Chapter 12

Harry is leaning over her when she comes back to her normal dimension. Her vision seems wavy and indistinct, but his piercing green eyes shine through and she hears his voice as he yells frantically,

"'Mione, wake up! Wake up please!"

"Harry." She croaks. He leaps backwards, out of her view, but she hears him scream, even louder,

"Ron! She's awake!"

"Ron's here?" Her vision is clearer and she feels more normal, and she's able to understand the connotations behind his words.

"'Mione! Merlin! You scared the bloody he -"

Harry coughs pointedly, and Hermione knows Ron is rolling his eyes, even though she can't see him.

"Sorry. 'Mione, you scared the heck out of me."

Harry coughs again, and Ron corrects himself for the second time.

"Us. You scared the heck out of us."

"Sorry." She mutters, not at all happy to have Ron anywhere near her. "It wasn't exactly my idea to pass out, believe it or not."

"Did you see something important? You were out for almost ten minutes."

"I did, actually." She coughs once, twice, and sits up. "My mate? It's Regulus Black. He's the one trapped in that - that spell thing. I'm sorry, I don't know the exact term. Everything's still kind of fuzzy. Ow, my head."

Harry helps her stand, holding her steady as her legs wobble and the world spins. Finally everything seems to right itself and she sees Ron moving towards her, looking as concerned as Harry. On instinct, she flings her arm out and Ron bounces of a wordless, wandless Protego. He sits down on the couch, looking hurt and bemused, but she's too focused on telling Harry what she's discovered. He summons a glass of water and she drinks quickly, taking small but rapid sips so as not to overwhelm herself.

"Anyways," she continues when she feels steadier, "Regulus and I spoke in the dream dimension place thing, and we figured out that Grindelwald - Desdemona that is - kidnapped him after he stole the locket. Everyone assumed he was killed by the Inferi, when really, they put him in stasis and here we are. We have to get him out. He's already been in there for too long to be safe for a human, or a wizard, or anybody really."

"Wait, hold up, he's your -"

"Yeah, it was hard for me to wrap my head around too. But Harry, the pain - aside from the whole passing out thing - it's gone. I feel normal. I forgot how much I liked being in control of myself." Now that Hermione has mostly recovered from passing out, she has so much energy. She wants to jump up, to run around and do something, because for the first time in so long, she feels… she feels great! She feels like she can solve an arithmancy equation and then run a mile, although for months, she's barely mustered the courage to get out of bed through the pain.

"Hermione, don't get ahead of yourself. I know you're excited, but your symptoms might still come back, unless we can get Black out of the stasis spell." Ron seems to be trying to let her down easy and she realizes in the back of her mind that he's probably concerned for her, but she still feels like she's going to burst, because the anger is rising, rising - and then, then, she just doesn't. Then she tamps back the flood of emotions and says to her former best friend, her tone ice cold,

"Ronald. You do not understand what's going on. I'm not saying I do, but I have the right to have an opinion because I'm living it. You do not get to decide whether or not I'm your mate. You do not get to take advantage of me when you think I'm weak and will just accept you as my mate. I gave you so many chances, Ron! I tried so hard! I did all your work for you at Hogwarts. I let you copy off my notes even during Auror training. You have never, never in my entire life, said "Thank you, Hermione." You make up dumb nicknames for me because you can't bother to say a three syllable name. And I'm sick of it. For so long, I've felt too bad to do anything but scream or cry at you, but I'm in control now and I have had enough of letting you coast off my hard work, because you have never once helped me! You cheated on me, you yelled at me whenever I did something you didn't like! You have been nothing but a negative influence on me, and I'm done." She stops, seems to hear herself for the first time, and repeats softly, "I'm done."

Harry's jaw actually drops, and Hermione walks out of the room with quiet dignity.

When she closes her eyes, she can feel an invisible string pulling her towards something, and from what she does know from the many, many books she's read, it's probably the unsealed mate bond trying to help her find Regulus. She lets it guide her up a winding staircase and down a hall that seems vaguely familiar, but she can't quite place it. Soon, she's opening a door with familiar initials on it, right above eye level.

"Of course." She whispers triumphantly.

The stasis spell is still intact, and as soon as she walks into the room, she feels the magical energy practically vibrating in the air. The blue shell-like thing is propped against the bed, and although it looks almost exactly the same, after a few seconds of peering at it closely, she is able to detect what seems to be a slight unravelling of the magic making it up. It doesn't seem to have a pattern, which would indicate it was natural decay instead of a signal that someone had tried to break in. Hermione pulls her wand out of her pocket, which she'd spelled with the same charm she used to use on her handbag before realizing it would be just as effective on a pocket. She had been working on combining all her pockets so that she could put something in a pocket of one pair of pants and take it out of another pair, but once the Veela symptoms had started, she just hadn't had the energy.

Hermione pulls herself out of her thoughts and murmurs a couple of spells to analyze the spell. As she waits, she glances around the room.

It's funny how Harry didn't even know it was Regulus inside the spell, but he put him here anyways. She thinks.

Although she's seen the room before, she still finds herself staring at the Slytherin decorations on the walls - the decorations all around the room were obviously well cared for before Regulus disappeared, but everything is covered in dust now and she coughs when Regulus inside the stasis spell rolls slightly to the left, pushed by the force of the spells she's cast.

"Hermione!" She hears someone yelling from down the hall.

"Up here! I'm trying to figure out what happened to Regulus and if I can break the spell!" She screams back. Within minutes, the door is flying open behind her and she coughs again as yet more dust is disturbed.

"Harry said you were feeling better."

"Remus? What are you doing here?"

"The boys were worried about you. They called me. But when I got here, they told me you were up, and I just thought I should see what was going on."

"I'm glad you did, actually. You probably know Regulus Black better than I do."

Remus seems visibly shaken and he repeats in amazement,

"It's true? Regulus Black is your mate? How is that even possible?"

Hermione shrugs.

"I could get into it, but it's kind of a long story."

"I'm sure."

They just stare at each other for a few awkward moments, and Hermione realizes that Remus probably knew Regulus when he was younger, and the memories likely weren't that positive.

"If only Sirius could be here." Remus chuckles softly, but the incredulous smile Hemione's confused him into slides off his face.

"They'd probably fight like cats and - well, dogs, if we ever manage to get Regulus out of the stasis spell."

"So, what have you tried so far?" The werewolf pulls himself out of his memory and soon they're discussing the merits of certain analysis spells over others.

A/N: Just to be clear, I'm not bringing Sirius back - one resurrected Black brother is enough for me. But - well, you'll see. Anyways, he's not going to be an actual character in the story.