A/N: Ok, I just want to warn you that I LOVE to make up names, so beware. I might go a bit overboard.
I don't own anything related to Harry Potter, but I DO own the tap-dancing cheese. And now for the next chapter!
Chapter 8: Hermione's Revenge
Hermione pulled away from Sirius a little later than was wise. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked a little less angrily than she hoped for. She was still half-dazed from the sweetness of the kiss.
"Er, kissing you," he said with a grin. He knew from the way her body relaxed the moment their lips touched that she had enjoyed it. But why was she resisting? "Is that ok?"
"Yes, I mean, no." Hermione was completely frustrated with herself.
"Which is it?" he asked calmly, still with a smirk plastered on his face. "Yes or no?" He paused, looking her over with a twinkle in his eyes. "'Cuz from what I could tell, love, I wasn't the only one having fun."
Hermione jumped off of the couch while giving a frustrated "Ugh". She started towards the back stairs when Sirius grabbed her arm and spun her around. He let go.
"You said yourself that you didn't like Harry anymore. What's holding you back?" he asked. He had bent his knees a little so he could look her straight in the eye.
"You," Hermione said dramatically. "You're holding me back." Sirius took a step back, his face shining with hurt. Hermione was sad to hurt his feelings, but she had to end this quick. "I'm sorry Sirius, but I can't do this with you."
At that moment, Harry and James entered the common room. They were laughing about some stupid thing James did during their practice, but stopped completely at the scene before them. What happened here? were the words that ran through both James and Harry's heads.
Hermione looked at Harry with sorrowful eyes before spinning around and running up the stairs behind her. Harry heard a sniff before she completely disappeared, from both sight and sound.
Harry stormed up to Sirius while growling, "What did you do to her?"
Sirius took a step back, his mind still blank from Hermione's words. "Nothing!" he said unconvincingly. Harry raised his eyebrows. James slowly walked up to Harry and Sirius. "All right, well I might have kissed her…"
"You kissed her?" Harry repeated faintly. He fell into a chair behind him at the impact of Sirius' statement. My godfather just kissed my girlfriend, Harry thought frantically. How wrong is that?!
James just stared at Sirius. "Didn't work though, did it?" He followed Harry and sat down in a nearby chair.
"What didn't work?" Harry asked, looking back and forth between James and Sirius. His eyes rested on Sirius' confused face. "Er, did she kiss you back by any chance?"
Sirius looked straight at Harry. He could see the fear in Harry's eyes. Sirius could understand Harry being worried about his girlfriend being 'stolen', but there seemed to be another reason for his alarm. What was it?
Something deep inside Sirius told him not to hurt Harry's feelings. "No," Sirius said firmly. "She didn't."
A sigh of relief came from Harry. "Good."
Sirius raised his eyebrows.
"Er, don't take it personally," Harry said quickly. "It's just, er—I really like her." With that final statement, he walked upstairs to change out of his rather dirty Quidditch uniform.
Sirius turned towards James.
"Why did you do it, Padfoot?" James asked tiredly. He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "I swear, you seem to act according to your hormones more than you do to your own brain," he muttered under his breath.
"Ah but I have reason," Sirius said, ignoring James' last comment. He started to relive the events that lead up to Hermione's departure. "But when I asked what was holding her back, she answered 'you.'"
"Me?" James asked incredibly.
"No, you git, me."
"Oh… I wonder why."
"Same here!" Sirius exclaimed, feeling quite irritated. Usually he was good at figuring out girls (since they were almost all the same at Hogwarts), but Hermione was a separate case completely. "I mean, I haven't done anything bad yet, have I?"
James just shrugged. "Who knows…" He smiled. "Hey, maybe she can read minds and see all those dirty thoughts running through your head." He laughed.
Sirius rolled his eyes, but played along anyways. "Or maybe she can see into the future and saw me kill someone."
"Naw," James said, excitedly sitting up in his chair, "she's definitely from the future and has seen you twenty year older."
James and Sirius both sat there laughing while coming up with ideas about Hermione, each one more ridiculous than the last. Remus and Peter walked in ten minutes later. James started to describe Sirius' little encounter with Hermione to Remus and Peter. They made their way up to the dormitory where they found Harry sound asleep. The Marauders quietly got ready for bed.
