News of the mass Azkaban breakout spread throughout the entire school in record time. Papers were passed around and hushed, nervous whispering became the norm. Umbridge was insufferable, assuring everyone that they were perfectly safe within the castle and that they had nothing to worry about as she assigned them the task of memorizing the names of the inventors of the most common defense spells and the dates the spells were first created. Purely useless information during a time of burgeoning war.

Umbridge's micromanagement of the school was terrifying. Her latest Educational Decree was forbidding teachers to engage in conversation with their students on any topic that wasn't relevant to the topic they taught. She was also hammering down on student-led organizations. Now it was difficult to even meet for study sessions in the library without earning detention or at the very least house points deducted.

Hermione couldn't help but wonder about the new rules. Were they an indication that Umbridge had caught on to the supplemental lessons Dumbledore had requested Snape to give Harry?

DA meetings were getting trickier as well. It was pretty much assured that Umbridge and the Inquisition Squad knew about their illicit club, but had no tangible proof. It was clear they were working very hard to find anything that would allow them to enact severe disciplinary actions, perhaps as far as expelling the students in the club. Hermione wasn't under any illusion that Harry wasn't the primary target, and he would face punishment far more severe than the rest of them. But, she did suspect that a secondary goal was also to use it as an excuse to remove the muggle-born members from the school and have their wands snapped.

It was genuinely terrifying how little control of the situation Dumbledore had. He was the most powerful wizard in their time and he could do nothing in the face of a small, pink woman. Or was it all part of his plan? Sirius' reaction when she told him about her parents had been a relief. It wasn't that she distrusted Dumbledore – entirely at least– but he did things, seemingly, without liability. At what point does wisdom swing back around into foolishness? And at what point does serving the greater good just become the lesser evil?

Perhaps the most frustrating part of coming back to school, was that even though the world seemed to be pivoting on its axis, the petty teen drama still abounded. Between Harry's hot and cold romance with Cho, Quidditch, and general bullying based on whatever teens could find to criticize, going back to school was practically torture for Hermione. She had enough to think about already, but with the constant need to guard herself against the harmful "pranks" that many of the purebloods continued to pull on her, and the subtler psychological attacks that would slip into the psyche of even the most vigilant, she was emotionally drained from the moment she woke up in the morning to the time she went to bed at night.

She shook out the newspaper again, careful not to let it make too much noise as to alert Madame Pince, and reread an article about a ministry worker who had died being strangled by one of his potted plants. It might just seem like an unfortunate accident to the average reader, but Ron had mentioned that his dad had known Bodes and that he had worked for the Department of Mysteries.

Hermione already knew that something was going on with the DoM. The very fact that the Order had made a point of patrolling the corridors of that department was enough for her to know that whatever the adults were so keen on hiding was there. Add Harry's dreams, and that Mr. Weasley was attacked there, and now the death of Mr. Bodes, she could hardly believe that Dumbledore and Mrs. Weasley and the others were so keen on keeping the wool over their eyes.

Sirius wanted to divulge the secret but was overruled. Out of respect to the Weasley's, he had to abide by it, knowing that if he told Harry or Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and the twins would effectively be informed as well. So he kept silent, much to her frustration. She couldn't hold it against him though. Not when she knew that he and Mrs. Weasley had finally gained an understanding of one another and had formed a bond.

She shut the newspaper with a sigh and grimaced at the sight of some clothing ad on the back page. The models swayed and posed as they showed off new, modern robe designs. Their slicked hair shifted against prominent collarbones when they turned their long, slim necks, and their arms and legs looked impossibly long and elegant.

She didn't know when it started, but she had started feeling uncomfortable in her body. Maybe it was when she had visited the grocery store with her mother over the summer and saw the tabloids by the checkout counter. Between the faces of Princess Diana and her impending divorce from Prince Charles, and the Spice Girls were increasingly familiar figures of women like Kate Moss and Jodie Kidd. Sharp features and thin bodies and how to achieve that look was everywhere.

Maybe if she could have left it in the muggle world it would have been fine, but it followed her into the Wizarding world as well. The models on Witch Weekly and clothing ads in the Prophet all featured seemingly impossibly thin figures that had nothing in common with Hermione's developing curves. It left her feeling unsettled and she would catch herself doing irrational things like when she sat down and unconsciously measured the lack of space between her thighs and the sides of her chair.

