Chapter 25

"Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it". Vincent Van Gogh, 1889

Harry and Ron had sat all night in the common room waiting for Hermione so that they could confront her about the details of her summer. At around half past three an ashen faced Sirius had stumbled through the portrait hole, rousing a puffy eyed Harry and Ron, who insisted that they were waiting for Hermione and of course "were just resting their eyes"

"She wont be coming back tonight, she's in the hospital wing, she-"

"She's where? What's she doing in the hospital wing? If Snape bloody poisoned her, I swear!" Ron interjected.

"No, Snape didn't hurt her, this time" Sirius added in an undertone. "It was, it was me, I accidentally hit her with a Crucio curse" His voice was barely audible. Neither of the boys reacted as he expected they would, he thought they would rant and rave, yell at him for hurting this wonderful creature, instead, Harry merely asked

"Who was it meant for and what did they do to deserve it?"

Sirius was thankful Harry had known instantly that the spell would have been justified (or at least as justifiable as an unforgivable can be), and that it wouldn't have been aimed at Hermione.

"Snape. I thought he was hurting Hermione, turns out he wasn't. She forgave him, she actually forgave him, how could she, after what that bastard did to her?"

"What did she have to forgive him Sirius?" Ron asked, his suspicion clearly evident in his falsely calm, and almost patronising voice.

"Shit, oh for God's sake! Why the hell couldn't I keep my stupid mouth shut? Harry and Ron are going to know, Hermione's going to kill me, not before Snape does though, and Harry and Ron are probably going to go off and get themselves killed trying to exact some form of revenge. Shit." Sirius thought.Yes, shit actually summarised his situation perfectly. "Nothing" he lied, "Private matter, any way, Hermione's safe and well. You two should really get to bed, night boys" he said very quickly, before giving a loud (and very false) yawn and striding over to the portrait hole. He was about to reach it when he felt two strong pairs of hands grip him squarely round the shoulders and force him into a nearby armchair.

"Out with it" two voices chorused

"No. Not my story to tell" said Sirius defiantly- Harry stared at his Godfather, giving him a shrewd and calculating look, Harry was an intelligent boy and he had quickly drawn his own conclusions.

"Does this have something to do with what happened to Hermione in the summer, after her parents were killed?" Harry thought it good of Sirius to respect Hermione's wish not to tell them about the (gulp) rape, but it was obvious that Sirius knew about it, still, Harry thought it best to make it painfully clear that they knew about what happened... Sirius looked stunned.

"How did you know?" he crooked

"That's not important now, but-"

Ron cut across him, comprehension and anger dawning on him one after the other.

"DID THAT BASTARD RAPE HER?" Ron yelled at the top of his voice (it was a good job Harry had placed a silencing charm on the common room earlier, he had a feeling that he and Ron might get rather noise when plotting revenge against the death eaters who had raped their friend- he had not been wrong). As soon as Ron had said this, possibly even before, Harry also believed that their potions professor had been involved in the rape (and possibly torture) of their best friend. Sirius now had the extremely difficult task of convincing two enraged, highly protective and very stubborn teenage boys of something that he himself did not entirely believe.

"It wasn't his fault" Sirius said, trying desperately to sound convincing. "He had no choice, he was there when she was brought in, he tried to excuse himself but the death eaters wouldn't have it, if he had refused he would have been exposed as a spy and killed, he would have put Hermione in greater danger. He went back and saved her, without him, she'd be dead, no question about it. Hermione has forgiven him, she's trying to put it behind her, and if you two really care about her you'll damn well let her! She doesn't want you to know about this, any of this, don't go making things worse for her then they already are!" He concluded, he thought he'd sounded pretty convincing and apparently so did Harry and Ron as neither asked any more questions.

Sirius sent the boys to bed and headed for his own, it had been a very, very long night.

A/N: and on to the next chapter, HAPPY NEW YEAR by the way, x x x Fiona x x x