At the end of the day, the Wizard's Chess score board went

HP: 11

RB: 7

A: 10

Regulus pouted at his defeat, but insisted it was too close for them to boast that they were better than him. After all, Avery was the one who said they had to play 30 instead of 15 games when his prospects of winning were lowering...

The kids' bellies were full from Kreacher's snacks he brought, their minds full from the events of the day and their hearts full from the warmth of having a new friend. They'd learnt that Avery had a few younger sisters, much too young for Hogwarts, and that even though he was the heir to the House, the girls were much more preferable. Hermione smiled sadly when he said that, and inducted him into their Family Issues Club .

Just as Hermione was readying to leave the boys' bedroom, an elegant rap on the door came.

"Yes?" Regulus called, standing up and moving to the door.

"Common Room. Now. And bring that Avery kid" Andromeda said sternly, and the 1st Years heard her run down the stairs in a very unAndromedaish way.

Regulus and Hermione exchanged looks before turning to Avery and pulled him up from the floor.

"Brace yourself" muttered Regulus, and they walked down to the Common Room.

Bellatrix was sitting by the fire, the flames dancing in her eyes and her grin just a bit manic. Narcissa was braiding her hair over her shoulder, her features an impassive mask, and Andromeda sat crossly with her arms folded.

After a few moments of eyeing each other up, Bellatrix clapped her hands. "The amnesty has broken already Nita? So exciting, love. Oooh my hands are itching to curse someone already!"

"Bellatrix! This is serious. Those boys are nasty, and now not only are Reggie and Nita on their target, but this boy is too! Where is your sensibility?" Andromeda snapped.

Narcissa broke her silence "What exactly happened Avery? Why were my cousins forced to save you?" she raised a perfect eyebrow at the boy and swept her eyes over him, already looking for weaknesses.

Avery gulped under the gaze of the stunning witch and said "I was talking to my cousin Antonin, and they came up behind me when I was on my way back to the Common Room. Lifted me in the air. The blood was rushing to my head when Potter came and helped me. I'll have to thank that Evans too…"

"So it was unprovoked?" Bellatrix was practically beaming.

"Yeah. I believe Potter said he was trying to 'scare the Dark Arts out of him'. Ridiculous" Regulus snarled, looking into an empty corner as if the Marauders were there and he was glaring at them with laser eyes.

Bellatrix cackled. "Scare the Arts away? I'm sorry but it gets more and more obvious you were adopted by the Potters every day Nita. How stupid is your brother?"

Hermione looked slightly uncomfortable. She knew her brother no longer openly cared about her anymore, but inside she still held onto the memory of Jamey before he started Hogwarts. And she didn't know whether he deserved her sticking up for him. So she just sat there and let Bellatrix speak awfully about her brother, with the odd nod of agreement from Andromeda. Narcissa however, watched the three 1st years intensely.

"You didn't do this on purpose did you?" she asked Hermione quietly, so only the two of them could hear.

"No, but I don't want to retaliate against my brother yet. I don't have the heart for it. Plus us Slytherins can be so vindictive…"

Narcissa nodded "I'll speak to my sisters. But if those lions target Reg then I can't stand in the way. And I suppose the Blacks are taking in Avery too?"

Chuckling, Hermione nodded back to her basically older sister.

"I never thought I'd see the day the Noble House of Black turned into a charity for strays" she grumbled. "Come, Bella, Meda. I want to work on some homework."

The rest of the school year passed eventfully. Regulus and Hermione stayed behind at the Easter break, as Avery's family were visiting Jerusalem without him. That was their only time free from the constant badgering of the Marauders. Now, using the term Marauders may not always be factual, as it was mostly Sirius and James on their backs. Remus often tried to discourage them, but Peter's egging them on cancelled Remus's efforts out entirely.

Hogwarts was oddly peaceful without the lessons and hundreds of students, and the trio had almost the entire castle to themselves besides a few others.

Avery had gotten close to the pair, so close that they were almost as inseparable as the Marauders, and they would have been if Slytherins weren't infamous for needing alone time every now and then. Hermione was never seen without one of her boys, but no one really questioned it or mocked it because they knew of Hermione's powerful alliances in Slytherin house and the little witch's prowess highly exceeded her year. They were like her new brothers, and James despised this.

One night in the Gryffindor Common Room, after a failed attempt at letting vipers into the Slytherins dorms, James stormed around the room, his thoughts clouding the room into silence .

