September 13th, 1976

Room of Requirement

They'd made their way silently to the seventh floor. Regulus had stared at her as she'd paced in front of the wall until the door appeared. When they'd walked in, it was a large library with comfy couches, throw pillows and blankets, and hot chocolate sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch.

The pair sat, and she waved him on. After a moment of thought, he spoke. "What did they think you knew?"

"I can't answer that."

He looked frustrated. "Can't or won't?"

"Look, I have a lot of secrets that I just can't share," she told him, looking him over. When their eyes met, she felt him enter her mind, searching around. She tried to fight him, allowing the fight for her mind to happen, but she realized that he'd been holding back before - he was more than adequate at invading someone's mind. The thought made her grimace, and it gave him the space he needed to find a memory that was telling.

Hermione couldn't tell who held her. He'd flown in with black smoke covering him and by the time she could see again, she was pinned against his chest, facing the fight before her. It was Harry, Sirius, and Malfoy up at the front with Bellatrix across from the dial, shooting curses at Sirius.

The sight made her sick. Harry- he was her brother, really, and Sirius… he'd taken care of her when she fought with her parents, when she ran away to him. Now, he was up there, so close to-

"What's your name?" the man behind her asked, pushing her hair away from her neck. She winced at the feeling of his breath on her skin, and then his lips. She tried to elbow him in the gut, but he held her too tightly to do so. She did, however, manage to look up at him. He was tall and had nearly grey hair that clearly used to be blonde. She'd seen him before in the paper. He was on the Wizengamot, pushing through the most cruel werewolf laws. "Speak!"

"Go to hell," she snarled, stomping on his foot.

He didn't release her. Instead, he licked her throat and then bit down hard.

A scream distracted her from her own pain. Her head shot up just in time to see Sirius fall into the Veil of Death. "No!"

When the memory ended, Regulus found silent tears sliding down her cheeks. Though a part of him wanted to comfort her, the rest of him had to confront how impossible what he'd seen was. "Ana, what the hell was that?"

"Sirius died," she told him quietly through her tears. "In my fifth year. Bellatrix sent a stunner at him, according to Harry, and he fell into the Veil. He took care of me, and I watched him die."

"I'm sorry," he said, because he could see and almost feel how much it hurt her. "He had to have been nearly forty."

"Thirty-seven," she agreed.

"But that's-,"

"You need to understand before I explain that this information could get me killed," she told him seriously. "If it fell into the wrong hands, I'd be taken again and tortured, and when he found out what I know and what I am, he'd kill me to save himself."

"I wouldn't and couldn't say anything," Regulus swore. "Our bond prevents me from doing anything that would hurt you."

"I came here from 1998," she said quietly. "As you heard, my name was Hermione Granger. There's a war that, from my point of view, we were losing. After… Bellatrix, I got in touch with Bertie Croaker."

Regulus frowned. "You came back in time. On purpose."

"You believe me?" she asked, surprised. He nodded.

"You don't know much about soul bonds, do you?" She shook her head. "Focus. You can feel the truth, the lies, as long as the other person isn't blocking the bond - which takes a lot of effort and is very painful for the person doing it."

Anabella was surprised to find he was right. Setting that aside for later, she got back to what she'd been saying. "Bertie sent me here using the Sands of Time. When I got here, he set everything up with Fabian Prewett's help. Fabian- Fab knows the truth. He and Gideon were there when I got here."

"If you knew Sirius-,"

"I didn't know you," she shook her head, almost feeling the question.

"Am I dead?" he asked bluntly. Her eyes widened a little and she shook her head. His lips thinned slightly. "I already told you- I can tell when you're lying."

Anabella grimaced. "Well that's fucking annoying."

"What happened to me?" he wondered.

She tilted her head up stubbornly. "It doesn't matter, because I'm going to fix this."

Regulus rubbed his forehead. "You can't 'fix' time, Ana."

She sniffed. "Watch me."

"Why?" he wondered. She frowned.

