A/N: Hello! Welcome to chapter six! We're back in Severus's office, Hogwarts, to see what Remus wants (you know, aside from a lifetime supply of chocolate, Sirius Black and a stable job).

I feel like I should take this moment to respond to a review left on chapter four, in which Reading In Moonlight questioned why there were time-jumps. I feel like it's something that you all, as readers, need to know, so I'll leave it here for your attention. In The Ghost, we follow the life of Hermione Potter, and how her being sent back in time and what she does there affects how the books play out. We're still fighting a war in 1996, our loved ones are still there, even though Hermione isn't on the scene just yet. I've written it in this particular way because I want, when Hermione reappears, to have her past running alongside her present, giving you hints of what has happened, how it has changed her and then expanding on it in 'the past' scenes to illustrate her story. I have every intention to bring her "back to the future" pretty early on, to help fight the war in the present. In order to do so, I need to follow events since she left (which also gives the opportunity to add in a few scenes from 'The Ghost' herself, and get some of her childhood with the Potters out of the way before she goes to Hogwarts and shit starts happening). It's a confusing concept even for me and I'm kind of winging it, but so far it has seemed much more logical as I play it out than it sounds in theory. It's a bit like a working puzzle, where hopefully at the end everything will fit together perfectly.

The chapters won't always be updated in the order I have been doing them so far(Present-Past-Present-Past-Present) it'll get a bit more random, especially as the Inbetween comes in (though these are meant to be a little more rare than the Past/Present chapters) depending on what's happening in what 'time' at the time.

I hope this doesn't put you off too much.

Thank you all for the support you've given the story so far, it means so much to me to see and I hope I can live up to it!

Love Always,

Eli x

Disclaimer: I do not own the works herein, all characters from the Harry Potter Universe belong to JK Rowling, and all characters, storylines, situations, plots and the like do not belong to me. I make no money from this work.

Warnings: Rated M for situations, swearing, violence, sexual scenes... The whole lot, basically. Dumbledore Bashing, too. Severus doesn't have the best time, bless him.


The Ghost of Grimmauld Place

Chapter Six


Wednesday 19th June 1996

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Potion Master's Quarters

Severus and Lupin stood across from each other in the living area of Severus' rooms. He hadn't invited the werewolf to sit, mostly so that he could have the satisfaction of telling him off if he did, or of watching him squirm his way through the meeting on his feet. He was petty like that, so sue him. This was a man who claimed to know the whereabouts of a missing student and yet concealed that information from the proper authorities. He had no sympathy for the bloke, and definitely felt no obligation to perform social niceties.

The Professor had also poured himself a tumbler of rather nice firewhiskey, which he did not share. Now, sipping it and staring at his guest, he waited for an explanation.

"She was in the Time Chamber," Lupin began, his arms folded across his chest. It always made Severus laugh that people underestimated this man; for all of his baggy cardigans and scruffy hair, he was a duelling champion that housed a volatile dark creature, with all of its instincts and power locked up in his six-foot frame. Lupin was capable of great violence, could be ruthless when angered, and murdered without consideration at least one night a month. Or, so Severus assumed on that last one. He'd never really cared enough to look into it after he had almost been the victim. Traumatising experiences, and all that. "They knocked over a cabinet of Time-Turners, it collapsed right on top of her."

"So you and Black thought you'd take her away, did you?" Severus purred with deliberate malice. "Stash her somewhere safe, away from everybody else? I'm assuming Black is in on this, it's not like you to work alone." A dark, evil thought occurred to him. "Is Potter in on it, also? Was that… performance in the Hospital Wing an act?" His carefully cultivated tone broke, real, cold fury lashing through it. Already he was scolding himself for falling for Potter's tricks, for allowing them to take advantage of such a glaring vulnerability. He ground his teeth and knocked back the remains of his whiskey.

Lupin looked taken aback but it could have been put-on. Severus had never had the idea that the man was a brilliant liar, though evidence suggested he was: he had, after all, managed to hide his lycanthrope nature from a school of hundreds of people for seven years. "No, Severus. You misunderstand me." He scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration, shooting Severus a glare. "Can I sit?"

Hiding his impatience behind languorous movements, Severus refilled his glass and watched Lupin consideringly over the rim. He hadn't reacted to Severus' accusations, but then he wasn't that hot-headed. He would have to try harder if he really wanted the truth, and he wasn't sure how to do that. Maybe overtures of friendship… no, the wolf would never buy that, and Severus was likely to throw up in his mouth if he tried. Grudging civility, though… that could work…

After a moment or two, just to draw out the werewolf's discomfort, he acquiesced with a stiff nod.

