A/N: QLFC Round 10 - Forbidden Love Age Gap. Seeker posting, Sirius/Hermione hope you enjoy!

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Portrait

Everyone has one of those crushes, those little meaningless childhood fantasises about the older man or older woman that you admire and that you think would be the most perfect person for you in the whole world. Maybe when you were a child they picked you up and looked after you after you had fallen and hurt yourself or they had always been especially kind to you when giving you treats and other things.

For Hermione Granger this wasn't a crush that she developed when she was a child and it wasn't based on a childish action that had been taken to help her or soothe her. This was a crush built solidly on the foundation that this man had saved her life.

Of course she was young when it developed, who really had any idea or any real concept of love at the tender age of 13 but when Sirius Black had thrown himself in front of the werewolf who had once been their teacher she had known in that very second that she wanted nothing more than spend the rest of her life making this man happy.

Now Hermione was a very smart girl and she was aware that a great love story between herself and Sirius Black was impossible from the word go. Not only did they have the whole problem of the age difference, after all it would be quite pedophillic of him to want a 13 year old girl as much as she secretly wanted him, but there was also the small problem that he was a wanted criminal. And even though he didn't actually commit the crime that he was being hunted for she still didn't think that her parents would approve of the match.

Still Hermione knew that if she was patient and she waited like a good girl she would be rewarded, as she had been told good girls always were. And, a few years later, she was rewarded in deed.

It was the summer sixth year, just before they were about to go on the run to hunt for the horcruxes and the were staying secretly inside of Grimmuald Place. The boys, Harry and Ron, were downstairs stuffing their faces with whatever delicious food Kreacher had managed to whip up, which all credit to him he managed to make consistently spectacular meals with very little ingredients or help. Hermione had never learned how to cook and all Ron was good at with food was eating it.

Anyway, she was creeping around upstairs when she came across Sirius' old bedroom, still decked out in the Gryffindor gear that he had permanently stuck up on the walls. It made her smile just being in here and it felt weird the level of comfort that this room gave her. But it still smelt like him in here and she felt like he was still around.

Hermione blushed to herself as she tiptoed quietly around the dusty, deserted and desolate room feeling the need to creep even though there was no one about that she could possibly disturb. She had mourned heavily when Sirius had been killed, he had been her first real love after all and you never forget your first but as time had passed she had come to terms with the fact that she would never hear his voice again or see his smile and whilst she had moved on both emotionally and romantically she knew that there would always be a special part of her heart that belonged completely to him.

She sighed and sat down heavily on the bed, coughing in the cloud of dust that this action sent up. She ran her hand over the faded material feeling how soft it was and realising that he would have slept here, both as a child and an adult.

Something creaked, and groaned under the bed as she moved and it sounded curiously human although very muffled. She stayed perfectly still listening intently to see if the noise had come from down stairs meaning it was one of the boys but nothing. She moved again shifting the bed and mattress deliberately and then again there was the noise; a muffled groaning.

Getting on her hands and knees Hermione peered into the dark and dusty space under the bed but she could see nothing, confused she looked up getting her wand and using the bright light she examined the underside of the bed she could see that there was a small, square object wedged between the slats muffled by the mattress.

She tugged and wiggled until slowly inch by inch the little object moved and finally came free dropping to the floor with a clatter that made her wince. She didn't know why she didn't want Ron and Harry to discover her here she just knew that she didn't.

Hermione picked up the object and brought it out into the natural light, she turned it over and gasped. It was a sound of shock and delight.

In her hands she held a small portrait, it was only little, not even the size of a book but it was beautifully painted and exquisitely framed and it was a picture of her. She didn't know how it go here or why it was hidden so carefully but it was painted so beautifully that she could barely breathe.

To know this was how he saw her, it was the best present, the best reward for her patience, that Hermione could have ever wished for.

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