Disclaimer: Clearly I realize that I don't own any of this.

A/N: The method of Time Travel is based on S'TarKan's Nightmares of Future Past. If you're one of the two people in the world who haven't read his fanfiction, I highly recommend it.
For those of you who are following my other work, this one is much darker, and it will be updating through the month of November for NaNoWriMo. My other work will be back updating after November, and possibly once or twice during November.

Chapter One: Stop Running

Ms. Hermione Granger was absolutely furious at the thin hand covering her eyes and the second arm keeping her folded arms locked and useless on her chest. She was quite certain that she had almost witnessed her best friend, her last remaining friend on this plane of existence, being torn apart by a rather vicious use of the Sectumsempra spell. She felt herself being pulled into another room and she suppressed the scream of anger, not of fear, that she wanted to let out and continue screaming until her throat bled and her tongue fell out.

"I'm sorry Ms. Granger," a silky voice said beside her ear. His breath was notably cold. "But I'm going to have to ask you to be very quiet."

Hermione relaxed. It was just Snape. Here she was, the last living mudblood, in a den of Death Eaters and the one who grabs her is the only one who doesn't want to see her on a table with her organs hanging out for all to see.

"I didn't just see that, did I?" she asked quietly.

He removed his hand from her eyes, but not his grip across her arms. She looked around her room. It was probably the closest thing Snape had to an office. There were still shelves with jars full of animal parts, although now she assumed some of the parts now were human, but his desk was pushed to the side and there were some markings on the floor. Charmed candles kept the room alight, and she noticed some stains on the wall that she didn't want to look too closely at.

"You did," he replied.

She successfully pulled herself off of him, and she paced around the room. She wanted to scream and smash every single one of his jars, and definitely claw at his stoic face, but she did what she always did, she tried to think it out. She did not just see Harry Potter, the boy who lived, get mercilessly slaughtered by not even the great Dark Lord Voldemort, but by the look of the hair it was possibly the underlying Lucius Malfoy, who had been desperate to prove himself. She knew as soon as Voldermort found out, Lucius would probably be ripped to shreds too.

"How many Horcruxes are left?" she asked.

"We can't find one, we don't even know what it is," Snape replied, "And he still has Nagini hidden gods know where. It was extremely unlucky that he found out what you three were up to."

She paced longer, moving her wand from one hand to the other. She eventually asked, "How many do we have left on your side?"

Snape hesitated, and Hermione picked up on it right away. She stopped pacing and looked directly into his tunnelling black eyes. It was the toneless way he said it that caused a chill to crawl up her spine: "It is just me left."

"The order is gone," she said.

"I am all that is left."

She stepped closer to him. "You are telling me that you and me are the only people who are fighting against this. Everyone else is either on the dark side or in hiding."

"Or just trying to defend themselves," he replied, "Yes."

Hermione looked just over Snape's shoulder and bit her lip. Her lip was so raw that she tasted blood almost instantly, and she ran her tongue along it before biting down again. It was like her brain just shut down. She couldn't even stop her lip from bleeding. "When did Percy go?" she asked.

"About a month back," he replied.

Hermione walked over to his desk and then leaned on it. No one really expected Percy to last as long as he did and to do as much damage as he did. She didn't know all of the resistance, a lot of no names came forward when things really started to get bad, when Lee Jordan was slaughtered live on Potterwatch. Everyone knew who she was though. The last known muggle born witch. She remembered how much she cried when Dean Thomas was killed. She held onto Ron so tight, he joked that he was afraid she'd never let go, and she clearly shouldn't have.

Hermione Granger cursed. It wasn't a curse like a spell, it was a curse her parents would have grounded for her, if they could hear her, if they were still alive.

"What the fuck am I supposed to do now, Severus?" she asked. "I was supposed to die before him, but that bastard used Petrificus Totalus on me. It took me too long to shake it off. I can't do this."

Snape reached out to touch her shoulder, but she slapped his hand away. The last time he did something like that she ended up crying so hard and holding him so tight she was afraid she'd never let him go. He had asked about Ron, not knowing he had died, and she had been trying to stay strong in front of Harry, so she had to have a complete emotional purging in the greasy git's arms.

"If you insist on being emotional, I'm going to ask you to lower your voice," he said. "I can't put up any silencing charms without people thinking something is up. You should just leave. I can meet you somewhere and we can plan what our next course of action is."

"What next course of action? Finding a nice hole to die in?" she asked. "He's killing anyone who even references anything close to a horcrux. It's not like you could just walk up to him and ask how his pet snake cum soul is. Even you aren't that safe."

"So you just want to die then?" he asked coolly.

"I really do loathe you," Hermione said. "You're not going to let me have an emotional breakdown unless it's on your terms."

"For your own safety," he said.

Hermione scowled. She wanted to just disapparate out of there. "Can I leave from here?" she asked. "Or am I going to have to get out of here first?"

"You can leave from here," he replied.

