"You travel around the world looking for something and you come home to find it."

George Moore.

Remus and Hermione had found it very difficult to accept the fact that they had to return to Hogwarts. The mere mention of it, even if unintentional, would send them into fits of anguish and tears and so the months passed, with neither of them having the courage to face the ghosts of their past. One morning in March, Remus decided that they had to pull themselves together. They were not worthy of being considered 'the Time Chosen' if they did not have the courage to try anything. They were Gryffindors, of course! What would their friends, their families, everyone who mattered to them say? They would be ashamed of having been their friends, ashamed of having been in the same house as them, which held courage as the essential virtue.

Remus entered Hermione's room and calmly told her that they could not go on like this. They were destroying not only their physical health, but also their mental health. To Remus's astonishment, who thought his friend would need more time, Hermione agreed immediately and they began preparations for their return to the UK, their return to Scotland, that very day. They obviously couldn't use wizarding transport, but they decided to stay there as little time as possible. Arriving in London and then crossing the country was not an option. Even if the Death Eaters were more than a little hostile to Muggles, some of them would surely be waiting for the two wizards in Muggle places. The airport was a far too predictable place. Avery and Malfoy had found them in Peru.

Voldemort, it had to be said, was far from stupid, he was even quite intelligent, and Hermione and Remus were his last two opponents, the last two who had not joined his cause, and who would never do so. Once they were eliminated, they would pose no danger, no one would dare stand in the way of the great Lord Voldemort.

After considering several options, the two friends decided on the route they thought would be the safest. They would fly to Stockholm, then hire a car and drive to Bergen, Norway. It would be quite a long journey but they had no choice. There were very few flights going to Norway and this was the easiest to do, as they were in a hurry to leave Egypt. Once in Bergen, they would take a ferry to Aberdeen. And Hogwarts would be theirs. Well, in theory. They still had no idea how to get to Hogsmeade and especially how to enter the castle without being spotted.

Remus and Hermione left three days after their decision, on the seventeenth of March. The plane ride passed quickly, but the rest of the trip was not so easy. They had a hard time renting a car and had to put both of them through confusion and memory spells on the salesman. The journey must have taken more than thirteen hours, not counting the breaks. Luckily, they both knew how to drive and could take turns. It was imperative that they arrived in Bergen before nightfall. The boat trip would be safer at night, even if it was not very reassuring, it was quite discreet. Hermione and Remus alternated driving every three or four hours, allowing the other to rest a little.

Things could not go well, and they were stopped for a good two hours at the Norwegian border. The customs officers didn't understand the purpose of their visit and Remus thought it would have been much easier to make them think they were on a world tour and that they were just tourists than to tell them they were travelling through Norway on their way to Scotland. When they finally got back on the road, Hermione grumbled for a good twenty minutes about the incompetent guards who couldn't tell the difference between decent people and serial killers. Remus had frowned slightly at the 'decent people' and it had only earned him a glare, so he preferred to concentrate on the road rather than worry about an angry Hermione. The journey was already long enough and Hermione's tantrums were spectacular enough, Remus didn't need to fan the flames, he had enough problems in his life already, he wasn't going to alienate the last person alive that mattered to him either.

Finally, after a very long drive, the two wizards arrived in Bergen. They left the car in a car park, too bad for the salesman, he didn't have to talk to them like that. The ferry was still far from being full, which was lucky for the wizards, although the opposite would have been strange. Who would want to travel to Scotland in the middle of March, and at night at that. Judging by the number of people present, surely not the Norwegians. The crossing went well, at least for Remus. He had loved going boating with his grandfather when he was a child and had not been seasick for a long time. For Hermione it was a different story, she had always loved the beach, swimming from time to time, but never beyond where she was standing and certainly not on a boat. She much preferred to be on the shore, with her feet dry, rather than in danger, in the middle of the ocean. As a result, the young woman, despite having spent over a year in the Coral Sea, desperately searching for the first jewel in time, could hardly bear to be on the sea and spent most of her time on deck, throwing up over the fence, in the North Sea. Remus, even though Hermione had ordered him to stay in his cabin, had taken pity on his friend and had come to keep her company.

"Don't look at me, I'm horrible."

