Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own Harry Potter for if I did Fred would still be alive, as would Dobby…Oh, and Hedwig, I'd have saved her too! And Sirius of course, he would so not have died, I love him to much.

Weight of the world

Chapter 10

28th September 1977

James felt giddy as he entered the Gryffindor Common Room, a huge smile on his face, his hair a mess and his lips bruised. He looked thoroughly snogged.

Who was he snogging?

LILY EVANS! He felt it appropriate to scream it from the rooftops, but he had to settle for the astronomy tower as he couldn't get onto the roof without his broom and he didn't feel like leaving Lily to go get it.

Ever since the Boggart incident two weeks ago, Lily and James had been growing closer and closer which had culminated into the snogging session they had just had and James felt like he was walking on air. Finally, after years and years Lily was finally seeing him as someone other then an arrogant toe-rag.

He did a little jig; he felt so happy he could barely contain it and ran up the boys dormitory stairs as fast as he could, he felt like a girl, rushing to tell his friends how his 'date' went but right now, he could care less.

He rushed into the boy's room and jumped onto Sirius' bed, who grunted but didn't wake up. James frowned at his sleeping friend and looked up to see both Remus and Peter out like lights to. He glanced wearily at his watch that he had been given for his seventeenth birthday from his parents last year and his eyebrows rose when he saw that it was 2am.

Wow, he and Lily had been making out for longer then he thought. It was a good thing that they were Head boy and girl, as the regular curfew didn't apply to them. Who was he kidding; the regular curfew doesn't apply to the Marauders anyways.

He silently contemplated in his head whether he should wake the guys or not but the giggle (yeah, James was so happy he was giggling) threatening to escape made his mind up and he stood up on Sirius bed, bouncing to his hearts content.

Sirius grunted and rolled over, fully awake but ignoring his best friend. James grinned and jumped even harder, bending his knees for maximum impact.

"James, what are you doing?" Remus asked from the other side of the room his figure just barely visible in the dim light of the room, "go to your own bedroom and get some sleep," Remus chastised.

"But I'm happy!" James sang, throwing his arms above his head, "I'm happy because my beautiful Lily flower, she's actually mine!" Three gasps chorused and Sirius sat up so fast that James tumbled to the floor.

"You actually got Evans to go out with you?" Sirius asked, leaning over the edge of the bed, not bothering to give him a hand, "Like, really go out with you? You didn't 'imperious' her or anything, did you?"

"Of course I didn't!" James said indignantly, annoyed that he was in a less then graceful heap on the floor, "who do you take me for?"

"Sorry," Sirius chuckled, climbing off his bed and rounding it, holding his hand out for James, "Its just for the past however years, she's been professing her utter hatreds towards you, know she goes out with you a month into the new school year? Can you blame me for being suspicious?"

James chuckled himself and decided that Sirius had a right to ask it, it was suspicious and if she and James hadn't already had this discussion, he would be wondering about it himself, but it was real and it was happening and James was so happy!

*****

"Girls! Oh, my God, wake up!" Lily squealed, jumping on Meg's bed, mimicking James' actions. "Ahh!!!" She screeched and four figures buried under the covers moved as Meg was fully awake at having Lily fly into her at a hundred miles an hour. "Wake up!" She demanded shrilly, marching to each individual bed and ripping the covers off, grinning delightedly at their shivers and groans of protest. "You'll never guess what!" She collapsed onto Hermione's bed as it used to be hers and clapped delightedly.

"What?" Hermione grumbled, rubbing her eyes.

"Lily, its 2am! Are you insane?" Meg gasped looking at her watch. Thoma moaned and buried her head under her pillow, Rayne looked angry; running her hand through her messy blonde hair and Kara was still asleep, not affected at all by the cold.

"Me and James—"

"Did you do it?" Thoma asked, sitting up, suddenly very interested.

"No, we didn't do it! We've been going out for about a day!" Lily snapped, thinking that that was the most stupidest question anybody could have asked at that point.

"Yeah, but the sexual tension's been there for about two years." Thoma shrugged. Beside Lily, Hermione grinned.

