A/N: A nice new long chapter. Since people have told me they prefer longer chapters that's what I'm going to do. I have to say I prefer doing less frequent, longer chapters. Takes a bit of pressure off me to update more often.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I adore you all. I have to say though that an interesting point was brought up when someone suggested she choose Severus. Is she going to choose anyone? I'm the writer and even I don't know... that aspect of the plot sort of grows on it's own. But the point was valid that she certainly has more in common with the Potions Master then Sirius... but physical attraction also has a strong case too. Good case of head vs. heart... or more correctly mind vs. lust... heh. Even I'm looking forward to the end and resolution of the whole scenario.

Anyway, enjoy this chapter, and as always I love hearing everyone's thoughts on the story :)

Chapter 27

Fate sometimes has it's useful moments.

A knock sounded on the door, and the noise broke me out of the coma like state I had just been in, making me jump off the couch suddenly very eager to get away from the man's lips. Sirius sighed, rubbing his hand over his face, and if my hearing wasn't mistaken, he was mumbling 'almost' over and over again. He got reluctantly up off of the couch and moved to the door.

I moved back onto the couch, crouched on top of it peering over the top watching as he opened the door, almost like I was using the couch as a barrier between the man and me. If I was lucky it was Severus here to tell Sirius all the details of what I had told him. If I was unlucky then it was Severus here to tell Sirius all the details of what I had told him, and that he had seen me naked, effectively cutting out my blackmail to get him to help me.

Instead of a hawk nosed Potions master sweeping in like he owned the place, I watched as a flurry of brown hair flew into the room latching onto Sirius and knocking him back a few steps. I sat up a little straighter a bit in confusion, and as much as I hated to admit it a spark of jealousy, looking at the young woman who had her arms tightly around his waist. The jealousy though died down at the absolute disarray appearing on Sirius's face. He was as in the dark as I was.

"Sirius! You're alive! Harry told us as much but..." Her voice was filled with unshed tears, and amazed disbelief.

I then noticed the young man standing in the doorway, a bright smile plastered on his freckled face. When added together with his bright red hair, then there was really only one family that the man could come from. He had to be a Weasley. All right, so there are plenty of red haired and freckled men in the world. But I wasn't just jumping to conclusions, after all he knew Sirius, and was at Hogwarts and knew Harry. Adding two and two together this time came to four. The age also named him as Ronald Weasley, Harry's best friend.

So the unveiling of the young man, still standing in the doorway made me look more closely at the young woman who now had disentangled herself from Sirius, and was wiping away a few tears from her brown eyes. If that was one Ron Weasley, then this had to be his wife and mother of his two children, Hermione Granger. Well probably Hermione Weasley now. I almost choked on the laugh that threatened to spill out at that name.

With the discovery of their identities I ducked back down behind the back of the couch a bit, peering over the top and watching the reunion from my impromptu bunker. Though judging from Sirius's still confounded look, he hadn't been able to put two and two together, he was still coming up with three...

"'Mione luv, He hasn't seen us for twelve years, don't you think he might not know who we are? Though more correctly the last time he had seen us we were just 15 years old." Ron walked into the room and held his hand out to Sirius, the smile still stuck on his face. "How's it going mate? How was being dead?"

It was rather nice being just an observer since the two new arrivals hadn't noticed me yet at all. One couldn't really expect them to since there was a living miracle standing in front of them. No one had ever looked better after being dead for so long. I took a perverse amount of pleasure from accomplishing that.

"Ron Weasley? Hermione Granger?" Now things were clicking with Sirius, and he was looking at the young man and woman like he was now remembering them. "Wait... Harry mentioned you two had gotten married, so it's Hermione Weasley now isn't it?"

I couldn't really blame Sirius for being a little slow, after all except for the whole red hair and freckles thing, I wouldn't have placed them either. The movie representations for the two had been quite a bit off.

