XxTHxX

It was a cold night. Even though the season had just transitioned from summer to fall, it was snowing. Frost had covered most of the windows, leaving a few spots clear and untouched. It reminded Hermione of the train ride during her third year, the windows on the train looked surprisingly similar.

"Go with me to Hogsmead." Luna stated calmly, never once glancing up from her newspaper.

"Why?" Hermione replied softly, her fingers reaching out to slide down the cold window.

"Because you're wallowing around like someone has died." Luna explained, her eyes trying to catch Hermione's above the paper.

Hermione frowned, something was causing her pain, but what was it?

"Maybe someone has and I just don't know it yet." Hermione joked sourly, her fingers aching to hold something – anything.

Luna slammed her paper onto the small coffee table in front of her. "What happened?"

"What?" Hermione asked, clearly shocked at her friend's behavior.

"You're hiding." Luna glared

"I'm doing no such thing!" Hermione declared; her face turning red.

"Then why have you moved into my dorm?" Luna asked quickly, her eyes searching for an answer.

"You don't like it when I visit?" Hermione asked, avoiding the question.

"I love it when you visit, I truly do. I just want to know why you look so sad." Luna lectured with a sad look in her eyes as she got up and moved closer to her friend.

Hermione sighed, her head falling down slightly as she closed her eyes tightly. "I don't know Luna. I really don't. I'm just so confused and so unhappy. Was I ever happy? I just can't seem to understand anything right now."

Luna frowned, already knowing the cause of her unhappiness – knowing it was due to the return of James and Sirius into their lives. However, her friend would never accept that as an answer, she was way too stubborn.

"Come with me!" Luna exclaimed suddenly, reaching over and grabbing Hermione's hands and pulling her up.

Hermione groaned, but didn't resist being pulled up. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see! Just follow me!" Luna announced, grabbing her coat and Hermione's off the rack.

Hermione allowed this simply because…well Luna would force her to go with her either way; she might as well go along with it. Luna put on her periwinkle coat decorated with musical notes that would sing a song every once in a while and Hermione put on her red coat. They left the Ravenclaw's sitting room without anyone glancing their way; they were used to Hermione's presence by now, and walked down the halls.

"I've heard that the Pongadoles come out during the winter months." Luna commented randomly as they walked.

"What do they look like?" Hermione asked curiously, though she didn't know whether to truly believe her.

"Oh, I believe there was an article in Papa's newspaper saying they were white fluff balls that were attracted to snow since they believe that they're actually relatives. They bring luck and we need luck." Luna explained carefully.

"How will we know if we find them?" Hermione asked, turning to glance at Luna.

"We don't. That's the fun part." Luna replied calmly.

Hermione smiled, that was her Luna. The one constant thing in her life was her friend and she loved that she could rely on her and on Harry like that. She frowned. She didn't understand why she was so moody and gloomy today. Yes her life was in turmoil but when wasn't it? So she was having a problem with her boyfriend, which was understandable, everyone had those kinds of problems anyways. Besides, Ron was going to take her on a date tonight. She smiled. They had planned it last week since juggling school, Quidditch, and friends took up all their time and they decided to put aside a day just for them. She needed this, her feelings for James and Sirius were just there because she was in a rocky situation with Ron and once things were back to normal between them, then the feelings would go away and she'd be a good girlfriend again. Yes, she liked the sound of that.

"We're here!" Luna announced as they stood before the courtyard filled with snow.

Not waiting for Hermione, Luna sprinted outside where the tiny balls of snow slowly attached themselves to her. Luna laughed at the feeling and started to dance by herself in the snow-covered yard. Hermione smiled indulgently and joined her friend. Instantly she felt wet droplets from the snow melting on her. She chuckled and closed her eyes, also enjoying it.

"Dance with me!" Luna suggested, pulling Hermione into a waltz across the yard while Hermione busted out laughing.

"Do I have a choice?" Hermione asked breathlessly, deciding to twirl Luna.

Luna shook her head while her eyes shone with mirth. They continued this for a while. They stopped dancing and Hermione decided to show Luna how to make a snowman and afterwards Luna enchanted it to come alive and dance with them. Hermione had laughed when Luna named him Frosty, but didn't have the energy to explain to Luna why she did.

"Come on, we can go warm up in Gryffindor's tower." Hermione suggested, wiping off the snow that had gathered on her coat and hair.

"What about Frosty?" Luna pouted, looking up from another half-made snowman that she was making for Frosty.

"I'm sure he's a little worn out from hanging with us." Hermione commented.

"I guess so." Luna agreed sadly. She gave Frosty a hug before she tapped her wand twice on his head and he returned to normal. She looked at his form sadly before bouncing over to Hermione. She linked her arm with Hermione's and started walking to the Gryffindor's tower. They chatted softly, passing several classmates and stopping to say a quick hello to. When they reached the Fat Lady's portrait and Hermione whispered the password. The portrait swung open for the girls and they entered quickly since their coats were soaked and thus they were soaked.

