A Day, Fall 1966

She sits primly in her neighborhood library, a book in her lap that her eyes are consuming.

She'd come straight to the library after the first day of her classes needing the familiarity of books to comfort her. She hadn't made any friends today. She'd sat alone at recess and feigned reading as she watched all the other kids playing.

But, oh well, there is still tomorrow; I'll surely make a friend. She muses as she turns a page of her book.

Suddenly, her book is being snatched out of her hands, the page she had been holding slicing her skin and leaving a small stinging paper cut. Too surprised to be angry, she turns in her chair to find a boy with dark black hair and wide light colored eyes reminiscent of a cat, holding up her book as if its a skunk about to spray him.

"Pardon me but that is my bo-"

"Why doesn't this have any pictures?" he rudely cuts in. It is now when she feels the delayed anger hitting her. There are three rules to which her parents always told her to abide by:

1. Always say 'please', 'thank you' 'pardon me' and 'may I'

2. Look both ways before you cross the street.

3. Never rudely interrupt someone when they are speaking unless absolutely necessary, to which you say a polite 'Pardon me' from above.

Smartly, Hermione gets out of her chair to face the boy full on, a stern disapproving look on her face.

"I'm not going to answer that because you didn't say excuse me." She retorts, taking the boy aback. She reaches out to snatch her book back but the boy quickly recovers and dances out of her reach, holding her book tauntingly.

More anger hits her till she's clenching her teeth, something her parents also said shouldn't be done.

"Give me back my book!" She shouts, stomping her foot. Then, seemingly remembering herself, she casts nervous glances about her to see if anyone caught her slip. "Please." she adds. The boy laughs in her face, greatly amused by her reaction.

"No!" The boy says simply, his eyes alight at the prospects of something new to entertain him. "You'll have to catch me for it!" and then he takes off running.

Hermione, completely thrown at such bad behavior, stands there ogling at his back for a few seconds before she takes off after him. The boy runs surprisingly quickly, easily maneuvering around the aisles and dodging tables. Hermione is not having quite the same ease but continues forwards anyway.

"Oi! No running in the library! You're going to hurt yourselves!" She hears someone call.

Hermione stops, chastised but the boy just laughs and sticks his tongue out, wiggling the book teasingly. Something snaps in her and she lunges herself at him with an enraged cry. His eyes widen seeing her and he takes off once again, his laughter ringing out to taunt her further.

"I'm going to get you!" she cries. He smirks at her over his shoulder before he callously knocks a stack of precious books down to delay her. She jumps over them with surprising agility spurred by adrenaline.

The boy makes his way to the exit, consistently throwing things down behind him, uncaring for the mess and damage he made.

"Your such a slowpoke!" he shouts back at her. She growls and tries to go faster just as the boy breaks for the exit, swinging the doors open with finesse. She follows him outside into the cool outside air as the librarian continues to shout behind them angrily.

Chasing after the laughing boy, Hermione can only think sourly...'Well, if I couldn't make a friend, then at least I made and enemy.' an enemy, after all, still implies a relationship.

And they do say there is a thin line between love and hate.

A day, Winter 1966

Sirius barrels out the door of his house, his mothers infuriated howls following in his wake. He hardly cares. His batty mother is always yelling about something or other and he's found the best way of dealing with her madness is to simply get away from it.

Plus, the hour is now 3, which means his newest, funnest source of entertainment is getting out of school. Hurriedly making his way across the street and up a block, Sirius nears the stop where the funny yellow contraption lets her off. He feels the normal rush of hyperness wash over him at the prospect of playing with his strange muggle friend.

Honestly, nothing is funnier than watching Hermione get reader then a tomato. It's so easy to get her mad. He sniggers to himself. Wish I could start doing magic already. I wish I could see how angry she'd be if I spelled her books to fly away from her or levitated them up a tree.

His smile widens when the nosy yellow thing comes rapidly down the hillside. He wonders, not for the first time either, what it would be like to be in there with her, to even go to school with her.

He already knows it would be a lot more funner than sitting around with his boring governess and his, quite literally, mad mother. Instead, he could be picky on Hermione, pulling her crazy hair and stealing her books. It'd be brilliant.

He walks up slowly as the yellow thing stops and its doors open. Some other kids pour out, glancing at him with openly curious faces as they always do as they go off in the opposite direction he came.

He thinks its odd that she isn't the first one to get off. Hermione is always the first one to get out of the yellow thing, as if her feet can hardly wait to touch ground. She's the last this time. Not only that but she's talking to some strange scrawny kid Sirius has never seen before.

His beaming smile slips and he crosses over with quick stomps. He expects the kid to walk off and go home so Sirius can play with Hermione but the boy is walking with her side by side, chatting up a storm as Hermione listens.

She hasn't even looked at him yet. Normally, she'd look, see him, and roll her brown eyes as she shoves past but not this time. She's completely focused on whatever twig boy is going on about.

