Hermione woke up to see Lily and Madame Pomfrey staring down at her. She shook her head and looked at them strangely. She then remembered what she was doing in the bed when a searing pain went ripping through her body. She let out a strangled scream and grabbed onto the closest thing. Unfortunately for Lily it was her hand and she could feel as well as hear the bones in her hand snap. She didn't want to scare Hermione, but couldn't help the whimper that escaped her lips. Madame Pomfrey picked up on this right away and the minute Hermione let go of Lily's hand she waved her wand over it and the bones mended back together. She then gave Lily a potion for the pain and within minutes the pain was forgotten.
"Dear, I am going to cast a numbing spell onto your hand. I don't think this will be the last time she will do this. I am also going to have you drink some Skelegrow right away. It will taste awful, but it will automatically mend your bones each time they break and with the spell you shouldn't feel a thing." Lily nodded her head quickly and grabbed the bottle the mediwitch held out to her. In two gulps, she downed the vile stuff and held out her hand for the mediwitch to numb. They completed this just in time for Hermione to grab at Lily's hand again. Lily heard her bones crunch again and waited for the pain to come, but nothing happened. Hermione dropped her hand and went back to breathing. Lily watched as the bones in her hand shifted under her skin and adjusted themselves. It was almost surreal. She looked over at Madame Pomfrey who had just sat down across the room.
"You had best get some rest while you can, we have a long night ahead of us," the mediwitch informed her before closing her eyes. Lily decided to follow suit and laid her hand beside Hermione to let her know she was there.
Hermione was concentrating on breathing. The pain would hit her so intensly that sometimes she would forget to breathe. She had endured rounds of Crucio before, but this was so much worse. She was almost at the point of begging them to Crucio her, just to lessen the pain. She prayed she would pass out again, but her body wouldn't let her. It had a job to do and it needed her fully awake.
It seemed like hours, but in actuality it had only been 30 minutes when Lily opened her eyes again. She found Madame Pomfrey leaning over Hermione, checking her over without a wand. This was one of the first times Lily had seen Madame Pomfrey not using a wand.
"How is she doing and why aren't you using your wand?"
"As well as can be expected. She is now 5cm dilated, about halfway there. I am not using my wand because it is very dangerous to use spells on a woman in labour and especially on a woman giving birth to a mythical creature; not that the baby is a werewolf or a creature, but it does have werewolf blood running through it's veins. Even the simplest spells will kill both mother and child nine out of ten times. That is not a number I am willing to play with." Lily looked up surprised and then down at her hand again as it morphed back.
"Another?"
"If you mean another 5cm, then yes, if you mean another broken hand, that is actually the third one since you've been asleep." Lily just shook her head and sighed. She thought to herself, 'Where could those idiots be, this baby will be attending Hogwarts before they get back!'
-----------------------Meanwhile----------------------------------------------------------------
Once the door was closed the four men raced to the Shrieking Shack. When they made it to the grounds, Professor Dumbledore flicked his wand at the Whomping Willow and it immediately fell silent.
"Neat trick there, Professor, could you teach us sometime?"
"I could, but it will work for no one but the headmaster of the school," he told them, his blue eyes twinkling. Both Sirius and James head's fell in defeat. They entered the tunnel and lit their wands. When they reached their destination they cautiously approached the first room and James called out to Remus.
"Moony. Moony, it's us. Are you ok?"
From inside Remus heard them call to him and he recognized their scents; he also smelled two other people who seemed familiar.
"Who else is with you?"
Professor Dumbledore answered, "I see your sense of smell is right on target, Mr. Lupin. There are Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Snape and myself in this group. May we join you?"
"Yes, of course professor, but I want to warn you I am feeling very agitated and I don't know why, so I may attack; I apologize now."
As Albus entered the room he looked at Remus pacing the floor and he said, "I know the reason for your agitation, my dear boy, and there is no need to apologize."
Remus spun around and almost collided with the bedside table and asked, "You do and I don't?"
Sirius laughed at his friends confusion and James elbowed him to shut up. Severus rolled his eyes at the two and stayed by the door.
"Yes, of course I know. Your mate is giving birth to your offspring and hence the reason for your agitation. If you would like to see her, you may come with us."
Remus stood completely still and then asked very slowly, "My mate?"
"Yes, you remember Hermione?" Sirius asked him.
"Hermione?"
"Yes!"
