Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own any rights to Harry Potter or the persons mentions in this story.
A/N Ok, here is Chapter 3. I hope you all enjoy. I took my first stab at writing a Quidditch match so I hope I did ok. Thanks for all the reviews and enjoy!
Hermione didn't know how long she had been asleep before someone had gently shaken her awake.
"Hey Hermione. Wake up." Hermione opened her eyes. "Finally. I thought you'd never wake up."
"Sirius?" Hermione squinted. The classroom had gotten dark. How long had she been sleeping?
As if reading her mind, Sirius answered, "You've been asleep for about 3 or 4 hours. Lily's worried sick. We all were. Didn't know where you'd gotten off to." He took a seat in the desk next to Hermione.
"Oh, I just came in here to-" She started to say.
"Cry?" Sirius guessed. She looked at him and elaborated. "Moony told us about the row you two had earlier."
"Oh," Was all she said. She looked down at the desk, fiddling with her thumbs, "What did he say, exactly?" She didn't really want to know.
"Just that you had been avoiding him and you denied it, which sort of upset him a bit. He said you got all defensive and stormed out of the common room, crying." He said, giving Hermione a much needed sympathetic look.
"Well, did he tell you the reason I had been avoiding him or did he conveniently leave that part out?" She asked, feeling her temper threatening to rise once more.
"Yeah, he did. And I gotta tell you Hermione, you really hurt him." He said, no accusation in his voice.
"Me? Hurt him!" She said increadously. Unbelievable. Typical man putting the blame on the woman. Didn't he get it? Didn't he understand that she wanted to be with Remus every single moment? Did he have any idea how much it hurt her to stay away from him when all she wanted to do was hold him and never let go?
"Hey, I'm just saying." Sirius said, putting his hands up as if in surrender, "I'm on no one's side here. And I can understand why you won't let yourself get close to him. But he really likes you and…I don't know. What could it hurt?" He asked.
"What could it hurt? How about the entire future as we know it!" She had gotten up and had started pacing the classroom, her arms folded.
"Look Hermione," Sirius had also gotten up and had stopped Hermione's pacing and was holding her at arms' length, "I don't know about the future or timelines or anything like that but I do know that Moony really fancies you and I know you really fancy him and well…maybe this once, you don't have to go by the book?"
"Look Sirius, I can't help it if there are rules-" She was cut off.
"Rules? Rules?" He laughed lightly, shaking his head. "The only thing I know about rules is that they're made to be broken."
Herminoe gave an exasperated sigh, "You just don't understand Sirius and you never will." She said softly. She hoped she hadn't sounded too conceited.
Apparently Sirius hadn't thought so for he merely smiled, "Look, I gotta go. The guys are waiting for me. Moony doesn't know I'm here."
"You didn't tell him?" She asked, wondering why Sirius would lie.
"Nah, didn't think it would go over too well with him. No, he thinks I've gone to set Snevillus' hair on fire."
At this, Hermione laughed in spite of herself. Sirius laughed too. "You guys should really lay off of him." She said, still laughing.
"Yea, I'll take that into consideration." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "But at least think about what I said." And without another word he turned, walked to the door and gave one last smile before disappearing behind it.
Some 20 minutes later, Hermione emerged from the classroom, thinking about the conversation she and Sirius had just had. She walked to the portrait of the fat lady and crawled through the portrait hole after she had given the password. The common room was completely empty. Everyone must be at dinner. She hadn't felt very hungry or felt like facing Remus so she trudged slowly up to her dormitory thinking she might as well get started on her Defense Against the Dark Arts essay on different types of demons. Maybe, if she was lucky, she could get an early start on Fire Charms for Professor Flitwick.
She got her books down from her dormitory and had taken her usual studying place in the common room. She had nearly finished her demon essay when a couple of students started emerging. Hermione paid them no mind. By the time Hermione had finished her essay and mastered the Fire Charms, the common room was clouded with noise. Dinner must nearly be over. In fact, by the time James, Lily, Sirius, Peter and Remus arrived, Hermione had finished her essay on different types of poisons and antidotes for Potions and had just completed her foot long essay for Arithmacy, both of which weren't even due until the following Friday. She was rolling up her Arithmacy essay, feeling rather pleased at the work she had accomplished when she looked up and noticed the boys and Lily start coming over in her direction. Remus, she noticed, had all of a sudden diverted his gaze to the common room fire when he saw her look up. Not wanting another row with Remus (especially with other people in the room), she hastily gathered her books and things. She had just reached the foot of the staircase when she heard Sirius' voice call out to her.
