Disclaimer: I own nothing, and absolutely nothing. I think the nargles are behind it.

Thank you to my reviewers! You're the best! Thank you to SincerelyYourSecret, TS17isme, TsukiyoTenshi, gizzelleex3, angel897, arabellagrace, hummingpetal, casper22, BrightestWitchOfHerAge16, BBauzzie, Mrs. Theodore Nott, Polyjuice Princess, and the multiple guests. You're the ones who keep me going! xxx

Heey guys! Sorry for the long wait and everything, but this is my longest chapter, or so I believe and it was a pain writing it all. But still, I love this fic and I'm pretty sure I'll continue writing it for a long time.

At least it's Christmas, right? I hope you enjoy this chapter! Worked on it for a looong time.

Enjoy!

"She left me roses by the stairs, surprises let me know she cares." ~Blink-182

CHAPTER 11

It was Regulus.

"Thank you." She mouthed to him, as he awkwardly shuffled as a nod. They were pressed up against each other in very close proximities, seeing that they were standing behind a statue and there was practically no leg space or body space. Any passerby would've thought that they were a couple… If they saw them – since they were in the shadows, it was impossible to tell that it was a person, moreover two people.

Hermione noticed that Regulus was actually as fit as Sirius was. (She would know.. ahem) He had the same build, and there were just a couple of features, which differentiated the two brothers. Even then, secretly, Hermione preferred to think of Regulus as a brother figure, and sometimes of Sirius as something more...

It seemed like they stood that way for a half an hour before Peeves cackled and flew again. Exhaling deeply, Regulus backed out from behind the corner and Hermione after him.

"What were you doing out so late at night?" He asked suddenly, and Hermione couldn't help but roll her eyes at his obnoxiousness and lack of explanation. The most awkward way to start a conversation. The younger Black needed to learn how to express himself. That was his problem, or so Hermione guessed.

"Oh, Monsieur Black, we haven't even gone out for a butterbeer, alas, must we go so fast?" She batted her eyes as fast as she could and retrieved with a wink at the stunned Black. "See you, Reggie. By the way," she added in, putting her hands on her hips. "This is my hallway. You," she pointed at him, "should be in the dungeons." She smirked and proudly walked the other way.

"Watch the tape." He coughed, as Hermione felt like dying. The tape. The tape that she ended up at such close proximities with Regulus, was still there in the doorway, as Peeves was most likely astonished by his magnificent plan, and couldn't wait to catch some type of fly in his sticky net.

"Right." She muttered, strutting past him, trying walk with the most royal and regal aura she could, not showing anything that had happened prior to that.

Finally, reaching the seventh floor she jogged to the doorway. Her hands were tingling with excitement, and she couldn't wait to finally be one with her friends. Of course, she didn't mind everyone else, but these were the girls who understood her story and knew where she actually came from. They would all remain close forever.

Walking down the hall felt like complete déjà vu. It felt like one of those evenings they were skipping over to practice in the D.A. Club with Harry and the others. Ah, why, oh why? Hogwarts didn't seem to change a slight bit, only tiny fragments here and there – a certain tapestry, the cleanliness of the holders and torches, dimly glimmering and casting taunting shadows on the dark walls.

Hermione could get over to the place with her eyes closed, and knew that she must've known Hogwarts better than any of the Marauders. That was the catch – because she couldn't. No one could know the home of the legendary Marauders than the Marauders themselves, but those girls had a perfect excuse.

Feeling slightly queasy in the stomach from the harsh remembrances of the blood quills, and overall Umbridge, Hermione trudged over to the place where she was supposed to meet Luna and Ginny. But they weren't there. Hermione concentrated on the wall, trying to figure out what it was, because something was definitely out of place, and she could feel it.

Sniffing slightly, she pulled out the note. We'll be hidden too. That was magnificent. Now she had to play hide-and-seek with two of her friends, and knowing Luna they were well hidden and were most likely using one of the founders' tricks on her. Hermione paced back and forth, peeking into corners, using spells all around her, just in case they cast the 'notice-me-not' spell, and grunted, slumping on the floor.

She felt like stretching out and yawned blissfully, shutting her eyes. Sleep didn't come well to her at times, especially after dreams, so it was a nice feeling to lie down and close your eyes for a moment. A muffled giggled was heard. Hermione's eyes snapped open and she saw Ginny and Luna above her.

No. Literally.

They were stuck to the ceiling, with their mouths covered with their hands and their hair hanging down like fancy blond and red chandeliers. Of course. Hermione snorted at the two of them and rolled her eyes, but continued lying on the floor, because it did seem quite comfortable.

"'Ello, Mione." Ginny smirked from the ceiling and waved at the brunette, who smiled back. "How are you faring down there on firm ground."

"Remarkably comfortable." Hermione suggested thoughtfully, grinning up at her friends. "What about you two bonny birds up there?" she asked in a low seductive voice. "Got your feel planted firmly to the floor?—er ceiling?" she laughed, as Luna raised her eyebrows in consideration.

"Not necessarily our feet. I do believe that it is more like our butts glued to the ceiling." Ginny muttered, scratching her shoulder. "I can't believe I actually gave into doing this. Oh what a terrible pain it shall be to get dethatched and fall face-first on the floor." She crossed her arms, and tried to swiped hair out of the way, which didn't end up working, because the gravitational tug pulled it back to its original position.

"Would you like my chivalrous aid, my dearest lady?" Hermione laughed, pulling out her wand, as Ginny started shaking her head, but it was hard to see from the ceiling. "By the way, whose idea was this again?"

"Mine." Luna said airily, with a simply smile on her face. She seemed to be enjoying her life with her whole heart at the moment, as she stuck out both arms and pretended to fly. "This is quite intriguing. I would like to grow wings some day through genetic mutation. That would be very peculiar." She continued with the same smile. "Now I understand why nargles hide in the ceiling – you can see everything!" she exclaimed, as Hermione muttered the counter-curse.

Ginny screamed and fussed over, thrashing in the air like a drowning woman and fell flat on the floor onto her face. Luna on the other hand was ready, and with a smooth swish of her wand, landed perfectly on her feet, grinning to Ginny.

"Ow..." she muttered, clumsily pulling herself across the floor. When she glared up, it looked like her perfect small nose was broken, or bruised, and she glared at Hermione. The redhead's face was a tomato red, as she screeched and threw herself towards Hermione's ankle, trying to grab for it, but didn't succeed, as the other girl quickly pulled out of reach.

"Would you like me to fix it for you? Your nose." Luna asked, cocking her head to the side, as Hermione stifled guffaws, and scrambled to her feet, before the redhead could yank her hair.

