A/N: This chapter has not been checked for any spelling or grammatical errors. I apologize if you find those mistakes as I was in a bit of hurry to upload this chapter.

Also, this chapter mostly contains memory pieces of Harry and Hermione combined and in some places you might find the time travel thing a bit confusing. I did the best I could writing how I feel time travelling should be taking place with all the paradox and stuff. So…all I can say is I hope you like it. I'd understand if you don't understand the time travelling bit in this.

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BOOM!

The ground beneath them exploded as Harry and Hermione were thrown off of their feet as they fall hard on their backs a few feet away.

"Hermione, get up!| Harry said grunting as he pushed himself off the ground but no answer came from Hermione. He looked at her and she was out cold. "No…no, no, no!" he said as he crawled up to her. She wasn't breathing as he realized that when he tried to shake her in order to wake her up. her heart had stopped. Knowing he didn't have much time and with them closing in he fired behind him without looking as a powerful explosion shook the ground. There were some screams which fell into his ears but he didn't pay attention to them as he started doing CPR on Hermione. He sighed in relief when she woke up. "Hey, you alright?" he asked as Hermione moaned in pain. He looked down and saw her leg was bleeding profusely. It must've caught the explosion, he realized as he cursed himself for not noticing it before. Quickly casting a spell to block her bleeding he lifted her up as she hissed in pain, barely conscious. "Stay with me," he said as he apparated them far from the place.

There was no spell for mending broken bones which Harry was in desperate need of as Hermione had also broken her leg in the explosion. Being on the run he had no other choice but to steal some skelegrow in order to heal Hermione's leg in time or else it would slow them down.

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"But wasn't he dead?" Harry asked looking at the paper.

"There was no way he wouldn't have known about all of it," Hermione said. "Hogwarts' wards are created in such a way that if a magical artifact, a potion or anything related to magic is prohibited in the castle, the wards would be made to recognize them so that those things can be confiscated. The kind of love potion which we had been given is not only prohibited inside Hogwarts it's illegal in Magical Britain as a whole."

"But what about the ammortentia we were showed by Slughorn during our sixth year?" Harry asked.

"Those are of mild power," Hermione said. "If taken their effect last only for a few hours no matter how concentrated of a dose you take. But the one we both were given by Ron and Ginny…it's simply not possible that Dumbledore wouldn't have known about it. the wards would've detected its presence and Dumbledore would've definitely known about it."

"And still he let it happen," Harry said as he realized what Hermione was pointing at. "But why? Why would he do something like that? What benefit would he get from making me and you fall for Ginny and Ron?"

"Not me, just you," Hermione said as Harry looked at her. "There's something I haven't told you. I'd overheard it when Molly and Ron were talking about it one night. Apparently me becoming your friend wasn't supposed to happen…at least not according to Molly and Ron's plans. I don't know who else was involved in this but with me in the picture and now knowing how Ron actually behaved with me while I was under the influence of the love potion, in order to get their benefit from you they needed me out of the picture and ron saw an opportunity in that, as in…as in making me his play thing."

Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. "She said that?" he asked. "Molly actually said that?"

"She said that Ron had probably gotten himself a very nice pleasure thing and being a mudblood I deserved to be something like that for a pureblooded wizard."

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"Aberforth was actually Dumbledore?" Hermione asked.

"He used his brother's disguise after getting 'killed' by Snape's hands," Harry said. "He was never dead, Hermione. He used the imperious curse to control his brother and made him take his place on the night Snape was meant to kill him."

"And then he took Abe's disguise," Hermione said understanding what had happened. "But the world doesn't know that he's alive."

"Even if we somehow told them, Dumbledore's image is too good in the eyes of everyone that they'll all think that he did all of that in order to save everyone," Harry said. "And considering that Voldemort was defeated in the end people will actually believe it. But he hasn't come out in public ever since getting 'killed' by Snape's hands. We know that."

"Are you sure it was him last night?" she asked.

"We've been on the run for over ten years now Hermione," he said. "I have gotten very good at sensing others' magical presence and I can recognize some of them very accurately. It was him. I don't know if he sensed me but he is at the top of it all."

