Disclaimer: is not, was not, and never will be mine! All credit to the incredible JK Rowling! I do own the plot and some characters though!

Chapter 7: The Plan

Hermione got through the rest of her first week in the past without many mishaps. Threatening words were exchanged with the Slytherins constantly, but if had become somewhat of a pattern by the third day. She was also threatening Lily and Remus' reign at the top of the academic sector, her old know-it-all attitude surfacing now and then. She was however, trying to keep it under control. She really was intent on making this time at Hogwarts different. In her first time, she was disliked due to her 'insufferable know it all' attitude and she only had Harry, Ron and Ginny as close friends. This time was already different though. She had Lily, Evanna, Sofia and Marlene, plus three of the marauders, excluding Peter; she would never trust that rat.

Her relationship with Sirius continued to progress, and so had, by her relationship with James by reflex. What she was impressed with was that Sirius had not tried to flirt with her once or made any suggestive comments. It had been made clear by his attitude and by Lily that Sirius was a womaniser, and he was not ashamed of it. But he treated Hermione with respect and like a best friend. She still hadn't worked out why exactly that this disappointed her. James had become to be like a brother to her, he annoyed the hell out of her but she loved him all the same. One thing she hadn't been able to overcome yet was his continuing idiotic attitude around Lily. Just this morning he had serenaded her as she came down to breakfast, standing up on the bench and extending his hand towards her: "Lovin' you is more than just a dream come true , and everything that I do is out of lovin' you!"Hermione had tried to drag him down, swatting him round the head, but nothing worked. "Wait, wait! You don't like that one? How about this? Just STOP, because I really love you. Stop, I'll be thinking of you! Look in my heart and let love keep us together" at this point Sirius rugby tackled him to silence him, but Hermione again witnessed Lily's reasons behind her hatred for the marauder.

They all sat round the fire at 7pm on Friday after a filling supper in the great hall, all of them grateful for the upcoming weekend. Hermione rested against the back of the couch, her head on Sirius' shoulder and Hogwarts: A History open in her lap. Remus lounged on the sofas with Marlene and Sofia and Lily was lying with her head on Hermione's lap. James was lying next to Sirius, aimlessly playing with a golden snitch. Apart from Lily, who Hermione now considered her best friend, she had found herself becoming surprisingly close to Sofia. The quiet witch had been considerably shy around Hermione this past week, but none the less she was one of the kindest people Hermione had ever met. One night coming up to the dorm had revealed Sofia crying over ex boyfriend Benjy Fenwick and in comforting her, Hermione had broken down the wall. Now she knew that the shyness was a simple exterior, hiding a crazy girl with an insane sense of humour; she most certainly wasn't quiet.

Hermione sighed contentedly. She hadn't been this relaxed in a very long time, what with the stress from work and having to cook a feast for Ron every night. Ron... she had tried her hardest not to think of him or any of the others in past days, reminding herself that when she had finished, it would be for their benefit as well. She had had many sleepless nights where she had felt the losses of her friends more than ever, crying herself into a restless sleep in the early hours of the morning. Luckily silencing charms ensured that the girls were undisturbed and unaware of this. She did, however, sleep in Ron's old Quidditch jersey every night; she couldn't quite bring herself to part with it.

Glancing up at the clock, she cursed; it was already 8pm! Sirius raised his eyebrows at her colourful language in amusement, "Seems you've been spending a bit too much time with me Mione, although I have broadened you're vocabulary" Sirius smirked as ruffled her hair. Hermione glared at him and swatted his hand away before flattening her hair. A big perk of being friends with Marlene was her vast knowledge of beauty charms and potions, Hermione's hair had lost it's frizzy quality and was now sleek and shiny. "Shut it black, I'm supposed to be in Dumbledore's office RIGHT NOW! I'll see you guys later! Marls wait for me before you start Arithmancy! Sof we need to talk about him and Lils, you know what we need to talk about..." she regarded the two marauders on the floor with a smirk "don't have anything to say to you two prats!" and she turned and exited the portrait hole. "I always wonder how she knows her way around the castle so well already" Sirius murmured to himself.

Hermione meanwhile finally skidded to a stop outside the gargoyle outside the headmaster's office. Oh, what had he said the password was? "Droobles!" Hermione recapped her plan for the last time as she went up the stairs to the office. During her sleepless nights, she had hatched a plan using all the knowledge she had drawn from everything she had heard about the first wizarding war in her time. She gulped and knocked on the door. "enter" she walked in to find Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. "Ah Miss Granger, what a pleasure to see you, do take a seat. Lemon drop?" Hermione hid a smile at what seemed to be Dumbledore's catch phrase when within his office.

