One Step Forward, Fifty-Four Years Back
Upon the death of the saviour of the wizarding world, Harry Potter, Hermione devices a plan to go back fifty-four years into the past to intercept Tom Riddle and the death eaters. What happens when Tom develops an unhealthy obsession with her? Will be set in 1944–45 and onwards, Tom's seventh year. WARNING: Mentions of rape, sexual situations and violence.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN J.K ROWLINGS CHARACTERS FROM THE SERIES HARRY POTTER. Mentions of rape, sexual situations and violence. You have been warned.
PROLOGUE
September 1st, 1999
Hermione Granger has a plan. I mean, she had to have a plan, didn't she? The whole wizarding world was relying on her after Harry and Ron died at the battle. But she failed them all. She's been on the run ever since, never staying more than three nights in the same place. Having a warm bed or shower had become a rare luxury. But that was the price she had to pay, it was either surrender to the enemy and die, or go on the run, to disappear. It wouldn't be a problem any longer, though, because it was all about to change. Soon she would be Carina Irma Black. A Slytherin and pureblood supremacist that had a known connection to death eaters after her graduation from Hogwarts.
She was the younger sister of Walburga Black, older sister of Cygnus and Alphard Black. She was born in 1926, September 9th.
It was a dark ritual, to send one's body back in time as another person, and entirely illegal, but she'd run out of options. The ritual required the hair of a Black by blood, courtesy of Bellatrix, (she never thought she would have been grateful for that night at the Malfoy Manor) which had been carefully collected from Hermione's articles of clothing and stored in a glass beaker like container, and a personal token of the person you wish to become.
Hermione had found quite an enchanting (and blinding) diamond ring that belonged to a C.I.B while she, Harry and Ron had infiltrated Bellatrix's vault, it was extremely beautiful, and probably would have cost the price of a house. Hermione wasn't entirely sure, at first, if the ring belonged to Black, but after some thorough, and exhausting research, she had discovered the ring was a betrothal gift given to Carina by her Fiancé, none other than Abraxas Malfoy. Hermione wasn't entirely sure as to how or why Carina's engagement ring was in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault, but she found herself not caring enough to find out.
All that mattered was that she finally had all the materials needed to perform the ritual. Hermione knew that if she waited any longer, she would be captured. She was aware that Death Eaters had been on her trail for months, quickly catching up in record time. Faster than Hermione predicted.
What she once thought would be an easy enough ritual, took Hermione nearly a whole year to gather the ingredients and materials to perform the spell. Including a potion with incredibly expensive ingredients which proved to be almost impossible to scavenge during the sixteen-month long period she had been on the run for. The ritual was a dangerous one,if not done perfectly you can end up in some unknown time and while still in the targeted person's body, one could be of any age, even infancy. All the painstaking research, effort and infiltration of death-eater-controlled territory would be wasted.
Hermione had exhausted all materials that even briefly talked about this ritual, 'ut transporto unus corporis', meaning literally – to transport one's body. Granted, her research material was limited to 17 books. Only three of them going into detail about the ritual itself. None had any record of anybody being able to return. Hermione didn't care. What did she have left in this time? The company of rats? The many dark and dangerous animals that lurked in the deep bowels of the forest? She would take her chances with the ritual.
Hermione's plan was quite simple in nature, she would continue on Carina Black's journey of being linked to the death eaters – which was made easier due to her connection with Abraxas Malfoy.
She would become a well-known and trusted member; this would hopefully divert any suspicions people may have of her.
However, it was not to be underestimated how difficult this mission would be and, while Hermione was incredibly brilliant, she wasn't called the brightest Witch of her age for nothing, she still hadn't been able to construct an intricate plan as to how she would gain the young Dark Lord's attention, and to make a memorable enough impression that he would see her as someone who could be a valuable asset.
After this near impossible task, Hermione would begin the strenuous process of slowly building her trust with Voldemort, rising through the ranks and hopefully become a useful asset to him. To speed the process along, Hermione will begin making the death eaters "disappear" without causing too much of an alarm. This would take years for her to fully accomplish, but it wouldn't be Hermione if she didn't take on an incredibly difficult task.
