Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters. Everything belongs to JK Rowling, and I'm merely allowed to play around with them. No copyright infringement is intended.

And… Another Cartoon Quote Contest. This is becoming regular, I swear! :) Besides, you guys didn't find the AVPS quote last chapter, made by my favourite Starkid, Brian Holden! How can you guys not know them? I put up a link on my profile for those who want to watch there most famous piece: "A Very Potter Musical!"

Chapter 14

-o-O-o-

The rest of the week passed uneventfully, except for the ton of homework everyone was being assigned. As a matter of fact, things were pretty boring until around Halloween. And, if she was honest with herself, Hermione would have preferred they stayed the in same routine.

Anyway, before we got that far, we've got to talk about the boring part. After two weeks of incessant pestering for sex, Sirius had gotten the jig and finally calmed down. It came abruptly, on a Tuesday morning; Sirius came in at breakfast, yawning and grumpy, not looking as though he had slept well.

He had kissed his girlfriend good morning and poured himself a cup of coffee. The entire table had stared, but he made no attempt to woo her into submission. Nor did he do it for the rest of the day. And week. And month.

"He probably resorted to masturbating." Remus had grunted when she had asked him. The pair of them were still not on speaking terms, but at least they made no comments when the other arrived. They still talked ill of the other when their back was turned, though.

"Who knows, maybe Sirius grew up… Just like James did." Lily had theorised. All of her thoughts literally revolved around James, now, and, if she was honest with herself, Hermione would admit it was getting on her nerves. Besides, she seriously doubted his ability to grow up, seeing as even in her own timeline, he threw tantrums like a little child.

In short, Hermione was worried. Worried about her boyfriend. And although she tried to hide it from everybody, one person could still see through her mask…

-o-O-o-

"Okay, I've waited long enough, what's wrong?" Regulus asked on a frisky Thursday morning as they headed to Herbology.

She gulped. "Nothing." she lied, turning to smile at him. "Nothing at all."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that bullshit, Hermione. I know there's something wrong and I will find out what."

She gulped. She had done a fairly good job of hiding her relationship with Sirius from Regulus. The outside world and their friends was something they rarely mentioned. Hermione disliked who Regulus hung out with and he respected that, and vice versa.

Besides, it hadn't been that hard to hide her relationship with Sirius Black. After all, they were only together in the Common Room or the Library, and all of the gossipers, that is to say, all the girls, refused to talk about them out of jealousy.

Hermione was torn. Regulus would find out soon enough anyway. "I err…" she started.

"Ooooh, I can sense this will not be pleasant." Regulus said, wincing.

She sighed. "No, it won't be." She looked up at him and found his face an imperturbable mask. Even his eyes were unusually stony. "I'm dating your brother." she admitted.

He stopped walking and she turned around. "Excuse me… What?" he asked, shocked and disbelieving.

She sighed, uncomfortable. "Sirius and I… We're a couple." she admitted, staring at her feet.

"What the fuck?" he lashed out at her. She took a few steps back, unprepared for the anger blowing up inside of him. He had always seemed calm and composed, but there, he was losing all control.

"Regulus, listen to me…" she tried, but he cut her.

"I don't want to listen to you, you slut!" the insult pieced through her heart as if he's thrown a dagger right through her. "And here I was, thinking that you were actually brainy when you were just shagging this insult to society behind my back!"

"No, Regulus, it wasn't like that, I swear, he didn't even know we hung out!" she pleaded desperately.

"And is that supposed to make me feel all better or something?" he bellowed. "Because I've got news for you, it didn't!" he breathed heavily for a few minutes, before muttering: "I am out of here."

He tried walking past her but she pulled his arm. "Regulus…" she said, tears threatening to overflow from her eyes. "Don't do this…"

His eyes were cold and unfeeling as he spat: "Let go of me, you filthy Mudblood." Her arm dropped back to her side in shock. "You're as worthless as a piece of shit." he added, before storming off.

That was the first time she had skipped class. After he'd left, she had gone back to Gryffindor Tower, blinking back all her tears. But when she passed the entrance and was greeted by Mary's worried gaze, everything spilt from her.

She spent an hour crying on her friend's shoulder, while Mary soothed her and rubbed her back. She told her everything, of course.

But as she wept herself dry, a small part of her brain asked her whether she would cry as much if Sirius and she ever broke up.

-o-O-o-

Then, when the Marauders came back, all Hell broke lose. Sirius had made death threats for the rest of the night, and nobody held him back. James and Remus both agreed with him, and Peter followed.

As a result, two good things came out: Remus and Sirius were once again united by their mutual hatred of Regulus, and Severus Snape was free of all pranks.

All four Marauders now defended Hermione's honour fiercely, and Regulus found himself constantly in the Hospital Wing. The first time that happened had been on Hermione's seventeenth birthday, the day after her and Regulus had fallen apart.

