"Chaos is full of hope because it announces a rebirth."

Coline Serreau

Remus blanched furiously as the other people looked at them strangely.

"The lupryadalis? What is that?" asked Lily to the Time Chosen while Sirius turned to his trembling boyfriend.

"Remus, are you okay?"

He nodded weakly before answering Lily's question.

"How in Merlin's name did you get away with this?" he began, addressing Remus and Hermione. "Lupryadalis are bloodthirsty creatures. Born from the union of an elf and a werewolf, they are red-haired beings with electric blue eyes, at least two meters tall. They are killing machines. They have taken the best characteristics of their parents, the magic and power of the elves, the speed and the overdeveloped senses of the werewolves. They do not suffer from lycanthropy related to the full moon but can transform whenever they want, often to hunt their prey. When you enter their camp, you can't escape. In the best case, you become one of them, in the worst case, they torture you to death. If you manage to escape, you have a maximum of twenty-four hours to survive, whatever your place on Earth."

"That's impossible what you're saying Remus."

"I had the same reaction, Alice, when Rem explained to me who they were. But I assure you it's true."

"And how do you know that Moony?" asked James.

"I told you that they are descended from elves AND werewolves. To them, they are considered living gods."

"You're like Rem, you're exaggerating!"

"You haven't lived in a pack" both Remus replied in unison.

"And if they're so strong, why aren't they here already? Your twenty-four hour notice is almost up. And where have you been? How come I've never heard of this species?"

"They are very discreet, and only werewolves, which you are not and fortunately for you, know about them, and even then, only those who have been part of a pack. But I would love to know how you managed to escape them. Even if the house is surrounded by very powerful spells, it is not a simple Charm that will keep them out."

"They won't come for a very simple reason, we didn't escape, they let us go."

"That's not possible."

"We were in Albania and it was there that I realized that the object we were looking for was in their house. I immediately thought that I was signing my death warrant, but Helena was a firm believer that we would get away. We were caught by two elves on guard duty. I will spare you the details of our integration, we found the object and it was destroyed, but a lupryadalis saw us and he asked for an audience with the tre të mëdha, the three great ones in Albanian, they are their leaders. We were in trial before all their tribe, they wanted to kill us but one of the elves who had caught us, find us suspicious and she took our magic essence."

"This is illegal!"

"They don't obey the same laws as us Lily. But she found out that Helena had been blessed by a descent of the chief elf, she was untouchable and I am her family, by extension, I am too."

"Blessed?"

"I didn't know that. I found out the same time they did."

"And you were able to leave just like that?"

"The werewolf and elf leaders were for our release, the lupryadalis leader was against it, but the majority won and I think there was some ancient law that said that since we were blessed, we should be allowed to live. Afterwards, they still threatened us. We should not say what they do, nor should we return to their territory."

"So we count on you not to tell anyone."

"Bloody hell, survive the lupryadalis!"

"We are still under the shock reassure you."

Fabian and Gideon quickly left the HQ after that, they had to get up early the next morning, quickly followed by Alice and Frank. The marauders and Lily stayed longer, especially for Lily who asked the most questions to Hermione and Remus about this new species she had just discovered.

The meeting ended and the majority of the members left the HQ to go home. It had been an intensive meeting, Hermione had met the new members of the Order and Remus had seen them again, albeit several years apart, but they were still there. Well, almost all of them. The recent deaths of several members were hanging over their heads and it was not pleasant. Many had given them accusing looks, as if they thought they were responsible for the deaths of the other members. Hermione thought it was mostly because they hadn't revealed their mission, but Remus wasn't so sure.

They weren't there and couldn't do anything about it, but that didn't mean that some things weren't their fault. Emmeline Vance's death, for example. She was one of the few who had survived the first order and was able to build a life for herself after the war, but now she was dead, seventeen years earlier than she would have been had they not gone back in time, and Remus couldn't stop feeling guilty. Causing the death of a Death Eater, he didn't mind and had come to terms with that in recent years, but causing the death of an ally, even a friend in his youth, was hard to accept.

Dumbledore and Moody came to see them at the end of the meeting and Moody ordered them to go to his office. Hermione didn't want to tell him that this was her house and that the office was her, but she held back. It was better not to set the fire before having spoken, even if she knew for sure that the two wizards would not invite them there if they did not want to know what they had done during their absence.

"Grace, Lucas. We told you that we would not ask you for an account of your missions, you don't want to tell us anything anyway, but we have the right to ask you what you have been doing for almost three months of absence, when you could have been useful here."

The Time Chosen had suspected that the two leaders of the Order would question them, so they wondered what they could tell them, some of the truth, but obviously not all the details.

"We had to go to Albania for our mission" Hermione began. "It was successful, thankfully, but we had a slight setback, elves found us, and with that, werewolves and lupryadalis."

