Hermione
November 1979, Bodmin Moor

Sirius was gone before she could stop him, tearing away through the mass of people and light and sound that made up the battle, out of sight in seconds. Hermione thought about running after him. He might be out of sight, but he couldn't be far. But then, a shrub exploded next to her and between that and Ginny's duel, and whatever it was Luna was doing, she couldn't get through, not without putting herself in a line of fire. She was stuck here, and all she could do was scream his name. There was no response.

"Incendio!" Ginny shouted; the shrub burst into flames. A Death Eater Apparated away, and Ginny span to face Hermione. "What's the plan?"

"I don't have one!" They were so far off plan that it was as if they'd never written one at all, but, she realised, there was only really one thing they should be doing right now - exactly what they should have prioritised at the beginning of this. That gave her a strange sense of calm, even within all of this. They didn't need any more of an elaborate plan than this.

"Voldemort," she said. "It's about time we found Voldemort."

Ginny nodded. "Excellent plan. Oh, bloody hell, Aguamenti!" A jet of water flew from her wand, putting out the fire that had spread from the burning shrub towards Luna's legs. "Where is he?" She took up a position back-to-back with Hermione, still casting spells, because a fight didn't stop for them to have a pleasant chat. Hermione ducked a curse, reaching behind, and grabbing Ginny down with her. It was Ginny that dragged her up, seconds later, and they carried on as if it'd never happened at all.

"Should someone go after Sirius?" Remus asked, glancing around for Sirius as he dispatched a Death Eater.

"No," she said. "He's going to be fine." She didn't necessarily believe it. "He won't stop what he's doing, will he?" She looked for him one last time - nothing. No sign of him, or Regulus for that matter. Smoke rose over the battlefield; another plant exploded less than five feet away.

"No time like the present," said Luna, cheerily.

They started off, but they were only feet from where they started when there was a second explosion. Dust filled all of their eyes. Hermione reached out and grabbed onto what she thought was Ginny's arm, and, with her other hand, began casting spells to try to clear the cloud of dust.

"Protego!" Ginny yelled, it was Ginny she was holding onto, and Hermione felt the jolt as several curses hit the shield. It promptly dissipated, the spell fizzling out into nothing. "Protego!" Ginny shouted again, both her and Hermione together this time, just in time for the next volley of curses. They bounced off, shattering jets of light into a pattern that anywhere else would have been pretty, but here just represented that they weren't dead yet. That they were lucky. Both of them ducked as the shield collapsed in on them, Hermione's legs almost buckling under her. She wasn't sure how long they'd been fighting, though she was sure it was long enough that if she stopped for even a second, she'd not be able to start again.

"Shit!" Ginny muttered. "Where's Remus? Where's Luna?"

Hermione tried to look for them, amidst the clearing dust, but Luna was nowhere to be seen. Her hair was distinctive enough to recognise anywhere. Remus was harder to identify, but he certainly wasn't anywhere near them. There were multiple people with brownish hair and battered clothes, all of their clothes were the worse for wear, although, admittedly, not many of his height. Still., Hermione saw nothing, not that she had much time to look.

"I'm going to look for them," Ginny said, as Hermione fended off an attack from behind them. "Coming?"

Hermione tightened her grip on Ginny's arm, twisting around to get a better shot at a Death Eater.

"No," she said, panting, trying to fit the words in between spells. "No, we can't go after them, either, we've got to get to Voldemort, Ginny, we've got to make this stop!"

"Sirius might be," said Ginny, but she'd stopped trying to pull away from Hermione.

"Sirius has gone for Regulus, and I know you want to find Luna and Remus, and I do, too, but that'll just endanger someone else. Won't it?" She paused, whether to breathe or hex someone, she wasn't sure. Both.

Every part of Hermione was tired, every part of her wanted to run screaming after Luna, and Remus, and Sirius most of all, but this wasn't the time for that, it couldn't be the time for that. She hated being the sensible one. She hated being the one that couldn't even entertain the thought of saving a friend, of right now going after just one friend, but of having to save them all, or as many as she could, in one swoop. Her legs hurt, her face felt like it was crawling with insects, her back had crunched on one of her many dodges out of the way and now it didn't feel like it'd bend to the right, no matter how much she might need it to. Her wand felt erratic in her hand, as if it'd experienced too much magic tonight. Her spells felt off, too, either far more powerful than she'd ever managed to cast them before, or weak and lacklustre, the colours barely showing against the dust and the smoke.

