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Disclaimer

I own nothing of the Harry Potter franchise.

Glad to clear that up

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Chapter 11 - Interlude

In their room, Gryff was sat in a chair, next to Sly's bed. Sly was finally asleep, looking peaceful.

"I showed them the memories of the Ragnos, Sly. Not all of them, there are things that they didn't need to know. I gave them the idea that the torture took only a day instead of a full week. I didn't show them the full extent of the damage they caused you nor that it took almost two months to recover. I didn't show them the times she lashed out at you when I offended her, punishing you for my stupidity nor the times he brought our fears just to teach us a lesson... I really didn't want them to know what happened before they began to be civil to us, after they started to like us... I even manipulated some of the memories just to be sure... I'm sorry Sly. What happened to you by the Ragnos was all my fault."

Gryff threw the stick as far as he could. An over exited velociraptor ran past him and grab the stick on its jaws, returning to Gryff, shaking its tail. Gryff smiled but it was a sad smile. Rap noticed it and dropped the stick on Gryff's hands, licking Gryff's face.

"Don't do that, Rap." replied Gryff, throwing the stick further away, making the happy dinossaur fetch again.

It was eight o'clock in the morning on sunday, the morning after Gryff abandoned the great hall, leaving everyone to see his memories of the Ragnos universe. He stood the entire night with Sly, who, thanks to Merlin, Morgana and all the Gods above and below, managed to get a good night sleep, unlike the gryffindor brother. He barely slept, plagued by memories and the screams of Sly's torture, echoing in his mind.

Tell her to stop it! he begged to both Daphne and Hermione. He could tell that even they were distressed, seeing their mistress being so vicious She can do it to me!

She won't. replied Daphne almost in a whisper, in fear of her mistress. Hermione gulped as well and both women tried to suppress a shiver.

Why not? Please! Make her stop. cried Gryff.´

She hates him less... because he is a Slytherin. was the reply he got, before the ward was raised again, preventing the sound to come into the cell.

Because she hated Sly less... For nearly two months, that never made sense to Gryff. That was, until they met the Ragnos, both of them and despite the initial animosity from the lady to the two travelers, especially after some spells that hurt more than Voldemort's cruciatus and a certain illusion spell that made Sly fight for his life against hordes of inferi Daphne and Fiona, Hadriana Ragnos treated them with both kindness and respect. She even helped them to recover after each "lesson" her husband "provided" them, which, after careful reflection, happened because of Gryff. However, he preferred not to think about it anymore.

The Ragnos were a very confusing and very sore topic for Gryff. First, the Lady Ragnos, the future Overlady, hated them. Then, she came to respect them and finally, she even cared for them, to the point of encourage them to continue their travels and fix their pasts. Hell, if Gryff had to be honest to himself, after several months of fearing them, Hadriana, Sly and Gryff had a long and enlightening talk about themselves and she apologized to Sly for everything she had done. First she was in anger for seeing two copies of James Potter with Lily's eyes and then, after realizing who they were, she was curious, to the point of wanting to know everything about them.

The reason she never tortured Gryff, although she hated gryffindors, was because Markus Ragnos had returned from a business trip Hadriana couldn't join because of the pregnancy, nearly six days after their arrival at the Ragnos estate. Still, Markus had being much softer than Hadriana while breaking his shields and Gryff barely got any physical damage, unlike Sly. Hadriana wasn't as talented as her husband was, in the arts of the Overlord Ragnos.

He had been lucky that Markus was so much more powerful than Hadriana, able to break his shields at ease. And he regretted it, every day he saw his brother laid in the bed, screaming in pain or unconscious.

Sure, Hadriana taught them some lore and magic while bonding with them and she even fortified Sly's occlumency shields, keeping the memories away but the damage had been made.

"Bloody time jumps." he whispered to himself, throwing the stick again "Always seventeen, one month and one day. Always making our bodies go back to that point. No scars, no tattoos... bloody immortals unless killed, that's what, travelling through the bloody multiverse, through bloody screwed up realities..."

"Language." admonished a voice behind him. Gryff turned back in surprise and saw none other than Hermione Granger, dressed in muggle jeans and a sweater, standing near him. She stood uncertain of how to act and Gryff could see she was nervous.

"Good morning." said Gryff in a low voice in a sigh "Slept well?"

"No." Hermione bluntly replied, shaking her head "I..."

