See i'm so sorry for the two month delay I uploaded two chapters and I'm working on a third to hopefully get it to you in the next few days! I hope this makes it up to you some! I feel terrible for the delay! Anyway I couldn't find anywhere really that had Alice Longbottom's maiden name, some say it was Prewett and other said it was Fortesque, so I went with the latter for this fiction.
CHAPTER TEN:
January came and everyone was soon back in their beds at Hogwarts. Angel had quickly bonded to Hermione and the two were constantly in each other's company, although, Angel was slowly starting to get a wandering eye, and Hermione knew it wouldn't be long before her little kitten would start trying to explore the entire castle.
The month ticked by with a lot of Slytherin's causing problems within the walls of the castles. Severus had already pulled her aside and shown her with a strained face the new mark upon his body. When she threw her arms around him in sadness he had relaxed, later explaining he was worried she would no longer see him as someone good, because in order to get the mark he had to do something heinous.
"Severus Snape, you are one of the bravest men I know, you're saving so many lives by doing this, don't ever forget who you are. Doing bad things doesn't make you a bad person if you're doing them for the right reasons." She had told him with a sad smile.
Then he had explained how the Slytherin's were going to target her even worse now, and he wasn't going to be able to do anything to help her.
The month was a stressful one, the papers were full of murders, rapes, and disappearances, the slytherin's had taken to using harsher curses uncaring of retribution, and all of Hermione's friends and her boyfriend were constantly watching her with hawk eyes as if expecting her to pop out of existence at any moment. She would be glad when January would be done and over with.
She smiled as Remus talked about a muggleborn witch who he had met over the holidays who was homeschooled, they were writing back and forth and he had told Hermione, that he couldn't wait until spring break to go see her, maybe even bring her over to the Potter's to meet everyone, it was a nice relief to see him so happy.
The day's passed by with growing dread and obstacles but no one was walking alone and everyone felt comforted that no one could really be hurt inside the walls of the school, on January 21, the entire castle went into an uproar when a first year Hufflepuff was sent to St. Mungos with life threatening injuries, but the worst part was that none of the marauders could get Remus to come out of his room, or even out from behind his curtains that he had charmed shut.
"Remus John Lupin you open these curtains right now and tell us what in Merlin's name is wrong! This can't be about the Hufflepuff girl, you didn't know her! I know it's upsetting but this is no way to deal with it!" Hermione stated like a mother trying to get her child to do something.
Peter who had been sitting on his bed reading the paper suddenly piped up, "Oh no, you're right Mione, it's not the Hufflepuff girl, but it is a girl…."
Hermione felt her heart stop for a moment as she turned towards the blonde boy on the bed, "read it to me."
Peter looked back down at the paper, " Missing muggleborn witch Anne Dawson's body was found bound and naked in a lake a week after her mysterious disappearance from her bed in her home."
Hermione raised her hand to stop him, "that girl he was writing to, please tell me it wasn't her."
Peter's watery eyes looked up at her, "okay then I wont."
Hermione sat down with a sad sigh and hung her head, "let's let him grieve then, that explains why she stopped writing suddenly."
Just as they were about to walk back down into the common room both James and Sirius burst in through the door, "Peter! Hermione has disappe…MIONE!"
Suddenly she was engulfed between two tall men, "what in Godric's name is wrong with you two!"
The two dark haired men pulled themselves off of her with sheepish smiles although she could tell by looking at Sirius that he had been emotionally more upset then he was letting on.
"We were looking all over the castle for you and in your room and you weren't there and then we saw your homework spread out on the table in the common room, your bag and your cloak laying there, but no you. We sort of went to the worst situation possible." Sirius explained kicking at the ground.
Hermione felt her face relax into one of sympathy, "You thought I was gone, oh you two! The month is almost over, I'm pretty sure if I was going to disappear I'd have done it by now!"
Both the boys relaxed slightly at her statement but not completely, James finally added, "We won't be happy until this month is over."
Sirius let out a snort as he pulled Hermione close to him, "this month needed to end two weeks ago, I can't believe things will only get worse!" Changing the subject he added, "so I figure you're trying to coax Mooney out of his makeshift exile, any idea why the sudden lock down?"
Hermione frowned, "that girl he was writing disappeared a week ago, and her body was found in a lake yesterday."
Both boys faces fell with understanding, "he needs time," Peter added with a frown of his own.
With a nod all of them headed for the door, but James stopped, "I know you can hear us Mooney, so know that we are here whenever you need us, and we are all very sorry for your loss."
The next day Remus rejoined the group giving them all a sad tired smile before sitting down between Peter and James and opening his book, Hermione glanced at the group of people, including Alice and Frank and finally announced her plan.
"I have a plan, all of us know that things are only going to get worse from this moment, and as Remus' friend and that Hufflepuff girl are proof of this fact I think we need to know how to protect ourselves. So I enlisted Dumbledore's help yesterday and talked to him, Alastor Moody is going to be coming twice a week to train us on how to survive this thing."
Everyone stopped eating and just stared at her in shock, "How will we know when to meet," Alice asked.
Hermione smiled and handed each of them a Galleon, "its charmed, the date on the bottom will change according to when the dates are, Severus, Marlene and Regulus have theirs already, we are meeting in the Room of Requirements tonight at 7, be prepared to duel, because there is no way I'm losing a single one of you in this war."
Everyone stared at the wild haired woman in front of them, finally Peter spoke up, "Are you sure Moody is the best teacher for fighting, I mean you're the one whose already lived it."
