AUTHOR'S NOTE: long time and all that! So sorry everyone. I could give some bilge about RL being so hard but in truth I just haven't had time to sit down and really go for it. Plus the fact that I've had so many story ideas running around in my head that they're all getting confused. I've finally let go of some of them (that I've actually written out a bit) and cannibalised them for this story (Sev/Re/Harry confusion and show down for one) and Deal (which will be updated soon if anyone's interested) and for another two stories I've allowed to wonder around my head.
Anyway, I should be back on track now.
And before we start I have to share this with everyone – I've met Anthony Stewart Head and Iyari Limon! Went to convention thing last weekend and they were there, along with Neville, Seamus, the Weasley twins and Tom Riddle from the Harry Potter films. It was so great and Christian Coulson (TR) is so gorgeous in real life. Very sexy and very friendly. Spent the whole weekend going "oh my God can't believe I just met/talked to/drooled over…"
Anyway…review responses are at the end and they include a few plot hints for those who like that sort of thing. Did you notice – over 200 now! *dances around.*
On with chapter seventeen.
Chapter 17: Moving The Story OnThere are many different types of friendships. As a child starting first school you form friendships easily, they are ever changing, fluctuating with daily impulses. As you grow older, moving up to high school, friendships have a more solid foundation, growing gradually from a mutual sympathy of feeling, or interest. Then, when you grow even older, starting university, your friendships are once again formed impulsively. Everyone is in the same boat, looking for friendship, grasping it eagerly when offered. That is the norm. Of course, even the most carefully formed friendships are subject to change, through arguments or the passing of time, leaving the way for new people to enter.
And then there are those friendships which none expect, which are formed after a shared experience, for example fighting a troll in a girls bathroom can, it has been seen, serve as the catalyst for a long lasting friendship.
And then there are those friendships which no one expects, friendships which can upset the balance of things, not only within existing friendships but, in some cases, the larger environment.
The friendship Hermione Granger and Pansy Parkinson were forming was of this latter kind.
At first its development hardly registered but it soon became clear to even the most dense of people that a Slytherin and Gryffindor were doing the unthinkable.
And no one knew quite how to react.
There was virtual civil war within the seventh year Gryffindors and Slytherins and the rest of the school was watching from minimum safe distance.
The cracks within the Gryffindor Ten were becoming cavernous, with Harry persisting in his obsessive hatred of Draco Malfoy on one side and Hermione determinedly befriending Pansy Parkinson on the other. Harry was aided and abetted by an enthusiastic Ron, who had been disturbed and frustrated by the previous state of affairs, revelling in the fights but frustrated by the periods of calm which followed them. Hermione was backed principally by Seamus, Neville and Jessica, while Dean, Lavender and Jess tried desperately to hold the group together, leaning rather more towards Hermione's side of things and unwilling to listen to Ron and Harry's rants against evil, manipulative Slytherins.
The situation in Slytherin was more complicated, and not as obvious in the school as a whole, for while the affairs of the Gryffindors were thrust in everyone's faces with a careless enthusiasm, no one cared what internal squabbles happened behind the Slytherin portrait, nor did they give that house enough credit for human opinions and feelings. Pansy had made it quite clear that she would not be ruled by Draco in this, and he accepted it all with a disappointed and hurt air which hung more heavily than any angry words would have done. Despite the steadfast support of Blaise, she was pretty much alone whenever the subject of Hermione arose, for even if her housemates could see why she wanted friends from another house they could not understand how or why this friendship arose. That Pansy was happier than she had been in quite a while was easy to see, and for that reason they let her get on with it, but Draco steadfastly opposed the friendship in his own way, keeping up his war with Potter and sneering at the world. But Pansy didn't need anyone to fight her battles for her, and she would do what she always did: what she wanted.
So it was becoming an almost common, though still somewhat sensational experience to see Hermione Granger and Pansy Parkinson spending their evenings in the library or outside by the lake or, on one very memorable evening, flying together.
And standing at the window of his quarters, as he felt the arms of his mate surround him, Remus leaned back into the embrace and smiled, glad that Hermione had managed to break out from her friends and be her own person.
