Author's Note: Well, here's the next bit. It's a little longer, and mostly people talking. Sorry about the wait, I hope you'll think it's worth it. Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read this and a big thanks to my reveiwers, everyone has been so nice. To answer one of your questions, Collin from behind the desk probably is Collin Creevey, but while he will be mentioned in the recounting of the war, I don't know if he'll make an appearance in the present.

Disclaimer: I own depressingly little, and nothing at all relating to Harry Potter, or anything else in this story that you might recognise from elsewhere.

War Stories

Chapter 2 Reunion and Exposition

Luke stood up to greet two of Britain's most famous war heroes as they entered his office.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley. Thank you both for responding so promptly to my message." He held out his hand.

Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley shook it, albeit rather reluctantly. Neither man particularly liked Luke, Hermione's friend and co-worker or not. The reason for this was simple; Luke had not fought in the war. He had been an able bodied, educated, of-age wizard, who could have contributed to whichever side he chose to support. But instead, while others fought and died, he had remained on the fence, watching and waiting to see who would win. He finally joined the side of Light just after Voldemort's destruction, and only helped to round up what was left of the Death Eaters when victory was assured. Having both given and lost so much for the war effort, Harry and Ron had no time for Luke's sort of selfish cowardice. They wondered how Hermione put up with him.

"You said this was regarding Hermione, who has been missing for almost a month now. Of cause we 'responded promptly'," Ron said curtly. The redhead had actually learned some tact and diplomacy in the years of and after the war, but he was worried for his friend, and so didn't feel like using it right then.

"Yes, well." Luke cleared his throat. He knew that these two powerful, battle hardened wizards, didn't like him. He'd have to handle this carefully. "Right," he started again. "If you'll both have a seat, I'll try to explain recent developments. But first things first; Hermione is here, and she's alright," he assured, trying to placate them.

It seemed to work. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and relaxed slightly, relieved. Then they looked back at Luke, and he saw that he still wasn't completely out of the woods.

"Where was she? What happened to her?" Harry's tone was low and calm, but demanded answers nonetheless.

"Well, that's rather a long story." Luke had sat down, and began to explain. "As you may, or may not know, as well as her assigned work, Hermione has been running an investigation on the side. The specifics of this investigation, even its name, have remained secret from almost everyone. Hermione was particularly concerned that the aim of her work be kept from the two of you." At their narrowed eyes, Luke hurriedly continued. "I believe she did not wish for you to be disappointed in the event that the experiment was a failure. The investigation is – or was, since it is now complete – called the 'Veil Project', and its goal was to retrieve Sirius Black, who was thought to be lost to the Veil in the skirmish that marked the start of the war."

"She was trying to get Sirius back?" Ron asked in shock. Harry's eyes had widened.

"Yes. You see, as it turns out, the Ministry has long misunderstood the Veil's true function. While studying the runes and symbols on the arch and the dais it stands on, Hermione found what she believed to be…" Luke trailed off, shaking his head. "I'm so sorry. Hermione would have my head if she knew what a mess I was making of this. Mr. Black really should be here; he'll no doubt want to hear this, too."

Both Harry and Ron's mouths fell open. "She actually did it? Sirius is back?" Harry's voice was barely above a whisper, as though he was afraid he had heard wrong.

"Yes, he's back. Please wait here a moment; I'll go and get him." With that, Luke got up and hurried from the office.

Ron sat in his chair looking shell-shocked. Harry's face had smoothed into an impassive mask. Regardless of what Luke said, he didn't dare to believe any of this (perhaps because it had been Luke who said it) until he saw Sirius for himself. The mask shattered however the moment he heard the dearly missed voice exclaim from the doorway.

"Harry!"

Harry and Ron leapt from their seats and spun towards the door, before Harry fairly flew across the room to hug his godfather. It happened so fast that Sirius didn't get a good look at anything before he was engulfed in Harry's surprisingly strong arms.

"Merlin, Harry, are you alright? What happened? They told me I've been gone for five years!"

The pair pulled apart and Sirius held Harry's head between his hands, inspecting him carefully. He saw, instead of the skinny boy of fifteen that he remembered, a strong looking young man, of a similar height to himself. Harry still had the same messy black hair hiding his famous scar, the same pale skin, and the same emerald-green eyes, but all of it was slightly different than before; the hair was a little longer, the skin was marred by more scars – a thin one running across, just below his left cheekbone, and another, larger one, running from behind his right ear, down the side of his neck and disappearing under the throat of his robes – and his eyes…Sirius liked the change in his eyes the least of all. Harry's eyes had always held subtle shadows of long suffering (accept when he was a baby), but now those shadows had deepened so that they could still be seen even past the obvious happiness and relief he felt at having his godfather back. Sirius smiled sadly, realising that some of those shadows were due to his absence.

