An Outlandish Affair

Chapter 5

It couldn't be true. Wizards have been studying time travel for centuries and the best they had come up with were Time-Turners. Hermione knew this because in her more ambitious days at Hogwarts she had been granted permission from Dumbledore and the Ministry to use one. She had overloaded her class schedule and gone back in time to repeat hours, therefore giving her more hours in the day to complete extra classes. In the end it had been too much of a hassle to hide and she'd given it back at the end of that year.

That had nothing to do with the situation at hand, Hermione reminded herself. She needed to figure out exactly where she was. Or when she was; that would be a better description of her predicament. It had to be sometime before 1746, but not too far before because the Lucius Malfoy standing in front of her was the duplicate of the portrait in her history book. She still didn't understand why this man caused her to feel such deep dread. She had felt the same way when she saw him on that page all those weeks ago.

She needed to get out of here. That was the first clear thought she had. The wards didn't intend to let her apparate out of the tent and she wasn't delusional enough to think she could beat Lucius in a duel, especially after her recent magical failure.

Play it cool, she told herself, focus, Hermione.

As Lucius continued his unbreakable eye contact, she straightened up and figured she should be the one to get the first word.

"I was under the impression I was simply being taken to have a conversation with this gentleman's superior," she said, gesturing towards the blonde soldier. "Why do I have the distinct impression I'm being treated as a captive?" Hermione demanded in what she hoped was her most convincing tone.

With the silence finally broken, Lucius raised an eyebrow and smirked at Hermione. It was not a kind smirk, it did not remotely reach his eyes and if anything it made him look more deranged.

"Peeper!" he called into the silence.

A moment later, a small house elf with greenish skin popped into existence beside Lucius. He had large brown eyes and a small mop of thin hair on top of his head. His ears were enormous, probably the largest Hermione had ever seen on a house elf. He was wearing the typical house elf uniform: a form of rags they assembled themselves. This one seemed to be made out of the course material many of the muggle men used to make their tents.

"Yes, sir?" Peeper the house elf squeaked at his master.

Lucius nodded his head in the blonde man's direction and without looking at the elf said, "Take Draco to his chamber, he isna needed here anymore." He had the same Scottish accent as the soldier who Hermione now knew to be named Draco. They had to be related, she thought. They had the same build and the same white blonde hair.

She had been in such shock from seeing Lucius standing in front of her that she hadn't spared a thought to Draco or her surroundings. She glanced at him and noticed his eyes were no longer milky. They were also gray, but if Lucius' eyes were like frozen pools of granite, Draco's were like molten silver. Without the curse controlling him, he was almost... beautiful. Stop it, Hermione, you need to focus.

Their eyes met and Hermione saw a look of confusion cross his face quickly before he masked it into indifference. In the time it took Peeper to cross the room, take his hand, and pop them away to elsewhere, Hermione took a moment to take in everything else she was seeing.

The inside of the tent was massive. If she had been transported directly into it instead of walking through the flaps, she would never believe it was a tent. This had to be pushing the absolute limit of undetectable extension charms, she thought briefly. Leave it to Hermione to think about the logic behind things even when every cell in her body was telling her she was in mortal danger.