A/N: Pardon me while I take a moment to justify my plot. This story was written after reading countless Marriage Law fics that all followed the same exact plot: Hermione is forced to marry a man she is secretly crushing on, hops in the sack and she's desperately in love and is then kidnapped, whereupon her husband rescues her from certain death/molestation and proves he's equally in love with her, too. Every. Single. One. Exactly. The. Same. So please forgive me if I wanted to write something different.

And before you start telling me how clever they both are and how much they should be able to get along, I must inform you that my sister is a proper and verified genius. I can say with absolute certainty that smart people can be hella stupid.

Soapbox is being up away now.

Wedlocked
Chapter 22: Hogsmeade Secrets

Hogsmeade weekend could not have come at a better time. Hermione was drowning in a sea of NEWT level reading and homework. Quite a large sea, at that, like the Mediterranean. Normally it would have been a manageable Red Sea-sized body of work, but she had been growing increasingly distracted as the fourteenth drew ever closer.

It was The Bloody Deadline approaching far quicker than she had wanted.

Given that the majority of their bedroom time had happened after midnight when it was officially the first of November, she would have liked to think that she and Sirius were set for the coming deadline. However, Hermione worried that some eager young Ministry worker, who had no idea for whom he or she was truly working, would argue that all the activities the couple had engaged in that morning were merely extensions of the previous night's sex and did not count toward the new deadline.

Worse still was that Sirius had not written her a single letter to make arrangements for the fourteenth. He sent Harry notes every other day; his wife, nothing.

She was beginning to think that he would not bother with this deadline at all and simply risk Azkaban.

Thankfully, they had a beautiful, if extremely chilly, day in the village ahead of them. Heading toward the gate, Harry chatted with Hermione while Ron tried his level best to untangle himself from Lavender, who was cooing baby talk into his ear.

Filch was guarding the open gate, eyeing the students with dislike and the figure approaching from Hogsmeade with distrust.

"Remus!" Harry shouted excitedly. He sprinted forward and wrapped the man in a hug. The boy might have a Godfather and guardian in Sirius but Remus would always remain his mentor, which was a very good thing, in Hermione's opinion, considering how much Sirius's behaviour left to be desired.

"Good morning, Harry, Ron," the man grinned. His smile dimmed ever so slightly as he turned from the boys to look at her, "Hermione."

Oblivious to the subtle change in the man's face, Harry asked hopefully, "Is Sirius here? Are you coming to Hogsmeade with us?"

The man looked away and rubbed the back of his neck in an awkward gesture, "No, actually. I'm here to see Dumbledore – Order business. Sirius is back at Grimmauld Place. He's… been a bit moody lately."

The fact that Sirius was in a mood did not faze Hermione. The part of his reply that she took notice of was the 'Order business'. She remembered Sirius mentioning it early in her captivity. At the time she had been intrigued and worried what the man might be doing that was so secret that even Sirius was in the dark. Later she thought he had simply made it up to have something to draw conversation from her. Apparently, he had been speaking truthfully. Sirius always spoke with honesty, she had to admit resentfully.

"What sort of Order business?" she asked before they could move the conversation along or end it entirely.

"Oh, nothing you need worry about," he evaded, though she noted how his eye did not meet either hers or Harry's. "I'm running a little late, actually, so I'd best be going. I'll try to stick around for dinner, okay?"

As they parted ways, Hermione spoke, keeping her voice low so Lavender would not hear. "Sirius mentioned Remus was being secretive lately. He said he has been disappearing on 'Order business' for a while now, and that he vanished down Knockturn Alley the one time he tried to follow him."

"Why would Remus be going down there?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But I think it's all very strange. Do you think Dumbledore would tell you anything if you asked?"

The boy shrugged. "Doubt it, but I can try."

"When's your next lesson?"

"Tomorrow night. Think we'll make it to Riddle's Hogwarts years. Still creepy thinking of him as a normal person," Harry frowned.

Hermione nodded and walked the rest of the way in silent contemplation beside him. Ron and Lavender's kissing and giggling made poor accompaniment to their thoughts and they were quickly abandoned in the village.

Honeyduke's made for a wonderful diversion, even if both Harry and Hermione were too busy imagining what sort of Order business Remus might be working on to fully appreciate the mouth-watering sights and smells of the shop.

