A/N: First and foremost, I want to apologize for all the technical difficulties I had with the last chapter. So, this is what went down. I published the chapter and went sleep and when I woke up the chapter was missing? It said it was posted and the alert went out but it was impossible to view for some reason even though it was there. I tried everything to get it to show up. I tried logging in from different browsers, computers, I even tried replacing and updating it with a newer version of the document and nothing worked. So, I ended up deleted the chapter and re-uploading it. That didn't even work… so I uploaded it again and had two chapter 9s up so I deleted one of them. (That's why you all got two alerts/emails [one saying chapter 10 was posted] and I'm really sorry about that.) I don't know if it was something I did, or if it just magically happened, but chapter 9 finally showed up. I honestly don't even know what was up with it. Sorry!

Tldnr: Sorry for the technical difficulties with the last chapter! I have no idea what happened. And also sorry for not updating for two months. Woops…

With that being said… thanks to everyone for their patience and support! I hope you enjoy the REAL chapter 10.

Chapter 10 - Punishments

Well, Hermione had been wrong about Lily. She was definitely not "just fine".

Lily did seem to care about losing Snape as a friend. She cared a lot. That night, her laughter had quickly turned to tears which then progressed into gross sobbing. Hermione and Mary had spent the rest of the night trying to comfort her until she tired herself out and fell asleep.

A few days after the event at the lake, Lily seemed to be doing better. It had taken a lot of constant convincing from Mary but Lily was finally starting to see that she was probably better off without Snape as a friend. Yet, she still had moments of guilt and regret.

The three girls had decided to distance themselves from the boys which caused things to be strange. Hermione hadn't realized how attached she had grown to the Marauders until she couldn't hang around them anymore. It was difficult but at the same time she knew she was doing the right thing.

Yet, classes just seemed off. There was definitely a different atmosphere about them now that Hermione didn't sit near the Marauders. There was also the awkward tension in classes due to Lily and Snape's fight. Lily decided to join Mary and Hermione at their cauldron in Potions and Snape had joined Avery and Mulciber which caused many eyebrows to be raised, including Professor Slughorn's.

There was now a very apparent divide between the Gryffindor sixth year girls and boys.

.:~*~*~*~*~:.

"This is bad," said Sirius.

"Very bad," said Peter.

"Yes. This is definitely bad," said Remus nodding in agreement.

Remus was in his messy, scarlet and gold, poster and banner plastered dormitory. He, Sirius, and Peter were staring at James, who was lying face down on his bed. Remus had never seen him like this. He looked so utterly defeated.

It was pathetic.

By now, the entire school knew what had gone down between James and Snape and then what happened with Snape and Lily afterwards. It was everything anyone had talked about the day after it happened. People were still talking about it even though it was five days later.

Five days. That's how long Hermione, Lily, and Mary had been ignoring them.

The school had also started to notice that the girls were completely snubbing the Marauders and it had really taken a toll on James's spirit. He had attempted to talk to Lily during class numerous times over the past few days but she didn't even look at him. No snarky comment, no eye roll, just nothing. The same thing happened when they tried to talk to Hermione.

Earlier that day James had made one more hopeful attempt to talk to Lily but with no luck. As soon as James had finished with classes, he silently walked back to the boys' dormitory and face planted on his bed and hadn't moved since.

"Prongs, mate, she'll come around!" encouraged Sirius from his own bed. Remus was also sitting on Sirius's bed with Peter beside him.

"She can't ignore you forever," said Peter.

A mix of a mumble and groan came from James and Remus sighed.

"You could try to talk to her again, James," said Remus.

Really, he was giving himself the same advice. The fact that Hermione, Lily, and Mary were ignoring him, as well as James – even though he had never been very close with Mary – bothered him.

Hermione had been right. Maybe he should have stepped in. Okay, not maybe… he definitely should have stopped it before it even began. This entire situation would have been avoided and he would be able to talk to Hermione instead of her giving him the cold shoulder.

And Lily, he quickly thought.

Yes, and Lily. He hadn't had Prefect duties with her since before the incident but he knew that when they had them together it was going to be incredibly awkward. It would, however, give him a great opportunity to apologize to her.

