TW: Serious injuries.

It was the small hours of the morning. An hour or two past midnight. Just a few days into the Christmas holidays. Hermione and the Marauders were playing Exploding Snap before the fire when a frantic pounding sounded at the portrait entrance.

"Accio map," Hermione said, and the map came rushing down the stairs. "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."

"Hey! She can't do that!" James protested.

"Shut up, James," Sirius, Remus, and Hermione said together.

The little dot outside the tower was labeled "Narcissa Malfoy." Hermione's eyes widened and she rushed to the door, her heart pounding, and flung it open.

"Hermione!" Narcissa said, and any thought of pureblood composure was nowhere to be seen. Her face was paler than Hermione had ever seen it. Panic filled her eyes. "You need to come. Now!"

"Hang on—" Sirius began.

"It's Regulus," Narcissa hissed. "I don't know how to save him."

Sirius shut up. His eyes flicking from Hermione to Narcissa and back again. His own pureblood masks in place.

Hermione's gaze flitted over her friends, and then she was climbing out into the hall without another thought. Together she and Narcissa ran through the halls. "What's going on?" Hermione asked, panting.

Narcissa just shook her head and said nothing. "Triumph," she hissed at the entrance to the Slytherin Common Rooms when they arrived. The entrance swung open, and the girls swept inside.

"I didn't want to move him," Narcissa said, gesturing toward a nearby couch, her composure sneaking back into her body and voice. Hermione realized Narcissa had worried Hermione wouldn't come. "And there are no other Slytherins here for the holidays. We have the space to ourselves."

Hermione was at Regulus' side in an instant. His body was trembling far worse than hers had at Halloween. His clothing was soaked through with blood, his breath shallow and weak. She didn't let herself think about it.

"Voldemort?" Hermione asked. She vanished Regulus' shirt and pants, and immediately gasped at the many crisscrossing wounds - and scars.

"Yes." Narcissa's voice was dull, but a trickle of anger ran steady beneath it.

Hermione gripped her friend's hand for the briefest of moments, and then began casting diagnostic and healing charms, teaching Narcissa the spells briskly as she went. She tried not to think of Lance, who had taught her several of the spells she was using, whose body was likely going to be reanimated in a ghastly army of inferi. She tried.

Slowly, Regulus' breathing evened out and strengthened. His skin was still pale and deathly and far too cool. His eyes stayed shut and his consciousness didn't return. But the greatest danger was past, and Hermione could feel her hands begin to tremble with all the feelings she'd been suppressing.

"I need potions," she said quietly, "to help with the Cruciatus side effects, to amplify his healing, and to replenish his lost blood."

"No one can know," Narcissa warned.

"I know," Hermione promised. "Hatty?"

"Miss is not supposed to be here!" Hatty scolded. Her gaze lit on Regulus' form. "Oh, Miss' friend! Hatty is taking him to—"

"No, Hatty, Poppy mustn't know."

The elf fell silent, a sort of gravity entering her gaze. "Ah," was all she said.

Narcissa watched the exchange in silence.

"We need potions, Hatty. Is Poppy in her office?"

"No, Miss Hermione," Hatty said, catching on immediately, "Madam Pomfrey is sleeping, she is."

"Excellent, can you take me to her potion stores, please?"

The elf nodded and extended her tiny hand. "Of course, Miss Hermione, Hatty is taking Miss straight away."

"Be back soon," Hermione promised, and she took Hatty's hand and popped away. When she came back, Narcissa was sitting on the floor beside Regulus, her hand gripping his tightly. Something she never would have done had he been awake.

"Thank you, Hatty," Hermione said.

The elf bowed and disappeared as Hermione knelt next to Narcissa, and lifted Regulus to a semi-seated position.

"So… is this why you stayed behind for the holidays?" Hermione asked quietly, as though the conversation might be less taboo if no one could hear it. Maybe it sort of was. She pulled the first potion from her bag and began administering.

