Even the Stars Can Be Moved

Thumph.

Thumph.

Thumph.

Thumph.

The slight vibrating in her ears was steady as a metronome, or perhaps a heart beat. Hermione had always been good at silent spells. She cast this one steadily, constantly, on her way to classes, whilst reading in the library. Sometimes she would practice

strengthening it, and even when she didn't do that she worked on making it second nature. She cast it the second she woke up, at any time, and hoped that it would follow her to sleep. You never knew when you needed a shielding charm these days. Not since Harry had gone.

When it first happened, she and Ron had spent a month searching desperately in the library for spells or clues to Harry's whereabouts. Hermione had exhausted every locator spell and tracking device. In Hogsmeade, they could only follow his trail halfway down the road to the Shrieking Shack. That, they had checked thoroughly. He wasn't on the Marauder's map or the D.D. In the last fit of desperation, Hermione had transfigured alchemized gold into a globe to work roughly like the Marauder's map and the D.D. It had her, Ron's, and Harry's names only. Although her and Ron's were on the globe in Scotland, Harry's had not materialized at all. That was when every book they could find on locating had been read. That was when the ideas had run out.

She and Ron had separated from life at Hogwarts completely, then. They spent all their time in the Forbidden Forest, wandering it silently or kissing desperately. They started to skip classes (she'd stopped answering McGonogall's requests to speak), ignoring everyone except for Ginny, who they sat by in the Common Room every now and again. Hermione's trial had been moved several times now due to Harry's disappearance. They were waiting for the end; she wasn't worried about the trial anymore.

And then Dumbledore had summoned her. She went with Ron to his office and muttered the password (Cockroach Clusters). Ron went back to the Common Room to wait for her.

"Good afternoon, Miss Granger."

She wondered how long it would be. A half an hour of staring ahead and ignoring the Headmaster? An hour, perhaps?

"I must say you disappoint me. I would have thought you would be spending all your hours in the library trying to find out how you could find Harry."

A soft tutting sound escaped her. She'd brewed a Perk-up Potion for the first two weeks, and she and Ron hadn't slept during any of it. Done nothing, indeed. More like they'd done everything.

"He is still with us, Hermione. There is still hope."

She did look up at that. "How do you know?"

He looked at an object on his desk, a small glass box that held a suspended figure in it. "I do not know where, but I know that he is alive. And I believe I know the first steps to take in order to find him. But when I do... Well, you know that Voldemort is immortal, do you not?"

"What are you saying, Professor?"

Professor Dumbledore looked very old, sitting at his desk with his hands steepled between him. "Are you prepared, Miss Granger, for a very long and complicated story which I have hoped never to have to tell you?"

Her blood seemed to return, fully, to her body. "Tell me."

"First, I must preface this story by saying that I do fully hope that there is another way. Because if it is true, then it troubles me, since I have no way of knowing whether you have succeeded."

She just stared at him.

"You are familiar with a Time Turner, Miss Granger."

"But-- the last time. You can't change the past, Professor Dumbledore. That's what Professor McGonnagall told me afterwards. We didn't change it-- I mean we did, we just hadn't noticed how all the pieces fit together. It was recursive-- I can't see how..."

"Allow me to begin anew. Before I was Headmaster of the school, when I was simply a Transfiguration professor, a young woman came to me with a most fabulous story, which she told in a rather short fashion, given the contents." His eyes twinkled a bit at that. "She was a witch, she was English, but for whatever reason, she had never attended Hogwarts--at least, not in my memory, although she looked to be of school age."

A beat, a pause. Hermione had a very good idea of where this was going. But it couldn't be. Time Turners could only go back a few hours at the most; they were regulated. Accidents could happen without the limitation. And that was to say nothing of the fact that they had destroyed every one the Ministry had on hand when they had gone there in fifth year.

