A/N: Hey everybody! I just wanted to add in this author's note. First, I do not own Harry Potter. Second, I have been kicking this idea around in my head for a while. I've seen A LOT of fanfictions that focus on time travel back to the Marauders time, and I wanted to change things up a bit. This is something completely different, but it still involves time travel.

I'm attempting to keep things as canon as possible. I used a lot of J.K. Rowling's information on time travel (via Pottermore) to attempt to make a story that is completely plausible in the world she has created. That being said, I'm trying to remain canon to the books and official J.K. information – not the movies. There are a few variations here and there. For instance, I disregarded the epilogue. Mostly, I tried to write in my own ideas so they would function as possible events within the original text. For example, Hermione might do something that was never mentioned in the books, but it is because the story did not follow Hermione in that specific moment.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy my story. I thought it would be an interesting challenge (and it is definitely challenging!). Lastly, please read & review. I love reviews. They make me smile and give me a lot of much needed feedback. Enjoy! :)

Prologue: Haunted & Obsessed

The war was over. Their side had won. Voldemort was gone. Not for now, but forever. This was not a break from the constant battle that had lasted over twenty years, but a conclusion. Then why did Hermione Granger, after so many years, still not find any solace? Why did she find herself regretting, even hating, the finality of it all? It had been ten years since the final battle, and she still felt like she was trapped in time within a single moment during the fight. She could not move past it, and this moment clung to her relentlessly. Every day was a struggle against her inability to let the past be the past.

After returning for her seventh year at Hogwarts, Hermione, with her exceptional grades, unmatched intelligence, and unwanted fame, headed out into the world to begin a career. She immediately put forth all of her efforts into becoming an Unspeakable. She was accepted into the Department of Mysteries almost instantly; she did not even have to turn in a resume before she was fitted for a uniform.

Everyone was excited their brilliant Hermione Granger had gotten a job so fitting for her level of ability and intelligence. "This is a job where you can really shine," they said. "Nothing would be more fitting for 'the cleverest witch of your age!'" they exclaimed proudly. Hermione bit down hard on her lip at this remark.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Hermione began to work in the Time Room. She spent years rebuilding Time-Turners and improving on the concept over the years. Until Hermione joined the Time-Magic research team, all research on traveling more than five hours through time had been banned completely. The last Unspeakable who attempted such a feat was Eloise Mintumble in 1899. On her return from 1402, Eloise aged nearly five centuries and died shortly after. Even worse, her time travel erased over two dozen people from existence and caused a time disruption in 1899.

Hermione, through years of work, discovered a way to prevent time travelers from aging on their return. She modified the protego totalum spell to enclose the traveler in a protective bubble that shielded them as they passed through time. The idea was that everything within the bubble was enclosed in its own separate plane of time – completely independent from the past, present, and future. This disconnect from other time planes allowed the traveler to evade any effects while passing through time. In theory.

To be sure, Hermione tested the spell multiple times by dangerously traveling backwards a week in time. To avoid paradoxes, Hermione would return immediately to her own time. To make sure that the spell worked properly, Hermione took painstaking measurements of her hair and fingernails to make sure they hadn't grown. The miniscule growth expected in a week's time did not occur. Her experiment was a success. She was one step closer to safe long distance time travel.

But this was not enough. Long distance time travel still threatened an innumerable amount of innocent bystanders. She needed a way to avoid creating a paradox in time. She could not risk destroying someone's existence or throwing her own time off-balance. She could also, very possibly, take herself out of existence. For all she knew, her own time travel could have even more horrific effects than Eloise's trip did. Even with her amazing advancements, she was right back where she had begun and nowhere closer to returning to the moment that haunted her.

This is where our story begins: with poor, haunted Hermione Granger. She was approaching thirty-years-old and completely isolated and alone. She threw herself into her work every day and night and became painfully obsessed with solving the biggest mistake of her life.