Disclaimer: Because nothing belongs to me...
Rating: T for language and potential violence and references to torture... you get the idea.
Summary: TimeTravel fic. Hermione is flung back to the 1940's when a combined killing curse and deflection charm hit her in the final battle. Or is it divine intervention from a goddess? Unfortunately for her, she lands in Malfoy Manor where her sudden appearance attracts the interest of a young Tom Riddle. Tomione eventually.
Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all;
Many times he died,
Many times rose again.
A great man in his pride
Confronting murderous men
Casts derision upon
Supersession of breath;
He knows death to the bone—
Man has created death.
- Death, W.B Yeats
Silence filled the courtyard as Lord Voldemort spoke. "Harry Potter is DEAD!" he screamed, surveying the crowd of Order and DA members. Most faces went ashen as his words sunk in and murmurs began to fill the hall as people spotted the teenager in Hagrid's arms.
Hermione and Ron shoved their way to the front of the crowd unable to believe Voldemort unless they saw Harry's body for themselves. Hermione's gut clenched as she saw Harry's limp body in the arm's of his first friend. Almost all of their hopes had been pinned on him defeating Voldemort. It seemed like it was up to her and Ron now but she couldn't think of anything under the numbing grief of seeing her best friend dead. "Harry!" she screamed, breaking away from the crowd and running toward the Death Eaters.
"Hermione, NO!" Ron yelled as he tried to follow her but was restrained by his older brothers.
"You'll pay for this," Hermione spat as she reached Voldemort and raised her wand. Wand points were fixed on her but Voldemort held up a hand to stay any curses his followers might cast.
"How, little girl?" he drawled, "Dumbledore's pathetic plan has failed. He led you to believe that a mere boy was your salvation and look at the result." He gestured around him at the devastation the battle had wrought. "He lied to you. Manipulated you. Sent you on a foolish treasure hunt that almost got you killed a number of times. Tell me… was he any better than me in the end? At least I never hid the fact that I was after power."
Hermione swallowed. "I-I…" she stammered. Her wand point wavered and fell. Ron snarled wordlessly behind her as he struggled violently against his brothers.
"Exactly," Voldemort hissed, "Now, too much magical blood has been spilt this day. I do not wish to spill any more if I can help it—"
"Don't fucking listen to the bastard, Hermione!" Ron screamed, "He's making it seem so bloody reasonable but he's twisting the truth."
"Silence!" Voldemort barked as he waved his wand at Ron. Ron yelped and fell limp. Hermione half turned yelling "Ron!" but was immobilised as Voldemort waved his wand again. She glared as her body twisted involuntarily toward the Dark Wizard and saw the smirk on his face. "As I was saying," Voldemort said smoothly, "I do not wish to spill any more precious magical blood." He paused and ran a finger over Hermione's cheek and chuckled as she flinched back slightly. "Even that of unworthy mudbloods. So I shall be lenient toward those who opposed me today as long as they swear fealty to me and my new order."
There was a long moment of silence as everyone absorbed Voldemort's conditions for living… for surviving this. "Fuck that," Hermione spat. Her eyes flashed with a fiery defiance that had been absent moments before. "You killed my best friend. All of this…" She waved her hand around her similarly to the Dark Lord's gesture moments before, "Is your fault. And for what? What do you gain from this? Power?" She snorted disparagingly. "Look at that. You have it, and a world to kneel at your feet. But you'll never… never understand the power of the force that opposed you. The love that you've destroyed. Because in the end you're nothing except a schoolyard bully who got out of control. You—"
"Enough," Voldemort hissed, cutting her off angrily, "If love…" He sneered the word, spittle flying out of his mouth and splattering her face. "…was so important, why did you fail? Why are you standing in front of me defeated? Why was the only person with the ability to destroy me a naïve schoolboy?"
"I don't know," Hermione said. Her shoulders slumped and tears stung he corners of her eyes. Voldemort laughed and Hermione stumbled back a few steps putting distance between her and the icy sound. She waited for him to stop before she straightened her shoulders and raised her head to glare defiantly at him. "The only explanation I can think of is that this isn't over yet."
