The trip back to Gryffindor Tower was just as rushed as the trip from. Hermione couldn't help but glance back every now and then, halfway convinced that death eaters were going to appear out of nowhere. Deep down, she knew that she was most likely being paranoid as there had yet to be any real signs that the school was under attack. The warning bell would have surely gone off if it was.
While Professor Slughorn hurried her off to the Hospital Wing, which was where they had decided to prepare to send her off, Professor McGonagall went off to fetch Harry and Ron as per her request. She wasn't about to leave them behind without at least saying goodbye.
If she was going to leave this time behind to correct Dumbledore's mistake and save the world, she wanted to at least say goodbye to her best friends. Dumbledore had said it himself. She wouldn't be coming back. And if, by some chance she did get to see them again, she would likely be old and grey.
Madam Pomfrey was waiting for them when they got there, looking rather worn and tired. It was almost as if the medi-witch had aged ten years since the last time she saw her. Clearly she too was suffering under the effects of the school's lock-down.
"Is everything ready?" Pomfrey asked.
Slughorn nodded. "Minerva will be arriving soon with the time turner. She just went to collect a few things for Miss Granger."
The nurse nodded her head, casting a sympathetic look at Hermione before moving past them into her office.
As Slughorn escorted her over to sit down on one of the beds, Hermione couldn't help but note how his usually big rosy cheeks had lost all color, and how his eyes held a slightly haunted look to them. He was worried, and she honestly couldn't blame him.
"You, my girl, might just be one of the bravest student's I've ever known," Slughorn broke the silence that had washed over them. "I don't know many who would have been willing to take on such a task as this."
She managed to give him a weak smile. Despite his propensity to show favoritism, she couldn't say that he was a bad man. He certainly made a better Potions Master than Snape. Unlike Snape, he actually cared about the well being of his students.
"Do you really think I can do this? Do you think I can save Vol- er, Tom?"
Professor Slughorn got a far off look in his eyes, as if remembering something from a long time ago. No doubt it had something to do with Tom.
"I believe that there is hope for him, especially with you in his life," he explained. "Tom never had any real friends. Those he surrounded himself with were only there because he was powerful and charismatic. He was good at getting what he wanted and they knew that.
"It might not be easy, but if anyone can save him, I reckon it's you."
She thought about her potions master and how he must feel. This was one of his favorite students, or so she had been told, that she was going back to try and save. And if it worked out as she hoped it would, she might be able to save Harry's mother, Lily, as well. He too was counting on her to succeed.
"I'll do my best for all our sake's, sir."
He smiled over at her appreciatively.
They sat there, returning to a comfortable silence as they waited.
Just then, the door slammed open and in came Harry and Ron, followed shortly after by McGonagall. Scanning the room quickly, it didn't take long for their eyes to find her and hurry towards her.
"Hermione!"
"Please tell us it's not true," Ron pleaded.
"Read for yourself," Hermione told them, handing them the scroll.
The boys read through Dumbledore's last words with increasingly widening eyes. By the time they were finished, they both looked as though they were ready to resurrect Dumbledore just to kill him again with their bare hands.
"He's mad if he thought for one second that we were gonna let you go off and do this on your own," Harry declared, his fists curling up into fists.
"I mean, it's Voldemort for Merlin's sake!" Ron exclaimed. "He'll rip you to pieces as soon as he finds out you're muggle-born!"
Hermione opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off before she could do so.
"How dare you dishonor Dumbledore's noble sacrifice!" McGonagall snapped. "His greatest concern was the well-being and safety of everyone in this school! I highly doubt he would ask this if he thought we had any other choice."
As much as Hermione wanted to take sides with McGonagall in defending the late headmaster, she found herself unable to do so. After everything that Dumbledore had put her and her friends through over the last six years, all for the so-called greater good, she couldn't help but doubt the nobility of his actions.
"Come on Mione, surely you can see how dangerous this task is?"
She nodded her head. "I know exactly what it is he's asking of me, and honestly, had it been just for his sake, I probably would have refused it, but think of all the good I could do if I succeed. All the lives I could save."
She forced herself to look away, fearing that she might change her mind if she looked at their faces for even a minute longer.
"I've always wanted to make a difference, to make the wizarding world a better place for everyone. This is my chance to do that. Please, let me take the burden of saving the world off your shoulders for once, Harry."
She waited for one of them to continue arguing with her, to make another excuse as to why she shouldn't go. Moments passed yet no one spoke. She lifted her head back up just in time to see Harry step forward and pull her into a tight hug.
