This is the sequel to my first story 'Steal the Glamour from Death'. (I'm sure the link's in my ridiculously empty profile page that will remain empty until I think of something witty and/or remember to actually put it there once I do. Such is life.) I highly suggest you read that one first, I changed a bit from canon as I felt appropriate for my needs. Knowing what I wrote better than most (heh), I couldn't promise it's necessary. Knowing HP canon and the general plotline of Hermione and Fred going back to save everyone (because no one's ever done any variation of that, you know...also, I lie), anyone should generally be good following this one if you should choose. But I put the effort into a part one, so I'd appreciate you putting the effort into reading it as well...lol.

Standard disclaimers apply: if I owned even the tiniest bit of anything Harry Potter, I wouldn't (a) be renting or (b) creatively working my budget to feed my husband and I as well as paying rent every month. It would be nice, though...

CHAPTER ONE: PREPARATIONS

Christmas had returned and Fred and Hermione's plans were almost complete. They had a small, intimate wedding planned for New Year's Eve and would leave for their honeymoon just after midnight. That way no one would ever notice they left, granted they were successful, and no one would suspect anything about them having bags packed to ring in the new year. If they succeeded, they would be rhicocched back through time, according to all of Hermione and Snape's calculations, back into their bodies in the timeline they created. Snape had been invaluable, especially through his restless during his extensive bed rest, in helping Hermione with the particulars once she and Fred had successfully broken into the Department of Mysteries, stolen the time turner, and copied all of the original research.

The research, it seemed, had gone past the limitations of the time turners the Ministry owned and all three doubted anyone but whoever was in charge of the time room and the wizard who had done the original work had a clue. It was possible to go back as far as you'd like and, once you triggered the return mechanism that had been designed but never built into current time turners, your mind and soul would be hurtled back into what would be your current timeline, hopefully around the same time you left. There was a documented variance if you went too far, though, so they expected to return sometime between June and September past. A few months didn't concern them in the least, provided they would have their memories of the previous timeline, which research indicated they would.

Together, they had all worked on the stolen time turner, turning it into everything it could be and everything they needed it to be. After a few trial runs, the two were confident in their mission. Even Snape was hopeful. He had asked only one thing for his assistance: try to stop him from having taken the mark. Turns out, the events leading to this could be traced back to one day just after he had left Hogwarts. He ran into Lucius Malfoy while shopping in Diagon Alley and had missed an important job interview that by all accounts he would have aced because he had been trying to impress the man who had pretty much run Slytherin before he had graduated his fourth year. Because he missed the interview and was aimless and jobless, he had taken up Lucius' suggestion of meeting the Dark Lord's people, trying to impress people he had looked up to for the wrong reasons. Snape felt that if he had not run into Malfoy, had gotten the job or at least made the interview, and grew up without a dark mark or being forced to teach, he could have been a very different man.

Because of this, Hermione and Fred had added that day to their timeline of things to stop, knowing it would change the dates they had planned. They had hoped to travel back to a point before Voldemort had started recruiting heavily, but after he had returned to England from Albania and interviewed for the DADA position, going after the horcruxes first before Bellatrix had been given Hufflepuff's cup and Lucius was entrusted with the diary, leaving the task of defeating Voldemort himself to someone like Dumbledore once the evil wizard had no tricks left up his sleeve. They were hoping to have come back before Snape had graduated, but agreed to themselves later it'd be best to see the job through anyway, even if they did employ someone else to take the final task. Secretly, Hermione had resolved that they'd just find a way to destroy Voldemort before Snape or Harry's parents had graduated. After they had, things had gotten worse and that's when the majority of the events they wanted to stop had occurred. If Voldemort was gone before that, none of the things they wanted to stop would ever happen. But a promise was a promise, both of them spent their formative years as Gryffindors, and there was no saying what would happen to keep Snape from that interview if they weren't there to ensure he went.

It was the first Christmas since the war ended. The first Christmas the Weasleys would have to spend without Arthur, Percy, and George. Percy hadn't actually been around the past two Christmases and George and Arthur had been in two different places the year before, but knowing that they were never coming back, that there would never be another Christmas with any of them again, took it's toll on the vast majority of the family. Charlie was in attendance, and had been home for Halloween and Thanksgiving as well seeing as he had indeed lost his arm and could no longer keep up on the dragon reserve. He was currently working at the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley, but McGonagall was pulling all the stops trying to recruit him as the next Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts seeing as Hagrid had told her he'd like to retire to his key keeping duties only as soon as she found a replacement. The gentle half-giant had taken all the losses of the war extremely hard and wasn't feeling up to teaching any longer.

Molly had made attempts at filling the empty places at the table by inviting over Kingsley, Andromeda and Teddy, and Snape, all of whom came. But neither the new faces, Teddy's brilliant green hair, or the announcement that Fleur was pregnant fully lightened the mood. If anything, the half-somber Christmas only fuelled the fire inside Fred and Hermione to fix everything for everyone. When Molly questioned if they really wanted to go away on a honeymoon instead of sticking closer to home, they had both resolutely answered yes.