"Aw, c'mon Hermione. Don't go, sit and chat with us." He sounded cheerful, a little too cheerful.
"Yea, besides, I could use some help on that demons essay." James chimed in.
"S-Sorry, really tired." Was all she could say, her back to them all the while.
"Are you sure Hermione?" Lily asked, obviously concerned about her newfound friend by the tone of her voice.
"Yes. I'm sure." Hermione replied, practically running up the stairs to the safety of her dormitory. Before she had climbed all the stairs, however, she swore she heard Remus say: "Why do I always have to screw everything up?" When she reached the door to her dormitory she briefly thought about just running down the stairs and into Remus' arms, apologizing. But she thought better of it. She just couldn't risk altering the time line. As she pushed the door open, Sirius' words echoed through her mind: "Rules are made to be broken." That single sentence kept emerging in her thoughts while she changed, brushed her teeth and hair and it still had not rested when she had laid down in her 4-poster and drifted off to sleep.
Hermione awoke the next morning before anyone else. She rose quietly out of bed and got dressed. She left her dormitory and quietly exited the portrait hole. The sun was barely up in the sky and knew the students would be up in a couple of hours seeing as how the Quidditch match was today. Hermione needed to be alone with her thoughts and knew only one place to go where she wouldn't be bothered with questions: the library. She had probably been in the library for about 2 hours, reading, when Lily found her.
"There you are. I've been looking everywhere for you." She said, lowering her voice at the sight of Madam Pince, the librarian. "You didn't come to breakfast."
"You're very observant." Hermione said with a smile. Lily smiled back but her eyes were flooded with worry and concern. "Don't worry about me, Lily. I'm fine." Hermione reassured her, reading her eyes.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
"Yea, just needed some time to think is all." She replied, closing the book she had been reading, Notable Potions Ingredients of the Twentieth Century.
"Are you hungry? I doubt you had lunch or dinner yesterday."
"Strangely enough, no." Hermione replied, rolling up the piece of parchment she had been writing on.
"Well, you're coming to the Quidditch match aren't you?" Lily asked hopefully.
"Yea, of course." Hermione said, allowing Lily to escort her out of the library and onto the Quiddtich field where students were gradually filing into the stands.
Truth was, Hermione had indeed been planning on avoiding the match entirely as it might result in an awkward moment with Remus. But with the look on Lily's face was impossible to say no to. You could practically sense the excitement in the air and with it swarming around you, it was hard not to be excited too, it was so infectious. Lily and Hermione went to the stands and were talking animatedly when the commentator interrupted them, announcing the start of the game.
"Welcome to today's match – Slytherin versus Gryffindor!" At this, cheers erupted from all over. "I'll be your commentator for this match. The names Cool, Tre Cool." At this announcement more cheers erupted. "Thank you thank you. And here they are the Slytherin team: Kurete, Allred, Morse, Fields, Mason, Smith and Snape." More cheers erupted from the ocean of silver and green. "And here are the real tem-"
"Mr. Wright!" McGonagall warned.
"Professor, it's not Frank Wright, it's Tre Cool. Anyway here's the Gryffindor team: Pollock, Armstrong, Dirnt, Pritchard, Nesser, Black and Potter!" Enormous applause greeted the team. "And here's Madam Hooch, the referee."
"Now I want a nice clean game. Captains shake hands." Madam Hooch said. James, the Gryffindor captain shook hands with the Slytherin captain, Kurete, a large slightly chubby guy with dark black hair and matching stubble on his chin.
"And the Quaffle is released and it's Gryffindor Chaser, Adrienne Nesser in possession who nearly avoids a Bludger sent by Slytherin beater David Allred. Nesser passes the Quaffle to fellow Chaser, Billie Armstrong. Armstrong and Nesser have been pretty hot and heavy since 5th year-"
"MR. WRIGHT! IF YOU CAN'T KEEP YOUR ATTENTION ON THE GAME-"
"Ok ok, sorry Professor. Back to the game. Armstrong scores! 10 zero Gryffindor! Now Slytherin Chaser, Butch Fields in possession who passes it to Allred – OUCH! That's gotta hurt. Nice Bludger sent by Gryffindor Beater Michael Pritchard. And Allred drops the Quaffle and Gryffindor Chaser Journey Pollock grabs it. Passes to Nesser who passes back to Pollock who SCORES! Twenty zip Gryffindor!"
The noise was earsplitting on the Gryffindor side. Hermione had to admit, it was rather exciting. And James flew exactly how Harry flew. There was no doubt in her mind where Harry had gotten his flying abilities.
