Hermione Lyra Black

Sirius woke up alone on the sofa-transfigured-bed with a moment of panic, thinking he had lost Hermione on his first day with her. But then he heard her talking in the kitchen and breathed a sigh of relief.

She was talking to his waste of a space house-elf, who was making his signature breakfast. It consisted of dry slices of bread, beet hummus, beet juice, beet salad and fried beets. Sirius hated beets, and even though he never ate the breakfast the elf created, Kreacher continued to make it every day just to spite him.

"Who are you?" she asked the house-elf.

Kreacher huffed.

"It's rude not to answer questions." The little girl proclaimed when the elf ignored her.

"That's Kreacher, Hermione." Sirius decided to intervene before the elf could be rude to her.

"What is he?" Hermione asked, looking up at her father.

"A house-elf. Have you never seen a house-elf before?"

She frowned and shook her head. "Why won't he answer me?"

"Because he is a rude, nasty little creature who doesn't know how to respect his family," Sirius responded, glaring at the elf.

"Hey! That's mean." Hermione said, placing her tiny fists on her hips. "Mémé says you shouldn't be mean to people."

"Yeah, of course not. But he's not a person, sweetie. He is a house-elf. And he is a really terrible one at that." He mumbled the last sentence.

She looked at the house-elf before frowning at Sirius. "That is really mean. Apologise to him. When you're mean, you have to say you're sorry."

"I'm not going to apologise to that evi.." Sirius trailed off as Hermione's lip wobbled. "Okay, okay. Stop. I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry."

"You have to say it to Kreacher, not to me." The pout still firmly on her face.

'Oh, you have got to be kidding me', Sirius thought. He sighed. "Kreacher, I'm sorry I was mean to you. Can you please forgive me?"

The house elf huffed, "Kreacher lives to serve the noble house of Black".

Sirius looked at Hermione as if to ask if that was good enough, and the little girl beamed up at him.

"Well, that's going to be fun in the future," Remus said from the doorway.

"For the love of all great wizards. You try to say no to those eyes." Sirius responded.

As they all sat down to eat, or in Remus and Sirius' case, drink coffee, as no human on this earth could eat beets and beets alone for breakfast, he noticed that Hermione's plate was filled with fried eggs, different variations of meats and fresh vegetables. He exchanged a bewildered look with Remus.

"Smoothie, for the special little miss," Kreacher said as he placed a big glass of smoothie before Hermione.

Hermione seemed happy and was swaying her feet back and forth. She was about to eat when she looked at Remus and Sirius' plates. Then she frowned again. "Why don't you have any food?"

"We didn't get any", Sirius responded.

"Kreacher made special food for special miss." The elf stated.

"That's not fair. You have to make food for everyone." She said to the elf.

"I made beets." He stated, raising his long nose in the air.

"No! Everyone has to get the same thing. Méme says you have to be fair, Kreacher!" She scolded the elf.

Sirius didn't know if he should be afraid or proud of the little girl.

Kreacher bowed his head in defeat. "Kreacher lives to serve the noble and ancient house of Black."

Two seconds later, their plates were filled with the same as Hermione's. Only Remus' meat was severely overcooked, and Sirius' plate was doused in beet juice. 'Petty little shit', Sirius thought.

Hermione was smiling again. "Thank you, Kreacher!" she said and began eating.

They both looked at their plates with disdain, but after a wide, hopeful look from Hermione, they both dug in.

"Told you", Sirius whispered to Remus.

The food was horrible. But at least Kreacher had given them smoothies. Sirius took a big gulp out of his drink, and wouldn't you know. Fucking beet-smoothie.

Narcissa had reassured Sirius that she had talked with Harry about Hermione the day before and that he was fine, “He seemed excited even”, she had said. Sirius had also had a brief floo call with him last night, and he seemed fine then. But that didn't mean Sirius was any less nervous about Harry coming home. 

After breakfast, Remus went to work. He worked as a librarian in the muggle world. Sirius often thought he was overqualified for the job, but they had already had that argument countless times before, so he wasn’t going there again any time soon. Remus was too afraid his lycanthropy would be discovered if he got a job in the wizarding community. 