"No thank you, Luna." Ginny grit her teeth, chasing Hermione around, who was giddily jumping from side to side, dodging the angry girl, but they all knew that Luna would be more than happy to examine a nearby tapestry or something of the sort, but at that moment, surprisingly, she was concentrated on Ginny's nose.

"Episkey." She flicked her hand simply at Ginny, who was definitely not expecting the pain going through her nose. "I have practiced on noses now. Before I used to try only toes, but after Harry's situation, more Gryffindors thought it would be nice to break their noses, so I had plenty of practice. Of course, a couple of the times weren't successful..." she trailed off, as Hermione calmed herself down and stopped laughing.

"What was that for, Luna?" Ginny groaned from the floor, hand on her nose, which was still bleeding, and Luna shrugged. "Oi! Mione, stop bloody laughing! It's not funny!"

"Bloody!" Hermione choked through laughs, and Ginny glared at her once again.

"You two! Stop it this instant!" Luna glared at them, and both of them jumped up in front of her like toy soldiers. "We need to get this done, and nothing will work with you two running around all the time. By the way, Filch will be coming down this hall at any moment, so we better get going." She flashed them a warning look with her blue eyes, and went up to the door, pacing three times.

Both Ginny and Hermione's lips twitched as they looked at each other, which seemed like a pretty hilarious scene – a tamed red faced brunette, hair all over the place, and a redhead with a bloody nose, the blood dripping all down her front. Hermione waved her want, so everything was out of her clothes and Ginny gave her a small smile.

A slight nostalgic rustling sounded out, which reminded the girls on the crisp crackle of dry leaves on a foggy autumn morning. It made each of the girls homesick. But they were at home. Walking into doors, Hermione inhaled a familiar smell of fresh green grass, flowers, the spray of the sea... Wait... There was something vaguely familiar about this place. It looked a bit like Bill and Fleur's cottage, and seemed like it too.

Luna led them out into the field and they sat down, ready for their discussion.

"So we'll be holding probably meetings once a month, or even more so, when we need to talk to each other urgently in privacy without anyone out of the Marauders, staff or students finding out. Got it?" Luna asked quietly, as the other girls nodded. Ginny was plucking the pale petals of a daisy and Hermione was making a crown out of forest flowers.

"What is this place?" Hermione asked suddenly, trying to wedge out of her mind, where she saw the place before.

"I came here with my dad when I was little. It's was on the far east coast, but I don't quite remember what it's called... Blossom Valley, I think." she muttered, as Hermione waved the question off.

It was probably from the time after the end of the war, when she, Harry and Ron travelled all over England, spreading the news of the Light to many witches and wizards, still living in terror and under the impression that the Dark was still winning. They had visited many places, were only back in a month, a couple weeks before Hermione, Ginny and Luna got sent back in time.

"Every time we get to choose a different place, right?" Ginny asked, plopping down in the grass, stretching out in the sun, as Luna nodded. "By the way, Hermione, I forgot to ask you, what happened during your sorting? You seemed pretty nauseous and out of your normal being. Did the hat say something?"

"The hat was very pleasant to me." Luna indicated, nodding cheerfully, as Hermione snorted.

"No, my parents interrupted. While I was getting sorted, the hat was continuing its lecture about how I can fit into all the houses, blah, blah, blah, and then mum and dad cut in and started pestering it about what house I'm getting into." Hermione shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing too important, or else I would've told you two."

"You looked like you ate too much treacle tart and were trying not to be disgusted, and to be happy at the same time, and overall you were trying to conceal your emotions. It was very confusing, even to me. Good ol' Dumbly even seemed a little woozy and uncertain. I think he was planning to ask Firenze about the star cycles, because maybe you are meteo-dependant."

Hermione snorted at this, and so did the other girls. "Anything else knew that we don't know about? Ginny, Luna?"

There was a small silence and then Ginny spoke up all of the sudden. "I actually do have a question." Thoughtful was not usually the tone Ginny spoke in – she was spontaneous and loud, but at this moment, Hermione knew she was trying to remember something. "I have memories now, and they're completely random. They're like me falling off a tree into a puddle of jelly, actually made by you two, skating on a lake and falling through the ice, also caused by the two of you and something to do with you cracking my small broomstick in half." She muttered as Hermione raised her eyebrows knowingly.

"The founders sent us memories of our 'past selves' in this life." Hermione simplified for Ginny, who still looked confused.

"But why?"

"So that if someone asks us we can come up with a sneaky or snarky answer, whichever you prefer, with references to your 'old' memories." Luna smiled. "So that you don't have to glare at the person for them to leave you alone again." She added, with a hint of mischief in her eye.

Ginny seemed both startled and impressed at the same time, but in the end stuck out her lip and nodded in appreciation. The time passed on as the girls smiled and relaxed, remembering all the fun times they had before, and they created the new times.

"So what do you guys think about the Slytherins?" Hermione asked all of the sudden, remembering Luna's master plan of dragging Severus over to the good side. "Any good or bad ones?"

"Well, putting aside that they probably wanted to sexually harass me earlier this week," Ginny started thoughtfully, as Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes, "I still think that they're a bunch of slimy gits and can't be thrown over to the Light. Not most of them at least. End of story. That's all." She threw another flower away, and Hermione could almost see disappointment in Luna's eyes.

Suddenly, Luna's face darkened and big sad shadow was cast over it. "When I started sitting with Severus in the beginning, he warmed up to me a slight bit. You know how he is – cold and shy..."

"Arrogant and cruel, heartless, yeah we know all of that already." Ginny waved her off with such a sour expression on her face, she made Hermione snort out and topple backwards on the soft green grass, but since Luna was in charge of the room, the room changed with her.

At first it was all sunny and bright, but then suddenly heavy grey clouds pulled over, weighing the earth down by a thousand tons. Luna's eyes were a matching shade of grey. The air temperature dropped by what seemed immediately ten degrees, and a heavy wind started to blow. Hermione coughed and pulled herself up, giving Ginny an uneasy look as Luna stared at them.

"Er—sorry." Ginny muttered, as Luna pursed her lips and continued in a stony tone, but something about her seemed to soften up and the air got warmer and mood lightened up.

"When I was first with Severus, he was talking to me like a normal person. Cold and scary, arrogant, selfish. And he once noticed my radish earrings, just as anyone would notice, but he asked why they were black, so I came up with an answer." She shrugged, but her eyes widened as the story started to approach its climax. "But then, the next day, I could swear the radishes were redder when I was around him. Until the incident happened." She sniffled, falling back on her elbows and eyeing the two girls.

Hermione looked around as a unnecessary precaution, as it was already more of an automatic reaction for her, whenever she was angry or scared, or even both. Her eyes widened in realization and couldn't help but be mad at Sirius and James for being such arrogant gits and ruining their chances and hopes of actually pulling Snape over to the light.

