A/N: Sorry for the cliffie! (grins) I'm so evil.

Special thanks go out to: Lixa Levine, mistress black, Baby seal, Hotkat144, echo9821 and RandomObsessivePsychoFangirl for reviewing and making my life happier.

I might not update again for a little while---don't hate me!

Well, here goes!

Chapter 13, Just Act with Tact

Everyone laughed at this, and once their drinks arrived, Hermione stood and sat next to Sirius, holding his hand as Lily was holding James's.

In her head, she couldn't help but think, Well…this isn't so bad…

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By the next day, the entire school was buzzing with gossip about just how Sirius Black had managed to woo Hermione Granger. The Marauders, Fred, and George didn't help much with these rumors; James kept explaining to people that Sirius had saved Hermione from being trampled by a Centaur, and Peter was telling anyone who would listen about how Sirius had brewed an amazing love potion. Fred and George, however, took the situation to a whole different level.

"It's a new trend," Fred told a Ravenclaw third year, "date the person you hate most, and you're bound to find new love. But, since I told you that," he held out his hand expectantly, "you now owe me five Galleons."

"Sell you the recipe of Sirius Black's love potion!" George offered to the fifth year bystanders. "Only six Sickles per ingredient!"

Hermione and Sirius, who had been observing all of this discreetly from the corner, allowed a laugh or two, and made their way through the corridor into the Great Hall, where the rest of their friends were waiting for them. Taking a deep breath before pushing the doors open, Hermione took Sirius's hand, and said, "On with the show."

They entered the Great Hall, and seated themselves across from James and Lily, who were snogging, sending Sirius into a frenzy of squirming awkwardness. Hermione rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. James held up a hand and continued kissing Lily. Hermione laughed. "Oh, Remus, you promised to lend me that book when you were done," she said to Remus, who had recently begun to look quite ill.

"Oh, yeah," he said, standing up. "I'll just go and get it for you."

"Well, you don't need to get it now," Hermione said, looking a tad alarmed at his abrupt standing up. "You can give it to me tomorrow or something, Remus."

He grimaced. "I have a feeling I might be a tad…indisposed tomorrow," he said, before exiting the Hall.

Hermione nodded slowly, looking at Sirius. "Which means that you'll be with him tomorrow night—right?"

His eyebrows knit together in a look of mock confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Hermione smiled. "Oh. Remus told me all about his…condition. And I know about you three being—"

"Very attractive men, I know!" Sirius exclaimed suddenly as Severus Snape walked by them, obviously trying to listen in. "Hermione, you can't just talk about all of that!"

"I know, I know," she said. "Anyway, I know. So, you're going to be busy tomorrow, aren't you?"

James and Lily broke apart, and kept sending looks at Hermione and Sirius, who were sitting a tad too far away from each other. Sirius's expression softened. "Well, yeah, but you know I'd much rather—"—he moved closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders—"—be spending time alone with you."

She emitted a false giggle and leaned into his embrace.

"Well, you know, Padfoot," said James as Lily stood and left the Great Hall, "we haven't really planned anything for tomorrow's little…escapade. I think Remus said something about just leaving it be this time. So, I think it'd be fine, you know, if you and Hermione wanted to…I dunno…go on a date."

Sirius looked taken aback, and nodded numbly. "Well, that'd be great," he said, smiling through clenched teeth. He was thinking, Hermione's going to kill me.

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"It's not that bad," Sirius said nervously, clenching and unclenching his hands as he watched Hermione pace the empty Common Room. It was two in the morning, and they had snuck back down for a secret meeting.

"Not that bad?!" Hermione whispered sharply. She sighed and stopped pacing for a moment. "Look, no matter what we do, there is the possibility that someone will be watching us. Hence, there will need to be a convincing show. And not like the little mini-shows we've been putting on. No, we're talking perhaps a two-hour show!" She groaned exasperatedly, and resumed her pacing.

"Look," said Sirius, "we'll do something simple. A picnic on the grounds by the lake. We'll sit next to each other, hold hands, feed each other grapes in the candle-light, and then we'll walk back up here. The Common Room will probably be full, so I'll walk you to the stairs of the girls' dormitories, and then we'll…"

"We'll what, Sirius? Kiss? Hug?" Hermione stopped pacing and dropped onto the couch with Sirius. She sighed again and slouched up against him, so that her back was against his chest. "This is so way too complicated."

