Happy Tuesday (well Wednesday at this point since it's a bit after midnight my time)! Hope y'all's week is starting off the complete opposite of mine because it's been hella odd all around. Thank you so much for the new follows/favorites and reviews, I love hearing from you guys! Hope you like the new and (hopefully) improved Chapters 7-12.
Love Always,
Adrien
Disclaimer: Sadly, still not my sandbox; this is just my sand castle in J. K. Rowling's sandbox.
Chapter Seven: We're All a Bit Broken, Little Cub
December
Sirius
A small growl escapes Remus's lips as he kicks his leg in his sleep, waking Sirius from the light sleep he'd finally managed to fall into. Both men had had trouble doing much of anything since Remus had dropped Harry off at the Weasley's after their stop in Diagon Alley (and it had nothing to do with the shitshow of information–and lack of information–they received on siad trip). They just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Remus had managed to fall asleep first, mostly because it was close to the full moon and that was taking its toll on him, but Sirius had laid beside his lover for hours, just listening to the sounds of Number 12 Grimmauld Place and Kreacher grumbling his way down the hallways.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sirius is out of the bed, pulling on his abandoned boxers, before the third bang hits. Remus is barely a second behind him.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
They race down the stairs, wands in their hands.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sirius sees Remus freeze out of the corner of his eye, the other man turning his head in the direction of the door as though to make sure what he's hearing is real. Remus's wand falls from his hand and he sprints toward the door, leaving Sirius behind.
Bang! Bang! –
Remus reaches the door, jerking it open.
Sobs fill the quiet house and the portrait of his mother starts screeching.
"Hermione." Sirius's voice cracks as his wand falls from his hand and he sprints toward his lover and his daughter…their daughter. There was no denying the fact that she was theirs anymore. She was the perfect mix of the two of them. Rebellious like Sirius. Studious like Remus. More loyal, courageous, and stubborn than the two of them put together…and right now, she was hurt. And whoever did it would die…after they took care of their pup.
"I didn't know where else to go," she sobs into Remus's bare chest, clutching onto him so tightly that her fingernails were drawing blood on his back as her precariously shut rucksack thumps to the ground.
Remus cradles the back of her head with one of his hands and buries his nose in her hair, breathing in the younger girl's scent. Looking up after a moment, his amber eyes meet Sirius's gaze.
"Our cub is wet, get her something warm to drink. I'm going to take her upstairs to change ," he growls and Sirius had never been so glad to have Moony in charge.
Sirius nods sharply and rushes to the kitchen, gathering what he needs for Hermione's favorite tea as quickly as he can. By the time he makes it to the room Moony had chosen for their cub, the bedroom closest to the library, Hermione is clutching Moony in a fitful sleep.
"Did she say anything?" Sirius whispers so lowly that only the werewolf in the room could hear him.
Moony shakes his head as his jaw clenches.
A tense silence lapses over the room as both men's eyes fall to their curly-haired girl.
Eventually Sirius's exhaustion takes over and he finds his own version of fitful sleep, leaning against a dark bed frame that had seen better days.
By the time he wakes up the next day, Hermione and Moony are nowhere to be seen.
"Knock, knock." Remus's soft voice draws Sirius's attention down the hall where the taller man is leaning against the entrance of the library, attempting to appear relaxed. "Can I come in?"
There's no verbal response but Hermione must have given her ok because Remus slowly enters the room. "Are you ready to talk now?"
"I guess," Hermione sighs, her voice barely audible to Sirius's sensitive ears.
He shouldn't be listening to this. She was talking to Remus, not him. But...Sirius couldn't find it in himself to move. What if him going in there to sit with them would be too much, too many people to tell at once? What if Hermione heard him walking by and closed up because she though he didn't care enough to check up on her?
"How did you get here? We didn't find out that Sirius had access to this place until we went to Gringotts yesterday."
"I don't know…I just remember running… and it was cold and rainy… I wanted to be safe… But I knew Harry was at the Weasleys and they would ask too many questions… and then I felt a pull in my stomach and I was on the sidewalk outside of this place… and I just… I don't know…knew that I would be safe here." Hermione's voice is scratchy from the sobs that had racked her chest last night.
