In the blink of an eye

I can see through your eyes

As I'm lying awake I'm still hearing the cries

And it hurts

Hurts me so bad

And I'm wondering why I still fight in this life

'Cause I've lost all my faith in this damn bitter strife

And it's sad

It's so damn sad

-Shot In The Dark, Within Temptation

Chapter 9: Lying Awake I'm Still Hearing The Cries.

October 31st 1993-Home Base, Hook Norton

After another hour the three finally had a plan; Sirius would accompany Lupin back to the Shrieking Shack, while Hermione would go meet with Ron and return to the school. Once the feast started Lupin would keep a watch out from the teacher's table and send word of any trouble through his charmed ring. Hermione would fake an illness and leave the feast early to meet Sirius at the One-Eyed Witch Statue with Harry's Invisibility Cloak. If all went to plan, they would head up to the empty tower, get the Map and be out before anyone knew what was going on.

Lupin and Hermione were waiting at the back door, while Sirius headed upstairs to get ready to leave.

"Do you think you can get the cloak out of Harry's trunk without him noticing?"he asked as Hermione tugged her sweater on over her head.

"I can get it out, don't you worry," she said as she pulled a chocolate bar out of her hoodie pocket, breaking a piece off to pop in her mouth before offering it to Lupin. The werewolf stared at it suspiciously for a moment, before patting down his jacket pockets.

"That's mine, isn't it?"

Hermione smirked mischievously, "Yes, it is, but the real question that's going to bug you later is, how long have I had it?" she stated with a mischievous smile, as Lupin broke off a chunk before she replaced it back in her pocket.

"You make a habit of pick-pocketing people?" Lupin asked with amused curiosity.

"Normally only when they're being particularly annoying. I've got quite a collection of Malfoy's trinkets from Potions," she shrugged nonchalantly, "nothing that will be missed like his homework or wand. Little toys and knick knacks mostly," she paused for a moment before sheepishly admitting, "but I've got a weakness for chocolate."

"Is that so," Lupin declared good naturedly, "then I will have to be more careful in the future on where I keep my stash."

Sirius came jogging down the stairs a moment later, pulling on his jacket as the three headed out into the back garden, Sirius had switched to his dog form a moment before exiting the house. With one arm hooked with the werewolf, the other had a secure hold of the scruff of Padfoot's neck; Hermione Apparated them back to the Shrieking Shack.

With her hood up, Hermione made her way back into town, leaving Padfoot and Lupin to make their way into the haunted house. Slipping into an alley on the outskirts of the main road, Hermione replaced her glamours before removing the hoodie and putting back on the jacket she had been wearing with Ron earlier. Stuffing the hoodie in an enlarged pocket of her bag, careful so that it would not get mixed up with the things she and Ron had picked up for Harry.

"Hey, Hermione, where have you been?" Ron asked from his seat at a table in the Three Broomsticks when she had entered the crowded establishment.

"Oh, I was just looking around. Did you know that the inn down the road was the headquarters of the 1612 Goblin Rebellion?" She asked, bordering on rambling as she sat down with several bottles of Butterbeer while trying to find a safe place to stash them in her bag.

"No," Ron drawled with complete disinterest before pointing out, "but if you don't hurry you won't get to drink your Butterbeer before we have to start heading back."

"I'll drink mine later, I'm not feeling very well." she admitted, stowing the bottles away for her and Harry. "I think I'm just going to head back early if you don't mind and give these things to Harry," she said watching Ron closely to judge if he was going to be angry at her for ditching him half the day and now leaving him again.

"It's fine, Seamus wanted me to meet him to pick up some more sweets before we headed back. You go on ahead, I'll catch up to you in a little bit." Ron said waving at the other boy two tables over to get his attention before sending him a thumbs up. Hermione slipped through the crowd again, this time with less success. She finally made it out of the pub; the bottles in her bag intact but her clothes stained in someone else's drink and began the long trek back toward the school.

"Hey, Harry," Hermione said, knocking on the third-year boys dorm, she hadn't seen him in the common room below when she had come back from changing into a dry button up cream shirt and one of her uniform skirts. The door was opened to reveal Neville.

"Hey, Hermione, Harry isn't here."

