A/n: thank you to all of the happy little reviewers, remember, the more reviewers I get, and the more often I review. Just to let you know I usually update every two to four maybe even five days, but never more often then that! And that's a 'Mai Promise!' Please Review!

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Chapter 7: Tonight, Not Again

"Well if you should nervously break down, when its time for the shakedown would you take it? It's when you cry just a little but you laugh in the middle that you've made it, and don't it feel all right and don't it feel so nice.
Lovely."

–Jason Mraz

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

After Hermione had left for work, Remus and Sirius had gotten into discussing what were the happenings when Sirius was gone.

". . . Truly nothing happened right after you have gone. We continued to use your house for The Order and everyone went on living, in a matter of speaking." Remus stated.

Sirius looked up, "What do you mean?"

"Well, the spark had really disappeared. Everybody had his or her own sense of sadness for your absence. For Harry, he would lock himself up in his room for days." Remus frowned at the not so fond memories, "For Ron, he would be quite and stayed out of the way. For Hermione, she would get lost to herself reading or something. The kids did not deal with it as good as the adults, because they had not seen great losses, except for Harry really, but he never got to be with his parents like he did you, you know?" Remus heaved a sigh.

Sirius didn't really know what to say. He really didn't have control over what had happened, and he was sorry that it did, but nothing he could ever do could change that.

Remus perked up, but was still not in a bouncy or happy mood, "You know, after they had gotten out of school, they were a little bit better off. As predicted, Hermione was first in her class. Ron and Harry had gone on to be Aurors while Hermione shied to a desk job for some reason."

Looking up, Sirius looked to Remus, "Did you know she was engaged to Malfoy?" He asked, almost harshly.

"Yes, everyone knew. It was in the news, non-stop talk about Malfoy marrying a muggle-born." Remus then asked, "Did it surprise you?"

"Surprise me?! I was shocked! What happened?" Sirius practically yelled.

Remus frowned, "Well, after they had all graduated, Draco had gone against his father all-out. He had gone to Dumbledor and asked to join the Order." Remus sighed, "None of us had expected this, but we let him in, not trusting him at first. So, we paired him up to work with Hermione and within two years, we found out that they were in a relationship. After that, they got engaged. They were totally in love." Sirius frowned at this, "But, all good things must come to an end. After their engagement, I don't know how long they were . . ."

"Two months." Remus gave him a questioning look, "Hermione told me."

Remus went on, "Draco was killed by Lucius." Remus breathed out a breath, harder then intended, "Of course, everyone was sad because over the three or so years we had with him, they were great. We found Draco to be a most worthy friend, great person, and for one, a wonderful partner. I don't think Hermione has ever been the same. She's lost a great deal to Voldemort."

"She's got me now." Sirius said, to lighten the spirit a bit.

"Even Harry was on the brink of tears when Draco was killed."

"No!"

"Yes. He was a very good friend with Draco. They had more in common then you would have thought." Remus said, giving Sirius a thoughtful look.

Sirius reclined in his chair a bit more to comfortable, "Yeah . . . Hey, where is Jacque?"

"She properly fell asleep on Hermione's bed. That's the only reason I come here so often. Jacque loved to be around Hermione." Remus said, looking out a window, it was a new moon, the ground outside was lit by nothing. Remus was at his most neutral state.

"That's good because I was starting to wonder about you, Moony. Coming over the sweet, innocent, and single Hermione's. How often are you here? Three times a week?" Sirius smiled at Remus.

Remus looked at Sirius with a, 'don't you go there look.'

"Come on Remus look at her!"

Remus smirked at this comment, "What are you talking about?" He smirk grew as he said this in a knowing tone.

"Don't act like you don't see it! You know what I'm talking about Moony."

"I haven't the slightest clue." Remus started to chuckle to himself.

Sirius sat there, mouth open, "Fine, then I'll say it!" he stood up, and "She is gorgeous, she is pretty, and witty! I thought you would get together with a girl like her!"

"Who are you guys talking about?" Came a female voice from the hallway.

Sirius straightened up, "No one . . . just . . . someone."

Hermione smiled, "Okay, fine keep me in the shadows, but his means you have to make me dinner!" she walked out of the room. Sirius looked at Remus, because Remus was laughing at him.

"What, you don't think your helping?"

Realizing it was late, they made something simple and sweet. Peanut butter and jam sandwiches to be exact. They even put a little bit of butter between the peanut butter and the bread so the peanut butter would not stick to the roof of their mouths.

"You know, when I said dinner I expected more, guys." Hermione looked around the table accusingly at Sirius and Remus, picking up her sandwich.

Remus flatly stated, "Sirius's fault. It was his idea." Without even looking up at Sirius's reaction to the blame put on him.

"Moony, you devil!"

"Werewolf to be exact." Remus corrected him, put could not keep his poker face as he ate the delectable sandwich. They all laughed for a while until it was almost time for Remus to be heading home, via floo.

After finishing the cleaning, Remus and Hermione looked at Sirius, "Remus and I have come to the conclusion that you should stay here for the night." Hermione kept eye contact, "We just think that because I have accommodations for you and Remus does not."

Sirius nodded, "Sounds good to me. What are we doing tomorrow?"

"Well, I'm going home, goodnight 'Mione, Sirius." They all hugged and Remus left with his sleeping daughter.

"I have work tomorrow, but you can have Harry over. I will let you know thought, that no one knows that you are here except for Remus and myself." Hermione sighed, "We didn't want anyone to get excited just incase it did not work out, you know?"

Sirius nodded, "Yeah, I understand." Sirius got a twinkle in his eye; "We should have a party here! And I'll make a grand entrance, it'll be great!"

Hermione smiled and chuckled lightly, "Sounds like a plan. How about, when I'm at work, you can clean up my house a bit for me. Then you can start to write invitations, but sign them in my name."

"Can we have it this weekend? Please?" Sirius begged.

"Yes, how about Saturday?" Sirius nodded, "Great then, this Saturday, Were gonna have a party here. Sometime between two and three should be good."

Sirius liked to talk to Hermione. She was easy going, and laughed easily and smiled willingly. It wasn't even so hard to strike up a serious conversation either. She was wonderful.

"Sirius?" Hermione asked him, for he had been spacing out on her.

"Yeah that sounds good." He smiled.

They had sometime before they had to be ready, but they discussed most of the party out. They were going to have catering and a DJ.

Sirius smiled at being able to see everyone he had known before, all grown up and moving on, but in turn, it made him sad at all the faces he knew he would never get to see again. He frowned.

Hermione picked up on this, "What's the matter?" she said sensitively.

Sirius ran his fingers through his hair, "I was thinking . . . Something . . . I don't know."

"I want you to tell me."

Sirius looked her in those toffee orbs of hers, "Everything I missed, everyone who is gone, people who are gone. I'm just upset that I wasn't here for them."

Hermione placed her hands over his resting on the table, she looked down, searching for an answer, "I know it upsets you, but there was not anything you could have done to prevent what had happened. Everything that happened had absolutely nothing to do with you . . ."

"I wish it had! I wish I could have been there!" Sirius pratically screamed, "I wish I could have made a difference." He said this more calmly.

Hermione pulled a chair next to him and wrapped her arm around his back, "I'm sorry, but you can't."

Sirius looked over his arm to her. He stood up, and held her hands so she would too, they were standing so close, Sirius could feel her breath on his chest, "Thank you, for everything." And he hugged her close.

They let go, and went to bed. Sirius didn't sleep a wink, but he thought. He thought about a lot of things, one thing being a certain brunette . . .

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

A/n: Thanks to my reviewers. Thank you!

REVIEW!!!!!!!!