A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Huge thank you to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter, too! You can find me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter fifty-seven and be on the lookout for fifty-eight in a few days!
Hermione had finally found some sense of purpose now, secure in the knowledge that her family and Rabastan were on her side when it came to the plan to actively fight against Voldemort. Since coming back from the past, she'd been feeling like she was flailing, but with her decision made, she finally had solid ground under her feet once again.
She promised herself that she would be patient and wait for Orion, as she said she would, but as September made way into October, even her new Charms work could not keep her attention. How could she just be studying for a mastery, pretending like there weren't people disappearing and dying out there every day? How could she pretend like Harry wasn't in grave danger as long as Voldemort was still breathing.
Finally, she did not feel like she could sit and wait like a good girl any longer, something that she told her family over breakfast.
"Any word from Dumbledore?" she asked her father, pointedly. "I feel like we can't move forward until we speak with him, not just in regards to Voldemort, but as to my parents as well."
She worried about her Muggle parents every day, unsure what they had been told about her disappearance. Even if they heard the fantastic story, would they believe anything that the Ministry had to say? Would they be disappointed in her for running headlong into danger? She knew that they weren't exactly thrilled about what she'd lived through at Hogwarts and had even considered pulling her after she'd been petrified in her second year.
"I have written to him twice to request a meeting, but I've been rebuffed so far," Orion said with a sneer. "Dumbledore and I do not see eye to eye on a great many things."
In a fit of pique, Hermione slammed her hand down on the table, wondering when her Headmaster had become so acutely unhelpful for her. Was it merely her relation to the Black family? "That's unacceptable," she said, grinding her teeth a bit. "I need to speak with him."
"I can take you to Hogwarts," Sirius offered, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't have anywhere to be this morning and being on the Board of Governors means that I can just drop in whenever I'd like."
"Great, I'll just change and then we can go," Hermione said, with a grin, before she turned to look at Orion. "If that's alright with you, Father." She was going to try to listen to him, the same way that he'd listened to her.
Orion gave her a quick nod and she was off with a flash before he could change his mind. She changed into her most casual of robes, wondering if she should ask Sirius to take her shopping in the future, or if she was just destined to wear a witch's wardrobe for the rest of her life.
Racing back down the stairs, she found Sirius waiting for her in the parlor. They Floo'd into the Three Broomsticks, stopping at the bar to chat with Rosmerta for a few minutes, before they made the walk up to the castle together. There weren't many students outside — the weather being too unpleasant — but once they were inside, there was no hiding from the curious looks and stares.
Hermione scanned the students, looking for any sign of Harry or Weasley red hair, only to be disappointed not to see anyone. They strode up to the Headmaster's office, with Sirius demanding entry to the gargoyle. After a moment's introspection, the gargoyle hopped aside and let them into the spiral staircase.
Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, looking rather annoyed to see them. "Mister Black, what a surprise," he said, before his gaze settled on her. "Miss Black."
"Is it?" Sirius asked, with a wry smirk. "I understand that our Father has been attempting to reach you about a matter of great importance and that his messages have been unanswered."
"Perhaps the absence of an answer is an answer," Dumbledore said, leaning back in his chair. "The world does not work at the behest of Orion Black."
"Ah, but you do work at the behest of the Board of Governors, do you not, Headmaster?" Sirius asked, his voice a familiar drawl that he leaned into to make his point.
Dumbledore smiled, but his blue eyes were not winking with delight, as Hermione had remembered as a young student. "And are you here on behalf of the Board of Governors, Sirius, or is this a more personal call?" he asked, not giving an inch.
"In a way, it is both," Sirius countered, his nostrils flaring. "I believe you remember my sister, Hermione Black?"
Hermione stared at him, wondering what he'd make of her. He had dismissed her repeatedly while she was in the past, but he'd been a friendly and helpful presence when she was a younger witch, friends with Harry Potter. "Surely, you remember me by my other name as well? Granger," she said, taking a step forward, willing him to be helpful, the way that he'd always been.
"From the first time that I saw you put on the Sorting Hat as a First Year, I wondered what would happen to send you back in time," he said, letting his gaze fall heavy on her. "I've been watching for signs as the Black family has meddled all these years."
Sirius looked affronted. "We never would have done something like that," he hissed, perhaps forgetting that he was the reason that she was back to the present. "We hoped that Hermione would never be sent back, even if it meant her not knowing that we are her real family."
"Well, what happened then?" the older wizard asked, expectantly. "Harry could provide no answers, aside from his frantic explanations that you'd simply vanished."
Hermione bit her lower lip. "I found a time turner. I was hoping to go back just a few hours, to warn Harry and the rest of us that it was a trap, but Bellatrix caught me, and..." she trailed off, looking away. "She grabbed for the time turner and I ended up much further back than I thought."
"Ah," he said, after a beat of silence. "So it appears that your family was the cause of her unfortunate sojourn."
Sirius looked like he was going to lunge across the table at the suggestion. "Don't you dare call that witch my family," he said with a sneer. "She hasn't been for many years now."
"My muggle parents," Hermione choked out, wanting to know what had happened to them most of all. "What did you tell them happened to me?"
Dumbledore let out a sigh, looking at her over his half-moon spectacles. "We waited as long as we could, but with no sign of your return, there was only one thing we could tell them," he said. "The Ministry informed them that you had died."
