Sirius whimpered in frustration as he dug his claws deep into the earth. He couldn't hear them, they were too far off. If he were to move any closer he'd give himself away, he thought, before he was being batted at. "Get! You mangy mutt! Away wi' ya!" A park manager came swatting at him with a broom.

He managed one last glance at Hermione and Regulus; they were too occupied with one another (which only added to his anger), paying no mind to his banishment. He pushed himself away from the Muggle broom, backwards, tucking his tail, and lowering his ears before he could turn fully to run. He ran to the alleyway his brother had appeared from earlier before changing back into his human form. Disheveled, Sirius retrieved a pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and lit up. Leaning against the bricked wall with one foot steadying him on the ground, he rested his free hand on his bent knee. "Fuck." He muttered. "Fuck!"

He spit the bitter taste from his mouth, then licked his lips to rid the sudden chap. Rubbing his chin roughly, he closed his eyes and tried to reason with the situation. He remembered the vague scent of a Black on her— but it wasn't his brother. Regulus had a distinctive scent to him. It. Doesn't. Make. Sense. Trying to dissect his brain for all imginable possibilities, he found himself rapidly approaching a dead end. Looking over toward the park one last time, he watched as Hermione and Reg had faded away. He puffed his cigarette til it burnt down to the ash and flicked it into a murky puddle just feet from him. He adjusted his jacket and stepped back into the sunshine to go home.

….

Hermione and Regulus settled down deep inside an old library. The smell of parchment and leather was captivating, invigorating, inviting, and calmed her nerves all at once. It wasn't a Muggle library, and one she'd never been to before either. There were spiraling staircases, and chandeliers lit up with black candles. Tapestries of suns and moons covered the walls. Hermione was aching to explore the lavish bookshelves, but her thoughts were soon interrupted when her companion began to speak.

"How did you know that the black dog back there was an animagus and who was it?" Regulus asked, his eyes looked over Hermione skeptically.

"I don't need to tell you who it was… that wasn't a part of the deal. And, because I've seen that particular person change into their form many times." The witch answered without skipping a beat.

Regulus scoffed, "Fine." He leant forward, resting his arms on the table. "Tell me who you are, Hermione Granger."

Straight to the point. This was it. The secret she had been harboring for what felt like decades. The tears were building up behind her eyes, and a weight settled itself upon her chest. None of that. Wiping her hands down the front of her dress skirt, she nodded to quash her anxiety and remind herself that it would be okay. Regulus made a vow, too. He'd be in just as much shit as she if he broke it.

Fortunately, the man wasn't forcing her. He didn't show any sign of impatience. It was like he could sense her unease with what she was about to say. There was a little stiffness in his shoulders; he was weary. Hermione could see this and she was so afraid of what his reaction would be. How much of this would change the future? Would it be a good change? So many questions danced around her mind. She lifted her hands from her lap and placed them on the wooden table. Fog surrounded her fingertips; they shook a little as she began to speak. "My name is Hermione Jean Granger. I am nineteen years old. I was born September 19 in the year of," she looked up at the blue eyes intently staring back at her. She swallowed, then blinked, "1979."

The man furrowed his brows and turned his head slightly catching a calendar in his peripheral vision: 1979 it said, reminding him that the year was just that. "That's impossible," he said, so quietly chills ran through her body.

"Is it?" she asked. "How?"

He smirked, "How? Time-turners are few and far between, and locked away. There aren't any available to the public… especially to those that aren't of royalty." He tapped his fingers across the wood of the table, "I have, however, heard stories of my family having one — one of the very first ever made. But I've never seen it. I figured my mother was trying to make my family sound more… appealing." He saw the small shift in Hermione's demeanor and narrowed his eyes at her. "But you know more than that." He flicked his tongue over his bottom lip. "We made a vow, Hermione. You promised you'd tell me everything you know."

It was her turn for furrowed brows and astonished smirks. "I promised I'd tell you who I was and what I know about the locket," she responded coldly.

