Disclaimer: The universe and the characters are J.K. Rowling's, I just use them.

Chapter 1

Knock knock.

Hermione slowly opened the door; only that far so she could put her head trough the door and peek into the library.

"Hey Mione, what is it?"

She blushed, feeling caught by Sirius when he asked her.

Finally, she opened the door completely and slipped into the old, large room full of dusty, precious books.

"How can I help you kitten?" The Marauder looked into her face and she could feel the blush increase.

"Well…," she sat down on the sofa in front of him. Elegant, as she hoped; smoothing her skirt and absently putting her curls in order.

He could see that she was uncomfortable and wondered what it was. Had Ron upset her? Was she sad that Harry seemed to have no time for anyone but Ginny anymore? Or was it Molly again, trying to make her to the perfect daughter in law and wife?

He knew it had no sense to push her, she had to take her time and start the conversation when she was ready. Sirius had watched Ron trying to push her to tell him something she wasn't ready to tell and so he knew it was a bad idea. Ron still flinched sometimes when she glared at him, knowing first hand how much her hexes could hurt.

So, he waited for her to start.

"You see," she began, "I hoped you could help me with … something."

He noticed that her gaze was still avoiding his face. Instead, she let her eyes wander over the bookshelves that decorated the high walls of the old Black Library.

"Of course, love. Whatever it is." He tried to make her feel comfortable. To show her that she was able to talk about everything with him and he wouldn't judge her.

"It…it's kind of an awkward… topic to discuss casually, I guess." She gulped. "But you are the only person I know that is open about that kind of stuff. Molly would squeeze me out, Harry doesn't have time, Ron is childish about this topic and Remus…. well, I think he would be even more uncomfortable about it than I am and right now, I just don't have the nerve to be sensible enough not to make him blush." She was blushing herself when she finished.

Now, that sounded interesting. What could it be that made her blush? And unable to talk to anyone but him? Remus turned red from a lot of things, so this was no indicator, and Sirius couldn't remember when Ron hadn't acted childish about anything.

My, what was it that had the little witch's knickers in such a twist that she came to him to talk?

"It's fine, kitten, I'm happy you trust me enough to come to me of all people. Now, what is it you can't talk to anyone about but me?"

He watched her blushing again. It was cute to witness such thing on her face.

"It's about…," she took a deep breath and Sirius felt himself lean forward, full of tension, "Sex. I can't talk about sex with anyone else."

He let himself fall against the back of the sofa again, chuckling a bit. Of course, she would blush about stuff like that. This remembered him how young she was; only 16. Yeah, he remembered the time of his own youth, when everything that contained the topic of sex made everyone around him blush and giggle. Sirius had never felt the same sense of suffocating shamefulness or heat rising in his cheeks while talking about sex. This kind of ease made him not only feel more mature at a lot of occasions but also helped him to seduce the one or other person he crossed paths with, back in his own Hogwarts time.

"Okay, what do you want to know? You're way to clever to ask about the basic stuff. I'm sure you educated yourself about all the where's and how's in some books while pretending to study for some potions class or Transfiguration essay." He grinned.

"Of course I know the 'basic stuff', as you call it." She looked at him like he was dumb, which amused Sirius immensely. Always the little know-it-all. "My question is more of a… personal issue." She trailed off.

"You know I'm not embarrassed to talk about personal topics, darling." Hermione snorted „Yeah, I heard you bragging about your 'sleeping schedules' to Remus, more often than I wanted to." She muttered more to herself than to him and he had to smirk again.

"So, Sirius, how did you know you were straight?"

He choked on his own saliva. He had expected everything. Honestly, everything. But most definitely not this.

"If you mean how did I know I liked sleeping with women, then my answer is: I just tried. And I recognised pretty early how great women are. In a lot of ways. Look, Hermione, sometimes it is as easy as just giving it a go. Like… when you find some new food you never have eaten before. You won't know whether you'll like it or if will feel the urge to throw up afterwards, if you never tried it, do you?"

"But it's not always as easy. Otherwise I wouldn't be here!"

