Chapter 80: Saturday, August 29, 1981

"It's hard to trust in the present when the evidence of the past proves why you shouldn't."

-Anonymous

Over two weeks had passed since Remus had brought a sample of the potion home with him, and in the time since, Hermione had made next to no progress on what it could possibly contain. The phial was small—holding maybe seventy-five milliliters of liquid—and with no idea of when she would be able to procure more, she was nervous to tamper with it without proper preparation.

She had decided to head to Diagon Alley to visit Andromeda and Ted's shop, hoping that they may have some books on rare potions ingredients. At the very least, she could have Andromeda look at the potion as well, given her background, Hermione felt she might be able to decipher what had been used to make the potion. Remus had found the crumpled page he had torn from the journal well over a year ago, however, like the curse she had been infected with, it left little to go off of and with Snape's suggestion that he had made an unbreakable vow that kept her from asking questions, she was running thin on help.

Hermione and Remus entered the Leaky Cauldron through the fireplace, dusting off their clothes and sweeping soot from their hair. Remus had insisted he accompany Hermione, even though she felt it was completely unnecessary. He had told the Order of the information he had gathered from the werewolves, explaining there were plans being made to attack Diagon Alley. But, without further details, there was little the Order could do, aside from station a few members around the bustling strip.

Hand in hand, they walked at a leisurely pace down the cobblestone pathway, passing shops with boarded windows and several sinister looking men in long, dark cloaks. There were a few people on the street, walking with baskets full of strange objects, selling false hope of protection to any fool who felt scared enough to buy. Hermione felt eyes on her as they strolled along and judging by the way Remus' eyes continually flicked in every direction, he felt it as well.

"It's quiet today, isn't it?" Hermione asked, her eyes lingering on one of the cloaked wizards that stood outside of Madam Malkin's.

"Extremely," Remus muttered.

She felt his hand tighten around hers and her eyes began scanning their surroundings a little more closely, making mental notes of the locations of the hooded figures and checking over her shoulder every so often. She needed to stay inconspicuous—well, as inconspicuous as she could be attached to the arm of an almost six and a half foot werewolf.

Remus picked up the pace, his long strides causing Hermione to nearly jog beside him and he rounded the corner, ducking into Ted and Andromeda's shop and closing the door behind them.

"Welco—Hermione, Remus! Good to see you!" Ted's voice boomed from behind the counter, a large smile on his face. "What brings you in?"

"Looking for a few books," Hermione said. "Ted, have you noticed anything strange going on today?"

He shook his head, "If you're talking about the Alley, it's been quiet like this for weeks. Bit eerie, isn't it?"

"A bit, yeah." Hermione agreed, looking out the shop window to the masked men who seemed to be peering in. "Is Andromeda here?"

"She's upstairs trying to convince Dora to take a nap. Dora's in a questioning phase, driving Andie up the wall and…"

Hermione tugged Remus through the shop, stopping to run her fingers over a few of the strange items on the shelf adjacent to the window. She barely listened as Remus and Ted talked; her eyes floating back toward the window to watch the alley as more cloaked men gathered on the outskirts of the building. They paced just out of her view and then back into it, twirling their wands in their hands. Hermione's finger's itched for hers, a familiar adrenaline coursing through her as she perused the shop, forgetting why she had come in the first place.

It seemed to happen in slow motion.

The violent crack of apparition, always loud and demanding from a black, smoky swirl of robes and maniacal high pitched laughter pulled Remus' attention away from Ted. Hermione watched as his head turned, ever so slightly, toward the sound—listening to things she couldn't hear.

"Six," he muttered, under his breath, his lips barely moving.

His hand fell from hers and she saw him dip into his pocket, grasping the handle of his wand. Hermione followed suit, turning to face the window full on and slowly dragging her eyes up from Remus' hands.

Her eyes met a set of heavily lidded eyes set deep into a pale face with sharp cheekbones and a blood red mouth that split wide with a sinister grin. A mass of dark curls haloed around her face and Hermione felt a raw fear bubble inside of her as Bellatrix Lestrange steadied her wand arm and sent a jet of blue light blasting toward them.

