Alone to the two best friends finally looked at one another, Harry coming to sit on the end of the table before her.

He broke the silence first, "I'm sorry."

"Me too." Her chin started to wobble. "I didn't want to leave you. I didn't want to leave at all but I knew-"

"I know, I know, and it wasn't fair for me to get mad. You sacrificed for everyone else, but what did you get?" She opened her mouth to answer, and he shook his head, "That was rhetorical, Mione. I'm just...I'm sorry. I did miss you, and I am glad you're back. It's been a long time coming. Oh no...no no Mione, don't cry!"

He'd never been good with emotions, but with Hermione and Ginny, it was like second nature, instinct, and five years hadn't changed that. Except this time, a dance or a cry on the stairwell wouldn't help, not with the way her face closed off in pain as she tried to hide her face in her hands. So much pain. He did the first thing he could think of, wrapped around her, and pulled her to the edge of her chair. A pathetic whimper left her and went straight to his blossoming guilt.

He knew they were watching from the doorway without needing to look. Not only could he feel their eyes but he heard his father tell Sirius, "They're fine." He didn't know if or when they left, but he had just pulled her out of his chest and wiped the tears from her cheeks when the floo flared to life.

Blinking the green flames from their eyes they watched Tonks step into the room with Teddy holding her hand.

"Interrupted something have we?" she grinned at them, "Ginerva isn't going to be too happy about that."

"Please," Harry scoffed, "she knows she's my one and only."

Looking at Hermione, he winked, getting a watery chuckle out of her, "Plus, we may be magical, but I'm not into the whole incest thing, even with an adopted sibling."

"What's incest?" Teddy asked.

"Oh, now you've done it," Tonks tisked before looking at her son, "Go find your father and Uncle Pads and ask them."

Teddy moved to scramble and do just that, but he stopped actually seeing Hermione. "You're Her-my-own-ie."

She giggled and quickly wiped her eyes. "I am. You're Teddy."

His hair brightened from turquoise blue to a near-neon blue with excitement as he approached her, practically pushing past Harry in his excitement. Harry was playfully affronted.

"What about me?"

Teddy ignored him in favor of Hermione. He came to stand in front of her and tilted his head to the side, "You're like dad." Hermione raised an eyebrow in question, and he smirked. "I can tell," he continued, "You're pretty here."As he reached out to touch her nose and the freckles there, his own identical ones sprouted on the bridge of his nose.

"Thank you," she gasped softly, watching him. "You're pretty amazing, Teddy."

"Thanks," he blushed under her freckles. Bravely, he climbed into her lap. "Are you staying forever, or do you have to go away again?"

"What would you like, little one?"

"I want you to stay forever," he looked at his mom, "Can she?"

Tonks laughed, "I suppose so. It's good to see you, Mione. You had us all going crazy for a while. Molly is going to smother you."

Harry snorted, "Yes, she is."

"Where are the rest of them?"

"In the kitchen, love," Remus called, making Tonks roll her eyes, though she smiled. "Come on, Ted, let's go see Dad, and you can ask Uncle Pads your question."

"Okay!"

But he didn't move from Hermione's lap, he just looked at her and grinned. Taking his cue with a smile on her face, she put an arm around him, shifted him onto her hip, and stood, making him giggle and cling to her.

His mother tisked, "Teddy, you can walk, young man."

"But Aunt Her-my-own-ie likes me and she doesn't mind," he replied cheekily, reminding Hermione of Remus.

"I don't," she told Tonks, "and I do," she nuzzled Teddy's nose, making him laugh. "Let's make sure your Uncle Padsy isn't burning down my kitchen, yeah?"

Walking into the kitchen, she ignored the ache in her side or Harry's hand on her back. Tonks went to Remus's side and kissed his cheek when he threw an arm around her, and Harry moved to an empty seat at the table by his father. But Hermione stopped just inside the kitchen with Teddy still on her hip and stared at Sirius.

"What in Merlin's name have you done?"

He turned to her with a smile, only to frown seeing Teddy in her arms, "Why are you holding him? You really should not be lifting anything. Even cute little tikes like Teddy boy."

He moved to take Teddy but the young boy clung to Hermione, his head in her hair resting on her shoulder."She's my favorite Uncle Padsy."

Sirius gaped playfully, "Padsy?" Then he looked at Hermione, "Padsy, Kitten? Have you no shame?"

"I quite like Padsy," she countered with a smirk. "Now, what have you done to my kitchen?"

Scowling at her for a moment, he grinned as he swept his hand in a motion to show her the full effect of his work, "Tea."

"Sirius's version, at least," Lily chortled from the table. All the Marauders, their spouses, and Harry chuckled.

