Greetings everyone! Hope you enjoy this chapter. I know a lot of you are getting impatient with the whole Remus x Hermione relationship, trust me I am too. But I want them to get close as friends before anything else happens. And don't worry, soon(ish) Hermione will see the light.
Disclaimer: Jk Rowling owns the entire Harry Potter universe,
Hermione's POV
Hermione had no idea what Remus meant by telling her to ask Sirius about the incident last year. She was hoping that Sirius wasn't involved, she didn't want to find out he hexed Snape so bad he almost killed him, even after what had happened with 'the prank.'
Hermione didn't think that Sirius would be daft enough to do something so stupid within such a short period of time, but she also honestly had no idea what it could be. As she stalked back to the common room, she passed a few underclassmen that glanced up at her with admiration and respect, and maybe even the slightest bit of fear. It seemed anyone who was friends with the Marauders was treated like royalty among the younger students. However it made sense, James was one of the most popular boys at Hogwarts, along with Sirius. They both were handsome, charismatic, smart and athletic; a lethal combination for a couple of reckless teenagers. Everyone seemed to enjoy the Marauders' constant pranks and jokes, omit the people the constant pranks and jokes were pulled on.
When she reached the Fat Lady, Hermione murmured the password.
"Dundlebug," Hermione absentmindedly told the portrait. The Fat Lady let out an exasperated sigh and swung the portrait open, earning Hermione access.
"You're up," Hermione jumped in surprise as she saw Sirius sitting on the coach, a book in his hand, and what looked like a piece of parchment. "And you're reading," Hermione smirked and sat down next to him. Sirius raised an eyebrow and shifted over to make room for her.
"How was the library?" Sirius tightly asked. Hermione inspected Sirius, his body language was reading oddly to her. He was turned a bit away from her, and he was stiff.
"Good," Hermione said slowly, "Sirius is something wrong?" Hermione asked, Sirius turned to her and waved the piece of parchment.
Oh no…
Hermione knew what that was…The Marauders Map… He had known that she wasn't in the library when he checked it.
Crap.
"This," Sirius began, "Is a secret." Hermione nodded her head as Sirius continued, "Don't tell anyone."
"I won't," Hermione promised, a small smirk erupting onto her face even though she could tell Sirius was upset with her.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Sirius clarified, as he tapped the wand once on the parchment. Hermione watched as it came to life, the map of the castle.
"We made it," Sirius explained motioning towards their nicknames listed at the top of the parchment. "It can track everyone who attends Hogwarts throughout the castle…It still has a few bugs we're working on… but so far it's been quite accurate." Sirius looked at Hermione darkly.
"Why'd you lie?" Sirius blatantly asked. Hermione could feel her brow sweating and she shifted uncomfortably.
"Sirius-," She began, but was interrupted.
"She knows Sirius," Remus' voice called from behind her. Hermione jumped at his voice and turned around to face Remus. "She knows about me being a werewolf, and Dumbledore was asking her and Snape to help, that's why I was with her on the map, Sirius." Hermione froze; she couldn't believe Remus just bailed her out completely like that. Sirius gaped from one another, and then let out a sigh of relief.
"You found out?" Sirius wondered, "Didn't take your long did it?" Hermione nodded and looked at Remus who nodded once back at her, as if giving her permission to lie.
"How're you and Snape going to help?" Sirius asked suspiciously.
"We're going to try to make a potion to make it easier for Remus to control himself," Hermione explained to Sirius. Sirius looked at Remus and let out a pitted sighed.
"Hermione, I know you are like the most brilliant girl in all of Hogwarts, but we've tried, we've all tried." Sirius explained sadly. "Even the smartest wizards of our time couldn't figure it out. It's awesome that you want to help Hermione, we all do. But it's nearly impossible."
"Sirius, what if I told you that there was a way?" Hermione asked Sirius, trying not to give too much away; she still wasn't ready to tell Sirius.
"You're sure then? It'll work?" Sirius asked sensibly.
"It might take a few tries, but the potion we'll be working on will make it so Remus can keep his mind when he's in his wolf form." Hermione explained to her boyfriend. Sirius still looked hesitantly at Hermione but reluctantly nodded.
"What if it hurts him? What if you make it wrong? What if Snape poisons Moony?" Sirius asked frantically; Hermione could feel his heart racing. "I don't trust that git a bit!"
