A/N:Thank you everyone for the reviews! So excited to be writing I Was BOTWP I have plans to discuss in more detail the differences between the two realities soon!
oOo
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking witch.
Sirius pushed passed Remus, nearly knocking his tall friend over in the process.
"I checked everywhere." Remus began in a rush, quickly steadying himself and following after Sirius down the hall. "Her room was empty with the door wide open, the library was empty, every room in the gods damned house is empty."
"She was just in the fucking library!" Sirius muttered, his vocal cords hoarse as he resisted the urge to shift. When Sirius found himself in the throes of a strong, primal emotion-which is all the bloody time- it was his body's natural instinct to go canine. Made for some very interesting accidents during his more amorous encounters. Once while engaging in, shall we say a more animalistic form of love making, Sirius had looked down at the very shapely bum of the witch whose name he could not remember, and found that his hands gripping said bum had unconsciously began shifting to paws. Luckily the witch in question had not noticed the difference in grip.
Remus reached a hand out and grabbed his friend's shoulder, turning him roughly. "Listen to me!" He demanded with a growl and Sirius suppressed his own growl in response, grey eyes searching his fellow Marauder's face.
"All of her things are gone." Remus all but whispered. "Everything. Every article of clothing or book borrowed from Hogwarts, every note and paper. Every-fucking-thing is gone. Sirius, I-I can't even smell her." His last words practically a plea.
"Wha-what?" Sirius asked, his head tilting in confusion. "You can't smell her?"
What does that mean?
"No." Remus shook his head, placing both hands on the other wizard's shoulder desperately. It'd been a long time since Sirius had seen Remus so worked up, the sandy haired wizard was difficult to rattle, but now he practically shook with anxiety. "Not a scent or sniff or lingering odor. I can't smell her, Sirius, it's like she was never even here."
Sirius cautiously sniffed the air. Nothing.
Nothing? Nothing? How the fucking bloody hell could there be nothing?
Wordlessly Sirius allowed his body the transformation it was demanding and dropped to the floor on four paws. He set his snout to the ground and sniffed again. Nothing. No shampoo or perfume; the smell of her hair, even her natural musk, was missing. Padfoot lifted his head and breathed deeply through his nostrils as a tendril of panic twisted its way through his body.
Frantically the Animagus raced to the library, the last place he'd seen Hermione. Nothing. He jumped on the couch. Nothing. Not even the barest trace that she had ever been there. The dog buried his face in the blanket Hermione had been wrapped in mere hours before and let out a soft whine. A floorboard creaked and Pads turned to see Remus standing in the doorway, eyes wide like a lost pup.
"The whole house, the whole sodding house," the werewolf continued, "is completely void of her scent. I checked everywhere, Sirius."
Pads shifted back into the wizard and slammed his fist into the wall, rattling the antiques that sat atop the bookcases. "Damnit!" Sirius yelled between clenched teeth. "How is this possible? Where is her scent?"
"She knows us, Sirius, better than we could've imagined." Remus said cryptically, his green eyes cast down, his hand buried in his hair. "She must've known that we could track her and so magically removed her scent."
Sirius's head snapped up. "So you think she left on her own then, no kidnapping?" Sirius asked, his Auror mind racing with possibilities.
"Seems unlikely, who could've gotten past the wards?" Remus pointed out.
"A Black." Sirius all but spat. "Bella..." Sirius felt sick to his stomach, "Bellatrix is killing Muggle-born witches, Bellatrix could get passed the Black wards. They're blood wards, I can't keep her out of here. Holy fuck. Holy shite. Holy fucking shite..."
Remus shook his head. "No one knows Hermione was here and Grimmauld Place is hidden, your cousins don't even know where it is."
Sirius nodded mutely. Remus was right, of course he was right, no one besides McGonagall knew about Hermione except... Suddenly the pureblooded wizard turned narrowed eyes to his friend. "Someone does know she's here." Sirius shot back, moving from the couch to stand nose to nose with his friend. "Two someones."
Remus's brow wrinkled in confusion.
"Two someones you may have gotten pissed with." Sirius reminded him, grey eyes growing dangerously dark.
Remus guffawed in disbelief. "Gideon and Fabian? Why would they have kidnapped Hermione? Don't be mental, they're members of the Order."
"Barely, they've never even been on a mission yer." Sirius countered. "And maybe they ran their fucking ginger mouths off at the Leaky to someone they shouldn't have. The Prewetts have a hard time shutting up."
