One-shot

October 6, 1977

7th year

The closet door flew open, as soon as Sirius' eyes regained focus, he gasped at the small figure.

"Hermione!" he said, pushing the blonde away from him.

The curly haired girl looked at him with tears in her eyes and ran away.

"HERMIONE!" he was about to chase after but Marlene grabbed his wrist.

"Forget about her, Sirius." she said

"I would never forget about her, she's the most important person in my life." he said, pulling his wrist from her grasp.

"Yes, you showed her exactly how much you care about her tonight, didn't you." she smirked.

He didn't say anything and tried to catch up to Hermione.

"Hermione!" he said, grabbing her wrist.

She turned at him with anger and tears in her eyes and pulled her wrist away from his hand.

"I trusted you, I told you things I've never told anyone before, not even my brother. I gave you a chance, but you just proved what everyone warned me about. I gave you my full and complete heart, something I've never done for anyone, and you just broke it like it was nothing." At this point she had tears in her eyes, "Never again will I make that mistake again. Thank you for reminding me that people will never change, Sirius, thank you."

And with that she turned and ran up to her common room.

Sirius stared at her retreating figure and collapsed on his knees, regretting everything that he had done.

Oooooooooo

Remus found Sirius an hour later, at the Ravenclaw tower begging the door to open.

"What are you doing, Padfoot?"

"I made a mistake," Sirius said, looking Remus with desperate eyes.

"What could be so bad that you've been missing for an hour?"

Sirius looked down to the floor and mumbled something.

"What?"

"I cheated on Hermione."

"YOU WHAT!"

"I cheated on Hermi…"

"YES, I HEARD THE FIRST TIME!"

Remus turned around and started walking away.

"Moony, where are you going?"

"I'm getting away from you before I do something I regret."

"Wait! Moony! You can help me! You can help me get in the Ravenclaw common room!" Sirius called, catching up to him.

Suddenly Remus turned around and punched Sirius in the face. Blood started pouring out of his nose.

"MOONY! WHAT WAS THAT!" he cried, clutching his nose.

"That was for Hermione, you cheated on the most wonderful person to ever exist! You cheated on the girl that finally gave you a chance after all those years! You cheated on the girl who dated you, even though so many people warned her about you! YOU CHEATED ON HERMIONE!" he shouted angrily, "You may be my best friend, but she's like my sister. And I don't know how you're ever going to make up for it, Sirius."

And with that he walked away.

Sirius' face dropped, first he lost his girlfriend, because of his stupidness and now he lost one of his best friends.

"Sirius, not Padfoot. Sirius, not Padfoot, he called me Sirius, not Padfoot" he repeated over and over in his head.

Oooooooooooo

Everyone noticed that the golden couple had broken up and the Marauders had all distanced themselves from Sirius. Sirius looked miserable constantly looking for Hermione and trying to talk to her. Hermione on the other hand acted like their relationship never happened and ignored and avoided Sirius.

On the bright side, James and Lily had finally gotten together. They walked around, always holding hands, smiling at each other, and cuddling in the common room; Sirius was jealous. Jealous that he had that type of relationship before he made the stupidest mistake of his life.

"Hermione!" he called to the brunette.

She ignored him and walked right past him.

"Hermione! Can I just talk to you for a minute! Please! You don't have to say anything, just listen! Please!" he begged her.

"Fine." she turned around to face him, with no emotion in her eyes.

"I know I made a mistake…" he started.

She snorted, "A mistake! No, a mistake is accidentally spilling a drink, a mistake is accidentally misspelling a word. CHEATING is not a mistake, it's a decision!"

"I know, I know! I made a stupid decision, but I never meant to hurt you!"

"YOU NEVER MEANT TO HURT ME! Ok, then tell me what is it that you meant to do?!"

"I…uh…I don't know," he stuttered.

"Let me ask you this one last thing then," she said quietly, "Why did you do it? Was it because of me? If you wanted to break up with me, you should've just come to me."

He quickly looked up at her, "NO, HERMIONE, you did absolutely nothing wrong, I didn't want to break up with you, I just…uh…needed…"

"You needed, no, you wanted."

"I…uh…HERMIONE!" she had begun to walk away from him.

"In case you didn't know, Sirius. We're over. Don't talk to me, don't look at me, just pretend I don't exist."

"But I can't just pretend you don't exist." he had tears in his eyes, "Hermione, we had something special."

She also had tears in her eyes, "Not special enough, I guess, if you were willing to cheat on me with another girl. But she must be pretty special if you were willing to do it with her, while you had a girlfriend. The least you could've done was break up with me before, rather than me finding out by walking in on you doing it with another woman."

