Apologies
"Mione." He greeted her, as he put his hands in his pockets. He was nervous to be on the receiving end of his sister's wrath, but he knew that he deserved it. "Alice, Lily. If you'll excuse us, I'd like to have a word with my sister in private. If you please." Alice leaned over and put her mouth near Hermione's ear. "Are you okay doing this by yourself? Lily and I can stay if you want us too."
Hermione shook her head and gave Alice a weary smile. "It's okay. I can handle this. You try to control Lily over there. It looks like she's about to hex my brother any second now." At Hermione's words, Alice looked over to where Lily was standing, and she indeed looked like she was itching to hex something, and her nearest target was Sirius himself. Alice shook her head, and walked over to Lily and started whispering in her ear. Both Sirius and Hermione could tell Lily wanted to stay despite whatever Alice said, but thankfully Alice's words seem to resonate with Lily, and both girls went upstairs, leaving the twins alone to talk about everything that had happened.
"Do you want to sit down Sirius?" Hermione sat down on one of the plush red couches, and threw a smirk back at her brother, "After all, it looks like your about to attend your execution." He shook his head, and joined her on the couch. "Can you really blame me sis? I know your moods like the back of my hand." She smiled ruefully at him. "Yes we do have the legendary Black temper running through our veins. W'e're quick to anger but slow to forgiveness. We're stubborn too."
"There is that." Sirius took a breath, and slowly let it out. He rubbed the back of his neck whenever he was nervous, and now he was definitely feeling the emotion. "Listen Mione, I think things just got out of hand, but there's one thing I do know. I didn't tell Walburga about the soul bond you have with James. I may act like an idiot sometimes, but I'm not suicidal."
"And maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to judge, but when you said that you wouldn't support me being with James, that hurt. We've always had each other's back Siri, and to hear that you wouldn't have my back with this, I felt cold. It was like I was all alone. I've never felt that way when it came to the two of us. It was because of our twin bond. I always felt safe, but at that moment, i didn't."
"Do you really think I would hurt you like that?" Sirius asked with a disbelief on his face. He couldn't believe that his sister would think that. "Not intentionally no, but we all have a darkness inside us brother. It would take such a small step to crossover and embrace that darkness." Hermione held out her hand, and Sirius immediately took hers into his. They sat back to back on the couch, and touched shoulders, with her leaning her head on his right shoulder.
"Truth be told Sirius, I fully expect myself to hurt you someday. I may not intend to, but what I know is that it is inevitable that we hurt the ones we love the most, sometime in our lives. Our intentions are well good and all, but that is the truth. We hurt people because that is in our nature. That is our darkness." "Do you really believe that?" He could see where she was coming from. After all, many people in his own family became death eaters, and they were the darkest the world has ever known, so really growing up around that hidden beneath the surface, it made your question your own darkness and sanity to survive it.
To not become it. "I guess that's what growing up is all about. Becoming the person you were meant to be because of all the things you learn from the people surrounding you. It seems like the two of us have to fight a little bit harder to fend off the darkness, because of where we come from. It really is a curse, isn't it? Being a member of the Black family?" "Then I guess it's a curse we have to bear, despite the fact that we want to run away as far as we can to get away from it all."
Hermione gave him a humorless chuckle. "We really are the white sheep of the family, aren't we?" Sirius squeezed her hand, and she returned it. "And proud of it." With that, both of them knew that things had been settled, and things could go back to normal. "I just have a quick question. Did you really mean that you wouldn't support my relationship with James?" Sirius sighed, and Hermione could feel it reverberate through her. "Look, all of this is just going a little too fast for me. I mean... Bloody hell woman, we're just eleven years old, and we're talking about stuff like this. I mean, it's insane."
"You know that soul bonds doesn't care about how old someone is, or anything else. It just focuses on the magic. For now, and for the foreseeable future, James and I are friends, with the potential to become more when we're older. He and I have talked about this. Why we didn't tell you, well..." Hermione raised her head, and gave him a pointed look with her brow raised.
He rolled his eyes at her. "Yes my reaction to it might have been a touch dramatic for your taste, but this was a lot to take in. I mean to find out that your twin sister is in a soul bond with a guy you had just met not a couple months ago, and fate wants this to happen, it's a little much." "I know, and I know that this is a lot for you, but you still haven't answered my question. Will you support me with this Sirius? I need to know that you will have my back with this. Like you have with everything else."
Sirius scoffed and pulled her down to where she was before, and she closed her eyes, trusting in the friendship she had with one of her best friends. "You know that I do Mione. I will always have your back, no matter what."
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Down in the Slytherin dungeon, a young first year by the name of Severus Snape sat down on one of the black couches, lost in thought. Being at Hogwarts was not something he had been astonished about. He knew eventually he would come here, and learn all about being a true wizard thanks to the teachings of his mother, and he could bury deep inside the part of him he wish he could erase. The part that made him half muggle. He felt ashamed that such a part existed. He saw himself as a full blooded wizard but it was all for naught. He would never be such a person. He will always be a half-blood.
A half-blood who had strange feelings for a pure-blooded girl named Hermione Black. Granted, he had no experience in affairs of the heart and such, and he saw nothing of the sort at home, but he did think that it was just something else to learn in the ways of life. Being loved was something he craved, having someone that cared, it was all he ever wanted, and it was all being taken away from him by Potter.
Of course the girl he wanted to be friends with, with the potential of something more, would be in a stupid soul bond with James freaking Potter. Ever since coming to Hogwarts, he had been on the shortlist of someone to be pranked by Potter and his lackeys Black and Lupin. Was it because he was a Slytherin? Was it because he was friends with Lucius Malfoy? Or was it simply because Potter was feeling territorial over Hermione, and wanted Severus to know not to touch what was his?
