"What would life be like if we did not have the courage to try anything?
Vincent Van Gogh
"Remus?"
"Her... Hermione? Is that you?"
Hermione couldn't believe her eyes! But no matter how hard she blinked, the man was still there, in front of her. How was it that Remus was alive? Oh, she was glad she wasn't alone anymore, but he looked so bad. He had so many scars.
"Hermione, I've been looking for you for so long! What's with all the scars? You're going to beat me soon, I've got plenty to do with the full moon."
-I'll answer you later but first we have to get out of here.
She found herself inspecting every inch of the place to see if there was a way out, but the cellar was similar to the one Harry and Ron had found themselves in a few months ago. A few safeguards had even been added but Dobby was no longer there to save them, they were going to have to fend for themselves.
-It's no use, Hermione. We don't have a wand.
The young woman's eyes lit up and she began to frantically search through her bag. She pulled out two wands, looking victorious. Remus wondered how the young woman always had so many resources, so many ideas to get out of the worst situations. Being Harry Potter's friend must have helped. No one attracted trouble like he did.
"I'm not sure it's working, Hermione. The Manor must be protected."
"Alohomora. Well, it's not working."
She rummaged in her beaded bag again, and pulled out a small Swiss Army knife. After a few minutes she finally managed to open the gate.
"Let's go out the back. You get under the invisibility cloak. I cast the spell of disillusionment on myself."
Remus was amazed, she was so mature. Although her eyes were shining with pain, she was putting the Cause first. Ah, she had changed, the little girl who raised her hand at every question from a teacher. He was baffled when she handed him her wand.
"Here, it's to defend yourself, just in case. I'll take Harry's."
He understood what that meant to Hermione. For wizards, their wand was part of themselves. So it was very hard to part with it. With Harry's wand, she had a bit of him back, so it was unthinkable that she would part with it. Remus assumed that she hardly ever used her wand anymore. So as not to be spotted, and also so as not to forget Harry in some way.
They went up the stairs step by step, as quietly as possible. This was their chance, there were no Death Eaters in the room. Remus saw his wand lying on a cabinet and grabbed it stealthily. They crossed the room as quickly and quietly as possible and arrived at the exit. As they passed through the door, voices were heard.
"They have escaped! Find them! The master wants the leech alive but kill the wolf."
"Hermione, we have to leave. But we can't go anywhere."
"Hold my bag, I'll transform."
Before Remus' stunned eyes, Hermione transformed into a beautiful phoenix. She grabbed Remus' shoulders with her paws and flew away quickly to the shouts of the Death Eaters who felt their master's punishment coming.
Hermione arrived a few yards from Grimmaud's Square, set Remus down and resumed his human form. She handed him the invisibility cloak and ordered him to be quiet. Both of them became invisible and stealthily walked past the Death Eaters present.
Hermione immediately went up to the bathroom and nearly fell down the stairs as she descended.
"Here's some dittany, show me your wounds, I'll treat you."
"Hermione, you don't have to be so formal with me, I've never understood why you've always tried to be so formal with me and call me 'Professor Lupin' when we were both members of the Order?"
"Calling you by your first name? But you were my teacher and-"
"That was six years ago, Hermione, I don't mind you calling me "Professor Lupin", I'm old enough as it is, there's no need to add twenty years to my life."
Hermione was beginning to lose her patience. It had been a week. A week she had been trying to translate the book on the jewels of time. On her way back to Grimmaud's Square, she had noticed that the book was written in ancient runes. Having studied this subject at Hogwarts, she thought it would be easy to translate the book. What a mistake! Naively, she had thought that her few hours of lessons over four years would be enough. Even with a rune dictionary she had trouble. She translated no more than two pages a day, leaving a few blanks.
Remus felt helpless in the face of the young woman's irritation. He had never studied runes and therefore could not help her. Besides, they had decided by mutual agreement not to leave the house for some time, seeing more Death Eaters than ever before near the house.
"There's no point in me staying to translate like this! I've translated twelve pages in a week, I need something else. I don't know, a better dictionary."
"Hermione, we're not going to be able to go out just yet, you know the Death Eaters are here."
