Changes Can Be Made
Disclaimer: Guess what~ I don't own HP! ;)
A/N: Hey guys! I updated super late again… yeah…. SORRY! Anyway! I just wanted to let you guys know that I'll be starting school in a couple of days and that I've decided to try and update every weekend! So I'm gonna try my best to update whenever I can but just know that I'll be most likely updating every weekend from now on… anyways! ENJOY and I'm sorry if I update late… SORRY! THANKS FOR THE PATIENCE! (BTW, with the chapter title… pun intended!)
Chapter 19: Sirius issues
Hermione heard the books thump down. Her heart rate sped up and she stopped breathing as the silence overcame her senses. They had stopped falling obviously, she knew that, but she wasn't hurting.
'What? I… I should be in pain...' she inwardly freaked out, 'I-I mean, with the amount of books and their thickness, I SHOULD be feeling the pain right about now…'
"M-mione? Are you ok?" asked a pained voice.
'That voice…' Hermione's inner voice quivered.
Hermione's eyes snapped open. She came face-to-face with her handsome saviour. "S-Sirius?!" she panicked.
His body was positioned in a protective stance above her. She could see his body visibly shake with pain; obviously the books had hit is sore spots from the duel; but even so, he managed to keep himself off her so she wouldn't be in any discomfort, she concluded.
"Are you ok, Mione?" he asked again as he noticed her daze. She could hear his voice waver byy the end of his sentence. She felt responsible for his pain and bit her lip in guilt. She couldn't find her voice to answer his question, so she nodded her head instead. He gave a great sigh of relief and smiled gently down at her. This smile was different from usual… it was from the heart.
'His most gorgeous smile yet!' Hermione inwardly exclaimed giddily. 'WHOA! Stop right there, Hermione Jean Granger! Stop being an idiotic git!' she scolded herself.
She was suddenly pulled from her sudden daze by a warm feeling on her cheek. She realised that Sirius was leaning on only one hand whilst his other gently and sweetly stroked her cheek. He looked down into her eyes. His eyes gazed sweetly into hers, "Good…" he whispered softly.
Hermione felt her cheeks warm up immediately, and try as she may; she couldn't tear her eyes away from his. He had her captivated. 'Being the playboy he is, he'll probably make a move or throw out a cocky statement… Don't fall for it… you know better Hermione,' she warned herself. However, Sirius did nothing she expected… In fact, he did the exact opposite. He moved off of her without a cocky remark, wink or any other Casanova move. 'Huh?'
He looked down at the dumbstruck girl and held out a hand to her. She looked up at him then to his hand, then back up at him. She smiled up at him and accepted his offer. She slid her hand in his and he helped her to her feet. When she was steady, she looked to him and said, "Thank-you." He smiled in return. "Now, are YOU alright, Sirius?" she asked concerned as she checked his bandages for purple bruises or bleeding.
He brushed her frantically searching hands gently off and smiled softly at her. "Calm down Mione. I'm fine," he assured her.
Hermione let out a sigh of relief and glanced at him. He rubbed his head and said, "I'm just glad you're okay," he grinned at her.
Hermione blushed and took a look around eagerly. "W-whoa! This place is a mess…."
Sirius nodded but eyed her warily. 'Am I acting that strange?!' she huffed. Hermione kneeled down and rummaged through the fallen books. 'Where is it…' She continued her search until she found the 'Powerful Charms' book she originally wanted. She smiled triumphantly and turned to grin at the confused Black. "Got it~" she said in a sing-song voice.
"So that's the book you wanted… Powerful Charms," he read, "hmmm, looks like I better watch out," he winked.
Hermione giggled and placed the book under her arm as she started to clean up the mess around them. Sirius squatted down to help her with the mess. They cleaned in silence for a few minutes until Hermione finally broke the silence, "Thanks again for saving me…"
Sirius stopped piling the books and looked at her, "No problem… I didn't want you hurt… again," he said as he pointed to her arm.
Hermione froze. She felt a cold sweat form on her back and swallowed hard. 'He knows…' she panicked.
"H-how did you know?" she stuttered out. 'DADA class Hermione… that's a stupid question!' she yelled at herself.
"Umm…" he paused, "I put it there remember? During the DADA duel…?"
'Oh! I forgot, he cut me…' Hermione sighed.
"Right… I forgot," she said sheepishly. They turned back to the mess and continued. When they were done they both turned to each other and gave each other smile of victory. Then something dawned on Hermione, "Hey, how were you here to save me?"
"Well, I heard a couple of Slytherin birds talking – not that I was eavesdropping or anything–" he said defensively, Hermione rolled her eyes and nodded for him to continue, "and they said something about 'that Gryffindor girl' then headed towards the area I saw you go. I got suspicious and followed them. I, obviously came a bit late though, because I saw one of them move behind you, while you were looking at the taller one, and hide on the side of the book case you were standing in front of. She whispered a spell and hid out of my sight. Then you summoned something, which I'm guessing was that book," he gestured to the book under her arm, "and before I knew it, books were falling towards you. I dropped everything and jumped on top of you."
"Oh! Well… thanks Sirius…" she smiled, satisfied with the explanation.
"Anytime Mione," he winked as he walked away from the book case. She followed after him, fetching her other books on the way. Sirius retrieved the books he dropped from the opposite book case and made their way back to the study table.
The others welcomed them back happily. 'Lily looks happy beside James,' Hermione giggled. Sirius nudged Hermione and pointed out the girls who were responsible for the raining books. Hermione saw Josanne and her accomplice glaring at her. They were fuming in anger.
Hermione sighed tiredly, "I knew it…"
"Knew what genius?" Sirius turned to her.
Hermione shook her head at the title Sirius gave her and answered, "I knew Josanne, the tall Slytherin girl, was the culprit."
"Oh…" Sirius nodded in understanding, "How do you know her?" Hermione opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say a word Sirius cut in, "Let me guess… you knocked her off her high horse like Malfoy."
"No! I did nothing to her!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Whoa! Keep it down, Hermione…" Remus whispered gently, who was sitting directly beside her. "What happened?"
Nothing really…" Sirius sighed out, "Just that Mione over here," he jutted his thumb in Hermione's direction, "almost got buried under a LOT of books."
"What?!" Remus jumped in his seat. He immediately grabbed hold of Hermione and searched for any injuries on her.
"D-don't worry, Remus. Sirius took the pain instead," Hermione quickly explained.
"Huh?" Remus asked.
"Ah… you see… I was almost victim to a couple of jealous Slytherin girls' prank and Sirius saved me," she explained properly.
Remus sighed relieved, "It's good that you came out unharmed," he smiled as he patted her shoulder. He let go of her reluctantly and faced his book to hide his blush. Hermione smiled at him, which only raised his temperature and heart rate.
"Oh, don't worry about me, Moony…" Sirius spat, "I'm fine! It doesn't hurt my DADA bruises that much!"
Remus shook his head at the statement and muttered, "You're hard-headed so I wasn't worried…"
Hermione giggled and Sirius's glare intensified. "Anyway," Sirius began, he shook his glare off before continuing, "What do you mean by 'jealous Slytherin girls', Mione?"
"Well, the mastermind, Josanne," she pointed out the tall, posh postured Slytherin out of the two girls who were deep in conversation on a giddy topic, "has a huge crush on your brother, Sirius."
Sirius' jaw dropped, "What?! She has a crush on… Regulus?"
"Yes, that's right," Hermione stated blatantly.
"Yes, but what does that have to do with you, Hermione?" Remus questioned. Sirius looked completely alerted by the question.
"Well, Regulus is in my Advanced Charms class and we were partnered up. We talked a bit, and I guess she got the wrong idea. Thus, she and her side-kick making it rain books on me."
"Oh…" Remus sighed; though Hermione could tell his attention was focussed on one of his best friends.
Sirius said nothing. His brows were furrowed, indicating he wasn't happy, as he stayed deep in thought. Hermione watched him carefully.
'Regulus, his brother, must be a touchy subject to him,' she thought sadly, 'I hope one day they can get along…'
She opened her mouth to say something… anything to change topics; but before a word could escape her lips, Sirius had beaten her to it. "Did he… say anything about the family?"
"Uh... No…" Hermione answered truthfully, "It was just small chit-chat really…"
Sirius looked Hermione straight in the eyes sternly, "Just be careful around my brother…" he said.
"O-okay…"
"Why don't we get to studying guys?" Remus cut in eagerly.
