A.N. Hello all! I am still slightly ill, but I was able to get some writing done this week. All I can say is thank goodness for both my beta and her blessed idea to stockpile some excess chapters. Anyway, we're getting into the real meat of this story now, and I'm so excited to share the next few chapters with you! As always thank you all so so much for the wonderful and kind support you've shown my story and a huge thank you to rotehexe for answering me at all hours to help me with this.
And this week, special thanks go to krankykittie, Fast Frank, xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, Sincere , Reflection Rose, and a guest for reviewing chapter 20!
Fabian and Gideon Prewett were…Hermione wasn't quite sure how to describe the not-quite Weasleys. She knew that Molly had given Fred and George their middle names after the men, but she hadn't realized how utterly similar to the boys they were.
The Weasleys were hosting a Halloween party, at the insistent request of their almost seven-year-old son, Charlie. Hermione had first seen the Weasleys in this time when she went shopping one day in the Alley in mid-October.
"Charlie Weasley if you don't stop trying to sneak those licorice wands into your pocket, I will lock up your dragon doll for a month!" Molly Weasley's familiar maternal voice filled the space of Flourish and Blotts. There was a small pile of candies spread on top of the counter, and Hermione could see the small child trying desperately to reach a few. Charlie had never been quite as tall as his brothers, or even Ginny for that matter, but it made Hermione smile to watch the mischievous way he looked at the forbidden sweets.
"You really should listen to your mum." Hermione insisted, gathering her skirt in her hand so she could squat down to his height. His hazel eyes and bright red hair seemed so far gone from the scarred and serious man she'd last seen a year or two after the war…she'd stopped counting how long it had been when her research overtook her.
"Mum says we shouldn't talk to strangers." Charlie's small voice insisted, but there was a but lingering in the air.
"But…" Hermione led, pulling the corner of her lips into a smirk as the six-year-old's face lit up at her understanding.
"But lets say you buy me a licorice wand and then we're not strangers anymore." She had to bark out a laugh at his self-assuredness, which earned a frown from the boy as well as a pout. Ruffling his hair slightly, she shook her head.
"Your mum doesn't want you to have sweets. There's no tricking me. But maybe…" Hermione looked around herself dramatically, as if looking for Molly (who she could hear chastising Bill for trying to sneak into the Dark Arts section of the store). "Maybe, I could buy you a sweet if you promise to listen to your mum for the rest of the day. She seems to have a lot to do with you and your brother."
The child seemed to war within himself with the idea of wanting a licorice wand and the idea that he would have to behave for his mother. After a moment or so, his beaming and gap-toothed grin replaced his look of intense concentration as he agreed to her terms. It was perhaps a bit silly of her to buy this child a clandestine sweet, but she had been so weighed down by the weight of the world lately and it reminded her why she was doing all this when she saw his smile. He held his small hand out to her to shake on their agreement and she was shocked how muggle a gesture it was…but then again Arthur Weasley was his father.
"Charlie! Charles Bartholomew Weasley!" Hermione laughed a little, having never heard Charlie's middle name before. The horrified child seemed to understand this universal signal for trouble and plead with panicked eyes for Hermione to do something. Brushing her skirt straight after she rose from her squat, she called out "Over here."
Molly Weasley emerged from around the corner of the bookstore like a woman on fire. Her hair was pulled back with a clip like Hermione had always seen her when she was wrangling her children. The brown and orange sweater she wore was familiar in a way that made Hermione's heart ache for the second mother she'd left behind. It was simultaneously a comfortable and uncomfortable feeling seeing the woman she regarded as a mother so young. Tailing behind her was a young Bill Weasley. She'd nearly forgotten what he'd looked like before his scar.
"I hope you don't mind, but I bought him a licorice wand, although it has a stipulation doesn't it Charlie?" She lifted her heavy gaze from the smile she'd been giving Molly and looked at the six-year-old standing next to her. He gulped slightly and nodded his head.
"Oh you didn't have to do that." There was an indignance in Molly's eyes and Hermione realized that it might hit on a nerve for her to buy something for the younger Weasley.
"No worries. He earned it in exchange for listening to you for the rest of the day." Winking at the young boy, she looked back up at the matronly woman who seemed on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to upset you." Hermione was unsure what to do as the woman began to sniffle and Molly simply pulled her wand out and conjured a handkerchief. It always amazed her how skilled the witch was at household charms.
"You haven't upset me dear. It's just been so long since I've been around someone my age besides my husband and you were just trying to be kind. I…I hate to ask this, but are you that girl living in Professor Dumbledore's old house?" Hermione was hesitant for a moment, wondering exactly how the Weasley matriarch would've heard of her, then she remembered that the Prewett brothers had seen her at Order meetings.
"Urm…yes. That's me." She had to cut herself off, almost forgetting that she had no reason in the past to know the Prewetts and the Weasleys were connected. By this point Charlie, who had already finished his licorice wand and was enjoying the post-forbidden fruit high that came with it, tugged on his mother's skirt and beckoned for her to pick him up.
