Sirius blinked once. Twice. Her words slowly spread through the tunnels of his mind.

"What?" He inquired eloquently, completely forgetting his previous ire towards Pansy.

Hermione rolled her eyes at his apparent slowness.

"Regulus Black? Slytherin? Your younger sibling?" Hermione said slowly, a smirk adorning her face.

"Yes, I know who my own brother is thank you. Why are you bringing him up?" Sirius asked in a slightly irritated voice. He was always a little irritated at the mention of Regulus.

"You might prefer to have this conversation in private. Unless you trust the people here enough not to repeat what I tell you," Hermione glanced around as she said this with one eyebrow raised.

Sirius was a bit unsettled by the direction of the conversation and warily took in the sight of their little group still sitting under the tree.

His gaze paused at a blank-faced Snape. Hermione's rant had really thrown him off. The last thing he had ever wanted was to be compared to a Death Eater. And all that stuff about the Dark Arts actually made some sense when she put it that way. Had he really misjudged Snape? He had always thought of their persecution of the Slytherin as harmless fun; it only now occurred to him that from an outside point of view, four guys targeting one friendless boy actually did sound a lot like bullying.

He suddenly felt a small twitch of guilt. He still didn't like Severus Snape but maybe he could take steps toward being friendlier with him.

Sirius turned back to Hermione and said confidently, "you can tell me in front of them; I don't mind."

There were several surprised faces at his announcement but none more so than Snape, who frowned in genuine confusion at being included in a Marauder's personal business.

Sirius spied Pansy out of the corner of his eye sporting a sort of baffled small smile. He suddenly relished the thought of being able to put that surprised but pleased expression on her face. He had no idea why, seeing as she annoyed him to no end.

Hermione smiled at him kindly.

"Regulus approached me the other day," at this Sirius raised an elegant eyebrow, "and we had a nice chat about his changing opinions and how much he would like to be reconciled with you. Since he fears you might turn him away, he decided to involve a neutral third party to talk with you." Hermione paused to allow this to sink in.

Sirius was stunned to say the least. He had always assumed that Regulus wanted nothing to do with the black sheep of the family, no pun intended. Sure they had been close before they started Hogwarts but they had rarely even talked in recent years despite sharing the same living space each summer before Sirius finally fled. In fact, Sirius had already written him off as just another Slytherin destined to join You Know Who's ranks. Sirius just couldn't handle his worldview being twisted around this much in one day.

"Look I'll admit that some of your earlier points make sense Durant," Sirius began, "but don't think for a second you can fool me into believing such nonsense. You Slytherins are always plotting something and you best believe I'm not about to fall for Reg's manipulations," Sirius stated in an angry tone.

Hermione was looking at him with a sort of pitying gaze and when he glanced to Pansy he saw an unpleasant frown had replaced his hard-won smile.

"I wish you would just talk with him Sirius. You may be able to save him from a terrible fate," Hermione murmured.

Sirius was struck by her familiarity when addressing him. It felt as if they were old friends who were just bickering as usual. Though he had thought them mere acquaintances, he could feel a strange kinship to this girl. This unsettled him but he was accustomed to following his instincts and for some strange reason they were telling him to trust Hermione.

"I'll think about it," He said begrudgingly.
Remus looked at his friend in shock before turning back to the girl who had convinced the stubborn Sirius Black to not only let up on Snape but try to reconcile with Regulus.

At that moment Hermione glanced to Remus and saw his astounded expression. To his surprise, she winked conspiratorially as if they were sharing some sort of secret. Remus instantly blushed at the attention but gave a small smile in return.

Hermione was quite pleased with her progress. She hadn't even needed Luna's help in convincing Sirius. James and he both seemed like they were going to let up on Severus. Lily had forgiven her best friend. Even Peter had changed since the beginning of the school year. He had a lot more confidence now and speaking to a wider range of people had made him all the more grateful for his expanding group of friends.

Lily, who had been watching the exchange with interest, decided to change the subject.

"So, when are we going to start that tutoring group?"

Hermione smiled at Lily and replied, "right now if you wish."

The group had been practicing DADA on the castle grounds for close to an hour when dinner rolled around. The time had been spent with Hermione, Luna, and Pansy making their way to different people while they dueled and giving advice. At one point, Sirius declared that he hadn't seen Pansy or Luna actually duel and demanded to take on one of them. Pansy had stepped forward with a malicious grin on her face; needless to say, the experienced war veteran had Sirius on his arse within minutes, to the latter's extreme embarrassment. James high-fived Pansy in a playful manner much to Sirius's ire before losing spectacularly to Luna, though she was perhaps a bit gentler with her opponent.

James just laughed it off and congratulated his friend on her victory before asking her to show him some of the techniques she used. Lily observed this silently from her position, pondering over the changes she had seen in James today. He was getting along much better with the Slytherins and he wasn't teasing her nearly as much. She still caught him gazing at her often of course but she found she didn't mind that as much as his lavish exclamations of love.

They all chatted amicably on their way back to the castle and parted to sit at their respective tables. Notably, Peter waved goodbye to his Griffindor friends and ran over to the Hufflepuff table to sit with some 5th year girl. James and Sirius catcalled after him but Peter just grinned over his shoulder conspiratorially before turning back to the girl. Remus simply smiled encouragingly at his friend before turning back to his dinner. It looked like romance was in the air.