Chapter 5

"Why do I have to leave!" The little girl cried into the neck of the woman who was holding her. She had her arms firmly wrapped around the neck and shoulder. Her little fingers were clutching the shiny black curls as she sobbed. "Why are you making leave you?!"

The woman was softly shushing the little girl, "it's okay, luv," came the heavenly alto voice. "It's okay." She was rubbing the girl's back, trying to sooth the girl. "Baby girl, please look at me," she pleaded to the crying girl in her arms. Ceasing her sobs, instead sniffling as she brought her face out to look at the heart-shaped face that possessed dark, yet gentle, eyes, and an adoring and loving small smile. "Sweet girl, you don't know how much I don't want to let you go. But I promise you, luv, we will see each other again. And when that happens, we will never be parted again."

Her eyes snapped opened, waking with a gasp. Hermione sat up slightly but then plopped back down with a groan. With her eyes closed, she moved her arm to her abdomen to find that once again, her entire torso was wrapped in white bandages. Hermione sighed as she remembered seeing the blood seeping through her shirt after Bellatrix apparated away. Slowly, the witch rolled her head to look to the left of her. The door to her room was closed and there were potions sitting on the bedside table, she could make out at least ten present. She was able to recognize a few of them: blood replenishing, sleeping-draught, one for pain. Hermione also saw a salve sitting next to the potions. I must have done more damage than I thought…

"You really must stop giving me heart attacks, Hermione," said a mature female voice, startling the witch. Hermione roamed her eyes over the left side of her room and found Professor McGonagall sitting in an armchair right next to the foot of the bed. The professor had a disapproving expression on her face, but nonetheless, Hermione could see the relief rest in McGonagall's eyes.

"Professor…" Hermione sighed as she spoke her address. "I'm sorry for scaring you again, I guess I overdid it," Hermione said with a sad smile.

"Dear child, don't apologize, there's no point. It's not really your fault, as is it neither Sirius'; it was just too much for your body to handle everything you did while out shopping." Does she not know what happened at the bookshop, Hermione thought, confused.

"How bad?" Hermione asked, indicating towards her freshly re-injured wound.

"Well it wasn't as bad as the first time we had to heal you, but it still was pretty bad. Your entire wound tore open but not as deep as when you were first hit. But Sirius felt he needed more help than what he could provide for you, and called for assistance. I came, as well as Severus, as you needed more potions and a medicated salve to increase the chances of ensuring there were no more tears in the future." Hermione nodded at the information.

"Thank you very much, Professor. How long have you been here?" Hermione asked.

"A full day. I would have let around the same time as Severus but I wanted to wait to see you wake up and feeling somewhat better. I won't be able to stay much longer, but I'm happy to see you awake." Minerva sent the girl a kind smile, and then she stood up. "However, before I go, I need to change your bandages and put some more salve on your wound. Then I'll give you another sleeping-draught, so you could get more sleep."

Hermione nodded her consent to the actions and gingerly sat up to allow the older witch unwrapped the bandages and removed the large piece of gauze covering the wound. She tossed the soiled cloth into the wastebasket. Minerva opened the jar and applied the salve to the entire wound, which seemed to have stitched itself together. After she applied the ointment, the professor placed a fresh piece of gauze over the wound. She had Hermione sit back up to re-wrap the bandages around her torso. "There you go, my dear. I apologize for not being able to spend more time talking to you, but I do have to go. But you need to get more rest, to let your body more time to heal untempered. When you wake up again, either or both Sirius and Harry will be here. I'll see you later, my dear." And with that, the professor administered the draught, and Hermione fell fast asleep a second later.


The second time she woke up that day, she found instead of Professor McGonagall, but rather Sirius and Harry softly talking to one another. Hermione quietly, with clenched teeth, sat up gingerly and scooted back to rest her upper body against the headboard. The two wizards hadn't noticed her actions until she cleared her throat, trying to get their attention. Both wizards snapped their heads towards the witch who was now resting comfortably against the head board with a smile on her face. Both Sirius and Harry let out a sigh of relief, despite knowing that she has already woken up earlier. "You're awake," Harry smiled. "I'm happy to see that you are awake and are able to move a little bit."

