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Sands of Destiny	By : amidtheflowers Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Sirius/Hermione Views: 8602 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 3
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its respective characters belong to J.K. Rowling. This plot line, however, belongs to me. No money or profit are made from writing this fanfiction.

Chapter List
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This story begins at the end of Order of the Phoenix when Harry and the gang go down to the Ministry of Magic. The rest is self-explanatory.

Relax, and enjoy.

Chapter 1

Beyond The Veil Again

The last thing Hermione had seen was a wand pointed in her direction as a jet of purple flames hit her chest.

"Oh," she breathed, and felt her eyes roll in the back of her head. Blackness swarmed around her, engulfing her in never-ending darkness. She flailed wildly, her mind pushing for consciousness to break through.

She could vaguely hear Harry's voice penetrating her skull.

"Hermione, wake up…."

She tried, forcing her mind out of the fog, but was helpless.

"Dat's a pulse, Harry, I'b sure id is…."

"She's alive?"

"Yeah, I dink so…."

And that was all.

It may have been months later when Hermione reopened her eyes. But when she cracked them open, screams and shouts could be heard.

"SIRIUS!" she heard a voice bellow, and she grew frightened at the enormous amount of emotion behind it. "SIRIUS!"

Horror began bubbling inside of her, and she recognized it to be the voice of Harry. Her eyes adjusted to her surroundings, and she groaned as her entire body was stiff, a burning sensation still on her chest where the Death Eater had shot his spell at her.

Hermione struggled to sit up, and saw a pair of legs beside her head, but they were jittering uncontrollably. She looked up to see Neville standing next to her, his nose bleeding profusely and his wand at the ready. He noticed that she was moving and relief flooded his face.

"Dank God you're awake," Neville said, but his eyes trained back to the scene before him.

"HE—IS—NOT—DEAD!" roared Harry. "SIRIUS!"

Hermione scrambled to her feet and whipped out her wand. "Finite," she said quickly, and Neville's dancing legs ceased.

"Dank you," he said gratefully. Just then she saw Lupin dragging Harry with him forcefully as anger welled inside Harry. Her eyes whipped to the archway and the silvery veil where the two of them were standing only moments ago, and sadness dawned on her as she put two and two together…

"No," she whispered, horrified.

Lupin looked over at her, realizing she was there. "Are you alright Hermione?"

"Y-yes," she answered, "I'm alright." Her eyes slid to Harry, who seemed immortally distraught.

"Lets—let's find the others," Lupin forced out, as if every word was inflicting pain on him. "Neville, where are all of them?"

Neville explained where Luna, Ginny, and Ron were, and Hermione was puzzled why she was left unconscious amidst a battle scene next to Neville, but shook her head and thought nothing of it. Determination set in her face.

This needed to be fixed.

She saw Dumbledore's cloak swish in the air as the form of Bellatrix Lestrange turned and ran, bounding up the staircase.

"Harry—no!" cried Lupin, but she saw it was too late. Harry had wrenched free of his grip and followed Bellatrix up the stairs.

Panic began settling inside Hermione. She looked down at her hands, her wand shaking slightly in her death grip. Sirius Black was dead. She didn't know who else may be dead as well that she knew of. An image of Sirius's lazy smile flashed in her mind and she squeezed her eyes shut.

This needed to be fixed.

"Herbione, where are you going?" Neville shouted, trailing fast behind her. She paused and pointed her wand to Neville's nose, and his eyes went wide as saucers. She muttered a spell and his face cleared back to normal.

"Thanks," he whispered again, gingerly touching his face.

"You need to stay here," Hermione commanded. "Look after Ron and the others, keep the Death Eaters off from my trail if you can."

Neville nodded unsurely, but did as he was told and stayed behind. Hermione whirled around and went up the staircase, but not in the direction Harry was headed.

Turn…down…another corner…

She barely flinched when a Death Eater appeared before her, and she sent a curse hurling his way as he sank to the floor.

Just a bit further.

She breathed in deeply.

The Department of Mysteries.

Hermione knew she was stretching in vein hope, that there was a one in a billion chance that any of this could be fixed, none the less by her. But she had to hope. She had to believe things could change.

She entered cautiously. The entire place was filled with wreckage from their previous battle; hundreds of shelves that towered to the ceiling were knocked over, shards of glass and debris were everywhere she stepped. There didn't seem to be any Death Eaters here anymore; they were probably busy fighting the rest of the Order downstairs. Her eyes scanned the room frantically as her head buzzed with adrenaline. This could be it. She could change it. She could prevent tonight, prevent the horrors that had happened.

