Over the next few weeks, gossip is rife about Sirius and Hermione's relationship status, but they are giving nothing away. She is very affectionate with him in public, but she is also extremely affectionate with Remus, Peter and James, hugging and kissing them at every opportunity. People follow them around, watch them carefully in the common room, pass on every hint they hear, but nobody knows the truth.

As one Saturday morning dawns, so does the first Quidditch match of the season. Hermione and Lily sit with Remus and Peter at breakfast, trying to force Sirius and James to eat something. "Sirius Black, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were nervous," Hermione teases.

"I don't get nervous," Sirius says huffily.

"Then have something to eat," Hermione says firmly. Sirius meets her eyes, pouting slightly, but she is unwavering and finally his hand snakes out and he grabs a piece of toast from her plate, biting into it defiantly. "That's fine," she says, grinning broadly. "As long as you've had something. James? What do we have to do to get you to eat something?"

"I'm really not hungry, Hermione," James insists.

"You are 17 years old," Hermione says. "Do I need to feed you like a toddler? Because I will and you know I will and it will be extremely embarrassing for you."

"You wouldn't," James says, aghast.

"Of course I would," Hermione laughs. "Are you going to eat?"

"Fine," James says, grabbing some toast and chomping it down in two bites. "Can I go now?"

"You absolutely can," she says, beaming. "Sirius, come here."

Sirius bends down beside her and grins as she presses her lips against his gently. "What was that for?" he teases.

"For good luck," she whispers. "Now get out there and win."

"Will do, sweetheart," he says, running out of the hall with James just behind him.


As Adrien dives for the last time and catches the Snitch, three quarters of the arena erupt into noisy cheers. James punches the air, circling above the crowds, while Sirius dives down to where Hermione is sitting and pulls her up onto his broom. "Sirius!" she squeals, laughing loudly. "Put me down, you moron!"

"Not until I've done this," he says, kissing her hard. She grins, kissing him back with such fervour that she almost slips off the broom. Everyone in the stadium is watching them but they don't care, completely focussed on each other. Until, that is, James flies past, shoving Sirius as he goes. Hermione slips again but the Black heir grabs her, holding onto her tightly as he flies down to land.

"You're such an idiot," Hermione laughs as she hugs James tightly. "Good thing you're an idiot that can fly really, because you haven't got much else going for you."

"You love me," James says, twirling her under his arm as he laughs.

"I do," Hermione says, leaning up and kissing his cheek. "And I'm so very proud of you."

"Stop, you'll make me blush," James teases.

"Fine," Hermione laughs, turning and flying back to Sirius who lifts her up with the force of his hug. When he finally puts her down, he leans in, kissing her gently. "What was that for?" she teases.

"For honesty," he says. She raises an eyebrow, curious, and he grins broadly, explaining, "I've wanted to do that since I first laid eyes on you and I'm not going to lie about it anymore."

"Me too," she says, trying to force down the pure joy which seems to overwhelm her every sense.

"Good," he says. "Then I'm going to do it as often as I can from now on and you never have to ask why again."

"Okay," Hermione says. "Now, go. Celebrate with your team. I'll see you back in the tower."

"Fine," he says, kissing her once more before he charges, whooping loudly, into the throngs of the team celebrations. She watches him go, laughing, and then turns straight into the girls from her dorm.

"What the hell was that?" Marlene says excitedly.

"That was Sirius Black," Hermione says. "I don't know why I thought I'd be able to withstand his charms when so many others before me couldn't."

"You have," Cass says, linking arms with her as they start the walk up to the castle. "You haven't slept with him yet – that's a massive achievement. He's the one who can't withstand your charms."

"Cass is right," Alice says. "I've never seen Sirius like that. I think he could love you."

"What's going on with you and James?" Lily, who has clearly been distracted, bursts out.

"What do you mean?" Hermione says, exchanging a look with a grinning Marlene.

