A/N: The VOTING booths have now opened. Because it's a bit of a minor subplot at the moment I haven't given much thought to Hermione's pairing. I actually had a lively debate will the guy in my study class on whether or not an academic female would go for another academic male, or for more of a bad boy. Well, now YOU get to decide. Review, and let me know whether you think lovable Remus deserves Hermione or if charming Sirius needs to get the girl. (And, yes, sorry, but those are your only choices). I've left opportunities open for the both of them, so it could go either way.

True to her word, Hermione bounded down the stairs the next morning with boisterous enthusiasm. Checking the underside of her wrist for the time, she hurried up the opposite staircase and knocked loudly on the door.

"Harry, Ron! Wake up," she called in a phony sing-song voice. "You'll miss breeeeakfast."

The door swung open revealing a very rumpled Sirius in nothing but a pair of pajama pants. Hermione, though an only child, had spent the last five years keeping her two male friends on track, and by now the sight of a shirtless teenage boy was nothing out of the ordinary. She hardly even noticed.

Sirius' yawn turned to a look of surprise as he realized who was standing at the door.

"Morning sunshine," she teased brightly, and slipped past him into the room.

He made a grab for her, but he was still groggy from sleep and his reflexes were a bit too slow to stop the unaware Hermione. "Hermione! I don't think—"

"Good morning, Remus," she said pleasantly, passing straight by the red-faced boy as he scrambled to find his shirt.

She approached the first bed – Remus hurrying to redress and Sirius regarding her with an amazed expression – and when she found its lumpy shaped occupant still asleep she frowned.

"Ronald Weasley!" She called bouncing down onto the side of the bed.

When he didn't stir, she gave a dramatic sigh and flung herself back onto the lump beneath the blankets. Someone grunted from under her and there was a very distinct "Oy, Herm...nee. Geroff! You're...heavy."

This comment was rewarded with a sharp prod from Hermione's wand and a bedraggled Ron tumbled out of the sheets and onto the floor. Shaking his fist in Hermione's direction, he heaved himself off the floor and blearily made his way to his trunk, wearing only a pair of Quidditch bedecked boxers.

"I told best friend Ron I'd come and wake him up if he slept in, didn't I?" Hermione said in response, mocking Ron's earlier words.

He didn't seem the list bit uncomfortable with Hermione walking around the boy's dormitory while he was half-naked, and Hermione was ignoring him completely – her job of waking him now accomplished –, and she moved on to Harry while Ron grumbled something inarticulate about her, head stuck in his clothes chest.

Luckily for Harry, the commotion had already awoken him, and he was just emerging from the covers, messy ebony head peaking out around his pillow, when a well aimed disarming spell from Hermione knocked him straight out of bed, head first. His t-shirt and shorts were rumpled, but he was fully dressed, which was more than the rest of them could boast.

While her two mates stumbled around getting dressed, she turned to Sirius and Remus, who had since located his wayward pajama shirt.

"Oh," she interjected, pensively. "I don't suppose you have any uniforms, do you?" She asked, though it was more a statement than a question. Her fingers clasped her chin for a moment and then her eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers.

Easily dodging clothes and quills that lay scattered about the floor already, she hurried to the large wardrobe against the third wall, only stopping along the way to pick up books.

"Boys," she could be heard muttering. "Really! It's only the first day of term," she said a bit louder.

When she returned from her excursion it was without books and two boys' uniforms in her arms instead. She handed the slightly smaller set to Remus who answered with a small "thank you".

"So do you guys get to dress her, too?" Sirius asked, buttoning his shirt.

Hermione laughed. "You wish, Black" Ron taunted, allowing Hermione to brush imaginary lint off his robes.

"Ron and Harry are completely hopeless," she told Sirius and Remus wistfully. "I should have knocked them to the curb years ago."

She glanced back at them while she was talking and did a double-take before 'tsking' disparagingly. Sirius was startled when she was suddenly in front of him, hands reaching upwards for his face. But she was only fixing the mess he'd made of his tie, going up on her tiptoes to lift his collar and straighten out the loop.

"And it seems, Mr. Black," she said, her eyes twinkling merrily as she tightened the knot all the way up to his throat. "That you are as hopeless as the rest."

