14 Chapter 14: Time Travel

Even though Hermione spent most of her time training her Occlumency, she also saw the processes and everything required for the potion and the ritual that Professor Snape planned to do, it was so fascinating and extraordinary, no matter how hard she tried to understand the whole process she couldn't follow Professor Snape.

She had seen almost all of the strange and unpleasant things that were required to carry out the whole process.

Hermione knew that this ritual was very dark, both the potion and the blood ritual involve aspects of the soul and she knew that the soul is the immaterial part of a being that never dies, in many beliefs and cultures it is thought to survive after death, as much as they have sought to discover the nature of the soul, particularly its role in magic, but little is known about it since the mere manipulation of the soul breaks the so-called "deep laws of magic", so it is frowned upon in the magical world to experiment with it and is considered dark and forbidden magic of the most heinous, vulgar and inhuman.

Voldemort is one of the dark wizards who broke these laws by creating the Horcruxes and everyone knows the result of his actions.

Professor Snape spent these two years locked up with her teaching her Occlumency and other necessary techniques, but all his time after that was spent on the potion and the blood ritual.

He only focused on one thing in his mind and that was the potion along with the ritual, she knew he was giving everything into this because he knew nothing else could change things now, she knew he no longer cared about anything but the outcome of this, for him this potion was his only glimmer of hope to stop Voldemort and he would do everything at his disposal to complete it and have her travel back in time with the highest percentage of success possible.

"It's finally finished, there's just one last ingredient missing," Snape said.

Hermione heard him and instantly became nervous, there was no more time, today was the day.

'I can do it, we can't back out now Hermione, we prepared a long time for this day' Hermione started repeating in her head.

"Granger, come over here" Snape called to her.

'Come on Hermione, you're ready' she said to herself again in her head.

"Coming Professor."

When she reached his side, Snape looked at her with his black eyes that seemed to analyze every part of her being.

"I hope you are ready Miss Granger because today we are about to make history, we are going to change the course of time and space. From now on you will have the responsibility to live with the consequences of our actions, do you understand?"

"I..., I'm ready, Professor."

"Mmmmm" Snape gave her a deep, penetrating look again. "So it seems, it's good to know it wasn't all a waste to spend two years teaching you after all."

"I will stop Voldemort even if it costs me my life," Hermione said firmly as she looked him in the eye.

"TCH doesn't be an idiot Granger, dead you are of no use to me, I don't need the Gryffindor brat in you, for this mission you need to be smart and careful, I need you to start being the Ravenclaw in you" snort Snape.

Hermione was a little embarrassed and angry at Snape's comment but nodded without protest.

"Very well, let's not waste any more time, repeat my actions, Granger, no arguing."

Hermione just nodded.

She knew that now only the last ingredient was missing from the long list, she also knew what this last ingredient was about and as much as she didn't like the idea of participating in a dark potion, she was going to do it just to stop Voldemort.

She watched as Snape settled down in front of the cauldron, and then quickly cut his finger, dropping just a drop of blood.

That's right the last ingredient was a single drop of the blood of those involved in the ritual and the potion.

Hermione wasted no time and quickly performed the same action as he did, dropping her drop of blood into the cauldron.

They were both extremely tense and anxious about the final result of the potion.

Seconds passed and they finally managed to see a reaction and change in the potion.

"Th-this...? I... I was expecting a more exaggerated reaction in the completion of the potion to tell you the truth" Hermione muttered a little embarrassed.

"That was very stupid of you Miss Granger. That you thought such a thing makes me doubt your mental state for the completion of this task, you must remember that this is still a potion, after all, so many years considered a girl genius and here you are raving things, typical Gryffindor" commented a tired Snape with his usual cold, dry and direct personality.

Severus Snape went on to put the entire contents of the cauldron in a single dose into a vial and Hermione no doubt saw more than a hint of pride in Professor Snape's black eyes as he looked at his new creation.

But it was somewhat logical for him to feel this way, the potion was extremely complex, to the point where Hermione estimated that the brewing of this potion was infinitely more complex and risky than the brewing of the Felix Felicis elixir, which is known to be extremely complex and dangerous in its brewing along with a preparation time that is an average of 6 months which makes it more laborious by having to constantly follow up on it.

