They had planned on sneaking out of Hogwarts that night. Harry's vision about Sirius had thrown him into an absolutely tizzy and it waiting until nightfall was torturous. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna and the others were running silently towards the door when all of the sudden Professor McGonagall's voice rang out through the silence: "Ms. Granger!"

Harry, who was in the lead, turned to look at the others. Hermione had taken up the last place in the group. The frightened faces of her friends glowed in the moonlight, and Hermione urged them forward.

"Go!" Hermione commanded.

Harry turned to face her, eyes wide. "Hermione, we can't leave without you-"

"Yes you can, Harry, you have to!" She angrily whispered back. "I'll try to shake McGonagall and I'll meet you there later!"

"But-"

"There's no time to argue, Ronald Weasley! Just go! Hurry!"

With one last sorrowful look Harry and the rest of the group turned and continued down the hallway. Hermione squared her shoulders, turned around, and walked quickly back down the hallway towards McGonagall's voice.

"I'm sorry to be out of the common room, Professor, I had just been visiting Hagrid-" Hermione began, but as she turned the corner she was stopped in her tracks. McGonagall was there, of course, but it was Dumbledore's twinkling eyes, creased with worry, that halted her speech.

"I assume your friends are on their way to the Ministry?" He questioned quietly.

Hermione started to shake her head, but Dumbledore cut in again. "There's no use trying to hide this, Ms. Granger. This has been seen."

"But by who? And if you know this, why do you need me?" Hermione finally questioned.

McGonagall, who had until this point remained silent, gazed sadly at her favorite student. "We will tell you on the way, my dear. I'm afraid there isn't much time."

With that, McGonagall and Dumbledore turned towards the Headmaster's office, and Hermione had to run to keep up with their quick pace. As she ran after them, she heard a few snippets of their conversation; she wished she could have heard more, but her heartbeat was pulsing madly in her ears.

"This is too much to ask, Albus-"

"There's no other way, Minerva. We need him if we want to win. She is strong, you have nothing to worry about."

"But a year!"

"If we hope to have any chance of ending this war before it starts, it must be done. And you forget this is not just for the boy's sake-"

The threesome arrived at the steps outside of the Office, and the conversation halted as Dumbledore whispered the password. Hermione followed her elders silently up the stairs, but when they had finally reached the office she had had enough.

"Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore, what is going on?"

Dumbledore turned to McGonagall. "Can you finish preparing everything?"

"Of course," she said. McGonagall stepped in the floo and disappeared into the green smoke. Dumbledore turned around, sighing.

"Ms. Granger, please have a seat." After she complied, he began again. "Ms. Granger, in approximately three and a half minutes Sirius Black will arrive at the Ministry, saving Harry and your friends from an attack led my Lucius Malfoy. Five minutes from now, Bellatrix will cast a disarming spell that will throw Sirius towards the Veil. Surely you've heard of the Veil, Ms. Granger?"

Hermione nodded. "But sir, how do you know this?"

Dumbledore smiled grimly. "Professor Trelawny rarely has visions, but when she does they can be trusted." Hermione raised her eyebrows in doubt, but Dumbledore continued on, not noticing her skepticism. "In five minutes Sirius Black will have to make a choice. He will be pushed back into the Veil, and if he does not fight it, he will die."

Suddenly all of the breath left Hermione's body. Time felt like it slowed down as her brain raced a million miles an hour, trying to process what she had just been told. "That's – that's awful!" She finally exclaimed. "But what do you mean 'if he does not fight it?'"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he finally glanced at Hermione. "There are a great many things we do not know about the Veil. Still, there have been those who have survived it's pull."

"How?"

"It seems those that survive have a strong reason for doing so; they believe in something greater than themselves. They have something worth fighting for. And that," he said, walking over to his desk, "is where you come in."

Hermione frowned. "I'm not sure I understand, Professor. His love for Harry - ?" She couldn't finish the sentence.

Dumbledore opened the top door of his desk and pulled out a small box. He opened the box and pulled out the sparkling necklace. It was a time-turner, but smaller and more beautiful than any Hermione had ever seen. Albus turned back towards Hermione, his eyes still fixed upon the trinket in his hand. "Sirius Black loves Harry deeply, Ms. Granger. You do not need to doubt that. However, the guilt he feels over the death of James and Lily has overpowered any positive emotion he has had for eighteen years now." He looked up at her, a twinkle in his eye. "You are a brilliant witch, Ms. Granger, and you are the only person I trust to honestly complete this task. Well, two tasks. It has not passed my notice that you missed more than your fair share of classes last year, which is rather surprising, as our sixth year has quite difficult subject matter. You have been chasing Horcruxes, have you not?"

