Chapter 16: Protective Prats

Within seconds of leaving the girls at lunch to go to the Hospital Wing, Hermione was being dragged into a hidden corridor behind a portrait. Without looking up, she knew that she was surrounded by the Marauders.

"Um, hey there." She gulped, "Fancy meeting you guys around here…"

"Cut the bullshit. What do you know?" James was the first to speak.

"Calm down James, come on it's just Hermione!" Peter tried to wrestle in beside the two taller boys.

"I saw her face Peter, she knows, and that means that she can tell someone," Sirius ground out.

"Of course she doesn't know…" he began to argue.

"I have superhuman hearing, remember, I couldn't miss that little whimper of his name last night, and I'm sure James heard it as well." The other boy nodded, not taking his eye off of Hermione.

Annoyed by the extreme levels of male posturing, she was suddenly struck with how stupid they were acting. Say she had found out that Remus was a werewolf by the powers of deduction, there was absolutely no way that she would have known about the others' skills as animagi. Surely by accosting her in the hallways and talking about their intimate experiences of the night, they were just letting her know about their involvement as well.

Refraining from rolling her eyes at their obviousness, she gasped and flicked her eyes around the group, hoping her acting was decent. "You were there? How is that possible?" At this, the boys seemed to stop and step back, realising how much they had revealed.

"That doesn't matter right now, what we need to…"

She interrupted James with another fake gasp and had to hold back her smile at their uncomfortable looking faces, "Oh my God. You were there! How the hell did you hide the fact that you are animagi?" Realising that she was probably enjoying this a bit too much, she decided to just let herself have fun with them.

"Whose clever idea was it to do that? Are you registered? Oh, who is who?" She continued with her stream of consciousness like they knew she would if she was not acting, "James, your patronus is a stag, that surely means that you were the reindeer, I wonder if I could fit on your back. Has Sirius ever ridden you before? I only saw two animals though, how did you manage that?" Breathing in deeply, she concentrated on making her glare turn deadly, "That means that it is one of your faults that I'm in so much pain. Which one of you prats barrelled me over last night then and ended up cracking my rib?"

The shocked silence that followed stretched on for a long moment before they all shouted at once.

"Reindeer?"

"I saved your life you ungrateful…"

"He cracked your rib?"

The final question was squeaked out by Peter and he finally managed to push the other boys aside while they were arguing, clasping onto her arms so he could assess her for visible injuries. "Are you alright, bloody hell that must be painful! Sirius, you dick, you need to apologize, and lose some weight by the sound of it. Who knew that you were so heavy that you could crack a girl's rib just from landing on top of her?" With this last comment, Hermione was happy to note the way that Peter smacked his friend in reprimand, obviously no longer preoccupied with keeping on his good side.

"Apologize? Did no one else notice the part of the evening where I saved her life, or was I just hallucinating? It's her stupid fault anyway for being out on a full moon by the Forest! And who are you calling fat? This is all pure muscle!" Sirius blurted out, pointing to his arms while he flexed, but James had obviously moved on.

"So now you unfortunately know what we are and how we know what happened, what we need to know now is how you know about Remus, and whether we need to obliviate you!"

Hermione choked in a breath and stepped away from them, unprepared at the lengths they would go to for their friend. "Of course I bloody know, were you not listening last month when I told you about my friend? I know the symptoms so it's really not that difficult to spo…- oh would you stop grabbing onto me Sirius, I'm not going to run off!"

The boy stepped around her and instead of anchoring her down, decided to block off her means of escape, grinning when she rolled her eyes. "Do you really think something as insignificant as this would change my opinion of him? Personally, I'm offended that you would think I would tell, and I would have liked to see you try and obliviate me!"

Cowed slightly by her admonishment, that didn't stop Peter from asking quietly, "Where were you going then? The teachers either know or will be sworn to secrecy if you tell them, so he won't get kicked out."

Hermione gaped at the person she had thought was swiftly becoming her friend but was clearly still openly distrustful of her, "You too? Do I have snitch or traitor written on my forehead or something? For your information, what I am doing is heading to the Hospital Wing so that Pomfrey won't throttle me for not taking my potions and so I can see the only person that retains the right to pass judgement on me. Now excuse me while I go and apologise for getting Remus into this mess with Greyback!"

