A/N:

Not my sandbox, just my sand castle. I don't own anything from Harry Potter. Additionally, no one has permission to bind and sell my works, fandom or otherwise. I can't believe in this day and age we have to go back to making this disclaimer. Shame on you for exploiting other people's works!

Additionally, no part of this work may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. (Thanks Penguin Random House for the wording, and good on you for protecting intellectual properties!)

Thanks to google translate! All grammatical errors are its :D
Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem - relinquish fate, magic take a chance, roll the dice

This goes up wet, all mistakes are mine!

Word Count: 625

Disclaimers/Warnings:

Summary: Hermione finds a spell in an obscure book that promises to rewrite her fate in a world where Voldemort won. She reminisces on what led her to this as she perfects it.

Prompts:

Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Assignment 7

Dueling with Professor Bex

Task 1: Write about someone learning a new spell.

"Relinquish Fate"

Flicking her wrist again, Hermione's forehead wrinkled in frustration. She intoned the spell perfectly, but her movements weren't exact…she had to get this perfect if she wanted to live past tonight.

The Dark Lord had won three years ago, and she had been on the run ever since. Harry had died in the Battle at Hogwarts, his body falling to Voldemort's spell in the Hogwarts courtyard. But this time, Harry didn't get back up. It seemed like he had finally run out of time.

Hermione fought as well as she could, and downed as many people that attacked her and her friends. Molly Weasley had killed Bellatrix Lestrange, but then the brothers Lestrange had killed Molly in retaliation. Hermione had then been blasted backwards off of the battlements, her last vision of Ron being hit with a spell to the back as he raced to her, his eyes already dull before she plummeted to the ground.

"Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem. Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem."

It had been a long fall, and Hermione had clutched her beaded bag to her, pulling out the rickety broom they had stored there in case they needed a quick getaway.

It had saved her in the end, but was she really saved?

Afterwards, Hermione had disappeared into the Muggle World, broken inside from watching her two best friends be murdered in front of her. She laid low, never staying in one place for more than a few days.

She had made it to the continent, keeping one ear to the ground in the magical communities to see what was happening to her home.

Voldemort had solidified his regime and hunted every single one of the resistance down, and now he was terrorizing everyone left, his own Death Eaters included.

"Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem. Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem."

Hermione had found libraries where she roamed, some of them so obscure she only knew about them from the merest whispers in back alleys in the most unscrupulous of cities. It was here that she found the moth-riddled text describing ancient rituals, one of which would promise to rewrite her fate. This ritual required her skyclad, under a new moon, in a specific magical grove in the Black Forest in Germany, at midnight on the coldest night of the year.

She had three hours to figure out the wand movements before she had to wait another year to attempt this. And at this point, she wanted out. She wanted to be done with this war, sitting on the Hogwarts Express, laughing with her friends. She wanted to be carefree again. She wanted the chance to live.

"Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem. Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem."

There! The movement there was perfect! She repeated it three more times, just to make sure, but she definitely had it down. The air around her felt charged, and her skin tingled with the build-up of magic around her. Giddy with excitement, Hermione Apparated, letting her magic guide her. With this spell, she would be able to change everything. Harry and Ron would be alive. Sirius would be alive. Cedric would be alive. She would rewrite her fate and save everyone.

"Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem. Cedere fatum, magicae geram, volvite sortem."

It would only occur to her later, as she was in the middle of the ritual, that the text in the book had been wrong. The spell had been described as theoretically rewriting fate. But the spell translated to 'relinquish' fate instead. Her fate was in Magic's hands, now, and as she was swept away in the tides of time and magic, Hermione only felt determined to make sure none of this happened again.