Hermione could not hear anything except for the blood rushing in her ears as the words sunk in. Her muggle parents thought that she had died? Salazar, just what the hell had they been thinking? She felt a bit faint, but didn't realize that she was swaying on her feet until Sirius was grabbing her arm and helping her to sit down in her chair.
What was she going to do now? In some ways, it felt like she had already mourned them, when she thought that she was going to be in the past forever. But, it didn't feel right to let them believe the lie. Still, it would need to be handled delicately. Father had been right — she couldn't just show up on their doorstep as she was. The shock could kill them.
"Why did you do that?" she asked, her voice icy and hard. "You knew where I'd really ended up. Surely you could have told them the truth!"
"I didn't know any better," Dumbledore defended himself. "When you disappeared after your graduation, I suspected that you might have died. Godric knows that your family wasn't saying anything about you. It was as if you hadn't even been there to begin with."
"Don't be ridiculous," she wanted to argue, even though she didn't really know what it had been like when she'd gone.
"In some ways, I would say that Hermione Granger has died," he said, disdainfully. "You are more Black than Granger at this point anyway, in your dress robes, capitulating to betrothal contracts."
A noise of frustration bubbled out of her throat, wondering who he was to judge her for taking the help she'd been given. What had he expected her to do? "I asked you for your help," she snarled. "I tried to talk to you — to broach the topic — back when I was at school and you didn't do a thing. You practically slammed the door in my face."
Sirius looked at her with surprise, but didn't say anything, just kept a reassuring hand on her arm.
She watched as Dumbledore's throat bobbed, an unusual characteristic for a wizard who was normally so unflappable. "It might have been a mistake, to dismiss you out of hand," he said, measuring each of his words. "And if you did not feel supported while at Hogwarts then I apologize—"
"That's not a real apology, Dumbledore," she said, staring him down. "You don't apologize for how I feel, you apologize for what you did to me."
Dumbledore didn't have anything else to say after she cut him off. Hermione could feel Sirius beside her, his annoyance only increasing the longer the silence stretched on.
"I want to speak with Harry and Ron," Hermione said imperiously, crossing her arms over her chest. Ultimately, she didn't need the Headmaster to apologize to her or even like her. He wasn't critical in bringing down Voldemort, but Harry was.
"Out of the question," he retorted, not even giving her demand a second of thought.
"But I need to talk to Harry," she said fervently. "We have information about Voldemort, Professor. Important information that Harry will need if he is ever going to defeat Voldemort for good."
The Headmaster's gaze was hard. "I think you've mistaken my talking to you today for an acceptance of your help," he said, sharply. "I am sorry, but we don't want your help — or your family's — in this fight. Harry already has everything he needs."
"I'm afraid that you are mistaken," she continued, frustrated at being rebuffed for a second time. "Voldemort has come back several times now. And unless you let me share my information with Harry, I'm afraid the cycle will continue. Haven't you ever wondered why —"
Dumbledore stood up, pressing his hands to the top of his desk, revealing a horrid truth that he'd been hiding. One of his hands was gnarled and blackened, looking almost like it had been charred by some fire. The dark tendrils of the curse extended up the skin of his wrist and into his robe. "I assure you that you don't have any information that I do not," he said.
Hermione felt a little bit relieved. Even though Dumbledore hadn't said the word horcrux, surely he knew what they were alluding to, which meant that Harry would know, too. "What happened to your hand?" she questioned.
"A mistake," he said firmly, a flash of shame appearing on his face for a moment.
Her heart thundered against her ribcage, wondering what sort of mistake he'd made. Previously, Headmaster Dumbledore had seemed almost infallible, but now... now she was beginning to see him in a new light.
"Harry does not need your help and neither do I. You will do well not to meddle in things that you do not understand," he warned, staring at her.
"As if you can claim any moral high ground about meddling," she countered with a roll of her eyes.
He looked at her sharply. "Although we don't need your help, allow me to give you some that you might find helpful," he said, looking magnanimous. "Tom has become aware of who and what you are. It is an interest of him. I'd recommend that you make yourself as uninteresting as possible for your own safety."
Hermione felt a bolt of fear go through her. She'd been completely unremarkable for years, but as Hermione Granger, she didn't have any illusions that he'd not known who she was. She cursed Bernie Rosier for recognizing her at the Ministry once again, sure that she'd still be an unknown quantity if it wasn't for him.
"I assure you that we can keep my sister safe just fine on our own, Albus," Sirius said sharply, before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Hermione, let's get out of here."
They did not wait for Dumbledore to say goodbye and Hermione practically had to jog to keep up with Sirius's long strides. Once they were back out on the Hogwarts grounds, he turned to face her with a grim look on his face.
"Fuck, his hand looked awful," he said, unhappily. "Whatever curse it was must have been powerful."
"Do you think he got it trying to destroy one of the... you know?" she asked, not feeling comfortable saying the word horcrux out loud where anyone could overhear.
"I don't know," he answered. "But Father will want to hear about it. How many of those bloody things could You-Know-Who have made?"
"I hope Dumbledore knows what he's doing," Hermione said, even as worry gnawed away in her belly. She was beginning to realize that maybe the Headmaster didn't always have the most well thought out plan. She wished she'd been able to see Harry. She needed to warn him, concerned that Dumbledore wouldn't have let him in on the danger.
Biting her lower lip, she decided that she would just have to reach out to him directly, and hoped that her unceremonious return from the grave did not come as too big of a surprise.