Chapter 4

Pear Blossoms

~.o.~

Some people come into our lives and quickly go.

Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts,

and we are never, ever the same.

~Flavia Weedn

~.o.~

September 18, 1997

Minerva, after sitting in silence with Severus for a while now, was startled out of her thoughts by his abrupt rising from his seat.

"Get some sleep, Severus. Ms. Granger or not, you still have to teach tomorrow," she said in a motherly tone.

As always, Severus merely nodded in reply, pursing his lips slightly, as he left the office. Contrary to Minerva's suggestion, he was not going to sleep just yet. He doubted he could even get any tonight.

Robes billowing behind him, Severus strode to the Library, while his dark eyes swept the grounds for any student out of bed. It was only when the cool, brass handle of the Library doors soothed his clammy hand did he let out the breath he unknowingly held.

He was met with darkness and silence when he pushed the Library doors open. He brought out his wand, casted a non-verbal Lumos, and shut the door closed behind him. It had been a while since he last visited the Library, but it was years since he step foot in his secret room.

Walking briskly to the back of the Library where the Muggle History section was, he reached the 3rd shelf and tapped on it with his wand. There was no dust on the shelf, even when it slid to the side to revel the secret room.

She's been here recently, he thought to himself.

He hesitated just as he was about to step in. It had been far too long since he had been here. 7 years, in fact. Ever since Hermione Granger came to Hogwarts in her first year, and had discovered his secret room, she had been using it whenever she needed a quiet place (which just happened to be almost every day). Severus, knowing very well how he couldn't possibly use the room anymore when the 11 year old her was using it, stopped coming. Now, he wasn't so sure if this was still the room he remembered it to be; the room that held so much of his memories. Lonely ones, sad ones, and happy, joyous ones, too.

What if nothing is the same? What if it's decorated in Gryffindor red and gold? What if she brought other people to this room? And they defiled all the precious memories in it?

He couldn't bear stepping inside the room and see that nothing was the same. He had hoped, that in his life of ever-changing things, people, and events, that this room was the thing that would never change, that it would stay the same, preserving his memories – his life.

Just as he was about to back away, like the coward he thought himself as, he remembered: a long, long time ago, when he was 17, the 17 year-old Hermione used to spend time with him in this very room.

And it was this very thought that made him step inside.

The thought of Hermione.

The thought of home.

September 18, 1978

Remus, being the fit werewolf that he is, was barely sweating as he entered the Potions classroom with enough time to spare. He had jogged all the way down there, to the dungeons, and had barely messed up his hair.

Not more than it usually is, anyway.

Straightening his robes, he cast a few shy smiles at the mixed crowd of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws (it was a joint class) who looked at him. Striding quickly to his seat, he passed Sirius and Astra, ignoring the way his heart contracted a tiny bit, and settled in the desk behind them. To his right were James and Peter, suspiciously chuckling as they threw enchanted paper frogs at Sirius' head. To his left were Lily and Alice Jenkins, who seemed to be in deep conversation.

Alone yet again, with no one to sit beside him, Remus shrugged his satchel off his shoulder and to the empty seat beside him. He took his Potions book out, opened to a random page, rested his elbows on the desk at either side of the book, cheeks on his palms, and pretended to read.

That's where everyone gets the pretension that he liked to be alone. He liked to read, yes, but it didn't mean he liked to be alone. Being an only child, he was pretty much alone all throughout his childhood years. A werewolf at an early age, he had no friends either. His parents were good people, yes, but he constantly felt their fear whenever they looked at him. It was understandable, of course. He is a werewolf.

James burst out laughing, and Remus turned to look at his silly friend. Sirius looked annoyed, but Remus knew that he'll get it sooner or later. That was how James' and Sirius' friendship worked, anyway.

Remus was really grateful that he was friends with the other Marauders and, that James and Sirius took him under their wing. Their friendship meant the world to him.

And that was why he couldn't tell them. No, he just couldn't. Telling them that would ruin everything. Everything.

