The winter had finally left Scotland, leaving everyone in a desperate need for sun and warmth. The temperature outside was hardly pleasant, but after enduring months of cold and ever-present dampness, it felt incredible to simply go outside and enjoy the change of weather. The nature started to slowly come back to life, making the Grounds green and beautiful and forcing the students to forget about their exams, about their studying sessions and various assignments. It was simply impossible to ignore the enticing aura of spring that had taken its rule over the entire castle.

Hermione found herself unable to refuse Sirius' pleads to go outside and ditch studying for once. That man could be really insistent when he wanted to be and she didn't have the strength to oppose him every single time, which was why she found herself standing in front of the Black Lake, looking at it with a gentle smile gracing her face.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Sirius' voice reached her ears and she turned to him, only to find him staring right at her with a dreamy expression.

She blushed slightly and shook her head, realising that even such a small gesture made her heart speed up its pace. Even after months of being in a relationship with him, she still felt as though she had just realised she was in love with him and that feeling amazed her to no end.

"Yeah," she replied softly and smiled at him with affection. "It is."

"You should be less stubborn, love. Spending so much time in the library has driven hundreds of people crazy. I don't want you to share their terrible fate."

Hermione rolled her eyes at his statement and chuckled. He knew all too well that she didn't mind reading books all day, but he still tried to get her to change her mind every now and then. Mostly because being her boyfriend meant that he actually had to fight his unhealthy reluctance towards the library and it turned out to be quite a challenge.

"You know what's more likely to drive me crazy?" she asked with amusement and he raised his eyebrows. "Spending all my time around you lot."

"That's so rude," he replied and clicked his tongue. "It's not our fault that we are knowledge-resilient. We are trying really hard to understand the words coming out of your mouth. It's just terribly difficult."

She rolled her eyes yet again and shook her head in disbelief. Of course, reading books and writing essays made them nauseated, but when it came to other things she schooled them in... Things looked completely different.

Her smile faltered a bit when her thoughts drifted back to the fight from two months ago. Her body had healed pretty quickly, but her mind refused to let it go. She was having nightmares about Snape betraying her over and over again, about Peter joining the Slytherins to fight her, about...

She had to stop thinking about it. Sirius had already been worried and seeing her shaking hands and trembling lips would do nothing to soothe his fear. Ever since she had made a decision to teach her friends how to fight, her boyfriend started to act incredibly overprotective, shadowing her every move like a guardian angel. Hermione didn't mind it most of the time, but a part of her hoped that things could just go back to normal. Still, she knew that too many great things had come out of this situation to simply ignore them.

The fact that her friends were now learning how to defend themselves managed to soothe her nerves to the point, where she felt confident about everything that the future could offer them. For the first time in a very long time, she stopped struggling with making things perfect, letting them fix themselves instead. She didn't have to worry about failing anyone, if she chose to believe that they were able to take care of themselves.

Hermione looked at Sirius and found him staring at her with a worried expression. She raised her hand and cupped his cheek, caressing it gently with her thumb. Padfoot closed his eyes and covered her hand with his own, sighing contently.

"You're lucky that I love you," he muttered and smiled, letting one of the corners of his mouth climb higher than the other.

"I'm the one who's lucky?" she asked with theatrical outrage. "I beg to differ."

"Oh, come on, Kitten. If it wasn't for me, you would become the epitome of grumpiness. You would walk around Hogwarts, only wishing that such a dashing gentlemen as myself would lighten up your life," he said, making her laugh out loud.

"Gentleman? And here I was, thinking that you're a womanizer, who likes to snog in the library."

"Well, I'd very much like to snog elsewhere, but I have yet to find a way to drag you out of that damned place," he replied and she grinned at him.

"Look around, Sirius. We're not in the library anymore," she muttered and his gaze stopped being amused, as a new set of emotions took hold of his grey eyes.

Mere second later, his lips brushed against her own and all of her problems, all of her fears disappeared without a trace. He pulled her closer against his body and a shiver ran up her spine, when his hands grabbed her hips forcefully. Heat rushed to her cheeks, as she found herself unable to control her reactions. A muffled moan escaped her mouth and Sirius broke the kiss instantly, his eyes boring into her own with hunger.

"Don't do that, love."

His husky voice forced her to bite her swollen lip. How was it even possible to look this enticingly without even trying? How could she resist him, when he kept making her knees go weak, as if they were made out of jelly?

"Why?" she whispered, even if she had already known the answer.

"A man can only have so much patience, Hermione."

Before she could have answered, someone cleared his throat behind her back and she turned around rapidly. Just like that, the tension in the air changed completely, as the sinful excitement was replaced by the aura of awkwardness and stifled resentment.

Peter Pettigrew had managed to walk up to them and catch them by surprise, to Hermione's displeasure. Their relations had changed a great deal during those two months and it wasn't a change for the better. She tried real hard to act like nothing happened, but she was the only one to do that, as the rest of her friends kept their distance from the boy standing in front of her.

Sirius was the worst out of them. Everyone wanted to oppose Voldemort and his sick ideology, but Padfoot was the one who hated him the most. Peter's betrayal touched him in a more personal way than it did everyone else's case. Of course, he couldn't be blamed for it. None of them could.

Hermione tried to fix things on more than one occasion, explaining that everyone could have made a mistake and that Peter hadn't actually betrayed them. No matter what she said, it seemed that time was the only thing that could mend those wounds he had created deep within their hearts.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Peter's voice sounded in the air, as he looked everywhere but them. "I wouldn't be here, but um..."

"Speak and sod off," Sirius said and his fingers dug into her hip bone forcefully, making Hermione wince slightly.

