AN: Hello, fanfiction and Harry Potter fans. I do not own Harry Potter, but feel free to enjoy this or hate it. If you enjoy it, please leave a lovely comment, if you hate it, then leave some constructive criticism, thanks!

Can You Take the Jump?

Chapter 43

Voldemort stood before her with shock and wonder on his face. She was a weapon of mass destruction and an Occlumens, all achieved when she was just a child. She would be his perfect soldier.

"Are you sure you don't need a girl like me?" she asked in his mind. "I won't just make you a mere lord, I can make you a god."

…

She drew out of his mind. Voldemort stood before her with wonder in his eyes. With the gentlest touch, he caressed her chin and lifted her face and forced her to look into his eyes.

His red eyes glowed with excitement.

"I've never met anyone quite like you, Miss Evans. So much untapped potential. I could teach you a better way. No more suppressing those emotions, fearing them. I can teach you to wield it and make it your own."

An animalistic cry rippled from the sidelines. Bellatrix charged toward them and threw an Avada Kedavra in her direction.

Hermione ducked to avoid it, but Voldemort blocked the spell by grabbing one of Lucius's elves and placing it in front of her as a physical shield.

If her emotional switch hadn't been on, Hermione would have screamed. However, now, even as the brightness of the elf's eyes left, she remained emotionless, just like the monster beside her.

She could feel the fury ripple through Voldemort at Bellatrix's disobedience. Without a warning, he threw a Cruciatus curse at her, as easily as one would a Lumos.

Her screams echo in the large room, leaving the rest of his followers dumbfounded at the turn of events. Bellatrix was one of their Lord's favourites, he rarely punished her. He even found her cruelty and devotion endearing, which was why, in the eyes of everyone in the room, Hermione's rank and status suddenly changed. She wasn't just some mudblood that Voldemort wanted to recruit as a plaything for his followers. In this short amount of time, she'd become someone. Someone like him, someone to fear.

As Bellatrix's screams finally died down, the Death Eaters stared at Hermione with contempt, but remained frozen in their spots, begrudgingly lowering their eyes. No one was brave enough to question their Lord's choices. No one except Lucius, and he was only doing it because he was told to do so, by her.

"My lord," Lucius stepped forward, looking rightfully frightened. Voldemort was a sadistic sociopath with a temper that snapped as easily as a twig and moods switching as unpredictable as ocean winds. "This is not what you promised, my lord. We are to stand above mudbloods like her!"

"You dare question my choices?"

"I—" He gulped audibly. "I wish to understand."

"It seems my followers are struggling to see your worth, Miss Evans," Voldemort told her slyly. "Prove it. Prove your worth to everyone."

This had been the cue she was waiting for.

She stepped forward and glanced around the room. Although she made sure not to linger on Lucius or Avery, they knew to step back once she had that look on her face. Avery slid out of the line of initiates and grabbed his parents by the hem of the clothes and pulled them towards the back while Lucius did the same for Narcissa. Finally, Hermione's eyes landed on Sirius. She allowed her eyes to linger since everyone here already knew they were dating.

It was the first time she truly looked at him. She noticed the angry marks around his wrist and ankles, the way that his expensive clothes hung off him in a way that hadn't done so when she last saw him. His skin was gaunt, but his eyes were burning with fire as he looked at her, desperately trying to stop her from doing what she was about to do. Tear tracks were running down his face.

With one of the greatest legilimens of the century less than 5 meters away, she didn't dare push into his mind and communicate with Legilimency. She couldn't risk Voldemort overhearing her plans and thoughts to Sirius, so had to simply hope.

Hope that he truly knew her. Hope that he could fully trust her. Hope that he could forgive her. Hope that he would grab the chance when it came.

His necklace burned around her neck. Once she got the message that Regulus had failed and that he wasn't present in the initiation, she knew that there would be no way for her to put the necklace around Sirius's neck. There would be too many eyes watching. Voldemort's, Death Eaters', even Walburga's.

So there was only one solution. She would be the one who needed to experience pain severe enough to cause near death, and she knew exactly what could cause it.

Her Obscurus wasn't any ordinary magical parasite. It fed on massive trauma caused by illegal time magic for over a decade. It was an entity of its own. Once her Obscurus became loose, thanks to all those years of suppression and repression, it would rip out of her in a terribly painful manner. Painful enough to break the chain of Sirius's necklace and activate the portkey.

