The energy of Quidditch matches were unique. They were loud and uproarious but it was all in the background. Sirius loved it. He loved the moments before stepping out onto the pitch, the keyed up comradery of his teammates as they got ready, doing last minute gear checks and clipping that last stray twig on their broom to keep it flying perfectly, and joking with one another. Afify was giving pointers that he had given them a hundred times before, but they all listened anyway.

"For the last time, Black, tie your damn Fabio hair up!" Afify yelled across the locker room at him.

Sirius shot a bemused look at his captain at the quip, but Afify just ignored him and started reminding Deckard, their seeker, about something. He reached up and gathered his hair to the nape of his neck and tied it into a secure knot, before pinching the daisy charm between two fingers for a reverent moment. He felt set and ready to go and stood up with the rest of the team when called to attention.

They walked out into the late morning sun and bolstered cheers. Sirius glanced around the stands, hoping to catch a glimpse of his friends despite knowing that at this distance and on the ground the chances of spotting them were low. But that was alright, he'd see them after their victory.

The team went through the normal formalities of lining up face to face with their opponents and shaking hands before kicking off the ground. The crisp air blew past him as he zoomed up to his position off from the left Gryffindor goal posts and started a figure eight pattern in an attempt to cover as much territory around the players as possible to fend off the budgers.

It was the first game of the year, and they got to set the tone for the rest of the season. None of them were going to settle for a friendly game.

Quidditch wasn't something Hermione cared much about. In fact, she'd likely not show up to games if it weren't for the fact that she always had friends on the team. She knew the basic rules of the game but when it got to the technical minutiae she always got lost. Harry and Ron had tried to explain it to her on numerous occasions, but they would only get so far before her eyes would glaze over and she'd go temporarily deaf. Even Krum would end up shaking his head with an endeared smile at her complete inability to hold her attention on the subject.

That's not to say she didn't find the sport exciting, especially when you have Harry Potter as a friend. Never knowing when some freak accident will happen to threaten his life, made for riveting games.

All that being said, Hermione found herself squeezed in with the crowd of excited students and her social energy rapidly declining and anxiety rising. She was situated between Peter and Remus, who did their best to keep her from being jostled about as they made their way to their seats. It was a relief to finally sit after being pressed and elbowed. The crush of people around her was at least organized as opposed to the array of individuals trying to jam themselves through the arches and up the stairs.

It only took a few minutes before seven red robed players marched across the field opposite the seven in green. They lined up across from each other and the stands held their collective breaths as the captains shook hands and the referee blew his whistle to signal the start of the game. The crowd erupted as the players all kicked off the ground, and zoomed to take their positions.

Hermione could already see James wrestling with a Slytherin chaser over the quaffle, gaining control over the ball and tossing it to the burly blond that had held Sirius captive for the good luck kiss half an hour earlier. The blond did a fancy swoop around another chaser and barrelled right towards Sirius before making a sharp turn right before they collided. Sirius was ready for the bludger that followed the chaser and smacked it towards a Slytherin.

With a glance upward Hermione spotted two slight figures circling the stands. Regulus and the Gryffindor seeker stuck close together as they searched for the snitch. Occasionally one would feint to one side in an attempt to trick the other into zooming off in an unrelated direction.

Shelasted an hour and four goals for Gryffindor before she slumped back down into her seat. Her head was beginning to ache from craning her neck to keep track of all the dynamic components of the game, and the commentator was not nearly as entertaining or engaging as Lee Jordan or Luna had been.

Remus looked down at her as she sat, and asked if she was ok with a concerned down turn of his mouth.

Hermione nodded. "If I read the rest of the game, would you mind keeping it from Sirius and James?" She asked with a mischievous smile and a swat at a lacewing fly that buzzed too close to her nose.

"Mums the word!" he said with a laugh and Peter on her other side mimed zipping his mouth closed and throwing the key away.

Hermione sighed in relief and rummaged in her satchel and retrieved her current read. She felt herself regain a little bit more of her mental composure as she focused on her book and let the chaos of the crowd and game fall into the background. Periodically, she'd glance up to check the score. Gryffindor was leading by ninety points and the snitch had yet to be spotted. Nothing to get worked up over thus far, she thought to herself. As she put her nose back to the pages, the lacewing fly buzzed by her ear again. With an irritated flick she immobilized the insect and the fluttering wings went still.

