My first ever story. I hope the readers like it. As another fan-fiction writer has said, "There is a time travel story in every writer." There's a nod to the stories by muggledad. This story was originally posted as "Killing Time" on my old account which went by the name : The AU No-Bashing Writer. Somehow, I ended up locked out of both the fanfiction account and the associated email account. The latter refuses to comply with any attempts to access it again.

It's time, Harry

The time after June 1996 had been fraught with terrors, horrors and sorrow for the Order of the Phoenix and their allies in their dogged opposition to Tom Marvolo Riddle, the self-styled Lord Voldemort. Immediately after Sirius Black's death in the ill-fated Battle of the Ministry, Voldemort, in retaliation for the defeat to Albus Dumbledore, and his inability to possess and kill Harry Potter, as well as to being brought out into the open, had attacked several major muggle and magical targets simultaneously.

The time spent in government-aided obscurity meant that Voldemort had built a massive support structure across Europe while the Ministry of Magic in England had fought against the real upstanding citizens. Using suggestions, promises, rhetoric and force, as and when, as well as where it was required, Voldemort had created a real network of his Death Eaters across the continent.

He had utilised the year in silence very well.

He firstly disposed of Amelia Bones, the one witch that could have cracked down hard on the Death Eaters. It was a duel that he relished. He then managed to insert Death Eaters into the Royal family's protective detail. It had been with exquisite ease that Voldemort had ended the line of Windsor, killing each member himself.

Having realised his fallacy in ignoring muggle means during his first rise, Voldemort had made overtures to gangs and mafia, or similar organisations. Showing power by mass destruction, he had convinced them to join him, giving them illusions of power. Those that he hadn't been able to convince, he had forced. Death threats worked just as well on hardened murderers as the next man. These muggle mercenaries had gone on to secure land tracts across their respective nations. These tracts had served as farms and factories, and warehouses and silos for all the necessities and supplies, keeping the second rise of Emperor Voldemort a smoothly functioning, well-oiled machine.

These mercenaries and the slavery and bonded labour that they enforced, had eventually degenerated into fiefdoms. Emperor Voldemort, for he had subjugated the British Isles, the erstwhile USSR, northern Africa and central Europe in that order, was the one that 'awarded' his 'knights' and 'lords of the peerage' that he had modelled these people and their activities on. So long as the monies and riches went Emperor Voldemort's way, there was little that he deigned to interfere in, in their daily matters. They were left to their devices, the 'filthy' muggles in their 'filthy' sties. They were only useful for menial work and labour. Any revolt was ruthlessly crushed. Feudalism had reigned supreme for the first decade.

And yet, the Emperor had not stopped there. Knowing that keeping the muggles under flux was the only way in which they could be subdued, he had allowed one revolt. This revolt had culminated into the rise of neo-communism, with one leader for the feudal states. This had proved all the more pliable for Voldemort, much to his amusement. The idolised leader was made to bow, and bow he had when his baser sins had been addressed. The 'revolution' had lasted a grand total of three years, after which, it was a communist-run anarchy that replaced the opposing ideology, but not the anarchy itself.

The response to the Empire of Voldemort was the unexpected unification of the rising Asian powers, at least over the matter. In a rare show of unity, China, India, South Korea and Japan had given political asylum to much of Europe. Both Magical and Muggle governments had created safe havens for the crushed people of Europe. Among the other continents, the Americas had decided to be neutral, choosing to keep themselves out of the conflict. Australia had offered non-aggressive help.

All that ended when the Empire attacked the oil rich Middle East. Starved of energy to fuel their growth, Asia had been brought to her knees, while the Americas had to go without and were taken under the banner of the Empire without even a whimper. Australia had given token resistance – till nuclear weapons had been dispatched to decimate the continent completely.

Voldemort's utilisation of muggles in his quest for absolute power had raised eyebrows amongst his magical followers. There were whispers regarding the Dark Lord's newfound attitude towards muggles. Questions were asked in conversations behind closed doors. No one dares to really ask the question to Voldemort himself for the longest time.

Finally Augustus Selwyn had done so near the end of the first year of the reign.

"Milord, if I may be so bold, may I have leave to ask a question?"

