Summary: The Marauders do what the Marauders do

A/N: I hope you enjoy the chapter. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 7

Over the weeks, Severus and Hermione became closer. They spent a good amount of time talking about each other's lives and also discussing Potions in every way possible. They both enjoyed working with each other in the evenings when he wasn't tutoring students.

Hermione also was pleased to see some sort of friendship growing between Lily and Severus.

She watched them now, laughing over some ideas on a new project they were working on together. They were trying to create a Skele-gro that didn't hurt so badly. They were also hoping to shorten the time it would take to heal a bone fully. Between the two of them, Hermione felt they had a good chance of succeeding.

Finishing up, they said goodbye to Hermione and left the lab. Hermione rose and headed out herself after a minute or so. She needed to go to the library to look for a book to research bone-growing potions to help them out with coaching.

Locking the door behind her, she went up the stairs and started her climb up to the fourth floor. When she got to the second floor, she heard voices, which wasn't really unusual, as she was in a school full of students. But these voices were raised and sounded angry. She decided to check it out, pulling out her wand, just in case.

She went down the hall and rounded the corner only to find James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew surrounding Severus.

"Stay away from her, Snivellus!" James cried.

"She can be friends with whomever she wants!" Severus growled.

"Not you. You're nothing, and she needs to be with someone who isn't pathetic."

"Yeah, Snivellus. Who said you could talk to her anyway?" Sirius demanded.

"It's none of your business," Severus sneered.

His wand was pointed at the three, and he was shifting it back and forth between the three of them. They also had their wands pointed at him.

"Sounds like you need a lesson," James cried.

Hermione was dumbfounded. She knew these boys had been horrible in the past, but they were just as bad now. She was so incensed that she couldn't move for a minute. James Potter pulling back his wand to cast a curse woke her up, but not before Severus had blasted him into the wall.

"What is going on here?" she demanded.

"Professor Granger!" Sirius cried. "Snape just hexed James! It threw him into the wall."

"Really?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"Yeah, I saw it too," Pettigrew agreed, nodding furiously.

She'd ignored him as much as she could while she'd been in the past, knowing what the future would bring for the rat, but not tonight.

"And what provoked that hex, Mr. Pettigrew?"

Peter's eyes got very wide, and he assumed an innocent face.

"Absolutely nothing! We were just here in the hall chatting about Quidditch, and he came up and hexed James! It's not fair!" he whinged.

Hermione looked over at Severus, who looked like he was about to Avada all of them. She couldn't blame him.

"Mr. Snape, what's your side of the story?"

He looked at her and pointed at the other three students.

"They cornered me and were threatening me. Potter raised his wand at me, so I hexed him to avoid being cursed."

"Mr. Potter? What do you have to say for yourself?"

"It's like Peter said, Professor Granger. We were just minding our own business and Snape came up and hexed me."

"So, why is Mr. Snape corralled against the wall? Wouldn't he be somewhere else if he'd come out of nowhere?"

James shrugged. "I don't know, Professor. That's just where he is."

Hermione was fit to be tied, and would probably have hexed them right on top of Severus' hex if she wasn't an adult and a teacher no less. She calmed herself because her wand hand was shaking, she was so furious.

"It just so happens that I witnessed your attack on Mr. Snape, Mister Potter. As a seventh-year, you should know better than to threaten students or try to curse them. You're all lucky you won't be suspended, but if I even hear of you doing anything like this again, I'll have you out of this school so fast you won't even have time to say Dumbledore. Is that clear?"

They all stood ramrod straight and nodded profusely.

"Yes, Professor Granger!" they said in unison.

"A week's worth of detentions and no Quidditch for a month!" she sneered. "Now get back to your dorm before you're caught after curfew, and I'll have to extend that detention."

"Yes, Ma'am," they cried and scurried away.

She glowered as she watched them retreat. Severus came up to her.

"Thanks," he said.

Her wand twitched. "I'm so tempted to hex them from behind."

He snorted. "Now you know how I feel every day."

His banter calmed her down. She looked up at him and smirked.

"We could both cast one. What are they gonna do? Say a teacher hexed them?"

Severus outright laughed.

"What were they yelling about, anyway?"

"They told me to stay away from Lily."

"Oh, that's rich. I wish Miss Evans knew how foul her boyfriend is."

