Time is Complicated

Chapter 2: Time Is Complicated

It took James Potter half a moment to realize that the girl on the floor of the boathouse was injured. He darted toward Hermione with a speed that reminded Ron instantly of the way Harry moved on the Quidditch pitch. It seemed Harry had inherited more than just his father's untidy black hair.

James knelt next to Hermione and looked down into her tearstained face. Hermione was curled around her broken arm and whimpering in pain. Ron watched James warily, not quite trusting the unknown boy around his friend. With a gentle voice, James coaxed Hermione into a sitting position so that he could take a look at her arm. She cradled the damaged limb against her chest, her wrist secure against her sternum.

"Let's have a look," James said soothingly. "Come on then, we'll get you up to Madam Pomfrey. She'll give you some Skele-Gro and set you to rights."

Ron crossed over to help James get Hermione to her feet. Sirius lounged in the doorway, watching the scene with an air of disinterest. He rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his already tousled hair.

"You really think that's a good idea, Prongs?" Black said slowly. "Probably should take them to Dumbledore first."

James shot his friend a rather nasty look. "Can't you see she's hurt, Padfoot? It isn't like they're Muggles. They got here by some kind of magic."

"Magic smagic. They still shouldn't be here. I know we're not afraid of getting into trouble normally, but..." Black looked from Ron to Hermione and then fixed his gaze on James. "In this case, I'm willing to avoid a little trouble."

Rolling his eyes, James gave Ron a pointed glance, silently asking if he could support Hermione for a moment. Ron nodded and slipped an arm around his friend's waist as James crossed the boathouse in a few strides. He came nose to nose with Sirius and started whispering furiously. James prodded Sirius in the chest as Hermione leaned heavily against Ron, whimpering each time her broken arm was jostled.

After a few more moments of hissed conversation, Sirius gave a great humph and dashed out of the boathouse. He took off at a run up the stone steps while James crossed back over to Ron and Hermione.

"Where's he gone?" Ron asked grumpily. Normally, Ron had been very fond of Sirius. Of course, that had been an older version of him that had been mellowed a bit by time and the lost years of Azkaban. This Sirius... there was something that just rubbed Ron the wrong way about this version.

"To fetch Professor Dumbledore. He's going to meet us in the hospital wing."

It took them what seemed like forever to climb the stone steps to the grassy lawn. The sun was low in the sky, making Ron think it was near dusk. Luckily, there weren't many people running about the castle. There was just enough humidity in the air for him to guess the time of year. Early September in the highlands...and the start of term at Hogwarts.

James was nearly as talented as Harry at getting around Hogwarts castle without being seen. He was gentle as he guided Hermione up the stairs toward the hospital wing. Ron walked at her other side when he could, scouting ahead to make sure no one was around when he couldn't. James kept up a constant stream of gentle chatter with the purpose of keeping Hermione occupied, helping her ignore the pain from climbing one flight of stairs after another.

At last they reached the door to the hospital wing. Headmaster Dumbledore stood at the door with Sirius on one side, Madam Pomfrey on the other. James very carefully led Hermione over to the matron and handed over his charge. Hermione's whimpers had lessened on the way up the stairs, but her face was white with pain.

They could hear Madam Pomfrey as she examined the arm on the way into the hospital wing. "Oh, dear, broken. Yes... badly it seems. Here, dear, we'll set it and give you a bit of Skele-Gro to heal a bit faster..."

Professor Dumbledore looked over the tops of his half-moon spectacles and took in the soot and dirt smudged person of Ron Weasley. His crisp blue eyes skipped from Ron to James and Sirius before he nodded as if he'd figured it all out already.

"Mr. Potter, thank you for bringing the girl to Poppy. I'm sure she'll be grateful when her arm is finished healing," said the Headmaster. "Mr. Black, I thank you as well. I will surely get to the bottom of this. Now off the both of you pop. I do believe you have classes in the morning."

With a backward glance toward the hospital wing, James and Sirius made their way back down the corridor and out of sight of Ron and the Headmaster. The doors to the hospital wing swung closed, muffling the sound of Madam Pomfrey caring for Hermione. Professor Dumbledore took Ron by the shoulder and drew him away from the hushed voices. Ron dragged his feet, not wanting to be parted from Hermione, not when they didn't know how things were going to go.

