Hermione wasn't really tired. She found that she hardly was these days, having been asleep for six whole months. She didn't really know how to spend her time. She had nearly finished the school year in the past, though she wondered if she would have to repeat it here once more. She dreaded the idea of Remus being her teacher, after all that had gone on between them, not that he remembered any of it. He just thought that she'd been squeamish after shagging him that one time and then went out and got herself kidnapped.
Life was so unfair sometimes, Hermione mused to herself as she wondered down the hall, going to see the Library. She opened the same old wooden door to find that the room looked newer, but relatively the same. The house was such a scramble of old and new and Hermione found herself finding so many different things. Sirius had seemed to change his mind about how he wanted everything to look so many times that now every room was basically a different theme. She loved it.
"Hermione, how are you settled in?" A voice that Hermione identified as belonging to Sirius said, startling her out of her observation of the room around her. She had missed the long haired animagus sitting by the fire place with a book in his lap.
"I don't think I've ever seen you read a book before." Hermione said, ignoring his question as she sat down next to him, curling up into the corner of the couch and pulling a blanket down over the lower half of her body.
"Yes, well maybe you're smarts rubbed off on me a little bit." He said with a small smile as he closed the book, placing it on the coffee table and turning so that he was facing her fully.
"I'm so sorry Sirius. I didn't save any of them." She said, feeling tears wet her eyelashes what seemed like the hundredth time since she woke.
"It's not your fault Hermione." Sirius said, pulling her next to him and placing an arm around her shoulder as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
"But it is, isn't it? If I hadn't of had a freak out and run from Remus, I wouldn't have bumped into my dresser and broken my timeturner. Then none of this would have happened and I wouldn't have to feel so helpless." She said into his neck.
"That still doesn't mean it was your fault. You didn't change anything, which means it would have happened if you'd gone back or not. You couldn't single-handedly defeat Voldemort then. He was too strong. Even Dumbledore new it..." He said but trailed off as he seemed to remember something.
"What is it?" Hermione asked him after a a beat of silence.
"It was Dumbledore. He took our memories of you." Sirius said and Hermione could hear a growl bubble up in his chest.
"He was there just before I came back. He was trying to stop me from leaving. I think he was going to try and get inside my head again so that he could use my knowledge to end the war." Hermione said quietly, thinking about the battle she had left behind.
"Is Charlus... How did he die?" Hermione asked him.
"An accident in the Ministry around the same time you disappeared..." Sirius realised exactly what she was saying.
"The Veil. It was how I got back. He found some sort of blood ritual that would manipulate the veil into storing me for twenty years before spitting me back out again. Apparently the veil could sense the shift in the timeline and put me back as close as possible to when I left. If felt like just seconds. Like falling." She said, her mind going back to that brief moment in the veil. It so cold too. Hermione shivered at the thought.
"You're saying that Dumbledore killed Mr Potter?" Sirius clarified and she could tell he was getting angrier by the second.
"I'm not sure what happened, just that he told me to go before it was too late. They'd started throwing hexes at each other already and it was getting chaotic. But Dumbledore looked furious and insane. I'd never seen him look like that before." Hermione said.
"He'd better be glad he's dead right now or I would've been on my way to kill him myself." Sirius vowed and Hermione wasn't surprised in the least. She would have joined him.
"But why did he erase me from your mind's? What was the point of that?" Hermione asked and Sirius contemplated it for a moment.
"If he couldn't have you, then no one else could either. He was a very manipulative old man, it would make sense that he wouldn't've wanted us to be thinking about the girl who'd just disappeared when he wanted us to focus on the war." He told her and Hermione hated the old man all the more. "I remember it now, the panicked state Remus was in after you'd left. He came running after me and James while we were up in the air yelling at me that you were talking crazy about having to leave and being sorry and not belonging here. His eyes were bright gold and he couldn't stop pacing around even after we'd searched the entire castle for you. And then we got the news about Charlus the next day and it's like I never thought of you again until now." He told her and Hermione's broken heart shrivelled at hearing about Remus worrying over her.
She was glad that he didn't have to spend all these years wondering over her disappearance. If it had been her, she would have had a break down.
"Lily and James, they died not knowing I even existed." Hermione said and Sirius pulled her tighter to him as they sat there in silence, mourning the loss of their friends once more.
"Why are you remembering but Remus isn't?" Hermione asked him suddenly.
"I'm not sure. For me it was recognising your scent. You just smelled so familiar and it snapped back into place in my head. Maybe Remus just needs something strong enough to break the memory charm in his mind." Sirius mused.
"What if he never remember's me Siri? I don't think I can live without him." She said.
"Wait here." He said abruptly and rushed out of the library leaving Hermione sitting on the couch, stunned. He was back five minutes later, Severus in tow. As soon as the potions master saw her he froze, his eyes going wide in recognition. Hermione could feel his mind sliding against her's checking if what he was seeing was true. Hermione let him in to see her teaching him in the library and then shut her shields softly.
