The hype that surrounded a few of the Grimmauld residents about Hermione fell under the radar when Harry appeared late one night. They had all known he was coming and those that weren't allowed to go collect him were waiting in the kitchen.
Mrs Weasley was dealing with her anxiety by cooking, rustling pans and pots and chopping to make enough food that would feed an army. Maybe it would feed an army of Weasleys, and a few on the side, too. Hermione didn't know if it was a part of Mrs Weasley's parenting style or a particular brand of love to be constantly feeding her children and her semi-adopted children, or if she'd noticed that Harry was always stick thin when he'd spent some time at the Dursleys.
She certainly didn't like the Dursleys and she wasn't alone in that.
Sirius tried to drown his anxiety in a bottle of firewhisky. He was sitting at the kitchen table and was restlessly tapping his fingers against his glass. Remus was sat next to him, pretending that he wasn't just as nervous as Sirius was, telling him that it would be fine and that Harry would be there soon.
Hermione, for her part, was tucked up away in the library. She went down the kitchen once or twice for a drink. Sirius noticed her looking longingly at his bottle and suggested a good book for her to read. He got some weird looks from Mrs Weasley and Remus, and the twins popped their heads up from the parchment they were obsessing over to glance between him and Hermione.
She smiled and said that she was always on the hunt for a good book. As she left, she toasted Sirius with her cup of tea, telling him message received.
God bless Sirius and his endless stash of drinks, Hermione thought when she found the suggested book and the stash of illicit goods hidden in the hollowed-out book. She needed a drink to calm herself down a bit - waiting to see if Harry had made it safe was twisting her up inside and she felt a bit sick.
If only she and Sirius could meet up and piss about, it would calm the both of them. But they weren't supposed to be friends, weren't really supposed to be interacting with each other. They couldn't be seen together, and Hermione snorted at that line of think. It sounded like they were conducting some sort of torrid affair. She dreaded to think what Rita Skeeter would write about it if she had any idea.
After her summer as Hermione's pet, she supposed that nothing too bad would be written, but Rita was known to be a sensational gossip rather than a journalistic reporter. A shame, really because Rita was a talented writer.
That did spark an idea, though. Sirius would have to make a public statement about handing himself in before he actually did it. Get the public on his side and get them to see them as something other than the death eater who handed James and Lily Potter over to Voldemort.
Hermione's plan was already for him to make a public statement of his intention but for them to have a semi-trusted reporter who was a somewhat respected journalist would help them immensely. She'd have to talk to him about it soon.
After she'd told him that there was a solution to his escaped convict problem, that plan had kind of stopped in motion. There were bigger concerns, Sirius had said, and they were all that Harry got to Grimmauld safely.
There would be time after Harry got there, she reminded herself. They just needed him safe before they were really in any mindset to do anything else.
She glanced at the clock and supposed that it wouldn't be long before he arrived. Hoped it wouldn't be too long, anyway.
Things would change when Harry arrived, that was for sure. Hermione wasn't sure how they would change.
Would Harry be involved in their late-night meets? Would he be angry at them if he wasn't? Hermione didn't want to take time away from Harry and Sirius, who were both kind of each other's only remaining family, or at least the only remaining family they were happy to acknowledge. But if she and Sirius stopped meeting up, she wasn't sure what she'd do.
She felt she'd found a good friend in Sirius. They got along, they could joke about things but they could also sit down and have a serious talk, too. They'd fallen into a comfortable companionship and she hoped it wouldn't end anytime soon. Hermione did feel an awkward uncomfortableness at the thought of Harry finding out about it, and she didn't know why.
It wasn't like Harry would forbid them from seeing each other, not that he could. Grimmauld Place was a big house but it wasn't big enough to never see anyone else, not without making it very obvious to everyone that some people were avoiding each other. Even in their current state of pretending not to be friends, they still saw each other in the corridors and the kitchen.
Her thoughts had turned gloomy and the mix of anxiety and what felt like impending doom weren't being helped by the drinks. She sighed and put the bottle away, but couldn't resist having a little snoop about what else Sirius had deemed needing to be hidden. There was nothing too unexpected, a box of cigarettes, a lighter, and a pouch of tobacco. Hidden in the tobacco were some rolling papers and a little bag of weed. Sirius had been holding out on her, it seemed. She'd have to badger him about that next time they met up, but for the moment she took the pouch and all its contents and decided that maybe tonight they could have a celebratory smoke when Harry and the Weasleys were all tucked up safe in bed.
