Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and not to me.

A/N: Hey guys :) So it's been a hideously long time since I posted - in my defence I was ill and in hospital for a good few months and have spent my time recovering since. I now feel able to get back to writing, so back to some lovely fanfiction goodness for me :D Oh and please forgive me for the horribly long time I've kept you waiting for the reunion of Sirius and Harry!

Chapter 10: Home

Hermione's heart pounded as she pulled the door open to see Harry standing on the doorstep. She stepped back to let him into the house and watched anxiously.

"You absolute idiot!" Harry cried as he barrelled through the door and swept Hermione into his arms. "What did you think you were doing?" He continued as Hermione tried to breathe against her friend's crushing embrace.

"Harry – you're hurting me –" Hermione choked out.

Harry loosened his hold on her and stepped back. "Seriously, Hermione what did you think you were playing at? Just disappearing like that. We thought you'd been kidnapped or worse!" He exclaimed, running his hand through his unruly black hair.

"I'm not going to apologise, Harry," Hermione said indignantly. "I know it wasn't sensible of me to leave without notifying Kingsley or account for a potential time difference…"

"Merlin, it was a bloody stupid thing to do regardless!"

"Stupid?" Hermione retorted. "Don't you understand the potential implications of this, Harry?" She asked incredulously.

"Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of important facts that can now be verified but you could have been stuck there Hermione!" Harry threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "What would I have done if you'd been stuck there?" He asked quietly, bringing a hand over his forehead.

"Harry… I… I just…" Hermione felt a burning tangle of guilt in her stomach at the distress she had caused Harry. "I was so caught up in my discovery, I didn't think," She murmured.

"You didn't think?" Harry repeated incredulously. "You're meant to be the smartest witch of our age and you didn't think?"

"I'm sorry Harry," Hermione sighed.

"Shut up," Harry said as he enveloped her in another hug. "I'm just so relieved you're home… I couldn't deal with losing you."

Hermione leaned into Harry's arms and wondered how she was going to reveal that Sirius was in the next room, alive and well. There was no easy way to broach the subject. A sudden barking laugh cut through her thoughts and she froze instantly.

"What was that?" Harry asked slowly, looking over her shoulder and towards the living room.

"Uh… Harry… if you come with me then I need you to promise me that you'll stay calm," She stammered.

"What is it?" He asked, pulling away and moving tentatively towards the sound of two men talking.

"I don't really know how to explain it. Let me show you," Hermione said as she took his hand and led him towards the living room door.

Hermione pulled Harry in after her and felt him tense as he observed the scene before him. Remus and Sirius had cracked open a bottle of firewhiskey and were chatting happily as Sirius bounced Teddy on his knee and sipped at his drink. The two men looked up and Sirius handed Teddy over to Remus as he stood up and stepped towards Hermione and Harry.

"Harry Potter," Sirius breathed in wonder. "You're the very image of your father," Sirius said as his voice cracked with emotion.

"Harry – no!" Hermione cried as Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at Sirius.

"What the hell are you?" He roared, his wand shaking in his hand and tears welling in his eyes.

"I'm a lot of things," Sirius said softly as he slowly walked towards them. "But first and foremost, I am and always will be your godfather, Harry." Sirius reached out and gently lowered the wand pointed at him.

"It's impossible," Harry breathed.

"Not thanks to Hermione," Sirius said with a smile in Hermione's direction.

Harry dropped his wand on the floor and stood gawping at the man in front of him.

"Merlin," Sirius muttered, brushing his hair out of his sparkling grey eyes. "You really are grown up. I can see so much of your parents in you, the way you hold yourself. They'd be so proud of you…" Sirius' eyes filled with tears. "I'm so proud of you," he said opening his arms in invitation to his godson.

"Sirius!" Harry exclaimed as tears poured down his face and he stepped into the embrace. "I – I – missed you – it was all so awful… you died – and then everyone died, Sirius. I didn't know what to do… I needed you here so much…" Harry sobbed incoherently into his godfather's shoulder.

"Shh," Sirius said soothingly. "I'm here now, I'm here for you now."

"You're alive… you're actually alive. After I saw you and my parents in the forest before… I really believed you were gone forever," Harry croaked as he pulled away slightly. He still clutched to Sirius' arms as though afraid that if he let go the man would disappear.

Sirius glanced at Hermione with puzzlement on his face. She shook her head and mouthed 'later' at him.

"I'm alive," Sirius said with a grin.

"Did it hurt? Dying?" Harry asked as he searched Sirius' face.

"No," Sirius said with a smile. "Quicker than falling asleep."

"That's what you said to me in the forest," Harry choked out. "It's you… you're here…"

"It's me, I'm here," Sirius said with a grin, patting Harry on the shoulder. "And I think we could all use a firewhiskey," He said gesturing Harry to the sofa.

Hermione rubbed at her tear-stained face and gave a grateful smile to Sirius as he handed her a firewhiskey and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. She felt the warmth of his hand long after it had left. Seeing Harry finally reunited with his godfather had affected her deeply, the relief and joy and sadness she felt for her friend throbbed through her veins with a painful intensity.

"I still can't believe it," Harry said as he clutched his firewhiskey.

"I know how you feel," Remus said as he came back from putting Teddy down for an afternoon nap.

"Well I didn't even know I was dead, so I think I win the title of 'most shocked'," Sirius said.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," Hermione said glancing at Remus and Harry. "I just didn't want to get your hopes up," She said with a small sniff of latent emotion.

"I understand, Hermione," Remus said as he sat down and poured himself a generous measure of firewhiskey.

"You don't know how thankful I am," Harry said, reaching across Sirius and giving Hermione's hand a squeeze.

