And here's the next chapter! I'm sorry that it took me some time to write it, but I hope you like it either way! I would be happy about reviews, they always motivate me to go on writing more quickly.

I don't own the characters or places in this story!


Chapter 46

Sirius POV

The morning of the wedding was surprisingly normal. The only thing that told us that it would be an important day was Molly because she was so nervous. The others were very calm. We all helped Arthur to set up the marquee, in which the wedding would take place and after that, Hermione and I carried out some chairs. In the meantime, Fred and George left to get some hair for Harry to change his appearance. As far as I knew, they had found a red-haired guy in the village who looked like a Weasley. In a family that big, no one would notice that he didn't belong to them.

The guests would arrive at three o'clock in the afternoon and it was planned that Fred, George and Harry (today, he would be Barny Weasley) would wait for them outside the marquee and show them their places. The others were waiting in the house. Hermione had gone upstairs to help Ginny get dressed and Molly was busy in the kitchen. So I was standing in the sitting room alone and looked out of the window. I didn't mind being alone for some time. This gave me the chance to think of everything that happened in the past days. Dumbledore had died some time ago. The Death Eaters had attacked while we wanted to take Harry to a safe place. Mad-Eye was dead. George had lost an ear. There was something going on between Remus and Tonks. Dumbledore had mentioned Harry, Ron and Hermione in his will. And Scrimgeour had tried to find secret messages in the things Dumbledore had left them.

I shook my head slowly. Most of those things seemed planned to me. Of course not the deaths and George's injury, but the others. Dumbledore had a reason for giving those objects to Harry and the others. It was important to him, he even risked the Ministry looking at those things. As I knew Dumbledore, the Ministry would have never found something, even if they could have kept the things longer than for thirty-one days. And then there was the attack of the Death Eaters. I had thought of that before and it still seemed as if they knew when we would move Harry. It had to be like this, they couldn't have attacked that quickly otherwise.

The only question was: who told them that we would do it?

I couldn't find the answer to it. There had to be something I was missing, a detail which explained everything. But I didn't see it. And the others had no idea as well. It was frustrating. Because who could you trust, if you don't know who told your secrets to the enemy?

I heard footsteps on the stairs. High-heeled shoes. There weren't many people in this house who would wear something like this. Five, to be exact. And three of them were busy, so there were only two people who could come here now. I turned around, not surprised to see Hermione standing at the door. What surprised me was her appearance. She was wearing a short, purple dress with fitting high heels. Her hair wasn't curly as usual but sleek and it was shining. She held her little bag in her hand and smiled shyly at me. She looked beautiful.

"How do I look?" She asked quietly and I realized that I was staring at her. I crossed the room with a few big steps and wrapped my arms around her, careful not to ruin her hair.

"You look stunning." I whispered and kissed her. When I released her again, she still looked a little suspicious, but I just grinned. "Don't look at me like that. You're beautiful, Hermione." I touched her cheek softly.

Slowly, her smile returned and she blushed. "I thought it was too much, but Ginny said that it was perfect for a day like this."

"She's right." I said immediately. "You'll be the most beautiful woman today."

Hermione shook her head. "I doubt that I can beat Fleur at that. She's always been more beautiful. And today, in her dress? There's no way someone could look better than her."

"You do. I always think that you're the most beautiful one." I whispered and kissed her again.

Hermione laughed softly. "But you don't look too bad as well." She said and pointed at my dress robes.

I rolled my eyes. "I don't look better or worse than any other man today. Maybe except Bill. These dress robes always look the same."

"No, they don't." Hermione argued immediately. "And you look very handsome in yours." She smiled and kissed me on the cheek.

I shrugged, but couldn't stop myself from grinning. "I love you." I whispered into Hermione's ear and she took my hand.

"I love you too. And now let's go outside. Otherwise, there will be lots of angry people waiting for us."