"Butterbeer?" Harry offered and pointed with his thumb to the Three Broomsticks just up the road.

Hermione was reluctant to return to the pub where she and Sirius had 'fulfilled their obligation'. Really, it was the closest thing to a honeymoon she would ever have, so she ought to think better of it. Her pride still ached, however, and it was easier to deal with what had happened if she only thought of their actions in simple, bureaucratic terms of contractual obligation instead of trying to romanticise it. Even then she didn't want to go to the Three Broomsticks.

'Oh, stop being foolish,' she scolded herself. 'It's not as if you had sex at the bloody bar.'

"Fine," she said brusquely and buried her face deeper in her Weasley scarf to hide her flaming cheeks. Despite what her brain said, her feet were disinclined to enter the pub, and she straggled behind Harry as he moved purposefully toward the warm and welcoming establishment. He had to hold the door open for other students entering and leaving as she made her unwilling way.

"What's the matter with you?" he asked tactlessly.

"Nothing," she sighed and dropped onto a stool at the bar, the only available seat in the whole place. Students filled every booth and table in the pub, elbowing one another mercilessly to get near enough to the bar to order.

"Oh, you'd be Mrs Black, wouldn't you?" the cheery voice of the barmaid, Madam Rosmerta, called.

Hermione blanched as she faced the woman. "How could you possibly know that?"

The woman smiled, her pretty face lighting up even more than it did naturally. "You don't forget a man like Sirius Black, nor do you miss when he's finally been caught. I'm surprised he's not here today," she commented and glanced around as if he might spring from the floorboards at the mention of his name. "He's been in often enough."

"What do you mean?"

Rosmerta turned away, smiling congenially to a new group of students who had managed to fight their way to the bar. She took their orders and money and set the bottles of Butterbeer down in front of them. Busy as she was, she kept her ear on Hermione's repeated demand for explanation. "Oh, he's been in every night this week. Odd, I thought, given he lives nowhere near here and the castle is so close," she commented, taking a pause to serve a few more customers and send a barman out to clean up after some departing students. "But he comes in, sits just there on that stool and has himself three, four Firewhiskeys, sometimes five, and leaves."

"What?" Hermione and Harry chorused.

"I'm surprised you didn't know," she said lightly but had the decency or experience not to laugh. "Last night he said he was off to see the wife. He probably thought better of it."

"Probably," Hermione agreed, keeping her face pleasant though inside she was seething. He had come that far every day and never bothered coming to talk to her? He left her to worry and fall behind in her studies because she was so preoccupied with The Bloody Deadline while he chatted up the comely Rosmerta. Inconsiderate git!

"Maybe he was on Order business, too," Harry commented doubtfully.

"What sort of business would have him sitting alone at a bar drinking?" reasoned the girl.

No, Sirius was not coming to the pub for the Order, though neither of them could imagine what had the man drowning himself nightly so close to Hogwarts for the better part of a week. For the briefest of moments Hermione thought she might have been the reason, but the thought passed almost as quickly as it came. Sirius had never needed drink to confront her, if anything the drink might hinder his intentions, as the one and only time they had been drunk in each other's company they had not talked or had sex; they had only managed to cuddled. Whatever his feelings might be toward her, cuddling was likely not what he wanted.

"Done?" Harry asked as he set his empty bottle on the counter.

She nodded and started for the door before Rosmerta could come back. The woman was very nice, but Hermione did not want yet another person telling her how absolutely wonderful it was that she had won Sirius.

Won. She scoffed at the very idea. If life were simplified down into a game that one either won or lost, then Hermione certainly would not have consider herself among its winners. Landed with a drunken letch of a husband, how precisely was that winning? Oh, he had his finer points, she was first to admit that. He was unfailingly loyal and brave beyond sense, but his propensity to insult made him difficult to befriend. It was hard to like a man who was constantly saying the wrong thing.

She shook her head and pushed purposefully through the crowd, barrelling out into the brisk air and falling into someone just outside the pub.

"I'm so sorry," Hermione apologised.

"Wotcher," the woman replied as best she could through her scarf.

