Studying, dueling practice, reading, learning. That's how most of the days in the room of requirement went for the trio.

Of course, chatting among themselves too.

It's been quite a few loops already, a few years even, perhaps even more time has passed - no one counted the loops anymore.

Daphne Greengrass and Hermione Granger were sitting and reading in comfortable armchairs while occasionally flipping pages as well as casually chatting.

After all this loop was not a 'serious' studying loop - it was one to relax, or mainly to see how it goes for one certain boy.

"Say Daph, do you think Harry will succeed this time?"

The blonde girl rolled her eyes as she replied

"Have more faith in him would you? Do you think it's that easy to escape from the school?"

"Not for us, but for someone with Harry's skillset… it should be doable, only if he didn't keep making stupid mistakes!"

"Oh yeah? How could he have known Dumbledore had not one, but multiple tracking charms on him? Even one on Hedwig?"

Hermione sighed.

"I guess you are right, neither could he have expected the headmaster to spin this up as someone stealing the 'boy who lived' to cause the ministry to look for him as well… Then even all the muggles too…"

Daphne's eyes glinted mischievously

"Wanna bet he succeeds this time? You know he learned just a trick for all those failures"

"I know that look in your eyes, Daph, don't beat around the bush, just spill it out, what he could have learned we hadn't seen yet?"

The blonde girl pouted, but put her book away, suddenly more interested in Hermione's facial expression.

"You sure like spoiling my fun, don't you Mione? Fine, he became… an animagus"

*THUD* - a book Hermione was reading dropped on the floor as the girl practically jumped out of her armchair, eyes wide with disbelief.

"ANIMAGUS? I thought… I thought you were supposed to be outside for it to work? You know in the moonlight?"

Daphne just smirked in response, she was certainly enjoying this.

"Or you can just ask the room for a window…"

"But, but, but what about the lighting? I don't remember there being any lightning storms during the days we're looping at?"

The blonde girl raised an eyebrow

"Did you not read one of Dumbledore's books about rituals?"

Hermione's eyes widened

"You don't say… the one which is marked as illegal which is even underlined multiple times? Which caused that great storm due to delaying it all the time a few decades back? Whose creator was put in Azkaban and died there?"

Daphne slowly clapped her hands

"That's right, you got it."

Hermione furrowed her brows as she glanced accusingly at her friend.

"I suppose I would have heard the thunder, if only someone's room was not soundproofed for some reason"

Daphne blushed and picked her book back up

"I suppose… Harry did not want to disturb you with the thunder"

"Yes certainly, which is why he recast the charm every day"

With her words the blonde girl's face was as red as Weasley's hair and she suddenly became even more interested in her book.

The duo continued reading in peace, until the brunette broke the silence again, just a few minutes later.

"I never asked, what is his animagus form?"

Daphne glanced up from her book, then seemed to ponder before replying.

"I am… not sure. I looked at all the books in the library together with Harry and we never found one that matched his form. If I had to describe it it was some sort of mix between thestral and a phoenix? Like a horse, but with flaming wings? And black flames?"

Hermione just gaped mouth open as she quickly searched her own mind library, yet, among the books she had read, there was no such creature.

"I see, unfortunately I do not know what that is either. Why do you think this would help him escape this time?"

Daphne smiled, being prideful about her boyfriend

"He tested it out, and it seems it allows him to apparate while in that form, even under Hogwarts wards, I doubt anything else would hold him down"

Hermione sighted - she expected as much from that 'like a phoenix part'

"I see. I doubt he can get caught so fast again… Unless he itches for a fight…"

Daphne snapped back

"Don't jinx it! Though… he probably does"

The duo once again continued their reading in silence. Both wondering how it would turn out for the boy who lived and lived and lived in a loop.

The rest of the school was deep asleep, yet just an hour ago, Dumbledore woke Hermione to check if she knew where Harry went, so she had the time to slip into the room while the headmaster was busy dealing with the 'Harry is missing' problem.

Now a few hours have passed since then. Soon she would need to return to the school for breakfast and lesson attendance and hope she will not slip up again in her mind defences.

