Author's Notes: A chapter from Remus Lupin's point of view, thought it might be interesting :) Just found out Anonymous reviews were not allowed for the story till now, I have changed the setting now, please do feel free to comment and give your feedback about the story even if anonymously, it makes writing more fun :)

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Remus Lupin did not know what to think of Hermione Granger. Ever since she was introduced in the Order meeting, he could feel there was something going on with her.

Firstly, she didn't smell, at all. Everyone had a unique scent that his werwolf learnt to recognise and associate with the person. However Hermione Granger smelled of nothing. It was clear that she was using a scent muffling charm and he wondered why she would do that. Most females he knew wouldn't go out without a perfume on them but a scent muffling charm would prevent her from that. Why was she using the charm?

Secondly, she was avoiding him. When he introduced himself to her, she was quite polite and warm, and yet he had a feeling she always tried her best to not be anywhere in his immediate vicinity. Did Dumbledore tell her about his secret? Was that why she made the extra effort to maintain the distance? He would have felt hurt but she did not seem scared of him or repulsed by him whenever he did manage to talk to her. He could see her hold back and he couldn't figure out why she would do that.

Thirdly Moony had a strange instinct of protectiveness for her. It did not make any sense. He had never met her before and yet she almost felt like pack. He had no idea what to make of it.

As they walked towards the first floor, following her, he wondered if they would have ever come to know of such unbelievable things without her.

"Girl's lavatory! The most elusive place on earth is in a lavatory!" Fabian Prewett spoke in an amazed tone.

" It's not 'in' a lavatory, it just has access through it." Granger rolled her eyes.

"Potato, potaeto" Gideon quipped.

Both Granger and Sirius laughed but James seemed to still be staring at Granger as if he was trying to figure out a puzzle . He seemed to be doing that a lot of late. Couldn't blame him, he himself was extremely curious as to how she had so much information access.

As they reached the door of the said place, Hermione stopped, took out a bunch of glasses from her beaded bag and started handing them over. "Okay.. so if a Basilisk looks you straight in the eye, you are dead but if it looks at you through some barrier, you are just petrified. We prefer petrified, hence the glasses."

"We'd prefer avoiding that too." James smiled.

"Well let's hope for the best!", she replied with a smile of her own. She seemed to avoid Prongs too from what he had observed. Why?

He didn't get the chance to ponder more on the thought as as soon as they entered, something whisked past them at such an alarming speed that it scared the living daylight out of him.

"Hey Myrtle! Mind giving us some room over here" He heard Granger speak calmly to what he now realised was the ghost of the dead girl that the girls would often talk about. 'Moaning Myrtle' they called her.

"Who are you? I haven't seen you before? What are you doing in my place of rest?"

She had never seen Granger? But Granger seemed to recognise her! Strange! How come Granger found the entrance if the ghost says she was never here? Something weird was going on. This girl was definitely not telling them the entire truth.

"I'm Hermione. Nice to meet you. I'm really sorry but we have some work here. I promise we would try to not disrupt your schedule much." Granger said smoothly to the ghost. She was very kind to someone she didn't really need to be, he found that interesting.

"Schedule? What's on it? Flushing down the drain twice?" Sirius quipped in a low voice with a chuckle.

Granger elbowed him to be quiet. She seemed quite at ease with Sirius despite knowing him for the same time as them, guess he does have that special effect on girls that he is always boasting about.

Granger went to one of the taps and made a strange noise close to it.

Immediately the sink shifted and an entrance appeared.

"Woah!" Padfoot gasped along with literally everyone else.

Moody had his wand out in a second. "What was that? Was that Parseltongue? You can speak it?" He looked positively furious.

"Parseltongue! What the f***!" James shouted.

"Keep quite James," Mr Potter said in a stern voice.

"Miss Granger?" He looked over to the girl.

"Yes it was a word in Parseltongue. No I cannot speak it except for this one word which I learnt from my friend. He could speak the language and no he was not evil. Not everyone speaking Parseltongue is evil." She sounded defensive.

"No one except Voldemort himself has been known to speak Parseltongue in ages. Your friend has surely kept himself under the radar Ms Granger. It certainly is an extremely rare capability. Only those with links to Salazar Slytherin are supposed to be proficient in it." Mr Potter questioned in a subtle way.

