Disclaimer: same old, same old- everything belongs to JKR. I'm making no profit from this.

Hermione was sitting on a comfortable armchair in the living room of Grimmauld Place. They'd left school two days ago to come here. The Order Headquarters were the only places were it was safe to stay since Harry had point-blank refused to return to the Dursleys. And it wasn't really that bad anymore. Actually, the house looked quite good now.

They'd already been here last summer and Ginny and Dobby (the elf had been sent to help by Dumbeldore) decided that: "The great Harry Potter and his Wheezys and all his other great friends can not live in a place like this."

Between Dobby's elf powers, the fact that Ginny could do magic here because the house was so heavily warded that nobody in the Ministry noticed and, most important, because nobody dared interfere with the two of them the house looked great now. They'd decided on Gryffindor colours for the most part and the living room they were all in now looked almost like the Common Room.

Hermione's eyes drifted around the room. It was late in the evening; they had finished dinner some time ago. She was sitting at a table with Harry and Ron who were playing Wizard's chess while Ginny was whispering hints into Harry's ear.

Molly was knitting; Arthur, Bill, Remus, Fleur and Tonks were discussing something that sounded a lot like Order business. She didn't concentrate on what they were saying, though, because she'd undoubtedly find out at the meeting tomorrow.

Fred and George were leading a discussion with Mundungus in the corner; from time to time she heard their laughter. She'd bet they were discussing something illegal which Molly would most certainly not approve of. She'd accepted the fact that the twins were leading a (very successful) joke shop, but she still didn't like Mundungus.

This place was home for Hermione and the others now, they'd all spent so much time here, but for Hermione somebody was missing. Without him everything was so different now. She reprimanded herself when she noticed she was thinking about Sirius again.

Her return had been two weeks ago and it had been the worst time of her life. She'd made her choice. There was nothing she could do about it. But still, she missed him so much. She blamed herself for his death- she could have stopped it. The feelings of guilt and pain grew stronger with each day, but there was really nothing she could do.

She hadn't told anybody except for Ginny what had happened. No time had passed while she'd lived through half a year and so nobody noticed that she'd been gone. She'd landed right in front of Dumbeldore's office again, not a minute had passed. She hadn't mentioned the spell to anyone either. She knew there was a time to tell Harry and everybody else the truth and then she would also give him the spell.

But for now- she couldn't just walk up to Harry and say something like: "By the way, Harry, I travelled back in time two weeks ago. I found a way for you to defeat Voldermort and I met your parents. Oh, and I fell in love with your godfather- but I condemned him to death so that you can win. Don't feel bad about that though, it's my fault."

She sighed softly. Ginny looked up at her and guessed her friend's thoughts. Quietly she mouthed: "Don't blame yourself." Hermione nodded, but she didn't really mean it. The pain of her loss was still so fresh and she missed Sirius so much. She'd leave now, she decided. She couldn't bear being here anymore, she just wanted to be alone and mourn in peace.

She turned her head towards the door and received the probably largest shock of her life. The words "this can't be true" still on the tip of her tongue she fainted. There, in the entrance of the living room of Grimmauld Place 12 stood no other than Sirius Black.

Sirius Black had been standing in the doorway of his ancestor's home for quite some time now, watching the people he considered his family. He didn't know how he'd returned and he had no memories of what had happened between his fall through the veil and the present, but he was sure he'd missed them all.

The brunette was the first to see him when she gazed his way and promptly fainted. And that moment he nearly fainted, too, because she looked just like a woman he hadn't seen in years, but never forgotten. It had to be Hermione though, he reprimanded himself there was no other explanation. Mya would have been much older by now. Still, Hermione was beautiful, so different from how he remembered her. "She's your godfather's friend, for god's sake, cut it out, Sirius," he murmured ever so quietly to himself.

Ginny was the first to look up at Hermione. She seemed much older now, he noticed. When there eyes met, he saw there that the times since he's death hadn't been peaceful- and that probably meant that they had all been in the middle of the fighting.

The redhead jumped up: "Sirius? Is that really you?" She didn't seem able to believe it- not that that astounded him, it was pretty unbelievable after all. She jumped up and pointed her wand at him. By now the whole room was staring and Harry, Ron, Tonks and Remus had also pulled their wands.

The werewolf spoke first, fear and hope etched onto his face: "Password?"

Sirius answered quickly: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Instantly he was surrounded by the whole room. Harry and Remus reached him first, tears of joy running down their face, hugging him and pulling him down on a chair.

"It's good to have you back, Sirius."

"It is you, Padfoot."

"What happened? How did you manage to return?"

And from twins: "You guys are the Marauders?"

Sirius laughed. It was a laugh not heard by anybody for years, since Lily and James died. It was laugh of pure happiness and joy. He was home.

He sat down. "Merlin, it's great to be back here. To answer your questions: I have no idea what happened. All I remember is falling through that veil and the next moment I was somewhere in the Caribbean. That's why it took me so long to come back here, I actually returned two weeks ago. I was shocked when I found out the date and that I'd been dead or something for all this time."

Tonks laughed and hugged him: "Well, it's great to have you back anyway, dearest cousin. Mum will be so pleased."

Remus smiled: "Oi, Padfoot leave your hands of my wife!"

Everybody else started laughing at the look on Sirius's face: "Wife? You mean", he turned to Tonks: "the old werewolf finally asked you?"

"You're as charming as ever, old friend, you're just as old as me."

"I save my charm for the ladies, Moony."

The conversation continued. Where the mood had been anxious for months, it finally lightened up. Remus smiled to himself, Padfoot had always had that effect on people. Especially the old Sirius, who seemed to be back in his whole glory.

Hermione, by now recovered from the shock, just stared at Sirius from a quiet corner of the room. So this was what the Council had meant. She had no idea what would happen now, the future was as uncertain as ever, but somehow she felt safer. And she was happy, for the first time since her return. She didn't know how to tell Sirius, but everything was better than him being dead. A genuine smile crossed her face.

AN: See this little blue button over there- please click and review. Thank you sooo much too those people who reviewed: writingqueen13, Tomorrows Dust, googlibear, Slytherin-Lycan and amrawo. Your reviews really helped and motivated me!!!