Out of Time
By Rurouni Star

Hee. Seems I've decided to make Hermione not know about the dark mark anyway. Oh well, she knows now, doesn't she? =P

Chapter 13 – Full Moon Rising

"Events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation."
-Eudora Welty

Hermione's talk with Ron and Harry was somewhat difficult. Not only was the news disturbing, she had to pretend she hadn't heard it before. She cursed Malfoy mentally for what she knew would not be the last time that year.

Harry was, understandably, very unhappy about the recent development. Voldemort's rebirth, should it happen, was not going to be good for him. Hermione knew that he was inwardly trying to figure out how he might stop it from happening. But what he didn't know was that they'd already as good as let it happen – Pettigrew was gone. Soon, he would find whatever was left of Voldemort, and then…

Then bad things happen. That's all there is to it.

She found herself wishing even more desperately that Sirius were here, now. He had the map, he had the map-

Which, speaking of Sirius, she'd noticed Harry was wearing the locket he'd left behind. She approved, even though she would have normally refused to speak to him for such a dangerous action had she not known a few important extenuating circumstances.

"The thing that confuses me," Harry was saying quietly now, "is what you were saying before."

Hermione blinked. "Before?" she asked.

Ron was looking at him strangely too. "What do you mean, before?" he asked Harry.

The green-eyed boy was looking piercingly at her. "You said something about a person named Pettigrew, and a dead wolf. I honestly thought you might be studying for exams in your sleep or something, but then you made that prediction…" He trailed off grimly.

Ron was looking at her in concern. Hermione knew her face must have been utterly horrified. "Hermione?" he asked tentatively. "Are you – did that mean something-"

What was tonight?

Tonight was… what phase of the moon?

She rushed to the window, pushing aside the curtain, to strange looks from the two boys.

There, hanging in the sky behind a wispy cloud, was a full moon… and she suddenly knew with a strange clarity that it would be tonight, and not any other full moon.

"What- where are you going, Hermione?" Ron demanded. "What's so important about-"

"Nothing!" she told him hurriedly. "Nothing, I'm just- I have to go to the hospital wing, I'm feeling sick-"

"Hermione!" Harry said. "Hey, wait!"

She couldn't wait, though. She had to do something about this – tell Dumbledore- no, by then it would be too late, the moon was already in the sky-

The answer came to her in a rush as she fumbled with the timeturner. She had to get to the Shrieking Shack before Lupin did – because he'd get there just as he was changing, and she had no illusions about being able to take on a fully grown werewolf – but how had Pettigrew managed it? Hermione flipped the hourglass once, twice-

"Hermione, what's going on?" she heard Ron saying.

The world disappeared in a rush – spinning, whirling, people coming and going, sometimes going through her-

"Miss Granger, you know the law – you know what is at stake… You – must – not – be – seen."

"I'm going to lock you in. It is… five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it."

She stumbled a bit as the timeturner's magic ended abruptly.

Hermione looked around for clues as to her exact time- a grandfather clock near the entrance to the dormitory said five thirty.

Five thirty… I'm well before dinner, but it's winter- the sun will set soon… I have time now to talk to Dumbledore-

She stopped, a hand to her heart.

Because… she couldn't talk to Dumbledore. She hadn't told him anything at all yet, and explaining again would take too long- not to mention she hadn't seen herself in his office…

Hermione chewed nervously on her lip as she ran, trying not to panic. In truth, she'd just made the prediction… Lupin wouldn't get to the shack for at least another hour…

She couldn't tell the teachers. She definitely couldn't tell Harry or Ron. And damn it all, but Sirius was gone right when she could've used his help the most!

A strange and utterly forbidden thought entered her mind then. She could do it. She could get there first. It was a fifty-fifty chance – if Lupin got there first, she could warn him. If Pettigrew did… well. She didn't fancy her chances against him at all. But the fact was there was no one else.

Sirius… I don't know where he is. I'll have to owl him, in case… in case the worst happens, I suppose. He'll have to know that he can trust Dumbledore.

Hermione hurried to the owlery, ignoring the strange looks she got from the few students she passed in the hallways. They'd have parchment there… hopefully, he'd accept an owl from her…

She tore into the room in a panic, searching desperately for the stacks of parchment and ink she knew had to be here- there, there on the desk. Hermione raced to the small pile of stationary, pulling a quill from her pocket and dipping it into the ink.

Sirius- she started. Then tore the paper up hurriedly, cursing herself for a fool. These things could be intercepted, and they already suspected someone in the castle was helping him.

Padfoot, she wrote on a new sheet of parchment. Moony is going to be attacked tonight at the shack, when he's changed. Wormtail is here at Hogwarts. I'll have to try and stop him. If I-

She paused. How to put this?

