Life Number Three

Chapter Seven

The flow of guests through the door was steady for about the next 15 minutes. Dumbledore was first – always very punctual, particularly when an outing was on the cards. The expression on his face upon seeing Sirius wasn't half as dumbstruck as the others, owing to the fact that he had of course seen him on the very night of his return, up at St Mungo's.

"Sirius, dear boy, how are you recovering?" the older man inquired.

"Professor," the two shook hands warmly, "I'm feeling much better already thank you. Miss Granger is quite the nurse and she's been keeping a close eye on me."

Dumbledore looked towards Hermione and winked his approval. And Sirius gave her a warm appreciative smile. In return, Hermione blushed furiously and suddenly became very interested in what was happening behind them; so much so that she had to immediately hurry over to greet Tonks who, to Hermione's great relief, was rushing through the entrance way with her usual flare. As soon as their initial salutations were done with, Hermione tugged Tonks by the elbow out of the hallway and into the kitchen, where people were starting to mill around. This suspicious behaviour did not pass unnoticed by the slightly older friend, who immediately inquired as to what on earth the matter was. In reply Hermione just said, fairly unconvincingly, that she thought she heard Molly call for help. Tonks shook her head at the blatant fibbing but was swept into conversation with Molly before she could delve any further into the matter.

Out in the hall, the guests kept wandering in. Sirius had noticed Hermione's earlier discomfort, which made him feel awful and awkward. He was obviously weirding her out and needed to stop now before doing their otherwise very civilised friendship permanent damage. Neville Longbottom and his fiancé Luna Lovegood were the next to greet him as they entered. The young man had decided to follow in his parents' footsteps and join the Order of the Phoenix a short time before the final battle, which he had been heavily involved in. As for Luna, she too had played an instrumental part in the epic victory, and now that she and Neville were engaged, she had joined as well.

Hermione was glad to have another girl in the crowd to chat with. Putting a bit of distance between herself and Sirius was her plan, at least until the bizarre effects of the wine wore off. Besides, she was most eager to hear about how the wedding plans were going. Having been otherwise occupied this week, she hadn't had a chance to catch up with friends outside the house much at all. A couple of owls to and from Ginny were the only other outside communication she'd had.

Ron's brother Bill came in next, with his fairly pregnant wife Fleur, and Mr Weasley as well, straight from the Ministry. "Welcome back Sirius!" beamed Bill, and Fleur flashed him a matching Veela smile that could've melted his evening right then and there. Arthur shook his hand fervently, praising Hermione, and the mysterious ways of magic, for bringing him back.

While Sirius was certainly enjoying seeing all of his old friends again for the first time in so long, to be honest there was one arrival he was counting on more than the rest. When at last Kingsley did arrive, his broad smile said it all. Sure enough in his hand he carried a bundle of rolled up papers. Everything Sirius could possibly need to officially declare both his innocence and freedom.

The two men exchanged a friendly - and appreciative on Sirius' part – hug, and stood in the hallway chatting for quite some time while everyone else got settled and stuck into the wine in the kitchen. When Molly called them for dinner, Kingsley had just finished explaining the way that the demographics of the order had been changing over the last few years. The number of younger members had skyrocketed and he admitted with a grin that they frequently made him feel like an old man in these meetings. It was good though, because their ranks had needed a bit of replenishing after the Battle of Hogwarts, and most of these young ones were the sons and daughters of former members anyway. So it was more of a generation shift than anything else.

When everyone was seated at the table Molly unveiled the edible masterpiece, with a special mention to her helpers, who performed an integral role in the earlier preparation. Remus and Sirius exchanged congratulatory expressions with one another, but Hermione was pretending to be deep in conversation with Harry at the time, in order to avoid eye contact with Sirius and be embarrassed, or seen by Remus and found-out. Sirius was a little disappointed at not being able to shoot her a nice wink, but in hindsight was chastising himself for even giving that action encouragement in his head. Before long the table was thrown into silence anyway, excepting the sounds of very enthusiastic chewing.

Dinner was thoroughly enjoyed by all, exceeded only by dessert, which everyone miraculously found room for in their bellies. While people were letting their meals settle Dumbledore seized the opportunity to bring up some official business. Apparently there had been a spate of attempted robberies at Gringotts, although the thieves were never actually able to get away with any substantial amount of cash, and there didn't seem to be any particular method to their madness. Harry suggested with a snigger that it was probably Crabbe and Goyle – it sounded like their kind of handy work. The catch with that was that those two definitely were not in need of any money, thanks to their grotesquely wealthy families.