He just wished he could think of a good way to apologize to Hermione. He didn't really spend time with Lily outside of prefect duties so Hermione was his only friend that he spent time with who took classwork seriously. Unlike the guys, she would rather read a book in her spare time than hex a Slytherin in the corridors.

"Ghee dowent won tawk ta me" mumbled James with his face stuffed in his pillow.

Sirius ducked behind Remus with his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing at how ridiculous James was being.

"Come again?" inquired Remus, massaging his temples. He had a headache and wasn't in the best mood himself.

James lifted his face a few inches off of his pillow. "She doesn't want to talk to me!" he wailed and stuffed his face back in the pillow.

"She's probably in the common room now, Prongs. Just go down and talk to her," said Peter giving James a look of pity. "It's easy for her to ignore you in class but maybe she'll talk to you in the privacy of the common room."

Even though he didn't necessarily think it would work, Remus had to hand it to Peter. It did seem like the most logical way of getting Lily to talk to James.

James must have thought so too because he, again, lifted his head off of his pillow but this time he turned and looked at the three of them sitting on Sirius's bed.

"You know what?" he said. "I will!" With his face was set in determination he sat up.

His black hair was even messier than usual and he didn't even bother to attempt to flatten it as he stood up. He fixed his square glasses, which had gone askew, and strolled out of the door without another word.

"Wait up, mate!" called Sirius who took off after him followed by Peter.

Remus moved to follow them and by the time he left the dormitory James was already almost at the bottom of the spiral staircase.

When he reached the bottom, Remus saw James looking around the nearly empty common room for dark red hair but with no luck. He looked visibly disappointed. Sirius, on the other hand, took it as a challenge.

"I know one way we can find her," Sirius said with his mischievous grin that Remus knew all too well.

Sirius tugged on James's arm and pulled him over to the nearest empty table. He pulled an old looking piece of parchment out of his back pocket and laid it down on the table.

"Do you always just keep that in your back pocket?" mused Remus and Sirius ignored him.

"I don't know why we didn't just use this in the first place," said Sirius, grinning down at the Marauder's Map. They had finally perfected it halfway through last year. "You're the smart one, Moony. I'm a little disappointed in you for not thinking of this."

"You wouldn't be the first one to be disappointed in me," muttered Remus. Sirius gave him a look and rolled his eyes.

"Save the dramatics for Prongs, Moony," he said as he pulled out his wand. He looked over his shoulders to make sure no one was watching or listening before tapping the parchment and whispering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The map came to life and thin trails of ink appeared and started swimming across the parchment like spider webs. The ink slowly spiraled together – a feature Remus prided himself with – and began to form large, curly, emerald, letters, on the top of the parchment, spelling out:

Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present:

THE MARAUDER'S MAP

Beneath it, bits of dark ink fanned out over the parchment and began to reveal every corner of Hogwarts. Little labeled dots appeared all over it showing where every person in the castle and on the grounds were.

Remus still had trouble believing that the four of them had created such a beautiful and complex map.

"Well look at that, Jared Muller and Sarah Connelly seem to be getting quite comfortable in that broom cupboard," snickered Sirius as he pointed to their dots on the fifth floor.

"I'll never be able to look at him the same," said James with a smirk.

"Ah, he's a git anyway," said Sirius. "She's only with him because he's captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team."

"Guys, focus," said Remus, rubbing his forehead again. "We're supposed to be looking to see where Lily is."

James's face turned serious. "Right…"

"That's an easy one," said Peter as he pointed at the map. "She's there, in her dormitory."

Before Sirius had even finished saying "Mischief Managed" or anyone had a chance to say anything else, James took off in the direction of the girls' stairwell. Remus, Sirius, and Peter rushed after him.

"Wait—" Remus began but it was too late.

James had already begun to climb the stairs, taking two at a time, when it happened.

There was an earsplitting noise, almost like a warning horn, and the stone steps melted together to create a shiny, smooth, slide. Remus was impressed with how far James managed to make it before his arms began to flail wildly. He finally lost his balance, fell backwards, and shot down the slide, landing at Remus, Sirius, and Peter's feet.

A groan came from James and he looked up at the three other boys in bewilderment. Sirius lost himself and doubled over in a fit of laughter.

"What the…" spluttered James as Remus grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet. James began rubbing his backside and he looked very displeased.

"I tried to warn you…" said Remus, shaking his head.

