The Denouement

"That's… that's impossible!" cried Hermione.

"It is true. And it's too late to stop him. You see, Ernie has this particular interest in runes and he has applied some of them that correspond with your magic. The moment you were put here no one but your inmates could hear you. In fact we can't be heard outside. The food comes in magically so until next week, no one is to visit us. By then Ernie has gone back in time and the way he does it will destroy our reality. So we will die swiftly. However, you won't need to worry, because if Ernie succeeds your part self will get to know your father better."

This was a disaster.

"No one is powerful enough to destroy our reality. Last time Delphini did it, it did not destroy our world." said Hermione.

"She did not use it the way it was intended to be used. Time-turners before could only go back hours. This one was designed to go back through years and destroy the later timelines to build a new one. That's how the Dark Lord had designed the first prototype. However, to activate the full potential of the time-turner you need human sacrifice. Loads of it! The life force of those people is capable of unlocking the impossible."

"Quiet down, Rodolphus. My head is exploding from the noise you make," said a new voice not far away. It was loopAugustus Rookwood who had been asleep up to that moment.

"Ah, it's you," he said as he looked at Hermione. "You look just like your father."

"Only externally," said Hermione. "And I also look like my grandfather who was a muggle."

Rookwood seemed annoyed enough by the comment.

He retreated back to his cell.

"What did Voldemort want to fix in the past?" asked Hermione.

Rookwood remained silent for a few minutes. Hermione was about to lose hope of getting any answers when he finally spoke.

"The Dark Lord became aware of your existence too late. He never had time to reach you. Thus he decided to erect that error by going back to the point that he would be able to make effective change without interruption from the future. MacMillan was the person who gave the message of his father to the Dark Lord, and he had overheard his father talking to Dumbledore, impostering Alastor Moody. So he was the only one alive who had heard the secret directly from Dumbledore. That meant only he would be immune to Fidelius when he went back to a time that Dumbledore was still alive. So he had to go with the Dark Lord, too, in case our master was affected by the charm."

"Wouldn't past Voldemort cause issues?" asked Hermione.

"No. The device, if used properly, will destroy everything that belongs to the times that do not precede the destination. Souls are not bound by time or space. That's why time travel is possible in the first place. So the soul of the old versions will get … updated."

Ernie MacMillan had to be stopped. But how was she going to accomplish that? She tested the wards. Rodolphus was right; they were tightly knitted together. She tried finding a weak point.

One hour.

Two hours.

Three hours.

She gave before the fourth hour was over. The Death Eaters were asleep. She had to find another way. She wished she had that damn vanishing cabinet. Suddenly an idea sparked on her brain. That was it. She could get out. And the greatest part was that these Death Eaters couldn't rat her out. Hermione needed to do a bit of wandless magic. The good thing was that the island was surrounded by water and that was all she needed. It was raining no one would notice her pulling water through the window. One she summoned some she turned it into a block of ice. Blocks turned into a circular wall around her and finally she had made a tiny igloo. Hermione then began to carefully carve runes on the ice. It would work. Hermione would make an aparation free zone inside the prison under an hour. She was all sweaty and tired once she was done but she still had enough power to charge the runes. Once they shined she heard someone move.

"What is she doing?" said Rodolphus.

"You had to babble, Lestrange," said Rookwood. "She is getting out."

"She is trying to escape!" cried Rodolphus.

"No one can hear you, idiot!" spat Rookwood.

At that moment Hermione whispered the last word needed to charge the runes. She concentrated and she popped out.

The uncomfortable sensation of aparation almost got to her tired body. She almost lost concentration, but once she opened her eyes, her body was intact. She was very tired though and had come to the safest place she knew to get some rest before going for Ernie.

She was at the beach of her home near the sea in Brighton. She was so happy that she had listened to Ron and had not got the other one in Cardiff. That would have been too far for her to aparate.

She dragged herself to her house and fell on the carpet downstairs. She stayed like that for thirty minutes before getting up and going to the kitchen. She had five magically preserved sandwiches in the fridge. That was nice. She ate three and sat down to think about her next move. She was far away from Azkaban but she knew Ernie's wards were still in place, so she had no worries about the Ministry finding out. However, she did not know how much time she had to stop the end of her world.

