So I just got rid of all italicizing. I went from an extreme to another but chapters are unclean yet. There is still so much to do and I would rather go ahead with my drafts than spent an entire day searching painstakingly for all my mistakes. (I now there is a lot. I already re-read the first few chapters once and it's appalling.) I had a contact with a potential beta-reader but it's seem like it didn't worked out ~

Chapter 15

It was New Year Eve and as promised Sirius and Remus join for the evening. Sirius would tease them both on their relationship. Remus would entertain her parents with stories about his Happy days with Harry's parents and Sirius. They looked like a family, a weird one for sure, but a family anyway.

"So what are you hoping for the year to come...except for the obvious?" Her father asked.

"I'm considering applying for professor McGonagall job." Sirius admitted.

Both the teenagers laughed at this wild wish.

"What? Are you implying I wouldn't make an awesome teacher?"

"You are good at teaching, no one can deny that" Hermione conceded. "But you know there is more to the job that actually teaching, right?"

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked, not understanding what Hermione was trying to tell her.

"You would be head of house and you would have to discipline the Gryffindor, you know?"

"Oh... I didn't thought of that." He admitted.

"I know why you wanted to apply but really, you shouldn't bother. We need to trust each other, to do our part and stay safe."

"I know you are right." Sirius tried to argue but Hermione cut him.

"I mean it Sirius. Whatever happens, don't recklessly charge in to save us. With have the Portkey, we know the plan, we know what is at stake. We need you here. And we need you to trust us."

"I will." He promised.

"And you, Remus?" Her mother asked.

"I don't know" Remus admitted. "I have spent so much years without a goal, feeling sorry for myself. It's actually hard with my condition to start something and actually expect it to work out."

"That's it!" Hermione stood up in a split second before explaining:"That's what we need to do! Everything we achieve was thanks to the elves! We needs to do something about non-humans as a whole! They can help and we have much to offer in exchange."

"You mean you are considering recruiting the werewolves by promising a better status?" Remus asked, just to be sure he heard it right.

"Nope. That's the other way around." Hermione retorted "We have to help them so they would return the favour."

"And how do you plan to do that? We aren't making the laws, you know?"

"Let's start by offering what the society deny to them: a job and a place to stay."

"That would cost a whole lot of money." Sirius intervened "Are you sure about it?"

"I'm not speaking of humanitarianism, like with the elves, but actually profitable activity. Plus, won't it be worth the investment if we can make them join our side in the process. Isn't it more efficient than bribing them and showering them with fake promises?"

"Profitable activity..." Sirius repeated.

"I'm speaking of selling goods or making weapons. The twins have insanely good ideas. They are Moody best students. But there isn't much they can brew all by themselves. We got the recipes patent in their names, we mass-produce it, and we either sell it or keep it for the war effort."

"You know what? I sold! I will talk the Weasleys about it."

"And Remus... I wasn't speaking only of the werewolves. Let's include anyone who want to join."

"That's a bit over ambitious." He warned.

"Are we recruiting an army, or are we not?" Hermione argued. "If we want to recruit, we need to bring something to the table and prove that our promise aren't empty. What would you think as a werewolf if I were to recruit you to work hands in hands with all kinds of beings?" She asked.

"I would think the time has come." Remus admitted.

"Precisely!" Hermione said.

"I think your hopes for the new year are already booked, sweet heart." Her mother remarked with a smile. "Harry?"

"Convince your daughter to marry me?" He joked and Hermione replied in her usual way. "Ouch. I was thinking of using my fame for another good deed."

"What are you thinking about?" Hermione asked.

"Hagrid, Buckbeak, Sirius, they were all innocents and yet charge with crimes they didn't commit. Fudge? He might have done what he is charged for but he was only condemned because it's convenient to the real ruler of this country. I receive a notice for underage magic for a spell that was Dobby's. Really, there is something wrong about justice. Really, I think we should fight, not restore the society to the way it used to be, but to actually improve it."

"That would be like taking over ourselves" Sirius pointed out.

"Nope." Harry insisted "If we win, we ask for the system to be reform. We ask for a new constitution. It would be perfectly normal."

"Muggle idea..." Remus said thoughtful, but with a big smile on his face.

"We are thinking of selling our practice." Her mother said with her father back-up.

"What?" Hermione exclaimed.

"If things goes wrong and you have to go on the run, we plan to follow you. We don't want to be left behind. Or to leave unfinished businesses behind us. Plus, we thought of doing something else."