Not only will it break the chain, but once her Obscurus was out, its sudden release would also release a momentary magical force strong enough to distract Walburga and Voldemort, releasing Sirius from his magical bindings. Once he was freed, he would have a chance to run towards her and hold on for dear life, while everyone will try to get away. It was a massive risk. She could accidentally kill him if she couldn't control it in time, but it was the only chance.

Sirius's brows frowned at her prolonged stare.

I am yours.

She placed a hand over her chest, feeling the necklace beneath her clothes. She could feel Harry's, Hermione Granger's, and even Draco's presence beside her, bracing for what she was about to do.

Her past, present, and future were all here with her.

"You aren't alone."

She closed her eyes and went into the deepest part of her mind, deeper than even her subconscious. The forbidden area. The place she kept locked up even more extensively than Gringotts for any treasure. Despite it being so locked and buried, its essence was so prominent and powerful that leaked into her mind causing her hallucinations, her fears, her nightmares, and her doubts. Double checking that her external mind gate was fully shut, she intentionally unlocked her internal mind gate for the first time in her life.

Its heavy chains dropped, and the extensive puzzle unravelled itself.

She expected it to pour out like a flood, dramatic and loud, but it was quiet and much more sinister. It crept out of her like a black, thick, and dense fog, clouding and engulfing everything. Light, sound, smell, and touch were all gone as if she was dreaming. She waved her arms around to get her bearing, and when she finally could make out her surroundings, she found herself standing in Godrick's Hollow. In Harry Potter's home. It was not something she could mistake, she'd imagined herself in this room a million times over.

She gasped, there was a sudden weight in her hand. Hermione looked down to see herself holding a bag. She didn't need to open the bag to know that there was a bowl of takeout soup as well as her strongest batch of altered Pepper-up potion. She knew what was going to happen next, dread built up her chest and started choking her from the inside, but her legs started moving regardless. A stench of blood hit her nose as her eyes fell upon Albus Severus Potter for the second time in her life.

She expected the same kind of shocked horror to course through her, but it never came. She'd seen this sight too many times to feel the same type of shock. Instead, there was just grief. Pure unadulterated, raw anguish and heartache dropped her to her knees.

"Why hold back?" A sweet voice asked. "What has holding back done for you all this time, except cause you more strife? Let go, Hermione."

Something in the back of her mind told her that she needed to keep her emotions in check, but she couldn't for the life of her remember or understand why. Her sweet godson was dead. Not just dead, but murdered in a horrifying and gruesome way, so why in Merlin's name was she holding back?

Hermione screamed. She wailed at the deep-seated sorrow that she'd carried for years. She poured her pain out and while it was heartstoppingly painful, it was also unimaginably cathartic. She crawled through his sticky cold blood, held the child to her chest, and rocked him and herself back and forth. She cried for the loss of his life, not only as her godson but as an innocent child, the representation of everything she'd fought and lost for in her teenage years, and the first of the many horrors that she'd faced this day.

Heavy footsteps creaked down the stairs of the house and walked towards her. A part of her recognized the changes from the past, but she didn't care. She would be fine dying here, holding Albus because she knew exactly how the day would play out. Everything would go wrong, no one would survive, and life as she knew it would end.

Hermione didn't hide her tears, didn't stand up to try and defend herself, and didn't reach for her wand.

Harry Potter walked into his kitchen, watching her with something akin to pity in his eyes.

"Hermione."

Lily was nowhere to be seen, and he wasn't smirking at her as she remembered him doing all those years ago. His voice was so sweet that it made her believe it was the real Harry in front of her, which distracted her from actually listening.

"Harry?"

"Hermione."

This time, she heard it. It was almost like an echo as if two voices were calling her. One was still so very sweet, coaxing her and welcoming her. Give in, it told her. Embrace me. But the second voice, the faint echo in the back was desperate.

Harry stepped closer to her; arms stretched out for a hug. Support, warmth, forgiveness, and friendship. She desperately yearned for it.

"Hermione!"

It was definitely desperate that time. It was starting to sound less and less like the voice she knew Harry to have.

"HERMIONE!"

