Disclaimer: I don't own any characters of HP.

"Harry! Noooooooooo!" Hermione cried. Harry sunk to his knees and his eyes were glassy and half-open. He was hit by the killing curse by Macnair who grinned madly. Before he could kill Hermione as well, she stunned him quickly and ran away, her lungs burning and tears coming to her eyes. Her best friend had died in the battle. Of course.

The war was raging at Hogwarts. Most of the students were fighting, death-eaters, the order and even the ghosts fought along with everyone. Spells and curses were shot everywhere, flashes of light were seen. People running. People screaming. People crying. People being injured. People dead.
Hermione saw some of her friends collapse on the ground and it hit her. They were about to lose the battle. They were about to be killed.

She saw Cho fighting against a tall blonde death-eater, and she was about to lose. Hermione had to step in. "Sectumsempra!" Hermione screamed, her wand pointing at the death eater. His eyes were wide in surprise and he fell onto the ground, spitting blood. "Thank you Hermione." Cho said.
They had never been friends, but they had never hated each other. "Cho, Harry is dead. I… I just… wanted to let… you know." Hermione choked. Cho looked utterly shocked. Tears sprang to her eyes. "We have to fight, Cho. He is not the only one who's dead." Hermione sighed.

The quickly parted their ways and Hermione bumped into a group of Ravenclaws who were fighting against Lucius Malfoy. He was great at duelling and Hermione noticed with a sense of horror that her former crush Terry Boot (yes, no one knows that, though) ;-) was terribly injured and one of his arms was missing. Then professor Flitwick stepped in and shot a curse at Malfoy who finally stumbled backwards.

Hermione ran as fast as she could. She needed to find the Weasleys. Ron and Ginny especially. But she only saw bodies lying on the ground, people running around madly, and to her horror, the death eaters seemed to be winning.
She caught her breath when she almost stumbled over a body on the ground. She looked down and recognized the girl. It was Pansy. She was bleeding and had ragged breathing. She couldn't say something. Hermione knew that she was about to die.
"Leave her. She is a death eater." a female voice said. Hermione turned around and saw Ginny. "Ginny. How do you know? I can't just leave her here!" Hermione said. "Yes, you can. Tonks did that to her. Oh and Crabbes father got her back for that. She is dead." Ginny said quietly. "Of course." Hermione said bitterly, eyeing the dead body of Crabbe with disgust. He was conveniently next to Pansy.

"Ginny, there are not a lot of us, surviving, are there?" Hermione said frightened. "I don't think so. Hermione, we have to fight…" Ginny said, hugging Hermione and running off.
Hermione sighed and continued her search for her other friends. But then she almost fainted.

"Noooooo!" Hermione screamed desperately, flinging herself towards Ron to prevent him from the killing curse that was shot by a cackling Bellatrix. But Ron's face changed from hatred to surprise as the flash of green light hit him.
Hermione's heart froze. She looked at Ron and Bellatrix wide-eyed. Her boyfriend just died. In front of her. And she hadn't been able to prevent that. Bellatrix smirked at Hermione and spat: "Now your turn, Mudblood. Join your good-for-nothing boyfriend!" and then Hermione was scared. She didn't want to die. She was too young. But without Ron? Without Harry? Without her other friends? What future would she have if she survived the battle? Hermione looked back at Bellatrix with hatred and was prepared to feel the power of the killing curse, but before Bellatrix could even raise her wand, a certain, blonde, handsome wizard cried out the killing curse himself and it hit Bellatrix straight in the chest. Hermione gasped. Draco had saved her?

"Quick Granger, we have to hide." he grabbed her hand and Hermione felt a strange sensation in the region of her stomach. She felt,… could that be… butterflies? She let Draco guard her through the hallways to the Slytherin common room. "We are safe here!" he stated matter-of-factly as he sat down on the green couch. Hermione looked around. She had never been in there. "Where are all the Slytherins?" she asked. "Fighting! Or dead! Or somewhere else!" Draco said in a bored voice. "Hmmm, Draco, tell me, why did you save me?" Hermione blurted out. "You don't deserve to die." he said simply. Hermione gasped. "What? It was YOU who was calling me a mudblood and what else not! You, who are a death-eater!" she said. "That could be, but you never deserved to be dead, Hermione. Besides, I never wanted to be a death eater." Draco pouted.
Hermione nodded. She could just picture Lucius forcing Draco into something and she suddenly felt sorry. "I'm sorry, Draco. Thank you for saving my life." she said and suddenly she just had to hug him and he hugged her back.

