had never met the wizard, but by all accounts he was one of the most powerful wizards in the world - and one of the most dangerous. Someone who might very well be able to wreck the entire castle with magic Hermione didn't recognise...
"Headmaster?" Hermione replied. "Where are you?"
"Over here, in the vault room."
The vault room? Ron looked at Hermione.
She didn't seem to know where that was.
"The voice is coming from that direction," Dumbledore said, pointing towards the wrecked door in the back.
"Snape's office." Hermione flicked her wand and vanished the rubble blocking the way, then the door itself. "Headmaster?" she repeated herself as she approached the opening.
"In a manner of speaking."
That sounded ominous. Ron frowned and passed Hermione, drawing his pistol. "I'm taking point." If anything happened to him, Hermione could use magic to save or fix him. But if she got cursed, he couldn't do anything for her. And he had the better reflexes.
She didn't reply but took a step back. "No curses on the entrance - at least as far as I can see."
Ron took a deep breath and entered the room. It was a dusty - and partially collapsed - office. "Hello?"
"In here. In the vault room," the voice replied - from a shelf.
He examined the shelf. "How do you open it?"
"There is a… a hidden lever on the side. By the ground, yes."
"Stay back!" Hermione told him before he could reach for it. She pointed her wand at the shelf and something clicked.
The whole shelf swung out, revealing a small, dark room.
"Not much of a vault," Ron commented as he shone his flashlight into it. A lot of small shelves - most of them broken.
"Snape had a private vault. I wonder if his successor knows about it," Hermione muttered.
"Light. At last. If I were alive, I would probably be blinded."
Ron pointed his flashlight and gun at the voice's origin. "A painting?"
It was a portrait. A small one - barely the size of the Prophet's front page. And it showed Dumbledore, dressed in a bright turquoise robe with shining golden stars on it.
"Hello. You look familiar. Oh. Mr Weasley! And there you are, Miss Granger! How fortuitous! And you are..." The portrait trailed off. "Albus?"
"Albus Dumbledore, at your service," the old spymaster said, bowing. "Although I'm not the wizard of whom you are the portrait."
"Oh. And you are not the Miss Granger and Mr Weasley Albus knew, then, I presume."
"No, we're not," Hermione told the painting.
"You are from another timeline, then? So it is possible... " The portrait beamed at them. "Albus would be so relieved. He had given up hope, you know."
Ron was confused. What did the portrait mean by that?
"What do you mean? And what happened here?" Hermione asked. "How did Hogwarts, your Hogwarts, fall into ruin? The spells are all wrong - I don't have the first clue how this could have happened!"
The portrait sighed. "It is a long story. A long and tragic story."
"Then it might be best that we share it with the others," Dumbledore said. "Lest you need to tell it twice."
"Oh, I do not mind telling it twice. Or thrice. I have not been able to talk to anyone since Albus left, you know? And for a portrait meant to talk, that's quite the predicament."
"Nevertheless, I believe it's best if we join our friends before listening to your story."
"It is not actually my story - or only in very small part. It's Albus's. And the others. But mostly Albus's, I believe. Wait! Others?"
"Yes," Hermione told him. "We're not here alone."
"Marvellous! Did you bring a portrait with you?"
"Unfortunately, no." Hermione shook her head.
"Too bad. I had hoped to be able to leave my frame."
"Speaking of your frame…" Ron looked at it. "It's not cursed or anything, is it?"
"What? No! Just stuck to the wall."
Hermione flicked her wand, then gave it a swish. "Not any longer," she announced as the portrait started to float. "Let's get back to the others."
*****
"Oh! Dumbledore's portrait!" Wizarding Luna, somewhat predictably, gushed over their discovery.
"Miss Lovegood. And Miss Lovegood? I was unaware that you had a twin." The portrait looked confused.
"We're sort of twins, but not really," Luna told it. "Closer than twins, yet further apart."
"Oh. That must get confusing, I imagine."
"Oh, yes," Hermione confirmed.
"And you have a flying car," the portrait replied. "Do you travel through time with it? Like nomads? Or do you have a more specific purpose than exploration?"
"We're not time travellers," Ron told it. "But you mentioned your story - or Albus's story."