"You can borrow some of my clothes." Hermione told Luna as they walked up the stairs to get to her room

"Thanks, I'd hate to get sick before I saw the Pongadoles." Luna replied softly.

Hermione smiled at her friend and went straight to her trunk to get two different set of clothes, just normal jeans and muggle t-shirts. She handed one to set to Luna for her to change into and Hermione changed into hers. The jeans hugged Hermione's curves and Hermione was pleased with that. They went back down and saw Harry playing chess with James so she decided to go and watch.

"Hello Harry." Luna greeted softly, her smile lifted up in a breathtaking smile.

Harry glanced up and blushed at Luna. She was so pretty without even trying. "Hey Luna, Hermione. What are you guys doing?"

Hermione smiled. "We're just hanging out till Ron decides to show up for our date. Care for some cheerleaders? Looks like you need it."

Harry frowned; he didn't think he was losing that badly to his dad. He glanced to look at James, but his dad's eyes were scrunched up in concentration. "Sure." He replied.

Luna clapped her hands excitedly. "I'll root for Harry and you can root for James, Hermione."

Hermione held back a groan but nodded her head ever so slightly in agreement. She glanced at James, but he hadn't seemed to notice their intrusion, yet anyways. She saw Luna whisper to Harry about several possible moves, so she decided to help James, not that he needed it though. She moved to stand behind him to get a better view of the board. James was already winning, but if Luna was helping Harry then he could easily overcome that and beat James. She bent so her mouth was near his ear, she didn't want Luna to overhear.

"It's best to move your knight over there." She whispered.

James jumped in his seat, obviously not expecting her to be that close. "What?"

Luna and Harry looked over before going to back to their conversation. Harry ended up moving one of his pawns, Luna slightly nodding at his move.

"Move your knight over there. I've played with Luna enough to know that she focuses on the main components like the queen and overlooks everything else in favor of forming a plan to get rid of her." Hermione explained softly in his ear. James blushed and hoped no one noticed.

James followed her suggestion and the game played on with Luna giving Harry advice and Hermione giving James advice. With her added advice and his own advantage, James ended up winning. Harry and James ended up starting a new game though this time without the girls' input to see who the winner was truly. Luna and Hermione remained nearby to watch but James noticed that she was very quiet and slightly reserved when it came to talking to him, though she acted normally to his son and Luna. He frowned in thought, he didn't like that. He tried to pull her in on several conversations but she'd either pull Harry into it, then pull away from it or she'd give a small reply and let it drop. James really didn't like it, how was he supposed to win over his soul-mate if she was distancing herself from him. He kept sending her glances, but she kept her gaze on the chess board, though he thought he saw Luna glance his way a couple of times. She was probably curiously why he was trying so hard to get Hermione to talk to him. He sighed and decided he'd let it go, for now. He turned his gaze on his son and decided to put his efforts on him for a while, Hermione was his and he could wait till the next time to slowly woo her over to his side.

"Did Remus ever tell of the time when we pranked the Slytherins on Halloween?" James asked; a pang of sadness touched his voice when he remembered his old friend.

Harry glanced up from the chess board. "Not really, we talked about you and Sirius a lot, but towards the end we really just didn't have time to talk about the past."

James smiled sadly; he hated that his son didn't have a normal life or a normal childhood. "One year, I believe it was our sixth, a group of Slytherins had been pranking some of our first years. Nothing too harmful, but that Halloween we decided to get back at them. Your mom actually helped out on that one if I recall right – though she really didn't know that she helped until after and… she was livid with us for days."

Harry smiled encouragingly with a glance at his friend "I could imagine; that's something that Hermione would do."

James nodded thoughtfully. "Your mom was a smart one, pretty clever too. Anyhow, Remus got the help of the house elves and bribed them to put a potion in the Slytherins' drink, a decent amount of them though not all received the potion – we weren't that mean."

"What kind of potion?" Luna asked dreamily, her eyes bright with curiosity.

James smirked. "It caused the drinker to do nothing but sing. When they talked, they'd sing it instead. It lasted for hours before Slughorn finished brewing the antidote and passed it along his students. We couldn't stop laughing every time we'd hear a Slytherin sing for somebody to pass them a biscuit or even better – when they'd be having a fight but it sounded like they were singing a duet."

Hermione found it amusing and chuckled at the right times with the rest of them. It bugged her how Harry compared her to his mom. However, she felt that was the reason why James was sort of interested in her, because she reminded him of Lily and he missed her. She frowned; he must have loved her dearly. She hoped that someday she'd be loved that much. She glanced at James who had started another conversation with Harry about a prank played on the professors. She really didn't appreciate him giving her mixed feelings though, it wasn't fair to her or her relationship to Ron. She'd best watch herself around him until he settled completely down in their world; hopefully, it wouldn't take long since she really did like to talk to him.

