Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything affiliated with it. Sadly.

Playing God

Chapter 19

Hermione rolled her eyes when she caught sight of the courtyard the next morning, closing her apartment door behind her. There were streamers and empty cups and bottles everywhere, the banner which looked handmade and had the word 'PARTY' drawn on was half hanging off the wall, one end laying limply in the water of the fountain, which was now a muddy brown colour.

Hermione grabbed her wand from her brown book bag and, with a simple wave and incantation, she watched, pleased with herself, as everything zoomed back to where they had been before the place got trashed.

With a nod of satisfaction she put her wand back in its rightful place, hitched the jacket up in her arms and secured the bag more firmly on her shoulder before leaving her courtyard, heading to the corner of the street, a safe apparating point.

She had something that she needed to do.

She apparated to the red telephone box in London that took you down to the ministry of magic; She hadn't been there since she was seventeen and she, Harry and Ron had to break in because of that damn locket. Hermione felt her skin crawl as she looked around for any Muggles who could see her and stepped into the box gingerly, closing the red door behind her.

Her thoughts had, inadvertently since she'd stopped herself thinking about this event since she got to 1980, turned to her fifth year and the very first time that she had broken the Wizarding laws set in place. For Sirius.

She'd watched him fall back into the archway and his body not appear on the other side. She had seen Harry's reaction as he caved in on himself, the grief written across his face plain as day telling her without words what had just happened to Sirius.

While she'd not been particularly close to Harry's godfather, she had felt deep sorrow for him and even now she could feel the echoes of pain that rippled from her heart.

She punched in the number 6-2-4-4-2 and watched as London disappeared from her view as she descended into the ground with a jittery start, heading for the main lobby of the Ministry.

"Where is Sirius Black's office?" She asked the girl at reception, glancing at the beautiful golden statue in the middle of the fountain which would one day become an icon for Death Eater's everywhere as it show cased Muggles and Muggle-born's in their 'rightful place'.

Not if you play your part…She shook her head at the whispering voice in her mind, instead focusing on the bitchy look that the receptionist was giving her and Hermione mentally rolled her eyes as she realised that Sirius had probably at one point in his life slept with this girl.

She thanked the girl once she had directions and left, heading for the elevator, surprised to see Owls hovering patiently, waiting inside and she almost blanched at the horrid smell.

She was so glad that they switched to bewitched paper airplane memo's she thought as she reluctantly stepped inside the elevator, eyeing the closest tawny owl to her, edging away from it.

00000

" – WELL WASN'T THAT NICE OF HER!"

"I swear, Sirius, I'll kill you."

"BUT IF THAT HAPPENS, YOU WONT HAVE A BEST FRIEND ANYMORE!"

"Funnily enough, I had realised that."

"BUT IF YOU DON'T HAVE A BEST FRIEND, THEN REMUS IS GOING TO THINK THAT HE'S YOUR BEST FRIEND, AND HE'S NOT, I AM!"

"You know, I immediately regret my decision to sit in your carriage on the Hogwart's Express."

"NO YOU DON'T, POTTER, DON'T BE WRONG."

"I hate you."

"YOU LOVE ME WITH EVERY FIBRE OF YOUR BEING! YOU KNOW YOU DO!"

"Er…I'm sorry to interrupt, but is there a reason that you're shouting?"

Sirius and James both turned to the door of their office to see Hermione leaning against the door frame, her eyebrows raised.

"Oh, hey Hermione! JAMES! HERMIONE IS HERE!"

James nodded with a fake smile before his head slammed forward onto the desk and Hermione couldn't help but jump at the unexpected sound and action. "Oh, is he okay?"

"He's fine. That's what a hangover looks like, Sweetheart," Sirius told her at a normal decibel, leaning back in his chair, twirling his quill between his fingers, "what brings you here, beautiful?"