"Now he barely talks to me, avoids me at all costs and the radishes are once again coal coloured and black. I was that close." She sniffled angrily, as a heavy silence fell upon the girls. The air was thick, clearly from all the tension in the group and there was an uneasy surrounding feeling in the air, making it difficult to breathe. The girls took gulps of air at a time and continued sitting around and staring.

The thick, moist air drew out sweat drops on the girls' faces as they unhurriedly slid down their faces and formed on their arms. Had the Room of Requirement always been like this? Working off of the mood of the leader of the group? That was the strange part of it.

"Lily and James aren't getting along too well." Ginny put in awkwardly, trying to diffuse the tension, which actually worked a slight bit, as the focus came off the Slytherins back to the star-crossed Gryffindors.

"Are they supposed to be arguing like this all the time?" Hermione asked curiously, as Luna shrugged and shuddered.

"I wonder how many arguments they will get into when they get married." She laughed timidly, as Ginny raised one eyebrow.

"If they get married, that alone."

"What are you talking about Gin?" Hermione incredulously raised an eyebrow, as Ginny shifted slightly uncomfortable.

"Well, you said that everything's changing now that we're in a different time. So in this version of time, they might not get married at all." There was an icebreaking silence. "What if they won't have Harry? I mean, sure, we might save a lot of people and such, but have you even seen her warming up to him?" she asked them, as the girls continued staring at each other.

"So you're saying that they might not get together..." Hermione said slowly, letting all the words sinking until realization finally struck.

"Did Sirius and Remus ever talk about how James and Lily got together?" Luna asked firmly, looking at the other girls.

"They only usually talked to Harry and Hermione." Ginny put in, as the attention was directed to Hermione.

"I didn't usually—I, um..." Hermione thought hard and looked to the sky, which was mulling in to a somber blue, but that was not helping either. "I didn't really talk to Sirius too much about Lily and James. To Remus, we only talked about school – Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and everything else of that topic." She muttered slightly, a bit embarrassed and ashamed that she didn't even bother asking any of the Marauders about Harry's parents.

"So that's what we have to do then." Ginny stated firmly and confidently. "We need to get James and Lily together, but in a way in which James, Sirius and Remus don't realize what we're doing."

"You're quite right." Hermione stroked her chin, as Luna snorted.

"Imagine, coming up to Remus and Sirius, and asking them how to get Lily and James together. 'Why do you ask?' 'Oh, I dunno, we're from the future, our best friend is their child and we just want him to get born. By the way Remus, did I mention that bowties compliment your dreamy amber eyes?'" She giggled, as the other girls joined in howling and having a great time.

They threw sand at each other, chased each other around, played in the grass and did everything typical five-year-olds would do. But that was the age they wanted to be in at that moment. Right when Hermione was about to splash Luna, she was struck with a major headache.

Sitting down on the sand, she rubbed her temples, trying to understand what happened. Her vision went slightly blurry and shapes looked fussy. There were four Luna's running towards her in slow motion.

"What is wrong with her?" She heard a washed out voice of Ginny calling to Luna as they ran and started shaking Hermione by the shoulders.

Her mother or father was getting angry. She knew. Probably mum.

"Intersaepio Salus." She muttered, using the last bit of her energy.

"Hermione! What did you think you were doing?" Immedately, Hemrione's vision got better and she didn't feel woozy anymore, and Hermione raised her arms to stop Ginny and Luna.

"Sorry, mum, I didn't realize it put the spell on..." she muttered slightly, as the voice of her mother was killing her brain.

"What happened to you? You could've gotten killed! What were you thinking?" Hermione winced at the powerful voice in her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it won't really happen again."

"I am very disappointed in you." A sniffle was heard. "Don't do that again. Also, we forgot one small detail for you at school. You'll really have to change it, or else your plan is going down."

"What is it, mum?" Hermione asked, slightly tugged over by the curiosity and urge in her mother's voice.

"The Marauder's Map. It tells only the truth, and cannot be confounded by your changed names, which is very ironic. But it's only logic because it can only tell the truth. You need to sneak into those boys' rooms and change your names on the map." Hermione groaned at this.

"You're kidding me?" She asked.

"I wish. Unfortunately, I am not, and you have to do it as soon as you can. Possibly this weekend?"

"Sure."

"Alright, don't forget to study, you have an Arithmancy quiz tomorrow."

"Wow mum," Hermione grinned and made a 'tsk'-ing noise. "Spoiling and warning me? That is considered cheating, you know." She smirked, and heard an irritated groan from her mother.

"Just study. By the way, who told you of the spell?"

"Who else could've told me?"

"I am going to kill him."

"Don't mum, I still want a father who knows and remembers me."

And with that, her mother left her mind.

"What happened?" Luna exclaimed, leaning next to Hermione who laughed slightly at their friends' worry.

"For a moment you just fell on the floor, clutching your head and we thought you were going to faint or something. And you do know, if you died in the Room of Requirement, we would die with you and no one would ever find out about it?" She raised an eyebrow, making Hermione chuckle.

"What a nice bedtime story for the kids." Luna sighed, looking up to the sky, eyes morphing dreamily.

Ginny and Hermione stared at each other, and a mischievous twinkle in their eyes made them react the same way at the same time.

"Luna!" they both gasped incredulously, clutching their chests, and touching Luna's robe-covered stomach. "Are you not telling us something." Luna laughed and rolled her eyes at her two friends, linking arms with them.

They started walking towards the door to return to the Common Room and to go to bed, hopefully without anyone noticing that they were wet and gone for quite a while. "So," Luna continued. "What happened to you?"

"I have something important to tell you. It's about something that we will have to do very soon. And it's regarding the Marauders." Hermione sighed somberly.

"How soon are you talking about?" Ginny asked, looking into Hermione's eyes.

"I'd say tomorrow evening?"

And with that, Hermione told her two friends everything that her dearest mother had told her, and the three of them decided to go the next night.

~OoOoO~

The very next day, as her mother had unfairly spoiled, Hermione did in fact have an Arithmacy quiz, just to test everyone's overall knowledge; therefore, deciding the speed of the lessons, amount of homework and everything else that depended off of it.

Everyone was very excited for that day, even thought it was the second day of school, but everyone wanted to see the mysterious new teacher – Professor Daslor. He was a stunning, charming man, who seemed like a Sirius Black of his own age. Girls threw themselves at him, but he, as any respectable man would do, avoided any affections with the strange teenage girls. Boys envied him, and teachers studied him curiously.

Hermione noticed Luna's grim face, as she stopped sitting with Severus at breakfast, and probably decided to give it a try another time. But at that moment, all the whispers were going off about the Defense class. The students, who took N.E.W.T. level classes had a double D.A.D.A. with the Slytherins. Since there were so many students willing to participate in the war, and needed Defense, there were two classes made for it.

