Ron leapt backwards when he saw Hermione's wand pointed at his chest.
"Merlins beard, Hermione. I just wanted a quick word, you owe me that much!" he said in alarm.
Hermione blinked, her adrenaline still coursing through her veins, taking a deep breath she pocketed her wand as she noticed several people now watching them with avid curiosity.
"I don't owe you a damn thing Ron, nothing, zilch, nada, so don't you dare try to lay that on me, and while we're at it, don't you dare grab me again – ever!" she snapped.
Ron, if anything, went even redder. "Hermione, please, I just wanted a word with you, and, believe it or not, Harry has gone and banned me from the office, so I can't even begin to reason with him."
Hermione rolled her eyes and let out a deep breath. "Let me think, after Harry fired you, you rushed straight to Ginny to whine about it, and how hard done by you were. Then you went home with more than a few drinks and waited for an owl saying you can go back to work again, but surprise, surprise, this time it didn't work. This time Harry stood his ground against your sister and refused to be browbeaten by her again. Does this about sum up what you wanted to tell me Ron?"
A sulky, angry look spread across Rons face, one Hermione had gotten to know intimately. "It was a joke Hermione, and you and Harry just totally overreacted! I thought if I made you see some reason you could go to see him, you could explain that I meant nothing by it, well, then he might actually see that I didn't mean any harm."
A short bark of bitter laughter escaped from Hermione before she could stop it. "Oh Cmon, Ron! We both know that that's an utter baldfaced lie! Everyone that was there knew it, everyone, including both Harry and I, knew that you did mean me harm, and that you went out of your way to try to hurt and humiliate me!"
She snorted in disgust as she stared at the man she had once thought she'd loved. "And then after you were called on your shocking behaviour, you had the utter gall to attack Harry, your boss! No Ron, you did this to yourself, and I'll be damned if I help you with anything anymore. Those days are long gone, you're on your own now, you're now one hundred percent responsible for all your own actions – so live with it!"
She turned away from him and tossed some flu powder into the fire as Ron looked at her with growing rage as the truth of her words sunk in.
"YOU STINKING UNGRATEFUL BITCH." He screamed as she stepped into the fire and yelled Hermione Grangers Kitchen. The last she saw of Ron as she spun away was him futilely attempting to grab her arm as she disappeared.
When she arrived home, she quickly checked her potion to make sure it was undisturbed, then she put the block back on her fireplace, she'd long ago made the house unplotable, and had only given the access enchantment to Harry, Kreacher and her kids, all with strict instructions that neither Ron nor anyone else was never to be told. She knew this would enrage Ron and his sister, but she didn't care, this was her safe haven, and she intended to keep it that way.
She took a deep breath and took out the remaining Horcrux from her pocket, still shaking a little from her nasty encounter with Ron. She placed it on the counter next to the others. Nodding in satisfaction she turned to her other plans.
There was still a few hours to go, and she realised it was time to do a few other things she'd been putting off. Hermione wanted to be ready, not just magically, but as a woman, she wanted to look her best when she finally met Sirius again, and that meant a quick make over.
Hermione spent the rest of the day getting her hair magically straightened at Katie Bells hair for all occasions. She then went straight to an muggle underwear shop and bought several pairs of matching bra and thong sets, in all the colours she thought complimented her colouring. After loading them into her "lucky bag", which was the same bag she had used back when her, Harry, and Ron had gone on the run from Voldemort and his henchmen. Hermione had kept it for luck, along with her favourite book, Hogwarts, A History.
In the times since then, when she felt unsure of herself, or upset, she always reverted to carrying the old bag, along with its accompanying book, around with her. Today, it also carried two shots of snake venom antidote, and three lots of blood replenishing potion, all courtesy of Augustus Pye, who was now in charge of the Llewellyn ward at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies. Even Hermione had been surprised at the ease of which she'd obtained the "cure" for Nagini's bite, but when Hermione had approached him and told him she was studying the remains of the unmilked snakes head, he'd insisted. Apparently, Augustas could still remember all the trouble he'd had with the snake's venom so he had insisted that she take extra – just in case.
Hermione returned home ecstatic, she had done, and gotten everything she required with very little effort, which after her mornings exertions was more than welcome.
Checking her watch she found there was still two hours to go before the potion was ready, even so, she checked the cauldrons contents once again, just to make sure. After finding everything seemed to be where it should be she ran upstairs and had a shower, marvelling at her now straight hair. After she finished and had dried herself, then she dressed in her new underwear and a new, prettier, robe, on an impulse, she put the rest of it in the bag, unwilling to part with her daring purchases for even a minute. By the time she'd put some carefully applied make-up on and gone downstairs and had a quick bite to eat, it was time.
She stood at the table, she was both nervous and excited, she was still wondering if she was really going to go through with this mad scheme.
She gave a short bark of half mad laughter, "to late to change your mind now Hermione, way to late. So, let's do this!" she told herself firmly.
She turned swiftly and took off the enchantment surrounding the cauldron, then without another thought she began adding the Horcruxes, one by one. After each one dropped into the vat she cast a spell, each one as brutal as the next, all of them carefully designed to usurp the natural order of time. After the last words of the final spell left her lips, a stunningly bright light erupted from the cauldron, followed by an ear-splitting noise that was something akin to a scream.
Hermione staggered backwards, her wand flying out of her hand and clattering to the floor as she slowly slumped to the floor in utter exhaustion. She sat there, unable to move or speak, it felt like every bone in her body had been replaced with jelly she was so weak. She had no idea how long it was before she was finally able to stand again – minutes – hours -days? Everything was a blur.
Slowly she stood and, holding her breath, she peered into the cauldron in apprehension. Sitting at the bottom was a handful of deep golden sand. Her eyes widened as her lips curved into an ecstatic smile. It had worked!
It was then she noticed the grains of bright red scattered through-out the gold, she frowned. She knew there would be a risk in using Naginis head, after all, it was from a sentient being, and Horcruxes were – or had always been – made from inanimate objects. But Hermione desperately needed the extra power for the added amount of time she'd have to travel, so she'd gone for it. Pushing her inner misgivings away she transferred every last grain of sand into an hourglass twice the size of the one she'd once worn as a teenager, she then attached the hourglass to an extra long golden chain, after she was finally done, she sat down and stared at her creation.
"I've done it!" she said in a shocked voice. "I've actually done it!"
It was then she heard the loud banging at her front door, followed by a voice calling out, "Hermione Granger, in the name of the Aurors office, and the Ministry of Magic, we command you to open your doors."
Hermione's eyes widened; she snatched up her small bag from a nearby chair then looped the golden chain attached to the new time-turner around her neck.
As the doors burst open and the Aurors rushed into her kitchen, Hermione realised that they'd not only tracked the brutal spells she'd had to use, but they'd also taken down her home's defences to get inside, knowing that she disapparated.
Moments later she reappeared in the Shrieking Shack. She had no idea why she'd chosen this place, but at the time it was the first thing that popped into her mind.
She glanced down as a smell of singed material wafted up to her nose, Damn them, one of those rotters has clipped me with a binding curse and has singed a hole in my new robe. She thought angrily as she fingered the black hole in the material.
She shook her head, that was the least of her troubles, she now had Aurors tracking her. She walked into a small room that she and the others had never been in before, it held an ancient broken bed and a broken chest of drawers.
She nodded as she came to a decision, the shrieking shack was as good a place as any to start her rescue attempt from.
She sat down in a corner beside a small hole in the wall and took out the hourglass. She once again stared at the red flecks of sand mixed in with the gold, shrugging, she thought hard for a moment, then giving it her best estimate, she began to turn it backwards.