Hey I'm back. Thanks for all the reviews! You guys are absolutely awesome i must say. I decided that even if people really hated this story, I would continue writing it bc its more fun to write this one than my other one. And im bored so there. my parents are trying to get me off the computer but i feel like updating so here we go...

Disclaimer: you'd like to think that now wouldn't you?

Hermione woke up about three hours after Sirius left the Hospital Wing. She still was a little hazy about what happened, but she definitely remembered seeing Sirius Black, the man who was supposedly dead.

"Sirius!" Hermione yelled, struggling to get out of the sheets binding her to the bed.

"Ah, Miss Granger, you're awake. It seems that you fainted. Dear, you must remember to eat more often." Madam Pomfrey said, bringing a tray of food over to Hermione.

"What? I didn't faint from lack of food! I saw Sirius Black!" Hermione yelled, still trying to get up.

"Shhh, dear, no need to yell. And Sirius Black? Oh dear, you are very tired and not very well nourished, lay back down" Madame Pomfrey said, gently pushing Hermione back down to the bed.

"Do you think I'm stupid?!" Hermione yelled, not listening to the nurse. "I know what I saw, and I saw Sirius Black! And I definitely have been eating!"

"Miss Granger, you really should try to calm yourself. You'll only waste your energy" Professor Dumbledore said, as he entered the Hospital Wing. "Poppy, could you give us a minute?"

"Of course, Professor" Madame Pomfrey, said, dropping the try and going back to her office.

"Now, Miss Granger," Dumbledore started once they were alone, "What exactly were you doing walking about the school at night? Voldemort may be gone, but we still haven't caught all of his death eaters; there are still dangers out there."

"Professor Dumbledore, sir," Hermione said in a normal voice, "it's not as if I was walking around the Forbidden Forest. I was walking around the halls because I couldn't sleep. And I heard someone say my name, and I turned around and saw Sirius."

"Are you sure you saw what you saw, Miss Granger?"

"Absolutely" Hermione said firmly. The nurse could say she was tired and malnourished, but she knew better. And no one was going to tell her that she hadn't seen Sirius.

"Alright then. I have already sent Professor MacGonagall to wake Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley. They need to hear this."

"Hear what?" Hermione questioned.

"You shall see. Ah, Minerva, right on time" Dumbledore said, looking over to the entrance of the Hospital Wing, where Hermione's head of house and two best friends stood.

"Professor Dumbledore, what is going on? Hermione? What are you doing in that bed?" Harry asked, sitting on the other side of Hermione's bed. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"I fainted" Hermione said simply. She didn't want to tell Harry that she had seen Sirius; she thought he would only get upset at the mention of his godfather, even if he could still be alive.

"Miss Granger was given quite a fright last night when she saw something she wasn't supposed to see" Professor Dumbledore said, as Ron also sat himself by Hermione.

"Well?" Ron started. "What did you see, Herms?"

"I...I saw...I saw Sirius" Hermione said much less firmly than she had before. Harry being here, and having to hear her talk about Sirius, made her slightly nervous.

"You WHAT?!" Harry yelled, standing up. "But...but how?! He's dead!"

"Not quite" said the aforementioned man from the corner.

"Sir-Sirius?" Harry choked out, not believing his eyes.

"Sirius, glad you could join us, old boy" Dumbledore said, as if he had been expecting Sirius to visit.

"I told you! I told you I saw Sirius! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" Hermione yelled, rejoicing in the fact that she wasn't crazy.

"Oh, blimey..." Ron whispered, rubbing his temples as if he had a big headache.

"I don't believe this! You're back! How are you back?! Didn't you die?!" Harry asked, still yelling.

"This is unbelievable..." Ron said, still whispering, absolutely baffled by the turn of events.

"I knew it!" Hermione yelled again.

"You're alive!" Harry yelled again.

And Ron kept rubbing his temples whispering to himself.

Until none of them could speak. They tried to, but words wouldn't come out.

"Forgive me, but you all must try not to yell, or even talk at the same time for that matter" Dumbledore said, with his wand raised. "I will remove the silencing spell if you all promise not to talk, and let me and Sirius explain. Agreed?"

All three students nodded, slightly embarrassed that they had to be magically silenced by their headmaster. He lifted the spell and they all kept quiet, anxiously awaiting an explanation.

"Now, Sirius would you do the honors of explaining to the students just why you are here, and not dead like they thought?" Dumbledore asked.

"Sure" Sirius said, smiling quite broadly. He found the situation, although serious, a little amusing.

"Well, yes, Hermione you did see me last night, and I'm sorry if I scared you" Sirius said, looking at Hermione, trying his best not to sound loving. She didn't look offended, so he kept going, "Now, you are probably wondering, well no, I know you are wondering where I have been for the past year."

"You could say that" Harry managed to say, still in shock over seeing his godfather, alive and well.

"The truth is I never died."

Silence. Sirius had expected this, so he continued, "I never went to the Department of Mysteries, either."

"But...but we saw you, Sirius. You were there; you fought Bellatrix; you went behind the veil; you disappeared. We saw you, Sirius!" Harry said, almost going hysterical with confusion. He always thought that if he saw Sirius again, he would be overjoyed, but he was really just shocked and confused.

"No, Harry. You saw Thomas Collins there; you saw him fighting Bellatrix; you saw him going behind the veil; you saw him disappear. Not me."

"What?" all three students asked at once.

"What Sirius is trying to say is that he never went to rescue you" Dumbledore interjected. "That was another Order member, Thomas Collins, using the Polyjuice Potion, pretending to be Sirius."

"You mean...some other guy went behind the veil? And Sirius never left? But how did you know to send someone else?" Hermione asked, still very confused.

"That is a good question" Sirius said. "Just how did you know to send someone else, Dumbledore?"

