"It is not so much the intervention of our friends that helps us, but the knowledge that we can always count on them."

Epicurus

"Who died, Alice?"

The young woman did not answer immediately, still shaken by loud sobs. Frank took charge and seated everyone in the living room.

"While you've been away" he began "the attacks have increased. Muggle villages are being raided, the Dark Mark is being used everywhere, the Obliviate are overwhelmed. Almost every day the alarm rings at HQ to warn us of a new battle, but most of us work at the Ministry so we can't come to fight immediately. The Ministry is undercover. We believe that someone in the Ministry is on the payroll of you-know-who. And as you've gathered, we've lost members of the Order. Caradoc succumbed to his wounds from the spell he took during the battle at Black Manor a few days after you left. His death has caused a lot of chaos in the ministry. He had an important position and the circumstances of his death were not very clear to others. We don't have as much information about the ministry anymore. Emmeline was caught in the area of their headquarters, from the left, she didn't see them coming. They sent her body to us, it was really not a pretty sight. Other people joined the Order, Dedalus Diggle, Elphias Doge, Edgar Bones, Sturgis Podmore. Sturgis died a week ago, we just got back from his funeral. And Lily lost her parents in an attack on her village a month and a half ago."

"A month and a half ago? What day is this?"

"September the 17th, it's been almost three months since you left. As much as it hurts to admit it, Alice is right, we seriously missed you during the battles."

"We're not superheroes, our presence probably wouldn't have made any difference."

Frank didn't answer, but it was obvious that he didn't think so. Their presence would certainly have made a difference. Remus and Hermione went to rest while Frank continued to comfort Alice. The Time Chosen were going to need some rest, it was clear that the Longbottoms were going to let the others know that they had returned and an avalanche of questions would begin.

Minerva was worried. It had been several weeks since Remus and Hermione had left for Albania and she had only just heard the news the day before that they had destroyed the horcrux, but that it might be a while before they returned to the UK. She sensed that something was not right, the Time bracelet was slightly less bright than usual, as if it had lost its ability. The fact that the two wizards didn't say how long it would be before they returned didn't help her mood either.

Her colleagues had noticed, she was constantly being asked about her health. She was fine, she was just very worried. The last horcrux destruction had not gone very well and since she was not there, she could not help the two chosen ones. But according to them, they had succeeded in destroying it and they seemed to be doing pretty well, at least according to the very short message she had received. So why not return to England immediately? None of them seemed to be hurt and all the other horcruxes were lost in the UK.

She snapped out of her thoughts and focused on her class. The first year students from Slytherin and Hufflepuff were trying to turn their matches into needles, but it wasn't working. It was with relief that Minerva welcomed the end of class and the end of the day. She loved teaching, and her passion for it had never left her, but in 1979, it was hard. The war was brewing outside and she knew that the students were not prepared enough. Hermione and Remus had told her about the carnage that the Battle of Hogwarts had been. And only the seventh years had participated. What could they do if the castle was attacked? Defense against the forces of evil classes would never be enough to fight experienced Death Eaters.

Voldemort was gaining power, there was no question about it. The Order's recent losses, the thousands of muggles murdered without the governments, Muggle and magical, doing anything about it. For the former, it was normal, they were unaware of their existence, and each attack left them a little more disconcerted, but for the latter... Minerva still wondered how she had been able to work at the Ministry, to be loyal to it and believe in its ideas. The Minister wasn't doing anything to fight Voldemort and neither were the Ministry's employees, they were infiltrated from all sides, but they didn't seem to care more than that.

It was on the way down to dinner that the professor felt a sharp pain where the bracelet had been before it was replaced by a gentle warmth. They were back, she was sure. All she wanted to do was leave the castle and find them, but she couldn't. Albus had left to attend a meeting with the school. Albus had left to attend Sturgis Podmore's funeral and still hadn't returned, so as Deputy Headmistress, she had to be there and keep an eye on the castle. So Minerva did the same thing she had done for the previous seventeen days, she sat in her seat in the Great Hall, lips pursed, and a fake smile on her face when her colleagues addressed her. Albus had better come back soon, if he didn't want to incur her wrath. As soon as he set foot inside Hogwarts, he could be sure she would leave.

Remus was awakened by the pounding on his door and was surprised to recognize Minerva's voice. The witch sounded a bit upset, which didn't bode well. He shook Hermione, who was sleeping next to him, and opened the door for the transfiguration teacher.

"Sending even a message to say you're okay will have killed you?"

"Didn't you get it? We did send you one though."

"To tell me that you had destroyed the horcrux! I wanted to know if you were okay, not if you'd destroyed it! And the last part, we can't go home right away, you couldn't explain it to me. We are lucky to have the Jewels to communicate and you don't even use them! I was worried, by Merlin!"

"Were you worried about us?"

"Of course I was, Hermione! What were you thinking? That I was just being polite about the mission? That I became the bracelet keeper to please you? I care about you!"

Hermione's face lit up with a big smile and the young woman rushed into Minerva's arms. She wasn't the type of person who preferred to be sentimental, but with the past few weeks and what Minerva had told them, she couldn't help it. From an outside perspective, it might seem silly, but the time honored girl was touched that someone cared about her like that. She didn't have parents who could do that anymore, so to be told that someone cared about her, it warmed her heart.

"So what happened?"

With a quick glance, they decided that Remus would tell it better, and so he did. He set out to tell the story of the last few weeks as truthfully as possible, in as much detail as possible, only Minerva would be able to hear it, the other members of the Order would not have as much detail, none of them should know about the horcruxes, even more so with the newcomers, Remus knew them, but Hermione did not and she had learned to be suspicious of everyone, so if they could not be present during the explanation, that would be fine with the young woman.

After having had all the explanations she wanted, Minerva took her leave of the two wizards, arguing that she had class the next morning and that Dumbledore shouldn't wonder too much about her absence either.

Remus turned to Hermione who was still looking at the place where Minerva had just disappeared. He knew that there was no point in going back to sleep, just as he did for her. No matter how exhausted they were, they wouldn't be able to sleep for several hours. They needed to talk about what had happened in the last few weeks, because although they had managed to get out of lupryadalis territory, there were still many shadows.

"Hermione!"

The young woman snapped out of her slumber and turned to Remus, a strange expression on her face. It was hard to describe, and Remus thought he knew what it was about.

"Something happened while we were there, didn't it? During the 'trial'."

Trembling, the witch nodded, tears threatening to fall.

"It was when he took me by the shoulders to check if I was... blessed, the way he did it reminded me..." she stammered.

"Malfoy Manor."

Again, Hermione nodded and tears rolled down her cheeks. Remus felt foolish for thinking that the young woman wouldn't have a similar moment, where the actions of some men would remind her of her rapes. Hermione was still traumatized and just because she didn't show it didn't mean she wasn't in pain.

"Come on" he said, opening his arms.

The young woman took refuge there and cried while desperately clinging to Remus' shirt. The wizard had sensed that something was wrong when she had rushed to him and taken his arm like this, but he couldn't react fast enough, being surrounded by people who wanted them dead didn't really help.

"I was scared. I was so scared that he would... do what they did. I was lost."

"It won't happen again. As long as I am here, no one will hurt you. I won't let them hurt you again, I will protect you, I promise."

"It's not your job to protect me."

"And why not? You are still young, despite what you say. We've both been through horrible things, and being the older one, it's up to me to make sure you're just about okay."

"I turn twenty-five in two days. And just so you know, you're the older one, so it's up to me, the younger and fitter one, to take care of you."

"Are you implying that I am an old man? I am perfectly capable of looking after myself. But if it makes you feel better, you can tell yourself that we're looking out for each other."

The conversation about protecting others ended with this, Hermione dried her tears and went to shower, before starting a new, more serious conversation this time, about how they had escaped from the lupryadalis. They hadn't escaped per se, but they had let them go, which had never happened since they existed. This story of being blessed was very disturbing to the young woman, she had no idea who in her life had blessed her.

Remus was also thinking about it. He never thought he would get away with it when he and Hermione had entered the territory of the elves and lupryadalis. Werewolves could sometimes be more forgiving to their own kind, but never to the other two species, and that also depended on the werewolves in question. The wizard had learned about the different characteristics of elves and lupryadalis when he had been part of a pack a few years before. The alpha would tell them the stories of these particular wolves, very different from themselves, almost religiously. Remus wasn't kidding when he told Hermione that they were considered almost demigods. The alpha had not spent as much time on the elves, but Remus had still been able to gather some information, not only about their appearance, but also about their offspring.

Elves could mix with anyone, wizard or muggle, human or magical creature, it didn't matter to them. Combining their magical essence with that of another magical creature could change the appearance of magical creatures dramatically, so Remus didn't have much information on that, but the wizard doubted it mattered. The children of elves and wizards or elves and muggles were very similar in appearance. They were of average height and very rarely exceeded one meter sixty-five, their hair was blond and their eyes a soft blue, quite different from the electric blue of the lupryadalis. Incidentally, not all of the Muggle and wizarding population that was blonde and blue-eyed had elven ancestry, but there were many more elves hidden among the humans than the wizards thought.

Hermione's friends who had these characteristics were limited. They were all necessarily wizards, and Remus thought of two people. First, Draco Malfoy. Even though he was far from being a friend of Hermione's, he had still saved her life, at the risk of his own. But the wizard had quickly dismissed this theory. Even if he had saved Hermione's life, it seemed more on impulse than having been prepared for a long time, and even if he didn't know anything about the blessing, he thought it wasn't something that could be done in the blink of an eye. But the main reason he'd discarded the proposal was the boy's last name. He was a Malfoy. And the Malfoys, even if they were blond from generation to generation were too proud to mix their blood with any creature. As for the young man's maternal family, it was the Blacks. The pureblood family par excellence, for whom pure wizard blood was the most important thing in the world. It was unthinkable that they were descended from elves.

The second person Remus thought of could be a perfect match. She was a blonde, blue-eyed witch, she had that little something that made her different from the others and if she was truly descended from elves, it was not surprising. She had the ability to see magical creatures that most wizards could not, she understood the emotions of the people around her, sometimes even before they did. She was simply out of the ordinary for wizards. She was a dear friend to Hermione, which was rare outside of the Golden Trio. Yes, Remus thought, Luna Lovegood was the perfect candidate. The question was how she could have blessed Hermione.

When he told Hermione these two hypotheses, she dismissed Draco Malfoy as he did, but she lingered curiously on Luna.

"It's true that it might explain why she sees nargles, wrackspurt... But I don't see when she could have blessed us. Us because if she did it for me, she most certainly did it for Harry and Ron. And for Neville and Ginny, who are much closer to her than the three of us."

As she finished her sentence, the solution magically appeared to her. She never thought that this tiny detail, which had moved her, could have saved her life like this.

"I think I know. During the horcrux hunt, we wondered about the Deathly Hallow mark, and Luna's father had it at Bill and Fleur's wedding. He was supporting Harry in his diary, so we naively thought he wouldn't tell on us. While he was checking for Death Eaters, we went up to Luna's room and saw drawings on the wall. They were of us, Harry, Ron, Neville, Ginny and me. A ribbon connected the drawings with the words 'friends'. There was such an amount of magic in the air... I had told myself it was the magic of friendship, but no, it must have been the magic of her blessing. In the end, Luna being descended from elves, I'm not that surprised."

Lily was pacing outside James' room at Potter Manor. Sirius and Remus were with him and it was one of the moments that mattered most to them, being like this, all three of them, as they used to be, or close to it since the fourth marauder was no longer considered as such. Lily knew not to interrupt these moments, it was almost the only joyful thing they had left in these times of war. They didn't see each other as much as they used to, and all three marauders suffered for it. However, these evenings together, a few times a week, rejuvenated them and they almost forgot the dark times outside. But Lily knew she would have to break this ritual, Alice had sent her news, and she would have many questions to ask, though she was sure her companion and friends would have just as many.

She knocked on the door and waited for an answer before entering, which did not come. They must not have heard her. She had to hold back a smile when she saw the three men laughing and throwing pillows at each other across the room. They would always be big kids, but she couldn't blame them. After all, they were only nineteen and already the weight of a war was on their shoulders.

"Lily! What are you doing here?" Remus asked.

Sirius and James stopped what they were doing and turned to Lily.

"Alice sent me a patronus. Helena and Remi came home late yesterday afternoon."

"So, do we know what they did?"

"No, Alice saw them briefly while she was taking stock of the... losses, but they went to bed very quickly."

"They never sleep much, I think a visit is in order."

By mutual agreement, the four wizards apparate to HQ, while warning Alice of what they were doing. They arrived in the living room where they saw the Time Chosen quietly chatting on the couch. They looked relieved but also tired.

They turned around abruptly when they heard footsteps and pointed their wands at the newcomers.

"It's just us" said Sirius.

While Remus understood what to do:

"My name is Remus John Lupin, I'm a werewolf, like you two, and it was you Helena who made me calmer during the full moon with a potion only you know. The other three are with me and I am certain of their identity."

The two wizards lowered their wands and smiled thinly at the others. Then Lily noticed that despite their fake smiles, Helena's eyes were red, as if she had been crying. They both had huge dark circles around their eyes.

"Are you guys okay?"

"We're back, so we're okay?"

Four more people entered the room, and this time it was Lily who took charge of checking their identity. Everyone took a seat and the marauders began to ask their questions.

"Where were you?"

"What have you been doing?"

"Why did it take so long?"

They smiled when they realized that all three of them had been talking at the same time, but they turned serious as they stared at the Time Chosen, waiting for answers.

"You can imagine that we won't be able to tell you everything, but we had to go to the lupryadalis."