Chapter 27: Heart of the Matter
Remus was sighing into his cereal. Again.
It was more a hard, angry exhalation of breath, but calling it a sigh made it seem like something that might be easily dealt with. His friends looked at him sideways, elbowing one another, nudging and shoving until one was elected by silent agreement to ask. Sirius cleared his throat to draw the boy's attention, but he only 'sighed' in response.
"Moony," Sirius said slowly, carefully. "You all right, mate?"
Remus shook his head and sighed, but offered no other reply. They started nudging one another again, furiously signalling for him to keep going, to demand answers. One of their members was put out and they needed to know why. After he had spent time alone with Hermione, they expected him to be as gushing and jubilant as James was whenever Evans gave him even a half-way civil glance, but Remus had trudged back to the castle, eaten and vanished to the Shrieking Shack without a word. His transformation had been a nightmare, his uglier half tearing at the furniture with more fervour than was normal, even for a werewolf.
That was two days ago.
Hermione came into the Great Hall and sat with the other girls, glancing down at them and looking away quickly before she could catch any of the Marauders' eyes.
"What the hell did she do to you, Moony?" Sirius muttered.
The boy's response was immediate and so fierce a nearby first year nearly wet himself. "She didn't do anything!" Remus shouted, slamming his palm down onto the table.
"Well, she obviously did something to you," Sirius replied calmly, never one to show just how shocked, startled or worried he was in the face of a ranting lunatic.
"It was me," the boy groaned, his spine growing slack and his shoulders dropping. "I kissed her."
James cheered. "I knew you had it in you! What—Wait, if you kissed her, shouldn't you be happy?" He looked over at Hermione; the girl's stiff spine and strained smile were unmistakable. One look at her and he knew the reason for Moony's mood. "She turned you down?"
Remus shook his head and sighed, properly sighed. "No."
"Then what's the problem?"
He checked to make sure that no one was eavesdropping, leaned in and replied, "She knows."
"You mean she knows?" James asked. "You told her?"
He shook his head. "I didn't have to. I kissed her and she freaked out. Got stiff as a statue and just reeked of fear. No, Sirius," he cut the boy off before he could launch an argument, "I'm not talking slightly nervous. I know what slightly nervous smells like and this was way past that. She was terrified of me… She knows."
Silence fell among them until one by one they let out an angry exhalation.
"Well, I guess that leaves off telling Harry James Granger your secret, too," Sirius bit out the words as if he had been personally slighted.
"I think we need to show that girl what she's missing," James frowned.
"Or prank her," Peter suggested, glaring down the table at her. "Nobody messes with a Marauder."
Temporarily ignoring the fact that they were still angry with Peter for the prank he pulled on Harry, they let his proposal carry them into a second silence, this one electric with possibility. Prank the new girl? That was something they would have done weeks ago had she not been so sought after by one of their own. Nothing too embarrassing, just enough to draw a laugh. That was before. Now that she had shown her true colours, the kid gloves were coming off.
Remus should have been trying to stop them by now, but he offered no protest; he didn't offer any suggestions, either, but they took his silence as agreement and the escalation began.
"Dungbomb in her trunk," Peter said simply.
"She hasn't got a trunk," Sirius shook his head. "And that would be unfair to the others. They didn't do anything. Has to be localised to just her."
"All she has is that bag of hers," James said, narrowing his eyes at the girl, studying her. "She's always got it on her…"
"Replace it with a copy?" suggested Sirius.
He nodded. "Maybe a miniature Devil's Snare as a starter – something to scare her. If she thought she had something to be sacred of before… just you wait…" He breathed out a dark laugh.
"And extra added bonus: We'll get to riffle through her stuff for information," Peter grinned.
"Hadn't even thought of that," Sirius grinned. "Well spotted, Wormtail."
"What about the brother?" the boy asked, looking to his larger, stronger friends. "If he realises it's us…" His words died as he imagined what Harry might do. The boy was generally nothing to worry about, but they all remembered the hard anger on his face that first morning when he gripped the knife and looked murderously across the table at Peter. Harry had grown stronger since then. If he wanted to, he could easily beat James or Peter in a fair fight, maybe even Remus.
"Oh, he'll know it's us," Sirius smiled darkly. "I'll make sure he knows who's doing it and why."
"No, dammit," James scowled and smacked him on the head. "We need him. We don't stand a chance for the Quidditch Cup without him."
"That must have hurt to admit," Remus smirked, a touch of his humour returning.