"You're not horrible Mione, you're seasick, like millions of people, it doesn't matter."

"I hate being weak."

"Who does?"

For answer Hermione turned away and vomited overboard what was left in her stomach, which was nothing.

"If there's one thing I hate more than throwing up, it's throwing up on an empty stomach. Stop looking at me like that. I don't understand why you stay here. Is it so funny to watch me throw up?"

"Of course it's not. I'm staying to keep you company. You're not going to sit here alone and throw up. Being with the people who matter to us when they're at their worst is what makes us good people, good friends. You often forget that I'm your friend, Hermione."

When she finally got her feet on solid ground, Hermione felt much better. The crossing with had been so long and arduous that she didn't want to have to go back on a boat for the next ten years. The wizards were both on polyjuice potion, for safety. They couldn't stay out in the open with their true appearance. Hermione was a redhead with blue eyes, she could have easily passed for a Weasley. Remus had hair as black as ebony and beautiful hazel eyes. The two friends had carefully chosen the muggles whose appearance they had taken. They had to be about their height and build so that they would not be embarrassed if they had to fight the Death Eaters. Both muggles had athletic figures and Hermione had pointed out to her friend that if the muggles they had chosen were physically fit, it would be easier if they had to escape.

The two wizards set off walking across Scotland to find Hogwarts. However, there was a slight problem. Hogwarts could not be mapped. Remus knew how to get there, but only by apparate, which as it stood was impossible. They didn't know how to get to Hogsmeade either, and that was very annoying. But neither Hermione nor Remus would give up. They walked for long hours, taking only very short breaks. It was eerily reminiscent of their walk up from the Underworld. Although this walk was tiring, it was not as hard.

Dusk was approaching when the last two members working for good stopped. It was Hermione who saw it first.

"Remus, did you see that dome?"

The wizard turned and saw a huge blue bubble covering part of the city a mile away.

"Do you think He did this?"

-Only someone with magic in them can do that. Muggles wouldn't be able to do it. But I don't think he went to the trouble of making that dome. He's either a low-level Death Eater or a house elf, although I'm leaning more towards the elf theory. It will be harder for us, elf magic is very particular.

Remus approached the barrier and it immediately pushed him away. He repeated his experiment but the result was the same.

"You see, I don't think a wizard could create such a thin and powerful barrier. This is elf magic. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to deactivate it. I don't think it would be necessary to destroy it completely, that would be too visible and we would be detected immediately. No, what we need to do is to make a hole in the barrier, slip inside and close the hole. That would be the safest and least conspicuous."

Remus and Hermione slept in a small inn not far from the dome. They had taken this night to recover from their emotions. They were in England again, after more than a year and a half without setting a single foot there. They thought long and hard about how to get through the bloody barrier, but no matter how many spells and potions they could think of, there was no way to punch a hole in a magical barrier. Hermione had studied eleven magic years ago, but there was nothing they could use to break through the barrier. It was Remus who, three days after their arrival, had an idea.

"I'm not sure at all. In fact, it's very likely that it won't work. I saw it in a movie."

"In a movie? Rem'! Most movies are pure fiction. Opening a door with a barrette never worked."

"Do you have another idea, Hermione?"

Seeing that the young woman had nothing to add, he continued.

"It's our only option at the moment. As the muggles would say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I need two mirrors, if possible rectangles or squares."

"And?"

"That's all I need."

"Your solution is two mirrors?" Hermione asked him, unable to hide her bewilderment.

"You'll see, I told you it wasn't a solution but a test."

"Alright, I'll try to find some mirrors."

"I can come with you if-"

"No, I need some time alone."

"Very well" Remus murmured, his face closed. "And Hermione, have some more polyjuice potion before you go out."

Hermione returned an hour later with the items Remus had asked for and three odds and ends. They left immediately afterwards, not wanting to wait any longer. They paid for the inn, but it was not out of the question that they would come back, after all they had never tried this technique themselves and so could not know if it would work. When they arrived at the dome, Hermione gave the mirrors to Remus and he put them on the floor. They were stuck together and Remus pushed them into the dome. He hesitated for a moment, but soon recovered. He pushed half of the mirrors over to the other side, and to his surprise, no alarms went off and no Death Eaters came running.

"Did it work?"

