Disclaimer: I own nothing from the books that you may recognise.

The Battle of Hogwarts.

2nd May 1998.

Draco couldn't quite comprehend what he was witnessing. He knew on some level it was happening, but his brain couldn't quite catch up with his eyes.

Voldemort and Harry had circled each other in the Great Hall. The revelations had been illuminating. Snape had been Dumbledore's man since the moment the Dark Lord had started to hunt down Lily Potter.

Dumbledore had chosen his own death. There was talk of Horcruxes. Draco had blanched. Even his own father would not have gone near them. They were the foulest and most warped magic in their world. He heard Harry tell the Dark Lord that the trio had destroyed them all. There was also some talk of the Elder wand.

Draco had heard his name mentioned and had felt the bile rise in his throat with the casual way Voldemort had implied he would take the allegiance from himself. Harry now had the Elder wand's loyalty when he had taken it by force from himself at the fiasco at Malfoy Manor.

Draco glanced towards his mother who was staring at him with deep concern.

Harry and Voldemort had stopped circling each other. The moment came that they had all been waiting for.

'Expelliarmus,' Harry had shouted.

This was the precise moment the wheels came off the Light side.

'Incancerous.'

Everyone had been expecting the killing curse.

Draco watched Harry's eyes widen with confusion as thick ropes bound him tightly.

For an infinite moment, nothing happened.

Draco's grey eyes flitted towards Voldemort.

Voldemort's body began to contort and shake.

'Polyjuice.' Draco's stretched mind could just about make that connection as he watched in disbelief as one of the most sadistic witches he knew appeared in front of them to gasps from the crowd.

'Well, well, well,' Dolores said in her snide voice. 'Mr Potter. We meet again.'

'You;-' Harry began but Umbridge slapped him across his face with malice.

'Enough,' she spat.

Voldemort appeared swinging a time-turner in his long, thin fingers. It was on a silver chain around his neck.

His glowing red eyes surveyed the room as menacing magic filled the air. Draco felt his body become sluggish as his own eyes flitted around. The others also looked to be struggling with the effects of this dark magic.

Dolores curtsied to the Dark Lord and handed him the Elder wand which he then brandished around the room.

'Petrificus Totalus,' he said in a mild voice as he wielded the wand in every direction.

The spectators in the room all felt themselves go rigid. They could barely move. The power of the Elder wand was immense. Combined with Voldemort's natural mind control and ability to bend others to his will, they had all succumbed to his power.

Draco clenched his jaw. His grey eyes met Hermione's as he couldn't help the look of despair pass his own features. Her own face had paled an alarming amount.

That was when Draco had known it was all over. That look of defeat they had both shared spoke volumes. Hermione had always been fierce. She had taken no nonsense from any of them. They had been on opposite sides of this war for years. Time had passed. They had grown and matured. In a strange sort of way, they both knew each other very well by now.

Hermione had known he had his doubts about Voldemort. Their eyes had met discreetly too many times without any slurs being shouted at each other. He had started to see something else in her eyes other than hostility and anger. He had seen sympathy in them. She had seen the worry in his own eyes.

The childlike quarrels they had been known for had gradually dissipated. There was only a simple sort of wariness now between them. Draco had seen the cautious way Harry would consider him. His own behaviour during the Inquisition squad era had him now squirming with embarrassment. He had been so sure he was doing the right thing at the time. Draco had been adamant his father was right about the Pureblood ideology.

No one likes to admit they have been wrong about something and Draco was no exception. He was a young man with a great deal of pride. Still, he had been wrong. So wrong it was nauseating for him to admit it to himself.

Harry was still tied in those ropes. His emerald eyes were staring at Ginny who stared back at him with horror etched on her face.

Draco looked towards a catatonic looking Hermione and grimaced. He may not like Hermione. She certainly didn't like him and he could admit that was for valid reasons, but those looks they had shared in the last two years had conveyed more than a thousand words could.

