"Well-informed people become citizens, ill-informed people become subjects."

Alfred Sauvy

Minerva's funeral took place two days later. It had been an emotional occasion for both the members of the Order and the students, who had lost two headmasters in less than a year and a half. Everyone had been deeply affected, and marauders like Remus and Hermione were having trouble getting over it. The pain wracked their chests, and none of them could pronounce her name.

But apart from her funeral, they also had to worry about the bracelet Minerva had worn for the last eight years. Hel Hogwarts had given them a deadline of three days, which would soon be up. And they had no idea who was going to collect the jewel. They had discussed it in the infirmary, but no one seemed fit. Remus had suggested Gideon as the most logical choice, he was the only one apart from Minerva who knew their secrets, but Hermione had refused, still not having forgiven herself for Fabian's death. She had never spoken to him about it, but was unable to conceive that he would risk his life for that stupid bracelet when it was that secret that had made him kill Fabian. They were both against one of the marauders taking it, they didn't want to tell them what they'd been through, or who they were. And they didn't want to put the people they knew and trusted in danger.

But they had forgotten during their discussion that they were in the infirmary and therefore not alone. It was the person listening to them who had come up with the solution.

"Give me your bloody bracelet. You won't find anyone else, and that's all I want to know."

"Regulus... You're awake."

"Obviously."

"You don't know the consequences. If the jewel is damaged, you could die. It happened to me once, I was so close to death. And you want to wear this bracelet, when it could be the death of you, without asking for more information about what it is, what it does, or even about us?"

"My cover's blown. They've seen me with the boy, I can't be of any more use there, and I know full well that many members of the Order have never trusted me, and that's not going to stop now. I want to wear this bracelet if it will help in the future."

And so it was that Regulus became the guardian of the third jewel of Time, without even knowing his real name.

But all this had happened many months before, seven to be exact, and things had changed. Minerva's death had left a chill in the castle, the students seemed to have lost all hope, and some had even asked to leave the country. The Order, too, was depressed, and it showed. The war had been going on for years, and they were all exhausted. They had all lost loved ones, and none of them could see the end of the tunnel that had been forming in front of them for years. The battles were all more deadly than the last, and Voldemort and his Death Eaters had invaded Ireland, the northern half of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the west of Germany and Norway.

He seemed more than determined to wipe out Hogwarts, and the rest of the British resistance, but he hadn't managed to penetrate the Hogwarts defences yet, but the Time Chosens sensed that it was only a matter of weeks, months if they were lucky, before that happened. To make matters worse, the Dark Lord seemed to be fixated on them, and as soon as they took part in a battle, they inevitably found themselves in a duel with him. They intrigued him, and that was never a good thing. He often asked Severus for information about the two of them, but the spy knew very little, and Hermione and Remus refused to give him any more than that. Bellatrix must have given him quite a lot of information about their past, although they didn't know exactly what, in any case, they refused to give him any more.

There wasn't really a headmaster at Hogwarts any more, or even a house, everyone helped the students as best they could and Sprout and Flitwick supervised everything, trying to ensure that no one was left behind.

Hermione and Remus, like all the members of the Order, spent their time fighting the Death Eaters; it was almost all they did any more. Harry and Neville had grown up, and were brutally aware of the world they were growing up in. They had asked Hermione several times to explain to them what was going on, why the war was happening here and not elsewhere, how children lived in countries where there was no war, their parents refusing to answer these questions, arguing that they were too young. Hermione had taken the time to explain, choosing simple words and sparing them the most sordid details. She had told them several times that she was sorry they had to grow up in a world at war, locked up in a castle they shouldn't have known until they were eleven, but she had also told them that they were surrounded by their parents, even though Lily was dead, Harry had his father, his godfather and his uncle, and despite the circumstances, they were more or less happy.