"Imagine, Sirius," she continued, "if I had never found out. Would you have just continued and let me believe that you loved me."

"But I do love you!" he protested.

"No, you don't. I think that after all those years of chasing after me, it was not out of love, but out of finally winning and getting what you want. Well, guess what… you got what you wanted and now you could move on to the next part of your life."

She walked away and Sirius just stared at her retreating form, tears flowing down his cheeks.

"But I do love you, more than you ever know, Hermione." he whispered.

Oooooooooooo

December 31, 1977

Potter's New Years Ball

Sirius watched her dancing with Ezra Shafiq, she was beautiful. Her long, shining curls had been put in a half up- half down hairstyle, she was wearing a long, blue satin dress that complimented her creamy skin tone. She laughed again, loud enough that Sirius could hear it; if only he had a time turner so that he could go back in time to stop himself from making that stupid mistake, no, decision, on that day in October.

How funny life was when only a year ago he was dancing with his dream girl at this same party, the day she had finally said yes to his advances, the day when she said she loved him and trusted him; and now he was sitting all alone, while another man was holding her in his arms.

"Padfoot, why don't you go dance?" asked James, who had just been dancing with Lily.

"I don't want to." he grumbled, still staring at Hermione.

James followed his line of vision and sighed, "You can't just stare at her forever."

"Don't tell me what to do, Prongs."

It had taken a lot of begging and apologies for the marauders to forgive Sirius, especially Remus. Hermione had distanced herself from all of them, except for Remus who had felt so guilty over what Sirius had done, even though she reassured him that it wasn't his fault.

"C'mon Padfoot, it's Yule! Why don't you dance with one of those girls by the table, the blonde one has been eyeing you for half an hour already. Padfoot looked up to the group of girls that Prongs had pointed too and saw Marlene wink at him. He stood up and stalked away, muttering to himself about getting a drink.

He saw Hermione's date steer her to a table and walk away, presumingly to grab drinks for them. Sirius took this chance to talk to her or at least get closer to her. As he walked closer she noticed him and narrowed her eyes as he approached her.

"Hello Hermione," he said.

"Black." she said coolly. Sirius felt something drop in his stomach hearing her call him by his last name, she never called him by his last name, his full name perhaps when she was angry or joking, but never just his last; well she never did when they were together…which they weren't… because he decided to be stupid.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" he asked a bit hesitantly.

Her eyes softened a bit as she answered him, "Quite, Ezra is a wonderful man, quite funny too; too bad we had never met before this year."

Sirius gulped and looked away, "I'm… I'm glad to hear that."

She tilted her head and looked at him, "And you?"

"And me what?!" he exclaimed.

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Ah, yes, yes, Mrs. Potter has outdone herself this year, although I think last year was better." he mumbled the last part.

Her eyes hardened again, "I actually prefer this year, I was able to surround myself with much better company, filled with honest people who I can trust."

At this point, Sirius had felt like a bludger had hit him in the gut. He gave her a discreet onceover and admired as her dress complemented her skin tone, a few curls coming out of her hairstyle, framing her glowing face, a faint hint of blush on her face, as she glared at him. He shook himself out of it, and had the decency to look apologetic, even though he wanted to hold her close, apparating to a quiet place as she gave him a smile that she had reserved for only her brother and himself.

"I don't know how many times I need to apologize; whether it's 5 times or 1 million times, I'll do it, if you could just forgive me." he begged.

She shook her head, "But that's the problem, Sirius, it means nothing, because you did it thinking you could get away with it. You were never going to tell me that you cheated on me. Even if I ever forgave you, it wouldn't do anything, because we could never go back to the way we were before, not even friends." At this point, she had tears in her eyes. "We're just too different and have different goals and lifestyles. When I opened that door, you should've known that everything had changed. Goodbye Sirius." and with that she quickly walked away.

Sirius grabbed the nearest chair and sat, downing whatever alcoholic drink was on the table. He stared blankly at the floor, feeling entirely empty inside, fragments of their conversation running through his head. "If you could just forgive me… it means nothing… it wouldn't do anything… we could never go back to the way we were before… you should've known that everything had changed… Goodbye Sirius… Goodbye Sirius… Goodbye Sirius… Goodbye…"

"SIRIUS… SIRIUS!" a voice came from in front of him. Sirius blinked out of his spaced out gaze to the face of James who was waving his hand in front of him with a worried look on his face. "Are you alright, Pads?" he asked.

"I'm fine."

"Sirius…" he asked, as he went to put his hand on his shoulder, but Sirius moved away before he could.

"I'm going to turn in for the night." his voice cracking a bit.

"Are you sure you're okay, Sirius?"

"I'M FINE!" the words coming out more forcefully than intended.

James' eyes hardened a bit, "I know you're going through a hard time because of your break up with Hermione, but there's no excuse to take it out on us. It was your fault not ours, but honestly did you ever expect Hermione to forgive you? You liked her for so long and when she finally accepted your advances, you cheated on her! What were you thinking! Honestly, what was going through your mind when you were shagging that blond slut! Were you enjoying it Sirius? Were you enjoying yourself, knowing that Hermione, the girl who trusted you even though many people told her not to, was being cheated on by a snake!" he hissed the last word, "I wasn't as close to her as Remus, but I still cared for her, and seeing you always sulking, because SHE dumped you, because YOU cheated on her, makes me angry. You have no right to be all sad, if anyone has the right it was her. And look at her now, she's moved on with her life, you need to too, she's not coming back to you and never will. You need to be more accountable for your mistakes. We're in 7th year going on to the real world, where there's a real war, you can't be acting like a clueless 4th year anymore, because guess what Sirius? Life isn't all pranks and parties!" he finished off, out of breath from his tirade.

Sirius just stared at him, his eyes wide, James staring at him back. Remus came over to them grinning but when he saw them, his grin fell.

"Prongs, Pads?" he asked.

"I have to go.." Sirius said hurriedly, leaving the ballroom and turning to apparate.

He blinked as his eyes regained focus and looked around at his chosen destination. He was in a small town that he remembered going to with Hermione. Hermione. No! He would not think about her, if he did, he knew his heart would break even more than it had already. He walked towards a bridge made of stone that crossed over a small stream and stood there, leaning against the railing. He closed his eyes and remembered the last time he had been there.

It was a breezy summer day, Hermione had told him she wanted to show him something and had taken him here. It was a small and quiet little town, but he could see children running around playing and other men and women walking, talking, and shopping around. She took him to the bridge where they had etched out their initials in the wood and had casted a spell to preserve the bridge, including the initials. They both looked silently at the view, before Hermione spoke up.

"You know Sirius," she spoke softly, still looking out at the view, "I always thought that you were making fun of me by always flirting with me and asking me out, no one had shown any interest in me before and I thought it was just a way of you making fun of me. But then when we talked last year at the Potters Yule Ball, it made me realize how judgemental I was of you, and I never realized that you were more than just a snobby prankster."

"A snobby prankster, huh." he smirked.

She threw her head back and laughed, Sirius watched her as the sunlight on her skin made her glow, how her whiskey-colored eye's sparkled. He realized at that moment, just how lucky he was to have her as his girlfriend, to have this beautiful, smart, kind person love him. Sirius had a hard life, coming from a blood purist family, not to mention arguably one of the most powerful pureblood families; but having James, Remus, Peter, and Hermione in his life… canceled all of the bad memories.

"Also Hermione, that's a lie, a lot of boys were interested in you, I just made sure that they never had a chance to show you." Hermione furrowed her brow, then raised it, "That's why I never got much valentines, even Severus got more valentines than me!" Sirius wrinkled his forehead over hearing Snivellus.

"You know, all those valentines you were missing came to me, you can't even imagine how many times I almost threw up over the cheesiness of them." he rolled his eyes. She smacked him on the arm,

"Ow"

She smirked. "That's what you get for reading my mail". She leaned on him and he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. "I love you Sirius."

His breath hitched. "I…I love you too Hermione." he said, a bit shocked.

Sirius blinked back to reality, feeling the cold wind blowing against his face. A thought of realization going through his head.

"She's never coming back."

He staggered backwards at the thought, his back hitting the other railing of the bridge. Sirius pulled out a folded picture from the inside of his jacket and stared at it. It was a candid photo of himself and Hermione, she was sitting on the couch of the Gryffindor common room, reading a book, he had his head in her lap, playing with a loose curl of hers that had fallen out of its updo. She put her book down slightly and looked lovingly at him for a quick second, before turning back to her book, as soon as she had begun reading again, Sirius had looked up at her the same way she had at him, before turning back to playing with her curl. He stared at it, contemplating if he should rip it up. He felt a single tear slowly fall down his cheek and onto the photo; that was his breaking point. He fell on his knees and began sobbing earnestly, flashbacks going through his mind of past memories and meaningful conversations of his and Hermione's relationship. Finally the final words that had broken him passed through his head, the words that made it clear that there was no hope, no second chance…

"Goodbye Sirius".