"She said she had come from the future, had travelled back years in time, which as you know, Miss Granger, isn't possible with a Time Turner. She had come back in a Time Machine hidden in the Forbidden Forest, a place that had been hidden with a Fidelus Charm. She said that I was the secret keeper, and had revealed it to her when I knew there was no other way. She said that she had come back to stop a boy at the school who was to become the greatest Dark Wizard of an age." He gave her a shrewd look. "She said her name was Hermione Granger."

"No," she breathed, for many, many reasons, her mind running paces for the first time in days.

"Do voice your objections, Miss Granger. I am confident that I can answer them."

"You can't-- you can't change the past," she said shrilly. "It's not that you shouldn't, it's that you can't."

"Have you ever noticed how it seems that things could have been no other way when you look back on them with the hindsight informed by particular experiences? After all, by that logic you could not have saved Buckbeak, but you did; it is just that you did not realize you had. Suffice to say, there is a way to do it. I remember what my part in it was. You are not there to make significant changes to the past. Tom Riddle will become Lord Voldemort-- he already has in the time you will travel to. You are only to change the things that come to pass after your departure."

"But-"

"Let me explain," he interrupted her kindly. "Harry cannot kill Lord Voldemort. However, he can kill Tom Riddle. The student under my charge at the time you came to me had not yet rendered himself immortal. What you went back to do is to bring Tom back to Harry. If Harry kills Tom, then Lord Voldemort ceases to be."

"But-- If I bring Tom-- here-- then I'll have changed the past. Without him, everything will have changed, won't it have? I don't even know if Harry would have been born."

"Very good, Miss Granger. This is where my doubts come in. I have taken care of one of yours. Did you ever see yourself while using the Time Turner?"

"Yes."

"Did you ever wonder what would happen if you did not go back to where you came from?"

"Well, I suppose there would be two of me, at least, until the moment the other one went back in time."

"Exactly. It is for me to create two Tom Riddles. That you do not have to worry about. You did disappear shortly after the creation of the Time Machine, with the second Tom. However, you returned to a place in the future we have not reached yet. So I do not know if you have succeeded."

There were many questions that came to her mind. She voiced one of them. "There's a Time Machine in the Forest? It's just...there?"

"And we come to the other difficulty. You see, Hermione, you invented it."

Thumph.

Thumph.

Thumph.

And she had gone back to Ron, light on her face, and it had crept back into his as she explained. Not about the Time Machine, of course. But the hope. There was hope. Dumbledore was close to finding him. She told him that they had to prepare. She threw herself back into her classes with such ferocity that she outdid even her former level of work. She and Ron spent all their free time practicing new jinxes and spell. She had found the most marvelous new library when she was thinking about her need to prepare outside of the Room of Requirement. And Dumbledore had started to teach her Occlumency, since Tom Riddle already was a gifted Legilimens during his time at Hogwarts. Like everything magical, it came to her easily.

Thumph.

Thumph.

Thumph.

"Do it, Ron. I have to be ready for it."

"Hermione, you know I can't."

This argument had been going on for an hour, and it looked like Ron wasn't about to change his stance on the issue at hand.

She cast a jelly-legs jinx on him. He fell to the floor, legs flailing, cursing.

"I won't take it off until you agree."

"You're mad, you know that Hermione?"

"These are mad times, Ron. We need to be able to help Harry when Dumbledore finds him. You know what the Death Eaters are capable of."

"I won't do it!"

Hermione sighed. "Very Well. Finite Incantatem."

Ron stood shakily.

"Do it," she said again.

"No," he said stubbornly.

"I swear, Ron, I'll make you want to-"

"Nothing could make me want to."

"Flagelle!" She shouted desperately. A streak of blood appeared on Ron's face. He heart plummetted to her chest.

"This is getting out of hand, Hermione," he said

angrily, wiping the blood away with his hand.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry Ron, I'll fix it." She hurriedly went over and muttered a mending charm. His skin reappeared, white and unblemished. She looked at him again. "I'm really sorry."

"You'd better be," he replied, not looking at her.

Hermione bit her lip. "We have to be prepared, utterly prepared. We are the only thing that might save Harry, and Harry is the only thing standing in between this world and a worse one."

