Hey everyone! So sorry this is late, I've been so busy...as I type this I'm about to be late to Art History haha
Do you think that we can reach 320 this week? I think we can! You guys are amazing!
Thanks for sticking with this, even though I'm basically always late!
Enjoy!
The next day, Hermione awoke early and went to the kitchen to make herself some tea. She found Harry pulling on his jacket with his wand out.
"Where are you going?" she asked quietly.
"I was just going to take a walk to clear my head, I couldn't sleep. You look as if you could use one as well,"
Hermione pulled on her own jacket over her pajamas and followed Harry outside. The sun was just about to start coming up as the two trampled through the sand. Harry picked a spot and sat down, Hermione instantly sitting beside him.
"What now?" she asked, looking at the ocean slowly brushing across the sand.
"I want to talk to Mr. Ollivander when he wakes up. I want to know about the elder wand. Then, I want to get the goblin to give the sword of Gryffindor back, we still need it,"
"And then what?"
"Did you happen to notice how panicked Bellatrix was when she found the sword? She kept screaming about breaking into her vault. The sword means nothing to her,"
Hermione thought for a moment before looking at Harry, his messy black hair lifting gently in the breeze.
"You don't think…a horcrux in her vault? Why?"
"She's one of Voldemort's most loyal followers; he could ensure it would be safe with her,"
"Harry, do you have any idea how impossible that is? We'd have to sneak into Gringotts,"
"I know,"
"And then break into her vault,"
"Well, we should be able to get in just fine,"
"How?" Hermione asked, seeing a burning fire in his eyes.
Harry reached into his jacket and pulled out a single vial, containing a single piece of frizzy hair.
"Harry…"
"I got if off of your jacket when you took it off yesterday,"
"It'll take nearly a month! We can't waste that much time!"
"Hermione, it's the only chance we've got at this point. We need to get into that vault, and unless Bellatrix herself goes in there, we haven't got a chance,"
"That's positively mad," Hermione said, staring at Harry.
"I know,"
"The odds that something could go wrong are…"
"Extremely high, but so is it with just about everything we do," Harry added with a smile.
Hermione couldn't help but laugh at him. The two spent a while sitting in the sand, watching the sun rise, thinking about the upcoming task.
"I'll start the brewing today," Hermione said.
"I'll see if I can get Ron to ask Bill for the ingredients we need. We can't exactly go ourselves,"
When the sun had officially risen, Hermione and Harry reentered the house and began setting up a makeshift potions lab in her bedroom.
"Can you remember all of the directions?" Harry asked.
"Harry, I looked at those directions for a month, I nearly have them memorized,"
For the remainder of the day, Hermione and Harry locked themselves away, later joined by Ron, who thought the plan was outrageous, but understood nonetheless. Bill and Fleur often knocked on the door trying to get in to see what the three were up to, but they never opened the door unless the hallway was clear.
Harry and Ron spent most of their time talking with Ollivander and the goblin, and Hermione sensed Harry becoming increasingly frustrated with the goblin.
Severus hadn't returned to the house in nearly two weeks, and no one had heard anything from him. Bill often reassured her.
"Hermione, he has a whole school to run, he can't keep coming back here every day,"
Hermione knew that he was still angry at her for their fight and was blatantly ignoring her. The more she thought about him, the more she turned towards brewing in an effort to clear her mind of those thoughts, or any thoughts for that matter. Ron barely left her side when she brewed, and she found his hovering distracting. All he wanted to talk about was the fact he thought they were all going to be killed when the broke into Gringotts.
At breakfast one morning, there was a sudden pounding on the door, and Hermione jumped up, her heart pounding in her chest.
Suddenly, Remus burst into the room, his hair a mess and his eyes wild.
"He's here!" he said with a grin, waving something around.
Fleur rushed forward in a panic.
"Who?" she asked.
"Teddy Lupin," he said excitedly, thrusting the photo into her hands.
Fleur instantly hugged him, gushing about the baby's changing hair.
"Bloody hell, what are the three of you doing here?" he asked, seeing them standing in the doorway.
Hermione didn't say anything but ran forward to hug him. When they pulled apart he quickly looked over her.
"You're not hurt? You all are okay?" he asked peering at the other two.
"We're all fine, perfectly fine," Hermione replied with a smile.
"Good, everyone will be glad to hear it," he said smiling.
Soon, they were all crowded around the photo of the small boy whose hair changed color.
"Oh, he's perfect Remus," Hermione gushed.
"Harry, would you be his godfather?" Remus asked, staring at Harry with a smile on his face.
"Me? Err…I mean, yeah, I'd love to,"
Remus quickly hugged him, happier than Hermione could ever imagine. The rest of the day, Remus talked about Tonks and Teddy, looking as if he had gained ten years of his life back. The trio told Remus all that they could without revealing too much.
"Somehow Snape showed up at the Malfoy's just as things were getting bad," Harry said. "Bellatrix was torturing-"
"Harry, no one needs to know about that," Hermione said, cutting him off.
"What?" Remus asked looking between the two. His eyes settled on Hermione.
"Did she-?" he prompted.
"Hermione, show him your arm," Harry pushed.
Seeing the two looking at her so intently, Hermione pulled up her sleeve and allowed Remus to see her scar. His face paled and he suddenly looked sick.