James continued to look bewildered. "Why did it do that?" he demanded.

"Boys can't go in the girls' dormitories, mate. Something to do with the Founders not trusting boys or something," said Sirius with a gleam of laughter in his eyes.

Remus turned towards Sirius in surprise. He had to admit, he was impressed that Sirius had known that bit of information since he knew for a fact that he was the only one of them to have read Hogwarts: A History.

"That's right… that's why girls can go up to our dormitories but we can't go to theirs," said Remus. "The Founders believed girls to be more trustworthy. But how did you know that?"

Sirius grinned. "I may or may not have tried to sneak into the girls' dormitory to hide a Cornish Pixie in Macdonald's trunk in fourth year. I found out I couldn't do it the hard way." Sirius paused for a moment before continuing. "So I put it in her school bag instead."

Remus groaned. That explained a lot. Mary had not been happy when that Cornish Pixie was released. It had tried to lift her off the ground by her ears but, luckily for Mary, Lily had been able to immobilize it before she got more than a foot off the ground. Professor Kettleburn had been grateful when Lily later returned it to him.

"That was YOU?" yelled a voice from above.

There was a blur of dirty blonde hair and black robes as Mary slid down the slide and landed in front of them. She gracefully stood up and brushed herself off before sending an angry look to Sirius.

Sirius, who was used to Mary sending him dirty looks, beamed at her. "Ah! Well isn't it my favorite hotheaded Gryffindor!"

"I only save my hotheadedness for a select few, Black," she said, narrowing her eyes. "I should have known that you were the one who put the pixie in bag. How did you even get one?"

"First of all, it was a Cornish Pixie, and I nicked it from Care of Magical Creature, of course," shrugged Sirius, still grinning.

Mary stared at him. "You're unbelievable." She turned to look at Remus, James, and Peter, her face softened considerably, and she smiled. "Hello, boys. Did you need something?"

Remus smirked while trying not to laugh. Mary was always a very pleasant person to be around but for as long as he could remember she and Sirius had always bickered. Something about him always set her off but she was perfectly friendly to everyone else.

"James wanted to speak to Lily," said Peter.

Mary frowned slightly. "Sorry to disappoint. Lily isn't taking any visitors at the moment," she paused. "Actually, she just isn't taking visits from you guys."

"And Hermione?" asked Remus.

Mary sent him a curious look that made him feel slightly uncomfortable but he didn't know why. "Neither is Hermione," she said slowly and Remus felt his hopes diminish.

"Why are you talking to us then?" asked James sounding genuinely curious.

"Because," said Mary crossing her arms, "I wanted to see which boy had tried to get into the girls' dormitories. And, to be honest, I'm not angry at you. I think Snape got what was coming to him after what he called Lily and Hermione. But don't tell them I said that," she added as an afterthought.

"How long do they plan on being angry?" asked James.

"Oh they aren't angry anymore," said Mary with a cheery smile. "They're just punishing you."

James gawked at her. "Well that's immature of them!" he exclaimed.

"More immature than attacking Snape 'just because'?" countered Mary, raising her eyebrow.

James pursed his lips. "Touché."

"I thought you said he got what was coming to him!" argued Sirius.

"I said he had it coming because of what he called Lily and Hermione," said Mary smoothly. "But before that he was just minding his own business like you guys should have been." Sirius tried to protest but Mary held up her hand, cutting him off. "But after what he said I surely don't sympathize with him."

"When do you think Hermione and Lily will stop ignoring us?" asked Remus hoping it would be soon.

"They're just doing it until they think you've learnt your lesson. I doubt it will go on much longer but you never know. They were both pretty upset with what happened," said Mary with a soft, almost sympathetic, smile to Remus.

"Right…" said James. Remus noticed that he was rubbing his backside again, probably more out of nervousness than from his tumble down the slide.

Mary looked between the four of them. "Well, this has been a fun chat but I think I'll go back to my friends now. See ya."

She turned and trotted back up the spiral staircase, which had returned to its usual form, and was out of sight.

James turned on Sirius. "Why didn't you tell me about the stairs after it happened to you?" he demanded.

"Well, I could have warned you and prevented it from happening to you… But this was funnier," grinned Sirius.

