Chapter Fourteen

He heard her before he saw her. "Hey, is Melok in his office?"

"Where else?" Genia chuckled. "Filius has just gone down for a nap though, so as much as I know you adore your Godson, you may not disturb him."

"Perish the thought!" Hermione chuckled. "I won't take up too much of your husband's time. I just need to set something up with him for tomorrow."

"Big plans?" his wife inquired.

"The biggest," his Mage admitted. "I'm sure they'll make him grumpy though, so for that I apologize in advance."

"What's going to make me grumpy?" he asked, coming into the front room with his hands on his hips. "I don't like the sound of that."

"Meeting with James, Helen, Aberforth, and Cedrella," she said vaguely. "Do you have the free time tomorrow afternoon?"

"For that trainwreck?" he laughed. "Of course. Let's go hammer out details in my office."

Genia rolled her eyes. "You two and your secrets. Fine then, I see how it is. Go on, happy plotting."

Hermione grinned. "At least if I'm plotting with him there's some assurance he stays out of trouble."

"That's presuming you didn't get me into trouble, Hermione," Melok grumbled. "Bloody woman."

His wife's laughter could still be heard in the front room as he and Hermione made their way down the hall to his office. He closed the door behind them, and warded it for privacy, knowing what conversation was about to happen. Finally, at long last, it was time to learn about her past.

She sat down on what had somehow become her spot on the sofa, and he took a seat beside her. "Are you ready for this?" Hermione asked.

"It's about time," Melok mused. "I'm curious about the diversity between your original timeline and the alternate reality you visited before ending up here. I may have eavesdropped on you talking to Filius when Genia was sick that day."

Hermione clearly remembered the day in question, eyes widening at his admission, and a blush coloring her cheeks. "Sneak," she said softly.

"See, right there, Hermione. That look makes me wonder," he said sternly. "Before we are in a group setting which I presume will include your husband, answer me this - in one of these alternate realities of yours, were we involved?"

Melok watched as a range of emotions flickered across her face. There was fear, doubt, grief, and hovering over all of that, there was undeniable affection. It was a full minute of silence before she replied to his question.

"Physically, no. Had I remained there longer, it may have come to that," she admitted softly. "Emotionally speaking, while we never directly spoke of it, there was something there. I debated the damn wisdom of approaching you at all when we got here for that very reason, Melok, but ultimately if I am to accomplish what I must, it was vital I become a fully Awakened Mage, and I could not do that without your guidance. I can't do it without you."

He swallowed, the confirmation of his suspicions hitting harder than he'd expected. The lurch of wanting that ran through him at that moment was almost overwhelming, and he knew full well nothing could come of it. On the other hand, denying the realness of it, or the potential of it, was foolish. "So, simply put, we just decide not to fall in love and be done with it," he said quietly, unable to help reaching out and touching her hand. "You're married. I'm married. You love Sirius. I love Genia. End of story."

"End of story," she agreed with a gentle smile, entwining his fingers with her own. Melok hated how, despite the clear agreement, neither of them seemed particularly convinced that was, in fact, the end of the story. He wasn't in love with this woman now, no, but the truth of the matter was that it was intoxicating to think that she held some affection for him of that nature, and as much as he wanted to tell himself that Genia was the only one he loved, Hermione had grown to love his alternate self, his alternate self had grown to love her, so she suspected, and if that Melok did, then the potential was there that he could, too.

He watched as her breath hitched as his thumb grazed the inside of her wrist, and his male bravado couldn't help but be pleased at how easily she responded to him. So few human women were attracted to Goblins. It was truly a rare thing, and yet here this woman - this Mage - was, with clear affection in her smile as her eyes briefly fluttered against her arousal. Gods be damned he was in trouble.

"So," he forced himself to say, pushing the conversation away from the topic of them. "Plan for tomorrow?"

"Meet at Hog's Head at one," she replied. "Cedrella will meet you there, and obviously Aberforth will be there. Well, I still have to confirm with Aberforth, but that man has basically no life so I don't anticipate him being unavailable. I'll meet you there with Dobby, and Dobby will escort Cedrella and Aberforth to James' place, and I'll bring you along. Helen came in this morning, so she's already there."

Melok hated to circle back around, but he did not like being blindsided either. "Is there anything else I should know in advance of an audience?"

