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Surprisingly Hermione didn't utter a peep to the boys about what had transpired several days ago with Snape and company. They'd gotten in enough trouble with McGonagall, plus, she thought that having to spend every evening with the Slytherin boys doing whatever menial tasks or manual labour Hagrid assigned them was bad enough.
On top of it all, McGonagall was so consumed by disappointment and rage about the incident that she forgot about the other punishment she was going to dish out to the remaining Marauders, so Hermione happily got away scot free.
Sirius of course moaned and complained bitterly about having to spend prolonged amounts of time with 'those fucking snakes', not to mention how it only seemed to get colder the last couple weeks and he was freezing his arse off.
James was more frustrated about the fact that they couldn't attend Quidditch practice, and in an attempt to salvage their chances in the upcoming match, he'd appointed Hermione as intermediary Captain until he got out of detention. It was almost the end of the season and he wanted to make sure they won. (Which meant he dragged a bemoaning Sirius Black out of bed every morning to the Quidditch Pitch, to always find Draco already there running through drills.)
Draco had been more quiet since they'd returned from winter hols, spending copious amounts of time with Marlene whenever he could. Everyone gave him a wide berth, sensing that he was irritated about something, but also that they shouldn't pry.
Currently Hermione was distractedly staring into the crackling flames in the fireplace, her finger absently tapping against the thick stack of parchment nestled in her lap.
Remus's exasperated sigh from beside her yanked her out of her daydream, "Professor Babbling is trying to bloody murder us. I can't believe she gave us more work to do. We already have a group project for her due at the end of the week."
As term resumed, their workload increased tenfold. Nancy practically lived in the library, dragging a protesting Kira in there as often as she could—Alice and Lily almost always ended up in there with them, which is also how Frank got roped into going, wanting to spend more time with his girlfriend.
Hermione unthinkingly leaned over and kissed the corner of Remus's mouth, her fingers tracing lazy patterns across his back. Remus let a small moan escape his lips in surprise, it was so low that Hermione thought she was the only one that heard it.
Until Lily—who was sitting on Hermione's other side facing her—groaned loudly, rolling her eyes, "can you two stop being so adorable and focus on our project, please and thank you."
Hermione crookedly grinned at her friend, "sure, Lils. Did you work out what that line you were working on meant?"
Lily's brow puckered harshly, "I think so...do you want to take a look and see if you agree?"
"Nah. I trust you, I have full confidence that whatever you figured out is right. "
Lily's frown slowly faded, instead replaced by a cheery smile, preening under Hermione's praise. She ducked her head back down to continue on with her section of the text, her crimson hair falling forward and covering most of her face. Hermione had heard the redhead frequently complain as of late about her hair getting in her way whilst she was brewing potions, and wondered if it was only a matter of time before Lily chopped it all off—just like she had the summer after their second year.
Hermione's mind began to drift once more. Lily had been overtly frosty to James since the whole incident with Snape. He'd told her she looked nice in the outfit she was wearing yesterday, and the girl had scowled darkly before her hand collided forcefully with his cheek, smack!
James was absolutely stunned, his mouth agape as he stared in silent shock at Lily.
Lily had rattled off insult after insult, making it abundantly clear that she thought he was a lecherous, arrogant toerag, who had a girlfriend so he shouldn't be randomly complimenting other girls. She tried to strengthen her point by looking at Mary—who was calmly watching the entire exchange—with wide eyes.
The golden haired girl was absently braiding a small section of her hair, leaning against the wall with her ankles crossed, her book bag slung over one shoulder. She scrunched up her nose and shrugged, and Lily's face grew exponentially redder; a potent mix of embarrassment and anger.
James had crossed his arms over his chest and told Lily she was being ridiculous. Which, of course, is when the redhead's bright green eyes lit ablaze, the tips of her long hair sparking as she started hurling stinging hexes at James.
"Blimey, Evans!" James had exclaimed as he ducked hex after hex. Swearing loudly when a couple hit their mark.
Lily nodded curtly, satisfied that she'd landed a couple of hits and then with narrowed eyes and a loud harrumph, she spun on her heel—grabbing Hermione's hand, thus dragging the Potter girl behind her—and stormed down the corridor.