That's right. A few of Harry's failed attempts were due to her.

A dozen hours or so before, just at the start of the loop.

Harry and Hermione were running towards the school.

"Are you sure you're gonna try to escape again, Harry? It did not work well last time did it not?"

The black haired boy let out a sigh before replying

"It's not like I could have expected Dumbledore to have a damned blood ward that tracked my location could I? Since he has my blood - I can't really dispel it, only divert it. Which I am going to do as soon as I am a good distance away from the school grounds, besides I have more experience now, surely I can at least last a couple days longer"

"Still, can't you stay in the room for a few more loops? You know more reading, more practice never hurt anyone, all your 'escapes' so far only lasted a few days at most"

The brunette received a glare from the boy

"In fact I finished most of the books in Hogwarts already. Well most of the ones about magic, spells, time magic, etcetera… you know, the remaining books about magical beasts, fantasy novels and so on, do not seem to improve me all that much. I still read them, but more like just to pass time or for ideas. I am not learning much I can use from them, heck I read more muggle books than magic ones nowadays! The dueling in the room is likewise - just not good enough anymore, it seems the room cannot keep upping the difficulty. Have you been reading all this time? Why haven't you noticed I wasn't dueling much nowadays?"

Hermione blushed and averted her gaze

"It appears I did… Somehow knowing there is infinite time for books makes me lose myself in them quite too often. You know I just love reading."

Harry's eyes narrowed

"That is a nice hobby to have, but I do hope you kept up with your occlumency training. Or should I remind you that my last failed escape was due to you getting distracted and mind-read by Snape of all people?"

The girl tilted her head down in shame

"Sorry, I never expected him to glance into my eyes, then continue his shouting as usual during the lesson while still somehow keeping the mind link active, only to start reading my current thoughts at the end of the lesson…"

"Right… He's not as strong as the headmaster head on, but a way more slippery fellow, truly like a snake"

Scenery passed by the duo quickly and now the school doors were quite close by.

"Are you going out at midnight again?"

"Yes, it would take some time to divert the tracking charms. Then I would have some head start while headmaster sleeps"

"Good luck Harry"

"Thanks. You too, don't get caught off-guard this time!"

The conversation went into silence as they were already inside the building. Soon they followed the original plot and ended up in the hospital wing once again.

As midnight approached most of the people in school were fast asleep. Except the dozens of upper years spending the time sneaking out to dates, exploring the castle for some unoccupied broom closets or just up to mischief, setting up pranks for the next day.

Though not one of them noticed a slight ripple in the air - the disillusionment charm, even when mastered, was not perfect, especially when moving - the invisibility cloak was left with Hermione, and there was no time to make another one - besides, those other invisibility cloaks were also with certain flaws, unlike the deathly hallow artefact.

Soon Harry was far away from school - in the forbidden forest - perhaps only the gatekeeper of school could possibly see him here, and Harry already checked along the way - his half-giant friend was asleep in his hut.

Harry could not see anything nearby with his transfigured night vision, so he undid the spell and immersed himself into his inner animal, his animagus form.

The boy got on all fours as his limbs seemingly shrunk and elongated, as if made of lean bones, as some black feathers sprout in between them, in moments the transformation was complete and a horse like beast stood in the boy's place, the feathers burst into black flames, got brighter as seconds passed, until become extinguished like a candle flame.

Then the forest was dark again… Only the weird flickering indicated there was some burning inside. Yet black flames melded perfectly into the night.

Harry sighed in his mind - not capable of doing so in his current form - as he lamented that while apparating past wards was cool, transformation taking so long made it not that great overall.

The black flame flickered, and then the woods were empty once again.

Back in London, the boy appeared in a secluded alleway and started puking to the side.

'It seems like every new kind of magical transportation… is not good for my stomach, especially on longer distances. Well I got used to apparition, I will get used to this thing too… Whatever it's called'

Moments later Harry was back in his human self, healing his nausea while setting up some wards in nearby areas.

Surely he could easily escape. Even 'survive' for days while his 'search team' grew in size. But where was the fun in that?

He knew where aurors started 'the hunt' for him, wouldn't it be fun fighting a bunch of them at the same time? Surely a better challenge than the room could provide.