"Oh, would you mind if I came in and left his stuff from Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah, go ahead," Neville said, letting the girl in.

"Thanks." Hermione left the room a few minutes later with the Invisibility Cloak tucked safely in her bag. Flipping open her locket, she ran a thumb over the inside, where a picture would normally be placed, the words 'Got It' appearing as she closed it. Now all that was left was for the feast to begin, heading down to the common room, she waited. Ron and Harry came in just in time for them to head down to the feast.

"Where have you been? I went to drop off your things but you weren't there. Neville let me in and I left them in your trunk for you. I hope that's okay, I didn't want anyone taking anything if I just left them out."

"Thanks Hermione," the scarred boy said with a little more cheer than he had had that morning after being left behind. "I went to visit Hedwig."

"Good, I was worried you had locked yourself up in your room all afternoon, then when I couldn't find you I thought you might have gotten into trouble."

"I can go an afternoon alone without getting myself into trouble." Harry squawked out, offended at the insinuation.

"I'm glad to hear that." She said, pulling him into a one armed hug as they walked.

The Great Hall was decorated in streamers and candles with swarms of live bats flying around. It was eerily beautiful and Hermione was sorry she was going to miss out on dessert. She managed to slip a few of the smaller sweets that had been scattered among the dinner dishes into her pocket before it was time for her to leave.

"Hey, war ya gon, 'Mione?" Ron asked in between chewing, a mouth already full of chicken as he attempted to stuff in a fork piled in mash potatoes.

"I'm not feeling well. I think I'm just going to head back to the common room. It's a girl thing," grimacing as she hugged herself. The boys seemed ready to voice their concerns about her health right up until her last statement. Like a switch was flicked, both boys immediately turned all their attention back on the feast in front of them with barely more than a goodbye in her direction, Ron's ears even betraying an awkward red tint.

"Works every time," she sang quietly to herself with a small smirk as she walked away. Glancing up at the teacher's table, she made eye contact with Lupin who gave her a nod before turning back to a conversation with Hagrid. Hermione slipped out of the Hall and made her way to the One-Eyed Witch Statue.

"Dissendium!" she said, tapping the statue with her wand, the hump slid open and a moment later Sirius's brown head poked out.

"You know," he remarked wriggling his shoulders through the small opening, working one arm out and then the other, "this was a lot easier when I was a kid." With a jerk he stopped with his lower half still in the statue and sheepishly looked up at the brunette. "Hypothetically, what would you do if I said I was stuck?"

"Please, tell me you're kidding." she groaned covering her face with her hands and looking toward the ceiling with a groan of exasperation. Sirius started chuckling, as he pulled himself the rest of the way out to sit on the statue with legs still dangling in the passage.

"I am, I just wanted to know if you'd save me if I was," he said climbing off the statue and dusting himself off. He had just finished and straightened only to have Hermione smack him solidly in the back of the head.

"Ow!" He whined holding a hand over the abused area, "must you always be so violent, woman?" he barked out.

"Shut up and let's go already before someone sees you!" she ordered, pulling the Invisibility Cloak from her bag and tossing it at the Animagus. Sirius donned the cloak and disappeared from sight, as Hermione led the way back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked as Hermione approached.

"Fortuna Major." The portrait swung open. Hermione paused before entering, giving Sirius a chance to get in before the portrait closed behind her.

"Been a while since I've been here," Sirius reminisced, looking around after pulling his hood off so only his head was visible, floating in midair.

"Then you should know where the boys dormitory is," Hermione said, heading toward the stairs. "We got to be quick, who knows when someone might show up."

They headed up the stairs, and Sirius opened the door to the fifth-year dorm. Hermione took up the watch just inside the door. Handing the Cloak to her, Sirius went and began looking through the trunks. Carefully picking his way through Fred's, filled with a number of prototype prank items and a glass ball that if disturbed would have stained the snoopers hands green, had the Marauder not noticed the security precaution. He was just heading to George's trunk when Hermione's locket grew warm against her skin, flipping it open while she read the words, 'Students in Coming'.

"Hurry up, we're going to have company any minute."

