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Chapter Seven: Trapped

Harry looked at Hermione for a few seconds his eyes widened before shaking his head and fixing his face into a neutral expression and turning towards the faces of Hermione's parents, not willing to look his old friend in her face. Remus seemed to look at Harry with a curious expression out of the corner of his eye.



"Pleased to meet you all," said Harry in a calm voice, as if there was nothing bothering him at all.



Marie Granger nudged her daughter in the side.



"Hermione, why don't you take Harry upstairs and show him your room," suggested Marie.



"Mum, I'm sure Harry doesn't want to..." started Hermione but Harry cut her off.



"Lead the way, Hermione," said Harry, surprising himself with his own daring and Hermione turned her back, leading Harry upstairs towards her room.



Harry's mind flashed back to the night that set him on the path eventually sent him back through time.



In a rundown house in one of the worst parts of London, With Hermione and Harry shut the door behind them, sealing it shut, before they began to put wards up. Harry collapsed on a moth warn chair, coughing up blood from getting his lung punctured. Hermione managed to walk over, healing Harry's injury to the best of her abilities.



"How in the hell did they find us, Hermione?" asked Harry weakly. "I thought we lost them months ago."



"I don't know, Harry, I really don't know," said Hermione in a fretful voice before adding tearfully. "I just wish we would have been able to save Luna in time."



"She fought to the end through Hermione," said Harry in a firm voice. "She took several Death Eaters down with her. Draco managed to catch her off guard from behind in the end."



"I knew we shouldn't have trusted that little bastard," said Hermione savagely.



"Now, Hermione, he did slip us some important information about the Death Eaters that helped us to thin the ranks," said Harry calmly. "It was all to gain our trust; Voldemort must have told Draco to do that. He doesn't care about how many Death Eaters die, as long as he kills me in the end."



"After all this time, we made the same mistake as Dumbledore did," muttered Hermione sadly. "We put our trust in the wrong person."



"I know," said Harry sadly. "We were desperate and now it's just you and me, Hermione."



"Yes, against all of them," answered Hermione darkly.



"Just like old times," muttered Harry, shaking his head, as he felt the wards around him begin to crack. "Hermione, you need to get out of here, save yourself."



"No," answered Hermione curtly.



"Hermione, I don't want anyone else to die, you're all I have left," replied Harry desperately. "Leave, please."



"You can't fight all of them, Harry James Potter," replied Hermione in a tense voice. "I've stood by your side all this time. I'm not about to leave now."



Before Harry could argue this point, he heard a loud banging from outside of the house. Unfortunately, it was too late for Hermione to run.



"Aim to kill, this vermin doesn't deserve our pity," whispered Harry and Hermione nodded in agreement with a determined look on her face, her wand at the ready.



The door cracked open, as Hermione and Harry pointed their wands to the front door.



"AVADA KEDAVRA!" yelled Harry and Hermione in unison, sending jets of green light flying out of the door. The loud thumping sound from outside indicated that at least one of the Death Eaters had been struck down.



The windows shattered, sending pieces of broken glass flying towards Harry and Hermione, who shielded their eyes. A group of eight Death Eaters walked towards the room, lead by the crazed form of Bellatrix Lestrange.



"Potter!" cackled Bellatrix loudly. "The Dark Lord will be very pleased that we finally caught up with you. Now be a good boy and come quietly and the Dark Lord may honor you with a nice, quick, painless, death."



Harry ducked behind the couch, pulling Hermione by the hand behind them. A volley of spells caused the Death Eaters to scatter in every direction. A loud black light enveloped one of the Death Eaters, causing him to scream out in agony and burst into flames, his ashes dropping to the ground.



The couch was lifted out of the air and splattered to the ground, leaving Harry and Hermione exposed. Hermione managed to catch one of the Death Eater's in the throat with a deadly jinx, causing his throat to close up and him to fall to the ground, choking to death. She sprang up, dodging the spells of the crazed Bellatrix Lestrange, as Harry dueled three Death Eaters at once, barely avoiding getting killed with Avada Kedavra. Harry sprang up and shot ropes out of his wand, wrapping it around the throat of one of his foes, before yanking forward. The neck of the Death Eater snapped back and fell to the ground. Harry dodged behind.



