Disclaimer: is not, was not, and never will be mine! All credit to the incredible JK Rowling! I do own the plot and some characters though!

Chapter 19: Discovery and a Plea

Hermione sat bolt upright, fighting to swallow the scream that was threatening to wake the whole house. "It won't happen. It hasn't happened. Not real, it's not real…" She mumbled to herself feverishly, pushing the hair that clung to her clammy forehead out of her peripherals. She jerkily got to her feet and stumbled over to the window, throwing it wide open and taking a deep breath as the icy chill hit her relentlessly. She clenched her eyes shut in an attempt to block out the images; block out the bodies. Fred; Remus; Tonks; Lavender… Even Snape's body shook her to the core, despite her remaining uncertainty of him. None of the survivors of the war had escaped without their fair share of scars from the losses and horrors they had witnessed. Hermione felt crippled with the guilt that suddenly riddled her. She had let her happiness here overshadow her purpose; she wasn't here to make friends and fall in love, she was here to accomplish what couldn't be accomplished the first time around. She was here to win this war, and she'd be damned if she failed.

Now incensed, she cast a quick muffliato on her bedroom before rushing over to her trunk scraping everything to the right side, leaving the top left hand corner empty. She pulled back the lining, revealing the extra compartment she had added with an undetectable extension charm, which was home to her beaded bag, altered time turner and Snape's memories. She paused, brushing her fingers over the time turner and felt a ripple of magical energy surge through her body, causing her to pull her hand away sharply. 'What on earth was that?' She thought to herself, reluctant to touch it again but upon inspection it seemed exactly as she had left it. Shaking her head, she pulled out her beaded bag and settled down on her bed after casting a locking spell on her door. From her bag, she removed all of her research conducted on horcruxes during the hunt for them with Harry and Ron, stacks of blank parchment, ink and a few quills, and some empty phials. Deciding that dealing with the phials would be pointless until she returned to Hogwarts, Hermione turned to the parchment, and felt herself slip into her renowned studious mode, and started writing.

Slytherin's Locket – active
Location: seaside cavern by 1979, currently unknown.
Discovered: Regulus and Kreacher by 1979 – cause of Regulus' death.
Dangers: See your worst fear/nightmare
Created: sometime after 1946 by death of a muggle tramp
Destroyed: Ron Weasley with the Sword of Gryffindor in 1997

Riddle's Diary – active
Location: Malfoy Manor? Before 1998
Discovered: Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter in 1992
Dangers: Possible risk of possession if written in
Created: 1943 by death of Myrtle
Destroyed: Harry Potter with a basilisk fang in 1992

Hufflepuff's Cup – active
Location: Unknown – Lestrange vault sometime during Second Wizarding War
Discovered: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley in 1998
Dangers: Unknown
Created: 1946? By death of Hepzibah Smith
Destroyed: Hermione Granger with a basilisk fang in 1998

Ravenclaw's Diadem – active
Location: Room of Requirement
Discovered: Harry Potter in 1998
Dangers: Compels finder to wear it
Created: 1945? By death of an Albanian peasant
Destroyed: Vincent Crabbe with fiendfyre (accidental)

Marvolo Gaunt's Ring – active (hallow)
Location: Gaunt shack
Discovered: Albus Dumbledore in 1996
Dangers: Compels finder to wear it – cursed to cause death
Created: before 1945 by the death of Tom Riddle Sr.
Destroyed: Albus Dumbledore with the Sword of Gryffindor in 1996

Nagini – inactive
Location: Unknown
Discovered: Harry Potter in 1998
Dangers: Venomous snake
Created: 1994 from death of Bertha Jorkins
Destroyed: Neville Longbottom with the Sword of Gryffindor in 1998

Harry Potter – inactive
Location: Unborn
Discovered: Albus Dumbledore in 1996?
Dangers: None
Created: 1981 unintentionally by death of Lily Evans
Destroyed: 1998 by Voldemort by killing curse (unintentional)

