DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. I, sadly, do not. If I did, Ron would have been written out in book four, with Neville taking his place.
Needs of the Many...
"Harry, you can't be serious?" asked a very shocked Hermione.
"I've never been more serious in my life," answered Harry, who brushed his shaggy black hair out of his face, revealing various scars from fighting years in what some have come to call an endless war.
It had been fifteen years since Voldemort had returned at the end of the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Fifteen years of pure hell on Earth for the wizarding world. Since Voldemort's return to a corporeal body, he had not only taken control of the Ministry of Magic, but also the British Muggle government through the use of the Imperious curse. The first to suffer under the dark lords rule had been the goblins, who refused to side with him. The moment they had said no, Voldemort had ordered that every single goblin be put to death, and now only a few dozen remained. The centaurs that lived in the Forbidden Forest hadn't even been given a chance to join, as it had been made a legal sport to hunt and kill the human/horse hybrids.
Muggleborns though had the most to fear, as Voldemort had found an ancient spell that allowed him to drain them of their magical core, rendering them practically a mindless husk once the process was complete.
Hogwarts was no longer a school, but a training ground for the dark arts. Teaching the pureblood children how to use their magic to torture, kill, and bend the Muggles to their will.
All that remained of the group once known as the Order of the Phoenix was Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Sirius Black, and Luna Lovegood. Everyone else that had joined in the fight against the darkness had either given up and joined the dark lord, like Ron Weasley, who not only turned against them when Hermione had told him that she was in love with Harry, but also assisted the Shadow Auror's in capturing his own family and joining in while they tortured and killed them on the lobby floor of the Ministry. Others had died as they fought with the hope of freeing the wizarding world from the darkness that had enveloped it, their lifeless and mangled bodies plastered on the front page of the Daily Prophet.
"Hermione's right Harry," Neville said. "This is a mental idea."
"Look, I know it seems that way," said Harry as he sat down heavily on an old, beat up chair. "But we're running out of time and options… As much as I hate to say it, this war is lost to us. Tom has done so many obscure and insane rituals to keep himself alive, he's practically a god. You saw what happened last time I went up against him. I cut his fucking head off and he just picked it up and stuck it right back on like nothing had happened and then killed seven of our people with one killing curse."
"Still, what you are proposing is impossible," said Hermione. "No one has ever done it before."
"That's because no one has tried," said Harry.
"That's because no one was insane enough to try it pup," said Sirius.
"Luna, what do you think?" asked Neville.
Luna seemed to stare off into space for a moment before she shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "The theory is sound. But that actual act is something different. Things could very easily go wrong and you could end up dead Harry."
"And we're all dead if we do nothing," Harry said as he stood up. "Look… I understand you are all worried about me doing this. But as I see it, I don't have any choice. One way or another, I am going to do this."
"Alright," Sirius said with a sigh as he stood up. "If you're sure about this, then I'm with you."
"Sirius?" Hermione exclaimed.
"Harry's right," said the last Marauder. "This war is over for us. Right now we're all living on borrowed time until we're found and killed. If this plan works, all of it… The years of hell. The friends we've lost. All of it will end."
Harry looked at Neville, who begrudgingly nodded his head, as did Luna. Harry then looked at Hermione.
"Hermione?" he asked.
The bushy haired witch was silent for a moment before said asked, "Can everyone leave us alone for a moment."
Sirius, Neville, and Luna all silently left the two of them alone in the room.
"I don't want you to do this," Hermione said after the door had closed.
"It's the only way," Harry said.
Hermione growled in frustration as she stood up.
"You think I don't know that?" she said. "But if you do this, everything changes. It's because of that bastard that we even became friends in the first place… I can't lose you."
Harry walked over to Hermione and pulled her into a tight embrace.
"That wont change," Harry said quietly to her. "Remember what Luna said all those years ago after Ron had left us. You weren't sure you had done the right thing, and she told you that you and I were destined to be together. After all these years together with you, I still believe that. No matter what happens, you will always be apart of me. Even before that night with the troll, I felt some kind of connection to you. Problem was, because of all those years of neglect and hate from the Dursley's, I didn't know what it was at the time. Doing this won't change that. In fact, doing this should make it so I'm not as ignorant about my feelings."
Hermione, who had been crying as Harry spoke, hugged him tighter and gentle nodded her head. He was right. Deep down she knew it because she had had those same feelings the moment she had first seen him on the train to Hogwarts. Before she knew his name, or the kind of person he was. Just one look into those emerald green eyes had made her feel complete inside.
"Okay," she quietly said. "Let's do this."
The two of them held each other for a few more minutes before letting go and walking hand in hand into the other room.
"It's time," Harry said.
Sirius nodded and pulled out a box made out of obsidian glass.
Harry and Hermione hugged each other again and shared a slow and passionate kiss.
"I'll always love you," Harry whispered to her before letting her go and taking the box.
Harry opened the box and pulled out a very old looking Time Turner. The very first one to have ever been made, and thus, much more powerful.
Slipping the chain over his head and around his neck, he gave a brief smile to his friends as he wound up the device.
"Good luck Harry," Sirius said.
And just like that, Harry vanished somewhere in time.
OoOoOoOoOoO
London – December 31, 1926
It was a cold and wet New Years Eve night as a young pregnant woman rushed down the rain soaked streets. She clutched her stomach in pain as the contractions of her pregnancy drew closer and closer together.
In the distance she spotted an orphanage. The place where she was supposed to give birth to her child.
As she took another few steps, someone stepped out of an alleyway and blocked her path.
"I'm sorry about this," the man said as he pulled a wand from inside his jacket and pointed it at her. "Avada Kedavra."
A flash of green light shot out of his wand and hit the young pregnant woman, not only ending her life, but the life on her unborn child.
The second that her life ended, the man vanish from existence.
On that night, Tom Marvolo Riddle was never born. He never grew up to become the most feared dark wizard known as Lord Voldemort. Hundreds of lives were been spared.
On July 31, 1980, Harry Potter was born and lived a normal and happy life with his parents. Parents who ever never killed on that fateful Halloween night. He grew up with his best friend, Neville Longbottom, who had also grown up with his parents.
When he was eleven years old and started his first year of Hogwarts, Harry had met a young witch named Hermione Granger, who quickly became his and Neville's friend. And it was the summer between and fourth and fifth years at Hogwarts that Harry and Hermione admitted their feelings to one another and became a couple and married not long after they finished their seventh year.
The world was spared the horrors of the endless war because sometimes the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few. Or the one.
The End
A/N: Just a little something that popped into my head. Also, I would like to point out that the last line was taken from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It just seemed to fit perfectly to me, so I added it in.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this little tale.