The next chapter will be up this weekend. On that note, I know what major events I'm working towards (as well as a few smaller ones), but I have a lot of wiggle room. This story is less planned out than most I've written. So... if anyone has feedback on people they'd like to see more of or things they would like to see happen, please feel free to let me know. Thanks again for reading!
Chapter Nine - History will be kind to me for I intend to write it
Hermione's memory dissipated around them and the eleven students found themselves back in the Room of Requirement with the weight of reality settling down upon them.
"What do you need us to do?" James asked, the intensity on his face making him look more like Harry than Hermione had seen so far.
"Three things, for now," she responded, directing her answer to all of them. "The first and most important is to protect yourselves. There will absolutely be attempts on your lives. Maybe not here at Hogwarts, although that's possible too, but certainly beyond the school's grounds.
"The second is quite related to that and it is to practice defending yourselves. DADA is great for background, but we need actual, hands-on fighting experience," she told them.
Peter looked utterly terrified at all of this and Hermione found herself more than a little concerned at what the one-time traitor might do. How sure could she really be of his loyalties?
"We'll help each other out," she reassured them all, but mostly directed her statement at Peter. "We've nearly half a year before we're done at school and we're safer here than anywhere else. It won't do to be careless about our safety of course, but I have every reason to believe we can successfully prepare by working together."
She couldn't tell if Peter was any less concerned but his brow certainly furrowed more at her words.
"And the third?" Maura asked.
"The third is to listen and watch," Hermione told them. "We need intel and we need it badly. If we aim to defeat Voldemort, we need to know what his people are doing. Clio and Regulus, you two are in the best position for this. Most Death Eaters I know of are Slytherins."
"That puts them in an awfully dangerous position," Sirius bristled.
"Rosier, Wilkes and Avery - Julian, not Abby - all become Death Eaters," Hermione told him. "Just sharing a house with them puts Regulus and Clio in a more dangerous position. I'm not asking them to do anything outside of the norm, for now. Just… be wary and keep note of what they say and do."
"That won't be enough, though," Regulus observed. "They're not about to spill secret plans around us. Wilkes isn't exactly bright but Avery's wily and Rosier is shrewd."
"I… have some other ideas for later," Hermione told him. "But I need to work out the details yet and I think this is a good start.
"Would Abby be likely to share information with you about her brother, Regulus?" Hermione asked suddenly, as the idea occurred to her. "Given your attachment to her, I mean."
Sirius snorted aloud at the very idea.
"No," Regulus said dryly. "And there's no longer any attachment."
"I seriously doubt the Averys waited until we were even back at Hogwarts to break the engagement if their Dark Lord declared Reggie a threat," Sirius scoffed.
"I'm… sorry?" Hermione offered toward Regulus, not entirely sure what to say to that.
"Yes. I'm terribly torn up about it, if you can't tell," Regulus dead-panned.
"Reg! Did you make a joke?" Sirius demanded, looking rather like he might fall over in shock. "I'm so proud I could cry! I mean, it wasn't a particularly good joke, but it was a joke! We've all got to start somewhere. Maybe you're just a late-bloomer."
Regulus rolled his eyes in response, but the tiniest of smiles quirked his lips. One moment Sirius and Regulus were strained and adversarial, the next there was something bordering on affection and approval. The Black brothers, Hermione realised, had a significantly more complex relationship than she'd ever taken the time to consider.
"Shut up," Regulus muttered, somehow managing to look both grumpy and pleased at the same time.
Honestly, Hermione wasn't sure how he managed it.
"We should get going," Marlene said suddenly, looking up at a clock on the wall that Hermione hadn't even noticed. "We'll miss supper soon."
"Yes," Hermione agreed. "Let's meet tomorrow after lunch to start practising defense, okay?"
No one disagreed.
"Um, and if the Gryffindor boys might stay a moment. I've something in particular I need to discuss with you lot," Hermione told them as Marlene and Stella started for the door. "I'm sure you can all tickle the pear later, if need be."
"Tickle the what?" Regulus asked, looking at Hermione as though perhaps she'd gone mad after all.
"Figure of speech. Move along," Sirius said, making a shooing motion toward his brother.
Regulus grit his teeth and muttered something under his breath, but followed as everyone but the Marauders left. Getting Sirius and Regulus to work together might turn out to be like getting kneezles and krups to play nicely. Because, clearly, Hermione didn't have enough problems on her plate at the moment.
"So…" Peter started as the door shut behind the others. "Seems like you know Sirius is an animagus, then…"
"I know you and James are, too," Hermione replied crisply as the boys grimaced. "So does Lestrange. But that's not our real problem, is it?"
