Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; the usual rules, you know (And I got the original idea for this from 'Harry Potter and the Time Mage', even if I took the time-travel aspect out of the equation)

Feedback: Always a pleasure

AN: To those worrying that I was sticking too closely to canon, we have a more significant divergence here, as well as revealing an obvious emotional conflict that Hermione never had to deal with

Harry Potter/Granger and the Prisoner of Azkaban

While a part of Hermione missed Harry's presence after her brother returned to Hogwarts following their overheard conversation at the Three Broomsticks, the rest of her was too busy trying to sort out her own feelings about what they'd just learned.

On the one hand, the revelation that Sirius Black had been directly responsible for the deaths of Harry's parents should have given her all the more reason to hate him, since he was the reason that her brother had been left with 'relatives' who had spent their time treating him as useless and nearly beaten him to death just because they could, but on the other hand… if he hadn't done that, she wouldn't even have her brother.

God, she couldn't even be sure if she'd have any friends; she hadn't exactly been the social type before she met Harry, and if she'd had to spend a further five years without Harry for emotional support, she'd probably have just been an even bigger mess.

She hated Black for what he'd done to Harry on a practical level, but on an emotional, psychological level, she couldn't help but feel strangely grateful to him for giving her the boy who'd become her brother.

She'd never admit that to anyone else, of course- she felt guilty even thinking it- but there it was; Black's betrayal had helped her become who she was now, and she had to feel at least slightly grateful to him for that, even if she didn't want to.

Hermione was just grateful that Harry never noticed her reaction to the news, but that mainly seemed to be because he was too distracted to notice anything outside of his own thoughts. Her brother seemed as though he was in a sort of daze for the rest of the week, acting primarily on automatic rather than anything else; only the fact that the holidays were approaching helped him remain in control to the point where he could still focus on his work. The revelation would have been shocking enough, but combined with the fact that so many people had to have known the truth about the reason for Black's interest in him and avoided mentioning it, Hermione couldn't really blame Harry for feeling betrayed and angry, even if she worried about just how betrayed and angry he was.

She just wished that she could be more rational about this; as much as she understood Harry's natural desire for revenge, how could she help talk him through it when she didn't know how to interpret her own feelings, stuck in a warped sense of guilty gratitude and grief? When she found him looking through the photo album Hagrid had given him of his parents and settling on the image of their wedding day, his gaze fixed on the best man standing beside his father, face handsome and laughing as opposed to the withered insanity of his wanted posters…

Hermione couldn't believe that someone who could look that happy at a wedding could have gone on to betray his best friends so completely; she couldn't even imagine betraying Harry or Ron for anything. She'd done some private research into the Black family history to try and understand what could have prompted Sirius to do something like that, but considering the history she'd uncovered, she was privately amazed that anyone had believed he would work against Voldemort with a pedigree like that; she might believe in nurture over nature, but living with those pure-blood fanatics would be a dark nurturing environment for anyone.

According to Ron, Harry's sleep over the next few nights featured him constantly turning and muttering about what they'd discovered, but she'd never been able to talk to him about it; it wasn't safe to discuss the topic in class, and he had taken to doing his homework in some other part of the castle, most likely one that he'd discovered using that strange map. Hermione had faith that Harry wouldn't do anything stupid- he'd survived his last two encounters with Voldemort mainly because he was dealing with a wraith-version of the dark wizard; he wasn't going to go out and actively search for someone who'd done what Black had done to thirteen people at once- but she could still worry about him.

Even an attempt to visit Hagrid for something else to talk about had done little to improve their mood. His classes were still going well, with Hagrid having found a reasonable balance between his own enthusiasm for more exotic creatures and the needs of the course- Hippogriffs remained the most dramatic creature in terms of size- but unfortunately, while the inquiry into Buckbeak's attack on Malfoy had cleared Hagrid of any mistakes in his teaching the class, they had concluded that Buckbeak himself was potentially dangerous, and there was only so much that Dumbledore and others could do to help Hagrid with everything else going on right now. She'd hoped that Hagrid's obvious distress would help to spur Harry to think about something else, but there was only so much time they could devote to additional research on anything that might relate to Buckbeak's case without needing to take a break, and Harry still seemed to spend most of his rest periods practically steaming over his knowledge of Black's crime (Their inability to find anything useful didn't help).

For the first time since she'd started at Hogwarts, Hermione was genuinely relieved when term ended and they were able to get home; they might not be able to completely get away from the memory of what Black had done to Harry's parents, but at least they weren't constantly surrounded by the memory of the world that had killed his biological family, and it would make it easier for her to try and talk with him. The train back to King's Cross was mostly silent at first, Harry clearly reluctant to break his current silence and Ron and Hermione unsure what they could say without setting him off, but when Ron and Ginny bowed out to look for the trolley (Most likely to escape the awkward silence), Hermione finally decided to say what had been on her mind.

