Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 12: Saving Sirius

The next morning came all too quickly for Hermione, all she wanted to do was pull the covers back over her head and pretend the sun never rose today. Obviously the curse from Malfoy Manor still lingered. She was just glad it was Saturday and she could sleep in. Her hands groped for her pillow, but all she felt was cool steel.

Hermione froze and twisted herself around to see what she was touching, it was the spiritual blade from last night. Hermione groaned, it wasn't time to sleep after all. She had stuff to do.

So far she had everything she needed to finish the ritual to free Sirius of his possession, she even had the blood. It was surprisingly easy to get his blood when he's asleep. That man can sleep through a stampede in his bedroom.

She threw the covers out her and felt the chill of morning air. It had yet to warm up to a decent temperature yet. So Hermione did her morning routine of taking a shower and getting dressed. Nothing that took too much time, there was just no point. Her roommates were still sleeping on the respective beds without a care in the world and nothing life threatening to take care of.

When she noticed that no one was looking she stuffed the offending doll roughly in her pocket. This little doll had caused her too much trouble. With a flick of her wand she had the vial of blood, the blade and a warm cloak. With everything she needed in her possession Hermione walked down her dormitory steps.

So far the coast was clear, but she couldn't take the chance and quickly hid the vial and blade. If this situation wasn't so serious she might have found it humorous. She was slinking around the room as if she was trying to hide something, it was like those B mystery she used to watch back home. She missed them and her parents most of all. It had been a while since she'd last spoken to them, she wondered how Dumbledore was handling her parents.

If she remembered them correctly they could be a force to be reckoned with; it was where she had gotten her passionate drive. Muggle or not they could handle any situation well.

"Mya?"

She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard her name being called. "Yes?" Hidden by the couch was Remus Lupin.

"What are you doing up so early?" He asked curiously.

"It's not early."

"I know, but with how late you went to bed I figured you'd be out for a couple more hours at least." Remus tried to catch any reaction she might make, but she wasn't very forthcoming.

He knew something. "Why don't you tell me what you're talking about?"

"I heard you talking last night, or at least I thought it was you. I hadn't be quite sure until I woke up this morning and your scent was still lingering in the air." He watched her through hooded eyes.

She lifted one brow. "Is it a crime to leave the common room after hours? I know that you and the marauders have done it a number of times."

"What were you doing?"

"What I do is none of your business, Remus." Her gaze flickered to the window. "Why are you so curious? For all you know I could have come down here after I couldn't sleep."

Remus' eyes narrowed dangerously; proving that he may be a wizard, but he was still a wolf. He tried to intimidate her, to show her that he wasn't backing down. Unfortunately he was doing it to the wrong witch.

"You don't frighten me Remus, in either form you take." She turned to leave and stopped when she got in front of the portrait hole. "We may be friends, but that doesn't give you the right to demand things of me." She walked away without looking back.

"I know," his whispered admission echoed through the empty common room. "I'm just worried about you, please be careful."

Hermione knew she'd been a little harsh to Remus, but she didn't know what else to do. He had caught her off guard and the only thing she could think of was to get angry at him. So she did and she took a fair amount of her tension away. There was nothing she could do about it now.

She slipped into the Great Hall for a quick bite to eat before she started back towards Hogwarts grounds. There was a perfect spot for what she wanted to do only a mile into the forbidden forest. It was dangerous, but it had been the most secluded spot she could find on such short notice.

The trek to the enclosed area was rather rugged and she had to pay close attention to her surroundings. The last time she had walked this path she had almost been attacked by some weird flying creature, most likely a friend of Hagrid's.

Her wand was held defensively in front of her, not wanting to get caught when she wasn't ready. This wasn't an adventure that should be taken alone so she had to be on her guard at all times. Her eyes scanned her surrounding area as she let her magic pour out of her and into the forest.

Inside the castle all the Professors stopped talking, they had been having their annual meeting and discussing James Potter's fascinated development. "What's that?" One of them asked.

A loud murmur rang through the room, telling of everyone who wished to know the sang thing

"It appears that Hermione is learning quickly." Dumbledore mumbled to himself and only Minerva heard him.

"Are you sure?" Minerva asked doubtfully. What she felt was a tremendous amount of energy, too much for a sixth year witch. Much less a full grown witch or wizard.

"Can't you feel it?"

Minerva's eyes widened. "How is that possible?"

The other professors watched the duo in confusion, they still didn't know about Hermione or the prophecy.

"It's in the words Minerva. I wasn't lying to you."

The energy was like a warm blanket, enveloping them in a sphere of protection. She didn't know it, but Hermione was unconsciously keeping everything in and around the castle safe from what she was about to do.

