Chapter One: A Victim of Compromise.

23rd June, 1999. {Old Timeline}.

Grey clouds rolled across the blue sky causing the heavy mood to sour further. The large crowd gathered around the two graves, all of them wore black, some of them cried and others stared on blankly. The man stood behind the two headstones and began to speak as the two coffins were magically lowered into the ground.

A lone hand reached out to touch the shoulder of Hermione Granger to offer her some comfort; they hadn't planned on her violently moving away from them and narrowing her eyes with a face of thunder. She straightened her black dress and focused on the lowering coffins with no emotion on her face.

The headstones had been engraved with the names of her fallen best friends, declaring that the trio was now solo.

It didn't matter that they'd defeated the Dark Lord, the world still wanted to take them away from everyone who loved them. PTSD had tormented Harry after the war, and Hermione knew that he'd been struggling because she'd been his shoulder to cry on. She hadn't expected to arrive at Grimmauld Place to find him floating in a pool of his own blood, dead. Nor had she been expecting Ron's bloody and bruised body to be rushed into St Mungo's right when she was mourning over Harry's body. She'd rushed into the room to watch on in horror as the healers tried to bring him back from the dead, but his body refused to come back. He'd been kidnapped and killed by lone Death Eaters.

Her two best friends were taken from her on the same day.

Time slowed down in that moment. Nothing. She felt nothing. Grief tormented her from the shadows, but no emotion showed on her face. The funerals were planned by the Weasleys and she sat nearby, ignoring them whenever they directed a question her way. She should've felt sorry that Molly and Arthur Weasley had to bury another one of their children. Yet, she still felt nothing.

Neville Longbottom had tried to offer her comfort. However, she'd immediately lashed out at him and tossed him across the room with a flick of her wand. But still, she felt no anger or pain for hurting her friend.

The war had affected them all in so many ways, but Hermione had remained positive throughout; she helped rebuild Hogwarts and offer support to families affected by the war. She even helped organise Professor Snape's funeral. It was a closed ceremony and only ten people were invited to watch his coffin lowered into the ground. She'd cried on Harry's shoulder, wishing that Snape had been given a better life.

Suddenly, Hermione became aware of Molly staring at her as everyone left to return to The Burrow. She extended her hand for her, and Hermione stared down at it blankly then shook her head. Sadness flooded Molly's face. Arthur soon approached her from behind and guided his wife away.

Hermione knew she'd been standing there for a long time, but her mind was preoccupied. None of her thoughts made sense, yet, somehow they did. I have to fix this, was the constant phrase in her head. Hundreds of ideas bounced off the confines of her active head, and her eyes stayed on the headstones of her bestfriends while she formulated a plan.

She wasn't in the right frame of mind to be thinking of any sort of plan; it was only this morning that she'd tossed Crookshanks out of Grimmauld Place because he'd meowed. The once loving Hermione had left her body the moment Ron died. Perhaps she would have coped had Ron survived. They'd both have one another to grieve with, but losing both of them left her alone in the world. Her parents had no idea that she existed, so they couldn't offer her a shoulder to cry on. She had no one.

The Heavens decided to open up above, and rain thundered down around her. A silly idea circled the circumference of her mind and she reached out a few times to understand it better, but even she knew that it was a far reach. However, as more ideas faded away, she kept coming back to this one idea. Throughout her Hogwarts years, she'd always seen a time turner in portraits, but it only ever stayed in the background for a few days before it moved to another.

Anger bubbled up inside and her body trembled from the emotion and the cold. She inhaled sharply then let out a frecious scream that echoed around the graveyard. Her face went red and her veins pulsed vigorously. She kept on screaming until her throat cried out for her to stop. Her knees gave out and she fell to the soggy ground.

Her first tears since their deaths mixed with the rain droplets that slithered down her face. I have to do something. Why was it that people could predict a prophecy and create a heroic character, only to not care for them after they defeated the evil?

