Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A/N: Huge thanks to everyone who favorited/followed after last chapter. Big thanks to my reviewers: Pwrmom2, winxgirl1997, Pinup95, CassieRenee333, unicornz . 334 and Guest! Y'all are so awesome - I am so glad that so many of you are really connecting with Regulus.

There is another cliff hanger after this chapter...any guesses of who is behind all of this? Please let me know what you thought of chapter seven and be on the lookout for chapter eight later this week!


The next morning, Hermione and Sirius were able to extract themselves from the bed with much hesitation. All Hermione wanted was to do was to stay in the warm cocoon of sheets with Sirius, snuggling the day away. Unfortunately, there were dark wizards to thwart and her future children to look after.

So, they got up and dressed, Hermione ran a brush through her hair so it didn't look too much like sex hair, but there wasn't really much she could do with her curls. She was disappointed to watch all of Sirius's naked flesh be covered once again by jeans and a jumper, but she supposed she would just have to deal with it.

They walked down the stairs together, discussing what they would have for breakfast - they had agreed on Belgian waffles - and Sirius was trying to convince her to just let Kreacher handle breakfast this morning. When they arrived in the kitchen, they were met by Isla and Alphard not much longer.

The four of them chatted about how well Christmas had gone, despite Ron's senseless accusations and his children's behavior. Apparently Lilac - Ron's eldest daughter - was quite taken with Alphard and had been annoying him and James all night. Hermione smiled at that, thinking that she sounded the same as Lavender in her time.

It didn't take Hermione long, though, to realize that something was missing. Regulus hadn't come down, and it just didn't feel complete to Hermione without him there. "Does your brother...not like breakfast?" She asked, confused.

Alphard sighed. "No, he just doesn't like these big family gatherings. Says they overwhelm him." He busily set about pouring syrup over his waffle.

"I think I will go check on him." Hermione said, feeling upset pooling in her stomach.

"Honestly, you are better off just letting him sulk in his room this morning. He will join us in the afternoon." Alphard said, not bothering to look up.

Hermione didn't care what Alphard suspected, she wanted to ask Regulus for herself. She left the room and walked up the creaking stairs to Regulus's room and knocked on the door. "Regulus? It's Hermione...err...mum. Do you want to have breakfast with us?" She paused for a moment, waiting to hear any sound of movement, but was disappointed to hear nothing. "I'm coming in." She warned.

Turning the handle of the door, Hermione looked into his room, surprised to find no one. The bed hadn't even been slept in! She couldn't believe that he would just leave without saying goodbye. But then again, she thought guiltily, she had been rather caught up with Sirius last night. She should have been paying attention to her son.

Upset, she walked back down the stairs, only to reenter the kitchen. "He's gone." She said distraught.

Sirius caught her eyes, and seemed worried, but Isla tried to assuage their fears. "He does have his own flat, maybe he just went back there?"

Before they could decide what to do next, Sirius picked up on someone calling from the floo, using his slightly advanced hearing from being an animagus. He stood from the table, and Hermione followed him as he walked into the other room, where the floo was located.

Teddy Lupin's face was illuminated in the fire. "Oh, thank Merlin! Listen, I have some bad news. It's Regulus." He said with a frown.

"What? Tell me what happened to my son!" Hermione spat out, incredibly worried about what might have happened.

"Well, he was attacked last night, outside of his flat. He's unconscious at St. Mungo's." Teddy told them. "I am on his case, and so is Uncle Harry." Teddy assured them. "Please meet us at the hospital when you are ready." He didn't wait for them to respond before he ended the floo connection.

Hermione turned to Sirius, tears in her eyes. "Go get Isla and Al. I will meet you there." She grabbed a bit of floo powder and stepped through to the atrium of the hospital.

By the time that she found Harry waiting outside of Regulus's room, Sirius and the children had already caught up to her. Harry stopped her, brilliant green eyes serious, before wrapping her in a hug tightly. "Listen, he doesn't look good, but he is going to be fine. I promise we will find out who did this."

Taking Harry's words seriously, she reached for Sirius's hand and entered her son's room. Seeing her boy laid out on the bed, magical monitors beeping, and his face and body severely bruised had tears that had been threatening to spill running down her cheeks.

Sirius spun her in his arms, holding her tightly to his chest. It also upset him greatly to see Regulus looking so fragile and unconscious. He wanted nothing more than to lash out, break something, hex someone, but he knew he needed to be strong for Hermione.

"When Dumbledore said our children were in danger, I didn't think that this is what he meant." He whispered to her.

Hermione turned to look at battered Regulus again, and rushed to his side, taking his limp hand in hers. "Do you really think this had something to do with Voldemort?" She asked, surprised. It looked like he'd been kicked or punched quite a few times.

"I think that it's not a coincidence, Hermione." He hissed quietly at her side. "First the break in at his work and now this. We should go search his flat, see if he has any information there. Maybe he stumbled on something and he doesn't understand how it could be used."

