Chapter Text
Hermione woke by noting that there were feathers in her mouth. She opened her mouth to spit them out, but didn't dare try to look around yet. Surely this meant she wasn't dead...she doubted she'd have feathers in her mouth in...the afterlife?
She heard some shuffling coming from her right. "Good, Harry, you are finally awake." She heard the voice of Remus Lupin. "I am glad you are alright, but you understand that I had to write your dad. He's on his way down to the school now."
"Oh, did you have to?" Harry asked.
Hermione finally opened her eyes, but shut them again tightly. When did the infirmary get so bright? "James is alive?" she asked tentatively. Had it worked? Had Dumbledore read her letter after all? Had he gleaned that one tidbit from the words that she'd written?
"Hermione? Are you okay?" Harry asked, sitting up sharply.
Hermione propped herself up and turned to look at the boy, her best friend. "Yeah, I am a little sore, but I am fine," she answered.
"Good, good," Harry said, pausing. "I think that we should have Madame Pomfrey check you for a concussion though. You know that my parents were killed years ago...I know Sirius is just my godfather, but calling him my dad has never bothered you before."
Hermione frowned, but then smiled. Well, at least one of her letters got read. Her chest warmed, thinking of how Harry had grown up with a parent who actually cared for him. Sirius hadn't gone to Azkaban. Remus looked, he looked really well actually. Nothing like the thin, shabby man she remembered from Grimmauld Place.
"Remus, wonderful to see you again," she said, smiling at him. Lupin had a knowing smile on his face, but Harry just gaped at hearing her call him anything but Professor Lupin. "What are you doing here? What happened with Marlene?"
"One question at a time, Hermione. I've been working as the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor here for the last...well it's been five years now," he told her with a smile. Then, the smile faded. "Well, Marlene was...we dated for a year, and I was ready to tell her about my lycanthropy, but she...well, her whole family was killed. Death Eaters."
"Oh, Rem-er-Professor Lupin, that's awful. I thought you were so suited."
"Yes, I was very fond of her. But, I actually just married a witch in the Auror Department this summer, Nymphadora Tonks," he explained with a smile, the sunlight glinting on the gold of his wedding band.
"Whose Marlene?" Harry demanded, increasingly frustrated with the secret conversation Remus and Hermione were having in front of him. He felt like a little kid, when Sirius would spell out all of his swears.
Remus looked at him, as if surprised he was still there, irking Harry even more. "She was my Hogwarts girlfriend," he told him with a shrug.
Harry's eyebrows knitted together. "So then how come Hermione knows her? And Hermione, why are you dressed like that?" he questioned.
Hermione looked down at her rumpled dress, feathers that had once been impressive were now dried at awkward angles and stuck out every which way. "Err.. I was at a Halloween Party," she said, lamely.
"What Halloween Party? The Hogwarts Halloween Ball isn't until tonight. And what were you doing up on the Astronomy Tower? And how did you fall? You didn't...er, jump did you?" Harry asked, his face suddenly ashen.
Hermione started laughing at him. "Of course not. I just tripped I guess. How did I survive though?" she wondered.
Professor Lupin looked at her. "Well, Harry was having an unauthorized flying session and he saw you falling and he flew over and saved you, just in the nick of time. You still had quite a collision though." Hermione looked at Harry's sheepish expression, Gryffindor practice jersey on his back.
Before Harry could ask any more questions, a blur of cerulean blue robes and black hair ran into the room. Harry was even more put out when his godfather didn't even stop to see if he was okay, instead skidding to a stop next to Hermione's bedside.
Sirius pushed Hermione's wild hair behind her ears, and his face broke into a grin seeing the delicate little emerald earrings in her ears. He let out a whoop of joy before dipping his lips to hers in a passionate kiss. Harry sat staring at his godfather and his best friend engaged in a passionate lip lock. Then Sirius pulled away, his previously happy face now seemed a bit darker.
"Do you even know how mad I was at you when I saw you at King's Cross Station at the end of your first year? Safe house my arse!" he said.
"You recognized me?" Hermione asked, surprised.
"Of course I did, I'm a bloody animagus!" Sirius shouted. "And I'd recognize that hair anywhere."
