Author`s Note: Tried to get this chapter out asap cause i`m leaving for University tomorrow, so my next update may be a little late. I`ll try to update once school is sorted!
Thanks so much for the reviewséfaves and alerts, you guys make me smile :)
The light was harsh against her eyes, but the soft voice kept encouraging her to open them. She tried again and managed to make out the blurred figure of a man standing above her. He must be the one holding my hand, she thought to herself as she felt something squeeze her hand.
"Can you turn off the lights?" She heard a voice whisper softly.
The brightness decreased and she blinked rapidly before opening her eyes fully and taking in what was around her. She was in Remus's bed in the hospital wing and the aforementioned friend was sitting in a chair on her right.
Various beds in the hospital wing were occupied with students, but none looked overly bad.
"Ah, you're up, excellent! Drink this please," came the stern, but comforting voice of Madame Pomfrey.
She lifted a shaky hand, but Sirius took it and lifted the vial to her lips. Giving him an appreciative smile, she swallowed the disgusting potion and immediately began to feel better. With Sirius's help, she sat up in bed and he placed some pillows behind her back for support.
"How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Some water? How about some food?" Sirius Black would not stop fussing over Hermione, but she was too tired to argue with him.
"Is everyone else alright?" she croaked, her voice still not back to normal.
"Lots of broken bones and cuts, but you were the only one truly injured Mione. You've been out for a few hours now." Remus rose from his seat at her side and kissed Hermione on the forehead. "I'm going to go and tell James and Lily you're alright, Madame Pomfrey would only let two visitors at a time."
Hermione just nodded and squeezed his hand, "Tell Prongs that I'll be ready to check over his homework tonight."
Remus laughed and with a final wave, left the hospital wing.
"Did Dumbledore stop him?" Hermione asked once Sirius had joined her in the hospital bed. He was sitting behind her and could feel the tremors begin to run throughout her body.
"Voldie disapparated before Dumbledore could get him," Sirius responded sadly as he rubbed her trembling arms.
"Why did you fight him alone?" his voice had an angry tone to it, but he could not be mad at her when she was in this state.
"I just couldn't let him hurt anyone else, not after everything he's done."Sirius noticed that Hermione seemed to go off into her own little world again.
"Hermione...he seems so interested in you, I-I just..." Sirius ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He loved this girl so much and now the most powerful, evil wizard in the universe wanted her dead.
Hermione grabbed his hands and turned his face to hers, "I know Sirius, I know. I promise that I will tell you why he is so interested in me." Well, I'll tell you most of the truth. Hermione thought.
This is why you shouldn't be with anyone, her mind argued.
I'll tell him everything, except for the time travel. Bellatrix, Greyback, the horcruxes, everything. Hermione had been thinking about how to keep her conscious at peace and had decided that after Voldemort was defeated and Harry was safe, she would ask Dumbledore to erase the memories of her past.
It was a big decision that had left her with many sleepless nights, but if she was successful and she survived, then she wouldn't be able to live with two timelines jammed into her mind.
"Can you promise me that you will be safe?" Sirius pleaded.
"No," Hermione answered, "I can't, but I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to ensure that everyone else is."
Sirius let out a mix between a sob and a laugh, "You're the only one that I'm worried about!"
Sirius put his arms around her waist and held her tighter as a small tremor shook her.
"I'll ask Pomfrey to get you something, she told me to let her know if you experienced the side effects of the cruciatus," Sirius made to get up, but Hermione held on tighter.
"Please don't move," she pleaded softly, "I'm so comfortable and their not as strong as the ones I had when I first arrived, so I can handle it."
Because the tremors were few and far between, he didn't move and simply held her and talked to her until she fell asleep. Once she was completely out, he scooted out from behind her and went to Poppy's office where he asked her for the potion.
Hermione remained in the hospital wing for another day before Madame Pomfrey finally let her out. The wound on her chest had been healed, but it was right on top of her previous scar from her encounter with Dolohov in the Department of Mysteries. The scar had now grown bigger and it no longer physically hurt, but it hurt for Hermione to look in the mirror.
