A/N : I do not own this, credits still belong to JK... Enjoy! first story! no flames please.

Another loud bang sounded but Hermione willed herself to keep going and not turn back. She stumbled across the great hall, the gash across her chest from where the whomping willow had hit her still bleeding profusely. Tears were streaming down her face and mixing with the blood from her left cheek as her mind numb with pain and grief refused to accept the truth. Harry was not dead. He couldn't be. But she knew it was true.

Seeing her best friend lying there cold and lifeless had made the fight go out of her, but she would be damned if she gave up now. Just one last horcrux to destroy. She and Ron could do that. They had to. They owed it to their friends who had died, to the friends that still fought by their side, they owed it to each other but mostly they owed it to Harry. That was what kept her going.

Her frantic eyes searched the room again for Ron, but the tall red head was no where to be found. Still searching, she made her way further into the great hall, passing Oliver wood dueling an unknown death eater, Angelina against the younger Nott, Charlie against Rabastan Lestrange and her terror increased. All the battles were evenly matched but she needed to hurry.

She looked to her left and saw Bill being slammed to the wall by Yaxley and Dolohov and quickly cast a curse towards the latter. As he slumped to the ground, Yaxley turned on her but before they could start on each other she saw Fleur take over. She waited only a moment to get over the surprise of her presence but seeing the former triwizard contestant fighting with a vengeance, she gratefully continued on her way.

Her feet came to an involuntary stop a mere ten feet away when her eyes locked with Luna's. The Ravenclaw and Ginny were fighting their hardest against Bellatrix and Hermione was frozen. She couldn't leave them there and go but she needed to find Ron and get the horcrux destroyed. Only a few seconds had passed as she stood there, torn between her options when she saw Luna nod before turning away.

The interaction did not go unnoticed by Bellatrix whose laughter cackled loudly before she sent both her opponents flying towards the wall. Hermione swallowed hard. She was in no state to fight the insane woman now and she knew it. And so did the death eater.

"What's wrong with my favorite mudblood?" the woman taunted before proceeding to throw her first curse. Hermione had no time to block it and fell out of its way, the curse missing her by a second.

And so the duel between the cleverest witch of her age and the most feared death eater began. Hermione blocked out curse after curse, finding no real opening to send in a curse of her own. The increasing worry that coursed through her for her two currently unconscious friends did not help a bit. Ducking, twisting and swerving to avoid every curse she managed to stay alive but each movement added pain to her already wounded under nourished, highly taxed body.

"You've lost your fire, you are no longer fun!" Bellatrix sneered as the young brunette tried to dodge another curse that hit her arm. The force of it sent her spiraling to the floor, her wand slipping out of her hand.

She closed her eyes in pain and when she opened them again after a few seconds, the taller woman was towering over her, smiling almost sweetly before stepping on her ankle. It cracked and broke under the pressure and Hermione screamed in pain.

Bellatrix inspected her work happily, adding a few more cuts on her legs and torso, then placing a curse so no damage on her person could be fixed with magic she turned back to look at Hermione's face. The younger witch had tears streaming down her face, her eyes screwed tightly shut.

A hand took her chin, forcing her to open her eyes and look directly into bottomless pits of black. "That's more fun isn't it?" the cold voice taunted and before she could register the words fully, the first of many cruciatis curses hit her. Her body writhed in pain and her shrieks of agony were joined in by echoes of the same manic laughter.

She felt like they had been at it for hours, her screams were becoming hoarse and she wondered why no one was trying to help her out. Three full minutes later the pain subsided before her arm began to burn. She gave up then and just prayed for it all to end. She wanted it to be over. Her body couldn't take it anymore.

"HERMIONE" a voice shouted from a distance. Bellatrix laughed and turned to the source of the new voice, leaving the younger woman some time to breathe. But the pain didn't reduce a bit and she felt her life leaving her slowly but steadily. She did nothing to fight it until another scream of pain pulled her back to the brink of consciousness.

Ron…Ron was being tortured by Bellatrix. She needed to help him. She had to. Her eyes opened and she stretched her bleeding hand towards her abandoned wand. The effort hurt more than she could ever suspect and she closed her eyes again.

The next time she opened them, Minerva McGonagall was dueling Bellatrix and ron was on the floor not too far away from her. She willed herself to focus on him, him and nothing else. But it was hard; her eyes kept closing on their own accord. Next time she opened them, his eyes locked with hers. She tried to hold the gaze but her eyes closed again. She fought to stay conscious and when she opened them again he was half crawling, half stumbling towards her. They closed again, this time opening to his outstretched hands. He was asking her for something.

The next time she opened her eyes, he was on her left. "mione…the fangs" he breathed. She couldn't move enough to nod her head, she couldn't speak after all the screaming and she helplessly looked into his eyes. He pulled out the small now blood soaked bag from where it was attached to the belt of her jeans.

He was rummaging through it and she watched him all the while drifting in and out of reality. Seconds became minutes and each time her eyes closed, they took longer to open. Ron knew she didn't have long. First Harry and now Hermione, grief over powered him quickly replacing his desperation.

He began to give up hope on finding the fangs before Bellatrix returned for them. So when cool metal grazed against his fingers, his eyes widened. He pulled out the little gold chain, his mouth going dry at the sight of it.

"Mione! Mione! Wake up! How do I use this? Hermione!" he called frantically already twisting the hour glass and the little dials on the side. She opened her eyes, his yelling pulling her out of the darkness.