Besides, he was just itching for a fight for some reason

Especially with numerous wards in place to aid his escape if necessary. Which would be especially needed when Dumbledore flamed in - he tended to do that quite a lot during his 'skipping school attempt' loops.

Soon Dumbledore's aurors squad will storm here looking for him, he will be ready then.

After all, this was not the first loop he has fought them at this specific place - he just came here way earlier than usual.

Dumbledore rubbed his eyes as he stared on his tracking devices. Such a weird thing for them to malfunction like that…. A loud beep woke him up. One showed Harry was in London, another was showing he's still in the hospital bed.

Surely the first one was broken for some reason? Yes, just as he looked it went dim and then started switching over a myriad of locations….

Still, one could never be too careful, so he grumpily dressed up and walked down the rotating stairways towards the hospital wing.

It was likely a false alarm - then he had to fix the charms, the wards, the spells and move on with his dreams, which were just getting to the good part too.

Yet as soon as he entered the hospital wing he felt that something was wrong. Harry's bed lay empty, the boy nowhere in sight.

A quick check on the hospital restrooms, then consulting the school wards, even waking up Madam Pomfrey and all his dreams faded away. The boy was out of school somehow!

With a wave of his hand a silvery light gathered into a phoenix form and the headmaster's patronus soon flamed away towards his ally who could help - Alastor Moody, as he himself rushed down into the dungeons.

Sirius Black was just finishing his meal at a nice muggle restaurant he knew. He was glad even after so many years away… this place still served delicious food.

He finished penning a letter for his godson and passed it to his owl, then looked as it flew…. Not towards Hogwarts?

A few empty blinks followed before the man grinned and grabbed his wand from the table.

'He is James' son after all. Only he would do something so stupid as trying to follow me…'

A look of deep longing lingered in his eyes as even a single tear dropped down. He brushed his face and grinned once again like he did in his youth.

'Well, time to check what my god-son is up to!'

Moments later he was nowhere to be seen, just a nice stack of muggle cash on top of the table - mostly tips for such a nice service and the cost of the meal.

None of nearby muggles realized their most wanted 'serial killer' was among them - his illusion spells did the trick. Neither they noticed him eating there, nor they had seen a huge dog leaping out of the open window into the night.

Dozens of red beams shooted towards the lone boy, yet he simply stepped aside, stopped for a second, then sneezed - somehow still avoiding the spells.

Harry rubbed his nose, wondering if he failed to dodge some curse, or perhaps someone was speaking behind his back? He did leave school grounds way faster than usual - it was bound to cause some changes.

A simple act of remembering his pursuers' aiming strategy from their initial encounter helped him during the start of the fight, which left the group of aurors in a daze. Well, but not all of them were rookies.

A sickly looking white beam passed and nearly touched the boy, only for a quickly risen stone to block it midway.

The boy's gaze narrowed, this was a different attack than last time. Was it due to him showing off for a moment? A butterfly effect like that? Ah yes, most likely it was the magical eye seeing through his skin and predicting his movements based on muscle tension… Like seeing the way he was going to dodge so Alastor Moody changed his attack accordingly…

As the onslaught of spells continued raining, Harry heard them bickering among themselves.

"Mad eye! Are you trying to kill the boy?"

"Shut up Kingsley, he's clearly under someone's control, no way a duck that young could be that good, now assume the worst, and put that wand up to good use!"

Before any more conversation could take place, the two men had to duck away in curses as a rain of icicles assaulted them.

Harry Potter was not playing games there - the two men exchanged glances and Kingsley switched to more powerful spells - Alastor was never holding back in the first place. Seeing their most senior members doing so, the other aurors followed - though most were falling quickly getting caught by icicles or even the random spells Harry casually deflected their way.

The boy himself was smiling, this was the part where he failed last time - a group of trained aurors coming at you was not a joke. Even Voldemort back in his prime rarely engaged such groups solo, especially ones with a lot of senior members. Still it was not the 'mob aurors' who got him - it was mainly Mad-Eye and his pupils.