Hermione glanced across the parchment, double checking her information multiple times before nodding in satisfaction that she had recorded everything she could think of. This information reiterated to her that there were currently five horcruxes in existence, only the location of two being known. Logically, the diary must have been given to Lucius Malfoy sometime before Voldemort's 'death' in 1981, which meant that if worst came to worst, she'd just have to wait until the handover happened. There was a possibility that the locket could already be in the sea side cave, but all she knew for definite was that it was there by 1979, when Kreacher took Regulus, who ended up dying. Another person she intended to save. Yes, Slytherin's locket simply required further investigation. The only real difficulty was Hufflepuff's cup. She had no idea where it could be, Voldemort had given it to Bellatrix at some point during the Second Wizarding War but it wasn't going to come to that this time; she couldn't let this go on any longer than necessary. While this wasn't all that encouraging, she did know for a fact that the ring would be in the Gaunt Shack, and the Diadem would be in the Room of Requirement. The problems facing her in the Gaunt Shack were that she was aware that there would be countless defensive and likely destructively harmful spells and curses protecting it, and she didn't have the first idea what they could be. She would have to learn a detection spell of some sort. The Ravenclaw's diadem would be the easiest; she knew exactly where it was in the Room of Requirement. However, she ideally planned to find a way to transfer the corruptive magic of the horcrux to an insignificant artefact before destroying it particularly for the diadem, but also the cup and the locket. The academic, history loving girl inside of her that she had been incessantly teased about in her previous life practically shrivelled up in horror at the idea of destroying objects with so much history.

The first rays of the sun shone through her still open window, tickling her skin with a welcome warmth, and drew Hermione's attention to the fact that it had been quite a while since she had woken in a cold sweat. Without checking the time, she guessed it to be about eight am, meaning she had time to fall back to sleep for a few hours if she so wished, since most of the group were late risers. However, Hermione was feeling much to energised to simply lay back down; no, she would train. Returning to her trunk, she found some of the clothes she had bought from her trip into muggle London with Sirius, and couldn't help grimacing as she looked at them. The seventies' fashion was in full swing, and consequently the only garments she could find were brightly coloured, high-waisted and flared trousers with garish, floral tops. She had luckily managed to find a pair of black, soft trousers and a baggy pink and floral top. She actually quite liked the top, so after thanking Merlin for magic and adjusting her trousers so that they hugged her legs like leggings, she slipped on the floral t-shirt padded out of her room silently. During her tour of Potter Manor, James had shown the girls the duelling room, which was dark and warded against spells, with a shatterproof mirror running the whole expanse of one wall with the point of allowing the caster to check their stance constantly.

Hermione fell surprisingly comfortably back into her old routine of stretching and firing a few spells off rapidly to warm up her magic as well as her body, even though it felt like an age since she had followed it. She quickly conjured a line after line of dummies, before casting a quick piertotum locomotor as taught to her by Minerva a few years ago so they became animated, moving around and some even shooting spells at her. It was a technique used in for agility classes during Auror Training which she had decided to go through simply because she enjoyed remaining in form. She had been one of five people (the others including Harry, Ron and Neville) to defeat every enemy without retaining any injuries, causing Amelia Bones to chase her for almost a year to join the Auror Corps. Taking on a fighting stance with her wand stretched out above her head, she gave a final flick of her wand, causing the dummies to instantly begin weaving in and out of each other, shooting spells from makeshift wands. Hermione duck and dove around the spells with a beautiful agility, working up a delicate sheen of sweat after the first five minutes, but continued to push herself. She ducked to the right as a putrid yellow spell shot over her shoulder, sending a full body bind in the same movement, before tying it to a combination she had developed herself after the war. The body-bind was followed by a powerful but concentrated incendio which merged into reducto and finally a swift incarcerus to make sure the target was incapacitated.

This is how the rest of the inhabitants of the manor found her a little over an hour later, coated in a glossy layer of sweat, ducking and diving around the spells of the final trio of dummies, while the rest littered the floor around her in an arc of destruction. Completely oblivious to her rapt audience, Hermione cast a powerful depulso on the closest dummy, causing it to smack into the wall with a vibrating clash, its wand snapping before she quickly cast a round of stupefy to disable them all. She bent double over her knees, catching her breath with a cut cheek and a twisted ankle. With the exception of these, she was fairly pleased with herself, counting she hadn't practiced for Merlin knows how many moths.

