A/N: Thank you all for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Huge thanks to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter, too! You can find me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-three and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-four soon!
October brought the first Hogsmeade visit of the year. Rabastan had asked Hermione if she wanted to go with him alone, but she had panicked and told him that she wasn't ready yet. She thought that he looked disappointed, but he agreed and didn't push her to change her mind.
Worse of all, he was being so understanding and it made Hermione feel awful. She could tell that he was beginning to chafe from keeping their betrothal a secret. He'd suggested they just start telling people that they were dating because it would at least explain some of their behavior, but Hermione just couldn't do that yet. It felt like too much of a lie and she dreaded the possibility of everyone finding out that they were merely cleaning up after the mess her cousin made. It would just prove that Rabastan wouldn't even be with her if it wasn't for Bellatrix.
So, she brushed off the offer to go to Hogsmeade with Rabastan, though she did promise to meet up with him and the rest of the Slytherins in the Hog's Head after she spent some time with the girls. Even Elvira and Angus were going to spend the morning apart.
That didn't mean that she didn't field all sorts of questions about Rabastan from the rest of her roommates, who were convinced that there was something there. Hermione was able to brush them off for the most part, but they noticed her blush and teased her about being head over heels for the smart, good looking Chaser.
The morning of the Hogsmeade was chilly, with a persistent frost, so Hermione made sure she bundled up for their walk down to the village. When they arrived, the girls made a couple of stops around, including to Honeyduke's for chocolates and sweets, a new boutique which seemed to be mostly bohemian muggle fashions repurposed with a wizarding twist (not that Hermione would tell them that), and the perfumery.
It was nearly midday when Hermione waved her friends off, making the excuse that she wanted to spend a longer time at the bookstore. Mallory looked at her with a suspicious smirk, saying something sly about her meeting up with Rabastan. But, ultimately, they did leave Hermione to her own devices, seeing as they didn't want to spend more time at Tomes and Scrolls than she had to.
In truth, the purpose of her visit did have a little bit to do with Rabastan. He had given her such a thoughtful present for her birthday and she knew that his birthday was going to be coming up soon. She wanted to get him an equally thoughtful present. Even though their betrothal was arranged, that didn't mean that she didn't want to make an effort.
Wandering around the bookstore, she realized that she didn't actually know what she wanted to get him. He obviously cared a lot about his family, Arithmancy and Quidditch, but she was hard pressed coming up with what to get him. She let her fingers trail along the shelves aimlessly, hoping that something would jump out at her.
She ventured all the way into the back of the store, where the shelves got closer and closer together and progressively more filled with books. To her surprise, she found a dusty old book on medieval courtship rituals and picked it up, hoping to find some inspiration. Just as she was cracking the spine, a hand shot out and pulled her deeper into the shadows, pressing a hand over her mouth.
Hermione wanted to scream, but then her wound-be attacker was whispering in her ear. "Don't worry, it's just me, Sirius," he said.
She shoved his hand off of him and spun on her heel to look up at her older brother. "Salazar, what's wrong with you?" she demanded. "Do you always have to scare me into a meeting? What's with the subterfuge?"
"I didn't think that you'd want to be seen talking with me," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Now that we don't have as plausible of an excuse, seeing as I am no longer a student."
"I hardly think that anyone cares who I talk to," she said, crossing her arms over her chest, holding her book tightly to her body.
Sirius snorted. "I don't know, your future father-in-law might have half a dozen things to say, should he find out about you still speaking to me," he said, looking down at her like he'd caught her doing something naughty.
"Salazar, who told you?" Hermione hissed, looking around the bookstore, half expecting to see Rita Skeeter and her quick quotes quill there to capture every humiliating detail in an outrageously incorrect exclusive. "Did they announce it publicly?" She could feel her heart rate increasing, worrying that soon everyone would know about the betrothal and all the whispers that were sure to follow.
"Fuck," Sirius whispered, running his hands through his hair. "I didn't want to believe that it was true."
"Wait, what? What are you talking about, Sirius," she demanded, needing to know what the hell was going on.
He took a deep, shuddering breath. "Our father wrote to me about your impending nuptials," he admitted. "He told me that he had a lot to think about after you agreed to the marriage to Lestrange, but I sort of thought that he was just fucking with me. That he'd found out about us speaking to one another and that he hoped to make me furious. Goad me into something. Well, it worked."
"What did you do?" she wondered, unable to come up with what Sirius would have done.
"Nothing yet," he insisted. "But, I am furious. How could they even think to do something like this? How could they... how could they ask you? They already have Bellatrix. Isn't that enough?"
Hermione sighed, realizing that he didn't know about the ending of Bellatrix and Rodolphus's engagement. "I suppose you haven't heard the full story," she explained, sighing. She leaned back against the bookshelf, wishing that they could have this discussion over a firewhiskey, instead. "Bellatrix has scorned Rodolphus and taken up with Voldemort instead. The Lestranges would no longer accept her. It caused quite a panic, as you can imagine."
Sirius looked stunned to hear that. "How has this not gotten out?" he wondered out loud. He was a member of the Order, and certainly she would have expected them to know these kinds of details.
"The family is very determined to keep this quiet," Hermione explained. "We all met and it was determined that I was the only Black witch who was eligible to fulfill the betrothal pact, as Cassiopeia is past her prime and Cygnus wouldn't give up Narcissa to them."