"Harry's not a thing!"

"Of course he's not, but what do the niceties matter with what we're facing? What the world is facing, Ron? I won't do it to you, but you need to do it to me, Ron. I need to get used to it. I need to be

able to endure it."

"You'll never get used to it, you madwoman! Look what it did to Neville's parents!"

"That's because they weren't prepared!" she protested.

"I won't do it!"

"Then I'll find Malfoy and have him do it!"

Ron stood and pointed his wand at her. "Petrif-" Thumph.

Her perpetual shielding charm blocked his curse. "You can't hit me with what I don't want you to."

His mouth dropped. "How did you do that?"

"I've been practicing. I need to practice more. Please Ron. Please. It's not like I can cast it on myself, and I need to be ready. You'll feel worse if I'm not."

Ron stared at her, whitefaced. "I won't." His head drooped. "But if you want, you can Imperius me. I'll try to throw it off, and you can try to be a

madwoman."

A moment, and a nod. "Imperio!" she said.

And then, a moment later, too quickly for him to throw it off, she made him shout "Crucio!"

Her scream was what he used to break through the Curse. He ran to her and lifted her up, muttering "Never again, never again, never again." But she forced him to do it three times a day, and within a few weeks she wasn't even screaming. After all, it wasn't a war she was preparing to face, it was Lord Voldemort.

* * *

She had thought that Dumbledore would bring back Harry, and she'd bring back Tom Riddle. One right after the other, barely up to par with the adventures they'd had in their years at Hogwarts. That was all that had occurred for her to think. She didn't think there would be anything more too it. Maybe they'd have to go through some kind of an intricate adventure in order to retrieve him, but she might have already gone back. She expected she'd go back once she'd gotten the news from Dumbledore that he'd found Harry. And actually, that part she got right. The rest she'd gotten wrong, though. The rest, she couldn't have anticipated at all.

It started on a Thursday night. A strange night for it to happen, wasn't it, a Thursday? A Friday or a Saturday night, even Sunday would make sense. It should have been raining or bleakly lighted at the very least. But even the weather didn't suggest anything. It was an unremarkable day, a warm day for winter and bright, snow laid out two weeks ago and promising not to visit again anytime soon. The air was what she remembered, even when she was running into the forest it didn't have that unnatural low pressure that always seemed to accompany strange things happening. Like that day Cedric died. The pressure had been low then. It should have been low enough to make you're ears bleed, for this.

She was sitting on one of the fields just outside the gates with Ginny and Ron after classes. Dinner was about to start in a half an hour, and Ron was complaining about how hungry he was. Neville had stopped by, and they were talking to him. He and Ginny had been practicing defense spells lately. The DA hadn't met since Harry had disappeared, and people had disbanded into little groups. Little did anyone know they would become platoons.

There had been a light breeze, and Hermione had wrapped her cloak around her. She was looking lazily at the horizon, watching the sun's slow arc back to the west, when she saw a patch of smoke drifting lazily up into the air. It took her a moment to react. Somehow it didn't look utterly out of place. Perhaps because it looked like it wasn't much. It took a moment for Hermione to remember to account for the rules of perspective. That was entirely too much smoke to be coming from anything good, at such a distance. And in the general vicinity of Hogsmeade.

Ron noticed her face immediately. And turned to look at the same thing she was. Ginny and Neville followed suit.

"Oh no," Ginny moaned.

"It's at Hogsmeade," said Ron.

They stood. "What do you think it is?" said Neville.

They watched it for a moment. Hermione shook herself. Something needed to be done. Immediately if possible. "Let's get Dumbledore," she said, softly but firmly.

Ron turned to her, nodded. As she turned to run into the castle Hermione noticed a few other people standing, as well. There was Ernie MacMillan and Hannah Abott. There was Terry Boot and Michael Corner. They streamed past her as she ran to the castle, Ron and Ginny in front of her. Her heart was drumming violently in her ears. People paused as they ran by. After all, she found herself thinking, when we run it always means something.