He couldn't help but smirk at the dusty hue that coloured Hermione's cheeks, even if it was just for a moment. "I brought your jacket back." She offered him the leather jacket and he reached for it, but instead by-passed it and grabbed Hermione's hand, pulling her around the desk. Her foot got caught on the leg of his desk and she stumbled forward, her hands landing heavily on his shoulders as his hands clutched her hips.

She looked down him, her eyes wide with shock while Sirius sniggered slightly, digging his fingertips into the soft flesh below her blue blouse, twining with the belt loops on her jeans.

"Awww, you're both so cute!"

Hermione blinked before pushing her hands into his broad shoulders and pushing herself back, coughing awkwardly as she rolled her eyes. "Thankyou, James."

He gave her a thumbs-up while grinning, standing up and pushing his chair away from his desk, "gonna get some coffee, leave you two lovebirds alone."

By the time the paperweight had left Sirius' hand, the door to their office was closing, James firmly on the other side.

Hermione shifted from foot-to-foot, looking around their office with slight interest, probably at the bric-a-brac of Muggle and Wizard items littered here and there.

"Hermione, I need to talk to you about something." He said, opening his draw and taking out a sky blue file; Hermione's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, her brown eyes shining with apprehension. "Please, take a seat." He patted his knee and Hermione chuckled lightly, choosing instead to perch on the edge of James' desk, her hands on either side of her hips, palms digging into the dark wood. "Do…Do you know what this is?"

"My file, I'm guessing. Although why it's in your hands, I don't know." Hermione had gone on the defence and Sirius sighed – this was going to be much harder than he had originally envisioned.

"I was worried about you, Hermione –"

"- Worried? You barely know me!"

"I realise that." Sirius said soothingly, standing and rounding his own desk, heaving his body up to sit fully on the edge of it directly opposite Hermione, swinging his legs like a child. She turned her face away from him and he noticed through her carotid artery in her neck that her heart was increasing speed – she was nervous.

"Hermione…Can you tell me why there's nothing in this file?" please don't be in witness protection…please don't be in witness protection…

It was something that he'd been thinking about for a while – it would explain why she had appeared from nowhere, had no paperwork – it was her chance to start anew…But that meant that something terrible had happened to her to drive her here, something that could scare her mental state, her emotions…

She took the file from him, her fingers brushing his slightly as she flipped it open – the first thing that he immediately noticed was the rustle of thick parchment and the weight that had suddenly been added to it…When it had been in his hands, it was lightweight with a single sheet of parchment inside. "Seems pretty full to me."

He snatched it from her hands like a desperate man, flipping through the many sheets that had suddenly appeared – her birth certificate, her school reports, her Hogwarts acceptance letter and her Beauxbatons one, a French Government record which held her first magic in France when she was five, her grades, her family addresses, her bank account in France, an old job reference…he frowned at the file in his hands, feeling a growl of frustration crawl up his throat – it had been practically empty not moments before…

Then he came across a police report that made the blood in his veins run cold. He felt his stomach plummet and his scalp tighten as he read the printed words very, very carefully.

"Sirius? What is it?"

Hermione sounded so far away and he paid her no attention as his eyes stayed riveted to the Auror report.

Infiltrated the manor at 8:43pm…suspect gone, but seven victims found…

Five were relatively unharmed, two were suffering from signs of malnourishment and one had been extensively tortured…

Whip marks, burns, Cruciatus, knife wounds…One on the neck, the other on her left forearm, spelling the word 'Mudblood'…

Victims found in the cell were:

Harold Porter, 17, black eyes, green eyes, glasses…

Don Westly, 18, red hair, blue eyes …

Lu Loveitt, 16, blonde hair, blue eyes…

Dean Thomason, 18, dark skin, black hair, brown eyes…

Oliver Vanders, 80+, white hair, pale eyes…

and a goblin, Grabbook.

Victim found in the parlor:

Hermione Jean, 18, brown hair, brown eyes…

Suspect is Bellatrix LeStrange…

Sirius felt his breathing pick up speed as his eyes became unfocused, his vision blurring.

"Sirius, what's –"

"You were tortured." The words came out alarmingly calm considering Sirius' current state and Hermione's eyes widened in both shock and panic.

