Follow My Way

5- Interludes and Worry

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You're an accident waiting to happen

You're a piece of glass left there on the beach

Well you tell me things I know you're not supposed to

Then you leave me just out of reach -"Who's Going to Ride Your Wild Horses" U2

***

"So I said, 'Listen, mate. Just because your girlfriend would look mankey to mountain troll, doesn't mean you have to ruin a perfectly good game of pool.'" As always Sirius had an easy grin and an unrepentant tone. "So she slapped me and I decided it prudent to leave."

"Sirius," Remus Lupin chided with a patient smile. "That doesn't explain your black eye."

Sirius had the grace to look guilty. In the bright afternoon light his eye was bruised a plumb shade of purple. "Turns out she was part mountain troll on her mums' side, and her slap was much more of a right hook. She was wearing rings, too."

Trying to recover his wounded pride, Sirius shot Remus an indignant pout but it was too late. The werewolf was rolling with laughter, tears of mirth gathering in his amber eyes. The pout deepened to almost comic proportions. "I see nothing funny about this at all."

"No, of course not," Remus said, a smile destroying his attempt at keeping a straight face but failing. "I never thought I'd say this but Snape is right, you have the subtlety of a pack of stampeding elephants."

Affronted, Sirius rose from the grass and glared down at the one person he thought would take pity on him. "The male ego is a fragile thing, Moony. Now I am going to have to nip off to my quarters to have a nice, manly cry."

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that if a boy teases you it's because he liked you," Hermione called out, approaching the two men with mischief in her eyes. She was once again barefoot and in a Muggle sundress, already smatterings of sun freckles were golden across the bridge of her nose.

Bickering forgotten, Remus stood and both he and Sirius hugged her in greeting. Offering her a seat on the grass with a wink, Sirius made sure Hermione was seated before he or Remus sat back down on the thick grass. With a twinkle in his eyes, Sirius said, "Now you can protect me from him."

Remus snorted and turned his face up at the sun, relaxed. It struck Hermione how peaceful he looked in the golden light and how his serene expression made him look much younger. Her thought nagged at her that the sunlight must be such a relief for him from the pressure of the moon.

Turning her attention to Sirius and away from the maudlin, she grinned and tapped his swollen eye gently. "Who was she?"

Remus snorted in a very uncharacteristic way, making Hermione privy to the joke.

Sirius looked mutinous as both his companions laughed at his expense. "I see how it is. I'm somewhat appeased by the fact that you've had the company of that greasy-git thrust upon you as of late. That has to of left some invisible bruises."

Hermione sobered, but didn't lose her smile. The normalcy of Sirius' jibe toward Snape should have been comforting, but it proved to be quite the opposite. "He's been really great, Sirius. Once you get use to his cold manner, he really isn't nearly as bad as I'd thought."

Sirius inclined an eyebrow upward at that and shot Remus a look before smiling impishly at her. Hermione merely rolled her eyes. "He has so much information that I need... don't look at me like the cat that swallowed the canary!"

"More like the busy-body dog who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut," Remus offered in a deadpan manner. He got a handful of grass thrown at him and a growl for his effort. If Hermione hadn't been present that would have been ground for a good rugby tackle, amongst other things. Since they were not alone he picked the grass out of his hair and kept his neutral look. Sirius would pay later.

"Truth be told I spend most of my time sleeping," Hermione admitted, as though her appearance hadn't given it away. Though she took to the sunlight, there were dark circles under her eyes and a general thinness to her cheeks. Since the dinner for Sprouts birthday she had not attended any group meals in the hall, and other than the day of her chat with Dumbledore she hadn't been seen by anyone in the school.

Sirius leaned back on the grass and gave her the same easy smile that Harry had grown into. "You shouldn't stay all cooped up indoors. It's lovely out, enjoy the summer while you can. Soon enough Dumbledore will give you some task to keep you busy. Look at me. Remus gets appointed back in Defense and returns with me in tow. Within the month Dumbledore has me running errands and Sprout has me helping arrange for fall."

