Chapter 20: It Begins

Things in Potter Manor over the next few days were very tense, what with Charlus and Dorea being constantly at the Ministry for a reason they refused to disclose to the boys or Hermione. However, this often went unnoticed by the three Gryffindors, who had thrown themselves into the more complex areas of transfiguration, courtesy of Hermione. Sirius and James pretended to regret asking for her help, as she immediately suggested that since the Animagus transformation was one of the most advanced forms of transfiguration, they needed a deeper understanding of the theory behind advanced transfiguration. Luckily, they were all naturally intelligent, especially the boys since Hermione, unknown two the other two, had obviously been over the material before. They were currently looking through a few seventh year texts from the Manor library, James was in the arm chair with Transformation: The Art of Transfiguration most advanced while Sirius sat in the loveseat with Hermione reading The Transition between Transfiguration and Transformation, with Hermione who was resting against his chest, reading A Most Difficult Arte. Hermione still felt overwhelmed by the trust they had demonstrated in her by asking for her help and trusting her with something which was, without a doubt, illegal. Without her, the Marauders had built a strong friendship over the last four years. She had known them for all of four months, so she felt touched by the depth of their trust in her.

Truthfully, she had considered becoming an animagus many times in the previous timeline, the temptation was difficult to resist. In fact that upcoming summer, Minerva had planned on mentoring her through the tricky process of the transformation; they had even worked out what her form was going to be. McGonagall had felt a degree of disappointment when Hermione's form hadn't taken the form of a feline, but instead she was a canine; a coyote to be exact. There was a simple potion which could be used to reveal the Animagi form, but the brewing of it was incredibly complicated, and on top of that it took three months before it was completed. She had managed to recall the book which contained the instructions for brewing it, and it happened to be in one of Mrs Potter's private libraries. Hermione had started brewing it the day before with Sirius' help, who to Hermione's surprise was a hidden prodigy at the subject.

*FLASHBACK*

"Mione. Love, it's time to wake up." In the foggy state of semi-consciousness she was in, Hermione could feel the sweet breath tickling her ear. It took a while to register, but once it did she jerked upright which a squeal, dragging the covers up with her to neck as she looked at Sirius with wide doe eyes. Sirius smirked at her attempt to hide her sleeping attire, shaking his head in mock sadness. "I've seen you already love, it's a little late for that. You girls obviously dress differently where you come from." He pointed out, his voice laced with amusement and his grey eyes sparkling as he regarded his witch. "You're hair, by the way... It's impressive." He smirked at her teasingly, knowing how much she hated the frizzy quality to her hair.

Of course, he received a surprisingly painful hit to the upper arm for his teasing, as Hermione glared fiercely up at him, still clutching the duvet covers up to her chin. "You should know better than to tease me in the mornings, Black." She glared at him, pouting a little as she took in the wide, excited eyes of Sirius and blinked in confusion. "Wait… What time is it?" She asked in surprise, since it was normally down to her to rouse the boys, not the other way around.

"Just gone nine, come on James is already waiting in the library!" He jumped back off the bed, walking back out of the room. "He found something, so hurry up will you?"

Hermione gaped at the door after Sirius closed it behind him, before getting out of bed while shaking her head. "Every day they give me hell for waking them before ten, but when it's too their fancy they're up long before." She muttered to herself as she pulled down an oversized, grey t shirt which fell to mid-thigh; she was still mortified Sirius had seen her like this, it was more of a twenty-first century style, definitely not appropriate for 1976! She had a brisk shower before dressing in some comfortable trousers and pulling on the knitted jumper Mrs Potter had given her for Christmas, bringing tears to her eyes at how alike it was something Mrs Weasley would have given if she had spent Christmas in her own time. It still warmed her heart whenever she heard Sirius referring to the Potters as mum and dad, she couldn't fathom how parents could disown their own flesh and blood simply for choosing their own path. After a few minutes of attempting to tame her hair into some sort of order, she gave up and pulled it back into a ponytail. She simply had to learn all those beauty spells Marlene was so good at.

Making her way up to the library, Hermione was yet again hit with shock, though this time it was tinged with amusement as her eyes instantly fell on the two boys with an array of books around them. In all her time at Hogwarts in her own timeline, she had never once come across Harry and Ron like this, certainly not without her not-so-subtle prompting with revision timetables and straight up ordering them to study. Since they had their backs to the entrance, she silently approached them until she was right behind them, before doing her best impression of Mrs Potter. "And what, may I ask, is going on here?"