"GET DOWN!" Hermione shouted, putting all of her body weight into a shove that sent Remus stumbling into the counter and then to his knees.

Hermione dropped to the ground just as the blasting curse blew in the front window, spraying the shop in glass that glittered as it rained down, slicing against the backs of her hands as she covered her head. Another blast blew apart the shelves that lined the shop, blocking the window from her view. She felt a blow of solid oak smack against her ribs, barrelling her over and into the wall behind her.

Her ears were ringing—deafened from the explosions and she pulled her bleeding hands away from her face, looking wildly around for Remus. He was on his feet, pulling Ted up from the ground and spun on his heel, his eyes wide and desperate as they scanned the debris. She saw his mouth move, lips curving around her name, muffled by the clangorous pulsing in her ears.

"Remus!" She shouted, pulling herself to her feet and taking a sharp, painful breath as she gripped her side. Her hand met warm, wet cotton and she pulled it away, staring down at the crimson dripping from her fingertips.

The sounds in the shop seemed to warp as they came back into focus, the burning pain in her side dulled by adrenaline as a high pitched cackle met her ears.

"Hermione!" Remus yelled, "Get out! Tell—"

"Oh, I don't think anyone will be going anywhere," Bellatrix said, her wand slashing through the air.

Hermione gasped as thin cords snaked around her, tying her arms to her sides and causing her to fall hard to the ground. She watched as the leather of Bellatrix's black, heeled boots came into her line of sight, stopping only a few inches from her face. Hermione struggled against the binds, gulping for air as they constricted around her throat.

"So, this is the resistance Dumbledore saw fit to fight against us?" Bellatrix let out a loud squawk of laughter that was met with low chuckles from the men behind her. "A mudblood, a lapdog, and a…" Her boot caught Hermione's ribs and she cried out at the contact against the throbbing gash in her side. "What do we have here?"

"Leave her alone!" Remus shouted.

Hermione closed her eyes, begging Remus to stop talking. Praying he could feel her panic, could feel the urgency that she was trying to project to him. Be quiet. She'll kill you! Stop talking!

"You dare shout at me werewolf?" Bellatrix shrieked.

Hermione opened her eyes when she heard the crunch of glass beneath Bellatrix's shoe and watched in horror as she crossed the shop floor and delivered a blow to his stomach. His gaze locked to Hermione's and she gave a tiny shake of her head. Stay quiet. Stay quiet. Stay—

"Argh!" Hermione yelled as a hand twisted into her hair and yanked her onto her feet.

"This is her," the voice behind her growled. "This is the mudblood Dolohov's been after."

Hermione sucked in a breath through her teeth, willing her thumping heart to slow down so she could focus. Her wand was about three feet away, barely visible beneath the rubble of busted shelves and blasted stone. If she could just summon it…

"You're the one who broke past our wards at the Ministry?" Bellatrix barked a laugh and sank her nails into the front of Hermione's throat, pulling her closer to her gaunt face.

This close, Hermione could see the obvious differences between this version of Bellatrix Lestrange and the deranged one that haunted her nightmares for the last several years. She had more colour to her sunken cheeks, her teeth sat pearly white behind painted red lips and Hermione had the perverse thought that this woman had been beautiful at one time, before the hysteria had seeped in and degenerated her mind.

Of course, that was assuming she hadn't always been psychopathic.

"Well I can't imagine what the appeal is for you but..."

As Bellatrix's hand squeezed tighter around Hermione's windpipe, she felt her eyes begin to bulge, her head pounding as her breaths became shallow. Her vision swam with black dots and she desperately tried to move, her arms burning against the tight cords as Hermione pitched forward in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure on her throat.

"Bella."

Andromeda's voice called out, calm and even from somewhere in the distance and Hermione collapsed to her knees heaving for breath when Bellatrix dropped the hold on her throat.

"Sister!" Bellatrix giggled, "How nice of you to join us!"