"I mean… you're my soulmate. Besides, I know your story and- and you deserve to be saved. I also planned to do whatever I could do to help the twins. If I'm… lightly altering known time for them, I sure as hell am going to help my soulmate."

Regulus was quiet for a moment. "Why were you taken?"

Anabella sighed. "My best friend, Harry, will be prophesied to kill Voldemort. His parents were very involved in fighting him now, so they were… targets. Fuck."

"What?"

"James and Lily are his parents," she told him. "They were killed in 1981."

"And you were placed with the Potters," he understood with a grimace.

"Um… Harry and I, we became best friends in first year, along with Ron Weasley. We openly fought as much as we could. Voldemort is still after Harry. We were all on the run, then captured. I was tortured because Bellatrix thought I'd… been in her vaults," she stopped to close her eyes and take a deep breath to calm herself. She was startled into opening her eyes again by Regulus intertwining their fingers. Though he was nearly a stranger, she found great comfort in his touch.

"Are you healed?" he asked slowly. She shrugged.

"I have Longis Crutiau. I have the potions I need."

"And?"

"And…" with hesitation, she pushed up her sleeve and watched him carefully, trying to gauge how much of a blood supremacist he was. To her great disappointment, she saw his whole face darken. "It would be my luck that my soulmate hates mudbloods."

Regulus's eyes shot to hers as he took in a sharp breath. "Don't say that damn word. That's not why I'm… Bellatrix did that?"

Anabella let out a humorless laugh. "Funny enough, she and Yaxley both tortured me. The scar was from Bellatrix, though, yes."

Looking at him, Anabella saw what had been described as the Black family insanity by Sirius. Facing it now, she thought it felt more like unbridled fury. "Regulus."

"I've never been so damn worried for someone I'd just met," he told her, breathing out hard.

"Um," she shifted a little. "If we're… there's something else you should know."

"What?"

"I'm a Light Lady."

"You're- fuck," he cursed loudly.

"Yeah, that's kind of how I feel about it," she agreed. "It's why everyone in Gryffindor wants to be friends with me, why Avery was drawn to me."

"Avery?" he frowned. "He's a Death Eater, Ana."

Anabella shrugged. "I'm trying to… I want to turn some, bring them to our side so that in the future, I can use them to destroy Voldemort. Not… changing time, per se, but just- just editing it."

"And you befriended Avery."

"He's quite annoying," she told him. "He has this irritating habit of being right."

Regulus smiled a little, looking her over closely. She was staring down at her hands quietly. Her mood had certainly shifted. "What?"

"How did you find me, Reg?" she asked softly. "There was- there was no one from behind me for a while, and you just… showed up."

"I came from the common room," he told her slowly. "I could feel your… distress. I moved around the long way- I'm sorry it left you with him longer, but if he'd seen me, he would've stunned me or worse, and you'd-," he cut off.

"Don't- don't tell anyone," she requested. "No one needs to worry. Especially don't tell your brother."

Regulus rolled his eyes. "No need to worry about that. We aren't speaking."

"Sirius is a stubborn fucking pain in the ass," she told him, making a face.

Regulus was quiet. "Yaxley isn't going to let this go. He'll… be after you."

"I can defend myself if I'm expecting it."

"He's good, Ana."

"Well, so am I."

"You need to take this seriously!"

"I am!" she snapped. "You think I can be sexually assaulted and not take it seriously? It's my life, my- my trauma! I fucking know he's dangerous, Regulus!"

Regulus looked as apologetic as he felt - which was very, very apologetic. "I'm sorry. I'm worried."

Anabella let out a breath and nodded. "It's… startling to care so much already, isn't it?"

"It's… more startling to have a soul bond," he admitted. She blinked, confused.

"Doesn't everyone have one?"

He looked ashamed. "After the things I've done… I'm not sure I deserve one."

"Well, I'm here. Clearly, you do." When he just shrugged, Anabella put her hand on his. "Regulus, I believe with everything in me that you deserve the world. I hope it's okay that you got me instead."

