Author's Note: I know that in the book, when Hermione is tortured, Bellatrix uses Crucio, but just pretend that she also engraved the word, "Mudblood" into her skin too, okay? Thanks!

Previous Chapter

"What the-?" Hermione exclaimed, and then the one she just mended broke again. She held the thin cloth over her chest with both hands, and looked furiously up. James and Sirius were laughing very hard, and judging by the way Sirius had his wand out pointing at her, he was the one who kept on breaking them. She quickly sealed her shirt back out, and shouted, "Oppungo!"

The same flock of golden birds appeared out of nowhere as they flew straight at Sirius, pecking at his skin.

"Hey!" he yelped, trying to swat them away. Hermione laughed as she turned to leave.

"Bet I can beat you idiots to the common room!" she shouted as she raced out.

Hermione raced into the common room- and she was delighted to see that she was alone; she had beat Sirius! Hermione, exhausted, flopped down on the couch. Or, what she thought was the couch. It felt more like a pair of legs- invisible legs.

"Merlin's pants!" she shrieked, looking down. There was great laughter coming from nowhere. Hermione rolled her eyes; she should have known. Hermione grabbed in the air. Finally, Hermione felt cloth in her fist, and she yanked. Sirius had covered himself in the cloak, and Hermione found herself sitting in his lap. She flushed as she slid off him and onto the floor.

"You didn't have to get off," Sirius complained, pouting. Hermione rolled her eyes again.

"Where's James?" she asked, standing up.

"No idea," he said, but with a mischievous grin. Hermione glanced around her suspiciously. Once again, she didn't see anything. She looked down to make sure her tank top was still in place, and it was.

"BOO!" a voice cried again. This time, Hermione was prepared, and she aimed a swift kick behind her. Hermione knew she found her mark when she heard James cry out and fall on the ground. When Hermione turned, he was on the ground, clutching his shin. Sirius was roaring with laughter.

"Dammit, Herman!" James said, while cursing under his breath.

"I don't like it when people sneak behind me," Hermione said sweetly. "Especially in dark corridors."

"Speaking of which, how did you manage to work the map? And I thought you said you were a half-blood?" Sirius asked.

"I know everything. Isn't that obvious?" Hermione said. "And what does it matter what blood I have?"

"It doesn't," Sirius said quickly. "You just... lied, Hermione," Sirius said, placing a hand over his heart and pretended to look offended.

"I've spoken with your relatives, and I needed to make sure they haven't rubbed off on you," Hermione said coolly.

"I'm nothing like them," Sirius snapped. Hermione took a step back, raising her hands.

"Okay," she said. "Sorry."

"It's fine. I just-" Sirius began.

"- Hate them? Believe me, I know," Hermione said.

"How?" he asked.

"Bellatrix's your cousin, right?" Hermione asked quietly. Sirius looked at her for a moment, face blank, then nodded.

"Then I know," she said.

"You just know everything," he muttered, smiling a bit.

"How many times do we have to go over this? Of course I know everything," she chided.

Sirius shook his head. "One day..."

"-You will find out. I will probably tell you, but I don't feel like it today," she said happily. Sirius groaned.

"I don't like waiting!" he moaned.

"I know you don't."

"You witch!"

"Why, thank you."

"Hmph."

James looked at them both, they he strode over to Sirius and clapped him on the back.

"Better leave you two alone to, ah, work things out," he said loudly. Before he went upstairs, he winked at Hermione. It was rather hard to roll her eyes, for she was blushing.

"So," Sirius said, lounging back on the couch.

"What, Sirius?" Hermione asked in a tired voice.

"Er... what were you saying about muggle movies the other night?"

Hermione's eyes lit up. "Oh, you just wait... They're fantastic! They're just like the movies you wizards make, except that they have a better story line."

"I doubt it!" Sirius said loudly. Hermione scoffed.

"Why do you think that wizards are far better than muggles all the time?"

"I didn't mean that! I meant, some of the things they make are so stupid! What the hell is ekcletritcity?"

