February, 1976.

Lily sighed, looking down at her painted red nails with a frown. She hadn't imagined things would go the way they did.

After Severus had pointed out of how glaringly obvious their crush on each other was, she thought she could help them by giving Black a little push.

All it did was ruin things and complicate them further. Her mind supplied her with several accusations of her drugging her former roommate, but she fervently refused to believe them. She hadn't meant it in that way, so it was fine.

At least, she hoped so anyways.

She just didn't think that she would get so affected by her relationship with James. The boy had proven to be so gentle and loving, making her heart thud several times faster than it should. Still, her stomach couldn't help but churn at the obvious fact that this behaviour of his wasn't reserved for her only.

He was like that with Black, too. If not . . . better.

The first time she tried to bring it up to James, he laughed and told her of how Black was his best friend and that was just how they'd been behaving since their first year.

But she was his girlfriend now. They ought to act differently.

"Say, Lily," Alice called from her bed, and she was snapped out of her thoughts. "What's bothering you?"

Lily sent her friend a confused look. "Huh?"

The brown haired witch arched a brow at her, and she shuffled closer on her mattress. "You look worried," she began in her usual kind tone, one that had helped Lily get through many hardships with its presence. While Severus was her best friend, she still felt grateful for a girl friend like Alice, who always remained by her side.

"Well," Lily began with unease. "I've been thinking about Hermione being in the same dorm as James."

Alice's eyes moved towards the other mattress, empty of its owner as Marlene was still in the shower. "Did you talk to James about it? You're probably just overthinking."

Lily picked at the dried nail polish on the sides of her nails. "I don't know . . . it's not normal for a girl to live with three other guys, excluding her brother."

"She has very bad nightmares," Alice reminded her delicately, staring at the empty space where Black's bed used to be.

Marlene entered the dorm, her blonde hair still damp as she played with her wand to dry it. Lily groaned and she sent Alice a desperate look. "I guess. It's not like I want to ruin things for him and his friends . . ."

The blonde jumped on her mattress and moved to cover her face with the blanket, not before letting out a loud scoff.

Lily bristled at her immature behaviour. Just then, Marlene resembled her older sister, who'd acted just as prickly, if not worse, after being told by Professor Dumbledore that she couldn't come to Hogwarts, as well.

In both cases, Lily believed that she didn't deserve the cold shoulder she got. Everything was new to her and she couldn't help the way she felt.

However, she had learnt her lesson. She realized that it would be better to talk, rather than just act on something.

Yes, she'd do just that.


James felt sick to his stomach. He was disoriented, so fucking unsure on what to even think. The more his eyes moved, the more aware he became of how desperately they were to move away from her.

He gripped Lily's hand even tighter, causing her to look at him. "James?"

He swallowed, looked at her and smiled — or tried to, anyways. Ever since that conversation with the boys, his insecurities played constantly in his head and he could barely move at the thought of not liking - no, not knowing Lily.

He then blinked at Remus, who he realized with a biting fire under his skin that surely the werewolf knew everything about Hermione.

Possibly even the mountain of secrets that James was sure she was hiding from them.

He scowled, biting his tongue to stop himself from asking, 'How is that fair? Am I not your best friend, too?'

"Oi, why are you looking at Remus like you want to choke him to death?" Peter asked through a mouthful of chicken and - well, he couldn't quite tell what else.

Hermione eyed both boys distastefully, even though James hadn't even spoken with his mouth open!

He immediately thought of a logical complaint to throw her way, but her eyes flew back to him and she questioned, "Why are you not eating?"

"Not hungry," he mumbled, instead grabbing a napkin to delicately wipe Lily's lovely lips. Her cheeks flushed in red and he sat back with a satisfactory smile.

"Fine," Hermione bit out, going back to playing with the peas on her plate.

"Why are you not eating?" he couldn't help but ask, not even as Lily slid closer to him and — ah, he could even say that she was almost on top of his lap and he should be happy, but - but - but—

"I'm not hungry either," she said surly, pushing her plate towards her twin instead, who happily took it with a wide grin and patted her head despite her complaints.

James stayed quiet, even as Remus set tea for her and placed it in her hands with a concerned frown.

He almost scoffed right then and there. They weren't even dating and yet-

-yet, they were acting like any other day, James finished in dismay. It was nothing new.

Lily nudged his foot and he glanced at her curiously, noticing her slightly narrowed eyes. He immediately wondered if he'd recently pulled any prank—no, he definitely hadn't—and arched a brow at her.

"I'm done eating. Do you want to come?" she asked, already standing up from the bench.