"You're watching them again," Severus finally spoke, drawing Remus' attention back to him.
"It's nice to see," he commented absently.
"But you wish it was someone else," Snape smiled knowingly, "Harry and Draco, maybe."
"Or us," Remus turned and kissed him quickly before pulling him over to the sofa. "We have a small problem, or rather I do."
"Then we do," Snape stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Hermione told me that Harry is under the impression…formed totally on his own…but somehow he has come to the conclusion, or the assumption…what I mean is he thinks that…"
"Black is your mate," Snape snarled, spitting out the words. "Well that's bloody typical, Happy fucking families I guess. The werewolf and the convict, what a happily ever after."
"Actually I've always preferred the one about the werewolf and the potions professor," Remus soothed, reaching out to his mate, "it has that forever feeling about it."
"Sod off," Severus grumbled, leaning in to him anyway, "and you're the only one who thinks so. Everyone else is thinking the same thing. Why are they together?"
"Well I'm the only one that matters," Remus smiled, kissing him again. "Anyway," he smiled, snuggling into his mate, "I'm not the only one who thinks so."
"Do tell," he tried to appear disinterested.
"Hermione Granger."
"What!" now he was interested and rather appalled.
"Werewolves have rather good hearing, you know," he remarked conversationally, "and I just happened to hear her opinions on the subject." Snape just raised an eyebrow. "You were doing your usual evil git routine and Seamus leaned over to Hermione saying, 'you think that he's sweet?' And she nodded and said 'I think they are.' A rousing endorsement I think," he grinned, waiting for the explosion.
Five, four, three, two…
"What!"
There it was.
"Granger thinks I'm sweet. Sweet! A Gryffindor thinks I'm sweet. At least in her first year I knew any muttering involving me and the wonder kids was simply a 'look how evil he is today, lets set him alight again' kind of talk. Sweet."
"I know love, terrible, let me make it better…" Remus grinned and suddenly Severus didn't care what Hermione Granger thought of him.
***
It was four weeks since Hermione had talked to Remus by the lake and November was in full swing.
The same impasse existed, however, and while the adults knew that this would not, could not go on forever the children caught in the cold (and sometimes not so cold) war knew no such thing, had no such hope.
And as such Hermione was in the library and Pansy like Ron and Harry before her were learning that when Hermione went to the library you followed and waited to be allowed to leave.
What Ron and Harry had failed to grasp about Hermione's propensity to turn to the library in times of trouble was that it was not only an action pursued in hope of a solution, more it was a source of comfort. During her first weeks at Hogwarts, when she was ignored or even deliberately shunned by those around her, the library had been her refuge, her sanctuary. The books she loved had not only opened up new worlds for her, they had also made her real world more bearable. And it was only natural to her that she showed great loyalty never forgetting the comfort offered by merely being in the library.
And so it was today.
Pansy and Hermione were sitting together, surrounded by numerous books on personal spells and friendship spells in a vain attempt to discover the spell Narcissa had let slip about, maybe find out hat had gone wrong. But for once Hermione was not totally immersed in her project, feeling its futility and also using the time to get to know her new friend, periods of research intermingling with general conversation and confidences.
"Oh this is ridiculous," Hermione slammed the book shut in exasperation, "I'm seventeen, I've read enough magazines to know that my biggest problem should be whether or not I am ready to have sex with my boyfriend."
"And are you?" Pansy grinned, shutting her own book in relief.
"Pansy!" she half shouted, going red.
"Oh come on, give me an insight into the Gryffindor mating rituals," Pansy teased.
"I'm sure they're not that different to Slytherin ones."
"Oh come now 'Mione, surely you know that Gryffindors are hearts and flowers, Hufflepuffs love and innocence and Slytherins decadence and depravity."
"And Ravenclaws?" Hermione inquired in the same sarcastic, playful tone.
"No one knows," Pansy laughed. "No seriously, you know my indiscretions, share time."
"There's nothing to say, honestly. Every time I think we're ready we fight, or something life and deathy happens and it seems really rather irrelevant."
