Hey y'all! Here's the new time travel story I promised! This chapter is a bit violent, so if you're not into that, you have been warned. Before we begin, here is just a quick disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or familiar scenes/places/lines in this fiction. All credit goes to J.K. Rowling. And now, on with the story! Enjoy!
-Sav
Chapter 1: May 2nd, 1998
Silence.
The wizarding world looked on in stunned silence. Harry Potter was dead. In the minute of silence before the screams started again, Hermione Granger was staring at her best friend, her brother in everything but blood, hoping for a miracle. But Harry Potter did not move, there were no miracles left. He did not jump out of Hagrid's arms like he did mere seconds ago. Harry Potter was sprawled on the floor at the feet of Voldemort, emerald eyes wide open but seeing nothing. The Death Eaters were quick to react when Harry popped out of Hagrid's arms. A dozen of them sent stunners and disarmers his way. Harry held his own for a good few minutes, and things were starting to look up. However, that fleeting hope disappeared about as quickly as it had arrived. An Expelliarmus came from behind him, and Harry could not get his shield back up in time. Draco Malfoy's wand, the wand that Harry had been using since he disarmed Draco in Malfoy Manor, had shot across the room and landed in the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange. Things happened quickly after that. The moment Voldemort realized that Harry Potter had no wand, the Dark Lord gave a chilling smile, and sent the killing curse in Harry's direction. Harry did not move as the curse came hurtling towards him. Harry Potter looked death in its face for the second time that night and stood his ground. The Boy Who Lived, lived no more.
Silence.
Silence for a full minute, and then the screaming returned. The angry shouts of curses and screams of victims- victims of both injury and loss- echoed across the Great Hall. The fighting resumed full force. If the Order was going down, if Dumbledore's Army was going down, if the children of Hogwarts were going down, then they would do so fighting. Hermione Granger wiped her face of her tears, and pulled her eyes away from her best friend. If Hermione Granger was going down, she would do so fighting. Just because Harry was dead, did not mean the war was over. The war was far from over. The horcruxes were destroyed, and Tom Riddle was mortal once more. Hermione Granger would not stop fighting the war until Tom Riddle was dead- even if that meant she would kill him herself. Hermione started to run through the Great Hall, looking for Voldemort. He had disappeared in that minute of silence. If Hermione couldn't kill Voldemort, then she would die trying. After all, the prophecy said nothing about what could happen after either died at the hand of the other.
As Hermione ran through the Great Hall, stunning, hexing, cursing, and dodging, she looked around her. All the battles seemed evenly matched. Professor Lupin was throwing curse after curse at Fenrir Greyback, the very person who ruined his life. Professor Lupin didn't seem to need any help. Another shout sounded from Hermione's right, and she ran to go help. Luna Lovegood was dueling Antonin Dolohov. Dolohov was sending curses so fast that Luna barely had time to recover. Her lip was bleeding profusely, and she had a nasty gash on the side of her head. Hermione had thrown morality to the wind hours ago. It was kill or be killed. Running up behind Dolohov, Hermione cast a well timed Sectumsempra, the curse hitting its mark in between shields. Dolohov fell to the ground. Hermione ran up to Luna, who was breathing heavily, but before she could get a word in, Hermione had to throw up another shield, spotting a speeding light from the corner of her eye. Luna and Hermione turned to face their attacker. Lucius Malfoy sneered and cast another curse their way.
"Stupid Mudblood. You think you can get away with killing your superiors?" Hermione raised her chin as she shot a silent hex his way.
"I already did." Lucius Malfoy's face turned a violent shade of red at her cheek. Enraged, Lucius shot more curses at the two of them. Even outnumbered Lucius still had the upper hand. Luna and Hermione had no time to shoot hexes back at him, and their shields were weakening. Hermione's concentration wavered as she noticed that Professor Lupin had killed Greyback, and now him, Ginny, and Tonks were fighting the Lestrange brothers- Rodolphus and Rabastan. Hermione dragged her mind back to her fight just as a killing curse came shooting her way. She ducked from its path and shot back a Stupefy, which bounced harmlessly off Lucius's shield. Luna's concentration wavered as Lucius hit her with curse after curse in rapid succession. Luna's shield flickered, and then disintegrated. Before she could put up another one, a jet green light shot from Lucius's wand, and hit Luna square in the chest. Hermione tried to scream for the loss of her friend, but no sounds came out. Tears once again running down her face, she attacked Lucius back with full force, making all her anger and grief pour into her magic as hate radiated off her in waves. Lucius faltered for a split second, caught off guard by the sheer power of the spells being thrown at him, but it was all she needed to even the playing field. However, the fight did not stay on her side for long.
