A/N: Getting this one out a little later than I planned, the holidays destroyed me. As always, thank you SO MUCH for reading. Also, on my Dramione fic I was asked who my Hermione fancast was and I said Noeimi Lenoir, but for this fic with a bit of a younger Hermione I think Antonia Thomas. In case any of y'all were curious!

oOo

"I'm dying, this is what death feels like."

Remus groaned and squeezed the bridge of his nose. "You're fine, Sirius."

"I think I can see the light...beyond...a tunnel? Darkness…"

"Sirius," Remus warned between clenched teeth, keeping his green eyes fixed on the tome in his hands.

"Twas so good," Sirius gasped and sank down, "to know you, dear Moony, but my time...has…" the black haired wizard rolled onto his back on the library floor, one hand over his heart and the other extended into the air as if trying to grasp something just out of his reach, "come to an...end." Sirius slumped, arms falling and eyes closed.

"You're quite dramatic." Remus sighed, his shoulders tense, and placed the book he'd been leafing through back on its shelf.

"We've been in this library for five hours." Sirius whined, his eyes still closed. "If there was anything to be found surely we would have found it by now."

"This library is larger than my flat." Remus pointed out, pulling Blood Bonds and Sacred Duties from a shelf just above his head and cracking it open. "We haven't even gotten through a third of it yet."

"This is impossible, I'm dying, Remus," Sirius sat up, "dying from boredom."

Remus eyed his friend with barely contained exasperation, "You seem to be breathing just fine and your heart is still beating. You seem quite alive to me."

Sirius guffawed. "But my soul! My soul is a shriveled as Filch's bollocks-"

"I could've done without that mental image."

"My soul is dead, dead from extreme boredom."

"That's not even possible." Remus closed the book and tossed it at Sirius. "Look through this."

Sirius caught the book in one hand and groaned pitifully. "This isn't helping, Moony poo-"

"I swear to Godric if you ever call me that-"

"C'mooooon, let's go out! Let's go searching! Let's have a sodding drink or something." Despite his complaints, Sirius opened the book and began picking through it, scanning for any useful information about bonds and blood and whatnot. The pureblood had been conservative with his estimation of five hours; the pair had in reality been combing the Black Family Library for seven hours and twenty-six minutes. Three hours earlier Sirius had fallen asleep while reading The Book of Honorius and had lost track of time.

"There has to be something," Remus muttered, running his finger along ancient spines as he read through titles, "some clue or-or I don't know, some place to start."

"We have a place to start," Sirius reminded him from his spot on the floor, "the host bond itself is our starting point, we just have to wait for it to be triggered."

Suddenly Remus growled- a wolf's growl, a feral sound Sirius rarely heard from the lycanthrope while he was a man. Sirius's head snapped up in time to witness Remus grab a random book from a shelf and hurl it towards surprised friend.

"Whoa!" The black haired wizard ducked out of the way as the book went whizzing past his left ear. "What the hell, Moony?"

"Wait for it to be triggered?" Remus demanded, his face twisted in anger, his eyes awash of emerald ire. "Wait for her to be injured, you mean? Wait until some sodding Death Eater has her by wand point? Wait until she's being fucking crucio'd?"

Sirius frowned, his own grey eyes weary. "Remus, you know that's not what I meant-"

"Then what did you mean!" The werewolf yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "What else could you have possibly meant? Wait for the bond to be triggered, she'd have to be injured, Sirius. Someone would have to be hurting her-" Remus's voice was growing increasingly desperate as he rambled, his fists were clenched tight by his side.

Sirius put down his own book and rose from the floor, hands outstretched in a pacifying gesture. "Calm down, mate," he cooed, moving towards the irate werewolf.

"I can't be calm!" Remus shouted, his shoulders were hunched and his back arched, as if he were trying to fold into himself. "She's gone and I can't fucking be calm. You're not even helping, you're just fucking complaining. I-I can't, I don't…"

Godric, Remus, what's going on with you? In the last few days Sirius had noted that his friend's behaviour had become increasingly aggressive; the werewolf had been attempting to establish dominance at every turn. Initially Sirius had written off Remus's combative demeanour as the effects of a waxing moon, but the moon was waning now and still the wolf had not calmed.

Sirius placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and gently lead him to the couch, "Breathe, Moony, breathe." With expert care he guided Remus down and sat beside him.

Remus pushed his palm into his forehead and took a ragged breath. "This feels so terrible, Sirius," he whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm being- I don't know- dramatic? But I've never felt like this before."

The other wizard's frown deepened. "Felt like what? I know you're worried about Hermione-"

"It's more than that," Remus interrupted, running his shaking hands through his shaggy hair. "I-I don't even know how to explain it. Her absence it's- Godric, it's painful."

