Life Reborn

Sirius’ POV

Opening the door to his best friend lifts such a weight off his shoulders, he was sure Harry, Hermione and Remus were able to see the shift in the way he was holding his body. His muscles relaxing a bit, he was standing a little less stiff, and a deep sigh escapes his body. “Moony,” his voice cracks as he envelopes the man standing before him in a tight hug. “It is so good to see you, I’ve been so worried about you.” He leads Remus into the house wrapping an arm over his shoulders, a grin spreading ear to ear on his face.

“It is so good to see you again too, Padfoot,” Remus jabs Sirius in the ribs with his elbows, getting out from his grip. “Harry, Hermione, how are the two of you doing? Harry, I am sorry to hear about the hearing. You will be fine though, even if you don’t get the best results. You could just live here with your godfather and I” a sly smile on his face as he winks at Sirius.

“Professor Lupin, I am doing alright, thank you. I am still so sorry your secret was revealed to the public – you were the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we’ve had.” Hermione sighs deeply.

“Hermione, please call me Remus, I’m no longer your professor, and I am about to be your roommate.” Remus sighs while wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “You can’t blame yourself for that, I shouldn’t have hidden it in the first place. The public had a right to be upset and see me terminated, I was, and will always be a risk to them.”

“Moony, you are not a risk, you are so careful, and that was one night. You’ve had years and years of transformations where nothing happened.” Sirius sat down, sighing deeply. He couldn’t help but worry about Moony, he knew that coming so close to hurting Harry, Hermione and Ron had scarred him, he just didn’t know how badly. Looking over at Moony, he could see the regret in his eyes. The hurt. The fear. His wish for his best friend was to take it all away, and the only way he knew how to help would be to keep him safe in his home. He wants to talk to Moony about helping Harry and Hermione find their animagus forms so that they could all be together during the full moons. Hopefully having a way to know he can’t hurt the two teens in their care would make him realise he is still in control of his lycanthropy. 

“Sirius, if I had been more careful, if I had been thinking, I would never have left the Shrieking Shack to follow you all. I was distracted and wanted my revenge on Pettigrew.” Remus starts spiralling. ”I almost killed you all; your fast thinking and changing into your animagus form is the only thing that saved everyone. I deserve to be banished, never allowed to set foot in the wizarding world again.” Remus’ face floods with tears, he falls to the floor in a pile, his sobs drowning out the words he was mumbling.

Hermione walks up to him, resting a hand on his back. “Prof – Remus, please, you were worried about the safety of us, you wanted to free your best friend from his wrongful conviction. You tried to do the right thing, you injured only one of us, and that, well that is on him, “Hermione smiles up at Sirius, who knew he was the one she was talking about.

“If I would have stayed away, you would have been successful in freeing Sirius legally. Pettigrew,” Remus spits the rat’s name, “would have been caught, and he never would have been able to help the Dark Lord rise.” He shifts into a sitting position, still looking down at the floor, his head hanging in shame.

“Nonsense, Pettigrew would have escaped either way, he’d been sneaking around for this long and he knew how to do it.” Harry finally spoke up, “Nobody is to blame here, except for that rat and the Dark Lord.”

“Well, since we are the topic of animagi – Remus, a word,” Sirius smiles. “In private, you two,” he snickers while looking at the two teens. He walks over to where Remus is still sulking and gives him a hand up, leading him to his study; he can hear the two teens' curious voices wondering what he could have meant. Silencing the room, Sirius sits in the chair behind the desk, a smirk on his face. “Would you like to help me with a new project?” he asks Remus.

“What kind of project are we talking about Sirius?” Remus questions he begins to look nervous, Sirius is sure that Remus is questioning all the plans he and James came up with back in their school days. They sure did get into a lot of trouble back when they were younger.

“Ah, projects,” Sirius winks. The first one is, how would you like to help me teach Harry and Hermione how to find their animagus forms?” Sirius knows he is risking making Remus even more upset, but it was better than working on the project behind his back.

“You want to do what?!” Remus exclaims, starting to get red in the face. “Do you know how irresponsible that is?”

“Remus, just hear me out for a minute. I would like to help them find their animagus forms, so they can help me keep you company when you transition. They will be safer if they are in animal form than if they were to stay here and be human – you and I both know that. Don’t you think it would be better to learn from us, than to try to do this on their own?” Sirius was trying to convince Remus that this was the best option for everyone, and he secretly couldn't wait to run around with Harry in animagus form. He was curious what form Harry would take.

“I’m not opposed to the idea, but do you think it would be smart with Harry’s hearing? I just don’t want to jeopardise his future at Hogwarts more than necessary” Remus says, voice full of concern.

“Maybe we can get them the information for now, and then help more actively once the hearing is over.” Sirius replies, hoping this meant that Remus was already on board.

“That sounds good. Let’s talk to them about it now, it’s only a few days till the hearing. We should also prepare Harry for the hearing, Hermione will be a great help with any research we will need.” Remus was already heading out of the study and down the stairs before Sirius had a chance to respond.

“Hermione, Harry – can you meet us in the front room? Sirius and I have a few things to discuss with you.” Remus calls out, not knowing where the teens were. Hermione and Harry were already in the front room when Sirius and Remus walked in, they were sitting on the sofa chatting with each other oblivious to their entrance. “Should we just let them talk? It looks pretty intimate.” Remus questions Sirius, giving him a look.

“Let’s let them talk, I’m going to head to bed. We can talk to them tomorrow,” Sirius whispers as he turns around and leaves the front room's entryway, and up the stairs to his room.