"It's really great to see you again, Sirius. I missed you," Harry said quietly. He was beginning to feel a little self-conscious under the older man's continued scrutiny.

"Yeah, it's great to see you, too." Sirius finally managed to tear his eyes away from the son he'd never had, and they landed on a grinning Ron standing a few feet away.

Sirius blinked in shock. The differences in Ron were even more noticeable. He, too, was taller (unsurprisingly) and his Weasley red hair had been allowed to grow so that it now brushed his shoulders. But what really stood out were a long scar that sliced diagonally across his lips, and a black eye-patch over his right eye, peeking out the side of which, was just the pink edge of what looked to be a burn scar.

Ron's grin changed into a rueful smile as he noticed where Sirius' eyes lingered. Maybe a couple of years ago, he would have been made uncomfortable by the man's reaction, but that was before Luna.

"Old war wounds," he said good-naturedly, with a vague hand gesture towards his face. "We've all got 'em." Then he stepped forward and shook Sirius' hand warmly. "Welcome back."

Sirius smiled gratefully, glad that Ron hadn't taken his staring personally.

"Ahem."

The three reunited wizards turned towards the polite noise, each having forgotten that Luke was still in the room. But then, thought Sirius, if he'd had any sensibility at all, he wouldn't be.

"Sorry to interrupt." He said, sounding more bored and impatient, than sorry. "But I'm sure you're all still wondering about how it is that Mr. Black came to be here. Why don't we all take a seat again and I'll explain."

Sirius' eyebrows rose slightly when he saw Harry and Ron both gaze coldly at Luke as they sat down. He had to admit that he didn't like the man either, but he wondered what was behind the obvious hostility from his godson and his friend. He decided to file the question away with the thousands of others, to be asked later.

"Hang on. If Hermione is the one who managed this, then why isn't she here explaining it to us?" Ron asked, frowning.

"Hermione is sick," Sirius answered unexpectedly. "She came through the Veil to get me. She led me back out, then just collapsed. A medi-wizard team took her away and nobody would tell me anything about it after that." Harry, Ron and Sirius were all frowning at Luke now.

Luke sighed, realising he wouldn't get anywhere with his explanation until they knew Hermione's exact condition. He didn't really know why he hadn't just told them about that first; maybe he simply enjoyed knowing something about her that they didn't.

"Hermione should be fine. She is suffering from a simple – if extreme – case of physical and magical exhaustion. You will understand why after we've gone over everything," he said pointedly, trying to bring them back to the topic at hand. He honestly didn't know how Hermione could be friends with people who were so unfocused.

"Fine," Ron said, glad that his friend would recover. Then he smiled with obviously fake amiability at Luke, saying, "See, that's all you had to say. Now, we're all ears."

Luke glared at Ron, but didn't answer. Instead he addressed all three men.

"Right, as I was saying before, Hermione has been running the 'Veil Project' on the side for over a year; almost since she first started in our department. She was studying the runes and symbols on the arch and around the dais of the Veil, comparing her own translations and analysis to the research previously done on the artefact and found a discrepancy. She came to believe that the writings pertaining to the function and purpose of the Veil had long been misinterpreted. You see, many years ago, before the Azkaban Fortress was converted into a prison and the Dementors installed as guards, the Veil was used to 'dispose'-" Luke made quote marks with his fingers "- of convicts. That was the direct translation; 'dispose'. Everyone took the word 'dispose' to mean that convicts were executed using the Veil, and that it must therefore be a doorway to death.

"Hermione could go into the details for you far better than I, but basically, she discovered that the Veil is a doorway, not to death as everyone assumed, but to another place; another dimension, separate from our reality. With a great deal of work, Hermione was able to piece together that the Veil's creation was actually accidental; the doorway was somehow made and whomever went through it was transported to another dimension where their worst fears became their reality, and, relatively speaking, time almost stops."

"That's why that place looked like my cell in Azkaban," Sirius interrupted. "And how 5 years could have passed here, while for me it only seemed like an hour or so." It wasn't a question.

