POLLS CLOSED 'CUZ SIRIUS WAS GETTING BEAT DOWN IN AN EMBARASSING SORT OF WAY.

Sirius: 26

Remus: 60

Threesome: 5

Not saying this is how it's going to turn out 'cuz that's not a surprise, but thank you all for your input and your reasons that ranged from legitimate to giggly-fun.

--

New Poll: I want to know how many of you think Hermione is going to get out, and how many think she'll go mad, released or not. Would love your feedback.

--

A/N: Okay, so it took one more day than expected but it IS rather long and fun-filled. Hoping to have the next one up by late tomorrow night when I'm done with class, and that will be back with Hermione. Love you all oodles for your fabulous reviewing. Enjoy!

--

--

Sunday, September 18th...

One week after Hermione's trial...

The Gryffindor common room was deserted; a virtual ghost town, with a fine layer of dust settling in the corners where feet no longer trod. As per every evening after dinner, the large grated fireplace was filled with a brightly crackling flame. It was an empty symbol unnoticed in the equally empty common room.

Remus was in the library.

He'd scarcely been away from it for the past five days, and more recently he'd been missing classes. It wasn't rare to find him passed out in a pile of thick volumes while in the middle of a late night research marathon, or hidden behind a mound of empty styrofoam coffee cups, with the book so close to his tired eyes that his nose touched the pages.

Sirius was on the grounds.

Every spare moment between classes was spent in the small grass clearing beside the lake, his presence completely obscured by the three-quarter circling of trees on the fringe of the forbidden forest. It wouldn't be until hours past dark that he would finally drag himself through the portrait and drop into his bed, not bothering to shower until the next morning when he'd drag himself out of the tower and repeat it all over again; only able to sleep by working himself to pure exhaustion

Harry and Ron were never seen.

They'd missed every class since Hermione had been forcibly removed from the Great Hall, and after her sentencing they'd been running around with the Order grasping at everything and anything that could be done to get her out, ignoring any and all teachers, most especially Dumbledore. No one knew quite what words had been exchanged between the two parties, but they knew that there had been a falling out of drastic proportions.

Luckily, the white-jackets had cleared out immediately following the arrest, and there had been no following investigation in which they'd had to conceal Hermione's white cube; which was especially fortunate because they had no idea how to put everything back inside.

Two days ago they had disappeared into Hermione's room and no one had seen hide nor hair of them since. The atmosphere of the Gryffindor tower was despondent at best.

Lily and James were the only ones out of the six to have gone to dinner that night.

BANG!

The portrait slammed open with a disgruntled cry from the Fat Lady.

"JAMES!"

The raven-haired boy in question was walking quickly through the common room, across one of the few worn paths, and up the boys' dormitory steps with his girlfriend, Lily Evans, right behind him.

"James, don't be reckless!" The redhead pleaded, grabbing his sleeve.

"I'm going," he replied firmly, and fell to his knees to begin rummaging through his trunk. Lily ducked beneath the flying paraphernalia and knelt beside him.

"What is the matter with you?!" She tried to shut the trunk lid but he was stronger than her, and he kept it held up with one hand while the other continued searching and Lily struggled to use all her weight to close it again.

"Someone has to do something," he said, his voice growing louder in the empty dormitory.

"Everyone's doing something, James. Remus is in the—"

James cut her off. "Remus has gone through every legal book and hasn't found anything that we can appeal for, Sirius is running himself down without point, and Harry and Ron have become recluse. No one is doing anything."

A thick swell of liquid cloth pooled into his lap and a crinkled parchment was soon thrown on top of it. Grabbing his invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map in one hand he stood up to leave, but Lily's hand tightened around his wrist.

"We may not have found a way to help Hermione," she said lowly. "Yet – But we are doing something.'

"That's not good enough," James insisted. He turned on his heel and stalked out of the dorms, Lily having to jog on her shorter legs to keep up and maintain her grip on his forearm.

