THE VEIL

Chapter 20

15th July 1993 – Escape

"You miss doing the crossword?" Cornelius Fudge, The Minister for Magic asked Sirius dubiously. The minister was on a routine inspection of the prison. It was one of the less pleasant parts of his job, yet with everything else that went on with his job it was only twice a year he needed to do this particular task. He looked at the prisoner. Sirius Black was one of the few in this prison that had been here over a decade. Nearly twelve years in fact. The man was deemed as one of the most dangerous wizards of his time.

Yet Sirius, albeit untidy, unshaven, and slightly unkempt from the conditions in which he was imprisoned seemed incredibly normal. Which in comparison to Blacks cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, on the opposite side of the corridor was rather a surprise. What was he to Fudge anyway but another prisoner. The minister shrugged, He knew Sirius would not be able to write the crossword but after twelve years he felt the man should be granted one small gesture. Fudge was not a heartless man. He handed the paper over to him and continued on. He wanted to finish this inspection as soon as possible and leave the dementors far, far behind and have a large brandy in his hands.

What Fudge didn't know about Sirius's demeanour was that it had taken him the better part of five years to claw out of the madness he allowed himself to fall into. After the night that his fairy princess came, and sang a song that pierced through the dark veils of madness that had wrapped around him, Sirius struggled to come back to a sense of self, and awareness. Sirius knew who really betrayed his friends; he had let that thought make him unhinged. He glanced again at the mural he had spent years creating, and looked at the rat at the feet of his friends. The thought was now what drove him.

He smiled as he unrolled the paper. He saw a glance of it when Fudge first came past. He knew the minister would come back the same way and made a decision to ask. In truth the crossword was one thing that Sirius used to do religiously prior to what happened to land him in his current predicament. But this time it was not why he wanted this paper. He spread the front page out, smoothing the creases.

MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE
Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw.
A delighted Mr Weasley told the Daily Prophet, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank."
The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend.

Below the picture, which was what Sirius was now focusing on was a photograph of the Weasley family. A grin spread over his face has he saw on the shoulder of one boy, a rat. A very familiar rat. Sirius began to laugh. He finally knew the whereabouts of the one person that he so desperately wanted to find.

"He's at Hogwarts!" Hi gleeful tone echoed down the corridors. "He's at Hogwarts! Ha ha! He's at Hogwarts!'
Cornelious Fudge stopped in his tracks as the echoes followed him down the hall. Perhaps it was a bad idea after all to pander to a prisoner's request. He shuddered and left quickly.

It took Sirius a further ten days before he had his opportunity. He had torn out the front page and kept it pocketed, pulling it out as if to reassure himself of his goal. He had remembered grimly that the Dementors only opened the cell doors when they felt a difference in the cell. They did it with Sirius once when he had transformed into a dog for over a week. So he did just that. It was in the dead of night when the dementor opened the door. It loomed in the doorway. Padfoot crouched next to the door, his belly on the ground. He had only a few short seconds as the dementor swept slowly in.

Padfoot saw his chance and slinked out like a shadow, glad it was night time his moment to escape came. He followed the corridor he had seen Fudge leave from, keeping close to the walls and belly close to the floor as he crept. Dementors patrolled the corridors constantly. He reached the gates that separated the extremely dangerous prisoners to the rest. Years of being half starved helped as he managed to squeeze his dog body through the gap. If he was human he would never have fit.

This part of the prison was riskier. Even though there were far less dementors present, there were Aurors on patrol. Keeping to the shadows he slunk past three who were walking the halls. He got lost a couple of times in the maze of halls, using his nose to point the way. He felt a cool breeze as he walked down one corridor. The entrance was gated, and charmed. The gate had gaps large enough for him, but it was the charms that made him pause. In his animal form he could sense, almost see the charms that surrounded the portal. The magic made him sneeze when he was in dog form. It was one of the reasons he didn't often shift into a dog when he was in the castle at Hogwarts. The amount of magic in that place made Padfoot sneeze constantly. Padfoot felt his nose grow itchy. It was only a matter of time before his canine nose could not handle the magic. Behind him he heard steps of two aurors approaching and Padfoot hid himself into the dark corner next to the entrance. The aurors were conversing quietly about inconsequential things. They paid no heed to the dark shadow in the corner as they pointed their wands at the entrance to lift the spells and open the gate.