"Electricity, Sirius, and muggles don't have magic, in case you haven't noticed. They can't pick a stick off of the ground and wave it. They have to use something."

"Fine. But magic's better."

"Obviously!"

There was silence for a moment, until Hermione broke it by talking, just to make it less awkward.

"So, there's James Bond and Star Wars. I can bring you some James Bond movies, but Star Wars will have to wait," Hermione said. Sirius didn't know that Star Wars didn't come out until that May.

"Why not?" Sirius asked.

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Because it's not coming out until May!"

"But you said you already watched it!"

"I did!"

"But... how?"

"I know everything, remember?"

"That's getting really annoying," Sirius huffed. "Why won't you tell me how you know all of this?"

"Because the truth is so unreal it's almost a lie."

"That's so confusing!"

"Not really. Just use your brain."

"I am!"

"So you are."

Silence. Hermione had no idea that it would be this silent.

"So... what's your favorite song?" Hermione asked.

"I dunno," he said.

"There's got to be one song you like," Hermione pushed.

"Not really. I don't listen to music, much."

"Oh."

"What about you?"

"Well, I have a lot. But you don't know any of them," Hermione said.

"I know some muggle songs," Sirius said, looking offended.

"No, there's no way that you know them," Hermione said.

"Why?"

"They haven't been written yet."

"Wait- what?"

Hermione laughed; she couldn't believe how dim he could be. Hermione got up from her armchair and sat next to Sirius on the couch.

"I have another question that I couldn't get out of my head," Sirius said with an amused tone. Hermione groaned.

"One more. But I swear, this is the last question I'm answering before I decide to tell you myself."

"Fine. I was going to ask- what's your birthday? I need to know when to get you a present."

"Aw, how sweet. You don't have to," she said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "My birthday already passed."

"When?"

"September 19th."

"What year?" Sirius asked.

"What year do you think I was born in?" Hermione shot back, raising her eyebrows.

"1970? Or 1969? I hope not, it'll be weird if you're older than me," Sirius said with a fake-shudder.

"Why?" Hermione asked, not answering his question.

"When we- it just is!"

"When we what?"

"Er-"

They were interrupted by the portrait swinging open.

"Padfoot, Pomfrey said I can go out now-" Remus said, walking into the common room. Remus stopped short when he saw Hermione, who flinched. Remus took a deep breath.

"It's okay, Hermione. I'm okay again. I'm sorry... I'm sorry I did that," he said sheepishly, looking down at the floor.

"It's alright, Remus. I forgive you. It was a shock, though."

"I'm sorry-"

"You do know that I couldn't breath, right?"

"I said I'm sorry-"

"I'm just joking," Hermione laughed. Hermione glanced sideways at Sirius as Remus made his way up the stairs.

"What?" she asked, smiling gently. Sirius' face was stony.

"Nothing," he grumbled.

"You're all grumpy."

"Not!"

"Yeah, you are. If you're going to be all quiet and sulky, then I'm going to bed."

Hermione got up to climb up the stairs to her dormitory.

"What, no kiss?" Sirius called after her. Hermione looked over her shoulder. She walked back to him and quickly pecked him on the cheek before she ran off in he other direction.

"Hey! Only the cheek?" Sirius yelled, disappointment showing in his voice.

"You can wait, lover boy!" Hermione retorted.

Next Morning in Class

"Alden," Snape greeted Hermione as she took her seat in Potions.

"Snape," she said pleasantly. He nodded at the directions on the board, and they got to work right away. As usual, they were the first to be done with their potion, and Hermione dropped the vial off at Professor Slughorn's desk, as usual.

"Hey," Sirius called over from his desk. "Herman! Come and join me; I'm lonely. James had decided to be sick."

"Decided?" Hermione muttered, rolling her eyes.

"C'mon! Ditch greasy-haired."

"Just because I can stand you now, it doesn't mean that I like the way you treat people."

"I don't need your help," Snape suddenly snapped. He had sounded so much like her future professor (No wonder) that she jumped.