Sirius doesn't like this. Hermione is his friend! No thirdsies allowed! Sirius doesn't share his toys, not with his favorite cousin Andromeda, not with Regulus, and certainly not with this scrawny twig boy he didn't even know.

"Oi! You!" he shouts as he comes to them, startling the both of them into noticing his presence.

Hermione immediately glares at him but he's too focused on the twig to care.

"Oh, its you," she says dispassionately as Sirius glares at the other nervous boy.

"Come on then. What's your name? Why are you here? What do you want? When will you leave?" Sirius asks in a continuous stream as twig boy opens his mouth dumbly, looking overwhelmed.

"Sirius!" Hermione chastises to which Sirius ignores, of course, "Manners! This is Nicholas. Nicholas meet Siriu-"

"Stop," Sirius demands, lifting up his hand to further emphasize his words and giving her a quick betrayed glare. "I was talking to Twiggy over here." he says turning his cold grey eyes back onto the shy nervous boy, missing Hermione's sputter of indignation and surprise.

"Well," he demands harshly as the boy blinks rapidly at him. Sirius face turns into that of disgust. "Hello? Anybody in there? Really, are you stupid or what?"

"Sirius!" Hermione gasps positively appalled.

"I'm not stupid!" Twig boy cries.

Sirius smirks evilly in response and steps up closer to the twig who looks as if about to cry.

"The right answer was to say 'yes' which just goes to show how stupid you really are! Your so stupid you don't even know how stupid you are. A real idiot!"

Hermione looks beside herself with fury as Nicholas starts to weep. The whole thing feels very satisfying to Sirius, whose anger has somewhat alleviated at the twig boys tears.

"Stop Sirius! You stop calling Nicholas names right now!" Hermione cried as Sirius blatantly ignored her, talking loudly over her voice.

"I'm going to call you twiggy, and I'll tell you why since your obviously too dumb to figure it out. It's because your grossly skinny. Look at your arms! They look like they can break like a twig-" A hard shove from Hermione nearly has Sirius sprawling to the floor.

Surprised, his eyes flash up to meet hers, astounded to see her holding protectively a crying Nicholas. It makes Sirius jaw tighten that she chose that ugly twig boys side over his.

It had snowed earlier that day, and most of the snow had already melted leaving mud all in its wake. His hands swoop down to gather a huge pile of mud underneath him. Looking up at them and Hermione's angry face and then back down to the mud in his hand, Sirius makes a decision.

He throws the mud, his aim perfect as it hits its mark; twig boys face.

It makes Sirius smile as twig boy finally stops his wimpy crying and coughs on the dirt that got into his mouth.

"Oh my goodness, Nicholas are you alright? Sirius, what is the matter with you? Why would you do that?"

Getting up, a fresh pile of dirt renewed in his hands, he chucks it again at twig boy and feels immensely satisfied when twig boy turns tail and runs.

Oh, a chase! Sirius thinks before taking off after twiggy.

"Run Twiggy! Run as fast as you can!" Sirius calls as he throws another mess of mud that hits Twiggy's back. He can hear Hermione running after him, demanding for him to stop.

He laughs. Hermione might hate him for this but at least he's having fun.

A day, Spring 1967

She's waiting for him on her front stoop, her eyes inadvertently glancing up from her book every few minutes.

Him. Her one true nemesis. The strange enigmatic boy that just appears to reek havoc suddenly and leaves just as suddenly.

Oh, how she loathes him. Always, he insistently comes to ruin her afternoons.

His course mannerisms and complete disregard to everything literature instantaneously irks her. Not to mention, he always completely disregards everything that comes out of her mouth.

When she tells him the reason she likes to read is because books are interesting, he gives her a look of disgust and declares 'that's bloody stupid'; when she tells him that he needs to abide by the rules since they are there for a good reason, he puffs up his chest and gives her a cheeky grin and proudly states 'no, they are meant to be broken' and he break them all, he surely does!

Really, he's completely unreasonable!

And he's mean, unjustly so. When she had brought her first, well, not friend per-se but another boy who was like her and read a lot, over to her house to play she had not expected Sirius's reaction.

The boy threw a fit. He'd appeared like he always did, from seemingly out of now where and demanded to know the boy, Nicholas's name. Then, when Hermione had tried to give a polite introduction as her mother taught her, Sirius had rudely held up his hand and said that he was talking to Nicholas. The nerve of him! Enraged, Hermione had sputtered like a fool as Sirius intimated Nicholas and when poor frazzled Nicholas had stuttered, Sirius had called him rude names and laughed at him.

The whole thing ended with Sirius chasing after a crying, fleeing Nicholas, throwing mud at him and Hermione screaming her head off trying to catch up. It was all very horrible. Needless to say, Nicholas never spoke to her again and Hermione's dislike for the evil seriously annoying little devil reached new heights.

Yet, no matter how much she raved at him to leave her alone, or ignored him, the little devil ceaselessly continued to pester her. She didn't know how he did it but he always just seemed to be able to find her and he knew where she lived since he'd surprised her by waiting on her doorstep sometimes. She figured he too must live in Grimmauld place just further down than she, but when she tried to spot him going home, he just seemed to always disappear.