Hermione pushed the trio apart before venturing towards the entrance to the hidden passageway, "You can escort me if you don't trust me enough to not run off to tell a teacher!" She threw this last comment over her shoulder before ducking out of their hiding place, stalking confidently away while they trailed behind.

By the time they made it to the infirmary, Hermione's temper had cooled, but it wasn't helped by an irate Nurse who immediately began to complain that she was late. Hermione just threw an accusatory glare at the Marauders before Madame Pomfrey began to chastise them for keeping her. She would feel sorry for them if they had not annoyed her recently.

While they were distracted she took the chance to find Remus's bed and sneak through the curtains surrounding it. She was turning from closing them behind her when she caught the surprised glance of the already awake occupant sitting up in the bed. "Good afternoon Remus, how are you feeling?"

Obviously not knowing why she was here after not having talked to his friends yet, he started to look panicked, "It's a funny story actually, I was just heading out to go to my uncle's funeral and I fell down the stairs, I feel so stupid but the…."

Hermione just smiled as he continued to ramble before placing her hand upon his own larger one, resting on the bedspread. "I know that isn't true, the reason I am here is to say thank you for saving my life."

If anything, he just looked more confused and panicked, "Save your life? How the hell did I do that?"

After finally getting away from the angry Nurse, the rest of the Marauders shuffled into the space around them, immediately quietened by the conscious state of their friend. "How are you feeling mate?" James began, noticing some dark bruising and scratches peeking out from the opening of Remus's pyjama shirt.

Looking back and forth between Hermione and his friends for a second, he squeaked out a reply, "Yes fine thanks." His eyes bulged as he kept pointing towards her with them, desperately questioning what had happened last night and why she was there.

Peter sighed and sat down on the other side of the bed from Hermione, "Remus, she knows," this was followed by a sharp inhale and his head whipped up to stare at her in fear, "She was on the grounds last night and got attacked by Greyback who was lurking in the Forbidden Forest for some reason."

Suddenly, Remus's face split into an expression of terror and compassion rolled into one, "Tell me you weren't bitten, Hermione!"

At this, she clasped his hand more tightly and leaned closer, "No. It is thanks to you that I am still standing at all. You saved me."

A small cough could be heard from Sirius's direction as if he were about to cut in to say that it was mostly him, "Shut up Sirius." Hermione, Peter and James all quietened him at the same time.

Remus turned to James as he explained the activities of the rest of the night to him while Hermione sat stoically by his side. When James had finished talking, Remus sat back and stared at the hand that Hermione still clasped within her own, "How can you stand to touch me, you just found out that I'm a monster!"

"You're not a monster Remus, and I didn't just find out so I've had plenty of time to get used to it, not that I would need to."

"How the hell?"

"As soon as I saw how you were acting after the last full moon I knew what you were, and I can tell you now that no matter what, I will not treat you any different."

Remus gaped for a second or two before Hermione sought to lighten the mood slightly, "Ah, sorry about the comments about werewolves sex habits at dinner back then, but in hindsight it was actually quite funny."

Mollified that Hermione would not rat out or hurt their friend, the other 3 boys visibly relaxed and began to laugh, taking great pleasure in Remus's reddened cheeks. "It's good to know that Mary's up for some 'kinky werewolf sex' isn't it mate?" Sirius joked, whilst Remus shot an even more deadly look his way, seemingly more angry that his friend would reveal his crush on the girl, rather than his condition.

He turned back to Hermione to make sure that she was still there, "Are you sure you are okay with me then?" She nodded and he continued, "I would understand if you wanted to stop being friends, I wouldn't judge you at all."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the predictable response, "What part of this do you not understand, you're stuck with me now." Continuing, she turned back to the rest of the group, "And if that means that I have to put up with the rest of you miserable lot then so be it."

"Who are you calling miserable?"

In the clamour amongst the rest of the Marauders as they tossed friendly insults amongst themselves, Hermione almost missed the hushed whisper that the boy in the bed shot at her, "Do I want to know how you recognised Fenrir Greyback?"

