Title: Five Turns
Summary: "Whenever you are, give five turns on the Time Turner, and I'll be there."
AN: This was written for the July Challenge at the Twin Exchange. My prompts from write-this-song were "Hermione/Sirius" and "five twists of a Time Turner." Hope she (and everyone else) enjoys it!
Hermione knew better than to play with magical artifacts, even familiar ones. She was in an unknown place with a dark history. The Time Turner should have been out of the question.
She was bored.
Standing in the hallway, she played with it in her hands for a moment before giving it five full twists. As the world spun, Hermione watched carefully, wondering when it would bring her out. She gasped when it stopped. Although still dark, the house looked clean and cared for.
From behind her, she heard another gasp. The brunette looked back, terrified when she made eye contact with a dark-haired boy.
"Hello," she said timidly, recognizing him from photographs. "Are you Regulus?"
He stared at her blankly. "You're one of Sirius's girlfriends?"
"I am." Hermione guess him to be eleven or twelve, which would make Sirius about fourteen. That wasn't a terribly unusual age to have a girlfriend – or multiple, as Regulus had put it.
"You aren't supposed to be here," Regulus said, finally showing a little emotion in his irritation. "How did you even get in?"
"Magic," she replied with a smile.
He didn't seem to find her funny. "I know you used magic. I want to know what. This house is one of the most heavily secured locations in all of Britain."
"I know that," she said. "If I promise to tell you how later, will you keep it a secret?"
Eying her for a moment, Regulus slowly nodded. "All right. That's Sirius's room." Hermione was about to thank him when he added, "You aren't as pretty as most of his birds."
At that moment, the other bedroom door opened. "Who are you talking to, Reg?"
He glowered at his older brother before slamming his door shut.
Sirius looked at her curiously. "Hello, and how did you get here?"
"It's a long story," she said and nodded toward his room. "Perhaps we should go in."
Grinning like a cat with cream, the dark-haired boy stepped aside. "But of course, I insist." He watched her closely as she entered and shut the door behind her. "Do I know you?"
Taking a seat at his desk, Hermione said, "Not yet."
"How does that work?" he asked, furrows appearing in his forehead.
Hermione pulled the Time Turner from inside her shirt in response. "I thought five turns would serve best."
"So what?" He draped himself across the bed, staring at her thoughtfully. "You're a girlfriend from my future? I must say I didn't realize I would lose my liking for blondes."
Her face turned redder than it had with Regulus's insult. "I'm not a future girlfriend."
"Would you like to be?"
She had known Sirius had spent his youth as a playboy, but this was ridiculous. "Not particularly," she said stiffly.
He sulked. "Then what are you doing here?"
"Five turns," she repeated. "I didn't know when I would come out. What year are you, by the way? I've never known you so young."
"I'm going to be a fourth year." Sirius studied her for a moment. "If you never met me this young, then there must be some cradle robbing involved. You said it's not me, and I doubt it's James or Peter. Remus, really? The sly dog."
"I'm not dating Remus, nor do I plan to."
His face filled with confusion again. "Okay, I give up. How do I know you then?"
"You'll know me when you're older," she said, wondering if she should really say much. Even being here had the chance of affecting the future.
"When I'm…" His eyes widened. "You aren't my daughter or anything like that?"
"No!"
He let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. I don't want kids. Too much work." Giving her another suspicious glare, he sat up. "I don't have any, do I?"
"I can't tell you that," she said. "All I can tell you is that I'm friends with the son of one of your friends."
"That's confusing," he commented. Shifting off the bed, he walked over to her. "This must be creepy since you know me old and stuff, but you are actually quite the looker."
Hermione kept her gaze on the ground, hoping he wouldn't notice her blush. "Thank you, I suppose."
He leaned down, invading her space. "It isn't every day I have a strange girl in my bedroom," he said in a low voice. "Anything could happen. It has a certain level of thrill to it."
