Hogsmeade: Part 2
Fair Warning: This chapter is a long one. A real treat for Christmas! Enjoy!
"Ladies first!" Sirius bowed while opening the three broomsticks door and soon, James joined him as well.
"Thank you, boys," Lily proudly said while entering through the door, soon followed by Hermione who gave a shy smile to Sirius to which he smiled back brightly. After Hermione and Lily went to find a table, The Marauders gathered near the entrance, Sirius' eyes still lingering on Hermione who was now talking to Lily and trying to find a table when he suddenly felt a nudge in his ribs and turned to his left to see James smirking.
"Man, you're so obvious! Anybody can tell that something is going on between you and Hermione," James said.
"Pfffft," Sirius exclaimed and said, "No."
"Sirius, have you ever noticed we are not blind? Oh wait, nevermind; for you to notice us, you need to take your eyes off Hermione first," Remus laughed from his right and high-fived Peter who was on Remus' other side.
"Guys!" Sirius uttered.
"Sirius!" came back their reply in unison.
Sirius sighed and complained, "How do I live with the three of you again?"
"Mate, you are having some serious Hermione influence on you," Peter said. "We can't afford to have you turned into a bookworm. I mean who is going to set firecrackers outside the great hall at 2 am again with us?" Peter dreamily mentioned. He didn't mean it seriously, he was just giving Sirius a hard time.
"Peter, have you seen me? Earth will cease to exist when I become dull and stop playing pranks, bet I'll be doing that when I'm old as well like I'll probably hide James' walking cane," Sirius said while James lightly smacked him.
"Completely, like I don't have a wand to hex you with. You'll probably fall and break your back," James laughed.
"Anyways lads, care to join the ladies with me? Huh, Prongs?" Sirius spoke, walking ahead of them to join Lily and Hermione.
"Is it just me or is he super into her?" Remus said, watching Sirius walk and take off his coat to put around the chair and sit next to Hermione who was sitting opposite Lily.
"Nope, not just you, he is so into her," James said.
"Well, I don't know about you lot, but I'm not giving up an opportunity to drink butterbeer," Peter said and followed Sirius' track.
Remus and James faced each other and Remus spoke up.
"You know what? We should go," he said using his thumb to point towards the table.
"Yeah," James nodded.
Both of them walked over and sat down at their seats. Hermione, Sirius and Peter on one side while opposite them sat Lily, James and Remus. While talking, Sirius leaned back at one point and put his arm across Hermione's chair, and she didn't seem the least bit bothered about it. He looked over to see the three boys trying to hide their smile, in response he just lightly glared at them.
He may make it look like he doesn't care or that nothing exists in him for her, but deep down he knew she was everything. No girl has ever made him feel like this. Whenever he was dating somebody or just a casual fling, he never wanted to be with her 24/7, but Hermione, she was something else; like his eyes always searched for her when he entered a room.
He turned to glance at Hermione, who was currently talking to Lily about- actually he didn't know and the reason for that is she drowned all sound. He couldn't hear anything, just see her. He smiled when that thought crossed his mind. From what he knew, she hasn't really ever been with somebody, but he always wondered, how can anybody spend so much time with her and not fall in love? Wait, what? Love? Did he love her? As in, more than just a friend, romantic kind of thing? Out of everything, this was the most shocking because he never imagined himself falling in love!
"Should I be expecting this?" he thought to himself, while still keeping his gaze steady on Hermione. No, no way, it is way too early! It's only near the end of November; barely 3 months since he knew her!
When suddenly somebody banged their hand on the tablespace in front of him, which managed to snap him out of his daze. He looked at James, who had so rudely interrupted some deep thinking.
"What?" he asked.
"Sirius, I have been calling your name for the last minute, but apparently, you were too busy staring at Hermione to see me." James said, "I know you, Brutus."
"Alright chill out, I am not some Brutus and the day any of you think that day, well, it will be the end of the world! Plus, I wasn't staring at Hermione, I was staring at something behind her," he defended himself.
"Hmmm, I didn't know that a wood floor could be so interesting!" Lily exclaimed, looking at the floor in disbelief. Hermione, on the other hand, was stuck between blushing or watching him interestingly, so she kind of did both.
