Chapter 12

"Bastard!" Sirius spat out softly as he added yet another card to the numerous others held in his left hand in a rather clumsy attempt at fanning them out.

"Sirius," Harry's voice was grave as he met Sirius' eyes. Sirius raised his eyebrows, not bothering to hide his slight grimace. "Do… you… have any twos?"

"God damn mother-bloody-fucking son-of-a-bitch!" He growled as he flung the three cards at his laughing Godson.

"Hello?"

"Saved by the bell!" Sirius cheered, throwing his cards down. "Hey," he called indignantly as the others leapt out of their chairs and ran out of the room ahead of him.

Hermione placed her purse and coat on the coat rack near the door and rolled her head to try and loosen her neck as the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps met her ears. She turned just in time to see Draco sprinting towards her, followed closely by Harry and Lupin with Sirius bringing up the rear.

"Oh no! No, no, no, no, no!" She lifted her hands in surrender to the impact to come. Seconds later, Draco's body collided with hers as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. His arms tightened even more as he lifted her up and spun in a half circle just in time for Harry to collide with her back, sandwiching her tightly between them.

"Dog pile!" Lupin and Sirius called in unison moments before slamming into the trio one after the other, successfully toppling the entire mass over on itself.

"Some air please," Draco groaned from the bottom of the pile amid everyone's laughter. Carefully, everyone disentangled their bodies, stood and righted themselves.

"Come on, let's eat," Lupin was already making his way to the kitchen, led by his demanding stomach.

"Wait, you haven't eaten yet?" Hermione asked as she made her way to the dining room. Draco and Harry were close behind her.

"Course not," Draco smiled at her as he began to pick up the cards spread across the table.

"You did say you wanted to meet for dinner," Harry added.

"But it's so late; you really didn't have to do that," she said.

"Don't worry about it, it gave us a chance to kick Padfoot's ass in Go Fish," Lupin shot her a wink as he entered the room levitating a series of platters in front of him.

"You mean it gave Harry a chance to kick everyone's ass," Draco muttered as Sirius bumped Lupin from behind, jolting him and, subsequently, his wand so the platters nearly fell.

"Terribly sorry," his voice dry and clearly not the least bit apologetic.

At the same time, Hermione shot Harry a curious look and silently asked him, "Go Fish?" Harry's only response was a sheepish grin and small shrug. She shook her head and grinned back at him, her shoulders shook with silent laughter as she sat and filled her plate with food. Quickly the others followed suit and soon they were all eating ravenously. It had become common for them to eat together like this, so none of them felt compelled to try and strike a conversation.

"Sorry about asking you all here so suddenly and then being so late," Hermione finally broke the comfortable silence as Harry began to distribute generous sized pieces of Mrs. Weasley's cake. "I hope you didn't have any trouble slipping away."

"Not really," Sirius' answer was dry, quick and the same as every other time she asked the same question

"All I had to do was say Sirius wanted me to stay the night for bonding time," Harry cited his usual excuse for their get-togethers as Lupin nodded and raised his hand by way to say he'd done the same without have to try and speak around his overly large bite of cake. It was common for them to get together, making the excuse even more viable.

"No, but Luna wanted me to say 'hello' to you all," Draco spoke off-handedly. He focused hard on his cake, determinedly avoiding the sudden stares of the other diners. To best afford Hermione, and even on occasion each other, the safety of being able to speak openly, they'd all come to the consensus to keep their meetings private. But the reason for their stares wasn't that Draco had obviously let the cat out of the bag. After all, he wasn't near enough to anyone to tell their secret to that didn't already know it, or would pose a threat to it.

"So you told her?" Hermione asked, so surprised she wanted to clarify the idea.

"I hope you aren't mad," he spoke sincerely to her. "I just know you trust her and she'd never tell anyone so…"

"No, of course not. I'm just surprised she was okay with it," Hermione alluded to the fact that none of the women he'd seen in the past, no matter how short the affair, despised the time he spent with Hermione to the point that he never even considered telling them the truth about his occasional disappearances. It was probably a big part of why none of them had lasted long. At least none of them until Luna; the two had been going for a month and a half and seemed to be content with each other so far.

"Yeah… I don't know she just seems to understand. You know – us… and her," Draco just shrugged, a hint of a smile on his face. The other men nodded, understanding completely.

"That's great, I'm so happy to see you're happy with each other," Hermione smiled brightly, making Draco smile in response.

By now, they'd all managed to positively inhale their cake and were leaning back in their chairs, their stomachs full and happy. Out of habit, Harry was leaning back on the back two legs of his chair when he leaned back just a little too far and, with a gasp, nearly toppled over. Hermione rolled her eyes while the others chuckled at him.

"And you wonder why Ginny always yells at you," she muttered. Draco and Harry's faces morphed into expressions that clearly said they were sorely tempted to make a comment that was less than complementary. The arch look Hermione instinctively shot them quickly stopped them in their tracks.

The uncountable times they'd done it before left Lupin, Sirius and Draco casting cleaning charms to clear the table and wash the dishes at the same time, each smoothly avoiding charming the same thing. As the dishes took care of themselves, the group made their way to the library, rearranged the furniture just so, and sat. Hermione was on the couch sandwiched between Harry and Sirius; her head rested on Harry shoulder and Sirius' arm was draped over the back of the couch, resting over her shoulders. Draco and Lupin sat in armchairs across from her, so close that everyone's knees knocked. Both leaned forward with their elbows on their knees; Draco traced random patterns lightly over her knee while Lupin held her hand between his own, gently rubbing his thumbs over it.

"I told them about lunch," Harry murmured after they were all settled. Hermione blushed, much to the amusement of the others. Then she began to tell them about the rest of her day, not skipping even the minutest detail.

Hermione snuggled deeper into her soft, familiar bed with a tired sigh. Their conversation had continued for a long time, and after her already long day of work, she was more than ready to drift off into dreamland. As her body relaxed and eyes grew heavy, she thought back to earlier.

While everything she'd felt was new and weird to her, it was apparently normal. All she had to was be herself and relax. Just try and remember that her boss was just human as well. Do what feels right and enjoy the experience. She was nervous about seeing him tomorrow, but now she felt a little better. After all, she had amazing friends at her side and ready and eager to give her their full support.

I am going back to college on Friday (junior year here I come!) and as a result will probably not be able to update as often as I would like. I will continue to write whenever I get time though, so please be patient with me :)
Hopefully I will get to put another update up before then - we'll see.

Reviews make the pen flow faster...