Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. Unfortunately.

Playing God

Chapter 11

When Hermione heard the knock on her door, the rapid three beats surrounding her apartment, she was both nervous and excited – she loved the thought of getting to know her neighbours, but Natalia's words from yesterday were still very much echoing in her mind, replaying over and over again.

Did Cal think that this was a date? Was it a date?

Even though she was here for the rest of her life and twenty years old in this year, to her she had still technically just been born the previous September and that made both Cal and Sirius twenty years older than her. Logically, she knew that it was silly to be put off by this as it was completely irrelevant now, but she couldn't help the strange feeling that tingled down her spine at the thought.

She glanced at herself briefly in the mirror (who told her that she looked lovely) and rushed to answer the door, grabbing her bag on the way, opening the door wide to see that Cal was sat on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the courtyard. He looked up at the sound of her door and smiled at her, patting the space next to him. Hermione rolled her eyes in amusement and closed and locked her door, dropping her keys into her bag before she perched beside him, looking out of the main gates at the people walking by.

"So, where do you fancy going?" Cal asked, tapping his fingers against his knee and the glint of his rings in the cold snow and bright sun caught her attention. She glanced at his middle ring and was slightly surprised to see the image of a Phoenix engraved on his ring and Hermione wondered if he was a member of the Order, like she was sure that the Marauders and Lily were – she momentarily let her mind flash back to the picture that Harry had pinned to his wall in Shell Cottage of the old Order and Hermione mentally searched every face; Cal most definitely wasn't there.

Come on, Hermione, he probably just saw the ring and thought it looked good. It probably has nothing to do with the Order.

"Well, I know this cute coffee place?" She suggested and Cal nodded once, standing up and offering her his hand to help her to her feet.

She smiled her thanks and, keeping a hold of his hand, she pulled him in the direction of firmitas, trying to keep her mind off of the ring and trying desperately to not figure out its meaning.

Even though it probably didn't have one. She hoped.

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"So, what do you do for a living, Cal?" Hermione asked as they strolled down the street and she hoisted her bag further up on her shoulder, listening instinctively for the tiny hiss that her wand let out frequently that let her know that it was where it was supposed to be – a handy little trick that Neville found out a few years back. Hermione wondered if she'd ever thanked him for discovering it or spent most of the time sulking because she hadn't been the one to discover it.

"Oh, well I tend to hit the bars during the night." Cal said, sliding his hands slowly into his jean pockets, a small frown on his face, "I don't get paid much, but it pays the bills."

"Wait…You get paid to go to bars?" Hermione felt a little silly for having to ask that question but she felt like she was missing something here.

Cal smiled and took his hand from his pocket, showing her the bright blue pic with bronze iridescent streaks running through it. "I play gigs. It's not much, but like I said, it's enough and I love it."

"Oh, well as long as you enjoy what you're doing then the pay check isn't that important." Hermione said with a grin, "what's the name of your band?"

"The Deathly Hallows." He replied instantly and Hermione's eyes widened in surprise, her body freezing as those three words made a place in her mind and sent her back to her seventh year when she learnt of their existence. Back in her seventh year at Hogwarts, while her, Harry and Ron had been camping alongside the English Countryside searching tirelessly for Horcruxes, she had honestly thought that The Deathly Hallows were nothing more than a child's story but as that whole year dragged on, their existence became much more likely. During The Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, Harry had uncovered the Resurrection Stone inside the Golden Snitch that he had caught during his first Quidditch match and he owned the Cloak of true invisibility, but they had never managed to find the true owner of The Elder Wand – it was true that it was in Harry's possession, but he couldn't harness the true power that the wand could provide.

"Err…Hermione, are you okay?"

Hermione snapped back to reality with her cheeks flushed a light pink – her body freezing up was an involuntary reflex that she couldn't help, but she still felt heat creep up into her face as she looked at his raised eyebrow and confusing glint. "Yeah, yeah its fine, it's just…The Deathly Hallows…It rings a bell, is all."

Cal nodded in understanding and proceeded to tell Hermione the old Children's Tale that had plagued Hermione for the longest time as she tried to figure out the owner of The Elder Wand to no avail. She got as far as Draco and from there on out she has no idea. Really, it should have been Harry as he disarmed him during Malfoy Manor but he must have been disarmed long before that so she has no leads to follow – by the time she'd remembered that Harry had seen Draco disarm Dumbledore and not Snape, Draco was already dead, killed during the Battle of Hogsmeade in March 1999.

