TW: vomiting, violence

Sirius looked at his watch again, the train should have arrived 20 minutes ago, and he was starting to get worried. He'd assumed they'd been taking longer so Harry could speak to Hermione, perhaps she'd needed convincing to talk to him. However now the streams of students and parents leaving the station had died down. Earlier a large man had rushed out of the station doors and looked him so fiercely in the eye that Sirius felt they knew each other, then he barged past Sirius, hard, despite knowing he was there. It had left him with a feeling that something was unfolding that he wasn't privy to. He could reason with himself that it was nonsense, that the man had seen his mugshot years ago or something but now that time had passed, he could no longer just stand waiting. He walked through the station doors and looked around, it was eerily empty, and he could feel magic in the air, like a magnetic pull. It was easy to follow and after a short amount of walking he felt he was at the centre of it, glancing around he noticed that the very few people walking though the chunk of station they were in seemed to speed up in their pace until they were further away. They must be muggles he thought, he turned around to check the seating areas at the edge of walkway and noticed two abandoned trolleys packed with luggage. On top of one the trolleys sat Hedwig, she was distressed and nipping at the door of her cage. Sirius could now feel his heartbeat in his ears, the other trolley must be Hermione's.

"Hermione!"

Sirius looked up and saw a man and a woman, they kept getting closer to where he was and then seemed to turn away, as though there was a wall there instead. He got out his wand stealthily and used a generic spell to remove whatever barrier spell had been placed.

"hello?" He shouted.

The couple turned with a start, as though a whole new chunk of the station had appeared out of thin air, then they walked hastily towards Sirius.

"Sorry did you say you were looking for Hermione?" Sirius looked them up and down, they must be her parents.

"Yes, she's our daughter, do you know her?" Mr Granger said, "do you know where she is?"

"I'm Sirius, Harry's godfather, he hasn't come to meet me, so I came here looking for him, I believe these are his and Hermione's luggage" Sirius looked to the abandoned trolleys.

"That's Hermione's trunk" Mrs Granger's voice wobbled as she spoke and then she covered her mouth as though she may let out a sob or a scream.

Sirius tried to appear calm, but he felt as though he could sob or scream himself. "I'm going to use Harry's owl to contact the Ministry of Magic." He stuffed his hands into his pockets but found no parchment. "do you have anything I could write with?"

Mrs granger dug around her purse and pulled out a neat little notepad with an attached pen and handed it to Sirius. He opened it quickly and scribbled down a letter to the authorities explaining what he found and how he expected this was some sort of kidnapping.

"Shouldn't we call the police" Mr Granger looked at his wife and then at Sirius.

"it is doubtful that any mug…uh non-magical person did this, excuse me a moment and apologies in advance" He drew out his wand and created a Patronus and a ghostly looking shaggy dog appeared before him. "Go to Dumbledore, tell him that Harry and Hermione have been taken from Kings Cross and that I've sent word to the ministry." Then the dog began to run and dissipated into the air.

Mrs Granger looked startled and appeared to swallow hard "how do you know it's a magical person that might have…?"

Sirius turned to look at her, confused. Did she not know about the past 5 odd years, all of them fighting against he who must not be named? He thought for a moment, if he were a muggle, and his own child had of been in Hermione's position, he imagined that he wouldn't have sent her back to Hogwarts after first year. She must have been keeping all of that a secret from her family so she could keep going to Hogwarts. How lonely it must be for your family to miss out on half of your life, that must be why Harry and Ron had never met Hermione's parents since briefing them would be an awkward endeavour.

"Well uh… students typically aren't permitted to use magic outside of the school. But, in the case of self- defensive it is acceptable, and no offence intended, but I think the two would be more than able to hold their own against someone without the advantage of magic." Sirius felt as though he was saying something rude, but he knew it was the truth.

Mr Granger looked at the floor a moment, and then grunted a noise of vague acceptance. Suddenly behind them came a crack and as they looked, Dumbledore walked towards them, his stature average and yet his presence seemed to fill the station.

"Sirius, Mr and Mrs Granger" Dumbledore gave each individual a nod of greeting before turning his attention immediately to the two abandoned trolleys. He studied the two teen's luggage and then turned to scan the station around them. The embellished emerald robe that Dumbledore wore gave him the air of a fairy tale character, yet his mannerisms made him seem like a detective.

"someone put up a barrier to steer away muggles, I removed it for the sake of Mr and Mrs Granger. It seems whoever put it up wasn't overly concerned about removing it to cover their tracks" Sirius said to Dumbledore, who was now performing some silent spells around the floor and walls.

"Mmm, there's nothing to indicate what happened beyond that the children were here and now they're not" He scrunched his face up slightly before looking up at the top corner of a wall. "Mr and Mrs Granger, perhaps you may know where we might find what that camera device may have seen" Dumbledore pointed to the CCTV camera watching above and gave them a kind look.

Her head felt as though her brain was knocking on the inside of her skull. Groggily, she opened her eyes and saw that the sun was up. She sat up and got her bearings, then she realised what day it was suddenly very awake. Hermione will send me a letter soon, telling me that Harry was gone, Bellatrix thought. She got dressed and made her way towards the great hall, not many people stayed over Christmas, and yet the great hall almost seemed busy. It was also later than she thought, the post must have already come, but there had been no letter left in her dorm or anywhere else for that matter. Perhaps Hermione was too overwhelmed to write just yet, that made sense. As she walked into the great hall, she noticed how everyone was in very active conversations, turning around to other groups with stunned faces and then turning to spread the message to another. They must have already heard about Potter then, she walked over to a group of students in her year who were muttering to each other in serious tones, thinking she should at least check for the sake of appearances.

