DISCLAIMER: not my toys, only playing with them.

9. These Words


Hermione went to the sitting room where she found Ginny and her three of her older brothers playing Exploding Sap together. She decided she should go down to the kitchen to take advantage of talking to Harry alone.

She got to the kitchen to find Harry sitting at the table running his finger around the rim of the butter beer he was drinking. He had the latest Daily Prophet in his hands and was reading it quietly to himself.

"Hello, Harry!" Hermione said cheerfully as she went for the chair across the table from him.

Harry jumped at the sound of her voice, but soon found his own and said "Hello, Mione."

"You're not busy are you? If you are, I can come back later," she said as she started to get up from the chair she just sat in.

"Oh, no, no, no; its ok, Mione. Did you want to talk about something?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Well," she said with a smile, she flicked her wand over the shoulder locking the kitchen door and placing a silencing charm on the room. She continued sitting back down, "There is something I wanted to tell you for along time, but I never could. You see, I accidentally did something one day that I shouldn't have, but it ended up turning into something wonderful and…"

Harry couldn't help it and burst out. "Oh god, are you pregnant or something, Hermione?"

"Oh, goddess no. I'm not pregnant, I'm dating Sirius." Hermione giggled out.

Harry sat back with a smile and a sigh. "Oh alri… wait, what did you say?" He then just started talking way too fast, "Your, with Sirius? Seriously? When, what, how? Why didn't you tell me before? I… But how did…?"

"Oh, breathe, Harry! It happened a long time ago," She started with a vacant smile. "Well, not that long ago. It was last summer, but he had secretly been writing to me as well since the end of third year. It all just happened so fast after I told him…"


FLAHSBACK

"Oh thank gods it's finally Thursday!" thought Hermione excitedly.

Most of the students at Hogwarts can not wait for it to be Friday, but Hermione certainly had her reasons to be unusually happy on Thursdays, her letter form Sirius came. No one but Hermione knew that Sirius had been secretly writing to her since he escaped with Buckbeak. They both decided not to mention any of this to Harry, why should he care anyway, right? So, every Thursday at six o'clock, right before dinner, Hermione would see an owl at her dormitory window with a fresh letter from Sirius.

Her day went by rather quickly in anticipation for six o'clock to roll around.

She, Harry and Ron we're all in the Common Room talking about the days classes.

"Snape was horrible as usual; a foot and a half on the Nomadi Crixaz Potion?" Ron flared. "Ridiculous. I hate having Double Potions, especially with Malfoy. He always helps Snape with reasons to give us detentions."

Harry grumbled in agreement with Ron.

Ron noticed Hermione looking distracted. "What's up with you today, Mione? Anything interesting happen in Ancient Runes?"

"Oh nothing, nothing at all." She replied with a dreamy spaced-out smile. She turned and looked towards the clock.

The clock struck six o'clock, chiming its arrival.

All Harry and Ron heard was "See you at dinner!" and with a brown, fuzzy flash, Hermione was up the dormitory steps.

She got to her window just in time to see the toucan perch outside on her window sill. She opened the window to let the large beaked bird into the dormitory. She quickly took off the letter tied to his left leg.

"Thank you, Toucan Sam." She giggled as she unrolled the scroll. 'Sam' flew up onto Lavender's bed canopy, awaiting her reply letter.

" Mione-

Hope things are well. Harry tells me his scar has been hurting, I'm flying north as soon as possible. If you can get the chance, try to see me… bring Harry and Ron too, of course. I figure though, if I do go up there I'll just end up getting caught. What do you think? Oh bugger it, I'm going up anyway. I really do hope to see you… and Ron too of course. Well now I'm just babbling…

- Sirius "

Harry had been right? Sirius was really coming? And he just wrote him back telling him not to come!

"Oh damn it!" She snapped. At her sudden shout, the startled toucan flew up and landed on Hermione's canopy.

"Oh, sorry, Sammy. Just a second!" Hermione said, anxiety tingeing her voice and she grabbed a scroll and quill to write her lengthy reply letter. She most defiantly wanted him to know that she was extremely worried about his trip north. She also, of course, did not forget to tell him the she would be absolutely devastated, no, heartbroken, if she did not get to see him ever again. Even though Hermione certainly did not want to see, well, hear about Sirius being behind the cold, enchanted iron bars of Azkaban, or even worse, Kissed! But she certainly did wish to see him again. The more and more in their letters back and forth together have they being getting longer and more intimate. Hermione may have already been 'crushing' on Sirius, but now he seemed to be returning the feelings; through his letters anyway.

