Hey guys, sorry for the wait, i hope you like :)

"Are you ready to go?" I'm about to have a fit! What has happened to knocking? To common courtesy and socially acceptable! He stands by my fireplace, taking in my current state of dress and then shielding his eyes.

Jumping behind the sofa and clasping the towel tighter around my body, I send him my best glare, "Do I look ready?"

"We said ten thirty!"

He looks back up and I flick my hand to get him to turn away, after he has moved to face away from me, I make a run for my bedroom and scream back down the corridor to him, "And it's ten to ten! Do you not have a clock in your home?"

I can hear Sirius' exaggerated sigh from his place in my living room, "But I like to be spontaneous!" The TV moans to life and I realise that he hasn't come around early just to be his usual, annoying self, no... He has invaded my home to commandeer my TV and watch... What is that? It sounds like some sort of cooking programme!

"People really need to stop bouts of spontaneity that put me in horrifyingly awful situations." I mutter; thinking back on my hideously awful few weeks. Suddenly, I find myself hoping that Malfoy likes being embarrassed, otherwise our relationship is certainly not going to work out (and then the thought of Draco Malfoy flushed red in embarrassment - with some sort of dessert falling through his hair and onto his ridiculously expensive dress shirt, in a ridiculously expensive restaurant to boot - just makes me crack up!)

He doesn't reply, instead I can just here directions to some amazing sounding salmon dish radiating around my bedroom. My stomach growls and I find myself wishing I had some sort of gourmet dish sitting in front of me, even though it is still only ten to ten in the morning. Never too early for a good steak is it - or maybe a full on roast, I could do with that!

I pull my thoughts and stomach back into my food-empty reality and pull of a pretty navy dress with a white collared neck line, and a pair of black heels. After applying an assortment of facial products - courtesy of Ginny Weasley... I still have her written directions on how to use each particular cosmetic product taped to the inside of a drawer - and pulling my manageably straight hair (also courtesy of Ginny and a blue potion in a bottle) into a pony tail, I find a knee length black jacket with a belted waist and walk out into the corridor.

"I'm ready to go."I tell him, walking out into the living room and seeing him switch off the TV when he thinks I might catch a glimpse of the programme, "I expect a three course meal due to your unhelpful entry this morning, Sirius." I joke, referring to his new found love of famous chefs and posh looking salmon fillets.

"Don't laugh at me!" He jumps over the back of the sofa and faces me down. "I now know how to make a salmon mousse! What can you make? Oh what is that... You can't cook?"

"Shut it." I push past him, grabbing a pot of green powder and holding it out for him. He takes and handful and speaks loud and clear as he states where we would like to go.

"Diagon Ally," Ever since Harry's little issue, we have all made extra certain that we speak extra clearly and super carefully, just in case.

Sirius disappears, engulfed by the flames, and I let the fire calm down before I grab my own handful and leave my comfy living room for the black tables and stools of the Leaky Cauldron.

"Good Morning, Tom." I say, marching through the crowd of brightly dressed Witches and Wizards, it is a long stretch from the awful, deserted times of Voldermort.

"Good Morning, Miss Granger, Sirius" He smiles a crooked smile at me and then inclines his head to acknowledge Sirius; a tall, clean shaven, fetching young man walks out of the back room and steps up to the bar. "My nephew, Alex." Tom motions to the man, and Alex gives me a very - don't judge me - sexy smile (though it's nothing compared to Draco's smirk... I can't believe I just had a positive thought about that dreadful smirk!) "Tone it down Alex, Miss Granger is a respectable young lady, doesn't need the likes of you doing... That." Tom gestures to the face of his nephew and then he turns to me and laugh together, "Plus, she's a bit scary."

"Thanks Tom." I say, rolling my eyes. "Nice to have you defending my honour in such a fabulous way," Sirius grabs onto my arm after bidding his farewells to Tom and his nephew, "We have to go, nice to meet you Alex."

Sirius and I walk together through the Leaky Cauldron and out the dusty, fading doors and into Muggle London. "What are you looking for?"