"Yes," Luke answered anyway. "The creators of the Veil didn't know how it worked or why, but without fail the other dimension became the place that the individual experiencing it most dreaded. That's why they turned it into a prison, to 'dispose' of convicts; they could think of no other use. Anyway, once Hermione knew what the Veil really was and what it did, she began to devise a way to retrieve Mr. Black." Luke nodded in Sirius' direction. "Any questions so far?"

"How did you guys – or the creators for that matter - know what was on the other side of the Veil?" Ron asked, frowning in contemplation. "I thought nobody ever came back – present company excluded, Sirius. Isn't that why people think everyone who goes through is dead?"

"To be honest, I really don't know the specifics. Almost all of the spells and potions that Hermione used for this project were developed by her. While she kept very detailed notes, and tried to explain her processes to others in this department, very few were able to grasp the intricacies of her work, and nobody has been able to reproduce it."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance and smiled slightly, nodding in understanding. They knew better than anyone how difficult it was at times to follow Hermione's dizzying intellect. Sirius, who hadn't really known Hermione very well before his 'death', just smiled at the boys' reaction.

"As I was saying," Luke resumed after a moment. "Hermione began devising ways to retrieve someone lost through the Veil. The major obstacle that she encountered was the fact that the doorway seemed to incorporate a powerful resistance against people coming back through." Luke paused, seeing Sirius nodding his head as though he had just heard the explanation to something he had been wondering about.

Noticing the silence, and the enquiring looks he was receiving, Sirius said, "Hermione seemed to appear out of nowhere in the cell with me. She took my hand and did something to me, and suddenly I could see the Veil. When we started moving towards it, I heard this whisper in my mind, telling me to stay away. Hermione told me to ignore it, and we walked through."

Now Luke was nodding. "It was one of Hermione's theories that those caught behind the veil couldn't actually see a way out, and that's why they never returned on their own. It would also make sense that the Veil would try to convince you not the leave, if you somehow managed to reveal the exit."

"Is that what Hermione did? 'Revealed the exit'?" Harry asked, impressed, as always, by his best friend's brilliance.

"Not exactly. What she did was a stroke of genius really. She told me that she had gotten the idea from a muggle television show – Stardoor or Wormgate Extreme or something like that, it was called. Hermione created a spell that surrounded her – and later, Mr. Black – in what she called a 'sub-space bubble', effectively removing herself from the space and time around her. She wasn't effected by the Veil's resistance, because technically she wasn't really there. Neither were you, once she expanded the 'bubble' to include you." This last was addressed to Sirius.

Luke stopped talking to patiently allow the others to absorb what he knew to be a great deal of information. Explaining all of this, and having them listen, had definitely improved his mood.

"Ok, so if I'm connecting all the right dots here, Hermione's exhaustion was caused by this 'space bubble' spell, yeah?" Harry asked, seeking clarification.

"Yes." Luke sighed. "Creating the 'sub-space bubble' always took a lot out of Hermione during the simulations, but never to this extent. It seems that we underestimated the strain that the conditions behind the Veil would put on the bubble, and by extension, the person maintaining it. Our people are giving her the best care, but she's still unconscious –"

"No, she's not," came a voice from the office doorway. The four men all looked up to see a smiling Hermione, leaning against the doorframe.

For the second time that day, Harry and Ron leapt from their seats. This time they both flew across the room to hug the newcomer. Sirius didn't get a good look at Hermione before she was swamped in a tight group hug by her friends. The trio stayed like this for a long moment before Hermione spoke again.

In a somewhat muffled voice, she said, "It's nice that you missed me, but it would be even nicer if I could breathe."

The boys laughed and pulled away. They looked a little sheepish, but still reluctant to let her go. She smiled at them, then looked at the other two occupants of the room. Both stepped towards her and she moved to greet them.

"Hermione, I'm glad you're wake, but are you sure you should be on your feet again so soon?" Luke had reached Hermione first and said this in a worried tone as her hugged her lightly.

"I'm fine, Luke. I got the Healers' all clear, I'm just not allowed to do magic for a week, and only simple spells for two weeks after that, to give my system time to recover," she told him with a reassuring smile, before she turned to Sirius. "And how are you, Sirius? Do you feel alright? Are you readjusting?" Hermione's eyes were running over Sirius as she spoke, inspecting him for injuries or fatigue, the same way she did the boys after a rough day.