"What?"

He keened like an animal trapped and lunged forward, his hands circling her left wrist. She jerked back, surprised at his actions and cried out in alarm as he pulled her sleeve up, praying to see unmarred skin…

The word 'Mudblood' seemed to shimmer at him, to taunt him. He breathed out heavily before letting go of her arm and slowly standing up. He felt like he was moving through water and he barely registered Hermione's quick movement as she scooped up her file to read the sloppily written report and he didn't understand how she could move so fast when the air felt so thick…

Bellatrix LeStrange – he had never hated her as much as he did now. Before she'd been an annoyance to him, one of his family members who seemed to make it her life mission to tear him down and his beliefs, but he'd been able to handle it.

To know that she'd done this to someone that he knew – someone who he cared for…

He didn't know what to do or how to do it, all he knew is that Hermione was marked by someone who he shared his blood with and he had never been more ashamed of that fact.

"Sirius…I'm sorry, I didn't know that this would be in here." She sounded apologetic, sad. He turned his grey eyes to her and let them slide down to her neck and now he could see the thin silver line just above the hollow of her throat where a knife had been sliced into her smooth skin.

"Bellatrix…" He practically growled the name of his cousin out as he rounded his desk to the filing cabinet and practically tore open a draw, rifling through it – Suspected…That meant that they either didn't know for sure or there wasn't enough evidence to charge her.

"Do…Do you know her?"

Sirius paused his movements of trying to find Bellatrix's file, to go through it with a fine-toothed comb and pin something on her, make sure that she got locked away forever for even daring to try and touch Hermione…

"No." He practically spat the word out, "I've heard of her, seen her a couple of times, but I don't know her."

I'm not related to her, I'm not like her, I'm different, I'm not my family…

"You're lying." She said so matter-of-factly that Sirius frowned at her tone. "But that's okay."

Before Sirius could turn and talk to her, the door to his office creaked open and James walked in carrying two coffee mugs in his hands and carrying the other on top his unruly black head. Hermione openly laughed at his ridiculous appearance and it brought a smile, reluctant as it was, to Sirius' lips. "Look what I can do! Louisa in accounting didn't think that I could do it, but I sure proved her wrong!" James said joyfully, before crouching down before Hermione and inclining his head towards her, offering her the pink mug.

She took it joyfully, bowing her own head to him in return; a strand of her thick, curly hair falling from her shoulder as she did so and Sirius's eyes tracked it, wondering briefly what it would feel like to coil it around his finger.

"Me and Lily are having people around for dinner on Saturday evening, do you wanna join us, Hermy?" James asked her as he practically shoved the blue mug of black coffee at Sirius, who scrambled to catch it before it smashed on the ground.

"Hermy?" Hermione asked with her eyebrow raised as she cradled her drink, her head tilted as she looked at James in disapproval.

"Herms?" James tried again, but Hermione just laughed lightly and shook her head, sipping at her scalding hot drink. "'Mione?"

"Hermione is fine."

"But there are too many syllables!" He practically whined as he hiked himself up beside her, "any name that has four syllables or more should just be outlawed." He slammed the wood of the desk to make his point and Sirius rolled his eyes, feeling the anger and hatred that had boiled within him slowly seep away as it tended to do when James was being his idiotic self. It's why they worked together so well, he mused as he sighed at the bitter taste that coated his tongue from his drink; they had a way of bringing each other back from the brink, of stopping the other from doing something idiotic.

And he loved him for that.

In a completely manly way, of course.

"I'd love to." She answered James' question as she slid from her place on the desk, back to the ground. "I should go, I promised Cal that I'd meet him for lunch, so…" She trailed off as she crossed her arms over her chest, looking away from Sirius and towards the door. He tried to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach as she mentioned Cal Heartway, but it was hard to do that when all he wanted to do was punch him in the face. With a rock.

"Great! Lily'll send you an owl tonight – all though don't be so surprised to see one already in your mail when you get home!" James grinned as Hermione made her way to the door. "Have fun!"

"I will!" She assured him before her chocolate eyes caught his grey ones a final time before she left.

He collapsed into his chair and cradled his forehead in his hand, groaning in one part annoyance, two parts frustration and three parts anger. "Woah, what's up with you?" James asked as he drained his mug and smacked his lips together once in satisfaction.

"James mate, I need to tell you something."

00000

"What the hell, Cal!" Cal was startled awake by a loud pounding on his door. With a groan he rolled out of bed and staggered towards the door, running a hand down his face in an effort to wake himself up. Normally, living next door to Caitlyn, he was woken up at ungodly hours of the morning by her wanting to go on an adventure of some sort, but today she had let him sleep in and he had fully intended to not move until 4:00pm at the earliest.

He pulled the door open, leaning his weight onto his forearm of the doorframe as he looked down at the bushy haired woman who had her arms crossed and was tapping her foot in annoyance, her eyebrows drawn together. "Can I help you?"

He was surprised when anger flashed in her brown eyes before she shoved him back into his apartment and slammed the door shut behind her, hard enough to rattle his window. "What are you –"

"How did you know?" She hissed at him and Cal actually took a step back away from her, feeling trepidation shiver down his spine.

"How did I know what?" He narrowed his eyes as his fight-or-flight response kicked in; the rational part of his brain was telling him that she was just a small, tiny woman who couldn't hurt him...but then the other side of his brain scoffed and said, yeah, but she's Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age. He'd be an idiot to not be scared right now.

She huffed and rolled her eyes, "about Bellatrix, Cal, about what she did to me."

Cal blinked at her, having no idea what she was talking about. "I didn't tell you about it, so how do you know?"

"Why do you think I know anything?"

"Because, Cal, it's in my file! The file that you said you would take care of!" She spat out, "and now Sirius has seen it and he's asking questions!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait." He held his hands out in front of him in a peaceful gesture, "I didn't create the files, Hermione. Magic did."

Hermione didn't even respond, just raised her eyebrows in a show of annoyance and to silently tell him to continue. "The best lies have an element of truth to them. So, the magic snuck into your brain, found events, real events, and then gave them a form – physical proof. I didn't snoop around that ginormous brain of yours and, trust me, if I did, I'd have most likely got lost." He shrugged a shoulder as he ran a hand through his unbound hair, pushing it away from his face. "I don't know what's in your file. It distorted them, like it changed names and dates, but nothing that wasn't already there before. You can't keep secrets here."

She scoffed before she leant back against this door, burying her face in her hands, "I think I'm keeping a pretty big secret from him."

"You can't keep it forever."

"Are you kidding?" She almost screeched as her head shot back up, "I can't tell him that I've only just been born – he'll think I'm crazy!"

"Hermione, don't you think that he's gonna be a teeny bit suspicious when his Godson befriends a girl who looks, acts, thinks, talks, just like you do?"

She stared blankly at him for a moment before she groaned in annoyance, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her forefinger and thumb. "Well, I don't see any logical reason why I should have to do it now."

"You don't have to do it now." He agreed, rubbing his chest over his loose grey T-Shirt, "but you do need to tell him. And don't wait until the last minute – if he finds out in eleven years that the woman who he's in love with has been lying to him all that time, it won't be good." He warned her before he opened his door and placed his hand gently on her back, leading her from his apartment.

"Cal – I didn't want him to know." Hermione whispered as she hung her head down and Cal felt sorrow wind gently around his heart.

"I know. I mean, I don't know because I don't know what you're talking about, but he'd find out eventually." He attempted to make her feel better, the hand on her lower back rubbing soothing circles, "but it'll be okay, Hermione. I promise."

He didn't know if it was a promise that he could keep, but it was a definitely a promise that he could try and keep.

And try he would – he would help her every step of the way.

After all, that's what friends do, right?

A/N: Urgh, I hate writing filler chapters :/

Still, I hope you like it!

Kelly

xxx