Hermione sat in the library of Potter Manor, the book in her lap forgotten. The past two weeks had left her reeling, first with Charlus' passing, and then both her surrogate aunt and favorite professor adopting children. It had angered Hermione at the time to see Dorea having to send a statement to the Daily Prophet after receiving dozens of letters accusing her of adopting Charlotte so soon after losing her husband. While it had looked like Charlus' death and the visit to the Godric's Hallow orphanage was hours apart, it was actually almost two weeks, and Dorea had made it clear in her statement that she was not filling the void on her heart from losing Charlus with Charlotte, but instead Charlotte had filled a void that Charlus and Dorea had both had, courtesy of the curse Kreacher had told them Walburga had cast on the Potter family. Dorea had yearned for over twenty years for a daughter, and she was of the strong belief that it was fate that brought Charlotte into her life.

Her thoughts turned to Professor McGonagall and her son Lachlan. She truly believed fate had brought the two together as well, what were the chances of Minerva coming across a young magical child on the muggle side of the orphanage no less, from the same area she had grown up, and that the boy was Charlotte's neighbor before they became orphans? Hermione had long believed Minerva would have been a fantastic mother, and her beliefs were validated by watching the professor dote on her newly adopted son. While Minerva had essentially been their mother figure throughout Hogwarts, she was even more motherly to Lachlan, whom everyone, including Minerva lovingly referred to as Lachy.

Hermione was pulled from her thoughts by Sirius entering the library, smiling softly at the books and parchments surrounding her. "Studying, love?"

"For a bit," she said, dipping her quill in her ink pot and writing a line on the parchment closest to her. "More like planning."

"Planning what?" Sirius asked, glancing at the parchment closest to him. Ring. Locket. Cup. Diary. Diadem. Harry. Nagini. Harry and Nagini were crossed out, with the note 'not yet made' beside them. "What's this, Hermione?"

Sighing, knowing she couldn't hide this fact from Sirius and the rest of her family anymore, "Can you call everyone up here? Ask Tilly and Mipsy to watch Lottie and Lachy, I don't think they need to hear this just yet."

Sirius nodded, gathering the family and helping the elves settle the young children in Minerva and Lachy's room with plenty of toys and books to occupy them. Once back in the library with the rest of the family, he sat beside Hermione and grasped her hand.

"Sorry everyone," she began. "But I didn't want Lottie and Lachy to hear about this. I was writing lists about things from my previous life, and Sirius saw the one that scared me the most. There's one thing I've never told any of you. What do you all know about horcruxes?"

Petunia, Lily, Hope, Evelyn and Michael looked confused, while James, Sirius, Regulus, Remus, Dorea, and Minerva blanched and paled. "How do you know about those horrific things, Hermione?" Minerva asked.

"Because Tom Riddle, better known as Voldemort made some," she said, standing and drawing her wand. "Before I begin, here's something else you need to know. Tom Marvolo Riddle is Lord Voldemort, watch." She cast a spell and Riddle's name appeared in the air, before rearranging to spell 'I am Lord Voldemort'.

"Voldemort is a half-blood, born to Merope Gaunt, a poor pureblood, and Tom Riddle senior, a rich muggle she was obsessed with. Merope drugged Riddle with love potions, making him fall in love with her, and they conceived a child. Once pregnant, Merope was convinced Tom would stay with her, and stopped giving him the potion. Tom refused to stay with her, and left to marry another muggle woman," Hermione said, remembering all the details Harry told her from memory. "Merope died in childbirth, and Tom was sent to a cliffside orphanage called Wool's Orphanage. Tom was magical, having been visited my Professor Dumbledore, and off to Hogwarts he went. In nineteen forty-two, Tom opened the Chamber of Secrets, yes, it's real, and released the beast Salazar Slytherin left there, a basilisk. That basilisk killed a student, allowing Tom to create his first horcrux, a diary."

"Myrtle Warren," Minerva whispered. "She was a friend of mine, are you telling me Riddle killed my friend to create a horcrux?"