"My friend got his capability accidentally. No he was not a dark wizard if that is what you are trying to ask." Granger spoke confidently.

"Was? And how does one get such a capability 'accidentally'" Moody asked.

"He is dead. I would rather not talk about him right now." She spoke in a low voice and he could see the devastation clear on her face. She was not lying.

"Maybe someday I'll tell you all about him" she said softly while looking up at Mr Potter with a weirdly compassionate expression.

"Okay then." Mr Potter looked over at Moody and he nodded, lowering his wand.

"Prewett and Prewett you guard this entrance. Black and Little Potter, you are to guard the bathroom entrance. If the snake comes out, it better be dead before being able to leave the Castle. Lupin, you are coming with us. Hold the roosters." Moody instructed.

Granger stepped up and started explaining. "We need to jump. We are going to land on Devil's Snare. Do not panic, just relax, light a small fire and you'll be free. Then we leave the roosters and wait."

"Easy enough then." Moody stated and before anyone could do anything, he jumped. Granger smiled and looked over at Mr Potter.

"My turn then." Mr Potter smiled back and jumped.

"Okay then…" he suddenly got nervous.

"It's going to be okay." she smiled reassuringly at him. "You should drop the rooster cages first, and then jump, I'll be right after you."

He did as she said and within a few minutes they were all looking at what looked like a pile of rat bones spread all over. He thought about Peter and had to stop himself from puking.

Once the roosters were loose, it took about five minutes before they heard a loud thump. They waited for a few minutes more and once they could hear nothing more than the roosters crying, they moved forward. Granger seemed to know where they were going and he wondered how that was possible.

He didn't get a chance to think more on those lines as they came across a giant mass of what was most definitely the biggest snake he had ever seen in his life. His heart beat faster as he realised what would have happened if this snake would have gotten loose in Hogwarts.

It was amazing to see Granger work with such precision, as if her every move was planned. She cut the Basilisk fangs carefully and stored them in her beaded bag, which he now realised had an interior enlargement charm on them.

Moody raised his eyebrow when he saw that. "You do realise that charm is not legal Ms Granger"

"Ooops!" She smirked and he rolled his eyes. Mr Potter chuckled.

Remus had never in his life imagined he would be a part of something like this! This was not normal everyday work!

Once they were done collecting the fangs and some venom which Granger insisted was invaluable, they left the godforsaken place with the body of the basilisk in a protective preservative charm over there only. There was no way they could deal with that right now.

Once out, it felt like he could breath again. That Chamber gave him the shivers.

"Did you get to slay the beast Moony?" James put an arm around him.

"Ofcourse! I wish to be known as the great slayer of the big mighty snakes from now on."

He could see Granger's lips twitch but didn't meet their eyes, she was strange.

"Well then one job done," Moody spoke. " Now we just need to wait for Slughorn to organise his party thing and we can get started on destroying the devil," he continued.

"This was the most interesting expedition I have had in a while. Thank you Ms Granger." Mr Potter turned towards her.

"The pleasure is all mine Mr Potter," Granger answered with a smile.

"I'll get going now, Alastor are you staying to meet up with Albus?"

"I'll just update him on the way out, we can use his floo."

"Sure. You kids better leave soon too. The students might not be here but it's still better to avoid being seen at the Castle without any explanation." Mr Potter spoke up.

"Yes Dad. Will just go visit three broomsticks for a bit, it will just look like a nostalgic visit back to the village."

"Okay that should be fine, see you at home" Mr Potter said as he walked away.

"Care to join us for a bottle of Butterbeer Granger?" James asked.

"Ah, thank you but I should get going, maybe some other time." She replied awkwardly.

"Oh no you don't get to do that after such a momentous day! We need to celebrate!" One of the Prewett twins stopped her from walking away.

"I'm sorry I really need to be somewhere. I would have otherwise."

"Okay you get a pass this time but next time no excuses. It's not every day that you get to hang around with badass snake and Horcrux hunting witches!" The other Prewett, Gideon, came up along her other side.

"True that!" Fabian agreed with a smirk.

Granger smiled, said her goodbyes and walked away.

This was the second time the new girl let go off an opportunity to mingle with them. And he couldn't help but feel it was personal. There was something off about Hermione Granger and Remus Lupin didn't know what to make off it.