Disclaimer: Anything familiar is probably owned by J. K. Rowling or any of the companies that deal with the Harry Potter series

WARNINGS/TAGS: Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape, Hermione Granger/Severus Snape, Hermione Granger, Severus Snape, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Draco Malfoy, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black, Lily Evans Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Original Characters, Violence, Post-Order of the Phoenix AU, Different Magics, Time Travel, Romance, First War with Voldemort, Second War with Voldemort, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Eventual Smut, Eventual Relationships

As always, I love reviews and will appreciate any left, along with kudos and other forms of communications.

Mind speech/telepathy, spells in mindspeech, everything else

Prologue
Hermione's POV
She was in the Department of Mysteries with Harry, Ron, Ginny, Luna, and Neville. They had come because of vision Harry had had regarding Voldemort having Sirius. While she had not wanted to come, wanted to have to ask the Headmaster and Order for help, there had been no time and there was no way that she was going to allow Harry to do this alone. Of course, it turned out she wasn't the only one thinking that.

Now the six of them are in the Ministry of Magic, in the Department of Mysteries trying to escape from the Death Eaters that surround them.

As she faces off against Dolohov at Harry and Neville's side, a spell slams into her, slashing her chest and knocking her to the ground unconscious. She didn't know how much time had passed between when the spell hit her and when she came to in sharp pain. She only knew one thing: something horrible had happened, something that would cause a massive ripple effect.

Struggling to her feet, she totters to the circle room and tried to focus her magic on the Room of Time. The wild magic children did was because of strong emotion, perhaps she could do the same now if she could only focus. Through the excruciating pain she finds herself back in the Room of Time without ever moving, spotting a single Time Turner and grabbing it, she carefully set it back just a few short minutes, when she lands the pain staggers her, causing her to see spots but again she forces herself to focus.

Carefully, quietly, she made it to the room with the arch in it. Just as she entered she sees Sirius and Bellatrix Lestrange dueling. When she realizes that the horrible thing she had felt, that it had something to do with them, she watches carefully. A jet of light hits him, throwing him backwards towards the veil. Just as he is about to hit it, she reaches out with everything magical within her. Her mind crying Accio at Sirius, even as she pushes Bellatrix with her magic towards the veil in his place, somehow knowing an even exchange must be made.

It was the last thing she saw before she blacked out.

When she comes to, she is laying in a room full of light. On a bed softer than anything she has ever been in. With walls that seem to shimmer, and a wide archway leading into a garden from the looks of it. It is not something that she recognizes. A slender woman wearing silver robes, thin wire glasses, with long curly silver-white hair, and pale skin is sitting in the chair next to her. She appears to be reading a book.

Setting the book down, the woman glances at her, I rarely have problems Seeing where a person belongs yet you do not seem to fit quite right. I cannot decide where to send you. Perhaps something you have to say will help me decided where you belong.

It takes her a moment to realize that the voice had not been aloud, but within her mind. Despite that, she is clearly aware that the voice was coming from the woman in the silver robes. Licking her dry lips, she asks, "Where am I? Who are you?"

Tilting her head to the side the woman replies, You're in my home. I am Ayumu, Keeper of Gates. I am not sure how you got here, you appeared in my garden for those who missed their Gate.

"Gate?" Hermione repeats, trying to think if she had ever heard that word in relation to magic. Nothing was coming forward, so instead she tries recalling if she had ever heard of someone called Ayumu. The only reference she can come up with is that one of the first Unspeakables had been named Ayumu but she had vanished over four-hundred years prior.

Do the Wizarding Folk recall nothing of the Gifts of Time? The Gates that allows a person to travel between instances in time, the modern Floo system is built off of the Gates, though they differ in they are tied to places not times. Hmmm, how odd, perhaps I should Watch to See what has changed since the last time I was in that realm. The woman's mental voice is soft as a whisper, full of knowledge and curiosity.

Shaking her head, she replies, "I've never heard of Gates but I am muggleborn so perhaps that is why. You said we were in your home, where is your home located at?"

Blinking, Ayumu tilts her head again, Why, within the very fabric between Gates. I believe you would call it the Spirit World or Astral World. I so rarely get visitors here. Perhaps, yes, I think that might be why you do not know of the Gates. You're from one of the other Worlds. She shakes her head for a moment, a look of realization on her face, How could I of forgotten that there are many Worlds? Particularly since I See things from each of them, no wonder I could not figure out where you belong, you feel like two different-time streams from the same World.

Hermione can think of nothing to say as she stares at Ayumu, trying to process what she had just learned. If there are many worlds, and each world had other layers where things went differently, that meant that things were not set in stone. That things could be changed. Perhaps, yes perhaps she could help change things for the better. Bad things happen to those who play with time, she hears whispering through her mind, the warning given to her when she got the Time Turner in her third year. Another voice, unfamiliar to her whispers through her, one must follow their instincts for it will always be true.

I present you with two options, Hermione Jean Granger, I can send you back to where you came from. Though it will unheal your chest that I have repaired, well most of it anyways. Or I could send you backwards, to a time before things were set in stone, you could attempt to repair some of the damage now before it truly occurs. Chose wisely, I will only give you one chance. For a moment Ayumu falls silent, then she continues, I will give you some time to consider your options. When you have decided, come to the garden.

With that, she stands and drifts out of the room through the archway in the wall.