He scoffed. "Of course he didn't," he said with a roll of his eyes. "Not as if it wasn't his daughter that got the family into this predicament in the first place. And the switch of grooms? Did Rodolphus become Voldemort's lover, too?"
"Regulus suggested that if I was to be the bride, that Rabastan would be better suited, seeing as he is not jilted and we are of the same age," she said with a blush on her cheeks. Of course, she knew that was not Regulus's only motivation.
"This is really happening?" he asked again in disbelief.
"Well, yes, I gave my word," Hermione said.
"Hermione, how could you agree?" he demanded, looking at her with wide eyes. "How could you promise to marry Rabastan Lestrange?"
"Hey! You were the one who was telling me he wasn't half bad six months ago!" she hissed at him, remembering that he had been the first of her two brothers who told her she could do worse than Rabastan.
"Yeah, to snog, not to marry the bloke!" he argued back. "Especially not when you are only doing it to fulfill some sort of fucked up pact that our family made. Do you want to marry him?"
A strangled noise got caught in her throat while she thought it over. She was coming around to the idea of Rabastan, but marriage was a big step. She wasn't ready to be married before she was twenty, fresh from Hogwarts. "Does it matter? I already said that I would and our family has given me concessions in return."
"Of course it matters, Hermione! It's your life. They never should have asked you," he said, shaking his head. Sirius's face got madder and madder, his quicksilver eyes growing hard. She could see him setting his jaw, determined not to say anything, before he changed his mind. "No, I'm not letting you do this."
"I'm going to do it, Sirius," she insisted.
He took a step closer to her and his voice dropped an octave. "No, I promise that I am going to get you back to your proper time before you have to get married. I'll — you shouldn't have to do this, Hermione," he said. "Listen, I'm still technically in the Auror Academy, but I was also approached by the Unspeakables. They are researching time magic. There is a whole room full of time turners."
"I know, I've seen it," she admitted, thinking back to the battle she'd fought in before she came here. She hadn't told him about the time turner that she'd grabbed from those shelves.
"So then you know," he insisted. "I'm going to figure it out."
Hermione felt her heart skip a beat. It was an intoxicating promise — one where she could close her eyes and pretend like none of this had ever happened. They would have to figure things out if she wasn't there. But, she didn't have the same earnest confidence in figuring it out that Sirius did. After all the research she'd looked into, she was fairly certain that it was a useless idea. "It would be... amazing if you could, Sirius," she said, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze. "But, I'm not going to hold my breath. If you can't figure things out, I still want to make whatever positive changes I can."
She wasn't entirely sure when, but she'd decided that Rabastan Lestrange might be amenable to some positive changes, too.
He dropped his head back and let out a chuckle. "I just realized what you said about concessions," he said. "That's why Father wrote to me, isn't it? You asked him to, in exchange for your betrothal."
Hermione shook her head. They'd been so focused on her marriage that she'd nearly forgotten him saying that Orion had written to him. "No, it wasn't in exchange for that," she admitted. "At Narcissa's wedding... Bellatrix was there and we were acting like nothing was wrong. She still gets to be in the family after what she did, but you don't? Father was upset, too."
Sirius snorted. "He just wanted to kick out Bellatrix, too," he scoffed. "I'm sure it wasn't about welcoming me back. It was just to get one over on Cygnus. He was always the worst."
Hermione hummed in agreement to his last statement. "While I think he would love to see Cygnus suffer some consequences... I don't think you are entirely right," she insisted. "Father misses you. Mother, too. They aren't good at showing it, but it's the truth."
He still did not look like he believed her. "Yeah, but he only wrote because you told him to," he insisted, unwilling to give this fight up.
She shook her head at his stubbornness. She supposed it was a family trait. "Sometimes we all need a push to do what's right," she said softly. "Maybe... don't write him off completely. He's trying, I'm trying. Could you try, just this once?"
"How do you get people to do everything that you want?" he asked, shaking his head. "You're very good at it."
"Only if you agree," she said, giving his hand another squeeze. "But, it's your choice, of course. We've been here too long. My friends will probably be looking for me. I'm meant to meet them at the Hog's Head. But, I missed you, Sirius. You promised you'd write, remember?"
He nodded his head jerkily, obviously still thinking about what she'd asked of him. "I'll write," he agreed, nodding. "You better go first. I'll leave a few minutes after."
Hermione agreed, and extracted herself from the maze of book shelves she'd wound her way though, before leaving out the front door, the little bell jingling behind her. She headed off in the direction of the Hog's Head, a large, black dog running past her a few moments later.
It was raucous when she got into the Hog's Head, with everyone laughing and cheering, the girls having already arrived. Hermione stopped at the bar to order herself a firewhiskey, before sliding into the seat next to Regulus. He looked at her strangely when she got there. "Everything okay?" he asked, obviously worried about her. "Elvira said you left an hour ago."
She gave her brother a tight smile. "Oh, just... agonizing over finding a present for Rabastan's birthday," she half-lied. "Didn't turn anything up, I'm afraid."
A smirk appeared on Regulus's face. "I can think of a few things that you could give him that you make him very happy," he teased.
"Regulus!" she scolded, giving his arm a slap.
"Hey, I'm just happy that you are staying true to your word," he said, his face softening. "Now, drink your firewhiskey. We don't have much time before we have to go back to the castle."