"Harry…" she said, looking uncertainly at her brother. "I know you've… well, what we heard was a shock… but… you're not going to… do anything stupid, are you?"

"Do you know what I see and hear whenever a dementor gets too close?" Harry said, after sitting in silence for a moment as though processing what she'd just said. "I hear my mother screaming and pleading with Voldemort; it's not something you can just forget. And if you found out someone who was supposed to be a friend of hers betrayed her and sent Voldemort after her-"

"You can't do anything!" Hermione protested, looking at her brother in desperation. "He'll go to Azkaban-"

"Which doesn't bother him as much as everyone else; you heard what Fudge said-" Harry countered.

"So what are you going to do instead?" Hermione interjected. "You can't just go out and kill him!"

"Why not?" Harry practically spat back. "He killed-!"

"Because you're not him!" Hermione yelled, getting up from her seat and walking over to stand above Harry before he could do the same. "Harry James Potter-Granger, if you even think about doing something that stupid… God, do I even matter to you?"

"What-?" Harry began, hostility replaced by confusion.

"Oh yes, we get you away from the Dursleys, but the second you hear something about your precious birth parents, it's all 'I hear my mother screaming'; what about our mother?" Hermione continued; she hadn't even realised that she was thinking about this before she started saying it. "We've been your family for years- you never even really thought about your parents until Hagrid showed up to talk about them- and now you're just obsessing over them because there's someone to blame for their deaths you can actually hurt? Do we mean nothing to you? Were we just convenient until you had a target to vent at?"

"Hermione, it's not-" Harry began.

"Just GO!" Hermione yelled, not even thinking about what she was saying any more. "If you want to go off and die for the people you don't even remember and leave the family who actually raised you behind, just GO-"

She was interrupted when Harry practically lunged forward to wrap her in a strong hug, pressing his face into her shoulder as she automatically reached up to do the same for him, their bodies shaking from the emotional upheaval as Hermione revelled in the reassuring comfort of her brother's embrace, old fears forgotten.

"I'm sorry," Harry said, looking shamefully at his sister. "I do appreciate everything Mum and Dad have done… I do want you as a sister… it's just… he was their friend…"

"I know," Hermione said, sitting back slightly to look at him. "I can understand you being angry at him; it's just… it was like nothing we'd done for you even mattered once you heard what he'd done…"

"It matters," Harry said firmly, looking Hermione in the eyes. "I never meant to give the impression that I think what you, Mum and Dad have done for me doesn't matter; it's just… well, I've always known that my parents were dead… but I always just thought Voldemort got lucky when he was out looking for them…"

"It's different when you know someone made a choice to give them up?" Hermione finished for him, trying to look understanding even as she resented everything Harry was feeling right now.

"Yeah…" Harry said, grateful to Hermione for putting the issue into words when he'd only thought about it himself. "I just… I suddenly had someone I could blame for what they did to me…"

"Don't," Hermione said firmly; the Dursleys were a complicated issue at the best of times, some sparks of familial loyalty conflicting with her brother's distaste at the memory, but she definitely wasn't interested in discussing them at a time like this. "You've already lost enough to their memory; they can't hurt you any more."

She knew that she was exaggerating how simple it would be to get past those memories, but she wanted to believe that it would be that simple; what his relatives had done to her brother was terrible to think of, but he couldn't think about it all the time…

"Just… I'm not saying you shouldn't mourn your parents, but just… don't go after Sirius Black yourself, please?" she said at last, looking pleadingly up at him. "He blew Peter Pettigrew to bits and the largest thing left of him afterwards was a finger, and that was when he was sane; I don't want to imagine what he could do to you now…"

With nothing else to say to that statement, Harry just held his sister in his arms, the warmth and reassurance he provided helping Hermione feel like they were back in the days before everything in their lives had become so much more complicated, when they'd just been Harry and Hermione attending a regular school, rather than Harry Potter and the brightest witch of her age…

With the two Granger siblings having collected themselves by the time the Weasleys came back- Ginny claimed that it had taken a while to find the trolley, but Harry wondered if she'd kept Ron out to give him and Hermione a chance to talk- the rest of the trip went by fairly smoothly, and it was very nice to see their parents again at the end of it all. A quick bit of last-minute conferring between Harry and Hermione before leaving the platform was enough to confirm that neither of them were going to tell their parents about Black's interest in Harry; there was no reason to assume that Black knew where Harry lived outside of Hogwarts, and they didn't want to give their parents additional reasons to worry when they were sure that Dumbledore had some more conventional guards stationed around them for additional security.

With the potential threat of Sirius Black removed- or at least considerably lessened-, the Granger siblings were free to enjoy themselves once again, working on their homework and making some last-minute acquisitions for Christmas. Since History of Magic had gone down well last year, Hermione had arranged to send Natalie a copy of Hogwarts: A History as a 'secret' Christmas present along with a couple of more conventional books as a 'regular' gift, and Hedwig was going to take the Weasleys' presents to Hogwarts so that she could spend Christmas outside of her cage with close friends. Harry had spent some time reading up on what he could find about Dementors in preparation for Professor Lupin's defence lessons, but most of the books covering the creatures in depth were considered too mature for someone his age to buy them, and the references Harry could find in available texts only made a few brief references to examples of wizards escaping one without naming the appropriate charm or what it actually did to the Dementor.

