Second Chance

Author note: Fist off, Angel, hun, you're getting ahead of yourself! LOL! Lady Lynn, thank you for the wonderful review!! And rox, I think you'll like more by the time it's over! I have four chapters written so far and will post them with a few days between so you guys don't have to wait too long...Enjoy!

“HE WHAT?!”

“Shh! Ginny, please it’s not a big deal really.” Hermione took a sip of her hot tea gingerly. She set the cup down and looked up to the slack jawed face of her best friend. “What?”

“No big deal? You just buried your husband a few days ago and he kisses you. His own godson’s wife! And it’s no big deal?”

“Ginny, it’s not like that. We were both upset. We both needed some form of comfort. It was raging emotion that won out over conscious thought,” Hermione shrugged.

Ginny slapped the napkin in her hand down on the coffee table. “Will you please talk to me like a person not a textbook?” Hermione sighed, stood, and began to pace.

“We were caught up in the moment. It wasn’t intentional.”

Ginny sighed as well and began to refill the cups with fresh tea. “So?”

“So?”

Ginny looked up sheepishly. “How was it?”

“GINNY!”

“What? I assume it wasn’t all bad since you’re not absolutely mad at him. And maybe you do need to move on.”

Hermione turned sharply and looked unbelievingly toward the ginger haired girl. “You just said I buried my husband a few days ago and now you’re saying I need to move on. Will you make some sense? I have no intention of getting mixed up with the likes of him. Especially now.”

“Well that’s good to know.”

The scruffy voice surprised the two women enough for Ginny to spill her tea and Hermione to grab her chest in shock. Sirius stood in the archway leading to the sitting room where the ladies had retired for tea.

“Hermione, I wanted to apologize for my distasteful actions. The room, the…well…I just wanted to say how very sorry I am.”

Hermione took a deep breath. “I understand. Like I told Ginny, it wasn’t intentional.”

Sirius looked to the youngest Weasley with a bit of shock himself. Ginny knew about the kiss.

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell my best friend’s secrets,” Ginny said as she began to clear the tea set. She stopped in the doorway to the kitchen and turned to him. “Just be more careful next time. And maybe a bit more subtle.”

“GINNY!”

“I’m going. I’m going.”

As Ginny left the two of them alone, Hermione turned her back to the rugged features that faced her. She took to admiring the pictures on the mantel above the fireplace. Her fingers softly caressed the face of her beloved smiling back at her at last year’s Quidditch World Cup. He had caught the snitch hours into the game to a deafening roar by the crowd.

“He was so happy that night. He knew then he was going to propose to you after the game. He talked to me about it before he took the field.”

Hermione looked to Sirius once more with a tear barely holding on to the tips of her lashes. “I thought he had something on his mind. So it wasn’t spur of the moment?”

Sirius shook his head. “The wedding was spur of the moment.”

Hermione smiled broadly and turned back to the settee. “Two weeks was sort of quick, wasn’t it?”

Sirius nodded.

“I suppose after everything we’ve been through, time seemed precious. We just wanted to be together.” Hermione sat down and refreshed the warmth in her cup with a wave of her wand.

“I understand. If I had found someone to love the rest of my life, I wouldn’t have waited either. What with all that was going on and such,” Sirius said as he summoned up an empty teacup and began to fill it from the kettle. “I just haven’t found her yet.”

Hermione sighed softly. She didn’t want to bring it up. But at the same time, she really wanted to get things out in the open. “Sirius, I don’t believe we should be left alone in close quarters again.”

His dog like traits seemed to pop. His eyebrows lifted, his ears perked, and his mouth hung open. “What do you mean?”

“I’m afraid we will both come to the other for comfort and won’t be able to tell the difference between the need for consolation and loneliness. It wouldn’t be right, Sirius. Perhaps I should move into my parents’ house. They won’t be back from the islands until next month. We could both use the space.”

“Hermione, I have no intention of pursuing you romantically. It was all a mistake. I was so distraught that I wasn’t thinking clearly. I didn’t even realize I had kissed you until you left the room,” he chuckled.