And then there was Raphaël. The relationship between him and Hermione was demanding. The witch was lost and no longer knew how to deal with him. With Remus, everything was fine, he was open and cheerful when he saw him, but with Hermione, it was something else. He could smile at her as well as dig his hell, spend time with her or avoid her, and Hermione didn't know that in advance. He had called her 'Mum' again, several times, especially in the evenings when he was up late after a hard day's training, but he never came back to the subject afterwards, and preferred to avoid Hermione for a few days. And surprisingly, he had become close to Regulus. The young man had blamed himself, it was his fault that Regulus had been tortured and that he had lost his cover, if he hadn't gone out, nothing would have happened. And he'd spoken to the older wizard, who wasn't the least bit angry with him, and since then he'd spent most of his time with him.

But Raphaël was not Hermione's concern of the day. Today was a special day, it was the first of September. Of course, there wasn't really a new school year, the residents of the castle were still there, like every other day of the year, but the teachers had managed to make this day a little different from the others. It wasn't anything special, but it was a way of taking the students out of the monotony of their lives. But it was still early in the morning, and not everyone was up yet.

Hermione headed for the Great Hall, Remus was probably already there, having breakfast with the marauders and Harry. She walked through the doors and spotted them straight away, they were the largest group in the room, the others being only two or three. She sat down between Harry and Remus, before turning to Remus. She handed him a packet, and he stopped eating, surprised.

"What's the occasion?"

"Open it, I want to know if you like it first."

He opened the packet and found a dozen chocolate bars, all the ones he loved. He stared at them for a moment, amazed, then raised his head.

"How did you manage to get so many? They hardly sell them any more. Did you go to the black market?"

"No, you know it's too dangerous. The house elves went out to stock up, and I went with them, they don't stay here to do their shopping, they change countries, I went with them, that's all. They were too happy to have someone to help them, so they didn't stop me coming."

"And to what do I owe all this?"

"It's our anniversary."

"Our anniversary? I know your birthday is coming up, but mine was months ago."

"Think about it. It's eighteen years to the day since we met today."

"Eighteen years? Merlin... I didn't think it was that long ago."

Remus was about to add something, but he closed his mouth again. If that was eighteen for them, then just add two years to the time Hermione first got on the train to Hogwarts.

"I know what you're thinking, don't say it."

"Twenty years. It's been twenty years since you met them."

"Rem, please. I don't feel like talking about this today. Can we just stick to the positive?"

The wizard didn't reply, he was still fixated on the dates. If it had been twenty years for the Golden Trio…

"I first met them forty years ago."

Hermione froze, and smiled contritely.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have made you remember that."

"And I shouldn't have insisted on the twenty years either. I remember that day perfectly. You were so small."

"I always wondered if you were really asleep or just pretending. You reacted so quickly."

Remus didn't have time to answer, Moody stormed into the Great Hall and came towards them.

"You-know-who revealed the existence of wizards to Muggles, the Muggle Prime Minister is holding a press conference."

"It's amazing he's only saying it now. But they're going to blame us for everything now."

"So we're going to explain things to them calmly."

"How do you expect us to explain anything? Do you think they're going to listen to us? They'll be scared, they'll probably try to attack us."

"They can't do anything against wizards, and that's why we have to warn them."

"Well, you're going to do it, Grace. You're the one who knows the most about them, and it's your idea."

Hermione opened her mouth before closing it again. What was she going to say to these Muggles who were panicking at the mere mention of her nature? They had just learned that wizards were responsible for the millions of deaths that had taken place in recent years. But she didn't have time to prepare any kind of speech, she was going to have to improvise, she was going to have to find the right words to calm down the muggles of the United Kingdom, or even the whole world, the information was circulating so much, all it took was for a few foreign journalists to be there, and her head would be broadcast live to the four corners of the world.

"Rem', you're coming with me, that's not negotiable. Sirius and Remus too."

"Why us?"

"I need your radio. If we warn the muggles of our condition, which is going to happen in a few dozen minutes, the wizards must be aware of what I'm saying, the members of the Order must be able to listen to us if they have to intervene quickly, the British wizards who are abroad must be aware of what's happening in their country, and making our magical condition visible to the muggles is information they shouldn't miss."

Hermione had already risen and was heading for the doors of the Great Hall, ready to leave the castle.

"Helena! You can't just leave without being prepared!"

"You're right, go and get changed, put on some Muggle clothes, and take what you need for your radio, I'll wait for you outside, near the Great Doors."

The couple left immediately, leaving Hermione and Remus alone. They made their way silently towards the secret passage and waited for the two marauders to arrive. Hermione went over the things she could say, but there was nothing in her mind that sounded good enough not to panic the people in front of her.

"Try not to stress too much."

"What I'm about to say is going to have repercussions for every wizarding community in the world. How do you expect me not to stress?"

"Don't overdo it either."

"You know you're not going to leave my side for the whole of my speech. If my face is all over the world, you can be sure that yours will be too. And if I run out of things to say, you'll carry on in my place."

"No way! That's out of the question!"

Remus glowered at Hermione, but his younger self and Sirius interrupted, saying they were ready to leave. The four wizards set off again, Hermione leading the way while the others followed much more quietly.

"Where are we going anyway?"

"10 Downing Street."

"All right. Where is that?"

"Sirius, come on!

Then Hermione realised that he wasn't joking, he really had no idea what that address meant. Then she remembered that he was a wizard and that he certainly hadn't learned at school or at home how Muggle British politics worked when he was younger. She then took the time to explain to him that 10 Downing Street was the home of the Muggle Prime Minister, and that at the moment, important press conferences were held from that address. It was a stupid thing to do, in her opinion, because if the Death Eaters decided to attack the place, they would be sure to cause the Muggles even more problems.

They arrived at the secret passage and immobilised the Whomping Willow before stealthily passing between its branches and reappearing in Hogsmeade. Before leaving, Hermione gave them some directions.

"We'll apparate ourselves straight onto the street, but first we need to get disillusioned. Once there, we'll keep quiet and try to find the entrance, see where the press conference is taking place and where the journalists are. Don't forget that you have to show them respect, and act as if you know how they work. This is a woman in office, so don't make any blunders. She is addressed as Madam Prime Minister. Her name is Margaret Thatcher and she's been in office since 1979. Are you ready?"

Hermione grabbed their arms and they all set off for London. They walked silently through the streets, the area was filtered by the police, but being invisible, they passed through without any problems. Hermione saw that the press conference was indoors, so at least they seemed to have realised that the outside was more dangerous, although it wasn't the building that was going to stop the Death Eaters getting in if they wanted to. They managed to get into the dwelling, and relied on the noises they heard. The press conference was taking place in a room on the ground floor. It had just finished because the minister had left, but the journalists were still there. There were still a few people from the government in the room, which was enough; they needed their words to be given to the people, not dozens of politicians asking them questions. They took the podium and became disillusioned all at once. Hermione switched on the microphone and began to speak.

"Hello."

Everyone in the room turned towards her as one. As soon as they saw her, the soldiers pointed their weapons at her, and Hermione immediately raised her hands.

"Please don't shoot. I don't want to hurt anyone. I know my face looks scary, but I think you need some answers. My name is Helena Grace, and this is Remi Lucas, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, they're going to transmit my words over their radio. I was telling you about my face. I didn't get these scars by coincidence, and neither did they. It was the war that made us what we are today. For those of you who haven't figured it out yet, I'm a witch, and I'm going to try and explain to you what's going on in my world. But first, put down your weapons, I'm not going to talk if I'm going to be hit by guns at every turn."

There were murmurs in the room, and some of the journalists were making sure that Hermione's words were being broadcast live.

"And no offence, but it's not as if you are able to touch me. All I have to do is summon a shield and your bullets will disappear. You'd better save them. To begin with, you need to go back to the fairy tales you learned as a child. Wizards do exist. So do dragons, unicorns, centaurs and mermaids. But we don't necessarily exist according to the myths you knew. I'm a witch, but I don't have a hooked nose, and I don't cut up children to put in my potions. But I have a magic wand, I can cast spells, the formula is not abracadabra, and if I liked it, I could fly on a broom. As in all societies, there are good wizards and bad wizards. I don't really think I fall into either category. It's true that I fight the forces of evil, but I've killed, and even tortured sometimes, so I don't think I'm a good witch. But perhaps I should start at the beginning."

