A/N: Hey guys, I've got another chapter for you. I'm not completely happy with this one, so I might go back and make some changes, but here it is for now. I wanted to get one out tonight because I've got a lot of work for school coming up before the Thanksgiving holiday and I don't know if I'll have time to update before then. If I don't update, then I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, then I hope you have a happy regular day!

11/25/2017- This chapter used to be chapter 9 but now it's 10. I've added some things to it and edited it a bit.

Disclaimer: I didn't create this magical world. I didn't invent things like Venomous Tentacula, Hippogriffs, or dungbombs. These things belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. I did- however, invent a game with my students called Crab Walk Soccer.

Chapter 10

While the second group arranged themselves around the outside of the mat it became apparent that James was the only male.

"Boy, Prongs- you are one lucky bloke," Sirius called to him. James just grinned back and listened to Peter as the game began.

The second round went much the same as the first. After a few minutes it really started to get interesting to watch. Dorcas was already out because she fell down when James accidentally stood on the end of her long hair and when she tried to move she was thrown back onto the mat. Marlene somehow ended up with her body in between James's legs, while James had his hands stretched almost to their full length as he needed to have them on opposite sides of the mat. Lily had her feet underneath her knees and her arms underneath her shoulders, actually looking a bit like a table.

"Lily, left hand on green," Peter instructed. Lily moved her hand closer to James.

"Marlene, left foot on blue," he said next. Marlene moved her foot further away from her body.

"James, right hand on red," Peter called. James moved his hand carefully for two reasons. One was because his balance was slightly off due to the fact that he had Marlene still between his legs. The second reason was because the closest red circle was directly underneath Lily's body. She eyed him warily as he moved his hand underneath her.

"Lily, right leg yellow," Peter said. Lily moved her right leg a little farther away from her body.

"Marlene, right hand on green," Peter called. Marlene moved her hand quickly, but too quickly to see where she was going. Marlene bumped into James and sent him down to the ground. Unfortunately, he was propelled forward onto Lily. Even more unfortunately was the fact that he put his hands out to catch himself. His hands ended up right over Lily's chest as she was also sent crashing to the floor.

"POTTER! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME RIGHT NOW," Lily hollered at him. Before he could make any kind of movement he was thrown to the side by an extremely red faced Lily.

"Nice one Prongs," Sirius said to his friends. He was silenced by a hit from Hermione, Mary, and Remus, and also a glare that could have melted the entire Arctic by Lily.

"What was that?" she asked, turning back to face James.

"I didn't… I mean I fell and… just trying to stop… was an accident…" He mumbled.

Lily didn't say anything, just continued to glare at him for another moment before she stomped away to the other side of the room.

"I guess I won," Marlene said jokingly. James then turned and gave her a glare.

"I'm guessing the games portion of the evening is done," Sirius announced. "Too bad, I think I'd quite like this game- especially if everyone had been drinking more."

Hermione gave a little chuckle at this, and it seemed to lighten the mood a bit. Everyone had refilled their drinks at this point and was sitting around talking, eating, drinking, and laughing. Lily had started to shake off her anger over the incident when Marlene had brought her over another drink- although she was still sitting as far away from James as she possibly could.

"So, I think it's time for presents," Sirius announced.

"You guys didn't have to get me anything- wait, how did you even have time," Hermione answered.

"Nonsense, it's your birthday. Just be aware, they're not fancy presents," Mary answered.

Mary and Dorcas had given her a set of lotions and bath salts, Marlene had given her a candle, Remus had given her a book on charms, Peter had given her some sweets from Honeydukes, and Sirius and James had given her a selection of joke items from Zonks. However, Hermione's favorite gift came from Lily.

"PENS!" Hermione laughed. Marlene, Sirius, James, Peter, and Dorcas all looked at her with confusion. "They're a writing instrument that muggles use. They already have the ink in them- see," she explained. Hermione grabbed a piece of parchment and made a show out of clicking the end of the pen before she started to write with it. She longer she kept writing the more their faces showed wonder.

"Oh yeah," Sirius said with realization. " I know what those are, I took Muggle Studies," he said pride.

"Yeah," Lily answered.

