Tempus Magia
Part Two
Chapter 16: Missions
Hermione Granger made a grave error during the final battle that resulted in Remus's death. Working as an unspeakable she spends two years working on a spell using powder from time turners to go back to Remus's greatest hour of need. What if Remus's greatest time of need wasn't in *this* war?
Lily sat over Hermione's bed absentmindedly running a hand through her soft curls. James was at the funeral now. She glanced at the calendar. January ninth was a Wednesday. James buried his mother on a Wednesday. Lily used to like Wednesdays. She brewed on Wednesdays with Pandora Lovegood.
A coughing fit from her charge drew Lily from her thoughts. Her hand dropped from her hair, and she scrambled out of her chair standing over the girl. Conjuring a glass of water for the wildly blinking girl, she pressed it to her lips. She sipped appreciatively before slipping back into sleep.
Euphemia had insisted that if Hermione slept for more than a week she would not wake at all. They were a little over thirty hours away from a full week when Hermione first arrived. Lily breathed a sigh of relief and shifted the pillows in an attempt to make her more comfortable.
She was casting a cooling charm on her patient's forehead when she heard the front door slam open. "Is he fucking kidding me?!"
"Sirius, please calm down," James said tiredly.
Lily cast silencing and concealment charms on the room.
"James," Peter said matching Sirius' voice levels. "He brought Death Eaters to the funeral and then he disappeared without giving us a message! He couldn't even tell us he was fucking okay, or maybe let us know he crossed over to the other side. That would have been bloody fucking helpful!"
Lily heard something shatter.
"Oi! Sirius, stop breaking things. Lily will have a fit. Speaking of my wife that was too ill to attend her mother in law's funeral will you two idiots shut the hell up?!"
"James, Peter has a point. That bastard-" Sirius was arguing but was cut off by presumably a silencing charm thrown up by James. Lily sighed and stood up. She recognized that tone from Sirius. James called it the 'I'm Sirius Black and I'm angry at the world' tone. Last time he was in one of those moods he and James got into a fistfight.
She checked on Hermione one more time before leaving the room. In the hallway, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. Wow, she wasn't going to have to fake looking sick at all.
She looked… gauntly.
Lily pulled her hair up into a messy bun as she descended the stairs. Unsurprisingly, the house was a wreck. Discarded clothes were strewn everywhere, food crumbs and empty plated littered every surface. Her sea glass lamp was also missing from the buffet table and she assumed it was the victim of Sirius' anger.
Lily contemplated tidying up a bit before Hermione got up and walked about the house. It was weird. She really wanted to make a good impression and knowing next to nothing about her actual personality, Lily was more on edge then she cared to admit. She knew her parents were dentists and that she was very smart. Clearly, she had come from money.
Poking her head into the living room she found it empty and retraced her steps to the kitchen. Pushing open one of the sliding doors, she slipped inside silently. The boys were so engrossed in their argument, they didn't notice her. Sirius and James were predictably at each other's throats, while Peter watched on. Was he amused?
Peter noticed her immediately and cleared his throat. "How are you, Lily?"
Lily's skin crawled and the pendant she now wore around her neck burned. Euphemia had sent a devastated Flabney to retrieve the small carved pearl pendant from the Potter Jewelry vault. The vault was only accessible to the Potter women. According to her late father-in-law, it had been a place that the wives could hide things from their spouses. He assumed it was vices and other such things, but in reality aside from jewelry, it was mostly just ancient books on magic only accessible to mothers and women.
The vault was well organized and immaculately clean. Lily had almost laughed the first time Euphemia took her to the vault and declared that because it was the women's responsibility, it was actually clean.
She took a good look at Peter before she answered. There was something off about him but she couldn't put her finger on it. "Honestly? Tired. Sirius, sit down. You'll wake the entire neighborhood."
The implication was clear to everyone but Peter. Shut up or you'll wake Hermione.
James extracted himself from Sirius and hugged her tightly. "Did we wake you?" James knew for damned sure that she wasn't sleeping, so he had to be talking about Hermione.
