Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I do not own the places. I don't own anything related to Harry Potter, all I own is the plot. Any resemblance to any other piece of fiction or something is purely coincidental.
- Chapter 4
"The marauders?" Hermione whispered wondrously.
She had heard so much about them already, from the Sirius and Remus she knew back home. But now she was going to meet all four of them for real.
'How real can this be, though…' she thought.
All of this felt more like a dream than a reality.
Lily sighed again. "Yes, the Marauders. A little group of pranksters led by James and Sirius. You've met them, I don't think you'd want to meet the others. So let's just go to the-"
"Hey Hermione!" James shouted across the Hall.
"Don't go, Hermione. They'll trick you into doing something horrid or they'll make fun of you one way or another." Lily said warningly.
But James had already taken her hand and was trying to take her over to the others. "Come off it, Evans. I'm not always a jerk. I only act like that to those who deserve it!"
"So you're saying that your pranks on Snape are justified? And how about the way you act towards me!"
"Like I said, Evans. I only prank those who deserve it." He said with a smirk as he pulled Hermione away from Lily.
"You pull one stunt on her and I'll report you to McGonagall!"
James ignored her with a small chuckle and pulled Hermione away from her. Hermione smiled at her apologetically but Lily just sighed.
"They never listen…oh, Cathy! Over here!" and with that she ran towards the door to meet her friend.
Hermione allowed James to drag her over to the other three boys at the far end of the hall. She could swear this was Harry. The way he talked, walked…just the way he held himself. And of course that messy black hair.
She recognised Sirius from a small distance because he had introduced himself earlier that day. But the others…not even though she already knew their identities could she recognise them.
"Moony, no preaching. Wormtail, best behaviour. This," he said, pushing Hermione forward, "Is a new student."
"Hi, I'm Hermione Granger." She said, extending her hand to shake all of theirs.
"I'm Remus Lupin." Said a boy with brown greyish hair.
He smiled. So did she. It was…funny to meet Lupin like this.
Now that he had told her who he was did she see the resemblances Even though he was still a young boy, now as old as she was, serious lines had already etched their way onto his face. She expected them to be caused by the difficult life he had as a werewolf.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, Hermione. I'm Peter Pettigrew."
She hesitated less than a second before shaking his hand. She studied his face. This was the boy who would betray his friends. She could tell James right now not to trust him. She could say that right here. She could make sure Harry would still have his parents.
But…Peter…was still only an innocent schoolboy here. Perhaps he hadn't done anything yet. And she wasn't here to change anything. That could easily change history all together. She'd had enough experience with the Time Turner to know that.
She forced a smile onto her face. "Are you four always pulling pranks like Lily says?"
Remus smiled. "Lily is fond of us even though she denies it. She likes us, but not our pranks."
"Yeah…but pranks…are a way of living. Once you start, you sort of keep doing it." James said dreamily.
Hermione nodded.
"Kind of like breaking the rules. If you do it once, it keeps happening along the way." She said, muttering to herself.
She remembered the Fluffy adventure only too well. But thinking of that made her feel homesick again. Her face fell.
James noticed her sudden frown and put his arm around her shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah…just…just a bit homesick. I miss my friends...I don't know anyone here."
"That's not true!" Sirius exclaimed as he also put an arm around her. "You've got the girls and you've got us!"
Hermione smiled at them. "Yeah, that's true. I'm sure you guys will make sure I feel right at home here."
James winked at Sirius.
"But I'd better go back to Lily and Cathy. Nice meeting you two." She said, nodding at Remus and Peter.
She turned around and walked back to Lily, turning around once to wave at the boys.
James smirked. "See, Padfoot. She's counting on us to make her feel home. She's depending on us, the poor girl."
"James…don't go using her because she doesn't know about your reputation."
James looked offended, sincerely offended.
"Padfoot, that is really not what I wanted to do! She's new and I happen to like her. She has this attitude most girls don't have. She's friendly, nice and not looking too bad either…" he added.
Remus coughed politely. "Excuse me, James. But if I remember correctly, and I think I do, then you were trying to convince Lily to go to he ball with you."
"Yeah Prongs…" Peter said. "You've been trying to get her to go out with you for ages. You were chasing her down the corridor only just yesterday. And now you're suddenly going after someone completely different. Someone you really don't know."
James looked at him, a hint of confused annoyance in his eyes. "Will you guys please stop bugging me about this…Stop it, okay?"
