A/N: Hello readers! Normally I don't write SBHG, but I was trying to find one to read, in an effort to branch out, and found no new ones that I liked. So, I decided to write one of my own. Poor Sirius has been much neglected on my story shelf, so I dedicate this prolog to him.. Hope you likes it.

Warning: most of books six and seven didn't happen (especially that dratted epilogue!) in this fic. If the Harry Potter series belonged to me, the last three books would be in ashes, Sirius would be alive (along with all the wonderful people JKR killed off!), Voldemort would still have died, and I would be filthy rich. Since this is not the case, just know that they didn't happen here (unless spicifically stated by moi.)

Disclaimer: see my main page

A single shaft of light

" Put it together, oneself, and a picture connects. "

Flickering candlelight and the soft incandescent glow of a tiny lamp illuminated a cluttered desk. A quill was being frantically danced across some parchment by a young girl with brunette hair. Glancing up at the clock and looking even more frantic every two seconds, Hermione Granger hurriedly copied some information out of a book. When the clock chimed eleven o'clock, Hermione quickly put the book, the paper, and many other papers into a messenger back which she then slung over her shoulder. Taking a look around her cluttered office, Hermione repressed the urge to sigh and start cleaning.

Instead, she grabbed her jacket and keys before rushing down the stairs of her house and out into the night air. Turning on the spot, she disapperated to just outside Diagon Alley. No sooner had she arrived than she say a tiny flicker of light around the corner of the invisible pub. Hermione crept around the corner. A tall, slender shadow wrapped in a cloak seemed to be pacing impatiently.

"Took ya long enough, Hermione!" Hissed the figure as it stopped pacing and turned to look at her.

"Sorry, Ronald, but I did say eleven, and I only just finished the notes." Hermione replied somewhat breathlessly. The figure nodded sharply and doused his wand.

"Are sure this is gonna work, 'Mione?" Ron asked, sounding worried. Hermione snorted.

"Have I ever been wrong before?" She demanded tartly, hands on her hips.

"Well...there was that one time in Surrey..." Ron started. Hermione smacked him on the arm.

"I meant about solving magical puzzles, not trying to guess the gender of an ancient sorcerer after one to many rounds of firewine!" Hermione snapped, eyes practically glowing with her own brand of impatience.

"Er...right. Just joking, Hermione." He replied, chuckling at the memory. Hermione held out her hand, and Ron picked up a bag from where it'd been leaning against the invisible pub. Hermione took the pack and put her arms through the straps. Once she'd settled it on her back, she gave Ron a brief hug and then disapperated.

When she arrived, she found herself to be in the Ministry's apparation rooms. Quickly she strode over to the doors and waved her "borrowed" ministry badge at the detector. Thank goodness Harry had become an Auror! She'd never have been able to pull this off if none of them worked at the ministry! Tapping her foot impatiently, she waited for the doors to click open. Not two seconds after the door unlocked, Hermione pushed them open instead of waiting for the doors to open on their own. Security had gone up in the ministry, ever since Hermione, Ron, Harry, and some of the DA had broken in during their fifth year at Hogwarts. Quickly Hermione strode down hallways and to the staircase. Most witches and Wizards preferred to use the elavator. But what most witches and wizards didn't know was that the elevator had a tracking charm on it. Whenever the elavator was in use, after-hours when the Ministry was supposed to be closed, an alarm went off in the Security room.

Hermione had no intention of alerting anyone to what she was doing, excepting Ron (who was involved in tonight's escapade), and maybe a third person, if possible. She flew down the staircases, taking large jumps. Somehow she landed like a cat: silent and balanced. She continued leaping staircases and landings. Very soon she was at one end of a very long hall. Sprinting down the hallway, Hermione counted the doors. On the fifth door on the left, she stopped and slipped inside.

Inside the room she'd just entered, was a sort of nexus-room. Many doors were set into the walls around her. Hermione closed her eyes and waited for the vertigo to settle down. Concentrating on a certain door she wished to enter, she walked forward until she felt it's handle underneath her hand. She pulled the door open and went in before she opened her eyes. Before her stood a giant stone pedestal. Quickly she ascended the steps to the top and stared at the archway before her. In between the arches poles was the silvery veil that had stolen Sirus Black three years ago. It was strangely still, unlike the last time she'd seen it. As she walked closer, however, it started to ripple slightly. The closer she got, the better she was able to hear a quiet sussuration. It sounded like voices, but Hermione wasn't fooled. She knew it was just the charm surrounding the veil to make it look appealing.