…

Sirius couldn't explain the horror he felt when he saw Hermione walk into Malfoy's ballroom. At first, he couldn't believe it, an illusion his torture and hunger-addled brain was hallucinating. There was no way she could even be here. Malfoy Manor was extensively warded, especially against muggleborns and muggles.

But there she was, running into the room with tears in her eyes. She didn't look at him, she looked at no one except the Dark Lord himself begging. For him.

He screamed, twisting, and turning in his magical binds to free himself, to save her. At least her! The hell with what happened to him. Hermione needed to live because what would life be if Hermione died? For him, no less? No, he could not live such a life. The guilt, the pain, it would engulf him.

Then she wiped the tear from her face and his insides grew cold. She spoke with a smirk on her face, arrogance oozing from her every move.

Who was this girl? Sirius could visually recognize that it was Hermione, yet it didn't feel like Hermione at all. He knew his girlfriend. He was sure of it. This person had to be an imposter, just posing as Hermione. He kept watching her, expecting for the Polyjuice Potion to fade or for the imposter to slip up, but nothing changed. Everything about the way they held themselves, the way they spoke, even the way they blinked was her, except it wasn't her at the same time.

The imposter and Voldemort circled each other, staring into each other's eyes almost intimately. Voldemort commanded his followers to lower their wands, he even stopped Bella for her. A chill travelled down his spine when her smirk turned into a smile. A genuine one, one he'd seen her make. His mind clouded with doubt as he watched the two interact. It looked easy. Like they finally found another person who spoke the same language.

This was not the girl he knew. This was not his girlfriend; the girl he loved. It couldn't, so he begged her to leave. To get out without him.

"Hermione?" His voice broke. He felt hot tears drip down his eyes. He didn't care that he was crying in front of all these people. She stepped forward and crouched next to him. The way she wiped his tears was so gentle that he subconsciously leaned into her touch.

"He is mine."

Those words. The words that had kept him going for all these months, enduring the tortures and starvation that his mother committed to him, were being thrown back into his face. Sirius searched his face for any indication that she was lying, but she was a blank slate. He couldn't read a single thing. She was withdrawn and cold. He couldn't breathe. There was an unimaginable pain in his chest.

Everything felt worthless. What had he been fighting for? Why had he fought so hard and so long? Had it been all fake? Who was this person? Was this really Hermione? Had she always been like this?

"Prove it. Prove your worth to everyone."

She glanced around everyone in the room, but Sirius stopped when she took an extra long look at him. For a split second, her eyes softened. Perhaps he was imagining it, or maybe he desired it so much that he was convincing himself that he could see it, but finally, he could see her for the first time since she stepped into the room. His Hermione.

She placed a hand over her chest and closed her eyes. Silence engulfed the room. For a few seconds, nothing changed, causing the Death Eaters around them to glance at each other, smirk, and let out small puffs of laughter. However, Sirius had seen the Obscurus within her. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Avery take a tentative step back away from Hermione taking his parents with him. He'd been there at Uncle Alphard's funeral. In fact, he saw Mulciber, Travers, Lucius, Narcissa, and several others who'd witnessed the event take steps back, away from the quiet girl.

There was a quiet shift in the space. No one could see it, but everyone felt it.

It started.

The air around them trembled with energy as if the magic was reacting to her, or rather, its awakening presence. Bloody tears dripped out of her eyes and blood dripped out of her nose. With each passing second, the air shook harder. Pressure in the room built, causing his ears to hurt, and an unknown wind started circling around Hermione.

There was a sense of weightlessness that followed, and if there had been some type of dust or debris on the impeccably cleaned floor, it would have started to float.

Hermione's pale skin had black veins that covered her body, all moving up to her head. Suddenly, her eyes blew wide open revealing only whites and her neck snapped back. She let out a silent scream which spewed a terrifying black ichor.

The tar-like substance congealed together. It emitted a cloud of black smoke from its body, as it slowly grew larger and larger. It revealed its blood-red eyes as it scanned everyone in the room.

Everyone screamed and jumped back, covering their faces, everyone except Voldemort.

"Marvellous. Just marvellous," He was awed with something similar to love in his eyes. Like a mad man, he stepped closer to the Obscurus. "I've never even heard of an Obscurus so contained. Look, Lucius." He rushed to the blonde and grabbed him by his wrist and forcefully pulled him closer to the black mass. "Look at how it's watching us. Studying us."