Hermione sucked in a breath as she caught a glimmer on the floor. Her shoes squelched painfully as she darted towards it and she dropped to her knees, pushing aside bits and pieces of rubbish. She was vaguely aware of something stinging her knee, but pushed it to the side.

Her eyes fell to the jumbled mess she'd been digging for, and her heart spiraled in despair.

"No!" she said vehemently, gripping her hair in anger. She'd already known, of course, but the reality of it never settled with her.

All of the Time-Turners were irreversibly smashed.

The cabinet which they lay in was repeatedly repairing then destroying itself. Hermione could see through the cabinet drawer the Time-Turners whizzing out of control, though she couldn't detect where the sand was. For her to reach into it would be far too dangerous. Either way, she knew that the sand had escaped from the time-turning device, as the ones she could see through the cabinet no longer held sand in their hourglasses. As if to further the proof, an empty one lay by her knees.

She traced the chain of the pendant delicately, tears welling in her eyes, though she refused to let them fall. Taking a steadying breath, she watched with sadness as the cabinet repaired itself, only to be destroyed again.

She didn't know how long she'd been sitting there until a gentle hand touched her shoulder. She jumped and turned around, only to see the kind blue eyes of Dumbledore.

"Professor…" she said, not finding the words to complete her sentence.

"It is over," Dumbledore stated, his blue eyes staring sadly down at her. He offered her a hand and she stood up slowly from the broken Time-Turners. "At least, for now."

"Harry…?"

"Is back at Hogwarts. I will be meeting with him in a minute. Voldemort has fled yet again, and the Ministry of Magic is afraid." He said all of this very calmly, and she wondered why he was telling her all this. Still, she listened. "Your knee seems to be bleeding."

She looked down distractedly and saw a shard embedded in her knee. Dumbledore flicked his wand gently and the shard zoomed out of sight, and with another wave the skin that was torn healed, but Hermione knew underneath the blood caked on her knee a visible scar would be there.

Dumbledore looked away as he closed his eyes. "Miss Granger," he said. "There will come a time when I will ask something of you, and you will have to do it. Would you be willing to do that?"

"Yes…I mean…I don't really understand," Hermione answered in confusion as Dumbledore continued to face away from her. He jingled something in his cloak lightly, but then turned around to gaze directly at her.

"Dark times are not ahead of us anymore, Miss Granger, they are here. Within these walls, and spreading like wildfire outside. It will infiltrate Hogwarts, and it will test us to the breaking point. I am afraid, as I have been for quite some time, that you and your friends will reach that point in the near future, and you will have to do as I say to make sure the right history is written."

Hermione nodded. She still didn't fully understand what was going on, but Dumbledore raised his hand, and she hesitantly took it. "To Hogwarts, now. I'm afraid I am late for a meeting with a young Mr. Potter."

He gripped her fingers tightly and they apparated back into Hogwarts. Hermione took a great breath of air when she found herself standing in front of the entrance to the Dumbledore's office.

She stared blankly at the winged gargoyle that Dumbledore began to approach. She looked up when he turned to look at her with twinkling eyes. "Do not give up hope just yet, Miss Granger. All shall be well in time."

She nodded as he disappeared behind the revolving gargoyle, and felt an unholy emptiness inside of her.

In time, much would change.

And change it did. Hermione's sixth year began, and she worked diligently. Her concern for Harry grew as he would often disappear with Dumbledore. Even Ron had stopped becoming a major highlight in her life, as he decided to start a relationship with Lavender Brown the moment they kissed after the first Quidditch match of the season.

So much had happened, and yet nothing had happened at all.

It was a lush June evening when Hermione decided to quit the common room and stroll Hogwarts one last time before she had to leave once again, though she wasn't quite sure if things would work out such a that. With Voldemort on the rise…anything was possible.

Harry and Dumbledore had gone out on one of their last missions together, and Ron was sleeping on the common room sofa next to Lavender when Hermione had decided to roam the halls.

A pop! resounded on the walls, and Hermione had her wand at the ready instantly. Her eyes scoured the hallway she was in. She turned to her left when a shriek left her mouth.

"Professor!" she squeaked and lowered her wand immediately upon meeting a pair of twinkling blue eyes. "I-I thought you were with Harry? Is he here?" she stammered, hastily stuffing he wand back in her pocket.

Dumbledore smiled brightly. "No, I'm afraid he's still with me. Well, the present me. Even though I am also the present me, but won't be for long. Would you come to my office please, Miss Granger?"

Hermione stared at him in confusion and nodded her head, and he smiled, leading her to the winged gargoyle that led to his office.

