Disclaimer: All the recognisable characters are owned by J.K.R. No money is being from this story. I only own the Plot.
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"Who are you?" Peter sneered.
Hermione bit her lip as she decided on how to approach the situation. It was obvious she couldn't or rather shouldn't have known who he was. She really had no reason to follow him ... although ... she narrowed her eyes as an idea formed in her head.
"You're a Slytherin aren't you? I saw you running after the accident occurred on the field. I bet you're responsible for it. I've heard that Slytherins are a good for nothing lot, always making trouble for us Gryffindors."
Hermione scowled, hoping it wouldn't raise any suspicions if she acted like a typical Gryffindor. She was new so she knew that her actions or habits weren't familiar to the rest of the student body. Sure, a lot of them knew her to be impartial towards all four houses but she didn't think Peter knew that about her.
Peter's expression slipped into bored indifference as she spoke. She was nothing but a stupid Gryffindor. But how come he hadn't seen her before. Was she new. Hogwarts had never before accepted anyone new and she looked to be about his age. He would have to look into it more when he had some time but he didn't think she posed any threat to his plans.
"Trust Dumbledore to invite another stupid Gryffindor to Hogwarts. So where are you from?" Peter sneered.
Hermione scowled at him.
"What's it to you?"
Peter rolled his eyes and turned around. She was really of no interest to him. A brash, stupid Gryffindor really was too annoying.
"I'll let you off this time but the next time you decide to follow me around little Gryffindor, you will regret it." Peter remarked in a sinister voice as he sauntered off.
Hermione watched quietly as he walked off. She added an insulted gasp at the end to complete her act. Good, at least this way she'd buy some time and avoid some unneeded scrutiny. She was just turning around when she heard a snap. With a sharp turn, she pointed her wand towards the noise and sighed in relief when she spotted her favourite werewolf. But he didn't look as relieved when he met her eyes.
"Hermione ... ?"
Hermione internally winced as she spotted slight suspicion in his eyes. He had seen her around younger Slytherins plenty of times so of course her current behaviour appeared strange.
"Remus, is everyone alright?"
He nodded and waited for Hermione to say something else. He had decided to follow her when he saw her leaving the grounds. She had a very focused look in her eyes so he was curious to see where she might be off to, or who she might be meeting. To his shock, it was none other than Peter Pettigrew. Remus had never really liked him. He always smelled like a rat but he didn't have any proof to voice his displeasure so he had always kept his opinion to himself. Seeing Hermione's reaction had surprised him. She was not at all acting like herself. So much so that he started suspecting she was doing it on purpose but why would that be. So, Remus waited for Hermione to explain her actions.
"Well, what do you want to know?" Hermione asked wryly.
Remus' brows went up at that. He had expected her to be defensive or secretive but she just looked at him with wry amusement. He straightened to his full height. He hadn't had much one on one interaction with her but he knew she was different from any of the girls he knew. Clearly James was infatuated with her. Sirius was on his way so he knew there had to be something special about her but still, her reaction to being 'caught' was unexpected.
"Why did you ... why were you acting like that and did you know him before now?"
Hermione sighed and busied herself stashing her wand away. How to explain the complicated mess she got herself into. She didn't necessarily want to lie to him but she couldn't really explain him everything. What a conundrum! She decided to tell the partial truth.
"As you might have heard from James, my arrival here was a little ... unusual. I was not unaware of the rising terror of Voldemort even before arriving here so I knew that anything strange happening in Hogwarts might catch his attention."
Hermione paused to gauge Remus' reaction. So far he seemed to buy her reasoning but his furrowed brows said he was still dissatisfied so she continued.
"As you know, I have been meeting with Dumbledore and he warned me to be wary of some students, particularly the older Slytherins. I'd already heard about Peter from Lily so I decided to act like a typical Gryffindor to not raise his suspicion. That's pretty much why I decided to act the way I did. Upto you whether you want to believe me or not."
Hermione shrugged as she finished her explanation. In her eyes, it more than justified her actions.
Remus blinked. Well, if you look it like that, her actions made sense. He really couldn't say anything to that. There was a niggling voice at the back of his mind that protested but Remus ignored it for the time being.
"I suppose I can understand why you did what you did just now." Remus acknowledged begrudgingly.
Hermione smiled at him. He was so adorable when he was trying to be intimidating but his inherent gentle nature didn't let him be. Remus as a man was very gentle and she had learned that Moony, his wolf was actually very playful once the man and the wolf had made peace. But then, she didn't know if this Remus would be the same. She constantly had to remind herself that the people here were different from the ones she knew. Sometimes, she felt so alone thinking about it. Surrounded by people she knew intimately yet they were now strangers.