"Something for a baby and something for her too, I guess." Sirius shrugs, "I don't really know what I am looking for, I just don't understand why women have to be so stroppy all the time. I said I would help, but she hasn't let me see her; today is the first day, so hot the hell should I know what she needs? How the hell am I supposed to prove my worth when I can't support her because she won't see me?"

I look at him, wrapping a hand around his waist and letting him wrap an arm around his shoulders. "I've always fancied myself a compelling speaker, I could try and twist her arm, per say, or... I have always wanted to try my hand at being a lawyer. If it comes to it I would be happy to plead your case to a court."

Sirius laughs, pulling me closer and pressing his lips into my hairline, "See, you are not a stroppy female, why couldn't I have knocked up someone like you?"

"I am a rare, special type of female. I'm only stroppy in my head. Believe me that sometimes I want to scream bloody murder - especially at you and Ron - but I keep it inside." I smile up at him, his eyes have turned back into their dancing, happy grey, instead of the sad, cloudy grey they were two minutes ago. "Plus, she's allowed to be stroppy...she's having your baby!" I laugh and dodge out of the way before he can pinch me on my arm.

"Bit rude, Darling." he says after he has stopped behaving like a child and trying to stand on my foot, "Oh, this shop looks cool."

He has pulled me to a stop outside Monsoon."If you are looking for a teddy bear, than this is not really the place." I pull on his arm, forcing him to look at me when I realise that it is not the shop that he is admiring. "And she is not the right girl!"

"I know," Sirius hangs his head, "But I just haven't had-"

"La La La... I do not want to know anything about your sex life Sirius!" I cut him off, talking over him and probably turning a bright red at the same time.

Sirius laughs, shaking his head and wrapping an arm around my shoulder again, "Such a little prude."

"I'm not a prude, I would just rather not find out about the ins and outs of your intimate relationships," I tell him, pulling him along the road and trying to find another shop without the allure of a half dressed shop assistant. "Show a bit of restraint though, especially while you are out and about with me!"

I pull him into a boutique style shop with mannequins sporting baby bumps in the windows and start digging through the racks. "Oh, when are you due?" A shop assistant points down to my stomach; I know that I haven't been counting the calories lately, but RUDE!

"I'm shopping for a friend actually." I spit out.

Sirius walks past, holding a armful of clothes and teddies and leans down to whisper in my ear, "Oh, while you might be free from stroppiness, I see you are not exempt from bitchiness, are you?" by his next words, he isn't really whispering anymore - in fact, it's more of a loud talking, as if he doesn't mind if the whole shop knows our business. "I might have to rethink my decision of having someone like you as the mother of my children." I can tell he is joking, he's laughing with his eyes and nudging me with a hip, but as I turn to look out of the window I realise that not everyone can see the funny, sarcastic side.

From my position by the middle rack, I can see clearly out of the wide front window, and what I see makes me want to throw up my breakfast. I can see a blond man staring at me. He couldn't possibly be staring at anyone else, he's Draco Malfoy, the shop is deserted and the door is wide open. There is nothing to suggest that he didn't hear Sirius, and the look of pure hate on his face makes me feel sick. I drop the vest in my hands and stare at him, trying to plead with my eyes without actually moving.

Sirius, hearing the clatter of fallen items, turns around, wraps an arm around my shoulders, pulls me closer to him and asks, "What's wrong darling?" Malfoy turns away, kicking the pavement and marching off down the street away from us.

I push Sirius away from me, running out of the shop and trying to find him on the packed street. There is not tell tale sign of blond hair, no snarling angry man. Just several hundred strangers milling around.

"What happened?" Sirius asks as I walk back into the shop.

It has taken me a good five minutes to make my decision over what my next course of action should be. Friends come first; no matter what. I promised to be there for Sirius and (even though him and his stupid comments may have just lost me Draco Malfoy) I will not desert him, he is having a hard enough time now anyway. And after this is all over, I will go and find Draco Malfoy and set him straight - and then curse him into next year for thinking that I would ever be the kind of girl that could do that to someone.

