Story Notes!

Happy Saturday everyone, I hope you've all had a wonderful week!

Thank you as ever to champagneandliterature both for the wonderful alpha/beta work and for the general all round encouragement. Your support really means a lot.

There is a teeny tiny, half content warning on this chapter... I know I'm prone to over tagging and over warning, and I'm not really sure if this story needs it because it really is mostly pure fluff, but they do talk about scars in the scene at Grimmauld, and there is mention of Hermione's torture at Malfoy Manor. If you are triggered by any of that, please do read that part with care.

Just in case anyone is thinking it's all gone quiet on the 'Who wrote the notes?' front... I'll just mention the saying 'the calm before the storm...!'

Okay, that's enough clues and teasers...! I hope you all like this chapter, and I'll be back hopefully next Saturday, more likely the one after.

Lots of love to you all! Xx

The next morning Hermione woke up to a pounding headache and an unsettled stomach. She opened her eyes, only to immediately slam then shut against the light of what appeared to be two miniature suns, blazing directly inside the bed hangings. She groaned in confusion, flung a hand over her eyes, and wondered why the bed felt so unusually cold. Feeling around, she discovered it was empty on both sides. She frowned against the throbbing, piercing pain in her head, but there was definitely no sign of Draco or Theo, and by the cool feel of the sheets, they had both gotten up a while ago.

She winced as she thought back to the previous evening. She remembered drinking, a lot of drinking, and a fun, though alarmingly squeal filled gossip session with her girlfriends. She remembered dancing with Draco and Theo. Then her eyes widened in alarm as she vaguely remembered agreeing to visit Lucius Malfoy and Theo's father in Azkaban, but from then on, she drew a complete blank. Try as she might, she couldn't remember the party ending, getting back to the dormitories, or going to bed.

She blinked again as the bed hangings moved and something large and silver stalked regally out through them. Finally dragging herself into a sitting position, she turned to look at the remaining source of blinding, silver light. Theo's lioness Patronus was curled up like an oversized kitten at the end of the bed, watching over her carefully. "Where are they?" she asked, but of course, the lioness said nothing. She just moved closer and pushed her wispy head under Hermione's hand, asking for a stroke in the same way that Harry's stag often did. Ignoring the strange feeling of stroking something non corporeal, Hermione grinned as the lioness moved up the bed then stretched out beside her, pressing against her side much as Theo himself did every night.

Hermione took several deep, slow breaths. She wasn't sure what to do. She truly felt terrible, and she had no prior experience with hangovers to fall back on. Why on earth had she drunk so much? She closed her eyes, trying to remember more details from the previous evening. There had been lots of ready mixed cocktails laid out on a trolley. Pina Colada, Sex on the Beach, something purple, and maybe even something blue as well. She shivered, feeling her stomach roll yet again at the thought of the alcohol that had gotten her into this state.

"Morning, sleepyhead," a male voice called from outside the bed hangings, "are you decent? Can I come in?"

"Umm, yes. You can," she answered vaguely. She recognized the voice, her befuddled brain just wouldn't register who it belonged to. "Come in."

Mercifully, it was Blaise who drew back the curtains while holding a selection of potion vials in his hand. "Oh, dear," he said with a lopsided grin. "You don't look much better off than Ginny. Hannah's feeling pretty poorly this morning too. Here. Start with this. It's hangover potion. In fact, do what the others have done, take a double dose. Then there's a vit-a-potion pick me up, and finally, Pepper up."

"Thank you." She pushed her unruly hair back and downed the hangover potion gratefully, despite her stomach's protest. "Where's?" she didn't have the energy to finish the sentence. She just gestured weakly to the empty bed and to Theo's lioness, who was edging hopefully closer to Blaise.

"Gone to check on the Bowtruckles. It's still awfully snowy out there. They're helping Hagrid make sure all the forest creatures are coping with the conditions. Meanwhile, I'm on nurse duty looking after all of you. What on earth happened on your side of the divide last night? I'm even checking in on Pansy in the Gryffindor dorms too, since she won't move out of Harry's bed-"

"'Mione, I think I've died," Ginny called weakly across the dorms, "how are you feeling?"