"You hugged him first," Lily says. "Before Sirius or anybody else. And you kissed him. And he laughs with you and he dances with you and I just…"

"Okay, stop," Hermione laughs. "A, I hugged James first, yes, but only technically. You're forgetting the part where Sirius kissed me on his broom. That was his congratulations. B, James is my friend. I dance with him and I hug him and I kiss him and yes, we laugh, but we are just friends. More than that, I feel like…like James is the brother I was always meant to have, you know? Him and me, we've just clicked into this perfectly natural relationship. But it's not romantic in any way, for either of us. I have whatever this is going on with Sirius and he is in love with you. So, get off your backside and just do something about it."

Lily stares at her for a moment and then hugs her tightly. "Thank you for not falling in love with him," she whispers.

"With James?" Hermione teases. "He's a bit of a prat, don't you think?"

"Oh, shut up," Lily chuckles.

"Anyway," Hermione says, turning to the others. "I feel like all we do is talk about my love life or Lily's. How are the rest of you doing?"

"Ask my lover," Cass says, holding up the index and middle fingers of her left hand.

"Oh Cass," Hermione groans as the rest of the girls burst out laughing. "No, I will not have this – I'm gonna find you a guy. Even if it's just for one night."

"Eh, I don't need any more one night stands," Cass says. "Just you watch – I'm undoubtedly going to 'fall' into Remus's bed tonight."

"What?!" Hermione gasps. "You and Remus?"

"Yeah, a couple of times," Cass shrugs. "It's no big deal, Mi. It's certainly not true love like with you and Sirius."

"Oh whatever," Hermione says, rolling her eyes. She follows the girls without even thinking as they duck under a tapestry and then freezes, paralysed by the memory.

Hello, Minister!" bellowed Percy, sending a neat jinx straight at Thicknesse, who dropped his wand and clawed at the front of his robes, apparently in awful discomfort. "Did I mention I'm resigning?"

"You're joking, Perce!" shouted Fred as the Death Eater he was battling collapsed under the weight of three separate Stunning Spells. Thicknesse had fallen to the ground with tiny spikes erupting all over him; he seemed to be turning into some form of sea urchin. Fred looked at Percy with glee.

"You actually are joking, Perce…. I don't think I've heard you joke since you were-"

The air exploded. They had been grouped together, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, and Percy, the two Death Eaters at their feet, one Stunned, the other Transfigured; and in that fragment of a moment, when danger seemed temporarily at bay, the world was rent apart, Hermione felt herself flying through the air, and all she could do was hold as tightly as possible to that thin stick of wood that was her one and only weapon, and shield her head in her arms: she heard the screams and yells of her companions without a hope of knowing what had happened to them –

And then the world resolved itself into pain and semidarkness: she was half buried in the wreckage of a corridor that had been subjected to a terrible attack. Cold air told her that the side of the castle had been blown away, and hot stickiness on her leg told her that she was bleeding copiously. Then she heard a terrible cry that pulled at her insides, that expressed agony of a kind neither flame nor curse could cause, and she stood up, swaying, more frightened than she had been that day, more frightened, perhaps, than she had been in her life.

And Harry was struggling to his feet in the wreckage, and three redheaded men were grouped on the ground where the wall had blasted apart. Harry grabbed her hand as they staggered and stumbled over stone and wood.

"No – no – no!" someone was shouting. "No! Fred! No!"

And Percy was shaking his brother, and Ron was kneeling beside them, and Fred's eyes stared without seeing, the ghost of his last laugh still etched upon his face.

"Hermione!" Marlene shouts and Hermione is brought back to the present. "Hermione, are you alright?"

She doesn't need to touch her face to know that she is crying and she backs away, back under the tapestry and into the deserted corridor where she bends down, kneeling in the exact spot that Fred's head lay. And she weeps. She weeps until she can hardly breathe, she weeps until she couldn't weep anymore, she weeps. And then, after what felt like an age has passed, a pair of strong arms close around her and hold her. Safe and guarded, she weeps again, remembering another Hogwarts prankster who died laughing.

Only one couple were still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: He was laughing at her. "Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room. The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest. The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock…

It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall. His body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backward through the ragged veil hanging from the arch… And Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind and then fell back into place.

At some point, she must have stopped crying but she hardly remembered it. The first thing she was aware of after the memories overwhelmed her was Sirius's voice. "Mi," he says gently and she blinks up at him. "Are you done? Do you…are you ready to move?"