He smiled, his teeth gleamed white against the dimness of the room. "Hermione, let's be honest. You must know who I work for if you came to me about the locket." She looked away. "Right. Then you know what I am capable of."

Threats? She pursed her lips. "You wouldn't hurt me."

"You say it like you know me. I am more than capable of twisting my wand and placing you under the Imperius curse… I could make you do and say anything I want you to."

Hermione ignored this. "Perhaps I do know you, Regulus Black." She could feel the word-vomit climb up her throat. "How can you be sure I even travelled by Time-Turner? What if I did it some other way?"

"Did you?" he asked, clearly interested in whatever possibility there was. In the end though, he knew whatever it might be, it'd be the truth.

"No."

"Then that settles that. Where did you get the Time-Turner?" he asked, more conversationally.

"How about I tell you everything else first," she spoke quietly. It'd be easier this way for him to understand, just what, when, why, and how this all came to be. "I have no reason to lie. It falls into who I am, why I am here."

"Well, you've no reason to worry, Granger. I made a vow to you that I wouldn't tell a soul." Hearing this reminded her of just that and it made her feel a bit better.

"First of all: it's not impossible. I said the same thing. But the answer given to me was this: the explanation of time-nonsense is too hard to consider getting into just now. I'll start from the beginning, so all I ask is for you to save your questions 'til the end."

"All right," Regulus said. At this, he began to feel nervous, but made every effort not to show it. The way the woman held herself was beginning to frighten him — how much was she about to reveal? Were there any repercussions for her to tell him these things? He was starting to regret his decision, yet they had reached the point of no return. The Vow was made.. He couldn't stand the thought of what if? He nodded reluctantly for her to start.

And so she began. She told him of her start at Hogwarts and how she met The Boy Who Lived; how Harry's parents were killed by Voldemort on Halloween. "James and Lily were betrayed by Peter Pettigrew… and Pettigrew set it up for it all to fall on…"

She explained how Sirius was wrongly accused and thrown into Azkaban for twelve years for the murder of his best friends. "No trial." Regulus tried to hide his face, but she could see even by the dim candlelight shadowing across his cheek that he was crying.

She told him of how she freed Sirius by the use of a Time-Turner during her third year…Tears of her own fell as she told him how Sirius had only lived a little less than two years after, until he'd died at the wand of Bellatrix Lestrange, while she and her classmates were under attack by Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries.

Regulus's knuckles were white as he placed a fist onto the table at this news. "I'll kill her," he whispered vehemently.

Hermione only shook her head. "That was when I saw Voldemort for the first time: scaly, white, red eyes, like a poisonous snake. He was the literal angel of death."

"Have you seen him here, yet? He's nothing like that. Some would say he's quite handsome." Regulus asked, momentarily breaking her rule of no questions.

"No. I've not seen him. But I will before I leave here. I want to be the one to kill him." At this, Regulus experienced a newfound respect for the woman sitting before him. He continued to listen as she explained how Harry fought his way through his years at school with pain, death, resentment, remorse, regret, and abuse. She told him how she found out who he was while she, Harry, and Ron were on the run. "We had nowhere to go. We landed at Grimmauld Place. Kreacher was there…he was so upset that he'd failed you."

"Failed me?"

"Mmhm. With your death…" she told him of his demise. "He knew of your dealings. He knew what you were doing with with your findings of the locket. He knows now, doesn't he?"

Regulus nodded, "Yes. He knows where my loyalties truly lie. His loyalty lies with me. He'd never betray me."

"He tried not to. But he was forced to. Anyway the locket… the locket is a horcrux; you know this."

"Yes… I had been trying to understand what a horcrux was. I overheard the Dark Lord speaking of them at a Death Meeting. I know my fair share of Dark magick as my family is of a long line of Dark practitioners, though that magick — I couldn't understand it. But once I knew, I've been trying to find a way to destroy the locket before he does what he's wanting to with it."

