Prologue: There Are No Safe Places

"They're breaking in!" Ginny shouted over the blasts thundering through the house.

Safe house, Hermione thought bitterly. No place was safe anymore, not even the Order headquarters. Hunted by the Death Eaters, the gang had gotten separated from each other weeks ago in a deadly fight. She had killed two Death Eaters then, but she could not forget the dead stares of Dean and Luna, as they lay unmoving on the forest floor. She hadn't been quick enough to save them. And as for Ron and Harry, she had no idea. All she could do was hoping that someone else besides Ginny and herself were still on the loose. Wherever or whoever they were, no one had showed up at 12 Grimmauld Place. Not before the Death Eaters, at least.

Her body shields were failing from the strain of fighting the assault, and she could feel cracks appearing in her perimeter wards to the house. The Death Eaters had put up anti-Apparition wards around the house almost fifteen minutes ago, and she felt a mounting despair. Suddenly experiencing an intense pain, her wards broke down, and she gasped as the doors and windows of the house splintered into flying shards. Voldemort! It was all she could do to barely maintain her body shields against the incoming curses and flying objects. "He is here!", she yelled to Ginny, holding on to her body shields for dear life. But Ginny's eyes only widened, as a hurtling piece of glass from the window cut through her left arm, slicing it into two, neat separate halves by its brutal momentum. Sobbing, Hermione crept up to her, cradling her head in her lap, blood pumping from the arm, soaking into the carpet.

Ginny whispered pained and pale: "Do it quick, Hermione. Kill me. I can't get away anyway. They'll only keep me alive for torture and pain. Use the Time-Turner to go someplace far away in time. Use Nasheegs theorem! Save yourself!"

Hermione realized she was right. All was lost. Sobbing bitterly, she pointed her wand at Ginny, while clutching the Time-Turner in her fist. "Avada Kedavra!", she yelled, green light flashing in the room. She fed Ginny's silent death into the small, golden object while hoarsely whispering Tempus sacrificio. The hourglass spun wildly, and she willed it to go somewhere, to a time when I can change all that's happened, a time where I can stop this madness.

As the remains of the door crashed open, she felt the room change into a blur, and then all became black.

A/N: I don't own anything HP-related, but I do wish I had magic, a wand and Tom Riddle. Please review! :-)