Chapter 33: Lorem ipsum bonum
Despite the tensions, trials and tribulations, Hermione and the Marauder’s had made it through their fourth year at Hogwarts.
The Marauder’s were still working on becoming Animagi, and judging by the amount of sleep that they needed and the food they were eating, Hermione guessed that they were pretty close to achieving that.
It was now the summer holidays before their fifth year and Hermione was desperately trying to relax, however, no matter how much she tried, she could not. She even contemplated going out into the Muggle world for some well-deserved peace and rest. She resolved to write a letter to Lily later that week to see if she wanted to come with her. With the threat of Death Eaters always looming, Hermione did not want to venture out alone.
Ever since Hermione had begun to live with the Potters she had been completely immersed in all things magical. This was perfectly fine with Hermione, up to a point, however, she missed the things that only the muggle world had to offer.
In previous summer breaks, Hermione had indulged her and her brother’s friends with some good old-fashioned muggle fun. They had visited a couple of amusement parts, the zoo and even seen a few films at the Cinema.
Sirius and James had really enjoyed watching films such as ‘The Godfather: Part II’, which had recently been released. Remus loved ‘Robin Hood’. Peter (whom Hermione had grudgingly invited) was fascinated by everything. Hermione’s favourite was, and still remained to be ‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’. She loved the mystery around it all.
The group had enjoyed the films so much that James had persuaded his parents to buy and charm him a projector to play the films. Ma and Pops had shown great enthusiasm and it had been his birthday gift a few years previously. Since then, the collection of films in the Potter household, similarly to its youthful occupants, had grown steadily.
On this particularly warm afternoon, Hermione was sitting in the shade by the lagoon in the grounds of the Manor. She had briefly and fondly revisited the memories of their time here in the summer before their third year. Life had been a little more carefree for her then.
To be honest, life had never really been carefree for Hermione, but she looked at that particular period of her life with fondness.
‘It certainly was not like life now,’ she said in her head, mentally cursing at the ease at which her thoughts turned to the horcruxs, Peter and the Death Eaters, and inevitably, Voldemort.
Hermione and Dumbledore had been meeting reasonably regularly since their failed attempt at securing the Cup. They had gone over and researched all the possibilities, yet so far, come up to no plausible conclusion. They had even taken it upon themselves to visit some of the potential places. Hermione could safely say that even with Dumbledore by her side, Knockturn Alley was not a friendly place to visit.
Hermione could sense that Dumbledore was becoming more and more frustrated as each of their options turned out to be a dead end. Hermione could not imagine the intensity of what he was feeling when her own emotions were so powerful towards it.
Hermione sat there, at the water’s edge, sunning herself for some time. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not hear the pounding of feet against the ground, until the source of the noise was quite close.
An enormous, shaggy, black dog had come running up towards her. It’s tail was wagging, and tongue flopping about everywhere like there was no tomorrow.
“Hello there,” she said, patting the head of the dog.
She was glad that it was a friendly dog, but was nonetheless curious about how a strange dog could have gotten into the grounds of Potter Manor. Wherever it came from, she would have to keep it away from Boo.
Pops had made sure that the grounds were very secure in order to protect his family. Hermione was certain that not even a wild bird would be able to navigate itself through the incredibly powerful charms. Although she was not certain, she was fairly sure that they could not be seen my muggles, although that was of little consequence since the manor was so isolated from any kind of civilisation, magic or otherwise.
“I wonder where you came from?” she cooed to the dog.
It’s shaggy, black fur seemed familiar. Hermione was sure that she had seen those silver eyes before.
Suddenly realisation hit her like a tonne of bricks.
“Sirius!?!” she gasped.
The dog barked and yelped several times in obvious agreement.
Hermione began peppering his head with kisses.
“You’ve done it! I can’t believe it! You’re an animagus!!”
A torrent of praise escaped Hermione’s mouth until Hermione realised something else.
“Where’s James?” she questioned while Sirius went behind a bush to transform back into his usual self.
As Hermione said that, a handsome stag came out from behind the nearby Groundskeeper’s cottage.
“James,” Hermione said, gasping for a second time.
James also moved behind the bush to transform back.
“Wow,” was all that Hermione was able to utter, eyes wide open with a mixture of shock and immense pride.
Whilst she had seen a few people transform in her lifetime, there was nothing like watching those she loved see the fruit of all their hard work.
A scuffling at their feet had them all looking down. It was a scrawny, brown rat.
“Peter?” questioned Hermione, one eyebrow raised in the direction of James.
James nodded his head at her before rolling his eyes at the aforementioned Peter.
“Stop showing off Peter,” said Sirius, giving the rat a gentle nudge with his foot.
“Hey!” said Peter a second later, when he had transformed, “that kinda stuff hurts when you’re that small.”
Hermione had to suppress a smirk as Peter rubbed the pain from his shoulder.
‘The git deserved that, and even more,’ she thought somewhat maliciously.
The need to show off had now dissipated, and the boys went into the groundskeeper’s cottage to get properly changed.
They had stashed clothes in there earlier, but each had carried a pair of shorts in their mouth so that they would not have to wander around in the nude after they had established themselves as humans once more. Sirius had been kind enough to carry an extra pair for the tiny Peter, who was too small to carry anything remotely useful.
“It just occurred to me,” said Sirius once the trio had emerged, “How did you know that the dog was actually me?”
Hermione stiffened and not for the first time in her life she was scrambling for an excuse to explain her extra knowledge of the group.
“Errr....the dog kinda looked like you...I mean, reminded me of you...ummm.”
Sirius took full advantage of Hermione’s stuttering and nervous rambling.
“Are you saying that I, Sirius Orion Black, look like some mangy mutt? Hermione, my love, I am deeply hurt.”
Hermione quickly got over any nervousness she was feeling and smirked at him.
“Oh ‘darling’,” she said with a hint of mocking in her voice, “of course that mangy mutt had to be you. I saw the stag out of the corner of my eye and knew that you could never be that handsome.”
Sirius pretended to look hurt, but behind that facade, he was deeply impressed, Hermione had managed to insult one person and praise another, all in the one sentence without showing the slightest hint of guilt. They had taught her well.
James chuckled to one side. He and Peter had moved to sit at one edge of the water of the lagoon, legs cooling off from the heat of the sun, under the water.
Sirius whipped his head around to his friends.
“Oi, Peter, James, tell her that I can be handsome.”
“Whatever you say, mate,” said James, grinning as he dropped his whole body, fully clothed, into the cool water. It was too hot to do anything otherwise.
“Remus is flooing over this afternoon,” James continued, “we’ll see if you can persuade him.”
“Hrmph,” said Sirius, “Well, I suppose I’ll be spending the rest of the holidays alone if I am not going to be appreciated.”
“Stop ‘hrmphing’ like an old man,” said Hermione, “and come and sit next to me.”
Sirius obliged and Hermione put her arm around his broad shoulders, ruffling his usually well-kept hair in the process.
“You know that I love you,” she told him, smiling, “even if you aren’t the best looking chap.”
Sirius playfully hit his girlfriend across the arm, effectively freeing himself so that he could swim with the others.
Hermione remained in the sun, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
‘At least some things are turning out alright,’ she thought as she continued to sun herself.