Without noticing the time, Hermione steadily worked her way through the pages and finished the novel she had brought along. She glanced up and felt like she had just snapped back to reality. The sun was low in the sky and the spotlights had taken over most of the illumination without her realizing it. She checked her watch and was surprised to see that it was half past four. Her stomach began to gnaw at her. She turned to Peter, who had taken a seat at some point during the long hours of the game.

"What's happening? Has anyone spotted the snitch yet?" She asked hopefully.

"No! Not even once. We're leading by one hundred and seventy points though. So, at this point I don't care who catches the snitch as long as we can get to the Halloween feast." He grumbled. His blue eyes shut as he yawned.

"You do know that there have been games that have lasted weeks, right?" Remus said, looking down at them. Hermione didn't know where he got the energy to stand for so long. She'd been sitting most of the time and felt exhausted.

"Ugh, don't curse us." Peter moaned. "Oh! Hermione, I almost forgot. Your potions." He said, perking up.

"Oh. Right." She sighed. She was off most of the more intense potions she had been taking for her injuries, but Pomfrey – with Sirius hawkishly standing behind the nurse– had insisted that she keep taking the nutritional supplements, and immunity boosting potions. The remainder of her injuries were to heal on their own. At least she got to eat a snack with her potions to avoid aggravating her stomach.

She leaned over to look through her bag for the supplies she had to carry with her and saw a glint of gold that she didn't recognize at first. She tilted her satchel a little so the floodlights chased the shadows away from the inside, and felt her jaw drop. Inside the corner of her bag was the little golden snitch.

Realization and mortification hit her all at once. It hadn't been a lacewing fly she had paralyzed earlier.

Glancing around her to see if anyone was watching, she pointed her wand at the little ball and whispered the counterspell as the two seekers circled overhead. The snitch rose from her bag and zipped through the crowd, ruffling the hairs of a few bewildered students.

The energy around the stands changed immediately as the two seekers spotted the snitch seemingly at the same time and began their chase. She didn't know much about Quidditch, but it didn't take a lot to realize that Regulus was a superb player. His turns and dives were executed within a hair's width. His precision and lack of wasted movements gave him the edge to get ahead of the Gryffindor seeker as they flew low and skimmed their way just over the top of the spectators heads.

When he grabbed hold of the snitch, shouts erupted from the stands. Regulus was dragged down from his spot above the crowd by enthusiastic and hungry students from the Ravenclaw section.

"Finally!" Peter exclaimed as the commentator announced the outcome of the game.

"Slytherin got the snitch! But Gryffindor wins the game by twenty points!"

The Gryffindor fight song rose up from the crowd as the players did a victory lap around the pitch. Sirius sent a wink and a wave as he passed them by before his face turned sour when Remus and Peter began blowing him and James kisses.

"Let's head on down!" Remus grinned.

They rushed down the congested stairs as quickly as they could to meet up with the victorious quidditch players. The swarming crowd of students chanted their house name. The team were all grinning despite being completely soaked through with sweat that they had accumulated over the last several hours.

Peter and Remus pushed their way through to James and Sirius, while they kept Hermione between them to avoid her getting lost in the undulating mass of students. After a moment they got through the throng and came face to face with the two triumphant but exhausted faces of their friends.

Sirius spotted her immediately and reached out and grabbed her arm to pull her towards him. He threw his arms around her, burying her face in his embrace, while laughing.

"We did well for the first match of the season. Right, Kitten?" He practically shouted. His arms trembled with fatigue around her and he was soaked through with cooling sweat that contrasted with his body warmth.

Hermione tried to ignore the way the smell of him enveloped her. It should have been a bad smell, but it wasn't. It didn't smell anything like the cheesy romance novels described, with notes of chocolate or whisky or anything so obviously identifiable, he just smelled of man. He smelled like Her Sirius. Though, without the dab of cologne that he wore as an adult.

Embarrassed but how much she liked her current situation, she mumbled incoherent affirmations and praises into his chest. Which made him let out a full throated laugh before separating from her. He grinned down at her and hooked an arm over her shoulder and slung his other arm over James shoulder and pulled them away from the crowd.

James struggled to stay put as Peter and Remus came up on their rear and started shoving him on his way. His head strained back towards an irate looking Lily, as he kept shouting out proclamations of good fortune and love while she was being restrained by a giggling Alice and Mary.