"No, we kissed!" She said delightedly, and was slightly annoyed when they all tutted and rolled their eyes, not impressed with this news. "Hello? Didn't you numbskulls hear me?" Lily asked, standing up, "I, Lily Anna Evans and James Potter kissed!" She put emphasis on the last word, hoping that that would jolt some kind of response from her best friends.

"Listen, Lils, we love you and all, but were not really that surprised. You've harboured feelings for Potter since fifth year when he defended you when that Slytherin boy called you a mud-blood," Rayne said, grabbing her quilt and wrapping it around her.

"Yeah, were happy for you, but were not surprised," Kara finished, having woken up. Lily frowned and took in what they were saying, before being satisfied that that was a good enough answer for their lack of excitement and she let them off the hook.

"So, is he a good kisser?" Meg asked, twisting on her bed so that she was on her front, her legs in the air, ankles curled around each other as her blue eyes looked imploringly at her, as if she was a child waiting for her mother to tell her a story.

"Well…"

*****

"Well…" Lily said and Hermione could tell that she loved the attention that she was getting from the girls as they all gazed at her, eyes big and questioning. Except for Kara's whose brown eyes had darkened with sleep. "To be honest, I've had better," Hermione couldn't help the snort when she heard that and the other girls all broke into giggles.

Hermione tuned the gossiping out, going back to the days when Parvarti and Lavender used to include Hermione in their gossiping days, and the three girls all became particularly close during their fourth year, especially Parvarti and Hermione as they took great pleasure in bitching about Ron.

"Hermione?" Hermione snapped out of her daze to glance at Lily who was looking at her questioningly.

"Huh?" Was her un-articulate response and she shook her head, trying to clear her brain of the past images.

"Seen anyone you fancy yet?" Lily repeated, leaning against Hermione's headboard, crossing her arms, her green eyes narrowing into inquisitive slits.

"No," she answered, a frown on her face as she remembered what her skin and insides felt like whenever Sirius' skin touched hers.

"Ha, you may not fancy someone, but someone definitely fancies you." Megara said, her blue eyes looking at Hermione, giving her the uneasy feeling that she could somehow see through her and read her thoughts.

"Who?" Thoma asked, stroking her cat that Hermione realised was called Cherry, if the little cherry shaped name-tag dangling off her orange collar wasn't a good enough clue.

"I can't tell you directly, I've been sworn to secrecy, but I can tell you that it rhymes with Birius Slack." Hermione felt her world crumble around her when Megara uttered those words. Staying away from the Marauders and Lily was painfully difficult and even staying away from the girls in here was hard. She wanted to be their friends, so desperately craved it as this past month on her own had been so hard, but she couldn't. She knew she couldn't and she had this urge, the urge to tell everybody where she was from, the real circumstances of how she got here and what was going to happen to them. Watching the girls now, they seemed to go in slow motion and in her mind she panned out the deaths she knew: Lily, brutally betrayed by her friend before being murdered at the hands of Voldemort, refusing to move for her son who would be the wizarding worlds saviour and Rayne, experimenting with potions or spells, talking to her nine year old daughter who would witness the tragic death of her beloved mother, causing the Thestrals to become visible to her.

"Did Sirius tell you that?" Lily asked, leaning foreword, brining one knee up to her chest.

"Nope," Megara said, rolling onto her back, her head hanging over the edge of the bed.

"Then how do you know it's true?" Rayne asked, holding her pink teddy bear to her chest. The day after the party, Rayne had asked her not to tell anybody that she'd been crying and to not let anyone knew about Snoop, her teddy bear. Hermione agreed as she found it adorably cute.

"Olivia told me," All the girls 'Ahh-ed' like this sealed the deal and Hermione didn't get it. Yeah, they'd dated a year, but why does that automatically mean that she knows if Sirius fancies her? The fact that was even true was very unlikely in Hermione's opinion.

"Olivia know Sirius better then anybody—Except maybe James," Kara said, as if seeing the confusion flit across Hermione's face. "She'd know who he fancied having been in the receiving end of his advances before, she knows what to look for," Kara reached for the desk where Super Hero was sat and Hermione narrowed her eyes. She really didn't like lizards.

"Who are you liking, Kara?" Hermione asked hoping to direct the attention away from her.