Taking off the bag and placing it on the floor, she removed her eyes from the veil. Once Ron's bag was opened, Hermione took out a small vial and some beautiful silver jewelry. Slipping a silver-chained necklace with a black diamond pendant around her throat, she also put on two silver rings. One had a top formed in the sign of eternity, with one crystal diamond and one black diamond set in the middle. The second had a pale, shimmery opal set in the center and strange runes around the top part of the band. She also put two dangling silver earrings in her ears. One was in the shape of a gavel, the other a set of scales. Out of the bag she pulled a set of robes, shimmering silver in the pale light that resembled moonlight in its purest from that radiated from the veil. After pulling the robes on, she took off her pants and shirt that were underneath and folded them and placed them into Ron's bag.

Taking the book and her pages of notes out of the messenger bag she'd brought, Hermione opened the book to a marked spot and stepped forward till she stood only inches away from the veil. Holding the small crystal vial aloft, she began chanting things from her notes. The veil and her robes started to whip about somewhat wildly, her robes twisting around her body and legs like an affectionate silken cat. There was no wind in the room. Slowly another voice joined hers, a deep male voice that was sonorous and sure. No one else was in the room with her. The vial, which had seemed to be full of quick silver, turned a purest glowing white color, so bright it could neither be looked at directly nor described accurately. Hermione continued chanting. A long fold appeared in the middle of the veil, and then it parted like two curtains. The other voice started to overpower the sound of her own voice, replacing the normal feminine timbres of her voice with the deep masculine tones. She was speaking with someone else's voice. She didn't dare stop to see if the other person stopped two, however. That would ruin the spell.

A dark figure was thrust forward, out of the veil and Hermione didn't notice or have time to move before the figure collided with her. Hermione was moved back a couple inches, but she threw the vial into the veil and finished her chant the other voice, loud and thunderous. The veil glowed bright as the bottle had been, for a moment, and Hermione shut her eyes. It was to no avail, however, for the image of the veil burned through her eyelids and into her brain. She felt sure she would be seeing the veil for the rest of her life, an overlay on top of everything else. The figure's weight started to wear on Hermione, so she spread her legs apart and took a little firmer stance. After bending down slightly and wrapping one arm around the person's midsection, she withdrew her wand out of it's holster on her arm and shot a quick spell at the person. He wouldn't be waking up at an inconvenient moment now. Then she charmed him to be super-light and drew him over her shoulder. Ron's bag she shrunk and stuck in her pocket, along with the messenger bag.

After disillusioning the two of them, Hermione raced back to the apparition spot and was on her way out.

Flash! A green light was coming straight towards him. Sirius tried to dodge it, but to no avail. The green killing curse had almost hit him when a red stunner hit him from another side and knocked him backwards. For a long time, all he knew was darkness.

Light seemed to be surrounding him again, if the redish-yellow color shining through his eyelids was any indication. He kept silent, so as not to alert any unfriendly people of his activities. Slowly noise surrounded him, and Sirius was glad he'd kept silent. There was no need to alert them he was awake, if the Death Eaters from the ministry had caught him.

"Who's asleep on the couch?" A curious female voice asked. Somehow he got the impression that he knew that voice. An embarrassed mumbling followed the question, and Sirius strained his ears to see if he could tell who it was. This second voice was also familiar, but he couldn't place them. They weren't any of the Death Eaters he was personally familiar with, though.

"Come again?" The first voice asked, in a teasing sort of way.

"Hermione! You didn't tell us you were coming today!" Said a delighted voice that Sirius knew to be Ronald Weasely's. A deep sigh escaped Sirius. He wasn't in the clutches of Death Eater scum, then. Now if only he could be sure Harry and the Prophecy had come out intact and unharmed, he'd be a happy man. Never again would he complain about being forced to stay locked up in Grimmauld Place!

"Well, it is Harry's birthday tomorrow." Hermione pointed out. Ron chuckled.

"So what, you going to spend the night with him for his birthday, then?" Ronald asked, in a very teasing tone.

"Ronald Billius Weasely! How dare you suggest that I would...the very idea...!" Hermione's voice exclaimed.

"Yeah, besides, she knows I'm the only one allowed to do that." Came the first female voice again, and Sirius realized it was the youngest Weasely child. What was her name? Jenny? Jimmy? OH! Ginny! Now he remembered. Strange, usually he was pretty good with names...ah, well.

"Ah, well. Maybe I've been a bit preoccupied with Harry. It's hard to let him know what's going on when all the other adults insist on treating him like he's still two! Ah, the many trials of a Godfather." Sirius thought.

"Who's Hermione spending the night with?" Harry's voice asked, and Sirius heard him enter the room. There came a sputtering sound, and He found that it seemed to be the voice closest to him. Sirius took a chance and cracked one eye open, only to find what he thought was the oppressing air of Grimmauld Place weighing him down was actually a tightly-knitted afghan. Peering through some of the bigger holes by his face, he saw that Hermione was the one closest to him, and she had gone a lovely shade of dusky rose.