“I will see you in the morning. Sleep well, Padfoot.” Remus replies as he heads to the room he has chosen to sleep in.

Hermione’s POV

When Remus and Sirius leave the room to talk, Hermione sinks into the sofa, Harry falling into the seat beside her, both of them releasing a deep sigh. Hermione’s thoughts go back to when Professor Lupin’s secret went public after Sirius was found at Hogwarts. Professor Lupin almost killed all of them when he turned outside of the Shrieking Shack, even though he was taking his wolfsbane. All of the emotions from that evening were overly heightened. It wasn’t really Lupin’s fault, but everyone took it out on him. Soon after he disappeared, apparently on missions for Dumbledore. Hermione wondered what he was doing. Was it safe? Why can’t he talk about it? “I’m worried about Professor Lupin.” Hermione mutters, not realising she spoke the last part out loud.

“I think we need to find a way to show him that he won’t hurt us, that it was an accident, and that most importantly we trust him completely.” Harry’s voice startles Hermione, causing her to jump in her seat. “Oh I didn’t mean to scare you, were you lost in thought again?”

“I didn’t realise I had spoken out loud, so I wasn’t expecting a response, sorry Harry. I agree with you though, we need to find a way to help Professor Lupin trust us and himself again. Do you think there is a way? Or will it just take some time.” Hermione’s voice trembles.

“Well, we could do what my dad did, and surprise him with becoming animagi. I’ve always wondered what my form would be.” Harry says with a hint of sadness.

“Sirius did mention that he would help us, do you think he will talk to Remus about it. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if he did.” Hermione’s voice is soft, and full of sad contemplation. She stands up and starts pacing the room, worrying about everything all at once. What will Ron think of how close her and Harry have been getting? Will Harry talk to Ron about his distrust of Dumbledore? How are they going to protect Remus and Sirius? Are there other people in the Order that don’t trust Dumbledore, or is everyone happy with following the old man blindly? Is her friendship with Harry just that, or is there something more to it? She doesn’t really feel for Ron the way she did 2 years ago, but something deep down inside her keeps pulling her towards Harry. Should she follow it and potentially ruin their friendship? Or does she stay friends and just ignore it? “Harry, how are we going to keep Sirius safe? We can’t risk him being seen by anyone that isn’t one hundred percent trustworthy. I don’t even know who to put on that list right now.”

“Remus, you and myself, that is who is on my list of people who I can trust to keep Sirius safe, and out of the eyes of the Wizengamot and the Ministry until his name has been cleared.” Harry didn’t even hesitate at her question. “With Remus also not being trusted by the Ministry we need to be extra cautious, no looking for trouble, we have to be careful everywhere we go. My hearing is coming up, we need to keep our noses down until after that. Once that’s done then we can figure out how to get Sirius cleared, and Remus’ name back in the good books. One thing at a time Hermione, we have all summer to figure it all out.”

Hermione sighs, stops her pacing and walks back to the sofaF to slump into the seat. She leans into Harry and thinks for a minute; about their conversation and about Harry. Her mind made up, she knows that Ron will be upset but she can’t deny the feelings she has for Harry, and now is the best time to see if he is feeling the same way. Out of the prying eyes of everyone else. Harry’s arms wrap around her almost instinctively, protectively. She sighs deep and turns her face towards him.

“We’ve been through so much, I just wish we could have a normal summer. It would be nice to be a normal teenager before we aren’t even teenagers anymore.” Bracing herself for him to pull away, she plants a small kiss on Harry’s cheek. “I haven’t even been able to have a summertime crush since I found out about the wizarding world.” Blushing slightly she starts to sit up, but Harry pulls her back against his chest, she can feel his heart beating.

“I’ve never had a summer crush either, never got to really be normal at all during the time I spent at the Dursleys. I wonder what it would be like to do normal teenager things, going to the zoo, or the beaches, and movies with friends. All the normal muggle things. Maybe one summer you and I can attempt it, just to see how it feels.” Harry wraps his hands around hers, and kisses the top of her head.

They both look up at the same time and notice shadows walking away from the entrance of the front room. Realising they were just caught sitting so close together they started laughing, a mix of embarrassment, tiredness and nervousness. Looking into Harry’s eyes Hermione could see that he was just as embarrassed as she was, but she wasn’t about to let this talk go to waste. She quickly leans in, and gives Harry’s lips a small peck, only hoping he will feel the same way. As she pulls back away she sees the shock in Harry’s eyes but also the glimmer of hope. Before he says anything she stands up, yawning, and mumbles softly, “I think we should head to bed, we can talk more tomorrow, when we are fresh and re-energised.”

Harry only nods, as he too stands up. Together they climb the stairs to the hallway that lead to their rooms. Turning to each other, wide grins on their faces, they wish each other a good night and walk into their separate rooms.

Hermione falls onto her bed, her mind racing. Did she really just kiss Harry, and did he accept it? Or was that just her mind playing tricks on her? She hopes that this will be the start of a new path in her life. Harry means so much to her. Hopefully kissing him doesn’t ruin things. As quickly as her mind races, it suddenly settles on Ron. What is she going to do about Ron? He can’t find out, not yet. He will ruin everything, she thinks to herself. Harry doesn’t trust him, so maybe they can keep this a secret if it goes any further. At least until they know just where this is going. As her mind races from thought to thought her eyes drift shut, and she falls asleep. Dreaming of what the future holds for Harry and herself.