Chapter 9
August 1977
Dear Marlene,
I must admit I found your last letter rather amusing. Did James really had stuffed lion when he was younger? Did he actually make the noises you specified, or was that just a nice flourish? Either way, it's safe to say that neither Sirius nor I shall be letting that go any time soon. Please, if you have any other stories from his childhood, I would love to hear them.
However that being said, James had quite a few stories to share about you as well. But what he told me, I shall keep in confidence to keep you guessing.
I cannot wait until you come over to visit, Marlene. Don't get me wrong, I love the boys like they were my own brother, however I do miss your company.
Now, I must go, as James seems to be annoying Sirius about something or the other, and the two of them need me to mediate.
I shall see you when you get here in the morning,
Remus
Marlene grinned as she tossed the letter onto the bed. She was finishing packing up a suitcase filled with clothes for a few weeks. She was going to spend the remainder of the summer over at James' home. Her mother had taken a bit of convincing about it, as she was displeased that her daughter had just gotten home after ten months away at school, and now she wanted to head over to see the people she lived with almost full time. However her father had reassured her mother and told Marlene to have fun at her friends, but she was expected to write to them at least once every few days to let them know what her an the boys were getting up to.
She closed the lid of the suitcase, and tucked Remus' letter away into her collection of other letters, and as soon as she had bid her parents goodbye, she walked over to the floo and threw a handful of the green powder into the fireplace.
When she emerged from the other end she wasn't all that sure what she should have expected James and Sirius running around the room, tossing hexes at each other, while Peter cheered them on, and Remus watched, and threw the odd spell of his own their way.
Peter, whose birthday was at the end of the month, was the only one of their friends who was not yet 17, and as a result, unable to perform magic outside of school. Unluckily for the boy, his birthday fell at August 31st, meaning that the day after he was legally allowed to cast spells, he would head off to Hogwarts where he was allowed to perform magic anyways.
"Marlene!" she heard James shout as he dropped the battle, and turned towards her. However Sirius had already cast a spell at him, and James' hair turned a shade of green with silver streaks in it.
Remus snorted, drawing her attention to him. She felt herself take in a deep breath, knowing she hadn't see him since they were at school and not since James had all but drawn her feelings towards him out of her.
After embracing James and Sirius, she turned towards Remus to do the same. He looked slightly amused, but she wondered if it was still in reaction to the fact that James hadn't bothered to revert the colour of his hair just yet.
She felt his arms wrap tenderly around her waist as she hugged him tightly. He was slightly taller than her, so her head rested in a nice crook of his neck, and as she breathed in his scent, she felt her heart fluttering softly.
If Sirius or Peter suspected her feelings, neither one of them said a thing.
Well.
Until Sirius cast a hex at Peter, who yelped causing Marlene and Remus to break apart to see what the fuss about.
And as such, Marlene got thrown into the cycle with her friends. While they only had a few weeks until school started up again, somehow it seemed as if a lot happened in that time. Sirius dated at least four muggle girls who lived the village where James' house was located, Peter got completely sloshed one night when James' parents were out, and James seemed to look for every opportunity to get Marlene and Remus to spend more time together,
If Remus was suspicious, he certainly did not protest.
And while she was already good friends with him, getting to talk to Remus over the last few days, she found herself learning more and more about him. She learned that Remus was extremely interested in Ancient Runes, and that he enjoyed Defence Against the Dark Arts, however unlike James or Sirius, he couldn't see himself as an Auror. She learned that Remus first showed signs of magic at the age of three, scaring his mother. The muggle woman had partially hoped that her son would be like her, however she had been one of the first to embrace his magic. And she had been by his side when he was bitten.
However his mother had died over the past summer in a car accident.
Her heart had broken as he told the story; she assumed his friends had known, however Remus' had never brought it up while they were at school, and she couldn't help but slip her hand through his to try and comfort him.
He had smiled at her, and towards the end of the summer, the small touching from hands grazing had evolved to him picking her up or tickling her, and she had moved to touching his face, or placing her arms around his waist.
The most shocking moment of the summer was when James got his letter from Hogwarts, and a shiny badge fell out, marking her friend as Head Boy.
"I think Dumbledore made a mistake," James had said, staring at the letter in shock, "There's no way this was meant for me. Remus, I think I opened up your letter by accident."