Remus felt glum as the boys made their way back to the table in the common room and sat down. He wasn't reassured by what Mary had said. The girls were ignoring them purposely to punish them and it worked. He definitely felt punished.

Even though Mary said Hermione and Lily weren't angry anymore he didn't entirely believe her. Maybe Mary had meant that they weren't as angry as they had been… There was no way they had gotten over it so quickly. They had been so hurt by what happened by the lake. It would definitely take them a while to get over it. Even if they did forgive them it wouldn't go back to how it had been before the scene at the lake. The look on Lily's face when she had started back to the castle was devastating.

He also couldn't get the look Hermione had given him out of his head. She had looked so betrayed and it was entirely his fault. When Snape had called her a mudblood she hadn't even been phased. Instead, she said she had been used to being called it which had given him and the rest of them quite a shock. Was that another reason she had transferred to Hogwarts?

What had really upset her had been him. She had been more upset by being let down by him than being called that awful awful word. And that was what he was having trouble dealing with.

His headache seemed to be getting worse. He didn't even realize he had been staring angrily at the table in front of him until Sirius spoke up.

"You're being awfully mopey today, Moony," said Sirius, looking across the table at Remus.

Remus looked up, feeling rather bitter. The other three boys were looking at him oddly.

Oh how he hated being pitied.

"Full moon is in two days…" muttered Remus, looking back down at the table and trying to force a neutral expression on to his face. "And I have this blasted headache…"

It was only a half truth. Not the headache part; that was true. Yes, the full moon was in fact in two days, but that wasn't why he was feeling this way. Well, it might be, who knows. The approaching full moon usually had a negative effect on his temperament. So that, on top of being ignored by two of his friends, just worsened his mood.

Only five days had passed and he already missed Lily and Hermione. He couldn't stop thinking about the relationships he had with the two of them.

Lily was someone he had gone to for advice and comfort about things he thought the boys might laugh at. It wasn't that he didn't trust his three best friends – he trusted them with his life – it was that Lily would never make a joke about something if she thought it was serious. It was also nice to have a female perspective on things. Even though she didn't know about his lycanthropy, she had always been so kind to him over the years due to his and his mother's "illnesses" or him being sick that caused him to miss class. Lily was a rock that Remus knew he could rely on.

And even though he had only known Hermione for a little over month there was something in her that Remus was drawn to. That all of them were drawn to. He had noticed it the first night back at Hogwarts when she had locked herself out of the common room. He had admired her for telling off James the first day of classes and Remus even admired that she had stuck up for Severus. She was the type of person that was smart and knew it and wanted to make sure everyone else knew it as well. They had even started studying together. He had thought they were becoming good friends, especially after her birthday, but now he feared that he had messed everything up.

"Blimey, I nearly forgot that was coming up," said James, interrupting Remus's thoughts.

"Brilliant," grinned Sirius from across the table. "We could use the fun."

"Yes, you would find it fun…" Remus muttered darkly.

Sirius looked taken about and gave an apologetic look.

"Maybe you should go to the Hospital Wing?" suggested Peter with a nervous smile, clearly not wanting to set him off. "Madam Pomfrey could give you a Pepperup potion or something for the headache."

"Yeah… alright…" said Remus, standing up. "Yeah, I think I should. I'll see you guys later…"

He didn't actually want to go to the Hospital Wing but it was a good excuse to be by himself.

He bid his friends goodbye and left the common room for the Hospital Wing with the pain in his head getting worse with every step he took.

.:~*~*~*~*~:.

Hermione was sitting cross-legged on her bed when Mary walked back through the wooden door and into their cozy dormitory.

"Well?" asked Lily, who was lounging on her own bed, facing Hermione.

Mary crossed the room and sat on the edge of Hermione's bed and looked between the two girls.

"James set the stairs off trying to get up here to talk to you, Lils," said Mary. "He had actually gotten pretty far up before it turned into the slide. It was quite impressive, really."

Lily gave her a blank stare. "James?" she tried her best to only sound vaguely interested.

"James Potter… You know, the boy in our year that has been hung up on you since he met you on the Hogwarts Express first year? The one you've been ignoring for nearly a week now?" said Mary, raising her eyebrow.

"Oh… that James…"

Hermione swore that Lily was trying not to blush.

