A/N: Oh boy. It really has been a long time since I've updated, and it's all thanks to you reviewers that I've made myself get up and work out another chapter.
And I've also realized that this story has really gotten off tracks from what I'd intended in the beginning. Don't worry! I'll focus more on HG/SB!
~ *1 hour earlier*~ (From the previous chapter)
It reminded Hermione of that night at the Ministry of Magic in the Department of Mysteries. Hexes flew all over the place. Confusion and chaos was everywhere. Adrenaline shot through her veins, and fear made it hard to breathe.
A full grown wizard- a death eater- had seemingly gone crazy, hexing and jinxing anyone in sight. Screams alternatively pierced the air as Hogsmeade shoppers ducked for cover. The crazy Death Eater was joined by four others now. Five Death Eaters against five teenagers.
James dodged a hex as easily as he would a bludger and sent a stunning spell in the direction of the Death Eaters. One of the Death Eaters, a witch with a pinched up face, sent a difficult spell his way. Hermione recognized it only from one of the dark magic books in Grimmauld's library. James dodged it again, laughing triumphantly. He seemed to think this was a game.
Another spell- this one unsettlingly familiar and green- came at him. James ducked and it hit a witch trying to find cover near him. She died instantly.
Hermione saw his face change as if in slow motion. The hazel eyes darkened. His face closed up and he seemed to freeze, unable to move.
Sirius grabbed his arm, pulling him aside. "Get a grip, James!" he shouted. Hermione could tell by his expression that he'd witness the murder too. "We have to get Hermione and Lily out of here!" He grabbed Hermione's hand and she was shocked to find that it was shaking. Evidently neither trouble maker was used to seeing this kind of cruelty firsthand. Coming from the Black family, Sirius had definitely been exposed to it but it didn't mean he could accept it as common practice. His carefree demeanor was now replaced by that of a scared teenager trying to fight for his life.
Out of nowhere, a spell hit James. Hermione screamed. Sirius looked like he was about to choke. Lily calmly stunned a Death Eater (the first one to do so) and grabbed Sirius' arm. "Snap out of it Black! It's a petrificulus tortalus."
Sirius quickly performed the counter curse, now looking at Lily with new respect. "That was really close."
James sat up as his joints unstiffened, his face paper white. "Tell me about it."
Hermione gritted her teeth and gripped her wand. Stupid, she scolded herself. Why hadn't she recognized a simple petrificus tortalus? She had to focus. She jumped as a hand touched her arm. "Ron!"
His face was pale, but he was smiling. "The teachers are here!"
All five teenagers looked up. Sure enough, a swarm of black robed professors were quickly taking over. The three remaining Death Eaters were no match. They were quickly stunned and captured without any casualties, although Professor Flitwick was almost trampled in the process.
Hermione sighed in relief as the four death eaters were gathered together. None of them had gotten hurt. It was a miracle really. Those Death Eaters didn't seem particularly trained. They had absolutely no accuracy. Perhaps they were new recruits? Voldemort was just getting started around this time.
"Hold on." Next to her, Sirius was frowning.
Hermione looked up too, quickly scanning the area. "What…..you're right. Weren't there originally…five of them?"
Out of nowhere he appeared. It was one who had first followed her, Harry, and Ron from the Hogs Head. He bared yellow teeth and pulled out a wand. "I remember you," he hissed at her, licking his lips.
"F-Fueganda!" Hermione stammered, stabbing her wand at him. It was a complicated spell she'd learned from the NEWTS textbook, but the Death Eater easily made her ball of fire disappear. He even looked slightly amused in a deranged kind of way.
"Protego!" Hermione automatically shouted, ducking behind her purple shield, knowing even while she was doing so that it would be useless against anything more than a moderate hex. Useless. Useless in battle. All the spells she'd learned perfectly from the books…they were useless if she couldn't apply them in real life. That much she'd learned from Umbridge. She waited for pain-death even- but all she felt was the hard rocky ground scrape her arm
Hermione cracked open her eyes. The Death Eater was dead. Professor McGonagall was standing over his body, her face stunned at her own actions, but determined nonetheless.
