Happy Friday to all! Hello there friends, thank you to all who favorited, followed and especially reviewed! Guest, xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, sakurapetals0192, and watheverest; you are all amazing people and I can't thank you enough for taking time to write a few words. =)
Watheverest - I have tried to write scenes with James in the past, but they have all felt very forced. I have written a few future scenes with him that I am much happier with, so please be patient.
Enjoy...
Hermione had not mentioned the interaction with Regulus to anyone but the young werewolf; who was very astonished and intrigued by the encounter. Remus quietly explained to Hermione that, though it was never spoken aloud, Sirius and his mother were actually quite similar. They were both quick tempered, exceedingly proud and utterly inflexible when it came to their own beliefs. Remus had discerned from Sirius' rantings about his family that Regulus was much more akin to their father; stoic, severe at times, but they were both remarkably protective of their family.
Remus explained a little more in depth about the Black family's stance on blood purity. He was a bit uncomfortable admitting that Sirius' family were sympathizers of the Dark Lord; but Remus knew that wouldn't affect Hermione's view of Sirius.
Both Hermione and Remus agreed that Regulus' actions weren't aggressive in any way and could possibly even be interpreted as 'brotherly love' toward Sirius. They decided to leave well enough alone and just be mindful if Regulus approached Hermione again in the future.
Halloween was one of the Marauders' favorite holidays. They had planned pranks all throughout the day; almost every other hour there had been an explosion of orange and black streamers covering a hallway, carved pumpkins casually stalking groups of first years, some choice Slytherin's robes began flashing purple and gold for an hour or two, and even plastic skeletons could be found dancing along the ceilings and walls of the moving staircases in the main stairwell. With Halloween on a Monday this year, the Marauders had felt that extra effort had to be put forth for everyone to enjoy the unfortunate weekday the holiday had landed on this year.
Lily chose to ignore the pranks and try to enjoy the celebration that her friends had worked so tirelessly to plan for; though Hermione noticed that Lily gave Severus an apologetic look as his robes turned purple. Severus ignored the silly antics and turned his back to Lily's glances.
The feast for Halloween was always the most anticipated meal of the year; the Hogwarts house elves always outdid themselves. This year the elves had prepared a wreath of roast pork, with crackling, sage and onion stuffing. It was served with a side of apple sauce and mustard to be used as relishes with the succulent meat.
Even with the main course being so mouthwatering, everyone knew to leave plenty of room in their stomachs for desert. And of course, the house elves did not disappoint. There were enormous pumpkin Chelsea buns, devil's chocolate cake trifles, an orange jam Roly-Poly, and a sinfully sweet bread pudding were all placed in between hallowed out pumpkins that were overflowing with every sweet imaginable. Each table in the Great Hall was provided enough deserts to enable every person to pass out from sugar comas; and many of the students willingly took part in that tradition.
As everyone in the Great Hall began to slow down their consumption of sweets, Dumbledore stood and took the podium to address his students with a wide smile.
"Good evening and Happy Halloween to all," he waited a few seconds for the murmured retort of 'Happy Halloween Professor' to die out around the hall. "I hope everyone found the feast to their satisfaction," there were answers of 'of course' and a few uncomfortable groans as some students reacted to their overindulging.
Dumbledore's smile fell to a flat line as he continued, "I would like to remind you all that our magical community has fallen into dark times. We must band together and weather the storm as these terrible rumors of blackness will become reality, I'm afraid to suggest, within an extremely short time frame. Please be mindful of your surroundings and never allow the darkness to overcome the light."
The outrageously unspecific details of Dumbledore's speech caused Hermione to grind her teeth; her parents would have been mortified by this.
Sirius noticed her tense expression; he snaked an arm around her and traced comforting circles on the center of her back. "What's wrong, Blondie?"
Hermione settled into Sirius' side; he had become such a comfort for her and he was usually able to rein in the flashes of her temper that leapt up periodically. Hermione shook her head slightly and mouthed 'later' as she leaned her forehead against his scruffy cheek.
After Dumbledore took his seat at the head table again, the students and professors began filing out of the Great Hall in no specific order. It was almost curfew, but the Marauders stayed and mingled with a few fellow students who were congratulating them on their efforts this Halloween.
Lily, James and Remus soon had to leave to begin rounds of the castle and Peter had to hurry upstairs to finish off the last few lines of his transfiguration essay; Hermione offered to look it over during breakfast if he still felt uncertain of it.
Soon Hermione and Sirius were the only ones left in the Great Hall. He swung his leg over so he was straddling the bench, and slid Hermione over so that she was practically in his lap; this earned him a knowing glare from his witch. But the narrow eyes quickly disappeared from Hermione's face, replaced by a bright smile as Sirius kissed her temple.
"Could we go back to the sitting room? I wanted to take a look at that prophecy you were begging to tell us about on Saturday." Sirius asked as he picked through the Every Flavour Beans in a nearby pumpkin.
