Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling. All characters, places, descriptions, etc (unless original and created by me) belong to her.

Summary: It was a small pack, of course, just the five of them, but together they were something wild. Hermione finds herself in the Marauders' Era with four new best friends.

Chapter 48: Ad Maiora*

16 June 1978

The Quidditch Pitch

All the seventh years had gathered on the field in their robes and hats. Their professors were there as well as a few parents scattered about. Hermione knew that few parents made the trip to Hogwarts in the first place, but the current state of things meant even fewer showed up. Hermione didn't know any of them, but she broke out into a smile when she spotted Charlus Potter.

James had mentioned earlier that he wasn't sure his father would make it to the ceremony, that he hadn't been feeling well. Hermione poked his shoulder, reaching over Peter to do so, and pointed out the older wizard. James lit up and spent the entire ceremony motioning to his father.

It was over before it had begun and Hermione found that not a single word from Dumbledore's speech had stuck with her. She was lost in her head, trying and failing not to think about all that loomed ahead. She stood when everyone stood. She tossed up her hat when everyone tossed up their hats. And she shuffled along when everyone started to shuffle out. Everyone melted together in a sea of black robes.

She had graduated. By all accounts it was a time to think of the future, what loomed ahead. Hermione's mind tumbled through memories and images of her two lives at Hogwarts. She had spent countless nights going over her previous interactions with Remus and Sirius, but there was no sign, no hint to point to her still being around in the 90s. So that meant she made it back at some point. Right? Maybe? But when?

Sirius lagged a step to let her catch up to him and slipped his hand into hers. He gave it a squeeze and winked before pulling her after their friends. Charlus had his arm around James and was shaking Remus' hand. Lily walked up and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek before doing the same to James.

As the only one of their parents in attendance, Charlus did his best to make everyone feel as though he had come just for them. He asked them about exams and announced everyone would have to spend some time at the Potter residence before truly entering the real world. His eyes shone at James and Lily hand in hand as he kept one of his own on Sirius' shoulder.

They all laughed and smiled and regaled Charlus with tales of their time at Hogwarts, and no one said anything when he winced and coughed into a handkerchief. James thumped his father on the back but continued with his story. Hermione looked up at Sirius and squeezed the hand she still held.

It wasn't until they were walking down to the Great Hall hours later for the final feast that anyone said anything.

"James," Sirius said, his voice small. "What's-Is-Is Dad okay?"

"I don't think so, Pads." James shook his head. "You know Mum and Dad… they never did anything apart."

The Great Hall

"Another school year come and gone….

…Here at Hogwarts we do our best to teach you and prepare you. We do our best to lend you our knowledge and our experience so you have the tools you need to become witches and wizards of note…

…But what you do beyond these walls, who you become outside these gates is, at the end of the day, entirely up to you. You have the power the decide where you will go, what you will do, who you will be…

…Choice, like magic is a beautiful, a truly beautiful, dangerous thing."

Everyone was starting to make their way back to the dorms. Tests were finished; the final feast was over. The only thing that remained was one last hurrah just for the students.

The Marauders stood as James and Sirius led the way. Hermione stopped at the double doors, turning to take a final look at the Great Hall. She let her eyes savor every image, from the ceiling to each of the four house tables. Passing over the Slytherin table, she caught the eye of Regulus.

"Room?" he mouthed to her, his eyes sad and pleading. She nodded and looked back at the Marauders. James and Sirius were already at the stairs with Remus not far behind. Peter was bringing up the rear.

"Peter!" Hermione shouted, jogging up to him. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure thing."

"Cover for me?" Hermione winced. "I'll just be gone a moment, but there's something I have to do."

"Okay?" Peter looked skeptical.

Hermione glanced back at the Great Hall. Peter followed her gaze to see Regulus exiting and slipping away, but not before giving Hermione a pointed look.

"No, no," Peter began. "Hermione, what are you doing?"

"It's our last night, Peter," she pleaded. "I can't leave Hogwarts without talking to him. Please?"

"Uhhhh," Peter moaned, glancing up the stairs at the retreating backs of his friends. "Ugh, fine. Okay, fine, I'll cover for you. But no promises, you know this lot."

"Thank you."

"Just—Don't make me regret this, Pup." Peter shook his head even as Hermione nodded and dashed off to meet Regulus.

When she arrived at the Room of Requirement, Regulus was sitting on the table in their sparring room.

"Are we fighting today?" Hermione asked with a smirk. "You know PMS doesn't start until tomorrow."

"It's for me," Regulus mumbled, jumping down from the table.

"For you?"

"C'mon, Gryffindor, I think you owe me one."

Hermione regarded Regulus for a moment before nodding. She shrugged off her robes and shook out her arms before facing him.

They danced around each other, barely touching their heels to the floor before pouncing on each other. Regulus struck. Hermione dodged. He shifted. She lunged. Contact. Wince. Breath. Hit. Duck. Jab.

Hermione stepped back, bouncing on her feet as Regulus circled her watching for weakness.

