Chapter Fourteen: Harvest

Minerva reassured him that Dennis was relatively unharmed from his encounter with Bellatrix and that there was a planned meeting slash celebration of survival scheduled the next morning outside of the Burrow. She also promised him that they could compare notes about Febronia, but that Febie had left instructions behind, and she planned to follow them. The steel resolve that crept into her voice made Remus remember something important.

"Will the Ministry come after us for our relationship? It will seem as if she returned from the past and told me who she was. The regulations-"

"This is a notable and more importantly, expected exception. Keeping the survivors of Time Death happy and compliant is important to the Department of Mysteries," Minerva told him.

"Speaking for myself, I don't feel the need to justify anything with the fact that we met in the past," Remus said, mostly meaning it. The wrinkles around Minerva's eyes softened, and she reached out to squeeze his hand.

His next question was about how Hermione was doing physically.

"She's unhurt," Minerva promised. Then, uncharacteristically, she let out a bark of laughter. "Knows herself well, that one," she said, her lips still twitching. "When it was made clear that you would fully recover and that your system was simply overloaded by the surge of magic you were exposed to, Hermione had a very specific request. She asked to be Stunned with the stipulation that you would be the one to wake her, once you yourself revived."

"More self-flagellation?" Remus asked, confused.

Minerva chuckled again. "She said quite simply that she didn't want to brood about your condition when there wasn't a thing to be done but wait."

"She couldn't focus well enough to read, could she?" he asked, fighting back amusement. Hermione had been worried about him enough to essentially sleep through his own unconsciousness, but anxious enough not to employ Dreamless Sleep or another imprecise mechanism. It was endearing to the extreme.

Minerva and a few other professors were staying at Potter Manor and the Burrow instead of at Hogwarts, and as temporary Headmistress, she wanted to visit them before she herself headed to bed. It had been a long, emotional day for the Hogwarts faculty, as they had taken care to ensure that every student was sleeping that night if not in a house with their parents, then with family or close loved ones.

He wanted to rush to see Hermione immediately, but Remus forced himself to take a quick shower and change into clean clothes unmarred by smoke, blood, or dust and debris from the battle. With his wand in his hand, he let himself into her room, casting a weak illumination charm to hover over her bed. The bed itself was huge, and Hermione was in the middle of it, having clearly lay down on her back in preparation for being Stunned. With the low light leeching the color away into grayscale, Remus himself felt stunned by how much she looked like his memory of Iraja. Hermione's hand was up by her face, her hair and hand obscuring some of the area her scars had been located.

Her other hand had fallen slack after the Stunner, revealing the blue pendant she'd been clutching.

It was the same one he'd given Iraja the day she'd seemed to die.

He sat on the bed and reached out to brush a curl away from her lips. Remus felt her breath on his hand, and the force of emotion made his wand hand tremble.

"Innervate," Remus said, tracing the spell as gently as he could.

Hermione gasped as she woke, her back arching with the stretch she performed before focusing her gaze on him. Happiness and vulnerability shone from her eyes.

"Good evening," Remus said, hinting at the time. Instead of answering, Hermione reached for his hand, and he adjusted the way he was sitting so she could clasp it in both of hers. "Sorry to disappoint your Muggle side by being unable to wake you with a kiss," he said.

This earned him a slow, genuine smile. "I was more of a 'kiss the frog' child. More proactive," she told him.

"Of course," he laughed. "I feel like I'm living in a fairy tale right now," he added. Her blush was encouraging, so he said the line he'd been rehearsing in his head in the shower. "Thank you for giving me the chance to fall in love with you twice."

Now Hermione's blush was covering her whole face, and she released his hands to sit up more fully in the bed. When she was settled, Remus reached out and traced a finger over the blue pendant he'd given her.

"Did Febie tell you?" she asked, lifting her chin a bit. He shook his head, and she elaborated. "She told me to tell you. I couldn't figure out how she knew until I saw her limp out of the Forbidden Forest and cast the Glamour."

"I figured it out once I realized who she was. Odd behaviors, phrases, that sort of thing." He smiled ruefully and tipped his head to the side when he told her, "I could have worked it out sooner if only I'd thought to compare the note you slipped under my door to the note in my wallet!"

