A/N: Sooooo I want to thank my reviewers; TannerDarko, Hermione Voldemort Riddle, phoenixqueen15, MoonPrancerxoxo, and Kelly Heartz, for all of their lovely words :) I hope that there's more to come! I'm writing this story as fast as I can, 'cause with school I may not be able to update much. Read and review :)

This is absolute madness. Hermione Granger scowled at the ground as she sprinted through the wreckage of the castle, dragging Ron along with her. She didn't know how this whole time travel thing was going to work, or even if it would work, but she knew that she had to at least try. It was their only chance of survival, and after Harry and the others had been killed, and she felt like she owed it to them to make it right once again.

"Hermione! Where are we going?" Ron shouted over the deafening sounds of exploding walls and screaming people. She didn't answer at first, stopping to shoot a spell at a Death Eater, who was locked in combat with Luna Lovegood. The spell hit the Death Eater on his robed chest, and sent him flying about ten feet away from them, totally unconscious.

She turned back to Ron.

"Dumbledore's office!" she barked. Ron's face was stunned as they continued running through the castle. He shook his head, and looked back up at Hermione.

"What? Why are we going there? I mean, what's our plan?"

Hermione scowled once again.

"Ronald, I don't even know if this is going to work, so please; shut the bloody hell up!" She dodged a spell that was sent her way, and tripped over some rubble, her body landing roughly on the ground. Ron bent down, and hurriedly helped her back up to her feet . They were back to running once again, but this time they were too late, and a Death Eater had caught up to them.

"Hermione!" Ron shoved her out of the way of an oncoming spell, and she landed again in the rubble, scraping her knees and hands. Ron ducked, barely avoiding the spell himself. They both turned to face Bellatrix, who was laughing merrily.

Hermione's heart skipped a beat.

They couldn't take on Bellatrix, not even the two of them fighting together. Ron blocked another spell that flew at him, and Hermione dodged a green light that narrowly missed her left ear. Side by side, Ronald and Hermione fought, giving it their all.

They were dodging spells left and right, and sending them off when they had the chance, but the whole thing was based on the pure chance of getting out of the way. It seemed like all hope was lost, that is, until a voice shouted out to Hermione.

"Granger! Get down!" Hermione knew by now to instantly obey those stray commands, as they usually saved her life. She forced herself down to the ground, her stomach roughly hitting the floor. Why did she always seem to end up on the floor like this?

A spell was cast above her, one that even Bellatrix couldn't block. Hermione looked up to see one man she never thought would save her life;

Draco Malfoy.

He fought with grace and ease, and made it seem like fighting Bellatrix was as easy as him breathing. Obviously he had practiced dueling with her before, and knew all of her techniques for fighting. He stunned Bellatrix quickly, much to everyone's amazement, and bent down to help Hermione up.

She took his hand quickly, and looked up into his pale grey eyes. She didn't understand him, or why he had helped her and Ron, but she wasn't about to turn away from help when it was looking her straight in the face. Draco smiled at her, a sort of sad little grin, before turning around to leave. Hermione confused herself by doing this, but she turned, and called out to his retreating figure.

"Malfoy, wait!"

Draco froze, and slowly turned back around.

"Yes?" He drawled, keeping his bored tone even under these extreme circumstances. Hermione shook her head, not knowing why she was doing this. Had common sense all but left her?

"Come with us," It was not a command, but a quiet plea. She knew that their chances of survival were thin without him, and she did not want to take the chance of losing. And, there was something about him, something that had changed, that made her simply want him to come along with them.

Ron looked baffled, but was smart enough not to complain. Malfoy mimicked Ronald's expression, but recovered quickly, and raised a single blonde eyebrow at her.

He simply nodded, and walked casually back to where Hermione and Ron stood together.

"Where to?"

Hermione's face lit up in a smile, and she nodded towards their destination.

"Dumbledore's office."

Draco's reaction was immediate.

"Dumbledore's office? Why? How's that going to help us win this battle?" His face showed his distaste, as he ran alongside the two friends.

"Who knows? It may not, but I've still got to try,"

Draco was silent, and Hermione knew he had understood her. They ran as fast as they could without tripping over anything or running into any more Death Eaters. The last thing they needed was to get into any more fights.

Hermione stopped running after a few minutes, and bent over, completely out of breath. The boys followed her lead, and tried to catch their breath beside her.

Hermione listened to the sounds that were around her, and wondered what was going through everyone else's head at this time. She could hear the screaming of those who were losing, and felt a sudden pang of fear go through her broken heart.

What if this didn't work?

Then what would happen?

They would have no option but to stand and fight, she supposed, and with the amount of people left on both sides, Hermione knew that that was impossible. The truth of the matter was, there was no other option. This either worked, or they fought until they died. That was it. But as she thought, Hermione's hopes suddenly lifted.

When was Dumbledore ever wrong? He was always right, so how could this go wrong? She forced herself up, and put one foot in front of the other. She could do this.

The boys had a hard time keeping up with her as she ran, probably because they were not as motivated as herself. She imagined this from their point of view. They were following her blindly, trusting her instincts. I guess after seven years of using Hermione's brains, Ron had finally learned to just go with it. But what about Malfoy? He didn't know her like Ron did, so why was he going along with it?

Hermione shook her head, trying to get these thoughts out of her head. They weren't going to help them. What would help was running faster and getting there sooner.

With Hermione's speed, it only took a few minutes longer to get there, and when they stopped in front of the staircase, the boys were nearly passed out with the strain of running so fast.