There were some other similarly low-level matters discussed, with everybody looking interested but very few people actually listening, and then Dumbledore finally got to the juicy part. He did Sirius and Hermione the courtesy of explaining the events surrounding his return – in the interest of clearing up any inaccuracies or leaving room for idle gossip. Both Sirius and Hermione were quietly pleased that this would greatly reduce the number of times they themselves would need to repeat the tale.

As the evening wore on, everyone's spirits remained high. Hermione was quite proud of herself for managing to mingle with more or less everyone in the room, except for Sirius. She spent the bulk of the evening on the couch with Tonks and Luna discussing, among other things, Ginny's upcoming graduation, and speculating as to whether she'd move in at Grimmauld or back at the Burrow. When Neville and Luna went home, Hermione and Tonks migrated to the study with Harry and Ron for chess and chatting.

Once he'd farewelled Dumbledore, who was the last guest to leave, Sirius went back into the kitchen, where he found Remus just getting ready to crack open a bottle of firewhiskey. "That was really great, seeing everybody again. It's uncanny how some of them have really had a busy few years and yet others are exactly the same as I remember them. Like, all of Molly and Arthur's kids are growing up and getting married for Merlin's sake. Bill's got a pregnant Veela wife – I never would have seen that one coming! And Neville's got a fiancé!"

"Yeah it's funny the way things turn out, isn't it?" replied Remus, apparently finding the reflection contagious. "If you'd asked me before you fell into the veil where everyone would be in five years time, I'm not sure I would have got many right at all. Harry and Ginny I think I could see coming, even though they were so young. I'd never have placed Kingsley as the future Minister for Magic – I mean he's always been good, but I didn't think that was his bag, you know. I probably would have predicted that Hermione would get married long before the others. To Ron I guess, although now I see that that probably wouldn't have worked out. I certainly wouldn't have thought that she'd be involved in a long-distance, 'friends with benefits' sort of thing with Viktor Krum."

At this point Sirius swallowed hard. Viktor Krum hey? Unless there are two of them floating around then that'd be the Bulgarian Quidditch champion she met while she was at school. The one who half the world's women adore and Hermione loves to dance with. Super. That's a real confidence booster that is.

"Mmmm, you're right," was all he actually replied with – not wanting to outwardly betray any more or less interest in particular details than in others.

Now Remus was wearing a sly smile. "Just so you know Sirius, despite your best façade, I remain uncommonly intuitive, particularly when it comes to those nearest to me. Having said this, I may have become aware throughout the course of this evening that your eyes were in fact following Miss Granger's every movement." Remus gave him a look that said, 'do explain yourself you seedy old bastard', but rather than supply any explanation at all, Sirius responded with, "Haha, well thank you for the observation my good man, next time I'll be keeping a sharp eye on you as well." and then continued with a very innocent expression on his face. "I just wanted to make sure she wasn't being inundated with ridiculous questions about the veil. As it turns out she seemed to escape relatively unscathed, which is good."

"Ooh you are a noble and kind gentleman Sirius Black, however did the women of the world cope without you?" Remus couldn't help but laugh at his friend's blatant fib.

"That's enough hot air and innuendo out of you for one sitting I think Moony, I don't know about you, but I'm tired and I'm going to bed." Sirius put (although it wasn't far from slammed) his glass on the sink, with indignation.

"Alright old friend but we'll mark this one 'to be continued' eh? At some point, I dare say this conversation really will need to be reconvened, whether it's by my hand or yours. Pleasant dreams!"

Sirius started making his way up the stairs with an unintelligible grumble at Remus' final words. Remus smiled at the childish antics of his best friend and made his way to the fireplace.

Sirius lay awake on his big old bed for quite some time that night, running over in his mind what Remus had said. He couldn't deny that the man would make a killing out of an occupation as a psychic psychiatrist. The truth was though that Sirius hadn't even figured out what was going on in his own head, and he certainly didn't want to be sharing his confusion with anybody else yet. Remus would just have to respect his privacy for a while and let him sort it out. Surely he knew him well enough by now to be content in the knowledge that when he's ready to talk, he will. In the meantime he had this new state of utter confusion completely to himself. Merlin Sirius what are you trying to do to yourself? You've just been given official license to do whatever you want for the first time in 19 years, and the only woman you can think about is your godson's best friend, who I might add, has a penchant for famous international sportsmen!

Unbeknownst to Mr. Black, down the hallway, the object of his confusion also lay awake, staring forlornly at the ceiling in an attempt to figure out what on earth was going on in her own head. She hadn't touched another drop of wine all evening and still she had found herself drawn to sneaking a look at him at every opportunity. She had gone out of her way to avoid any actual eye contact or communication with Sirius and tried earnestly to involve herself with a plethora of other conversations; but she still found herself searching for him in her peripheral vision. What on earth's going on? Don't tell me I've got a schoolgirl crush on Harry's godfather about five years late? Bloody brilliant this is!