"Yeah, Sirius, you were watching a wood floor because?" Remus asked, smugly.
"Lost in thought! And that was rudely interrupted when James, right here, decided to smack the table for no reason!" Sirius said, leaning forward.
"Nevermind that, what were you thinking about? The wood floor or somebody was directly in the line of your sight?" James piped up. Sirius knew all about this, they weren't genuinely interested in what he was thinking about, they just wanted a verbal confession of his feelings for Hermione. Not that they didn't know about it, but Hermione and Sirius were completely oblivious to all these signs.
"I- I wasn't- I didn't," Sirius stuttered and suddenly stood up. "There is something called privacy! And I am going to get some butterbeer, though none for you guys."
When he was gone, everybody turned to Hermione.
"Well, we know Sirius is the worst liar ever but what about you Hermione?" Peter asked.
"What about me?" she asked innocently, too innocently and, of course, Lily picked up on that. That girl is just so perceptive.
"Oh, come on! Both of you can be so thick sometimes. We all know you two like each other, so just say it, just like James was always so verbal about his thoughts for me," Lily said while pointing to James. To which he tried to lean into her as a display of affection and she put a hand up to stop him, again, and said, "Uh, remember? Don't get any ideas? Yah, don't get any! Moving on, Hermione I don't want to force you or anything but it is so torturous to watch you two pretend and not do anything!" she sighed.
"Well, now you know what me, Peter and Sirius felt like for 7 years," Remus muttered under his breath.
"Did you say something, Remus?" Lily asked, looking at him.
"Oh no, I was just saying, Hermione, it's just very obvious Sirius likes you, and you aren't that private about your feelings either," Remus replied.
"Alright guys, I know it's long overdue and there is nothing to tell but am I that obvious?" Hermione asked shyly.
Peter snapped his fingers and said, "Alright, there you go! Finally at least one of them said something! Phew! The tension, god it was too much!" he sighed.
James just cheered and was suddenly shushed by Lily and Remus who told him that he was creating a racket.
Hermione smiled and turned to look at Sirius who was currently standing at the bar with Catherine, a girl from their year. The whole year knew and had named her as the 'cliche of the mean and bratty girl of the year'. Upon seeing that they were both incredibly close, she frowned a little and said, still looking at Sirius, "Uh guys? Yah, not so sure about Sirius' feelings."
Everybody turned from their little celebration to look at Catherine and Sirius and their close proximity left little to the imagination of what was happening over there.
"Nah, they're just chatting away like buddies, right Peter?" James leaned back and said.
"Oh yeah, of course. Buddies! Meaning friends, huh? Noting romantic at all, just platonic! Meaning-" Remus cut Peter off to show his hand telling him to calm down.
"Alright Peter, that's enough exploration of the friendzone dictionary, let's not make it more- more awkward?" Remus suggested though he wasn't very sure that he believed that it was just friends. They all looked at Sirius and Catherine again but this time, Catherine leaned over and kissed his cheek, while he put a hand on her waist.
"Yep, completely friends!" Hermione said and turned her head away. "I thought you said he likes me!"
"He does! Completely he just sometimes gets- gets…" James suddenly said.
"Lost?" Remus finished James' sentence.
"Yes! I mean this one time back in Year 4, he confessed to a girl but then that girl saw him kissing-" Peter quivered but was cut off by Remus and James who cried, "Peter! No!" in unison.
Hermione turned around to look at Sirius carrying 3 bottles in each hand. He came and sat in his seat and leaned back like nothing.
"Here, guys. Butterbeer!" he announced joyfully. Hermione awkwardly smiled and took a bottle, which she downed in one go; earning cheers from Sirius and nobody else.
"Hermione and I are going to go fix our hair! Come on!" Lily said while standing up and coming around the table.
"We are?" Hermione asked in confusion to which Lily lightly smiled, trying to to get her to understand. "Yes, we are!"
Both girls headed towards the bathroom, conversing along the way.
"He likes you, believe me!" Lily pleaded.
"I don't know. From what I know, he is supposed to be the popular guy who likes every girl. What makes me different?" Hermione sighed. "What makes me different that he would actually like me?"
