Sequel to Thump: Meow

About a week away from Christmas, it was cold and dreary at the moment, the season bringing with it not only holiday cheer but also frost bite. That was why they were inside, not outside with the snow burying her hopes of a walk, the fire sighing in content.

Hermione snuggled deeper into the warm wool. The wool wrapped itself tighter around her frame and she smiled up at Sirius. They'd been together for well over a year, though about two thirds of that time was spent in secrecy together. It was for this reason they were still behaved awkwardly around by their peers; essentially the whole of their close friends were still unsure of just how to take the news of their being a couple.

Gazing at the shadows the firelight cast on his face, Hermione allowed herself the luxury of laughing randomly. Startled, Sirius looked down his nose at her, raising an eyebrow.

"All right there, Hermione?"

It was another minute before she collected herself, drawing in gasping breaths.

He looked on at this young woman, now twenty, who had changed so much from the young girl that he had once known. She was different now, relaxed, realizing now that they had all the time in the world. He watched the firelight dancing shadows across her face, a slow smile spreading as he felt her infectious laughter starting to attack his immune system which didn't seem to be doing its job.

"Don't you remember when they first found out about us?"

Hermione's remark left something to be desired of his smile. They reminisced together…

---

"How did this happen?" Molly asked, slowly moving toward them as if they were dangerous animals that were on a mad high and could not be restrained without the help of chains.

Hermione looked to Sirius nervously.

They had lots of explaining to do.

"Well…um…where should we start?" Hermione asked, wringing her hands, determined to look anywhere than look at her second mother.

"How about from the beginning?" Molly asked, narrowing her eyes, still the only one able to speak at the moment.

"Oh, Molly," Sirius said nonchalantly with a wave of his hand, "It's such a long story. Do you really need to-"

"Start talking."

Pause. Then a rush:

"Umm…"

"Well, you see,"

"Quite a funny story, really,"

"It started with this one time…"

"Oh, yes, and it was very chanceful, see…"

"And then that happened…"

"Yeah, and then one thing led to another…"

"But honestly, I couldn't stand him, you know…"

"Absolutely, she wasn't lying about that part…"

"Oh, I loathed him with a passion…"

"Perhaps the word 'passion' isn't the best sentiment at the moment, dear," Sirius muttered in Hermione's ear.

"Right," she said in a stressed, high voice.

"So, really it wasn't a very interesting story that would need to be broadcasted. It was pure chance, you realize. We did not intend for such a…" Sirius glanced at Hermione, "We did not intend for such an intrigue to happen."

"An intrigue indeed," Remus commented, raising an eyebrow at his best friend.

Sirius shrugged as an answer.

Remus nodded his head, looking pensive.

Sirius tapped his foot twice.

Remus' mouth lifted into a half smile.

Sirius pointed to Remus.

Remus clapped thrice.

And everyone was looking at this exchange, completely bewildered, and none more so confused than Hermione. Boys, she thought with a roll of her eyes. Sirius watched her out of the corner of his eye and gave her one of his many secretive smiles, this one meaning, "It's for the boys to know…well it's for the people that are left of the Marauders, anyway."

"Well then," Remus declared, "I believe we have a lovely lunch to get to that Molly has so graciously put together for us."

He made to move out the door and to the stairs, but a giant ball of ginger fur blocked his path.

"Want to know how they got together?" Crookshanks asked the room at large, then purring and sauntering to the bedpost, leapt atop it so he was at eyelevel with the humans.

Hermione's mouth dropped open.

Sirius blinked.

Everyone else stared in astonishment.

Fred and George rushed back in to the room, having left unnoticed by the rest of the party.

"Hey, did Crookshanks get in- oh."

"What did you do to my cat!" Hermione screeched, stalking towards the pair.

"Nothing! Nothing! It was just a new experiment, is all…" Fred explained.

"Great job, Fred," scoffed George, hitting his twin upside the head, "You tactless twit."

"What is the experiment for?" Hermione asked, glowering at them, though she was fairly sure she had a valid idea.

"I meant, it was for nothing! I don't know what you're talking about, Hermione, honestly," Fred replied nervously, his voice reaching a slightly higher pitch.

George rolled his eyes at his wreck of a twin, then turned to calm down the owner of the talking-cat-that-normally-doesn't-talk.

"Listen Hermione, you can relax. It's only temporary. It's just a small bit of potion that was rubbed on his fur, is all. It's a new product for our shop. Its purpose is to allow animals to have a voice, what their voice would be like if they were human."

By this time, the other people who had barged into the room were paying rapt attention to the ginger kitty.

"Houdini's trousers!" Hermione breathed, looking at Sirius.

He was talking.

No, not Sirius.

The kitty.

Hermione's kitty.

And he was explaining what had happened between Sirius and Hermione and how everything had led up to this one day where they were finally found out and explained through a cat's story of what had happened!

Crookshanks was almost complete, as he had only gone through the Cliff Notes version.

"…So then, he moved slowly toward her, but she was too irate to care. At the swing, she was kicking a dandelion and he told her that if she was going to kick that dandelion one more time, he would have to ask her to kick him instead. He explained to her that instead of ruining his property, she should just directly ruin him. Surprised, she jumped nearly a foot in the air and fell off the swing. Good thing for him, he didn't laugh. If he did, I'm fairly sure that I'd be telling you the story of how Sirius was castrated by her."

"Crookshanks!" Hermione chastised as they looked to her with raised eyebrows. Oh dear, if she had castrated him…no! She couldn't think about that now.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her pinked cheeks and grinned devilishly.

"But then you see, he helped her up and she was hitting him again- by the way, dear, you really do have temper issues- but he didn't do anything. He let her hit him. He would've let her hit him for all eternity. Thankfully it didn't take all of eternity, and she grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him full on the mouth."

"Crookshanks," Sirius said darkly, embarrassed because he was traditionally the assertive one.

"And if you think that's sappy, you should've seen Valentine's Day! It was a field day for them, if you catch my drif-"

"CROOKSHANKS!" Sirius and Hermione yelled, scandalized.

He turned to stare at them, and it looked as though he was about to yell back at them…

…but all that came out was a loud, scratchy, "Meow".

And with a surprised cat dashing out of the room, that was how everyone found out about the entirety of their secret love life.

---

Hermione looked up at Sirius.

Sirius looked down at Hermione.

They both looked down at the giant ball of ginger fur in Hermione's lap.

"Meow?" Crookshanks asked, confused at meeting the stares of Sirius and Hermione.

They rolled their eyes.

Um...yeah...review, please? Personally I don't find that this one is as good as it was in my head...nor was it up to par with Thump, but ehh...yeah.