"And why don't wizards use these? Huh, muggles are so clever," James said as he picked one up and clicked it. He jumped a little bit when he heard the noise, but put it down onto the parchment and wrote with it.

"These are great! Where can I get some," he asked.

"Like a muggle drug store," Hermione said with a shrug.

"What's a drug store," Peter asked. Hermione let out a little laugh.

"I'll take you guys out into muggle London sometime and show you around," Hermione told them.

"Hey, when we go can we look at motorbikes?" Sirius asked.

"Motorbikes? Please tell me you don't want one of those," Lily said with a shake of her head.

"Of course I do. It's like the equivalent of a broomstick for cars," Sirius reasoned.

"What are motorbikes again," Peter asked.

"Remember those pictures I showed you with the muggle girls sitting on them," Sirius asked him. Peter flushed a little.

"Well, I remember the girls," he said.

"Ah, good man Wormtail," Sirius said with a light punch to Peters arm.

The evening progressed as one might assume it would, and after a few more hours everyone was thoroughly pissed. It seemed like all the girls had come down with a case of the giggles, everything sending them into fits of laughter. Except for Marlene, who was had already fallen asleep in the armchair by the fire.

"'Mione, you've got to properly thank your aunt for this birthday celebration. Actually- I think I'd better thank her," Sirius said with a wink that looked like it was more work than it was worth.

"First of all don't call me 'Mione-," she said through clenched teeth.

"Noted," Sirius answered.

"And second, I'll thank her. I don't want to think about what you have in mind when you say 'properly thank' her," Hermione replied with a shake of her head.

"I don't know why you have such an issue that your aunt's fit. I'd snog her- it's true. I'd snog you too," Sirius answered unabashedly.

Hermione just stared at him- not actually believing that he would say that outright, but then she remembered that he was drunk. So was she for that matter.

"Why?" she asked. She never would have had the nerve to ask that if she was sober- but they didn't call it liquid courage for any old reason.

"You're good to look at- and you're not annoying. A lot of good looking birds are a right pain in the ass- but you're not," he said with a shrug. "Plus, you're smart. You don't take shite from anyone and that's hot as hell," he said, taking another drink from his glass. "You've also got a nice arse."

Hermione watched him as he said this, and as she let the words sink in she was also watching his facial expressions. He started out talking to her in a more matter-of-fact tone, but it progressed into something a bit more…passionate. The idea that he was speaking in such a tone about her made the blood run up to her face.

"I… Thank you? I'm not sure if I should be offended at how unfiltered that was or if I should be pleased at the compliments," Hermione finally said in a teasing tone.

"Oh I would be pleased if I were you," Sirius replied in a light tone, but his eyes darkened at bit at the words.

"Alright," Hermione said a little uneasy at the intensity in his grey eyes.

"Now this is where you tell me how sexy you find me," he told her.

Hermione rolled her eyes. While telling him anything of the sort was bound to make his ego grow to roughly the size of a Hungarian Horntail, she also wanted to return the nice- if not somewhat inappropriate- words he said to her.

"You're more than what you see. You are handsome, yes- but you are also kind and intelligent and brave. Those qualities are way more important," Hermione said to him.

There was a moment of silence between them. Whatever Sirius thought Hermione was going to say- this wasn't it.

"Thank you," he said quietly. He knocked back the rest of his glass and then stood up.

"Come on- it's important for the birthday girl to dance at her own party," he said to her as he held out his hand for her to take. She put her hand in his and he led her over to the rest of the group on their makeshift dance floor.

The rest of the evening went by- however, for the occupants of the Room of Requirement it there seemed to be a lack of memory when the morning came. Hermione work up on the floor in front of the fire with the worst headache of her life. She slowly sat up and clutched the sides of her head. It felt like a garden gnome had crawled inside and started playing Yankee Doodle on her temples.

She looked around and saw her friends spread out around her. Lily had fallen asleep on one end of the couch and Mary at the other end. Marlene had curled up in the armchair next to the couch. Peter was on the other side of the room snoozing underneath the table with the food and drink on it and Remus was lying close to her in front of the fire. The most interesting sight was when her eyes landed on Sirius and James, who were snuggled up together on the floor behind the couch.