Hermione was awash in emotions. She couldn't help it. She burst into tears, reaching out her arms to wrap around the older man. "Sirius, I am so happy you are okay," she sobbed into his chest — great heaving sobs that left his robes wet.
All of Sirius's anger deflated and he stood there dumbfounded. "Well, of course I'd be okay," he said, confused. Hermione laughed at him and let him go. Sirius took the opportunity to sit on the side of her bed, staring at her, fondly. "Merlin, you are just as pretty as I remember."
"I look like a wet cat and I have feathers everywhere!" Hermione complained.
"That's it!" Harry groused, hitting his hand on his leg. "Someone better explain what's going on right now! Hermione, you can't just go around kissing a bloke's godfather without some kind of explanation..."
Hermione blushed bright red and Sirius turned to look at Harry, suddenly realizing that he was there and in a hospital bed. "Harry, mate, glad you are alright too," he said with a smile.
Harry crossed his arms, staring pointedly at the couple on the bed. Remus laughed at the situation from his chair.
"I believe I can explain that, Mister Potter," Dumbledore said, striding into the room. "Nearly two decades ago, a witch called Hermione Granger showed up in my office, saying she had broken a Time Turner fighting Death Eaters with her friend Harry Potter at the Department of Mysteries, sending her back in time. She attending Hogwarts for two months before we were able to return her to her present day."
Sirius eyebrows shot up. He'd thought a lot about Hermione in the past years, but he'd never once considered the circumstances of her presence in his adolescence. Harry also seemed skeptical.
"But, seeing as Hermione never fought a battle in the Department of Mysteries, her presence in the past must have had ripples in the future," Dumbledore said, looking at Hermione with a slight hint of annoyance. "Perhaps you can fill her in with the major events of your friendship so we can see what has changed."
"Alright," Harry conceded. "But first I am going to need an explanation of this." He gestured to Sirius and Hermione.
"Well, Harry, your mother thought your father and I were interested in each other...and I might have gotten you momentarily unborn." Hermione filled Harry in on the details of how she'd used Sirius to get James and Lily together and how their relationship had grown from there.
"Sirius! You had sex with my best friend!" Harry finally realized at the end. Although she hadn't gone into specifics, Harry had filled in the blanks. "When you told me about the night my parents started dating you said that you left the party early to...you know...with your girlfriend. And that was Hermione!"
Hermione had never been so mortified in her life. Sirius on the other hand didn't seem to bothered by it. "Hey, I also mentioned her when I gave you the sex talk."
"That was all Hermione too!" Harry said, his voice getting higher and higher in pitch.
Remus was watching the scene, laughing at the trio.
"Hey, I know some embarrassing stories about you too!" Hermione snapped at him. "Shall I tell Harry about your Little Red Riding Hood?" Remus clammed up then, pink to the tips of his ears. "Can we just talk about what's happened since first year at Hogwarts?" Hermione continued, wishing the bed would just swallow her up.
Harry nodded, desperate to think of anything else, and began telling her about everything. It seemed that most events were unchanged, although during second year circumstances had diverged. "Well, Sirius always knew that I was a parselmouth, but when I destroyed Voldemort's diary in second year, Remus, Sirius and Professor Dumbledore realized that Voldemort had created horcruxes. And I was one of them. We had to complete this crazy ritual that pulled the part of his soul from me."
The idea of someone creating so many horcruxes was horrifying to Hermione, but she was glad to hear that the Order had been able to locate and destroy all of them. It seemed everything else had come to pass in similar ways, with some differences.
"Well, he was practically begging for me to put my name into the Goblet of Fire, drawing that age line! When I told you about how I used my Firebolt to fly over it and put my name in, you told McGonagall and it was confiscated for a month. It was pretty much the biggest fight we had," he continued.
It sounded like fifth and sixth year had been pretty uneventful, except for the time that Hermione had asked Draco Malfoy to Hogsmeade and he'd actually gone with her, to get back at Ron for kissing Lavender Brown. She didn't know what was more disturbing, that she liked Ron or that she liked Malfoy.
Once the story was told, Dumbledore left, letting them know that he'd give them time to discuss their personal issues.