Another angry red scar now greeted her when she looked at her reflection, which meant more glamours everyday.
The main damage was from the torture curse, but the tremors had mostly subsided and Poppy gave her another vial of potion that should put an end to them.
After several tests to prove that her brain function was normal, she had been allowed to leave the bed and attend class normally, but her first stop was Professor Dumbledore's office.
"Ice mice," Hermione said as she approached the door. The stairway opened and she walked up to the Headmaster's office.
"Come in," came Dumbledore's voice through the door, "Ah Hermione, clean bill of health I see?"
"Yes sir," Hermione smiled, "just a little worse for wear."
Dumbledore motioned for her to sit down and she did, but not before noticing that his trademark twinkle seemed to leave his eyes.
"Did we not have a deal about dangerous situations?" he asked.
"There was no other way sir. The Professors were helping students and Voldemort was advancing on them; I just had to step in."
"I understand, my dear. You truly are a magnificent witch," she blushed as his words, "to have survived against Tom for so long proves your strength. I am so very proud of you." The twinkle returned and he smiled at her.
Hermione's eyes began to well up with tears and she smiled. For Albus Dumbledore to be proud of you was a wonderful feeling.
"Professor, he's not going to stop coming after me is he? He knows that there is something weird surrounding my arrival and he knows that he did not order an attack on me. If he captures me and is able to read my mind, the whole world could suffer." Hermione began to ramble off various scenarios, but Dumbledore simply raised his hand for her to stop.
"I swear to you that he will never get that close to you again Hermione," the seriousness returned to his face, "You are safe at Hogwarts for the rest of the year and once you graduate, you will join the Order fully and you can remain at Headquarters."
"If there is a way to stop him that involves me leaving protection then you know I will do it and you will not be able to stop me," Hermione returned with a seriousness of her own.
Dumbledore let out a sigh, "I know, but know that I will do everything to ensure that that does not happen."
They shared a look across the desk that spoke volumes. Both were willing to do anything to make sure that Voldemort did not gain any more power and Hermione was trying to make Dumbledore see that the lives of thousands was more important than the life of 1 girl, but she knew that he would never think that way.
"Do you have any leads on the locations of the next Horcruxes?" Hermione said, trying to bring the attention away from herself, "Also, you never did tell me how you destroyed the diadem."
"You told me that it needed to be destroyed beyond repair, so I used Fiendfyre, which is rather uncontrollable and immensely destructive. About the other horcruxes however, I believe that I have located the Gaunt ring and have several Order members working on tracking it down. I am actually hoping that they will contact me very soon, perhaps even this week. The diary and the cup were in possession of Death Eaters in your time correct?" he questioned.
Hermione nodded, "He gave them to Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy sometime before 1981 for safe keeping. It is plausible that he has already given the horcruxes to them; however, it would probably be in Abraxus's possession since Lucius is still in Hogwarts."
Dumbledore nodded and smiled at her, "You have thought this through haven't you Ms Granger."
Hermione looked up at him sadly, "It's almost all I can think about, sir. In a year, he needs to be defeated, that is my goal. The sooner, the better because I cannot live through the deaths of all of those wonderful people that I met over break."
Fawkes let out a soft trill and landed on the back of Hermione's chair, as if sensing the woman's sadness. With renewed strength, Hermione and Dumbledore continued to discuss how they could discover the locations of the cup and diary.
"Do Aurors still do random raids on suspected Death Eater's homes? We could get Moody to run a check of the Malfoy Manor and tell him exactly what to look for. With his eye he should be able to find a needle in a haystack, so a diary shouldn't be a problem." Hermione's mind was working a mile a minute once again, trying to think of various solutions to their missing horcrux problem.
Dumbledore's eyes were shining and he smiled, "You continue to impress me every time we meet Ms Granger. I will ask Alastor to see what he can do and I will notify you as soon as I know anything about the ring. Now I think I have taken up enough of your time tonight and I'm sure a certain group of Gryffindors will be eager for you to return to the common room."
Hermione nodded and with a quick thank you, she left his office and found Sirius sitting in the hallway waiting for her.