"Hey, you alright?"
Remus looked at the girl in front of him worriedly. She had such a sad look on her face that he wanted to immediately reassure her.
Hermione looked at Remus and smiled.
"Shall we go back then?" She asked brightly.
Remus nodded hesitatingly.
They walked back to towards the Quidditch field, still busy thinking about what they'd just talked about.
"So why don't you play Quidditch?" Hermione asked curiously.
Remus glanced at the witch walking next to him. He's been asked this question a lot of times since his two best friends were in the team.
"I never really got into Quidditch that much. I know James and Sirius think its almost sacrilege to not be interested in the sport but I've always been more interested in being alive" Remus joked.
Hermione laughed, knowing full well what he meant. The amount of injuries Harry had accumulated because of Quidditch was more than enough to convince her of that.
"I'm surprised James and Sirius didn't drag you despite it to join the team." Hermione teased.
"Oh they tried their best. But apparently I sucked so bad that even they had to give up."
Remus looked so proud of sucking at Quidditch that Hermione couldn't help but let out another laugh.
"I see why you're a part of the marauders."
"Just because I don't act as wild as the other two doesn't mean I'm not proud of being a marauder." Remus winked.
Hermione shook her head. What do you know. This Remus wasn't as shy as her werewolf. She couldn't really say it was an unwelcome thing. She would have fun getting to know him better.
"What about you? Do you like Quidditch?" Remus asked curiously.
Hermione shook her head and smiled, "Oh no! I hate flying and heights. Combined, well its a recipe for disaster in my opinion.
"But you still attend every Quidditch match to cheer for James."
Hermione snorted.
"Let's just say, I've had enough practice watching people I care about trying to put their lives in danger while chasing after a couple of balls."
Remus guffawed.
They were both laughing when James and Sirius spotted them.
"Hey you two! I was just telling James that you both went for a quickie and what do you know, I was right!" Sirius waggled his eyebrows as he put his arms around Hermione and Remus.
Hermione rolled her eyes and looked at James. He was smiling while looking at her but she could detect a hint of worry in his eyes.
"How's your beater?" She asked softly while coming to stand next to him.
He shook his head, "he's okay. Still in shock. Most of them are upset that the game got over before deciding on the winner."
Hermione nudged his arm in support. She could tell he was also a little upset about it. It was the last game of the season after all.
"Did Madam Hooch say anything about rescheduling the game?" Hermione asked.
"Not at the moment. The teachers were more focused on making sure no one was hurt and trying to find the cause of it."
Hermione remained quiet. She didn't want to inform them who the real culprit was. At least here out in the open. Maybe once they were back in the privacy of their dorm, she might broach the topic of Peter.
"So how was it?"
It took all of them a moment to realise what Sirius was asking about. James and Hermione looked at each other. James winked before wrapping an arm around her and nuzzling her neck.
"Hermione was simply curious about our blonde friend over here so I told her to indulge while I was otherwise occupied ..." James trailed of as he looked at Sirius.
Sirius laughed and shook his head.
"Nice Joke mate."
James kept his expression straight as Sirius looked at him, then at Hermione and finally at Remus.
"Wait, you're not serious, are you?"
He looked between Hermione and Remus and James so fast that his neck cracked.
Hermione bit her lip and let her expression glaze a little as she blushed.
"Remus was ... quite animalistic."
James growled and pulled her closer and bit her ear lightly and Remus just blushed.
Sirius backed away as he looked at the trio.
"No, no, no! This cannot be true. Tell me you're lying. How could you'll do this to me! You left me behind!"
Sirius was in his full on whining mode as he kept on going about betrayal and wanting to be included.
Hermione couldn't take his expression any longer and burst out laughing. James was also grinning while holding his girlfriend close. Remus was just ruffling his hair while blushing a little. He also had a smile on his face.
Sirius stopped and looked at them suspiciously before pointing a finger at them accusingly, "I knew it! You were lying!"
He looked so offended that all three burst into laughter.
Sirius was still sulking by the time they reached the Gryffindor common room. Their spot near the fireplace was thankfully empty so Hermione and Remus went there to take a seat.
James and Sirius went to get changed so they could all relax and unwind after a busy day.
Hermione sighed and closed her eyes. She treasured these good times. This time was so peaceful compared to hers and she knew it wouldn't last long but this made her even more determined to treasure these moments for as long as they lasted.
She had her eyes closed but she could still tell who came and sat next to her. She laid her head on her boyfriend's shoulders as they all just sat and talked softly about anything and everything. Sirius was done pouting and now was busy sharing details about his hot encounters with Quidditch obsessed fan girls.