This Ron was better looking in my opinion, though no one would ever say that he was going to win any 'Best looking Wizard' contests in any reality. But unlike the version I had grown used to, this one wasn't as goofy looking. Instead he had filled out, growing into a young man who perhaps wasn't exactly mature looking, but didn't look like he should be working as a clown either. His clothes weren't second hand rags anymore either, instead plain well worked clothes that just showed that he had grown up and was doing rather well on his own (or with help from his ever clever wife...).

Now Hermione on the other hand, and meaning no ill will toward the girl, even though she had just hugged Sirius... was not as attractive as the girl who had played her in the movies. Though that casting I had always thought had been a bit off, Hollywood going seemingly more for attractiveness then to match all the characteristics of the character in the book. This young woman was rather plain looking in a purely objective way. Her brown eyes though sparkled with intelligence, and the smile she had made her face shine. It was a face with character, even if it wasn't going to fit on the cover of Vogue, or Wizard's Weekly. I rather preferred the reality to what the screen had chosen. I was gratified too that the brown hair was still rather bushy, though tamed a bit by being pulled back with a simple hair band.

Now it was Sirius who was hugging the girl, and my eye twitched involuntarily, he then moved and clasped his arms around Ron in a warm greeting. I hadn't thought that he had been particularly close with these two Gryffindors. It had always been my thought that they had been Harry's friends, and that was the only real connection. I had never really thought much more about it. But as I had been told many times (usually by Draco...), there was a lot that the books had missed. The Order had been headquartered at his family's house, and Hermione and Ron had been there quite a bit. And Hermione had been involved in saving Sirius's life back in that third book. Now that one had always been my favourite. I had loved that hippogryff... I wonder what had happened to that bird... The idea crossed my mind that it had settled down with another hippogryff in the North of England and had raised many hatchlings, or whatever a creature like that had... eggs, or live babies? It was an idea worth possible further investigating...

"Sirius mate, we're not interrupting anything are we?" Ron had finally noticed me, and raised an eyebrow at me peering over the couch, causing my cheeks to pink slightly realizing that I had basically been hiding from them. Common courtesy suggested that I should have greeted them as well when they had entered the room, or at least made myself known. But it was far more interesting to watch silently. The red haired young man's voice suggested that there had been something indecent going on when they arrived. Remembering the close call before their knock only made my cheeks redden more. "Not that I could blame you." This off hand compliment just made the red darken. Hermione didn't look put out at her husband's admiring statement, she just rolled her eyes.

"Not really no." Sirius's smirk suggested though that he was thinking about what had almost happened as well, and that he considered that something had certainly almost happened, and given the chance he'd finish it soon. "Hermione, Ron, this is my fellow professor, Aine Mackinnion. She's teaching Muggle Studies this year. Aine, these are Harry's old friends Ron and Hermione."

I waved at them from my position on the couch, not really wanting to move from the spot. Hopefully they would just take it as embarrassment at being found in Sirius's room. Though really that wasn't what I wanted anyone to think either.

"Muggle Studies, really?" Hermione was regarding me carefully, and I couldn't help but think I was being judged in some way. "I wanted to teach that, but I could never get a job here."

Inside I winced, so I had the job she had wanted. Though the very idea that she wouldn't be given the job seemed utterly ridiculous. After all she was Hermione Granger, the smartest witch of her age, the one who could do any spell put before her, and with her muggle parents a perfect choice to teach the subject. Some of my thoughts must have showed on my face since Hermione gave a soft laugh.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to spend the evening glaring at you. I had wanted the job but the old professor Lilikins wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. By the time she had decided to wander off to America I was happily situated at the Ministry in the Muggle Affairs department, so it all worked out rather well. How did you get the job?"

I was still crouched on the couch, not moving a muscle, even though I was being spoken to from the other side of the room. It might have looked rather silly, but now I was comfortable and not about to move. Judging from her question, she had heard some things from Harry but certainly not everything, including anything about me. Well telling her a bit about me was certainly not going to cause too much of a problem.

"Well who better to teach Muggle Studies then a muggle?" I smirked slightly, but it became a nervous smile as Ron and Hermione looked at me, mouths agape. "Okay, maybe a muggle born wizard would have been better... But I needed the job, and Harry was nice enough to get me the position..."