"I feel same way, Hermione, but after what happened in Flourish & Blotts, you need to be careful with your movements. I'm sorry this happened to you. I pushed you to far, walking around for half a day, shopping."

"Sirius, it's okay. It's not your fault. We just went out too early, but I'll be okay." Hermione said firmly, but with a kind smile. "But, after talking to McGonagall, I'm guessing you two didn't tell her, nor Snape about what happened with Bellatrix did you?"

Sirius gave her a somber look, shaking his head, "I felt it best that she didn't know about it, otherwise she'd really have a heart attack." Sirius gave a humorless laugh. "Speaking of Bellatrix, what happened?" The wizard pushed gently.

Hermione raised both of her eyebrows, "umm…that's actually something I wanted to talk to you about." Hermione flickered her gaze over to Harry before having them rest on Sirius. "I was wondering if you could help me figure out these dreams that I have been having since the last summer. As well as to why I keep having brief strange conversations with Bellatrix." Hermione and Harry were expecting either a yes or a no, but the older wizard's response floored them.

Letting out a deep sigh, Sirius scrunched his face in thought. "Hermione," he said, looking deeply into her eyes, "I believe that this conversation requires another to help explain or answer any of your questions."


Sirius wouldn't tell them where they were going but all he said was that he needed to go make a floo call real fast. He told the duo to make sure they were ready by the time he came back. Harry made sure he had his shoes, jacket and wand on him before helping Hermione get up. Since there was no real time to get changed, Hermione was only dressed in a black sports bra, black spankies, and a pair of black vans slip ons. Since her torso was completely covered with bandages, she didn't bother to put on a t-shirt, but opted to wear a loose black zip up hoodie that was only zipped up one-third of the way up. Changing into different clothes would have taken some time and much pain to complete. However, they did have enough time to change out Hermione's bandages and apply more salve. By the time Sirius came back up, Hermione was slowly walking around the bed with Harry walking next to her for any support.

"Alright, you two, you ready?" Sirius asked.

"Uh, yeah, let's go." Hermione said. Sirius and Harry walked with Hermione between them to make sure she didn't fall at some point.

Once they were standing in front of the fireplace, Sirius turned to the teens and spoke sternly. "Keep an open mind as to where we are going. And whatever you do, do not draw your wand." He looked pointedly into both pairs of eyes. Once he received nods from both them, Sirius continued on, "Hermione, you and I will go first. And Harry, you will follow after us. Harry pay attention to what location I say because it will be the only time you hear it."

"Okay."

Turning to the witch, "you ready, Hermione?"

"Yeah. I'm good to go. Sirius where are we going?"

"You'll find out soon. Now grab onto my arm, I don't want you to get anymore hurt." And with she latched onto the wizard's arm. He took a handful of floo powder and the two stepped inside the fireplace. "Library of Black Manor," Sirius shouted, leaving behind a wide-eyed Harry Potter.

Landing in the fireplace, Hermione would have tumbled out if it hadn't been for her arm latched securely around Sirius' arm. However, Sirius had to help her stabilize her stance before she fell. Once her balance was readjusted, Hermione took the chance to look around the room, they were in a library, the same library from my dream, Hermione thought. She didn't even register Harry's arrival as she was looking intently around the room. Hermione suddenly froze as she rested her gaze upon the sight of a woman with long black curly hair standing before her with her back facing the new arrivals. It's her! Hermione internally screamed.

Hermione snapped out of her internal breakdown when Sirius, who is still holding her arm for support, cleared his throat. "Hermione, Harry, I would like to…"

Hermione's mind flashed back to one of her dreams, "Anya, I would like for you to…"

Hermione continued listening to Sirius "…formally introduce you two to Bellatrix Black and Narcissa Malfoy." He gestured to the two witches who were standing in front of them. During the introduction, Hermione had kept her eyes trained on the form of Bellatrix, who turned around at hearing her name.

Instead of her usual smirk, Bellatrix had a genuine and kind smile, and finally spoke. "It is a pleasure to finally be able to officially meet you." She said to both teens, but her eyes were trained solely on the confused wide but soft light brown eyes.