Chapter 35: Homecoming

7th of October 1999

When Hermione opened her eyes again, three pairs of worried eyes looked back at her from above. She didn't know how long she had been out but as it was already daylight outside, it must have been quite a while. Fabian and Gideon were still in their pyjamas and Severus looked like he had just thrown a black robe on top of his. The three of them had probably been at her side since she lost consciousness in the middle of the night.

"Hermione," Gideon whispered and looked at her with wide eyes. "…are you alright, love?"

"Been better," she mumbled and realized how dry her mouth was. She coughed. Fabian already waited with a glass of water for her.

"Here, let me help you sit up," Gideon mumbled before he grabbed her under her arms and helped her up. Hermione smiled kindly at him and took the glass of water Fabian offered her. She emptied it with four big gulps before she sunk back into her pillow with another cough.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Fabian asked her carefully and took her hand. "You were unconscious but it looked like you were in lots of pain."

Hermione sighed. "I think it's safe to say, that I just got my last memory back, which came with quite a bit of torture as you know."

The twins nodded with wide eyes, while Severus studied her with an inclined head. He didn't say anything even though he looked like he wanted to. For a while, none of them said a word as they stared at each other and everybody seemed at a loss for words. Finally, Hermione took a deep breath and said: "Can you tell me what happened … afterwards? My memory ends with him pretty much alive and all the Horcruxes still intact."

Fabian and Gideon looked at her with wide eyes and Hermione suspected that they just relived the moments from her memory. Severus looked at her with calm dark eyes, sighed and said: "I'm pretty sure you knew what you were doing back then, opposite to the Dark Lord. After he was… finished with you he tried to direct his attention towards me. I was a traitor after all and even if he had intended to keep his end of the bargain, which he didn't, he would have never let me go."

Hermione nodded mutely with a grim smile on her lips and Severus continued without taking his eyes off her. "But as you hoped, his spells were no longer able to touch me. As his Crucio failed to show the desired effect he went livid but by then Fabian and Gideon had already engaged him into a fight."

Her gaze wandered towards her twins and they seemed to have regained at least part of their spirit, as they now smiled proudly at her. The wet shimmer in their eyes showed though, that they were still far from unaffected. But they still didn't say a word and so Severus continued: "His Crucio had neutralised the body-bind he had cast on me and it was right in time that I could be able to join the fight. The Dark Lord didn't only make an error when he overlooked your sacrifice - he made an even bigger one with threatening the goblins. Until then they had been neutral towards him but by taking some of them hostage, he had brought the wrath of every goblin in Gringott's down on him. And, by putting their lives before your own you must be the first witch or wizard in existence that won the loyalty of the whole goblin nation."

Severus smiled proudly and gently put his hand on her arm. "Without you, nothing of that would have been possible, Hermione. Even though you did not deliver the last blow, you were the one who killed him. You made sure we had a fair chance to end this."

She nodded thickly and searched for the twin's eyes, who kept looking at her like they were unsure, what to say to her. Severus followed her gaze and after studying the twins for a moment, he squeezed her arm once more and got up from his chair.

"I'll head home for now. If there's anything, in particular, you want to talk about, you know where to find me."

Hermione nodded. "Alright." She wanted to say more, but Severus had already turned around and left the room. For a moment it looked like he was leaving in a hurry but that did not make sense to her. He had barely closed the door behind him though when the twins leapt from their chairs and pulled her in a tight embrace.

"Merlin Hermione," Gideon whispered into her hair and she could feel the shudders that went through his body. "I still keep seeing you in front of us on the ground screaming your voice hoarse with pain. Those were the darkest hours of my whole life because for a moment I thought we'd lost you forever."

Hermione nodded against his chest. "I'm so sorry. I just didn't see any other way…"

Gideon pulled back with a sigh and a second later Fabian took his place. "There was no other way, love. Without you, we all would have died that day. I still only understand half of what you did but somehow you managed to save us."

She sighed. "I can try to explain it to you if you like," she said and looked at both of them. "How about you come here and give me some much-needed cuddles and I tell you the story, how Voldemort was once defeated by a one-year-old toddler."

They looked at her with matching smiles. "Sounds brilliant to us!"

ssssssss

It took Hermione almost an hour and another headache potion to tell Fabian and Gideon everything that had happened in the other timeline. They listened to her stories with wide eyes, while Fabian had pulled her against his chest and Gideon had buried his hand in her hair, where he kept playing with her curls absentmindedly.

"Now I understand how you could survive that killing curse back then and how you could throw off Bellatrix' Cruciatus curse," Fabian said after she had finished her tale. "I still can't believe you gave that protection to save us though. It was a brilliant move but I don't know anyone but you who'd have the guts to do it."

Gideon nodded solemnly and Hermione looked at the two of them with a sigh. "It was the only way. But I don't know how I am still alive. I checked, there is no longer a younger version of me, in fact there never was as the Grangers don't have a daughter now, and I should have disappeared with her."

The redheads looked at each other before Fabian sighed tiredly and said: "We might have an explanation for that. We're not completely sure, but we think it has something to do with the life debt we owed you."

His brother nodded and continued: "At first we thought you were dead. After Voldemort was killed and everything was over, we could still feel the life debt that connected us with you, it was still active. But you didn't show up of course and today we know, why you didn't. We were still connected to you in a way though and after some time we started to feel the effects. I am not sure how, but somehow there was a small drain in our magical energy, not enough to make us sick or inhibit us, but it was definitely there."

