Summary: Future visions

A/N: Thanks for reading! There's a bit of violence and gore in this one when Hermione does a vision about Dumbledore surviving. You've been warned.

Chapter 9

During the next week:

Hermione had experimented in the Time Room to determine what would happen if Severus didn't love Lily. She'd run the vision test twice with the same result. Severus not loving Lily had actually given him some backbone with Dumbledore. He still followed the plan set out, but he was more demanding to know what was going on, to the point that Dumbledore told him about the Horcruxes.

When she added herself into the equation there were mixed results. She postulated that they would be together throughout the war. When the Dark Lord returned, he used an ancient spell to check the lineage of anyone whom he didn't know that was involved with his Death Eaters. He found out she was a 'Mudblood.' He was furious that she had lied and had deceived one of his devoted servants. He told Severus to denounce her in the vilest of ways, demanding that he drag her in front of the Death Eaters, tell her he knew of her deception, and slay her after all of the Death Eaters tortured her. Severus refused, which enraged Voldemort. He almost killed Severus, but then realized he cared for the 'Mudblood' too much to do what he'd demanded. He had the Death Eaters torture her anyway, and Lucius Malfoy killed her while Severus was held at bay and forced to watch. It destroyed him. His inability to concentrate on the war caused Voldemort to be able to kill Harry and win. Severus became his right-hand man and because he'd lost Hermione, had a devil-may-care attitude and became a true Death Eater when he saw the cause was lost.

Fear gripped her. She couldn't stay with Severus if it meant losing the war. She may have to break it off with him–maybe go into hiding or leave the country.

She tried to view a couple of scenarios where Voldemort didn't use the spell, but he'd created it as a youth, and it would be impossible to stop him from using it.

She tapped her finger on her mouth as she thought about if they could possibly stay together.

What if she kept her relationship with Severus a secret? Right now, no one knew that she knew Severus. What if she kept it that way, secretly dating Severus and keeping a low profile at the Ministry so as not to call attention to herself?

She ran the vision again. This time all the benefits of Severus not loving Lily were present, and he was stronger than ever. Their secret relationship didn't affect the timeline negatively and probably helped with his strength. She bit her lip as she emerged from the vision. She ran it a couple of times with small variations just to be sure. It seemed to work. She'd need to talk to Severus about this. It was vital that their relationship be a secret and that no one knew that they were acquainted at all.

ooo

Severus came through the Floo. Hermione got up and moved to his side, hugging him in greeting. He gave her a passionate look and kissed her.

"Hi," he said once he'd finished.

"Hi."

He smirked at her. "I've thought about you all day."

"Funny, I thought about you all day, too!" Hermione admitted. "How were the dunderheads today?"

He chuckled. "No worse than usual. It's taken a bit for the older ones to respect me as a teacher, but this year they have been better."

"I'm glad. You were a formidable teacher in my day. Everyone feared you."

"Feared?"

She nodded. "You had to keep up a persona so no one suspected you were a spy."

Severus' eyebrows knit together. "I hadn't realized I'd need to do anything like that."

"As time goes on, the return of You-Know-Who makes it necessary for you to have been seen as… well… a bastard, especially to the Gryffindors, and to Harry and me even more."

"That will be difficult knowing you and having to be cruel."

"You have to do it, Severus. Voldemort must think you've always been watchful and on his side, even now, when he's not around."

"I apologize, then, for anything I did that was… cruel."

She smiled at him. "Apology accepted." She became serious. "We need to talk."

He gave her a worried glance. "It's only been a few days and you're breaking it off with me already?"

Hermione chuckled. "No, silly, but there is something serious we need to discuss. Come sit down."

They settled on the sofa next to one another. Hermione turned toward Severus, grasped his hand, and squeezed it.

"I need to tell you a little bit about what I do at the Ministry so this makes sense."

"I thought…"

She held up her hand to stop him. "You're right, I can't really talk about it, but I can explain it generally."

He nodded for her to go on.

"I work in the Time room. Because I'm from the future, I can review things others can't. My boss has tasked me with examining the future to see how changes affect the timeline. I'm trying to make sure any changes won't hurt the future."

"And you found something that will hurt it."

