Reaching across time

Chapter 39: A piece of the whole

Sirius watched in horror as a stream of bright light shot out of Hermione's wand and directly at the little girl. It all seemed to slow down as Tonks was thrown back into the stairs.

"WHAT THE HECK?" Sirius shouted moving on instinct towards the young girl who was by now unconscious. Hermione too hurried forward to check on the little witch.

"Its cursed" She panted as she watched him lift Tonks up.

"What?" He asked too distracted and too furious to focus on what she was saying.

"The diadem! It's cursed. She would have died if she touched it." Hermione explained, hovering behind him as he placed the girl on the couch. He turned towards Hermione, silent horror on his face as understanding dawned.

"Let me do it" Hermione muttered as she moved past him and towards the little girl.

Sirius was still staring at her in mute horror but Hermione was now fixing the damage she had done and secretly addling her memory to make her forget all about the sparkling tiara.

"She'll come around in five minutes. We need to hide that" She said already moving from her place by the couch to where the diadem lay.

"What is going on?" Sirius asked seriously (no pun intended) as he grabbed her unhurt hand.

"I'll explain later. I promise" She told him, sparing a second to look at him promisingly.

"Tonight" Sirius told her firmly and she could only nod.

Quickly the diadem was put back into the box and Sirius healed the cut on her arm and wiped out all the blood stains from her dress.

"Stay with her, I know a safe place" He stated, taking the box away from Hermione and vanishing up the stairs before she could protest.

She could only watch him for a second longer before Tonks woke up, feeling more confused than she generally did.

SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHG SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSB

It was a little past midnight and an emotional but exhausted group of seventh years had finally decided to call it a night. Sirius and Hermione though were nowhere closer to that inviting bed as they snuck into the room of requirement.

Once alone and sure that no one could enter, Hermione set the box on a small table between them, her eyes fixed on it as she sat with her back ramrod straight. Sirius too eyed the box, his face contorted in a deep frown. He could feel the dark magic pouring out of it and he wondered how he had missed it before.

"You left the ball and came looking for this?" Sirius asked, in an attempt to get her to start talking. She nodded but said nothing else.

"Mione talk" He commanded softly.

"It belongs to Voldemort" she admitted, not really knowing how else to start.

"Why would he leave something so obviously important lying around in Hogwarts?" He asked confused.

"Like all of us, he thought he was the only one that knew about this room" she replied quietly.

"It still doesn't make sense" Sirius said as he stared at the box.

"Hogwarts is also the safest place there is, except probably Gringotts" she replied, still not meeting his eye.

"Yes, but Mione the diadem belongs to Hogwarts. And it doesn't look like he was planning to retrieve it because he cannot enter the castle, so my question is if he isn't going to use it what is the point of taking so many measures to keep it hidden? Why not just return it to where it belongs?" Sirius asked, wracking his brains for all of it to add up.