"I was making a general statement," she said calmly. Usually, Snape was decent enough towards her, but he seemed furious.

"I see that, like every other girl in the world, you have fallen for Black," he spat. Hermione blinked.

"We're friends-" Hermione started.

"Hey!" Sirius interrupted. Hermione turned to him.

"No- that's not what I meant-" she said quickly, blushing.

"So you are dating?" Snape said harshly.

"Why is it any of your business?" Hermione half-screeched. Luckily, it was noisy enough that nobody noticed them.

"I thought you were actually a intelligent person," Snape said coldly. Hermione huffed and slung her bag over her shoulder.

"My gods, Snape! No wonder Lily hates you!" Hermione half-shrieked, as she walked over to Sirius' table and sat down next to him. Sirius looked surprised, but pleased, as he turned to stick his tongue out at Snape like a child. With the slight turn of her head, she could see that Snape was boiling with anger, but he had this terrible sadness in his eyes. Hermione almost felt bad for him, but then she realized that her comment might have been the reason why Snape hated her so much as a Professor. It's weird; none of the teachers acted strange around her when Hermione was in her time.

"So," Sirius began.

"Why do you always begin with, 'So'?" Hermione asked.

Sirius shrugged. "It's a habit."

"Quidditch game tomorrow, huh?" Hermione said. She was never the one for Quidditch, but she always went down to watch Harry and Ron play, so she had learned to put up with it.

"Yep. Gryffindors versus Slytherin."

"You better beat them, or I'll never forgive you."

"Hey! Why don't you get up there yourself and try hitting that bludger around! And besides, we always win."

"I know."

"How do you know? You've never been to a game in your life!"

"I've been to the Quidditch World Cup," Hermione said, smiling slightly. Sirius' eyes widened.

"Really? Wow! My parents don't exactly like me, so I could never go."

"But really, I've been to more Quidditch games."

"But not the Hogwart's Quidditch games."

Hermione stopped talking, knowing that another word would give herself away.

"So... Are you doing anything for Hogsmeade?" he asked lightly.

"Not really. Why?" Hermione asked, knowing the answer.

"Wanna go with me?" he said in a slightly sheepish way that was actually really cute. Hermione smiled a bit.

"Fine. But one toe out of line and you'll find yourself in the hospital wing."

"Great!" Sirius exclaimed so loudly that various people looked up. Hermione wished that they didn't for the next moment, Sirius had slung his arm over her shoulders.

And to many people's surprise, Hermione didn't push him away.

"I can't believe it! I thought you hated Black!" Lily exclaimed the second they stepped out of Potions.

"I did," Hermione said. "He's better, now."

"Or maybe you just turned stupid."

"Hey!"

"Kidding."

"So, Hermione, it's true?" Cassandra asked, joining them. "You're going out with Sirius Black?"

Hermione nodded her head. "Where did you hear that?"

"It's all around school!"

"It's been five minutes since I said yes! How is that even possible?"

"Word gets around at Hogwarts."

"Yeah, no kidding," Hermione muttered.

The three of them were walking through a corridor with a reasonably large amount of people. As soon as Hermione came into view, the whole place got quieter. There was a lot of pointing and whispering; many girls were glaring at her in jealousy.

"Honestly," Hermione said, "Don't these people have better things to talk about?"

"No," Cassandra and Lily said at the same time, which made them giggle.

"But really. This is really what everybody at Hogwarts talks about all day," Cassandra said. Hermione nodded, silent, and trying to ignore everyone staring at her.

"Do they do this every time Sirius asks a girl out?" Hermione muttered.

"No," Lily said. "They just think it's strange that you're the first girl he's gone out with this year."

"Oh," Hermione said. "Why does that make it any different?"

"They're shocked to see that, for once, Black actually cares about a girl," Cassandra said. Hermione was about to say something, until some very loud whispers commenced.

"Did you hear-?"