"Speak, Augustus. You have Our leave."

"Milord, have we failed you in some way? Why is it that muggles are your hands of choice?"

Voldemort smiled a grim lipless smile. Well, 'smile' was the nearest description possible. The thin white line curved upwards anyway.

"Have you experienced the efficiency of those little beasts, Selwyn?"

"I have seen it, Milord," Selwyn admitted.

"But you haven't experienced it, Selwyn?" The monster's voice was soft, curious and silky.

"No, Milord."

"That's such a pity. Fortunately that can be easily remedied."

A few moments later, the emptied magazine of a handgun had turned Augustus Selwyn into a human block of cheese that had yet to come to terms with the fact that it was dead.

"Is there anyone else that expects answers from me?"

There had never been another voice of dissent after that. It had, however, led to more vicious killings by the Death Eaters. Someone on the opposite side had had the idea of enchanting the guns and other assorted weaponry to shoot spells with a trigger. Unfortunately, those plans fell into the hands of the enemy. While the Order never found out about the innovation, Emperor Voldemort did. He awarded Theodore Nott handsomely for that piece of information. It did, after all, help in the running of his Realm.

By 2010, about twenty four years after the war was brought out into the open, Emperor Voldemort was the undisputed magical and muggle ruler of the earth, omnipotent and immortal.

This was not to say, though, that there weren't any attempts at normalcy by common people. There were many, in fact.

The members of the Ministry six, found love – in the case of Luna and Ginny, with each other. It had been a very big surprise. Harry and the Weasley brothers, who had grown as close as real brothers were gearing up for the next boy Ginny would date, practising for the torrid time they would give him. There had been no inkling of that relationship, though. Ginny had dated Michael Corner, Zacharias Smith and Dean Thomas briefly, before the fight of the Ministry, having feared her family's reaction to her real self. In a quirk of irony, she had wanted to be normal and not freakish in the eyes of her family, and had found an anchor in her hero-worship of Harry, which she had been able to pass off as a crush. Luna had already been classified as a person who wasn't all there, in spite of her brilliance and her endearing nature. She was already considered to be a freak and unnatural by many. It was actually her reaction to what she saw as Ginny's rejection. The very attraction that the two witches held for the other was why they had drifted away in the first place.

The fight at the Ministry had driven home the shortness of life to them. They had ended up confessing to the other and crying their eyes out. Indeed, it had been Hermione who had first found out about the two. It had been a very scary moment for the two younger witches.

Hermione, on her Prefect rounds, had chanced upon a classroom where two girls were presumably crying. Perhaps, in another world where Voldemort never existed, she would have rolled her eyes at students sneaking out after curfew and crying over 'boy problems'. Unfortunately, the problems tended to be graver. It wasn't unusual for her and her fellow prefects to chance upon students with family problems, having trouble coping with the aftermaths of deaths in the attacks on their homes, or not having homes at all. There had even been instances of pressure and blackmail. She opened the door slightly to reveal two of her best friends crying in each others' arms.

Fearing that someone had attacked them or worse and getting angry about it at the same time, she approached the two quietly, only to be shocked as Luna grabbed Ginny and kissed her passionately. Hermione stood nonplussed as she saw the scene.

When he kiss broke and they glanced around, they froze, as one.

After a very excruciatingly painful silence for the two, Ginny attempted to speak. "I-It isn't what it looks like, Hermione!"

Unfortunately, that had only led to the revelation of another of her secrets, this one more closely guarded. In times of distress, she switched to Parseltongue, a holdover from her time under Tom's possession.

"Ginny?" Hermione had asked a bit fearfully. "I can't understand a word that you are speaking."

"She is saying that it isn't what it looked like," Luna explained, though her words held a world of hurt.

"How'd you know?"

"The Nargles told me," Luna replied, slipping into her dotty persona.

Hermione shook her head at that. "It doesn't matter to me, Ginny, Luna. Honestly it doesn't. Dumbledore did say that it was the power of love that will defeat You-Know-Who. It isn't for me to judge who you find love with – well, unless you find love with Malfoy or someone like that," she added, trying for some levity. "If you have found it with each other, I will support you."