"Buttered Toast," he said lightly, and the gargoyle sprung to life, leading the pair to a staircase. Once they reached his office, Hermione stood unsurely near his desk as Dumbledore sat in his armchair.

"Please Hermione, take a seat," Dumbledore said kindly, motioning to the seat opposite him. She was slightly alarmed at his mention of her name. It usually entailed bad news.

They were quiet for a moment when Hermione cleared her throat. "Professor, why did you say Harry was—er—still with you, only not with you?"

Dumbledore nodded with a small smile. "It is because, my dear girl, I have broken the most detrimental rule of the universe by sitting here before you."

Hermione's eyes widened slightly, panic racing her heart. "I don't understand."

Dumbledore steepled his fingers and leaned against the mahogany desk. "The night that Sirius Black died, you had gone back to the Department of Mysteries, yes?" Hermione nodded, not sure where he was going with this. Dumbledore smiled. "You went looking for the Time-Turners stored there, but they had already been smashed in the cabinet."

"Yes," Hermione affirmed slowly, but then slowly her eyes grew the size of saucers. "Professor, did you—"

"Yes, and no," Dumbledore said quietly. "I do not wish for you to get high hopes for naught, Miss Granger, which is why I ask for you to allow me this one speech."

Hermione nodded and kept silent. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, before opening them again and gazing at her sadly.

"In your third year, Miss Granger, you used a Time-Turner to manage the extra classes you had signed up for. Naturally, you know how it works by now. You know the consequences of having your past self come face-to-face with your present self. The outcome of such a thing would be astronomical.

"However, the Time-Turner's properties were very limited. Its time-traveling abilities were for the immediate past, which was all the sands of time allowed. The night you helped Sirius Black escape with Buckbeak, you turned the device three times to go back three hours. When you returned to the present—which was when you turned back time to rescue Sirius—your past self vanished and you became the present once more. And the cycle repeats itself."

Dumbledore paused, waiting for Hermione to let the information sink in. She already knew all of this, as it had been explained to her when Professor McGonagall gave her the Time-Turner in her third year. After a moment, Dumbledore continued.

"However, that is not the only kind of Time-Turner in existence."

Hermione blinked. "What do you mean?"

"There are the sands of time, which were used inside of your Time-Turner. And then, there are the sands of destiny, which do not exist anymore."

Hermione's impatience increased. "Professor, that is one of the oldest myths of witchcraft, and no such object has ever been found. What use is there of telling me of something that is impossible?"

"Because, my dear girl, such a device hasn't been found because no one went looking for it. The little grains of sand with such properties made one, and only one, Time-Turner. The sands of time allow a person to go back, at most, a day. But the sands of destiny can change history."

"But we did change history," Hermione interjected. "We saved Buckbeak from his death sentence when he ought to have been killed. We changed that. We saved Sirius from returning to Azkaban."

"You had done what your future had already created," Dumbledore said with excitement in his eyes. "Hermione, I am sitting here because I have damaged and broken the laws of nature, and will be thus punished. I shall die tonight, as it had been predicted, and as I have recently discovered." Hermione's mouth opened in astonishment, but Dumbledore continued relentlessly. "I have a mission for you, Hermione Granger, one that I am deeply remorseful to put on you. Exactly one year ago I told you this. 'There will come a time when I will ask something of you, and you will have to do it'," Dumbledore repeated the words he had said last year. "I'm afraid that time has come."

"Professor…?" Hermione looked with apprehension as Dumbledore reached in the back of his neck and pulled off a necklace with a round pendant dangling gently. With utmost care, Dumbledore took her hand and placed the pendant on her palm.

A shock went through her when she gazed at it. It was a Time-Turner…only the sand was not golden as it should have been. It was a deep, ruby red.

Her hand quivered, and fear coursed through her. Frightened eyes met sad blue ones. She had read about such an object in passing, only once, and not in a lot of detail. But the fact that it actually existed, that Dumbledore had it in his possession…

"Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said shakily, "you used this tonight, didn't you."

"I did," he replied solemnly. "And though I regret it, there is a much larger picture to focus on. I have broken the rules of the universe by attempting to return to the present time…speaking of which, I don't think I'll be sitting here much longer. My aura, as Professor Trelawney has formidably said to me over the years, is passing quickly."

She began shaking her head, but Dumbledore patted her shoulder gently. "Do not be afraid, my dear Hermione."

"How could I not?" she said with almost a shrill voice.

"Because you have the power to save everyone you care about," Dumbledore replied without hesitance. "Because I have seen a glimpse of the future from which I have travelled, and it is far grimmer than I thought."