"It's alright," Professor Dumbledore said carefully. "She'll be just fine. And I assure you that, as soon as we have finished talking, that you may come right back to your friend. But first I need you to explain to me who you are and how you came to be in my boathouse."

Ron gave a little gulp and looked up into the face of the man he'd buried back in his own time. It was an odd sensation to see Dumbledore walking and talking, almost as if he hadn't a care in the world. Ron's gut twisted and fell behind his knees.

His silence spoke volumes. Dumbledore put his arm around Ron's shoulders and gave him a squeeze. "Ah, my boy. It's one of those kinds of tales isn't it? Then that calls for some lemon drops and some tea. Come along."

With an unfamiliar sense of trepidation, Ron followed the Headmaster down the hallway toward the great griffin door warden. "Take your time and start at the beginning..."

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"Wonder how they got there," James muttered as he let Sirius lead him back through the castle toward Gryffindor Tower. He rubbed a spot in the center of his forehead, feeling a headache begin to pound behind his eyes.

"Dumbledore'll straighten it out," Sirius responded. He tossed his wand up in the air and watched it turn end over end before catching it in his palm. "Nothing he can't figure out, you know."

"If that's true, then he knows all about us, Padfoot." James shoved his friend playfully in the shoulder. "I think sometimes things can slip past him. Like those two."

"Or this..." Sirius' voice had taken on a mischievous lilt. It drew James' attention so that the other boy looked up. He followed his friend's gaze to the boy making his way down the corridor toward them, his face stuck in the pages of a musty book.

Sirius grinned in that way that made him look almost as if he was mad. There was a feral gleam in his eyes that made even his partner in crime wonder if there wasn't a sadist buried somewhere in the black sheep of the Black family. James reached out to catch Sirius by the arm, but missed him by an inch.

"Sirius!"

But the other boy was long past hearing the caution in his friend's voice. Sirius stalked down the hallway, a spring in his step as he tossed his wand over his head and caught it again. With purposeful force, he bumped into the book reading boy so hard that the edges of the book slammed into the boy's face.

"Where do you think you're going, Snivellus?"

The other boy clutched the book to his chest and snatched his hand toward his pocket, searching for his wand. "Fuck off, Black!"

Dark laughter bubbled out of Sirius. "Oh, come now, Snivellus. That's not a very nice thing to say. Maybe I should teach you how to mind your manners."

The boy they called "Snivellus" dropped his book to the floor and launched himself across the corridor toward Sirius. His teeth were gnashed in fury as he struck out with his fist toward Sirius' face. The swing went wide so that the boy hit the stone wall behind Sirius.

Hitting the ground and shaking with fury, "Snivellus" struggled back to his feet even while he cradled his hand to his chest. He was certain at least two of his fingers were broken. He groped with his free hand for his wand, finally closing his fingers around the ebony wood.

"Levicor..."

The spell wasn't even out of the boy's mouth before a fist connected with his jaw. Sirius stood back, rubbing his knuckles as the other boy stumbled back, stunned. James saw the blood begin to dribble down the other boy's robes and grabbed Sirius by the arm.

"Go! Bloody hell, Sirius, you're going to get us expelled!"

James gave his friend a push toward the staircase leading up to Gryffindor Tower before turning toward the other boy. "Snape..."

"Fuck off, too, Potter."

With a shrug, James turned and went after Sirius, feeling more than a little guilty that he hadn't done more to stop the scene from playing out. Snape pulled himself to his feet and rubbed the back of his hand over his split lip. His eyes watered and ached. He was quite sure that the book had given him two black eyes.

He didn't want to deal with the mess of going back to the Slytherin common room and hearing Lucius give him a hard time about letting the blood traitor Black get the best of him. Of course, the coward had resorted to Muggle tactics to do it. In a straight wand fight, Snape was certain he could best Sirius every time. Snape snatched his books and bag from the floor and made his way to the hospital wing, wondering how he was going to explain this to Madam Pomfrey.