Hermione straightened herself and stopped leaning on his desk. She straightened her robes out as if anyone was going to see her. She felt her eyes begin to fill with tears again. "Do you have any plans of action?" she asked.

For once, Severus Snape's face revealed something was wrong. "I have one," he replied.

"What's wrong with it?"

He frowned and turned away from her, "It might not work, and there's a big risk in it."

"Do we have time to discuss it?"

Snape checked the inside of his arm. "We have time," he said. "The monsters are probably fighting over Potter right now."

"Let's not discuss that," she said, wiping one of her eyes. "What's your idea?"

"I read this anthology of essays, and there was one that was purely theoretical, but I think I have figured out a way that it could work," he said. "Actually, I have already practiced it-"

"You're stalling, just tell me."

"I can send your soul back through time and possibly prevent this whole disaster," he said.

Hermione laughed. One of the things she appreciated about Snape was his appreciation of books and theories and experimentation. She didn't exactly expect him, out of everyone she knew, to drop the time travel bomb, especially since she was the one who dabbled in the only possible form of time travel.

"You said you practiced it," she said.

"Dumbledore, actually," he said. A new light flickered in his eyes and Hermione was reminded for a moment of Ron talking about Quidditch before the war. She couldn't help smiling at his enthusiasm. "We discussed it when he had that curse, you know we had always planned for me to kill him once we knew he was doomed, it was just finding the right moment. We had the runes scrawled everywhere in case we had to do it suddenly."

"So when you... what term should I use here?" Hermione asked.

He shifted uncomfortably. "We can say when I killed him," he said hollowly. "We quickly repositioned ourselves, he activated the runes, while I cast the spell to kill him, his soul moved through the barrier created by the runes and sucked him through time."

"Then why is everything still a mess?" she asked.

"It could have created an alternate reality," he replied. "Unless he did not make it through."

"So you're saying that you're going to kill me and maybe I'll travel back in time. What time are you sending me back to anyway? Am I relieving my childhood? And if it's just my soul am I going to have to possess a body?"

"I figure we'll send you back to his time," Snape replied, "When he went to Hogwarts."

"So I can kill him while he's weak?" Hermione asked.

"If you're up for it," Snape replied. "I know I would. As for a body-"

"Wait, why aren't you going then?" Hermione asked.

"I can subvert things best in my position now. And I didn't want to leave you three to figure things out on your own. And I don't want to leave you alone now," he said. "It's best if I'm last. I'll figure something out for myself."

Hermione could have worried that Snape was just trying to kill her, if it weren't for the throng of death eaters on the other side of the door just waiting for a rumour of her. He wouldn't have to make this much of an effort to kill her.

"How long could you keep this up for?" she asked. "After we're all gone."

"You are considering this?" Snape asked.

"Tell me about the body I'm possessing," Hermione said. "I am taking a body, right?"

"Yes," he replied. "I picked one out specifically for you. It's an orphan female. There's only two other orphans, one being him, and another being a male. I assumed you preferred to be in a female body. I decided an orphan would be best so you would not have any emotional ties, nor would anyone notice a sharp change in personality. In our timeline she had both the Durmstrang Institute and Hogwarts offer scholarships to school, but she choses the Durmstrang Institute, where she dabbles in the Dark Arts and ultimately dies after dropping out of school around the end of Grindelwald's chaos."

"So she's doomed anyway," she said.

Snape nodded in response. "I am afraid that she is not much like you physically," he replied. "I'm sure you can develop a few charms if you wish to shape yourself back to your original appearance. It would not be particularly noticeable, since it is a time when your body is maturing."

"Would I be in his year then?"

"Yes," he said.

"Where's Dumbledore?"

Snape replied, "He wanted to be a few years ahead. So I sent him a few years ahead. You should be able to spot him immediately."

Hermione bit her lip again. Here she was, a twenty-five (or was it twenty-six?) year-old widower and the world seemed doomed. The only person who had a chance against Voldemort was dead, and Voldemort still had three lives left. Everyone she had ever known or loved was dead, and not just dead but brutally murdered. Could she really just leave this doomed world? Would she really be fixing it by leaving?

"Okay," Hermione said.

"You're willing to do this?" Snape asked.

Hermione swallowed. "Yes."

Snape began pulling things down from the shelves, methodically looking at the contents and either putting a jar back or putting it down on his desk. "You're the one I thought was the least likely to do it," he said. "You have always been so grounded and practical. I did not think you would be willing to go for something that is so theoretical."

"I was thinking about that time turner from my third year," Hermione said. "Harry and I saved Sirius with it, and we only had a few hours. Maybe I can save everyone this time, and permanently."

Snape flinched. It was possible he didn't know how Harry and Hermione had managed to save Sirius that time, but he wasn't about to bring about an argument now. The man was dead. He wasn't sure he was sorry about it, but he certainly wasn't happy about it. They had only postponed the inevitable. Maybe that's what they were doing this time too.

Snape stopped sorting through his things. "Are you sure you do not want to think about this?" he asked.

"This is one thing I don't think I should think about at all. Let's just do it."