"You don't – you aren't disgusted?" Luna had asked, her expression clearing a bit.

"No," Hermione had firmly replied. "You are both my friends! I won't abandon you!"

Luna had a fleeting but very heartfelt expression of gratitude on her face as she rushed up to hug the older girl. Hermione returned the hug.

"What about my family, my brothers, and the others?" Ginny had asked in a small voice.

"They love you, Ginny. They will accept you."

"They won't think of me as a freak?"

Hermione had not answered immediately. "Do you mind if I told Harry about it?"

Ginny shrank further into herself. Luna asked with affected equanimity, "Why?"

"Harry knows what it is like to be called a freak, because as a wizard he is different from the muggles. He will be able to help you better, and he will also be able to convince the Weasleys better as well." Upon the looks of understanding that she received, Hermione had added a rider, "At least, I think he'll be able to."

The three girls had stared at each other for a long moment, before the couple acquiesced.

"Thank you, Hermione."

Her response was to gather the girls in a group hug and then tease, "Just use the Silencing Charms, alright?"

It had proven to be a piece of cake for Hermione to convince Harry. Harry being Harry had immediately rushed to offer his support and promise to talk to the Weasleys when the time came. He had also ribbed Luna, by attempting to torment her with the, "You treat her right, or else!" threat.

He had to be rushed to the Hospital Wing to undo Ginny's Bat Bogey Hex.

Neville had been comforting Susan since the death of Amelia Bones. As the lone Bones left, she had a very hefty responsibility on her shoulders. Their closeness culminated into a much deeper relationship. This was not to say that he became exempt from the pranks and teasing by his friends. He grew closer with them as well, becoming a vital cog in their own group, a part of the golden members of their generation that was destined to fight Voldemort when his reign became "more terrible than ever before".

Lavender, in a surprise move, had decided that Ron was now worthy of her attention. While the friends were apprehensive about the sudden change in behaviour, they eventually accepted her. She had simply drawn out her inner Gryffindor, and snagged Ron upon his entry into the tower for the Gryffindor House Welcoming Party with a searing kiss.

Ron's goofy smile did not vanish for days together.

The two other members of the Ministry Six were brought together by a school-full of frustrated people, headed by their best mate.

Having decided that enough was enough, and having also realised that his bet in the Hogwarts-wide pool that was to answer the question "When will Harry and Hermione wake up start dating each other?" was approaching fast, Ron Weasley had set his two friends up on a date, leaving them to their own devices, on the first Hogsmeade weekend of their sixth year. It incidentally was the weekend just before Halloween. Harry and Hermione had ended up kissing each other within an inch of their lives on Halloween, smack bang in the Gryffindor Common Room. Ron's overenthusiastic whoops of celebration at having won three thousand seven hundred and ninety eight galleons had brought Minerva McGonagall rushing to the Gryffindor tower. It was bad timing for the cat animagus – she went away poorer by eighteen galleons, having bet on Christmas.

Those incidents were some of the bright spots for the 'Light'. However, they were about as effective as a single firefly in the mines of Moria.

On the other fronts, there was a lot of work going on. As promised, Dumbledore had come through and made the DA a sanctioned school group. However, he still wouldn't meet Harry's eyes, something that bothered the boy very much. It wasn't until much later that he understood his headmaster's motivation.

The DA was shaping along nicely. Each of the members had been classed as good enough to fight a Death Eater till help came, by the Professors. They had also included alternative fighting techniques, grey curses, aerial fights (which meant learning broom-riding, much to Ron's glee and Hermione's dismay) and the like.

A new and very important stipulation was Oath and Vow required from the members to state that they would never join Voldemort willingly. Knowing that they could fall under duress, they had been given an engraved amulet not quite unlike the Dark Mark, which would be used to call in help.

It had worked out well, initially. But the Death Eaters had soon cottoned on, and started to remove the amulets at the first available chance at first. These removed amulets were used to bait the DA to kill the members.

Eventually that plan failed as well.

The night at the end of the Autumn/Winter term of their sixth year, when Harry learnt the reason for Dumbledore's reticence regarding the contact with his prophesied student, had started an unnecessary crack in their relationship which cost the 'Light' a lot.

