Hey guys! Im super excited to get this chapter out! It was difficult to write because its a lot of filler/development situations, but i have big plans for the next chapter so i hope you all stick through it!

Once again thank you so, so much to everyone that favorited/ followed/ commented on this story, it absolutely means so much to me that you all like this story and want more, I also adore reading every single review written they make me so happy!

Here you go and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Remus was confused.

He forced himself to get up for breakfast at a normal time the next morning just to see if what happened last night was a fluke. But now here he was, sitting at the table in the Great Hall across from Hermione who was happily chattering with Lily.

This didn't make any sense.

After their conversation in the dorms last night the boys decided to wait in the common room for Hermione to come back. They did this solely to see how long she would be meeting with Professor Dumbledore. The meeting lasted quite a while, but that wasn't the part that surprised them; It was that after she came back from the meeting, instead of going straight to her room like usual she sat down with them by the fire.

All the marauders were on edge, to say the least. The girls, on the other hand, couldn't be happier.

Dorcas had joined in Lily and Hermione's conversation while Marlene chatted to Alice, Peter, and Sirius about something, Sirius only half engaged. Remus and James sat across from each other in comfortable silence, both their minds on the sudden change.

The first class of the day was NEWT Transfiguration, Hermione sat next to Lily and Remus sat with Peter. After that was NEWT Potions with the Slytherins. Peter wasn't in this class, so Remus was paired with Hermione while Lily worked with Alice.

Professor Slughorn briefly introduced the assignment, to brew what Remus and the rest of the marauders thought to be a basic healing potion. Or, he supposed, rather a paste. All of them, even Peter, had mastered this potion years ago after the many, many injuries the four of them received.

Remus did think it odd though, in his six years at Hogwarts he had not been taught one healing spell or potion, everything he knew in that regard, and admittedly it wasn't much, he had taught himself.

Remus was fully expecting to take the lead on this assignment given that he could brew this paste with his eyes closed, however, before he could get his cauldron to the right temperature Hermione was already perfectly cutting borage leaves.

He was a bit surprised, the leaves needed to be cut so precisely it was almost impossible to do the first try. Although he realized he shouldn't have been so shocked, Hermione was good at everything up to this point, it only made sense she was good at potions too.

As the pair worked quietly together, effortlessly matching each other's pace, a small burst of fire quickly erupted from the other side of the classroom.

As Professor Slughorn rushed to help, Hermione let out a small chuckle.

At Remus' raised eyebrow she said, "A friend of mine from home would do stuff like that all the time."

"Set things on fire?" Remus asked.

"Set things on fire, blow cauldrons up, everything," Hermione continued, reminiscing on her days with Seamus in class.

Remus smiled slightly, it was nice to hear her talk about her life before coming to Hogwarts, it made her seem more real.

"You're being a lot more talkative than usual today," Remus couldn't stop himself from saying.

If Hermione hesitated at all it was gone so fast Remus wondered if he imagined it, "Yes well," she began, "I was a bit homesick these past couple weeks, but I'm feeling a lot better now."

It was such an innocent statement but still Remus couldn't help thinking it was a lie.

"Maybe talking about it will make you feel better," he suggested, trying to hide the ulterior motives in his mind, "tell me about your friends."

As he dropped bitter root slivers into their potion he knew he saw her still out of the corner of his eye.

She paused before answering, "Oh they were wonderful," she said quietly. "My two best friends, Harry and Ron, they were like my family."

As Harry's name left her mouth Remus' mind flashed back to the first time he ever saw her. The day they found her in Diagon Alley, all battered and bruised, that's the name she kept calling James.

She paused another minute more, before saying, "We would spend nearly every holiday together, neither of them ever did much studying, so I usually had to pick up their slack," she laughed, "But they made up for it in so many other ways."

Remus glanced over at her.

She was smiling but her eyes looked sad. Remus noticed that she talked about them in past tense and he once again wondered what happened that day they found her in the Alley.

Later that day Hermione walked into her NEWT Transfiguration class and took a seat next to Lily. Now that Hermione was making an effort to open up more she found that she really enjoyed working with Lily, she was sweet, kind, and so funny. Hermione had always thought, based on the stories she heard, that Harry got his sass from James, but the more Hermione talked to Lily she realized that he inherited it from his mother.