His school robes flickered as he deflected incoming spells from one side, while repairing his shields on the other, constantly moving out of harm's way, wand-lessly floating random debris around to block another spell or two.

Counterattacking was an art in itself - all you needed was to keep calm and do not rush blindly. When two equally matched duelists fought it was usually the ones who lost their cool that lost first. Unstable emotions led to mistakes - which a clear headed opponent could exploit.

At least that was what most dueling books said… Yet one versus many? Harry could hardly find an opportunity to cast a spell back - though now only the senior aurors were left - and Ms Tonks, the rest were on the floor, unconscious, lightly wounded, or healing the others and calling for back-up.

Harry cursed as he quickly melted the icicles closest to him, and moved the puddle of water under his feet, before refreezing it to slip away - dodging a metamorphmagus girl who transformed her body parts to some chimera-like assortment of creatures.

She was faster than he could react - in a way it was what got him last time. Now he knew what to expect and could prepare better.

It was not always the faster opponent who won the duel. If you could predict where and when and how they would move - it was possible to dodge, or intercept and overwhelm them.

Harry noticed his still ongoing icicle rain finally breaking Kingsleys shield as he deflected incoming spells from newly arriving wizards unaware he was capable of that, towards senior auror at speed.

The older man cursed as he realized he could not repair his shield in time - and he was not that good at deflecting such a volume of spells coming at him - deflecting spells in general was in fact quite an advanced skill!. Just how deep were the boys' understanding of magic to be able to achieve such a feat?

Still he did not waver or panic, his trusted comrade was by his side, and as expected, Mad eye Moody managed to protect his former pupil just fine, before his magical eye quickly spun around as if anticipating something.

And yes, Harry accounted for that split moment, just to distract the best of the bunch.

After all, a short moment was all you needed.

Nymphadora charged towards the boy as he kept rising ice walls around him, as if trying to intercept her and protect himself - yet in actuality he was just leading her as she certainly chose the shortest paths to avoid the walls - not noticing that they were simply here to block the boy's hand for a few moments as he weaved a complex spell into the floor. In fact it was one of the spells he prepared before any aurors arrived and kept holding it near completion all the time in his mind.

Just as she jumped on him the spell was done. Metamorphagi were partly made of magic itself, when transfiguring themselves freely, they used ambient mana to perform their transformation as well as to support their additional features like muscles and abilities. What would happen when one simply… turned the mana off?

Moments before impact Tonks felt something wrong as she slowly started transforming back.

Harry smirked as he trapped her in the mud, before retrieving her wand and raising a wall to block the assault of spells - less lethal now, perhaps Moody did like his latest pupil.

The boy frowned as he felt someone magical step through his temporarily placed ward - he squinted his eyes and saw… a dog? Wait, was that Sirius?

He quickly moved his gaze away as he felt another burst of powerful magical energy even before it broke his detection ward. A familiar magic in fact. A magical signature that ruined countless of his escape attempts. A small ball of flame opened up to reveal Fawkes and the headmaster himself along with Severus Snape.

Harry did have wards in place to slow him down upon arrival - but it won't be long now…

The boy grimaced - it looked like his fun fighting was over. He certainly could not beat Dumbledore with all those people around. Perhaps his escape was for fewer days this time, yet at least the duel was longer this time around. And he couldn't even apparate away due to the spells that he needed to keep blocking… Suddenly he heard gasps and felt the amount of magic coming towards him decrease significantly, moving towards someone else. Surprised, the boy turned around.

Sirius was there - to the horror of the people present. The so-called most wanted man of Britain. The right hand of Voldemort - well not many people actually knew he was innocent. Certainly Dumbledore forgot to share this with his followers… After all, even the man himself only learned of this yesterday… Or so he claimed…

The Azkaban escapee was standing over Nymphadora, glancing at her face with recognition from time to time as he shielded her from the incoming spells - aurors were still launching waves of spells towards them, and perhaps one of them did not see Nymphadora on that spot when aiming for Harry, which caused Sirius to break his disguise and defend his cousin.

Harry noticed most of the spells now were not even coming his way, but towards his godfather. Perhaps they thought he was the one controlling Harry Potter? After all that was fitting for the so-called Voldemort's most trusted spy.

