PROLOGUE
Screams filled the air. Screams of pain, of loss, of hatred, and mostly, of defeat. Among all the carnage and torture, only a few people still stood against the dark. Hermione Granger was one of those people. She stood, her wand gripped in her right hand, bleeding profusely from a deep wound in the stomach, covered in grime and mud and blood, most of which was her own. Hermione watched as her best friend and brother in all but blood, Harry Potter, faced Lord Voldemort, the epitome of evil, and the cause of this horrible war, in order to fulfil his destiny. The destiny that had been placed on him since he was born, and the reason so many people were dead.
Even before Voldemort struck the killing blow, Hermione knew the fight wasn't in Harry's favor. All the duels surrounding the battle field ceased, every person turning to watch the fight that decided it all.
"You will never win!" he taunted Harry in his high, cruel, voice. Then-
"Avada Kedavra!"
The way he said the killing curse was so casual, so lazy. It made Hermione's blood boil. Then Harry fell to the ground and everything went deathly silent.
Hermione's eyes widened. No! It wasn't possible! Harry had survived so much-too much!-to die like that. One simple curse, and he was gone.
For a moment everything was entirely still, then, one by one, led by Voldemort, the Death Eaters, the henchmen of Lord Evil, began to laugh. It was sick, Hermione thought disgustedly, still in shock, that people could rejoice over the death of someone so good.
And then, like a siren, Ginny began to scream. She screamed for her family, once so large and full of life, now all the members' dead, for her lost love, now lying on the ground at Voldemort's feet, for her friends, all lost, and for the only remaining people left in her life: Hermione and Luna.
That scream was like a shake for Hermione, a shake back into reality. It was for Luna to.
Then Hermione looked at her best friends, Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood, and she realized, that with friends like these, it wouldn't be so bad to die, even if her other friends were gone, she was still a witch. And she wasn't just any witch, she was the best friend of Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived and the Chosen One. Mudblood and proud of it. Brightest witch of her age. And most of all, she was a warrior, and she wouldn't give up, no matter how bad things got (and they were looking pretty bad).
Hermione glanced around her, her heart aching as she saw Ron, her first love, lying on the ground, his blue eye's blank. She saw Remus and Tonks, who had sacrificed so much in the war, and who had died before they could really know their son. She saw Professor McGonagall's lifeless body and her eye's prickled with tears as she gazed at the woman who had been like a mother to her after her own parents died in a Death Eater attack. She saw Neville Longbottom, tortured to insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange before he was killed by a stray Sectumsempra.
Fred. George. Mrs. Weasley. Mr. Weasley. Bill. Charlie. Fleur. Percy. Dean. Seamus. Parvati Patil. Lavender Brown. Snape. Sprout. Flitwick. Dumbledore. Sirius. Colin Creevy. Denis Creevy. Susan Bones. Hannah Abbott. Ernie McMillan. Cho Chang, and so many others.
But then Hermione looked at Ginny and Luna and saw trust and love in their eyes. They were prepared to do what they had to.
"Come on!" Hermione whispered to them as she ducked behind a broken wall. For now, Voldemort and his Death Eaters didn't notice them.
They huddled together and Hermione quickly reached under her shirt for her the time-turner that she and Professor Dumbledore had made in case things went wrong. She draped the chain around all of their necks and then took a deep breath and they chanted together:
"Tempus Omnia vulnera sanet infirmum. Tempus Omnia vulnera sanet infirmum. Tempus Omnia vulnera sanet infirmum."
Slowly, the air around them began to glow gold. Voldemort and the Death Eater's celebration of victory was cut off as they turned to stare at the glowing vortex now hovering over Hermione, Ginny and Luna.
Then Hermione took a deep breath and recited the last part of the spell.
"Imortist Emna!"
The vortex glowed bright white then began to descend on the girls.
Hermione Granger took one last look at the world that was once hers, and said good-bye.
Forever.