"What's this?" asked Moody as Dumbledore looked at them, dumbfounded.

"How did you get away with it?" he said, regaining his composure.

Remus gave a brief explanation of what lupryadalis were to the auror present, and then they simply explained that they had both been blessed by an elf descendant. The truth was watered down, but the two wizards were not supposed to know that, so they said nothing more, even though Dumbledore still seemed suspicious and surprised.

They left the office and joined the marauders and Lily in the kitchen. They knew, or thought they knew, what had happened in Albania, and although they didn't show it, they were glad that the two wizards had trusted them enough to tell them what they had been doing all this time in Albania, which was not the case with the other members of the Order.

Remus slumped into a chair while Hermione poured herself a drink. The young woman wanted nothing more than to take up her fighting dummy and train for long hours, until she experienced the exhaustion she loved so much. Not training for several weeks, even though being with the lupryadalis had taught her a few things, she had missed it a lot. But Remus had firmly advised her to wait a while. The new moon was coming up and that was when the wolf in them would get angry and Hermione, it had to be said, was the most insufferable, so as he had said so well, she might as well let a little more of her anger show at that time. So she took her pain in patience.

In a way, he was right, her trip had tired her out and she could use a little peace and quiet before getting back to training. But she was afraid of the next battle, she was afraid of not being up to the task.

"Helena, can you come?"

The witch nodded, surprised that Sirius wanted to talk to her, even more so by the look on his face, about a serious matter that required them to be apart.

To her surprise, they didn't go out into the garden or to the waterfront but went upstairs to the second floor, to the fighting room. He brought out some cushions and invited Hermione to sit down. Still surprised, the witch complied while Sirius stood.

"I don't like the sea" he began. "That's why I came here instead of the beach."

Hermione didn't answer, she just waited for Sirius to continue, he hadn't brought her here just to tell her that. But the wizard didn't seem to want to answer her, he was pacing around the room.

"I'm sorry" he finally said.

Hermione gave him a look of surprise and questioning.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you."

"About what?"

"About me bringing up bad memories, about my cousin doing something to you, about..."

"Sirius. Sit down" Hermione ordered, pointing to the cushion he had transformed a few minutes earlier.

Seeing that he didn't seem any more determined, she gave him an eloquent look, and he sat down grudgingly.

"First of all, you couldn't have known that your words would have such consequences, otherwise you wouldn't have said them, even to satisfy your curiosity about my past. Secondly, it's true that remembering all this hurt me, but that was in April, Sirius, water has been running since then. As for your cousin... I don't even know if we can call her that anymore. You've been disowned, and even though you're not part of that crazy Black family anymore, Bellatrix is married. It's Bellatrix Lestrange now. And whatever, yes she's my boggart, yes I'm terribly afraid of her for what she did to me in the past, but I don't see what that has to do with you. Just because you have a blood relationship doesn't mean it's important. Your family is not her. Neither is Narcissa or your parents. Your family is Remus, it's James, it's Lily. Don't you think they're a much better family? So yes, you've hurt me Sirius, many times, but never as much as Bellatrix Lestrange, I hate her, even more than Voldemort, but it's not you Sirius. It's not you."

"But despite what you say, even though I've been disowned, I'm still a Black. Azkaban has shown me that. I have dark curly hair, I have the recognizable grey eyes, I have this dark and violent side to me, I have a shitty temper and..."

"Sirius, what matters is not your similarities but your differences. You are brave, loyal, intelligent. You would give your life for your friends! You fight people who make others suffer, often those weaker than them. You are not full of prejudices, you know how to think for yourself. And that's what counts. Do you think James could have been your best friend, your brother even, if you were like the rest of your family? Do you think Remus could have fallen in love with you if he thought you had something in common, other than your birth name, with Bellatrix Lestrange? Your last name is Black. So what? You can't let others decide for you just because you come from a bad family. And let's talk about it. You don't just have Bellatrix as a cousin. Andromeda's there, and it seems to me that she's pretty much on the same page as you, right? What about your uncle who helped you run away? Are you enjoying seeing them? Being a Black isn't just about similarities, especially physical similarities, to the people you hate."

Hermione's words seemed to go straight to Sirius' brain and the wizard seemed strangely moved that someone was telling him all this, which he simply needed to hear.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"But are you sure I can't help you with anything? In debt for what the Black family did to you."

"You don't owe me anything. Get that through your thick skull. You're the first one to say you're not part of this family anymore. But I could use your help" Hermione finished with a smirk.

Remus was sleeping on the couch when he was awakened by a violent coughing fit. He turned to Hermione, still drowsy. The young woman was coughing a lot which seemed to worry the other people who were there, namely Lily, his younger self and himself. He then realized that all the other people had left. Knowing that he did not like to fall asleep surrounded by other people, it seemed strange to him to have fallen asleep like that but it is true that he was tired since his return.