He smirked down at her as she flattened his collar back down, and, as soon as she turned away, he yanked the knot down past his shoulders.

"I'll let you dress me anytime, pigeon," he responded charmingly.

"Sirius," Remus admonished in a hushed tone.

"I have a name, you know," was Hermione's slightly irritated response.

Sirius smiled winningly. "Is that so, love?" He asked; the husk to his voice more prominent as he leaned against a bedpost in the way that made young witches swoon in their Mary Janes. Hermione merely ignored him.

"Remus, here, seems to be the only one of you lot who can properly dress himself," she scolded, saving a warm smile for Remus. He smiled back.

"I do what I can," he said, and Hermione's laughter echoed up the stairwell behind her.

"Do you think we could get her to do that every morning?" Sirius joked, waggling his eyebrows suggestively as the boys followed after her.

Ron groaned, rubbing his head ruefully. "Are you kidding?" He exclaimed. "Try getting her to stop!"

Lily and James were already waiting with Hermione in the common room when the four boys tumbled down the stairs. They had on new uniforms as well; though, they looked much more awake than the rest. They'd slept in Hermione's room.

"Merlin's beard, Hermione," Harry mumbled, scratching his head. "What time is it?"

"Quarter 'til eight; the same time I've woken you up the past six years," she reminded him, pulling her satchel onto her shoulder. She smiled at the Marauders. "Sorry if you feel a bit rushed. Sometimes I forget Ron and Harry are the only ones who can eat breakfast in ten minutes. I could wake you up earlier, if you'd like?"

"You don't have to," Lily insisted. "We wouldn't want to inconvenience you."

Ron snorted, and Hermione shot him a look before waving Lily's comment away. "Nonsense, I've been up for ages."

"Please, tell me you haven't started homework already, Hermione," Harry pleaded.

"If you thought more about your schoolwork and less about saving the world you would have too," she shot back defensively and pushed through the portrait, out into the hall.

"She's a piece of work, isn't she?" Sirius smirked, leaning against the door frame.

"Aye," Harry agreed. "But she's a good friend."

"She sounds like your type of girl, Moony," James added, thumping the smaller boy on the back.

Remus flushed, "Don't be daft, James."

Harry and Ron were trying to get their shocked expression in order as the Marauder boys talked about their best friend like, well, teenage boys. It wouldn't have been so weird if they hadn't seen Sirius and Remus as men in their thirties, and if Lily and James weren't Harry's parents.

Ok, so it could have been a lot less weird.

The conversation continued down the hall until they caught up with Hermione, at which point they were smart enough to change topics. Harry got a hold of her satchel and tugged her backwards by it until they walked at the same pace.

"How could you possible have gotten your homework already?" He asked, resignedly, knowing he'd have to hear it sooner or later.

Hermione had the decency to blush, "I had all my professors owl their lesson plans with my term letter," she explained quickly. "I would have started sooner, but we were so busy this holiday—"

"Hermione!" Harry and Ron groaned simultaneously.

"What?!" She exclaimed. "You know I'm assisting Professor Snape this term, I had to memorize the lesson plans and—"

"SNIVELLUS?" James blurted out. "Works here?"

Ron nodded darkly, "I still don't see why you have to work for that git. He hates Gryffindors."

"It'll look good on my transcript," she shrugged indifferently to their arguments. "Besides, I really like Potions and I'm good at it – all he'll do is billow around and insult me personally. No matter how broody he gets he can't hurt my transcript because he thinks my hair is too bushy or that I'm an 'insufferable know-it-all'," she quoted the last with a rather good impersonation of Snape's nasally voice.

They all laughed at her accurate portrayal, and Ron threw an arm around her shoulders. "Do I even want to know how long you've been up?" He asked with his normally joking disposition present in his voice.

"Since half-past," she answered innocently enough.

Ron's eyes narrowed. "Half-past what, best friend Hermione?"

"Five."

He groaned loudly and started banging his forehead on her shoulder. She just rolled her eyes and kept walking.

"We didn't get back to the common room until past one," Lily recounted aloud, with more than a little incredulity to her tone.

"You don't look like you've only had four hours of sleep," Sirius declared, appearing at her other shoulder and looking down at her. The sides of her hair had been barretted back giving him a clear view of her face.

