Chapter Text
⋆.˚⋆ June 1997 ⋆.˚⋆
Harry and Dumbledore’s absence from the castle was quiet, the former only offering a few parting words before vanishing into the night. His final instructions were clear; they were to divide the remaining shares of his Felix Felicis between the members of Dumbledore’s Army.
It took everything in Hermione to hold herself back from pleading with him not to go. To beg him not to be the sacrificial lamb again. To stop him from taking his place as The Chosen One and filling the role everyone expected of him.
But when he pressed the vial of luck potion into her palm, Hermione knew there was nothing she could say that would stop Harry Potter from running headfirst into the unknown. No words would hold him back from being the defender of good versus evil, even at his own detriment.
“Just promise me you will stay safe.” There was a sense of unease in the way his emerald eyes looked just beyond her shoulder, Ron’s gaze burning through them both. “After Sirius, I couldn’t stand to lose—”
“I promise.” Hermione left no room for hesitation. “I’m not the one flying off into danger with Dumbledore, am I?”
“Hermione,” uncertainty laced his words, eyes squeezing shut, “if Malfoy is up to something…”
“Then Hogwarts is the safest place for us, don’t you suppose?” Hermione managed a strangled sort of smile.
“You need to stay away from him.” His eyes flitted up, looking to where Ron and Ginny shifted on their feet behind Hermione. “All of you.”
“Hogwarts is safe, mate.” Ron answered, his voice sure as though it were a certainty.
“Hogwarts is only as safe as Dumbledore allows.” Harry’s voice was curt, short in a way he hadn’t been with Hermione. “Dumbledore’s presence makes it safe. Once he leaves—”
“Listen to me, Harry. Nothing is going to happen to us.” With a hand on his chest, Hermione felt the warmth of his skin through his shirt. “And, so long as you remain with Dumbledore, nothing will happen to you.”
Then, after a second glance over her shoulder to Ron’s heated gaze, Harry was gone.
⋆.˚⋆ ☽ ⋆.˚⋆
Hogwarts was burning.
Curses echoed through the corridors while Order members and Death Eaters dueled in classrooms and courtyards. Flashes of red and green reflected in the windows while professors rushed students back to their dormitories. Smoke rose from Hagrid’s hut, the wailing of the half-giant could be heard from where Hermione hid behind the Greenhouses.
Footsteps approaching from the direction of Hagrid’s hut, paired with a shrill of laughter, propelled Hermione from behind the Greenhouses into the Forbidden Forest. As she ran, every new breath was more uneven than the last. Each step into the thick of the trees sent Hermione further away from the castle, further away from castle and any hope of safety.
Hermione cursed her good-natured nativity. She cursed the ‘bleeding-heart Gryffindor’ complex Slytherins like Malfoy mocked her for having. Mostly, she cursed the foolish decision she made to give her share of the Felix Felicis with a group of students she reasoned needed it more.
When Hermione’s legs had enough, her lungs burning with every intake of the chilly night air, she found herself in the center of a clearing. Shadows moved as though they were creatures prowling, trees lurched against the wind. Branches and leaves blocked the night sky, even the moon remained concealed by darkness.
Though it wasn’t the darkness or distance from the castle that scared her. What truly frightened Hermione were the pair of yellow eyes watching her from the brush. Even more terrifying was the voice accompanying them.
“Hello there, little witch.”
Hermione’s muscles stiffened, the blood in her veins freezing. The only movement she could manage were her fingers as she willed them to tighten around the wand still poised in her hand.
“Oh, we are far from the castle, aren’t we?” A sharp-tooth smile formed over Fenrir Greyback’s maw, blood coating the grimy flesh there. “I was wondering when you would find me.”
