A/N: Gentle reminder…er, you have read the warnings in the first chapter, right? Non-canon ships=non-canon ships. Although I must say I do like Auntie L's idea :D. If we do go there—it was all her genius.
Girls were lovely creatures—intoxicating, beautiful, mysterious—and James adored them, but none of them had ever tapped into that inner, secret piece of him that Sirius had. There was a substantial part of him that belonged to Sirius and that scared James more than he cared to admit. Sirius was Sirius, and everyone knew that; he was a flirt and a scoundrel and he fell into bed with anything that made eyes at him. James worried that eventually Sirius would get bored and push him away. Merlin knew he'd seen him do it to enough birds. Lily Evans, quiet, kind and studious seemed to be as far removed from Sirius as possible. She wouldn't flit from boy to boy or girl to girl. Whoever she was with that person could be assured of her affections. She was safe. Lily Evans would never burn him from the inside out the way Sirius did. That had been her appeal, her draw. She could protect him from himself. Unfortunately, she liked Remus and Remus liked her. She even knew about Moony, and didn't care. How could James interfere with that? He couldn't really, his moral code wouldn't allow for it. Stupid moral code.
"You okay, James?" Peter stood uncertainly by his bed. James looked up at his friend and frowned slightly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he said with grin and a shrug. Peter hesitated slightly, but then he nodded and left the dorm.
Practicing Occlumency was always a smart thing to do, James decided with a sigh and he attempted to clear his mind. Think of nothing, he told himself, and allowed his mind to become pleasantly blank. Thick brown curls, tumbling wildly down—no, no he needed a completely blank mind. He erected a blank, smooth wall within his mind and tried to concentrate on it. Eyes like melted chocolate shot through with threads of gold. Merlin! He decided to focus on Sirius. He was easy to imagine. Long black hair that fell about his face in silky waves, grey eyes which could grow darker or lighter depending on his mood, the mobile mouth that most often had a smirking smile, the arrogant tilt of his jaw—James knew Sirius so well he could remember every inch of him. The small scar on his shoulder from a fight when they were younger grew visible. Warm gold-brown eyes flashed at him from behind Sirius, and he shook his head. He gave a growl of frustration and pushed himself off of his bed.
"James?" Sirius poked his head into their room. James scowled at Sirius who blinked in surprise. "Er, Quidditch practice?"
"Oh, right," James said dully.
"Are you okay, mate?" Sirius asked in an unnaturally subdued voice.
"Fabulous," James muttered as he pushed passed Sirius.
After a thoroughly exhausting Quidditch practice, and a much needed shower James headed back to the castle. He took the long way round to give himself some peace and privacy. He just needed a chance to clear his head, to think. He thought he saw wild chestnut curls and shook his head to shake the image, but when he looked again they were still there. He frowned and moved closer to the corridor. It was her. Merlin, why couldn't he stop thinking about her? Didn't he love Sirius? She was leaning with her shoulder against the wall, her back to him, and he realized she wasn't alone. His insides turned to ice when he saw that her companion was Snape, and he couldn't help himself. He moved out of sight and pulled his invisibility cloak on. Then he snuck closer to the two students.
"Your brother would not be pleased that you are here," Snape was saying coolly and James fought the snort that was rising in him. That was the understatement of the millennia.
"Yes," Hermione agreed calmly.
"And yet here you are," Snape continued, giving Hermione a pointed look. She tossed her curls.
"Trying to get rid of me, Severus?" Hermione purred in a way that made James see red.
"It seems to do me no good at all," Snape said with a great deal of irritation. Hermione chuckled.
"No, nor will it," she agreed. He sighed.
"Why are you torturing me?" Snape asked. Hermione snorted.
"If I were torturing you we'd be in one of the lower dungeons and I'd have you chained to the wall," Hermione said drily. Snape's mouth dropped open slightly. She paused and tilted her head to the side. "You're not into that, are you? I don't mind a bit of light spanking myself, but I've never been able to let go enough to allow anyone to do much more. Trust issues, my last boyfriend told me."
"Er," Snape said faintly a dull flush creeping up his neck. James was struggling to remove the image of a naked Hermione sprawled across his lap with her bum in the air from his mind. Hermione waved a hand absently.
"But really that's neither here nor there. I've been stalking you for a particular purpose, Severus," Hermione continued. "Are you a Death Eater?"
"I—what?" Snape squeaked his face paling to a chalky white color.