He flopped down on what he thought was a chair, but turned out to be Sirius's lap, and when he was shoved off onto the floor, Remus asked James "what's wrong?"

That's when James exploded. "I'll tell you what's wrong! Hermione is acting all… weird. She's hanging around Black and Avery like like they're her brothers! Doesn't she know what her last name is? Who she belongs to? I oughtta"

"You can't say who she belongs to. You have to say what family she belongs to. Feminism Potter" Sirius snickered, watching his friends face start to redden.

"Oh you know what I mean! And I would've thought you'd be more offended, Sirius. She's trying to be a Black so hard it's embarrassing! Going to your house for Christmas, hanging off Regulus's arm, having those pesky cousins of yours interfere in my business!" James crossed his arms, his hair flopping into his face.

"She can take my place for all I care, and I'll take hers. We can do a swap. I'll even call you Jamey" Sirius winked and hung himself upside down so he was facing James who was still on the floor.

The name Jamey made a shiver run down James's spine, and he looked off into the fire, miserably "I want my sister back, the one who wasn't a Slytherin. The Gryffindor one. I'd even take a Hufflepuff Hermione"

Remus rolled his eyes "You can't just design a sister James, you get what you're given. Maybe if you stopped terrorising the Hermione you have, she might not want to live with and befriend the Blacks. It's mean, the pranks you do"

"She's a snake. She deserves it!" Peter piped up, but a cold voice answered him instead of one of his friends.

"No she does not! And neither does Severus. You're prejudiced bullies and Remus is correct, even though he enables you toerags. You are unbelievably cruel to your sister Potter" Lily Evans said, glaring at the four.

"See! She's even turned Evans against me! What's next? You four? The whole school?" James jumped up.

"I was against you on the first train here, first year Potter. Now you need to leave your sister alone!"

"Not until she succumbs. Not until she renounces the Slytherins and rejoins my family properly"

"What is this, a cult? Can't you love her and accept her differences?" Lily frowned.

"No" James said bluntly, almost confused.

"Well then you will lose your sister. Perhaps forever" Lily turned and left, to the sound of Sirius's low whistle.

"Maybe lay off her for a while. Till Evans forgets about it. It'll lull Potter and my brother into a false sense of security. And then… BOOM. Best prank the Marauders have performed yet" Sirius grinned.

"Our master planner everyone" James called out, and Sirius did a mock bow.

And so that was the reason Sirius and James left their younger siblings alone on the last month of school, just in time for exams. Not even a dirty look was sent their way, and Hermione found it unnerving. On the carriage ride to the Hogwarts Express, there were no hidden beetles or spiders, and their compartment on the train was prank free.

"Do you think Bellatrix did something?" Avery asked, checking under the seats "to stop them from doing anything I mean"

"No, not after she hexed Potter when he tried to pour snakes into our Common Room. She was satisfied with the pigs tail that appeared the next day..." Regulus replied, testing the trunk rack before he even dared put his on there.

Hermione flopped down on her seat and rolled her eyes. "You're being paranoid, guys. Just act normally. I won't see you two for 6 weeks"

Mr and Mrs Potter had demanded their daughters return for the holidays, but Sirius was still coming to the Manor for the 6 weeks and Remus and Peter for the last 2. Hermione had asked for Avery and Regulus's presence, but the Potters said that the Marauders would feel uncomfortable, and that they wanted 4 weeks of just their children Sirius so they could "bond". Of course, this was in a letter, so Hermione couldn't argue effectively.

"We'll write won't we Reg?" Avery grinned "I'll have nothing else to do, with my family"

"Second option, are we? The heartbreak, Avery, the heartbreak" Hermione swept a hand over her forehead in a faint, and fell onto Regulus who pushed her back up.

"We'll write Nita. Don't worry, it's only 4 weeks. Then at least you'll have Lupin who'll try and restrain the trolls" he ruffled her hair, which took her half an hour to pull her curls into a ponytail and slick it down without bumps, and laughed at Hermione's cross expression.

"Maybe I'll burn them all" she grumbled, conjuring a mirror to straighten her hair out.

"Oh yeah, you have a fireplace in your room don't you? We can floo call each other" Avery's face lit up with the prospect.

"We can. Now c'mon I want to pay a visit to the trolley witch. I feel like her pockets are going to be overflowing when we're finished with her" Regulus bounced up, followed by Avery, and then Hermione, still trying to smooth the bumps on her head.

It had been a few days of eating breakfast before people woke up, avoiding the boys in the library, and then calling the boys on the floo for Hermione until her sad routine was disrupted.

