She knew what was about to happen when she recognized the Time Turner, she knew she was about to go back in time, but to go back this far made her speechless.
"I asked a question love. Who are you?"he articulated each word as if she was a complete idiot who couldn't possibly understand what he was saying like a normal person.
"I…my name is Hermione."she answered tentatively, leaving out her surname on purpose. She needed to stay focused and controlled. This was a very dangerous territory.
She stood up shakily but managed to straighten her back and to look defiantly in the eyes of none other than Regulus Arcturus Black.
She still held onto the Time Turner in one hand and her wand in the other.
Regulus's gaze dropped to her hands and recognition flickered through his face.
"Damn it." She thought. "The Time Turner was in his room, how am I going to explain this?"she started to panic as the reality of the situation overwhelmed her.
"Just keep your cool Hermione…"she bit her lower lip and waited for him to act on the situation.
He looked back up, his eyes like steel, his face like a blank canvas showing no more emotion at all.
"That is my Time Turner, love."he had a predatory look on his face now and she felt like she was his pray. There was something different about him. Dangerous. But not in a way that it scared her, it was exciting. Her heart rate started to speed up under his gaze, her palms started to sweat and a flush crept up her cheeks. She tried with all her strength to keep the eye contact and to not fidget.
"It explains how you got in here when there are blood wards placed on the property."he paced laggardly in front of her, his wand raised directly at her keeping an eye on her every move. "Now, I want you to listen very carefully, I don't like repeating myself. How did you get hold of my Time Turner? Which year are you from and what did you do to Sirius?"
Her eyes narrowed at the mention of Sirius's name.
"What does me having his Time Turner got to do anything with Sirius?"
As far as she knew, they didn't have a brotherly relationship at all. Hermione often heard stories about the Marauders, from their past when they were still in Hogwarts, before the war took over their life.
They were brothers in every way but blood. Why did he never mention Regulus then?
"I wish I could just outright ask him my questions, but time traveling cannot be treated that carelessly…" she thought.
"Why would I tell you anything you want? Are you that stupid?"she stuck her nose in the air.
"Two can play like that…"he grinned.
"Okay darling. Have it your way then." He hissed.
Two things happened very quickly afterwards. He disarmed her with a non-verbal Expelliarmus and got her wand in his hand, with another spell he took away the Time Turner from her and with another flick of his wand he vanished it from her sight.
Her eyes widened and she didn't have time to recover from her shock either because the next thing she knew, she was thrown back to a chair and felt being tied right to it with another non-verbal Incarcerous.
"Brilliant. Just fucking marvelous."she fumed silently, her eyes were glowing, like the amber liquid he was drinking just moments ago.
"The color of her eyes, it's like Firewhiskey.."he thought.
He stepped closer and smirked.
"Can he be more full of himself?"she glared at him. Maybe he was exactly like Malfoy after all.
"Let's start again." He whispered in a low voice and put his left hand on her right shoulder, still pointing his wand at her face with the other. "When did you come from? Which year?"
"Do you think it is safe to tell you? Don't you know anything about Time Travel? How can you be so arrogant to think that I'll reveal anything? Just me being here can cause horrible consequences!" She hissed through gritted teeth.
"How can you be so brave and stupid to insult me? You are tied to a chair sweetheart."
"If you wanted me dead, I'd be dead already."
"Yes, you would."
"But I'm not."
"Yet."he leaned even closer, now their nose almost touched.
"You seem to be around my age, have an unmistakable British accent and you are obviously a witch. Yet, I don't recognize you, so either you did not go to Hogwarts and there is a reasonable explanation of our lack of acquaintance, or you are so far away from the future that I could be your father, love. I'll repeat again. Which year did you come from? "he demanded.
"I won't tell you."she gave him a fake smile to irritate him.
"Very well."he stepped away.
If she thought the questioning was over, she was very wrong. He just decided to use a different kind of method to get answers.
He raised his wand and made eye contact with her.
"Legilimens" he muttered.
She tried with all her strength that left in her magical core to fight back, to hide her memories, her deepest thoughts, her secrets but it was useless. She wasn't as skilled as he was.
Eventually he easily cracked her system and he was going through whatever he wanted to see.