"I'm not going to be scared by a few common minions. I've had worse than those amateurs."
The woman went off to her room and returned with her almost brother's invisibility cloak.
"I'm going on the side road. No, don't cut me off!" she continued, seeing the look on her friend's face. I know it's dangerous but I'll be very careful. In the meantime, I'd like you to look for a spell that would automatically translate the runes. Will you do that for me?"
Hermione left with a smile on her face as Remus looked on with discomfort, thinking that she had too much influence over him and that he needed to be more assertive. He was twenty years older by Merlin!
"Hermione!"
"Yes?"
"You know, the full moon's in a week and I don't know where I'm going to turn. Preferably away from you."
"Oh, yeah, that's right. Um, well we'll either go to the cellar or the forest, there's a wood not too far from here."
"What do you mean, we?"
"I'll go with you. Your wolf will play with the phoenix, like he played with the marauders' animagi."
"Hermione, this is out of the question, I don't have a wolf potion, I could hurt you or worse, kill you."
"I'm stopping you right now, I made my decision a long time ago, you're not going to change my mind."
Remus woke up in a soft bed, his body aching and sore. His night came back to him and he immediately thought of Hermione. What if he had hurt her? What if she hated him, after seeing what he really was? He scrambled out of bed but staggered back, not quite over his night yet. It was then that Hermione entered the room and was surprised to see her friend standing.
"Remus! What are you doing up? Go back to bed! Come on, hurry up!"
"Hermione, are you all right? Did I hurt you? Don't lie to me! You're not disgusted?"
"No Remus, why would I be disgusted? I saw you in your wolf form when I was fourteen. I wasn't disgusted then so I don't see why I should be now. I only have a few scratches, it's nothing. The same cannot be said for you. All your scars are not new."
"Show me your 'scratches'!" he ordered firmly.
The witch replied that there was absolutely nothing to see, but he did not listen. Despite her protests, he grabbed her and felt something on her stomach. He lifted his shirt slightly and saw a long bandage covering much of his stomach.
"Hermione what is that?"
"Nothing, it's nothing."
"You saw what I did to you! Next month you're not coming with me, there's no way."
"It's not for you to decide what I do! So what if you hurt me? I've had worse than a scratch."
"Hermione your bandage is more red than white so I don't think it's just a 'little scratch'."
"Be happy, thanks to you I've found the solution to reading the book."
"Did you?" said Remus, looking dazed, wondering how he could have helped when he was on the rampage in his wolf form.
"At dawn I levitated you. And I returned to the Square, which was no mean feat. The book was open on the table, I had taken you upstairs to bed and cleaned your wounds. I came back down to tend to my own and some blood fell on the book. I just caught a glimpse of a sentence in English and the words became runes again. I think you have to pour pureblood on the book to be able to read it."
"Brilliant! You're really very clever! I'm not going to be able to help with the blood though, my mother was a Muggle."
It had been a month since Hermione had discovered the solution to reading the Time Jewels book. She and Remus had been waiting impatiently for a pureblood Death Eater to come and watch Grimmaud Square. The only problem was that they didn't know all the Death Eaters and the 'important' purebloods didn't do this kind of mission.
"Remus, come here quickly!"
Remus rushed over to Hermione. She pointed to the window and he quietly opened the curtain. He saw three random Death Eaters, the rest of the Square was empty. He didn't see anything unusual or that had changed.
"There, don't you see? The blond one, he's a Rosier! I recognised him."
"What are you getting at? I confess I'm lost."
"But come on, Remus! It's well known that all Rosiers are pure-bloods. I need his blood."
She didn't give Remus time to say anything, grabbed the invisibility cloak and left the house. He quickly joined his friend, fearing that she would be spotted. Hermione arrived near the Death Eaters and stunned the first two with ease. Rosier was a different story, he was casting dark magic spells blindly, not allowing Remus to get close to the young woman. Hermione, on the other hand, was trying to stay hidden under the cloak, avoiding the spells.
The Death Eater saw a wand come out of nowhere. He knew this wand. Yes, of course it was Potter's wand. He barely had time to wonder what it was doing there before he was knocked to the ground and fell unconscious.