"Thanks," the other man grunted, collapsing into one of the stuffed armchairs by the fire and stretching his legs out towards the heat. Immediately he looked at home, the flames even reaching towards him to provide him with warmth. Severus had to hold back a growl; one of the things he had always despised about the werewolf was his comfort in most any situation, it ranked up there with the fact that everybody seemed to adore the man for no valid reason (and he'd investigated it, so he knew. "Why do you love him so much?" he'd asked Lily once, after seeing her run into his arms for an exuberant bear hug she'd never bestow on the likes of him. "I just do," she'd grinned. He was still bitter about that – I just do is not a valid answer).

In a refusal to give up ground, Severus moved over to the mantel, staring down at Lupin. He arranged his features to look vaguely impatient, an expression that had made several students cry over the years, and waited.

Lupin grimaced, his eyes fixed on the fire. "Look, Severus… you remember Hermione, yes?"

"She was in my class yesterday, Lupin, and she's not exactly quiet. I would find it exceedingly difficult to forget her in such a short space of time." A deliberate side-step.

"Not that Hermione." Their eyes locked, a silent stand-off. Severus begged him to let it go, if only in his mind. He didn't want to think about her. Lupin's gaze was hard and challenging, a dog with a bone, refusing to give up. Severus tried to flash a warning with his eyes, telling the man to leave it, that they'd converse another time in another place where perhaps they could be more subtle, this conversation not as glaring and dangerous to have. For Merlin's sake, didn't the man know they made the pact for a reason?

"I think they're the same person," Lupin blundered on blithely, as delicate as Exploding Snap.

"Preposterous." The word was out of his mouth before he could even think about it. He'd guessed that this might be coming, that with Miss Granger's disappearance Lupin, the one who had always loved her most openly, would attach his hopes for his old friend to the young woman, but it was more painful than he'd expected to have to let the man down. The very idea that the two women were the same was ludicrous, completely absurd. While, yes, Hermione Granger had reminded him strongly at times of the other Hermione, the other had been… better. Wittier, stronger, less eager-to-please, more stubborn, less forgiving. Hermione Potter would never have put up with Hermione Granger's dunderheaded friends' dunderheaded antics. She would have headed those off at the pass, just as she had with him and Regulus.

Gods, and that was another name he'd promised himself he wouldn't think about. In fact, they had all sworn a pact against it, the first and final time the entire group of people had gathered in peace to talk about it. Ironically, that had been what Hermione had wanted her entire life: for the people she loved to get along.

"Lupin, we had an agreement." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose to stave off a migraine, not liking the feel of pressure growing behind his eyes. If only the man would just leave, give up on these ridiculous notions and bugger off. It was clear, now, that Lupin had no real idea of where the young lass had disappeared to; no idea other than his own damaging, dangerous delusions.

"Sod the agreement and listen to me, Snape." Lupin's eyes burned in his head, bottomless pits of pent-up rage. Really, it was a shock, because Severus hadn't guessed the man could feel so strongly. Lupin's anger fed his own, though, the emotion breeding deep in his belly. "Hermione Granger has disappeared because she is Hermione Potter," Lupin enunciated every word clearly, with an edge.

"Lupin…" Severus' voice was a roll of thunder, a warning against Lupin's foolish actions. "What you speak of is impossible, I will not entertain it."

"Hear me out, Severus."

"Miss Granger-"

Lupin was talking again, louder, though his voice was still a mere grumble of sound, the way it always was when he was angry. Severus had heard him shout perhaps twice in his entire life, on neither occasion had it lasted very long. "I heard an interesting story this evening. Apparently, Dolores Umbridge disappeared with Harry and Hermione into the Forest, in search of Dumbledore's secret 'weapon'. We know that Harry and Hermione then went to the Ministry – but where was Dolores?"

Lupin's eyes flicked down to the fire again, focusing hard. A flash of malicious amusement zipped through his expression as he spoke. "Hagrid received a message while we were sedating Harry, that's where I went. Apparently, the Centaurs have taken a teacher prisoner. Bane claims that she breached the Treaty between the Centaurs and the School at least twenty times in her duration of her Headship, which gives them the right to revenge themselves upon her. He claims, also, that a representative of the school was the one to hand the criminal into their keeping."

Lupin's eyes reflected leaping, licking flames, shining with the near-feral excitement of an inquisitive man close to solving a long-standing mystery. "While I doubt Hermione took Umbridge to the Forest with the express intention of handing her as a criminal over to the Centaur Colony, that is what she did. She saw the opportunity to protect herself, Harry, and everybody else and took it, without dithering over morality and ethics or even the witch's fate. Now, Severus, tell me – who do we know who is loyal enough that she might take this opportunity to avenge her friends, clever enough to get herself and her friends out of a situation like that without harm coming to herself, cunning enough to twist such a dangerous opportunity to her advantage, and ruthless enough to use it to get rid of an enemy? It's a fairly unique trait, wouldn't you admit?"