Hermione, who as the girls decided would stick closely to Lily for the time being, sat beside her, discussing school subjects, family, friends and anything else true friends could ever discuss. Ginny and Luna sat down behind them.

The four of them sat, watching the front of the classroom, not even understanding why. They waited for the class to start, for they were fifteen minutes early. With only five minutes left, most of the crowd started falling in – Snape, Avery, Nott, Mulicibar and so many others, who Hermione knew had become Death Eaters in the future.

Finally with only two minutes left, the four Marauders strutted in the class. Hermione turned away, looking outside the window, out which she had a perfect view, but the stained translucent glass didn't let her see much. She held her breath, because she felt someone watching her and sit down a couple meters away from her: beside her.

She inhaled deeply and slowly turned to lock her eyes with silvery-grey ones, staring at her. She tried to move, but she was lost inside them, and she felt safe. Hermione felt a quill poking her arm, and thankfully broke off their gaze.

Just then, the doors to the office, where the teachers usually had their office, which Hermione remembered as the torture zone used by Dolores Umbridge, opened and their new Defense teacher walked in: Professor Daslor, who seemed to charm girls with his looks wherever he went, that obviously excluded Hermione, Luna, Lily, Alice and sometimes Ginny.

"Good morning, class. My name is Professor Daslor and I am your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I do apologize for my absence the past two weeks. I had some urgent business I had to get to." His smile disappeared, turning into a frown, but his face quickly morphed again. "Now, I'm already thinking about this myself, and please, understand that I am also truly awaiting how I'm going to get extracted from Hogwarts, killed, maimed or some other way." He smiled lightly, exposing his sparkling white teeth, which made the Slytherin girls giggle, and the Gryffindor girls roll their eyes.

Hermione turned to the Marauders who were laughing and smirking, whispering something, and handing over money, which meant they were probably making bets of how the Defense teacher is going to leave the school.

"This year, in your N.E.W.T. classes, you will be learning various spells, charms and curses, which you will need to use in the future. I understand many of you are taking this class for your future careers, which may as well include an Auror or something on the basis. You will be dueling each other, competing for house points according to the length of your duel, level of spells, accuracy, and other components. You may put your books away."

At this, exciting chatter broke out – no one liked doing anything by the books, except for a few special snowflakes, so everyone enthusiastically stuffed their books away. Daslor walked up to the front of the class, and stood gazing everyone over. There was something strange about him, but Hermione couldn't completely point it out. There was definitely something there – she would have to pull a couple of tabs to find out exactly what. But nothing was ever okay with their Defense teachers.

"Today will be a practice duel – you will split up and duel each other until you have disarmed and have whole control of their wands." There was a happy tension in the room, which exerted excitement and anticipation. "You may split up."

Of course, every Gryffindor paired up with a Slytherin: Nott, Avery, Snape, Bulstrode, Parkinston and Flint. Hermione chided herself, but still believed that Peter was worthy of Slytherin, but trusted herself to change him over the year. Nevertheless, they all split up and pushed themselves into dueling position.

Everyone dispersed, but Hermione saw who everyone paired up with. A beefy looking Slytherin girl with gruesome crooked yellow teeth approached her, and Hermione recognized her in an instant: this was the mother of the girl whose cat's hair she used for the polyjuice potion in second year.

"Come along, White." Violetta Bulstrode sneered to Hermione, who shot her an amused look. "Not scared are yeh?" she snarled in a Scottish accent.

"Of what, your teeth?" Hermione asked in a sickly-sweet voice, as Violetta's eyes narrowed and she muttered a cuss under her breath.

On the other side of the room, Hermione saw Ginny partner up with Avery, probably very bloodthirstily waiting for some revenge. It wasn't typically like Ginny to be calm, or sometimes swoony. Well, she was in some cases, but mostly, she was strong, independent and occasionally slightly fierce when someone ticked her off. It's no wonder people said things such as 'her hair's as red as her temper'.

Lily paired up with a hissing pug-like mother version of Pansy Parkinson, who was snarling at the redhead and throwing dirty looks every two seconds over her shoulder, but Lily had the will power to not react and save everything for the duel.

Knowing Sirius and his sneaky and sly ways around, Hermione couldn't help but snort at the fact that he had paired up with a quivering Peter, who seemed to be much scared than he probably ever was. Hermione had seen that Sirius was a great dueler, but more than that she had heard that he had taken it as a hobby in earlier years and was quite fantastic for his age.

On the other side of the room, Remus paired up with Nott and James paired up with the Slytherin captain, Flint, who it seemed like was also in seventh year.

Luna was avoiding Snape – Hermione could see that. The crazy blond decided to leave the Slytherin alone until he could face her personally, but the time was ripe at that moment, unfortunately for her.

"Now then, since we are going to start our duels, I would like to ask if anyone wants to go first." Their green eyed professor asked, a happy twinkle in his eye dancing, meeting eyes with a person from each pair as no one volunteered. "Nobody?" He snorted, crossing his arms in an amused fashion, as if he was hiding something from them.

"We'll go first, Professor." Luna said suddenly, as all eyes turned to her, but she was unnerved. She stood there twirling her wand in her fingers, obviously ignoring all the attention and didn't even look at the professor when she addressed him. Snape sneered at her confidence, completely sure that he was going to crush her.

A cold air was felt from Snape, even in his teen years. Hermione wondered, staring at him intently. It was probably after he got bullied by Sirius and James he got such a big attitude with a stash of arrogance and pride.

Professor Daslor gave out a light chuckle. "Now, whoever wins this duel gets a freebee and automatically progresses into the semi-finals." He grinned, as silence rippled through the classroom, and Sirius' hand flew into the air.

"You know, Professor? I can volunteer to go for Luna and Snivelly here..." He suggested slyly, as Daslor snorted once again.

"You missed your chance, Mr. Black. I asked a couple of times and no one volunteered." He grinned mischievously, as Luna and Snape got into dueling position. "Now just one more reminder. No dark curses allowed, to finish the duel, you must disarm your opponent."

Luna stood on one side of the room with full-on concentration, and stared at Snape, as they bowed to each other.

"Come on, Luna!" Hermione cheered along with everyone else.

"You can do it!"

"Kick Snivelly's greasy arse!" James and Sirius whooped out the unnecessary comment, but no one reacted, although Snape's wand hand twitched in their direction.

"Stupefy!" the blond tested her opponent, as Snape easily dodged it, and they paced in a circle, wands at the ready. Everyone watched with interest for their first opponents to duel.

