A/N: I'll admit. I've been a bad updater. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with this after the previous chapter. I've been mulling this chapter since then. Hopefully you like it.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and all you following for your patience. I'll try to be better, I promise.

As always, enjoy and please review.

After dinner Mr. and Mrs. Granger invited Hermione and Sirius back to their house. The car was quiet on the way back from the restaurant, and it was even more quiet as they sat in the sitting room. David offered Sirius some whisky, and Sirius declined in favor of coffee. He thought his drinking habits were a discussion best left for another night.

"So, what do you do, Mr. Black?" Jean finally asked after serving coffee.

"Call me Sirius. Right now I don't really do anything, I just came back right after the final battle, so it's been a few weeks of going to funerals and then coming here."

"What about before that?"

"I... well, I was still in school when the war broke out. I joined the Order as soon as I could, and fought up until I got sent..." he trailed off. The subject of his stay in Azkaban hadn't really come up, and he wasn't about to remind Hermione's parents of his ex-con status.

"You were in prison, right?" David asked. He had a much better memory than Sirius had hoped for.

"Yes. I didn't do what I was convicted of doing, but I was in there," he muttered.

"Hermione mentioned you were innocent, but she also mentioned you had gone without a fight. If you were innocent, why not defend yourself?" Jean sounded very interested, as if she had been itching to hear the answer for years.

"My best friend and his wife were dead, my Godson an orphan living with Muggles. I felt partially responsible, no, I felt wholly responsible. If I had been secret keeper it would have been me and not James," he said bitterly.

Sensing a change in conversation was in order Hermione piped up, "How is your dental practice going down here?"

"Oh, really good," David replied, and the tension in the room eased. "We've taken on two students in their final year, and were thinking about hiring them and opening another branch. I guess we could probably hire them and have them take over our current location."

"Why would you do that?" Hermione asked.

"Well, we're back. It's time to move back home. Assuming we still have a home."

"The Death Eaters got to it," she sounded sad. "But I'll get it cleaned before you can get there, I promise."

"There's no need to rush, dear. The students have a few more weeks, it'll take that long for us to complete their evaluations, then a few more weeks of training them to take over the business. I guess Wendell and Monica Wilkins will live on a little longer."

"What are you going to tell them?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"That we miss England and that we want to move back."

"Sun, sand, beautiful women," he muttered a little too casually as he sat back. "Why would you want to live in the damp when you can have this?" he made a vague sweeping motion with his hand.

Hermione looked at him, slightly irritated, but turned back to her parents. "I'll make sure to have your house back in form before you get back."

"We'd appreciate that, but you really don't have to go through that much trouble," Jean said kindly.

"Trust me, Mum, you really don't want to see what they did."

"Well, our home is always your home," she smiled at her daughter. "We have a guest room, if you want to stay, Dear."

"I might do that, but I'm tired. I think I'm going to go back to the hotel for tonight."

Jean and David simultaneously shot looks at Sirius, then at each other.

"How long did you say you've been seeing each other?" Jean asked slowly. "You've only been back from the dead for a few weeks, right?"

"Separate rooms," Hermione rolled her eyes.

"What ever happened to Ron? You always talked so highly of him."

Sirius sighed and started rolling his eyes, but a sharp nudge from Hermione stopped him.

"He and I realized we're much better friends than boyfriend and girlfriend," Hermione replied.

"Immature prat," Sirius breathed, earning him another nudge.

"We're going to go back," Hermione suddenly sprung up. "Goodnight, Mum, Dad," she hugged each one in turn. "I'll call tomorrow when you're back from work."

She was already out of the room before Sirius was fully standing. He awkwardly shook hands with her parents and hurried after her.

"I'm going to Apparate back," Hermione drew her arms around herself as he reached the bike.

"Why?" he asked in surprise.

"I need a minute by myself."

"Okay, but you'll probably need to walk," he nodded towards an old couple sitting on their porch across the street, looking at them.

"Fine," she huffed, climbing on behind him. As much as he wanted to talk to her he decided to wait until they were back at the hotel, in private. They Apparated directly back to their hotel room from the parking garage, neither in the mood to pretend to be Muggles another moment.

"What was that?" Hermione rounded on him.

"What was what?" he returned, thrown back by her quick hostility.

"Let me think," she placed her hand on her hips. "It might be the part where you just sat back and didn't say anything while my parents were grilling me, or it might be the part where you were flirting with the waitress, or..."

"Are you determined to have an argument, or will there be any defending myself?" he replied, staring at her.

She crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly.

He sighed. "I'm sorry. I should have been more supportive. I'm new to this meeting the parents thing. And as for flirting with the waitress, it got us a private table, didn't it? I'm not going to apologize for knowing how to get what I want, even if it takes a little flirting to get it."

Her jaw hardened. "Is that what I am? Just another thing you want? Another conquest?"

He shook his head in disbelief. "What would make you think that was all you meant to me?"

She remained silent, eyes furious, arms still crossed. "There's no other way to get what you want? You have to flirt with other women?"

"I'm not going to argue with you, no matter how determined you are to have a fight," he crossed his arms in a mirror image of her.

"Fine," she muttered. "I'm going to bed." She pushed past him and went into her room, slamming the door.

Sirius stared after her, wondering what in the world he had done to make her so upset.


At two in the morning Hermione was still lying in bed, awake but eyes closed in a futile attempt to fight back the constant chatter in her head. Sirius had been right, she had been looking to fight. Over something, anything, that would make her feelings justified. Every time she thought of Sirius leaning on the hostess' podium, flashing his perfect smile, she still felt the jolt of jealousy course quickly through her body.

She hated the feeling. Jealousy meant she was feeling much more for Sirius than she was willing to admit to herself. She didn't want to be too attached to Sirius too quickly. She had just finished fighting the war, she had just found her freedom, she didn't want to feel so committed to anything but herself for a while.

But defending her relationship with Sirius to her parents had made her realize how deep her feelings were starting to get. Sirius was not a 'fun while it lasts' relationship, like she had fully expected him to be. He had made an effort to impress her parents, something she was fully not expecting of him. Perhaps her was starting to develop the same feelings as she was.

This was wrong. She wasn't supposed to be falling for Sirius. She wasn't supposed to love him.

Her eyes opened in shock as the word passed through her mind. But she couldn't deny it to herself. She was starting to really fall for Sirius. No matter how many times she told herself that he wasn't the type to fall in love, and that since she expected nothing from him she shouldn't allow herself to develop feelings for him, she had gone against her own advice and allowed herself to be vulnerable. She shouldn't be shocked she was developing that feeling for him, but there was so much potential to be hurt and she wasn't sure how much more stress she could take in her life at the moment.

Finally admitting to herself that she wasn't going to be able to sleep with her mind so conflicted she slipped out of bed. As quietly as possible she tiptoed across the common room and opened the door to Sirius' room. He had left his window open, and the curtains were flapping gently in the breeze coming from the ocean. Moonlight streamed in through the window, gently illuminating the sleeping figure. He was sprawled out on the bed, wearing nothing but his boxers, hair haphazardly strewn across his pillow. His chest rose and fell rhythmically as he slumbered peacefully.

She stepped silently into the room and shut the door behind her. She watched him sleep for a few minutes before taking a deep breath and walking over to the bed. Slowly, gently, she climbed into bed next to him. She snuggled up next to him, managing to not wake him up. He turned onto his side, wrapping an arm around her, and slept on. Moments later she fell asleep in his arms.