"Andie, no." Ted yelled from the floor. "Get out!"

"Listen to your mudblood," Bellatrix hissed.

Bellatrix screeched in anger when Andromeda brandished her wand, sending a series of stunners at her sister. A severing charm caught the side of her face and Andromeda rounded the counter, raining hexes over Bellatrix.

"No!" Bellatrix said, waving an arm out to the Death Eaters approaching to join her. "She's mine."

Hermione took the opportunity to fall back, landing on her backside, and used her feet to shove herself toward her wand. Her fingers wrapped around the wood and she nearly cried in relief. She rolled onto her side and pointed it toward where Remus laid on the ground, wincing as her severing charm caught his shirt, tearing through the fabric with ease. On the third try, she cut the cords binding his arms to his side and he scuttled backward, his wand in his hand in a flash and Hermione was free. Her lungs finally able to fully inflate with air, she gulped in long breaths, pushing herself up from the ground and slashing her wand at the Death Eaters that stood in wait.

"You think I'm here for you?" Bellatrix taunted Andromeda, laughing as she deflected the hexes.

"Remus!" Hermione shouted, dodging a stunner from one of the Death Eaters. "We have to contact—"

"HEY, BELLA!" Sirius' voice called from the hole in the wall, a smirk on his face as he stood in the opening. "Time with the Dark Lord hasn't done you well. You look a little dehydrated. Let me fix that for you!"

"You traitor!" Bellatrix howled, spinning on her heel to throw curses at Sirius.

Sirius blasted her with a powerful jet of water, soaking her through to the bone, laughing as she choked and gasped for air.

The shop filled with blasts of colour; searing beams of red, blue, and purple zoomed through the air and ricocheted off the stone walls, blasting against books and plant life. A large Mimblus Mimbletonia exploded, covering the eastern corner in thick layers of yellow stink sap and Hermione used the distraction to fire a Flippendo at a Death Eater, sending him flying backward to crash into the wall.

Shouts of curses echoed around her and Hermione zig-zagged her way through the quickly crumpling building. Frank Longbottom appeared with a crack of apparition, James and Kingsley hot on his heels.

"What happened?" James shouted, his back pressed to Hermione's in a move that sent her mind careening back—forward?—to a time when she and Harry had stood in the same stance, surrounded and fighting for their lives.

"They were lining the streets," Hermione said, yelling the words over her shoulder before slashing her wand through the air to knock a large, dark haired Death Eater unconscious. "I think—Protego!—they were waiting for us!"

"Impedimenta! For the Order?" James said, shuffling his heels back into Hermione's propelling her forward. "Why?"

"I don't know!" Hermione said.

"Crucio!" Bellatrix's wand pointed straight at her sister.

"No!" Ted yelled, abandoning all logic and rushing forward, ramming Bellatrix in the middle in a full-body tackle.

Ted was too late and the torture curse connected with Andromeda, sending her to the ground with a series of ear-splitting screams as her back arched from the floor and her muscles contorted.

Hermione fired a body binding curse at Bellatrix and raised her wand again to blast back the hulking frame of another one of Voldemort's followers. Before the curse landed, she heard the wind leave James from behind her, hit with a hex to the torso, and under his weight she smacked hard against the ground.

Her head connecting to the stone floor was the last thing Hermione remembered before everything went black.

Hermione blinked heavily a few times. The light surrounding her caused her head to throb and she felt nauseous and dizzy. Slowly, she pushed herself into a sitting position and grabbed at her side, feeling for the wound. Her fingers pressed against tender skin and she hissed through her teeth.

"Where did they go?" she asked, her voice hoarse and throat sore.

The shop was in ruin. Every case and shelf was blasted into pieces, books obliterated into fine confetti. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust and debris; bits of rubble in every crevice of the previously clean room. The corner where the Mimbletonia had expelled it's stink sap, was steaming from the thick, mucousy exudate.

"Unghh…"

Hermione turned around, gingerly, to see James sprawled on the floor next to her, his head bleeding just above his ear.