They ran into Professor McGonnagall first.

"Professor!" Hermione panted. "Hogsmeade!"

"I know," she answered, a firm hand on Hermione's shoulder. She had a severe look about her face. "I know, child." She looked at the four of them. "I want you in Gryffindor tower, right now. I'm going to find the prefects from all the houses now."

"Ernie and Hannah are outside," she gasped in an effort to be helpful.

Professor McGonnagall nodded crisply and proceeded to the front door. They looked at each other.

"What now?" said Neville.

"Well, I can tell you one thing," said Ron. "We're definitely not going to Gryffindor tower for anything other than the invisibility cloaks and the maps."

"I've got Perk-Up Potion in my room," said Hermione. "We want to be in good shape if we're going to Hogsmeade." Even a year ago she supposed she would have hesitated. But she knew they would help more by acting earlier. Gods, she thought, Dumbledore hadn't even found Harry yet.

They went back to the Towers and got everything useful they could think of. Then they headed to the humb-backed witch who stood at the entrance to Honeydukes. But when Ron told the statue the password, nothing happened. Hermione checked the Marauder's Map. It was criminally unhelpful.

"What'll we do?" Ron cried in frustration.

"Check the other entrances," said Hermione. "Do you all still have your Galleons?"

Ginny and Neville nodded. Hermione knew Ron carried his as a matter of course. "Ginny, you go to the South Wing. Ron, try the exit in the kitchens. Stun Filch if he tries to stop you. Neville, try the one by the picture of Gregory the Gray." There was only one left, for her. "If your passage is open, just transfigure a number on the coin. One, two three, four," she said hurriedly, pointing respectively at Ron, Neville, Ginny, and herself. "Remember what passageways the others have got. Got it?"

The others nodded quickly, and the group split off to their consecutive passageways. Hermione rushed up the staircase to the entrance on the fourth floor. She had a growing conviction that all the exits had somehow been magically sealed, to prevent any of the students from leaving whether by intention or accident. Still, they had to try it. Her breath grew ragged as she ran up the last staircase. Really, she should have been trying all this time to get in shape. How good was a protective jinx if you couldn't get somewhere vital on time? She turned left at the top of the staircase, silently thanking it for staying in place. Second corridor on the left. Third door on the right. Five bricks out and two bricks up. Hermione skidded in front of it and hurriedly jabbed it with her index finger. She moaned when it didn't give way. She sat for a moment, hoping against hope for her coin

to grow hot. It didn't.

They hadn't said what to do if no one found anything. Still, when Hermione went to the entrance hall, she found everyone there. Thank goodness the wits kicked in during these situations.

"The gates?" Ron said by way of greeting. Hermione nodded, and the four made to push open the doors to the entrance. They didn't budge. Ron tried the unlocking spell but Hermione knew it wouldn't work. She could sense the wards at the door. Dumbledore had probably set them. Ron kicked the door in a fit of frustration and got a banged toe for his effort.

All that Hermione could think was that people were dying, people were dying, people were dying. She looked out of the window. Smoke now covered the horizon. Hogsmeade was burning. They hadn't found Harry yet. But Dumbledore would find Harry, wouldn't he? He already had. He'd already been witness to her dismissal back in time. But what did it matter if she wouldn't prevent any of this?

The group turned and began plodding up the steps to Gryffindor tower. For once, a situation had arisen that they could find no way to participate in.

"I can't believe this!" Ron groused as they made their way to the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Equivocation," said Ginny.

"They're just trying to keep us safe," said Hermione.

"But us--I mean, the DA--"

"If we can get out, I suppose they can get in."

But they got in anyway, as it was. Although not before the students got out. Hermione had finally retired to her room, more to be alone than anything. She always thought better by herself. Lavender and Parvati were at the window with their arms around each other, looking over to Hogsmeade. By now, an orange glow was perceptible in the distance. They didn't turn to her, or say anything to each other. They just looked into the distance. Hermione pulled on her nightgown and sat in her bed, with her knees drawn up to her chest. How many were dead now? If they'd been able to leave the grounds, would there be less dead, or more? How many would die before she came back with Tom Riddle to complete the prophecy?