A world where Voldemort was in charge didn't bode well for anyone with a shred of decency. They were both smart enough to see that. Draco had endured a gut full of the pureblood ideology by the time Snatchers had captured the trio and dragged them to Malfoy Manor.

He hadn't wanted to identify them. They were all that stood in the way of that monster and his complete domination of the Wizarding World. Draco had feigned ignorance about Harry. He refused to confirm his identity. He had wanted to plant doubt in their minds. He had tried the only thing he could think of to buy them some time to get themselves out of the Manor. It had worked.

Dobby, the old Malfoy House-elf that Harry had freed, had rescued them. The Malfoy's failure to secure Harry had come at a high price. The memory of his own punishment by the Cruciatus Curse by Voldemort himself still lingered in Draco's every cell. Still, Draco had stood that little bit taller afterwards. For the first time in his life, he had defied the Dark Lord's orders through rebellion. There was still some bravery left in him.

The trio had escaped. He had helped them do that. Draco had given them all hope. He was pissed off Harry had taken his wand, but given the circumstances, better Harry alive than dead. His mother's wand was in his own pocket. He had made a half-hearted attempt to get his wand back in the Room of Requirement, but Goyle has set the room on fire. Crabbe hadn't been with them. Voldemort had requested Crabbe's assistance.

The trio had managed to pull them out of the burning room just in time.

His eyes found Hermione's again. His mind flashed back to when Bellatrix had tortured her. He had watched helplessly. If Bellatrix knew he had lost his will to fight for the Dark Lord he knew she wouldn't hesitate in announcing it to the Dark Lord. She was his most trusted follower. His parents would have been murdered for his defection. He had stood stony-faced during the whole ordeal. Bellatrix had been obsessed by the sword in Hermione's bag.

Granger had both repelled and annoyed him at Hogwarts for their first five, very long years. She had always been just that little bit better than him in class. She was opinionated. She could be a bitch to him. He heard her voice in his head.

'At least none of the Gryffindors had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent.'

Draco stared at Hermione as a sterile silence filled the Great Hall. Her eyes looked distraught.

'You foul, loathsome, little cockroach.'

'Filthy mudblood.'

'Twitchy little ferret.'

'I hope it's Granger.'

Those ridiculous, spiteful words to each other echoed in his mind. They had been nothing but antagonistic to each other for five years. When reality seeped into Draco's life in the last two years, he couldn't muster the energy to be hostile to her anymore. It all seemed so irrelevant now. She in turn had reduced her glares towards him substantially.

It was a testament to how much Draco had seen in his young life that he no longer felt any more annoyance towards her. He had seen for himself what the trio was fighting against. Granger was right. He had been wrong. He knew that now.

Luna Lovegood had been the tipping point for Draco. Luna was a gentle soul. Draco had seen the injustice of her treatment in the dungeons and it had aggravated him more than he could have predicted. This wasn't war. It was just cruelty and bullying. There was no honour here. He had felt great relief when he realised Luna had been one of those rescued by Dobby. The Cruciatus had been agony, but he no longer had to worry about Luna.

He had risked cruel punishment himself sneaking food and medicine to the Prisoners under his invisibility cloak. Draco had seen too many murders. He hadn't wanted Luna to be another one.

Too many prisoners had been trapped at Malfoy Manor. Many had died. His family home had been infiltrated with the lowest forms of life in the Wizarding World. Draco had been questioning the pureblood ideology for months now. He had been raised to believe it was about tradition and elegance.

He had seen the degenerates for himself. There was nothing here to be proud of. His parents were shadows of their former selves. Crabbe and Goyle were twisted. Truly twisted. Draco had realised he had never truly known them. They were not his friends. They had shown no concern for his parents. They had delighted in their downfall.

Pansy had been concerned for him at least. Blaise had been a solid presence in his life.

Draco looked across at his mother who had turned ashen.

'Tut, tut, Narcissa,' Voldemort murmured. 'I asked you to do one tiny, little thing for me. You only needed to check and see the boy was actually dead.'