It made her feel stupid, worrying about the size and shape of her body when the world around her was on the cusp of something terrible; where her blood status was a greater cause of persecution and contempt than the width of her hips and the size of her waist. But it was hard to remove herself from it when she had friends like Ginny who walked with confidence, and her slim build and quidditch trained athleticism attracted a new boyfriend seemingly every quarter. Or Luna with her wispy, willowy presence. Even Lavender Brown, who always appeared to be on some diet, was closer to what seemed like they were supposed to look like. Hermione didn't know how she did it. Whenever she tried to eat less, it led to her being irritable and unable to focus.

Harry and Ron dropped into the seats next to her, moving aside stacks of books, breaking her out of her thoughts, and very nearly making her jump.

"There you are!" exclaimed Ron, his vibrant ginger hair shocking against the dark muted tones of the library.

"We're going to visit Hagrid," Harry informed her, pressing his glasses that had been knocked down the bridge of his nose.

"Hargid asked us not to, Harry," Hermione reminded him with a reproving frown. "If Umbridge finds out, he'll be sacked. You've seen how she's been sitting in on every one of his classes looking to catch him on something she can use against him."

Harry frowned and sunk his chin into his crossed arms on the table. "But Hagrid is our friend! It isn't right that we can't go and have tea with him."

"We'll use the invisibility cloak, 'Mione! No one will see us," explained Ron. The nickname, that he had begun calling her shortly after Christmas, sounded a little clunky coming out of his mouth after four and a half years of strictly calling her by her full given name. He had been trying out a few different variations but had landed on just cutting her name in half and calling it a day.

"Right, like the time Malfoy caught us sneaking out to Hagrid's back in first year to see Norbert?" She said, raising her eyebrow at them. She sometimes hated how they needed her to spell out, but also reveled in it because she knew that was her role in their friend group. If she wasn't there to point out their flawed plans they probably wouldn't need her. "Not to mention that we haven't all fit under the cloak since third year, so it's a moot point." She pointed up and down Ron's lanky frame, who was at this point a head taller than her and had several inches on Harry.

Ron blew out a frustrated sigh and slouched back into his chair, tipping it onto two legs, and looked out the window. It was the closest he was going to get to admitting she was right about this.

Harry groaned. "This isn't right," he whined again.

"No, it isn't. We shouldn't have to worry about something as simple as having tea with our friend, but that's the situation we're in," Hermione said as gently as she could, laying a hand on the back of one of his, comfortingly. Spending so much time with Sirius had made her grow much more prone to using physical acts of comfort. She had noticed that with Harry, at least, it had had a surprisingly positive effect in calming him and making him think a little more rationally. Ron however, usually looked sort of constipated whenever she tried. "Why don't we mirror Sirius tonight? You'll probably want to tell him about your upcoming date with Cho," she teased, with a grin. She watched him blush, the back of his neck bright red.

He nodded and mumbled something incoherent, but he didn't deny that he wanted to talk to his godfather about his girl problems.

"Just remember that you need to meet up with me after your date at the Three Broomsticks," she reminded sternly. She had set up a meeting with Rita Skeeter and Luna. She never thought she'd become a serial blackmailer but oddly, in this case, it felt pretty good to have one over the Queen of Libel. Skeeter might just prove to be a useful tool to keep in her back pocket.

Harry just nodded, not even questioning it. He had even more on his mind, with near-constant nightmares and occlumency lessons with Snape, he walked around with bluish shadows under his eyes. He had confided in them that it wasn't a pain-free experience having someone force their way into your head. Sirius had mentioned that skilled legilimens could enter your mind undetected but only if they really wanted to. But when they chose to brute force it or had to break down shields, or when the occlumens was untrained and unprepared, the victim's mind would be subjected to at least some pain.

It wasn't fair. The amount of animosity Snape had for Harry was enough for anyone to question the safety of letting them work together, let alone having Snape rifle through Harry's mind. It didn't help that the new Educational Decree preventing teachers from talking to their students made it virtually impossible for him to meet with Professor McGonagall who would have been a gentler, but equally strict teacher.

Due to her open dislike and borderline hostility towards Umbridge, as well as her close relationship with Dumbledore, McGonagall was under watch nearly as much as Hagrid or Trelawney. It was something that Hermione usually appreciated about the stern-looking witch, but it meant that the help she could offer was extremely limited. The only reason that Harry was able to get away with even having the lessons with Snape, was because Dumbledore had formally set up "tutoring" sessions. Under the guise of taking extra potions lessons, and the clear disdain Snape had for Harry kept Umbridge from sticking her bulbs nose into it.

Hermione could tell Sirius was beyond frustrated at this point. Because of the remoteness of the school and his house arrest, there was very little action he could take. Even when he tried to assert his authority as Harry's guardian, there was not really any way for him to enforce his decisions. As a man hiding from the law, he had no legal recourse either.

