Disclaimer: I have never, do not, and never will own Harry Potter or any of its contents, except for the figment of my own imagination.

Just a warning: this is gonna be a big author's note, but a big chunk of the fic too. So if you don't wanna listen to me ramble, just skip ahead to the non-bolded text.

Heyy, guys, what's up? Well hopefully everything's great, because it's summer soon! Which means exams… But still, it's nice to have some warm weather around here.

Anyways, thank you to my lovely reviewers, who are so dedicated and wonderfully supportive: TS17isme, .nerd, casper22, MiraclesHappen94, Wiebee, bhagi, hummingpetal, nikyta, LillianMarie2, FallenAshe, The 13th Heart, and last but not least Mrs. Theodore Nott.

The 13th Heart: I've gotta say, you did pretty well! Of course, I can't give anything away – you'll have to see over time. Maybe what you guessed is right, maybe it's not :D but it's pretty awesome that you went and put that much thought into it. I was sitting in Physics when I got the email and I was so impressed someone took a shot at it! Hope you enjoy the rest!

bhagi – really great idea! Hmm never thought of it, might consider putting it in somewhere :D

.nerd – that would've been hilarious hahah! Hey, you never know what I might throw in (;

Mrs. Theodore Nott - *virtual cookies* :D Oh, man that's awful! It's okay though, I'm sure it'll come back to you: one day it will just pop back into your head, and you'll remember. Yeah, about the Quidditch… I kinda have an obsession with Quidditch – so do the characters in the book, so it worked out… I had to include "over my dead body though"

"They don't kill you unless you light them," he said as Mom arrived at the curb. "And I've never lit one. It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing." ~Augustus Waters. (The Fault in our Stars, John Green)

Chapter 21

"Where are we going, Hermione?" Lily asked curiously, obviously intrigued with the idea of wandering off with a student who had been at the school for only a couple of months and already had an accommodating and safe hiding spot.

"You'll see." Hermione smiled mysteriously, as she continued dragging Lily across the grounds. All Hogwarts students and teachers were at Hogsmeade at that moment, since it was the peak of the day. There was completely no one around: this made both the castle and the grounds look entirely deserted.

It was slightly unfortunate that they didn't buy anything in Hogsmeade that day, but looking at it from another perspective it would've been completely chaotic. Since Hogsmeade visits were going to occur every Saturday, as they usually did, it would get much less crowded and a huge deathly crowd wouldn't be swarming the tiny village to get 'first buy of the year'. Although Hermione would never understand how she was still alive in 1977, whilst desperately craving Hogsmeade chocolate and sugar quills.

Effortlessly, yet strategically, the two girls wandered around the grounds until they approached a new and polished looking wooden log cabin. There were many gardening supplies carefully stacked at the entrance, yet the porch was clean with an ecstatically bright welcome mat. There was an unmistakable plentiful pumpkin patch, the vegetables as round and as wide as could get. They seemed to be on the verge of bursting open.

Hermione smiled, as Lily was quite taken back. Out of all places, this one? But yes. Hermione loved this place. She loved the homey smell, the sweet talks and even the rock cakes.

"The keeper of the keys?" Lily whispered hoarsely, leaning over Hermione's shoulder and cautiously looking around at the same time. "Are we allowed to be here?"

Hermione considered, kicked a stone shaped like a crustacean shell, which comically reminded her of the day they were saving Sirius. "Why not? You're the Head Girl, and I doubt you're not allowed to be at a certain place, especially here. I don't think that there's some sort of vial punishment against visiting Hagrid. He seems like a pretty nice guy."

Lily looked at her in a shocked manner and stumbled in surprise, "There aren't… any rules against it, I'm just not sure if it's morally right." She muttered, looking down in embarrassment. "Plus, no one ever visits Hagrid."

"Well there's always a first person." Hermione pointed out, as they started climbing up the large steps. Hermione was trudging forward confidently, when Lily seemed a little meddled and unsure of herself. "And it must get awfully lonely when no one visits you." Hermione sighed a little…

"I guess you're right." Lily finally agreed, taking a deep breath as Hermione placed a hand on the knocker, and rapped on the door. A loud sound was heard through the whole hut: the knocker was so heavy it seemed like it could cause the door to burst into splinters, but nevertheless there was movement heard inside: heavy, slightly hurried steps coming towards the door.

