Chapter Thirty-Three

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The night, which had been cold, dropped several degrees. Head clearing, scrambling to sit up, Hermione shook her head.

"What did I -? Sorry, I…"

Lily stared down, eyes narrowed, hands-on-hips.

"Was that supposed to be funny?"

"Of course it was," Severus said immediately. He draped his cloak over Hermione's shoulders. Her head throbbed, but through the fog, she saw a way out.

"Yes. I...it was a joke."

"Well it wasn't funny," Lily said. She gazed at Hermione for a moment longer, lips parted quizzically, shrugged and skated off.

"Are you alright?" Severus asked, his eyes wide and anxious. "The baby…"

Hermione pressed a hand gingerly to her stomach. Nothing seemed amiss or hurt.

"I feel fine. It's just my ankle."

When they peeled the boot off they both winced at the swollen flesh. Hermione prodded it and decided regretfully that it probably was broken, or at least badly sprained. She mended it with a quick healing spell, and then Severus helped her to her feet.

Within minutes the others reached them, and their voices rose in a babble of concern and questions. Hermione looked, but Lily was out of sight along the dark shoreline.

"That looked like a nasty hit," Arabel said when they began to skate back to shore in a group, marauders and Slytherins alike.

Hermione nodded, her body beginning to untense.

"Yeah. I think I'm alright though."

\\/

But as the weeks flew by, something was different. Hermione couldn't escape from the sense that she had a watcher. Wherever she went, no matter the time, came a tingle at the back of her neck. A warning that someone, somehow, was keeping tabs.

It could be Bellatrix, but she had been biding her time. Defence classes hadn't been physically painful - although the witch still took a childlike pleasure in sharing and describing detailed torture curses and it was beginning to seem unlikely that some of the traumatized Hufflepuff's would last the year. But the role of the quiet observer didn't fit her style.

"I think I'm being followed," Hermione confessed to Severus, who immediately become so overprotective that Hermione regretted sharing. At last, she told him that if she hadn't proved she could look after herself she wouldn't be alive.

Severus told her he'd liked things better during the first trimester when she'd been half asleep all the time.

Hermione was now four months pregnant and had the slightest curve to her abdomen. They had told nobody, and Hermione and Severus had come close to blows one night when he realized she wanted him to take an unbreakable vow to keep the secret.

"It's too dangerous for anyone to know," she insisted.

"It's too dangerous for me not to be able to tell anyone," he countered. And there had been something so fierce in his eyes that she had let it go.

But now.

The presence wasn't malignant, Hermione thought. It wasn't threatening, or the sense that she was at risk of a curse. She wore enough protective shields as part of her everyday clothing that it was unlikely that anything could make it through except an unforgivable anyway, but caution didn't hurt.

The presence was always just out of reach. Hermione would send a silent summoning charm for an invisibility cloak, but one never came. She tried finite to cancel any enchantments and spells that revealed presence but to little avail. After fruitless weeks, she decided that the only way to find out who was following her was to draw them away from the rest of the castle and confront them.

Hermione chose a clear night in early December, and didn't tell Severus. After he had gone to bed she left the common room, making her way out of the castle as visibly and obviously as she could. She stepped out of the front doors and disillusioned herself, moving to the side and waiting. Her back pressed against the cold stones of the castle, Hermione shivered.

Minutes passed.

Hermione pressed her hands to her stomach, stroking absentmindedly. Unexpectedly she felt the smallest flutter inside. Her hands couldn't detect it, but she was certain she had felt something. Breathless, Hermione waited again, and nearly missed the doors of the castle opening with a low creak. They clicked closed, but there was nobody in sight.

Flutter forgotten, alert instantly, Hermione whispered "Incarcerous."

Ropes shot towards the front doors and at first it seemed that they would meet no resistance, but then they touched something and the ropes wrapped themselves swiftly around thin air. The invisible person cursed, and the pillar of ropes seemed to topple to the ground.

It was very odd to see someone invisible wrapped up in ropes. The ropes seemed to be holding the column shape of their own accord. Hermione reached out and touched a very warm, solid human body.

"Who are you?" she demanded. When the person didn't answer Hermione began casting every revealing charm she could. When none of them worked she sat back, perplexed.

"How on earth are you still invisible? You're not a ghost, I can feel that. Who are you?"

The person made no reply, breathing very fast. Hermione patted them down and ascertained that the person was definitely female, with long hair. She sighed.

"Listen, I'm not just going to let you go. So either I can bring you into Dumbledore and we see if he can break the spell, or you can give it up now."

There was no response, so Hermione shrugged and levitated the shape. She made it no more than two steps before the person cried out.

"Okay, stop! I give up."

