Author's Note: This chapter is now fully up and ready to view. Let me know of any writing errors in it, and also let me know if the content is too graphic for the below chapter rating, and I'll try to water it down if I can.

WARNING: Mentions of strong violence/abuse towards children, alcoholism, and some language.

Rated: Fiction M (I've given this chapter an M rating for very specific reasons! If you don't like it, then don't read it!)


Chapter 3

Regrets of the Past

Year 1 - The Burrow - Earth

After the meeting with McGonagall and Dumbledore had ended, Molly Weasley requested that both Josh and Harry accompany her back to the Weasley's residence (what she referred to as "The Burrow"), which was located on the outskirts of Ottery St Catchpole: a small village that resided in Devon, England.

Upon arriving at the location of the Weasley's home, both Josh and Harry noticed right away that the place had a rather oddly-shaped design about it, for it looked as though it had once been converted from a large stone animal-pen, but extra room had been added here and there until it was several stories high, with four or five chimneys that were perched on top of it's red roof, and so crooked that it looked as though it were held up entirely by Magic alone, or more-rather the Force in this case (of which, Harry thought to himself, it probably was).

As the trio approached the front entrance, Josh looked over at Molly curiously. "I meant to ask you about this "little one" as you put it, of whom you said that both you and your husband were looking out for when we all were in Dumbledore's office. Who is she, by the way?"

"Her name is Hermione," Molly answered him while reaching for the knob and turning it slightly to open-up the door of her residence. And upon all three people stepping inside the dwelling, she promptly continued. "She's absolutely the most precious and adorable little thing. Apart from my youngest, Ginny, of course. And we've had her in our care for a good many years now-"

Josh immediately cut her off, as he all of sudden appeared to be both surprised and confused by what she had just told him. "Wait, what?" he asked, turning sharply to look at her. "What'd you say her name was again?"

Molly turned her head to look directly at him. "Hermione, dear," she reaffirmed clearly. "Her name… is Hermione Granger."

Varner looked downwards at nothing in particular while in absolutely stunned disbelief, as he couldn't presume that what he had just now heard was at all correct. It couldn't possibly be the same Hermione that he saved from nearly dying, along with her family, ten years earlier… could it?

"No, it can't be. That can't be true," he murmured to himself, though it was just barely loud enough for both Harry and Molly to hear him. "That's impossible!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Molly confused.

Josh started explaining to her about the night in question that he saved a family of three from perishing in a fire due to a large burning tree trunk which had collapsed directly onto the side-road that their vehicle was traveling along, thus blocking their immediate path and effectively trapping them, as the smoke from the flames was incredibly thick and dense and they were unable to breathe. He told Molly that even though he was completely unaware of what the family's name was at the time, he'd saved the infant girl, Hermione, from nearly dying of smoke inhalation, of which he was familiar with her name due to hearing her mother yell it aloud in distress, as she couldn't get the infant to respond. He also said that her father was incredibly rude, nasty, and a completely, ungratefully irritable scumbag in Varner's opinion of the man, because of the way he acted towards Josh, as well as how he treated his own family after having just been saved by the young lad.

Molly simply nodded her head in response. "Well, I'm quite glad that you were around to save both her and her family, Josh. Though, I have to ask… were you also the one who healed-up her near fatal injuries while she was in a coma at a Muggle hospital, which she had sustained from the horrible car crash that killed her mother? There's something mentioned in her medical records about it which we obtained after both Arthur and I applied for full legal guardianship of her once she had been discharged from the hospital and subsequently released into the care of a Muggle orphanage located in Devon, but-"

Varner immediately looked at her in completely stunned silence, before opening his mouth to speak in the hushed manner of a near whisper. "WHAT?!"

Molly cocked her head slightly in confusion. "What? You didn't know about that?" she inquired bemusedly.

Josh shook his head in absolute dismay, both positively and clearly dumbfounded by this peculiar revelation.

"WAAAAAAAHHH‼ WAAAAAAAHHH‼ WAAAAAAAHHH‼ WAAAH! WAAAH!"

