The Tune Of Time

Chapter 26

Did you see that Prongs?" Sirius said flabbergasted. Remus and Hermione parted to look at them red in face, only to notice the golden string that floated around them in circle. Everyone was looking at them, their jaw hanging until the string wrapped around their fingers and then disappeared, their presence only evident by the golden glint that was now visible on their skin of ring finger, where a ring ought to be.

"What the hell just happened?" Hermione asked utterly confused. Her expression was mirrored on the faces around her. It was Severus who came forward and took her hand to examine the band around her ring finger. This action resulted a growl from Remus which made the werewolf instantly look guilty. Severus ignored it.

"Do you know what it is?" Lily asked.

"Werewolf magic." Severus said.

"How would you know that?" Sirius asked arrogantly, bitter that Severus knew something that he didn't but a glare from the Ex-Death Eater silenced him.

"It seems like Lupin had found his true mate." He said.

"No way. Those are just stories." Remus exclaimed. When he was in Hogwarts, some books said that werewolves had mates. However, he had researched and found out there was no written account of any werewolf having mate. As a child, he thought that they ate up their mates. As an insecure teenager he realized, no one would have loved a werewolf and a while later he had dismissed it all as stories.

"So are wizards and werewolves and vampires." Severus countered. "Finding a mate is rare, not usually necessary but not unheard of."

"Wow." James said looking almost jealous. "That means Mione and Moony are just made for each other."

"That can explain why her presence helps me calm down and makes the full moon bearable." He said thoughtfully and then added , "before the potion."

"Lupin and his wolf had agreed for the first time for something they want and which happens to a witch that is also his mate. Therefore, the werewolf magic took it upon itself to work on your declarations of love for each other and bound you two together."

"That means we are engaged?" Hermione asked.

"Can be said so. However it depends on the two of you if you want it to accept the magical bond or reject it."

A few days later, Hermione sat around the table in Dumbledore's office in Hogwarts. She was eyeing the small mark on her finger. It had been there on her finger ever since the day they admitted their love for each other. Hermione was surprised to know she was his mate but it made sense. Their presence calmed each other. Of course, there was more than one force in the universe which brought them together. She traced her finger over the ring mark. Remus was initially guilty of having tied the witch to himself , however got over it sooner that she had anticipated. She had a doubt that a certain dog and stag had something to do with it.

The last couple of days hadn't been so blissful for others as it had been for them. Her actions had caused many ripples along the timeline. Many things weren't supposed to happen and yet she caused them and since all of them were against the dark agendas of Voldemort, he was angry. He had already lost quite a few Death Eaters, his spy caught and two of them turned. Moody had been successful in capturing and imprisoning Crabbe and Rookwood. And the lack of actions from the Order and Dumbledore, along with all of this, was telltale of something brewing against him. So, with an aim to strike the Order, many families of the order were attacked, the Prewetts brothers were cornered in an alley by seven death eaters, the Longbottom estate attacked and the house of McKinnons burnt down. Everyone had managed to escape unharmed except for Mrs. Mckinnon, and it brought a need for an retaliation. The Order members wanted to give them a proper answer by attacking the death eaters in similar manner.