A/N: Hey hey! Look at me! I'm on fire! Another update in less than three days! Woo hoo!!

Alas, I don't own anything (it's been awhile since I wrote one of these). But that doesn't mean I don't' wish for, let's say, a group of mischievous boys in the 70's. I'd take any Marauder, really. Even Peter… so I could torture him to death…… So that's what my therapist was talking about when he mentioned my uncontrollable anger… Just kidding! Anyways… clears throat On with the show!!

Chapter 11: Caught Staring

Harry and Hermione didn't talk much after their meeting. They were already five minutes late to class without having to race down the stairs leading to the dungeons. They burst through the old potion classroom door to find Professor Smirch already lecturing them about how stupid they all really were.

"And here come some perfect examples," she sneered in a fake cheerful voice.

Harry and Hermione could practically hear Draco Malfoy snickering in the back of the classroom.

Professor Smirch's fake smile instantly disappeared. "Take your seats," she snapped.

Harry and Hermione scrambled for seats in the back. Harry sat next to Sirius where Hermione was forced to sit next Snape; it was the only open seat. He didn't seem too thrilled either.

"This is simple enough potion for your very simple minds. Let's see if you can master it. No need to work in pairs. Just follow the instructions on the board." Without even a wave of her wand, words started to scribble themselves onto the blackboard behind her in perfectly neat handwriting.

Hermione noticed a longing sigh from her left: Snape. She had to hold in a giggle. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought that Snape fancied the young Potions teacher.

Snape and Hermione both worked hard on their potion for the rest of the class. More than a few times, Sirius (sitting behind Hermione) tapped her on the back to borrow some ingredients or ask if it was the right color yet. Harry eyed them skeptically but said nothing.

"All right, why is yours teal and mine pink?" Sirius whispered for the fourth time.

Hermione turned around but before she could say anything, Snape muttered in an annoyed undertone, "It's because you're a pink-loving dolt, that's why."

Sirius's eyes flashed angrily at Snape. "Do you want to say something, Snivellus?"

"I believe I just did," Snape replied coldly.

"Just ignore him," Hermione whispered to Sirius.

"That's right, hold your boyfriend back before he gets into trouble, Mudblood," Snape spat.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Another Malfoy in the form of her least favorite teacher, just what she needed.

Sirius's hand snapped to his wand and pointed it at Snape discreetly so Professor Smirch could see from her desk. "Take it back Snape," he barely whispered.

Harry heard and saw this and grabbed Sirius's wand arm away from Snape, dragging Sirius back into his chair. "Déja vu much?" he asked Hermione. How many times had he done that exact thing to Ron? Harry then turned to Snape. "How did you know Hermione was a Muggle-Born?" he asked in what he hoped was enough of a civilized tone for Snape to take him seriously.

"I just knew," Snape spat. "She reeks of it."

Harry struggled even more to hold back the raging Sirius.

"Oh Severus," Hermione said sweetly. "You wouldn't want your beloved Professor Smirch to see you not focusing during class, would you? She might think of you as a regular student instead of…"

Sirius forgot his anger for the moment. "You dig the potions teacher?" he asked loudly enough for people around to hear him. James, sitting across the aisle from Sirius, heard this and burst into howls of laughter, joined in by Sirius and a few other boys and girls.

Snape hurriedly looked around to see if Professor Smirch had heard Sirius's shout. Luck was on his side: she was too busy taunting Peter to hear. But she did hear the ringing laughter.

"What is so funny Mr. Potter?"

James was in tears. He could hardly breathe, but he did hear the professor. He glanced at Snape; he had fear in his eyes. There was no way James wouldn't take advantage of Snape's secret. But before James spilled the beans, he caught Lily's eye. She was giving him a warning glare.

James took a few gulps of air to calm himself down. He wiped away a tear of joy. "Oh nothing, Professor," he said happily. He could feel all eyes on him.

Hermione saw out of the corner of her eyes that Sirius was about to open his mouth. She kicked backwards and hit Sirius on the shin, hard. Sirius let out a whimper of pain. Professor Smirch's eyes snapped to him.