"There you guys are! I've been looking all over for you guys."
Hermione opened her eyes to see Lily glaring at all of them with her hands at her waist. She was alone so Alice was probably off with her boyfriend.
"Hey Lily." Sirius greeted her.
The boys felt a little uncomfortable because it was the first time all of them including James Hermione and Lily were together in one place since the incident.
Lily and Hermione soon did away with any awkwardness however.
Hermione raised her head and nodded at Lily, who took a seat next to her.
"What's up Lily?" She asked.
Lily bit her lip and frowned.
"I wanted to talk about what happened in the field today."
The rest sat up. They hadn't discussed it properly but all of them had questions about what had happened.
Lily slanted a look at Hermione and Hermione knew that the red haired witch had seen her when she's chased after Peter. She nodded at the silent question and Lily took aa breath and continued.
"Just when things started to look bad, I noticed you look around the grounds. I caught you staring at Peter Pettigrew. I wanted to follow you but got caught in the crowd and lost sight of you both." Lily finished, looking questingly at Hermione.
Remus was also looking at Hermione. Now he remembered the niggling thought in his mind. She had explained why she'd been acting unlike herself but she never said why she was with Peter in the first place.
He gave Hermione a look.
"Is there something you guys want to tell us?" James asked as he caught the look Remus was giving his girlfriend.
Hermione looked at James. He didn't look worried, just curious.
"I recognised the spell that was cast on the Quaffle, well not recognised exactly but I knew someone had cursed it. So I was looking around to see if I could find anyone suspicious." Hermione explained.
"And that's why you decided to follow Peter?" Lily asked.
Hermione nodded, "He had his wand and I caught him muttering something before hurriedly leaving the grounds so I decided to follow him."
Remus nodded in agreement, "I saw her with Peter after that."
All of them were quiet as they processed what she just said.
"But why would Peter do that?" Lily asked.
"I don't know a lot about him but he never really behaved like some of the Slytherins in our year, who never lost any opportunity to curse us, or at least try to." Remus shrugged thoughtfully.
"Now that I think about it, don't you guys think he takes too many leaves from school. Is that even allowed?" James frowned.
"He has a sick mum." Lily offered as an explanation.
"I don't think that's possible." Remus said. He also had a sick mother. Her health wasn't perilous enough to take many leaves but he had tried in the beginning to ask for leaves to visit her whenever she got worse. His father of course wanted nothing to do with her or his kid so he'd tried his best to be there for her. The boys knew of his family troubled so they offered a sympathetic glance and nodded in agreement.
Lily and Hermione looked at the boys, then at each other. Clearly there was a story there. Hermione knew a little of Remus' early live, but not much. She could tell he had some skeletons in his closet.
"But how else can you explain his constant absence from school? The worst thing is, you don't need the permission from the headmaster to take short personal leaves if the head of your house is fully satisfied with your reason." Lily sighed in frustration.
Hermione frowned in contemplation. Slughorn wasn't exactly the sort to do his due diligence for such things. She could tell that the same thought had crossed through the minds of others.
"I don't think we're going to get any closer to solving the mystery of Peter Pettigrew sitting like this." Sirius proclaimed.
Hermione, along with others waited for him since he seemed to be getting ready to suggest another of his wild ideas.
"I say we follow him around. He has to be here for another week since it is the exam week so we keep a close eye on his every little action and try to figure out what's his deal."
Hermione bit her lip. She didn't want to give any credit to his idea but it wasn't a bad idea specially considering ... She threw a glance at James, only to see him share a conspiratorial glance with the other two boys. Yep, he still had his invisibility cloak and she could tell he, along with the remaining marauders, intended to make full use of it.
Hermione sighed. Guess she would have to sit this one out.
"And how're you planning on doing that unnoticed?" Lily demanded.
Hermione started. She'd forgotten that Lily might not be aware of the existence of the cloak. She looked at the three boys who tried their best not to look guilty. She shook her head. Really, they were hopeless.
"I'm sure they'll figure out a way by putting their marauding ways to good use." Hermione offered wryly.
James looked relieved and nodded.
Lily still looked unconvinced but let it go for the time being. She looked at Hermione and winked, "What do you suppose we should do then?"
Hermione laughed. Who knew Lily Evans had a tiny streak of mischief in her.
"I'm sure we'll come up with something Lils." Hermione smirked while enjoying the looks on the boys' faces
A/N - Thank you for reading, favouriting and reviewing. Special thanks to my old reviewers. You guys encourage me to write faster :)