Since Ginny had been tossing and turning since she fell asleep, Hermione gave up. Slipping on her dressing gown and slippers, she stole out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen of Grimmauld Place. A mug of tea might help soothe her enough to ignore Ginny's fitful sleep, or at least calm her agitation at being kept awake.
She understood why her friend was having trouble. It didn't make it any less annoying to deal with.
When Hermione pushed open the door, she was greeted by an unexpected, if unsurprising, sight. Sirius was sitting in a chair next to the low fire, his back to the door. A short glass sat on the floor next to him, liquid amber in the dying firelight. Apparently she wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping at three in the morning.
"Hey," she said, letting him know she was there. He glanced over his shoulder, smiling blankly, and turned back to watch the fire. She crossed the kitchen, going straight for the kettle and selection of teas kept on the shelf. "Tea?"
"I'll pass," he said, reaching over to lift his glass. She nodded and went about fixing herself a mug, letting only the sounds of the kettle fill the long silence between them. It was a comfortable moment, just the two of them existing quietly in the same space. Given the chaos that had filled the house since their arrival at the beginning of the Christmas holidays, it was a nice change. Granted, Sirius would probably miss the familiar yelling and bickering among everyone when they returned to school, but it was good to have a breather once in a while.
The kettle boiled, and Hermione filled her mug, placing the kettle off to the side to cool. She turned back to Sirius, thinking to grab another chair and watch the fire with him, when she realized he'd already slid one over without her noticing. She smiled gratefully and folded herself into the seat, tucking her legs underneath her. Hermione sipped her tea, enjoying the silence for a few minutes more. Then Sirius' repetitive movement caught her eye.
"You smoke?"
He eyed the cigarette, almost as if he'd forgotten it was there. "Yeah," he admitted. "Only at night though. You've heard Molly go on about Dung's pipe. I'd rather just blow up the chimney while she's asleep and let it air out before she wakes up."
Hermione nodded. "But why cigarettes? Don't most wizards smoke pipes?"
"Exactly," he said, his smile betraying no real happiness, but rather an old smugness. "I started smoking when I was fourteen, towards the beginning of my fourth year. Had it been a proper wizard pipe, my parents wouldn't have cared. 'Filthy' Muggle cigarettes, though…"
"Ah." Hermione nodded, taking another sip of tea. "Just another way to get under their skin?"
"Funnily enough, dear old Dad thought it was the biggest 'fuck you' I could give him," Sirius quipped, "including the time I actually screamed 'Fuck you' in his face."
She couldn't help from snorting at that, imagining a young teenage Sirius, shorter and smaller than the man in front of her, yelling at the man she'd seen in portrait in the drawing room when they were cleaning. It was a heartening thought. "So you picked it up in school, assuming you quit cold turkey for a few years there," she said, glossing over his imprisonment as best she could, "and then, what? Just picked it up again?"
"It's all Remus' fault."
She blinked. "How so?"
"He's the one that kept a bloody pack of my favorites with his things." He paused to take a drag, then blew the smoke towards the fireplace. "Pure sentimentality since he always gave me the evil eye when I lit one."
The words spilled out before she could stop them. "Could I have one?"
He eyed her warily. "Beg your pardon?"
"Can I have a cigarette?"
"You know that Molly would kill me, right? Kill me and Vanish my body to parts unknown."
"You know that if I really wanted to, I could walk down to the all-night store on the corner and buy my own, legally, and she couldn't stop me?" Hermione countered.
They entered a short staring contest, one that she won when Sirius sighed and held out the pack. She slipped one out of the box, and he set it back on the floor on the other side of the chair from the glass. Too late, she realized she'd left her wand in her room and didn't have any matches with her. Just as she was contemplating setting the end into the fireplace, Sirius cleared his throat. She looked over and saw him holding a box of matches.
