One Last Try [HP Jamione fanfic]

11. Fifteen

A/N: Every time I post a chapter for this, it feels like it's been so much longer than a week since the previous one! I've just finished writing sixth year, and I'm publishing the beginning of fourth year. It's so odd, haha!

Hope you like.

1st September 1974

"Hermione!" Iphemia Prewett's usually soft voice rang through the Manor, amplified to reach everywhere. "Have you seen your brothers!?"

Hermione appeared at Iphemia's elbow, shocking a mild shriek out of her mother, "Yes, I have." Hermione said with a beatific smile.

"Oh!" Iphemia, held a hand to her heart in surprise, "You have been spending too much time with your brothers, and those prankster friends of yours." Iphemia turned to face her youngest daughter, reaching out to tuck a curl - so similar to Iphemia's own - behind Hermione's ear. "Are you all packed, love?"

Hermione nodded, and waved a hand, looking eerily like her mother in that moment, "Oh, I finished days ago. I think you should be asking those brothers of mine if they're packed though. Last time I saw them they were mock-duelling in the drawing room." Hermione snickered as Iphemia's eyes widened, and the usually put together witch swore fervently under her breath.

"Hermione Prewett! Those should have been the first words out of your mouth! Oh, all of you will be the death of me!" She cried, lifting the long skirts of her robes and already hurrying away. Hermione admired her mother's poise, even as she practically ran her robes stayed crisp and wrinkle free, and not a strand of hair dared to fall out of the elaborate style she wore it in. Some of it was magic, sure, but Hermione was convinced a lot of it was just good breeding. "What happened to my good girl?" She demanded when she caught Hermione's eyes as she left the hall. Hermione just laughed and followed after her mother at a more sedate pace, wanting to watch Iphemia scold Fabian and Gideon.

After a good scolding from their mother which had Hermione snickering, the twins skulked upstairs moodily to go finish their (very last minute) packing, and Hermione disappeared to the library.

She'd been researching the Animagus process for the past few months and was finally ready to start the drawn-out process. She was going to start holding the mandrake leaf in her mouth that very night for a full month (from full moon to full moon) and that was actually the easiest part of the process. It made Sirius' issues with holding the leaf in his mouth all the more troubling. She'd snuck away and bought a large bag of mandrake leaves when they'd last gone into Diagon Alley, and she'd hidden them at the bottom of her trunk now, ready to start tonight.

They Floo'd onto platform 9 ¾ at the last minute, thanks to Fabian and Gideon running around like headless chickens trying to get everything packed. Hermione and Iphemia had shared a long-suffering look, and as they all climbed onto the train, Iphemia shouted after them, "I'll send on anything you have left behind."

The train ride to Hogwarts was uneventful; Hermione spent most of the trip curled up in the corner of the compartment she was sharing with Lily, Alice, Frank, and Dorcas reading a ridiculously large tome. She joined the Marauders towards the end of the journey. They were down one of their members as Remus was already on Hogwarts grounds, waiting to be escorted to the shrieking shack later that night for the full moon.

"Kitten!" Sirius shouted in joy when she slid open the compartment door, already in her Hogwarts robes.

"Sirius." She responded, smiling at all of them as she took the seat next to James, leaning against him with a smile when he lifted his arm invitingly. He hugged her to his side and - not that she was aware of it - tried to prevent himself from pressing a kiss to her head like he desperately wanted to.