Remus considered this for a moment. "Fabian does tend to dominate conversation, but no, the de-scenting is too specific. No one else knows you're an Animagus or that I'm a werewolf, Gideon never even figured it out. Whoever de-scented the house would have to know that we could track her, it's too odd and specific."
"Peter knows." Sirius wasn't ready to think their new witch left on her own. Why would she leave? "Peters knows about your condition and my abilities, he'd know we could track her by her scent."
"Peter's not got the talent for a charm that has somehow removed only one scent from an entire house." Remus snorted, crossing his arms over his chest.
"What kind of spell could even do that? Get rid of a scent I mean. She couldn't scourgify the whole bloody house." Sirius demanded, waving his arms around madly. "You seem to know so sodding much, way more than I fucking know. Where is her fucking scent, Remus?"
"I don't know, Sirius!" Remus growled, his own frustration growing.
Sirius watched as Remus's green eyes shifted ever so briefly to gold and the black haired wizard quickly counted days in his head. Fuck, we're four days from the full moon. How could he have forgotten? In all the excitement of the last few days Sirius hadn't been thinking about Remus.
Taking a deep, calming breath, Sirius considered Hermione's few means of exiting 12 Grimmauld Place. "Have you checked the floo?"
"Yes," Remus nodded. "First place I checked."
"I'll feel better when I check it myself?" Sirius muttered under his breathe, moving around Remus to exit the library and head towards the living room.
The floo was clear. Sirius had locked it before leaving for his Auror shift and a quick wave of his wand indicated that it had been neither opened nor closed since.
"She must have left the Muggle way," Sirius said after a long moment kneeling besides the fireplace, "straight out the door."
Remus gasped. "The fucking door!" He exclaimed, running towards the front of the house.
"Seriously, Moony?!" Sirius ran after him. "You didn't check the fucking front door?"
Remus beat Sirius to the door with strides to spare -fucking long fucking legs- and with a growl, pulled something from it.
"What, what is it?" Sirius craned his neck to see around his tall friend.
"A note." Remus said simply.
Sirius tore the small parchment from Remus's hand. "Are you fucking shitting me?"
Dear Remus and Sirius,
Please don't worry, I'm fine, but I can't risk your safety any longer. I know what needs to be done. I hope I'll see you again.
Love, Hermione Jean Granger
Sirius read over the note four or five times, taking in every word carefully.
I know what needs to be done.
He glanced over to see a sick look had crept across Remus's features and the werewolf leaned against the wall, slowly sliding down the floor.
"She's gone on her own." The werewolf whispered, not looking at Sirius.
"Gone on her own to do what? What is she talking about? What needs to be done?" Sirius demanded, falling to his knees next to his friend, note still clutched in his hand. He had been frustrated with the ambiguity surrounding their orders to help Hermione, but at the time he'd bit his tongue and accepted it. Now he needed some answers. "What the fuck does this mean, Remus?" And how do you know?
"I-I can't tell you." Remus scrubbed his face with his hands. "I told her I wouldn't tell you."
Sirius rolled his eyes and ignored the jealous whine in his mind from Pads that the witch had chosen to confide in the other male in the house and not him. What the fuck is it with you and this witch? Sirius demanded of the canine inside him, but the Grim simply shrugged his shoulders. Annoying, mutt.
"As much as I do enjoy your role as the chivalrous one, Remus, now is really not the fucking time. We have a dangerous and valuable witch on the loose and there are Death Eaters literally- don't fucking roll your eyes at me- literally everywhere. Hermione can't be out there on her own and we're not going to be able to track her down if you're keeping secrets from me."
Remus was looking past Sirius towards the door, his face contorted in an expression Sirius couldn't quite read. Gingerly Sirius reached out a hand and placed it on Remus's shoulder, knowing that betraying a friend's trust was the most cardinal of Marauder sins.
"I know she confided in you, mate, but it's for her own good. We have to go after her."
Remus sighed and looked up at his friend, green eyes clouded. "Make yourself comfortable, Pads, this'll take a bit."
Sirius moved next to Remus and leaned against the wall with him. Finally some fucking answers.
"This will sound unbelievable, but trust me, it's true." Remus brought his legs up and rested his arms on his knees. "Or at least, I'm pretty sure it's true. Just- just let me get through the whole thing, no interruptions."