And on the ground beside her…was Sirius. His teeth were gritted in pain and Hermione saw with growing horror that the front of his robes was drenched in blood. He'd taken the curse for her.
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He could hear voices in the darkness, fuzzy and unclear. They were all around him and he wanted to tell them to stop, to leave him alone. He tried to move his mouth, but his lips seemed frozen. With effort, he focused all his energy on a single eyelid and managed to force it open.
Brown eyes swam into view. Worried brown eyes. Familiar brown eyes, surrounded by bushy hair.
"Hermione….?"
"Sirius!" Her voice seemed far away.
Hazel eyes appeared in front of her's. "You had us all scared, mate!"
Sirius felt the muscles on the sides of his mouth twitch out of habit. It was getting easier to move. Only slightly though. With Herculean effort, he opened the other eye. He seemed to be in the Hospital Wing. Ah well, familiar territory. Worried faces were looking down at him. He shut his eyes again, his brain overloading with images and emotion.
"Sirius!"
"Calm down. Just restin' my eyelids," Sirius murmured.
He heard James cough nervously. "You know how weird that sounded?" There was the sound of rustling cloth as James straightened. "Are you sure he's all right? He isn't touched in the head, is he?"
"Since when wasn't he touched in the head?" Remus' calm voice was heard from somewhere to his left. From somewhere, Peter laughed.
Sirius opened his eyes again, trying to grin. Judging from their expressions the smile probably wasn't very pretty. "Say, why are only five of you gathered at my death bed?"
Hermione quickly grabbed his hand, scowling. "You are not going to die."
"Kidding. I'm just kidding."
"Peter's over there," Remus supplied, jerking his head behind him. "Sammi and Harry…actually, I haven't seen them in a while."
Hermione and Ron exchanged looks.
Sirius raised an eyebrow. It hurt, flexing so many facial muscles at the same time so he quickly dropped it again.
Remus gave him a warm smile. "Madam Pomfrey is very good at what she does. I should know." He coughed. "Anyways, we're all extremely lucky that you're alive. You lost a lot of blood."
Sirius looked down in confusion and saw with mild surprise that his entire torso was wrapped with bandages. Imagine that. He wasn't bleeding anymore because Pomfrey had healed the wounds with magic, but the skin was still very raw. "Whoa!"
Hermione bit her lip. "Sirius? I just wanted to thank you…so so much. That was an incredibly brave thing you did. You could have died and I-." she cut off, biting her bottom lip.
Sirius opened his mouth and closed it again. What had he done? Blood. He remembered that. And pain. Oh yes, a good deal of pain. Sirius unconsciously touched the front of his chest. There'd been chaos and confusion. And fear. He, Sirius Black, had been afraid. More scared than he'd ever felt in a long time. He absentmindedly glanced up and saw his best friend looking worriedly at him.
That's right. James had almost died. Luckily it'd been a harmless jinx, but if that had been a killing curse….Sirius gritted his teeth, pushing the thought away. Then why was he the one wrapped in bandages? A small pressure on his hand sent memories flooding his tired brain. Oh yes. Seeing the useless purple shield go up before her. Seeing the fear and, even worse, resignation on her face as she stared down what could be death. And most of all, an overwhelming need to protect. And without thinking, without even wasting time to think of a counterhex, he'd simply thrown himself in front of her.
Everyone was now staring at him except Hermione. Her cheeks were slightly pink as she stared determinedly at their interlocked hands. Everyone else was waiting for him to speak.
Sirius licked his chapped lips but no words came to mind. He glanced at Hermione again. She was looking at him now, her brown eyes bright. And red. With a start, he realized that she'd been crying. For him.
For one, inexplicable moment he felt like crying too. He, Sirius Black, almost cried in front of a crowd of people. Unheard of. But ever since he got sorted into Gryffindor, the only people who really cared about him were his fellow Marauders. It was them against the world. They were his family. But James would rather eat raw newts than cry in front of him, and Remus had gone through too much to be prone to burst into tears. Peter might, but he wouldn't be crying for Sirius. And yet here was a girl he'd only met a few days before, who really and truly cared for his sake.