"As I said," she muttered. "Nothing happened between us."

"Hermione, I'm not blind," he chastised lightly. "I saw the way you looked at me the day we met a year ago. One part joy, one part grief. That's not nothing."

"We never bloody talked about it," she hissed. "The closest we came was minutes before Sirius and I left - I couldn't bring myself to go without telling you… him, that I loved him, and he said he felt the same. That was a brief exchange had in front of Sirius and Severus. It wasn't like we were able to speak freely."

"That you felt you needed to guard your words is telling about your emotional state," he accused.

"You're not him, Melok," Hermione said harshly. "I had to grieve him, and I had to go through the agony of getting to know you from the ground up, knowing damn well I'd learn to love you as well. Have you any idea what that's like? To be a hair's breadth away from being in love with someone, and to be ripped away from them, and then to meet someone else who is exactly like them in nearly every way, but to make matters more impossible, you're actually reasonably close to my bloody age, whereas he was more than fifty years older. Granted, with Goblins and their slow aging, it wasn't as though you looked much older than you are now. On the other hand, at least he wasn't married!"

He stared at her for a moment, waiting to see if she'd gotten it all off her chest. When she continued to stare at him silently, gaze fierce, and he finally replied. "Is there anything I can do to make this easier on you?"

She let out a half hearted laugh. "Not that won't make life a great deal more difficult."

"How do you mean?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean that with you in my life, I feel my soul healing," she admitted. "I feel my brokenness mending, and I feel like one day, I might actually be able to be a woman first and soldier second. Does it hurt like hell, sometimes, to have you there by my side being all sorts of perfect for me when I can't touch you? Yes! I'll take the pain, though, because it's worth it to me, to feel this ache, if it means I get to heal. You're that important to me. If only as a friend, Melok. Will you tell me if it gets too much for you?"

He snorted. "You act as though I'm any more inclined to let go of you than you are to let go of me, Hermione. Genia is a wonderful, accepting woman, you know. I love her deeply. With you though, I feel…"

"Whole?" Hermione whispered.

"Whole," he agreed. "That said, inspiring that feeling within one another does not mean our relationship needs to be romantic. We can love one another as friends, can we not?"

"I'm not really inclined to contemplate the alternative," she admitted. "I don't think I could stand to lose you again. Grieving you once was devastating enough."

"Fine then," he said, smiling at her. "We can love one another. As friends."

Hermione looked at him tenderly, and then leaned forward and pressed a firm, lingering kiss on his cheek. When she pulled away, she immediately stood up and made for the door. Just before she walked out, she turned around and offered him a half hearted nod of agreement. "Yes," she said. "Friends."

The doubt in her voice was clear. As Melok sat alone in his office in the minutes that followed, Hermione having seen herself out, he concluded without too much struggle that he was full of shite, and she knew it.

Aberforth looked up as the bell chimed at the door of his pub. He was surprised to see Hermione walking in. Well, storming in would be a more apt description, he supposed. He hadn't expected to see her today, and so he raised his eyebrow in question as she flopped with absolutely no decorum onto a seat at the bar. "Pour me a drink, will you?" she said.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Poison would be good," she muttered.

It was never a good sign when a patron requested poison. Turning around, Aberforth pulled a bottle of good Firewhiskey off the shelf and poured her a glass. "Start with that, and tell me what's wrong."

"Are you free tomorrow afternoon?" she asked. "Sirius and I have decided to go forward with a tell all of the time traveling bollocks. There are five of you we've decided to tell. I've got everyone committed to tomorrow afternoon, provided you can also be available."

He nodded, shelving his curiosity over her insinuation that she was not alone in her time traveling, but that her husband was also not born of this period. His questions could wait until later - tomorrow even. Right now, he was a barman and she was a distressed patron. Nothing more, nothing less. "Sure, I can close up early."

"Good," she muttered, sipping her drink.

"Now are you going to tell me what's got you in such a foul mood?" he pushed.

"Is there some sort of barkeep and drinker oath of secrecy you have to abide by?" Hermione asked, looking at him curiously.

"I generally assume anything you tell me is told in confidence, Hermione," he replied. "However, if you'd like further assurances this afternoon, then yes, whatever you feel the need to get off your chest, you can trust it will remain between us."