She gently pushed on his face. "No, anything can't happen."
Sulking, he leaned against the desk. "Where's the fun in that? And don't say we've just met. I've heard that one before, and you've apparently known me for years."
"Only one actually," she replied.
Sirius smiled. "Then let's meet again sometime, shall we? We can get to know each other at similar ages."
Hermione nodded, but she knew it wouldn't work. "How am I supposed to come to the exact time and place you are?"
He thought for a moment before a big smile crossed his face. "Whenever you are, give five turns on the Time Turner, and I'll be there."
…
"How old are you this time?" Sirius asked as Hermione appeared in front of him.
"Sixteen," she replied, staring at him with empty eyes.
He grinned triumphantly. "I'm older than you. Second time is the charm." Noticing her expression, his smile faded. "What's wrong?" He glanced up at the Potter house before standing up to pull her into a hug. "Hey, I'm right here."
"I know," she sobbed, letting tears fall. "It's just… Someone very important to me died, and I didn't even see it. I didn't know until Harry told me after the fact."
"That's James's son, right?" Sirius asked.
Hermione nodded.
"Was this someone I know now?"
"I can't tell you," she said. There had been so many things she had kept from him. His own death certainly couldn't be the exception.
"Okay," Sirius said. "Then what do you need?"
She leaned in and kissed him.
He pulled away, staring at her strangely. "I'm your comfort snog?"
"Please." She would have pulled a puppy dog face, but she'd never been very good at them.
"I'll go tell James and Lily I'm going home. Wait here, and we can Apparate together."
Hermione nodded and sat down in the chair he had vacated.
When Sirius came back out, he took her by the hand. The moment they arrived, he let go of her. "Why?" he asked. "What purposed does it serve to come back here for this?"
She bit her lip. "I know how this war ends. I know who comes out and who doesn't, who is still alive in my time. That time is a bit less certain."
He shook his head, shaggy hair flopping about. "You're affecting what might happen."
Hermione shook her head. "No, in the future, you never approach me about it. It's our time locked secret."
"A secret I take to my grave."
Although she tried to remain passive, her face gave her away.
"I knew it," Sirius said quietly. "It's me you came to mourn. I'm how old? Forty?"
"Thirty-six," she corrected, staring down at her feet. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to let you know."
Sirius shrugged, feigning indifference. "At least now I'll know. I can do things I wouldn't have otherwise."
She hesitated, weighing the pros and cons of the question on her tongue. Throwing out caution, she asked, "Such as kiss me again?"
…
The next time Sirius saw Hermione, he was back at his old home. It was dark, cold, and only a letter from Lily was keeping him company.
"You shouldn't be here," he said, face blank.
She bit her lip. "What's happened?"
Gesturing to the room around him, he said, "My mum's dead. I never thought I would live to see that day."
"I'm sorry." The brunette sat down on the bed next to him.
"No, you're not." A smile tugged at his lips at how stricken she looked. "Don't worry. I'm not either, not really. Does that make me a bad son?"
She scooted closer. "Does it matter?"
Sirius shook his head. "No, not really." He looked at her curiously, assessing how close she was sitting. "The last time I saw you, we had a proper snog. I can see it's been a while for you."
"I'm eighteen."
He nodded, taking in the information. "Did you have some special purpose in mind for coming tonight?"
Biting her lip, Hermione picked at the comforter on his bed.
"I take that as a yes."
"I have a boyfriend," she blurted out suddenly.
He raised an eyebrow. "Congratulation? Did you come here for tips or something?"
"Actually, yes," she said, staying at the bed.
He could almost feel the heat of her embarrassment. "I live to serve. What's the problem?"
"His girlfriend from sixth year was more… easy going than I am. They slept together."
"Okay." Sirius didn't grasp how he tied into this.
Still refusing to meet his eyes, she let out in a rush, "I lied and said I had slept with someone too."
"No." He stood up and took several steps away from the bed. "I can't. I won't take advantage of you like that."