"Ah, yes, I did, did I not?" The portrait sighed. "It is a tragic story. Albus told it to me - many times - before he left. He was a tad obsessed, by the end." It cleared its throat. "The war had lasted for years - the Second Wizarding War. Albus's Order of the Phoenix steadfastly fought the Death Eaters. The Ministry stood firm as well. Yet, as in the First Wizarding War, Tom refused to give battle to Albus, and rarely faced the Order and the Aurors. Instead, he struck at the weak and defenceless. Those the Order and the Ministry could not protect. Soon, people were fleeing their homes, gathering in Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and the Ministry, seeking protection. The Ministry tried its best - but it was not enough. Through treachery, the Ministry fell, and with it all those who had sought refuge there."
Ron winced. Hermione had told him how the Death Eaters fought - and how they treated their prisoners.
"The people scattered and fled - many of them coming to Hogwarts. Tom had never dared to face Albus, after all." The portrait sighed. "And even after taking the Ministry, he did not dare to challenge Albus. But he had Hogwarts surrounded - put under siege. Many dark wizards and dark creatures were gathered. Hogwarts was no easy target, though, its defences repelling every assault. But Tom was crafty - and cunning. And utterly unconcerned for his followers. He spent them like water, trading two or three of his wands to kill a single one of the defenders of Hogwarts. It was soon clear that sooner or later, the school would fall."
The portrait sighed dramatically. "And that was when the Order, and Albus, became so desperate, they risked everything on a mad gamble. They decided to meddle with time."
Hermione gasped. "But that was banned after it almost destroyed the world!"
"Indeed. But, as Albus told me, they were facing certain death - or worse. The war had gone on for years, and both sides had stopped giving quarter. And what the Death Eaters did to those who had the misfortune to be taken captive…" It sighed again, shaking its head. "Albus resisted at first, but after a particularly costly skirmish, which led to the death of a dozen young students, he gave in and approved the plan. They would travel back in time to prevent Tom's birth. No one would die - Tom would simply never be conceived. His father would not be fed a potion by his mother, and would not fall in love with her."
The portrait smiled with obvious regret. "A neat solution - too neat. The ritual went wrong. Instead of Albus travelling back in time, Hogwarts was, in his words, 'sent tumbling head over heels through time'. Back and forth, apparently at random, with different parts travelling to different times."
"But the people…" Hermione trailed off.
The portrait nodded. "Aged hundreds of years in moments whenever the part of the school in which they found themselves travelled forward in time."
"Yet you seem to imply that my counterpart survived," Dumbledore cut in.
"He did. Initially. For, you see, a few years before that he had been saved from certain death by his friend Nicholas Flamel."
"He drank the Elixir of Life?" Hermione said.
"Indeed. It kept him from ageing - for a time. Long enough to last until the school finally settled. On an empty world in the distant past. But no one else had survived. He was all alone. Alone in the entire world."
"'Alone in the entire world'?" Ron asked.
"He travelled far in the time he had left - he even sent out enchanted owls to known magical places - yet he found no living soul. No humans. Not In Britain, nor on the continent. Nowhere."
"Dear Lord…" Hermione shook her head.
"He assumed that either they had appeared in a timeline where humans had never evolved - or that the uncontrolled time travel had erased humanity; that his actions had prevented humans from ever existing." The portrait smiled, though sadly. "He hoped for the former, feared the latter, yet could never find the truth. He taught me all he knew in the time he had left and worked the strongest protections he could on my frame. All so I would be able to tell his story, should anyone ever visit Hogwarts."
"But… if humanity was erased, then Hogwarts wouldn't have ever been built. That would be a paradox," Hermione replied.
"Albus said that was probably the reason the castle survived. It was a paradox," the portrait told them.
Ron shook his head. "Perhaps we should leave the castle, then. Before something happens."
"Yes. Better get some distance from the ruins," Sirius agreed.
"I concur," Dumbledore added.
Hermione nodded. "Let's go! Wait!" She looked at the portrait. "Do you want to come with us?"
The portrait blinked. "Now that you ask… I have fulfilled my purpose, have I not? I do not need to wait for visitors any more. I certainly waited long enough. Yes, I would like to leave this place. And visit another frame or two, if possible."