"I know you're worried, but—"

"We have no idea what they could be doing to her!" James shouted, pulling away. She watched him pace the common room anxiously, stirring up clouds of dust whenever he strayed into the disused portions of the floor. "She's been there six days, Lily! Six days!"

"I know," she whispered, using the couch back to support her. "But the Order—"

"Worthless!"

Lily's fists slammed onto her hips and she gave him a look that was clearly Hermione's 'you're-being-utterly-daft' look. "And what's your plan?"

He hesitated in his pacing and looked pensive. "I'm gonna get to Azkaban...find her...and start blowing stuff up," he nodded his head in abstract agreement with himself, as if he were deciding what a great plan he had after all.

"JAMES!" Lily shrieked.

The portrait door swung open and they both turned to look at the new arrival. It was Dumbledore and he was supporting a half-unconscious Remus.

"Have I interrupted something?" He asked in a tone too light for contrasting with the mood between Lily and James.

She pointed a quick finger at her boyfriend. "James is going after, Hermione."

He scowled at her before turning a defiant look to Dumbledore; arms cross haughtily over his chest. "So?"

"That is ill-advised, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said quietly.

"What good is your advice," James muttered, but everyone heard him – save, maybe, Remus.

"James," Lily hissed, mortified.

"What?" he answered defensively. "Maybe Harry and Ron are right – he's supposed to be the most powerful wizard in the world and he can't even keep a seventeen year old girl out of prison."

Dumbledore 'hmph'ed beneath his beard and nodded. "You are entitled to your opinion, Mr. Potter."

James' lips were pressed into a thin line.

"But I must ask," Dumbledore murmured. "That you never again accuse me of doing 'nothing' where Miss Granger is concerned. I would trade places with her if I could."

Arms slowly unfolding themselves, James looked chagrined. He might have said something if there hadn't been a particularly loud groan from Remus, trying to stand on his own.

Lily hurried over and helped Dumbledore guide the exhausted Gryffindor to one of the couches. Musty from neglect, the sofa's acrid fumes stymied a fit of coughing from Remus. Lily was already conjuring a compress and searching her satchel for a spare pepper-up potion when another set of footsteps entered the room.

"Party, eh?"

"Padfoot!" "Sirius!"

"Tree." Was all he said.

He must have been wearing at least five pounds of dirt and twice that amount of grass. Twigs were jutting out of every seeming location, and there was a large bloody smear at his temple that disappeared into his ebony hairline.

"James." And just like that, their argument was forgotten and James was slipping Sirius' arm over his shoulders and helping him over to the couch so Lily could care over both of their friends.

"Tree?" He grunted in question, moving Sirius around the coffee table and depositing him on the floor beside Remus' couch.

He hissed in pain at his unceremonious dropping and rubbed ruefully at his shoulder. "Apparently, I've got me a stronger right hook than I thought..."

James quirked an eyebrow.

"It fell on me."

Lily was astounded. "The tree fell on you?!"

There was a sigh. "Only...you...would punch...a tree." The breathy words were followed by a jerking chuckle. Remus pushed himself into a sitting position, leaning heavily on the armrest, and the damp rag of Lily's conjuring fell into his lap.

"Only you would torture yourself reading," Sirius joked back.

Remus' face was washed blank, and Sirius' face scowled as he realized his error in words. Remus looked away from his friends, only to glance back in surprise as a wheezy breath pushed weakly at his cheek.

"Lily?" He asked in surprise.

She had one hand pressed to her breast and her face was flushed pink as she tried to suck in air that didn't seem to be making it far down her throat.

"Lily?" James was on his feet now, leaning over her, and Dumbledore was moving quickly around to their side. "LILY?!"

She was clutching at her neck now, mouth opening and shutting like a landed fish and her face turning redder by the minute. Her beautiful emerald eyes were filled with an ugly, silent fear. Pushing himself weakly up, Remus moved with the strength of a newborn foal as he reached out and held the back of his palm a fraction of an inch above her gaping lips.

"She's not breathing!" he exclaimed as loudly as he was able, but it came out as a desperate sort of murmur.

