Hey guys, guess what's up? Sirius!

...

After explaining who they were and why they were there, Captain Frehley found them all proper clothing to wear until they were above the Castle of the Dead. After they convinced him to allow Ren, who had luckily remained unscathed, on board, Hermione fell quickly asleep. It would take at least four hours to get to the Castle of the Dead, and Hermione planned on taking advantage of this. When the ships doctor had bound the wrist she'd broken when she'd fallen from the top of the ship, she almost immediately passed out.

"You seem like a good mate of Ms. Black's, here, Mr. Potter," said Captain Frehley when everyone else was eating with the crew, and Harry had decided to stay behind with the sleeping girls.

Harry nodded. "She's my best friend."

"'Tis always nice to have one," the Captain replied, pouring himself a glass of spiced rum. "Tell me, boy. How old is she?"

"Seventeen," Harry replied. "She'll be eighteen in a few months."

The Captain nodded. "And she married the convict Sirius Black? He's a bit old for her, don't you think?"

Harry shrugged. "At first I thought so. It was just something to get through the marriage act, and we wanted to keep her inside the Order. But now, I don't think so. Sure, he's seventeen years older than her, but they really love each other. I know Hermione wouldn't be fighting this hard for someone she didn't love like she loves Sirius. And if Sirius dies and she knows she could have saved him, I don't know how she'll be able to take it."

The Captain nodded again and offered Harry the spiced rum. Harry accepted it.

"Not as good as Firewhiskey, but we ran out last month," said Captain Frehley. "We were celebrating how close to land we are when that vile beast attacked. Anyhow, it's nice to see someone fighting so hard for love. I became a pirate for love, believe it or not. And it's why I still am. But I won't bore you with the tale's of an old man. Come now, let's go get supper before you've got to go under."

Harry nodded, kissing Ginny on the forehead before following Captain Frehley out of his quarters.

...

Hermione stood on the rail, her toes inching over as she peered down at the frigid water. They'd taken a potion to keep them from freezing to death beneath the surface of the ocean, along with another bottle for Sirius, and each took enough seaweed to make it there and back, with a little extra time in between, just in case they ended up being delayed.

Hermione turned and smiled at Captain Frehley.

"Thank you for everything you've done," she said, returning the dress he'd loaned her. "I'll be in touch."

"I look forward to it, Ms. Black," he said, nodding to her. "Careful down there. Wouldn't want my partner Lord to die, now."

Hermione's smile widened, and she took a deep breath to prepare herself, before pencil diving into the water. Even with the potion the water was a bit chilly, but Hermione couldn't think of that now. She also couldn't think of the fact that it had been quite a while since she'd taken her potions and though she wasn't growing tired or feeling any pain, she knew she only had so much time before she did.

They had taken several helpful potions provided by the pirates-for increased strength, for pressure resistance, for their eyes so the salt water wouldn't burn them. This way, they could survive deep beneath the surface of the ocean. If they ran into anything else, their wands would have to help them. They used their wand tips to see through the inky blackness beneath the surface.

It was beautiful down here. Hermione wondered how many people got to see this far down. She wondered why things down here were so colourful if no one was able to see it. She swam along side Ren, who was as fast as lightening if she wanted to be, but slowed down significantly for them. Ren smiled at Hermione and pointed something out to her. It was a jelleyfish. Hermione's heart sped up as they passed beside it, but knew that she wouldn't be able to harm something so beautiful if she didn't need to. Ren told them about how her and her sisters would decorate their long hair with certain shells and stones, and she spoke to them in the language of several types of fish. She could even speak to them in the language shrimp apparently spoke. Hermione was shocked to find that animals actually did have language.

They had been swimming for nearly four hours. It would have been longer, but with the potion granting them extra strength, they had cut down their time by nearly seventy percent.

They approached the Castle of the Dead. It was tall and rather beautiful, despite its purpose. The architecture was gorgeous, with large stained-glass windows, big arches, statues carved right out of the walls. The door was about twelve sizes bigger than it needed to be, but it was so beautiful anyways.

It was even more beautiful to Hermione with the knowledge that Sirius was inside.

"Do we have a plan?" She asked them.

Remus nodded. "Get inside, get Sirius, get out."

Hermione followed as he approached the door. "What if we run into a Death Eater?"

"Knock them out."

Hermione nodded. Plain and simple.

There was a statue that worked to get them inside the air-lock shield. Remus cautiously took the hand of the statue, and was zapped out of the water, presumabely-hopefully-into the castle. Hermione followed suit, and breathed a mental sigh of relief when she found herself inside the dark, gloomy castle. Remus pulled her around the corner.

He placed his hands on her shoulders and held them tight, staring directly into her eyes. "Here's the real plan," he began quietly. "You and I will go and find Sirius while the others stay out there. If any trouble comes, I'll send a patronus and they'll be with us immediately. If not, we get out of here as quickly as possible."

Hermione nodded and swallowed hard before Remus took the lead and they marched through the castle. Hermione's heart was screaming in excitement at being so close to Sirius. She needed him, needed his arms around her, just needed to be able to see him, to be right next him and know that he was there to stay.

Remus had used a strange, very advanced spell that led him directly to whomever he was searching for if he knew them well enough. It was entirely undetectable by anyone but whom it was being used on.

So Sirius knew immediately that they were in the castle, searching for him. He was just sitting in a windowsill, staring out at a group of jellyfish making there way passed him. He tried not to let it show, but knowing Hermione was so close to him made his heart speed up. Thankfully, the idiot they'd been having follow him around was too stupid to realise how shifty he'd suddenly become. He didn't notice when Sirius stood up and began to circle around the room, or even when he was right behind him.

