I've an H/Hr fanfic story to recommend: "Returning to the Start" by timunderwood9 on FFN. That story covers a lot of the same ground, thematically, as this story.

Chapter 20
I Died, Hermione

Still Thursday, 31 October, afternoon
Still in the empty classroom

Pop. A Hogwarts house-elf appeared next to Harry and Hermione. The worried-looking house-elf said, "The Spirit of Hoggywarts sends Jerky to tell you, smelly Professor Turban is on the move!"

Harry nodded. "Thank you, Jerky. You may go." Pop.

Hermione said, "I don't understand—what's happening now?"

Harry replied, "Professor Quirrell—he stutters, and he acts stupid, harmless and timid, right? It's all an act. He's possessed by Voldemort."

Hermione gasped.

Harry continued, "Voldemort isn't dead, but he's a wraith now—he has no regular body. But he fiercely wants one. Right now, Quirrell-slash-Voldemort is sneaking a twelve-foot mountain troll into the castle."

Hermione asked, "Why is Professor Quirrell-slash-V-Voldemort sneaking a troll into the castle?"

"Remember the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side, that Dumbledore forbade us to enter lest we die?" Harry rolled his eyes. "There, behind a locked door, are supposedly deadly traps, all to protect the Philosopher's Stone that was made by the ageless alchemist Nicholas Flamel. The Philosopher's Stone can be used to brew a potion of eternal life, the Elixir of Life. Voldemort plans to use the rampaging troll as a distraction during dinner, whilst he tries to get past the traps and to steal the Philosopher's Stone."

Then Harry looked at Hermione with a fierce expression. "Where did Cho and Marietta bring you from? The library?"

When Hermione nodded, Harry said, "I need you to go back to the library now. Or to the Ravenclaw common room. I need to know you're safe."

Hermione put her hands on her hips. "Honestly, Harry. Tell me—in the other today and in the other future, how many times have you fought Voldemort?"

Harry felt gobsmacked. " 'In the other future'?" She knows! How does she know?

Hermione replied, "You're from the future, it's obvious. For a while, I got stuck trying to figure out how you time-travelled; but then I realised, it doesn't matter. Now answer my question: How many times in the other timeline's future have you fought Voldemort?"

"Five. End of first year, second year, fourth year, fifth year and May 1998."

"And for those five times, Harry James Potter, how many times did older-I run and hide in a bunker to stay safe, whilst you fought Voldemort alone?"

"Dammit, Hermione, you never stayed safe! Second year and fifth year, you put yourself in danger when you didn't need to, and you almost got killed! Twice!"

"So why do you think that twelve-year-old me, here and now, will hide in the library whilst you face Voldemort alone?"

"Because how can you help me? You've been at Hogwarts for two months. What spells do you know? You know how to find and to access your magical core, you know Lumos and Wingardium leviosa, and you know how to transfigure a matchstick into a needle. None of those are combat spells."

"I know many more spells than those three, and you know this! I just haven't actually cast all those other spells. Listen, Harry, I'm coming with you. Even if I wind up being killed, I'm coming with you. Now let's start planning."

"No," Harry said. "Have you thought about what happens if you and I don't die? Today I plan to kill Voldemort and kill about seventy Death Eaters. I don't want you seeing this! The difference between you and me is, at twelve you're still innocent, and I don't want you to lose that innocence."

"What's the use of me being so bloody innocent if you're dead because I didn't help you? Harry, please let me come with you."

The room was silent for a time, then—

"Fine. Greyclay!"

Pop. Greyclay appeared. Harry held out his no-Trace Haroldus Cyrus Potter wand to Greyclay and ordered the house-elf, "Put an elfin Notice-Me-Not Charm on this wand, then fetch my Invisibility Cloak." Snap. Snap. (Harry slipped his no-Trace wand back in his pocket; his schoolboy elder-wood-and-thestral-heartstring wand already was in his pocket.)

As Harry unfolded the Invisibility Cloak, Hermione grabbed his shoulder and stared into his eyes. "One of the little things that showed me that you were from the future was, ten minutes after I met you, you declared me your friend. I pledge to you that you'll never regret my friendship."

"Actually, erm, you're more than my friend. You're my soulmate."

Hermione gasped.

"Older-you was my best friend, and I learnt to trust older-you absolutely. Sometimes, older-you was my only friend, and the only person I could trust. I fell in love with you at the end of second year; but five years later, I still hadn't realised that this was what I was feeling."

