faderift | (no subject)

Entry tags:

{ hermione granger }

(no subject)

WHO: Harry and Hermione
WHAT:
WHEN: A bit after the open Rifter Log (enough time for them to get from Western Approach to Skyhold)
WHERE: Skyhold's library
NOTES: None yet

Traveling from the desert to the mountains on foot had made Harry miss Apparition more than he could really say. He didn't dare risk it though, not with his wand in the state it was in. The long journey had given him time to examine it and the cracks were not where near as bad as it had been after Godric's Hollow, but his spells all seemed to miss their mark when he tried. He was terrified of stressing it out with a wrong spell and breaking it again. He had been without the holly wand long enough during the war, he didn't plan on going completely wandless in this strange new world.

Then he was at a castle, so unlike the castle he had loved back home, and there were people all around. He still wasn't entirely sure what to make of this place, but so many had tried to explain as much as possible. After making sure Sansa and Tyrion were both okay (Wynonna seemed like she could take care of herself) he wanted to find a quiet place where he could think.

He wasn't sure why he thought of the library. He was never one to find solace in books. That had been Hermione. Maybe it was thoughts of her that had prompted him to come to this place. It wasn't like they had a Quidditch pitch for him to mope over Ginny in.

And then he saw her, sitting in a chair with a book, and for a moment he felt he had to be home, a year ago, before they had started their hunt for Horcruxes. The only thing out of place were her clothes.

"Hermione?"

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The past few weeks hadn't been easy, though Hermione understood that she'd mostly done that to herself. She needed time to process, to be angry, to be sad, to be scared, but she wanted to be over all of those emotions and get on to the bit where she could finally heal and move on.

It was hard to move on when she had nowhere to move on to, though, and that was a massive part of the problem. All of her studying hadn't helped, and she didn't want to badger Solas with a million and one questions, not when he was so clearly busy with his own matters. So she had to make the best of what she had available to her, even if the library's resources were disappointingly meager.

Her attention span wasn't what it used to be, though, and in her distraction, she heard a familiar voice calling out to her. She assumed it had to be someone else, someone with a similar tone and accent, and so she thought nothing of it as she glanced up.

And then she saw him.

It came as a shock, to say the very least. For a long while, it was almost as though the face didn't quite connect to any real memory in her brain, and she was left staring blankly up at him for several long seconds. "... Harry?" The name came out as a hushed whisper. At least, it did the first time.

"Harry!"

She was up like a shot, book flying off to who-knows-where as she launched herself at Harry, throwing her arms around him. "How did you get here? Did you come looking for me? Did someone figure out a way to open up a rift? Is Ron with you? Please tell me the two of you didn't decide to split up! You'd have to be daft!"

Harry braced himself to hold her without being knocked over and then wrapped his arms around her. The entire trip to Skyhold he had been tight with tension as the overwhelming truth that he was in a strange new place with a cracked wand had settled over his shoulders.

Now that he had her, though, and she was real and warm in his arms he felt so much of that lift. She would help him make it out all right. He was always better when she was near.

"What?" he asked, a little confused. "No. Hermione I didn't do this on purpose. I ... I fell." There was really no other way to describe it. And the realization that she was saying that they should have been looking for her settled on him like a ton of bricks. Had she been missing? Had no one told him? Why wouldn't they? "They said I came through a Rift?" He says the word 'Rift' as if he's questioning it, unsure if it's the correct thing to say.

When they pull back he lifts up his hand and shows her. There's the glow of a shard there.

Even when Harry claimed that he hadn't come here on purpose, Hermione assumes that it had been a freak stroke of luck as he and the others had searched for her. He's still here, and that means that there's a way back, and that means that soon she'd be home and this nightmare will be-....

But then he mentions that he'd come in through a Rift, and Hermione blinks, moving back enough to look at him. Though she can guess what she'll see in his hand when he lifts it up to show her, she doesn't want to look down, because if she sees what she thinks she's going to see, then that means he's as trapped here as she is. She doesn't want to believe that, can't believe that, because how-...?

But if not many other Rifters come from a place with as much magic as her world, wouldn't it stand to reason that, if more than one Rift is going to open up and bring people in, it would happen in or around the wizarding world? That does seem about par for the course.

When she finally looks down and sees his shard, she falters a little, bringing up her hand and showing him the same. "You've fought the demons and were brought back with the Inquisition, then? Did they tell you where to find me?" It's wholly possible that someone had seen him wielding his wand and had connected it to Hermione and her "tiny staff", or even that he'd asked about her and she'd been the only Hermione this world had ever heard of. Either way, Harry's here in Skyhold with her now, and that means he's safer than he would be wandering about in Thedas.

Harry shook his head. He felt entirely too useless that he hadn't asked outright if anyone else from his world was here. He had missed them, almost immediately, but it had seemed impossible that there would be other wizards and witches here. It seemed like an incredible oversight now, and one he was sure she would not have made on her own.