But he was pretty sure he noticed when Sirius kneed him in the back, stealing his wand and stealing his voice. He was positive he noticed when Sirius summoned his wand and put a full body bind on him, and especially sure he noticed when Remus and Hermione finally made their ways into the room.

Neither of them could move when they saw each other. They just stood there, staring.

And then, Sirius made the first move. He launched himself at her, and Hermione came to her senses not long after. They collided into a huge hug, Sirius knowing he'd never be able to let her go, never be able to take his lips from hers, never be able to stop crying, never be able to stop telling her how sorry he was, how much he loved her.

"Well."

The breathless, sardonic voice was enough to make them both freeze.

"Isn't this just beautiful?"

Sirius moved Hermione behind himself and turned to face his cousin. Remus knew this was the trouble he'd been expecting. His mental patronus was a quick one. Help.

It seemed that every Death Eater still alive had decided to show up to this little fight.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Bella, but I think it's time I leave," Sirius said. "Not that I didn't enjoy my little stay...actually, that's not true. I hated it. Bye!"

He turned and pushed Hermione gently, urgeing her to run on.

"We had a deal," Bellatrix said, barring their paths. "It's the girl for my idiot cousin. Hand her over and you get the idiot. You don't and you all get death."

The others showed up, then, prepared for a fight.

Hermione fumbled in the small pouch she had wrapped around her neck, pulling out the potions and seaweed before handing them to Sirius. She then stepped in front of him and sent one of the most powerful, fury filled spells she'd ever shot towards the group. She then turned. Sirius dropped the empty bottles to the floor and took her hand, and the group of them ran.

They didn't make it far before Bellatrix made it to the front of the group, and the battle began. Each Order member found themselves up against at least three Death Eaters twice their size. Ren was the most help once again, but there were more Death Eaters now than there had been Wiccans at the end of their battle, and she could only do so much. Hermione found herself fighting with Bellatrix Lestrange, and it was difficult to see who was winning. Bellatrix's mad laughter would have pointed the viewer towards her, but it was Hermione whose spells were the most vicious and were really striking home, even with her broken wrist. Luckily, it wasn't her wand hand, or she'd be dead.

Soon, Bellatrix's elated laughter was growing into anger filled snarls, and she was yelling out taunts.

"I can't see what you see in my pathetic cousin," she said when they'd gotten rather close.

Hermione snarled angrily and shot a rapid stupefy! in her direction, but she only whirled out of the way, retaliating with a quick crucio! Which missed, striking down one of the men Ron had been fighting, allowing him to bind him and move on to another apponent.

Missing made her angry, and she felt the need to scream some more insults at both Hermione and Sirius. "He's retarded, and he only married you for your body, obviously. Which, I might add, isn't even that great."

Hermione growled and sent another spell rocketing her way, nearly cutting off her arm. Bellatrix screamed and whacked several different hexes out of her wand, Hermione barely able to defend herself against each of them.

"I hope you and him live happily ever after," she hissed, pushing her sweaty hair out of her face. "You, him, and your stupid, dead child."

Hermione didn't have time to falter. She transfigured her wand, launched forward, and grabbed Bellatrix by the hair, before digging the newly created daggar into her stomach. Bellatrix's entire body froze, and she choked, bending over.

"And I hope that you feel regret about every last thing you've ever done, and that this ends up to be the most pain you've ever felt in your life," she hissed to the dying, evil woman.

She ripped her wand from Bellatrix, not sure if she'd hit anything vital or not, but she hoped that she did die. Her daggar changed back into a wand and cleaned of any trace of Bellatrix's blood, and she stepped back as Bellatrix fell to the floor. Before she turned to continue the fight, she spat on the woman, who was gasping in pain and bleeding dangerously.

She turned around and was immediately slammed with a spell by none other than Rodolphus Lestrange, loving husband of the woman Hermione had just murdered.

She grinned. Bring it on.

Hermione won that fight, too, but without so much...death. Soon, all but three Death Eaters stood. They were smart enough to realise they were outnumbered, even with both Ron and Remus as members of the fallen, and they surrendered. Hermione managed to revive them both, and found herself promptly glued to Sirius.

She broke down into tears. "I'm so sorry, Sirius. This is all my fault."

"Of course it's not," he whispered. "It's neither of our fault. You destroyed the person whose fault it is. Hermione, I love you, and that's all you need to think about right now."

Hermione nodded and took a shaky breath before looking at Bellatrix. "Is she...dead?"

Sirius shrugged, hugging her tighter. "Hopefully. Good job, there, love. But, as much as I hate to say it, she's a strong one. Look there, she's still holding on."

Bellatrix's fingers were twitching towards her wand.

"Let's get out of here before she wakes up," Remus said. "Before any of them wake up."

Hermione nodded and took Sirius' hand, following quickly after the other Order members, and they quickly left the hell-hole, which it technically was. They swam as quickly as they could, no time to admire the beauty this time, and made it to the surface in record time.

And despite that Hermione had defeated wiccans, slayed the legendary Kraken, swam to the bottom of the ocean, entered the Castle of the Dead, quite possibly killed the most violent witch of all time, and was a partial pirate Lord, all she could think about was that she finally had her Sirius back.

...

Yay! They're back together. Let the happiness ensue! ^^

And don't worry. I'm far from finished with this story. More suspense to come! But enjoy the happiness, there's going to be buckets of it in the coming chapters. Just because you endured all of that tragedy and suspense so nicely. ^^ Bye, then!