"I resent that tone," Sirius pointed at Lily. Looking back at Hermione, he just kept grinning, "It's a process."

"You picked my herbs."

"I did!" Hermione gaped at him, and his grin widened. Stepping in front of her, blocking her view of the counter, he brought his hand up to her chin and closed her mouth. "I told you, Kitten, beautiful chaos."

"You said a tornado of chaos."

"Same thing."

She snorted, "You're cleaning that up, Sirius Black."

"Yes, Kitten," he saluted her, making Teddy giggle.

"And it had better be mind-blowing tea if you're making it from scratch like this."

"Oh, Kitten, everything I do for you will be mind-blowing. This tea included."

The flame in her belly lit again as Sirius met her gaze with a smoldering grin that made her knees. In his hands, he held some dried chamomile flowers, but when he looked at her, Sirius forgot he held them and just stared. Witty quips were his bread and butter, but that one, how easily it came off the tongue, how true it was, how true he wanted it to be, the things that came to mind when he saw her flushed cheeks, he never wanted something to come true so much. That scared him. But he couldn't look away from her. She was beautiful. He almost forgot his best friends were watching them.

"Uncle Padsy, what is incest?"

Hermione snorted, spell between them temporarily broken, but still to Sirius that was the most adorable sound he'd ever heard-

"What?" he frowned at Teddy, who was smiling innocently.

"What is incest?"

Sirius looked at Tonks, who was looking out the window in an attempt to hide her laughter.

"Really, cousin," shaking his head, he grinned at Teddy, "You know how mummy and daddy had you?" Teddy nodded. "It's like that but between family members."

Teddy made a disgusted face. "But they're family!"

"I know!" Sirius exclaimed with equal enthusiasm, "It leads to crazy and or ugly witches and wizards. You're not supposed to do that."

"That's why Aunt Ginny has nothing to worry about. Aunt Her-my-own-ie and Uncle Harry are related?"

Sirius frowned at Hermione, who chuckled and looked at the boy on her hip, "Kind of love, we're related in every way but blood. Aunt Lily and Uncle James aren't my parents, but Uncle Harry is my brother."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Yes," she nodded her head. Hermione shifted Teddy further up her hip and moved them to the cooler to withdraw her mint chip ice cream again. Handing it to Teddy to hold, she grabbed two spoons and finally joined the others at the table, setting Teddy in the seat beside her. After taking a bite and encouraging a giggling Teddy to take his own, she looked at Harry and his amused face. In fact, they all looked a bit shocked. But maybe for Remus and Tonks.

"What?"

"Ice cream, Mione?"

"In the famous words of Remus Lupin, 'Eat, you'll feel better'. I live by those and mint chip is the flavor of the month in this house."

"So much fun, Kitten," Sirius laughed from the kitchen, "That is very Moony like."

"I like it," Teddy agreed.

"Not too much, love," Hermione tisked playfully, taking the huge bite he'd scooped up off his spoon, "You don't want to ruin your dinner."

"What about you?" he countered with a raised brow, her freckles still painted on his nose.

"Touche love, touche. But I can eat more than you."

"Because you're like dad?"

Tonks stopped watching them to interject, "You're a werewolf?"

Hermione nodded to her around her spoon, "Five years now."

"She's an omega," Remus told his wife, "I was telling this lot about her before you arrived."

Understanding lit Tonks' face as she looked from him back to Hermione. "That explains so much. You've always been attuned to others. Five years ago, the battle?"

Hermione nodded while scooping up more ice cream, playfully dueling Teddy's spoon for a glob.

Watching them, Tonks' eyes grew wider, "My gods, childbirth is going to hurt you..."

"Why?"

The question echoed through the room from James, Harry, and Sirius.

Lily answered them, "See how little they retain," she said first towards Remus. "Remember Remus's explanation of omegas and pain?"

"Yes but what- ohh..."

Hermione smirked at Harry while shaking her head.

"Oh no, Mione, contractions," Tonks agreed, "They're killer."

"They are," Lily agreed.

"Neither of you are helping," Hermione chuckled, "but that prospect is far off."

"Is it though?" Remus grinned at her.

She swiftly kicked him under the table, no one caught on to the kid, but Lily was the only one who gave Remus a knowing look and glanced at Sirius. When he didn't give confirmation, she smirked and raised her eyebrows in challenge.

"Do you know something?"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Or a lover?"

Harry, Sirius, and James all asked at once, the later wiggling his eyebrows exaggeratedly.

"No," Hermione answered, taking another bite of ice cream.

"Meddler," Tonks whispered to her husband, who kissed her and leveled her with a playful smirk.

