CHAPTER 16

Severus found himself in a sitting room. He took in a defensive position as her saw her raising the wand but she simply extended the wand to him. he realized it was his own wand. He snatched it from her rather rudely.

"Why did you bring me here?"

"Would you rather I left you to be caught by the Aurors?"

"How do you know?" he said. The witch was clearly not an auror otherwise he would not have received his wand back. She had clearly helped him by getting him out of the place. But he could not stop being paranoid in the unknown place. In all his years , he had learnt by experience that when people helped him, they expected something back in return. And she had helped him knowing he was a Death Eater. His eyes darted to her arm to see if she had the mark.

"I'm not one of them." She said as he placed the kettle to heat.

"one of us, you mean?" he said , taking in his surrounding. The room was decorated in red and brown. Two adjacent walls were covered with book shelves that touched the ceiling. Severus liked the place. He had imagined himself once leaving in such house with the woman he loved but that had been a dream too distant to be true.

"why did bring me here?" he asked again.

"I already answered that." She passed him a cup. He knew better than to trust strangers and sniffed the cup to identify any poition that could have been mixed in it.

"Come on Sev, I know better than to give potion to a potion master. Besides if I wanted to harm you I wouldn't have saved you."

"You could have taken me anywhere, but you brought me here. In your home. What do you want?" he asked ignoring her nickname. He was surprised with the ease with which the witch was dealing him knowing what he was.

The witch gave him a knowing smile. "I just want to be your friend Severus."

"And why would you want that, miss…"

"Hermione Granger."

"miss granger. Why would you want that?"

Hermione giggled. " Do you want me to call you Professor Snape?" he looked at her in confusion. " then call me Hermione."

"And you are right , I want something from your friendship."

Here it was, there is always something everyone wants, Snape though bitterly.

"I want to help you, Sev." She said, "I know you don't want to be with them."

If Snape was not a skilled Occlumens , Hermione must have seen shock written on his face. She hadn't meant to come so strong but Severus Snape was a man who meant business. It would be foolish to run in circles around him.

"Whoever said that to you is a liar. Excuse me." He sat up from the chair he was sitting in.

"Severus, wait." She called him as he was near the door.

He stop but didn't turn back to look at her.

"You might not want my help right now but please, if you ever need anything, you remember , I am here to help you. I will never ask anything in return." As she finished, Severus Snape left. She heard a pop outside and sank down on her chair hoping Severus would believe her. Unknown to her, a distraught Severus Snape entered his house , not believing himself. He knew when people lied, he was well aware that she wasn't and it scared him.

Hermione felt the unease in the body language of the residents of Lunarville. The sense of dread increased as she saw Peter standing in the middle of room looking delighted with himself.

"Is everything okay?" she asked as she took out her coat.

"Of course." Lily said, "Would like tea...?"

"Don't lily." James said as she got up to go near her.

"We trusted you Mione. How could you do that to us?" Sirius raised his wand at her. Out of reflex Hermione raised her own but it flew out of her hand to Remus.

He wore a conflicting expression but still managed to look angry.

"I don't know what you all are talking about." Even if they did know her truth she couldn't understand their behaviour. No it was something different.

Her eyes darted to the object in Pettigrew's hand saw him holding an old junper of Harry with Potter in it. But this particular jumper she had been careful to not wear around any of them. It just hung in her wardrobe at her cottage along qith Ron's Weasley quidditch jersey. They were angry with her because they thought she had stolen a jumper? She laughed at the absurdity of it all.

"All of this," she said circling the room with her finger, "for that." she pointed at the jumper.

Though she was laughing, it hurt her thinking that they didn't trust her.

"It isn't for that. It is because you..."

"James please we know.." Lily warned. But James paid no heed to her. "It is because you gave my wife poison."

"WHAT!" Hermione's shouted. Hermione's first instinct was not to defend herself. But to look at Lily, her hand protectively wrapped around her stomach. She breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment, she was scared like hell. She had lost Harry once and had convinced herself that even if Harry will never know her as her best friend, she will still be his Aunt Mione.

Unfortunately for her, her not defending was taken as her acceptance of the crime.

"Look at her. Not even trying to denying." Peter sneered at her.

"I am not denying anything Peter" she spat his name, "because I don't know what you are talking about."

"You don't, don't you?" James said angrily. You hadn't come for lunch, so we sent Peter to invite you for dinner. He found out the potion you were brewing to poison her."

"and you believe that?" hermione asked looking at everyone but Peter.

"Why would Peter lie? He doesn't even know you." Sirius said.

"Because of the rat , he is." She saw the blood drain from all of their faces.

" You know? When?" Sirius blabbed.

"I have known all along." She simply said. From the corner of her eyes she saw the wand in Peter's hand twitch.

"Do you…" Remus started.

"yes Remus, I know about you too. And I can answer all your question but not in front of the rat."

"Why? he know all about you. we have told him everything. Why not in front of him?" James asked.

"Does he know about him?" she asked Sirius her voice panicked. If Peter knew, it could risk everything. Voldemort would change the locations of the horcruxes or he could create more of it.