Many guests had already arrived. When we went to the marquee, I saw Harry and Ron talking to Muriel. I understood immediately why they didn't look very happy. I had never met Muriel in person, but the Weasleys told many stories about her and according to them, she wasn't a friendly woman. Even Molly didn't look happy when the subject changed to something she had said or done.

I felt relieved when we stopped next to Harry and Ron and Muriel wasn't there anymore. "She seems to be a very nice person." I said sarcastically and Ron sighed loudly.

"She's a nightmare. You can be happy that you didn't have to talk to her." He said and Harry nodded silently. Now Ron seemed to look at Hermione for the first time, since his eyes widened in surprise. "You look great, Hermione!" He said and smiled.

"Always that tone of surprise." Hermione said, but she smiled. "However, your Great Aunt Muriel doesn't agree. I met her upstairs when Ginny and I got dressed. She said 'Oh dear, is this the Muggle-born?' and then 'bad posture and skinny ankles'."

Now I looked at her in surprise. "You didn't tell me that." I whispered and noticed that I sounded offended.

"Oh come on, it's nothing." Hermione whispered back.

"Don't take it personally, she's rude to everyone." Ron said and Hermione nodded.

"Talking about Muriel?" A voice asked and we turned around to see Fred and George walking towards us. "She's just told me my ears are lopsided." George said and rolled his eyes. "Old bat. I wish old Uncle Bilius was still with us, though; he was a right laugh at weddings."

"Wasn't he the one who saw a Grim and died twenty-four hours later?" Hermione asked.

"Well, yeah, he went a bit odd towards the end." George said slowly and I chuckled, remembering the time when everyone at Hogwarts thought that I was a Grim.

"What's so funny?" Harry next to me asked, while the others continued to talk about Bilius Weasley.

"Remember when Professor Trelawney saw the Grim in your cup of tea?" I asked with a grin and Harry nodded immediately, grinning as well. He had told me that story in a very detailed way. By that time, it seemed to be scary and dangerous, but now we could laugh about it. Since we all knew the truth.

"She was completely insane." Harry whispered and laughed again. It was good to see him smiling again. In the past weeks, he had always been so serious.

"But with one thing she was right." I said slowly. "It wasn't a Grim, but a big black dog. So there was a bit of truth in her forecast."

Now Harry rolled his eyes. "Pure luck." He murmured and I shook my head and chuckled. He didn't like that woman, that wasn't difficult to see. Even if it still surprised me that Hermione really hated her. It seemed to unusual for Hermione to think of someone like this. Especially of a teacher.

Suddenly, there was someone else coming to our little group. He had long, dark hair, a large, curved nose and thick, black eyebrows. He stopped next to Ron and looked directly at Hermione. I felt the urge to hit him because of the way he looked at her. That's why it took me some time to realize that I knew him. It was Viktor Krum.

"You look vunderful!" He said to Hermione and she looked at him in surprise.

"Viktor!" She said loudly and nearly dropped her bag. I caught it before it could fall to the ground. When I gave it back to her, I looked at her closely. She looked surprised and insecure, and was there something like uneasiness in her eyes? I frowned and looked from her to Viktor Krum again. I didn't like him.

To my surprise, Hermione took my hand and squeezed it. I looked at her again and saw that her expression had changed. It seemed as if she wanted to calm me down now.

"I didn't know you would be here. I mean, of course it's good to see you. How are you?" Hermione asked and looked at Viktor questioningly. This gave me the time to look at the faces of the others. Harry looked rather neutral, but Ron seemed to be as unhappy with the appearance of Viktor Krum as I was.

"How come you're here?" Ron asked in an unfriendly way.

"Fleur invited me." Krum said and raised his eyebrows.

Now Harry took a step forward and shook Viktor's hand. He introduced himself as Barny Weasley and offered to show him his seat. Krum nodded, but his eyes were on me now. He looked suspicious. I knew what he must have been thinking. What was Hermione doing here with this man who was much older than her?

"And you are…?" He said slowly and I thought that he tried not to sound angry.

"Sirius Black." I said and we shook hands.

