"You have to know what you want. When you know it, you must have the courage to say it, when you say it, you must have the courage to do it."

Georges Clemenceau

James was sitting on the sand, his eyes in the dark. Since they had come out of the infirmary, Lily had been avoiding him. This was not surprising given their last conversation, but he could not help but feel hurt. Lily had looked so shocked, so angry when he had proposed to her that he wondered if he had done the right thing. But he loved her, loved her with all his heart. He couldn't conceive that he was just a passing fancy for her. James wanted to make things advance in their couple, it is for that that he goes away, he wanted to make Lily happy. But the young woman did not seem to want to speak to him.

The wizard did not turn over when he heard steps approaching. He knew who it was. Remus sat down next to him, and sighed when he saw tear tracks on his best friend's cheeks. He didn't know what had happened, but there was something. He had noticed it at Helena's bedside, when Lily had avoided James' gaze and James had seemed particularly hurt. He hadn't been able to ask questions, the place hadn't been conducive, but he knew now that they could talk quietly.

"What happened Prongs?"

"I asked Lily to marry me."

Seeing the look on his friend's face, Remus suspected the answer, but he knew Lily and he knew that the young woman loved James deeply. So he wondered what could have happened to cause the two wizards to avoid each other.

"What did she say?"

"Nothing. That's the worst part. She didn't say anything. She just looked at me... I think I would have preferred her to yell at me, like at Hogwarts. I love her so much, what am I going to do without her?"

"Hey, easy. Lily loves you, okay? Something must have happened to keep her quiet. How did you ask her?"

"Well, we were fighting about me not being around and-"

"I think you've hit the nail on the head, James. Lily doesn't know what you're doing all this time. It's just me and Sirius. He's over there, by the way. I know you wanted to wait until it was all over to surprise her, but you don't think now is the time to show her."

"I don't know. What if she still doesn't accept? I've sacrificed so much. First, Sirius."

"First of all, we're not there yet, so wait a little while before you mope around more. Second, it's not Lily's fault that you and Sirius have grown apart. That's life, the war. I know it's hard for both of you, but you're still brothers. And it's up to you to juggle your life with Lily and your friendship with Sirius."

"You're forgetting yourself, too, Moony. Even if Padfoot is my brother, you're still my best friend, don't forget that. And you're right. It took me seven years to date Lily, I'm not going to be discouraged now."

Remus smiled and saw his friend straighten up and walk hurriedly to the house. He stepped out of the protective barriers to go warn Sirius, they had better be gone when the couple arrived. It was better for everyone.

James entered the house and saw Lily on the couch, her head in her hands. She was shaking and the wizard knew that if she raised her head, she would have tear tracks on her cheeks, just like him a few minutes earlier.

"Lily."

The witch suddenly raised her head and as James suspected, her eyes were red and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

"I think we should talk."

The young woman nodded weakly and stood up to join the wizard. Her gait was shaky, her legs trembled, her emerald eyes met James' and he had to restrain himself from hugging her when he saw the pain inside.

"James, I-"

"I have to show you something first."

They stepped out of the pads and James grabbed Lily's arm and pulled them across.

"Are we... are we in Godric's Hollow?"

The young man didn't answer her right away and they headed for the center of the village. As they approached the central square, Lily thought she saw the other two marauders but quickly shook her head, Remus was at HQ when she and James had left. James stopped in front of a house that Lily didn't know. It looked almost finished, but there were a few workmen there anyway. James took her hand and led her through a nice little gate, they walked up the driveway before Lily suddenly realized she didn't know where she was going.

"James, you can't just walk into people's homes!"

"Trust me."

They entered the house and came upon a beautiful living room, lit from all sides. Lily turned around, as if to convince herself that she was really there. The walls were white and the room was unfurnished, but the young woman could not help but find a certain charm in this place.

"James, it's really beautiful here, but I don't understand why we're here. Where are we?"

"This is my house. And yours too, if you like."

Lily looked completely stunned and James couldn't help but think she looked terribly beautiful at that moment.

"I know you don't feel comfortable at Potter Manor, you think it's too big, too impersonal, so I built this house so we could both feel at home here, so we could build our family. That is, if you want to."

The witch's eyes filled with tears and she jumped at her boyfriend's neck.

"Of course I want us to build our family here, and of course I want to marry you idiot! By Merlin! We're getting married!"

A wonderful smile graced James' face and Lily, in between her tears of joy, smiled back at him with an equally delightful smile.

"You're going to be a Potter, you swear by Morgana now" he said as he spun her around in the air.