"Like to comment, Black?" Her eyes were flashing dangerously, not unlike Professor McGonagall's would.

"Oh," Sirius said through a strained voice. He could feel the bruise starting to form. "I just told Prongs this joke. See, it starts out when a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun all walk into the bar…"

"That's enough, Mr. Black. I don't need to hear any of you're lame jokes." She peered into his cauldron and her evil sneer became more pronounced. Snape would have joined in with the smirking, but he was too afraid James or Sirius might say something. "You'd better hurry if you want full marks on your potion. Ten minutes, class," she said louder. Smirch trurned quickly around and walked back to her desk.

"Well aren't you two pathetic," Snape whispered to James and Sirius. "We all knew James was hopelessly, might I pronounce the hopeless part, in love with Evans, but I never expected you, Black, to bend to the will of a girl, a Mudblood no less." Knowing that they wouldn't/couldn't curse him, Snape turned around completley satisfied with himself.

Before James or Sirius could react, Hermione spat out some of that anger Saumya told her not to bottle up. "You're pathetic. They just saved your arse and you still act like a jerk. Merlin, they were right when they called you a greasy-haired, stuck-up, snot-nosed little prat." With that, she turned around to help Sirius with his potion. Snape never said another word during class but focused on his potion with hands shaking out of pure ire.

"Hermione!" James, Sirius, and Harry whispered in complete awe.

Hermione couldn't hold in her blush. "We'd better hurry, Sirius, if you want to pass. And you too Harry. Now, I'd suggest you both add a pinch of crushed up dung beetles. That should change it to more of a red color."

She continued to help them the rest of class so that when they turned their flasks in, Professor Smirch had nothing bad to say about them. Hermione found herself more than a few times staring at Sirius, without anyone noticing of course. The two boys were too busy trying to not fail the class. When her mind started to wander from his angelic face onto his well-toned body, she scolded herself and brought her focus back to her potion. Professor Smirch glared at them (mainly Sirius) as they passed her desk and climbed the stairs to leave.

"Thanks Mione for helping us out, "Sirius said sincerely as they breathed the fresh air again.

"Yeah, I don't fancy failing Potions here too," Harry laughed.

Sirius looked at both Hermione and Harry, but said nothing. Those two's earlier conversation about Regulus left Sirius very confused. He was going to get to the bottom of whatever there was.

"Sirius, it seemed as Professor Smirch had something personally against you," Hermione said slowly.

"Oh, that… her family is a good friend of my mum," Sirius said edgily. "They're both big Dark Magic supporters."

"Transfiguration next, right?" Harry asked after Sirius was done explaining.

"Yep," Hermione said with a nod. A thought struck her mind; she turned sharply at Sirius, ready to ask him something.

He read her mind, raised his eyebrows and grunted, "Hm?"

"Weren't you and James planning to disrupt the potions class?" she asked thoughtfully.

"Of course, but with the whole Snape and Professor Smirch event, we decided to save it for another day," he explained simply.

"What was it, your plan, I mean," Harry asked.

"Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough," James said mysteriously as he ran up behind them.

"This can't be good," Remus said as he trotted along with Peter.

"Since when have our plans ever turned out to be good for prefects and Slytherins?" Sirius asked.

"Was that rhetorical?" Remus asked.

"Yes."

"Oh."

"I can't wait to see it," Peter said excitedly.

"You would," James muttered so only Sirius could hear him. They both snickering unnoticeably.

After walking through another corridor to make it to the Transfiguration room on time, Remus asked how Harry and Hermione's visit to Dumbledore's was.

"It was fine," Harry said with a half-hearted shrug.

"What did he want?" Sirius asked very curiously.

"Just to see how we were doing at this school," Hermione said nonchalantly. Sirius raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "No really. He asked how classes were going, seeing if we enjoyed it here. There are so many differences between Hogwarts and Durmstrang."

"Name a major one," Sirius demanded.

Hermione had anticipated this. "There are no Houses in Durmstrang. The entire school isn't separated into four separate groups from the moment they arrive."

Harry looked at her. His first thought was How does she know this? but then he thought of Krum and the fact that Hermione knew of the other foreign schools before the Triwizard Tournament.