"CRUCIO!" yelled Bellatrix, pointing her wand towards Hermione and Hermione screamed in agony, as Bellatrix tortured Hermione.



Harry turned to Bellatrix in horror, before whipping his wand towards her, sending a jet of red fire right at Bellatrix. Bellatrix waved her wand, causing a wall of water to appear in front of her, blocking Harry's attack with expert precision.



"Come on, Harry, you can do it," mocked Bellatrix sarcastically, as she dodged another deadly curse by the wand of Harry. "Oh too slow, to bad, shoddy reflexes, a common drawback of being a filthy half blood."



Harry spun around, to block a curse that was sent to his back by one of the Death Eaters, before using his wand to hoist the Death Eater up into the air and down to the ground with a clatter.



"Let's wrap this up, the Dark Lord is growing tired of Potter eluding him!" shrieked Bellatrix, as a pair of Death Eaters backed Harry off and Bellatrix raised her wand, pointing it towards Hermione and slashed her wand towards Hermione's throat.



"Hermione, no!" yelled Harry as Hermione's throat was sliced and she crumpled to the ground, blood dripping from her and Harry blasted the Death Eaters out of the way, blowing large holes in their chest. Harry's wrist whipped forward, sending a large metallic spike towards Bellatrix.



Bellatrix managed to block the majority of the impact, but much of the blast had sent her spiraling backwards. Harry kneeled to Hermione's side, squeezing her hand.



"This is my fault. I'm sorry you were dragged into this," declared Harry, as Hermione weakly looked up at him as her world slowly faded from around her.



"My choice Harry," whispered Hermione, managing to force those words from her slit throat before her eyes shut, never know any more.



Harry sat numbly by Hermione's side, her lifeless hand still in his. It was over, Voldemort had as good as won.



"CRUCIO!" yelled Bellatrix Lestrange in a loud voice and the spell hit Harry in the back. Harry turned to Bellatrix, biting his lip, with a pained expression on his face. "Ah, Harry, the Mudblood's dead, and now the Dark Lord will finish you off. You fail Harry Potter, your worthless Mummy and Daddy must be rolling over in their graves at what a failure you are. Sirius might have been too, if they found his body to put in his grave."



Harry snapped out of it and sent Bellatrix flying across the room. Bellatrix bent over, about to press the Dark Mark on her arm to contact Voldemort but Harry sliced her arm cleanly off before she could do the deed.



"You killed Hermione, Lestrange. You killed Sirius, you killed many others, now I'm going to kill you if it's the last thing I ever do," said Harry in a final tone of voice as he aimed his wand towards Bellatrix, who had blood dripping from where her right arm was. "CRUCIO!"



Bellatrix screamed in agony from the curse as Harry looked at her, with a dull, lifeless, unemotional look in his green eyes.



"I mean it this time, Bellatrix! I want to cause pain, your suffering. You got your wish, bitch!" screamed Harry savagely, as he tortured Bellatrix, causing Bellatrix to attempt to claw her own eyes out and pull at her mouth, drawing blood from her face. Bellatrix fell backwards, blood dripping from her body.



Harry slashed his wand, slicing Bellatrix's body to ribbons, with a crazed look on his face.



"Is this what you wanted Tom?" asked Harry, as he began ripping Bellatrix apart piece by piece. She was long since dead, but Harry spent about a minute more, tearing Bellatrix to shreds, mutilating her beyond all recognition.


Harry stepped back, looking down at Hermione's lifeless body before turning his back and looking towards no one in particular.



"I may be next Tom Marvolo Riddle but I make this vow on this day," replied Harry in an emotionless tone of voice. "You may kill me, but I'm dragging you straight to hell with me on my way down."



Harry prepared to leave, ignoring the dead bodies of the Death Eaters before walking away, his shoulders sagging in a defeated position. Hermione had stood by him through everything. Her only crime was being a loyal friend and now she was slaughtered simply because of how close she was to Harry.



After that night, Harry began to concoct the plan to turn his magic into what was basically a high powered nuclear weapon and take both himself and Voldemort out in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, Harry's plans had taken a wrong turn and he had traveled back in time.



Everything just happened so fast and Harry found himself face to face with Hermione, sooner than he would have ever had thought previously.



In fact, now that Harry thought about it, he was never in Hermione's house the first time around, so he had never seen the inside of her room. Harry felt a small burst of nearly morbid curiosity but he still couldn't quite look Hermione in the face at the moment.



