For the third time in as many hours a few nights later, Hermione woke up in a cold sweat, shouting. She looked about the pitch dark room, searching for the death eater she'd been running from, her wand already out from under her pillow and gripped tightly in hand.

After a few moments, she got her bearings. Just another dream. She sucked down a deep breath and did a physical check like Lily had taught her. She could feel her sleep shirt clinging to her in strange places and hairs sticking to her neck and face. She brushed them off. Her hands were balled into fists and her legs were tight, as if she'd just sprinted for hours. She tried to stretch and relax but only ended up trembling.

Looking down, she could see the outline of Lily, still fast asleep beside her on the enormous king-sized bed, a hand curled up under her chin. Good. The sleeping potion Hermione had slipped her definitely worked.

For the last week, Lily had been up with Hermione every night, every hour, or so it seemed. Without the Dreamless Sleep, her nightmares now had free rein over her subconscious. They terrorized her with a thousand what-if scenarios, and worse, what happened. Over and over, she watched the Battle in the Department of Mysteries, the Battle of Hogwarts, the Wizarding Gladiatorial Melee. She watched her friends murdered and she'd woken, screaming, trying to save them. Lily had been there every time with a glass of water, a hug, and a reminder to breathe. But Hermione saw how fatigued Lily was becoming during the day, and she hated being the cause of her friend's exhaustion.

She cast a tempus, causing the time 3:21 to blink before her eyes, then vanish. She threw her head back on the pillow and groaned.

"Hermione?"

She froze.

"Hermione," Remus said, coming into the room and gently closing the door, "I know you're awake. I...I can feel it."

"Keep your voice down," she said, sitting up with a sigh. "Lily's still sleeping."

Remus came to her left side of the bed and reached a hand out to grab hers. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"Because I just woke up out of a dead sleep with my pack mark on fire, like someone took my mother's curling iron to my bicep. It's gotten cooler in the last minute or so, but I figured it wouldn't just burn like that for no reason."

She pushed his short sleeve up to find the intersecting three lines on his bicep. He was right; it was still warm to the touch.

"It's never done that before," she said, avoiding the question.

"So what's different about right now?" he asked. When she didn't answer, he accio'd a chair from the other side of the room and sat down.

"Just go back to bed, Remus," she said, wearily.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong."

Hermione just pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

"I know you have nightmares," he said. "You told me that time we got Flopsy's lava cakes, remember? It's nothing to be ashamed of."

Still, Hermione said nothing.

Remus tried a different tactic. "Why is Lily out cold? I thought she was helping you with these."

"She wasn't sleeping well. No sense in both of us being up. Plus, I could have nightmares the rest of my life. I need to learn how to cope on my own." Images of her near future horcrux hunting came to mind.

In the faint starlight coming from the open balcony door, she could see his eyes looking intently at her, then hardening, as if they'd decided something.

"I want to promise you something, Hermione," he said. "I've been thinking about this for a while now, ever since you told me the truth about where you come from, that day in the room of requirement. I wanted right then and there to promise to protect you from ever being hurt like that again."

"You can't possibly promise that."

"Exactly. Which is why I didn't. You're a werecat, and that alone is something I can't protect you from, never mind death eaters and the rest. But there is something I can promise you." He sat up straight and took her hand in both of his. He pressed a feather-light kiss to her knuckles which made her heart skip a beat, then he quietly said, "I promise, Hermione Granger, to always be there for you."

Hermione made a sound like a hollow, pained laugh. "That's worse. There's no way you can always be there."

"Yes there is. I'm going to be there, right by your side, no matter what happens. I'll make an unbreakable vow and-"

"And you'll keel over dead when I accidentally slip in the shower," she said, shaking her head. "Admit it. You can't always be there." Hermione pulled her hand back and tightened her grip on her knees, feeling even more alone now than she had when she first woke up.

"Okay," he said, "no unbreakable vow. But I do promise. I'll prove it to you every day. Starting right now."

"What are you doing?" she asked, watching him transfigure the seat cushion into a pillow.

"Staying here with you. If you won't let Lily stay up to help with your nightmares- which she's going to give you a piece of her mind about, let me tell you- then let me do it."

Hermione sighed. She was tired of fighting. Plus, the idea of falling asleep next to Remus had its charms. "Okay. Come up on the bed then."

Remus looked stricken. "Um, that's probably not a good idea."