"Bloody hell, Granger! Where'd you learn to run like that?" Malfoy gasped, clutching at his side in pain. Hermione ignored him, and started pushing aside the rubble that was blocking the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

"Help me with this, will you?" She barked, causing the two boys to look at each other in surprise. They both had never seen her in such a state, that her behavior shocked them. They quickly rushed to her side, and began pushing aside the heavy boulders that were blocking the entrance. When there was enough room to crawl through, Hermione practically jumped into the newly made hole.

When she climbed to the top of the staircase, and opened the door, she was shocked at how peaceful it looked. Everything was exactly what she remembered it as, except for the new portrait of Dumbledore hanging up. She immediately went to Dumbledore, who was sitting there with his hands folded across his lap.

"Dumbledore!" Hermione gasped. It had been so long since she last saw him, that she nearly burst into tears at seeing his smiling face. He looked so friendly, so happy, that she almost broke down right there. She sniffled, ad wiped at a tear.

"I-I came for, well, you know what..." She spoke, and Dumbledore nodded back at her. Ronald turned to Hermione, and held up his hands in frustration.

"Are you people going to tell me what is going on? What are we doing here? We should be out there- helping those people!"

Hermione whipped around, fuming.

"And what do you think we could do, Ronald? We can't just rush in and save the day! We'd get ourselves killed within minutes! It'd be three against three dozen, Ronald! Even more than that!"

He grew red and sputtered, trying to think of something to say to her.

"Well, we have to do something!"

"We are Ronald! If you'd just stop for a moment and let me do this, you'd see!"

Ron sighed, and motioned with his hands for Hermione to continue the conversation, so she faced Dumbledore once again.

"How are you, my dear?"

His question caught her off guard, and she stared up at him with confused eyes. He wanted to know how she was? She laughed deeply, and raised a hand to her mouth. He wanted to know how she was! Hermione laughed again; she laughed and laughed, until her sides hurt from all of it. The boys looked at her like she had grown a second head, but didn't say anything. Dumbledore just sat there, his hands still in his lap.

"How am I?" She looked up at him, the pain clear in her eyes.

"My best friend was just murdered, and the war is going to be lost, Professor. I'm not exactly 'doing very well'..." She spoke with malice, and the boys both shrank back at the tone of voice she held.

They had never seen Hermione like this before, and quite honestly, it scared both of them. But Dumbledore appeared unfazed as he continued to look Hermione up and down, seemingly searching for something. Hermione shook her head, and her shoulders sank down with the weight of the world. She sighed, and rubbed her forehead.

"I'm sorry, Professor, I've just been through hell and what seemed like our last chance of survival is gone. I'm just a little ruffled."

Dumbledore nodded at her.

"It's perfectly alright, my dear. We've all been through some difficult times recently. Now, I assume you are here about the time traveling?" Dumbledore spoke slowly, not noticing the sudden look of shock that passed through the boys.

"Time travel?" Ron was the only one who could speak at the moment, as Draco was too busy making a face that was somewhere in between horror and surprise. He turned to Hermione, gaping.

"Why didn't you tell me any of this?"

Hermione shot him a pointed look.

"We were too busy trying not to get killed, Ronald..."

"Oh...I... I suppose you're right," He admitted, and fell silent. Hermione sighed.

"Ron, this is our only option. We can't just stand and fight here. Think about it, with this, we could stop the war before it had even started!"

Ron hesitantly nodded, obviously seeing the logic in this. Hermione turned back to Dumbledore, who began to speak.

"Everything you will need is in that drawer in the desk," He pointed a narrow finger towards his large desk. Hermione walked over to it, and pulled open the said drawer. Inside, there were several envelopes addressed to several different people, Hermione included.

"Sir?"

"If Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Weasley are to be traveling with you, then they will need new identities. I suggest that you have one as well,"

Hermione saw the logic in this, but her blood began to boil at the thought of pretending to be someone other than who she was.

"Sir, with all due respect, I am uncomfortable with changing my identity. I understand why Ron and Malfoy must, because they will have ancestors in that time period, but I have no one. No one will recognize my name, so I don't see why not," She looked up into the Professor's eyes, and was amazed that even in a portrait, his eyes could still twinkle.

"Of course, Miss Granger. I understand completely, and I admire you for standing up for yourself,"

Hermione flushed, but quickly regained her composure, and asked a vital question.

"So, how does this work, exactly?"

Dumbledore smiled.

"I have managed to create a new device, a portkey, you make call it. Just touch it, and say the date you want to go back to," He smiled. "It will take you there."

Hermione nearly gasped aloud. He had created a portkey that could take people back in time? She could only imagine how many years of effort it took to successfully complete an item such as that. She shook her head, and marveled at the intelligence of the man in the portrait.

"Alright," Hermione sighed. "Let's do this."

Dumbledore pointed her to another drawer, and pulled out the time portkey.

It was a Licorice Wand.

Hermione cracked a smile, and wanted to laugh at the object in front of her. A Licorice Wand. It was so Dumbledore, to do something like this. Hermione held tight to the documents in one hand, and grabbed the Licorice Wand in another. Ron and Draco followed her lead, and grabbed onto the Wand.

Hermione took a deep breath in through her nose, and released it slowly out of her mouth.

"September 1st, 1944." She spoke calmly, as if her heart wasn't in her throat.

There was a flash of light, and then they were gone.

A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the wait, but I had so many other stories to work on! Well, that was the next chapter, and I'll begin working on the next right away :)