"How do I look?" She asked evenly. Sirius literally stopped walking in surprise, and she held his gaze for a second before turning back to Ron as they neared the Great Hall doors, leaving Sirius behind.

James and Lily passed by him – James' hands in his pockets and Lily holding loosely to his arm. She merely smiled in a knowing sort of way passing, but James didn't bother hiding his snickering.

"Smooth, mate," was Remus' softly teasing comment before he followed after Lily and James. Sirius, shaken out of his stupor, jogged to catch up.

"She's feisty," he remarked, rubbing his chin. He watched Hermione laugh shamelessly at something Ron had said to her.

"Sharp as a razor," James affirmed. He grinned wolfishly at Sirius. "You think you're up to the challenge, Padfoot?"

"She certainly full of surprises," was his distracted reply.

Hermione, Ron, and Harry were waiting for them at the large doors.

"Ready?" Harry asked.

They all nodded.

"Now we'll see if Dumbledore was right..."

He heaved the doors open and the group stepped inside.

Casually, imperceptibly, Hermione moved in front of the group, while Harry and Ron slipped off to the sides, centering the Marauder's in a dense triangle. Sirius wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't still been looking at Hermione. She went to smooth her skirts and made a small movement with her wrist.

Hermione's wand was out from Merlin knows where, and by the position of her arm she held it hidden in the pleats of her skirt. Sirius knew without looking that Ron and Harry had drawn their wands as well, but he wasn't certain his friends had noticed any changes in the three. They really were ready for the worst.

But no one so much as acknowledged their entrance. Those who did look up went quickly back to their breakfast – rushing to finish before class. Everyone's memory had been modified.

The seven of them sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table; Ron, Harry, and Hermione looking as normal and relaxed as ever. Sirius sat on her right and Lily took her left, sitting at the end of the long table with James across from her. Next to him were Remus, Ron, and Harry.

"'Mione, pass the pancakes," Ron asked, before he'd even finished seating himself.

With both hands, Hermione lifted the laden platter from down by the end over to Ron's reach. She'd put her wand away and Sirius hadn't even seen her do it.

Helping himself to some bacon and sausage before it was snatched away by James for Lily (who was too polite to do it herself), he leaned over to whisper conspiratorially into Hermione's ear. "Don't think I didn't see that, pigeon."

Hermione smiled into her goblet of pumpkin juice, but not before she told him off for not using her proper name.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Lily asked, realizing Hermione's plate was empty, as she tried to scrape the last semblances of butter from the dish.

"Already did, but thanks," she responded politely, effectively stirred from her mental rant of stupid nicknames.

"Hermione eats whenever it's convenient for her studies," Harry informed them, swallowing a large bite of food.

"Which means never," Ron elaborated, laughing at his own joke.

"I did my work down in the kitchens this morning so I wouldn't wake anyone," she told them. "I ate there."

She pulled her book bag into her lap and pulled a stack of parchments out. "I got everyone's schedules from Dumbledore already." She handed them out. "And I had a few extra minutes before I had to wake up Harry and Ron so I went back and compared the maps of Hogwarts from both our times just to make sure none of your classes got moved," she told the Marauders. "They should all be the same except Transfiguration is on the first floor, not the third. If you get in a fix, ask a portrait and they'll help you out."

Harry was shaking his head at her and he and Ron exchanged a look, but she ignored them.

"Well, while I'd love to stay and talk with such terrible friends," she jibbed brusquely after a glance at her watch. "I promised Professor Knoll I'd help set up today's lesson."

Lily glanced at her schedule, brushing her long red locks over her shoulder. "Defense Against the Dark Arts; we have that first."

"We'll come with you," Ron suggested, but it was more a spray of toast crumbs than anything else.

"Why don't you digest your food first," she suggested and stood up. She was half-turned to go when some sudden thought made her turn back.

"You like Defense Against the Dark Art, don't you Remus?" She asked, "Would you like to come with?"

"Sure," he readily agreed, smiling. He wiped his mouth off on his napkin and pushed his plate back so he could stand. His schedule he folded into a neat square and tucked into his pocket before coming around to Hermione's side.

"We'll see you in a little bit," Hermione said in parting and she and Remus head out of the Great Hall.

James was the one who said it, but Sirius was the one whose eyes followed them out.

