Sirius: 22

Remus: 28

Threesome: 4

A/n: Sorry it's been so long. Hope to have another chapter up tonight though.

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"Where was Hermione this morning?" James yawned, still looking abnormally sleepy for eleven in the morning.

"She lets us sleep in on the weekends," Ron spoke up from his lounging position on the couch. "Unless there's Quidditch, of course."

"By the way," Harry cut in. "We've gotta tell her to wake us up earlier this year on game days."

Ron made a face. "You mean wake you up earlier. I actually like to let my eyes stay closed for awhile." To the Marauders he said, "Crazy that one." He jerked his head at Harry. "Says he needs four hours to get into 'game mode'."

"Where is Hermione?" Remus asked, noting the brunette's lack of presence.

"Lily and Gin are turning her into a girl," Harry said blandly, too distracted by the turning pages of his Quidditch magazine to put much inflection in his voice.

"'Turning her into a girl'?" Remus repeated.

Harry nodded, not really listening, and turned the page. "She sent out a distress signal about a quarter of an hour ago."

"What?! A distress signal?" Sirius made a face, disbelieving.

"Something about 'save yourself'." He flipped to an article near the back. "I wasn't really listening," he confessed.

Ron took the magazine straight out of his hands and threw it down shut onto the coffee table. "Time to go."

In an uncanny synchronicity, a door slammed upstairs immediately following his words, and thundering footfalls echoed down the stairwell. Hermione bypassed the final four steps with a rushed leap and she was vaulting over the couch before they could get a word out.

"Hide me!" She begged as new footfalls began.

"How did you know she was coming?" A slowly awakening James asked of Ron, looking down blithely at the brunette trying to hide behind him.

"It's like a sixth sense."

"Hermione..."

"Keep your psychotic girlfriend away from me with that wand," Hermione hissed, trying to make the sleeves of his jumper spread far enough away from his arm to cover her face.

"We've only just started!" Ginny exclaimed, bounding down into the common room ahead of Lily.

"Just started?" Harry checked the underside of his wrist for his watch face. "You've been up there half of an hour."

"Her hair took ages," Lily defended.

As if on cue, they all looked back on the hiding Hermione. Her still damp hair had been tricked into looking tamer than it was by being confined to two twin French braids. With her wild and distracting curls pulled back, she was revealed to have a rather pretty sort of face; something her bushy hair had made difficult to notice normally.

Of course, the feminine qualities of her face were somewhat overshadowed by the pale-worn jeans and handed down Manchester United jumper she wore.

"Nice clothes," Ron complimented with a pointed look at his sister that made her mouth click shut. "Now, let's go."

Hermione stuck her tongue out triumphantly and squeezed in between Remus and Harry to the front of the group; putting as much distance between herself and the other girls as possible. She wasn't going to let either one of them near her today with their wands still in their possession.

--

--

After handing their passes to an extra surly Snape, who was filling in for Filch, and executing another race between Sirius and Hermione in an attempt for him to win back the chocolate frogs he'd lost, the rosy faces teenagers found themselves in Honeydukes where Hermione was collecting her double prize.

"I'm mad at you," she told him, sucking on a chocolate frog.

"What for?!" He exclaimed, juggling the sweets boxes she was making him carry as part of his bet.

"You made me race you and kick your arse," she explained simply. "And now I'm being forced to eat these frogs..."

"I'll take 'em," James offered with a greedy eye on the twin wrapped packages.

"No way," she shook her head. "I'm under moral obligation to eat every one..."

Sirius face lit up in a childishly gleeful sort of way and you could almost see the comprehension dawning on him.

"You'd think the daughter of dentists wouldn't be allowed a sweet tooth," he drawled and in so doing made Hermione suddenly swallow a painfully large bite of squirming chocolate.

"I'm not. But this is a magical sweet – completely different," she reasoned, perusing the shelves.

Ron rolled his eyes in passing, arms filled with every sort of sugary confection a store like Honeydukes could offer, and Hermione finally took pity on Sirius enough to shrink the boxes of chocolate and stash them in her pocket.

"Let's head to the robe shop," Harry shouted so they could all hear over the din of younger kids screaming for candy. "Before we have to carry Ron out on a hippogriff."

"I'm gonna kick your arse when we get out of here." His threat was made an eensy less threatening by the flakes of pumpkin pasty flying out of his mouth.

--

--

The group headed next to Gladrags and, using the private fund Hogwarts had established for just such odd emergencies, bought Lily and the boys their own set of the school uniform as well as new robes.