Lily seemed to be slightly terrified and shocked by the idea, for she had gone pale all over. Hermione considered this ironic because Lily was always one for public speaking and was usually quite confident in her communication skills. The thing that probably rattled her even more was the extremely unfriendly muddy galoshes and crossbow standing outside the front door.

"If yer those no-good Slyth'rin boys 'gain, I will tear yer heads off, I'm telling ya—" the voice was heard as the steps were right at the door, and the huge door swung open (Hermione was quick enough to push Lily back to avoid from getting hit in the face). "Oh…" Hagrid stuttered awkwardly, because the presence of the Head Girl, whose badge was gleaming on her chest, and the new pureblood girl were at his door. For some reason it seemed to thoroughly startle him. "Sorry there. Di'int see ya."

"It's alright." Hermione smiled warmly, leaving her first year shyness in a big dust cloud far behind her. "I'm Hermione White, and I just started my seventh year at Hogwarts, even though I'm new. Lily and I were wandering around and I was just curious about—well, everything in fact. Starting from the castle to the Forbidden Forest."

"Ts'okay Hermione, because it's alright to be curious. I'm quite curious meself. Remember the firs' time I came t'Hogwarts, now that was some day." He rumbled thoughtfully. Then, suddenly realizing what kind of a situation he was in, he asked as politely as possible. "Well since we're 'ere, would you two like a nice cup o' tea?"

Hermione looked questioningly at an unsure Lily, who finally gained confidence, being Head Girl, and nodded her head agreeably. "We're not in a rush, so I don't see why not."

Looking immensely pleased, Hagrid opened the door and gestured for the girls to walk in. Once they were in, he skimmed inside quickly; collecting unwashed pots and pans, but otherwise nothing seemed to be different. Of course there was a lack of magical creatures hiding out in his hut, and Fang wasn't there to growl in a friendly way every two minutes, but it was more than guaranteed that Hagrid would get him soon enough.

Hermione looked around cheerfully and inhaled the senses. She always liked Hagrid's hut. It had a high ceiling and honestly looked very antique. Hams and pheasants were hanging near the window, a copper kettle was happily whistling on the stove, surrounded by many other pots. Different specimens hung both on the wall and were distributed into jars on the shelves. A massive bed stood in the corner with an autumn-coloured quilt covering it.

"Teak a seat, make yerselves at home." Hagrid called to the two of them, gesturing to the large pine table, covered with a white tablecloth with a red and yellow flower design, which Hermione found simply hilarious and adorable. Lily still seemed uneasy as she eyed the rock cakes Hagrid had hurriedly placed on the table.

Hermione sat and politely crossed her arms. It was nice to know that Hagrid never changed, and since he was such a great friend to her when she was younger, she was sure that they would become immediate friends now. Hagrid was always there when she was sad, or angry, or confused.

"Erm—I've never had students come down 'ere before. But it's really nice 'at you two did. Always great t'have some nice company. I'm usually all alone with me pumpkins and pheasants and such, but they do just as well." He poured some hot tea and handed it out to the girls, who thanked him eagerly.

Lily tried to take a bite from the rock cake, nearly shattering her teeth, and while Hagrid was looking away, she quickly put it back, causing Hermione to chuckle soundlessly and shake her head.

"Well one of my friends, he was um—something like a poacher, he lived by the forest and owned many different magical creatures." Hermione said, sipping her tea and looking over at Hagrid who took a seat beside her. There was a flash of excitement and enthusiasm in Hagrid's eye.

"Magical creatures? What kind?" A spark of inspiration sparked in his beady black eyes, causing them to lit up immediately.

"Oh all different kinds," Hermione waved him off nonchalantly. "He took care of the unicorns in our forest, he had a three headed dog, which was slightly terrifying, but he gave it away in the end. He showed Luna and I some Blast-Ended Skrewts once, and that was extremely painful… Also one time he bought a dragon egg." Hermione continued listing off excitedly, but decided not to go too deep into it, so that she wouldn't disrupt the timeline.

"Really? That's fascinating, that is." Hagrid marveled, taking a bite out of his rock cake, which he bit off as if it was a piece of cake. Lily's jaw dropped as she witnessed Hagrid eat it with such ease, whereas she severely suffered simply with nibbling off a little bit. "Always wanted some creatures for meself, but never found a way to get 'em."

After what seemed like an hour of talking to Hagrid, Lily nudged Hermione and gestured at the clock, meaning that it was getting dark soon and dinner would be served. Hagrid noticed the little gesture and understood as well.

