Disclaimer: I own nothing! Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

Chapter 3: Jumping At Shadows

Hermione jumped awake and looked around sleepily. For a moment she was disorientated and then she realised she must have fallen asleep in the library. She peeled a piece of paper off her face and rubbed her eyes.

The strange rune on the manuscript had led her to start attempting a translation immediately. She had quickly discovered that the text was written in two parts, the first was a basic replacement of English letters for runic letters. She knew it would be slow work to translate it accurately but it wouldn't be too hard. However, the second part seemed to combine both alphabetic runes and symbolic runes. As frustrating as it was not to understand it, Hermione knew that the only way she stood a chance of unravelling the documents was to translate the first half and hope that it gave her a clue about the more complex second part.

With a yawn she stood up and stretched her stiff joints before wandering out of the library. The house was quiet and she tried to muffle her footsteps as she crept down the gloomy corridor, so she didn't wake up Teddy. Portraits peered down at her and one particularly leery painting winked at her. With a hand on the banister she descended the stairs and headed towards the kitchen.

The most wonderful smell of fresh coffee greeted her as she opened the kitchen door. Remus was in the kitchen pressing down the plunger on a cafetiere and mixing something in a jug. "Morning!" He said as Hermione slipped into one of the kitchen chairs and slumped on the table. "Coffee?" He asked.

"Merlin, yes!" Hermione replied.

Remus poured her a steaming mug of strong black coffee and placed it in front of her. Hermione hummed in appreciation as she sipped the coffee and enjoyed the scalding bitterness as it slid down her throat. "You have no idea how much I needed this," Hermione said gesturing towards the mug.

"I can imagine," Remus replied with a grin as he leant against the counter and sipped his own coffee.

"I'm sorry I missed dinner last night," Hermione said with a rueful smile.

"It's alright, Hermione. When I saw you scribbling so hard it looked like you were about to go through the desk, I figured I'd leave you to it. Teddy would probably be displeased if he discovered that his Aunt 'Mione had blasted his father into the stratosphere for disturbing her!" Remus laughed and went back to stirring the mixture in the jug.

Hermione stuck her tongue out at him. "Why does everybody seem to think I have the temper of a manticore with toothache?" She huffed and drained her coffee.

"Well," Remus said as he refilled her mug. "People think that because you do have the temper of a manticore with toothache," he said laughing and dodging away from Hermione's playful swat. "Anyway, who told you that you have a bad temper?"

"What other than you, Ron and Harry?" Hermione said snippily. "Kingsley. He told me that Robards had taken control of the allocation of the documents I found. And so Kingsley sent me that manuscript I was working on last night in an attempt to stop me from murdering him on Monday."

Remus laughed and Hermione smiled and threw a tea towel at him. "Be nice to the cook!" Remus exclaimed as he got a frying pan out of the cupboard.

"What are you making?" Hermione asked; her attempt at a casual question ruined by a thunderous stomach rumble.

"Hungry?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm making pancakes for breakfast and lucky for you I made plenty of batter so the beast in your stomach can stop growling at me."

"Ah, Remus! Thanks so much! I don't know what I'd do if I had to cook myself, the last time I tried to make pancakes they ended up resembling scrambled eggs," Hermione said, grimacing at the memory.

"Not to worry," Remus said as he poured some of the batter into the frying pan. "Would you wake Teddy up for me?" He asked.

"Of course!" Hermione replied happily.

Hermione snuck into Teddy's bedroom and opened the curtains to let sunlight in. She looked around and remembered when the room had been dingy and neglected. In fact, Hermione distinctly recalled a particularly nasty infestation of doxys that Mrs Weasley had discovered in this room. Looking at the robins-egg blue walls with broomsticks and hippogriffs chasing each other across the wallpaper, you wouldn't know that only five years ago it looked like a bomb had hit it.

Teddy was cocooned in his duvet, pressed up against the padded bed-guard. His hair had reverted to its natural brown, a lovely caramel colour that looked like a mix of Tonks and Remus' hair colours. Teddy's little nose was wrinkled as he dreamed and his thumb was jammed in his mouth. Hermione stood and listened to the soft sleeping sighs and breathing that seemed exclusive toddlers. Finally the smell of pancakes from the kitchen forced her to wake Teddy up.

"Teddy," She called softly as she stroked his hair. The little boy's face scrunched up in unhappiness at being woken up but immediately transformed into a wide smile when he saw Hermione. "Aunt Mione!" He cried happily and let her scoop him up into her arms.

"It's Her-Mione, Teddy," Hermione corrected softly. She did hate people shortening her name to 'Mione. It made her cringe every time Ron did it but that was probably because it was usually coupled with him cramming his face with food. But she had to admit that she found it very cute when Teddy called her that.

Teddy made himself a moustache out of one of Hermione's stray curls. "Very nice," She said with a laugh. As they were entering the kitchen Teddy pushed some of her hair away from her face.

"Why there dirty?" He asked and poked her cheek.

"Huh?" Hermione replied.

Before she could work out what Teddy had said, she realised there was another person in the room. "Harry!" She exclaimed happily.