"Because you're Hermione Granger!" Lily said, which earned a look of confusion from Hermione. "Not the Hermione Granger who played a pivotal role in beating you-know-who; But the one who is standing in front of me right now, who cares about her friends so much and have you ever realised how much you have been through? You have seen so much darkness but you never gave in and that's what makes you different. He sees that, and that is exactly why he likes you. You built yourself and you didn't do it for attention, you're a young independent woman who doesn't need a man while everybody he's been with depended on him, stuck to him all the time and clung to him. He loves you, we all do! And-" but Hermione cut her off by giving her a giant hug. Both of them just stood there for a few seconds as Lily's word sunk into Hermione.
When Hermione pulled back she asked, "Lily I didn't even know I needed that so much! So thank you! I think ever since I arrived here, I doubted myself and thought that maybe I wouldn't last but, you were here, and that was enough." Lily smiled warmly.
"Anyways, this is what we do right now," Lily said and started explaining.
When Lily and Hermione returned she stuck to Lily's advice. It was very simple. All Lily had said was "Now that we know he likes you, you don't really have anything to worry about. Just be yourself and mark my words, soon Sirius will act on his feelings too; and remember, I'm always here for you."
Hermione came and sat back at her designated seat when Peter said, "Alright! Time for Honeydukes!". Nods of agreement were sent by everybody. When they got up to pay the bill near the counter, a disagreement broke out between James and Sirius (again) about who was going to pay the bill; Hermione had to step in and remind them that they had agreed on splitting even though she doesn't mind at all paying for herself and the others. In fact, she had reached down to her bag when Sirius put a hand on her own and said, "No no no no, it's our treat, remember? Plus, I wouldn't hesitate ever to pay for you, no matter what you buy."
Hermione blushed a little bit at that but was a little taken back.
"As an independent woman, I wouldn't mind paying my own bill but really, that was so sweet, Sirius." She smiled, as did he. The rest of the gang just eyed each other and smirked.
James broke the silence by saying, "You know what? We're just going to go, and you two," he pointed at Sirius and Hermione, "can go back to your staring and bill paying thing because I wasn't lying when I said that if you two just keep on getting lost, we're never going to finish this trip."
Sirius sighed while Hermione thought to herself that James did actually have a point. Exactly how many times had they been interrupted staring- or gazing rather? Quite a lot. When James and Sirius finally finished paying, all of them walked towards Honeydukes.
They shopped at Honeydukes, where at one point, Catherine walked up to Hermione while she was looking through the 'Drooble's Best Blowing Gum' section.
"I'll get him," Catherine whispered.
"Get who exactly?" Hermione asked confusion clear on her face though, on the inside, she knew who Catherine was talking about.
"Sirius, of course. Once he sees my charm, he will forget about your button nose always shoved in a book," she sassily replied.
"I would stand here and argue with you, Catherine but see, that's the difference between you and me. I don't chase after boys, they chase me," Hermione walked away with a proud little smile on her face, leaving Catherine standing there, gaping.
o0o
After Honeydukes, everybody agreed that it was best to head back. While on the way, Hermione told Lily about her little interaction with Catherine. Lily cheered Hermione on and said something along the lines of how she did a good job of putting Catherine back in her place. After getting back, they all went to the dorms to freshen up before meeting back in the common room.
Later that night, when everybody was settled in bed, Hermione and Sirius were having the same thoughts swirling in their heads, with one that kept on recurring:
"Maybe I should really make a move and admit my feelings."
Yes, hello! This was the second part and just for your information, (and maybe excitement or something, I don't know...), the next chapter is Christmas! And look at the irony, today is 24th December. That reminds me, Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year in case I don't get a chapter out by then, let's hope 2021 is way better than 2020. Can't wait to open presents tomorrow! But yes, I'm super excited to write the next chapter because it's Christmas! I think it will be a nice little chapter. Also, if you're wondering when everybody is going to find out the truth about Hermione or what's going on with Voldemort and everything, don't worry, we will get to that later, but as for right now, it's in the backseat. I wanted to thank you guys as well because everybody seems to really like this story and I never imagined having more than 5 followers for this story but really I do want to thank you guys because looking at this just makes me so happy now! Your reviews really do motivate me all the time! Alright, a lot of information! Anyways, thank you for reading and like always, reviews are appreciated!
(Hey, that's kind of becoming my outro!)