"Ye must be goin'. It's gettin' late and you should get to yer dinner with all yer friends." He said, collecting their cups and putting them onto the counter, as Hermione and Lily got up and headed for the door.

"It was nice talking to you, Hagrid." Lily said to him kindly, and Hermione nodded in agreement.

"It was great to make a new friend! Especially for me." She simplified jokingly, as Hagrid patted her on the back in a friendly way.

"Nice to meet yer too. Come along any time if ya want, yer always welcome." He said to them as the two nodded and thanked him. They exited the hut and started climbing up the hill towards the castle entrance.

It was getting dark, as the cool evening wind picked up and carried the autumn fragrances, which the two girls inhaled deeply. Hermione noticed that the warmth of the summer had already gone and now the piercing northern wind had finally flown in. It wasn't the playful spring breeze everyone loved, but it was cold and one blow of it caused cooled your heart to the temperature of Antarctic snow.

Luckily, her thick Hogwarts cloak was protecting her from all sides, but her hair was tossed back and forth, has Hermione cursed growing it out long and leaving it down for the day.

They eagerly climbed until they finally reached the doors, where the last of the students were coming back from Hogsmeade in tight huddles. Professor McGonagall, looking unpleased as ever, was standing at the door, and ushering students to head to the Great Hall for dinner.

It might've been the start of winter irking the teacher, or the miserable weather or maybe disturbing news, but the only thing Hermione's mind could process at that moment was the warmth of the Entrance Hall and the delicious smell of cooking food.

It was the first time in her life Hermione felt like Ronald, as she imagined the plates piled with food awaiting her. She even froze in her tracks to savour the smell coming from the kitchens, but snapped out of her little trance due to Lily pulling on her sleeve.

Hours later, after finishing an astoundingly perfect dinner, Hermione and Lily were lounging side by side in the Common Room. Everyone was tired that evening, so no party was held, much to James and Sirius' disappointment.

At the beginning of the year, they planned to have a Gryffindor Party every Saturday, but Lily strictly limited that down to once a month and for Quidditch games only. After multiple sighs and pleads, the Marauders finally agreed. Sirius was still irritated by the fact that James let it happen, and apparently to him his buddy was 'losing his touch' and was 'getting whipped by a woman'. But James never denied those facts, and spun out of them with cheeky remarks.

Everyone in the Common Room was silent – the fire was crackling happily, releasing a thick aroma of burnt wood, which was surprisingly soothing. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were playing a game of Exploding Snap; Ginny was playing chess against a fourth year girl, though she denied any interest in the game at the beginning of the year; Luna in the far corner, observing the room colourful loopy looking glasses… (Everyone was used to Luna by now.)

"Can this moment just never end?" Lily yawned, stretching out on like the cat on a lazy Sunday morning. "As much as I love learning, I cannot tolerate some things about it."

"It's impossible. At least we have our time now to relax and just be alone in peace." Hermione closed her eyes, as she replied to her friend. "Before James decides to blow something up in this room and you're gonna have to clean it up."

Lily groaned, muffling her voice by putting a pillow on her face. "Let's just cross our fingers and hope that he doesn't do anything stupid, like he usually does." Hermione just nodded and hummed in reply, as Lily continued to hum. "He's not stupid, I know he's not. Have you seen any of his marks? He has O's in almost everything. He just acts stupid, and tries to get attention."

"I wonder why…" Hermione's voice dripped with sarcasm as she raised her eyebrows and turned her head to Lily, who rolled her eyes and even blushed a little.

"If he wanted to impress me, he could just—"

"Damn it, Sirius! You cheated!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"You're insufferable!"

"You're such a liar!"

"No!"

"Reducto!"

BOOM!

A crackling explosion sounded out unexpectedly. The energy wave generated was so strong, everyone was thrown back, as Hermione, Lily and Luna to jump up and whip out their wands. Dark billowing smoke started to erupt from the corner where the four Gryffindors were playing Exploding Snap. Everyone starts coughing and waving their hands to clear out the air, until someone realized that opening a window would be more effective.

As unexpected and disrupting the explosion was, James was on the floor on his back, clutching onto his stomach, laughing his heart out, while pointing at Sirius' not amused, blackened ash-covered face.

"Guess your lady calls for you." Hermione laughed, lying back down onto the couch, as she received a snort from Lily.