"Darling, I promise, it is worth it trying new things now and then, even if they might scare you sometimes."

"So, have you ever tried sleeping with a guy?"

"Eh…" Sirius stopped.

"No. Yeah, I thought so. So you never were curious as to how it might feel like? Never questioned, if you could like it? Never fancied someone of the same gender?", she blurted out, in a speed, that she felt like having no breath left after she finally finished.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down kitten. I never said I didn't try."

"So you had sex with another man? Who?" She stared at him. Eyes so big, Sirius was afraid they might pop out.

"Okay, so, as I said, I have no problem with talking about personal stuff. But in this case, considering that there's another person involved in the story, I'd find it rather unfair to talk about it without having asked for their consent beforehand. Especially because it most certainly would create rather awkward encounters for the both of you the next times you'd see each other-"

"So it was someone I know?" Her eyes grew even bigger.

Sirius looked at her, amused but he shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you who it was. But to your other question: No, I never had penetrative sex with another man, for I figure that's what you were asking for. Both of us were too afraid it would hurt, so we came to no solution as to who'd be bottom and who would be on top." Hermione blushed again and averted her eyes from his gaze. "But we tried a lot of other stuff that made a lot of fun nonetheless."

Her eyes flickered back at his, then down again. He could see the confusion taking over in her head. She looked back into his face and asked "What kind of other stuff?"

Merlin, did she really not know? "Other stuff, like oral sex or hand jobs."

She had a strange look. Could it be that… "Hermione? You do know what oral sex is, don't you?" She narrowed her eyes "I read about it yeah. It is a common way in sexual intercourse to please your partner with your mouth, lips and tongue; often times used in the process of foreplay."

"I didn't know it was possible to talk about oral sex in such an unsexy way."

"Sirius!"

"What? It's the truth! You sounded like you just quoted that from a textbook."

"So what? Is it a bad thing to try and educate yourself with the help of books? No one talks about this stuff! All the adults are way too stiff for me to ask them and when you are boasting about your flings, I have no idea what you're on about, most of the times."

"Wait…so you never actually tried… anything? "

"I…", she looked offended, "I mean… well, not everybody lost their virginity at 14, you know?"

"I was 13 actually… doesn't matter, I guess." He finished lamely when she fired an angry look towards him.

"But no, I never tried it. I never tried anything. Damn, my first kiss was Victor, last year. And that's it! Nothing more or even equally erotic since then! Oh Sirius, I don't know what to do."

She looked so utterly lost in this moment. Sirius was so shocked about her sudden emotional reaction, that he got up from his chair, took a place next to her instead, and embraced her in a tight hug.

He could feel her relax against him. She got out of her stiffened state after a while and then was very grateful for him to hold her. She was still not completely used to Sirius' overflow of physical affection. But she knew it meant he trusted her and felt comfortable in her presence. So she tried to give him back some of that trust and affection by allowing herself to fall into the embrace and hug him back.

She took a deep breath and slowly got out from under all the warmth and hair that tickled her face.

"Listen, Hermione. There's nothing wrong with anything you just said, okay? Look at me." She was still embarrassed and at the same time didn't know what to feel at all. "Hey, Mione, look at me."

Slowly, she averted her eyes from her hands in her lap and looked up at him. He smiled at her. But it was neither a smile that made fun of her, nor one that belittled her. He genuinely smiled down at her and she could read in his eyes all the things he was not saying with words in this moment. She could see that he respected her, still respected her as the young adult witch that she was, the brightest of her age. That he appreciated how honest and vulnerable she allowed herself to be around him, that he gave her a safe enough feeling to open up. Really open up.

There was even pride in his gaze. And she could only figure that it was there for the exact same reason. Because she told him. Not Ron, not Remus, not Ginny and most of all, not Harry. Although he knew that she trusted his wonderful godson more than anyone else on this godforsaken planet. Why else would she so willingly follow him into danger? Onto a journey, that might even lead to death. Yes, she trusted Harry, she loved him. He was her brother in all but blood. But maybe it was exactly that fact that kept her away from him when it came to this specific topic.