"S-sure…" Hermione managed to say. She was feeling rather uncomfortable next to Sirius. She could feel his vibes of strong irritation and his bad aura. She tried to focus on the book in front of her, but it was just too damn hard beside this angry Casanova! 'Bloody hell! I should never have said anything about Regulus! I should have just said that Josanne and I got off on the wrong foot… in a way… stupid, STUPID Hermione!' she berated herself.
An hour had passed and the group were studying tremendously hard… other than the occasional messing around that Lily, James, Peter and sometimes Remus created. They all tried to get their two tense friends to join but they were clearly not in the mood. Even a muggle could tell that these two were DEFINITELY upset.
Lily sighed before breaking the silence with her cheerful voice, "Well, dinner's in an hour, so I'm going to go hang out in my room till then. Mi? Want to come?"
Hermione looked up from her book to be greeted by her current best friend, and mother of her future best friend, grinning brightly at her. Her spirits were lifted by that smile. And so, Hermione beamed back, "Sure… Wait! I'm just going to borrow out these four books."
"All FOUR?!" James shouted in shock.
"Yes? That's what I said, four," Hermione replied confused by his outburst.
Everyone, but Hermione and James, burst into laughter. James, on the other hand, sinked deeper into his chair whilst Hermione just stood the completely out of the loop.
"What? I just thought four would've been too much for her…" he grumbled.
"She can handle it, Prongs," Sirius chuckled.
"So he speaks," Hermione turned to him arms folded across her chest.
"Yeah… sorry, I was just deep in thought that's all… you know, studying," he smiled mischievously.
"That'd be a first, Padfoot," Peter retorted.
"Sod off, Wormtail!" Sirius exclaimed which made them ALL burst into another fit of laughter.
"Shhhhh!" an angered painting hushed them.
"Yeah Padfoot, he didn't mean to ruffle your fur," James winked.
They all looked at James blankly.
"What? I thought it was funny…" he defended himself.
"Okay! Well, I'm going to borrow these out then and head off with Lil," Hermione picked up her four book pile.
"I'll borrow these then too!" Lily cheered as she piled her books.
"What is with these girls and books?!" James threw his hands up in defeat.
"Some people just enjoy books and learning what they can, Prongs," Remus spoke wisely to James as he shut his own thick book.
"Whatever…"
The two girls giggled at their funny boys and disappeared passed some books cases, heading towards the borrowing desk.
Sirius looked at his friends and sighed. He had decided to confront his brother about the troublesome Slytherin girl. He closed his book with a thump and added it to his other book. Hermione was right about revising. He had found some very useful spells for their next DADA duel.
Sirius smiled to himself, 'I'll definitely win next time.' He sighed in exhaustion; it had been a long day. He looked around the group and had noticed their change in less than a day. The notorious pranksters, the marauders, were currently doing this?
James – the pack leader – who would usually be making paper planes float because he would be bored like hell was, presently, reading slowly through a transfiguration book looking highly interested.
Remus was the only one who hadn't changed yet. He was his usual self. He had his nose in a book on Arithmancy as well as hovering over a few other books on various subjects. Sirius shook his head. He loved Remus as much as his other Marauder brothers. But one could say that Remus is the brains of the team. He was the smart, quick-thinking and responsible. It sometimes made Sirius feel inferior, but…
'You gotta love him,' he chuckled thinking about all the fun times he had with him. Remus suddenly switched books and furrowed his brows in thought, 'Most likely arguing with the paragraph in the book about something… Same old Remus…' Sirius chuckled.
Sirius shifted his attention to the final marauder. Peter used to be the tag-along marauder who seemed to be of no importance to the group, but honestly, he meant a lot to the three boys. And the boys knew just how low his self-esteem is. He was always categorised as a 'coward'. But after Hermione arrived, he had changed significantly. For starters, he no longer stuttered and had clearly become more self-confidence. Moving on, this marauder was currently reading an advanced counter-spell book and underneath that, was a 'History of Magic: Volume III'. Sirius smirked to himself, his friend sure had changed… for the better.
Sirius sighed tiredly, 'Time to go…' He gathered his two books and bag and cleared his throat, demanding attention. The three boys gave him their whole-hearted attention. "I'm heading out, okay?"
"Ah… okay?" answered James.
"Where are you going, Padfoot?" Remus asked.
"I've got something I need to do…" he replied vaguely.