Severus held his breath. When it was laid out like that, it seemed sensible, a plausible explanation. Hermione Potter had done much over the years that crossed into a moral grey area – of course, she hadn't fed anybody to dangerous dark creatures, but she had come close. Hermione Potter would do anything to protect her friends and family, even if that loyalty was misguided. It was the best and worst thing about her. The chances of Miss Granger also sharing that trait and yet not having any connection to the missing Potter were astoundingly slim.

Still, though… he would rather believe that Hermione Granger was just some random muggle-born girl who coincidentally had the same name and mannerisms as his old friend, than to think she actually was her. Not just because he disliked the chit, but also because Hermione Potter was dead. If Granger and she were the same person, then Granger was now dead, also, and he wasn't sure that Potter could get through this War without her. This, even before his own feelings came into the matter.

It hurt him to think that she might have been under his nose all these years and he had not noticed. Hermione had been his closest friend, even after Lily had left him. She had stood by him through thick and thin, patching him up when he was injured and encouraging him when he was well. Even were she in a different body, surely he would have been able to feel the connection between the two of them?

But then, the possibilities were endless – was Hermione Granger an obliviated Hermione Potter? Was Hermione Potter an obliviated Hermione Granger, even? And, why did they look so different? There was no doubt that either girl had belonged to their respective families, they had the look of their parents. He had even seen the bonds between them. Strong bonds, the type that could only be forged of blood.

Were they both dead? Or were they both alive? Was he insane to contemplate this theory, to think it could be truth?

"If…" he began, then had to start again when his voice cracked. "If Miss Granger is, indeed, Miss Potter, how do you suppose that would come about?" Lupin's eyes shot to him in shock, Severus painted a forbidding glower on his features. "Do not make me regret entertaining this lunacy, Lupin. Explain yourself or leave."

Lupin snorted. "Like there's a choice," he muttered. Then, "I saw the Time Chamber once everybody had left. There was a silhouette on the wall, spattered with the sand from the Time-Turners, and all mashed up with some other odd substance I assume came from the smashed fish-bowl we found lying on the floor. It looked like someone had been pinned to the wall and attacked by the artefacts of the room." Impatiently, he shot Severus a significant look, and once again enunciated his next sentence carefully. "Someone with mad, untameable hair that wouldn't be cowed by a bit of glass, water and sand."

Severus, not a stupid man, added two and two together to get four. "Time-Travel."

"With a bit of prototype de-aging potion thrown into the mix; according to Dora, Rabastan Lestrange's body was that of a newborn, with his ugly, full-size head bobbling about on the shoulders."

Realization was swamping him, his mind having the same clicking sensation that Remus' had experienced earlier that night. "Very neat," he murmured, turning the information over in his head. "So she was sent back in time, somehow winding up with the Potters."

Lupin nodded, a faint smile ghosting over his lips. "Lucky witch that she is, they take her in as their own. No memory, no family: she's a ready-made second child, right on their doorstep. All they had to do was adopt her."

Severus stopped his pacing to slump into his chair, summoning another glass and passing it over to Lupin. He deserved it, for all of the stress he had been under this evening, and for solving a decades-long mystery. Now, though, they had a new problem. "What exactly do you expect me to do with this information?"

The fiery liquid disappeared down his throat as quickly as it was poured. Lupin watched himself pour another glass as if he couldn't quite believe he was doing it. As sharing a drink or two with Remus Lupin hadn't been on his to-do list, Severus could sympathise with his bewilderment. "We need to hide it, for now." He took in Severus' expression and sighed, just on the right side of pitying. "I know, I know, but… what exactly will they do with the truth, except stress about it? Harry would never trust any of us, ever again, if he found out about his long-lost Aunt this far in. It could destroy him, turn the tides of the war against us. If she's not coming back – which we both know she isn't – it's probably best to wait. At least until things are more settled."

Agreeing with him was a bitter feeling. He'd rather have been able to argue, but the point was made. Plus, he didn't trust what the old man would do with the information – especially now that Black was back. Potter needed Black, that much was obvious, and Albus would almost certainly, ill-advisedly, use the information to turn them against one another.

Lupin laughed lightly, looking vaguely guilty when Severus turned to him. "Sorry, but – you should see your face. It's like you've just found the snot flavoured Every Flavour Bean. I know it'll hurt you to say it, so I'll say it for you:" his voice lowered into a gruffer imitation of Severus' own baritone, "'you have a good point, wolf, though if you tell anyone I said that I will gleefully hang you from the highest of towers, using your own entrails as the rope.'"

Another thing Severus had always hated about Remus Lupin was just how hard he had to work to dislike him. He covered the smirk he couldn't repress by taking another swig of his whiskey, then glared at Lupin to even the score. The wretched man didn't have the decency to pretend not to have noticed, instead donning a gloating expression beneath his tired eyes as he went for the exit. "As long as we're in agreement, anyway, Severus. I'll owl you within the week."

"We're not friends, Lupin," Severus snapped.

"I won't expect a reply," the werewolf shot back airily, the door thudding closed behind him.