Hermione spun around, with reaching forward to pull the door open, looking at the floor with slight embarrassment, before she pushed the door open.



"Well, this is my room," said Hermione in a small voice, as she stepped back reluctantly to lead Harry inside.



Somehow, this was how Harry imagined his best friend's room to be, even at such a young age. Rows and rows of books, neatly organized on the shelves. Not a page out of place. There were a handful of toys in view that were placed neatly on a bottom shelf, nearly forgotten or untouched.



"Nice," said Harry in a sincere tone of voice as he had a better look, before turning to Hermione, who had both of her eyes on him, in a slightly apprehensive look. "It really seems to suit you Hermione."



"Thank you," said Hermione in a small voice before looking at Harry. "How come you didn't seem to want to look me in the eye until now?"



Harry was caught off guard. Even as a young child, Hermione was rather observant and Harry resolved to be more careful. He didn't want to let Hermione to know any more than she needed know right off the bat. He had just met her in this timeline and didn't know exactly how she would react to him in time.



"You just remind me of a friend I knew, years ago," replied Harry in a cool tone of voice and Hermione looked at Harry for a few seconds, before nodding slowly. She seemed to have bought that explanation, at least for the moment. Technically Harry wasn't lying either, in his mind, five years had passed since he last saw Hermione in the original timeline.



"So, you're Uncle Antonio's boss in...Customer Relations," started Hermione, putting an extra emphasis on the last two words, as if she was a bit skeptical about how much her Uncle Antonio's job. "Exactly how old are you, anyway?"



"Six years old," answered Harry causing Hermione to be taken by surprise.



"You sound so much older, don't look like it through," muttered Hermione, shaking her head and Harry quickly decided to steer the conversation in a different direction.



"So I see you like to read, Hermione," said Harry quickly.



"Yes, but the other children at school think I'm strange," whispered Hermione, as if she was afraid someone would overhear her. "They whisper about me, saying that I'm some kind of freak but it's really nothing...really."



"Hermione, you really shouldn't let those people get to you," said Harry in a reassuring voice. "I'm sure your friends wouldn't care about your quirks."



Hermione muttered something, that Harry couldn't quite hear.



"Could you repeat that, Hermione?" asked Harry softly.



"I don't have any friends," muttered Hermione in an embarrassed tone of voice. "Please, don't tell Mum and Dad, because they keep asking me if something's wrong and I'm not quite telling the truth."



Harry was beginning to see why Hermione had problems making friends until both Ron and Harry had pretty much forced the issue by saving her from the troll the first time around. She had shut herself too far into her books and thus was out of touch with other people her age.



"Hermione, its okay," said Harry in a reassuring voice.



"You don't know, you wouldn't know what its like to be called nothing but an insufferable know it all and a freak who likes nothing but books!" yelled Hermione angrily, tears welling up in her eyes. It just all came out, she didn't know why, but she seemed to trust Harry for some reason.



"Hey, Hermione, I really don't have any friends my age either," said Harry calmly and Hermione looked up, with a curious expression on her face.



"Why don't you, though?" asked Hermione. "You seem to be easy enough to get along with. People wouldn't look at you funny because you'd rather learn then join in with their silly games..



"Yes, but most people didn't spend five years of there life locked up in a cupboard!" replied Harry calmly and Hermione's eyes snapped up, looking Harry in the eyes. "Not to mention their cousin and his little cronies scared away everyone who tried to be nice to me on the schoolyard. My Aunt and Uncle, who I had the misfortune of living with tried to squash any hopes I would have had by jamming me in a cupboard, calling me nothing but a good for nothing freak. They rarely laid a hand on me mind you, except for maybe when my Uncle had a bit too much to drink and his temper really got the better of him, but the taunts about ending up like my parents because what I am was more painful then any punch my oafish Uncle could have thrown. It's not my bloody fault I was dropped on their doorstep. My parents never wanted it either. The only reason I ended up in that bloody house in the first place is because of some manipulative lemon drop sucking jerk who wants to play God and control everyone's lives. The same person who my parents trusted but they are dead and I never knew them!"



Harry stopped, he had been holding in that rant for quite some time and he felt bad that he just had to go off on Hermione.