Sirius had come to her at lunch time, a huge grin plastered on his face. He had placed his hands above her eyes to prevent all cheating and had walked her to the Hospital Wing. There, he had removed them with a little: "Ta-daah!" and Hermione had been greeted with the sight of Regulus, unconscious, sporting bright neon green hair and warts. James, Remus and Peter were there, and at Sirius' signal, they had all started singing: "Happy Birthday."

She had giggled slightly, which had made Sirius' day. And suddenly she wondered if she had a thing for Black's.

-o-O-o-

Around the beginning of October, the Marauders stopped pranks altogether. They had, for the most part, started studying seriously except for, pardon the pun, Sirius himself.

Sirius, it seemed, just liked to wonder on the castle on his own during the day, and copy Remus' homework during the night. He didn't tell her what it was that he did, but since the others approved of it, she thought it might just have something to do with the Marauders' Map.

In any case, she no longer sat next to Regulus in class. She now sat next to Mary, whom she found was one of the best things that happened since she entered the timeline.

She managed to find, after a couple weeks of digging, that Mary had quite a soft spot for Remus, and Hermione encouraged her to talk to him about it. Mary had blushed and turned away, but the next day, the pair of them just couldn't keep their eyes off each other.

Around the fifteenth, Hermione started getting worried. Remus and Mary had now been dating for over two weeks and were still as passionate as ever. However, she and Sirius were going absolutely no where. It was like if they were an engine and they had run out of fuel.

Remus and Sirius had totally stopped being enemies once the former was no longer single, which led Hermione to think that they had fallen apart because of a girl. In any case, the Marauders were now much the same as when she had known them, except they, with the exception of Peter, all had a girl. Although James and Lily weren't officially together yet, they had gone together to Hogsmeade and it had, apparently, gone very well… for both of them.

When Hermione had asked James about Peter's lack of girlfriend, he had laughed and declared. "Peter? Well… How could I put it… Let's just say he plays for the other team."

Both of them had giggled slightly and he was not mentioned since.

-o-O-o-

It was the day before Halloween that things started going downhill.

At first, Hermione was disappointed because Sirius hadn't planned anything special for the two of them, but she got over it. She spent most of her day in the library with Remus, but when Mary had arrived, she had left so as to leave them a little privacy.

As she walked to the Gryffindor Tower, a book fell out from her bag just as she rounded a corner. She stopped to pick it up and heard a peculiar noise. I sounded like an animal grunting.

She dropped her bag and walked towards the source of the noise, which turned out to be a broom cupboard. She blushed as she heard the noise again and realised what must have been going on in there. She went to retrieve her bag and run away but froze as she heard someone's name being whispered.

"Sirius…" the voice moaned. It sounded horribly feminine.

Horror took hold of her as she slowly approached the door. The noises continued, and Hermione's hand stopped at the doorknob. She was afraid of what she was going to see. Suddenly, a wave of bravery overcame her and she wrenched the door open.

Sirius was there, alright. And he wasn't alone. He and Marlene McKinnon were half naked, making out passionately and desperately groping at each other. They didn't even notice she had caught them.

A sudden fire burned inside her, a fire of not only anger, but also shame that she hadn't seen any of this coming. She opened her back and pulled out a full bottle of inerasable black ink.

She uncorked it and threw the whole thing at the pair. The broke apart immediately, ink pouring down their faces, and Sirius paled significantly at the sight of his furious girlfriend at the doorway. "Hermione…" he croaked.

"You lying, cheating, unfaithful creep!" she yelled. "I don't want you to come near me ever again!" And with that, she stormed off, picking up her bag after her.

"Hermione, wait!" he called, and she started running. Unfortunately, he was faster than her and had no bag to slow him down, and so he caught up easily. "Hermione." he panted. "Please… Let me explain…"

"Explain what?" she snapped. "That you were tired of waiting? That you left hand had cramps? You were gong to try to shift the blame on me, weren't you?"

His eyes darkened. "A man has needs…" he tried, but she just laughed.

"I knew you were going to say that!" she said icily. "You're not a man, Sirius Black; you're nothing but a child!" He looked murderous. "Now, go and fulfil you 'needs'," She made the quotation marks with her fingers. "With one of your whores. We are done."

"I'm not a child!" he yelled at her when her back was turned.

She didn't turn back. "No, you're right. You're a bitch. A slut. A man whore, that's what you are. And I'm not wasting any more time with someone like you."

She started walking again. Things went very fast then.

She heard him move and turned around to face him, only to find that he had his wand pointed straight at her face. She could do nothing but stare in horror as he uttered the word.

"Fulgur."

-o-O-o-

Bwahaha! Evil cliffhanger! You can't blame me, I had to do it at least once. :p

For those who think Sirius is out of character, I re-read OoOP, and noticed he always takes rash action when angered... I'm not saying he doesn't regret it though!

Next chapter: Someone we haven't seen yet comes in. And what follows.