Lucius struggled to stand properly near the damned thing. The sheer magical power it had weighed on him like a ton of bricks on his back. His legs trembled, both from fear and innate magical oppression. Just like when he first met Voldemort, he felt compelled to fall to his knees.

And the fear. It constricted his chest, making it difficult for him to breathe. His heart raced as absolute terror coursed through his blood. Every phobia, every anxious thought, every outrageous, unbelievable, irrational fear he's ever had in his life consumed him. Cold sweat raced down his back and forehead, and a small amount of urine trickled down his pants.

On a normal occasion, Lucius would have died in embarrassment, however, no one commented because they all felt the same terror at the monster Hermione Evans had sealed within herself. People had burst into tears in the back, while others screamed and screamed. Some of the Death Eaters had reverted to child-like mannerisms by curling up into a ball and sucking on their thumbs. Soon, the room stank of urine and feces.

In seconds, Hermione Evans had made the mighty and prideful Purebloods fall to their knees, both literally and figuratively.

Sirius sat where he'd been magically bound, frozen in fear. What he'd witnessed on March 5th, or his uncle's funeral was a mere speck of what Hermione had been keeping locked up behind her mind. Something screamed in his mind to run, but he couldn't, even if he could. He trembled like a rabbit, trapped by its predator, knowing its inevitable death, helpless and alone. Terror submerged him, taking over his mind.

Feeding off the fear in the room, Hermione Obscurus grew massive, touching the chandelier that hung at the top of the impressively high ceiling.

"Ha," Voldemort whispered. "I haven't felt this type of fear since…" he looked down at his trembling hand.

The black mass snapped its 'head' toward Voldemort, reacting to his voice. An undistinguishable noise came out of the parasite. It was upset, angry. The black mass started turning red from within. It contorted its body, hitting the chandelier on the ceiling, causing it to swing dangerously.

Sirius swore time had slowed. It was like he could see the hinges of the chandelier break.

"Hermione."

The black mass that surrounded swirled around like a tornado, causing furious winds that swept nearly everyone off their feet. None of this mattered as Sirius jumped from his seated position, watching with trepid breath as the chandelier started to fall, directly on top of Hermione.

"Hermione." He reached out with his arm, then gasped when the painful binds didn't tighten around his arms and wrists.

The Obscurus, which Sirius had thought was orbiting in senseless rapid circles around Hermione, stopped.

"Hermione!"

With a scream that Sirius believed resembled nothing from this Earth, the Obscurus swung itself. The roof of the grand ballroom trembled until everyone started to hear the wood and bricks crumble.

"T-the roof!" Someone shouted. Those who were mentally sound enough after facing the Obscurus got up and started screaming and covering their heads as large chunks of the mosaic art, chandeliers, stone arches and supporting wood and bricks started falling from the tall ceiling.

The Obscurus swung itself again, causing the walls to crumble. People ducked for cover, some were smart enough to take out their wands and protect themselves from the falling debris, but lesser ones became casualties of the massive destruction the magical parasite was causing.

I can move. Move! MOVE YOU IDIOT!

Sirius snapped his head up to see the chandelier only a meter above Hermione's head.

"HERMIONE!"

He ran towards her at a speed he didn't think was possible. In a blink of an eye, he was on top of her, pushing her out of the way.

They hit the floor with a thud. Sirius grimaced in pain, feeling his hand bones break at the impact of trying to break Hermione's head's fall to the floor. However, he didn't have time to concern himself over his hand as the Obscurus swirled around them. Over the howling of the wind, he could hear the cracking and snapping of the wood, shattering of the windows, and the flipping of furniture. He covered her as well as he could, cocooning her with his body.

"HERMIONE!" He screamed into her ear. "Wake up! Hermione! You need to wake up! You're going to get us both killed! WAKE UP!"*

"Gahhhhh!" Sirius cried in pain when a flying wooden shard flew into his side, stabbing him in the torso. Glass was embedding itself into his back and shredding up his clothes. "WAKE UP!"

The air stilled.

He let out a soft gasp as black tar dropped to the floor and started crawling its way back to her. Sirius slowly uncovered Hermione when the essence of the Obscurus entered her body like a ghost. He could see it move in her body like worms through her black veins. When the last mysterious black material finally returned to her body, everything around them dropped.