Her eyelids fluttered open to see Ron holding something that sparkled brightly. His bloodied hands were twisting and turning every knob on it along with the hour glass. But before she could scream at him to stop someone else did.

"RON!" Ginny's voice echoed and things seemed to slow down. She saw him look up at the sound of his sister's voice only to come face to face with Bellatrix again.

He dropped the golden chain on Hermione trying to reach his wand but he didn't have enough time. Jet green light shot out from her wand and headed straight to his heart. A moment later he fell beside the brunette like a puppet whose strings had been cut off.

She felt herself scream in agony and her voice was joined by Ginny's shriek from her left and Bellatrix's laugh from her right.

"Is that what I think it is?" Bellatrix asked her voice excited as she moved towards Hermione. But before she could take another step Ginny directed her own wand at her best friend shooting a random spell that jolted the time turner into action.

The last thing she saw was Bellatrix howling with rage before directing her wand at Ginny and shooting out another flash of green light.

Hermione tried to scream but it was lost in the blur of light around her and the next thing she knew she was slammed to the ground, her head hitting hard stone before she finally passed out.

SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHG SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHG SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHG

A week into the school year and the great hall was just a babble of voices. Students chatted away loudly on all four tables and even the professors were engrossed in their own conversation.

"You are the head boy!" two voices chorused loudly from the Gryffindor table. Remus Lupin sunk a bit lower into his seat.

"Exactly why we shouldn't be doing this" he said quietly to the two eager dark haired boys staring at him indignantly.

James and Sirius narrowed their eyes at him. Peter shrugged helplessly from the side but whatever argument either boy had to make was lost when a crash sounded from somewhere in the Ravenclaw table.

Everyone turned towards the source of the sound, curious to see what was going on but the screams of terror seemed to freeze the entire hall. The ravenclaw's backed out of their seats and stumbled back to get away.

Sirius and James exchanged glances before quickly getting on the table and looking towards the cause of the chaos. But whatever they had been expecting, it was nothing compared to the sight that met their eyes and the blood drained from their faces.

They silently pulled at their fellow marauders, tugging them up while their eyes stayed locked on the bloodied mess that was now the broken head of the Ravenclaw table. Remus and peter neither of whom could control their curiosity could not help but clamber to the top of the table before they too froze in horror.

They watched in silence as the teachers rushed in, clearing the crowd and hurrying towards the body on the table. A few seconds passed as McGonagall checked the pulse, a couple of glances were exchanged before a stretcher was summoned out of thin air and an extra sheet to wrap the body in.

The hall was still as stone, no one daring to even breathe as the headmaster proceeded to levitate the body out of the hall. By the time they had exited the hall, the sheets had turned red with blood and then they were all gone.

A good fifteen minutes passed before whispers finally broke out of the crowd. Students started to talk in hushed whispers as filed out, all appetites lost to the horrifying sight.

No one even bothered to comment on the four boys standing on their tables and not even Remus had enough sense to get down right then. James and Sirius were looking at each other, their minds racing.

One nod later they jumped down; dragging their fellow marauders and hurrying out. They walked in silence, pushing past the crowds and finally reaching an abandoned corridor.

Wordlessly James pulled out his cloak, peter transformed and got on sirius's shoulder and the three boys slipped under it before making their way to the hospital wing. They reached the doors without incident only to realize that the entire place had been warded off.

Another glance and remus could tell that they were about to camp right there until they got more information. Of course he was right because they walked a few feet away from the doors and crouched down.

They still waited in silence, each thinking of the same bloodied body until peter transformed back. "Why are we still here?" he whispered.

The other three rolled their eyes at him not bothering to answer such a stupid question.

"Just change back wormy" sirius replied.

Peter looked like he was about to protest when remus spoke. "Its more comfortable than crouching this way pete" he said soothingly.

"But Remus, what is the point of waiting here and trying to get closer to a damn body? I want to go back and eat" the stout little boy said almost angrily.

"You are hungry after seeing that?" Remus asked in shock.

"You don't know she's dead" Sirius said at the same time.

James just looked strangely at the blond before turning away. Peter seeing that he had no support turned back into a grey rat and stayed put.

After what seemed like an hour the teachers began to file out, all of them whispering amongst themselves. They caught slughorn walking towards them in all his walrus glory, shaking his head in disbelief.

"I simply don't see how she is still alive" he was saying to Pomona as they walked past the boys.

James and Sirius both grinned in triumph and remus too could help but smile with them. They waited a little bit longer but when they realized that the wards weren't going to be taken down anytime soon, they made their way back to the dorms.

Once safely inside, they pulled the cloak off and fell on their respective beds, trying hard not to think about the sore spots they got from an hour of crouching.

"Do you have anything to eat?" peter asked no one in general. James didn't seem to be listening and Remus shook his head in a negative but was surprised to see Sirius jump out of his bed and head towards his nightstand.

Peter looked hopefully at the tall marauder who was rummaging through his things and groaned loudly when he turned back, holding a parchment in his hand. The other two inhabitants of the room too looked at Sirius questioningly until their eyes fell on the treasure he was holding.

James jumped out of his bed, moving eagerly towards his brother, and within seconds both of them were on remus's bed, the map lying open in front of them. They watched as the little inked names appeared on the sheet and finally all their eyes settled on one name

'Hermione Granger'

A/N : Yes! the first chapter is up and i want to let you know that THIRTY CHAPTERS ARE DONE! *proud grin*

oh and in case you were wondering Harry and Voldemort are both dead but his death eaters are still fighting because he commanded them to go on saying he will be back (yes because of the Horcruxes)

See you soon! 3