Hermione let out a little laugh at this sight, but then immediately regretted that decision. Her head was pounding and her mouth felt like it was filled with dust. She got up and walked over to the table that Peter was lying underneath and filled a glass up with water while she tried to remember what had happened during the rest of the evening.

She remembered Sirius suggested a muggle drinking game where they had to throw ping pong balls into cups. After a few rounds of that game everyone was really feeling the effects of the alcohol. Hermione looked around at the room and noticed that it looked more worse for wear than she had remembered.

After the drinking game, there was dancing and more drinking- Oh! Pieces of her memory were coming back to her and she remembered her, Sirius and Marlene actually dancing on top of one of the tables.

Thinking hard while taking another sip of water, Hermione struggled to remember what else happened that night. At that moment Peter let out a particularly loud shore and Hermione felt like the inside of her head was vibrating. She wished she had a pain potion- or even some muggle aspirin.

Suddenly, on the table she was standing next to, a bottle of muggle pain pills appeared. Hermione opened the bottle and took two pills before following them with another sip of water.

"Ugghh…" someone moaned from the couch. Hermione walked over to see that Lily had woken up and was looking the way Hermione felt.

"Here," Hermione said while handing the bottle of pills over to Lily. Lily sat up and took out two from the bottle and swallowed them dry.

"So this is why my parents always told me not to drink," Lily moaned.

"Yeah," Hermione said quietly. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I don't remember anything after James giving Sirius and Remus pony rides around the room," Lily recounted.

"I don't even remember that," Hermione admitted. "Hey, want to see something?" she asked. Hermione motioned for Lily to look behind the couch she was sitting on, and Lily had to slap a hand over her mouth from laughter.

"I knew it!" She whispered.

Hermione and Lily quietly chatted for a while until everyone in the room had awoken.

It was an incredibly amusing sight for everyone when Sirius and James finally decided to wake up. They both stared at each other, trying to remember where they were and what they were doing. When they looked around and saw everyone staring at them they jumped apart quickly, but regretting that movement when they both felt their headaches intensify at the quick motions.

Hermione passed around the bottle of pain pills to her friends, having to explain exactly how to use them to the ones who were raised in pureblood families.

"So, Happy Birthday Hermione," James said to Hermione. There was a murmur of repeated birthday wishes from the rest of the group.

"Thanks everyone. I thought this was going to be a really hard birthday without being with my parents or my friends, but you guys made it one of the best," Hermione admitted.

"Even with this bloody hangover," Sirius said in a mock cheer.

The group made their way down to the kitchen- they didn't want to be anywhere near the Great Hall in their state, and grabbed a quick breakfast. No one was really hungry, but they knew they needed to eat in order to soak up some of the alcohol that was left in their system.

The day was spent resting in their dorms, or hanging out in the common room. Hermione didn't even do any homework. She had done most of it the day before, but she gave herself the day off to recover and enjoy her birthday with her friends.

The next few weeks went by and before Hermione knew it, she had been at Hogwarts for almost a month. It was the last weekend in September which meant that it was her weekend to work at the Three Broomsticks. She also wanted to stop over at the Apothecary and pick up the ingredients for the Wolfsbane potion. The full moon was in about a fortnight so she needed to get working on it.

Hermione was working furiously the next few days in order to get ahead on all of her school work. All her free periods and evenings were spent in the library getting caught up. It wasn't that the work was hard, because she had already done most of these assignments, but there was just a lot of it.

On Saturday morning Hermione woke up early and got ready for the day of work. She showered and dressed in a pair of jean bell bottoms with a long sleeved red long sleeve shirt tucked in and a thick brown belt that she tucked her wand into. Hermione walked down to the common room- at the same time that Sirius and Remus were walking down the boy's staircase.

"Good morning, what are you guys doing up so early?" Hermione asked.

"James- as usual. We left him upstairs because his singing was obnoxiously loud. This morning it was Billy Don't Be A Hero. I also couldn't fall back to sleep because my stomach was practically yelling for breakfast," Sirius explained dramatically.

"Is it really that bad," Hermione questioned.

"I think if a banshee picked up the hobby of tap dancing while also scraping their nails on a chalkboard would just about be an equivalent," he answered with a yawn.