Hermione's eyes widened. "I didn't think of that! Though, I don't know that I expected you to keep the goodbye letter. I didn't think anything about Iraja would last after I was gone, except maybe the journals for Minerva." She pulled her legs free of the light comforter she'd been covered in, sliding forward so that she was kneeling beside him on the bed. In a grave, quiet voice, she said, "I'm sorry, Remus. I wish I could have spared you so much pain."

"You couldn't have known. Minerva says that the Department of Mysteries deliberately regulates the information about Time Death."

"No," she whispered, a wistful look on her face as she reached a tentative hand up to brush his hair back from where it had fallen in disarray on his forehead. "I meant James and Lily."

His breath caught, and before Hermione could pull her hand away, he reached up to trap it against his cheek, turning to kiss her wrist. "Do you remember telling me how upset you were at the way no one stepped in to help me after what happened?"

She nodded.

"If I could bring myself to forgive the friends and mentors who with no knowledge of the future, chose not to meddle in my life, then I can forgive you even more easily. You knew what you were risking."

Hermione looked at him in what could only be described as utter disbelief. "But-"

He surged forward and kissed her, at first desperate, determined to stop her from disbelieving him. Then the knowledge sank in that they weren't in a fraught situation, fighting for their lives. He didn't have to feel like he was stealing time from something more important. Remus pulled back and brushed her glorious curls away from her face with one hand. Her vulnerability was still there, but it was eclipsed by happiness, now. He let his eyes trace over her features, and Hermione looked down at the twist of blankets between them.

"You're not afraid to follow your own advice, are you?" he teased her. That had her looking up at him, confused, and he reminded himself that she didn't have years of repetition to reinforce the wording of the letter she'd left him. For her, it had been barely three months ago. "Someday, someone else will love you like I did. Let her. Love her back," he quoted to her.

Hermione drew back from him, evading his gaze. "I just didn't want you to dwell on it, look at the experience of loving someone as a box to check off. I'd watched you-" she broke off and shook her head against whatever she didn't want to say.

"Were you thinking of someone in particular, or were you just hoping there would be a little more love in the world?" he asked her.

That earned him a reaction. "What?" Hermione gasped. "You're quoting… but that conversation was…"

"That's right, you were there for that, weren't you? Fleur standing up for her relationship with Bill, even after he was attacked by a werewolf," he said. "There's less love in the world now that Dora and Charlie are both gone. Sad to see her words turned against her like that."

"Her words?" Hermione asked, clearly surprised. "In my memory, it was Minerva who said them."

"Yes, Dora and Fleur were very close. She was quite vocal in the defense of their relationship."

"How curious! I remember her arguments, but of course they were-" Hermione broke off. "Err, never mind." She scooted to the edge of the bed and got up, walking over to a hook on the wall to take down a lightweight, oversized sweater and put it on. Her body language was closed off and guilty, and Remus made a guess.

"You were referring to someone specific! Who?" He was careful not to sound too upset or interested, despite feeling a burning curiosity. He hadn't really had a chance to think through the implications of Hermione's time travel as Iraja. There was a version of him in her memory that no longer existed, a version who had never known Iraja, and whose life had been different as a result.

"She was younger than you by quite a few years," Hermione said, tying the belted cord of her sweater in a neat, tight knot. "You were quite resistant, particularly about the age difference. I thought if I could encourage you just a little to let yourself be happy-"

An awful certainty dawned on Remus. "That's why you didn't say anything. That's why you were so determined to cast that spell! I'm right, aren't I? You thought I'd reject you!"

"Not just that," Hermione protested, but her eyes were bright with unshed tears. "I was prepared to die, Remus. If I hadn't been, I never would have put you through that. When I woke up and we were still in the middle of the fight of our lives, everything against us… I was so sure I couldn't have you. 'Too old, too poor, too dangerous,' you'd told her- and she was older than me! Why not simply finish what I'd started when I didn't die in the first place?"

"It was Dora, wasn't it? Great Merlin," Remus swore. He looked back at Hermione and saw that she'd turned away from him toward the window. "I haven't read much about time travel theory, but from what I remember, anything that you change and then come back from sends you to a new reality. You didn't take that Remus away from his Dora. That Remus never knew Iraja," he said.

Remus walked over to stand behind Hermione. She reached back to intertwine their fingers, but didn't turn around as she spoke.

