Chapter 25: Greenhouse Three

After the havoc caused from the food fight in the Great Hall, a large number of Slytherins and Gryffindors were given detention for two weeks. The recipients of detentions did include Sirius and James, much to their dismay. The other boys had earned a lecture from McGonagall, but Remus and Peter got away without detention, since they weren't full out fighting the Slytherins.

The only good thing that seemed to come out of the incident in the Great Hall was that the whole pranking trend was over. The rival houses had learned their lessons the hard way. It wasn't total peace; there were still angry glares exhanged in the hallways and the occasional teasing, but it was still more peaceful than before.

On one particular afternoon, Hermione found herself relaxing in the courtyard with Lily, Maddie, and Remus, enjoying the Spring weather. James and Sirius were in detention that afternoon, and therefore nowhere to be seen. Hermione was still enjoying herself, however. Spring had sprung in full force, bringing warm weather and a peaceful atmosphere.

"At least James and Sirius aren't banned from quidditch," Lily mused while the group considered the punishments.

"Yeah, though I doubt McGonagall would ever do that, she knows that we need them for the house cup," Remus commented.

Maddie chuckled, "It's funny how much you all talk about Quidditch. I've never cared for it much."

"Me neither," Hermione muttered, "I mean, I tolerate it, but flying was never my thing, and it doesn't seem all that interesting."

"Yeah, James and Sirius are the reason I follow it, if it weren't for them I'd probably skip most games." Remus commented.

"I enjoy it," Lily grinned, looking around the group.

"That's just because you like to watch James play," Hermione teased.

"Exactly," Lily grinned slyly.

The group broke off into laughter for a moment, and to Hermione's surprise, she seemed to hear someone laughing behind her...

She turned to find both James and Sirius, stuggling to keep an invisibility cloak on them as they entered the courtyard. James shoved Sirius, who's face became exposed. He looked at Hermione and grinned.

"What are you guys doing here?" Hermione asked, shocked and confused, "Aren't you supposed to be in detention?"

"We snuck out," Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. They both approached the group and James removed the invisibility cloak.

"How did you sneak out of detention?" Remus asked incredulously.

"You're both going to be in so much trouble!" Lily exclaimed.

"Calm down, we won't get caught." James said, "We only left because Slughorn fell asleep, he won't even notice we're gone."

"He'll wake up eventually," Maddie said doubtfully,

"I'm sure we'll get back there in time," Sirius muttered

After that, both boys sat down with the group in the courtyard, enjoying the nice weather. Hermione still couldn't believe they had done that, and repeatedly told Sirius how bad this would turn out. He just told her not to worry, that he never got caught.

"So when do you two plan on returning to detention?" Lily asked after a couple of moments.

James shrugged, "Eventually."

"We've still got a while, Slughorn's naps take a long time, and-" Sirius abruptly stopped and turned his head towards the entrance to the courtyard. "Shit!" He hissed.

Hermione looked to see Slughorn, wobbling into the courtyard, eyes searching the groups of students.

"Run!" James whispered, grabbing Lily and pulling her away to an alternate exit.

"Come on!" Sirius said to the others, grabbing Hermione's hand as well.

"I don't need to run away, I'm not in any trouble!" Hermione protested, but still continued to move behind Sirius as they entered a long corridor. She looked back into the courtyard to find that they had left Remus and Maddie behind. However, the couple didn't seem to mind very much, they would probably rather relax than run away from a professor.

"Just come on," Sirius practically begged as they moved through the corridor quickly behind James and Lily, the latter of which was protesting almost as much as Hermione.

After turning a corner at the end of the hallway, the group stopped while Sirius peered back down the corridor, "He's coming!" Sirius whispered frantically.

Merlin, there was no turning back for Hermione and Lily now.

The group continued running through the schools corridors, which were relatively empty except for a few small groups.

"Watch this," Sirius murmured to Hermione, who was running beside him. With a lazy flick of his wand in James' direction, the boy seemed to trip over his own feet and fall to the ground.

"Sirus!" Hermione chided, but eventually laughed a bit along with Sirius.

"I'll get you for that!" James called after them angrily once they had passed him and Lily by.

"James, we need to get away from here!" Lily whispered, helping him up.

Within a moment, James and Lily were in full pursuit of Sirius and Hermione. They were actually haing a bit of fun with it as Sirius dodged James' hexes of retaliation. Soon, however, they were halted when all four of them realized where they were.

Greenhouse Three.

Hermione read the sign before her and peered into the empty glass classroom with various plants and herbs.

"Let's go!" Sirius said excitedly, leading the group inside. They weren't running anymore, and Hermione took a moment to regain her breath before following behind James and Lily.

"We're going to get into so much trouble..." Lily muttered quietly, staring into a large fern that sat before her.

Hermione breifly considered why she wasn't freaking out and forcing all of them out of the Greenhouse. For a moment she thought that maybe her morals had declined so much that she no longer cared about getting in trouble. But that wasn't really true. She decided on the fact that maybe through all her time spent with the marauders and Sirius, she had become a more carefree person. Of course, over the years, Hermione had always been evolving to be less strict and prudish person in general. Maybe her time here had just magnified that part of her personality.

As Hermione watched her close friends wander around the brightly lit greenhouse, she realized something very important: she was the happiest she had ever been at this moment. With these people, with a love like Sirius, without the worries of war and death, Hermione had found her happiness. She felt like she belonged here, with people she loved, people who made her happy. A big smile spread across her face as Sirius approached her.

"I love you," he murmured into her ear as he hugged her.

"I love you too," she whispered back. He quickly picked her up for a moment, while she let out a little squeak of surprise. They were both chuckling as he let her back down to the ground, keeping her hand in his.

"We should get out of here," James said uneasily, "That vine over there is starting to creep me out..."

The group left after only a moment, returning to the corridor and finding it empty.

"You guys really need to get back to detention," Hermione said, realizing that they would probably be getting into a ton of trouble.

"Yeah," Sirius nodded, "Ready then, Prongsy?"

"Lets go, Pads," James affirmed, pulling the invisibility cloak out and draping it around the two of them.

Hermione and Lily laughed as they wached the boys stumble down the hallway. They were far too big to be able to both fit under one invisibility cloak, and that made for a funny sight with their visible ankles and occasionaly bickering.

The two girls walked back to the courtyard and found Remus and Maddie right where they had left them. "Did you all have fun, then?" Remus questioned.

"Oh yes, we had quite an adventure..." Lily muttered.