Hermione arrived at the Burrow just in time. Molly was eagerly ushering her in, telling her to drop off her stuff before getting back outside.
It had been an extremely hot August day but at the evening, the temperature had luckily cooled down. Everyone but her and George was on summer holidays at the moment, therefore the whole Weasley clan, how Hermione liked to call them, was gathered outside.
She was obviously the last one; everyone else was already seated around the large wooden table in the backyard. Arthur was sitting at one end, the empty seat next to him obviously Molly's. Next came Bill and Fleur, then Charlie and his wife Christine, George and Angelina. At the other end of the table there were Harry and Ginny, then Ron and Lavender and one still vacated seat at the very end of the table.
'Great', Hermione thought bitterly. 'All couples and her!' She even considered sitting with the children at a smaller table nearby for a second, but dismissed that idea immediately and sat down with a small inaudible groan instead.
Only two minutes later and she was bored out of her mind: Ron had started engaging Harry and Ginny in a conversation about the current quidditch season, and soon George and Angelina had joined in. The only person who looked as bored as her was Lavender, but Hermione didn't really feel up to talking to her, she could only take Lavender's nonsense every so often.
She'd never been as relieved when Molly walked out, levitating in front of her large bowls full with mashed potatoes, some kind of meat, gravy, coleslaw and what not. Everyone digged in immediately and the chatter died down for a few minutes.
Suddenly, a deep voice broke the silence. "Sorry I'm late", said Sirius.
"Ah, not at all, not at all. Grab a seat and sit down", replied Molly, obviously delighted that there was yet another mouth to be fed.
"But Mum", interrupted Ron. "There's hardly enough room for all of us, let alone for another person."
"Seriously Ron", Hermione rolled her eyes. "Are you not a wizard after all?" Ron was not even insulted by Hermione's remark, as he most likely would have been if they'd still been at Hogwarts, he'd just grown to used to it and knew that Hermione didn't mean to insult him.
Hermione got up and moved her chair aside. "Enlargo!" With a swift movement of her wand she had lengthened the table at the end she had been sitting at. "There you go", she said contently, sitting back down.
"Well, thank you my dear", Sirius smiled at her and conjured up a chair of his own, sitting down opposite of Hermione.
"Why are you here anyway", interrupted Charlie with a somewhat smug expression. After all, he was now four years older than Sirius. "I thought you were supposed to be on a date, weren't you."
"And so I was", Sirius said in between scooping a huge amount of food into his mouth.
"Aaaand?", Ginny asked on.
"And – nothing. Didn't work out that well", Sirius concluded.
"Anyway, I'm not the only one at this table without a date, and I don't see you all peppering Hermione with questions", Sirius added as an afterthought.
"Why thank you Sirius", Hermione replied. "Very subtle of you, wasn't it?"
"Oh come on, and anyway, why aren't you on a date. You're not getting younger, you should see what you can still get and hold on to it", said Sirius.
"32 years is not that old", Hermione answered, clearly getting annoyed.
"Isn't your birthday next month?"
"I'm surprised you'd remember that", Hermione said, slightly taken aback.
"Ah, I remember more than you might think possible. But see, that means you're nearly 33 and another year has passed without you having fun with some guy! Why didn't you just bring one tonight, it could have been fun", replied Sirius.
"Maybe there wasn't just anyone who I found quite interesting enough", said Hermione, clearly somewhat embarrassed that he wouldn't just drop the subject.
"Oh come on, there's always someone interesting. I mean, when I was in my fifth year I dated this girl. She was not quite my league, yet I believed her to be somewhat interesting and she was. Liked to experiment a lot, fiery temper and all. She was a gingerhead after all, so what do you expect?"
"Any you believe that to be something wise to say at a table full of redheads, because…?", Ginny interrupted him.
"Anyway", Sirius went on, completely ignoring Ginny's comment. "Turned out she wasn't that much of a good kisser, so I broke it off."
"Yeah, quite likely ending" Ginny snorted, while the rest of the table was laughing about Sirius's story. "Sure it was you who broke it off and not her."
"Ah, can't remember it that clearly", said Sirius with a smirk. "But it must have been me. Anyway, you need to be getting out more is what I intended on telling you that way", he added, once again addressing Hermione.
Hermione however seemed eager to change the subject and turned to look at George. "How's the shop going?", she asked him.
"Not so good, actually", replied George, small worry lines now visible on his forehead. "I mean, I just don't have the time to invent new products. And even if I had the time, I'm just missing another pair of brains that'd help me along."