"Same," Hermione muttered, although she was starting to feel marginally better as the hangover potion started to work. "Are we supposed to be going to Grimmauld later?"

"Yep," Blaise said, smoothing her bedsheets gently. Hermione smiled. It seemed that underneath his usually aloof exterior, he too had a softer, more caring side. "Well," he said, passing her the next potion and scratching the lioness behind her ears, "Theo and Draco are definitely going. They promised to brew the Wolfsbane for Remus, and that needs to be done today. I'm also told that a cooked breakfast will sort you both out. Although I'm not totally convinced by that myself. It's not how I was taught to cure a hangover."

"What do you do in Italy when you have a hangover then?" Ginny wrapped Blaise's duvet around herself like a toga, stumbled across the cold dorms then plopped down into bed beside Hermione. Ginny was still in her nightshirt, her hair was a tangled mess, and she snuggled backwards into Hermione's side, reminding Hemrione strongly of all the times she and Ginny had shared a bed at the Burrow when they were younger.

"Comfy in there is it?" Blaise asked, lifting an amused brow. "In Italy, we swear by a double espresso and a bowl of simple spaghetti. Italians call hangovers postumi della sbornia, it literally means 'the after-death of drunkenness,' which I think is quite fitting this morning, don't you?"

Ginny just grunted then snuggled closer against Hermione, and Hermione out of a long held memory started to play with her hair, a gesture that had always comforted both of them in the past. "Are you coming in to join us, handsome?" Ginny asked, gazing up at Blaise hopefully. "Alternatively, you can just keep speaking Italian to us, either option will do."

Blaise patted the patronus, watched it slowly fade away into smokey vapor, then leaned down to kiss Ginny tenderly on the lips. "I think Theo might hex me six ways to Sunday if I get in the same bed as his girlfriend," he said with a laugh. "I'm going flying for a bit anyway. We're heading to Grimmauld at midday. You've got an hour of sleep left, girls."

Hermione nodded, thanked him for the potions then leaned back into the mass of pillows, falling asleep with Ginny's hair still in her hand before Blaise had properly closed the bed curtains.

She woke an hour later to find her legs tangled up with Ginny's, and Draco and Theo watching them both incredulously. "Fuck me!" was all Theo said, while Draco merely smiled and continued dropping his soaking wet clothes into a pile on the floor.

"I can see you ogling me Weasley," he smirked, grabbing a towel on his way to the shower, "so don't pretend you're still asleep."

Ginny laughed as she rubbed her eyes. "You're quite a nice sight to wake up to, actually. You're pretty, Malfoy. It's a shame Blaise doesn't like men. You two would look good together."

"I've often thought that," Theo agreed, also undressing shamelessly on the other side of the bed, "still, even if Blaise decides he's curious, I'm not sharing Draco now."

"That's a shame," Ginny said. "Although, you're very pretty too. Come here," Theo grinned as she propped herself up on one elbow and beckoned him closer. "Which tattoos did Blaise do?"

"These," Theo pointed out the snake, the clock, and the time turner hiding amongst the flowers on his upper arm. "This was the first one he ever did on an actual person," Theo pointed out a simple filigree heart with initials inside on his hip. "I'm going to get him to do a couple more in the holidays."

"He's really good!" Ginny said, looking impressed. "What do the letters stand for? I'm going to see if he'll do one for me too, I think."

"F.N. Their my Mother's initials. Florence Nott, the only woman I'd have tattooed on my body, aside from you, love." Theo threw Hermione a wink as he kicked his sodden clothes into a heap then headed for the bathroom.

"Hermione smiled, disentangled herself from the sheets and sat up with an enormous yawn. "That's risky Gin, what on earth will your brothers say?"