Draco gave a start at that. Death Eater's were moving silently towards all of them. His eyes could count hundreds of them. They were woefully outnumbered and held rigid by Voldemort. Where had they all come from?

Lucius could barely turn his head to look at his wife who stared back defiantly at the Dark Lord.

'You've always claimed to support me,' the Dark Lord murmured. 'As time has progressed I have seen for myself just how little the Malfoy family has done for the cause. In fact, one has come to suspect you have actively been working against me. Potter escaped from your Manor. Lucius, you lost something very precious to me.'

Lucius quivered at the memory. His punishment for giving the Horcrux diary to Ginny Weasley had been atrocious.

'You failed to obtain the prophecy,' Voldemort said in a soft voice.

Draco couldn't move. Sickly green lights flashed across the room as Lucius and then Narcissa fell to the floor.

Draco's mind came to a complete stop.

'Let that be a lesson to my followers that incompetence will not be tolerated,' Voldemort murmured.

His Death Eaters were now immersed in the Great Hall.

'This is the last time turner in existence,' the Dark Lord hissed. 'I adapted it several months ago. It has proved very useful to me. I have been here, there and everywhere. I saw this moment yesterday. I hid from you all. I know all now. I changed the script.'

Voldemort touched the time turner around his neck as they watched it hanging from the silver chain.

'Bellatrix, my love. Do come in.'

They all gave a jolt when the diabolical witch sauntered into the room.

'You were killed,' Ron managed to speak out in a strangled voice.

Bellatrix cackled. 'Your mother killed an imperiused muggleborn,' she said to him in a gloating fashion.

All eyes turned to the place that they thought the vilest woman they had known had perished. The features of the witch on the stone floor had changed.

'Mrs Cattermole,' Ron whispered.

Voldemort turned to a frenzied looking Harry.

'After our debacle in the Ministry, I knew I had to take you more seriously. The prophecy was correct. You did have the power to vanquish me. I have invaded your mind frequently. I decided to turn the tables. I sent fake images into your mind. They were very convincing. The real Horcruxes have been placed into secure areas that none but me can reach now. I followed the events that had already happened to lure you all here and then give the ending my own, special twist. The connection between you and I is broken now Harry. You are nothing special.'

'We destroyed them,' Harry managed to hiss out.

'You destroyed very realistic copies. They were charmed to call to you and only you. Nagini, come to me.'

Draco felt his heart plummet as the gruesome snake came slithering in and slid up Voldemort's arm and wrapped herself around her Master. He had watched Neville kill her.

'I must commend you all on your bravery,' Voldemort said in his very patronising manner.

He slithered over to Hermione with a feral look on his face and lifted his bony fingers to her face.

'My dear, such a courageous Lioness,' he said in a way that sent chills down all their spines. 'You stuck by his side to the very end. I saw you through his eyes.'

Hermione glowered back. 'Don't touch me.'

Draco kept staring at the lifeless bodies of his parents. All that worry in the last two years when he had tried to protect them had been pointless. They had both been struck down in a few moments. He realised with great clarity that Voldemort had never had any intention of keeping them alive once he had Harry where he wanted him.

Draco felt the ground seem to slip away from his feet as he hovered. He couldn't move. The Death Eater's were surrounding all of them now. Everyone who had opposed the Dark Lord stood frozen by this warped magic.

Voldemort smiled coldly at Hermione. 'I shall not kill you today. I want you to beg me for it, and be under no illusion, Miss Granger, you will beg me for death. That your ego ever thought yourself mighty enough to take your betters on is beyond shocking. Your arrogance is unsurpassed. I shall enjoy breaking you.'

Ron went bright red. 'Leave her alone,' he spat out.

'Mr Weasley. I see you're back from your self imposed exile. It got a little hot in the kitchen, didn't it?' Voldemort hissed in amusement. 'How sweet of you to defend your mudblood sweetheart.'

Draco knew what was going to happen before it did. His nerves felt jagged as Ron slumped to the floor.

'If any pureblood ever defies me in the future and defends any mudblood, they will get the same.'

