Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters and anything else you may recognize from the series belongs to J. K. Rowling. The title of this story comes from the 3 doors down song, "Running Out of Days" from the Album "Away From the Sun." The title for this chapter and the lyrics come from the 3 doors down song "The Better Life" from the Album "The Better Life."
Summary: A series of unfortunate events leads to Voldemort taking over the world. Hermione must go back in time to stop this from happening. A small prank causes a little confusion, and she lands twenty years in the past, instead of only two. WARNING: Character death and suicide—begins dark, but will get very light and fluffy.
A/N: This is my time-turner story. As my favorite ships are HG/SB, HG/RL, and HG/SS… I figure it's practically a requirement.
I'm trying to do a different twist, though once she's in the past, it's gonna seem the same as all the others I'm sure.
I wanted to do something a little more believable and less cliché than falling down stairs or a potions accident… and this is the result. As a result, the first couple of chapters are quite dark… (which reminds me: WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS CHARACTER DEATH AND SUICIDE) which is kind of weird for me… but I assure you it will get very light and fluffy. I'm all about the fluff, man.
Well, here it is. I hope you enjoy it!
Running Out of Days: Prologue
.o.
.o.
I'm about to be
on the floor again,
Surely you're gonna find me here.
I'm about to sleep
until the end of time,
drug I take gonna wake my fear right now.
I'm passing away on to the better life.
I'm passing away on to the better.
- The Better Life -
.o.
.o.
"You just don't get it Hermione. You can't possibly understand how I'm feeling." Harry Potter ran his fingers though his permanently unkempt hair and sighed, trying not to get angry at his friend. He knew she was only trying to help. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, but when he let it out, he suddenly collapsed into sobs. He slid down the stone wall of the corridor they were standing in and held his head in his hands, trying to stop the tears that had begun to stream down his face.
Hermione Granger watched him break down, unsure of what to do. She knew that he needed this; it had been almost a full year and he had yet to properly mourn. So much had gone wrong in such a short amount of time, and for the first time in her life, she was completely stumped. She carefully sat next to the shaking boy and wrapped her arms around him, trying to provide him the comfort he so clearly ached for. She leaned her head gently on his shoulder and whispered to him that they would make everything okay.
When Harry had finally run out of tears, the two of them stood up and silently walked the short distance to their Gryffindor quarters. Hermione led Harry to the big couch in the common room, and they sat down and faced each other. No one else was in the room, so they decided that that was a good enough place to talk.
"I can't do this anymore, 'Mione." Harry looked up at her and she could see his eyes were no longer the sparkling emerald green he was known for, but a dull, hollow green that showed the pain he was feeling. "I've carried on this way for far too long. It's been nearly a year since Sirius died, and I haven't been happy for a single moment since then. I have nothing left to live for. I have nothing to look forward to. Not even the fact that I can leave the Dursely's once we've graduated this year can bring me any joy, because I won't be able to move in with Sirius anymore. Day after day I have to remind myself of the coming battle, that everyone is depending on me to defeat Voldemort; other than that, I've got no reason to get up in the mornings." He looked down at his shoes and tried to figure out how to put what he was thinking and feeling in to words. Unable to come up with the right way to say things, he just took her hand in his and squeezed it gently, willing her to feel what he felt. It was ridiculous of course, and Hermione just looked at him questioningly.
"You're right, Harry. I don't understand. It seems to me that you have lots of things to live for. You may not have your parents or Sirius, but you do still have Ron and me. And the rest of the Weasleys as well. You could have lots to live for if you'd only open up, Harry. Remus was closer to your parents and Sirius then you were, and he's doing okay. If you just let us in, in time, everything will work out just fine… I promise."
"You shouldn't promise something like that Hermione. You'll only feel bad when you realize it's not true."
"But it is true, Harry! We all love you very much, and even if we didn't need you for the final battle, we'd all still love you just as much."
Harry looked at her and shook his head at how naïve she was. Why couldn't she see that the world wasn't always full of rainbows and sunshine? Sometimes, you just had to accept the rain clouds and wait for them to go away… but Harry was tired of waiting. He stood up confidently and pulled Hermione up and into his arms, hugging her as if he'd never see her again. He whispered a soft goodbye into her ear before turning and marching right into his room.
"Good night to you too, Harry." Hermione whispered, wondering what was going on. She'd never been this confused in all her life. Shrugging her shoulders, she followed Harry's example and headed to her own dorm room. After washing up and changing into a comfortable nightgown, she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.
.o.
.o.