"Patience is a virtue, Ms. Granger," Sirius replied in a sing-song voice, as he picked through the trunk. Down in the room below Hermione could hear two male voices entering the common room.

"Right now it isn't," Hermione hissed, closing the door just as Sirius held up the Map triumphantly and kicked the trunk closed.

"Got it!" he called, trading the folded parchment for the Cloak. Putting the enchanted garment back on, he pulled the hood up over his head. "Come on, get in quick," he said, opening the front of the Cloak, so that she could step under it. Hermione slipped under just before the door opened, Kenneth Towler and Lee Jordan came in, laughing and talking. Using one hand to hold the fabric closed around them, Sirius's other arm pulled her against him as he walked them backwards into a less traveled corner of the room. The boys stayed for a few minutes to grab something from Jordan's trunk before leaving. Letting her head fall back against Sirius's chest, Hermione let out a sigh of relief.

"That was to close," she said.

"I don't know, take off that glamour and I could have stood to be a little closer," Sirius chuckled in her ear.

"For a man named Sirius, you don't seem to take much seriously, do you?" she said, stepping out of his grip. Unfolding the Map, she tapped it with her wand, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

"That's why I keep Remus around, he's serious enough for the both of us," he remarked, lowering the hood again so that his head was in view, as he leaned over the Map. "Looks like they are heading back to the Great Hall. We should be safe to leave."

"Okay but one more thing first," she said, leading the way out of the room to the third-year dorm. "Open this door for me." Sirius did as asked, and Hermione pulled out a roll of Spello-tape from a pocket in her skirt. Taping down the door latch she closed the door, then pushed on it and the door swung open at her touch.

"Clever girl," Sirius praised as Hermione shut the door again.

"Only as long as no one uses the door before I get back," she said, heading back downstairs. After seeing Sirius to the secret passage, she agreed to meet him at midnight outside the Shack to Apparate him back to Hook Norton. In the meantime he was left to lay low in Hogsmeade, so long as he was careful. Heading back to the common room while keeping track of movement in the dorms, she managed to return Harry's Cloak to his trunk and remove the tape from the door before any of the room's occupants returned from the feast. Heading to her own room, she waited till she was safely behind her bed curtains to contact Lupin.

'Mischief Managed'

As November crept by Hermione began expanding her search of the library to some of the less used sections, it was there that she stumbled onto the shelves that held all the old student public records. Skimming through the various dust covered books, she found several to be yearbooks from the time Tom Riddle had attended, a few even contained pictures of the then young man. One, from the year he had graduated contained his O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. scores alongside the rest of his class.

While it held little personal information, the area had not been a total loss, from an obscure footnote in one yearbook she managed to get the address of Riddle's birthplace and residence while he was at school. Apparently it had been a big deal going from a muggle raised orphan to Head Boy at Hogwarts.

Not much but it seemed like a good place to begin looking for more clues, Voldemort might have even left some things of use behind. It looked like she would have something to keep her occupied over the summer; if she was going to learn what Voldemort had done to prolong his life, she was going to have to get to know who Tom Riddle was first.

The first Quidditch match of the season between Slytherin and Gryffindor was a nightmare. The weather had decided to do its worst; pouring rain made it nearly impossible to see what was going on and high winds were strong enough to yank the players off their brooms. By the time Oliver called a time-out, Gryffindor had somehow gotten a lead of one hundred and twenty points but without the snitch there seemed to be no end in sight.

"We need to get the snitch or we're going to be out here all night," Wood said, as he and Harry huddled under an umbrella Hermione had brought down from the stands.

"Not much chance of that, I can't see a thing up there," Harry said, wiping at his glasses with his soaked robes, only managing to smear more water on them.

"I have an idea, here Harry give me your glasses," Hermione said, passing him the umbrella. She had come down to see if there was anything she could do to speed the game along so they could all go inside. Taking Harry's glasses, she pulled out her wand and cast Impervius on them.

"There, now they will repel water," she grinned triumphantly and handed them back. "Now go kick Malfoy's smug ass."

"Brilliant," Oliver cried, looking as though he could have kissed her. "Let's go for it, team!"

