A/N: Oh my gosh, y'all! My inbox is exploding with favorites and follows and reviews and I LOVE IT. I can't believe anyone, let alone a ton of folks, like this story as much as I do. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I wrote this chapter pretty quick, gonna go back and edit it some more later probably. I'm just feeling excited to be writing after like a month of not being able to write.
oOo
The Hospital Wing was silent save for the erratic beating of Remus's panicked heart. Weary emerald eyes gazed down at the pale hand he desperately clutched within his own as the exhausted werewolf choked back a sob. How did we get here, mate?
Poppy had assured him that Sirius would heal, that time and rest were nature's surest medicine, but Remus was growing tired of seeing his friends' barely breathing bodies laid out on a white bed.
Frank and Alice were dead, Marlene was dead, his parents were dead and the last week had taught him how very easily James and Lily and Sirius could be dead. Hell, he could be dead.
A gentle hand touched Remus's shoulder, stirring him from his thoughts. "How is our friend, Mister Lupin?" Minerva's calm voice disturbed the silence. He must've been tired to have not heard the headmistress enter the Hospital Wing.
"Madame Pomfrey said he'll be fine," Remus sighed, his eyes remained fixed onto Sirius's unmoving hand, "he just needs some rest."
Remus could almost hear Minerva's lips draw into a thin line, "Good, I'm glad to hear it." Her hand patted his shoulder gently, "You did all you could, Remus." She reassured him softly.
"Did I?" The wizard demanded of himself, voice barely above a whisper.
Minerva squeezed his shoulder in response and sighed deeply. "I think, my boy, that we need to discuss what's happened to bring you both to this unfortunate turn of events. I take it Miss Granger has gotten away from us."
Remus cringed, but nodded. "Yes, she-" he struggled, what could he say that wouldn't reveal how much he knew, "she's trying to complete the mission on her own."
Minerva sighed, "I see she's told you she's from an alternate timeline, then."
Remus whirled around, his jaw practically dragging the floor. "How-how do you…" he stuttered, completely gobsmacked.
The ghost of a smirk tugged at Minerva's mature face upon seeing the younger wizard's surprise. "Do you think I've been a professor for this many years and didn't learn and a thing or two?" Her northern accent practically dripping sarcasm. "You Marauders were never half as clever as you'd have liked to believe."
Can't argue with that, then, can I?
"I'm sorry, Headmistress, I know you wanted Sirius and I in the dark, for our own protection." Remus sighed, one more thing on a long list of shite he'd managed to mess up.
"That would have been ideal, yes," Minerva agreed with a nod, "but I will admit, it was a bit of a fool's hope to think you and Mister Black could stay out of trouble."
A low chuckle escaped from the werewolf despite the bleakness that was plaguing him. "I'd have to agree with you there, trouble practically follows Sirius around like a stray dog."
"And you get caught in the middle." Minerva pointed out. "That's how you were in school and how you are now." To which Remus shrugged noncommittally.
"So," the grey witch continued, "what's happened to our Miss Granger, then?"
Remus took a deep breath through his nose to steady himself and began explaining everything that had happened beginning with Hermione's confessions to him in the library. Minerva nodded while he spoke; acknowledging him, but not interrupting and Remus found it a bit unsettling. He felt almost as if he were a third year again, attempting to explain why and how the Marauders had managed to break into Slughorn's private closet. Would Remus be given detention when this was all over? At this point he'd almost prefer detention in the forest to whatever comments the Headmistress would have when his speech had ended.
When Remus finished explaining that after Sirius had collapsed he had Apparated them both outside of the Hogwarts grounds- because he didn't know what else to sodding do- the wizard realized he hadn't taken a breath to pause in all of five minutes.
"So now we're here and the only way we know to find Hermione again is to wait when she's in mortal peril and the host bond reaches out to assault Sirius."
The elder witch furrowed her brow and crossed her arms over her chest, giving Remus that stern look he'd always dreaded in school. "And it never occurred to either of you," she asked, voice hard, "to come to me as soon as Miss Granger ran away?"
Remus frowned, bowing his head like a whipped puppy. "It did, but we were worried-"
"Oh of all the ridiculous," Minerva rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air, "you're not in school anymore, I'm not going to give you detention."
"It'd almost make me feel better if you did-"
"I trust you, Mister Lupin, you need to trust me as well." Minerva scolded, her eyes hard and almost, Remus thought, hurt. "This is a war, we can't afford to be keeping things from each other. That's the precise reason I chose you and Sirius for this task. I could've obliviated you both and handed Granger over to Kingsley, but I thought I could trust the two of you."
The werewolf rubbed the back of his neck shamefully, "I'm sorry, Headmistress."
"And for Godric's sake, just call me Minerva, you're a bloody adult now aren't you?"
Remus choked, had Minerva McGonagall just said 'bloody'? "Yes, Head-erm… Minerva?"