"Why?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "Well, Mr. Potter sat James, Sirius, and I down for a talk our first night here. He gave us this long lecture, and…"

"What?"

Remus mumbled something.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Pleasure?"

"No!" he said, his cheeks flaming. "He told us… he said we had to 'guard your carnal treasure.'"

"My carnal treasure?"

He cringed. "Please don't keep saying it."

Too tired to outright laugh, Hermione snorted. Her legs finally relaxed and the feeling of impending doom disappeared. Remus offered a small grin as he settled down in the chair next to her and propped his torso up on a pillow.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Try to go back to sleep."

So she did. Hermione laid back down on her own pillow and threaded her fingers through Remus'. If she lay still enough, she could feel his blood steadily pulsing away through his veins. In time with his heartbeats, Hermione drifted off.

The next time she woke, she could hear birds singing. She stayed still, relishing their sweet song for a few minutes. She also sensed a separate feeling of warmth which wrapped her up like a second comforter. When she opened her eyes, the pale sun illuminated her room just enough to show two extra shapes curled up at the foot of her bed. If not for the now tell-tale feeling of comfort that seemed to come only when in the presence of her entire pack, she might have panicked.

Down to her right, somewhere south of where Lily's feet must have been, she could just see tufts of Harry-esque dark, curly hair sticking up from a pile of blankets. The other shape was sprawled out, partially draped over her lower legs and partially spilling off the bed. They were positioned in such a way, especially combined with Remus on her left and Lily on her right, that she thought of chess pieces on a board, guarding the king. Or, Hermione thought wryly, the queen in this instance.

She slipped soundlessly out of bed to go to the loo, leaving a hole in the middle of their circle. She sighed. They couldn't protect her forever.

ANONYMOUS MINISTRY OFFICIAL SAVES DIAGON ALLEY

Lily read the Daily Prophet out loud for the benefit of the five, tired young people at the table, all gathered together with a full English breakfast. Mr. Potter and Dorea spoke softly in the next room. Apparently, none of them had slept well, and it showed. Lily grumbled as she read, upset that they hadn't given Hermione the credit for dispensing with the dementor, but Hermione was pleased that she'd escaped notice. It was much easier to fight her enemy if he didn't know who she was.

"Yesterday afternoon, a packed Diagon Alley filled with shoppers was attacked by a rogue dementor from Azkaban, whose presence was blamed on a malfunctioning ward at the feared wizarding prison. The unnamed Ministry official, who is rumored to work in the Department of Mysteries, produced a fully corporeal patronus which sent the beast flying off to the North Sea."

"That doesn't make any sense," Hermione said. "We're hundreds of kilometers away from Azkaban. Why would a dementor fly all the way to Diagon Alley if it was simply escaped? Edinburgh, Amsterdam, even Copenhagen would be closer."

"What else could it be?" Lily asked.

Hermione thought of the summer just before fifth year when Harry and his cousin were attacked by a dementor in Little Whinging. "Dementors can be ordered around by Ministry officials. I'm sure it wasn't there by accident."

Sirius frowned. "We could always find out for ourselves why they were there."

"How would we do that?" Hermione asked.

"You were the one that substituted DADA this year," he answered, "so you should remember 'Knowledge is Power,' right? Spying? Surveillance?"

"There's no way we could spy on the ministry," James said. "That's serious, guys."

"No, he's Sirius," Hermione, Lily, and Remus said in unison, even before Sirius could.

Sirius looked about the table, seeming pleased, but when he made eye contact with Hermione his mirth faded and he frowned. She quirked an eyebrow at him, but he looked away. He then grabbed a spare piece of parchment from his back pocket and started making a list. "We could start by-"

Mr. Potter cleared his voice from the doorway, and Sirius immediately hid the paper.

"James, friends of James, nephew," Dorea said formally, coming into the room and sitting at the head of the table. "It has come to the attention of your father and I that several beds were found unoccupied this morning."

Remus and the other boys went white, then red. Hermione saw Mr. Potter mouth 'carnal treasure' and gave the three boys pointed looks.

"We didn't, I mean, nothing happened like you're thinking. It's just that…" Remus said, trailing off while looking quickly at Hermione, clearly not wanting to give her secret away.

"I'm aware that nothing untoward happened last night," she said, looking carefully at them. "However, I wanted you five to all be aware that your actions did not go unnoticed. Should there ever be an instance when your credibility is called into question, when you were not simply helping a friend out, I will not hesitate to use legilimency."

