I promise I have not lost momentum on this story. Had two counts of family drama to deal with in the last two days. That mostly sorted, back to work on Telling Time. Enjoy!

Minerva wasn't quite sure what to make of the happenings in the kitchen of Hermione's cottage when she arrived back, two and a half weeks after dropping Harry off. Hermione and her ward were hissing back and forth to each other, and Sirius was sitting the table with a pronounced scowl on his face. "What's going on?" she whispered to him, the other two having not noticed her arrival just yet.

"They're being a pair of tossers is what's going bloody on!" he said loudly.

"Minerva!" Harry said cheerfully.

"Hello, Min," Hermione greeted with a smile.

"I ask again," she said, hugging the younger witch and the bespectacled boy each in turn, after patting Sirius on the arm. "What's going on?"

"I pointed out to 'Melia…" Harry began.

"Why must he always shorten my name?" Hermione whispered to Minerva out of the corner of her mouth.

"...that since Voldemort is the only other person alive who is a Parselmouth, that other than around him, we could carry on perfectly loud conversations without risking anyone knowing what we were talking about," the boy continued. "And then we started talking in Parselmouth and Siri got irritated because he felt left out so we've been talking about...uh… stuff … for like an hour just to keep on annoying him."

Sirius growled. "Like I said, they're being a pair of bloody tossers."

Minerva couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her lips. "Well, 'Melia," she said, flashing a teasing grin Hermione's way, "perhaps I can do some damage control for you and Harry's sake."

Sirius lightened up. "You brought your broom?" he asked, looking hopeful.

Harry's expression mirrored his. She rolled her eyes. "It's by the front door. You gentlemen can go work your differences out flying, and I'll help the lady of the house get lunch prepared."

The two males were gone less than a minute later, Sirius quickly forgetting his dour mood in favor of playtime. The man really was part dog, in more ways than one.

The back door slammed shut behind Sirius and Harry, and Minerva returned her attention to Hermione. "So, my dear, how are things going with Mr. Potter?"

The other woman sighed. "Fairly well. I took him to Romania last week to see the dragons - Parselmouths can communicate with dragons, you see. We can't understand them, but they can understand us. To say the least, Harry was thrilled to learn this little tidbit. Salazar used dragons to help in the construction of Hogwarts, though he told me that he'd never let it out that he did - he did not want people to find a way to create the potion he made for me just so that they could talk to dragons. It would be dangerous, in the wrong hands."

"Like Voldemort's," Minerva agreed.

"Quite."

"I gather Mr. Weasley has not arrived yet?" the older witch remarked, having not seen Ronald, and remember Hermione mention in her last letter that Harry's friend would be coming over the same afternoon she did, though he'd be staying for nearly a week while she had to return to Hogwarts.

"Should be here any minute," Hermione mused, shuffling around the kitchen and pulling various items from cabinets. "Mrs. Weasley will be bringing him. I had Albus pop by the Burrow to show tell she and Ron the cottage's location. I have to say, I feel a new level of sympathy for James and Lily, knowing how difficult it is to have house guests while your home us under the Fidelus."

"I'd have thought Arthur would have brought Ronald. It's probably been twenty years since Molly was last on a broom."

Hermione chuckled. "Given that Mr. Weasley works at the Ministry every day I thought it wiser to have Ron's mum be the one given access to my little bunker here. Not that I don't trust the man - I do very much - but he is exposed to capture far more than Mrs. Weasley would be."

Minerva smirked at Hermione's use of surname for Ronald's parents. It was all she'd ever called them before, of course, but as an adult it would be expected that she use their given names. "She'll want you to call her Molly," she said, voicing her thoughts.

Hermione groaned. "I know, it's just... wierd! I mean, she's Ron's mum. If Harry's parents were alive I'd be inclined to call them Mr. and Mrs. Potter as well. I know I'm decades older and have lived as an adult for years, but in my memory, I'm a child to them."

"You may want to consider telling Molly the truth," Minerva replied thoughtfully. "I know you hesitate to let many people in on things, but if Ronald will be here, it's only a matter of time before either Molly sees Sirius, or Ronald himself forgets his tongue and mentions the other occupant of this cottage. Once she knows about Sirius, she'll wonder what else you're hiding, and Molly is nothing if not good and finding out things others are trying to hide. Merlin knows she'd have to be with the likes of Fred and George about."

"You're probably right," Hermione nodded. "We'll tell her when she gets here. Ron was to bring his own broom, so we can shoo him out the door the moment he…"

A knock at the door was heard, cutting Hermione off. "Speak of the devils," Minerva laughed.

Hermione shook her head, and moved to go greet the two Weasleys. In preparation for the impending chat, Minerva found the things she needed to make tea for the three of them.

"Harry's out back," Hermione told Ron, ushering him toward the rear exit of the cottage, obviously taking care not to mention that Sirius was there too, not wanting to alert Molly of the wizard's presence until she'd had a chance to explain what an escaped convict was doing in her home, particularly the part of the story where he was innocent of the murders he'd been sent to Azkaban for.

"Won't you sit for tea, Molly?" Minerva asked, nodding toward the table.

Molly nodded. "I was surprised to see you here, Minerva. I didn't know you had a connection with Professor Slytherin aside from being co workers."

"Hermione..." she said, nodding to the woman who'd just finished placing some privacy wards up, not wanting Harry or Ron to come in and overhear what they were about to discuss. "...would like to share some things with you, which should help explain my presence."

Molly looked confused. "I thought Ron said your name was Amelia."