She winced. "I have." Looking up at him, she bit her lip. "I ran a simulation where we were open with our relationship… you know, like a normal couple. Everyone knew we were together. It didn't go well. Both of our lives will be in danger if people, especially You-Know-Who, know about us. Even though I'm considered a Half-Blood, he will be able to find out I'm truly Muggleborn, and… well… you can imagine how that goes."

"So, we change it so he doesn't find out."

"We can't. He uses old magic to check my lineage. He does it to anyone he doesn't know who is dating one of his Death Eaters. It's foolproof, and he finds out I'm a… Mudblood."

"Don't ever call yourself that."

She shrugged. "Anyway…"

"I'm serious, Maia."

She gave him a winsome smile. "Thank you, love. I won't do it again."

"So, we do need to break up, then," he muttered quietly.

She squeezed his hand and shook her head. "No, not unless we decide to in the future. You see, I found a way to avoid all of that and to have the same or better outcome than my timeline had."

"How?"

"We need to keep our relationship a secret. No one can know, not even our closest friends. To everyone, we are not acquainted at all. That's the only way the Timeline will be preserved positively."

"So, no one can know that we are together, no matter what?"

She nodded.

"What do you think about this?" he asked.

"I think it's rubbish, but we have to do it." She squeezed his hand again. "I'm so happy to be with you that I want to yell it off the rooftops that we're together."

"You are?"

She nodded. "I want everyone to see us together and happy, but it's not going to be possible. Ever. At least until the war is over if we stay together that long." She lifted her head up and looked at him. "Are you all right with this?"

"Obviously, I would like it to be different, but… Maia, as long as we know how we feel about each other, I am okay with keeping this a secret. I'm just not sure how to do so."

"I'm sorry. It will mean you'll have to be even more diligent with your Occlumency."

He frowned. "Will that be enough, Maia? What if my shields fail?" He stood and walked over to the window. "Maybe we should just end this right now. I don't ever want my spying to hurt you."

Hermione rose and came up behind him. Her hand rested on his shoulder, and she squeezed it. "I'm part of this war no matter what. I don't want to lose you because we're afraid of what the future holds. In my research, our relationship wasn't found out. As long as you keep your shields strong, we should be fine."

"What if you're wrong?" he said as he turned to her.

"We can't fear the future, Severus. We have to live our lives the way we want to. The benefits far outweigh the possible negatives."

His arms went around her, and he held her close.

"I couldn't survive if you were hurt, Maia."

"I understand, I couldn't take it if you were hurt either."

He pulled back a bit and kissed her lovingly. "All right," he said finally. "We won't tell anyone that we are involved. Hopefully, your vision of the future will happen as you saw it."

"I hope so, too."

ooo

Hermione was running some experiments on the Horcruxes. She wanted to experiment on which Horcruxes could be destroyed ahead of time. Some were obviously not able to be changed, like Harry, and Nagini hadn't even been made yet.

The ring was possibly one that could be destroyed early. Voldemort never returned to view it in her time, so maybe it would work out. Her future vision panned out the same, with Voldemort leaving the ring buried in his father's house.

When the diary was destroyed, the sword of Gryffindor was never imbued with Basilisk venom, and they were unable to destroy the locket. So that was a big no.

She tried the locket itself next. They'd have to time it right and possibly save Regulus Black along the way. She reviewed the new timeline and was disappointed to find that in the long run, it made camping easy, but without the trial of the Horcrux around their necks, they weren't hardened. Ron didn't leave in a huff and come back to warn them about the Snatchers. Harry blurted out Voldemort's name much earlier and the Snatchers grabbed them before Hermione could alter Harry's face. The Malfoys summoned the Dark Lord, and the three of them were killed that very night. Not the best outcome.

The cup actually worked out. They needed to involve Dumbledore, but he was able to Polyjuice himself effectively as Bellatrix Lestrange and replaced the cup with an enspelled look-alike. No one was the wiser, and everything progressed normally in the timeline.

The Diadem was the easiest. It was simple to find and destroy, and it saved the Room of Requirement from being incinerated. It had taken several years for the room to work normally in her time.

In the timelines where one of the Horcruxes was destroyed ahead of time, Voldemort didn't find out. Albus knew there were multiple items, but curiously, he didn't find any of the others before it was time and nothing more about them was changed.