"I thought it was a pretty straightforward question. Are you a Death Eater?" Hermione said a little coolly.
"N-no," Snape said hesitantly. Hermione moved away from the wall and stood up straight.
"Now, Severus," she was purring again, and James hated himself for stupid hot, spurting jealousy that was rising within him. "You wouldn't be lying to me, would you?"
"No," he said again, slightly more forcefully. James couldn't see her face, but he had the sense that Hermione was carefully weighing Severus Snape.
"I'd like to propose an arrangement to provide mutual satisfaction," Hermione said finally. James clenched his hands at his sides and tried to concentrate on breathing quietly. Snape frowned at her.
"What sort of arrangement," he asked suspiciously.
"You are rather brilliant at spell creation," Hermione said calmly as though she were discussing the color of the sky. Snape flushed at her praise. "I need help with something particularly tricky. I've been working on it for a while, and I cannot help but assume that I am missing something."
"Really?" Snape looked intrigued. "What sort of spell?"
"Ah, well, that's the thing," Hermione glanced up and down the hallway and moved closer to Snape.
A flick of her wand and suddenly James couldn't hear anything but a buzzing noise. Snape looked shocked at whatever Hermione was discussing with him. He turned a ghastly shade of white again, and looked like he was sputtering. Whatever Hermione said, though, convinced him because he eventually he nodded. He looked as though he'd rather be doing anything else, but he was agreeing to whatever it was Hermione wanted him to do. James turned and retreated quickly. Just what was Hermione doing, sneaking about with Snape? What would Remus say, when James told him? James stopped in the corridor and frowned. Maybe he could just keep this to himself? The idea of telling either Remus or Sirius that he was sneaking about the castle spying on Hermione did not appeal to him. Both were sure to jump to the wrong conclusions. He grumbled under his breath and stalked back toward the Gryffindor tower, his mood growing progressively darker.
/\/\/\/\/\
The preferred spot for Remus Lupin to study was in a quiet, tucked back corner of the library. His acute hearing was usually more of a hindrance to his studying than a help, and he had found that being as far removed from other students as was humanly possible was the best solution. He was sitting quietly, his quill scratching across the parchment as he wrote his essay for Charms. Hermione was seated next to him, her own quill scratching busily away. Sirius paused for a moment, struck by how alike the two of them were. Remus and Hermione both had ink stained fingers, both held their quills in almost the exact same way, both had their heads tilted slightly to one side as their gazes flicked toward open books that surrounded them and their essay, and both were worrying their lower lip between their teeth. Despite those similarities it wasn't Remus' mild brown eyes with their grey flecks that haunted his dreams, nor was it his sandy brown hair, that flopped over his forehead that Sirius thought about during History of Magic. He swallowed and ignored those thoughts, pushing them away.
"Hey," he muttered quietly, and sat down across from the siblings. They looked up at him with identical expressions of polite inquiry and he fought a smile.
"Sirius," Remus acknowledged mildly. Hermione turned her attention back to her essay, seemingly ignoring him, and he felt slightly affronted by her ability to so completely disregard him. No one ignored Sirius Black.
"Marauder Meeting tonight," Sirius murmured to Remus. Hermione's quill steadily scratched away, a fierce look of concentration on her face. Remus nodded in understanding.
"I'll be there," Remus said with a wicked grin.
"See you then," Sirius said quietly, and he stood up to leave.
"Bye, Sirius," Remus said with a mock salute. Hermione ignored him, completely caught up in her essay. He frowned as he left the library.
Sirius Black was not used to being ignored, and he didn't care for it at all, especially when the bird ignoring him was one that was haunting his thoughts at the most awkward moments. It was utterly ridiculous, too. He loved James with all the wild ferocity of which members of the Black family were uniquely capable. At times he wondered if James wasn't an addiction, something that he'd never be able to shake. Girls came and went. They had always been interchangeable as far as he was concerned. James was not and never had been. He had experimented with other blokes, until he realized that James' sullen moods seemed to be directly related to those encounters. He had only managed to seduce James this last summer, and he had no intention of allowing him to get away any time soon. So why did he dream of thick brown curls spread across his belly and golden brown eyes that peeked up at him through long lashes? Why, when he was snogging other girls did he think about her soft, full mouth pressed against his and the way her curves had felt when he held her in his arms? He frowned in irritation and stalked off toward the courtyard.
