A/N: RANT - skip if you wish!
The whole frikkin world is against me being dedicated towards anything and i'm starting to get seriously worried. I havent written a thing in weeks and now my eye is all red and watery and i cant sit in front of a system and have to beg my friend to update this for me! My head is filled with plot bunnies for further chapters and not being able to write it all down is greatly annoying and seeing that my friend is typing my whole rant out at my dictation, i should stop but i would like to give her my gratitude for these updates all the same...yes now on with the story!
Despite the glaring sun, the day was unusually cold and she was nervous as she waited with Sirius just outside of hogsmedge. It was a few more minutes before James jogged up to them. The instant he was close enough to them, Hermione grabbed his hand and apparated all three of them away.
"Where are we?" James asked as he looked around the forest.
"The forest of dean, I have camped here a lot before. Anyway let's change now. You remember the plan?" She asked speaking fast as she was prone to do when she was nervous.
They nodded as they each took the vial from her hand. James's potion was a shade of yellow, Sirius had a dull brown and Hermione was left with a very dark shade of blue. In one gulp each of them drank their Polyjuice potion before falling to the ground with a dull sickness.
"I thought it would at least taste better than it looked" a deep voice that was supposed to be Sirius said. She grimaced at the sight of the thirty something tall balding dirty blonde haired man that Sirius had become.
"Huh, this guy can actually see pretty well" James commented in a slightly croaky voice. He was definitely heavier this way and taller too, with reddish hair that fell shaggily around him.
"Here are the clothes you would need, and put on these gloves and cloak too would you?" Hermione asked in a strange high pitched voice. She was also a woman in her thirties now with dark hair and a decent body.
"Why do we need gloves?" James asked from behind the tree where he was changing.
"They have shield charms on them, as do the cloaks" Hermione replied tensely, already changed and waiting for them.
"You remember all the ingredients right? Take a few minutes to look around and spot everything we need. Wait for the sign before acting and don't forget that no matter what, you are not to use any form of magic. They can trace us that way. We-" Hermione was saying hurriedly.
"use these then grab what we need in under twenty minutes, run out through the back, fly to Charring's cross from where we apparate back here. We know. Relax love" Sirius told her in his new voice.
"Besides your plan is perfect! Easier than half our pranks. We'll be fine Mione" James assured with an odd smile that she supposed was how his smirk looked in this face.
"I'm not Mione, its lavender. And you are Harry and Sirius you are Seamus." she corrected. They both nodded before holding out their hand for apparition.
SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHG SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSB
They had walked through the leaky cauldron without attracting any attention and were now right in front of the apothecary. There were only a couple of customers there apart from the two workers.
With a deep breath Sirius pushed the door open and the three of them walked in. Hermione walked up to the free shop keeper and began requesting various everyday potion ingredients even as her eyes searched for the things she really wanted.
One of the two customers walked out and as the door chimes shut, she caught James's eyes. He nodded covertly and turned to Sirius who also jerked his head from his corner of the shop.
She threw a brand new enchanted Weasley gum secretly at the door which stuck it close then turned quickly back to the shop keeper before he could notice.
She kept the conversation going and smiled sweetly at the man even as her eyes raked the shelves behind him. Once sure that she had spotted as many of the ingredients as she could, she pulled out yet another Weasley's products.
The simple looking rubber band hit its target and the instant it touched the shop keeper, it elongated, becoming binding ropes as they snaked around his body, effectively making him fall to the floor bound and gagged.
At exactly the same time, James and Sirius both threw their own little bands at the remaining two people in the store and Hermione emptied her share of the Peruvian instant darkness powder.
Working quickly in the darkness, both boys swallowed the little candy like thing Hermione had given them, it worked just as well as it had done when they had tested it out before and they could see everything clear as day.
"I'll get the ones higher up!" James told them as they all scurried through the store grabbing the jars they needed and throwing them into his pouch.
"We've only got five minutes left!" Hermione called out in a frantic voice, still searching for some of the things they needed. She knew they had to hurry and was reaching out to a jar far behind in the stack when she felt the darkness starting to clear.
"It's clearing! We've got to leave!" Sirius called out exactly then.
"Go! I'll get this and follow you out!" James replied.
Hermione turned to see the boy – man now – standing atop the shelves reaching for the syrup of Arnica.
"HARRY leave it! lets go!" she shrieked loudly as she saw the shopkeeper struggling against his binds.
"But we need -" James was calling back when the darkness cleared completely, but that was the least of their worries.
The entire glass at the front of the store was shattered and James turned around to see a curse flying directly at him. The auror that had arrived on the scene none other than Marlene's father, his uncle.
