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Chapter 25: Pinocchio, a Mime, and a Boy

Remus Lupin was sitting in one of Grimmauld Place's many haunted rooms. He used to work there often, writing away at his Order of the Phoenix notes, with Sirius Black pacing in front of the fireplace. Remus would quietly listen to Sirius's rants about his concerns, either about Harry, Voldemort, or Dumbledore (more specifically, Dumbledore's orders to Sirius). Then Sirius would stop pacing, turn to Remus, and ask for his advice, only to continue pacing once again. But none of that was to happen ever again.

The room was a massive-sized study with its own miniature library along the back wall. Sirius introduced this room when this house was made headquarters, knowing that this space was a near-perfect room for his friend. (Some of the more unpleasant things were all the green and snakes and evil pictures depicted on the wall paintings.) At the moment, the only light in the room was a faintly glowing candle placed on the desk at which Remus was sitting straight-backed at. This was Remus's refuge before and after the battle at the Department of Mysteries. But instead of feeling that sense of old friendship, as he used to before, all that hung in the air now was misery.

The door was ajar, and Remus liked it that way. It meant that he wasn't totally blocking everyone out, but then again, he wasn't welcoming them with open arms. Especially Snape. Every meeting for the Order of the Phoenix, Snape would sneer a slimy comment about the two Potters (James or Harry) or about Sirius. Remus would bite back his tongue, but allow his eyes to show his anger. He found that as each day passed, he grew a little less easy-going. How odd.

As well as his always-mellow demeanor starting to inch away, he found memories of his childhood without Harry and Hermione in it, his original memories, starting to fade away, too. Now it seemed impossible to remember what the old Masquerade Ball was like, or the day after Snape found out about Remus's… condition. Speaking of Snape……

At that moment, Remus's ears perked up at the sound of humming echoing down the corridor. It was coming from a male travelling down the hall. Who could be singing such an upbeat song? None of the Weasley kids were home yet. The next sight made Remus stare in terrified awe: Snape.

Snape was gliding down the hall, billowing black cape and all. But suddenly, a random Muggle song just popped in his head. Love Potion Number Nine. He hadn't heard that song since… "Potter…Granger…" Snape growled as he passed by Remus's door, stopping the humming immediately. "Stop ruining my life already, would you?" he muttered under his breath. "Like father like son… oh, what people see in either of them…"

And Remus could hear no more as Snape turned a corner and flew up a flight of stairs. Remus was about to let out a quiet chuckle when his head started to pound horribly. His quill dropped from his hands, his heavy breathing blew out the only source of light, and scenes started to project across his mind and eyes. His childhood. More specifically, his years at Hogwarts.

Younger Remus, around the age of seventeen, was standing underneath a tree… with a girl. Next came a flash of his jacket on that same girl. Remus buying sweets galore, some for him, yes, but some for her, too. Hermione's face inches away from his, staring deeply in his eyes…

Remus sat up in his chair, looking around the study with a jerk at every turn. All he could see was the crack between the door and its frame, at which a sliver of light was shining on his face from outside. Those images, they were memories, he realized. "Oh, Hermione, what are you doing?" Remus whispered in the dark.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" seventeen-year-old Remus asked Hermione. The girl, oddly enough, was sticking her nose up in the air, towards Remus's face, and sniffing. Hermione stopped with innocent big eyes.

"Just making sure you didn't indulge yourself with chocolate before the feast," she said with a shrug. Looking at Remus's taken aback face, she had to let out a little chuckle. "It'll spoil your dinner, won't it?"

Remus smiled. "Ah, but didn't you know? Chocolate comes from cocoa beans, and beans are vegetables. So therefore, I was eating my vegetables, which are a healthy part of a dinner course."

Hermione could only laugh. "Well, you seemed to have done your research on the subject of chocolate." She slid her hands into her pockets of her dry sweater, for she had changed out of her muddy outfit from Hogsmeade. Remus's jacket still lay on her bed. For some reason, she didn't return it back to him right away.

"You know, he's even checked out a few books on chocolate over the years," Sirius Black commented as he slid down the stone banister next to the staircases. Landing gracefully on his feet next to Hermione, he looked over and winked at her. "Long time no see," he said smoothly.

It had been forty-some minutes since everyone departed to their common rooms after the Hogsmeade trip. The Gryffindor sixth years were on their way to the last all-school feast. Then, most of the students would be heading off to their home. According to Lily Evans, only forty-two of the one thousand Hogwarts students were staying.

Lily, Freya, and Dana were walking quite a distance behind Remus, Hermione, and Sirius. James and Saumya had been arguing about the Quidditch World Cup that would take place in a little less than two years with Harry listening quietly. After Sirius had left their conversation to join up with Hermione, James and Saumya had taken up the banister-sliding. Harry just quickened his pace and was soon walking right behind Hermione and Remus.

James, at the top of the banister, bellowed down to Sirius, who was at in the middle of the staircase, "Come on, Padfoot! Join us!"

Sirius, not likely to keep his friend waiting, grabbed Hermione's hand, kissing it with a bow, and hopped on the railing, right before James and Saumya (who was a few feet behind the gliding James) flew past.

