"Revenge is lame, it comes with slow steps, but it comes."

Victor Hugo

Hermione Granger was at this very moment, quite upset. She hated Dumbledore and Moody for sending her on a mission with the marauders. She never thought it would be so horrible.

Firstly, Hermione had, in her opinion, fully recovered, but in their opinion, not enough. They were more focused on her than on the mission.

Secondly, they were so clumsy that they seemed to be doing it on purpose. For Pettigrew, she understood, he was already on the side of the Death Eaters and he wasn't supposed to give information about the Death Eaters to the Order, but for the others... They were worse than Tonks, by Morgana! They weren't making any effort.

Thirdly, the supposed Death Eater they were following had spotted them and attacked them, which explained why Sirius had a black eye and was limping. Hermione thought she had broken her arm and cursed them for it. How hard was it to avoid going into the first bin they saw?

Fourthly, although she would never admit it, it was September the 20th and the day before she had turned twenty-four. Another year had passed in her life, a year without Harry, without Ron, without all her friends, without her parents. Remus had tried to comfort her, but it had only worked for a while.

"I'm going to kill you. I swear I'll kill you" she whispered through her teeth to the four men, sheepishly.

They had apparate to HQ, in the middle of a training mission! No one was seriously injured, there was no reason to cut the mission short like that. He had only chosen someone with some attraction to dark magic, but they weren't sure if he was a Death Eater. She didn't dare think what would have happened if he was a confirmed Death Eater, like Dolohov or the Lestranges.

"What are you doing here?" asked Lily.

"I'm going to kill your boyfriend, I'm going to kill his friends, one by one."

Lily lost her colour and winced slightly.

"Did the mission go that badly?"

"You have no idea. It's a miracle we didn't all die. You could see from a mile away that we were following him. I don't know what Moody and Dumby were thinking, but I'm going to kill them too."

"I don't think it's a good idea to upset you like this."

"I'm fine!"

"If James hadn't been there to reanimate you after the full moon, you'd be dead!"

Hermione, even though she knew Lily was right, glared at her and stormed out of the room, still raging at the incompetents that Dumbledore and Moody had provided. Lily waited patiently for the marauders to enter the house and questioned them, looking desperate, about what had happened. Meanwhile, Hermione was thinking about what to do with the four of them, since she wasn't going to be rid of them for a long time, she had to train them to follow Death Eaters and she would, she just had to find the right method. She would have asked Remus, he always had good ideas, he was a much better teacher than she was, he had been a teacher for two years after all, but his friend was on a mission and he wouldn't be back for a couple of days.

The solution suddenly appeared before her eyes, she knew how to help them, but first she was going to get back at the marauders. You don't piss off Hermione Granger like that without paying the consequences.

The next day, Hermione, who had been working on her plan all night, dressed quickly. She did everything she had to do to make her little revenge perfect. She sat down in an armchair and set off the alarm which rang through the house. Everyone in the house, only the marauders at the moment, ran down the stairs and asked what was going on. Hermione couldn't help but smile at the sight of them standing there in their pants with their hair in a mess.

"Rule number one, never forget your wand. Death Eaters could have entered the house and you would have been killed in no time. Your pants are beautiful, Potter" she finished with a smile, pointing to the young man's red pants with golden snitch.

"What's going on?" muttered Sirius in an unintelligible whisper.

"Didn't you see the sun outside? It's ten o'clock, we're going on a mission, after yesterday's disaster, we can't afford to wait any longer."

"We're going to... get dressed."

Remus hadn't finished his sentence when all four of them were wearing T-shirts and shorts. James pointed out to Hermione that even though it was September, it was still cold. This was England, not Spain!

"You're exaggerating! The sun has been up for a while."

"Will you let us eat first?"

Hermione threw a bag of croissants chocolate croissants at them with a smile.

"Croissants? Where did you get croissants in London?"

"You can find anything in London, I'll have you know. Otherwise, I'm delighted to tell you that apparate exists. Paris is a beautiful city."

Before the marauders could reply, Hermione grabbed them all and transplanted them into a small alley. The street was dark, it was very cold and the wizards looked at her wondering what they were doing there.

"Where have you taken us? To Russia?"

"We're still in the UK, Black."

"But why is it dark? It's freezing!"

Remus, who was the most sensible of the four friends, threw a tempus and watched in amazement as the time appeared.

"Four seventeen? You told us it was ten o'clock. It was daylight in London!"

"It's four in the morning, we're in shorts, we haven't eaten, it must be fifteen below!"

"I brought you food, and we're not in Russia, so no, it's not minus fifteen degrees celsius in London in September."

"But why?"

"Why? Did you have the same day as me yesterday? I'm supposed to be training you for war, in tracking the enemy, and that can be done at night. And yes, I did enjoy waking you up that early, setting off the emergency alarm, but you were unbearable. Now you have three minutes to eat and we're off."

Surprisingly, they obeyed and wolfed down their breakfast. Hermione hadn't eaten, in the middle of the night she couldn't, but the marauders didn't seem to mind.

"Let's go."

"What's your miracle solution to help us?"

"You have talents that most wizards don't have. You have a lot of resources but you don't use them wisely."