She stared deep into his eyes, resolving herself to let him come up with his own conclusions about the horrors she had seen, "No."

Throughout the rest of that day she split her time between ignoring pitying looks directed from the girls and asking the Marauders to come up with different excuses to let her sneak away to the Hospital Wing to get her potion top ups. It was at the end of her last visit before curfew that Hermione felt the weight of such a long and pain filled day take over her. After running so much last night and using up all of her energy from lying, she was ready to fall straight into her bed.

Dumbledore had sought her out earlier that day and had left her a note telling her that the aconite she had collected was with him. Thankful that her efforts hadn't been for nothing, she had quickly gone to collect it. At this opportunity, he had let her know that there would be an Order meeting tomorrow evening to address the development of Greyback watching the school.

Preoccupied by sorting through her jumbled thoughts, Hermione almost didn't notice the group of six Slytherin boys lurking in the next corridor. Unfortunately, they noticed her which meant that she couldn't just sneak away and take another route. Thanks to their looks of glee when she turned the corner, she surmised that they had been lying in wait for her.

"My, my, my, what do we have here then?" The cruellest and ugliest one at the front began, "It's the Mudblood in hiding."

Sure that she was witnessing a younger version of Avery, she fluttered her eyes across the rest of the group. Rookwood, Dolohov, and a boy she didn't recognize sneered back at her. She was hurt to see the two more familiar figures standing at the back of the group; where Snape's face was impassive, Regulus's looked very tense. Hermione resolved herself to ignore them or this might get too difficult.

"Can I help you?" She replied in a calm and quiet voice, hoping they might get bored of her and move on if she didn't respond in the way they wanted.

"What can we do for you, seems more apt, does it not?" Rookwood replied, "After all, you've already stolen that wand and someone else's magic, and now you've also managed to muscle your way into one of the most powerful families that are still around today. Who cares if he is still just a half-blood, muggle-loving fool?" Hermione's eyes flicked to Regulus, realising that he must have told them about what she had revealed to him.

"She'll be asking for the rest of our worldly goods next, and after that, she'll settle for our wives and daughters. Their greed never ends." Avery continued.

Stunned at their hypocrisy, her frustration got the better of her when she sarcastically replied, "That would be great actually, would you mind pointing me in the direction of the Slytherin girls dormitories?"

They scowled when she dared to respond, already annoyed that she wasn't scared of them. As soon as Hermione noticed this she began to slowly inch her hand backwards towards her wand, knowing that she would have to let them win the altercation that was sure to follow. That didn't mean that she would let them off easily.

"Stupid girl. That wasn't an invitation." The unknown boy whined out in a nasally voice, clearly not aware of the use of sarcasm. She rolled her eyes before noticing that all of the boys already had their wands clasped in their hands. Even six underage Death Eater wannabes were a dangerous problem.

"Is this really necessary?" Snape drawled out, doing a very convincing impression of appearing nonchalant while checking his nails. "Why waste our time on her, she's not worth the effort." If Hermione hadn't recognised the slight tremor in his voice, then she would have been hurt at his attitude towards her; now she was only thankful that he had tried to intervene.

"Shut it," Avery replied, "You know our orders." Hermione used everything in her power to not raise her eyebrows at this stupid admission, "You're not getting a bit too close to you're assignment are you?" Ah. Maybe her friendship with Snape had been a little bit too good to be true then.

Snape scoffed and backed away from the scene, "Whatever, I'm going to bed." Their eyes followed him to the end of the corridor but Hermione listened out closely and noticed that his footsteps stopped just beyond the turn, where he was clearly waiting and listening.

Regulus's eyes flicked between Hermione and his house mate's and opened his mouth finally, "Maybe he's got a point..."

"What have I told you about winding your fucking neck in, Black?" The leader of the group cut in, "Dolohov hasn't shut up about this one for a while now and now you tell us she's a Mudblood. Seems a bit suspicious to me."