"I knew that Voldemort wouldn't wait long to try to get Harry to go the Department of Mysteries" Dumbledore started. "And I knew that it wouldn't be hard for Voldemort to get his death eaters into the Ministry, especially since Lucius Malfoy is connected with Fudge. If Harry had gone to the Ministry and gotten into trouble, I knew Sirius would find out and try to rescue him. I couldn't risk Sirius leaving 12 Grimmauld Place, so I stopped him and replaced him with a willing Order member, Thomas Payton. Fortunately, Professor Snape had extra Polyjuice potion. Sirius has been in Hogwarts ever since."

"But sir," Hermione started, after everything Dumbledore had just said settled in her mind, "this Thomas Payton fellow, did he know that he would probably die? Why would he give his life so willingly?"

"Thomas Payton was a very elderly man who was one of the first members of the Order. He hadn't been able to do much to help ever since Voldemort returned, so he volunteered to do whatever he could to help the Order in his final months of life. So, he went to the Ministry, pretending to be Sirius. We are not sure of the significance of the veil, but we are quite sure that Thomas Payton died that night."

"But why didn't you tell us!" Harry yelled suddenly. "Here we've been mourning Sirius' death, and he's been alive and in our school this whole time! You actually looked sad about it Dumbledore! You looked me right in the eyes and told me that you were sorry Sirius was dead. Why have you been letting us suffer for a YEAR, when he has been nice and comfy at Hogwarts?!"

"Harry, calm down!" Hermione said urgently. "I'm sure Professor Dumbledore and Sirius have a good reason for keeping this from us; they must've if they were going to let us be devastated over Sirius' supposed death for so long. Right, Professor?"

"While Mr. Potter, and all of you for that matter, has reason to be angry with me, we do have what we believe to be a good reason for keeping this from you. Peter Pettigrew, Lucius Malfoy, and Theodore Nott are all still in hiding. They are three of Voldemort's most devoted and dangerous supporters. Even though Voldemort is now dead, thanks to Mr. Potter's defeat of him this past summer, Lucius Malfoy still plans to carry out what Voldemort set to do: kill Harry Potter. And of course, muggle-borns and anyone who didn't support Voldemort. We know he is planning something, but we don't know what. I believed it would be easier for Sirius to trail Malfoy if no one knew he was alive. I also thought it would be easier to protect you three, Malfoy's main targets, if you didn't think or know you were being watched. I didn't want to lie to you, but it was for the good of our cause" Dumbledore said, trying to get the three young Gryffindors to understand just why he had let them grieve for a year.

"Harry, please" Sirius said, desperately, coming closer to the trio, "you have no idea how much I wanted to tell you. I hated lying to you and all I wanted to do was talk to you and explain everything. Please, please don't be mad, Harry. We finally get to talk and I don't want it to be ruined because you're mad at me. I am so, so sorry, Harry. But, it really was for the better."

"Oh, Sirius, I can't be mad at you" Harry said, standing up and hugging his godfather. Sirius visibly relaxed and hugged his godson back. The scene touched Hermione, and she realized she couldn't be mad either for being lied to. She suddenly realized just how happy she was to have Sirius back. This meant that she could apologize to Sirius for being so cold in her fifth year, and this guilt that was overwhelming could finally be let go. No more late night walks, sleepless nights, and the weight of Sirius' death had finally been lifted. This was going to be a great year for Hermione Granger.

Once Harry and Sirius ended their embrace, Sirius hugged Ron for a brief moment and moved on to properly greet Hermione. Since Hermione was in bed, it was quite hard to properly hug Sirius, but she managed it just the same. She had no idea just what this hug was doing to the former bad boy of Hogwarts.

Sirius was so happy to be able to really spend time with Harry again, and to properly get to know Hermione, not just watch her, but really know her. he knew that she hadn't really had a high opinion of him before he "died", but he hoped that she had either already changed his mind about him, or he could get her to change her mind. He didn't realize though, that he was still hugging her, much longer than he had hugged Harry and Ron...combined.

"Uh...Sirius? Are you alright?" Hermione asked, no longer embracing Sirius in return.

"Oh, yeah, sorry" Sirius said, slightly embarrassed. It was odd; back in his school days, he was calm and cool around a girl he liked, but around Hermione...he was always getting lost in thinking about her and he would forget where he was and what he was doing.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, at least for Sirius it was awkward, Dumbledore spoke up,

"You three do realize, though, that no one else can know about Sirius. Very few of the staff even knows. If Malfoy gets wind of this, he will be much more careful and harder to trace."

"I'm pretty sure I can speak for all three of us when I say we understand that this will remain a secret" Hermione said, looking at her friends for support.

"Yes, definitely" Harry said, smiling broader than he had since before Sirius died. This was a great weight lifted off his shoulders. He no longer felt guilt, he no longer was depressed, he was actually completely happy, and he hadn't felt this way in a long time.

Ron also felt very happy, and relieved. He hadn't felt the guilt that Hermione and Harry did, but having Sirius was back was very relieving. He knew that he would get his best friend back, now that Sirius had returned. It was an understatement to say that Harry hadn't been himself the past year. Sirius's death and the aftereffect of fighting and killing Voldemort had taken its toll on Harry, and Ron was happy to have his good natured, quidditch-crazy friend back to normal.

"Well, I'm sure you'll be wanting to be catching up, so I'll leave you to it" Dumbledore said, taking his leave. "But remember, you must NOT be seen by anyone. Is that understood?" They all nodded, smiling broadly, each for their own reasons.

AN: how do you like it? I was afraid that my reason for Sirius being alive was kinda...I don't know but if you didn't like it please please please tell me. I thrive on reviews and if you do or don't like something, it would help me a lot to know. I love to know what you guys think. Now review already (just kidding)