"I woke up for a bit and had a drink but then I went back to sleep," she paused and fingered her pendant. "Sirius, I can't believe you broke our souvenir from my honeymoon."
Sirius was drinking liquor straight out of a bottle. "The thing was hideous. I have zero regrets."
James and Peter chuckled while Lily rolled her eyes. She walked over to the stove and served the three men soup and chicken that were sitting under stasis.
"Thank you, Lily. Your food is always delicious." Peter said mechanically from where he was seated directly across from her. Her pendant burned as he reached out his left hand in front of her and took the salt. What was wrong with him?
"Your most very welcome, Peter. How is your mother?"
"Resting, it was a scary couple of weeks. I'm just so glad we got to take her home."
"We?" Lily asked. Peter was an only child and his father died three years ago. Who else would he have gone home with?
"Sorry, a slip of the tongue. Me and Mum, that's all." Lily let the subject go. He was obviously hiding something and for whatever reason, she was glad that James was sitting next to her. She didn't want Peter near her or Harry right now.
Sirius finished his plate dropping it loudly in the sink. Lily winced and she realized belatedly, that she had a migraine. With his back to them, he started to rehash the argument that Lily had walked in on. "James, I think it's irresponsible."
"Sirius, I know how to protect my family."
Sirius whipped around his eyes red-rimmed and unfocused. "Am I not your family?"
"You are Sirius. The same way Peter and Remus are and I'm not removing any of you from the wards." Sirius' eyes changed colors and he growled. Not the damn Grim, again.
Lily sighed. She was hoping she wouldn't have to get involved in whatever argument they were having. "No one is being removed the wards, Sirius. I love you, but you're drunk and not thinking clearly. Go sleep it off."
She pointed upstairs but Sirius stumbled towards the door. "I'm not welcome here? I'm not… this is my… home-" he stuttered.
Lily didn't flinch. Sirius was a terrible drunk. He had too dark of a past to drink and he knew that. "James."
Her husband was out of his seat following his raving friend into the living room. There was a loud thump and a curse as James dashed back into the room and grabbed his wand from the table. "I'm going to put Sirius upstairs to sleep it off then turn in myself. Thanks for coming, Petey."
Peter stood and Lily was grateful not to be left alone with him. "I'm so sorry for your loss, James."
James clapped his shoulder tiredly. "See you at the next Order meeting?"
Peter nodded and left.
James kissed her forehead. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm going to clean up and then head upstairs." James nodded and left to deal with Sirius. There was something unsettling her as she washed the dishes. Waving her wand she found a light listening charm on the table where James and Lily took their breakfast every morning.
She disabled it immediately, her head turned to the door. Maybe she would need to modify the wards before she started cleaning the rest of the first floor.
Hermione woke slowly and achingly. She felt like she had slept for a month and not comfortably.
"Hey, slowly there. You had a bit of a fall."
Hermione struggled into a sitting with a position with the help of a pair of strong arms. She was sitting up against a headboard looking into bright green eyes when it all came rushing back. She went too far back! How could she have gone too far back?
Remus died what greater need could he have?!
"Here, drink some water." Lily Evans - no Potter, she was wearing a wedding ring, handed her a yellow mug with stags on it.
Hermione did a full survey of Harry's mother as she sipped. She was wearing an ankle-length light blue polka dotted dress, with a white scarf attached to the top and cream house slippers. She looked regal but also as exhausted as Hermione felt and before Hermione had a chance to ask her any questions, she noticed a calendar pinned to the wall behind her.
January 9, 1980
She was in the eighties?!
Logically, she already knew she was in the eighties but seeing it on a calendar was an entirely different thing. Lily followed her line of sight and gasped. "Shoot! No alarming things! I'm so sorry! I only just started my Healership training, I should have known better…"
She began to ramble on in an endearing and totally Hermione like fashion. Hermione had always felt like a sister to Harry and knowing that she shared a trait with his mother warmed her heart considerably.
"Umm… I'm er... Hermione."
