Disclaimer: I don't own any Harry Potter characters.

Changes Two Chap 11

Hermione stepped onto the owlery steps and carefully makes her way down the staircase. Glancing out over the school grounds the witch blinks when she sees a flash of blond heading towards the tree. Oh, this is going to be interesting.

Trudging along the path Hermione thinks over her decisions and the possible outcomes. If this went wrong then it could end up being very messy. She would leave out her time travel- there was no reason to talk about that, but her research and the horcruxes could be explained. Staring at the Whomping Willow Hermione pauses and smacks her palm against her forehead realizing that without her wand she had no way to freeze it. "Wonderful, I'm becoming more scatterbrained than a peacock." Rocking back on her heels Hermione sighs and glances behind her waiting for the surly wizard to catch up. "Took you long enough." The time-traveler baits ignoring the scowl sent her way.

"You're becoming more erratic Granger, even if the imbeciles you keep company with haven't noticed."

Hermione snorts and gives a sardonic smirk. "Draco's noticed." She comments drawling out the name. "Now are we going to keep exchanging pleasantries or shall we go?"

Snape's face twists into a sneer. "Lost something Granger?" The professor asks stunning the tree so that they can enter the path safely.

"Does my mind count?" Hermione answers sarcastically climbing into the tunnel completely missing the professor's calculated look. "Of course, I think I lost most of it quite some time ago." The brunette's mouth twists as she thinks over what she said. "Time ago, yeah that sounds about right." She mutters to herself as she climbs out of the tunnel and brushes dirt from her clothes.

The witch makes her way to the rickety stairs smirking when she hears the yelling from above her head. "Guess we better join the party." She comments dryly trying not to fall. Pushing open the bedroom door Hermione ignores the fighting siblings and nods to Luna and Neville that were sitting on the floor.

"-Can't believe you follow us!"

Rolling her eyes Hermione takes a seat on the bed beside Sirius giving Remus, who was seated on Sirius' other side, a wave. Harry was sitting in a chair and there was an empty one beside him most likely meant for Ron, if he could ever stop yelling at his sister. Hermione snatches her wand from Sirius' hands as Snape enters the room, the potions master sneers before conjuring himself a chair to sit in as far from the group as possible.

"What's he doing here?"

Hermione snorts, "Well if Ronald would shut up we could find out." She comments lifting her eyebrow when said redhead blushes deeply.

The Gryffindor boy mutters something as he flings himself down into the chair scowling as Ginny grins triumphantly. Ginny sits on the floor by Luna and motions for Hermione to start.

"Okay, well, first, how much do you know?" The time traveler asks Neville and Luna knowing that they had to know something since they weren't freaking out.

"Ginny told us everything." Luna answers tilting her head curiously as she stares at Hermione. "Though obviously that leaves out the everythings she doesn't know, and probably some of what she knows but doesn't know she knows, right?"

"Of course." Hermione answers ignoring most of the people's confused looks. "So, to begin I suppose I need to start with this summer, I spent most of my time researching." She states ignoring Sirius' snort. "And in my research I came across references to heavy magic- soul magic which apparently Riddle has used. The spell itself is referenced as Horcrux; the premise is that a person can split their soul into pieces- generally by murder, and then hide the pieces into ordinary objects. So long as whatever object holding the soul is kept safe then the person can never truly die."

Ginny was looking decidedly gray, her freckles standing out sharply against her ashy skin. "How many has he made? That's what the diary was, wasn't it? That's how it had so much power."

"It's believed he made six, not including himself; Riddle's diary, Marvolo's ring, Slytherin's locket, Hufflepuff's cup, his pet Nagini and Ravenclaw's diadem. Though, to be fair, I thought it was Ravenclaw's wand. The ways to destroy a Horcrux are simple, exorcise the soul or destroy the item." Hermione states, the question that been nagging her about the tiara finally settling into place. Reaching into her bag she pulled out the tiara and held it up next to her wand, ignoring Crookshanks as he enters the room and settles into Sirius' lap. "This tiara and wand were both Ravenclaw's, between them the magic is shared. Riddle put his soul into the diadem, however, due to the bond these two items share, the soul was able to share between them. Over the summer I exorcised the soul from my wand and all it took to purge both items was to allow them in proximity of each other so that their magic could sync and resonate."

