"Oi!" Sirius said loudly, the silence in the library breaking immediately. The old librarian glared angrily but Sirius merely waved her away and walked towards Remus. The werewolf had jumped at the sudden interruption and looked up straight away to see Sirius walking over to him. "I thought you said you would tell me if you felt like doing something today."
Remus looked down at the table laden with books then back up to his friend trying to see the sparkle in his eyes which usually told him he was being led into a joke. Noting none he replied, "Sirius I'm in a library. When did you care so much about books?"
"They're great," Sirius said picking up a book titled 'various ways to grow magical pond plants'. "All the words... and stuff."
"Wow, how enlightening," Remus sighed sarcastically.
"So just been here all day?" Sirius asked eagerly.
"Remus placed down the book he had been so engrossed in before his friend came in. "Yes. Yes Sirius I have sat in this spot for most of the day. Moving only for lunch, I then returned here, had a small conversation with lovely Mrs Mayfield the librarian then came and read some more. Would you like the exact details of the conversation? Or maybe the number of steps it took me to get to the great hall?"
"Smart ass," Sirius scoffed but understood why his friend was slightly annoyed with the question. Sirius had been checking up on Remus for the last week. He had volunteered to be in his lessons and then when Remus said he couldn't he spent the periods waiting outside the room. When they were separated Sirius would ask others if they had seen him or bombarded him with questions once reunited.
"I'm sorry for being so short with you Padfoot," Remus sighed. "It's getting close to the full moon and I was already a bit tense, this has just added to it." Remus looked up at his friend and shivered slightly. The look on Sirius' face was worrying. His features had softened and what was there could only be described as pain. "There's something going on here isn't there?" Remus asked. He would be foolish if he had not caught on from the previous days and Sirius' behaviour.
"Yes," Sirius replied quickly.
"But you're not going to tell me are you?" Remus asked already knowing the answer.
"No," Sirius said flatly.
Remus smiled. What could he expect? "I guess we all have secrets." He stated, his mind drifting off to a secret he had kept since the summer.
"We do indeed," Sirius retuned, his own thoughts filling with completely different images. Gaining control of himself Sirius slapped Remus on the back before sitting down next to him. "Well since I'm here."
"Oh let me guess," Remus said, "Since you're here you're planning on picking up an actual book, maybe get through a whole page today?"
"No actually. Since I have to babysit you," Sirius said with a smirk. "I think we should talk about someone."
Remus was surprised Sirius had actually admitted to watching over him. He didn't think he would have been so blunt with it. "Do tell?" he said with a laugh. "We have until dinner and I'm guessing you're going to follow me wherever I go until then so we may as well stay here and hear what you have to say. Who do you want to discuss?"
"Hermione," Sirius said no hint of a laugh in his tone.
Remus looked at the blank expression on his friend's face and broke. "Okay."
oOo
Hermione sat at the Gryffindor table with Harry, Ginny and Ron. The four talked causally covering all the events of the day. Ron performed a very enthusiastic re-enactment of Neville's attempt at saving a goal during the Quidditch practice causing him to knock over a bowl of mash potatoes onto an angry 4th years lap.
The snorts of laughter didn't disappear for quite some time, even after the girl had stormed out of the hall in tears of embarrassment.
"T-th-that was awful!" Ginny cried as she laughed.
"Don't blame me!" Ron said, his own face beetroot. "It was Neville who actually done it!"
The table responded in a fit of giggles, even those who weren't part of the conversation had seen and heard enough to join in.
"Well, well, well, our little brother scaring off girls," two voices said in unison.
Hermione turned round to see Fred and George Weasley standing behind Ron.
"I have a girlfriend thank you very much!" Ron exclaimed. "I don't scare away girls!"
"No of course you don't, you just throw food at them," Fred said with a grin.
"Maybe it some sort of weird mating dance Freddy," George replied.
The twins looked at each other before breaking into ape like grunts, banging their fists off their chests. "We throw food! We get girl! Girl like food!" they said dancing up and down the aisle acting ridiculously.
At this point the twins had gained much attention from the tables of students around. Hermione laughed until her sides hurt. Grabbing the two boys just before they danced past her again grunting and moaning she pulled them down to sit beside her.
"Ooh!" Ginny moaned. "That was the most normal thing I've ever seen them do!"
As the rest of the hall went back to their food the group ignored the stares from the staff table and began eating. Fred and George stayed with the Gryffindors. Content with not having to eat with their old professors.