She put her hands on her hips, finally looking at him. "It's not taking advantage when I'm offering."
"You aren't thinking clearly," he said. "Do you really want to look back on your first time and say it was only to be ready for your second?"
"It won't be." Moving closer, she stopped about a foot away from him. "If I wanted random, I'd have gone to a pub. I chose you for a reason, Sirius."
He inhaled manually, taking a moment to think before saying, "I'm dead in your time. This won't end well."
"I don't care." Hermione barked out a laugh. "Our age difference wouldn't be appropriate, even if you weren't. Plus, I've got my fairytale love that the entire wizarding world is fawning over."
"You don't sound happy about it," he observed.
Hermione shook her head. "I am. I'm very fond of him, but I spent my school years waiting for him. I don't want to be that girl who never tasted life."
"Is that what I am?" Sirius asked. "The taste of life?"
She bobbed her head back and forth. "You're the taste I really need to have before I settle down."
"You're eighteen," he said. "That's not settle down age."
"But Ron's got settle down mindset, and I could use a little solidity."
Sirius licked his lip, mind moving toward other excuses. "Why shake things up then?"
"Because it's you," she said softly. "Look, I know you aren't sure about this, but I need this. Make my first time special. I've heard enough stories to know you know how to treat a woman."
He grinned despite himself, and Hermione could tell his resolve was crumbling. She pressed on.
"Please?" She slipped her fingers to her collar, undoing the first button.
"You little minx," he growled before sitting down next to her. His eyes seemed to burn through her, but the rest of him remained calm as ever. "I should warn you about teasing me."
She undid another button. "Should you?"
…
"Now I'm hallucinating," Sirius mumbled, wrapping his arms around himself. "Go away, spirit. I like my memories untainted."
"This isn't a memory," Hermione said. She stepped toward him, feeling an unpleasant twist in her stomach at how unkempt he had become here in Azkaban. "I'm no hallucination."
He stared up at her with an open mouth for a moment. "Why are you here?" he finally asked.
She moved slowly, so as not to startle him. Sitting down on the bed next to Sirius, she took his hand. "I wanted you to know I'm getting married in a week."
"Congratulations," he said with hollowness in his voice. "I'm never getting married. I'll rot in here for the rest of my life."
"No, you won't," she promised. "You'll get out, you'll have a life."
"A good one?"
Hermione paused. "A decent one. You'll talk to Remus again."
He let out a heavy sigh. "Talk to him maybe, but he'll never forgive me. My best friends are death or unforgiving. How's that fair?"
"It isn't," she agreed, "but things get better."
He sighed, looking at her woefully. "You said you were getting married?"
"I am," she said, giving his hand a small squeeze. "To Ron, if you can believe it. I know not much time has passed here, but I've had a good five years go by."
"Five years of curling up next to your future husband."
The bitterness in his tone bothered her immensely. "Sirius, what's wrong?"
He groaned, tilting his head back to stare up at the ceiling. "This may sound coarse, but I haven't had a good shag in two years. Or a bad one, for that matter."
Her face tinged pink. "Do you… Do you need some help?"
Sirius jerked his head down to stare at her open-mouthed. "Don't talk like that if you don't mean it. You said so yourself. You're getting married in a week. Now's not the time to start shagging other men."
"But you aren't other men," she said softly. "You're Sirius Black, one of the greatest men I've ever known."
He closed his eyes, releasing a shaky breath as her hand moved up his arm to his shoulder. Without meaning to, he leaned into the touch. He had spent too long without human contact. "Will you tell me about my future? I want to know what I'll do. I want to know what I've missed."
"Harry's going to love you someday," she said, figuring it best to start with what he knows. "I don't know if Lily ever told you about her sister, but she and her husband are raising Harry. He won't have the most pleasant childhood, but it could be worse. Hogwarts will be his refuge." Reaching her own memories, Hermione smiled fondly. "We weren't friends at first. I thought he and Ron were a bit annoying, but we kept bumping paths by accident. Sometimes you just end up binding together, despite previous feelings. They saved me from a mountain troll."