"Wanna tell me what's going on?"

"Not really."

"Let me rephrase that. Tell me what's going on."

"It's nothing," Regulus said. Hermione stopped moving and glared at him. He deflated. "Alright, fine. It's stupid, okay. I know it is, but… you're leaving."

Hermione moved forward and hugged Regulus as the room around them dissolved into Grimmauld Place. Hermione shuffled Regulus into his usual chair and knelt before him.

"It's not stupid, Regulus," she whispered. "But you have to know—Just because I'm leaving Hogwarts, doesn't mean I'm leaving you."

Regulus reached out to touch the curls framing her face. Hermione didn't dare move as it was clear from Regulus' eyes that he was lost in thought. When he came back to her after a moment, he dropped his hand.

"I'll get a new owl. One Sirius won't recognize."

"I'll find some excuses to visit you, whether it's at Hogsmeade or at the castle. I'll find a way."

"You will, won't you." It wasn't a question but he still looked at her incredulously.

"We'll find a way," she repeated.

Regulus nodded, wiped at his face, and stood up. He called Kreacher and whispered something in his ear. The house elf disappeared and reappeared in a matter of seconds. Upon his return, he handed three bottles of firewhiskey to Regulus. When he disappeared once more, the room shifted back to the sparring space. Regulus dropped the bottles onto the table. Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.

"You don't really want to go back to your common room empty handed, do you?"

"Good point." Hermione picked up two of the bottles and made a move for the third.

"Now hold on there, Gryffindor." Regulus smiled for the first time that night. He took the third bottle from her. "This one's for me."

The Gryffindor Common Room

"Pup's back! Hey, shh shh, everybody! Pup's here!"

Sirius bounded up to Hermione and by his scent, Hermione could tell he was hard at work at ridding himself of his pesky sobriety. Hermione had stayed even later at the Room to ensure she had washed away Regulus' scent, but judging by the heavy scent of alcohol in the air, she wondered if it had even been necessary.

"How's it going, Padfoot?" she laughed, holding his arm steady so he didn't spill his drink.

"You-" He pointed at her. "You need a drink, Pup. Don't worry, I'll sniff something out for you. I'm a boozehound. Get it?"

Hermione laughed as Sirius walked away in search of more alcohol, imitating his Animagus form.

"Everything good?" Peter walked up, looking at her pointedly.

"All good, Pete." She nodded, shutting down the conversation as Sirius reappeared.

"I've returned! Bearing gifts!" Sirius held a tray laden with glasses and shot glasses. Hermione reached for a drink, but Sirius pulled away.

"Nuh uh, Pup." His eyes sparkled. "Not until we take a shot."

Hermione rolled her eyes but went along as Sirius called the other Marauders over. They clinked their glasses and tripped their heads back to drink. Hermione winced at the sudden onslaught of firewhiskey. She eyed the drinks Sirius held and made a move for a seemingly, harmless one.

"Nuh uh, Pup. You're behind so you've got to do one more."

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you're trying to get me drunk, Sirius."

"Maybe I am." He winked. She downed the other shot. The sting of the whiskey didn't hurt as bad this time.

"Yes, and we all know how well that went last time."

"Oh, you mean the time you begged me to take you to bed." He punctuated with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"First of all, that was innocent and you know it." She poked him in the chest and laughed. "Second of all, I was referring to my little birthday celebration."

"Oh, of course, Pup." Sirius gestured around them. "You lookin' to howl again tonight?"

"Ha, in your dreams, Black."

Before Sirius could respond, Remus interrupted them by loudly and obviously clearing his throat. The other three Marauders were looking at Hermione and Sirius with expressions ranging from confused to uncomfortable to amused.

"Were you two… flirting?" James asked, a grin spreading across his face.

Hermione blushed and glanced down at the floor. She seemed to remember she was still had the two bottles. She picked them up and thrust them at Sirius.

"I brought firewhiskey," she said lamely.

"Oh, yeah! Pup came to play!" James shouted gleefully.

Sirius looked at the bottles now in his hands and looked back at Hermione. She couldn't read the expression on his face and was about to say something when Lily came up, grabbed her, and pulled her away from the boys.

The music blared; the drinks flowed. Hermione laughed and danced with the girls, sipping on drink after drink, losing herself in the moment.

Then someone changed the song. A somewhat familiar tune carried through the common room and itched at Hermione's memory.

"I'm leaving you. Now don't make no fuss. You won't even see me, baby, oh no, for dust…"

Hermione jumped up from her seat and on top of it to scan the common room. On her second pass over the room, she spotted Sirius and promptly weaved her way through the crowd to him.

"Sirius!" She put her hands on his shoulders and jumped up and down. "It's the pack song, our song!"

Hermione grabbed Sirius' hand and tried to pull him out toward where people were dancing. Sirius just looked at her and ripped his hand away. Hermione was confused.

"What's your problem?"