"Hi, Sirius," said a seventh year Hufflepuff with a slow, lazy smile. Sirius smiled at her automatically while he tried to remember her name.
"Georgina," he said in the low, seductive tone that Remus had sarcastically dubbed his 'patented knicker remover' voice. Georgina shuddered slightly and stared at his mouth.
"Bored, Sirius?" She asked a little breathily. He tilted his head and considered her. Georgina was petite, she came to the middle of his chest, and she had wavy brown hair and brown eyes. He grinned at her.
"Not anymore," he murmured at her. She smirked a little bit as he took her hand and pulled her toward him.
/\/\/\/\/\
"Um, hi." Hermione looked up from her Potions essay to see a slender seventh year Gryffindor that she'd seen several times in passing.
"Er," Hermione said uncertainly. He grinned at her, and she found herself smiling back. He was boyishly handsome with warm brown eyes and blonde hair.
"Fenwick," he said cheerfully. Hermione blinked.
"Benjy Fenwick," she murmured, remembering one of the members of the original Order. He nodded, looking pleased.
"Yeah, I didn't think you'd know who I was," he said happily. She flushed slightly. She supposed that she really shouldn't know who he was.
"I've heard of you, girl talk you know," she said airily, trying to recover.
"Really?" That seemed to surprise him, and a dull flush crept up his neck.
"Nothing bad," she assured him hurriedly. He nodded, but he still looked slightly embarrassed.
"So, have you got a date for this Hogsmeade's weekend?" He asked curiously. Hermione shook her head.
"No," she said honestly. "Did you need help studying for your NEWTs? I could quiz you I suppose."
"No," Benjy said with a slight smile. "I wanted to know if you'd like to come with me. On a date. To Hogsmeade. The two of us."
"Oh," Hermione said, sitting back in her chair and staring at him.
He seemed sweet enough, and to be honest, Hermione liked the idea of going on a date with someone. She'd been focused on Remus and her relationship with him since she'd arrived. She'd joined him for every single full moon, and she brewed his Wolfsbane faithfully. She'd noticed with a jaundiced eye that her brother and his little friends had their parade of different girlfriends. She deserved a little action, too. Not that she was planning on any 'action' with Benjy Fenwick, but you never knew.
"So, is that a no then?" Benjy looked a little disappointed. She shook her head slightly.
"No, it's a yes," she said with a warm smile at the future member of the Order of the Phoenix. He grinned back at her with that handsome boyish smile and she felt a little warm and girly.
Status at the lunch tables was very clearly marked out and differed from House to House. At the Gryffindor tables, the Marauders—despite the fact they were only sixth years—were popular enough that they sat wherever they wanted and one's status was determined by how closely one sat next to them. Unless you happened to be a seventh year; they were above such things. Even the Marauders weren't cheeky enough to mess with the seventh years. Hermione sat at the end of the table by herself, eating methodically and reading a rather intimidating looking book about constructing containment wards. Marlene sat down next to her and smiled warmly. Lily and Dorcas sat down across from them. Hermione smiled at all of them and then turned her attention back to her book.
"Hermione," Remus bit out between clenched teeth. Hermione looked up in surprise to see an infuriated Remus who was glaring daggers at her, Sirius and James standing next to him and scowling slightly.
"What?" She asked in surprise.
"Did we or did we not have a chat about you dating any of the boys here at Hogwarts?" He asked in a voice that was just barely under control. She rolled her eyes at him.
"You ranted and raved, I listened to you," Hermione said flatly.
"Damn it Hermione," Remus began, but Hermione's glare made him falter slightly.
"It's the boys, right? They're all evil?" Hermione snapped irritably. Remus glowered at her.
"You know what I mean," he huffed irritably.
"It's Benjy Fenwick, for Circe's sake," Hermione scoffed. "He wouldn't hurt a fly."
"But," Remus tried again and Hermione just glared at him.
"We're going on this date and you are not going to intimidate him or prank him," Hermione said firmly. "You do anything to ruin this and I swear to you I'll shag him right here in the Great Hall."
"Hermione!" Lily's gasp was horrified and an exasperated expression crossed Hermione's features.
"Oh for Merlin's sake, Lily," Hermione growled.
"I'm not promising anything," Remus said coldly. "If he so much as breathes at you wrong, he's fair game."
"Fine," Hermione muttered with a toss of her curls.
"Fine," Remus growled before he stalked off, Sirius and James following reluctantly.