When James and Peter feel asleep (which didn't take too long), Remus prodded the closed curtains covering Sirius bed.
"Hey Padfoot," Remus whispered. He laid back on his stomach in his bed, pillow underneath his chin, staring at Sirius' bed. There was no answer. "Sirius!" he hissed. Remus shot up and smacked the side of Sirius' curtain. There was a loud thud and a few profanities. The curtains around Sirius' bed slowly opened.
Sirius' head popped out from the darkness of his bed. He rubbed the forehead. "Yeah?" Sirius whispered back, but sounded as though he was in minor pain.
"Do you… why do you like Hermione?" Remus asked hesitantly.
Sirius slowly lowered his hand from his forehead. He made himself a comfortable position in his bed so he could look at Remus without hurting his neck in addition to his forehead.
"I mean," Remus continued before Sirius could answer, "you aren't just chasing after her as a new goal, are you?"
"I wouldn't do that," Sirius said, feigning a hurt tone.
"You've done it before!" Remus exclaimed louder than was wise. He quieted his voice down. "Bernadette O'Rourke, Margaret Finnigan, do I need to carry on?"
"Oh come off it, Moony," Sirius said irritably. "That was only in our fourth year. Anyways, you guys dared me to lay off of Snivellus for a month, so I had to do something to pass the time—"
"My point is, Sirius," Remus interrupted, "that you tend to use girls."
"Hey, what about Bridget?" Sirius asked in a dignified tone.
"Oh yeah, you're doing a real good job with her," Remus said sarcastically. "You're kissing another girl while going out with her!" he hissed.
Sirius looked dismayed. He had no comeback; Remus had hit the nail on the head. "But do you like Hermione?" he asked suddenly.
Remus furrowed his eyebrows. After a few moments of thought, he replied, "Yeah, I think I do."
Sirius said no more, but fell back on his bed while shutting his curtains gently closed. Remus followed suit and soon fell into a deep sleep.
&& && && &&
Hermione awoke the next morning feeling oddly refreshed. This was extremely weird because she had a dream that Harry, Remus, and Sirius were giving her thousands of Chocolate Frog Cards while James and Ron were laughing in the background about tap-dancing cheese. Hermione shook herself from the just plain weirdness of the dream and hopped out of bed to get ready for the school day.
As Lily and Hermione walked into the Great Hall, Hermione kept an eye out for the Marauders. Once she saw that they weren't there, she relaxed a bit. She sat down with Lily, Saumya, Dana, and Freya, or in other words, her roommates. They were happily chatting away when Hermione felt someone's eyes upon her. She immediately looked to her left, expecting to see the Marauders sitting down, but no one was there. She turned around and met a pair of stunningly blue eyes across the aisle. They winked at Hermione before they focused back on another person.
"Hey Lily," Hermione nudged Lily.
She turned from her discussion with Dana. "Hm?"
"Who is that boy? The one at the Hufflepuff table with the really blue eyes?" Hermione asked, trying to sound offhand.
Lily blushed as she spotted him. "That's Kyle McFly," she said sheepishly.
"McFly?" Hermione repeated while chuckling. Memories of an 80's Muggle movie came flooding back to her.
"Oooo, are you talking about Kyle?" Dana Anu squealed, entering their conversation.
"He's gorgeous," Freya Larsson gushed. Saumya Kim rolled her eyes in an obvious manner, as if to give her opinion without using words. "He's one of the best-looking guys here at Hogwarts," Freya continued while ignoring Saumya's scoff.
"Best-looking guy at Hogwarts? You wouldn't happen to be talking about me, would you?" Sirius appeared beside Hermione as he sat down, closely followed by James, Remus, Peter, and then Harry.
Harry frowned at Sirius' choice of seating arrangements, but said nothing as he sat down next to James, who had smartly placed himself next to Lily.
"No, Black," Lily said, "you'd be in the category of Most Egotistical guy at Hogwarts."
Dana and Freya chuckled nervously, as if not wanting to upset Sirius too much. However, Hermione, Lily, and Saumya laughed openly and heartily.