"Uncle Harry!" Teddy shouted and squirmed down from Hermione's arms to bowl into Harry's legs. Harry hoisted the little boy up and ruffled his hair.

"You're getting heavy!" Harry said and pushed his glasses up his nose. Teddy's hair turned black to match Harry's. "How are you Hermione?" Harry asked, sitting down on a chair with Teddy in his lap.

"I'm great thanks, I just got started on a new project," She replied.

"Pancakes!" Remus said and put a large platter of pancakes in the middle of the table with four plates.

"Mmm!" Teddy said looking at the mound of food.

"I can tell you started on a new project," Harry said conversationally as he put some pancakes on his plate and deposited Teddy on a chair.

"How?" Hermione asked as she put some syrup on her breakfast.

"You've got writing on your face," Harry said.

"What?" Hermione touched her face. "Oh no! I fell asleep on my notes, the ink can't have been dry!"

Remus snorted as he cut Teddy's breakfast into manageable pieces.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Hermione demanded, looking at Remus.

"I thought it would be impolite," He replied mildly and winked at Harry.

"So how are you?" Hermione asked Harry.

"I'm pretty good. I've been doing a lot of training with the England team in preparation for the European Quidditch Cup," Harry replied.

"Is it going well?" Remus asked.

"Well, yes – but there's something bothering me that you both need to hear. Maybe we can talk after breakfast?" He suggested with a glance at Teddy.

"Of course," Remus said. "When we're done we can move through into the drawing room, Teddy will be happy to do a puzzle for a bit."

Breakfast went without incident apart from when Teddy threw a pancake at Remus and was subsequently told off and put on the bottom step of the stairs to think about table manners. Soon enough, all four of them were in the drawing room. Teddy was happily singing to himself and putting a puzzle together whilst Remus, Harry, and Hermione sat in chairs with coffees to talk.

"So what did you want to talk about Harry?" Remus asked.

Harry shifted in his seat and ran a hand through his hair. "I know you might think I'm being paranoid or something but just hear me out, okay?"

Hermione and Remus nodded.

"I keep an eye on the news and I've noticed that recently there have been way more disappearances and violent crime. I also overheard two cleaners in the quidditch changing rooms talking about how one of them knew a group of witches and wizards who 'looked out for pureblood interests' and they said something about continuing someone's work." Harry readjusted his glasses and looked at Remus and Hermione for their reactions.

"Harry..." Hermione started, a concerned frown marring her face.

"No, Hermione listen to me! Who do we know who had a group that wanted a pureblood society?"

"You can't seriously be suggesting that Voldemort is back!" Hermione said in exasperation.

"I don't know...I've just got a bad feeling," Harry said with a shrug.

Hermione glanced at Remus who was looking pensively into his coffee. "You've not said anything. What do you think Remus?" Hermione asked.

"I think that Harry could have a point," Remus said.

"What?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows rising with surprise.

"I've heard rumblings about the ministry being too muggle-loving and the need for a more traditional administration," Remus said.

"So you believe me?" Harry asked, looking slightly relieved.

"I don't think Voldemort is back but it wouldn't surprise me if some of his death eaters were trying to continue his work. Maybe now he's gone, one of his minions wants a shot at becoming the new leader."

"But I thought they were all rounded up and sent to Azkaban!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Not at all," Remus said. "The aurors could only arrest the ones that they knew about. By the end of the war so many witches and wizards had gone over to Voldemort's side that it's difficult to distinguish where peoples loyalties lie."

Harry nodded and then narrowed his eyes. "I bet the Malfoys are involved," He said.

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Remus gently chided.

"I admit that Remus has a point but Harry, do you really need to be worrying about all this now? I mean Voldemort's dead and you did your job. You don't have to worry about this sort of thing anymore," Hermione said.

"I do, Hermione. Because I can't ever let something like the war happen again," Harry replied stiffly. "Now unless you want to tell me I'm jumping at shadows in any other ways, I think it's time that I left," he said as he stood up and went to say goodbye to Teddy.

Remus patted Hermione's shoulder as he stood to see Harry out. Hermione sat chewing her lip in thought for a long time after the door closed.

Remus came to check on her and ask if she was okay and if she wanted to go to Diagon Alley with him and Teddy. She had politely declined, saying that she had to get on with work. It wasn't a lie; she did have a translation to do.

The last thing she wanted was for Harry to drive himself mad imagining death eater plots. She felt like this research could make it better. If it really was about the Veil then maybe there was a way to bring Sirius back. And if Sirius was back then maybe Harry would find it easier to move on.

Hermione glanced over her notes and started working.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I've loved all the support I've had so far :)

This was a bit of a filler chapter but I needed to get Harry in because I think he plays a large part in her motivations for the research into the Veil. I also felt that I should expand upon Hermione's relationships with Teddy and Remus before I get into the first big plot point.

You probably won't be seeing Sirius for the next chapter or two but I promise that he'll turn up eventually :p Like I said, I'm aiming for this to be a long fic, so I don't want to rush things too quickly at the beginning!

Do review - I love having feedback and constructive criticism.

-Scribbles-