All of a sudden, a loud wail was clearly heard by everyone in the room, which apparently seemed to emanate from another area of the Weasley's home. The shrill crying in question sounded very much like that of a very distressed and frightened little girl. Upon entering the kitchen area where the cries were in fact sounding from with Molly leading the two Jedi inside, both Harry and Josh noticed a playpen which was setup in the corner with a rather petite child sprouting long curled wavy brown hair sitting inside it, who had her small fists up to her face, and was bawling her little eyes out pitifully like a baby.

"Hey. Shhh. It's okay, little one. Shhh. There, there, now. It's alright," Molly softly cooed to the wee child, who was in turn holding her little arms up towards Weasley and clearly wanting to be held the moment she looked up at her guardian, as Molly easily lifted the poor little thing up out of the playpen and into her arms, gently positioning her on the woman's hip and lightly rocking her. "What's wrong? Huh? What's the matter?"

Upon turning around so that Josh and Harry could see the little one in Molly's arms better, Varner stepped forward slightly as the child briefly noticed him, before she buried her head into Molly's neck and started wailing much more intensely with outright terror.

"Is she okay?" Harry asked concerned, as Molly gently patted her on the back, trying to calm the child down.

"Oh, she's fine, dear. It's just that she tends to get this way whenever she ether sees or merely hears the voice of someone new that she doesn't recognize," Molly stated, before turning around to check the status of what had been cooking in the oven.

Just then, a male voice sounded from the upstairs floor. "Molly, dear, is that you I heard just now?"

"Yes, Arthur. And there's someone here I'd like you all to meet," Molly called out as several loud footsteps could be heard coming hastily down the steps.

"Who is it, Mummy?" came a little girl's voice from the upper floor of the stairwell.

"Well, come on downstairs, Ginny, and see for yourself," Molly called to her daughter.

"Okay!" replied the little girl's voice quite happily. And a few moments later, several youths came flying down the stairs a bit hastily, all of them most eager to meet their guests.

Molly stepped forward at once, immediately blocking the kids' view of the two Jedi, as she was quite upset with them over what they had done just now. "What have I told you time and time again about running down the stairs like that, much less running in the house!?" she scolded them rather harshly as she pointed her finger while at the same time easily balancing Hermione on her hip.

All four of the children who were present immediately looked down at their feet rather shamefully for a minute, before turning their faces to look up at their mother again. "Sorry," they sincerely apologized together in unison, just as another older boy came quietly down the steps, closely following along behind his father, Arthur Weasley.

Molly then casually intruded both Harry and Josh to each member of her family, before revealing the identities of the two Jedi directly to each one of them in turn. And the instant she said Harry's name, her little daughter, Ginny, started bounding up and down like mad with uncontainable elation and exuberance, as she was rather quite anxious to start asking "The Boy Who Lived" all kinds of questions.

"Perhaps while we eat, Ginny. Supper's nearly ready," remarked Arthur as he went into the kitchen, while everyone else in the Weasley household moved towards a large dining room after they had all washed-up. The dining room itself had a very long dining table, plus a few more than a dozen chairs or so that were evenly spaced around it, apparently due in part to the fact that the Weasley's had had frequent visitors, guests, and friends over at their place from time to time.

"Why don't you two join us," Molly expressed to both Harry and Josh kindly. "Make sure to wash-up first, though."

"Thank you," replied Harry graciously with a smile.

As the two guests then went to go and wash-up, Josh accidentally brushed up against Hermione as he was passing by Molly on his way to the restroom, and the little girl squealed with pure fright as she buried her face deep into Mrs. Weasley's shoulder and started crying anew all over again. But as Varner turned around to apologize, the young Jedi suddenly found himself standing in a completely different residence.

"What are you talking about? That boy saved your life!"

"HE'S NOTHING MORE THAN A BLOODY FREAK!"

Suddenly, Josh could hear two individuals arguing rather loudly with each other. And as he turned around, he saw both of the people which he had saved from perishing of smoke inhalation due to the burning tree trunk that had collapsed onto the side-road a decade prior: the Grangers. They were practically screaming at each other as their overly heated argument quickly escalated, which in turn caused a flurry of screaming and crying to promptly begin emanating from what sounded like to Varner to be an upstairs room.