"They can say whatever they like," Ginny asserted, finally getting out of bed as well. "Charlie's in no position to talk. He's got more than Theo. Bill's got a few as well. So have the twins. None of them have any right to complain. Percy disapproves of everything anyway, so we'll just ignore whatever he says, and Ron, well," she waved her hand dismissively. "It's Ron." Ginny grinned wickedly as Hermione nodded. "Right. Nice as it was to stare at your naked boyfriends, 'Mione, I'm going for a shower myself. I'll see you at Grimmauld in a bit."

Despite the copious amounts of hangover potion she had consumed, Hermione still slept for another hour before getting up. The floo journey to Grimmauld Place was decidedly unpleasant. She staggered as she emerged from the fireplace and took the steadying hand that Sirius offered. "Amateurs, the lot of you," he grinned as he pulled her forwards into his arms, almost toppling her off of her already unsteady feet. "At least you're here though Kitten. Pansy and Millie haven't made it."

"Seriously," Ron said, shaking his head, "Millie passed out mid- well, never mind. What on earth were you all drinking last night?"

"Cocktails," Hermione groaned, leaning her head onto Sirius's shoulder and breathing in the lingering scent of his leather jacket. "But believe me, I've learned my lesson. I'm never drinking again."

Sirius laughed as he released her. She sat down at the table, sighed and ran a hand over her still slightly bleary eyes. "What you need is more practice."

"What you need is a cooked breakfast," Remus countered. He lifted a plate, that had obviously been held under a stasis charm, over to the table and placed it in front of her.

"Try it 'Mione," Ginny said, seeing Hermione's dubious look. "I looked at mine the same way, but after a couple of bites it did help. If all else fails, you know where the toilet is."

"Thanks, Gin!" Hermione managed a small laugh as she started to cut into her eggs.

"To be honest, Hermione, you looked brighter when you and Ginny were trying to entice me into your bed this morning," Blaise said, smirking at Theo as he entered the kitchen, then spun around to glare at him, "it's alright Nott, I turned them down, enticing though they were all tangled up together, I didn't fancy losing an eye."

"You're lucky, Zabini," Theo growled, "that I'm otherwise engaged this afternoon. Also, I've come up here wandless so unless you want a punch in the-"

"Easy, petal," Blaise grinned, clearly enjoying goading Theo, "we both know I could take you anyday."

"Blaise was a little put out that I called you and Draco pretty this morning." Ginny interjected as everyone, even Hermione, ignored their now familiar squabbling.

"I am pretty," Theo grinned, giving Blaise a wink, "is that why you're drawing those? Let's have a look?"

"I'm getting this one," Ginny pointed to a winged golden snitch as Blaise held out a sheaf of sketched tattoo designs. "It's going to flit around when you press it so it's impossible to catch."

"No snitch is impossible to catch," Harry said absently, flicking through a different notepad of designs, then looking up to meet Blaise's lifted brow, "Oh I didn't mean, not on Gin, oh never mind!"

Blaise just smirked, "Relax Harry, I know what you meant. Theo's the only one who pushes his luck like that around here. Did you want something anyway, Nott? Only you're hovering over my shoulder with a pinny on."

"Oh, yeah." Theo blinked, "It's a potions apron not a pinny, Zabini. Which you'd know if you were any good at the subject yourself. Draco sent me to get the pestle and mortar please."

"It's in the... here," Remus said, taking an ancient looking stone bowl and grinder from a floor level cupboard. "We've never ground anything for Wolfsbane before though."

"Well, we're using Snape's old recipe and it definitely recommends grinding over fine chopping. Although, if you'd prefer we can-"

"Snape's old recipe?" Sirius said, looking up from Blaise's designs, "how did Draco manage to get that? Much as it pains me to admit it, Remus says Snape made the best Wolfsbane he's ever taken. We tried everything to get hold of that recipe!"

"I think Snape left it to Draco in his will. Godfatherly bequests or something," Theo said, looking surprised. He took the mortar and pestle from Remus and glanced back at Blaise, "find me a good one, will you please, B? I fancy something new," he broke off as a wicked grin crossed Blaise's face, "On second thought, maybe I'll wait for a day when I haven't insulted your potions prowess."

