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Sirius groaned as he slowly woke up and sat up in bed. He held his head in his hands not caring about being naked as the hangover pounded in his head in time with his heart. Moaning he accio the hangover potion he knew was in the bathroom to his hand and slung it back like an old pro. Scanning the hotel that had been his home for the last three days his eyes landed on the brunette in his bed.

His heart seemed to stop as he took her in; she was laying on her stomach her facing away from him. Long curly light brown hair fell across her back and covered part of her face. A smile played at the corner of his mouth as he reached out and lovingly touch the hair on her face behind her ear. The woman moaned and opened her eyes, dark green met his dark ones and the illusion shattered.

Sirius jumped to his feet as if bitten, “Get out!” He growled as he leaned agenst the dresser. His eyes landed on the picture laying there. It was of her, he was standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her and they were both smiling. She had just made a breakthrough on the cure for lycanthropy and everyone had been celebrating. Tonks had wanted her picture but she didn’t like being the center of attention. He being the flirt he was had wrapped her in his arms and held her still so Tonks could get the picture. As he looked at it she blushed bright red and hid her face in his arm and he winked at the camera.

Arms came around his waist and the woman rested her head agenst his back. She was about the same height and if he closed his eyes he could almost pretend it was her. It was probably why he had brought her back last night when he had been trying to drink him self to death. He growled and threw the picture in a draw before slamming it shut. “I said leave.”

“Fine,” she huffed storming around the room grabbing her stuff and getting dressed. “I don’t know who this Mione is you kept calling me last night is, but if you really loved her you better treat her better then how you treated me while I was trying to give you some comfort.” With that she slammed the hotel door shut a second before an empty shot glass hit the door and shattered.

“Fuck!” He growled and ran his hands thru his hair before heading for the shower. What he wanted was to get drunk again but he promised Remus that he would meet him for dinner and if he got drunk before then he wouldn’t make it. He ignored the tears that had started falling silently from his eyes.

***

Hermione glared at Tonks as she came bounding in to the kitchen of Sirius’s house. The Aurora’s hair was a bright yellow to match her sundress and for once Hermione missed her mousy brown hair from when she and Remus were having problems. Frankly everyone was way too happy and should be a miserable as she was.

“So how was the date last night?” Tonks said ignoring the glare she received. In three days she hadn’t seen her friend smile or work on a project or even open a book. The fact she had even kept the date with Draco that she had made over a week ago was a miracle.

“There was a reason I kept telling him no for months,” Hermione growled as she sipped her coffee when all she wanted to do was get into Sirius’s wine cellar. “He wanted a date with the war hero and famous inventor. I swear if he had pointed out one more time why we were a good match I would have decked him again like I did in third year. I don’t know who gave him the title Slytherin sex god because he was the worse lay I ever had.”

Tonks spit her coffee out as she had been taking a sip when Hermione said this. “Merlin Mione why did you sleep with him if you had such a horrible time?”

“Trying to get someone else out of my system,” Hermione sighed as a tear slipped down the side of her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and forced a smile. “Good news I think I found a place of my own so I’ll be moving soon.”

“What ever for?” Tonks asked looking horrified at the thought.

“Oh don’t get me wrong Tonks, Sirius has been a great friend and I’m not sure what I would have done if he hadn’t let me move in here after the war.” Hermione forced a smile. “I need to move on now; I’m never going to get anyone with him scaring them away. You know Harry’s best friend gets me the special privilege of over protective god father. Plus he’s been gone for three nights, which says to me, he has met someone and doesn’t want to scare her off by bring her home to meet the little sister.”

“He dose not think of you as a little sister.” Tonks grumbled.

“How is he?” Hermione asked as she stared at her cup of coffee.

Tonks smiled half heartedly and ran her hand through her hair which seemed to lose some of its brightness. “What happened between you two? You were so close and now… well it’s not pretty.”

“I over stepped our bounds.” Hermione barely felt the tears as she swallowed. “Funny thing is we were completely sober and I kissed him. We had been having a good day like we always did he was flirting which was normal and He hugged me, yet again normal, then I reached up and pulled his head down and kissed him.”

“So this whole avoiding each other is about a kiss?” Tonks asked though she didn’t believe it.

“No the kiss led to other things.” Hermione blushed. “The next morning when I woke up in his room he was gone a long with most of his stuff. I’m not sure what I did to make him leave his own house. I don’t understand.” Tonks wrapped her arms around Hermione and started rubbing her back. “There are too many memories here and if he hates what happened so much then I’m going to leave. After everything he has done for me it’s the least I can do.”