With the tip of his wand, Voldemort pushed Hermione and watched her fall backwards. She hit the stone floor with a bang.

'She shall be a source of much amusement for me in the future.'

Draco felt sick.

The Dark Lord kept swinging that little time-turner back and forth in a goading fashion. The dark magic permeated the air. The Elder wand and his mind control was keeping them all in a state of stasis.

They watched him glide over to Harry who glared back at him defiantly.

They watched him backhand Harry across the face as his glasses flew off. Voldemort gave that high pitched giggle they were all now so familiar with.

Neville managed to force his wand arm up slightly and tried to cast a spell, but Voldemort was faster. They all watched in dismay as Neville was struck down.

His body went limp as Voldemort kicked him to one side. as his Death Eaters gave murmurs of pleasure.

The Dark Lord plucked out the Elder wand and brandished it to the room.

'It is time to become its Master.'

The most powerful wand in the world was pointed at Harry and not one of them could do a thing to stop it.

'Avada Kedavra.'

Draco watched as the world itself seemed to stop.

The light left Harry's eyes as Draco felt the last vestige of hope this nightmare would soon be over vanish.

The Dark Lord had finally defeated the boy who lived.

'Never again will anyone question my power,' he said to all those in the Great Hall.

Draco felt his own wand in his pocket pulsate. He barely registered this. His eyes went to Hermione once more. She lay helpless on the floor. Voldemort glided casually around the spectators who were struggling to move.

'My followers. Kill at will,' Voldemort announced in a jubilant voice.

Draco watched in morbid fascination as one by one the Order of the Phoenix was brought down systematically by Bellatrix and the Death Eaters. Voldemort's potent magic permeated the room.

The time turner swung ominously around his neck.

The Dark Lord gazed at the students who had been fighting for freedom.

'I am a benevolent leader. I understand youthful rebellion. You shall be taught our new regime correctly using my own personal touch. Starting from today, you shall all call me your Dark Lord. Failure to follow my orders shall lead me to purge any detractors. Mr Longbottom should be a cautionary tale for you all.'

Voldemort turned his attention to Draco with a mean look.

'Draco Malfoy,' he murmured. 'Twice you have failed me. Like your parents, you have shown yourself woefully inept when I truly needed your support. Tsk, tsk.'

Draco looked into those red eyes and felt numb.

'You failed to kill Dumbledore. You failed to identify Potter.'

Those red eyes glowered demonically at him. 'You shall also face punishment for your misdeeds. You shall be a lesson to all purebloods who fail to follow my orders. You shall join the mudblood in Azkaban. I have seen the way you look at her. You have shown concern for the animal. You have learnt nothing in all these years, Draco. The Mudblood is tainted scum.'

Draco was mute as he stared back.

'You shall also beg me for death, but I shall not be merciful.'

Draco looked around the Great Hall at the many fallen victims. Professor McGonagall was one of the dead. Slughorn and Professor Sprout had joined her. Kingsley was dead. Molly. So many others lay still. His heart clenched with the sight of them all.

Draco saw Crabbe and Goyle looking at him with malice.

Pansy stood to the side with the same glazed look on her face that Draco had. Blaise was looking at him with regret.

Voldemort put out his hand as Draco felt pulled towards him.

'The Malfoy family are now officially a dead family in the Wizarding World. If they are to be spoken of, it shall only be with disgust. We are entering a new age. The Age of Voldemort.'

Draco felt those bony fingers press onto his temples as agony ripped through his mind as the Dark Lord leered at him.

'This is just the beginning,' he jeered as Draco trembled. 'I shall make you endure pain that you could never have conceived of even in your wildest nightmares.'

Voldemort had a cruel smile on his face as he pushed more of his anger into Draco. Draco began to feel himself fall into darkness.

'Traitor,' Voldemort sneered again as he went closer to Draco and yanked him over to the fallen Hermione and pulled him down to the stone floor. He held him there by his neck as he forced Draco to face her.

'Take a good look, Draco. You had it all. Wealth, property. You had a glorious future under my leadership. Yet, you never listened to me.'