In fact, its all rather strange, she muses, her eyes once again lifting up and staring out at the passing cars, surely, I should have spotted him going home at least once!

She can't help but feel suspicious of him. The way he talks seems odd to her to, saying odd terms like 'muggle', which has no meaning. She'd looked it up in the dictionary, of course, but found nothing. At first she thought he had just made it up but the way he uses it so naturally...

And there's the matter of schooling. She's never once seen him carrying a book bag, nor does he go to her school, the only public school around their neighborhood. She'd of course already thought of the logical theory that he might be home schooled or goes to a private school but still...

Something about Sirius just seemed off...

Her eyes narrow with her thoughts as she ponders the strange little devil.

Or maybe she just had an over active imagination. She has been reading quite a bit of R.L Stine lately.

Since she's already looking, she spots Sirius coming from down the sidewalk before he sees her. Her eyes widen at the uncharacteristic frown on his face. His eyes are on the floor, hands in his pockets and shoulders are slouched, so unlike his normal boisterously bouncing gait.

Something sprouts in her chest. She refuses to name it concern because the little devil hardly warranted her concern in the least. She decides to call the feeling dislike, yes, dislike will do very well. She dislikes that look on his face since it meant she couldn't yell at him like always. Everybody already knows it's hardly fun to kick a dog when its down.

As she thinks this, she sees something that looks alarmingly like a tear run down Sirius's face. She's up and walking to him before she even thinks, her book left behind on the stoop.

He glances up when she nears him, roughly wiping his face with his sleeve. This action shows Hermione the trembling of his fingers and as she inspects him further, she sees his whole body is trembling.

"Sirius?" she asks, not even concerning herself at the gentle tone she uses.

His normally bright mischievous eyes are wrongly vulnerable, and more teal colored then grey. He's staring at her with so much emotion she can't even make them all out, too little to understand. What comes across to her abundantly clear is something happened to Sirius that hurt him.

She wants to reach out and hold his hand but then she remembers all the annoying and crass things he's done to her over the year.

This would be a good time to get even. A voice in her head whispers. You can get back at him for making Nicholas cry and for getting you kicked out of the library so many times, and for ruining your favorite book. It's only what he would do, after all.

She bites her lip, indecision warring inside her as they continue to stand silently in front of each other. Her eyes fall on his trembling hand and suddenly all the anger and vindictiveness escapes her.

No, she thinks, Sirius has never done anything to really hurt anybody. He doesn't deserve it that much.

It is in this moment that Hermione learns something invaluable. No matter how much you might think you hate someone, there are lines that shouldn't be crossed and if you think you will regret doing something mean then don't do it. Like the golden rule; if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

She opens her mouth to finally ask him whats wrong but Sirius immediately cuts her off reaching out his hand to grab a hold of hers.

"Do you believe in magic?" he asks abruptly, startling her so much she sputters. The- dare she even think it- serious expression on Sirius's face alerts her to the seriousness of his question. She knows he can't be having her on with an expression like that. She decides to give him a serious answer.

"No, magic doesn't exist."

He gives her a prolonged look and she meets his eyes with growing anxiety.

"Sirius-"

"Come on, I want to show you something really brilliant." he says before dragging her off.

"Hey, what are doing? Where are we going? Sirius! What's the matter with you?" She continues to ask questions that he ignores as he pulls them further up the sidewalk toward the forest behind Grimmauld Place.

"You'll see, you'll see." he says mysteriously, instantly making Hermione's mind flash to one of her R.L Stine books. She tugs her hand out of his, making him look back at her curiously as she survey's their environment unsurely.

"I want you to tell me what you're doing." She says bossily, stubbornly planting her feet into the dirt. "I'm not doing anything bad with you and if you don't tell me where we're going, I'm going to think you want to break the rules again-"

The slow smile Sirius shot her did nothing to ease her worries.

"You're not going to be breaking any rules, Herm-" he stopped suddenly, his face scrunching up in a curious expression Hermione couldn't name. "Urg, bloody name. I'm giving you a new one!"

"No you are not!" She immediately orders, channeling her mother's authoritative voice. "I hate nick names."

"Listen, a new name given by myself is the highest of honors! You should feel-OW! What the bloody hell was that for?" he asks her as she crosses her arms and sticks her nose in the air unapologetically. She can't help but feel satisfaction as he hops up and down rubbing the foot she just stomped on.

"No, pet names! I mean it or I'll do something worse next time. And stop cursing all the time." Sirius rolls his eyes at her stern expression.

"So stingy... Fine! no pet name for you then! I don't want you to feel special anyway!"

Hermione does a double take at her nemesis at his words.

"What, are pet names something special for you then?" She asks curiously as he glances away from her.

"Maybe. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Let's just keep going, we're almost there." he takes her hand again but Hermione wrenches herself away before they can move an inch.

