Lots and lots of thanks to pstibbons, Serbian Princess, crazedreader, Dizi 85, Angelic Bladez, XIII Welcome To My Nightmare, rowenarave565, notwritten, ProperT and Darkness-Lightness.

Disclaimer: I don't own it… wouldn't mind owning some of the characters… but alas I do not.

Chapter 12: Hair Cuts, Picnics and a Talk

New years eve was upon Hogwarts signalling at the holidays were near an end. People had already begun to return to the school and most, thankfully, were unaware of any of the happenings that had taken place during their absence. But, as others returned, it meant that the Marauders would have a sufficient amount of people on their side if another fight were to occur. This did not escape Hermione who, as a consequence, was tenser when the Marauders would appear. She also decided that a talk with Remus was in order; he was their best friend and a prefect so she hoped that with some prodding he would make an effort to stop his friends.

Hermione, in the meantime, wandered off to the Room of Requirement as Lucius had asked her to come early. He had mentioned a 'surprise' so she didn't know whether to be excited or extremely worried. When she opened the door and entered the Room it was dark; she could barely see her hand in front of her. Suddenly she felt someone grasp her arm and they quickly pulled her inside, closing the door as they went. Hermione was panicking by now; what if Sirius or James had forged Lucius' writing? That would mean that they had a complete advantage if they had a way to see while she didn't. Hermione tensed up as she felt a cool metal at the back of her neck, which lightly pushed against her neck, as if it were being opened slightly.

She closed he eyes tightly, waiting for any pain that she thought that may come her way. After a while she opened her eyes, relaxing slightly as no movements were made towards her, until whoever held her there moved closer. Tensing once again she waited, forgetting that she could just cast lumos to see who kept her there. A strange noise brought her away from her thoughts. It was a very different noise to any she was expecting; it was almost a snipping noise. Then Hermione felt as if weight from the back of her head had been lifted and she realized what had happened.

In a deadly soft voice she said, "Lucius?"

More cutting noises were made.

"Yes, Hermione what's wrong?" Lucius answered in an innocent voice that didn't fool Hermione for a second.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She could almost see the smirk on his face as he said, "Well Mione, its all part of the surprise. Besides, you needed a hair cut."

Hermione laughed now. "Your one to talk. I don't see any other guys walking around with shoulder length hair, do you Lucy?"

"I told you not to call me that," Lucius growled. Ever since he first expressed his dislike for the nickname she continued to call him by it, no matter what he said. "And others don't have my hair length simply because I am better then them."

A short laugh came from the door and the lights came back on.

"If long hair makes you better then others then I'll eat every potions ingredient in the school."

Both Hermione and Lucius turned to see Severus come in to the room with a smirk on his face. A smirk which quickly turned into a badly concealed look of surprise, as he looked on at Hermione's new hair.

"And why would you say that, Mr Snape?"

"Because that would mean that Black would be better then most, with disgusting mane on his head."

Lucius looked at Severus with a smirk. "In that case, ten points to Slytherin for correcting the lack of judgement of a professor."

"Excuse me, but would someone mind letting me see what that blonde disaster over there did to my hair?"

Lucius looked over at the frowning Gryffindor with an amused expression on his face. Wordlessly he conjured a mirror, or rather he asked the Room for one, and pushed Hermione gently in front of it.

When Hermione saw her hair she gasped, but not out of annoyance or disappointment. On the contrary, she rather liked how her hair looked now and, even though she enjoyed having her hair long, it did get bothersome at times. Now that Lucius had cut it, her hair fell into curls that hung just under her ears making her think that he had added a charm while cutting it, so it didn't end up in the mess of hair it normally was in. And when she had asked him about it he simply smiled and told her to get used to it, making her think that it was a long term charm, now only if she knew how long.

She didn't have much time to run through the charms he may have used as Lucius had already begun to talk.

"Now if you two will kindly follow me."

"Oh no, Lucy. The last time you said that half my hair went missing–"

"And don't say that you don't like it. Besides, you will like this surprise, I swear."