Then they were up in the air again, the storm becoming more dangerous, one Slytherin player even had his broom catch fire from a too close bolt of lightning. Hermione watched the whole thing, huddled beside the stands near the Gryffindor side of the field with her umbrella. Harry circled the field, then suddenly Malfoy was diving toward the Gryffindor goal posts with Harry right after him. Her breath hitched as Harry pulled ahead, one arm outstretched for something she couldn't see. The other arm knocks Malfoy's out of the way.

There was a strange flicker of movement on the far edge of the field, then suddenly black cloaks were swarming the players. Hermione's vision narrowed sharply, she didn't notice as the cheering crowd suddenly began screaming or when the umbrella was torn from her slackened grip.

Quiet...rain pounding in her ears, deafening into silence...Alone.

Cold...soaked to the bone, shivering, shaking until nothing...Alone.

Breathe...mud slicked skin, damp leafy rot. In her nose, in her mouth, suffocating...Alone.

Dark...the cave is safe, hidden from prowling teeth. Can't see but neither can they. Empty, abandoned...Alone.

Falling...falling in the quiet...in the cold...no breath...no light...Alone.

Not alone anymore, someone else is there with her. Hair like the night and eyes like jade...staring at her...shock, betrayal, dead eyes.

Blood, on her...hands dripping. On him...a brown shirt turned red. Stranger.

Not a stranger...robes of black, of gold and too much red-dripping from her hands.

"Harry..."

She blinked the haze cleared from her vision. She was on the Quidditch field, unprotected from the falling rain as she kneeled in the sodden turf. Harry was there lying unmoving on the ground.

"No," she screamed, reaching for his throat with a shaking hand. "No no no Harry, No!"

Lub dub...lub dub...Alive.

Her relief was so great that she nearly collapsed.

"We need to get him to Poppy, Albus." a voice near her said but she hadn't the desire or energy to turn her head away from the boy in front of her. "Ms. Granger, you need to move back." She shook her head ignoring McGonigal, not budging from where she sat with the heartbeat drumming under her finger tips.

"Ms. Granger, you need to move now. We'll take it from here," Dumbledore said soothingly, as Madame Pomfrey arrived and immediately began casting spells to check Harry's condition. "Mr. Potter is in good hands."

She wanted to shout, to scream at the man, whose 'good' hands she had left Harry in. He had died, beaten and alone in a graveyard. Where had he been? Where had she been?

...Green eyes...betrayal, blood...dripping from her hands...

"Granger, you need to let them take Potter to the Hospital Wing." Lupin said soothingly, kneeling down beside her. Pulling her arm away from Harry with a glance at Pomfrey.

"No, I c-can't," Hermione stuttered out as her body trembled, "l-leave h-him a-a-gain." She struggled, fighting against his grip. The werewolf was forced to wrap an arm around her, as Pomfrey began levitating The unconscious boy back toward the school. It was a losing battle as he held her; if she didn't calm down there was a good chance she was going to break out of his hold.

"We aren't going to let anything happen to him, Hermione," he promised softly. "But you need to calm down. Harry needs medical help and he can't get that out here. Madame Pomfrey will take good care of him, just please calm down."

Hermione shuddered, before all the fight seemed to leave her and she went limp in his grip.

"Come on now, let's get you warmed up." She let the professor guide her back up to the school, following Harry all the way to the doors of the Hospital before she would let herself be taken anywhere else. Madame Pomfrey had insisted that she come in too but Lupin had interjected.

"Poppy, why don't you let me handle this. You have your hands full," he said privately to the medi-witch, Hermione seemed to have become completely absorbed in her hands,"I think Ms. Granger would appreciate some time after that experience with the Dementors." The witch agreed reluctantly before Hermione found herself being guided out of the Wing by a hand on her shoulder. Lupin took her to his office and sat her down in a chair by the fire. Helping her out of her soaked outer robes, he cast a drying charm on it and her muggle attire. Grabbing a thick blanket from the back of the chair he wrapped it snuggly around her shoulders, she made no move to help or hinder him as she stared down at her hands until he tucked them up under the blanket out of sight. Even dry her whole body was shaking violently as she sat there, her mind numb as she stared at the fire.