"I'm still not going with you, Sirius. You didn't tell me what you're planning and to be honest I don't trust you. I don't even really like you-"

A dismissive wave of his hand stops the rest of her words.

"I don't care about all that!" he says completely non-pulsed. He sighs impatiently and steps closer to her continuing his words with notable daring and challenge. "Look, my mum did something that was really awful this morning and I'm in need of a bit of revenge on her and the best way I could think of to do that is through you."

"I don't understand." she answers, "what do I have to do with any of this?"

"You're a muggle." he says, so effortlessly using that strange word that has no meaning.

"I don't know what you mean by this 'muggle' word. You've said it before and I've looked it up; muggle has no meaning in the dictionary. There isn't even anything in the thesaurus-"

Sirius interrupts with a roll of his eyes that never fails to irk her.

"Well of course it doesn't to you. You're not a witch! Listen," he straightens, his hole demeanor changing as if readying for battle. "I'm a wizard, Hermione."

Oh my word. He's crazy! She thinks as she unconsciously takes a step back.

"Right, if you really believe that Sirius then I'm afraid there is something wrong with you and I really don't think we cross paths again-" she starts as she begins to walk away.

"No, listen, I can prove it!" he says, reaching out and grabbing her arm. "it's why we have to go some place no one can see. There's a law, you see, for magic folk like me. We can't ever tell muggles that there is a wizarding world. My mum, she's pretty big on this stuff and she'd literally kill me if she knew that I've told you but, well, I hate her and anything she doesn't like makes me happy."

Hermione takes a moment to compute all of this, staring fixedly at Sirius as he watches her for a reaction.

Should I run away? But what if its real? I have noticed that there is something really odd about Sirius. Still, this is just not normal! Everyone knows there is no such thing as magic...

But what if its real?

Taking a deep breath, Hermione nods her head once. Sirius lets out a whoop and smiles brightly back her. She can sense there is something more to all of this that he isn't telling her; something to do with his mum. She doesn't ask, deciding to just follow his lead.

"Let's go then." he says, taking her hand and pulling her along the treacherous trail leading deep into the woods. "I would just show you our house elf, Kreacher, but then he'd tell my mum and I really can't have her finding out-"

"What's a house elf?" she asks. Sirius frowns and there's surprising hate on his face.

"House elves are elves that are bound to a family, mostly a pureblooded family, to do chores." he explains as Hermione frowns.

"What, like a maid?"

"Well, I don't know, we don't have maids, do we? We have house elves."

"And you don't like them?"

His eyes narrow and the hand holding hers tightens.

"I hate Kreacher. He's like a spy that reports every little thing I do back to mother. The thing has it out for me." he responds darkly.

"Well then, don't do anything bad! Problem solved." Sirius snorts, shaking his head.

"You don't understand, Hermione. You don't know my family. If I did what they wanted me to then I would never go outside. I'd never speak to you. Actually, I'd already have to hate you without ever once even speaking to you and I'd call you and all the muggles mean names and think you are less than nothing..."

"Wow," she breaths, surprised. "So your parents would hate me?"

He looks back at her very seriously.

"Not just them. Every pureblooded wizard is supposed to hate muggles and muggleborns. It's dumb."

She lets her mind digest this and feels her own anger respond to the animosity that hasn't even touched her.

"What's a pureblood?" she asks after a minute.

"It's someone who has no muggles in their family for a long ways back. Anyway, they all suck, expect for me of course!" his impish grin makes her roll her eyes but secretly she agrees.

Up ahead through the trees, she can see a beat down shack and wonders if that is where they are heading.

"Sirius, you're not planning on taking me over there are you, cause I'm not going anywhere near that." she says pointing to it. Sirius follows her finger and laughs when he spots the shack.

"Yes, I am. I don't know what you're seeing but I promise you, its not what you think it is." he says mysteriously making her eye him weirdly.

"What is that supposed to mean? It's exactly like what I think it is! You're taking me to a shack and I'm telling you I will not go!"

His head tilts again as he looks at her and then looks back at the shack.

"So it looks like a shack to muggles? That's clever."

"Are you trying to tell me that what I'm seeing isn't real?"

Sirius smiles and nods his head as if it isn't a big deal that her mind is virtually being messed with.

"Exactly! It's not a shack, it's a perfectly normal house. I mean, yeah, its old since the man who used to live here died a long time ago. He was the caretaker to the Black family estate back when all of this used to be wizarding land my great-great-great-great Uncle owned."

"Your family used to own this whole area? That's impossible!"

"Not for purebloods like me. We own a lot of land all over England, Scotland, Ireland, even in France. Grimmauld Place used to all be owned by my great-great-great grandfather but then one of his sons who married a half-blood sold most of the land and they built it to what you see now. He was blasted off the family tree for that too..."

"What do you mean, blasted off the family tree?"

"Whenever a member of the Black family does something that doesn't suit our pureblood rules they get blasted off the family tree which means they are no longer a Black."

"That's awful! Why would anyone do that?"