"Shut it. This is all your fault, Moony," the Chaser said. "Couldn't go falling for Mary. Her brother's useless at Quidditch."
"Mary is vapid and talks too much," he sniffed. "Hermione is perfect."
"Was perfect," Sirius corrected.
"No," Remus sighed rather wistfully as he looked down the table, "she still is perfect."
"Oh, Merlin," groaned Sirius. "I hope I never fall in love and sound as daft as you."
James smirked.
"What's that look for?" he demanded. "I'm not in love with anybody. I'm not. Stop looking at me like that. You can smirk all you like, Prongs, I've got nothing to admit. I'm not in love. I don't even like him."
"Him?" Remus pounced on the word and Sirius's confession. "Who might this 'him' be?"
"Nobody!" Sirius shouted. "Shove off, the lot of you." He stood, fuming, and strode from the Great Hall with considerably less swagger than he had when he entered.
Class was awkward. Sirius, who normally got to sit off the side during Ancient Runes and goof off, was forced to play buffer between Hermione and Remus. The girl looked guilty. Remus alternated between love-sick and seething. It would have been highly entertaining were he not stuck in the middle.
"Check this," Remus demanded sharply, handing over his translation.
Sirius frowned down at the parchment. Remus's usually tidy hand had become nearly as illegible as James's as he worked feverishly to ignore the girl so near to him. Sighing, Sirius admitted, "I can't read your writing."
"I can," Hermione replied quietly and held her hand out for the parchment.
Sirius was passing it to her when Remus reached out and snatched the translation back. "Never mind," the furious boy said curtly. "I'm sure it's fine."
The girl sniffed as if she were about to cry, though he couldn't tell with her head down. "Did you remember to allow for modern changes to the meaning of the verb?"
In reply to the girl's polite reminder, Remus said, "Mind your own fucking business."
That was when Sirius realised just how much his friend liked her. Remus would never get so wound up over someone he had a little crush on. If he was so angry he was cursing at her, willingly letting his friends prank her, then he was lost. The girl beside him, the one crying silently into her dictionary, had stolen his friend's heart.
Hermione ran from the room as soon as they were dismissed. No one saw her in the Great Hall at lunch.
As soon as her brother walked through the door, brushing from his shoulders the last of the dust he had picked up in the Restricted Section, Sirius waved him over insistently. "Harry James Granger, where's that sister of yours?"
"I dunno," the boy shrugged. "Probably reading. She gets lost in books sometimes."
His eyebrow rose of its own accord. What sort of brother let his sister's heart get broken and literally shrugged it off? "Uh… Harry…"
"Oh, crap, I know it's bad when you only use my first name," the boy replied cheekily. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything!" Sirius said. "Moony did. He kissed your sister."
"What?" Harry's eyes grew huge as he looked to Remus for confirmation; Moony's clenched jaw and averted eyes told him everything he needed to know. "Oh hell! Why would you do that?" He jumped up and ran from the Great Hall.
"Why the hell did you tell him?" James demanded, but paused midway to smacking his friend on the head. "Wait. Why did he run away? Shouldn't he be threatening to break Moony's legs or something?"
Even Remus nodded his agreement. Concerned as he was for his legs, he knew how most brothers should act and running away was not it. They raced after him, James digging into his bag for the invisibility cloak he carried with him in case an opportunity for a prank presented itself. He threw it over all three of them as they hit the entrance to the common room, though it took quite a lot of stooping for none of their feet to show.
"Hermione!"
They froze at Harry's deep bellow up the stairs.
"Hermione! I know what happened! Come down!" he called again. He leaned as far as he could into the stairwell, shouting after his sister again. "If you don't come down, I'll just fly to your window!"
"Stupid bloody Lupin," Harry groaned and kicked a table. "Couldn't keep his bloody lips to himself. Going to kill him when I get home… might kill him now, save myself the wait."
"You can't kill Lupin," his sister chided, her voice nasal and wet from crying. "You like him too much."
"Not right now, I don't," he insisted. "What's the big idea kissing him? You know better!"
"I know!" she hiccupped, tears brimming in her blood-shot eyes.
"Then why did you let him do it?" he demanded.
"Because I wanted him to!" she cried and fell onto the steps, burying her face in her knees.
Harry stood in complete shock for what felt like five minutes, though it was probably closer to five seconds. He stared down at the girl as if she were someone he had never seen before, a stranger who had taken on the general shape and appearance of the girl he knew so well. "You like him?"