Blaise merely laughed as Theo blew Hermione a kiss then left the room. She pushed her mostly finished plate aside. As usual, the others had been right. She did indeed feel much better now that her stomach was full. "Better Kitten?" Sirius asked, taking her plate and helping himself to the sausage she'd left.

"Yes, thank you. Blaise," she began, casting a nervous glance around the room. She swallowed, realizing that she trusted every single one of the people gathered here with her life, she had nothing to hide from any of them. She indicated her forearm, where Bellatrix had carved the vile mudblood slur into her skin. "Do you think you could cover this scar up?"

Blaise canted his head to the side and motioned her to come closer. She saw Sirius exchange a surprised look with Harry before she resolutely turned her face away then offered her arm to Blaise. He gently pushed her sleeve up to study the offensive wording.

Merely having the scar on display made Hermione uncomfortable. Even though she was the one who had brought the subject up, she suddenly wanted to yank her arm away from Blaise's unreadable scrutiny and pretend she'd never mentioned it. Looking at her mutilated forearm still caused her a mixture of shame, anger and fear and she tried to keep it hidden as much as possible.

The tension in the kitchen was becoming unbearable. She glanced down at the jagged red letters standing out as angry and brutal looking as ever and felt tears well in her eyes. She bit them back as Remus put a supportive hand on her other shoulder. "I'd be very nervous about doing anything with this directly, Hermione," Blaise said eventually, and it was only then that she realized his fingers were directly over her pulse point. "I'll be honest, your heart's racing just from showing it to me, which shows how much it still upsets you. I'm not that experienced, and given the way the skin's bunched as it's healed, it might not take the ink quite as we'd like it to. But, here's an alternative idea, why don't you take a leaf out of Theo's book and highlight it instead?"

"Highlight it?" she asked, staring at him in horror, "why woul-"

"Wait a minute, hear me out," Blaise stroked over the scars gently then picked up his wand, using it to test things she didn't understand. "You can't cover a Dark Mark with a tat either. The ink doesn't take properly and it just ends up looking ridiculous. I fear this might be a similar situation. Have you ever wondered why Theo's got a snake on his arm? Especially given his controversial upbringing and the design's link to the Death Eater cause?"

"Well, yes actually," she admitted. "I have wondered. I've just never liked to ask."

Blaise nodded. "Well, It's actually his way of sticking two fingers up at all of that. Theo was never officially inducted into the Death Eaters because his father risked everything to keep him safe, but it didn't really matter because everyone just assumed that he was marked regardless. He had a choice when the Dark Lord fell. Either embrace that side of himself and make peace with it, or try to deny it, which would probably have driven him mad. So, in typical Theo fashion, he decided to own it. You could do the same here. We could highlight the word in a pretty color, put a beautiful design all around it and turn the bad feelings associated with it into something much more positive."

Blaise finally released her arm and Hermione sat back to study him intently as she considered his suggestion. "I've honestly never thought about it like that," she said slowly. She looked around the room as her mind opened up to this new way of thinking. A tear fell from her eye and she swallowed hard. "What do you all think?"

"Well I know what I'd do, Kitten," Sirius said with a somewhat proud grin. "I'm always up for giving a big 'fuck you' to the world."

"You were sorted into Gryffindor for a reason, 'Mione," Harry said, looking thoroughly impressed with the idea himself, "and that's rather a bold, Gryffindor-ish thing to do."

"I'd do it in a heartbeat," Ginny agreed.

Hermione nodded, then glanced at Remus, and finally Ron. "You need to think about it properly," Remus said, "Don't rush into anything. But if you can't cover it up and it bothers you that much, then yes, enhancing it tastefully is what I'd do."

Finally Hermione met Ron's clear blue gaze. "I don't like to see that scar," he admitted, holding up a hand as everyone turned to glare at him, "hold up a minute, I'm not still a completely insensitive prat you know. I don't like to see it because I listened to every single scream of yours that day. Every noise you made, every whimper, every cry tore through my heart like that bloody knife tore through your arm. I'd have traded places with you instantly. I saw you collapsed on the floor. I thought she'd killed you, 'Mione, and I've never been so scared in all my life. The fact that you still hide your arm away tells me that you haven't accepted what happened either. So yes, I say make it beautiful. That would piss Bellatrix off more than anything, I reckon."