"All right," Snape said. "Give me a moment."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

He knew Hermione wouldn't be happy just standing and watching. "Of course," he replied with a smile.

The two finished the rune markings and prepared everything for the procedure. Neither desired to think too thoroughly about what they were doing. Everything in Hermione's body, even her gut, was telling her this was a stupid idea. She kept telling herself that she had nothing left here and that it couldn't be that terrible of an idea if Dumbledore already went through it. She tried not to think of the people she was leaving behind, the faceless people who only had Harry left to save them. She knew she just couldn't do it alone. Things hadn't been the same since Ron had died. She was the one who was supposed to die next.

Snape was just trying to forget that he would be alone after this. It wasn't that he particularly enjoyed the Order's company, although Arthur had generally promised tolerable conversation, but he certainly didn't agree with what Voldemort was doing. Not anymore, at least. He tried not to think of his failure. He couldn't protect Lily's son. He should have died fighting for him, instead of grabbing Hermione Granger and plotting more. Somewhere along the line it became about the big picture.

"All right," Hermione replied when everything was set up. "Shall we do this?"

Snape showed her where to stand, his thin fingers holding her shoulders firmly. "I can't kill you," he said. "You have to really mean it to use the killing curse and it will be the most efficient way to move your soul into the field. I am going to bind you and bring in Draco Malfoy. I will be able to talk him into believing that what we have set up is some sort of post-death torture device. It will keep him from using the Cruciatus Curse."

"So the last face I'll see if Draco Malfoy," Hermione sighed.

Snape gave her a soft smile and squeezed her shoulder. "Just think of Ron," he replied. "You get to choose which face is your last."

Hermione returned his smile. "I will, thank you."

"You're welcome," Snape said, releasing her shoulder.

Hermione nodded and Snape quietly cast "Incarcerous." He checked the ropes to make sure that they were tight enough but still allowed her to stand up straight. Snape said a stoic "Good luck" and stepped out of his room.

Hermione imagined horrible things happening to her in the two minutes she was alone. Every creak made her imagine six Death Eaters stumbling onto her tied up like this or, worse, Draco stumbling onto her without Snape behind him. When Draco stepped in first, Hermione's skin began to crawl.

"Thank the gods," Draco said to Snape. "I can't believe you caught her. Sneaking after Potter, I suspect."

"Lower your voice Malfoy. Do you really want to share this with every other Death Eater?" Snape snarled. "Do you really want to share this kill with your father?"

"Did you see his face when he killed Potter? The Dark Lord is going to tear him to pieces," Draco said. He tried to sound tough, but his voice was quivering.

Hermione noticed the years weren't kind to Draco Malfoy. He was short, stocky, and his hair appeared to be fleeing from his forehead. His haughty gait seemed forced rather than the natural way he had done it in school. His eyes were sunken and deep purple bags sat beneath them. His voice was the same high, irritating pitch, as if it hadn't aged with the rest of his body. Hermione had heard his mother was killed after one of his father's failures, and she had heard that Voldemort killed her in front of both of them, so Draco, too, would smarten up. Snape had told the three of them that Draco hadn't spoken with his father since the kill, and that was years ago, so she assumed they still weren't speaking.

"Let's focus on the task at hand," Snape said. He placed his hands on Draco's shoulders, like he had done with Hermione moments earlier, and positioned him in front of Hermione. "You remember what I said about her soul being torn apart?"

"This sounds too complex," Draco said. "Let me just Crucio her."

"If she screams everyone will come running," Snape replied.

"I'm quick enough to kill her before they get here. It'd be worth it," Draco said. "Little mudblood snot."

Hermione spat in his face. It was just too tempting. Snape looked just about as furious as Draco. Draco put his wand right up to her throat, moving out of his position. "If I didn't want to dream about your soul screaming for eternity, I'd Crucio you until you were just as nutters as Longbottom's parents. Then I'd give you to the Death Eaters for them to tear apart."

Hermione kept her voice low. "I'm surprised you don't have any fantasies where you fuck my lifeless corpse," she whispered against his cheek, "But I suppose you're too busy sucking your Lord's dick."

Snape grabbed Draco's wand and covered his mouth, letting Draco's teeth sink into his pale, long fingers. He pulled Draco back into his original position. "Calm yourself Draco and think about her soul screaming for eternity," Snape said. "I promise you'll hear it as soon as it enters those runes."

Draco stepped out of position to snarl at Hermione: "I'd rather fuck a muggle foothold trap than your lifeless corpse."

Snape pulled him back into his position and Draco's grey eyes stuck on Hermione while Snape activated the runes. Hermione stared back, defiantly, as if he couldn't kill her. She couldn't help but notice a bit of perspiration sitting on Draco's forehead.

"All right," Snape said. "Go ahead."

Hermione closed her eyes and thought only of Ron. His blue eyes stared lovingly into her, and he was so close that she could count the freckles on his nose, like she did sometimes when he was snoring, asleep beside her. She smiled as Draco shouted, "Avada Kedavra!"