After another couple minutes, Hermione started to tire. Her body was underfed and lacked sleep from weeks on the run, and there was hardly a place on her that wasn't cut, bruised, injured, or sore. Lucius did not seem to be tiring anytime soon, and he was slowly regaining the upper hand. Hermione felt drained, and now she was running solely on adrenaline. A stinging hex slipped through her shield and hit across her thigh, creating a rather large slice. She stumbled backwards and landed hard on the floor. She fully expected to be bombarded with curses, but surprisingly, nothing happened. She looked up. Draco Malfoy was standing in front of her, acting as a human shield between her and his father. Lucius looked at his son incredulously.
"Draco. Move, now." Draco leveled his gaze with his father's, a defiant spark in his eyes.
"No." Lucius's jaw dropped, then he glared steadfastly at his son. He raised his eyebrow.
"No?"
"No, Father, I will not move." Hermione had now stumbled to her feet, her thigh gushing blood, but she looked at Draco and raised her wand at Lucius nonetheless. Lucius hadn't noticed the action, as his eyes were wide and his jaw was still agape as he looked at his son.
"You dare defy your father? You dare defy our Lord?" Draco snorted.
"Your Lord, Father. It is your Lord that I defy. Why in Merlin's beard would I support a psychotic madman who wants me dead for not murdering an old man?" Draco's calm demeanor slowly disappeared, and his quiet tone turned to shouts.
"Why would I support a hypocrite? Your Lord does not care about purity! Your Lord is a half-blood! Your Lord slaughters innocent people and attacks schools! Your Lord put a price on your own son's head for your misgivings! How could I support him?! How could you support him?! How could you side with him, when he has torn apart our lives? Now what?" Hermione put up a shield around herself and Draco, preparing for any strikes from Lucius. "Will you really grovel at his feet for the rest of your life?" Lucius snapped out of his shock and started to throw curses at both Draco and Hermione. Draco continued yelling at his father in between blocks and attacks. "Will you really side against your family? Your blood? IF BLOOD ALWAYS COMES FIRST, IF BLOOD IS BEFORE EVERYTHING ELSE, THEN STAND WITH ME AND MOTHER!"
The curses were coming in faster and faster, but Draco and Lucius were well matched. Hermione quickly glimpsed to where Professor Lupin, Tonks, and Ginny were now battling Bellatrix- Rodolphus and Rabastan were both unmoving on the floor. Even three to one, they were not any better off. Bellatrix was ruthless. Draco noticed this as well. "Go, Granger," he shouted over the noise of the spells. "They need you more than I do."
Hermione was about to insist on staying to help Draco, but one look from him shut her down. Hermione nodded her thanks, and turned to run towards Ginny, Lupin and Tonks. "Granger!" She faltered in her steps and looked back at Draco. "I'm sorry." Hermione knew the unspoken words in his apology. For everything. She gave him a lopsided half-smile and a nod before running across the hall to Ginny, Lupin, and Tonks. As she was running, she heard the harsh voice of Lucius. "Your Mother was a fool to lie to the Dark Lord." She heard a sharp intake of breath as Draco took in the words spoken by his father.
"Was?"
"The Dark Lord will reward me handsomely for ridding his ranks of two traitors. Avada Kedavra!" Hermione screamed as Draco fell to the ground.
Hermione kept running, she was almost to where the three were battling Bellatrix. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bill and George Weasley take over the fight with Lucius. Both brothers still looked in shock over the death of Fred, and the battle between them and Lucius was short lived. Lucius was taken by surprise, but quickly got over it, shooting off deadly spells at an alarming rate. Everything happened rather quickly after that. As the killing curse flew towards George, Ginny screamed, momentarily forgetting about Bellatrix. George dropped to the ground as Hermione tried to warn Ginny. "GINNY," she yelled, "GINNY, BELLA-" Hermione was too late. Ginny joined her brothers in the fallen. Forget running on adrenaline, Hermione was running on pure, unadulterated, hate.
Hermione looked around frantically for Bill, the Weasley family could not take more losses. She was relieved to find Bill alive, but he was still dueling Lucius. Hermione saw Bill, tears streaming down his face, taking shots at Malfoy, who was looking worse for the wear after a particularly nasty stinging hex. Bill delivered the final blow- a stupefy to the heart, or at least where his heart would be if Lucius had one. Lucius did not get back up. Hermione shot a Bombarda to a wall next to Bellatrix, catching her attention, and giving Professor Lupin and Tonks a split second break from the constant attacks coming from Bellatrix. Bellatrix turned to face Hermione and grinned.