Padfoot waited for them to pass then shot through the portal, disappearing along the edge of the wall before the two aurors had turned to close the gate. The breeze gusted against his fur. The moment he was outside of the walls he felt such relief. Now the only problem was leaving the island. The aurors, had mounted their brooms and flown off. Sirius didn't have that luxury. But he wasn't going to let that stop him. Waves crashed heavily against the rocks that surrounded the island. Padfoot had seen the direction in which the aurors flew and took a running leap into the freezing turbulent water.

The sky was slowly brightening as dawn approached as Padfoot continued to paddle through the swell. He had glimpsed land as a large wave rose above the others. He was glad he was in the right direction. Another wave rose around him and pushed him a little closer to the land. He kept paddling. Soon he would be on land. Soon he could rest. Soon he would be on his way to hunt a particular rat. Behind him another wave rose around him and as he began to crest he saw something bob in front of him and disappear as the wave took it in the curling pipe of a crash. As the thing in front of him tumbled away he recognised what it was. Who it was.

Padfoot barked and paddled faster towards Hermione. The veil had forced her through the curtains of the waves. She had no time to take a breath, as a wave crashed over her; icy water surrounding her. Before she could get back to the surface another wave crashed over her again. Finally she had made it to the surface for a small breath of air as the turbulent waters around her pulled her back under. She thought she had heard a barking before her head was sucked into the crashing wave. It was all she heard, as her vision blacked out from lack of air in her lungs.

Padfoot dived into the water following where Hermione had been pulled under. Salt water filled his mouth as he grabbed on the back of the sweater she was wearing and paddled furiously back to the surface. As he made it to the surface another wave threatened to pull them back under. The beach was now visible and the waves were more frequent and powerful.

Hermione's weight threatened to pull both of them under. Sirius transformed back to human and kicked hard, holding Hermione tightly as he surfed the wave closer to the shore. The wave pulled back from the shore, nearly pulling Hermione from Sirius. He couldn't quite touch the ground and kept swimming trying to beat the next wave that was looming behind him. His foot touched the ground as the wave crashed jetting them both to the shore.

Sirius lay on the land for a long minute, exhaustion threatening. Slowly he sat up and began pushing against Hermione's chest water coming up from her throat each push. Hermione soon began to cough, coming to with water still in her lungs. She rolled onto her stomach, expelling the seawater from her lungs and stomach. Sirius collapsed onto the sand beside her, too exhausted to do anything else. He had done it. He had escaped from the most impregnable prison. He made it to land. And he had just saved his princess who had washed up from the waves like a stranded mermaid. The sun peaked over the horizon, its warmth and light he had not felt in so long. He lay down closing his eyes smiling softly in the moment.

Hermione lay down beside him. She was starting to really not like where she would come out of the veil. Her brain however too tired to puzzle it too deeply. She was glad that she hadn't gone back again to Azkaban. Once was more than enough. Instead she had come back the day Sirius escaped. She was exhausted. Hermione turned her head slowly to the man who had been imprisoned wrongly for twelve years and saw what it had done to him. The once perfectly handsome man was still there, behind years of fear, grief, sadness, anger and despair. The man she still loved was still there but only faintly. She could see the driving force of what had pushed him to action from her own past. She was there to witness much of it at the end of the school term.

