𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 ❧ sirius black

XI - Drowning in More Ways than One

Hermione found that sneaking into Honeyduke's Sweet shop was significantly easier than she expected it to be. With the time being still earlier in the morning, the store was practically empty. Hermione was left alone with the cashier who was convinced that he too, was alone.

Careful of creaky floorboards, Hermione made her way around the store, stuffing various treats into the pockets of her robes with caution. She was in and out of the store before the cashier could raise a finger, and darted back to the shack as quickly as she could, even though the invisibility cloak would allow her to take all the time in the world.

The knocking on the door of the shack startled Remus, but seeing the new girl remove her cloak eased him a bit more.

"I've got the candy. Twenty galleons worth," spoke Harper, out of breath. She had the cloak draped across her arm and held the candy, letting herself in to the shack.

"Any chocolate?" Remus said as he searched through the pile of candy that Harper had just set down. She didn't even have to respond: within seconds he found an individually wrapped piece of chocolate, took off the wrappings, and popped it into his mouth despite it still being morning.

Hermione chuckled as she watched Remus get his hands on all of the chocolate, overjoyed. She was pretty sure that Remus mumbled, "amazing," but his mouth stuffed with chocolate made it difficult to tell.

Continuously, Hermione tried to keep Remus off of her mind. But with him standing right in front of her, it was especially difficult. Never before had she found someone obsessing over chocolate to be cute.

"It's still morning, Remus," Hermione laughed.

"Oh, don't worry about me, I won't eat it all. Peter wants to use some of the candy as a gift for Emma Vanity."

"Peter's never striked me as a lady's man before."

"You'd be surprised," Remus laughed, "he's had more girlfriends than I have."

"Really?"

"Well, I've only had one, and if things work out between Emma and Peter, she'll be his third."

"Who?" Hermione blurted out.

"Sorry?"

"Who, um, have you dated before? I was just wondering," Hermione babbled. She instantly regretted it.

"Oh, I, um, went out with Dorcas Meadowes during our fourth year. But we were too young, so, um, it didn't work out."

"But you're friends now, so that's good, right?"

"Yeah, something like that," Remus spoke awkwardly. The silence that followed seemed to last a lifetime for both Remus and Hermione, but it was shortly broken by the chocolate-loving boy.

"I should probably give you the next clue now," he said, finally.

Drowning in embarrassment, Hermione patiently waited for Remus to pull the next clue out from his pocket. Soon enough he did, while Hermione hoped that it wouldn't be too difficult to decipher.
This time, the clue was written in distinctly larger
letters. She couldn't pinpoint exactly whose handwriting the clue belonged to, just that it was a lot messier than its counterparts. The clue read: