"Old books have the scent of forgotten words."

Sandra Dulier

Hermione gently poured the vial of blood onto the first page of the book and the runes turned into words.

« Congratulations to you, readers! You have successfully discovered this book that makes you the Time Chosen. »

"What are the Time Chosen?"

"Keep reading, Rem'."

« In the final phase, you will discover the secret of this book, but you must first pass the other two phases. If you succeed, you will have a chance to save your world, Wizards. But beware, it will be a long journey of pain, horror and choice. The world rests on you. »

"Great, we don't have any pressure on us at all, right now, everything is fine."

"Hermione, we already knew that the future of the world rested on us!"

Remus saw Hermione's eyes fill with tears. It was the first time he had seen her cry. Oh, he knew she cried at night, but she didn't want to show him. He opened his arms to her and Hermione took refuge in them, sobbing.

"Yes huh it's true… we knew that the world… rested on our… shoulders. But it hurts… when it's written by someone else, she managed to articulate between her tears."

"Don't worry, we're going to make it, we can't start feeling sorry for ourselves, we've got to pull ourselves together."

Hermione picked up the book again and spilled a little blood on the next page.

« Time Chosen, this is phase one:

The union of the world's greatest living animal and time has created the Jewel of Nature, the Jewel of Nature has created the Jewel of Time. Find it near its parent, where kangaroos are king. This is phase one. »

"I think this is not going to be as easy as we thought."

It had been a few weeks since the two survivors had discovered the riddle, they had it in their heads without being able to understand it. Hermione was distraught, never had something failed her for so long but since that book came into her life, everything had changed. She left her room and went downstairs, she saw Remus reading the riddle again. He didn't need it anymore, he knew it by heart now, and so did Hermione. Still, it gave them hope that there was still a small clue they had missed. But the more the days went by, the more they doubted it.

"Happy birthday Remus!"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Today is the tenth of March, it's your birthday, isn't it?"

"How can you think about my birthday when we don't even know if we're going to live tomorrow? I'm forty years old! Can you believe it?"

"I thought it might do us good to think about something else. Here are your presents, I couldn't wrap them" she said, handing him a bag.

Remus grabbed it and took out two books and another bag. He looked at the two books first, one was Muggle while the second was wizard.

"Occlumency for beginners?"

"Yes, this is very important, I saw that you were not trained at all and Voldy could very well get into your mind if he is near."

"Voldy? You can't be serious" smiled the wizard, his eyes laughing.

"His full name is taboo, so I thought of Voldy."

Remus raised his eyebrows but said nothing. He continued to look at his gifts and picked up the second book.

"The little known sea animals?"

Hermione proceeded to explain to him that it was a Muggle book, as it had become impossible to buy wizarding books. The first book was hers, but it was no longer in use, so this was an opportunity to give it to someone who needed it. She thought she might like this book. Remus thanked her, somewhat surprised by the two gifts. He reached into the last remaining bag and pulled out a Muggle disguise.

"What's that?"

"You never dressed up as a child? It's your birthday! We need to take our minds off things, and if ever there was a day to do it, it's today."

It was the most beautiful evening since the battle, they ate well, listened to music—witch and muggle—talked quietly, something they had not really done since their fight or even since Remus' arrival. They didn't laugh until their stomachs hurt, or cry, but they did have a few smiles, which was a big improvement for everyone.

Remus was reading. Since Hermione had given him her books, he had been practicing his occlumency a lot. He was also learning a lot about sea animals. This was the book he was reading, but the riddle of the Book of Time was still on their minds. After a while, he came across something that surprised him greatly.

"Hermione!"

"Yes. Where are you?"

"I'm here. I've just discovered something. Did you know that coral is an animal and not a plant?"

"Of course I did. Didn't you learn that at school? You told me your mother was a Muggle, didn't you go to a Muggle school?"

"Yes, it was important to my mother that I had a Muggle education, but I don't remember that."

"Why are you asking me this?"

"In my book, coral is described as the largest living animal in the world or as the Jewel of Nature."

"Are you kidding?"

Hermione snatched the book from his hands and began to read the chapter on corals. When she finished it, she had to face the obvious.

"We have to go somewhere where there is coral, I'm sure that's it. Where the kangaroos are kings. Where kangaroos are king?"

Remus decided not to interrupt her thoughts, he knew she hated that and it could get them both out of this situation.

"But yes! They say Australia is the land of kangaroos, that must be it. We have to go there. Yes, that's right, we'll do that."

"Hermione, we can't just leave, we have to get ready first."

"Yes, you're right. We shouldn't rush into anything."

Thus, the two friends trained hard. Remus taught Hermione the art of dueling, she knew it but not enough according to Remus. Hermione taught him occlumency and Muggle combat, which could always be useful. When they weren't training, they were in the potions lab making polyjuice potion, veritaserum, felix felicis and many other potions. Hermione, like a few years before, was also preparing the books they had to take with them.

"Hurry up Rem'! Hurry up!"

"Did we forget anything?"

