A/N: You guys have been so awesome with all of your kind reviews! Keep 'em coming! Reviews make me type faster...
PadfootzLuvr: Of coarse I still want you to be my beta! I NEED your help. E-mail me from whatever address works, and we can get back to business ;)
untouchablegoth: Thank you! I love those elements in a story too. I'm trying to put more drama in this story without making it 'angsty'.
I've realized that this story is becoming a bit 'fluffy' oh well, I can't really help it.Hermione is just a little bit out of character in this chapter, but it was neccessary to set up some future things. I hope you all don't mind too much.
Chapter 8 - Hello Little Girl
To say that Hermione was nervous about advanced transfiguration would be an understatement. She woke up Wednesday morning after a very fitful sleep. The night before she'd had her first, and probably last, fighting lesson with Sirius. And she had made a huge mistake… she had kissed him. Sort of. It had been more of a mutual thing, but she had definitely initiated it, not that he had tried to stop her. On the contrary, the young teacher had actually encouraged it. He even went as far as to promise her that there would be a 'next time'. A promise that left her both excited and petrified. Hermione had begun having 'feelings' for her friend's godfather little more then a week ago, but had been fairly successful at pushing all thoughts of him out of her head. She knew that even if, big IF, he returned her affections there was nothing that she could do about it. Aside from the fact that he was her teacher, he was older, and he was… well he was Sirius. No one she knew or respected would approve of a relationship between the two of them. But she didn't even worry about any of that because she had been confident that he didn't see her as anything but a little girl. How wrong she was. The kiss last night had scared her to death. No matter which way she looked at it, she knew she was in for a tough time. If he had returned her kiss because he had feelings for her, then she was up shit creek. She couldn't be with him, at risk of him losing his job. But if he didn't have feelings for her, then he was just playing around with her, and she didn't think she could take that. She knew that if he tried to pursue her, she would be powerless against him. And so it was with a heavy heart and worried mind that Hermione put on her uniform and headed down for breakfast. The only thing that lightened her mood was the knowledge that her only class was after lunch, leaving her the whole morning to catch up on her reading. So Hermione resigned herself to avoiding her friends after breakfast and headed straight for the library, where she would hide out until Advanced transfiguration.
Sirius awoke Wednesday morning in a very different mood then Hermione's. Aside from a swollen and bruised eye, He felt alive and excited. He had thought, up until last night, that his affections went unreturned. He now felt more confident in his 'wooing' abilities then he ever had before. Hermione was a tough nut to crack, but he was up for the challenge. His canine instincts kicking in as he thought about 'hunting' his prey. Sirius hadn't been a teacher for long, but he felt sure that pursuing the students was against the rules. But what did Dumbledore expect? He didn't exactly follow the rules the first time he was here, why should this time be any different? So he made up his mind to throw caution to the wind, as he always had, and just have fun. And so it was with a light heart and carefree mind that Sirius made his way to the great hall for breakfast, and then a little study before his Advanced class after lunch.
When Hermione saw Sirius take his place at the staff table that morning her heart immediately began to race. Was it guilt, or was it just the sight of his handsome face that was doing this to her? 'Don't look at him Hermione, DON'T do it!' she said to herself, but she couldn't help it. She quickly snuck a peek up at the staff table and her eyes locked with Sirius'. He smirked and gave her a quick wink, that forced her to snap her head around so fast it almost gave her whiplash. She looked down at her plate, trying to conceal her blush, and scarffed down the rest of her food before running off to the library.
Hermione stood alone in the library looking among the shelves of books, desperately seeking one that she had never read. But she found that after six years attending this school, she had been through just about all of these books. Maybe she could check the restricted section, she thought to herself. She walked through the aisles of the nearly abandoned library checking to see if there were any teachers here to give her permission to enter that section of the library. But she stopped suddenly when she saw the familiar long black hair of the one teacher she was so desperately trying to avoid. She turned and slowly crept back into one of the aisles, hoping he hadn't seen her. She was beginning to think that he hadn't when out of nowhere came a paper airplane, flying purposely towards her. It stopped right in front of her and hovered, waiting to be snatched out of the air. Hermione grabbed it and opened it cautiously. It was an old bit of parchment and a page, torn from a book. She looked at the page first and wondered what it could mean. It was the picture of a female Norwegian Ridgeback dragon protecting her eggs by blowing fire at an approaching wizard. Hermione raised her eyebrows in confusion and turned to read the note accompanying the page. It plainly read
"You're just like this wizard... HOT"
S
Hermione tried her hardest not to crack a smile, but couldn't help it. She looked quickly through the shelves and pulled out a book called "Magical ailments and their remedies". She prayed a quick prayer to the gods of the library, begging their forgiveness, and tore out a page of a man who had his leg bitten off by a Hippogriff. She rummaged through her bag and found some parchment. She quickly wrote out a note in response to Sirius
"Your lines are just like this man... LAME"
H
She folded it and sent it to him in the same way that she had received hers. Hermione returned to looking for a book when another paper airplane came to a halt in front of her. She opened this one to find a picture of a wizard who had unsuccessfully apparated and had splinched himself, along with a note
"Your words make me feel like this guy... torn into pieces"
S
Hermione giggled and searched out another picture to send to Sirius. She found an illustration of some unripened bubotuber plants and ripped it out. She scribbled a quick reply
"You are just like this plant... immature"
H
Hermione waited patiently for a response and ripped the next note out of the air, before it had time to stop. This one was a picture of a gringotts vault that had been robbed, and it had a note saying
"When I'm not with you, I'm like this vault... Empty Inside"
S
Hermione laughed out loud this time and pulled "magical herbs and fungi" off of the shelf and ripped out a page with a moldy piece of bread, she wrote out a response
"Your like this bread... TOO OLD"
H
It wasn't long before a new note came speeding towards her. This one had a picture of a wizard under the imperious curse
"I'm like this wizard... Hypnotized by your beauty"
S
Hermione sent him back the same picture he had just sent her with a new note
"Your like this wizard... Out of control"
H
Hermione looked down at her watch, wondering how long this game was going to last when yet another letter came to a halt in front of her. This one was a picture of a mountain of gold
"Just like this gold, I want to take you home"
S
Hermione rolled her eyes and scanned the shelves until she found "Superstitions, and their basis in truth" and tore out a page of a muggle woman breaking a mirror
"Your just like this muggle... out of luck"
H
Not seconds after Hermione sent her last plane, a new one came soaring by. This one contained a picture of a squib, trying and failing to cast a spell
"I'm just like this squib... frustrated"
S
Hermione sent him back a picture of a sleeping child front the book "Charming your child" and wrote
"I'm like this kid... tired of you"
H
Sirius sent her back a quick response. She opened up a picture of a man being eaten alive by a herd of blast-ended skrewts with the note
"I just thought this was a neat picture"
S
P.S. You didn't really mean that thing about being tired of me did you?