"How?"
"A knife," Hermione answered quietly while pulling her sleeve back down.
"Good lord," Remus replied, rubbing his face.
"But Snape pretty much stalled them long enough so we could get out," Harry mentioned, looking slightly sad, obviously remembering Dobby.
"Snape?" Remus asked, his eyes flashing from Harry to Hermione, knowingly.
Hermione nodded her head once, knowing that he wanted to know if she had called him or not.
"We all are fine, except…we lost Dobby," Hermione finished.
"I'm sorry; I know how much he meant to all of you,"
The room fell silent as they all sat around, lost in their own thoughts. Harry left shortly after to check on the potion with Ron while Bill and Fleur went outside for a walk. Hermione and Remus remained quiet until the last of the footsteps died away.
"Where is Severus?" Remus asked quietly.
"I don't know, I haven't seen him in nearly three weeks," Hermione replied, taking a sip of her tea.
"Does anyone know about this?" he said gesturing to the ring.
"Ron has been mentioning how we…act around each other, but no, no one knows,"
"I'm glad he showed up when you called him, God only knows what could have happened if he didn't," Remus said, shaking his head.
"Has anyone from the Order seen him?" Hermione asked.
"No, not for a while. Anything he needs to tell us is usually communicated through Minerva…who I heard knows of this marriage now,"
"I thought it would be best that someone we could trust at Hogwarts knew what was going on, in case something happened to one of us,"
"I take it this was your idea?"
"Naturally, Severus is so determined to do everything himself. The idea that someone else could help him never crosses his mind,"
"He's always been a loner,"
Hermione remained silent as the two continued to drink their tea. Voices were heard outside, and Hermione felt herself stiffen. She'd know that voice anywhere, so when the door opened and black robes consumed the opening, she barely gave him a glance.
"Speak of the devil," Remus said standing.
Hermione remained staring into her cup. The men shook hands before Severus took a seat across from Remus. The awkward silence filled the room instantly.
"Remus came to tell us that he has a son," Hermione mentioned, barely glancing at Severus' face.
"Is that so?" Severus said with no emotion.
"Teddy Lupin," Remus replied, beaming while pushing the picture across the table at Severus.
Hermione watched as his thin fingers lifted the photo from the table and peered at it for a moment before handing it back to Remus.
"Congratulations," Severus said quietly.
"Thank you,"
After another moment, Remus spoke.
"So what brings you here?" he asked.
Hermione saw his eyes flicker to her for a moment.
"I was simply checking to see how Hermione's injury was fairing,"
Hermione couldn't help but scoff at him. His fiery eyes instantly locked on her face and she pushed her cup of tea away from her.
"It's fine, just like it was three weeks ago. I know why you're here, you're just checking up on me to see what we're planning to do next. I'm not going to tell you, we're not telling anyone,"
"You're brewing something, and you've been spending an extensive amount of time around it. I can smell it on you," he replied evenly.
Hermione simply stared at him, not giving in.
"So what if we're brewing something," she snapped finally.
"Something that takes over three weeks? Very few potions require that much time,"
"I am not telling you anything, so stop prying,"
"If you're doing something-"
"I know, you probably won't approve and say I'm stupid for being so reckless and purposely endangering my life,"
His eyes darted to the stairs for a moment, and Hermione was instantly on her feet, with her wand drawn.
"Hermione, put it down," Remus said, standing slowly.
"Don't even think about it," she said, staring at Severus who had a smirk on his face.
"I'm proud of you," he said keeping eye contact with her. "You've learned to be wary of everyone; it's about time you stopped being so damn naïve and accepting,"
Anger flashed through her instantly, and Remus immediately grabbed her wrist to stop her.
"Hermione, don't,"
"I'm not being wary; I'm just making sure you don't try to interfere with what I'm doing. I don't have time to listen to you telling me I should stop being so idiotic,"
Hermione yanked her hand away from Remus, and headed to the stairs.
"Make sure you let the lacewing flies brew for the full twenty one days, or you'll have to start all over again,"
Hermione froze, with one foot on the stair and her hand gripping the railing. Slowly, she turned to him, her eyes wide. He turned towards her with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.
"The smell of Polyjuice Potion is unique, very recognizable to someone who works with different brews for a living,"
"Why do you need Polyjuice?" Remus asked.
"Oh, she won't tell you that Lupin. No doubt she's furious that I've figured this much out,"
"As long as you don't interfere, I don't care what you figure out,"
Hermione stormed upstairs, slamming and locking her bedroom door behind her.
"Who's down there?" Harry asked, sprawled out across her bed.
"Severus," she snapped, peering into the cauldron.
"What's he doing here?"
"Nothing," Hermione muttered, staring out of the window.
"He shouldn't be here, I should tell Bill to be careful to keep his mouth shut around him," Ron said defensively.
"Ronald, Severus is completely harmless,"
"Severus? Why do you keep calling him that?"
"Because, that's his name,"
"I've only heard Dumbledore and-"
"Ronald, please drop it,"
The rest of the day the three sat locked up in the room until they couldn't take in anymore.
"I need air," Harry said as the sun began setting.
"Me too," Ron said after waking up from his nap.
The three descended the stairs, after Hermione triple warded the room, and found Severus, Remus, Bill, and Fleur sitting around the table, looking uncomfortable.