"That's ridiculous!" Ron whistled. "A muggle teaching a bunch of teenaged wizards... I remember what Fred and George did to their teachers." He paused for a second. "Of course you won't have them to deal with, so you're lucky there. But every year has the students who want attention by playing jokes, and sometimes they're dumb enough to do it on their teachers."

"Are you saying your brothers are stupid?" Hermione rose an eyebrow, an amused quality to her voice. Ron just scoffed at the question.

"If they were stupid they wouldn't be making more money then everyone at the Ministry combined." He voice lowered there. "Not that it would be hard with our salaries. But still, a muggle with wizards? Even a harmless joke could be serious to someone who can't do magic. It's a ridiculous idea. Muggles wouldn't know the first thing about teaching wizards." He smiled slightly at me. "No offense or anything."

"None taken..." I smiled, rather amused by the whole conversation.

"I think it's rather a brilliant idea actually. The students need to learn to interact with muggles." Hermione smiled reassuringly at me. "While a muggleborn wizard might be able to handle the students, they still are influenced by their new surroundings and situation. A muggle is always a muggle. And McGonagall would flay anyone alive that messed with a muggle at the school. I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Oh I'm not worried about that in the slightest. Actually, I'd be more worried about Sirius over there..." I nodded at Sirius who was looking surprised at my suggestion.

"I will be a fine teacher. I'm sure all the students will look up to me with awe and respect."

Ron and I both snorted, and Hermione had to cover her mouth, likely to hide a rather amused grin. This all caused Sirius to get rather sulky, but he got over it quickly enough, offering both of his guests seats. He himself took a seat next to me on the couch, but I made sure to scoot down to the end, not wanting to sit too close to him. This movement didn't pass by unnoticed, but he just smirked slightly.

I sat on my end of the couch and played the rather quiet observer. It was quite fascinating watching Sirius chat so animatedly with these two young adults who he had last seen as rather feisty, adventurous fifteen year olds. It was like seeing a whole new Sirius as he conversed. His eyes weren't broken or haunted, and for once he wasn't being flirtatious or being a trouble maker. He was just talking to two people he hadn't seen in a very long time, at least in their standards of time. I really should ask him how time had passed in the veil.

My eyes followed all the movements of Sirius's hands. Watched as his hands brushed back his hair out of his eyes with little concern to how it messed it up even further, watched as his hands moved back and forth as he talked excitedly with Hermione about her children, or with Ron about how Quidditch was going. The slender fingers were circling patterns in the red fabric of the couch. Fascinated, I couldn't break my gaze away from watching the older man. Until of course he noticed my constant perusal, the pleased smile made me take my eyes off him immediately, noticing that Sirius hadn't been the only one to be paying attention to where I had been looking. Hermione looked thoughtful, and Ron looked like he was about to laugh.

Adamant not to be caught staring at Sirius again, I instead kept my eyes firmly on his guests, trying to act attentive to the conversations, though frankly all I was wondering was what I was going to do when they were finally gone and I was alone with the man again. I still had to tell him that I had blown our cover with Severus, not that it had been the best cover in my opinion. My attention though was brought sharply back to the conversation going on around me as Sirius almost destroyed one of Harry's imperatives, to keep his friends out of all this.

"Sirius..." Hermione was leaning forward in the chair she had curled up in, her brown hair falling over her shoulder. "I'm thrilled that your back, Harry is at the happiest I've ever seen him but..." Her voice stilled for a moment, her eyes going serious. "I don't understand how you are here with us right now."

I knew Harry would have explained to Hermione exactly the same thing he would have told everyone else, that it had been a mystery as to why Sirius came out of the veil. She was as subtle as Severus in her digging though, and it had to be as obvious to Sirius as it was to me. She was skeptical of what Harry had told her, wanting to know more information on what had happened. I didn't think that she was distrustful of what her old friend had told her, just that she thought she could find out something secret from the source.

"Oh, you can thank Aine here. She's the entire reason I'm here right now." Sirius had a bright smile on his face as he answered Hermione.