"Yeah, what if it kills him," Remus said sarcastically and waved his hand in front of Sirius' face. "You're talking about me like I'm not here Padfoot," Remus reminded his friend. Hermione watched as Sirius relaxed a bit and laughed.
"I won't let Severus mess with it, I promise." Hermione explained as she reached a hand out to Sirius and squeezed it. Sirius sighed and nodded his head.
"Okay, but, how do you even know how to make it? Why do you think this will work if nothing else has?" Sirius' spat the questions out one after the other
"I know Sirius, just trust me please. And it will work," Hermione looked over at Remus, who was standing uncomfortably, "I promise," She spoke as she held eye contact with Remus.
"How do you know how?" Sirius pressed. His brows were furrowed together with worry. Hermione looked at him seriously for a moment then let out a small sigh.
You don't want me to ask questions," Sirius added blankly and Hermione cringed.
"Sirius, I'll tell you, I promise, not yet though." Hermione anxiously said, hoping that Sirius would be patient.
"Does he know?" Sirius motioned towards Remus. Hermione noted that Remus was giving her a told you so look and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, he knows, but I didn't want to tell him, it just kind of happened." Hermione tried to explain. She could tell Sirius had been a bit hurt by her comment, but said nothing. She hoped he would handle this maturely and not be jealous of Remus, but Sirius was unpredictable. Very lovable, yes. But oh so unpredictable.
"I understand. I won't pressure you into telling me." Sirius finally spoke after a moment.
"You won't!?" Remus and Hermione both gasped at the same time. This was very Un-Sirius like. But the raven haired wizard just nodded his head slowly.
"It can't be that bad can it?" Sirius let out a half hearted joke, "You'll tell me when you're ready." He reached for Hermione's hand and held it tight, which caused a wide smile to creep up on Hermione's face.
"Thank you Sirius," Hermione said as he pulled her into a hug. Once they released Hermione looked over to Remus and then sighed.
"Sirius, I need to ask you a question, and I need you to be honest with me." Hermione told the boy. Sirius cocked an eyebrow and Remus took a deep breath.
"You can ask questions but I can't" Sirius asked half jokingly, but when Hermione's face remained stern he stop smirking, "What is it?"
"What did you lot do to Snape last year?" Hermione asked, Sirius paled and looked over to Remus who nodded once. "Why was he in the hospital wing for so long? D-did you hurt h-him?" Hermione softly asked, "P-please just tell m-me. I'm going crazy not knowing."
Sirius looked wide eyed at Hermione and then looked at Remus.
"Hermione, I hate the git, more than you'd know, but I didn't do a bloody thing to him." Sirius explained. "Remus was in the hospital wing, it was after a, er, full moon, and we were on our way to go see him, we ran into Lily, and she was crying in the hallway. She told us that Snape had tried to talk to her again, and he wouldn't leave her alone, kept begging for forgiveness. Once we took her back to the common room we went out to find Snape." Sirius inhaled he looked at Hermione and shook his head. Hermione knew that Snape had bugged Lily to a point of frustrating her, but Hermione could never imagine Lily Evans crying in the hallway because of Severus Snape.
"We were pissed, all three of us, James of course the most because he hates Snape the more than anything; there was no stopping him. We looked for Snape all over the castle, we wanted to teach him a lesson, give him a few good hexes to just remind him to stay away from Evans. And when we found him, he was laying in the hallway getting the absolute shit beaten out of him. The Slytherin's supposedly heard he was trying to become Lily's friend again, and they didn't like it. They hurt him pretty bad, physically and mentally. They used dark hexes that I'm damn sure are illegal, we didn't see them, but after seeing Snape…It had to of been."
"Peter starting crying the moment we saw him, James scared the rest of the Slytherins away and then we got him to the hospital wing…You go so long hating someone, and you forget their human too…I thought he was going to die, James did too… Once we got to the hospital wing Remus was furious, he thought we did it. He started yelling at me the moment he saw us walking in. Snape was unconscious the whole time, so he only found out it was us who saved him when Dumbledore told him. Somehow I think it made him resent us even more." Sirius explained.
Hermione's jaw dropped, they had saved Snape again? And from fellow Slytherins? It was almost unbelievable. Reading her doubtful expression Remus piped up.
"It's true Hermione," He said.
"I- I don't know what to say," Hermione honestly said, she was now curled up onto the couch staring at the first boy as she listened to the story.
