Hermione knew it was time. It had been a long day at the Department of Mysteries and everyone but a few Aurors had left the Ministry of Magic for the night. Her shift was over but her mission was not. Earlier in the day Dean Thomas asked her to a pub for a drink but she politely declined. The veil was waiting for her.
With a flick of her wand, she sent the charmed paper plane letters to their respective recipients and her belongings whirred through the air into her purse. Walking over to her towering wall-to-wall bookshelves, her stomach began to tie in knots. With a heavy sigh, she rapped on the bookshelf with her wand three times. Slowly, a big, black, and very worn book appeared, pushing two small books aside to make room for it. Hermione got the idea from the charm on 12 Grimauld Place.
Since working at the Ministry of Magic, she vowed to figure out the secrets of the veil. Every night she studied it. She searched for books about it. She cast charms and spells at it. And every night she wrote about her studies in this book. Flipping to her latest entry she began to read:
Tonight I finally made progress! I saw Sirius through the veil. It was mist-like. Just beyond reach, and it was completely maddening. He is alive, though. Confused, wandering, and lost. But he isn't dead. All of my research suggests that those beyond the veil are in a limbo. Not dead, but not among the living. The killing curse LeStrange cast must not have completed before the veil sucked him in. In a way, I gather that it…saved him. I know what I must do, but unfortunately I have run out of time tonight. Tomorrow will be the night I bring him back from the veil.
She continued to skim over the notes and took in a ragged breath. It was time. She was sure about what she had to do. She slipped the journal into her bag and retrieved an oblong object wrapped in a velvet cloth. She stuffed it into her bag as well and set down to the location of the veil. No one knew what she had been doing all these years, and no one knew what she was about to do. She never told anyone for fear the Ministry of Magic wouldn't let her.
She stepped out of her private office and closed the door. The gold plate on the door read Hermione J. Granger: Head of the Department of Mysteries, The Ministry of Magic. She smiled and turned, making her way through a series of dimly lit corridors until she finally came upon the room with the veil. She stood in the doorway, admiring it. The wispy movements of the clouds in the veil whispered to her, coaxing her to come to it. She found herself taking a step forward and she shook her head, clearing the enchantments from her mind.
Muttering a few words under her breath while waving her wand over herself like she did countless times, she protected herself against the veils seduction with charms. It was almost ritualistic at this point. She knew that this was exactly that. A ritual. She didn't realize it before but she knew what had to be done. She kneeled in front of the veil and summoned her book, the oblong package, a knife and a trunk from her bag. It was charmed to hold quite a few more things than the outside appeared to be able to hold.
Opening the trunk revealed a badly scarred man with thinning hair and nasty teeth. His eyes jolted around but he couldn't make a sound or move in any other way. She had stupefied him and captured him just this morning. Fenrir Greyback was wanted for mass murder before, during and after the war at Hogwarts. No one knew where he was and just this morning Hermione happened upon him and took this as a chance to use him for good. He was the perfect candidate for tonight's private ceremony.
Picking up her knife she began to mumble several enchantments and spells that would protect her and manipulate the mirror into showing its secrets to her. The clouds swirled and out of the wisps and a familiar man took form. She could feel how close she was to be able to bring him back.
She slowly ran the knife along her palm and blood dripped off of her hand. She caressed the side of the veil with the cut and the hushed voices behind the clouds thanked her. With her wand she raised Greyback up into the air, levitating his body to the veil coaxing it with her sacrifice. With her free hand she reached into the clouds and her arm was enveloped in a cool misty sensation and she whispered, Sirius! Fenrir's body was pulled into the veil and a bright light came forth blinding Hermione.