"Because Blacks only care about being, toujours pur. Always pure. You marry a muggle or a muggle born, blast! You do bad dealings and lose galleons, blast!" he shrugs un-caringly as Hermione listens aghast.

They stand in silence in front of the misleading shack. Sirius turns to her as if waiting for her to give him a signal, so she nods. He takes a deep breath and Hermione now aware just what it meant for him to be showing her this, suddenly isn't so sure she wants to go.

"Sirius," she bits her lip, "are you sure?"

His immediate answering smile finally does its job in reassuring her.

"Of course! Let's go!"

Giving him an answering smile of her own, Hermione turns back to the 'shack' and steps inside hand in hand with Sirius's.

When the mirage of the shack fades into a small cottage, Hermione's shock is not from the magic but from the sheer wonder of it.

It is that moment that another facade fell as well. No longer would the guise of Sirius as a nemesis hold.

He became her friend.

A day, Summer 1968

Youthful laughter rang throughout the great expanse of woods as two children play.

A little boy runs with a beaming smile on his angelic face as he consistently glances over his shoulder at the struggling girl chasing after him. He can see she is giving it her all, running with all her might and it simultaneously amuses and impresses him.

She's pumping her arms, gasping for air, her eyes clenching shut and opening rapidly and pressing forward after him with such determination. Though he didn't want her to stop chasing after him, he couldn't help but wonder why she still did even when she had to know she could never catch up to him.

He continues forward, his laughter carrying to her with the wind. It makes the girl smile but that smile immediately morphs into horror as she trips over a malicious branch and goes hurtling to the ground.

She throws her hands out to get the brunt of her fall and crashes down so hazardously on the ground she skids.

"Hermione!" her best friend yells, nearly tripping himself as he stops and runs back to her.

"I'm alright, Sirius," she gasps, dirt and sweat all over her, as she pushes herself back up and tries to catch her breath with her hands on her knees. His hands reach out for her, eyes skimming over her body to assure himself she had no wounds. It never fails to warm her heart when Sirius shows his concern for her which he does often when they play. Playing with Sirius often lands Hermione with scrapes and bruises.

She shoves his hands away, making his eyes snap to her with surprise. She gives him a stern glare, her breathing finally slowing down.

"You promised you would tell me where you hid my books if I caught you, now tell me where are they!" She doesn't like the way Sirius's mouth slowly curves into a sly smile, nor the way his eyes hold triumph as he looks down at her.

"I did say that but seeing as how you didn't manage to catch me..." He dodges her fists with an all-too-pleased-with-himself expression on his face. She growls in annoyance and stomps her tiny little foot in frustration which causes him to burst out in laughter.

To him, seeing her standing there with her hair all wild and filled with grass, still red faced with the exertion she underwent trying to catch him, and dirty all over due to her fall, made for a positively hilarious picture. It makes him wish he had a camera. Instead, he works on taking a mental one, memorizing her slight frame haloed in the beautiful golden glow of the sun, eyes alight with anger and looking as if she had put on a great fight.

"That is just-just foul, Sirius Black! I bet your really pleased with yourself, hiding all my books like that! But I'll have you know it doesn't matter how many times you take my books and hide them on me, I will just get more! You cannot stop me from reading just because you want to try to 'curb my unnatural book-wormish ways' I like reading-"

"And I keep telling you that it doesn't matter how much you tell me that, it just can't be true, Hermione! Nobody in their right minds could ever like to read-" Sirius counters, as if his words are pure truth and logic. His pitying look as if she is mentally warped just for preferring books to most other things furthers her ire till she feels she can actually see red.

"How we have remained best friends is truly a miracle! I hope not all wizards think like you do-"

"If all wizards thought like me then the wizarding world would be a bloody magnificent place! We'd all have motorcycles and play Quidditch anytime, anywhere, and they'd be no need for plates and forks, just eating everything in sight with our hands and-"

"You are barbaric." She cuts in distastefully. Sirius shoots her a wide grin as he wiggles his eyebrows.

"No, I'm Sirius..." She lets out an exasperated moan, throwing her hands into the air and rolling her eyes making Sirius cackle like the mad fool he is.

A huge glob of mud slams into his face, abruptly ending his laughter. He raises his incredulous teal colored eyes to Hermione's own deviously satisfied ones. She raises an impertinent eyebrow to goad him further and Sirius let out a very ominous chuckle, more than ready to rise to her challenge.

She knows this and smartly takes off running, adrenaline pumping through both of their veins. Laughter again bubbles but this time in both of them as the thrill of the chase propels them.

Sirius easily manages to catch up to her, but instead of tackling her down, he flashes her a cheeky grins as he surpasses her and again it is she running after him. He's running to the light, not close enough to reach out to but maybe with a leap she could bring them both to the ground.

