"Sorry," Hermione whispered into Sirius's chest, his arms still tight around her. "It's been…a brutal few days."
"You don't need to apologise to me, Kitten." he murmured, "I think I'd have been more worried if you hadn't had some sort of breakdown."
She huffed out a laugh, "Bold of you to assume this is my first one, Pads."
He laughed at her, squeezing her tighter before releasing her. "What are you going to do, Hermione?"
His use of her given name startled her into silence, sinking down onto the edge of Ophelia's bed as she gave his question genuine thought. He sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as he allowed the silence to fall.
"I love him." she said finally, "And I'd be lying if I said I didn't want some version of the twins." Pausing she took a deep breath, "But. But even if I didn't. Even if I choose to walk away from Theo, I need to do something. Because it wasn't just me, Pads, it was every single muggleborn. And I might have been the scapegoat in the twins' time but let's not pretend that if I'm not there they won't find another one. Maybe not as quickly, maybe quicker, who knows? But their views and their means to manipulate won't change because I happen to not give them a convenient excuse. I don't think I could live with myself if I allowed that to happen. This is so much bigger than Theo and I and maybe we've lost sight of that a little bit because we've had people tell us directly how fucking awful my life became….becomes? Terminology is difficult! But ultimately, it shouldn't be about us, not really. It should be about every muggleborn whose life was ruined by policy, who had to flee, or who was left to beg. I can't pretend I don't know, Pads. Please don't ask me to do nothing."
Sirius closed his eyes letting out a noise close to a whine. "Fine, Kitten. I can hardly argue with that without sounding like a dick now, can I? I reserve the right to murder the little fucker if he hurts you in any way thought."
She smiled, kissing his cheek, "I wouldn't expect anything else."
He huffed out another laugh, pulling her to her feet and into another hug. "Come on then, let's go and reassure them all I haven't forced you to leave the country."
She smiled, "I'd really like to see you try, Pads."
He snorted, "If you don't think Moony and Harry would help me, love, you don't know us as well as I thought you did. We'd manage. We still might."
Hermione shook her head exasperatedly. "Ridiculous puppy."
He quirked his lip into a smile at her inability to hide her fondness.
"I need to see them!" Ophelia whispered tersely, finally breaking the terse silence she'd maintained since Sirius and Remus had left the night before. "Seeing Uncle Sirius….Look I know we can't talk to them, I know we can't let them see us, but I need to see them."
"Phee!" Alex whined, "We can't! What if we're seen? What if someone questions us? Have you any idea how risky it is?"
"Is it?" she countered, "We've fucked the timeline! Does it actually matter at this point?"
"It does if we're fucking dead, Phee!"
"I'm going!" she declared a stubborn tilt to her jaw that made her look painfully like their mother. "You can't stop me!"
"For fucks sake." Alex muttered, "Fine! But I swear to Merlin, Phee, if this gets us killed I'm going to make sure you never fucking forget it!"
Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Terrifying, I'm sure. Now, do they have the Hogsmeade shop yet? Damn it, I can't remember!"
"No," Alex replied slowly. "Not yet or….actually, it's not open yet."
"But they were in the process of getting it ready?"
"Yes, at least I think so. It'll be obvious, won't it?"
Nodding Ophelia sighed, "Passage to Honeydukes?"
"Like we've any other choice." he scoffed, "If any of the professors….or Mum, finds out we're doing this, they'll murder us."
Ophelia paled slightly at the thought of her mother finding out before she straightened her spine. "Let's go."
They crept along quiet corridors, keeping their heads down before slipping behind the statue of the one-eyed witch. Both of them breathed a long sigh of relief when they reached Hogsmeade unscathed, their eyes darting around the street only now considering how much they stuck out given that it wasn't a Hogsmeade weekend.
Alex's breath caught as he spotted his Uncles shoving each other playfully as they walked from the Three Broomsticks towards what used to be Zonkos. Ophelia made an involuntary sound of distress as they approached. The twins stopped walking, swinging around to face them in confusion.
"Fuck." Alex breathed as their Uncle's eyes zeroed in on them frowning, "Phee! Phee, we need to go!"
Before they could move, Fred and George were heading towards them.
"What's this then?"
"Two ickle students sneaking out of school?"
"I think it might be Gred."
"Hmmm what to do Forge?"
They stopped, noticing Ophelia's tears. Alex had frozen, genuine fear of what would happen because of this coursing through him. Snape was going to fucking murder them. Their mother was going to fucking murder them. He'd take Snape any day of the week. They'd seen their mother's vicious streak when she was dealing with their Uncles. There was at least a chance Snape would make it quick.
"Are you alright?" George asked softly.
Ophelia shook her head before she launched herself at him. Both the twin's eyes widened in shock.
"Did something happen?" Fred asked slightly desperately watching his twin try to comfort the near hysterical girl.
"You could say that," Alex muttered. "Look, we're sorry, let me just…." he ineffectually began attempting to pry his sister off his bemused not quite uncle. "Phee, come on!"
Gasping slightly, his sister appeared to attempt to pull herself together. "Sorry. Sorry…we…we'll just." she moved, planning on getting back to the school as quickly as possible before this got worse. Fred frowned, placing a restraining hand on her wrist.
"Why do you look like Granger?" beside him George stilled, taking in both of the teens standing in front of him.
"You both do."
Ophelia turned to look at her twin with a look that could only be called terrified, making the twin's eyes harden.
"What the fuck is going on?" Fred growled, refusing to let go of Ophelia's wrist.
"Oh, gods they're going to be so fucking angry." Ophelia whimpered. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Both twins looked alarmed now. "Look, whatever is going on we can help, yeah? Nothing can be that scary."
Alex scoffed, his own heart hammering as he attempted to figure a way out of this. "We have to go back to school."
"No." George crossed his arms, his eyes not leaving Alex's face. He couldn't remember seeing such a hostile look on his Uncle's face, not directed at him. It was jarring. "You look like Hermione Granger. Why?"
"We don't. We don't, please…." Ophelia began struggling against Fred's hold.
"You do." He glanced at his twin, silently communicating something before either of them could react, they pulled out their wands and immobilised them. Alex's only thought as they were carried towards the shop was that if nothing else, their mother would be spared having to murder them because their Uncles were surely going to get there first.