Chapter 1 - A Brief History of Curses

She woke up, gasping, on the damp canvas floor. Struggling to breathe evenly, she looked around in the half-lit darkness of dawn. The soft, and very much alive, snores of Ron and Harry calmed her somewhat as she shakily stood up and brushed herself off. She very much doubted she'd be able to sleep after her nightmare, so she made a cup of tea and sank into one of the tent's saggy armchairs, deciding to persevere with A Brief History of Uncommon Curses, which had to be one of the most dry books she had ever come across.

"You look dreadful."

"Gee, thanks, Ron," she said, her mood not improved by her utter lack of quality sleep and the heavy locket pressing against her chest.

"Here, Hermione, let me take it for a bit," said Harry gently, unclasping it from her neck and repositioning it around her own. Hermione made to protest, but she really did feel better after he had taken it off. He looked at her with a concerned face. "Are you okay? You didn't sleep well, did you?"

She shook her head. "I had a nightmare." He nodded knowingly, and unable to say anything particularly comforting, pulled her into a hug.

"I'm sorry I brought you two into this. You shouldn't have to be here with me, half-starving in a freezing, damp tent in the middle of nowhere," he whispered into her hair. Hermione pulled back.

"Harry," she told him fiercely, "we both knew what we were getting into, and if you thought we'd let you do this alone, then you were very much mistaken. We're in this together, until the end, and I will not allow you to feel guilty about it." She sighed. "Let's be honest, if I were at home with my parents right now, I'd only spend my time worrying about you, and having even worse nightmares about you being captured or killed. Being here with you and Ron makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile, and it makes me feel like we might actually have a chance to win against You-Know-Who."

Harry's eyes expressed his gratitude as he pulled her back into the hug. Once he might have considered himself to be alone, as an orphan without siblings, but over the years Ron and Hermione had become a brother and sister to him, and he couldn't be more thankful.

Ron wandered back into the tent and scowled as he saw Harry and Hermione holding each other. His rational mind knew they loved each other as siblings, each seeking companionship and a relief from the burden of being only children, but he couldn't restrain his irrational mind from wondering if they were secretly more than that.

Hermione quickly moved away from Harry when she saw Ron's eyes narrow. She wasn't really sure how to handle Ron's irrational jealousy. The awkwardness of the situation hadn't lessened since fourth year and the Yule Ball, especially as he still hadn't actually told her about his feelings for her. She had no idea what to do to goad him into action, and although she had long harboured some feelings for Ron she wasn't sure how long they would hang around if he continued acting like this.

"Hey, Ron," she said quietly. "What did you find?" He opened his hands, displaying the meagre amounts of wild mushrooms he had managed to collect. For his sake, she tried to look enthusiastic, but the mood was notably sour. "It's okay," she said quickly, "we don't need many anyway, because we can always make more from what we've got. And I know food is an exception to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, but drink isn't, Dumbledore was always able to conjure some refreshments. We'll find a way to make it taste alright."

Realising neither Ron nor Harry would actually try to make dinner, she grimaced at their expectant stares and got to work, deciding to increase the quantity of mushrooms and fry them in oil she produced from the end of her wand. It wasn't the best oil, but it did the job, she reasoned. Harry somehow produced two bottles of butterbeer, and in the end the meal was considerably better than the others they had enjoyed, with even Ron holding his tongue about the mushrooms.

After dinner, they all relaxed in front of the reluctantly burning fire. Harry and Ron played a game of wizard's chess while Hermione continued reading her book.

"Pawn to E7."

"Knight to E7."

"Hey!"

"All's fair in love and war, Harry. Your turn."

"Fine, Queen to H6. Check."

"Feeble attempt, mate. Rook to H-"

"Merlin's pants."

Both heads turned towards Hermione, whose massive book had fallen to the floor with a thump and whose mouth was now hanging open.

"What?" they asked simultaneously, scrambling to her side. Hermione was in shock, but shook herself into speech.

"Look," she said shakily, pointing at the passage she had just read in A Brief History of Uncommon Curses. "This is the book that Dumbledore seemed to have pointed to in that children's book he left me. If you look at every seventh word he underlined, it becomes the title of this book. I didn't think it would be a coincidence, since seven is a very powerful magical number and everything Dumbledore did was deliberate so I've made myself read this book and-"

"Hermione," said Harry, "please stop. What did you read in this book that made you reference Merlin's boxers?"

"There's this curse that I just read about, and, well, here, read it yourself," she muttered weakly, pushing the book towards the boys.