By all accounts, the year before Harry's parents graduated Hogwarts was when everything had taken it's turn for the absolute worse and Voldemort had gained an undeniable foothold of power. The year after, the Order of the Phoenix was formed. A year after that, they had married, and two years later, they had had Harry. The first year of Harry's life, which would have been Fred's third and Hermione's second because of when their birthdays fell, was the worst year of the first war. The casualties piled up excessively, culminating in the majority of the Order of the Phoenix being murdered in the two weeks before the Potters hid under the fidelus charm, quieting for the month they remained hidden, and ending with their deaths. September of 1981 held the highest number of wizarding casualties of any month in recorded history before the Battle of Hogwarts that had culminated the second war against Voldemort.

Historians were unsure of why Voldemort had started his reign of terror when he did, but Hermione knew better. One of the visions she had seen from her amulet in the fifteen hours she had spent unconscious after the Battle of Hogwarts had been from the door to the room of hidden things. Two years before Harry's parents graduated, Voldemort had applied to be Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. He had already recruited a fairly large and dedicated group of followers outside the walls and was planning on keeping the post for three to five years to not only recruit from within Hogwarts, but to see to it that those he chose to recruit were properly trained and those he chose as targets were not. Dumbledore had not refused him outright, she knew from her door-memory, and so the year of waiting had passed with the Dark Lord trying to keep his followers under wraps in hopes of gaining the job that would further his cause so effectively right under Dumbledore's nose.

That's why he had chosen to hide his horcrux in the school - he believed he would be returning to teach. A former head boy with years of experience under his belt and fantastic grades on his O.W.L.S. and N.E.W.T.S. would be a shoo-in with the board of governors, he had thought. He knew Dumbledore didn't want him there, but the board could overrule him if they were unanimous. The memory hadn't shown her as much, but she knew the waves of violent attacks against muggles started in late August before the next school year, leading her to assume Voldemort had become aware of the fact that he would not be hired by Hogwarts and so started his reign of terror immediately instead of waiting the three to five years he had planned for more recruitment.

Hermione knew lots of little tidbits like that and was spending more and more time with the Weasleys in hopes of finding out more and eliminating some of her guesswork. Research had proven that Madam Longbottom was the only person on the Board of Governors to be against Tom Riddle's placement as DADA professor, effectively keeping him from the school and starting the terror. She bet the old woman knew that and it held the key for her resentment towards her grandson she had had earlier in his life - she was feeling guilty for her own actions that had made a target of her son and daughter-in-law. The Burrow was a treasure-trove for her amulet, which is why Hermione had avoided it as much as possible before she and Fred had decided to change the world. While preparing for her wedding, she had been presented with earrings from Molly, who had said, like the tiara Fleur had worn, Prewett women had been wearing them for their weddings for centuries. When she had raised an eyebrow at this, remembering the tiara, Molly explained that there were several pieces of jewelry and the tiara and that only women born to the Prewett line wore them all. Women that were marrying in that the family approved of were offered a piece to complete their wedding look. Molly had felt that tiara suited Fleur perfectly and the earrings matched Hermione's dress perfectly.

She sniffed and smiled sadly as Hermione thanked her, too caught up in emotion to notice Hermione's gasp for breath while she was overcome with the inevitable flash of memories. That night, she became aware of the fact that she was the second person Molly had offered those earrings to for her wedding. She also realized that Dorcas Meadowes had died Dorcas Prewett, and had since been on the hunt for anything that had belonged to Gideon. As much as she had learned about his actual death in Diagon Alley, she still didn't know why the Prewett twins were targeted in such a bold attack. From talking to Harry, she knew that Dorcas Meadowes had been killed by Voldemort personally. After poking around the attic and finding some of the late twins' school things, she discovered that the three were also good friends with Benji Fenwick, despite an age difference, who had lived in the house over the hill now occupied by the Diggory's. Harry had been told that they only ever found bits of poor Benji Fenwick. As much as they were going to avoid it all - those deaths all took place in September of 1981 - Hermione had a suspicion that it was all connected and was trying desperately to figure out how before they changed the past and all these memories would no longer exist. Curiosity was her second most prevalent trait next to cleverness, after all, and with everything so bleak in the aftermath of the war a new mystery and possible secret love story was more than enticing.

Fred was also curious. As much as he knew it wouldn't matter should they succeed in their mission, he had always wondered about his uncles. His mother would get teary when asked about them and thus never told any of them too much. All he knew was that they had lost their parents when his parents had only been married a year and were expecting Bill, the summer before the twins' second year at Hogwarts, and that Molly had pretty much raised them from that point on. He knew that they were pretty mischievous at home, but had dialed it back a bit when their parents died and gave up on being the top pranksters in Hogwarts their third year, which would have been the marauders' second. They had come home from Hogwarts for Christmas their seventh year with the family clock, including a hand for the baby Percy. The ancient Cleansweeps he and George had played on at Hogwarts, and later escaped from the school on, had been top of the line a few months before their uncles had died and were their last major purchase. Fabian had gotten Charlie his first toy dragon that breathed real fire charmed not to burn or be hotter than tap water. Gideon had taught Percy to read at the age of four just over a year before he died. Both had taken Bill for his Hogwarts supplies, who had been horrorstruck and heartbroken to get the news less than a month after he started school that his beloved uncles had died, even if they had been fighting like heroes on the way out. He had insisted it had nothing to do with the fact that they had promised him a racing broom that summer for having been sorted into Gryffindor, and Fred had laughed at that bit, despite believing every word of it.