As Hermione walked she mumbled all the steps she needed to accomplish before Sirius was free of Lucius' possession. She tilted her head up and paused, "would it hurt him?" She asked herself.

She hoped not, but a little pain wasn't so bad for something of this proportion. Being possessed by another wizard wasn't something anyone looked forward to so Hermione was sure Sirius would forgive her in due time. An he would once again be his normal cheery self, or at least that's what she hoped he would be.

The trees were growing closer and light the overhead was beginning to dim. It was only a matter of time before she arrived at her destination. It was a large open area surrounded by trees and other wild life and there was no life to speak of. The trees shrouded the place in total darkness.

As she stepped into the clearing her insides seemed to pulse dangerously. She scanned the bushes and trees meticulously, looking for what had raised her alarms. Nothing seemed to be amiss, but often the things people are most afraid of are the hardest to find.

"There's nothing I can do." She glared at the darkness that surrounded her and kept her eyes open for any movement.

When she caught none she pulled out everything she needed and placed them on the forest floor. The doll was laid carefully in the center of the clearing, so nothing would disturb it. The knife and her wand were kept in her hands, while the vial of blood stayed securely in her pocket. With the quick flick of her wand a small draining system was transfigured out of a nearby rock. What was more cleanse then a magically transfigured drain?

She levitated it and set it down a few feet from the doll. She had no idea how large of a flame the doll would create when it burned.

"It's now or never Hermione." She whispered encouragingly to herself. From an outside perspective this scene would appear humorous. A teenage girl was standing in front of a seemingly harmless doll with a sick and a knife in her hand. She would be cast as a loon and be sent on a one way trip to a mental institution.

Hermione leapt forward and thrust the spiritual bland roughly into the heart of the Sirius doll, and she was thrown back into a nearby tree. She rubbed her aching head and was startled by a hysterical cry of pain.

Her eyes widened as the small Sirius doll shrieked in anguish as it was enveloped in flames. It sounded like it was in so much pain and the flames were only growing larger. Almost brushing her makeshift drain, but she used her want to move it out of harms way.

The little hands on the doll tried in vain to removed the spiritual blade, but it only seemed to burn it's tiny fingers. The doll never ceased it's cries of pain until it turned completely to ash. The flames swelling and shrinking with a pop before her eyes. As she watched the ashes lay unmoving on the forest floor she wondered what she was supposed to cleanse, but she didn't have to wonder long. A dark purple liquid started to ooze out of the doll's ashes, forming into a small ball. She quickly captured the liquid and slowly poured the contents into her makeshift drain. As it went down it sizzled and smoked, but it didn't seem to burn the drain system.

With a flick of her wand the drain system returned to it's former state of a rock, but it was no longer a pure white. The rock now matched the color of the liquid. That probably wasn't supposed to happen.

When she turned back to the ashes they disappeared into thin air, leaving only the shiny spiritual blade in it's place. The book had been right, there wasn't a scratch on it. Now it was time to get rid of the spiritual blade, she set it down on top of the rock and poured Sirius' blood over both objects. The blood burned the objects like acid and soon there was no evidence of what she had done. Hermione was very proud of herself.

She had freed Sirius Black.

A few miles from where Hermione Granger was starting the ritual to de-possessive Sirius Black the castle shook. The force from the blade reaching a great distance. Once again stopping the Professors from what they were doing.

"What was that?" Before anyone could spend a lot of time on figuring that out a loud shriek chilled everyone to the bone.

Minerva was up before anyone. "Oh, Merlin. It's a student."

They tried to follow the anguished cries for help, but it only seemed to echo through the entire school. Peter Pettigrew saved them the trouble of locating the noise.

"Professor, it's Sirius." He stuttered out and directed them to where Sirius was laying.

He was lying down and his back was arched painfully; his hands were reaching to remove something from his chest, but nothing was there. James was trying in vain to keep his still, but the force of Sirius' pain gave him the strength to overpower James easily. Remus was also working to keep Sirius still, but even his furry little problem was little help.

James turned nervous eyes to all the teachers. "We don't know what happened. After the castle shook he started screaming and we can't get him to stop." He said weakly and grunted from the effort of holding Sirius.

"There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him. I tried touching the place where he's touching, but there's nothing there." Remus continued where James left off and turned to Peter for help. Their small friend held down Sirius' middle, but even the three of them couldn't stop their friend.

Dumbledore stepped forward and took charge of the situation. "We'll take him to the hospital wing. Maybe Poppy can figure out what is wrong with Mr. Black." Dumbledore levitated Sirius' squirming body to the fireplace and flooed to the hospital wing.

