"Proximity alarm!" Ron shouted.
The grenade landed at her feet. "GRENADE!" Ginny belted out, apparating behind a concrete slab that would hopefully act as cover. Hopefully- she hadn't even known they were under attack; let alone which direction they were coming from. The grenade activated with a pulse of blue light moments before she disappeared, and she felt a strong wrenching sensation on her body as she left.
Tracy's reaction time was a mere fraction slower, and the result was horrific. Part of her had almost made it up to Ginny- but just her head and neck. The rest of her trailed back in path of blood and gore, with much of her being sucked into the grenade's compression field, along loose rocks, dirt, and anything else that happened to be close by. The field deactivated, sending the compacted material bursting out in an explosive, disgusting spray.
Ginny would not have time to process Tracy's demise. A flash of blue announced the arrival of a small troop of six behind her position. Fortunately, it took them a moment to acclimate to their surroundings, just enough time for- "REDUCTO!". The ruined remains of a wall- once part of some long demolished structure- disintegrated, and the shrapnel cut through the men. Only one escaped by diving out of the way. He returned fire- with bullets- and Ginny felt sick as she realized that meant he was probably a forced conscript. She deflected the bullets with a shield while Ron stunned him.
"Fuck!" Ginny cursed "Why the fuck were we ambushed?" Ron and Neville joined her behind her slab. Neville peppered the other side with spells while Ron checked the gash on his arm. He was lucky to be wearing dragonhide, but Ginny didn't want to think about that.
"They must have had sensors." Neville said.
"But why?" Ron asked, almost rhetorically. It was a good question, who the fuck would guard the Time Vortex? It was worse than a death trap, anyone who entered just… froze, if they were lucky.
"I don't-" Neville's enchanted eye rotated in its socket, locking on to a speck in the air. "Immobulus!" He froze it in mid-air- it was a person, a shrinker. "Fuck I hate those guys." He muttered. "We can't stay here." His eyes rotated again "Move!" He shouted.
The three apparated to another section of ruined wall, just in time to see their old hiding spot explode. Their attackers had mounted an energy gun onto a turret, its white beam was now carving into the landscape- powerful enough to tear through most wizards' shields.
Ginny lobbed a spell over, and it struck true. The turret began to morph, but lost steam halfway, remaining a pile of twisted metal. "Never really got the hang of transfiguration." She grimaced, she had intended on transfiguring it into a wolf, but she supposed she'd been overly ambitious.
"Its fine, it did the job." Neville said "But we can't stay here. We were caught flatfooted, Davis is dead, the mission is fucked."
"Why would Hydra be guarding the Time Vortex?" Ron asked aloud. "I mean, the Order I could see, we know the old Ministry, Diagon Alley and such are in there somewhere, but Hydra?"
"Well, we should be glad that they aren't." Neville rolled his eye.
"No, think about it, Nev." Ron grabbed his shoulders "They're guarding something. They know something's in there and they don't want anyone even trying to get it. That means the Professor was right, it means-"
"We need to go in." Ginny surmised, after being through so much together they could easily follow each other's train of thought. She and Ron met each other's eyes and they both smirked. "Race ya."
"You know." Neville said sardonically "I joined the Professor because I wanted to stop being thrown into recklessly dangerous situations."
"Its not like they can follow us." Ron argued "We're probably safer in there." To emphasize his point, blaster fire began pelting their position- they'd been spotted.
In any other situation, Ron's suggestion would have been insane. The Time Vortex was an unpredictable and terrifying thing. She'd been told that even getting close to it could result in you getting caught in an unexpected gust. She'd been told that anyone entering the vortex would be frozen in time, or worse, relive the same moment over and over again for all eternity. But there was a reason why they were here. Professor Riddle had given them a time turner, an incredibly rare artifact from before the war. He had, after years of research and experimentation, modified it so that instead of taking the user back in time, it kept the flow of time constant. Right now, it hung motionless around Neville's neck. He was technically their team lead, so the decision was his, but that didn't mean he couldn't succumb to peer pressure.
"Fine." He huffed.
They made a run for it, fending off blaster fire as they ran. One bolt struck the ground close to Ginny, and though she managed to put up a shield, she hadn't had time to guard her calves, and a concrete fragment struck her just above the ankle. This was the world she lived in, where even the slightest slip could mean her death- it only took one miscalculation, one surprise, one lapse in focus to end even the most experienced wizard. She stumbled, but Ron heaved her up and half dragged her along. Neville was having the fight of his life shielding them from the incoming barrage. Until suddenly it became much easier, the bolts of energy had slowed down to a walking pace. At Neville's neck, the time turner had begun to rotate slowly. Only in the bubble around them did time move normally.
"We should get some more distance." Neville advised, observing the soldiers' movements on the other side "They can still get us with lasers."