A naturally competitive person, Hermione hates the ease at which Sirius always manages to out run her. She didn't think herself to be a terrible runner but against Sirius she always seemed so clumsily and out of shape. Since they were even smaller than they are now, in a time when she had considered Sirius her enemy and not her best friend, he had always been able to run faster and longer then her. It had irked her then, when he'd run so fast away from her wrath and it continues to irk her even now years later. Just when will she be strong and fast enough to catch up to him?

By-golly-gee-willikers she refuses to let Sirius take another win from her! As they near a river that cuts into the forest, she launches out, arms outstretched wide to catch him around his middle and bring them both down heavily to the ground with a loud 'Omph!' from Sirius.

"You. are. such. a. CHEATER!" Sirius bits out after spitting some dirt out of his mouth. Hermione, panting, has yet too get off of him, too tired and exhausted. Sirius as well is too tired to move so they both lay there on the ground catching their breaths.

She cant help but smile into his back at how much fun she has had today with Sirius. Then again, despite all the fuss she puts up while playing with him, Sirius is always best to play with and she always has so much fun with him.

"I brought you something," he says, easily recovering from the run. She turns over and off him, just as he pulls out something from his pocket.

Her eager eyes watch raptly as the tiny little book in his hand starts to magically enlarge until Sirius is holding the tomb with both of his hands. Excitement sears her as she holds out her hands to him.

"What are the magic words?" he asks her teasingly as she practically bounces up and down in her happy state.

"Please, pretty, please, oh amazing Sirius Black the third!" she gasps as Sirius's answering smile stretches out over his lovely face. He'd admit it to anyone who'd listen that he seriously loves it when Hermione says that. It's why despite his great hatred for books, he dares to venture into the Black family library and get them for her.

He hands over the book that she takes with loving hands, hugging it to her chest as she beams up at him.

"Thank you Sirius. I've been dying to read this ever since you told me about it."

"Your welcome, Star." he says, easily leaning over and popping her cheek with a kiss.

Hermione gasps, her hand shooting up to her cheek as her whole face instantly flushes. Sirius laughs uproariously at her wide eyed expression, feeling very pleased with himself.

He'd been playing around with new ideas to get new reactions out of Hermione; not that he could ever get tired of her angry flushed state but he had been yearning for something new from her for a while now. The idea that getting affectionate with her popped into his head after a visit from his cousin Andromeda who told him all about her enemy Ted Tonks that she felt the strangest urge to kiss.

He had felt oddly curious about the whole thing as she had spoken, his head picturing Hermione's face if he were ever to do that to her. But imagining and actually doing are two different things.

Doing is so much better. He thinks as his eyes gleefully watch her; her flushed skin, mouth agape with her inability to speak and eyes trained on him were far better then he had pictured.

I'll definitely be doing this again!

Her shock finally fades and her expression morphs into that of mild anger as she swots at him.

"Who are you calling, Star? And I've told you a million times, no pet names! And what in the world makes you think you can put your lips any where near my person?"

He leans over her again and pecks a kiss to her other cheek. He's ecstatic when he gets the same reaction.

"I'll give you one right on your lips if you say another word. And you'll let me call you, Star." Hermione mouth opens to bit out a retort but snaps shuts as she remembers his words.

And just for that, just because it amuses him, he kisses her cheek again.

The Last Night of the Year 1969

He's watching the mirror in his hand fixedly as snow fall all around him. He's at ease in the cold despite the freezing temperature thanks to the new temperature adjusting cloak he'd gotten. He has a similar cloak hung over his arm with the exception of it being much more feminine to his. He had gotten it for Hermione a while ago but not as a Christmas gift. He'd gotten it with this very night in mind. The night he decided he would finally take Hermione up on his broom for the first time.

Sure, he had flown in front of her before and she'd been unsurprisingly put off with it all.

But not tonight! He thinks with a smile curving his lips as he holds his new and improved broom with pride.

The surface of the mirror ripples like water as her voice calls out to him and her face starts to appear.

"Sirius? Hello, can you hear me?"

He smiles as her the mirror clears and hes able to see her. It's obvious she's in her room, books lining the desk behind her and the pretty blue comforter of her bed. She's dressed up for new years eve, her hair more tame then usual. There's a muffled sound of music and voices in the background that suggests her family is throwing a party for the occasion.

"I just managed to escape. I don't think they'll come looking for me for at least a half hour."

"Good," Sirius says as he mounts his broom. "Then open your window, I'm coming up to get you."

He can see her fear in the split moment of her hesitation and he's proud when she pushes it down and nods at him.

"Alright... just be careful Sirius, and be quiet for once in your life! You're always so loud and my parents aren't even tipsy yet...Oh, goodness, I can't believe I let you talk me into this..."

Sirius rolls his eyes at her, though he's amused at her rambling.

"It's fine, Hermione, I'll see you in a second." he cuts off the connection before she can respond and prolong him further. He chuckles at her no doubt indignation for cutting her off as he kicks off the ground and easily soars into the air.

He makes sure to fly out of sight near the backs of the roof tops of Grimauld Place. Her house is only a few over from his which is why had had noticed her years ago and decided to bother her.