She landed herself on a couch and took a deep breath. Who was the best option to contact? Harry would be good, but Ernie would get suspicious. Maybe she could send a message to Professor McGonagall. She decided that was the best option.

The first thing to do was to find her second wand, which happened to be Bellatrix's old wand that she had kept around. It was unruly, but would get the job done. She had put it in a box somewhere. After searching her room and children's, she found it in Ron's office. She tried a few simple spells and they worked just fine. That didn't mean the wand was good, it had more to do with the fact that Hermione was an extraordinary witch and she could push the wand. She probably could duel an Auror with it, but she couldn't rely on it to do each and every task flawlessly. She wrote a letter and was about to charm it when she heard someone enter through the front door. Hermione instantly checked the wards. Unfortunately, the sensory ward had weakened. She sneaked downstairs, behind a bookcase. She listened. The steps of the intruder were heavy. Most likely a man with boots. Hermione grabbed her wand harder and got ready to face him. The moment she saw his shadow she jumped out and disarmed him.

The man fell on his back and his wand jumped out of his pocket flying through a window and landing on the sandy beach outside.

The man and Hermione just started at each other. It took her a couple of seconds to realise that she had just attached Ron.

"You escaped," said Ron as he stood up.

"I did," replied Hermione.

"So what's next?"

Hermione had no idea.

"I didn't kill Lavender," she blurted.

"I know," said Ron. "That was not your style."

Hermione somehow felt offended. Did Ron think she had a murder style?

"I … you're not going to believe this."

"What?"

"Ernie is behind all this?"

"What!?" Ron seemed very confused. "This doesn't make sense."

Hermione explained what she had heard in Azkaban. All Ron could do was to look at her in disbelief.

"This is impossible. How?" his eyes were vacant as he uttered those words.

Hermione had no way to explain it any further. She too had been surprised.

"So he's going back?" he asked hoarsely.

"Yes."

"Only this time we're doomed?"

"Exactly!"

Ron sat on a couch and asked Hermione to sit down too.

"Who can we trust with this?" he said.

"I was going to contact Minerva."

"We don't have time for that."

He suddenly stood up.

"We need a plan, Ron."

"No. We need to barge into the Ministry to arrest Ernie. That's what we need to do."

Ron could be so naive sometimes. Did he really think they could arrest Ernie so easily who was the sneakiest and smartest criminal she had faced so far.

"Ron, be sensible we need to get into the Ministry without being confronted."

Before Ron could disagree someone knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" cried Ron innocently.

"It's Harry," said the voice behind the door. "Ron, you know better than me that this is not the right time to be alone."

"Darn it, I've got to let him in," whispered Ron. "Go hide upstairs."

"No, just let him in." said Hermione.

"Come in, Harry," said Ron. He pointed his wand at the door and unlocked it.

Harry was not very surprised to see Hermione.

"You escaped?" he said. "Blimey, you're fast!"

"Harry, please sit down." she said. Once they all sat Hermione summoned some juice and the remaining sandwiches. She explained what had happened in Azkaban as they silently listened to her.

"Well, this is bad," said Harry. "The Ministry of Magic is locked down."

"Why?" asked Ron.

"After you left Ernie ordered the Ministry to be sealed so they could search it in case you really were the Butcher. They are also searching your house. He told me if they had proof that there was evidence against it would be easy to pull you out."

"But the entire Ministry?" said Ron. "How did they agree?"

"Well, it is best for everyone if the Ministry did not have to answer some questions. Being off means that we won't have to answer anyone officially until Monday, which would have been a great idea if Ernie wasn't going to use it to execute his evil plan."

"So what do we do?" asked Ron.

"How many Auror can you contact that we can absolutely trust."

"Five. Let me make a few phone calls. But we need more people. I could call Fred and George. I think Remus might want to help too."

Hermione wasn't sure if telling Remus was a good idea Harry began to dial numbers but the phone failed to connect.

"This thing is broken," said Harry.

"Of course, Ernie must have disconnected the network," said Hermione. "We could use an owl."

"Where do we get one?" said Ron. "I wish pig was still around."

"Well, you just had to give it to George," said Hermione.

"That owl is basically dying. Poor Errol was younger when he delivered his last letter. And he was ancient!"