Hermione almost dropped the spell.

"Lily?"

"I can't lift the spell while I'm tied up, you know," the bundle of ropes said irritably.

Hermione lowered the ropes to the ground. "What on earth do you think you're doing?" she said, vanishing the ropes.

There was no change, and then the air began to shimmer. It took around a minute before Lily was standing in front of Hermione, arms folded, both sheepish and annoyed.

"I can't believe you tied me up."

"Why were you spying on me? Aren't you supposed to be Head Girl?"

"Aren't you supposed to be a death eater?"

Hermione stopped short. "Excuse me?"

"You heard."

"Nope," Hermione said, almost smiling. "Oldest trick in the book, redirection. Let's get back to the part where you've been following me around for weeks. What do you think you're doing?"

Lily was petulant. "I didn't think you'd notice me."

"It was better than the marauders could have done," Hermione admitted. "What spell was that you used to become invisible?"

"I'll tell you that if you answer one of my questions."

"Are you really in a position to be making threats?"

"I've not tied up anymore."

"That can change."

"Alright alright," Lily held up a hand. "Just answer one of my questions and I'll tell you what spell I used."

"How about you tell me why you were following me first."

Lily sighed, and seemed to shrink.

"It feels a bit stupid now," she said. "I just wanted to be sure before I confronted you. But now, I've seen enough. I'm sure."

"Sure of what?"

Lily took a deep breath.

"You're a seer," she said. Hermione squinted at her.

"I'm sorry?"

"You're a seer," Lily said more firmly. "I've been watching. It started when you called me Lily Potter. I thought it was a joke, but I kept remembering how you said it. You didn't even know I was listening, and you said it so matter of factly like the other person wasn't supposed to find it funny."

Hermione let out a breath.

"And what else have you seen?" she said, trying to sound like she'd been found out.

"You always know the lesson material before it's introduced," Lily ticked off on her fingers. "You hate Peter for a reason nobody can explain, least of all him. James said you knew about Remus without being told, and it's just other little things. You're never surprised when the deaths are read out in the morning and…"

Hermione waited for more, but Lily stopped without warning and scrutinized Hermione's face. "Damn," she said. "You're not a seer."

"I - wait, what?" Hermione said, trying to keep up. "Wait - yes, I am. I'm a seer."

"No you're not," Lily said unhappily.

"Yes, I am. Hang on a minute, weren't you trying to convince me how you knew I was a minute ago?" Hermione said, bewildered.

"And you looked more relieved the more I talked," Lily said. "Like you were so pleased that I'd given you an explanation you could work with."

Hermione put her hands on her hips. "Hold up, you can't infer that just because I looked relieved."

"I know," Lily said. "But you also just set off the lie-detecting charm in my pocket."

Hermione scowled. Lily looked so much like Harry, the same mischievous sparkle in her eyes. It was, Hermione thought grimly, the exact look that Harry got when he did something he shouldn't, but was certain he would get away with.

"It's cold out here," Hermione said. "I'm not gonna stand here and listen to what I am, or am not lying about. Don't follow me again."

She turned on her heel, almost slipped in the snow, and marched back towards the castle. Lily's voice rang out behind her, clear and crisp as a bell.

"Does Severus know?"

Hermione paused. "Know what?"

"That you can read minds?"

Hermione half laughed. "Now you're just guessing."

"That you're an unspeakable working undercover?"

"Nice try."

"That you're from another time."

"Keep guessing," Hermione said, hitching up her robes to climb the castle steps.

"Wait!"

In spite of herself, Hermione turned. Lily was trying to jog unsuccessfully through the snow. She was not very coordinated.

"What?" Hermione said.

"Look, I just need to ask you for a reason," Lily said. She twisted her hands together. "James is...I don't know, I'm just not sure. There are some things that I…."

Lily stopped and appeared to collect herself before continuing more clearly.

"I haven't been sure if things are going to work with James and I. I was going to break things off. But you called me Lily Potter, and before I thought about ending things, I wanted to know...why did you call me that? Do you know something I don't?"

Hermione stopped walking. Her heart performed a double beat, and adrenaline shot through her veins.

"You're considering...breaking up with James?"

Had her presence here caused this, whatever it was? What about Harry?

Lily shifted restlessly. "You can't tell anyone a word of this okay. It's just, we're so different. He's...sweet, you know he's really caring, but he's been so snappy lately, and his mood swings aren't great. And I just...I've got my exams to think of, and there's the war, and I feel so pressured sometimes."

Hermione opened and closed her mouth several times.

"I uh...I mean, he's…"

"I knew it," Lily said. "You know something."

"Wait, wait," Hermione said, feeling the conversation rapidly slipping out of her control. "Even if I did, what does that matter?"