In all fairness, Dumbledore had called Harry, and by association his core group of friends that night to explain the ways that Voldemort had lived: Horcruxes. Dumbledore was unwilling to commit the information to Harry, rightly fearing that Voldemort could just as well rip it out of the boy's mind.

What Dumbledore had not counted on was for the slightly antagonistic feelings that the secrets had engendered towards him. Trust Hermione Granger to know that Legillimency didn't work the way Voldemort used it. She had divined the truth that the curse scar was more than that, though she hadn't really understood what it was.

When Dumbledore had revealed what Harry's scar really was, her anger had known no bounds.

With a most venomous lilt to her voice, Hermione had hissed, "Did you mean to kill my Harry, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore blinked at her tone, and smiled at her use of the possessive pronoun. "Indeed not, Ms. Granger. I've been working on a way to extract the splinter of Tom's cleaved soul from Harry without harming him."

"Why now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You must have known for long," Hermione accused. "You did say to Harry after he had fought the basilisk that Riddle transferred a part of his powers that night back in 1981," she continued, throwing his words back at him. "It wasn't his powers, but a part of Tom himself, wasn't it?"

Dumbledore looked at the irate witch facing him down. At long last, he answered, "Yes. It is true."

"Then why?" In two words, laced with disappointment and a feeling of betrayal, both Harry and Hermione had managed to articulate the question that everyone else was asking without words.

Dumbledore couldn't face them at that moment. He faced the grounds darkening under the failing light of dusk. "I have more than just Harry to think of, Ms. Granger. I was of the belief that it could prove to be a strategic asset for us." He turned to the students slightly and surveyed them all in turn. "It was most fortuitous. A peek into Voldemort's mind, a monitor upon his actions, a way to understand him through what he did that we couldn't see... Don't you see how I became greedy, wanting to utilise this resource? Can't you, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Weasley? It did save Arthur, after all."

A resource. That was how he had viewed Harry – not as a person, but as a resource. For the person in question and the people directly connected to him, it was a blow, never mind the fact that intellectually, what Dumbledore said was right in a very warped sense.

Ron, with all his fiery Weasley temper and bluster had countered the Headmaster with a sneer, "Don't try that line with us, sir! You haven't had to see Harry looking like he was being tortured by invisible people for hours on end, each time he sees the deeds that that monster commits! With all due respect, sir, I don't think Dad would very much appreciate the price for his safety to be paid by Harry."

It had been the moment which had defined Ron that moment onwards.

Dumbledore surveyed them all over his half-moon glasses. "You have good friends, Harry Potter. Keep them close." He then drew his wand. "I recently decided that it was causing our side more harm than good, what with the way he lured Harry into the Ministry..."

"Which could have been avoided if you hadn't clung to your secrets," cut in Luna.

"Indeed. Don't try to absolve yourself of your part of the blame sir," Neville chastised his Headmaster.

Dumbledore nodded his head to concede the point. "True, indeed. So I have spent the summer looking for a viable way to purge it out of Harry. And I am happy to say that I have found a way that doesn't involve killing Harry."

It had been a runic exorcism ritual, which had told them the items and the number as well as the murders associated with Voldemort's Soul Anchors, though not their hiding places. His wand, which he had since taken back from Wormtail, Gryffindor's war helmet and the lost sheath of the Sword of Gryffindor, Slytherin's Locket and Ring, Ravenclaw's shield, Hufflepuff's bejewelled quill, and the Diary which Harry had destroyed in his second year. The Monster had decided to split his soul into nine. And he had killed newborn babies to facilitate the vile ritual.

"Perhaps," said Susan at long last, "You have made a big mistake, Professor. You've found more information by freeing Harry than by exposing him to that monstrosity."

Looking every bit his hundred and sixty eight years of age and severely drained, Dumbledore agreed.

While that meeting gave them the secret to defeating Voldemort once and for all, it also signified the fracture of the relationship between the two disparate generations of fighters. The youngsters lost trust in Dumbledore, in spite of his efforts, while Dumbledore found them to be immature – it wasn't as if anyone knew that the purging would give them that information.

