Hero of the Story || James Potter x Hermione Granger Fanfiction

15 | i love you means you're never, ever, ever getting rid of me

Hermione absentmindedly scratched her cheek and snatched her unfinished schedule away from the Slytherin's hands. "I can't afford to slack off now," she repeated with more emphasis. "Speaking of which, you can't afford to slack off now. You might not have any major exams this year, but you will have your NEWTs next year."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you say anything at all," Severus drawled, closing his eyes and calmly leaning his head on the oak tree behind him.

"NEWTs are more important!" Hermione cried.

Lily sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Shh, Hermione, let us have our well-deserved rest," the redhead said, grinning widely at the younger witch's glare. "But tell you what? I'm going to study with you this year as often as possible, because I know you're going to study yourself sick and you need someone to take care of you."

"I can take care of myself," she pointed out with a petulant frown.

"Now, I'm going to pretend you never said that because you and I both know you go bonkers over studying, resorting to unhealthy practices that any sane human shouldn't do," Lily said with a sigh. She placed her chin on top of Hermione's shoulder and intently looked at her. "Seriously, though, you should take it easy this year, Hermione. We've taken the OWLs and I can vouch that it isn't too hard, contrary to popular belief. I even think you have enough stock knowledge to get you an 'O' in all of your exams as you are now."

Hermione knew that too, because she'd taken these exams once before. She highly doubted the coverage of the exams had changed. But, she couldn't afford to slack off now. Loathe as she was to admit it, but she had been mighty embarrassed with her lone 'E' in her last OWLs. She vowed to herself that since she had a second chance this time, she'd pass her Defence Against the Dark Arts with flying colours.

"I'll be fine," Hermione lamely replied.

"Pettigrew, please," Severus sighed. "If you're going to spout more lies, I think it's best if you just keep quiet."

Lily grinned at the sourpuss, then apologetically smiled at Hermione. "He's right," she said, chuckling lightly at Hermione's annoyed scowl. "You should— SHITE!"

The redhead tried to make herself as small as possible, even using Hermione as a human shield. The brunette, startled by Lily's sudden change of attitude, craned her neck over her shoulder and looked at her best friend in confusion. "What's wrong, Lils?" she asked, worried.

"Please tell me Potter and his stupid posse aren't coming towards us," Lily begged, hope tinged in the tone of her voice.

Hermione's head swivelled around, her eyes scanning the throngs of students in search of the Marauders. It wasn't too hard to spot them, with James and his glinting hazel eyes leading the whole group. They all caught Hermione staring and Sirius sent her a wicked wink.

The brunette frowned and looked away.

"Well," she slowly started, "you said if I'm just going to spout more lies, I should just keep quiet."

Lily groaned. "I can't believe he's still being so persistent," the redhead complained. "Not even a week has passed since the school-year began, but he's already been so obnoxious."

Hermione was brought back to their Welcoming Feast - after all the first years had been Sorted, James had spectacularly conspired with the Hogwarts house-elves to pile all of Lily's favourite meals for her to devour on the table in front of her. Lily was red in the face, screaming her disgust at the outrageous boy, and had no choice but to accept all the meals prepared by the sweet, sweet house-elves, lest they realised she wasn't pleased with their work and started banging their heads in shame. Hermione's nose had crunched at the thought of using poor house-elves for his extravagant wooing, and whole-heartedly agreed when Professor McGonagall bestowed a week of detention for James.