"Still don't have a wand," he muttered, scowling. She grimaced in sympathy and pulled a match, striking it sharply on the side of the box. Cigarette clamped firmly between her lips, she held the flame up to the end and waited for it to catch. The moment she could feel the smoke creeping into her mouth, she swung the match away to extinguish it before it burned her fingers. She took a drag and leaned forward to the fireplace. As she dropped the match into the larger flames, she literally blew her smoke up the chimney with the rest.
When Hermione sat back, she could feel him watching her. "What?"
"This isn't the first time you've done this, is it?" Sirius asked, a small smirk on his face.
"Not hardly," she replied. "This may come as a surprise, but I get a little uptight before exams."
"You? I'd never have guessed."
She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Parvati got fed up with my constant stress and started throwing the box she had stolen from her mother at my head every time I started rambling about proper countercharms." She took a sip from her mug, trying to drink it before it got cold. "My parents would be horrified if they knew, because of what it does to your teeth, but I'm careful to use whitening charms and keep my habit to only during stressful times. However…" She trailed off, but Sirius seemed to understand where she was leading.
"I guess the attack on Arthur could be considered stressful," he quipped. "Don't know if it's considered quite on par with a potions exam, but-"
"Oh, hush."
They sat in silence again, smoking and drinking their own drinks. Sirius finished his and flicked the end into the fire before lighting up another. After blowing out the first big breath of smoke, he said, "You remind me a lot of Lily sometimes."
Stunned by the non sequitur, Hermione simply replied, "Oh?"
"Yeah. Smart as hell, ready to take anything the magical world throws at you, not taking any shit off the stupid prats you hang out with." She laughed at that. "Sneaking around to steal my cigarettes."
That caused her to drop her own nearly finished one. "What?"
He grinned lazily. "She was the same way. Always smoked when she was about to go out of her mind with worry. She'd never buy her own because that meant she was an addict, but I'd always find a few of mine missing right before a big test or paper was due. I set out about four packs just for her right before NEWTs and she walked off with them without so much as a thank you. After graduation, I told her to quit or buy her own and she quit. It helped that she was spending so much time with James and didn't want him to know."
"And you kept it up?"
"Of course. I was an addict and had no problems with that." She rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure that Harry was the reason she didn't smoke like a chimney towards the end there. She worried like crazy, but she didn't want that around him. Always made me use cleaning charms before I came back in after a smoke because she didn't even want the smell around her precious baby." He took another long drag and let it out, followed by a drink. "You know, the number of cigs I lost to her over the years, and I think I only smoked with her once?"
"Really?"
Sirius nodded. "Night before her wedding. Everyone was going mad about something or other and that sister of hers was being a right bitch to everyone, including and especially James. I stepped out to the back garden to get away from everyone before I punched Vernon in the face and she followed me. I told her I was going to have a smoke and she glared and said, 'Good, I'd kill for one right now.'"
Hermione smiled. She got the feeling that of all the stories people told Harry about his parents, this wasn't the kind he usually got. But Sirius was smiling, getting a chance to relive some happy memories for once. "She sounds lovely."
"She was bloody amazing. If she'd been here-" His voice caught a little. "If she'd gotten the chance to raise Harry, she would have loved for him to bring you home on holidays. Someone to keep her boy in line. Merlin knows James' mum was always happier when Lily or Remus were around to keep him from running off half-cocked."
"Not you?"
"Who do you think was the other half a cock?" She snorted into her tea at that. "Honestly, James and Lily would have been so happy that Harry had a friend as amazing as you."
Hermione's heart swelled. "Thanks, Sirius."
"It's just the truth."
She took a final pull from her cigarette and tossed it into the fire. The tea was quickly drained as well and the mug rinsed and rehung on the rack. "I'm going to brave Ginny's tossing again. Good night, Sirius."
"I keep the pack on the left side of the second drawer in the bedside table."
"My vice is smoking, not kleptomania."
He barked a short laugh. "In that case, I'm usually here about this time every night."
"I'll keep that in mind. Good night."
"Sweet dreams."