That seemed to be the breaking point, however, for after which Ginny took off for the Quidditch store with an eager James dragging a not-so-enthusiastic Lily behind, Hermione immediately sought out the bookstore, and with half of their group – save for Lily – at their respective obsessions, the remaining four split off as well – Harry to show Sirius and Remus the "new and improved Zonko's" and Ron to get a drink with Hannah Abbot.

They were all to meet at the Three Broomsticks in an hour.

--

--

Lily stamped her feet to regain the feeling. Three quarters of an hour had passed since they'd gotten to the store and she had yet to be given the chance to sit down. Just as she was planning for an unfortunate something to fall into her boyfriend's tea and about to beg James to let her go to the bookstore, something odd caught her eye.

A man standing across the street was dressed from head to toe in official looking white. And looking ridiculous in a sea of brightly-clad teenage students.

"Sorry, Lils," James said, taking her hand and steering her down the walk to a bench.

Lily realized her face must have held an embarrassingly vacant expression and her cheeks flushed. The peculiar man in white had at least done one thing – he'd made her forget about the aching in her feet. But now it was back and she sunk onto the wooden seat with a sigh of relief. James draped an arm around her shoulders, the box containing his new Chaser gloves placed carefully beside him.

"You done?" she asked, implying with a dart of her eyes the package next to him.

"Yeah."

He was slouched, with his legs crossed at the ankle and his eyes watching the passers by. Lily followed his example, casting her eyes up and down the street – past the doorway where the man in white had stood, to the joke shop down near the end of the lane.

"It's not quite the same as I remember it," Lily murmured, eyes alighting on a new lamp post. "It looks it, but then I notice something that wasn't there before."

"I know what you mean," James agreed. "There are things I shouldn't know, but I feel like I do."

Lily bobbed her head and buried her chin in the lapels of her corduroy jacket. "It must be our memories catching up with us."

"Do you think it'll be weird when we go back? Knowing our future, I mean."

He was looking at her, she could tell, and very slowly she met his eyes and voiced the concern she'd been harboring since the beginning.

"Do you think we will get back home?"

The arm slung over the bench dropped onto her shoulders and he squeezed her to him in a reassuring way. "Hermione'll find a way."

Lily thought about this; he was right. If anyone could find a way it would be Hermione, and she'd do whatever it took to see them home again – that much Lily was sure on, even only knowing the other girl for two weeks. With a blossoming smile, Lily snuggled closer to her boyfriend, content to spend their last ten minutes with each other, watching the people.

--

--

Hermione was so enthralled with her newly purchased book that she didn't look up as she stepped out into the bright September light and, consequently, collided with another body.

Rubbing her pained bum, Hermione was startled when a hand was thrust just under her nose. She took the slender, and obviously feminine, hand and, snatching her book off the ground as she rose up, allowed the other person to pull her back to her feet.

A middle aged witch looked down her small glasses and smiled disconcertingly at her, looking decidedly serpentine in the eerie way she appeared pleased to have been run so rudely into. Hermione returned it with an uncertain smile of her own.

"Terribly sorry," she murmured, and was about to make a hasty retreat before the woman's hand on her arm held her in place.

The grip was firmly demanding; not at all a match to the smiling face. "My name is Carolyn Eustice – from the Ministry of Magic."

Hermione took in the all-white outfit and nodded to convey her understanding, mouth too dry to speak for a moment. "Can I help you, ma'am?" She offered with strained formality.

The ruby red lips parted, baring the perfect sort of teeth her parents refused to let her magically achieve. "We were not able to find your Headmaster in the castle..."

She trailed off with a saccharine sweetness Hermione believe was meant to bait her into giving something away. What that 'something' was, she had no idea.

"Would you happen to know his whereabouts?"

Hermione didn't.

"I believe he had some business in Belgium," she supplied, schooling her face to look excitedly helpful.

The murky green-brown eyes soaked in the snippet of information gleefully, like it was a jewel of knowledge she'd just coerced out of a seemingly innocent girl. The woman, Carolyn, swept off without so much of a goodbye, leaving Hermione standing alone in the street.

Her hands were trembling as they slipped the book into her pocket and her steps were staggered as she turned her feet towards the Three Broomsticks. Any sight of white hastened her steps and by the time she passed Durvish & Banges she was in a full out run, her thick braids slapping against her back as she ducked her head down into the wind.

Pushing through a group of laughing Ravenclaws, Hermione stumbled – barely seeing with her lowered face – her way into the alleyway beside the bar. Her breathing was heavy, and her spiking adrenaline was accompanies by a heaviness pushing down on her shoulders and trying to force her to her knees.

