One Last Try [HP Jamione fanfic]

35. The 1

11th February 1977

"Why did you want to meet?" Severus snapped, turning to her as soon as the door to the room closed behind them. His arms were folded across his chest, Slytherin robes drawn tightly to his body, his lank hair hanging half over his face.

Hermione blinked at his harsh tone, "I wanted to see how you were."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why, Severus?"

"Your little pet werewolf nearly killed me, Prewett."

Hermione flinched and then frowned, "It is not Remus' fault!" She barked, suddenly furious. She'd always felt protective over the man who refused to protect himself.

"No? So he's not a werewolf? He didn't try to attack me?"

"You know full well that a werewolf is not in control of their actions while transformed, Severus!"

"Maybe not. Black was in full control of his actions when he sent me down there to be killed by his werewolf friend. I'm sure Potter and Pettigrew were in on it, too."

"What Sirius did was bloody awful, and he's being punished for it." Hermione had yet to talk to Sirius since the night she'd found out, and she knew the other Marauders were shunning him currently. The rest of Gryffindor House was confused and clearly worried over the behaviour, but they were all keeping mum and no one knew what had happened. "Don't blame Remus for it though."

Severus' scowl deepened, his almost black eyes flashing with righteous fury, "His punishment wasn't good enough." He retorted angrily, "Dumbledore never should have let a werewolf into the school in the first place."

"You know why Professor Dumbledore couldn't punish him more, Severus." She crossed her arms over her chest, defensive even though she didn't really want to be, "Remus is safe most of the time, he takes the necessary precautions! You can't blame him."

"Yet, I do." Severus sneered, "Your friends nearly got me killed, Prewett." He was looking at her like she was at fault now, and Hermione frowned, guilty.

She should have remembered this incident and stopped it from happening.

"I know! I'm furious at them, Severus!" She stepped closer imploringly, "But don't lump me in with them, please."

Severus was still scowling, and he took a large step back from her, back towards the door. "Contact me when there is something concerning the Dark Lord, or his Horcruxes. Until then, I don't want to see you, Prewett." He turned and swept away, ignoring her shouting after him.

She stared in shock at the closed door, not having expected Severus to be so angry with her. Though she supposed she should've. His opinion of the Marauders had always been very low, and he'd always thought her friendship with them was stupid on her part. In his mind this was just a vindication of what he'd always thought.

Despite their chillier friendship since the near incident with Lily, he was still a friend.

xxx

28th March 1977

Hermione found Frank at their usual table in the back of the library after dinner, dropping into the seat beside him and throwing her robes over the back of her chair.

"You okay, Min?" He asked, looking up from his essay, and putting his quill aside to pay proper attention to his upset looking best friend. He looked amusingly frazzled from his schoolwork, his usually neat dark hair was in disarray from where he'd clearly been running his hands through it, his shirt was unbuttoned, Gryffindor tie hanging askew, and he had smudges of ink on his cheek and hands.