"No, but... Something told me to come to the library." He offered the meager explanation with a little half smile, meant more to reassure her than anything. He closed his first and then lowered his hand.

"How long have you been here?" he asked, because that felt far more urgent to him than anything else to do with Thedas.

Hearing his explanation for being in the library made Hermione crack a small smile of her own, the first genuinely happy one she'd smiled in a long time. It showed that he thought of her, even if only subconsciously, and remembering that people from home still thought of her made her feel a little less hopeless.

That made his question that much more surprising, though Hermione came to the conclusion that he must not be sure whether she'd come to Skyhold as soon she'd disappeared. "About as long as I'd been missing, I assume," she told him, going over the months in her head. "About seven months, give or take. I suppose that makes another year that I'll be delayed in taking my N.E.W.T.s. I'll be the oldest person to graduate Hogwarts, at this rate."

Harry's frown deepened at that. "Seven months?" he asked and the expression on his face makes it seem like he thinks that is impossible. "Hermione, the war just ended six months ago. I'd have noticed if you missed out of the Battle of Hogwarts... Unless..." The idea that she had been replaced with an impostor was too much to take. He takes a step back, uncertain.

"Listen. we should do that question thing, right? What animal did you send on Ron after that mess with Lavender?" Given what happened to her during the war, he can't really be mean to Lavender, so he's careful not to blame anything on her.

Hermione frowns slightly in return at his incredulity, and it only deepens when he explains that she'd been gone longer than the war's been over. Just as he seems to have reached his own conclusion, Hermione realizes that this time nonsense that has made things confusing ever since meeting people from other versions of Earth doesn't just apply to people from different alternate universes or what have you. Harry is from her future. Granted, not very far in her future, but the discrepancy is still there and strong enough to be marked.

"Canaries," she answers immediately, response as automatic as it is absent-minded. "And that was more at the start the mess than after it." She doesn't really doubt that this is Harry, but just in case, she asks, "How did Ron find his way back to us after he'd left us while we were in hiding?" Since they're clearly talking about Ron's mistakes, after all.

Harry doesn't seem to mind them focusing on Ron's mistakes. Those are one of the things they had had to survive together, after all. "The Deluminator," he responds. "Dumbledore left it to him because he knew he'd want to find a way back to us." His shoulders relax a bit because he's reassured that Hermione is real, but he still has the sort of baffled and confused expression that Hermione has seem him have before - it just usually applied to coursework.

"So we're us, but something else doesn't line up. Did those Rift things mess with my memories, you think? Make me forget you were missing?"

While Hermione's glad enough that the tedious task of confirming one another's identities was out of the way, she still frowns a little as she shakes her head. "It's not memories, I don't think. It's time. We're from different points in time."

Meeting Harry's eyes, she tries to explain it as well as she can. "I've met a few other people like us, who've fallen out of rifts. And while most of them are from Earth or some Earth-like place, we're all from different points in time. As far as I've been able to see, we're the only ones from the 1990s. One man, Jamie, is from Scotland in the 1960s, I believe. And then there's Kirk, who's from Earth but was on a spaceship of some sort sometime in the 23rd century. But they're not quite the same versions of Earth, from what I've been able to figure out. There are slight differences; the rifts don't just open up across different worlds and times, but different... realities, I suppose. So the Hermione you thought you only saw recently wasn't me, and the Harry that I'd last seen before coming here might not have been you. I mean, they were, but different versions. If that makes sense." It doesn't. She knows it doesn't. But that's about the best she can think of for why there was another Hermione in her stead leading to Harry never knowing that she'd been missing.

The more she talks, the harder it is for Harry to keep up. This all seems like such a weird dream. "That sounds like science fiction," he admits after a moment.

"Or some sort of really strange dream. If it hadn't already lasted so long I'm be trying to wake myself up."

"It's not much science or fiction, I'm afraid," Hermione replies, and for her part, she at least does sound sympathetic to that end.

"You could probably use more rest than anything, actually, depending on how long ago you've come in. And some food would do you good, too. When was the last time you've eaten, Harry? I don't want to have to start channeling in Mrs. Weasley." Though really, it's a rather easy thing to do when it comes to how protective she can get about Harry or Ron.

Harry smiles a bit at the idea. "We ate a bit on the trip up here." The fact that she's instantly trying to take care of him comforts him. She might not be his exact Hermione, but she's still someone he knows he couldn't do without.

"I could do with something to eat. Why don't you show me where to go to get some food?"

Hermione had never been overly fussed about food, but at least she'd always had enough common sense to know that she has to take care of herself if she wants to come out of most situations on top, and so she's rarely let herself go without at least an apple or bit of bread while at Skyhold. The temptation has been strong, especially given that the kitchens don't look nearly as sanitary as Hogwarts', but she's forced herself not to be stubborn and she's not about to let Harry get away with it either, even if he doesn't seem to care to.

"Come," she tells him, automatically taking his hand and tugging him towards the staircase. "I'll give you the grand tour."

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