Sirius was also inspecting Hermione. She was the least changed of the three, at least on the surface. Her light brown hair was pulled back in a braid, but judging by the few curly wisps that had escaped, it was only a little less bushy and unmanageable. She was slightly taller than he remembered, and she may have filled out, but it was difficult to tell through the robes she was wearing. Her skin was still pale and only marred by one visible scar that was about an inch long and ran diagonally through her right eyebrow. Her eyes held similar shadows to Harry's, but still retained that spark of intelligence that had always defined in them.

Sirius wasn't sure what to say or do. She had saved him; set him free, again. What he really wanted to do was to hug her with the same enthusiasm that Harry and Ron had shown, but he had never been very close to Hermione, and was worried that he'd be overstepping his bounds. At the same time, there really weren't words for how grateful he was. Finally, he decided he'd never been very good with keeping inside of bounds anyway. He smiled at her.

"I'm fine, thanks to you." Then he stepped forward and pulled her into a crushing bear hug.

Hermione made an 'ooph' noise as the air was squeezed out of her, but after a surprised pause, she returned the hug and managed a breathless, "Welcome back, Sirius."

They pulled apart and Hermione smiled at the room in general. "Well, I've been given the next three weeks off and I hear it's been almost a month since I showered, so I'm going to head out." She turned to Luke. "I assume you explained everything?" she asked him.

"Yes, as best I could."

Hermione smiled. She knew how Luke enjoyed explaining things. "Thanks," she said, and turned back to Harry, Ron and Sirius. "How about you boys take me home then? I'm sure we've all got some catching up to do." The 'boys' grinned at her, and with a wave to Luke, she left the office with them.

As they walked to the elevator, Hermione asked them, "So, how much did Luke actually tell you?"

"Well," Ron replied, "he didn't get into the really technical stuff; he said he didn't understand it entirely himself. He just explained how you knew Sirius wasn't dead, and found a way to go and get him."

"By the way, we'll be having a little talk later about you risking your neck and disappearing for a month without telling us a thing," Harry interjected with a mock stern expression and semi-serious tone. They had all been really worried, regardless of Luke's constant assurances that Hermione was 'fine, just busy with work'.

Of cause, 'don't ever scare us like that again' wasn't the only thing he wanted to tell her. Harry wanted very much to thank Hermione for what she'd done, but he was afraid that if he started to say anything about that now, he'd break down. No, he'd definitely thank her, but later and in private.

Hermione had the grace to look a little shamefaced at his words, but also smiled her understanding smile. She always knew just what he was feeling.

"Well, I vote we leave off talking about anything too intense 'til we get home and comfortable," said Ron, as though reading his thoughts as well.

"Absolutely," Hermione agreed. "There is so much to go through," she said, mainly to Sirius, "and I for one, would like to do it sitting down."

They had reached to Apparation point by this time and Harry said, "Ok, Hermione will have to side-along apparate. How about you, Sirius? Are you feeling up to apparating on your own?"

Sirius had been smiling as he watched and listened to Harry interacting with his friends. Now his smile widened a little at the concern and affection he heard in his godson's voice. "That depends; I have to know where I'm going."

Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances. Harry said, "Number twelve, Grimmauld Place." Then seeing Sirius' eyes darken, he quickly continued. "I can't wait to show you how it's changed. We all – Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ginny and me – live there now. I…I hope you don't mind, but I figured…" Harry trailed off. He had much more confidence now than he had in fifth year, but seeing Sirius again had caused a few of the old insecurities to resurface, and he wanted to stop himself before he started babbling.

Hermione came to the rescue as usual. "It really is different," she said to Sirius. "Why don't we all apparate into the kitchen and we can give you a quick tour? We can fill you in on a few things along the way before we sit down to the serious gossip." She grinned.

Sirius had recovered from the shock of hearing that they lived in his despised childhood home, and now felt a little bad for unsettling Harry. He smiled at them all, and said, "Works for me. So, I'm assuming from the fact that the anti-apparation wards on the house are down, that the war is over." It wasn't phrased as a question, but it did end on a slightly enquiring note, and it reminded the others of how much Sirius had missed.

"Yes, the war is long done," Hermione said quietly. "Let's go home and we'll tell you everything." She gave him a gentle smile.

Hermione took Ron's arm, since he was the closest, and they were gone, but with no tell-tale popping noise. Sirius frowned slightly at this, and filed yet another question away for later. He and Harry caught each other's gaze and smiled slowly; the fact that Sirius was back finally beginning to sink in. Harry's eyes shone as he winked, before he, too, disapparated without a sound, a grinning Sirius followed an instant later.

AN: Nothing says 'thank you', like dollars in the waist band...or reveiws in the email account :)