The two boys picked up speed with every smooth turn they took, leaving Saumya behind quite a few feet. After a few flights of banister-gliding, James and Sirius found that they couldn't stop, even if they wanted to. The boys were in hysterics. Their laughter rang throughout the chambers and corridors. But as luck would have it, the staircase they were traveling on now began to shift. The end of the railing led to nowhere, just empty space!

"AHH!" James and Sirius screamed as they went flying through air. Saumya, a few feet back, had enough time to slow down so she wouldn't meet the same doom as the other two. Fortunately and unfortunately for James and Sirius, they sailed over to an adjacent corridor, and got a soft entry landing—on top of Professor Smirch.

Sirius jumped up onto his feet with a maniacal grin shining on his face. With his hands curled up into tight fists, he was bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Let's do that again!" he ecstatically to James, who had hopped to his feet, too. Both disregarded the crumpled form of Smirch on the floor. That is, until she realized what had happened.

Professor Smirch shook her head in a few short jerks, looked at the energized boys buzzing above her, and let out a blend of a growl and a groan. Paying no attention to the un-graded papers that lay next to her, Smirch slowly stood up with a deathly glower aimed right at James and Sirius. At the blaring words that burst from the enraged Professor's mouth, both Gryffindor boys jumped in the air, quite startled, and stared wide-eyed at Smirch. "DETENTION! A MONTH'S DETENTION FOR BOTH OF YOU!"She ended with her huffing and puffing that she saved only for the Marauders.

Sirius and James looked as if all they wanted to do was laugh their heads off, but they somehow managed to refrain themselves. After giving his friend a sideways glance, signalizing to play along, James screwed up his face in what, to him, seemed like an innocent face. "Why, professor, what did we do wrong?" he asked. He folded his hands behind his back, twisting his body back and forth only slightly, and gazed at her with huge, hazel eyes. He looked like a little schoolboy trying to get away with spreading finger-paint all over a girl's face and hair.

Professor Smirch almost shook with rage. "What did you do? What did you do!" she snarled. "You boys were just sliding down the railing of a staircase—"

"Well, professor," James interrupted. "I don't mean to argue, but that isn't against school rules. I checked." His grin widened at Smirch's death glare.

"Also," she continued as if there had been no disruption, "you two force-fed a love potion to Severus Snape."

"Is there any proof?" Sirius interjected.

Smirch glowered, her eyes narrowing into two tiny slits. "Who else would do such a thing? And, while we're at it, I'll take away twenty points for contradicting me." She looked down at her left arm which was hanging limply at her side. "And I think you two broke my arm!" The professor growled and screamed at the same time (which James and Sirius took a step back at; they had never heard a sound quite like that). "I'll see you both tomorrow after dinner in my office." She jerked her wand from her side, guiding her fallen papers under her right arm, and left without another glance at the two Gryffindor boys.

"What's your bet that by tomorrow, they add in a 'No banister-sliding' rule?" Sirius choked out through his incessant smiling.

"You really think it'll take that long?" James added with a mirror image of his friend's grin.

"How long are you two in for?" rang a voice across the column of staircases (A/N: This staircase space-thing is based off of the movie versions… I really can't begin to fathom what they're like in the books.) James and Sirius whipped their heads around to find the rest of the Gryffindor gang on the opposite corridor. It was Remus who had shouted over to his fellow Marauders.

"A month," James shouted back.

"And no more than you deserve," Lily sniffed in a normal tone. James heard this and it seemed as if his whole body slumped at her comment. One glance at Harry, though, reminded him of Lily's future.

"You know Evans, I always get bored during those long night hours… you could always sneak in and entertain me." James watched in glee as Lily stopped suddenly and turned around with a grave air about her face. Before she could scream out her lungs, Harry broke into a horrible, hacking cough and did not stop until Lily closed her mouth again.

"You might want to take care of that throat, Thewler," James yelled over to Harry with a wink.

"Yeah, it's amazing at what bad stuff goes in and comes out of people's mouths, eh?" Harry returned with a large smirk. James just nodded his head with a smile.

Everyone else stood completely in the dark.

"Riiiiight," Sirius said, breaking the hush. "We'll see you at the Great Hall," he said, referring to the fact that he and James could not get back to the group on a count of changing staircases. Turning his back on the other Gryffindors, Sirius laid his hands on top of James's shoulders, spun his friend around, and shoved him down the hall. When they were both out of earshot of the others, Sirius hissed, "What the hell was that about, Prongs?"

"What was what about?" James said uneasily. He was still having inner qualms about telling Sirius about the marriage James and Lily were inevitably going to have in the future.

"About that—that episode back there with Thewler?" Sirius glared suspiciously. "What did he mean, what comes out of people's mouths?"

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Hogwart's two favourite gormless gits," sneered a greasy voice that James and Sirius had the displeasure to know quite well. Severus Snape was standing by a suit of armor deep in the shadows.

"This should be fun," James whispered to Sirius before the spells went flying.