"No Professor, but thank you. I need to relay all this information before I forget." She smiled at Professor McGonagall, who in turn nodded for her to continue.

"I want sure where to start, so I'll start from the beginning of the upcoming war once my year group graduated last time. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Sofia Patil and Evanna Burke joined the order right out of Hogwarts. Other members included Frank and Alice Longbottom, The Prewitt twins, Benjy Fenwick and Molly and Arthur Weasley, the current head boy and girl. Although the order itself had not sustained too many losses, they were still losing. In 1980, James and Lily gave birth to a little boy called Harry. Not long after his birth, you Professor-". Here, she gestured towards professor Dumbledore, "-told them that due to a prophecy, a child born at the end of July was said to be the downfall of Voldermort. Due to Severus Snape eavesdropping on the meeting, Voldermort came to know of the prophecy. Harry was born on the 31st of July; Voldermort thought the prophecy child was him. You recommended to the Potters that they used the Fidelius charm and go into hiding. They chose their secret keeper, and for a while, things seemed to be okay. However, in the second half of 1981, losses began to hit the Order hard" Hermione took a shuddering breath, and looked at her professors apologetically, sad about the information she was about to relay, "Marlene along with virtually her whole family, Dorcas, both the Prewitt's and Benjy Fenwick were killed... and then on the 31st October 1981 the Potters were betrayed by their secret keeper. Voldermort arrived at their safe house in Godric's Hollow, murdered James downstairs and proceeded up to find Harry. Lily sacrificed herself, refusing to step aside and taking the killing curse in her last attempt to protect Harry. When Voldermort turned his wand on Harry, his spell mysteriously rebounded and hit Voldermort himself instead. The force that allowed this was-"

"Love..." Dumbledore murmured, almost to himself, feeling both wonder and an immense sadness.

"Right. Lily Evan's love meant that Harry was untouchable" Hermione blinked back tears. Having now gotten to know some of the people her tale was about, it cut her deeply. "So Voldermort was dead? But no, that can't be... you said he came back in your fourth year? And you mentioned a Second Wizarding War..." McGonagall mused out loud as she tried to puzzle through everything she had heard. "Yes, I told you the rest, briefly, yesterday. Today I'll explain how. Have you heard of a horcrux?" Dumbledore's face became grave as he regarded the knowledgeable girl in front of him. "Certainly, I have suspected he had made one for a while, but I do not know how I would find out-" Hermione cut in, "Not one Professor, five. Voldermort made six horcruxes, but I believe at this moment in time, he will only have made five". Both professors cringed "Dear Merlin... Five... such terrible, dark magic, the worst."

"I know what all of them are, and hopefully where they are. Me and Harry, along with our best friend Ron Weasley, yes, Molly and Arthur's son, dropped out of our seventh year to travel over the country finding and destroying them. My plan is to gather them all, not destroy them instantly but simply gather them together. Timing will be vital. I know that he will notice if we were to destroy them all at once, so we must destroy them very shortly before we kill him... and there is only one guaranteed, known location at a known time that I can think of..." Hermione trailed off, her tears again overflowing. She was horrified by the final outcome her plans had taken, she was worried what the outcome would be if it didn't work.

"The night they died... I understand you're logic Miss Granger but you're willing to-"

"Sacrifice James and Lily? My two best friends in this time? No, I'm not willing. But it's the only way I can think of so please, if you have another one tell me!" Hermione nearly shouted the last part, before she jumped out of her seat and tore out of the office.

Hermione arrived back in Gryffindor tower and sprinted up to her dorm, drew the curtains around her four poster bed and warded it to her best ability. And cried her eyes out.

"DAMN THESE STAIRS!" Sirius roared less than a minute later, after he had tried to follow Hermione up the stairs. Unfortunately there was a charm which turned the stairs into a very slippery slide if a member of the male species attempted to climb and promptly ejected them.

"I'm sorry James... I'm sorry Lily... I don't know what else to do, but I SWEAR I will try my best to protect Harry" Hermione sealed with a promise.

A/N

THIS IS THE LAST UPDATE UNTIL NEXT SATURDAY! Not tomorrow, but A WEEK TOMORROW.

I Haven't said thank you to everyone who's following my story! I LOVE YOU ALL. SO MUCH.
A Silent Echo
cosmoGirl666
CowSparks
dancer4813
FreeSpiritSeeker
HarryPotterLover2
jbought
JCJ58
Jojo283
Love Jayne Eyre
Nala Moon
poth 96

racethom
Tamcor
Trevor88
TsukiyoTenshi

okay I'm done! See you in a week! Rads x