"A troll at Hogwarts?" Sirius asked.
Hermione nodded. "Yes, it was a professor and Lord Voldemort that—"
Sirius gasped, and she mentally berated herself for saying the name in front of him.
"Sorry."
Continuing to tell him the story, Hermione wondered if this was the right thing to do, but his face showed he needed it more than anything.
She ended her story after third year, knowing he would experience the rest for himself.
"And after?" he asked hungrily. "After I…"
"I'll tell you that some other time," she said. "We don't want to get too far ahead."
He smiled ruefully. "You promise?"
"I do." Hermione leaned in and gently placed a kiss on his mouth.
…
Her kids were off at school, and Ron was at work. She had taken the day off to clean the house, but Hermione did not have much inclination to do so now. As she rummaged through boxes of old trinkets, she mused in the memories of them but did not do much else. Little of it was able to be thrown out.
She gasped as she noticed a feint golden gleam hiding among war-age WWW prank items. She had lost the Time Turner ages ago. Had it really been waiting there the whole time? Part of her was afraid to give it those five turns, afraid as she was that it wouldn't work. It had worked after his death, though, so there was no reason for it to cop out now.
Giving it a twist, Hermione shivered at the feeling of the world turning around her, moving her out of her own home and somewhere else entirely. She ended up on a rocky hillside looking down on a village – Hogsmeade, by the looks of it.
Hermione walked around the rock until she found the entrance she was looking for.
"Who goes there?" bellowed a man in a shadow inside.
"Your name is Sirius Black. You are here as a way to look out for Harry Potter and his friends, and you are overly aware that your thirty-sixth birthday approaches."
He stepped forward, squinting at her. "Hermione?"
Her heart was in her throat over seeing him again after all this time. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Giving her a crooked grin, he said, "Not really. You lot were just here yesterday for a Hogsmeade visit." His smile faded. "I'd say it's been a while on your end though."
She sat down, giving me a small smile. "I promised I'd tell you the rest of the story."
"How's Harry?" he asked.
"Married to Ginny."
Sirius laughed. "You lot and Weasleys."
With a shrug, Hermione nodded. "They do seem to be a recurring problem. Their older two are at Hogwarts, along with my daughter Rose. My son Hugo and their daughter Lily are still a year and a half away."
"Lily," he repeated softly.
"Oh yes. I think you'll love the oldest's name most. Jamie Potter. Jamie Sirius Potter."
She had expected him to be a bit choked up, but Hermione had not imagined it would bring tears to his eyes.
"He named his son after me?" He sniffed. "That's… Blimey, that's an honor."
"The middle one might surprise you. He's Albus Severus."
Raising an eyebrow, Sirius said, "Okay, you may need to explain a few things to me."
She nodded. "That's what I came back to do."
Hermione told him the whole story, leaving no parts out starting with his death on, not wanting to spoil the time he had left with knowledge of what would happen during that time. She skimmed briefly over Harry's mourning, but none of the details Harry had relayed about Horcruxes were left out. She told him about her wedding to Ron and Harrys and Ginny's, how the latter had included a moment of silence for all those lost in the war. She included James's birth and her own joy at being pregnant at the same time as Ginny for the other children (completely by accident both times). She retold tales of the war and heroes and Sirius that Harry gradually gave the kids as they got older. The success of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and Harry becoming Head Auror were both included.
She could not help the feeling that this was the last time she would be able to make one of these journeys into the past.
Hermione left Sirius still with tears in his eyes. They embraced, and at the last second before she gave the Turner the final twist, he whispered, "Thank you."
Five turns, five times. Each giving them exactly what they needed.
AN: So I might have bent the rules of Time Turners a bit, but oh well. Also, kudos to whoever noticed the Doctor Who reference.