"Looks like another challenger just stepped into the ring."

---

"Granger! Come move these cages!"

Hermione rolled her eyes at Remus and left him to finish distributing the wooden stands to each table. She'd hoped that something familiar might make him feel more at home here in the future. She wasn't sure where to start for the others, but Harry might have an idea. She'd ask him when he got here. She hurried to the front of the room where her professor was standing behind her desk.

Professor Knoll, who, now starting her second consecutive year, held the record for holding the position the longest, was a loud, slightly crazed, woman in her late fifties. She liked wearing robes of various vibrant colors and pointy witches' hats with large feathers and gems. When she got excited her crinkly hair would begin falling out of the loose twist in graying brown wisps. She also had a very long wooden pointer she was fond of waving around.

As Hermione hurried through the aisle, Knoll took said pointer and rapped it along the bars of the metal cage on the pedestal up front. It made a clanking noise like that of an inmate's cup rattling across the prison bars.

"Come on, come on!" The woman barked. "Put that cage up there on that hook right up there."

The stick was flourished around in the air, bumping every few swings the dangling chain from which the cage was going to be hung.

Hermione dragged a stool underneath the hook and went to pick up the cage. It was heavier than she'd originally thought, but she was reluctant to levitate it on the chance that it would leave a magic residual irritating to the creature that would be sitting in said cage.

Tucking her wand behind her ear, she shifted the gold gilded cage in her arms and climbed up onto the stool. It had a bit of a wobble to it at first, but it stabilized after a moment.

She had to prop the bottom on her hip to free the hand necessary to grab the chain and she hooked it to the top of the cage. Gradually letting go until she was sure it wouldn't fall, she brushed her hands off on her skirt and looked down.

Remus was holding her stool steady.

Unconsciously, Hermione felt her face flush; soft red spreading across her cheeks. It was true that Ron and Harry were never so considerate and it was an entirely foreign gesture, but there was just the tiny hint of something else – the something that had made her blush.

When she was confidant she could speak properly she thanked him and, using his shoulders to balance herself, hopped off the stool. Avoiding eye contact, she skirted around him and busied herself with rechecking the supplies on each table.

"Everything's there," Remus' voice came from right behind her.

Hermione jumped. "Right, right," She stammered. "Of course."

She saw his eyebrows go up in surprise and cursed at herself. She probably sounded like some rambling idiot. Get it together, Hermione!

"Just giving it all its proper three times check over," she justified, pulling her wits back around herself.

He chuckled softly at something, his eyes falling to the ground before rising back to meet hers. They were gunmetal blue, the color of an overcast sky. "I already did," he said, revealing the cause of his humor.

Lips twitching at the corners, Hermione couldn't help but smile softly. "Oh..." was all she managed.

"Bloody HELL!"

Both of them jumped at the booming curse. Professor Knoll was brandishing her wooden pointer between them like a sword.

"If the two of you beat around the bush anymore you'll uproot it," she swore noisily to which Hermione burned bright red and Remus had a face to match. "The two of you have been going at it like this since last term—"

"We have?!" Hermione blurted out incredulously.

"—and I'm getting bloody tired of it," Knoll told them in a warning sort of voice. "So just stop flitting about and have at it, will you?!" Her blunt demand was punctuated by the loud smack of wood on wood, her pointing stick slamming onto the top of her desk.

They glanced awkwardly at one another and immediately looked away again, turning even redder. "The spell," Hermione mumbled, turning pink at the implications of her massive memory altercation. "Sorry."

"Speak up, dear! He can't hear you like that!"

Hermione had actually lifted a hand to shield her flushed face from Remus and Knoll, when they were both saved by an entry into the room. It was Sirius, followed promptly by James who was sporting a fine pair of ass ears (probably courtesy of Sirius).

"Sirius," Remus called. "I wanted to talk to about the thing, that, er, the thing we were talking about earlier," he rambled, practically running to the other boy.

"James! Let me help you with those," Hermione said, nearly simultaneously, though more articulately than Remus. She didn't run, but the clicking of her Mary Jane shoes was furious against the cobble floors.

James had stopped chasing Sirius, and they both stared in bewilderment as the pair descended upon them. James, helpfully, sat down in a desk so Hermione could banish his donkey appendages, but Sirius ignored the flustered Remus, looking over the shorter boy to Hermione.