Dumbledore had to forcibly move James and Sirius out of his way. Lowering himself beside her face in a liquid fluidity that spoke of an age younger than his own, he pressed a weather hand to the large pulse in her throat. It was thumping erratically in a frantic accompaniment to Lily's panic, but the rhythm was already slowing as her lungs burned with carbon dioxide and her circulation slowed.

He pressed his wand lightly against the small triangle of skin bared between the unbuttoned collar of her shirt and said, "Ennervate!"

Like a Muggle doctor shouting 'clear', a visible shock went through Lily's slender frame and her back arched up and off the couch. It was a painful sound as she gasped in a desperate breath of blessed oxygen.

James pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. "Bloody hell, Lily," he exclaimed into her hair. "You sure know how to scare a bloke."

"Step back a moment," Dumbledore instructed. James, still grateful to him for helping his girlfriend, moved away from her with only a kiss to her forehead as a hesitation.

Their Headmaster cast a spell none of them had ever heard before and the only sign that Lily had been the spell's target was a slight shiver down her body as it worked over her. "I feel kinda numb-y," she described poorly.

"I had to shield your power before it did damage to you," he explained, straightening his robes.

Lily looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "Power?"

Dumbledore was shaking his head. "Ah, but Merlin if I haven't gone and gotten ahead of myself. Will one of you please fetch Mr. Weasley and the other Mr. Potter? This is something that affects the seven of you."

"Seven?" James repeated. "You mean Hermione too?"

Dumbledore nodded. "That is why we need Misters Potter and Weasley."

"That'll be easy," Sirius deadpanned.

Remus' breath hitched and he gave Sirius an odd look. Sirius rolled his eyes, "I was kidding."

Remus' frown deepened and he seemed confused. "I know..." he said slowly, taking deep breaths to regain his breathing.

"Mr. Black," Dumbledore interrupted. "Perhaps one of you should go now, before Mr. Lupin has a similar episode."

Sirius instantly looked up to the quiet boy on the couch and tried to cover his surprise. James and Remus were both looking at Lily.

"What...?"

"You should go, hun," James told her.

Remus added, "They might actually open the door."

Lily floundered helplessly. "I...I don't..."

"Lily," James pleaded.

"Maybe we should just leave them alone," she argued. "They just lost their best friend—"

"Hey!" Sirius shouted making Lily press a hand to her temple. "So did we!"

Lily was shaking her head. "It's not the same, Sirius. They've been friends for years. It'd be like if you lost James."

Just like men, Sirius and James met eyes and then abruptly looked away again. It was the equivalent of a woman's teary-eyed-hug. Lily, satisfied that her point had come across, went on.

"I saw the way they were around each other – they aren't just friends. They're..." She gestured aimlessly with her hands trying to find the words. "They're more."

"I don't understand," Remus murmured, prompting her to explain it in greater detail.

Her finely arched brows furrowed a moment. Then her eyes brightened, like a lumos spell going off in her head, and it seemed she had found the answer. Connecting her thumb and index finger with their partners on her other hand she held up her hands for view.

"They're like a triangle," she began animatedly.

"A triangle?" Sirius interrupted. They all looked at him in surprise, Lily's hands still up in the air, and his face was unusually grave.

"Y-Yes," Lily answered, a little unsure. Sirius cursed and began digging through his bag. He was muttering something about a 'prophecy'.

Dumbledore motioned for her to continue. "Mr. Black, I'm sure, will enlighten us in a few moments time. Please, go on.

She smiled weakly. "If a point was lost," she curled one of her index fingers back against her palm. "It would not longer be a triangle. They hold each other together, and without Hermione—"

"They're falling apart," Remus finished for her.

She nodded. "Exactly. We should let them be."

Dumbledore laid a hand upon her shoulder and she looked up at him with clear bewilderment painted across her delicate features. "Please, Miss Evans. I would not ask if this matter were not of grave importance."

Lily looked to James, as if asking his opinion, and the deep-set frown on his face wasn't helpful. She gave him a plaintive look that would stem any argument he might have been coming up with, and finally came up with her own decision.