Hermione was cheered by the idea of having a task to keep her busy, but that thought was deflated by the fact that nothing kept her busy anymore. Neither of the men noticed the drop in her expression as Remus had reminded Sirius that his help in the garden was penance for his destruction of a number of flowerbeds as Padfoot. Sirius had gone a shade of Weasley red, something unusual for a man who Hermione had assumed to be on the same level as Seamus 'The Un-botherable' Finnegan. The lecture he was giving in his own defense had taken on a very McGonnagal tone. "Chloe Sprout would not punish me in a such a way. I expected much more from you, Remus J. Lupin. As much as it pains me to say… ten points from Gryffindor."

That last remark had been the last straw and Remus made good on his mental plan to tackle Sirius. Hermione pretended not to notice by looking down at her dirty feet and debating if painting her toenails a nice sienna would be worth the effort. When she looked up again Sirius had grass in his hair and was laughing helplessly as Remus had his elbow in his stomach. Smiling, as though seeing the two men romping like puppies was an every day occurrence, Hermione rose to her feet. "Sirius, don't give poor Remus a hard time."

Sirius laughed, cringing at the pressure in his abdomen and Remus smiled benignly up at her like he wasn't using his bizarre strength to pin someone to the ground and said, "See you at dinner?"

Hermione nodded and with a final smile turned to walk back towards the school. Behind her she could hear Sirius yelping and the sound of Lupins' deep laughter. It brought a wistful smile to her face.

When Hermione was out of sight, Remus ceased his attack to looked down at the man he had pinned to the ground. "You shouldn't tease her, Sirius. She looked like she hadn't seen the sun in far too long."

"Starting to resemble Snape, is she?" Sirius smiled innocently but the effect was lacking due to his battered appearance. All in all he had a rather debauched air about him with the grass in his hair and tousled up face. "I think she fancies him, myself."

"You also think I fancy you, now stop being a prat," Remus shot back with a long suffering sigh. Despite Sirius' habit of speaking before engaging his brain he had to agree, but there was no way he was letting on and giving Sirius the satisfaction.

"That's it, Moony. When we get back I'm defiantly chewing up your slippers."

Leaning down, a wolfish gleam in his eye, Remus grinned. "Padfoot, you don't want to be in the doghouse, do you?"

"Depends," Sirius said, knocking Remus over backwards and pinning him to the grass. "Do I get to come back with my tail between my legs? We do have fantastic makeup sex."

***

Severus Snape was not one to dwell on problems. Despite his affinity for brooding, he generally took care of them and moved on. However, when the problem started to invade his every waking thought as well as his very rare dreams it was a call for action. Voldemort was up to something. Things had been far too quiet for too long. There was no doubt in his mind that all of his energy and attention was at that very moment focused on Hogwarts.

Luckily Granger had heeded all warnings about staying on school grounds. The disaster that Gryffindor disregard would result in would be an unimaginably bad situation. The girl might be a terribly nuisance, but she possessed a quick mind and hardly deserved the mess she had stumbled into. If she ever came into her full potential she would be a force to be reckoned with.

As it were they were holed in, caged like rats in the castle waiting for the ax to fall. They were under siege and though it would take time he knew he would break, the girl sooner if not watched. Despite their combined power it was unsettling to know that the Dark Lord could penetrate his dreams through all the protective wards that surrounded him and every other inhabitant of the castle. As Albus and the girl had failed to mention any new sense of foreboding, he'd wager every galleon that he had that it was due to the blasted mark on his arm. No matter how the Dark Lord had accomplished it, the threat was clear.

The battle would be fought on his time, with his rules. A plan was already underway and unless preventative measures were taken the danger would not only be to Granger, but himself. Their words would be stripped and their death would not be an easy one. Despite the fact that he had resigned himself to a messy fate years ago, it still chilled him to the bone. He has ensured that he deserved such a death, but the girl?