Hermione grinned at all of them, "who do you think trained me in the first place?"
That night found the group of 18 year olds lined up on one end of the long room with a surly auror walking up and down talking a good look at them with a scowl. Suddenly he whipped around and threw a curse at James who had been standing a ways down the line up, throwing the unsuspecting boy into a padded wall, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE," Moody barked out.
His mechanical eye stared them all down daring them to laugh at their friend's misfortune; no one even cracked a smile in the presence of the angry Auror. "Now I want all of you to pair up, except for you three!" He pointed at Marlene, Regulus and Severus, "You're to go up to the headmaster's office where you are to begin training in occlumency immediately, if you don't learn that all of us are dead, I don't see how he didn't search your heads before branding you but be glad he didn't!"
The three dark haired people quickly rushed out of the room thankful to be away from the half crazed man, "Now, pair up."
Hermione decided to pair up with Lily, James with Remus, Frank and Peter, and Alice and Sirius, although Sirius was grumbling something about not wanting to hurt a girl but quickly shut up when Moody pinned him with a death stare, "many death eaters are woman Black, your own cousin in fact, be sure to remember that when you're complaining about fighting one, woman may not be physically stronger than men most of the time, but they are crafty and if you're just fighting with wands, a woman is far more likely to win in a duel because she knows how to keep you thinking you're getting ahead up until the moment she truly strikes. Now, we are going to do rotating duels so I can tell where each of you are at, now start!" He barked out and suddenly the room was filled with shouting and flashing colors as the duels began.
Hermione flew through the air landing with a loud thud on her back, but quickly shot back up and shouted a jelly leg jinx at the red headed woman she was fighting.
James was frustrated because Remus had cursed him with something that hadn't done anything at first but now every time he tried to shoot a spell it did something stupid like send up a line of bubbles or cause flowers to grow from the ground, "Lupin that spell is very high level, most Auror's don't even know it! Good job!" Mad Eye Moody yelled happily, "We'll have you teach that one to everyone, it could certainly come in handy!"
Peter was currently pulling himself up off the ground after getting knocked down roughly but Frank was currently distracted by a flock of birds pecking at his head.
Sirius unfortunately hadn't taken Moody's advice seriously and was currently hanging from the chandelier by his underwear as Alice held his wand and used hers to spin the chandelier.
Mad Eyed Moody watched each duel with a studious eye before finally stopping them, "Alright I want Girl Potter with Lupin, Evans with Fortesque, Boy Potter against Pettigrew, and Black against Longbottom, go."
The fights commenced all over again everyone already looking a bit bruised up. Hermione knew immediately in order to beat Remus she would have to take the defensive and side step his curses and she was quick on her feet much to her friend's annoyance as he shot one curse after another at her.
Lily quickly ended up on the same place as Sirius on the chandelier minus the fact she was hooked by a belt loop and not her underwear, but she held tight to her wand and was able to bind Alice in thick ropes while she worked on a way down.
Surprisingly James and Peter were both throwing and dodging curses in a way it made it hard to tell who was winning.
But to Franks dismay, he quickly lost to Sirius, ending up hanging upside down much like the way he used to hang Severus Snape.
"I want Black with boy Potter, Evans with Pettigrew, Remus and Fortesque, and Girl Potter with Longbottom.
Immediately it was seen that James and Sirius were going to end up tearing the room apart, they used the entire room ducking and throwing curses at each other like a pair of brothers fighting.
Peter had shot a group of birds at Lily which immediately began trying to make nests in her hair.
Alice kept her opponent on the ground this round going for creative charms that caused his hand to swell up and so he had to drop his wand.
Frank tried very hard to compete against Hermione but he was no match and she knew she was going to have to train him on the side much like she had his son when she had been in her own time.
"Time to switch, Girl Potter with Black, Evans with boy Potter, Fortesque with Longbottom, and Lupin and Pettigrew, GO!"
Hermione glared at the crass man as everyone made it to their new partners, tired, bloodied, and bruised they all raised their wands and began to shoot spells.
Hermione gritted her teeth in annoyance knowing the Sirius was holding back, but before she could complain Moody yelled out, "Those of you partnered with your significant other, snap out of it! This war is going to have family against family, you need to learn to have a backbone and fight those you normally would never want to hurt!"
Sirius gained a bit of headway but was still holding back, so Hermione did something she never thought she would do, she purposefully hurt him, using a slicing hex on his arm. "Bloody hell that hurt! Fine witch if you want to fight, fight you'll get!" Hermione immediately was glad she had made him drop the facade; she needed this kind of challenge.
James was much like Sirius in the fact he was holding back on Lily but instead of getting frustrated, Lily just took on attacking him, working on his competitive streak of always needing to win, "James baby, it's sad you're losing to me, your girlfriend so easily! Oh if your quidditch team could see you now!" James growled an answer before shooting a spell that caused her to go flying into a padded wall.
Lily laughed at the shocked and upset face of her boyfriend as he realized he had thrown her into a wall. She stood back up, "Bout bloody time Potter!"
Frank and Alice fought diligently, Alice shouting tips to her boyfriend trying to help him beat her.
Remus once again had used that special spell and Peter was currently holding his wand in frustration as his wand sprouted a white flag.
The night ended a few hours later, as everyone collapsed in a pile on the couches of the common room, "I'm so sore….." James moaned out, "healing charms only do so much!"
Everyone nodded in agreement too tired to talk, until Lily piped up, "Oh by the way guys, there is going to be a Hogsmeade weekend on Valentine's Day!"