Chapter 2

In Fear and Faith - The Road to Hell is…

With trembling hands, Hermione pulled the time turner necklace over her head and took the spinnable charm between her thumb and forefinger. She turned it three times, and then spun it. Her faith had overridden her fear. She was committed to her mission.

The room around her became a blur of people coming and going. A moment later she found herself standing alone in her room, but she instinctively knew it was now before the battle would occur.

She apparated to the Ministry and cautiously entered the building. The last thing she wanted was to be seen prior to it becoming necessary. Upon arriving at the Department of Mysteries, she found her way to the entrance of the Room of Prophecies and stealthily slipped inside.

She heard voices. They were Harry, Ron, Luna, Ginny, Neville and herself. They were searching for the prophecy. She moved to an out of the way location just to the side of the exit. She knew that the group would end up passing through here on the way to the battle site.

Time passed. She could hear the beginning of the confrontation. Shouts and screams filled the air as the light from flying curses lit the room like flashes from an approaching storm. Hell had arrived for breakfast, and it was hungry.

"Reducto!" shouted the voice of Ginny. She heard a tinkling of broken glass, and then the whole room started to collapse like tumbling dominoes. Thousands of prophecies and other artifacts were crashing to the floor.

The six of them shot passed her hiding place to the exit. They leaped out as she remembered. She cautiously walked to the exit and peered down. The group was getting up and starting to look around. Then she heard the approach of the Death Eaters. The doorway sealed itself against them. They hurried away to find another entrance to the chamber holding the group.

Hermione remembered the charm she had used to seal the door and used a counterspell to remove it and reopen the doorway. She looked down, wondering how to get involved and save Sirius without being seen as a second Hermione. Time was not going to wait for her to develop a plan. The Death Eaters poured into the room in a fog of thick, black smoke. Lucius started to approach Harry.

She would have to wait for an opening before she could slip into the scene. It would be impossible for a second Hermione to just appear. As the Order started to appear and the battle erupted, she saw her chance. She saw herself knocked from the grip of the Death Eater and fall. She knew she was going to be unconscious for a few moments. Harry's invisibility cloak was stashed in her bag. This was it.
Hermione leaped down, quickly grabbing her bag and removing the cloak. She pulled it over her unconscious self and prepared to act. She charged toward Sirius as the first curse from Bellatrix's wand shot by. She bumped him and the second curse also missed. He looked at her and smiled while continuing to fight. She looked at Harry, who was looking downward. There, on the floor, was the lifeless body of Remus.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" This was only slightly less excruciating to Harry than if it had been Sirius. Sirius grabbed him, but he broke free to pursue Bellatrix. The rest of the battle played out as before, with the only change being the death of Remus. This was equally unacceptable.

Hermione started back toward her unconscious self, but it was too late. She saw herself running into the room. She quickly apparated back to safety and the school. Now Remus was dead, and it was all her fault. This was even more horrible than before. She knew she would have to go back and try fixing things again.

After time had been reset, she prepared for yet another attempt at repairing the situation that was now of her making. She spun the time turner and returned herself to her hiding spot in the Room of Prophecies.

The battle in the room moved to the room with the arch. Once again, as the battle between the Order and the Death Eaters erupted, Hermione jumped down. This time she was going to deflect the curse a different way to avoid hitting Remus again.

As Bellatrix's curse came at them, Hermione bounced them away. She quickly looked and saw both Sirius and Remus standing there, still engaged in the fight. Success was hers.

But her success was short-lived. Her foot hit something on the floor. Looking down, she saw Harry. Bellatrix had done what Voldemort couldn't. She had killed Harry Potter albeit with the aid of Hermione's interference in the unfolding of events.

Hermione ran toward Bellatrix as the fight raged on. Once in the hallway, she apparated back to Hogwarts. She had made an even bigger mess than before. She was beside herself with grief.

She waited for time to reset. How was she going to rectify things this time? What was the new plan? She was making things worse, not better.

She once again found herself poised to leap into the battle. As things heated up, she leaped down and covered herself. She knew the timing of the situation. As Bellatrix's first curse was launched, Hermione launched a heavy stunning spell at her. Caught in the midst of casting the curse to kill Sirius, she could not react. Her curse shot errantly into the air as Hermione's spell toppled her from her perch in the doorway. She landed head first on the rocky floor, doing what Hermione could not. Bellatrix was no more.

The other Death Eaters panicked at her death. They fled the scene. Everyone was alive, but without the battle inside the Ministry, the situation was still far from acceptable. Just like in the prior scene where Harry died, Voldemort was not discovered by the Ministry. Harry did not learn the final truth about battling Voldemort inside his head. Many things were amiss. Hermione would still need another attempt at finding the perfect fix.

This led her to see the deaths of Ron, Madeye, Mr. Weasley, Ginny, and Kingsley. She even considered sacrificing herself as a final solution to the problem, but she worried it would create an as yet unconsidered situation. It was a horrid conundrum. She found herself moving closer and closer to the inescapable conclusion that it would have to be Sirius who would die. She would have to accept that which seemed unacceptable.