As predicted, the noise level in the room increased by a good fifty percent, due to Lily scolding James for setting a poor example, not showing the proper qualities of a Head Boy, being an insufferable, intolerable git who struts around the place like he owns everything, and everything else everyone had already heard before.

Hermione smiled sleepily at the scene, but it was quite adorable. James attempted to look innocent, but to Lily, this was just another one of his tricks. She was waving her hands, screeching away, pointing at Sirius, who stubbornly still hadn't moved from his previous position, proclaiming that he would only move if Hermione would so very delicately remove the soot off his face by hand, to which Hermione snorted and shook her head.

But because of all the ruckus caused by James and Sirius, no one, which includes absolutely not a single person in the room, noticed how little Peter Pettigrew, jittery as ever, excused himself and was out the door.

The quiet thud of the portrait hole was the only remaining evidence of Pettigrew's prior presence, and before she knew it, Hermione's feet were taking her Merlin knows where. Her war-like tracking reflexes tingled as she regarded the moving staircases. Students weren't out in the halls too often on Saturday evening, thankfully making it slightly easier for Hermione.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed the flash of a black cloak, causing her to run down a set of stairs and stop herself before she made an appearance in the doorway, and she nearly slipped on something.

Before she could make a noise, she caught herself and looked at her feet. A singed exploding snap card lay on the ground. Hermione thanked Merlin once again for leaving her this clue and now she knew that she was on track. Uneven on-edge steps were heard down the hall, which Hermione recognized as the Gryffindor's. She didn't know how, but she could differentiate odd things, and identify reoccurring details: stuff like that. This connected her and Luna even more, causing them to be almost telepathically connected.

"Which is pretty curious." A voice marveled from behind her, causing Hermione to spin around immediately, wand drawn, even though she knew by the sound of the voice, no dueling would be necessary. "We could be like Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson! By attitude I believe you would resemble Watson more, but by your problem solving skills you'd by like Sherlock. Your mind is pretty chaotic."

Hermione couldn't help but smile. "Luna. Hey." She placed her hands on her hips and raised her eyebrows. "What are you doing here?"

"Most likely the same thing as you: following that Peter Pettigrew." Luna compiled for her friend, bouncing up and down, while twirling a piece of hair between her fingers.

"How did you know?"

"Well the absence of two people in a room might not seem two obvious when there is a crowd of people around a couple of desperate lovebirds experiencing skinny love." Luna stated dreamily, as if she was writing a romantic fan fiction for her OTP. "But I notice everything. I know who walks in and out, and though I may be distracted sometimes, I can always get the Spincers to inform me."

The hall was silent, as Hermione raised her eyebrow foolishly. "Spincers?" She asked, causing Luna to stare her down.

"Oh yes. They're spies. They're everywhere." She whispered cautiously, looking around and twirling around once. "But the key is to know how to control them."

"I'd be blessed to learn more about these later, but we should get going if we want to catch Peter Pettigrew on time." Hermione said warningly ushering her friend, who nodded and set off in a jog behind her.

After humming a strange tune for a couple of minutes, Luna rambled about her idea, with which is seemed like she was completely intrigued with. "Or we could always be called Sherlock Watson and John Holmes. That could always work."

This was the moment when Hermione was allowed to snort and get distracted slightly from their mission of searching in never-ending halls for that darned Gryffindor pest. Hermione was so thankful that Luna was here with her. If there was no one to cheer her up all the time, the daughter of Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw would probably go crazy before Madam Hooch could say 'Quidditch'. And she said it pretty darn fast.

The disadvantage of having moments of deep thoughts and small distractions was that Hermione always put herself on autopilot, and tragedy was bound to strike. Like this time: her thoughts were interrupted by a painful nose and a moment of falling onto the floor. Great going, Hermione! Perfect moment to crash into a wall. She groaned, gripping her poor nose, which, luckily, wasn't bleeding, but was nevertheless aching with no end.

"You really shouldn't get distracted too much." Luna noted thoughtfully, scratching her head with her wand. "Now I understand why you try to act serious all the time! Because you're clumsier than Severus on a Sunday morning!"

"Is that bad?" Hermione groaned, still gripping her nose.

"It's not necessarily satisfactory, but if nothing else can, it will do!" Luna smiled cheerfully.

