A/N: One hundred percent AU. Harry and Ron left Hermione behind to look for Horcruxes and then Hermione's mandatory presence at Hogwart's is requested.

Pairing is Hermione/Draco, rated M for themes of profanity, perhaps smut, torture, and death.

Let me know what you think :)? X

MEMOIRS OF AN UNTOLD STORY

CHAPTER TEN:

PROPHECIES CAN BE A BITCH

oOo

There are fixed events in time and space that can never be changed. It must happen the way it happens and never be interfered with. It is in a permanent state of absolute and cannot be touched. Everything else around it is in a constant state of flux and can be molded and changed.

But what happens when a fixed event of time and space is changed?

Hermione lifted her head from the dark corner and let out a silent breath. When his silvery grey eyes looked right at her… Straight through her… She could have sworn he could read her thoughts. Her dark and troubling thoughts. Sometimes they were suicidal ideas that bubbled from her clever brain and other times they were ideas of escape and power and fighting back. And through out all these different thoughts she smiled. She smiled all the way through, yet it wasn't a smile full of hope or despair. It just was. It just existed, the way she did, staying infinite and sinister and deceiving.

The door opened and her entire posture stiffened. Depending on who was at the receiving end of that door, she balled her fists up so tightly her nails burned marks into her skin and the pain she couldn't really feel anymore just only lingered slightly now. Her smiled faltered when she saw his tall figure, looming in the doorway. He closed the door behind him and walked precisely towards her in five sharp quick steps. Hermione slowly began to stand up, almost unstable yet still independent, no matter where she was or who was holding her.

They stood inches apart, all familiarity gone. Why was this so hard for them? His eyes were burning into hers and her knees almost faltered. Her lips were dry and parted and he was looking all over her face, trying to find the right words to say to her but in these kind of situations can you ever find the right words? He was so unsure himself and this surprised her, more than anything, because he… He was always sure of himself. It's that arrogant swag, that annoying smirk, the ignorant insults… He was always sure of himself and she was the opposite. It was like they switched traits.

"Well?" she asked, after what she thought was hours of them just standing there. Maybe it was. She lost track of time, or dates, or days a long, long time ago.

"I got it" he pulled The Elder Wand from his jacket and stared down at it, "It was easier than expected. He thinks it's alliance is to someone else…".

"When he finds out you took it, he's going to-" Hermione stopped her sentence.

He focused on the wall behind her and only nodded once. She shouldn't have been shocked, or surprised. She knew this was coming. This was the only inevitable way it could end. "We have to do it, Hermione" he spoke softly and turned, stepping away from her.

"I know" Hermione's dark eyes sought his turned back and she took a deep breath. "We should know the consequences".

"We know the consequences" he replied sharply, "It has to be done. It's either that or… we all die".

"Our souls will split" Hermione gritted out, like she was in pain, "When we… When we do it… He won't be evil, he'll be innocent. It'll kill our souls. We'll become… murderers. History will change. The cosmic balance will shift, this-".

"This will have never happened, I know" he raised his hand like he was shrugging her words off. "History will be rewritten. the Potter's, the Longbottom's, the Weasley's… They would have never died. Everyone that died because of him will live and everything will change. We'll change, we won't remember any of this because it would never have happened. After… we've done it, we'll have to kill ourselves with the ash-poison so our bodies disintegrate so that no one can ever find out what we've done. We'll be reborn and this future would never have happened. We have been over this again and again. There is no other way, Hermione".

"We might never meet" Hermione said what she really wanted to say. "We might never…".

"Don't say it" he closed his eyes in pain, "I don't believe it" he turned back around, "I believe we will always find our way back to each other. There's no other way".

"You're certain?" Hermione smiled sadly, still so unsure.

"I'd bet my soul on it" he crossed the distance between them and grabbed her head, crashing their lips together. Hermione responded with aggression and kissed him back passionately, never wanting to be released from his grasp. He was so delicious.

When they parted, Hermione immediately bent down to the floor and pried open a wooden tile. She grabbed something from under it and closed it back over, seeing him taking out the age old picture from his pocket.

"And Blaise?" Hermione asked with an unstable whisper.

"I'm sorry" he shook his head and Hermione took a moment to deal with the information he'd just told her. Draco touched her arm, almost to pull her back into the present and she looked up, vague.

"We must be quick, Hermione" he added quietly, "My Father is out but I will sought after soon".