"Rictusempra." Snape said quietly, but dangerously under his breath, but Luna was just playing with him. She easily swiped the spell away with a graceful swish of her wand. Unexpectantly, right after that, he exclaimed, "Levicorpus!" but Luna dodged that too.

Three more stupefy's were sent in Luna's direction, but she swished her wand again, and they all deflected. This was too easy for her – after being a professional fighter, she was too used to fighting with full grown death eaters and was just taking her time with Snape.

Right when Snape opened his mouth, no doubt to say one of his Dark Curses, Luna twitched up and her dazedness was gone. Her eyes were burning with excitement and adrenaline. "Flipendo!" she cried, as Snape yelled "Stupefy!" at the same was hit by the bluish-white light and flew backwards into the air and into a bookshelf, and Luna stumbled slightly back, caught off guard. Cheers erupted from the crowd, as well as some unenthusiastic boos from the Slytherins.

Luna smiled giddily, and turned around, but she knew that it was coming. She heard a mumble with her extremely awesome war-like instincts and knew what spell was coming for her. Right at the last moment, she rolled away on the floor, and Snape shrieked. "Sectumsempra!" but once again, Luna was on guard and rolled to the side.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Luna's antics, and it seemed like Professor Daslor was interested in what the girl was planning to do next. Luna seemed to get more bored, so she decided to finish up with the potion's master.

"Stupefy!" she yelled, as Snape stumbled out of the way, but didn't succeed and was sent back. Cursing, he started to get up, but noticed that he couldn't... Because vines, growing from the ground were entangling him. Luna grinned at this sight and twirled her wand in her wand, as Snape attempted to escape, but with no luck.

"Expelliarmus!" he moaned, but his wand was moved at the last moment, as his spell was aimed for a fellow Slytherin. Luna looked curiously at Professor Daslor, who simply nodded to her. Her eyes grew cold and icy with revenge, and oh, what was she planning for the slimy Slytherin?

"Glacius!" She yelled immediately, as Snape's eyes widened with fear, and he turned into a pretty solid ice cube. Without even waiting for time to pass, Luna cried out "Reducto!" and blasted the ice cube into pieces, leaving a shivering Snape sitting there, and she finished with a simple airy "Expelliarmus."

Luna snatched Severus' wand out of the air and held it up triumphantly, as everyone cheered, and even the Slytherins couldn't help but clap a small bit. They definitely didn't want to mess with that girl.

"Good job, Ms. Thorn." Professor Daslor smiled at her, with an impressed look on his face. "I did indeed like your ah, how do we call this, touché finale." Luna beamed at him and headed back to an empty chair, and sat beside Hermione, who gave her an impressed look.

"You showed that Slytherin who's the boss here." Hermione grinned and high-fived her friend, as Ginny rolled her eyes at 'muggle antics'.

"Good job, Luna! You gave him hell! That's bloody brilliant!" James whispered eagerly, only earning a proud nod from Luna and a shove from an angry Lily, as he started to coo all over her, and everyone around them simply rolled their eyes.

"Next!" Daslor exclaimed, looking on the list he made. "We have... Ah... Why not? Ginny and Maximus." The two of them strutted up to the center of the room, but the duel was quick. Avery cast only one spell before Ginny cast her famous Bat Bogey hex on him and disarmed him right away. So, it was not too much of a show as Luna's was – nothing interesting.

After were Lily and Parkinson Sr., who had a timid duel, not too long and not too short, but not too interesting either, and Lily ended up winning that one after turning the Slytherin's shoes into two fat mice. After the continuous shrieking and yelping, as the mice nibbled at her feet, Lily disarmed her and transfigured the mice back into shoes. Several chuckles were heard from the classroom and Daslor even asked for the incantation for, as he stated, future purposes.

"Naughty, naughty..." Sirius tsk-ed sneakily, eyeing their professor, and the grey eyed boy transfigured a stack of books into mice. Lily groaned and banged her head against the wall, for the boys were most certainly not planning to forget that spell.

Turns went by with Remus facing Nott, which was more or less a quick fight with Remus winning in the end, Sirius and Peter followed, as Sirius lazily disarmed Peter after a few jinxes flying here and then. But then, a huge Quidditch babble followed as the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain faced the Slytherin Quidditch Captain.

"Come on, slimy, slippery, Slytherin, flippy, floppy Flint. What's got your knickers in a knot? Not you, Nott!" James roared over the crowd, and by this point everyone was standing, waiting for the faceoff, but Hermione had to admit that the Slytherins were either feigning or were actually really bad at dueling, because from that moment on, every Slytherin had lost their duels against the Gryffindors.

"Don't diss me, Potter. You can barely keep your own head on your broom from your arrogance." Flint sneered, showing off his yellowy teeth, which made Hermione squint from disturbance.

"I second that!" Someone in the crowd yelled, most likely a Slytherin, something on the basis of Avery or Nott.

"I resent that!" James cried dramatically, doing an extravagant bow, and shooting a jinx at the Slytherin, who doggedly swiped his wand, and barely held it in place. "I am much better than you, Flint, and you know it. You just hate to admit it to yourself, but deep inside, we all know what lies." He winked mischievously, as the Slytherin roared in agony, extravagantly waving his wand and yelling "Stupefy!", but the sneaky Gryffindor easily dodged it, being Chaser and all.

"WHAT! You're a liar! You're just saying that because you can't get that mudblood Evans girl!" roared the Slytherin and the room grew even louder, as Daslor started shouting and breaking everyone up, but before he could do anything James was already in action.

Lily was standing aside, face pale, and hurt, but she was already used to the pain, so she stuck her nose up and ignored everything the Slytherin said. Hermione felt like James was going to blast and use an unforgivable on Flint, but surprisingly his actions surprised her.

"Oh, yeah, Flint?" He raised an eyebrow cockily, though the anger was clearly visible in his deep fathomless eyes. Flint had obviously forgotten about the duel, because he was intently staring at the Gryffindor with cold, lifeless eyes, threatening him about anything that was about to come on of his mouth. "And… you're saying that because dear Ursula is at your mother's home and you already have a baby lying, for, say, two years now? How is little Marcus doing there?" James' smile quirked and as fast as he had just said those words, not fast enough for the captain to process it, he already flicked his wand and the Slytherin went flying, and his wand in the other direction.

Cheers burst out from the Gryffindors, as Sirius jumped on James, who tackled Remus to the floor, eventually bringing down Peter as well. Hermione had a smile on her face, though she was trying to cover it up, but there was no use. Even though Lily had disappeared and turned away, Hermione knew her feelings at that moment.

James was hurriedly telling his fellow Marauders something, who were nodding determinedly, whispering what seemed like suggestions?