"Because I want to know if leaving James would be a mistake," Lily said, and her eyes filled up. "Am I supposed to stay with him? Or should I just finish my exams and get out of Britain before the war gets bad?"

Hermione stared in silence at Lily. Although she was on the edge of tears and very pale, her voice was calm and her eyes determined. Hermione opened her mouth and then closed it again. Marrying James Potter had been the death of Lily the first time around, but it was supposed to be different this time. Yet Gideon and Fabian had still died. Mistakes were still made. Perhaps Lily should run while she could.

"It doesn't matter what I know," Hermione said, choosing her words very carefully. "Or how I know it. The future isn't set in stone, and it's your decision."

Lily tried to speak, but Hermione stalled her. "Wait. I can tell you that if you stay and eventually marry James you will be, to the best of my knowledge, happy together. But you might not be safe. On the other hand, I can't tell you what will happen if you leave him."

Lily stared at Hermione for a long time, scrutinizing her face as if searching for the truth.

"You have to be from a different time," she said slowly. "It's the only explanation that makes sense. How you appeared out of nowhere, how nobody has ever heard of you or your family, how it's like you already know things about everybody."

Hermione reached, on reflex, for her wand. But she knew already that she wouldn't - couldn't - curse Lily.

"I can't tell you anything else," she said numbly. "I can't tell you."

"I did marry him, didn't I?" Lily said. "But what did you mean we might be happy but not safe?"

"Please stop. Don't -"

"Do I get hurt? Because of the war?"

"Lily -"

"Did I die? Is that why you won't tell me?"

Hermione couldn't speak. But she knew that Lily could read the truth right off her horrified face.

"Shit," said Lily. "Shit. I don't know - how to - why. How? No, I don't want to know."

For a moment they stood there together, the cold biting and the snow gusting past them. Hermione couldn't think of what to say, and Lily seemed struck speechless.

"Is it soon?" Lily asked, eventually, in a quiet voice.

Hermione twisted her hands together, aware with an increasingly sense of dread that things had slipped well and truly out of her control. Lily waited, nervous and determined, shivering in the cold night air but making no move to leave.

"I can't -" she began. But before she could say another word the front door opened again, and the person who stepped outside was not invisible in the slightest.

It was Bellatrix Lestrange.

It was really an impressive disguise, Hermoine thought, eyeing the immaculate blonde bob and the sensible teacher's robes. Lily turned to see, and her shoulders slumped.

"Oh dear, Bellatrix said in her girlish voice. "I'm afraid you are both quite out of bounds, and you need to return to your dormitories immediately. Miss Evans, I am extremely disappointed to see our Head Girl here, and I will need to inform the headmaster."

"I'm sorry Professor Malvolia," Lily said, her face scarlet.

"Unfortunately," Bellatrix continued, "this will mean detention for both of you tomorrow night with me. 8 o'clock sharp please, in my office."

Hermione and Lily had barely time to exchange one more panicked glance before they were herded inside and sent towards their respective dormitories.

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Hermione didn't tell her friends the circumstances under which her detention had been issued but implied that she had somehow manoeuvred events to ensure her an opportunity to look around Bellatrix's office.

"Lily has detention with her too," Severus said suspiciously.

"Collateral damage," Hermione lied.

"So what do we need to do?" Alecto asked. "Do you want us to lure her out? I could set off an explosion in the corridor down the hall from her office."

Hermione smiled at Alecto with deep fondness.

"Actually, I had something else in mind. I was thinking a little flood. If you set one off outside her office then she should run out, and I can barricade myself in and spend as much time as I need looking around, with the excuse that I was trying to keep the water out."

"What about Lily?" Severus asked.

"I can stun her and pretend she tripped over," Hermione said. "This could even be a chance to get into Bellatrix's private quarters at last."

"So how should we make this flood?" Rabastan asked. "Aquamenti isn't that strong."

Hermione shook her head and lifted up her small bag for them to see.

"So a couple of years ago I had some friends called Fred and George. They gave me a few presents which I've kept around in case they ever came in useful. These are called flood pellets…."

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Thanks for reading. I've been slow to update lately, mostly because back in september I (sigh) decided to stretch my elastic schedule even further by homeschooling my five-year-old. Which is not very clever when time is such a valuable commodity and the public school system is, y'know, free childcare. Damn my idealism.

But the Christmas holidays have provided ample writing time, and I am so excited because I have been writing like mad and have NEARLY FINISHED THIS RIDICULOUS STORY. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the holiday period, edit throughout jan and have it all uploaded by march. Even as I type this I'm aware I may regret writing that date down but I will TRY.

If you're still kicking around after all these years, thanks.

Cas