"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is that which dies in us while we live."

Norman Cousins

"I am so sorry Hermione! This is all my fault! If I had pushed harder you never would have come. You deserved to live, so much more than I did. I can never get over this, I can't be alone, not again, I killed you, I'm sorry."

Remus stopped his monologue. He thought he heard something. He leaned back over Hermione's dead body and heard the sound of breathing.

"Hermione? By Merlin! You're alive!"

He checked her breathing, and saw that she was indeed alive. However, she was in bad shape and had lost a lot of blood. Remus gently lifted her onto her feet and disapparate , not thinking about the consequences.

"Quickly! A mediwizard, my friend is between life and death."

A team came to take care of the young woman and Remus was left alone in the hallway to wait. A man came to see him. He deduced that he was an apprentice still in school because of his young age and the color of his robe, which was lighter than that of the wizards he had seen before.

"Is that your wife in the operating room? Your daughter?"

"Neither, she's a friend. A close friend."

"All right, the mediwizards are taking care of her in the operating room, but they sent me to gather information about her injuries. What could have caused such extensive injuries? We saw countless scars on her body, how did they appear? But you are bleeding! You are injured too. Come on, I will treat you."

Remus followed the apprentice mediwizard, even though he told him his wounds were superficial, which earned him a good scowl. He disinfected his wounds and closed them with healing spells.

"You have countless scars too. Can you answer my questions now?"

"As for my friend's wound, she was attacked by a werewolf last night. I thought she was dead at first, but then I heard her shallow breathing. So I apparate here. As for our scars, it's the passage of the war on our bodies."

"War? There is no war in Spain. Unless you are…"

"We are British. But you know, the physical scars are nothing compared to the mental scars. You don't know that, you live relatively well, you're going to be a doctor, you're going to have children, you're going to have a house, you're going to have a life. But never forget this, You-Know-Who and his followers will never be satisfied. They have defeated and enslaved the British people. They're going after France and Germany. Spain will be soon. That's why he is the most dangerous black mage. The others were content with rape, torture and murder. He wants to see each person's flame of life extinguished to the point of death, to see their slow descent into hell."

The young man was stunned. His expression was not at all flattering, his mouth was open and his eyes were wide open, as if they were about to burst out of their sockets. The young medicomage had of course detected something, under the cold mask of the man. A gleam in his eyes that screamed pain and fear. He couldn't imagine a quarter of what the man had been through, and thinking back, he wondered if the young woman had seen worse. The man was older than her, but she must have been in her early twenties, her innocence must have been shattered early. But the man being older, had undoubtedly lived more things.

Lost in his thoughts, the young man did not see Remus leave the room. He wondered who these two British People could be, coming from nowhere, wounded and resisting the dictatorship. He returned to inform his superiors of the nature of the young woman's injuries. They had just finished the operation and he could see the young woman in the recovery room. But of course he knew her, she was Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's best friend, the last remaining resistance fighter in the UK.

"Fernandez! Come here! So this report?" The doctor ordered.

"Yes, sir. The wound was made by a rampaging werewolf during the full moon, and the scars date back several months to the war. They are English." He added, as if the word were taboo.

"Of course I saw that they were werewolf bites, you idiot! What I want to know is who this wolf is."

"From the scars, I think it's the patient's friend, but I can't be sure."

"Yes, I thought so, very well Fernandez, you can go."

The young man left without asking for his rest and crossed the corridor until Hermione's door. He hesitated to enter then changed his mind and continued his way.

A few hours later, Hermione slowly awoke and was led to a room. Remus joined her and before they could start talking, the wizard entered the room.

"Good morning, Doctor Sanchez at your service. So I'm the one who operated on you and I did my job well. You will not have any after-effects on your scars, however, being that it is a werewolf which bit you, you will not remain unharmed and will have to transform you with each full moon. It is this transformation that caused the internal bleeding, it would have been only external otherwise. Do you have any questions, Miss?"

"No, thank you, can you leave us alone?" She said in a cold tone.

After an outraged look, the mediwizard left the room, not without muttering about "these young people of our days who do not respect anybody anymore", leaving the two friends alone.

"But who does he think he is! It's a good thing he did his job well, that idiot!"

"Hermione."

"And to call me Miss, as if I were a ten year old girl who didn't understand what was being said to her!"

"Hermione!"

"What?"

"When are you going to get out? We don't want to stay in a wizarding environment for too long."