"You're sure of the date?" Hermione sighed deeply, her eyebrow knotted with trouble.

"It took me a while but I'm certain" he stepped in front of her again, "Let's do this".

"Let's" Hermione put the long gold chain around her neck and then around his. The time turner sat in her hands and as she turned it back she looked up into his eyes and felt absolute and complete. There was nowhere she'd rather be than here, with him.

"I love you Hermione Ganger" he smiled down at her affectionately.

She wrapped her arms around him as they began their descent into hell and looked up, "I love you too, Draco-".

"Malfoy!" Hermione screamed awake, jumping up. She turned her head to find she was sat up in bed, struggling to breath and sweating. Was that a dream? Had that all been a dream? It seemed so real… So passionate. Hermione touched her lips slowly and frowned. Had she really just dreamt about Malfoy kissing her? And working together to kill Voldemort? And Harry was dead? A world where Harry is dead has no chance, with or without Hermione and Malfoy. That plan… It was cold-blooded and dangerous and evil… Hermione frowned. She would never consider something so drastic as that, would she? Would she really resort to doing something that soul-destroying?

It took her a minute to realise dried tear drops were on her cheeks, lips and neck. Hermione sighed with annoyance and glanced up at her room. Everything looked perfectly normal, with normal meaning dark and uninviting and gloomy. Yep, her room was everything like she remembered it. What the hell was going on? Were the crystals making her go crazy? If she was going insane, it probably wasn't the crystals and instead everything else around her.

Something like a magnetic urge in her heart pulled her out of her bed and out of her room. The silence mocked her and she hated it. Draco's door was closed shut and Hermione ran into the kitchen to find it empty. She turned back around and walked to his door, not quite sure herself she what was going to do. Something in her wanted to see his pale skin, sculpted features and those grey tortured eyes. Just as she was about to knock on his door, it suddenly opened and there he was, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow. He was certainly not the Draco from her dream, but then, neither was she.

"Do you need something?" he asked dryly and his tone suddenly brought her crashing back to earth. The dream had only been a dream. Draco still hated her and acted like an indifferent prick. The rules were the same. Nothing had changed.

"No" Hermione took a step back and Draco's confused eyes followed her retreating figure. "Never mind" she ran into her room and slammed the door behind her. Hermione took a deep breath and shook her head, frowning. Things had been too confusing lately, and with these thought-reading crystals maybe it was just messing with her head.

Hermione waited until Draco had left before she left her bedroom.

oOo

Hermione leant her head down for two seconds in Charms as Filius Flitwick rambled on at the front of the class and before she knew it, another world lay before her. It was rather odd, this kind of thing happening all the time now. It was caused by something she couldn't see or explain and each time more it felt realer and realer…

"Did we make it?" Hermione gasped, rising her head up from the ground. Draco lay beside her, also looking up with curiosity. Her question was very much answered in itself when she saw a lone paper lying on the ground. Hermione stumbled up and grabbed it, looking at the date, "1st January 1927, New Year's Day… The day after Tom Riddle's birth".

"There" Draco was already standing in front of a dark gloomy-looking house. The sign swinging back and forth on it had the old and battered words 'Wool's Orphanage' on it.

Hermione took a deep breath and flung the newspaper back onto the ground, "See I know why we're doing this, we've talked about this over and over again, he kills Harry, Ron, everyone I've ever loved, he grows up to be pure evil, I know this and yet still… somehow… I don't know how I'm going to kill a baby, Draco… I don't think I can".

"I will" Draco's hard words pierced the empty cold snowing air around them. He looked over to her, eye's pain-filled and tired.

"Can you?" Hermione's eyes questioned his, "I don't know, maybe we should re-think this, maybe we should go to Lily and James, before Harry is born and warn them, tell them to get out of here, to protect Harry… We could even go to Dumbledore before he ever accepts Tom Riddle into Hogwarts, make him do something-".

"Every second we stand here arguing about this is another moment wasted!" Draco interrupted, "Back in our time, they would have realised our disappearance by now, do you get that? Voldemort is clever and cunning and he's probably sent Death Eaters all over his time-line to protect him and now they're probably coming here, to kill us. We have to act now. We're saving the Greater Good!" he made a sprint for the Orphanage and muttering under his breath, was able to walk through the thick double doors and head unsoundly for the stairs.

