Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to Harry Potter, or the chapter titles 11 onwards

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Chapter 21: Wild is the Wind

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Hermione settled herself on the cool grass, the golden sun warming her face as she re-opened her Charms book and continued to read. Sirius stood next to her, broom in hand staring at the bushy haired girl trying to figure out a way to get her to fly.

"Hermione?"

"Go and fly Sirius, I'll be fine here," she replied, not taking her eyes off the page in front of her.

Sirius settled on the grass next to her and leaned on his arm which he placed behind her. Following this Hermione absentmindedly leaned into Sirius due to his close proximity. She looked up and saw Lily speed away from James.

"I didn't know Lily could fly."

Sirius smiled. "She's an excellent flier, Prongs and I have been trying to convince her to try out for the house team for years, unfortunately she believes more in her studies."

Hermione turned to face Sirius. "Unfortunately?" she asked, eyebrow raised.

Sirius chuckled, "Unfortunately for the team. Lily would make a brilliant Seeker."

Hermione raised both eyebrows in shock 'another thing to tell Harry' she thought.

"Hermione?" Sirius asked.

"Hmmm?"

"Come fly with me," he pleaded, she looked apprehensively at the broom lying by Sirius' side.

"I don't know Sirius."

"Pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaassssseeeeeeee," he said doing his best 'puppy eyed' expression.

Hermione laughed and gently shoved his chest. "Fine, but only for a bit" she said.

Sirius beamed, grabbed his broom and leapt to his feet; he turned and offered Hermione a hand up. She took the offered hand and was practically pulled onto the broom, Sirius arms wrapped tightly around her.

"You can't get away now," he whispered in her ear sending a shiver down her spine. "Don't worry, I wont let anything happen to you. Do you trust me Hermione?" he asked while they were still on the ground.

"Of course I do Sirius," she replied a little shakily.

With that Sirius pushed off and they rose slowly into the air.

"Lesson number one," Sirius continued, still talking quietly in her ear. "It's always best to ascend slowly, don't want to loose you're breakfast now do we?"

Hermione gave a shaky laugh. "Yet you eat half the table on a Quidditch day and still zoom around the pitch."

"Yes but I have a stomach made of steel," he replied chuckling.

"I believe that one."

"Lesson number two," he said when they had reached a height of about ten meters off the ground. "To move forward or speed up gently press down and lean forward." He had his hands over her own and gently pressed down when he said the instructions. The broom moved forward slowly and they traveled at a comfortable speed down the Quidditch pitch, the others watching curiously at the impromptu flying lesson.

"You ok?" Sirius asked a tense Hermione as they neared the end of the pitch. Hermione nodded slightly so he continued. "Lesson number three: 'steering', when you want to turn just pull lightly in your favored direction, the faster you pull the faster and sharper you turn." He felt Hermione tense slightly at these words. "It's ok, we'll take it slowly," he reassured the girl sitting in front of him, she relaxed just slightly as she felt his warm breath pass her cheek.

"We're going to go left ok?" he asked preparing her for the direction. "You'll want to lean slightly with the broom, just follow my lead." With that he gently started to turn the broom, at the same time as leaning slightly to the left, Hermione following his movements so they didn't over balance.

Ever so slowly they circled around the pitch, the others coming over now and then, obviously having worked out what was happening, to shout Hermione words of encouragement. After about three laps, with Sirius constantly talking to Hermione to calm her down, he slowly felt her start to relax in his arms.

"Ok, I'm going to move my hands back a bit and give you some control," Sirius felt her tense up again but moved his hands back from hers nonetheless. "Just relax, your doing fine," he reassured her as they slowly made another lap. Once Hermione started to get the feel of the broom she slowly relaxed again. "Lesson number four: if you want to go higher you need to lean forward slightly and pull up on the broom, do you want to go higher?" he asked and saw her shake her head, he chuckled. "Maybe another time hmmm?" she didn't answer but Sirius could almost picture her smiling.

He looked for James to confirm this, the other boy saw Sirius questioning gaze and a moment later, as if reading his friends thoughts, threw a quick glace at Hermione before giving Sirius a big grin.

Sirius moved his hands back over Hermione's again. "Lesson number..uhh."

"Five," Hermione answered for him

"Right, Lesson number five: If you want to slow down or stop you need to lean back slightly and bring the front of the broom up gently, remember not to lean forward when you do it otherwise you'll go higher," he saw Hermione nod that she understood and he gently pulled back on the broom while they leaned back, slowing them down to a stop.

"Lesson number six: descending. This is like ascending but opposite," he could almost see the 'no duh' expression planted on Hermione's face. "Lean forward slightly but instead of pulling up push down, not too much though you don't want to end up with a face full of grass."

"No," Hermione said still a little shakily. "Wouldn't want that."

Sirius smiled to himself and gently leaned forward while pressing down on Hermione's hands to slowly guide them to the ground. As soon as Hermione's feet hit the ground she let out her breath she didn't realize she had even been holding. Sirius put a hand under her elbow to steady her as she got used to being on the ground again.

"So," Sirius said as he moved to stand in front of her.

"So?" Hermione asked raising an eyebrow.

"Same time tomorrow?" he asked with a cheeky grin.

Hermione rolled her eyes and pushed him in the chest. "Don't push it," she said laughing as he caught himself before falling over.

He grinned and placed his hands back on her waist. "You had fun, admit it."

Hermione smiled and put her hands behind his neck "Yes I did," she said and he moved in closer. "Thank you."

Sirius smiled "You're welcome," he said before claiming her lips with his own.