"Yes," she says, in a voice so hoarse it doesn't even register that it's hers. Slowly and steadily, he helps her to her feet and half guides, half carries her up to Gryffindor Tower. Inside the common room, the party is raging, but he pushes straight through and up to his dorm, where Remus, James, Peter and all the girls are waiting for them.

Without a word, James steps up and pulls her close to his chest. She hugs him back only briefly before she steps back again and sits down on the end of Sirius's bed. "I am sorry," she says clearly and calmly. "I did not know that that was going to happen."

"You don't have to apologise to us," Sirius says, kneeling at her feet. "Not ever."

"I do though," Hermione says. "My demons are my own and I can't let them haunt you too. You should all go and enjoy the party. I'm going to stay here and take a nap if that's alright?"

"Of course it is," Sirius says. Hermione smiles wanly and then her eyes flick to James who climbs onto the bed beside her, wraps his arms around her and holds her until she falls asleep.

The next thing she is aware of is being able to hear but not see.

"She said she's a Seer," Sirius says in a hushed voice. "Maybe she saw something that upset her?"

"I just don't think so," Lily says. "She doesn't…she doesn't behave like a Seer. Seers see certain things, don't they? She knows everything about us. About everything."

"What are you saying, Lily?" Remus whispers.

"I'm saying that she acts like she's been here before," Lily says. "Like she knows Hogwarts, like she's lived a life here, like she's loved and lost here, like this is her home. And she knows us and sometimes when she looks at us, she looks sad, like she's seen us at our lowest points. You know what I'm saying, Remus."

"I do," Remus hisses. "And I think it's stupid."

"Maybe you could spell it out for us less smart ones?" Marlene says sharply.

"Shush," Peter and Alice murmur.

"Lily is under the misguided impression that Hermione is not in fact a Seer but instead is from the future," Remus says scathingly.

"Lily's right," Hermione says hoarsely. She feels the shocked silence hanging in the air and rolls her eyes, struggling to sit up.

"Here," Sirius says, helping her. "What did you say, Hermione?"

"You heard," Hermione says, her eyes swivelling to Lily, who is looking undeniably smug.

"You're from the future?" Cass says breathlessly.

"Mhmm," Hermione says. "I'm sure you have questions."

"When?" Remus asks tightly.

"I was born on the 19th of September 1979," she admits. "I travelled here from May 2nd 1998."

"You know us?" Alice asks quietly.

"Some of you," she confesses, forcing her expression to remain neutral. "Some of you…some of you are dead. Wait, no. All but one."

"What?" Marlene says disbelievingly. "How can that be? What?"

"I'm so sorry," Hermione says steadily. "I know this is hard to hear."

"Yeah," Sirius says. "It is. And I think we deserve the full story."

"You do," Hermione agrees. "But not now. Everybody is tired and you need time to take this much in. We can all meet tomorrow and I'll tell you everything."

"Okay," James says. "Let's all go and enjoy the end of the party, yeah?"

"Good idea," Marlene says, already halfway out the door.

"Wait," Sirius says, grabbing Hermione's arm and holding her in place. "You and I need to talk in private."

"What, Sirius?" she says, turning back to face him. His eyes are almost black and rage-filled and he spins her so she is sitting down on his bed again.

"You lied to me," he says tightly. "Why did you lie?"

"I thought it was safer for you," she says honestly. "I was wrong and I'm not going to lie anymore."

"You knew who I was," Sirius says. "Did you know me in the future?"

"Yes," Hermione says honestly. "You and I, we were…I loved you."

"And now?" Sirius asks.

"Now I don't…I don't know," Hermione says. "You're not him. And you're beautiful and funny and kind and strong and I love you. But I don't know how to disconnect who you are from who he was. Do you understand?"

"I think so," Sirius says. "I want you to be able to love me as much as you loved him. I'll do anything to prove I'm worthy."

"You don't need to prove anything," Hermione says. "I just need time."

"Okay," Sirius says. "Time. But Hermione? No more lies, okay? We're in this together."

"Yeah, we are," Hermione says.