"Really?" James asked, too astounded. He couldn't imagine being in the same category as Snape. It was just to mind-boggling for him at the moment.

"Yep," Hermione said confidently.

"Er, shouldn't we be hurrying to class soon?" Harry asked.

"We're already late," Sirius said with a wave of his hand. "What could a few more minutes do to us?"

"Let's think, put us into detention?" Remus said sardonically.

"From my experience, the detentions this year haven't been so bad," Sirius said, giving Hermione a playful nudge. She rolled her eyes but couldn't stop a little grin.

"I agree with Thewler," James said, ignoring Sirius's flirting tactics. "We should hurry up."

"Right-o."

They continued to walk down the empty corridor, this time at a slightly faster pace. Sirius made sure that every time they passed a filled classroom, he would stomp his feet deafeningly loud. But they had no time to question his inane antics; they were already four minutes late… to McGonagall's class.

They burst through the door forty seconds later, expecting to see her in the middle of teaching. To their surprise, the entire class was facing the door staring at the latecomers avidly and Professor McGonagall with her arms crossed over her chest was acting as if she was waiting for something.

Sirius opened his mouth to recite an off-the-top-of-my-head excuse, but was rudely interrupted by McGonagall.

"I don't want to hear any of you foolhardy excuses. Just sit down." Not one out of the late six students said a word as they scrambled for their places in the back of the classroom. Professor McGonagall said in an undertone to a boy near the front, "And Mr. Stebbins, you owe me three sickles; it was Mr. Black, not Potter, who tried to give an excuse. This should teach you not to bet anymore."

She cleared her throat rather obviously. "The section you're going to be learning about will take quite some time" (the class groaned) "because it is very difficult magic: human transfiguration." Professor McGonagall let out a heavy sigh as the class let out various whoops of cheers, particularly the Marauders. Every year the class' reaction to human transfiguration was the same, and it was starting to get on McGonagall's nerves. "Yes yes," she said curtly, "but there's no need to shout." They all stopped.

McGonagall flicked her wand over her shoulder so it pointed at the blackboard. "Copy all of this down. We might not get to actual spell performing until a day or two from now at the least."

After a few minutes of scribbling down the relative notes on the board, McGonagall started to give them a short lecture about the dangers and risks that were involved with human transfigurations. At the mention of the word 'risks' James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius all exchanged glances. James and Sirius smirked.

Everyone took notes while she told them spells and incantations; everyone minus two Marauders that is.

Remus, being the smart one of the lot, had to pay attention incase James or Sirius forgot a minor detail that could stop them from permanently changing themselves.

Peter wasn't too bright when it came to school work, so he unfortunately had to focus too, though from time to time he would watch what James was doing.

James was "the Transfiguration Master" as he put it and he had already learned how to transfigure himself into a completely different animal (without using his Animagus powers). So he spent the class time occasionally listening, yes, but also bewitching Remus's quill to zip out of his hand and duel James's own quill in midair.

Sirius took this time to think about one of his best subjects: girls. He could dump Bridget and go after Hermione… but what if she turned him down completely? Then Sirius would be left with no girls and a bad reputation. And that wasn't his main goal in life at all… He must have been staring at Hermione across the aisle while he was in his profundity, because he suddenly found Hermione looking back at him. As his eyes seemed to focus on her sweet face, she seemed to still be in deep thought.

Inside Hermione's mind, she was still listening to McGonagall's every word, but she also took the time to really think about this time-traveling… and about Sirius. She couldn't get him out of her mind! He was always there; his sweet grey eyes, his silky black hair, his bark-like laugh, his fit body… She didn't even think of Harry or Ron or Krum that much!

That's because you like him, a part of her mind taunted.

But I can't like him, another voice said urgently. He's my friend's bloody godfather! That's almost as bad as me crushing after James!

But you must admit Sirius is a lot better-looking, nicer, sweeter, funnier…

All right, I get it. And it's true, but I won't fall for his charms aga—

Hermione just noticed she was staring at Sirius. They both sat in Transfiguration class gazing intently into each other's eyes. Neither could turn away.