To her amusement, both James and Sirius jumped in shock, practically levitating off the ground as they spun to face her. "Merlin Mione how have you perfected the voice of my mum in a few weeks?" James glared at her as he returned to the old book he had propped open on his lap as Sirius reached out and pulled Hermione down beside him, kissing her good morning briefly. "Anyway, we were too restless to sleep this morning so we thought if we started early we could finish early and relax a bit, but I found this." He handed her the brown-paged book, pointing to the heading of the page he'd left open, which read Find Your Form.

She recognised the potion immediately, but then again there was only one when it came to discovering your animagus form. She read through the instructions again, biting her lip as she realised how advanced and complicated the potion was – certainly above NEWT standard. She could of course brew it, but while the boys already thought her to be clever, being able to brew this would reveal more about her abilities than she had initially planned. As she spent more and more time with the two marauders, especially when working on their current project, she was finding it harder and harder to hide the extent of her knowledge and skill, especially in areas that had yet to be discovered in this time. More than anything she wanted to brew the Wolfsbane potion for Remus, but by her calculations it had only just been invented and was still kept tight under Ministry guard.

"This looks-"

"-complicated? We know, that's why we asked for your help in the first place. You're Merlin knows how clever, probably from all that home schooling, so we figured you'd be able to brew it." James explained, giving Hermione the perfect excuse which she really should have thought of herself. "Besides, Sirius is top of the year in potions, at least until you arrived, we're not so sure now, but between the two of you I'm sure you've got it covered. Well, as long as you don't get… Distracted."

He laughed and dodged Sirius' punch, smirking suggestively at his two friends before flopping back into the arm chair, his expression one of triumph especially with Hermione's beet red blush. She wasn't used to this degree of teasing when it came to relationships, since she hadn't had one while at Hogwarts the first time; that, and the fact that when she finally got together with Ron, people had been waiting for it for so long that the whole concept of teasing was mostly forgotten. However now, with her and Sirius together and surrounded by their immensely playful friends, it seemed to be at a constant flow, and she wasn't quite sure how to respond to it. All of this was new to her, as in many ways Ron was Sirius' direct opposite, not nearly as affectionate or indeed cocky.

"So we just take this potion and it reveals to us what our animagus form is, should we achieve complete transformation? We trust you to read the fine print better than us."

"By the sounds of it, it's not quite that simple. Even if we do manage to brew it correctly, we have to be able to meditate and clear our minds to the needed stage on demand, so we'll have to practice that. But then yes, we take the potion and go into a meditative state and I think we have some sort of dream, or vision, which gives us a hint of our form and what it will be like." Hermione explained while glancing at the book, giving a level of uncertainness in her voice so it didn't appear as if she were well versed in the subject.

"And that is why we brought you into this; you make sense of all these damn words. Meditation though, I'm-"

"-Not capable of sitting still? Yes Sirius, you're going to have to learn some patience if you want to help Remus, and you're not much better James. I swear you both have ADHD…" She mumbled to herself in amusement, shaking her head fondly at the two boys in front of her, both with wounded expressions painted onto their handsome faces.

"ADHD, what is that?"

"Some sort of disease?" Sirius finished with a mock gasp, making her roll her eyes at the pair of them in exasperation, muttering to herself about what she was going to do with them. They all sat in a comfortable silence for the next hour or so as they poured over books and Hermione marvelled at the concentration the boys were giving this task, reiterating to her just how much they wanted to do this. They certainly never dedicated this much time to their studies, or any at all really, and somehow they were naturally talented enough to get away with it and they knew it. All of this was to help out a friend, regardless of whether they were putting their lives in danger in the process. Her mind flashed back to her third year after she, Harry and Ron had found out about Sirius' innocence and then the sudden dark turn the night had taken with the realisation that Remus had forgotten to take his Wolfsbane potion. What struck her this time though, perhaps more than it had before was the way Sirius had shifted without hesitation and thrown himself at Remus; he had commanded the attention of the wolf inside to not only save the three of them but to save Remus himself from the guilt he may otherwise have had to deal with had he harmed one of them while under the influence of the full moon.

"So we're really doing this?" Her voice broke the silence as she snapped out of her reverie, biting her lip as she assessed both boys slowly, realising just how much they had come to mean to her, albeit in very different ways.

