Room 308, Wednesday evening

[smartestone]

Finals week means Hermione is pretty much unheard and unseen. Well, unheard except for the sound of pages turning and unseen except for the top of her head over a book. Also, 'finals week' kind of means the whole month of December for her. She's a little serious about this sort of thing.

She hears Crookshanks scratching at the door, but tries to ignore it just long enough to get through her first notebook from World History class. Finally she gets up, watching him wander down the hall, and leaves the door open so he can come back without interrupting her studying.

[For time_agent]

Comments

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Her room was found easily enough, and Jack leaned in the doorway for a minute, studying her, before saying, "Hermione, right?"

[smartestone]

"One second..." she says, turning a page and finally turning around in her desk chair. "Yes. Hello."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Hi. Don't think we've met," he said, hiding the nibble of dislike he couldn't help behind a smile. He needed her. "Jack Harkness."

[smartestone]

"Oh," she says, kind of surprised to see him. She's heard about him, but that's about all. "Good to meet you. What brings you this way?"

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"You too. And we have a mutual friend," he said, striving for casual. "Cedric. He's kind of gone missing, and I was wondering if you might have a way to find him, seeing as you come from the same dimension." He paused, and added, "Almost the same dimension."

[smartestone]

She waves him in. "Are you sure he's missing?" she asks, getting up to look through the chest at the foot of her bed. Inside are books, naturally. What else does she need storage for? "Not to sound facetious, but this is Fandom. He could temporarily be a gremlin."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack came into the room, standing over her while she looked through the chest. "Four days, no one's seen him, there's no sign of him on the island that I could find, and he hasn't been unerolled. I think that counts as missing," he said, biting off the last words. He breathed deep, and let it out slowly before asking in a much calmer tone, "Maybe you've got a way to see if he's still around in a different shape?"

[smartestone]

"If there's a way to do that, I don't know of it. Which usually means there isn't," she says, picking up one of the books and flipping through it for a moment before putting it down and picking up another. She's also ignoring the tone. She's very good under pressure. "There are some locator spells. I mean, I could- Oooh," she says, eyes going wide. "Something like the map. If he's in Fandom, I'd be able to tell no matter what physical form he's in. It would take some time, though." She looks up at him, frowning.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Map?" Jack pounced on the idea, looking hopefully at her, all antagonism forgotten in the wake of sudden hope. "Time doesn't matter. If there's a chance he's still here, we have to find him. And if he's not..." He raked a hand through his hair. "Anything you want, just name it. It'll be yours if you're willing to help me."

[smartestone]

"You don't have anything I need," she says matter-of-factly. "I wasn't really planning on sleeping, so I can use the time instead to work on it. If I can find a good map, actually, it shouldn't take long at all."

She gets up abruptly and goes back to her desk, rifling around for another book. "Of course the exception being that this is the only purpose for me to do this, because generally speaking, it isn't something I should be doing," she says, and pauses mid-page. "If he isn't in Fandom, though, what I can do is a bit... limited."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"I said want, not need, which isn't the same thing, but I take your point." Jack followed her back to her desk, leaning over her as she paged through the book, not really interested in whether it was something she should be doing, only that she would do it. "Limited is better than nothing, which is exactly what I have now," he said quietly. "I'll take anything I can get."

[smartestone]

"Not sure I have a map..." she mutters. Frowning, she raises her voice to normal volume again. "If I don't find one, I can stop in the library tomorrow. And I can try to find things out in my timeline, but I doubt anyone there would need this Cedric. And I may be able to talk to someone who might know more about this than I do. I can't make any guarantees, but I can try."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"I can get you a map. I'll get it for you in the morning. Hell, tell me where to find one, and I'll get it for you now," he offered. "Anything you can do is more than anyone else has been able to. I'll help if I can, but magic's not really my thing." Neither was sitting back and waiting for someone else to do something, but he didn't have much of a choice. "And maybe no one in your timeline needs him, but I do." He rested his hand on her shoulder, ducking his head so he could meet her eyes, smiling warmly. "Thank you."

[smartestone]

Hermione manages not to "awwww". Barely. She's smiling a little, though. "I didn't see the bookstore open earlier, and the library should be closed, but I'm sure there's something online that can be printed out," she says, slowing down a little. "I tend to forget that can be done now. If you can do that, it will give me some time to send off a letter asking for more help."

