Chapter Two: Denial isn't just a river in Egypt!

a/n: If you read the original version, this chapter was very short and ended where Hermione and Ginny finished chatting, but in the new version here I extended it by adding another twins scene and another Sirius and Remus scene. Thanks and merry Christmas :) Also it was a struggle for me to write Hermione so please bare with me if she sounds very confused and conflicted, she is. and thank you to my beta for helping out :)


"Oh, he's so bloody immature!"

"I know, I only have to live with them," Ginny said.

"No, not your brothers, Sirius!"

"Sirius?" Ginny asked incredulously. "I think he's just bored. Doesn't get out much."

"It's no excuse," Hermione said callously.

"My brothers are still worse though." Ginny suddenly smiled and looked at her chipping teal blue nail polish. "Hey, what did that card they gave you say? You never told me."

Hermione blushed. "For a very good reason, it was absolutely mortifying!" She cringed as she remembered what Fred and George's naughty Christmas card told her.

"Oh c'mon, what did it say? You have to tell me, you can't just NOT tell me!"

Hermione bit her lip. Oh dammit. If Ginny wanted to know something, she would pester her and pester her until she got the answers.

"C'mon, Hermione," Ginny pleaded. "It made you angry enough to toss the present into the fireplace. What was it?"

"I shouldn't have said anything!"

"Well you bloody well did—so out with it! I promise I won't tell anyone. Trust me. Please?" Ginny's eyes were huge and pleading.

Hermione nodded and recited the awful card Fred and George had penned to her, "Your brothers wrote, 'Dear Hermione, Merry Christmas, we've noticed that you're all alone and totally have it bad for Sirius so we thought we'd help along by giving you the courage you lack, so here's a..." Hermione lowered her voice and whispered what it was to Ginny.

Ginny's jaw dropped. "They didn't!"

Hermione's face was beet red. "Yes. they. did."

Ginny clasped her hands over her mouth. "Oh, that is really bad!" She chuckled at how embarrassed Hermione was. "It's true though isn't it?" Ginny's smile widened. "You like Sirius, don't you?"

"I do NOT."

"Then why are you blushing?"

"Dammit. I am not blushing!" Hermione swore and yet she could feel her own blood pumping to her cheeks. "And even if I were blushing, it does not mean I like Sirius Black. Why are you jumping to conclusions?"

"Come off it. You're always fighting with him."

"That's because he's always doing idiotic things and pranks that annoy me."

Ginny's grin couldn't get any bigger. "Then why aren't you fighting with my brothers?"

"Uh, I—err—that is not fair Ginny." Hermione held her face in her hands. "Your brothers are—are just something I'm used to!"

Yet in the back of her mind, Hermione couldn't help thinking that Sirius was also a lot better looking, dark and alluring that her red-headed brothers.

Ginny laughed louder. "You are so adorable when you're in denial. Look in the mirror, you look like you've just been sunburnt."

"Well great," Hermione said and felt at her flushed skin with her fingertips. "Do you really think I like Sirius?"

"I think you might, if you get over the denial. Though don't worry, I don't think Sirius has noticed."

"Ginny, you promised you wouldn't say anything," Hermione warned, turning away from the mirror to stare the redhead down.

"I know, I won't." Ginny grinned. "Though what makes you think Fred and George won't say anything?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes and grabbed the hilt of her wand. "Oh trust me, they better not try anything, because they know I'll hex them into the other world if they do! They've already made enough unfounded insinuations as it is."

Ginny laughed as she lounged back in a chair and stretched out her long legs. "You're a bit scary sometimes. Would it really kill you if Sirius knew?"

Hermione thought about that. What would Sirius think if he knew?

Obviously, he didn't reciprocate her feelings. Sirius didn't even look at her much. Sometimes, she even thought that Sirius hated her a little.

"No. Ginny that would not be a good idea...Sirius and I do not get along. If he knew, he'd probably laugh at me. He's Harry's godfather, for Merlin's sake." She pressed at her forehead.

"I still think you should tell him."

"No, Ginny that would be wrong. He's way older than me, he'd be shocked or hate me for it."

"I don't think he'd hate you for it."

"You don't know that."

"You don't know until you try."

"No Ginny, just no."

Ginny's eyes sparkled with mischief, a bit too much like her brothers.

"So you never thought about using that gift my brothers gave you?" Ginny giggled.

Hermione turned red in the face again. "No, Ginny, why do you think I burnt it? I would never use something like that!" The bookish brunette crossed her arms tightly. Still an idea did occur to her. But no that would be way wrong. And there were some rules that shouldn't be broken right?

.


Meanwhile back in the parlour...

"George, or Fred—sorry I can't tell the difference between you two blighters to save my life—what did you put in that card and present to Hermione?" Sirius asked the twins while they cleaned the enchanted slime off the wall with sponges before Molly found it. "It seemed to get her quite upset."

"I'd rather not say," George or Fred snickered.

"I hope you are not up to too much mischief..." Sirius warned them, trying for once to sound patriarchal in absence of their father.

"Says you?" the twins cooed with matching grins.

"Oh dammit. I joke around somewhat, but I do have my limits. I do hope you boys haven't created more trouble than you know how to deal with. A prankster should always know his limits!" Sirius declared authoritatively.

The twins snickered again as they wiped at the singing elvish voices of the enchanted slime from the wall.

"Well, it won't be us, dealing with it, Sirius." They laughed loudly. "Or our limits."

"What does that mean? Why are you laughing?"

Normally, he joined in on the twins laughter, but just now, Sirius was rather troubled by their laughter and what they were not telling him. Sirius seemed to be the butt of some joke he didn't understand.

"Don't worry about it Sirius. She burnt the whole thing, so nothing will happen."

