Title: Little Spark of Madness

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in anyway, that belongs to JK Rowlings. I don't make any money from this either. I just do it for fun :) All original characters are my own, those would be the ones that you don't recognize from the books.

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Direct threats require decisive action.

-Dick Cheney

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Hogsmeade

May 28th 1976

Hermione was walking silently next to Sirius in Hogsmeade. Their friends had left them alone once they had arrived to give them their date.

Sirius looked around and smiled, "Would you like to go into Honeydukes?"

Hermione smiled at him nodding, "Sure. I wanted to pick up some sugar quills anyways. What is your favorite candies?"

Grinning, "Bertie's of course. So why don't you like flying?"

Biting her lip as she walked, "I don't like not being in control I guess. I mean it is a stick between myself and the ground. I just don't trust it. My stomach clenches up and I feel like I need to get away from one as fast as possible."

She looked around making sure no one was too close as she stepped closer, "It was the only one of two classes I ever failed in. I got a A Sirius…. a A."

He had to bite his lip so that he wouldn't laugh at her admission as she continued, "My professor told me that if I couldn't get higher that I would never be able to try out for the Quidditch team. Like that was a bad thing." Rolling her eyes.

At this point Sirius looked as if he would burst, "You know an A is technically passing right?"

Frowning she crossed her arms, "An A may be passing, however it is unacceptable in my book."

Nodding he just decided to move on, "What class was your other failing A in?"

Scrunching her nose as she picked up a box of sugar quills, "Divination. And it wasn't so much as an A, but I dropped the class all together. According to my teacher my palms showed my soul was shrived like an old book. I apparently do not possess the talent." Rolling her eyes as she picked up a few licorice wands, adding to her small pile.

Looking to Sirius she grinned, "Are you planning on leaving any chocolate for others to buy?"

He grinned at her sheepishly holding a pile of different types of chocolate, "Well Mum and Dad don't pick up sweets too often over summer, I am packing for five boys and you of course!"

She blushed seeing about five packs of sugar quills in his hands. "Oh you don't need to do that. Really I have money I can buy my own stuff for summer as well. Harry's stuff too."

He gave her a curious look before shaking his head, "Nope. You do know I am a Black right? Never ending Gringotts accounts? I may hate them, but I just make them pay for my sweet tooth addiction."

She sighed as he walked past her and towards the front register as he continued talking, "I don't boast about my accounts often, it seems rude to do that. I just buy to help out is all. Remus and Peter can't afford what James or I can so we just surprise everyone. Don't tell them I told you though, please."

Nodding her head she sighed as he plucked her licorice wands and sugar quills from her hands as he threw them up with his, "Besides what kind of a date would this be if I had you paying for anything?"

Sighing she mumbled, "A fair one…"

As they left the store with their bags shrunk down so they could fit in their pockets she was trying to remember when Sirius had been disowned from his family. She knew it had been during his time at Hogwarts and that he had been living with the Potter's full time. "Sirius? What do you want to do with your life? Other than trying to drain your family's accounts?"

Grinning at her as he turned so he could face her while walking backwards through the street, "I want to be an Auror. No doubt in my mind, not overly great pay, but I want to be different from my family. I want to stop people from being hurt. There is corruption every where, unfortunately in that department as well. I guess I want to clean it up."

Smiling at him, "I think you would do great as an Auror. I know Harry wants to be one."

He stopped as took a step closer to her as he leaned in, "What about you? You shrunk right? I mean you were 18 before you came back? Surely you must have thought about what you wanted to do?"

Kicking a rock with her foot as she sat on a near boulder watching the people walk by, "I thought about it sure. I guess I didn't put much hope in it though with the war and all, but I wanted to work in the Ministry. Change laws for creature rights."

She laughed a bit, "I started an organization during my fourth year. Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, or as everyone started joking about it SPEW. I was trying to give Elves the same rights as wizards, pay for their work and protection against abuse for one thing."

Hermione looked up seeing shock in Sirius' face, "Did it work?"

Letting out a laugh she shook her head, "I was a fifteen year old girl, as you can imagine that I didn't have a ton of pureblood supporters." Messing with the hem of her skirt, "I also learned that the elves didn't want that. Well not the beatings I mean, but they didn't want to be freed. They started rebelling against me when I started knitting them clothing."