"Hermione, I want you to drink this," Lupin ordered, coming to kneel by her chair with a steaming mug in hand. "It's okay, it's just hot chocolate. It will help warm you up." He held the cup out for her, but like the time on the train, her hands were trembling so much that she couldn't hold on to it without the liquid sloshing dangerously in the mug.

"C-can-n't-t," she stuttered, teeth chattering as her whole body shook.

"Here, let me help," he said, tucking her hands back under the blanket before holding the cup up for her to drink. The first few sip seemed to make her shivers worse, but by the time the first mug was finished they had begun to lesson. It took nearly an hour and two cups of hot chocolate, but finally Hermione had stopped shaking and some color had returned to her chilled skin.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lupin asked, having moved to a seated position next to her chair on the floor with his own mug, warming his hands by the fire.

"No," she croaked out, her voice raw.

"Okay," he acknowledged. "You should probably go get some sleep, you look exhausted." She didn't reply, so he tried again to draw her out of her unusual silence."Do you want to go check on Harry? I'm sure he will be waking up soon."

After a pause she looked down at him and nodded. Standing, she moved to put the blanket back on the chair before pulling on her robes. She was almost to the door when she felt the blanket wrapped back around her shoulders.

"Take it with you," Lupin said, walking with her to the door. "I'll walk with you there. I'm sure he has loads of guests by now." Hermione nodded again, even managed a small smile this time.

"Thank you."

Harry awoke shortly after Hermione arrived, the Quidditch team was already there, crowding around the bed, as was Ron.

"What happened?" He asked, blinking around at everyone until his glasses were returned.

"You fell off your broom, mate." Fred said.

"A good fifty feet." George remarked.

"But the match?" He asked, shifting to sit up in bed and looking from face to face for answers, "Did we win or are we doing a replay?" At that Hermione suddenly stood, chair toppling as her hand struck out like a whip. Harry looked at her in stunned silence, as did the rest of the room's occupants, his cheek turning red.

"Hermione, wha—" Harry started, raising his hand to gingerly touch where she had slapped him.

"Harry. James. Potter. You could have died! Do you realize that?" she asked, her voice so cold that the boys around her flinched as if she had been screaming at the top of her lungs. "You almost did die and-and you're more worried about some fucking game!" She stood suddenly and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"What was that about?" Harry asked, still holding his cheek, as he looked at Ron for help.

"She was really worried about you when you fell," Ron said, glancing at his brothers for confirmation, "I mean she was running for you before you even hit the ground. When Dumbledore and McGonagall got there, she wouldn't leave."

"Professor Lupin had to drag her off you, so they could bring you here," George said.

"Thought, she was even going to hit him there for a moment, we did," Fred added.

Hermione went up to her dorm; changing into her pajamas before wrapping up in the blanket Lupin had given her, tugging the curtains of her bed closed and lying down. Crookshanks climbed in a few minutes later, his warmth and purring curled up against her back comforting enough that as exhausted and on edge as she was, she didn't even notice she was falling asleep. It was only the next day that she realized Lupin must have slipped a dreamless sleep potion in between her cups of hot chocolate at some point because it was the only explanation as to why she had slept so soundly.

The following Saturday afternoon found Hermione stopping by Lupin's office under the guise of getting help on her essay that was due Monday.

"Are you free for a bit, I figured now would be a good time to talk, I'm sure you have questions after my reaction at the Quidditch game," Hermione said, placing a detection charm that would alert her of anyone approaching the door. Since locking it would appear suspicious should anyone stop by to see the professor, the last thing they needed was the rumor mill getting word of Lupin in a locked room with a young female student; it could turn into quite a scandal.

"Sirius told me a bit about you, and I can't deny that I am curious about this future you come from and why the Dementors affect you so much. Like Harry you seem overly sensitive to them," he remarked, setting out his tea set. "I don't mean to pry, but I do have some questions if you don't mind."

"Not at all, that is why I came today." She said, shaking her head before removing her glamour without a word. Their discussion would be a lot more easier to believe if it were not coming from a fourteen year old. Crossing her legs, she smoothed out her wool sweater. "What exactly has Sirius told you?"

"Not much more than you told me yourself. He said, you were stuck on an island," Lupin started, pausing for a moment before continuing like he wasn't sure if he should bring the subject up, "and that you were working with Snape."