Most of what Fred knew about his uncles came from Bill or Charlie. He and George had been three and a half when they died, but his older brothers remembered them clearly. Fred swore he vaguely remembered two identical red-haired men in his childhood room talking about knights and wizards and dragons jumping in and out of the shadows with silly or scary faces.

Hermione wished that Percy were around to share his memories - he would have been five when his uncles died. Charlie remembered Gideon's girlfriend Cassie coming over with his uncles sometimes that would avoid flying or playing with him and Bill outside. She helped Percy with the studies assigned to him by Molly and shared books - both magical and muggle - with him instead. A few of those books were still in Percy's old, and mostly untouched, room. He remembered her being nice, but tired with a spontaneous twitch or three after she hadn't been around for an entire summer once when his mom and uncles told him she was sick. He had gotten very sullen after that, suddenly realizing what the disappearance followed by obvious nerve damage insinuated - he had been too young at the time to think anything was amiss with the story he was told.

Fabian and Gideon were aurors. Marlene McKinnon, Fabian's girlfriend whose whole family was murdered in the same two weeks the other four they were investigating were, worked for the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Neither Fred nor Hermione could figure out what Dorcas Meadowes or Benji Fenwick did after Hogwarts. If not for the Order of the Phoenix photo and Bill and Charlie's memories of the two, she'd be inclined to believe that the two had simply disappeared after graduation. There was no record of them anywhere doing, purchasing, or owning anything. In fact, the one document they couldn't find recorded of Gideon was his marriage license. It's like anything that may have had Dorcas Meadowes' or Benji Fenwick's name on it vanished with their deaths.

It was Charlie that suggested that they were unspeakables, saying they saw less and less of "Uncle Benji" after he had graduated Hogwarts and that Cassie was never there for gatherings beyond the immediate family, answering an owl Fred had sent asking for memories of his uncles and their friends, claiming Hermione was writing a book about the wars against Voldemort that the press was now coining as the Blood Wars. Fred backed up that statement, saying he didn't remember an Uncle Benji at all, but could vaguely remember the rest. Hermione had tried inquiring with the Department of Mysteries using the same excuse and had, after about three weeks, received a curt reply stating that no persons of those names have ever been under the employ of the DoM and that they were unaware of their existence. This made her more curious until she had found references to both of them hidden in the information she had stolen about the time turners, names had seemed unimportant when she was initially trying to figure out how to make her time turner do what she wanted and she had been focused on the facts alone. So there it was. Unspeakables. No wonder Voldemort was after them and eliminated them so completely. The Prewett twins, and possibly even the entire McKinnon family, were possibly just caught in the crossfire. Of course, being blood traitor aurors and a half blood family probably hadn't helped their cases.

By the time the wedding arrived, they still hadn't figured out the whole story for certain, but had pieced together enough to be content. Hermione was nervous as she got ready, Molly and Ginny sharing grins that almost reached their eyes for once, and tutting over her nerves. It wasn't the wedding that scared her. She had never been more sure of anything in her life as she was marrying Fred. She knew that she had less than twelve hours before she would be back in a war zone, fighting for the future and her friends' lives. Of course, she and Fred would be the only two people fully aware of the danger anyone was in, but that didn't matter. They knew how to save the lives of those poor, unprepared people too, and would to the best of their ability. A new mission of theirs was to try and save Fred's previously unrealized aunt from whatever had hurt her to the point of trembling and twitching months and years after. Doing the math, Hermione knew both Dorcas Meadowes and the twins would be getting ready to leave Hogwarts for the last time when they arrived. Bill hadn't been sure of when she had disappeared, but they both figured they had at least a year - the Order of the Phoenix wouldn't even form until two months after their arrival.

The ceremony was beautiful, from what Hermione remembered. Her brain had actually shut off entirely and all she could see was Fred, beaming at her, the entire time. She was vaguely aware of Kingsley officiating and Charlie standing behind Fred, looking out of place like he was acutely aware that George should be standing where he was, Lee beside him. He probably was very aware, Hermione mused later, and missing his brother all the more for it. The reception, which she spent dancing with Fred, Harry, Neville, and all the surviving Weasley men, but mostly Fred, passed quickly and ended in a pretty fantastic display of fireworks - the last batch George had ever helped work on. Fred had been touched, despite his teasing a slowly coming around Ron, Ginny, Harry, and his dedicated employee Verity that the display would have been much better had he set it up. When they arrived at the secluded Scottish cottage they had rented for their honeymoon front, the two decided to wash up, eat, and change before checking their belongings over once more and heading out.

Within an hour of leaving their wedding, Fred and Hermione were clasping bags tightly, the elongated chain of the modified time turner around their necks, as they counted turns. They were going to save everyone.