"James Potter, if you don't cut it out this instant, Lily would have to find herself a new boyfriend!" Sirius barked suddenly, though in a teasing manner, causing Remus to look forward.

"Remus, tell James to cut it out!" Sirius, who suddenly whipped his head around to look at Remus, begged.

Bright, blue eyes invaded Remus' vision.

It was the eyes that reflected a person, really. Not their actions, or not their smiles, because those could be easily faked. Werewolf and all, Remus' heightened senses could easily tell truths, lies, happiness, or sadness by simply looking at someone's eyes.

The eyes he could never, ever get his mind off of, was Sirius'.

How a person could laugh, joke around, grin, and basically pretend to be someone he wasn't, Remus didn't know.

All he knew was that this person in front of him, with eyes as deep as the sea, was broken.

And he didn't know how to fix it.

Hermione felt emotionally and mentally drained by the time she finished talking to Minerva. It was already dinner time (their discussion had been that heart-breakingly long) and she was being escorted to the Great Hall by Dumbledore.

She was too tired to bother freaking out (after all, the Dumbledore in the present was dead) and was too busy imagining poor Minerva who was probably silently crying in her office. Once their talk was done, Minerva brought Hermione to Albus, said what Hermione and she planned, and went straight back to her office. Hermione knew that the Transfiguration Professor has had too much information for one day, and felt slightly guilty.

Dumbledore was jabbering away, as Hermione merely nodded and smiled. She was afraid that she might say something to give herself away once she opened her mouth to talk.

Finally, they reached the doors of the Great Hall.

"Ready?" Dumbledore smiled at her, his kind, blue eyes twinkling.

"Yes, sir," she said, her voice shaking.

She never was one who liked being the center of attention.

...fine, she liked it at times, but who doesn't? What she really didn't like, was people staring at her.

Dumbledore pushed the Great Hall doors open, and all the students who were already in the process of eating turned to stop and look at the two of them. They watched as she and Dumbledore walked to the front. What disturbed Hermione the most was the fact that the Great Hall was silent.

It was never silent.

"Attention," called Dumbledore.

Not that he needed to.

"This," he said, placing a gentle hand on Hermione's shoulder, "is Hermione Granger. She is a transferee, and will be joining the 7th years in their classes."

And then the silence was broken. Hermione had never been glad enough to be surrounded by noise. The silence before was too nerve wrecking.

"I know," said Dumbledore, raising his voice, as simultaneous "shhhhhhh"s echoed throughout the hall, "that you all want to know what House Ms. Granger will be in."

Stopping for suspense, Dumbledore smiled as everyone in the Hall looked at him in anticipation.

"She has been sorted in my office, and she is...a Gryffindor!"

The Gryffindor table erupted into cheers, and the Marauders, particularly Sirius, stood up to pull her to the Gryffindor table. She laughed, feeling like a 1st year all over again.

When the noise in the Hall was back, and Hermione was safely seated, she couldn't help but feel nervous as wave after wave of people started introducing themselves to her. All around her were seas of unknown faces; the only ones she knew were the Marauders and Lily.

When the crowd cleared, Hermione found herself sitting beside Lily and in front of the Marauders.

"Hermione! Whose room are you staying in?" asked Lily brightly from beside her.

"You're welcome in my place, kitten," said Sirius, waggling his eyebrows.

"'My place' my arse,did you happen to forget that you shared a room with three other people?" chuckled James as he stabbed a piece of chicken leg.

"And we have no vacant beds," added Peter before stuffing his face with mashes potatoes.

"Let's kick Remus out, then," shrugged Sirius nonchalantly as he took a swig of pumpkin juice.

Seconds ticked by without a remark from Remus. Hermione lifted her gaze from her plate that Lily generously filled, and saw that Remus seemed a bit down.

"Don't be so mean to him, Sirius," Hermione said lightly, passing an encouraging smile to Remus when he turned to look at her.

Sirius suddenly stood up, a hand over his heart. "I've been rejected! Has the world ended?"

The people around them who heard the conversation started laughing, and when Hermione looked at Sirius with a blank look, he leaned in to explain, "Developing a crush on our Moony, have you, Ms. Granger?"