Hermione nodded. "The locket tried to strangle Harry when he went to retrieve the sword of Gryffindor. Snape had it delivered and dropped in the bottom of a frozen lake. That's the only way I know how to destroy it."

"Of course..." Regulus said, frustrated. "Snape?"

She explained Snape, his death, and everything in between. She held herself together to the best of her ability to tell the man the most important part of her journey. The Battle of Hogwarts.

"We fought our way through at Hogwarts…" her vision glazed over with scenes as if she were there all over again. She could hear the screaming, the pain. She remembered the I love yous, as people were taking their last breaths. She watched as she came across Fred Weasley lying amongst the rubble — blood soaking his shirt, lifelessly gazing at the sky. "We had such high hopes for victory. We all just knew we were going to win… then we didn't. Voldemort's army was stronger— trained longer. They killed so many people. It wasn't about Muggleborns anymore, or whoever had the strongest, purest blood, though for some that is what it was about. In all actuality, it was about this old wizard, bent on vengeance, aiming to kill a kid because of a stupid prophecy." She rubbed her nose and shook her head. She hadn't noticed until then that Regulus had moved his chair closer to her. His body leaned into her as his elbows rested on his knees. Oddly, she didn't mind his closeness; she needed it. "Then, Harry died. Ron died… everyone I knew, everyone that mattered to me was dead. But me? I wasn't dying. I wanted to. I had a few scrapes and bruises, but there was no death and I couldn't, for the fucking life of me, understand why." She wiped the lone tear trickling down her left cheek. "I remember lying there, wishing — praying — to whatever powers might be listening to just let me die. Whatever way I was to go, I didn't want it to be at the hands of him. I lost so many people to that monster." Mum, Dad, Mrs Weasley, Remus… Tonks, Harry, Ron… Lavender— for God's sake I didn't even like her… Charlie, Fred, George… Angelina, Luna, Ginny. Neville, McGonagall… Hermione's face was flustered, her eyes were swollen shut as ugly, fat tears fell down her face. Sirius… "I lost everyone."

Regulus couldn't believe what he was hearing; but he knew it was true. He could feel it, see it, and with the promise of the Vow — he was at a loss for words. He wanted to apologise, hug her… but now was not the time. This woman probably would strike him for doing so. So instead, he tried to focus her attention elsewhere. "The Time-Turner, how'd you manage that one?"

She looked up abruptly, completely forgetting that was even a matter to be discussed. She sniffled and sighed. "Even with the Unbreakable Vow, I don't think you'd believe me," she said, consciously lowering her eyes from his face.

"Well, looks like I'd have to, doesn't it." He slightly smiled.

She shrugged. "Narcissa Malfoy. Sorry… Black. Your cousin."

His eyes widened at this revelation. "Narcissa? I am… what? And as a Malfoy? How'd she manage?" He held up his hand and waved it away, "Honestly I don't want to know. I believe you." Hermione wouldn't look at him. She was staring down at the palms of her hands. The tears fell from her face, leaving a wet smudge on her skirt. He wasn't good at this sort of thing — comforting people. He took a deep breath then reluctantly and awkwardly placed a hand onto her knee. "I won't let you lose them again," he spoke quietly. "We'll do whatever we can, Hermione."

She finally glanced up at him, "Just promise me you won't go at it alone…." He nodded. That wasn't enough. "No. Regulus… listen… Kreacher doesn't count. If we can't figure out a way to destroy the locket — Voldemort will take it to a place that has meaning to him and he will do whatever he can to keep it safe." She didn't want to tell him about the cave as she was afraid that he'd go off on his own to his imminent death .

"You said the sword of Gryffindor worked when you and your friends did it? Wouldn't that do the trick?"

"No, not yet. It hasn't been imbued by the basilisks venom, but it's tucked away at Hogwarts in Dumbledore's office, anyway. There is no way of getting it, not without giving away who I am and where, when, I am from. The timeline is supposed to be changed, but how am I to know it has? I don't know what I am supposed to do — who I am to tell…. There are some people that I won't be able to save, that is just the way of it, Regulus. If many people know who I am, I could be locked away, sent back, anything… it's too much of a risk."