Hermione looked over to Lavender and Parvati, at the sky that overhung it all. The glow from the fires in Hogsmeade had barely made a dent in the vast and darkening blue. And that was when the idea came. "Brooms," she breathed. Lavender and Parvati broke apart.

"What is it, Hermione?" asked Parvati. She's lived in the same dormitory long enough to know the sound of one of Hermione's great ideas.

"It's so simple," she said. "Brooms! We can get to Hogsmeade on brooms!"

Lavender looked at Parvati, and then back at Hermione. Her face was very white, but she nodded. "We're coming with you."

"You should contact the rest of the DA," said Parvati. "Some of them have families there," she added, almost as an afterthought.

Hermione nodded brusquely and took her Galleon out of her pocket. She muttered an incantation and passed her wand over the coin; it grew warm.

"Where shall they meet us?" asked Lavender.

"Where else?" asked Hermione. "The Room of Requirement."

The Room of Requirement turned out to have been a very good idea indeed, for not only was it stocked with high-quality brooms, but it was also stocked with portable dark detectors, enchanted swords, and every one of the more serious tools that Weasely's Wizard Wheezes carried. Nearly everyone from the DA was there within minutes. Hermione and Ron stood at the front of the room.

"Those of you who want to go to Hogsmeade, take a broom and whatever else you think will come in handy," said Ron. People started to move, but Hermione put a hand up.

"Listen, this is important. The castle has been enchanted to keep us in for our own safety, and we have to take that seriously. I want everyone to pair up with another person. Make sure to look out for that person. And I want each pair to find another pair so you can keep an eye out for each other. If anyone gets hurt, their partner should bring them back here immediately. If anyone feels overwhelmed, even a bit, come straight back to Hogwarts. You'll do better to be a bit cowardly in a situation like this than stupidly brave."

Ron nodded. "Also, some students should remain behind to watch over the grounds. It's likely once they see us coming back here on brooms the Death Eaters will copy us. If anyone sees a Death Eater on the grounds, get our attention with the Galleons. If that happens, we are to immediately fall back to protect the castle. Understand, everyone?"

There was desultory nodding, but they never saw their orders put into action. As soon as the first group of students had taken off from the Astronomy Tower (she was riding on Ron's broom, being more secure in his flying abilities than her own), she saw the first Death Eaters streaming onto the grounds. They had gotten through the gates. A cold hand grabbed hold of Hermione's heart and squeezed. She didn't like to think what their presence could possibly mean.

Ginny pulled alongside of herself and Ron. "What will we do?" she called, the wind stripping the words from her mouth one by one.

"Consider ourselves fallen back and start defending the grounds!" Hermione shouted. The people around her heard and people started to pass the word along. Ron swooped downward at a dangerous-seeming angle and Hermione steeled herself against the reeling sensation. They plunged into a group of Death Eaters and they scattered, immediately firing curses at them. Hermione jumped off her broom and readied her wand. Others were landing around her.

"Circle them!" Ron called to those above her.

Thumph.. A purple light was disappated as her Shielding Charm hit it."We've been told to go for the mudbloods first," the figure hissed.

Hermione slashed her wand in a downward arc; a jet of yellow light hit the Death Eater and he collapsed. There was another right before her. Wordlessly, she slashed at the air, all her senses sharpening as the Death Eaters closed in on her and Ron. Roughly half of Ron's spells were spoken, and a great deal of them struck the Death Eaters violently. He screamed as a Crucio hit him.

"I always knew we'd meet like this, blood traiter," a high voice sneered. Although the figure who uttered it was concealed along with the rest of the Death Eaters, it wasn't necessary to see his face.

"Weasely." A curt nod in her direction. "Mudblood"

Ron bristled visibly.