Maybe that would be the magic ingredient for the both of them chilling the fuck out. She certainly hoped so.
She wasn't doing anything in the library and instead went to go sit in the kitchen with the rest of the inhabitants. Maybe they'd have something to distract her, or she could needle at Sirius and see how long it took for a high strung Mrs Weasley to shout at him. She smirked at the thought - it seemed a lot more fun than glancing at the clock every five minutes was.
When she reached the kitchen she found it to be the same as it was when she'd gone for a drink. Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at her as she settled into one of the chairs and asked what she thought of the book.
"It was really interesting, actually," she replied brightly. Hermione could already see Ron tuning out of the conversation, thinking she was going to ramble on about the book. "If it's nice out this week I might go read it in the garden. I haven't finished it yet, what did you think about it?"
It wasn't exactly subtle, but it was a room full of Gryffindors, it didn't need to be. Although the twins' heads had perked up a little when she mentioned the garden and they'd given her a little suspicious glance so maybe a little subtlety was needed.
"Oh, I haven't read it in ages. Remus read it first out the four- out of the lot of us, and made us all give it a go." Sirius had a teasing lilt to his voice that had faltered a bit, but directed a mischievous nod to where Remus was sitting.
Remus looked confused to have been mentioned in a conversation, especially one involving Sirius about books. "What book was this?" He had a confused frown. He did not remember making Sirius or the rest of the marauders successfully read any book during their time at Hogwarts. Not even their textbooks.
Sirius rattled off the title and Remus replied with a shake of the head, he didn't remember even hearing about a book with that title. Remus was looking at Sirius suspiciously, he had a grin on his face like he did at Hogwarts when a prank that no one else knew about was just about to happen perfectly.
The grin made Hermione a little nervous, too. He may have grown up and matured a bit but Sirius was still a kid at heart and he still loved pranks, as she'd found out when she was the victim. Living with the twins was a perfect cover for him to pull pranks because everyone would assume it was them, and no one would believe them when they claimed that it wasn't.
"I can't remember who wrote it. It was," Sirius ummed for a few seconds as though he was really trying to remember. "Nah, I can't remember their full name. It was someone Green, though, if that rings any bells?"
He was still going on with the charade about it being a book they'd all read and poor Remus had believed him until he said green. Then Remus choked on his drink, turned a shade of red that Hermione had never seen him turn before and spluttered. He took a deep breath and started, "Sirius, you can't-" before he had to cut himself off.
Remus glanced at Mrs Weasley and Hermione and Sirius could see the thought going through his head about the screeching that would be inevitable if she found out that there were muggle drugs in the house. They couldn't laugh, they could not laugh were the only thoughts circling in Hermione and Sirius's heads.
Unfortunately, Remus had been a bit louder in his admonishment than he had meant to be, and had already drawn Mrs Weasley's attention.
He stuttered a little and tried to continue. "You can't think I'd remember a book from that long ago, surely." Here, he gave Sirius a dirty look. "I'd have to read it again to see if I remember it."
Remus sounded a bit put out now that he knew it wasn't an academic conversation, but he wore a little smirk that Hermione could imagine as easily as she could see a teenage Sirius, excited to be living his life to the full. No doubt imagining what his mother would say if she could see him partaking in muggle drugs.
The conversation fell silent for a moment, with Sirius sniggering, lost in old memories of the sometimes idiotic decisions of their youth. It was broken by the door slamming, something heavy being knocked open and the beginning of Mrs Black's portrait screaming.
The room tensed. The occupants hoped that it was Harry finally being brought to safety, but wouldn't bet on it. Remus and Sirius gestured silently to the others to stay put as they crept out of the kitchen with their wands in their hands. Time seemed to stretch as the house stayed silent - no fighting, but no sign of it being safe either.
The silence was broken by Mrs Black's portrait taking a breath and continuing her tirade about her traitor son and the half-breeds he surrounded himself with. It was a relief when she began ranting about strangers being brought into her home and how dare Sirius desecrate the name of Black by bringing a blood traitor Potter into her home.