"When I woke up alive, I was devastated. All I could think was that I'd put you through such an awful experience for nothing, if I could come out of it in nearly the same place as I had left. I told myself I would have to ignore my feelings for you until I got the chance to finish dying like I was supposed to the first time," she said in a sad voice.

Remus stepped even closer, and she swayed back against him for a few seconds before straightening again.

"Those high-minded ideals crumbled into dust when I saw you again," Hermione said with a wry laugh. "You were everything I already loved matured into the kind of man I would have fallen for even if we'd only first met." She turned her head to look at him, her eyes bright with tears. "Everything I already liked and respected about you got rolled into the Remus I loved in the past. I fell in love with you all over again- your intelligence, your kindness and patience, and your perceptive ability to support everyone around you in just the right way."

Remus opened his mouth to tell her how full his heart was in that moment, but she dislodged her hand from his to rest it on his lips, stopping him.

"I'm telling you that it wasn't just you in the past that I love. It's all of you. I don't think if I got the chance to go back and be with the you from Hogwarts that I would even want to." Remus just looked at her, speechless but so very affected by what she'd said. Hermione turned back to look out the window, making a noise half-way through a laugh and a sound of shock. "I suppose that might be a comfort to you, given who Febronia was. I imagine she preferred her Remus, no matter how much she was happy to see you."

Remus nodded, but knew she couldn't see him while she was turned away, so he added, "Yes, I could see that being the case."

He felt so overwhelmed by the words she'd said to him and the sentiment behind them that he couldn't think of how to respond except by loving her. They stood in silence for another minute before something else seemed to occur to her.

"Febronia said that her best friend didn't fill the role he was supposed to, that he was consumed by the Dark Arts when he didn't satisfy the prophecy. If she was me from the future, that means Harry," Hermione said. "I read some books about time travel, while I first ended up in the past-"

"Some books?" Remus leaned over and asked the question with his lips to her ear, his voice low, affectionate, and teasing. She shot a heated look at him over her shoulder, and he couldn't tell how much of it was answering affection, and how much was indignation. They were equally attractive to him.

"If Febronia only traveled back because she felt something was wrong, then what happens in the next iteration of our timeline, the one I don't go back to because Harry was successful?" she asked.

"There isn't one," he said with a confidence he didn't quite feel. "You get to die an old lady in your bed, surrounded by our children and grandchildren."

Now she turned around. "Our children?" He nodded. "I think I would like that. Not for a while yet, though," she added, biting her lip.

"You wouldn't be Hermione Granger if you didn't want to have ample practice before embarking on something so important," Remus said with a deep chuckle.

Her cheeks flamed red, but to his delight, she nodded firmly. "Don't forget the research," she told him.

oOoOoOo

They did not 'practice' that night. Instead, Remus and Hermione slept in her large bed (a huge upgrade from the single hospital bed they'd shared in the past) and revelled in the security of there being no looming threat over their relationship with each other. When he woke up, Remus found that he'd ended up pillowing his head on her hair, which had been swept up over his shoulder from where she'd rested her head. Hermione was already awake when he opened his eyes. He'd immediately apologized, but she just told him that she hadn't wanted to disturb him, but now that he was free to move, she needed to use the loo.

He used some quick cleansing charms and got dressed by the time she returned. Instead of banishing him from the room while she changed, or changing in front of him, Hermione conjured up a room divider.

He didn't tell her that the way she'd positioned the screen meant that he could see her in detailed silhouette.

oOoOoOo

After breakfast, Remus left Hermione to chat with her former professors and went to find Sirius. Given that the planned meeting was to include more than just Order members, he wanted to be sure Sirius would be safe, whether he intended to attend or not.

"I didn't get a chance to tell you!" Sirius said with great enthusiasm. "Shacklebolt thinks we have a real chance at dropping the worst of the charges against me."

"How?" Remus asked. As much as he respected Kingsley, it was quite early to be relying on any imagined future position in the Ministry so soon after the battle.

"Narcissa Malfoy, actually," was the surprising answer. "Lucius apparently forced Pettigrew to store a few compromising memories as insurance against his stay in the manor. She agreed to hand them over; says that one of them is his memory of casting the spell killing all of those Muggles in the alley!"

Remus reached out to steady himself on the wall nearby. "As simple as that?"