Mary pushed up off of the wall and cradled James's face in her hands, her plait abandoned. "Are you okay?"
James frowned deeply but nodded slowly, "should I not have told her she looked nice? Shite, Mary did it bother you?"
"No, James, it's fine," Mary laughed breathily, leaning up to kiss him quickly.
James smiled into the kiss, and easily wrapped an arm around Mary's waist, when he pulled back, he turned his head to look after Lily and Hermione—catching them right before they rounded the corner, swiftly disappearing out of sight. "I have no idea how I mucked that up."
Mary silently studied her boyfriend's concerned face, and she sighed lightly through her nostrils, stepping into James and resting her head against his chest. He may not know, but Mary certainly did.
Saturday, January 17th, 1976
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Full Moon
Foxy's hazel green eyes flicked back and forth, calmly watching as Paws and Padfoot playfully tumbled across the room, a blur of snow white and pitch black fur.
Prongs shook his head violently before he headed across the room, the stag's hooves clip clopping across the wooden floorboards—he moved with purpose towards one of the columns on the far side of the room, and when he reached it he began to scratch his antlers across the wood.
Foxy snorted softly, her head lowering to rest on her crossed front paws, closing her eyes and deciding to get some sleep.
Her eyes snapped open when Moony barked loudly beside her at Paws and Padfoot, his body half lifted off of the ground. Hermione yipped at him softly and his head turned towards her, gold and amber eyes swallowing her whole.
Moony blew out a heavy sigh through his nostrils, shaking his head and nudging her side with his muzzle before turning back around and lying back down.
The rusty-reddish brown fox glanced at the white wolf and the massive black dog, both of whom had their tongues hanging out of their months, curiously staring at her as they panted heavily.
A short, curt bark sprang from her mouth, her teeth slightly bared before she laid back down, closing her hazel green eyes and snuggling in closer to the large wolf beside her.
Padfoot whined lowly and his nails scraped against the wooden floorboards as he turned himself in a circle and laid down a couple feet away. Paws sniffed the side of Padfoot's head, rubbing his snout against the area just in front of his ear, he pulled back and then curled up beside the dog, both of them facing the werewolf and the already slumbering fox.
Prongs noted that things had finally calmed down and his hoofbeats were the only sound in the room as he crossed the room over to his companions and lowered himself to the ground in between them, their body warmth enveloping him and he too quickly fell asleep.
The only one left awake was a rat—sitting up on its hind legs, nose twitching as it eagerly sniffed the air. It's front paws rubbed at the side of its face before it fell forward on all fours. Wormtail scurried across the floor, past the massive forms of its friends until it halted abruptly in its tracks in front of Foxy.
The rat's hesitation was short lived, it sniffed right beside her face once before scampering back part of the way it had come. Wormtail scaled Prong's body, paws sinking into the stag's soft pelt as he moved. The rat ran along the length of Prong's neck until he reached the top of his head, settling comfortably in between the stag's antlers—falling asleep instantaneously.
Within moments all occupants of the room were slumbering away, whisked off into their separate dreams or nightmares.
"We need to figure out what's so special about the Whomping Willow."
"Yeah. Why did Dumbledore even decide to put such a dangerous tree on the grounds in the first place? He may be an old fart, but this wasn't some fleeting fancy. He put it there for a reason and we're going to find out why." Amycus hissed lowly. The Carrow twins had been furiously whispering, their heads together as they half-sprinted down the corridor.
Two figures were hidden away under a cloak of invisibility, both frozen in place upon hearing the Slytherins plan. The raven haired girl sucked in a sharp breath, her hazel eyes flicking up to her grey eyed companion's.
She was eternally grateful that she allowed Sirius to convince her to join him in the making of some minor mischief tonight—it was well past curfew but it seemed like they weren't the only ones with plans for the evening.
"We have to do something," Sirius whispered, a low growl ripping from his mouth. Hermione glowered at him darkly when she quickly slammed her hand against his mouth. They didn't want to get caught out of bed after curfew. Especially not by the Hufflepuff Prefects that were doing their rounds around this part of the castle—contrary to popular belief, they doled out some of the harshest punishments, easily rivalling the Slytherins. (Hermione could already picture Mary's face as the girl smiled cheerily at her and lathered on the detentions and took away house points.)