"So tell me what happened when I left," Hermione said, asking Remus and Sirius.
"Well, I was really annoyed with you for leaving me, especially just leaving a cryptic as fuck letter and not saying goodbye in person. You know you are the only bird to leave me before morning? No pun intended," Sirius asked. Hermione just blushed. "Well, I had no idea who Harry was, so for a while, I just let your words sit in the back of my mind. But then Harry was born and it all came back."
"We were all really confused as to why Sirius refused to go on any missions with Pettigrew," Remus said quietly.
"And well, when it actually happened, it took everything in my power to not go after him," Sirius said darkly.
Hermione smiled. "I am glad you were spared Azkaban though. In my time you were there for twelve years before you escaped."
"I escaped Azkaban?" Sirius said surprised, but then considered the situation. "Yeah, I think I could probably do that. Well, I still had to undergo intense questioning by the Wizengamot." He shuddered, thinking of the marathon 37 hour questioning under repeated veritaserum doses.
"Then, Sirius raised Harry. He was absolutely shite at first, but I helped and Andromeda did too," Remus said, filling in the blanks. "I actually think he's been a good influence. He had to tone down a lot of behaviors."
"Oi, is Hermione why you always left the country whenever I'd invite her over the during the summer?" Harry piped up.
"Well, you have no idea how hard it was seeing her and her not knowing who I was," Sirius said insistently.
"And is Hermione why you never go on dates?" Harry asked pointedly.
Sirius blushed. "I go on dates! I just didn't want it to be a bad influence on you, cycling different women through the house when you were growing up. I didn't want you to get confused."
"Yeah, but I'm seventeen now."
"Well it's not like I'm celibate!" Sirius responded. "You are out of the house nine months of the year."
A knot twisted in Hermione's stomach. She was glad that Sirius had lived his life, and it's not like she expected him to wait for her, but it still hurt to hear. She had been his girlfriend less than twenty four hours ago, and he'd lived nearly twenty years apart.
Sirius turned to look at her distraught face. "Look, Hermione, it's not like I waited for you, but...I have never been in a relationship with another woman," he said with a blush. "Fuck, that sounds awful. I mean, I never connected with another person the way I connected with you." He rubbed his hand over his face. "This is the part where I am supposed to tell you that I don't deserve you and I'm old - old enough to be your father - and that you should live your life, enjoy your life, but I am a bloody selfish sod and I want to try to make this work. That is if you'd like to try. Dating."
Hermione smiled at him, genuinely surprised. She had loved the Sirius Black of his youth, but she wanted to learn him as Sirius Black the man. He wasn't as muscular as he used to be, and he did have a one or two laugh lines, but he was still attractive and... "Yes."
"So, you'll come to Grimmauld Place for Christmas?" Sirius asked excited.
"Of course," Hermione said, happy with how this was working out.
"Wait, aren't you going to ask how I feel about all of this?" Harry asked, put out at not being considered.
"You'll have to forgive Harry," Sirius told her with a smile. "He's used to having all my attention."
"Not to break up this family moment," a voice said from the corner of the room, "but I need to speak with you urgently, Hermione, Sirius." The four of them looked and saw Dumbledore, in shockingly purple robes, the likes of which had never been in fashion.
"Er, sir? You were just here," Harry said.
"Ah, my current self. I am a time traveler," he told them. "I am afraid we need to take a little trip, Hermione and Sirius."
"Aww, but I just got back here!" Hermione whined. "What's wrong...did Sirius manage to unborn one of Harry's children or something?" she asked sarcastically.
Dumbledore looked at them, dismissively. "No, no, Harry's children are perfectly safe. It's your children that are causing trouble."
"Ch-children?" Hermione asked, surprised. Harry had turned white as a sheet and nearly fainted on the bed.
"Yes, your children, yours and Sirius's - Al, Regulus and little Isla - we have to go now," he told them. Sirius himself looked a little bit woozy now.
Hermione deciding to take action, steeled herself. She extended the chain around her neck so that it hung around Sirius's neck, too. "Alright, sir. We will go, of course we will. Back to the future. How many turns?"