"But I'm ready, let's go. Yes" she continued after seeing the look on Remus' face, "I know what I'm doing, I'm fine and I'm not at risk. Good, good. We have to go back to the hotel, I didn't have time to get our things under the circumstances. But I think that we will not have to stay there, with all the blood, they had to call the muggle aurors, how it is already, ah yes the policemen. And then we transplanted, even if we are not in the UK anymore, I don't know if they can spot us."

Remus and Hermione had moved to another hotel, not far from the wizarding district and the airport. Remus had gone to restock the potion ingredients as quietly as possible. Neither of the two friends dared to broach the subject of the bite, but they both knew that it was going to be an inevitable step. Remus was the first to broach the subject, not wanting to go on.

"I'm so sorry for infecting you, Hermione. I know that my whole life won't be enough to make up for it and that it will be horrible, you'll be in a lot of pain, if you only knew how much I feel, it's all my fault."

"Rem' stop! I knew very well the risks I was taking by staying with you during the full moon. I was well aware that I could be bitten. I did it and I don't regret it at all!"

"How can you say that? I am a monster! A horrible monster. You may never understand the scope of my act but you do realize, I ruined your life!"

"Do I look like a monster?"

"What, of course not, why would you say that?"

"All right, if I'm not a monster, then neither are you."

"That's not the point. You don't know this pain, this compulsion."

Hermione opened her mouth, indignant at this reply. She didn't know pain? She was very angry at Remus for underestimating what she had experienced.

"How dare you say I don't know pain? I've been tortured, I've been raped, I've seen my friends die in front of me, I've seen my best friends die, I've seen Harry die. That was pain! To see the person who knew me best, who I trusted completely lose his life, to see his green eyes extinguished. You don't know what it's like. So when it comes to suffering, don't give me a lecture. I'm sure it's horrible, but Harry and Ron are worth so much more than a little furry problem."

The two friends looked at each other for a long time, without daring to speak. Hermione didn't expect to spill her guts like this, thinking that these words would never pass her lips. And Remus didn't expect what Hermione had gone through. He knew she had suffered, but he never imagined, even in his wildest dreams, a quarter of what she had gone through. At the same time they realized that their eyes had not held back the liberating tears.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea how much you have suffered and been destroyed by this war. But you never told me anything about your years before."

"I didn't feel ready."

The young woman took a deep breath, sat down in a chair and began her story.

"We all became aware of the world at a different time in our lives, and I'll tell you about it from my point of view and a little from Harry's. Our short lives but long lives. Our short lives, but our long torture, began each time with a key event. Harry's long descent into hell began on the twenty-fourth of 1995. The day of the third task, the day of the return of... The day Cedric Diggory died.

From that point on, he kept to himself. How could we understand him? He had seen death, fought the darkness. Ron and I knew nothing of this. And then summer came and we went our separate ways. I spent a few days with my parents, but soon returned to the Order's headquarters. I was so happy to be back in the magical world, back with everyone."

"I remember at the beginning of the summer you were still calling me Professor."

"Yes, I did... I always felt bad for not contacting Harry. He was so lonely and I was quietly going about my life with the Weasleys. He was so angry when he found out. I should have rebelled against Dumbledore, not let him give up Harry. I think that's when I really started to realize what was going on with his aunt and uncle. We started the year off pretty easy but Harry was in a lot of pain. No one believed him about Voldy's return, Umbridge was torturing him. Dumbledore's army was a kind of escape, even though we were learning to fight. And then disaster struck. The Battle of the Ministry. I still blame Kreattur for lying to us. If it weren't for him, Sirius would be alive, Harry would have been so much happier in his sixth year. That's when my own descent into hell began, with Sirius' death and Harry's screams. The worst screams I have ever heard. The pain, the suffering" she finished, sobbing.

Remus took her in his arms so that she could calm down. Despite her tears Hermione continued to tell her story. She told him about her sixth year, Harry's classes with Dumbledore, her nightmares and Harry's increasingly violent ones. Grief…

"Ron wasn't always supportive of us this year. I think he had this need to separate himself from Harry and me, to prove that he could please too. Harry was very split between us even though he spent more time with me, I was alone without him. I think Ron's descent into hell started with the Death Eater invasion, when he saw Bill's face damaged, when Dumbledore died."

Hermione recounted through Harry's memories that night, the suspicions Harry had about Draco Malfoy, who had been unable to kill Dumbledore.

"Now I'll tell you what the three of us went through. No one ever knew. No one ever knew. I don't know if I can tell you everything now, but I'll try."