"Busy living up to everyone's expectations, are we Malfoy?"

Malfoy pointed his wand at Ron's chest. "It's my job to keep the likes of you from spawning, after all."

"Pet-"

"Protego!" Ron just ducked the rebounding spell. It went through two Death eaters and his Zacharius Smith.

Hermione quickly cast a protection spell in his direction, and flicked her wand. "Apollio!" Malfoy went sailing through the sky in a very satisfying arc.

"Too bad you didn't bounce that time, Malfoy!" Ron called heartily behind him. Suddenly he ducked. A green bolt rushed over his head and struck one of the Death Eaters who had been battling Zacharius Smith. He came up, shaken. "Blimey," he muttered in a low voice. "Didn't even know it was coming, just felt the need to duck."

"I expect we'll come out of this a bit shellshocked," Hermione replied seriously.

"Too right. Do you reckon we should stand back-to-back?"

"Yes, that makes sense." They smiled at each other under the moon, and stood back to back. Ginny was fighting off two Death Eaters from getting to her, firing off Bat Bogey Hexes , Wingardium Leviosas, and Senselessia, which deprived the combatants of their senses. Hermione leveled a Knock-Out Hex towards the left one's back. He fell, prompting the other one to look towards her and raise his wand. His nose suddenly sprouted in bat wings that grew in his nostrils and flew away in clusters to latch onto his head.

Ginny strided over and pivoted to look for any comers. She stood before the first one's crumpled form and kicked it lightly. "That one was Lucius Malfoy," she told Hermione. "And a right dirty mouth he has on him."

"The reinforcements have arrived!" called Ron, who was having another go at Malfoy. "I see Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mundungus!" A red light hit him and he was knocked back, into another Death Eater. The fallen Death Eater stood up and pointed his wand at Ron.

"Reflecto!" Hermione shouted, and the Death Eater's spell rebounded, making a live snake burst through his mouth and bite him in the chest.

"I love you, Hermione."

She smiled and dodged a curse. Then they heard: "Potter's friends are over there!" come from somewhere in Draco's vicinity. The atmosphere around them changed palpably, as more and more Death eaters turned from DA members to Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. Draco stepped to the edge of the converging Death eaters, leveling his wand at Hermione. "You first, to be fair. Since you are just a Mudblood."

Ron gave her a fleeting, scared look, and brought his wand up, but not before Draco said "Cru-" and Ron stepped in front of Hermione to take the curse. But Draco didn't finish the spell. Instead, he smiled, and flicked his wand at Ron. Like he'd been planning to do just that all along.

She screamed his name as he fell. He was erupting blood.

She was facing Draco with her wand drawn, saying "Avara-", and then a Death Eater took hold of Ginny by the throat. What she was about to say drove into her with the impact of the Knight Bus, and she stood still. Draco was smiling, but she had to worry about Ginny. She petrified the Death Eater holding her; his grip grew hard when the spell hit him and Ginny toppled over with him.

"Crucio!" Draco shouted.

Thumpth

A look of shock, and then comprehension, and he leveled his wand again. "Crucio!"

Thumpth

She turned to Ron, who was white and still, though still leaking blood. He looked unconscious. She fell over him, and Malfoy said, again, "Crucio!"

Thumpth.

"Episkey!" she whispered.

"Crucio!" he shouted.
Thumpth

Why wasn't he stopping? "Episkey," she muttered. "Episkey, Episky." Everything was knitting together, but not enough. It was like surgery after severe bodily harm. Ron was fading.

"Crucio!" Malfoy shouted again, his voice breaking on the spell.

Thumpth

It was very annoying, the way he kept on doing that. She tried to remember that Healing chant she'd read about, but she'd never learned the intonation. And into the first bar, it lost its power, because, of course, Draco cast Crucio again-

Thumpth

And the spell was off a beat, and died. "Bastard!" she cried.

"Crucio!"

Thumpth

"You're just a mediocre wizard, Draco. Can't you stop being a pest and do more important things?"