It takes him no time at all to get to her where she said her room is. He lowers his broom so he's hovering outside it, the light from her window hitting him and framing him in its glow.

He's unashamed to admit he's very excited to see where she goes when she's not with him. Not to mention he's sneaking into a girls room. He knew enough about the world to know that this is a cool thing.

She's sitting stiffly on her bed, her eyes on her clenched hands resting on her lap. He notices immediately that she'd changed out of the dress she wore for the party but he still thinks she looks very pretty.

He inches closer through the opening and her eyes snap to him, wide and nervous. He's unable to control his smile as she leaps up and crosses over to him.

"Sirius," she whispers frantically as she helps him into her room. "You scared me; why didn't you say my name or something-"

He rolls his eyes and pecks her cheek, amused that she still blushes even after months of him kissing her.

"Hello to you too, Hermione. Yes, I'm having a wonderful New years, thanks for asking-" he says as her eyes widen comically.

"Shh!" she hisses, using both of her hands to cover his mouth as her eyes fearfully shoot to the door. "I told you to be quiet! Do you want us to get caught?"

Again, he rolls his eyes at her panicked behavior as he crudely slobbers over her hand. She retracts her hands with a grimace and shoots him a dark glare to which he smiles cheekily to.

"Your too uptight, Star. Relax. That music is loud and they're talking is even louder. There's no need to whisper." He distracts her by flapping her new cloak open. "Anyway, I got you something for the cold."

Her face morphs into a soft gentle expression as she takes in his gift and reaches out a hand to touch the soft texture.

"Did you really get this for me?" she whispers, though it sounds strangely intimate this time, the air tensing as she raises her eyes to meet his. He smiles a little bashfully and shrugs.

"Yeah, I didn't want you to be cold while we're on the broom."

He nearly falls onto his back as she collides into him in a fierce hug.

"Thank you Sirius! I absolutely love it!"

He feels a wave of heat over his body due to embarrassment at her sincere reaction as he hugs her back.

"Good," he says as she pulls back and beams up at him. "Then put it on so I can give you an ever better gift."

She complies without a fuse, slipping on the cloak and cutely gasping as the temperature changed around her.

"Wizards are so brilliant. I wish us muggles could do something as nifty as this." she says as she follows Sirius back toward the window.

"Really? I think the muggles think of much better things. You have telly's and awesome music and motorcycles!"

She laughs but stops abruptly when Sirius leaps out of her window and thrusts his broom between his legs as he falls. When he levitates back up its to see Hermione looking far greener than a second ago, looking as if she swallowed a poop flavored Berty Botts.

He can't help but laugh at her face which seems to snap her out of it.

"I think I had a mini heart attack just then, honestly I do." she says as her body slumps in relief.

"Come on, you know that was wicked! Admit it."

The glare she turns on him is fierce enough to kill a herd of hippogriffs which only makes him laugh harder.

"That was so not wicked Sirius Black, that was bloody scary and I don't want to get on that thing with you any more." she says crossing her arms and stubbornly turning away.

His shock that she actually said a curse stumped his response for a full minute.

He reaches out quickly and catches her arm.

"Sorry, sorry! I promise on my honor as a wizard to do no such thing with you on the broom, okay? So come one. We're running out of time."

Glaring for a few seconds longer, she finally acquiesced and steps up onto the ledge. The fear and vulnerability on her face pulls at his heart.

"Hey, don't look down, silly." he says, drawing her eyes to his. "just hold onto my shoulders and pull your leg over the broom. You'll be fine. It's easy." he reassures.

She stares at him with her lip stuck between her teeth for a second longer before she takes a deep breath and just goes for it, her hand planting firmly on his shoulders and throwing her leg over his broom, her cloak flapping out with her movements.

A rush of exhilaration hits Sirius as he waits for her to settle behind him. He feels strangely empowered with her on his broom. It's the first time he's ever taken someone along with him.

"Alright," she breaths, her voice sounding strangled to his ears. "I'm ready."

"Then hang on tight!" he says before zipping off, laughing unrestrained as she squeals and hugs him tighter. They soar out into the open air of the night sky, snow falling around them, echos of Sirius's laughter and Hermione's scream wafting out into the night.

A Day, Summer 1970

The sound of water flowing becomes louder and louder the closer they get to their destination. When normally there is laughter and friendly competitiveness to see who can get to their river first, there is a heavy silence instead.

Hermione does not steal glances at him as they walk; she knows that sometimes when hanging out with Sirius, he gets prone to these silent, broody moods. She does not mind the silence anyway, they are more than comfortable in each other's presence that small talk is unnecessary. She walks steadily beside him, holding her basket of mixed berries as he holds his prized broom.

They move with sure feet down a slightly hazardous cliff side; Sirius consistently waiting and helping her pick her way downwards by holding her steady on some of the harder spots. He did so subconsciously, as if helping her was already engraved in his behavior.