The young woman paused during her story, which Remus understood and gave her the time she needed. She explained Harry's time in the Burrow from her point of view and his resignation and withdrawal from the war. Dumbledore's death had hurt him deeply and he was not getting over it. Bill and Fleur's marriage seemed insignificant and out of place in the context. But Harry didn't talk about it, and he kept to himself more and more, without Ron or Hermione being able to do anything about it.

"Then, as you know, the Burrow was attacked and we left. We transplanted to London, but Voldy's name was already taboo and the Death Eaters spotted us."

Hermione paused once more to clear her head and then continued. She began to recount painful memories of her last year with her best friends together, Grimmauld Square, the Ministry, the forest and Ron's abandonment, leaving out parts like her torture with Bellatrix, only that their wands had been taken and Harry was using Draco Malfoy's wand and she was using a stnatcher'. She told of Dobby's death, the escape to Gringotts and then the Battle of Hogwarts. The members of the Order and the AD who fell, each in turn. The announcement of the death of his best friend, Harry resurrecting, resisting again the Avada Kedavra, the battle that resumed in a fierce way. The death of Tonks, of Remus, of all the Weasleys. The duel between Harry and Voldemort, Bellatrix attacking him as a traitor. Ron holding Hermione back as she was about to rush over Harry's body. The death of McGonagall. The survivors who run away. The escape to Lestrange Manor to free the prisoners, more torture, always more painful than the previous ones. This was the occasion for Hermione to recover her own wand as well as the pieces of Harry's. Kingsley's death, Neville's death, and then the death of all the survivors, little by little. In March 1999, ten months after the battle, only Ron and Hermione were left.

The two friends had grown up together. They had grown up tremendously. Although their laughter was scarce, each was a constant support to the other. They were never apart except at night, when each needed their own space to cry. Ron's death was a real heartbreak for Hermione. Her only support after Harry was gone, her only best friend.

"None of this is your fault Hermione. You couldn't have known what was going to happen. You were all children. You, Harry, Ron, Neville, Draco. You were children and you were sent to the front. You had to take on responsibilities that most average adults would never take on. From an early age, you suffered losses, had to test your skills. Harry lost his parents and in some ways, so did Neville. Draco was conscripted into the Death Eaters, simply because he was a Malfoy, he had no choice. It was either that or he would die. You and Ron had to support Harry in all his battles, had to face things that children could not imagine. You've fought Death Eaters twice your age, you've gone on months-long horcruxes hunts out of friendship. You were all thrust into the adult world far too soon. You were just children who were forced to grow up way too fast."

"Thank you" she replied simply, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"But I have a question. How come you're using Harry's wand when you told me it was broken?"

"Oh. Well, one day I dropped a tear on the wand and it fixed itself. I did some research on it. I think it's because Harry was the dearest person to me, his wand understood that."

"I have another question. Grimmauld Square was no longer under the fidelium charm so how did you get back there?"

"The mangemort who had apparate was killed before he could get to his master. I didn't find out until much later. I didn't think I was the keeper of the house when I went back to get some things."

The two friends went to bed after their discussion. Remus spent a fairly quiet night, his night in wolf form and the events of the night before had exhausted him. Hermione, once again, spent a sleepless night.

Three days had passed and the two friends were about to board their plane to Australia. Over the past few days, Hermione and Remus had been preparing a considerable stock of potion ingredients. They hadn't had any ingredients for several months, so they preferred to stock up. They had a first flight from Madrid to Doha, which took about nine hours and then a one-hour layover. Their second flight was a little over fourteen hours. They were leaving, but for how long? Their quest was so long. He didn't even see the half of it. Changing countries was not a problem, it was already done. But changing continents was another step. What would be the next? Changing planets?

Hermione, as usual, had taken as many books as she could to learn more about coral. She started to read the first one and was soon discouraged. The Great Barrier Reef measured over three hundred and forty-eight thousand seven hundred square kilometers. Although the young woman knew the barrier was huge, she did not expect it to be so gigantic. Three hundred and forty-eight thousand seven hundred square kilometers to search from top to bottom. Looking for a needle in a hayfield would have been much easier. And then knowing what to look for would seem to be one of the most important things. But what is the Jewel of Time? Hermione had no idea what it was. She didn't share her concerns with Remus. Hermione had developed this flaw since the war: she kept everything that bothered or even terrified her to herself. This habit had not left her at all since she had returned to Remus' company. She put her book away and tried to sleep, but it proved impossible. The future promised to be a long and bumpy ride.