AN: So I noticed a lot of time turner stories that have Hermione go back and meet the marauders and fall in love with Snape then she returns to the future and she's not allowed to change the course of history and yada yada yada. This is not one of those stories. This time Hermione Granger knowingly goes back in time and forces time to change, knowing that it could cost her her own future.
If I Could Turn Back Time
Prologue
They thought she had died with the rest of them; it was just as well, no one could know her plan. It took every ounce of Gryffindor determination left in her to crawl away as she had. They were gone, all of them, or most of them. They lost the battle of Hogwarts due to time; they just couldn't get the diadem and snake destroyed in time. Bodies littered the ground as the Death Eaters celebrated their victory. She was piled underneath the bodies of Lupin and Tonks unmoving until it was safe, until they went inside the castle to reclaim their territory. She knew time was of the essence, for these vile creatures would spend the next day or so celebrating and wouldn't think to double check for survivors. All she had to do was apparate safely to her hide out and complete her task. She never told the boys of her back up plan, she had worked in secret during those nights lying awake 'keeping guard' while they hunted for horcruxes. It was a 'what if' plan; 'what if' they didn't complete the destruction of the horcruxes. She risked everything to do it, to finesse the spell that would send her back to the beginning of it all. It wouldn't matter though, she had nothing left here; if they discovered she had survived she would become a slave to some malicious Death Eater family, probably the Malfoy's, or worse. There was nothing left of this desolate world. She would go back, knowing that she would never be able to return to the future, if she survived that is. She would lose her place in the Golden Trio to ensure their survival, and possibly her own. There were so many warnings with time, one was not supposed to change the course of events, but she didn't care. She had broken the rules before and she would do it again, all for the 'greater good' as Dumbledore would say. She knew his secrets, he would have to help her in her mission, it was the only way.
Hardened by war, blood, death and destruction, Hermione Granger crawled out from the immovable bodies of her dead friends. She didn't need to fully stand, it would drawl too much attention anyway, but she could kneel and still apparate.
"Just a quick turn…" She muttered to herself as she felt someone grab her elbows in mid flight.
They landed inside the remains of her parent's basement. Thank god her parents had already left for Austrailia months before. Her arm, already broken and bleeding from the battle, grabbed her wand from within her battered robes and pointed it to her capture.
"What do you want, traitor." She snarled into the face of her dark haired former Potions professor. At one time she feared him, at one time she pitied him, but now she felt nothing but contempt for him.
"Careful what you say, witch." He returned the snarl. One thing was for certain, though she held her wand pointed towards his chest, he made no move to return the favor.
"Then answer my question." She lowered her wand to grab the one artifact she needed to complete the ritual. She didn't dare carry with her in battle in case it was discovered or by accident took her back before it was necessary. She watched his eyes go wide in understanding, or semi understanding of what she planned to do.
"Going back a few hours only ensures that you will be forced to endure the same fate a second time, Miss Granger." His eyes narrowed slightly as he watched her grasp the edges of the time turner but she made no move to turn it, not even to put it around her neck. Instead she held it in her palm near the cement floor as though she planned to smash it.
"Professor, you should know me better than that." She allowed a smirk to grace her war scarred face and held the fragile chained hour glass loosely. She had the pleasure of watching the confusion mask his Roman features, still not understanding her intended goal. She would only have one shot to do this, she knew her calculations were precise, and she knew he would make no effort to stop her now.
She waved her wand high in the air and with the grace and power of someone twice her age she yelled the words that would change all of their lives forever.
"Vignti Tempus!" She cried and smashed the hour glass upon the floor and minutes later Hermione Granger no longer existed in 1997.