Hermione asked, whilst looking nervous, "Are there any other secrets you've been holding back?"

"Two. The first secret is that Voldemort killed me in May 1998; by then, Wizarding Britain was at war. Mentally, I'm almost eighteen years old and a leader of troops. I've known older-you for almost seven years. All the secrets that I myself didn't know during my previous lifetime, my Grim Reaper, Gerhardus, revealed to me after I died. Gerhardus's boss Thanatos is who sent my mind and memories back through time to 23rd July of this year, which was the day before I received my Hogwarts letter. After I died, and before Thanatos sent my mind back through time, my parents and the four Hogwarts founders helped me plan how I was going to fight Voldemort and the Death Eaters this time."

"Did any of your planning include what to do if the bushy-haired bookworm insisted on coming along?"

"No." Harry shook his head ruefully. "Which is my fault entirely—I know how you are."

"You mentioned you have two more secrets, and dying in 1998 is one of them. What's your other secret?"

"The founders appointed me to be the Designated Secret Substitute. I have a founder's authority here at Hogwarts; I can overrule professors and even the headmistress. But only the Sorting Hat, the Spirit of Hogwarts, you and me know this."

"Headmistress?" Hermione asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, sometime between lunchtime and now, Dumbledore got himself arrested, tried and sentenced by the goblins. Minerva McGonagall is the big cheese now."

"What's the story with Ron Weasley—Bilious—and Professor Dumbledore? It's obvious that you hate them both."

"In my previous lifetime, Dumbledore pretended to be my friend and mentor, whilst he stole from my vault and plotted to convince me that the right thing to do was to let Voldemort kill me. By the way, Dumbledore died in the other future, and he was sent to Hell. As for Bilious a.k.a Ronald Weasley, he used you to do his homework, used me to get fame by association and he betrayed us both. I'm well shot of both of them."

Harry summoned, then questioned, the Spirit of Hogwarts. (Hermione asked the Spirit no questions, but clearly wanted to ask a hundred questions.)

The Spirit told Harry that down in the dungeons, near the entrance to the Slytherin common room, was a hidden tunnel that led to outside the castle. (This was news to Harry; the Marauder's Map showed no such tunnel.) Quirrellmort had used Parseltongue commands (§Reveal hidden tunnel§, §Open hidden tunnel§, §Close hidden tunnel§ and §Hide revealed tunnel§, respectively) to show the hidden tunnel and to open it; then after Quirrellmort had stepped through the entrance, to close the tunnel and to hide the tunnel again. At the moment, Quirrellmort was in the tunnel with the troll, leading him towards the castle.

Harry and Hermione quickly made plans, which boiled down to: to attack Quirrellmort as soon as he emerged into the dungeons, whilst leaving the troll trapped in the hidden tunnel (if possible). If Harry, Hermione and Greyclay had to fight both Quirrellmort and the troll, the odds of success dropped.

Harry drew his schoolboy wand, and was just about to order Greyclay to elf-pop the three of them into the dungeons, when Hermione spoke—

"Kiss me, Harry. Yes, I know, you're nearly eighteen in your head, whilst I'm twelve. But ten minutes from now, you might be dead. I might be dead. You tell me we're soulmates, and it feels true."

Harry and Hermione kissed. Harry became vaguely aware that the walls of the empty classroom were bright because of some new light source.

Harry got Greyclay to elf-pop Hermione and himself to the dungeons. Both first-years hid themselves under the Invisibility Cloak right afterwards.

Harry used §Lock the hidden door§ to block anyone in the Slytherin common room from unwittingly stepping out into the dungeons whilst the battle was raging. Meanwhile, Harry ordered Greyclay to cast a wizard-repelling charm, so that any Slytherins who came into the dungeons intending to reenter their common room, would "realise" they needed to go do something else, somewhere else.

Then it was just a matter of Harry, Hermione and Greyclay waiting till Quirrellmort and the troll entered the dungeons from the hidden tunnel.

Alas, when the troll and Quirrellmort entered the dungeons, the troll entered first, so Harry was unable to trap the troll in the tunnel.

Harry, still under his Invisibility Cloak, stunned Quirrellmort. Harry, in this lifetime, did not hands-burn Quirrell, so Voldemort was not aware of his weakness.