"Compared with my memory extracted with permission with witnesses and verified by a Ministry Legilimens, it should be solid proof of his guilt, or so Kingsley told me," Sirius said with a broad smile. "Strictly speaking, they should have done that at the time and seen the discrepancy with their official story in the first place, but no skin off of my chest, right?" he added, clapping a hand onto the Weird Sisters logo of his t-shirt, underneath which Remus knew were quite a few tattoos he'd obtained while incarcerated.

"So you'll come under Glamour?" Remus hoped.

"Mild Glamour, strong Notice Me Not. No need for me to add to the accounts, but I would like to hear them," Sirius told him.

When Sirius, Hermione, and Remus arrived at the Burrow, they saw that an array of chairs had been set up in a semicircle, a few rows thick, outside in the morning sunshine. The professors were already there, and a small figure beside Minerva waved to Remus and started over.

"I'm not going to stay for the whole thing, because that would be too scary, Professor McGonagall says," Dennis Creevey told him excitedly. "My mum and dad are ready to take me to lunch, after I get through my part. Did you know we were going first?"

"I didn't," Remus admitted. "Though I'm happy to, if it gets you back to your parents sooner."

"I stayed at a hotel with them last night. It's so strange to stay in a Muggle hotel after spending almost all night up around so much magic!" Dennis said.

"I can imagine."

"Well, I'll see you later. Did I say thank you yet? I should have said thank you first! I'm sorry," the boy said in a sincere, awkward voice.

Remus didn't get to answer, as a rush of survivors started Apparating in, and Dennis wanted to save his seat in the very front middle.

"Trauma doesn't seem to have dampened his personality all that much," Hermione said in a grateful voice.

After ten more minutes of polite greetings and other pleasantries, Minerva stepped onto a magically cleared circle of around six feet and cleared her throat. A spell that must have been cast on the area caused that small cough to be amplified throughout the field where everyone was congregated.

"Please come take your seats. I'm pleased to see so many of you here. I wanted to tell you why we chose to have this assembly so soon after the battle," Minerva said, her voice magically enhanced to be loud but not unbearable. "As some of you remember, nothing like this was attempted after Voldemort's defeat the first time around."

"Not even a quiver, saying it," Sirius whispered in admiration. "After Snatchers and compulsion for months, she just blurts out the name! I bet you she didn't even practice."

"You'd think you would listen, since this part actually pertains to you, you know," Remus whispered back, amused.

"-prevent the sort of suppression of important information that caused at least one person to be imprisoned falsely for over a decade," Minerva said in a severe tone of voice.

"Hear, hear," Arthur Weasley said.

"Our format will involve the announcement of a name, and asking anyone with information about that person's death to step forward and give an account of it. If you believe that you witnessed relevant actions by that person that did not result in death, please also come forward. Remember," Minerva clasped her hands in front of her in a rare show of emotion. "Your actions today are promoting healing. You have no way to know how important your observations will be to the friends and family of the deceased."

With a gesture, Minerva called Kingsley up to speak. "I am speaking on behalf of the Ministry, here," he said. "If you wish to give a private account, please take one of the squares of parchment in these two baskets, write the name of the person you have knowledge of and your name. You will be contacted this evening. Anonymity is guaranteed- this is no witch hunt. Thank you for understanding. As a show of support, myself and a few Aurors will be standing by."

Kingsley stepped back after gesturing to the baskets he mentioned, which were being passed from seat to seat. Every so often, a witch or wizard took a couple of them. Remus felt impressed. The atmosphere was heavy, but not oppressive.

"We will begin with Febronia Ermengild," Minerva said from the resonant circle. "Hers was one of the last of the evening, but as it involves Dennis Creevey, I decided to start with her. Dennis will not be staying afterwards." Minerva smiled as Dennis stood and walked over to her. There were a few noises of concern and distress from those in the crowd who remembered what he'd gone through.

Remus stood, as did Hermione. When they walked over to stand beside Dennis, Remus saw that despite the way Dennis was standing, head held high, his hands were trembling. Remus stood behind the boy and rested a gentle hand on his shoulder, nodding so he knew it was time to speak.

"I wasn't able to evacuate," Dennis said, looking down at the ground for a few seconds. "So I stayed back, when we were fighting V-Voldemort in the Great Hall. I didn't want anyone to worry about me and get distracted and hurt, when they were dueling. But a Death Eater grabbed me and dragged me outside."