Sirius raised his eyebrow. "You okay, James?"
"Fine." He muttered.
Sirius raised his hand as Peter wanted to continue his preach.
"Okay Prongs, we'll stop. Just as long as you keep in mind what you're doing."
James nodded and an unnatural silence fell over the four of them. Sirius looked at the unusually solemn faces.
"Alright, you three! Let's do something! We've got a reputation to uphold."
"Yeah…I know, let's find Snivellus. I'm sure he's doing something to annoy us right now." James sad with a grin.
"What, like breathing?"
"Exactly."
"Cathy! Over here!" Lily quickly ran over to her friend.
Cathy smiled and sat down at the other side of the table.
"So." She said. "How did things go with Dumbledore."
Lily shrugged. "Alright. Says Hermione arrived a week early. But they're putting her up in our dormitory and she's going to be in our classes."
Cathy nodded and shoved her books aside to make room for the magically appearing plates.
"And how are things with James?" she informed casually.
Lily felt her face grow hot. "What do you mean? He's still being his arrogant self. Thinking he can persuade me into going to the ball with him by acting like a complete git."
"Yes, I know that sweetie. We all saw him doing that ridiculous little dance in the corridors yesterday. To be honest I didn't know he had such a feeling for rhythm. But did you accept his invitation or not, he's been asking you ever since the announcement."
"Yeah, trice every day." Lily reminded her. "Morning, lunch and dinner. Every day it's the same routine."
"What I mean to say is…" Cathy continued. "Even though he is a moron and a self-conscious git, he has been doing almost everything to get you to go out with him. Why do you think that is."
"Because he's stupid enough to believe that his tricks actually work on me?"
"No…Lily, have you never considered the possibility that James might be doing those things, making a fool of himself in front of everybody, because he really likes you?"
She sighed. Was Cathy being serious?
"I…I suppose I did wonder…But I don't think someone like James-"
"I think that exactly someone like James would like you. And if you'd stop lying to yourself you'd find that you like him too. It's obvious to all of us, so why can't you see it?"
Lily looked away, trying to stop herself from blushing. Yes, she did like James. A lot. But she would never admit it to such an arrogant-
"Alright!" she said quickly, interrupting her own train of thought. "I'll do it. I'll say yes when he asks me at lunch."
Cathy laughed loud and satisfied, but suddenly nearly choked on one of the 'ha's'. Lily looked at her with a mixture of surprise and confusion. Noticing Cathy's eyes, she looked where Cathy was looking.
James had put his arm around Hermione's shoulder. His face was suddenly serious.
Lily's smile faded into a more solemn expression.
"Hey, it's probably not what it looks like." Cathy said quickly.
Lily nodded vaguely.
"Lily, I'll bet it's because she's new. She must…she must be sad about something. She's-"
Now her voice stopped for a second.
"See? Sirius is comforting her too. Look at her sad face. You're alright, Lily. You didn't honestly think that James would-"
Lily's expression lifted a bit. "No, I don't think I did think James would. I mean, after all he's done trying to persuade me, he wouldn't just flirt with the next girl that passes by, would he? You're right. I was just being a bit…worried, I suppose. Because I just decided to go with him and all…hey wait! What about you? How's everything going with Sirius?"
Cathy shook her head. "No, he hasn't asked me yet. I'm still waiting, though. And if he doesn't hurry up soon, I'll have to do it for him."
"You'd ask him?" Lily giggled.
Their fit of giggles was interrupted by Hermione, who had returned from her talk with the boys.
"Hey Lily, hey Cathy. Those guys aren't half as bad as you told me they'd be." She said jokingly. "They're actually quite nice."
Cathy smiled. "Yeah, they are now. Wait till you get to know them better, then you'll thank us for the warning. But…we saw you were feeling a little down…homesick?"
Hermione nodded. "Yeah, I missed my friends back home all of a sudden. But the boys were really sweet."
Lily smiled. "Yeah, they can be really sweet guys…but they're also…a bit scheming sometimes. You never quite know what they've got up their sleeves."
Suddenly the tables were filled with silver plates with food.
"Ah, lunch." Said a voice behind them.
"Hi Remus." Lily and Cathy greeted their friend, who sat down at the other side of the table.
Sirius and James showed up too.
"Here's your chance! Ask him!" Lily whispered to Cathy.
"Hi Sirius." Cathy said in her sweetest voice.