Hermione clutched her stomach in sickness and put a hand over her mouth. She actually believe this was happening. There had to be another way! Damn it, she had just found Draco and she wasn't going to let Voldemort turn him truly evil. Hermione made a run after Draco and using the same spell he did, she walked through the double doors and up the stairs, hoping she was going the right way.

The sound of a warm kindly woman echoed down the hallway and Hermione hid in the shadows beside a cupboard upstairs through the dark. The woman - Mrs Cole - walked straight past Hermione and down the stairs, humming away. Hermione tip-toed to the far end room and peaked inside. It looked like a nursery. A baby's nursery. She slipped inside and saw Draco, the man she loved, at the far end of the room, looking down at one particular cot.

Hermione slipped over to him with ease and looked down at the label on the cot. "Tom Marvolo Riddle" she couldn't help but whisper as Draco stood still, not replying to her. "Don't let him change your soul, Draco. I've seen it, and it's pure and light. By doing this, he still wins. He wins either way, because all he wants is to spread hate. By doing this… He'll win".

"But he's won anyway" Draco hissed, "Do you even realise your amusement as a torture slave was over and he was going to have you hanged tomorrow?" he pointed to the sleeping baby in front of them, "Him! It! That thing right there was going to kill you… Don't you get that?".

"I do" Hermione looked down to the baby and saw nothing but a sleeping peaceful angel. "I get that. But right now, he's not that monster, do you get that? Right now, he's just a baby, an innocent baby. I wasn't thinking straight when I agreed to this, I think I just wanted out of that house and that room but now I'm thinking clearly… This isn't the way to do it, okay? We need to leave, regroup. We'll find Lily and James and Dumbledore, we'll make this right" she took Draco's hand.

"Draco?" Hermione whispered into his ear, "Please" she tugged him gently and suddenly he was leading her out of the nursery and back down the stairs. It was lucky they weren't caught as they walked back out the front doors and into the cold night again.

"We'll keep moving" Draco told her, "Nightfall is our best time. Where will Dumbledore be in 1927?".

"I don't think the Dumbledore we knew then will be him now" Hermione frowned, "We could travel to the year Dumbledore was named Head Teacher-".

Something green from the window upstairs stopped Hermione and her head jerked up. "What the hell was that?" Hermione demanded, running back to Orphanage with Draco at her side. They ran through the door, startling poor Mrs Cole and sprinted up the stairs, heading straight for Tom Riddle's room.

"Oh my…" Hermione started when she saw a dark figure in the room, clutching his wand. The other babies had started to waken up and were screaming in distress when Hermione looked over to Tom Riddle's cot.

"What the hell have you done?" Hermione screamed to the dark figure and lunged for him, having to be held back by Draco.

"What you two obviously couldn't" Snape raised his head, scars all over his face. "Tom Riddle is dead. And so is Voldemort. You are welcome" and with that, Snape pulled out a dagger and stabbed himself in the stomach. As he did, his body floated away into ash and left Hermione and Draco standing there in shock.

"What the hell is-" Mrs Cole came storming into the room, "Who the hell are you two? What happened? What…" her face fell when she looked over to little Tom Riddle. She spun back round, "Monsters! You're monsters!" she spotted the lone dagger on the floor on top of Snape's empty robes and picked it up, "Stay where you-".

But before anything else could be done, Draco grabbed Hermione's hand and apparated out of there and landed on a soft golden field.

"Oh my god" Hermione gasped, sitting up, "Snape just…. He just killed… Oh my god. What are we going to do, Draco? What are we going to do? I feel sick, I can't breathe, I can't breathe-".

"Come here" Draco wrapped his arms around her in a soothing manner and patted her hair.

"Where are we?" Hermione looked up, suddenly interested.

"Italy" Draco smiled sadly, "My family used to come here all the time. It's the only place that came to mind".

"Snape just took our options right out of our hands, what are we going to do?" Hermione asked reasonably.

"There's one thing left to do. We can't go back to our time because… It's not our time anymore, it'll be our future-self's time… We'll have no place, Snape knew that would happen when he killed Voldemort-".

"Tom Riddle" Hermione interrupted severely, "He didn't kill Voldemort. He killed Tom Riddle".

"Right" Draco nodded, "-So Snape killed himself because he knew his present self would be a different future self than the one he is now, you get me?".

"Of course I get you" Hermione replied stubbornly, "I'm just not so keen on killing myself, that's all".