"It's time for the feast!" Peter exclaimed to the band of merry students, as they crawled their way through.

An excited cheer rang up as the thought of food entered the collective thoughts of the jubilant students. With everyone heading towards the Great Hall, their pace picked up rapidly.

In the height of excitement around her, Hermione allowed herself to just enjoy the moment.

Sirius felt high. Intensely worn out, but it was the kind of exhaustion that meant he had accomplished something. His arms felt like they would fall off. Over the course of the game, he had to switch batting arms more than once when the burn in his muscles became too much. At least the feast was spectacular that year.

The spread on the great tables overflowed, and Sirius had felt as though his stomach had grown three times its normal size in anticipation for all of the delicacies. He almost didn't notice Remus' pointed remarks and teasing spark in his eye glancing at Hermione while he chatted with those near them at the table.

"I think that was the longest it ever took for the snitch to be spotted at any game I've ever been to." He said as he spared another look at her. "I wonder where it could have been hiding for five hours."

Hermione choked on a bit of roasted squash, color pooling into her face as she coughed. She beat a fist against her sternum and gave a positively delightful glower at Moony. Sirius wasn't sure what the quibble was but he enjoyed the facial expressions that it elicited.

He never did get to ask as Filch entered through the great doors and slunk his way along the wall to the faculty table. There was a grisly look on the caretaker's face as he whispered to Dumbledore over the table. All the teachers within ear shot reacted in ways that had Sirius' heckles on end. McGonagall covered her mouth with one hand and her eyes went wide.

"What do you think is going on?" James asked, all mirth gone from his tone.

Sirius glanced at his friends who were all intently watching the events unfolding at the teachers table. Hermione grabbed his hand and squeezed.

"Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout are going out the side door." She said, with an apprehensive edge in her tone. She was right, the two older women were hurrying away, their robes hiked into their hands to give their legs more access to move quickly. "Dumbledore is going to send us to our common rooms." She said under her breath, looking up at him through her lashes. "Something happened and they won't want us roaming around until they can verify if what's happened is a threat to the rest of us or just an isolated incident."

True to her prediction, Dumbledore stood up from his seat, all traces of distress wiped from his face as he addressed the hall.

"My dear students!" He called, ushering silence from those who hadn't noticed the events unfolding at the head table. When all eyes had turned towards him, he continued his address. "There has been an unfortunate incident. A student was attacked tonight. As we work out what has happened, we require that you head back to your dormitories in an orderly fashion. Immediately."

The grip on his hand tightened, and there was a slight trembling in her fingers.

"Is this something you knew would happen?" Sirius turned and bent a little to ask her in a low voice. He looked down at her wide brown eyes, and worried lip and wondered what it was that had her so nervous.

Hermione just looked up at him as though to convey that she would talk to him later. There were too many ears that could listen in on them.

"Hermione, are you doing alright?" Peter asked as they all got up and began filing out of the Great Hall. "You've gone pale. Did you remember to take your potions?"

But Hermione's attention had been drawn away from them. Sirius followed her gaze towards Lily and Alice who were anxiously looking around the crowd.

"Have you seen Mary?" Lily asked a seventh year girl who was walking past them. "We can't find her. She didn't come to the feast."

Sirius felt something in his stomach turn as he figured out who the likely victim of the attack was. He and Mary weren't very close, but the fact that she was a muggleborn was well known. Of course, her blood status could have been a coincidence, but based on how stiff and quiet Hermione had gone, she was suspecting the same thing.

They eventually filed into the common room, the crowd of students milled around, groups chattering quietly – speculating over the attack. Remus led them towards their usual spot by the fire, and slid into his arm chair.

Sirius pulled Hermione down into the seat next to his and wrapped an arm over her shoulder, keeping her close as a way to reassure them both. Her unease set alarms off in his mind. Loud in the strange hush that prevailed over the soft conversations in the corners of the room.

"Do you think…" James trailed off.

They all knew what he was thinking, but to vocalize it would be to make it a real possibility and none of them wanted to acknowledge that the war had begun to crawl its way into the school. There had always been tensions. Minor bullying and cliques. Whispers that were held behind doors and under breath. A few tripping hexes and pranks. But, there had been no outright attacks. No one had been assaulted. And, while there was no confirmation yet on the motivation, it almost didn't matter. Whatever the motivation, the assumption would spread and overshadow anything.