THE ANTI-AMOR CURSE, it read.

It is unknown how long this particularly horrible curse has been existed, but its first recorded use was in 1260 by a certain Ivor Gaunt, who actually performed it on himself after the betrayal of his sweetheart, who left him for Orion Malfoy. Under the curse's influence, Gaunt went on to murder an estimated seventy Muggles in gruesome ways before being executed by the newly-established Ministry for his crimes. Although it is a very rare and largely unheard-of curse, it is more commonly used in pureblood families than anywhere else. The Anti-Amor Curse causes the victim to be unable to experience love, affection or even happiness, instead condemning the unfortunate soul to a life devoid of all emotions except hatred, anger, pride and ambition. Unlike Gaunt's case, this curse has mostly been performed on pureblood children whose parents disapprove of their love affairs, and seek to force them to be chaste, or on ex-lovers in vengeful attacks. Perhaps the cruelest effect of this curse is that it essentially forces its victim to become violent, vengeful and remorseless, and thus many victims go on to commit crimes under its influence and live the rest of their life behind bars. It is also particularly difficult to recognise a victim, since often the victim is unaware of the curse's existence, as are courts prosecuting against them. The Anti-Amor Curse is thoroughly illegal, of course, and has been since the late 18th century. Known usage of it has since dropped, though it would be naive to assume that outlawing it has driven it out completely. Interesting, though disturbing, side effects of the curse are the red eyes it gives the victim, after a certain number of years. Initially, this vibrant red colour is only seen in the eyes during fits of extreme rage, although from the onset of adolescence this becomes a lot more frequent and by maturity the red eyes are permanent.

Harry raised his eyes from the parchment and stared in shock at Hermione. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he whispered. Ron, who finished reading a few moments later, looked up in disbelief.

"Are you trying to tell me that it's not Voldemort's fault he's an evil and sadistic murderer? Am I supposed to buy that?"

Harry shook his head slowly. "It sounds completely unbelievable, but I dunno...it seems to fit."

"But Harry," Hermione asked, "who would do that to Tom Riddle?"

"Well," said Harry, thinking it through, "he was already pretty emotionless as a child, wasn't he? I mean I saw in the Pensieve, when Dumbledore went to visit him that first time in the orphanage...it couldn't have been Dumbledore...and the only person with magical ability to interact with Riddle before that was -"

"His mother," Hermione finished.

"Blimey," said Ron, "I always thought she wasn't right in the head."

"Why would she do that to her own son?" Hermione whispered.

"Think about it," Harry replied. "She had fallen in love with a Muggle, only to be abandoned by him and left to give birth to her baby alone."

"Yeah, well, you can't blame the guy, can you?" said Ron. "She used Amortentia, imagine if you suddenly regained consciousness and found yourself married to a hag like her!"

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, shocked. He shrugged defensively, and she sighed. "Carry on, Harry."

"Well," said Harry, slowly, "I don't think it's completely far-fetched to assume she performed the spell on her child - she might not have thought of it as a curse - so he would be protected from love and heartbreak. I dunno, it seems to make sense, especially since your book says the first guy to use it was a Gaunt. Isn't it the kind of magical knowledge that's passed down in the family?" Hermione shuddered.

"Either way, what can we do about it now? There's no way to reverse the curse, is there?" She flicked through the next few pages of the book. "No, once the victim is mature and the red eyes are permanent, the curse is irreversible," she said. "There's nothing we can do about it now, unless…"

"Unless we go back in time and convince her to have an abortion?" said Ron, hopefully. Hermione slapped him.

"Of course not, do you have any idea how dangerous it is to meddle with time as completely as that? To stop someone being born? No, the only thing I can think of is to somehow go back in time to Riddle's adolescence, and undo the curse before it becomes irreversible."

"But, Hermione," said Harry, "we have no proof that Voldemort is actually suffering from this curse, and even if we did find a way to go back and undo it, it wouldn't necessarily stop him becoming what he already is."

"I know that," she said softly, "but it's worth a try. I don't know, but after this, I kind of feel sorry for him."

"What?!" Ron exploded. "Have you gone crazy?" Harry stayed silent as Hermione shook her head.

"He is unable to feel remorse, Ron. He has no concept of love or anything like that. He doesn't fully understand the pain he inflicts, because normal emotions have been taken away from him. He never had a chance to do what's right. I vote we try to find a way to fix things."

"Seconded," said Harry, after a moment's pause. Eventually Ron, too, nodded his agreement.

"So it's decided," said Hermione. "We need to find a way to go back in time."