Follow TV Tropes

Following

Fanfic / Hermione Granger: The Witching Hour

Go To

The Battle of Hogwarts goes south and all hope is lost when Harry and Ron are killed. Fatally wounded, Hermione manages to enter the Room of Requirements just before she dies.

She wakes up to a Video Game interface listing her life's total score and the opportunity to start a New Game Plus. In other words, to return to the point when she received her Hogwarts letter and be an 11-year-old girl, just with all of her memories and foreknowledge intact.

Hermione Granger: The Witching Hour is a short Dead Fic (last update on June 24th, 2014) that integrates the mechanics of The Gamer webcomic into the magic system of Harry Potter. It was written by Temairine and posted on Fanfiction Dot Net.


This fan work provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Protagonist: Hermione is part of the canonical protagonist Power Trio, albeit not the protagonist by virtue of not being the Chosen One and enjoying less "screen time" than Harry. Here, the Point of View shifts entirely to her and her Peggy Sue shenanigans in an RPG Mechanics 'Verse.
  • Bad Future: Both the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army have been defeated despite going beyond their limits to try and win the war. Nearly everyone is dead and those who aren't await a Fate Worse than Death at Voldemort's hands. Not even the deceased are safe, with Harry and Ron's bodies being paraded around like sickening trophies. Hermione remains but has sustained fatal wounds.
  • Character Name and the Noun Phrase: In a variant using colons instead of the conjunction "and", we have the title Hermione Granger: The Witching Hour.
  • New Game Plus: After reading her final (life) score, Hermione is presented with three options: New Game, New Game +, and Load Game. She tries the last one first since it'd allow her to change only some finicky details to avoid the tragic outcome that led to her death. The game doesn't let her since, presumably, she hasn't any Save Point. The second option, however, she can pick and it means that she will retain her current inventory and memories when restarting the game. What the first alternative entails is only implied, but it probably means a restart without her memories nor knowledge of the game's interface.
  • Peggy Sue: Hermione's life has always been a video game, it's just that the console was hidden from her. It only shows up when she dies the first time. Because it's a video game, hers is a Disney Death and she can choose to start anew, which for all intents and purposes is traveling back in time. Hermione is quick to go this path if it means she can save her friends from death and Britain's Wizarding society from a tyrannical regime.
  • RPG Mechanics 'Verse: As it happens with any The Gamer crossover, the main character is able to interact with the world this way. Hermione has access to a video game interface that allows her to keep track of her skills, stats, relationships with other people, and perks; as well as to gain experience to level up. She also has to relentlessly grind any spell and ability she could've mastered in less time in her previous life.
  • Sudden Game Interface: Just before dying in the Bad Future, Hermione reaches the Room of Requirement while yearning for a new opportunity to Set Right What Once Went Wrong. Lo and behold, a parchment scoring her life suddenly appears, followed by an interface presenting her with a New Game Plus option and poping tutorials among other things. It's so unexpected and Hermione too unaccustomed to gamer culture that she first thinks the universe is mocking her.


Top