A few hours later, everybody was sitting in the garden of the Burrow, enjoying the warm June sun and Mrs. Weasley's formidable meal. Harry glanced to his right side. Two seat away from him, seperated by Ginny, sat Hermione. She was chatting to Mrs. Weasley with her husband Paul who sat on her other side. Harry could not hear what they were talking about and was not interested much, because he needed to watch his best friend.
Hermione had definitely changed in New York. He had seem the signs when he and Ron had visited her in autumn. Hermione had grown into a beautiful, self-confident woman. Her thick, cinnamon coloured curls, that were currently drawn back in a simple, low ponytail reached the small of her back and she was slightly tanned. She had adopted an effortless, yet elegant style that showed very well in her tight, light brown pants and black shoulderfree top. Her large dark brown eyes emitted more than ever the sense of an overwhelming intelligence.
She turned her head towards Harry and smiled. Harry winked and smiled back. He was amazed about how content and settled Hermione seemed. She made it very obvious that her marriage with Paul was the best thing that had ever happened to her. Paul listened to Mrs. Weasley, who was, judging by her gestures, talking about the Weasley twins' newest invention for the ever-successful Weasley's Wizard Weezes. He wore a light blue button-down shirt and dark blue jeans. His dark blond hair was untidy but in a very stylish way, that Harry suspected not to grow like that as in his own case. The brown eyes behind his glasses showed that he enjoyed himself. Hermione and him were sitting next to each other, yet without touching. Harry grinned, because Mrs. Weasley obviously preferred this behaviour to her daughter in law Fleur's who was positively wrapped around her husband Bill just opposite Hermione. Harry could not help but like that polite, calm man sitting next to his best friend, because he apparently made her very happy.
A loud barking laugh draw Harry's attention to the other side of the long table, where Sirius was sitting, roaring with laughter at a joke Tonks must have told. Shelley was laughing with him, though not audible over Sirius' loud voice. Harry noticed that her eyes never left Sirius and expressed as much admiration as they always did. Shelley was sitting very closely to Sirius who had a possessive arm wrapped around her. When Sirius looked up and met Harry's eyes, he grinned.
Later, when the sun was setting, Harry found the opportunity to talk to Hermione on his own. Paul was standing on the other side of the garden, deep in conversation with Lupin.
"So, how is it going?" Harry asked.
"It is wonderful!" Hermione smiled. "You cannot imagine how happy I am to be here. I am so excited about the research office, the work there will be very interesting and studying along with all those brilliant people, I am so lucky!"
Harry grinned: "No, I mean Paul and you? How is that going?"
"Oh, well, fine. We will move into a nice flat, it's already prepared, Paul's family arragend that. It is quite central, close to the university you know with a balcony and a huge kitchen and so on." She was glowing.
"No, Hermione I mean, your marriage, how is that going? We were quite surprised, you know!"
"Everything is just fine. It is so great to study together, we have kind of the same way of doing and thinking things. We will work on different projects for the research office, though, but that will be fascinating, because we can fill each other in and discuss our work together, you know." Hermione was still glowing.
Harry shook his head. It was useless. She was obviously so thrilled about the research office that she could not talk about anything else. He grinned and said: "Well tell me more about work. What is it exactly that you do?"
Later on, after listening to Hermione talk about a research project about the Ministry of Magic's law policy during Voldemort's time and case studies and difficulties, because the Ministry did not want to be researched on, Harry left Hermione to be questioned by Ginny and watched the other people in the garden. Lupin and Paul had now been joined by Tonks and were still talking. Bill and Ron were being entertained by Sirius, who unmistakeably talked about a Marauder adventure, Shelley still at his side. Harry thought he had never seen her on her own, she was always with Sirius. At that moment, Ginny joined him and her kiss made him forget everything else.
When they had all said goodbye for the night, Remus and Tonks were still sitting in the garden, watching the last candles burn down.
"What do you think?" Tonks asked her boyfriend.
"I assume you want to know my opinion about Paul and Hermione, right?"
"Right!" Tonks grinned in the darkness.
"Well, he is nice and very smart. Well, Hermione would not have picked him if he wasn't. I think he is quite a catch and they fit together really well." Remus had enjoyed the conversation with Paul.
Tonks seemed to pondering her next words: "Well, he is nice, that is right. But I am glad that you are a bit more touchy." She snuggled against Remus, who pulled her towards him. "They rarely touched, did they?"
"I didn't notice." Remus said truthfully. "Well, but don't you think that's some Hermione-thing. She is not exactly physical either. But speaking of phsical, you won't be complaining about the lack of touch when it comes to Sirius and Shelley."
