Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, and I'm merely allowed to play around with them. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 35

-o-O-o-

'Happy birthday, Sirius.'

His head shot up from his pillow and he looked around the room, panting and drenched in sweat. His bed was still there, so were all his clothes, scattered around the room.

'A dream.' he thought. 'It was just a dream.'

Thank God for that. Had it really been Hermione… He didn't really what he'd have done. But he was sure of one thing:

I wouldn't have been pretty.

-o-O-o-

James groaned and Remus shook his head.

"It's true!" Lily told them. "Stella will come here and then she'll show you yourself!"

"Lily," Remus said. "We know how hard this has been on you, but if you could just relax a little bit and think about what you're saying, it would really help. Hermione's dead, Lily."

Lily sighed. "Fine. Don't believe me. But when she comes to you and shows you who she really is, you'll be sorry."

As she walked away, James and Remus looked at each other and probably thought the same thing: 'What if she's right?'

"James! Remus!" they heard her call for the kitchen. Both men hurried over to the only female in the house. "I need you to carry this for me." she said, pointing at a cake that sat on the table.

"That?" James asked, disbelieving. "That probably weighs as much as a dead donkey!"

Lily and Remus rolled their eyes. "James," the latter said. "You are officially stupid." Then, he turned to the cake, brandished his wand and called out: "Wingardium Leviosa."

He walked back to the living room and James stared, dumbstruck, as the huge cake followed lead. He turned back to Lily. "Where did he learn that?" he asked.

Lily shook her head in disbelief. "First year, first Charms lesson." she told him.

He smiled. "Oh! That explains everything!" Seeing his wife's puzzled look, he added: "Sirius and I were busy placing bets on who could make Flitwick fall fastest from his pile of books… Unless we weren't there at all, and we were putting Dungbombs under Snivellus' bed…"

Remus came back in, then, and he declared: "The bets on Flitwick were when we learnt Lumos."

"Ah!" James exclaimed. "So we were putting Dungbombs under Snivellus' bed!"

Remus shook his head. "That was much later, around third year, and it was Defence Against the Dark Arts that you missed."

James looked puzzled. "What were we doing the first Charms lesson, then?" The doorbell rang and James' head popped up. "Sirius will know!" he declared, and sprinted to the entrance.

He swung the door open, and his jaw did the same thing. It wasn't Sirius standing there in the doorway, it was Hermione. James mentally slapped himself. 'It's not Hermione, stupid!' he thought. 'It's Stella!'

And, sure enough, the silver-haired beauty stood in his doorway, radiant in a long black raincoat, matching the weather outside. She was smiling, but it wasn't a shy smile like the one she had given him the other day. It was a very confident smile, which reminded him very much of…

"Hermione?" Lily asked from behind her.

Her smile faded. She looked around, as if she was sure she was being followed, then whispered: "Could you close the door behind me please?"

James nodded, and as soon as she stepped into the house, he shut the door and sealed it with multiple protection charms. He turned around and noticed that Remus had joined the trio and the rest of the house was now empty. James took her raincoat from her shoulders and hung it in a closet on his right.

Soon, there was nothing else to do and the three friends stared at Stella. She looked up, suddenly unsure of herself, and asked: "So?"

Remus was the first to answer: "Is that really you?" he whispered, so softly it was as if he was thinking it, not daring to say it out loud and not realising that he had.

She sighed. "Yes, it is really me." she admitted.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Remus asked her.

She gulped. "I… I was afraid you might accidentally let something slip if I did…"

Lily half smiled at her. "I bet you didn't expect me to figure out, anyway, did you?"

Hermione allowed herself a dry laugh. "That was the most unexpected thing that could have popped up." she allowed.

Lily smiled and led her to the kitchen, where the four of them sat down. There and then, Hermione recounted all of her story to them. They all listened, even Lily, as she had not heard the full version yet.

At the end, she concluded: "And that was when I had to tell Lily the whole truth."

They stayed silent for a few instants until James asked: "What about Sirius?"

"Hermione raised one of her silver eyebrows at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know if you've realised," James said sarcastically. "But he's not here, so are you going to recount the whole story to him or not?"

"I… Well…" she stammered.

"That means no, doesn't it?" he asked, just a bit too harshly for everyone's taste.

Hermione sighed. "I'm sorry James, it's just-"

"Don't tell me you're sorry!" he exclaimed. "Tell Sirius you're sorry you used him, then dumped him and pretended to be dead for months!"

"James I-" she tried, but he cut her again.