Sirius felt her eyes on him and he opened his eyes to her. She had not changed at all. For all the time he had been in prison, she was still as perfect as the day he had left her in the hospital bed. He knew he had changed. He was changed. But in this moment he looked upon her and felt the guilt of a promise he had broken over twelve years ago rise up. A glint on her neck caught his eye. She was wearing the necklace still. That gave him a little hope that they could move past what had happened so long ago.

Hermione found herself with Sirius suddenly above her. He noted that she was startled, but not afraid. Not like last time. He caressed her face softly tracing down her neck to touch the fairy pendant that hung to her collarbone.

"Princess" he breathed. "My Hermione."

They were strangers and friends and lovers. They were alone on the beach together. So much time had passed, and yet not much at all. For Hermione the events that had happened twelve years ago for Sirius were still so fresh in her mind. She was beyond exhausted, she had nearly drowned and before that was hit by a truck, in which the man she had come back to had gone so very far away. For Hermione everything happened so quickly. Sirius had grown and become a man in front of her in a few short visits. She had fallen hard for the incredibly handsome, charismatic young Sirius, and had him ripped away from her, to be reunited with a man who looked more like the Sirius she had originally known. Yet the man she fell in love with, was still there. Small shards of him still remained.

For Sirius, he had met Hermione and re-met her as he went through life; she was unchanged, ethereal in her never changing beauty. He had fallen in love with her well before she had. His love had grown through her absence from his life as he took the slow road. He cherished each moment with her, with his friends. He had wanted to marry her. Now he saw that it was a young man's dream. One that he had wanted so much. Yet a war came and tore his world apart. It tore lives away of people he loved so much. Even Hermione was almost torn from his life when she came back through the veil into an oncoming truck. And then he was imprisoned, for more than a decade. And in that time she came back and awoke him from the madness he was hurtling towards. Her innocence in that place shook him. He was innocent in that place. Now here she was. She almost died again coming back through but they were together again. But before he could even pursue that happiness he needed to finish what had driven him to break out of Azkaban in the first place.

Hermione moved first, shoving him gently off her.
"Sirius, you need a bath." She grumbled at him. Sirius barked out a laugh, looking at her.
"Right now, so do you princess." He answered. His voice rough from the seawater and his years of imprisonment. He chuckled again as her eyes narrowed at him.

Sitting up, Hermione looked up and down the beach. It was an extremely remote location. She had no idea where she was. She did know that it was the summer of 1993. She was only three years away from her own timeline. After everything that had happened to her so far she almost could not believe it. Sirius watched her. The crease in her brow meant she was thinking through things. He could almost hear the cogs of her brain turning with each piece of information that seemed to flash past her eyes. Her eyes flicked to him, chocolate brown to steel grey.

"The Ministry is going to be hunting for you soon." She said matter-of-factly. "This beach will probably be the first place they will look. We should go." She stood and grimaced at how wet her clothes were. She put her hand in the beaded bag she had hanging across her shoulder and pulled out her wand. She pointed it at herself first cleaning and drying herself, her hair springing back into loose curls around her face.

She rifled through a beaded bag again and began pulling out clothes. A pair of mens jeans and large mens sweater, she threw them at Sirius
"Change" She ordered him, "Your prison clothes will be a giveaway. Besides, you need to not look like an escaped convict"
Sirius chuckled, "I am an escaped convict." He stood and changed quickly. The morning sun had since disappeared behind clouds and the breeze had turned cold quickly. She incinerated Sirius's old clothes to his surprise. She turned her wand him. She tried not to feel hurt as he flinched visibly. And cleaned and dried his hair. When he put his hand up he realised that she had put his long hair into a club and had neatened his beard.

