Hagrid was sobbing as he held Harry's body, and Hermione could feel herself go numb at the sight of his limp figure. With a flick of the elder wand, Hagrid stumbled forward, Harry's body tumbling from his arms onto the cold ground. Voldemort laughed, and the sound that pierced Hermione's ears wasn't human. He wasn't human. Not anymore.

Neville ran screaming, wand raised, eyes only on Nagini - but a green light hit his chest and he was falling. Suddenly, chaos erupted around them. She felt Ron let go of her hand, and was herself slinging spells - unforgivables - at any enemy she could see. Suddenly, the heart wrenching cry that only a mother could produce caught her attention. Turning swiftly, Hermione glimpsed a pile of red hair, quickly becoming redder. She didn't have time to process the information, because spells were still being hurled towards her. Running back into the castle, she ran until her legs gave way and silent sobs wracked her body - she couldn't fight anymore. Harry, Ron, her parents...everyone they had lost. It was all for naught. Voldemort won.

Looking up, she saw a door. Looking around the deserted hallway, she realized she was in front of the room of requirements. But she had watched it burn. Was its magic really this powerful? Standing, she pushed open the door. I need something to help me win this fight. She thought it so fiercely that she was disappointed to the vast nothingness she walked into. "I guess the fire really did destroy the room" She said aloud. When she went to turn around, the door had vanished, and there was nothing but white all around her.

"The room was destroyed. But I was not." Hermione let out a gasp, spinning back around to see an old figure step towards her. At first it looked like Dumbledore, but his face kept changing. Professor Flitwicks, her own grandfather, someone she didn't know. His face just kept changing - and now, Hermione realized, it was getting younger as well until Harry, now Ron, now Krum was standing before her. Her breathing was ragged, and as he reached to touch her face, she held her breath. As his fingers caressed her cheek, all the pain she didn't know she had was suddenly gone and she felt light as air.


"Who are you?" She asked, her logic coming back to her, as she was trying to reason it out.
"I think you know, dear child." He said, once again old with age. He kept aging until nothing but bones remained, than dust, than nothing.
Hermione bent down, picking up the robes, only to have an infant crawl out from them. It crawled towards her, and she picked it up. A toddler soon sat on her hip, and in its childish voice it told her. "I'm father time. What has happened tonight was a grave mistake. Dark magic is at play, it is altering the passage of time."
"But...wh- Voldemort."
"Yes child."
"What can I do?"
"You?" Said a teenage boy, "Why, you are the key." He bowed down low, grabbing her hand and placing a kiss on it. Hermione blushed, until the face of Tom Riddle looked back up at her. Screaming, she pulled away. Wiping her hand on her robes as if it were dirty.
"You are going to fix this problem."
"How?" Hermione replied. Her breathing and her heart rate accelerated again.
"Bad things happen to wizards who mess with time."
"Yes. yes.... Than how do I fix this."
"By going back to the beginning."
"The beginning? You can't mean."
"But I do."
"Time travel hasn't ever gone back that far though, how would I-"
"Girl, you underestimate me."
"And what if I change the future."
"That's what I'm intending you to do. You must go back, and stop Tom Marvolo Riddle before he ever truely becomes Lord Voldemort."

An old man stood before her once again. A hand reaching out to cup her face. This time, a light followed, so bright that Hermione couldn't see. And suddenly she was falling. As she saw the ground coming up towards her fast, she screamed casting a spell so that her fall was a mere tumble and not the 1000 foot drop she had just done.

"Woah, who is that?" A voice startled her, and Hermione turned quickly - she thought she was staring at Draco Malfoy, but then she realized that it wasn't him. Swallowing, she quickly stood up, wearily eyeing the Thresels that pulled the carriage of Slytherine-dressed students. As her eyes went back to the group, they were instantly drawn to the face of one handsome young man, her eyes locked with his, and she was quickly back on the ground, unconscious.