"Well look who it is... It's my itty bitty Mudblood plaything!" Hermione shivered. She remembered all too well the events of Malfoy Manor. Her arm itched and burned painfully, and Hermione had to clench her fists to not rub the ugly scars of the slur carved into her flesh. "Did you miss me Mudblood?" she giggled. "How's my artwork?" Hermione shot a Confringo, which Bellatrix easily deflected. "The Mudblood wants to play? I was getting bored with those two anyway." Tonks and Professor Lupin were already battling two other masked death eaters, their backs towards Hermione and Bellatrix. Before Hermione had time to shout, Bellatrix shot two Avadas towards Lupin and Tonks, each hitting their targets. Hermione's heart shattered yet again, and no matter how many times it had happened not only that night, but in the past few years that had seen the return of Voldemort, Hermione would never get used to the feeling. She did not have time to grieve her losses however, as Bellatrix simply turned back to Hermione with a glint in her eyes that attested to the famed madness of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. "Ok, little Mudblood," the glint in her eyes turned cold and malicious. "Let's play." Hermione barely had time to swerve out of the way as Bellatrix's attack began.
"Cruico!"
"Protego! Levicorpus!" Bellatrix giggled maniacally, easily blocking Hermione's counters.
"Tut-tut, little Mudblood, I thought you could at least do better than this. This is just child's play. Then again, you are a child and a filthy one at that. Going to run off to wittle muggle mummy and daddy? Wittle Mudblood afwaid of some wittle spells?"
At the mention of her parents, Hermione felt a stab of pain and anger as she shot a strong slicing hex at the deranged woman. Her parents, formerly known as Jean and Richard Granger, were now in Australia and living their lives as Wendell and Monica Wilkins, unaware that they had a daughter. "What's this? The Mudblood is angry? Aww, it's always more fun when my toys fight back."
"Expulso! Incendio! Diffindo!" Hermione attacked in rapid succession, hoping to catch Bellatrix off guard. She sent a silent Impedimenta but Bellatrix dodged it all the same. Hermione was more tired than ever and her defences were slipping. Out of nowhere, Bellatrix hit her with a Leg-Locker Curse, catching her off guard. Hermione stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, smacking her head against a pile of rubble. Distracted by her vision temporarily going black and the feel of blood starting to trickle through her hair, Hermione was not prepared for the unfamiliar spell coming from Bellatrix. A blinding flash of orange exploded from Bellatrix's wand hitting in between Hermione's neck and shoulder. Hermione screamed. It felt like someone had stabbed her with a red-hot fire poker and then let a Basilisk chomp on the wound for good measure. It burned like hell, and got even worse when the gash created by the spell started sizzling and smoking. The smell and pain of her burning skin made Hermione nauseous. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the burning gave way to an uncomfortably hot throbbing sensation. The reprieve was momentary.
"Cruico!"
The pain of the Cruciatus Curse was much worse than the pain from the spell on her shoulder. Even having been through several rounds of the curse before was not enough to get used to the searing pain. Hermione understood why so many people went mad from the pain- it was everywhere, like thousands of knives slashing through the skin, and all perception of time was lost. It could have been minutes or it could have been hours. Hermione couldn't tell. Suddenly, it stopped. Hermione thought that maybe she had finally gone mad, or maybe she had died, but the noises of the battle still going on quickly disproved the death theory. She looked around to see what had caused Bellatrix to stop the curse, then, when realizing what had distracted Bellatrix, she quickly muttered a Finite to unlock her legs, and scrambled to her feet as best as she could, twitching violently from the aftermath of the curse. The distraction was in the form of Ronald Weasley.
Bellatrix stood with her back towards Hermione, looking furiously at Ron. It seemed Ron had hit her arm with a Stinging Hex. Ron's face was red with rage as the two faced off for a long second. Bellatrix attacked first, throwing a nasty curse that Ron barely had time to block before she sent more his way in rapid succession. Ron was put on the defensive as Bellatrix was casting curses so quickly that Ron didn't have time to do anything but block and dodge. Hermione sent a silent stunner flying towards Bellatrix, her voice was too hoarse from screaming for her to try and cast many verbal spells. The stunner was weaker than usual- owing to the fact that it was nonverbal- and slid off Bellatrix's shield, but got her attention in the process, which was both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, Bellatrix was no longer firing curses at Ron. On the other hand, Bellatrix was now firing at her instead.