"I'd have trimmed it but didn't want to risk cutting you" she said. Hermione looked up and down the beach again. She didn't know which way to go. Sirius looked up and down the beach, then looked up at the sky, and swore softly. Hermione looked up to. She saw several spots high above that were unmistakable as people flying on brooms, aurors. There had to be an apparition point and a location nearby. She turned to Sirius, but he was now back as Padfoot.
"Perhaps that is for the best. We better go and see if we can find a town or a road." They headed down the beach in the direction they had seen the Aurors fly from. Padfoot followed alongside, nose to the ground. Hermione kept a glance to the sky. If only she could apparate. They would be miles away by now. Sirius barked bringing her mind back onto the presence. Padfoot had found a path off the beach and had begun to head towards it.

The path did lead to a road. Hermione had her wand out and pointed it at the road. A large purple triple decker bus sprang from nowhere pulling up dangerously fast that Hermione moved back a couple of paces lest she be hit. Padfoot was now standing next to her woofed and growled at her in displeasure. This clearly seemed to him that it was a very bad idea. A skinny youth jumped out and greeted them, reading from a piece of paper. He looked up and smiled sheepishly, "It's me firs' day ye see, names Stan Shunpike. On ye get, on ye get. Oh Geeze, what is that?" The youth had jumped back at the site of the dog.

Hermione smiled and knelt beside Padfoot, channelling her inner Lavender Brown squealed, "Oh this is Snuffles! I don't go anywhere without him! Isn't he the cutest little thing you ever saw!" Stan looked at her like Hermione was off her rocker. Yet he shrugged; they took cats, owls and toads, what was a giant black dog to him. He stepped aside and let them pass on board. He directed them to two plush armchairs, at the back on the lower level.

"It'll need to be charge fer two, cause o' the size o' yer Snuffles." He wrinkled his nose at the name, the dog "ruffed" almost in equal distaste. Hermione paid no heed to them as she dug through her bag and pulled out a purse. She handed him a Galleon, and said to keep the change for his trouble. The youth brightened immediately.

"Where you going?" Hermione hadn't thought that far ahead. She had to think fast, the first place that she thought of, "Oxford, England. The town square will be sufficient."
Stan knocked on the window to the driver, "You, got it, Oxford it is." Hermione sat in the armchair and braced herself. The dog settled on the other armchair and turned its head to her "Ruffing" at her. She ignored him as the Bus took off. She paled and turned a delicate shade of green as they flew through the countryside. She remembered now why she didn't like this mode of transport, yet it seemed at the time the best way to leave Scotland behind before they were potentially caught by aurors.

Hermione took an unsteady step off the bus. She didn't turn as it banged out of existence she went to the fountain and sat down heavily. The dog padded over and put its head in her lap, waiting for her to recover. Hermione honestly didn't know what to do. Oxford came to mind as it was home. She was finally in a time so close that home was what she had yearned so much for. She took a breath. She remembered that her parents had taken her to France this summer. Her home would be a safe location. Noone would think to look there in this time for an escaped convict. Hermione stood up and looked at the dog, "Come on. I know a place." And walked in the direction of home for what felt like the first time in almost forever, Padfoot reluctantly following behind.

There was a newspaper on the driveway as she walked up to the front door. Picking it up she glanced up and down the street. She remembered most of the neighbours in this street were either working or holidaying. She pointed her wand to the front door and walked in. Home. She was finally home at last. Padfoot followed behind, he didn't like the idea until he began smelling around the house with his nose. This place smelt like her. He "Ruffed" softly at her.

Hermione shut the door, locking it. She turned and Sirius was standing before her. They stood staring at each other for a long moment. Hermione was the first to look away. She moved past him to the kitchen and began going through the cupboards for some food for both of them. She was suddenly nervous and at first she didn't know why. Then it hit her. This was the first time she had brought a guy home. The absurdity of this situation brought a bubble of laughter to her as she made them tea and sandwiches.

Behind her Sirius looked around casually, feeling out of place in a neat and tidy home. On the walls and mantle were photos of a young Hermione and her parents at various stages of her life. Birthdays, Christmas's, dance competitions, lots of her reading, camping trips and beach days. He could see where Hermione got her looks and hair from. Slowly he made his way to the kitchen as Hermione was setting out their meal. He sat down slowly at the breakfast bar, not taking his eyes from her. She looked up and she blushed slightly.