The other six Gryffindors made it to the Great Hall without any encounters from people that were furious at them. Looking up and down the Gryffindor table and never seeing either of the last two Marauders, they chose their own spot to sit at and started in on their dinner. Lily, sitting between Saumya and Hermione was discussing the holidays with both girls. Hermione and Remus were sitting opposite each other, talking away about Hogwarts: A History with Harry sitting beside Hermione while listening, feeling rather bored.

It was well after Dumbledore had started and finished his short speech (about how this was the last day before the holidays, and that everyone was expected to arrive at the designated time the next year) when two boys collapsed into the seats opposite Lily and Saumya.

"What happened to you two?" Remus snorted into his shepherd pie.

James (seated beside Remus and opposite Lily) was sitting awkwardly on the bench, fidgeting with his napkin that lay on his lap. His mouth was oddly kept shut. Also, he avoided all eye contact with his friends, which was a very strange thing for James Potter to do. He rubbed his nose.

If James was sitting awkwardly, it was nothing compared to Sirius. When he had sat down, he was airborne for an unnaturally long time. As to explain the defiance of gravity, above him was a wooden X with brown, sturdy stings hanging down from it which connected with Sirius's main limbs. His joints had been changed to only move a certain way, limiting most movement. Indeed, Sirius Black was now a marionette.

Sirius cast James a sideways look. James signaled for his friend to explain, but never opening his mouth. Smirking, Sirius started to recite to his anxious crowd of the Gryffindor sixth years.

"Well, in the time between when we last saw you all and right now , James and I got jumped by a certain Slytherin—"

Lily quickly shot daggers at James, who opened his mouth to say that Sirius's words were true, but caught himself, and closed his mouth again (but still wore round, innocent eyes behind his glasses).

Sirius snickered before continuing. "Naturally, Snape began to shoot hexes at us right and left. We dodged all that we could and gave a few of our own—to get away safely, but we got hit—"

"With what?" asked Saumya, eyeing the strings holding Sirius up. "You're a bloody puppet!" Looking at James, she added, "And what are you, a mute?"

"I'm getting there!" Sirius growled, his arms bobbing in midair. "James and I were hit with the same spell. It grazed my arm and the rest of the magic hit James," he clapped his friend on the back, "square on the nose."

"What spell was it?" Hermione asked curiously.

Sirius grinned a Cheshire-cat-like grin. "It's one of the spells Snivellus concocted himself, so you won't have heard of it…. It's called the Pinocchio Curse."

For a fleeting moment all was dead silent. Then Lily, Hermione, Saumya, Harry, and Remus started laughing hysterically. This caused other neighboring students to jump in their seats, startled by the abruptness of the laughter.

Hermione, first to finish laughing, was looking questioningly at James. "But James," she said, once the laughter finally died out, "if the spell hit you, why aren't you affected?"

Before James could think, he said crossly, "I'm not affected, though."

Immediately, James's hands flew up and clamped over his mouth. But it was too late; his words were already spoken. James, little by little, became cross-eyed as he gazed in horror at his nose. It was inching along in length; now James Potter's nose was four inches long.

Out of all the laughter coming from surrounding students, none compared to the laughter of Lily. She was howling with glee, pounding the table with her fists. Other students looked alarmingly at the young prefect girl, for there were few moments where Lily Evans would cackle uncontrollably. Even Professor McGonagall's attention shifted from her knish to the maniacal girl (but saw the marionette planks floating magically above Sirius's head and shrugged it as normal).

"James Potter finally got his comeuppance!" Her screech ended in giggles.

James seemed to shrink with disappointment. He slouched down. His eyes adverted to his empty plate with his nose protruding unnaturally from his face. "I'm hurt," he half-whimpered, half-whispered. His nose gradually regressed back into its original length.

"How did you do that?" Saumya asked, sounding between amazed and disappointed.

"Do you know who Pinocchio is?" Sirius asked.

But before he would explain, and after Saumya shook her head, Hermione decided to be the one to enlighten, since that was once her favourite story as a child. "Pinocchio was a wooden puppet. And he would only become a real boy when he proved himself when he was brave and truthful. When he told a lie, his nose would grow longer and longer. One of the stories is that when he told the truth right afterwards, his nose would shrink every time until it was normal again."

"Doesn't he also turn into an ass?" snorted Lily. She had been partially touched when James spoke "the truth", but flashes of him lying his way through Hogwarts, either to friends, students, or teachers (even Dumbledore!) set things straight in her mind once again.

"That was because of Pleasure Island, not Pinocchio himself," said Sirius with a sneer.

"You know the story of Pinocchio?" Hermione asked, not believing Sirius's words. From what she had heard in Grimmauld Place, Mr. and Mrs. Black were rather strict purebloods, never associating with anything remotely Muggle. And she was sure Pinocchio wasn't in their fairy tale books.

"Of course," Sirius said with a genuine smile. His shoulders shrugged as the strings above him tightened. "It was my childhood favourite."

"Your parents would let you read Muggle stories?"

"Well, I had to hide it under a loose floorboard."

