Just Too Tempting

By Avadne

Chapter 5: A Familiar

(A/N: Concerning later in the chapter: Bold written notes are from Remus. Italic are from Sirius. Underlined are Hermione's. Hermione ends hers with –M, because they know her only as Mi)

"For God's sake, who gets up this early?" Hermione mumbled to herself. Usually an early riser, Hermione was beat from yesterday's excitement filled day. Not expecting an answer to her speculative question, she was a bit surprised when Lily replied.

"Unfortunately for us, Hogwarts does. You better get down to breakfast," she told Hermione, smiling warmly, before sweeping out of the room. Hermione sighed, but made her way down quickly after Lily. Entering the Great Hall, she quickly took a seat at the table and hastily grabbed some toast and spread marmalade over it.

"What do we have first?" Sirius asked cheerfully as the Marauders took the seats around Hermione. Sirius was always hyper-cheerful; a bit too hyper-cheerful for someone who hardly sleeps, is energetic all day and has a hard time getting out of bed. But once up and showered, it was impossible to keep him calm.

"You, Mi and I have Arithmancy. Pete and James, you've got Divination," Remus replied, obviously the person to rely on for timetable stuff.

"I should know this; being Head Boy and all… maybe I'll make an effort next time," James mused out loud. Sirius burst out laughing at the clearly ludicrous statement. Remus and Pete both smirked while Hermione watched on in amusement. James made a big fuss of hitting himself over the head in a what-was-I-thinking gesture while the table laughed.

A few minutes later, Hermione, Remus and Sirius all stood up and began walking to Arithmancy. The three took seats next to each other and got ready for the lesson, which was simple N.E.W.T revision. Hermione was staring out of the window, distracted, when writing began to appear on her blank 'notes' parchment.

Bet you you're wishing you never moved to Hogwarts for real lessons; home-schooling would have been a skive-off. You could do whatever, fake sickness so much easier and basically just sit around… eating or something. You have no idea how good you had it, do you? –S

No way… could anyone not love such fun and exciting lessons? –R

You can't pull of sarcasm on paper, Remus –S

Well, I try anyway. Besides, what a way to explain, Sirius! Poor Mi, you must be so confused. If you have anything to say, just write it down, it will get transferred to our parchments. Handy little spell, that one…. –R

So this is why you never get caught passing notes then? –M

Our secret success… or one of many… –R and S

You guys both just wrote that in sync… It was planned, wasn't it? –M

Of course not, Mi. How could you think so lowly of us? –R and S

Not only was Hermione deeply fascinated that Sirius and Remus could both practically read each other's minds, as proved above, when they said the same thing at the same time twice, but she was also captivated with the tactics of the Marauders; if they didn't want to get caught, they wouldn't. They had every trick in the book down to pat. The rest of the Arithmancy lesson was spent ignoring their Professor while Sirius, Remus and Hermione communicated easily, unbeknown to the other occupants of the class.

When the bell went, Hermione tucked the note paper into her bag, wanting to keep it as a memory and got up. She, Remus and Sirius all walked out of the door to see James and Pete waiting outside. Next lesson happened to be Potions with the Ravenclaws and no-one was eager to get there. Obviously, Pete and James didn't mind the slight detour to meet their friends in Arithmancy.

The group of five all started walking at an incredibly slow pace towards their DADA classroom; Professor Borealis was not known for her kindness… favouritism, yes and generally disgusting students also. But not kindness. Hermione had gone from despising the obvious unfairness of Snape's class to being disgusted with Borealis and her blatant dislike and unfairness towards Gryffindors in particular, being Head of Slytherin. So the group took their time, making their way around corners and turns. One particular hallway stood out…

"Filthy muggle-lover," sneered one of the thugs, just as the Marauders and Hermione had turned the corner. Immediately alert, all 5 snapped out their wands and carefully crept forward, not being noticed just yet.

"Your family is so poor that not only do you live in a bin, your pet is a cockroach too," one of the others put in, looking supremely pleased with himself at what he thought was a witty remark. Sirius recognized him as a Lestrange; dear Trixie must have married his brother.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" Hermione charged forward, her Gryffindor bravery kicking in. Four Slytherins turned around to see who had interrupted their fun. When they saw the five-some, all eyes narrowed.

"Why don't you make me, you Mudblood?" taunted Lestrange. James's head snapped up angrily and he took 3 large steps forward, standing himself about half a meter from Lestrange. Sirius also stepped forward and Remus was the one that had the duty of grabbing one of each of their arms in order to keep them back.

