Why We Fight

Draco grunted as he was shoved against the hard, cold, stone wall by a beautiful girl. Normally, this would have been a welcome experience that would lead to a great deal of fun. But, alas, this definitely was not a normal experience for the beautiful girl who had him shoved against the wall was a petite, very angry, bushy-haired brunette with murder in her honey-brown eyes.

"You. Spied. On. Me," she bit out. Draco stared down at the girl, swallowing hard. She was really attractive when she was angry. This train of thought was derailed when said girl grabbed him by his scarlet-and-gold tie and jerked him forward before slamming his head against the wall once more for good measure.

"OW! Bloody hell, Granger!" he cried out, rubbing the back of his white-blond head.

"You nasty little ferret! You watched me take a bath!" she growled.

"It was an accident, I swear!" Draco insisted. "You actually think I wanted to see you naked?"

She let go of his tie, her eyes widening and their chocolate depths glistening with tears. "Am I ugly or something?"

Women! Damned irrational creatures! he thought. "Er...no...of course not..." he stammered. There was a long moment in which a blush rose in the girl's cheeks.

"Um...right...awkward," she stated, backing up as she realized just how close she was to her enemy. The boy looked around, searching for an escape route.

Finally, he murdered the awkward silence that had encompassed them. "I'm not a ferret," he said, under his breath, "I'm a cat."

Her eyes narrowed. "Yeah...and you're going to show me how...Whiskers," she stated.

"I can't guarantee anything," he replied. "I mean, you have to be in touch with your inner beast."

Hermione giggled at his comment. "Your inner beast is a white, fluffy kitty-cat?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "Tell no one."

"Your secret's safe with me," she said, trying her hardest to not grin. "So...when do we want to start?"

"After classes, Room of Requirement," he suggested. She nodded.

"You're on."

"This is impossible!" Hermione fumed. They'd spent five hours a day in the Room of Requirement for the past week. Draco was draped over the arm of an overstuffed, green velvet armchair looking bored. Hermione stopped trying to "get in touch with her inner-animal" and stared at him for a moment. The blonde eyebrows rose as their owner caught the girl looking at him.

Hermione blushed furiously and once again tried to "get in touch with her inner animal" and once again failed, eliciting a smirk from the newest Marauder. She glared at him, very annoyed and extremely bitter that -- for the very first time -- Draco could do something better than she could. "It's really easy," Draco drawled, taking on the now-familiar form of Whiskers for the seventh time that night alone. Hermione held back the pressing urge to draw her wand and cast a few hexes on the smug-looking, fluffy, white cat.

You can do this, Hermione, she told herself. You can make a Paladin, can't you? Something that Remus said was extremely rare...rarer than becoming an Animagus. You're rarer than an Animagus; this is easy. Just become an animal.

Her point of view changed and she felt much shorter. The look of disappointment on Draco's face was enough to make her realize that she'd finally accomplished what she thought impossible. "Nice set of hooters..." Draco drawled. Hermione's feathers ruffled in anger. Wait...feathers? Hooters...I'm an owl?

"Now to become human again..." He didn't have time to continue, Hermione was human again in a matter of seconds. He glared at her, but took some satisfaction that it had taken him merely a few moments to become a cat.

"So, I'm an owl," she said.

"Yes, you are," he replied.

Brown eyes narrowed. "Don't think you're off the hook. You spied on me when I was naked," she stated. "It's just rude...I never spied on you when you were naked."

A smirk quirked his lips. "Do you want to?"

Hermione blushed. "Of course not!" she squealed. She left the Room of Requirement, feeling a rush of pride. She'd done it. She'd just become an Animagus. She was still grinning like an idiot when she ran into Sirius (for one of the first times since they'd met, figuratively), whom she'd done her best to avoid for the past week. Her eyes widened as she looked at the dark-haired boy. "Er...hi, Sirius."

"Hello, Hermione," he stated, looking at her with a frown.

"So...er...what're you doing here?" she asked.

"I could ask the same about you," he replied.

"I was studying," she replied. She frowned, eyes narrowing as she examined the vibrant youth so unlike his future self. She felt a twinge of guilt for just avoiding him like this and she had been trying to find out a way to break it to him easily but she wasn't really quite sure how she could. "Look, Sirius, I know I've been avoiding you lately...but things are just really...difficult right now. Believe me, it's entirely not you and definitely, entirely me me. And that's just not something that I'm saying to get rid of you, but this is really not the right...er...time...for a relationship, but I'd still like to be friends..."

The five Marauders sat in the Head Boy's room. "She gave you the 'it's not you, it's me' speech?" Remus asked, wincing as he shoved a hand through his sandy hair.

"Ouch," Peter replied. "I mean, that's the kiss of death. That and 'let's still be friends.'"

Sirius groaned and dropped his head hard on James's pillow. "She said that, too," he stated. "I've heard of that before. You know the 'let's still be friends' and the 'it's not you, but me' thing...but I never expected it to happen to me. I mean, girls...girls...they adore me. I mean, I have to fight them off sometimes..."

"And you're so modest," Draco drawled.

"I am...I mean. I have a fan club, did you know that?" Sirius stated.

Peter nodded. "It's true. There are ten girls in it."

"All Hufflepuffs, I bet," Draco stated.

"And then there's Hermione. She's beautiful, sweet, incredibly intelligent, with a wicked sense of humor, and those eyes...bloody hell, they're like...like...I don't know what they're like but they're amazing..."

Draco arched a brow. "They're brown," he stated. Then he secretly cursed himself for actually knowing what color her eyes were.

"Yes...brown...brown like chocolate...rich, melted chocolate..." Sirius stated. James and Draco exchanged a look.

"Or mud," Draco stated under his breath.

"Okay, this is getting kind of disturbing," Remus stated. "Padfoot, you never pine over girls. You break their hearts and make them cry. Remember that time you broke that girl's heart and she hexed you?"

"Which girl?" Sirius asked.

"Exactly. Several girls have hexed you," Remus replied.

"Oh, and that one time on the Hogwarts Express when Wilhemina Brocklehurst and Queenie Greengrass cursed you at the same time with the -- uh, what was it? -- I think they hit you with that boil curse and the Jelly-Legs Jinx at the same time, you had tentacles sprouting out all over..."

Draco winced, remembering his own experience with that happening on the way home from his fourth year and Sirius didn't even react. "Don't you think that maybe you're a little old for her?" James inquired.

"I'm ten months older than she is," Sirius stated. "It's not exactly the biggest age gap in the history of humanity. I mean, my mum's four years older than my dad."

"Have you thought that maybe she has a lot on her plate right now?" James suggested.

"There's always room for dessert," Sirius said with a sigh.

"Okay, Padfoot, you're going to make me sick," Draco stated. "I really, really, really don't want to think of you and Hermione like that."