"After that, he was in the hospital wing for nearly a month. It was rough, Lily had been furious at James for the longest time, she thought he did to avenge her," Sirius laughed darkly and Remus cringed. "James would never do something like that. We play our fair share of pranks, and we hex the underclassmen, but nothing like that. Never like that." Sirius said, obviously the Slytherins had crossed some sort of line that the Marauders had set.
"Why didn't you tell Lily, she would have understood," Hermione had to asked, "It might have even made her like James more."
"Wasn't our place to tell," Remus cut in shortly.
"I'm sorry I doubted you," Hermione spoke after a moment of silence.
"Its fine," Sirius told her.
"Who were the Slytherins that did it?" Hermione asked. Sirius shrugged.
"We didn't get a good look at them; we were too busy being mortified by Snape. I doubt it was Mulciber or Avery, they're vile, but not like that." Sirius responded. "All James saw as he chased them down were their green robes."
"We were thinking it was probably Lucius Malfoy and all of his henchmen, he was a 7th year last year, all caught up in dark magic probably." Remus added.
"What did Dumbledore do?" Hermione wondered.
"He couldn't do much, just told us he'd look into it." Sirius said. Hermione frowned; surely Dumbledore could have done something.
"And did the whole school not realize Snape was gone for that amount of time?" Hermione asked.
"Rumors spread that's for sure," Sirius told her, "But it was quickly old news, people only care about what's interesting now."
Hermione was speechless. What could she say to that? Remus let out a loud yawn.
"That's enough for tonight I think, Sirius." He told his friend as he clapped a hand on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius yawned as well and reached out to hug Hermione.
"Goodnight, I hope I didn't scare you off too much." Sirius murmured into Hermione's ear. Hermione shook her head, Sirius couldn't scare her off.
"G'night," She told him as she kissed him on the lips. "G'night Remus," Hermione said with a small wave. Remus waved back and Hermione walked up the stairs to all asleep onto her bed. Trying to take in what the boy had just told her.
Remus' POV
Christmas Holiday was one week away, and Remus Lupin had yet to buy a Christmas present for his friends. Fortunately for Remus, Hogsmeade was the perfect place to by a present and even more fortunately Hermione would be joining him.
"Can't believe that boy has got himself locked in all day scrubbing trophies again." Hermione muttered to Remus as they headed out of the castle. "Sirius always has detention," She grumbled.
"At least you'll be able to get him a present?" Remus offered, Hermione grumbled but didn't disagree with Remus' opinion. Sirius, James and Peter were stuck in detention for getting caught sneaking out after curfew. Remus wasn't with them that night, due to the fact that he was serving detention with Filch for accidentally stepping on Mrs. Norris' tail. Remus hadn't meant too, but the cat yowled down the corridor for Filch, and he was convinced Remus was trying to attack her.
"Hermione, have you figure out if you're leaving for break?" Remus looked down at Hermione. She had to be about a foot shorter than him. She wore a wool hat that was fitted to her head and made her wild hair stick out greatly around the rest of her head. Her pale cheeks were flushed red from the brutal cold, and her brown eyes were watering just slightly. Remus' eyes however were drawn to her hands, which were clad in a pair of his mittens. He didn't remember her taking them or borrowing them, but he liked the fact that she was wearing his clothing.
"No, I would love to visit you lot over break, but I think it's probably best that I stay here, you know? I can probably get ahead on a lot of my homework…" Hermione thought aloud. Remus cringed, he had hoped Hermione wasn't going to ignore the extended invitation he had told her about.
"Oh, maybe we could all meet up at Hogsmeade for a day or two then?" Remus looked at her for acceptance. Hermione eagerly nodded her head.
"That would be lovely; I'll miss everyone a lot." Hermione admitted.
"Why don't you just go with James and Sirius, they'd love to have you with them for Christmas." Remus pleaded. Hermione smirked and elbowed him in the ribs.
"And you would hate to have me for Christmas, huh?" She teased.
"Yes, it would be one of biggest displeasures in the world," He said dryly and they both began to laugh.
"It'll be okay Remus, it's just Christmas, I'll be spending it with Professor McGonagall and Professor Slughorn," Hermione laughed. Remus pictured McGonagall in a Santa hat, passing out presents to the rest of the teaching staff and joined her in laughing. They made their way to Hogsmeade and were greeted with a loud, small, wizard who was selling bright red Christmas roses. He was shouting at a couple of wizards in front of them, waving his small arms frantically. Once they passed by they heard the man cackle.