The younger generation worked their way, deciding that the war couldn't be won without evening the odds in their favour, while Dumbledore worked to eliminate the Horcruxes. Neither was very successful.

While the idea to eliminate the Death Eaters was alright in theory, they found out that they were too shielded to bear the cross. Of them all, only Harry had ever taken a life in self-defence. This meant that they looked to him to lead them, and he was often at loss, something that frustrated all of them.

Dumbledore tried to find the Horcruxes, but there were more false leads per Horcrux than the hair in his beard. Voldemort had, in anticipation of someone (Dumbledore) realising what he had done, set up several decoy locations. He had had to fight through their ranks, using memory charms as well sometimes, only to reach a fake.

It took time, but eventually each faction developed a grudging respect for the other. Dumbledore had to eventually call in a support force comprised of Order members, which eventually included the core group of Harry and Hermione, Neville and Susan, Ron and Lavender, and Ginny and Luna, as soon as they reached their respective adulthoods. Dumbledore saw it as his greatest failure that the parents of six of the eight had fought in the previous war, and yet their children had had to fight as well.

Towards the end of the seventh year, the worst thing that could have happened did happen. Severus Snape turned. The spy decided that he was done supporting the losing side, and announced his betrayal spectacularly by murdering Dumbledore.

It had turned the slowly, but surely turning wheels of the war squarely into Voldemort's favour. That night, many students, newly free from the exams had escaped Hogwarts. Ditching Grimmauld Place, which had now been placed under a Fidelius Charm with Hermione as the secret-keeper (and where they had found the locket which had since been destroyed), the Order had chosen the now closed Hogwarts as their headquarters.

The attacks by Voldemort were fast and furious, and soon, all that was left of the British Muggleborn students and their families (including the Grangers) was the contingent that called Hogwarts home. Remus and Nymphadora Tonks, as well as their baby, Teddy took residence in the castle. The couple took over the day-to-day administration of what had essentially become a self-contained village.

They could no longer concentrate on the Horcruxes, as there simply were too many to fight. Each of the couples among the core eight had married within the first two years of the war, and had set up their own safe houses and protections.

They started working apart from the Order, which while accepting the need to kill, had shied away from actual raids. In the first eight years, they had accounted for nearly four gross Death Eaters between them, but like Hydra, they kept on coming. By this time, Hermione, Susan and Lavender had fallen pregnant with their first children, respectively. They were then assigned to the duty of dissembling and decoding the intelligence.

In that time, the Order, now comprising of Kingsley, Minerva, Moody, the Weasleys, the erstwhile DA (twenty of the twenty three living members – Cho Chang, Alicia Spinnet and Dean Thomas helped Remus administrate Hogwarts), Remus and Dora, and some Aurors that the three original Auror members of the Order had managed to break away had become the last things standing between Voldemort and the inevitable oncoming annihilation.

Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Parvati Patil, and Hannah Abbott, four of the original twenty eight that hadn't managed to turn up had been found in 'Entertainment Houses'. They hadn't even left out Slytherin, pureblood girls. Hannah had begged her best friend to free her from the misery. Susan had had to kill Hannah along with Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass. She never killed again, till another tragedy sent her over the edge.

The losses had started mounting to such levels that Harry wished for the comfort that knowing things would've brought. Not for the first time, he muttered an apology to his dead headmaster.

It was in 2014, that tragedy struck hard and fast. On a routine mission, they had lost Neville. Snape had killed him. It didn't matter that they got all three Malfoys in that raid. Neville was dead, leaving behind Alexander, Franklin and Rhapsody, his three children. Susan had never been the same again. She went over the edge, killing and torturing without any compunction. Ironically, it had been Bellatrix that had killed her, just six months after Neville's death. Susan had managed to kill the bitch in the process however, and had died with a manic grin on her face.

Ron, Harry and Ginny had soldiered on, becoming the three-member strike team that rotated with Fred, George and Lee Jordan. The latter three were caught in a magical blast, killing them instantly, leaving the two Weasleys and Harry as the only remaining strike team, after Fleur had been kidnapped and sold, and Bill had been torn apart by Fenrir Greyback.