He brought up his hand and ran his fingers through her curls, tenderly petting her mane of hair.

"Sorry, I guess it's just that I let all this build up inside of me for so long –"

"No need for excuses there. It's okay to be overwhelmed sometimes. Believe me, I have to be an expert." And finally, she smiled back at him, gratefulness in her gaze.

"Thank you Sirius." She cupped his cheek in her small hands while staring earnestly in his eyes. "I mean it. Thank you for not making it any more awkward than it already is… well, at least not more than the ordinary amount of awkwardness you like to produce on a regular basis."

He chuckled again and dipped his head when she took back her hand. "To your service, my little witch!" She couldn't help the small giggle that escaped her own lips at his stupid, immature gesture. Once a marauder, always a marauder, she smiled to herself.

"So…", she started slowly, "what am I supposed to do?"

"Can I ask you something?" She shrugged her shoulders as to say "yes".

"What makes you suddenly so curious about all that? I mean, to be honest, and please don't be mad at me for saying so, but I thought, if there was one teenager not concerned about sex, it would be you."

"Why so?" She furrowed her brows and had a look on her face, as if this accusation would truly offend her. "Because I spend so much time reading and being a know-it-all that I could never be considered a sexual being, a boring bookworm like me?"

She sounded like these words belonged to someone else. Like she heard them before, thrown at her by some stupid bully in school. He knew from stories how awful that Malfoy boy could be. And Sirius knew that calling her a prude probably wasn't even the worst she was called in her life. Ron told him more than one time how the little blond git called her a Mudblood right from the beginning.

He fixed her with a look. "It's honestly the exact opposite. I just thought that, given how you are more mature than the rest of the kids at Grimmauld together, you would have already figured out all this stuff. I assumed you already knew what you liked. Considering that you are the brightest witch of your generation. Just guessed that, with all your thinking, you knew."

She looked surprised. "I…", she stuttered. "I, well yeah, I thought I knew it. It's just, with Ginny and Luna here this summer and them having late night girl talks almost every bloody night, I just, I don't know, started question a few things, I guess."

"You participate in girl talks?" Sirius seemed to be shocked, amused and intrigued all at once.

"No. I said, Luna and Ginny have girl talks. I don't do the talking. I am more some kind of … silent member?" She ended the sentence making it sound more like a question than anything else. As if she wasn't sure herself which role exactly she was playing in their acticity.

"However, it can be really annoying when you seem to be the only one that really tries to keep to a somehow regular sleeping schedule. Honestly, Sirius. Every. Single. Night." She looked haunted and pleadingly at him but then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I had no idea, there was so much sex related stuff to discuss, like, at some point at least, you would think there is nothing more to talk about but these two prove me wrong. Again and again."

"Ok, so first of all, don't lie to me kitten, I've seen you draped on one of the chairs in the library with some dusty old book at a totally inappropriate time in the middle of the night on way too many occasions. You can't trick me into believing you'd have a healthy sleeping schedule."

"That's something different." He raised a questioning eyebrow, as to say how is that different? "Well first of all, I choose to read in the library in the middle of the night. And the information I get in these dusty old books at least is intellectually … stimulating." The last word in her sentence was more in a whispered tone and her voice did break in the end, like she just then realised how one could interpret it. And she was talking to Sirius of all people.

"But, I mean besides the fact that it gets old at some point, some things did catch my interest. Believe me, I didn't want to know about Harry's kinks, that's honestly some information I could have lived without for the rest of my life." Sirius looked like she just had vomited on him, the disgust on his face nearly screamed at her. "Yeah, I know. But like I said, there were moments I just felt, I don't know, intrigued or even, maybe...whatever."

"What were these moments?" He seemed actually interested.

"Luna told about some things she did."

"Luna?" The dreamy, small witch that believed in all these non-existing creatures was supposed to have done something sexual? Sirius couldn't really wrap his head around that. On the other hand ...

"Well, crazy people are fucking kinky most of the time. Oh, don't look at me like that!" Hermione glared at him for insulting her blonde friend. "I didn't mean it as an insult and you know that, I love crazy. They make the best people, I mean, do I seam completely tame and normal to you?"