There was no dueling, no witty banter and no hair's-breadth escapes during this "battle." This was because seventeen pages of notes and plans had boiled down to: Organise things so that you are shooting fish in a barrel. Quirrellmort was Stupefyed before he even suspected he was under attack.

Meanwhile, twelve-year-old Hermione brought her wand-hand out from under the Invisibility Cloak. Hermione used Wingardium leviosa on the troll's club, to yank the club out of the troll's hand, then to again and again smack the troll about the face and smack him over the head.

Harry chuckled when he saw this, because of the historical irony. Again, the troll was being beaten up by his own club, using Wingardium leviosa; again, twelve-year-old Hermione was nearby; but this time, Hermione was the spellcaster, not the damsel in distress.

Hermione got a clever idea. The troll had carried a tree limb into the dungeons, using that tree limb as a club (till Hermione's levitation-spell had yanked the tree limb out of the troll's hand). Working her idea, Hermione now transfigured the tree limb into a steel javelin.

Hermione used Wingardium leviosa again, and the javelin zoomed sideways into (and through) the troll's brain. Scratch one mountain troll, Hermione thought, whilst savagely grinning.

Harry removed the little lead box from his pocket, and set the lead box on the floor. Harry used Wingardium leviosa to take out Snape's Dark Mark wafer from the lead box, and to move the wafer to Stunned Quirrellmort's left forearm.

Then Harry Parsel-glued the wafer to Quirrellmort's forearm with §Adhesio§ (which was a Parsel sticking-charm that Voldemort did not know, thus did not know the counterspell to).

Harry said to Hermione, "This is the first time that Voldemort has been given the Dark Mark."

Then Harry's expression turned sombre. Harry told Hermione, "Here's the real reason I didn't want you to come: I'm about to murder this man and about fifty to a hundred Death Eaters."

Harry, without touching Quirrellmort with any hand, used his wand-tip to send this Parseltongue message through Quirrellmort's Dark Mark: "§To all receivers: Die!§"

(Harry had once been advised, by an expert on the Unforgivables, "You have to mean it, boy!" Now, as Harry sent the killing-command to Voldemort and to all his minions, Harry definitely did "mean it." He wanted those buggerers dead.)

Quirrell did not scream, gasp or otherwise react; he simply stopped breathing.

Wraithmort burst out of Quirrellmort and tried to attack Harry. Harry, ready for this, hit the evil wraith with "§Disperse.§"

Wraithmort, screaming, dispersed.

Hermione asked, "Is Voldemort dead? Is it over?"

Harry cast §Alive or dead?§ on Quirrell's body. The body flashed red.

"Quirrell is dead. Voldemort isn't quite dead, and there are two tasks I need to still do. Luckily, the two tasks aren't hard."

Then Harry used Wingardium leviosa again, to roll Quirrell's corpse over, face-down. "Brace yourself," Harry warned Hermione—

Harry cast Wingardium leviosa again, and Quirrell's purple turban unwound itself and flew off the back of his head. "Meet 'Lord' Voldemort."

"Eww, Voldemort's face is ugly," Hermione said.

"No argument from me," Harry said.

"Harry, the fifty or a hundred Death Eaters, are they dead too?"

"They are. I'm a murderer."

"No. You've brought justice to the families of the people killed by those Death Eaters." Hermione gave Harry an extra-long Hermy-hug.

A second later, the Spirit of Hogwarts appeared to Harry and Hermione.

The Spirit said, "Harry, I am required to report a death in the castle to the headmistress."

"No problem. Report to her now that Harry Potter has killed Professor Quirrell, who was possessed by Voldemort; also please tell her that Hermione Granger killed the troll that Professor Quirrell was trying to sneak into the castle. Harry Potter asks Headmistress McGonagall to come without any other professors, but to bring Director Bones."

"I obey."

It took Headmistress McGonagall and Director Bones five minutes to arrive at the dungeons. In that time, Harry had unlocked the Slytherin common-room door with §Unlock this hidden door§, so that Slytherin students again could enter and leave the Slytherin common room. Harry had ordered Greyclay to cancel the wizard-repelling charm near the dungeons.

When Headmistress McGonagall and Madam Bones, who were both wizard-raised, arrived in the dungeons, they surely were surprised by one of the things they saw on the floor outside the Slytherin common-room door. Five rubber-and-plastic portable posts stood, the eyelets of which were threaded with yellow-and-black plastic tape that said "SCENE OF CRIME—DO NOT ENTER."