"Yes, that is correct," she confirmed quietly, picking up the tea Lupin had poured her.

"What happened?" he asked, picking up his own cup before thinking better of it and folding his hands on his lap instead. "Sorry, I don't mean to pry."

"It's fine but if I'm going to tell this, then I should start at the beginning," pulling a bottle of Firewhiskey out of her bag. "First think we'll need something a little stronger than tea for this story."

"Ms. Granger, I don't think that is a good idea," Lupin protested even as she cracked the seal and poured some into her tea and then without asking.

"Trust me, you'll thank me by the time I'm through," leaning back in her chair and getting more comfortable, this was going to be a long story.

"I guess it all started when I was 13, about five months ago to be exact. I went on vacation with my parents after my second year, we were taking a small cruise liner that would eventually land in France. There were stops along the coast, diving and even whale watching. We were caught in a tropical storm during a point in the trip when we had gone away from the coast. I don't know why we didn't have any forewarning or turn back; mechanical failure or maybe just pure arrogant stupidity, but either way the boat went down. My parents never made it off." She paused there, taking a drink.

"I'm sorry." Remus said sympathetically.

"It's fine, I came to terms with their loss a long time ago. Besides like I said before, I've changed that. Hermione won't have to grow up an orphan this time."

Remus watched her thoughtfully before asking, "it's still a loss for you though, isn't it?"

"I suppose it is." She admitted, a little regretfully. "My lifeboat was caught up in a current or maybe it was just the storm, but I was separated from the rest of the survivors and ended up drifting for about six weeks. I washed up on the shore of an island somewhere west of the African coast; that was where I met Halt."

"The same Halt that was a werewolf who couldn't change back?" Remus questioned, recalling a conversation after one of his first classes.

"Yes that Halt, but before then, when he was just a Muggle. He took me in, healed me, taught me some of the most important lessons of my life. I would not have lasted the first week without him, we weren't the only ones on the island. A group called Chimera; they were a wizard run muggle group experimenting with a number of magical and non-magical creatures. Trying to make biological weapons, trainable war beasts."

"The lead scientist was a wizard named Aaron Fowl." She spat out the name like a vile curse, "unlike the other inhabitants, Halt had managed to avoid being captured when Chimera took over the facilities. He had tried escaping during the first several months, that was until he saw what they were doing to the humans; his friends and the ones that were brought in by plane."

"He was turning them into werewolves, this wizard?" Lupin asked, as Hermione drained her cup and refilled it, ignoring the teapot in favor of the bottle.

"Worse, they were crossbreeding werewolves with other creatures to make biological weapons. Controllable creatures that could turn a battle field into a slaughter, at least that was the idea. The breed Halt was infected with was one of many, though it was the only experiment that had been showing real results at the time. I saw the records they kept, they were-" she paused trying to find the right word to describe what she had seen in those files and jars full of failure. She finally settled on, "-nightmarish. Halt had been trying to get into their facility for months before I arrived; it was warded, and he was a muggle, so all he could really do was hit the patrols that left the compound. When he found out I was a witch; I guess he thought I would have a better chance at destroying the place than he did, because after we were captured, he stayed behind to buy me time. I thought he had died then, I had hoped, anyway. He would have rather died than become their pet." Hermione stared down into her cup, lost in the memory.

"After his change I was depressed for a long time, but eventually I ended up getting my head back on straight and tried to figure out a way to get off the island. Nearly got on a plane once that brought in supplies and new test subjects, but I made a stupid mistake and got myself shot; it got infected and I nearly died from it. The plane only came once every six months, so I had to find another way to pass the time, waiting for the next one; by then I had already been on that island a year. Six months later I had managed to get into the compound and blow it up, but the plane was told to leave early, and I missed it again," she said, rubbing her shoulder at the memory of the old wound.

"Most of the creatures they had stored there died in the explosion, but eight of the werewolf hybrids escaped, including Halt. The researchers that didn't die in the explosion abandoned the place after that, but that bastard Fowl managed to get off. I have no doubt he continued his experiments elsewhere. I managed to kill off a few of the wolves, but the two females always were smart enough to stay away."

