The Return: Remix

Chapter Two


Two years before…


Hermione had gotten the job with the Department of Mysteries for the sole purpose of bringing Sirius Black back from the Veil. Ron had scoffed at the idea even as Harry told her that he would help out in any way that he could. Remus was doubtful, but he too offered to help. She worked with the twins as well as Bill on what could be done as far as bringing him back. As a last resort she went to speak to Alastair Moody. As brisk as ever, he told her that it would take something that she might not be willing to do.


“Dark magic, lass.” He nodded. “That’s what’ll take. It’s the only thing strong enough to pull him back.”


“Are you certain?” she asked, not wanting to trend into unknown and dangerous magics.


“Of course I am!” he snapped. “I tell you this for your own good, child. Leave him be where he is!”


Hermione had left there and had gone to the one man that she knew would have some answers for her. But would Severus Snape give them to her, knowing it was for Sirius Black’s return? There would be only one way to find out.


Hogwarts was in session and Severus Snape was back in the classroom as the Potions professor. She slipped into the classroom and was watching the lesson without making a noise. As soon as he was done with the instructions, he looked over to her and nodded her towards his office. She joined him there and waited for him to close, warding it against eavesdroppers.


“To what do I owe this honor, Miss Granger? Or is it Mrs. Weasley yet? I do not keep up with the social scene so I do not know.”


“For an observant man, you certainly didn’t look at my finger,” she said wiggling her ring free hand. “Enough of this chitchat, Severus, I need your help.”


“That’s one thing I like about you, Hermione. Your ability to cut through unnecessary talk. What do you need?”


“I need to know if there is a way to pull someone from the other side of the veil.”


He was silent for a moment. “Please tell me you are jesting.”


“I don’t joke all that well, you know that.”


He groaned as he leaned back in his chair, looking at her. “Saving my life wasn’t enough, now you want to save Black as well? Hermione, the magic involved in this is dangerous business.”


“Even more so than I’ve dealt with so far?” she asked him casually.


“That’s not the point! You can’t keep doing these things, Miss Granger! You endanger your life and for what, I ask you?”


“You deserved to live,” she said with quiet determination. “You are a good man, Severus Snape. An arrogant, stuffed shirt of a man, but a smart, brave man as well. And you deserved to live, regardless of what you think to the contrary.”


“You are a pain in my arse, witch,” he snarled.


“Yes, made worse by the fact you like me,” she murmured. “Dinner tonight? I’ll treat you to that steak place you like.”


“Nonsense,” he said as he stood up to walk her out. “A gentleman never allows a lady to pay. Six o‘clock?”


***


“I wish I could explain it to you,” she said to Severus as she took the wine glass from him. “It isn’t as if we were grand friends. He complimented me once, perhaps twice, but that was it. I was his godson’s smart friend and that was all.”


“Then why in the name of Merlin would you risk your life for him? Let me tell you something, he isn’t worth it,” he said stubbornly.


“Many said the very same about you,” she reminded him gently. “And yet here you are!” She smiled at him. “I feel this need, not a want, but a need to bring him back. I can’t explain it. My words seem so feeble and useless when I try to explain it to myself, let alone you.”


“Okay, say you do bring him back, what then? Who is next? Your parents?”


A stab of pain went through her and she swallowed thickly as she held back the tears. “I can’t bring them back. I know that. They’ve moved on. I…” She put down her glass for fear of spilling it in her search for a hankie. Snape handed her his without a word, watching her she dabbed at her eyes. “I miss them so much, but we are only human, are we not?” She looked into his black eyes and asked, “We have limitations even as witches or wizards and I accept that, but shouldn’t we do what we can when we can? If it doesn’t hurt anyone, why not?”


“There is always a price to pay with dark magic, Hermione,” he whispered. “Are you willing to pay that price?”


“If I can pay it for you, I can very well do so for Sirius Black as well.” She picked up her glass and raised it. “Here’s to getting Sirius back.”


“Oh I can’t wait,” Severus said so dryly that Hermione was soon crying tears of laughter.


***


Present day…


Hermione woke slowly to the sound of yelling in the hallway. Soon Sirius was awake as well, but didn’t move to leave the bed as he was kissing her swollen lips. They hadn’t left the room for close to a week, with the only visitors into the rooms being the house elves to bring them what they needed from outside of the room.


“Hmm, who is that yelling?” Hermione breathed as his mouth moved lower to her jaw, neck, and shoulder.


“Do you really care?” he purred.


“No, but if they’re doing the spell that I think they are, the door’s going to blow in any…” And as if on cue, the door splintered and blew into the room. Hermione screamed as Sirius grabbed his wand from under his pillow and put up a shield, keeping the wood from hurting them.


Ron was standing there, looking stunned as well as furious. Hermione wrapped herself in a blanket and snapped, “Ronald Weasley! What in the name of Merlin do you think you are about? How dare you!”


“How dare I? How dare you-you tart!”


Sirius’s temper snapped the moment the younger wizard had insulted her. He went over to Ron, threw him against the wall, and pinned him there with his forearm against his throat.


“Do not ever insult that witch in my presence again, Mr. Weasley. Or you will find it very hard to breathe as you’ll be too dead to bother. Do I make myself clear?”


“She’s nothing but a…”


“I see that violence doesn’t work to stop your foul language, how about this--Have you told her about Lavender Brown yet?” Sirius asked him.


Ron lost every bit of color in his face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”


“Is that so? Because I could have sworn that you had a very special relationship with Ms. Brown. It would be the same one that takes you to her flat every single night to sleep in her bed and had her traveling with you during the quidditch season.” He stepped away from the young man. “Remember now?”


Hermione dropped into sitting on the bed her eyes filled with a weary shock. Absently she heard Harry and Remus come rushing over. Ron had been with Lavender all this time? But hadn’t she too been with Sirius? Why had they kept up the pretence at all, she wondered. What a waste, she thought. It was Remus who took Hermione into his arms and rocked her as if she were his child.


“What’s wrong, pup?” he whispered. “You can tell me.”


“Why did we stay together at all?” she asked hoarsely. “We never worked out correctly. I had Sirius and he was with Lavender. Why? I just don’t understand.”


“Shhh, pup, you sound tired,” he said. “Get that alpha of yours to feed you and let you get some sleep.”


Chuckling a blush came to her face as she admitted, “I missed him so much, Remus, that I kept jumping the poor man over and over again.”


“I know,” he said with a smile as he set her to her feet.


They watched as she went straight over to Sirius, who wrapped his arms around her. She looked into his dark blue eyes asking him, “May I?”


“Merlin, yes,” he hissed, his eyes going more intense as he knew what was to come.


She turned into smoke that infused into his skin. A brand lifted on the skin covering his heart. It was an outline of a lion. Sirius shuttered with such a soul deep satisfaction that it had him moaning with pleasure. His eyes opened, looking at the three men watching him. Harry and Lupin, having seen the two fused before weren’t shocked. But Ron, being Ron, was shaken to say the least and wasn’t in any mood to keep quiet about it.


“What happened to Hermione?!” he yelled. “What did you do to her?!”


“She’s right here, Mr. Weasley,” Sirius said, caressing the brand. “This is her. She is a part of me as I am a part of her.”


“How?” Ron asked. “This isn’t real. This can’t be…”


It was Harry who stopped him talking and told him straight out, “Ron, it’s real, but you have to hear the story first before you do anything stupid.”


“Me? Do something stupid?”


Needless to say, they all snorted in disbelief at that one.


***

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