Remus glances around Sirius to look at the time traveler. "When I found you this summer you were unconscious."

Hermione nods curtly and puts the tiara back into her bag before trying to tug some stray curls back into her braid. "It's rather simple to destroy a horcrux; destroy the item or exorcise the soul. Of course Riddle isn't stupid, no doubt he has some form of protection around most of his objects so it's all a matter of being prepared and taking care."

"How many are left?" Neville asks counting off on his fingers. "You got the diadem and Harry destroyed the diary so-"

"The ring's destroyed too." Harry inputs rubbing his forehead slowly with a frown. "That's what happened to Dumbledore, isn't it?"

This time Snape actually answers, "It is, however, the Headmaster was unprepared for the backlash of destroying such a dark object."

"It's killing him." Hermione states dispassionately, nudging Sirius' side when Harry jumps to his feet in shock, the boy's chair flipping over at his sudden movement. Sirius automatically rises as well and makes his way to his godson's side trying to calm the boy down. "Correct?" The girl finishes posing her question the Potions Master who nods in agreement. "Things are going to happen quickly now, Dumbledore is being pressed from the Ministry as well as Riddle's zealots, one wrong move and Hogwarts will fall."

Snape scowls at the student who has lately became even more of a pain then Potter. "Take your part in the blame Granger, the Ministry wants you. They're practically foaming at the mouth at the thought of locking you away."

Luna reassuringly pats Harry knee as he finally retakes his seat. "Even if they did catch her though they can't hold her." The Ravenclaw states smiling at Hermione. "She'd simply swim through the sand to freedom."

Hermione's hand automatically rises to cup the empty time turner under her robes. "But Luna, I think my time might be running out now."

The blonde simply smiles in response.

"Why does the Ministry want you?" Ron asks interrupting the girls' and pulling Hermione's attention to him.

"Cause she pissed them off by saving me." Sirius states proudly puffing out his chest.

"Not that they know that." Remus hurriedly adds poking the Animagus with his finger causing the man to deflate. "The Ministry has no real proof against Hermione but that hasn't stopped them from levying a few charges-"

"A few?" Severus inputs with a snort. "Lupin, your knack for understating a precarious situation is still working I see. I believe the charges are; breaking into the Ministry of Magic, criminal trespassing, committing black magic, destruction of a magical artifact, reckless endangerment of muggles, witches and wizards, leaving the scene of a crime, resisting arrest-"

"I was in my nightgown! I certainly wasn't going to let that pervert touch me!" Hermione snaps crossing her arms over her chest. "And the rest of those charges are utterly preposterous… I never did any black magic."

"No, just a simple Accio." Sirius comments snidely.

Snape smirks, "Face it Black, even Granger knows you're not worth much."

"Behave boys." Hermione sighs out resisting the urge to rub her neck as she feels her headache growing worse.

Once again Remus begins explaining trying to hide his chuckle. "It was Hermione who brought Sirius back, she released him from the veil apparently causing it to explode."

"Implode."

Remus ignores her and continues talking. "Supposedly, there is atleast one person who saw her, add to it that the magical signature found is similar to Hermione's and the Ministry believes they have enough to put her in Azkaban."

"They have my signature on file from the fight at the ministry, the fact that the signatures don't match means they have no proof I committed any crime." Hermione adds tilting her head in thanks. "Though they do keep sending me owls trying to get another copy of my signature."

Sirius chortles from beside her. "Yeah, cause according to the Ministry no one can change their signature that fast. Except maybe if they jump headfirst into the Dark Arts, even then it would take a while."

"But Hermione did do it." Ginny points out.