"And Slytherin in possession of the Quaffle now. Kurete in possession who passes to Fields who passes to Allred. He shoots and- MISSES! Nice block by Gryffindor Keeper, Sirius Black!" At the mention of his name, Sirius showed off by flying spectacularly by the goal posts and waving to the sea of red and gold below him. Hermione heard several girls scream with glee at this. "Ok, Gryffindor in possession. Nesser has hold of the Quaffle. Ooo, watch it! Nesser narrowly dodges a Bludger sent by Slytherin Beater Mitchell Morse. Gryffindor Beater Mike Dirnt beats it back, however, at the opposing team. And Nesser goes straight for a goal YES! Oh no! Nesser's attempt is blocked by Slytherin Keeper Daniel Mason, who passes the Quaffle to Kurete…"
Hermione stopped listening to the commentary as she saw James dive from 40 ft. in the air, hand outstretched. Snape, who hadn't been as quick at seeing the Snitch, was right on James' heels. Snape attempted to push James off his broom but James was too quick for him. He made a fist and punched Snape right in the mouth, forcing Snape to pull out. James was free to grab the Snitch.
"And James Potter has caught the Snitch! Gryffindor WINS! 170 to ZERO! HA! TAKE THAT YOU SLYTHERIN-"
"MR. WRIGHT! THERE IS NO NEED FOR LANGUAGE LIKE THAT!" McGonagall yelled at the commentator who had called the Slytherins some particularly colorful words that Hemione was sure were not even in the dictionary.
The stands quickly were emptied as the students began running towards the Gryffindor team who had landed. James was still holding the Snitch high above his head, a large triumphant expression on his face.
"C'mon Hermione, let's go congratulate them!" Lily said, pulling her arm.
"No, that's ok. I'm just going to go back up to the castle." Hermione said, pulling away. At the look on Lily's face, Hermione quickly made up an excuse for the premature departure. "I don't really want to be around all the noise right now. I've got a bit of a headache. I'll just go get a potion from Madam Pomfrey and I'll meet you in the common room."
"Ok." Lily said, reluctantly letting go of Hermione's arm.
"I'll be fine." Hermione said trying to reassure her by forcing a smile.
"Ok. See you in a bit." Lily said, obviously fooled by Hermione's smile as she pushed through the crowd to get to her boyfriend. Hermione smiled as she saw James wrap Lily in a tight hug, Snitch still in hand, and pick her up and twirl her in the air. He finished with a long, passionate kiss, which was followed by several catcalls and wolf whistles.
Hermione turned around and made her way through the crowd. She bumped into someone and made to apologize. "Oh-sorry." She said, but she stopped dead as she saw whom she had bumped into.
"It's ok." Remus replied, not realizing whom he had bumped into either. They looked at each other for a moment (but it felt much longer to Hermione) before Remus started to speak. "Hermione I-"
"I can't do this now. I've – I've got to go." Hermione said, cutting Remus off and heading straight for the castle without another backwards glance at Remus. She felt his eyes on the back of her until she had got into the castle and disappeared from view.
She didn't mean to cut Remus off like that but she wasn't ready to talk to him yet. She still had a lot of researching to do. If she was going to break rules, she might as well as break them all.
A/N: Ok, for those of you who recognized any of the Gryffindor Quidditch team member's names, give yourself a pat on the back. The names are all from Green Day (except Journey Pollock which was my own creation and obviously Sirius and James). Billie Armstrong is in fact, Billie Joe Armstrong, lead/vocals, Mike Dirnt, the bass player, Michael Pritchard is Mike Dirnt's real name and Adrienne Nesser is Billie Joe's wife of over 10 years. And the commentator is of course Tre Cool, the drummer. His real name is Frank Edwin Wright III. Green Day are my favorite band and I just couldn't resist using them in my story. Hopefully I'll have Chapter 4 up soon. I already have the idea of what the chapter is going to be out. Anyways, what did you all think? I figured I'd put Snape on the Slytherin Quidditch team because Snape's and James' rivalry is alot like Harry's and Malfoy's and since Malfoy was Seeker on the Slytherin team, I thought why not? I'll put ol' Severus on the Quidditch team. And the comment about setting his hair on fire is an idea i've had for a long time. Snape's hair is so greasy, if you light a match, it would probably erupt into flames. Yea, well, enough talking, get to reviewing. Thanks again. Green Day rules! Remus rules! Punk Rock's Not Dead! LOL