"I'll try my best, Professor," she told him, standing up. "But I am no Hermione Granger."

Setting the rag beside the frantically rummaging Sirius for him to clean up with, Lily straightened her robes and set off for the shadowed doorway concealed beneath the girls' staircase.

"Polaris," she murmured to the portrait of a little girl in her hoopskirt and petticoats. She was petting a giraffe.

"So sorry, madame," the girl curtsied, blonde ringlets bouncing. "The two gentlemen inside have gone and changed the password."

Lily had figured as much. Rapping her knuckles lightly above the painting's inhabitant, she leaned closer to hear better.

"Harry? Ron?"

There was no answer.

"It's Lily. Please, open the door."

The blonde girl smiled apologetically when there was again no answer. Lily tugged anxiously on a piece of her hair. "Listen. We may have found something – it involves Hermione."

There was a loud click of a lock being slid back and very slowly the portrait door swung open.

She wasn't sure if Ron had slept in a week. His clothes were rumpled beyond repair and his hair was greasy and wild around his darkened eyes with their tired bags. He was standing so far into the doorway that she couldn't see around him.

"What?" he snapped.

Lily grabbed his hand. "Please, Ron, come out into the common room; Harry too. It's about all of us."

There was a short grunt and Harry's head appeared over Ron's shoulder. "Alright," he said in a blasé tone.

Lily's shoulder visibly sagged with relief, and she grabbed both of their hands – as if afraid they'd suddenly change their minds and dart back into Hermione's room – and led them out into the common room. When the saw Dumbledore standing beside the couch, both of them tensed and their grips on Lily's hand tightened.

Lily gasped and a sharp jolt of ice sliced through her back. She coughed suddenly, stumbled forward, and might have covered her mouth if Harry and Ron's grip hadn't been painfully attached to her. The room was reeling around her like a carousel gone off its axis and she tasted bile in the back of her throat. She couldn't breathe much less vomit.

"LILY!" James yelled. He nearly vaulted over the couch to get to her.

"Mr. Black," Dumbledore ordered firmly. "Remove them from her."

Sirius didn't even have to get up. Staring in horror at the suffocating girl, Harry and Ron both released her hands and stumbled back in disbelief. Instantly, Lily sagged against James and breathed in deeply, one hand pressed over her heart.

Dumbledore murmured his earlier spell again and Lily shivered in James' arms.

"What the hell-" Ron exclaimed.

"Have any of you fully read the Tempus Infractus Scrolls?" Dumbledore asked.

They all shook their heads.

He cleared his throat, "As you know, it contained the spell that brought these four to our present time – the spell to "unite the seven warriors through time". Miss Granger, however, believed that it contained more and so several members of the Order as well as outside sources have been working to translate the remainder of the scrolls."

"What did it say?" Harry demanded evenly.

"It described something called the "Seven-Pointed Star of Power" – each point delegated to a separate influence; Strength, Truth, Heart, and Courage ruled by the stronger Man, Beast, and Magic."

Remus pieced together the information quicker than the rest. "You mean we—"

"Yes, Mr. Lupin," the wizard nodded. "You are those powers. Miss Evans was awakened into 'Heart'."

Lily's eyes were as wide as bludgers.

"That is why you were having those episodes, Miss Evans," he explained. "The first I know not what the cause, the second came from Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley's strong...disfavor towards myself." They both scowled at this. "Physical contact enhances your power – it would have been worse had I not shielded you beforehand."

Lily was staring hard at Remus and he shifted uncomfortably under her piercing jade stare.

"I must ask," Dumbledore voiced. "Are you able to differentiate between which emotions you're intercepting?"

She turned to face the Headmaster, keeping eye contact with Remus long enough to slowly answer "Yes".

"Very good."

"Then what are the rest of us?" Remus asked quickly, steering the topic away. He was rewarded with a painfully jab to his knee.

Sirius was giving him a disapproving look as the smaller boy rubbed at his leg. "You, Moony," he said knowingly. "Are Truth."

Ron seconded that deduction. "You couldn't keep your mouth shut at the Three Broomsticks."