"The first step, yes. Now I have to separate the mirrors so we can get through."

Remus did so, and as he moved the mirrors, the dome also moved and a passageway was formed.

"Rem'! It worked! It worked! You are a genius."

"Yes, I saw that it worked, I have eyes you know. Hurry up, there are probably rounds."

The two friends slipped stealthily into the passageway and retrieved the mirrors, thus erasing all traces of their passage. They looked at each other and caught their breath. They were trapped in the enemy's home. If one of Voldemort's henchmen came to find them, they would die, the facility was far too long if they were in a chase, they wouldn't have time to open the dome, and since apparate was prohibited, they couldn't do anything. Hermione took another sip of polyjuice potion and Remus did the same. The protection wouldn't be infinite and the strangers were certainly not welcome, but it was better than walking around with their real appearance.

They walked as quietly as possible, pleading with Merlin and Morgana, the founders, even Slytherin, not to be noticed. So far they had only met one person, a mangemort who didn't walk very straight, who had probably had a bit too much whisky. Nothing dangerous, in short.

After half an hour of walking, there was no denying that the Death Eaters were protecting their territory, the two friends arrived in what seemed to be a village. They were both stunned by what they saw. Some people were being tortured in the middle of the street, the only buildings there were were bars and 'pleasure houses' as it said on the sign. The street was filthy and Hermione saw a woman being raped behind a tree in the distance. The young woman turned away from Remus and returned her dinner. How in just a year and a half this village had turned so upside down, for Hermione was sure that such debauchery never existed when she still lived in the UK. In the distance she thought she recognised a place. She stepped back and looked at Remus.

"Rem'. This village can't be Hogsmeade, can it?"

The look on Remus' face said it all, he shared the same certainty as Hermione. This village, so unrecognizable, was Hogsmeade.

"No, it can't be Hogsmeade, we'd see Hogwarts. Even though it's dark, I haven't become so blind that I don't recognise the place where I lived for six years."

"Hermione" Remus began in a sorry voice, "don't kid yourself. We're in Hogsmeade. We both recognised the Shrieking Shack. Hogwarts must be hidden under various spells. He couldn't have destroyed the whole castle. It means too much to Him. He even hid a you-know-what there. He would not have destroyed the work of his ancestor."

The two friends were thinking about how to get into Hogwarts as discreetly as possible. The secret passages had all been sealed off during the horcrux hunt and the castle was invisible from Hogsmeade, which meant that magical protection had increased considerably since the Battle of Hogwarts.

"The only solution is the Shrieking Shack."

"But Rem', are you listening to what I'm saying? The passage was condemned over three and a half years ago."

"I know that, but it was Filch who did it, wasn't it? And Filch is a squib. He couldn't have magically sealed the entrance. If it hasn't been sealed since, there's no reason why we can't get in."

Remus, followed by Hermione, crossed the street, as quickly as possible, but avoiding drawing attention to himself and his friend. He had to avoid the Death Eaters, the prostitutes, the empty glasses strewn on the ground, in other words almost the entire street. There was very little room to move around and he didn't see a leg in the way and stumbled around in plain sight.

If Hermione hadn't been paying attention, they would have been finished. The young woman had drawn her wand, and had disillusioned them. Remus fell with a thud, but only a few people paid attention to him, unused to the noise of the street. The wizards living there, mostly Death Eaters, heard all sorts of noises all day long and this wasn't one more that was going to call out to them, but Hermione and Remus didn't know that. The two friends walked to the front of the Shrieking Shack and started talking at the same time.

"I'm sorry, I should have been more careful where I was stepping."

Hermione looked at Remus with a smile, did he really have to apologise every time?

"Rem' you're incorrigible. Why do you feel the need to apologise? Everyone stumbles, and there was an obstacle in front of you. I wouldn't have seen it either."

Hermione cut the discussion short and headed for the entrance to the cabin. She pushed open the door and it creaked with a dreadful noise. How long had it been since anyone had been in here? Remus gagged and Hermione suppressed a grimace of disgust as they entered the room. The smell was vile, even more so than the smell in the street. The friends climbed the old staircase and arrived in the largest room in the place. Remus might have been nostalgic about the years he had spent in this shack with the marauders if there had not been a foul-smelling body in the room. For the second time that evening, Hermione threw up and Remus struggled with his whole body not to do the same. Hermione had barely seen the body but it was recognisable. She had seen this person for six years, seen him die. How could the body not be removed?

