The next few days passed amicably in the Granger household. They spent most of the daytime separately. Hermione working on her curse breaking in preparation for the Gaunt shack, and Sirius refamiliarizing himself with a wand. There had been a brief moment of awkwardness when discussing the visit to Grimmauld place but it was decided they would go when Sirius felt he was ready. Privately, Hermione wondered if Sirius would ever feel "ready" for such an emotionally taxing trip. Harry had spoken to her at length about how painful it must have been for him, trapped in the abusive household. After turning thirty and hitting a rough patch with Ginny, Harry had decided to go to therapy. Despite his annoying habits of waxing poetic about its benefits and trying to make her go, it seemed to have done him some real good. He had even finally opened up to Hermione about his childhood, casually admitting in the pub that hers had been the first hug he remembered. It broke Hermione's heart and added to her determination to exonerate Sirius. This Harry wouldn't spend a moment longer at Privet drive than necessary.

Despite the almost constant bickering between the pair, the first proper argument came two weeks into living together. After their evening meal and Hermione fielding Sirius's questions about Harry, Sirius once again brought up Pettigrew, pointing out she couldn't keep deflecting the issue.

"I'm not deflecting Sirius, I just want to wait until you are stronger and we have a solid plan in place," she replied, pouring herself a third glass of wine.

Sirius sighed loudly, "You've been saying that all week. I already look so much better!"

She raised an eyebrow at him and sipped.

"I do! I saw you checking out my arse yesterday so I can't look that bad" he smirked.

Hermione blushed into her glass. Sirius had indeed been looking a lot healthier, and had begun to look more like his Hogwarts photos and less like Charles Manson.

"That's beside the point," she replied. "The worst thing we could do is rush into something. It is one of the most delicate parts of the plan and we need to capture him and present him to the ministry. "

Sirius frowned, "I still vote we just kill him. I'm not sure I even care if I'm exonerated, I think I'd rather just see that rat dead."

Hermione sighed, "No. We need you exonerated so Harry doesn't have to spend another minute with those vile animals. Let alone another summer!" Hermione froze, she hadn't meant to reveal that to Sirius and hoped it didn't make him act more rashly.

"Vile animals?" He questioned; his voice deceptively calm. "Are you referring to Harry's current guardians? Merlin woman, you won't even tell me that about the boy?"

"Look," Hermione began, "I didn't want to upset you by telling you this but Harry has expressed to me that his guardians aren't the most loving. I'm not keeping this information for you for fun, I think it's only fair to Harry that we wait for him to tell you things about his life. I'm sure once you get to know him, he will open up about it." Hermione ran her hand through her hair. "I don't want to tell you things about his life only for them to change and you to feel disappointed or to make your expectations of Harry too high. I want you to get to know him naturally."

Sirius considered her words before pouting childishly, "Nothing about this situation is bloody natural. At this rate I'll never get to meet him anyway. Is that all you can do, make plans? Can you even carry them out? What exactly was your job at the ministry anyway because it seems like you're going to cock up this timeline like you cocked up with the time turner."

Hermione was angry. She was mainly angry because she felt like Sirius was right and she hated him for it. It's not like she enjoyed sitting around playing house with a surly man child.

"Well maybe if you got over your issues, we could go to Grimmauld place and deal with a horcrux but clearly you're still too scared of a portrait of dear old mummy," she retorted acidically.

"Fuck you." Sirius said sharply, getting up and leaving the table.

Hermione felt awful. Harry had privately told her details of Sirius's upbringing and it was a lot worse than simple mummy issues. Most mummy's didn't use the cruicatis for one thing. She had gone for the lowest blow and used her future knowledge to do so. Maybe she was so controlling of what Sirius could know about Harry because she knew her knowledge wasn't right; it wasn't natural at all. She put her head in her hands as she heard the familiar sound of apparition. She hoped Sirius would just go for a walk and calm down. He had taken to completing regular strolls around the neighbourhood as Padfoot and had promised to stay in his animagus form. Hermione cleared the table and grabbed the remainder of the bottle of wine, feeling moody as she drank straight out of the bottle, feet up on the couch. Deciding to apologise when Sirius returned, she turned on the TV and waited.

An hour passed, then an hour and a half. Hermione glanced at her Nokia; two hours had passed. Sirius had never been gone so long before. Where was he? Had he been caught? What was he playing at? As the clock struck eleven, Hermione knew she couldn't wait any longer and decided to go have a look for him in the area. As she grabbed her coat, she poked her head in the spare room, hoping maybe he had returned and she somehow hadn't heard. She hadn't explicitly told him not to enter it but she had warned him how difficult it would be. He had avoided it until now. The room was even more of a mess than usual, she saw on the wall he had circled key death dates, Remus, Tonks, Andromeda, his family. On the desk she saw Regulus's letter laying face up. She noticed a scrawl at the bottom she had never seen before,

"Gone to sort things out at Hogwarts. Don't worry about me. Padfoot xxxx"

That bloody bastard. She'd just said they need a plan and he'd run off half-drunk to try to capture Pettigrew at 11pm on a Friday night. He'd even signed bloody kisses at the end of the note. She had given him Regulus's note to inspire him, not to encourage a suicide mission. Hermione cursed loudly, hoping she wasn't too late for whatever he had planned to do. She prayed that he hadn't got himself killed or worse, caught by dementors.

She apparated straight to the cave in Hogsmeade and noticed the rock fall she had caused had been removed. Or at least a small path that could fit a large dog had been created. Hermione sighed before getting on her hands and knees and crawling through the gap. Where else would he go? He wouldn't be stupid enough to go onto Hogwarts grounds? Unless he went through the passageway under the Whomping Willow? Hermione took a break from cursing Sirius and cursed her stupidity for relenting and telling him details of the last time and how close he'd been to success. She took out her wand and disillusioned herself before walking briskly to the Shrieking Shack. She didn't dare apparate directly in when she didn't know the situation she was entering. Hermione tried to calm down as she walked, attempting to convince herself she'd just find a drunk dog who had snuck off for some firewhiskey but the note was too clear. She knew exactly what his plan was, after all she had lived through it once before.