By the time Cal had ended the tale, they had reached the coffee shop, which Hermione had to admit was becoming one of her favourite places. As they entered, Hermione scanned the tables out of instinct, cataloguing every person who was in there and their potential threat.

Her eyes landed on a man who was sat by himself in the back of the shop and it made her pause – there was something about his narrow, brown, watery eyes that pushed to the forefront of her mind and she struggled to place him in her mind.

Before she could make the connection, she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and pull her into the warmth of a body and she could tell from the spicy scent that washed over her exactly who this was.

"Sirius!" She blinked up at him in shock, watching as he quirked his eyebrows down at her in amusement, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm getting a cup of coffee, when did that become a crime? What up, Cal?" He shook Cal's hand and tilted his head slightly to the side as he appraised the man before him. Hermione knew that Sirius had met Cal before, had even played Quidditch with him and Hermione could see the two of them becoming quite good friends as they were so similar – but right now, Sirius was looking at Cal like he wanted him to implode.

Cal didn't seem to notice though and he shook Sirius' hand and smiled like he was meeting with someone that he hadn't seen in about five years. "Sirius! It's good to see you! What's been up? How's work?" He asked just as they were the next in the queue and ready to order. Hermione ordered a peppermint tea, suddenly craving the instant pick me up that the peppermint provided as both Sirius and Cal ordered a black coffee.

Cal and Sirius talked amongst themselves for a few moments while the drinks were being prepared. Hermione was still pressed tightly against Sirius' side and she wondered briefly if Cal was going to mention it or if he really did think that this was just a simple coffee date to get to know his downstairs neighbour better.

That thought made Hermione bristle slightly and she didn't know why – it would be so simple if they were on the same page, but the woman in her wanted to be appreciated by a man, give her the knowledge that she was attractive something which she really didn't believe.

Still, she wasn't annoyed enough to actually do anything about it and she grabbed her coffee cup once it was placed on the counter and made her way to a free table near the window, thankful that Sirius' arm fell away from her.

She was surprised then to find Sirius dropping into the seat beside her and she noticed that even Cal raised an eyebrow at his behaviour. "So, I'm guessing that you're staying?"

"Yep." Sirius said simply and Hermione looked up at Cal as Sirius took a big gulp of his coffee and she shrugged helplessly. Cal just nodded once and slid into the seat opposite her, letting his hand slide up and over her hand that she had placed palm down on the table in the middle. A part of her wanted to move her hand away so that he didn't get the wrong idea that this was a date (God, she was all over the place with her thought process today) but Natalia's words echoed in her mind, wheeling chaotically on repeat - "Besides, it'll be good to get back at Sirius."

She couldn't help but remember how she felt when she saw Sirius with the blonde girl in the TriWand, the betrayed feeling, the feeling that she wasn't enough, that he was bored of her and that she didn't mean anything to him. I've never been unfaithful…

Had he been unfaithful? They hadn't technically been together but the intent was there…Had Hermione missed her chance?

Well, no, if the fact that Sirius was glaring daggers at Cal was any indication and she took his jealousy as a good sign. A very good sign.

She casually flipped her hand over and let her fingers rub the underside of Cal's wrist just so, something that Ron had adored. The thought of Ron made her pause because of the sudden ache in her chest, but she pushed it back down, focusing on the here and now and that annoyed glint shining in Sirius' eyes.

After about twenty minutes of Sirius interrupting Hermione and Cal's conversation, she was honestly starting to get annoyed.

"Excuse us, Cal." Hermione said, standing from her seat and wrapping her hand around Sirius' bicep, dragging him up to stand beside her.

Cal grinned at her over the rim of the coffee mug and raised an eyebrow in a display of obvious amusement. He told her to take all the time that she needed and she smiled thankfully at him.

She forcibly pulled Sirius towards the back of the little coffee shop, shoving him into the narrow, dark alley that ran behind it, ignoring his mumbles of 'Ow, pain!'

"What the Hell is that?" Hermione asked angrily. Yes, she wanted jealously and she got it in spades, but she didn't want him to completely ruin her day. "Why are you even here?"