Upon slowly making his way to what was the upstairs nursery, where the screams and cries were indeed coming from, Josh immediately noticed the same baby girl, Hermione, whom he had also saved from a near-death experience just ten years earlier along with her parents, thrashing about wildly in her crib against the far wall as he entered through the open doorway. When, all of a sudden, he then heard a loud shattering coming from downstairs which sounded like glass breaking as Hermione's mother momentarily shrieked in alarm.

"DAMN THAT LITTLE BRAT TO HELL! SHE'S DONE IT AGAIN!" Josh instantly heard the baby's father roar in quite an enraged tone of voice, before hearing rather loud and heavy footsteps running up the flight of stairs and into the nursery.

And as the young Jedi watched helplessly, completely unable to do anything in order to stop him, Hermione's father began slapping her across the face, making the baby scream and cry more and more, thus fueling her father's anger and rage even further. Just when the baby's mother tried to stop her husband from beating on their daughter, he rather violently pushed her out of the room, causing the woman to hit her head against the opposite wall and knocking her out for a short period of time.

"YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING‼" roared Granger over the squealing baby's deafening cries. "YOU'VE RUINED MY LIFE…MY CAREER…MY REPUTATION‼ YOU'RE SIMPLY A WORTHLESS…GOOD FOR NOTHING…DAMN LITTLE FREAK JUST LIKE HIM, YOU BITCH‼"

As Josh looked on in absolute horror, the vision promptly shifted to a time in which a few days had elapsed, and the Grangers were once more at each other's throats, with Mr. Granger once again beating-up on his wife and child, along with the obvious sign that he had been drinking heavily and that it was steadily becoming much more severe and chaotic. Plus his temper was growing more out of control over time as the Force Visions continued to play out in front of Varner's overwhelmingly rattled and disbelieving eyes.

One of the Force Visions in particular even unveiled an extraordinarily disconcerting secret truth about the Grangers themselves, as Josh quite blindsidedly discovered that little Hermione was not actually their biological daughter at all, and that she had been unceremoniously left on their doorstep with only a brief note which read: "Please look after our dear little Hermione for us!" that had been quickly scribbled down on a piece of paper.

The last few of the Force Visions that Josh experienced were the worst yet, and he saw that one night a few years later in the Granger household, Mr. Granger had finally snapped and was just about to go over the edge, when his wife momentarily put a stop to his madness by clubbing him on the back of the head with a frying pan, thus knocking him senseless. But not before Granger had done something so appallingly inconceivable to little Hermione, that it almost made Josh feel sick to his stomach.

With another swirl of his vision, Josh found himself standing directly outside the Grangers home as Mrs. Granger ran out to her car in the dead of night while carrying her purse over her shoulder, as well as holding a toddler Hermione in her arms, and as she went around to one of the passenger-side doors of the vehicle that had the baby car-seat located on the far end, she managed to unlock the door and hastily open it, before strapping the little girl into her seat.

**BANG!**

Suddenly, a loud shot rang out as Mrs. Granger doubled over briefly, feeling a massively sharp pain in her side just as she managed to finish getting a very hysterical Hermione into her seat. And as she climbed into the driver seat, putting the vehicle into reverse and pulling out of the driveway, she could see her rather seemingly and disturbingly entranced husband steadily approaching with a coldly demented look in his eyes while brandishing a weapon.

Upon immediately throwing the vehicle into gear, Mrs. Granger stepped forcefully on the accelerator just as another shot rang out, and she fell over forward slightly in pain again as the bullet hit her square in the torso at an angle. But as she drove down the road, she began to feel dizzy and weak from loosing blood; she knew that she had to get to the hospital right away, as both the lives of her and her daughter were at risk now. And as she continued down the street, she could faintly hear the noise of sirens rapidly approaching in the distance from both behind as well as in front of her. Damn that crazed psycho of a husband of hers! He must have called the police!