"Why don't you employ me", asked Sirius. "I've been much of a prankster in school myself, I'm sure I could help you."
"Thank you", said George. "But I really don't think you'd fit the job description. After all, I'm head of a jokeshop and I can't have anyone with such mood swings as yours there. What would I do with a miserable person in a place where we're supposed to sell 'fun' as a lifestyle product?"
"Ah, and that's where you're wrong. I'm not miserable, I'm simply bored since I have nothing to do. It's just not fulfilling at all to be sitting around all day, having nothing to do", said Sirus.
Hermione nearly choked on the pumpkin juice she was currently drinking. Sirius looked at her, slightly irritated.
"I'm sorry, but that coming from the man who told me that one doesn't need work to be happy just half a year ago", explained Hermione.
"Looks like I've changed my mind", Sirius admitted rather grudgingly.
"Ha, so I was right after all", Hermione said triumphantly and for once Sirius did not know how to counter that.
"Anyway, I suggest we make a deal. I'll be working for you for a week, without any payment needless to say. And after that you can decide whether I'm fit for the job or not", Sirius offered.
"Agreed", George said immediately, and the two men shook hands across the table, nearly throwing over a few glasses in the process.
"Oh, Hermione, I totally forgot", Harry suddenly addressed Hermione. "How did your meeting go?"
"Oh, thank you. Alright, I suppose. They're going to let me know how they decided in three days", said Hermione.
"Oh, I'm sure you absolutely convinced them", Harry added.
"What meeting?", asked Ron.
"Seriously Ron", his sister addressed him. "Hermione hasn't talked about anything but for weeks. That just goes to show how attentive you listen to us."
"The discussion about the change of the laws on house-elves", clarified Hermione.
"Oh, you mean your big speech. That was today?", asked Ron.
Hermione just nodded, not really surprised that he'd forgotten, and not really hurt either. He tended to forgot his anniversary with his wife and her birthday, so it wasn't completely surprising that he'd forgotten about something rather small like that.
Sirius snorted, which caused Hermione to look at him irritated.
"Seriously? You're not still fighting for the rights of these creatures, are you?", he asked.
"Yes, I am. And it's because of people like you that they are treated this way", Hermione shot back, clearly angered by his statement and refused to talk to him for a good while after.
It was only during dessert that Sirius apologized to her. Hermione raised an eyebrow at him questioningly, not trusting the seemingly sincerity behind his words.
"You didn't really change your mind on the subject, did you?", she inquired.
"Nah, not really", said Sirius. "But since I figured that you're the only single woman at this table, except for Rose" – with a sideways glance Hermione noticed that Rose had gone over to talk to her mother Lavender – "but she's really not my type."
Though she tried to look angry, Hermione failed miserably and started laughing instead and was in stitches for quite a while. Sirius just smiled, happy that he had won another small victory, at least in his eyes.
Hermione couldn't help but notice how handsome Sirius looked tonight. Not being on the run anymore had certainly done well to his exterior.
"Hey, are you staring at me", Sirius interrupted her thoughts.
"I'm not", she denied.
"I think you were", he said, hoping to make her blush but was disappointed when she failed to do so. Meanwhile, Hermione was holding on to her wand tightly. It was moments like this that she was especially grateful that she had her wand at reach at all times, and the anti-blushing spell had saved her from embarrassing situations more than once.
Suddenly Hermione held on tightly to her right side, as it had started to hurt once again. Sirius had noticed this and looked at her worriedly.
"Everything alright", he asked.
"I'm fine", Hermione said, forcing herself to smile and to drop the hand from her side. It was nothing after all, she had felt that pain before, just the day before, and it had gone away then and it would go away again.
Sirius didn't look completely convinced, but joined in the conversation anyway, as did Hermione. After dinner was finished, everyone just stayed on and happy chatter filled the air for quite a while.
Every once in a while Sirius would cast a glance at Hermione worriedly, and more than once he got her holding on to her side, but did not say anything.
Finally everyone made to leave, as it was getting really late. Hermione was relieved to get home, since the pain had not once stopped and seemed to indeed be getting worse. She would just be taking some pain potions once in her apartment and then go to bed immediately. It was probably just the stress, she tried to tell herself.
While the families went inside to leave via the floo network, Hermione bid goodbye outside, as did Sirius, and with two load pops they were gone, each to their respective home.
A/N: Just imagine that there's been much more talking going on, especially at the other end of the table and that I just presented the bits and pieces that I deemed to be important.
Anyway, hope you liked it and I'll be really happy if you leave a review and tell me what you think=)