My foot whipped out and kicked Sirius hard in the side, he grunted in response. So apparently Hermione's rather obvious digging was actually rather subtle for Mr. Black... As subtle as my own kick, which I was now playing off with the innocent school girl act.

"I'm sorry Sirius dear, my foot fell asleep." I giggled, even though that felt like it set me back 10 IQ points. I smiled at Hermione and Ron, who were looking at me like I was a bit crazy. "Just ignore Sirius. He's been flirting with me shamelessly for a while now, and his latest try has been to say that I'm his reason for living. It really is rather flattering."

Ron's blue eyes seemed trusting, believing my coy tittering, but Hermione still looked a bit skeptical. Next to me Sirius was looking rather shame faced, a blush on his cheeks realizing now what he had almost done.

"Well that's certainly true." Sirius laughed, recovering immediately from the slight slip. "And really could you blame me?" His arm was now lazily draped behind me over the back of the couch, his body closer. Normally I would have kicked him again, pushed his arm away, but now I had to just laugh quietly following through with the made up story. Next to me Sirius looked rather pleased with where the situation had gone. Sometimes I couldn't help but wonder if he had contrived all of this to give him reason to get closer without me hurting him.

I sat quietly, not moving for fear of accidentally touching the man next to me, but I watched as the conversation started up again, this time staying far away from where Sirius had been these last twelve years, and how he had managed to come back to life again. The Weasley couple were pleasant company, but I had to say that I was rather thrilled when they had to excuse themselves and go back home to their kids.

"Aine, can I speak to you?" Hermione pulled me off to the side, out of the hearing of the boys. I put on a well placed smile, even though I was expecting to find it falter in the next few seconds. "When you're teaching the students, just remember this. You may be the muggle, and they the wizards, but you have the best card up your sleeve. They all care about winning the house cup." She grinned at the suggestion she was making.

I couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh. Advice was far better then what I had been expecting.

"I don't know what you and Sirius are doing here, but be careful. I know Harry is up to something and won't involve me because of the kids... but if you need any help just contact me."

I watched as Hermione Granger said goodbye to Sirius, promising to visit again with the kids, and then push her husband out the door before he started up about quidditch again.

Perhaps I should tell Harry about what Hermione had said to me. It would likely be something that he would want to know, that even despite his own caution his friend had begun to suspect him. Actually it was rather naive of the usually intelligent Potter to think that his super intelligent friend wouldn't notice things...

"What did Hermione say to you?"

I blinked at Sirius.

"She has some suspicions." I tried to look at him sternly, but I couldn't keep the amusement from my eyes. "Of course your little slip didn't hurt at all." I rolled my eyes.

"Well... It got me closer to you, with you having nowhere to go." He smirked slightly, and my eye twitched in response. The man had some devious qualities.

Quickly I moved away from him and curled up at the end of the couch again, glaring at Sirius as he sat down as well, making sure he knew well enough to keep his distance this time if he intended to stay on this particular piece of furniture.

Issues with Hermione and her inkling aside, there was still the original purpose of my visit.

"Sirius... My original reason to be here."

Curiosity shone in Sirius's eyes, and he looked strangely attentive.

"Well...Severus." At even the mere mention of the Potions master's name, the curiosity died and anger flared up in his gray eyes. Though that could be because of mentioning the man, or my use of his first name. "Professor Snape knew about you being raised from the dead and our connection."

There was a certain quality of rage that hung around Sirius after that little statement. It occurred to me that he wasn't beyond the option of storming out of this room right now, marching down to Severus's room and beating the crap out of him. When it came to Severus, I didn't think that Sirius would bother with magic.

"Well he sort of knew... but I told him." I grimaced at the look I was receiving now. It was exactly as I had imagined it would be. The rage that had originally been directed at Severus Snape, was now partly aimed in my direction. There was a certain amount of betrayal appearing in Sirius's face, his face hard, his eyes even harder. "Don't get too angry with me. I know you hate the man, but I trust him. He's not working for Voldemort. And I needed some help researching how to sever our connection."