"Neither did I." replied Gryff, not noticing that Hermione was trying to speak "I wasn't able to."

"Is Sly better, or..."

"He is better. He should be fully recovered in a couple of days." replied Gryff with a sigh. Hermione put a hand on his arm, attempting to get his attention. He turned to her and noticed her pained eyes.

"I'm sorry." she said, unconsciously tightening her hand around his arm, noticing how firm it was.

"For what?" asked Gryff, his surprise in his voice.

"For what the other me did to you." she replied and Gryff understood what she meant.

"She wasn't you." he replied calmly "There is nothing for you to apologize for."

"Still, I want to." she replied softly "I don't know about alternate realities or about that particular Hermione but she shouldn't have done it."

"No, she shouldn't... " he sighed with a sad look "but despite being an illusion, for that moment, I felt at peace and complete. A small part of me knew it was fake but I wished it would never end." tears fell from Gryff's eyes and Hermione was unsure of what to do "I blame myself much more for giving in than I blame her for cursing me."

For a moment, Hermione was unable to say anything.

"Did I cheated on her?" he asked. Hermione realized that he wanted a reply and considered what she knew:

"If I understood correctly, your magic was suppressed during your stay with... them." Hermione was still feeling conflicted on how to react about the Ragnos, especially Hadriana "If that is so, then you were practically defenseless against her spells."

"Magic is mostly about intent. I could have tried to resist more than I did." Gryff replied, noticing that Rap was returning again with the stick.

"You don't know what you could have done." she replied.

"No, I don't. And I hope I never will, either." he sighed, waving the stick before Rap and throwing it again, enhancing the throw with magic. The raptor gladly ran after it again, making Hermione snort.

"I'm sorry, but I have to ask, what did you do to him? He looks like a puppy."

"That was another of my greatest stupidities..." replied Gryff with some regret. Hermione caught it "We were attacked by a pack of raptors in the universe before this one and we... neutralized them... almost all of them. Rap was unconscious and I saw Jurassic Park once with 'Mione, I don't know if you know the movie?" he asked, looking at Hermione who, for his surprise, smiled.

"Did you liked it?" she asked smiling and he smiled back.

"It was pretty great, actually. Can I assume you have seen it, too?

"It was fun." she said with a smile "But I always liked dinossaurs, so..."

"Me too. Truth was that I wanted to know how smart the bugger truly was. I used legilimancy on Rap and ended up almost frying his brain. I didn't kill him but left him on a vegetative state... and I felt bad about it."

Hermione gaped.

"Didn't you know that legillimancy shouldn't be used in different species? the consequences can be really bad." she went on, pointing out the possible consequences, that went from headaches, loss of one's personality in the mind of the animal or even death for both.

"Yeah, I didn't know that." confessed Gryff with an embarrassed look, making Hermione gap at him "None of us did, actually."

"None of us? And how couldn't you know? It's on almost every manual of leggilimancy."

"Me, 'Mione, Nev and Luna. Sly too, actually. We tried to learn it around our fifth year, Luna's fourth, but not all of us were able to... I'm able to use legillimancy but Sly isn't... and we used battlemagic manuals to learn it, which skip most of the theory and go straight forward to the practical."

"Oh..." was her reply "But how do you get an understanding of the theory if... what's so funny?" she asked, changing her confused look by one of irritation, seeing Gryff wanting to laugh.

"I'm sorry, it's just that..." he laughed while Hermione stood there, crossing her arms "'Mione made the same question."

"Oh." she replied, forcing a small and nervous smile on her lips.

"Either way, I felt bad about it and tried to reboot his mind, but I was unable to... the best I could was reprogram him and... well, the final result is at sight. I turned a raptor into a weird puppy only because I didn't want to kill him. That would be the easy way out. I needed to at least try. After that, well, he wouldn't survive a day in the wilds so I kept him. I always wanted a puppy..."

"So, in the previous universe, there were living dinossaurs?" asked Hermione in awe and Gryff smirked.

"In the previous universe, the dinossaurs were never extinct. In fact, they even evolved, becoming a new species known as sauroids that ruled the planet instead of the mammals. Yes, they had magic too, although it was a very different magic from ours and they were far more evolved. In fact, magical sauroids and non-magical sauroids lived together and openly among each other, although let's face it, they had almost two million years of history." explained Gryff, noticing the awe on Hermione's face.