Nobody said anything for a long moment. Finally, Hermione stood up, crossed the room and as Ron opened his arms she sank down into his embrace. He wrapped his arms around her and she held him as her remaining tears fell. When she eventually stood back up, Ginny was wiping her own eyes, as was Harry. "I'm going to see how Draco and Theo are getting on, but I promise to think carefully about it," she said slowly, then bolted from the room.

Instead of going outside she fled upstairs, not really sure where she was going and somehow ending up in the tapestry room. The whole of Grimmauld Place had recently undergone complete renovation and this room was now nothing like the dark, doxy infested, cursed room it had once been. Now, it was bright and airy, decorated in cool creams and blues. She paced up and down in front of the ancient embroidery, trying to work out why she felt so unsettled. Two things were going through her mind, one, that she really, really, liked Blaise's idea, and two, she was an absolute, flaming hypocrite.

She knew that Millie would have been upset to witness the exchange she had just shared with Ron. Rightly or wrongly, if she'd seen Draco or Theo share a similar moment with Pansy, or heaven forbid, with Daphne, she would have overreacted herself. She had overreacted when Theo had gone into Hogsmeade with them.

She blew out a huffy breath and turned to face the tapestry. She followed the Black family line from Orion and Walburga Black down to where Sirius' burn hole had once been, then burst out laughing. The angry black scorch mark was now framed, and the burn was signed, "Sirius Black, AKA Padfoot." A muddy paw print completed the autograph. A painted line then connected Sirius' frame with another frame, this one bearing the words "Remus Lupin, AKA Moony," and a paw print that looked suspiciously like a werewolf's.

It seemed when it came to owning the controversial sides of themselves, she was surrounded by people who did so with style.

Hermione followed the tapestry back up to a line that split into three. Andromeda Black now had a frame around her own scorch mark, but Hermione looked past that to the dot labelled Bellatrix Black and to the line that connected her by marriage to Rodolphus Lestrange. She scowled furiously at both names, briefly considered adding two of her own scorch marks to the tapestry, then let her eyes travel to where Bellatrix's sister Narcissa's dot was connected to Lucius Malfoy's, and then on down the line to Draco.

Even seeing Draco's name calmed her. He's been through a lot in the war too, and yet he was managing to heal. He no longer worried about hiding his Dark Mark away and Hermione knew that it was time for her to do the same with her mudblood scar. She pressed a finger to her lips, kissed it, touched the kiss to Draco's dot, then headed back downstairs.

With her head finally feeling clear, she stepped outside. It hadn't snowed in London, although it had been raining non stop for days and the courtyard garden was awash. Trying not to splash too much through the puddles she sidestepped a patch of mud then ducked into the makeshift brewing shed. "Hey," she smiled as Draco looked up from the cauldron.

"Shhh… he's counting stirs," Theo whispered, meeting her at the door with a kiss. "No wonder they hate brewing this. It's a nightmare, and I like potions!"

"It's high stakes if you bugger it up too," Draco admitted, looking tense as he lifted the ladle and watched the cerise blue liquid fall back into the cauldron.

"Which you won't," Hermione wrinkled her nose, "is it meant to smell, uh-"

"Like burning socks mixed with cheap air freshener?" Theo asked, "apparently so."

Draco nodded. "Also, the worse it tastes, the better it works too. So I'm hoping this batch is particularly foul. I've followed Snape's recipe to the letter, but it does differ from the official one. Severus also recommends brewing it for twenty four hours rather than twelve. So what are the chances of us staying over tonight?"

"Pretty good I'd say," Sirius said. He and Remus stepped into the now crowded cabin and shut the door against the rain. "You alright Kitten? We couldn't find you." She nodded but said no more, and mercifully they let the subject drop. Sirius nodded his understanding then peered into the cauldron. "You know, it kills me to say this, because I despised the man, but I'm glad you've got his recipe, and I appreciate you both doing this. I'll sort you out a bedroom in a minute."

