DISCLAIMER: As much as I would like to make the claim, I do not own Harry Potter.

Thanks to Curse Weaver for beta-ing this chapter for me... and thanks to Sarah (beta) who puts up with my whining... Sorry, love, for burdening you with everything...and the constant whining...lol Love you both!

Two

Hermione sipped at her tea almost two hours later. Midnight had come and gone and she still couldn't sleep after the shocker that had came earlier that evening. She really didn't expect to get any sleep, though, not with everything bouncing around in her mind.

It had taken her quite a while to convince Harry to leave. He hadn't believed Regulus and considered him a nutter who should be placed in St. Mungo's as quickly as possible. She believed him, though. The look in his eyes as he realized the severity of the situation was too honest, too frightened to be anything but true.

She set in the small window seat as her mind drifted back to her new houseguest. Yes, she had allowed him homage for a while until she could figure out what to do with him. Though Grimmauld place was technically his home, Harry now lived there and did not wish to welcome him into the doors.

How was he even alive?

That question plagued her like no other. She always had to have the answer to anything, and when she didn't know or have the answer, it frustrated her. She frowned at the puzzle that had been presented to her.

She groaned loudly as she leaned her head back against the window frame. She couldn't get him out of her mind long enough to even sleep and that was seriously starting to bug her.

Well, at least she knew why he looked so familiar.

When he had disclosed his name, the first thing that went through her mind had not been, 'How did he get here' or 'How hard did he bump his head.' It had been, 'Wow, he looks remarkably like Sirius.'

And he did. The only thing was, he had a more 'rough and tumble' look about him than Sirius. They were both sexy as sin, though, in a way only a Black could achieve.

Her face reddened at that thought. She should not be thinking of either of them in that manner, but almost instantly she thought back to the way he had looked splayed out on her couch in only his…

Don't go there, she warned herself as she huffed angrily. She banished her cup away with a quick wave of her wand. She pulled her hair back from her face to keep her mind busy for a little while and braided it. Of course the wild curls refused to be tamed and so stuck out at all angles, making her look a little more wild than usual.

The stars were shining brightly even through the haze of snow, she was pleased to see. If there was one thing that comforted her, it was being able to look up at the stars. Her father used to take her out all the time to gaze up at them, but those days were long past and her parents had long since been lowered into their murky graves.

Her eyes drifted to the Dog Star on their own accord. Sirius…. She missed him more than she would ever admit to anyone. Sure, they had argued and bickered over silly little things, but when it all came down to it, she had admired him.

And now he was gone and his little deviant brother was here….alive….in her house.

She turned her head away from the window and shut her eyes against the painful onslaught of thoughts that rushed her. Alone in her room she forced herself to fess up to what had been bothering her downstairs- she found Sirius' little brother attractive.

Not just a little attractive, very attractive. His shaggy hair was just begging for her hands to run through it while his eyes, oh Merlin those eyes! The icy grey had the ability to hypnotise her and she was powerless to them. And heaven knows his body was a fine piece of art.

But she shouldn't even be going there, she reminded herself.

He was her houseguest. Yes, just her houseguest until they could figure out what to do with him or how to restore him to his time. If it was even worth returning to…

She stiffened at the thought. If they returned him, it would most likely be around the time that he was betraying Voldemort. She just wondered if he had already taken the locket or not. He had merely said that he had a plan to destroy Voldemort. Yes, that could be a problem.

The knock at her door startled her to the point where she jumped only to fall out of the window seat and flat on her butt. She puffed out a large breath to get the hair out of her face as she looked towards the door.

There was only one possible person that could be on the other side. Maybe she could just pretend she was asleep and he would go away…

"I know you're awake."

Bugger. "Come in."

She watched as he opened the door slowly, peeking his head through first. His brow rose at her position, but he didn't say anything as he continued further into the room. Instead, he walked over to her and offered her a hand.

"Thank you," she muttered as she took his hand and got to her feet. She pushed her hair further from her face as she stared up into his misty grey eyes. Remembering her earlier thoughts on those eyes, she looked down.