And she couldn't stop to investigate her erratic magic, not even just to see if Ginny was experiencing it, too, and she couldn't stop to work out if her face was crawling because of curse damage or tiredness. She couldn't stop, at all. She had too much to do, and not enough time.

"Won't it?" she asked again. "We've got to go, haven't we?"

Ginny bit her lip, swore, and then in answer to Hermione turned and started running, Hermione's grip on Ginny's arm dragging her forwards with Ginny. Towards Voldemort. Towards an almost certainly ill advised attempt to kill him, which they didn't have a plan for, just to run headlong, Harry-style, into the biggest danger on the entire sodding battlefield. But there wasn't anything else for it, so Hermione picked up speed, and the two of them tore across the moor, casting whatever spells they could think of at anyone in a mask.

Hermione hesitated for a moment when they caught sight of Voldemort properly. He duelled with two Order members at once, wasn't that Dorcas Meadowes, Hermione recognised her, and Neville's dad, and he was winning as far as Hermione could tell. He was flanked by two Death Eaters, each duelling an opponent of their own, but they stayed with him as Voldemort duelled, his bodyguards, almost. It wasn't that which made Hermione hesitate, however, it was what was on the floor next to her. Dumbledore. Dead, clearly, because nothing else would have kept him down, and even if they hadn't had any contact with this Dumbledore, it still hurt.

And if Dumbledore could die against him, in a fair fight, not that business with Snape and the Astronomy Tower, then what chance did she and Ginny have?

Ginny didn't hesitate, however.

"Oi, Tom!" she shouted. "Tom Riddle!"

And Voldemort turned his attention to them.

"Avada Kedavra!" he shouted, the jet of green light hurtling towards Ginny, who ducked. Obviously that's where he'd start, and Ginny was ready for it. Frank Longbottom, clad in Auror robes, used the opportunity to Stun one of the bodyguard Death Eaters, darting to the body as it fell and Apparating away with it. Voldemort laughed. "Crucio!"

This one hit Ginny, who grimaced.

She should have done more than grimace, that was what registered in Hermione's brain, but not for any longer than it took for her to also register that this was an opportunity to strike. She cast her own curse at Voldemort; her first ever Killing Curse. He sidestepped it. They'd been leaping out of the way, ducking and diving from them, and yet, he stepped out of the way like it was a toddler with a water pistol. Hermione readied herself to try again. She could do this, she could cast the Killing Curse and make it work. Of course she could. Luna had done it, and she hated Voldemort, she wanted him dead with every fibre of her being, didn't she?

"Don't," said Luna, and she grabbed Hermione's arm. Luna hadn't been there before, which didn't seem strange, after all, there was so much noise, but Hermione should have noticed somebody coming up next to her. Hermione felt a tug behind her neck and the world began to disappear. Her first thought was to think she was dying, but this was Apparition, wasn't it? Hermione struggled, because this wasn't right, Luna wouldn't drag her away just as they were about to defeat Voldemort, would she?

They landed in a heap back at Thetford Abbey, or Hermione thought that was where they were, judging from the structure of the ruins around them.

"Luna," she said, dragging herself out from underneath the person she hoped was her friend, "Luna Elowen Lovegood, what what happened the day we met on the Hogwarts Express?" Hermione pointed her wand directly at Luna, or not Luna, her hand impressively steady, she was pleased to notice.

"Oh, quite a lot of things. The most unusual was that plant squirting Neville in the face, but you weren't really there for that. You were at a Prefect meeting. And when you came back, you were really rather rude about my magazine."

Hermione relaxed a little bit.

"What the fuck!" she shouted, for lack of anything better to say. It was that or some of Ginny's more creative threats. "What do you think this is? I'm going back."

Luna jabbed her wand at Hermione. "No you'e not," she said, consulting her watch. "Not just yet. Or perhaps you have. I'm getting myself into a muddle; luckily, I've been writing it down."

"I'm going back," said Hermione, firmly, and twisted on the spot to Apparate away, but, of course, nothing happened. She wasn't going anywhere, she was stuck here with Luna, of all people, and her inability to get to the point.

