Hermione sat smiling with the Marauder's and Lily. She was happy. Purely happy. Even thoughts of returning to her own time were pushed deep down. She was sure nothing could bring them to the surface. She reveled in her carefree attitude.
"Graduation is too soon." Lily said with a sigh. "I feel like there will never be enough time to explore all of Hogwarts."
"Come off it Lils" Sirius said with a smirk, "you know you and Remus will end up teaching here until you're grey and old."
"What about you Sirius?" Peter said with a smile as he reached across the table for a dinner role.
"Me? I'll be a powerful and, if I may say so, much revered Auror. Then I'll settle down with a nice witch, and become Minister of Magic. What'd you say Mione?" Sirius said with a grin and a wink. Their laughter died down when they saw the stricken look on Hermione's face. James grinned,
"Even the thought of it has put her into shock." The group broke into raucous laughter, turning head's from all five tables in their direction.
"Hermione?" Remus said quietly, putting a hand on her arm. They all started when she scrambled back from the table and headed towards the teachers' table.
"Miss Granger?" Dumbledore frowned as she headed straight for him, with only the table separating them. He pushed a jug of pumpkin juice to one side, so as to see her better.
"I. Have. Tried." She said in a low menacing tone, which made all the professors turn towards her. In turn, a hush fell over the Great Hall. "It has been one year, Headmaster." She stopped, taking calming breaths.
"Miss Granger…Hermione. This is neither the time, nor the place." His voice was low, but a hint of nervousness pervaded his tone.
"You told me you would get me back to my own time, but I've been stuck here for an entire year." Dumbledore eyed her unconsciously drawn wand warily.
"Hermione, I told you I would try-"
"You have to do better than that. Headmaster." She spat his title with more venom than most thought she was capable. "You told me, stay in Gryffindor, despite the fact that I know the future of half of the people at the table."
A surprised gasp rose from the Great Hall, but silence quickly returned, everyone hoping to catch her next words. Maybe even their own fates.
"Hermione!" Dumbledore said, standing up, "I must insist-"
"No, Albus! I must insist. You said, be friends with Lily Evans, even though her son is my best friend. You said, give Sirius Black a chance, even though I was there the day he died." She was screaming now, her voice breaking with emotion, and her eyes filling with tears she refused to allow to spill. Dumbledore started walking down one side of the table, and she mirrored his steps. "You said, be nice to Peter Pettigrew. Peter. Fucking. Pettigrew! I'm tired of this. Sitting in class with Lucius Malfoy, knowing that I killed his son!"
"Miss Granger!" Silence followed Dumbledore's roar.
"I won't be a pawn. I won't let Lily and James die saving their son, I won't let Frank and Alice Longbottom spend 17 years in St. Mungo's while their son is raised by his only living relative. I won't let Sirius Black spend twelve years in Azkaban for a crime committed by Peter Pettigrew. And so help me God, I won't let Remus Lupin lose all his friends in less than three days."
Dumbledore raised his wand to her, but in his moment of hesitation she screamed "Stupefy!" as he rounded the table. The entire Great Hall was silent as she stalked towards their Headmaster, a surprised look frozen on his face.
"And so help me, I will not let Severus Snape be a pawn in your demented power struggle for twenty years because he made one mistake when he was a teenager."
With that Hermione Granger stormed to the other side of the head table and grabbed Professor Trelawny by the front of her robes, and pulled her, shaking, from her seat.
"Give me a new prophecy." When the woman only babbled incoherently, she threw her head back, addressing the ceiling "I've changed the past damn it!" She screamed, looking back at the trembling woman whose hands scrabbled at the hold Hermione had on her. "I know you have at least one prophecy in you! Tell me. I can change it!" She continued to bodily shake the woman as tears ran, unnoticed, down her face. She let out a scream of frustration and threw the woman back into her seat. As she started to turn back, the hall darkened slightly and a deep and powerful voice came out of the trembling woman.
When a Lioness tumbles backwards against the sands of time
She will learn the power of sacrifice, and with this knowledge
She will send ripples to wash away her yesterday
Leaving a future of new possibilities
With her life given, she will bring the Dark Lord to his knees.
With a triumphant smile Hermione turned back to the newly 'renervated' Headmaster. "And so help me God," Her voice rang clearly through the Great Hall, "I will kill Tom Riddle."