He was getting sentimental in his old age, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

***

Rain was coming, she could smell it in the air and feel the charge of the storm in her blood. Already the temperature had already begun to drop and the slowly setting sun was muted by darkened clouds. Red sky at night, the storm would be gone in time for another beautiful day. Hermione worried her bottom lip between her teeth, suddenly wary of her heightened senses. All at once her fear abated as the leaves began to hiss and every thought was pushed away by the sudden curtain of hazy rain.

Letting her toes flex into the rapidly dampening ground she smiled up into the chilly raindrops. She was getting antsy and the longer she wandered through the familiar castle the worse it got. The whole situation still had a dream like quality, so removed from her previous life and littered with familiar faces who gave the barest hints of knowledge before withdrawing. It wasn't that they were being cruel, more that they didn't know the entire story either and no matter how hard her mind worked she couldn't paint the picture out.

Was she to wait and waste her potential whiling away her days waiting for any task to keep her busy, or were they perched on some precipice waiting for the plunge? She felt like a prat for pouting and worrying instead of looking at things coolly as she once would have. Frustration was making her batty and she did not like it one bit.

Those who were forthcoming with information like Sirius and Remus were just as unaware as she was to whatever was brewing, but she knew there are more by the worry lines on Dumbledores' face and the unease that radiated from Snape. In himself Snape was a puzzle all his own. She'd bet every galleon she possessed that he was working his mind just as hard to find a reason, an answer, an edge, anything to remedy the sticky situation they were in.

Taking the now muddy path up to the castle, heedless of her sodden state, Hermione was surprised to see the man in question standing at the entry of the castle safely out of the rain. Quickening her steps she easily caught his attention.

Snape was scowling by the time she reached him. "I had assumed your senses had been sharpened, not dulled Ms. Granger. Unless your intentions were to catch cold?"

Hermione smiled, crossing her dripping arms over her sodden chest. "Nothing like a storm for the senses, Professor. It just seemed like a good sign, a storm breaking as we all muddle about trying to see how things are going to come together."

"Or further fall apart," he retorted wryly as he moved aside to let her in out of the rain. "I trust you've been using your time wisely these last few days, testing the boundaries of your new power? You'll be pleased to know that you haven't caused any ripples since your foray into warding."

Casting a quick drying charm on herself and propelling her body to follow Snape out of the entry, Hermione nodded in answer. "It's really fantastic once you get the hang of control, I no longer feel the need to be sick whenever I concentrate on something too hard."

"The sickness passes and the horror fades, but do not become to comfortable with the power," Snape said tightly. "To become overconfident would be a mistake."

"It is seductive," Hermione countered, her gaze snagging on his robe covered forearm before locking onto his face. "For a thing whose origins are so cryptic there is no mystery in the exerting of ability, not a swish-and-flick or two stirs counter clockwise in sight."

Snape grunted softly in response but said no more. Taking his silence as the end of conversation, Hermione moved to climb the stairs while Snape lingered at the bottom. She'd reached the fifth step before he spoke, looking up at her with uncharacteristic worry in his eyes. "Have you had any odd dreams of late, Ms. Granger?"

/Steamy dreams about shagging you, Professor, or gut clenching dreams about the rapidly approaching apocalypse?/ Hermione nodded slowly. Leaning into the banister to look down at him properly she smiled distractedly. "You've been in my dreams Professor. Sometimes they're dreadful... and sometimes they're not. The thing that doesn't change is that each morning I wake up knowing that things are getting worse. Do you dream Professor?"

The worry hadn't left his eyes when he spoke. "I have nightmares that Dreamless Sleep can not slay, Ms. Granger. For now they are just nightmares, let us hope that none of them come true."

Hermione smiled softly, worried by the tension he radiated but softened by his admission. When he turned to make his descent into the dungeons her eyes lingered on his path for a moment, some of his worry caught up in the furrow between her brows. Then turning her attention back to the stairs she trudged upward, dirty bare feet against the cold stone.

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A/N- Hopefully more soon, I know I always say that!