He had been trying to supplement Harry's occlumency lessons himself through their mirror calls, but it was slow going. Sirius tried not to aggravate Harry's already over-stimulated brain, but the distance and oblique method of communication made performing legilimency delicately significantly more difficult. If it were more feasible, he would have used the fireplace for such lessons, but the risk of getting caught by other students or even one of the tower's ghosts was too high to risk it consistently. They continued to try, and at the very least Sirius was able to walk Harry through the theoretical act of infiltrating and shielding minds, which Snape evidently did not feel the need to do.

They all needed a break. Not just a winter holiday or summer break, a real break. Like an entire year of school where nothing dangerous came for Harry and them. It shouldn't be an unrealistic expectation, but clearly, it was. Hermione couldn't help but wonder if there would come a day when they would stop having to fight for their lives and actually live semi-normally.

"Come on," she finally said, bunching up her newspaper into a ball. She stood up and gathered her books together. Harry and Ron looked up at her, confused. "Let's go see Jacqueline."

The boys seemed to perk up at that. Hermione and Ron ran down to the kitchens and snagged some shepherd's pie off of the house elves, while Harry went to the owlery to retrieve Hedwig, deciding it was a good evening to spend some quality time with his feathered friend.

They spent the rest of the day out by the lake passing off pies to the Giant Squid, who seemed eager to have its favorite treat after so many years and playing a weird sort of fetch with Hedwig. Before curfew rolled around they wrote a letter to Hagrid, each wishing him well and telling him about visiting Jacquelin – knowing the big man would appreciate it. Hedwig was happy to deliver the letter, knowing Hagrid always had more than a few spare owl treats laying around.

It wasn't much, but it was something. A small moment in time where they put down their worries and just existed as teenagers.

Sirius was exhausted. He had been spending as much time occupying himself as possible to keep himself from worrying over the kids. He spent his time renovating rooms, reading novels that Hermione left for him – branching into other genres of muggle literature but always coming back to fantasy and science fiction – learning how to cook from Molly– who came over at least weekly at this point– and spending time with Remus. And of course, mirroring Hermione and Harry several nights a week. None of it was really working to relieve him of his thoughts. He was now just stressed and tired, but at least he wasn't idling about anymore.

He hated the tired look on their faces. Every time he tried to have an Occlumency session with Harry, the boy would flinch away in discomfort. Hermione was paler than usual, her voice tired even when she read to him. He had thought about suggesting that they lay off for a while since she seemed so drawn but thought better of it every time she smiled at him through the mirror, as though seeing him brightened her day. Maybe it wasn't true, but he selfishly hoped it was.

"You know, sulking isn't going to help," Remus said from his chair. He peered over his sketchbook at Sirius – who was discontentedly flipping through records, clearly unable to make a decision.

They were hanging out in the downstairs sitting room, Sirius had just finished setting up his new turntable that he had someone buy for him. He had gotten annoyed with having to lug his old one from his bedroom to wherever he had decided he needed music. He had had to listen to Remus complain about how difficult it had been to find one as they had become a surprisingly niche item.

"I don't want to hear it from you," retorted Sirius looking back at his friend. "You've been mooning–" he smirked at the pun "– over my cousin since at least Christmas."

Color rose in Remus' face, and he hid his face back in his sketchbook. Sirius laughed at his friend's sudden bashfulness. Getting fed up with being unable to decide on a record he closed his eyes and grabbed one at random and freed it from its sleeve. Putting it on the platter and moving the tonearm to the edge, he listened to the crackle of the player working before a few notes of piano started.

A long, long time ago

I can still remember how that music used to make me smile

And I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance

And maybe they'd be happy for a while

He listened intently for a little while, surprised by the melancholic sound before the tempo increased. After a moment he wandered back to the couch and let himself flop onto it and close his eyes.

"You know Tonks has been mooning over you too, right?" he said eventually, keeping his eyes shut.

The air between them was still as Sirius waited for a response.

"It'd be selfish of me to act on my feelings," came Remus' tired voice.

Sirius cracked his eyes open and looked at his friend. It wasn't an unexpected response. Remus had always had low self-esteem and was self-deprecating at the best of times when it came to his lycanthrope

"That's bullshit," Sirius exasperatedly. Remus stared at the paper in front of him blankly, not even looking up at his friend as the dismissal of his words made it to his ears. "You know that that's bullshit right? You wouldn't be selfish by being with her. You'd be making both of you happy."

"It would be selfish," Remus answered quietly. "She wouldn't be able to live a normal life. Everyone around her would judge her just by her association with me. Society in general would ostracize her. She's so young and has too much life to live to have that burden. Not to mention if we ever had kids…what if I pass on my affliction to them? I can't be that selfish, Sirius."