"I'm clearly not the one with the problem." He walked away. She followed. He had one of the whiskey bottles in his hand. They just stood in front of each other. He glared at her as he drank straight from the bottle. She raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you think maybe you should share?"

"Considering this came from the Black Family Cellars, no, I don't think I should share."

Hermione blanched, then winced. The alcohol she had consumed thus far had muddled her brain and she didn't know what to say. Sirius seemed angry and fit to burst, but underneath was a deep hurt, a sadness of betrayal.

"What is wrong with you? Why would you go back to him? Really, explain it to me because I don't understand."

"Sirius–"

"He made you tear yourself apart, Pup. You saw yourself. And that was after Trapner fixed you up. Why the fuck would you go back to my brother."

Hermione prayed he wouldn't bring up the whole 'Regulus is a murderer' thing again. Then she realized that this was her chance, maybe the only one she would get, to come clean, to tell Sirius that she'd been meeting Regulus all along.

For a second, she almost did, but then she looked at his face and remembered just how hard it was to win his trust in the first place. So instead she grabbed the whiskey from him and drank, buying her time for her intoxicated mind to come up with something to say.

"We're about to leave," she said, feeding him the same story she told Peter. "I needed closure."

"Well, I hope you got what you wanted." Sirius took the bottle back. He turned, looked in newfound disgust at the revelry and headed upstairs.

"Honestly? Honestly," Hermione said before stomping after him. She ran into Remus and growled. "Make sure no one goes up your room."

"What? Sure, whatever," Remus said, chuckling before he saw just who she was following. He groaned and threw his head back. He grabbed a bottle of something, anything, from a fifth year and groaned again.

Up in the boys' room, Sirius was sitting on the edge of his bed drinking. Hermione walked in and sat down next to him. He, reluctantly, passed the bottle. She took another drink, noticing there was less than a third left.

"You know this isn't about you, right?" She kept her voice gentle. "I just needed to see him again before we left, but it has nothing to do with you. I'm not choosing him over you."

"It feels like it."

"I'm here. With you. Right now."

He only grunted in response and took another swig from the bottle. Hermione took it from him and stood with all the grace of a newborn foal. She walked the bottle over to his nightstand.

"I think we've both had enough."

"Yeah, don't really fancy being covered in sick again. You should really learn to handle your liquor if we're going to live together."

"Huh, and how d'you know it wasn't your kiss that made me sick?"

"'Cause you weren't sick the second time." Sirius grinned wickedly.

The memory of their heated kiss before the January full moon swam through their minds.

"Yeah, but that time, I kissed you. So maybe it's when you kiss me that makes me want to vomit."

"Oh believe me, Pup. If I kissed you, the last thing you'd want to do is vomit."

"Really?" Hermione stepped between his legs with her hands on her hips. She swayed on her feet and Sirius' hands jolted to her hips to steady her. She blinked and looked at him.

"Really."

And then he pulled her forward, causing her to straddle him. It was awkward and she had to adjust her legs so she didn't fall, but it didn't seem to bother them as Sirius pressed his lips to hers.

He tasted like firewhiskey and if Hermione wasn't already drunk, she would've been from Sirius' kisses alone. This was different. Not quite the chasteness from outside the Shrieking Shack. Not quite the animalistic hunger from outside the Common Room. This was needy and heated and guilty and angry. Sirius bit Hermione's lip and she moaned, pressing herself into him.

They just kissed, their hands doing little exploring as if their sole focus was to communicate their thoughts by touch of lips and tongue and teeth alone.

Hermione carded her fingers through Sirius' hair and adjusted her position, shifting her hips forward. She smirked at the resulting groan that grew from Sirius' chest. He ran his hands down and up her thighs, squeezing at the junction to her hips in retaliation. They both smiled against each other, their teeth knocking lightly before Hermione resumed their kisses, sucking at Sirius' lower lip.

The only thought in Hermione's head was that it just felt so good to be kissing Sirius and frankly, that was all her inebriated brain could handle at the moment.

They could have and would have just kissed all night if it wasn't for the sudden knock at the door.

"Pads, you in there?" Hermione and Sirius pulled away from each other at the sound of Remus' voice. "Pads, c'mon. I need your help with Pete and James."

Sirius growled at the closed door before grasping at Hermione's curls and descending upon Hermione's lips once again. Hermione squeaked in surprise but was happy to lose herself in Sirius again.

"Pads!" Remus grumbled outside. "Fuck it. Pup!"

Hermione stilled against Sirius, but he was undeterred, moving his lips to her neck eliciting a whimper from her as she struggled to listen to her Alpha.

"Pup, let him go," Moony demanded. "I do not want to come in there, but I will."

Hermione sighed, put her hands on Sirius' shoulders and pushed herself to her feet. She stumbled to the side but caught herself on one of the bed posts. She avoided Sirius' eyes as she motioned toward the door. The Animagus cursed Remus under his breath but stood nonetheless. Before he left, he reached out to touch the curls framing Hermione's face.

"I'll be back, Pup."

A/N: *Toward Greater Things