"I don't want to leave him all alone like this." Hermione whined, unable to pull her eyes from him.

"It's okay, mum. I will stay with Reggie." Isla said from the foot of the bed, her own eyes red from tears. "You and dad, Al and Uncle Harry go find out whatever you can. I will stay here, and Teddy will be waiting just outside the door."

Hermione bit her lower lip, considering her options. Finally, knowing that this very well may be why she was sent to the future, she decided to go with everyone to search his flat. She left Isla, sitting there, holding Regulus's hand safely in her own.

She quickly learned that Alphard had gotten Sirius's hotheadedness quickly. The whole way to Regulus's flat, he was grumbling about how he was going to get whoever did this to his little brother. Hermione smiled, thinking it a tad comical to call Regulus his little brother, when he was quite a bit shorter.

When the four of them - Harry included - arrived at the flat, Hermione was impressed with the level of warding that secured the flat. She smiled, feeling that she could pass through some of the familial wards, and then began dismantling the remaining ones. She was very impressed with his ward casting, but she was eventually able to break them down.

They entered the flat and found it empty. It looked like a typical boys flat, but with some expensive elegance, Hermione figured was Malfoy's doing. "He lives here with Scorpius Malfoy." She told Sirius, her voice breaking the still of the flat.

Hermione and Sirius went off to look through Regulus's room while Harry and Alphard began looking around the rest of the flat. They didn't find anything particularly damning in his room - nothing on his book shelf screamed dark magic and there wasn't anything to suggest that he'd taken anything from the department of mysteries.

In fact, it was pretty innocuous. Just a room decorated in Slytherin colors, and even a football scarf hanging up over the desk. Hermione couldn't help herself from looking at the pictures in the picture frames on his wall. There was one of their family - Hermione was finally able to see how she and Sirius aged (well apparently, Sirius looked the same, except for with one tiny streak of gray in his hair, and she had her hair done elegantly in a chignon, with a few laugh lines around her eyes and mouth).

The next was of Regulus and Isla, apparently at his Hogwarts graduation. Isla looked to only be about thirteen in this picture, but it was clear that they both cared about each other immensely. The last picture was of, who she assumed were, Regulus's Slytherin friends. She was quickly able to identify Scorpius, and the girl who she knew to be Melia, as well as someone who had to be related to Pansy Parkinson. Regulus looked happy, and even had his arm around Melia's shoulders.

She didn't want anything bad to happen to Regulus and hoped that he was going to be okay. She knew that the healer assured them he would be, but she didn't want him to live in a world where Voldemort might come back.

Breaking her from her reverie, Al and Harry burst into the room. "I think we are looking for Scorpius Malfoy." Harry said.

"What? Why?" Hermione asked, concerned. She had a bad feeling about Scorpius, but she'd never even met him and knew that she was just prejudiced from her interactions with Draco Malfoy, pureblooded elitist from her old time.

"Because he has a copy of the bloody spell to bring back Voldemort, that's why!" Alphard seethed. "He even has notes for a potion!"

Hermione was concerned and grabbed hold of the piece of parchment, reading it over quickly. Sirius asked her what was on the list. "Oh, standard dark magic things, acromantula venom, bones, the blood of a virgin." Hermione snorted at that last bit. "We need to get back to the hospital and find out just how much Regulus knows about this."

The rest of them readily agreed, and they left the flat, replacing the wards on the way out before apparating back to the hospital. When they arrived, they were surprised to see a panicked looking Teddy Lupin pacing up and down the hall outside of Regulus's room. Upon seeing them, he quickly walked over. "Have you seen Isla?"

When they shook their heads no, Teddy began calling up and down the hall for her. "Teddy, Teddy, slow down, mate. Just tell us what's going on." Sirius asked the young man, trying not to let his own panic rise. He patted Teddy on the back, even though he was much taller than Sirius was. Merlin, he was even taller than Moony!

"I just...Regulus woke up. I asked Isla to step into the hall, while I took his statement." Teddy wiped a hand over his face. "She promised that she would stay right outside the door, but when I came out to let her know she could come back in, she was gone."

Hermione bit her lip. "Maybe she just went for a spot of tea." She offered, even though a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach had formed. She was worried. "Let's just ask one of the nurses if they've seen her, before we panic."

Teddy seemed to agree with this line of thought, flagging down a nurse from the station. "Did you see a young woman leave here a few minutes ago? She's...very beautiful, with curly black hair, about this tall." He indicated with his hand. His cheeks were lightly tinged pink.

The nurse didn't even have to think about it for very long before responding. "Oh yeah, I saw her leave a few minutes ago with a young man. She seemed upset, but I figured that it was just because she was in this ward visiting someone."

Hermione was worried, automatically thinking that Scorpius Malfoy must have taken her. But why? "What did the young man look like?" She asked, desperate for answers.

"Well, he was pretty unremarkable. Clean cut, with dark hair and dark eyes." The nurse responded readily.

Hermione frowned. Just who was this mystery person and why would Isla leave with them willingly?