"We don't have much time," Luna said, which Hermione thought was stating the obvious. "Come along."

"Where?"

"All will be clear."

"Luna, now is not the time!" Hermione began to pace, while Luna stood entirely still. "We need to get back there, we've just left Ginny, and what about the others? This is ridiculous!"

Luna pulled something from her pocket. "If you'd stop shouting," she said, calmly, "I could have the time to explain, couldn't I? And the pacing is rather distracting, too, if less of an actual barrier."

"Time?" asked Hermione. "Luna, you haven't?" She'd thought they didn't have the time.

"Sort of. Betty did some of it, so I wouldn't like to claim all the credit."

"It's broken."

"Was broken. Something else I can only claim partial credit for, really."

"Why?" Hermione didn't have the time for this, or that's how it still felt. Yes, Luna was holding out the time-travel device that had brought them here, and it wasn't broken, and Hermione didn't have the first idea what to do with it. She had eight ideas, or nine, or eleven, but what to do first? That she wasn't certain of. "Why did you fix it?"

"Why not?" Luna could be so incredibly frustrating sometimes. "And because I had a use for it, I suppose. Then, one could also suppose that everyone in the universe would have a use for a time turner, whether they should be allowed one or not, but there you are. Perhaps I should say we felt like we had a compelling use for it. Betty and I, that's the we, by the way."

"I'd worked that out." Hermione ran through several scenarios in her head, rapidly, and then re-ran one of them with some different parameters. "So we're going to save everyone."

"No. Well, yes and no, really. We're not saving anyone from dying, but, rather, saving someone from an undeserved fate of a different kind, that, and our own existences here."

"How?" Hermione wasn't used to feeling on the back foot, but here, she did.

"Regulus is unconscious on the battlefield right now. Come the end of the battle, he's going to be arrested, wouldn't you say? And put on trial. His involvement in the Death Eaters is well enough suspected, and as soon as they find the Dark Mark, that's him gone."

Hermione stopped. "They might use Veritaserum."

"Yes. He's killed enough innocent people to get a life sentence."

"And he knows who we all really are." Hermione took up pacing again, a ridiculous habit, she hated it when Sirius did it. "So we have to get him out of there. No." She stopped again. "We have to do something that'll clear his name."

"Exactly," said Luna, sitting on the grass and stretching out her legs. "Apple?" she offered, pulling two from her pocket. "We should keep our strength up. I'm sure you'll come up with a plan. What plan are we onto now? U? V? What happens once we go past Z? Do we go to AA lettering, or would it be best to move onto a numerical system, perhaps?"

Hermione didn't have much of an answer to that. If she'd been left in charge of the plan, she needed to have one, and that was going to take as much time as she had and then some. But they had time. And Hermione could use that to her advantage. She thought she had something.

"It sounds simple enough," said Luna, "which perhaps only gives it ten ways to go wrong, rather than twenty. I do like simplicity."

It didn't feel simple to Hermione. It felt like a convoluted mess that could have easily twenty things go wrong, if not closer to thirty, but it was a plan.

"Hadn't we better go?" she said, as Luna bit into her apple.
"Time travel," said Luna by way of explanation. "As previously established. And the importance of good nourishment before trying something difficult, hard, and energetic. Besides, my magic's gone fairly impossible to control hasn't yours?"

"Yes." Hermione sat down. She hadn't realised until now just how exhausted her legs were, and her wand arm, too. Her head felt like it was full of fluff. Luna tossed over the apple, and Hermione bit into it. She'd been hungry, too.

"Vitamin C," said Luna, wisely. Hermione found the time to work out that the itching on her face had been curse damage, and did enough to fix it that it shouldn't cause any permanent problems.

"What about everyone else?" she asked, once she was halfway through the apple. "Can't we save others?" Dumbledore, for example. Peter Pettigrew, if he really had died, she hadn't seen that one properly. Sirius might even be alright about saving him, now. And the other Sirius, and all the other Order fighters.

Luna shook her head. "It'd be too risky."

"But we've got a Time Turner again. We can go back as many times as we need."

"Can we? How do you know that?"

Hermione wasn't in the mood for a philosophical discussion. Luna, having finished her apple, began charming it to levitate a couple of inches above the damp grass, leaning back onto the rough stone wall of the ruins.