Biting his lips hard forcing himself not to smile at the thought of her trying to free all the house elves. Thinking to his own family, "You know Mom and Dad have Libby, she is perfectly happy there. Hell that little elf bosses around James and I like mom would."

Nodding, "True, but what about Kreature?"

Sirius stiffened as he looked down, "You know about Kreature?" Shaking his head before he continued, "He cares about Reg. Reg is my younger brother. I guess I haven't been around you too much for you to know about him this year. He is a fourth year. Slytherin unfortunately, although mother was very proud of him. She was always proud of him."

Reaching over she put her hand on his, "I know about Kreature and Regulus." She sighed and looked at him, "I know how much he meant to you, not Kreature, but Regulus. Every Time I saw you near Kreature in the future you were yelling at each other of something."

Sirius swallowed while trying to compose himself, "What do you mean by meant? Meant is past tense."

Biting her lower lip as she worried it for a moment between her teeth, "You already know a lot of people died in my past Sirius. You were the last Black when you past away, I think there was only one female Black alive, but she was married and didn't carry the name."

Closing his eyes as he thought about his house falling, "I hate being a part of that family. I loved Reg though, how did he die? Do you know when?"

"No, I don't know when. It was soon after he finished Hogwarts though, I obviously never met him. For the longest time people thought he'd fled from everything. He went somewhere in secret and never made it back, he only told Kreature, but made him swear to never reveal it. He died trying to bring down You-Know-Who. He did the right thing in the end, you should be proud of him."

Putting her hands in her lap, "Inferi got him. The only reason we knew for sure that he was gone was from the dates on the Black Family tapestry. Your parents probably knew, but they never told anyone."

Looking at Sirius his face was ash white as he stared at her gobsmacked, "You've seen the tapestry? How?"

Shrugging her shoulders, "I stayed at Grimmauld Place more than a few times. I had my own room there on the second floor, third door from the stairs. You let a bunch of us in after Azkaban, you didn't like being alone there, especially with Kreature." I went around and cleaned up a bit, but only the bedrooms really. You were scared your mother would have left something behind to hurt us."

Reaching into his pocket he pulled out two licorice wands. Handing one to her before biting into his own, "I know when we spoke the other night… That I was put in Azkaban. How long was I in there?"

"Twelve and a half years. Harry and I were going into our third year when you escaped."

Looking at the ground, "Was I sane?"

She sighed, "When I first met you I would have said no. You had this look about you, we didn't understand it at first. You broke out because you saw Peter in a picture in the daily prophet and broke out to protect us from him. We all thought he was dead though, so a lot of people though you were coming to kill us. Finish the job. He had posed as or friend Ron's pet rat. You kept pointing your wand at him, saying you were going to kill him. We all thought you were talking about Ron. I stood in front of them, I told you that you would have to kill me first. You just… laughed manically until Remus arrive."

Wrapping her arm around his shoulder to comfort him, "You calmed down after that. We saw you again before school started our fourth year. Got letter from you too. Remus moved in with you and for a while we all thought… Well never mind. But we all think he really helped you."

Pinching his lips together as he looked at her, "What did you all think?"

"Hum? Oh. it isn't important." She looked away, but his free hand brought her face back to his. She knew that look and sighed, "We thought we would lose you before we really got to know you. We did kind of thought, you died near the end of our fifth year. We only really saw you during the summer."

He looked away fidgeting with his foot, "But we are changing all that. I am not going to Azkaban, or dying like I did. Jamie and Lily won't die before their babies reach age two. Remus won't be alone, and Pete… well he won't turn. Right?"

Hermione saw the look of hope in his face and swallowed, "Death comes for us all Sirius. Harry and I died before even finishing school technically. Harry was fourteen the first time he had the Cruciatus curse thrown at him. When I was fifteen I almost died from an injury I received in battle. We are doing what we can to change all of that yes, but you'd naive if you think there will be no heartbreak, or pain, or hard times."

Reaching out to hold her hand Sirius looked at her downward titled face and for a moment, she looked so much older than she was. "Tell me a good memory."

She sat still as stone for a moment before a small smile graced her lips, "Our first trip to Hogsmeade in third year. Harry couldn't go because his Uncle refused to sign his slip. Ron had twin older brothers in their fifth year and they caught him trying to sneak to Hogsmeade under his cloak, you could clearly see his footprints even if you couldn't see him."

She smile as she saw Sirius look, "Yes I know about James' invisibility cloak, we used it quite often. Anyways, they pulled him into an alcove and gave him a map they'd found their first year. A map that showed the castle and where everyone in it was."

