A/N: So after a long hiatus, I have finally come back to the world of fanfiction! I already have about four chapters of this story done, but the updates will be generally one every four days. Please review and let me know what you think!
Prologue
Hermione's breath was caught in her throat as her eyes fell on the body slumped on a pitiful heap on the ground. Her eyes ran over every detail of her best friend from his disheveled black hair to his now crooked glasses, that seemed like they were going to slip off his nose at any moment. She looked at his calloused hands that hung open and empty without the Holly wand he had clung to for all these years. She searched for any sign of life in him. There were none.
This was not supposed to happen. It was not supposed to go this way. He was Harry, her best friend, her confidante, the Boy-Who-Lived. Lived. And yet, that's not what happened. She felt the weights of everyone beside her shift at the sight of their hero, their leader on the ground. A sudden wail broke the silence and forced its way into Hermione's ears as she saw long, red hair covering Harry's torso, the body shaking violently, and wracking with sobs. No one moved to comfort the crying girl. There was no comfort available to give.
The sobs suddenly stopped as Ginny's head snapped up, possessively wrapping her arms around the body as if attempting to protect him from harm as a cold, and harsh laugh rose above the ashes. A snake-like figure moved forward as the laughs grew in numbers coming from every Death Eater. Hermione gripped her wand. She was going to kill them. She was going to kill every last one of them for every vile act they had done. And she was going to enjoy it.
"Your little hero has fallen," Voldemort said in an eerily calm voice, "Your numbers have dwindled. Your loved one's killed. You will lose." It was a statement, said as though there was no other option. No hope. "Join me, and your life will be spared, I guarantee," he paused, "But if you choose to foolishly continue to defy me, there will be a harsh, and painful death awaiting you."
There was a long pause and a pregnant silence that fell over the crowd. It was broken by a small shuffle coming from Hermione's right side, she turned and saw Neville slowly limping his way towards the abandoned middle. 'No,' thought Hermione. She couldn't help the disappointment rise inside of her as she watched her friend and former ally about to willingly give himself over to the Dark Lord. She could hear sneers coming from the Death Eaters.
Neville stopped in the middle and turned, staring defiantly into the Dark Lord's blood red eyes, "We will never join you," Neville said, "Harry died for us. He's still with us! Tonks, Fred, everyone who has died tonight will not die in vain. We won't let them. You're wrong. It's not over!"
A spell flew at Neville, knocking him off his feet. And just like that, the spell seemed to be lifted as each side drew their wands and started firing spells at one another. Hermione's mind raced as she blocked another spell. There was no way they were going to be able to defeat Voldemort now. According to her research, only Harry was able to, and he was now well… They needed to get out and quickly. As much as it pained her, they needed to regroup, and find an alternative means to end Lord Voldemort once and for all. And with that thought she grabbed Ron's hand and began to pull him away from the battle, quickly casting a Flipendo knocking two Death Eaters backwards. "We need to get out of here. Now," she said in a panicked voice.
"What? No! We need to stay and fight for Harry! Are you bloody mad?" Ron yelled pulling away from her and looking at her as if he didn't know her.
"We need to find another way to kill him. Harry was the only one we know of who could!" Hermione turned and skillfully casted a nonverbal Stupefy at an oncoming Death Eater. She turned to Ron with a pleading look in her eyes, "Please trust me."
"Protego!" He yelled, blocking a dark curse from nearly colliding into Hermione, "Reducto!" He aimed at the Death Eater who sent the curse. He grabbed her hand, quickly stealing a sad glance at their best friend's crumpled, and still untouched body, and nodded to her with tears brimming his eyes. They ran. Sending curses at Death Eaters they passed, and didn't stop until they reached the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "There should be a portkey around here," she mumbled looking around the trees, avoiding the direction of the raging battle still happening at Hogwarts and trying to block out the sound of Ron's suppressed sobs. Her own threatened to break free, 'Not now. We need to get to safety,' she thought as her shaking hands groped her wand, about to use a summoning spell.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" A cold and harsh feminine voice screeched into Hermione's ears and she felt her blood run cold and she unconsciously touched her left forearm. "Potter's little mudblood and blood traitor running away from the battle? My, my what would he think of the two of you?" she sneered, faking a sense of disappointment in her voice.
Hermione turned to see Ron drawing his wand as her voice came out in a dangerous whisper, "Don't you dare say another word."
Bellatrix's face broke out into a malicious smile, "He had so much trust in the two of you. He thought so much of you and both of you are fleeing from the scene like a bunch of cowards," she spat the last word and looked with glee at the rage that began to take over Ron.
"Stupefy! Reducto!" He fired the spells one after another as Bellatrix blocked the first spell with ease and was thrown a bit off balance by the second one. She laughed, "Oh, touchy subject there, blood traitor?" A spell flew at Bellatrix knocking her back and knocking the smile off her face, "You dare try and curse me, blood traitor? I will show you your place! Avada-" the curse was cut off by Hermione throwing a nonverbal Stupefy at her, which she blocked. Bellatrix sent a powerful curse at Hermione, knocking her over and made her limbs feel like they were slowly being crushed. "Ron!" she cried out as she watched Bellatrix block his spell and a green light flashed in front of her eyes as she watched the redhead fall in front of her. Hermione's anger raged over her and powered her magic as she somehow broke the dark curse that Bellatrix had over her and dangerously stood up. Bellatrix turned with a wicked smile on her face and lazily raised her wand, but was thrown back by a powerful source of magic coming out of Hermione, as she hit the tree behind her, falling unconscious.
Hermione ran over to Ron and began to pathetically pull him into a semi-hidden clearing. "Ron," she croaked out as tears fell fast out of her eyes as her shaking hands suddenly grabbed onto her bag she had shrunken and began to search for anything to save him knowing, deep down, that the task was pointless. Her hands groped the small, cool metal as she pulled it out. She felt anger and agony taking over her as her eyes fell on the Time-Turner from her third year. Her fist wrapped around it as anger began to overcome her. She kept wishing she could go back, back to where it all started and fix things. She wished she could stop all these terrible things from ever happening.
The Time Turner in her hand broke and she felt her magic pulsating around her, with a strange, foreign essence egging it on. The sand from the Time Turner mixed with her blood from the glass cutting into her hand and she felt as though she was being sucked into a tube much too tight for her. And blackness consumed her.
She was hazily aware of wet grass beneath her and she thought she could hear footsteps coming towards her.
"Who disobeyed me?" she heard a dark, terrifying voice say. She vaguely thought that she was glad she wasn't at the receiving end of that voice before she allowed the darkness to consume her once again.