"Yes," Hermione said, solemnly, not knowing that Myrtle was a friend of Minerva's. "Not long after graduation, Tom got a job working for Borgin and Burke's. There, he came to know of the Hufflepuff Cup, owned at the time by Hepzibah Smith, a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff. Tom visited her and poisoned her, blaming her elf, Hokey. He used her death to make the cup a horcrux. While at Hepzibah's, he stole the Slytherin Locket that Merope had sold and Hepzibah purchased. As he left, he killed a muggle tramp, using their death to make the locket a horcrux as well. Some time later, Tom went to Hogwarts to apply for the DADA position. Dumbledore refused, and Tom cursed the position. While there, he also got the location of Ravenclaw's lost diadem from The Grey Lady, better known as Helena Ravenclaw. He stole the diadem and fled to Albania. There, he killed a peasant, again making a Horcrux. He then traveled back to Hogwarts to try and convince Dumbledore to change his mind, of course, he refused. Tom hid the horcrux at Hogwarts, where it still is today. The other two horcruxes on that list haven't been made yet, and the person he killed to make the sixth is in this room, and the person for the seventh is currently a student at Hogwarts."

"Who was it?" Sirius asked, afraid of the answer.

"The sixth horcrux was imbedded in Harry's lightning bolt scar," Hermione said, tears now streaming down her face. "The death of Lily Potter facilitated it. Harry was an accidental horcrux. The seventh was a snake, named Nagini. Charity Burbage, the muggle studies professor in my time, was killed to create it."

The Evans family paled. "We're going to keep this from happening, right?" Petunia asked. "My nephew and sister's lives are changed forever by this man. It's going to change, please tell me it will."

"Yes," Hermione said, drying her tears. "After James and Lily were killed, Dumbledore took Harry to you and your family. He was treated horribly, but my educated guess is that the horcrux in Harry's head affected you and that's why he wasn't treated well. The fact you're here means I've already begun to change it. In my previous timeline, you married your abuser."

Petunia got even paler. "I owe you, Hermione."

"No, you don't," she replied. "You're here, with your sister, and your parents, in a magical home. The Petunia I had heard about hated magic. This Petunia, however, is studying magical subjects, is friends with house elves and a werewolf, and is in a relationship with a pureblood wizard. Even if I can't stop every event, you are vastly different than that Petunia."

"What are we going to do about the horcruxes?" James asked, one arm around Lily, the other being clutched by Evelyn. "We have to find them and destroy them."

"That's my plan," Hermione said. "But first, I want to take care of the basilisk. That thing petrified me and I was stone for months, it needs to die."

"It's inert at the moment, correct?" Minerva asked.

"Yes," Hermione nodded. "Only the heir of Slytherin can wake her. The last of the line is Riddle. I know how to get into the chamber, Harry told me, and the parselmouth password is easy enough to say. I was thinking since it's stone, we just open the chamber, open the bust of Slytherin that the basilisk lives in, and either behead it or kill it with Fiendfyre."

"Who can control that though?" James asked, worried. "It's bloody difficult in the best circumstances."

"I can," Minerva said, her Scottish brogue strong. "The ruddy snake killed my best friend. I shall avenge her."

Hermione nodded. "On one condition. You make sure you make it home to Lachy. He just got a mother, I don't want to watch him lose her."

Minerva nodded. "Just in case though, I've drawn up papers for Michael and Evelyn to be Lachlan's godparents. I've seen how you've raised your daughters, and should the need arise, I know you will raise my son with love and compassion, just as you have Lily and Petunia."

Evelyn stood and hugged the professor. "We're honored, Minerva. However, we are content being his aunt and uncle. Make sure you come back to him."

Minerva nodded. "When are we going after the snake?"

"As soon as you can get permission from Dumbledore for us to come," Hermione said. "And have him close the corridor that hold the second-floor girls' bathroom. That's where the entrance is, the bathroom Myrtle haunts."

"She's still at Hogwarts?" Minerva asked, amazed. "I never find occasion to go to the second floor. I'm going to Floo Albus now, with it being Saturday, we shouldn't have a problem."

Minerva was correct, and Dumbledore allowed a few members of their family to Floo to Hogwarts and take care of the basilisk. Minerva, Hermione, Sirius, James, and Remus all ventured to Hogwarts while the rest of their family stayed at home and watched over Lottie and Lachy.

Hermione led the group to the second-floor bathroom, and tentatively called for the ghost. "Myrtle?"