Dennis, Remus, and Hermione each took turns explaining the rest of the events, and when they were finished, Minerva took out a parchment and walked over to stand in front of them. After a nod from her, the agreed-upon signal, they went to sit down.

"This is a message from Febronia given to me on the eve of the battle. I've read it over and it is my opinion that it doesn't violate the Department of Mysteries guidelines," Minerva said, looking down at the paper for a few seconds before looking at the assembled group with her eyebrows raised. "If I am incorrect, I apologize in advance for subjecting you to Corrective Obliviation."

There was a titter that washed through the group at that.

"Here is the section that she wished me to read to you," Minerva said.

"Does that mean this meeting was her idea?" someone asked from the crowd.

Minerva looked directly at Sirius, who was sitting beside Remus on the end of the row. "Yes, yes it was."

Remus kept his eyes on his colleague as he moved his hand from his lap to rest on top of Hermione's. She turned her hand over and they sat to listen to a message from her alternate self palm to palm.

"'My name as you know it is Febronia Ermengild. I attended Hogwarts as many of you did, had good friends as many of you do, and have lived a long and happy life as I hope all of you can say at the end of yours. I wish I could say the same for some of my friends. My best friend in particular.'"

Remus leaned over and whispered a question to Sirius. "I was unconscious- does Harry know who Febronia was?"

"Is that a trick question?" Sirius whispered back, looking confused.

Hermione kicked him in the shin with enough force that Remus decided to simply sit and listen.

"'-dominated by a prophecy,'" Minerva read, curling the top of the parchment over. "'His name was Harry Potter, and the name I was born with is Hermione Granger.'"

There was a murmur through the assembled crowd, and the people who knew where Hermione was sitting turned to look at her. She tightened her grip on Remus's hand as if she expected him to pull away under such scrutiny, but he just squeezed back without looking over at her.

"'During my version of the battle you just fought, a brave Minerva McGonagall cast a devastating spell to destroy our adversary and his closest lieutenants, after destroying the Horcruxes which kept his soul tethered to life. Her death and theirs brought an end to the war, but not to Harry's suffering. Unknown to us, there was a remnant of Voldemort left behind in Harry, undoubtedly left there when his mother was killed.

While this didn't prevent Voldemort's defeat, it provided a conduit for Voldemort's remaining soul to escape complete obliteration by hiding inside of Harry, corrupting his mind and eventually causing him to be the first wizard in history to choose incarceration in Azkaban whilst committing no known crimes.'"

"Knowing Hermione, that's a subtle way of saying he didn't get caught," Sirius whispered to Remus. Around them, a few others whispered to their companions, causing Minerva to look up from the parchment and pause until there was silence.

"'I am writing you this now because I am but one old woman,'" Minerva continued reading, "'-and I can't predict how the battle will proceed. I chose to leave my happy life after losing my husband of many years because I became convinced it was possible to save Harry from his fate. My intention is to ensure that Harry fulfills the prophecy and has a direct hand in Voldemort's death. I don't intend to survive the battle. My research has told me that the Time Death that results from time travel is painful and permanent.'"

"Very carefully phrased," Remus whispered to Hermione. She turned to smile at him, letting out a long breath.

"The rest of the letter details possible methods of extraction if her plan failed and Harry survived the battle with a passenger," Minerva said, rolling the parchment up. "Anyone who wishes to read it is welcome to, I can make copies." She reached out a hand toward Harry. "It was with misgivings that I chose to read Febronia's letter out loud to the group. The chances that her insights could be misinterpreted and place Harry's life in danger are quite real, but there would have been an even greater scandal should the accusations be revealed to have been kept private. To paraphrase a Muggle saying, 'Sunshine is the best Scourgify.' Harry, would you like to say a few words?"

"Not particularly," Harry said from the back row. A roar of laughter erupted as a result. After a quick cast of Sonorous, Harry stood and tucked his wand away. "Dying hurt," he said simply, sliding his hands into his pockets. "I didn't expect to come back from it. I went out there anyway because Professor Dumbledore told me he suspected that there might be a link to Voldemort like the one Febronia's letter said. I am grateful to everyone for the sacrifices you made to support me, and I'm sorry that I was able to come back when so many didn't."

"Thank you, Harry!" Dennis called out.

A flood of comments followed, and Harry blushed, looked uncomfortable, and eventually sat back down, canceling his voice amplifying spell.

