“Come on, we really have to study,” said Hermione as usual. Only this time, she was not only trying to control Harry and Ron, but James, Sirius and Peter. Lily was off with some of her other friends and Remus was actually agreeing with Hermione.
“I can think of other things to do that are better than studying,” said Sirius with a grin and a wink at Hermione. Throughout the week they had been there, Sirius had not stopped flirting with Hermione.
“Shut up, Sirius,” said Remus, shooting an annoyed glance at his friend. “You have an attention span of a rodent. And James isn’t much better!” James was currently staring at Lily, who was across the room, and didn’t hear the comment.
“Ron! Harry!” Hermione was saying at the same time. “You two can’t concentrate on anything!” Hermione and Remus exchanged looks that clearly said, “We’re wasting our time.”
“Let’s go down to the library so we can actually study,” suggested Hermione. The second Remus agreed, Ron and Sirius sat up straight and pulled their work out.
“No, wait Hermione. We’re working. See?” said Ron.
“Yeah, come on Moony. Stay,” said Sirius, though he was looking at Hermione. They both sat back down.
Harry and James were trying not to laugh as they watched Ron and Sirius compete for Hermione’s attention by looking for help. Sirius was winning because he had sent Remus to help Ron with his work. Poor Peter just looked on, not truly comprehending the situation.
After they had completed their homework – an amazing feat on a Friday night for all except Hermione and Remus – Sirius had another idea. “Let’s play truth or dare.” Everyone groaned. “What?” he asked. “Aren’t you guys up for a challenge?”
All except Peter, who went up to bed, agreed and they began the game in the now-empty common room. Lily had joined them by this time along with her friend Alyson, who had a huge crush on Sirius.
“Hermione,” began Sirius. “Truth or dare?”
“Dare,” said Hermione, almost immediately regretting it. It was, after all, Sirius who was coming up with the dare.
Sirius smiled mischievously. “I dare you to kiss me.” Hermione blushed furiously. Ron’s mouth dropped to the ground. James, Harry and Lily were laughing. Alyson looked furious.
“Alright,” said Hermione, “but I’m not doing it in front of everyone.” She led him into another room. They were only gone for a minute or so, but when they came back, both had grins on their faces.
It was Hermione’s turn. “Remus, truth or dare?” She was banking on Remus picking truth. He did. “What are the origins of the nicknames you have for each other?” she asked, referring, of course, to Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.
Remus, Sirius and James exchanged nervous glances. It was not a question he could easily answer, but luckily, he was a quick thinker. “We picked them after learning about – er – Animagi. We picked the names based on which animal we’d want to be or would most likely be.”
“And which animal is Moony supposed to represent?” Remus looked stumped.
“No fair!” called James, rescuing him. “Rules say you can only ask one question.”
“Yeah,” agreed Sirius. “Your turn, Remus.” Sirius and James were a bit too keen to get off the subject. Harry, Ron and Hermione knew why.
“Lily, truth or dare?” asked Remus.
“Truth,” said Lily, afraid of what the dare might be. Remus was, after all, a marauder.
“When did you know that you actually liked James?” Remus inquired as Lily squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. Until the beginning of last summer, Lily had hated James, or at least appeared to have hated him.
Harry, upon hearing Remus’ question, stayed a bit more focused. He had often wondered since viewing the memory in Snape’s pensieve, if his parents had actually ended up liking each other and when that day happened. It looked like he was about to find out.
“The beginning of sixth year,” admitted Lily, blushing. Sirius playfully teased Lily as much as James would permit about being scared to admit her feelings. Then they moved on.
“Sirius, truth or dare?” asked Lily.
“Dare,” said Sirius immediately. He always picked dare.
Lily contemplated it a bit, trying to figure out the best revenge for his teasing her and the most interesting dare because Sirius was always up for anything.
“I want you to go into the Slytherin dorms.” Before Sirius could protest she added, “James told me that you threatened Regulus into giving you the password. I want you to do whatever you think scares them most and something that everyone will see at breakfast tomorrow.”
Sirius left and everyone was talking about what he’d do. Everyone, that is, except Harry. He was starting to fit the pieces together…Hermione had caught his eye; she had seen it too. Of course she had.
Sirius came back well over a half-hour later but would not tell anyone what they would see at breakfast. He did, however, explain what he did that would scare them most. “I took some of those dolls that ‘fan club’ has of me,” he said, shuddering at the thought of his creepy fan club, “and used Permanent Sticking Charms to secure them to their pillows.”