As Josh was helplessly watching the whole scenario unfold before him, he failed to notice that Mr. Granger had mysteriously vanished almost immediately after the second gunshot was fired. And when his vision began to shift yet again, Varner found that he was now standing in the lobby of a very busy hospital.

Turning right around, he saw a group of doctors and nurses who were talking with one another concerning the arrival of a very young girl who was currently in the ER being prepped for surgery, as the vehicle she was in had collided head-on with a large pole and severally injured her to a near fatal degree; so much so that the collision both left her with a major TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), and the vehicle's driver dead upon impact.

The description of the child in question sounded an awful lot like Hermione, and as the young Jedi Knight made his way there, he suddenly caught a quick glimpse of someone who looked like they were cloaked in dark-hooded robes.

Upon entering the operating room where the child was admitted, Varner could see that her little mangled body was hooked up to a vast array of life-support systems and medical equipment to keep her alive, as she was literally hanging onto her life by a mere thread. And as he could hear the distant footsteps of the doctors who were coming closer, Josh all of a suddenly realized that everything in the room had somehow halted to a standstill, as all of the machines had just…stopped; there digital display readings petrified in time.

Looking up, Josh instantly found himself standing face to face with a distantly familiar sight, and a chill ran down his spine. It was the exact same shadowy figure that he had encountered ten years ago on the same side-road where he had previously saved Hermione and her parents, and as the hooded and robed individual motioned ever slowly over next to the toddler's damaged and broken body that was so desperately clinging to whatever little amount of life remained, he gestured for the young Jedi to come closer.

Josh couldn't believe his eyes, as he stared despairingly at the horrific scene before him. Slowly gazing upward at the hooded figure, he shook his head in utter dismay. "No!"

"Look at her!" the figure whispered in absolute disgust. "This is all your doing! She is this way solely because of your failure! I told you NOT to save him!"

As the young Jedi stared down at the toddler in front of him once more, the hooded figure then slowly and gently ran his hand over every inch of her body, and as he did so, all of her external as well as internal wounds and injuries began to heal themselves. Within a few minutes, almost all of her near fatal and bodily impairments were fully mended.

Varner was completely stunned by what had just now taken place. Looking down at her tiny frame, there was positively no indication that anything severely harmful or even remotely life-threatening had even happened to little Hermione whatsoever just by the mere sight of her. At least, that's what he initially thought when he used his powers to quickly examine her body, both inside and out. But when he examined her brain, he found something odd, as it appeared to not be fully functioning correctly.

Looking up at the hooded figure once more, Josh promptly leapt back in wide-eyed horror as the individual slowly removed his shroud to reveal… his own face underneath, staring right back at him.

"The mind isn't always so easily swayed to heal correctly," he remarked in a sternly low tone of voice. "Because of your impulsive blunder, she'll be trapped like this in a mentally infantile-state for the rest of her life, unable to care for herself in any way. And her rate of growth will also cease to function as a result of her traumatic brain injury as well."

As he continued to stair into the eyes of his counterpart, a wall of brilliantly white light steadily materialized in front of his sight, and the voice of his shadowy self spoke one last time. "I warned you!"

Snapping out of his visions, Josh immediately found himself still standing in the exact same spot in the Weasley's home that he had been only just a few moments ago. He noticed at once that everyone in the room was staring at him in utter confusion, and that little Hermione was still crying in Molly's arms, even though she seemed to have calmed down only a bit.

"Josh? Josh! Hey, are you alright?" asked Molly in a concerned tone of voice.

Looking directly at the toddler-sized ten-year-old girl in her arms in a wide-eyed stare of pure horror and as his breathing started getting heavier by the second, Varner turned away and ran for the front door of the Weasley's residence as huge tears began welling up in his eyes. He couldn't allow anyone to see him like this.

As Josh bolted out of the house, a very concerned Molly decidedly handed Hermione over to her husband, who in turn started whispering gently into the little girl's ear and softly rubbing her back to continue trying to calm her down as she just kept whining and crying with sheer fright.