But Hermione cursed under her breath. They lost sight and sound of Pettigrew. Maybe it was all her extra thoughts rolling through her brain, or maybe she just mistaken Peter Pettigrew for a drunk dancing Hufflepuff, which wasn't likely. In any case, there was no proof that Pettigrew had even been in this hall. Hermione just followed her gut when she ran, causing her to remember the saying her parents always said to her.

Her parents.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger. They always used to say. "If your brain is telling you that something's right, you should do it and use your moral judgment. But if you have a feeling in your gut, you should go out of your way to follow it. Even if your brain catastrophically contradicts your gut feeling, rules need to be bended and sometimes even broken, so that you can do the right thing."

Maybe her gut was not always right? Maybe in the wizarding world it was quite the other way around? If only I had the Marauder's Map here with me.

"I do." Luna stated simply, as if reading Hermione's mind. It caused the brunette to blink several times before realizing what actually happened.

"What?"

"I have the Marauder's Map." Luna answered again, not moving any both part except for her mouth.

"How did you know I wanted it?" Hermione regarded her suspiciously. Was she getting sloppy with her Occlumency, because there was no way Luna could know what she was thinking.

"Well, I believe that lately you have developed quite a strange tendency to reason out loud, which is not necessarily a bad thing." Luna added on cheerfully, but her face turned somber again. "But if the information you're rambling about gets put into the wrong hands… You're doomed."

How could Hermione be so stupid! She did notice that she started talking out loud and luckily she did it only with insignificant people and insignificant random statements, which honestly wouldn't hurt a fly. But if this habit was going to get worse, there was something that had to be done.

Usually, Hermione reviewed this skill when she was studying. While creating multiple hundreds of scrolls of notes for her personal well-being, she was used to mumbling, repeating words, sentences, phrases, sounding out words, deciding whether or not the vocabulary was appropriate in the context. The mumbling became quite a habit after her first year, when she returned home for the summer, she would add logical and intelligent afterthoughts to her statements, as if trying to scribble them out and rewrite them. Sometimes, it would really irk Mr. and Mrs. Granger.

But luckily, she got over that habit and it didn't come up any time after that.

"Why didn't you tell me you had it here before?" Hermione hissed at her friend, groaning once again, but thankfully the pain in her nose turned into a dull throb. "It would've been much quicker if you just—"

"—Hermione? Is that you?" A voice sounded down the hall, as footsteps neared and Hermione gasped and turned around to see Logan Bell approaching her from the other end of the hall.

"Yeah, yeah, it's me." Hermione smiled kindly in reply, reassuring him.

Logan smiled cheerfully, for some reason quite happy to see her, "I thought it was you. It did sound like you. Oh, hello, Luna." He added on when he saw Luna behind Hermione, who was twirling once again, looking up to the ceiling. She stopped and looked over in the direction of the voice.

"Hello, Logan."

"So, Hermione did you go to Hogsmeade today?" He asked her as Hermione nodded giddily.

"Mhm, yes I did."

"And how did you like it?"

"Oh, it was brilliant! Just as I imagined it to be! I just wish I had more time to walk around, but there were so many people, it was just a mush down there!" Hermione exclaimed, telling the truth and the only thing she was upset about from the Hogsmeade trip.

She remembered how she liked to stroll around Hogsmeade in her earlier years, even though she didn't have many friends to walk around with, since Harry and Ron were always either in Honeydukes, the Quidditch shop, Zonko's or The Three Broomsticks. This limited her visits from her favourite bookstores and quiet reading time, to grabbing whatever book she had in spare time and mulling all the words over and over again.

Logan seemed amused with Hermione's excitement, but nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it gets rough the first couple of times. But after that, it's a piece of cake and there's always a tolerable amount of people. You'll get used to it, I promise."

"Oh I don't doubt it." Hermione grinned at her friend, who returned the grin and ruffled his own hair, before flattening it out again.

"I heard many girls started shopping for their dresses, so the tailors' was completely crammed." He told her, as she shook her head in amusement and he regarded her strangely. "You didn't go to any of the shops? Or look around for dresses?"

"Firstly I think that it's stubbornly early to go dress shopping. Everything is ridiculously crammed and there is no way to get through." Hermione explained with a small laugh. "Also, I'm not too much of a girl who fancies dresses and shopping. If I ever need anything in like that, Ginny's my professional in that area of expertise."

Logan chuckled, nodding and scolding himself, "I can't believe I actually asked you that. I'm pretty sure I knew previously that you weren't that type of a girl. It would be out of the ordinary if you bought a dress on your first Hogsmeade trip."