Say yes.

"Of course, Lily-flower," he said with a cheeky smile, waiting for her small smile with an eye roll to come - but it never came.

He immediately set his lips in a straight line and tried very hard to focus his mind, to make sure he didn't do anything unacceptable in the eyes of Lily.

Her opinion mattered a lot to him. So, he gladly let her lead him to somewhere quiet, which ironically — for some reason, he found it ironic — ended up being the same classroom as yesterday. Yeah, that one.

Lily closed the door behind her and as she turned, he pressed his lips softly to hers, welcoming her arms around his neck. He sat on the desk behind him and pressed against her slim body, welcoming any heat coming from her.

Her eyelashes fluttered against his skin and he slowly moved away from her, smiling at her dazed face.

His heart felt betrayed, his lips did not.

Lily wrapped her arms around his stomach and her face snuggled on his shoulder. "James . . ."

He patted her back gently, encouraging her to keep talking as he closed his eyes.

Please, let the hole fill with her presence.

"What do you think of Hermione?"

Again. "She's my best friend," he said, like every other time he'd been asked this question by her, "and I respect her a lot, no matter how many times she messes around with my hair and—"

"James," she cut him off. "Why does she stay in your dorm?"

Ah, he could tell what she was thinking and really, he should have a smug smile on his face at the jealousy she must be feeling for him.

But instead, he was reminded of the many times Sirius took his time waking up and the few minutes that were filled with Hermione terrified mumbles in her sleep.

"She has very bad nightmares, and she can't deal with them without Sirius's presence near her. The twin bond gives her relief," he explained, his arms still around Lily.

His girlfriend seemed to exhale a very frustrated breath. "And what happens once she gets older? Because, Black is definitely not going to stop messing around with girls to babysit his sist—"

"I will—the Marauders will help her, always. You can't blame her for wanting to sleep in peace."

"And if - say you are away at night with me," she cleared her throat at that and continued, "and the other guys are away too — even Remus — what will happen?"

His throat constricted at the mere thought of her being left alone. "I'll be there for her," he said, his voice hoarse. He lightly pushed her away to look at her and pleaded with his eyes for her to understand. "I can't just—"

Lily gave a short, bitter sounding laugh and arched a brow at her. "What happened, James Potter? What happened to all the times you confessed to spending the night with me because you love me so much?"

He gaped at her, speechless for a moment before he shook his head. "Lily," he enunciated clearly, "What are you trying to say?"

She bit her lip, her expression resembling a shattered glass, tears glittered in her eyes. "Can you please try to stay away from her?"

James moved away in an instant, his heart beating faster in surprise, anger or-

"What?" he blurted out in shock. Whatever joke, or prank this was, he didn't find it funny. What—

She held his arm, her grip switching from tighter and looser as she spoke. "I'm sorry — I just can't help the way I feel. You - you look at her so differently than you look at me, and yet — I feel like that should still be me, you know?"

She hesitated, looking at his expression carefully. His face now marred a frown, because this awfully sounded like the start of a breakup conversation, from what he had read in the few books Hermione had given her.

And why are you thinking about her right now, of all the situations?

"Surely, after all these years of loving me, you won't mind just doing me this one small favour," her voice hitched and he held her hand because he was her boyfriend and he should be comforting her, "Can you blame me? Wouldn't you tell me to stay away from a guy because—"

But, he hadn't.

"I haven't," he interrupted her, his voice as steady as it could be with the myriad of thoughts in his head. "You know? I could have asked you to stay away from Snape, but I haven't."

Clearly, Lily hadn't thought about her childhood best friend until now, because her jaw dropped at the realization that James really hadn't mistreated him in any way, ever since they started dating.

Lily, on the other hand . . .

James pushed the thought away.

No, bad.

"Still," she said in a defeated voice, "please, love." Her hand cupped his cheek and he leaned closer to allow a peck from her soft lips.

He will regret this — he didn't mean what he was about to say — surely, he could lie his way out of this —

"I won't break my friendship, ever. But, I can try to keep an appropriate distance from - from her."

That was the most he could do. And it said a lot about how much importance Hermione Black held in his life.

Too much for even the love of his life to take that away from him.


Hermione was in a sour mood. The moment she'd entered Professor Dumbledore's office, she'd known nothing was going to make her frown disappear.

It was hard being always right.

Granger snorted and oh, how badly Hermione wanted to enter her own mind to pull the older woman's hair.

How would it look, two similar looking women fighting each other?

Hmm, I can hear you, Granger warned.