She watched the blood drain from Remus' face as she spoke and realization dawned on him. He looked terrified and more than a little nauseous and she hated that she'd been the one to put that look on his face.
"I'm so sorry, Remus," she said, voice rich with compassion.
"Oh, hell no," Sirius protested, as though his contradiction might actually change the situation.
"There's no chance that Rodolphus won't have told Voldemort you're a werewolf, Remus," Hermione confirmed. "I don't know how he'll use that knowledge, but I fully expect that he will in some way. He'll also probably know about the Shrieking Shack. We'll need to figure out somewhere else to keep you safe during the full moon that he doesn't know about."
Remus sat heavily in a nearby arm chair, shoulders drooped and face stricken.
"We'll figure it out, mate," James assured him. "We're in this together. We'll be fine."
"I should… maybe I should leave?" Remus questioned, leading to an immediate outcry from the other three boys. "No, really. I mean, if my being here is a threat… there's enough to deal with. You don't me adding to your problems."
Sirius looked mad enough that Hermione was actually kind of surprised he didn't hit the other boy.
"It took you most of your life last time around to realise that the people who love you don't consider you a burden," Hermione told Remus sharply. "Running away doesn't solve anything. Don't make that mistake again."
He nodded but didn't look convinced.
"I mean it," Hermione said more sternly. "You were the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher I ever had. I'll need your help if we're all going to get into fighting shape."
"I was a teacher?" He asked, perking up a little.
"You were a brilliant teacher," Hermione assured him. "You can be again. I'm sure of it. But you need to make it happen. I can tell you what happened the first go around but your life will be whatever you make of it."
His nod was a little more convincing this time, but Hermione was more than a little concerned about the uncertain look on Peter's face.
"Hermione… are you…" James started, uncharacteristically hesitant, his eyes darting toward Sirius. "Are you sure about including Regulus in all of this?"
Sirius looked worried and hopeful as he glanced toward Hermione, silent but obviously asking the same question in his mind that James had just voiced.
"Absolutely," Hermione confirmed.
"It's just… I believe you. About all of this. But are you sure you're right about what happened with him? I'm not sure I can see him standing up to Voldemort. Hell, he barely stands up to Sirius," James pointed out.
"I know with absolute certainty what happened to Regulus in my timeline," Hermione said confidently. "I'm not about to say he always made the right choice - he didn't - but in the end he knowingly sacrificed his own life in an attempt to destroy Voldemort. He was still a teenager when he was drowned by Inferi. He knew it was coming, what would happen to him, and he still acted with courage and bravery. That's someone we want on our side and he deserves the benefit of the doubt."
James looked like none of that quite made sense in his head and, in fact, it probably didn't. But, it was Sirius' reaction that drew Hermione's attention. His brow furrowed and his jaw tensed. Sirius was protective of everyone he cared about and - whether he'd admit it or not - he cared about his brother. The revelation of Regulus' fate in her timeline had to have been hard to hear. But, more than that, Hermione felt sure that he was trying to make the picture she'd painted of Regulus make sense with what he knew of his younger brother. It wouldn't be easy. She was sure of that much. In a lot of ways, the Black brothers had given up on each other years ago.
"Are we done here?" Sirius asked abruptly. "Because I'm done right now."
"Yeah," Hermione confirmed, for the first time spying a glimpse of the moody, sullen man the Sirius of her time had become in the boy in front of her. "For now, we're done."
The boys headed for the door, Remus still looking stricken and Sirius as volatile as Hermione could remember seeing. They resembled their future selves entirely too much, considering what those fates brought them. It was unsettling.
"Hermione?" a voice asked and Hermione turned to see Peter still standing there as his friends left the room.
"Yes, Pete?" she asked.
"Thanks. You know, for including me," he said with a weak little smile.
"Of course," she lied. "You're a part of this, Peter. You're a part of our team. We need you, you know."
Or, rather, we need you to not decide to run off and join the Death Eaters, anyhow.
"Yeah?" Peter asked, brightening considerably at her words. "It's all kind of… well it's pretty scary, you know."
"It is," she agreed. "But it's made easier because we have friends we can trust. We'll protect each other. Like James said, we're in this together. All of us."
Thinking back to the group she'd just met with - to Regulus who, despite her words, had joined the Death Eaters and Clio and Maura who she knew so little about and Peter who'd betrayed his friends in the worst way - she hoped like hell that she'd made the right call. That they truly were all in this together.