A/N: I don't like this chapter very much. Review and let me know what you think, please? Also, I know that Hermione doesn't act a lot like this but she is a bit OOC in the fic. She needs to come out of her shell to mkae friends with everyone that she needs to if that makes sense. I'm so sorry and I'll try to make her as realistic as possible but I do need to change some things.

Disclaimer: So yeah, I'll own Harry Potter when Narnia exists, when pigs fly, when onesies aren't comfy and when Tom Felton isn't beautiful.

Chapter 4

True to her word, Hermione appeared in Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour half an hour later. Her arms were aching from carrying the bags and she sighed in relief when she saw that the boys had gotten them a table.

"Hey boys."

"Hey 'Mione," they replied in unison.

Hermione shuddered at how much they sounded like Fred and George.

"I'm just going to get a caramel sundae, I'll be back in a few minutes."

"No," said Sirius. "You stay here, I'll get you something."

"Really Black? I thought I was to buy you the ice-cream," she smirked.

"You can pay me back later," he said with a wink and walked off to join the queue.

When Sirius returned with her sundae, the boys started asking Hermione about her choice of clothes.

"I mean, in all honesty 'Mione, the clothes you bought were kind of horrible."

"Gee, thanks James," she said dryly. "No, don't worry, I have an idea."

"Well are you going to tell us?" Sirius asked.

"Of course. Right, so I hate all the clothes here."

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"They just look weird compared to the clothes from home."

As soon as she said it, she realised her slip up.

"You mean from France?" James asked with a mouth full of chocolate sauce.

She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes, James, from France. And please, swallow before you talk. So anyway, considering I don't like the styles here, I'll just transfigure them to look like the stuff from home."

"That's quite smart, but aren't you afraid that people will look at you weird?"

"I wouldn't care. If other people think that I dress weird then that's fine by me. Lord knows I'm used to it."

"I like it," Sirius said after some thought.

"You like what?"

"The way that you don't care what people think of you. It's a good attitude to have."

"Thanks Sirius."

"I only speak the truth, fair maiden."

Hermione giggled and threw a cherry at him which of course, he simply caught in his mouth. He smirked at her and she pouted.

Once they had finished their ice-cream, they left Diagon Alley and Flooed back to the Potter's house. Hermione went to take her bags up the stairs when they were taken out of her hands by Sirius.

"Chivalry isn't dead, sweet cheeks," he said as he walked up the stairs.

Hermione wandered into the lounge where she saw Victoria reading a book. She seemed to hear Hermione walk in because she set her book down and looked up at her. Hermione flopped down onto the couch, thoroughly exhausted from her day.

"Tired?" Victoria asked.

"A tad," Hermione replied.

"What did you buy?"

"Jeans, hoodies, t-shirts, jackets, underwear, bikinis, accessories, shoes, the lot. Most of it needs to be transfigured though."

"Why?"

"I'm not a big fan of the styles here so I bought a load of cheap stuff that nobody in the right mind would buy so I could wear what I wanted."

"The style in France is different from here?"

"Very."

"Well that soun-" she broke off mid-sentence. "Hermione, where are your bags?"

"Sirius took them up to my room."

"You said you bought underwear, right?"

"Yeah..." she said questioningly, not knowing what Victoria was getting at.

"Honey, never trust Sirius with a bag full of lingerie," she said simply.

Hermione dashed out of the room, hearing Victoria chuckle as she legged it up the stairs. Sure enough, Victoria was right. There was Sirius, in all his glory, taking lingerie out of her bag and examining it. Right now, he was holding a black lace bra with a matching thong. Then, he had the nerve to look at the label, checking the size. He smirked appreciatively and Hermione decided it was time to make her presence known.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked in a low voice.

Sirius' face filled with dread at the sight of her but he quickly covered it with a smirk.

"I think I'm looking through your underwear. I approve darling."

"You know, I could hex your balls off here and now but I think I'll get more satisfaction from watching James do it," she said coldly.

This time, he didn't bother to cover the look of horror in his face.

"Y-you wouldn't."