"Sex is never irrelevant dear," Pansy laughed and Hermione smiled back at her, once again enjoying the difference between her relationship with Pansy and that with the other Gryffindor girls.
Because despite the sarcasm they never did talk about things like that, not specifically. There was gossip, second hand tales about people from other houses but this was different, because in the end the house differences were there. A bunch of teenagers locked up together in a castle for nine months of the year. It didn't take a genius to figure out that sex would be an issue, would be something that…arose amongst the students. But Gryffindors didn't talk about it. Slytherins, it would seem, did.
Pansy's mind had returned to the other matter at hand, sensing that Hermione wasn't as comfortable with this kind of conversation as her other friends were. Oh Hermione would joke about it, tease her about her own dalliances, share gossipy stories about the things she had seen on her rounds – what was the attrition with cold, uncomfortable classrooms anyway? – but talking about Ron never really worked…she assumed it had something to do with his unrelenting hostility to her housemates.
"'Mione, I was thinking, or rather Blaise and I were thinking, you're not getting much out of Professor Lupin, but have you considered talking to Sirius Black. I mean he was at school with Narcissa and must have know something. Plus he's the closest thing Potter has to a parent, by all accounts, so surely he should be told what happened."
"I assumed Remus would have said something, but actually knowing Sirius if he had he would have come over here to check Harry was ok. And…well…the thing is… what I mean is…well it's rather…"
"Spit it out love."
"Sirius sees things very black and white. I mean he has kept up a steadfast hatred of Snape for all these years yet he knew he was Remus' mate."
"You mean he wouldn't like the Draco aspect?"
"No I mean he might pitch a fit when we turn up wanting answers," Hermione replied apologetically.
Pansy could not help the slight thrill at the automatic 'we', though Hermione had given her plenty of proofs of friendship in the last month.
"Sirius is, well, dark," Hermione continued, "far ore so than Harry will admit, I think. He would have happily killed Pettigrew in front of three thirteen years, though so would Remus so…But in so many things he does and says, there is no room for shades of grey in his world as far as others are concerned, yet his own morality is not exactly that of the masses. There is a certain gap between what he says and what he does, for one thing, and ultimately, despite everything he knows, everything he's lived through, he still thinks that Slytherins are bad and Gryffindors are good and never the twain shall meet."
"Well surely if you talked to him on your own…" Pansy began
"Nope, we're in this one together," Hermione smiled. "I can't deny that it would be nice to feel like we were doing something…"
"So?"
"Lets do it," Hermione grabbed a quill and wrote a quick note, showing it to Pansy. "How's that?"
Padfoot
Can we see you?
Hermione
"It's a bit brief isn't it?"
"Yeah but anything longer risks giving too much away, I mean he is in hiding and all."
"So this is what it's like in your world then, communicating with criminals, secret notes, how Slytherin of you."
"Oh thanks!"
"Well in my world that is a complement! Shall we post this then?"
"Ok."
Sirius replied promptly, as always, and his reply was both satisfactory and problematic:
Hermione
When are where?
Is something up with Pronglet – you've got me worried.
Padfoot
Smiling slightly over the nickname for Harry, Hermione replied on the same sheet of paper and sent the owl back.
Padfoot
Don't panic. Just need to talk.
Sunday, the cave?
Hermione
The owl returned the same day, indicating the Sirius was already on the move and as Hermione slipped the note to Pansy both knew that, finally, they were doing something and, hopefully, getting somewhere.
Hermione
See you there
Padfoot
END CHAPTER SEVENTEENRight guys I know this is kinda crappy and it was also meant to be longer but I wanted to get something up, let you know that I'm still alive out here. There will be a longer chapter next week to make up for things, and it will be next week because I've got three days off then I'm starting a new job on Thursday and have an interview on Friday for another job so I'm using these next few days while I have time. Anyway, hats enough about me.
So, what did you think?
Reviews responses:
GoldenSunnyGrl: wow thank you so much for the praise. It's amazing, really. Thank you so much. And good timing with the discovery, I've finally updated.
Sailor Book/Water Mistress: cool name. Glad you like the story.
Sly4: glad you like it, and no fear of me stopping – it's my baby and I'll see it through. I'm determined!