That was when Sirius finally took in their surroundings. He was in a shack. Well, at least what had been a shack. The roof was gone, along with 2 of the 4 walls, but at least he was certain that it was not the Malfoy Manor's ballroom. Outside, he could see a familiar large pond with a swing…

"Is that—?"

"Sirius?" A soft whisper came out of the girl lying on the floor.

"Hermione?" He crawled back to her, wincing through his injuries.

Hermione sputtered out blood, then twitched beneath him. Her mouth started foaming with blood and within seconds she was seizing beneath him.

"Shit!" He glanced down at Hermione who was convulsing terrifyingly. "H-Help. JAMES! MR. POTTER! HELP! Someone! HELP!"

Sirius did not have to wait long until he could hear and see the Potter family running toward them with their wands out. After all, two uninvited individuals had bypassed all their wards and portkeyed into the Head of the DMLE's home. The Potters' alarm system had sounded off as soon as the two fell into the property, tailing an Obscurus behind them.

Mr. Potter ran through the debris, wand in hand. He wore silk pyjamas, with slippers. He didn't wear his glasses as normal, clearly in a panicked rush to come to identify the intruders in his home. Behind trailed the rest of the family, along with several elves.

"Who's there?!"

"Mr. Potter," Sirius cried with relief.

"Sirius?" James stepped out from behind his father's back, squinting into the darkness. "Sirius!"

"Help me."

…

"Hermione. Let go. Give into the pain." Harry's voice was like a snake slithering into her body and rotting her insides.

"Uncle Harry!" "Daddy!"

Her children and godchildren started running toward the fake Harry Potter with smiles on their faces. He gave her the cruellest smile before turning to her children and Harry's kids.

"No!"

She tried to run, but it was as if her legs were made of lead. She couldn't move fast enough, it didn't matter how much she screamed, the children couldn't hear her.

Albus was the first to reach his father. He exploded in a shower of blood before she could stop them. For some reason, the sight of Albus's gruesome death didn't seem to deter the other children. They kept running towards the monster.

"No, please! STOP!"

Lily was next, she ran and jumped into his father's embrace, but instead of clinging onto him like a koala cub, she fell limp in his arms.

"James! Rose! Hugo! It's mommy! Listen to mommy!"

James led Rose toward his father while she held her younger brother in her arms, but unlike the others, the three dropped to the floor like dominos.

"Evans! Evans wake up!"

Hermione's eyes ripped apart to meet the face of Harry Potter staring right back at her.

"No! No! Get away from me you monster! You fucking monster!"

The Harry in front of her moved back with his arms in surrender, "Woah, Evans. You were dreaming."

Someone else came into her line of vision. Two elderly adults, their wrinkled eyes furrowed with concern and caution as they approached her with soft voices.

"Miss Evans? It's alright, darling. You're okay now."

Evans? Suddenly the pieces started fitting in her mind about where she was, who she was, and what had happened.

She jerked up.

Cling

Hermione looked around to find her limbs restricted on the bed posts.

"You were thrashing, and then you were floating. Your unstable magic also made everything in the room float around with you." James commented casually.

She blinked in confusion.

"We saw the demon flowing out of you from our bedrooms," Mr. Potter explained calmly. "I demanded answers from Sirius, or else I wasn't going to let either of you in my home."

"Sirius?"

"He was badly hurt trying to protect you from your own Obscurus. One of our medically trained elves is tending to him in his room right now. Afterwards, he'll need some much-needed rest." Mrs. Potter explained. She approached her and released her from the shackles, shaking off her husband who tried to stop her. "She is awake. The Obscurus will not harm us anymore so stop your fussing and help me get these shackles off the child. She is not a prisoner in this house!"

With the restraints off, she looked down at her hands but couldn't hide the gasp that escaped her mouth. Her skin was almost grey and nearly translucent, and the veins underneath it were coloured black. Her eyes travelled up her arms to see the continuation. She threw the covers off to see the same patterns on her legs. She covered her face in shock and in fear of what she looked like.

"It's fading," Mrs. Evans reassured. "It's like it's going back into the depths of your body. Your skin's been turning back to a… healthier hue every passing minute."

Hermione's arms dropped, realizing the pointlessness of her actions. She slowly got up from the bed. Her muscles shook like someone who'd been in a coma for years.