"Oi! Beautiful roses for your beautiful girly-friend," The small man sneered at the duo. Remus' first instinct was to grab Hermine by the arm and drag her away, but he didn't want to seem like a fool.
"She's not my girlfriend," Remus informed the man politely and kept walking. Before he could get very far however, Remus was stopped by the man's sneers.
"She's too pretty to be you're girly-friend, ay mate? Those scars look quite ugly!"The man yelled at the two. Remus wasn't offended by the man's words. He knew that physical appearance was the least of his worries, and Sirius and Lily often reassured him that he was quite cute, so he wasn't bothered by the man's harsh words. Hermione however, tore away from Remus' arm and stormed off to face the small wizard.
"Oi! Look! She left him too! She's also bright-," Remus was unaware of what the man was going to say next, because Hermione's fist coolly connected with his face, knocking the small wizard to the ground.
"Bloody witch!" The man screeched as he covered his nose that was now oozing out blood. Remus' eyes went wide and he grabbed Hermione by the arm and dragged her into the nearest store.
"Hermione," was all Remus said. His jaw was dropped and he couldn't believe what had just happened. "You shouldn't have done that…"
"I'm sorry I embarrassed you Remus, but he was such a little git!" Hermione spat, her face flushed. Remus could hear her heart beat starting to return to its natural pace. "I got so angry when he insulted you; I would've done worse if we weren't in public. Something… I felt so mad…So unlike myself… I hated that man with everything I had." Hermione muttered more to herself than to Remus. Remus stuck a mitten clad hand out to Hermione's face and tilted her chin so she was looking up at him.
"I- uh, felt that way the other day." He admitted to Hermione. Her jaw dropped and he continued. "When we were meeting with Dumbledore and Snape. Snape said something that was rude, and I don't think you were all too upset with it, it's Snape, what do you expect? But I was so furious, I- the only thing keeping me from hexing him was Dumbledore sitting right in front of us." Remus explained. Hermione's face was scrunched into a frown, she did this when she was thinking, Remus noted.
"Maybe it's a part of the whole, mate thing, ya know?" Hermione offered. Remus nodded in consideration, it very well could have been a factor in them being mates.
"Perhaps," Remus sighed and looked around the store for the first time, it was Zonko's. He was so deep in conversation with Hermione he hadn't noticed how busy the store was, probably full of all the late holiday shoppers.
"Zonkos…" Hermione muttered under her breath, "I could probably get the three boys their gifts here, right?" Hermione asked. Remus eyebrow quirked up.
"The three boys? Not my present?"
"Don't be silly Remus, I already have yours."
"You do?" Remus asked shocked.
"Yes, Remus I do. You are my best friend. Or have you forgotten?" Hermione beamed up at Remus who blushed bright red, partly because he did not have Hermione's present yet, and partly because he still had no idea on what to get her.
"How about, we split up for a little bit?" Hermione offered, perhaps reading Remus' worried look.
"That's a good idea," Remus nodded. They both smiled at each other once more before taking off in the other direction. Remus had known exactly what to get the other three boys. Socks. An abundance of socks. Remus had the nasty habit of stealing the other boy's wool socks when the seasons would get colder, so he was off to replenish his friends' supplies with. To most people, getting your best mates socks would seem like an extremely lame and dull gift. But Remus knew that Sirius liked to charm his to warm his feet when it got cold, and that James liked when his socks changed color, and Peter like his socks to be quite breathable, because he sweated easily. It would be easy enough to charm the socks accordingly, Remus thought.
Once he visited the clothing store up the street a bit, he had to find gifts for Marlene, Alice, and Lily. He had thought candy should do the trick, so he headed off to Honeydukes. With bags of candy in one hand, and bags of socks in the other, Remus found he didn't know where to go to purchase Hermione's present. He knew she'd appreciate anything he bought her, but he wanted to make it something she really enjoyed. She had plenty of books, and Remus knew that she'd probably receive plenty more this year, so he ruled that out. He thought jewelry may be to intimate so decided against that as well. He thought maybe candy, but that seemed too casual. Then, an idea struck him.
~Until Next Time~
Hope you liked it! Please review, it means a lot to me when you do! I love reading them and they just make me want to write so much faster/more! Thanks so much for reading!