Sirius was not pleased, to say the least, with Hermione's intentions. They had planned to stay a few days with Hermione's parents in Brighton before going back to London. So he tried to convince her to stick to that plan, whereas he would enter the nest of vipers alone. He had pointed out how disappointed her parents would be.

But she had beee adamant, telling him that they would understand, even if inwardly she wondered if they really would, considering that she had no intention of giving them the true reasons of such an abrupt cancellation of their intended stay. It had already taken some time before they could get used to the idea that they had spent two years in Australia without remembering anything of their past life. And this, because their daughter had seen fit to shelter them from the possible threat paused by some dark wizard she had eventually helped to defeat.

In the end, Hermione and Sirius decided to stop at her parent's house just for two days, and Hermione invented a very important and urgent task the Department of Mysteries had suddenly entrusted to her.

"It's not dangerous ?" her mother had asked.

"Mum, since the end of the war, did I ever work on anything dangerous ? Dangerous magic does not lie within my department's competence, you know," answered Hermione, too aware of her own duplicity.

"Anyway, I longed so much for these few days with you. And I wanted to get better acquainted with Sirius, as well."

"Why ? Do you want to play the part of the typical mother–in-law, and check if he's good enough for your daughter ?" asked Hermione. It was a joke, of course, but the truth was that she wasn't completely sure of what her parents had really felt at the news of her upcoming marriage. They had seemed a little disappointed to know that her fiance, like Ron, belonged to a family of wizard. Of course, as it was to be expected, both of them had seemed to be thoroughly won over by Sirius' charm and obvious love for her, once they had met him. Yet Hermione had not had the time until then to discuss her marriage with her mother.

"Of course not, my dear", laughed her mother. "I mean, Siriusis gorgeous, he looks just like the wizard prince of some fairy tale. And what's much more important, he seems to be a warm-hearted, selfless lad, and I can see that he adores you. I never told you so, but I wasn't sure that Ron would be a good match for you. But, now, I think you made a good choice, one has only to see you together to be sure of it !"

"There is something in his eyes…", she added after a pause. "As young as he is, I suspect that he suffered a lot already. You made your mission to change his life for the better, didn't you, my little crusader ?"

Once more impressed by how perceptive her mother could be, Hermioned nodded. "You're not far from the truth. Sirius has had a very unhappy childhood. His parents were horrid people."

"What happened to him ? And how did you met ? You didn't even tell me that."

"I met him thanks to Harry, he's a distant relative of his", answered Hermione succintly. "The exact circumstances of her first meeting with Sirius was certainly not something she had any intention of ever disclosing to her parents."

"I had somehow the feeling that you were disappointed that I would marry a wizard", she added quickly in order to change the subject.

"Well.. You know… It was before we met Sirius… But we had hoped that, if you married a non-magical person, we'd get to see you more often. When we first received that letter from Hogwarts I never imagined that your gift would bring us to be so often separated."

The sadness in her mother's tone tugged at Hermione's heart. She too, missed the open conversations she used to have with her mother, when she was her favorite confidante.

"Marriage with non-magical persons are complicated for us, Mum, our world is too dangerous for them."

At the flash of fear that passed in her mother's eyes, she realised that she had said the wrong words.

"See what I mean ? With a non-magical guy, you would have stayed in our world, safe. Are you sure that you're not going to face some dangers again ? I've seen the anxious way you look at Sirius, sometimes, when he can't see you. And he does the same. Wha's going on ?"

Hermione opted for a mitigated version ot the truth.

"Sirius has just inherited some king of family business, and it had been rather mismanaged. Nothing really dangerous, but he'll have to confront some unpleasant relatives I've not met yet, that's all."

Hermione saw that thanks to that half-truth, she had managed to reassure her mother. In her own book, family conflicts couldn' t expose someone to any kind of deadly danger.

"I'm sure he'll manage very well, my dear. And you'll be there to help him. you can be cry tactful when you want to."

TBC

A big thank you to h33r, jltavare, SereniteRose and JayBat, my last reviewers. Please people give me more reviews ! Favs and follows are nice, but not as big an incentive to go on as the more detailed feedback of a review !