Sirius smiled. Lily knew that smile, it meant he was up to something.
"Greetings, fair lady Catherine." He said dramatically as he bowed before her, twisting his arm in peculiar waves as he came back up.
Cathy giggled but Lily rolled her eyes. She and Hermione could hear James and Remus sniggering behind their hands.
"Sirius, cut that out." Lily said tiredly.
Lunch, or any other time where the boys met up with the girls, really, was always very tiring. She was always alert in case she'd had to duck.
And lunch was famous for its high probability of either ending up trying to run away from Sirius and James with food in their hands, or failing miserably at the running away bit and having to clean mashed potato out of your ears with a toothpick for the rest of the day just because they had managed to lure you into saying something you didn't want to say in the first place.
Sirius rolled his eyes and sat down next to Cathy. He eyed James for a moment before turning to face Cathy.
"Want to go to the ball with me?" they asked simultaniously.
They looked at each other, trying to process what the other had just said. Sirius let out a nervous chuckle and the others started to laugh loudly.
Cathy however broke into a wide smile.
"Well, I guess that's settled then!" she said merrily.
James smirked. "I'm not sure that went the way you planned, Padfoot."
Sirius just shook his head with a smile and then scooted a little closer to Cathy on the bench. Hermione watched the others laugh and felt like laughing too, but somehow she felt that this was only meant for them, for real friends, not for her.
Peter sat down next to her and took a sip from a goblet. "So now that Sirius has got a date, you can't stay behind, Prongs. Who are you taking?"
James' smile disappeared and he shot Peter a quick, but very annoyed, glance. He looked towards Sirius for help, but Sirius hadn't noticed as he was still laughing with Cathy.
James coughed. "...I'm...not sure.We'll see."
Dead Red Head: Thank you! I certainly will :D
Mercutio: Glad you liked it so much. But like I told you before...I'm not sure that it's going to stay this good till the end of the story. This isn't my best story in my opinion and you know that you and I sometimes differ in taste. Like those little stories I let you read. You preferred a different one than I did. But that's what makes it all fun, I suppose, people with different tastes talking about why something or other is better or not :P
And don't you even dare try to break into my room, 'cause I'll know it was you. No one else in the house could care less about my fiction, so I'll always know who to blame ;)
See you in five minutes :D
Kerri: Thank you :D I will update soon!
Emma Barrows: It's so much fun to see that you're still reading my stories! Thank you and I hope the story will live up to your expectations :)
Gwynn-Potter: Yeah camp was loads of fun. I really feel like I've made a lot of new friends. Glad you like the story!
SoMe wEirDo: I wouldn't dare not update after i started a story. When I start something, I intend to finish it.
Tessa: Well, that line 'sirius by name but not by nature' is really not original. So many other authors have used it in their stories and that's why I wasn't really happy with it myself. In order to make it less clichée, I made it a more sarcastic remark coming from Sirius instead as a serious comment. I know James fell fro hermione quite fast, but it's hard not to let that happen if you've got planned what yopu want to do. If it doesn't come along fast then there's nothing to write about. But I'm glad you like the story so much so far and I hope you will continue to like it straight to the end.
RonluvHermione: I'm glad to hear that you like my story even though it's about time traveling and you've laid those aside for a reason. Well, hope you'll keep reading it!
XXRoseDawsonXX: Wow, well writen? Always a welcome compliment ;) Hope you liked this update too.
Olga de bont: I'm glad that you think the characters are like they're discribed in the books. It's very hard to keep them that way. En over dat toneelstuk; Romeo en Julia is een heerlijk stuk, maar ik denk niet dat het leuk zou zijn voor mij om viool te moeten spelen aan de zijkant terwijl de spelgroepers het toneelstuk verkrachten met hun slechte acteerwerk. Als ik dan op een of andere manier mee zou moeten werken aan dat stuk dan zou ik mee willen acteren. Maar dat snap je wel he :D Maar zodra je weet wanneer de uitvoeringen zijn, mail me dan ff want ik wil NATUURLIJK komen kijken naar het stuk, en vooral naar hoe de pantarini's het niveau van de productie nog weten op te krikken. Doe iedereen de groetjes van me!
Well, this was, I must admit, a very quick update. But I like updating soon. I just can't believe I'm getting so many reviews per chapter! It's really amazing :D Well, I have to go now. I still need to make myself some dinner. See you guys at the next chapter!
Love, Raven55