Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to Harry Potter or the chapter titles 11 onwards.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Chapter 19: Bad Medicine
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
The Marauders squirmed under Lily's penetrating gaze as she waited for an answer. Hermione felt sorry for the boys so spoke up.
"Lily, maybe they can tell you when we start our defence." She suggested.
Lily arched an eyebrow. "Why can't they tell me know?" the redhead asked.
"I think it's best if they show you," Hermione explained.
Lily looked confused and James, Peter and Remus all turned to look at Hermione.
"You know?" asked James.
Hermione nodded.
"How?"
Hermione could feel Sirius shift uncomfortably beside her.
"Sirius," James said turning to his friend. "You told?"
"UUhhhh," Sirius was lost for words and turned to Hermione, grey eyes pleading for some help.
Hermione opened her mouth to speak but James beat her to it.
"I can't believe you TOLD!" his eyes flashing. "We swore we wouldn't," he snapped angrily, Remus and Peter looking uneasily between their friends.
"Now James," Lily reasoned, not wanting the pair to get into a fight. "Calm down, I'm sure Sirius has a good explanation for whatever it is he told Hermione."
James stood and turned to Lily. "I don't care, what if she had blabbed!" his voice uncharacteristically edgy.
Sirius stood now, his own eyes flashing. "I told Hermione because I trust her, there was no way she would have told anyone, not even Lily, now I'm sorry I broke our vow, but you would have done the same thing!"
James ignored this last comment. "But we swore we wouldn't tell"
"Hermione asked, plain and simple, just like Lily here just asked, only Hermione was a little more specific, I couldn't lie to her."
"Yes you could've," James retorted, obviously angry that a Marauder vow had been broken.
Sirius moved to stand in front of his friend, he didn't yell like James did but it didn't mean his voice was any less powerful.
"Could you have lied to Lily?" he asked.
James blinked, but didn't answer. Sirius spun on his heel and walked out through the portrait hole.
"Sirius wait," James called but the black haired boy kept walking.
James looked around with a combination of guilt and loss. Sirius had never walked away from him like that before.
Hermione got up and followed Sirius, leaving the others in an eerie silence.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Hermione followed Sirius out to the grounds where he stood by the lake. He felt Hermione stand next to him and without breaking his gaze from the almost complete moon he spoke.
"I should've gone back," he said moving slightly behind Hermione and wrapping his arms around her waist.
Hermione leant into the embrace and shook her head. "You needed to be alone."
Sirius let out a small chuckle. "What are you doing here then?"
Hermione spun herself around in his arms, put her palms flat on her chest and gave him a warm smile. "I thought you might like some company while you're alone."
Sirius arched an eyebrow and Hermione felt his breath on her face as he laughed lightly. He brought a hand up and ran his knuckles along her cheek before tracing her jaw. "I'm glad you're keeping be company while I'm alone," he said leaning in and placing a gentle kiss on her lips. Hermione snaked her arms to lock around his neck and she pulled him closer, deepening the kiss.
After a few minutes Sirius broke the kiss and rested his forehead against her own.
"I suppose I should apologize to James," he said.
Hermione nodded. "He wants to talk to you too," she said as she glanced over his shoulder.
"Why do you say that?"
Hermione smiled and stepped back from Sirius and started to walk towards Remus, who was standing with James. When she reached the two boys James wandered towards his friend by the lake.
Hermione and Remus stood for a moment watching the two black haired boys talk.
"Come on," Remus said turning. "Let's let them talk."
Hermione nodded and followed him. Half way back to the Gryffindor common room Hermione looked at Remus out of the corner of her eye. "How long exactly were you two standing there?"
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Three nights later the Marauders, Lily and Hermione were finishing dinner, Sirius and James sharing a joke while Peter tried to finish everything he had piled onto his plate. Hermione smiled at James and Sirius, glad their argument hadn't lasted as long as her own with Harry and Ron had.
