Time Boat

{4}

{4-Solitude Was the Only Logical Ending}

Hermione thought for sure that she was going to be golden in terms of avoiding James and the lot, but she should have known better. Being Severus Snape's friend did nothing to deter them from their Gryffindor sense of family.

For some foolish reason, Hermione had chosen to do her homework in the common room, figuring that a single Transfiguration essay couldn't take her too long. Apparently, she was very wrong. The topic had been a little more complicated than she first thought it would be, and then she'd gotten engrossed in the texts it was on, and it merely snowballed into her reading half the text and missing dinner. Hermione regretted not accepting Severus on his offer of doing it in the library.

So, since she was the only one in the room when the dinner crowd came back, Hermione was spotted by the first to arrive.

And wasn't it the friendly James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter?

Hermione had actually talked with Remus quick, and he was kind enough, but Hermione was horrified of what James and Sirius would say about her... well, about Florizel anyways. Hanging about a Slytherin as she did, that couldn't mean anything good about her, or maybe they wouldn't care? She highly doubted it.

"Hullo," James said, plopping down across the table from her, smiling like he never stopped. Sirius took the chair next to him, and Remus being the shy doll he was, stood behind them, as did Peter.

"Hey," Hermione answered, feeling insecure with all her things spread out, and her girly handwriting there for all to see.

She tried to cover it up, but James spotted it in an instant.

"Transfiguration essay?"

Hermione nodded.

"I sat them down and we did ours yesterday. A bit more than we originally expected, but not too bad," James said, and Remus gathered the courage to scoff.

"You mean I gathered us up and Sirius mooched off me, while you all did your own work."

"You're a darling for letting me do it, too," Sirius cooed, and Hermione slid back in her chair a bit, mildly intimidated by the interaction. Then, he turned on her, "So what's the secret, huh? We're dying to know. Random new kid just shows up seventh year and talks to one person since day one, and hasn't made a stink at all? I'd bet on Merlin's balls that you're hiding something."

The other boys merely looked on as Sirius rambled on at Hermione, curiosity somehow never killing the cat before her... well, not until her real fifth year.

Hermione wondered how to answer briefly, when more people came in, but blatantly ignored the rendezvous they were having, not attempting to save her at all. She even wished Lily would walk in and catch James' attention instead, but why would fate want to work with her instead of against her?

"I'm not hiding anything," she said, scraping up a little Gryffindor courage to sound intimidating.

"Really? Handsome fella like you hiding positively nothing? I fail to believe that. If you're bent, that's totally fine, I don't even care what people have in their pants, long as your face is nice."

Hermione pursed her lips and felt like this was not a conversation she should be having with Harry's god-father, let alone right in the common room. It was extremely taboo in muggle Britain, in fact, it had hardly been legal for a decade.

James laughed, and shook his head, but Hermione was more focused on Remus' blush. Had he had a thing for his best friend at one point? It was kind of cute, but maybe she was reading too much into it and the topic merely embarrassed him.