Merry Christmas everyone! I cannot believe it's Christmas Eve already, it's crazy how fast this year passed. Thank you so much for all the comments, follows and favorites! It's so encouraging. I am glad you like it so far. :) I will try to upload the 4th chapter as well in the following days, but maybe it will go up only after the 26th of December. Either way I wish all of you a wonderful time during the holidays!
_
Now this was something he didn't expect and he was not used to things not going his way. He was used to have every situation under control and perfectly planned out with a plan B in case something went awry.
This was the complete opposite.
He had to get a hold of Sirius, but what would he tell him?
Hello brother, I have an unconscious unknown girl tied to a chair in my bedroom I need your help with? Oh, did I mention that she is from the fucking future by the way?
Yeah that sounds just peachy, doesn't it?
Yes, it was reckless and dangerous to go through her memories, but he found that he didn't really have a choice.
"I acted like a bloody Gryffindor.."he inwardly groaned.
Something must have gone incredibly wrong with his plans, because that man, looking like someone who went through Hell and came back, that man was Sirius indeed.
He didn't look for any memories about himself.
In that moment he didn't even think about that, he only had Sirius on his mind.
She actually said that she hadn't known him, so there were three possibilities.
Maybe he really had died during his little excursion in the cave so they never met in the future or they just hadn't known each other because they were from very different social circles and that's a nice way to put it.
Or she simply lied to him.
She was a Muggleborn, that much was clear from her childhood memories, so not being close could be a given.
"And I would have been an old man compared to her. A Death Eater."he grimaced. He regretted immensely the Dark Mark on his forearm.
Who was she in the future and how did she end up in Grimmauld Place?
He saw her with two boys in his childhood home, they were the same people from her memories over and over again, giving an impression that they were glued together by the hips.
Was this "Harry" James Potter's son? He looked exactly like Potter, they could be twins in his opinion. If he was, then what their conversation contained was utter rubbish.
Sirius would never in a million years betray his best friend, especially to the Dark Lord.
And what happened to his parents if three teenagers, wearing Muggle clothes could sleep in their home?
At least he had time to organize his thoughts until she woke up from her sudden slumber party.
What happened that Sirius didn't end up using his Time Turner anyway? Her being here meant that Sirius never used it in the first place, it remained hidden in his bedroom and then somehow she found it instead.
That fact alone wasn't comforting. The whole situation reeked of unpleasantness.
"Kreacher!"he called for his personal house elf.
"Master Regulus."the elf appeared with a pop and bowed in front of his young master.
"Bring me a parchment and quill please, I need to send a letter immediately."he ordered the elf. Without saying anything Kreacher disappeared with a pop.
Regulus was probably the only one in the family who treated him right, with respect and kindness, but in front of his parents he ought not to say please to the elf.
Even Sirius, who was the black sheep of the family, treated him horribly. They didn't get along to say the least, the little creature and Sirius hated each other with great vigor.
Kreacher entered the room again and placed everything his Master needed down on his desk. Regulus was deep in thought, looking out the window, slowly drinking his Firewhiskey.
"Master Regulus."Kreacher bowed and waited hesitantly. Elves don't get to question their masters and mistresses, they must do as they are told and follow orders from the family they belong to. But this time Kreacher thought it was necessary to go against his natural instincts.
"Yes?" Regulus turned to face the little elf, who had large eyes, with white hair growing out of his bat-like ears. He wore a grey tea towel with the family crest embroidered on it as a uniform.
"Who is the girl?"he whispered.
"Oh, right."he followed Kreacher's gaze and landed on Hermione who was still unconscious, tied to his chair. "I command you to keep her existence a secret from my parents. Understood?"
"Of course Master Regulus. I will not say a word."
"They cannot know about her, it would cause me great trouble if they knew. She won't stay though. I need to contact Sirius and arrange her accommodation…somewhere safe."
Kreacher bowed, and left the room with a pop.
Regulus wrote a note to Sirius with perfect cursive letters asking him to come to Grimmauld Place as soon as he could without causing suspicion, sealed it with protective enchantments just in case if it was intercepted. Being a member of the House of Black gave him some advantage when it came to learning about nasty spells. If somebody else opened this letter other than Sirius, he or she would be up for an unpleasant surprise.
He chose this owl on purpose, he was perfectly plain, nobody would recognize it as his, he could have been a simple Ministry owl.
"Eros, come here boy."the brown owl opened his huge yellow eyes and with a hoot he flew from his cage closer to Regulus and landed on his desk."Bring this to Sirius immediately, don't wait for a response."
Regulus gave the owl a treat and when his little companion finished it he let him fly out his bedroom window.
Hermione was still passed out. It gave him some time to examine her without being caught.
Her head was turned to the side, her face was framed by her long, curly hair. It seemed to be silky and it reminded him of chocolate. She was beautiful, but in a totally different way than the pureblooded, spoiled girls he knew from Slytherin. She had delicate features and he found that he couldn't take his eyes off her that easily.
He picked up his drink and downed it before taking a step closer.
She had perfect unblemished white skin, like a porcelain doll, nicely shaped eyebrows and eyes with long dark lashes and a small nose with some freckles on it.
Her mouth, now that was the most tempting about her. The truth was that he's never seen a mouth that he would kill to kiss until now, until hers. That thought was terrifying because he wasn't sure if he could resist.
"If she knew that I was ogling her in this state, she would think that I was a creep…"he thought and frowned.
Without actually going through her memories, he could have guessed that she was surely not from this time based on her clothing. After he started meeting Sirius more frequently, to avoid anybody spotting them together, they started to meet up in Muggle London in pubs and parks. This is why he had some basic knowledge about the Muggle attire from their time. What she was wearing was similar to the sort of clothing he's seen, but still looked off.