She let out a heavy sigh. "Melok is an idiot."

Aberforth sighed. It wasn't like he'd been blind to the clear chemistry between them. "What happened?"

"Nothing like your Slytherin brain is probably thinking," she said, taking another sip of her Firewhiskey. "The short version is that the counterpart of him that I knew, well, we were close. We were close enough that what we were feeling for one another came into question, although we never properly talked about it. I do know that I showed up here, met our Melok, and it's become this slow and steady move toward getting to the same point with him."

"Are you in love with him?" Aberforth asked softly.

"No," she replied firmly. "I do love him, but I'm not in love with him. I'm just afraid that getting there is inevitable. Melok confronted me a bit ago when I went to talk to him about meeting tomorrow, asking if something had happened between me and his counterpart. He then determined that we should just decide not to fall in love, as if it's that bloody simple! I mean really, Aberforth, who can control that sort of thing? Who?"

"Nobody," he admitted with a shrug. "You're right, he's an idiot."

"We're both married," Hermione sighed. "I understand his need to draw a line and fight this with everything. I'm not even hurt that he does. I just think it's stupid of him to deny that's where we're headed. He admitted, as did I, that we lack any inclination to step out of one another's lives, and ultimately even if I had the will to do it, I'm a Mage and he's my Master. He's my guide through all of this mess, and I can't fathom being on this journey without him. We are irrevocably connected, like it or not. The monkey wrench here is that it may be inevitable that we fall in love."

"That much may be inevitable," Aberforth agreed. "Acting on it is your choice, however. As you said, you are both married."

"I'm not asking him to act on it," she breathed out, finishing her glass and motioning for him to refill her. "I'm just asking him not to live in the land of denial. Maintaining healthy boundaries may be possible, but only if we are working together to that end. If he keeps pushing lines, and pulling me closer… it's like gravity. He acts a certain way, and I can't help but be drawn in. It's a law of nature. I also need him to be communicating to me the things I might be doing that affect him the same way."

"So talk to the fucker," seemed the reasonable advice. "Tell him that."

"I know I need to," she agreed. "It's not happening today though. I left… it took all my self control not to kiss him, Aberforth. I know I haven't fallen over the edge yet, but Gods be damned I'm near enough and hate myself for it."

"What about Sirius?" he inquired as he refilled her drink. It seemed the most logical question, considering.

"That's the thing," she groaned. "I love him too. What I am feeling for Melok in no way negates how much I love Sirius. It's not more, or less, it's just different. I'm still trying to sort that out in my head, to be honest. How can I love two people, like that, at the same time? I thought it wasn't meant to work like that."

Aberforth tilted her chin up with his fingers, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Not everyone is a cookie cutter, Hermione. Not everyone loves the same way. That you are capable of loving more than one person at the same time shows not a deficit in your character, but an incredible capacity for love. I can't see how that should be wrong in any way."

"Sirius would never understand," she whispered.

"As I said, there is a difference between feeling and acting," he counseled. "Don't beat yourself up over loving both of them. Love by itself isn't wrong. The only thing that might be wrong would be acting on that feeling with the man who is not your husband, particularly behind the back of said husband. By all means, should Sirius and Genia give their blessing, shag away. I'll even spot you a room here at the pub. However, just because you're not built for monogamy doesn't mean Sirius and Genia aren't, and if you respect either of them at all, you won't disrespect them by carrying on an affair."

Hermione smiled a little. "I'm going to start calling you Jiminy Cricket."

"Calling me what?" he asked, confused.

"From Pinocchio," she explained. "The wise, talking cricket."

"Ah," he said, now understanding. "I read the story. The cricket did not have a name, however. I'd heard they made a film, but have not seen it."

"In the film they gave him a name," Hermione explained. "That film has been out since nineteen forty. How have you not seen it?"

"I'm a Wizard," he reminded her. "I don't go into Muggle areas if I can help it."

"Your loss, Jiminy," she said, offering a cheeky grin.

"That better not start being a thing," he chastised. "Oh, by the way, I have a request from Aurelius, if you don't mind."

She raised an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"We were talking recently about his adoptive sister, Modesty Barebone," Aberforth explained. "He never did go back to New York after he left in the first place, so he's got no idea what became of her. He was rather fond of her when they were children, however, so we were wondering if you might have the means to locate her, with all your fancy skills."