Everyone in the room was talking – they were either discussing the duels which passed, and duels to come. Some were placing bets on who was going to win the whole thing even. Professor Daslor interrupted all the chatter, while coming up to the room and suddenly his voice was microphoned through the whole classroom.

Loud, screechy feedback was heard overhead and everyone winced, clutching their hands over their ears and heads, trying to stop the noise from penetrating their ears.

"Alright now, we are through the first set." Daslor's voice announced proudly over the sonarus spell. "If I have recorded correctly, in the quarter finals we have Ginevra Evergreen, Lily Evans, Hermione White, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, leaving Luna Thorn with a free pass to the semi finals."

Chatter burst out, as the professor scratched something on his paper, which looked like he was connecting lines or playing tic-tac-toe or something. Maybe drawing a picture.

"And now he pairings are…" he said, glancing constantly at his paper, as anxiety filled his voice, as if he was doing something on purpose and he knew it. "Hermione White and Sirius Black." Hermione's jaw dropped, but couldn't hold back a smile once more, which caused her frown to disappear without trance. "Ginevra Evergreen with Remus Lupin." Another wave of cheers and chatter sounded out, as a couple of groans were heard, as everyone rhetorically knew the last pairing. "And Lily Evans and James Potter." He stated with a smirk on his face, as Lily appeared out of nowhere, jaw dropped and started blushing like mad.

Just before the crowd could start gossiping again, the young professor interrupted once more. His eyes gazed into each person's it looked like he was scanning them through. "One more thing." He added quietly and deadly, though it was all clear over spell. "I will never hear that word in my class again, Flint. You understand?" he nodded to the Slytherin who wrinkled his nose and sneered. "As a result of that, forty points will be taken from Slytherin and you will serve detention for a week."

Gasps were emitted from across the room, cheers from Gryffindors and silent glares from the Slytherins. They were probably all considering their professor a muggle-loving 'blood-traitor', but Daslor knew what was awaiting him and would always stay on edge.

"Now, who shall we begin with?" he asked again, mischievously. "Ah, why not. Ms. White, Mr. Black, you're up." He gave them a wicked grin and backed up and everyone cheered and shuffled out of the way, clearing space for the two teenagers.

"Good luck, Hermione." Lily smiled warmly at Hermione, who returned a tightlipped one. Oh Merlin. She was going to face Sirius. Calm. Calm. It's fine. Okay. Good. Come on, where's your confidence? You've been fighting Death Eaters since fifth year. You can take on a flirty seventh year.

"Break a leg, Mione." Ginny winked at her, making Hermione guffaw and roll her eyes, while flicking the redhead's head.

"Not literally, I hope." She smirked, as a couple of scoffs were heard.

"Come on, Hermione. You can do it. I think I've seen it according to some of the blackwidow berries in the forest. They showed the probabilities, but the nargles might be on his side. Good luck." Luna said, giving a loony smile, which made Hermione smirk on the inside.

On the other side of the room, Sirius was smirking his face off, as James was socially preparing him. "Come on, mate. You can take on this bird." James winked at his as the Gryffindor beater snorted playfully, his confidence up so high, not even James on a broom could take it down.

"Don't worry Prongs. I got this. Wish my devilishly handsome looks and romantic affections, I'll easily be able to take her down. All it takes is a flip of my gorgeous—"

"Yeah, yeah, Padfoot. Keep on going, and don't get your head up so high." Remus warned him, but his proud friend took no notice of the guy who actually saw Hermione practicing dueling on her free time and couldn't wait for his friend's arse to get whipped.

Hermione couldn't help but laugh when she even heard a couple of Slytherins calling out supporting words, since they were on much better terms with the rich pureblooded Gryffindor girl than the traitor Black. She strode to one side of the room, waiting for further instructions from her professor.

Sirius lazily strode to his side of the room and leaned against a bookshelf, as if particularly nothing in the world had ever bothered him and was not going to. Hermione quirked her eyebrow, hoping that this duel would be a productive one, and Sirius wouldn't laze around, show of or throw compliments around. Thankfully there weren't any insensible Ravenclaws in their D.A.D.A. class, because the room would've been most probably ten times louder than it already was.

The two duelists looked at their professor for some sort of a signal, and he simply nodded to them. They approached each other and bowed, for they were in a proper duel.

"Ready, Black?" Hermione grinned cheekily at him, as he returned the cheekiness.

"With my whole wretched unholy heart, White." He smirked back, throwing her a wink, and she immediately attempted to disarm him, but much to her surprise he deflected it with a swift swipe of his wand.

Hermione raised an eyebrow as they paced in a circle, ignoring everyone who was around them, shouting compliments, insults and whatever else they might've been shouting.

"Impressive, Black. You're exceeding my expectations." She nodded with mock-formality, as he pretended to gasp, placing his hand over his chest. Just all part of an act.

"You wound me, love." He said, waving his wand with incredible speed and shouting. "Stupefy!" but Hermione rolled out of the way, as he shot two more spells in her direction, which narrowly skimmed her arm. The girl grinned, as her soul brimmed with excitement, because she was looking forward to having an interesting duel.

The two of them continued with easy testy spells fooling around and playing with each other, but then Hermione decided to move it up a notch.

"Rictusempra!" Hermione shouted over the crowd, as the spell narrowly hit her opponent, but she wasn't done. "Validissimo vento" she cried, as Sirius did not expect the flash coming from her wand, which threw his into the other side of the room with an extremely unmeasured strong gust of wind. Hermione winced, as Sirius nearly hit the window, but toppled into the bookshelf instead, falling on his face.

He groaned, but a devilish grin was still on his face. He lifted himself up, slightly dusting off his robes, which were all in dust and rubble, but his royal aura was there nevertheless. "Guerre des livres!" he exclaimed suddenly, and Hermione did not recognize that as a Latin or Italian spell, but French, and Sirius had just cast a spell in a different language.

Hermione's eyes widened as she saw the books, which were lying on the floor prior to the spell, fluttering from all around Sirius, and Hermione frowned. What a jerk. As soon as the books hovered in the air, Hermione raised her wand and looked at the books curiously. Not recognizing the spell, she didn't know what effects it had, until one of the books, which was a fat book on Transfiguration and its relation to Potions, lunged at her. Hermione yelped, completely unaware that it was supposed to happen, and slashed her wand yelling the first spell she thought of "Reducto!" and the book burst into pieces, pages flying all over the place, but the books kept coming and coming.

Groaning and cursing Black under her breath, Hermione unwillingly yelled "Extimus Displodo", wishing it would hit Sirius in the face, and in fact she heard a feminine shriek from the crowd, which sounded like Lily's, and Hermione could understand her pain. The spell split up and hit all the books, which were flying in the air. Multiple bloodcurdling shrieks were heard from the books, as they fell down and whole class was filled with smoke; nevertheless, Hermione still heard Sirius shouting out spells.