"Because you don't, do you?" Luna continued. "You were told to do it only twice a day at school, weren't you, three times in exceptional circumstances. And, if I'm right, you were explained that was on the grounds of making sure that you had enough food and sleep for the extra hours, am I right?"

Hermione nodded.

"That isn't entirely the truth, although, it is also something we need to take into account," said Luna, pulling a packet of crisps from her pocket as if the conversation had reminded her to do it. "It's altogether slightly more complicated than that, as these things often are. You see, there's only so many times we can mess with the fabric of time until things start to get confusing. If you're really unlucky, you can create some quite spectacular issues, paradoxes, and the like. And I think it's better we don't do that."

"How do you know?"

"People have experimented."

"You?"

"Not myself, personally, no." Luna sighed. "People of far worse repute than me, and that's even with counting the murder from earlier. I believe it, though. And, furthermore, the more magic that is happening around the time travel, the more issues can be caused. You saw the amount of magic back there. It's dangerous."

"Why would that make a difference?"

"I don't think we have time for the theory now, not really," said Luna, checking her watch again. "It might have to wait. Do you trust me?"

Hermione wanted to. Maybe she could just have this argument later. They could prioritise saving Regulus, yes, and then she could talk to Luna later, see if they couldn't go back for the others. The Ministry was always cautious with their guidelines on magical artefacts, they had been in her time and from history books she'd read, they had been for much of wizarding history, so there was bound to be more they could do with this than was officially sanctioned by the Ministry. She could save everyone, she was sure of it.

She sounded like Sirius.

"Yes," she said. "Of course I trust you, Luna."

Worst case scenario, she could steal it. It was hers anyway, it'd really only be taking back an unauthorised loan of the thing to Luna. Sirius would come with her, she knew he would. And if he was dead, a scenario she was trying not to think about, well, she'd save him first.

Luna checked her watch a third time. "Half an hour should do it fine from here," she said, twisting up her packet of crisps and replacing it into her pocket. "Forty-five minutes, maybe. Just to be sure we don't cross ourselves anywhere. Ready?"

"You can't do half-hour jumps on a Time Turner."

"Intent is as important as anything else, isn't it? Now, are you ready?"

Hermione nodded.

Thetford Abbey looked no different, being less than an hour previous. The moon was in a slightly different position in the sky, and the stars, too, but everything else was entirely normal, unaffected by the fight going on somewhere else. Luna carefully tucked the little black box containing the Time Turner into her pocket, having charmed it shut. Hermione waited. She'd got worse at waiting, she was certain of it.

"Hold onto me," said Luna. "I know whereabouts I saw him, after he was injured, so it might be better that I Apparate us both."

Hermione agreed by taking Luna's elbow, and within seconds they were back on the battlefield. Immediately they had to duck for cover, but Luna had brought them out at the right spot, less than ten feet from Regulus. They darted over to him. He was alive, at least, his chest rising and falling with his breath, but he wasn't in a very good way. She scrabbled in her bag for something that might help - really, she needed Ginny, she was much better at the spellwork side of this than Hermione was - and after a couple of minutes work, Regulus began to cough and splutter, coming to again. He wasn't in good shape, no, but he was alive, and he only had to cast one spell, after all.

"Adeline?" he croaked. "Sirius?"

"They're fine," Hermione assured him, hoping that he didn't work out the untruth in that. She didn't know either way if Adeline was okay. There was nothing to be gained from saying that to Regulus, however, and Sirius had certainly been alive at this point.

"I killed Sirius," he said. "I killed my brother, you know. I do not think that I have two brothers. I have a dead brother and an alive one, and I don't think I want to have killed him."

Hermione glanced up at Luna, her wand still casting spells at Regulus' body. Luna shook her head. Hermione's instinct was to bristle, and to plot a way to steal the Time Turner from Luna. If they could interfere for this, couldn't they for that as well? Time travel wasn't something anyone had the answers on, and Luna had admitted she hadn't done any experimentation herself, although, Hermione supposed you could make an argument it wasn't ethical.
"We haven't got much time," Luna reminded her.

They got Regulus to his feet, shakily at best, and still muttering about Sirius. Now was the first time that Hermione properly doubted her plan - not that it couldn't work, but, that with Regulus in this state, that it wouldn't.

"Regulus," she said, positioning herself in his face, trying to keep his eyes focused on her and not on looking for an iteration of his brother. "Regulus, you have to listen to me. Can you do magic?"

