Hermione grimaced as George was squeezing her face. "You're so handsome," he snickered.

"Georgie, I will punch you, and it will hurt," Hermione threatened through scrunched lips.

Angelina's face appeared, and she batted his hand away. "Is it really you, Hermione?"

They were in the sitting room at Grimmauld — the whole lot of them. George, Angelina, Harry, Ginny, Ron, and the trio of body swapped victims. It had been an awkward handful of minutes, but now George was doing his part to ease the tension.

"So, lifelike," he snickered.

Hermione shoved him, and the one-eared wizard fell back and on his ass. "Oops," she said flatly.

Remus folded his legs and hemmed. "Well, what books do we have?"

Ron snorted and yanked out two bags. "Everything under the sun at both Blotts and the ministry. Harry ordered them today."

Sirius was miserable and stretched out on the floor. "I wish I had a spell to make me sleep through this entire experience."

George rolled over next to him and exhaled. "How about some chocolate?" He asked and offered a piece.

Sirius snagged it greedily and popped it into his mouth before Hermione could shout. "Don't!"

He had swallowed it and sat up, suddenly burping bubbles. Instead of an explosive retort, Sirius laughed and ruffled George's hair as bubbles streamed from his mouth. "This is masterful!"

Angelina sat down next to Hermione and cleared her throat. "So, how's everything aside from this mess? Hermione, how's work been?"

"No one wants to hear about her job working under the minister, Ang," Ron grumbled and shifted in his chair.

Remus opened one of the bags and handed Harry a book. "I wouldn't mind hearing about it."

"That's because you don't, every family dinner," Ron snapped.

"Time and place, Ronald," Ginny hissed.

Hermione exhaled and stood up, walking over to the stacks of books. "No, we'd much rather hear about Bill and Fleur having a new baby, but that's why they're not here."

"Don't be so morose, Hermione. It doesn't look pleasant on Sirius," George snickered.

Sirius arched an eyebrow as he belched the last of the bubbles. "I'd like to hear how she passed those werewolf laws. What did you say you did it in, love, two months?"

Harry chuckled and handed a book to Ginny. "Yes, she was absolutely batty. Drom was nearly force-feeding her as she wrote them out."

Ron grumbled something under his breath, and Sirius shot up, picking the Weasley from his chair. "If I ever hear you say that again, I'll knock your teeth out, you hear?"

Ron's eyes grew wide, and he rocked his head. "Of course, Remus, I mean Sirius."

"We need to act proper, sit down and read some fucking books," Sirius growled still holding Ron by the shirt.

"Pads, take a breath, it's the wolf talking," Remus reminded him.

Sirius inhaled and released Ron before exhaling. "Pads, come sit with me, I don't mind," Hermione offered as she moved on the love seat.

He slumped over the loveseat and rested his head on her lap, legs hanging off the arm. "Love, this is ridiculous. I don't know how I'm going to cope with these emotions. I don't do them well," he grumbled as he glanced up at Hermione.

"It's alright, relax. Here, put this over your eyes for a moment," Hermione offered him a bundled throw.

Sirius covered his eyes as Hermione combed fingers through his hair. She began to read her book and continued doting on the werewolf. Remus scowled and tilted his head at the pair. It was a reflection of who they were once upon a time — something remarkably ingrained in his system. There was an odd feeling knowing that Hermione was facilitating in action.

"So, are we discounting voodoo and animal sacrifice?" George asked with a smile.

Sirius snorted. "Possibly. Depends on the animal."

"A dog, Pads," Remus snickered.

"Then no, definitely not crossing it off the list," Sirius responded with a grin.

Hermione scanned her page and huffed. "This is hopeless. What are we looking for?"

Ginny frowned. "What do you mean?"

"What could have done both? Brought them back and swapped us all?" Hermione questioned.

Remus pinched his expression, which was even more dramatic on Hermione's face. "Ancient rituals?"

"Possibly," Hermione mused.

"There are several wizarding tribes from Indonesia that wrote myths on soulscape. The concept of a soul switching places with a caster to solidify reality. However, never proven, it was a section of grey magic. Neither dark nor necessarily common magic," Remus said.

Ron glared over at him. "If you knew that then why didn't you say so?"

Remus lifted the book. 'Ancient myths of magic and the Soul.' "I was reading it."

"You're brilliant, Remus," Hermione replied with a smirk as she lifted her book.

"Oh, dark arts and the ancients, smartly picked," Remus complimented.

Angelina grimaced. "Oh, darn, I suppose my ancient magical sex rituals won't come in handy," she teased.

Sirius pulled the blanket from his eyes and reached for her book. "Give it here for further investigation," he ordered with a smile.

"Harry, how did that one get in the pile?" Ginny growled.

Harry cleared his throat and pointed to George. "He thought, well, maybe."

"Its trash research when we're bored," George whispered in a loud tone.

Ginny tossed a book at her brother on the floor and huffed. "Take this serious!"

"Take what?" Sirius asked as he took the book from Angelina.

George burst into laughter and rolled on the floor as he picked up a book. "Oh, I did miss you, Sirius," he conveyed.

Sirius was lounging on Hermione's lap still as they read. The room was silent and held the buzzing of minds at work. Well, until Sirius poked at the arm of his body. "Hey, love, look, doesn't this look familiar?"