I put it all behind me, and smile at Sirius when I walk into the shop. I'm going to enjoy myself shopping for Sirius' new child. "Oh, I like that one." I tell him, pointing at the teddy bear that he is holding in his hands. Then I realise that he has a basket at his feet.

"Ok," He says, dropping the teddy into the already overflowing basket and moving onto the next row of cuddly toys.

I laugh, crouching down and riffling through the basket, "You might as well just buy her the whole shop!" I pull out one of every single style of baby grow in the shop.

"Do you think she'd like that?"

"No!" I tell him, shaking my head and moving to replace half of the stuff back onto their respective shelves. "Too much stuff seems like you are trying too hard, like this is not you."

He nods, looking at me. "Ok." we sit together and sort out the items that we are going to buy and the items that will be left in the shop for the rest of the world to purchase.

Finally, we walk out of the shop with two bags; inside are a teddy and a few choice items of clothes. All in all, I think that we did well.

"So, do you want to tell me why Draco Malfoy ran off, ready to murder someone, when he assumed that what I said meant that you were having my child?" Sirius takes the other bag from my hand and wraps a warm arm around my shoulders, holding me and trying to convince me to speak.

I shake my head, not really wanting to talk about it, "It doesn't matter."

"I think the way you looked like someone had died, means that it really does matter." He says calmly, as we walk into the Leaky Cauldron and take a seat at a table. Alex makes his way over and takes our orders, food is soon on the table in front of me and I start to dig in. Stuffing my face to try and rid myself of the pain I feel and replace it with a sense of satisfaction at being able to eat the Leaky Cauldron out of food.

"It doesn't matter," I tell him between spoonfuls, not looking up from my plate, "Because I am going to set him straight."

Sirius taps on the table in front of me until I look up and meet his eyes, "Why would he care anyway?"

"That, Mr. Black, you will find out when I decide if I should tell you."

"You should go and sort it out," Sirius tells me, "Better not to let him stew too long, he looks like the kind of guy who might be a little rash about some things."

"Are you going to be alright going to see the real mother of your child alone?"

"Yeah," He tells me, throwing enough galleons to cover the food on to the table, and then leading me over to the floo.

"Thanks," I say before I mumble the name of his house, only to be thrown back out onto the floor of the Leaky Cauldron. Either he is not home, or he became a lot more picky with who he lets into his house.

I change the name of my destination to the offices and call into the floo before throwing down a handful of powder.

I step through on to the tiles.

"Seriously, you look like hell." Pansy looks at me, she is standing in the lobby, waiting in a queue for the outgoing floo fireplaces. "Not as bad as Draco though... What did you do?"

"Shut up!" I tell her, she hits me on the arm slightly and then waves me away with her hands, pointing to the lifts and silently telling me to hurry the fuck up.

I step off the lifts on the floor that will take me to Draco's office.

And then I see him. At the same time, it seems, that he sees me, because he suddenly starts to walk away from me, I run after him as fast as my heels will carry me and grab hold of his arm and pull him back round. I'm not stupid, if he wanted to go he would have been able to overpower me, but he didn't. He looks at me with heavily lidded eyes, dark rims staring down at me, his eyes almost black. "Give it up, Granger. I saw you, you are pregnant with another man's child, give it a rest and stop pretending!"

"I know you don't like me right now, but you need to listen to me." I tell him, I'm trying to keep him from running away.

He laughs, snarling at me, "Do I really, Granger?" He asks, his eyes flash with something that I haven't seen in a long time; hate pools in them, deep enough to drown me. "Because I don't think there is anything that you can tell me that would make me change my mind about you!"

I jerk back, away from him, and it feel like he has slapped me. "Draco–"

"No!" He yells, people from the offices have started milling around, listening to us duke this out in the corridor. Tears start dripping from my cheeks, "You have no right to cry about this! This is your entire fault."

"You got it all wrong!" I plead with him, tears dripping onto my cheeks, but he starts backing away from me. "I care about you, Draco."