Hermione frowned. "I'm not sure how useful my skills will be, however I have a contact who runs a business with Satellites in cities all over the world, including New York. You'll actually meet her tomorrow. Helen may have some idea on how to locate Modesty."

"Any help would be appreciated," he admitted. "Aurelius isn't even sure if she would still have the same name. Married or not, neither of them were fond of their adoptive mother, and I'd be willing to bet the girl dropped the name Barebone as soon as she feasibly could."

"One way or another, there should be records," Hermione remarked. "We can talk to Helen, certainly. That said, I should be getting back to Sirius. We have a meeting tonight I can't miss and he might hex me if I'm late and leave him to handle the drama on his own."

"Drama?" Aberforth asked, intrigued.

"In short, before we showed up, Sirius' brother Cygnus fathered a Squib called Marius," she explained. "Given the state of things at the time, Marius was sent to live with his already disowned uncle, Phineas, who was disowned for marrying a Muggle woman. Now, everyone is all reconciled and Cygnus and his wife want a relationship with their son, Squib or not, but the only parents Marius has ever known are Phineas and Ruth. Poor Marius has no idea he's not their biological son. He has no idea that Crowley, who is Phineas and Ruth's son, is not his brother, but rather his cousin. That whole thing is exploding into the open this evening."

"Sounds like fun," he said sarcastically. "Have a good time."

She took another sip of her drink, finishing it off, and then leaned up and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Thanks Jiminy."

"It's not a thing, Hermione!" he said loudly as she began to walk back out of his bar.

"Melok and Cedrella should be here by one tomorrow," she called. "See you then!"

Aberforth shook his head ruefully, and prayed to Merlin it was the liquor, making her think that ridiculous moniker was appropriate. He had a bloody name, thank you very much, and it was not Jiminy!

Several hours later, just before closing, another familiar looking Witch walked into his bar. "Good evening, Minerva," he greeted.

"Your bloody brother," she grumbled, taking a seat at the bar.

He sighed. "What's Albus done now?"

"It's not one particular thing," she admitted, waving her hands around in clear frustration. "It's just that he never seems to be living in the now! Does he know how to think about anything less than five years ahead?"

Aberforth poured them both a glass of the same Firewhiskey he'd gotten down for Hermione. "Unfortunately, no. He's always been like that."

"I understood when he hired me ahead of things to take over for Transfiguration," Minerva sighed. "A Head of House is supposed to have tenure, and so they needed to have me on board early enough so that by the time Dippet retired I was experienced enough to take over as Head of Gryffindor for Albus as he stepped up as Headmaster. But now Healer Dagworth has started hinting at a desire to retire in the next few years, and he's on a rampage scouting Healers to replace her as if she's leaving tomorrow, when she's clear she's not going anywhere for a few years at least. Tenure isn't required for a Healer. He's being ridiculous!"

Absently, Aberforth wondered if Albus had considered Aurelius for the position. His child had not yet finished Healer training, but in a few years, the training would be done and Aurelius would qualify to work at Hogwarts. He'd have to ask his brother about it. Meanwhile, there was still Minerva to deal with.

"Talk to Sidus Aragon," he suggested.

"The Astronomy Professor?" Minerva asked.

"Yes," Aberforth confirmed. "His grandfather was something of a chess prodigy. Albus' mind is like one great big game of chess. If you have any hope of understanding Albus, you have to understand chess first. I'm sure Sidus would be happy to teach you."

"Wasn't his grandfather Headmaster before Dippet?" the young Transfiguration Professor inquired.

"Quite right," he replied with a reminiscent smile. "Walter Aragon was Headmaster when Albus and I were in school. He was a good man. He certainly had his favorite students, and it had nothing to do with Houses. Headmaster Aragon was a Ravenclaw himself, but I think of every student his favorite was a bloke from the class of forty-seven who was a Slytherin. Magnus came by to visit years and years after he graduated, and he and Aragon would spend hours just talking about Magical Creatures and Ministry politics. Granted, Magnus was a nice man. Headmaster Aragon introduced us at one point, and we got to be friends after a sort. It's been years since I've heard from him though."

Minerva finished her drink and stood. "Thanks for listening," she said, "and for the advice."