"Don't you dare talk to her like that, you piece of scum," James whispered dangerously. Sirius looked as though he wanted nothing more than to punch Lestrange in the head. Meanwhile, the distraction had allowed Pete to take away the target of Slytherin torture away; a smaller boy with bright red hair that looked strangely familiar to Hermione. He had led the small boy to a corner and was talking to him soothingly.

"Expelliaramus," Remus muttered ever so casually, flicking his wand in the direction of Lestrange's back-up team. 3 wands flew over to Remus, who had temporarily let go of James to catch them all, one handed. The Slytherins were now disarmed and looked rather dumbfound.

"Stupefy," a jet of light streamed out of Sirius's wand and one of the thugs just wasn't fast enough with their ducking. The spell graved his head and instantly, he was out cold. James and Lestrange were rather preoccupied; they were both trying to stare the other down, a battle of wills, as it were. No wands or hands… yet.

"I suggest you get out of here before I actually hurt you… or better yet, your Mudblood friend," Lestrange sneered nastily. James made an impulsive movement with his hand, but stopped it just in time.

"Impedimenta," Hermione whispered from where she stood; the last remaining thug had gone down, after Remus blasted the other one off his feet and into the wall.

"What now, big guy? Too scared to hit me?" Lestrange continued taunting James, whose jaw was set very tightly. Just for kicks, Lestrange turned to Hermione, gave her a wink and licked his lips. That was the final straw; any last bit of self-control had now disappeared from James. He socked Lestrange in the jaw hard, then again in the gut. Lestrange was keeling down in pain, but James was not done. He kneed the Slytherin and spat on him. Lestrange reached for his wand again, but James kicked it out of the way swiftly. He was about to do more damage when Remus grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear. But that didn't stop Sirius, who sent a bolt of light at Lestrange that sent him running down the hallway, being chased by creepy, winged bats. James was still looking murderous, and Hermione noted, that in the corner, Pete and the little boy were also looking quite worried.

"Hi, I'm Mi Hooper. What's your name?" Hermione said sweetly to the young boy; he couldn't be over 1st year. There was a sense of déjà vu on him that made Hermione sure she knew him from the future. It clicked just before he answered.

"Bill Weasley. Thanks for helping me…" he answered quietly, looking around in fear of more Slytherins. Hermione smiled; yes, the resemblance was there, but Bill wasn't the tall, good-looking guy with a fanged earring and dragon-hide boots, but a young Hogwarts student. He was still tall for his age, but next to James, he looked like a shrimp. His bright blue eyes shined with inquisition beneath somewhat long, red hair that fell forward.

"I'm Sirius Black, that's James Potter and Remus Lupin," Sirius put in, grinning widely. Nothing could make him happier than putting a Slytherin in his place. Remus gave Bill a friendly wave and James forced a grin, although the darkness in his hazel eyes remained. Hermione walked up to James and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You didn't have to… but thank you," she whispered quietly. Aware that everyone was watching her move, she smiled at James again, and walked back to Bill.

"How about we take you back to the Common Room, then? You're a Gryffindor, right?" Remus suggested, his amber eyes sparkling. Bill nodded in agreement and began walking next to Remus.

Bill had walked back with the Marauders and Hermione to the Common Room, where Hermione took some time to talk to him about general life; friends, family… Charlie was already born, as was Percy, and the twins were on their way. Bill had then claimed he needed to go and get some stuff from his dormitory, so Hermione had let him go and instead, sat down with the rest of the Marauders. They were now all lazily spread out on arm chairs, couches or the floor in front of a merrily cackling fire. Hermione was just dying to ask the question that had been eating away at her since the hallway incident.

"So, who were they?" she asked, not able to hide her curiosity any longer. Sirius grimaced, as if remembering bad memories that were only related to him and the Slytherins in question.

"The main one was Rabastan Lestrange; my cousin, Bellatrix is married to his brother. They're all Death Eaters, or on their way. The others were Evan Rosier, Ruark Nott and Mario Wilkes. Surprisingly, Snivellus wasn't there…"

"Snivellus?" Hermione asked in pretend curiously. Of course, she knew who they were referring to; Severus Snape, future Potions master and Harry's greatest fan… or not. There was a very small improvement in his general behavior in 6th year, but he still loathed Harry, Ron and Hermione as much as ever. Some things would just never change, Hermione suspected.