"Hermione! Why do you always have to do everything yourself!"
"Quickly give me a vial, I need his blood."
"What have you done to him?"
"A good Sectumsempra always does the trick."
"Hermione! This is dark magic!"
"Remus we can talk about this tonight, I'll explain if you want but right now I really need to deal with him! Return home please."
The wizard obeyed with a cold look on his face and went back into the house, promising himself a good chat with the young woman. Hermione finished taking the Death Eater's blood, cast the death spell on him and erased all traces of the struggle and his passing. Then she arrived in the house. Her clothes were full of blood, so she went to take a shower and made Remus wait again for answers to his questions.
"I'm ready! We can finally read this book."
"No, we can't."
"No?"
"No. You'll answer my questions first."
"I'm listening Rem'."
"Rem'?"
"Yes I like it, it's shorter and-"
"That's not the point, Hermione. Since when do you use dark magic? Did I see you kill Rosier? That was so natural! How many people did you kill before him?"
"I learned dark magic after Harry died. I know he wouldn't have liked it if I'd fallen for it, but it's too late! It's like Muggle cigarettes. Once you've had a taste, you can't get rid of them. Unfortunately, I've fallen into both."
"You smoke too! Since when? What could have happened?" he wondered more to himself than to the young woman. Did Ron know you were learning dark magic?"
"Yes and no. I've been smoking since the Battle and no Ron never knew. I didn't want him to know. Don't worry, the magic is part of me now, I've got used to it. If you've never smelt a cigarette it's because I put a spell on myself to mask the smell, I hate it."
"Why do you smoke then?"
"I don't think you're ready to hear the truth, Remus."
"All right, then. I think I'm ready to hear why you managed to kill Rosier so easily."
Hermione stood up abruptly and started pacing the room, her gait showed that she was uncomfortable.
"This isn't the first time I've killed someone Rem'. Don't make that face! Haven't you ever killed anyone?"
"Yes, twice. The first time I was sixteen, it was a full moon and James and Sirius were in detention, Peter couldn't handle a rampaging wolf. I came out of the cabin howling. Someone from the Ministry was in the forbidden forest talking to who knows what creature and I killed it. I've never really recovered from that. It was James who got me back to life. And as soon as I recovered, he died."
Remus burst into tears. Hermione regretted asking the question. She now understood why Remus did not want her to keep him company during the full moon. She returned to sit beside him and hugged him.
"The second was a Death Eater who was going to kill Harry. So I didn't think about it and I killed him. I'll always feel bad for killing those two people."
"Even if one of them was a Death Eater."
"Yes, of course! Who am I to decide who deserves to live or die. I'm nobody so I'm asking you, how many people have you killed?"
Hermione looked up at him and hesitated for a moment. She finally answered him with her eyes in his.
"I have absolutely no idea. It could be twenty people or a hundred. I have no idea. You must think I'm cruel and soulless, and that's probably true. I've been thinking about that for a long time, why I deserve to live and they don't. And I've thought about all those dead people, all the people who died for their beliefs that the Death Eaters murdered. I gave myself the right, as a survivor, to take their lives. I see your question coming. Of course I thought I was no better than them after I killed the first person in the battle. And then I thought about it for a long time, and I said to myself that it is our beliefs that change. They kill for fun, I kill for revenge, for Harry. Maybe it's not better. But it is. As the muggles say, to great evils go great remedies. I can understand you being angry with me. But we still have the same beliefs. We're just different in the way we fight for it."
"Oh, I don't think I don't want to talk to you, that's a bit extreme. I'm just surprised. When I found you, I could see straight away that you'd changed, but I didn't expect anything so radical. I'll need some time to think about it."
"I'll give you as much time as you need. But you know, war has changed us all, for better or worse, but all wars change the people who live through them."
By mutual agreement, they decided to concentrate on something else and went to get the book on the jewels of time. They were both impatient, Hermione more so than Remus. Remus had his doubts. What if Rosier wasn't a pureblood? What if Hermione's blood had been a fluke? Hermione poured the first vial on the book under Remus' impatient eyes.