"But using magic on such a large scale…"

"If there's one thing we know it's that Dumbledore is not a weak wizard," Harry said. "Despite him not wielding the Elder wand anymore he's still very much capable of doing something that big."

"But using magic to turn make the world leaders do his bidding still seems something impossible…even for Dumbledore," she said. "Unless he didn't achieve it all at once but did so slowly."

"It has been almost twelve years since Voldemort's defeat and Dumbledore's apparent death," Harry said. "Tom was able to gather an army in just about a year while Dumbledore had over a decade's time. Knowing his caliber, that's more than enough time for him to have the world governments on his side secretly doing his bidding."

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"They're up to something big!" Hermione said panting as she apparated inside the cave they were hiding in.

"Did anyone follow you?" Harry asked immediately walking over to her.

"No…Harry listen to me," she said between heavy breaths. "They're not going to stop."

"Of course not," he said, "not until they have our heads."

"Not that," she said. "I saw it. I couldn't believe it but I saw it…"

"Saw what?" Harry asked.

"The time rune," she said. "I don't know why but they're planning to use that magic to travel back in past."

Harry stopped and said what she'd just said in his head once more time before looking at her. "Dumbledore and others are planning to go in the past?" he asked. "Why?"

"I don't know. Maybe…maybe to change the present," Hermione said. "They haven't been able to catch us up until now so I think he plans to go back in the past and do it before we…you got out of his hands."

"But if he were to do that wouldn't that mean that we'd have been caught long before?" Harry asked.

"Time works differently," Hermione said. "The basic rules of time which the theories talking about time travelling speculates says that changing something…anything in the past would create a different timeline…a different reality as the original timeline has already happened and it cannot be changed so going against the natural flow of time would create a paradox which in turn would create a new timeline where, let's say Dumbledore succeeded in his plans."

"So then what happens to us then?" Harry asked. "Wouldn't that mean that we are safe from him?"

"Not necessarily," she said. "Because of the paradox which takes place when someone tries to change the original timeline it affects all the possible timelines which have similarities." Harry looked at her with a confused look. She sighed and took a deep breath. "Let's say that you and I travelled back into the past and stopped everything from happening that has happened to us until now. In simple terms one would think that stopping Dumbledore and the Weaselys in the past would solve everything in the future or rather present…where we are at right now but it wouldn't be the case. If we travel back in time and stop them…or rather their past selves and return back to our present time it wouldn't be the same. While we'd have gotten rid of Dumbledore and everyone else who meant us harm the paradox will find something in its place to re-do or repair time's natural flow. The paradox is like a security for time and it takes place whenever someone tries to disturb time's natural flow by going into the past."

"So even if he kills us in the past there's a chance that we'd still be safe in the present?" Harry asked.

"There's not a complete chance of that but yes…if the paradox finds something else in the present to change so as to repair the rift in the natural flow of time which will be created by Dumbledore changing the past," Hermione said.

"So if it's not a guarantee why take the chance?" Harry asked. "Surely he must know that killing our past selves wouldn't mean he could kill us in the present?"

"While the paradox created from doing something like that may erase us from the present time but it's not a complete guarantee just like you said," Hermione said, "which is why he's not doing that."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I luckily took a look at the rune and I couldn't find any which would allow the very physical body of a person to travel," she said.

"I don't understand," Harry said.

"Runes are very simple if you understand how they work," Hermione said. "Each rune design is specific for one single task which it can do so by utilizing magical energy, like for example take portkeys. When you make an object a portkey the spell creates a runic symbol on that object which allows then uses the person's magical energy to send him to the place the portkey is keyed to. Any rune designed to make people teleport using magic uses the same runic design one would find on a portkey. It's very specific. For magical teleportation there's one runic symbol, for creating a ward there's another runic symbol. It's like that. if you want a rune to perform multiple things at the same time like an anti-apparition ward, for example, you need to draw a rune which has the symbols of a magical shield and that of the teleportation drawn in reverse so that they act together in the presence of magic."

"So what does that have to do with this time travel thing which you found?" Harry asked still not completely understanding what she'd just said.

"When I took a look at it I didn't find any runic symbol meant to teleport one person as a whole," she said. "What I mean to say is that that rune cannot take a person's physical self back in time."