With her limited time frame added, Hermione knew she would have to be especially careful, relying on just her intelligence wouldn't work. Nonetheless, Hermione was positive she was going to succeed in her mission. She was going to prevent Voldemort from ever rising, she was going to save the Wizarding World and make sure Harry and Ron would never be touched by that vile monster.
There was a crack as a twig on the ground broke. Hermione looked up from her makeshift bed on the forest floor, belittling herself for zoning off while so deep in thought.
She looked in the direction where she thought the noise came from. She immediately forced her body close to the ground, and soundlessly crawled behind a large tree wide enough to hide her effortlessly.
Hermione waited for the signal that she needed to escape, immediately. After a couple minutes of silence, Hermione concluded that the sound she heard was an animal.
Just before she stepped out from behind the tree, she heard distant talking. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but she hadn't needed to. If they were out this far into the woods, they were either snatchers or death eaters themselves. Although it left Hermione worried about how they had broken past her wards without it alerting her.
Knowing she was in danger; Hermione took off running. Grabbing her small and tatty bag where she held her potion and other materials needed in the ritual.
As she took off running, she stepped on a large branch that laid on the ground. It caught on her shoes, and she tumbled to the ground.
Behind her, she heard multiple heavy footsteps running after her. She scrambled to get up and began running towards a river she knew was only about a half kilometre away from her camp. From there she could slip into the river and allow its current to carry her away from the area without the death eaters being able to trace her footsteps in the muddy ground.
"Get her!" A slimy and rough voice growled. "I WANT THAT MUDBLOOD ALIVE!" the Death Eater yelled the obscene slurs.
Hermione weaved in and out of the tree's, barely managing to doge a curse whizzing past her on the left. The next curse however, she was not so lucky to evade. It struck her from the side, sending white hot pain running from her spine down to her toes.
She fell to the ground, struggling to contain her scream. She forced out air from her nose, trying her best to not let any sounds of pain escape her lips. However, she was unable to stop the gasp of horror from crawling its way from her throat as her legs forfeited the ability to move. She had almost forgot what she was running from, and terrified she looked around, desperate to find somewhere to grasp to pull herself up when she heard that horrible gravelly voice.
"Where did that filth go? Are you telling me we lost a mudblood for fuck's sake?"
The voice growled out once more before they began moving again "Never mind, that little chit must be somewhere around here." With strength she didn't know she possessed, she quickly crawled to some nearby shrubbery and hid there until she heard the men pass.
She let out a sigh of relief once she knew the men were well and truly gone. She glanced down at her side, which was quickly soaking her shirt with blood and frowned. It was still painful, but not as nearly painful as the initial few seconds when she was hit.
She lifted her shirt up and grimaced. Her entire lower right side was burnt, and left a hollow, circular cut in her flesh, as though someone had taken an extremely sharp, circular, cookie cutter and pressed down as hard as they could until they cut out a deep chunk of her flesh. She opened her bag and accio'd some dittany. Dittany wouldn't completely heal the wound, but it should close the hole to a certain extent and stop the brunt of the bleeding. Hermione hissed as the dittany made contact with the wound, the sick sound of it sizzling as it hit her flesh made her feel nauseous.
After healing her wound, Hermione's next mission was to test her legs. If she could get up, she would try to make it back to camp, gather what she needed, and apparate to a new location. She would perform the ritual once her wound was completely healed, she didn't know if her wound would affect the delicate process.
Hermione slowly stood up, reaching above herself and using a low tree branch next to the shrubbery to pull herself up. She stumbled a bit as she strained herself as to not collapse, but she could use her legs once again, though she was rather unsteady.
She limped back to her camp site, more like a chaotic hideout if she was being honest. What she failed to notice was the faint glimmer in the air as she passed through her wards. If she was any less exhausted, she would have immediately recognised this as a disillusionment charm.
Not a second later, Hermione was roughly tugged into strong arms that refused to release her. She immediately started screaming and thrashing around, before an incarcerous was used on her.