"You'll be fine, dear girl," he assured her.

"Provided I'm not dreadful at chess," she said cheekily.

"You get Melok and Aberforth in line?" Sirius asked as soon as his wife walked into the sitting room. "And Helen and Watson?"

Hermione nodded in confirmation. "All good to go. You talk to Cedrella?"

"She's on board. Said something about talking to either Cor or Dorea about watching Peter and Arthur," he responded.

"What time do Cygnus, Phineas, and the others arrive?" she asked.

"In just a few minutes," Sirius replied. "I think they were meeting at Phineas and Ruth's before coming here."

Hermione looked pensive. "Do you think they're ready?"

"Are we talking about Marius and his two sets of parents," he asked, raising an eyebrow, "or about the five we're telling everything to tomorrow?"

She laughed a little. "Both, I guess."

"Were you ready to have your world turned upside down when it happened to you?" he asked.

His wife frowned. "No. I don't know if there's a way to be ready for something like that, in the end."

"That's my point," Sirius said, voice heavy. "No, Hermione, they're not ready. None of them. That doesn't mean it isn't time. That doesn't mean they don't need to know."

Hermione let out a sigh, clearly exhausted. "Everyone lies. Cygnus and Violetta lied for years about Marius, as did Phineas and Ruth. We've lied about our past, and it seems like every other month we're uncovering more and more lies that those we knew and cared for told that have fundamentally changed our perception of people in the here and now. Beta Minerva talked a bit about Elise Olivander…"

"The girl Marius recently married?" he asked.

"The very same," she confirmed. "Minerva said that she was always so impulsive and went about as if she didn't care if she lived or died. Minerva never spoke to a specific reason for that, but I see her and Marius together, so in love, and I can't help but wonder if she and Marius came together in Beta as well, and Marius was killed before her. Did she grow reckless because the love of her life was dead? Did she lie to her friend about her reasons for being so cavalier with her life because she thought Min wouldn't approve of her having loved a Squib?"

"I can't imagine that being true," Sirius argued. "Minerva was married to a Muggle, for Merlin's sake."

"Maybe it was that Marius was a Black, then," Hermione supposed. "I imagine Elise knew that Minerva had fancied your father, and didn't want to rub salt in the wound."

He frowned. "I thought nothing came of that. Father and Minerva, I mean."

"Just because nothing came of it doesn't mean she didn't love him," Hermione shrugged. "It doesn't mean he didn't break her heart. With as much affection as she clearly had for you, both in Beta and Alpha, it wouldn't surprise me if she looked at you with some mindset of what if - what if she and Orion had been allowed to be together? What if you'd been their son?"

He snorted. "Yeah, the bloody Witch certainly mothered me enough."

Just then, the Floo in the kitchen activated, and conversation dropped. A moment later, Phineas, Ruth, Marius, Cygnus and Violetta walked into the sitting room and greeted them. "Hello everyone," Hermione said.

"Hey Aunt Hermione," Marius said, pulling her into a hug.

Sirius smiled, appreciating how much Marius had taken to Hermione in the last year. She was Muggleborn, and he was a Squib, and he seemed to think that made the pair of them the family underdogs. "Let's get started, shall we?" he said, ushering everyone to sit, tea already waiting.

"Mother and Father wouldn't say what we were coming over for," Marius remarked, glancing at Phineas and Ruth. "We're not getting disowned again, are we?"

"Nothing like that, Marius," Hermione assured.

Mentally going over the speech he had prepared, Sirius took a deep breath and looked the youngest Wizard in their group in the eye, nodding briefly at his brothers each in turn before he began. He hated the fact that he had to take responsibility for shite he didn't actually do, especially when it was terrible things like separating a child from his parents, but telling the others the truth of what had really happened just wasn't feasible. At the end of the day, it didn't really matter, anyway. Marius had still been taken away, still grown up calling his Aunt and Uncle Mother and Father, and still would have a long and emotional journey ahead of him now to build a relationship with his biological parents, not to mention his brother and sisters.