"Sirius!" she hissed and gave him an angry look. "You can be mad, but it doesn't mean you can be this rude!"

"Yeah, it does," he scoffed and fisted his free hand.

Peter looked at him with remorse filling his blue eyes and Hermione felt her heart clench with sorrow. This was exactly what she had feared, when she learned about Wormtail's mistake. The Marauders were brothers in everything, but blood. Their loyalty was one of the things that left everyone jealous and hopeful, that maybe someday they would be able to share that kind of a bond with someone as well. Unfortunately, even in a friendship like this one, there were things that could be described only as unforgivable. And breaking that loyalty oath they had sworn to each other almost six years ago, definitely qualified as one of these things.

Hermione knew that even though Peter had made a mistake, none of the Marauders would be able to truly abandon him. They were hurt and broken, but she was determined to do everything in her power to help them see, that those feelings weren't the end of the world. They were simply another obstacle to overcome.

"No, it doesn't," she said once more, deciding to hold her ground on that matter. "What is it, Peter?"

The boy shifted his weight from one leg to the other and looked down to his feet.

"Dumbledore asked me to find you. He wants to see you."

Her stomach clenched unpleasantly, as she realised that she would have to face the Headmaster after spending the last two months resenting him. She knew that it probably wasn't his idea to force Peter into making the Unbreakable Vow, but she hoped that he would at least fight for her friend. What he had chosen to do instead might have been the easiest option, but definitely not the best one.

Still, she couldn't simply ignore his request. Not after he had left her alone for such a long time, clearly knowing that she must have been angry with his decision. Hermione turned to Sirius and smiled apologetically. This wasn't how she had pictured their date and judging by Sirius' expression he shared her opinion on that matter. Nonetheless, his grip on her hip lessened, allowing her to leave his embrace.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and he forced himself to smile, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"The world is calling for you yet again. I get that," he answered and shot a cautious look towards Peter, whose eyes refused to leave his feet. "Be careful."

With that, he kissed her forehead and stepped back, slowly making his way towards the castle. Hermione was left with Peter, who looked up with an agonised expression painted all over his face.

"I'm so sorry, Pete," she said, but the boy shook his head.

"He has every right to act that way, Hermione. I knew it was going to happen."

"You're their friend. They have to forgive you at some point."

"They probably will," he admitted and sighed. "I'm not sure I deserve to be forgiven, though. I did something terrible. They were my family and you don't go behind your family's back like that. You don't do that to the people who love you."

"No, you don't. But just as you are not supposed to betray your family, your family is supposed to be there for you, even when you get lost. You regret what you've done. Actually, you regret what you were about to do. They have to acknowledge that."

Peter smiled with sadness and looked at the Black Lake, thoughtfulness filling his eyes.

"It still hurts, Hermione. Not everyone is as benevolent as you are. They have every right to be mad and so they are. But I don't think it's because they suddenly started to hate me. They want to hurt me, because I hurt them. I have managed to fail them and they are angry because I was supposed to know better. Once they realise that I've learned my lesson, we can be friends again. Because we have never stopped being a family."

"I've heard that you started to train your friends," Dumbledore said with a gentle smile, that did nothing to soothe her annoyance.

Actually, something about seeing him so relaxed made her feel even more agitated. Whatever he wanted to say to her, Hermione hoped that their conversation was going to start from an apology or at least an explanation for his decision. Apparently, the headmaster didn't feel the need to do such thing and it made her fuming with anger.

"I had a change of heart. Nearly dying can do that to you," she answered, her tone dry and harsh.

Dumbledore's smile faltered a bit, as he looked at her cautiously. Finally, he sighed and rubbed his forehead.

"Miss Granger, I thought you would be able to understand my decision."

"Is that why you haven't summoned me here for two months?" she replied, raising her eyebrows. "Because you thought there was nothing to discuss?"

"Mr Pettigrew's family is safe and sound and I offered him the best solution I could have. The other members wouldn't agree on anything else."

"It doesn't make it okay. There's a possibility that he will have to become a spy and you didn't even ask me to teach him how to do that. You just conveniently dropped that responsibility on me, not caring if I actually could succeed at it," she snapped angrily and regretted her words as soon as they had left her mouth.

"Last time I checked, I was allowed to do that, since I'm the leader of this organisation, Miss Granger."

His cheerful tone was gone, replaced by a hint of annoyance, but she knew it was too late to simply back down.

"And we trust you to lead us. Lead, not order us around! I know that I'm not very useful to the Order right now, but I'm still a part of it. I trusted you to treat me as such!"

The older man looked at her, his gaze softening with each of her words, until he was left with a sad smile on his face.

"Hermione... I'm sorry for what happened to your friend. You know that the idea of forcing someone so young to join the war doesn't thrill me. Mr Pettigrew, however, has chosen that fate for himself and I cannot do anything about that. But my decision turned out to be better than you think. It managed to take a great weight off of your shoulders."

"And what would that be?" she asked angrily.

"The fear, Miss Granger. You were so afraid to fail your friends that you forgot about the possibility of them failing you. You refuse to see Mr Pettigrew's mistake as a sign of that, because you'd rather take the blame for not being able to shield him from the world, than accept the fact, that your friends have just as much power as you do. They shape their lives the way they want to and no matter how hard you try to stop them, they will still do it."

Hermione's anger disappeared in a blink of an eye, as she simply continued to stare at the headmaster with a baffled expression. The man smiled softly and continued his speech:

"You cannot save everyone, Hermione. Not only because you're just one person, but also because the people around you don't need you to save them every single time. If you want them to grow up, you have to let them. And this is exactly what you've been doing these past two months. Because you have finally understood that you're not the only hero in this story."