AN It's been a while since I wrote anything. This wandered into my head today so I wrote it, but deepest apologies if it's not very good, I'm out of practice. It's unbeta'd so there's likely to be mistakes. Reviews are greatly appreciated. Even if you think it's rubbish tell me, or I can't get better.

He stared at her across the garden. The way she laughed at the twins and their daft antics. The way she moved, pushing her unruly curls out of her face. The way the sunlight glinted off her hair, and gave her skin a soft glow in the bright spring sunlight. The way her red sundress hugged her curves and showed off her legs. The way she was elegant but relaxed, casually leaning against Harry and Ron. The way she bit into the ripe strawberries dipped in rich dark chocolate. The way she smiled at Ginny as she chattered about her wedding plans, Harry looking somewhere between excited and terrified as they spoke.

He watched her all of the time. He knew it sounded creepy, he knew that for a man of his age to gaze constantly at a woman young enough to be his daughter was probably more than a bit weird, but he couldn't help it. Something about her drew him in. Being close to her, seeing her smile, made the shadows on his soul recede just a little. She had seen so much in her young life, she had stood shoulder to shoulder with Harry and never flinched, never once turned her back on him. She had fought, she had suffered and yet she had come out stronger and braver. When the rest of them were diminished, trying to make sense of their victory, framed as it was in such loss, she had picked them all up and made them see that living was the only true way to honour the dead. She had been their shoulder to cry on, she had offered advice and support and she had given so much of herself without asking for anything in return.

It was only months later that he learnt that she had quietly packed up her parents' house and sold it, that she had dealt with all the legal and financial complexities that arose from their deaths, a tragic loss in a random attack on Muggles that the Order members had arrived too late to prevent.

She devoted her time to her job in the Magical Muggle Liaison Office at the Ministry, a new department aimed at education and understanding in order to preserve the traditional wizarding way of life while preventing the possibility of another war based on blood supremacy.

She moved into Grimmauld Place with him and Harry and filled her days with books and friends and laughter. And just occasionally she would be found curled up in the library gazing into the fire; her eyes glistening with unshed tears and the sorrows of the world in their brown depths.

She looked up from her conversation with Ginny to find Sirius' stormy grey eyes focused on her. She smiled softly at him and turned back to Ginny, the shadow of her smile still evident on her face. She knew he was often watching her. She could feels his gaze as she read at home, or cooked, or played with Teddy or talked and teased with Harry and Ron.

And when he wasn't watching her, when those grey orbs weren't turned her way, she was watching him. She watched him laugh and reminisce with Remus. She watched him play with little Teddy. She watched as his relationship with Harry grew and developed into that of parent and child. She watched as he drank, knowing he was trying to drown out the ghosts that haunted his restless sleep. She watched as he stalked the halls of his childhood home late at night. She saw the pain in his eyes, pain that she knew from her own reflection. And she saw the compassion in his gaze when she was sad and hurting, and hoped that he saw her compassion for him in return.

She loved him. She had done for months, years maybe. She wondered, sometimes, as he watched her so closely that he saw what she so carefully hid from the rest of the world, whether he loved her too. But she knew that she was too shy to ask those questions. On the surface it looked as though they weren't very close, friends because of a shared love for Harry. They knew though that the other was never far away, and that they watched, and they saw.

He was her dark angel. She was his ray of light.

She sat on the decking in the sunshine. It was one of the many improvements they had made to the house when she and Harry had moved in, her little piece of space and quiet where she could sit in the sun.

The house was oddly quiet at present. Harry and Ginny were on honeymoon having been married the week before in a beautiful ceremony. Ron switched between living at Grimmauld Place and at the Burrow depending on whether his desire to have his Mum's cooking on hand overruled his irritation at her sometimes overbearing, if well meant, manner. Currently his stomach was winning and there was just Hermione and Sirius in the house.

Sirius. He'd looked so dashing at the wedding, and so proud in his role as father of the groom. They'd talked and danced and flirted a little and she could've sworn that there had been flashes of heat and desire in the grey eyes she watched so often. However since then they'd fallen back into their usual patterns and nothing had changed.

She sighed at the thoughts running through her head.

"That was a big sigh kitten. Book not holding your attention?"

Hermione jumped as he spoke, completely unaware that he had interrupted her solitude and was standing just by her chair.

"No, not really." She trailed off, not saying anything more.

"What were you thinking of then?" Sirius asked, curious as to what had her seeming so sad and not able to read her thoughts in her eyes as he usually could.

"You."

"Me?" He queried, unsure what she meant.

"Well, us." She looked at him then, hope and fear clear in her expression. "I was thinking about dancing with you at the wedding, and how nice that was. And I was thinking that you've become, almost silently, the most important person in my life. You cheer me up just by being near me. I want to tell you first when good things happen and I know that if I turn to you when things are bad you'll be there. And I want you to know that I know that you're hurting, and that you hardly sleep and that last week the pride in your face was mingled with grief so strong that my heart broke for you. I know that you're a good man, the best of men. And I know that you watch me almost as much as I watch you and I was wondering why." She spoke in a rush, as if she had to say all the things she felt in one go or she may never be able to say them again.

Sirius moved in front of her and reached for her hand. He tugged her to her feet and held her close.

"I do watch you, I watch you because you make me feel real again. You make me feel like a good man, like I'm worth something. And I watch you because I see you hurting and I want to take away the pain."

He leant towards her and kissed her softly, still unsure that he would be welcome. She kissed him back, pressing her body against him as tightly as she could, her arms around him as though she would never let him go. He held her to him, kissing her in the sunlit garden and it seemed as though the world had stopped. They pulled apart, her head resting on his chest, the rhythm of his heart calming to her.

"I love you."

He smiled. "I love you too."

He stared at her across the garden. The way she moved, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. The way she smiled and laughed as she talked to their guests. The way she glowed in the sunshine which glinted off her hair. The way her wedding dress hugged her figure and pooled around her feet. The way she smiled when her eyes met his, their perfect happiness healing the pain, the loneliness, the sorrow.

She was his ray of light. He was her dark angel. Forever.