Hermione nods and tilts her head grateful when her neck cracks. "Which is why Dumbledore accused me of being a black witch." She informs the gathered people pride filling her when most of them snort derisively.

"If you were a black witch you would have already taken over the world and freed all the house elves by now." Ron comments with a roll of his eyes.

"Spew." Neville and Ginny both add with grins.

"It would serve everyone right if I did do that, wizards are mostly a bunch of lazy sods utterly dependant on their slaves and magic. That's why the Muggle world's made such progress while we're still mostly stuck in the eighteen hundreds."

"Back to the subject at hand." Snape intercedes, "Though I'm sure Granger as a Black Lady would strike fear into all her enemies, her hair alone would smother them."

Hermione scoffs and glares at the professor. "We need to restart Dumbledore's Army though obviously we'll have to change the name, it would be best to sanction it under Defense extra lessons. We'll also need to find someone who can poke around old Founders' things without being to suspicious, we need to find the remaining Horcruxes."

"Ask the twins." Ginny comments as Ron nods in agreement. "They're rich enough they can poke around looking to collect old stuff. I can invite them up to Hogsmeade and talk to them there."

"Okay you do that, and… I guess that's it." Hermione comments looking around slowly before rising as wiping her trousers clean as The Snape and the younger Gryffindors' leave.

Harry hangs back momentarily. "Can I talk to you later?" He asks his best friend quietly.

Hermione nods and pulls the boy into a hug. "Of course you can, now why don't you go take Snuffles for a walk?" The time traveler asks wanting to speak with Remus alone. "And cut Malfoy a break, okay? Enjoy your year, I'm handling it."

"We'll see."

Hermione waits for the shack to clear out before turning to Remus fighting the urge to fidget under his gaze. She wished he could remember the other time. "I need you to do something for me. It's an emergency, has to be done now, today. At Borgin and Burkes there is a cupboard, a vanishing cabinet, I need you to destroy it without being seen. Bombarda Maxima would be best, you can't let anyone know it's the cabinet you want to destroy and that spell should also blow up most of the shop."

The Marauder looks his student over and furrows his brow worriedly. "You've changed, you barely resemble yourself." Remus comments reaching his hand out to tuck one of Hermione's loose curls back stiffening when said girl automatically grabs his wrist.

Seeing his reaction Hermione hurriedly lets go of his wrist and throws herself backward letting her back hit the wall as she feels something snap within her. Sinking to the floor Hermione cradles her head in her hands fighting the urge to cry.

"Hermione, what's happened to you?" Remus asks kneeling infront of his ex-student, seeing the tears in her eyes the werewolf curses and pulls Hermione into his arms trying to calm her.

"I can't do this, I can't save everyone, they're just children."

"No one expects you to save everyone."

Hermione shakes her head keeping her face buried against the ex-professor's shirt. "I'm the Know-It-All, I'm supposed to have all the answers. I grew up so fast just to have to stand in the middle- walk this stupid tight rope and pray I can guide everyone safely."

"You can't save everyone Hermione, this is war."

"A war children will fight."

Remus sighs and kisses the top of Hermione's head. "Wars are always fought by children love, there's nothing we can do about that."

"Thank you, for letting me cry." Hermione states, pulling away slowly and wiping at her eyes. "Sorry, I got your shirt all wet."

The werewolf chuckles and shakes his head, rising to his feet he pulls Hermione up as well. "I've had worse than a wet shirt. You'd better go on, Padfoot might get jealous if you stay to long."

Hermione snorts and grabs her bag. "Well, you don't make me want to hurl things at your head. That's a definite plus, and we do have a bed." She comments kicking the bed they sat on earlier.

"I think I'll pass." Remus dryly comments with a smirk. "After all, I have places to go and things to blow up."

"Don't be seen or get caught." Hermione states worriedly wringing her hands.

"I'll be alright, goodbye Hermione." The wizard says softly before apparating away.

Staring at the empty room Hermione shudders slightly before turning to leave. "Bye Remus."

TO BE CONTINUED...

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