The man nodded. "I agree. Do you know how many horcruxes he made?"

Hermione sighed, "In all, eight. But the last wasn't a thing. It was a who. Harry. And when he killed Harry, he killed a part of him. When we destroyed the locket, it killed a part of him… but we didn't get to all of the horcruxes. We couldn't reach Bellatrix's vault. We believed that Hufflepuff's cup was placed there, and we also didn't make it to finding Rowena's lost diadem. As far as I know, it's at Hogwarts as well… there was just no way for us to retrieve either of those items."

"We will have to think on Rowena's diadem… are you sure that he used something of that nature?"

"See, Tom wanted to do the impossible. He wanted to live forever. He wanted to kill off anyone that was dirty-blooded. He wanted to rule. So he did what he could to obtain anything that no one else could. When Tom was in school, he sought out the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw, or as you might know her — The Grey Lady."

Regulus scratched his head, trying to rack his brain to make sense of all of this. "Go on…."

"After finding out what happened, Tom had travelled to the Albanian forest where Helena's daughter had hidden the diadem. He retrieved it, killed an Albanian peasant — creating what we believe was his fifth horcrux." She paused to study her companion's face. He was holding it together from what she could tell. "From ourthe research, it all started with Tom Riddle's diary; Voldemort had placed a part of his soul into it. Harry unknowingly destroyed that horcrux during our second year with a basilisk's fang in the Chamber of Secrets…." Regulus's face screwed up. "Yes, it's a real legend and Harry actually defeated a basilisk at only twelve years old…but that's beside the point. When we spoke to Dumbledore later, he mentioned that Voldemort's soul had been split so many times that he wouldn't have felt the loss of that piece. His plan just fell together: he went for Slytherin's locket, Helga's cup, Rowena's diadem, but he could never get a hold of Gryffindor's sword — as it would only fall into the hands of a brave soul. He used his father's ring. His pet snake, and then, unknowingly, put one inside of Harry when he killed James and Lily."

"It makes sense. His arrogance…. We need someone on the inside at Hogwarts," Regulus said.

"I know. I feel if we could just speak to Helena, and find out where the diadem is now, we could easily fix that problem. Then, it's just the snake and…"

"He doesn't have the snake."

"Nor does he have Harry," Hermione spoke with pride. "There is still time."

"I think I know who could help us," Regulus said.

Hermione looked up. "I told you, Regulus, no one else can know. I planned on telling Sirius at some point. But now I'm not sure, since I've told you…"

Regulus nodded. "I know. Hear me out though. I think that Snape could help us. He's studying to become a professor at Hogwarts right now."

Hermione turned her head in question. "Under Voldemort's nose? I thought he waited until…".

The wizard sat up in his chair. "No. The Dark Lord thinks that Snape is doing it to help his cause, so he's allowing him to become a professor at the school. But I know the truth of it. Sev is one of my greatest friends; as you and I have done— we made an Unbreakable Vow, so I can't quite tell you the details of it." For the first time in a while, Regulus was beginning to have hope.

"No, but I understand. Snape was a good man. And like you, I know some of his secrets. Let me think on it. I trust your idea, but for my own sanity — I need to be sure I am making the right choice."

….

Sirius finally made it home after walking extra slowly. He didn't want to be in the flat he shared with that betraying, lying piece of shi— "Marley? What are you doing here?" he asked when he looked up to see Marlene sitting on the top step of his place.

"Thought I'd come by to see how you were doing. I haven't heard from you. Thought maybe you offed yourself or something," she said causally. She had her hair pulled into a braid, wearing a pair of short hot pants and a sports bra. Her legs were hit by the sunlight, reflecting her deep tan. Sirius didn't want to look at her in that way, but she was flaunting it as if she were a bag of treats. "Like what you see?"

