Just close your eyes and make believe.
Do you want the truth or something beautiful?
I am happy to deceive you. “ Paloma Faith
By ThatRomantic
Prologue Part 2: Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?
In her reading over the first two weeks of summer, Hermione was sure she had found what would solve their problem. To bring Sirius and Harry back. That was all that mattered to her at that moment. To help Harry. She was wary when she first discovered the spell, and what might happen were she to use it. She had thought about it. She’d researched the spell in detail, gaining as much material in the library as she possibly could. She’d even gone into the restricted section to research it, to assure herself that the spell wasn’t as dark as it seemed on first glance. She had taken so many books out of the library that she had asked Madame Pince to loan them over the holidays. This had not been a problem, since the librarian had realised Hermione’s respect for the old tomes over the years.
After debating the notion during countless sleepless nights in her head, she came to the conclusion that she should do it. The spell itself enabled the person it is cast on to travel back in time. It was highly unstable and she knew she would need help from a powerful wizard to make it work, but she wanted to risk it. The spell wouldn’t effect time itself if it went wrong, but it would erase her birth from the histories. The spell enabled the traveller to go a maximum of twenty years into the past; this amount of time was also the ‘default’ number of years of travel. This meant that even if the spell went wrong, somehow, there was a likely hood that she could still meet Sirius and save him before he went to Azkaban. She had also discovered it would start rewriting history from the moment the time traveller arrived in the alternative universe.
With her mind made up, she decided to go to the one place she knew to be constant, were the spell to go wrong. It also happened to be the residence of the only wizard she deemed powerful enough to cast the spell.
‘No time like the present.’
Dumbledore sat in his office, a frown upon his face. He had been monitoring the movements of the book that he had tried to acquire from the library and was shocked to discover that it had not been returned before the holidays began.
He discovered that the book was taken out by one bushy-haired, formally buck-toothed, petite young lady whom he was sure knew of the dangers and implications of using such a spell. He’d also seen that she had loaned several more books on the same subject and couldn’t help but be concerned.
He convinced himself that he would dissuade her as much as possible. However, he was perfectly aware of the girl’s stubbornness.
After her parents had, thankfully, decided on an early night, Hermione quietly made her way downstairs. Her house had been connected to the Floo network the previous summer so she could commute quickly and easily to the Burrow, Diagon Alley, and Hogsmeade. She had packed a trunk of Muggle clothes and Hogwarts robes in case she was sent back further than she anticipated, and decided that she would buy books and other such things when she arrived to guarantee she would not have anything too advanced in time for her to use; such as outdated books and her state of the art electric toothbrush. After grabbing the handle of her trunk, she took a handful of the Floo powder and threw it into the grate as she stepped into the emerald flames.
“Hogs Head,” she stated clearly. She landed with a thump on her bottom, standing quickly and dusting herself off before scampering for the door. She ran to the school gates in her eagerness and hurried through the halls to the headmaster’s office hoping he lived there during the holidays. The gargoyle simply jumped aside with no password, due to the holidays being in session. Scurrying up the steps, she knocked frantically on the door.
“Enter,” Dumbledore said, his voice coming from the opposite side of the wooden barrier.
“Ah, Miss Granger, to what do I owe this delightfully unexpected visit?”
“Sir,” she said, “I wish to use the Tempus Maxim spell to travel back and warn Sirius of his death, perhaps even save him myself.”
“Miss Granger, that particular spell is very temperamental and highly unstable, not to mention you would risk facing life in prison for tampering with time.”
“I’m aware of that, and I’m prepared no matter what happens. The furthest back I can go is twenty years. That means I’d be at school with the Marauders. That means I have the power to change history completely. I could fight in the first war. I’d know things they won’t. Please sir, I don’t want Harry, or anyone else, to suffer anymore “ and it’s within my power to stop it.”
“That is a lot to ask of you, Miss Granger. Why are you willing to sacrifice as much as Harry seems to now?”
“He’s my brother and I want him to have a childhood. Even if it means that I have to give mine up. Sirius’s death showed us all the fragility of our situation and made us see just a portion of the suffering that may be coming. Harry’s lost so much already; I just want him to have something back. If I go back I may save lives that have not already been ruined; save lives before they are taken, mend homes before they are broken. Could you imagine what it would be to see Molly Weasley lose one of her sons or her only daughter “ even her doting husband? What do you think the school would be like without you, or Professor McGonagall? I can change that. Harry can have his parents, Lupin can have his best friends, and Mrs Weasley could even have her brothers.”
“Miss Granger, I really must say that tampering with time is highly dangerous. You could erase your existence; create whole new problems “ worse than Voldemort. Please do try and consider what you are doing.”
“I know this, Professor; I’ve read in detail about the implications of the spell. I came here because I know that if it does go wrong I am at a place that was around twenty years ago. I also believed that you are the only person likely to get the spell right. Please, Professor. If you do not cast the spell I will find someone else who will.”
“Very well, Miss Granger. I have to ask that in the event of travelling further than intended you use the knowledge I have recently acquired to your advantage.”
“What knowledge, sir?”
“I believe that to defeat Lord Voldemort we must first destroy his soul.” After saying this he made his way over to his penseive and gathered vials of memories before placing them in a red velvet drawstring bag. “Miss Granger, would you mind terribly if I were to write a letter to myself for you to give to me?”
“No, I don’t mind, sir,” she answered, still a little apprehensive as to what her headmaster was asking. He hastily wrote a letter in his elegant script that he folded and placed in an envelope, which he also included in the drawstring bag.
“Give this to me if you find yourself further back than intended, even if it is a mere five years, Miss Granger. This information is very important for the defeat of Voldemort.”
“Sir, surely these things are for Harry to know. He is, after all, the one who is prophesised to kill Voldemort.”
“Ah, but Miss Granger, as you said; if you end up in 1976 then you have the opportunity to change history.”
“Sir, are you saying that if I go back in time to before the Prophesy, I am to fulfil it?”
“Yes, Miss Granger. You are to kill Voldemort.”