"What are you thinking about?" Sirius asked.

"You know, seeing what Hermione accomplished with the elves... I thought there was something that needed to be done for ourselves. We are thinking of a muggle parents association."

"That's would be awesome!" Hermione exclaimed.

"It was your dad idea. After the world cup, he was so shocked that he wanted to do something, anything, really."

Hermione family was supporting her with everything they had. They wanted to belong in her world and not just wait for her at the frontier. She was so moved that she didn't knew what to do, or what she possibly had done to be so lucky. Everything would be fine. She would make sure of it. Until her last breath, she would fight to protect this happiness.

§§§

The shrieking shack didn't looked like anything it used to be, or at least, from the inside. Sirius and Remus thought it would be cool to make it their actual headquarter instead of just keep it as an escape route. So they now had a place to met if they needed to talk instead of just waiting for the next holidays. A lot of things might happen before the summer and they probably wouldn't be able to wait until then. The keyword to call for a reunion was simply "I miss you". Something that was really common to say in a letter so no one would notice.

But they only went to the shrieking shack as the part of their plan. Hermione and Harry were supposed to go to school that very day but didn't took the Hogwarts Express on purpose. So they decided to do something useful of their day while waiting for the train from the safety of the shack. Plain and simple. No one would notice they were missing, except their friends, are they would be there for the welcome back feast right in time.

"Hermione, may I talk to you a moment, please." Sirius asked her.

And they went outside by the newly repaired backdoor.

"It's been half a year already." Sirius said with a sigh, more to himself than to her.

"What I'm about to tell you isn't something Harry should hear about." He warned her.

Hermione nodded. That was the point to talk to her alone, after all.

"You know... Harry is still thinking that his parents were some kind of..." He couldn't dare to finish the sentence or couldn't find the right words so Hermione did it for him:

"Some kind of gods?" She proposed.

"Yeah... something along that line" He snorted. "I could bring myself to tell him that they were only humans."

He paused.

"James... James was an incredible Auror. But as a man, he had his flaws. He was egocentric, narcissistic and truly obsessed. Fortunately, those flaws made him an even Auror than anyone else. He was capable to do anything and I mean ANYTHING to win a fight. He was completely oblivious of anything else. He had a tendency of thinking he was invincible. And he was a man on a mission. He was even better than Moody.

I'm afraid that for the same reason Harry isn't a half of the fighter James was. But maybe twice the man he was too. Until Lily gave birth, I'm afraid he wasn't that good of a husband. Even when Lily was pregnant with his child, he would go with the battlefield as if nothing else matters. He redeemed himself once Harry was born but... I'm really happy Harry took after his mother in that department.

As for Harry's mother... she was a bit like you. She was truly brilliant but didn't embraced the scholar type. She liked to create things, most of the time, beautiful things. But when the war broke out... I don't know... she grew darker somehow. This is one of her notebooks. Some of her ideas to contribute to the war effort. I try to decipher it for a few weeks... but I guess this is simply not my thing."

He gave it to her.

Hermione opened it immediately, which made Sirius smile. She was really much like Lily.

Fazed anti-apparition wards. Locked-in curse. Aggravating curse. Deflection spell. Each page had one different ideas, all of them unfinished. Hermione couldn't understand anything yet, but she could see that much, as well as the general concept of what she was trying to achieve. And just as Sirius said, all of them were equally brilliant and dark at the same time.

Those four projects were the worse. A anti-apparition ward design to kill whoever tried to go to or leave the set location using apparition. A curse which left the victim into a vegetative state which had no counter-curse, yet. Another curse which prevent someone from healing, both naturally and magically, with no counter-course once again. A spell design as a shield, not to stop but redirect spells. Lily had hope that this one might work on the killing curse, but at the risk that it might hit someone else.

She didn't had time to review everything. So she quickly close the notebook after assessing its content.

"Thank you, Sirius. I won't tell a soul about it" Especially Harry, she thought, knowing that sirius was thinking along the same line.

It had to be her side-project. It was up to her to continue Lily research and hopefully make it work. It could totally give them an edge in the war. Any weapon that the enemy didn't knew about was a blessing.

§§§

Harry and Hermione made it to the Castle and join their peers for the feast while Dobby and Winky took care of their trunks. Harry even had some candies in his pocket to keep the pretence that they took the Hogwarts Express in spite of the fact no one had seen them.