The fight was even harder this time, as her body was still trying to temporarily recover from her round of the Cruciatus Curse. Hermione's focus was slipping, and even though her voice had gotten somewhat clearer to the point where she could effectively say spells, she was feeling more worn out and drained than ever. Ron was still throwing attacks at Bellatrix, but he too was exhausted and was in no better shape than Hermione. A particularly strong curse came zipping towards Hermione, and Hermione put up her shield at the last second. The force of the curse knocked her off balance, and Hermione stumbled backwards, tripping over something on the floor- or rather someone. As Hermione fell, she came face to face with Neville Longbottom, eyes glazed over, unseeing. She hauled herself up from where she had landed, and tried unsuccessfully to not look at Neville's body. It was bad. From what Hermione could tell it looked as though Neville had put up one hell of a fight. His face had a nasty bruise spanning diagonally from the left side of his forehead to the upper right side of his jaw. His face was not the worst part though. His torso and chest had been mauled, and his legs and arms were torn up badly. Hermione knew who had done this. She had seen the same type of injuries only a few hours ago, when she saw Greyback feasting on the body of Lavender Brown. Hermione's hatred of the monster burned so badly she saw red. Greyback may be dead, but this did nothing to soothe the anger. It consumed all other feelings and emotions, leaving nothing but hate.
In that second of distraction at seeing Neville's body, Hermione heard her name being yelled. She turned to look at the source of the sound, only to see a flash of ginger and feel a harsh shove pushing her back down on the floor. The world slowed down and she watched, wide eyed with horror, as the green bolt of energy, like lightning, sped towards where Hermione had been standing milliseconds ago. The Killing Curse hit Ron square in the chest. Ron collapsed on top of Hermione, and Hermione screamed. Her vision flooded and she choked on her tears. She started to hyperventilate, and Hermione tried desperately to get her breathing under control. Her best friends were dead, her family was as good as, she had no one left, and she was so tired- physically, emotionally, you name it. It would be so easy to just give in. She could be with everyone she loved, she would no longer feel tired, she would no longer feel pain. It was so tempting, unbelievably so, but that's not who Hermione Granger is. If Hermione Granger was going down, then she would go down fighting.
It was with this thought that Hermione shifted from under Ron, let out one final heart-wrenching sob, dried her tears, and stood up, looking Bellatrix Lestrange in the eyes. Little did Hermione know that when she stood up, ready to fight until one of them was six feet under, a peculiar necklace with an hourglass hanging delicately off the chain had slipped to the outside of her clothes. The little golden time turner was the very same one Hermione had used in her third year at Hogwarts, having never given it back to Professor McGonagall. Hermione had found her time turner whilst packing anything and everything into her little beaded bag when she was preparing to go on the run with Harry and Ron. She thought it would be a good way to get extra research done while on the hunt for the horcruxes, and so she had slipped it on her neck, and hadn't taken it off since. She had forgotten its existence almost entirely at the beginning of the battle, and had yet to realize that it was still around her neck. Fortunately, Bellatrix hadn't noticed it either. Hermione was the first to strike. She sent a silent Immobulus at Bellatrix, hoping to catch her off guard, but Bellatrix was quick to deflect it and counter it with a much more sinister curse. Hermione was again put on the defensive, as Bellatrix pelted her with curse after curse. A vicious magenta curse shot towards Hermione as she had thrown another stupefy towards Bellatrix. Hermione tried to dodge the unfamiliar curse but she wasn't quick enough. She screamed as she felt her ankle shatter. Hermione supposed that if one studied the bones in her ankle at that moment, it would look very similar to that of a shattered window or broken wine bottle. The skin around her ankle was torn up and bloody, and she could even see some of the bone shards peeking through the mess. She tried to hold in her cries of pain long enough to at least get a decent shield up, but to no avail. Her effort to not scream in pain proved to be futile as well when another Cruciatus broke through her flimsy shield, the force of it sending her hands flying back, losing her grip on her wand in the process.
Bellatrix stalked forward towards Hermione like a predator would with prey. Like a game of cat and mouse, Bellatrix was going to play a little more with her food. Hermione was writhing on the floor in agony from the Cruciatus Curse. When the curse lifted, Hermione watched, whimpering, as Bellatrix pulled out a silver knife from her robes. Hermione's vision momentarily went black. No! Not again! She thought to herself as Bellatrix approached her with her knife, the same knife that she had used to carve the offensive slur into her arm. She would not allow more words to scar her body. Hermione tried to crawl away as best as she could with her shattered ankle and burning shoulder, but it was of no use. Bellatrix stepped on Hermione's bad ankle to stop her from moving backwards. Hermione had to clench her teeth so as to not let out another scream. She would not give Bellatrix the satisfaction of hearing more of her pained cries. Bellatrix giggled.
