A/n: Yup, I know. It took ages for me update, as usual. As usual, I apologize and can heavily thank my reviewers for absolutely everything, because they inspire to hurry my butt up, and beg them to stick with me. ;) Enjoy.

Chapter 7

Saturday dawned cool and drizzly.

Hermione walked through the Entrance Hall with the other Gryffindors, looking for Cedric at first, the remembering she was to meet him at the Three Broomsticks.

Filch stood at his usual post on Hogsmeade weekends, checking off the names of students with permission to go to Hogsmeade. He seemed as overly cheerful just as he had the other day.

"Good morning! Have a nice time! Hey, Smith! Bring me back a Butterbeer, eh?" he winked and nudged Zacharias Smith. "Goood morning! Good morning!"

He seemed to be making it a point to say good morning to every one who passed him with their permission forms outstretched. Hermione shook her head, still amazed at the wild turn in Filch.

Once in Hogsmeade, Hermione first headed to Honeydukes to pick up some sweet things: some Fizzing Whizbees, a small bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, some Droobles Best Blowing Gum (strawberry flavored) and one Sugar Quill for the heck of it. She then avoided the crowd at Zonko's Joke Shop (all buying a healthy amount of Dung Bombs, Hiccup Sweets, Frog Spawn Soap and Nose-Biting Teacups, if she had to guess) and walked through the light rain to the Three Broomsticks.

As expected, the Three Broomsticks was already jammed full of students enjoying Butterbeer, Pumpkin Juice and other drinks. Hermione was slightly surprised to see everything looking quite the same – mirrors over the bar, all the same tables and booths – even Madame Rosmerta looked hardly different. But instead of her usual turquoise high-heels, she was wearing bright red flip-flops.

"Table, sweetie?" Madame Rosmerta said impatiently and suddenly, chewing a piece of gum rudely.

"Uh, ya."

"Well, then go sit will ya?" Madame Rosmerta snapped and then made her gum crack loudly.

Hermione quickly went and sat in the nearest empty booth. 'What a grouch….' She thought.

A few minutes later, Ally, Draco, Greg, Vinny and Pansy came in from the rain, their pockets full and bulging with different objects of candy and joke merchandise. A package of Ice Mice fell from Vinny's over-stuffed pockets and began chattering on the floor. He quickly scooped them up, and received a glare from Madame Rosmerta.

"Oh, brilliant!" Draco said, and grinned. "She saved us a spot!" he pointed to Hermione and started to make his way over.

Hermione quickly waved her hands and mouthed, 'No! No! No!'

Draco shook his head. "What? Why?"

The door behind them opened and Cedric let his wet hood down. He spotted Hermione immediately and smiled. Hermione looked past her friends at Cedric, smiled back and motioned him to come sit with her. Draco for some reason assumed he was motioning to him and started forward again. Ally grabbed him by the back of his shirt when Cedric squeezed past them, made his way over to Hermione and settled down on the opposite side of the booth. Greg and Vinny raised their eyebrows, clearly not sure how to react to this whole situation.

Draco shrugged. "Well, let's go sit with them, then."

This time it was Pansy who yanked on his collar. "Don't you see? They're on a date!" she hissed.

Ally grabbed Vinny's arm. "Duh!"

The two girls steered the gaping boys to a booth that would hide Hermione and Cedric from their view. Hermione silently thanked them.

"Been to any stores yet?" Cedric asked.

"Just Honeydukes." Hermione answered.

Cedric nodded. "Yeah, I went to Honeydukes, then Zonko's. It was totally packed with students though, so I think I'll go back later."

Madame Rosmerta stalked up to their table and leaned on its edge. "Look kids, either order somethin' or git out!"

"Sorry - sorry, Madame." Cedric quickly apologized, then ordered. "Two Butterbeers."

Madame Rosmerta snapped her gum and rollded her eyes. "Of course, I should've known. She mumbled and went off to get the drinks.

"I hope it's okay that I ordered for you." Cedric said. "I just really wanted to get her off our backs in a hurry." He half-smiled. "You know Rosmerta, after all."

Hermione half-smiled back, thinking, 'No, actually, not the one you know…' but instead said, "It's perfectly alright. It's exactly what I wanted anyways."

A couple of minutes later, Madame Rosmerta returned with their Butterbeers. She plopped them down roughly on the table, causing a little bit to spill over.

"Thank you." Cedric and Hermione said together politely.

Madame Rosmerta merely grunted and headed off to "serve" the next group of students who had the gall not to have ordered yet.

"So, how was your summer, Cedric?" Hermione asked and took a sip of her Butterbeer. It made her feel tingly and warm inside, just like it always did. Thank goodness it hadn't changed.

Cedric wiped up the little slop of Butterbeer on the table as he spoke, before setting the used napkin aside. He shrugged. "Positively uneventful, as usual. You?"

"Oh, my family and I took a small holiday to France again. It's so lovely! It was much shorter than last time, though, but I'm not complaining. It was still beautiful." She paused to have another sip. "After we came back, I got to go to the Weasley's for a weekend or two. It was really fun." She answered without thinking, because that was what she had done in the summer.

Cedric looked at her strangely. "Sorry, did you just say you went to the Weasley's for a weekend?"

And then Hermione remembered hard what she should have said. "Uh, no. I said – uh – Minstrel's. Ally's." she said quickly, knowing how unconvincing she sounded.

"I coulda sworn you said Weasley's…"

"Slip of the tongue!" she swallowed a gulp of Butterbeer that was just enough too big to go down in a painful ball of liquid.

"Aw, no matter." He shrugged. He paused and drank a little. "Say, Hermione?"

"Hm?" she swallowed less of her drink this time, but still a little uneasy about her slip in the conversation.