His eye was twitching, his fingers digging into the material of the couch.

"You..." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes. A few minutes passed as I sat there, fidgeting nervously in the silence. Finally he broke into the quiet, his own voice almost inaudible. "You told him everything didn't you? The ritual, our connection, the horcrux?" At my mute agreement he sighed. "Harry wanted no one to know... and who did you tell? The one person who is the most likely to prance off to the dark lord and tell him everything."

I snorted, unaccepting of that conclusion. The image of Severus prancing anywhere was enough to make me want to laugh, even if the situation didn't warrant it.

"You hate Snape, I know that. But he's not evil. You're going to have to trust me on this one." I stopped there, waiting, letting him even try to tell me that my trust wasn't worth it. When he stayed quiet I continued on. "He's a smart man. He had already put two and two together, he suspected what I had done. It was either tell him, or let him continue to dig around. And if he had done that then someone else might have started to pay attention."

"Harry is not going to be happy." Sirius sighed, the rage cooling off a bit. "Hell, I'm not happy."

"When it comes to that man, you're never happy..." I huffed softly. "You're just going to have to trust me."

Now it was his turn to huff at my remark.

"You don't have to like him, you don't even have to spend anytime with him. All you do need to do is promise not to try and kill the man."

"I wouldn't try." Sirius gave a particularly nasty smirk with that comment, apparently finding the idea of killing Severus funny. I couldn't find it too amusing though, not when I was actually worried he might be a bit serious. No bad puns intended...

"Yes, right. Anyway. I shall deal with Severus, so you can just continue looking for that horcrux. Like you have been doing. Haven't you?" My eyebrow rose in question, and Sirius coughed into his hand looking a tad bit quilty. "Sirius...? You have been looking right?"

"Yes... But..." His voice dipped a bit. "My memory isn't working the way I want it to. Sometimes I find myself going in circles in this place..." His face was vulnderable, weak, but he forced a bright and sunny smile onto it. "Don't worry though. I think once the students are back and the place is alive again things will get better."

I didn't say anything. There really wasn't anything to be said, nothing could be said to make Sirius feel better about the holes in his memory. I didn't know what was keeping us connected, and I had no idea what could be causing this problem either, or if it was even part of the same problem. He had been dead, that could be the problem, or it could just be age getting to him... It was actually a good thing to have involved Severus, if Sirius couldn't do the job.

"Do you want to know something amazing?" I grinned at the man, changing the subject seemed the best idea. "I actually manipulated Severus into doing what I wanted. And when I did it the amazing thing was that he smiled. Not a smirk, or a sneer. A full blown smile. It was like seeing the statue finally crack. I think I should mark it down on my calendar. It's certainly unlikely to happen again. Really the man should learn to do that more often, it softened his face, actually warmed it up a..."

Somehow Sirius had moved faster then I had been able to notice, being so distracted by my own conversation on the Professor's smile. Now I had a completely different distraction, making me see stars, my body going cold and hot in a space of a few seconds. Sirius's lips had covered my own, warm lips pressed to my own which felt cold in comparison, his breath mingling with mine. My wide eyes stared into his silver eyes, unable to blink or look away. Ages past, or seconds, my brain had lost the function to tell time until finally at last he pulled away, a small smile on his lips, and not a glimmer of guilt or regret on his face.

"Why...Why did you do that?" My voice cracked as I said the words, my tongue licking my lips and catching a lingering taste of cinnamon.

"You looked too happy talking about Snape's smile. I couldn't help it." He pushed himself off the couch, holding a hand out to me to help me up. I ignored the offer and stood up on my own, now realizing fully what he had done, and not too pleased that he had. Pulling back his hand, he looked a little regretful of my turning down his offer but he shrugged and smiled. "Consider it your payment for me not killing Professor Snape. Now, I need to get some sleep the students arrive in just five days and I have a lesson plan to finish and a horcrux to try and find. Good night."

He didn't see that I left, just walked into his bedroom and closed the door, leaving me standing rather awkwardly in the middle of his living room, cinnamon still clinging to my lips.