It galled her that Dumbledore was right about so many things. But in the end, he definitely could have done some things differently. She'd need to make sure those things happened in her future. She'd need to examine whether Dumbledore needed to die by Severus' hand next.

ooo

Hermione settled into her chair in the Time room. She'd been running scenarios to investigate if Dumbledore could survive and not have it affect the timeline negatively. Sighing heavily her eyes were drawn to the ceiling. She was not pleased with what she'd seen at all.

She'd been gutted to see that Dumbledore needed to die and that Severus needed to do it, which meant the ring Horcrux couldn't be destroyed early. The old coot had been right. She'd run every possible combination over the last two days and found that if Dumbledore died by the curse, or if Draco or one of the Death Eaters did it, they lost the war.

She'd thought that the ring being destroyed early would have been a positive. However, it changed the need for Dumbledore to die. He never put on the ring, therefore, he never cursed himself, so there would be no reason to kill him.

Hermione had run the vision with Dumbledore not being cursed and living a normal life. Dumbledore confronted Draco after Ron was poisoned and kept him from being able to attack him that year. Voldemort was enraged but decided against killing any of the Malfoys and told Draco he'd better succeed the next year.

His threat didn't need to be given as Dumbledore decided to take on Voldemort the summer after Hermione's sixth year. He brazenly appeared at Malfoy Manor, calling out to the Dark Lord.

"Tom! Tom Riddle! Come out and face me like a wizard," he taunted.

An enraged Voldemort emerged from the Manor, followed by the Malfoy's. All had their wands drawn.

"Come now, you're too chicken to face me alone?" Dumbledore chided.

Voldemort grinned evilly. "They are just here to see your end, Dumbledore. It's time for you to die!"

He shot an Avada Kedavra directly at Dumbledore, who calmly stepped aside and watched the curse go past him. He grinned at Voldemort.

"Not so fast, Tom. You can't just cut me down with a simple killing curse."

He cast a spell and shot knives at Voldemort. The Dark Lord flicked his wand, and they turned to sawdust. He cast another curse, pulling a tree down and almost crushing Dumbledore. The older wizard shielded himself and threw the tree to the side of him with some effort. Just in time he shielded the curse sent by Voldemort and sent one right back. He followed that up with two more curses, one sent fire barreling toward Voldemort, the other closely followed with more daggers.

Voldemort shielded and cast water on the fire. The shield deflected most of the knives, but one sliced his arm. He sneered at Dumbledore. Flying serpents emerged from his wand. Albus turned them into butterflies. Voldemort threw several spells in tandem. Dumbledore was caught unable to shield and change all of them. He deflected the lightning spell and dodged the Avada Kedavra. However, he stepped right into the javelin that was speeding toward him. It pierced his chest right over his heart.

The spear jutted grotesquely from his chest. He stumbled back, dropped his wand, and staggered as his hands surrounded the wood of the javelin. He looked down incredulously and fell to his knees.

As his heart stuttered to a stop, he fell forward and died, propped up by the long handle of the spear that had ended him. He slowly fell sideways to the ground, moving no more.

Voldemort grinned evilly, totally full of himself. "Now that's how you get rid of an enemy."

Hermione gaped as she watched the rest of the vision pan out. She sped time along and watched as the Order fell apart with grief. They stopped being vigilant, and Voldemort swept in with his Death Eaters and killed all of them as well.

She frowned as she realized that Dumbledore had to die. She ran some experiments where he just succumbed to the curse either right away or naturally. In those timelines, Severus didn't have the trust of Voldemort so he wasn't able to protect the children as Headmaster or affect the war as he had in her past. He wasn't able to give his memories to Harry, who never realized he was a Horcrux. He killed Voldemort, but the Dark Lord's spirit immediately took over Harry's body. Renewed and with a young and virile body, Voldemort reigned for a lifetime, destroying all the Muggle-born witches and wizards, taking over Muggle society, and becoming the most feared wizard in all the world.

Much the same happened when Severus didn't cut down Dumbledore but let the Death Eaters kill him–meaning Bellatrix. In all those scenarios, Voldemort killed Draco as well for not being able to do the deed. He came into power earlier and his reign was long and deadly.

Hermione chewed on her lip as she came to an awful conclusion. The only version of the future that was positive was when Severus killed Dumbledore, ensuring his place with Voldemort.

It was devastating. She'd so hoped that she'd be able to spare Severus this one thing. One thing that would destroy him in many ways once it was done. She was crushed that there was no alternative. Damn Dumbledore and damn time for not being able to be mutated in the way she wanted. She sighed finally. Some things just had to be, she concluded.