She supposed what would have been easier would be to let him take her down on his broom but Hermione refused. She absolutely hated that thing. Ever since Sirius had taken her up in the air on that precarious thing and flown her around months ago, she's been petrified of it.

It's a swelteringly hot day. She feels gross under her clothes and is eager to shed them in favor of swimming. Swimming to her is the only favorable sport out there. She loves to swim. Of course, Sirius loved flying on his broom and then launching from it into the water. The crazy lunatic.

Though, judging from his mood today, it might be one of those lazy, zipping back and forth over the surface of the water kind of days. She admits when he flies close to the surface of the river so his feet skimmed the surface it didn't look all that bad.

"Hey Sirius, if you fly low to the surface of the river, I'll get on your broom with you." she offers interrupting whatever thoughts he was having.

His eyes lighten up as he smiles at her. She feels happy that she still manages to draw him out of his shell he sometimes adopts.

"Okay, race you there?"

She's sprinting before he can even finish his sentence, managing to get a little ahead of him before he sprints past her. She tries to trip him on his way but he expertly dodges her foot and she pulls a face at his back.

He doesn't stop as he nears the waters edge, just drops his broom down and leaps fully clothed into the water with a loud cry. Hermione shakes her head at his antics as she stops and sheds her clothing, folding them and placing them neatly on the ground as Sirius pops back up with an almighty gasp.

"Honestly, now your clothes are going to be wet and filthy, Sirius." she chastises as he lazily floats onto his back.

"I can't hear you!" he retorts obnoxiously. She rolls her eyes and glares at him even though he's not paying attention. She edges to the water and slips in with much more grace then Sirius, feeling relief from the heat with the coolness of the water. She dunks under and swims for a bit before resurfacing. She looks around for Sirius to find him already back on the shore, staring at her.

There's something lonely on his face that makes her head to him. It's different from his usual dark mood, she's not sure why but something just feels different.

"What's the matter Sirius?" she asks him as she sits next to him. He looks away from her as he starts to pull on the grass.

"I'm turning eleven soon. In October." he states as Hermione assess him.

"I know," she responds slowly not catching on to the point.

"So, you know what turning eleven means..." She blinks at him confused as he meets her stare with slightly fearful sad eyes.

"It means you go to Hogwarts, right?" He nods, looking as if he expected something from her to which she just couldn't think of what.

"Which means I wont see you everyday anymore! I'll only get to see you during Christmas and summer and that bloody sucks!"

Hermione smiles, her heart warming at Sirius's displeasure.

"It's going to be fine even if you go to Hogwarts, Sirius. We'll always be best friends and we can write each other letters and see each other everyday during holidays. There's nothing to worry about."

"But..." he frowns, plucking even harsher at the grass. "it won't be the same."

"So are you saying we won't be best friends anymore?"

"NO!" he responds even before she can finish her sentence. She smiles kindly and nudges him with her arm.

"Then there really isn't a problem, is there?"

Sirius pouts for a second longer; its so cute to Hermione that she reacts without thinking, leaning over to plant a kiss on Sirius's cheek.

She blushes to the roots of her hair as Sirius's head swivels to hers so quickly his neck cracks. His broad genuine grin is a rewarding gift for her embarrassment as Sirius laughs and tackles her to the ground, reaching out to tickle her.

She knows with this action that he's very happy with her. Whenever Sirius feels so happy he could scream, he always tickles her and then she's the one screaming.

She tries to fight him away as his fingers mercilessly pursue her into a hysterical mess but its to no avail. Only when she is breathless and crying does he let up.

She's still smiling when he suddenly leans down over her and slightly cool, wet lips meet hers.

She freezes completely as Sirius leaves his lips pressing against hers for a while before the feeling of suffocation makes him pull away. She stares owlishly back at him and he stays blinking down at her for a few seconds before he bursts out laughing.

"Your face!" he howls as she finally takes a huge gulp of hair. "It's too funny!"

She numbly sits up, watching him with that frozen look still on her face as he cracks up. When there are tears are pooling out his eyes, she finally snaps.

"What was that? What are you trying to suffocate me with your lips for?" she hollers as Sirius laughs and laughs. "And stop laughing so ruddy much! And really what was that?"

"It was a kiss!" he responds as she gaps like a fish at him.

"I know that!" she snaps as Sirius finally starts calming down. "What are you doing a thing like kissing for? We're only ten Sirius! Only adults do that and-"

She cut off when he give her another little peck smack dab on her lips. The feeling of them on hers is odd but not gross, just really foreign. She wonders what the point of kisses are. Then again she supposed if kissing someone is normal she'd rather do it with Sirius then any body else.

"It's because I like you, of course!" Sirius says easily, the ghost of his laughter still in his voice as Hermione's heart uncomprehensively speeds up at this. "And Andy told me that when you think someone is really special its okay to kiss them so that they know. She says its important to only do it to one really special person."

Hermione has no retort for that. In fact, she considers it and finds logic in the words.

"Then, I guess its okay." she responds slowly, as Sirius nods his head.

"Of course it is!" he says with that beaming smile.