"W-What? I-" stammered Hermione, startled, and a bit taken aback.

"You actually chose him over me? Me, Sirius Black?" he continued on joking, raking a hand over his hair. "The world really has ended, has-"

Remus slammed his palms on the table top as he stood up, interrupting Sirius.

The Hall grew quiet.

"Moony, what-" James started.

Only Remus seemed like he didn't want to hear it. He stood from his seat and stormed off.

Then the Great Hall started buzzing again, whispers of "What's wrong with Lupin?" everywhere.

At the Gryffindor table, Sirius was nonchalantly eating. James nudged him, as if saying, "Your fault, so go check."

"Why? It's not my problem if he's hot-headed because it's near his time of month," Sirius shrugged, taking a bite of his pasta.

Hermione understood what Sirius meant, of course. Werewolves tended to be all fried up when the full moon was near. Sirius was right, the full moon was near: it was 5 days from now.

"Sirius, stop it with the gay jokes, you've been doing it all day. First with Severus and now with Remus," sighed Lily.

Of course, Lily doesn't know about Remus being a werewolf yet.

"I'm not joking, I-" Sirius started, only to be cut off by James' elbowing him in the ribs, accompanied by a sharp glare.

Sirius merely shrugged again and continued eating.

Hermione watched all of this unfold silently. When none of the Marauders went to go after Remus, she sighed and stood up to do so, only to be stopped by Sirius.

"Kitten, let him be; he's just-"

"You know, Sirius, I heard you were mean and a bully, but I never actually believed it until now," she said simply.

With that, she left the Great Hall.

Severus, book in front of him instead of a plate, was sipping his tea when he heard a banging sound. He looked up to see Remus Lupin striding out of the Great Hall, looking annoyed.

Drama yet again, he thought, sighing as he flipped a page.

He went back to his book and his tea, when the student beside him suddenly said, "Look, the new student went after Lupin."

At the mention of "new student", Severus' eyes trailed to look up just in time to see Hermione exit the hall.

"I heard Sirius was just insulted," sniggered some other Slytherin.

Smirking, Severus went back to his book. Only, he found that he couldn't concentrate on the words anymore, to his annoyance. For some reason, nothing was registering in his brain. Sighing, he closed his book, drank the last of his tea, and left the Great Hall.

"I thought I'd find you here," said Hermione as she sat beside Remus.

The Black Lake twinkled against the moonlight, the stars reflecting on the glassy surface. As the cool night wind blew, the branches of the only tree in the area above them swayed, leaves rustling.

Remus, legs stretched out in front of him, and hands supporting him on the ground, looked at her.

"How did you know..." he trailed off, looking surprised.

Hermione shrugged, looking at the Black Lake. "I just had a feeling."

In truth, she knew Professor Lupin loved sitting by this tree, and came here whenever he needed to de-stress. Even until now, in the present, he would sometimes go there to check homework, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione would join him.

After moments of silence, he said, "I don't know what's gotten into me lately."

Hermione turned to him, to let him know she was listening and he could carry on.

"I just feel irritated all the time, especially with Sirius,"

"I doubt this is his first girlfriend?" asked Hermione.

"Er.. no, Astra isn't his first," said Remus.

Hermione just nodded.

"It's just...I don't know. I just feel so irritated. And the fact that his jokes always centralize on me doesn't help," he said, frustrated. "Sometimes I think he does it on purpose, just to spite me."

When Hermione didn't say anything, Remus turned pink, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I must sound like a complete sissy-"

"No, no, I completely understand. See, there's this one boy from...from my old school," Hermione caught herself, "who always picked on me and called me 'Mudblood'. He was a really annoying and arrogant prat, and I hated him when I was younger. As I grew older, though, I sort of realized that he's only like that because he has a lot on his shoulders," she said.

Remus was quiet for a few seconds, analyzing.

"Sirius is like that, too," he said softly.

"I'm sorry?" Hermione said, not quite hearing it.