"That's... that's amazing!" she replied in a curious glee, starting to ask about the sauroid civilization and their magic.

Gryff smirked.

"Two million years of history? They must be very advanced. I can't imagine what they must know... How were you able to communicate with them? Did you get any books or something on their history?"

"Parseltongue." replied Gryff off handedly, making Hermione's eyes widen "And yes, we did get books, but they are written in parseltongue as well".

"Of course! They were reptiles, correct? It makes sense that Parseltongue isn't just a language spoken by snakes but by all reptiles."

"Like dragons." offered Gryff, making Hermione slap herself in the forehead.

"Of course, Sly used it in the tournament, didn't he? He spoke with the dragon. Why didn't you?" there was no malice in her question, it was pure curiosity and Gryff blushed.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I never considered it? None of my little group did, in fact, there was not much information available about it."

"And you weren't very famous with the snakes, were you?" smirked Hermione.

"Not a bloody bit, Malfoy made sure of that. It didn't help me being a bit of an ass back then, either."

"Well, we all have faults." she said, slapping him on his shoulder.

"Oh, really? What about you, then?" he asked playfully, noticing the change on her eyes, from amusement and playfulness to a somber and pained mood.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." he said while she hugged herself with a pained look.

"It's fine, I just don't like to..." she said in a sad voice, not finishing.

Gryff looked at her with caution and slowly embraced her in his arms.

"It's ok." he whispered. At first she was shocked with his actions but she ended up accepting his offer of comfort, in a very un-Hermione way "I won't pry, unless you want to speak and know that unlike most people that say that they understand but have no idea, I can't say that I understand but I will listen."

For some time, none moved, not even when Rap returned with the stick. The raptor looked at the two and tilted his head, just like a puppy, making Hermione laugh. With it, she let go of the embrace, embarrassed with her actions.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to..." started Gryff but Hermione just ignored him, picking the stick.

"Can I?" she asked, looking at the raptor. It didn't matter that he was almost a puppy, the raptor still had teeth.

"Sure, go for it." replied Gryff with a smile. Hermione threw the stick and Rap went for it, delighted.

"Nice throw."

"I'm not usually like that." replied Hermione, looking at Gryff "If you say anything to anyone..."

"Why would I?" replied Gryff, not looking at Hermione, focusing on Rap "What happens here, stays in here".

For some reason, Hermione knew she could trust on Gryff and nodded.

"Thank you." he said suddenly, attracting her attention.

"For what?" she asked, uncertain of what he was talking about.

"Taking my mind out of my problems for a bit. For a bit of bantering. For keeping me company. For trusting in me... take your pick." he replied with a chuckle "I have to make something nice for you though."

Hermione had to focus herself not to blush.

"No, you don't." she replied. When he didn't reply, smirking instead, she grew a little concern.

"I have to check on Sly." replied Gryff after some moments, watching for his watch and sending Rap to the forest again "We were supposed to go to Hogsmeade today for a drink with Lily, James, Sirius and Severus... Not going to happen now and I'm sure they'll want to see the memories too, If Lily and Severus haven't showed them yet."

Hermione nodded.

"You know, Lily really likes you two. Amy does too. Have you considered to call Lily mum? You seemed to want to, yesterday."

Gryff sighed.

"I know. To be honest, the more we bond, the more I want to but what about when we leave? What then?" For a moment, Hermione didn't reply. She did bit her lower lip, a clear sign she was thinking.

"When you leave, you will have had an experience of having your family that loves you." Gryff widened his eyes and looked at Hermione, who felt a little uncomfortable with his look.

"You know, that doesn't seems very bad, does it?" he asked with a thoughtful look "We became friends with many others through our travels, made ourselves a nice and huge family... Nev and Luna, Hailey and Neville and their kids, Remus, Teddy and Tonks, even..." Gryff smiled, remembering a fond memory "We were always able to leave in the end. But still, calling them mum and dad... it's strange."

"I can't say anything about that, but think about it. What other chances will you have to meet your parents? In this case, they are their counterparts but they still love you, don't they?"

Gryff chucked.

"In my universe, 'Mione was the brightest witch of our age. I don't know how bright you are but you have to be the wisest witch of our age." Gryff said, making Hermione blush "I assume I'll see you around?" he asked with a smile. She nodded and he smiled again, vanishing in the air before her.

Hermione just smirked.