James seemed to realize something when he finished his sentence but he shook his head, he had plenty of time to think about it later. The young couple enjoyed their home, as they could now call it. James showed Lily around the entire house. They were on a cloud, outside of reality, outside of the war. It was Sirius who came to break their bubble a few hours later.

"Prongs, it's eleven o'clock. There's no one else in the HQ but Moony and me. I think it's time."

Back on Earth, Lily and James looked at each other briefly before the witch grabbed her fiancé's arm and apparate to said HQ. They joined Remus and Sirius in the living room. The latter seemed to be very happy to see them.

"Prongs! You smell like sex! And that stupid smile! Did she said yes?"

"Sirius!" Remus scolded him, although he had a smirk on his face. "Congratulations, both of you."

"I'm going to be a witness!"

"Not sure, Black" Lily smirked." After all, She said yes, so she can decide. We could very well choose Remus..."

Sirius pleaded with a puppy look on his face as the engaged couple laughed.

"I don't want to interrupt your happiness, but the clock is ticking" Remus remarked.

Their faces took on a serious expression and the four of them headed for the infirmary. What they saw left them stunned.

A halo of light still surrounded three people, the three jewels still resting on a book, but that wasn't the most confusing part. There were three people, just like when they had left the infirmary the day before. Except that of these three people, two were strangers to them.

"What the hell is this again?" said Sirius. "Why do Helena and Remi look like this?"

This. Sirius couldn't think of any other words to describe the bodies in front of him. Every inch of the two people's skin seemed to have a scar running through it, more or less old, more or less painful. They were not disfigured like Moody, but they were certainly scary. And they did not know these two people. The girl did look familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen that physique.

"Do you think it's them?" James asked hesitantly.

"It has to be them. Look at the girl's scars, they're exactly the same as the ones Helena had yesterday."

"What does that mean then?"

"It means that Remi and Helena are not who they say they are. They're hiding their true appearance, they're hiding a lot of other things. And I think it might have something to do with these jewels. Seriously, have you ever seen Helena without her ring? And we learn that it has magical properties that influence Helena's life. Their lives are connected to jewelry. And from the looks of it, it's far from ordinary jewelry."

"And that Minerva is in on it."

"I bet she knows their whole story, she wouldn't trust them if she didn't know everything."

"Still, it's strange."

"Let's wake them up. We only have three minutes left. And we'll get some answers."

The conversation about who would be the one to wake them up was lively. Everyone wanted to go. While Lily told James that she was not a fragile little thing, Remus assured the others that he was the best person to go. Remi had said that whoever went would be in pain, but he thought that the pain could be mitigated by his metabolism.

Before his friends could stop him, he stepped through the halo of light. He was wrong. The pain was terrible. Maybe more than the transformation. He didn't really know. Now he was in pain, but he didn't lose sight of his goal. He was able to keep a cool head and move forward despite the pain. He woke McGonagall first, and the witch flickered before standing up abruptly. She took charge of bringing Remi out of his lethargy as Remus stepped out of the light circle. Fighting the pain had taken a lot of energy, both physical and magical, and he collapsed. Sirius rushed to him, quickly joined by Lily and James.

Meanwhile, Remus, fully awake, leaned over Hermione trying to wake her up.

"By the Magic of Time, fix your ring and rid it of its evil."

The sentence came from the book, it was indicated what to do in case of a weak injury of one of the jewels. Hel Hogwarts had made it clear that a scratch, no matter how small, was like a stab in the life and magical essence of the person wearing the jewel.

But with them, nothing ever went right. Instead of waking up, Hermione began to convulse and spit blood.

"Remi."

"Minerva, help me, this is not good at all!"

"Remi!"

The wizard wasn't listening to her, he was trying to stop Hermione's convulsions. The young woman kept coughing up blood and in the urgency of the situation, he hadn't noticed that she had regained her true appearance.

"REMI!"

"WHAT?"

"We have to put the jewels back! And look at you!"

The wizard looked at her with an air of incomprehension. He looked stupidly at his hands, as if he had suddenly turned blue, but he had not. His hands were still the same. There were perhaps more scars than the previous days, but nothing extraordinary. Then his eyes fell on Hermione's body. Hermione's body. Not Helena's.

He turned to the marauders and Lily, who was looking at him with a closed face.

"Remi, the jewels!"

Remus nodded and handed the Time bracelet to Minerva and took the necklace himself. Handing them over felt good, their essence was tied to the jewelry and if they didn't wear it, they would simply die. The power that emanated from the jewels surprised the other four wizards, who really didn't understand what was going on. How could such small jewels, as beautiful and magical as they were, contain so much power?

The effect was immediate, they felt complete again, in great shape, but it was not the case of Hermione. The young woman was coughing up a lot of blood and her heart rate was getting weaker by the second.

