Another chapter up speedy quick! It's to make up for the long time I usually have between updates :) 32945043805 thanks to my wonderful beta! Review please!

Hermione sat on her bed with her head in her hands. She heard the door open quietly and then close, but she still didn't look up. She felt the corner of the bed sink under someone's weight.

"Ginny, please just go away. I don't feel like talking right now," she sighed.

"Do you have something to tell me, Miss Hermione?" asked Ginny, clearly ignoring Hermione's request.

"No," said Hermione in an unconvincing tone.

"Don't tell me you fancy Sirius Black!" squealed Ginny.

Hermione took her face out of her hands and glared at Ginny. "If you tell one single soul, I swear you will wish you had never taught me the bat bogey hex."

Ginny laughed. "Whatever you say, Herms! Just let me know when you guys fall madly in love with each other. And remember, I get to be maid of honor."

"First of all, don't call me Herms. Second, I never even told you that I was going to have a wedding. Third, if I were to have a wedding, I'd be sure that you were just a plain old bridesmaid!" Hermione replied. Ginny had the most hilariously offended look on her face that Hermione couldn't help but let a giggle escape.

"You wouldn't dare!" gasped Ginny, obviously not in on the joke.

"I'm just kidding! Of course you would be maid of honor!" laughed Hermione.

"That's what I thought!" Ginny replied. "So," she began. "Why did you run away anyway?"

Hermione blushed. "I sort of expected more than a good. I know it's vain of me but, you know." Hermione couldn't quite get her thought across.

"Oh, I know alright!" exclaimed Ginny. "You fancy Sirius! That's not even what I expected out of you! Look at Hermione go the bad boy route! And it's okay! I bet he was so blinded by your sheer beauty that he couldn't even function right."

Hermione snorted. "Yeah, uh-huh."

Both girls dissolved into a fit of giggles.

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Sirius couldn't believe himself. Good? He knew she looked much more than amazing. He had no idea what Ginny did, but whatever it was, it made Hermione look like a goddess. There was something different about her hair, and she had just enough makeup to enhance her perfect features.

Sirius shook his head to clear the way his thoughts had been going. She was just a girl, for Merlin's sake!

He finished his sandwich and moved slowly up the stairs. Ever since being rescued from the veil, he always felt a little more tired than he used to. He thought that perhaps it was because he was getting old.

He passed the door to Hermione's room and paused. He heard the girls talking.

"Oh I know alright!" shouted Ginny. "You fancy Sirius!"

Sirius' jaw dropped.

"That's not even what I expected out of you! Look at Hermione go the bad boy route! And it's okay! I bet he was so blinded by your sheer beauty that he couldn't even function right."

He moved on before he heard anymore. It was one thing for him to have feelings for Hermione, but for Hermione to have feelings for him? He didn't think that was the way it was supposed to go. It was always the old men who fancied the young women, and then they eventually got picked up by the police for it. Girls like Hermione were not supposed to think of a man of Sirius' age as any more than a father figure.

Sirius had some thinking to do.

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"Are you mad?" barked Draco Malfoy. His father was actually going to make him go live at the scum hole excuse of a headquarters that some of the light side actually called home. The Order of the Phoenix actually believed that the Malfoy family had changed their ways ever since his mother had died. How dim could someone be? The Malfoy family would always be dark. Anyone who thought differently had something wrong with their brain.

"No, and don't speak to me that way again," Lucius replied in his calm, cool voice.

"Yes father," sneered Draco. They were standing in the study of Malfoy Manor. Lucius had just told him that they were expected at Grimmuald Place the following evening.

"Now, go pack you things," ordered Lucius. Draco turned and walked away without another word.

"And Draco," called Lucius. "Practice looking like you're down on your luck instead of like a spoiled little prick."

It took all Draco had not to draw his wand and curse his father to the very depths of Hell.

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"Didn't I tell you to clean yourself up?" snapped Snape the following morning. It looked like he had stayed since the previous evening. Hermione assumed it had to do with the Malfoy's coming to stay.

Hermione wasn't afraid to talk back this time. "Well, for those of us who actually sleep during the night, it's perfectly acceptable to have bed head the first ten minutes after we wake up. I'm sorry we all don't look as perfect as you do in the morning, princess."

She swept by him and into the bathroom so he didn't have a chance to respond.

Snape stood where he was for a minute grinding his teeth. Nobody talked to him that way. Especially if that somebody's name was Granger. He didn't know she had the nerve to stand up to him that way. She was not the frightened little first year anymore.

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Draco and Lucius stood in the entryway of Grimmauld Place with disgusted looks on their faces. This surely was the very least they were expecting. It looked like the place hadn't been dusted in years, for heaven sakes!

Sirius stepped up to greet them. He did not hold out his hand to shake. "Welcome. You will find your rooms on the second floor. Take the hallway to the end and," he turned to Draco, "yours is on the left," he turned to Lucius, "yours, on the right."

"Lovely," muttered Lucius.

Both Malfoy men took to the stairs and went to their separate rooms. Sirius didn't move from where he was standing.

He heard someone approaching a while later and immediately said in a sarcastic tone, "Sorry there aren't better quality towels. We here like to use towels that you can buy without spending hundreds of Galleons."

"Well, I think the towels are fine," said a voice that certainly didn't belong to a man. Sirius turned and saw Hermione.

"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed. "I thought you were one of the Malfoys," he rolled his eyes.

"Since I look like one, don't I!" laughed Hermione. Sirius loved the sound of her laugh.

"I don't think that you could pull off the aristocratic look that they seem to have perfected," Sirius challenged.

"Oh can't I?" replied Hermione. She turned up her nose and spoke. "Mister Black! These towels are a disgrace! How dare you think I would use trash such as this?! I thi-" Hermione was interrupted.

"Ahem."

Hermione looked behind her, and standing at the foot of the stairs was Lucius Malfoy.

"Bravo."

Hahaha a tiny bit of a cliffie for ya! I really can't seem to help myself!

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