"Greasy, slimeball of a Slytherin, over his head in the Dark Arts. He's the other ring-leader of their gang, but doesn't usually participate in the actual dirty work. He just gives out the orders, I think. Managed to slip out of blame… but of course, the grease must make it easy. Trust me, you can't miss him; just look for the foulest head of black hair and that's our Snivelly," Remus explained to Hermione.

"Yeah, we gave him that name ages ago, but he's actually called Severus Snape. Don't call him that… Sirius makes it his duty to send him shampoo and conditioner every year after we discovered his birthday is on 17th November," James added. Sirius grinned, reminiscing about good times.

"It's only about one and a half months away now. Final year… better add in some mouth wash too. Maybe soap; the last one does have to be special, you know," his face held a dreamy look as he imagined the possibilities.

"So this Snivellus… future Death Eater?" Hermione asked as casually as she could manage. Four much emphasized nods conformed her thoughts easily.

"Speaking of which, I think we're due for another prank soon. Or some type of activity; Hogwarts is getting boring, and this year is the final year for our legacy," Remus reminded the others.

Hermione had always thought Remus to be the calm, reserved one. But in fact, he was just as mischievous as the others, only more skilled in not getting caught. His quick wit and sarcastic remarks caused amusement for Hermione constantly; no one could beat him at such dry humor that held the others in check by some magical way. This was a very different Remus, one you couldn't help but like. He was calm, but eager to mess around, like the others. There was just something about his sparkling amber eyes, hair falling forward onto his fairly tanned and friendly face that made Hermione admire him.

James and Sirius… well, they were just what Hermione expected; Sirius was hyper-cheerful all the time, incredibly charming, handsome and the type of person that never looked foolish, even as girls threw themselves at him. He also had a graceful elegance that came naturally to him; it was seen in the way he held himself, the way his black hair fell into his luminous eyes, the way he grinned or spoke. It was quite interesting watching him like that, always looking composed.

James was the Quidditch star, only just a bit more mature than Sirius, but honest and almost magnetic to everyone; or maybe just Hermione, who could not stay away. Not to mention just as good looking as Sirius, with captivating hazel eyes that could see through anything and reflect everything. He also had the messy black hair that contrasted starkly with ivory skin and an infectious grin that Hermione had only seen leave his face in the direst situations.

Peter was a surprise, too. He had some bravery in him after all, it just needed to be coaxed out; he seemed like a good, loyal friend at the moment and Hermione had to wonder what had suddenly happened that changed Pete into a traitor. He was the quiet one, a bit nervous and fidgety, not as confident or good-looking with his slightly pudgy frame and watery eyes.

Hermione didn't want to admit it, but she was having too much of a fun time here to go back. This could cause some problems, Hermione mused.

Some very big problems…

End chapter 5.

I don't think I got the Weasley family ages right. Yes, Bill was in Hogwarts with the Marauders, but he would have been younger. I don't know how much by exactly. But at least 11, so Charlie would have been born too, I think. And Percy, presumably. Don't know about the twins, so I just guessed. Sorry if it's wrong.

With this chapter, I also posted under my name, A Bunch of Snakes, which was written by my best friend anniePADFOOT. It's a bit of a companion piece to this, and also posted under her name in Only A Feeling?.

Nissy Padfoot
News for you… I don't want to ruin the ending, but this is NOT the usual time-turner, Hermione-goes-back-to-her-normal-life-afterwards story. If you love something different, as you said in your review, this is it! Thanks very much for reviewing… yes, I found your story and it was really interesting. Unusual, and original. Thanks a lot

Kris-tina4
I've heard all about you. Annie, of course, cannot shut up if her life depends on it so I know about all of her net friends. I'm often found reading your stories over her shoulder, and I'll say it now, they are great. Yes, I've read Holly Marsh's work… I agree, it's excellent, although I've taken down my list for now, I've still got it on my computer. Thanks for giving me your thoughts and also for pointing out 2 errors in the last chapter. They've been changed.

spychick989
Yes, it's quite clear whose thoughts are whose, but I didn't want to make it too hard. Oh well, once you know which thoughts are who's in one Interlude, the order always stays the same. Thank you for taking the time to make me feel loved and special.

s.s.harry
Thanks again for continuously reviewing. You rock! I present to you more dead roses… in fact, I'll throw in a few live ones this time winks and maybe even a cookie or something. Thank you again

Review! Don't hesitate to ask me to check out your work too!

Avadne