"There we go," Minerva gave Remus a clipped nod, "now, if you'd come to me in the first place this could have all been avoided. We'd have the witch back instead of Sirius hexed to exhaustion and laying in a hospital bed."
Remus raised an eyebrow, his confusion evident.
"What kind of witch do you take me for, Remus?" Minerva demanded, tapping her foot on the floor. "Miss Granger's wand has a tracker on it, of course."
oOo
Hermione fell to the ground outside her tent, the force from the unexpected -though not unappreciated- Apparation causing a bout of nausea to explode through her stomach. The witch doubled over, clutching her stomach as her knees hit the dirt, expletives exploding through her mind.
Amber eyes slowly turned down to gaze at her dark hands that tremored like the tectonic plates of the Earth's crust.
It's over, it's over, it's over, it's over. She repeated to herself like a mantra, but her mind would not be calmed. It wasn't over- the war would never be over- the universe itself was somehow forcing Hermione back into the fray.
A choked gasp erupted from her pale lips as the witch struggled vainly to wrangle the disquiet that raged within. It was just as it was after her Auror shifts; in the moment, adrenaline pumping, she barely felt anything, but now, here alone, everything exploded like the calamitous dropping of a nuclear bomb.
"By the gods, Granger, what did we do?" Hermione muttered, her voice trembling. What had she done, indeed. Nearly gotten herself killed at the hands of the most brutal werewolf in all of Britain. Foolishly rushed into Gaunt Shack for the horcrux that would've killed Dumbledore if Snape hadn't gotten to him first. Abandoned the only allies she had in this foreign space and time.
"It was for their own good," her heart was beating at an unimaginable speed, "I'm doing it all for them."
Hermione tried to summon the faces of her friends, smiling and happy and alive, but as soon as a laughing Harry danced through her mind it was violently replaced by the image of him dead at Voldemort's feet. Of Remus dead. Of Dora dead. Of Fred dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.
The witch ran her trembling hands through untameable main and squeezed desperately, pulling her hair at the roots until her injured wrist burned.
She didn't notice.
She couldn't breathe.
All she could do was think.
"It's okay," she whispered to herself, but Hermione Granger had always been able to lie to anyone but herself.
oOo
"A-a tracker?" Remus asked dumbly, he was honestly surprised he could even find his voice. Days of searching, of wondering, of panicking. Days of anxiety and restlessness and uncertainty and the whole bloody time the witch had a tracker on her wand.
Remus could've have killed something. Why had he ever listened to Sirius Black? They should have gone to Minerva right away.
"I had a feeling our wayfaring stranger might decide to she needed to do this on her own." Minerva explained with a casual air that made Remus want to rip his hair out. "She may talk like a Ravenclaw but she behaves like a lion."
Remus snorted at that. "You have no idea."
"I think I have some idea." Minerva smirked and Remus cocked an eyebrow. "Come with me, Remus," the witch turned to go, waving for the werewolf to follow, "let's have a cup of tea in my office."
The wizard hesitated, turning to Sirius and then back to Minerva, who gave him a kind smile. "Rest and sleep, dear boy, that's what our dog star needs."
oOo
The covers of her sleeping bag were pulled up over her head, blocking out the light from the small candle she had lit to illuminate the interior of her tent.
But now she found the light insufferable.
But she couldn't snuff it out, the darkness was too terrifying.
Terrifying darkness.
Insufferable light.
Hermione pressed her palms into her eyes and turned onto her side, back to the candle.
"We're okay, we're alright," she cooed desperately.
She thought of her mother and father in Australia without her, no idea that they ever had a daughter. She imagined how powerful she'd felt when she'd obliviated them, how in control- she would save them. She would damn herself.
Hermione Granger was powerless.
oOo
Remus stared down into his tea, briefly wondering what secrets the leaves could reveal, but he'd always been shite at divination. "So," the wizard began slowly, wiggling a bit in his chair, "there's no Hermione in our own timeline?"
McGonagall had lead him up into her office, brewed him a cup of tea and then wasted no time in getting down to the nitty gritty. It seemed the grey witch had been doing her own research while Remus had been assisting Hermione with hers. Honestly, the whole thing had Remus's head swimming- this had been the most eventful week of his entire life and he wasn't sure how he felt about that.
"Not anymore," Minerva responded before taking a sip of her own tea, "the child who would've been our Hermione Granger was killed."
Two sets of green eyes locked, one a deep mossy green and one an impenetrable pool of emerald, and Remus held his breath.
"Then," Remus struggled, his mind awhirl, he placed his cup on the table, "that's how she- so then…" the werewolf frowned, normally he was much more articulate than this.
"Yes," Minerva saved him from his own rambling, "that's how she can exist here without a paradox and it's why, I believe, she was even able to travel to our timeline in the first place. I think she was pulled here."
Remus rubbed his face until it was red and sighed in frustration. "But, why?" He demanded, "Why would she be pulled here? What does that even mean? What's pulling her?"