Hermione smiled for the first time since the portrait had started to tell its story. "We may be able to offer you something even better than visiting another frame."
*****
Black Lake, Scotland, August 20th, 2011
"So we have a portrait that might have spent aeons waiting in the darkness in our base now," Ron said after closing the door to Hermione's office behind them.
"Would you have left it behind?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows at him as she went over to her desk and started sorting through some of the papers there.
He sighed. "Well, no." Of course he wouldn't have left the closest thing to an A.I. behind. Still… "I'm just pointing out that it might have suffered some trauma."
"It's a portrait, not an actual being. Judging by how much time passed since the other Dumbledore 'left', I would say that if the portrait were affected by its isolation, it would've succumbed by now. The Headmaster probably took that into account and took steps to protect the portrait against it."
Ron nodded. That sounded like what a Dumbledore would do. "But we can't just tell it everything. Especially not if it learns how to travel to other frames."
"We won't. And the Fidelius Charm will prevent it from telling anyone, anyway," Hermione said. "It didn't realise what had happened until I told my secret to it."
That was true. He leaned against the wall. "So, we found another virgin world. Or a haunted or cursed world." Billions erased…
No! That was too... And who could say whether that had actually happened, anyway? As the portrait had explained, the school might have travelled across dimensions, rather than through time - or it might have opened a new time stream.
"I still can't believe Dumbledore took such a risk!" Hermione exclaimed.
"He was desperate." Ron shrugged. "Desperate people aren't known for making good decisions. And he wasn't the Dumbledore you knew. Either of them."
"No, he wasn't." Hermione sighed.
"Are we going to look for his grave?" Ron asked.
"I don't think he has a grave. If he wanted to rest in a grave, he would've prepared one at Hogwarts. I think he wanted to disappear completely. To leave no trace other than the portrait he'd prepared."
"Ah. He wanted to control the narrative." Ron nodded. That sounded like another Dumbledore thing.
"Yes. Which means we can't just trust everything the portrait tells us," Hermione said. Well, that was nothing new. "So, since we already have a virgin earth to explore, and we don't know what exactly happened in the one we visited this afternoon, and whether any effects might linger, I don't think today's world should be a priority for further exploration," she went on.
"The Lunas like the animals that evolved there," he pointed out.
"If new species start appearing in our worlds, people will notice," Hermione said. "I'd almost prefer it if they started recreating dinosaurs. Those we could hide as the results of genetic engineering."
He chuckled. "Don't tell them that - they'll take it as permission."
She laughed as well. "And Dumbledore would finance the project - and cover it up."
"Oh, yes. 'Phoenix Dino Park'." Ron checked his watch. "It's still early. Do you want to go out?" He could use a distraction after this trip.
Hermione mulled it over for a moment. "In fact, yes, I think I do," she said, nodding. "Nothing too heavy, though - we've got a family dinner tomorrow."
"Ah, yes. I hope the twins attend."
She blinked. "Why?"
"If they're present, Mum won't bother us about getting married. She'll be too busy with them."
"Ah, good thinking." Hermione snorted and sat down, stretching. "Well, it's still a picture of domestic bliss compared to the other Weasley family dinner. Which, remember, is in a week - just before school starts."
"Right." And then there was the Granger family dinner after that. At least all four parents got along reasonably well, even if there were occasionally some awkward moments. And the Grangers of Ron's world had finally been able to grieve for their daughter.
Bah. Time to lighten the mood. "Let's hope this Hogwarts won't be ruined by this year's students."
Hermione laughed, though it sounded a little forced. "The school has seen worse, much worse, than my friends' children."
Ron wasn't so sure. But it didn't matter. For now. "So, you're going to look for the next world, then?"
She nodded. "Shouldn't take too long, either - I've refined the process now."
"Good."
Ron smiled.
Another world, another adventure. With Hermione.
He wouldn't have it any other way.
*****
The End.
*****
Author's Note: My beta-readers, fredfred and InquisitorCOC, deserve my gratitude. They helped a lot. Especially fredfred has spent countless hours correcting my mistakes, catching continuity errors, britpicking pointing out loose ends. Thank you!