The brewing time for this position that Professor Snape was making had a duration of over 1 year, plus the steps to follow along with the ingredients needed were extremely complex and difficult to obtain, plus it was apparently extremely volatile in its preparation, so it required 100% of Professor Snape's concentration every day that he had to add some ingredient or other things so that there was no mistake, but the most complicated and rare thing for Hermione was the strange ritual required for the preparation process, it was a unique and quite obscure procedure, as Hermione had never seen or heard that a potion that had so many details and so many steps needed, She already knew that the ritual that was used for the elaboration of the potion would be the same that would be used for when she would take the potion, from what she knew of the ritual, it had a malevolent and sinister drawing made of Thestral blood in the middle of the cauldron that was a large circle that has a Pentagon inscribed, and a phoenix inside it and around it there are six pentagrams with six different drawings inside them, a unicorn, a pegasus, a snake, a moon, a triangle and the drawing that scared Hermione the most was one that looked like a Dementor with a black cloak and hood holding a scythe, she had seen that description in several myths and legends, she knew it represented Death.

To Hermione the ritual seemed like a truly macabre work, a truly unique ritual of dark and forbidden magic connected to an equally strange, dark, and unique potion, even though for her this was her first dark ritual, it seemed that for Professor Snape it was nothing so new, she knew that he was quite used to the concept due to his vast studies of dark magic along with the mad rituals of Voldemort himself.

But still, apparently, even for Professor Snape it was difficult to keep everything perfect in the process, as she had seen him constantly be calculating and timing the whole process, she knew that the whole process had to be constantly regulated to be perfectly symmetrical and error-free, so it was only natural that he was proud of his creation.

During these two years, Hermione noticed that every day that passed seemed like an eternity for Professor Snape, his tiredness, drowsiness, anxiety about making a mistake in a single small detail or not arriving at the right time to put the ingredients for that day was agonizing for him, Every day that passed and he managed to do everything right was like a victory, she helped him in everything he allowed her, which was not as much as he expected at first, he was very suspicious, but over time he had to give her tasks, so they spent the next two years almost two years pending the potion.

And now Hermione was more than a little impressed, not only because apparently, Professor Snape had succeeded, but because all those ingredients he had used, all the time and work it took, produced just one dose, it was truly incredible, she noticed how Professor Snape stared with admiration and pride at the seductive liquid colored with a mixture of an almost black red, with some streaks of bright gray that gave a feeling of emptiness when he saw it.

"Mmmm Professor Snape?" Hermione tried to see if he would react.

He seemed to react to her call, turned his head to look at her, stared at her for a while, then sighed and made his way to where the various ritual drawings were without saying anything to her.

Hermione decided not to bother him and see what he intended to do, she thought the process was already finished but then to her surprise, he drew quite a bit of blood from his arm and then used it to remark all the drawings that were around the cauldron used for the brewing of the potion.

"Professor Snape, why are you doing that?" Hermione hadn't seen or read anything about this step for the ritual. Besides, why do it now that he already finished the potion, it was all very strange.

"Look Granger, there are things in this world that few know about and those who know about them don't quite believe them or don't care if others know about them, many wise ones have talked through the ages about time, space, life, and death, many have sought how to evade death, many have found ways to prolong their lives, many have altered space and many have played with time. Each and every one of these has discovered incredible and tenebrous things about all of these aspects, but do you know what unites each of these Miss Granger?"

"Well...this...that there is nothing concise that fully explains any of the four?" replied Hermione a little dubiously.

"A textbook answer as usual Miss Granger, but it's not entirely wrong, as you say, there is nothing that fully explains any of these aspects, but in each of these aspects there is one factor that always plays a unique and essential role that can alter the whole process."

"One factor?" muttered Hermione doubtfully.

"That's right Miss Granger, the blood."

"Eh, the blood?" Hermione couldn't understand what blood had to do with it.

"You must know that blood is one of the most commonly used methods for dark or ancestral rituals of all kinds, right?"

"Well, I read something regarding that" Hermione said not entirely sure, she knew it was common, but she never liked reading about those subjects, they were mostly sinister and disgusting.