A Sunday brunch at the Burrow while the three were on a mission, proved to be disastrous. Peter Pettigrew had led an assault on the Burrow. Arthur, Molly and Charlie Weasley, Hermione, Daniel Sirius and Michael Dennis, and Luna Eleanor Potter, the three Longbottom children, Ron's sons, Fabian and Gideon and Lavender as well as Luna had all been killed. When the strike team had returned, they had been faced with an army of Inferi. That day, the three had to kill their own family all over again. That night, the three cried their lives away.

After that the three became machines. They took down as many of the muggle and magical Death Eaters as they could, but everyone around them knew that it was a lost cause. They were losing. They had long gone past hope, and had now fallen to desperation.

"I wish we had Hermione's time turner," Ron remarked in an offhand manner.

"And what?" Ginny asked her brother.

"I'd just go back to before Voldemort ever came back. Bring back everybody."

"That time turner would've done nothing Ron," Ginny replied, resisting the urge to snap at her brother. She was not heartless enough to take away his air-castles as well.

"He's got a point Gin," Harry remarked suddenly.

"What point?"

"Bringing everyone back."

"Harry we have lost. It's done. We've lost everyone!" she shrieked at her friend. "It's not as if they have made Horcruxes."

"No! Daft woman, I am talking about going back in time!"

Harry could see the spark in Ron's eyes just as he had seen years ago when they would embark on a new adventure.

"Those time turners that Minnie had couldn't travel more than a few hours back, you fools!"

"We will find other ways then," Ron retorted. Then in a fair imitation of his other best friend, he announced, "To the library!"

And they had immersed themselves into it. Hermione would have been proud of the way that they kept at it. They studied the vagaries of time, they studied rituals, and they studied enough to make a rudimentary time turner of their own. It was to not much avail. Still the two were relentless. For Ron, ditching food, his musings and his moping for hi lost family and friends, for books was sacrilege. He did that. For Harry, leaving the outside world to Voldemort's mercy was a crime. He did that as well.

Everyone in the castle attempted to stop them from what was perceived as their madness. Attempts were made to drag them away. Ron, in a very furious moment did something Hermione hadn't managed. He apparated within Hogwarts, straight to the library.

It was in August of 2015 that they found it. After repeated failures as they searched among the light books, they diverged to the darker ones. All spells were based on some sort of forcible sacrifice or murder. It didn't matter. There was nothing that could bother them anymore; they had already lost everything. There was little that could faze them now.

That particular ritual required the sacrifice of as many people as they wished to go back in time to. This was because each magical person's life was tied to their magic. After much deliberation they had decided that the time after they had found Riddle's diary was the best. It was the best opening to coax Dumbledore to go after the Horcruxes, and to purge Harry's scar when he would give Dumbledore the information regarding the other seven intentionally made pieces.

They had decided upon September 1993, at the start of their third year. That was a twenty two year travel. So the two set about capturing twenty two Death Eaters who'd be the sacrifices.

On the autumnal equinox, they decided that Harry being the one with more raw power would perform the ritual, with Ron and Ginny initiating it. Remus and Dora came to meet Harry one last time.

"Save Padfoot, cub," Remus requested.

"Must you ask, Moony?"

"Get them, Uncle Harry," Teddy asked of his godfather. He also left the man with a pearl of wisdom. "Bugger the timeline. Just stop the war before it ever comes."

Harry exchanged a grin with his best mate. They had decided to do just that.

Arranging the twenty two Imperiused Death Eaters on eleven points of the twenty four pointed star, with Ron and Ginny standing at opposite ends, Harry stood at the focal centre, gritting himself for what was to come. Would the ritual fail, he would find solace with his angel and the children.

"Shall we, then?" Ginny asked resignedly.

"Yes of course," Harry replied with a grand grin.

Ginny started her part of the incantation, followed by Harry, and then Ron. A wave of energy surrounded them, like a stopwatch showing the time elapsed.

And then the plan went down the drain. They never really should have gotten Snape, but it was really a matter of revenge. He broke through Ginny's Imperius and moved out of the field just as the incantation was about to be completed. Angrily, he charged towards Harry, and Ron moved to support his friend on reflex when the ritual culminated and the world blew apart.