If I don't make it, you can trust Dumbledore.

-H

Hermione pressed her lips into a thin line as she folded the paper and looked around for an owl trustworthy enough…

"Hedwig!" she said, catching sight of the snowy white owl.

Harry's owl cocked her head at Hermione curiously for a moment before fluttering down toward her. Hermione swallowed, putting forward the parchment tentatively. "Hedwig," she whispered, her hand trembling. "I need you to- to find Sirius Black, and give this to him. I don't know where he is, but it's important, and it needs to be as soon as you can. And… Harry can't know."

Hedwig hooted once, suspicious, but Hermione sniffled unhappily. "It's for his own good, you know. But this- this might be my last request or something similarly silly like that. So… could you please? If I get back, I'll slip you an extra treat…"

The owl seemed to regard her sadly for a moment before nipping her finger gently in an affirmative gesture. Hermione felt something inside her deflate in relief. "Oh thank you, Hedwig, thank you so much!" She tied the letter to the owl's leg and watched for a moment as she beat her wings, rising majestically to the top of the room and through a window, her feathers turning crimson in the setting sun…

Sunset. She had to hurry.

Hermione pulled her wand, rushing out and around the corner, trying to remember how to get to the Whomping Willow – it was near Hagrid's Hut, if she could just catch sight of it-

The thought hit her, as she made it to the outside, gasping, that she might die.

It paralyzed her for a moment – because while she'd suspected it before, it had never been a real concept. Just an abstract idea, something far in the future… her hand went to her timeturner.

"There will always be things worth dying for," she was saying bitterly, head in her hands. "So Harry died and Fred died- it wasn't worth it to me, though, I want them alive-"

A sob wrenched its way free of her throat, but she somehow forced herself to keep going.

Because they weren't dead yet.

And that wasn't her. Not yet.

So she forced her mind from the subject, instead trying to remember every single curse Sirius had taught her, every dirty trick-

But she could only come up with the proud way he'd looked at her when she managed to knock him off his feet – which one had that been? – and then, the way he'd taken care of her when she'd pushed herself too hard- his wry smiles, and the way he would sometimes let her see the darkness, just a little, because he trusted her…

Hermione nearly tripped as she skidded to a stop, staring at the ball of ginger fur in front of her.

Crookshanks was stretching lazily in front of the tree, eyeing her with a small amount of interest. She found herself unable to move, any words she might have said stuck in her throat.

The cat settled on its front paws, staring at the carefully concealed hole she knew to be below the tree – its tail twitched in anticipation, as though waiting for something… but she realized Crookshanks was trying to tell her something, not waiting…

He's in there, the cat was saying. He's waiting.

Hermione swallowed, her suspicions confirmed.

"Can you get me in?" she asked her familiar quietly.

And before she could utter another noise – before she could scream in surprise or in fear for her pet's life- Crookshanks was leaping into the tree's range, dodging branches and angry swipes, darting like a squash-nosed panther in to hit something with his paw…

The tree stopped abruptly, and Hermione saw that he was now sitting beside the passage just as lazily as he'd been before, licking at his paw as though he'd done nothing special whatsoever.

She stumbled toward the cat, her heart fluttering desperately beneath her hand. Crookshanks looked at her amusedly, as though to say, Well, you asked.

"Very funny," she said. "I- you've been wonderful company. I hope you know that."

The cat arched its back and gave her a warm look (or as warm as a cat ever got) before walking off easily, tail in the air.

She smiled once, achingly. And looked up toward the sky, taking in the stars, the sight of Hogwarts against the horizon…

Hermione looked up to one of the windows, a kind of instinct taking her – for just a moment, she thought she might have seen someone at the window, watching her… but she must have been imagining it, because it was too dark for her to have made out any such thing from here.

Finally, Hermione slipped beneath the tree.

Darkness. The tense darkness where you didn't know what was around the corner, what was right in front of you- Hermione found herself wishing she could turn into a small animal herself. It would have made things so much less frightening, being closer to the ground, more unobtrusive.

She knew the sun was just now dipping below the horizon, sending the world into darkness. That the moon would soon be out, and she would be trapped inside a shack with a werewolf and a mass murderer.

Hermione found herself at the end of the passage then, but she knew what to do. This passage was made by the same people that had created the passage below Honeydukes, if she was correct. She pushed up, heaving against the trapdoor above her. It opened with a slight creak, and she winced as she clambered out. One of her knees picked up a splinter as it scraped against the old wooden floor, but she knew that was the least of her worries at the moment.

Her fingers tightened on her wand as she crept up the staircase inside the Shrieking Shack, trying not to stop and wonder that she was the only student of her time to ever see it. A stair squeaked below her foot, and she gasped, putting a hand over her mouth as she did.