Giving in to the sparkling hazel eyes that were pouting up at her, Molly relented and picked up the boy with a notable grunt. Charlie leaned into his mother's ear and whispered something which resulted in a sigh on her part.
"Alright. I'll ask." Molly turned her attention back to the mysterious witch who had been kind to her son and gave her a weak smile. "Charlie has insisted I invite you over for our Samhain party. I must admit he seems rather taken with you. He's not normally so open to strangers." Hermione had a sudden realization in that moment that overtook her. It was October…Ron's birthday was in March.
Tears stung at her eyes as she wondered if Molly even knew yet. She probably did, but how could Hermione even begin to ask that question. There were so many things she didn't know how to ask. "I'd…" Hermione began, noticing that her silence had grown suspicious. Forcing her eyes away from Molly's abdomen and back up to her friendly eyes, she swallowed back her tears. "I'd love to. Thank you for inviting me."
"Anytime dear. I heard that your family died in this terrible war. I've always been of a sort to collect strays as my husband always says." Charlie smiled up at his mom, clearly growing sleepy in her arms. "There's always room for one more in my home."
That was how Hermione found herself standing (more like entrapped) between Fabian and Gideon Prewett. The red-haired men seemed fascinated by the enigma coming out of her cottage. Other than for her occasional appearances at Order meetings and a monthly trip to Diagon Alley, Hermione didn't really mix outside her small friend group. Lily had begun to grow restless of the boys, and had instituted mandatory girls nights. This was how she had come to learn that Alice Longbottom was both a hustler and had a mouth that would make a sailor blush. But most of all, she learned how much she loved her new friends. This had though, attracted the attention of Alice's close friends, the Prewett twins.
"Ali was telling us all about your little batch of gobstones the other day. I must say well done; no one has beaten her since…When was that Fab?" Gideon Prewett looked down at Hermione, his incredibly tall stature falling just shy of Remus Lupin in terms of overbearing height. His twin was just as physically pronounced when he responded, although both of their auras played with mischief rather than intimidation.
"Franky's 20th I think. Thought Alice was going to hex you blind when she caught you cheating." The more rogueish of the two men laughed, Fabian Hermione realized. Unlike their nephews, who in their adolescence had attempted to be as similar as possible to one another in an attempt to confuse those around them, these men were very similar but had their own distinct mannerisms. Fabian had a scar running down the side of his face through his right eyebrow, as well as a more muscled build. Gideon seemed, at least on a surface level, to be of the more intellectual rather than brawny sort. She would save them if she could, but she still had time. They didn't die for another year.
"I did not cheat! I simply…alright I may have been cheating, but Ali would have never caught me if you hadn't pointed it out." Gideon cleared his throat, straightening the front of his charcoal grey robes. "Regardless of who may or may not have cheated, you must tell me your secret for defeating her someday. She is a mighty powerful witch and a good friend, but she is a horrifically sore winner."
"Talking about me are you?" A voice firmly called from behind them, and both the red-headed wizards jumped visibly as their item of gossip walked up to them. Alice's hair was longer now than it had been at her birthday, but there was still so much of her son in her face…or was it that there was so much of her in Neville.
"Oh absolutely. They were trying to glean my gobstones secrets." Hermione was perhaps a bit smug when saying so, but Alice crinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue. Alice and Lily were so similar in the way that they carried around a joyous energy. It was hard to be sad around them both.
"Never tell them. They know what they've done." The glare that Alice sent their way made Hermione snort out a laugh because the petite woman barely reached their shoulders and yet they shrunk under her gaze. "I'm stealing her now. Lils and I have determined that men are stupid and we simply can't endure their presence any longer."
Being in the Burrow made Hermione feel more whole than she had been since arriving in the past, and it was made even better by the familiar paternal and maternal energies of her surrogate parents, now her friends.
Just before dinner was to be served on their Halloween feast (which if it had been left up to Charlie would have been made up entirely of jelly slugs, licorice wands and cauldron cakes) Molly and Arthur gathered everyone in their sitting room.
"Firstly, my wife and I…" There was a high-pitched throat clearing from behind Hermione's shoulder, and she could imagine Charlie in his homemade knitted dragon costume looking indignantly at his parents. "And Charlie. Are so thrilled to have you all here in our home for a bit of fun. In these troubling times, its important to remember the goodness that still holds this world together."
"And what better goodness can there be than new life." Molly beamed as she placed her hand over her stomach and Arthur followed suit. When she had known them, they had always been in love, but the trials of raising seven children and the extreme loss of Molly's brothers had weighed down on the glow of absolute bliss that seemed to radiate from them now.
"Six children…Merlin." Fabian was the first to speak, jumping up from the comfy settee he had been sitting on and wrapping his baby sister in a tight hug. He twirled her slightly, much to her and Arthur's distress. Gideon joined in a moment later, taking his turn to hug his sister and brother-in-law.
