Things were getting a little darker, a little more dangerous. There were whispers that unnerved Hermione because she knew what the little rumors and the half-remembered snippets of gossip truly meant. He was gaining power. He already had Malfoy. He wouldn't get Severus for another year, and he wouldn't get Regulus for another year after that. Hermione was running out of time. She'd tried to plant doubt in Malfoy, but his loyalty to his family made him impervious to her arguments. Severus…she really hoped that their blood sibling bond had changed everything. He seemed happier, more open when he was around Lily and herself. Regulus garnered her sympathy. He was just a pawn—everyone was shoving him around the chess board and he hated it.
It was quiet that summer at the Potter Mansion…a little too quiet. She knew that James, Sirius and Peter were all working on the animagus spell. She knew it happened sometime in their fifth year. It would be this year, but it wasn't like she could go up to them and say "excuse me, are you all animagi, yet, or what?" She sighed. Hermione had considered becoming an animagus. Merlin knew that she had the time for it, and the experience for it. Would it be useful? Would it serve any sort of purpose? She had eventually decided that it might indeed be worth it—especially in the coming war. She'd be unregistered, of course. She certainly didn't want the ministry nosing about where it didn't belong. The only problem had been that her form turned out to be a lioness. Not exactly the most subtle of animagus forms. She had been hoping for something small, something that would be sneaky. Perhaps a type of smallish bird. Wizards and witches kept an eye out for owls, but they tended to ignore others. She sighed heavily. She couldn't even frolic in the woods really. Not without some idiot freaking out about the fact that there was a LION loose. Maybe when she got back to Hogwarts, she could take a nice run through the Forbidden Forest.
"Hey Hermione," Sirius drawled from the doorway of the library. She glanced up at the handsome boy leaning idly against the doorframe. He'd started to grow his hair out longer and it just brushed his shoulders. He really was too handsome for his own good. His grey eyes were hooded, watching her. He'd started doing that lately, and she wasn't sure what it meant, exactly.
"Hello, Sirius. Can I help you?" She asked curiously. He shrugged.
"Just waiting on James. Your dad wanted to talk to him," Sirius explained. Hermione nodded. She had a sneaking suspicion that father was giving James the cloak. Sure, he'd snuck it out of Daddy's study for clandestine trips through the house with Sirius, but this would be an official passing down of a family heirloom to the eldest son. Stupid tradition.
"I know," she said coldly, her hazel eyes narrowing in irritation. Sirius blinked at her in surprise. Hermione usually treated him with a sort of casually friendly regard, but she'd never been rude or snotty with him. He had always figured that he was sort of covered under the James umbrella, and lately he had hoped that maybe Hermione sort of liked him just for himself.
"Sirius!" James' excited voice called from the hall. "Sirius, where are you?"
"I'll just go then," Sirius muttered uncomfortably.
"You just do that" Hermione said coldly.
"Hermione," Sirius said hesitantly, concern in his grey eyes. "Have I done something?"
"No," Hermione said with an angry sigh. "No, it's not you. I'm sorry. I just…it's not fair!"
"What's not fair?" James asked from the doorway, looking from Sirius to Hermione. She growled at her brother, and pushed passed him. She stomped all the way up the stairs, which her mother would have a fit about because ladies did not stomp. That only served to make Hermione even angrier because no one cared if boys stomped. The boys looked at one another and then shrugged.
"What's that then, James?" Sirius pointed to the package in the other boy's arms. James gave a blinding smile and dragged Sirius off to his room.
HP/HG/HP
"Hermione, darling, is there something wrong?" Dorea Black stood uncertainly in her daughter's room. The teenager glared at her mother and scrubbed at her tear-stained cheeks.
"No." Hermione said quietly.
"Dear, I think we both know that something is wrong," Dorea chided gently.
"Well, I'm not a boy" Hermione said bitterly, refusing to look at her mother. Dorea started slightly.
"Why on earth would you want to be a boy?" Dorea asked in surprise. Hermione hiccupped.
"They get the family heirlooms. They get all the power and control," she said bitterness still lacing her voice. "And…and maybe then James would like me better. And maybe father, too."
"Oh, Hermione. Your father and brother think that you hung the moon. They love you more than almost anything. Just because James got the cloak doesn't mean your father doesn't love you," Dorea said firmly.
"Hmph," Hermione said, a scowl on her pretty face.
"What if I told you that there is a special heirloom that only the girls receive?" Her mother asked gently, a hand on her daughter's wild hair. Hermione looked up at her mother, surprise evident on her features.
"Really?" Hermione asked skeptically. Dorea smiled.
"Really." Her mother said firmly. She reached up and unclasped a pendant that Hermione Potter remembered her mother had always worn. Always. She settled it around Hermione's neck and clasped it in place. Hermione reached up and touched the pendant with reverent fingers.
"It's beautiful," Hermione said softly, examining the pendant. It was a delicate gold filigree pendant with a large ruby in the center. Hermione realized that there was a rampant lion carved into the ruby. She gasped softly and stared up at her mother.
"Family legend says that this was a gift given to one of your earliest ancestresses. It is said that she was an amazing woman, the brightest witch of her age." Dorea said softly. Hermione blushed a little, she was so used to hearing that phrase used to describe herself.
"It looks like a Gryffindor heirloom," Hermione said slowly, examining the tiny lion.
"That's because it is," Dorea said with a light laugh. "We are true Gryffindors, after all."
"But," Hermione bit her lip. Dorea stroked her daughter's hair and pressed a light kiss to her brow.
"You remember your lessons with Tremble, don't you dear? We're all inbred to one degree or another. One of Godric's granddaughters married a Peverell. This pendant was a marriage gift from Horatio Peverell to Gloswinda Gryffindor. It's said to have certain properties that protect the bearer." Dorea explained. Hermione stared at the pendant and then looked up at her mother.
"Thank you," she whispered, awe in her voice. Her mother smiled.
"Remember, never take it off. You must always wear it," Dorea said firmly, smoothing her daughter's curls.