AN: Hi everyone! This is my very first story written under Harry Potter. :D I just want to give you a few facts about the story before we start.

1. On Book Six and Seven: Extremely Important! I think everyone can pretty much agree that things get complex with the Horcruxes and stuff. For the sake of the story, I'm going to pretend that they don't exist. Basically, war and mass chaos broke out during the gang's sixth year and people started to die. Hogwarts was taken over mid-way through Hermione's 7th year. And that is where our story begins, folks. I'll let Hermione explain the rest.

2. On Length and Updates: For those of you who have read my other stories, you know that this is a very short chapter for me. Generally, I like my chapters to be around 2,500 to 4,000 words. My other story, Heartbeat, currently is more important to me because I'm thirteen chapters into it and have a strong fanbase. Depending on demand for this story and that one, one is going to have to be valued over the other. So fight for your favorite story people!! And if you love them both, know that an update is going to come for at least one of them at least once a week. I hope to see both this story and the other completed though.

3. On romance, violence, language, and all that other stuff: This story won't be changed to M, but it could become a strong T.

4. On the title: How Do I Love Thee is taken from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem How do I Love Thee. It's a beautiful poem that will be making its cameos in the story. :D

Enjoy! I hope you join me for the ride!!

How Do I Love Thee?

Chapter One: With Pain

I stared up at the stone ceiling, trying not to remember. It was too painful to remember. I glanced down at my wand – my faithful weapon – and spun it around slowly in my hands. We had done good – very, very good.

But not good enough.

"They won't find us, will they?"

The voice came from a second year Ravenclaw girl. She was only twelve years old, and yet she had seen so much destruction. My eyes circled the room, looking at the twenty some students – the survivors.

"Are you kidding?" asked Ginny, trying to put on some sort of a smile. "We asked this room to keep us safe – so it will." I couldn't fathom how she could manage it. After all, she had lost the majority of her family and friends over the past month. She's a lot stronger than me.

I sat up on the couch, and grabbed the nearest book I could find. The soft-leathery feeling of the cover gave me some sense of familiarity and comfort. It was one of the few books we had managed to save from the Hogwarts library before they could get their filthy hands on it.

I opened up to a random page, hoping that this was some sort of book I could get lost in. Before I allowed myself to read, I glanced around the room. They weren't crying anymore. We had all cried during the past week, at one time or another. But now, numbness was starting to settle into some of their faces. They were beginning to accept it. The stronger ones still held determination in their eyes, but it was not the hope that they could win the war and destroy evil. That hope was far gone. It had died with Harry Potter…with Ron Weasley…with Professor McGonagall…heck, it had even died with Snape.

Now, they only had one goal in mind, and that was to survive: to be the symbols of light until the day hatred and evil took them too.

We had all been cooped up in this room for a little over a week now. It was the only safe haven in the Wizarding World, in my opinion. The bomb shelter of Hogwarts.

The Room of Requirement.

We had retreated into this room after Voldemort and his armies overran Hogwarts. They had scoured the castle – torturing and killing as they pleased. If you were one of the lucky ones – or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it – they would let you live so you could be of service to the Dark Lord. The very thought of that made me cringe.

Us? We had been sneaking around the castle the whole week, saving what we could. Some had broken into the Headmaster's office to grab a few portraits, including the one of our beloved Dumbledore. A fifth year had snuck into the kitchen to make secret arrangements for food with a few loyal House Elves. I had escaped into the library, grabbing books of all sorts. I felt a need to preserve the knowledge. And maybe, just maybe, one of these books held a hope. An answer.

I glanced down at my book to be immediately met with the words Hogwarts: A History written in eloquent print at the top of each page. Tears came to my eyes, and I placed the book aside. The title took on a whole new meaning now.

I picked up another one, and snorted. The Time to Time Travel: Now or Never? That looked like a distracting enough read.

I flipped open to the first chapter, and began perusing the page. I wasn't an expert on Time Travel by any means – it was generally considered a topic of fantasy – but I knew all the stuff on the first few pages. Time travel is considered extremely difficult and risky Old Magick – to the point of it being nearly impossible…No one in record has ever successfully time traveled…and so on…

Chapter Five shocked me however. I read quickly as the book described some sort of complex spell that possibly worked for time travel. Possibly. Not probably. Possibly.

But 'possibly' was enough.

My heart began to race for the first time in over a week. I knew it was foolish to hope, but it was an idea, right? Something that we could work for. If we could go back in time…

We could fix things. We could warn them. We could tell them what and what not to do.

With resurfacing ambition, I hungrily ate the words on the page, and on the next, and the next. The chances that this would work were so slim; the book even had a whole three chapters devoted to the things that could go wrong! But there was still a chance.

Slamming the book shut, I glanced at the front cover for an author, our maybe-savior. But the book was so old, that the name wasn't given or had faded with time. Dismissing the fact, I stood up and faced my friends – my fellow warriors.

"I have an idea."