"Yes. I am a Black, we can do whatever we like. Father said so. Father is wrong on many counts, so it is possible he is wrong on this, but I am a Black. Are you a Black?" He raised an eyebrow, listing off to the left.

"Yes," said Hermione, because that was the truth by blood and marriage, even if she hadn't been born that way. Regulus relaxed at that.

"I can do whatever you require," he said. "Except perhaps magic."

Hermione would never know how she got the half-lucid Regulus across the battlefield without incident, Luna almost dancing ahead of them, trying to dispatch or scare away as many opponents as possible. She had the beginnings of an idea why, actually, but now wasn't the time to think that through. She supported the dead weight of Regulus on one side of her, and held her wand in the other, helping Luna where she could. She'd been right about stopping, not that that was any consolation. Every muscle in her body rebelled against being expected to do this again, to dodge and duck and fight for yet more time. It'd be over soon. Hermione couldn't see any way it couldn't be over soon.

They took shelter behind a rock, Luna Transfiguring it to become larger, Hermione casting a few spells of misdirection, Regulus, a Muffilatio. He seemed better, Hermione thought, more aware of his surroundings. He'd brushed the hair from his face and the blood from his lip, and bent down to re-tie his shoelace. A body crashed to the floor next to them, dark robes, someone she didn't recognise, it could have been anybody.

"Not time yet," she said. "Is he ready?"

"I think he can do it." That wasn't really the truth - Hermione honestly didn't know at this point whether he'd be capable of doing it to nor. Maybe all he had to do was get up there and try. Would that be enough to satisfy the Ministry that he'd joined their side? He could cast the Killing Curse, he'd done it before, he just had to do it now.

"I can do whatever it is you require," Regulus repeated. His hair stuck on end, his robes torn, the Dark Mark on his arm exposed. He had none of his usual poise, and his voice had lost it's confidence, instead being something more like wishful thinking than a promise.

"We could go for Remus, too," said Hermione, deciding, against her better judgement, to ignore the fact of whether Regulus could do what they needed him to do or not. A Sirius tactic. Hope for the best and come up with a plan later if it's a worst-case scenario. "Did you see what happened to him?"

Luna shook her head.

"He disappeared when you did," Hermione went on, "and you made it back to us, you found us, so he can, too. We can do this," she added, "without using it once, I'm sure we can."

"You're sure?" Luna asked, as mildly as if they were discussing the weather.

"Yes." Another not-quite truth.

"We can only do our best," said Luna, and disappeared off into the dust and smoke, which left Hermione alone with Regulus. Hermione checked her own watch. Almost like she was picking up Luna's tic, but it was more than that. She had to concentrate, she had to know when to act.

"You've got to kill Voldemort," she said. "That's it. That's all you've got to do. I'll get you there, just point your wand at him and kill him."

"Adeline will be fine if I do that." It wasn't a question, not really, but Hermione still felt like she was lying to him.

"Yes," she said. She felt like she was manipulating him, actually, but she was hopeful Adeline would be fine, and this was as much for Regulus as it was for anyone else. "We're all going to be okay. Everyone will be, if you can kill Voldemort."

Regulus nodded. For a moment he retained some of his usual mannerisms, the way he had always seemed to be in command of a situation. Neither of them were in control here though, Regulus or Hermione or anyone else. Still, it gave her some hope.

"Kill Voldemort," he repeated. "I suppose that should not be too difficult." He even had a half-smile, as if he was joking.

"Drink these," said Hermione, checking her watch once more as she handed Regulus a collection of vials. Pain relief, blood replenishers, a Pepper-Up potion, something to help him remain steady. "We've got to go soon."

"Where?" Regulus asked. "I always aim to be on time, yes, but I do not think you have told me where I am going."

Hermione didn't think this was going to work. Regulus had lost it, yes, that was the technical term for this. He'd lost it and she wasn't convinced they had any viable hope of getting it back before he had act. This had been a terrible plan, they always were, when you rushed into them like this, terrible, but it was what they had. She checked her watch. Delaying would only make it worse now.

"Now," she said, to Regulus, "we have to go, now." He blinked at her but staggered up to join her without question, thankfully, raising his wand alongside hers. He blocked a curse that came speeding their way, while Hermione got her bearings again. Time to go.