Draco felt his head pushed forward to Hermione's whose brown eyes stared back at him.

'You still see her as a person, don't you?' Voldemort sneered into his ear. Draco could hear the mocking laughter of the Death Eaters all around him.

'I thought you were a smart boy,' Voldemort leered at him. 'You're an imbecile.'

Draco was trying desperately to move back but the strong dark magic held him in place.

'Now, kiss the abomination. This is the side you chose. That's it, I want you to get your lips nice and wet.'

Voldemort pushed his head down further as Draco felt a slicing pain go down his shoulder.

He could feel his own wand continue to shudder. Draco could feel the time turner grazing his cheek as Voldemort glowered at him.

He looked down into brown eyes that bore into his own with an intensity that reached into his very soul.

He could hear that high, eerie laugh of the Dark Lord as he grimaced. He tried to pull back but couldn't move by his own volition.

'Yes, Miss Granger,' the Dark Lord whispered to her. 'This will be your future. You will now be used only as a mudblood should be for my followers. I suspect they won't be as reticent as the Draco to show you your true place in our new world. You and all the rest of your kind that plague our world will be assured of your new place in our ranks. At the bottom, subservient to your superiors.'

Draco could hear the jeers of Crabbe and Goyle, amongst many of the others.

A visceral hatred tore through him. His past, his volatile life. Everything the Dark Lord stood for was emblazoned on his memory. His grey eyes looked down apologetically at Granger as she seemed to soften her look towards him.

When all was at its lowest, a lot of things happened at once.

His wand was now burning in his pocket. He felt a force surge out of it as Hermione managed to move her own body in response. Draco felt his blood start to move again inside him.

Hermione could feel her own wand begin to tremble.

The time turner that was around the Dark Lord's neck was suddenly wrenched off as Hermione and Draco were pushed across the room together by a silent charge and onto the stone wall. The time turner seemed to fly through the air as a bright white light surrounded them both as the time turner exploded.

The strobing lights flashed everywhere around the Great Hall.

In his panic, Draco grabbed for Hermione as she clutched tightly to him. The floor they had collapsed on fell away as they were both plunged into thick darkness and then the swirling, bright lights encompassed them that forced them to close their eyes.

The lights were intense as they spun together through the Vortex. Neither of them could do anything but cling to each other for dear life.

Hermione was too frightened to even scream. Her mind had ceased to work. All she could think was they were all dead. Harry was dead. Ron was dead. The Order. Voldemort had out manoeuevred them all. They had come so close to ending this. Harry had come within a whisker of finishing the Dark Lord.

A catatonic Hermione clutched hold of a terrified Draco. Since their sixth year, she had seen enough in his eyes to know she was at least safe with him. He had been as horrified as her with what was happening in their world. Draco was many things, but he wasn't evil. She knew that instinctively. His own parents had been slaughtered. He had been right to worry.

Draco pulled her closer as the Vortex began to make a sonic sound that deafened the pair of them.

Hermione could feel her body contorting as she forced her eyes open. She looked down as their bodies seemed to be merging into each other.

'DRACO!' she screamed.

His grey eyes went as wide as hers as they both began to fuse into each other. The flashing lights exploded. They both felt themselves being ripped apart as the lights blinded them.

Then, for a time, they knew no more.

Draco emerged from the depths of his sleep feeling surprisingly rested. He had a blissful moment of ignorance until it all came flooding back. He sat up in his bed and felt his head spin as he took gulps of air.

He was in a warm bed. This was a positive. He wasn't shackled to a damp, cold wall being fed to the Dementors. This was also a positive. With a dawning awakening, he also realised he was very much in a great deal of trouble.

His hands were not his own. His legs didn't belong to him. Something was missing. Draco stifled a sob. He didn't know just how much more he could take of any of this. His life had evolved into one long nightmare and it didn't look like the ending was even on the horizon.

The harrowing events in the Great Hall had almost finished him. This must surely be the moment his mind completely snapped.

