Here's my huge apology to my wonderful 115 reviewers of this story. You've been so kind to me, and I've been negligent…

Well actually… I had jaw surgery, then music festivals, then midterms, more music festivals, fasting to raise money for Thailand orphanages with my youth group and working on writing my novel (actual original fiction) so it's not like I've been sitting on my large (but reportedly nice) arse not doing anything. I also wrote or am writing a few small ficlets to get me going again so watch out for those

But bad news… my laptop is out for maintenance AGAIN! The power cord broke this time… I'm still under warranty, so I should be okay, but for now, I'm upstairs on the desktop praying I don't wake up my parents with the sound of my typing.

Anyway, onto the story…

Chapter 6

Hermione dragged her feet to DADA the next morning. She was due to meet with Sirius after class to discuss her tutoring, but she was dreading it. It would be the first time they would be alone since the Incident as the liked to call it and although her heart beat faster just to think of it, she also became nauseous.

It was a "Remus" class today, so Sirius was mainly just sitting in he back assisting when necessary. He had large dark circles under his eyes from the lack of restful sleep the night before. How is someone supposed to wake up well rested when visions of a certain bookworm are going through his mind… replaying that kiss over and over again…

"STOP IT!" he mentally slapped himself. He had to stop these thoughts… she was his student! "My very attractive student…" this time, he actually slapped himself. When he looked up he realised the class was staring at him, including the woman who haunted his dreams. "I must have slapped myself harder than I thought" He smiled awkwardly and Moony cleared his throat directing the classes attention to him, well most of the class.

She was staring at him. She knew she should probably turn around, but she did not want to. Their eyes met and the world dissolved around her. It was not until Harry (who was sitting beside her) asked her if he could borrow a quill (he had just broken his) that she was rudely pulled from her stupor. She let out a breath she did not even realise she was holding and got him the quill.

"Here ya go Harry" He heard her say as she handed him the quill. He was bracing himself against one of the back shelves. "What just happened here?" he thought to himself as he watched her. He could not help it…

All too soon, the class was over. Hermione and Ron hung back (Ron was meeting with Lupin). Ron was taken into the office to discuss their schedule and they left Hermione and Sirius alone. Neither spoke, their eyes did not meet.

After a few seconds, Hermione took a deep breath to steady herself and started speaking "Well, as you've probably guessed, I've been ready to sit my NEWTs since the beginning of 6th year, the subjects I've been taking are DADA, Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Herbology, Arithmacy, Ancient Runes and History of Magic. I have top marks in all of these. So I'm unsure as to why Dumbledore does not just have me sit the exams." Her eyes never left the floor… her shoes were just too interesting…

"Well, after you three left, Dumbledore informed me of all of this. This tutoring is less practical, the point is to basically hone your skills in duelling."

"Well I was actually hoping you could possibly help me with one thing" She looked up at him, big mistake. Her breath became shallow and she started trembling. All false confidence she was trying to show melted away. It was then that she realised how close she was to him.

Sirius could not stop himself. He closed the space between them and gently cupped her cheek in his hand. He bent down and kissed her gently, hearing her moan softly… what was happening to them?

Hermione's head was swimming. She was about to ask him about training her as an Animagus, but all reason went flying out the window when she looked at him. She opened her mouth to him and placed her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to him.

He felt her deepen the kiss. He moved his hands down to her back and gently experimented with his tongue, he did not want to move her too fast.

She eagerly reciprocated the things he was doing with his mouth and began lacing her fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck.

"Ahem"

They froze at the sound and pulled apart, they were greeted with the smiling face of Remus Lupin.

"The things one finds when looking for one's chocolate…"

"Moony, this is not what it looks like…" Sirius started, reluctantly pulling away from Hermione.

"Oh… so you weren't just playing tonsil hockey with Miss Granger?" Remus asked smirking.

Neither spoke, they just blushed and looked at the floor again.

"It seems Sirius has discovered the downfall to de-aging to teenagedom… the hormones… I'll leave you two to "talk."" With that he left the room again.

"What just happened?" Hermione asked aloud, more to herself than to him.

"We snogged"

"You certainly have a way with words Sirius…" and with that they both started laughing.