He looked up over the edge of his teacup to see her face scowl and her skin take on a rosy hue. “It wasn’t even memorable? You didn’t realize that your lips were pressed against mine?”

“Hermione.”

She stood quickly with her hands upon her hips. Sirius knew at that moment somewhere in the world Mrs. Weasley had fainted dead away because she was now being channelled into the woman in front of him. “Do not ‘Hermione’ me, Sirius Black! You sit there all smug and dare to insult something so intimate as a kiss straight to my face? How dare you!? I can’t believe you have the gall to say such a thing. Here I was frail and crumbling, you take advantage of me and then insult me on the results of it!”

The sting lasted a bit longer than Sirius was used to. He had been slapped many times before, mind you. But this particular smack to his left cheek made him take notice. Only a second passed when he realized that her other hand was coming into view rather quickly. His reflexes pounced, and he grabbed her wrist before her delicate hand made an impression into his other cheek.

This only frustrated her further. She raised her right hand again, only to be restrained by his strong grip. They stood locked in battle for a moment. Then, quick as a flash, Sirius released his hold on her left hand, raised his behind her head, took hold, and pulled her into his body. This kiss, more passionate than the one in the bedroom earlier, was deeper, more intimate, and surprisingly, consensual.

She was kissing him back.

There was a clearing of a throat behind them. Jumping out of their skins, Hermione and Sirius broke apart. Hermione began running for the stairs, not daring to look back. Sirius looked back to the door and grinned wildly.

“She’s got a fire in her I’m going to bottle.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little early to be chasing the cats, Padfoot?”

“Aw, come on, Moony. It was just a kiss. Heat of the moment type thing is all.”

Remus sat down in Hermione’s now empty seat. “Then perhaps the two of you should separate.”

“She said the same thing,” Sirius said with a huff as he sat down to his tea again.

Remus eyed his friend closely. It was something in his eyes that told the werewolf that there was something more to this than Sirius was letting on. Then it hit him. “How long?”

“What?”

“How long have you been harbouring these feelings for Hermione?”

Sirius hung his head lower. He had been found out. He slowly went to his feet again and stepped to the mantle. His voice was barely a whisper. “Since that night.”

Remus nodded at the empty chair across from him. He knew what night Sirius was referring to. The night Hermione found him in the dungeon of the Malfoy Manor. The night she saved his life and brought him back to the world of the living. “Does she know?”

“No. And she won’t know either, Moony! She doesn’t need that kind of pressure right now.”

“And kissing her is making her completely relaxed.”

“I thought Snivellus was the sarcastic one.”

“He’s rubbing off on me.”

Sirius opened his mouth, but Remus quickly added to his statement. “Don’t even say it, Black.”

Sirius just sat staring at the tea cup in his hand. He wasn’t really admiring the silver filigree in the handle. He was just trying to figure out how all this mess became so…well, messy.

The dark haired man stood up. “I’m going to bed. Oh, wait, was there something you came for, Remus?”

Remus’ eyebrows went into the edge of his scalp and his mouth dropped open. “Full moon, you dolt!”

Sirius smacked his forehead and quickly changed into his furry self.

Remus reached into his pocket for his wand and summoned a collar and a leash. “If you go anywhere near her room tonight, I won’t be afraid to use this.” The dark dog at his feet snarled and slowly moved to the back door. “Alright, I’m coming. I wish Severus would hurry up and find something to end all this torture.”

Snuffles nuzzled his best friend’s ankle in sympathy, then trotted out to the back yard when the door opened. It took a moment for the two friends to reach the make shift cabin Mr. Weasley and the twins built for Remus during the full moon. Remus locked the door behind him just as the full moon’s rays struck his skin.

Alone in the dark of her room, Hermione wiped the tears away as she heard a startling growl from the yard. The shrieking cry of her former professor made her rush to the window. She could see a large black dog sitting by the impenetrable window. At least they would be separated for tonight.

edit: corrected Snuffles...damn autofix.../sigh