"Are you trying to give your brother a coronary?" Marlene asked her quietly, a small smile playing around her mouth. Hermione shrugged and then looked at Marlene coyly over her shoulder.
"Maybe. It would give Evans here an excuse to coo over him in the infirmary," Hermione said with a knowing look. Lily glared at her.
"You shouldn't be so flippant, Hermione," Lily began to lecture her, but Hermione really wasn't in the mood to be lectured. She was the lecturer, not the lecturee.
"Oh, stuff it Evans," Hermione said with a glower. "It's all fine and dandy for my brother to shag any witch who crooks her finger at him, but it's not okay for me to go on a measly date to Hogsmeade? That's completely unfair and you know it."
"What do you mean, shag any witch who crooks her finger at him," Lily said uncertainly, frowning. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You have noticed that my brother is rather sexy, yeah?" Hermione pointed out.
"Well," Lily said faintly and blushed.
"And he's a Marauder, right?" Hermione continued blithely.
"Of course," Lily agreed.
"And most of the girls in this school, present company excepted, of course, act like cats in heat around them, right?" Hermione said drily.
"That is true," Dorcas said with a faint moue of distaste.
"You couldn't possibly have believed Remus to be a virgin, could you?" Hermione said flatly, with a frown on her face. Lily flushed and shook her head no.
"I just thought he'd sort of stopped doing that," she said hesitantly.
"He has," Hermione agreed, "but that doesn't mean that his whole argument isn't a complete double standard."
"I guess that's true," Lily agreed reluctantly.
"Of course it is," Dorcas said firmly.
/\/\/\/\/\
"You know what I hate the most?" Remus muttered darkly.
"What?" Peter asked with an air of resignation.
"He's nice," Remus spat like it was a dirty word.
"It's true," James said morosely from his bed. "He's a genuinely good bloke."
"If only she were dating a right bastard," Sirius murmured in a dreamy voice from the foot of James' bed. James sat up and looked down at his feet where Sirius' head was.
"What is that supposed to mean, Padfoot?" James asked in confusion. Sirius waved his hands in the air.
"I think he means then we could hex him all we wanted," Peter said carefully. Sirius nodded and pointed at Peter.
"What he said," Sirius confirmed.
"That would be brilliant," James agreed and laid back down to stare at his canopy.
"He treats Hermione like a queen," Remus said with a heavy sigh. James scowled at his canopy. Stupid Benjy Fenwick with his nice manners and charming ways was making Hermione happy. The tosser.
"That's a good thing, though, isn't it? I mean, you want Hermione to be happy and all that," Peter said, looking confused.
"Why couldn't she be happy as a cloistered Oracle or something," Remus said plaintively. He sat up as something occurred to him. "Do they still have Vestal Virgins?"
"I don't think so, Moony," James said apologetically. Remus' shoulders slumped.
"I should have known," he said with a resigned air. He fell back on his pillows and sighed heavily.
/\/\/\/\/\
What the hell was wrong with her? Benjy Fenwick was a good, sweet, kind man. In fact, he reminded Hermione a lot of Neville Longbottom save for the fact that he was a bit taller and rather slender. So why the hell was she dreaming about Sirius Black with that sinful come hither smile and why did she day dream about James Potter's hazel eyes looking at her with passion? Why was it that the only way she could feel passionate when Benjy kissed her was to imagine James' lips on hers or to pretend that it was really Sirius kissing her? It was beyond insane. She knew that they loved one another. Hermione was incredibly observant, and she saw all the tiny looks and touches, and she knew what they meant. She had hoped that dating Benjy Fenwick would be good for her, and it was…she just kept wishing for more.
"Knut for your thoughts?" Marlene asked curiously. Hermione's face went up in flames and Marlene giggled wickedly. "Oooh, those thoughts are worth a galleon at least. Spill."
"Marlene, who was your first?" Hermione asked curiously. James and Sirius paused, frozen on the other side of the aisle. They were researching a prank and had come to the library to find a particular book on charms when they'd heard Hermione's voice. They looked at one another nervously. They knew who Marlene's first had been.
"James," Marlene said quietly. They heard Hermione's stifled giggle and exchanged a look.
"Really?" Hermione's voice was breathy, curious. "What was he like?"
"He's considerate, polite, deft," Marlene said thoughtfully. "He's gorgeous, but it's like there's a part of him that you just can't touch."
"I can believe that," Hermione sounded as though she knew something. They looked at one another, startled.