"I'm spending the night at Grimmauld Place. I just thought, since I just barely got your present, that you'd like to have it now, since it won't really wait much longer." Hermione replied rather indignantly.

"Wait, wait wait! Stop the owls! Call back tomorrow's edition of the Prophet! Hermione Granger just barely got Harry's present! And it's the night before the occasion!" Ginny laughed, and Hermione harrumphed but looked slightly pleased.

"Yeah, well...there was sort of a special time-frame on it." She admitted, looking slightly less embarrassed than a few moments previous. Suddenly a light went on in Sirius's head. Harry's birthday? But it'd been Harry's birthday just a few months ago! What on earth was going on?!

"So, what'd you get me? And who's the stiff?" Harry demanded, sounding very much like the afore-mentioned two year old that the adults get thinking he was.

"Well, the stiff...that is to say, this person, is your present." Hermione mumbled, and Sirius was confused. Were they talking about him?

"You got Harry a person for his birthday?" Ginny asked incredulously.

"What is it, a really large mutant house-elf that no one else wanted?" Ron asked, and the teasing tone was back in his voice again.

"Well, no. Actually, it's ...er..." Hermione began trying to explain, in a rather breathless voice, but she seemed to find that there wasn't really anything to say. So, with that, she reached to the side and whisked the blanket off of Sirius. Sirius and Harry stared at each other, both with slightly dumb-struck looks on their faces.

"S..Sirius?!" Harry demanded, sounding like he not only couldn't believe it, but wouldn't. Almost as though his Godfather were a gift to precious to actually exist. Which Sirius knew for a fact, he did.

"Er...yeah. Surprise? Would someone like to tell me what's going on? And why on earth you all look so much older! For that matter, are you really Ron, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione?! Because I seem to remember celebrating Harry's birthday just a few months ago." Sirius replied, trying to get his brain back in working order. Before, when the blanket had been covering him and he'd been laying down, they had looked just like the Harry, Ron, and Hermione that he knew. Now, though, they all seemed to have grown up and aged a few years.

"The thing is, Sirius, that you fell through the veil in the Department of Mysteries." Hermione informed him gently. Sirus stared at her in horror.

"But...no one's ever come back from the veil! Am I dead? Is this Heaven or Hell?!" Sirius demanded. Young Ginny Weasely looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Actually, it's neither. See, Hermione and I decided that bringing you back would be the perfect way to match Ginny's gift. I mean, we can't – and won't—give Harry a baby, so we thought we'd give him his Godfather back instead. And everyone knows that nothings's impossible if Hermione Granger puts her mind to it!" Ronald said, with an awed tone when he looked at Hermione. Hermione scowled and whacked him on the shoulder again.

"You knew?" Harry asked Ron, sounding startled.

"Well, yeah. Remember when I was in the loo forever? I actually went to help Hermione set up part of the retrieval process. Then I had to distract you until she got back. It was a simple matter to get you down here to see him, once he was in place." Ron told them proudly. Rolling her eyes, Hermione threw herself down next to Sirius on the couch.

"So, what do you think? Best birthday present ever?" the witch demanded, grinning. Harry nodded, still somewhat awestruck. Sirius looked at the witch sitting next to him with a sort of awed suspicion.

"If what you're telling me is true, then I owe you my life and soul. Don't think I'll forget it. Assuming you aren't just Death Eaters in disguise." Sirius murmured. Ginny laughed at his suspicion, still not quite able to believe it herself. Making an annoyed tsking sort of sound, Hermione ordered Harry to tell Sirius things that only the two of them had talked about.

When the three had finished telling him things that only they would know, Sirius believed them whole heartedly. The rest of the evening was spent catching him up on what had been happening in the Wizarding world since he'd fallen into the veil. As the others talked, he kept stealing glances at Hermione. She truly was an incredible witch.

"Remus was wrong, though. She's not the smartest witch of her age." Sirius thought, bemused still by this strange change in his life. "She's the smartest witch of the century. Doubt even Dumbledore could've "rescued" me from that veil." He resolved firmly that someday, he would repay the favor. If he had to spend the rest of his life waiting, he'd make sure that it was a life she enjoyed to the fullest.

Well, there you go peoples. Hope you liked that! I wasn't originally going to add a prolog, but then a plot-bunny ran rampant through my head and I couldn't help but write it down. Let me know what you think! My policy on stories is : if people review, I post more. Simple, and efficient (for me) ;) . Simply because this is only a prolog, though, I've written the first chapter and posted it as well today. So be sure to review, since I was extra nice even though I'm sick and miserable! (I hate sore throats and wisedom teeth...arg!).

Wingsrookie.