Harry, however, was like a dog with a bone, ready to tease her, "Mione, do you have a man about?"

"No," she chuckled, "Not at all."

Facing the counter and his tea, Sirius ground the milk thistle into a fine powder, to the point where he knew he couldn't use it. But for whatever reason, he couldn't stop grinding it to bits in the mortar. It couldn't be the topic of conversation. That made no sense. And yet his hackles were up. The idea of another man near Hermione who was not family felt like a thorn in his Grimm's paw. Taking a deep breath, he tried to steady himself with the mental image of Teddy on her hip, gaping at him and her lingering scent that clung to his nostrils. Sunshine and honey. Pushing the mortar aside, he took another route and added dried honeycombs he'd spotted in her garden while his best friends and godson teased her. Sirius opted to do what he would not normally do. He worked quietly and tried to make sense of the foreign feelings coursing through him like fiend fyre.

After several minutes, he'd come up with nothing other than that he was ensnared by the petite witch who smelled like heaven and looked like a goddess of the wild. There was no rhythm or reason to it, but he knew she was under his skin. Pouring a mug of tea for her he had one thought, he didn't know how well she liked it.

Stoically, Sirius walked over and put the mug in front of the witch who seemed imprinted on his mind, before going back to the bar, seating himself backwards in a barstool, and watching her.

His peculiar behavior didn't go unnoticed. Tonks squeezed Remus's thigh with an uneasy look as she watched her cousin practically glare at Hermione. Lily just smirked at Remus, who pointedly ignored both women. James and Harry were none the wiser, even as Hermione gave Sirius a blinding smile and said thank you. They just continued to tease her.

"Do you even want kids, Mione?" Harry asked around, a chuckle suddenly more serious.

She shrugged nonchalantly, "Maybe. If you'd asked me five years ago, I would have said yes. But now," she shared a sad look with Remus, who tried to give her what looked like a calming one in return, "now I don't know." Looking at her tea, Hermione abandoned her spoon in the tub of ice cream. "This is wonderful tea, Sirius."

"I stored the other leaves for you," he answered distractedly.

A mix of everyone's gaze on her, the weight of Sirius's unwavering stares, and the tea made her skin prickle. Nervously, she rolled up her sleeves without any thought. Teddy was the one who noticed the letters on her arm. Abandoning their ice cream, he took her arm and cradled it in his lap, a little finger tracing the letters.

"What does it mean, Aunt Mi?"

"Aunt Mi?" she chuckled as well as others around the table, though it was a bit strained. Teddy blushed but shrugged. Looking at Remus and Tonks for approval, she only answered when they both nodded. "It's a bad word people sometimes call Muggleborns."

"Why did you put it on there then?" he frowned.

Smiling sadly, she put her chin on his head and sighed, knowing full well James, Lily, and Sirius were all on the edge of their seats for the answer as well. "I didn't love, someone else did a long time ago."

"A bad someone?"

"Yes. A very bad someone."

"Who?"

This time it was Sirius. His hushed voice had the heat in her belly coming alive again. That and he was suddenly kneeling right in front of her, his scent clogging her nostrils as he took her arm gently from Teddy. Sirius wasn't the tallest of men, he wasn't even the tallest of his friends, but he was at least a head taller than her, and on his knees, he was taller than her. Her wolf came a little closer to the surface. She wanted Hermione to submit to the man before her. She was clawing at her, screaming for her to answer him. But Hermione was frozen.

Sirius tipped her head up with his thumb and pointer finger on her chin, "Who. Did. This. To. You?"

"Bellatrix," she whimpered as she shivered. His touch had sent a shock of electricity through her. Sirius growled, and Hermione's eyes nearly rolled back in her head as she closed her eyes.

"How?"

"When we were taken to Malfoy Manor. She used a cursed blade, so there was no way to keep it from scarring."

"Kitten..."

"What's happening?" James whispered none too quietly to Remus. "Why do I feel dirty watching this?"

Harry snorted, "Because it's Sirius. How many times has he made us uncomfortable while flirting with a woman? It's only more dirty now because it's Mione."

Hermione ripped her eyes off Sirius as her heart plummeted into her stomach.

She was no different than any other woman. Her mate was treating her no different than he did other woman? Internally, her wolf whined, and she was happy the noise didn't surface.

A wayward glance at Remus, and she saw his sympathetic look. Her worry about Harry clearly wasn't as unfounded as he thought.

Looking at Harry, she smirked, the blue in her eyes dimming to her caramel brown. "Heavens forbid someone notice I'm a woman." Gently extracting her arm from Sirius's grip, she turned back to the table. When Teddy had left her grip and she'd moved to face Sirius, she couldn't remember in the haze of his scent. Being his mate might do her in. Biting her lip at the thought, Hermione rolled her lips together. "So when can I go to the Burrow?"