"Mione, we can't stay here. Why are you watching the body? You're hurting yourself for nothing."

Remus paused for a moment and seemed to understand what Hermione hadn't wanted to tell him.

"It's someone we know, isn't it?"

Hermione turned around, her eyes filling with tears. She had to go over it three times because she was so shocked by what she had just seen, before she managed to express herself properly.

"Rem', it's Snape."

"Severus?"

Remus leaned a little closer to the body but pulled away sharply as soon as he got too close.

"That's impossible Mione. Even if he was a double agent. Voldy didn't know that, did he? You told me he 'regretted' having to kill him."

"Harry told him."

"Told him what?"

"Harry told Voldy that Snape was a double agent because of Lily, during, you know, the last fight. Snape was one of his most brilliant Death Eaters. Well, he wasn't for very long, because he turned. I guess Voldy didn't dare question Harry's words."

"Do you think we should do something with the body?"

"I don't know. We have very little time and we can't bury it. If we burn it, we risk alerting the Death Eaters on duty with the smoke. It's cruel to say, but he doesn't really look human anymore. The corpse has been decomposing for over three years, but the air in the Shrieking Shack really hasn't helped. I think it's best if we don't touch it. We need to focus on the mission and the living, which is us."

Hermione, though regretting her action, turned away from the corpse of her former teacher and headed for the secret passage. It had, at first, been sealed Muggle-style with stones. But the witch felt a strong magical presence, which was not related to the place.

"What do you think?"

"Richard did seal the passageway four years ago. But I think it was also magically sealed some time after the Battle of Hogwarts. There's a strong magical imprint. Do you know the counter-spell?"

"I'd have to know the spell to know the counter-spell" Remus murmured with a small smile. "Let me see please. But if it's dark magic, you know it better than I do."

"It's not dark magic, I'm sure."

"How do you know that?"

"It's not easy to explain. When there's a dark magic spell, there's like a signature, an aura that shows me it's dark magic. You know what I mean? Dark magic is one of a kind, but every spell has a kind of mark that says 'I am a dark magic spell'."

"Nice image."

Remus looked carefully at the passage and muttered a few magic formulas. After more than half an hour of searching and incantations, he turned to Hermione and told her with a smile that the passageway was now only sealed to the Muggle. They both moved the stones with the help of magic and were finally able to cross and enter the Hogwarts grounds. They arrived in front of the Whomping Willow but had not thought that someone might be standing guard. That person turned sharply when he heard a noise coming from the tree. Hadn't he been sentenced when he was in seventh year?

He was more than a little surprised when he discovered the identity of the two travellers.

"Granger? Lupin?"

The person looked vaguely familiar to Remus, but he had no idea who the man was. Hermione recognized him immediately, he hadn't changed since she had seen him at the Battle of Hogwarts.

"Zabini?"

"You're out of your mind! The Dark Lord is only waiting for you to surrender."

"We didn't come here to surrender. Stupefix. Sorry Zabini, you probably would have talked and if you hadn't, they would have searched your mind. Obliviate."

Hermione handed Harry's invisibility cloak to Remus and cast a disillusionment spell on herself before casting the counter spell on Zabini. He stood up, disoriented, and looked around, wand in hand. Even if the two wizards had not been invisible, they were already too far away for him to see.

They had arrived at the entrance to Hogwarts, where they had been about to enter the gates a few years earlier. Two Death Eaters were firmly guarding the doors. Remus attacked the first one and he fell to the ground. The second one immediately retaliated and cast spells at random, not caring where his spells went. Hermione avoided them as best she could, but one of them burned her shoulder and, without realising it, she let out a small cry of pain. The Death Eater, who seemed to have a few brain cells, pointed his wand at the spot where the noise had been made. A second spell hit Hermione, this time in the heart, and she stumbled. Remus stopped the Death Eater with a wave of his wand and ran to his friend.

"Hermione, where does it hurt?"

"It's nothing Remus, I'm, ah, fine."

"Are you kidding me? Your shirt and coat are torn at your shoulder and oh, you're bleeding."