"At least I'm not fancied by a giraffe," Remus shot back with a satisfied smug. Ron was as red as his disheveled hair.

"Remember when that entire box of Hagrid's snifflers came after you?" Sirius reminded him, adding his own two knuts for a second time. "You're definitely Beast."

"Well Ron didn't make a tree fall on him," James butted in, turning on his friend. "And you shattered that Butterbeer with just your hand."

Sirius crossed his arms over his chest, "I have no problem being Strength. You're just jealous."

"No," Lily defended. "He's Courage – even if that means he's reckless enough to try and break into Azkaban."

"Speaking of stupid things," James interrupted, good-naturedly insulting himself. "I believe one of us got involved with a bit of fisticuffs a few days back."

Harry frowned at him, and the look deepened into a scowl as he glanced up at a blank-faced Dumbledore. "I figured that out at the beginning of this little meeting."

Lily smiled widely to try and smooth the ruffled feathers. "Well if Harry's Man, than that makes Hermione –"

"Magic," Ron supplied. "Makes sense."

Dumbledore stepped forward. "Something must have happened to the seven of you that served as a catalyst to your powers."

Hermione's face fazed into Remus' mind. Her brow was furrowed and she was tapping a quill against her chin deep in thought. She tucked a curl behind her ear and looked at him, head tipped slightly to the side as if she were listening to something.

"Perhaps – with the right people, of course – instead of tapping into a person's sense of self, it taps into...something else."

"Defense Against the Dark Arts."

The moment he said it aloud, Hermione's face disappeared, but he couldn't help but think he'd seen a small smile on her face as it went.

The rest of them were looking at him expectantly. He saw comprehension dawn on a few of their faces as he said, "The Liberatio Praebeo spell, do you remember? None of us saw the same thing."

"A castle," Sirius supplied.

"A ring," Lily offered. "And a heart..."

"I saw a wonky looking skull, a wand," James' eyes squinted as he tried to remember. "And a lion, I think."

"A constellation – Orion, maybe – with a sword," Harry begrudgingly answered.

"Bells and chimes. Gold," Remus added.

"Cat eyes," Ron was shaking his head, frustrated that he hadn't connected it sooner. "Furs."

Dumbledore was nodding his head again. "Do any of you know what Miss Granger saw?"

They all shook their heads in turn until it came to Harry and Ron. They weren't moving.

"Harry?" Lily queried, perplexed.

The raven-haired boy shot Dumbledore a foul look that softened at Lily's confused face. He shifted his weight between his feet, and looked to Ron in silent conference. Finally, though he looked loathed to divulge it, he answered. "Hermione...she left a diary behind. We haven't looked through it yet."

--

Twenty minutes later, Harry and Ron had locked themselves back in Hermione's room, after being given an appointment with the Order to control their powers, and were continuing the long process of going through her things.

--

The last two days in the filled room had been spent sorting all of Hermione's research into a large pile atop her bed. It was not a small pile to say the least. Ron dropped the last binding of translations atop the miniature Everest and shrunk it all to fit into one of the drawers of the magical filing cabinet Harry had transfigured.

The red leather embossed diary was still sitting on her vanity, untouched.

Ron was in the middle of transferring the racks of Polyjuice Potion to the cabinet, when Harry called him over. Depositing the half empty container of flasks beside the waiting rack of Veritaserum, Ron dusted off his hands and moved over to his friend, sitting against the side of Hermione's bed.

"What did you find?" He asked, crouching wearily beside him.

Harry was holding a rather small cardboard box in his lap. His hands were shaking. Burned into the box's lid were the letters 'GT'. Golden Trio.

Ron reached over and pulled the lid off. Nestled at the very top were letters addressed to him and Harry. They both grabbed them and Harry opened his.

Dear Harry,

If you're reading this, then my fears have proven true. Please, don't be angry that I didn't tell you, but I couldn't risk you and Ron for my sake. I do know, though, that I can say this with certainty for the future: once you read this letter, I will be missing you both terribly. Azkaban isn't the brightest of places to spend ones time, but it's worse off without your presence. I can only pray that it won't be too long before we'll be back together.