This is madness! But then again, it's an alternate reality witch more than just a spot of madness anyway?
"I'm not sure," Minerva admitted with a frown, "but I'm looking into it. All I know for certain is that our Hermione Granger was born on September 19th, 1979 and was killed on July 31st, 1980. She wasn't even a year old."
"But wait," that date was familiar, why was that date- Remus gasped. "That's Harry's birthday!"
Minerva nodded, her eyes grave, "Quite peculiar that our Hermione Granger would be murdered the night that Harry Potter, who, along with Neville Longbottom, was thought to potentially be the subject of a prophecy regarding the Dark Lord. Very curious, indeed."
Murdered. The word hung around Remus like a stench polluting the air.
"Who," the werewolf picked at the fraying denim of his muggle jeans, "killed her?" He almost didn't want to know. No, he definitely didn't want to know, but he had to.
"I'm not sure that we'll ever know. The muggle doctors didn't realize she was murdered," the headmistress explained, "they think she died from something called Sudden Infant Death Syndrome- the death of a seemingly healthy baby in its sleep, due to an spontaneous cessation of breathing. However, upon my own examination of the medical records"-how did you get ahold of mugge medical records-" I noticed what a muggle doctor would not recognize, the signs of a death by unforgivable. The baby was avada'd."
Remus's eye grew wide and he was momentarily glad he'd put down his cup, because surely at that news he would have dropped it. "She was killed by a wizard?" He asked, the last word a whisper.
Minerva nodded, "Or a witch, it's impossible to know."
"But why?" Remus's face was twisted in confusion, he could feel his eyebrows traveling in two different directions. "Why would someone kill a baby, a muggle baby at that?"
"I don't believe she was a muggle, I believe Hermione Granger of our timeline was also a witch."
"Either way- a baby, Minerva!" Remus rubbed his forehead. "What sort of monster would-"
Remus stopped. The world, for a moment, stilled.
"Bellatrix." He breathed, his spine snapping straight.
Minerva raised an eyebrow, "What makes you say-"
"Bellatrix is killing muggle-born witches, only muggle-born witches. Sirius told me the other night after his Auror shift, he's been hunting her down for weeks."
"I do believe," Minerva put down her own cup of tea, "it's time you bring Miss Granger back to us."
oOo
"I'm sorry," she whispered to no one, "I'm so sorry, I'm so fucking sorry."
She was sorry about everything, she was apologizing to everyone, her cheeks shiny from tears that fell from her eyes in exhausted sobs.
She was exhausted. She was exhausted by war and fighting and running for her life. She was exhausted by-
The crack of Apparation exploded outside her sent and Hermione shot up with a startled gasp, throwing her sleeping bag off and leaping from the tent. She pulled her wand from her sleeve, suddenly alert.
Was it Fenrir? How could he have found her? Her wards were expertly placed, even better than those she'd used with Harry on their own Horcrux hunt, she couldn't be found-
"Hermione!"
Her heart stopped. Her lungs stopped. The whole goddamned world stopped.
Remus.
She hesitated only a moment before bursting through the tent. Blinking rapidly, she squinted against the harsh daylight. When had the sun risen? She'd been cocooned off for so long. Hermione threw a hand up to shield her eyes and that was when she saw him.
"Remus," she whispered breathlessly, rushing towards him.
She hadn't realized how much she'd missed him these last few days. It was as if she'd been drowning and the sound of his voice was like the first gasp of air after her head breached the water.
The werewolf was wearing a dark red jumper and fraying denim jeans, his sandy blonde hair was such a right mess that the witch grinned despite herself at the reminder of her best friend's jet black ever messy locks.
"Hermione!" He called again, turning about, his eyes almost frantic. He couldn't see her, her wards were near perfect, so then how had he found her?
Hermione stopped, her own amber eyes narrowing suddenly.
How did he find me? She walked up to the wards, as close as she knew she could get without leaving their boundary of safety, her wand hand twitching. Surely this was Remus? It had to be, right? Not some polyjuiced Voldemort groupie.
"Hermione!" He took a deep breath in through his nose and Hermione was suddenly reminded of Fenrir. She took a step back cautiously, her pulse quickening.
The werewolf turned as if he'd heard, his eyes focused on the spot where she knew he couldn't see her standing.
"Hermione," this was almost pleading, "I know you're here."-how?!- "Hermione!" He took a step towards the ward, a wandless hand extended. "You clever witch." He muttered so low Hermione almost didn't hear him.
The witch moved forward, unaware that she was holding her breath.
"Listen you silly witch," Remus's voice turned scolding -yep, definitely Remus- "I know you're here so you can either show yourself or I'll just come back later." Remus narrowed his eyes and for a moment Hermione thought maybe he could see her. "You can't run from me, Hermione, I'm here whether you like it or not."
It was like salvation.