The brunette's eyes widened, as she hid underneath a desk to prevent being hit by a spell: who knew where that maniac was firing. Right when the smoke cleared out, Hermione took a look at herself – she was all in soot, bits and pieces of paper stuck in her hair, a couple scratches, and Sirius looked the same way. But he was gonna get it.

Hermione had enough fooling around and was now in mixed emotions – this was one of the exciting duels she had in her entire life, but at the same time, Sirius had just made her turn against her own nature and blast books out of the air.

Sirius seemed to get the message, because he was grinning broadly, but soon, that grin would turn into a horrified look. And so it did. Right after Hermione flicked her wand at Sirius and birds formed out of the pages of the books, flying straight at Sirius, as he gave out a Lavender-worth shriek and ran across the classroom, as Hermione leaned against a turned over desk and smiled to herself.

The birds were attacking Black with no stop, and laughs from the crowd were heard, as the people were too covered in soot, which gave everyone a Snape-worthy appearance.

Just as Hermione was about to disarm Sirius, he ran over to her, birds still chasing him and all, and threw his wand at her.

"YOU CAN HAVE IT! MAKE THEM STOP! MAKE THEM STOP!" he shrieked, swatting away a flock of birds with his hand, which must've still hurt, since they were made of paper. Then he found a book, lying disheveled on the floor and started chasing the birds around with it, as Hermione let out a wild laugh.

"Sorry, Black. Now, what about those devilishly handsome looks?" She threw him a partially serious look, but he ignored her, chasing the birds down, and the two even forgot there were people watching them.

"Very good, Ms. White. That was exceptional dueling on both of your behalves. Congratulations, Ms. White, you will continue in the semi-finals. That was very impressive spell work. Maybe you could tell me about some spells you cast, and how you learnt them some day?" Professor Daslor asked her curiously, as she nodded fully surprised with a bit of confusion in the beginning, thought it was slightly amusing, since he too was covered in soot.

"Er—Of course, Professor." She smiled, turning and making her way to Luna, Ginny and Lily as she remembered Sirius. "Whoops!" she spun around on her heel. "If you ever want a rematch, Black, I'm always ready." She grinned at him and added with a gasp. "Oh, by the way, the international spell was impressive." Sirius caught the wand she threw at him and smirked.

"Don't forget, White, I'm full of surprises." He winked at her, swaggering over to James, who was shaking his head, with one of his hands rubbing his temple.

"That was bloody wicked Mione!" Ginny yelled, tackling her friend in a hug, as Hermione cringed from getting a face-full of soot, and coughed, clearing the air. "That was like SO awesome! He was like BAM, and then you dodged it underneath the table, like whooooosh, and it was totally awesome! Oh and the book part—"

Hermione groaned, as she recalled everything that happened. "Oh, don't even remind me, Gin. That was the cruelest thing Black could do." She sniffled, as Lily joined in.

"Yes, that was indeed very mean of him. But you had to defend yourself, so it's better than getting bitten by enchanted books." She tilted her head, and stroked her chin, bobbing her head in agreement.

"Enchanted books are indeed very dangerous. The enchanted ones have very sharp pages, you know. I've heard they're very cheap in the market, and are in fact very useful for potions and as guards." Luna said thoughtfully, staring up to the ceiling, as everyone else rolled their eyes in amusement. "I would much rather prefer a dog-book over some simple spell. Yes, I would." Luna decided airily, and to any outsider, she would've looked completely and thoroughly stoned.

"But who would've thought Black was such a genius though, right?" Hermione glanced up at the girls, her face full of surprise. "I mean, a spell in a different language? I've studied a couple at home, but he chose one that I didn't know of..." Hermione muttered thoughtfully, as Lily tapped her on the shoulder.

Hermione glanced over, as Lily gave her a know-it-all look, which Hermione very firmly recognized as her own. "He's a pureblood in a family interested in Dark Arts. Of course he's amazing in dueling, different spells, and most likely curses too, but he doesn't show them too often because of his Gryffindor pride." The redhead reminded her, as Hermione glanced in Sirius' direction, who was excitedly explaining something to James and Remus.

"Hmm..." Hermione hummed, sticking out her lower lip. "I guess you're right." She finally decided, turning her attention to the professor, who cast a spell over everyone, clearing away all the soot and dirt, but the ruins were still there.

He caught Hermione's eye and smiled. "For more excitement." Then redirected himself to the whole class. "I will not be clearing up these ruins, so kindly created by Mr. Black and Ms. White, but indeed will keep them, for a bit of... ah, action." He smiled dreamily and looked down at his list again. "Ms. Evergreen, Mr. Lupin, you're up." Daslor smiled, giving Hermione the shivers. There was something about him that wasn't quite on place...

Ginny whooped, jumping out of her seat and running up to the front of the room excitedly. Hermione only managed to clap her on the back before she was already in her peace. She looked over to Remus, who was also getting supported with devilish and amused grins, and he too headed out to the room. The two of them bowed to each other and the duel began.

This one was, of course, more careful and accurate than Hermione and Sirius' had been. Though their duel wasn't as crazy and cheeky, it was quite an interesting one to watch, especially with the many obstacles of ruins, books and a weird awkward puddle of black, which made Ginny shriek as she fell in it, but those shrieks turned into ginger laughs, as she concentrated and saw Remus slip on the same one two seconds later.

Sweat was already pouring down their faces, sticking and mixing with the soot which still remained in their hair and it seemed that the two of them found their equal in dueling. Ginny's smirk was visible from her seat, as Hermione edged over slightly to see more of the action. Non-verbally, Ginny cast a spell, which glowed dark purple and Hermione recognized it as the Bat-Bogey Hex, the same one she was most famous for.

"Well," Hermione scratched her head and her lip quirked in indecision. "Remus looks a little too tired to dodge that one." But knowing that it was the most intelligent Marauder, Hermione knew that he would defeat Ginny with her own arrogance. Just as the hex was about to hit Remus, as the last minute, he slashed his wand and yelled "Protego Maxima!" forming a big blue shield, rebounding the curse back to Ginny, which hit her, as she flew into the wall.

Remus looked anxious and extremely sorry, but his two friend Marauders burst out in cheers and howls, as Peter started clapping rapidly, staring at his friend with adoring eyes. The poor werewolf turned all red and found particular interest in his feet, as Ginny suddenly rose, sporting wings and an enlarged snout.

This earned more laughs from the crowd, as Ginny flew to attack Avery or one of the Slytherins who started hissing, but that hissing turned into eventual shrieking and screaming.