Hermione smiled at the thought of young Sirius hiding under his bed covers with his Muggle fairy tales book. Before she could comment, there was an abrupt laughter from the entrance of the Great Hall. What it was, the six Gryffindors could not see. James and Sirius glanced at each other with their usual mischievous smirks.

"Did you two have anything to do with whatever is causing laughs at the Slytherin table?" Lily asked sharply.

James may have heard her, but he didn't react. He rubbed his hands together and stared at the food. "Ah, I could eat a whole hippogriff," he said with glee while reaching for the dinner food. Automatically, his nose began to grow in length again. "Aw, come on! I can't even use sarcasm!" he screamed at his nose. This caught everyone else's attention and gained another round of laughter. "Not even a bloody metaphor…" James moaned, his nose still four inches long. "Fine, you win… let's see, truth…. Sirius is sitting next to me." His nose started to shrink again.

"Hey James, are you talking to your nose again?" Harry asked, giving himself a laugh.

"Funny, Thewler," James grumbled. "Real witty."

Beside James was Sirius trying to grab some food. Unfortunately, the curse that was still upon restrained him from the proper use of his hands. Sure, his fingers were still normal, but it was a matter of turning his wrist and arm to take hold of something. Sirius couldn't quite grasp the handle of a fork.

"Er—can someone help me out here?" he said weakly, his hands bobbing up and down pathetically.

"Does ickle Siri need some help?" James teased.

"As a matter of fact, he does," said Sirius pleadingly. Out of the blue, food started to levitate over to his plate. He gazed questionably around until he spotted Hermione with her wand out. "Thanks," he said with a wink. His fork floated up and adjusted its angle so Sirius could grab hold of it.

"You're welcome," Hermione said with a chirp. From her right came a slight jab at her ribs. Harry was giving her a hairy eye. She maintained her usual air, but her eyebrows became slightly creased.

After they finally finished their meal (Sirius took the longest), they all slowly made their way to the entrance hall when James and Sirius spotted someone else leaving from the Slytherin table. Both Marauders hurried ahead of Lily, Hermione, Harry, and Remus.

"Oy! Snivellus!" Sirius called out. Within seconds, James and Sirius were three feet behind Snape.

Snape, oddly enough, didn't make for his wand, nor did he sneer a pathetic insult. Instead, he just turned around painfully slow. The rest of the Gryffindor gang took a step back in surprise at the Slytherin's face.

Snape's face was completely pure white. It wasn't abnormally pale, but it seemed as it was painted. To add to the effect, he wore a black beret. His face also spoke, because of its features and arrangement, "What do you want?", but no word ever escaped his mouth.

Sirius leaned closer to James and whispered exasperatedly, "Why did we have to curse him with a Mime Hex?"

On the other hand, James broke into a smile. "Who cares? This is going to be very interesting." James looked up to Snape's furious features. "Can you tell us—or should I say act out?—about this stupid hex you put on me and my counterpart?"

For the first time, Snape's grimacing, incensed face left and was replaced with a good-natured sort of face, laughing pleasurably (but silently). His gaze altered behind James and Sirius for a moment, and he burst into heavier silent mirth. It was Lily he had looked at.

James glanced over his shoulder to Lily, who was as equally confused as James. Looking back at the mime, James demanded ferociously, "What does she have to do with this?" He fingered the strings holding Sirius's hand up.

With the sound of a creaking marionette, Sirius clomped his way over to the silent boy. His steps were high off the ground, and he seemed to bob across the corridor. Both boys, Sirius and Snape, were laughing their heads off at the other's misfortunate curse: Snape the Mime and Sirius the Marionette. It was a sight to see, sworn enemies laughing joyously in the same vicinity.

With a jerky movement, and some difficulties (which caused Snape to chuckle silently again), Sirius pulled something out of his pocket. A quill and a spare piece of parchment. "Unless you want to act it out for us…" Sirius grinned as Snape grudgingly took it, his laughter dying. He pushed one side of Sirius, who involuntarily spun around, his arms flailing about. Snape started to write on the parchment, using Sirius's back as a substitute desk.

James watched closely. He spotted the few times where Snape would actually crack a smile. Soon afterwards, Snape took the paper off of Sirius's back and gave him a good shove. Sirius stumbled forward, tripping on one of his own strings, and tumbled painfully into Hermione. They both toppled to the ground.

Silence screamed in both Hermione's and Sirius's ears as the world around them turned fuzzy, for this was as physically close as they had ever been. Both were deeply entangled in his marionette strings. Hermione's body was pushed right up against Sirius's, her hands lying on his chest. Sirius was in the same position, although his hands were down by Hermione's mid-thigh. Even though Sirius found this situation quite all right, one thing proved uncomfortable, and that was Hermione's nose poking his eye.

Hermione found this situation awful yet pleasing at the same time, which drove her into more madness. She tried struggling her way out of his strings, but that led to worse positioning. Sirius's face was now past her neck. She could almost picture his smirk in her mind. Her fury was ended as Harry and Remus hurriedly helped Hermione out. She stumbled out finally, accidentally kicking Sirius on the shoulder.