With shaking, hooked fingers she reached up and clawed at Lily's painstakingly fashioned braids. One of the ties snapped with the ferocity at which she yanked, but the other got tangled in her curls. It was ripped from her braid with desperate hands to the sound of ripping hair.

A high pitched keen fluxed in and out of her voice, whimpering, as she ran her hands wildly and urgently through her locks to separate the woven strands. When her wild hair was in a bushy mess around her face, she ran her uncontrollable hands shaking down her face and slid down the wall to the ground.

The icy stone was soothing as she pressed her cheek against it, one hand bracing herself against the wall and the other clutched the thick material of her jumper – trying to slow the rampant thudump thumping! of her heart.

Shaking her hair to fall over her face like a curtain, she brought her head down between her knees and sucked in the stuffy air of the alley.

When the tremors had passed and she was no longer breathing any differently than before, she exhaled slowly and stood up. Any attempt she made to flatten her hair only made it more staticky and unmanageable and so she gave up on the mess, oddly comforted by the feel of rough curls across her cheeks and the warm weight on the back of her neck.

Steeling herself for the bright lights of the open street, she checked to make sure her book hadn't been lost in her panic attack, and brushed off her jeans before rounding the corner and entering the Three Broomsticks.

--

--

Warm, humid air engulfed her like a grandmother enveloping her grandchild in a big bear hug, and her nose was assailed with a variety of pleasing smells; the thick vanilla of the candles on the walls, the earthy smell of autumn, and a rich tang of cinnamon arising from the day's special. She caught sight of Ron's vibrant hair and made her way to their usual table in the back corner. James and Lily were still absent.

Hermione slid in beside Harry and was reaching for his butterbeer when her eyes alighted on the boys' faces.

"What the bloody hell happened?!" she shrieked.

Ron was sporting a split lip, Sirius' jaw was red, and Remus' face was smeared with dirt. Harry looked worse of all, his glasses cracked and the skin around his left eye turned a disgusting purple bruise.

"Harry got into a fight with some Slytherin," Remus replied automatically, then looked shocked that he'd even opened his mouth.

Sirius scowled, "You said you wouldn't tell, Moony..."

"Malfoy attacked you?" Hermione said aghast, fumbling her wand out of her pocket.

"Harry attacked him."

"Remus!" Ron shouted.

The lycan covered his mouth, already sinking into his seat. "Sorry," he insisted. "It just slipped out, honest."

Hermione gave them all a stern look. "At least one of you has some sense," she quipped, repairing her friend's glasses with an ease brought on by performing it so many times.

"Don't fuss, 'Mione," Ron groaned.

She rapped him sharply on the head with her wand. "Don't you 'mione' me," she reprimanded.

But her hands on his face were gentle and soft, an unconscious effort to keep from paining him more. Lightly alighting her wand tip upon the cut of his lip, she murmured simple healing spell and it was gone.

"Your hands are cold," he complained, pushing her wand away to swig his butterbeer.

"Well, look at you all just sitting here looking terrible like this," she scolded, quickly scourgifying Remus' face across the table.

"We were getting around to it," Harry mumbled.

"You don't look like a basket of roses yourself," Sirius pointed out as she leaned over to reduce the swelling of his face. "What happened to your hair?"

It was a mess, she already knew that, but glancing down she saw grit and grime across her jeans from when she'd sat in the dirty alley. "I was helping Hagrid round up a thestral that got loose," she lied fluidly.

Banishing the violet of Harry's black eye to yellow and then back to the normal flush of his skin. "Now tell me why you engaged in a duel with Malfoy," she demanded before the others could question her.

"It wasn't a duel," Harry replied rather snappily.

Hermione's brow furrowed, "I don't understand..."

"We were walking out of Zonko's when Malfoy and his grunts walked by," Ron explained. "The next thing I knew Harry and Malfoy were rolling on the ground punching the sod out of each other."

"Harry just tackled him," Remus supplied, and this time was rewarded with a resounding hit upside the head from Sirius.

"OW!" Remus' hand immediately went to his head. "That hurt."

"I barely touched you," he countered, twirling his bottle along the table.

"You bloody well punched me in the head," Remus grumbled, wincing as he rubbed the spot of injury.

"Well if you'd stop opening your mouth—"

The bottle in his grip shattered into a thousand shards, littering the table with glittering brown fragments.

"Gods!" Hermione cried. "Sirius!"

His face screwed in discomfort he lifted his hand up for view – blood was beading around the few punctures he'd acquired, brown glass jutting out of his skin.

"Blimey..." Ron was gaping at the shrapnel that had pierced the booth's leather back directly between himself and Remus.

"The glass just gave out..." Sirius was saying.