Enclosed by this irregular pentagon of crime-scene tape was a dead troll with a steel javelin sticking out of the front of his head; a long length of purple cloth on the floor; Professor Quirrell, lying facedown, with an ugly, red-eyed face on the back of the professor's head—also, waiting patiently, were Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Greyclay, the head Potter house-elf.

The Invisibility Cloak by then was folded up, and Greyclay was holding it.

"Whose idea was this?" Madam Bones asked, gesturing to mean the crime-scene-tape setup.

Harry grinned at her. "Hermione's idea—she's a genius. Greyclay did the actual magic-work."

Hermione said primly, "On the telly programmes, they say that contaminating the scene of crime is quite the bad thing."

Both older women stepped under the crime-scene tape. Then Madam Bones asked, "Did your house-elf kill the troll?"

Harry replied proudly, "Oh no, that was all Hermione. A combination of the Levitation Charm and transfiguration."

Hermione grinned at McGonagall. "The troll was carrying a tree limb. Once I thought of the tree limb as a giant matchstick, I knew I could do the rest."

Madam Bones blurted, "And you're a first-year? You've been in this school only two months? Merlin."

Bones walked up to the corpse of Quirrell; McGonagall followed. Madam Bones asked, "Whose face is this on the back of the professor's head?"

"Voldemort's," Harry replied.

Madam Bones's flinch was almost unnoticeable, but Harry saw it.

Ten minutes later

Snape had joined the other people already in the dungeons; but he was standing outside the crime-scene tape, not inside. Snape was using his Slytherin Head of House authority to shoo away the Slytherin gawkers. There was a steady stream of Slytherin gawkers.

Harry heard voices: "That girl, she's the Muggle-born girl who's friends with Greengrass, Malfoy and that lot—and she killed the troll. As a first-year!"

"There's a face on the back of Quirrell's head!"

"A face? Really?"

"I think it's the Dark Lord!"

"Potter killed the Dark Lord again?"

A minor reason for all the gawkers was that Harry both had revealed and had opened the previously hidden tunnel. Harry noticed that even Snape sometimes stared at that unsuspected tunnel in amazement.

Madam Bones had erected some sort of Auror silencing charm, so that everyone outside the crime-scene tape could not hear anything that was said inside the tape.

Quirrell's body had been turned over on his back, his left sleeve had been pushed up to his elbow and the Dark Mark on his left forearm was exposed—a Dark Mark that McGonagall declared had not been on Quirrell's arm at the end of August.

Harry said, "It wasn't Voldemort who put that Dark Mark wafer on Quirrell's arm. I did, a half-hour ago. Two days ago, that wafer was on Professor Snape's arm."

McGonagall asked, "Mr Potter, you really did all these things?"

Hermione said, "All of what Harry said is true. I helped Harry research Parseltongue spells, I saw Harry remove the Dark Mark wafer from Professor Snape, and I saw Harry attach the wafer to Professor Quirrell."

Madam Bones dropped her Auror silencing charm, then turned to face Snape. "Professor Snape, please show me your left forearm." Bones's voice was warmer than Harry normally would expect of the Director of the DMLE, when speaking to a crime-witness.

Snape pulled up his left sleeve, showing that his forearm had no Dark Mark; McGonagall choked. Snape said, "Director Bones, I officially show you my left forearm." Which Harry interpreted to mean that unofficially, Amelia Bones already had seen Severus Snape's left forearm at least once.

Meanwhile, the Slytherin gawkers all were staring at Snape's Dark-Mark-less forearm, and they were gobsmacked.

Madam Bones said to Snape, "Please step inside the yellow tape."

With Snape now part of the Auror silencing charm, Madam Bones asked him a few questions. Without knowing he was doing so, Snape confirmed Harry's and Hermione's version of events, from 18th September (when Harry had asked Snape if he wanted his Dark Mark removed), up through two days ago.

After Snape was asked his questions, he turned to leave. Madam Bones stepped up to him and murmured in a husky voice, "Severus, I'm delighted that you're quit of that evil thing on your arm. Owl me when you can visit over tea."

After Snape moved outside the crime-scene tape (and outside the Auror silencing charm), Madam Bones said to Harry, "Tell me how you killed Professor Quirrell. Did you use the Killing Curse?"