"There's only one thing to do," Hermione replied, her tone distinctively bitter.
She grabbed ahold of Sirius's hand, staying close to him under the cloak as she dragged him behind her.
What they didn't see however was that someone else was hidden in shadows around the corner, having only overheard the Carrows—completely unaware that anyone else was nearby.
The scent of lemons punched the air.
Hazel eyes are locked on light blue ones that are twinkling with curiosity. Hermione crossed her arms over her chest, jaw clenched as she looked down at the man before her—reclining comfortably in his large red armchair, his pale blue night robes were shimmering in the low light, and a matching nightcap was on his head.
She hated being here. Detested it.
Hermione hated that she needed his help, but she would rather this was on his conscious and not hers.
"I assume you'll take care of our little snake problem then?" Hermione asked, impatiently tapping her foot—the sound muffled by the plush carpet.
"I shall, my dear. You needn't worry about a thing," Dumbledore said calmly, inclining his head towards them.
Sirius looked mildly uncomfortable, sensing the palpable tension between the two wix before him. Hermione tightly smiled at the Headmaster before speaking once more, "thank you very much."
Hermione raised her chin defiantly before nodding curtly at Dumbledore, silently turning on her heel and walking out of the Headmaster's office.
Sirius quickly followed after, muttering a quiet thank you to the Headmaster—the Invisibility Cloak firmly held in one of his hands.
Sirius would have asked Hermione more about the tense encounter they had just had with their Headmaster, but the thought quickly faded moments after they left the office when he recalled the terse way Hermione had explained the situation with the Carrows to Dumbledore. Dumbledore appeared completely nonchalant about the information being bestowed upon him, but Sirius could have sworn he'd seen the twinkle in the wizard's eyes flicker momentarily whilst Hermione was speaking.
Regardless the Black heir trusted his better judgement and didn't breathe a word to anyone of the events that had transpired that night.
It doesn't make any sense, Severus thought to himself, eyes narrowed into slits as he stared at the Carrows across the table.
The twins were behaving as if three nights ago they hadn't been plotting to explore the Whomping Willow. He knew the twins, they may be ruthless but they were terrible at keeping secrets—especially when they thought it would give them glory (or some semblance of it at least). They were simple, predictable, cruel, mean-spirited, but they were also fairly straightforward.
He figured that they would break by now and let the rest of them in on it. To show off their discovery—ensuring that they put emphasis on the fact that it was their discovery.
Yet neither twin had uttered a peep since, and he'd been paying rapt attention to the sorry sods; listening in on all of their conversations whenever he could. His curiosity had been piqued, he too wanted to know why Dumbledore had placed such a tree on the premises, and why he'd done it the year that they had all entered Hogwarts. It made no sense, it didn't do anything, rather it seemed more detrimental than anything.
Severus sighed lightly as he took a sip of his pumpkin juice, studying the twins once more.
Deciding to test out the waters he cleared his throat and loud enough so that the Carrows could hear he said, "does anyone ever wonder about the Whomping Willow?"
The brown haired wix stared at him blankly: Amycus quirked an eyebrow and shook his head, "have to tell you that I haven't put much thought into it. Who knows why the old coot planted it on the grounds." Amycus shrugged dismissively. Alecto scrunching up her nose as if she wanted to add something, but she too shrugged and returned to her breakfast, aggressively taking a bite out of her sausage.
Nothing. None of their normal telltale signs that they were lying. It was if their memories had been wiped.
Severus snorted at the thought, but then his brow puckered. It couldn't be.
Severus looked across the Great Hall and found his gaze snared by the laughing raven haired girl leaning against the lanky, sandy haired fool.
Severus glanced down at his plate as he cut into his sausage, his gaze flicked up once more, still on the raven haired girl.
Something is amiss here, and I'm going to figure out what, Severus promised himself as he stabbed his fork into a piece of his cut up sausage, lifting it to his mouth before irritably biting it off of his fork. I swear it on my magic.