"Are you two… you know?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and pointed between Harry and Hermione.

"Certainly not!" Hermione exclaimed in reply at the same time as Harry looked at Sirius as though he'd grown another head.

"I'll take that as a no," Sirius laughed. "I have so much gossip to get up to date with," He said as he lounged back and crossed his legs casually. "What's old McGonners doing these days? And Snivellus? Surely Dumbledore must have come out of the closet and started mincing around in floral robes listening to the Village People by now? And the Weasley twins – world domination? Actually speaking of Weasleys, I always expected you to end up becoming the next Mrs Weasley, Hermione."

Hermione sat twisting the glass tumbler in her hands, wondering where to start. After all the trauma and upheaval of the war she had never stopped to consider how wonderful and whole everything had been before Voldemort returned. Having Sirius here reminded her of all the things that had happened and all the bad news they had to relive and break to Sirius.

"Wow," Sirius said, taking a long draught of his drink. "What did I say? That went down like a lead fart…"

"What you have to understand, is that things have changed a lot since you died – uh – fell through the Veil," Remus said diplomatically.

"Like what?" Sirius asked.

"I don't want to overload you with information so soon after such a massive event as returning from the dead," Hermione said before Harry could open his mouth.

"I know you want to ease me into this Hermione but to be frank, things couldn't be any stranger right now and I just want to know what the world is like now. I lost five plus years, all I want is to know what happened and get on with things so I can be part of life again," Sirius said with a shrug.

"There was a war, Sirius, the answers to some of your questions aren't going to be the ones you want to hear," Remus replied as he topped up everyone's glasses.

"I might be devilishly handsome and now satisfyingly younger than you, Remus, but I've lived through a lot, I think I can deal with this," Sirius replied, nodding in thanks for the top up.

"I don't know where to start really," Remus said as he took a sip of his drink. "Everything sort of runs into everything else."

"Then just go from where I… exit the stage as it were…"

Hermione looked at Remus and Harry who both had their heads down in avoidance. With a sigh she started to talk. "After you fell through the Veil things really started to escalate. Voldemort appeared to Fudge and half the ministry and our whole world was in a state of alert. Voldemort upped his game and people started going over to his side in droves. In our sixth year Snape became our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher –"

"The slimy bastard!" Sirius exclaimed.

Hermione saw Harry's jaw clench in conflicted emotion. Before he could blurt everything in a confused jumble at Sirius, Hermione quickly explained the discovery that Voldemort had created Horcruxes and the subsequent search.

"At the end of the year Harry and Dumbledore went in search of another horcrux together. Voldemort took advantage of this and using certain contacts he had in Hogwarts, launched an attack –"

"Let me guess, Snivellus and the Malfoy Boy?" Sirius growled.

"When Harry and Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts with only a fake Horcrux to show that was planted there by someone unknown, they landed on the astronomy tower to find Hogwarts under attack. Dumbledore forced Harry to hide and stay silent…" Hermione trailed off as her voice faltered and unwelcome grief surfaced.

"The death eaters made it to the top of the tower and Draco Malfoy was meant to kill Albus but, he couldn't bring himself to do it," Remus continued. "And so Snape did it."

"WHAT?" Roared Sirius, flying out of his seat. "I'll kill the slimy little death eater rat!"

"Sit back down Sirius and let them tell you the rest," Harry said sadly with the depressing fatigue that had dogged him since the end of the war.

Once Sirius had settled himself down they continued the story.

"Tonks and Fred Weasley died during the battle along with many others," Remus said.

"We found Snape after he had been attacked and he gave Harry his memories to put in a pensieve," Hermione said.

"Why would Snape do that?" Sirius asked, several emotions clouding his face.

"I looked at his memories…" Harry said softly. "It turns out that Snape turned against Voldemort when he found out that he was going to murder my Mum. Sirius, did you know that Snape loved her?" Harry asked.

"I thought it was just a teenage infatuation," Sirius murmured.

"We all did," Remus added.

"It turns out that Snape never stopped loving Lily and he'd be feeding information about Voldemort back to Dumbledore since before James and Lily died. Dumbledore found out he was dying and forced Snape to kill him. In the end Snape was probably the truest of us all, he gave up the most for the cause," Remus said sadly.

"Merlin's balls…" Sirius said, guilt and confusion marring his face.

"I went into the Forbidden Forest to find Voldemort – I knew the only way to defeat him was to die…" Harry explained the rest leaving Sirius in silent shock.

"Fucking hell," Sirius said before draining his glass.

"Now you know," Remus said.

"Ah, but one thing I don't know," Sirius said with a grin. "Is how little goody-two-shoes here didn't end up married to her knight with ginger hair!"

"Your ability to deflect emotionally difficult situations has not been diminished, I see," Remus said with a raised eyebrow.

Hermione blushed and muttered something unintelligible.

"What was that?" Sirius asked, cupping his ear.

"He was too immature…" She murmured.

"That and the fame and all those fan girls that got to him," Harry said with a snigger.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed in mortification.

"It's true!" He replied.

Hermione blushed and scowled at Harry. "If we can move the conversation away from my love life, that would be just wonderful," She growled, downing the rest of her drink.

"It's still so surreal that you're here Sirius," Harry said.

"It's still so surreal that you're taller than me," Sirius replied.

"Are you okay after hearing all that?" Remus asked.

"Yes," Sirius replied. "I'm just pleased I'm home," He said with a smile.

"So are we," Hermione replied, butterfly wings fluttering against her stomach as Sirius sent her a warm smile.

A/N: Please review - it'd mean the world :)