Narcissa picked at the edge of a throw pillow. "No." She hesitated, refusing to make eye contact, her gaze wandering the room. "If we were friends," she said, almost shyly, "I would tell you that I'm mostly here to avoid Lucius over the holidays. Having to see him with his Death Eater pals. Being paraded in front of them like an evil trophy. That's what I'd tell you. You know, if we were friends."

Hermione's heart hurt so much for them all that there just wasn't space for it to grow any bigger. "If we were friends," she said, "I'd tell you to get your shit together."

Narcissa's eyes widened and a startled laugh escaped past her lips.

Hermione smiled. "I'd tell you that I miss you, all of you, immensely. And I'd tell you that this does not have to be your life. And I'd tell you that Lucius saved me from a Cruciatus curse at Halloween, and that there is good in him still if only he can be brave enough to hold onto it." Her voice dropped low. "I'd tell you that Voldemort is going to lose this war; that you are all on the losing side. I'd tell you that I can get you all somewhere safer, if only any of you would be willing to take a leap of faith with me."

Narcissa looked away, her expression flat. "That choice isn't mine to make. None of them are. I am a Black. I will marry well and make my family proud. I will produce an heir and raise him in our ways. And then I will die, proud and… and…"

If she had been anything but a Slytherin, that was the point where she would have choked out a sob. But she was a Slytherin and so she merely sat there, her face a mask.

Hermione slipped the last potion down Regulus' throat, then turned to take Narcissa's hands in hers. "All the choices are yours," Hermione said firmly.

"I love him," Narcissa protested. She hesitated, then added, "And I hate myself for it."

Hermione thought for a moment. "Why is it okay to care for Regulus, to love him, but not Lucius?"

Narcissa frowned. "I suppose because Regulus knows I'm mad at him. It's not a secret. It's not a part of me that I have to hide. He knows everything about what I believe. But Lucius… What if he finds out and it puts him, me, in danger? What if… what if…"

"He doesn't want you anymore?" Hermione whispered the words Narcissa couldn't. The other girl nodded. "Oh, Narcissa. Lucius loves you. No part of you could scare him away." She released her hands and turned to lean her back against the couch. "Besides. I think he'd have to work pretty hard not to know."

Narcissa scoffed, but Hermione smiled. "He and I had a lot of interesting conversations about blood purity and power during our study sessions, Narcissa. And you weren't always silent, as much as you tried to be. I think he knows."

"So, what, I should just… get mad at him? Let it all out?" Narcissa laughed emptily.

"That's what I would do," Hermione said simply. "Clear the air. See what shakes loose. See if the secrets and the pretending are really the problem."

They sat in silence for a while then, listening as Regulus' breathing slowly grew stronger.

"Narcissa, has Lucius been teaching you Occlumency?"

Narcissa shifted, a near imperceptible sign of emotion. "Yes. Why?"

"Are you any good?"

"Don't give me any of your secrets," Narcissa warned. "If it would help Lucius in someway… I might tell him. I really might."

Hermione smiled to herself. "That's not where I'm going with this, I promise."

Narcissa nodded. "Alright then, yes. I grew up knowing the rudiments of it, but Lucius says I'm quite adept. I can keep him out of my mind most of the time."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. "And blood purity… it really doesn't mean much to you at all?"

Narcissa shifted again. "Well… I mean… Do I think Muggleborns deserve persecution? No. I think they deserve their magic just as much as we do."

"You just wouldn't, say, marry one?"

Narcissa's gaze darkened ever so slightly. "I… no… I probably wouldn't, Hermione. What's your point?"

"I was just wondering how you feel about Andromeda," Hermione said casually.

Narcissa's entire body stiffened reflexively… and then slowly relaxed. "I miss her," she confided quietly. "We were close when I was younger… but the stranger - the more rebellious - she got, the less our parents let us be together. And then she married that Muggleborn… And I never saw her again. She was just gone. Removed from the family forever."

Hermione nodded slowly. "What if you could see her again?"

Narcissa laughed a laugh without joy. Perhaps it was the only sort of laugh she had left. "Impossible."

