Hello hello my darlings!
Sorry it's been so long, but I did warn everyone that school would make things more hectic. Which it really did. I just finished up a big part of my course this week that just passed.
I've had major writer's block the last couple months, and it was mainly because of how much work I had to do, and before my project was done I was working on like 10 hours of sleep over four days. That's being generous as well.
This isn't some pity thing, it was just to let you know that I wasn't ignoring my writing, I thought about it practically every day.
I'm not abandoning any of my stories, and just because I don't update all the time doesn't mean that I have forgotten about my stories. I do have a life with responsibilities and commitments. Just be warned that I have exams coming up in a couple weeks, so again I may not update for a while.
There was a guest reviewer that left a lot of reviews asking if I was okay, and I responded to them in my tumblr (indiebluecrown. tumblr. com) I'm not sure if it was the same reviewer or not, but I am fine. Really I am. If I say anything it will be on my tumblr because I can't respond to guest reviews aside from this and I prefer not to do that since the A/Ns would be ridiculously long.
Also there was a guest reviewer that wanted me to update on their birthday and I really tried, but I didn't manage it and I'm sorry. Happy Belated birthday though! Their birthday was on March 11th (I hope I have that right) I hope this chapter makes up for it just a little bit.
Thank you all for your support and reviews and just general love, you are all amazing *hearts*
My tumblr: indiebluecrown. tumblr. com
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, and only the storyline and any OC's belong to me.
For all of you with your patience xxx
Welcome back, gorgeous," a low voice whispered close to Hermione's ear as they passed by. She recognized that voice. Lysander Smith.
Hermione paused mid sip of her delicate Darjeeling tea, cocking an eyebrow as her hazel eyes caught the brightly shining eyes of the bold Ravenclaw boy. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her breakfast, continuing to slowly drink her hot tea.
"I don't like him," Remus growled lightly so that only Hermione could hear, and a gentle smile brushed across her lips as she carefully put her teacup back onto its saucer.
"I know," Hermione said, sliding her right hand onto his thigh and squeezing lightly. "He's unimportant, and he would be even if I didn't already have such a brilliant and handsome boyfriend."
Remus rolled his eyes at the last part, subtlety rubbing at his forearm through the thick fabric of his black jumper. Hermione frowned at the movement, she knew he was rubbing at his scars, thinking himself lesser, disfigured because of them. She knew it would be quite odd if she reached out and pushed up his sleeve only to pepper it with kisses in the middle of the Great Hall, so she settled for planting a loud kiss on the cheek closest to her.
"Anything major happen whilst I was away? I know you and Lily gave me all the notes and assignments I missed...but how was everyone?" Hermione asked slowly, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.
An image of Draco's crestfallen expression when their eyes met out by the Black Lake flashed through her mind and she nibbled on her lip, her index finger tapping anxiously across the wooden surface of the table in front of her.
"Nothing really happened. Sirius is still pining after Riley, and his arrangement with Emmeline may be coming to an end soon. James and Mary are getting closer, and strangely enough, I think Lily has noticed that James hasn't been hounding her as often these days."
Hermione pursed her lips. That is true, I did see Lily watching James curiously last night at dinner.
Hermione looked for Lily then, and when her eyes settled on her dark red haired friend she noticed that her bright green eyes were trailed on a certain bespectacled raven haired boy. Hermione cocked an eyebrow with piqued curiosity. Lily is staring at James again, Hermione mused in interest. As if she could read Hermione's mind, as soon as the thought passed through the Potter girl's mind, Lily shook her head violently as if rousing from a deep dream and hurriedly turned back to her breakfast with pink cheeks.
Well that's interesting, Hermione thought as she took another sip of her tea, most interesting indeed.
Saturday, November 15th, 1975
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Quidditch Pitch
Gryffindor Quidditch Team Tryouts
The smell of sweat and leather clung to her, she took a long deep breath as she turned to search for Draco-everything seemingly moving at a snail's pace.
Then with a violent snap time zipped forward and her surroundings moved with lightning speed.
Hermione pivoted on her broom, tightening her grip on the handle of her bat-the sound of her leather gloves squeaking lightly filled her ears-and she swiftly swung it forward underarm.
Hermione heard the harsh crack of the bat connecting with the bludger and smiled.
James had decided that everyone needed to tryout again to prove that they were worthy of being on the team, and also so that no one could say he was playing favourites and being unfair.
