Chapter 37

"If the world were really a logical place, men would ride side saddle" unknown

"So" said Dumbledore, "Miss Granger knows, not exactly how I would have chosen for her to find out, but still, she seems to have taken it well."

Snape, McGonagall and of course Sirius had gone to see professor Dumbledore after breakfast, they had told him what had transpired the previous night, and the fact that Hermione now knew that Snape was her guardian. They had spent the last half hour discussing this; and all had now agreed that Hermione and Snape would spend Christmas at Sirius'.

"Has any one any other concerns about Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked

"Actually, yes headmaster" Minerva spoke up. "Yesterday I was talking to Hermione; she was saying how…helpless she feels. I think that it might be an idea to… teach her how to defend herself…"

"She already knows, she's one of the best in her year in defence against the dark arts" said Sirius.

"I know, but I was thinking about the more…physical aspects of defence, how to defend herself… without magic" said McGonagall.

As she said this, three sets of eyes looked at Sirius.

"NO" he said, "No, I couldn't, I haven't done for years" he stammered.

"Oh come on Black, we all know that's bull. Even I'll admit that you were the best fighter Hogwarts has seen in a long time!" said Snape.

"I never started fights!" exclaimed Sirius vehemently, "I just knew how to defend myself!"

"Point made" said Snape smugly.

"That was a long time ago. I can't remember half of it, and besides, I wouldn't know the first ting about how to teach it!"

"I very much doubt that. I seem to remember a particularly effective Black body lock that one Mr Potter used not so long ago on a certain Slytherin" Said Dumbledore grinning slightly.

"Harry remembered that?" asked Sirius, obviously proud of his teaching

"Yes Sirius, he did. Now, when would you like to start teaching Miss Granger?"

Sirius sighed. There was no way out, he would have to teach her, mostly because he was the only person who could, but also because he wanted so desperately for her to be happy. However, he still thought that it was a bad idea. It meant that they would be alone together, he could ask Harry and Ron to come too, but as he had already shown Harry most of his 'moves' as it were, and he doubted that Harry would want to learn them again. And if Ron did want to come it meant that Harry would be left alone whilst he was there, either that or be dragged along to the 'lessons', Sirius knew that neither of these solutions would be satisfactory to any involved, and he knew that the boys probably wouldn't have time anyway, they were nearly constantly practising quidditch. Nope, he would have to be alone with her. Teaching self defence means getting very, very close. Sirius didn't know if he or Hermione could handle that, he had seen the way she tried to avoid physical contact, not so much anymore, but he didn't know what kind of memories would be brought up while he was "attacking" her. He was worried about himself as well, he thought he would be able to keep control of his actions, but he wasn't quite as sure about his body's reactions, that would certainly be the… harder (for want of a better word, lol) aspect or the lessons. And then what would Hermione say? It didn't bear thinking about, but what could he do? He had no reason to refuse to give her lessons, at least no reasons that he could repeat to the other teachers without being strung up by his toe nails. He had to d it.

He did some quick thinking, it would be best to have the lesson on a Friday, as that meant that if something did happen, he wouldn't have to see her for two days, which meant he would have more time to come up with a reasonable and credible explanation.

"Friday evening" he said "I think that would be best"

"Very well" said Dumbledore, "Friday evening it is. Would you like to tell Miss Granger after dinner?" It wasn't a question so much as a very subtle order, still Sirius nodded.

After much pacing, several walks to an from classes and two meals, Sirius made his way slowly up to Gryffindor tower under the protection of an invisibility cloak. The boys would be going to quidditch practice, Hermione would be left alone and although Sirius didn't have to supervise her in the common room, it was thought appropriate after the recent events that he did, especially considering they had the defence lessons to discuss. He arrived a few minutes early so that he had plenty of time to pace and worry how he was going to phrase this. Soon (a lot sooner then Sirius would have liked) the portrait door swung open and Harry and Ron were clambering out of it.

"Have a good time" whispered Sirius, the boys nodded to show they had heard and continued towards their quidditch pitch.

Sirius climbed through the portrait hole. Instantly he saw her, she was sitting by the fire; reading of course. The common room was unusually full so it took him a long time to make his way over to her. Eventually he reached her, he bent down and whispered "Hello Hermione" She nodded ever so slightly, just enough to show Sirius that she had heard him. A slight frown appeared on her face, Hermione was still mortified about what she had said to him on the quidditch pitch, and although she was thankful that he hadn't mentioned it, part of her felt slightly angry at him, part of her wished he would say something, just acknowledge, hint even, that he had actually heard her, I mean, she didn't even know if he had heard her, she could be worrying over nothing, not that it was anything to begin with even if he had heard, just some mumbled words said in the heat of, well kind of, battle, when she was faced with his death, I mean, she was emotional anyway, he couldn't really think she had been serious even if he had heard, she couldn't really think she was serious… Shame really that people in love tend not to think to clearly isn't it? (Smirking grin from the author)

After Hermione had read another five pages of the book, Sirius bent down again and whispered in her ear;

"Hermione, we need to talk" Shit! Shit shit shit! Oh my God, he was going to try and talk to her, what would she say, what could be her excuse? Did she really want an excuse? What was he going to say? Oh my God! The stress, she really couldn't cope with all this. "Can we go somewhere where we can actually talk, in private?"

Hermione thought for a minute, she glanced around the common room, she saw that all her dorm mates were accounted for and then muttered

"Follow me" very slyly out of the corner of her mouth. She the gracefully stood up and made her way across the common room and up to her dormitory. Sirius followed tentatively at first, but then he remembered that as he was no longer classed as an adolescent boy, but as a member of the order or even Hogwarts staff by extension , that the stairs would not turn into a slide when he tried to get into the girls' dorms. Once inside he sealed the door and cast a silencing charm before he removed the cloak. He glanced at Hermione, she seemed nervous,

"Don't worry, there's nothing wrong" He said in an attempt to placate her. "In fact, you might go as far as to say that I have good news. You told McGonagall that one of the things worrying you was your inability to defend yourself without magic. To this at least, we have the solution. I'm going to teach you practical self defence, that is if you want me to."

"Err… yeah, sounds good" was all the response Hermione could utter. She was taken aback by this, not only was Sirius talking to her normally, but he was actually offering to teach her. This was almost concrete proof that he hadn't heard what she had said that day on the quidditch pitch, surely if he had of done, he wouldn't be treating her normally, and he certainly wouldn't be offering her help.

"I'm free on Friday evenings if that's ok with you?" Sirius' voice interrupted her musings.

"Yeah, that'd be great" Hermione replied.

A/N: I can not apologise enough, I am so so so so so so so so so sorry, life just kinda got in the way, and to add insult to injury, I can't find my handwritten plan/ actual chapters of this story, I think my mum may have binned it thinking it was an old school book, so I really don't know when I'm going to get the next chapter up. Life once again just seems to be happening, sorry. Thank you for your patience and continued support- especially Rane.

X x X x X

Fiona

P.S: this isn't proofed, thought it would be better then nothing though.