"Crucio!"

And it was cast just a moment before-

Thuuuu-

But it had hit her. Her body seized up. All her training had allowed her to barely betray emotion when she felt the pain, and to throw the pain off, but it hurt. And Draco could tell, she knew just by looking at him.

"What was that you were just saying, Mudblood? I may be mediocre, but you'll always be low. Low class, low purity, low viability, low esteem, low worth." Even despite his mask, she could detect a sneer.

Petrificus Totalus, she thought. Petrificus Totalus. And Draco fell. Ginny was kneeling by Ron. There were five more Death Eaters looming.

She arced her wand at them, her spell slashing into them and causing three to fall at once. She knelt by Ron again. "Ginny, can you cast that corporeal Shield charm I was teaching you and Ron the other day?"

Ginny nodded mutely, pointed her wand to the sky, and said, "Scutio!" An opaque bubble sprouted from the tip of her wand, surrounding them. Not a moment later, spells began to rebound off it. Ginny gritted her teeth. Hermione started the chant again, looking at him intently, praying she'd got the intonation right. His lips were blue by now, and he wasn't responding to Ginny, who was shaking his shoulders repeatedly. Hermione continued the chant. She could tell his wounds were knitting together more substantially than with Episkey. By the end of the spell, the wounds had knit themselves so that there was a red line running into Ron's blood-soaked shirt. His lips, however, were still blue, and his eyes had a frightening glazed look to them.

She and Ginny stared at each other for a short moment. "That's all I can do. We have to go to Madame Pomfrey."

Ginny nodded. Then she shook her head. "You go. I'm staying. I've got to do what I can. I can't allow them to get away with this." Her eyes were fierce, and tears were breaking over them. "And I don't want to know, until I'm done," she whispered.

Hermione didn't have to ask what she didn't want to know about.

"Mobilocorpus," muttered Hermione, and Ginny broke the corporeal Shield. As soon as it broke she noticed Peeves, of all the things in the world, in the middle of the battle, chucking disappearing capsules from Fred and George's store, for the most part at Death Eaters, although he threw one at Dean Thomas moments before a curse would have hit him. Seamus dodged an incoming spell and ran to find him. Well, they were following the instructions, anyway. Then she ran for the school entrance, and for Madame Pomfrey's. She could hear Ginny shouting curses hysterically behind her.

Thumpth.

Hermione's shielding charm blocked a spell she hadn't seen coming. Ron's head bobbed along, and she reached the steps, and pushed open the door. It was utterly vacant, and somehow it made her feel chillier than ever. She made a dash for Madame Pomfrey's. It seemed like it took her longer to get there than it ever had done.

When she reached Madame Pomfrey's office the mediwitch was bustling as Hermione had never seen her before. The hospital wing had been hastily expanded to admit the sudden influx of students, and by the looks of it, survivors from Hogsmeade. People were dripping blood and spouting pus; she saw Dennis Creevey glowing pink and gagging, and a Madame Pomfrey was unable to get anything to touch him. There were two women dressed in St. Mungo's robes bustling around the room.

"Madame Pomfrey!" Hermione yelled, and the noise in the room seemed to dim, for a moment. Madame Pomfrey turned to her, set her lips in a line, and rushed over, conjuring a hospital bed right under Ron.

"What happened to him?" Madame Pomfrey asked, bending over him.

"Malfoy hit him with--it looks like Sectumsempra."

Madame Pomfrey didn't move, but her lips looked even more set together.

"Madame Pomfrey?"

The responding voice sounded lower and older than Hermione had ever heard it. "Miss Grang--Hermione, dear." She looked up at Hermione and squeezed her hand. "He's dead."

"What? But I--" she choked on the words and nodded. Someone started screaming towards the back. She looked down at Ron. Yes, there it was, the familiar face that seemed to descend over everyone who she had seen dead. "You should-" she was crying already. "--get back to help the others. I'll be fine." She held the sobs in her throat and refused to give in to the urge to curl into a ball right there on the floor. She put a hand to Ron's face. It was cool to the touch. Madame Pomfrey let go of her hand.