The slight smirk on his face didn't make Hermione feel any better either. Nor did the look of warning that Severus was currently giving him. She had a feeling that Severus knew exactly what Lucius was talking about and she wanted to know too, especially as Severus cheeks had turned their famous (well at least to her) light pink. She was beginning to think that he had set them up again, though she could not think why he would do so; they were together now, wasn't that enough.

Hermione became truly confused as Lucius led the pair outside into the grounds and headed for the lake. She wondered what he could have planned as Severus' cheeks slowly became pinker.

"Now," Lucius said as he stopped near a tree at near the edge of the lake.

Hermione gasped softly.

Set out before her was a small picnic complete with a blanket large enough to set all the food and drink on and a basket full of food neatly packed in. Hermione suspected that the house elves had a hand in that; no matter what everyone thought about Lucius Malfoy in the future, the man had no idea when it came to neatness.

"I've noticed you two have barely done anything together," Lucius said, smirking at his two red faced friends.

Both of them knew that they had done things together, many of those causing the colour in their cheeks to rise. They had spent large amounts of time together getting over the awkwardness that all fifthteen year olds seemed to go through when they first start going out with someone properly. Severus in particular had a harder time getting used to another's touch as no one went near him if they could avoid it and that was what he was used to.

"So I have decided to help you two out. And, as the last try was such a disaster, I have put a notice-me-not charm around the area."

"You know, Lucy, you don't have to keep pushing us," Hermione said, though the tiny smile on her face gave her annoyance away.

As Lucius scowled at the nickname Severus smirked at his blonde friend. Though his smirk didn't last as he heard Hermione's next words.

"Don't think that just because I gave Lucius a nickname first, doesn't mean that I can't give one to you too!"

"Ah but Mione, you've already given me one," Severus replied smoothly.

"Sev doesn't count, that was a general nickname. Hmm, what about Sevvie?"

It was Severus' time to look appalled while Lucius laughed at the other boy's misfortune.

"Now then, I think that its time I took my leave. Enjoy," Lucius said walking off, still smirking at the name his friend had been stuck with.

The picnic was, like the first time Lucius had decided the 'help' them, a little awkward at first and they stuck to safe subjects. After a while, though, they became far more comfortable with the other and Hermione began to slowly move closer to the normally quiet Slytherin. When he saw what she was doing he smiled slightly and began to move too, the more cautiously then Hermione was. By the time they were both completely relaxed Hermione had rested her head lightly on Severus' shoulder and he had carefully slipped an arm around her loosely.

After a few minutes of sitting together quietly Severus suggested that they go back inside. Hermione agreed, albeit reluctantly, only due to the cold that had begun to creep up around the two as it grew darker. They left what was left of their picnic on the ground (they had found a note from Lucius saying that the elves would clean up when they left) and started their walk up to the castle. When they reached the Entrance Hall they knew they would have to separate and Hermione carefully leaned up to place a kiss on Severus' lips. He returned the kiss just as carefully as she, moving away to give her one last quick kiss as he left to the dungeons that held the Slytherin common room.

Just before Hermione reached the Fat Lady she came face to face with Remus who asked if he could have a quick work. She agreed with a confused, yet curious, look on her face and followed him into a nearby classroom. When Remus closed the door he turned to face Hermione.

"First off I want to apologise for what those two idiots have done. I know I can't speak for them but I am sorry, what Sirius said… well I'm just sorry for what they have done. I've been thinking about what I have done to stop them and it hasn't been much, so I'm going try much harder now to stop them. They do listen, even if it does take them a while."

Hermione was smiling by the end of this. She knew that Remus disapproved of what his friends did and that he was normally too quiet, and valued their friendship too much, to say anything against his fellow Marauders. She also knew that if she supported him he would be able to stick to his resolve. She told him as much and he smiled his thanks to her, agreeing that with her encouragement, he would be able to do what he should've done a long time ago.

Between her talk with Remus and her time spent with Severus, Hermione felt that things could only get better from now on. Hermione went up to go to bed and, after informing Lily of that days happenings, she fell asleep almost immediately, a smile on her lips.

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Lady of Elysion