Can't run from time

Hermione landed hard on the worn rug, knees buckling, coughing as green flames vanished behind her.

The Burrow.

It was dark. Quiet. Too quiet.

She straightened slowly, brushing soot from her jumper, her eyes darting around the familiar crooked kitchen. It hadn't changed—gingham curtains, mismatched mugs, that same creaky wooden clock ticking on the wall. But the air was heavy. Thick with grief and memories.

"Hermione?"

She turned. A wand was already raised.

"Ron," she breathed, and without thinking, she ran straight into his arms.

He caught her with a grunt of disbelief, his voice cracking. "Bloody hell. You're—you're okay?"

Behind him, Harry appeared, wand still in hand, eyes wide. "Hermione—where did you come from? What—""Later," she said, her voice shaking. "Just... later."

They pulled her inside. She collapsed into a frayed armchair by the fire, shivering despite the warmth. The house was still. Only the creaks of the old house, and the photographs on the mantel—Fred's smiling face frozen in time. Ginny's laughing eyes watching her like ghosts.A cold silence settled.

"I thought—" Ron started, then trailed off. "We thought you were dead."

"I almost was," she whispered.

Harry sat forward. "What happened? Where were you? Not just now but before, you disappeared for days and Madam Pomfrey said she hadn't seen you in the hospital wing for months now"

Hermione's hands trembled as she poured herself a cup of tea from the chipped kettle. The spoon clinked against the cup like a heartbeat.

Then she looked up. "I found- I-i- saw-  Tom Riddle."

Silence.

Ron frowned. "You mean—Voldemort?" his voice dropped. He was still clearly too scared to utter the name.

Hermione nodded. "It was him. But not the one you know. He was... different. Younger. Terrifying. But not like before."

They gave her a look. She stared at her hands before sighing and telling them everything. The Time-Turner accident. Waking up in the past. Meeting Tom. The graveyard. Her fight with him. The twisted version of the boy he once was.

"And now he's voldemort," she finished. "But he's Different. Stronger. He hates me and and-."

Harry looked grim. "He's after you."

Ron stared at her, and she looked back at him, she could tell he was shook, almost angry. She stared guiltily at her hands. She had kissed Ron during the war and although they weren't an official couple whatever she did with Tom still felt wrong.