Remus angrily pulled out his wand and jinxed James's hand momentarily to retrieve his quill back. James pouted but didn't push Remus any farther; the werewolf could get very edgy very quickly when it came to class work. So James turned to Sirius for some more fun only to notice him staring at Miss Snicket. This could be fun…

James quietly whispered a spell. His quill wrote backwards an inch from the back of Sirius's head. If performed correctly, James would have succeeded the spell that made words appear on Sirius's forehead. A little giggle from Hermione told him that it worked.

Hermione, while staring at him, she noticed words started to write themselves on his forehead.

I sleep in silky red boxers with my stuffed dog named Mr. Snuffles.

Hermione giggled and leaned across the narrow aisle until she was uncomfortably close to his shocked face. "How is Mr. Snuffles?" she whispered in his ear. She quickly leaned back to her original position and started to pay attention to McGonagall again.

Sirius continued to stare at her, this time utterly confused. How did she know about Mr. Snuffles and why bring him up now? His question was answered when James whispered to him, "Hey Padfoot, you've got something on your forehead."

Sirius slowly turned around to find James smirking while twirling his wand expertly in his right hand. Sirius just laughed and pulled out a mirror from his pocket (he always kept one, jut incase). And unsurprisingly, there were words imprinted on his forehead. He muttered a quick spell and they disappeared instantly. He glowered at his friend for a moment while unnoticeably taking his wand out of his pocket. He whipped it out and enchanted his quill to soar straight at James. James, with the quickest reflexes in the school, made his quill intervene with Sirius's quill. They sword-fought with their quills for the last few minutes. Hermione, Harry, and Peter dropped what they were doing to watch while Remus frowned and continued to take notes.

There you go again, Hermione, watching him while there is work to be done. Why can't you ever focus anymore? a part of her mind antagonized.

It's because Sirius is around, snapped another voice. You can't focus with him around because you're hopelessly in love with him.

"Am not," Hermione said indignantly.

"What?" Sirius said distractedly, looking away from James for a moment.

"Nothing…Watch out!" she whispered as James's quill reared back.

Sirius turned back to James a second too late. The quill was centimeters in front of the spot between his eyes.

"Checkmate," James whispered evilly.

Sirius rolled his eyes and flicked his wand. The feather end started to tickle James behind the ear.

James gave a shriek-like laugh quietly, but loud enough to distract the class. "Ack! Stop it!"

Sirius dropped his wand and quill instantly as Professor McGonagall stopped talking to the class and faced them.

"What ails you now, Mr. Potter?" she asked in a weary tone.

James shot Sirius a deadly look as if warning him to keep his mouth shut. There was no way he would reveal his ticklish spot to the class. "I just, er… transfigured my quill into a mouse. It started to crawl up my leg and farther until—"

"Mr. Potter, I beg of you, stop," she said in the same tired tone. She rubbed her temples. "Just for once please try to pay attention. This is vital." She sighed and looked at her watch. She let out a sigh. "Never you mind," she muttered. "Homework: read about the simple human transfiguration spell and sum it up in less than one roll of parchment." She spotted Sirius's and James's hands waving high above the others. "And no, it cannot be one sentence. It has to be more than five sentences," she snapped irritably.

RING!

They all scrambled to get out of the classroom as quickly as possible to escape the wrath of Professor McGonagall; not only were they late to class, but they were caught fooling around during one of her lectures.

Hermione hurried off with Lily and the other girls. The Gryffindor boys headed off to the Great Hall for lunch. Nothing much happened during lunch. James and Sirius told a round of jokes that made even Lily laugh.

The rest of the day was uneventful for everyone, too. Remus and Hermione were then whisked off to Ancient Runes while the others went to Charms. Sirius growled when Kyle made to sit near him but did nothing more.

Hermione didn't meet up with everyone until dinner time. She and Remus spent some time in the library looking up the twenty symbols Professor Proudfeet assigned them. Remus left when Lily came in seeking help on potions. After that, dinner had already started but the girls couldn't work on an empty stomach, so they rushed down the flights of stairs and into the Great Hall where some people were already leaving. They automatically found the two messy mats of black hair and sat down with their friends.