"Already thinking about kids, huh?" Sirius teased, but sighed when he saw the serious expression on Remus' face. Perhaps in the time he had been locked away, Remus had been left alone with his self-doubts and the crippling biases of society for too long. The effort he and James – and Peter, he had to grudgingly admit– to reassure and build Remus' self-esteem went down the drain after so many years.

"Look, Moony," he started, trying to put as much weight behind his words as he could. "You have so many people who love you and support you, and anyone who is anyone knows that your curse doesn't change who you are. Tonks would be fine if you two got together. She's a grown woman and she's not stupid, she's just as aware of the bigotry in the world as you are and she's willing to put up with it and fight for you. If she's decided you're worth more to her than the opinions of small minded people, then isn't it worth a shot?"

Remus looked up at him and gave him a small, grateful smile before it fell away. "Even so, I have nothing to offer her. I can't even hold down a stable job."

"So? You can be a fantastic house husband!" He shot back, half joking, and half earnestly. It succeeded in making Remus chuckle, which Sirius took as a win. He knew that there was still a long way to go to rebuild his friend's confidence and trust in people.

Talk about the blind leading the blind.

The wards shifted. They both got up as the back door opened and shut, and headed to the kitchen. Molly and Tonks were settling paper bags onto the countertops and a large barn owl that had been resting on the redhead's shoulder swooped over to him and held out her leg to him.

"Hello dears," Molly greeted, pulling some eggs from the bags to put away.

"Wotcher, Sirius, Remus!" Tonk said enthusiastically, her hands slipping on a yellow onion. Her hair, down to her eyelashes and eyebrows, turned pink to match the flush in her cheeks as she shot a few glances at Remus as she ducked down to pick it up.

"Evening, ladies," Sirius said in a teasingly flirtatious tone as he untied the letter from the barn owl and sent a pointed look at Remus. Remus pretended that he didn't see the look as he walked into the kitchen and started helping the women.

"I thought I'd teach you how to make stuffed peppers tonight, Sirius," Molly announced as she folded up the paper bag and tucked it into a cupboard under the sink.

Sirius hummed an affirmative as he unfolded the letter and tapped it with his wand, muttering: "Not all those who wander are lost." And words suddenly appeared on the page in Hermione's handwriting.

Dear Sirius,

I hope you're well. We are definitely missing you these days, even with the mirror calls. I'm not sure what kind of access to the news you have, but I'm assuming you heard about the Azkaban breakout. We can't trust a whole lot of what is coming from the Prophet these days but if this got printed then it must mean that they had no way of hiding it.

I'm worried about my friend Neville, the one I mentioned to you before. His parents' torturer was among the escapees. Since he found out, he's just been out of it. He's the top of our class in herbology but he nearly forgot his earmuffs when we were revising mandrakes the other day. I can't blame him, the picture of her in the paper sent chills down my spine. I try not to judge a book by its cover (especially when that cover is plastered in the Prophet), but you know sometimes when you see something and just know that it's evil? That's what I felt when I looked at that picture.

Poor Neville, I can't even begin to imagine how he feels when he sees it.

We haven't talked about it since we left, but is there any chance you could sneak out to meet us on a Hogsmeade weekend? One is coming up over Valentine's Day weekend. You could ask Tonks to bring Padfoot and Harry could lend you the cloak for the day? Or if Moody has any spare polyjuice laying around – which he probably does, let's be honest! Harry has his date with Cho and then he's supposed to meet me at the Three Broomsticks right after, but we should have the rest of the afternoon free. We could meet by the caves if that feels safer, even.

I think Harry would be ecstatic to see you. Let me know soon.

Love,

Hermione

"Is that from Hermione?" Asked Molly, setting the kettle on the stove top and lighting it with a flick of her ingredients for dinner laid out on the counter with the rest neatly stowed away.

Sirius looked up from the letter and paused for a moment, wondering how she deduced that. Assuming she recognized the handwriting on the envelope, he moved to take a seat at the head of the kitchen table. Remus and Tonks were also sitting and sipping on tea, and neither seemed to realize how they angled themselves close together.

"She asked if I had heard about the breakout," he said after a moment. He had, in fact heard about the breakout, but he had been avoiding thinking about it. Knowing that he was related to several of them made him feel ill.

"What? Not pleased that dear Aunt Bella and Uncle Rodolphus are back in town?" Tonk snorted derisively into her tea. Her pink hair changing into a furious, curly red showing off her own aggravation at the situation.