Hermione needed comfort. She needed someone to help her, someone to hold her, someone to tell her, everything was going to be alright. And who else was there besides Draco? He was the perfect person to be exact. After hours of talking, Draco couldn't contain himself. "You want to know another reason why I saved your pretty ass?" he smirked. "No. I mean, yes, I would like to know." Hermione answered. "Because… because I like you a lot." Draco said, not looking at her. 'What?' she thought stunned. "Really?" she blurted out. "Yes, probably." Draco answered.
He inched nearer to her and their faces moved closer. Then their faces moved closer and Hermione felt a tingling sensation in her whole body. Then they kissed. The kiss was wonderful, it was hot and passionate.

Hermione felt a pang of guilt. Her boyfriend had just died, and she was kissing another guy? "Don't feel guilty. You deserve that. You need some cheering-up and that's the only thing that can help you at the moment." Draco said and without a doubt, Hermione knew it was true. She smiled a bit and kissed him back.

Hours went by and Draco finally decided that the coast was clear. "Draco, thank you again, for saving me." Hermione smiled. "What are you going to do?" he asked her. "Wander around the castle and then go back to the Muggle World. This is not place for me anymore." she said sadly. "That's probably the best." Draco nodded. He hugged her and kissed her senseless. "I won't forget you. Keep in touch. I have to go now, my family is probably wondering where I am." he said and Hermione nodded.

She was wandering around the halls of Hogwarts. It was once her home, now it was a place of massacre. Her friends, or most of her friends were dead. And she was saved by her arch-enemy. How strange was that?

She suddenly noticed that she was in the headmaster's office. All the portraits were looking at her curiously and then Hermione fully understood. She was alone. She had to return to the muggle world. And all of her friends was dead. Crying, she broke down and shook uncontrollably. The headmasters just looked at her, but no one said anything.

After what felt like hours, she stopped, wiping her eyes. "Finished, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore in his portrait asked gently. She nodded slowly. "I know it is a hard time for you." Dumbledore sympathized. "You can say that. Now it is over." she stated sadly. "No, it's not!" Dumbledore smiled and his blue eyes twinkled. "It is. Everyone is dead. The dark side won." Hermione groaned. "Yes, for now. What we need is a bit… more time." Dumbledore looked at her significantly.
She didn't understand. "What do you mean?" "The best and most sensible and I am afraid to say that the only solution is to prevent all this from happening." Dumbledore spoke quietly. "Meaning?" "Meaning, there is a reason, why you survived. Why YOU survived. To be honest, I knew, it had to be you from the beginning." Dumbledore informed her. "Ughhh, so what does that mean?" she was getting desperate. "Look in my topmost drawer!" Dumbledore commanded.

Sighing, Hermione opened the drawer and found a golden necklace – a time turner. She gasped. "I have to go back in time and kill… kill Voldemort?" she asked horrorstruck. "One correct – one wrong. Yes, you have to go back in time. But don't kill Voldemort. Tom Riddle never experienced love. You have to give him love, you have to show him, what it's like being loved." Dumbledore finished. "Why me?" she asked. "Because you survived. Of course, it helps that you are beautiful, intelligent and ambitious." Dumbledore smiled. "What if I fail?" she asked horrified. "Then at least we know that we've tried. And I've got a feeling, that Mr. Riddle quite likes somebody like you." he told her. "Will I ever go back?" she asked, but Dumbledore looked at her sadly. "I don't know. I have never gone that far back in time. But everything is better than this situation!" he said and Hermione had to agree with him.

Sighing, she got up. "Yes, I will do that. If I can save the wizarding world with that – I'll do it." she finished. "Okay. Your name will be Hermione Crouch. You are a pureblood. Don't forget that. Oh and your trunk will be sent back as well." Dumbledore said and Hermione nodded. "This time-turner goes back in years, not hours or days. Turn it 63 times. Good luck, Miss Granger. See you later. Or earlier." Dumbledore winked. Hermione sighed again and brushed a curl out of her face. She had to befriend the darkest wizard of all times, how great was that?

