"I breathe in slow to compose myself
But the bleeding heart I left on the shelf
Started speeding round, beating half to death"
-James Bay - Incomplete.
Fear hung in the air like a foul taint, stealing the breath of those surrounding her as Hermione stared at the scene before her. Hagrid, with tears rolling down his ruddy cheeks into his dark and heavy beard let loose a broken sob as he lay Harry's body gently on the stone ground at his feet. The Death-Eaters who held the chains around Hagrid's neck laughed mercilessly as the last hope for defeating Lord Voldemort was gone. Harry was gone and Hermione was numb inside, everything she had sacrificed and fought for over the years had died with Harry as he took that final breath. Hermione felt as fingers laced through hers and pull her away, and she found she did not care who held her hand, her only thoughts were that she had failed Harry. She regretted deeply that she had not gone with him into the forbidden forest, she tried to think of anything they could have done differently that would have saved him.
Guilt and fear were eating her up inside as she was pulled back into the castle and up the moving staircases to the third floor on the right hand side. Hermione briefly recognised the room ahead as that which had once housed Hagrid's Cerberus dog Fluffy. The room ahead was now empty save for the trapped door that she was being led towards.
"Miss Granger, I understand that you are in pain right now but I need you to listen to me carefully." At the sound of that usually strict voice brimming with kindness and empathy Hermione blinked back tears and let out an unsteady breath as her eyes met Professor McGonagall's for the first time. When she nodded timidly Professor McGonagall continued.
"We have very little time before he notices that you my dear are not in that crowd below and sends others to find you. He will want to see you dead for aiding Harry in evading him for so long. What we do now must be done quickly for we will never get another chance, and I am sorry my dear but there is no other I would ask to help me with this task. You could save thousands of lives."
"Professor I don't understand, how can I save anyone, he has the Elder wand, he has become the master of death, how can I hope to defeat him? " Hermione was shaking her head even as she helped spell the trapped door closed behind them, her knees aching from the sharp fall. She followed her head of house through a different set of corridors that they had taken to find the Philosopher's stone during their first year at Hogwarts. The air smelt like dust and hung heavy, as though these hallways had not been used, let alone cleaned in a very long time. It wasn't long before they stopped at stone wall filled with cracks from age that looked as though it would give way at any time. Professor McGonagall waved her wand and the cracks began to seal forming a vault door that slowly opened to reveal a very old office. "Professor where are we?" she asked as she looked around the room in awe.
"I would have thought it obvious my dear, this office once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw, and their heads of house decided to preserve it rather than use so that most no longer know where to find it. Lucky for us, I was a rather diligent head girl and found many rooms that most did not. I would bet that most Ravenclaws have never even heard of this room, hence why we are making good use of it now. As you can see she was quite the knowledge hoarder and I have spent years reading her works, finding long lost spells and the like." She smiled and gestured for Hermione to sit before the long burned out fire, in one of the three armchairs that were placed before it. She then moved around the room, casting spells and then she moved to the dead fire and threw ash upon the singed logs below. When Hermione looked at her questioningly she smiled.
"Phoenix ash my dear, taken from Fawkes on a burning day with his permission of course. Very rare and very powerful. Once I set this alight you must step into the flames Hermione, we will have a very short window of time. I would never ask this of you unless I were desperate. We have lost too much to You-Know-Who over the years but I would rather die than see us lose our freedom too. What we do know my dear can only ever be done once, and is the culmination of Rowena Ravenclaw's life's work. We are going to be unravelling fate, and honestly my dear, it falls on you to change the way it will be rewoven. Hermione Granger will never be born after this, for you will change the events that lead up to your birth. You my dear have the knowledge of how to take him down long before anyone else will ever consider him a threat."
"Professor I don't understand, are you sending me back in time? Surely that will not work, and if it does who is to say that I won't make things worse? That my decisions won't lead to an even greater evil?" Hermione was suddenly alert, adrenaline and fear combining and coursing through her veins, making her swallow hard. Minerva reached out and took her students hand, her eyes softening with understanding.
"I know what I ask of you my dear, I ask you to give up your identity and assume another, in another time and another family to save those we both love so dearly. These last few hours I have seen hundreds of children that I have taught and cared for perish before my eyes because of one man's fight for power. I cannot allow it and I hope that you agree with me. If I could go back in time I would, but a younger me already exists there and I am too old my dear to survive the journey. I had hoped in all honesty that it would never come to this. When you arrive it will be August of 1975 and you will be preparing for your sixth year Hermione. I hope you understand the significance of this point in time."
Hermione nodded, her mind rushing with a thousand thoughts, almost all them in a panic over whether she could go through with this. "Yes, it's when he started recruiting death-eaters from within Hogwarts. Professor I don't understand, are you wanting me to stop him recruiting students? Because he already had many followers that point, with many Pure-blooded families believing that he had the right idea."
"If that is what it will take to stop these wars and his rise to power then yes my dear that is what is needed of you. In this scroll you will find instructions on how to access the memories of the life this spell will give to you, but you will retain the memories of this life as well. It must be done as soon as you cross through the flames, and then my dear, you must destroy this room. Destroy it so no other may ever think to use it, destroy it on your side so that it will never be in tact for any other to do as we do now." When Hermione nodded her agreement, Minerva handed her a scroll with a blue ribbon tied around it and pulled Hermione in for a hug. "It has been a pleasure to have known you Miss Granger, I cannot thank you enough for what you must do now, and quickly. I do not know how long the protections will hold them back from us."
With that statement she released Hermione only to take her hand and cut open her palm with a silver dagger, piercing deep enough for the blood to drip steadily from her palm and down her fingers. She ignored Hermione's gasp, instead cutting open her own hand and indicating for them both to bleed over the phoenix ash. When they began to smoulder, Hermione stepped gingerly onto the logs and knelt as the flames began to burst along the logs. Minerva then withdrew an hourglass from within her robe pocket, and threw it into the flames.
"Blood of youth, sacrificed in hope.
Blood of age, given in faith.
Phoenix ash brought back to flame,
Sands of time with you we bind.
Time's tapestry we seek to unravel,
the fates please surrender your gavel.
With faith and hope and love of lost ones
let her take this step and fate unravel."
Minerva watched in awe as Hermione spun from the flames and with a gust of magic they died, filling the room with a sombre darkness. Minerva sat in the chair and watched as the room faded from around her. She did not tell Hermione what her fate would be. She did not tell her that when she left this world would be unravelled to have never existed. Hermione, as she had known her, would never return. As she watched the world went black and she smiled as that last breath left her and a tear fell from her eyes. "I am sorry, Hermione…"