"No," Harry replied, "I've read mentions of it, but I don't know how to cast it." Which was believable, coming from an eleven-year-old boy. But the truth was, Harry knew how to cast the Killing Curse; and furthermore, Harry had been sorely tempted in 1996 to cast AKs on both Antonin Dolohov and on Bellatrix Lestrange.

Meanwhile, Madam Bones was asking Harry, "So how did you kill the deceased? There isn't a mark on him."

"Once I sticking-charmed the Dark Mark to his arm, I put the tip of my wand against the Dark Mark and said," hisss.

Hermione said, "Harry, that wasn't English at the end, that was Parseltongue."

Bones said, "You speak Parseltongue?"

Harry said, "Let me try again. I put the tip of my wand to the Dark Mark"—Harry looked at Hermione's face, so he hopefully would be locked into speaking English—"and said, 'To all receivers: Die!' Since Quirrellmort is dead, I figure that now all of Voldy's Death Eaters are dead too. Have you checked? I bet many 'colourful characters' in Azkaban are dead in their cells."

Madam Bones and Headmistress McGonagall both stared at Harry in shock.

Then Madam Bones broke her silencing spell and yelled, "Severus! I need to use your Floo now!"

Later

Harry said to McGonagall and to Madam Bones, "No, I won't tell you how I knew that Professor Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort and was bringing a troll into the castle."

McGonagall's lips pressed together, in anger or disapproval. "Mr Potter, if you fail to answer questions about your actions in school, you risk expulsion."

Harry felt annoyed. He remembered all the times in his previous lifetime when McGonagall had not lifted a finger to help him.

Now Harry glanced at Madam Bones. "And I risk imprisonment in Azkaban too, right? After all, I, a mere halfblood, admit to being directly responsible for the deaths of at least one Auror, at least one Unspeakable, at least one Wizengamot seat-holder and many 'fine, upstanding Pureblood citizens.' " Harry shrugged. "Bring it, ladies. But my secrets will stay secret."

McGonagall looked at Madam Bones in panic. Clearly McGonagall had attempted to use her position and authority to push some first-year student to answer questions when the boy had balked, but instead he had flipped things on them. McGonagall was too proper to ever utter the word shitstorm (except when drunk), but she surely understood that if the Boy Who Lived were expelled and imprisoned after he had killed Voldemort (again!), life would become unpleasant for whoever had done these things to him.

Then Harry looked at McGonagall. "By the way, I rescued the Philosopher's Stone and had my house-elf return it to Nicholas Flamel. Before you ask, I likewise refuse to tell you how I got past all the deadly traps without a scratch, moved to the room where the Stone was and got the Mirror of Erised to give me the Stone."

" 'Deadly traps'?" Madam Bones repeated. "There are deadly traps at Hogwarts?"

Harry looked at her. "You truly don't remember anything about deadly traps at Hogwarts? On the 5th, you and Professor Snape walked right up to the door to the forbidden corridor. I strongly urge you to go to Saint Mungo's and to get an OPCC&I scan, because I suspect that Dumbledore Obliviated you on the 5th."

Such an action, needless to say, would be highly illegal if done to an Auror or Healer—and would be perfectly in character for Dumbledore.

As soon as Harry could escape the questioning of the headmistress and the Director of the DMLE, Harry ordered Greyclay to take him to the forbidden corridor on the third floor. Harry unlocked the door, took Fluffy out of stasis, then locked the door the regular way (meaning that anyone's Alohomora would unlock the door).

That afternoon, after Madam Bones and Headmistress McGonagall questioned Harry, Hermione, Snape, Andi and Professor Babbling, the results were that Harry was not expelled, nor was he arrested. Madam Bones ruled the death of Quirinus Quirrell to be a "justifiable homicide," then she sealed the details of the case.

Madam Bones met with the Director of Saint Mungo's. After their meeting, the cause of death for anyone with the Dark Mark was listed as "Cause unknown." Meanwhile, Madam Bones passed the word that if any Auror started a "murder investigation" to find the "murderer" of a Dark Marked "victim," that Auror would be himself investigated—for corruption.

Madam Bones gave a deadline to the headmistress of 14th November for the professors to dismantle the deadly traps on the third floor. On 14th November, Madam Bones would take a walk through the castle, and if she found any "Greater Good" dangers, she would make arrests.