"Who was yours?" Marlene asked, her curiosity almost palpable. Another stifled giggle from Hermione.
"You wouldn't know him," Hermione's voice sounded a little smug. Marlene snorted softly.
"Try me," she said drily.
"He was a student at Durmstrang, his name was Viktor Krum," Hermione said quietly. "I spent the summer before my fifth year at his home in Bulgaria."
"What was he like?" Marlene asked curiously. Hermione paused for a moment and James and Sirius held their breath, waiting.
"He was a very big man, built like a brick wall, and he was so worried about squishing me," Hermione recalled fondly. "He was very gentle and very patient."
"He sounds like a sweetheart," Marlene commented. Sirius and James glared at one another. He sounded like an arse.
"Oh, he was," Hermione said softly. James and Sirius exchanged another look. Viktor Krum, wherever he was, was not long for this world.
"What about Benjy?" Marlene asked curiously. James clenched his hands into fists and Sirius blinked at him in surprise.
"He's very nice," they heard Hermione say in a slightly lackluster voice.
"Nice? Hermione, my gran is nice. It's hardly what you want in a boyfriend," Marlene said drily.
"Well," Hermione said helplessly.
"Love, you need to find someone who makes your insides quiver and makes your knickers wet," Marlene said firmly. They heard Hermione gasp and then choke on a laugh.
James turned and almost fled the library, Sirius hot on his heels. He grabbed ahold of James' arm and shoved him into a hidden passageway.
"Prongs, we need to talk," Sirius said quietly. James stared at him in the darkness. They were both tall, topping 6 feet, but James was an inch taller.
"What about?" James muttered defensively. There was a sigh in the darkness filled with fond exasperation.
"You like her," Sirius said calmly. James snorted.
"D'you think I've failed to notice that all the girls that you've shagged in the last few months have brown, curly hair?" James asked drily.
"You really like her," Sirius said firmly. Then his voice grew hesitant. "Maybe you want to date her? Maybe more?"
"I love you, you know that," James muttered, blushing in the dark. Sirius moved closer and James could feel the heat from his body.
"I love you, too, you daft bugger," Sirius muttered back, "but you still like her."
"You like her, too," James said firmly.
"Well, yeah," Sirius agreed.
"So we both like her," James said nervously.
"I guess so, but James, what do we do about it?" Sirius asked slowly.
"I don't understand," James said, feeling confused and unsure.
"Do we make her choose between us?" Sirius asked with an arrogant tone that almost made James laugh at him. He was such a cocky bastard, he completely discounted the fact that Hermione didn't really seem to be interested in either one of them.
"What if she doesn't want either one of us?" James pointed out uncertainly.
"How could she not want one of us?" Sirius said with a laugh.
"But," James began hesitantly.
"What?" Sirius asked impatiently.
"If we're making her choose," he said carefully, thinking all of this through, "then we're competing over a girl, right? What about us coming first Sirius?"
"Oh, yeah," Sirius said, somewhat crestfallen. "Okay, then, we can't make her choose, but…"
"But what?" James pressed in a gentle voice. Far more gentle than anyone would have guessed him capable of using.
"What if you choose her," Sirius whispered. James blinked in the darkness. Sirius was asking if James would push him away, give him up. He rolled his eyes in the darkness.
"That's not going to happen," James said with a finality that surprised Sirius. "You'll get sick of me way before that happens."
"I don't think I'll ever get sick of you," Sirius said quietly in solemn voice that James had never heard him use before. Maybe it was because they were both in the dark, maybe it gave them the freedom to say what they had each been thinking.
"What's happening, Padfoot?" James asked hesitantly.
"I don't know," Sirius said finally. "Usually we just shag whoever strikes our fancy and move on from there."
"We do no such thing," James said drily. "You do that. I sleep with pretty girls who proposition me. Sometimes I date them for a couple months while doing so to give the semblance that I am a gentleman."
"We've never shared a girl before," Sirius said slowly. James swallowed.
"No, we haven't," he said cautiously.
"Maybe we should try doing that, see if it works," Sirius said hesitantly. "I mean, what if we can't? Then there's no point, is there?"
"Er, are you suggesting that we get some girl to have sex with the both of us as practice?" James asked in a harsh whisper. Sirius sighed and James felt his long, supple fingers slid under his shirt and stroke the sensitive skin of his sides.
"No, love, I'm saying that if you and I come first then we need to figure out how to, er, share, without getting jealous of one another. You, Prongs, can be a jealous git," Sirius said this last bit fondly.