"Sirius was tortured, beaten, and starved." Her throat was sore and her voice was hoarse from overuse. "The Cruciatus Curse is hard on the joints so he will need his joints iced consistently. He can't be introduced to heavy rich foods too early after being so heavily starved. Keeping his meals light, small, and frequent is necessary."

"Evans," James tried to help her, but she pushed him away.

"He will ask questions about last night, you may be asking yourselves questions about last night, about me, about my Obscurus, about a fat load of things, but I cannot answer them. I will not answer them." She needed to push off her knees with her hands to stand up. "Thank you for your kindness and hospitality. I need to be getting home now. My family will be worried."

"Looking like that?" James shook his head. "You'll terrify them even more. You need as much rest as Padfoot does. I will owl Lily to let her know, so rest. Or at least wait until Sirius wakes up. I'll make sure he doesn't ask any questions, so just wait. He'll want to see you awake."

Hermione looked at James. He looked tired, concerned, confused, curious, and wary. He was so easy to read, wearing his heart so proudly on his sleeve. When was the last time she felt comfortable enough to show her emotions so freely? Had she ever been capable of it? If she was free to do it now, would she even be able to?

"Evans. Hermione," James implored. "You seem to know what Sirius went through better than all of us. Then you should also know how much he needs to see you awake. How much he needs to see you be…you, not an obscurial and definitely not…whatever or whoever the fuck you were and needed to be to get him out of his situation."

"Miss Evans, you're free to make your own choices." Mr. Potter clarified. "But for once, my immature son seems to be speaking with some sense. Perhaps you should consider listening to him. It's not very often that he makes comments as wise as these."

"Oi, dad!"

"Well, Hermione?" Mrs. Potter asked her. The rest of the Potters stared at her, waiting for an answer.

She slowly nodded. "Fine."

The Potters smiled with victory.

Mrs. Potter gently pushed Hermione back into the bed. "You rest. We'll wake you when Sirius is up." She even tucked her in. The Potters filed out of her room in a single cue.

"Thank you for bringing him home." James hesitated at the door. "Oh, and he's in the far end of the hall, past the trophies and Gryffindor memorabilia, turn right to the second door."

Once she was alone, the smile slipped off her face.

"How much do you remember?" Harry asked in his Auror tone.

"Before all that," Hermione shook him away. "Pinky." With her presence inside the Potter House, her House Elf was able to apparate into the property.

Crack.

When her House Elf's large beady eyes fell onto Hermione, the poor elf started hyperventilating with tearful joy.

"Oh, Miss!" Pinky cried as he raced to her with open arms.

"Shh," She hushed her elf but cradled his disproportionally large head. "I know." She nodded, understanding his reaction.

"Miss!" Pinky wailed quietly. "Oh, Pinky thought Mistress was dead, leaving poor Pinky all alone again! Oh, how Pinky prayed! Pinky prayed to Master Alphard telling him that he may be lonely, but it was too soon for Mistress. Too soon!"

"I made you a pinky promise, remember? I'm alright, Pinky. I'm okay." She promised, but the elf shook his head. "I know I don't look it," she glanced at her arms again. True to Mrs. Potter's words, her skin was less grey and translucent than when she'd initially woken up. "I promise I'm okay. It's fading."

Her elf's lower lip trembled, but he managed to hold in the onslaught of tears. "Pinky must let Mister Snape know! He is worried sick!"

Hermione had completely forgotten about Severus. She felt a twinge of guilt for forgetting about her concerned friend, but after everything that happened tonight, she thought it enough to excuse her forgetfulness.

"I also need you to go to Lily and tell her I'm okay. I know James sent her a letter, but you are faster. After telling Lily, go tell Dobby. He will tell Lucius. Don't go to the ballroom. Don't go anywhere else. Just go to Dobby. Do you understand?"

He nodded.

"Thank you, Pinky. I'll call for you tomorrow morning."

Pinky gave her a deep bow, then disappeared once more.

"What do you remember?" Harry repeated. His tone was serious and authoritative, making Hermione want to remember, even though she didn't.

"I remember unlocking the chains to my inner mental walls. It felt like poison spreading through my veins at first," pain strong enough to die from. "Then there was a burning, searing pain that collected in my chest and then…" she trailed off.

"It came out." Draco Malfoy stood next to Harry, nodding his head. "It tasted like coal, although I've never tasted it. Just pure burnt carbon."