Minerva cleared her throat from the resonant circle, tucking away a scrap of white cloth into a pocket of her robes. Remus was sure it was a handkerchief.

"I don't think I have to tell you that Harry's safety is important to the Ministry. Anyone seeking to 'make sure' that he's free from any corrupt influences should look at their own actions, instead," she said in a tight, severe voice. "We'll move on to the next name."

oOoOoOo

By the time they'd finished going through the names of the dead, the group had eaten both lunch and dinner and gone through a multitude of conjured and pre-existing handkerchiefs. Remus had been particularly touched by the actions of Luna Lovegood and Dean Thomas, who had stood to advocate for those too injured to attend. Dean had promised he would take the list of casualties and go around to visit each injured person to gather any stories that were missed. Luna had offered the use of her father's printing operation to create a newsletter that compiled the stories together, so that there would be a record of them. Quite a few others had offered assistance to both.

As everyone filtered away to their own homes, a few core groups remained in clusters of chairs around the conjured fire which replaced the resonant circle. Remus sat with Sirius, far enough back that they were out of the smoke. Sirius was drinking directly from a bottle of Firewhiskey, and Remus was watching the interactions playing out among their friends closer to the fire.

Hermione appeared to be as popular as Harry was, and at first, Remus had felt a twinge of jealousy, because very early on, she'd hooked an arm through Ron's and dragged him around with her. Then, Remus had sat forward a little bit and really paid attention to their interactions.

Those interactions followed a predictable pattern, after a while; Hermione would be called over by one or two people who seemed excited to hear what she had to say. Hermione would drag Ron over, say a few things, and then push Ron forward to explain more completely. Then, Hermione would step back and watch, rather than speak, as Ron's words drew rapt attention from his audience.

After a few repetitions of this, Remus noticed that Ron was holding himself more proudly, and speaking with more confidence. It occurred to Remus then that Ron had been deeply involved in all of the hard work behind the scenes while looking for and destroying the Horcruxes. The very concept of them had been a necessary secret, though. Even now, Remus was certain that most of the survivors had no real idea of their importance, now that Voldemort was defeated. They'd seen him fall at Harry's hand, and that was the important part to them. What was a fragment of intangible soul versus that sight? But out of the three friends, Ron was the most insecure in his position, and his was the least visible, in the end. Hermione seemed to be trying to change that, and it made Remus's heart fill nearly to bursting to watch it play out.

"It was touch and go for a while there, but I'm really glad to see that you're happy again," Sirius remarked after a long swig of Firewhiskey.

"Thank you," Remus said quietly.

The weight of knowing about Iraja while Sirius didn't was uncomfortable, and he decided that it was worth the possible consequences to say something. Perhaps, he thought to himself, he could do it in a way that wasn't as obvious.

"Did you ever notice that Hermione has a pendant on a chain that she always wears?" he said, trying to keep from seeming like what he was saying had any particular importance. Sirius's response was an affirmative-sounding grunt. "Have you ever seen it?" Remus pressed.

"No, actually."

"That's odd, right?" Remus said, stretching his legs out in front of him.

"I guess so," Sirius responded. He tipped his head back and finished off the bottle, tossing it in the air and whipping out his wand to cast a spell banishing it before it could hit the ground and shatter. "Still got it!"

"Never change," Remus laughed.

"Why do I have a feeling that the reason you're able to get so thoroughly drunk is that you don't have the ability to count your bottles, after doing that?" Hermione said coming over with a laugh of her own.

Remus reached for her, feeling selfish for his momentary jealousy and yet still needing unspoken reassurance for it. Instead of taking his hand, Hermione came closer and sat on his lap, leaning against his chest as he slid back in his chair in pleased surprise.

"Your problem is that you think there needs to be a reason to get drunk," Sirius pointed at her. "So, Moony tried to get me to guess why you're hiding a necklace, and I'm too drunk to be tactful about it but not drunk enough to miss the hints."

Remus facepalmed as both Sirius and Hermione looked at him intently. When he lowered his hand, he met her eyes and saw understanding there. Then he watched, both surprised and not surprised by her next action, which was to pull the pendant out from inside her shirt and hold it up where Sirius could see it.