"We are, whether you're in or not love we have to do this. But of course we'd prefer if you would join us. I'll worry about brewing the potion – with your help, if you can help us with the meditation and the steps after… The books don't really make it clear on how you actually do the transformation; I guess that's why it's so hard." Sirius smiled down at Hermione, his eyes alight with so much excitement it took her breath away.

*END FLASHBACK*

Hermione wondered down the stairs with a yawn, having stayed up late the previous night reading a few books on Animagi from her own collection, knowing that they would be more helpful on the subject that the ones in the Potter Manor library which were on the more loose topic of advanced transfiguration, She couldn't show Sirius or James any of them, since none of them had been published at this time, something which she was beginning to find frustrating. She should have known better than to bring her own books to this time with nothing to do with them but hide them, but really being who she was she simply hadn't been able to resist.

The sound of voices drifted in through the kitchen door which stood ajar, and she paused on the bottom step when she recognised the voices of Charlus and Dorea, mildly surprised since they had hardly been at home these last few days. She wondered whether Dumbledore had started up the Order again, and that perhaps that was why they were so busy, especially after the confrontation she had overheard between Mr. Potter and the Deatheaters back at the New Year's Eve ball. Both were aurors so she supposed that kept them more than busy as it was, but still it was often nothing until dinnertime, something even James and Sirius had picked up on.

"I'm not sure they should go back Charlus, you just know some of the sons will be stirring trouble and trying to start recruitment even at that age… Will it be safe?"

"Our boys know how to handle themselves dear, in fact I'm more than certain all of them do, they're a smart bunch. And close too, I'm sure they will all look after one another, I don't see why we should stop their education just because some madman is spewing a load of rubbish on a discrimination that already exists." Charlus' voice started out as soft and soothing; however towards the end his disgust towards Voldemort was clear, making Hermione feel an odd sense of pride. It was people like this that inspired strength and courage within others who perhaps didn't hold the same convictions, people worth following and fighting with.

"You're right, of course. But we mustn't tell them more than they need to know, Dumbledore's orders and he's right. They deserve what is left of a childhood before things escalate as he believes they will with all the followers Voldemort's already rallying… There are so many purity believers, I have a feeling this is only the beginning. And things like this will see family fighting family, especially with me and Sirius. We both know which side most of the Black's will take." Dorea's voice was hushed and weighed down with exhaustion at the situation, one the eavesdropper outside their room knew full well was only just beginning.

"Well let's hope things don't come to that, there's no need to worry the kids unnecessarily. They've got exams and other such things most youngsters worry about on their plate, they don't need to worry about this particular issue unless it isn't solved in the next few months; we should at least wait until summer." Hermione snuck back up the stairs silently after casting a non-verbal silencio on them, letting the conversation fade out as she bit her lip. She should have prepared more for this and done her research before coming to this time. She had no idea if the first war against Voldemort had begun this early, Merlin knew this was when it had in her own time in fifth year, but here she wasn't sure how much she had already changed without knowing it. The way she had rushed into the time leap was most unlike her, and this unprepared feeling reminded her why she usually avoided such things.

Since she retreated to her room, she missed the final snippets of conversation as the older couple prepared to leave, something she would probably be thankful for. "I don't know what to make of Hermione. I mean, she's a lovely girl and the effect she's had on our boys is more than clear and very pleasing, but I just don't think she's telling the truth. Did you see the way she moved when she was 'training'? That's more than an exercise, it's a technique we use in training new aurors and she fought like a veteran not a fifth year student." Dorea began as she shrugged on her ministry robes, looking at the pensive look on her husband's face.

"You're right, I don't think she is who she says, and there really is no way I can think of explaining her duelling technique other than the possibility she has been in a large-scale fight before. Multiple times. But I think she's trustworthy, like you said she's good for our boys and I'd also like to think years on the job has taught us when to recognise someone who is untrustworthy in the bad sense, something I think she is not. James and Sirius are clearly fond of her, and I think we are both growing to be. The girl is alone by the sounds of it too."

A/N

So it's been nearly a year... That's terrible! Since I also read on this site I know how much I would hate that, I'm so sorry! I know where I want to take this story, I just think that getting there is going to be hard and that's my problem at the moment... But it's also no excuse!

But I'm back now! Again, a filler, but things are hopefully beginning to properly kick off now.

Rads x x x