{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. 

"So you transferred into Hogwarts from where?" 

The group had traveled in Zonko's, and Hermione had been looking blindly at various jokes and such. 

"Uh, I don't really like to talk about it that much."

The girl nodded, "Right. So do you play quidditch? Try-outs are soon, if that's your thing."

Hermione laughed and shook her head, watching Sirius lean against a wall and effortlessly talk to one Margaret Kennedy. 

"I actually hate flying on brooms. I love watching though," she replied in conversation, watching as Mary seemed to get excited.

"I don't play either, but the games are so much fun to watch. Potter is the best seeker this school has ever seen. It's really cool that you're new and you became such good friends with him and his crowd so quickly."

"Oh, we're not friends," Hermione corrected quickly, then felt mildly bad, as the boys had been nice enough to offer her up a date for the day. 

A quirk of the head and confused eyes were all she got in response. 

"I hang around Severus Snape a lot, and they felt bad for me. They really shouldn't, I kind of just wanted to get in and out without forming any type of relationship."

It sounded a lot harsher than it was, but Hermione seriously did not want to spend her day being fancied by a gender she had no interest in. 

"Blunt, but I respect that, I guess," Mary mumbled, picking up something as though it were of great interest to her, "So Severus Snape, huh? I heard he's into some really dark stuff."

Of course some random girl would think that, but Hermione was having none of it. 

"He's just lost, he doesn't really have any friends. It's not like there's anything wrong with him, he has a kind heart and a good soul."

Mary looked up at her, brown eyebrow cocked high on her defined face. Hermione wondered if being a guy so long was starting to make her mind think strange things. 

"A kind heart and a good soul? You really think highly of him, huh?"

She felt like she'd messed up almost immediately because now Mary was going to think Florizel was bent, and well, in all technicality, she supposed her alter ego was, because it was really just her looking like a boy, but that was all too complicated to think of right then. 

"No, I just got to know him."

"Sure."

And suddenly, Mary was very close to her, and she put her lips right up to Hermione's cheek as if to kiss her, then leaned just a little more forward and began to whisper in her ear, "What are you hiding, Florizel?"

Jumping back, like she had just been stung by a bee, Hermione looked at Mary with great caution. Did Dumbledore send students after her secrets now, or was this girl just ridiculously perceptive? 

"What house are you?" She asked Mary, hoping to relax them both. 

"Ravenclaw. Now I answered a question, so you should do the same for me!" The statement was not whispered, so Hermione felt the pressure as Sirius looked her way and winked, going right back to his conversation as he botched a muggle parlor trick. 

"I'm not hiding anything, really. I seriously want to just go to school and get my N.E.W.T.s out of the way."

Mary pursed her lips, seeming determined, and then seemed to come up with a brilliant idea in the span of moments, grabbing Hermione by the hand and rushing them from Zonko's, to an alleyway just around the corner of the shop. 

"Now. I've dragged us here and no one will be the wiser as to for why, so spill!"

Maybe it was the fact that she'd been keeping her secret for almost a month now, or maybe it was just so she wold stop being so aggressive in her flirting, that Hermione did as told. 

"I'm actually a girl."

Mary's mouth dropped, and she nearly let out a laugh before realizing Hermione was very serious. 

"So like, charms and potions, or you're not you in your given body kind of thing?" She asked as though it were the most juiciest of details this side of Scotland. 

"Charms," Hermione corrected her immediately, taking out her wand and flushing all of them away. Seeing as at this point, they were in an alley and everyone thought they were snogging, it would be no harm to trust this random stranger... if only for the fact that Mary was a stranger. 

"Whoa," the blonde said as she transformed, looking quite enthralled by the spells that Hermione had created all on her own, each falling away in a moment's time. 

"Yeah, sorry about the confusion. I didn't think I would look as good as I've heard people say I do, but I can't see what I look like when I change, so there's obviously a few flaws in my spell."

"Wait, wait, wait, you created those charms to get you to look and sound like a boy? That is really impressive. And, for the record, you're a very cute boy."

Hermione huffed, feeling relieved, really, that she told someone who she really was. It also unsettled her to know that she was attractive as a male. It felt like a lose-lose situation. 

"Thanks."

"So, why all the nonsense about being a boy? I get it if you don't want to tell me, we barely know each other, and I just learned probably one of your biggest secrets, which makes a lot of sense now..." Mary seemed to mull over something before coming up with it, "Do you fancy Severus Snape?"

"Why, in Merlin's name, would you assume that?" Hermione questioned, feeling exposed by this Ravenclaw who thought she was entitled to suddenly know everything about her. 

"'Kind heart', 'good soul', being friends with him when the whole school is rather uninterested in him, and don't tell me you couldn't tell. There's still more to you, and I don't know what it is, but I'm a Ravenclaw, so I'll learn it eventually."

Hermione determined that Mary was probably the picture perfect definition of her house's stereotype. 

"If you say so, now I should probably put my charms back up before we get spied on," Hermione said worriedly, lifting her wand from its hiding place. 

"Wait!" The girl said, grabbing her wand arm, "We're gonna be friends after this, right? I totally get it if you don't want to, to preserve your secret or something, but you're probably the most interesting person here. I would hate to not be able to know more."

Hermione wasn't sure if this actually applied to staying out of the way of things. She wasn't lying when she'd told Mary that in and out without friends was her goal for the year... among other goals she really couldn't tell her. 

Things had yet to start going her way however, and Hermione was slowly beginning to think her adventures into the facets of time travel were not going to provide her with any information on why she was where she was, and how to get back to where she wanted to be. It was all so grueling. If she couldn't get back, maybe it would be nice to have a friend for a while, who she would eventually just obliviate if it came down to hurting the folds of time. Honestly someone who wasn't Severus sounded nice, because if she kept on with him it would hurt the very fragile future. 

"Why not!" Hermione exclaimed, "I could use another friend!"

The girl hopped up and down, eventually hugging Hermione and then suddenly recalling something. 

"Put your charms back up! We don't want you to get in trouble do we? And, what's your real name, just so when we're alone, I'm not calling you Florizel."

"Hermione," she said, muttering the charms needed to protect herself and then smiling in satisfaction at the impressed look on her new friend's face. 

"Well, Hermione, glad to have made your acquaintance!" 

She smiled in reply, grinning at the girl who seemed more than pleased to have attained such knowledge. As they returned to the party of Gryffindors and girls, Hermione wondered exactly how Slytherins were supposed to be the ambitious ones! 

A/N

Not gonna lie, kinda wasn't sure what to do with Mary until I got to it. I had many prospects for her, like her posing as a fake girlfriend for Hermione, but I think friends works nicely. 

And, since I got a very interesting slew of responses in regards to my Sirius pole, I think I'm gonna change the original plan that I had, but it's still just as interesting. Hopefully y'all will still enjoy! See you next week! 

(And don't be afraid to leave a comment, I'm very open to suggestions as well, and if they can fit into my story I will happily take them into consideration.)