Chapter Two

"Hermione?"

She took one step closer to him, and he bridged the rest of the distance. Falling to his knees, his hands wound round her waist and he pressed his cheek against her clothed stomach. She could feel his body tremble and shake with each silent sob he let out. Her arms wrapped around him and held him close to her, his tears dripping on her wrist. But she could offer no words of comfort.

After a time the tears subsided and he began to come back to himself. He pulled away from her slowly, almost reluctantly, and avoided her eyes.

"It's alright. Why don't you go take a shower? The bathroom's right there and I've left some of my dad's clothes in it for you. They should fit alright. I'm going to go down and make some breakfast."

He didn't respond but his eyes held his thanks when they finally met hers. She smiled in return and left him to go downstairs.

She grabbed a frying pan and some eggs, sausage and toast from the refrigerator. Her parents always left it well stocked. She wasn't sure what Sirius wanted, but she needed to do something to keep herself busy. But even with her body occupied, her mind couldn't stay away from the tortured man using her bathroom. He had already been through so much in his life, and here she was putting him through more. His life wasn't going to get any easier in the coming months but they needed him. She wondered if she was being selfish. Surely wherever he was had to have been giving him more of a rest then he'll get here, but no, she had seen the look in his eyes, she was sure she had done the right thing.

Her mind drifted to the other matter concerning him. When she had held him earlier, it was only to offer some comfort to a good man who had been through too much. But somehow, by touching him, he had calmed all the raging demons inside her. It could possibly be a side of effect of the spell, that had her uneasy with being apart from him, or it could just stem from having finally gotten him back after missing him for so long that caused the feeling. Still, she made a mental note to research it.

The shrill ringing of a phone in the quiet house startled her out of her thoughts. She glanced at the clock on the kitchen wall, noticed the time and picked up the cordless phone.

"Hey Mom."

"Hi, sweety, how are you this morning?"

"Fine."

"Are you sure? You don't sound fine. Do you need us to come home?"

"No, I am fine. I'm just a little tired. I didn't get much sleep."

"Are you sure you're not coming down with anything? I hear there's a bug going around."

"Who would I have caught it from? You know it's just been me most of this summer."

"Alright, I know. But it's a mother's duty to worry. You'll understand when you have your own daughter."

"Hopefully I won't have one."

"That'll change, sweetheart. So how is everything else?"

"Um, ok, I guess."

"Just ok?"

Hermione rolled her eyes, and shifted her weight, looking over at the stairs where she could hear Sirius coming down.

"Everything's fine."

"Come on, you can tell your mom. Is it a boy?"

She met his dark eyes as he reached the last step.

"Something like that."

He sat down at the breakfast room table and her attention snapped back to the eggs that were currently burning.

"Look, I'll have to call you back later. I need to go now. Bye."

He sniffed the air, his inner canine coming through. "Eggs?"

"And sausage, and toast." She grabbed the pan and two plates and brought them over to the table. She set one in front of him and one across the table.

"You've been spending too much time with Molly." He told her as he eyed all the food.

"I just figured you'd be hungry and I wasn't sure what you wanted-" she started explaining, or maybe babbling, as she scraped portions off onto each of the plates, "You are, aren't you? Hungry, that is. Because if you aren't or if you want something else I can-"

"It's fine." She looked up at him briefly and smiled, before looking away again nervously. She took the pan back into the kitchen and left it in the seat before returning and sitting across from him. She buttered a piece of toast, striving desperately for normalcy, and set it on her plate.

"Why am I here?"

"Well, my parents are out of town right now and I didn't know where else would be a safe place..."

"Not here in this house, here in this world. What did you do?" His eyes were intent and not leaving hers. She finally answered him quietly.

"I brought you back."

"Do you know how dangerous what you did was? You stupid child! You could have been killed!"

"Oh, and you have such a healthy respect for danger." She shot back at him, matching his anger.

"That's different. Hermione," he softened his voice and tried a different approach, "If anything had happened to you..."

"Then a couple people would be sad and the world would still go on. It's not my life that matters."

"How can you say that?"

"Stop it! You don't know what it's been like since you've been gone. It's been hell here. Everything's changed. The order is completely lost, so much hope has been shattered and Harry- he changed worst of all. In the state he's in, he couldn't defend himself from a mosquito- and worse, I'm not sure he'd want to. For there to be any hope for the future, I had to bring you back. You're needed here."

"For what? To be locked up again as the order's mascot? We both saw how well that turned out last time."

Hermione didn't have an answer for that. The silence stretched and she looked at the man before her. Really looked. He was clearly a man, his body showing what the years and stress had taken from him, but he had been denied so many experiences during all the years he was locked up. In one way, he had been hardened much too young, and in another way, it was as if he was still a boy who was denied the chance to grow up. Hermione grabbed both the barely touched dishes and dropped them in the sink. They clattered loudly against the still air. Her back was still to him when she spoke, but she could feel his eyes on the back of her head.

"After I can be certain that you're well, I'll send a letter to Professor Lupin. And then I'll be done with my part in this. What you do after is your own business."

"So eager to be rid of me after you went through so much trouble to bring me back?"

"I didn't bring you back for me."

She washed her hands, of the food and the entire situation, and left the room.

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