Time Boat

{5}

{5-An Offer I Could Definitely Refuse}

The time came to go to Hogsmeade, and Hermione found that she was actually excited. They were headed out mid-day, so she'd spent the morning researching time-travel and realized that she was slowly broaching the point where she ran out of books to look through. Time-travel was a dangerous subject, so she wasn't surprised that her efforts still had produced nothing. The break that day was what broke her from her mundane routine, and kept her mind off Severus' icy shoulder. 

Well, compared to how he had been acting towards Zel, recently, his brisk demeanor was new and unwanted. 

She supposed it was for the better, and readied for her day out with the group of Gryffindors. Hermione wondered if James had roped Lily into the whole escapade, and was excited to watch romance blossom. 

She really was a shite boy. 

Her experience was limited to being Harry for a short battle to the Weasley Burrow, and that was it. 

Regardless, no one besides Dumbledore had been the wiser, and her excitement for the day only bubbled when she ran into the Marauders. 

"Hey, Granger!"

"Hullo," she replied with a smile, clutching her satchel to her side. Hermione probably looked like she planned to read the read the rest of the evening, but that was far from it. Of course there were books in there did she deem the day start to take a dull turn. 

James threw an arm around her shoulder and asked her how she'd done on the Transfiguration essay.

"O," she said as if there was no question about it, "And you?"

"Same here. Anyways, we're meeting the girls at the front. I know you said you aren't one for the romantics, but Remus invited a girl we think you might like. Not my Lily of course, though she will be there. I have a master plan, since she accepted my personal invite to come with all of us today, I decided that I'll ask her on a date sometime today for the future. She'll say yes, of course, and well, you fellas," James took his time to look about to the others around him and narrowed his eyes, "Can bugger off."

Hermione laughed, but she knew that beyond his madness, there was actual sanity to his plan somewhere because Lily would agree to it. They started dating their seventh year, and Hermione figured it had to be sooner rather than later. 

"You think that will work?" She asked, just to be a tease if anything else. 

James stopped them all dead and stared her down, "You doubt me?"

"Only a little," she joked, which earned her a few laughs from behind, in which James looked at his friends, betrayed. 

"Sod off, the lot of you. I'll put a galleon down that this works out."

"Done," Hermione declared and shook on it, allowing the day to get on. 

She was more than happy to lose the bet. 

When they arrived at the front gate, Hermione was introduced to all the girls, and Lily who briskly shook her hand, but glossed over her besides that. She had a strange feeling it had to do with the fact she hung around Severus a lot of the time. 

The girl Remus had chosen for Florizel wasn't half bad in Hermione's girlish opinion. She was blonde and had hazel eyes, and was obviously attracted to Florizel, and her name was Mary. It was a little too much for Hermione, really, as she tried to act cool and let the girl flirt with her, but also to keep her in the friend area. Remus didn't even seem to be paying attention to the girl he was 'with,' for his mind was elsewhere. And Hermione suddenly realized why that was so. The full moon was that evening, and she knew that because she'd kept up on it for this specific reason. In school, she was the one to figure out he was a werewolf before any of the other students, and well, she didn't think they were friends enough for that now... or anything  to him enough for that.