"Helena, would you like a glass of water?" Lily offered, seeing that his cough would not go away.

The young woman nodded and tried to drink it, before spitting it out on the floor.

"You should sit down" said young Remus.

Hermione was about to obey, thinking it wasn't such a bad idea, but couldn't, feeling her dinner creep up her esophagus. She rushed to the nearest toilet before vomiting her meal. Then her coughing fit resumed. She flushed the toilet, quickly cleaned her face and went out. Before she could take a few steps, she felt herself swaying more and more. She only had time to let out a weak 'Rem' when she was already losing consciousness.

Remus rushed to her, assisted by Lily and himself. They levitated Hermione to the couch and laid her on her side.

"Helena. Helena!"

Hermione's eyes fluttered before opening weakly.

"Don't fall asleep" he whispered to her, then continued, turning to the two wizards. "If you want to go to bed I understand, I do not know what time it is but it must be late."

"We can stay, it is only one hour less twenty. I would be sorry if I went to sleep when Helena is not well."

"As for me, I think we have the same problem," Remus replied, thinking of the new moon that was coming.

Remus nodded and sat down next to Hermione, who was not much better. She was still coughing and had developed a fever. She was very pale and shaking.

"She looked like she had the flu."

"I don't think you throw up when you have the flu. And no matter how much you know, Lily, there will always be mysteries, such as the metabolism of werewolves. We can't get sick as easily as that. Our immune system is much stronger than that of a normal human. I haven't gotten sick since I was five years old, it's not by magic. Wizards get sick, not werewolves."

"I didn't know that. I think you missed my werewolf induction Rem'. Between the lupryadalis and my super immune system..."

Hermione's coughing fit was again uncontrollable. She didn't really understand why she was like this, but she hated being weak. She just wanted to sleep, before she woke up and got back to the shape she was in an hour earlier. She didn't have time to think more than already, sleep was calling her.

It was a rough day. Remus had barely slept, watching Hermione all night. He had sent Lily and her young self to bed at half past two, and it was obvious that they couldn't take it anymore. The young woman's condition had only worsened since the beginning of the night and even though Lily had offered to watch over her while he rested, he hadn't wanted to, he was unable to leave his friend alone while she was in that state. Even if she knew Lily, she would immediately feel lost in front of these faces which was not hers. It was Sirius who gave her the beginning of an answer about her friend's condition.

"Who would have thought that only two days after your arrival, Helena would be in this state. She needs a little more time."

"Has it been two days already? I've completely lost track of time. What day is it?"

"September the 19th. 1979 if you're not sure about the year."

"It's September the 19th?" stuttered Remus. "Fuck, I need to see Minerva."

"She's at Hogwarts."

"September the 19th, how could I not have thought of that earlier?"

He rushed over to Hermione, who was still very weak. He asked the other people in the room to come out and even though they were suspicious, they obeyed without making any waves. He cast a spell of silence and then leaned towards his friend and whispered his hypothesis.

"It is September the 19th Mione. September the 19th 1979. Somewhere in the world, you are being born. I think that's why you're not doing well at all. Magic doesn't know what to do. A person with the exact same magical imprint as you is being born right now. And it's both you and another person. All your magic must be focused on bringing you into the world and you are suffering."

The hours passed and the more Remus seemed convinced of his theory. Hermione had nodded, but he wasn't sure if it was reflexive or if she agreed with his thinking. As the hours passed, Hermione's condition deteriorated. It was around twenty-two thirty that Remus panicked, Lily was shaking next to him, Hermione was not far from a coma, her breathing had slowed down terribly, as well as her heartbeat. Lily was panicking and Remus's anxiety was growing by the second and if his sharp werewolf senses had not allowed him to distinguish Hermione's heartbeat and breathing, it was clear that he would have panicked.

Then at twenty-two twenty-seven, precisely, Hermione stood up abruptly and took a deep breath of air, before coughing weakly. From that moment on, her health returned to normal. The last few hours, the incessant coughing fits, the monstrous vomiting, the frequent fainting spells, would be a thing of the past.

Remus was glad the young woman was feeling better, but he couldn't stop doubting. What if now that she was born, magic could no longer choose between the two Hermiones? What if the baby was trying to steal, unconsciously, the magic of her counterpart? All of these questions remained unanswered and he was afraid it would be a while yet. He had not had this problem, the magic, whether his own or that of his younger self, was controlled. She was said to be mature and one wasn't going to steal the other. Remus shook his head, he had to stop with his negative thoughts.

For now, September the 20th was just around the corner, and with its arrival came the promise of new horizons.