As Professor McGonagall explained the basics of human transfiguration, something Hermione had mastered just over a year ago, she let her eyes wander around the classroom. She saw Marlene and Dorcas sitting on one side of the room, slyly scribbling notes to each other on a piece of parchment that lay between them. Peter and Remus were sitting just behind them, Remus leaning slightly towards the shorter boy, quietly whispering and pointing towards the textbook.

In the middle row were a couple pairs of Ravenclaws, as well as Alice and Frank. Alice was diligently taking notes while Frank paid rapt attention to the Professor, occasionally writing a note when something caught his interest. And then in the front row all the way on the left sat James and Sirius.

Hermione thought it odd the two of them sat in the very front row, yet still appeared so uninterested. James sat at least half paying attention, occasionally scrawling something on his parchment. It became obvious every time Professor McGonagall called him to answer a question that James was exceptionally good at Transfiguration.

Sirius too seemed to have a good grasp of the material based on the answers he gave when called on, but unlike James, he didn't even attempt to look like he was paying attention. He sat leaning back in his chair, the front two legs lifted off the ground just slightly. One hand pushed the hair back from his face while the other rested gently on the desk as he twirled a quill between his fingers.

Hermione was broken out of her thoughts as Professor McGonagall exclaimed, "Excellent answer, Mr. Potter, that's not usually something students know."

Hermione turned away from the boys and back to her own paper which had barely anything written on it. She was about to ask Lily to repeat the question the professor asked, but when she glanced up Hermione found her partner staring impressed at the dark-haired boy.

Lily bit her bottom lip slightly and glanced down at her parchment. She picked up her quill, but just as it touched the paper she seemed to forget what she was going to write. Hermione stopped herself from chuckling and wondered briefly if Lily even remembered the question.

Sirius was confused.

He and James slowly walked behind Dorcas and Hermione as they chatted and exited the transfiguration classroom. As he watched her brown curls disappear down the corridor he hoped she couldn't feel him staring the same way he felt her eyes on him in class.

This didn't make any sense.

Sirius walked outside to the grounds with Peter, Marlene, and James for their free period while the others were up in the towers for Arithmancy. They found their usual spot by the lake and sprawled out on the grass. The sun hung in the sky and sent shimmers across the lake, it looked so beautiful, at first glance one would never know the world that hid beneath its surface.

Sirius crossed his arms behind his head as he felt the sun beating on his face, his mind wandered to black lakes and brown hair.

"How was your weekend, Pete? You kind of disappeared on us." James said, breaking Sirius out of his thoughts.

Pete shuffled slightly, "Oh, I was just a little distracted this weekend."

Sirius' ears perked up.

"A little distracted, eh?" He said with a raised eyebrow. "What do ya think, Jamsie?"

"That sounds like code for 'got himself a girl' to me, Pads." James said smirking slightly, "Is that why you high-tailed it out of the common room Friday night?"

Peter was glancing back and forth between the two of them as he let out a small chuckle, "Me? A girl? I wish."

"Oh, come on, Pete," Marlene chipped in, "Don't be so self-deprecating, I've told you I think that Hufflepuff girl is into you."

James turned to Marlene, an interested look on his face, "Oh? Pete didn't mention her to me."

Ignoring James, Marlene continued, "Unless these two dorks are right and you did find yourself a lovely lady to spend the weekend with."

Sirius could tell that Peter was getting uncomfortable, he always was much more private about his personal life than James and Marlene were.

"Just ignore those two, Pete." Sirius said sitting up, trying to help the quieter boy, "Remember, a gentleman doesn't kiss and tell."

"Oh, that's real rich coming from you, Sirius Black." Marlene said with a snort.

"Hey!" Sirius said in defense, "I only ever tell those three who I kiss, anyone else who knows didn't hear it from me."

"You know, I don't know Sirius too well," James said, garnering himself a smack on the arm from Marlene, "But I can confirm, that if there's one thing Sirius isn't, it's a blabber mouth."

