Why We Fight

Professor Dumbledore led the two to the Head Boy and Girl's quarters. Guarding the entrance was a likeness of Lily Evans and James Potter. Hermione arched a brow as James winked teasingly at her. "The portrait...it changes yearly," Dumbledore explained. "Dragon's Keep."

The painted people nodded and the portrait swung open. Dumbledore ducked and made his way into the Head Boy and Girl's common room. Lily Evans was poring over her notes and the scratch-scratch of her quill mingled with the laughter of James, Sirius, Remus, and a rat-faced chubby boy. Hermione stared at the fourth one with barely-concealed hatred. Peter Pettigrew, Hermione thought, her stomach clenching. Wormtail...Scabbers. He gave Lily and James to Voldemort on a silver platter! And he's the reason that Sirius died. Half of the Marauders are dead because of him!

Draco noted her barely-disguised disgust with curiosity. Even she didn't look at him with that much hatred. James stopped midway through an animated conversation which was obviously a tale of how he bravely rescued the Snitch in a Quidditch match. Peter frowned as James stopped his tale. Obviously not the brightest, that one, Draco mused.

Sirius smirked. "Hermione...what brings you here?" He finally noticed the professor and the blonde boy beside her and frowned slightly.

"Miss de Lioncourt and Mister--" Dumbledore eyed Draco.

"Aquilus," Draco stated with a curt nod.

"Yes, yes. Miss de Lioncourt and Mr. Aquilus will be sharing your quarters," Dumbledore explained. "They just transferred from the Agnitio Academy of Magic." Sirius looked like Christmas had come early.

Sirius winked at Hermione. "I'll make sure to tuck you in," Sirius stated.

"You will do no such thing, Mr. Black," Dumbledore said.

Hermione's eyes left Peter's as she heard Sirius's comment with a blush. Unconsciously, she moved closer to Draco and took his hand in hers. The entire thing was almost worth it, just to see the shocked look cross over the Slytherin's face. He regained his composure and shot a challenging look to Sirius. Sirius arched a dark brow as he examined the pale, thinner boy.

James shook his head slightly as he noticed his friend's behavior. Sirius was smitten with the brunette girl just like he himself was smitten with Lily. James could see why Sirius had become infatuated with her...the girl was a beautiful creature and the best part was that she didn't even notice it. He looked over his shoulder to watch Lily; she hadn't even noticed the Headmaster had entered their common room. She gingerly tucked a strand of her copper hair behind an ear and James felt a tug in his stomach.

"Miss Evans?" came Dumbledore's voice. Lily looked up and darted to her feet.

"Professor Dumbledore," Lily stated, blushing the color of her hair. Hermione smiled, Lily reminded her of Ginny Weasley for some reason. Maybe it was the red hair or the shyness...although; no one could call Ginevra Weasley shy anymore. She had blossomed since she'd first attended Hogwarts and had helped Hermione, Ron, Harry, Luna, and Neville in the siege of the Ministry of Magic last June...Hermione's eyes left Lily to meet Sirius's dark ones. You can't change anything... she told herself, no matter how much you want to. You have to let Wormtail betray James, Lily, and Harry. You have to let Bellatrix Lestrange torture the Longbottoms. You have to let Sirius Black die. She felt tears begin to form in her eyes and she wiped them away on the sleeve of her robe. Sirius frowned as he saw the shimmer of tears in the girl's eyes and looked at his friends, confused.

"Miss Evans, I'd like you to meet Miss Hermione de Lioncourt and Mr. Draco Aquilus," Dumbledore said and Lily smiled at Hermione. Hermione came out of her thoughts and smiled back.

"Hello, Hermione," Lily smiled. "Hello, Draco."

"They will be sharing the Head Boy and Girl quarters," Dumbledore said and Lily nodded.

"We've just transferred here from Agnitio Academy of Magic," Draco stated, taking Dumbledore's story.

Lily frowned and looked curiously at Draco. "Are you veela?" she asked curiously.

Draco blushed and Hermione did a double-take. Oh...my...God, Draco Malfoy just blushed! Hermione thought.

"Part...my great-great grandmother on my father's side was a veela," Draco murmured, shoving a hand through his white-blonde hair.

"I never knew you were a veela," Hermione murmured. "That makes sense."

Draco smirked and arched a brow at Hermione. "You finally realize how much sex appeal I ooze?" he taunted.

Hermione snorted. "Give it up, ferret-boy," she said, crossing her arms over her chest and Sirius smirked at Malfoy in a "she's mine" kind of way. The brunette winced slightly and Malfoy raised an eyebrow toward Hermione in an "it's either him or me" kind of way.

Hermione frowned. It was a lose-lose situation...she could either pretend that Draco the Amazing Bouncing Ferret was her boyfriend or have her best friend's godfather Sirius "I-was-accused-of-killing-fourteen-people-with-one-curse-but-I-didn't-do-it-my-slimy-friend-did-it" Black a.k.a. Padfoot hit on her. What was wrong with these people? She had been hit on twice as many times here as she had back home: she'd even been propositioned with Draco to join his father in a foursome! She shuddered at the memory but couldn't help remembering that Lucius Malfoy's chest was pretty nice. Wonder if Draco's chest is that nice, she thought.