"We could always run away to Spain" Draco joked, "But it doesn't work like that, there can't be two Hermione's and two Draco's running around in the world. Trust me, you'll die but you'll still live. You won't remember any of this ever happened, but… You'll still be alive".

"And what about you and me?" Hermione asked after a deep breath.

"We'll find our way back to each other. I know it" Draco kissed her on the cheek, before pulling out two vials of liquid. He uncapped his at the same time Hermione did and they clinked their vials together before downing it.

And the last thing the pair of them knew, before their bodies turned to ash, was the bittersweet warmth of the rising sun.

"Stop!" Hermione jerked awake, eyes wide and afraid. It was only when they were open that she realised she was still in Charms class and now everyone, including her professor was now looking at her, very strangely.

"Miss Granger, I know my class may bore your otherwise intelligent mind but do you mind catching up on your beauty sleep some other time?" Filius Flitwick asked with an annoyed frown.

"Yes" Hermione cleared her throat, "Sorry, Professor. Won't happen again" she pushed her fringe back, tried to calm her reddening embarrassed cheeks and avoided all stares from Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Blaise Zabini and Neville Longbottom.

But Hermione knew something was wrong now. Something was deadly wrong, because these weren't just dreams. These were real visions of what the future was going to bring. And Hermione had every intention of stopping it.

oOo

"Hermione, is everything okay?" those were the first words out of Ginny's mouth as she followed Hermione out of Flitwick's classroom. "I know we were a little snappy the other day but if something's bothering you, you know you can still come to me with it, right?".

"Of course Ginny" Hermione forced a stressful smile as Neville caught up to them. "Before you ask Neville, I'm fine, honestly".

"Yeah, just don't fall asleep in Carrow's class… Either of them" Neville warned her with a deadly look.

"I guess I must still be tired, I keep having these…" Hermione looked around, and decided it wasn't safe to say anything out loud, "I can't say anything out loud without making it sound confusing and complicated and I can't risk anyone hearing this".

"Okay, now I'm worried" Ginny frowned, "We should use the crystals… Draco will be in class won't he? We'll be in and out the Head Dorm like that" she snapped her fingers.

"Yeah, it's just… something else as well" Hermione bit her lip, "There's something else, that might… freak you guys out a little bit and I'm not really sure I want to tell you".

"Hermione don't be silly" Neville shook his head, "You can tell us anything, you know that".

oOo

'You and Draco are what?' Neville's thoughts screamed into Hermione's head.

'Neville calm down!' Hermione widened her eyes in shock, 'I can't explain it, but I just know… it's not dreams or nightmares… it's visions, of the future. My future'.

'I'm really not that surprised' Ginny shrugged on the couch, 'I mean I always had an inkling you fancied him or something'.

'Can we just move off the Draco-topic for two seconds and talk about the fact that apparently, Harry fails, everyone dies and oh yeah! Me and Draco plan to change the Wizarding World so drastically that we have to kill ourselves in the end?' Hermione began to pace the room. 'And it's not like I can ask Draco about it, like: oh hey Draco, how was your day? By the way, we end up in a whirlwind romance and plan on killing a baby, pass the salt!'.

'No offence, Hermione' Ginny began testily, 'But I trust Harry with my life, and you expect us to believe these visions aren't really dreams? I'm just struggling to see how in a world without Harry Potter you're even important to Voldemort at all'.

'Harsh, Ginny' Neville winced.

'But necessary' Ginny stood up, folding her arms.

'I wondered that myself' Hermione didn't hide her growing glare, 'The only way I can logically put it is that Draco must have sold the idea of me a prisoner, someone to torture. I'm guessing he kept me alive that way, until we could make our escape'.

Ginny let out a deep breath.

'Hermione, I believe you believe these visions are real, but until we get any solid proof, or anything changes, promise me you won't tell Draco about it? Please?' Neville suddenly spoke.

"I promise" Hermione whispered.

"I'm sorry Hermione" Ginny stood up, "I just… I can't lose faith in Harry and by believing in what you're saying… It means I believe Harry will lose. And that's just not something I'm willing to do" she headed for the Head Dorm portrait door and walked out of it.

"I'll see you at dinner?" Neville asked and Hermione quickly nodded. He walked out after Ginny and only then did Hermione let tears fall from her tears. She walked into her room and put her crystal back into the drawer, closing it over.

Nobody was willing to believe her and then suddenly… Draco was at her bedroom doorway, with a puzzling look on his face. One that said he came for something specific and wasn't leaving until he got it.