"I think it'll be very easy to love you," he said softly. "How is it that I think I'm already starting to?"

Anabella shook her head. "It's just because I'm a Light Lady."

"Ana, it isn't magic that brings people to you in regard to being a Light Lady, it's you. Light Ladies themselves bring people together, not their magic."

"But-,"

"Think of it this way - magic doesn't do the work for the Dark Lord. He's just… intimidating. Charming, even."

"Oh," Ana blinked. It was her? If that was true, that meant- "Wait, they like me?"

"Yes," he laughed. "Why are you so surprised?"

"I've always just been Harry's know-it-all best friend. He was the important one - the hero."

"And you were by his side the whole time, right?" She shrugged. "Ana, you were the star. Everyone was just paying attention to the wrong person."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

September 20th, 1976

Slytherin Common Rooms

"What exactly is your goal here? To stare him into helping?"

"Shut up," Anabella hissed at Avery, who rolled his eyes.

"She'll curse you," Regulus warned. "Just let her stare."

"Let her basically stalk Dolohov?" Avery scoffed. "He's my friend. No."

"There's a… thing," she told him. Avery glanced to Regulus, who was tilting his head at her.

"Thing?"

"Show you later," she waved him off. They'd been sharing memories from their lives with one another over the last week, nearly every day of which they'd spent together.

"This is ridiculous," Avery said, getting up. He walked to Dolohov, spoke with him, and came back alone. "He'll meet us in the Room at eight."

"I can't speak to him!" Anabella exclaimed. Avery rolled his eyes once again, but Regulus frowned.

"Why?"

"I can't," she glanced at Avery and back to her soulmate. "Later, Reg."

"I think you should tell him," he said after a moment of silence.

Anabella looked at him like he was crazy. "What about the part where my secret gets me killed?"

"I think he'll help keep it," Regulus raised an eyebrow, and she already knew what he was going to say. "Trust me?"

She met his eyes and cursed colorfully. "Yes. Fine. We should go to the Room now if we want to be finished by the time he shows up."

By the time the three got all the way up to the Room of Requirement, it was already 7:30, so they jumped right in. "I've got the rest of the Veritaserum Bertie gave me and used on me. Test it and I'll take it - it'll make the entire thing easier."

Eyeing her suspiciously, Avery did a diagnostic spell on it and then, comfortable that it was what she said, he took a drop. One question from Regulus later, he passed the potion over to Anabella. Once she'd taken the half that was left, he asked the question. "So, what's this secret?"

She barely had time to take a breath before the potion forced her to answer. "My name is Hermione Granger and I came here from 1998, not France. Well- well, I guess I was in France, but- but that's not the point."

Avery leaned back. He wasn't arguing - he knew the potion worked. "Why?"

"We were losing the war. I came back to set some things up to make sure we'd win in the future. I'm not willing to rely on others to win this damned war anymore."

He seemed to consider her for a moment. "What was the breaking point?"

Her lips thinned, but she was forced to answer. "I was tortured by Bellatrix and for hours. I was left scarred and with Longis Crutiau. It was only a few weeks ago, so fuck you for asking that."

"Sorry, ace," he grimaced. He looked to Regulus. "You realize you can't kill Bellatrix until 1998."

"I'm aware," Regulus said as calmly as he could. Anabella looked between them, alarmed, so he looked to her and reached out to stroke her cheek gently. "My deranged cousin doesn't get to live peacefully with what she's done to you, Ana. She's going to die."

And Anabella couldn't seem to find it in her to fight for the demented witch's life, so she simply nodded silently.

"So, you want us for the future," Avery realized, looking mildly impressed. "So we can damage him from the inside as well."

"If I can get a network going… it'll be incredible," she told him. "I'm working to find his inner circle and… taking them from him before they're even in his inner circle. Some of them… I can't get everyone, of course, but enough that it'll hopefully cripple him."