It's not much, but at least she can delegate something.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "That I can do. Give me ten, twenty minutes or so, and I'll be back." He headed for the door, intent on hitting the computer labs. He was pretty sure he'd seen a map on the school's website.

[smartestone]

Hermione takes the time to sit down and write off a quick letter to Dumbledore explaining the situation. She doesn't have enough time to get to the post office to send it before Jack gets back, so she spends the rest of her time finally finding the book she was looking for, just to refresh herself on the spell.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

After about fifteen minutes, Jack returned, carrying two versions of maps of the island.

"I brought you one in colour and one in black and white," he said as he walked back into the room. "I wasn't sure which would be better, or even if it mattered." He lay them on her desk. "How long do you think this will take?"

[smartestone]

"Thank you," she says, studying both of the printouts, and deciding on the black and white version because it just looks more authentic to her for some reason. "The incantation itself is easy enough, but I want to make sure I get it right, and we're not accidentally chasing after a radio squirrel. Give me about an hour, maybe two? It should be easier since we're only looking for one person and because there's no actual canon on how do do this."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Two hours. Okay." He grinned at her, spirits lifted simply by the fact that they were doing something. "Which means 'Jack go away and don't hover while I do this'. Right?"

[smartestone]

"You can stay if you'd like, as long as I can concentrate," she tells him. "It would be the perfect opportunity to study for finals."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Mmm, maybe not." Studying for finals hadn't even crosed Jack's mind. "I'll come back. There's someone I need to see, just in case this doesn't work." He walked towards the door. "Two hours. I'll be back. Want me to bring you anything? Tea, maybe?"

[smartestone]

"That would be wonderful," she says with a little smile, getting a pen to take more notes on what she's reading.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Consider it done," he said over his shoulder as he left, heading down to Parker's room.

While he walked down the stairs, he decided there was something very reassuring about Hermione.

[smartestone]

If the twins could manage it in their what, third year? she could certainly do this for one person. Eventually she's pretty sure she's gotten it right... but nothing shows up. So she spends some time trying to put herself on the map instead, in case she did do something wrong.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Close to exactly two hours later, Jack walked quietly back into Hermione's room and set a mug of tea next to her hand. "Any luck?"

[smartestone]

She's wincing a little when she says, "It doesn't look like he's here," and shows him the map. If he looks closely, he'll be able to see her name on the paper in relation to where she's standing, but Cedric's name is nowhere on it.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack leaned over the map, tracing the outline with one finger, stopping when he got to Hermione's name. "Least we know it works," he offered. "And I guess we can stop looking for him here." He dropped his head, closing his eyes briefly, then opened them and tried to smile at her. "Thanks for trying."

[smartestone]

"I'll still get the letter out," she promises. She really does feel bad about having to say all of this. "And I'll keep looking. Maybe there's something that can be done that I just don't know about yet."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Again, thank you. Everything helps." Jack studied her for a minute, then crouched next to the desk, leaning his shoulder against it. "You know, I didn't like you, because of what you told Cedric," he told her. "About what happened to him in your timeline. And I'm sorry for that." He flashed her a quick smile. "You didn't have to help me. If there's ever anything I can do for you, ask, okay?"

[smartestone]

Hermione's actually kind of used to not being liked. It doesn't even really bother her anymore. "I'll remember that," she says with a little smile back. "And I hope he comes back soon."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Good. And so do I." He stretched to his feet, then glanced at the map. "Think I could take that with me? Just in case he reappears as mysteriously as he vanished?"

[smartestone]

She looks a little wary, because... map, and she still has arguments about Harry's, but nods. There are only two names on there anyway. "Return it when you're finished?" she asks, offering it to him.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"You have my word." He accepted it, rolling it carefully, and held it between his hands. "You'll let me know if you figure out anything else?"

[smartestone]

"I promise," she answers immediately, nodding.

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

Jack couldn't help but believe her. All he could find to say was thank you, which was getting old, and his more tangible methods of showing appreciation weren't going to work here. So he settled for touching the map to his forehead in a kind of salute. "If he turns up, I'll let you know."

[smartestone]

"Oh, you'd better," she says, because she's not planning on worrying only to hear it on the radio a week from now. "I'm very good at using a phone, if nothing else."

[anextimeagent.livejournal.com]

"Count on it." Jack nodded once and headed for the door. "See you, Hermione."