"Will you tell me what happened, little cub? What made you run? I can smell that you were hurt, just not how or who."
"Smell it?" She avoids the question and Remus sighs.
"You're a part of my pack, cub. I've known it since the day you walked into my compartment on the train. My wolf can sense when something happens to you, when you're hurt. He… I want to protect you. .. It's like how I know that you and Harry have slept together. When the two of you 'mated', Harry became a part of my pack and your scent changed."
There's a long silence, so long that Sirius takes two steps forward because maybe this is too much for her today. Maybe she needs a break.
"I'm…part of your pack…part of your…family?" She couldn't hide the hope in that statement even if she tried. "But I…don't deserve it…I'm so…broken."
Sirius's heart breaks at that statement, tears pooling in his eyes for the first time since that night in Godric's Hollow.
"We're all broken, cub," Remus's voice is a muffled whisper and Sirius can only hope that's his mate has pulled their girl into a tight hug.
"Why did he do it?" her voice cracks, the last couple words becoming muffled like she buried her face in Remus's shoulder.
"Do what?" Remus probes gently.
"Rape me," she barely gets out before the sob rips out of her chest.
The pooling tears break free to stream down Sirius's face at those two words because no one deserved that. Let alone this sweet, brilliant, beautiful little girl. The girl who had gone out of her way to take care of him. Who accepted his innocence without so much as a blink of her doe-like eyes. Who was as much his as she was his mate's.
In that moment, Sirius would have done anything to take away her pain.
But that's the true shitend of the parent stick: you can't take away your kid's pain, all you can do is help them through.
Sirius makes his way as quietly as he can down the stairs to get started on the Potter Pancakes Euphemia Potter had made Sirius his first day in Potter Manor because if Hermione was anything like him after he'd gotten out of the Black household, she would want normalcy above everything else.
So that's what Sirius spent his day giving Hermione: a quiet, boring, incredibly normal day.
Remus played along for their pup but as soon as her breathing evened out that night, he completely lost the calm Sirius was used to his partner providing…
"We shouldn't have let her go there," Remus growls, stalking from one side of the room to the other.
Sirius wasn't used to being the rational one in their relationship. Normally he was the one who went off the handle. He'd spent a good chunk of his life in Azkaban because of it. Watching Remus now as he paced back and forth in their bedroom while Sirius sat on the bed with his head in his hands, you wouldn't know that though.
"We couldn't have known—" Sirius attempts to calm his lover but a vicious snarl cuts him off.
"WE KNEW SHE WAS IN DANGER! WE SHOULD HAVE KEPT HER WITH US EVEN IF WE HAD TO TIE HER TO A CHAIR TO KEEP HER IN ONE SPOT!" Remus roars, his magic lashing out as his amber eyes flare.
Hermione
"Hermione!"
Unruly mahogany curls fly through the air as the young woman pushes back from the table she had commandeered in the Black Library, one of the many papers scattered across the table falling to the ground as she sprints out of the room and down the stairs.
"Harry!" A grin breaks out across her face at the sight of her best friend as she flings herself into his arms.
"Hello, love," he murmurs, burying his face in her hair as he hugs her tightly to his chest.
"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with the Weasleys for the rest of the break." Hermione pulls away just enough to look up into his emerald eyes, the grin falling slightly at the concern clearly displayed there.
"Remus managed to convince them to let me stay with him for the last day and a half so he could 'tell me stories about my parents and show my pictures' like he hasn't been doing that since the first day I met him. I wanted to come as soon as I heard you were here but the Weasleys took a lot of convincing. Why aren't you at home?"
"I am home," Hermione's voice is cold even to her own ears and she has to force herself not to glare at her best friend.
Hurt flashes across Harry's face and Hermione immediately pulls him into a hug.
"I'm sorry, love. I just... That place isn't my home... It's as much my home as Number 4 is your home," she murmurs into his messy raven hair as she rubs his back. "I'm so glad you're here."
"I'll always come when you need me. I love you more than anything." Harry places a kiss to her neck, tightening his grip around her.
Hermione felt safer in that moment than she had since she left Hogwarts, here in Harry's arms in a house whose history was just as shitty and hers and Harry's put together but that had become a safe haven for their four person family.