"I thought you and Remus didn't want the future to ruin your Hogsmeade weekend and special Halloween shenanigans," Hermione flicked a suspicious yellow colored bean at Sirius, glancing his ear.
He rubbed his earlobe and jokingly jutted his bottom lip out at her, "Oi, watch where you're flinging those." Sirius blindly tossed several beans in Hermione's direction hitting her square in the chest; one of them fell down her shirt.
"Sirius Black!" The blonde's screams echoed off the walls of the empty hall. Hermione stood from the bench and untouched her shirt; she hopped up and down a bit as she maneuvered the jelly bean out of her uniform.
Sirius was beside himself with laughter; he thought that Hermione looked incredibly adorable bouncing around, cursing him under her breath.
"Oh… bloody ridiculous…completely immature…" Hermione finally heard the small sound of something ricocheting off the floor. "Finally. I mean…really Sirius…"
They both jerked their heads up at the loud creaking sound of the thick, heavy, front doors of the castle; they were closing and locking themselves.
Hermione looked down to check her watch, "There's still fifteen minutes until curfew." She shared a puzzled expression with Sirius.
Sirius' eyes suddenly narrowed; Hermione noticed that his eyes had become a light, golden brown. He began tilting his head to angle his ears and listen to their surroundings better. He heard faint clicking and tapping sounds coming from the entrance hall right outside of the Great Hall's doorway; and they were moving toward the hall. He had a horrible feeling bubble up from his gut.
"You've got a strong shield charm, and your stupefy is quick?" Sirius already knew the answers to these questions from their practicals in Defense class, but he needed Hermione to confirm it for his own apprehensions.
Hermione slowly nodded her head, "What is it Sirius?"
"Not sure yet, but they're coming this way," He stood and took Hermione's face in his hands; his eyes flitted between each of her own orbs as he tried to remain clam. Sirius' gut twisted painfully as the clicks grew closer and began to be accompanied with brushing stride sounds and the quiet steps of padded feet. "I might have a better way to help," Sirius quickly glanced around the empty room and pulled his outer robes off, and completely encompassing his upper body in the billowing black fabric.
The robe fell uselessly to the floor, reveling the bear sized, black dog of Sirius' Animagus form.
"And just how are you supposed to tell me what's going on now, Snuffles?" Hermione didn't understand why Sirius had transformed.
The shaggy dog jumped on top of the Gryffindor table and growled lightly at Hermione.
"Fine then; higher ground I suppose," Hermione climbed onto the table, pushed desserts out of her footpath, and faced the Great Hall doors just as Sirius was. He stood in front of her protectively; head dipped down and teeth bared.
Hermione still was unsure of what was slowly approaching them, but she knew they needed help. She remembered hearing an interesting use for a corporeal Patronus through the extendable ears one day at Grimmauld Place during fifth year, but she had never attempted it before.
Hermione quickly filtered through her thoughts for the happiest ones she could find; it turned out to be a thought about what she hoped the future could be. A slight pink color colored her cheeks as a calm, joyful feeling spread through every inch of her body, "EXPECTO PATRONUM."
A silvery smoke shot out of Hermione's wand tip and swirled around until it formed an opaque but solid little otter. "Find Minerva McGonagall. Tell her something has entered the school and we need help in the Great Hall," Hermione didn't know how to address her Patronus, but she was fairly hopeful when the little animal went gliding through the ceiling and appeared on course for the third floor.
Sirius had backed up and was now standing directly to the left of her; his eyes following a dark figure creeping along the shadow of the wall. He sharply turned his head to the right, facing the mirrored spot on the opposite said of the hall; there was another, identical hunched over figure there.
Hermione scanned the hall to see if there were any more hidden creatures, but these two seemed to be alone. "Snuffles, you take the one on the left; I've got the one on the right." She turned to face the shadowed figure; it began to step into the light cast off of the still lit jack-o-lanterns floating around the enchanted ceiling.
As one particularly big pumpkin turned and spilled light over the mysterious figure, Hermione could finally take in the creature's true form.
It was a silver haired wolf; huge, proud and baring his own very sharp teeth. But the creature was being eerily silent. Hermione was quick to focus on the eyes, trying to discern where the wolf might be headed or possibly figure out its intended target. But there was something wrong with the eyes.
"They're…they've been 'inperioed;' someone's controlling them!" Hermione stared into the clouded eyes of the circling wolf; she heard Sirius growl and arch down more, in response to her realization.
The wolves effortlessly leapt to the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables.
They almost appeared to fly as they jumped and circled Hermione and Sirius. The creatures appeared to almost be dancing; the synchronization of their mirrored movements made Hemrione's skin prickle and her hand began to shake slightly.
The two wolves then soared to opposite ends of the Gryffindor table; they paced the short width of the table in front of their pray as if analyzing the witch and mutt in front of them. Their clouded eyes never left the targets for a second.
Then, without any warning that wolves lunged simultaneously toward Hermione and Sirius.