"Ah, well, I don't necessarily let my feminine side take much control over me." Hermione snorted cheerfully rubbing her face with her hands. "If you saw me as a child, you'd probably have nightmares about me. I wasn't a wild child, which meant that I constantly buried my head in a book, or was playing with my two friends. So nothing on the basis of 'mother and daughter shopping night' or 'family sleepover' ever happened for me."

"I don't think you were that bad." Logan interjected, rolling his eyes. He obviously didn't know what he was talking about, Hermione thought. Logan seemed to be interested in Hermione's past but she wasn't quite willing to tell any of it at the moment. It was a protective little side of her that prevented any stranger or little-acquainted friend to find out more about her.

Especially about her dreaded past.

"Oh I was, trust me." Hermione contradicted him almost a little too roughly. "But, of course," She sighed, drawing her eyes away from Logan and examining Luna, who was examining one of the tapestries on the wall, "I had my friends who supported me by making fun of me and giving me the blast of my life."

"At least you had them, huh?" Logan laughed sheepishly, making his way past her, creating the impression that he wanted Hermione to follow him there, but he suddenly stopped in realization.

"Are you two going somewhere?" He looked suggestively from Luna to Hermione, as he gestured towards the direction of the Common Room. "Or are you planning to go elsewhere?"

Hermione fiddled with her thoughts, thinking quickly. She obviously had to lie, since openly stating that she was planning to stalk Pettigrew probably wasn't the best of ideas. The boy was so innocent, but he was smart: and if an unstable or poorly-supported lie was told, Logan would definitely get suspicious.

Right when Hermione collected her thoughts, and was about to answer his question, Luna interrupted her happily, "We're following a liar and a murderer! We've known him for quite a while but now we have to corner him and we have to see what crime he's up to next! It's up to us to save the world and prevent eternal collapse." She nodded at Logan.

His expression was completely unreadable. He was definitely amused, judging by the corner of his lips twitching upwards, but he held a genuinely confused expression, which might've possibly been a mix of deciding whether or not he should run for his life or bring Luna to the Hospital Wing. Probably both of the options.

Deciding to save Logan from his brain crushing misery, Hermione justified for him, "We were just going down to the kitchens to grab a bite." He looked like he was about to offer to walk them there, like a perfect gentleman, but Hermione was not completely in the mood to talk about sappy stories of her childhood. She was on a manhunt. "It's okay, Logan. Besides, Luna was just telling me about these creatures, what are they called again?" she turned towards Luna.

Luna was still examining the wall, but she responded to the question dreamily, "Was it the Nargles again?"

"No…" Hermione said thoughtfully, starting looking at the ceiling, trying to remember what the names of those tiny little creatures were. "Not the Nargles…"

"Maybe the Spincers?" Luna asked again, and Hermione snapped, looking at her friend triumphantly.

"Spincers! That's the one!" She exclaimed gleefully, punching the air and turning back around to Logan. "They're tiny creatures. Very lethal thought. Used as spies I believe. They understand English, so they can report and interpret anything the victim is saying." Hermione nodded knowledgeably, and turned to Luna, "Is that right Luna?"

"Precisely." She agreed dreamily, and suddenly turned to the two Gryffindors, her midnight blue eyes blazing in the dim lightning. This caused Hermione to think that she was in some sort of Trelawney-like coma. Maybe Luna was a seer? "Even though they're tiny, they can use dangerous weapons. Sometimes they can brainwash you and you won't remember anything that happened. Some say it's stronger than Obliviate." Luna informed Logan, who was looking extremely on-edge at that moment.

That would definitely creep the poor boy out. Hermione didn't mean to scare him, but when she was after something, all distractions had to be removed, and unfortunately in this situation Logan Bell was considered a distraction. She would make it up to him in some way later. Hermione was just trying to somehow telepathically connect with Logan and be like an inner angel voice, telling him to take the bait.

And luckily he did.

"Well if you ladies don't need any help finding the kitchens, I must be off. I have some unattended business to get to." He smiled, forcefully gulping, although for a moment he looked intrigued, "Excuse me."

And he was gone, as Hermione sighed in relief, and looked at Luna whose expression went back to normal.

Hermione looked at her friend with a confused expression. She frowned at her. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" Luna asked her hopping on one leg.