The morning sun streamed through her window and woke her from her slumber. Groaning, she buried her face in her pillow and wished for the blinding light to go away. 'We have really got to get some blinds in here,' she thought as she stepped on to the cold floor. Normally, she'd head to the prefect's bathroom first thing to get ready for the day, but she looked at the clock on her bedside table and saw she didn't have time to wash up properly; she'd just have to do that after breakfast. She threw on the first uniform that she found and hurried down to breakfast, knowing that she was late and hoping some of her friends would still be there. She quickly spotted the two red heads belonging to Ron and Ginny Weasley. She scurried over and took the empty seat next to her only female friend.
"Good morning." She chirped, trying to hide her hatred of Monday mornings.
"Hey, 'Mione." Ron responded. "Is Harry on his way down?"
"Oh, I don't know. I assumed he'd already come down. I think we'll have time to go check up on him before class if we finish quickly."
"Do you think he's sick?" Ginny asked, with a worried expression evident on her face. She had gotten over her schoolgirl crush on the boy-who-lived, which had ironically enabled her to grow closer to him and become a much better friend.
"It's possible." Hermione wasn't too worried; Harry wasn't one to get extremely ill. "He was acting pretty weird last night. He kind of freaked me out, actually. I've never seen him so solemn before. I hope he's feeling better today. I miss the old Harry."
Her two pals agreed and they quickly finished their breakfast before heading up to the dormitories.
Hermione stated the password and ushered her friends into the common room. Signaling for them to be quiet, she tip-toed up the stairs to the bedroom Harry shared with Ron and the other boys, and motioned for them to follow. When the room was discovered to be empty, the three of them settled onto Ron's bed, and Hermione began to tell them of the events that took place the night before, so they would know what emotions to possibly expect from Harry. Once they had taken in the information, they all took simultaneous deep breaths and headed towards the bathroom where they expected to find their somber comrade.
Although Harry was also a prefect, he usually used the regular bathrooms so that he didn't have to walk so far just to wash up in the mornings.
Hermione called out to him softly as she knocked tentatively on the door: "Harry… Harry it's us. Are you in there?" When no response came, Ginny tried.
"Harry, please let us in! We were worried when you didn't show up at breakfast. At least let us know you're alright, and then you can wallow all you want." They waited in silence, but there were no sounds to be heard from the other side of the door.
"Maybe he's got a silencing charm up," Ron suggested. Hermione rolled her eyes, but checked anyway, and was not surprised to find that there wasn't one.
"Harry we're going to open this door, so you'd better be decent!"
She counted aloud to three, and then swiftly swung the door fully open.
"He's not here," Ron said with a slight tremor to his voice. All three of them were beginning to get really worried.
"Maybe he's in the Prefect's bathroom" Ginny suggested.
"'Mione would have seen him in there earlier, Gin," Ron reasoned.
"No," Hermione cut in, "I didn't have time to go in there this morning, I rushed right down to breakfast."
They stood in front of the open bathroom door, for a moment, before they simultaneously turned and rushed to the Prefect's bathroom. They passed by a clock and noticed they were really late to class, but they were passed caring. They just wanted to find Harry.
"This is silly," Ginny scolded, as they slowed to a stop in front of the bathroom door. "We're getting so worked up. He's probably just brushing his teeth or something. Let's just go in." She knocked hard on the door three times then pushed on it, not waiting for a response.
Nothing happened. The door wouldn't budge.
"Why won't the door open?" Ginny was clearly panicking.
"Ginny, it's okay." Hermione smiled condescendingly at her. "This is the Prefect's bathroom, you need a password, remember?"
"Oh. Of course. Sorry."
Hermione said the password, and Ginny tried the door again, more slowly this time. She held her breath as she pushed, until it was fully open, and she stepped inside with Ron and Hermione at her heels.
She and Hermione shrieked at the sight that greeted them, and Ron's face grew abnormally pale. Lying before them was Harry Potter's lifeless body, fatally wounded by the sword of Godric Gryffindor.
After a few moments the utter shock wore off and Ginny was the first to move. She collapsed in tears on the hard tile floor, bringing the other two back to reality. Ron noticed a note clutched in Harry's left hand, and he pulled it out of his deceased friends grasp, trying to keep his own tears at bay.
"Hermione, it's addressed to you." He handed her the note and knelt down to hold his baby sister.
Hermione read the note over and over again, before finally braking down into sobs of her own:
-Hermione-
I just couldn't do this anymore. I need a better life...
I'm sorry,
-Harry-
.o.
.o.
A/N: Hope you liked the prologue! Don't forget to review! I need comments, so I can know ways to make this story better! Also, I'll probably update in about a month… but if I get enough reviews (and by "enough" I really mean "a whole lot") I might be encouraged to update sooner…