"So you got up to come down with Sirius," Hermione asked as they walked out of the portrait.

"No, I wanted to stay in bed. He pulled the covers off me and pushed me off the bed and threw trousers at me. I tried to get back into bed and he told me he would put the pants on me himself if I didn't get up," Remus said with a glare at Sirius.

"And you believed him," Hermione said with scoff.

"Yeah, I've learned that Sirius only threatens with what he's willing to do. One time James had been in the shower for almost an hour and none of us had been able to wash. Sirius told him that if he wasn't out in the next minute he was going to do it for him," Remus explained.

"And you did," Hermione inferred. She looked at Sirius with disbelief and amusement.

"Oh, it's nothing we all haven't seen before," Sirius said with a wave of his hand. They had sat down at the Gryffindor table and he was more interested in sausage and eggs than in the conversation.

"Okay, anyway- what do you guys have planned today?" Hermione said, changing the subject.

"I have homework- and maybe a trip down to Hagrids. I haven't been down to visit this year," Remus said.

"Oh, he would love that! I went down last weekend, but I know how much he loves visitors. Make sure to ask him about the Thestrals he's training. He's so excited about them," Hermione said.

"Thestrals!" Sirius said through a mouth full of food.

Hermione gave him a disgusted look as she removed the piece of food from the front of her shirt. "Yeah, I guess he just got a whole herd of them. He said they shouldn't be much harder to train than the hippogriffs he's got," Hermione said.

"He's got hippogriffs?" Sirius said. His face looked like a child who was told they that Christmas was coming early this year.

Hermione smiled remembering how Sirius was at taking care of Buckbeak the hippogriff. They became very close while on the run from the Ministry.

"Yeah, I'm sure if you asked him he would show you," she said.

Sirius looked excited, and then his face fell. "I can't this weekend. James and I have Quidditch tomorrow, so I have to get caught up on my homework today. Is it just me or are they laying it on quite thick this year," he said.

"Yeah, I've heard that it's the sixth year when it really starts to pile up," Remus explained.

"So I guess I'll try to go down next weekend. Want to come with me? We could go down and you could be all 'Hey Hagrid, how's the hippogriffs?' and I could be all 'Hippogriffs?' and it'll seem all very unplanned," Sirius said.

"Sure, sounds fun," Hermione said.

"So what are you doing this weekend Hermione?" Remus asked.

"I've got to work. I'm heading down to the Three Broomsticks after breakfast," she said.

"Really? I didn't know that you were still doing that during the school year," Sirius said.

"Yeah, it's just one weekend a month. "

"Maybe I'll come and visit you today. It would be good to take a study break with a butterbeer," Sirius said.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that you know how to get in and out of Hogwarts? It's probably some kind of secret passageway behind a statue that leads into one of the shops or something." She said jokingly.

He froze. "How did you know?"

Hermione then froze. She had been joking. Well, she knew the truth, but she had tried to say it in an offhand way. Did it not come across that way? Did she just royally screw something up?

"Ahh… what? That's true?" she said confusedly.

"No, just messing with you," Sirius said with a smile.

Hermione let out a sign of relief. She needed to be more careful.

"Hey, speaking of Hogmeade. Severus said that there is usually a Hogsmeade weekend just before Halloween, is that right? I'd like to make sure that I'm not working that weekend so I can enjoy the day with my friends," she asked.

"Oh, and did Severus ask you to Hogsmeade while he was at it," Sirius said with a sneer.

"Yeah, and then he took me into the potion ingredients cupboard and snogged me silly," Hermione said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.

Sirius narrowed his eyes at this. Remus took this as an opportunity to divert the subject.

"Yeah, we talked about it in our prefects meeting last week."

Hermione looked at him and smiled. "Thanks, I'll be sure to tell Rosmerta." She stood up and turned back to look at Sirius. "Listen, I know you don't like Severus, but that doesn't mean it's alright for you to talk about him that way. How would you feel if I were to day that Peter is nothing but a rat bastard," Hermione explained.

Sirius seemed to have a moment of amusement at the rat analogy, but by the time she was done speaking he was scowling.