"Can I be the first to say: What in Merlin's name was that?" James' voice cut through the air, causing Hermione's head to snap around so fast she was sure she was going to overbalance. She stared, mouth slightly open in shock as she sucked air in, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights. And she had absolutely no idea how to respond. "Bloody hell Mione, remind me not to get on your bad side…" James muttered, ducking automatically away from the slap his mum aimed at his head for cursing.

"Um." Was Hermione's genius reply, as she snapped her mouth closed and straightened up, her mind working at one hundred miles an hour as she struggled to think of what to say. She knew full well that she fought with an ease and grace that screamed of a veteran, which she couldn't exactly explain when she was in her sixteen year old self's body. "That was… Training. I – I used to train with a tutor back home, but I haven't trained since I came here, and I was overcome with a sudden… Urge…" She blurted out, knowing that she was rambling and stumbling over her words as a blush spread across her cheeks. She should have been more careful, paid more attention to her surroundings and to the time.

Her eyes drifted to Charlus and Dorea, biting her lip worriedly, knowing that if anyone was going to recognise the true extent of her skill it was going to be the two of them. Charlus was staring at her in pure bafflement and wonder, whereas Dorea's face was a mixture of awe and calculating thoughts as she regarded Hermione. "That was… Very impressive. The extent of your power and skill is shocking Hermione, I'm sure you could give most of the Aurors a run for their money." Charlus stated with a friendly smile, Dorea nodding along as she schooled her expression back to simple awe and made sure she depicted how impressed she was. Hermione Granger continued to mystify Dorea, and she was almost certain that there was more to her than what met the eye; that she was hiding something monumental. However, she seemed to be a lovely girl, and she had certainly had a positive impact on her boys, so she would let her reveal her secret in her own time.

"I'm sure you're just… Exaggerating." Hermione forced a smile, before blushing even more as she felt Sirius' eyes raking over her body and suddenly becoming more aware that as a pureblood, and in the nineteen seventies to boot, leggings were not bound to be common, and were figure hugging in an entirely new way to what he would be used to. she could hear Marlene's usual fashion chatter about how she was going to transfigure all her trousers to look like that, causing Hermione to roll her eyes and smirk teasingly at her, for which she received a childish poking out of Marlene's mouth. She raised her eyebrows when she noticed a meaningful look pass between James and Sirius, and instantly recognised the look on their faces as their expression when they'd just had a new and most likely bad idea.

Dorea clapped her hands to get everyone's attention, causing Hermione to sag in relief as the attention shifted away from her. "Breakfast time, we WILL be eating as a family today, the girls and Remus are going home soon after! Hermione, just freshen up quickly dear, we don't mind waiting." Dorea smiled at her kindly, both of them ignoring James' and Sirius' loud disagreements to the latter part of her statement, as Hermione cast a quick cleaning charm, followed by a freshening charm so she at least felt clean until she got the chance to shower a bit later.

After a large spread of every possible breakfast food created by the Potter Family elves, it was time to say goodbye to the girls and Remus. There was little under a week left before their scheduled return date to Hogwarts, so Hermione knew she'd be seeing them all soon. Lily was going back home to see her family for a while, as were the rest of the girls. Remus was going to France with his parents to visit family, and would be returning to Hogwarts a few days late, due to the fall of the full moon. Hermione also realised that the start of the New Year marked the return on Peter; he had been absent the last few weeks of school, and hadn't come to the Potter's Annual Ball because apparently his mother had fallen ill, and he had to return home to care for her as she had no one else. Hermione was, understandably, cold and a little on edge with Peter, even though she had to admit he was nothing but a shy and awkward boy at this point in the timeline. It was knowing what he would become that was hard to move past.

