Allrighty then… so a few of you had some constructive criticism… and I want to say thank you. I do appreciate it. You've asked to develop the characters more, and I realized that I had been neglecting that… and I'll tell you why, not that it would be an excuse…

There are things for this story that I've planned since the beginning. A special scene that I have in my head that I can't wait to write… but I have so much to write before I can get there. Subconsciously, I've been trying to hurry through everything else to get there, and I realize now that it was at the expense of the character development.

So I've slowed things down a tad, and delved into the feelings of them a little bit more. I hope this makes them more three-dimensional for you.

Chapter is NOW BETA'D!

Hope you all enjoy it.

Love,

Chrys

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"Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight 'Mione?"

"I don't believe so, George." She answered with a small smirk on her face. They were currently slow dancing, her arms around his neck, and his long arms wrapped around her waist.

"Goodness then, where have my manners gone? You look absolutely ravishing tonight."

Hermione smiled in response and brushed his hair away from his face, "How are things?"

George's smile faltered just slightly and he closed his eyes for a moment, wondering just how truthful he should be in responding. When he opened his eyes again, she was staring directly into his eyes, while her own were soft and caring. She wasn't asking to make small talk; she actually wanted to know because she cared about him.

His façade broke just slightly, "As well as… um, as well as could be expected I guess."

She stroked her thumbs against the back of his neck in a soothing way, "You're not alone, George. You know, I'm just an owl away." She stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek softly.

When she was back at her normal height, he gave her one of his famous grins; "Thanks, love." George looked up and caught sight of Sirius moving gracefully towards them. "Looks like I'm not the only dog who wants to dance with you tonight…"

Hermione laughed softly and slipped out of his embrace. George let her go and moved deeper into the crowed to find some other pretty witch to dance with. Hermione didn't even have time to turn around before she felt Sirius' arms surround her, and his lips drop to the crook in her neck.

"Hello, love."

She grinned and turned in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body against his. "Hello."

"Where'd George go?" he asked, looking around.

"Off to find some unsuspecting, pretty witch… not jealous of George, are we?" she asked mockingly.

"Jealous? Why should I be; you can't keep your hands off of me… therefore making me the luckiest bloke in the room." He leaned down and nipped at her ear.

She mewled, her voice low and husky as she rubbed herself against him. She could practically feel Sirius smirk against her neck as he continued exploiting one of her many week spots.

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"How's Teddy?" Harry asked Remus, taking a long pull from his beer.

"He's great - you should come over and see him more often. You are his godfather after all." Lupin replied.

"I will. I just figured you two would want him more to yourselves for a while. I spent a lot of time with him before, helping Andromada out and all." Harry replied.

"You're welcome to come over anytime Harry, you know that." Tonks answered him. "You don't want to stay away for too long, he might change his hair to black, and take up wearing a scar on his forehead if he misses you too much."

"Did you ever do that when you were a kid?" Ron asked her; intrigued that Teddy would use his ability to convey what he couldn't put into words.

"Oh, yes. Drove my parents' nuts, always changing my appearance into what I wanted. I used to have this little blue pig stuffed animal, and when my parents would take me out of the room without it, my hair would go bright blue and my nose would change." As she said this she demonstrated exactly what she meant, causing those left at the table to chuckle, "Dad forgot it once when he had to take me to a meeting, then he had to have Mom modify all of the muggle's memories who saw me change."

A few more minutes of pleasant conversation continued until Harry stood up. "I best get going, I've got loads of stuff to do tomorrow."

They said their good-byes and Harry moved over to the balcony overlooking the dance floor. He looked around a moment before catching sight of Hermione and Sirius completely wrapped around each other, practically dry-humping on the dance floor.

He couldn't help but let a sly smile spread across his face. They fit… much better than her and Ron ever did. He waved his hand above his head a few times to get their attention.

Hermione was the first to look up. She caught Harry's gaze and watched as he mouthed, See you later.

She tapped Sirius on the shoulder and pointed for him to look up so that he could see Harry. Once Sirius waved to him, Hermione caught his attention again, making a motion with her hands that looked as if she were eating and then mouthed, Friday?