"Well, I can definitely get behind this," he told them.

Regulus waved his wand at Anabella to remove the rest of the potion from her system. Before he could say anything, however, the door creaked open and the trio spun to see Dolohov walking in. Regulus's eyes darkened. "How much did you hear?"

"All of it," he told them, looking at her curiously. "Avery, it's true?"

"Ace, if you try to Obliviate him, I'll curse you," Avery warned her when she reached for her wand.

"It could get me killed!"

"Why?" he wondered. "You never said."

"Because I know who Voldemort really is! Because I know his deepest secret, one that will kill him in the end if we're lucky. Because if he knows I know, he won't hesitate to kill me."

"What do you mean, you know who he is?" Dolohov questioned.

Anabella looked exhausted. She sighed. She knew she needed to make him trust her, and what better way than to tell him who his master truly was? "Voldemort's real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. He's a half-blood born to a witch mother and a muggle father who was under a love potion the entire time he was with his mother. When she decided he didn't need the potion anymore, she stopped giving it to him and he left her. She gave birth to Tom in an orphanage and died in childbirth. So him preaching about blood purity is bullshit."

"Shit," Avery cursed, leaning back in his seat. "That fucking hypocrite."

"Dolohov, I don't trust you," Anabella told him honestly. "I'm going to need a Vow to keep my secrets to your damn self if you want to leave here with your memory intact."

He seemed to consider it for a moment. "I will take your Vow… if you tell me why you were staring at me like that for an hour and a half."

She coughed uncomfortably. "There are things I really can't or shouldn't tell you guys."

"Tell me or I won't be taking your Vow."

She made a face. "Fine. I was staring at you because we need you. You- you'd be an incredible help, but-,"

"What?"

"But Bellatrix isn't the only one that tortured me that day."

Regulus gripped her hand in his own. "Ana, you're telling me you want him to help and he's fucking tortured you?"

"Kinda," she said sheepishly. "Look, I can very truly and honestly say that it… wasn't that bad. Y'know, comparatively."

"Comparatively?" he stared at her like she was crazy. "Ana!"

She tipped her head back, exhausted, and looked to Dolohov, who looked disturbed. "Your strengths do not lie in torture."

"This isn't funny! He tortured you!" Regulus told her. She rolled her eyes.

"And while it hurt like a bitch, he's not the one that fucking traumatised me, is he?"

"How would you know? It's been like three weeks!"

Anabella narrowed her eyes at him. "How would you know? The shit I've gone through- I've been tortured plenty in my life, and in retrospect, it doesn't even seem like he was trying."

"But he still-,"

"Black, shut up," Avery cut him off, looking thoughtful. "Maybe it seemed like he wasn't trying because he wasn't."

Anabella tilted her head at him. "What do you mean?"

He sighed. "I mean, you're not changing the future. He's still going to be there in twenty years. Maybe he was just following your orders."

"Huh," she nodded. "That… makes sense. Kinda shitty, but it does."

"Or he's just really bad at torturing people!"

"I was raised by a dark family that rivals your own," Dolohov told Regulus. "I know as well as you likely do how to torture someone. If it was weak, it was on purpose."

"Comforting," Regulus scowled. "I don't like this, Ana."

"I need him," she insisted. He gave her a look, so she tipped her head back. "I need him to take me in the forest. He shouldn't have been able to find me through the wards I set, but he did. He grabbed me right out of them. I must've told him where I'd be, going off of Avery's theory. And…"

"What?"

Anabella looked to Dolohov. "Have you created it yet? Your curse?"

He frowned at her. "Yes."

"You'll have to hit me with it in 1997 when you're at Hogwarts," she instructed. He immediately disagreed.

"Carter, it would kill you."

"Just my hip," she rolled her eyes. "Clearly, I survived."

"Will you take the Vow?" Regulus asked, glaring Dolohov down.

Dolohov looked between the three of them and gave a short nod. "If you can help to end this damned war, make him lose, I'll help you however you need."

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