"Hermione." He whispered, a satisfied tone to his voice. "Welcome back." He said with a grin and Hermione felt herself smiling back at him. She found that he wasn't nearly so intimidating now that she had known he had been exactly the same as a teenager.
"Wait, you know she time travelled?" Sirius asked looking between the two with a frown on his face.
"I saw it in her mind when she was teaching me Occulamency." Severus replied, though he didn't look at the animagus, instead keeping his eyes on her.
"I thought you might have connected the dots." Hermione said, standing up and going to stand in front of the once intimidating man.
"Did old Dumbles erase your memory of me too?" Hermione asked him.
"No actually. I don't think he was aware that we even had contact with each other." He said and they contemplated each other for a few moments in silence before Hermione wound her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. She was glad that he had survive Nagini's attack, glad that she had put aside her dislike of him to heal him as much as she could to tide him over until the fighting was over.
"I am glad you are alright Hermione." He whispered into her hair as he returned her embrace.
"When the heck did you two get so damn chummy?" Sirius burst out angrily after they released each other.
"Shut up Sirius." Severus said as he took a seat in the armchair across from the couch, facing Sirius and Hermione as they too took a seat.
"This certainly explains some things. I always wondered where you went and why Remus seemed to go on as if you never existed. I asked Lily about you once, but she seemed to have no idea who I was taking about." He said as he steeped his fingers under his chin, thinking.
"Wait, when did you see Lily?" Sirius asked.
"Just before she gave birth to Harry. She sent me a letter and asked to meet. Who was I to argue with a pregnant woman?" Severus said absently, obvious humour in his voice.
"And she went by herself?" Sirius asked, annoyed.
"Yes. There's no need to get in a huff about it now. Little good it will do for anyone." Severus replied and Sirius huffed but said no more.
"I think that, like all good love stories, he will awaken with true loves kiss." Severus said after a minute of silence. Hermione groaned and threw the blanket that had fallen to the floor, over her face as she lay back on the couch, frustrated.
"That blanket isn't a sufficient shield from reality, Hermione." Sev said and Hermione was beginning to think about strangling him, just a little bit.
"Shut up." She told him.
"So there's no mind stuff you can to do to break the memory charm?" Sirius asked him as she continued to act like a child.
"No, not without knowing exactly what the charm was and how much power Albus put behind it. It could damage his memories in general irreparably." He said. They took in the information for a moment, and just as Hermione was about to say something, the door burst open and Remus came inside.
"What are you lot hiding away in here for?" He asked, looking over the room and raising an eyebrow at Severus's presence.
"Just having a chat is all." Sirius said.
"About what?" Remus asked, looking suspicious.
"None of your business." Severus said, standing up and straightening out his jacket.
"Really?" Remus asked.
"Well, I must be going. It was lovely to see you again Hermione, my dear. You're welcome to visit me at my office whenever you wish if you have further questions about what we discussed." Severus said and with his cloak billowing behind him, he swept out of the room. Hermione poked her head out from behind the blanket to see a confused looking Remus standing in front of her, looking down at her curiously.
"What was that all about?" He asked as he sat down in the chair Severus had just vacated. Hermione found herself looking at his lips longingly. A kiss would be all it took for him to remember her but she didn't know what he would if she tried to kiss him out of the blue. Maybe she should just do it quickly, get it over and done with and see what happens.
"Hermione just wanted to know what her options were in regards to school. Minnie sent Snape to help her." Sirius piped up when it had become clear that Hermione wasn't going to reply.
"Oh, and what have you decided?" He asked her directly this time.
"I'll take the exams at the end of the year with everyone else. In the mean time I'll just do independent study until then." She said, not taking her eyes away from his lips. His soft sweet lips.
"Are you alright Hermione?" He asked her as she continued to stare.
"No." She admitted. Sirius took this chance to flee from the room and shut the door softly behind him.
"What happened?" He asked her, moving from the arm chair to sit next to her.
"I'm in love." She confessed and he raised an eyebrow at her in that way that he does when someone's being vague and he wants more information.
"What's the problem with that? Being in love is wonderful." He said and Hermione couldn't take it anymore. He surged forward and took his face into her hands, pressing her lips to his in a harsh unforgiving kiss. She poured her heartbreak, longing and love into the kiss, and he seemed to react to her instinctively, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer as his lips parted underneath hers, inviting her in.
It was over all too soon, with Remus pulling away as if he were burned, getting up off the couch and moving as far away as the Library would allow. He looked so adorably confused, and she could see a hint of pain on his face that gradually took over until he collapsed in a heap on the floor.
"SIRIUS!" Hermione screamed, as she scrambled over to Remus, turning him into his back and patting his face, hoping to wake him.
"What's wrong?" The animagus asked as he poked his head into the room only to notice her predicament. He immediately sent came to her side, casting a few diagnostic charms over him to see if there was any harm that needed immediate medical attention at St Mungo's. He let out a sigh of relief as the results showed he was just unconscious.
"He's fine. Just overwhelmed. I'll levitate him to his room and tuck him in. You can see him when he wakes up, hopefully with all his memories." Sirius said, flicking his wand to levitate Remus up into the air and guide him out into the hall.