Hermione struggled to her feet and walked away from their graves with heavy feet that sunk into the mud. Her mind had gone silent, only allowing one idea to stay in her mind. She knew that it was stupid to even try it, but she was too far gone of sanity.

Her back straightened and her shoulders tightened. She held her head up high and walked with every ounce of confidence and ferociousness she possessed. It didn't take her long to appear outside the gates of Hogwarts, which opened before her thanks to McGonagall's trusting nature. Hermione already knew that McGonagall was at The Burrow, so her kindness was about to be abused; she'd given Hermione access to her office when she'd helped repair Hogwarts.

The children were already in bed, so she could easily move around without being seen. She left muddy footprints as she moved inside and up towards the Headmistress' office, Filch would be alight with anger at the sight of an imposter creating a mess throughout Hogwarts.

She easily made it to the doors which led inside to her possible answer to solve her problem. Hermione pushed open the door and shut it behind her. Numerous portraits snoozed around her; she even saw Headmaster Dumbledore sleeping soundly. However, she had no such luck when it came to Headmaster Snape.

His painted-self glanced up from his book and paused at the sight of her scruffy appearance. Her sodden clothes dripped onto the floor creating a puddle at her ruined shoes. She stared back at him blankly.

"Miss Granger—"

Hermione looked up at all the portraits hoping to find what she was looking for; she even climbed up onto the desk to get a better look.

"There's no point in asking if you're OK, but what is it you're doing?"

She stopped and glanced his way. "Fixing everything," she replied in a flat tone.

He sighed. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I'll know it when I see it."

Hermione ignored his further questions and started to lower the high up portraits down. Their descent was quick as none of them contained what she wanted. She jumped down from the desk with gritted teeth, then she violently turned around and started to blast apart the useless desk.

"Miss Granger-"

BLAST!

"Miss Granger-"

BLAST!

"Granger-"

BLAST!

"HERMIONE!"

Her wand hand paused mid-air. She turned her head slowly and glared at his portrait. He was now standing up from his chair looking furious. Hermione walked up to his frame and pressed her wand to the paint.

"What do you plan to do? Incinerate me?"

"Perhaps—"

There it was.

In the background of Headmaster Snape's portrait. The glass cabinet behind him, completely out of sight of a vague glance. He noticed her disinterest in him and sat back down. She pocketed her wand and reached out her shaking hand until her fingertip touched the object in the background.

Immediately, her shivering body was pulled into the painting that contained her once feared professor.

She landed on the rug in front of the fire with a loud thud. Snape jumped from his chair and stared at her in shock. She pushed herself to her feet with an emotionless smile. He watched her closely for a few moments then charged at her, fortunately, he was too slow. She scrambled to open the glass cabinet and grabbed the time turner. Her wand was drawn immediately and she pointed it at him.

"Stay away!"

Snape held up his hands. "Granger, you cannot possibly think that using that will solve everything."

"It will."

"You're not in the right state of mind to use that — you'll kill yourself!"

"At least I'll die trying!" She screeched at him.

He extended his hand like Molly Weasley did earlier. "Come here."

She shook her head. "No...you'll try to stop me."

"Granger," he took a cautious step towards her. "Let me help you."

"What can you do to help me?!" She spat. "You aren't even real — for Merlin's sake, you are dead!"

"I can talk to Minerva and she can organise support for you."

She shook her head repeatedly at him. The time turner started to burn in her hands, causing her to turn it over and she spotted the engraving on the back. Comprimisa.

Comprimisa...compromise...my life for theirs.

"Give it to me!" Snape snapped, and she shook her head once more.

"I won't regret this."

"Hermione—"

"Comprimisa!"

Hermione felt the space around her tear into a million pieces as she started to fall through the fabric of time.

AN:/ Please let me know what you think! This story is split into two parts, part one will be about Hermione's travels through time to fix things and part two will be in the timeline that she has fixed :)