Next chapter they'll be on the train toward Hogwarts! yay! finally:)

Hermione awoke with a start. She propped her head on one hand as she glared blearily at the clock. The flourescent numbers glowed, "4:35 A.M.". Hermione rubbed her eyes and fell back, gazing up at the rich red canopy above her.

She smiled to herself, remembering. Today was the day they were returning to Hogwarts! She doubted whether she would be able to quell the nerves and excitment now rising in her chest, in order to fall back asleep. After a brief and futile battle to calm down, Hermione threw back the covers and tiptoed over to her already overflowing trunk, intending to pack the Gringotts supplies she had bought just a few days before.

As she neatly placed books, quills, robes, and few forgotten clothes into the bulging trunk, she mused over the past week. It had certainly been...she blushed to herself. Well it had been interesting. And different. And very very exciting. Though regretful that the bustle and rush of the past few days had kept her and Sirius from having any time alone, but for a few whispered conversations on the stairs now and then, she was grateful for the distraction the days had provided, keeping awkwardness to a minimum.

Though she ached to tell her best friends this huge secret, she did not want them finding out in this manner, at Grimmauld Place. Sirius had told Hermione it was up to her when and how to tell people about their relationship, and for this she was grateful. She just wasn't ready to tell them. Let them get back into the swing of things at school before she dropped this major bit of news into their unsuspecting laps.

For a moment she lost her train of thought as she finished packing the last bit of debris, a blue raincoat half hidden behind the door. She threw it in with the rest, closed the trunk lid and sat on it. After some pounding and manuvering, she finally got the lid to close, and locked it with a flick of her wand. She glanced around one last time, to be sure she had missed nothing, and then crossed to the darkened window, pullingaside the shade as she reached it. The night sky was just beginning to let a few strands of early morning light stray, filtering through some ominous looking gray clouds. A gentle rain was falling against the windowpane, but Hermione could just make out lightening in the distant, yet approaching, stormy horizon.

"Great" she muttered, crossing back to her locked trunk. "Looks like I'll be needing that raincoat after all."

7:00 soon came around, with the rainstorm now in full force. The entrance hall of Grimmauld Place was a jumble of frazzled wet people, muddy footprints and floating trunks, as they all struggled to load their school trunks into the car waiting outside.

Despite the nasty weather and early hour, there was an air of excitement. Harry was fighting desperatly to subdue his nerves and calm his hands, which were shaking with excitment. As he was also in charge of directing the trunks and parcelsas they floateddown the stairs and towards the door, this was not a great combination.

"OW!" yelled Ron as yet another parcel came swooping from behind, smacking him on the head, wavering for a moment as if confused and continuing on towards the door where it fell with a thud onto an ever growing pile. "Harry watch what you're doing! One more hit like that and I'll be as thick as Crabbe and Goyle!" Harry laughed as Ron moved away from the stairs to lurk by the doorway, watching the landing parcels and trunks with a wary eye and a sore head.

However, even Harry's excitement at going back to what he considered his real home ever since first year, was nothing compared to Sirius'. Though he remained outwardly calm and composed, as he brought the trunks out by hand to the taxi (so as to not alarm any muggles living near by, if by chance they could actually see anything through the torential downpour), inwardly, he was so excited that he barely noticed what he was carrying, how heavy it was, or the sheets of heavy rain that continued to fall with relentless abandon.

Howarts had been the only place he had ever truely been happy. He had left home at a young age, determined to distance himself from his family, who were both Voldemort supporters and very dark wizards. He stayed with James' family for a while after that, but despite their continual insistance for him to feel at home, and consider himself part of the family, he always felt as though he was a burden.

The only real home he had ever had was Hogwarts. The only people he had really considered family were at Hogwarts with him, James and Remus. Even Dumbledore, though Sirius sometimes resented the authority and frequently found himself in his office with James after commiting another prank, had been fatherly to him while at school. Those seven years at Hogwarts had been the happiest years of his life. He had felt that happy onlytwice since then. First, the birth and re-aquantaince with his godson, Harry, and secondly (he allowed himself a gentle smile) the past week he had spent with Hermione.

Sirius stumbled blindly into someone, on his way back in from loading the last trunk. Deep in thought, and half blinded by the pouring rain, he had not noticed Ron, making his way towards the car.

"Ouch!" Ron hopped on one leg, holding his shin, and glaring up at Sirius. "What the bloody hell is this! Tryto take out Ron day? Sirius mate, if you're that desperate to injure me just so you can have a spot on the Gryffindor quidditch team..."

Sirius laughed, slapping Ron on the back, as they headed back towards the house. "Sorry there Ron didn't see you."

They ran back into the house, Ron limping slightly from where Sirius had accidentally kicked him. "Yea well this is what I get for volunteering to see if you were done loading the trunks so we could go." remarked Ron ruefully.

Ginny overheard Ron's last remark in the crowded entrance hall, and turned. "Oh give it a rest Ron, the only reason you volunteered was to avoid any more of Harry's flying trunks..."

Ron rubbed the back of his head and joined in on the laughter as they ducked out of Grimmauld Place and into the dark and stormy dawn for their journey back to Hogwarts.