"You truly are the best friend I have ever had."
Tears welled up in her eyes as she hugged him back. It definitely made it a bit harder to go, knowing that she might never see him again, yet at the same time it also gave her a new source of determination. She had to go, not because anyone was forcing her to, but because people like Harry deserved more than what life in this broken war-torn world had given them.
Pulling away, he reached out to wipe away her tears with his fingers before he stepped back to Ron's side.
"I'm going to miss you Hermione," he said with a sad smile.
Meanwhile, Ron was staring at the two of them as if they were speaking some sort of foreign language. "Are you serious? You're just going to let her go?"
He nodded his head, "It's her choice."
She couldn't fight the tears that continued to come. "Thank you for understanding."
With that out of the way, preparations for her journey began.
While McGonagall filled everyone in on what was going on outside of the castle and the death eaters that had been spotted marching towards the school, Madam Pomfrey returned from her office with a set of vintage looking children's clothes and a letter, setting them down on the bed beside Hermione. Slughorn pulled out a vial filled with what looked like murky green water from the lake, handing it to her.
It was then that McGonagall stepped forward to explain the plan.
"The potion before you is something of an aging potion, rather with the opposite effect. With this potion, you will be aged back down to that of a child, around the age of ten we're thinking."
"Why would you turn her back into a child?" Ron interrupted. "Wouldn't it be easier to save the world as she is?"
McGonagall glared at the red-headed boy, causing him to shrink back.
"I assure you, Mr. Weasley, we are doing this for a reason," she told him before turning to face Hermione again, reaching into her pocket and holding up the silver time turner. "For you see, this time turner is set to place you just outside of Wool's Orphanage in London on the date of June 15th, 1938."
Hermione's eyes widened as the realization dawned on her as to what they were planning. "You want me to meet Tom Riddle before he comes to Hogwarts?" she assumed.
McGonagall and Slughorn nodded their heads.
"The potion has been charmed to be more permanent, making it so that you will age alongside him," Slughorn added.
She had to admit that it wasn't a bad plan. The idea of meeting a child version of Voldemort was a lot less intimidating than meeting him as a sixteen-year-old, who had probably already made at least two horcruxes. Though, she couldn't say that she was particularly eager to go through puberty a second time.
McGonagall explained a bit more. Once at Hogwarts, she was to try and remain as close to Tom as possible in the hopes that her friendship might be enough to lead him down a different path, hopefully a better one.
"Let's get on with it then."
Shooing the men away from the bed, Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall put up dividers all around her bed as they urged her to undress before taking the potion. As grateful as she was for the dividers, she still felt rather embarrassed about stripping naked in front of the medi-witch and transfiguration professor. Though, she supposed that she had no real reason to be.
"I warn you, the transformation might hurt a bit," Pomfrey warned her as she handed her the vial.
Shutting her eyes tight and pinching her nose, she brought the vial up to her lips and downed the murky liquid as fast as she could, willing herself not to think about it or the fact that it tasted vaguely like seaweed. After a few moments, she managed to swallow it down.
Madam Pomfrey plucked the vial from her grasp. "Brace yourself!"
No sooner had the medi-witch spoken, then she felt herself begin to change. Pain shot through her whole body, forcing her to collapse back onto the bed. Her bones felt as though they were slowly breaking apart one by one. Her skin felt as if it was on fire, melting clean off of her.
As her brain became overwhelmed by panic, she couldn't think of anything to compare the sensation to. Only that it was ten times worse than the time she accidentally turned herself into a cat.
In her agony, she couldn't help the scream that tore out of her lungs.
"Hermione!"
The two older witches had to hold her down as she thrashed about, clawing at her skin. They tried to comfort her as best they could, reassuring her that it would be over soon and apologizing for making her go through this in the first place.
Gradually the pain began to dullen to a manageable ache. Flooded by relief, she began to breathe deeply in and out to calm herself.
"It's over now." She felt the older witches release their hold on her.
She delayed in doing so for a few moments as she waited for the pain to pass completely, a feeling of numbness taking its place. Pulling herself up into a sitting position, she slowly opened her eyes, starting with one and then the other.
The first thing she noticed was that both McGonagall and Pomfrey seemed to have grown. She was about to question it when she remembered the reason for the pain. Her eyes snapped down to look herself over.
To say that it was weird seeing her body reverted back to that of a child was… weird, to say the least. Her legs were short and not as slim as they were, same with her arms. The weirdest part was probably the fact that her breasts were gone. They had never been that big to begin with, but it was a bit frustrating as she had been just starting to get over her body insecurities.