Hermione almost smiled, but her thoughts flew back to her journey to the Pensieve, where she learned of how good of a student Tom Riddle was—just like you, Hermione, the Headmaster had said—and she scowled. Because he was anything but a good student. The Prefect — who even decided to offer him the badge, when he went on bullying and ordering his friends for years? — turned out to be responsible for a murder.

He killed someone in his fifth year. At her age.

He was nothing like her. He was a sick, twist minded boy who freed whatever creature that ended up hurting several students and even murdering Moaning M—no, Myrtle Warren.

To think that Hagrid was blamed for it and Riddle received an award for his lies, it made her blood boil. Surely, Professor Dumbledore could've done more at the time, if he was so sure that the Slytherin had done everything.

Maybe then, Tom also wouldn't have ended up killing the remaining Riddle family and blaming his uncle for it.

At that moment, Hermione wished for nothing but to discuss this with someone other than the Headmaster. The old, graying wizard looked pitiful, regretful but that did nothing but frustrate her. She wanted to do something, not wait weeks to hear about his crimes at his young age.

She could talk about it with Sirius, but . . . her shrewd twin would definitely ask how she even came to know about it, and - and he can't know about the lessons, Alastor Moody and—

Ugh, Alastor Moody. She talked to him through the Floo and proceeded to be yelled at for missing the lesson, despite her telling him that she was literally drugged.

He had the audacity to throw a 'Constant Vigilance!' her way!

He wasn't wrong, though. You do have to be more vigilant of your surroundings, Granger spoke, self-nominating herself as Hermione's conscience.

If Granger was that angel on the shoulder of the main protagonist, where was her devil?

Her devil? The Love Potion had also messed with her hormones. For a crazy minute as she forced herself to remember the boy in her dream, she thought she'd seen James.

She snorted out loud, not noticing the concerned stares she got from the boys.

"Look at her! She's going crazy. We should go somewhere," Sirius complained, evidently tired of lazing around the dorm for the rest of the evening.

"We should wait for James," said Remus in his teacher voice, reminding her a whole lot of Granger. Was she hiding Remus in her unconscious? She shuddered at the thought. Granger was just fine. At least, she didn't remind her of chocolate constantly.

"Padfoot, your sister just gave Moony a funny look," Peter teased, his head already ducked as he waited for her to throw a pillow at him. She didn't do that, but someone still definitely did and earned a flustered look from the rat Animagus.

"Ow, James!"

She looked at the entrance and saw James stand there, his jaw locked as he scratched it. "Sorry, Pete," he said and reached his bed in long strides, "What are we doing?"

"Let's go to the Forbidden Forest," Sirius immediately said like he'd planned it hours ago, jumping to his feet. He pulled his hair in a small ponytail and offered her a hand, though when she took it, he immediately let go of it and she fell on the floor, hard.

"Godric Gryffindor, help me not kill Sirius fucking Black," she shrieked, sitting up on her knees as she rubbed her bottom.

By the time she looked up, the pain of a brother, Remus and Peter were all by the entrance, and only one boy was left in the room with her.

Hermione glanced at him and curiously enough, he ignored her pitiful situation—didn't even offer her a hand!—and moved towards the door.

Her brows scrunched together, she tried to stand up and called, "James?"

He acted like he hadn't heard her and joined the rest of the boys, still clearly waiting for her to hurry up.

What an . . . arse!

Harry would never do that, Granger muttered in a disapproving tone. Her painful bottom told her to ignore the woman's strange words.


It wasn't the first they'd been to the Forbidden Forest. If that was the case, she'd have strictly forbidden any of them from going. But well, she was blackmailed to join them in second year and she admitted, thirsty for knowledge as she was, she couldn't help but feel curious at the time, to see if Hogwarts: A History had been accurate in describing it.

Words couldn't describe how peaceful her surroundings felt, despite the name that had been decided for the forest.

Also, she should have put on a coat, she stupidly realized. For someone who had just gone through so many consequences due to a mere cold, she was indeed stupid.

The breeze was hardly noticeable, she reassured herself and hid her trembling hands from the prying eyes of the boys.

"It was so weird seeing Hermione trying to kiss Remus yesterday," Peter said with a strained voice, looking like he'd throw up. She and Remus nodded along —really, how could anyone even think of . . . her and him that way?

He was like a brother.

"Ugh," Sirius whined like a puppy, "Don't remind me, please. Imagine if one of you two actually liked each other." He shuddered and Remus laughed, putting him in a headlock as a revenge for all the times her twin had done it to him.