Sirius frowned. He understood why Lily would laugh: it was her own joke. Saumya just loved a good joke (she had to if she was dating Dung). But Hermione laughing at him left him wounded.
Quite the reverse, Harry and Remus brightened up immensely.
"Ready for Transfiguration today, Hermione?" Remus asked with a smile.
"I hope so…"
As soon as the Gryffindor sixth years were finished with breakfast, they stood up as one and headed out. The girls lagged behind a bit, giggling furiously about something.
The next thing Hermione knew, someone accidentally bumped into her from behind. Her books dropped to the floor with a snap.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," said the boy who knocked the books down. He quickly bent down to pick them up. As he stood up, Hermione recognized him as the Hufflepuff with the stunningly blue eyes. She now understood why he was one of the best-looking guys, though she could name a few competitors… He was very well built. Probably a Quidditch player, Hermione thought. His long hair gave off a fiery-red tint as he flashed a smile. "Aren't you, the new girl?" he asked through a toothy smile.
"Er, that's me," Hermione said confidently. She could feel Dana and Freya practically melting into the floor. Saumya, on the other hand, scoffed. "I'm Hermione Snicket."
"Oh, how rude of me. I'm Kyle McFly." He flashed another grin.
Hermione glanced nervously at her girl friends, and spotted the Marauders and Harry. James was in a fit of giggles, and so was Peter (A/N: yes, giggles). But Remus, Sirius, and Harry all wore identical faces: a blend of fear, annoyance, and hate. They stood back with arms folding over their chests and watched avidly.
"Nice to meet you, Kyle," Hermione said graciously as she looked at Kyle again. She threw a flirtatious smile, much to the boys' horror. The girls just stared in awe. "What class do you have next?" Hermione started to walk beside Kyle.
He grinned. "Transfiguration. I believe you do too, am I correct?" he asked knowingly.
"Mm hmm," Hermione answered.
As they all headed off to Transfiguration with the Marauders and Harry in the lead, another Hufflepuff joined them. Mundungus Fletcher. From Harry and Hermione's point of view, he seemed older than most sixth years. Hermione had the sneaking suspicion that he had once gotten held back, like that Slytherin Quidditch Captain did.
Since Lily and Freya were sitting together, Hermione placed herself at the table in front of them with Saumya beside her. Much to Hermione's surprise, the table next to her was occupied by Kyle and Mundungus. James and Harry sat down to the table next to Lily, but not before Harry shot a warning glare to Hermione. Peter was happily sitting alongside Dana in front of Kyle and Dung. Remus and Sirius occupied the table in front of Hermione and Saumya.
Once Professor McGonagoll started instructing them on the day's assignment, Mundungus groaned and smacked his head on the table with a loud thunk. Though, McGonagoll didn't falter; Dung had supposedly been doing this everyday ever since his second year.
"Now today we are continuing on learning how to vanish more complex animals." (Thunk!) "We had touched this subject last week, but I scarcely think you can perform the spell properly by the beginning of this class," Professor McGonagoll snapped. "It needs a lot of practice." She glared around at all of the kids, her eyes lingering on Peter. "Miss MacTarnahan and Mr. Pettigrew, will you please pass out the animals?"
Hermione was about to whisper to Harry that they did this last year and that it should be a piece of cake, but then she remembered that they weren't talking to each other. She took a ferret from Keegan MacTarnahan grudgingly. One look at the ferret made her feel more chipper: it was a pure white ferret. She turned to Kyle, steering her mind away from Harry (and the replica of Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret).
"You learned this last week?" she asked sweetly. She could sense Sirius and Remus straining to hear their conversation.
"Yeah…" Kyle had been poking Mundungus repeatedly to awake him. Finding it would be easier to awake the dead, he turned to Hermione. "It's not one of the easiest spells. The incantation is—"
"Evanesco!" Hermione said almost lazily as she pointed her wand at her ferret. It disappeared altogether with a faint pop! Kyle stared at Hermione in amazement. Hermione blushed slightly under the gaze of not only Kyle, but also Sirius and Remus. They had turned around the moment she started the spell. "We learned it last year at Durmstrang," she said sheepishly.