Hermione, however didn't get a chance to respond, because at that very moment the bell for lunch rang. She hurried out of the library and met up with Harry and Ron in the great hall.
"Hey Hermy, where have you been all morning?" Asked Harry.
"Flirting shamelessly with an older man, and ripping pages out of library books." She answered plainly.
"Honestly Hermione, If you don't want to tell us, just say so. You don't have to be sarcastic!" Ron said bitterly.
"Hey, did you guys see Sirius this morning? He has an aweful black eye, I wonder what happened." Harry pondered aloud.
The trio walked to lunch excitedly. Ron and Harry couldn't wait to have Sirius teach their Transfiguration class. It was a hard sentiment for Hermione to share, however. She still couldn't help but freeze up at the thought of having to spend an hour devoting all of her attention to the handsome wizard. She feared the effects it might have on her grade. What if she couldn't focus? What if the only thing she could think about was the kiss they had shared? What if she began daydreaming and started to drool?
"Uh, Hermione... your elbow is in my potatoes," Ron stated as he tried to move his plate of mashed potatoes and gravy from underneath Hermione's arm.
"Oh damn it! I'm sorry Ron," Hermione apologized and pointed a cleaning spell at the stained elbow of her white button down shirt. This was going to be a tough day...
"I believe that last year your professors began stressing to you the importance of casting a spell without speaking, am I correct?" Sirius asked his Advanced Transfiguration class. A few students muttered a response that clearly meant 'yes'. "Good, well then I guess I can expand on that a little bit. You see the key to casting a spell silently is to channel your magic through your mind. Your wand needs to be in tune with your brain, that way, whatever spell your thinking of will come out!"
Sirius looked around at the unenthused faces staring at him. "Look I know it sounds hard, but the more you practice, the better at it you will become. Some wizards are so good at it that their wand casts the spell before the wizard even thinks it. The wand just knows what the wizard wants! Now that is very rare, but I know Dumbledore can do it. So let's get started." Sirius waved his wand and a Goblet appeared on each desk. "We are going to start off simple. This is an easy bit of transfiguration that you all learned in first year, only this time, say the spell in your head." And with that Sirius pointed his wand at the Goblet on his desk and it turned into a mouse. He grabbed the mouse by the tail and held it up for the class to see. Smiling he said, "Begin!"
Hermione looked around her, everyone was turning red in the face trying to concentrate. She was a bit disappointed, she had become quite accomplished at silent spells last year, and so with a flick she turned her goblet into a mouse and decided to sit back and watch everyone else. Hermione looked to her right where Draco Malfoy was whispering his spell, instead of thinking it, and she looked in front of her where Neville sat, nearly turning purple from concentration. Casually, Hermione looked to her left where Harry and Ron weren't working at all! Instead they sat there laughing and joking with Sirius. She tried to be indignant, she really did... but it was a lost cause. One look at that charming smile and she melted. She watched intently as Sirius leaned forward over Harry's desk telling him something that was apparently funny, and Hermione got the perfect view of his ass. She smiled to herself thinking it was worth it to make a lower grade in this class, if she was going to be treated to a view like this every once in awhile. The more Hermione stared at Sirius, the more flushed she became, she had completely forgotten all about what she was supposed to be doing until...
Sirius was in the process of telling Harry an amusing little story about the different uses a student could find for the room of requirement when he heard it. A piercing scream cut through the quiet room like a knife. He whipped around to see what was the matter and he found himself fighting back laughter at what he saw. Poor Neville Longbottom's hair was on fire! Sirius could see Hermione struggling to put it out with her wand, but the poor girl was so flustered that she kept making it worse. Finally Sirius managed to send a stream of water from his wand to the young man's head.
"Oh my, Neville! I am so sorry!" Hermione looked on the verge of tears as she muttered her apology to her poor, accident prone friend.
"Miss Granger! You did this?" Sirius asked, shocked. He waited for a reply, but all he got was a silent nod from the mortified Hermione. "Well, take Neville to the hospital wing immediately." Sirius ordered, "And I want to see you in my office tonight at 6:30 for detention!"
Hermione's head snapped up and she seemed suddenly able to get her words back, "But, but... It was an accident Sirius! I really didn't mean it,"
"It's Professor Black, Hermione... Now get moving," Sirius tried to keep from laughing at the mixture of shock and embarrassment on Hermione's face. She was just so cute when she was flustered. Well she was always cute, actually. Sirius grinned as she left the classroom, pleased that he had found another way to get some alone time with the attractive witch.
A/N 2: The events in the library are based on something that happened between a stranger and I. It was so funny I had to use it.
Does anyone read the author notes? I guess they are more for my benefit then anything else!