"Would it be all right if…um, well… all right." He took a deep breath. "I need a tutor for Care of Magical Creatures – I'm not doing well at all – never have – even though it's just the beginning of the year. And, well, Professor Sprout thought you would be the best choice because in the last week your grades have risen from near bottom of the class to landslide top of the class. And she said that she talked to some of the staff and they see that in every class. They figure your probably good at everything – Grubbly-Planks said, anyways…" he was talking faster and faster as his face became redder, and Hermione found it hard not to laugh. "What I'm trying to say is that I need a tutor for Care of Magical Creatures because I'm near failing and kind of always have been and now – no, I already said that, didn't I?"

Hermione giggled out loud and Cedric finally stopped rambling for a minute, his cheeks thoroughly pink, and she could tell he was thoroughly embarrassed. "I can help you, Cedric. It'll be no problem at all." She smiled reassuringly.

His cheeks began to turn back to normal color. "Really?" he cleared his throat and looked deeply relieved. "Thanks a lot. I mean it, I really appreciate this."

"What day and what time did you want to do this on?" she asked.

"Uh, I dunno. Probably just whenever we can. I mean, in between homework and Quidditch, so…" Cedric coked his head slightly.

Hermione nodded. "You just tell me when and where."

Cedric smiled and nodded also. "I shall."

Hermione smiled back and finished the last of her Butterbeer. He was really handsome, really. He had just the right amount of muscles, a very nice smile, mysterious gray-blue eyes, attractive curly chestnut hair…

She had a strong feeling she would be seeing more of Cedric Diggory.

Sunday came and went, quite uneventfully.

Hermione ate, had Quidditch practice (which was called off after only an hour and half because of a thunderstorm), finished her homework, read some books she had never read before in the library, walked across the grounds when the storm had subsided, then resumed Quidditch practice, and later in the evening, went to bed.

Monday, however, was quite eventful.

Hermione sat quietly eating her breakfast as the mail owls swooped in. She never expected anything, except maybe the newspaper. Sure enough, an owl holding a weekly issue of The Daily Prophet stopped down in front of her. She vaguely remembered getting the Prophet last week, but she'd been far too upset to even glance at it.

She paid the owl, rolled the Prophet up and stuffed it in her bag. She'd read it later. That's when another owl plopped down in front of her, and when it held out its leg, there was no mistaking who too.

"Whose that from?" Ally asked immediately.

"I don't know… I never get mail…" What Hermione didn't say was, 'Who is there to send me letters?' She untied the letter, unrolled it and silently began to read.

"Dear Hermione,

This is Sirius Black. Don't freak out, it really is me. I'm alive."

Hermione nearly screamed aloud in pure shock. Instead she clapped her hand over her mouth and read on.

"On minute I was in the Department of Mysteries dueling with Bellatrix, and the next I found myself in a very clean, very deserted, very Kreacher-less 12 Grimmauld Place. I quickly found that everything was very strange and backwards. Ludo Bagman is the Minister! I'm in hiding, but not because I'm accused of murder. Brace yourself because this is the weirdest thing yet: I'm the lead singer of the Weird Sisters! I know, extremely strange. I play lead guitar as well, and all the other members are the same, except for Kirley McCormack Duke, whose place I assume have taken. I can't go anywhere in the wizarding world without getting mauled by over-obsessive fans. The popularity is practically unbearable. I don't know which is worse!"

Hermione laughed aloud. The Weird Sisters?

"Anyways, when I found myself alive and well, and in Grimmauld Place, I was, needless to say, extremely confused. I prayed that nothing had happened to Dumbledore, and thankfully, he seems completely the same, and obviously surprised to hear from me. He explained that you had made a wish that you didn't mean, turning the world backwards, essentially. He asked me not to contact you for week or so, because you were hysterical and depressed, and me saying, 'Hey, I'm alive!' would have been too much. "

Hermione smiled. He'd got that right.

"I wanted to let you know that I was here, though, and you can talk to me anytime you want. I have all my memories from before, and Dumbledore said he does, and so do you. We're the only three who are 'correct' in this world right now, so if anything happens, if you need help with anything, you can talk to us, okay?

Oh, and by the way, we don't have to worry about coding our letters. There's no followers of Voldemort, no Death Eaters, no Umbridge to intercept and destroy.

Keep your chin up, Hermione. Live like this until you can reverse it and get back to where we belong.

Sincerely,

Sirius "

Right at that moment, Hermione was happier then she'd been in a very, very long time. She read the letter a second time, tears beginning to whirl before her. She could talk to him. He would remember everything. It was amazing! She could barely contain herself, and her friends noticed.

"Whose it from?" Ally asked.

"Yes, who is it from?" Pansy repeated eagerly.

The three boys and two girls all leaned forward, each with a very interested look on their faces. They had been studying her while she read the letter, and now just had to know who had written to cause them.

But Hermione was far too excited to just tell them. "An old friend." She answered quickly and jumped out of her chair. "See you guys in Transfiguration!" she grabbed her stuff and took off at a near run out of the Great Hall, ignoring the disappointed, curious and confused faces of her friends behind.

At that moment, absolutely nothing – McGonagall leering or yelling, Harry and Ron calling her names and pointing – nothing could tear or dampen her mood. She smiled so wide she thought maybe her face would break.

Sirius was alive!

A/n: Well? Whaddya think? (Flames will be used to burn my text books. :D)

So, to be honest, I couldn't decide what to do with Hagrid, so I just kind of made him non-existent. If anyone has any ideas as to WHY he doesn't exist at Hogwarts, tell me in your review. I cannot stand Malfoy and Snape, so it is so weird for me to make them nice, but when I got the idea for this story it just so had to be written regardless of everything. ;) Oh, and Sirius is totally my fav character ever, so OF COURSE I had to bring him into this somehow! ;D