Kara went a pretty shade of pink and mumbled 'nothing,' which Hermione accepted but Meg didn't.

"You do!" She pointed, her face now a deep shade of red from hanging it over the edge of the bed upside down for to long, "who is it?"

"It's…just someone," Hermione regretted asking, seeing the embarrassment across Kara's face, but she was curious as to who Kara fancied.

"Oh, come on, Kara," Rayne said, fidgeting where she sat, "which guy do you like?"

Kara looked up and her lips curled in on themselves and she rubbed them against each other self-consciously before opening her mouth. "I don't fancy anyone…I'm seeing somebody," the girls all gasped and the slight tension in the air made Hermione slightly weary.

"Who?" Lily and Thoma asked together.

"Karolyna Feenix."

"But that's a Slytherin," Rayne shot back, straightening up, "you cant be dating a Slytherin!"

"She's also a girl," Kara said wearily, her eyes wide with apprehension.

"I don't care about it being a girl; you're going out with Slytherin," Megara hissed, "do you have any idea how sly they are?" Megara backwards rolled off her body, landing in a crouch, "are you stupid?"

Kara stood up, holding Super Hero close to her chest, "I had no idea that dating a Slytherin determined how stupid you are," Kara spat and Hermione had the urge to crawl under the bed and stay there, not liking this

"Well, news flash, Kara, that's exactly what it does!" Megara raved, waving her arms above her head, "I can't believe this…You're a traitor," she hissed nastily and Kara stopped, looking at Megara with fear, sadness, shock and hurt.

"Fine," she said, walking to the door. "Fine," she repeated slamming it shut. There was a tense silence following her departure and Hermione hesitantly got up.

"Where are you going?" Megara asked harshly, her fists clenching at her sides.

"To see Kara." Hermione answered curtly, leaving before Megara could do or say anything.

She found her, curled up on the armchair near the fire, hugging the lizard close for comfort, tears rolling down her cheeks. Hermione sighed and went to her friend's side, sitting on the arm of the chair.

"It's not fair," Kara whispered, her gaze never leaving the flames.

"I Know, Kara." She joined her friend, staring into the fire as she let thoughts wash over her. Maybe distancing herself wasn't the best thing to do if she was stuck here, maybe she found a friendship that would stick with Kara, having no idea how her life panned out.

*****

"Okay, I got Lily, Remus fancies Olivia--" James ignored the warning growl from across the room, "I'm fairly certain that Sirius has got a thing for Hermione-"

"-Hey!"

"So that just leaves Peter." Three faces turned to look at their friend who's beady eyes darted between them before he sighed.

"Your not gonna leave me alone unless I tell you, are you?" Peter asked, scrubbing his face with his hand.

"Nope," James cheerily said, bouncing on his knees for effect, making the mattress move disturbing Sirius, who had been leaning casually against the headboard, his arms crossed across his broad chest…His limbs were now akimbo as they struggled to find purchase of something to stop him falling off the edge of the mattress, he settled for James' arm, his theory being that if he was gonna fall off, he was gonna take James with him.

After managing to balance himself once again and gave a death glare in James direction, he looked back at Peter waiting to hear his response of the earlier posed question.

"Autumn Phillips," Peter sighed, rubbing his hand through his wispy brown hair.

Autumn Phillips was one girl of quadruplets whom were all in the year below and all in separate houses and whom Sirius had many, many dreams about. He'd dated Spring Phillips, who was in Slytherin, she being the last Slytherin to ever date, now he refuses to go anywhere near the sneaky evil girls of that house. However, just because she was evil didn't stop her from being hot, and Sirius looked the most foreword to the dreams that involved all four girls.

Autumn was the Phillips assigned to Gryffindor and she and Spring didn't get on, not in the slightest. Wynter had been sorted into Ravenclaw and he had heard from Olivia that she was very nice, while Summer had gone to Hufflepuff house. The girls all had auburn hair and deep brown eyes, they're tall and willow-y and quite frankly, they were out of Peter's league.

Sirius had to stop the snigger that was threatening to take over and he coughed into his hand to disguise them. When he looked back at Peter he saw slight betrayal in his eyes and Sirius felt very, very guilty.