END FLASHBACK


"Wow, Mione. You had been writing to him the whole time?" Harry said with a smile as he rubbed his forehead. "I still don't know why you two didn't tell me earlier, it's not like I would have freaked out or anything."

"Well, this was a big deal that could have gotten Sirius and everyone else who knew, in a lot of trouble and he didn't need anymore problems. How do you think Mrs. Weasley would have taken it? How she still will react!" Hermione's voice changed to mimic Mrs. Weasley, "'Oh, Hermione, he's old enough to be your father! I never thought I'd see the day you'd do something like this!'"

Harry burst out laughing, her impression of Mrs. Weasley sounded just like her.

"It isn't funny! You know that's how se would react! She'd probably end up passing out first, of course… Anyway, I'm sorry we couldn't tell you. The only one who knows of us, besides you now, is Dumbledore and Ginny."

"Ginny knows? You told her before me!" Harry looked affronted.

Hermione had an uncomfortable look on her face. "Well, she kind of figured it out by herself…she forced it out of me."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Oh ok fine, I did tell her. But don't be mad, you know now…" Hermione said worriedly.

"Yes I do. Anyway, keep on with your story." Harry said with a smile. "I don't care who you told before me as long as you're the one to tell me and not Ron and his big blabbering mouth."

Hermione laughed, "Ok, now where was I?" She paused or a second and then remembered. "Alright, well, we had been writing each other as you know and really didn't get closer until last year when we all came here for the summer. You got here about two or three weeks after we all arrived. Sirius was enthralled to have someone else in the house besides just him and Kreacher. He was kind of, well, skittish around me at first. He would see me coming down the hall and would turn into a room where he had no business being, or would jump ten feet up in the air when I spoke to him. Then, after four days of that, I found a note on my pillow. The note was from Sirius apologizing for the way he's been acting, so on and so forth, and asked for me to go up to his room at eleven that night."


FLAHSBACK

"Hermione-

I need to talk to you, I know I've been acting strange lately and well… damn, you know I can't express myself well in words; I'm not good at that like you are. Will you come up to my room, around eleven tonight? So we can talk? Please?

- Sirius "

Hermione had been pacing around her room ever since eight-thirty, when she read the note for Sirius the first time. Now on her one hundred forty seventh time reading it, and two and a half hours later, she was starting to get really nervous.

"Gods, what am I going to say? What am I going to do? What am I going to wear?" Hermione's thoughts were starting to get frantic.

What if she said something wrong? What if she had been assuming the wrong thing this whole time? What if Sirius wanted nothing to do with her and she was just being a silly little girl?

No, Sirius wouldn't be like that. Would he?

She sat down on her bed and looked at the old, dusty vanity in the corner.

Hermione got up and walked over to it. She looked into the mirror. Her hair was frizzy as usual and she looked pallid. She sighed and looked around on the tabletop for a hair brush.

"It's in top right drawer."

Hermione froze and slowly looked around, then into the mirror. Her reflection had a cocky smile and had its arms crossed.

"What, never seen an enchanted mirror before? Oh, and near the brush is an old anti-frizz solution. It maybe a tad old, but it sure works." Hermione's reflection said with a smile as it motioned towards the drawer. "Go on, dear, nothings going to hurt you in there, trust me."

Hermione looked down at the drawer, took a breath and opened it. There was an old silver brush lying inside. Next to it was a small, dusty bottle. She smiled and took both objects out and sat them on the tabletop.

"See! I told you they were in there." The reflection huffed. "You should be more trusting, loosen up! You're so up tight all the time! Bet by the time your thirty you'll have grey hair."

"I will not!" Hermione mumbled angrily. She looked up into the mirror. "You better be quiet. I'll shatter you into a million pieces if you don't be nice to me this instant!"

The mirror clicked its tongue. "You think Sirius will appreciate you breaking his mother's vanity mirror? Sure he didn't like the woman much, but she was still his mother and he loved her…sort of. Anyway, he wants to give it to you, you know."