"Are you okay?" Hermione croaked.

"Yeah. 'M'fine," James said, pushing himself up. "You?"

"Yeah, I think so. Just a flesh wound…" she trailed off, pressing against her side again. "I'll be fine."

"Fuck," Sirius groaned from behind a collapsed shelf. "What happened?"

"Blasting curse," Frank said, stepping out of the stairwell behind the counter. The door hung from its hinges, threatening to fall at the slightest brush against it. "Bloody nasty one, too."

"Is Andromeda—"

"She's safe," Frank said. "Upstairs with Ted. She apparated their daughter to Ted's mum's house when she heard the first blast and then sent for us."

Hermione pulled herself to her feet and leaned down to lend James a hand, wincing as she helped to hoist him off the ground. Remus was pulling Sirius up, and he looked her over, concern pinching his brows.

"You're bleeding," he murmured, frowning as he stepped over the broken shelving.

"I'm fine," Hermione said. "You?"

Remus nodded, his mouth still tugged downward as he looked her over. "It's like they were waiting for us."

She batted his hands away from her and bent, searching for her wand amongst the rubble. When she found it, she sighed in relief that it was in one piece. Hermione pulled her shirt up, hissing as the fabric that clung to the wound, peeled away from her skin. She twisted in an attempt to get a better look—flesh wound. She felt relief wash over her again, thankful it wasn't anything serious, and pointed her wand to the area, casting a charm to clean it before mending the skin back together. It would probably scar, but the amount of scars that littered her body from the battles she had been in were plentiful. It wouldn't be the last, she was sure.

"Fucking Bellatrix!" Sirius hissed, kicking through the debris in search of his wand. "How much longer until they come for me?"

"What are you on about, Pads?" James said.

"And you shouldn't even be here!" Sirius said, rounding on James and pointing a finger at him. "You should be at home, with Lily!"

"Andromeda called for backup to everyone, I wasn't going to stay home knowing Moony and Hermione were here. You clearly felt the same!"

"You've already got a target on you though!" Sirius said, "And coming out here, making it worse? It's stupid, Prongs. You could have been killed."

"I don't think they came to kill," Hermione said. "Bellatrix was holding back—"

"Holding back? She blew the shop to bits and tortured Andie!" Sirius said, his eyebrows raised.

"Yes, but if she came here to kill, we'd be dead."

"What are you saying?" Frank asked.

"I think they were sending a message," Hermione explained. "They don't want muggleborns in positions of power, Ted owns the shop. They're expecting all purebloods to surrender to them, to follow their beliefs."

"Fuck," Sirius said, running his hands through his hair. "And Andie and I...we've got targets on our backs the size of Hogwarts. They've been after me since I was a kid."

"How did they know you would be here today?" James said.

"I don't know," Remus answered. "But, apparently Hermione's in their sights as well. We shouldn't stay here, it isn't safe."

"What do you mean, 'Hermione's in their sights'?" Sirius asked, looking furious.

"They said Dolohov's been after her." Remus explained, "Although, I don't know why…"

"Probably royally pissed him off last year, when we got away from them." James said, with a shrug. "I can't imagine their lot would take kindly to having four of their prisoners escape alive."

"S'pose not," Sirius agreed.

"Did anyone alert Dumbledore?" Hermione asked.

"Ted sent a patronus after he checked on Andromeda," Frank said. "I imagine he'll call a meeting soon."

No sooner did the words leave Frank's lips, did a large, silver phoenix streamed into the blown apart shop, hovering in the middle of the small group. It's beak opened and Dumbledore's voice filled the air.

"Meeting at Yorkshire Cabin"

The cabin was in chaos, when Hermione's feet hit the ground. There were voices of worry coming from inside, filtering out through the broken windows and rundown walls.

"James!" Lily's voice was the first to meet her ears as she came running from inside the cabin, Harry bouncing on her hip. She wrapped her free arm around James, kissing his face with tears in her eyes. When she was comforted that he was okay, she stepped back from him, swatting him in the chest several times.