"I'd love to have you come down for a visit, but only if the attitude is gone. I'll have a butterbeer waiting for you at noon if you can seem to shake it," Hermione said.

Sirius didn't answer, but nodded his head in understanding. Hermione nodded her head back, turned and gave Remus a beaming smile, and walked out of the Great Hall.

When Hermione walked into the Three Broomsticks the first thing her aunt did was give her and hug and asked her how bad her hangover was. Hermione laughed and told her all about the evening and how her friends had thrown her a party in less than a day. Rosmerta was happy for Hermione, but also told her that the alcohol was a one-time birthday present and she shouldn't be expecting random packages filled with firewhiskey.

The rest of her morning at the Three Broomsticks… could have gone better. Starting off the day yelling at Sirius didn't exactly get her in a good mood, and it seemed like it just got worse from there. She spilled a tray full of food when someone pushed their chair out as she was walking by, and then needed to clean it up and put in a new order.

Hermione bent down to and started to pick up the food and dishes. When she leaned down, her long hair was getting in her way and fell into the food she was cleaning. Hermione straightened up and wiped her hair off on a napkin and then she leaned her head back to tie her hair back and was dismayed to find she didn't have a hair elastic.

"You've got to be kidding me," she muttered to herself. And that was in her first 15 minutes.

The rest of the morning didn't go any better. She dealt with a couple who kept sending their food back repeatedly and blamed her for it, the woman who refused to tip her because there wasn't any salt on the table, and she didn't ask for any- and then there was the guy who grabbed her arse. He was immediately asked to leave. On top of that, because she couldn't put her hair up, there was small child who pulled on her long curls as Hermione was serving the food to the table, and refused to relinquish his new toy.

"What happened? Where are all of the interesting people that are traveling and have so many interesting stories to tell," Hermione complained. She was coming back behind the bar to get another set of utensils for table 12. "The only people I've met today are gits. It's been nothing but people complaining. 'There's a spot on my spoon' or 'it's too hot' or even 'there are too many sesame seeds on this bun'".

Rosmerta laughed. "That's during the summer. During the rest of the years it's mostly people from the area," she explained.

"Well, I've decided I don't like it. Son of a B-!" Hermione yelled. She reached for a set of utensils and knocked over a stack of glasses. She felt like it was slow motion that she saw them fall, and yet she wasn't fast enough to do anything about it.

"Dear! Why don't you go and tidy up the store room, I can handle out here for a while. I think you need a break from the public," Rosmerta said kindly as she repaired the broken glasses.

Hermione walked back to the store room and started to unpack the boxes from the delivery they received that morning. Hermione was in quite a mood by that time, and was muttering to herself about this and that. She was on the last box, large cans of sauce, that she was putting on the shelf when-

"Hermione?" a voice said.

She jumped at the sound and dropped the can she had been holding. It fell and landed on her foot. She gave a yelp of pain and looked down at her foot. However, when she looked down her hair was in her face and she inhaled a lock of hair when she yelped. She sputtered and coughed it out of her mouth.

"Are you okay?" the voice asked.

Hermione turned to look at the doorway and saw Sirius standing there trying to look concerned, but a hint of amusement was hiding behind his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" She asked with a scowl.

"Didn't you know I was coming? It's noon," he said sounding unsure. He had been feeling bad about their spat this morning and she was right to yell at him. He had hoped that in coming it would show he was trying to say he was sorry.

"Oh, yeah," she said. She bent down to pick up the can she had dropped, and continued to work on stocking the shelves.

"So, are you okay?" Sirius asked again.

"You know, I hate fighting with you. I've been off all day because of it. Why did you have to start something this morning?" she said, turning back to look at him.

Sirius had the sense to look guilty. "I don't like him, and I don't like that your friends with him," he said quietly, looking down at his shoes.

"Why? That doesn't change anything about my friendship with you," she answered.

He looked up at this- his grey eyes piercing through her. He looked so vulnerable, and so unsure of himself. Hermione felt her resolve weaken when she looked at him.

"I don't know, I've never been good with sharing my friends," he said.