"No, everything is in my bag, go faster."

The two friends left the Square in a hurry. Indeed, Hermione had apparate badly with the cloak and the mangemort on guard had seen it. He had therefore rushed to report their hiding place to his master. Since then, they erased all traces of their research and finalized their trip. However, they had to hurry. They had to leave on foot. Once out of the house, they tried to leave quickly, but it was too late. Voldemort was already there.

"Here comes the wolf and the leech! It's been a long time since I've had a chance to torture you. Capture them!" he ordered his Death Eaters.

"Avada Kedavra"

"Sectusempra"

"Crucio"

"Impedimenta"

"Silencio"

"Immobulus"

The spells went on and on without a second's respite. The weaker Death Eaters were falling, but Remus and Hermione were two against a hundred, which was quite problematic and their chances of getting out of it were low.

"I have an idea! Get behind me."

Remus somehow managed to hide near Hermione after avoiding a number of unforgivable spells.

"PROTEGO MAXIMA"

An invisible barrier was created between the mangemorts and the two friends.

"Reducio"

Hermione and Remus became tiny and disappeared from the eyes of the Death Eaters. Remus didn't really understand what was going on, and why he was so small.

"Come on, Rem' run!"

"Can you explain this to me?"

"I cast the shriveling spell on us. We need to find a place to grow taller and become invisible. We have to go to the airport."

"Why don't we stay small?"

"But Rem' we'll never make it to the airport if we stay small. Besides" she hesitated, "I didn't know if the spell worked on humans, so I don't want to stay too small."

"You never cast this spell?" he choked.

"Only on objects."

The two wizards were, a few hours later, finally on a plane. There was no plane to Australia for several days, but they decided to leave their country as soon as possible. Their plane landed at the airport in Madrid and the wizards rushed to the reception desk to catch the next flight to Australia. They were lucky, there was one in a few hours and it was far from being full. Before she could buy it, Remus took Hermione aside, away from prying ears.

"Hermione, it's a full moon tonight! I won't be able to transform on the plane. I'm really sorry, but we'll have to wait longer."

"Oh. You could have told me before! But it's okay, we'll wait. For a few days... We'll take the opportunity to go to Madrid and get what we need."

She went to ask the hostess when the next flight would be. After having settled all the reservations, she returned with her friend.

"It's okay, in a little over six days we'll be in Australia. That will leave you five days to rest plus all the time of the journey."

It was half past eight and Hermione was taking the air on the terrace of their muggle hotel. A light breeze touched her face. She had always loved this feeling. The wind. The wind touching her face, the wind tangling in her hair, the wind seeping into her clothes. The wind reminded her of her childhood years, when she used to go on vacation by the sea with her parents. Parents who didn't remember her anymore. Parents who were also in Australia. Maybe she would see them. Oh she was not naive. She knew very well that she was just a stranger to them. Maybe they were even dead. No, she shouldn't think about them. She had made her choice years ago. It was in the past.

Lost in her thoughts, she realized that it was already 8:45 p.m. and in this month of April, the sun was about to set. She stubbed out her cigarette, cast a spell to mask the smell and went back up to Remus' room, ready for the ordeal

Moony was very upset tonight. The lack of a wolf potion and the new environment were not working in his favor. Hermione's phoenix was having a hard time calming him down. Every second of inattention could turn into drama. Hermione was doing quite well, but the fatigue she had accumulated over the past few days got the better of her and she looked away to see what time it was. She barely had time to see the time - four thirty - when the wolf jumped on her. Surprised, she had no control over it and reverted to her human form against her will. The wolf began to bite her and then deeper and deeper. She didn't have her wand and was no match for a wolf on her own. She had just enough time to get out of the way for a second and moved to her room.

Everything was pain. The pain radiated through her body. Every square millimeter of her skin burned, every cell in her body seemed to be consumed. She felt her body expand, her teeth lengthen, her clothes tear. Then Hermione lost all human consciousness.

Remus woke up naked and aching. His instincts told him at once that something was wrong, something unusual. He looked down at the ground and saw a lot of blood and many more bites on his body than after a 'normal' full moon. He was so exhausted that he didn't care. He lay down on his bed and fell asleep immediately. A few hours later, after recovering from his night, Remus found it strange that Hermione was not at his bedside. He decided to go and see her. He struggled to get out of bed, still aching, and got dressed. He walked down the hall and knocked on Hermione's door. There was no answer. Then he entered and his heart stopped. There she was. Peaceful. Her hair spread like a crown. One could believe that she was sleeping. One could think so. However, she was resting in a pool of blood. She was naked and had countless scars. She had many before, but there were many recent scars. Her face was neutral and her eyes were closed, but you could tell she had suffered.

Remus froze. He had always known it was a bad idea to accompany her during her transformations. He wasn't himself and without a wolf potion it was even worse. He was a monster. He fell to his knees. He would never recover, he had done too much harm, lost too many people. With tears in his eyes, he fell on Hermione's body, crying and moaning. With only one thought:

"I killed Hermione."