No one seemed to notice, if indeed anyone was there at all, so she continued upward fearfully, wishing she could silence the house's creaking and moaning altogether without being suspicious.

The staircase continued upward – she found herself at a door, soon, closed in front of her but leaking a sickly light from it.

You could still turn back, a traitorous voice inside her said. As long as you haven't seen anyone, it's still safe to turn back…

Hermione quashed it with more effort than she would have liked. She knelt down quietly, putting her eye to one of the cracks and looking inside.

The room was empty, which was surprising. She'd seen Lupin there, apparently, and Pettigrew- but neither was there now.

Had she somehow been wrong? Had she really just been daydreaming-

No, something within her said with utter certainty. It was real, it was tonight. I'll just have to go in and wait- that way I can get Pettigrew as he opens the door…

She took a deep breath then and pushed it open lightly, hand trembling. A few more steps and she could sit down with her wand pointed at the only entrance…

Something hit her from behind, sending her sprawling into the room. Hermione yelped as an arm closed about her neck, squeezing harshly- she'd dropped her wand, where was it-

"You!" a harsh voice near her ear hissed. "I should have known it would be you, clever little girl."

Hermione felt sick as she grasped numbly for her wand. But it was too far away- she wasn't strong enough to overpower an adult, by any means…

"Let her go, Peter," a hard voice said. "Or I'll finish this now."

She stumbled as the man behind her swept around to hold her in front of him. There was a wand touching her heart now- Hermione looked up with swimming vision to see haggard robes and clear blue eyes…

"Let her go," Lupin said quietly.

Pettigrew was doing some quick thinking behind her, she realized, trying to figure out how to salvage the situation. Meanwhile, her air was getting thin- Hermione coughed, sure her face was turning blue by now, and he reluctantly loosened his grip on her. She gasped in cool air, testing the Animagus' grip on her as she did so.

"Well, well, Moony," Peter said pleasantly, and her face twisted in disgust at his tone of voice. "What a pleasant surprise. I thought you were staying in your office these days."

Lupin's face was pale, she realized, but composed nonetheless. And Hermione's eyes darted to the full moon rising behind him – her teacher seemed to understand her concern, but was pretending nothing was wrong in the least.

"You killed them, Peter," he said quietly, his wand moving upward even as Pettigrew backed away, forcing her higher than himself. "It wasn't Sirius at all, was it?"

Pettigrew, behind her, was thinking quickly. Lupin stepped forward, and his arm on her neck tightened.

"You should have known," Lupin said, looking sad. "You should have known – even as children, we never forgave slights against each other- do you remember what happened to Rosier, Peter, when he destroyed your mother's book?"

Peter stepped back from him, and she felt his fright, his horrified understanding…

"Can you even understand," Lupin said hoarsely. "Can you begin to comprehend what it felt like to have every single person that ever cared about me snatched away at once? I can see why Sirius might have blown up a street to get at you now…"

"He didn't," Hermione choked out, making his glance flit to her. "He faked his own death and left Sirius with the consequences-" a sharp pull against her neck stopped whatever else she might have wanted to say.

Her professor's eyes seemed to soften a moment as he looked at her. "I'm sorry you had to get caught up in such a childish vendetta, Hermione."

She wanted to tell him it was more than childish – that people had died, that Sirius had gone to Azkaban for it – but she couldn't. She knew he understood it anyway.

Pettigrew was backing away again, watching his old friend with shifting eyes. "You were prefect back then, Remus," he said, sounding slightly whiny, "you can't have imagined being intimidated, powerless – I couldn't take points, I couldn't hurt them back-"

"We did it for you," Lupin said tiredly. "But it doesn't matter anymore. You chose, Peter-"

"Expelliarmus!" Peter's voice cried, before he'd even finished, and she realized too late that he had backed away to grab her wand. Lupin's own went flying into his hand, and he pushed Hermione away from him to point it at the werewolf. "Stupefy!"

Lupin staggered back, hit full in the chest, but didn't fall. Hermione remembered then that werewolves had a resistance to most offensive spells- that was bad, as well, it meant that he was very close to changing, for that to manifest-

"Stupefy!" Peter shouted again. "Stupefy, stupefy, stupefy-" Hermione leapt at him desperately, grabbing for her wand. He struggled with her for a moment, and she saw that Lupin had collapsed across from him – and was now changing, twisting –

Pettigrew threw her away finally, against the wall. Hermione felt her head crack against it, a sharp pain shooting through it as he advanced, eyes glittering. "You were helping him. Thought you were incredibly smart, fooling the rat, didn't you? I wonder what Sirius will do when he finds you eviscerated- won't think me so weak then, will he-"

"You can't," she said hoarsely, frightened despite her former resolution, and trying desperately to gain a single glance of Lupin, worried. "You can't, because Voldemort will want me, and you know it."