"Look, don't start bickering here," said Harry. "We've got to find a way to contact the Aurors."

"What about the traditional floo network?" suggested Ron.

"We can't risk it. Ernie might have taken some measures there, too."

"Harry, just send a Patronus. It's faster than owls," said Hermione.

"Alright," said Harry and seconds later his grey stag ran through the wall and disappeared.

Fred, George and Lupin got there first. The first Auror arrived exactly five minutes later. Hermione retreated upstairs where she would remain until all the Aurors arrived.

"Quick as always, Alberta." said Harry.

"Catch is at your service boss." she smiled brightly.

Harry asked her to wait for others. Seven more arrived and the last was Alastair Cain.

"I hope this is not some stupid surprise for my birthday," he said grumpily.

"Happy Birthday Cain," said Harry. "I'm afraid we're here for something else."

"Thanks for coming, everyone," said Hermione as she walked down the stairs. There were no hostile moves. No one reached for their wand. They all stood there watching her. Chance was the first to speak.

"How did you get out, Madam Chairman?"

"With difficulty," said Hermione. The aurors laughed. Remus shook his head. Hemione continued, "I have discovered the identity of the Butcher. He is Ernie MacMillan. It was a plan all along and now he has everything he needs to put in motion. We must act quickly. We must find him and stop him. He intends to use the last time-turner to go back in time and help Voldemort win. If he does, all is lost."

No one asked how she knew all that. They all trusted her and Hermione trusted them in return.

"The Minister is in his office," said Cain softly. "I was one of the last leaving the Ministry. I saw him as I was on my way out. He was going to his office to pick some documents."

"Let's go then," said Ron.

"Mind each step," said Hermione. "He might have laid some traps."

"How do we go there?" asked Fred.

Hermione pointed her wand to the carpet below their feet and whispered, "Portus!"

"Everyone stand on the carpet please," she said. "One… two… three!"

Seconds later they were standing in front of the The Fountain of Magical Brethren.

Hermione felt like old days when she was the Head of Auror Corps. She had led hundreds of raids back then. As she had expected, the hall leading to the Minister's office was trapped. She carefully removed them. Fortunately, Ernie had not spent much time on them and had done it in a hurry.

Cain and Ron stood by the door and blasted it. That was a mistake. An explosive right behind the door was activated and it blasted them away. They both lay on the ground unconscious. Harry and two other Auror rushed to their side. Hermione felt a tingling sensation. Something was happening. She ran forward. The remaining aurors behind her followed.

Harry had already entered the room and was dueling with Ernie. Hermione jumped inside right in time to push him away from a killing curse. Ernie was really fast. Hermione tried to hit him with a powerful stunner but he dodged and aimed his wand at the aurors trying to get in and blasted them with Fiendfyre.

"No," Hermione and Harry cried. It was too late. They were now trapped behind the fire. Fortunately Lupin knew how to handle the fire, but it would be too late by the time he would get rid of it.

"You wankers are just too late," said Ernie with a nasty smile. He was standing by a poll on top of which was the time-turner, spinning madly and engulfed in angry red light. Ernie grabbed the poll. Harry and Hermione could feel it's effects on themselves. They knew they had less than five seconds to stop him.

Harry got on his feet to run towards Ernie, but Hermione had a different idea. She aimed her wand at Ernie and cast Sectumsempra. Being caught by surprise, the evil Minister failed to stop the curse and it hit him. His blood splashed at the time turner and gave it a red taint. Hermione reached for it and grabbed it hard. She had expected interruption but the time-turner kept spinning despite her firm grip on it. She screamed as it's heat burned her hand. Ernie's lifeless body fell on the ground. At that moment light blasted through the time-turner. The pain was intolerable. Harry tried to pull Hermione away. The heat intensified and then the time turner stopped.

"We won sucker!" said Ron to Ernie.

Harry and Hermione turned around and saw the Aurors behind themselves. Lupin's clothes seemed singed. They were all smiling even if some of them seemed badly hurt.

"God, Ron you're covered in blood," said Hermione.

"Yeah," said Ron distractedly. "At least the world is safe."

"Yes, it is."

And with that Hermione hugged Ron.

The end

A/N: This story was not going to end like this. And this is one end for those who think they have read enough.

If you are interested, however, you can wait for the next chapter.