He told her of the Horcruxes, which he and Harry had been hunting for this year; he told her of the Deathly Hallows, of the battle at Hogwarts, of Voldemort killing not only Voldemort's soul that was embedded in Harry but quickly killing Harry as well wandlessly. He told her of Fred, Tonks, Lupin, and all the other casualties of the war. He told her of the rise of the Death Eaters on the Ministry of Magic, and the horrors that plagued the Wizarding world in what should have been Hermione's seventh year of Hogwarts.

Hermione sat back in her seat, her mind exhausted and her eyes tear-filled. But a new determination set her jaw, and she gazed at Dumbledore directly.

"Tell me what I have to do."

He gazed at her sadly. "You brave, brave girl."

She shook her head. "I would do anything to save the people that I love."

Dumbledore grew serious. "The user of this Time-Turner has only two chances. What makes this Time-Turner different than the ones that have been destroyed is that when you turn a knob, you do not turn hours, but years. When you turn another, you may go decades. Another, centuries. You must be careful when using it, and precision is of utmost importance. You may very well end up in a time when humanity did not exist yet. And that would be most problematic.

"One of the most crucial laws of this device, as you may have already guessed, is that once you turn back time, you are there permanently. You may never return to the present. Your presence in a certain part of history changes its course dramatically. And if you are ever to attempt to return to the present, then the paradox is created between you and your present self, and both forms die immediately."

A lump formed in Hermione's throat, but she nodded. "I-I suppose that is what you did tonight."

He smiled brightly. "Yes, I am afraid it is. I was the selfish old man and decided to peak into the future, rather than do what was right. For that, I beg you for forgiveness."

"No," she said vehemently, "there is nothing to forgive. I will do as you say, Professor Dumbledore. It has to be done."

He nodded with remorse. "You truly are the cleverest witch of your age." He removed his half-moon glasses and peered at her thoughtfully. "I believe three turns should still do it."

Her eyes grew wide with understanding and she gazed at the time turner still in her hand. The red sand inside made her stomach turn into a knot, and there were several knobs on this Time-Turner. The possibilities were indefinite.

"Should—should I take something with me?" she asked hesitantly.

His eyes twinkled, but this time it was not from the light. "That is a remarkable idea, Hermione, and you should heed it. Though, even I do not know the consequences if you were to bring part of the present to the past. Nevertheless…if the myth is true, you will be given your own life in the past you are going to."

She nodded carefully, and stood.

"Goodbye, Professor," she said quietly, eyes glistening. She looked up, but he was no longer there.

Tears fell on their own accord at his disappearance. She quickly swiped her eyes and ran up the staircase until she reached the seventh floor.

"Dilligrout!" she nearly shouted at the Fat Lady, and the door swung open. She clambered inside and bound for the girls' dormitory. She paused at Ron's sleeping form on the sofa, and gently touched her fingertips to his cheek. Then, she ran up to the girls' dormitory.

Once reaching her bed, she began by taking out her purse and swinging her wand fervently in the air, casting and Undetectable Extension Charm on the bag. Once completed, she began going through her things—her copy of Hogwarts, A History, Potions, Transfiguration, and Defense against the Dark Arts were quickly thrown in, along with her clothes, quills, ink bottles, and several other textbooks she deemed important. She scoured her school trunk, and her heart stopped when she found the small leather-bound photograph book she had made over the years, filled with pictures of Hermione with Harry and Ron, among with pictures of the Order members and nearly everyone she loved. With a small hesitation, she put it inside as well.

Her hand grasped the Time-Turner once again, and stared at it anxiously.

Her eyes closed and a shaky breath escaped her lips. "Goodbye Harry. Goodbye Ron."

Carefully, she draped the chain of the Time-Turner around her neck. She grasped the pendant, and carefully grabbed one of the knobs.

One…

She faintly heard a cackle that strikingly resembled Bellatrix Lestrange. The Death Eaters had finally invaded Hogwarts, Hermione realized. She grabbed another knob.

Two…

A single tear slid down her cheek.

Three…

The dormitory door slammed open and Hermione jumped, her finger slipping slightly on one of the knobs.

"No!" Hermione cried out desperately, but the deed was already done. She had slipped and moved the knob when she shouldn't have. Angrily she looked up and saw Lavender Brown staring at her with fury.

"I saw you touch Won-Won's cheek! How dare you—"

White-hot, blinding rage overtook her body as she whipped out her wand without a single thought and jinxed her. Lavender fell unconscious immediately, but Hermione disappeared before she could have the satisfaction of seeing her hit the ground.

So, what'd you think? My first-ever Sirius/Hermione pair. Slow and steady, guys. The goods will come, all in good time. :)

I love input, so don't hesitate to review!
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Sands of Destiny