"Right." Ron nodded, hoisting Ginny into his arms "And then we'll heal up."
"Prat." She huffed, concerned for his arm "I'm not six anymore, you know."
"You act like it sometimes."
"Oi!" She lightly smacked his shoulder.
"Five minutes of seriousness, that's all I ask." Neville intoned. By now, they were deep enough into the vortex that everything appeared distorted, like ripples of heat coming off of pavement, only moreso and in all directions. From the outside, it made it impossible to see the state within, but from their vantage point it felt like being under a disorientation hex. "We'll have to deal with them when we get back." Neville said "Probably with reinforcements." They all knew that Hydra had far worse than faceless goons to bring to bear, if they so desired.
"Yeah." Ron replied "But by then we'll probably have some secret weapon from the ministry, or something from Gringotts, or whatever Hydra is worried about."
"Or whatever's causing the vortex." Ginny mentioned. That had been what Professor Riddle had been most curious about. Thankfully none of their wounds were so severe that they required professional attention, just a few quick spells and then they were off- following a point me spell to the site of the Ministry of Magic, or whatever was left of it.
At first their surroundings were like the wrecked ruins in the outside world- if perhaps less worn down- destroyed and burnt-out buildings, wrecked cars, and no sign of life. Then they saw the fire. At first, they only appeared as an orange-red glow through the shifting temporal anomaly, but soon enough their path took them through smoldering fires. Some were frozen in time, others seemed to flicker eternally, never spreading, shrinking, or consuming fuel. The three of them shared looks, casting flame freezing charms on each other while judiciously avoiding the flames.
"They're getting worse." Neville muttered, noting both how the fires became more intense and prevalent as they ventured deeper, and the intensifying glow in the distance. Ginny frowned in thought. They'd gone to wrecked aftermath to burning rubble, and now were approaching a firestorm.
"It's like we're going back in time." Ginny said. "The vortex spread out from the center. As we get closer to the explosion… we're also getting sooner to the explosion." The Time Vortex wasn't just London, it was London frozen its last, worst, day- a moment of terror, destruction, and torment, and they were delving into the heart of it, each step taking them closer and closer to the moment of destruction.
They had come prepared for obstacles- they had flame freezing charms at the ready and were wrapped in dragon-hide robes, but most importantly they had a plan. They charted a route into the London Underground. Their maps served them well, allowing them to duck into a station and follow a course for Westminster, but they hadn't anticipated the people. They were huddled together, cowering, clinging to each other, tears streaming down their cheeks and blisters and burns on every patch of exposed skin. At best, they were frozen, but some shook with terror, weeping endless tears, or ran desperately without ever moving. It was horrifying, and they were treated to the scene again and again as they trekked deeper. At one point, the concentration of people was too dense, and they accidentally 'awoke' a frozen woman. She immediately screamed. The noise was hoarse, raw and blood-curling. It reminded Ginny of her mother- how she'd screamed and screamed over the body of-
The woman whirled around, not fully comprehending her surroundings, and startled when she saw them. No doubt, from her perspective they had appeared out of nowhere. Unbalanced, she stumbled out of their little bubble, returning to stasis. None of them spoke, or even dared to move as her screams rang distantly in their ears. They didn't talk for a long time after that, and from then on studiously avoided people. They couldn't save them. Even if they, by some miracle, stopped the vortex, they would just die in fire. Even if they somehow got them out, the world out there would just chew them up.
They exited at Westminster station and found that they'd bypassed the inferno entirely. They could see it in the distance, a ring of blue fire that enclosed them on all sides, but whatever had triggered the vortex had happened before it could reach this place. The people around them were running terrified, hugging each other, and sobbing, but they were not blistered and charred, they'd been spared that. The time turner around Neville's neck had begun to spin faster and faster as they'd approached the center of the vortex, and now it was whirling in almost a blur.
This was it; this was the start of the War, this was doomsday. While that wasn't entirely true- both Hydra and Grindelwald were making their bids for power before the bombs fell- it might as well be. After that day, nothing would ever be the same again. This moment in time was the barrier between her world and the untouchable past. She couldn't imagine what it would have been like, before. The War was all she knew, all she'd ever known, it was all her parents had ever known. It consumed everything, pervaded every aspect of life, left its scars everywhere and on everyone. Ginny couldn't accept that this was how things had to be, she had to believe that there was more- that was why she was here.
The Professor had told them what they'd need to do. They located an innocuous phone booth at the brink of the ring of fire, and it took them down. The atrium was in just as much chaos as the streets above. Wizards and witches scrambled for the fireplaces, fighting each other in desperate skirmishes to be next. Others were sprinting for the apparation spots. Above them, the ceiling was in the process of shattering, a dome of blue fire breaking through. These people were all doomed. The only difference from what they'd seen before was that here, nothing moved. They were getting closer to the center.