"Who was it, who did it? I will kill him!" Remus' eyes turned completely amber and he picked up a chair and flung it across the room. It hit the wall with such force that half of it went right through and the other half had no hope of every being able to be repaired again. He next went to the bed and the sheets were soon scrap rags. Sirius and James looked at one another and transformed in their animagus forms. They approached Remus with caution and while Prongs distracted Remus, Padfoot pounced on him from behind and pinned him to the floor by his neck. Remus realised he was stuck. If he tried to fight, he could end up getting his throat ripped out. He layed quietly and soon his dark haired friend was sitting on his chest.
"Now listen up, you prat. You are the one who did it. Yes, I said you. You got her pregnant and then left."
"Why didn't she tell me? She didn't want to tell me before, so why would she want me now?"
"Were you not listening to the part when I said, you got her pregnant and THEN LEFT? While you were here, you weren't exactly Little Mary Sunshine to her, you know. She did want to owl you, but she figured you needed your space and you would come back when you were ready. She loved you enough to let you go. You know the saying if you love something let it go, if it comes back it was meant to be? I think that was written just for you. Now get up and get in that castle and comfort the woman you love, the mother of your soon to be child." Sirius got off his chest and everyone was impressed at the wise words this prankster just gave his friend. Looking around Sirius saw everyone looking at him and he spoke up once more. "Hey, I did pass with nine N.E.W.T.'s; I did learn a thing or two besides the art of pranking. Now up, haul ass!"
Remus stood up and started towards the tunnel. He spun around and asked in a very frightened voice, "What if she doesn't want to see me?"
Severus rolled his eyes once again and this time James spoke up. "Remus, weren't you listening to Sirius' speech? I would be more worried if you didn't show up, if I were you." He patted Remus' shoulder and they all made their way to the castle.
The men all entered the room cautiously and watched as Lily sat rubbing a cloth over Hermione's head. The pregnant witch was laying on the bed, tossing and turning. Remus could feel himself become once again agitated and everyone in the room jumped when Hermione let out a scream. Sirius looked to James very frightened and said, "Wow, she's doing well." Remus heard this and growled loudly at his friend. Both James and Sirius backed away and quickly looked at one another. Remus ran up to Hermione's side and kneeled down beside her. Lily got up and walked out of the room, pulling James and Sirius along with her. In the living room they met with Severus and Professor Dumbledore. Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall were still in the room with Hermione and Remus. The group sat quietly on the couch and waited.
Over the next little while they could see Professor McGonagall running in and out of the room, carrying out and bringing in various things to the room. A couple of times Professor Dumbledore stood up and asked if they needed any help. Professor McGonagall kept shaking her head and on her last trip through she replied to him, "If I need help worrying or fretting, you'll be the first I ask." With a stern look she quickly headed back into the room again with a pitcher of water. James and Sirius chuckled at their headmaster being reprimanded.
Lily gave them a glare and she rubbed the headmasters arm and told him, "It's alright, Professor, we are all worried about her. Remus is with her now and they are both going to be fine." The elderly wizard smiled at the young witch and leaned his head back.
They thought Professor McGongall must have put a silencing charm on the room because they could no longer hear Hermione's pitiful and agonizing cries.
In the room Remus kept saying how sorry he was and how he would never leave her again. How he loved her and wanted to be a family with her. She told him to shut up and that she had forgiven him before he even asked and that if he didn't make an honest woman of her she would make sure that on the next full moon he would be making the change into a werewolfette. Remus laughed and held up his hands in surrender. Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall smiled at the couple and went about doing their work, trying not to disturb the newly reunited lovers.
Hermione's pains went away significantly, but they were still there enough to bother her. Remus sat beside her on the bed, rubbing her back and cooing softly in her ear. His touch and his voice seemed to calm both mother and child. Madame Pomfrey knew it was almost time and that Hermione needed to get herself focused for the task ahead. She instructed Remus he was to get her to focus solely on him and that at no time was either of them to lose that focus. She and Professor McGonagall stepped out of the room so the couple could prepare. They knew they could prepare better without anyone else in the room and this would also give them a chance to tell the others what was happening. The door shut and Hermione looked at Remus.
"Remmie, I want to tell you that I love you and I wanted to say sorry. I haven't been the best person. I have made a lot of mistakes and done a lot of things I regret." Remus went to speak, but Hermione held up her hand to silence him. She continued, "What I have to tell you is hard. I am from the future and I know you then, you are my professor and you also become my friend; you die fighting Voldemort and I was sent back to try and help, but I think I failed in that. Please don't get angry, this was long before I came back to this time, but I have also slept with many men. I know it's not an excuse, but in between my 6th and 7th years I was raped by a group of Death Eaters. I felt so empty and that no one would be able to love me the way I was. I wanted to get back at all men, so I thought of a way to not only get them physically, but emotionally. What better way than to sleep with them and then ignore them after. I had fallen in love with you in my 3rd year, but I knew I had no chance with you. You were so quiet and reserved, so intelligent, yet so haunted. After what happened I thought that I had lost all my chances with ever getting you, so I needed to feel again. Please forgive me?"