He thought for a moment, before nodding, and gestured that he would owl her later. She nodded and waved good-bye.

Her attention was quickly brought back to her partner, who hadn't wasted any time in pulling her back to him, grinding his hips suggestively against hers.

"You are a great dancer, Pads." She said breathlessly against his ear.

"It's all in the partner, I assure you."

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"You do realize that you can't tell anyone, right?"

"I'm not stupid, love. I don't want my balls hexed off."

"Yes, that would be a waste…" Ginny purred suggestively.

Conner looked down at her naked form. He knew she was using him; like he said, he wasn't stupid. He was a Ravenclaw, after all. "Why do you stay with him?" He hadn't realized he had asked the question out loud until he saw the reaction on her face.

Ginny tensed immediately, "Why?"

"You stay with him, yet you fuck me… not that I'm complaining, I don't mind being fuck buddies, but somehow I know he would mind." His fingers were trailing up and down the valley between her breasts.

"Because I love him." She answered, but there was something wrong with the way she said it. She spoke those four words as if an automated response. There was no passion; it was as if she were reciting it from a book.

He laughed softly; "Maybe if you keep telling yourself that one day you'll believe it… I think you just like the sex, and the title. The Boy-Who-Lived's girlfriend. Sounds a lot better than the Sidekicks' sister, don't you think?"

"I think you should stop talking and put your mouth to better uses." She said defensively. Connor had hit a nerve, and at that moment all she wanted was for him to shut up.

"As you wish, love."

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Hermione woke up next to a very warm lump of man, who as far as she could tell was still completely conked out from last night.

She stared at his naked body. The man was well… edible, for lack of a better term. His muscled body was the stuff of girls' dreams, not to mention the tattoos that covered his chest. It hadn't taken her long to figure out what the odd symbols meant; it was a good thing she had taken advanced ancient ruins. I solemnly swear to always be up to no good.

She ran her hands lightly over his chest, tracing the symbols, before moving lower. Her mouth soon followed, kissing his sleeping form, staring with his neck, down his chest, to his stomach. By this time Sirius was slowly awakening to the feeling of warm breath caressing him. He opened his eyes just as Hermione took his quickly hardening dick into her mouth, and lavished it with attention.

"Merlin…" he whimpered, as his hips involuntarily bucked upwards. Hermione just grinned and continued.

Her hands rested on his thighs, rubbing soothing circles while her mouth continued her pleasurable torture. Sirius' hands were buried in her hair, not pushing or pulling, just holding on for dear life. Hermione enjoyed pleasuring him. It didn't matter how long they had been together, she enjoyed him, and he enjoyed her. They got along really well, a few arguments here and there, but they always made up, and Merlin's pants, when they made up…

"Hermione… I'm going to…" Sirius was currently trying to pull her up, but she refused. Her hands linked with his, threading her fingers into his, and held them against the bed as she brought him to completion.

When he had calmed down Hermione crawled up his body and laid back down, her head on his chest, her naked leg intertwined with his. "Good morning…"

Sirius laughed, "A very good morning." He looked down at her, stroking her hair, "Not that I mind, but where did that come from?"

"Payback for last night…" she mumbled, her eyes closing as she snuggled even closer to him, enjoying the feeling of his hand stroking through her hair.

"Well… I'll have to tie you up more often then." His comment was met with a sly grin, making Sirius fully believe that was exactly what Hermione was hoping for.

They were silent for minutes, staring out the window that over looked the garden, the rare sun breaking through the clouds and warming the room up just a notch.

"Can I ask you something 'Mione?"

"Anything you want…" she answered without thinking.

"Why did you bring us back?"

"What?" Hermione sat up, her hand resting on Sirius' chest, the sheet falling from her form revealing her naked body. If he hadn't had asked such an important question just seconds before, he probably would have taken advantage of her naked state, but at the current moment, Sirius primarily just wanted an answer.

"Why you? Why me? What pushed you so hard to bring me back?"