"What's the matter, pigeon?"

"Stop calling me that!" She snapped, cheeks still slightly flushed from her earlier embarrassment.

James shot Sirius a confused look as Hermione continued to fuss with his hair, even after the ears were gone. Sirius just shrugged, looking just as puzzled.

"Hermione," James soothed slowly, reaching up and taking a hold of her wrists. He looked concerned. "They're gone."

The red flared back to life in her cheeks. "Right. Sorry."

"Are you al—"James didn't get to finish.

"Harry!" She rushed; her relief a weight tangible to the rest of the room. Harry was now standing in the doorway, Ron and Lily behind him.

"Hermione?"

Everyone seemed to be giving her that befuddled look today.

"Help me get this last cage up," she insisted, grabbing a hold of his sleeve and pulling him up with her to the front of the class. Along the way, he deposited his bag on a chair and jogged to meet her pace so that she no longer had to drag him by the cuff.

He started to ask her what was the matter – her flustered and antsy behavior an undeniable giveaway – but she set about moving the stool to underneath the second hook, and he had no choice but the pick the cage off the floor and carry it over to her.

As she took it out of his hands, she leaned forward to whisper in his ear so that no one else would hear. "That stupid spell worked," was what she said.

Harry pulled back to give her a quizzical look.

"The whole school thinks I'm secretly in love with Remus," she hissed, mortified beyond belief.

He stared at her a moment...and then he started to laugh.

Hermione scowled and wrenched the cage out of his hands. Harry just doubled over with laughter. A seething Hermione climbed up and fastened the second cage on the hook, glaring all the while at the wall across from her.

"It's not funny."

"You're right," he choked out. "It's hilarious."

She jumped off with an angry clack! onto the cobblestones as soon as she was finished, and the first thing she did was give him a violent punch in the arm. He wasn't laughing anymore.

"OW!"

"I hope it leaves a horrid bruise," she told him in frustration.

He dismissed her with a roll of his eyes, "Well you don't really, do you?"

"Don't what?" she huffed.

"Like him."

"Don't be an idiot," Hermione scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She lowered her voice. "I knew him when he was twenty years older than me, Harry. I mean, come on!"

"You knew Sirius in his thirties, too," he added.

By this time, Hermione had lost any semblance of understanding what their conversation was now about. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Harry shook his head and pulled the stool behind him and back beside the professor's desk. "You can be as dense as Ron, sometimes," he told her. "And shut your mouth – he's staring."

Hermione looked back automatically. Sirius was staring at her intently, bright blue eyes smoldering. He smiled that lop-sided half-smile she'd thought only Harry could perfect, and she was blushing yet again. Quickly, she turned back to Harry.

"This is weird," she whispered.

"Sirius and Remus don't seem to share your discomfort..." He trailed off. Sticking his hands in his robe pockets he turned and strolled back to the room's rear.

"You're not going to help me with this?!" Hermione accused, but she was talking to his back.

"Oh, no," he called back over his shoulder. "This is going to be fun."

"I hate you," she hissed vehemently, glaring daggers at his back.

His response was; "Then you won't mind if I sit with Lily and James."

"No, Harry—" But he was already sitting down next to his mum, easily joining into the conversation they'd been having before him. He was ignoring her.

Classmates were now starting to swarm in as the time for class to start drew near and she had to push her way to where Ron was sitting with Seamus Finnegan. There was still an open seat at the table – thank Merlin. She hurried to occupy it, but when she got close enough to hear their conversation, she stopped short. Quidditch. Yuck.

Unfortunately for her, her moment's indecision was all it took for Dean Thomas to step up and slide into her desired seat. Frell!

"Hermione – there's a seat open back here at Remus and Sirius' table."

Glaring at Harry with every ounce of loathing she possessed, Hermione backtracked and headed for the last place on earth she wanted to be sitting. The last table of the middle row. Harry was two tables up on the left and Ron was two ahead in the same row – both too far away if she needed an emergency rescue.

Steeling herself up, she walked briskly to the table where Sirius and Remus were sitting, and – just her luck – was forced to take the chair in between them. Some days just suck, and some days Fate draws your name out of a hat and decides to make it a living hell. Hermione was thinking this just might be one of those days.