The Seeker and Chaser tryouts had happened already, but quite a few people were still gathered in the stands to watch Hermione Potter in action as she wove through the air with practiced grace. Everyone held their breath as she pulled back her bat and then snapped it forward harshly, connecting with the bludger that was on a direct path for the spectators on the ground.
A couple wolf whistles came from below her, and all Hermione could do was grin devilishly and blow a kiss at her boyfriend and best mates, who were all proudly grinning up at their girl.
Several more minutes elapsed until James blew his shiny, thin and long silver whistle signalling that her tryout was over. Hermione easily glided back down to the ground, hastily tucking some damp curls that were sticking to her forehead and cheeks behind her ears—which proved to be a futile exercise since most of them escaped and fell into her eyes anyways.
She had barely touched the ground before Remus was right there, hugging her tightly to him despite how sweaty she was; it was a smidge awkward hugging him back since she had her broom in one hand and her beater's bat in the next, so she settled for snuggling into him more.
Remus leaned back just enough to press a kiss to the top of her head and she was about to drop her bat and broom so that she could hug him properly when she heard, "a little water never hurt anyone."
Hermione barely had time to react before she and Remus were slammed with a burst of ice cold water that was accompanied by a bout of raucous laughter from one Sirius Black himself.
A loud gasp of outrage flew from her lips, and a shiver ran along her bones as a gentle but frigid breeze blew across the two of them, and they both released each other in shock; she instinctively dropped her bat and her broom in shock. Hermione's partially numb fingers were already fumbling for her wand that she kept holstered on her left thigh, and before anyone could react, she was sidestepping Remus and mumbling an incantation lowly.
Sirius's eyes rounded as a radiant tongue of green flame shot out of Hermione's wand and slapped across the ground with a snap and crack much like a whip would.
"Mione. We can talk about this," Sirius said with a charming smile, slowly backing away with both of his hands raised in surrender.
"C'mon Sirius, it won't hurt. It'll sting a little, but I'm sure Madam Pomfrey has something in the infirmary to help," Hermione said with a cheery giggle and sparkle of delight in her eye.
"Mione, Foxy, Vixen, Baby. Seriously...Remus, Draco, some help here, please," Sirius's words flew out of his mouth at a rapid pace as he glanced desperately between his two fellow Marauders.
"Glad you didn't call my name, because as much as I love you...I know that this is a futile fight, mate," James shook his head in sympathy, throwing an arm casually around Peter's shoulders.
Draco merely shrugged, "you made your bed, you gotta lay in it, mate. I would suggest you run now-"
"You threw water on me too! Why the fuck would I help you?" Remus asked in a sort of frustrated amusement.
"Cause we're best mates!" Sirius yelled over his shoulder as he began to run away, his legs pumping, wand grasped tightly in his hand as his raven locks and Quidditch robes whipped out behind him.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "really Draco? You know running will only delay the inevitable."
"I know, but this way is more fun," Draco winked with a devious smirk.
Hermione tapped her foot on the ground before beginning her slow pursuit, throwing up wards around the Quidditch pitch so that Sirius wouldn't be able to escape that way. The green whip of flame dragging on the grass behind her, hissing as if it was a real snake, though not damaging the earth, merely passing over it as if it was never there.
At that very moment, the other Marauders were taking bets on how long it took before Hermione actually got payback on Sirius.
"I give it another minute," Remus grinned, nodding gratefully as Draco passed him a towel.
"Nah, less than that, half a minute," James said confidently.
"I second that," Peter nodded enthusiastically, earning a cheeky grin and an affectionate ruffle of his hair from James.
Their attention was drawn back to the actual event in question when they heard a rather girly scream, and Sirius doing a Round-off-back Handspring to avoid the large swoop of the whip as it swung in his direction.
"Bloody show off," Draco said, shaking his head as he crossed his arms over his chest and set his stance a bit farther apart, clearly thoroughly entertained.
It went on like this for a while, Sirius jumping, somersaulting and tumbling across the field as he evaded Hermione's whip—not once studying that he could use his wand to defend himself or go on the offense.
Finally Hermione's whip wrapped around Sirius's wrist as he went to do a tuck and roll in midair. A loud hiss escaped his lips as the sizzle of the green flames scalded his flesh.
Hermione quickly withdrew her whip and hastily moved to Sirius's side, her fingers deftly moving to his wrist, and she pointed her wand at his arm and icy water gently streamed out of the tip onto the damaged skin.