"They never shut up do they?" A thin greasy haired death eater asked. "I guess I can tolerate it in some situations, though." He grinned suggestively.
"Be quiet Rowley, we have to get her back to the Dark Lord soon as possible, we have no time for your games."
Hermione desperately tried to wiggle her hands to find her wand in her back-jean pocket, horrified when she noticed it was instead lying about a metre away from her. If she could just reach far enough…
"C'mon Avery! Do ya' really think the Dark Lord will really care if we use 'er up? That's all she's good for anyways. Just a nice place to put ya'- "
"Enough! Rowley, go scout the area, make sure there's not any more hiding out around here," Hermione slowly wiggled closer to her wand, the other death eaters not noticing her small movements, focused on the man – Avery, as they awaited further instruction.
The man who was apparently Rowley frowned and opened his mouth in protest before Avery shut him up with a ferocious glare. "Take Crabbe and Doloholv with you if you must."
Avery nodded to the two figures clad in black robes. Rowley bowed his head and made to turn before he stopped and looked at Avery once more but spoke this time. "I'm sorry Avery, I was just havin' a little bit of fun ya' know? I only wanted to- wait!" He looked to the ground where the now untied ropes lay, before frantically looking side to side. "Where's the fuckin' mudblood gone?"
All hell broke loose as their lost her once again.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" The man who was supposedly Avery chanted, he seemed to be the leader.
Hermione didn't stick around, however, she was only about 20 metres away from her camp before someone yelled out, "I see her! GET BACK HERE!"
They all promptly started running her away. Hermione cursed out loud, those fuckers just couldn't leave her alone, could they?
"Expuslo!" Called a voice behind her. A blue blur barely just missed her and hit a tree not 3 inches away from her, causing it to explode violently, pieces of wood sent flying through the air, a few of the smaller pieces nicking her on her arms and chest.
"YOU IDIOT! I SAID ALIVE! We're under strict orders from the Dark Lord, Goyle!" The same rough voice growled out the words.
Suddenly the blur of red, green, white and other various coloured curses that had been steadily whizzing past her stopped. She didn't hear a sound as she hastily weaved through the trees.
A few short moments later Hermione sensed them catching up to her, she sent three or four, she wasn't counting-stunning curses behind her. She refused to be the cause of more death, there had already been too much. The curses hit their mark. Hermione didn't look back to see if the death eaters were still chasing her, but she figured from the lack of movement behind her, that they had stopped. She allowed herself to slow down. She breathed a sigh of relief as she finally caught her breath.
"Now's the time Hermione," she whispered to herself, "no going back after this." Hermione began drawing runes in a circular shape on the muddy forest floor. Standing in the circle surrounded by all the different runes symbolising the connection between body and soul. This was one of the most important components for the ritual as the runes would act as a sort of magical binding contract between Hermione's soul and Carina's.
She began chanting the Latin spell underneath her breath, took out the ring from her bag and slipped it on her finger. Still chanting, she grabbed the potion and took out the stopper. She finished chanting and took the potion.
She drew a figure eight with her wand, and cut her palm open, dripping her blood over each rune drawn into the forest floor. With that, the ritual was finally complete. A grey storm like smoke began to form and twist around her body. She heard shouting and commotion going on outside of the smoke but couldn't see anything. She felt the most painful feeling she had ever felt before, it felt like her soul was being violently ripped out of her body, for a moment she swore she was going to die. Suddenly there was a tightening sensation in her stomach and then she was sitting, on a train. She blinked.
"Carina?" a voice called questionably.
Hermione was gasping for breath and knew that she had turned deathly pale. She took a breath and tried to calm her nerves. An impossible feat so far.
"Is everything okay?" A pretty girl with mousy brown hair and ordinary brown eyes asked, waving her hand in front of Carina's face. "Just fine," Hermione answered breathlessly, despite feeling horrifyingly nauseous, she allowed a small smile to migrate onto her face. She had done it.
Thanks to everybody reading! I hope you enjoyed the newly updated first chapter/prologue. I'm still not entirely happy with this, but it's taken me quite some time to get these chapters finished so I just gave up on this lol.