Hermione sat in the aftermath of the bliss feeling an uncomfortable numbness fill her. It was the same numbness that she had felt when she'd first done the math on her own. Molly was showing just a bit, if you were paying attention enough to look past her baggy jumpers and robes. Ron was in this world now, in some way…in some form, one of her best friends once again existed in the world she was shaping. If she did her job correctly, would he even be her friend? In this world she was creating, would she always be an outsider in his life? In Harry's?
Lily was the one to bring her out of her existential dread.
"Come on. Lets go to the garden." She allowed herself to be pulled away from it all, from the echoing laughter and cheers and congratulations.
The flowers in the garden were still blooming, only a few buds being affected by the cooling weather. "I…I didn't congratulate them…I should've congratulated them."
Hermione frantically began to pace back towards the open door to the house, but Lily's hand caught her elbow as she attempted to pass her. "The first time I was invited to this house was a similar situation. Molly and Arthur had been a few years older than me in Hogwarts, but they'd always been kind. Once James and I got married, I suddenly found myself invited to all these pureblooded events." Lily lead Hermione to the small fading bench near the fence and invited her to sit down. Not knowing what else to do, she obliged.
"Molly announced she was pregnant with the twins at the second party I'd attended. It was such a happy moment but my parents had just died. I should've been happy, but instead I just felt numb…missing the people I'd lost and wondering why life seemed to go on without them." It was a very humanizing moment, for Hermione to see the underside of Lily's happy existence for a moment. In her quest to make the world better for Harry, she had briefly forgotten the immense pain that Lily and James must have dealt with; both being orphaned before 21.
"Its okay to miss the people we've left behind. Its okay." Lily pulled Hermione close to her and Hermione thanked Merlin once again to have had the opportunity to get to know the witch. She could see Harry in the best of her, not only her eyes, but the kindness of her heart. In this moment, sitting with Lily, Hermione felt closer to Harry than she had since the last moment he had held her in his arms over three years prior.
They sat in this quiet moment for a second or two longer, interrupted by a pop and a screeching noise coming from inside. Based on the timbre of the death threats being screamed, she imagined that one of the twins must have gotten their revenge on Alice.
"This may not be the best time to bring it up, but he's being so secretive with us. What happened between you and Sirius? I don't think I've ever seen him like this." Hermione cleared her throat, reminded of the last time she'd seen the man. This was the first time she'd seen anyone from the marauders other than Remus as they prepared for Regulus's mission. It also reminded her that his birthday was only four days away.
"I told him a truth and he didn't like it. I'm sorry but I really can't tell you more than that." Lily huffed slightly at the rebuff, reminding Hermione so much of Harry when he didn't get his way. She wrapped her fingers around Lily's palm and squeezed it lightly.
"It is very important to me that you know just how much your friendship has meant to me." All the resentment of secrets that had been plain on the red-headed witch's face seemed to melt away as it transformed into affection.
"Hermione Granger…you are the strangest witch I have ever known." The two women shared a laugh at that, and the weight that had rested itself deep in her chest seemed to lift out. That was the last moment of peace that she would have though.
A loud popping noise appeared next to her and Hermione was caught off-guard by the house elf that now stood in the flower bed. "Master be needing the miss." Kreacher said, ominously. No sooner completing his statement than disappearing again.
"Wasn't that…" Lily began staring wide-eyed at the once again empty space that had only a second before held the Black family house elf.
"I am so tired of memory charms." Hermione whined, raising her wand from the hidden pocket in her jumper to Lily's head, confounding her slightly before removing the most recent memory. It was short and easy to find, as it was so fresh. There were moments like this where Hermione had to remind herself what was at stake; not every action she had to take to guarantee a better world would be a moral one.
"Hermione…what was I saying?" Lily cooed, rubbing her temples as a headache was likely forming.
"Oh just saying I'm rather odd. Quite rude of you actually." Hermione gave a small awkward laugh before feeling a burning coming from the coin around her neck. Nervousness and sweat filled her and she knew that her time was up. Her mission was really, truly beginning now.
"I've got to go Lily. Give Molly and Arthur my congratulations." Kissing Lily's cheek lightly and hugging her, she ran from the garden towards the edge of the apparition line. A centering breath and uncomfortable pull at her navel later, and she was facing the picket fence of her borrowed home. It was too dangerous, especially now that she had stunned Walburga, to enter Grimmauld Place through the front door, so she had to use her floo.
The green powder turned the flames green and Hermione forced herself out of her own head. The Hermione Granger that was about to arrive in Regulus Black's study was no longer the one that had been laughing with friends just an hour before…this Hermione Granger was getting ready for war.
"I came as soon as I could. What's happened?" Her voice was insistent as she appeared in the study, rubbing off the soot from her cloak.
"Its time. He's called on me. He wants Kreacher…He's going to the cave."