Voldemort laughed again, chilling his audience. "You think you can still—" He broke off incredulously as Hermione calmly raised her wand and pointed it steadily at him, steeling herself for what she'd decided to do.
"Avada kedavra," she whispered and watched as a bolt of green light streaked toward her target. Voldemort swore and spun out of the way. There was a strangled yelp from Hagrid behind Voldemort but the entire courtyard was silent otherwise. No one moved.
"It's not that easy to kill me," he hissed, scowling at the young woman who dared to defy him.
"It is now," a familiar voice said from behind Voldemort. Hermione's eyes widened as she took in Harry's battered form behind Voldemort. "The horcruxes are gone, Tom. You personally just dealt with the last one… So I guess that means you're mortal again."
"Harry," Hermione breathed. Harry inclined his head to her, smiling slightly. His smile vanished as he focussed on Voldemort who whirled around in a fury.
"YOU!" he screeched.
"Yes, me," Harry agreed, "Tired of me yet?"
"Why won't you die?" Voldemort screamed, brandishing his wand at Harry.
Harry shrugged. "Maybe your heart just isn't in it," he said, "Didn't you once tell me you had to mean it when you used Unforgivables?"
"Maybe," Voldemort murmured, "I should target your loved ones instead…"
Harry's eyes widened with panic. "NO!" he yelled, "This is between you and me. There isn't—"
"INCARCEROUS!" Voldemort yelled and Hermione screamed as ropes bound Harry tightly.
"Harry!" she yelled. She waved her wand to free him but Voldemort blocked her spell with a simple slash.
"Now," Voldemort said conversationally, "Shall I kill your mudblood whore, or your blood traitor weasel first?"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Hermione shrieked. Voldemort only laughed and responded by sending a cutting curse toward her. She dodged the bolt of red light and glanced over her shoulder, wondering why no one else was reacting. There were plenty of survivors but only she and Voldemort seemed capable of motion at the moment. As she did she realized that the rest of the DA and Order – the surviving members at any rate – were battling with Death Eaters in the peripheries of the courtyard. And she, Voldemort, and Harry appeared to be inside a dome like shield that no spell could penetrate. Her mouth fell open as she wondered what spell the caster had used. Unfortunately, in her preoccupation she didn't notice the second cutting curse the Dark Lord had cast until the last second.
She jumped out of the way a second too late and the curse caught her in her left shoulder. She cried out in pain and surprise as her wand jerked out of her hand as well and clattered to the ground a couple of feet away. Voldemort smirked at her as she clutched her injured arm. "I guess this is the end…" he sneered starting to say the incantation for the killing curse.
Hermione scrabbled for her wand and just barely managed to grab it as the jet of green light streaked toward her too quickly for her to dodge it. She closed her eyes waiting for it to hit her only to hear Harry's wordless shout and blink them open again. She blinked again as she realized he'd somehow managed to free himself from the Dark Lord's restraints and cast a deflection charm. The purple and green beams of light merged and turned a crackling ice blue. Hermione gasped as the combined spells hit her and a ball of electricity seemed to explode around her.
Her hair rose on end and her entire body tingled with electricity and power as she slowly rose into the air, centred in the crackling orb of energy. She gasped as a stray bolt of energy hit her and burned her skin. Desperately she tried to move… to get away from what she was sure was about to kill her but found she was unable to. "HARRY!" she screamed, stretching a hand out toward him as the world began to flicker oddly and then disappeared as the dome-like shield the three of them had been in contracted around her.
In the darkness that surrounded her, she heard four words spoken clearly. Too much blood spilled… The voice seemed to emanate from everywhere at once. It was an echo of Voldemort's words earlier and she recognized his hissing voice in the words but also Harry's resounding tone and a high, clear woman's voice she didn't recognize. "Harry?" she whispered into the silence and suddenly the world seemed to explode again as she slammed into the ground.