"We haven't talked about it yet." Sirius replied that she was confused of this all thing. She saw fear flash across his face in the thought that his brother returning to him had been only an act.

"We all want to know why Hermione. Why did you have the aconite potion in your home." Lily asked, though her voice was gentler.

"It was for Remus." She said and their eyes widen in panick. She was pushed back to the wall and Sirius was pointing his wand at her throat.

"You dare! After all that we did for you, he did for you. How dare you try to kill him" he roared in anger.

Hermione tried to push him back but he was stronger than her.

'Why Hermione" Remus asked , his voice full of hurt, " Is it because I am a.."

"Don't say that." Remus flinched and Hermione realized her mistake. Remus was going to use the word werewolf but she had thought he would say 'monster'.

Lily gasped in shock. She too looked hurt. James and Sirius were angry while peter was happy.

"I am sorry Remus. I thought you would say monster. You know I have no problem with werewolves. Trust me, I wouldn't harm you ever."

"We all know aconite is poison." Sirius said.

"No it isn't." she said, " and if you will step back Sirius black, I could tell you why I was brewing the potion for Remus."

Sirius took a step back but kept his wand pointed at her.

"Much better." She said.

"Why, Hermione?" Lily asked her voice pleading in desperate hope for a good reason.

"Aconite is poisonous for a wizard but not for a werewolf." She said.

"what does it do?" James asked.

"If used properly in a potion, it could help the person keep their mind and control their actions during the full moon. It would make a person more like an animagus. And with right amount of myrrah , the transformation can be made painless."

She saw the eyes widening around her.

"Its impossible." Remus said looking too hopeful for his statement to be true. Sirius had his wand lowered. James was looking at everyone's face while lily looked elated.

"She is lying. I saw Snivellus coming out of her house. We all know he is a Death Eater, maybe they put her to this work." Peter said , throwing cold water on everyone's happiness.

"Why are you ratting against your fellow death eater , Peter?" Hermione sneered at him and saw his face lose color.

"W…What are you s..saying?" he said. " She is lying James."

Peter was even a bigger coward then she had thought, his panic worked as the seed of doubt to everyone. The marauders had been friends for almost a decade and knew when someone among them was lying.

"Peter?" Sirius asked, remembering a conversation he had with Hermione not so long ago, If I didn't knew you already trusted the wrong person. Her words from long ago rang in his ears. It was sick of him to doubt on his best friend on the words of a stranger girl. But he couldn't help think of the strange behaviour of Peter recently. He had been gone most of the times. They had thought it was due to the death of his mother that he had distanced himself from them, that he needed time and space , but hadn't that been around four months ago.

"Go on, Peter, prove me wrong, show them your forearm." She sneered at him.

Peter clutched his arm tightly securing it. The boys were looking at him with shock that they didn't see him raise his wand and point it towards the pregnant woman. Hermione saw it. But she had no wand to throw a shield charm to protect her. She couldn't let him curse Lily, it would harm both her and Harry. She did what was the only way to save them.

A loud scream broke the silence that hung in the room as Hermione jumped infront of the spell that Pettigrew had thrown over Lily. The house was in chaos. Lily was crying holding the thrashing girl in her lap. James and Sirius broke out of shock and threw stunners at the same time on Peter which knocked him out. Remus ran to Hermione and pulled him to his chest.

"Mione." He said holding her tightly.

"Thank you Hermione." Lily said still crying. "You saved him." She held her stomach with one hand and placed another on her cheek.

Sirius too had knelt down beside her but James stayed far away. Hermione stood up.

"We need to take you to Madam Promfrey." Remus said, supporting her as he held her around her waist.

"I have had worse. I just need an anti cruciatus potion. I have it at home. Besides , this place is no longer safe. I would say you all come there too."

"Hermione I..." James started but didn't know how to continue. He felt guilty, embarrassed. He had doubted the witch who had so selflessly thrown herself in front of a Cruciatus to save his wife and son from the man he was siding. He felt so pained. If she hadn't been there, the rat could have killed his wife and his friends and him whenever he wanted.

"James." Hermione took a step towards him. She placed her hand on his arm and said, "I know what he meant for you , even though he was undeserving of all of yours love. I won't judge you for siding with your family. I know I shouldn't have lied to you. I should have told you the truth. I don't know what prompted me to lie when I knew very well that you will understand. It is partially my fault."

James pulled her into a hug. A while later she was surrounded by more bodies and realised Sirius and Remus had joined them. A bright flash and a smiling Lily told her that they all looked too cute for her to miss the scene.

The guys pulled back all embarrassed and red faced and the girls laughed at them.

"Will you tell us now?" Remus asked.

"Lets go to my home now." She sighed.

guest

Totally. I will not allow anyone to die as long as our Heroine is there. Don't worry, no good Slytherins will be sacrificed and everyone will have their own place in the story. Just wait with me. Keep reading.

daichisjuicythighs

Don't worry he is stunned pretty bad with two of our best Aurors.