Hermione sat with the girls while listening to the Marauders's tale about Charms class and how they managed to disappear James's head. She laughed along with everybody as Sirius, Peter, and James reenacted the scene.

"Er, Hermione," Sirius said smoothly after dinner as they stepped through the portrait to Gryffindor Tower with the others trailing a little ways back, "could you help me with that Defense homework Aylward gave us a few days ago?"

Hermione eyed him skeptically. "Sure," she said with a shrug. "I finished yesterday. Let me go get it from upstairs." With that she practically sprinted up to her dormitory.

"Okay, this does not mean anything," she said hurriedly to herself as she paced around the room. "He just needs help, that's all. I mean, who doesn't need help? Ron asked for it all the time. But didn't Harry say that he fancied me in that odd way? But Ron is much more different than Sirius. Anyways, Sirius has a girlfriend. I've even seen it myself." She sighed. "Just stop thinking about him that way. Why am I even thinking of him? He's just a friend."

She was about to say something else to herself when Saumya entered the room laughing her head off from a joke James had told. She looked around.

"Were you talking to yourself?" she asked through more laughter.

"Maybe," Hermione said uncertainly.

"What are you doing up here anyways?" Saumya asked rather nosily.

"I'm getting my Defense paper, er, to help Sirius," Hermione said more uncertainly that ever.

"Help Sirius? In Defense?" Saumya asked, outraged. Hermione nodded weakly. "That's his best subject!"

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed in though. She grabbed her report and said nothing else as she exited the room. She walked down the stairs muttering to herself again, completely oblivious to the staring second years climbing the stairs. She slowly made her way down the rest of the steps.

In the common room near the fireplace, the Marauders were lounging about. Harry and James were at it again on the chess board. They both had their foreheads wrinkled with concentration. Remus was curled up on a chair looking a bit off color as he read a book about Human Transfiguration. Peter was scribbling as fast as possible on his Charms homework parchment with a few books and some of Remus's notes spread out over the small side table. Sirius was sprawled out on the large plushy sofa (almost asleep) with a piece of parchment resting on his stomach and his large feather quill tucked behind his ear.

Hermione noticed, as the common room came into view that her roommates (not including Saumya) were sitting at the table in the corner quietly doing their homework and across the room were the Marauders fooling around.

"All right, just help Sirius and then visit with the girls," she muttered to herself as she slowly made her way over to the fireplace. "Or read a book. That's it, perfect."

She quietly walked behind the sofa. Noticing that Sirius had his eyes closed and was starting to breath heavily, she thwacked him on the head with her paper.

"I didn't do it!" he shouted unconsciously. He looked around to find his friends shaking their heads and laughing at him. He glanced up to find an amused, yet irritated Hermione towering over him. "Hello Hermy," he said sleepily.

"Don't call me Hermy," she said strictly.

Harry sniggered to their left. They both looked at him.

"Hey mate," he said to Sirius. "Don't both giving Hermione nicknames. Only one can call her Hermy." Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Grawp, of course," Harry said hurriedly. He returned to the chess game with everyone wondering who this Grawp was.

"Right." Sirius swung his legs off from the couch. He gave a slight wince and held his right shin.

"Oh, sorry about that kick during potions," Hermione apologized quickly.

"Naw, it's all right," Sirius said quickly. He slid to the other side of the sofa so Hermione could sit down.

"Er, shouldn't we work at a desk?" Hermione asked as she eyed the couch warily.

"Right you are," Sirius said cheerfully. He grabbed his paper and strolled quite animatedly over to an empty table with two chairs. He pulled out one for Hermione and sat down in the other one. Hermione met Remus's eyes over the edge of his book. They boy just rolled them and shook his head while returning to his book. Hermione giggled inwardly. She walked (regularly) over to the table and plopped down in the chair Sirius had pulled out for her.

"So what exactly are you having troubles with?" Hermione asked very business-like.