She turned away from him then, so that he could only see her curly hair fall down her beautiful back. She stared out the window for a moment or two before answering, "Just a puzzle, you know me…I can't let a puzzle go unless I solve it…"

"You tried to bring me back from the dead because it was a puzzle?"

"Yes… to figure out what the veil could do and all… just a puzzle." All the warmth left her voice, and she wrapped her arms around herself. Could she really tell him that she had to figure it out? Could she tell him that she had fallen for him years ago, and that his death had hit her harder than anyone had actually believed?

"I don't believe you." He was propped up against the headboard now. His voice held no malice, he wasn't mad at her for lying to him - he just wanted to know why.

"Why don't you believe me?" she asked softly.

"Because if it were a puzzle, you wouldn't have stopped once I came back, if you wanted to figure out the veil, you would still be in there, messing with it. As soon as Moony, Tonks and I stepped through, you completely forgot about the veil."

She nodded and stayed silent. He had a point. She felt his arms encircle her and pull her back against him, so that she was sitting in between his legs.

He could sense that she was uncomfortable, but knowing Hermione she would tell him soon enough - he just needed to be patient.

"Part of it was Harry… he was so… lost, when you fell. I don't know if you could hear him, or even if you could remember it if you did, but he screamed. Merlin, he screamed so loud, yelling at Remus that you were right behind the veil, and that if he could just reach through, he would be able to pull you back. It was worse than when Cedric died. The pain was etched onto his face for weeks. He hated Remus for holding him back and not letting him go after you."

Silent tears were streaming down her face as she thought about it, about how much pain Harry had been in. "He chased after Bellatrix; I wasn't there, but he might have used an unforgivable on her, or tried to, before Voldemort attacked him. The rest of the school year was horrible. He would get an idea of how to bring you back, and run around, and when it was proven wrong, he looked so defeated. He asked Nearly-Headless Nick, if you could come back as a ghost… then he found your present, the Mirror… when he realized that if he had remembered it earlier and had not asked Kretcher… that none of it ever would have happened… I thought he was going to kill himself. The guilt gnawed away at him, more and more. I really don't know how he did it, but somehow he overcame it and got along, but I could always see the pain in his face when anything reminded him of you."

Sirius held her tighter as she cried for Harry, and for the pain that Harry had endured. "And the other part?" he asked softly.

"Me… I missed you. I know back then we didn't get along very well, but you were there, and I… I fancied you. When you fell through, it didn't hit me then… it took a few days… I had done something… I can't even remember now what it was but I was going to run down to the common room to tell Harry to include it in his letter to you… I was almost to the door when I realized there would be no more letters to Snuffles. I broke down then… dropped to the floor in front of Lavender's trunk and cried. All I could think about was all the hurtful stuff I had said about you living through Harry and Ron…"

She wiped her tears away before continuing, "We had a lot of shit to deal with… but once the War was over, I felt like I had to do something. Something to erase the pain on Harry's face… something to make me feel… I don't even know what I wanted to feel; I just wanted you to come back. It sounds silly, but somehow I figured that if you came back… everything would get better. I know that doesn't make sense, but something just felt right about trying to crack the veil and save you."

No words were spoken for a very long time. Sirius held Hermione to his chest and let her cry herself out. He wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to say. Hermione had missed him… she had felt for him for years, and he hadn't noticed her until he came back. It was then that he remembered what James had said, "There are things that none of you know about, things that happened to Harry and his friends when you weren't around that have… well have set up the ability for you to return." Could he have meant the fact that Hermione had felt something for him?

"It doesn't have to make sense, love… I'm just glad you did; I would have hated to miss out on this." He dipped his head down and kissed her tenderly. It wasn't an excited or hurried kiss like they usually shared, but one that told of caring, one that he hoped showed her how lucky he felt right then.

When he broke the kiss, Hermione wiped the last of her tears off of her cheek and looked up at him, "Me too Padfoot… me too."

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Thank you to all of my reviewers… and to those of you who haven't reviewed… and don't want to face the wrath of Draco Potter, I suggest you hit the little blue "go" button down there… you wouldn't want an angry bunny who looks like a mixture of Draco and Harry in bunny form now would you? Would you?

:: Cackles evilly::