"Marius," he began, "I'm sure you understand that years ago, your Father was disowned for marrying your Mother. You are also probably aware that your cousin Cedrella was disowned for similar reasons. Prior to my imprisonment, there were certain things - certain opinions I held - that led me to making decisions which I now regret. I've done my best to make right those mistakes in the last year, but there is one decision I made a little over thirty-six years ago that I'm not certain I'll ever be able to completely make right. It concerned the birth of a son to one of my brothers, born a Squib, who I insisted be sent away. At my brother's urging, I agreed to send the child into the care of another one of our brothers who had already been disowned, allowing him to raise his nephew as if he was his own son."

Marius was pale, just staring at Sirius for a long minute while he processed what was being told to him. Finally, he swallowed and summoned his courage to ask for confirmation. "Uncle Sirius, was I that boy?"

Phineas spoke up. "Yes, dear boy. However, this changes nothing, Marius. That you know the truth does not make me consider you any less my son. That said, it is reasonable, given the circumstances, for you to take the chance given to get to know your biological parents as well."

Marius' eyes suddenly darted to Cygnus and Violetta, as if it just then clicked in his mind why they were part of this conversation. "Oh Merlin. You two… you're my parents."

Violetta nodded, and smiled a little. "Yes we are, Marius. Please understand we never wanted to send you away. Things were so different then. It's a miracle that things have changed so much that we can acknowledge you."

"If you cannot bring yourself to forgive us for letting you go," Cygnus said, speaking next, "please at least give Pollux, Cassiopeia, and Dorea a chance. Your siblings are innocent in our choice to adhere to the family politics, and they want a chance to know their brother, and not just be regarded as one more cousin among many."

It was no secret that Marius and Dorea had already bonded a great deal in the last year, and Marius was on decent terms with his other two siblings as well. "Gods, Dorea is my sister," he breathed. "And then through Pollux, I have a niece, and two nephews! And Cygnus has two little girls himself, so that's two great-nieces. Holy bleeding shite."

"I take it you've been studying the family tree," Sirius teased.

"Someone told me it was required reading among the Blacks," Marius shrugged, eying Sirius pointedly. "Squib or not, I figured I'd make an effort. So who else knows, about me being, well, adopted?"

"Your siblings on this side are aware," Violetta said softly. "I probably shouldn't have, but I wasn't inclined to let them forget about you. They grew up knowing that they had a brother who'd been sent away. When things changed last year the decision was made to give you a year to adjust to everything before dumping this on your head, and your brother and sisters have been waiting impatiently to be able to be open and honest with you about everything. I think it's been especially hard on Pollux. He didn't get to grow up with a brother. The girls had each other. He was nearly seven when you were born, Marius. He was old enough to remember you coming into this world and being taken away, and he's waited all this time for you to come home. Cass was too young to remember, and Dorea wasn't born until after you were, so it didn't impact them as much."

"What about Crowley?" Marius asked, looking at Phineas and Ruth.

The Muggle woman smiled. "We haven't told him yet. We felt like it would be best coming from you. You know your brother, Marius. He's going to worry you'll abandon him for your newfound siblings. You're going to need to assure him that will not be the case."

"Of course I won't abandon the prat!" Marius exclaimed. "He's my bloody brother!"

She laughed a little. "I know, and deep down so does he, but you're not the only one whose world will be turned amuck by this revelation, so be patient with Crowley, alright? Worse case, you can always get Arya to beat sense into him."

Hermione stood, urging Sirius to do the same. "Well, it looks like this conversation is going well, so I think we'll excuse ourselves and leave you to it. Take your time. If any of you - Marius, you especially - need neutral ground to flee to at any time in the coming weeks and months as you process everything, know Grimmauld is always open to you, alright?"

Marius hugged Hermione tightly. "Thanks Aunt Hermione. You're the best. Thanks for being here with me through this craziness."

"Anytime Marius," she promised.

"Phineas, Ruth, Cygnus, Violetta," Sirius said, nodding to his brothers and their wives each in turn. "Goodnight. You know where to find me if you need anything."

"Thank you Sirius," Cygnus said, voice full of emotion.

At that, Sirius turned and followed his wife upstairs to their bedroom, both changing into night clothes quickly, and crawling into bed. It was still a bit early, but neither cared. It had been a long day and they had an early morning, both having things they wanted to sort out in advance of their one o' clock meeting.

"Merlin, must be the week for big reveals," he muttered as his eyes fluttered closed.

Hermione huffed in amusement beside him. "You're telling me."

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