Sirius opened his mouth to speak but found he was at a loss, so he closed his mouth and tilted his head. Remus looked haggard from the darkening circles around his eyes to the shaking in his fingers. Was Remus sick?

"What's the pain like, Moony?" Sirius asked quietly after a moment.

Remus looked up, meeting Sirius's gaze. "Like an ache in my bones, like all of my extremities have fallen asleep are waking up with brutal pinpricks of sensation. Like I've been woken up by a bucket of cold water and I can't get dry."

Sirius reached up to feel Remus's forehead and the other wizard pushed him away with a low growl. "What's your temperature?"

"I'm not sick, Pads."

"You look tired, mate, when was the last time you slept?"

"I can't sleep!" Remus yelled, grabbing Sirius's shoulder gruffly. "Haven't you been listening? She's gone and I can feel it, I think- I don't know, I think I'm reacting to her absence."

"What- Hermione's absence?" Sirius asked, "But why?"

"I don't know, but this hasn't ever happened before." Remus loosened his grip on Sirius's shoulders but didn't remove his hands. "The first night when Hermione was here and you called me over, as soon as I walked into the room I could-I could smell her. But it was more than that! I could feel her. I could hear her heartbeat and her scent was everywhere. I didn't realize it until she was gone, but I've barely left her side since she found us and now-and now I don't know what to do."

"Remus," Sirius began slowly, "I'm really not following."

Remus gave his friend one last pleading look before scrubbing his hands over his face. "I know, I know," he sighed, "I'm sorry, this sounds crazy. Maybe I'm losing my mind. You're right, let's stop for a minute, maybe I just need some fresh air or sleep or something." Remus looked around the library, his brown furrowed. "But there has to be something in here, right? Something-"

"You go to bed, mate." Sirius ordered rising from the couch and pulling Remus up with him. "I'll keep looking."

Remus shot Sirius a look of utter surprise, his dirty blond eyebrows raised practically to his hairline.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "I can handle being around books on my own, I'll be fine. Besides, I'm usually up later than you anyway what with my night shifts and all. You sleep, I'll research."

The werewolf looked for a moment like he was about to argue, but then his shoulders slumped. "Maybe you're right-"

"Could I quote that later? Not the maybe part, just the-"

"Shut it," Remus snapped, "or I won't go to bed."

"Alright, alright," Sirius nodded, a smirk tugging at his mouth. An outright aggressive Moody he wasn't sure he could handle, but an annoyed Remus was a different story. "You go to bed, I'll go through these old dust filled monstrosities and see if we can't find something to point the way to our witch."

"Good, thank you," Remus muttered as he turned to leave. Sirius watched his friend go, worry painted across his pale features.

oOo

The witch screamed, a sound that ripped through her lungs and exploded from her throat like the firing of a canon.

You're a damned idiot, Granger. She chastised herself as her body was pulled like a doll across the dirt and debri covered flour of the Gaunt Shack.

Of course the house was protected, she had assumed as much walking in, but if Dumbledore had done it then so could Hermione Granger. Right?

Wrong, evidently.

The witch couldn't be sure exactly what had triggered the wards, her passing through the house's threshold hadn't set them off, but when she'd begun tapping on the floor boards, remembering something Harry had mentioned, the dilapidated shack had come alive.

Like, actually had come alive as Hermione was fairly certain what had a hold of her ankle and was tossing her about was a tattered curtain she had noticed earlier.

But the witch was almost grinning despite her surprised screams, this meant she was close.

Hermione flipped onto her back as she was pulled into the wall and gasped briefly in pain before flicking her wrist at the curtain which screamed -screamed?!- when hit by Hermione's hex, recoiling and releasing the witch's ankle. Hermione jumped to her feet, wand in hand, and set the curtain on fire with a silent incendio. Her amber eyes watched with growing horror and fascination as the curtain bucked and wrestled about like an animal, screeching in what she could only assume was pain. What dark magic was this?

Hermione had Apparated to Little Hangleton, landing as close as she knew she could to the shack, and had traveled the rest of the way on foot. The night was lit only by the waning moon and, not wanting to call attention to herself, Hermione had kept her wand dark as she made her way through the tangled forest. Between the canopy of trees she had glanced up at the sky a number of times, guilt slithering through her when she realized where the moon was in its monthly cycle; the full moon had passed and she hadn't even realized it. Silently Hermione had hoped Remus was as well as could be expected the night after the full moon, before shifting her thoughts to the task ahead.