"Sirius is physical, no one would deny that. And Shelley is everything Sirius is or what he wants her to be." Tonks said.
Remus looked at her in surprise: "I thought you liked her. And I thought you liked Paul. What's the matter?"
Tonks, pondering her answer again, replied: "I do like them, as people you know, but these marriages… I don't know about that. They don't seem to be the right partners for Hermione and Sirius."
"What, but they all are deliriously happy. Both Sirius and Hermione got exactly what they want."
Tonks sighed and said wisely: "You mean they got what they think they want."
Remus did not ask for an explanation, because Tonks' tone made it clear that she regarded the discussion as finished.
----
About three weeks after that, Hermione closed the door of her appartement behind herself and placed her keys carefully next to her husband's. The work for the research office was more than she had expected in every way. It was more exhausting, but also more interesting and Hermione dedicated all her energy to the project. Working like that made her happy and she was successful in what she did.
"Paul, I am home!" she shouted.
"Hello! How are you? Did the conference take that long?" Her husband, the Daily Prophet in his hand, exited from the living room and kissed her on the cheek.
"Yes, it was pretty difficult. They do not want us to work on concrete case studies. Well, the Ministry tries to maintain its reputation. It is almost like in Fudge's days." Hermione sighed as she sank into her favourite armchair.
Paul watched his wife. Although she looked tired, the fire in her eyes when she was talking about her work burned as bright as ever. He smiled and sat down on the couch, eager to hear her interpretaion of the Ministry's struggle to keep some information from the research team. Hermione had a very clear opinion of things and he loved to discuss her analyses with her. After about three hours of good talk, Hermione yawned, got up and said: "I really need to go to bed. Are you coming?"
Paul looked up at her: "Yes, in a minute, I need to read that report, but that won't take longer than half an hour."
Sure enough, half an hour later, Hermione felt Paul sink into the pillows next to her. She turned around to meet his eyes and purred: "I am cold, would you warm me up?"
Paul smiled and took her in his arms. Hermione snuggld against him and kissed her husband who kissed her tenderly back and then closed his eyes to sleep. She had actually wanted to be warmed up a different way than that but she knew that Paul was tired and decided to sleep too.
A few miles away, Sirius Black was having a hell of a time. He had met some old and new friends, including Remus and Tonks in a bar and was now laughing along with their stories and jokes. He listened to a particularly juicy anecdote when his eyes fell on Tonks who had appearantly managed to drag Remus to the dance floor. Sirius grinned and watched. Remus had never been much of a dancer. But to his surprise, Remus and Tonks engaged in a quite passionate, hot dance and Sirius could not help but envy Remus a bit. Shelley had preferred to stay at home, as she neither liked dancing nor drinking very much. Sirius sighed but thought that he would make up for the lack of action on the dance floor when he got home and turned back to his friends.
When he entered his bedroom a few hours later, Shelley was asleep, as usually wrapped in all the blankets she could find. Sirius undressed to his boxer shorts and slipped into bed next to her. It took him a while to find her under all the blankets, but when he finally did, he started to stroke her until she woke and turned around.
"Hi darling." She whispered. "Have you had a good time?"
"I missed you…" Sirius breathed against her neck.
Shelley giggled softly as he pushed her shirt up. Sirius kissed her passionately and flipped her on her back. She kissed him softly back and reached for the lamp on the nightstand and put the light out. Later, Sirius went down to the kitchen to get some water. He thought about his relationship. It was never very hard for him to seduce his wife, actually, he did rarely need to seduce her at all. Shelley simply liked everything he did, as long as he was tender and took his time. Loving Shelley was easy and uncomplicated, they never fought and rarely were of different opinions about somehing. After all the years with different women, a lot of drama, passion and fights, Sirius was glad to have found a girl who made his life easy and happy. Shelley was good-natured, she did not have those dark sides Sirius usually found utterly atractive in women. He had been surprised himself how much he liked being around her, when they had first met. He had quickly fallen in love with the quiet young woman and had found himself satisfied and content with his life for the first time ever. She didn't even argue when he started going out again after they had been married for a while. He at first tried to persuade her to accompany him, but she did not like going out. She told him she trusted him fully and he should go and have fun with his friends. So Sirius went and had fun. He did not think of other women, however, because he found that he did not need to. He liked coming home to his wife and finding her up or asleep, but always waiting for him.
Sirius sighed. Today, however, something had been different. Seeing Remus and Tonks dance like that had stirred something inside him, even though he was not sure what it was. Probably it was just seeing his best friend touch his little cousin like that. He grinned at himself and went back to bed.