"Sirius, I'm not going to look at sexualized magical positions with you," Hermione huffed.

"No, silly girl, look," he persisted and handed her the volume.

It was indeed a picture of shagging, but the woman in the art was covered in swirling markings. Hermione huffed and handed him the book back. "We only see what we want to," she responded and continued her reading.

"Oh, hey, hey!" Ginny shouted and waved at Harry. "Look, this talks about the veil," she continued.

Hermione set her volume down and glanced at the Potters. "What does it say?"

"It's going on about the concept of souls being tied. It's a wordy piece," Harry exhaled as he took the book in hand. "I can't make handle or broom tip of it."

Remus waved it over and scrunched his brow while reading. "This is similar to what happened, but the body-swapping doesn't make sense."

"Well, how do we fix it?" Sirius groaned. "Please tell me it's drink until we pass out."

"It doesn't say, but we're on the right track."

That wasn't the only disappointment of the night as they read through books and books of possible leads. When everyone left, Hermione slumped off to her bedroom, and the marauders followed. Remus went to the next floor, but Sirius lingered.

"Moony, wait," Sirius whispered.

Remus turned around and scowled at his own body. "What's wrong?"

"Let me come sleep with you tonight. For old time's sake."

"No, because for old time's sake means we usually shag, and this isn't my body," Remus hissed before moving to shut the door.

Sirius stopped the door and cleared his throat. "She doesn't have to know. I won't even turn the lights on. I have a horrible itch, and I need a fix of something, or I'm going to bite through granite."

"Go get some hot chocolate and relax, Pads," Remus huffed.

"Please, oh, please, Moony. You know better than I that it solves almost all of your issues for a few days after a bit of relief," Sirius pouted as he leaned on the door jam.

Remus exhaled and opened the door. "You tell no one, and you're not shagging this girl's body."

"Then how are you going to do it?" Sirius groaned as he walked inside.

"I have my ways, now kindly be quiet about it!" Remus hissed and shut the door.


Hermione woke with a giant yawn and stretch but felt the heaviness of a body behind her. "Pads, did you get lonesome last night?" She questioned through sleep.

Her chest hurt and felt heavy. Her's. Hermione's eyes shot open, and she glanced down to see her disheveled form. She glanced over to see Remus lying on the pillows and gasped. Hermione checked her clothing and groaned when she felt the tenderness of injuries on her neck.

"Bloody hell," she squeaked and jumped out of bed.

When she clamored for the mirror on the vanity, she noted the irritating bites on her neck. Luckily they were just bruises and not opened flesh, but that was far enough. "For Merlin's sake!" She shouted.

Remus groaned and scrubbed his face before noticing Hermione digging through drawers. "Hermione, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? You and Sirius shagged and didn't even tell me you were going to use my body for it!" She growled as she continued her searching.

"Wait, no, we didn't," Remus started as he climbed from the bed.

It didn't help that when she turned around, he was naked. "Then explain," she snapped.

Remus groaned when she glanced down and turned her face from him. He snatched up his sweats from the ground and yanked them onto his legs with clumsy accuracy. "I promise, there was no intention of ever using you in that way. There wasn't any," he paused and exhaled.

"Penetration?" she finished with a narrowed glare.

Remus's cheeks were flaming as he cleared his throat. "Not there, no."

"Let me, please get this straight. You let him sneak into your room, sucked his knob, which is yours, in fact, and you didn't even give my body a bit of relief? Remus, you were played like a peer-pressured girl," She huffed and shook her head.

The door flung open, and Sirius came in clapping. "I'm me again!"

Hermione pulled her wand off the drawers and flicked it at him. "And you! You think you can just take advantage of a situation? That wasn't yours to touch or play with!" Hermione snapped.

"Oh," he said as realization etched on his face.

"Oh is right," Remus grumbled.

Sirius walked over to Hermione and pressed her wand tip down. "Hermione, love, it wasn't as if we planned on it. I was feeling the wolfish tendencies of our dear friend."

"You didn't have a right to, neither of you did," Hermione growled.

He touched her cheek, and she attempted to pull from him. "Hermione, don't be angry, please? I promise it wasn't ill will toward you. I'm sorry that we crossed a line."

A tear fell down her cheek as she shook her head. "I'm going to go home. I'm glad you're back," she huffed and squeezed around him.

The witch left the room, and Remus pressed his palm to his face. "I can't believe we did that, Pads. That's worse than taking advantage of a witch."

"Fuck, Moony, what did I do?" Sirius asked.

"We both buggered up. Why didn't I say no?" Remus sighed.

Sirius snorted and waved a hand. "Because you never did before."

"But that wasn't my body to say yes for, it was hers," Remus grumbled and sat down on the bed.

Sirius sat down with him and exhaled. "She knew?"

"I told her yesterday. We were talking about you. I felt it was only right to disclosure our previous history, being that she was residing in your body."

The animagus nodded and scrubbed his face. "Now everyone's going to know how much of a cad I am."

"No, she won't tell anyone. She's a great secret keeper, but now we have to fix it," Remus grumbled as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"How?"

"I don't know."


Author Notes: Well, it seems like their issue was cleared up? Just mend fences? Let's not get too hopeful. Lol