“Brilliant!” said James. “I don’t think I’ve ever even thought of that. I knew those girls would come in handy one day.”
“Really? I never thought that,” said Sirius, who generally was too busy with his pranking for too much female attention. “Ever,” he added for emphasis.
Hermione, taking note of the time, said, “Maybe we should go up to bed.”
“We should,” agreed Remus. “It’s getting late.”
“Oh come on,” said Sirius, looking put out. “It was just getting good!”
“We’ve done enough for one night,” said Lily in between yawns. “It’s time to get some sleep.”
“Fine,” said Sirius and James together although they did not look happy about it.
Everyone agreed that it was, finally, time for bed. Sirius went to sleep with a smile on his face. He couldn’t wait until everyone saw the Slytherins.
~~~~~~~~
The next morning, Sirius woke the other Marauders up early and headed down to the Great Hall. Once there, he was practically bouncing off the walls waiting for the Slytherins (and everyone else for that matter) to show up. James, Remus and Peter just looked tired. Other than the four Marauders, the Great Hall was empty.
Time passed. Some Ravenclaws entered, some Hufflepuffs and some more Gryffindors. Hermione and Lily entered next, chatting away happily. Lily took her usual seat next to James. Hermione sat down next to Sirius and across from Remus. Then Alyson came in, sitting down on Lily’s right and looking enviously at Hermione.
Hermione didn’t notice this, as she was wrapped up in her own thoughts. This is trouble. I’m actually having feelings for Sirius Black, who’s Harry’s godfather and who should be old enough to be my father! But here he isn’t…stop it Hermione! You can’t think about that. And then there’s Ron. I don’t know what to do about Ron.
Just as her thoughts had turned to Ron, he and Harry entered the Great Hall and sat down. Ron sat down on Hermione’s other side, shooting a jealous look at Sirius. Harry sat across from him.
Sirius noted the look and put an arm around Hermione, who didn’t seem to mind but really just didn’t notice. Harry noted Ron’s glaring and wasn’t surprised. He was surprised, however, that Remus didn’t look too happy either. He was avoiding looking at Sirius and stabbing moodily at his breakfast with a fork. It was then that Harry realized that Ron and Sirius weren’t the only two with feelings for Hermione. Honestly, Harry couldn’t see why they found Hermione so attractive. She was alright, but Ginny was way better looking.
Apparently a fondness for redheads had run in his family he thought as he watched James and Lily feeding each other breakfast. It reminded him very much of Bill and Fleur Weasley.
Sirius was on his twelfth waffle when he pointed frantically at the door where the Slytherins were entering the Great Hall. The entire student body began laughing when they saw the Slytherins. All of them were in frilly pink robes and each of them had a different color neon hair.
The participants of the truth or dare game laughed the hardest. James couldn’t resist taking a picture and Sirius laughed so hard he almost choked. All of them fixed the sight of a pink-robed, neon-haired Snape in their minds.
“What is the meaning of this?” asked Professor McGonagall.
“We don’t know,” said a Slytherin girl. “We woke up and our robes and hair were like this. We couldn’t undo it.”
“Nice job, Padfoot,” said James.
“Thanks Prongs,” replied Sirius. “Although, if they’d ever paid attention in Transfiguration, they could have undone it. Or maybe they couldn’t,” he added as an afterthought.
McGonagall had soon set the Slytherins right and then everyone was free to enjoy the weekend.
“Do any of you play Quidditch?” asked James when they were back in the common room. “I’m Quidditch Captain and we’re looking for a new Chaser, Seeker and Keeper.”
“I play Seeker and Ron plays Keeper,” said Harry excitedly.
“Great! I’m one of the Chasers and Sirius here is a Beater,” said James. “Tryouts are later today.”
Harry, Ron and James left, no doubt to go discuss Quidditch. Peter also left, tagging along with James per usual. Lily and Alyson hadn’t even come up to the common room after breakfast. Remus sat down to read a book, leaving Sirius and Hermione to talk.
“Er, Hermione, I think we need to talk about what happened last night,” said Sirius. Hermione nodded. “I don’t know where you wanted to go with this, but I don’t particularly want it to stop.” That said, he leaned in and kissed her. Hermione didn’t protest.
Remus watched them for a brief minute before going up to his bed and writing in his journal, which he was not embarrassed to have even though James and Sirius sometimes gave him a hard time about it.
I’ve done it again, he wrote. I’ve let Sirius get another girl from right under my nose. I know with my – er – condition I shouldn’t have any girlfriends, but I really like Hermione. But who would notice me when Sirius is around? Sometimes I hate my life.
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