"Says the man who likes to be the center of attention," James said drily. "What are you going to do if she and I are…not paying attention to you every second?"
"Hmmm," Sirius said noncommittally.
/\/\/\/\/\
Hogwarts was a huge school, but it was almost impossible to keep secrets, especially around animagi with heightened senses. Hermione managed to keep the look of surprise off of her face when she smelled the same girl on both James and Sirius. It was wrong of her to wish evil things to happen to Heather Braintree. Really, really wrong to try and figure out how to make a hex that gave someone papercuts all over their body, and even more wrong to try and alter the aguamenti spell so that it brought forth lemon juice instead of water. Hermione thought about sleeping with Benjy Fenwick, but it all came back to the spark issue that she'd had with Snape. Was she overly picky? She thought that maybe she was when she broke it off with Benjy, but Marlene assured her that she wasn't. It did not help at all that her brother was disgustingly cheerful and couldn't stop smiling after he found out. She felt like punching him, but she managed to restrain himself. Marlene dragged her off to the Astronomy tower and threw little disks in the air and Hermione cast blasting hexes at them. Marlene was incredibly impressed and made a comment about Remus watching his step that had Hermione laughing, and not as angry as she had been.
The school year was almost over—her sixth year was almost over—and as far as she knew, Remus had not made any promises to Dumbledore. She gave a tiny internal cheer for that; she didn't want Remus anywhere near the werewolves that answered to Greyback. Rather he and Lily were doing a delicate, self-conscious dance around one another that she found both adorable and aggravating. He had escorted her to Hogsmeade several times, and they always looked adorable together. They were a quiet couple, whenever they were together it was as though they were in their own world. Hermione knew that Lily and Remus were not perhaps an immediate match in most people's minds—not the least of which was due to James Potter leaping on top of tables in the Great Hall and making ridiculous declarations—but there was a logic, a rightness to them that was only apparent when you saw them together. That wasn't to say that they weren't passionate. She suppressed a shudder of revulsion at her ample evidence to the contrary. There were things that no one should ever know about their brother. That he was an 'animal' in the sack was definitely right up there.
The plan for the summer was that Hermione would stay with Andromeda. Remus had previously promised Mrs. Potter that he would come and stay at Potter Manor after she had learned of his father's death. A gentleman didn't back out of social commitments, and a gentleman certainly didn't bring along uninvited guests. He didn't like the idea of not being with Hermione for the entire summer, but he knew that Mrs. Potter wouldn't mind if he left to visit his sister. They were both orphaned teenagers and they didn't have anywhere else to be, really. Hermione had nodded like a good girl and had readily agreed to everything that her brother said because she already had plans to go and spend a couple weeks with Marlene McKinnon and they had very wicked designs on London that involved things her protective big brother was better off not knowing about. Dorcas Meadows was going to try and convince her parents to let her come, too, but they knew Marlene pretty well and worried about her influence on their daughter. Hermione couldn't help the little ball of excitement and pleasure that she had within her. She was planning on being an irresponsible teenager. Any of her friends would be laughing themselves sick. She could almost hear Fred and George snickering about Granger planning to let loose, and it didn't make her chest ache as sharply as it would have almost a year ago.
"Hermione, what are you doing?" Marlene asked nervously, glancing at her skittishly. Hermione blinked.
"Petting the thestrals," Hermione said absently.
"You can see them?" Remus asked from behind her. She cast a glance over her shoulder at him. Her nostrils flared as she caught the scent wafting over from Sirius and James and her lips tightened.
"Yeah," she mumbled softly. One of them sniffed at her hopefully and she giggled, pushing his nose out of the way.
"It's time to go, Hermione," Marlene said and Hermione climbed into the carriage that Remus and Lily were sharing with her, Marlene and Dorcas.
"I'll see you as soon as I can," Remus said quietly to Hermione. She nodded and smiled at him.
"Floo first, remember that Marlene and I are going to visit for a bit," Hermione reminded her brother. She snuck a glance at Lily. "And remember to visit your girl for a bit, too."
"Hermione!" Lily squeaked, turning pink. Hermione giggled and Marlene and Dorcas joined her.
"Would you rather he didn't?" Hermione pointed out. Lily blushed darker and shook her head.
"No," she whispered.
"Good," Hermione said firmly, with a steely look in her eyes that made Lily shiver.