"And if it weren't? I mean, suppose you knew someone who could sneak her into the castle for, say, a brief Christmas reunion…"

Narcissa stared at her. "I… I don't know, Hermione. That sounds…"

"She'd bloody well love it," came a rough voice next to Hermione's ear.

The girls jumped, Hermione's hand going automatically for her wand in the split second it took her to realize the voice was Regulus.

"You're awake!" she breathed. "Thank Merlin!'

He winced and pulled himself to a seated position. Hermione shifted to sit on the table facing him, and Narcissa rose to sit beside him on the couch. "I'm awake," he agreed. "Though I'm not ready to thank Merlin about it." He looked from Narcissa to Hermione. "She'll do it. Arrange the visit. Andromeda… she has a daughter now, too, doesn't she?"

Hermione smiled. "Just turned four this summer."

Narcissa inhaled sharply. "Could you… I mean… do you think she would…"

"I'm sure she would be happy to bring Nymphadora along," Hermione said. She turned to Regulus. "How's the pain?"

"Fine," he grunted. "I'm getting used to it now, you know."

Hermione frowned, thinking back over all the scars. "How many times?" she asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer. "How many times have you been tortured on my account?"

His dark eyes bored into hers, and for a flicker of a moment, she could see the pain in them. "Don't ask me that, New Girl. Anything else but that."

"What is she talking about, Regulus?" Narcissa asked sharply.

"Nothing," he said roughly. "Just let it go, Cissa."

Narcissa's back straightened and a very authoritative royal sort of aura came about her. "You know that I won't!" she said. "So you had better just tell me."

"Voldemort wants Regulus to befriend me and lure me away to be tortured for information," Hermione said in the laziest, most Slytherin tone she could muster. Her eyes narrowed. "We're not going to do this any longer, Regulus. I mean it. We're going to figure this out - together."

"Just stop it!" Regulus spat. "Quit trying to play the hero, Hermione!" Has he ever called me that before? She wondered. The thought hurt somehow. "First Lucius, now me! We don't need your help—"

"Lucius would have died!" Hermione retorted. "You would have died!"

"Yeah, because we are bloody idiots who made terrible fucking decisions. Stop saving us, Hermione. Stop risking your life for Death Eater scum!"

"Excuse me," Narcissa interjected a touch shrilly. "Saved Lucius? I thought he saved you?"

Hermione and Regulus both eyed Narcissa warily. "He did," Hermione said gently. "I did. It was… it was a battle in September."

"Excuse me? Dumbledore is letting you fight in Death Eater attacks?" her voice was definitely shrill now. "You're a student! And Lucius was hurt? You said he would have died! You saved a Death Eater in the middle of a battlefield! What if someone had seen you?" She took a deep breath. "Lucius almost died?" she said finally, in a calm, small voice.

Hermione ran her fingers through her curls tiredly. "Yes. But he didn't, Narcissa. He's fine."

"But he might not be," she said quietly. "One day, he might go out and never come back."

Regulus frowned at her. "It's a war, Narcissa. What did you expect?"

Narcissa suddenly looked her age, possibly for the first time ever. As though she had shrunk into herself, her aura of power receding back beneath her skin. Seventeen and scared. "All of you could die," she said. "All of you."

Hermione met Regulus' gaze and then turned back to Narcissa. "But we won't," she said firmly. "We won't let that happen, will we, Regulus?"

He looked from one girl to the other and sighed in resignation. "Not if we can help it," he promised.

And just like that, they were co-conspirators.

Before she left, Hermione laid out the rest of the potions she'd snuck from the Hospital Wing with careful instructions for each one. Then she made her way back to Gryffindor Tower.

The boys were still sitting in the Common Room, the Marauders Map on the table in front of them, still active. She glanced down to see Narcissa's dot walking Regulus' dot up to his room.

"He's alright then?" Remus asked quietly, mostly for Sirius' sake.

"He will be," Hermione said, looking at Sirius as he pretended to be indifferent. "It was… it was bad. But he's okay for now." Sirius continued to ignore her and she felt a sudden flare of anger. "You know, I never knew Regulus in the original timeline," she said with mock casualness that should have immediately alerted everyone in the vicinity that she was about to lose it. "Because he died. Just out of Hogwarts. You told me yourself. Said he got in with Voldemort and when he tried to back out, Voldemort killed him himself." She'd told him before, but she wasn't sure it had properly sunk in.