Opening her mouth, she could feel that her two front teeth were back to being several sizes bigger than they ought to be. "I don't suppose you could…"
Madam Pomfrey nodded her head, understanding immediately what she meant. With a wave of her wand, she cast a shrinking spell on her teeth. It felt a bit weird, but not nearly as bad as the de-aging process itself. The next time she reached in to touch her teeth, she could feel that they were back to being the same size as all the others.
"Thank you," she gave the medi-witch a small smile.
With a sigh, she got up and started to change into the child sized clothes she had been provided with; a pair of simple black buckle shoes, a pair of white socks and a floral print dress with a sash fastened around the waist and a bit of lace trim around the collar and sleeves.
Then McGonagall took on the seemingly impossible task of styling her hair. With some time and no small amount of effort, McGonagall managed to tame her wild curls, tying it back with a ribbon to keep it out of her face.
By the time she was handed a mirror to look herself over, she barely recognized herself. She looked like one of the old dolls she had as a child, which she supposed wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The goal was to make her fit in with the time period, and as far as she could see, they had done a good job.
Pleased with her appearance, the dividers were pulled away, revealing her new appearance to the men waiting on the other side.
Slughorn smiled at her, nodding his head in approval while Harry and Ron just stood there staring at her with their mouths gaping open.
"Bloody hell…" Ron muttered.
She rolled her eyes at them. "It's not polite to stare, you know."
It took them a few moments to recover and shut their mouths, and even longer to find their tongue's.
"You look great, Mione."
Her cheeks flushed pink at Harry's compliment. Even she had to admit that she wasn't completely hideous. Although, it still felt rather weird for them to look so much taller and more grown up than her.
"Now, we shall go over the cover story we have come up with for you," McGonagall said, carefully slipping the time turner around Hermione's small neck. It was a bit big on her child sized body, but she didn't worry about it too much. "Your name is still to be Hermione Granger and you are a muggle-born whose parents have recently died in a car accident. With no other family to take you in, your neighbours brought you to the orphanage and gave you this note to give to the Matron."
Madam Pomfrey held the letter out to Hermione.
Reaching out, she took the letter and turned it over in her hands to examine it. It was written in an elegant spidery handwriting that she didn't recognize. She assumed that it was Madam Pomfrey's.
"Is that agreeable to you?"
Hermione nodded her head. It was simple enough, without deviating too far from the truth.
"You will not have your wand with you, so I would advise that you head straight towards the Orphanage upon your arrival, but before you do so, we must ask that you destroy the time turner. No one must know the truth of how you came to be in that time. From this moment forward you belong to that time. The future you come from will be no more."
She gulped at that piece of information. Deep down she had known that would be the case all along, but now that she was hearing the exact words coming from McGonagall's mouth, she couldn't help but be hit by the full reality of it. This was not just some dream that she would be able to wake up from and find herself safe in the Gryffindor Tower with Harry and Ron. This was all too real.
Still, she was determined to go through with it. She had come too far to chicken out now. There was no turning back.
"I understand."
Everyone stepped back to give her space as she took one last look at those with her.
She wasn't sure if Madam Pomfrey or Professor McGonagall would still be at Hogwarts the next time she entered it's gates. The only one whose presence she knew for certain was Professor Slughorn, and of course, Dumbledore would be there as well. It wasn't much, but it gave her a small amount of comfort to know that there would be a couple of familiar faces.
Then she turned to Harry and Ron, taking in every inch of their appearance as if to memorize what they looked like. They had been through a lot together and though she wouldn't wish such dangers on anyone, she had to admit that it had created an unbreakable bond between the three of them. She would always remember how they risked their lives to save her from that Mountain Troll in first year and though she might never see them again, she vowed to keep them alive in her heart.
"I'll miss you all… so much."
With nothing left to do, she reached down and started the time turner, watching as it began to turn rapidly.
The world around her vanished into nothing as she felt herself being sucked into a void of nothing but empty blackness. It felt kind of like apparating and yet, at the same time it also felt kind of like that time when she had port-keyed to the Quidditch World Cup. Either way, it made her feel like she was going to throw up.
She was left floating in the empty void for what felt like an eternity before she felt herself being sucked back out and she soon felt her feet land once more on solid ground.
The next thing she knew, she was standing at the end of a darkened city street, a row of identical looking Victorian townhouses on either side of her, and standing straight ahead at the other end of the street was a tall imposing building with a sign above the gates that read 'Wool's Orphanage'.
She had made it…