"Mi, I love you for you, not for what you have done in the past, well, the future I guess. There is nothing to forgive. Wasn't there anyone there you could talk to about this?"
"We were in the middle of war with Voldemort, my best friend being the one that was supposed to kill him. If I told anyone, they would have had nothing but pity for me and how would that have helped, other than made me look weak? They didn't need an overly emotional teenage girl added to their already overwhelming responsibilities. I needed to be strong for them all, I was the brains of the group. If they saw me falling apart, none of them would have lasted. As it turns out, none of them survived anyway."
"Mi, look at me!" Remus' voice was strong and firm. "I love you, you will never have to go through anything by yourself again, I promise. Now lets have our child." For the next ten minutes they focused on one another and Hermione signalled that was all the time they could take. She had an overwhelming urge to push and Remus called for Madame Pomfrey. She came rushing into the room, followed by everyone else. When Sirius, James and Severus entered, they were greeted with the sight of Hermione's nether regions. All of them spun around and covered their eyes. Remus growled once again at them and if looks could kill they would have been murdered several times over. They decided to wait in the den, claiming the room was too small. Madame Pomfrey gave Hermione the go ahead to push and everyone jumped at once to help out.
Hermione bore down and concentrated on pushing. She started to emit a light and soon it covered almost all of the room. She could faintly hear Madame Pomfrey telling her to calm her magic.
"If she doesn't get her magic under control, I don't know what will happen."
"Mi, sweetie, you need to control your magic, you need to calm down."
Hermione felt so good wrapped up in the magic. She could hear what everyone around her was saying, but in the magic she couldn't feel anything. It was wonderful. She didn't want to go back to the pain. People were calling her and sounding panicked. The voices were becoming fainter and soon they disappeared. She couldn't see anything and then she could feel her navel tug, like she was being pulled by a portkey.
Remus looked down on the bed were Hermione was once laying; instead there was an empty bed. He looked around frantically. He started screaming and yelling at everyone and throwing anything he could get his hands onto. He felt a hand on his shoulder and tossed the person over his shoulder. He looked down to see Sirius looking up at him surprised. Professor Dumbledore froze him and that's when he noticed everyone else in the room was just as confused as him. He was released and sat down heavily on the bed. Professor Dumbledore quickly did a scanning spell over all of the Hogwarts grounds, but she was gone. He went over and plucked a hair from the pillow she had been lying on and gave it to Severus. The young potions apprenctice nodded his head and left the room without a word.
"What is he going to do with that?" James asked.
"He is going to make a potion in which we will add the hair and then soak an amulet in it. If Hermione is anywhere in this world, the amulet will pull us to her, much like a magnet is pulled to metal." Everyone sat listening to Remus' sobs. Anyone that had tried to comfort him was shrugged off and growled at. He also wouldn't let anyone near the bed that Hermione was once laying on. Severus entered several hours later and handed a vial to the headmaster. He pulled out a crystal amulet and dropped it in and waited. He checked the clock several times before pulling it out. He tied it to a string and held it up in the air. Nothing happened.
"Maybe one of Snape's potions finally failed."
"My potion is perfect, there is nothing wrong with it."
"Gentlemen, let's not fight. Severus, do you have any more without the hair added?" Severus nodded his head. He always made extra of every potion. He came back a few minutes later with another vial. Professor Dumbledore plucked a hair off of Sirius' head and told him to go and hide somewhere in the castle. Sirius took off and Professor Dumbledore dropped the hair in the potion. He waited 15 minutes and then added a different amulet and waited 15 minutes again. He took it out and strung it up. It started to spin and went out straight towards the door. The group followed it as it lead them along the corridors. They stopped at the statue of the humpbacked witch and Professor Dumbledore tapped on it and it slid open. They followed along the tunnel and came up in the middle of Honeydukes storerooms. They followed the amulet outside into the streets of Hogsmeade and right into the Three Broomsticks, where they found Sirius sitting on one of the stools, flirting with Madame Rosemerta. The amulet attached to Sirius' shirt and he looked at them, surprised.
"I don't believe the problem lies in Mr. Snape's potion, it is much more difficult than that."
"You mean she may not even be in this country?"
"Bigger than that, Mr. Potter. If she were anywhere in this world, it would find her. It can only mean she is no longer in this time."
Remus remembered what Hermione had told him. He knew her in the future; it still hurt immensely that she was gone, but he held onto the hope that he would one day meet her again. Hopefully?