𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 ❧ sirius black

V - Meeting the Marauders

"Here's she comes, Prongs! Your favorite ginger!" shouted one of the boys from across the table as Hermione took a seat to the left of Lily. Hermione nearly did a double-take when she realized she was sitting at a table with her best friend's father.

Breaking Hermione's thoughts, Lily darted back with, "boys, can't we just start of the year without a bunch of nonsense?" rhetorically, of course.

"Good luck with that," muttered the second boy, sitting the further away from Hermione. To her, his overall ora seemed more sophisticated than most.

"Oh, shut it Moony!" said the first, black-haired boy. "So Lily, why don't you introduce us to your new friend here?" he said in a flirtatious way, raising his eyebrow and motioning in Hermione's direction. While Lily elbowed the black-haired boy for his insensitive remark, Hermione simply brushed her hair behind her ear our of nervousness.

"Oh of course! Everyone, this is Harper Slughorn. She's a transfer student from Beauxbaton's. A seventh year, like us," Lily spoke.

Hermione gave a simple, "hello," before the boy sitting directly across from her stuck out his hand in both a quick yet polite manor and spoke his first words to her:

"It's nice to meet you, Harper. The name's Peter Pettigrew."

Now shaking hands with the man who had nearly killed her best friend less than three years ago, trying to keep a straight face became rather difficult for Hermione. He spent his life leading on these people who he called his friends, all for what? To betray them to show loyalty for a rising Dark Lord. She broke the handshake as quickly as she could without causing suspicion before the second boy sitting next to Peter burst out laughing.

"We've got another Sluggy!" said the third boy with a large grin spread across his face.

"James, please have at least a teaspoon of respect for our new friend, please?" Lily asked the third boy in a rather harsh tone. He sarcastically nodded back.

"It seems as if Peter's the only respectful one at this table," Lily said, eyeing James and the black-haired boy in particular. All they did was chuckle.

"Hello Harper, I'm James Potter," spoke the same boy who had just called her 'Sluggy.' She cautiously shook his hand in awe. It was amazing for Hermione to look into the hazel eyes of her best friend's father. Never would she have thought she'd be sitting at a table with James Potter, let alone all of his friends. It was almost as if she were looking directly at Harry, except for his eyes. Those, he got from the woman sitting right next to me.

"And I'm Sirius, Sirius Black," spoke the third boy with a confidence like no other, "I look forward to getting to know you, Harper Slughorn." Accompanied by a smirk, Sirius' introduction did not shock Hermione. All of the stories about him that she had heard, him being a flirtatious lady's man as well as an iconic prankster, seemed to correlate well with his remarks at the dinner table that night. And to Hermione, he seemed much older than seventeen.

Meeting her dark brown eyes with his chocolate ones, the last boy introduced himself as Remus Lupin to Hermione, seemingly the most intelligent yet awkward boy at the table. But it didn't come as a shock for Hermione, as this was her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher from her third year. He looked very different, however. Maybe Hermione had stared at him for a little longer than she intended to.

Soon enough, the group of six continued on with their meal, only to be collectively interrupted by quick taps on the wine glass of the headmaster. Gathering the attention of the Hogwarts student body, soon, all eyes were on Dumbledore.

"Welcome! Welcome, to another year at Hogwarts. Now, I'd like to say a few words before we become too befuddled by our excellent feast. This year, we have..."