"What's wrong Mudblood? Don't you like my artwork?" Bellatrix pouted. "Aww, is it sad because I killed all its friends? Is it sad because it has an ouchie? Don't worry Mudblood, no harm will come to that pretty little face. On second thought…" Hermione bit down on her tongue hard as Bellatrix came closer and closer to her face with the knife. Hermione tried to do a wandless and nonverbal Impedimenta, but even though Hermione was decent at wandless magic, she could not concentrate through all the pain, and she was having issues speaking- she wagered that she had torn a vocal chord- nonverbal and wandless magic is considerably harder than just performing one or the other. The Impedimenta had no effect on Bellatrix whatsoever, and within a matter of seconds, Hermione could feel Bellatrix's breath on her face. Bellatrix full-on laughed, and Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and turned to face away from Bellatrix.
"Aww how cute," Bellatrix started, still hovering over Hermione's face. "The Mudblood's afraid of an itty bitty wee little dagger?" Hermione said nothing, not trusting her voice to make any coherent sounds. Before Hermione had time to react, Bellatrix slashed out with the knife, creating a deep cut from her forehead to her cheekbones. Hermione's eyes welled with tears, but she did not allow a single sound to pass through her lips. Again, she refused to give Bellatrix the satisfaction. Bellatrix laughed again.
"What's this? The Mudblood doesn't want to scream? I'll make it scream." Hermione locked all her muscles, bracing for the attack. For the umpteenth time that night, another Cruciatus Curse came hurtling towards her. Hermione had nowhere to move out of the way, and she couldn't block the curse either. Hermione made a few whimpering noises as the curse hit her, but she didn't make another sound after that, and nearly blacked out because she was trying to hold it all in. This frustrated Bellatrix to no end, and after minutes, or hours, Bellatrix decided to start using Hermione as target practice. Hermione tried to dodge and roll out of the way of Bellatrix's onslaughts. There were some curses she recognized- the Cruciatus for example- but most of the other curses remained unknown. It was for this reason that Hermione tried to fight the blinding pain in her ankle and shoulder, and her rapidly fading consciousness. Hermione's rolling and dodging was getting slower by the minute, and she knew that she didn't have long before she lost consciousness. Hermione brought her hands to cover her head as an explosion went off somewhere near her and sent bits of rubble flying through the Great Hall, and then rolled on to her side to dodge a nasty looking curse. She rolled back on her other side, avoiding a stray hex from one of the other Death Eaters, then fell onto her back as she moved away from someone's body hitting the ground.
As Hermione rolled onto her back, she felt a piece of metal hit against her chest. The time-turner! Hermione had barely finished that thought before an unfamiliar indigo curse shot at her faster than Dobby's bludger and sparking with barely contained energy. Hermione didn't have time to move away from the curse. The last thing she remembered was the curse hitting her time-turner, and the feeling of crashing into stone, before she blacked out.
July 17th, 1971
Albus Dumbledore was enjoying a nice hot chocolate in his office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was currently summer break for the students of Hogwarts, and the castle had never been quieter. Due to the fact that the castle never stays calm- ever, Albus Dumbledore regretfully set down his mug of hot chocolate, put his hands together, and waited. Albus Dumbledore didn't need to wait for long. No less than five seconds later, Albus felt a breach in the Hogwarts wards, coming from the Great Hall. He stood up from his desk, and sent a patronus to Minerva McGonagall, deputy headmistress, telling her to meet him in the Great Hall. As he began walking over, Albus had an odd nagging feeling, telling him that he should call for Madam Pomfrey, the school matron. From prior experience, Albus found that it was usually a good idea to listen to those funny little nagging feelings, so he paused in his walk to send a patronus to Madam Pomfrey as well.
When Albus arrived at the Great Hall, he was pleased to see that Minerva and Poppy were already there waiting. The three entered the Great Hall together, and Minerva was the first to gasp in shock. There, sprawled in the middle of the floor in the Great Hall, was what looked to be the body of a young girl, not more than eighteen, pale, bloody, and unmoving. Poppy got over the shock quickly, and ran up to the girl, conjuring up numerous medical supplies. She knelt by the girl and felt her neck to see if she had a pulse. After a long minute, Albus and Minerva heard a sharp intake of breath coming from Poppy.
"Dear Merlin," she gasped. "Th-This- this girl is alive!"
Silence.