Hello, dear readers. This is my first time writing Tomione, hope you all enjoy it. Please feel free to comment!
Warnings:
Hermione's morally grey, she gets quite dark sometimes.
It's M for a reason.
PROLOGUE
18 June 1996
Hermione was many things, but not a coward. No, for her to be here, she'd been bathed in liquid courage throughout all her short life. Now among her peers against a dozen of experienced and ruthless Death Eaters. Duelling in one of the most protected and respected buildings in the entirety of the Magical World—what a joke, she thinks.
She might even have a death wish. Something she picked up from Harry?
But only embodying courage was not enough anymore. To leave this situation alive and, if possible, with her friends in one piece tagging along, she needs to be more. Errors are not allowed. This isn't a practical exam with points to achieve and wanting to become the best student ever to take it.
No. This was war in its ugliest form, and Hermione was sucked right into its heart.
Right now, in her position, she supposes it should have been a good time to grasp into some scrap of faith. She wishes herself capable of believing in something, anything. But she's cynical and cannot ask for a miracle or even make a promise to the universe, willing it in letting her survive a while longer.
She needs time.
She has ambitious plans and wants to accomplish so much greater and more relevant things. Be more than just the brains keeping her inconsequential friends alive. Therefore, dying as a child soldier was unacceptable, unthinkable.
Yet, praying and begging would not help the slightest.
Only her mind and her magic are realistically able to aid her. She'd always relayed on herself since the beginning and will continue to do so. Even more now. She feels ashamed at how it got this bad, to such a critical point.
And all for what? That stupid prophecy?
Someday she wishes she'd be able to convince herself that it wasn't her fault.
If only she'd thought of a better, maybe even more forceful way to make Harry see the apparent trap waiting for him. It hurts remembering exactly how they found themselves in this situation in the first place.
How easily he had tricked them and how they brushed aside her valid arguments and remarks. It didn't matter that she was more intelligent and could see what Voldemort had planned. No one listened to her. She wasn't able to convince him. He needed to see it for himself if Sirius indeed was being tortured.
Hermione quickly learned how easy it is to manipulate someone with what they care for by observing her best friend, Harry Potter. The Boy Who Didn't Ask For Any Of This but was a magnet to chaos.
She suspects that Voldemort had always known this vulnerability in people and wonders why he didn't try something like this before. When Harry told her about his nightmare, she had known that Voldemort was playing with his mind—using Harry's Godfather as bait. A straightforward plan to lure the enemy to him.
She was supposed to be the brightest witch of her age. But right now, hiding from the dozen of Death Eaters after them, she felt nothing but contempt and disgust for allowing herself to be such easy prey. Honestly, their luck should have worn out a long time ago with their recklessness, with the amount of insane situation they keep finding themselves in. One mistake like the one they made was enough to kill them all. They were in too deep, though. She needs to think, think of a plan, some way of escaping this room.
"Fuck— " She choked. "What are we going to do?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe they didn't see us coming in here," Nevile offered, forcing a slight smile that never reached his eyes.
"Yeah... right... " Harry said. "We need to be ready, there's no other way out." He observed.
The sound of heavy footsteps coming in their direction echoes through the Time Chamber.
"Guys, "—Harry whispered—"this is it."
They hide in this strange Time room, where the walls and floors are covered in beautiful, dancing, diamond-sparkling light. The dancing diamond-bright light source was a tall crystal bell jar that stood at the room's far end.
The bell jar stood on a desk and appeared to be full of a billowing, glittering wind. A tiny object moved through an endless loop inside the jar, rising and falling on the glittering current. The thing was a tiny hummingbird. At the bottom of its circuit, the bird was within its egg. As it rose, it hatched and grew into a mature bird by the time it reached the apex of its cycle. It became a fledgling bird on the way back down and then reentered its egg, which reformed around it. This progression of time is repeated over and over within the jar, representing an endless cycle of Life and Death.
It was beautiful as it was tragic.
Hermione looked at the large wooden door that she had hastily sealed when she, Harry, and Neville had entered while fleeing from the Hall of Prophecy. Their group got separated, and she couldn't stop worrying about Ron and the girls.
Tightening her hold on her wand while pointing it directly at the ominous door, she quickly catches Harry's and then Neville's eyes. She silently tried to convey reassurance at them. Eyes darting over their faces, she knows that they are nervous. The air smells of their sweat. She hears their harsh breaths from all the running they did. Harry's face is flushed, and he clenches his wand. Like her, they have moved one leg back into a fighting stance, wands ready, and spells on the tip of their tongues.
Her eyes focus back on the door with the sound of failed spells the Death Eaters are sending at the only barrier between the two groups. It won't hold up forever.
Her magic burns inside her, travelling from her belly to her fingertips. It feels like warmth flowing through her veins, happy to be released. Some were already escaping her tight control, passing through her curly hair, giving the impression that it was crackling with electricity.
"Bombarda Maxima!" With a loud crash, Crabbe and Rabastan Lestrange enter the illuminated hall.
It all happened extremely fast with several sudden movements.
The Death Eaters started their attack.
Protego.
Quickly casting a blue shield on herself, Hermione feels Lestrange's curse hit it hard. The power behind it wasn't enough to shatter it but did make her take a step back.
"Hello, little Mudblood." He mocked her, wand already slashing in the air in her direction. "Cruci-"
"Sectumsempra!" Hermione directed her wand with a slash straight at Lestrange, effectively stopping his attack. From the tip of her wand, a small flash of white light travelled on speed light and hit Lestrange's chest. A gash appears, spattering his robes with blood.
They exchange several more curses; Hermione is doing an excellent job repelling with her shield and dodging the extremely dark ones. Still, she gets cut on her right shoulder, bleeding freely. She feels her blood dripping on everything, making her wand slippery.
"Stupefy!" yells Harry, stunning Crabbe, the latter now unconscious on the cold floor. Hermione sends her stunner at Lestrange, but he evades it at the last second, turning his now red face and full murderous eyes at her. "Avada-" but stops abruptly when his wand escapes his dirty fingers thanks to Neville's disarming spell.
Hermione sends a non-verbal curse in Lestrange's direction. She holds her breath, waiting for it to hit her target, pleased to see his eyes open wide and mouth twist into an ugly form. Lestrange is sent back with the force of Hermione's spell, slamming painfully into the bell jar, knocking it on the floor, where it shattered into a million tiny pieces. Rabastan now also unconsciously starts transforming through his life cycle, stopping when he became a baby.
All three were distracted by the chubby baby on the floor. No one paid attention to the little hummingbird flying straight into Hermione's chest. Upon impact, there is a clash of pure magic rapidly absorbed by her pale skin.
"Hermione!" is the last thing she hears before darkness takes over.
They instantly merge, the bird eager to explore life through human eyes. It was better than being imprisoned in a jar.