Chapter Text
Flying on the back of a hippogriff, her eyes closed and hands tightly clasped around an escaped convict’s waist, Hermione questioned at what point her practical, methodical, list making-self had been taken over by ‘act first, think later’. She’d always been logical, reasoning problems out with facts and research, and yet three years running she had found herself barrelling into life endangering scenarios without any form of a plan. She would have put it down to Harry’s influence, but their latest jaunt had been facilitated by Dumbledore himself. The most powerful wizard in Britain had sent two teenagers back in time to rescue a prisoner and an oversized bird. Surely there could have been a better solution than this.
Hermione rolled her eyes as Sirius proclaimed her ‘the brightest witch of her age’. Clearly not bright enough if he was about to disappear into the countryside to remain on the run.
‘What happens now?’ Harry muttered, as they made their way back to the common room. Hermione slowed, allowing him to walk in front of her slightly. ‘For a couple of hours this evening, I had family again.’ He didn’t turn as he stepped through the portrait opening and headed up to the boy’s dormitories.
Adrenaline still high from the events of the night, Hermione settled into her favourite armchair next to the fire. Crookshanks quickly found her and curled up in her lap. Her heart ached for Harry. His first direct connection to his parents, a connection with stories and memories, a person who truly loved his parents was gone. It was an easy decision; she would do anything to try and give him a better life.
It hadn’t taken long into her first year to realise just how hard things with the Dursleys were for Harry. Although his school uniform had been tailored by Madame Malkin, his casual clothes hung off him, revealing his thin wrists and exposing a collarbone just slightly too evident beneath his neckline. His eyes never failed to light up at dinner times as the food appeared and he always ate like he was running out of time. Towards the end of the school year she had noticed him begin to sneak food away from the table. She’d asked Ron about it but he just said Harry put it in his trunk under a stasis charm ‘for a midnight snack’. Ron didn’t think anything of it, but Hermione knew better. Too often she noticed Harry brace when he got a question wrong in Potions, as if he was expecting Snape to physically attack him for saying the wrong answer. She didn’t like Snape one bit, but even she knew he wouldn’t go that far. She had been furious when she found out that Ron, Fred and George had flown their dad’s car to Little Whinging, but couldn’t remain angry for long when they’d explained his room had literally become a jail cell. That was the first time she’d gone to Dumbledore to let him know her concerns, but he brushed her off, stating that ‘family was the best place for Harry to be’. The twinkle in his eye had strongly indicated that there were things she didn’t understand, and his word wasn’t to be questioned. But now, watching his first opportunity at a loving family fly into the night? That was the final straw. She was going to do something, and it was going to be a Hermione Granger plan. A comprehensive, well thought out, minutely planned operation that would give Harry some happiness back. The first thing on the list was obvious.
Clear Sirius Black’s name.