Taking the tea Molly was handing him, he turned to his cousin. "I'm not particularly keen on a family reunion," he answered wryly. He proved his elbow onto the table and held his cup by its rim, letting the steam of the peppermint tea warm his face. It seems Molly had picked up on some of his preferences. "Hermione also suggested I take an incognito visit down to Hogsmeade."

"That's a foolish suggestion!" Molly said aghast. She stood by the sink with her hands on her hips. "You're still a wanted man. How can you even think of going there?"

Frustration rose in Sirius' chest at the chastisement, but he stopped himself from snapping back. He had begun to realize that Molly expressed her anxiety with anger and reprimands. When Fred and George were caught with their experiments or Charlie sported a fresh burn, she would respond sharply. It wasn't always the best reaction – he could recall the looks on the twins faces when Molly confiscated their inventions and products – but he also knew that she worried herself sick over those she took under her wing.

"No one is currently looking for me in Scotland, and if I tag along with Tonks on one of her patrols as Padfoot or even disguised with polyjuice it shouldn't be a problem," Sirius explained levelly, trying to nudge her into seeing the idea in a better light and not stir her ire.

Tonks nodded along with him. "It's not a bad idea. I certainly wouldn't mind having you come with me." She rolled the bottom of her empty mug on the table.

Mrs Weasley's face went flat, and color rose up her neck and into her face. A sure sign that she didn't appreciate the casual way they were discussing him leaving the safety of Grimmauld Place.

"Absolutely not!" Her eyes darted between the three sitting at the kitchen table like she couldbt believe what she was hearing. "It's too dangerous! You could still be spotted, and besides, Dumbledore told you to stay put!"

Annoyance flared, sharp and hot, in Sirius. There was a moment where Molly must have seen it on his face because she dropped her hands and looked momentarily shocked.

"I'm not Dumbledore's pet dog!" He spat, his silver gaze flinty under the shade of his lashes. Molly flinched, and a small part of Sirius regretted losing his patience. "I think everyone has forgotten that I'm here under my own volition, and I can leave whenever I so choose."

He took a breath, the kitchen was eerily still as everyone else seemed to be holding theirs. He held Molly's gaze, watching for the moment the spell of stunned silence would break. After another beat, he had calmed himself enough to speak again.

"I don't want you to think I'm not grateful that you care about my safety, Molly, because I am deeply grateful. But I haven't even stepped foot outside since September. Much more and I'm going to go completely mental. And it's not like I didn't spend two years on the run and successfully evaded detection even when there were dementors around the castle and Hogsmeade," he ground out between his teeth as levelly as he could.

Tonks was nodding along with what he was saying even as Remus looked unsure, chewing on his lower lip. "He won't be alone this time. I'll watch his back. We also have better resources now to keep him undercover, and we'll stay away from anti-apparition wards so we can make a quick get-away back here if we need to."

Molly's lips pursed in obvious displeasure, but refrained from snapping.

"I'm a bit reluctant to agree myself, Molly, but you have to admit that it probably isn't the most healthy thing that he's been stuck in here for months on end," Remus eventually added, trying to appeal to Molly's compassionate side.

It seemed to be working as the scowl on her face softened and he crossed her arms under her chest. She looked away, her gaze directed through the window on the back door.

It didn't change Sirius' mind one way or another if she approved or not, but he hoped that she wouldn't continue putting up a stink about it. Their relationship had improved by leaps and bounds, and it would be regretful if anything set it back. He had grown to enjoy the presence of a maternal figure, and she was surprisingly pleasant company when she came to help him clean and teach him cooking skills.

Finally she heaved a sigh and looked back at them, chewing the inside of her cheek. With a click of her tongue she unfolded her arms and her fists took their customary spot at her hips.

"Fine! I give!" Her arms swung up in an exasperated gesture only to return to their previous position. "But I insist that Remus goes with you! A young couple out walking their dog will be much less suspicious than Tonks going alone."

Sirius grinned. He couldn't be sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion that she was very deliberately using this opportunity to force Tonks and Remus on a date. The reaction the two had was certainly hilarious as Tonks' hair turned a violent shade of magenta that clashed beautifully with the red that burned her ears. Remus' eyes grew wide and panicked. He opened his mouth to object but shut it again with a glare from Molly.

Cleaning his throat the werewolf mumbled his agreement to the terms. "Sounds reasonable to me."

Tonks appeared to be on the verge of combustion and Sirius was suddenly in a very good mood.

"Well, stuffed peppers, did you say, Molly dear?" He asked her, voice chipper.

Molly tried to look annoyed at him but the self satisfaction that was trying to break through ruined the effect, and proved that he wasn't misreading her intentions. Nice to know that he had a new partner in crime.