GoddessMoonLady: glad you like it! I think (hope) you'll like Harry's reaction – if I go with what I have planned then it'll be…explosive!
angel74: thanks!
cRazy-GIrl-3000: I really don't know, it's almost cliché now – plus Deal goes there so…watch this space. And I'm so not telling about the spell…yet!
Sapphire: aw thanks, here's the update – well delayed – feel bad L
death-resurrected: well…I hope so!
Jes Imagin: yeah…if I was pushed to explain I would say that the memories of a friend (two if you include 'Cissa) could have evaporated, gotten lost in the conviction that he was alone and unloved. It maybe morphed into the idea of someone rather than any tangible reality. And healer Draco…close!
Alex Destine: you don't like Ron? Well you'll like what comes up – a wee bit of Ron bashing I'm afraid. Actually I'm becoming irritated that I fell into the Ron/Hermione trap – am now leaning towards Hermione/Blaise but don't have the heart to write a break-up. Darn it! Ow well, glad you like it anyway.
Slice: actually you're scarily close on that one – the repression bit I believe. They're keeping rather a big secret…oh, a plot hint!
Scorn-Silverstar: yeah I liked that – just seemed a typical male bonding thing – especially with no football in Hogwarts.
Oriana Dumbledore: I know! He doesn't like being lied to but, well, our Harry is keeping rather a big secret himself so…he'll let them off. I actually anguished over this one a bit myself and decided that (a) this time he'll understand because of his own secret and (b) the fifth book didn't happen here! So I'm happy as Larry! Plus I'm guessing Hermione isn't really looking that far ahead – she's just trying to keep things going and the secret is better than Harry trying to cope with what she now knows. Hope this makes my thinking a bit clear – I managed to convince myself anyway! Glad you like the story.
pixyfairy120: glad you like it!
Sparkler: I'm not telling you that! Glad you like it.
the crazy ladies: well here more is. Fear of the guinea pig delayed my creativity. No seriously…!
ShaeLynn: good ol' Hermione eh! Blaise and Seamus – yeah they'll be friends.
Baby Sphinx: heya, going to be really cheeky and use this space to ask if I can send you chapter two.
Sapphire: glad you like it, but why does everyone assume they'll remember…?
TigerBlak: glad you think my Sev/Re is working – totally convinced of it by Piri Lupin-Snape's stuff so nice to see people think I can make it work. Mirroring? Well I would hope H/D's relationship would be someone easier on them. Poor Re and Sev have had it hard.
Zenah Wood: oh course I can't? Though I would hint at chapter 20ish, if pushed!
wintermoon2: well you updated far quicker than me! I, too, love my little Hermione. She's so grown up – or wants to be. This actually becomes rather Hermione centric in my head at times…you'll see what I mean, I think.
Blue Rosed Dragon: yeah, v cute! Glad you like it.
NayNymic: well they could do that…but I think maybe they know a little something already – *plot hint alert siren sounds* lady doth protest too much and all that! And the Sev/Re thing – so glad people like that.
The Shadow Bandit: yeah, that might work J Thanks for the praise *blushes*
Jade Maxwell: nice long review *smirks* you know your place! No seriously, they're great as always! *Tapes silver foil onto head in manner of Lois Lane in New Adventures of Superman* stop reading my mind! OK so you were not totally right but too close for comfort *looks around nervously* Keep out! Pansy/Hermione…not sure if I'm really able to do that – flirting teasing maybe but nothing serious. Just can't see it. As I've said elsewhere, wish I could cancel the Ron/Hermione thing but I need it…darn! As for Blaise/Seamus…honestly not sure. Will not be doing the Dean/Seamus thing though. Just not right for this one.
PeachDancer82: ah thanks, and I like your stuff too. More Kingdom Come please!
Ice Lupus: why not?
Anyway, was also wondering if people had any preferences for pairings. This is (obviously) H/D and I'm kinda roped into the Hermione/Ron thing but everything else is still out there and I'm open to suggestions – maybe Ginny/Blaise though she hasn't really appeared yet. I just like that pairing. What do people think?
See ya soon,
Louise