Harry had to stop for a moment to clear the lump from his throat.

Please, help Dumbledore any way you can in my absence. I know things may seem dark now, but we're so close to defeating Voldemort; so close you can almost touch it with your fingertips. I've left everything to you and Ron – I know that you will use it to the Order's every advantage in this war. By now you must have seen a great deal more than you'd expected, and I can only apologize again for not telling you. You both have always been the troublemakers, and I suppose this year was my turn for skirting the rules. I did what I thought needed to be done. I'd ask that you send my research where it is most needed, and kindly send my potions to Professor Snape.

He looked around at the shelves and crates of dutifully labeled and stoppered potion flasks and worried why she'd felt the need to brew such dangerous and, in some cases, illegal potions.

I've written letters to the others, as well. Please see that they get them, and that the papers in this box get to where they need to be as well.

Now, I'm afraid I must end my letter; it's nearly time for the Quidditch game to begin and you know I've never missed seeing you play. Don't let what's happened dishearten you – who else will take care of Ron? Be kind to the Marauders and do your best to help them get back home. I fear I was rather unsuccessful in the time I had to find a spell to send them back.

Here the writing started to become a little smeared and watermarks marred Hermione's perfect cursive.

I feel rather silly, and must look it too, crying over a piece of parchment. But I can't help, sitting here writing you this letter, thinking of a long piece of my life without you. No one would have thought it would have taken a troll for us to become friends, but it was I who never thought I could become so attached to someone. This sounds much like one of those ridiculous love letters one reads in Witch Weekly, but I just know you'll understand what I'm trying to say. We've become so close, and I'm only just now realizing it, and, as the stories go, it's come far too late.

Don't laugh as I tell you this, but when I was little my mum told me about a boy she'd known when she was a little girl. She told me they were soul mates. I knew that word and asked if that's why she'd married my father. I remembered being confused when she'd told me that my father hadn't been the boy. She explained to me that she loved my father, but soul mates didn't have anything to do with love. The boy had been her other half. Whenever they were together she felt complete, and when he died young from a sickness she lost a piece of herself that she could never get back. She told me that the one you loved and the one who completed you could be two completely different people, and I suppose I've held on to that belief until now.

I've never been in love with you, but at the same time I can't think of a time when I haven't loved you. Just thinking of being without you has ruined the ink; though, if I tried to rewrite this letter I think I'd ruin more. I don't want to feel empty, but that's what I fear will happen if they take me away from you. I think you might be my soul mate, Harry.

And that's why I'm afraid. I'm afraid for me, but mostly I'm afraid for you and Ron. I'm afraid of what would happen if Voldemort ever found you. I'm afraid that you'll both go on and forget all about me. But it doesn't matter, because no matter the future, I'll always love you both. Azkaban can't be too bad as long as I have you and Ron in my heart.

Please be safe. Love,

Hermione.

Harry roughly wiped the tears from his eyes and coughed loudly to try and clear the thick lump of emotion in his throat. It didn't help. He heard muted sniffling beside him, but couldn't bring himself to look at Ron as he read his own letter.

Vision still watery, he pulled out the remaining envelopes and set them on the floor beside the box. Nestled inside was a small potion's rack, a light blue ribbon tied into a bow around its handle. He lifted it out to read the bottles' labels. Wolfsbane Potion.

He'd completely forgotten about the young Lupin's lycanthropy, but Hermione, always thinking, had remembered and brewed some. It looked like a gift, and Harry remembered dimly that in his parents' time the potion must not have even been invented yet. Tucked between two of the bottles was the envelope addressed to Remus. He set the entire rack on the floor and bent down over the box again.

He picked up the large stack of parchments, the last item in the box, and as he read the first paper a hand went to his mouth in disbelief.

The Properties and Effects of the Aging Potion.

He flipped frantically through the entire stack, but they were all the same, and by the time he was finished he was crying bitter, silent tears. In his hands he held Hermione's homework for the next three weeks.