"Harry, that's horrible," muttered Hermione sadly. "I'm sorry, at least I have Mum and Dad, and you don't even have that."



"No, Hermione, I understand your concerns and I promise not to make fun of you for being..." started Harry but he couldn't bring himself to finish.



"An insufferable Know It All," supplied Hermione helpfully before voicing something that she had been wondering about Harry . "Exactly why don't your aunt, uncle, and cousin like you anyway?"



"Hermione, I'll tell you when the time is right, but I try not to dwell that much on what happened on that place," said Harry shortly and Hermione decided it was best not to press Harry on the issue.



"Harry, Hermione, dinner's ready," called the voice of Marie Granger and Harry and Hermione moved from Hermione's room, before moving down stairs.



Harry had never known about Hermione's life before Hogwarts, but now Harry could understand exactly why Hermione seemed to take it so bad when she had gotten into an argument with either Ron or Harry. They had been her first friends after all.



Harry had never bothered to concern himself too much with Hermione's problems and had never concerned himself with learning more about his friend. In fact, his dependency on Hermione to solve all of his problems sometimes crippled his effectiveness and when she was killed in the original timeline, everything fell apart for Harry, causing him to concoct the plan that caused him to be transported into his six year old body and set the motion for the recent events in his life.



Dinner at the Grangers was a pretty uneventful affair. After the intentional awkwardness in this timeline, Hermione and Harry had hit it off pretty well. To an outside observer, it might have seemed like they were friends since they were born. Harry knew the exact truth however and when she was ready, Harry would tell Hermione everything much like he did with Sirius and Remus. He just needed to make sure that she would keep the information from untrustworthy parties.



Several hours later, Remus, Antonio, Harry, and their hidden bodyguards climbed into car, after dinner.



"You know Harry, I don't know what you did to my niece to make her take to you so well, but it worked and I thank you," said Antonio gratefully. "Hermione doesn't seem to get along with the other children at school well but really who wants to be friends with people who at that ignorant."



"You knew something was up then," replied Harry calmly. "And you hoped Hermione and I would become friends then."



"Well, yes, boss, I had a bit of an ulterior motive for asking you to come here but it worked out well didn't it," said Antonio in a bit of a nervous voice. He had seen Herb Evans get really angry when he caught someone leading him on and Lily had an equally dangerous temper when provoked from what Antonio heard. "Hermione's the type of kid who will say everything's alright but it's not like she's the best liar in the world. Gets it from Marie, that's why she's a dentist and didn't get in the family business like I did. Horrid liar, couldn't stretch the truth at the very least."



"You know Antonio, it's a damn good thing that I like your niece," replied Harry in a soft voice, with his twenty six year old sense bubbling to the surface, having been manipulated enough by Dumbledore to know that he didn't like it one bit.



"Yes, that's good, I've heard sleeping with the fishes isn't all that glamorous," replied Antonio dryly, causing Harry to break out into laughter.



"Anyway, Hermione doesn't have any friends at school, so I fear that could cause her to be overly dependent on books when she gets older," said Harry in a certain voice, as he remembered how long it took Hermione to stop relying so much on books and start thinking on her feet in the other timeline. Of course, Harry had ample opportunity to change that. "Do whatever you need to do get the proper paperwork in place, so I can attend school with Hermione and keep her grounded in the real world."



"That's actually a good idea Harry," added Remus calmly before turning Antonio. "Do you think you can pull a few strings and get Harry in a bit late?"



"I'll see what I can do, Mr. Lupin," said Antonio calmly.



"And if you can't, a little magic won't go amiss," muttered Harry calmly as the car came to a sudden stop. "Now, what?"



"Boss, we could have a bit of a problem," replied one of the bodyguards, who looked out the window, to see that all four of the tires had been Transfigured into concrete



"Harry, we need to get out of here!" suggested Remus in a frantic voice but it was unfortunately too late Harry's eyes diverted up to see the unsmiling face of Albus Dumbledore standing on the side of the street, with a half a dozen members of the Order of the Phoenix, wands out as they surrounded the immobile vehicle.



"Hello, Harry," said Dumbledore in a grandfatherly voice that made Harry want to retch. "I suggest you come with me back to me to your Aunt and Uncle's, while we take these mobsters in for questioning for the kidnapping of you and Remus Lupin."