"Hello Hermione, long time no see."

She stood stock still, trying to process what her eyes were seeing. Somewhere in her brain, whatever part was supposed to be transfering infromation was not working. Her mind was drawing a complete blank

"But... but... you can't be Sirius. He's dead. Fell behind the veil..." Hermione unconsciously fell onto the side of her bed, giving her weak knees a break from the shock. "It's physically improbable, no, not improbable, impossible; but still, he shouldn't be standing right in front of me. This is all a dream; a hallucination..."

"Hermione, look at me." Sirius cupped her chin in his hand, and brought her face up to his. "I'm no imposter. If I escaped Azkaban, I can do anything." He grinned as he saw her eyes light up, showing him that the synapses in her brain finally relayed the message.

"Sirius black... you're alive."

A fire was roaring in the fireplace and for once, Hermione noticed, the enchanted window only showed a slight mist.

"So how in Merlin's name did you come back from behind the veil?" Hermione had a cup of steamy cocoa in her hands.

"We're not one-hundred percent sure, but apparently Luna Lovegood's mom fell behind it; she's the one who invented it. So Luna's dad sent it to the ministry to study it some more. To see-"

"Mr. Lovegood still doesn't trust the ministry, but-" It was Ron who cut off Harry; they were both too excited to let the other finish the story of what happened.

"He let them study it some more, the unspeakables, but a few fell in just before we were there and-"

"That's when Sirius fell in-"

"Luna always said that they were 'just beyond the veil' and she was right that she would see her mum again. We don't know all the details but here he is." Harry was positively beaming with joy. After all, he got his godfather back. A role model. One of the last remaining memories of his late parents.

"And Mrs. Lovegood is with Luna right now." Ron's chair was jiggling along with his knee.

Hermione couldn't do anything but smile at her two friends, who were blissfully happy that they got a good friend back. "But what about the charges, Sirius? Why aren't you back in Azkaban?"

"With the events of the past two years, they cleared me of everything. Hermione jumped up and allowed Sirius to envelop her in a bear- er, dog hug.

"Welcome back to the land of the living."

--

A few days later, Hermione was sitting in the study, pouring over more books when Harry and Sirius walked in. She was still glad to see them even three days later, as Lupin had given her time off from her duty just this once to visit with the two of them before they left again.

"Hermione, I know it seems like we just got here, but we can't waste another moment in looking for the horcruxes. We're going to set off tomorrow morning," Harry said, staring at his shoes whilst Sirius was examining his fingernails, which suddenly got more interesting. They were waiting for her to blow up. She hadn't known they were leaving this soon! Why didn't anyone tell her! But, then again, shw as going to remain calm because they were right, they needed to get going as fast as possible if they were going to wage war with Voldemort anytime soon.

"Oh, I wish all of you weren't leaving, and I'm sure that sounds selfish, but just know, I'm going to be here for a while so you should stop by as often as you can spare the time. Oh come here!" She said exasperatedly and enveloped them both in an alarmingly tight hug. "You two be careful and make sure to tell Ron that if he gets himself killed, I'll kill him!" She said seriously, wagging her finger in each of their faces in turn. They looked close to cracking up, both distorting their faces so they looked somewhat sick.

"Oh Hermione, it's only 7 o clock, we won't be going to bed for a few hours so you can tell him yourself. But I thought we would tell you now since, well I don't really know, Sirius said we should do it." He looked confused. That was just like Harry, and she loved him for it.

After countless goodbyes and breathtaking (literally) hugs later, they all decided it was best to go to bed early because they were getting up before dawn the next morning. Hermione turned in early as well because Lupin had informed her that she would be starting her rounds once more the following evening. She wondered if anything had changed in the past 3 days of her not visiting. Draco would be happy, that was for sure.

When Hermione awoke the next morning, Harry, Ron and Sirius had already departed and although she knew they would be gone when she woke up, she still felt disappointed. Everything had happened so fast, but it was probably one of the best things that could have ever happened to Harry at this stage in the 2nd war. He needed someone he could look up to, though Hermione didn't find him a very good role model, and someone to act as a fatherly or at least brotherly figure. Sirius, for the most part, fit the part perfectly.

She got up and made herself some coffee, Lupin was also gone, so she had the house to herself. Well, Crookshanks was there, as Ron had brought him over when he came, and she was thrilled to have him back. She wondered if he would know that it was still her when she finally transformed into her owl form. Sure he would, after all he saw through Peter Pettigrew's shrewd disguise before the rest of them.

--------

The day made her feel more lonely than ever, cooped up in that small cabin in the middle of nowhere. No neighbors, no kids her age, no nothing. She wondered how much longer it was going to be until she could finally stop hovering around the Malfoy manor like a fly that would not die. She was happy at least, that she got avoid his taunting, ranting and raving at her for 3 days in a row, and it seemed so far away now that her post was steadily approaching.