James stopped dead in his tracks, and she glanced at him curiously. His head snapped towards Remus, who was still trying to fake-fight Sirius, and Hermione, who continued to watch him with wide eyes. What was going on in her best friend's mind?

She approached him with tentative steps — since when was she so careful around him? — and tugged him along, continuing their journey deeper in the mystery of the ancient trees that surrounded them.

The wind whistled, leaves rustled and James - well, he continued to stare ahead. She tugged at his arm once again, finding his robe surprisingly warm and she slipped her hand inside the large front pocket on his robes.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, tone going for casual but coming off worried.

They both stopped, while the other boys continued their walk. Her best friend still wouldn't meet her eyes and she almost left him right then and there, but - but she was complicated too and he'd never left. So, why should she?

And she was probably making a big deal out of his behaviour, really—

His warm fingers latched around her wrist and he brought it away from his pocket. His hand replaced where her own had been and he shook his head. "Nothing, Hermione," he cleared his throat and nodded ahead, "We shouldn't lose Pettigrew. Moony and Padfoot might kill him."

Granger snorted; Hermione blinked. She could still just barely register the loss of the heat, the silence in his smile, the avoidance in his tone.

"What's wrong?" she repeated, her voice firmer. She didn't touch him again - no, he didn't like it, maybe and it was fine. He had a girlfriend and Merlin, why was she mentally rambling about that when the gesture had been nothing but friendly?—

He shrugged. "I feel tired," his voice was weary, and she immediately nodded. She knew how that felt. "I don't know what to do, and . . ." he paused to look at her, "I can't do what's asked of me."

Boy, did she also know how that felt.

"You're definitely not talking about an essay right now," she mimicked what he'd said last night, "But does it help if I say that if there's anyone that can put their all into doing something, it's James Potter? Come on, Jamie. I thought you were more confident than that," she joked, his lips twitched, and her heart soared. "I believe in you. Give it time and you'll manage to do whatever it is just fine."

"Not with you around, I'm not," he said, looking like he hadn't meant to say it out loud at all.

She gave him a small, confused smile. "Hm?"

He shook his head, still in a daze or — something. "We should go. Shouldn't we?"

"Uh, yes. James?"

He had already started his big strides and she took her time to catch up as she heard him respond, "Yeah?"

Did my hand bother you? "I still hate your snoring."

His head fell back and he finally laughed, the sound soothing the rustle of nature above her.

She began walking again, hurrying to catch up to the rest of the boys. They were right behind her and she could hear Sirius say, "Sod off!" at something either Peter or Remus had said.

Her twin sure was cranky, and she totally wasn't.

She heard Remus mention her little brother once again and her brow arched as an instant reaction. "You've been doing that a lot," she said, getting closer.

Remus turned around with a quizzical look. "Doing what?"

She bit down a smile and answered, "Asking about my little brother."

"Whatever."

She finally grinned and latched her hand on his arm to stop him. "Ooh — is that Remus talking or cranky Moony?"

"Whaa—"

A twig snapped and their heads immediately snapped ahead. Two shadowed creatures greeted their sight and Remus moved to wrap his arm around her, but James had already dragged her closer to him by her wrist.

Before she realized, her mind had registered the human torso and the horse body, immediately screaming at her with one answer: Centaurs.

The one with lighter hair than the other took a step closer and they all scrambled away, though Granger forced her to remain rooted to the spot.

Constant vigilance—constant vigilance—constant vigilance—

Don't be scared, Granger told her.

"You're not welcome here."

She swallowed, looking back at the boys with wide eyes as she spoke up in a strained voice. "We're truly sorry. We didn't know we'd reached your colony," she apologized profusely, bowing her head in hopes they'd trust her words.

The Centaur's eyes shifted towards James, before he glanced at her again. "I am aware."

His companion stepped up and she could immediately tell who should be feared the most between the two. "A lesson needs to be taught, Firenze!"

Firenze shook his head. "The Fates do not approve of her death, Ronan."

Ronan immediately backed away. "What must we do?"

"Wait for the humans to tell her what needs to be," he answered as though she wasn't right there and turned around. "I advise you to leave right now." The Centaurs began to walk away stiffly, and Hermione let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"They were talking about Hermione, were they not?" Peter asked in a worried voice, his eyes darting over to each one of them.

"Nah, you've heard from Hermione of how irrational Divination is. They were just babbling," he scoffed with a smile that soon faltered, and he laid his arm around her shoulders. "Let's just go. This was a bad idea."

Hermione nodded mutely.

'Wait for the humans to tell her what needs to be.'