And it was in that exact moment that Sirius realized how much he really cared about Hermione. Girls had been falling at his feet since first year. He'd been used to it. Enjoyed it even. But he never had actual feeling for any of them. They all pretty much blended together in his memory. Lily was one girl he did grudgingly admire, but he cared much more about his friendship with James to pursue that.
Hermione however, was actually very much like Lily; Intelligent and caring, but with a sort of vulnerability that Lily didn't often show. She looked vulnerable now as she now stood, looking in confusion at James at Sirius' unusual silence.
"Hermione, I—."
"Sirius!"
Everyone except Sirius turned around as two people ran in. At first Sirius thought it was James that had thrown himself against the side of the bed in his hurry to get over, but then he saw unusually familiar green eyes.
"Sirius, what happened?" Harry demanded. He was followed by a breathless-looking Sammi. "The Death Eaters? You didn't- you'll be all right won't you?"
"I'll be fine!" Sirius said with as much conviction as he could muster with the throbbing in his chest area. "It's just a little scratch. I've been through worse."
James, Remus, and Peter, who had reappeared, all nodded solemnly. Lily rolled her eyes but Sirius thought he detected as small smile. She seemed to be slowly thawing under James' administrations.
"Sirius saved me by taking the curse himself," Hermione murmured, sounding like she had a head cold. She turned away, avoiding Harry's stare and the look he then exchanged with Ron.
"It wasn't that dramatic," Sirius said with a weak attempt at lightening the mood in the Hospital room. "It wasn't like, in slow motion or anything. I just saw her in the way of a curse and sort of…threw myself in front of her. Stop looking at me like I'm some kind of hero," he added in annoyance.
"But you are!" Peter exclaimed excitedly.
Sirius saw Harry, Ron and Hermione turn to glare daggers at Petey. They seemed to do that every time he spoke for some reason. What on earth did Pettigrew do this time?
Peter glanced nervously at Harry who was nearest to him, before looking back at the hospital bed in admiration. "That was so brave, Sirius!"
"Yeah, yeah," Sirius muttered in embarrassment.
Thankfully Madam Pomfrey, who had been hearing unusually buzzing sounds in her ear thanks to James, came out of her office at that moment to find a small mob of Gryffindors around her patient's bed. "Out!" She exclaimed in horror. "The boy needs rest! James Potter, I should have known you'd be the ringleader."
James grinned and mouthed "we'll be back" at Sirius before being shooed out by Pomfrey. Sirius squeezed Hermione's before she let go, and she smiled back as the crowd slowly moved out of the room.
Pomfrey clucked as she rearranged Sirius' bandages and summoned a potion from her office. "Poor boy. I have no idea what those awful dark wizards were doing down there in Hogsmeade. Thankfully Dumbledore sent the teachers down there before the damage was too bad. You're the only casualty among the students thankfully, although a couple third years did go into shock. Some chocolate did the trick though."
"Who were those wizards?" Sirius asked with interest.
Pomfrey shook her head. "Nothing for you to worry about dear. Just get some rest." She thrust the potion at him.
Sirius turned his head away. "Are they-were they followers of Voldemort?" His voice was even.
Pomfrey stared, before sighing in understanding. "Sirius Black."
That seemed to be an answer enough. Of course his family would know all about it. Voldemort was recruiting then. He'd thought his mother was exaggerating when she said the noble wizards and witches were rising up to support the Cause. His own brother Regulus was eager enough.
Pomfrey pushed the flask of potion against his lips again. "Nothing for you to worry about. I'm sure Dumbledore will have this all under control. It must just be a false alarm."
The flask against his lips was shaking a little and he saw with mild surprise that her hand was trembling. She was scared. This campaign must be far bigger than he'd ever imagined. Grimly, Sirius tipped the foul-tasting potion down his throat.
As his eyelids grew heavy and he fell into slumber, he dreamed of dark wizards and aurors, and brown eyes.