"Thank you, James, I-"

"After all, have you ever heard him mention all the times the two of us made passionate love?" He continued dryly, "Because as far as I know he's kept our many late night rendezvous a complete secret."

Immediately switching gears, Sirius batted his eyelashes at his friend and said, "Why of course my dear Jamsie, why would I want to alert the public to Hogwarts best kept treasure?"

And before Sirius knew it, James had flung himself on to his lap much to the amusement of Peter and Marlene.

Later in the week Hermione sat in her favorite corner of the Hogwarts library reading a thick book on curses.

The even larger book on time travel sat next to her on the table, she had yet to finish it, in fact she barely made a dent. Hermione quickly discovered that not only was the book large, but the margins were small and the print was miniscule. Coupled with the fact that it was somehow unbelievably boring, Hermione realized that it was going to take much longer to get through than she had originally thought.

But still, she had been reading it so frequently that she decided to take a break from the tomb, so today she was reviewing a dark book she remembered reading in her fifth year.

Hermione was immersed in the book when she heard a gentle thud on the table in front of her.

She glanced up and met Remus' soft green eyes as he sent her a small smile, "Is it alright if I join you?"

Smiling back, Hermione said, "Of course, Remus, you don't need to ask."

The pair had shared a table in the library almost every day that week and a few times the week prior.

Hermione was reminded very much of the many hours she would spend with the older Remus Lupin in the library of Grimmauld place. Studying with him here felt comfortable, it almost felt normal.

Remus settled into the seat and pulled out their Astronomy textbook along with some parchment and a quill.

Hermione turned back to her book, although she was staring at the words written on the pages she couldn't focus. She had only been here a short time and she had only recently begun being friendly with the other students, and yet, she was already starting to feel comfortable here.

"Hey Hermione," Remus said gently, breaking her out of her thoughts, "I was wondering if you would be able to help me with this problem?"

"Of course," Hermione replied instinctively as she turned to read the text.

The pair worked in the library together until just before curfew.

As they made their way back to the Gryffindor common room Hermione stifled a yawn. When they got back the seventh years were sprawled out around the common room.

Hermione was getting ready to walk the staircase up to the girls' dorm when she heard James shout, "Come on Hermione, hang out a little, everyone's here."

"Yeah Hermione, I just bet Sirius three sugar quills I would beat him at exploding snaps, and I'm about to kick his ass." Alice said, smirking.

Chuckling slightly, Hermione conceded and took a seat by the fire. She had a perfect view of the game of snaps, not that it mattered though, as soon her eyes drooped and she fell asleep on the cushy sofa.

James was confused.

He and Sirius had stayed in the common room by the fire late after everyone else had left. Just before leaving to their dorm for the night James walked over to where Hermione had fallen asleep with the intention of waking her up when she began to fidget.

This didn't make any sense.

"Hermione," James said quietly. No response.

"Hermione," he said once more. Still no response.

James placed a light hand on her shoulder and gently shook her.

She awoke with a start, she inhaled a sharp breath and her wide eyes met James'. Immediately he saw her eyes fill with relief.

"Oh, Harry, it's only you." She said, running her hands through her hair. James glanced behind Hermione and over the sofa to meet the eyes of his best friend, who was waiting by the entrance to the staircase.

"No Hermione," James said softly, "It's me, James. You fell asleep in the Gryffindor common room. At Hogwarts."

Turning back to her, James noticed that she looked tenser than she did when she first woke, nervously she said, "Oh, sorry James, thank you for waking me."

She lifted herself up off the sofa, and looked back at James and said, "Good night, see you tomorrow."

James watched as she turned her back and climbed up the stairs to the girls' dormitory before walking over to Sirius.

"I have so many questions about this Harry fellow." James said as they made the trek up the staircase.

When Sirius didn't respond James continued, "That's the third time she's called me Harry."

"Whoever he is, he must've been one good looking bloke." Sirius remarked lightly.

James just smirked in response.

"Come on mate," Sirius said, "Don't think about it too much tonight, we've got a big night tomorrow."

James wondered briefly about Hermione once more, before realizing Sirius was right. Tonight wasn't the time to tackle that mystery, he needed to get as much rest as he could. Tomorrow was going to be a big night.