Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognisable to the Harry Potter world

Playing God

Chapter 6

Hermione woke up to a gentle tapping against the window of her new bedroom and she groaned lightly at the back of the throat as she rubbed a hand over her face before pushing the covers back away from her body (shivering momentarily in the exposed air) and reaching for the window latch to let the owl in.

"Do you think that you could make that noise again followed by my name?" Hermione let one corner of her lips tilt as she turned to face Sirius as the owl soared past her and cuffed the top of her head lightly with its outstretched wing before dropping its letter on the red covers of her bed and flying out the window again.

However, Hermione barely noticed this as she was too busy staring at the man in her doorway – after failing to wake him up last night, she instead threw a blanket over his sleeping form on the sofa and went to her own room to get some sleep herself. She was half-regretting this as she gazed at his toned muscles beneath the tight web of slightly tanned skin that seemed to be daring her to stroke her fingers across the expanse of exposed flesh, but she refrained.

Still, the predatory grin from Sirius told her that he knew exactly what she was thinking, that he'd intended it from her. "Who's it from?" He asked and Hermione stared blankly at him before he grinned and tilted his head to her bed where the letter still lay unopened and he took a gulp of the coffee mug in his hand (that she hadn't even noticed until that moment). She hurriedly moved to the bed and picked up the envelope, not recognising the writing on the front in purple ink so she opened it with slight trepidation. She was after all a Muggle-born and she was expecting attacks.

What she got, however, was a letter from Lily, asking her if next Thursday at 3pm was good for their girl talk. Hermione stared at the parchment in slight shock as she hadn't expected Lily to have been serious and she shuddered at the thought of talking to the woman that she would have to let die in little over a year.

"What is it? Not bad news?" He asked and she could sense the slight urgency and worry to his voice – people had been dying left and right around them and Sirius wasn't in a hurry to hear about any more deaths.

"Oh, no it isn't," she hurried to placate him and he relaxed his stance slightly. She smiled and turned the parchment over it to write on the other side, thousands of excuses running through her head as to why she couldn't exactly go then. She would avoid Lily and James as much as was physically possible (which wouldn't be often if the plan worked and she started dating Sirius) but she didn't think that she'd be able to befriend them and then just let Voldemort walk right into their house and kill them.

She looked up to see Sirius, but he was no longer stood in her doorway. She quirked her eyebrow and moved from her bedroom and down the hall to see if she could spot him – she eventually found him in the kitchen, putting the kettle on the stove and humming to himself, brushing his long black hair away from his face and he glanced at her, his grey eyes shining with amusement.

It was very strange, Hermione thought, watching Sirius do something that was domesticated – she had always pegged him as a take-away kind of guy or a coffee shop, not one who knew how to work Muggle appliances. But then, her brain reminded her, he's always been against the pure-blood standard way of life that he had been forced to live by in his childhood and teens and had probably mastered these things long ago, mainly to annoy his mother. She smiled faintly to herself at the memory of his bedroom back at 12 Grimmauld place and the amount of Muggle posters and Gryffindor pride that he had crammed into that room.

"What's got you so smiley?" He asked her just as the kettle started to whistle.

"What you doing on Thursday?" She asked, suddenly feeling the need to be with him a lot more than normally – she knew that it was the mirror's power, the luck that had been bestowed upon her that Sirius returned her feelings and she knew that, if he was free, he would meet up with her.

"Thursday? Hmm…" He poured the tea in to a blue mug and asked over his shoulder how she liked it – she blinked in confusion, thinking that the tea he was making had been for himself, but then she remembered the coffee that he had been drinking earlier and a place inside her warmed at the fact that he had made her tea; while it was a small gesture, it was a thoughtful one nonetheless and it cheered her up immensely. "Well, I'm at work in the morning till dinner and then for the rest of the day, nothing. I was thinking of hooking up with James. Unless, of course, you have a better idea?" He asked, quirking his eyebrow in a way that had most women swooning and Hermione grinned at the lack of effect it had on her.

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to meet up at the Triwand? At about 3ish?" She asked politely, trying to stop down the little swirl of fear in her heart that anticipated his rejection.

"I think that's an excellent idea!" He said and Hermione smiled at him again. She was finding it hard to not smile whenever Sirius was around.

Half an hour later, just as Sirius was getting ready to go to work, he asked her a question that had her stalling for a second: "Is this a date-date? Or a friend-date?"