"Yeah. I think." Remus said. His eyes were dark against the flickering hearth light that reflected in the irises.

Hermione curled her knees up, making herself smaller. She was quiet but her face wasn't quite the terrified expression he expected. Sure, she looked disturbed, but mostly she looked contemplative. Like she was connecting constellations into their bigger picture.

"Why would anyone risk an attack in the castle?" Peter asked from his spot on the rug.

"I don't know." James answered. He was leaning into the armrest of the sofa with a fist propping his head up, smushing his cheek. "It's not like they could apparate away from the castle. Or in, for that matter." He sent a meaningful glance around the group, excluding Hermione, who still seemed to be in her own world of thought. The secret passageways seemed to be on James' mind.

"Don't be daft, Prongs." Remus chastised with a roll of his eyes. "It wasn't someone from outside the castle."

"It was probably one of those little freaks in the basement." Sirius ground out from behind a clenched jaw. Just the idea of them huddling together to plot and laugh made his blood boil.

"Do you include your brother in that assessment?" Hermione asked as she shifted away to look up at him.

"If he's daft enough to go along with it, then yes." He snarled at the stone mantle.

"Hm…" She hummed, like his answer was somehow more complex than he realized. She tilted closer to him and uttered in a low voice: "Can you check the map to see for sure who was attacked, if the teachers have caught anyone?"

Sirius looked down at her, and read between the lines. She thought this was an event that she knew about. With a nod he came up with an easy excuse to leave the group for a moment.

"Oi, Prongs." He said over Hermione's head. "Let's wash up. I feel sticky."

"Ugh! You're right." James exclaimed like he just now noticed his own state of hygiene. "Yeah, let's go."

They both popped up from the couch together and the middle where Hermione sat sunk in as their weight vanished from the ends. Without her feet firmly planted, she toppled over sideways on the couch cushion with an abortive outcry that sounded oddly like a duck call. Which resulted in all four boy's bursting into laughter, garnering a few baffled looks their way. Sirius and James paid them no mind as they hurried up the stone, spiral staircase to their dormitory.

James went immediately to his things and began gathering toiletries and spare clothes, but Sirius stood for a moment, scanning the room for the map, though it was unlikely that whoever last used it didn't stash it in one of their agreed upon hidey-holes.

"You know where the map got to?" He asked James, who was sniffing a pair of pants.

"Yeah. What do you need it for?" James reached under his bed and tapped the underside with his wand muttering an unsticking spell and a magazine with a scantily clad witch on the cover fell to the floor. Picking it up he tossed it over to Sirius.

"Thanks." Sirius said as he caught it. He tapped the middle of the magazine and said: "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The image of the witch rippled off the page and the map came to life in his hands.

"I want to confirm who was attacked." He said, his eyes already tracked their way toward the Hospital Wing.

James had come up beside him and looked as well. They both stared at the jumble of names that occupied the room.

Minerva McGonagall

Pomona Sprout

Poppy Pomfrey

Mary McDonald

"Well, that confirms that." James said. He was clearly not pleased with finding out that their speculations were correct.

"Where do you think Dumbledore got to?" Sirius asked as he scanned the map for the headmaster's name.

"Ah! He's in his office with Slughorn and Mulciber." James spat in disgust. "A freak, indeed. You think he gets it from his dad?" he sneered.

"I wouldn't doubt it." Sirius replied. Mulciber's father was known for getting away with all sorts of shady things. Though most of the so-called 'Sacred Twenty Eight' were known for playing dirty. Nearly all of them held seats on the Wizengamot and used their position and money to their advantage. Anything from weaseling out of embezzlement charges, to covering up murder. Though, none of this was provable, of course – the evidence would be scrubbed and witnesses paid off or otherwise made unreliable– Sirius was well acquainted with families with such power, having been born into one himself.

James was lucky. Though he had come from a wealthy pureblooded family, his parents didn't subscribe to any such malpractices. They had earned their money through legitimate businesses –except for his great uncle Alfred, who had thought it was advantageous to smuggle Latvian winged toad dust for a quick profit on the black market. But they didn't talk about uncle Alfred much.

"Come on." James sighed and pulled the map away. "We should actually shower. We can come up with something to avenge Mary later." He tapped the map and the ink slid off the paper. He tucked into a different hiding spot, not bothering putting the glamour over it again.