Chapter 15 - Cusp
1960
Time continued to pass and soon more than a decade had gone by for Hermione in her new time. Following their fall 1950 wedding, the couple focused on their masteries, Hermione earning her Charms Mistress title two years later and offering services as a private researcher. She mostly focused on charmed objects, protective jewellery and various requests. Using charms, ancient runes and her foreknowledge she quickly became a success and was sought after for all types of issues from making sure a child was safe away from home to courtship jewelry or her own inventions. Her business made her a regular presence in the Ministry as she had invented a few devices the DMLE now used regularly, she had started with a camera that would record everything in an interrogation room and show an objective pensieve like video, she then tinkered with the idea of a lie detector machine, eventually she managed a small device that monitored the interviewee's heart rate, perspiration levels, number of blinks, micro expressions, and other similar markers. She had corresponded regularly with Muggle psychiatrists to make sure it targeted the right stimuli. The truth device, as it was dubbed, was now a fixture in the interrogation room.
In the last decade, the plans had been more subtle and political, Thomas had continued lobbying the Wizengamot to remove archaic laws and improve the treatment of magical creatures and other minorities. He also continued shaping Hogwarts, and after a few years was able to get the now Headmistress McGonagall to change the Muggle Studies class to Muggle Culture, update the syllabus and make it mandatory the first three years for the Wizarding-raised students. A few people suggested to Thomas he should become Minister over the years but the couple preferred to work from the shadows. In 1953, Thomas finally finished his Mastery and joined Hermione's burgeoning business on the potions side, they often worked together but mostly had their own areas of expertise. With now a company of two, they called themselves Gaunt's Mystical Solutions, or GMS.
The only time the couple went back to their ruthlessness, alongside Alphard Black and Alastor Moody, was when Bellatrix Black turned 4 years old. To Hermione's dismay, Cygnus Black did become a father at 13 alongside his girlfriend Druella Rosier, also 13. With Pollux still abroad and Sirius having died, Arcturus Black took the situation in hand himself and had the couple married and out of school before Bellatrix was born, they continued their education with private tutors and focused on raising their daughter. Andromeda and Narcissa came in quick succession right after, and Druella Rosier Black did not survive the third birth, neither did Bellatrix sanity. Hermione and Thomas had chosen a wait and see approach but Bellatrix behaved rashly and was unstable from the start, her mother's death made her snap and she tried to kill the newborn Narcissa with knives.
Although they knew they had to act, killing a child was morally complicated no matter how deranged and soulless said child was. It took them a long time to come up with a plan while keeping their eyes on things to make sure her youngest sisters were safe. Eventually, Dobby put an odourless, tasteless and not detectable poison in Bellatrix's tea before she went to bed, the poison had been a creation by Thomas and Bellatrix was dead by morning from what the Healers said was a massive aneurysm, that she had likely been born with. The potion Thomas created was meant to trigger a fatal issue lingering in the subject.
Cygnus was devastated but sadly relieved as well and dedicated himself to Andromeda and Narcissa. Sadly, that dedication was not a shared trait in the family, and soon enough Walburga Black had two little boys. Kreacher had been reporting on the treatment Sirius and Regulus received and when Regulus turned one year old, they intervened.
The family lived at Grimmauld Place and often enough Walburga would venture outside and into Muggle London for a couple of close-by errands, on one of these days she was surprised to suddenly find herself in front of a massive city bus. Hermione had imperiused her to cross the street to cross paths with the bus and had lifted the curse seconds before impact. She had been keeping an eye on Orion but all her diagnostics came up blank for potions of charms, and she had to admit the man was simply not completely right or present. In the continued absence of Pollux and the recent death of Arcturus, Alphard was able to officially step in, take both boys from Orion and legally adopt them with Alastor Moody-Black after getting married.
Around the same time, in the dying industrial town of Cokeworth, Hermione was looking into the matter of Severus Snape. She had known, years after the war that his childhood had not been pleasant despite being friends with Lily Evans so she had made a point to stop by often to check in and see what was happening. She realised quickly Tobias Snape was the issue, the man was an alcoholic who beat his wife, despised her magic and would beat his son soon enough. Hermione knew Eileen Prince had been disowned by her parents for marrying Tobias, while Eileen seemed to believe their issue was that the man was a Muggle, she knew the Princes had seen what would happen and disapproved of the unhealthy relationship. Hermione decided to simply put poison into Tobias' drink one night, a magical poison the Muggle police wouldn't be able to detect that would lead to an unfortunate heart attack. Once Eileen and Severus were on their own, Hermione went to the Princes with talks of visions and saw to the reunification of the Prince family.
The decade had been good for the Gaunts, Hermione was relieved once Sirius and Regulus were taken in by Alphard and Alastor, and Severus Snape became Severus Prince. Her close friendship with Dorea also allowed Hermione to hold James Potter in her arms days after his birth, and while Lyall Lupin was not a close friend she still knew Remus had been born as well and would never meet the late Greyback.
Although she felt a small amount of grief at the removal of Bellatrix and Walburga, she was mostly saddened by their inability to change. Thaddeus Nott, on the other hand, had been a breath of fresh hair. Removed from the evil influence of his father, he had been able to evolve and distance himself from his ancestors, eventually he married an American muggleborn witch he met at the Ministry and together they had Theodore Nott a few months into 1960.
A/N - Thank you to AC for the bus idea
Two epilogues left and we're done