"Lily Potter, you gave us quite a scare there Hermione. James and I had just come back from Saint Mungos and you kind of showed up in the living room."
"Saint Mungo's?"
"Umm... the hospital? I'm newly pregnant and I took a tumble. Everything is okay, thank goodness, but it was scary." Lily threw her head behind her before whispering quietly. "It was early in the morning and James, my husband, ran through the waiting room in just his Santa Claus boxers."
Hermione burst into laughter and decided that she liked the witch immediately. "He didn't realize?"
"He was in such a panic about little Harry that he only realized once the Healer pointed it out." heart stilled at her friend's name.
"You're okay, though? I mean don't take this the wrong way, but you look ill."
Lily laughed. "You were in a coma for almost a week, but sure I look bad."
"A week?!"
"Shit. Nothing too alarming! Shit. Sorry, sorry!" The door flew open to admit a muddier brown-eyed version of her Harry.
"Lils, is everything alright? I thought I heard you curse." James Potter's eyes brightened when he saw Hermione sitting up. "Oh, nice to see you're awake! We thought you were going to sleep forever and then we'd have to line up all the blokes in England to kiss you and see if one of them woke you up! Really we could have-"
"She said her name is Hermione!" Lily quickly said. "And if she had slept longer than this evening I would have Flooed her to Saint Mungos."
"Hello Hermione, I'm James Potter. I'm her keeper." James jabbed his thumb at Lily, who snorted and swatted his fingers away. "So, Miss Mysterious Hermione do you usually make a habit of popping into people's homes and passing out on the carpet? I mean, it's a neat trick but I feel like you could at least add a bit of flare or pizzaz to the landing. Maybe some fireworks?"
Hermione looked at him like he was mental until she realized that she need to have a backstory for randomly popping into their home in the middle of a war. The war!
"Sorry," she straightened and tried to look professional. "My name is Agent Hermione. I'm with the MACUSA's International Undercover Aurors Unit. I was sent here to investigate classified Death Eater findings. We had several of your people make some noise states side and since I'm originally from the UK, I was sent over to investigate."
"Oh," James said in a singsong voice. "Where about?"
"Hampstead," she said automatically. She was from Hampstead, her parents bought their house in '78. Since she was already born, she technically did live in Hampstead. "My parents live out in Heathegate."
Lily clapped her hands excitedly, "That's a muggle area!"
Hermione remembered to use the proper vernacular, "Yes, they're no-majs."
Lily smiled at James, "Mine too! We're basically sisters!"
Hermione smiled. Sisters with Harry's mum? Sure….
James chuckled. "So now that we're apparently family, how did you end up in middle of our living room?"
"I'm not exactly sure how I ended up here in your home specifically or what the circumstances that led me here are. It's all a bit blurry I'm afraid."
"Well, you're welcome to stay here at Potter Cottage as long as you need. We're recovering a bit of a loss right now so it's not as lively as it usually is." Lily kicked James and Hermione wondered if James had asked her before inviting a stranger into their home. She had been so inviting...
Hermione shook her head politely, but really where was she to go? An image of her squatting in an abandoned shrieking shack came to mind, but how would she afford food? She could get a job... "I couldn't impose."
"You wouldn't be," Lily piped up. "With Remus out on a mission to scout out the packs we hardly have anyone around. Peter has some family issues to deal with and Sirius is most likely going to take the next mission out for the next while."
Hermione remembered to look confused. "Who?"
"Oh, they're James best friends. They all basically live here. Sirius actually does, though I think he and Peter are talking about getting their own flat in Diagon."
"Oh," she replied and then it hit her. Remus was with the packs? She had heard him talking about it once with Tonks in Grimmauld Place. He almost died there every time Dumbledore sent him there. Remus had stopped the formation of one massive pack and also stopped all of the werewolves from joining Voldemort. "I actually was supposed to be looking into the werewolf movement, here."
Lily nodded seriously, "It's a big problem. Alpha Greyback is in talks about merging nine packs, not including his own. If they joined the Death Eaters…"
Hermione bent her head solemnly. Was she sent back to save Remus from the packs? "Do you have any information you can share about the packs?"
