June 18, 1996
"Run! Don't stop!" Harry shouted as he, Hermione and Neville enter into another room off of the spinning door room, It was filled with clocks and hourglasses in all sizes and shapes. The door slams shut and Hermione places the colloportus charm on the door to lock it tight. With the door secured they took a moment to catch their breath.
"What are all of these time turners doing here?" Harry asked.
Neville looked around and began to explain, "The the ministry has the only time turners in existence. Each, depending on the size, determined how far back you would go. The larger the time turner the further back you could go because of the amount of the sands of time in each. My great uncle works in the Department of Mysteries and told me about them."
For a moment Hermione's thirst for knowledge took her over fear as she wandered around looking at all of the beautiful pieces. "How little is really known about magic. Time magic was studied and feared. Is that is why the Ministry locked down all of the known time tuners? She asked Neville almost mumbling to herself. Does time and events reset, did it loop into different dimensions? No one really knew for sure. She thought.
The three had only a moment to catch their breath before they heard a deep voice shout, "BOMBARDA MAXIMA," from the other side of the door just before the wood exploded in a shower of splinters.
The blast sent Hermione, Harry and Neville flying into the shelves of clocks and time turners, showering them with glass and magical sand. Hermione had been slammed into one of the larger time turners with the force of the blast. She sparkled with a golden glow from the magical sand trapped in her bushy hair and glued to her skin with sweat.
The explosion had bounced off the time room doors and against the Death Eaters. The shock wave blasted the Death Eaters out of the door of the time room and into the circular spinning room.
Neville, Harry and Hermione wasted no time in escaping the Death Eaters, jumping over their unconscious bodies and running into the next open door.
As they all looked around they found they were standing at the top of an stone amphitheater. Large stone steps lead down to a raised dais On the center of the dais was a strange stone archway with a tattered fluttering veil.
Ron, Luna and Ginny had been separated from Harry, Hermione and Neville when they fled from the room of prophecies. "Ron, Luna, Ginny where have you been" cried Neville wiping the sweat from his brow and breathing hard.
"Trying not to get killed by Death Eaters!" Ron replied, bent over with his hands on his knees and trying to catch his breath.
Before they had time to think, the Death Eaters were on them.
The students did everything they could to defend themselves and soon help arrived in the form of the Order of the Phoenix. The fighters were spread out all over the room casting spells furiously at each other as if their lives depended on it, because it did.
Hermione looked up the stone steps and saw Tonks battling with two Death Eaters and ran to help. As she did, Dolohov began chasing her, firing spells at lighting speed. As she turned to begin battle, Dolohov cast a purple hex at her, slicing a deep gash across her chest.
Harry was firing spells at Mulicbur and Sirius was battling Bellatrix. They each saw Hermione get hit with the spell and drop to the floor. Harry ran for Hermione. Kingsley stepped up and began battling with Mulicbur.
Sirius fired a random reducto maxima at Bellatrix and ran following Harry. Sirius' spell hit its target. With one mighty blast, Bellatrix's head exploded in a mist of grey and red gore.
Unknown to Harry and Sirius, Voldemort had apparated into the chamber and was standing on the platform right in front of the archway. When he saw Bellatrix's body he let out a primal roar.
Harry held Hermione in his arms as Sirius tried to heal her wounds.
So much was happening around her and the pain in her chest was increasing with each breath.
She thought of Harry as she said to herself "I wish I could just go back and fix things. I want to go back and change what went wrong in the world." Hermione looked up at the two of them.
She could see the tears welling up in Harry's eyes. The tiny grains of sand covering her body glowed brightly.
With that last wish Hermione Granger slipped away.
Harry snapped. In his grief and anguish a blast of power left his body.
The wave of power was so strong it knocked everyone in the chamber to the floor, pushing Voldemort into the archway and through the veil as the archway toppled over. The Death Eaters began clutched their dark mark in agony as the curse in the mark ripped their very magical core out to sustain Voldemort .
In a few short minutes every person bearing the dark mark inside and outside the chamber was reduced to a squib.
Time is a strange thing. No one knows for sure how it works. Many have studied other dimensions and even time loops, but for sure time was magic. And Magic would do what was necessary to balance itself.