A/N: I wrote a completely different chapter for this, but decided that it seemed too much like filler and cut straight back to England with Harry and Ron. Hope no one minds.
Only one quote this time. From House.
As always, enjoy and please review.
Hermione and Sirius decided to return back to Grimmauld Place the day before she was supposed to meet up with Harry and Ron, just to give them some time to recover from the journey before they had to deal with their friends. She had thought that packing in the morning would be her usual, stress-inducing affair, but it was hard for her to be stressed about it with Sirius looking over her shoulder and casually commentating on how much he liked her knickers.
"Why haven't I seen this pair?" he asked in poorly-faked anger as he held up a particularly tiny pair made up of red lace.
"You did," she blushed, grabbing them and shoving them into the beaded bag. "Two nights ago, for about three seconds before they were on the floor."
"Was that the same night you wore these?" he asked, holding up a pair of strappy stilettos. "Because I distinctly remember those staying on..."
"Yes," she blushed more furiously. "Just because you can't appreciate a nice pair of undergarments..."
"I appreciate what is underneath them even more," he murmured, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her neck. "You know, we have half an hour until check-out. Want to see if we can make it?"
"Later," she muttered, pushing him out the door so she could change clothes. She put on a pair of cute new jeans she had spotted the day before, a t-shirt, and her leather jacket. She reached for her sneakers, but caught sight of the stilettos. Normally she would think that wearing anything but sneakers or boots on a motorcycle would be an idiotic idea, but there was a difference with Sirius' magical motorbike. It had all sorts of anti-crashing charms and spells on it to keep her from having to put her feet down. Smiling she slipped her feet into the stilettos, stored her sneakers in her bag, and walked into the common room to meet up with Sirius.
"Good Merlin, 'Mione," he muttered, catching sight of the shoes. "How do you expect me to drive knowing you're wearing those behind me?"
She shrugged innocently as she opened the door. They checked out of the hotel quickly, then walked to the valet stand. Again the valet jumped off the bike like it burned him, and Sirius helped Hermione on. She quickly pulled herself as close to him as possible. He took his time riding through the city, then out through the suburbs to the countryside. He created another unauthorized portkey ("I have twelve years worth of 'time served' to make up for") and after another very long and very uncomfortable ride they were riding through the English countryside.
The rode up the dilapidated looking street and came to a stop between eleven and thirteen Grimmauld place. They waited for a couple kids to disappear around the corner, then they quickly pushed the bike onto the small lawn of Sirius' house. Before they could even climb off the bike the front door flew open.
"There you two are!" Harry shouted, cross-armed in the door frame.
"What do you mean 'there you two are'? Last I checked this was my house," Sirius smirked.
"We thought we'd drop in on Hermione a couple days early, and we get here and the house is empty. We decided to just stick around until she showed up."
"Good to see you again, Harry. Did you enjoy C... er, your vacation?" Sirius gave his Godson a hug.
He nodded vigorously. "Sun, sand, and topless beaches. I enjoyed the view. And taking a break was kind of nice, too."
Sirius laughed loudly, and Hermione, rolling her eyes, pushed past them. She ran her beaded bag up to the room she shared with Ginny so many times before, then made her way back to the library. Sirius was sitting across from Harry and Ron, having poured generous measures of firewhiskey for the lot of them. She sat next to Sirius, making sure to leave some room between them, but he didn't think before placing an arm around her. He tried to cover by moving it quickly to the back of the couch, but Harry's raised eyebrow.
"How's your Mum, Ron?" Hermione asked a little too loudly.
"She's good," Ron smiled. "Harry showed up a week ago. He got sick of eating out."
"Your Mum makes good food," Harry shrugged. "Don't tell me you aren't happy that I showed up. You've been hounding me for advice ever since I got there."
"Advice? On what?" Hermione looked excitedly at Ron.
"I... er... well..." Ron stammered.
"He asked out a Muggle girl from the village," Harry tattled.
"You did? Good for you," Hermione smiled. "How did you meet her? Is she nice? When is your date?"
"Maybe we could limit this to one question at a time?" Ron smiled. "Harry wanted to go get one of those, what do you call them? DC players..."
"CD players," Harry corrected.
"Yeah, that's it. He said he wished he had one while on the beach and we went out to buy one. We went to the Muggle store..."
"It took us about four hours to get to the CD players. Ron was asking what everything does and how it does it, he'd make his dad proud."
"That stuff is so cool!" Ron smiled. "Anyways we finally get to the CD players and she comes over to help us and when she was done I asked her if she wanted to go get dinner some time."
"Verbal vomit, more like," Harry smiled. "She was walking us to the front to check us out and Ron, who hadn't said two words, shouts 'Youwannagooutwithme?' pretty loudly."
"It worked, didn't it?" Ron blushed.
Hermione laughed. "The undeniable Weasley charm."
"So he's been following me around asking me about all things Muggle so he doesn't sound like a bumbling idiot Saturday night," Harry concluded the story.
"Oh, Ron," she said, sounding kind. "Just be yourself, that's what girls like."
"Enough about us," Ron blushed again. "Where have you two been away at?"
"Have fun keeping each other company?" Harry threw in
"How did you know we were somewhere together?" she asked in shock.
"You came back on the same bike," Ron pointed out as if it were obvious.
"Oh. Sirius took me to Australia so I could go reverse the spell on my parents," she threw it out as casually as she could.
"And they slept together," Harry said, matter of factly.
Hermione's jaw dropped. She shot a look at Sirius, who was looking as shocked as she was. As shocked as they looked, niether had anything on the look of horror across Ron's face.
"What would make you think that?" Sirius asked loudly.
"The eyes can mislead, the smile can lie, but the shoes always tell the truth,"Harry smirked.
All the eyes in the room immediately went to Hermione's footwear.
"You rode a motorbike all the way from Australia in those sexy little things? Either your sneakers were wrecked somewhere, or you're doing it because someone likes them. And since you didn't know Ron and I were going to be here, I can only assume that you were wearing them to impress Sirius. And then earlier Sirius put his arm around you, which is something he wouldn't do unless there was something there. So I guessed based on the evidence, and by your reactions I'm guessing I was right."
"Well, we talked about it..." Hermione muttered.
Harry held a hand up to keep her quiet. "Listen, I don't care. Whatever this is, I trust both of you to make your own decisions. If this is a friends with benefits situation, have fun. If you're dating, that's great, just remember I'll come after you if you hurt her," he pointed at Sirius. Then he turned back to Hermione, "You're old enough to know what you want, and Merlin knows you're mature enough to figure out what's right for you. Just, take it slow. I don't want to have to feel like I have to choose between one of my best mates and my Godfather, alright?"
"Thanks, Harry," she smiled, but then she turned toward Ron, who was still looking as if Snape had just told him 'Good work'.
"If it makes you happy," Ron murmured, but it looked as if he had much more to say.
"Well, that's that, then," Sirius smiled, replacing the arm firmly around Hermione's shoulders and pulling her towards him. Ron winced, but Sirius didn't notice. Hermione felt her stomach drop, but she turned her attention back to Harry's story of his vacation, vowing to save it until she and Ron could speak privately.