"Then why are they building it in the first place?" Harry asked.

"I've thought of two reasons," Hermione said. "One is their rune isn't complete. They are in the process of completing it and then use it to go back in time and my second guess is something of a theory itself but it's likely what they are making that rune in the first place."

"Which is?" Harry asked.

"Remember how I said sending your physical self in time has lots of repercussions?" she said. "Well, there's one way to avoid a majority of it but it comes with a big risk if the magic fail."

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"From what I could understand from those runic designs and with the runes meant to move one's physical self being absent from it all," she said, "all I can think of is Dumbledore plans on sending his consciousness into the past."

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"But we haven't tested it!" Harry said as they fired back at the people who were chasing them.

"I know but we're cornered," Hermione said. "Somehow they got the wind of it. With Dumbledore knowing that we took his idea and are planning on doing what he planned to do at first he's gotten impatient."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"He may try to hasten the creation of his time travelling rune," she said, "meaning if he plans on following us he'll go for what I think is the obvious option."

"Which is?"

"Taking his physical self back," Hermione said. "He knows his original plan failed ever since he somehow came to know that we were also planning to go back in time so it's not an option for him to just send his consciousness in the past and slowly bring his plan to fruition just like he did in our time. He'll be ignoring all the basic rules of time travelling and take his physical self back in time and if that happens we might as well expect some of his close followers join in on that. However, there's a good thing in all of that for us."

"Which is what?" Harry asked.

"The magic is just a one-time use only," she said. "That means that if he plans on bringing more people with him in the past he'll have to harness more magical energy and that requires modifying the runes which will take some time. The more people to travel the more energy the runes will take. While Dumbledore has no shortage of that he cannot speed up the process of modifying that rune so that gives us a window."

"Of how long?" Harry asked.

"Depends on how many of his followers he wants to bring in on this," Hermione said. "Our design, however, remains unchanged. We are going with the original plan."

"But will it really work?" Harry asked. "Will stopping his past self really put a stop to everything in the present?"

"We won't be sending in our physical selves so that strikes down one of the time travelling rules that we wouldn't be breaking," Hermione said. "That means the paradox won't be that hard on us. Besides, if we do it quietly then it will work as intended – removing Dumbledore from the present time itself. And because he's from this timeline…the same one we're from when we come back to present the world around us should have changed for good."

"I still don't understand much of it but I trust you," Harry said. "So, where is it?" Harry asked sounding out of breath. They both were exhausted since they'd been running for quite some time now. They were the two most wanted people in Magical Britain and running was the only option they had at hand.

"It's just a little further ahead," Hermione said panting. Her left arm was bleeding as a cutting hex had grazed her mere minutes ago. "But I do have to tell you that it might not work as intended."

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Lily gasped as she came out of the pensive. She stood in her room, her hands resting on the pensive as she brought her breathing under control. Watching all of the memories at once wasn't a good plan. She made a mental note of not doing that ever again.

She looked at the time. It was close to five in the morning. James would be waking up any time now so she needed to go back to bed. Hopefully he hadn't noticed her gone the entire night. She gathered all those memories from the pensive and put them back in their respective vials before leaving her room which was also her office as she headed for the master bedroom to get some sleep. All this time the memories of Harry and Hermione ran inside her head as she realized she might not get any sleep after watching all of them in one single go.

She now understood and know what had happened with those two and how they had ended up here and from what Hermione had told her it made more sense now that this Dumbledore guy had followed them to this reality. Her put her left hand in the pocket of her robe which had a piece of paper or more accurately a letter which Hermione had sent her yesterday evening. 'It's working' is what it said and Lily knew what it meant.

After realizing what these two had gone through he had every intention of helping them, more so now as she knew that it wasn't just Harry and Hermione who'd come to her reality but it was also their enemies and she'd seen what they were capable of. She could only hope James comes to his senses. While he'd promised to help Harry and Hermione's cause by backing them up with the entire auror force she knew his mind wasn't in on this completely. She knew he missed his son who was somewhere in there in his own body but from the letter she'd received yesterday she had hope that it will change James' mind about Harry and Hermione.

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