"You know, Severus wasn't actually that bad-" Draco began, but Remus chuckled.

"That ones a lost cause, I'm afraid," Remus admitted. "If you imagine your rivalry with Harry when it was at its worst, that was Sirius and Severus on a good day."

Draco pulled a comically horrified face and said no more. "That smells like the version Severus used to make when I was teaching at Hogwarts," Remus said, stepping back to let Sirius see into the cauldron. "Thank you Draco."

"No problem at all," Draco said, preening at the compliment.

"Are you going to watch that all night, Malfoy? Snape's written that you can stir it every four hours at this stage, but you're hovering over there like an expectant mother," Theo grinned, stretched his long legs out on the swing seat and chuckled as Draco flipped him off and continued to gaze into the cauldron of Wolfsbane.

"Sirius is like this when we make it," Remus admitted, topping up their wineglasses and smiling as Hermione winced, and Pansy, who had only made it out of bed for the evening, groaned. "More lemonade girls?" he asked brightly, then obligingly levitated a top up their way.

"I'm never drinking again," Pansy wailed dramatically, nestling into Harry.

"I said that earlier," Hermione agreed sympathetically, ignoring the look Sirius and Theo exchanged.

"Why would there be four different jugs of cocktails that all magically refill themselves?" Pansy continued, then sat up sharply to glare accusingly at Sirius, "actually, yeah. Why? You two designed that game didn't you?" she turned around to level an affronted stare at Remus as well, "Why would you do that to us?"

"We can't be held accountable for your lack of judgement, I'm afraid," Sirius grinned, "no one forced any of you to keep drinking them, did they?" Pansy harrumphed as Sirius tossed a pack of cigarettes to Theo then lit one himself with a click of his fingers.

"Ta," Theo looked up as Draco finally left the Wolfsbane in favor of joining them. He sat down, leaning towards the firepit shivering.

"Thanks love," he said as Hermione wrapped a fleece blanket around his shoulders. "It's eleven now. We started brewing twelve hours ago. I'll stir it every four hours through the night, but you'll have to take it off the heat at eleven on the dot tomorrow, as we'll be in class."

"No problem," Remus said. "And I really can't thank you two enough for this. It's much appreciated. If there's anything we can do in return?"

"Well, actually," Theo said, sitting back further to give Draco room to settle beside him, "I was wondering if I could talk to you about the animagi process. I want to base my extra credit NEWT assignment on that."

Sirius looked at him in surprise, "of course. What do you want to know?"

"Everything. How the process works, as much as you're willing to share basically."

"You're on." Sirius nodded. "When you're over here during the holidays we'll sit down and you can ask anything you like."

"Can you do it now?" Pansy asked, looking excited, "I mean, I know it might be difficult, and don't worry if you- oh!" she squealed as Sirius set his cigarette down in the ashtray and with a small pop transformed into Padfoot. He trotted around the table, stuck his nose into Harry's face then jumped up to put both paws gently on Pansy's lap, his tail wagging excitedly.

Harry laughed at Pansy's surprise and Padfoot pushed his head under her hand, asking for an ear stroke. Gingerly Pansy obliged, and a few moments later Padfoot backed up and with another pop turned back into a highly amused looking Sirius.

Pansy sighed, looking at him dreamily. "Harry, I swear to Merlin you've got the coolest family in the world."

Sirius smiled proudly as he sat back down and laughed at Remus' look of exasperation. "What, Re? To be fair, your party trick's better. Fancy showing Moony off?"

"Are you serious?" Remus exclaimed, looking mildly horrified while Sirius just laughed, "No!"

Harry held up a hand before Sirius could get a word in. "No werewolves and no name jokes either, please!" he exclaimed, glancing playfully at his Godfather.

"Shame," Sirius settled his long hair roughly back into place then put a placating hand on Remus' thigh, "because that transformation really is cool. Ah well, never mind, I'll see Moony in a few days I suppose. Let's go to bed instead, then shall we?"