They arrived with seconds to spare; Hermione caught sight of Luna grabbing onto her, the other her. This is how Sirius must have felt for a year and a half, she thought, as her stomach gave an involuntary jolt at the sight of herself. Her body seemed to want to be sick. Instead of that, she tugged at Regulus' arm.

"Come on," she said. "You can do it, Regulus. For Adeline, remember, for the baby."

Regulus stared blankly back at Hermione, looking like a deer in headlights as much as he did anything else, and then, with a momentary look that was so much more like the Regulus she knew, he ran. He bolted in the direction of where Hermione had disappeared from, towards Ginny and Voldemort, and Hermione followed him. What else was she going to do, honestly? She sprinted, wand out, ready to fend off Death Eaters. Ginny, catching sight of them, couldn't stop to show her surprise

In just a few seconds, they crossed the small expanse of mud, and Regulus drew his wand. Voldemort turned, his face entirely impassive.

"Regulus," he crooned. "My loyal servant."

Regulus blinked. Once. Twice. He took one more step forwards.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Someone screamed as Voldemort's body topped, hitting the ground with a soft thump. He was gone. Nothing happened, no sign of any soul escaping, nothing except a body. Voldemort was dead, and, for the second time that Hermione had witnessed it, nothing felt any different.

He'd done it, Regulus had done it. Hermione leapt to throw her arms around him, catching sight for a moment of his face, baffled and confused, as she pulled him into her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him, almost lifting him ff the floor, because that felt like the only thing she should be doing right now. He'd done it, hadn't he?

"I killed the Dark Lord," he said, muffled into her shoulder. "Adeline will be safe."

Sirius. She had to look for Sirius.

Hermione released Regulus and turned to go, to run off in the last direction she'd seen her husband, but obviously, she should have known it was obvious, the fight wasn't over just because Voldemort fell. A roar came from the nearest Death Eaters, and a barrage of spells followed without much time to prepare. Of course they'd want to kill Regulus - he'd just killed their Dark Lord. He was a traitor. So she couldn't go anywhere, of course she couldn't leave, morally or physically, because Regulus might have killed Voldemort, but that was all the force of will he'd had left. He still stood exactly where she'd left him, his wand raised as if he didn't remember what to do with it.

She closed in on him, alongside Ginny, and Dorcas Meadowes, who was muttering something about never having expected to defend a Death Eater. But she fought without question, they all did. Hermione magaged to release a Patronus, somewhere in the middle of it all, calling cor help from Luna, Remus, Adeline, anyone, Sirius, of course, she needed Sirius, and she needed to get everyone out of this alive.

Something exploded, a crash that sent reverberations through the earth at their feet, and all they could do was fight.

And then they weren't fighting any more. A last few Death Eaters remained loose and fighting, casting more and more vicious spells, no longer fighting to win but just to inflict damage. Aurors were beginning to roam the area rather than fighting, corralling captured Death Eaters together and followed by Hit Wizards with clipboards. Healers, too, were going from person to person, treating wounded and releasing the dead to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"They're going to come here soon," said Ginny. She'd dropped down to crouch at Dorcas' side, on the floor, but she wasn't doing anything at all. Hermione realised she ; that's why Ginny wasn't doing anything. "I want to find Remus."

"He'll be okay," said Hermione. She hadn't felt nervous at all while fighting. Exhausted, yes, occasionally panicked or scared for her life in the immediate future, but not nervous like this. The pit of her stomach twisted and turned. "We're all going to be okay, now."

Ginny raised an eyebrow.

"I killed the Dark Lord," said Regulus.

And Hermione still wanted to run to find Sirius.

Ginny climbed up from the floor, scuffing in the mud with the toes of her trainers. "Plan?" she asked. "Regulus really needs medical care, not a bloody interrogation. Would it be worse for him if we got him out of here?"

"Yes. It'll look like he's running away."

Ginny sighed. "I'll do what I can," she said, "but it'd be helpful if you could attract the attention of a real Healer. I have no idea what curse this is, or what combination, honestly, I don't know where to start. Sit down, Regulus, can you? I'm just going to see if I can help you at all."