"Sorry!" Hermione quickly apologized. She went for her wand to help Sirius out of his own tangles, but the magic from his hex did it on its own. Sirius was now back to bobbing up and down with Hermione standing (and blushing) beside him. They made immediate eye contact before Hermione smiled and turned towards James, who was still reading Snape's piece of parchment. Sirius, sighing, tuned his focus back to James and Snape.

"What do you mean, Lily is the only one who can get rid of this!" James yelped, staring wide-eyed at the paper.

Snape, grinning, walked over to Lily. He grabbed her arm and pointed to her sleeve, which was blue, and kept on pointing at it.

"Ooo, charades! I love charades!" joked Sirius, clapping his hands together. This earned him a glare from Snape. "Let's see… sweater? No… cotton?… no… blue?"

Snape nodded his head, as if pained by the stupidity surrounding him. Then, stepping away from Lily, he started to flap his arms, as if they were wings.

"Bird… Blue bird?" guessed Sirius. "No… Blue… blue… Blue Faerie!" he shouted. "Lily is Pinocchio's Blue Faerie!"

Snape, once again, nodded slowly, though this time his eyes were set maliciously on James and Lily.

"Are you meaning to say that you concocted a spell that, not only turns us into a Pinocchio, but also that allowed Lily Evans to be the only one to end of it?" James asked slowly. "You have no life, do you, Snivellus?"

Snape glared.

"How?" Lily spoke up.

Snape looked insulted to be spoken to by her. Even so, he scribbled on the piece of parchment.

"Finite Incanta—" Lily stopped. "Wait. Why should I free you two?" She folded her arms and stared at Sirius and James, not looking so unlike Professor McGonagall. Snape was beaming wickedly from behind her at the same two boys. He knew this was going to happen, hence why he specifically chose that Mudblood.

"Because we're the two best looking guys in school?" James suggested. He paused. "Hey! My nose didn't grow!" He touched his nose, just to make sure. A completely arrogant grin was now placed on his face.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Maybe this'll end all that sarcasm and lies that drip out of your mouths."

"But we never lie," James said indignantly. His nose began to grow. "All right, well, maybe we do sometimes." His nose went back to normal. "But still!" He looked hopefully at Lily, who remained as stubborn as ever. James wasn't going to get anywhere. So he took his disappointment and anger out on his only major rival. "Snivellus, we'll make you a deal."

Snape raised an eyebrow lazily, as if not interested in what James had to say. However, James ignored this and continued.

"You can't just have someone say 'Finite Incantatem' to remove your little Mime Hex, can you? We, Sirius and I, made up the countercurse, so you have no idea what the incantation is." James paused, looked at Lily, then straight back at Snape. "We'll take that curse off you… as soon as Lily takes your curse off of us."

If glares could kill, the Marauders would have been dead before this for sure, but this was one of Snape's top ten most powerful glares. He looked between Lily, Sirius, and James, and snorted angrily. But since he could cast no spells, he did what mimes would do in a time like this: mime. Snape mimed wrapping an invisible rope around an invisible person's head and pulled an invisible rope down, symbolizing a hanging. Next he ran his finger over his own throat, looking pointedly at James and Sirius, and made a choking face. Then he left in a flash, running down the stairs that lead to the dungeons.

"Well, I think that was the funniest thing I've seen…" James's nose began to grow— "all day," he finished quickly. His nose shrank again. He sighed heavily, spiraling around to face Lily. "Please, Lily, can't you take this curse off of us? Please?" he begged. James fell to his knees and clapped his hands together. "I'll do anything. Just say the incantation." He looked up at her with pleading eyes.

Lily just laughed loudly and openly. "Well this day has indeed proven to be interesting. Unfortunately, Potter, I have to go do my prefect duties soon (as does Remus), so I'm afraid I can't help you at the moment." She started to walk off towards the prefect meeting room.

"Evans!" Sirius shouted. His arm flew up and he cupped his hand around his mouth, but ending up smacking his nose. "It's two bloody words and a wave of your wand. It'll take only six seconds, won't it?"

Lily turned around, amused.

"I can understand you leaving James like that," Sirius continued. "He deserves to not be able to tell lies. But what good will a puppet form do for me? Where's a moral lesson in that?"

"There is no lesson," said Lily simply. "It's just hilarious to watch." With a giggle, she skipped up the rest of the stairs.

"Can you believe her?" Sirius growled, spinning back to the rest of the Gryffindors. "Leaving us like this?" He grabbed the string connected to his right leg and gave it a tiny tug, at which his leg flew up, then straight down again.

"What did you mean, mate," James started at Sirius, "that I deserved to tell only the truth?"

"I was only saying that so Evans would take this ruddy curse off us," said Sirius.

"Well, who says Snape was being entirely truthful?" suggested Hermione. "I mean, he could have just been lying to you, just so you would go to greater, more embarrassing lengths for freedom again."

"It's possible," Remus agreed. He glanced at his old, beat-up watch. "But Lily's right. I do have prefect duties." Looking at Sirius dangling, he added, "Good luck with finding a countercurse." He snorted and ran up the stairs before Sirius could get in another word.