“Do you feel anything for him?” Tonks asked.

“I think I’ve fallen in love with him.” Hermione admitted. “He doesn’t love me though so I’m not going to force it. I’ll move and he can come back to his home add another notch to his bed post and move on with his life.”

“Oh Mione it’s not like that.” Tonks sighed and pulled away from her. “I know there is a restaurant in that new hotel. Why don’t we go out just us girls have a nice meal then go to the bar and get smashed.”

“Now there is a plan I could go for.” Hermione said forcing a laugh.

“Good let me floo Remus so he knows not to stay up waiting for me then we’ll get you dressed.” Tonks said as she stood up and headed to the study to use the floo.

***

“So why are you avoiding Hermione?” Remus asked his friend as he looked around the hotel room Sirius had been hiding in. He had gotten a very interesting floo call from Tonks before heading over here. Now he need to hear Sirius side of things to know where to push to get them back together. Everyone even Harry had seen how happy they were together and bets had been placed on when they would realize it. No one had foreseen this happening.

“She deserves better,” Sirius grumbled more to him self then Remus. “I took advantage of the girl if you must know. I was her friend and I let things get out of hand. Now she can have the house and I’ll just live.”

“You call this living?” Remus asked motioning to the empty firewhisky bottles. “You might as well go home Sirius. Hermione doesn’t want to keep you out of your house and can’t stay there with all the memories of the man she loves all over the place. She is moving out.”

Remus watched him stiffen and smiled as his suspicions were confirmed. “Enough with this though I came to have dinner with you and go drinking.”

“Now that’s a plan.” Sirius sighed as he pulled his hair back into a ponytail, he secured it with one of the hair ties Hermione had given to him so he wouldn’t get hair in her potions when he helped her in the lab.

They came down the stairs and into the lobby when Sirius eyes found her. She was wearing a short dark red dress with a high neck line to hide her scares. He knew she hated when people stared and she always assumed it was because of them. He had told her constantly that is was because she was gorgeous and she would blush and tell him that he didn’t have to lie to her. His feet move of there own accord and brought him straight to her side. “You look lovely Mione.”

Hermione blushed as she met his dark soulful eyes. “You know you don’t have to lie to me Sirius.”

“How have you been?” He asked trying not to sound desperate to know how she was.

“My best friend left me with out telling me what I did wrong.” Hermione said through clenched teeth trying not to cry. She turned to Tonks knowing her and Remus had set them up trying to get them to talk. “I’m sorry Tonks I can’t do this, Sirius the house is yours I will be out of it by tomorrow night.” With that she turned and fled before she started crying again.

***

Hermione knelt in front of a box slowly packing it, she was a witch and could easily flick her wand and have everything done in a matter of minutes. Yet doing it this way seemed to bring closure, or maybe that was the cheep wine that was doing that. She took another sip of the dark red liquid and grabbed another book to go in the box. A picture fell out and drifted slowly to the floor.

She set the book down and slowly picked up the picture tears coming to her eyes as she looked at it. There was Sirius standing behind her; one of his arms was around her waist the other around her shoulder preventing her from escaping as Tonks took the picture. She was blushing furiously going as far as trying to hide her face in the crook of his arm while he winked and even blew a kiss at the camera.

Smiling she ran a finger down the side of his face and tears once again sprang to her eyes. “I’m so sorry for chasing you away Sirius,” She said saying to the picture what she wanted to say to the man. “I fell in love with you and acted on it, I didn’t mean to make you leave. I want you to come back home, I want to go back to the way it was when we were both happy.”

“But that is the problem Mione we can never go back to the way it was.” Sirius said from where he was standing behind her. She was startled and he used that as he quickly crossed the distance between them and pulled her up. With out giving her a chance he claimed her mouth and wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her closer. He waited until she started responding and relaxed in his arms before he pulled back to talk to her. “Please don’t leave Mione. I was a fool I realized that night that I loved you and it scared the hell out of me. I figured you would be better off with out me and I ran. I’m a stupid moron who doesn’t deserve you but I can’t get you off my mind. I can’t live life this way, please forgive me and stay.”

Tears coursed down her face as she looked into his eyes, “I love you Sirius Black, of course I forgive you.” She reached up and pulled his head down to kiss him again losing her self in his taste and smell. The picture of them fell out of her hand and drifted once again to the floor where it landed face up with both of them smiling at the Camera.