The words didn't register into their minds for a few seconds. But once recognition hit, their faces brightened and they turned to me curiously. Some of their eyes were already filling with hope. I smiled grimly; they had always trusted me to come up with a plan.

"It's not much," I admitted, holding the book in my arms like it was our lifeline. "And it's really risky."

"Sounds like it's up our alley," said Ginny, eagerly awaiting more information. She was the only survivor from our group of friends, besides me. But I couldn't think of that right now…

I flipped the front cover of the book out to my audience. "Time Travel. It's very complex – nearly impossible. But I think I can figure out the spell and teach it to you. It says that the more people who perform the spell correctly at the same time, the greater the probability that it will succeed. What we need to do is…"

"You want us to time travel?" interrupted Terry Boot, incredulously. He was staring at me like I had just sprouted the head of a Chinese Fireball. "Have you finally lost it, Hermione?"

I glared at him. "Do you have any other ideas?"

Boot was silent. They were all silent, in fact, waiting for me to continue. I hugged the book back to my chest, and eyed them with a look that I hoped spoke determination and confidence. I was supposed to be their leader – seeing as how there was no one left from our trio but me. I sure didn't feel like I could be one, though.

"I'm going to read up on it," I announced, glancing down at the book in my arms. It was going to be my constant companion for a few days, at least. "One of us is going to have to travel back a year or so and warn everyone."

No one said anything. Half of them didn't believe in time travel and the rest of them were doubtful. Heck, I was extremely doubtful, but this was the only thing we had going for us right now.

Without further ado, I sat down on my couch and buried my nose into the book. Just like old times.

"Patefacio Tempus!"

Shouts of those two words were heard bouncing off the walls of the Room of Requirements for days now. I took my own wand in hand, and performed the series of complex hand motions before aiming it at a pillow ten feet away from me. I concentrated hard – very hard – on the date September 1st 1995. It began a chant in my head. A prayer.

"Patefacio Tempus!" I shouted, giving my wand a final swish. I smiled in satisfaction as a great beam of red light shot from my wand – my best attempt yet! I watched, hopeful, as the red light diminished. I paled, instantly. Half the pillow had disappeared, but half remained. True, this was my first time succeeding in making anything disappear, so I should have felt a little bit of joy in my accomplishment. But the remaining half of the pillow was a reminder that things could go dreadfully wrong.

"I do believe, Miss Granger, that you are getting the hang of it."

I turned to glance at the portrait of Dumbledore, hanging in its place of honor on the wall. He was looking at me with that twinkle in his eye – the twinkle that had disappeared a year before his death…

"Only if the time traveler wants half a body," I stated, grimly, looking at the remains of the pillow. Sighing, I grabbed another from the couch and threw it onto the ground. Taking a deep breath, I launched myself into the spell yet again, and was met with the same result.

I tried a few more times, extremely pleased to see that the size of the pillows being left behind was shrinking with each attempt. Ginny seemed to be doing pretty well too, and had made a good chunk of her pillow disappear. A smart fifth year Ravenclaw let out a 'whoop' in celebration as a small piece of his pillow vanished with the red light. We were making progress.

I sat down on the couch, leafing through the pages of The Time to Time Travel: Now or Never? for what seemed like the thousandth time this week. I had most of the book memorized by now, but I kept on returning to it, hoping against hope that the dangers of it would disappear along with the pillows.

But they were always there, in black and yellow, staring back at me from the page.

Three or more are required to do the spell perfectly to travel only one person.

If performed incorrectly, the spell could severe limbs from the traveler, and perhaps even result in their death.

Traveling back is slightly easier than traveling forward…

Traveling more than once in the span of a year could be fatal to the traveler's health.

The last point confused me. How in the name of Merlin would they know that if no one had ever successful time traveled?

Well, I'm not going to risk it.

It had been agreed upon that the person going back would stay in the past to guide along the Order of the Phoenix. It was safest this way and the only nuisance about it was living with two of yourself for the rest of your life.

I frowned, an uneasy feeling settling into my stomach. As the days passed, it was becoming more and more apparent who would be the one to risk their skin to travel back. They were looking at me – I had discovered – to do it.

I supposed I was the obvious choice. I knew the most about time travel – though that could be easily remedied if they took the time to read the book. 1995 would be the start of my fifth year. I would be in contact with the Order of the Phoenix by that time, and they would trust me to deliver them correct information. Yes, I was the obvious choice.

And that made me want to loose my dinner.

AN: And this is when I continue with chapter facts...

5. On why this chapter is boring: I have to get all the technical stuff out of the way first. I want Hermione in 1944 and interacting with Tom as much as you guys do! Thus, why this chapter is so short. By the next chapter, she will be back in time!! (PS: And if you thought this chapter with fairly interesting, boy are you in for the time of your life!)

So some shameless advertising. I have another story up called Heartbeat over in the Twilight category. It's Twilight set in the HP universe (with alot of changes to the Twilight plot line to keep it interesting). A: if you haven't read Twilight, you really should. It's awesome! B: Please check Heartbeat out! That would be awesome too!!

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