"Hey, Peter-" he started, but was cut off when there was a knock on the door. Sirius looked at Remus, who he hoped would get it so that he could talk to Peter, but the werewolf was out for the count. He'd wondered why he hadn't heard a peep from him since he growled at James.

With his bed being the closest he sighed and stood up, grumbling when the person knocked again, louder this time.

He yanked the door open, the insults in his throat directed at the person disturbing their talk dying down when he took a look at the lizard staring at him through big, engorged, not-normal eyes.

He let out a very unmanly shriek and jumped a foot in the air, ignoring the laughter coming from the other three occupants in the room, his eyes fixated on the lizard curled up in Kara's arms.

"What do you want, Kara?" James asked, slapping Sirius on the back as he walked past.

"Do you guys have a spare blanket? Hermione's asleep and she's cold and shaking." Sirius could tell that she'd been crying, the strain of her voice proof of that.

"Why doesn't she use her own blanket?" James asked, leaning against the doorframe. Anyone who didn't know James would think that he was being hostile, but Sirius knew it was suspicion and curiosity causing him to act this way.

"Because were in the common room and I'm not going into the girls dormitory, no sir, not after that and Hermione's cold." Kara said, stomping her foot lightly like a child. "She was the only one who came down, after I told Meg and the girls I was dating Karolyna, Meg went ballistic, shouting about how I was a traitor and was stupid," she snorted, "seriously, its not bad, is it?" Kara asked, seeking affirmation.

The Marauder's had known that Kara was a lesbian for a while when Remus found her snogging Yvonne Island, a Ravenclaw in the year below, while on patrols fulfilling his prefect duties.

"No, but be careful with Karolyna," Sirius warned, grabbing the top blanket from the top of the pile on his bed, he like to be warm and happy when he went to sleep and he didn't understand how James could only have one blanket. Apparently he got to hot during the night.

"Why?" Kara asked, her eyes narrowing, "Is it because she's a Slytherin?" She hissed quit crossly.

"Uh-huh," Sirius answered, breezing past her, heading down the staircase, "I've been out with a Slytherin before, and they can turn nasty." Kara nodded and Sirius continued down the staircase, the only noise he could hear was the door to his dorm closing, Kara's footsteps and the quiet crackling of the fire.

Hermione was laid on her back on the couch, her head on the arm and her neck craned upwards which Sirius knew would hurt like Hell when she woke up in the morning. One hand was resting on her stomach and the other palm up next to her chest, the fingers slightly curling in on themselves. Her hair was a mess, spread out like a halo behind her and her lips were slightly parted. Even though she was in pyjama pants and a Black T-shirt that was to big, Sirius felt an embarrassing swell of emotion and dropped to his knees beside the couch, handing the blanket to Kara wordlessly.

He cupped a hand behind her head and wrapped the other around her waist, his thumb automatically making circular motions over her faded black top.

"What are you doing?" Kara hissed, "I didn't ask you down here so you could feel her up."

"I'm not," Sirius whispered, using the hand on her waist to pull her slowly down the couch, the hand at the back of her head guiding it, making sure that it didn't roughly bang on the cushions once Hermione had been pulled clear off the arm. He didn't want her to wake up with a crick in her neck.

"Blanket," Sirius requested, holding a hand out for the blanket, the other one not moving from her waist. He wrapped it around her, making sure that it covered her to her feet and he tucked it around her only half aware of Kara snuggling into the armchair. He tucked a stray curl behind her ear and cupped her jaw, blown away by how attractive she was to him right then and he fought the urge to kiss her. The strange though to him was that if Kara hadn't been there, he probably would have down.

"You really do fancy her?" Kara asked, looking at them with something akin to realization in her eyes. Sirius sighed and looked back at Hermione, his thumb tracing small circles on her cheek bone.

"Yeah," he replied, "I think I do."

A/N: Ooooh, Sirius likes Hermione, lalalalalalala! Whoa, second chapter up today! I'm on a roll!

…Okay, It's actually because I have nothing to do…Oh well…

There were actually quads at my old school, but they were named after fruit instead of seasons.

Thanks to all you lovely readers who review!

XxX

Kelly