A/N: Okay the long awaited side along story with This is Where We Remember s/11673297/1/This-is-Where-We-Remember. This story can be read along side with This is Where We Remember or after you have read the first story. I will try and always update them at the same time but it has been very busy with life at the moment. The Next chapter for This is Where We Remember with be posted hopefully within a day or two but from here on out the chapters for both these stories with be simultaneously. Enjoy!
Everything hurt.
Her eyes, her head, she was almost certain her nose might have been broken in two places. Her ears were still ringing from Voldemort's early command for a moment's peace. Her throat ached with the lump of emotions that she almost tore at with her bare hands; It was a cross between wanting to scream her lungs out and wanting to give into a set of unattractive sobbing. Her muscles ached from the constant stress of running for her life and the never-ending adrenaline that coursed through her veins. This moment found her picking the earlier of wanting to scream her lungs out as she slammed into the Headmasters thick door, trying to open it. No spell seemed to be able to burst it open and no amount of kicking, clawing and shouting allowed the occupant behind its wooden shield to open up for her.
Harry had taken off ahead of her, sprinting as he crashed into the headmaster's office, slamming the door shut right as Hermione was chasing in after him. She didn't believe it was right nor safe for him to view Professor Snape's memories by himself. What if he learned of something that would cause him to make a rash decision? To go off and face Voldemort because he believed as the savior this was what he had to do alone? She did not make it this far for him to simply get himself killed and for her to have to go into hiding.
Yet that was exactly what she had to do.
So as the realization of Harry not opening the door for her sunk in; Hermione succumbed to the exhaustion and slid down the length of the stonewall opposite the door, waiting with baited breath for him to magically see reason and let her in. When nothing further happened, she began to hang her head low in defeat, Letting it rest upon her drawn up knees as memories began to fly across her mind. Tears welled up as she saw the life begin to leave the eyes of her former professor. The blackness of them staring motionlessly into her petrified ones. Her heart heaved a sigh of sadness she did not know she possessed, but a determination seemed to wrap around her as she knelt in the former Headmasters' pool of blood. Somewhere deep down she knew that there was nothing she could do as she worked alongside Harry, trying to cover his neck in hopes of stopping the flood of red from leaving his paralyzed body. It was inevitable.
She moved her bloodied hands to his chest, trying to pump his lungs for air with whatever strength she had left all the while trying her best to remember any charm that wound help him. Tears head begun to blur her vision as she casted spell after spell to no avail. She watched as the light go out in the most feared, cruel, intelligent and most loyal man she had ever known.
Harry had taken the silver strands of memory, pocketing them as he began to urge them to leave. She didn't want to move from her spot, for all the cruel and horrible things then man had done to her and her friends, she could only think about the times he had always helped them. When he had tried to save Harry from falling from his broom, or when he had thrown himself in front of a dangerous animal. So many times he had to try and play the bad guy and she could not believe that this was how it would end for him.
"We need to get going." Came Harry's distant voice, his heart also grieving for a man who was the last connection to his mother. "Just give me a second." Came Hermione's raspy voice.
Hermione reluctantly began to turn away from the fresh body but not before seeing the edge of something white poking out from under his cloak. Quickly Hermione reached for it while trying to ignore the blood stains on its white surface. Emotions seemed to grasp her roughly as she slowly turned it over to see her name scrawled out in Professor Snape's signature style. Hermione clutched the envelope tightly, her mind whirling with questions and possibilities of what was inside, as her fingers itched to open the parcel. She wondered at what could the man possibly have to say to her and why wait till now. She had not seen him since he had duped Luna and herself in his office and had never spoken to him unless in regards to class or to berate her. An uneasiness began to envelop her as she prepared to unseal it. Sliding her finger into the little opening above the official Seal of Severus Snape, she took a moment to admire the moving silver serpents entwined into a double calligraphic Letter 'S' engraved upon the green wax seal. Before she could break the seal, Hermione screamed in pain as she clutched her head trying to push out the sound of Voldemort's voice as it pierced her mind, the shrillness of it slicing through her mind as it seared itself into her memory forever. As he finally concluded his speech of a limited truce, it was like a migraine finally clearing up and the three just stared at each other with weighted dread.
"I am behind you Harry. I will stand next to you at the final show down but I need to find me family. I need to say my goodbyes just in case... you know..." It was the first time that the realization of the final confrontation would not see them all through. It was something until that very moment not a single one of them had thought of because they were so sure of themselves. Hermione stared at Ron with such shock she was certain her eyes would pop out from her very skull. Harry nodded in agreement as Ron, avoiding Hermione's gaze since the rebuffed kiss in the chamber of secrets, turned and ran to the castle in hopes that he would not have to waste time seeking his blood out.
"Harry?" came the unsure voice of the female's trio.
"Hermione, I need to do this alone." Came Harry's frantic voice.