Oh yeah, that was a huge mistake. Her gaze stopped on his lips, hypnotized by the shape. They would fit perfectly over hers, she'd bet…

Whoa there, Hermione, she yelled at herself, don't go there. She hastily closed her eyes and counted to ten. She had to get a grip on herself. Really! She was twenty years old, for Merlin's sake, not a bumbling, blushing school girl.

"What can I help you with?" she asked as she finally reopened her eyes to find him smirking at her.

"I couldn't sleep," he stated simply with a small shrug.

"So you decided to come wake me up?"

He looked over pointedly at the made up bed and then back at her still dressed in jeans and a sweater. "Uh huh." He didn't press the issue, though. "So, a lot has changes, hasn't it?"

She offered him a small smile as she shrugged. "Depends, really. Some things have changed greatly, especially in the muggle world. The wizarding world, not so much. With Voldemort finally gone, though, it is beginning to change."

"How so?"

"The people are different for one thing. You couldn't imagine how it was when he came back. People were afraid to leave their own houses and…" She cut off when she looked up to see the expression on his face. "But I guess you would know all about that, wouldn't you?"

He quickly masked the features on his face as he shrugged. "Not really." She could see the strain on his face even as he smirked at her. "I was on the other team, remember? I was the one making them feel fear, torturing them, and even sometimes killing them."

An involuntary shudder ran down the length of her spine at his words, but she forced herself to remain still. The tone of his voice suggested more than anything that he did not like to dwell on his past and the crimes that he had committed. And anyway, he had to have had a reason to want to stop Voldemort.

"Why did you decide to turn against Voldemort?" she asked suddenly.

Another shrug. "Nothing better to do."

She copied his earlier noncommittal sound, "Uh huh." Deciding to brush it off for now, she resumed her seat in the window and motioned for him to sit as well. "I thought maybe tomorrow we could go to the Hogwarts library to start looking for you a way back and…"

"Why?"

Shocked, she blinked twice as she stared at him in disbelief. "What do you mean, why? We have to get you back. Do you realize what your appearance here could do to the timeline?"

"Well, apparently from what I was told, I was just going to die anyway."

"Yeah, but you played a key role in the final outcome of the war. You have to go back and get the Horcrux so that Harry will be able to destroy it. It's because of…"

He interrupted her with a wave of his hand and a scoff. "I've already done that. Kreacher and I retrieved the locket from the cave three days ago."

It took a moment for his words to sink in, her mouth opening and closing as she digested the information. "You…have? Already?"

"Yes, so I don't see what the big deal would be if I stayed." He gave her a smile that had those damn tingles running through her body once again. "Besides, didn't you say that I had disappeared? That my body wasn't found?"

"What's your point?" she asked suspiciously. He was going about this way too cleverly to not have a point.

"Well, what if they didn't find a body because my body had gone to the future?" He smiled once again. "What if I was meant to come here?"

She snorted. "And why would you be meant to come here? "

The smile faded off his face as he appeared in thought, staring over his shoulder up into the sky. "I don't know. To right some wrongs? Make up for my past?" He turned his head to look straight into her eyes. "Or maybe just to live."

Oh yeah, those eyes could definitely hypnotize, she decided as she found herself lost in them. It was like being out in a blizzard, only there was no coldness, only warmth. She scoffed mentally as she caught herself. She was beginning to sound corny even in her own head.

"Still," she said weakly, shrinking under the intensity of his stare, "it wouldn't hurt to look, would it?"

He leaned forward. She could smell the mint from the body soap she kept in the guest shower on him. She had bought it for Harry to use whenever he stayed over, but never had she found the smell so…delicious.

Stop!

She drew in a deep breath as she forced herself to remain still and not react to his close proximity. An image of Snape in a dress came to mind and she instantly calmed. Thank you, Neville.

"I don't want to go back."