She reached into her robes and withdrew a tiny phial of dittany, pulling the cork out with her teeth and carefully tipping the vial on its side so that just the right amount of dittany would come out. Draco and the others had rushed across the field and reached their side at that point; Hermione turned her head and gestured with her eyes for Draco to take the cork and the vial, and when he was done she focused back on Sirius.
"Bloody hell, witch. That hurt," Sirius grumbled, but there was amusement in his grey luminous windows.
"Don't throw fucking ice water on me next time-" Hermione mumbled, rubbing the dittany all the way around his wrist, "-it should stop hurting in about half hour...fuck, I didn't mean to actually get you."
"I know, love," Sirius smiled, leaning forward and kissing Hermione's forehead. "If you did then you would've gotten me much sooner and it would've hurt much much more."
"Imagine if it was that Smith boy-" Peter snickered softly, "-he'd be hanging upside down from the goal posts."
Remus's expression darkened slightly at the mention of the Ravenclaw boy—he'd been harmlessly flirting with Hermione since she'd been back, and her boyfriend was not too keen on it at all.
Hermione merely snorted dismissively, she had better things to think about aside from Lysander Smith. She finished up tending to Sirius's wrist and stood up, a tiny shiver slithering up her body as another bit of wind hit her full on; Remus noticed this and went to her side, gathering her up against him and wrapping the towel around the both of them.
Hermione hummed happily as she snuggled into his warmth, yes, she had much more important things to think about.
"Right, I think that concludes our Quidditch practice, now Mione can you take down your bloody wards to we can come get some grub?" James asked his sister cheerfully, holding on tight to his clipboard as the wind had decided to pick up and wished to snatch his papers from his grasp.
Hermione grinned innocently before waving her wand underneath the towel; she took down the wards and she also levitated her broom and bat behind her as the rambunctious group headed off of the pitch—the trail of laughter and raunchy jokes being left in their wake.
Fierce tongues, harsh nips, rough hands.
A soft groan, a light chuckle, a gentle caress.
She pulled away first, eyes shining with mirth and merriment, her chest rising and falling as she tried to catch her breath.
"I think we both know that this needs to end," he whispered gently against the side of her neck as he placed a quick kiss there. Her hands moved upwards, threading into his raven locks before she yanked his head back—the joy ever present in her bright hazel orbs.
"It was fun whilst it lasted at least...is this cause of that adorable little Puff that you practically whimper after whenever she passes?" Emmeline quirked an eyebrow knowingly.
Sirius refrained from answering, instead leaning forward and stealing another hasty but heated kiss. He was going to miss these broom closet snogging sessions, but recently he found that he didn't want to sneak off with the frosty haired Ravenclaw anymore...he had a different hazel eyed girl on his mind.
"That is a yes," Emmeline chuckled softly. "I'll see you round, Black," Emmeline smiled, untangling herself from his grip and languidly exiting the broom closet as she re-buttoned her top blouse button.
Sirius was left alone in the dark for all of five seconds before he told himself that it couldn't end like that, in such a dismissive way. Yes, most of the time they spent together was snogging in dark corners with the occasional grope here and there, but Emmeline was brilliant and one of his friends.
With that thought in mind he burst out of the closet, his eyes adjusting to the bright light after a few moments and when they did he saw Emmeline standing right in front of him with her hands on her hips.
"Emmie?" Sirius asked in confusion.
Emmeline rolled her eyes and muttered "boys," under her breath. "Kiss me goodbye, Sirius Black. I hope we can still be friends after this, and don't worry about hurting my feelings...when we started this I knew how you felt about her."
Sirius found himself smiling despite it all, Emmeline was truly one of a kind.
Sirius stepped forward and gently grasped her soft cheeks in his hands, "you're brilliant...you know that?"
With a snort Emmeline responded, "of course I do."
Sirius grinned brightly before ducking his head down and kissing her one final time, a sincere genuine and soft kiss.
When he pulled away Emmeline shot him a somewhat sad smile, "never forget that you are worth it, Sirius."
"Worth it?"
"I see the look in your eyes sometimes when you zone out. You are not worthless, far from. You are good. Rash and reckless yes, but you are loyal and you are worth it."
Sirius was stunned by the petite girl's words and she tiptoed to kiss his cheek before once more stepping away from him, her hips swaying as she walked down the corridor to the left.
Sirius was so floored that he hadn't heard the light footsteps coming from his left, and only when he heard an all too familiar voice did he realize he was not alone, "Sirius?"
Riley.