Not soon after everyone had gone, Charlus and Dorea were called into the Ministry to investigate something or other; they weren't allowed to say, but they left in a hurry, hushed whispers and worried glances being exchanged as they went. Hermione bit her lip as she watched them go, hoping nothing too terrible had taken place. Just then, she felt a hand under each arm, and then she was lifted off the floor and the boys carried her through the house, laughing through her protests and struggles before they got to James' room. Predictably, it was decked out in Gryffindor colours, with posters of various Quidditch teams and stars, model brooms and posters of semi-naked girls, just like Hermione remembered from Sirius' bedroom at 12 Grimmould Place. "What the hell guys?" She exclaimed, glaring at them. "Would it be difficult to ask me to come with you?" She rolled her eyes at them, keeping the bubbling laughter contained successfully.

"Do you know us at all? No it wouldn't be difficult-" James began.

"-It would be impossible!" Sirius finished with that aggravating and self-appreciating smirk that he and James seemed to have perfected over the last few months with the sole purpose of annoying Hermione. "Seriously though, we need to ask you something." Sirius continued, the smirk slipping from his face and being replaced by an uncharacteristically serious expression as he regarded his witch.

"Yeah, we need you to swear you won't breathe a word of this to anyone." James agreed, his expression matching Sirius' as they looked at her. "From your, er… Display this morning, it's pretty damn obvious you're powerful Mione. We need your help with something, but Merlin, if you mention this to anyone we're done for." He said quietly, the two of her looking at her with pleading eyes.

She knew she could trust them, Hermione reasoned as she looked at their begging faces and puppy dog eyes in amusement. What girl wouldn't kill to have these two looking at her like that, hell, she could list enough off the top of her head already. "Alright. I promise I won't say a thing." She said slowly, her mind whirring with possibilities of what it could be.

"We – Sirius, Peter and I that is – we want to become Animagi." James rushed out all at once, inspecting his toes after having dropped his gaze from Hermione's as soon as she promised her silence. "We've been visiting Remus every full moon in the hospital wing with my cloak, you know, to cheer him up and all that-"

"-But we don't think it's enough. We could do more to help him, you know how he is. Merlin knows he hates to accept help, the prat thinks he could do it alone-" Sirius continued.

"-Which we know he could. But he doesn't have to." James finished, giving Sirius a nod as they agreed that they'd made the right decision in trusting Hermione. "Werewolves don't react negatively to other animals like they do with humans, so they're… Not as much of a danger." He explained their reasoning, squirming under her silent scrutiny, her face expressionless. The two boys waited with bated breath, hoping their leap of faith was about to pay off.

"Okay, I see your point… And it's very, very brave of you two to do this for Remus, really." Hermione smiled fondly at the pair, reminded yet again that though they acted immaturely, they had a certain level of selflessness that spoke for their maturity more than anything could, especially when it came to people they cared about. "So what exactly do you need me for?" She queried, curious.

Sirius exchanged a look with James who nodded to him, before reaching out and taking Hermione's hand within his softly and smiling at her. "We want your help. I'm sure you know that Animagus magic is bloody difficult, especially for a bunch of fifth years. But we've got you; you're bloody clever love." He grinned at her, squeezing her hand. "If you could help us find our forms and grasp the magic needed, especially Peter…" He trailed off, pausing as he looked up and into her eyes. "And you could become one with us."

A/N
I'm so sorry! Hate me, I hate myself for leaving it so long... It's been a hectic and frankly horrible few months, what with revision, exams, new schools, and my grandma passed away :(
But that is no excuse for leaving it for so long. I really am sorry, and I've got to say; Writer's block is a bitch!

So there's the next chapter, kind of a filler with hints of some things what will be up and coming in the future!

Someone asked me about my portrayal of Bellatrix in a review, and I can understand that this is probably confusing since she is completely insane and evil in the canon. I've written her like this for two simple reasons. 1) I love her. and 2) You don't just go from one day to the next and wake up a psychopath, something has to trigger it. I've already planned the trigger, and then the Bella we know and love (at least, I do!) will be making an appearance.

As always, please review! Any feedback, queries, errors, suggestions... They're all welcome! No flames though please... And feel free to PM me if you need.

Love you all, and I'm so sorry again!
Rads x x