"Your eyes blazed for a minute or two, when you were creeping Logan out." Hermione shivered, because the effect that Luna's eyes hard was disturbing, going out of her every day vocabulary, it was plain creepy.

"Oh, I've been working on that trick for a while." Luna said off-handedly, tapping her wand against her thigh distractedly. "I think it's starting to work."

"It definitely is." Hermione shuddered, suddenly imagining Luna developing laser vision and shooting down Voldemort's army with muggle lasers. It was ridiculous that such a brilliant mind like hers was thinking about destroying the Dark Lord's army with muggle weapons, but even the silliest and most unpredictable events happened in life.

For example, who would've thought that after years of growing up in a strict British family and learning muggle morals, Hermione Granger was actually superior to Draco Malfoy, even after all the times he picked on her because of her social status.

Everything was completely bizarre in this world; therefore, making hypotheses was nearly impossible.

"I had a couple of projects I set for myself when we arrived here." Luna explained simply. 'Projects' in Luna's world probably meant insane amounts of potion making, experiments, discoveries, interaction with magical creatures and bunch of other dangerous stuff that would worry a normal human being. But then again, it wasn't a normal human being. It was Luna. "Some of them I have already accomplished, some are in process and some I just don't know how to star. But we'll get there." She added seriously.

As much as Hermione would love to discuss future sadistic and/or mythical goals Luna had in mind, they were on a mission to discover Pettigrew, find out his social status during that time period and analyze what they could do something about him.

If they even could.

The trouble with going back so late in the Marauders' years was the possibility of everything slipping. If they went back and somehow relived their childhoods, connected with James, Sirius and Remus, there would've been a completely different story. Maybe they wouldn't even befriend Peter and he wouldn't even be placed into Gryffindor, but Slytherin instead. Even then, they might've not become the closest of friends, or one of them might've developed deeper feelings for one of the girls. That's why they decided it was best that they came later, even though they didn't really have a choice.

"Luna, the Map." Hermione finally remembered as her brain flickered back to reality. Her friend just nodded eagerly and reached into her purse, which, for some reason, Hermione didn't notice until that moment, stuck her hand it and brought out the old but gold piece of parchment.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Hermione uttered, pointing her wand at the Map. Black ink carefully started to appear on the paper, until the spare piece of parchment turned into the key of the Marauders' success. As expected, many, if not most of the students were in their dorms/Common Rooms. Teachers were in their quarters. Filch and Norris were wandering around the Transfiguration Corridor, just about to run into Violetta Bulstrode.

Hermione's eyes dodged from paper to paper, as she flipped the different folds carefully, yet diligently. She didn't want the Map to rip. She was quite surprised that it hadn't ripped before: it went on so many adventures and ventured through so many experiences, there was definitely some spell still holding it together.

Finally, she found the two dots representing Luna and herself. From that, she made assumptions. Luna helped her flip the folds and search for the names, which wasn't as easy as one thought. Finally after a dreadfully long and irritating two or three minutes of searching, just as Hermione was about to flip another fold, Luna stopped her with her wand and tapped the paper on three dots in the depth of the dungeons.

Hermione sighed in relief that they had finally found Peter, and he didn't mysteriously disappear off the Map of Hogwarts. This brought her to the conclusion that her suspicions about Peter were correct.

But as soon as Hermione glanced at the paper to triumphantly convince herself, she was in shock. She gasped, as her eyes widened. She couldn't believe what she saw, making her heart to skip a couple of bits, as if her blood suddenly turned into hard and unforgiving ice. One of the dots was Althorp Avery, and the other was Benedict Nott. But the last name did not belong to Peter Pettigrew.

It belonged to Sirius Black.

Dun dun dun duuuuuun.

By the way, happy belated Victoria Day to anyone out there who celebrates it out there! It was quite hilarious, Monday evening that is. I was sitting at home, on my bed, typing away another chapter (fireworks are fizzing, exploding, just getting set off outside), etcetera. My window was open at that time, because it was hot and my parents refused to turn on the air conditioner. So suddenly, the temperature drops by like five degrees in my room, and right when a firework goes off, lightning crackles across the sky and thunder just booms! I jumped up because it was so unexpected. But I love the rain. And thunder. So it's was all good (It was like the lightning said "let me show you some real fireworks") :D

Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, and you have a burning passion in your soul to ask me questions, leave comments or just say hello, you may: I am more than happy to accept any reviews!

Anyways, have a good one! Hope to see you soon! xxxx

GirlxMarauder