Her eyes went wide as if someone had just poured a bucket of ice water over her head. I just wondered about Dra--Malfoy's chest and thought that Lucius Malfoy was hot?! What the hell is wrong with me? Oh right, they're veelas, those bastards have used their veela charm on me! Or I need sleep, that's it; a good, long nap, Hermione thought. And the hitting on of me? Maybe the extra wolfbane and hellebore made some kind of pheromone toward the opposite sex? Okay, Draco isn't hitting on me but he's being nice...well, as nice as a Malfoy can be...er...correction, as nice as a Malfoy can be without unwanted naughty propositions. Or, hey, maybe it scrambled my brain to think Malfoy's hot?

She frowned. Okay...so I have thought Malfoy was hot before. So nope, it has to be the veela, she admitted to herself. Or maybe this is some weird dream resultant from studying too much. Maybe I just need to go to sleep and I'll wake up finding out that I just fell asleep in Potions? She rather dreaded that confrontation if it were true, could almost hear Severus Snape telling her that she'd just lost fifty points from Gryffindor. And he'd do it too; she had no doubt about that.

"I'm really tired and I'd like to be shown my sleeping area," Hermione stated. Dumbledore nodded toward Lily.

"Miss de Lioncourt and Mr. Aquilus, I leave you in the capable hands of Lily Evans and James Potter," Dumbledore nodded and left the common room.

"Hermione, you know my idiot friends Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. This is Peter Pettigrew," James said, tapping the rat-faced boy's head. "I assume you know Lily Evans."

Lily glared at James and Hermione wondered how they had ever gotten together when they hated each other. Lily nodded toward a door with "Head Girl" carved on a brass plate on it. "Our room is through here," Lily said. She opened the door and Hermione noticed that it was larger than the room that she had shared with the rest of the sixth-year Gryffindor girls and only had two beds decorated in the red and gold of Gryffindor. There were also a great deal of posters of the Beatles covering the walls. A few of them were moving wizard type. "The Beatles were wizards?" she mused, examining one of the moving posters where the Beatles were performing "She Loves You."

"No," Lily smiled. "I charmed a few of the posters to do that. I absolutely love the Beatles."

"How long ago did they break up?" Hermione conversed.

"You're not Muggle-born, are you?" Lily sighed.

Every Muggle-born would know about the Beatles, she realized. "I am...my parents just don't like them," Hermione blushed.

"Seven years ago and I'm still upset about it...Paul McCartney was my first crush after all," Lily stated, eyeing Hermione. So it's 1977. Two years before I was even born... Hermione realized, her mother had been madly in love with the Beatles and the brunette knew a lot about them. Lily nodded toward the bed farthest away from the door. "That's my bed." The redhead gestured toward another door by the door to the common room. "That's the bathroom."

"You share a bathroom with the Head Boy?" Hermione asked, her eyes widening. That means I'll have to share a bathroom with Malfoy, she thought. And it's pretty much a given that Malfoy's going to be Head Boy next year unless the Fates and all the deities are on my side and I'll be shown mercy with Harry or Ron being Head Boy. But judging by how dismal their grades will be since I'm not there to help them, there isn't the slightest chance of that happening.

Lily looked displeased. "Unfortunately, yes. If it wasn't bad enough being a Gryffindor with him. How on earth he got Head Boy with all the points he's lost us. That...and he disappears for nights at a time," Lily sighed. Hermione knew why this was: it had to be a full moon and James was spending the night as Prongs with Moony, Padfoot, and Wormtail. "As per Head Boy, it was either him or Severus Snape, who's just as bad." Lily's anger was evident on her face and she glared menacingly at the bathroom door. "I tried to help Snape once and he called me a 'Mudblood.' Of course, the whole stupid thing wouldn't have happened if James hadn't hexed him."

Hermione seriously began to doubt that Harry James Potter would ever be born at the one step forward, a million steps back rate that his parents were going at. "Is James really that bad?" Hermione asked.

"Yes...he's a right prat. He's always casting spells on people," Lily stated, frowning as she remembered the display of James using his wand to hold Severus Snape upside down two years ago. "He always looks for trouble."

Hermione smiled softly, Harry Potter was a lot like his father. "I have a couple of friends back home like that. There's Harry and Ron, we've been friends since first year and the two of them are always looking for trouble but they're not that bad. Ron's older brothers are pains, they're good guys, but they're still pains..." she smiled as she remembered the Weasley twins. "James and his friends kind of remind me of them." Lily frowned and began laying out her clothes for bed.

The brunette looked out the window and noticed the moon would soon be full and Hermione decided that if she was still here during the full moon she'd follow the Marauders. She knew it'd be easier said than done because of James's invisibility cloak. Hermione had memorized the bump that would freeze the Whomping Willow and had been magical ways to move the bump. Finally figuring it out after that toad Umbridge had found out about Dumbledore's Army. If she had figured it out earlier, maybe they could have met in the Shrieking Shack like Sirius had suggested. Her eyes turned to Lily and she frowned. I don't have any clothes! she thought wildly.