Okay, so, to start: This is going to be exceedingly difficult to write, especially since it's going to be my first fanfiction ever. If you've read the summary, then you know this is a time-travel fic. If you don't like it, leave now. Actually, no, don't. I want you to read and review cuz it's awesome, but if it's not I don't blame you for not doing so. Uhh... next on the agenda: I highly encourage constructive critisism. I'm hoping that with such a large audience somebody will be able to do so effectively. I'm babbling and this taking up a lot of room, so a couple notes and I'm done.

Notes:

I'm in the middle of re-reading the Harry Potter series, and I'm at the end of the fifth book, so the first part is going to be directly out of the book in Harry's P.O.V. It's going to change a little bit and they get sent back in time. The rest of the story will probably be in Hermione's P.O.V. or it will be most of the time. It probably seems like a lot is taken directly from the book, but I was trying to start at a point that would get across their situation while taking as little as possible from the book. I took about four and half pages. Oh well, I tried.

It's almost summer, and I get out on the 14th of June. :D Yay! You would think this would mean I would have more time to work on this story, but alas, it is not so. As I am starting Honor English next year, I have summer homework. I have to write an essay. I'm also at my dad's all week and do not have access to my stories. Also, I might be in a summer theatre program which would restrict the amount of time I have to write. But, if people like this, I might just find the time. :) *wink wink* *nudge nudge*

Writing all this is so much easier than essays. I'm gonna shut up now and let you read.

Disclaimer: As I do not live in Scotland and I am not ingenious enough to write novels 800 pages long, I am not, therefore, J.K. Rowling. Furthermore, I do not own the Harry Potter series, as awesomesauce as that would be.

Chapter One: The Time Room

"Come on!" he said again, and leaving the ugly baby-headed Death Eater staggering behind them, they took off for the door that stood ajar at the other end of the room, leading back into the black hallway.

They had run halfway toward it when Harry saw through the open door two more Death Eaters running across the black room toward them. Veering left he burst instead into a small, dark, cluttered office and slammed the door behind them.

"Collo-" began Hermione, but before she could complete the spell the door had burst open again and the two Death Eaters had come hurtling inside. With a cry of triumph, both yelled, "IMPEDIMENTA!"

Harry, Hermione, and Neville were all knocked backward off their feet. Neville was thrown over the desk and disappeared from view, Hermione smashed into a bookcase and was promptly deluged in a cascade of heavy books; the back of Harry's head slammed into the stone wall behind him, tiny lights burst in front of his eyes, an for a moment he was too dizzy and bewildered to react.

"WE'VE GOT HIM!" yelled the Death Eater nearest Harry, "IN AN OFFICE OFF-"

"Silencio!" cried Hermione, and the man's voice was extinguished. He continued to mouth through the hole in his mask, but no sound came out; he was thrust aside by his fellow.

"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Harry, as the second Death Eater raised his wand. His arms and legs snapped together and he fell forward, facedown onto the rug at Harry's feet, stiff as a board and unable to move at all.

"Well done, Ha-"

But the Death Eater Hermione had just struck dumb made a sudden slashing movement with his wand from which flew a streak of what looked like purple flame. It passed right across Hermione's chest; she gave a tiny "oh!" as though of surprise and then crumpled onto the floor where she lay motionless.

"HERMIONE!"

Harry fell to his knees beside her as Neville crawled rapidly toward her from under the desk, his wand held up in front of him. The Death Eater kicked out hard at Neville's head as he emerged- his foot broke Neville's wand in two and connected with his face - Neville gave a howl of pain and recoiled, clutching his mouth and nose. Harry twisted around, his own wand held high, and saw that the Death Eater had ripped off his mask and was pointing his wand directly at Harry, who recognized the long, pale, twisted face from the Daily Prophet: Antonin Dolohov, the wizard who had murdered the Prewetts.

Dolohov grinned. With his free hand, he pointed from the prophecy still clutched in Harry's hand, to himself, then at Hermione. Though he could no longer speak his meaning could not have been clearer: Give me the prophecy, or you get the same as her. . .

"Like you won't kill us all the moment I hand it over anyway!" said Harry.

A whine of panic inside his head was preventing him thinking properly. He had one hand on Hermione's shoulder, which was still warm, yet did not dare look at her properly. Don't let her be dead, don't let her be dead, it's my fault if she's dead. . . .

"Whaddever you do, Harry," said Neville fiercely from under the desk, lowering his hands to show a clearly broken nose and blood pouring down his mouth and chin, "don't gib it to him!"

Then there was a crash outside the door, and Dolohov looked over his shoulder - the baby-headed Death Eater had appeared in the doorway, his head bawling, his great fists still flailing uncontrollably at everything around him.

Harry seized his chance: "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"

The spell hit Dolohov before he could block it, and he toppled forward across his comrade, both of them rigid as boards and unable to move an inch.

"Hermione," Harry said at once, shaking her as the baby-headed Death Eater blundered out of sight again. "Hermione, wake up. . . ."

"Whaddid he do to her?" said Neville, crawling out from under the desk again to kneel at her other side, blood streaming from his rapidly swelling nose.

"I dunno. . . ."

Neville groped for Hermione's wrist.

"Dat's a pulse, Harry, I'b sure id is. . . ."

Such a powerful wave of relief swept through Harry that for a moment he felt light-headed.

"She's alive?"

"Yeah, I dink so. . . ."

There was a pause in which Harry listened hard for the sounds of more footsteps, but all he could hear were the whimpers and blunderings of the baby Death Eater in the next room.

"Neville, we're not far from the exit," Harry whispered. "We're right next to that circular room. . . . If we can just get you across it and find the right door before any more Death Eaters come, I'll bet you can get Hermione up the corridor and into the lift. . . . Then you could find someone. . . . Raise the alarm. . ."

"And whad are you doing do do?" said Neville, mopping his bleeding nose with his sleeve and frowning at Harry.

"I've got to find the others," said Harry.

"Well, I'b going to find dem wid you," said Neville firmly.

"But Hermione-"

"We'll dake her wid us," said Neville firmly. "I'll carry her - you're bedder at fighding dem dan I ab -"

He stood up and seized one of Hermione's arms, glared at Harry, who hesitated, then grabbed the other and helped hoist Hermione's limp form over Neville's shoulders.

"Wait," said Harry, snatching up Hermione's wand from the floor and shoving it into Neville's hand, "you'd better take this. . . ."

Neville kicked aside the broken fragments of his own wand as they walked slowly toward the door.

"My gran's going to kill be," said Neville thickly, blood spattering from his nose as he spoke, "dat was by dad's old wand. . . . "

Harry stuck his head out of the door and looked around cautiously. The baby-headed Death Eater was screaming and banging into things, toppling grandfather clocks and overturning desks, bawling and confused, while the glass cabinet that Harry now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter, and repair itself on the wall behind them.

"He's never going to notice us," he whispered. "C'mon . . . keep close behind me. . . ."

Suddenly, the baby-headed Death Eater turned toward them, and Harry felt his chest constrict with fear as he and Neville froze. Was it possible that his head would return to normal? Harry found himself thinking as the baby-headed Death Eater blundered forward toward them. The head began to change. Well, that answers that question. thought Harry bitterly as the now normal looking Death Eater raised his wand.

Move. he told himself. Do something. Defend yourself. What's wrong with you? As his foot moved forward he found it was too late. The Death Eater croaked out, "Impedimenta!"as though he were a frog. It flung Neville, Hermione, and himself backwards into the glass cabinet of broken Time-Turners.

Time seemed to slow down. He felt like he was falling in slow motion. He readied himself for contact with the cabinet, but found instead that he was falling through it. Hermione flew from Neville's shoulders, and her wand fell into an arc with her through the cabinet. Neville, with blood spattering everywhere, landed with a loud and reverberating Thump! against the glass. He felt as though he was looking at Neville through water. Hermione landed next to him, on a very solid stone floor.

Neville's form was slowly sliding into nothingness. They were in the Department of Mysteries, but where had the battle gone? There was no evidence of the destruction they had caused. Small stars flittered in front of his eyes. Hermione lay unconcious beside him. What had happened? How was he supposed to check if the others were okay? What about Sirius? He still had to clue as to where Sirius was. Had this entire thing been a trick to get the prophecy still clutched tightly in his left hand?