Sirius' eyes started to sparkle as he bounced slightly where he sat, "We actually succeed? We've been working on it for like a year."

Hermione just smiled, "It showed Harry a secret passageway to get here. There were a few bullies making fun of Ron and I. Anyways Harry showed up still wearing the cloak and got them good! They thought it was the Shrieking shack ghost."

She smiled at the memory, "I hadn't laughed so hard in a while."

Sirius just smiled and the looked at her, "Shrieking Shack Ghost?"

Nodding as she looked over at the shack, "In my time people say it is haunted, and on the night of the full moon you can hear ghosts wailing in despair. I wonder what started that?"

Sirius chuckled, "You guys are a bunch of babies."

Shoving his shoulder with hers, "Hey now, it is not like we knew back then that is was Remus."

Sirius looked back at her, "What do you mean, Remus still came to Hogwarts for the full moon?"

Rolling her eyes she shook her head, "No, only our third year. He was our Defense against the dark arts Professor. He was really good at it too, out of all my teachers, he was my favorite."

"Professor Moony, I like it."

Slapping his upper leg playfully, "Professor Lupin was great. He actually brought a boggart into class and had us fend it off. Among other things. Harry is going to skin me alive for telling you so much."

Shrugging his shoulders, "Don't worry about it, I'll protect you."

Looking down she bit her lip, "I got another owl from your mother. She invited me to the Summer Moon Gala thing. I haven't wrote her back yet, I don't want to make things bad for you. It there an easy way to let her down? Does she even know I've received another request?"

"Who knows." He leaned back onto his elbows, "The only thing that will make her happy, if you can call it that, is for you to accept my request fully. I have no idea if she knows about the others though. She will probably want to know who told them all, and I have no clue."

Biting her lip, "The only people who knew about it at the time were the Potters, you and me, your family, and your three cousins since they were at tea when she told me. My Uncle once he received the request I guess. That is all though, and I know I didn't tell anyone till Lily."

Snorting, "She probably did it herself, boasting about sending the marriage request for you at one of her tea parties. Or Bella, she gloats a lot. Mother's friends would have looked into why she was trying to set Father's heir up with a half blood. She had to do something that left a paper trail."

Standing up she looked down at his figure, "Well I'll just write her back and tell her exactly why I can't go with you. Will she still make you go?"

"I bloody well hope not." He grunted before hopping up, "Let's go get some food."

With that the two of them headed over to the three broomsticks for a plate of fish and chips.

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Lucius had been leaving a shop with Rabastan as he stopped seeing Hermione and Sirius chatting. Looking back at his classmate as he looked away from the sight, "You placed a requested for her as well did you not? Why do you not seem interested in her?"

Rabastan just looked back towards the couple, "Because she isn't my type and you know it. I prefer slightly darker personalities. Don't worry Lucius I won't be trying to steal her from you, I am well aware you like the pretty ones. I am just doing as our Lord demands, just as you and many others are."

Narrowing his eyes as he stood taller, "I'll have you know I admire intelligence above all else. I will not spend the rest of my days married to a person with below acceptable intelligence. She is brilliant, which is why she spends her time helping older classmates with their work. Very few women are worthy to become a Malfoy."

Snorting Rabastan began walking away, "Well you best hope she picks you then, she looks mighty friendly with Black over there. You were first in line to request her after our Lord demanded it, so don't think you are any different from me. If I have to marry the girl, she will hardly be allowed to leave the bed."

Standing close as his cool grey eyes locked with Rabastens, "It seems as though I was the first, because I sent the request before the command. I will not allow you anywhere near her Lestrange."

"We will see Malfoy, remember I get time with her too. Time alone. Who knows, I may just muck up my chances so I can see her scream. Just so I know you'll get my seconds if she does choose you." Rabastan leered at the girl who was completely oblivious to the deranged conversation happening regarding her. "And you can't stop me."

Lucius didn't bother following Rabastan as he stalked off, his attention on Sirius and Hermione who were now headed into the three broomsticks.

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AN: I hope you are enjoying this but... Question... Are you guys enjoying this? I am not really sure if I should keep writing. Not that I am asking for reviews, but the reviews and PM's I am getting seem to be mostly in the negative. It isn't really hurting my feelings, but I don't want to put more effort into somethings that everyone is getting upset over or doesn't like.