"I've heard from you." Krum said and now he frowned at Hermione. "Didn't you kill many people and went to Azkaban for it?"

The mood in our little group changed immediately. Ron looked at Krum wide-eyed, his expression still angry, while Harry paled and Hermione gasped. "He didn't kill those people!" Hermione said immediately and I wanted to sigh. I forced myself to stay calm.

"If you would really know as much about me as you say, then you would know that I was innocent. And that the Ministry admitted it's mistake. But apparently you don't know those things. And you don't care very much either, do you?" You look at me as if I was a murderer. I turned to Harry. "Why don't you show Viktor his seat, Barny?" I asked and for a few seconds, Harry didn't seem to understand that I meant him. But then he nodded.

"This way, please." He murmured and with a last angry look at me, Krum left with him.

Next to me, Hermione sighed loudly. "This was awful." She muttered and Ron nodded.

"Can you understand why I don't like him now?" Ron asked and Hermione nodded reluctantly.

"He didn't seem to know very much about you." Hermione said to me.

"He knew what everyone believed for a long time." I replied. "That I was a mass murderer and worked for Voldemort."

At those words, Hermione winced. "Don't say that." She whispered and I sighed.

"I'm sorry, but you know that it's the truth. There are still many people who don't trust me, even if the Ministry had admitted their mistake."

At that, Hermione remained silent. She looked at me thoughtfully, a rather sad expression on her face. I touched her cheek softly. "Come on, don't look at me like that. Today is not a good day to be sad. We're at a wedding, remember?" I winked at her. It had the required effect. Hermione smiled again.

When the others around us began to sit down, we did the same. Harry appeared next to us again and sighed. "He wouldn't stop asking me about the two of you." He whispered, sounding annoyed. "I said I didn't know that much and left. I couldn't stand it anymore."

I didn't get a chance to say anything else to that, because in this moment, the music started.


The wedding was beautiful. With all those dark things happening, it was good to see something like this again. A happy couple that married out of love. When the ceremony was over, most people started to dance or they sat down at tables to talk. Ron searched for a table as far away from Muriel and Krum as possible and I was grateful for that. I didn't want to talk to either of them. We stayed at the table for some time, but then Hermione asked if we wanted to dance and I just couldn't say no to her.

When we finally returned to our table, the others weren't there anymore. I had seen Harry talk to Krum while we were dancing, but now he was standing next to Muriel and there was someone else sitting on their table I knew. It was Elphias Doge, who had been a friend of Dumbledore. I would have liked to go to them and see what they were talking about, but since Muriel was there as well, I decided to stay here with Hermione. Harry would have to tell me what they said later.

I looked around for some time and then I saw Remus and Tonks walking towards us. They had been dancing as well and Tonks smiled happily. "Hermione, Sirius!" She said and hugged us both. Remus smiled at us as well, but he had dark rings under his eyes and again, I asked myself what was going on. "It's good to see you, how are you?" Tonks asked and Hermione began to tell her a few things that happened at the Burrow since they left on Harry's birthday party the previous evening.

"I'm sorry that we had to leave so quickly yesterday." Remus said and looked around.

I shook my head and held up a hand. "Don't apologize. I know what the Ministry says to werewolves these days. I understand why you wanted to leave when the Minister showed up."

Remus looked at me gratefully, but then he frowned. "What did he want?"

I told him what happened in a few sentences. After that, Remus looked even more thoughtful. "So Dumbledore left them something in his will…" He murmured and I nodded.

"We'll have to find out why he did it." I said and raised my eyebrows. "And now to my question. You wanted to tell me why you look so horrible."

First, Remus didn't seem to understand what I meant. But then his eyes widened and he shook his head. "Not now." He said immediately and looked at Tonks for a few moments. "When we're alone."

"But when will we be alone again?" I asked.

Remus didn't get a chance to answer my question. At that moment, a few people on the dance floor cried out in surprise. We turned around immediately, just to see a lynx standing there. And then the Patronus opened it's mouth and it spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."