The day went by in a haze and before she knew it, Lupin was strutting through the door, cheeks rosy from the bitter wind. After all, it was nearing the middle of October and she wondered if she was going to have to start flying with a quilt. Grudgingly, she greeted Lupin who assured her that nothing, as far as he could tell, had changed. Not with Lucius anyways, though he noted that Lucius seemed to be in a much better mood today, but shrugged it off. Hermione walked outside and tightened her jacket around her, luckily it was only a cool night, but before long she would be in trouble.

She grasped the rug and striaghtened it out in front of her, and climbed aboard as it took off into the night sky. She relished in the feeling, she hadn't even known she was missing being in the air (as she used to be deathly afraid of it). Her feeling of euphoria dwindled steadily as she became closer and closer to the Malfoy manor. She sucked it up and flew straight for Malfoy Jr.'s room. Right as she came to a halt in front of his room however, she had to stifle a gasp as she saw a long, lean head sticking out of the window, platinum hair flying in the breeze.

"You know Granger, you really need to think more on your sneaking tactics," he said casually, though she felt malice in his voice. She was also confused.

"How did you know I was here! I just got here!" She said, ripping off her invisibility cloak in a huff. There was no point in keeping it on if he already knew she was there.

"You want me to go through the list? Well, I've been sitting here, avoiding my father no doubt," he started with contempt "And I noticed that you hadn't been showing up as of late. Now you ask how I know you weren't here, watching me? Because for one, almost everytime you get here you rustle those leaves. If you don't do that then you're breathing too loud. Or you put on such repulsive smelling perfume that I get a huge whiff of it everytime you zoom by."

"But I didn't put on any perfume! And I put a silencing spell on me so you could'nt have heard me breathing! And I purposely missed that tree! I made sure of it!" Hermione protested angrily. She really hadn't hit it!

"Oh you're right, you didn't do any of those things this time," draco drawled, leaning one arm out the window casually.

"Then how did you --" She started, before he cut her off.

"You might want to make sure you're completely covered by that cloak before you come flying to my window," he smirked. Hermione fumed, how could she have been so careless!

"You think you're so smart.. well.. you're...not!" Why did she say that? She knew she sounded like a 4 year old, but at the present time, she didn't care. His smirk merely grew more evil, if that was even possible.

"So Granger, where have you been for the last three nights? I dare say I've missed your... countenence," he chuckled at the absurdity of that statement and went on, "been searching the streets for food with Weasel boy?"

"No Malfoy, as a matter of fact, I haven't. I'm sure Ive made use of my time more than you have, sitting here basking in your wealth. I wonder if you've ever earned a damn thing in your life!" She said angrily. He furrowed his brow as if he were thinking far back to find an exception to the whole truth of that statement. When he could find none, he said silkily, "Not that it matters, but I don't HAVE to earn anything. Why would I want to exsert myself when I'm fully happy the way I am now?"

Hermione noted that he didn't seem to beleive the last part of his statement. His usual mask was broken for a very breif moment where his eyes reflected some sort of hurt, and anger. Though not the usual seething anger that usually consumed him; this was a different type, and for the first time, Hermione wondered whether he had a choice in how he wanted to run his life. Before she could think any more on the subject, his facade was up and his expression darkened in angry amusement.

"I know you want to sit there and stare at me, because after all I am me... but please try and make it less noticable so I dont lose my dinner, mudblood." He was angry. Perhaps she had noticed the slip in his cool demeanor. Nonsense, she was to daft. She ignored the slight on her heritage and looked at him with understanding, which, if anything, made him angrier.

"You aren't happy, are you?" she said, looking at him with.. was that pity? He looked at her angrily, unable to say anything.

"You arent..." She looked at him for a second longer, unable to think of anything else to say before she turned and fled before she could experience the full extent of his wrath. She flew as far and as fast as she could away from the pleading and angry cries of "Granger!" and "You get back here!". Why had'nt she ever noticed it before? Maybe he was far too young to even understand the extent of some of his actions, or maybe he was forced to be the way he was. Maybe it really was the way he was brought up. Hermione didn't blame it all on this, after all Sirius had escaped from his horrible family but maybe Draco just wasn't strong enough or maybe there were other things she didn't know about.

Hermione stayed lost in her thoughts the entire way back to the cabin, where she took the rug inside, and walked straight to her room down the hall. Did she want to find out about Malfoy; what made him tick? Perhaps not.. but she would find out anyway.

A/N -- sorry for the long wait, I had writers block and I did this in sections... again sorry for the wait and thankyou to all my reviewers... also to the person who didn't like my writing style.. some words I use may have more than one meaning so please look them up before you chose to say they dont make sense. The way I write is actually the way I talk so thats how im going to keep writing but thank you for the review anyways! Keep it up guys, you keep me writing!