James and Peter nodded without a question more, but Remus huffed and squinted his eyes in suspicion. He surveyed Sirius for a moment before letting go of his suspicion.
But his suspicion wasn't forfeited for long. "Does this have anything to do with Miss Hermione Grace?" James questioned in an 'Oh-la-la~' voice.
Sirius hesitated for a moment, 'well… it does, but I'm not actually going to talk to her, but I can't tell them that or they'll keep the questions coming… bloody hell!' He subtly took a deep breath, "Yeah, sort of…" he said flawlessly.
James' smile widened. Remus, on the other hand, looked rather… well, pissed off.
Yet, Peter looked neither happy nor angry with the answer; instead of reacting in any sort of way, he looked emotionless – almost as emotionless as Severus – and turned to Sirius, "Just don't go upsetting her Padfoot." Even though his face displayed no emotions whatsoever, his tone of voice would suggest that this warning is VERY serious.
"No need to worry, Wormtail, I won't," Sirius said just as momentous.
Sirius bid them goodbye and followed the girls' path to the borrowing desk; but before he left the other three boys' line of sight, he gave Remus one last glance. He was met with a powerful glare from the bookworm. Sirius turned away swiftly and continued on to the borrowing desk.
Hermione and Lily had already finished borrowing their piles of books and were strolling down the corridors coming closer to the moving staircases.
"So, what was up with you and Sirius?" Lily asked. "You both were tensed up almost as soon as you got back with your books."
"I… I don't know…" she didn't want to worry Lily with the book incident, "he just seemed a little upset when we talked about a touchy subject, I guess, and then we both kind of… clammed up and 'away' from the world," Hermione answered, even though she was still unsure herself.
Lily nodded confused, knew she probably shouldn't push the subject.
Hermione sighed deeply erasing her current muddled thoughts of Sirius and smiled playfully at Lily. "So Lil… you and James seemed… close," she winked, hinting at their certain future relationship that she knew of.
Lily blushed, "N-no! He… he's still the same arrogant git!"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Whatever you say, Lil…"
"Anyway!" Lily quickly switched topics, "So how was your lesson with 'Slytherin' Black?"
"Ah…" Hermione hesitated as she climbed the stair case to the fat lady. 'How was my lesson with Regulus?' she asked herself uncertain of her feelings, 'was it good or bad Hermione?!'
Lily blinked blankly at her hesitation and sighed, "Fine, don't answer me here… The paintings do gossip…" she whispered to Hermione, which made her giggle.
"Thanks, Lil."
"No problem… but as soon as we get to my room… You spill EVERYTHING."
"Yeah, yeah," Hermione muttered.
"Password?" asked the fat lady.
Hermione and Lily looked at the painting and said simultaneously, "Snitch Seeker."
The painting swang open with a simple word, "Enter."
The two girls giggled as they entered the portrait hole. "Remember Hermione, you're going to spill everything."
"Okay! Okay!" Hermione yelled in defeat.
Suddenly the two girls were interrupted by a loud, male, throat clearing. There, in the common room, were a snuggled up couple on a couch in the back. They were obviously just whispering closely to each other. They both reminded her of a boy from Hogwarts she knew. 'Neville Longbottom.'
"Welcome back head girl and newbie," welcomed the boy.
'Newbie… pfft…' Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Frank!" roused his girlfriend hitting him lightly on the chest. "Sorry about that," she apologised meekly, "Welcome back Lily and… Harmony?" asked the sweet looking girl.
The girl held out a soft, powder porcelain hand beckoning Hermione to come forward for introductions. Hermione glanced over to Lily, who just rolled her eyes and nudged Hermione forward. "Go on, Mi," Lily whispered.
Hermione rolled her eyes at Lily's pushiness. 'This must be how Lily feels when I nudge her towards James,' she sighed to herself. Hermione walked over to the short-haired girl seated on the couch. She seemed very sweet and friendly, in fact, she felt very comfortable in her presence. 'She must be as humble as Neville…' Hermione concluded.
"It's Hermione… Hermione Grace," she stated softly, as she shook the girl's hand.
"Pleased to meet you Hermione, my name's Alice and this," she gestured to the boy beside her, "is Frank."
"Frank Longbottom," he saluted, "Nice to meet you… Say, do you enjoy Herbology? If you do, would you like to join me and Alice on our next Herbology trip?"