"Sirius what are you doing here?" she asked surprised.
"Well, I had to make sure that you were alright. I know you're super strong and independent and everything, but you were hurt and you're still not at 100%, so I'm sticking annoyingly close to you for a while." Sirius replied happily as he laced his fingers through hers and began walking back to Gryffindor Tower.
"I know that I should be arguing with you right now, but is it wrong to say that I'd be happy to have you annoyingly close for a while?" Hermione laughed and Sirius kissed her forehead as they approached the portrait hole and walked inside where they were met by Remus, James and Lily.
Hermione sat snuggled between Sirius and Remus on a couch by the fireplace until late that night. The group simply sat, talked and laughed with each other and tried to forget what had happened. Hermione was not allowed to take the potion for another hour and was still experiencing very minor tremors, but Sirius would hold her tight every time she would begin to shake.
As she saw Remus kiss Arya, his new girlfriend from Ravenclaw, good night; she dropped her head to Sirius's shoulder and began to think about the new future that she had created.
Remus Lupin, you will never be alone again. Tonks will have no trouble finding someone else and if you are meant to be together maybe you'll find each other in a few years. The little girl that Hermione had met over break still believed that boys has cooties, so it was very strange to think of her dating anyone, let alone someone Hermione's age.
"Mione" She looked up to see everyone staring at her, "Um, no pressure or anything, but we just want to let you know that we're extremely curious as to why old Voldie is so desperate to get to you," James said sheepishly.
Hermione let out a deep sigh, "I know and I'm sorry that I've been so cryptic since I've gotten here, but, well..." Hermione stopped for a minute to look at her friends; I need to just tell them, at least about the horcruxes and hunting them down. The personal stuff will be for Sirius only, but they deserve to know what is happening.
Looking around to make sure that they were alone, Hermione cast a non-verbal muffilato, to ensure that no one could overhear.
"Ok, I think I owe you all an explanation," they all moved closer to her as she took another deep breath to continue, "Voldemort is looking for me because I know how to destroy him."
Everyone began talking at once and trying to figure out what she could possibly be talking about, so she raised her hand to silence them and continue.
"I know information that can lead to his death once and for all and the fact that I'm a mudblood doesn't exactly make him love me either," she added.
"Never use that word again Hermione, you're the brightest girl I know and should never put yourself down," James had never sounded so serious before and Hermione just smiled and nodded as she saw him squeeze Lily closer.
"I was captured by Death Eaters and escaped, which is when I arrived here. Since then, I have been working with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix to stop Voldemort before he can become more powerful and hurt more innocent people."
After a few moments of shocked silence, James spoke up, "My parents are in the Order, but they keep telling me that I'm way too young to be inducted."
"I'm not a full member yet" Hermione responded, "I kind of just pass on information and help with a few minor things. I am joining as soon as we graduate." She decided not to tell them about going on dangerous missions with Dumbledore, especially since she knew Sirius would go mental.
"Well then, we shall be joining you after graduation," Remus responded resolutely.
A chorus of yes' followed this and Hermione simply smiled at her friends. She knew that they were members of the original Order, so she did not expect them to be left out this time around.
Sirius slung his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close, "So, how exactly are you going to destroy him anyway?"
His nonchalance about destroying the most powerful dark wizard in the world lifted Hermione's heart and made her laugh as she turned to hug her boyfriend.
She tried to explain the situation as simply as possible, "Voldemort has split his soul into several pieces and placed these pieces into various objects of importance. In order to defeat him, he must be killed, but the pieces of his soul must be destroyed as well or he will just return."
"He destroyed his soul?" Lily sounded horrified, "No wonder he is so evil."
The Marauders stayed in their usual place until late that night and Hermione told them as much as she could about Horcruxes. Any knowledge that she had learned from Harry, she now pretended came from Dumbledore, which lead her friends to further believe that he was all-knowing.
That night, the five friends never made it to their rooms. Falling asleep in front of the fire, Hermione felt a small weight lift from her shoulders and her usual nightmares let her rest peacefully for the first time in months.