After that Hermione had wanted to know more about house elves and asked if he had a book about them. 

"I don't think there is a book about house elves, Hermione." He answered, petting her head. 

She shrugged his hand away. "But how do you know anything about them without a book?" 

"I don't know, we just do. Not everything can be found in a book, you know?" 

She frowned. "Hmm. I don't think that's right. I have a book at Mémé's house, with loads of information about the world. I learned almost everything I know from it. It's an EN-CY-CLO-PED-I-A." She said, making sure she enunciated it correctly. 

"Oh, I know. Do you have an enclyclopedia?" she rushed out excitedly, messing up the word in her haste. 

Sirius couldn't help but grin down at her excitement. "Why don't we go see?" 

They were in the library scouring the books looking for an encyclopedia, or a book about house elves, when Narcissa came through the floo with Harry. 

They heard footsteps running up the stairs. "Harry James Potter! Calm down. You're going to scare her." Narcissa piped from downstairs. 

"You ready to meet Harry?" Sirius asked her. 

Hermione didn't answer, but she grabbed his hand. 

Harry rushed through the door. "Is that her?" He asked Sirius. 

Sirius nodded. "Hermione, this is Harry. Harry, this is Hermione." 

The meeting went better than Sirius could have hoped. Hermione was a bit scared to let go of Sirius, but after Sirius had proposed they read a book together all three, she quickly warmed up to Harry. 

"Do you know Kreacher?" She asked Harry in the middle of Sirius's book reading. 

Harry frowned. "Yeah. He's not very nice, though. Has he been mean to you? He's not allowed to be mean to you. I can talk to him?" 

Hermione looked confused. "No, I think he's just grumpy. He's not mean." 

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe." 

Sirius continued to read. He got through 1,5 pages before Hermione talked again. "Do you think he's lonely? Maybe he just wants someone to play with?" 

"What is your obsession with the nasty little creature, Hermione?" Sirius asked, finding her obsession with Kreacher quite strange. 

"Stop calling him that." She nearly shouted. "His name is Kreacher." The lights in the room flickered, and all the books flew off the bookshelf.

"Wicked!" Harry exclaimed. "That was soo cool! Can you do it again?"

"Misses called for Kreacher." The elf appeared before them and frowned at the state of the room. 

Hermione looked around, her lip started to wobble, and her eyes started to fill with tears. 

"No. No, it's okay! Don't be afraid. Your magic just came out. It happens! And it was soo cool, right Harry?" Sirius tried to placate her.

"Yeah. Once, I gave all my vegetable legs, and they ran from my plate. And once, Draco made his body fly all on his own when his mum said he couldn't fly on his broom. That was wicked!"

Hermione sniffed, "Really?"

"Yeah, it just means you have lots of magic inside you that needs to come out", Harry said. 

"My Mémé had magic. And my mom!" she said, looking at Sirius. 

"Yeah, I know! And all of us do as well." 

"Do you have magic, Kreacher?" she asked the elf. 

"Kreacher has elf magic. It's different from our magic." Sirius said.

"I asked Kreacher, not you." She stated firmly, pointing at Sirius. 

'Kitten has claws', Sirius mumbled lowly, ensuring she couldn't hear him. 

"How will I be friends with him if you won't let him speak to me?" she asked earnestly. 

"I don't think." Harry tried. "I don't think Kreacher wants to be your friend Hermione." He said tentatively. 

"How would you know? Have you asked him?" She nearly scolded Harry. 

"Kreacher, why don't you clean this up?" Sirius said, nodding at the room. Afraid this would turn into another debacle. 

"Kreacher lives to serve the house of black." He said and started to clean. 

"Then I will also clean," Hermione stated, hopping off Sirius's lap and beginning to gather books. 

"I think we should try to steer clear of the Kreacher topic from now on," Sirius whispered to Harry as they watched Hermione talking to the elf, who ignored her. He didn't, however, shoo her away or say nasty things to her, so Sirius guessed that was progress. 

Over the years, Hermione continued to prove that she did, in fact, have claws. And earned her nickname ‘kitten’ tenfold over. 