Hermione stood still for a moment, shocked at what she was seeing, 'My Merlin! Neville looks like his father…. They both like Herbology…. How Neville would have loved to spend time with these two…' she thought sadly as she remembered finding out that Neville's parents both were admitted to an asylum soon after his birth due to the Cruciatus curse performed by Bellatrix. Hermione blinked away the tears, "Ah, sorry, hello… No, I'm not a fan of Herbology," she replied in a shaky voice whilst recovering her composure.
All three people in the room looked at the girl strangely. "Ah… sorry," Hermione apologised, "It's just… you remind me of a boy I once knew…" she said to Frank.
"Oh… ok," Frank replied. Hermione looked to the floor and sighed. Alice caught a glimpse of the tears that rimmed the bottom of her eyes.
"So, what're you gals up to?" Alice asked cheerfully, hoping Hermione would feel better of the sore topic.
"Well, we were just going to have a little girl talk, you know," Lily winked at Alice. Alice laughed. She knew what they were going to talk about boys… that and classes. Hermione giggled at Frank's sudden curiosity. Hermione strolled over to Lily.
"Well, you girls have fun~" Alice sang. Frank waved a silent goodbye and the girls moved to the dorm room stairs. They looked back and saw frank hold Alice like it was their first and last time to hold each other. He whispered words which made her snuggle closer to his chest. Both girls sighed and climbed the stairs in silence, until…
"She's so lucky…" they sighed together.
Shocked, they looked at each other and burst into laughter.
Lily stopped at a door a few steps above her own.
"Oh! So your room is right above mine," Hermione said surprised.
"I guess!" Lily shrugged. Lily opened the door with a creak and revealed a room similar to that of Hermione's, "Welcome to the head girl's room."
Sirius walked out of the library holding his books close. It wasn't long until he reached the staircase to the fat lady.
She was currently screeching a horrid version of opera. Paintings and passing by students were covering their ears, hoping to save their eardrums from exploding.
'By Merlin! Won't the obease lady just shut her gob!' Sirius snapped.
"Hey, can I get in now!" he growled aloud.
Murmurs of agreement came from other Gryffindor students that wanted to get into the dorms as well.
"Wait! Wait!" halted the fat lady as she took a deep breath for her final note. Tension built up in all the students and paintings. Everyone covered their ears and braced themselves for the dooming sound.
"Ah…ah!" she screeched.
"OH MERLIN!" Students exclaimed.
"Shut up!" screamed various paintings along with other miscellaneous swear words.
Her aim was to shatter the glass Champaign goblet in her hand; however… she shattered eardrums instead. The fat lady hit the precious glass against a stone pillar nearest to her hand and laughed heartily. "You see what my marvellous voice can accomplish," she falsely gloated.
Everyone around her moaned, groaned, grumbled and growled in disagreement. She huffed in annoyance and demanded, "Password."
"Snitch seeker!" growled Sirius.
"Fine! Go on in…" she spat.
The portrait swung open and Sirius, along with others, entered the Gryffindor common room. Not wanting to waste time, Sirius sped up the stairs to the boys' dorm room and found his trunk at the end of the room he shared with his marauder brothers. He dropped his bag and books onto the bed and quickly changed into some comfortable clothes. He changed into black jeans, a white short-sleeved shirt with a V shaped neckline and a grey scarf. He looked satisfied in the mirror and ruffled his hair a bit.
Without a second thought he exited the room quickly and hurried down the stairs, his mind set on the whereabouts of Regulus. He climbed out of the portrait hole quickly and bounded down the staircase with no destination in mind. He honestly didn't know where Regulus hung out but he had a pretty good idea. All he had to do was search every group of Slytherins in the corridors he could find. He searched down corridors, glaring at Slytherin boys, winking at various girls and smiling mischievously at Slytherin girls. No matter how many corridors he searched he couldn't find Regulus. He headed to the Great Hall in hopes to catch up with the other marauders or Hermione and Lily. As he rounded the corner to the main corridor that heads straight to the great hall, he found him.
'Regulus…' he growled. He didn't realise that he growled loud enough to catch his attention… or maybe it was a biological brotherly sense, but Regulus turned and glared dangerously at him.
Regulus breathed one word, applying all the venom of hatred he could muster up. "Sirius."