Edited 6/11/23: Minor Grammar/Spelling.
tiny_reader, SURPRISE!
Honestly this whole story changes so quickly day by day I have no idea what to expect.
Sorry I'm 30 minutes late... In personal life news, my entire life is packed up in a moving cube thing and will be making its way to my new home (on the other side of the country) tomorrow. My apartment is very sad and empty, but I have a whole week left. My camping air mattress is not going to be fun.
Thursday, June 11, 1998
That morning, Hermione woke up after Theo, an absolute rarity. She cast a Tempus and saw that it was well after noon already. She groaned and sunk into the bed again.
"Lulu," she called. The little elf appeared before her, flicking her ears playfully.
"How can Lulu be helping the Mistress?" the elf squeaked after a few seconds of silence.
"Lulu, can you bring me some breakfast? I wish I knew what was wrong with me! I've been so tired and I cannot be arsed to do anything."
"Lulu will discuss with the Mistress after she's eaten," the elf said mysteriously as she popped away.
Suddenly Harry's stag Patronus came bounding into the room. "Mi!" it called frantically, "I need you, Theo and Ginny to come to Headquarters!"
Lulu appeared right at the tail end of the message and set Hermione's food down. "I will pack this into a bag for Mistress."
"Gertie!" Hermione called and started when the elf appeared. "Get Gin and Theo, there's been some emergency at Headquarters."
The elf popped away quickly and Hermione threw herself from the bed, throwing on a pair of jeans and a light jumper from Draco's side of the closet. Theo and Ginny appeared, each holding one of Gertie's hands looking confused. Ginny was in her Quidditch practice kit, and Theo was wearing some business-casual robes.
"Emergency at Headquarters!" she said and grabbing their hands, apparated away.
When they landed in the foyer, they were greeted with silence. Hermione sped through the room to Remus and Kingsley's shared office, but didn't see anyone there. They ran to the dining room and again found it empty. Finally Hermione ran to Harry's room and found him lounging on his bed.
"What's happened!? Are you alright!?" Hermione shouted, Harry appeared surprised to see her.
"N-Noting. I'm fine," he stuttered. "You didn't have to race here. I just found something out and I think we need to act fairly fast."
Hermione collapsed against Theo. "Harry James Potter!" Ginny shouted. "You about scared us to death, we thought you were in trouble! How could you scare Mi like that!?"
Harry looked embarrassed as he wrung his hands in his lap. "Uh, I didn't think you'd come so fast."
"We're in a War, Potter, or have you forgotten?" Theo sneered at Harry.
"Er…" Harry looked between the three awkwardly.
Hermione finally caught up to what was going on and stood straighter. "Well we're all here, what have you found out?"
"Er, follow me," Harry said, leading them back down the stairs until they stood in front of the Black Family Tapestry. Hermione was pleased to see both her and Theo on the Tapestry, grinning cheekily attached to Draco. "This," he said, pointing to Regulus Black.
Regulus Arcturus Black
June 11, 1961 -
Hermione blinked at the tapestry a couple more times. "He's alive?"
"Yeah, I was down here talking to Sirius' picture like I sometimes do when I'm wrestling with some big questions," he sheepishly looked at Ginny, "and I noticed his portrait had changed."
"Where could he be?" Hermione asked, quickly. "We should probably check the place with the Inferi. Have you asked Narcissa or Kreacher?"
Harry blinked at her. It had obviously not crossed his mind to ask either of those two. "Kreacher!" he called.
The elf didn't respond for a long time, and finally begrudgingly appeared. "How can I help, the young Master?" he growled.
"I think you need to take me back to the cave. I think Master Regulus is alive."
Kreacher gasped and grabbed Harry's hand right away. "WAIT!" Hermione shouted, bringing the flurry of movement to a halt. "We need a plan! Ginny, find Narcissa and Andromeda, Theo find Remus and Kingsley, and Kreacher. You need to tell us everything about what you think Regulus would do if he were still alive.
The following minutes were a flurry. Ginny and Theo sprinted in opposite directions to find their assigned parties and Kreacher started crying about how he had no idea. After she realised talking to the elf would be fruitless, she turned to Harry.
"You can't send me Patronus' Harry. We're spies. What if I'd been entertaining? You need to use your brain!"
Harry rubbed the back of his neck, but nodded, "Sorry Hermione, but I think it is an emergency."
"It doesn't matter. You have to involve the other members of the Order," said Remus from the doorway. "Hermione, Theo and Ginny have their own mission. You have to use the resources on hand instead of falling back on what you've always done."
Harry looked down and looked even more embarrassed than when he'd started. Kingsley and Theo followed closely behind and looked at the label on the tree. Kingsley cast a few spells, but looked satisfied that it was authentic. Narcissa and Andromeda ran into the room, sinking in front of the tree.
"Great," Hermione said, looking around, "now that we're all here, we can go in prepared for an ambush. Narcissa, you and Ginny can partner, Kingsley and Andromeda, Harry and Remus, and Theo and I. Keep your wands handy and watch your partners back. Prepare to cast Incendio at any Inferi. Harry, do you think you can apparate back to the cave?"
When Harry nodded, Hermione turned to Kreacher, "How many can you apparate?"
Kreacher looked at her beadily, "Kreacher can be getting the other six if the young master can take himself and the werewolf. Hermione nodded and reached out her hand, raising her eyebrow to everyone else.
"Ready?" Harry asked, and when they responded in the affirmative he apparated out, followed quickly by Kreacher.
When Hermione opened her eyes, she leaned over and vomited the small amount of food she'd eaten, letting Theo rub her back. "I think we need to go back," he said softly. "They can handle this." Hermione watched as everyone else turned to her, questioningly.
She raised her wand to Ginny and Narcissa, casting glamorous on them both. "She's dead, and she's supposed to be neutral," she said before the nausea hit again. "I guess apparition didn't sit well with me this go."
"We'll meet you all back at headquarters," Theo said, wrapping his arms around Hermione and apparating back to Headquarters.
When they landed, Hermione dry heaved again, but there was nothing for her to let out. When her stomach finally calmed, she collapsed onto the couch against Theo. "What's wrong with me?" she whimpered.
"I think eating again has really affected you. I know that when you were on the run there wasn't much. I wonder if that has affected you?"
"Potentially," she murmured, "I've also been under a lot of stress,'' she said, thoughtfully.
She felt herself drift off into a nap, only to be awoken by the pops of apparition in the foyer. She opened her eyes groggily to see that she'd laid her head on Theo's lap and he was sleeping soundly above her.
"Theo," she called, he sat up quickly, and after a second looked down at her on his lap, relaxing his posture. "They're back I think," she pushed herself up and let him pull her off the couch. They made their way to the foyer, where Ginny was standing, head bent in with Kingsley.
"You're back," Theo started. "How did it go?"
"Bloody awful," Ginny chuckled. "He was in the centre of the island but only one person could go on the boat, so we had to argue about it, but Kreacher was able to apparate there. So eventually Remus went over and helped Kreacher. He's in some sort of coma, but we were able to bring him back alright. Andi and Narcissa are working on him now in the makeshift infirmary."
"We're going to keep this tightlipped," Kingsley said. "Once he's awake he might make the perfect Inner Circle spy depending on what we can come up with."
Ginny, Hermione, and Theo stayed for dinner, but had to get back to Mitternacht to explain everything to Draco when he got home.
Tiny_reader (AO3), I know you asked for Sirius, but we need an Inner Circle spy! ENTER REGULUS!
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think or if you have any thoughts about what might happen next