"How long are you here for?" Hermione asks Harry, pulling just far enough away to look into his eyes.
"For the last three days of break then we'll meet the rest of the Weasleys at the train," Harry replied, smiling down at her.
"How did you convince them to let you do that?" Hermione asks, her eyebrows quirking up in curiosity when Harry's cheeks colored and a tint of guilt sparked through his eyes.
"I may have played the 'I just want to get to know my parents more' card."
"You know, you keep using that card and people aren't going to let you get away with it anymore," Hermione tells him, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
Harry shrugs then changes the subject when he sees the papers many papers strewn across Hermione's claimed desk, "What're you working on?"
"A lot of things but mostly Dark Arts and Family Law," Hermione tells him as she makes her away over to her stud space.
"Those are two very different things," Harry states, pulling up a spare chair beside her.
"They are and they aren't," Hermione replies and the two of them spend the rest of the day talking about the soul magic and blood adoption rituals she had found that could bring outsider into a family tree in the Dark Arts book (how her research was really starting to show her that intent was what made dark magic, dark, and not the spellwork itself) and specific laws that allowed ancient and noble families to take those not in their family under their wing legally.
Most of the things that could help herself, Harry, or Draco from her research though required Sirius to be a free man, which is something they were all still working on.
Though the goblins seemed to know more than they were letting on based on Harry's recap of what had happened at Gringotts Bank. Not that Hermione was surprised. Goblins were hoarders of that which could benefit them whether that was gold, artifacts, information, or even friendships.
She knew, based on her readings when Harry originally decided to get his parents will read, that a big part of the reason the goblins were helping Harry was because of the kindness he had extended them. It wasn't often that a wizard willingly, and genuinely, extended their friendship to the Goblin Nation and having a wizard's backing (especially a wizard with as much political power as Harry) in the wizarding world was invaluable to them.
Not to mention the fact that children in the Goblin Nation were extremely rare and children born to the Goblin Nation were treasured above all else. They were looked out for by everyone in their community and provided any opportunity they needed to find their path of greatest success.
So it made sense that they wanted to help Harry, especially considering the wrongs done to him seemed to stem from a will they were meant to have read. Law they should have ensured was enforced.
But it also made sense that the goblins were keeping whatever information they did know to themselves. After all they were hoarders and information was only valuable if you knew how to use it. Hermione would bet everything that the next time the goblins called on Harry, Sirius, or Remus; they would have more answers than questions and a workable plan.
Harry and Hermione lose themselves in easy conversation and oddball ideas until Hermione runs to her room to get her newest Weasley sweater so that she and Harry can take a walk around the block.
This one was her favorite of the three she'd received so far. The first time Molly had made her one during her second year, the older woman had apologized profusely and offered to make her a new one because she'd misjudged the younger girl's size and ended up making it far too big. But Hermione loved how the fabric swamped her, how she could pull her knees up underneath it without stretching it out, she thought it was perfect the way it was. And ever since the older woman had purposefully made her sweaters a bit too big ever since. But this one was also both her favorite color and the softest of her three sweaters; it gave her a feeling of instant comfort the moment she pulled it over her head.
Harry hadn't caught up with her by the time she'd gotten ready so she made her way to his bedroom, pausing to watch him from his doorway when she sees him rummaging through the trunk he'd had Sirius and Remus bring back from Gringotts. The one Harry had been told that Lily and James had taken with them into hiding. How he'd survived with people trying to kill him, she didn't know sometimes. He really wasn't the most observant when he felt safe. Which wasn't often if she were being honest. She was happy he finally felt safe enough to relax. That he finally had a home. That they both had a home. Even if it was dark and creepy and full of magic that could make your skin crawl if you stuck around it for too long.
"What're you up to?"
Harry jumps, slipping on the hardwood floor and hitting his head against the trunk.
"Are you alright?" Hermione rushes forward, squatting down beside him and running her fingers over his head gently to check for any bumps while trying to hold in her laugh.
"I'm fine, Mione." There's a little bit of laughter in his voice as he stares up at Hermione, a smile quirking at his lips. "There's actually something I wanted to give you." He leans back into the trunk, rummaging around for a moment before pulling out a small rectangular box.