Lily nodded at the same time James shook his head.
"Lily bear, she just had a magical trauma and needs to rest. We're not sending anyone on any life-threatening missions right now."
"Yes, but what if she ends up with the packs? She needs to know what Remus knows and it's not as if she's staying in his room or anything," she finished sarcastically. Hermione surveyed the homey room. It was filled with earthy tones and accents that complimented a traveler.
"Is there anything I can read while I'm in bed?" The two nodded.
"You should be able to get up tomorrow at some point but for now rest. Would you like some soup? It's cheddar broccoli and I think we have some croutons left." James asked as Lily rummaged through the nightstand.
"Yes, please." When was the last time she ate? Lunch at her desk and breakfast with Ron? She couldn't remember if she ate supper, though if she had it was probably something light.
James nodded and called out from the hallway beyond the door. "Two soups coming up. Lily-bear, I'm bringing up the soup. Maybe you can give Hermione something to wear..."
Hermione blushed as Lily, without pausing in her quest, flicked her wand and sent a pair of jeans, a yellow t-shirt, and a jean jacket with a hideous fringe plopping down on her head. There was also a new pack of knickers and a bra with the tags still on it. Hermione got out of bed, testing her feet gingerly on the floor.
Hermione thought Lily barely noticed with her head half in the drawer, but when Hermione stumbled she flew to her side immediately.
"Sorry, Remus puts bloody extension charms on everything. You think you're putting your hand in a regular pocket and suddenly it's the wardrobe to Narnia." Hermione laughed as Lily helped her into the bathroom. "It's nice being able to make normal references and people understand them. James was so unimpressed with all of the books I finally got him to read, that I just gave up."
She transfigured a seat in the shower and helped her to the toilet. "I'm going to stand right outside. If you need any help just call, okay?"
Hermione nodded miserably. Powerful magic like she had used came with a hefty price. One week in a coma was alarming. That and she was pretty sure she had depleted her magic. Hell, she'd probably lose a fight to a flobberworm right now.
She wiped miserably and slowly before flushing and using the sink that ran the length of the bathroom to get herself into the shower. Once she seated, she tossed her clothes out of the shower stall and turned the taps on.
The hot water soothed her aching skin and Hermione thanked whatever deities that were listening that she ended up with the Potters and not say Voldemort.
She scrubbed herself vigorously and used what was probably Remus's toothbrush. She hoped he wouldn't mind. One week of grime fell from her teeth and body, leaving her elated. Hermione watched as the water finally ran clear down the drain and began to plot her next steps.
She needed to limit her interactions with other people from the past, but she also had to keep up her story as a MACUSA agent. She was impressed by her quick thinking and Lily's easy acceptance of her lie.
Maybe that's why they were so easily betrayed by Peter. If they trusted people they didn't know, how could they see a betrayal within their own circle of friends?
With Hermione fed, clean, and safely tucked into bed, Lily turned in for the night. James was chuckling to himself.
"James," she warned, throwing up a silencing charm just as her husband burst out laughing.
"MACUSA! She's the tiniest thing I have ever seen!" he roared. "I can't imagine the little thing even holding a wand! She'd get blown over by the first Death Eater that sneezed on her!"
"Well, she definitely thinks on her feet and she works for the Department of Mysteries, so she's definitely smart. I wonder if she's really from Hampstead, I mean her parents were Dentists so it's most likely."
James smiled as he settled into their bed. "I like her, she's funny. We should make her an honorary Marauder."
"We can't tell Peter about her," Lily kissed her husband complaints away. In truth, she was thankful Peter hadn't been present when Hermione was recovering. She was suspicious of him, even if her husband was blind to his changed behavior.
As was her new tradition, she rubbed her belly before she went to sleep and whispered to her son. She often told him about her day or how much she loved him and couldn't wait to meet him. Today, she had just one thing to say to her darling boy. "Did you hear that Harry? Daddy likes your clever friend."