"What are you talking about?" asked Peter."

"What makes you unique and is illegal, so something the Death Eaters don't know about."

"You mean animagi?" James understood. "But Remus isn't one and-"

"You need to use your talents."

"Do you know what we are as animals? But how?"

"I've seen you transformed before" she said, which was true of Peter and Sirius, even though they were nearly fifteen years older.

"Pettigrew and Black, you can blend in, no one will notice a dog and a rat. Potter, your stag isn't very discreet, but if the Death Eaters are near a forest, you should be there first. Lupin, you are not animagus, but you have other resources. Pettigrew, follow the person you see there. You must see if he carries the mark and learn more about him. Go now."

She then handed James' invisibility cloak to Remus with a smile.

"You'll have to be extremely careful not to run into anyone, but that shouldn't be too difficult" she said to Remus.

"How did you get my cloak?"

"I went to pick up some of your clothes for today, the cape was next door."

"How did you know about the cape? We never told anyone."

"You ran into me the last night of the year."

"You knew about it before, when you gave the potion to Moony, you told us not to use it."

"I told you I saw you turn into an animagi, I saw you take the cloak off before."

"We could have hidden under a spell, invisibility cloaks are very rare."

"I know about the Peverells. I know about Deathly Hallows" she said suddenly, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

Her statement left a gap before Sirius burst out laughing.

"You're crazy. There's no such thing" said Sirius.

"I assure you, Black. The third brother, Ignotus, is buried in Godric's Hollow. Who's lived in Godric's Hollow for centuries?"

"Well, let's assume the cloak exists, which I don't. The Elder Wand. No wand is powerful enough to be invincible. What about a stone to raise the dead?"

"No stone can bring the dead back to life. It's only an imprint, like a ghost."

"You say that as if you had held it in your hands."

"It's the truth. That's how I became friends with Mary."

"Where is it then?"

"With Mary, I left it with her."

"Smart to think of the one person you can't ask questions of. How do you explain the presence of the wand?"

"You three know the person who has it. Dumbledore."

The three pairs of eyes widened in shock. The headmaster of Hogwarts, the person they most admired, possessed the most dangerous wand in the magical world.

"He took it from Grindelwald."

"But he didn't kill him."

"An expelliarmus is enough. You have to disarm your opponent. Don't make that face, you're not going to try it, is that clear? Don't tell anyone about this. No one. Not Lily, Pettigrew or anyone else. Now, enough talking, it's time for the mission."

Remus asked her what she was going to do, he couldn't know that she had the same invisibility cloak as James and that she was also an animagus, and a flying one at that. She assigned each person a suspect to follow and transformed herself into a phoenix, the better to observe them from the sky. She strongly hoped that this would work. They had to succeed so that the Time Traveller could concentrate on her own mission, to destroy the horcruxes.

On this mid-October evening in 1978, Hermione and Remus had been fighting each other for almost an hour. Muggle fight only, they both needed to let off steam after the previous weeks. There had been an attack on a Muggle pre-school the week before and they had been struggling to recover. No one from the Order had been killed, but the same could not be said for the Muggles.

Hermione had watched a teacher get killed in front of her entire class of four year olds, and then killed the Death Eater who had done it. Remus had seen a teacher raped in the playground in front of her helpless colleagues, who didn't understand what was going on. A whole class had been decimated, they could do nothing. Twenty-six three-year-olds were dead when they arrived at the scene of the battle. They had their whole lives ahead of them, but the Death Eaters had unjustly taken that right away.

Hermione had barely spoken during the scene, she was very angry and couldn't forgive herself, even though it was not her fault. She had been unbearable, even though she wasn't very open and friendly, and everyone was fed up. Even Remus, who was used to her mood swings, had told her to calm down before giving her a dressing-down. It wasn't her fault, she had to stop thinking that. It was like Harry taking all the bad things in the world on his shoulders.

Remus had the idea of making her fight, but to take it out on someone other than her dummy, she already did that every day. Since no one else practiced Muggle combat and wizarding combat didn't clear his head enough, he found himself fighting her. He wasn't stupid, he knew she was much more skilled than he was, so he made sure the blows didn't hit her directly. He preferred not to end up with a broken rib, a black eye and bruises all over his body.

It felt good for both friends to fight, it might be strange but they loved Muggle combat and they had missed duelling against someone other than the dummy. With everything that had happened they hadn't been able to start the horcrux hunt, but Remus had a strange feeling, as if they needed to wait a little longer.

"Grace, Lucas, it's half past ten!"

Marlene's voice startled them and Hermione took one last punch in the nose as Remus looked on apologetically.

"Rem'! Not the nose, I'll be bleeding for three hours."

"You're a witch, all you have to do is cast a spell to stop your nose bleeding."

The members of the Order had agreed to stop all training at half past ten, maximum. The last person was always Hermione, sometimes accompanied by Remus, but everyone had agreed that she shouldn't get too tired and half past ten still seemed too late for most of them. Hermione, at Remus' insistence, had been forced to accept the conditions of her classmates, they were right in a way, even if she wouldn't have admitted it to them.

"Would you like something to eat?"