"I've told you," Sirius said, rubbing his arm, "I'm having coffee with a couple of friends."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Sirius' words and crossed her arms over her chest. "Seriously? That's weak. I thought Auror's were supposed to be good at lying. Hey, here's a lie for you!" She dropped her voice a few octaves in an imitation of a man and her brows furrowed. "I've never been unfaithful!"

The words were coming from her mouth without her even thinking about it and she was reminded violently of the argument that she and Ron had had in their fourth year the night of the Yule Ball where they had just screamed at each other in the common room – they had said a lot more hurtful things to each other before Harry had stumbled through the portrait of the Fat Lady. She was obviously a lot more hung up about the blonde skanky woman that she had wanted to admit.

"Hermione –"

"No, save it! I know that we weren't officially going out, but come on Sirius, at the TriWand! That place is a second home to me, no matter how short a time I spent there, and you took your flavour of the day there!"

Hermione was breathing heavily by the time that she'd finished her outburst and she wondered vaguely if it was the fact Sirius was with another woman or if it was because he had chosen a place that meant something special to her. Still, it was irrelevant now as she narrowed her eyes at Sirius who was staring at her calmly, his arms crossed over his chest and she found that she was a lot more irritated by this.

Ron would have just screamed back at her, Harry would have rolled his eyes or clicked his tongue and most likely ignored her, but it had been a reaction – Sirius was just looking at her as if she had just announced that she and Remus were getting eloped and having furry, ginger babies named Kibbles who she'd dress up in purple dresses and Hermione was damn annoyed!

"Are you done?"

"Am – Are you – Seriously? – What is –" Hermione spluttered in her anger, her brain seemed to be short circuiting and she was losing the ability to function sentences together. She felt the muscle underneath her right eye twitch rapidly, something that it hadn't done since Ron had vanished that night on his wild quest to avenge his family and Hermione had no idea if he was even alive.

"Woah…I've made Hermione Jean speechless. That's gotta be a World record."

Before Hermione could even attempt to string together a scathing response to his poor attempt at humour, the alleyway was lit up briefly by a bright green light that always had the ability to instil fear into Hermione's heart and she reached for her wand instinctively, but her body was pushed into a tiny alcove and Sirius' own warm, lean body was pushed up against her, one of his hands landing on top of hers which held the handle of her wand and the other curving around the back of her head, protecting it from the cold, hard stone.

"Sirius, let me go!" She whispered harshly, struggling against Sirius' hold – she may have still been furious with him, but she knew enough about battle to not draw the opponents attention, and that meant whispering. She was still going to do it in an angry tone though.

"Shhh…" He whispered near her ear, bending his body closer to her and she was overwhelmed by the spicy scent of his that enveloped her, surrounded her very essence and made her feel so safe and protected that was tempted to just let Sirius be the man and take care of her, but an image slid into her mind and her skin prickled cold with fear.

"Sirius, no!" She pressed against his chest much more incessantly, needing desperately to go back inside, "Cal's still in there!"

Sirius huffed and banded an arm around her waist, practically pulling her feet from the floor and hefting her closer to him, "Cal can take care of himself."

"Yeah, so can I! Sirius, please, we can't –" She didn't know where the desperate need to make sure Cal was okay came from, but she didn't have time to analyse it as the door to the coffee shop blasted off its hinges and nearly slammed into them. Sirius, acting upon instinct, rolled their bodies away from it and Hermione caught sight of the Death Eater that was now stood in the open doorway.

He was haggard, worn, old. He had a high forehead, bushy light brown eyebrows that sat above the brightest blue eyes that Hermione had even seen and his wispy brown hair was pulled into a loose ponytail at the back of his neck which was streaked with alarming shades of silver. His fingers, which were wrapped around the hilt of his wand were thin and spidery, decorated with wrinkles and scars that had been caused from many fights and battles and Hermione recognised him instantly.

Dan Tussal. This coward of man had haunted her for the past few years and she felt her spine stiffen.

On the 4th November 1998, Dan Tussal and Bellatrix LeStrange had tortured Ron into a state of insanity so deep that Hermione had been forced to put him into a comatose state to protect him and others. The act had nearly killed her and right now was her opportunity to stop it.