⋆.˚⋆ ☽ ⋆.˚⋆
The patronus came while Remus was at Grimmauld Place, his fingers turning through an old photo album. Faces of friends long since passed smiled up at him. The brilliant emerald eyes of Lily while she stood beside Mary in one, followed by another of James and Sirius exchanging mischievous grins while Peter looked helplessly between them. Even a letter from Marlene was pressed between the pages, the indents on the parchment showing her tendency to hold the quill just a little too tightly.
But when the shimmer of Kingsley’s lynx patronus appeared in the center of Sirius’ bedroom, the photo album fell from Remus’ lap, all the photographs and letters sliding across the floor.
An attack at Hogwarts.
The Order was to report to the castle in defense of the school and its students.
Remus’ mind went to Harry, to the first time he held him as a baby and seeing him on the Hogwarts Express. Watching him grow and become more like Lily than anyone would have predicted.
Pack.
But as Remus stepped into the Floo and threw the powder at his feet, Moony pushed another picture into his mind. Memories of a girl with chocolate colored hair and brown eyes. There was a foggy memory of the night he reunited with Sirius. The same night he missed his Wolfsbane, the full moon he heard someone calling to him.
Pack.
An ache pulsed through Remus’ body, the pressure of it leading him from the castle. Shadows of the Forbidden Forest beckoned him, but it was Moony’s words, the fierce guiding commands of a wolf buried within, pressing him to move faster. Though it wasn’t until he caught Fenrir Greyback’s stench mixing with the familiar smell of parchment and ink, did he give into the wolf’s urges.
Pack. Moony chanted, though Remus wasn’t sure the creature lurking beneath his skin understood what he was saying. Man must save what remains of his pack.
Every scent he associated with Hermione began to shift, fading as if they were taking on a new life. Scents of peppermint wafted through the air, blending with the fading smells of parchment and burning the end of his nose. This scent was new and entirely un-Hermione, though Remus supposed there may have been a time he might have been able to place it.
Run faster. Save the little one.
“Fuck.” The curse left Remus’ mouth, his legs burning as he ran.
Monster’s scent is growing stronger.
Moony paired his warnings with a howl, the fury of the werewolf prodding beneath Remus’ skin itching to break free. Like Hermione Granger’s life, her safety, mattered more to him than to Remus.
But Greyback’s foul odor was unmistakable. As were the fading scents of ink and parchment as traces of copper overwhelmed Remus’ senses.
You are going to be too late to save her. Just as you were too late to save them.
“No,” Remus grit his teeth, gold consuming his irises, “I won’t be.”
⋆.˚⋆ June 1976 ⋆.˚⋆
Regulus dreamt he was running through the corridors of Hogwarts, curses blasting against the castle’s ancient hallways rattling the portraits fixed on the wall. Screams echoed, ringing against his skull while forces wretched him forward. Wall collapsed on one another, each one coming crashing down around him.
But through the shadows, beyond the distant screams, a voice spoke.
“Nothing is going to happen to us.”
It was soft, gentle as though the disembodied voice was trying to be of some comfort to him. As though it were worried for his sake instead of their own.
“Nothing is going… to happen to… us.”
It was louder now, though the words became clipped and breathless like the source was running, unable to catch her breath. The realization made Regulus take pause, her breath.
Her.
Months passed with this voice haunting his dreams and nightmares. But now, he heard it. The previously overlooked detail. The overwhelming softness of her voice, the femininity in the way each word drifted into the next.
There was some intimate about knowing a detail about this person who haunted his dreams which made it more real. Made her more real. One step closer to discovering her identity, understanding this hold she had over him, why he often found himself dreaming of her voice.
“Nothing… is going… to happen...” Her voice was weak, something about it sending an ache through his own body.
“Wait—” Regulus felt himself reaching for something he didn’t understand, a person he didn’t know.
A mysterious her.
And when Regulus finally woke, only the trees of the Forbidden Forest surrounded him, a cool night breeze whipping through the darkness. Only the faint taste of the peppermint tea he drank prior to climbing into his four-posted bed remained on his tongue.
⋆.˚⋆ ☽ ⋆.˚⋆