Hermione paused to catch her breath and glance at the journalists hanging on her every word.

"Wizards have existed since the dawn of time, we don't know exactly when and how magic appeared, and why it only affects a minority of people, but we have found traces of magic dating back to prehistoric times. You will no doubt have heard that there was a lot of witch-hunting in the Middle Ages, and even though few wizards, apart from children, died during this period, we have spells to protect us from the heat, which greatly contributed to the hatred of some wizards towards Muggles. Muggle is a term used by wizards to describe people with no magical powers and no magical ancestors. Squibs are people born of magical parents, but who have no magical powers. The oldest wizards separated wizards into three categories. There are the Purebloods, such as Sirius."

"Don't say that like I'm proud of it!"

"Purebloods are people born to wizard parents who themselves have had wizard parents for generations. Purebloods end up developing diseases because of too much inbreeding. There are twenty-eight so-called sacred pureblood families. They hold some of the power in our institution, the Wizengamot. The second category are the half-bloods. These are people who have both wizarding and Muggle blood in them. They are the most numerous wizards. Here, Remus and Remi for example. The last category is muggle-born. These are the wizards born to Muggle parents, the first in their family to be a wizard. I belong to this category. And I'm proud of it. But my classmates and I have suffered discrimination ever since we started school and discovered the magical world. We found out about the magical world when we were eleven, and we started school on the first of September following that birthday. The school in Britain is called Hogwarts, and the majority of British wizards went there. Some purists believe that muggleborns should not be allowed to go to Hogwarts, simply because their parents are not wizards. It was this thinking that started the war. A wizard, I can't tell you what he called himself, put a taboo on it, decided to exterminate muggleborns and Muggles, and became the leader of the rival camp to ours, because he was the descendant of one of the founders of Hogwarts. But he forgot to mention that while his mother was indeed a Slytherin descendant, his father was a Muggle, a man like you, with no magical powers. That's where his hatred of Muggles comes from. When I was younger, the wizard I'm talking about was called Tom Riddle. Many wizards rallied to his cause, first the pure-bloods, then the half-bloods. They all have one goal, to destroy you. And if they reveal our condition today, our magic, it is to frighten you, they know that if you start to distrust each other, you will kill each other, and they will have succeeded. So don't worry about whether your neighbour is a wizard or not. Because if he is and he lives in one of your neighbourhoods, that means he's in hiding, he wants to protect his family from the influence of Riddle and his Death Eater."

Hermione paused again, to let the people in front of her integrate her words.

"I'm sure you have lots of questions, but I doubt I'll be able to answer them all today. But I can guess at some of them. Why didn't we manage to stop him before? Successive Ministers of Magic turned a blind eye to the problem. They were corrupt, as were their advisers. As I said earlier, pureblood families have a lot of influence. And there aren't enough of us wizards to fight them. We have created an organisation, the Order of the Phoenix, but there are only twenty of us. Many of us are dead. I've seen friends die, others lose their minds. I've been tortured for resisting oppression. But we all resist in our own way. Those who have fled the country are also resisting, they are surviving. We are fighting against an army of hundreds of soldiers, probably more. But we've been fighting non-stop for years. We no longer have a government, our shopping streets have been closed for years, the Ministry fell in 1981, but we are still here. Our hospital was attacked several months ago, and all the patients had to be rushed to other countries. The last place not under Riddle's influence is Hogwarts. And there aren't many of us. The teachers are still teaching, focusing on defence, and most of the students who are still there are orphans, or their parents are resistance fighters. We've been oppressed for years, but we fight every day to get rid of the mangemorts and their leader. So don't you dare tell us that we haven't done enough. My name is Helena Grace, I'm a woman, I'm a werewolf, I'm a muggleborn, I'm one of the leaders of the resistance. All that makes me a target. But I resist. They've attacked innocent people, and I know that one day they'll pay. I understand that you're desperate. You've probably lost someone close to you in this war, probably without knowing it. But it's not our fault. I've told you. There are twenty of us fighting an army. It's a miracle we're still alive. I'd like to tell you to protect yourselves, but there's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do against the Death Eaters. Thank you for listening, I'm sure you have questions but I'm not going to answer them. One last thing, I'd like to say to the wizards living abroad. If one day you want to return to your country of birth, you have to fight for it, you have to want it. Thank you to those who have heard my appeal. As for foreign countries... Don't forget what Riddle and the Death Eaters did to our country. They invaded parts of our neighbouring countries. Do you really think he's going to stop now? Thank you."