"Well done, Miss Snicket." Professor McGonagoll briskly walked down the aisle to speculate Hermione's work. She snapped her head towards Peter. "Go ahead. Don't let me stop you."
Peter trembled slightly before regaining his focus. He turned to his iguana. "E—evanasco!" For one fleeting moment, Peter thought he had done the spell right on his first try. The iguana had vanished, but seconds later, almost fifty ravens had appeared out of nowhere. They were spread out all over the room, each giving an earsplitting caw every five seconds. James and Sirius roared with laughter along with a few other students. Peter just blushed and laughed weakly, but stopped abruptly as McGonagoll towered over him with a glare stuck on her face.
It took a total of ten minutes of their class time to sort everything back to normal. No one dared to utter a single word for the rest of the class unless performing the Vanishing Spell.
"What class do you have next?" Kyle asked Hermione as they packed up their bags at the end of class.
"Ancient Runes," she said brightly.
"Then this is where I leave you," he said, giving a slight bow. "I have Charms next."
"All right, have fun!" Hermione said, knowing full well that it sounded cheesy. She grabbed her quills as the bell rang and headed to the Ancient Runes classroom.
There were only a few people there at the time. Since Hermione didn't want to draw any attention onto herself (being in a different timeline and everything), she sat in the back. A minute or two later, she noticed Remus walked into the room. He slipped into the chair next to Hermione.
"Wow, you must really be getting a hang of this place if you beat me to the classroom," he said with a smile.
Hermione could have hit her head in frustration. Why did she always have to rush to class and be the first one there? "What can I say, I learn fast," she replied. She busied herself with getting ready for class.
As she pulled out her translation book, Remus blurted out, "Do you actually like Kyle?"
Hermione looked at him, not sure if she heard him correctly. He looked anxious. "And why would you care who I like, Remus?" Hermione asked, returning to unpacking her bag.
"I care when you're about to make a huge mistake, that's when," he said in an undertone. He, too, pulled out parchment and quills from his tattered old bag.
"What do you mean 'mistake?'" Hermione snapped.
"Good morning everyone!" cried out the Professor as he entered his classroom. Professor Proudfoot was a stout little professor, but always loved a good laugh. "Today is going to be a researching day." He tapped the board with his short wand. "The lost runes of Mirkwood to be exact. Now look under section four. It says that the people of Mirkwood were excellent hunters, but lost one war. Can anyone tell me who they were fighting?"
Hermione tore her eyes away from Remus and raised her hand quickly. "They had joined with farmers of another land to battle Orcans. After that they had to go into hiding and no one has seen them since."
"Good good!" Proudfoot cried out. "Five points to Gryffindor." Hermione beamed. "But their great halls and caverns remain, and there lies their writings. Now, their writing is similar to the ones we learned about last week…"
"Kyle, he's not the guy you want to be with," hissed Remus. It was a good thing they were sitting in the back or else the professor would have heard Hermione give a frustrated yet rather loud sigh.
"Why not?" Hermione asked.
"He just isn't," Remus snapped.
"Oh, good argument there. You should try out for the debate team," she said sarcastically.
"What?"
"Never mind," Hermione said hurriedly. "But you're going to have to give me a better reason."
"He's Mr. Popular, and from what I can tell, you aren't into all the attention," Remus said quietly. He looked at her with big eyes.
Hermione didn't answer him but turned her focus to Professor Proudfoot emphasizing the difference between the symbols yumac and yoomak.
&& && && &&
Professor Flitwick was teaching the class about the Disillusionment Charm.
"Now this may be a bit advanced for you all, but I think you can manage," Professor Flitwick squeaked. He glanced particularly at Lily. She straightened up in her chair. "If done correctly, the Disillusionment Charm will turn you into a sort of human chameleon." There was a collective murmur of excitement throughout the classroom. "I daresay this could prove valuable for some." Flitwick's eyes twinkled as they flicked over to James and Sirius in the corner. Lily rolled her eyes. "Now the movement is a sharp tap on the top of the head should do it. And repeat after me." Flitwick cleared his throat. (Sirius and James cleared their throats in the same way very obviously. A few girls giggled.) "Dillusionous!"