"Tonks?" Harry asked, sounding as shocked as Hermione felt. He stared in open confusion at the woman before them. She looked nothing like herself, all mousy brown and plain. Not a spike or snout in sight. Even her piercings had been removed.

"Hey, Harry, Hermione," she said about as much life as her flat, brown hair. "I was coming to see you."

"Is everything all right?"

She sighed and shrugged, and Hermione knew exactly what was wrong. Remus. He had turned her down, the stupid idiot of a man. She had seen them together, it was electric and magic and perfect. Why would he try to stop that?

"Yeah, no, it's fine," Tonks said.

"Are you here on Order business, too?" Harry questioned. He had never seen them together – Remus and Tonks – not in the same way Hermione had. He could not know the real source of her despondence. Still, his lack of awareness proved useful as his question brought an interesting reaction to the woman's features.

Tonks placed an obviously false smile on her face. "Don't be ridiculous," she said and laughed lightly; it, too, was fake and forced. Such a strained response was proof enough to the two students that there was something happening right under their noses that none of the adults thought they need know about. Anger momentarily flared up with that knowledge. After all they had been through and been forced to do for the 'greater good', a bit of transparency was hardly asking for the moon.

"Then why are you here?" Hermione asked, a bit of edge slipping into her voice despite her best efforts.

"Sirius just wanted me to check up on you."

"He should have come himself if he was so concerned," Hermione muttered.

The woman dropped her eyes and started kicking the hard-packed snow with her boot. "I'd rather not be in the middle of your fight, okay?" replied Tonks quietly. "I just wanted to make sure everyone's safe."

"Uh… I think I'm going to check out Zonko's…" Harry said and made his escape. The boy had a lifetime of free joke products courtesy of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, so Hermione knew he just wanted to avoid having to hear anything she might have to say about Sirius.

Tonks watched him go, a hint of a smile on her face. She clearly thought the same as Hermione.

"What did he want?" Hermione asked, no longer thinking or talking about Harry.

"They think you're still a target," the woman admitted as they walked slowly along the street teeming with students. "Sirius was worried they might try something while you were off castle grounds."

"Why not come himself if that's what he thinks?"

The woman stopped and stepped sideways into an alley and away from the cheer and sunshine that was too contradictory to both their moods. "If he asks, I didn't say this," she said in a hushed warning.

"To ask, he would first have to talk to me," replied Hermione.

Tonks frowned. "He says you probably don't want his company any more than The Bloody Law requires."

Hermione said nothing at first, just chewed on the words. That was unnecessarily considerate of him, giving her so much space. She had never given him any indication that she disliked his company or conversation. Being forced to sleeping together had angered her, but prior to that they had gotten on quite well. That he would suddenly think she despised him was wholly unfounded and utter nonsense, which meant either he was lying or Tonks was.

Much as she hated to place the blame on anyone, she knew it was the only possibility. She also knew Sirius to be an honest man, so it had to be Tonks who was lying or, rather, politely rephrasing Sirius's actual words to soften the blow and lessen Hermione's pain.

So based on what Tonks had said, she reasoned that what the man really said was that he didn't want to be around her any more than was absolutely necessary. Git.

"Well, we've another deadline, so like it or not we need to be in each other's company," Hermione sighed, not bothering to hide her irritation; it did not occur to her that if Tonks had relayed her husband's words accurately that her reply would only further his reluctance to bother her, so she continued, "I've not heard from him in over a week."

"I'm heading back to London before dinner," Tonks said, her face looking even grimmer than before. "I'll let him know."

"Thank you," Hermione replied.

They returned to the bustling street and walked together, though no further conversation passed between them. Hermione was dying to ask about the Order business she and Remus were being sent on, but she knew the woman would not tell her anything. Discretion was important, Hermione knew that better than most. She also knew that discussing the Order of the Phoenix amid the crowded streets of Hogsmeade was far from discreet.

Harry returned and, with him, conversation. The early afternoon was pleasant enough and Tonks stayed with them as guard and friend until they were safely within the wards of the castle. She waved them off and Disapparated with a small 'crack'.

"Wonder what's the matter with her," Harry muttered.

"I wonder what this Order business is," Hermione said.

"I wonder how I'm going to get rid of Lavender," Ron grumbled.

Harry sniggered. "About time."