"James!" she screamed.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" he called up the stairs.

She darted down the flight of stairs, Sirius stumbling after her.

"Jamie," she put on her most innocent face, her wide doe eyes watering a little more than necessary. "Sirius said that he'd take my bags up stairs for me but when I walked in, he was looking through my underwear," she said with a shake in her voice.

James' demeanour changed instantaneously, colour flooding his face. His hazel eyes turned darker and he just stared at Sirius. Sirius looked guilty while Hermione stood behind James with a smirk that Malfoy would've been proud of.

"Is that true, Sirius?" his quiet voice dripping with anger as he walked towards the black haired boy.

Sirius just stared at the floor.

"You are aware that she's my little sister, right? That she's not another notch on your bedpost? That she will not be another one of your whores?" he asked, his voice still deathly quiet.

Sirius nodded, shuffling his feet, still looking at the floor. He reminded Hermione of a child being caught eating biscuits right before dinner. He finally looked up and met James' eyes.

James broke his nose.

"James!" Hermione and Sirius both yelled. Sirius looked at Hermione in confusion, after she was the one who told him what he had been doing.

"Why the hell did you break his nose?!"

"He was looking at your underwear!"

"I thought you would've hexed him or something, not punched him in the face! Good punch though," she added. "Here, let me see your hand."

"His hand?!" Sirius yelled, wincing at the pain and at the blood dripping into his mouth. "You do understand that he broke my nose right?!"

"Yes, Sirius, I'm fully aware of that," she patronized. "You, however, deserved it. He doesn't."

Sirius kept quiet while Hermione tended to James' bloody knuckles. She cleared up the blood and wiped away the torn skin. She cleaned the cuts with an antiseptic charm and conjured a bandage to place over them. She didn't take nearly as much care with Sirius.

"Episkey," she muttered sharply. She threw him a rag to wipe the blood and flounced away to continue her conversation with Victoria.

"Bitch," he mumbled, rubbing his nose.

"What did you say, Padfoot?" James asked.

"Nothing."

"Sorry about that, by the way. You know, the broken nose thing."

"Yeah, I got that," Sirius said sharply.

"She is my little sister though, she's not some slut you picked up and shagged in an empty corridor."

"I know she's not. She doesn't seem the type. A bit of minx, mind you. Looks of an angel, heart of the devil."

"How so?"

"She decided that it would be more amusing to watch you hex me than to do it herself."

James rolled his eyes.

"God, she's practically a Slytherin!"

~oOo~

Down in the sitting room, Hermione was looking around for Victoria. Discovering that she wasn't going to find her any time soon, Hermione sat down on the couch. She stared a fire in the fire place, letting the orange flames lull her into a daydream.

"Ready are you?"

Hermione stared at the giant man. He had practically no neck and his face was nearing purple. His belt was fastened in the last hole. It was a wonder he had managed to fasten it at all. His checked shirt was pulled taught across his chest and the buttons looked as though they were going to fly off and hit Harry square between the eyes. Hermione assumed that this was Harry's infamous uncle, the one who had made his family and Harry move to a hut on a rock in the middle of the sea just to prevent Harry from going to Hogwarts.

Next, Hermione saw a boy who somewhat reminded Hermione of a ham. His piggy blue eyes were filled with fear at the sight of the snowy owl that was perched delicately in its cage. The bird seemed to feel the boy's uneasiness because she turned her head and glared at the young boy with bright amber eyes. Anyone could tell that the boy was Vernon's son, he was basically his smaller twin although, by the looks of things, he wouldn't be smaller for much longer.

Hermione's eyes fell on the woman standing next to Vernon, shielding Dudley behind her. She resembled a horse but she had an extremely long neck which Harry said she used for looking over the hedges to spy on her neighbours. She was as white as ghost at the sight of Harry walking through the wall but it wasn't out of fear for the boy, as it should've been, it was the fact that it was so abnormal that drained the colour from her face.

