janus ~ hermione granger

lxx

"and you-"

"wait, did she eye that chocolate bar before eating it?" ron questioned, nodding to the wrapper in maddy's hand.

"yes."

"why is that important ron?"

"because maddy does that. she won't eat it if it's not milk chocolate."

"alright then," harry lowered his wand, "but i had to check, didn't i?"

"speaking as your ex defense against the dark arts teacher, i quite agree that you had to check. the rest of you shouldn't have been as quick to lower your defenses."

sirius and hermione wasted no time in going for hugs.

"how is dora doing?" sirius mumbled.

"she's been bossing me around lately, you'll see."

"what do you mean?" harry cocked his head.

"i'm heading to their home, i have to help remus out with the pregnant lady."

"pregnant lady?" phoebe's face lit up.

"where were you?" hermione interrupted the conversation with a worried tone.

"my old house," she answered, and the topic was instantly dropped.

everyone knew it was a sensitive topic for the twins.

"no sign of severus then?"

"no. what's going on? is everyone okay?"

"yes, but we're all being watched. there are a couple of death-eaters in the square outside-"

"-we know-"

"-i had to apparate very precisely on to the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see us. they can't know you're in here or i'm sure they'd have more people out there; they're stalking out everywhere that's got any connection with you, harry. let's go downstairs, there's a lot i want to tell you and i want to know what happened after you left the burrow."

they descended to the kitchen, where hermione started a 'fire' and lupin pulled out some butterbeers.

"i'd have been here three days ago but i needed to shake off the death-eaters tailing me, and i needed to rescue madison. so you came here after the wedding?"

"no. only after we ran into a couple of death-eaters in a cafe on tottenham court road."

lupin slopped most of his butter beer down his front.

"what?"

during their explanation of what had happened, lupin praised maddy, patting her on the back, which caused her more pain, causing hermione to scold the werewolf.

when they finished, remus looked aghast.

"but how did they find you so quickly? it's impossible to track anyone who apparates, unless you grab hold of them as you disappear!"

"and it doesn't seem likely they were just strolling down tottenham court road at the time, does it?"

"my best guess is that it has to do with this," maddy sighed, pulling her sleeve up and revealing her dark mark.

everyone was quick to disagree.

"we wondered, whether harry could still have the trace on him?" hermione said tentatively.

"impossible. apart from anything else, they'd know for sure harry was here if he still had the trace on him, wouldn't they? but i can't see how they could've tracked you to tottenham court road, that's worrying, really worrying," lupin let out a deep breath, subtly glancing at maddy's forearm.

"tell us what happened after we left, we haven't heard a thing since ron's dad told us the family were safe. phoebe and maddy won't tell us anything-"

"because sirius dragged us out of there," maddy groaned, causing the dark haired man to smugly grin.

remus proceeded to explain what happened at the wedding, which then lead to him talking about how much the ministry has changed, as well as the daily prophet.

one thing after another, they began arguing about remus, because he announced his regrets about being tonks' sperm donor.

yes, he wasn't the actual father, but it was still a possibility that tonks' child could be a werewolf, just like him.

maddy gave him a whole speech, sirius interrupting every once in a while, which seemed to calm him down.

the two adults bid their goodbyes and headed up to sirius' room, grabbing his suitcases and leaving the number twelve grimmauld place, not before they both argued about going with the younger five to complete dumbledore's mission.

"i need to rest," maddy broke the silence, still in pain.

"you were gone for days," ron began, staring at the daily prophet.

"what really happened?" harry raised an eyebrow.

"i apparated to the room where you-know-who took my parents, and was in too much pain to even move. i gave into the darkness and closed my eyes. what else is there to say?"

none of the gryffindors answered, and the darker girl took it as a sign to head up to the room where everyone slept.

word count- 1270
date written- november 23, 2020
sorry for the shitty chapter, i wanted to get something posted but i've been busy with my graphics shop and school, and i didn't have enough time to write the rest of the dialogue from this chapter.
^plus im also lazy