By the way, I think this is a terrible chapter, and some of you may not like what's in it, but I'm just getting this out of the way so I can smoosh them closer together.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Gryffindor Common Room, October 7, 1977….
"Alright, what's a nargle again?" Lily sighed, examining her book, "That made up thing?"
"Yeah," Alice yawned, leaning into the chair, "Why is Laverti making us do this?"
"Inner Eye nonsense," Lily mumbled before the portrait opened and Hermione zoomed straight to her friends, beaming. "What's with you?"
"I have a date!" she said excitedly.
Lily and Alice lit up, the latter tossing her books aside and leaning forward, "Screw learning, this is more important!"
"What's more important?" James asked as he and the other Marauders stepped in and looked at them curiously.
"I have a date!" Hermione repeated.
"Oh, neat, with who?" Remus smiled.
"Darren Mortimer!" she said proudly as the four boys froze and looked between each other worriedly, which she didn't notice, "We're going to Hogsmeade next weekend!"
"You can't," Sirius told her.
"Why not?" Lily, Hermione and Alice chorused, frowning at him as Hermione stood up and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I just – you can't," he repeated lamely.
"That's not a reason," she grinned and arched an eyebrow at him, "At least, not a good one."
"Look, Hermione, I know Sirius has done some things in the past that make him seem untrustworthy, but you can't date him," James pleaded as well.
"Give me a reason and I'll think about it," she shrugged.
"You just – can't," Remus winced.
"We can't tell you why but you can't," Peter piped up.
"Guys, this is ridiculous," she snorted and shook her head, walking back to the portrait, "I'm going to go see him."
"Wait, wait, Hermione, no," James gripped his hair, wincing at his friends as Lily and Alice looked at them curiously, "No, no, don't!"
Sirius gritted his teeth and winced, knowing that he'd surely regret what he was about to do, before speaking, "Don't be such a bitch, Hermione!"
Hermione promptly froze and the air seemed to have been sucked out of the room as she turned around and stared at him. He opened his eyes and looked at her, waiting to see what she'd do. Instead of hitting him or yelling at him like he would've thought, her eyes started welling up with tears, although she was still glaring at him.
"Go to hell," she gritted out before finally going out of the Common Room, although she wasn't about to go and see Darren. Alice popped up and glared at him before rushing out after her, frantically calling out her name as Lily stood.
"You had no right," she said before following her friends out.
The boys stood in silence until Sirius let out a huff of air, looking at James pleadingly. He reached over and patted him on the back, moving him to sit on the couch. Sirius did so and put his face in his hands, trying to get the image of when she started hating his guts out of his brain.
"Jesus," Remus sighed as he sat down next to his friend, rubbing his face with one hand, "Sometimes I really hate magic."
The other three nodded their agreement, looking at each other miserably.
"I've never called her that, not behind her back and certainly not to her face," Sirius winced, "She hates me."
"She couldn't have gone to see him alone, Padfoot," James reasoned, "You know."
"I hate him," Remus shrugged, "It's all his fault."
"I can't believe she wants to date him," Sirius sighed, putting his face back in his hands, "And nobody even knows what a slime ball he is except us, and we can't even say anything about it because of that stupid spell he put on us!"
"Poor Hermione," Peter said, looking towards the door, "I think that hurt her more than she let on."
"Oh, thanks Peter," Padfoot snapped. "That makes me feel a lot better!"
"I think there's something in her head that we don't know about," James muttered, "Normally, if you said anything bad about her, she'd hit you and get over it."
"I don't think she'll get over this any time soon," Sirius leaned against the couch, "Or ever."
The Marauders looked at him sympathetically, not knowing what to say or do to make him feel better.
Hermione and the other girls proceeded to not talk to Sirius or the other Marauders up until the Hogsmeade weekend. It had to have been the biggest fight between Sirius and Hermione, although by Lily and James's standards it was no big deal. Hermione and Sirius were both rather easy-going when it came to people, although a little stubborn in some areas, and they never resorted to name-calling, especially since they knew that they actually rather hurt, Hermione having been called a Mudblood and Sirius having been called a Death Eater in training when they were younger. It was a touchy thing that was understood by everyone in their year – aside from the Slytherins who didn't care what the other three Houses agreed upon and went about their own way.
James and Sirius were in the Heads common room, staring bored at the ceiling and occasionally asking weird questions that the other wouldn't have an answer to until the portrait opened up and they blinked at Hermione, who blinked back at them, as they obviously weren't expecting the other.
"Hi," she murmured softly, holding her arms, "I-is Lily here?"
James gaped at her before gaping at Sirius, "I – I dunno, but I'll go look." He stood up and bolted for Lily's staircase, soon returning and looking at her worriedly, "She's not up there but I'm going to go find her for you, okay?"