"So you like kinky stuff in bed as well?" She deadpanned with a raised eyebrow.

He laughed out loud. Hearing the word kinky out of Hermione's mouth just did it for him. It just seemed, not wrong, but fucking hilarious, considering how much she blushed at the word sex just 10 minutes ago.

"So, what kinky stuff is Luna talking about?" He still had to try and bring his laughter down.

"She just told Ginny how she had something with a girl. No, more than one. But not at the same time. I think so at least. I really just started listening after her confession," she seemed to be back at the conversation in the girls room in her head.

"Did she like it?"

"I guess so, why else should she have done it again after the first time? Although, I remember Ginny telling me how she was disappointed after her first time with Harry and she still did it again. I never really got that, because, when it's as bad as most girls say it is at the first time, how do they still want to repeat that? I am a little bit afraid, that, if I don't like it, I just don't ever want to do it again and then just die alone without ever knowing what good sex is like." She got faster at the end and had to take a breath after finishing, again.

"It is easier to find out what you like if you start slowly."

"Sirius Black, Casanova himself, is telling me to take things slow?" Now it was her that was chuckling.

"I don't mean in this bullshit kind of way like 'you have to love the other person and wait until after marriage' and stuff. I just mean that most people sadly still focus on penetration, as if it was the only way of sex that is legit. Honestly. Yeah, I do like sex in the sense of penetrating, but I don't need it to feel pleasure and sometimes I even experience more pleasure through a good blowjob or by just exploring each other's bodies with your hands."

Hermione was beet red again and staring at him.

Silence. And then: "You really have no problem talking about personal stuff, do you?"

"I hate that we even call it that! Everyone has sex! I never understood why so many people don't talk about it when they are totally fine with doing it. We're just unnecessarily stigmatizing by that. And it is so much more fun when you have a partner that knows what they like and are confident with telling you exactly what they want. That makes it more pleasurable for all parts and I mean, why should I not talk about that part of my life with the people I trust? It's just natural."

"I guess some people are just shy about it," Hermione said. "I'm not comfortable talking about it as well, you know that."

"Yeah, because you feel shame talking about it, don't you? Because our society makes you feel ashamed. Especially since you are a girl. Believe me, when I tell you that once you overstep that and accept every part of you, and yes, your sexuality is an important part of you, even if you're asexual, it's something that does affect you and your lifestyle in some kind of way, you will experience so many beautiful things.

But back to the original topic. Most girls don't like penetrative sex on their first time. I guess it is because most people with a penis just focus on the total basic shit. And I dare say a lot of girls do not focus on penetration when being alone, so they are just disappointed that their partner does but are too ashamed to tell them what they really like or even just because they don't want to make the other person feel bad. I mean, how do you masturbate?"

"I..., eh, I- that's, I mean..." Hermione stuttered, not sure what to say after being asked something she was never asked before. She didn't talk about sex with people, but she most definitely did never talk to someone about masturbation. What would they think? What if she didn't do it the way others did it and she got considered odd?

"It's okay, you don't have to answer, if you don't want to. I just want you to get aware of what you like and focus on what feels good for you and maybe try to start a conversation about it. Not necessarily with me but if Ginny and Luna do talk about so much, I'm pretty sure they are more than happy to share some things about that as well." Sirius looked at her reassuringly.

"I don't know Sirius, I don't even know if they...you know, do it."

"Believe me, darling, everybody masturbates." He let out a snort and his shoulders shook a bit because of his silent chuckle. "It only can help you to find new ways of pleasuring yourself and maybe you like some of the things, or maybe not but then you did at least try it."

"Hey, Mione!" Ginny smiles at her, as she entered their shared room later that evening.

"You seem a bit nervous, Hermione. Are you all right?" Luna brought her dreamy blue eyes to her face with a concerned expression in them.

"Oh, no, it's…I mean, I'm fine." She tried to look reassuring. She failed miserably, which Ginny was not shy to show her openly, raising her eyebrows in a don't-try-to-bullshit-me way.

Hermione sighed.

"Can I ask you two something?"