Chapter 35: Sightseeing
Sirius swaggered into the great hall that bright morning feeling extra-special-fine, especially when he spotted one silver-blond head. He quickly made his way over to poke Hermione; she slowly turned around with an eyebrow raised.
"You missed a spot," he said as he turned around and bunched up his robes. He pointed to his behind and made to drop his pants, but stopped at the last moment in realization of where they were. They already had one scandalous scene here, it wouldn't be too sharp to add flashing his trunks to her before everyone as well.
She scoffed (but he could have sworn he'd heard a chuckle) before she turned back to her newspaper and breakfast. Without a word, Sirius slouched in aside of her and began grabbing at whatever food was closest. As Sirius chewed, he almost missed how she discretely pointed her wand at his rump and muttered something. He yelped as he felt a zap, but then the slight throbbing was gone.
Ignoring the funny look James and nearby Gryffindors gave him, Sirius turned to Hermione and gave her a dazzling smile.
Remus sat down on the other side of Hermione and soon they were chatting first about the paper due in Charms and then a test coming up in Herbology. Sirius studied Hermione for the incountable time, but for the first time forced himself to be unbiased. He saw, when he didn't allow his past annoyance to cloud his view, that she wasn't too bad.
Most prominently, she saw Remus as an equal. Not many would so much as glance at Remus ever again if they found out what he became every month, and Sirius felt oddly prideful that she fell in line with him, James and Peter on that touchy, furry subject.
Posted: 12.27.2011
Word Count: 300