Hermione turned away from the room, but before she could speak to any of the marauders, Moody's patronus appeared in front of her.

"Grace, attack in progress in Trafalgar Square. Finish or not, you're coming. I hope Lucas, Black and Lupin are with you."

Hermione turned back to the journalists and advised them to get home as quickly as possible. They were barely a mile from the attack, and Merlin knew what the Death Eaters were capable of. Remus and Sirius had quickly put their radios away and were ready to leave. It was before the stunned eyes of the assembly that the four of them disapparate. The square was filled with Death Eaters and the wizards immediately drew their wands and began to fight. For several hours, the members of the Order fought the Death Eaters, it didn't seem to stop, but they kept going. They were getting tired, and didn't see the point of the battle as they seemed to be concentrating on themselves. They were killing the Muggles who had the misfortune to pass by, but they were concentrating on the wizards, and there were far from being all the Death Eaters, but Voldemort had sent the most powerful ones there all the same. Hermione had just managed to kill three Death Eaters and looked up to see where the others were. Her blood ran cold when she saw Remus fighting Bellatrix. Neither of them seemed to be getting the better of the other. She stood there for a moment, watching them fight, until a spell brushed against her.

She turned away for a moment, and saw that the Death Eater was no match for her for long. She cast a few spells to immobilize him, then looked him in the eye before finishing him off. She turned her attention back to the fight taking place before her eyes. She was surprised to see that there were far fewer Death Eaters than before, and not so many corpses on the ground that they were all dead. They were gradually disapparating, moving away from the scene of the battle to some unknown place.

The only one left was Bellatrix. She didn't seem to want to stop fighting, and neither did Remus. They oscillated between light and dark magic when one of them gained the upper hand, and the other finally fell to the ground, surrounded by bonds.

Remus fell to the ground, exhausted. Bellatrix looked at him with hatred, but there was nothing more she could do. He had his wand, and it was tied. He saw Hermione rushing towards him, watching him from every angle, worried.

"Don't you ever do that to me again, I thought my heart was going to stop beating. Can you believe it? You beat her! After so many years, you've done it! We'll be able to avenge them, once and for all, for good. We can find out how she got here."

"You can dream on, little mudblood."

"Crucio."

"Helena, stop!"

"I see you've improved over the years. Have you learned the lesson I taught your half-blood friend? The unforgivable, you have to want it. The mudblood is all grown up. What would your friends say if they saw you? You think they'd be proud of you?"

"Shut up, you! You won't be so smart when I do to you what you've done to me! You'll scream so much you'll become mute!"

"Hermione, stop it! You're letting yourself be consumed by hate! I don't want you to spend hours torturing her, no matter what she's done to you. You won't become like them."

"I forbid you to judge me! How can you refuse to..."

"I'm not judging you. You just can't let yourself be consumed by your hatred for her!"

"She tortured me! How do you expect me to stay calm?"

"You're not the only one who's suffered. She killed my wife, my son and my best friend. I'll take care of it."

"You'll what? This is out of the question! You..."

But before Hermione could object any longer, Remus had turned away, grabbed Bellatrix, and disapparate, away from the battlefield. The stares of the Order members were fixed on Hermione, they had all been listening to their conversation, even if they hadn't all been able to hear everything that had been said, they had understood the gist. Hermione was still contemplating the spot where Remus had disappeared a few moments earlier, her heart clenched with apprehension. She was worried.