It was familiar to her, she had one very similar to it tucked away in her trunk back at the prison the rest of the world called her home. This one was just a lot more faded than the one in her trunk, a lot older.
"Why are you giving me this, Harry?" Hermione glances from the wand box to her best friend.
"I think it would be a good idea for us to have backup wands. There's a war coming, we can't deny it even if we wanted to, and we're bound to be disarmed at one point or another. Having wands that no one else knows about could benefit us in the future. That one was my mum's, it's similar to yours and it will work well enough even if it isn't a perfect match. It also belonged to a wizard of age so it no longer has the trace on it."
Hermione opens her mouth to object, she couldn't possibly take one of the only things Harry had left of his mother, but he cuts her off before she can get her first word out.
"I know it's one of the only things I have of my mother but I want you to have it and I think it's only right that you do. You are my family now, Hermione. You protect me just like she did. You're intelligent and strong and loyal. I know she would be proud to take you into our family, she would be happy that the two of us are together. That's why you should carry her wand just like I'll be carrying my dad's. I hope her wand protects you as well as she protected me."
Hermione's eyes fill with tears and she throws her arms around his neck, pulling Harry into a tight hug.
"I love you, Harry," she murmurs against his neck.
"More than anything, Hermione," he whispers into her hair as he cradles her gently in his arms.
Sirius
"What'd you want to talk to us about, cub?" Remus asks from where Hermione had sat him, Sirius, and Harry on the couch in the library their last night at Grimmauld Place.
Hermione worries her bottom lip in between her teeth for a moment before looking down at the stack of papers in her hand and taking a deep breath.
"What if I told you that there was a way for you to legally help both Harry and I in the muggle world without anyone in the wizarding world standing in your way?"
Harry's eyes widen in surprise, hope overtaking every feature of his face but he remains silent.
Remus's eyebrows draw together in thought, his eyes never leaving Hermione as he waits for her to continue.
Sirius is the one who speaks, his eyebrows drawn together much like Remus's, "What do you mean, pup?"
Hermione takes another deep breath before continuing, "For as long as I can remember, I've walked to the library as soon as my parents left for work. When I was about seven years old, one of the librarians recommended this book called Matilda. It was well below my reading level but I read it because the woman told me that I reminded her a great deal of the main character. And she was right. The main character is a young girl with horrible parents who finds sanctuary in books. She also has telekinetic powers though the librarian couldn't have known I was a witch. But that's beside the point... At the end of the book, the young girl is freed from her parents because she drew up her own adoption papers and her parents signed her over to the sweet teacher who had become her mother figure... After I read that book, I started reading legal books and learning every loophole I could just in case I ever got the chance to escape my parents. I even practiced drawing up adoption papers."
Hermione places the first set of papers onto the table, the adoption papers she'd drawn up for herself.
"If you were willing to, Remus, I would really like to officially become a part of your family... We'd have to go back to my parents' house but that would give me the opportunity to collect the few things I would like to keep from there and it would allow me to confront both my mother and father for the pain they have caused me over the years."
Seeing the slightly offended look on Sirius's face, Hermione places her full attention onto Sirius.
"I would have put both your names on the papers but the ministry has made you a criminal in both the muggle and wizarding worlds so your name would draw up a red flag and everything could go to hell. And, considering how bigoted the wizarding community is, that isn't likely to change until we can capture Pettigrew because they won't take the word of the Goblins even though Lilly and James's will stated that you were not the secret keeper. You would be arrested, I would be sent back to my parents, Remus would be questioned, and Harry would lose his chance at freedom."
Hermione turns her gaze to her boyfriend, giving him a small smile.
"Harry's loophole is a little different, a little easier actually. His Mum did most of the work for us." Hermione sets the second set of papers down on the table when their faces fill with confusion. The copy of his parents' will that Hermione had asked Harry to have Griphook send over, multiple lines highlighted.
"The will explicitly states that Lily filed Remus as a foster parent in case Sirius couldn't take care of Harry and that she filled out paperwork so that he would go straight to Remus if he ended up in the foster system. This didn't work after their deaths because he was sent directly to the Dursleys who are blood relations. If we can prove that the Dursleys are abusing him, Harry will go into the foster system and custody of him will be given directly to Remus."