After half an hour of contemplating what to do with her, thinking about what would be the wisest course of action with somebody knowing probably everything about their war, he got startled by Sirius, who apparated directly to his bedroom. He turned quickly and raised his wand at him, the first curse ready on the tip of his tongue.
"You should be wiser than to just apparate here, I could have cursed you idiot."he lowered his wand.
"What the fuck Regulus!?"he was staring at Hermione with an incredulous expression.
"This is why I asked you to come as soon as you can."
"Brother, I am not sure how I could help you out with your lady problem. So be that as it may, believe me it is flattering that you called me, but…"
"Are you quite done?"he snapped at him, interrupting his ridiculous rambling. "This is not what you think it is. She appeared out of nowhere, with my Time Turner in her hand, alright?"
"With your…what? How?"he was utterly dumbfounded.
"I have no idea. I tried to piece the puzzle together, I went through her memories to see.."he got interrupted by his brother.
"You did WHAT!?"shouted Sirius. "How could you do that to her? You violated her! Do you think she will cooperate after this stunt you pulled?"he was shaking his head, Regulus was always a calculating, manipulating bastard when they were younger. He didn't expect him to do something reckless like this.
"I didn't think it through! I could only think about what went wrong, and why it wasn't you who appeared!"he shouted back. "I told you I researched Time Turners and according to Professor Croaker's law, the longest period that can be travelled back in time without serious chance of harm to the traveller or time itself is around five hours. Normally, that is. I modified this Time Turner a bit, to extend this time to 24 hours for you."he was breathing heavily, pacing the room, his wand clenched in his fist.
"The consequences of meddling with time could be as severe as creating an alternate timeline. I was ready to do that to defeat the Dark Lord, but this girl, we know nothing about her. Her presence here can cause her being unborn. I had to know more about her, but she didn't want to tell me anything."
"And what about me? You wanted me to go back an entire day!" Sirius raised his eyebrow.
"This Time Turner is special, I played with it long enough to make sure you would have caught up to yourself, to the exact moment when you used the device without any problem. But according to her memories what I understood, I don't think she is born yet. Or maybe she will be born this year, I don't fucking know for sure, she wasn't exactly chatty, you see."he added.
"She didn't want to tell me anything, which is probably the safest if you think about it, but I had to see where she came from and how she managed to get to the Time Turner."he looked at Sirius now, with one raised eyebrow, waiting to be scolded like when they were younger.
Sirius turned without commenting on the situation and had a long look at her for the first time. He had his fair share of ladies, but he found she was very special. A rare beauty.
"I wish I'd know her, a real nice time traveler you've got there brother."he smirked. "Did you stun her then or why is she tied to a chair unconscious?"
Regulus would have rolled his eyes, but remembering her memory about Sirius made him freeze, his shoulders tensed.
"She fainted, she got too overwhelmed by the situation, her being here in the past I suppose. I don't judge her though."
"Hmm. And what did you find anyway?"he dared to ask.
"It's better if you don't know the specifics,"he muttered. "but according to what I found in her head the future isn't bright at all."he said.
"Bloody hell."groaned Sirius. "Should we revive her then? Did you ask me to come here to question her?"
"Not exactly."now this was the part that Regulus was afraid of, he meant to ask his brother to take away the girl, she couldn't stay here, she probably hated his guts with all her heart to begin with and his parents couldn't know about her.
Nobody could know about her.
Regulus had no idea if it was even a possibility to send her back, maybe she was stuck in this timeline. It was really no surprise she fainted.
If somehow the Dark Lord got wind about the existence of a young girl who knew everything about the future, she would be hunted down like an animal and they would torture her until she answered all of the Dark Lord's questions, or until she would go mad.
They had to protect her.
"Regulus, I know you more than anybody. What is it that you want from me exactly?" Sirius narrowed his eyes, he had a suspicion that his little brother was about to ask him something he didn't really want to do.
"Would you…would you take her with you back to your apartment"he asked hesitantly. "She cannot stay here."he said firmly with more confidence this time.
"Oh man."he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose like McGonagall used to do when they found themselves with the Marauders yet again in her office to discuss the consequences of their most recent prank. "Okay. I see your point, she cannot stay, she needs a safe place to crash until we figure out how to send her back and we cannot tell anybody where she came from."he looked at her again and frowned. "Moony is going to bloody kill me."
"Why would he do that? Don't you have birds at your place all the time? I thought you had a reputation to maintain." Regulus grinned at him.
"Oh I do have a lot of birds each week at my place little brother, but with Moony we have a rule you see. No girls at the apartment when he is there too. I promised him and I kept my promise until now, it's his apartment, too after all."
"Well, I think, I THINK this situation is a tiny bit different than bringing home your weekly slag, don't you agree?" Regulus started to lose his patience, he just wanted to go to bed early and forget about her.
"Don't you say?"Sirius rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll bring her, I will think of something. Remus will be suspicious, but I'll figure it out. If I can convince her that it's for her safety, maybe she would agree to pretend to be my serious girlfriend or something."
"One thing you need to know though, she is a Muggelborn."he smirked.
"So I'll really date her and spit right in the face of mother's rules." Sirius had a mischievous glint in his eyes and a shit-eating-grin on his face. He loved riling up their mother.
"Oh I knew you would help your baby brother out."in reality he was not sure at all about that, this was a big favor to ask. "Now, I'm going to run. I have a murder to plan. Busy day." Regulus made a dismissive shooing motion with his right hand, the Black signet ring glinting under the light.
"Okay, I'll take her before she wakes up and kills you."
"That's probably a good idea. She seems to be a firecracker that one. Take care of her Sirius."
"Oh, believe me I will."he winked, removed the bindings and caught her before she could hit the floor, lifted her to his arms bridal style and apparated away.