"I'm not something to share. I'm a person that had many sides and interests. I have an interest in potions, which is something Severus shares. But I also have things in common with you. I've never pulled a prank with anyone else," she said with a small smile. Sirius tilted his head to the side- a very dog like action in itself- and then smiled.

"Really, not even with the Quidditch God from your other school?" He said.

"Really, we're back to that?" she said with a sigh.

"I just find it interesting. I can see it now- all the girls in school were probably fawning all over him and he chose you, but for some reason you just didn't fall for his charms. What kind of guy does the mysterious Miss. Granger find attractive," he joked.

She laughed at this and turned around to look at him and say something snarky back. However, when she turned around her hair got caught on a piece of the shelf she had spent the last 20 minutes stocking.

"Owww- fucking piss," Hermione cursed.

Sirius burst into laughter at this, and it was the wrong thing to do. Hermione stuck her hand out at his and have him inappropriate gesture. This only made him laugh harder. Hermione found out where her hair was caught and was now trying to get it untangled.

"What was that for? I don't think I've ever heard you curse like that," Sirius finally said when he calmed down.

"It's been a day from hell since we had our argument this morning. Easily the worst day I've ever had here," she answered. Her voice was getting more and more annoyed because it was hard to see where she was caught and it felt like it was getting more and more tangled. "And to top it all off I forgot a hair elastic today and I've now leaned it in food, had a baby grab onto it, accidentally swallowed it, and now I'm stuck. I hate working with my hair down because it's in my face and I feel like I can't focus."

Hermione heard footsteps coming up behind her and then hands moving hers away from the knot she was working on. Sirius was trying to get her hair free from the shelving unit.

"Thanks," she said. He nodded his head while he worked. After a few moments she felt her hair give way and she was able to move away from the offending piece of furniture. She turned to look at Sirius, who had picked up a bucket and flipped it over.

"Sit," he said to her while pointing to the bucket.

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"Can't you just do something without asking questions?" he questioned back.

She raised her eyebrows up at this, but did as she was asked. She sat facing away from Sirius on the bucket, and faced the doors. Almost immediately, she felt him combing through her locks with his fingers to untangle some of her curls. Any girl will tell you that it feel wonderful to have someone play/touch/comb their hair. But to have a Sirius Black do it, it was almost swoon worthy. Hermione felt each of his touches like electricity. Each time his fingers made contact with her skin, it was like the current was being directed down her spine, and then back up. She shivered when the contact was lost.

"Are you cold," he asked.

"Erm… a little," she lied.

When he was done combing her curls, he picked up a section of hair from the crown of her hair and started to braid it.

"You know how to braid?" she asked- astonished. For as long as she knew Sirius from her time, she had no idea he knew how to braid.

"Yeah, I've got a lot of girl cousins. When we were little they used to make me braid their hair all the time. That was before they all turned into blood purists and would kiss the dirt off of old Voldy's robes," he said. He finished up her braid and took an elastic from his own wrist and tied the end of her hair with it.

"Now," he said. "This is my lucky elastic. I wear this to all of my Quidditch games and exams and any time I think I might need luck. I'm giving it to you for today in hopes it might turn your day around."

Hermione turned to look at him. "So why do you have it today? Did you think you would need luck?" she said teasingly.

"Well, with the way we left things this morning I figured it wouldn't hurt to have a little more luck," he said sheepishly. "We're okay, right?"

She walked over and put her arms around his neck to hug him. He didn't hesitate to hug her back. "Yeah, we're good," she whispered. She felt him give her an extra squeeze in understanding.

They stayed like that for another moment before breaking apart. They were still standing quite close together, staring at each other. Sirius moved his hand up to her temple and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear that didn't fit into the braid.

"You know, you're going to have to do this all the time," she said quietly.

Sirius pulled his hand back and smiled. "Anytime," he answered.

"How about that drink, now?" Hermione asked.

"You mean the firswhiskey," Sirius teased as they walked back into the significantly less crowded pub.

"I would be beyond fired if I gave you firewhiskey," she said with a laugh.

She walked behind the bar and grabbed a butterbeer for him while he walked around to the front to sit in a stool.