Sirius' entire body jerked, but he still didn't look up.

Hermione felt all her rage, all her feelings of isolation, all her fear and her sense of powerlessness explode. "Dammit, Sirius! What is wrong with you!" she yelled, tears stabbing their way out of her eyes. The fire roared, and all the lamps went out. "He's your little brother! Help me help him! Please…"

He looked up finally, and his eyes were so haunted it was almost as if he had already been to Azkaban. He stood without a word and Hermione thought he was going to brush past her, but instead he pulled her into him. Hermione could feel his silent tears drip into her hair as her own left wet spots on his shirt. She forced her breaths slow and deep, pulling in his scent and his warmth.

Then he pulled away and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "We won't let him die," he promised, almost inaudibly. Then he forced a half-hearted smirk onto his face. "The stupid prat."

—

The rest of the week flitted past in a blur of Wolfsbane research - she thought she had a working initial premise, finally! - and fun. There were no attacks for her to rush off to. Emmeline was fully recovered (and had joked that they were twins now, with their matching scars). All in all, it was the most fun she'd had since summer.

Christmas Eve dawned bright and beautiful. The Marauders ran out for a snowball fight shortly after breakfast, and Hermione spent some "girl time" with Narcissa, which was a very subdued version, all things considered. Hermione left the dungeons at dinner time with butterflies in her stomach and made her way to the Room of Requirement.

Remus was already there. He smiled warmly, and pulled her in for a quick kiss. "Happy early Christmas, Hermione."

Hermione smiled against his lips. "Happy early Christmas, Remus."

"I hope you don't mind celebrating early," he said, a touch insecurely. Tomorrow was the full moon - Christmas day, of all days. So they were doing their Christmas tonight instead.

Hermione scoffed. "Don't be silly. It'll be nice to have the evening to ourselves." She laced her fingers through his. "Is the Room ready?" She opened the door when Remus nodded, and smiled as she walked into a festive replica of the Gryffindor Common Room, tastefully decorated with candles and tinsel, and featuring a beautiful holiday tree, frosted and glimmering in the firelight. "It's beautiful. Thank you."

"Well, I didn't really do anything," Remus protested.

Hermione laughed. "I wasn't thanking you, silly. I was thanking the castle."

Remus grinned. "You have got to be the strangest girl in all of Hogwarts."

"And that's saying something," Hermione said. A beautiful dinner appeared on the table by the fire. "Was that you?"

"Well, I mean, the House Elves—"

Hermione rolled her eyes and shut him up with a kiss. "It's wonderful. Thank you, Remus." She glanced around. "Could we get a blanket, please?" she asked the Room. A big blue blanket appeared, and Hermione spread it out on the floor like a picnic. "Come eat. I'm starving."

They sat on the floor, eating the delicious food the house elves had prepared, their backs against the couch. Hermione's heart felt so full that the butterflies in her stomach slowly settled.

"Presents?" Remus asked, as they finished up an amazing gingerbread cake dessert.

"Sure," Hermione said a little nervously, her butterflies stirring back up. She had changed her mind back and forth about this gift for two months now.

They shifted up onto the couch and pulled out their gifts. "I'm sorry if it's too… practical," Remus said at the same time as Hermione said, "I hope it's not too… sentimental." They laughed sheepishly.

"Oh no worries about that," Hermione said. "Everyone always thinks my gifts lack sentimentality." She grinned sheepishly. "To be fair, one year I gave Harry and Ron planners for Christmas - BUT!" she continued, over Remus' laughter, "it was more for me than for them, not that they ever used them…"

"That's honestly the worst gift anyone has ever given another person," Remus said, still laughing. He froze in mock horror. "That's not what you got me is it? Because if so, it's an absolutely delightful gift and I don't know why anyone would complain about it."

"Oh shut up and give me my present."