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Hermione stared at the ceiling as she tried to avoid the pins and needles feeling in her arm. Madam Pomfrey had straightened her out in a tic, that's for sure. The wounded arm was set and bandaged, held against her chest with a sling. The matron had given her a dose of Skele-Gro and a pain relieving potion so that she could sleep through the night. But it was a little difficult for her to think about sleeping just then.

When they'd first been dumped out of the Time Turner's stream, Hermione had been so blinded by pain and by frustration that she hadn't realized exactly when they were. Now that she had a few moments to think about it, she realized that it had been James Potter and Sirius Black who had found them. The longer Hermione thought about it, the more she realized that the Time Turner exploding on them might have been the best thing that could have happened.

Now, it wasn't just about saving Severus from Nagini's venom. Now it could be about so very much more.

Just then, the door at the end of the room opened. Someone entered and stalked across the room to the matron's office. There was a rush of murmured voices and then an exclamation from Madam Pomfrey.

"You'll tell me this instant, Severus Snape!"

Hermione's heart bumped against her ribs so hard that it ached. She felt as if she could fly when she heard that name. She shimmied until she was sitting up in bed enough that she could see when he came back into the room. Severus turned the corner, followed by Madam Pomfrey watching him like a hawk, and slammed his bag down on the end of the bed across the aisle from her.

It was only then that Hermione realized that Severus was bleeding. His lip was busted and swollen, blood crusting on his chin and down his robes. There was a livid red mark on his jaw, growing even darker by the moment. Deep bruises began underneath his eyes.

Dear Merlin, Hermione swore silently, someone's beat him up!

Across the aisle, Severus let Madam Pomfrey examine jaw and wrist with little more than a disgruntled look. He mumbled responses to her questions, but offered no extra information as to what happened to him. Hermione found herself straining her ears, trying to hear his voice. Even from the distance, she could tell that it wasn't quite as deep as in her own time, but it still had the same musical note to her ears.

Unfortunately, Severus chose that moment to turn his attention to the other patient in the room. His onyx eyes met hers, and she felt a familiar tingle down her spine. Somehow, it didn't feel so... forbidden to feel it now. He was her age. But he wasn't quite her Severus.

His gaze was just as intense as she remembered. Perhaps more so as she felt a blush rushing into her cheeks and forced herself to look away from him. She could still feel his eyes on her, even as Madam Pomfrey cast a spell over his cracked knuckles and dabbed a potion on his jaw.

Severus, for his part, couldn't understand why he had the overwhelming urge to just look at the girl lying in the bed across the room. It was a sharp tugging in his chest, in the spot beneath his ribs where his breath settled. He barely heard when the matron told him he could go.

It was inexplicably difficult to force himself to his feet, to walk to the hospital wing doors and to slip out into the corridor. He made it four steps down the corridor before he turned on his heel and hovered outside the door, trying to figure out who the girl happened to be.

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"Oh dear," said Dumbledore, sitting back in his chair in the Head's office. He picked a fragment of a lemon drop from his beard and flicked it toward the bin. "That's quite a tale, Mr. Weasley."

Ron looked across the desk at the Headmaster. It was still almost too much for him to look at that wizened face and not remember what happened the night he died. Ron cleared his throat hard, fighting back a stream of tears. "Yes, sir."

Dumbledore tapped his fingertips together, his head tipped to the side in thought. "It seems to me that there's something to your tale that you have left out, but I suppose you have your reasons for not telling me the whole lot of it. For now, I should think, we have enough to be getting on with. You and Miss Granger will have to remain at the castle until we can find a way to get you back to your own time."

The Headmaster looked off into the distance for a long moment before he sat forward and tapped the side of his nose. "The Time Turner shattered, you say?"

Ron nodded, remembering the sensation of being lashed about in a stream of seconds and minutes and hours and decades. He felt as if he was going to vomit at the thought of it.

"Interesting..."

Notes from The Mistress: This one is long, and I think the rest of the chapters will be about this length. It seems to fit what's going on at the moment. Thanks to a lovely reviewer for giving me so much to think about with this story!