"Dillusionous!" the class mumbled half-heartedly.
"Good good," Flitwick squeaked. "Now, you can either choose to practice on yourself, or on a partner. Off you go!"
Automatically, Sirius and James turned towards each other, brandishing their wands. Harry saw this and looked around for another partner. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Peter was partnerless. Before Peter could get a chance to ask him, Harry tapped Lily on the shoulder. "Can I practice with you?" he asked politely.
Lily just gave a sweet smile. "Sure." She spun around in her chair to face Harry, grabbing her wand in mid-turn.
"From what I hear, you're a whiz at Charms," Harry said, picking up a conversation piece.
Lily tried in vain to fight her blush down.
A few seats back, James noticed Harry talking to Lily and ended up making her blush furiously (though not as red as the Weasley blush).
"How does he do that?" James asked mostly to himself.
"Who now?" Sirius had been listening to Kyle and Mundungus talk that he only faintly heard James talking.
"Harry."
"What about him?"
"He can just talk to Lily. Make her laugh, blush, talk. All I get is a roll of the eyes or insults. How does he do that?" James ranted.
"Who knows, James. It's one of the greatest mysteries of life," Sirius said.
"I guess so…" James said absentmindedly, totally missing Sirius' sarcasm. He turned to face Sirius again. "Dillusionous!" he cried out as he hit Sirius hard over the head.
"Jeez, Prongs, did ya have to hit me so hard?… Oh, this feels just plain weird," Sirius mumbled.
"What does it feel like?" James asked, excited not only that his spell worked, but Lily had turned to watch.
"Hard to explain… kinda like a rather cold gooey potion running down my back."
"Uh, Sirius," James said, even more excitedly. "Look down."
Sirius looked down to find, well, nothing. Nothing except the floor pattern imprinted over himself. "Wicked," he exclaimed. He waved his hand in front of James' face. It was as if James' face had been distorted as Sirius' hand flew back and forth in front of it. "Hey Professor!" Sirius called out.
Flitwick looked up from extinguishing a parchment someone had accidentally set on fire. He clapped his hands with glee as James leaned on what seemed to be Sirius' shoulder. James flashed a smile towards Lily, who looked mildly impressed.
"Bravo, Mr. Potter!" Flitwick cried out. "See, class, Mr. Potter has successfully performed the Disillusionment Charm upon Mr. Black. Now, James, care to undo it? The incantation is Disillusionous! The same wand movement."
James cleared his throat and shoved his sleeves up a bit. He rapped Sirius hard on top of the head and cried out, "Disillusionous!"
Sirius felt the same gooey sensation, this time hot, glide down his back. He looked down to find his body transformed back to normal. "Phew, you had me worried there Potter," Sirius said. "You're not known for your counter-charms." He ran his hand through his hair. At that moment, the class ruptured in howl of laughter and shrieks of giggles. "What?" Sirius asked, looking around to find James smirking while looking warily at Sirius' head. Sirius' face stoned. "What did you do Potter?" he growled.
James pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to Sirius. "Take a look, mate." James sounded as if he could hardly speak; the laughter was consuming him.
Sirius caught the mirror. He looked at it uneasily as he brought it up to his face. Or where his face should have been. Sirius' head had not fully returned, unless you count his new hot pink hair. He sighed, but gave a hearty laugh. "Trust you to mess my hair up, James."
Flitwick waddled over between the desks. He stood up on a chair and hit Sirius' head, lighter than James did much to Sirius' relief. Sirius looked back in the mirror; his head was back, but still with the mope of pinkness upon his head.
"I don't know how Mr. Potter managed to perform the Color-Change Charm, but oh well…" Flitwick squeaked. "I take it Mr. Black doesn't want his hair pink?" He smiled to Sirius.
"No, he definitely wants his hair to stay its new lovely shade of pink, Professor," James said, trying to keep a straight face.
"That's what I thought," Flitwick said. He swished his wand about Sirius' head, and the pink faded into its original velvety black color.
"Thanks," Sirius said sincerely. He had been worried; the last time his hair was discolored, the polka dots had lasted two weeks.