"Minerva! Help me" Remus begged.

"I don't know what to do."

"I don't know what to do either. She's not breathing, damn it!"

Remus panicked. He was trying to keep his cool but seeing Hermione not breathing was getting to be too much for him. He had to calm down and think. He didn't know any other spell than enervatum to revive someone, and it hadn't worked on Hermione.

"Accio Helena's bag."

The bag arrived and he grabbed a defibrillator. Hermione had planned this from the first horcrux hunt in 1997 and fortunately she hadn't needed it. But as so often happens, she was right and it would indeed come in handy.

"Minerva, step aside."

He placed the electrodes on Hermione's skin and an electric current lifted her body. He did this several more times and his efforts paid off as Hermione's heart rate returned to normal. Minerva put an oxygen mask on Hermione's face and they waited.

The marauders looked at each other, as if they didn't really realize what had just happened. None of them had ever seen a defibrillator, only Lily knew about the device, but she had never used it. After all, she wanted to study medicine at the end of the war, and she had learned some resuscitation spells. They didn't know how long it would take Helena to wake up, but honestly, they were impatient.

It took her several hours. The marauders and Lily had retired to the living room after half an hour. Minerva and Remus had gone to shower, the latter was covered in blood and although he had been reluctant to leave Hermione alone, Minerva had assured him that it was only a matter of ten minutes. The wizard had taken two. He could have thrown himself a simple scrub, but Minerva had said it would be much better for him to do a real full shower. He'd made an effort, he wasn't going to leave his friend alone that long in her condition either.

To say he was worried would be an understatement. He controlled himself so as not to tremble with fear, but that was due to years of training on himself. How could he survive if Hermione were to die? She had become his pillar for several years now and he knew without pretension that he was hers. He had risen from the death of James and Lily, very hard, alone in the world, but he had made it. He had risen from the death of Sirius, Dora had been there to support him and certainly, he had not wanted to let her approach him for several months, but the young woman had not given up and had succeeded in piercing his carapace. She had helped him overcome the death of his last best friend beyond anything he could have imagined.

Then the big battle had come and with it, Harry's death, Nymphadora's death and Teddy's death. He had not died, he had not inflicted his death on himself because he did not think he deserved it, but it was clear that if Hermione had not found him in that damp cellar of Malfoy Manor, he would have died. Hermione had saved him and he had saved Hermione. For years, they had no one else to rely on but the two of them. They were the last survivors, the last hopes. If Hermione were to die, Remus would not survive. Because she was no longer just a friend. She was his cornerstone.

But fortunately for Remus' sanity, Hermione woke up. It was late in the evening, Remus was falling from exhaustion but he couldn't take his eyes off her, he had slept for twenty-four hours, even though in reality his magic had been drawn for twenty-four hours, he could sleep later.

"Harry, strength potion, my bag" she muttered to Remus, half-conscious.

"Mione. That's not Harry."

The witch seemed to realize what she had just said and apologized. Remus was more than a little surprised, the last time she had mistaken someone else for Harry, it hadn't gone so smoothly, but after all, it was good that she didn't have another seizure. Coming out of her magical coma would help. The wizard calmly explained the latest events to her.

Hermione knew that the moment of truth was coming. She didn't want to have this conversation, not with them, but she had no choice. The other members of the Order would ask questions and with a little skill, they would have no answers, but that was not the case with the marauders and certainly not with Lily.

She would have liked to take a hot shower and change her clothes, after all she was covered in blood, dried or not, and even if Lily had sponged some of it off. But she couldn't stand on her own two feet, and she knew that if Remus had to help her, it would take a long time, and they didn't have much time left. Other members of the Order could show up at the HQ at any time and while they would reveal things to the marauders, there was no way they were going to divulge their past any more than necessary, but Remus knew his friends and himself and knew they wouldn't give up so easily.

The two Time Chosen were going to have to find answers to the questions, and answers that contained some truth. They had only themselves to rely on, with Minerva returning to Hogwarts as soon as possible.

Danger hung over their heads. Little by little, the cover they had taken so long to create was shattering. The Jewels, like themselves, were not invincible; they did not yet know how the Ring of Time had been damaged. But enemies seemed to be emerging from the shadows."

Who could have hurt Hermione like this? Who knew of the existence of the Time Jewels, or at least its magical properties related to its wearer?

All these questions remained unanswered, and that was the worst of it. They hated mysteries. More than anything else. But they were always confronted with them. More and more frequently, and with more and more mysteries. They hated it, but like the discussion ahead of them, they had no choice. They had obligations. They were Time Chosen.