She decided to elaborate on some of the specifics of the creatures that could reasonably be called his cousins. "The males' bites are sterile, a precaution to keep the virus from spreading unchecked. It was untested on whether they could breed or were genetically sterile as well, I never saw any signs of pups while they were loose at any rate. So if they were going to expand their pack, they had to keep the females safe. They were smart and never fell for the same trap twice, I ended up spending the next year and a half living in the treetops, trying to outsmart creatures as smart as I am with all the advantages of wolf senses. When I would finally kill a few, those stupid researchers would send a team to try to capture some of them to take off the island. The only thing they managed to do was to give them a population boost before slinking back to their boats, if any happened to survived that long."

"I could have snuck on one of the boats, during one of those visits but I felt it was necessary to finish what I started. I couldn't leave Halt like that, and if the scientists managed to get one off the island, especially one of the females, who knows what they would have done with it. Eventually I was able to kill them all, including Halt, he had been the cleverest one of the bunch and rather intent on getting a hold of me. Maybe it was because we knew each other before." She paused and looked across the desk at the werewolf whose face had a pained look about it.

"Have you ever had the urge to seek out your friends when not taking the potion?"

"No, never," he replied too quickly and harshly before a whisper betrayed his unease at her line of questioning, "I don't know, maybe."

"It's fine, most werewolves don't remember much if anything during an uncontrolled transformation." She said clinically before continuing on with her tale. "Anyway, I wound up picked up by some lost college students on spring break. Hitched a ride and eventually made it back to England only to find out, the whole place had gone to hell. "She said, staring down at her cup as Lupin refilled his own from the bottle, downing her's, she held it out to be refilled as well. "Part of me wished I had stayed on that island, then I could have gone on believing my friends were alive and happy."

"Was it that bad?" Lupin asked, shifting his cup in his hands.

"Worse than you can imagine," she admitted, staring at him, but her eyes were a million miles away, "Dumbledore was dead, Harry was dead, Ron was in a coma and likely not going to wake up. Sirius, Charlie, Hagrid, Ginny; all dead, and more before I even got there and that wasn't the end of it. I met you once, you know, back in my time," she said, blinking as she focused on Lupin again with the look of someone that had seen too much.

"What happened?" he asked, not sure he wanted to know.

"Nothing, you just were sitting in a chair, staring at the fire. I had come to talk to you about Peter, since you were the last person that was close to him, and I needed as much information as I could get, preparing to come back. I don't think you knew I was there. That was the last time anyone saw you."

"I see." And he did, she didn't have to say what happened for him to know he was dead in her world, Hermione topped off his cup and he downed the contents. "Thanks."

"I told you, this wasn't going to be pleasant," she reminded, pulling something from her pocket and slid it across the desktop. "You gave this to me, I read it and it was helpful in explaining some things that happened while you were teaching until the school closed. I don't need it anymore, so I have no problem returning it." The little leather journal sat there innocently on the desk, nothing out of the ordinary but its content. "I wouldn't suggest reading it tonight or all at once, it's a lot to take in but it is yours."

"Thank you," came the reply before silence filled the room as both sat nursing their respective drinks, the bottle of whiskey half empty and the tea long gone cold before Hermione took her leave. She left him the bottle, he looked like he would need it before the night was out. The journal still sat where she had left it until well into the night, until Remus picked up the worn book and put it with its twin in a drawer of his wardrobe.

Author's Note: So I cut this one short, it was getting a bit dark and it is only going to get darker as we get into the Christmas break. You guys are seriously awesome over 100 followers and nearly 8k views I never thought my rabid plot bunny would get so popular I just wanted to get it out of my head.

This chapter has an alternate 'Breaking into Hogwarts' scene posted on AO3 called Once Upon A Dream. Warning: this will be the only Hermione/Sirius you will see in this story. M-Rated, see Profile and story notes for more information on where it fits into the main story(or doesn't as it were).

Next Chapter 10: I Had A Heart Before The World I Know Tore It All Apart; A Castaway, A Vagabond, Battle Born-December is not a happy month for Hermione, Past or Present, now she must finally put regrets from the Island behind her once and for all.

Edited-01/30/18

German Translation by the wonderful and patient Alea Thoron.