Why did Harry have to live with these people? Hermione thought to herself. Clearly they don't love him. He slept in a cupboard under the stairs until he got his Hogwarts letter and only then was he moved into Dudley's SECOND bedroom. Where were his grandparents on his mum or his dad's side?

That thought snapped Hermione out of her daydream. Harry was forced to live with the Dursleys because he had no other living relatives. That meant that Lily's parents died, along with Charlus and Victoria. Everyone that she had never heard of before probably died in a Death Eater attack. Her thoughts went to that girl they had met in muggle London. What was her name? Ellie, Elizabeth? No. Eleanor. That was it. She had never heard of an Eleanor before and yet she seemed so close to Lily. Wouldn't that mean that the Sirius and Remus would talk about her when they were thinking about their time at Hogwarts? What had happened to her? Mentally, Hermione started panicking. When she went to Hogwarts, she would probably meet a lot of people that she had never heard of before. Would they die as well? The weight of this task was becoming too heavy on Hermione's shoulders. She would need someone to help her. She started to make a list of people she needed to try and save.

James

Lily

Sirius

Peter

Eleanor

Victoria

Charlus

The Evans

There was so many. There had to be ways to help them all. The list would only expand when she got to Hogwarts. To save James and Lily, she would need to find the Horcruxes. The Diary was probably in Malfoy's Gringotts vault right about now. Although it wouldn't be entrusted to Lucius, Abraxus probably had it. Lucius most likely wasn't a Death Eater yet so maybe she could befriend him.

Yes, because it's just that simple.

Oh, shut up.

She really needed to stop having these conversations with her brain. She knew that becoming friends with Lucius was a long shot but she had to try. If she could destroy that Horcrux, the Chamber of Secrets wouldn't be opened again.

She knew that Regulus had found the locket and stolen it. She also knew that he died a few days after. Regulus wasn't a Death Eater yet, he couldn't be, he was only 15. Surely Voldemort didn't start recruiting that young. Maybe if Hermione could get Sirius to talk to his brother again, Regulus wouldn't join the Death Eaters. After all, she knew the cave that the locket was in. It wasn't like he needed to tell her where it was.

The Cup would be in either the Lestrange or Black vaults. Which one, she didn't know. If Bellatrix wasn't at Hogwarts then it would be in her vault. According to the first Order of the Phoenix, Bellatrix had been Voldemort's right-hand Death Eater long before his downfall.

She had no idea where the Ring and the Diadem were. They could be hidden anywhere. Voldemort was smart though. He would've hidden them with the best protection there was. Curses, potions, dark creatures, the lot. They would be locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

Hermione decided that logic was the best way to solve this puzzle. If he had two Horcruxes hidden in Gringotts and one in a place that meant something to him, then the others would be in places similar. Gringotts was so secure, so strong that barely anyone broke in and made it out alive. Also, the Black and Malfoy vaults were already some of the most well-protected vaults in Gringotts so placing two Horcruxes in there would keep them safe without arousing suspicion. The Locket was hidden in a cave near the orphanage where he grew up. It was never a home to him, much like the 4 Privet Drive never was for Harry. Hogwarts was Harry's first real home. Hermione's mind slotted the pieces of the puzzle together.

Where was a safer place to hide a Horcrux than Hogwarts?

The castle was one of the safest places in Britain, right up at the top with Gringotts. Plus, a bunch of unsuspecting schoolchildren who didn't even know what a Horcrux was would never find it. Most likely, Voldemort had hidden the Diadem there. The only problem was, where was the Diadem hidden? Hogwarts was a good place to hide it but where inside the castle exactly was it? There wasn't alive who'd seen it apart from Riddle. That ruled out Ravenclaw tower. Luna's dreamy voice drifted into her mind.

There's not a person alive who's seen it. It's obvious, isn't it? We have to talk to someone who's dead.

The Grey Lady.

Hermione's eyes were still focused on the flames which were steadily growing brighter. She made a list of things she had to do while she was at Hogwarts.

1. Befriend Peter, Lucius and Regulus.

2. Talk to the Grey Lady.

3. Destroy 5 Horcruxes.

Simple, right?