When Christmas morning finally came, Harry was glad to wake up and find Hermione siting on the end of his bed, grinning broadly at him as their stockings lay on Harry's bed, along with the small pile of presents from their wizarding friends.

"Can't wait?" Harry asked, smiling in understanding at his sister.

"It's easier this way," Hermione replied with a nonchalant shrug; they might only have a few close wizarding friends, but they both acknowledged that it was easier to open those presents in private to be sure.

The Weasley jumpers were as comfortable as ever, to say nothing of the always-appreciated food parcels- whatever else could be said about Molly Weasley, her cooking was always brilliant- and there were some additional small gifts of animated models from some of the others in their year, but a long, thin parcel at the bottom of the pile for Harry quickly attracted their attention. After exchanging curious glances with no result, Harry and Hermione set to work unwrapping the present, only to stare at the result in shock.

It was a Firebolt, the incredible broom they'd witnessed in Diagon Alley but never seriously thought about purchasing before now. It hovered in mid-air at the exact height required for him to mount it, the design was smooth from the handle down to the birch twigs at the end, it somehow gave an impression of speed even when it was still…

"Oh my God…" Hermione said, staring in awe at the new broomstick. "A Firebolt…"

"Yeah…" Harry said, nodding thoughtfully as he studied the broom. "This… is unexpected…"

"Not even a note…" Hermione began, before her eyes widened in horror as she looked at Harry. "Sirius Black!"

"What-?" Harry began, before realising what his sister was talking about. "Oh, come on; Black's on the run from the entire Ministry and he finds someone willing to order a broomstick for him? If he was that dedicated to Voldemort most of the people who bought their way out would be happy to turn him in for the reward and cement their reputations, and we've already read that nobody but Voldemort knew everyone who followed him, so what are the odds he'd find someone nobody else knew by now?"

"Well…" Hermione said, looking uncertainly at Harry, clearly not liking to completely abandon her theory even if she acknowledged Harry's point. "All right, I admit, it's an overly complicated way to try and kill someone, but-"

"And that's another thing against it," Harry continued, his tone becoming grimmer as he looked at his sister. "No offence, Hermione, but you're overlooking the obvious."

"Which is?"

"If Black knew I was here, why would he do something like this when he could just kill me?" Harry pointed out, indicating the broom. "We both know that the main reason I've been so well-protected here is that virtually nobody in the wizarding world knows where we live outside of the staff at Hogwarts and anyone Dumbledore's told; if Black somehow found our address, everything we've heard suggests he'd be more likely to just charge in here and kill me in my sleep or something like that…"

His voice trailed as he took in the expression on Hermione's face, only realising now that he'd spoken just how his words could have been interpreted; thinking about what Black could do to him if he knew the Grangers' address wasn't an encouraging thought…

Still, he seemed to have helped Hermione see the point that he was trying to make; if Sirius Black had learned his address, he just wasn't the type of person to try something this indirect to try and kill Harry. Once the Potters were dead, Black hadn't hesitated to expose his true allegiances by confronting Pettigrew, and if he'd gone to all the trouble of breaking out of Azkaban, she doubted that he'd be deterred by whatever wards or security Dumbledore might have arranged for Harry if he really knew their current address.

The Firebolt was a strange gift, but Harry was right; if Black knew where Harry lived, he'd want to deal with the situation personally, rather than waste time trying something this indirect (To say nothing of the money he'd waste trying to place an order like this, considering how expensive the Firebolt was meant to be).

Even if they didn't know who'd sent it, Harry had never received mail from someone who was out to try and hurt him so far even after provoking Malfoy so often; regardless of its unusual origin, there was no reason to assume that whoever sent the Firebolt was an enemy…

"Just… don't go flying on it until we're back at Hogwarts, please?" she said at last, deciding that it would be fair to at least suggest a compromise. "I get that it doesn't seem to be dangerous, and everything you said makes sense, but I just… well…"

"You want to be sure," Harry nodded, smiling in understanding at his sister. "Well, it's not like I was going to be able to take it out for a spin here anyway; we can ask Fred and George to accompany me on my first flight when we're back at Hogwarts."

"Good call," Hermione said, smiling at him in agreement before she indicated his trunk. "You'd better get that away; Mum and Dad would probably be a bit harder to convince the way you convinced me…"

Harry had to agree with that assessment; as much as he appreciated having parents who actually cared about him, he and his sister didn't want to give the impression that the wizarding world was too dangerous when they were learning so many fascinating things.

The mystery of the Firebolt would have to be put aside for later; right now, they just wanted to enjoy a peaceful family Christmas.