She felt fury so intense bubble deep within her, wheeling chaotically through her body that she literally saw red as her world zeroed in on the man who would ruin her whole world. She didn't even give a second thought as she forced her way out of Sirius' hold and arched her arm, her wand curving through the air with the killing curse on the tip of her tongue ready to spring forth and erupt from the end of her wand in a jet of green light which would hit Dan Tussal with a force so strong that it would end his life and Hermione felt her lips curl up in a smile at the thought.

"A-!"

A body slammed roughly into Tussal's and sent him crashing to the floor, his wand falling from his hand and rolling towards Hermione almost in slow motion as her brown eyes fixed upon it – the wand that would send the curse flying into Ron's body and stealing his mind and heart away from him.

She was disappointed that she hadn't ended his life. That thought alone was enough to snap her out of her revive and send her crashing to her knees as tears ran down her cheeks. She was vaguely aware of Sirius crouching behind her and laying his hand gently on her shoulder and of James who was roughly slamming Tussal into the wall so hard that his tooth cracked audibly and Hermione didn't even bother to question where he'd even come from.

She just wanted to go home, to Ron and curl up in his warmth that had been absent from her life for over a year.

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Sirius rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes scanned the scene before him – Hermione was sat on the pavement, a red blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a coffee mug in her hands as she paid no attention to the reporters who were taking photos rapidly and firing questions at passing Auror's, trying desperately to be the first to get the juicy scoop of the attack down Diagon Alley that ended the lives of three people who didn't deserve to die.

Hermione sat with her head down, her thick, curly brown hair falling foreword to curtain her face off from the rest of the world and to let the tears fall silently down her cheeks, which they hadn't stopped doing since she'd caught sight of Tussal.

Sirius swore that if he'd done anything to Hermione in the past, Azkaban would be the least of his worries.

"Alright, you best get Hermione home. Cal's sticking around to help with maintenance and to file a witness report, so I'll see you in the office in about an hour?" James said, letting his Auror persona take over which Sirius was always impressed by. Sirius was thankful that after the signal had been sent to the nearest Auror's, it had been James that was in the closest vicinity. It sucked that he'd had to leave Lily sitting alone at the nearest bar, worrying over her husband and her husband's much better looking best friend, but the relief that Sirius had felt at seeing James tackle that Death Eater made him want to act upon those gay rumours.

Only for a second, but still, the love was there.

He clapped a hand to James' shoulder and moved past him to drop his body beside Hermione, giving Cal the thumbs up when he looked over in worry. Hermione was under his watch now.

"Hermione? Are you ready to go home?" He said gently, carefully taking the coffee mug from her and placing it on the road by his feet. "We can get out of here."

"I wanted to kill him." Hermione's quiet admission made Sirius raise his eyebrows and he moved closer to her, letting his body heat reach out to her, hoping that his presence helped her in some way.

"What do you mean?"

"Sirius…I've survived in this World, this War, for so long because I've been trained to see the monster in people, see the hate and spite in their hearts." She said quietly, huddling even further into the safety and comfort of the thin threadbare blanket, bunching the material in her tiny fists. "I saw it in everyone, scared that anyone in our ranks could be a traitor, a deflector. I was constantly on my guard waiting for the call that our location had been leaked because someone, one of our own, had been the one to admit it under their own power."

"Why are you telling me this?" Sirius asked softly, wondering why she was talking like a soldier, but deciding to leave that be for now as she shivered and sniffed at the same time, causing a part of his heart to ache in his chest and he couldn't not hold her. His arm slid over her shoulders and pulled her gently into his body, but she barely acknowledged him, her eyes focused on a spot on the floor by his feet.

"I just…I never thought –" She sobbed once, her face crumpling slightly and Sirius couldn't help but think that she still looked beautiful. "-Never thought that when I looked at the mirror, I'd see the monster in me."

A/N: And here's the next chapter – Exams finished today, so I got this up as quick as I could – I now have freedom for a few months with no revision. Thank God!

Oh, also, I have to apologise for putting Weight of the World instead of Playing God in Chapter 9 - It's a story that I wrote and completed a while back with the same characters, so I just put that instead - Sorry! Thanks for pointing it out to me WaterFlower20! :D

By the way, if you want a visual image of what Cal looks like (who does play a very important part for this story), Google Johnny Depp in the movie Chocolat. Seriously, you'll thank me for it.

Kelly

xxx