Honestly? She had no clue. She knew that she needed to get a move on to get with Sirius, but she knew, in both her mind and her heart, that it wasn't that easy. There were so many things stopping her, such as her lingering feelings for Ron (even thinking his name sent a small spasm of pain through her veins) and her knowledge that Sirius' feelings were based solely on the mirror's luck; otherwise Sirius wouldn't have looked at Hermione twice that day in the pub.

Would he?

"Friend-date." She eventually responded and Sirius nodded in understanding, moving closer to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his side. She raised her eyebrows in slight shock and she could hear Sirius' chuckle in his chest where her ear was pressed against it.

"What? A friend can't give his friend a hug? What is wrong with the World if that's getting questioned?" He teased and Hermione relaxed against him, realising that it was simply a friendship gesture and she returned his hug, wrapping her arm around his waist.

A part of her didn't want to let go of him – she felt safe and whole in his arms. Sirius was the one who dropped his arm, but not without giving her a slight squeeze and a kiss on her cheek before stepping from her apartment and closing the door quietly behind him. She leaned against the door and breathed out, trying to stop the frantic beating of her heart – was the mirror's luck affecting her as well?

She shook her head and, seeing the time and knowing that if she didn't get ready now she'd be late for work, she tried to get rid of all thoughts of Sirius from her mind and set about her daily morning routine.

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Sirius dropped into his seat behind his desk at work and sighed, leaning back against the leather chair – while seeing Hermione that morning had been a great start to the day, sleeping on the sofa had not been comfortable and his back was protesting.

"You're getting old," James sniggered to himself as he sat behind his own desk and his response was to throw a quill at his best friend – he felt some satisfaction when it bounced off the centre of his best friends forehead.

"I'm barely twenty!" Sirius argued, shaking his head in amusement at his best friend.

"Well, it's older then nineteen!" James taunted and leaned back in his chair, linking his fingers behind his head and resting his feet on top of the desk before him.

Sirius smirked and copied James' pose, but doing so with much more grace – James looked a bit like a gust of wind would knock him from his perch, whereas Sirius was elegantly leaning back, giving the appearance of someone strong and steady. "Dude, wait. When you have a screaming baby, a hormonal wife and a 9-5 job, you'll be looking a little worse for wear while I'll be looking fresh, driving my motorbike around the streets of London, a beautiful girl behind me." He taunted lightly.

James couldn't help the grin that escaped when Sirius mentioned his future son and Sirius scoffed in amusement at the love-sick expression on his face. "It'll be worth it." James said proudly and Sirius couldn't help but agree with him. "Say, dear brother-of-sorts of mine…"

"Hmm?" Sirius asked closing his eyes against the blinding sun coming in through the windows, glinting off the bay window before them.

"Is the beautiful girl behind you Hermione, by any chance?" James grinned, a mischievous glint in his eye, but that was quickly removed by the quill holder that Sirius threw straight at him, hitting him on the chin.

Sirius ignored James outcry and focused instead on Hermione – the girl had just walked into his life and he was betting that she was going to be staying for a while. As he ignored James complaining in the background, he tried to ignore the pull on his stomach that he felt every single time that he thought about her. He'd never been this attracted to a girl in so little time based on something other than her looks. He liked spending time with her, whether it be looking at the stars, helping her move her stuff or having a 'friend-date'.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Kingsley marching into their little office, purple robes sweeping along behind him.

"Kingsley! To what do we owe the pleasure?" James asked, still frowning at Sirius across the room, who was a picture of innocence. Kingsley raised his issue, but didn't press the issue.

"Suspected Death Eaters spotted." He said simply, crossing his arms over his broad chest, "near Diagon Alley." Sirius and James both looked at the black man for further instructions, but Kingsley didn't elaborate.

"Go on then, bring them in." He prompted and James and Sirius rose from their respective desks and James was grumbling under his breath that he didn't know that they were suddenly a chauffeur service and Kingsley lightly slapped the back of his head.

James pouted as he rubbed the back of his head before following Sirius out of the room, heading, once again for the apparition points.

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When Hermione arrived at work this morning, she was surprised to see a small brunette woman behind the till that morning instead of Remus.

"Good morning, you must be Hermione!" The woman greeted cheerfully, "I'm Alison, but you can call me Ali." She said cheerfully, extending her hand for Hermione to shake. Hermione's blank expression made Ali laugh and she put her hands on her hips. "What, you thought that you and Remus where the only workers here? This is a pretty big shop, Hermione." Ali teased lightly and Hermione relaxed marginally.