"-Second one in two weeks-"

"-Oh, my god-"

"-WHAT a slut-"

Hermione turned at the sound of this voice, face red. In her time, she was called the exact opposite. Hermione glared at a pair of rather ugly Slytherin girls, who snickered when she turned around.

"What was that?" Hermione snapped. The one on the right, with false orange hair, raised her hands in mock defense.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said in a fake voice. "Look's like it's someone's time of the month."

"Looks like you can't crawl into bed with Black this week, huh?" the other said. There was laughter coming from the entire corridor, and Hermione snapped. She yanked her wand out, and gave it an angry slash in the air, knocking the two girls out with a very complicated hex. Hermione huffed in triumph as the collapsed on the ground, for she knew they wouldn't wake for two days.

"Let's go," Hermione mumbled to Lily and Cassandra, face still red. Cassandra and Lily looked at her amazement, while the corridor was now silent.

"Sirius, if you don't beat Slytherin this weekend, I don't think I'll be able to take it!" she exclaimed as she fell down on the couch next to him in the common room. Sirius raised his eyebrows, but didn't look surprised.

"I hear that two Slytherins are in the hospital wing because of you. Good job. But how did you manage it?" he asked in a amused voice. Hermione turned red.

"How do you guys get the word around so quickly?" Hermione huffed.

"I think the ghosts do a lot of it," Sirius responded.

"I guess. Anyways, they called me- me- they called me a nasty word, and I knocked them out."

"Awesome. What hex?"

"Want me to demonstrate?"

"No, put that away! My god, sometime I think that every wizard should have a sword!"

"A- what?"

"A sword!"

"But- Why?" Hermione asked, flabbergasted.

"Every wizard should have a sword, not these stupid drumsticks, forget about them-" Sirius said rather angrily, glaring at the stick in his hand. Hermione laughed.

"You are so random," she muttered.

"So I am," he retorted.

Silence.

"Do you have a favorite book?" Hermione asked. Sirius snorted.

"Books? Please. Try Quidditch for a past-time."

"I'm horrid at Quidditch."

"I can believe that."

"Hey!"

"Kidding."

"Have you every picked up a book willingly?"

"Er... no," Sirius answered. "Why, what's your favorite book?"

"Well, it's more like favorite books."

"You've read more than one book? I could never do that."

"I've read half of the library, at least."

"Can we stop talking about this? It's giving me a headache."

"Fine. What do you want to talk about?"

"I dunno."

"What's that?" Sirius asked, glancing at the very faint word on her arm. Hermione looked down; the scar was so faint that she was surprised that Sirius saw it. Even Hermione had forgotten about it.

"Nothing," she muttered, and trying to cover up her scar with her sleeve. Sirius grabbed her forearm and tugged the sleeve out of the way. Hermione looked away as Sirius tried to make the word out.

"Muck- Mu-" He looked up, face pale. "Mudblood?" he whispered. Hermione nodded.

"How- who-" he choked.

"A few months ago, where I came from, they hated muggle-borns at the time. They would try to seek them out, and they found me. I was brought to a place, where they-" Hermione choked, "-they tortured me for information."

Sirius was silent, but his face had gone white as a sheet of muggle paper. He was rubbing his thumb gently over the scar.

"Can I ask who it was?" he murmured.

"No," Hermione mumbled. "But you know her."

Sirius' head shot up. "Who?" he said in a slightly demanding voice.

"Can't say. She didn't do it yet."

"Wait- what?"

"Nothing," Hermione said, standing up.

"Get some sleep, Sirius. Big Quidditch match tomorrow. If you lose, I will knock you out with my hex."

"Hey! But- Wait!" he cried after her, but Hermione had already made her way up the stairs to the dormitory.

Ugh. I don't really like this chapter, apart from the Starkid reference. I had writer's block, and I was super busy. I'm so sorry it took so long to write! For all of those who don't know what Starkid is, search A Very Potter Musical, then A Very Potter Sequel, then a A Very Potter Senior Year. They're so hilarious, and I would definitily recommend them! You'll then get all of my little jokes. :)

-GinnyBond321