Sirius opened his mouth to protest.
"No. Interruptions." Remus repeated.
Sirius snapped his mouth closed. Alright, fine, prick.
"Thank you." Remus sighed deeply and began. "Hermione isn't from here and I don't mean she's not from London, I mean she's not from here. Our here. She's from a completely different place, a there."
Sirius raised an eyebrow, but true to his word didn't say anything.
"Oh gods, this sounds insane." Out with it, Moony. "She's not from our timeline, from our reality."
"Whoa whoa whooooa now little werewolf." Sirius put his hand out.
"I said no talking, Black!" Remus snapped.
"Bu-"
"No."
"I-"
"No."
Sirius closed his mouth.
"Good. Now, I know it sounds fucking insane"- insane doesn't even begin to cover it-" so just let me finish. Hermione was born in 1979"-so she's a fucking three year old?-" in her timeline and she grew up with Harry, James and Lily's Harry. Just like here Voldemort disappeared except it wasn't Alice and Frank we lost, it was James and Lily and then when Hermione was at Hogwarts Voldemort came back."
There was a silence and Remus realized he wasn't breathing.
"Did she slip you something, Moony, some crazy potion in your tea?" Sirius asked, unable to stop himself.
"Sometimes you really are a huge arse."
"Fair enough." Sirius admitted.
"Everything I just told you and that's all you had to say?" Remus squeezed the bridge of his nose. "I told you this was going to sound crazy, that's why I insisted on you keeping your muzzle shut. Now do you want to hear the rest or not?"
Not altogether sure at this point, honestly, maybe it won't be helpful.
But curiosity won out. "Alright, fine, I'm sorry, please continue."
"Hermione's secret mission from McGonagall is to destroy Voldemort once and for all because she's already done it in her timeline." Remus confided, speaking quickly as if he was worried his friend might start talking again. "Apparently, where Hermione's from, Voldemort disappeared on October 31st, 1981, just like he did last year, but he wasn't gone forever. He came back because he had performed some of the darkest magic I've ever heard of, twisted shite really. Voldemort had managed to split his soul into pieces and hide the pieces in different objects- he couldn't be killed properly until all the objects were destroyed first. So, when everyone thought he was gone in Hermione's time, he was just drawing power back to himself. The war wasn't over, it was just on hiatus."
"So," Sirius began slowly, not sure what to say, "what you're saying is that Hermione is a time traveling-"
"And space." Remus interjected.
"Right, a time and space traveling witch from a different reality? And she's come to our reality to save us from Voldemort?" Good gods, am I believing this? We're all barmy.
"Not exactly, she didn't come to our reality on purpose." Remus corrected. "She said it was an accident."
"So then how'd she get here?"
Remus shrugged. "She's not sure, but it does kind of explain a few things, doesn't it?"
"What do you mean?" Sirius cocked a black eyebrow.
"She said in her reality she's best friend's with Harry and that Harry lives in Grimmauld Place-"
"Why the bloody fuck would Lily and James's boy be living in this dank pit?"
"I'm not sure, she said you gave it to him."
"Why the bloody fuck would I do that? Do I for some reason dislike my future godson?"
Remus sighed. "I don't know, Sirius, she wouldn't tell me everything. But if she's able to pass through the Grimmauld Place wards in her world, maybe that's why the wards let her though here. I don't know how that sort of magic works, but it would also explain how she knew all our names and that I'm a werewolf and a million other tiny odd details about our lives. It would explain why she was so familiar with us and her Auror robes."
"Maybe she's been stalking me, that'd also explain how she knew all that." Sirius pointed out. "Maybe she nicked a set of my robes."
"Gods, your vanity is overwhelming sometimes." Remus rolled his eyes.
"Hold on." Sirius held up his hand. "Are you telling me it's more believable that Hermione accidentally fell through space and time than that she's simply been stalking me?" Sirius sputtered in disbelief.
"Why would she be stalking you?"
"Many reasons! My fortune and devilishly good looks for starters!"
"By the gods..." Remus grumbled.
"I'm putting this conversation on hold for right now so we can focus on more pressing matters, but we will be discussing later how completely ridiculous it is that reality hopping is more likely in Remus World than Sirius stalking." Sirius fumed, waving a finger through the air. "So let's just cut to the chase then, where is our wayward witch?"
Remus frowned. "Horcrux hunting."