"Well…" Sirius was doing some quick thinking in his head. "What Aylward said about not just the pronunciation of the spell, but feeling and power behind it… and that some spells can only be used if you have the right incentive behind it…"

"Right," Hermione mumbled thumbed through his Defense book. "Ah ha," she exclaimed after a few moments of searching through the book. "See, it says here that if you wanted to use the Money-Making Spell, 'it would only work if your true intentions were to get rid of a serious debt'."

"I have debts?" Sirius joked. Hermione looked up to see him flashing a toothy smile.

"Funny," Hermione said, returning her eyes back to the book, "but I'd rather you stick to your pranks rather than your jokes."

"Ouch," Sirius winced but with that charming smile still on permanently.

She wanted to apologize but held her tongue tightly.

"All right," she said to change the subject, "just read these two paragraphs and summarize them." She held out the book for Sirius and pointed to a section describing emotions and intentions. "And then I'll clean it up for you after."

"Great." Sirius grabbed the book while keeping his thumb on the desired text. He scribbled things down while Hermione got up to ask Remus for his copy of an Ancient Runes translator.

As she neared them, she heard James ask, "I wonder why Padfoot needed help on Defense. He was raving just yesterday that he could beat Snivellus any day with any curse and his eyes blindfolded."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Peter said.

"It's because he wants to charm Miss Snicket," Remus said in a bored tone as he rolled his head towards his two friends. "Honestly, you two are the densest people around."

"Hey, where did Harry go?" James asked.

"I rest my case," Remus muttered loudly.

"Rest what case?" Peter asked confusedly.

"The case that you are all hopeless," Harry said from behind James. "I just went to get a book from my room, I even told you so! …Hey Hermione!"

Hermione stood behind, inconspicuously eavesdropping. She strolled out from her "hiding" place. "Hey. Er, Remus?" Remus looked up from behind his book again. "Can I borrow your Ancient Runes book? Mine's upstairs."

Remus looked at her. "Sure." He quickly dropped his book and dove into his bag beside him to retrieve the other book. He pulled it out and handed it to Hermione. "There you go… Did you finish the translations that we started in the library?" he asked. He wasn't too interested in what she did, but his real intention was to keep her from Sirius as much as possible.

"Not yet, that's why I needed the book. Did you?" she asked.

"I'm almost finished. It's just the last three confused me a bit."

"Really? I'd be glad to help when I'm finished with mine," she said brightly.

"I'd like that," Remus said softly with a small genuine smile.

Hermione smiled warmly and trotted back to the table where Sirius was. She sat down and opened up Remus's book. She didn't have much time to work on her Ancient Runes homework because Sirius cried out valiantly and slammed his quill down on the desk.

"There," Sirius said. "Done with that part."

"Let's see it," said Hermione impatiently. She read over his summary quickly. "This is good, but you could expand on the conclusion of emotions a bit more…" She wrote down a few sentences on a scratch piece of parchment. Sirius looked at her intently as her brow furrowed in studious thought while she bent over the paper. "Here, copy this down at the end of your paper. That should be enough."

"Thanks again Hermione," Sirius said in a sincerely grateful tone. "I just never really understood why you need emotions behind spells." He looked up from his paper to Hermione. "But I think I'm starting to."

Hermione gave him an odd look. "What is that supposed to—"

"So what do you think of Professor Aylward?" Sirius interrupted, talking while writing down Hermione's conclusion. "Isn't he the best?"

Hermione gave him a shrewd look. "I guess so… Yeah, he reminds me of one of my old teachers, Professor Lu—" She cut herself off short. In truth, Professor Aylwayd, teacher of Defense class at the time, had Lupin's way of teaching but could be as funny and good-humored as James or Sirius.

"Professor Loo?" asked Sirius, his grin splitting wider. "Now that's an intriguing name I've never heard of before."

Hermione rolled her eyes but laughed all the same. "Yes Sirius, Professor Loo, she would visit with people like Moaning Myrtle."

How does she know about Myrtle? Another contribution to the list, Sirius thought mysteriously.

He laughed to mask his suspicion.

"Finished?" Hermione asked, glancing at his short essay.

"What—oh yeah. Done," Sirius grinned. "Thanks again."