The Gaunt Shack was an eerie sight- like the set from a B-rate horror movie- surrounded by foliage and overgrowth, the roof half collapsed, but she couldn't feel anything wrong with it. Hermione had probed the building with her magic, walking the perimeter to get a sense of the wards, of which there were none, before going inside. Perhaps it had been extreme arrogance, a trait that would later kill ol' Tom Riddle, that had kept the insane wizard from protecting the shack, she had mused, but now as Hermione stood listening to the dying sounds of a curtain the witch realized the shack was its own protection.

Suddenly the floorboards began to jerk and Hermione instinctively dropped to a squat, lowering her center of gravity to keep balanced. The walls were shifting around her, broken beams and planks were reaching out for the wild haired witch and the sound- the sound was unbearable, high pitched shrieking that seemed to be coming from everywhere. Hermione resisted the urge to cover her ears, opting for the protection offered by an outstretched wand instead.

"Let's get this the fuck over with," she muttered under her breath before sending a spell at the floor, ripping away the boards with magic. As Hermione used magic to tear away board after board, searching for anything, the shack began to react more violently, shaking and screaming. The agile Auror maneuvered around animated curtains and planks that slithered like snakes at her feet.

"Where is it!" She screamed in frustration, only adding to the savage chaos around her. It had to be in the floor, that's where Harry said Dumbledore had found it, and what else would have triggered the shacks sudden assault if not her tampering with the floor?

A board, writhing by Hermione's foot, reached out and tripped the witch as she continued tearing apart the house. With a startled cry she fell, her wrist slamming into the ground with a sickening snap and a searing pain. The house was all over her now, wrapping itself around her legs. Hermione reached out with her wand hand, grabbing at a hole in the floor as whatever had hold of her legs tried to pull her away. She was getting close, she must be!

Anger flowed through her, fueling the ever turning machinations in the witch's astute mind. Swiftly she switched her wand from her hand gripping the floor to her now possibly broken wrist and with a grunt of pain, fired a hex at the animated objects attempting to pull her away. The screams intensified and Hermione's foot was released.

The Auror jumped to her feet, firing off curses and hexes at the shack that she was quickly realizing wouldn't withstand this assault for much longer.

The floor bucked beneath her and Hermione found herself once again on the ground, growling in frustration the witch began to push herself up when suddenly-

There it was. A glint of something gold.

Hermione scrambled on her hands and knees to reach between two disturbed floorboards, grabbing hold of something cold and hard.

With a triumphant scream the witch pulled out a golden box, her eyes flashing joyously. The moment was short lived as the constant noise erupted to full madness, momentarily eclipsing Hermione's thoughts as her scream of elation turned to pain- she could feel blood leaking from her ears.

The house would not give up its treasure.

The witch forced herself to her feet, clutching the box against her chest, and ran towards the door. It was so close, barely a few paces away, she was practically out-

Something wrapped around her throat, snapping her neck back with painful force. Hermione turned and twisted and fought at the curtain that was strangling her, her mind a whirl of panic.

This is it, death by fucking curtain. She gasped and pulled, but the magicked curtain pulled tighter and shadows clouded her vision. This isn't how we go out, Granger.

Rage filled her now- she had not come this far on her own to simply die at the hands of a bloody curtain.

Hermione cut through the enchanted fabric with a silent sectumsempra and gasped as the curtain fell around her neck like a scarf and without hesitation Hermione pushed herself onward, barrelling through the door of the shack and into the crisp night air.

She turned to the shack that was still howling it's rage and screamed, "Incendio!" into the darkness.

oOo

Sirius fell to the floor, clutching his neck, gasping for air. The wizard writhed and rolled, scratching at himself as his panicked hands attempted to remove something that wasn't there. He kicked and fought and the world was turning black- distantly he registered his foot collide with something solid and heard the telltale crash of books. His vision darkened and still he struggled; to be strangled is not a quick death.

"Pads?" A voice called out. "What's with the- holy shite, Pads!"

Something heavy dropped to the floor besides him and Sirius fought off the hands that tried to pull his own hands from his neck.

"Oh my gods, Pads! Stop, stop!" Remus yelled, shaking his friend and Sirius briefly wondered what he would look when he was dead-

And it was over.

The wizard sat up with a gasp, heaving laboured breaths into his exhausted lungs.

Remus's face was nearly as pale as his friend's, panic etched across his scarred features. "Sirius!" He exclaimed, grabbing his friend's shoulders. "What happened?"

Sirius's whole body was on fire, but it wasn't the phantom strangulation, it was his magic. His magic was burning him, punishing him for a failure, it was pulling him.

"Her-" He croaked, his throat hoarse, "Hermione."

Remus stared down at Sirius, his eyes wide, the unspoken question on his lips.

"Holy fuck, Hermione." Sirius grasped Remus's hand in his own and focused on his magic, giving in to the pull and the two wizards Disapparated with a 'pop.'