He reached up and felt his head. He knew immediately what had happened on contact. All the stress and the strain of the last two years finally reached the surface as Draco's fragile composure finally broke down completely in the most undignified of ways.

Sobs wracked through his body.

After some time had passed he picked up a side mirror and stared at his reflection. Granger was gawping back at him. A broken cry came out of his mouth. His eyes looked around frantically. He could barely make out the calendar through his tears. He could just about conclude that he was back in 1996. At the back of his mind, he knew they had a second chance to change things, but as he looked down at himself, he couldn't quite bring himself to think beyond that for now.

For a very long hour, Draco wept in distress. He wept for his family and his friends. He wept for the decline of the Wizarding World. Most of all he wept for his new situation.

The drapes around his bed clearly had a silencing charm. He couldn't hear anything outside of it. He looked at the familiar red and gold colours of Gryffindor with horror. This started another tirade of tears. He was in the House of Lions.

It was so unfair. The fucking lot of this was unequivocally, so brutally, so fucking unfair.

Draco curled up into a little ball as his sobs began to subside. His large, bushy mane was tickling his cheeks.

Somehow, his soul had ended up in the body of one Hermione Granger.

A part of Draco wished he was wallowing in that dank cell in Azkaban awaiting the inevitable killing curse.

On some level, it would have been kinder.

Meanwhile, down below in the dungeons of Hogwarts, Hermione Granger was also emerging from her deep sleep. She sat up ramrod straight with her eyes staring at the silver and green drapes around her bed.

She knew the moment upon waking what had happened. She could feel it between her thighs. Hermione opened up Draco's mouth and let out an ear-splitting scream. The Muffliato charms on the bed seemed to work. No one yanked the drapes open. She tried to steady herself.

Her hands were shaking as she looked down at herself.

'NO, NO, NO!' she gasped. This couldn't be happening. This really couldn't be fucking happening. She knew it was. She had been polyjuiced to look like Harry during his escape from Privet Drive. It had been an incredibly weird thing to live through, even then. Fleur had been in the same boat as her and they had given each other subtle looks of sympathy at the situation they had both found themselves in.

That had been for Harry though. It had been for the Order. It had been for a vital mission and had only been temporary.

Hermione ran her hands through very short blond hair as her mind short-circuited. She pawed at the side table and picked up a mirror and brought it to her face.

Draco Malfoy was staring back at her with a dumbstruck expression.

She had seen their bodies merge in the Vortex. She peered down at hands that were not their own. They were quite large, pale hands. She looked down at her flat chest as she saw some fine blonde hairs there.

Her eyes looked around frantically and stopped on a calendar. Saturday, September 21st. 1996.

Hermione felt a burst of euphoria mixed with dread. They had gone back. The time turner had somehow brought them back all this way. They could change things. A time turner should only be able to take a person back a day. Two days at most and that was pushing it. This was unprecedented.

This was also highly illegal and had long been thought impossible. This shouldn't be happening. There was no way they could go to the Ministry of Magic to ask them for help. Hermione realised with sudden clarity that this was most likely going to be impossible to fix. She doubted even Dumbledore could resolve this.

Hermione took a deep breath. They hadn't done this on purpose. The time turner had seemed to act of its own accord.

Voldemort had seen much more than they had realised. He was going to torture and kill them both in Azkaban. It was as good enough a reason as any for breaking magical laws, intentional or not.

Hermione gulped as she sat on the side of the bed and took a proper look at herself.

She was wearing expensive silk pyjamas. They looked like something Draco would wear to bed. Hermione shook her head at this inane thought.

It truly hit her then. She was in Draco's body. Her chin began to wobble. She had held it together as much as she could, but the last year had taken its toll on her. The disturbing events in the Great Hall had been forever etched in her memory.

A tear rolled down her cheek. Then another one did. She knew she had a lot to do, but this could wait. She needed to cry as she had never cried before.

Hermione opened up Draco's mouth and wailed as she had never wailed before.

It wouldn't be until midday that either of them would venture out of their beds.