As Remus laughed and shook his head, Sirius immediately began teasing James, while James attempted to make sense of what had happened.
While there was no doubt that the witch in their year who made Head Girl would be Lily Evans, there was a debate over the Head Boy.
Later, when she asked Remus about it, he had merely shrugged. Dumbledore had taken him aside the prior year and asked if Remus wanted the position, as generally it went to one of the prefects in the year. However he had declined, saying that between the duties and his lycanthropy and school work, there was no way he would be able to achieve a balance between all of it.
James, however much of a shock it might have been, was a very likely choice. Her friend had a way of inspiring others and when he wanted to, he took on a leadership role in the school.
When Marlene boarded the train at the very end of the summer, she felt something inside of her, knowing that the next year would be much different than anything she's faced before.
Remus stood over the couch as he walked back into the room. He had been spending more and more time over at Grimmauld place, and he was extremely thankful that his wife was more than understanding.
In all honesty, finding out he had a daughter was a roller coaster of emotions; a daughter whom he had known for the better part of the last six years.
And Hermione Granger was brilliant. He couldn't have asked for a better daughter. But looking at her made him long for the what-ifs and could-have-beens. In another life, he would have known about her. He would have been able to have raised her. And while he loved Dora to death, in another life as well, Marlene might not have died.
Harry might not have been his godson, but he loved the boy. And he had understood Dumbledore's reasoning to send Harry off with his Aunt and Uncle. After the first war had been hard; not only had he lost everyone close to him, but he was struggling financially. His father had offered him a free room, except he couldn't take it. There was no way he could have raised Harry.
Or Hermione either, he supposed. He had been scraping by on a poor wage until Dumbledore had taken pity on him and offered him a job at the school. It was no way for a child to have been raised. And at least Hermione had a happy upbringing with her adoptive parents. At least they had loved and cared for her.
It was more than he could have asked for.
But it didn't stop him from wishing he had known about her sooner.
He didn't blame Marlene for it; of course he couldn't. She might never have suspected him of being the spy, but he was gone. For all she could have known, he was dead. He had seen the memories as well, and he knew exactly why she did what she did, and he loved her all the more for having a plan in place in the case something happened.
It also didn't stop him from wishing he had been around when Marlene found out she was pregnant. He could have fought to protect her; to have kept her safe.
When Remus had found out about her death, it had been almost four months after it happened. He hadn't been in contact with her other than for the odd letter here and there to let her know that he was doing alright. She had known about the fact that he had been given a mission from Dumbledore, and she hadn't been happy that he had taken it, but she understood he needed to.
It was because he couldn't contribute anything else. He couldn't get a job due to his lycanthropy, nor did he have money to help fund their fight. He didn't have anything that was useful in any sense, and when Dumbledore asked him to take the mission to try and convince the werewolves in underground England not to join Voldemort, he had taken it.
Marlene hadn't even been able to write him because Remus thought it had been unsafe.
He should have been there for her.
"Remus?" he heard Sirius ask softly as he entered the room, He looked up to see his friend giving him a concerned look as he asked again, "How are you doing? We haven't actually talked about Hermione since it happened, and how are you taking it?"
Remus, "I don't know," Remus said honestly, "Obviously I'm ecstatic to find out I have a daughter," he said softly, "That part is for sure. But a daughter with the woman I loved twenty years ago and whose death I still blame myself for. A woman who was there for me through some of the toughest parts of my young adult life and who was everything to me. A woman who I think about every day. And now I have a little part of her here again."
"You see Marlene in Hermione," Sirius said to him, "I do too. I mean Hermione has a lot of your personality traits, don't get me wrong, but there are so many small things she does, and I just see Marlene in her."
"I just really hate that I didn't know about her," Remus sighed. "Watching Teddy grow up, with his first words, his first steps, and everything he does has been amazing. But I can't help but wonder how Hermione would have been. Did she start speaking from a young age? When did she learn to read? When was her first use of accidental magic? I just wish I had those moments with her too."