"Say no more," Harry laughed, launching himself up, grabbing Teddy as he did and slinging an arm over Hermione's shoulder as he pulled her up too. He had them half out of the kitchen before he turned back to his parents, Tonks, Remus, and Sirius, "Well, come on then. We have to share, or Molly will kill us all."

Teddy laughed and launched himself from Harry's arms to Hermione's. She caught him, but only just, a gasp leaving her as her side pulled.

"I'm fine," she said absently, feeling how alert Harry had become at her side.

She didn't have to see the others behind her to know they were the same when she heard Lily explain Hermione's injury to Tonks. Sirius had stood lightning fast, hearing her gasp, but was halted by Remus's hand on his elbow. Instead, he watched as Hermione nuzzled Teddy, making the young boy laugh before walking into the living room with him on her hip.

"You had better clean up, Sirius Black," she shot over her shoulder.

He finally grinned, "So much fun."

"We'll wait!"

With Lily's help, the kitchen was clean in no time. By the time they were done, Hermione was coming down the stairs again with Teddy hopping after her, her jumper from earlier back on.

Remus laughed seeing it, but Hermione shrugged as Teddy leapt off the last step and into her arms, "Shush, you." Which made his chuckle a little harder.

Moments later, Hermione stood before the fireplace with a handful of floor powder clenched in her fist. Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Tonks had gone ahead of them, but Hermione found herself struggling to step into the fireplace when it was her turn. Shifting Ted a little higher on her hip, Hermione looked at Harry.

"I'm nervous..."

Harry, having put a hand under Ted to help support him, shook his head, "Don't be. Sirius was right, they'll take it much better than I did. And I'm sorry."

Hermione nudged him, "Don't be." Leaning her head on Teddy's, she nibbled her lip, "Can we go together?"

"Of course." Easing her into the fireplace, Harry moved to her other side and put his hand over hers, "Just let go."

She looked up at him with wide, scared eyes, and he smiled, "Trust me, Mione."

Nodding, she closed her eyes for a moment before releasing the powder so it fell at their feet. Harry simultaneously called out for the Burrow, and Ted giggled as they were enveloped in painless green flames.


It was all deafening. While the familiar smell of "home" that she'd always associated with the Burrow surrounded them as they stepped out of the fireplace, it was obvious that someone had made an announcement before their arrival because they were surrounded before they even took a breath. Teddy laughed louder as the twins encased them in a hug that stole the air from her lungs.

"Mione!" Fred exclaimed.

Teddy was suddenly extracted from her grip, and she panicked for a second before she saw Sirius smirking at her. He then hoisted Teddy onto his shoulders and skipped them away from the crowd of Weasleys, who were accosting her. To her left, Ginny was smacking Harry's shoulder with the biggest grin on her face. Hermione thought she had heard her say, "I told you she'd be back," but she couldn't be sure.

Once the twins relinquished her, she quickly found herself swaddled in Molly's embrace before Arthur wrapped his arms around both of them. Next was Bill, who planted a kiss on her forehead, earning her a slight frown as he caught her scent. Fleur came up beside them and, after giving Hermione a tight hug, presented her with a tiny blonde toddler, who blushed and tried to hide in her mother's hair after squealing, "Hello." Percy gave her a half wave from across the living room just as Ginny took her turn, hugging Hermione from behind.

As her face smooshed into the space between Hermione's shoulder blades to hide her tears, she squeezed her hard enough that Hermione winced.

"Gin, be gentle, she got hurt."

Her arms immediately released Hermione as Ginny put her hands on her shoulder to spin her. "Where?"

"From the attack near Grimmuald?" Arthur asked.

Hermione nodded, "At Grimmuald."

"I heard on my way home," Arthur said to Molly.

"But I'm fine," Hermione put her hands up, "I just have a little nick, it'll be fine." Harry and Sirius both scoffed, but Hermione only grabbed Ginny in a new hug, "Don't stop hugging me over a little nick."

The younger witch wiggled with excitement and did just that.

They moved further into the living room and everyone cozied up together, recounting time spent apart. Harry and Lily popped out long enough to get the food they'd left in stasis and Hermione had been playing with Victorie, who'd warmed up to Hermione as she'd been playing with Teddy on the floor. When the back door slammed out and had everyone but the kids looking in it's direction. Ron barely appeared in the doorway before he skidded to a stop on the floor with Hermione, Teddy and Victorie.

"You're actually here," he whispered just before grabbing her in a tight hug that made her laugh as she tucked into his neck.

"Hi, Ron."