"Very nice, Mr. Lupin." Professor Daslor managed through laughs, as he got up and headed towards Ginny, and with a quick wave of his wand, Ginny fell petrified onto the floor. "Very good spell work. Now, would someone please bring poor Ms. Evergreen to the Hospital Wing? I don't think we would want her to remain in that horrendous attacking spree."

"But Professor, the wings and snout to suit her so." Sirius grinned from his seat after clapping Remus on the back.

"Perhaps… Now… Ms. Parkinson, could you be so kind to get Ms. Evergreen to the hospital." He asked, turning to the pug, who was sitting in the corner and giggling with her Slytherin friends.

"Of course, Professor." She giggled on, turning slightly red as the other girls squealed. She levitated Ginny and headed out the room, shutting the door behind her.

"Next up… James Potter and Lily Evans." He said with a Marauder-worthy grin, which made everyone, except for Lily and James to howl in laughter. The two of them got up to the front, James shooting his friends nervous looks, who were dying on the floor, and Lily just stuck up her nose and went on with twirling her wand.

~OoOoO~

"I don't want to hear it Potter."

"Please, Evans!"

"I can't believe you!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—"

"Blast me? Leave me alone."

Lily's face was shimmering in rainbow sparkles, which blinded every person in the class, and underneath that she was probably as red as a tomato. James looked completely miserable and sad when Lily stomped out the door, cursing and yelling to herself, declaring all the things she was planning to do with that ignorant arse.

Daslor was talking to James and Hermione knew she was up against Remus.

The two of them dueled, and Hermione had to admit that he was a fair dueler, but in the end, after having countless years of practice and training to defeat Voldemort, Hermione had the skill to outdo the werewolf. Proceedingly, James, still extremely miserable beat Luna, practically hexing the wand out of her hand, but now it was up to the final match.

Nevertheless, Luna was still grinning, even though she got defeated and her arm nearly got burnt off, but she was happy, and Hermione didn't even have a clue why. Proudly, Hermione clapped her friend on the back and stood up, ready to stretch and head out to face James.

She could tell by the chatter that James was one of the top duelers in their class, and probably in their school, so from what the students had heard, James and Hermione were the two top students, since the Whites provided one of the best educations in the wizarding community. When Hermione turned, she saw people whispering and shaking hands.

The two of them bowed to each other and the duel began.

"Levicorpus!" Hermione cried, simultaneously casting a sly look into Severus' direction, whose face was as pale as the full moon and his chapped lips formed a perfect "o". James easily dodged that and sent three stupefies in Hermione's direction, which she blocked with a protego. He sent another fast one, which Hermione didn't see coming.

"Stupefy?" she exclaimed and rolled out of the way, for the spell had taken her in shock. "Stupefy!" she shouted once again and James rolled out of the way for that one too.

"Stupefy! Rictusempra!" he yelled, as Hermione rolled out of the way for the first spell, but darn, that Potter's aim was unbelievable, and he hit her with the tickling hex.

Hermione couldn't control herself and started laughing, trying to put a solid expression on, and through giggles managed "Orchidus" which was strangely the first thing she thought of. The next thing she knew, James was covered in flowers. "Orbis!" she shouted after that, still through giggles, as a massive hurricane-like wind swept James up and started twirling him in the air. While that was happening, Hermione was trying to take the tickling hex off of herself. By the time she did, James was already lying on the floor, and was getting up.

The duel continued another fifteen minutes and the two of them had sweat practically dripping off of them, their faces red and tired. They were both probably in a big need for water, and the duel was getting very tiring and long. The two of them started thinking along the same lines, because suddenly, James cast "Aqua Erecto", blasting water in Hermione's face, which soaked her to the bones.

She stood facing him, with water dripping off, but he seemed more jealous of her than proud, because she was the one who got refreshed. The water was all over the room and it seemed like it was starting to flood up.

"Glacius!" Hermione cried, withholding a grin on her face, and hoped that James could skate or at least travel on ice, because this was going to be oh-so-fun. All the water which was spilt of the floor turned into pure and solid ice. Hermione decided that Daslor cast something just for the sake of it, because snowflakes started falling from the room and holly started growing on the ceiling.

James, unaware of what happened, took a massive step forward and slipped, flipping over and falling on his back. Hermione could hear an evident crack, and while getting up, slipped herself. Darn, she hadn't gone skating for a while.

The next what seemed ages the two of them kept on throwing off-balance jinxes and hexes at one another, but this duel didn't seem to finish. Finally wanting to end the nonsense, Hermione decided to do something not everyone would approve of. The next time the two of them slipped, she grabbed a wooden chair, which was still lying on the ice and slid up to James, whacking him on the head with it and grabbed his wand out of his hand. Then, she slipped and slid to the other side of the room.

"Congratulations, Hermione! Forty points for Gryffindor, and another twenty for you, James. Exceptional work!" Professor Daslor exclaimed, getting up and clapping, and when Hermione looked over, he was wearing a hat and red mittens. She couldn't help but scoff, because the students were all sitting and shivering. Sirius looked simply stunned and at the same time smitten with Hermione, as he stared at her with an open mouth.

"Not fair! Muggle antics!" James cried out, getting up and falling down again, as Sirius rubbing his hand against his face. Remus gave Hermione a 'thumbs up' and Hermione grinned to herself. She had probably proven herself worth to the Marauders now, and she would have their respect… Or they would adopt her.

Hermione just laughed and shook her head, but couldn't help but gasp, when she got up and looked into the window, realizing what she looked like. Her hair was all frizzy and partially wet, with a couple of solid icicles frozen. Her clothes were all black, with small parts of pink and yellow powder, which was still from Remus' duel. Her cheeks and arms had numerous scratches and burns, with a couple of tears in her robes.

When she turned she saw grey eyes on the other side of the room staring into her own, but had to sharply pull away.

HAHAHAHA! This chapter is DONE! How did you guys like the duel? It took me ages to think of and to write.

As you might've noticed I made the Room of Requirement change into an actual location as well, and everything that happens there depends on the mood of the person who opens the room.

Just cleaning up the facts, if any of you noticed, 'Avery' is a very ambitious surname, which kind of sounds like 'every', so I named Avery 'Maximus' or the 'most important'.

And I didn't quite remember that Flint was much older than Harry was, since he was like in sixth year when Harry was in first? So I made them have like a love child or something.

Spell List:

Validissimo vento – strong wind (Latin)

Guerre des livres – war of the books (French)

Extimus Displodo – extreme explosion (Latin)

Protego Maxima – protection to the max. (Latin)

Just as a note, I got Orchidus and Orbis from gaming over the summer. I think it was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but you get the idea. x

Thanks for reading! Please review, I'd really like that! If you liked it or hated it... you know, any feedback? Thanks :D Have a Merry Christmas!x

Girl . x . Marauder
(Daria... or Dasha)