"You can do that, Mum?" James asked, shocked.

"How do you think I knew when you were lying about what happened to my favorite china vase when you were nine?"

"...magic?"

Dorea rolled her eyes. "Just know we'll be watching," she said, pecking James with a kiss on his forehead before running her fingers through his hair, trying to tame it. "You kids have fun today. Your father and I have a meeting."

Hermione waited until Dorea and Mr. Potter were out of earshot before asking, "Do any of you boys have surveillance equipment here right now?"

"Sirius has a few Recording Beetles in his room," James answered. "Why?"

"I want to know what kind of meeting your parents are going to."

After Hermione had managed to sneak one of Sirius' beetles into Dorea's purse, the fun James and Sirius had immediately called for that afternoon was hide and seek, wizarding style. Any detection or concealment charms, spells, or items were fair game, and they had the whole Manor and all of the grounds at their disposal. Hermione had grinned, knowing enough wards and spells to keep entire armies from finding her, and took off towards the apple orchard. So she was shocked when not five minutes later, Sirius and James barreled into her.

"What the bloody-"

"Shush. We need to talk to you," James said, his wand wavering between drawn and lowered as he looked around them.

"How the hell did you manage to find me?"

"What, we can't have a few tricks up our own sleeve, kitten?" Sirius taunted.

"I just want to know," she said, ignoring the stupid nickname.

"We'll tell you later," James said, finally lowering his wand once he saw she wasn't going into attack mode and they were alone. "Right now, we need you to tell us if you're cheating on Remus or not."

"Because if you are," Sirius joined in, with the most menacing look she'd ever seen on his face, "we'll find a way to hurt you for it, DADA substitute or not."

"Why on earth would I be cheating on Remus?" She looked back and forth between them, hoping they weren't still thinking that Snape was an issue.

"When we came into your room last night, we heard you moaning about some bloke named Harry. And then another time about one named Ron." Sirius crossed his arms, looking like he'd already made his decisions about her. James looked torn, and Hermione remembered something the Remus from her original time had said to Harry: "James would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends."

"I would never, ever cheat on Remus," she swore quietly.

Sirius pushed. "Okay then, but who are Harry and Ron?"

She rolled her head back and looked at the sky, scanning for some kind of sign that she shouldn't put herself in danger and let more people in on her secret. She didn't find one.

"Okay. Let's get this over with, but you're not going to believe me if I tell you. Do you have any veritaserum?"

Apparently, they did not. So she helped them round up the other two from various hiding places on the grounds. (Remus was the hardest to find; he'd made friends with Moony the house elf, who had bowed and groveled and let Remus hide in the kitchen, which he then warded with house elf magic.)

After calming Sirius and James down about being 'the last to know everything,' she started talking. They scoffed and shook their heads, reminding her of what a terrible liar she'd always been. Finally, they capitulated when both Lily and Remus confirmed her story, especially since Remus actually had veritaserum on hand when questioning her. Since she had all four of the people she trusted most in the world with her, she laid it all bare. How their side lost the first war, how Voldemort survived, how they came so close to winning in her time before he defeated them at the final battle. By the end, she was exhausted from telling them everything.

"So this Harry James Potter," James said, looking eager, "who's his mother?"

Well, everything except that part.

"I'm not telling you."

"Why?" he asked.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to shake her fatigue. "Because Harry was my best friend. I won't do or say anything that even potentially threatens his existence in this life. And telling you would definitely throw a wrench into everything. You two wouldn't get together naturally, and I don't want you to feel like you have to do anything. It's not like you're caught in this vacuum where everything is destined to happen."

"Can we talk about what's really important here?" Lily asked, blessedly changing the subject. "You said He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named split up his soul using dark magic. And you almost won the war by destroying the different parts with Harry and Ron. Has he already split it up? Can you just do the same thing again?"

Hermione had hoped to gloss over that bit for a while, but wasn't surprised that Lily had put the pieces together first. They were all looking at her expectantly, though, so she supposed she had to answer. "Yes. I've done the math, and according to my calculations, he's already made five horcruxes. Plus, I know, or at least have an idea, of where all of them currently are. It's just a matter of tracking them down and destroying them. It shouldn't be too hard."