"Git," Sirius mumbled jokingly. To Harry, Hermione, and James, he asked, "So… what now?"

"Ouch! Hermione! That hurts!" Sirius kept on howling.

"I'm sorry, Sirius, but there's no way you can cut these strings with regular scissors," Hermione said quietly, laying down an old pair of scissors on a table.

The foursome (Harry, Hermione, James, and Sirius) were in the common room, which was quite empty, since a majority of the students had already left for the holidays. They were all thinking of ways to end the Pinocchio Curse. Hermione had suggested just cutting Sirius strings off with regular scissors, but it appeared that the strings were now part of Sirius's body, and therefore, hurtful if damaged.

"What about a Severing Charm?" a seventh year boy suggested, walking up to the foursome. He had long, black hair and an odd sort of nose. He wore an odd Muggle jacket, as if he had just come back from the Salvation Army band practice. Also, next to his side was a Hispanic girl named Novia giggling at the circumstances that Sirius was hanging in. James, standing loyally behind his friend, started to mock Sirius, jumping up and down like a mad, deranged puppet. This caused more laughter from the girl and a grin from the boy.

"Hey, that might work!" Sirius said excitedly, oblivious to James's dance that was going on behind him. "Thanks, Shear."

"Don't mention it," said Billy Shear 1. He strolled to the back staircase, nodding his head to an imaginary song stuck in his head. Novia giggled, walking beside him.

Hermione tried the Severing Charm on Sirius. The only affect it had on Sirius was the volume of his screaming.

"It wouldn't hurt to try 'finite incantatem', would it?" Harry said, falling back into one of the chairs. They had been at this for over forty minutes, starting with James's removal of the curse, then went on to Sirius.

"Finite Incantatem," Hermione said, swishing her wand and ending with a jab towards Sirius.

Nothing happened.

"I'm out of ideas," Hermione sighed. "Of course, I could always do some research on it, but I'm sure the library is close by now." She leisurely sat down in on of the chairs by the fire, next to Harry. Tilting her head in puzzlement, she gazed intently at Sirius. "I wonder…" She let a little giggle escape from her lips. "Come here, Sirius."

Sirius stared questioningly at her as he walked over, his feet flying feet above the ground with each step. He finally made it over to her without tripping over anything. "I think I'm getting the hang of this."

"Sit down on the floor, here." She patted the ground in front of her chair with her foot.

He plopped down on the ground, facing her.

"Now, turn towards James and Harry," she instructed as if to a five-year-old.

He spun around on his buttocks.

"Now, relax…." Hermione took the wooden planks floating above his head, which were at her eye level, into her hands. Twitching one side of one plank upward, Sirius's corresponding hand flew up. "Wow, you're a real puppet!" giggled Hermione. Sirius let out a bark-like laugh, as usual, which was his signal for her to carry on. And she did.

Hermione made Sirius flail his arms about and a Muggle dance called the hokey-pokey, which caused James to laugh like mad. James wanted to go next, at which point Sirius was a little apprehensive about.

"You don't have a choice, mate," James said eagerly, clambering onto the chair Hermione had occupied moments before. Standing on the chair this time, James was able to puppet Sirius with his friend standing up, too. James conducted Sirius to do the disco and go into crazy positions that the game Twister would be proud of.

"All right, that's enough," Sirius cried out as he was galloping on nothing in midair. "I'm not a puppet you know. I'm a real boy."

"No you're not," James corrected.

A thunderous explosion sounded from up the back staircase. It took a moment for James to recognize what it was. He let out a high-pitched scream.

"Oh no! This is bad!" James dropped the wooden planks, which hit Sirius sorely on the head. Running to the stairs, he yelled, "Thewler! We were supposed to stop that spell twenty minutes ago!"

"Damn it," cursed Harry as he ran towards James.

"What is it?" Sirius asked, rubbing his head while making his way over to the two other boys.

James, halfway up the stairs, stopped and abruptly turned at Sirius. "Do NOT come up to the dormitory. Don't even think about it. We'll get you when… we're done."

"This has to do with that mysterious trip you two took during Hogsmeade, isn't it?" Sirius asked slyly.

James and Harry looked at each other for a moment. "Ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies," Harry said before disappearing up to their dormitory.

Sirius spun around to Hermione. "Alone at last," he purred.

"Don't even think about it, Black," Hermione said at once. "I'm going up to my room."

"And leave me all alone?" Sirius pouted. "I can't go up to my dormitory and won't be able to for quite some time, by the looks of it…. Please Hermione, stay with me?" Wearing the round, puppy-dog eyes, he won her over.

"But only until Remus arrives or when James and Harry are done with—whatever they're doing up there," said Hermione firmly. As she watched Sirius clambered over to her, she grinned and sat down in the one-person chair by the fire. "So… what did you have in mind?"

"You mean, something that you'll approve of?" Sirius questioned, giving off that sense of conceitedness. He pulled out a pack of cards. "Exploding Snap?"

Fifty minutes later:

"You little cheater!" Hermione laughed, slapping Sirius on the arm.

"How could I cheat?"