Hermione eyes light up, "He what…?"

"He wanted you to have this room, it was his mothers. The nicest, grandest room in all Black Manor, was to go to Hermione, that being you correct?" The mirror said wisely.

"How do you know this?" Hermione questioned breathlessly.

"Mirrors know everything." Smiling, the mirror poked out its tongue at her. "You better hurry, it's almost eleven."

Hermione squeaked looking over at the clock. Ten minutes.

"Shit!"

"My, my, young lady, so well educated and still such a dirty mouth!" The mirror play scolded her.

"Oh shut up and tell me how to use this stuff!"

Her mirror giggled, "So easily cracked aren't we, dear?"


Sirius had been sitting in the dark for over thirty minutes. The dark allowed him to think without getting distracted by material objects around him.

What if Hermione didn't come? What if he had been reading the letters with false hopes and making them say what he wanted them to? What if she thinks he is a silly old man who doesn't have a chance in the world with her! She could have Harry or that Ron kid, or any of the boys at Hogwarts. Why him? He was old enough to be…

His thoughts we interrupted when he heard a faint knocking on the door.

Sirius thought his heart my burst though his chest. He got up and magicked the lights on.

His hand shook as he reached out for the door knob. His fingers grasped it weakly and turned it slowly until it clicked, and pulled it back to reveal who had been knocking on his door.

"Hey Sirius, Molly wanted me to ask you where the extra pillows are. Poor Harry needs a few more." Asked Arthur.

Definitely not Hermione.

"Um, I have a few. How many you need?" Sirius croaked.

"Two or three… you should drink some water, you sound a bit horse." Arthur said with a smile of concern.

Sirius did his best to smile back, "Thank you, hold on a second and I'll get you those pillows." He backed away from the door, grabbed two pillows off his bed and handed them to Arthur.

"Thanks mate. Harry will appreciate it. You should come down and see him soon, he likes you a lot you know."

Sirius looked around Arthur down the hall and spotted Hermione coming.

"Yea, something like that." Sirius said obviously with him mind elsewhere, "You should get those pillows to him; he'll get better sooner with them rather than without them. Tell him that I'll come see him tomorrow if he really cares. Goodnight Arthur."

"I'm sure he cares, Sirius…"Arthur started

"Goodnight Arthur." Sirius said pointedly.

"Right, goodnight Sirius." Arthur said turning to walk away, looking a bit confused.

When Arthur was gone, Sirius no longer saw Hermione. Maybe he had imagined her there. He sighed in defeat. It was exactly eleven o'clock and Hermione wasn't there.

As soon as he went to close the door he felt a strong resistance and there stood Hermione with her hand against the door. They just stood there looking at each other both extremely nervous and not quite sure what to say. Hermione finally just pushed him back into his room and shut the door behind her.

"I thought it would look odd if we were just standing in the hallway staring at each other all night." Hermione said with a nervous giggle, making sure not to look Sirius in the eye.

She then walked over to the chairs in front of the fireplace and motioned for him to sit. Sirius obeyed and sat. He expected Hermione to take the seat next to him but she didn't, instead she started to pace slowly looking from the ceiling to Sirius's face then to the floor.

Sirius started twiddling his thumbs. He usually was bold and daring, saying what he wished when he wished to, but for some reason he was scared he would say something wrong and scare Hermione off.

"I don't know what I was thinking coming here. If we do what I really want us to do, we could loose some many things and some many bad things could happen. Another part of me just doesn't care about what anyone things." She looked at him and stopped pacing. "Ever since I met you I've been attracted to you. You have this mysterious air about you and you never take no for an answer. You're strong, smart, handsome, courageous, bold, daring… everything thing I've pictured my perfect match to be. People think I want a calm and collected bookworm, but I don't! I want a rugged man. I'm more mature and not to mention smarter than all of the girls at Hogwarts, even the ones in the years ahead of me! The boys at Hogwarts are juvenile who still laugh at fart jokes and fling boogies at each other. And that's all I got to say. I love you, is that ok?" She flung herself into his arms and looked into his surprised, yet pleased eyes.