"Why here?" He finally asked her. Hermione gently pushed a plate loaded with sandwiches towards him and poured the tea into cups.
"It's my home. It was the first place that came to mind." She handed him a cup and took a sip of hers, before continuing.
"I remember this summer, when you escaped. My family are in France. I am in France, holidaying. The present me is 13 years old, soon to be 14 years old and about to start Hogwarts in a month. We are safe here for now. Eat." They ate in silence; then Hermione showed him the bathroom and found some of her father's old clothes for him.

Hermione was curled up on a couch, reading the newspaper when Sirius finally came downstairs. She looked up and saw that he had cut his hair and shaved. He looked almost like his old self. Except for his eyes. His eyes were the only giveaway at how unstable he was. He was struggling with the pretence of normal. She knew that only time would heal that. Time she never seemed to have enough of or too much of depending on her macabre perspective on her present circumstances.

"Hermione, I want to see Harry." Sirius asked quietly. Harry, his birthday was only a few days away. He was also Sirius's godson. The only connection left of James. She also remembered everything that happened in this year. She had always wondered how Sirius knew where to find Harry that summer, this summer. Hermione felt a headache coming on. Tenses, both past and present were becoming meshed together. But she now knew how he found his godson.

"Sirius, sit down. I need to tell you some things." She pointed to the chair nest to hers. Sirius hesitated before moving to sit. His tenuous hold on normality seemed to be crumbling before her eyes. Her heart ached at how much he had changed. She took a steadying breath and began to tell Sirius about Harry, from when she had met him, to the present of Sirius's time. It was not wise to tell him what would happen. Especially when he growled as she described the people who raised him. She told him that in so many ways he really was a blend of both parents, now that she had the opportunity to have met them.

"He lives in Little Whinging, but Sirius, he doesn't recall anything prior to his parents deaths. He won't know you. And come tomorrow, you will also be all over the muggle news." Hermione looked pleadingly at Sirius. "Please whatever you decide to do that you will be extremely careful." She stood up and made her way to the stairs.
"Where are you going?" He asked the anxiety in his voice evident.
"I'm going to take a long shower and have a nap. You are welcome to stay here Sirius." She went upstairs and left him to his own devices.

Hermione woke up, looking up at a familiar ceiling. She almost felt like she was back in her time. Sirius was still downstairs when she had gotten out of the shower, but her exhaustion had pulled her towards her bed. She got up and slowly made her way back through the house. The house was silent as she made her way downstairs.

"Sirius?" She called softly. She looked in the living room and then saw a note on the breakfast bar.

To my sweet Princess,

I am sorry my fairy to leave you so suddenly.

You are too kind and caring to risk yourself to help a brash rogue like me.

Don't try and follow. There are things I need to do on my own.
I know we are near where your time comes. I will find you then.

I love you Hermione, in this moment and for eternity.

Sirius

Hermione read the letter several times. She didn't know whether to laugh, cry of feel angry. This was the first ever time that he had left before she had, intentionally at least. She looked around her home, she couldn't stay here either, although she sorely wanted to just go back to her bed and curl up with the letter. She cleaned up the mess and repacked her beaded bag. Night had fallen, as she walked out the front door. She slowly walked the familiar streets in which she had grown up. Where her primary school mates had bullied her for her difference. Where she had learned to ride her bicycle for the first time. The park which she would go and read under the perfect tree in spring and summer. She followed the path that lead to the lake near her house, she would swim there most days in summer when she was home.

The whispering came softly as she stood by the lake, the stars reflected on its mirrored surface. She was alone. The whispering wove itself about her the wind sweeping through her hair lifting her across the water into the veil, a single tear disturbed the surface of the lake. Hermione was already gone, as the ripples made the reflection of the moon wobble.