"Are you mental?" Remus asked, standing up and pacing around the sitting room they'd commandeered. "You're just going to go around and steal bits of Voldemort's soul right from under his nose? Don't you think that's the slightest bit dangerous?"

"That's kind of the idea, Remus," she said. "It's war. It's not easy or pretty or safe."

He shook his head. "I won't let you."

"Excuse me?"

"Remus is right," James piped up. "We're your pack, your family. We can't let you just run off after some evil megalomaniac by yourself."

Sirius seemed to catch on. "Exactly. You need to run of after evil megalomaniacs WITH your pack!"

"What?" Hermione said. "No. No no nononono."

James was grinning. "Why not? We've got that sweet pack bond protection dome thingy we discovered with Lily. With us, you'd be safe from everything. It'd be even easier than your last time."

"You don't know that," Hermione tried reasoning. "We haven't tested that against anything but a single-attacker scenario, and even that was pretty weak. It might be useless against a whole slew of death eaters, or Voldemort himself. There's no sense in all of you putting yourselves in danger when we don't even know if the pack bond will always work."

Remus was unmoved. "Guys, it doesn't matter if the pack bond works against ten people or a hundred. Hermione shouldn't be running off and trying to stop a war. None of us should."

"Well, I agree about none of you coming with me on this mad goose chase," Hermione said, crossing her arms, "but why not me, Remus?"

"It's just not a good idea."

"I told you, I've done it before. It wasn't exactly easy, but I've got the advantage in knowledge and skill this time. Plus, no one knows who I am now, so no one should be hunting around after me."

"Still." He held his ground as the three others started to take a few steps back.

"What do you want from me, Remus? Don't you see what he's going to do, what he's already done? Voldemort is a cancer, and if I don't stop it, he's going to infect everyone and everything. I've seen it once, and I'm not going to let it happen again. I need to destroy him, and I'm only sorry I didn't start earlier. Merlin, I should never have come to the Manor," she said, aggressively running her hand through her hair.

"What would I do if something happened to you? Huh?" he exploded. "It was bad enough when we lost Alice, who we shared a house with for the last five years, but you? You waltz in to our lives, into to my life and completely turn it upside down. We- no, I can't lose you, too. It would crush me."

"That doesn't matt-" she started to say, and only froze when she saw the look on Remus' face. "No, I didn't mean-"

"No, I know," Remus said, crossing his hands tightly over his chest and pursing his lips. "I'm sorry. It was stupid of me to think…."

She took a step forward, willing him to understand. "It's not that I don't care about you too, but it's the whole world, the whole future. I can't be selfish and just hide away with you somewhere I'd be safe, not when I can stop others from hurting, from dying."

Hermione could see his jaw clench, then relax. He said, "Alright then. When do we leave?"

"There's no way-"

He drew close to her, cupping her cheeks with both hands, and whispered, "I don't make promises lightly." And then he kissed her, tasting like fresh raspberries snuck from the kitchen.

"Atta boy, Moony!" James said jumping on his friend's back. "We'll ride this pack all the way to the end of the war!"

Hermione tried a few more times to explain, get them to listen to her reasons why she should be the only one to go, but Sirius and James were already getting excited about being heroes and saving the world. She watched, unable to curb their enthusiasm as they made plans for dueling Voldemort as a pack and blasting him apart in some valiant show of magic, pulling Remus in with promises of bravery.

Lily stood next to her and wrapped on arm around her. "Just because I'm not part of your pack doesn't mean I'm not coming."

"Lily-"

"We're only a year younger than you were when you first went to fight him. And you didn't have a pack bond then either, and did alright."

"Everyone died, Lily. I don't think I'd say that's alright."

"Well, we won't this time."

"I wonder."

Hermione stopped fighting then and allowed herself to be pulled into a great group hug and led back into the house. In the back of her mind though, she was already planning. She needed to leave.

A/N: Again, I'm floored by the response this story is getting, now more than ever. I'm not sure how you all are finding this fic, but I'm pleased and grateful that you've chosen to read my little story (well, now it's becoming quite large). Thank you for reviewing, and thank you for reading.

Bonus points if anyone can spot the cheesy early-2000s rom-com reference. :P

A couple of responses to guest reviews, since I can't respond to you directly: 'Guest'- LOL. No one has yet pointed that out, but thank you for making me belly laugh in the middle of the grocery store. Oh my goodness. 'OpalHonors'- Glad you liked it!