"I know," Sirius placed a hand on his shoulder. "The war made us all lose things; family, our health, our friends. It's unfortunate, and unfair. Harry lost his parents, Hermione lost her mother, and her adoptive parents, we lost Peter, and James and Lily, and Marlene, Frank and Alice, and so many others. And I wish more than anything we could have preserved our Hogwarts innocence. That the war never happened and we lived the lives we should have. I hate that it effected the generation under us, and that Harry and Hermione had to continue on in this fight."
Remus nodded tiredly, "As do I," he said looking at his daughter, whom was still fast asleep. "I should move her to her room. Otherwise she'll wake up with a stiff back."
Sirius smiled at him, as Remus carefully levitated Hermione to ensure she didn't feel a change in her resting position, and hovered her up the stairs. As soon as she was tucked in, he turned out the lights, and watched as she shifted in her sleep to get more comfortable.
Draco tiredly stared at the picture of the runes in front of him. He and Bill had been working on the stone for the better part of the last couple hours while Hermione continued to read other books. She had stated that it was due to the fact that there was absolutely no proof that there was anything concrete in the runes that could be helpful, and in the case it turned out to be nothing at all, one of them had to continue to research.
He could practically sense the disappointment in her tone as she rationalized it.
And part of him just wanted to let her do the translation, however he didn't want to seem pushy on the matter.
"Waves," Bill said triumphantly as he looked up from the translation key Bill had. It was a small notebook in which he had started to take notes in for the meanings of rare looking runes in the case he ever encountered them again and could not remember the meanings.
Hermione looked up from her book interestedly, "Did you figure out one of them?"
"The curse will hit in waves," Bill told her. "It's what the first line means. I mean I paraphrased in some of the other words, but basically 'curse' and 'waves' are runes in the first line. So we know that much. There's also the rune for 'death' written in here a bunch of times, so that's absolutely fantastic."
Draco noted his wry tone at the last part with a bit of amusement. If anyone had told him three years ago that he would have a similar sense of humor as a Weasley, yet here he was, working side by side with the man whose family he had grown up hating.
Hermione closed her book, clearly uninterested in it, and curious about the runes, as she came over to see what the book said.
"Few," she said as she pointed to a rune on the next line as Bill went to scribble the meaning on a separate piece of parchment. "That was one of the basic ones we had to learn in school."
Draco looked at her slightly, wondering how anyone remembered the minor runes. After the first test on it, they had long since moved on to harder runes which were more likely to show up in older texts. But then again, it Hermione Granger he was talking about. If anyone was likely to remember it, it would be her.
"First," Draco said as he pointed to another rune, "and 'kills'".
Hermione gave him an encouraging smile, and Draco felt his heart squeeze. While she had been studying from her own book it had been easier to try and push back the feelings he had for the woman, both the Veela's and his own, but now that she was here working right beside her, he couldn't try and tune her out.
"'Hundreds'"," Bill said as he underlined another rune and wrote it's meaning out on the other parchment, "and 'thousands'. I'm not sure I like where this translation is going if I'm going to be completely honesty."
Draco nodded. Unless the picture was referring to cattle or some other reference to a barter system, he was pretty sure it wasn't going to be a great message which was revealed.
Hermione looked at the page in front of her, as she leaned over the parchment and filled in the page with a few more runes, as Bill began to turn the pages of his book to find more meanings. While a few translations had come within the span of five minutes, the rest was taking far longer. Every now and then one of them would find out one of the runes and say it out loud, but other than that, they went back to working in silence as they struggled to come up with the description of the curse as specified in the book the last Minister had left behind.
Draco's eyes kept straying from his page however as he looked up to glance at Hermione every now and then. Her hair had been tied up and she had slight bags under her eyes, but it didn't stop him from being attracted to her.
After what felt like hours, it seemed as if they finally had a full translation on the page before them for the runes in the picture.
When the time resurfaces, the curse will hit in waves.
The first will wipe out a few unsuspecting.
The second will bring shock as the numbers increase to the hundreds.
The third will kill those with power and authority,
As the world is thrown into panic,
And only a few thousand are left.
It was by no means a perfect translation, and he was sure that some of the meanings for the runes had changed slightly in time. But the overall message didn't change.
If anything it only confirmed how it would happen in terms of the curse.
So really, other than the fact of how the curse would hit, they still knew nothing about how it happened, or how to stop it.
But what he did know was if they failed to break this curse, they would be in a lot of trouble.