He arched a brow. "It would be nice if she could see him clearly, but I fear she is too involved with him to even recognize it. He's also very careful to only confront me when he's with others and she's far away."

"Cowards," Hermione said with a shake of her head.

"Indeed."

"You're not going to listen to them, are you?"

He arched a brow at her. "Why on earth would I do that?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

oooOOOooo

Lily was tutoring, so Severus was brewing alone. Hermione marked papers as he worked.

"Professor?"

Hermione looked up, rose, and went over to him.

"What can I do for you, Mr. Snape?"

"There's something wrong with this recipe," he stated.

She looked at his textbook. He was brewing a Wiggenweld potion.

"It states here to take the Wiggentree bark and break it into pieces, then add it to the potion and stir it for ten minutes."

Hermione read along as he explained, her eyebrows knitting together.

"We haven't gotten to this potion yet in class. You're right, that's not how you brew this at all. As a matter of fact, doing that would probably cause the cauldron to explode! I'll let Professor Slughorn know that we'll have to revise this before brewing it in class. Good catch." She looked up at him. "Do you know how this potion should be prepared?"

He gave her a smug look. "Obviously."

She grinned at him. "Then do tell."

"The bark needs to be stripped and sliced into thin cuts. Then each strip needs to be cut on the diagonal. Finally, once added to the potion, it should be stirred for eight minutes. Those extra two minutes are what would cause the incorrectly prepared bark to explode."

"Excellent work, Mr. Snape. Twenty points to Slytherin."

He smirked at her. "Thank you."

His smirk sent shivers down her spine. As she looked at him, she realized she found him incredibly handsome. When did all this happen? She was definitely attracted to Severus Snape. She pushed away those thoughts. He wasn't interested in her. Maybe someday, though. A small smile formed on her lips.

"It was well deserved," she told him.

oooOOOooo

Hermione sat at breakfast, oatmeal in front of her. She glanced over at the Gryffindor table, noting the Marauders all surrounding Lily. As they all chatted, Lily's eyes strayed over to the Slytherin table. Severus had caught her eye. He arched a brow at her, and she smiled.

Hermione was happy that Severus seemed to have rekindled his friendship with Lily. Watching Lily, she wondered if the younger woman was feeling more than just friendship for Severus. She had blushed profusely at his arched brow.

Interesting.

That evening, she broached the subject with Severus after they were done brewing.

"I see Lily has been very accepting of you. It's nice to see."

Severus smiled–-a genuine smile.

"Yes, things are much better with us. I pulled her aside last week and apologized to her once again. She said she couldn't be close to me because I was involved with Death Eaters. I reminded her that none of us were Death Eaters yet, but she just tsk'd and told me I knew what she meant."

He searched Hermione's eyes. She wasn't sure what he was looking for.

"I told her what I was doing. Spying for Dumbledore. She's forgiven me, Hermione."

Hermione arched her brow.

"I don't know what to say, Severus. I mean, I'm so happy that you've patched things up, but isn't it odd that she wouldn't forgive you until she knew you were going to be a spy?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. I'm just over the moon that she has finally given me a chance."

She smiled at him wanly. "Well then, I am very happy for you," she told him.

"Yeah, it's nice to have my friend back."

She pulled him into a hug, surprising the both of them.

"I'm glad, Severus. I hope she's all you hope for."

"I have you to thank. If you hadn't come back in time, this apprenticeship would have never happened." He gave her an appreciative look.

She looked him in the eye, feeling sour about her traveling back for the first time.

"I'm glad I was able to help you two to finally patch things up," she offered, despite the uneasy ball of stress that was now growing in her stomach.

"Me too."

His eyes lingered on her for a minute. "I'd best get going," he said finally.

"Sure, have a lovely night, Severus."

He nodded and rushed out the door quickly.

Hermione turned away from him, frowning. She should be happy for him. Lily was his only true friend. All she could see in her mind, though, was the woman blushing profusely at the breakfast table the other morning. She suspected that Lily may be attracted to Severus, and of course, he loved her.

Where would that leave her? She would be going back to her time, and Severus would have Lily with him forever. It seemed they were destined for each other, and she would only ever be his friend.

Just a friend

That was not what she had been hoping for these last couple of weeks.