Summary: During the final battle, Hermione is transferred to an alternate reality where the bad as she has always known them are good and the good as she has always known them are bad, where Dumbledore rules as a Dark Lord, Slytherins are the resident Gryffindors, and she herself is a brainless beauty queen called ‘My.’ All those who once attempted resistance under the leadership of Tom Riddle, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy, and Draco Malfoy have absolutely no hope left at all… until the new Hermione arrives.

Hermione just wants to get back to her own world… What will she do when this new world’s versions of the people she always thought she'd despise are wholly different from the ones she had always known? Will she try to save the world she’s trapped in and the people she never imagined she would want to help? HG/DM, more pairings TBA, HBP friendly.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I sketched out the outline of this story long before Book 7 was published. The facts inside it follow canon only up until and including Book 6. Thus, it will be AU AFTER HBP… No Horcruxes/storyline from Deathly Hallows included. If that upsets you, don’t read on and/or don’t say I didn’t warn you. The Prologue takes place a year and a half after HBP occurred.

Author’s Note: I know that, after Have You Ever, I said I was done with fan fiction. I lied. Well, not really, because at the time, I really thought I was. Now, though, I’ve got a bit of extra time, this story has been practically begging me to write it for years (some of you may have even seen it out there before; this time I’m keeping it under my original name), and, as I’m planning to partly go into Journalism, I think it’d be a good way to work on my writing skills. So here I am.

I will warn that this is much, MUCH darker than Have You Ever ever was, as it’s going to deal with some very dark/mature topics. It’s rated T for a reason, and that rating may even go up in future chapters. So keep that in mind as you begin reading, as well as the fact that this is definitely AU in that it is independent of all facts given after HBP. Main ship will assuredly be HG/DM, but it doesn't happen right away, and the plot has a much broader focus than the romance of it all.

Okay. Long notes over. On with the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you may even remotely recognize.

REVERSE

Prologue

Monday, August 28, 1:32 A.M.

It came in flashes.

Thunder.

Rain. Blinding, frigid rain.

Debilitating wind, so strong it almost blew even Hagrid over.

Screams; wails of pain; spine tingling laughs of delight; shouts; moans.

Hardly any light save the typically fatal, multicolored crisscross beams of wand fire, and the occasional spark of lightning that illuminated the most haunting vista Hermione had ever seen:

A field. It had been just an ordinary field in the middle of nowhere, probably, until that night.

And bodies were everywhere.

Masked with the faces of both friends and foes, some of them were recognizable. Some were not.

Old enmities emerged the minute Ron saw the back of Draco Malfoy’s unmistakable blond head across the battlefield, an Order member down at the end of his wand, and, presumably, a Dark Curse. It was supposed to be ‘a cinch,’ Ron told her with a sloppy grin, her personal favorite of his many smiles, and then became serious again, urging her and Harry on while he went and dealt with the ferret who had betrayed Dumbledore and the Light the year before.

Ron never came back.

At least, not before The Duel began, and whether he came back afterward Hermione would never know. All she did know was that, one second, Harry was beside her, and the next second he wasn’t, and Voldemort’s red eyes, far too close for comfort, were unmistakable in the very near darkness.

And then it began.

Hermione was so busy fighting for her life that she missed most of it. A Stunning spell grazed her shoulder; clutching her rucksack, she flew halfway across the field, but it was mild enough that she was able to whip around in time to send a Reductor squarely into her assailant’s chest, visible in a flash of lightning, in the same breath shouting a Confounding charm toward a Death Eater who was nearly on top of Remus Lupin –

Avada kedavra.

They were only two words, shouted simultaneously and carried on the wind, but perhaps every person on the battlefield, Hermione included, froze the second that they were uttered.

For a moment, neither Death Eater nor Order member breathed.

Abruptly, though, another burst of lightening exploded, revealing that Harry was upright. Granted, he was on his knees, but he was still alive.

Voldemort was not.

Hermione stood, stunned into paralysis as the lightning faded and the scene plunged back into darkness and sounds of absolute chaos. Her mouth fell open, but shut just as quickly in absolute disbelief. Was it over? Had they won? They… they had! They had won; Harry had killed him, it was over!

Sweet Merlin, it was over…

They had won!

“HARRY!” she shrieked, her soaked hand pumping the otherwise useless rucksack into the air as an indescribable wave of triumph rushed over her. She blindly stumbled forward in the dark in a desperate, choking desire to get to her best friend, to sweep him into her arms, to victoriously scream to heaven and hell and anyone who was listening that it was finally finished -

But her words were drowned out in the thunder and jubilant yells that followed… as was the incantation behind the sparkling diamond light that emerged down from nothing but darkness. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, it had cleanly penetrated her abdomen with an almost inhuman screech – was it her own? – and an excruciating explosion of agony as if her body itself was being ripped apart.

And then… light. Beautiful, invigorating light, and a nearly overwhelming wave of relief. Thank the gods, she had not died.

But, as Hermione was soon to discover, that was the moment when the real darkness began.

A/N: Sorry, I know that’s a bit short to start with, but that’s a prologue for you. Next chapter is where it gets interesting. What am I forgetting… ? Oh! Reviews make my day. :-)

Cheers all.

LM