"All right, dear," said Madame Pomfrey, and began to move towards the back. Hermione noticed she was limping.

After a last look at Ron, Hermione left the Hospital Wing.

*

There was a bag that Hermione had prepared soon after Dumbledore had summoned her to his office. It contained her invisibility cloak, the Marauder's Map, and the DD. It contained samples of potions she had brewed for various purposes this year. Poisons and Healing potions, which she couldn't bring herself to look at now. She had a set of dragon-hide hiking gear, which she brought with her on the more dangerous trips to the Forbidden Forest. There was a virtual library in there, which she had compacted and rendered weightless, which comprised the most useful books from the Room of Requirement Library, and those books which had been on the list she'd made up of all books written after 1944, which was where she was headed. She closed her fist around the handle, noting that it was covered in blood. Ron's blood, of course.

Dumbledore had finally found Harry. He was out there right now. If Hermione hazarded a peek through her dormitory window onto the grounds, she'd have a good chance of picking him out. He was tied to a stake; he had appeared out of nowhere. Or where, only Dumbledore and Voldemort knew. Voldemort was coming, Dumbledore said. To kill Harry. This was the window of opportunity that had been given to them. Hermione was to come back to this exact moment with Tom Riddle, before Voldemort appeared on the scene. She was to do something to keep the Death Eaters away, something to free Harry so that he could kill Tom Riddle. She had a year in which to plan it. She knew she should note everyone's position. Of course, positions in a game of war were Ron's specialty. The empty cave in her chest seemed to expand, so that she thought she would burst. Instead, she deflated, took out a wizarding camera, and moved toward the window. Lavender and Parvati were out there, on the grounds. At least they weren't in Madame Pomfrey's. Like Ron. She took a picture of the battlefield resolutely, and saw Ron's face in the flash. What use was any of this, anyway, if it wouldn't save Ron?

Hermione couldn't resist the chance to send a spell out into the Death Eaters. She could make out a patch near the entrance that she leveled a Stunning Spell at, and sent a few Senselessias out at others she selected. Then she grabbed her bag and ran out of her dormitory. She heard a curse hit her window, but it bounced off harmlessly. There were still plenty of protections in the castle left.

She had asked Dumbledore where Harry had been, before. He had smiled ruefully and said, "A place which is neither here nor there," Dumbledore said. "Now, let me tell you where the Time Machine is. You will find it next to the little gulpyfish pond near the unicorn patch. It is directly behind the third tree the right of the giant Grasshunter Tree."

"And I just--"

"Step in, and close the door."

"And I'll come out in the same place?"

"You will be apparated out somewhere near where Hagrid's hut is now. Of course, then, it hadn't been built yet."

She'd turned away, ready to fetch her bag, and Dumbledore had said, "Oh, remember to avoid the centaurs."

"What?"

He had smiled and doffed his cap to her. "You must excuse me, Miss Granger, but Lord Voldemort has appeared near Hogwarts, and I must go to hold him off while we wait for your reappearance."

"But-" and he handed a letter addressed to himself, and one addressed to her, and disapparated.

On her way to the Time Machine, Hermione passed Ginny one more time. She had been surrounded by Death Eaters, screaming. Luna Lovegood, who was floating on a reversed corporeal Shield Charm, dreamily threw spells in Ginny's direction. One Death eater fell.

The Time Machine was there all right. Right behind the third tree from the left of the Grasshunter Tree. It was a gleaming sculpture of metal, humming intensely with spells. Hermione didn't recognize the door at first. It turned out to be an arc of what looked like steel protruding from the general frame, connecting to an arc that would just allow her in. It looked immobile, but when Hermione stepped in, the arc curled into a more intricate design at her touch, bringing itself in to fully enclose her. No sooner did the arc fully conform to the rest of the Time Machine, than did Hogwarts, and the battle raging in front of it, disappear.