It was as if a switch had been flipped in the wolves' heads from stalk to attack.
Hermione had brushed up on her dueling since her ambush at the beginning of the year, so her spells and reflexes were in full form. She threw a shield charm nanoseconds after her wolf's front paws left the table; this gave her time to aim a "Stupify" directly into the heart of the beast. Hermione smirked to herself as the wolf fell back to the floor.
But her smile was short lived; the wolf regained its footing, shook his head vigorously and remounted the table.
"Something is protecting them from spells. Stuns aren't working!" Hermione yelled over her shoulder to Sirius. She glanced behind her to see Sirius wrestling his wolf back; they stumbled apart, smashing several dishes to the floor, and began snapped their immense jaws at each other. The sound of the power behind their jaws made Hermione cringe.
Hermione conjured another shield charm so she could think of a different spell to ward off the wolves. She quickly conjured a flock of little red birds and used the "oppugno" jinx to distract the wolf in front of her.
The birds did little to slow the beast down though, it was unnerving the level of attention it was giving to Hermione. It seemed as if nothing was going to divert the wolf from its mission; of which Hermione was fairly sure was to rip her to pieces or at the very least cause her an immense amount of pain.
Sirius snapped at the wolf in front of him again, but it barely spared a second of its attention on him. He snapped again with more aggression in an attempt to refocus its magically induced rage; the wolf snapped back, but quickly returned to finding a way around Sirius to the witch behind him.
The wolf wasn't after him; it was after Hermione.
Sirius became terrified. The feeling gripped at the pit of his stomach and wouldn't let go; who would target Hermione? The petrified feeling twisted until it had morphed into blind rage. Sirius felt the animalistic sensation seep through his whole body; he didn't even attempt to keep it at bay.
Sirius lunged for the wolf's exposed neck as he made another pass at maneuvering around Sirius to get to Hermione.
Hermione heard the wolf whimper and cry from behind her; she glanced back to see Sirius' teeth around the wolf's jugular, and watched in horror as he effortlessly tossed the severely injured wolf aside. The blood drained from her face, "Sirius, what have you done?"
She turned away from her wolf for a second; but a second was all that the other beast needed.
The wolf took this opening and made another dive at Hermione. His lip curled up in a snarl, claws outstretched, ready to pounce on the witch in front of him and sink his teeth into her flesh.
Out of her peripheral, Hermione saw the wolf open its mouth, ready to take a bit out of her.
"ALARTE ASCENDARE!"
Hermione's scream echoed through the hall. She watched in agony as she sent the mind controlled wolf shooting up into the air so high that Hermione lost sight of him in the bewitched ceiling of stars. She covered her ears, squeezed her eyes closed and hunched over as the limp body of the wolf plummeted to the floor of the hall.
Hermione could still hear a muffled deadpan thump.
Sirius' touch startled Hermione so badly, she jumped a few feet away; as if his fingertips had left scorch marks on her skin. Sirius recoiled and wore a hurt expression on his face.
Hermione found that she couldn't look at Sirius; his human form or his Animagus. She brushed past him and began attending to the other wolfs wounds. He was badly hurt. There were claw marks and small bites along his legs, but the gash on his neck was unbearable to gaze upon. Hermione stopped the bleeding with a quick wand wave thanks to a few spells future Remus had suggested to learn, and then conjured a dog kennel around the silver beast.
Professor McGonagall had only taken eight minutes to get to the Great Hall, but it had felt like hours to Hermione and Sirius. The professor ran into the Hall, breath hitching in her throat, with two other professors trailing behind her. All three wands were out and pointed into the hall, ready for whatever Hermione's warning had been about.
They found two sullen teenagers. Sirius had scraps and claw marks along his face and neck, there were also some deep bites on his arms. Hermione was relatively unscathed, but she was silent and despondent when Minerva attempted to ask her what had happened.
Sirius looked wearily at Hermione as he answered the professor for her, "We were attacked by the two wolves." Sirius then lowered his voice so only McGonagall could hear, "They were after her."
Minerva's eyes appeared to double in size. She asked the other professors to see to the wolves and bring them to Dumbledore for examination. Then McGonagall quickly wrapped her 'niece' with one arm and roughly guided her to the hospital wing with Sirius closely trailing behind them.
Sirius was quickly seated on a hospital bed and tended to by Madame Pomfrey. His injuries appeared extensive, but nothing was life threatening. Professor McGonagall sat Hermione on a neighboring bed and attempted to bring the blonde girl out of her daze.
Hermione finally met McGonagall's eyes and began quickly jabbering, "I killed it. The wolf…I, I didn't mean to. It was attacking…but I didn't want to. The wolves were being controlled…the Imperius Curse…and Sirius," the young witch's voice cracked painfully. She couldn't bring herself to say the words out load.
He lost control.
So yea... I'm sorry about this chapter, but I felt like Sirius' outrageously rampant temper needed to be addressed and this will give me the opportunity to do so next chapter. By all means, let me know what you all think.
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Misha