Severus thought back to the first meeting with Hermione. He had been glad that Lily had introduced him to her. After all, anyone that Lily liked, it would stand to reason that he would like them as well. He and Hermione had gotten along well. They could keep up with each other with their witty barbs, and intellectual conversations were on the horizon, but that meeting had been cut short. All because of one person. James Potter.
He knew as soon as Potter said please to Hermione, that she couldn't stay away from him. She probably didn't think he saw both of their secret smiles to each other, but he saw. Severus just stood there and watched as they walked towards the great hall, their arms close to touching. Without a word to Lily, He left her to ruminate on the strange burning feeling in his chest.
Then he had caught that conversation between Hermione and her mutt of a brother, and he couldn't help but let the bitterness consume him a bit. It became much more, when she had all but confirmed it in the library. Despite what Lucius said, he knew that Hermione would never be his.
"What's wrong Severus?" He looked up and there stood Narcissa Black. Lucius's girlfriend, and Hermione's cousin. He gave her his best sneer for a first year, and turned up his nose at her. "What makes you think something's wrong Black?" Narcissa gave him a rueful smirk and joined him on the couch.
"Well, your sulking like a girl who was stood up for a date. So I'll ask again Severus. What's wrong?" Narcissa had a feeling that her young friend's problem had something to do with her young cousin. "Why do you suddenly seem to care Narcissa?" He gave her a glare that was half hearted at best. "I mean, to you I am just a little first year. So why bother caring about little old me?"
"Come off it Severus. Your friends with my boyfriend, and despite what you might think, I don't think all first years are beneath me. So what has my illustrious cousin done to you now?" She asked with a brow raised. "This has nothing to do with the mutt." Gotcha, Narcissa thought. "Who said I was talking about Sirius? What did Hermione do now?" "Who said she did anything? Can I not be in a bad mood?"
"Must I repeat myself Severus? Your always in a bad mood these days, and it usually coincides with seeing Hermione around the castle. I thought we talked about this. Why does it bother you so much that Hermione is friends with James Potter?" He looked at her, and despite wanting to keep all of his secrets to himself, he felt Narcissa was a good sounding board to all his current problems involving the Black twins and Potter.
"It bothers me so much because Saint Potter treats her like she's automatically his to possess, and he gets jealous whenever I'm around her. I can't help it if she and I are friends. Not to mention her stupid brother and friends have to prank me. It's tiresome." "That's not all that's bothering you is it?"
"What else should be bothering me?" "That it seems like when your older Hermione wants to be with Potter instead of you. That you are more worthy of Hermione then he is." "I don't know what your talking about woman." Narcissa chuckled at his obvious attempt to lie, but she didn't buy it. She knew those thoughts had ran through his head more than once. "Deny it all you want Severus, but you want my cousin for yourself."
"Would that be a bad thing?" He asked quietly. He wasn't really surprised that Narcissa had read him that well. She shook her head at him, and gave him a gentle smile. "No not at all. Only if it is what Hermione wants as well. This effects her as well." She patted his arm. "I know that things look bleak for you right now Severus, but you have seven years to try to convince her. All you have to do is try."
"Why don't you support her and Potter being together?" "It's not that Severus. My support lies in Hermione. She is who I support. Whoever she ends up with, regardless of it being Potter or you, or someone else for that matter, my support goes with her." "You really do care about her don't you Narcissa?" He asked rather curious. He knew from Lucius that Narcissa had two older sisters, but they weren't really close to one another. So maybe she was getting that feeling of sisterly bonding from Hermione herself.
"Yeah I do. And despite what you might think, Sirius is not that bad himself." Severus scoffed at her. "Yeah right. The mutt and I will never see eye to eye on anything. I am perfectly fine with hating him from a distance." "Why do you hate him Severus? What started that?"
"What started what?" At the new voice in the room, both Narcissa and Severus looked up and there stood Lucius Malfoy. He walked over and gave Narcissa a small kiss on the cheek, and joined her on the couch. Truth be told, he actually loved Narcissa very much, and that scene on the quidditch pitch in front of those first years was all a facade. It was all an act so he could be seen as a villain.
Actually, what nobody knew was that he was a spy for Dumbledore, because Dumbledore knew that eventually Lucius would be tapped to join the Death Eaters. But Lucius didn't want any part in that. So as soon as his father Abraxas told him of Voldemort's plans for the young Malfoy heir, he went straight to Dumbledore, and they came up with this plan. "Hello love. We were just talking about why Severus and Sirius hate each other with a passion." Narcissa explained as she wrapped an arm around his waist.
He looked at Severus with interest. "I've always wondered that too. So do tell us. Why do you and he hate each other so much?" "It doesn't really matter. What matters is that we hate each other, and I doubt that will change in the future. So did Slughorn say what he wanted Lucius?"
Narcissa and Lucius looked at each other, at the sudden change of subject, but they let it go. If Severus didn't want to talk about whatever happened to make him and Sirius hate each other, then they would let him. So Lucius started telling Severus all about the club Slughorn was forming for the best and brightest witches and wizards at Hogwarts.
Narcissa just sat back in contented silence, and watched as her young friend, and the love of her life talk about things happening in the castle. She knew that the future was uncertain, and with Severus's budding feelings for Hermione, that things were about to become very interesting at Hogwarts. She just hoped she would be around to see it unfold before her very eyes.