Remus quickly tended to Hermione's wounds but they couldn't stay in plain sight for very long. They forgot about the two Death Eaters and entered the Hogwarts hall. This was really where it all began. It was here that they had realised, in front of this huge castle, that their lives would never be the same again. Hermione had met Harry and Ron on the train but she never expected them to become such close friends. The Hogwarts trio. How could she, at eleven years old, have imagined all that was in store for her? Remus too had met James and Sirius on the train. As all three were allocated to Gryffindor, they became fast friends and Peter joined them a few weeks later. The Marauders were born. Everyone was lost in thought but Hermione broke the silence.

"It's been ten years since I first set foot here. How could I have imagined what was going to happen?" she whispered, stifling a sob. "Come on Mione, now is not the time to break down," she snapped.

"Hermione, we have to go. We can't stay here."

"But where should we go? Where it all began. This is Hogwarts, and this is where it all began, isn't it? Or how about the Great Hall? That's where we were assigned."

Hermione stopped abruptly as Remus grabbed her arm and started to run. He had heard voices and footsteps in their direction. Hermione still wasn't used to using her heightened senses thanks to her lycanthropy but Remus, in time, had learned to use them. And his heightened senses, it had to be said, were sometimes quite useful.

"Rem' but let go of me. What's wrong with you?"

"I heard voices. They were coming towards us. We need to think about the mission. Maybe if we do the ritual with the jewels and the book we'll get some clues or a new riddle that will help us. We need somewhere quiet enough, where we won't be found after five minutes."

"The Room of Requirement?"

"Too predictable."

"The Gryffindors' dormitory? I doubt it's occupied. Voldy must have written off anyone who wasn't a Slytherin. Let alone Gryffindors."

"Too uncertain."

"Astronomy Tower? I used to go there with Harry in sixth year. Very few people go there outside of class, especially at night."

"Too conspicuous."

"Well, Rem, you're not helping! I'm suggesting places and there's nothing going on. Have you seen a lot of students hanging out in the halls? The Astronomy Tower is perfect. And if anyone comes near, you can always smell them and we'll get under the cloak or under the spell, right?"

"Okay, let's go to the Astronomy Tower."

The two wizards made their way as quietly as possible towards the highest tower of Hogwarts, which took very little time, their memories guiding them with disconcerting ease. They landed near the edge, and admired the view before them. The tower itself hadn't changed a bit since Hermione had last been there. But the view had changed dramatically. Hogsmeade was no longer visible, and that had nothing to do with the night that had fallen. The park had changed too. The vegetation had largely disappeared, the park seemed empty. Stones were scattered everywhere. Hermione thought about what the guards had told them, that in their time Hogwarts was dying. Hermione thought that it was exactly the same thing happening again. The castle had been repaired since the Battle of Hogwarts but these stones were resisting Voldy and kept falling.

Remus asked Hermione to take out the Jewels and the book, so that they could perform the ritual together and see, at last, what the solution to the mysterious book was and perhaps, who was behind it. The witch took the precious goods out of her pearl bag, which she never left. Her whole life was in that little bag, and it was simply out of the question to part with it. They arranged the objects as they had done the previous time when they had wanted to know the third riddle. The same thing happened again, the jewels lit up so brightly that Remus thought they could be seen fifty kilometres away. The two wizards had been waiting for a good ten minutes but no riddle had appeared, not even a tiny clue.

"Do you think we should add blood?"

Remus thought and opened his mouth, but a voice beat him to it.

"I don't think so."

The two wizards turned sharply and grabbed their wands. Hermione took the time to observe the person they were talking to. She was a woman with a slender figure, something in her body that symbolised great, almost majestic presence. Her hair was long, black but not as long as the Guardians'. She wore an inscrutable expression, but her green eyes looked worried. She was dressed in a long dress, in the four Hogwarts colours. She wore a simple necklace, which was actually the letter H, and a beautiful diamond ring on her finger. A wide smile formed on her lips at the bewildered faces of the two travellers.

"Who are you?"

Her gaze became more playful, and the woman lost her impassivity.

"Oh, I am the keeper of this place. But if you wish to know my name, my name is Hogwarts, Hel Hogwarts."