"I didn't put much thought into it to be 100% honest," Hermione admitted sheepishly, unwinding her scarf from around her neck – while it was bright and sunny outside, the wind was trying its hardest to create a chill in London and scarfs and gloves were very much needed.

Ali's blue eyes sparkled as she watched Hermione dump her stuff just under the till and grab her work robes, pulling them on without pause before making her way to the shelves to see which books needed re-stocking and which ones needed re-ordering. "I've been on holiday over Christmas, visiting family and what not, so I had to leave the shop in Remus' hands and it seems that Rachel left while I was away because I came back yesterday to Remus' Patronus informing me that he'd hired a new girl!" She said all of this very fast as she followed Hermione to the backroom, seeming happy, almost ecstatic to have somebody to talk to and Hermione's lips twitched in amusement.

"So, where have you been all my life?" Hermione giggled at Ali's wording and told her the same story that she had practically perfected and could recite in her sleep. "Ah, so you speak French?" She asked excitedly, leaning against the wall of the back room as she rolled her sleeves of her blue jumper up.

"Kind of. Will Remus be in today?" The truth was that she could speak small amounts of French, from trips to France with her parents and from living with Fleur for so long – she had just picked up bits and pieces of French and she could grasp what the conversation was about, but she wasn't fluent in it.

"He should be," Ali shrugged and brushed a hand through her long hair as the bell above the door jingled happily and Ali almost skipped back to serve who had just walked in. Even from in the back room, Hermione could hear Ali's call of: "Hello! What can I do for you today?"

She smiled and shook her head lightly, tying her hair in a rough low ponytail at the base of her neck and setting off to work.

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"You know, it would have helped so much if Kingsley had told us where…" James said as he huffed a sigh.

"…Or told us who the suspected D.E's were…" Sirius agreed, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans up to his knuckles and kicking a tiny stone on the path.

"…Or when they'd been seen…" James said, his hazel eyes darting left and right as he attempted to see any hooded figure in their path. He and Sirius had been on this wild goose chase for about an hour and it annoyed Sirius that they simply couldn't send a Patronus in case it became intercepted and apparition might alert the suspected Death Eaters that they were on their case.

In other words, they had to make do with what they had.

"I wish I had my baby." Sirius said longingly, thinking of his motorbike parked in front of his house, all shiny and black and an absolute pleasure to ride…Sirius was brought out of his thoughts by James hand clamping tightly onto his arm and pulling him roughly around a corner and pressed into a wall. "James, man what the Hell?"

James didn't respond, but placed a single finger to his own lips – be quiet – was his silent translation and Sirius trusted James' judgement, reaching for his wand hidden up his sleeve. I got your back.

James tilted his head to the left and Sirius understood his message perfectly. Take that side. Listen.

It was scary how well they knew each other. In response, Sirius slid against the opposite wall and peeked out just so and he spotted what James had a moment ago – Adrian Tate and Reece Traviston where just leaving a building further down the street. He nudged James' foot lightly with his own. I see them.

James raised his eyebrow, a quick jerk of his muscles. Still there?

Sirius raised both of his eyebrows and rolled his eyes. What do you think? Even silently, the message of sarcasm still got across with those two boys.

James huffed lightly and flickered his eyes to where the suspected were still stood, talking animatedly to the other (although James with his back to the scene didn't know that). I can't see them. Jerk.

Sirius' mouth twitched slightly at the corner. Bitch.

Before James could respond Sirius saw that the Suspected had pulled up their hoods and where walking briskly down the street, away from them – towards Diagon Alley. Sirius inched out slowly and saw the building that they had exited. It was a Dark Arts shop, one that mirrored Borgin and Burkes.

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Hermione was humming to herself as she organised the books on the shelf in the 'Gardening' section, listening to Remus and Ali chat amongst themselves as she alphabetised the authors and took a second to admire the cursive on the spines of the books – while gardening books weren't in her list of books to read, she could admire the beauty of them and the smell of unread books was probably one of Hermione's favourite scents.

"Hermione, what do you say to a work dinner? Tomorrow night at 8?" Ali called over and Hermione smiled at the idea. As she turned to confirm that she would, indeed, love to go, the glass in the windows shattered as a deafening explosion boomed outside.

A/N: Ahh, I'm sorry this took a while – college has started back up again for me and it's madness I'm telling you – I went back last Thursday and already I've been given essays to do and things to research :/ Life of a student, I suppose…

I hope you like this! Happy reading!

Kelly

xxx