Hermione sat at the table in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, flipping through the pages of her book when she heard the cough. It was coming from her beaded bag, sitting on the table. She dug through it, somehow managing to find the painting and pulling it out.

"Yes?" she asked. "May I help you?"

"I have a message for you," Phineas Nigellus Black sneered at her.

"Well, you can tell to go bite a hippogriff's behind," Hermione said, looking down at her book again.

Phineas rolled his eyes. "It's not from the current headmaster, it's from Dumbledore."

At this, Hermione looked up at him again. "Prove it."

He disappeared behind the frame for a moment before coming back. "Your demonic cat once jumped on the headmaster's robes and ate the lemon drops from his pocket."

She set the book down on the table, placing a piece of parchment in as a bookmark. "Harry! Ron? Get down here!"

There was the sound of thundering feet on the stairs, then Harry and Ron stumbled into the room. "Hermione? What's wrong?"

"He says he has a message for us from Dumbledore," she nodded at Phineas. "And he gave me proof that he actually is from the headmaster."

"What?" Harry asked. "Dumbledore told him things? Important things?" He looked hurt.

"Actually, I don't really have a message," Phineas interrupted.

"Then why'd I even have to come down here?" grumbled Ron.

"I'm supposed to bring someone else in through this painting. They have information for you."

Hermione looked surprised. "Can you do that? I didn't think it was possible."

Phineas shrugged. "Not for this man. He's the exception to almost every rule."

Hermione frowned in bemusement. "What do you mean? Who is it?"

He looked amused. "Impatient little mudblood, aren't you."

"Hey!" Ron gripped his wand tightly, glaring at Phineas. "What do you mean by-" He was interrupted by another voice.

"Thank you Phineas, that will be all."

He smiled ingratiatingly and bowed slightly before moving out of the frame. He was soon replaced by another man. He was tall with dark hair and a smooth, triangular face under high arching brows. His eyes were the brightest and clearest that Hermione had ever seen. She thought that he had an almost timeless look.

"What?" Harry gasped. "Terence?"

"Really?" Hermione turned to him in surprise. "Harry? Do you know him?"

"I- it was fifth year, after Sirius-" Harry stared at Terence. "What are you doing here?"

"Well," Terence began smoothly. "I believe that I may have information about horcruxes that could help you."

"Horcrux? What's a horcrux?" Harry asked innocently.

Terence raised a slender brow. "The soul fragments that you are hunting."

Harry hesitated. "How do you know about that?"

Terence gestured at Hermione.

"Me?" she asked in shock.

He nodded. "You told my friend about them."

"Your friend?"

"Luneta."

Hermione blinked in surprise. "Really? Does that mean that you're from Camelot as well? Were you a knight? Or a lord?"

"No, I was a squire." He smiled slightly, as if there was an inside joke that only he knew about. "I was Sir Gawain's squire, Arthur's nephew. And when my friends, Luneta's parents, were killed because of a horcrux, I learned all that I could about them."

"Hermione?" Harry asked. "Who's this Luneta?"

"Right before the headmaster's funeral, I went to the Room of Requirement, looking for a book, or any kind of information that I could find, and there was a portrait of her."

Ron spoke up for the first time. "Not to be rude or anything, but why should we trust you? I mean, I'm not going to do whatever you say just because Harry met you a few years back. What proof do you have?"

Terence looked amused. "So suspicious," he mused.

"With good reason," responded Ron.

Terence nodded. "Would Dumbledore's word be enough for you? I will need your absolute trust in this, especially when I bring in another individual to help."

Harry shrugged. "I guess? Yeah, if you could somehow manage to prove that you had Dumbledore's trust, that would be good. But I'm not sure how you'll do that."

"I can bring him here."

"You can?" Harry looked hopeful.

"Just his painting," Terence warned.

"See, that's one thing that I don't understand," Hermione put in. "It shouldn't be possible for you to bring another painting with you. It shouldn't even be possible for you to be here in someone else's painting."

Terence shrugged, a mysterious smirk on his face. "I guess I'm just special. I'll go get Dumbledore." He turned and left the painting.

Behind him, Hermione frowned. "I feel like he was avoiding that question."

Harry shrugged. "As long as he actually knows a way to help us, I don't really care."

A few minutes later Terence was back, this time with Albus Dumbledore crowded into the frame with him. "Harry, my boy!" he beamed.

"Sir?" Harry asked in shock. He hadn't actually expected Terence to bring him with him.

"Harry, my boy, listen to Terence," Dumbledore said, his blue eyes twinkling. "I believe that he just might know how to finish this." His eyes grew even more serious, losing their twinkle. "Harry, there are a few things that you must know first. Things that perhaps I should have told you sooner."