"Ahem"

They broke apart to see the others standing there grinning "We're going to head up to dinner if you two want to join us, although I don't think McGonagall would be happy if you walked in attached at the lip." James said smirking.

"Yes James because you know all about that don't you?" Sirius shot back with a grin

Both James and Lily turned a deep crimson, it was a very uncomfortable situation when the Transfiguration teacher catches the head boy and girl snogging while on duty.

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A week later Hermione was sitting again in the common room as the sun set reading her defence book, when James walked in the room.

"Hey Hermione, have you seen Sirius?" he asked walking over and joining her on the couch.

Hermione shook her head. "I haven't seen him since dinner."

James looked confused as he pondered the current situation in front of him. Remus walked into the room and sat across from James.

James eyes suddenly flashed and Hermione laughed to herself as she pictured a light bulb flashing above his head. The messy haired boy in question reached into his bag started to search for something. He was so wrapped up in his exploration that he didn't notice the object of his initial search creep quietly into the room, signaling the other two to try and ignore his presence.

"Aha," James exclaimed as he lifted a mirror out of his bag. "Sirius Black" he stated to the mirror.

Sirius crept behind the boy so his face appeared in the reflection "Whats up Prongs?"

James almost jumped out of his skin and the mirror flew from his hands, luckily Remus quick reflex's sprang into action and he deftly plucked the mirror from the air.

James however, was still sitting on the couch, hand clutched to his chest, as he stared wide eyed at Sirius. "Don't dooo that."

Sirius laughed and reached over and grabbed Hermione's hand, "Come on guys, follow me," he said leading the others back out through the portrait hole.

"Sirius, where are we going?" asked Hermione the other two boys following behind, each as curious as the other.

"That, is a surprise," He said leading them through the corridors.

The others followed Sirius' lead until they reached the witch with the hump that lead to Honeydukes.

Sirius pulled out his wand and tapped the witch while saying Dissendium, the entrance opened up and the group slipped inside.

"Lumos," Hermione heard Sirius say before the corridor was bathed in light. All three followers gasped at the sight in front of them.

Sirius grinned and wandered up to said object and proudly spread his arms. "What do you think?" he asked. "She's beautiful isn't she?"

James and Remus stepped forward for a closer inspection of the shiny new motorbike that Sirius had hidden on the Hogwarts grounds. Hermione stayed back, still in awe at what was in front of her. This was the bike that Hagrid had used to transport Harry to the Dursley's.

Sirius came up and stood beside her, putting one arm around her waist and pulling her into his side.

"So, what do you think?" he asked her.

"It's nice, I like it." she replied.

"Good, I got you something too." he said as he wandered over to the bike.

He came back and handed her a shiny new black helmet.

"This is for you," he said handing it to her.

She stared at the object in her hands before looking wide eyed back to the tall boy in front of her.

"Sirius.."she started, but stopped when he put a finger on her lips.

"It's ok, you don't have to come on it straight away, just let me know when you're ready for a ride, ok?" he asked.

Hermione nodded, and smiled at how Sirius could read her like a book. She stood on her toes and gave him a quick kiss before they all turned and headed back to the Gryffindor tower.

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The following day the group headed down to Hogsmead the mid March sun warming them all from the late winter chill that still clung to the air. Not having any shopping to do the group wandered around and browsed the shops before heading to the Three Broomsticks.

They got a large enough table for the six of them and sat around drinking Butterbeer's and generally having a good time, that was until a certain greasy haired Slytherin walked into the room and over to their table.

"How can we help Snivellus?" asked James. "Lost your shampoo? That's a damn shame, did you see all those girls just flocking to run their hands through your silky tresses."

The other Marauders laughed while Hermione and Lily were attempting to look stern at the same time as suppressing their own laughter.

"Very funny Potter, I was just going to inform the girls here," pronouncing the word girls as if it belong in the gutter. "That this is a wizarding town, Mudbloods should not be welcome, this place is going to the dogs."

All four Marauders, Peter albeit slightly more hesitantly, jumped to their feet and raised their wands to defend the girls honour. Both Lily and Hermione jumped up and grabbed their respective partners' wand arms, knowing the first hex would come from one of them.

"Sirius," Hermione said to the boy in front of her. "Leave it, he's just trying to get a rise out of you, he's provoking you, just ignore him, he just wants the attention."

In the corner of her eye she noticed that Lily had convinced James to lower his wand and Remus and Peter followed suit.

Snape turned his ugly glare on the girl attempting to calm the temper that was Black. "Stupid Mudblood, get out of it I don't need your help."

Hermione spun to face the Slytherin. "I am not helping you, you slimy rat, I'm helping my friends so they don't get into any trouble that you would have caused."

"Ahh well, I could just blame it on the creature and we'll all be fine."

Snape had gone too far then, Hermione raised her own wand and pointed it at Snape's face, aiming right between the eyes.

Unfortunately the Professors entered at that same moment, and caught Hermione and Sirius with their wands pointed at Snape.

"Miss Thomas, Mister Black!" snapped Professor McGonagall. "What do you think you are doing? Put your wands away immediately, ten points each from Gryffindor and detention tonight."

Snape smirked at the Gryffindors and walked off in the other direction, happy that at least some of his targets had been taken down

Sirius looked at Hermione "I'm sorry, that was my fault."

Hermione shook her head. "No, I seem to have picked up on some legendary tempers from this group," she said as she looked from Sirius to James and Lily. "I deserved that as much as you, maybe not so much as Snape but I don't want you to apologize for my actions."

Sirius nodded and they sat down to join the others in a somewhat, less pleasant than before, afternoon.