Thankfully not many aurors were in any shape to fight - Alastor seemed to be clutching a wound on his side, and Kingsley was knocked out…

And it looked like his godfather was great at dueling. Or at least at keeping the dozen exhausted aurors at bay.

Harry snapped back from his stupor. He did not want to see his god-father get harmed because of him - he knew it did not matter due to the loop, but he just couldn't help but want to protect him.

A quick glance at newcomers he was somewhat relieved as Dumbledore was still getting rid of the dozens of wards he placed - all specifically targeting the headmaster… And only the ones that took him longest to remove based on past escape attempts.

Still, it would only take a few minutes…

Severus meanwhile joined the few aurors remaining to launch spells towards Sirius.

So Harry stood by his godfather's side, exchanging a nod in greeting while he joined casting shields over both of them, remembering to include Tonks in the aegis as well.

With his god-son by his side, Sirius Black even had some time to catch his breath for a quick chat.

"You fought well, James would be proud of you… But you shouldn't have come here… apparition is blocked… Once Albus finishes whatever he's casting over there we're certainly doomed… You shouldn't have followed me Harry… "

The boy just smiled in response.

"What if I told you, I could, with some extra time, get us out of there, Sirius?"

His godfather glanced back at the unconscious girl.

"Are you serious? With her too? Gotta keep Andromeda's child safe, heck I do not even know her name! I have been locked away far too long. But those facial features certainly resemble her a lot…"

Harry interrupted his babbling

"No you're Sirius, I am Harry, and yes, all I need is a few uninterrupted seconds"

Sirius chuckled at the word play he himself used a ton during school days, he nodded, deciding to trust the boy, then his eyes glinted as he let Harry block spells alone for a while, as he himself poured nearly all his magic inside a spell of his own as thick walls of dirt rose all around them - even the opening at the top was closed off, heck they would die of suffocation eventually if no one opened the 'box'.

Sirius was panting as he turned around, only to see Harry's transformation complete.

Being one himself, he recognized what it was as he quickly ran closer to Tonks to touch the boy.

"Animagus… "

He looked up towards the… dirt above, as if looking past that, past the sky into heaven.

"Your son truly followed in your footsteps, I am so proud of him, I hope you're seeing this too James"

His eyes teared up as the trio flamed away to the Black mansion using the black flames - just in time, as nearly moments later one Albus Dumbledore was frowning and massaging his beard while looking at an empty box with a hole blown in the side.

He felt a somewhat familiar magic just seconds ago.

"A phoenix…?"

Fawkes let out another chirp as Dumbledore cast a bunch of charms to double check his blood ward.

"They… flamed away… But it doesn't say where? I don't understand this… The ward has no mistakes, I should know where Harry is…. Unless…"

A glint appeared in his eyes - perhaps the flame of the phoenix reflected in his eyes.

"Of course! Fidelius! That would make sense! The Black family… They had a… place? Of course, I am affected as well…"

His eyes dropped as he realised now he had no way of reaching the boy. Of the remaining direct members of the family who would be keyed into wards and on his side… Sirius Black… as well as Andromeda Tonks… Oh wait, she was exiled from the family due to marrying a 'muggle'…

He cursed and beckoned Moody and Severus to his side. The only one who could tell them where exactly the trio went was in the cruelest cells of Azkaban. None other than one of the most vile witches alive - Bellatrix Lestrange.

SIRIUS BLACK KIDNAPS AND PUTS THE BOY WHO LIVED UNDER IMPERIUS

The main page of Daily Prophet had an eye-catching title as usual. As well as a magical photo of Harry and Sirius facing off dozens of aurors…Well a few of them - the others were seemingly unconscious…

Daphne raised an eyebrow. Not due to the propaganda - she expected as much, yet Sirius… How had they met like that? This never happened on previous escape attempts…

She casually raised her eyes towards Gryfindor table which was the loudest by far and briefly met Hermione's gaze.