"No please Harry, I have no one else!" tears welling in her eyes, the reality of the fact that they were who she had. Her parents no longer existed in her mind since she to was forced to forget who they were in order to safe guard them further. So when Harry's voice broke through her thoughts, she began to panic.
"Go Hermione, this is something I must do myself, I just know it." With that, the boy who was forced to grow up to soon, broke into a dead sprint up towards the castle.
"Harry, Wait!" stuffing the letter into her coat pocket without a second thought, she raced after the hell bent boy. Managing to catch up to him at the main entrance to the castle, she grabbed hold of his arm as she used all of her petite stature to whip him around to face her.
"Harry, Stop! What are you doing? Where are you going?" trying her best to anchor him to her side all the while fighting to catch her breath.
"Hermione, he left these memories for me for a reason. I need to view them in Dumbledore's pensive but I need to do this alone. I cannot allow you to see what they are. If they hold the answer of what I am to do, if they confirm what is expected of me, I can't afford you to change my mind. We can't afford to lose." Hermione released her grip upon Harry's arm with shock and he wasted no time in continuing his way to his destination.
"I wont let you do this! Harry, please!" But her pleas fell on deaf ears and she sprinted into the same direction of the Headmaster's office. She almost caught up to the savior before tripping up the last step towards the landing before the door slammed and warded itself against her.
So this was where she found herself, seated with her back against the wall, panting for breath as the foreign feeling of defeat crept in. Moments passed into minutes, which only caused her deep agony as she curled into herself more tightly. As her body rocked an uncomfortable edge poked into her impossibly thin side reminding her of the forgotten parcel. Sighing, she unfurled her legs and tiredly shuffled around finding the right pocket that held the bloodstained envelope. She stowed her wand into her sleeve before staring at the envelope, her finger tracing over the familiar letters of her name. She choked back a sob as she fingered the dried blood knowing that whatever it contained, it was most likely the last thing he had ever written before his gruesome death. Taking a deep breath, she listened intently, trying to guess if Harry would be reemerging from the office but nothing could be heard.
All was still.
Flipping it over, she slipped her finger under the mouth of the parcel releasing the lip as she broke the seal. Genteelly pulling out the folded note, she noticed how another folded letter appeared in its space. Unfolding the letter with numb fingers, her eyes instantly recognized how the writing was different and did not match that of the former Potions Master.
Dear Miss Granger,
I am aware that this letter will come as a bit of a shock to you as I have no doubt you have recognized this handwriting. My dear you have travelled and fought valiantly this past year and you still continue to amazing those of us around you. You had been dealt a hard hand in this life, but you have always managed to prevail. You have always been so level headed, so understanding and so brave to face the fears and terrors of this world. I am proud of you Hermione, you are the woman I always imagined you would be and you could not be more worthier than you are now. As you read this letter I know that you are currently seated against the opposite wall of my old office waiting for Harry to emerge. I must confess my dear that you shall be waiting for a long while, but only in the sense that this moment will be frozen until you will arrive back here safely to this fixed point in time. Harry is doing his duty and you must not interfere any further with this timeline for your greatest impact will be in the past. Severus has given Harry valuable memories that will ensure our victory and you must trust in these words.
He is not alone, he was never alone, but this task that he is being given at this moment is one that he shall have to accomplish alone.
I write to you because you are the key to our success, Hermione. I know of these events to past because of your help, and yours alone. Do you remember the laws of time? The book that I had given you to read before I had given you your time turner? You must not forget those laws but you must know that at the same time you have been exempt from their decree by the very Time Lord who wrote of the laws. In order to ensure our victory you are required to travel back to the time of when Tom first began to grow to power. You will be tasked with a great many things that will help you save as many people as possible within the year you will spend in the past and yet at the same time your life will become even more exceedingly difficult and I must apologize for this greatly. But the lives you will save, the bonds you will create in the past will help you fight for the greater good, to ensure the survival of our world. When you have finished reading this, the letter will form into another letter sealed like the one you have opened. This one you must give to me directly. You shall reappear within my office in a few moments. I must beg you to ask the question of, "Why the whomping willow tree was planted when Rumeus Lupin started at Hogwarts" to ensure that it truly is my past self. I trust you remember the reason.
These are the beginnings of dark times, my dear and my younger self knew a ruthlessness you know not of. Your memories of everything you have gone through, of what you have withstood with Harry, will become the plans that will result in Tom's demise.
While you are in the past, please my dear girl do not lose hope. Open your heart to those who have never had the same love and friendships that you have been gifted with. Our lives are a fragile thing, like that of glass and though you will try and save as many lives as possible, there are some that will need to happen. These are fixed points in time that must occur in order for the survival of not only our race, but the side of light as well. You will know which ones you can save and which ones must happen.
-A. Dumbledore.
And as suddenly as her brain began to comprehend the strange and unfathomable words she had just read, by an author who was most certainly dead. Her world began to crumb around her, the floor slipping away as she descended into darkness.