She was creeping to her nook between the bookshelves, when she found the two forms of Sirius and James crammed in there. Sirius's hair was in a messy bun that revealed dark circles under his eyes and James's glasses were askew.

"What're you doing here? This is my spot" she huffed, peering down at the books they were avidly reading "Animagi? What do you need to know about animagi?"

"Go away Hermione. We're trying to learn or whatever" James said, scrambling to hide all the books away and sit on them.

While he did this, Hermione looked around at what they did to her space. All the photos and band posters and post notes on thoughts and page numbers were torn down, and stuffed, rumpled, in a corner.

When Sirius saw Hermione staring at it, he started to fiddle with his hair awkwardly. To be honest, he actually kind of liked Hermione when they first met, but he was busy with James and he knew he came across rudely to her. When she started Hogwarts, and both her and Regulus was sorted into Slytherin, he felt like he could never make it up to either of them, (Regulus for ditching him for six weeks and Hermione for stealing her brother for the same six weeks) because it would ruin the work he'd done to remove himself socially at school from his family. So instead he helped James plot, and felt his jealousy rise when he saw the sibling relationship Regulus and Hermione had adopted.

But now, looking at Hermione's heartbroken expression as she picked up a ripped picture of the Potter family in the garden, the boys on brooms and the girls reading in the shade of the oak tree, and then seeing her realise the rip was only holding her in the frame by a small section of film, Sirius felt a pang of empathy, a feeling he hadn't felt towards the little witch in a long time.

"What have you done to my place, James? I've left you the whole house. Stayed away. And then you have the nerve to disrupt my sanctuary away from you? You rip my photos, my posters, my place holders! You moved the books I was half way through!" Hermione had started off speaking softly, but by the end of her rant, he voice had elevated.

"Being a tad dramatic, Mione. Just find another" James shrugged, but Sirius looked at the floor and avoided her eyes.

"Why couldn't you have? Why did you wreck my space?" Hermione practically shrieked.

Just then, Euphemia Potter hurried into the library and up the winding stairs to the landing the nook was on.

"What is going on? Why are everyone's voices raised?" she asked sternly.

"James and Sirius have ruined my nook! They've ripped my photos, lost my books, moved the post it's with page numbers on! They've completely ruined it!" Hermione wailed, pointing at the mess to exemplify her point.

James rolled his eyes "you're being a baby Mione. Find another"

Euphemia nodded. "Why did you wake me up for this Hermione? I'm sure you'll find the books, and the pictures can be replaced. Why don't we commend the boys for reading? Maybe it'll get you on a broomstick"

Euphemia nudged Hermione, but she was in no joking mood, and she stormed off to her room to write a furious letter to Regulus and Avery. She'd jealously found out that Avery was staying with Regulus, but she was happy to hear that the green room stayed hers even when she wasn't there. Hermione stayed in her room for the rest of the four weeks, and while she agreed with her family that on the grand scheme of things, the nook was something trivial to quarantine herself away for four weeks, the winning side of her said it was the principal and not the actual action.

When Remus and Peter arrived, Hermione excused herself from her room to greet them. Remus nodded politely, and Peter stuck his tongue out when Mr and Mrs Potter's backs were turned.

Fleamont had been awkward around his princess when she first came home, because while he was over the Christmas fiasco, he hadn't seen her in seven months after it. And then with the four week quarantine, they never got the chance to get back to normal.

The boys cleared out of her nook when the rest of their pesky group had arrived, but when James and Sirius were playing Quidditch and Peter was trying to catch up with them in vain, Remus often found his way up to the library were Hermione coincidentally was.

"How are you Hermione?" he said quietly one day when they were reading in silence by the window. That was how their meetings would go. She'd not deem him with conversation, and he wouldn't try because he knew it wasn't his place. But today was apparently different.

"Don't feel the need to pity me, Lupin" Hermione replied, not moving her eyes from the page.

"I don't know what you mean" but Remus knew exactly what she meant, and they both knew it.

"Don't think that because it's James, Black and Pettigrew's idea to bully me and my friends, you are not complicit. Don't try to make me feel like you're the "nice one", when you're probably the worst out of all four of you." Hermione slammed her book shut and picked up all the books she planned on reading that day, pretending not to struggle with the weight, and marched from the room in a dramatic exit fit for a Potter.

Remus thought, that's the last time I try with her, but deep down he knew she was correct, but it'll take him a long time to realise this.