"You get tired of abusing me so you attack your drink?" Remus was muttering at the same time.

Harry was cleaning up the glass and repairing any tears in the booth, while Hermione diligently worked on Sirius' hand, and with Ron gaping still at the entire thing, Lily and James finally arrived.

"Sorry we're la—what the devil have you done to your hand?" James and Lily both squeezed in on Hermione's side, saving a little space with Lily sort of half-sitting on James. No one was really concerned about seating arrangements at the moment.

"He crushed it with his bare hands!" Ron insisted, gesturing wildly at the pile of glass Harry had constructed.

James face broke out in a fierce grin. "Wicked!" He slid Harry's bottle across to 'Hermione's patient'. "Do it again, mate!"

Hermione shot him a disapproving look that turned to one of disbelief as Sirius obligingly picked up the butterbeer. He squeezed it firmly, but to no avail. For a moment he scowled at it as if willing it to shatter.

"The bottle was probably faulty," Lily reasoned, plucking the bottle out of his grasp; much to Hermione's relief.

"The both of you are ridiculous," she grumbled, turning over Sirius' hand for one last ocular check. It was all healed.

"Both?" James looked confused. "Sirius and...?"

"Harry. He got into a fist fight with Malfoy of all things."

Ron banished the glass hill with a flick of his wand. "It was probably pretty entertaining though."

"What did he say to you Harry?" Hermione prompted, turning as best she could in the crowded booth to address him.

He was staring out the window.

"Nothing."

"Did he do something to provoke you—"

"No." He rested his chin in his palm and looked back at her out of the corner of his eye. "He was just walking past and I had this urge...this need to just punch him one right in that sneering face of his."

"You could get detention for that," Lilt exclaimed.

Harry shrugged, body still slouched towards the window. "I think Malfoy's and my rivalry is past 'tattling'."

Hermione and Ron exchanged looks. "No," they answered simultaneously.

"Listen, Harry," Hermione started. She placed a hand on his arm. "Malfoy'll do anything to get you expelled. We'll probably lose fifty house points for this."

"It wasn't my fault!" Harry shouted. His emerald eyes were blazing with an angry fire, but Hermione was unrelenting.

"Then whose—"

"I don't know," he snapped, irritably avoiding her honey gaze. Hermione sighed, looking over his form tense with frustration, and decided it would be best to question him another time. That is, if he wasn't expelled for 'assault on another student'.

"Things sure have been weird today..." Lily murmured offhandedly.

Hermione looked up. "What do you mean?"

"A wizard stopped James and I on the way here..." Lily didn't finish the sentence. She waved it away as unimportant. "He looked really funny all dressed in white."

"A man from the ministry?" Harry's attention came rocketing back to the conversation.

Lily blinked in bewilderment and nodded. "Yes, how did you know?"

"Their investigation's team wears white," Harry's bespectacled gaze moved quickly to Ron and then back to Lily.

"I met one of them too," Hermione added quietly. "They're here to evaluate Hogwarts' defenses and root out any possible spies. Apparently they've gotten wind of a leak of information coming from here."

"How come you always know everything?" Ron exclaimed, exasperated at the 'injustice of it all'.

"It was posted on the common room notice board, Ronald." She shook her head wearily and began to subconsciously fiddle with the sleeves of her jumper.

"Hermione?" Lily was peering at her intently with a peculiar expression on her pretty face. "Is something bothering you?"

Hermione smiled quickly and sat on her fidgeting hands. "No, of course not – except for having to nanny you lot all day."

Remus looked at her oddly.

"What did you do to your hair?" Lily pouted. Hermione leaned back and out of reach as Lily moved to touch her curls.

"Thestral chasing," she repeated the lie.

The table rattled slightly and Hermione's lips pursed to see Remus in physical discomfort as if her lie had been a slap in the face. "You weren't helping Hagrid." It was a statement.

Hermione shifted apprehensively under the sudden six stares placed upon her. "I don't like people seeing my face, alright?"

It was almost true.

That disconcerting look was on Remus' face again, and then it switched suddenly to an expression of surprise.

"Things have been a little weird," Hermione finally relented. "I'm gonna go find Dumbledore – make sure there isn't a magical disruption storm coming."

"Don't be such a wet blanket, Hermione," Ron groused. "We were just going to show Remus the new Shrieking Shack."

Smiling kindly at Remus she shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to pass."

James and Lily obligingly stood up and climbed out of the booth so Hermione could slide out. "I'll see you all at dinner."

"You mean that this time?" Sirius teased.

Hermione shrugged, laughing. "No rest for the wicked," she called over her shoulder and swept out the door.