"You boys are immature!" Hermione groaned piling her plate with potatoes and veg.
"I think we're pretty grown up," Fred said sitting up straighter. "Wouldn't you say Georgey?"
"Of course! That's why we've been tasked with such an important job," Gorge said gaining the interest of the rest of the group. It had been a while since they had first been told there would be ministry officials here and yet they still failed to see anything official being done.
"And what job would that be?" Harry asked not even trying to hide his enthusiasm for the subject.
"Well, that would be telling," Fred said with a smirk.
"We wouldn't want to scare a bunch of children," George added nudging his identical brother with an equal sized grin.
"They're not going to tell us," Hermione said after swallowing a mouthful of potato and carrots.
"They couldn't even if they wanted to," Ron said finally. "They don't know what they're doing here."
The kick which Ron received from one of his older brothers sent the boy into a spasm. Clutching his shin he groaned a number of profanities.
"What?" Hermione asked confused. "Ron you know? You know and you didn't tell us!"
"No. I don't know," Ron said rubbing his aching shin. "But neither do they."
Hermione quirked an eyebrow before turning to glare at the twins.
"It's true," George said honesty. "That idiot worked it out."
"We did threaten him if he ever told anyone, but it's true. We really do have no idea what we're here for," Fred said.
"How can you be here and yet not know why?" Hermione asked. "You're probably lying."
"No really we're not!" they said together.
"Sirius is the only one who really knows what he's doing here," Fred told her.
"And all he does is hang around Lupin. Whenever he's back in the room all he does is look miserable or sleep," George said. "Rather a depressing roommate."
"For the last week we've been wandering around 'patrolling' the school," Fred sighed.
"But yet we're not sure what it is when we're patrolling we should be looking out for," George finished.
The twins sighed. "Oh well, we have given out too much of our wisdom already," Fred laughed. "I think it's time to go speak to Peeves."
"Good idea!" George enthused. "Let's see if we can liven this castle up a little.
The brothers got up from their seats and walked away leaving the group to process what they had just been told.
"Well that's useless," Harry spoke finally breaking the silence. "There's no reason for them to be here."
"They are doing something," Hermione snapped. "Didn't you listen?"
"Y-y-yes?" Harry replied nervously. "Did you?"
"Harry, Sirius is up to something, why else would he be around Remus 24/7?" Hermione explained.
Ginny gave her friend a knowing glance, "Hermione don't you think you're thinking too much into this?" What she had wanted to scream at her was 'leave Remus alone, stop getting paranoid!' but managed to restrain herself hoping her eyes would say enough.
"No Ginny I don't!" Hermione responded quickly. "It explains Sirius' behaviour." Her three friends looked at her, sympathy written all over their faces. Even the boys had picked up enough strange vibes lately to work out the surface of Hermione's feelings. "Oh fine!" Hermione huffed. "If you lot don't care then that's fine." No one responded, letting the witch cool off.
If she wanted answers she was going to have to find them herself!
oOo
The following day Hermione met Harry, Ron and Ginny outside the great hall before entering for breakfast. As soon as the doors opened Hermione's eyes scanned the room before settling on the empty seat her favourite professor should have been sitting on.
Ginny watched her gaze, "Hermione it's the full moon tonight, he's probably resting." Nodding she followed her friends to the table and sat down noticing on the way over that Sirius was absent from the room as well.
It wasn't until she was half way down her toasted muffin and bacon when she took in what Ginny had said. "It's the full moon tonight," she whispered.
"Wharf?" Ron spluttered, choking on a mouthful of egg and toast.
"I can find out tonight!" Her mind raced as she went through the idea in her head. If Sirius was going to follow Remus tonight during his full moon then she was almost certain he would be too distracted to notice her watching them from the bushes. There she would be able to see their interactions. See if anything suspicious came about. Surely Sirius' job here would have something to do with Remus' transformations. "It'll happen when he transforms!" Hermione said confidently, the cogs in her head slowly fitting into place. "It must do!"
Standing up she picked up a piece of toast and mumbled her goodbyes, "got to... library... transform."
The three watched her leave from the table: mouths hanging open and eyes wide.
"What the bloody hell was that about?" Ron said finally.
"Merlin does she have it bad for Lupin," Harry offered. The three nodded before going back to their breakfasts. All convinced their friend's ideas and theories wouldn't turn into much more. At least nothing dangerous.
How wrong they were.