He dived left and it hit the rows of glass jars instead as he crashed into the ground. The man aimed again and Sirius watched Hermione throw a nearby jar as close to him as she dared to without risking it actually hurting him.
James got to his feet, his head spinning from where he had hit it on the ground even as Sirius deflected curse after curse by any random object he could reach, before finally reaching for his wand.
"Seamus NOOO!" she yelled out just as light began to stream out of three different wands, all of it pointed at them.
"RUN!" James called next and the three of them dashed through the back door which luckily enough for them did not seem locked. As they spilled into the dirty little alley behind the store, they noticed the attention they were attracting.
More people were drawing their wands and the three people from within the store too seemed to have followed them out. The three of them ducked and swiveled out of the way of most curses while the others were deflected by their cloaks.
She saw the boys pull out their brooms from the pouch and mount it; Sirius pulled her up into his arms before taking off. They were just a few feet high and trying to avoid the banners and posts when the curses began to really hit them, the magic from the cloak beginning to wear off.
"Go up!" She called loudly, as her shoulder tore open from one of the curses.
"I can't tell the direction from higher up!" James replied, flying with one hand while holding the other that was now bleeding profusely.
"Just go and head in any direction you want!" She screamed back at him frantically.
They obeyed and flew higher into the clouds, going some random direction that the boys supposed was north.
Just as they began to relax a hex caught Sirius right in the ribs and as they faltered, she saw to her horror at least ten men opposite them.
"APPARATE US NOW!" James's commanded suddenly beside her.
She could tell that Sirius was falling off and struggled to get hold of both of them before getting them out of there.
SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHG SBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSBHGSB
They spiraled towards the forest in a free fall and with nothing to break their descent; they all landed into the hard ground.
Sirius was curled into a ball beside her, his eyes shut tight with pain and panting heavily as he gripped his gut.
James was on her other side, still holding his arm and lying on his side, blood dripping from his forehead, barely conscious.
She felt her own leg snap as the ground rushed up to her but she drew her wand anyway.
In a practiced motion, she directed her wand at the empty air and threw all sorts of protective spells around them before gasping finally turning her attention back to the two boys.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry! I'm sorry" She muttered continuously even as she fumbled with her small bag, drawing out a bottle of dittany and a few other random potions she had brought along just in case.
The effect of the polyjuice was wearing off and they were back to their teenage selves. Hermione knelt in front of James, glad to see that the injury in his head was only superficial. With one practiced motion she healed it and the bleeding arm as she could.
It took another ten minutes for her to fix Sirius up, the curse had ended with a simple finite charm but the bleeding was harder to contain, not to mention the damage to his ribs. Once done, she handed them both revitalizing potions before sinking back into the ground, exhausted and exhilarated.
She had now successfully broken into the ministry of magic, Gringotts and Diagon alley! She pulled her knees up to her chest, her leg still hanging in an odd angle as she tried to calm down.
Within seconds Sirius was by her side, fixing her elbow while James tried hard to snap her leg back into place.
"Its okay, I'll do it. Just give me a minute" Hermione breathed her voice now normal.
"Shut up" James advised before fixing the bone as best as he could.
"We still need a cast" he muttered once he was done.
"No we don't. Here" she replied waving her own wand above the break, making a pale blue light form strings around her leg and then vanishing into her skin, making an invisible cast. They watched in silence before sinking back to the hard ground.
"I'm sorry. Are you two okay?" She asked timidly as she glanced at the two dark heads. Both their clothes still had blood stains on it and they were still breathing heavily and she was starting to feel extremely guilty.
"It doesn't matter! We didn't get it!" Sirius said with clenched hands.
"Just one more minute and I could have-" James began when Hermione cut across
"We didn't really need the syrup of Arnica guys, don't worry" she assured with a hesitant smile.
"But it was on the list!" Sirius said frowning.
"I know" she replied calmer now that she realized that was the only thing bothering them.
"Why was it on the list?" James asked her also confused.
"Because I looked up five different dark potions that would together cover all the ingredients we needed. That way no one would figure out our real purpose and we are in the clear" she replied, a happier now that they were fine.
She was paranoid for even thinking people would be able to guess their real motive, seeing that the potion was yet to be invented but the two marauders only stared in silence for a few minutes before bursting out laughing with relief and happiness.
"You know what you said?" James began
"About being the cleverest witch of our age?" Sirius continued.
She grinned as they chorused "we totally agree!"
A/N : Yet again i'm not sure it came out half as good as it seemed in my head but i'm in no real position to edit now...so hope you liked it the way it was!