"Why would the Dark Lord want an ugly little mudblood like you?" Peter asked, and she realized he hadn't heard the prophecy yet. Probably a good thing, in retrospect. "Even if he does, for some reason," he said with an eerie smile. "He'll be happy enough with me for bringing him back…"

Hermione swallowed, staring at him with a fear that didn't need to be manufactured, but watching Lupin's now still wolf form out of the corner of her eye. No, he wasn't moving – why wasn't he moving, he was alive, wasn't he-

"Moony won't be joining us any time soon," Pettigrew said quietly, as though reading her mind. "Spells fired before the change still have enough effect- he'll be out for hours… tell me, have you ever tasted an Unforgivable…"

Hermione stared at him in horror, openly looking about for any escape, any kind of help at all-

"Crucio!" the man cried, pointing the wand at her, and Hermione felt herself tear open – she was being pulled apart, slowly, and he was going to kill her, but it didn't matter compared to the pain-

It stopped without warning, but she realized she'd curled herself into a ball, shuddering and screaming.

"Oh don't worry," Pettigrew said with a high laugh. "No one will think anything of your screams – you see, this place is supposed to be haunted…"

Hermione strained to get hold of herself, but her mind was slipping every time she tried to grasp at it, she couldn't think-

"Come to think of it," he whispered to himself, "I could so easily send you back for your little friends… yes. Yes, why not? Another one of those and you won't be able to resist at all… Crucio!"

She bit down on her lip this time as the pain spread through her. If he thought she were unconscious, he would have to come near- she could grab a wand, then, and once she had one, she might be able to outmatch him with a few surprises…

But her ruse was becoming reality now, as the pain began to send her mind into a blank, black state. She had to stay awake… had to get a wand…

Hermione felt herself falling, felt her awareness rushing away from her…

But the pain stopped. She heard something at the edge of her hearing – a yell and a bang, the thud of someone falling to the floor. Footsteps rushing toward her-

"Hermione!" a panicked voice said. "Hermione, please be alive, please-" A hand on her neck, checking for a pulse. "Oh god, Hermione…"

She coughed weakly. "Sirius- you-" Her words choked off as she was enveloped in a desperately tight hug.

"What on earth possessed you to- what were you thinking- this is the exact thing I told you not to do-"

"Lupin," she managed, her vision blurry. "Is he-"

"Alive," Sirius responded. "Yes. We're going to have to leave before he wakes up, though, or you might get bitten…"

"And Peter?" Hermione asked.

His grip on her tightened, and she struggled to escape his arms, the blood rushing to her head. "What about him?" she asked. "What happened?"

Sirius held her down. "He's gone," the black-haired man spat. "He changed into a rat and got away, but not before I took the wands and hit him… he'll not be bothering us for a long while."

She let out a cry of panic. "No- no, you don't understand, we have to go after him-"

"You don't have to do anything but get up to the hospital wing," he told her, picking her up and throwing her over a shoulder. "Peter won't be doing anything at all for a long time."

Hermione struggled, eyes wide. "You can't- people will see you, are you mad-"

Sirius picked something up from the floor, though. The invisibility cloak. "I can extend it temporarily, I think, once we get out of here," he muttered at her. "I've been experimenting with it…"

Hermione closed her gaping mouth quickly. "But you don't understand," she said desperately, her head still spinning hopelessly. "The crystal ball- he's going to bring him back-" Her breath was becoming short, and the back of her head was throbbing awfully… Sirius was very calmly ignoring her as he closed the door behind him, locking it with his own wand (where he'd gotten it, she still didn't know) and stepping cautiously down the stairs.

"Don't talk," he said quietly. "You're going to fall unconscious before I get you there, and it seems like you've gotten yourself a concussion…"

Her vision wavered as she twisted her head to try and look at him – but all she could see was the back of his head, his hair brushing across her cheek… "I'm trying," she murmured. "But the rat…"

"Don't worry about him," Sirius said reassuringly, seemingly unaware of the significance. "He's long gone, there's no way we'd be able to find him. Besides which, you're in absolutely no condition to be left alone while I go off after revenge."

She stared ahead hazily, not able to see him. "You're not, then?" she asked in surprise.

"Of course not," he said pleasantly, though there was an edge to his voice now, barely detectable. "You are, for the moment, much more important."

And even as she felt a part of her shuddering at these words – the doom, the foreshadowing inherent in them – another part of her was feeling oddly warm. Giddy, almost.

"Oh," she managed – before her eyes finally closed, and she thought no more.