"Me, or my money, Granger?" He asks and I recoil, dropping his hand and backing away from him. It hurts like he's just hit me. "You never cared before I started funnelling money in to your hands."

I swipe at my eyes, pushing tears off of my face. "I didn't know you before that." I say, my voice sounds fragile even to me. I straighten my back and stand tall. "And now I wish that I had never gotten to know you."

"Granger I-"

"What, Malfoy?" I ask, tight lipped and backing to the door. "You what? Because from here, all I can see is the selfish bastard that you used to be." I'm screaming now, not caring if the whole bloody office knows about my personal life, "The man who you saw was Sirius Black; he was joking, saying that I had very amiable traits and that he wished that he had someone like me. You had me! He didn't! He might get the chance now." I can't help it, I am on a roll and as angry as hell, "He's rich too, and maybe I'll just solicit myself for his money instead. God knows I couldn't do any worse than you, you arsehole!"

"Granger..." But I don't hear the rest, I am already out of the door with tears falling from my face and my eyes blurring over.

The stairs move under my feet and I slip a few times, my body lurching forwards, but I manage to hold myself up with the rail. I make it to the floo in one piece and throw the green powder into the grate, falling in and muttering "Grimauld Place," Between my tears. Before I'm whisked away, I see his face, his body, moving towards me.

He's sitting there when I cascade out of the grate. I look up and I see him.

"Sirius," I say, I walk closer to him. He sits on the floor, head in his hands, and when he looks up I wish I had never seen this. His eyes are rimmed in red, tears pooling in the corners. Seeing the strongest man I know crying makes me fall to the ground and collapse. I don't do anything. I lie there, heart pounding into the ground, legs curling into my chest and whimpering. All in all, I'm sure it makes a pathetic sight.

"Hermione?" Sirius is crouching over me in seconds, pulling me up from the ground and brushing my hair from my face. This small, tender action makes tears fall from my face to coat the ones that have already sodden my cheeks. "What happened?"

"He-He-He..." I trail off, gulping in air and trying to breathe. Sirius continues to push my hair back off of my face as I pull forceful lungfuls of air past my lips. "He doesn't want me, Sirius." I tell him. I think he has a pretty good idea that I am crying over his arse of a second cousin.

"Who? Hermione, who doesn't want you?" Sirius pleads with his eyes, imploring with me, trying to coax me into telling him so he doesn't just have to make the assumption.

"I tried to explain it all," I whisper, "And he screamed at me. Told me I just cared because of his money."

"What?"

I shake my head, and rest it atop Sirius' shoulder when I finally stop. "Sirius, you know I don't care about those things. I wouldn't care if he was poor. I-I-I think I'm falling for him Sirius." I swipe at my eyes, pushing away tears.

Sirius watches me, his eyes as wet as my own, "Are you talking about Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes."

He sighs, "Oh, Hermione."

I look around, the room is dark, fitting for my mood and Sirius' too I assume. "What about you?" I ask, "What happened?"

"She doesn't want me, Hermione." He says and I cry. I cry for him, I cry for me, I even cry for Draco Sodding Malfoy... And then I cry more for myself because I am so pathetic. I can't even drop this school girl fantasy even when I know that the guy I am infatuated with is an awful man.

"This is so stupid," I say, "I don't even know why I am crying about this!" He wraps an arm around my shoulders and holds me into his body. "I know he doesn't want to make an effort to understand, why would he? He's Draco Malfoy. He likes models and super models and super, super models – and he gets what he wants, he never has to fight for something. And what am I, someone who falls for a complete arse and who royally fucks up, and he doesn't even care enough to talk about it."

Sirius sighs, "You are worth thirty thousand models and more, Hermione." this makes me cry even more. "We really are something, aren't we?" He kisses the top of my head and I cry into his shoulder. I feel something wet on my forehead and I wipe it away subconsciously - it's only after a few seconds that I realise they are rare tears from the marauder's eyes.

So a bit of a downer of a chapter, i promise it will start to look up. We can't make Draco Get the girl without a little work on his part.

Please review :)