Sirius, totally perplexed at their bodily positions, awkwardly wrapped his arms around her stomach from behind and held her close. His head was on her shoulder and he muttered, "We'll figure something out," into her ear.

"Mm," she responded, smiling slightly before remembering where she was and standing up abruptly. "Alright, well…I'll see you tomorrow."

She walked over to the stairs to the girls' dormitory, just before looking back at Sirius for just one fleeting second. Another flash of a smile, and she was off.

In the silence of the empty Common Room, Sirius Black sighed and sunk back into the couch. Perhaps this could all work out after all.

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Saturday morning, Hermione rolled over in her bed with a pleasant grin dawned upon her face. The sun was streaming in stripes through the blinds of the girls' dormitory windows as she pulled a sweatshirt over her tank-top and boxer-shorts pajamas. She noticed the other girls' slumbering figures and shook her head, silently slipping through the dormitory door, and creeping down the stairs.

She was just beginning to think she had been successful in her plan to sneakily steal down to the Great Hall for breakfast, when a pair of hands placed themselves over her eyes. She jumped. "Guess who," a voice growled in her ear.

"Sirius," she whispered, peeling his hands off of her face, "you just scared me so bad!"

She spun around to face his smirking face, which was inches from hers. "Couldn't help it," he said, shrugging, "Had to do it."

When her breathing returned to normal, Hermione asked if he'd like to join her for breakfast. "Ahh, sure," Sirius replied, and took her hand.

Together, they made their way to the Great Hall, for the first time not using the time alone to argue, but to talk to each other. "So, Remus has been escorted from the castle today," Sirius said, not completely meeting Hermione's eyes as he said this.

She nodded. "Yeah, he gave me that book last night, with an explaining note in it. He told me exactly what was going on today." She sighed. "Isn't it a bit…dangerous, what you guys do with him? I mean, well," she coughed awkwardly, "…I'm just a little concerned for all your safety. If something were to happen…"

Sirius was startled, and said softly, "Hey, now. Don't you worry your pretty little head about us silly Marauders. We all know what's up, and how to deal with mostly anything. So…so don't you fret. We'll be just fine."

Hermione sighed. "Well, you never know. I'm just a bit nervous for you, Sirius."

"I'll be fine," he insisted. "But we're not even doing anything tonight. Well, we are, but the Marauders aren't."

A moment of silence as their date was brought up, and Sirius said, "Speaking of which—"

"Don't." Hermione held up a hand to silence him. "Just….we'll wing it, okay?"

He grinned. "If you say so."

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It was six o'clock, Sirius observed, looking anxiously at the Common Room clock. He had been whiling away the time until Hermione met him in the Common Room for their date by watching James and Peter play Wizard's Chess. At the moment, Peter was losing spectacularly, and James must have noticed Sirius's lack of egotistical comments, because he looked over at his best friend and said, "Don't worry about it, Pads. You're going to be fine. Hermione's just another girl, right? I mean, how difficult could this be?"

Sirius was going to snap back something clever, but bit it back when he saw Hermione walking down the girls' dormitory stairs. She was wearing a pair of dark denim jeans with a black belt, and a pale blue tank-top. She had casually adorned her face with make-up, and allowed her loosely-clipped hair to fall over her shoulders. Sirius's sudden intake of breath alerted James to her presence, and he grinned. "Well, you two'd better be off."

Lily walked swiftly over to Hermione and said, "You are going on a date with a Marauder. If I look out that window and don't see blatant flirting and laughter, I will be so disappointed in you." With a wink and a smile, she made her way over to James, who completely ditched Wormtail to kiss his girlfriend.

Hermione smiled at this, and then noticed Sirius staring at her. She indicated the portrait hole to him, and he nodded, getting up from his seat and, with a pat on the back from James, led her from the room.

They made their way down the corridors in silence, both half-dreading, half-anticipating the night they had in store. Once outside, Hermione breathed a little easier, relaxing just a little. Sirius kept glancing over at her warily, as if expecting her to flake out.

Finally, they reached the place where Sirius had earlier that day procured a picnic blanket and basket for them. They both sat awkwardly, and Sirius looked ruefully at her, patting the grass next to him. Smiling slightly, Hermione slid closer to him.

A/N: Let me know what you think!

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-Sa x33