"Thanks," he said when she handed it to him. She started to tidy up behind the bar while talking with Sirius. It felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She always hated when she was fighting with Harry and Ron, and it wasn't any different with Sirius. She felt more ready to handle annoying customers and her head was clearer. But at the same time he was different with Sirius. Everything was always different with Sirius. Teasing remarks always had a hint of something else behind them, touches always lingered longer than necessary, looks always said much more than the words that were spoken.

Hermione looked back over at him. He was leaned back in his chair, one hand holding onto the bottle and the other arm's elbow leaning on the hair next to him. He was singing along to the song that was playing from the radio in the corner.

Hermione found herself thinking about Sirius more and more, and not always as her best friend's godfather. He was different than when she knew him, and it was making it harder for her to think about him in a platonic way.

She closed her eyes and thought about when he was standing behind her and running his hands through her hair. She could smell the cologne he was wearing while he was so close to her and she had to shake her head to clear her thoughts. Now was not the time, especially because he was sitting across the bar from her. Her eyes wandered back to him.

"Thinkin' of you's workin' up my appetite

Looking forward to a little afternoon delight

Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ignite

And the thought of lovin' you is getting so exciting".

While he was singing quietly, she heard that his voice was deep and sent a shiver through her. It didn't help that the song was uhh… suggestive.

She felt her heart start to race. She had never felt this way about anyone before, and it was quite overwhelming. What was happening to her? How was it possible that him just sitting there murmuring the words to a mildly suggestive song had her ready to snog him senseless.

Looking over at him, she decided she needed him to stop singing before she did something she might regret.

"So, how did the homework go," she asked.

"Ehh… alright. I've had the most trouble coming up with enough stuff to fill the two rolls of parchment for Slughorns essay. I've only got so much to say about boomslang skin," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I have a book from the library in my backpack that might be helpful. I did it last night, I needed to make sure that my homework was done before the weekend because I was going to be working," she said.

"Yeah, that would be great! How late are you working?" he asked.

"I don't know, probably about nine or so. Rosmerta doesn't usually make me stay later than that," she said.

"Nine? It'll be dark by then, is someone coming to walk you back to the school," he said, sounding worried.

"No, but I'll be fine, it's not too far," she said.

"Not these days. It's dangerous to go anywhere by yourself during the day, let alone at night." He stood up. "I'll come back and walk with you. I'm gonna head out now and finish up my work and I'll be back just before nine."

"You don't have to do that, I'll be fine," Hermione insisted.

"Remember our promise, you won't go anywhere along and we won't prank the Slytherins? I think that extends to walking from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts in the dark," Sirius stated.

Hermione tried to stare him down and make him change his mind, but something about the set of his jaw told Hermione that she would have more luck getting a bowtruckle away from fairy eggs than getting Sirius to change his mind right about now.

"Okay- thanks," she said in defeat. Sirius smiled in victory and gave her a wave as he walked towards the door. She watched him walk until she couldn't watch him anymore.

Rosmerta came up behind her at this point, and saw Hermione staring at the back of Sirius Black. She smiled to herself knowingly and gave a little nudge to her niece. Hermione looked up at her aunt, then looked away in blush at being caught staring.

"Quite a sight, isn't he?" she said.

Hermione stayed quite, but the flush on her cheeks seemed to increase somehow. She set to work on wiping down the bar where the object of her blush had just been sitting. Hermione turned and looked at her aunt.

"What do you think of him," she finally asked.

"I think he's a good boy. A bit of a troublemaker, but he's got his head on straight. I've known him a long time now- seen him grow up. I know he hadn't come from the best family, so the fact that he turned out the way that he is- that's practically a miracle in its own. I think you would be good for him, keep him grounded and I think he would loosen you up. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he's fit as all hell," her aunt said.

Hermione nodded her head in understanding and agreement,

"By the way, dear I can't help but notice your hair- when did you learn how to braid?" Rosmerta asked.

Hermione beamed. She couldn't help it, and it was probably a crazy reaction to the question, but she let out a little laugh.

"Uhh… I actually can't braid. I complained to Sirius that my hair was bothering me and I didn't have a hair tie. He gave me his hair elastic and braided it for me," Hermione explained.

"He did that? Dear, don't you ever let that boy go," Rosmerta said. Hermione smiled again and went back to work.