He stood up quickly, and became dimly aware that his bag, containing his invisibility cloak and the now useless knife, was still hanging from his shoulders. Next to him, Hermione groaned. Hermione. How could he be so stupid? Hermione was still with him, she could help. If he could manage to wake her up and get something coherent out of her. He crouched down next to her and gently shook her shoulder and she groaned again.

"Hermione," Harry said slowly. "Wake up. There's a... er... problem." He was relieved when she spoke.

"Harry." she grumbled from her position on the floor. "What did you do now?" She tried to sit up, only to give a shuddering gasp and fall back to the floor.

"I don't know. We fell through the cabinet that was breaking and repairing itself. I think it had Time-Turners in it." He looked at her with concern before continuing. "We're still next to it, but it's not broken and no one's here. The battle's gone."

She looked up at him, sweat now mingling with Grawps blood as it trickled down her forehead. "Do you think we went back in time to before the fight?" She implored with labored breath, as she lifted herself to lean against the cabinet, her hands trembling.

Harry reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her. "Are you going to be okay? Do we need to find someone to heal you?"

"No!" She whispered fiercly. "We have to find a way to get out of the Ministry and warn somebody it was a trap! I'll be fine. How we're supposed to sneak out of the Ministry in broad daylight, especially in our condition..." she broke off and turned towards him.

"My backpack!" She looked at him skeptically. "I have my invisibility cloak!" he said happily.

"How're we supposed to get to Hogwarts, even if we do get out of the Ministry undetected? The thestrals won't be there. You'll probably have to levitate me too; how much energy will that take?"

"I can use the levicorpus spell Sirius used on Snape in third year." he assured her. "And we'll just have to risk flooing to the school. Even if Umbridge catches us, what do we have to lose?"

"Everything!" she moaned into her hands. "But I can't think of any other way to get there. Let's try Dumbledore's office though. Just in case."

Harry was surprised, but tried not to show it. Hermione had just agreed to his haphazard plan that was almost garunteed not to work. He decided that she must be really hurt, before asking, "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." she replied, a pained expression on her face.

"Mobilicorpus!"he exclaimed, and Hermione floated into the air, her feet dragging slightly on the ground. She looked as though she were bound by invisible ropes. He levitated her toward him before securing the invisibility cloak over them.

Harry slowly found his way back to the corridor that had haunted so many of his dreams. Hermione was posing more of a strain then he had thought she would, but they were lucky and had not crossed the paths of any Ministry workers. Harry waited by the lifts silently, not wanting them to move as though by nothing. That wasn't suspicious or anything.

Finally, someone came along. Someone he realized he had never seen before, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. Who knew how long he had been sitting there, waiting? He was wasting time. He walked carefully into the rickety lift, suprised that he and the wizard who had called for the gate were the only ones currently occupying it. They arrived at the Atrium.

Harry hurried toward the fireplace. Why was it so empty? He sighed, then hurriedly clapped a hand over his mouth. He was growing careless. The strangely empty Atrium was surprising to him. No one had noticed his slip, as the wizard who had opened the gate had disapparted and the only other person there was a small witch sitting at a desk at what he guessed was the receptionist area.

It was as he was contemplating the best way to grab the floo powder that he noticed the callendar. The calendar that was proudly displaying the date as June 6, 1976. He would have gasped if he had not already been struck dumb in shock. Thinking carefully, he thought again of the best way to approach using the floo powder. Now he had a real urgency for returning to Hogwarts. He needed to see Dumbledore.

Ooo... That's a good spot to leave off at. I'll probably update again in a few days, depending on how long it takes me to write a second chapter. I want to try to make it as long as this one. I have a thing for long chapters. The Mauraders probably won't make an appearance until chapter 3 or 4. Until then I highly recommend that you review and make your questions, comments, and/or concerns known... I'm sorry if the writing style changed too much when I stopped using the book. It won't happen again. The first person to correctly guess why Neville didn't fall through gets to help me think of a prize for them. :D Uhh... yeah. I think I'm done here.