Hermione gazed cynically at him. "I don't know… but I know you did."

Sirius laughed as soft, lovable one. He looked around at their setting. It was actually quite romantic, minus the marionette strings hanging gloomily above him.

It was already deep into the night, the stars twinkling merrily in the clear sky. Inside the common room was sweetly silent, with the occasional hoot of an owl from outside. The fireplace was crackling away, adding warmth to the once-chilly common room. Sirius and Hermione were sitting on the floor, facing each other, in front of the flames, silently playing cards (wincing at the explosion of the deck). Every so often they would look up at each other at the same time, catching the fire in their eyes.

"Er… what do you think they're doing up there?" Sirius asked, just to break the silence. He jerked his head up towards the boys' dormitories. "James and Harry, I mean."

"No doubt rustling up some father-son prank," said Hermione boredly, sneaking in a yawn. She closely examined Sirius's features as he stared at the cards in his hands. All she noticed was anger, jealousy. "It won't be for long."

Seeing that Hermione was opening up a deeper conversation than one about flobberworms, Sirius took his chance. "It's just that James and I are always the ones who scheme and plot… it's strange to have another take your place."

"Harry is not taking your place," Hermione said.

"I know. I know…. Also, James and I haven't been as together this year as others. That's another strange thing."

"Well, things will be back to normal once Harry and I leave."

Sirius looked up from his cards instantaneously. "But I don't want you to go away," he said solemnly.

"Sirius, you know we're going to have to sometime."

"But what if you didn't leave?" asked Sirius. Hermione opened her mouth disapprovingly. "No, listen," Sirius pleaded, "what if you two stayed here? Would that be so bad?"

"Yes, it would," Hermione said. "We know what's going to happen to you four, and not all of it is sunshine and daisies. If we stay here, we'll feel inclined to change things, which we cannot do."

Sirius thoughtfully paused. He bent forward, his face several inches away from Hermione's. She did not back away. "Well then why not enjoy the time you have here then? Why not make it the best you can?…" He leaned in even closer. "…Why hold back?" Sirius tried to catch Hermione's lips, but she tilted her head backwards.

"Please, Sirius, don't make me do this," she said softly, almost pleading.

"Do what?" Sirius kept on inching towards her.

"Ahem," came from the portrait hole. Remus was back.

Lily had stayed behind to talk to the Head Girl about the holidays. So Remus left and was slowly making his way to Gryffindor Tower. He had been contemplating all that had happened today. The morning started out eating breakfast with Sirius and Hermione. Then came Hogsmeade, which was most perplexing to Remus. The whole scene at the Shrieking Shack made his insides squirm. Being so close to Hermione and not being able to do anything romantic was enough to make Remus want to kick something. And he did. And his toe started to throb. After Hogsmeade, Sirius and James got turned into Pinocchio. And now, as he stepped into the Gryffindor common room, Remus spotted Sirius trying to kiss Hermione. What a busy day today had been!

Although, the one aspect of the current situation between Sirius and Hermione that Remus found amusing, not to mention comforting, was Hermione was backing away from Sirius, on her own accord. Now Remus stood still, with his arms crossed over his chest, and Sirius and Hermione staring wide-eyed at him. Hermione scrambled straight away from Sirius, rocketing up to her feet. Sirius just let his eyes shrink a little before he attempted to stand up. A few more tries and the strings finally let him stand. Before he could say anything cocky to Remus, James and Harry emerged from the back stairs.

"Sirius—" James panted, since he had just sprinted like mad down the stairs, "could you—er—help us out upstairs?"

"Sure thing, mate," Sirius said, not taking his eyes off of Remus.

Sirius took his eyes off his friends finally, shot a glance at Hermione, before galumphing over to James. Remus made to follow them, assuming that they needed his help too.

"Er—Moony…" James started. "You may not want to see this." He poked his finger towards the upstairs. "We'll get you once it's—er… cleaned up, all right?" Without waiting for an answer, he disappeared upstairs, Harry and Sirius trailing behind.

Remus rounded on Hermione. She, conversely, was fiddling with the cards lying on the floor. He walked over to her and knelt beside her. "Let me help you with that," he said sweetly. He began to pick the cards up along with her. As she grabbed for one under the table, it exploded.

"Ouch!"

Hermione hugged her right hand that now had scorch marks all over her slender fingers. She slipped from her knees to her bottom on the floor. Rubbing it, she took her hand away from her to examine the damage.

"Here, let me see," Remus said. Hermione slowly reached out her hurt hand for Remus. He took it in his large, strong hands. Rotating it a little, he gently touched her fingers. She didn't even flinch. "You look all right. You'll want to be careful." Remus looked up to her eyes. "And not with just Exploding Snap cards."

"What do you—" Hermione began. Before she could piece it together, Remus spoke.

"I mean Sirius. He won't take no for an answer, no matter the question." He looked intensely into her toffee-coloured eyes and detected a flicker.

"I know," Hermione said at last, sounding heavy with concern. "But he needs to. He needs to take the hint that I don't want to be with him."

Remus started to nod respectively, but processed her words. "Want?" he repeated. "You don't want to?"