Hermione glanced around and noticed Natasha seething as Sirius idly played with her curly hair. Hermione rolled her eyes at the pathetic blonde and discreetly pulled her wand from her robes and waved it under the table. A moment later a loud shriek was heard from the Ravenclaw table and everyone turned to look.
The Marauders cracked up laughing at the lime-green girl sitting across from them. Natasha raised a shaky green finger and pointed it at Hermione "You did this!" she accused.
Hermione smiled sweetly at the Ravenclaw. "Who me?" she asked. "I didn't do anything, but you do look positively green with envy." This caused another round of gleeful laughter from the Marauders as the blonde err, green haired witch stormed out.
"You did that?" asked Sirius.
Hermione grinned.
"Brilliant," James said. "I'm impressed, very well hidden; we didn't even see you do anything!"
Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Who said I did anything?" she asked innocently.
Lily laughed. "You've been spending too much time with the Marauders."
"So have you," Hermione pointed out.
"I didn't say it was a bad thing," Lily replied shocking the four boys.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Tonight was to be their first defence lesson; they had decided to start with the physical defence first to let Remus fully recover from his transformations.
Hermione walked hand in hand with Sirius as he led the group to the Room of Requirement, she wondered if Lily knew where they were headed. She shot the redhead a glance and saw the thoughtful expression of someone not sure exactly where they were being led.
Sirius stopped opposite the portrait displaying Banabas the Barmys foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet, and pulled Hermione against him.
"This," he said to Lily and Hermione. "Is the Room of Requirement."
Lily looked around confused. "I don't see anything though"
The Marauders grinned. "Stand aside ladies, we'll show you," James said ushering Hermione and Lily away from where they would walk. The girls watched as the three boys walked backwards and forwards with thoughtful expressions.
Lily gasped when a door appeared on the wall opposite. Remus pulled it open for the girls. "Welcome," he said gesturing inside, "to the Room of Requirement."
Inside were various sized mats and punching bags that the boys had conjured.
"Its not always like this is it?" asked Lily.
James shook his head. "That's why it's called the Room of Requirement, you just have to walk past thinking about what you need and it should appear."
Lily nodded, taking this information in, she then turned to the boys and waited.
They knew what she was after so they started to explain, Remus, knowing that it was all because of him went first.
"Lily, you know that werewolf's only attack humans don't you?" he asked.
Lily nodded.
"Right, when my friends found out about my err condition they wanted to help, now you're smart, can you think of anything that they could have done?"
Lily stood there and thought about it for a minute. "I guess you could become Animagi, but that's impossible, no one still at Hogwarts could do that."
James and Sirius looked at each other and nodded, and instant later a big black dog, familiar to Hermione's eyes appeared. Next to the canine, however, stood a majestic stag Hermione had never seen, both her and Lily stood in awe as Padfoot started to run around their legs.
"I can't believe it," whispered Lily. "It's not possible."
Remus gave the head girl a small smile. "Anything is possible when you want to help a friend." He said reaching down to pat Padfoot who had sat at his side.
James and Sirius turned back and looked apprehensively at Lily.
"You won't tell anyone will you?" asked Sirius.
Lily shook her head, still in shock. "When did you do this?"
Sirius and James grinned. "We'd been working on it since third year, we didn't accomplish it however until fifth," James answered.
"You two became Animagi in your fifth year? Merlin."
Sirius shook his head. "We three, Peters one as well, he's a rat"
Lily scoffed. "A rat?"
Sirius grinned. "Well they do say that a persons Animagus reflects their personality so Peters does fit, he's lazy, he tends to scamper and he eats a lot."
Lily nodded. "Yep and your playful and full of energy, and James, well you just have a big head so the antlers kinda fit."
"Hey!"
Remus just shook his head. "Why don't we just get started?" he asked.
The others all nodded, Sirius pairing himself with Hermione while Lily stood with James.
The boys started off basic, how to defend rather than attack, to watch the shoulders of the attacker rather than the lower arms so that they can dodge punches.
This was all they did during the first lesson, with Remus giving pointers along the way and a few hours later two exhausted Gryffindor girls collapsed onto their beds for a content nights sleep.