Draco especially was doubtful as he had been all to happy to taunt Harry another time while on the train, only to discover that Ron and Neville had been left alone. He didn't cross out the idea that he had been tricked and that they had been there all along. But he couldn't also get rid of the feeling that it had all been a repeat of the second year, with Hermione left alone, while Harry and Ron made an impression with their stupid flying car. However, it seemed like the two gryffindor were actually trying to keep low profile, which was even more suspicious.

However, the stars at Gryffindor table were the Weasleys Twins whom looked like they came back to life and were up to no good once again. That was until McGonagall came to their table to personnally talk to them, saying that their belonging would be handed back to them and that she would drop their current probation but that if she heard of dealing alcohol to underage students ever again, she would not only see to it that they would not get in probation but actually be expelled.

The twins smiled nervously and wholeheartedly promised that it would never happen again. After the headmistress departure, they went on advertising the new product they had came up with while in probation: school-bags with anti-thief and undetectable extension charms, perfect to hide all your personal belongings, 100% safe, available in ten colours with additional storage, camouflage, and feather-light charm options.

§§§

Hermione took Lily's notebook for a bit of light-reading before going to bed. There were some much unfinished project in it that even a quick reviewing would take her a hour or so. But she found herself so engrossed in it that she found herself hitting the last written page of the notebook. Lily obviously had been obsessed with finding a counter to the death curse as about 50% of her projects could be count as an attempt to do just that.

Some project were obviously on-hold while some others were crossed as failures despite the obvious potential of the ideas. Hermione knew that Lily at the time was running out of time but it seems like Lily herself was self-conscious about it. But the last project... she just started reading it that something had been building up within her. She felt like it was just anticipation and ignored the warning but then, it happened.

She was still conscious but she was having on those invasive dreams about an alternative life, an alternative her. She was having a crisis. Harry was in her arms, dead. The blood, the knife, the pain. "Harry... please don't leave me" Hermione begged crying.

And then, she was back in her bed, shaking, with a ghost of the pain she felt second ago, her eyes staring at the Lily's notebook and the blood ritual she had performed to save Harry life. The same blood magic that bond Harry and her together without her knowing. The same blood magic the Hermione from the dream used, committing a double suicide with a much older Harry, for whatever reason. The crisis wasn't long enough to explain why she did that.

Blood magic. Lily used blood magic to save her son. And she had before her eyes the comprehensive explanation of how Lily Potter did it. It was simple, elegant, extremely effective and she must admit, undeniably dark. She knew she had to die to conclude the ritual. She had to renew it every single day until the very end. She might had spent weeks, or even months, like that, preparing herself to die, or more specifically to sacrifice herself for her son.

This was utter madness and genius at the same time. And harry was protected against Voldemort for as long as his magic hadn't matured. Which means he had a death-free permit for about two years and a half. So all the nonsense about the boy-who-lived weren't completely false. Harry got a really special gift from his late mother. Something truly exceptional but also unbelievably dark. Something she could definitely keep to herself.

Did Sirius understood that much while reading it? Did he knew how far Lily went to protect his son? He must at least have guessed that much. There were too many project trying to attempt the exact same thing for it to be a coincidence. He knew that at least one project from the notebook didn't end up a failure. And he probably could have guess which one. Hermione replayed the memories of their conversations on her mind and the weight on his shoulder at the time made so much more sense.

Of course, how could Sirius confessed to Harry that his mother not only gave her life to save him but planned it all along? How Harry would possibly react to that kind of news? She closed the books, hide it, and went to sleep overwhelmed with guilt on that night.

I thought that I could give in a little into Sirius character development as well as Lily, even if she is dead. Arguably, discovering things about someone after their death is pretty common. I never bought the 'Lily gave her life for Harry" and that's it. I'm pretty sure that a lot of mothers did the same, to no avail. So Lily must have done something, right?

There is indeed a mention of 'ancient magic' from voldemort and 'blood magic' from dumbledore but it left much to interpretation and so far it just sound like outright accidental magic which I found a little cheap and easy. So I'm going on with my own interpretation which is: Lily had been working hard on it and did it on purpose.

And yeah, I know. I attributed some of Hermione's merit to the Twins and I did it three years early. But it was so much making sense, story-wise and personality-wise that I couldn't help it.

Last but not least... I had some issues with my chapter size recently and I had no natural 'cut' for chapter 14. Some of chapter 15 should belong to chapter 14 but then, it would have been too long of a chapter, while this one would have been really too short. So I settle for one unnatural, transitioning chapter.