Hermione nodded, still tasting it in her mouth.

"Voldemort was there with Lucius," Harry paced back and forth, a habit he got into when the investigated crime scenes. "Everything until then was relatively under control, your exterior mental walls were holding."

"Until they didn't." Hermione rubbed her temples from the migraine she was experiencing. "I don't remember anything afterwards."

"You know who'd know?" Malfoy asked, glancing back and forth between Harry and Hermione. "Your boyfriend."

Harry shook his head fervently, "No. No! We're not doing this." But Hermione was already out of the bed, and quietly opening the double doors of the guest bedroom.

"I can't believe you're doing this!" Harry whisper-yelled at her. "This is so wrong!"

"Amongst the many 'wrong' things Granger's done tonight, I'd say this is pretty fucking mild Pothead."

"Shut up, Malfoy! Who are you to voice your bloody opinions on what's right and wrong?" Harry argued back. "Hermione, what's he still doing here?"

"Both of you, shut up." She demanded. "You're like flies ringing around my bloody ears."

Hermione walked down the hall, as James had told her, looking around the large house with a subdued sense of awe. If James's spoiled attitude didn't convey that he came from a rich family, his house certainly proved it. It was opulent, but differently from the Blacks or the Malfoys. The Potters were pure Rococo. They had elegant and lavish detailing with Asian porcelain and pearl embellishments. Whenever she stepped into a Pureblood's house it was almost like like taking a step back in time.

"I wonder what happened to this house," Harry wondered out loud. Hermione couldn't help but nod in agreement. Why move into Godrick's Hollow when you have this?

"Nothing good, I can promise you that," Draco muttered as he forged ahead, taking the left turn without them. Hermione and Harry glanced at each other before following him.

When she walked into Sirius's room, she could hear his steady, calm breathing. He was in deep sleep. The first deep sleep he's probably had in quite some time. Instead of disturbing him, she walked around his private bedroom in the Potter House. She smiled at how Sirius it was. As if it were a replica of the Gryffindor Tower, it was decorated top to bottom with red and gold. The lion banner proudly hung on the wall, along with pictures of the Marauders through the years. It was a relatively organized mess with quidditch gear in one corner, and muggle magazines and comic books in the other. There was a wall dedicated to muggle music and a beautiful gramophone to play all his juxtaposing rock and roll music.

"Nghh," she heard him groan. Hermione rushed to his side and held his hand. He was in pain, probably due to his various injuries and the Cruciatus Curse he'd suffered from. She placed her cold hands on his bandages, then his swollen and heated joints. He sighed with momentary relief. She slowly massaged them, helping his lymphatics drain to reduce the swelling.

"Hermione?" He groaned. He lifted his head and peered through his eyes.

"Shhh, don't waste your energy. You need sleep."

He blinked. Sirius looked like he wanted to say something, but he lowered his head back to the pillow. A few seconds passed as she continued to massage his aching body, but when he started shaking Hermione immediately reacted, fearing he was seizing due to residual effects of the curse. She stood to turn his body to the side in case he vomited, only to see silent tears streaming down his face.

She quietly sat back down and continued to massage him, pretending she didn't see it.

Hermione would never know the exact reason for his tears, but she knew it was more than one. Relief that they were alive and safe, guilt that he'd left his younger brother in the clutches of his parents and in having brought her into the situation, anger toward her for lying and risking so much, for corrupting their private and beautiful words, for exposing herself to those monsters, anger at his parents, and himself for not being able to escape by himself. Perhaps the reason was as simple as pain or fear for the future, their future, or what they went through. So on and so forth. He likely hadn't had the time or luxury to think of anything other than surviving for the last few weeks. Now that he was safe and resting, the thoughts and emotions he'd suppressed were probably rushing through him at an overwhelming speed.

There was nothing normal and good about the situation they were in. Tonight had been a shit show for both of them in different ways, so Hermione let him cry, releasing her emotions vicariously through him. She knew the relief tears could bring, the catharsis in releasing those intense emotions. She couldn't do it, but that didn't mean he couldn't as well.

As if he knew her thoughts, Sirius started crying harder.

She felt her enchanted galleon warm up in her pocket for longer than 5 seconds, a sign from Lucius.

It's done.

But at what cost, she wondered.