That was enough for her to read her facial expression - the same wonder of what Harry was up to this time, as well as the pain of having to keep her persona intact by arguing with those supporting the paper as well as repeating that Harry's godfather did nothing wrong…

Daphne resumed her meal by slicing another piece of crepe - a piece of strawberry was poking out from where she sliced it with a knife, then the girl stabbed the berry with the fork, together with the piece she just cut, then dipped it into a mix of soy cream and blueberry jam and swallowed the bite with satisfaction.

Her table-mates were looking weirdly at her meal - they never have seen such a thing in Hogwarts. It was like a pancake…. But so thin?

"Say Daph, what is that you're eating and how did you get it?"

Tracey Davis leaned forwards to her best friend, suddenly no longer interested in her own breakfast plate or the newspaper. Sure propaganda conspiracy theories were fun once in a while, but she, like most of the Slytherins, knew that most of the news were just what people paid to be printed.

Daphne smiled on hearing something new. If she chose to eat what she usually did she would have to relive the same questions… same answers… generally a boring day for her. Now by showing something else to everyone she was likely to speak with today, like a butterfly flapping its wings it changed people a little - and that led to most conversations to change as well.

The blonder haired girl mentally thanked whoever it was that left a french cook-book in the room of requirements and smirked as she gazed into her friends eyes, then she raised an eyebrow.

"Crepes. Haven't you ever heard about them?"

The girls' eyes twinkled with familiar words, as they also glinted with mischief. She heard that Daphne somehow said the name of the dish quite loudly. Loud enough not only for her, but half the table to hear. And understood why she did so.

Soon half-elves received more and more orders for those 'crepes' as the dish name spread to other tables - they were also happy to make something new for once.

After the meal Daphne and Tracey talked quite loudly, specifically mentioning how the dish was invented by… muggles. Then the girls watched half of their table-mates blissful facial expressions twisting with disgust…

It was amusing and also sad. Why did so many pureblood families preach the nonsense that muggles were dirty or something?

The blonde haired girl chuckled as soon as she was out of the view and cast a muffling charm around her and her friend - Slytherins tended to avoid laughing at their own housemates openly. As the two girls laughed while talking, Daphne also had some time to review her plans for today.

First were the lessons… Which was basically like a filler for today - she spent the time zoned out, training her occlumency inside her mind`s library, while her body moved on autopilot, accomplishing the trivial tasks of school lessons.

Last night was a nightly escape to Room of Requirements to chat with Hermione as well as do more reading.

For the free time in between those activities, there was some hanging out with Tracey, then there was enough free time to mix up another potential cure for Astoria - those resets were kinda neat in a way, that she could splurge all her savings on ingredients, then do it again and again, every loop.

Ah, the delivery house elf for those expensive things should have dropped it on her bed by now. She hoped this one worked. The first thing she mixed up just made the disease disappear… only to come back twice as strong a day later. But thanks to that she could read up more. Actually understand why it happened and come up with countermeasures - which was what potion invention was all about.

If they ever escaped this stupid loop she hoped she could heal her sister.

Nymphadora Tonks was feeling groggy as she slowly woke up from a daze. Her whole body was in pain, eyes still closed, but mind finally awake.

'Let's see, I was… on an assignment to capture Harry Potter of all things? Given to me as a 'secret' mission from none other than Mad Eye himself… And then a youngling still not out of Hogwarts beat ME and a bunch of aurors….'

'Yeah right, as if! I clearly just overdrunk yesterday and now suffer from my magical hangover… I should not have drunk magical alcoholic cocktails as a metamorphmagus… Those certainly hit differently… '

Still feeling pain she slowly opened her eyes, then took in the unfamiliar environment, before quickly shutting them back close.

'Yup. Definitely a hangover. Not on a couch at some spooky unclean house. Or did I sleepwalk there? Where the heck am I? Why did that old lady in the portrait feel familiar?'

The young auror was about to try waking up and seeing where she was, yet the somehow familiar voice brought her attention…

'Was that Harry? No way!'

Slowly her ears elongated, becoming better at distinguishing sounds as she weakly extended her arm to massage her now increased headache.