"We don't even know any other Jameses!" exclaimed Mary.

Lily grinned. "Not true. I went to school with a boy named James before I came to Hogwarts."

Mary rolled her eyes.

"That's beside the point. Anyway, Remus, Peter, and Sirius were with him," said Mary. Then her expression turned angry. "Did you know it was Sirius that put that Cornish Pixie in my bag in fourth year? That prat!"

Lily snickered. "I had a feeling it was him."

Mary glared at no one in particular and crossed her arms. "Well, the guys seem pretty bummed about being ignored. Especially James and Remus."

Lily frowned and shifted slightly on her bed. "I don't want Remus to be upset… I'm mostly just mad at James."

Hermione felt a pang in her chest. She didn't want Remus to be upset either but she was positive that Remus would have been able to control James and Sirius if he had really wanted to. Yet, he didn't even try. He was just as much at fault as they were, even if she wished he hadn't been.

"I miss them…" Hermione said before she realized she was speaking out loud.

Staying angry at the boys was much more difficult than Hermione thought it would be. It also didn't help that they just wouldn't leave her and Lily alone. She found it incredibly difficult to snub the Marauders when they kept trying to talk to them. Whenever she had been angry at Harry or Ron they knew that they deserved to be ignored and left her alone, but the Marauders, particularly James and Sirius, believed they had been in the right. Plus, she really did miss the company of the boys. Not including Peter of course.

As much as she loved spending time with Lily and Mary, it just wasn't the same without Remus, James, and Sirius.

"You could always go talk to them," said Mary with an encouraging smile. She seemed to have gotten over finding out about the pixie pretty quickly. "They miss you as well. And Remus seems to miss you especially…"

Hermione felt herself smile. She had gotten particularly close to Remus over the past few weeks. It just worried her that this whole fiasco might ruin their friendship.

"I want to, I really do, but what they did was awful and they need to know that they can't go around attacking people for fun. Or, in Remus's case, just stand by and let it happen," said Hermione. She crossed her arms but more so to hug herself rather than in annoyance. Perhaps a mix of both.

"I agree with Hermione," said Lily, nodding. She looked slightly solemn. "That also goes for Peter, for egging him on. James was being an arrogant arse and needed some form of consequence. He can't act that way for the rest of his life."

Mary put her hands up in front of her defensively. "You guys can do whatever you'd like, I'll support your actions but how long do you plan on doing this?"

"At least until the end of the week," said Hermione and Lily nodded in agreement. "I won't give them the satisfaction of having them think that their moping has gotten to us."

There was a pause and the three girls just looked at each other.

Then Lily flung herself backwards so she laid flat on her mattress. She sighed and stared up at the ceiling. "I should talk to Severus," she said delicately.

A loud, annoyed, groan came from Mary, who put her face in her hands. "Oh not this again…" she muttered.

For days now, Lily had been feeling slightly guilty about how things ended between her and Snape. One moment she'd feel confident that she had done the right thing and then she'd get upset and sulk around in regret. Mary was clearly getting irritated by it.

Lily sat up and looked at Mary, feigning innocence. "What?"

"You don't need him, Lily!" said Mary, trying not to sound annoyed even though she was clearly exasperated. "We've had this conversation already. Multiple times!"

"I know… but what if I made the wrong decision?" said Lily looking at Hermione and Mary desperately.

"I don't think you did," said Hermione kindly.

"But what about him? He doesn't have many friends…" said Lily with a sad frown.

"Don't worry about him," said Mary. "It's not your fault that he doesn't have many friends. That friendship was toxic and you did the right thing by ending it."

"I agree with Mary," said Hermione with a nod and Mary smiled at her.

"But now he's joined Mulciber and Avery in Potions and I can't help but worry about him..." said Lily quietly. "He didn't even deny wanting to join the Death Eaters…"

Lily had struck a cord and had brought up the conversation that they all had been avoiding. During all of the conversations the three of them had had about Snape over the past five days, they had always just focused on how bad of a friend he was. No one wanted to bring up Snape's lack of a defense when Lily had accused him and his friends of aiming to be Death Eaters.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the dormitory as Hermione looked everywhere but at Mary and Lily. Suddenly the dust buddies dancing around the floor under one of vacant beds in the dormitory became very interesting to Hermione.