Stepping outside, Molly started searching around in the fields for Josh while loudly calling out to him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH‼"

All of a sudden, Molly could faintly hear a very unsettling scream of anguished guilt coming from but a short distance off over the sound of the wind blowing mildly across the fields. Carefully moving in the general direction of where the scream had originated, she soon found Josh in the middle of a wide-open expanse where a large portion of the field was simply little more than flat ground, as the young man was now sitting on his knees seemingly in defeat, and sobbing uncontrollably while muttering quietly to himself.

"No, no, no, what have I done!? I'm so sorry!"

Slowly walking around the young Jedi Knight until she was directly facing in front of him as he slowly glanced up at her with huge tears flowing down his cheeks, Molly knelt down leisurely to be right at eye-level with him as she promptly voiced her concern over his current state of distress.

"Josh, what's wrong?" she asked softly, much as a mother would asked her unhappy child what was bothering them. "Whatever's the matter, dear?"

Varner merely dropped his head shamefully and didn't answer her for a brief time. "It's just too horrible!" he finally uttered at last through his tears. "It's my fault! It's all my fault! I've been a fool!"

"Now get a hold of yourself, Josh! Whatever's happened has happened and can't be mended!" Molly declared sharply.

"But you don't get it!" Varner immediately protested. "It's about Hermione! The reason she's like that is because of what I did years ago!"

Molly didn't say a word, as she simply just pulled Josh gently into her arms to comfort him as he continued to weep tremendously with overwhelming guilt.

"Oh, my - What have I done?"

Twelve hours later … early the next morning.

Josh slowly stirred awake, opening his eyes to let in the bright morning rays of sunlight as he found himself in a strange room, laying on a bed. How in the world did he get here of all places?

**Knock, knock, knock.**

"Yeah? Come in," exclaimed Varner, as he slid into an upright sitting position on the bed.

An instant later, the bedroom door gently creaked open, and Mrs. Weasley casually stepped inside.

"Oh, good! You're up!" she expressed happily.

"Well, I'm awake at least," Josh replied a bit confused. "How'd I get here, anyways?"

Molly then explained to him that he must have exhausted himself so much to the point from crying, that he unexpectedly past out right there in her arms while they were outside in the fields the night before. And not sure what else to do, Molly simply used her Magic (or rather the Force) by levitating him upstairs with her wand and into a guest bedroom to sleep for the night.

Varner's face instantly blushed red with total embarrassment when he heard that. But Molly simply brushed the matter aside when she noticed his reaction.

"Oh, don't be so sheepish about it, dear. Why, you're hardly any older than my first son, Bill, no-less," she pointed out.

Josh sat staring blankly at the opposite wall for a moment or two before turning his head to look at her as he exhaled a sigh of gratitude. "Thanks," he expressed gratefully in an almost whisper-like tone of voice.

Molly just smiled in response. "Well, it's almost time for breakfast. Why don't you wash-up and come downstairs for something to eat."

Varner nodded at her in reply. "Okay. I'll be down in a minute."

As Mrs. Weasley turned to exit the bedroom, gently shutting the door closed behind her, Josh sat in deep thought for awhile. How could he have been so pathetically dumb and stupid? If only he had simply let Hermione's 'adoptive' father die that night, then she wouldn't be in the terrible predicament that she currently was in right now, and none of this would have played out at all in the way that it had done so.

While sitting there alone, thinking about all of the mistakes that he had made which resulted in Hermione ending up in the way that she was, due to her adoptive father's brutal mistreatment and abuse towards her, he began to hate what the schmuck of a bastard that man had become. And as such, he slowly came to realize that it was all because of him and what he did wrong that made everything transpire in the way that it did.

Clenching his fist relatively tightly in anger, and thus causing each of the knuckles on his left hand to crack sharply upon doing so, Josh also hated the fact that he had so foolishly ignored the warnings about Hermione's adoptive father all those years ago. But he also began to hate the one person that was most responsible for allowing this inevitable set of circumstances to occur in the first place; the one person who had allowed this rather preventable and most certainly avoidable tragedy to unfold.

In that very moment… he hated himself.