"No. I'm fine, but I'm really not up for company right now — so sorry you ran all this way just to sit on my top step," he said, walking around her to open his door.

She stood, huffing. "I don't understand what I have done to piss you off so badly, Sirius."

He rolled his eyes and turned around. He could think of a few things but all of her shit couldn't add up to what was going on with him right now. "You haven't. I am tired. Long day."

"It's only a little after three, what could possibly be so taxing?" she pushed.

"Dammit, Marley," he said a little louder than he anticipated. He could see the look of hurt in her eyes.

She stood from the stoop, crossing her arms vulnerably. "I'm sorry. What happened that night bothers me too, you know."

Sirius stopped, then held the door open for her to come inside. She smiled slightly and moved past him. Once he shut the door back, he turned and ran into the blonde throwing her arms around him. He awkwardly held his own at his sides until she squeezed a bit tighter, telling him to hug her. He brought his hands to the skin of her back, feeling her body heat resonate over his fingers. It felt good to have this closeness, but it wasn't with her who he wanted to share it with. She pulled back from him slowly rubbing her cheek against his. "We could forget about it, you know?" Her whisper tickled the lobe of his ear. Usually by now he'd have a hunger stabbing in the pit of his stomach — it wasn't there.

He removed himself from her arms, "I can't, Marley."

Her nose was beginning to turn red, "W..why?" Her voice caught in her throat.

"Because," the man raised a hand and ran it through this hair. "I don't love you anymore, Marley. I don't want to be with you and I don't want to do things with you that would lead you on."

"It wouldn't—"

"It would and you know it," he said calmly.

She rubbed her nose, "It's her, isn't it?"

He knitted his brows together, "Her? Hermione?" She nodded, looking away from him.

He let out a low sigh, "It's… complicated, Marley. I… Yes. It's her. I really care about her and right now, I don't even know where she and I stand." He reached out and rubbed the woman's arm. "I care about you, I do, but as a friend. And if you care about me like you say you do, you'd understand and let me go."

"You barely know her, Sirius," Marlene quietly rebutted.

He ran a hand over his face, looking up at the ceiling he chuckled. Fuck. "I know."

"I'll leave you to it, then." She walked around Sirius and toward the door.

"Marley?" he said, turning on his toes. Her eyes studied his face. "I really am sorry, love."

She glanced down at her trainers and shook her head, "You know, at one point I would have believed you."

….

Hermione has rubbed her lipstick off by now. Her hair was no longer fixed and she transfigured her heels into a pair of flats. She was coming up to the stairs of her flat when the blonde woman from the night before came trailing down toward her. Hermione didn't even need to question who it was when Marlene stopped right before her and looked her up and down, "You must be Sirius's girlfriend."

Hermione's brows shot into her hairline, "Girl—girlfriend?" She was going to kindly laugh it off until Marlene scoffed. "I beg your pardon, but no, I am not his girlfriend."

"Hmm… well, that man upstairs seems to think otherwise. He can't get his wand out of a knot because of you. He really cares about you and you're leading him along," Marley said cruelly, as she pushed past the confused witch, knocking into her shoulder painfully.

Hermione turned to Marlene, completely put-out; she was too flabbergasted to say anything back. She watched as the other woman bounced away. Hermione started up the stairs to the flat and opened the door. The lights were off, but she could hear the faint sound of the television coming from Sirius's room. Unsure of what just happened with Marlene, she decided to leave Sirius be and go on to her own room. Maybe she'd talk to him in the morning about it all; she was too emotionally exhausted to contemplate their relationship, or lack thereof, tonight.. Besides, they had a supper at James's and Lily's tomorrow night; they'd have to be face-to-face one way or another.

Sirius heard her through the door. Once he heard hers click shut, he reached inside his bedside table where he had quickly discarded the files that the P.W.I. had sent to him earlier that morning.

A/N: All the beta love to ravenclawmidwife! Let me know what you think! Chapter 11 is finished, should be in the editing stage soon! Love you guys!