Another minute of awkward silence passed before Mary bravely spoke up. "I honestly believe that him hanging around those types of people is even more reason for you not to be friends with him anymore…They're evil…"

The look on Lily's face gave Hermione the impression that she was struggling not to cry again. "I don't want Severus to turn out like them. What if he follows in their footsteps? Maybe if I stay friends with him he'll decided not to become a follower of You-Know-Who..."

Hermione involuntarily flinched. Even though Lily hadn't said his name, it was the first time someone had mentioned Voldemort since she arrived there and it was jarring. Part of Hermione had trouble processing that even twenty years in the past, Voldemort was still such an immediate threat, just as he was in her time. It was why James had been so suspicious of her when she first arrived. The first wizarding war was already happening and the fear of the name had already begun.

"You believe you can change him?" asked Mary with a hint of pity in her voice.

Lily shook her head. "I'm not sure. Do you honestly believe it could be possible to change him if I really tried?"

"I don't think so, Lily," said Hermione sadly.

She knew full well that Snape was going to become a Death Eater and join Voldemort's ranks regardless if Lily tried to stop him. Yes, he would eventually become a spy for the Order but he did end up becoming a Death Eater first. Dumbledore had told her that she wouldn't be able to change the past so there was no choice but to let this unfold the way it was supposed to.

Lily turned her green eyes towards Hermione and the pain in them was heartbreakingly evident.

"I think that if he has already made his decision then no matter how hard you try you wouldn't be able to change it. It seems like it's a path he's already chosen…" continued Hermione.

Mary hopped off of the end of Hermione's bed and walked over to Lily's and sat down next to her. She put her arm around her as Lily rested her head on Mary's shoulder.

"You can't blame yourself for this, Lils. This is all on him and there's nothing you could have done differently to change that," comforted Mary. Lily sniffed and nodded her head against Mary's shoulder. "He is not your responsibility. There are so many people that care about you who are here for you. You don't need him."

Lily took her head off of Mary's shoulder gave a weary smile. "At least I have you guys."

Mary grinned. "That you do."

.:~*~*~*~*~:.

During classes the next day, Hermione understood what had Mary meant. She hadn't noticed from the previous few days but the Marauders really must have missed them. Especially James and Remus.

James looked like kicked puppy. Hermione watched him looking longingly across the room at Lily. When he caught Hermione's eye, his face lit up and he sent her a hopeful grin. It took everything in her to look away. The next time she turned to look at him, he had his head resting on the palm of his hand and was staring wistfully towards the front of the class.

Remus was another story. He looked absolutely miserable and Hermione couldn't possibly understand why. It wasn't as if he was that great of friends with either Lily or herself. Sure, she was getting closer to him but he only knew her for a month. James was sad because he liked Lily; but what was causing Remus to look so sad?

The following day Hermione finally got an answer to her question.

It was unusually quiet when she entered Defense Against the Dark Arts that morning. Sitting in the back corner of the classroom were the Marauders but they weren't chatty or goofing around like they usually did on Fridays. There was an empty seat at their table and Hermione instantly felt awful.

She had forgotten that today would be the full moon.

Her plan had been to ignore the Marauders entirely for a week before speaking to them again. It had now been exactly a week and she wouldn't even be able to make up with Remus because he was gone. How could she have been so careless to forget about the full moon?

Now she understood why he had looked so miserable the previous day and she had probably made it worse by ignoring him. She just hoped she hadn't done enough damage to make his transformation more difficult.

Instead of going to her usual seat in the middle of the classroom with Mary and Lily, Hermione walked over to the table where the Marauders were sitting.

Sirius was the first to see her approaching and he looked visibly shocked. He gave James a nudge and he too glanced up with a mix of happiness and nervousness. Peter was also staring.

"Hello," said James cautiously as Hermione came to a stop beside him.

"Hello," said Hermione and she smiled weakly.

There was an awkward pause as the boys exchanged curious glances. Hermione cleared her throat before sitting in the empty chair on the other side of James, who raised his eyebrow in surprise.

"I'm here to take Remus's notes," she said confidently.

She held out her hand and waited for one of them to hand over Remus's notebook.

"I thought you weren't speaking to us," said Sirius sarcastically.

"Just because you're being punished doesn't mean I want Remus to fall behind," said Hermione. "Someone still has to take his notes."