There she went, doing that fish thing again! Her mouth opened and closed on its own, even as she tried to form a coherent thought. As one who generally had an answer to everything, she didn't relish the feeling of being speechless.

"But…you have to," she finally managed to sputter out.

"Actually," he replied with that same smirk that she had seen on Sirius over the years, "I don't. If my theory is correct, that being that my disappearance was actually caused by me coming here, if I do go back, I could mess up the entire timeline and prevent Voldemort from finally being destroyed."

Oh, he was clever, but not quite clever enough. "If that is so, then I believe we still need to go to Hogwarts to do some research just in case," she reasoned.

"In case of what?" he argued, rearing back finally and out of her sniffing range.

She smiled in victory. "Just in case that you are supposed to go back. We wouldn't want to mess up the entire timeline, now would we? If you're supposed to go back- which I believe you are- then you'll go, and if not…"

"If not I stay," he pressed, his eyes narrowing slightly.

She stared at him as he looked at her. When he was looking at her like that, she could almost picture Sirius sitting there beside her.

Only he wasn't Sirius. He wasn't anything like Sirius. She certainly had never felt anything akin to what she was feeling now around Sirius.

Everything about him- his persona, his mannerisms, his dark intensity- was his own and nothing like those of his brother's.

She jumped when his fingers ghosted over her cheek. Her eyes widened as his face loomed closer to hers. "I'm not Sirius," he whispered.

Startled eyes met his clever ones. "What?" she gasped. Oh, please don't say I said anything out loud, she vehemently prayed.

"Your face is an open book," he replied, just as soft. "Your emotions are worn on your sleeve for the world to see. You should really try to hide them."

She swallowed and lowered her eyes. That is, until he made his next statement. "You are in love with my brother."

The laugh rose and spilled forth before she could stop it. She even doubled over from the sheer intensity of her hysteria as tears pooled from her eyes. She knew she must appear a loon, but really, her in love with Sirius? It was preposterous!

She shrugged him off with a wave of her hand when he asked her whether she was alright. It took her a full minute to regain her composure, and even then she was chuckling at the absurdity of his declaration. "I am not, nor was I ever, in love with your brother."

The fact that he didn't believe her shone clear in his eyes. "Uh huh."

"Really," she asserted, leaning towards him this time with a smile on her face. "We couldn't be in the same room without bickering over something, even if it was minimal."

"When we were little, he told me that if I teased a girl that meant I liked her."

Her smile widened as she took his hand unconsciously. "Believe me when I say it wasn't teasing. We just couldn't agree on anything, mainly on Harry." She laughed lightly. "I admired him greatly, don't get me wrong, but the man really knew how to push all the right buttons."

He returned her smile. "Sounds like him."

"He was an amazing man. He really loved Harry, but he hated this house." She looked up at him. "I looked up to him, but in a completely platonic way. He was like an older brother, a really old one. Only in that way did I love him."

He nodded even as he stared down at her hand in his own. When he lightly brushed his finger over the back of her knuckles, she shivered. He moved his fingers through her own and she found herself entranced by his actions.

"May I ask a question?" he asked suddenly, drawing her out of her trance.

"Sure," she said, blushing as her voice cracked slightly.

He looked up from their joined hands and straight into her eyes. "Will you answer me honestly? No lies, no skating around the truth, just plain, unabashed honestly?"

"Sure," she said after some hesitation. She didn't figure whatever he asked was going to be good if he thought she might lie about it. Then again, it couldn't be too bad.

"Why do you keep referring to my brother in the past tense?"

Or maybe it could.

Frowning, she gave his hand a light squeeze as she got to her feet. "Come on, I think you could use a drink."

A/N: I think it's important to note that Sirius and Regulus are brothers so they'll be alike in many aspects (mischieviousness, temperment, etc), but they are two completely different people at the same time. Sirius openly rebelled and had a group of friends to turn too, Regulus was left with his dark and twisted family and his choice of friends wasn't much better. I could go on and on about this, but I won't...

Love ya all!

MiZZ AmAyA