Sirius turned around towards James with a wicked grin on his face. "Your turn, Jamesie. Disillusionous!" His wand sharply hit James on the head.
The rest of the class had worse results of their charms than Sirius'. Mundungus managed to shrink Kyle's head before he put it right again. Sean Stebbins (a Ravenclaw boy), Lily Evans, Sirius Black, and Kyle McFly, in addition to James, were the only ones who successfully performed the Charm.
Flitwick was so impressed that he let the last few minutes be a free time. As everyone was packing up their things early, Sirius' attention shifted as soon as he her Hermione's name.
"So is this new girl, 'Ermione, your new target?" Mundungus asked Kyle.
Kyle just grinned slyly. "Now Dung, what would your dear Saumya think of you talking about girls like that?"
"Just listen to 'er talk about boys and see 'ow she cares," Mundungus replied huffily. He stuffed his book into his rather smelly bag. "Anyways, are you going to ask 'er to 'Ogsmeade?"
"I'm planning to," Kyle answered. Sirius stopped what he was doing to listen more carefully. "You think I should?"
Mundungus shrugged. "I'll tell ya now, she's very easy on the eyes, if you catch m' drift."
Kyle laughed. "Well anyone with eyes could see that…"
"But she's got a down side, mate. More of the studying type, that one."
A bell sounded off in the distance.
"Once I'm through with her, that'll be all different." Kyle wore a sly grin. "Especially by the end of our first Hogsmeade date… Find an empty classroom." They waited while everyone else filed out. Sirius and James waited also. "And you know she'll be tired from all that walking… I know the perfect solution that will get her off her feet and onto—AAH!"
Sirius had blasted Kyle fully out of the room so he hit the other side of the corridor. Sirius pushed aside James and stormed out of the classroom with his wand pointed straight at Kyle.
"Don't you—ever—talk about Hermione like that again!" Sirius yelled. James tried to calm down his friend. "Gerroff James!" He ripped his arm out of James' reach and stuck his wand in Kyle's petrified face.
"Sirius Black!"
Sirius whipped around at the sound of Hermione voice.
Hermione angrily pushed aside Mundungus and James. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Hm, that phrase sounds oddly familiar…" Sirius said. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Er, hexing Kyle?"
Hermione's eyes widened in anger, but also astonishment. "And why were you hexing Kyle?"
"He was talking trash about you!" Sirius yelled, throwing Kyle a venomous glare.
Hermione's eyes darted towards Kyle, who had an intensely guilty look about his face. "And how many times have you, Sirius Black, talked about other girls in the same way?"
"That's not the point," Sirius growled.
She walked up right in front of him. He lowered his wand arm. "Then what is the point?" Hermione asked.
Sirius opened his mouth, closed it, and watched Hermione turn her back on him to help Kyle stand. Sirius opened his mouth again and said in a plain voice, "He had said that after his trip to Hogsmeade with you that he'd—"
"What?" Hermione asked, but she was not looking at Sirius but at Kyle. "You wanted to ask me to Hogsmeade?" she asked in a quiet tone.
Harry had pushed through the crowd that had formed around the scene. He stopped dead at the sight of Hermione looking fondly at another guy.
Kyle nodded. "I was going to ask you after Charms. And since Charms has obviously ended… Hermione, would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?"
Hermione looked of Kyle's shoulder at the shocked, wide-eyed Sirius and Harry. Sirius' mouth was slightly hanging open. Harry was shaking his head and mouthing the word "no." Hermione looked back at Kyle's face. He looked apprehensive and genuinely anxious. She smiled at his face.
"Sure, Kyle. I'd love to."
A/N: Just so you know, I don't even own Kyle McFly. One of my good friends made him up and drew him during English class. Oy…
Yeah yeah, I know James is supposed to be a Chaser. I just always thought he was a Seeker, since he was playing with that Snitch. But it's too late to change that part in my story now, isn't it? Anyways, it's more interesting to see Harry pass by as a Chaser.
Mane Black- your English is fine. I can understand it perfectly well!
Next Chapter: The Marauders get drunk! And the Hogsmeade trip…
Thank you so much for all your reviews! You don't know how much they all mean to me!!!