End of April

Hermione tapped the back of her quill on her parchment. She was writing up her last few vision experiments. At this point, she felt she'd examined most of the things that had driven the war. She would re-examine things if the timeline she knew changed in the future, but she'd challenged everything that was vital in her timeline, and much of it needed to stay the same.

She restated in her review what she'd learned about the Horcruxes, and which ones could be destroyed right away.

She outlined each year she was at Hogwarts. Each one had to move along as it did in her timeline or something awful would happen. Even Sirius Black's survival messed with the timeline enough that they suffered even more casualties in order to win the war. Severus, of course, had to be bitten by the snake, but his survival didn't hurt the timeline. Neither did Fred Weasley's survival. He went on to fell three Death Eaters and saved Tonks and Lupin if he survived. If those things happened, there would be changes to the future after the war, of course, but she'd researched all those changes extensively, and they didn't result in anything bad. No new Dark Lord had emerged because Teddy Lupin had been brought up by his parents.

She'd decided to leave out certain things in her report that would change: not including Fred's death at all, and leaving out that Tonks and Lupin were both killed. She just briefly included Severus being killed by the snake. She'd not reported on her first experiments with his death when she'd done them, not wanting to call attention to his death or survival when she'd decided to save his life. She decided to leave them out fully here as well. There wouldn't need to be any extrapolation in her report about if he survived. She didn't want the hint of that having been examined. If anyone knew she was going to change the future, they would try and stop her. That couldn't happen.

She finished up her report and stood. She wanted to deliver this one in person and ask a favor. She went to Lilah's office and knocked, entering when summoned.

"Ah, Maia, good to see you," Lilah greeted.

"Hi Lilah. I have that last report," Hermione said as she put the parchment on Lilah's desk. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Have a seat."

"This is in my report, but I wanted to bring it up with you. The Horcruxes that Voldemort has made so far–we can destroy two of them without changing the timeline in any way."

Lilah pulled the report to her and opened it so she could read Hermione's findings on the Horcruxes. She scanned it for a few minutes, her eyes drawing up to Hermione's once she'd finished.

"You want to destroy these and change the timeline?"

Hermione nodded.

"It says here you ran each of these changes ten times with the same outcome?"

"Yes. It helps with the end game, and You-Know-Who never checks up on them, so he never knows they are destroyed."

Lilah's lips thinned. She tapped her fingers on the desk before addressing Hermione again.

"How would this be done?"

Hermione relaxed slightly, glad that Lilah was at least considering her idea.

"I think we should bring Dumbledore into this. He is the most powerful wizard alive, and he has the ability to find and destroy these Horcruxes… probably with Fiendfyre."

"And him knowing about the Horcruxes this early in the game?"

"It gives him an edge, but overall, makes no difference except for the destruction of the two Horcruxes early."

Lilah sat back and thought about what Hermione was suggesting. She quickly read through the rest of Hermione's report. They sat in silence for several minutes while she deliberated.

"All right. I'm promoting you to Unspeakable First Class. You will arrange a meeting with Dumbledore and explain these Horcruxes to him and give him detailed instructions on how to destroy them."

"Wait, you want me to talk to Dumbledore?"

"This is your idea. You're free to see it through."

Hermione straightened. "I'll owl the Headmaster and set up an appointment."

"Good luck! Now he can be a stubborn old man, so…"

"Oh, I know. I may have to show him some memories to convince him of what I'm saying."

"No, don't do that. He may take advantage and see too much." Lilah opened her desk drawer and took out a parchment with Ministry letterhead on it. She wrote something on it and handed it to Hermione.

"This should help, Maia, so you won't have to open your mind to him. Take it with you and give it to him when you meet. I'll speak to him personally also."

Hermione looked at the note.

Headmaster Dumbledore,

Please give your support to Maia Moreau, Unspeakable First Class at the Ministry of Magic. She has important information that will affect the outcome of the future war.

Thank you,

Lilah Devane

Head of Time Studies

Department of Mysteries

Ministry of Magic

Hermione nodded at the letter. "This is perfect. Thank you."

"Good, now that that's taken care of, let's go to lunch," Lilah offered.

Hermione grinned as she stood. "Brilliant, I'm famished."