Hermione left them to it, starting off towards where a clump of Healers stood. One of the people at their feet was Peter Pettigrew, she realised with a jolt. He'd not done anything wrong this time. He'd been fighting for their side all the way through, he'd done everything right. This wasn't fair. What she needed to find wasn't a Healer, and it wasn't Sirius, either. It was Luna. She needed to explain to Luna exactly why they had to go back again, exactly how they could do more than save just Regulus. They could do more; they had to do more.

"He's Peter Pettigrew," she said, to the Healer standing next to him. The elderly witch with her hair scraped back into a bun looked up from her clipboard, her mouth in a line.

"I see. And would you be his next of kin?"

"No, that's his mother," said Hermione, realising she didn't know Mrs Pettigrew's name, anyway. "But I knew him. He was fighting with the Order of the Phoenix, he died trying to save Voldemort. He was brave, and nobody should forget that he was brave."

"That we won't be," said the Healer, her mouth softening. "And who would you be, dearie? Do you need help, or a Calming Draught?"

"No, no," said Hermione, acutely aware of the burn on her hand, which she hadn't really noticed throbbing until now, and something was wrong with her leg, but she didn't have the time for any of that. "I just wanted him to be remembered. He was brave." She should mention Regulus. "He needs help," she said, "over there. With the ginger-haired woman. He killed Voldemort."

"I see," said the Healer. "Well, we'll be sending someone to him, but you won't be going anywhere until I've looked at that burn. It gets worse with time, you know, you don't want to be leaving that."

Hermione, honestly, couldn't care less, but she submitted to some burn paste applied by a nervous trainee Healer called Annie, and someone else looked at her leg, which was curse damage, and she took the potions they handed her without complaint, but not the Calming Draught.

"I don't need it," she said, because, frankly, she had too much to do to be calm, this wasn't a calm sort of situation. "I'm fine. Honestly. I need to find my husband."

"Marjorie wants to check you when she's back." The trainee couldn't help but glance over her shoulder as she said it, over to where Majorie, if that was her name, was still crouched over Regulus with Ginny. "She was quite insistent."

Hermione was quite insistent, too, she'd been told so many times. On this occasion, she just ran away. The trainee Healer could be heard protesting, but Hermione had things to do that were more important than what was really a very minor injury. She could go and get it checked tomorrow if it was that important - not that she thought it was - and, she didn't have time for it today.

A safe distance away, further than she thought the Healers would want to run, Hermione stopped and tried to get her bearings. Nothing she recognised, really. Every part of the moor looked much the same as every other part. The smoke and dust was clearing now, and most of the people too, but that didn't help her see Sirius. Or Luna. She'd gone the same way as Luna had, or so she thought, but there was nothing to orient herself against except rocks and shrubs and whether you were running slightly uphill or down. Still, Luna couldn't be far.

Sirius was another matter. It would be impossible to work out which way he'd gone without finding the starting point, and that'd take just as long as looking for him without working out his trajectory. And there was Remus, and Adeline, to find. She had to prioritise.

So she could find Luna, and risk her not allowing them to use the Time Turner. Or they might use it and save more people. Hermione could steal it. It was hers, anyway, wasn't it, so it wasn't even stealing, more just returning to the rightful owner. Or she could go after Sirius, which was what she wanted to do, but that was selfish. She'd be choosing one person, her husband, over however many other people.

What did you do in that situation? What would Sirius do?

No. She loved Sirius, but he was a terrible example of forward planning. He'd get that Time Turner somehow, and he'd use it, and never mind whether there were consequences, scientific or otherwise, and he'd probably get himself into some kind of trouble. Like he almost certainly had now, even without any help from time travel. No, much better, what would Harry and Ron do?

They'd want to go back, of course they would, but if she'd told them she didn't think it was a good idea, based on facts and evidence and research, they wouldn't do it. They'd got a good outcome. Hermione felt sick to her stomach as she thought that, but it was true. Voldemort was dead, and they weren't - Sirius was alive, he had to be - and it could be over. And that was all she'd wanted at one point. To not have to fight again, to live a peaceful life. She could go home, if she wanted.

She was abandoning the people that had died.

But if she went for Luna, she might be abandoning others.

She didn't know if Sirius was alive or dead.

Hermione had made her decision. Without a chance to second think it, without allowing herself a chance to second think it, she ran again, her legs burning, off in the direction of the last place she'd seen Sirius. She had to find him. She had to choose him.