"Not at all, Sirius," Hermione said, not meeting his eyes. She feared that she might break her promise to Remus and stay with Sirius for a while longer. She rather forcefully grabbed Remus's book and tore it open to read its contents.

"Right," Sirius said uncomfortably. He gathered his belongings and started to leave when he asked, "Why don't you join us while doing your homework?" He nodded his head over to the Marauders by the fireplace.

Hermione followed his gazed. It couldn't hurt to be with the Marauders, could it? "Sure, why not?" She too gathered up her things and followed the sauntering Sirius over to the Marauders. She would have sat on a lounging chair, but Remus and Peter were occupying both of them, so she sat on the couch next to a grinning Sirius. Without another glance at Sirius, she opened up Remus's Ancient Runes book and started to jot things down.

Harry and James were on their last few pawns, rooks, bishop, and of course, kings. Remus was reading while patiently waiting for Hermione to finish. Peter was still working on Charms, occasionally asking Sirius for help. Wanting to impress Hermione, he would tolerantly answer Peter's questions. Remus and James exchanged glances and Peter stared wide-eyed at Sirius, not listening to a word he was saying (which made Sirius a little perturbed since he had to repeat himself). Hermione did or said nothing.

When Peter had moved onto his Care of Magical Creatures homework, Sirius was allowed a rest from answering questions, since it was Peter's best subject. He edged a little closer to Hermione on the couch and leaned in to say something when something caught his eye. Bridget Bell had just entered the room. She was enchanting a rather thick roll of parchment to whack Spencer Spinnet over the head repeatedly while she was talking calmly to another 7th year.

Sirius straightened up and scooted towards the end of the couch, as far from Hermione and Bridget as possible with a terrified look about his face. This is not happening… he thought worriedly. Why'd she have to come now?

Hermione looked up to see him bolt out of the common room and into his dormitory. The Marauders and Harry gave her an odd look before returning to their previous situations.

A few minutes passed and Hermione started to help Remus with Ancient Runes. She quickly explained the last three runes before excusing herself hurriedly, saying she was very tired.

She thought of staying with her girl friends for awhile, but decided against it. She heard them gossiping on her way to the staircase.

"Yeah, I heard that he's taking Katie to the Halloween Ball," one of the girls shrieked.

"But you don't have dates for a Masquerade," hissed another.

"Hey Hermione," Lily called out. "Did you hear the news?"

"Sorry girls, I'm really tired. See you in the morning," Hermione called over her shoulder as she started to climb the stairs.

After she packed all her books away for the next day and changed out of her school clothes and into her pajamas, she hopped into bed and fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

A black dog bounded across the inside of her eyelids. It stopped right in front of Hermione, tongue sticking out through its panting and its tail wagging happily. She kneeled down and ruffled the fur on its head. It, in response licked her enthusiastically on her cheek. Hermione giggled and stood up. As she grew in height, so did the dog, until it was standing on two human legs. Instead of the younger Sirius, who she had expected, the dog transformed into the older Sirius that didn't exist any more. He cocked his head to a side and gave Hermione a penetrating stare. Sirius's eyes widened before he started to fall backwards, just as he did in the Department of Mysteries. A veil appeared behind him, the material blowing ominously by an unforeseen wind. Hermione, as if by instinct, grabbed his robes and pulled him towards her. She caught him in her arms but didn't let go. The man she was hugging started to shrink a little. His hair grew shorter, and so did his height. She looked up to find the younger Sirius Black.

"Thank you," he whispered before tightening his hold on her.

A/N: Can anyone tell me where that joke is from and who said it? 713 bonus points for whoever does!

This is discouraging… only two reviews for my chapter. I guess that's what I get for not updating for such a long time. Oh well, maybe I'll get more reviews this time. looks at readers expectantly

Well, thanks hehe and Rena! Your reviews made me skip around the house and even sing in the shower (not as badly as Percy does, believe me!).

Sorry if this chapter didn't have too much of a plot. These next couple of chapters are the build-up to... the event that takes place at Halloween. I'll give you one guess as to what happens to Miss Snicket and Mr. Black there. tee hee hee...