Death is not a patient being, he never has been and has never needed to be, time is endless for him but when Fate interferes with one of his, he loses his composure.
"Why have you taken her from me?" He bellows out, Fate stands unfazed by Death's reaction, he continues "I have been waiting for her".
Narrowing her glowing eyes she finally snaps "You have never waited on anything, do not delude yourself into thinking you have, and she is not yours, she is mine, my creation, and she is not done, far from it so you can 'wait' for her for as long as it takes"
Stunned into silence Death mellows down, his wispy black aura sagging in defeat, if one thing can overthrow or overrule Death it's Fate.
The ministry representative is a woman named Lisa Maddens, she's a muggleborn, which is surprising given the blood prejudice within the ministry at this time; almost fresh after Voldermort's first fall.
Lisa guides them around Diagon alley, explaining what each shop was and giving assurances about Gringotts and how it has never been broken into - well until seven years later - Hermione thinks wryly.
The look of wonder on her face is not forced, she hasn't seen the alley this lively and bustling since long before the war, even after the war it had been less busy than this, shops that are now open were closed indefinitely in the future. She looks at a tall building of flats and half expects Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to be there - but no not until the start of her sixth year.
Entering Gringotts, Lisa leads them to the center desk, she speaks a few words to the goblin before they both turn to the Grangers "What is the young one's full name?" he croaks, Mr Granger clears his throat before speaking "Hermione Jean Granger" the goblin notes it down before demanding "age", "four" is her father's reply, a few more questions come in the same manner and are given answers.
Once all the questions have been asked the goblin calls for another goblin - Griphook - anger wells up inside her, seeing him makes her think of his betrayal, she takes a calming breath and shrinks back into her parents, the goblins mistake it as fear and brush it aside, relieved Hermione berates herself, goblins are intuitive and untrusting, she can't afford to let emotions control her.
Getting into the cart that will take them to her new vault Hermione holds her breath, people always thought she hated flying because of the fear of falling but no it was the loss of control, she cannot control wind so she couldn't control her broom, just like she cannot control what happens in this cart.
Reaching their destination after some stomach-churning turns they get out, the hall is dark and musty, the vault is in front of them, it's a different number to the one she had last time.
Griphook explains that she can come here and take out the money herself or have a system set up on the way out, where she will just need to owl them to have money withdrawn.
Her parents decide on the owling system, they look a little green due to the cart ride and would prefer to never experience that ride again. Griphook discusses the conversion of currency and how they can just transfer muggle money and they will change it into galleons, he asks for some money to be put in to show how it works.
Opening the vault with Hermione's key he places the money in the center of the vault, he then closes the door, a small chime sounds and the door reopens, there's a pile of galleons where the notes once sat, Hermione is amazed, she never thought to find out how her money for school came to be, always so busy avoiding death and saving Harry.
She sits by the fire, warming up and opening the book she got from Zonko's joke shop, the description said that only the user and anyone they allow can see what is written, it'll help her map out what happens and decide what she's going to do to change the future, she needs to make sure Voldemort is gone for good and that nobody gets their hands on the vital information it will hold.
Grabbing a pen, something she hasn't used since starting Hogwarts, eight years ago but seven years in the future, she tests the book, writing her name in her messy four-year-old scrawl.
She calls for her mum, to read her one of the books she got from Flourish and Blotts about the wizarding world. Her mother joins her on the sofa asking Hermione to pass her the book, she hands her the Zonko book and her mum opens it, "Hermione love, this book is empty, did you pass me the notebook instead?" It works, the book works. "Sorry mummy," she says swapping the books.
The book will do until she gets her wand and can put further protection on it, even though there are good charms on it, it's a joke book - the charms could easily be broken.
As her mother reads the book to her, a book she's read at least twice when she first got her Hogwarts letter, her mind wonders, what can she do differently, what can she do to save everyone she loves.
A year before her Hogwarts letter is due to arrive Hermione has completed her plans, it took a while to remember the order of when each event happened and to decide what had to change.
First was figuring out whether or not she should change the basis of her becoming friends with Harry and Ron, but there was no way to tell that if she changed their meeting they would even become friends. No, their friendship needed to start the same, every excruciating detail - her insulting Ron on the train for a start and then a basic repeat of her original first year.
Then came the most crucial part of her planning, the part that definitely needed to change, the Horcruxes. She knew that almost all of Voldermort's Horcruxes were made by now, the Gaunt/Marvolo family ring should be in the Gaunt shack - she has no way of getting to it, especially because it's warded so heavily, she'll have to wait for Dumbledore to retrieve it, but maybe he already has, he did have it by the end of her 2nd year.
The diary is easy she'll just wait for Lucius Malfoy to drop it into Ginny Weasley's cauldron at the start of their second year, then she'll offer to carry Ginny's things for her when she goes off to search for her mother who is fawning over Gilderoy Lockhart.
The Diadem is another easy one, she'll just ask for the room of hidden things when going to the room of requirement.
Salazar Slytherin's locket is slightly harder, she knows Regulus Black took it from the caves and had Kreacher hide it after trying to destroy it, It was at Grimmauld Place before Mundungus ransacked the place after Sirius' death. So she needs to find it when Sirius is alive and at Grimmauld.
Thinking of Sirius made her want to save him, he'd had a horrible life, being sentenced to Azkaban without a trial for the murder of his best friend who was actually murdered by one of his other friends. He was Harry's only family and it hurt so much to see Harry in pain after his death.
She doesn't know how she can save him, Scabbers, Pettigrew at this point is Percy's rat, the only chance to get him will be when she goes to Hogwarts, when Percy passes the rat along to Ron, even then there is no way to clear Sirius' name, not until a respectable wizard like Dumbledore speaks up and helps, that can only be done in her third year when Sirius escapes Azkaban and she can make sure Pettigrew is caught.
But that interferes with what happens at the graveyard at the end of the Triwizard tournament, who will resurrect Voldemort, it needs to happen so they can get rid of him for good, otherwise, he'll never really be dead.
That's four Horcruxes dealt with, she'll have to wait until she's much older before attempting a break-in into the Lestrange vault to get Hufflepuffs cup, the snake is another. Which just leaves Harry, she will have to find a way to destroy the Horcrux in him without actually killing him.