She glanced at her watch and saw how late it was but when she glanced about the room, she didn't see Ron anywhere. She frowned a bit, she hoped he didn't forget.

"So this is where you've all been hiding?" A huskily voice appeared from the opening of the sitting room.

Hermione glanced, she would know that voice anywhere…It was Sirius.

"Where have you been all evening?" Harry asked curiously.

"Here and there." Sirius shrugged.

"You should be asking who he's been with all evening." James teased looking at his friend who blushed.

Luna shook her head at that retort, boys. She looked at her friend, but she seemed off in her own little world.

"I was actually trying to acquire some muggle cards to play with." Sirius commented coming up next to Harry.

"Who'd you get them from? Morgane?" Hermione questioned sharply, surprising herself with how harsh she sounded.

Sirius glanced at her, seeming to be searching her eyes for something but looked away quickly. "I got them from Seamus."

"Hm, what are you going to do with them?" Luna asked softly.

Sirius grinned. "Anyone care to play gold fish?"

Harry smiled but shook his head. "I'm still in the early stages of an intense chess match with Dad. We're both tied so this is the tie-breaker. Afterwards if you're still wanting to, we'll join." James nodded in agreement.

"I'm the official chess cheerleader, but Hermione is free to play with you." Luna suggested with a grin.

Sirius smiled and went to one of the empty tables and cleared the way for a game. Hermione elbowed Luna while hissing in her ear. "What was that for?"

Luna innocently looked up "You love gold fish."

Hermione sighed but knew she couldn't back out of it so she walked over and helped Sirius set up the table for the game.

"I pictured you for a Poker kind of guy." Hermione commented slyly.

Sirius shrugged. "It's fun if you have something to bet with, but with all my money and all the money I'm sure you have for being a war hero – it would be pointless. Gold fish is fun too, one of the first muggle games I was ever taught."

Hermione smiled. "Is that so?"

"When my cousin was disowned and when I was disowned, I spent more time with her and since she married a muggle and had a child, I ended up learning how to play muggle kid games first and the adult games later." Sirius explained dealing out the cards.

"I've always enjoyed this game." Hermione replied softly. "Harry and I played it on the run all the time."

Sirius looked up. "What was it like?"

Hermione looked up from her cards. "Being on the run or playing cards with your godson?" She teased.

He gave her a pointed look and she replied. "It was what it was. We were running for our lives. Survival was all we could think about some days. We had our good days like when we played cards or danced; we needed some relief from it all sometimes."

"Where was Ron?" he asked softly before quickly asking if she had any threes.

She did and handed it to him. "He was with us at the beginning but he left us and then returned after a while; it got too much for him and since we had a horcrux with negative energy, I can understand. For a while, it was just Harry and me and this was how we passed time." She answered softly.

"Got any queens?" Sirius asked seriously.

"Gold fish." Hermione replied, sticking out her tongue.

They played like so for a while with Sirius beating her only slightly. Hermione kept on glancing at the clock and nibbled her lip constantly which Sirius found quite sexy. To keep her mind off of whatever was bugging it, Sirius made it his mission to make her laugh, which he did, over and over again even though it was because she was laughing at his old horror stories.

"So this one girl was flirting with me, quite intensely you know. I was getting into it to, I was after all returning from an Auror mission so I hadn't seen a woman in over a month. Anyways as I was about to close the deal and invite her to my place for the night, she asks if I've ever been with a man. I reply honestly with a no and she smirks and asks if she can be my first. It was hands down disturbing and made me question my sight for ages." Sirius retold the story to Hermione with hand gestures and funny expressions.

Hermione chuckled wholeheartedly with an easy smile on her face. They had finished playing a while ago, but they had kept talking or rather Sirius had and she had laughed for most of it.

Sirius smiled at her and couldn't help think that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He couldn't help but touch her so he slid his hand on her thigh and caressed it underneath the table. Immediately he knew he screwed up when her eyes widened and her smile faded away. He stopped caressing her thigh, but kept his hand there. She placed her hand over his hand and quickly shoved it off.

"I know you're horny and all, but I'm taken. Besides I'm not your type." Hermione told him in a deadly calm voice before standing up and going to sit next to Luna on the couch by the fireplace.

Ron stormed in without a care and overlooked Hermione who was about to get up and ask if he was ready to leave. Ron had gone over to Harry and asked if he could play with him after James got finished. Hermione frowned, feeling hurt. She really didn't understand boys. She wasn't as hurt like the she thought would be but still didn't want to remain in the tower with her forgetful boyfriend and temptation one and two. She glanced at Luna and she nodded slightly before announcing that she was going to retire to Ravenclaws' dorms and asked if Hermione would join her tonight. Ron looked up and smiled at Hermione, but quickly returned to watching the chess match. Hermione didn't dare look at Sirius or James, so she quickly agreed to spend the night with Luna.