Hermione blanched when she turned to Dolohov, who was licking his lips, for some reason, staring at her hungrily. Shivering in disgust, she finally grasped her wand and stared pointedly at Regulus. Knowing that this would inevitably lead to a fight, she raised her wand to defend herself, which prompted the others to do the same. "It's not that I'm not flattered that you all seem to think about me so much, but I would prefer it if you didn't all talk over me as if I am not here."

Her reply reverberated about the space, while the other boys started to chuckle, "I don't see much point in asking your opinion Mudblood, what's about to happen will occur whether you like it or not." Dolohov finally rasped out, "The only question is to what extent and for how long…"

"Yes, Dolohov," a clear voice suddenly rang out from the other end of the corridor that Snape had left from, "Do go on and describe how the five of you were too afraid to face a single witch." Hermione breathed out a sigh of relief as she turned to face Sirius and Alice, who had clearly just come back from their first training session together.

Regulus visibly stiffened while they sauntered closer, both already clasping their wands in their hands. "Would you like to continue now that the odds are a little bit more even?" Alice cut in, her eyes glinting with a look that Neville had developed in the last year at Hogwarts, when he refused to do as the Carrows asked.

"Stay out of this Fortescue, we have no problem with you yet," Avery replied, his wand hand twitching upwards, "That is unless you want to create a problem. It wouldn't be worth harming someone like you, even if you are a blood traitor. Our offer still stands."

Alice's cold look was all the reply they needed, "Don't worry, Crouch has already let me know just how welcome I would be within your ranks, and I think I'll have to decline," At the tilt of the head she has made to the final boy, Hermione finally worked out his identity, surprised that this annoying child would one day become her teacher in disguise.

"Severus is right," Regulus snorted out after a short bout of silence, "These lot aren't worth the trouble, I'm going to bed." And with that, he headed off in the same direction that Snape had gone, ignoring the troubled look his brother sent him.

Now that the numbers on each side were looking a bit more even, Crouch and Rookwood began to look hesitant; it was obvious that they were the younger of the bunch. Avery noticed this and bristled at the smirk that spread across Sirius's face, lowering his wand. "You're lucky Mudblood, but I'd watch out from now on. You never know who you'll find wandering the halls at night these days."

The evil grin that split his face turned her stomach, but Hermione was touched when Sirius raised his voice, his wand twitching, "Is that a threat Avery? Because I know plenty of curses that will make you regret the day that you were born!"

The other boy scoffed and clasped his hand around Dolohov's forearm, who still hadn't moved his dark eyes off of Hermione's form, "Take it as you will, but we won't be giving you a chance to play at being an auror tonight, Black." He yanked at his friend and Dolohov finally looked away from her, turning to walk away, but taking the last second to have one last glimpse.

Silence fell as the three students listened until the retreating Slytherins had walked out of earshot, before Hermione sighed in relief. Alice rushed forward to take a hold of Hermione's arm as she looked into her face, "Hermione, are you alright? Those boys are beastly, but we've all gained a tolerance to them, it must have been quite a shock to be threatened by them all at once. Thank goodness we decided to head to the hospital wing before bed, or this might have got ugly."

Surprised by her friend's word vomit, Hermione was momentarily stunned to silence in order to get her response under control. "You need to be careful Dumbledore, it's asking for trouble to go explore the halls at night," Sirius began, raising his eyebrows, his expression still murderous.

"Thanks guys, I was surprised they found me actually, but it seems to have gotten out that I'm not the perfect pureblood they expected me to be. Unfortunately, I think this might happen again." Hermione sighed again, but this time in resignation.

"We'll make sure they know that you're not to be messed with." Alice reassured her and took her hand as they walked off towards the Gryffindor tower. Hermione couldn't help but feel warmed by the casual show of solidarity from the pair and took comfort in the warm hand that encompassed her own.

"So was your first training session so arduous that you had to resort to pain potions then?" Hermione changed the subject so that they could talk and she could just listen, too exhausted to contribute. They did not disappoint, immediately beginning to argue about the extents that Sirius had pushed her, while all Hermione could do was think about the soft bed that was waiting for her back in the Gryffindor girls dormitories.

Up next is Chapter 17: The End of her Tether