From her youngest memories when she learnt how to ride a bike with her father, to the ones about Hogwarts, finding out she was a witch and receiving her Hogwarts letter, the train ride to the castle, the sorting ceremony, laughing with Ron and Harry in the Gryffindor common room, the Yule Ball in 4th year, spending time in the library and finally her latest memories about her time with the boys at Grimmauld Place after the Death Eaters ruined Fleur and Bill's wedding.
He was looking for memories about Sirius, he very vaguely looked through moments of her life, speeding up when he found a memory dull or skipping it entirely and looking for a new one.
It all passed in front of Hermione's eyes as well, she could see what he was seeing for the first time.
He was so ruthless she was sure a torturous headache would start tormenting her any minute now to accompany her dizziness and nausea, the side effects of her time travel.
Then he found a memory he deemed interesting enough.
Hermione and Harry were in a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up.
On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lay Crookshanks, purring loudly at the sight of them. On the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Ron.
Harry and Hermione dashed across to him.
"Ron -are you okay?"
"Where's the dog?"
"Not a dog," Ron moaned. His teeth were gritted with pain. "Harry, it's a trap -"
"What -"
"He's the dog... he's an Animagus."
Ron was staring over Harry's shoulder. Harry wheeled around. With a snap, the man in the shadows closed the door behind them. A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. If eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse. The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked like a skull. His yellow teeth were bared in a grin. It was Sirius Black.
Regulus then watched as this boy named Harry launched himself at Sirius and a fight broke out. He didn't understand.
"What the hell happened to Sirius? Did they really say he was in Azkaban?"he was so confused.
The memory continued and it became even more disturbing for Regulus.
Sirius sprawled at the bottom of the wall. His thin chest rose and fell rapidly as he watched Harry walking slowly nearer, his wand pointing straight at Sirius's heart.
„Going to kill me, Harry?" he whispered.
Harry stopped right above him, his wand still pointing at Sirius's chest, looking down at him. A livid bruise was rising around Sirius's left eye and his nose was bleeding.
"You killed my parents," said Harry, his voice shaking slightly, but his wand hand quite steady.
Sirius stared up at him out of those sunken eyes.
"I don't deny it," he said very quietly. "But if you knew the whole story."
"The whole story?" Harry repeated, a furious pounding in his ears. "You sold them to Voldemort. That's all I need to know."
Regulus suddenly stopped and left her mind.
"Who the hell do you think you are? What gave you the impression that you can just go ahead and penetrate my mind like that?"she screamed, she was trashing desperately and trying to get rid of her ropes, she was beyond angry.
He seemed so distant right then, looking at her but not really seeing her with his eyes glazed over.
"Are you even listening to me!?"she shouted at him.
That seemed to snap him out of his stupor, he blinked a couple of times and stepped closer kneeling down in front of her so that he was at eye level with her.
"What happened to Sirius?"his eyes softened, his voice was husky.
"I…what?"she asked.
"You saw what I saw. What happened to Sirius? Who is Harry? Who are his parents?"he grabbed her shoulders now, staring frantically in her eyes. "Damn it woman, answer me!"he raised his voice.
"I…He…"she was lost for words. She bit her lower lip, cast her eyes down so she didn't need to look at him.
"Well?"he asked gently this time, still holding onto her shoulders, but his grip wasn't that tight anymore.
With one hand he lifted her chin and gazed into her eyes.
"Look at me."he whispered."Please tell me what happened to him, I need to know. Why did my brother look like that in your memory? He looked like a man…a man half dead."
"What's up with him?"she thought. She couldn't keep up with his mood swings. "Oh Merlin, what should I tell him? I wish Harry and Ron were here with me."
That thought made her realize where she was, how utterly lonely, helpless she felt and above all how she had no idea what she was going to do. Based on Regulus's young looks she was around 15-18 years in the past with no way of going back to her time.
"Fuck."she mumbled.
She was white as a ghost, she couldn't see her surroundings that clearly anymore and on top of that she had a sensation that the room was moving around her.
Suddenly she lost consciousness.
"For the love of Merlin."he groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Of course she had to faint."he whispered to no-one in particular but himself.
_
Thank you all so much for your comments and for putting my story among your favorites or followed stories, I am so glad you liked the first chapter! :) I hope the second one was to your liking as well. Please let me know what you think. :)
I will try to upload the third one soon. Thank you, thank you, thank you!