Poppy went straight to work of Sirius as Dumbledore stood off to the side. He had a pretty good idea that she wouldn't find anything wrong with Sirius because in all actuality there wasn't. Dumbledore had a sneaky suspicion that Hermione was the cause of his pain, but it wasn't intentional. He knew she had been up to something when he had sensed someone leave Hogwarts the other night.

They tried to talk over Sirius' screams, but they were becoming steadily louder. "What's wrong with Mr. Black, Poppy?"

She glanced nervously between her patient and the headmaster. "There's nothing wrong with him. He's completely healthy, but it seemed like something is being ripped from his body."

Dumbledore lifted an inquiring eye brow. "What do you mean? Is his body pulling itself apart?"

"Oh no, that's not what I mean. There seemed to be an energy that is being forced to leave Mr. Black's body. From what I can tell the energy doesn't belong there, but it's been there so long that it's painful to removed." Poppy explained.

"Is he doing it on his own?"

Poppy shook her head. "He doesn't have the power to remove something like this from himself. Not even you could do it on your own."

"Is there anything you can give him to dull the pain?"

"I'm afraid not. We'll have to let it run it's course. It shouldn't last much longer." She explained and the moment those words left her mouth his screams stopped. "It seems as if whatever it was it's now gone. Mr. Black is free to leave as soon as he wakes up."

"You don't want to keep him."

"There's nothing I can do for him. Someone already did it and my hands are tied." She walked back into her office and left Dumbledore to watch Sirius.

"What did she do?" Dumbledore mumbled to himself.

Dobby was not working in the kitchens as he normally did. He was working strictly on the head student's bedrooms under Dumbledore's order. It was Dobby's job to keep the room clean the moment Harry left and under no circumstances was he supposed to be seen.

It was an odd order for Dobby because he loved to spend time with the great Harry Potter, but as Dumbledore was paying him there was nothing he could do about it.

As he waited for Harry to leave he often saw him alone and sad and all the house elves knew it was due to the disappearance of Hermione Granger. It wasn't his place to comfort Harry with what she would do so he kept it to himself. Today started like any other day, Dobby crept from his hiding spot the moment Harry left the room.

Dobby was cleaning each room meticulously, making sure there wasn't a speck of dirt to be seen. He started with the common room and made his way to Harry's room, working on the bathroom before he finally stopped at Hermione's bedroom.

The room looked unlived in, but it looked pristine. It was the cleanest room in the head rooms because it was the only room no one spent there time in. From what Dobby had seen Harry and Remus stand clear of it. As if they were afraid to come near it, but Dobby knew that nothing bad would happen. Since he had been in and out frequently.

He was just pushing Hermione's door open when Harry Potter came rushing through the head portrait with a peculiar look on his face. Harry was breathing heavily and the look in his eyes was like a wild animal.

Harry started to close in on Dobby. "Why didn't you tell me?" His voice was harsh.

"Whatever is Harry Potter saying?" Dobby asked weakly.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Harry roared. "Why didn't you tell me that you knew Hermione?"

Dobby's eyes widened and for a minute he didn't know what to say. There was absolutely no way that Harry could know about house elve's memory. So he decided to play the innocent. "The great Harry Potter is the one to show me Potter's 'Mione."

"That's not what I meant. You knew that Hermione would be sent to the past an you didn't tell me. Why?" Harry slumped weakly to the ground. "It wouldn't hurt so much if I had forewarning."

Dobby stepped towards Harry hesitantly. "How dos you know about that?"

Harry looked up at Dobby with swollen red eyes. "I see them sometimes. They play like a movie in my head and I see them. I see Hermione mostly and I get to see what she goes through. You helped her save Sirius."

Dobby nodded. He wasn't breaking the rules if he was never the one to tell Harry anything. "It's against our laws to speak of it."

"I know. I didn't mean to scream at you. I just miss her so much and it hurts that she's not here."

"It's okay. You'll see her soon." Dobby wanted to touch Harry as a sign of comfort, but even after all these years he couldn't get rid of his teachings.

Harry's head shot up. "What do you mean?"

"Dobby can't say!" He screeched and before Harry could ask him more, Dobby disappeared.

Harry stared at the spot Dobby occupied for a long time, unsure of what had just transpired. From what Dobby said it seemed as if Hermione would be returning soon, but from what Dumbledore said she would have him. An Hermione wouldn't get pregnant until after seventh year.

'Maybe Dobby's wrong?' Harry hoped Dobby wasn't, it would be nice to see Hermione again.