"I don't want to hear it! You haven't seen him the way I've seen him. I've seen him lost, disorientated, not sure what to do or when to do it… I've seen him wake up from nightmares at midnight and feeling around, trying to see if you were there, in bed with him or not, and if this was nothing more than just another bad dream. You missed that period of the story, didn't you? Now he's better, and if you want to see him, just go to the cemetery, he's there all day, staring at a monument that has your name on the top."

"James!" Lily yelled. "You are being utterly mean to Hermione, right now. She has had to sacrifice a great deal by staying away from us, and even more by coming back. I'd like you to have a minimum of respect for her and apologise right now!"

James looked down and glared at him fork for a couple of minutes, before sighing and looking up at Hermione, his expression no longer fierce. He opened his mouth to apologise but, just then, the doorbell rang once more.

"Crap!" Hermione swore. "I should just leave out the back door, where is it?" she asked no one I particular.

Lily shook her head. "There is no back door in this house."

"What?" Hermione whisper-yelled. "How the hell am I-"

"Hi guys." a voice came from behind them. Hermione froze and turned around as slowly as she could.

It was Peter.

"What?" he asked as every one was staring at him. Then, he seemed to notice that there was one person too much. "Why, Stella!" he exclaimed, surprised. "I didn't expect to see you here! How are you?"

Hermione snapped back into her character and flashed him a brilliant smile. "I'm fine, how about you?"

He mumbled something intelligible before turning to Remus and asking: "Where's Sirius?"

"He's not here yet." the werewolf answered.

"Oh, dear." Hermione said, pretending to be looking at the time. "I'm sorry for Sirius, but I really must be going! My fiancé is probably looking for me everywhere!" Without waiting to hear their answers, she darted out the door, yelling: "Tell Sirius hi for me!"

As soon as they heard the front door slam, Peter asked: "Wait a minute, since when are you on first name basis with Miss Sinistra?"

James sighed. "You see Peter, Stella is actually-OUCH!"

Lily has just kicked him under the table, and was now glaring at him. "What the…? Peter started, but Lily stood up abruptly and walked to the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, but I'm cooking beans and I don't want them to spill." she called out, her voice full of meaning.

Peter shook his head and turned back to James. "You were saying?" he asked.

"Erm…" he said, looking at Remus for help. His friend just shrugged. "I was saying Stella is actually… Swedish!"

Remus face-palmed himself. Peter looked puzzled. "Swedish?" he asked. "What has that got to do with being friends?"

"Erm, well, you see… I lived in Sweden for a while, and so we talked about… Sweden and… Swedish… things?" he stammered. Remus looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or yell at his friend.

Fortunately, Lily called out: "Peter? I need a big strong man to lift this heavy kettle up for me! Can you help please?"

Peter smiled. "Sure thing, Lily!" He left the room.

Remus leaned over the table. "James, what's the capital of Sweden called?"

James cringed. "Paris?"

-o-O-o-

"Paris."

Hermione looked away from the essay she was correcting and turned around to stare at Regulus. "Excuse, I must have missed something." she told him.

He looked up from his book and stared into her eyes. "I was thinking about the honeymoon." he revealed. "I thought Paris might be nice."

"Paris?" she asked. "Why Paris?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because we both speak enough French to get us by."

She shook her head. "My French is appalling."

He stared at her. "I refuse to believe that I am better than you at something."

She sighed. "Whatever. Whet else? There can't be just that?"

"Well, it's romantic…" he tried.

"If it's the same as in the 90's, then no, it's not." she argued. "Cars everywhere, the noise is unbearable, people sleeping in the streets, the train system is awful…" She shook her head. "Paris is not a romantic place."

Regulus gave a short laugh. "Firstly, I didn't understand half of what you said. Whatever a 'car' or a 'train system is', were not using it. We'll just Apparate."

"But there are still people in the streets and noise!" she said.

He smiled wickedly. "Hermione, if we go on a honeymoon, it's not to walk the streets. We'll be stuck in out hotel room all day long… and probably making more noise than the cars outside."

"But the people…"

"Will be sleeping, and, believe me, we won't." he concluded. They went back to their previous occupations and stayed like that for a couple of minutes, until Regulus declared: "So… Venice, then?"

Hermione moved on o the next paper she was correcting and said: "Nope. Paris sounds just fine."

Neither of them saw it, but both of them were smiling.

-o-O-o-

Okay, this is supposed to be a long Author's Note about how sorry I am for the long wait, but I don't think anyone is interested in hearing my excuses. In any case, I hope you had a good three months while I was away and you didn't ditch me. :) Also, I'm supposed to be going to an IGCSE exam right now, so I am interrupting much needed revision for you guys, but hey! Nothing is too much for you.

In any case, I don't know when the next update will be, but I certainly hope it will be soon enough. :) As always, please review (and forgive)!