She turned the time turner, one, two, three, four,… 62, 63. The office swam out of sight and she saw a swirl of colours and voices flow by, she heard screams, more colours, blurred pictures, more voices, blackness and colours again. Then she collapsed on the office floor of the headmaster's office. 'It didn't work.' was her first thought. But she was quite mistaken.

"What happened to you, dear?" a raspy voice asked her. She had been lying on the floor for 3 minutes and her body ached. She looked into an unfamiliar, but friendly face. "Oh, I'm sorry. My name is Hermione Crouch." she said, brushing off her clothes. She was scared what would await her. She was terribly sad about all the events, about leaving her time and of course terrified of meeting the young dark lord. She was grieving. "I've never seen you here." the person said. He had greying hair and Hermione could guess that it was the former headmaster, Dippet. "Sir, I have to speak to Professor Dumbledore, is he here?" she asked with a heavy sigh. The headmaster raised an eyebrow. "Why?" he asked suspiciously. "Because I've got an appointment with him." she quickly invented.
"Very well. Miss Crouch. Follow me then." Dippet said and led her to Dumbledore's office. The second they arrived, the door opened and Dumbledore stepped outside. "Miss Crouch would like to speak to you." Dippet said. "Thank you, Professor Dippet. We'll have a talk." the younger Dumbledore said fondly.

He gestured Hermione into one of his chairs, facing his desk and sat down himself. "What brings you here, Miss Crouch? Actually, I've never seen you before." he said. Hermione knew she had to tell him the truth. "Professor, I am from the future." she said earnestly. She told him everything about the Dark Lord, named Voldemort, or former Tom Riddle about the terrible deaths, about Dumbledore's death as well, about the battle – and about her being one of the last surviving people. "And then… then you told me…" her voice almost broke "you told me to get my act together and travel back in time for 63 years to prevent all that from happening." she choked.

Dumbledore looked at her. He believed her – every single word. He suspected Tom Riddle for a long time. But why did his later self tell her to GET TO KNOW HIM WELL? And why should she stay near him? And why had she chose that time? "Why did you choose THIS period of time? You know, Grindelwald is another dark lord, who is ridding of Muggles as well – and you are one of them, so far I've heard – and the World War II is raging as well. What did I think?" he said, shaking his head. Hermione just sat there.
Then Dumbledore rubbed his hands. "I've got it. You will be a pureblood. Officially. Of course, in reality, you'll still be the Muggleborn. And if I said so in 2007, then please follow my advice. I have seldom been wrong. If I said, mingle with Riddle, then do that." Dumbledore smiled. Hermione's face remained impassive. "Which house were you sorted into in the future?" he asked. "Gryffindor." Hermione said and her eyes lit up. "Well, I think, we should put you into Gryffindor then, but since you conveniently arrived the first day of school, you can leave your trunk here and then get sorted with the first years in the evening." Dumbledore said and Hermione nodded.

She had no doubt that she would be put into Gryffindor again. Or Ravenclaw. But she was still very shaken and still couldn't believe a thing. "So, could you tell me what day it is, professor?" she asked. "The second of September 1944, 3:30 pm. The students should arrive in 2 hours. There is only one student already here. He is headboy. Would you like to meet him?" Dumbledore asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

Hermione nodded, enthusiastically. It was good to already "know" some people, before you got together with the big crowd. A knock followed and the door opened. "Professor Dumbledore, Mr. Dippet informed me that you wanted to see me?" the voice asked. Hermione turned around, in the doorway, there was the most handsome boy she had ever seen. Black untidy hair, with a side parting, deep brown eyes, pale skin, white even teeth, luscious lips, a great, sporty body and … just something about him. Hermione looked at him and blushed. She didn't know that meeting the headboy, meant meeting a hottie. The boy looked at her uninterestedly. "Please, Mr. Riddle, meet Miss Crouch." he said and Hermione almost fell off her chair. Riddle? As in Tom Riddle?