"Okay, now why the blood?" asked Snape again as he kept remarking with his blood the ritual drawings made earlier with thestral blood.

"I just read that its use could generate greater effectiveness for some ancient rituals and magics" replied Hermione trying to remember everything she knew on the subject.

"Exactly, blood has been used since ancient times to generate a higher percentage of effectiveness. Blood is also known to have great value and power, whether it be for the creation of an item that prolongs life, one with which you can evade death, one with which you can alter space itself, and of course now with the alteration of time it also has such effects."

"Like Voldemort's rituals and his Horcruxes Professor?" asked Hermione.

"That's right Granger, but when the blood is given willingly by one of the people involved in the ritual or magic, it can have unique effects. An example is what happened with Harry Potter, Lily and Voldemort." said Snape with a trace of pain in his voice.

"I heard about that," said Hermione trying to avoid touching further on the subject that obviously affected Snape too much.

"Well, at the moment as you will see, I am applying that same method to make sure that the whole process of your travel to the past is as safe as possible, it may not alter the outcome of whether or not you travel to the past, but it will certainly protect you in case your travel to the past has any kind of problem in the process of your permanent transfer. With this, I make sure that at least you will not arrive dead in the past and you will be able to stay in the past without any problems." after saying that, Snape was already finishing coating the ritual drawings with his blood.

"Now that I have answered your question, please enter the middle circle where the cauldron is, it is time for you to begin your journey into the past and help stop Voldemort before it is too late," said Snape.

"I see" Hermione nodded and went to the center of the ritual where the cauldron was, she had many doubts still, but she could understand the gist of what he said, so she decided to heed Professor Snape and go ahead with what was planned, they couldn't waste any more time, you can never know when Voldemort would come to Severus to demand that he return her to her so he could torture her on his own.

Snape took the cauldron in front of Hermione who was in the center of the ritual and moved it away leaving Hermione alone, then he placed a turntable in each of the 6 circles of the ritual, then handed a turntable to Hermione who was in the center of these.

"The 7 turntables are enchanted so that they all start synchronously at the exact moment that one of them starts spinning, now once you finish reciting the final incantation that activates the ritual, you only have to immediately turn the turntable and take the potion, understood Miss Granger?"

"Yes, I understand Professor Snape."

"Perfect, in that case, don't forget that from now on you will be part of the past and that will be your present, live and integrate as one more and then help to stop Voldemort, I wish you good luck on your journey."

"Thank you..." Before Hermione could say anything else, Severus Snape began the ritual once and for all.

"Ka hoatu e au ōku toto me tōku wairua mo te haumarutanga o tōu!" uttered Snape in a deep, cold voice in a language unfamiliar to Hermione, but it certainly didn't sound like he was saying anything good.

"I tēnei rā e whai ana ahau ki te kanikani i te wā, i te mokowā, i te ora me te mate, ka hoatu e au tōku katoa ki te whakaoti i tēnei whāinga me te whakaoti i te kanikani!" as Snape finished saying his last words, the drawings began to glow.

And at the same time that these began to glow, Severus Snape, who was now sitting in front of Hermione with his head looking at the ground, began to lose the brightness in his black eyes that became gray, his skin began to lose its white color and was taking a grayish hue, his black hair became gray, he was undoubtedly dying little by little and it was something more than just an ordinary physical death, but Hermione could not notice this.

When Hermione heard the last thing Severus said, she knew it was time to spin the small time-turner in her hand, and the moment she did it she saw how everything began to shine, she spun it as she had done so many times before and the moment she spun it, everything around her began to spin around and around, words in a strange language began to spin around her, the drawings seemed to come to life, everything began to spin faster and faster, her body began to contract painfully, she also felt something burning as if she was exposed to fire, this lasted a few seconds that for Hermione seemed like hours, until finally everything stopped and she observed that she was indeed in the same room as before only now it was a mess, Snape was nowhere to be seen and her body was full of burns.

She also noticed that she was undoubtedly smaller than before, a clear proof that she had rejuvenated at least 4 years, so she could assume that she and Snape had made it, she had traveled back in time and had ended up in the same room where they carried out the ritual.