"What's going on" She stood confident at the head of the group.

A Ravenclaw boy turned to her "you haven't already heard" the gossip was apparently so interesting that he'd forgotten to be afraid of her. "Harry Potter and Hermione Granger have been kidnapped".

"Right out of Kings Cross" exclaimed another girl "God knows how they got both of them without any witnesses".

Bellatrix stood still and stared at the Ravenclaw boy as her skin turned from its usual fair shade to an almost grey colour. She turned swiftly and walked at speed from the great hall.

"well that was weird" said the Ravenclaw boy with a furrowed brow.

Another member of the group let out an assumed huff, "I bet she knows who did it, that's why she looked so guilty". The others in the group let out noises of agreement and carried on with their gossiping.

Bellatrix's walk turned into a jog and then a sprint, until she found a girl's bathroom. She turned into the nearest cubicle and was immediately sick. She continued to vomit until her stomach was empty and her eyes were watering. What in Merlin's name had she done, this whole time the truth had been so close to pouring out of her and she had stopped it. After all the books she'd read and all the growing up she'd done, she still couldn't see that history always repeats itself. She walked to the mirror to sort out her face and breath briefly so that she wasn't storming around with vomit on her face. It was time to the do the hard thing instead of trying to manipulate things that weren't really in her control. She left the bathroom and walked at speed, pushing past other students when necessary until she came to the gargoyle by Dumbledore's office. Just as she began to worry about not having a password, the statue began to move, and she jumped back. Out of the stairway walked two people in what was clearly muggle clothing. The woman had a kind face that was red and blotchy, she was stuffing tissues into her bag that had evidently been used to dry her eyes. The man with her put his arm around her and rubbed her shoulder, his face was troubled, but he forced out a smile to whom Bellatrix assumed to be his wife. Behind them followed a familiar face, older and hairier than she remembered from childhood. He rubbed his face as he walked out as though he hadn't slept, Bellatrix thought of Harry, the only family that Sirius truly had, and realised she had spent years hating the Black family and all they stood for, just to act exactly like them when it counted. Tearing people away from their families, for a selfish goal of trying to get the best of both worlds. Just as Dumbledore came out to join the group, Sirius noticed her. He looked at her as though she'd popped up from out of the stone floor, with shock and a slight bit of discomfort. Before he could say anything, Dumbledore stepped forward and searched her face with his bright blue eyes. She looked back at him before looking at the muggle couple and Dumbledore turned to see what she was looking at.

"Miss Black, this is Mr and Mrs Granger, I'm sure you may have heard by now what's going on" He gestured his arm towards them and they both gave her a strained smile.

She recognised their features now, Hermione's eyes in the mother, the slight stern look of her father, they looked worried sick and it made her think of how Hermione might look right now. Would she be crying too? Would she be conscious? Would she be bleeding? She looked away from them ashamed.

"Professor I need to speak with you" Bellatrix said in serious tone. "I… ". She forced down the lump in her throat "I know where they are"

Dumbledore looked at her with sad eyes, he had hoped so much that Bellatrix and Hermione's relationship would conquer the shadow of Bellatrix's family that always surrounded her, but it seems he had been too optimistic.

"Why is the girl already waking up Dolohov" Cygnus Black was shaking out his limbs as they grew back to their original length, the Polyjuice potion was wearing off, but he was impatient and sick of being the height of a boy.

"There wasn't enough of the drought that we used on the boy to knock the girl out too, so I just hit her over the head." Dolohov sighed and scratched where his Polyjuice moustache had been. "The boy won't be awake for a couple hours"

"Hm, well then I suppose we can dispose of her before we get started then" Cygnus said calmly as his height slowly rose inch by inch to his proper stature.

"Bella" Hermione whispered as she drifted in and out of consciousness.

Cygnus turned and stared at the girl slumped on the ground of the dungeon, then turned his head towards Dolohov "Did she just say my daughter's name"

Dolohov stared at the ground and sucked his teeth "I don't imagine Bellatrix told you how she managed to get close to Potter then".

Cygnus stared at him with a chilling glare until he continued.

"Listen, my Frederick is a bit of a loudmouth, but he says your Bellatrix got pretty close to the mudblood." Dolohov wasn't afraid of Cygnus as such, but the man had a stare like Medusa, and he was starting to sweat under his gaze. "People said they were seen meeting at night and such but…look she's a smart girl, she probably just didn't want to be seen with filth" Dolohov shrugged slightly at him and focused on a smudge of something on his sleeve.

Cygnus didn't say anything in reply, his daughter wasn't the child he had always wanted, but he did know she didn't hide. Regardless of whether she was parading around with filth, if she were doing it for the family's benefit then she wouldn't hide it. He knew this because the only thing his daughter feared was him, so she obviously didn't want him to know how close she'd needed to get to the mudblood.

"go and get what we need set up, I'll take care of the girl" Cygnus said without looking at the other man.

Dolohov nodded and then walked up the stairs of the dungeon and out to the ground floor not looking back, he almost felt bad for the girl.