It was a tense moment. Remus was still holding her hand, looking questioningly at her. Hermione didn't mean to say that aloud. She had been planning to say, "He needs to understand that I can't be with him," but those words were lost as she kept on gazing at Remus. Why was that?

"I mean, I can't be with him," Hermione said quickly. She pulled her hand away from his. "It doesn't matter who I want to be with. It'll be impossible." And painful.

"Hermione—"

"Moony!" yelled Sirius from their dormitory. He was at the top of the stairs, so he could not see the scene below. "We need your assistance! James and Harry seemed to have left a hefty stain on your bed and it won't come off. Also, I think it's pulsing and growing a mind of its own."

Remus smiled lightly at the flight of steps before looking solemnly at Hermione. "Just think about it," was all he said. Remus handed her the extra Exploding Snap cards and disappeared from the common room.

So Hermione started to think. She started to think about every single detail that was happening in her life during this era. She thought of the people. She thought of the experiences. She thought of all the repercussions of her actions. Or at least, she would have if Lily hadn't popped in moments after Remus left, and dragged her upstairs, saying that they needed their beauty sleep.

Hermione didn't have the chance to think that night. Lily and Saumya stayed up past midnight chatting with Hermione, since it was just those two in the dormitory. Freya and Dana had already trekked their way to Hogsmeade to catch the Hogwarts Express back home.

Finally, around three in the morning, Hermione lay quietly in her warm, cozy bed, her ears taking in the chorus of heavy breathing and light snores. But she did not actually listen to which snores belonged to whom, for her mind was delving into more serious matters, as had tried to a few hours previous. Yet, the topic of discussion in her mind was not time-travelling or anything so dramatic. No, it was boys. Two particular boys.

There was no point in denying that she didn't have feelings for either Remus or Sirius. She knew it. And, even better, she accepted it. Although, Hermione did go through everything horrible that could (and probably would) come out of her infatuation, but she didn't care anymore (… as much.) A matter that had been pressing on her mind was, Which boy?

In front of her eyes flashed a close-up of Sirius. It was in the entrance hall, today after dinner to be exact. Snape had shoved Sirius straight into Hermione and they both toppled over, entangled in his marionette strings. The extremely close contact made Hermione's breath stop. She noticed his did, too. For a fleeting moment, their eyes had met while in such a position, and she saw lust. Lust for something he wanted so strongly, but what she failed to see was the barrier telling him no. After they finally got to their feet, Sirius had winked with an impish grin, causing Hermione to blush furiously. His grin widened.

Hermione blinked. All that she saw was the canopy of her bed.

Along came another memory. This time it included Remus. He and Hermione were standing underneath a tree near the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. She was holding him tightly around the shoulders, his hand upon her waist. Hermione gazed up into those soft, brown-with-yellow-flecks eyes and saw what seemed to be a permanent melancholy etched in his eyes. Also hidden in those eyes was desire for the impossible. The scene sped up—up to the point of where Hermione was giggling on the wet sod as Remus gently tickled her. His eyes were now shining with happiness, not sorrow. And that's the way Hermione liked them. They saw too much horror over his past seventeen years.

And again, Hermione was staring straight ahead into the darkness of her dormitory. She was hoping that these flashes of Remus and Sirius would point her in the right direction. For a moment, she thought her plan had not worked. But one more reminiscence gave her the answer.

It was in the alleyway when she was alone with Sirius. He was asking Hermione about her and Remus, and how come she never shrank away from Remus's touch, as she did with Sirius's. Her final answer was "I don't want you to get hurt… I don't want to hurt anybody." It wasn't her words that triggered her ever-sought out answer. It was the picture that was playing in her mind while she was talking to Sirius. She didn't want that person to get hurt, the one pictured in her head.

It was Remus.

A/N: Hi all! Sorry for the long update. I told you it might take a while because of my exams. And besides, for those impatient reviewers out there, take heed of what a wise reviewer once said: "Good things are worth waiting for." (Nathalie)

Now, before any of you die-hard Sirius fans out there yell at my choice of Hermione's… choice, think about it. Do you really think Sirius will go down without a fight? Or do you think he can win fair Hermione over? OR do you believe that Hermione will fall for the sweet, sensible boy? (I was so ecstatic when I read your reviews. I can't believe that so many people switched from Sirius to Remus for Hermione.) Do you think that any of these questions have some sort of meaning to how this story ends? (If you do, you're wrong. I'm just asking these questions for the fun of it.) Also, do you really think that I'll give away the ending? Naw… where's the fun in that:)

1— 62,442 bonus points and a virtual gold star to whoever can tell me who Billy Shear is and 9 ¾ points if you can name what song he is famous for.

Note: I deleted entry 9, the Author's Note (the one asking about the eye colours). It was getting too confusing about which chapter I updated, so I got rid of it. Just thought you'd like to know……. Another note: to whoever wants to/is emailing me: I had to switch emails, so take note of that.

I'm afraid that my time at the computer is coming to an end. So I want to say THANK YOU to every single reviewer out there and a small "thanks" to those who don't review (just kidding).