"We got used to it after the years and after a while, we didn't even think about it any longer. But then it was suddenly gone one day and not two days later we were called to St. Mungos. And there you were."

She stared at them with wide eyes. "You saved me?"

Fabian shrugged. "We don't know for sure of course, but it does look like it, doesn't it?"

Hermione nodded as her brain still tried to process all the facts. "Yeah."

For a while, they just stared at each other and Hermione was at a loss for words. She was feeling so many things at the same time and for a moment it was simply all too much. There were still things she still could not wrap her mind around. "You could feel that I was not dead though the life debt and… you waited for me? Is that what you are saying?"

The twins looked at her with a serious expression, before they nodded with their blue eyes fixed on her face. "Yeah, does this freak you out?" Fabian asked and looked at her nervously. "It's just, we love you too, you know? We really don't want to pressure you or anything so if you'd rather…"

She interrupted him. "Oh, do shut up," Hermione said before she silenced him with a fierce kiss and buried her hand in his hair. It was the most passionate she'd ever been with him, but at the moment it just felt right. Fabian didn't seem to mind though, as he closed his arms around her and kissed her back with a hunger that left her breathless when they broke apart some minutes later. But before she could find her breath again, Gideon had already pulled her close and locked his lips with hers. Not long ago she would have felt intimidated by those two men that seemed to have so much passion for her but now she found that she just enjoyed their attentions.

"Gods, I missed you," Gideon admitted in between kisses while cradling her face. Suddenly Hermione felt another pair of hands sneaking around her hips and brush up her sides and before she knew what she was doing, a moan escaped her mouth. Why was it suddenly getting so hot in the room? As Fabian's thumbs brushed against the sides of her breasts Hermione thought that the temperature of the room might not be the problem at all.

"Tell us, if you want us to stop," Fabian whispered into her ear, while his brother had started sucking at her bottom lip. Hermione managed the barest of nods because honestly, she didn't want them to stop, at least not right away. Hermione had come so close to losing these gorgeous men, but the moments before she believed she would die had given her some clarity. She had regretted not having the opportunity to spend more time with them, to get to know them better and show them that she did indeed love them. Now that she had, against all odds, gotten the chance to do all these things, she wanted to use every opportunity to do just that. And so Hermione kissed Gideon back with a fervour that was completely new for her. Gideon moaned into her mouth before she pulled back from her with a regretful smile on his lips.

"Gods Hermione, I think we need to slow down a bit. Otherwise, I might not be able to stop myself," he said with a crooked smile. Fabian, too, removed his hands from her body and Hermione felt the loss immediately. She looked at both of them with raised brows.

"Then don't stop," she said matter of factly and kissed him again. Gideon accepted her lips with a silent moan into her mouth. Hermione knew that she was playing with fire and usually she would have ended any romantic encounter just here. She and Ron had danced around each other for months after all before Hermione one day disappeared into another timeline. She never felt really sure with him but suddenly she regretted not having much experience because she surely could have used it.

Fabian distracted her by kissing her neck, before he whispered into her ear: "We really shouldn't rush this, Hermione, as much as I'd love to." He nibbled at her ear lobe. "You just got all your memories back Sunshine and we want you to be sure that this is what you want."

She broke the kiss with Gideon and turned around to his brother, to look at him with searching eyes. "Is this because I'm still a virgin?" she asked and couldn't help but be a bit offended. He shook his head with a crooked smile.

"No, it's not about that Hermione, to be honest, I didn't even know. But think about it, Hermione. From your point of view, we haven't even been together that long yet. And to hear that there are two blokes who have pined after you for years can be a bit overwhelming, even for the best of us." He smiled kindly before he bestowed a soft kiss onto her lips. "Gideon and I don't plan to go anywhere, so you can take your time to think things through. If afterwards, this is still what you want, then we'll gladly ravish you until you can't remember your own name." He kissed her again with a wide smile. She nodded reluctantly.

"All right. I'll take my time to think this through, even though I'm already pretty sure that I know what I want." They smiled at her and looked at her with their bright blue eyes. "Well, maybe it can't hurt to read a book or two about… ah… intercourse with magical twins. Do you have something like that in your library?"

They looked at her with wide eyes and for a moment it seemed like they were at a loss for words. But finally, Gideon took her hands into his and locked his eyes with her. "This is not an exam Hermione and you sure as hell don't need to read a book to… Merlin! There's nothing you need to worry about, love." Fabian nodded next to him and he put his hand on her cheek before he pulled her over to kiss her temple. "We'll go this path together, step by step and if there's something you don't feel comfortable doing then we simply try something else, alright? There's no proper way to do this, just things you like and dislike. And we just need to find out those from each other."

Hermione nodded shyly. "But not today?"

The twins nodded in unison. "No, not today. I'm famished, to be honest, and I'd really like a bite or two. And a bit of sleep would be nice, yeah?"

She sighed. When she was honest with herself, she was hungry, too. "Alright, Let's get something to eat then. Wasn't there this cosy little Thai place around the corner?"

Fabian and Gideon grinned. "Hermione, you've got the best ideas."

"I know," she replied with a cheeky grin.