"So you are punishing us," said James with a hint of humor.

"Of course I'm punishing you lot. It's not like you don't deserve it. But I have decided to begin speaking with you again," she said and Sirius grinned. She extended her arm a little more to emphasize that she still wanted the notebook.

With a grin, James went into his bag and pulled out Remus's notebook. "It was my turn," he said as he handed it to her with a smirk.

Hermione could feel the laughter building up inside of her at James's attempt to reference the previous time Remus was out from class. She tried to keep from smirking and to contain her laughter but, instead, she ended up making a rather unusual snorting noise. Her eyes widened and her hand immediately went up to her face which caused James and Sirius to burst into fits of laughter.

"What was that?" gasped Sirius through his laughter.

She could feel her face growing red as tried to hide behind her hair. It was humiliating yet, there was something hilarious about the whole situation.

"Look at her trying not to smile!" laughed Sirius.

"Don't blow it, mate. She's talking to us again, that's all that matters," grinned James.

For a moment everything felt almost back to normal; well, as normal as things felt in 1976. But Hermione couldn't entirely forgive them for their behavior. Not quite yet.

"I'm not going to apologize for ignoring you," said Hermione. She pushed her bushy hair out of her face and gave them an annoyed smile.

"I honestly didn't expect you to," said James as he pulled his notebook out of his bag with a smirk. "So does this mean Evans will be talking to us again?"

He had a hopeful look on his face.

"That's up to her," said Hermione. "Don't think that everything will go immediately back to how it was. We're still upset with you guys."

James's fall fell slightly and he nodded his head. "Right…"

There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment and Hermione took out her own supplies and looked over at the boys. "Is Remus's mother sick again?" she asked innocently, trying not to sound suspicious.

There was the slightest of hesitations before James spoke. "No, he's actually sick today."

"Sick enough where Madam Pomfrey doesn't want anyone visiting him," added Sirius quickly.

"Oh that's terrible… He wasn't looking too well yesterday," said Hermione with a small nod.

Across the room, Hermione saw Mary and Lily sitting together. Lily wasn't looking towards the Marauders but Mary caught Hermione's eye and grinned, giving her a thumbs up.

At that moment, the short Professor Warbeck walked into the classroom and Mary quickly looked away, hiding her grin.

Class went by quickly and throughout the rest of the day Hermione found herself falling back into rhythm with the Marauders. Yet, it felt odd without Remus.

Without him, the balance between the Marauders seemed off. In a way, Hermione wished he really were sick. That way, she could at least visit him in the Hospital Wing so she could talk to someone that didn't purposely try to make her lose her appetite.

During dinner, James and Sirius were far fouler than if Remus were around to tell them to stop. There was nothing to do but just sit and endure it.

Sirius had just finished a rather rude joke that started off something like "A banshee, an ogre, and a witch walk into a pub…"

It had had such a grotesque ending that Peter quite literally started to choke on his lamb chops, turning a pinkish purplish color.

"Anapneo!" said Hermione, pointing her wand at Peter and his airway cleared at once.

Peter, who was still pink in the face, was looked at her gratefully as Hermione glared at the grinning Sirius.

"That was foul, Sirius!" said Hermione, appalled. "Now I know what Mary meant when she said she refuses to eat with you because she'd lose her appetite."

Sirius grinned at her and winked. "You know you missed this, Hermione."

Hermione pursed her lips playfully. "I feel as though we may have different definitions of 'missed', Sirius."

Sirius's grin widened.

"That wasn't even one of his better jokes," grinned James as he helped himself to a slice of pie.

"There's more?" sighed Hermione wearily.

"Do you want to hear the one about the one legged woman who had a rather dirty fetish for Quidditch?" asked Sirius with a smirk.

"No!" said Hermione and Peter together. Well Peter, who was still recovering from choking, more so wheezed his response.

"Your loss," shrugged Sirius who turned towards James.

James and Sirius began chatting as they ate their dessert and Hermione pushed her food away. She had lost her appetite after watching Peter choke.

Peter also looked rather putout and Hermione heard him mutter under his breath something along the lines of "I miss Remus…"

And for the first time in her life, Hermione agreed with Peter Pettigrew.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I rewrote it about three times, haha.

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