"Sirius is like that, too," he repeated. "He's been through a lot. I understand why he...why he goes out with a lot of girls, and flirts all the time."

Hermione nodded for him to continue.

"His family...his family disowned him. He cut off all ties with them last year. He lives with James now. He has enough money to last him centuries, since his uncle Alphard left him a hefty inheritance, but...it must be painful...to be hated by your family like that. Blood purists, his family. Sirius resented the idea of blood purity, and his family disowned him for that.

He must be lonely. And so he looks for company, through women. Understandable, really. What I can't understand, is why he has to pretend to be happy, when he's clearly not? His eyes say so. He jokes around all the time, and laughs, and smiles, when in reality, he's hurting inside. People think he's just a playboy, his family hates him, and now all he has is us, his friends. Why does he have to lie to us, and pretend to be happy? We're the only ones who know him, who can be there for him!

And why does he have to waste his time with all those women! I know he wants to get back at his family, but not that way! All the girls he dates are Muggle borns, because he wants to spite his family. He does it on purpose. But in the process, he just hurts himself. He dumps the girl after he manages to sleep with her, just so she'd hate him, and it'd bring a bad reputation to his family. He's only hurting himself! And I can't understand why he can't just go to us. James, Peter, and I would gladly help him! He needn't pretend!

It's like I can't do anything for him. All I can do is sit. Sit and watch as he eats himself inside out. Watch as he destroys himself. He really is. There's all this bitterness and loneliness in him that he won't let go of. And here I am, just watching. I can't even repay his kindness to me by helping him out.

He was the one who saved me from loneliness. All I've ever been was alone. There are...some things about me..that repel people. They can't be near me. Even my parents. When I came to Hogwarts, I was dreading another year of being alone, when..when Sirius befriended me. And together with him, was James. If Sirius wasn't kind enough to do that, and so much more...I don't know if I'd be who I am right now. I might be bitter and lonely like he is."

Hermione, nodding, placed a hand on his shoulder, and sent him a kind smile.

"Thank you," he said, embarrassed. "Now I really feel like a sissy."

"You're not," she giggled.

"You know, I'm a shy person. I don't know how I managed to get along with you so quickly."

"It's called magic," grinned Hermione.

"'Magic'?" he chuckled. "Oh, really?"

"Mhm. You want to know what else is magic?"

"What?"

Whipping out her wand, Hermione muttered a spell and pointed to the tree's branches. One by one, the branches sprouted light pink flowers that glowed under the moonlight.

"It's beautiful," whispered Remus, as he laid down on the grass to watch the flowers, some of them falling off the branches as the wind blew.

Hermione did the same, smiling.

Severus was never one to eavesdrop.

Well, they didn't need to talk to loud, did they, that he could hear them from the 5th floor?

With the help of the open window and some volume increasing charm, that is.

From his secret room, Severus watched the flower tree that Hermione enchanted sway back and forth with the wind.

She's knowledgeable with flowers, he thought.

Watching the new student and Lupin one last time as they laid side by side on the grass in silent company, Severus shut the windows and turned to survey his room.

He walked to the shelf at the far end of the room, where a vast majority of glowing blue vials and a small collection of books were. He picked one of the books of the shelf, turned a few pages, and found what he was looking for.

Small, light pink flowers...Small, light pink flowers...aha, he thought, when he found the page with the picture that was similar to the tree outside.

Pear blossom - lasting friendship

Shutting the book closed, Severus walked back to the window, taking one last peek.

Granger and Lupin were fast asleep, side by side, fingers inches away from each other.

The new student was much more interesting than he thought.

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to my friend, PeriwinkleMoonlight, who bugged me in school long enough. It's thanks to her that you people get an update. :)) Check our her first ever fanfic, a DraMione! A link to her profile is in my profile :

So, how'd you like the chapter? I plan to make this story stretch to about 40-50 chapters.

If you haven't read my other story, Laws of Attraction, then you wouldn't know how much I love plot twists.

So get ready for a lot of them in the in-coming chapters. I know Severus isn't mentioned much in this chappie, but a lot of him will come soon!