Sirius was then officially speechless. He for some reason convinced himself she didn't love him, yet always knew she did.

"Yes, love. That's ok. I love you too." He finally whispered to her.

Hermione's eyes started to tear up, she smiled a smile he had never seen before. She leaned closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes capturing his lips with her own.

There kiss was interrupted by a loud crash upstairs followed by what sounded like Mrs. Weasley yelling at the twins.

Sirius cursed them under his breath which Hermione heard of course, but it just made her laugh.

"Are you sure about his Hermione? I'm older enough to be your father. And what will people say about us? I don't think many people would like the thought of one of the world's smartest witches falling in love with an Azkaban escapee who's old enough to be her own father. God, think of what Molly will say." Sirius looked momentarily horrified, but shook it off. "And what about Harry? I'm basically his father; well I would like to be basically his father. What will he think? Me, Sirius, in love one of his best friends. He won't like it at all!"

"Well, I believe we can't decide by ourselves what to do. Who can we…? Dumbledore. We will talk to Dumbledore about it. I want to be with you so bad Sirius, I just don't know if we should. It could just cause so many different things to happen…"

"Don't worry about it. We'll figure it all out, baby. This is amazing though, I've never just start up been in love with someone. I'm just in love with you."

Hermione smiled. "Neither have I, but I know I love you too."

END FLASHBACK


"…And so we went and talked to Dumbledore, who suggested we do what our hearts told us. He also suggested to not telling anyone about our situation until we were sure we were ready to deal with everyone questioning it. It was seriously amazing Harry, I really have just been in love with him, we get along perfectly, and it's just so…"

"Weird or amazing?" Harry said with a teasing smile.

"Oh shut up, it was amazing." Hermione said as she smacked his arm.

"Well, I'm glad you finally told me about all this. I don't like thinking your hiding things from me, Mione. If you ever want to talk about anything, including Sirius issues, don't hesitate."

Hermione smiled. "Thank you Harry, you really don't know what that means to me. I need people to support me and Sirius being together, it makes it easier that way."

Harry seemed to ponder something a minute, then said "Yes, I know what you mean. Hermione, I have something to tell you too."

"If this is about Draco, I think I know what it's about."

Harry looked a tad dumbfounded. "What do you mean?" He looked around the room as if checking to make sure no one else was in the room, the continued. "Is it that obvious we're interested in each other?"

Hermione laughed, "Harry, come on! You spend most of the day in your room, with him. Not to mention the door is constantly locked…"

"Ok, yea I guess we haven't been that cautious about the whole thing. What do you think we should do?" Harry said sincerely.

"Follow your heart." Hermione grinned and took Harry's hand and patted it. "Come on, I believe there is a bunch of Weasley children in the sitting room waiting to beat us at chess or Exploding Sap."

Harry sighed. "Oh alright. But I really wanted to go see Draco."

"He should be left with Tasma, they need each other right now, don't worry, he'll be back. The ones you really love always come back to you in the end," there was a knock on the door. "Or even sooner than expected."

Harry got up quickly and opened the door to reveal, as Hermione predicted, Draco.

"Harry, I missed you…" Draco stopped dead seeing Hermione sitting at the table.

"Hello, Draco. It's ok, he told me." Hermione said nonchalantly.

"Oh." Draco said looking a bit stunned.

"We were just going up to the sitting room to play chess, want to come with us?" Harry asked his boyfriend.

"Yea, sure, that sounds… interesting." Draco said with a sigh.

"I'm sure you to would rather go to your room to talk about things or something like that, I'll see you both later." And with that, Hermione was headed up to the sitting room.

The boys both just stood there for a second, then Draco offered Harry his hand.

"Well, shall we?" Draco said with a smirk.

Harry smiled warmly, "Lets."

Draco wrapped his arms around Harry, pulling him close kising him passionately. Harry kissed him back fiercely.

When they broke apart Harry smiled and asked "What was that for?"

"Just becuase I love you. Can't say it anyother way."


"...These words are my own, from my heart flow,
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you,
There's no other way to better say
I love you, I love you
Thes words are my own, from my heart,
I love you I love you, thats all I got to say
cant think of a better way, and thats allI got to say
I love you, is that ok?"

- "These Words" - Natasha Bedingfield