Remus handed her a large box that was deceptively light. "I promise it's not a planner," he smirked.

Hermione ignored him. "Lightening charm?"

"Of course."

Hermione undid the ribbon that held the box shut and lifted the lid. Inside was a pair of dark brown combat boots. Hermione immediately lifted them from the box. "Oh, they're amazing," she breathed, pulling them on and doing up the buckles.

"They're charmed for comfort, speed, and silence," Remus said tentatively. "And there's a holster inside for a backup wand, if you wanted one."

Hermione slipped her wand into the holster experimentally. "Wow! I thought it might be uncomfortable, but I can't even feel it in there. Must be a modified cushioning charm..." She broke off her musing and looked up at Remus. "Remus, thank you - these are so perfect."

She watched as Remus relaxed, letting a smile creep back onto his face.

"Alright, your turn!" she said, and handed him a very small package. "Here. Open it up."

She watched nervously as Remus gingerly pulled the gold wrapping away to reveal a small black box. He smirked up at her. "Did you get me jewelry?" He opened the lid, and the smirk dropped.

"It's a bracelet," Hermione said quickly. "I know the wolf charm might upset you. I hope it doesn't. I had to pick something to put the spell into, and I know your Patronus is a wolf and I know you really, really hate being a werewolf, I know that your Patronus feels almost like it's mocking you, but you are just as much a wolf as I am a lioness and—"

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Breathe, Hermione."

Hermione flushed and paused to breathe. "Okay. Look. There are parts of you that are wolfish. Amazing parts of you. The fierceness of your protectiveness and your loyalty and your love. The quiet way you observe things, trying to get a feel for the situation before you make your move. You have the wolf's ferocity, yes, and also his wisdom. And—"

Remus only looked amused now. "You said there was a spell?"

"Oh, right! Well," Hermione lifted her sleeve. "I have one too. A lioness, of course. They're um… they're spelled so that you'll know I'm safe when I'm on a mission." Remus looked up from his inspection of the charm on his own bracelet, a funny look in his eyes. "I know you worry," she said quietly. "The lioness is charmed to read my vitals. If they dip dangerously, your charm will warm. You'll feel it. So as long as it stays cool, you'll know I'm okay."

Remus carefully set down the jewelry box and leaned forward, his fingers brushing gently down her cheek, then sliding around the back of her neck to pull her in for the world's most tender kiss. When he pulled away, he didn't let go, and his eyes blazed with emotion.

"I love you, Hermione Belanger. Very, very much."

Hermione's heart stuttered and she swallowed thickly, but she'd had a lot of time to think it over since the Halloween dance, and there was no hesitation in her heart or her mind. "I love you, too," she whispered.

Relief and joy and love flooded Remus' eyes, and he brought his lips back to hers with a smile that was almost surprised. The kiss started out gentle, but soon grew more heated. Remus tugged her onto his lap without breaking the kiss, and started down her throat. Hermione's eyelids fluttered.

And then she froze.

Remus, sensitive with the full moon approaching, noticed immediately. "What's the matter?" he asked, pulling his lips from her skin to look up at her with concern.

"Um, did you, you know…" Hermione jerked her head in a direction beyond the back of the couch.

Remus turned his head and immediately flushed as his sheepish gaze took in the sight of a four-poster. "Oh bloody hell. I— Yeah, I guess I did, but it wasn't on purpose! It was just, you know, an errant thought, I definitely didn't mean—"

Hermione kissed him softly. "It's okay, Remus."

"I— You— What?"

Hermione swallowed nervously. "It's okay. I'm… you know… I'm ready." She laughed as his brain struggled to process what she was saying.

"Are you… sure?"

"Yes."

His eyes widened slightly, and she leaned back in to capture his lips, feeding her nervousness and excitement into the kiss, receiving his own. His fingers reached, trembling slightly, up under her shirt, pulling her closer, then he lifted her suddenly and carried her, still kissing, toward the bed.

And as he lay Hermione down beneath him on the gorgeously soft bed, Hermione's thoughts were blissfully focused on the now - and stayed there for the rest of the evening.