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LOVE ALWAYS FINDS A WAY
Chapter 14: Hermione's Choice

Hermione didn't sleep a wink. As she watched the light in the room change, as night passed into morning, all she could think about was the book lying on her desk. She felt an odd certainty that the way back to her time lay within its pages, and that certainty filled her with dread.

At seven, Hermione couldn't take it anymore. She put her robes on, ran a brush through her hair, and picked up The Mysteries and Methods of Time-Travel. She was careful not to wake Lily as she slipped out and made a beeline for the Headmaster's Office.

At about the same time, Remus was just arriving at the top of the Astronomy Tower. It was a brisk kind of day, and he breathed the crisp air in deeply. He looked across the grounds at the Forbidden Forest and thought that nothing had ever looked so beautiful. He leaned up against the wall and waited for Hermione to arrive.

His sharp senses picked up the sounds of the castle slowly coming to life: students sleepily shuffling toward the Great Hall for breakfast, the rising din in the Hall as it slowly filled with people. A few moments later, he distinctly heard someone making their way up the Tower. He frowned. It wasn't Rosemary; this set of footsteps was heavier, and the swish of open robes against the stone steps could only come from one of two people.

"James," he said, without turning around.

James started, then scowled. "I hate it when you do that."

Remus smiled as he turned to face his friend, but it quickly faded from his face. James looked pale, like he hadn't gotten much sleep, and he looked physically ill.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he said concernedly. He rushed forward to support James as he wavered dangerously at the top of the stairs. "You're ill! C'mon, I'm taking you to hospital wing."

"No, you don't understand! Rosemary—Her—"

James frantically pushed Remus aside and vomited rather spectacularly over the edge of the Tower. Remus winced, hoping no one had been unfortunate enough to be out on the grounds below. He hauled James back from the edge and forced him to sit on one of the stone benches nearby. He had gone even paler, and his skin was clammy.

"We have to get you to Madam Pomfrey—"

"Rosemary's going back to the future, Remus! You know that book Sirius stole from the library? She's going to use it to find a way back!"

Getting the words out was taking an effort. He turned again and heaved, but nothing came up.

Remus stared at his friend uncomprehendingly. "How do you know this?"

James shot him an annoyed look. "What does it matter? Go stop her! She's going to Dumbledore now!"

"All right, but I'm not leaving you here like this. Come on!"

James groaned as Remus slung his arm over his shoulder and half-carried him down the stairs. People stared as they made their way toward Dumbledore's office, but James was beyond caring. All his concentration was focused on not getting sick all over Remus.

He threw up again in a potted plan (Filch was going to love that) one corridor away from the Headmaster's Office. Remus waited patiently until he was done, though he looked anxiously down the hall, as if he could catch a glimpse of Rosemary from there.

"Go on without me," James gasped.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Don't be melodramatic." He saw the Marauder's Map sticking out of James' back pocket. "Here, let me check where she is"

James lunged for the Map, nearly tearing it in half. "No, you can't!"

Remus was taken aback by his violent reaction but didn't relinquish his hold of it. "Why the hell not?"

"You just can't!"

"What on earth is going on here?"

Hermione had been standing in front of Dumbledore's office for a good 10 minutes, dumbfounded as to what the password might be. The gargoyle that guarded the entrance was playing dumb, acting very much like his non-magical brethren, but Hermione was sure she had seen him twitch a couple times as she began rattling off every brand of candy she knew.

She was mentally going down the aisles of Honeydukes when she heard two familiar, bickering voices echoing down the hall. Startled and slightly panicking, Hermione threw the gargoyle a furious glare before she turned on her heel and headed toward the noise.

"What on earth is going on here?" she demanded, seeing Remus and James fighting over the Marauder's Map. James took advantage of Remus' distraction to yank the Map entirely out of his grasp and tuck it away upon his person.

"Rosemary." She was relieved to hear Remus use her pseudonym. "James said you were ... leaving?"

"Oh, he did, did he?" She glared hard at James, but he had disappeared into the potted plant again. Her expression softened as he continued to be sick. "James Potter, loyal to a fault," she sighed.

"Is it true?" Remus asked.

She was finding it very hard to meet his gaze. "Remus, you know I have to," she said softly. "It's unavoidable, it's inevitable. I don't belong here. I'm going to have to go back one day. I can't stay here forever."

"Why not?" he said, though the still-rational part of his brain understood her reasoning. "What if you were meant to be here? What if the future only happens because you were here in the past?"

"Remus, I belong in the present ... your future. That's the way it is. That's the way it's going to be. You can't just change things like that. You can't fiddle with the future all you want just because it suits you."

"Then tell me you don't feel it, too," he challenged, staring deep into her eyes. "This odd ... pull between us. I feel like I know you, I will know you, I have known you. That I've been waiting for you all this time and will wait for you in the future. That we've been looking for each other for so long, and we've kept missing for all these years, but now we've finally found each other."

The words were coming out faster than he could think, but he knew it was all true, coming from somewhere beyond him, beyond their understanding.

"No..." Hermione protested, but even to her ears it sounded weak. It didn't make any sense at all, and yet it made all the sense in the world.

He took a step closer to her. They were so close she had to tilt her head up to look at him.

"Tell me," he pleaded in a whisper.

"No..." she tried again, then admitted defeat. "I can't."

She pulled him down to her, he bent to close the distance between them. James, the corridor, the castle dissolved around them as they kissed. They were in Grimmauld Place, they were in the middle of a field of smoke, they were back at Hogwarts. He was older, she was older. They lost each other in the smoke and, they found each other. He was hurt, she was hurt. They were looking desperately for something in a labyrinth of corridors and stairs, they found it. A little girl with wildly frizzy brown hair, and a little boy with lighter brown hair, playing in the middle of a great library—

Hermione came back to herself with a gasp. She was on the floor in the middle of the hallway, Remus kneeling next to her concernedly while James looked on from a safe distance away, still beside the potted plant.

"What happened?" she asked shakily, grasping Remus' arms as he helped her back to her feet.

"I don't know. One minute we were kissing, and the next..."

"So you didn't see...?"

"What? What did you see? Here, sit down for a minute. You're shaking."

He led her over to one of the windows and sat her down in its deep ledge. "Rose, what did you see?"

"I don't know. I can't explain it. It was just a bunch images and ... I don't know, memories? We were—"

"Miss Gardner."

Hermione jumped to her feet as Dumbledore seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Mr. Lupin, Mr. Potter."

"Professor Dumbledore," Hermione gasped.

"Usually, when I stumble upon students in this corridor on my way to breakfast, they have just attempted to get past my uncompromising gargoyle of a guard," he observed. His eyes rested on Hermione. "Was there something you wished to discuss with me?" he questioned.

Hermione was holding the time-travel book behind her back. When she made a move to show it to Dumbledore, Remus' hand on her wrist stopped her. She didn't resist.

"I, er, wanted to discuss Professor Flitwick's progress report with you, Headmaster," Hermione lied. "I understand he was going to send it to you today."

He gazed piercingly at her for a few seconds, and she was on the verge of telling him the truth when he smiled.

"I make it a hard rule never to discuss grades before breakfast," he said. "Now, after a heaping plate full of eggs, sausages, some porridge—"

James groaned and retched again. Dumbledore looked at him curiously.

"But it seems Mr. Potter isn't quite in the mood for food this morning. Mr. Lupin, Miss Gardner, perhaps it would be best if you escort him to the hospital wing?"

"Of course, Professor," Remus said, slinging James' arm around his shoulders once more. "We'll take care of him, we promise."

Dumbledore looked amused. "Don't make any promises you can't keep."