"Argh! Ow! Why are you—Ow! Stop hitting me!"

"If you ever run out like that again, James Potter, I swear to Merlin, I'll kill you myself!" Lily said, punctuating each word with a slap to his person.

"They needed help!" James said, exasperated, as he pulled Harry from her arms and used him as a shield. "Ha! You can't hit me now, I have the baby!"

"You underestimate my ability to aim my slaps around Harry," Lily said, her fierce look falling into a smile.

She moved from James and pulled Hermione and Remus into a hug, "You're both okay?"

"Yeah," Remus said. "We're fine, Lils. Just a few scrapes."

"What on earth happened?"

"Let's go inside," Hermione said. "We can explain, then."

About an hour passed as Hermione and Remus went over every detail leading up to the ordeal. Ted and Andromeda were not present at the meeting, having gone to collect their daughter and recover after Andromeda had been tortured. Hermione relayed the information that Ted had given, that Diagon Alley had been being watched for weeks, and that she didn't believe it was safe for any Order members to be seen there anymore.

As the meeting wore on, Hermione couldn't help but feel the tightness building in her chest. Dolohov had his eyes set on her, and that was troublesome. She tried to remind herself, that it didn't matter now, that she was staying here and that she would be sure to end things before they could progress any further. But, somehow, the thought didn't comfort her.

James had brought up a good point, an issue he decided to press with most of the Order present. The Death Eaters had been waiting for them. For weeks, Ted had said, they had been stationed around Diagon Alley, simply watching. Waiting. It was too much of a coincidence that they had attacked only when members of the Order turned up. It had been planned, just as Remus said it would be.

"How did you know they were planning, then?" Sirius asked Remus from across the table.

"Are you forgetting I just spent a few weeks with werewolves?" Remus retorted, "They talk!"

"There were no werewolves there, though. You said before you thought the werewolves would be involved in an attack." Sirius continued, "But, it was just my psychotic cousin and her fools."

"I assume," Remus hissed. "That the werewolves are working with the Death Eaters. I don't know the ins and outs, as I am not a part of that! I relayed the information I overheard."

"It's not going to help, to blame one another." Lily said.

"And why not? There's a spy! We all know it!" Sirius said, jumping up from the table and running his hand through his hair. "And frankly, I'm tired of getting ambushed! We could have all been killed."

"And that's my fault, somehow?" Remus asked, raising from his seat to lean over the potion-stained table.

"I don't know, Remus. Is it?"

Remus nearly snarled at Sirius, "If you recall, I'm the one who tried to warn of what would happen! Why would I tell their plans if I was spying for them? Do you honestly believe I would put you lot in danger like that? Put Hermione in danger like that?" Remus gestured wildly at Hermione.

"I don't know what a spy would do!" Sirius spat.

"You are so fucking dense, Sirius. You want to talk about who we should be concerned about? Your lovely cousin made sure we heard her call you a traitor! Why would she say that if it wasn't you relaying information?"

"I'm a blood traitor, you idiot!"

"She didn't specify, though, did she?" Remus asked between clenched teeth.

"Fuck you!" Sirius hissed.

"That's enough," Dumbledore said, holding a hand up to stop any further arguments from happening. "It is important to remember who is our enemy and who are our friends."

"What if there's no difference?" Sirius grumbled as he sat back down.

Remus shot Sirius a scathing look and Hermione grabbed his hand under the table. "It's okay," she whispered, as Dumbledore continued talking. "He's just angry about Andromeda."

Remus didn't look at her when he gave a sharp nod, his brows pinched together as he stared at Sirius from across the table.

Hermione hoped she was right. She knew that at some point, it would come to this. That the mistrust would be seeded and sewn within the two friends, but she had hoped for more time before it became apparent.

She sighed.

More time. It seemed like everything was riding on seconds that ticked away faster than she could count them.

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a/n: Hello my lovelies! Thanks for reading and as always, thanks for reviewing and faving and all that good stuff. I love you guys so much.