"Yes."
"But he's…" the boy struggled to find the appropriate word as the three under the invisibility cloak held their breath and glanced at one another in sympathy for having been so mistaken in the boy's kindness and acceptance. "He's... Lupin…"
"I know he is, but I still like him," she insisted.
Silence fell as Harry did, sitting himself down beside her and wrapping an arm around his sister as she cried. They watched, unsure what sort of insult 'Lupin' was when applied to their friend. They had expected something along the lines of unstable or dangerous, maybe feral or half-breed, even the taboo words themselves lycanthrope or werewolf. But Lupin? That was simply his name.
"He'll never let you live this down, you know," Harry commented quietly. "I can just see his face when we get home. He'll be smirking at you for weeks."
She breathed a watery laugh. "Don't think I haven't thought about that. I was hoping a carefully placed memory charm would work in my favour."
"Well, it'll have to," Harry smiled. "Otherwise he'll be in love with you for years, pining away until third year when you shop up all bossy and know-it-all."
"I was a bossy know-it-all well before third year, thank you," she sniffed and gave a wobbly smile. "My Kindergarten teacher sent me up to the next grade just so I'd stop correcting her."
Harry grinned, "I don't doubt that for a minute. My Kindergarten teacher loved me, but then I was just happy to be out of my cupboard and away from my aunt."
"I'm sorry," she said, tears of a different sort threatening. "I wish we could do something. Make it better somehow."
The boy frowned. "You know the rules better than I do."
A disgruntled sigh escaped her, one of unwilling resignation and frustration, "I know, but that doesn't stop me wanting to help."
"Thanks."
They sat together, her head on his shoulder as the Marauders grew pained at having to crouch so long and confused about exactly what the pair had just been discussing. Finally, after ten minutes, with the sounds of Gryffindors returning from lunch coming through the portrait, Harry stood.
"What are you going to do about Remus?" he asked. "You can't leave him like that. He looked about as good as you do. He likes you, Hermione."
"I know," she groaned and hung her head. "But we can't."
His brow creased in thought. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure! Things could go horribly wrong! Think of the consequences!"
"I am," he said. "We've been here too long, they're going to remember. So I figure Dumbledore will take care of it when we leave. He didn't risk my knowing about the prophecy, he certainly won't risk this."
"I don't know…"
The boy grinned, all cheeks and wicked glint, looking more like James Potter than ever before. "Go on. We know he's a good guy. I mean, it's not normal, but if you like him…"
The portrait flew open, letting in the flood of happy Gryffindors. James tore off the cloak, eager to ease the pressure on his spine and thighs after crouching so long, and they blended with the incoming rush of student. The Marauders claimed the most comfortable chairs, sighing in pleasure as they stretched out their limbs.
"She likes you," Sirius smirked.
"Shut up," Remus mumbled.
"Made her forget all about that Ron bloke," James said.
"Who she's apparently been in love with since third year," Sirius added, his smirk falling slightly. "Seems odd talking about memory charms, though. People have their hearts broken and fall out of love all the time. Why would she need to modify the bloke's memory just because she likes someone else now?"
James just shrugged. "Maybe he's the jealous type."
"What's he going to do all the way from South Africa? Send Moony a strongly-worded letter?" he snorted.
Remus glanced back at the Grangers, who were finishing their debate. He snapped his head back to the fire as Hermione turned to look at him, something of a smile on her face. "Shut up," he ordered.
"Remus?" Hermione said meekly, tapping his arm. "Can I talk to you …privately?"
Sirius grinned and pushed him out of the chair. "Go on."
"Aw, so sweet," James cooed.
"Don't be a git," Harry warned and dropped down on the couch.
"Oi! Why are you being rude to me?" James sniffed indignantly. "You're meant to be warning Moony off your sister."
He waved a hand in the air indifferently. "Nah. I know he's a good bloke."
Sirius lay down on the couch, taking up his favourite position with Harry as his pillow. "I have decided that you are quite possibly the greatest brother ever. If only all the birds I've dated had brothers as brilliant, I'd still be dating some of them."
"Wouldn't that be awkward," James questioned under his breath, wicked glint lighting up his hazel eyes, "when you'd rather be dating the brother instead?"
"I'm going to ignore you now, Prongs," Sirius sniffed, daring a look at Harry's face and was relieved beyond measure when he saw him fighting laughter.