Ad Infinitum
is a Harry Potter fanfic by Speechwriter.
Tom Riddle takes a mysterious artifact from an apparently mad wizard, and finds himself jumping through time whenever he touches it. He accidentally takes Hermione with him on one of said jumps, and they have to work together to get back to their own times.
Contains examples of:
- Atrocious Alias: "Gurdy Bansherwold" isn't the wizard's true name. It's how he named himself in his youth, giving himself what he thought was the kind of name a big, important magician would have.
- Bad Future: The future, partly thanks to the time travellers but mostly thanks to Bansherwold; however, he planned it this way to ensure humanity would unite both magic and science to fight off the Horde.
- Been There, Shaped History: Or, in this case, "Been There, Shaped the Future". Tom and Hermione appear out of nowhere in front of a crowd, revealing the existence of the Wizarding world.
- Big Bad: Bansherwold appears to be this. According to the author's notes, the Horde occupy this place.
- Dead Fic: Hasn't been updated since 2014. Eventually, after desisting from the fandom, the author posted an outline of what would have been the Mind Screwdriver to explain the events of the fic.
- Deadpan Snarker: Hermione and Tom, while discussing Bansherwold's "lost love".Hermione:
Maybe his lost love is you.
Tom: I highly doubt that, unless you think it's a standard way of expressing affection to lock someone in solitary confinement for a year.
Hermione: Naturally. That's the only way I ever express affection.
- Help Yourself in the Future:
- Played with; Tom and Hermione meet Hermione's future self shortly before she's murdered, but the future Hermione isn't much help.
- The older and younger Bansherwolds work together to force Tom and Hermione to do exactly what they want.
- Mind Screwdriver: The author's notes. In order: in a parallel universe (Universe "A"), another Bansherwold, living in the late nineteenth century, fell in love with that reality's version of Hermione. Eventually, he created the Timeglass despite Hermione's objections, causing her to leave him. In despair, he used the Timeglass to travel to the main Harry Potter reality (Universe "B") and grant that timeline's Bansherwold, then in his late Hogwarts years, both the Timeglass and a strand of his hair, to allow him to reach Bansherwold A if he has any questions. Bansherwold B used it to travel into the future of 2349, where a race of magical alien invaders called the Horde have reached Earth and triumphed. He consulted Bansherwold A, discovering it would be possible to change the future if he altered a significant enough event. While visiting Universe A, Bansherwold B met Hermione A, and they begin falling in love; she gives him a framed photo as a memento to remember her. Bansherwold A forces his alternate to leave in jealousy, destroying the vial of her hair so he can't find his way back. Throwing himself in the cause of salvation, Bansherwold B first tries to implement his plan to destroy the Statute and force magicals and muggles to cooperate by allying himself with Grindelwald, who tempts him with the idea of advancing magic through his ideals. While working with Grindelwald, Bansherwold B discovers one of Hermione A's hairs on the photo frame, but before he can use the Timeglass to go back to her, he tells Grindelwald he has to leave... only for Grindelwald to instead announce him as his newest lieutenant, distracting him long enough for Bansherwold A and Grindelwald to destroy the hair. A furious Bansherwold B abandons Grindelwald to fully dedicate himself to stopping the Horde; while he travels to other universes and learns a lot about other Hermiones, he decides not to pursue another of her again. He identifies Hermione B and Tom Riddle as key participants to stop the Horde, and erodes the Statute as much as he can as he prepares to take them to 2202 and lays the ground to send them back. However, his ability to predict events is incomplete, and Hermione and Tom begin falling in love. After returning to her time so she can finish her destined history with Voldemort, Bansherwold B returns to take her to 2361 with Tom and kidnaps a third Hermione from another universe, who never notices the difference, to take her place. The three of them spend more than a century laying the ground to rout the Horde, and while they succeed, their victory comes with a heavy cost. Hermione B and Tom live together until his death, after which Bansherwold B takes a modified Polyjuice potion to permanently assume Tom's younger form. In this form, he kickstarts the destruction of the Statute of Secrecy and has Hermione send him back to 1945 to assume the persona of Lord Voldemort until his final death in 1998. The elderly Hermione travels a bit with the Timeglass, including handing a young Bansherwold B his Hogwarts letter, and ultimately returns to 2036 to die, finally ending the paradox.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Bansherwold isn't as insane as he seems and actually plays it up so Tom Riddle will hand over his DNA and magically-important left shoe without realizing their importance.
- Time Travel: Complicated enormously by the fact it can only create and enforce Stable Time Loops.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Older Bansherwold pulls this to turn the Muggles against the wizards.