"Nothing will happen?" Sirius murmured, trying to think of what prank it might be that would involve him and Hermione. "I'm afraid you've lost me again. What would've happened if she didn't burn it?"

George or Fred—the blighters really did look exactly the same—tapped him on the shoulder. "Mate, shouldn't worry about it. We're very sorry about pranking those gifts, but we'll get this last bit of slime off the walls, and that should be the end of it. You won't hear a peep or word of it again."

"I should hope so." Sirius scratched at his beard. He sincerely hoped the twins wouldn't prank him further; he was rather very confused and tired and only half sober. "Make sure your mother doesn't see any of the slime, I'd rather not hear anymore of her yelling," Sirius said grimly as he made his way to the Floo Network.

"Where are you going?" the boys called after him.

"Remus's." Sirius shot them a sloppy grin and held up a half-filled bottle of Firewhisky. "He left off here much too early, and I don't think I'll let him off the hook without joining me in finishing this bottle." (And have him chat about the dire Tonks situation.)

The twins laughed as Sirius stepped into the fireplace and threw the Floo powder. "Remus Lupin's Flat. 88 Cedar Drive"

.


"Moony! Moony!" he called as he stumbled through the messy flat. "I know you're still in here."

He stumbled past Remus's scratched up sofa; it looked like either Moony or a large dog had dug his claws and torn up that particular piece of furniture. Sirius shook his head and tutted. Poor Moony.

"I need to talk to you about the Nymphadora situation!"

"There is no Nymphadora situation. Now go away," Remus called, obviously from his bedroom where he was trying to sleep. "Besides her name is Tonks, not Nymphadora!"

Sirius chuckled. "See? You do like her, otherwise you wouldn't correct me on her name."

"Just shut up. She's told you many times not to call her that."

"You like her," Sirius insisted and opened the door to his bedroom.

"Just shut up." Remus turned over and covered his head with the pillow. "Tonks is just a colleague."

"Fine," Sirius said with teasing slowness. "A colleague with great tits. I guess you wouldn't mind then if I went back there and took her up on her offer to ride my broomstick?"

"YOU DID WHAT?" Remus growled, immediately jumping out of bed, and looking like he wanted to push up Sirius against the wall.

Sirius had been holding his breath, but suddenly his chest and arms started shaking and he let out a long-winded chuckle. "You see? You should see your face, Moony. It's hilarious how you can't even see something so obvious." He began to chuckle even louder at Remus's expense

Remus growled, managing to sound very feral and wolf-like despite being in his human, unchanged form. "What's obvious," Remus said moodily and reached out to pull his sheets and pillow that had fallen on the ground, "is I'm trying to sleep and you keep interrupting me. Why are you even here, except to pester me more?"

Sirius grinned and held up the still half-empty bottle of Firewhisky. "Care to join me? C'mon Remus, it's Christmas eve, you always used to get shit faced."

"That was a long time ago." The other man's lips pulled up at the corners. "Still..." He smirked. "For old time's sake..."


Remus, by the end of the night, drank 4 straight shots of the concentrated alcoholic beverage 'for old time's sake', and they had plenty of time to go over memory lane until the point where Sirius and Remus were both shitfaced and sobbing as Sirius reminded him of all the great pranks James used to pull.

"I miss James."

"I do too, buddy."

"Whatever happened to my life," Remus sobbed, as he cradled his drink in his large, scarred hands.

"Hey, it's not too late for you, you have Tonks," Sirius said even more reassuringly and drunkenly. He was about 10 seconds away from getting to that lovey-dovey drunk state where you hug whatever bro is beside you and tell the bro you love him while sobbing uncontrollably. However, he vaguely remembered he had to get Remus to admit to his feelings for Tonks and do something about it. "You could start a family with her, you could start over."

"Sirius, be sober, be real." Remus groaned gloomily. "Tonks is thirteen years younger than me!" Yet there was a tone of sadness in his voice when he said it.

Sirius clapped him on the back. "Get over it, mate. She wants you and you want her. There's nothing left to do but lift you're leg, mark her as your territory and drizzle all over that big, red, shiny metal thing. Let the other dogs know that tree, er hydrant is yours, and NOBODY can touch her! Cover that thing and presto she's yours, your mate, she is youuurs." His words were becoming more and more slurred.

"Sirius, you're not making any sense. I'm not going to pee on anyone." Remus coughed in embarrassment.

"I know."

"Tonks is not a fire hydrant."

"I know," Sirius said even more drearily. He felt the room swirl around him. "She's more like a...like a pink. uh..ball of..."

He was going to say like a pink ball of fluff, or pink pygmy puff, or something that rhymed, but Sirius passed out before he could finish that thought.

Vaguely, Sirius remembered Hermione screaming at him because of the prank—or was that Molly Weasley? They were alike, gosh, except one had red-hair and was 50-years-old—before he closed his eyes.

.


Hermione stayed up most of the night, she couldn't really sleep after what Ginny and the twins' card told her.

'Dear Hermione, we know you have it bad for Sirius...' and the twins faces had lit up so much, in devilish delight, when they saw how red she turned and how she threw their lascivious, outrageous present in the fireplace. (And yet why had she reacted so strongly? So furiously? Even Harry had seemed to be surprised by her level of anger.)

Was it really truly what Ginny said? Did she in fact have a monstrous and totally in denial crush on Sirius? Was all her screaming and fighting with Sirius trying to cover up something deeper?

Hermione thought that over.

No, it couldn't be could it.

Sirius was just irresponsible and her screaming at him, had more to do with his behaviour, than her trying to be in denial or get his attention. Though Sirius was good-looking, she couldn't deny that. But that was it. His personality was a walking disaster.

"Completely ridiculous," Hermione told herself. "Absolutely ridiculous."

And yet a part of herself knew that wasn't true.

.

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