"Who's that?" the ghost answered from a stall. "Who's calling miserable, moping, moaning Myrtle?"

"Merty," Minerva called. "It's Minnie. Please come out."

"My Minnie?" the ghost asked, gliding through the stall door. "Oh, Minnie! It's been so long!"

"It has, my dear friend," the professor said sadly. "I'm so sorry I've never been to visit you."

"You're here now, Minnie!" the ghost said, happier than Hermione had ever seen her. "Why are you here?"

"We're going to kill the beast that killed you," Hermione said. "Minnie is going to help us, because you were her best friend."

"Minnie, is that true?" Myrtle said, her eyes wide.

"It is, Merty," Minerva replied, wishing she could hug her friend. "I'm going to avenge you and make sure that beast can never hurt another soul."

If ghosts could cry, Myrtle would be a blubbering mess. "It's the sink over there, with the snake on the faucet. I saw when the boy opened it before I died."

"Thank you, Myrtle," Hermione said, walking to the sink and hissing at it. It opened, the slide-like tunnel forming from the stone. "We'll be back, Myrtle."

"Watch over Minnie," the ghost said suddenly. "She took my death hard."

Hermione nodded, grasping Sirius' hand and jumping down into the opening.

The fall seemed to take forever. Finally, they landed on the bone-covered ground, Hermione shuddering as she thought of how many rats died to make the pile this large. As they walked, they came to a curve in the tunnel. "Be careful here, this is where Harry told me the tunnel collapsed. I know it happened twenty years in the future, but I'm guessing this tunnel is centuries old." The group finally made it through the tunnel, after Hermione hissed at a door covered in stone snakes, everyone freezing in their spots when they saw the massive bust of Slytherin.

"Hermione," Regulus choked out. "When you said 'bust', I didn't imagine something fifty feet tall."

"I wasn't sure how big it was myself," she whispered. "I never came down here, Harry did. I was petrified in the hospital wing."

"There's a lever over there," Remus pointed. "On the right side."

Hermione nodded and pulled the lever, the bust's mouth falling open, stairs forming in a macabre version of a tongue. "Let's go, everyone. Quietly."

The group made their way up the stairs, coming to a stop on a small landing at the top. Inches from the landing, a large, gaping hole took up the majority of the area. At the bottom of the hole lay a massive, dormant basilisk. "It's too cold down here for it to stay awake all the time," Hermione whispered. "I think it only wakes when it's warm down here or it needs to feed."

Minerva didn't want to wait around to find out when it's last feed was. "This is for Merty! Pestis Incendium!"

The fiendfyre hadn't reached the basilisk yet when it's heat woke the beast. "Shit! Hermione, it's moving!" James yelled, pulling Minerva away from the ledge. "There's a sword on the floor, someone grab it!"

Remus grabbed the sword he was sure wasn't there a moment ago, and prepared to swing it at the basilisk should he need to. As it turns out, he didn't need to, and the fiendfyre consumed the basilisk, who was hissing and spitting loudly as the fire licked at its body. Minerva finally cancelled the curse, and watched as the fifty-foot long creature turned to ash. "I need to get out of here," she finally said. "I need to let Merty know that thing is gone."

As if on cue, Fawkes came swooping into the chamber, just like the phoenix had for Harry. "Want to take us back up, Fawkes?" Hermione asked, amazing everyone that he answered her with a cheerfull trill and offered his strong leg to Hermione, everyone grabbing each other, forming a human chain that Fawkes flew back to the bathroom.

"It's gone, Merty," Minerva cried as she landed on the stone floor. "I killed the beast."

"I can rest now, Minnie," the ghost replied softly. "Thank you, my friend."

The group made use of the Prefects bathrooms, washing the smoke smell from them, before Hermione realized something. "The diadem! It's here, we can get it and use fiendfyre to destroy it!"

Minerva froze. "I didn't even think about that. Where is it?"

"Seventh floor, the Room of Hidden Things, sitting on a bust that's wearing a ridiculous wig."

"Merty and I found that wig and put it on a bust of Morgana," McGonagall laughed. "I know exactly where it is. I also know how the room works. Hermione, come with me?"

Hermione nodded and followed Minerva to the seventh floor, where they quickly located and destroyed the diadem horcrux.

"One down, four to go."