"Merlin." Ron whispered. Finally breaking the silence.
"Yeah." Ginny said, shuddering. "This is…"
"Horrifying?" Neville offered.
"Yeah, pretty sure I'm going to have nightmares about all this." Ron said.
Next on their path was another elevator, but this was so choked with people streaming out that they couldn't hope to use it. Neville withdrew a small potion vial from his pack. "The professor gave this to me, apparently it's incredibly corrosive." He tipped the vial, letting a few drops fall to the ground. The potion carved through the floor and any protective enchantments it held in seconds. It was only stopped when it left their bubble.
"Blimey!" Ron said "Just don't spill any of that on me."
It was a poor excuse for a joke, and they all knew it. Still, Neville chuckled wryly. "Not planning on it." With careful use of a levitation charm, they were able to descend through the floors, the potion eating through each one until…
"Well, this is it." Neville announced, "The Department of Mysteries." The air seemed especially heavy here. The time turner whirred at a blinding speed, and the bubble around them had shrunk down until it could just fit the three of them. Somehow, Ginny could feel that this was the epicenter of the vortex. They ventured slowly, taking each step carefully so as to not stumble out of their bubble of protection. Around a particular door, the temporal distortions were so intense that even at a meter's distance the door appeared contorted.
"I think this is it." Neville murmured, his enchanted eye surveying whatever was behind it "I think… it's a person."
And it was. The explosion had breached this room, engulfing half of it in a wall of fire. Shards of stone, flung outward by the force of the blast, were halted in mid-trajectory. Shattered time turners and dismembered Unspeakables alike were held motionless in an invisible prison, and in the center of all the chaos was a man. He was clearly frozen, yet temporal energy flowed around him, hugging his body in shifting strands, running in streams along the slope of his musculature. Some insane part of Ginny blushed, unable to take her eyes off this man. Despite herself, she crept forward to get a better look at him.
"Uh, Ginny?" Neville asked. She ignored him. There was something compelling about this mystery man. It wasn't just that he was attractive- though he was- there was something… familiar. On instinct, her hand lifted to his brow to brush her raven locks back over his fringe. It felt like a well-worn motion, even though she never met this man before in her life. She touched his forehead- was there a scar on his fringe?- and her mind exploded.
She was hit with a barrage of visions. She was eleven, shivering and crying in some darkened chamber. The man was there, also now just a boy, and he was hugging her. His arms felt strong and comforting, like home. She was fifteen, and they were kissing in the Gryffindor common room. She could feel the warmth of their embrace, and the keenness of her desire for him. It was a dream come true. She was sixteen, and they were having sex. Even though his body was not as impressive as the one before her, her teenage self had been every bit as wowed. She felt an intense moment of connection and completeness as he entered her and she embraced his cock, she wanted it to go on forever… She was sixteen, and she saw his dead body at the feet of a pale shadow of a man. She screamed.
Ginny fell onto the floor, yanked back by Ron. "What were you thinking!" He shouted, furious. Ginny couldn't respond, her mind was still swimming with the images, sensations, feelings… memories?
"I don't know!" Ginny fumbled "I don't know!"
"I think I have an idea." Neville snarked.
Thump.
The trio choked on their words simultaneously. The man Ginny had touched was no longer frozen. He'd fallen heavily to the floor, heaving in breaths. His eyes open, a gorgeous shade of emerald green. He looked at them with an unfocused gaze, and squinted as if he couldn't quite make them out. Finally, his voice gravelly from disuse, he spoke "Ron? Neville? Gin?"
What the fuck?
-----
Far away, in an office in Hogwarts, a gently rotating device jerked from its lethargy, spinning with sudden urgency. Headmaster Albus Dumbledore raised his eyebrows curiously at the instrument. The device was meant to react to temporal energy. He had designed the device himself and if he had done so adequately (which he daresay he did more often than not) then that indicated a massive shift, greater than any event since the vortex had formed.
He didn't have much time to devote to academic pursuits, so he did enjoy when circumstances made the more esoteric branches of magic practical in the war. Gellert had rolled his eyes while Albus had immersed himself in the project, chuckling and saying that if it ever became useful it would mean their deaths. Albus would enjoy rubbing it in his face later, but first there were more urgent matters to attend to. He summoned his patronus, and sent it off with the message "Shacklebolt, have a response team drafted. Await my orders." It would not do for Shaklebolt to know that the team he'd be sending off was to the edge of the vortex. If he did, he might only recruit his most expendable wizards, which would leave the possibly critical mission fatally compromised. Rapid-fire, he sent another patronus "Lily, there has been a development with the time vortex. I would be most interested to hear your theories."