"Okay," she whimpered as he grimaced at Sirius and ran out of the portrait.
"What happened?" Sirius asked, patting the seat beside him once as she stubbornly wiped her tears away. She walked over and sat next to him, still wiping the tears away and trying not to produce more.
"Mortimer kept - kept touching me and trying to kiss me and I told him to st-stop and he called me a Mudblood and when I was walking off he said that I wouldn't be able t-to tell anyone else, j-just like you guys," she sniffed, looking at him with watery eyes, making no move to wipe the tears away now, "I am s-so sorry, Sirius, I – I should've listened to you and the others, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."
"I'm sorry," he said as he pulled her into him, rubbing her back as he winced, "I shouldn't have called you that, I should've thought of something else, I'm so sorry, Hermione, I never meant it."
The door opened again and they both turned to see Lily gaping at her friend before rushing to her side, wrapping her arms around her and hugging her before James could even get the door shut, "Oh, Sweetie, what happened, are you okay?"
"He kept – " she tried, crying harder now once she realized she couldn't physically say it to Lily, "Lily, he kept – he kept trying to…."
"Hermione, come on, tell me," Lily pleaded, "I can't fix it if I don't know what's wrong."
"She can't tell you, just like we can't," Sirius sighed, "It's a really stupid spell he must've learned before he came to Hogwarts."
"Hermione, what did he do to you?" Lily pulled away and looked at her friend in the eyes, gripping her shoulders worriedly, "I'm killing him either way, although I suspect I'll have to save something for Alice."
"He – he…tried to get me to do the thing I glare at Alice and the boys for saying, but I wouldn't and he called me a name," she settled, lighting up as she figured out a way around the spell, as there were numerous things she glared at Alice and the Marauders for saying.
"What?" Lily shrieked, standing up as her face turned almost as red as her hair, "And then he makes it so you can't tell me?"
"Lily I feel so gross," she whimpered, making her friend calm down and sit back down to run her hands through her hair.
"You aren't gross – he's the gross one, and we're killing him the second we see him," Sirius promised, Lily and James nodding their agreement.
She sniffed and nodded, smiling at them before groaning, "Ugh, my makeup looked good for once too." Lily laughed and hugged her tightly, Sirius smiling at her as James reached forward and removed the smudges her eye makeup had made on her face.
Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Staircase, October 16, 1977….
"Sirius," Remus chided as he gripped his friend's shoulder and tugged him away from trying to kill Darren, although he did this halfheartedly. "Not in public."
"But Moony!" he frowned. "He tried to – " he cut off with a growl and a glare towards Darren, who was smirking over at them.
"Anyway," Darren went back to his friends, "She was practically begging for me to give her more, so I – " He stopped, turning around to be promptly punched in the face.
"You liar, you gross slimy liar!" Hermione yelled at him as Sirius lit up and beamed at her, Lily looking at a wall dully as Alice smiled at her proudly, "If I ever hear you talking like that about anybody, I will aim lower! Much lower! In fact, so low that you'll never be able to have children! And another thing - !"
"Alright, come on, we're going to be late," James said, tugging her away as she continued to glare at him, "Although she is right, and I'd love to see her do it to you, because you so rightly deserve it. But that's another matter entirely. This is where I'm pulling my friend away so she won't get in trouble for defending herself or any other girls. Meanwhile, that little spell has promptly been broken – all because you had to brag – so I told your cousin and McGonagall what you tried to keep hidden." James grinned at him, "Have fun then. C'mon, Hermione."
Hermione allowed herself to be led away by him before she was pulled into a hug by Sirius.
"You are so kickass," he grinned into her hair as she sighed at him.
"Is this going to be a regular thing now?" she muttered into his chest.
"Yes," he pulled back and grinned at her before ruffling up her hair, "You're so violent and so great when it's not towards me."
"Thanks, I think," she arched an eyebrow at him before turning back to Alice and Lily, "See you."
"Bye," they chorused before James and Remus grinned at Sirius.
"What?" he blinked at them.
The two shared glances before smiling at him, "Nothing."
"What?" he demanded again.
"Nothing, Padfoot," James laughed.
"What?" he insisted.
"Nothing!" Remus waved him away as he glared at his friends.
"It's okay, I don't get it either," Peter shrugged before James said something in his ear. His eyebrows arched before he tried not to smile, nodding at them, "Okay, now I see it."
"What?" Sirius huffed.
"Nothing!" the three chorused, pushing him to get him to go to class.
I figured that this would be the breaking point in their relationship to where they would slowly get together. I had reasons, and lots of them, but now that I have to write it out my mind is completely blank. But if you still want to hear them, you can ask me on here or on Tumblr if you don't have an account. I answer Tumblr asks faster than having to wait until the next chapter to answer something in the reviews. Plus, my Tumblr is awesome, and I have music on there.