"Thanks Lily, I'll go and wash up first. I'll take care of my own meal, don't worry."

Twenty minutes later, the two friends returned to the dining room and sat down at the table. They ate in silence, the atmosphere was not one of private discussion, so they listened to the conversations of others.

"So Alice, how are your studies going?"

"For the moment, we are not going on a mission yet, it's more of an apprenticeship, perfecting what we already know, learning new things, but I can't wait to go out in the field, to do real missions.

"But those three years of learning are essential to being a good Auror. Gideon told me about it."

"Yes, but I'm so looking forward to the missions. And you, I'm more than surprised you didn't study. Lily Evans dropping out of NEWTs is highly unlikely. I mean, I've got my Auror studies, Dorcas her History of Magic studies. Mary... would have gone on to research magic, like her mother."

"I know, but when Professor Dumbledore asked us to join the Order of the Phoenix, I vowed to do whatever I could to help. I couldn't concentrate on my studies while being a member of the Order at the same time. When all this is over, I might study for being mediwitch. I've always liked that."

"And you boys, what will you do?"

"Personally, I have enough money to live on for the rest of my life without working, but Lily wouldn't let me sit around all day doing nothing, so I'll see what I can do in time."

"I don't know what I'd like to do. My mum disowned me, so I'd have to get a job, I thought about being an auror, but I don't know if that would suit me."

"I can't see myself doing anything at the Ministry with my... furry problem as you would say Prongs, I can't see myself as a mediwizard, contrary to what Sirius says, and I'm not even sure it would be possible. So I have absolutely no idea."

"I could see you as Professor, Remus. Professor Lupin, that sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"

Remus choked on his food while the others looked at her with round eyes.

"Are you alright Rem'?"

The Time Traveller nodded, glowering at her as he passed.

"A marauder professor? You've gone completely off the rails!" laughed Sirius.

"Helena is right, Remus is a good teacher, I could see you in that role."

"No, Sirius is right, a marauder teacher... That would be very odd" James retorted.

"And I don't think I could. First of all, what subject could I teach? The current teachers are going to be around for another twenty years!"

"Defence Against the Dark Arts. The teachers only stay for a year, since Riddle was denied the job. Maybe when we defeat him, the job won't be cursed anymore.

"Riddle? Who's Riddle?"

Hermione wrote the letters TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE in the air before turning them into I AM VOLDEMORT, as the young adults present looked on in bewilderment.

"You-know-who cursed the post? No wonder we only had lousy teachers!"

Remus cleared his throat, to the laughter of the girls, who were amused by James' tact.

"I didn't mean you" he retorted hastily. "You were the best we ever had."

"In any case, I don't think your 'furry problem' would prevent you from teaching" Hermione assured him.

"Why?"

"You forget who you're talking to" Remus continued.

Dorcas and Alice didn't seem to understand, but Lily opened her mouth in surprise.

"You're a werewolf?"

"Didn't you tell them?" Remus said, looking at the marauders.

"Moony didn't want to. He said he didn't want his secret to be revealed and that it might be the same for you. He didn't want it to be shouted from the rooftops."

"It's not a big deal, and yes Lily, I am a werewolf."

"I'd never met a werewolf before I went to Hogwarts, and now there's two of them in the same room as me!"

"Three of them."

"What?"

"Grace is a werewolf too."

"By Merlin! Don't be offended, my parents were a bit conservative, they weren't purebloods for generations... But they've always had a bad view of werewolves. But I don't agree with them, after all, I'm friends with Remus" Dorcas continued

"Is there so much discrimination in Spain?"

Hermione sighed and nodded. She had been revolted by it since she was a child, but in her small way there was not much she could do. She had tried it with the house elves in her fifth year and it had been a complete failure. She smiled a little as she thought about it.

"What are you smiling about?" Remus asked her.

"I'm thinking about the S.P.E.W."

"What is it? The Spanish government?"

"Not at all. It's an association I created a few years ago. Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, my first thought was 'Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status' but the name didn't fit on the badge. I was appalled at the slavery of elves and wanted to create an association to fight against it. The only members were there because I had get them on their nerves with it that they gave in and paid the membership. I would sew clothes for them and drop them off at the houses. It didn't work at all, I guess it was only Dobby who wanted to be free."

"You never told me that story before" Remus wondered.

"An elf who wants to be free? What did he do to get sent back?"

"He was serving an old Spanish pureblood family, Harry gave something to his master and he gave the item to Dobby, it had Harry's sock in it."

"I would love to meet this elf. He must be completely mad."

"He died many years ago. He protected us until he died. If it wasn't for him, I would have died in his masters' manor, Harry and Ron too."

This sent a chill through the assembly, Hermione realised this, quickly excused herself and went outside for some fresh air with a cigarette in her hand. She couldn't hold back the tears, Dobby's death had been very hard to deal with, it was the first time anyone had died for her and with this death the memory of Bellatrix's first torture was there, embedded in her skin and mind. Remus, who had left her alone to calm down and work through her feelings, took her in his arms and rocked her gently.

"I miss them so much Rem'. It's so hard" she sobbed.

"I miss them too, Mione. I miss them more and more every day."