The next morning I avoided the Great Hall for breakfast, I just had no idea how I was going to deal with Sirius, so I took the cowards option and decided to just go straight to class, knowing that that would severely restrict the possible time we could interact.

First period, the Gryffindors had transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs. I was the first one there and I sat on a desk at the front, knowing there was no chance the marauders would sit anywhere near me. I was reading a chapter in my advanced transfiguration text book when the chair scraped out next to me and Lily sat down, which was strange in itself because she usually sat with Alice Prewitt, a sister Gryffindor. She handed me a blueberry muffin which I gratefully took and started to eat.

'Your not going to avoid every meal are you, because I really don't think you will be able to live off the meagre portions I will be able to bring you?' She asks me.

'No, I just needed time to work up the courage.' I tell her.

'Right, and sitting at the very front?'

'I enjoy this lesson' I tell her, which is not a complete lie, I do like the lesson.

'Hermione'

'Still working up the courage Lils'

Sirius and James as per usual didn't get to the classroom until Professor McGonagall had already started the lesson. Which meant that my plan to avoid them had successfully worked.

It later transpired that I needn't have bothered. Sirius was acting as if nothing had even happened.

When we were leaving transfiguration at the end of the lesson, James and Sirius were waiting outside. This was nothing strange, as he always tried to walk Lily to her next lesson, which of course Lily was having none of. I worked up the courage to look Sirius in the eyes and he winked at me and then walked away, which he has done a lot of times, I mean a lot, so it's not like the wink meant anything. I mean even if I thought it did for a very short amount of time, I was soon dispelled of that thought when I saw him getting very cosy with Melanie Short, a gorgeous Muggle Born Ravenclaw from our year, on the way to lunch.

'Hermione, what's wrong?' Lily asked when I slammed down on the bench for lunch.

'Nothing' I say as I start to fill my plate with as much food as I can.

'Has this got anything to do with the fact that Black seems to be forgoing a traditional lunch and dining on that Ravenclaw's tonsils over there?' She asks looking out through the doors of the Great Hall.

'No'

'Are you sure, it was just yesterday…'

'that two people that don't really like each other, that have nothing in common made a mistake, and it's not like it was a big deal I mean obviously it wasn't even memorable and it definitely can't have been any good, I mean not that anyone would have even thought for a minute that it might have meant something, because come on …' I trail off, looking around to make sure no one overheard our conversation, but we had been talking in hushed voices so we were ok.

'Hermione…'

I looked at her, and I don't know what she saw in my eyes, but she trailed off and then started talking about the spell we had been practising in transfiguration.

I don't know why I was getting upset, this was the best possible outcome. There is no way that anything can develop between me and Sirius, we are from different times, different worlds. The Sirius that I had known had spent too many years at the mercy of the dementors, serving time for a crime he had not committed, being treated as the offender when he was in mourning for his best friend. I see it now, I look at him, at him and James and I see how close they are, how close they were. No wonder the Sirius I had known always looked so desolate. When I look at the young version of him I have to keep reminding myself that the Sirius I know is dead, that it will do me no good to fall for him, to get close to him, because when I get back to my own time, he won't be there and I will have to grieve for him in silence because I won't be able to tell the others.

So for all these reasons I tell myself that it is a good thing that the kiss obviously meant nothing to him, logically I know I should be happy but I'm just not.

It is a week since I kissed Sirius and he just keeps acting like it never happened. I am okay with that, I really am.

It's after midnight and I'm sat in the common room working on an essay for history of magic about the troll war of 1216.

'Granger, has anyone ever told you there is more to life than textbooks and parchment' Sirius slurs.

He has just come through the portrait and he's drunk.

'It's homework, it needs to be done'

He walks up to me and leans over my shoulder, his breath smells of an odd mix of firewhisky and peppermint.

'That's not due till next week'

'I like to be on top of things' I tell him, caught in his gaze. He just smirks.

'Where have you been?' I know I should be trying to get away from him as quick as possible, but I don't want to.

'Why do you want to know? So you can grass on me?'

'No' my gaze drops, 'Just making conversation'

'I was on a date, I snuck bottle of Firewhisky from Hogsmede and took her up the astronomy tower'

I feel a strange feeling, like my stomach dropping, and I know that I definitely need to get away from this conversation, but for some reason I seem to want to torture myself and find myself asking who is date was with.

'Melanie Short, you know the witch from….'

'Ravenclaw, yea I know, she's very pretty.'

'Pretty? Hermione she's gorgeous, I mean I don't think I have ever seen anyone that …'

'Beautiful right? You know your right, I should probably call it a night on this essay, I have got a while to complete it' I stand and start to walk off but he grabs hold of my hand.

'For your information I wasn't going to say beautiful because there is someone who I think is more beautiful than her, more than any other girl.' he's looking straight into my eyes.

I swallow and ask him what he was going to say, he's standing so close

'Tempting, the clothes she wears, the make up, the way she does her hair, it's all very tempting'

It feels like a sucker punch to the stomach, and yet he is getting closer

'You had fun then?' I ask, he closes the remaining distance between us until he is kissing me and I am kissing back. He wraps his arms around my waist and I loop mine around his neck. The kiss feels urgent, like we both need to feel each other, it lasts for a while, I honestly don't know how long.

We separate and he tells me it was okay but she really is just all packaging before he walks away. It takes me a couple of second before I realise he had just answered my question, but I really didn't understand what he meant.