"Fuck," Sirius said, falling back into his chair. "Definitely too drunk for this." He reached out and took her hand with a grip that was too rough, based on the wince that Hermione tried to hide. "I used to make wishes on stars all the damn time," Sirius said. "I figured one or two had to work. I was named for one, after all. They were all selfish. I wished for Regulus to be in Gryffindor with me. I wished James's parents were my real family. I wished that I could have James and Lily back so I didn't have to be in Azkaban."

Remus didn't think he would categorize all of those as selfish, but he wasn't about to interrupt.

Sirius was still talking, his voice earnest and only slightly slurred. "Every single wish was about me, even the ones that referred to other people, all except for one. Know what it was?"

Hermione shook her head, and out of sight of Sirius, she squeezed Remus's hand so hard it was his turn to wince.

"I wished that Iraja didn't really die, so Remus could be happy. He deserved to be happy, after everything he dealt with. Losing her was so hard on him," Sirius said. He looked at Hermione and Remus for a long minute, long enough that Remus wondered if Sirius had managed to forget anything else he'd planned to say. "I am drunk enough that I'm not sure of my own conclusions," he finally admitted. "But: did my wish come true?"

"Your wish came true," Hermione whispered, still squeezing the life out of Remus's hand.

"I'm glad," Sirius said, standing up. He looked up at the sky full of stars above them and turned back to grin at Remus. "I'm gonna find another falling star tonight if it kills me. There has to be some other wish I can get granted!"

He was playing it up, Remus thought as he watched Sirius walk away, his head tipped back, face turned up at the array of stars above them. Sirius wasn't as drunk as he appeared, but then, he never was until he was completely passed out, and the time between the two states never lasted for more than ten seconds. But this time, Remus was sure that Sirius had left them not because he really wanted to find another star to wish on, but because he wanted to leave Remus and Hermione to themselves.

It was as touching a gesture of friendship as Hermione's towards Ron, and Remus told her as much.

"Oh," Hermione said, her blush only visible when the fire flickered brightly. "Well, Horcruxes are complicated, and he does explain them rather well."

"Of course," Remus murmured.

"Everyone wanted to talk to me about Febronia, and to Harry about what it was like to die, so it seemed to make sense to have Ron-"

Remus interrupted her with a kiss. "You don't have to explain yourself to me. I see everything very clearly, especially tonight," he said, after they'd moved apart again.

"You do?" she said, her face obscured by the dim light and the press of curls affected by gravity. He pushed them aside gently with both hands, brushing his thumb across the place where Iraja's scars had been.

"I do. You and I have a responsibility."

Now her eyes lit up with curiosity. "Oh?"

"Yes," he said. "You have a propensity for time travel. It's only responsible for us to seek to live the happiest, most well-adjusted life, so that you won't feel compelled to do so again."

Hermione leaned down against his chest and curled her legs up on his lap, curling her arm around his middle. "That's a very sensible way to look at it," she said.

He looked down at her. "Sensible boring or sensible attractive?"

"Sensible sexy," she said, arching up to kiss his neck. "Only you could come up with a moral, conscientious argument for why we should live a long, happy, fulfilled life together so as to avoid any magical complications!"

"With lots of research," Remus said, leaning his head down to nuzzle her with his nose. "And hands-on experiments."

To his surprise, Hermione gave him a quick kiss and stood up. Her expression was impish. "Does that include field experiments?" she asked, taking a few steps toward a clearing he could see about fifty yards away. She held out her hand.

"You'll be far too busy to search for falling stars to wish on," Remus warned her in a low voice, taking her hand and pulling her close to bury his face in her hair for a few seconds.

"I have everything I would have wished for anyway," she answered, arching up on her tiptoes for a kiss.

NOTE: Thank you everyone for coming with me on this journey. I loved the idea of having not just one section with a non time traveling PoV character, but two. Throughout the whole story, the reader is actually the person who knows the most about what's going on, despite the twist with Febronia. It's especially poignant at the Malfoy Manor attack, when Hermione is so convinced that if she only hadn't muted Bellatrix, she wouldn't have chosen to carve letters in anybody.

If you like my writing, please feel free to check out my other Remus/Hermione stories or give my Remus/OC story a chance. I feel like there's a lot to explore in the idea of a book reader's perspective of being thrust into the HP universe, and despite that being the plot for many a terrible Mary Sue, I think mine defies the expectations of that particular trope. Plus, Remus needs all the love possible, and Sirius is irrepressible.