Hermione took a seat, followed by the other two. "On paper my name is Amelia Slytherin.I was, however, born Hermione Granger. We've met before, two summers ago by your reckoning, in Diagon Alley. For me, that happened over thirty years ago."

Molly peered at her skeptically, obviously trying to decide if Hermione was completely off her gourd or not. "And where have you been then, if thirty years passed for you so suddenly?"

"I was issued a time turner at start of this last school year," Hermione explained. "At the end of April I was going to Potions class, attempting to backtrack and hour so I wouldn't have missed it, and rather than going back an hour, I ended up going back ten centuries."

"Ten centuries?" Molly gaped. "You mean, you mean your name… Slytherin…?"

Hermione smirked. "Salazar was my husband for over twenty years. We had a daughter together."

Molly suddenly looked pained, and Minerva realized it was a mother's sympathy upon concluding that Hermione must have - which she did - abandon her child when she returned to the present.

"What was her name?" Molly asked kindly.

"Lucy," the brunette replied softly. "She married a nice young wizard just before I had to leave. Salazar wanted them to wait to wed for another year, till she came of age, but Lucy wanted me to be at her wedding, and he couldn't deny either of us that."

"Arthur would have felt the same way, if it had been Ginny," Molly agreed. "I... sweet Merlin, Hermione, I'm not sure how to even comprehend what you've gone through. I am curious how you managed to get custody of Harry. I'm assuming the Ministry has no idea who you really are."

"You assume right," Minerva interjected. "And that is how it must remain."

Molly nodded. "Of course."

"You know of Sirius Black?" Hermione asked.

Molly nodded, frowning. "I was already graduated by the time he came to Hogwarts, but my brothers talked about him during the war. I still can't believe that he… I mean Fabian and Gideon thought of him as a little brother, just as they felt for Remus, James, and Peter."

"He was innocent, Molly," Minerva said point blank. "Sirius was framed for the crimes, by someone else. It was not he who betrayed the Potters, but rather, it was Peter."

The Weasley woman's eyes widened. "What?!"

"We don't have proof, per se. Just Harry and Ron's account of the evening that Peter showed his true colors. Of course, the Ministry won't believe two young boys who have already been in more trouble than most student during their entire Hogwarts' careers," Minerva stated. She purposely elected to leave out the bit of the tale regarding Peter being an Animagus, and that he'd been living as Scabbers, under Molly's roof, for probably the better part of the last twelve years. She was not in the mood for a hysterical redhead.

"So where is Sirius, then?" was Molly's next question. "Is he safe? Do you know?"

Hermione smiled. "He's out back with the boys," she said. "To answer your previous question regarding my gaining custody of Harry… I married Sirius a few weeks ago - just on paper, mind you, but that paperwork was doctored a bit to make the Ministry believe Sirius and I had married before he was sent to Azkaban. By extension of him being Harry's godfather, that made me Harry's godmother, and thereby I was within my rights to file for custody. The muggles did not object to losing custody, and Harry himself favored living with Sirius and I over his mum's sister, so the whole mess only took a day to sort out. In the same stroke, I managed to create a bit of a paper trail, the marriage license I mean, showing that Amelia Slytherin existed before a few months ago."

Molly was smiling now. "You know, it's funny. Fred and George wrote me a letter expressing concerns about you, Hermione. They were believed it was impossible that someone with the same name as one of the founders couldn't possibly have stayed under the radar as long as you claimed to have been."

Minerva and Hermione both chuckled. "Well," the older woman said. "They are smart boys, even if they are perpetual pranksters."

"I know for a fact they've shared their concerns with Ron and Harry," Molly continued, now frowning. "I know you're smart, Hermione, but it's really only a matter of time before the boys notice similarities between the Professor who showed up just after their best friend was whisked off to another school. The letters you write to them… if you intend to keep you secret for any length of time, they'll need to end."

Hermione looked sad. "I'd been thinking much the same," she replied honestly.

It hurt Minerva to see her friend looking so dejected. She'd wanted to keep contact with the boys in this manner because it was her last connection to the childhood she'd lost when she went back in time. It said a lot of her character that Hermione hadn't returned with a sense of superiority over Harry and Ron. To her, they were still the two boys she loved most in the world. They couldn't even be defined as friends or brothers, especially the mentor like relationship she had with them now. They were just… her boys.

"Perhaps the letters could just stop," Molly suggested, "over time. Make it seem like they just grew apart. It happens so often to even the best of friends."

"No," Hermione replied, wiping a tear off her cheek. "I'll arrange it so the boys are informed that their friend has died in an accident. It's the truth, and nothing less. Hermione Granger died when she went back in time. It's just taken me this long to accept the facts."

Minerva knew it would be only a little help, but she couldn't stop the urge to wrap Hermione in her arms, whispering soothing assurances that it would be alright in the end. Molly stood behind the Defense Professor, rubbing circles on her back as Hermione cried for the life lost.

After lunch, Minerva escorted Molly to the door as they were both on their respective ways, leaving Hermione to wrangle Sirius, Harry, and Ron into helping clean up. As they each mounted their brooms, preparing to go in opposite directions, Minerva caught Molly looking at her oddly.

"What?" Minerva asked, thinking she had something on her face or some such.

"She's not a child, Minerva," Molly whispered, kicking off. "You don't have to feel guilty for falling in love with her."

Then Molly was gone, leaving a godsmacked Minerva in her wake, the truth in her long time friend's subtle accusation hitting hard. The lengthy trip back to Hogwarts gave her plenty of time to think about what the hell she was going to do now.

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