"... and that is how I came to be at London tonight"

'Yup, this is definitely Harry Potter speaking, or someone mimicking his voice with something like polyjuice… Damn, maybe that fight was real after all? The kid knows how to fight huh? Still it looks like I missed some interesting conversation there….'

More sounds followed, perhaps whoever Harry was speaking to was finally done hugging him or something? Nymphadora still had trouble differentiating those soft sounds, but it felt familiar to that.

"I never thought it was so serious… you look like a completely different person you know? Even though I met you just yesterday… You know you can always count on me Harry, I am always on your side"

"Thanks Sirius, I missed you"

"Wait Sirius…. SIRIUS BLACK? AH That portrait… that's the cursed relative my mom spoke nightmares about? And this must be… Black family manor?"

Sudden silence confirmed her worst fears.

'Fuck I just spoke that out loud!'

Calm pair of footsteps closed in on her location, as the young woman grabbed her wand that was placed on a coffee table nearby, before realization kicked in.

'If they wanted to harm me in any way they would have done so already… Perhaps Sirius was innocent after all, her mother often expressed her doubts'

"Nice trick with the ears, cousin, would have been nice to have back in school, such pranks one could make with that… By the way, how is my sister Andromeda doing?"

Tonks blushed as her ears reverted back to normal. Huh and her headache seems to have lessened significantly since then. She got out of bed and met her visitors - a lone boy with a famous thunder mark on his forehead and her cousin she heard oh so much about. She nodded in greeting to the boy and received a nod back, before turning to her cousin.

"Nice to finally meet you Sirius"

She stepped closer, now with less fear - she saw no evil in those, just longing, nostalgia, happiness even. Sirius looked quite bad as one would expect from long years of Azkaban. She reached out and enveloped him in a hug - the man certainly needed some warmth after suffering dementors for so long.

He grinned and hugged her back.

"Nice to see you too, Nymphadora"

Tonks rolled her eyes. Of course, Harry told him her name… And the fact she did not like it. If stories of him her mother told were true… he will stick with that for a long time. Especially if she mentioned she did not like it.

"You must be hungry after so long, come we ordered some pizzas, they should arrive soon"

Nymphadora rolled her eyes. Here's the most wanted man alive, casually ordering pizzas for home delivery. Why the hell ministry never seemed to catch him?

Hermione walked out of the owlery tower with a small package under her arm. It looked 'small' but in fact she shrunk those dozens of books as much as the spell allowed.

She still felt guilty spending her 'college savings funds' even though she knew it did not matter. A lot of things in this loop never did.

She bought a bunch of more 'reading material' - the books in Hogwarts were running out, so she could easily just buy more.

Of course, the magical books market was scarce… It was easy to copy books with magic, yet the small population of wizards meant there were not that many books at all being made.

Especially useful ones…

So she ordered some muggle ones as well. Physics. String theory. Anything time travel related. Yes, even fantasy ones - perhaps they could give her some idea to follow, some way of trying to escape the loop.

She was also buying some geography books of cool places to see. Harry shared what little memories he got from Voldemort or his memories the headmaster or professor Snape gave him - when he had that long loop up until the end, they surprisingly showed him many memories related to Tom Riddle, so she was also looking for views, matching it with memories and trying to locate the places of importance from them.

It took some time, but she managed to find Gaunt's shack's location. Surely it was probably magically hidden or something. But did wizards bother hiding the mountain in the distance? A forest? A lake? The answer was no. So using the views, various photos you could sometimes find the place you needed.

If only Harry asked the headmaster where it was in the first place…

Among the information the headmaster shared, there was also another interesting place - a cave of sorts. There were no visuals, just some intel of death eaters visiting the place together with Tom Riddle - as well as Dumbledore's own suspicion that it might be a place where one of the horcruxes were hidden - though he never found the cave himself yet.

Hermione already had a dozen of possible locations, but it was possible after reading those photo collections she would add more.

Checking just dozens of places was certainly easier than looking for a place like a needle in a haystack.

After all, she could not rely on those other two - they certainly spend much time just enjoying each other's company rather than working on those problems.

Hermione sighed, what a mess Harry has gotten himself into.

Still she was glad to be part of this, especially for that unlimited reading time.