She was completely shocked. All Hermione could do was nod. After they had discovered what Umbridge was really up to – posing as a DADA professor in order to locate and protect Voldemort's horcruxes – Hermione had spent much of her sixth year tracking down the remaining Horcruxes with the boys at every opportunity. Between classes and hunting and the ever increasing threat of Voldemort's attack, she felt as if she would break if they didn't find all of the Horcruxes. They had been able to locate all but three: Nagini, Voldemort's pet, Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, and third, which was still a mystery.

Dumbledore didn't register her shock. "I'm sure you're aware by now that Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem has been missing for nearly twenty years, and that it is one of the few Horcruxes that remains." His eyes gazed at the time turner once again sadly. "I know that I am once again asking too much from you, but if you do not succeed, we will not have any chance of winning this war."

A million more thoughts flew through Hermione's head, but she pushed them all aside. "What must I do?"

Dumbledore smiled. "The brightest and the bravest witch, if I may," he replied. "This time turner is charmed, Ms. Granger. Once you spin it three times around, you will set the magic in motion. You will be sent back to Sirius Black's seventh year here at Hogwarts. You will meet James and Lily, but Hermione, no matter what you may try to do you cannot save them. It is a point in time that cannot be changed. And you must stay as far away from Voldemort's uprising as possible. However, there are some things that you do need to change: you must locate Ravenclaw's diadem after Voldemort has made it a Horcrux and bring it safely here to present time, and you must befriend Mr. Black and make sure that he in no way feels responsible for the Potter's death. You must make his reason to live stronger than his belief that he deserves death. Do you understand so far?"

Hermione nodded, taking it all in. "Perfect," Dumbledore continued. "While only a few moments will pass here in the present, you will be in the past for the full year – meaning, you will be 19 when you return to our time. You don't need to worry about the time turner being faulty; you will have three minute's notice before you are sent back. And even if for some reason you are separated from the time turner, the magic will not stop – you will return here. And also, the charm is set for a specific date and time: June 7th at 6 o'clock in the evening, right before Voldemort's first raid at Hogwarts."

The fireplace flashed green again and McGonagall stepped out, carrying Hermione's green bag. "I took the liberty of packing up some of your things, Ms. Granger," she said. Hermione looked up in her face and saw that her eyes were shining with unshed tears. "I have complete faith in you."

Hermione turned back and looked at Dumbledore. "Who will I say that I am? Will the other professors accept me?"

Dumbledore smiled wistfully again. "Do not worry, Ms. Granger. Thanks to this charm I will have full knowledge of who you are and why you have been sent back."

Hermione stared at him in shock. "But how is this possible? This kind of magic is beyond anything I thought we were capable of!"

At this, McGonagall and Dumbledore looked at each other sadly. "It was Severus' final gift to us. It took him years to create this charm."

"Wait, you've been knowing this would happen for years?!" Hermione shrieked.

"No, my dear child," McGonagall was quick to reassure her. "We simply knew that we would need this charm at some point; we had no idea of what it was meant for specifically until very recently."

Dumbledore stood up, walked over to Hermione, and handed her the time turner. She secured it around her neck, careful not to touch it until it was time to go. "One final thing, Ms. Granger. When you return it will be one minute from now in the future. Professor McGonagall will be here waiting for you; my services are needed at the Ministry."

Hermione blinked away the tears in her eyes. Dumbledore reached for her shoulders and gazed into her eyes. "I know that I am asking more of you than anyone, but I know that you can do this. And I believe that you know you can do this too."

She nodded and forced a smile at Dumbledore and McGonagall. Professor McGonagall was wiping tears away from her face and Dumbledore just looked at her with his eyes twinkling like always. He looked proud.

"It's time, Ms. Granger."

She nodded. Taking the time turner in her hand, she looked at her two favorite professors and smiled. "I'll see you soon," she whispered softly. Then, with three twirls of the time turner, the Headmaster's Office disappeared around her and Hermione travelled into a large ball of light.

(A/N: Thank you to everyone for the reviews and for letting me know that there was a glitch in uploading! Sorry about that And just to clarify the timeline: the fight at the Ministry happens right before the final battle at Hogwarts, and this is the Golden Trio's seventh year. They spent their fifth and sixth years hunting down horcruxes and revealing Umbridge to be a rogue death eater. Hermione is 18, Sirius Black is still alive, Dumbledore isn't dying/wasn't killed by Draco – I completely cut that storyline – Snape, however, has already been killed by Voldemort. I think that's about it! Thank you for letting me take creative liberties with the storyline, and I can't wait to see where this takes us! And yes, I am currently writing another story as well, "Orion's Bane", but some days I feel like shipping Hermione with Draco and other days it's someone else. I'll post more frequently to both stories, I promise Once again, thanks everyone!)