She earned it by defending Sirius whenever Kreacher was mean to him. 

"Stop giving him beets! He doesn't like them, Kreacher!" 

Sirius grinned at that. "Yeah, stop giving me beets, you nasty little shit." 

"Stop calling him names. How do you expect him to be nice to you when you are horrible to him?" 

She also earned it when she defended Kreacher whenever Sirius was mean to him.

She earned it defending Harry whenever Harry and Draco got into a tiff.

Harry had been hit by the bludger while Draco and Harry played a pickup quidditch game with some friends, and Draco had laughed at him for falling off his broom.

As soon as Draco had hit the ground, Hermione had hit him right on the nose. 

"Laugh at my brother again and see what happens."

Draco groaned. "Do you have to do that every time?" He asked as he tried to stop the bleeding. 

"Do you have to be such a prat all the time?" She responded, and the other boys started laughing. 

She also earned it defending Draco whenever someone was mean to him. 

"What's so funny?" She asked them. She went up to Ron, the one she found most annoying. "You got something to say?" He shook his head. "Thought so," she said as she walked towards the house.

"Draco fell on his face again," she said as she walked past the adults. 

Narcissa frowned. "We have got to get her to stop doing that," she said. While Sirius beamed with pride, "Never," he said. 

She earned the nickname when she demanded she needed a beastly-looking cat. And again, when defending said beastly-looking cat whenever anyone pointed out it was, in fact, a beastly-looking cat. (Sirius was quite fond of the cat actually, as the cat was fond of Padfoot. That didn't mean it wasn't a ugly looking thing though.) 

"You better stop that before I learn transfiguration and transfigure you into rats for him to eat," she had told Harry and Draco. 

Once again, Sirius wasn't sure if he should be afraid or proud. 

The list went on and on. 

She never let Sirius get away with cheating in games.

She earned it when Lucius was bigoted, and she politely explained why what he was saying was wrong. And by politely, he meant she held a 40-minute lecture with pictures and graphs and numbers. 

She earned it when she got mad at Remus when he said he didn't want to take a job in the wizarding world because of his lycanthropy. She earned it when she was constantly trying to convince him to become a teacher at Hogwarts. She had yet to succeed, but Sirius suspected she was making headway. 

She earned the nickname when she defended Narcissa when all the boys ganged up on her. Or when she told the ladies that were gossiping in the icecream shop that: “My aunt has more class in her pinkie finger than all of you have in your whole bodies combined. Which is why she’s pretending she isn’t hearing you talking bad about her when we are quite literally right here.”

She earned it when she gave Rita Skeeter blue hair the time she tried to ambush them for an interview with Harry in Florean Fortescue. 

She earned it that time they were out in public, and she gave the people not leaving Harry alone a tiny shock when they tried to shake his hand.

And she earned it when she politely told all the staring people in Diagon that it was not nice to stare by sticking their eyelids shut. 

But Hermione wasn't only righteous indignation. She was also kind, funny and loving. 

She was quickly becoming everyone's favourite. And for as much as she defended everyone else, everyone else supported her twice over. 

Harry and Draco had made a pact to make sure no one or nothing could hurt her for the rest of their lives. 

They learned quickly that that was impossible. And whenever she got a skinned knee or hurt herself somehow, they fought each other over whose fault it was. 

Hermione was, for some reason, scared of thunderstorms, and Harry and Draco fought over who would get to sleep with her whenever a storm was on the way. Usually, they convinced Sirius to expand her bed, and they both slept with her. 

They had an ongoing competition on who was her favourite. Sirius suspected it was both.

Remus loved that he had someone he could share all his knowledge with. And that someone loved it just as much as he did.

Hermione also always made sure they were stacked on all things chocolate and made hot coca with Kreacher every morning after the full moon.  

Once a month they had a chocolate tasting, trying to find the best flavours. That ment more to Remus than he could put into words. 

Lucius and Hermione played wizarding chess together. Something he enjoyed very much. He loved watching her getting closer and closer to beating him. He also spoiled her rotten, giving her whatever she wanted just by looking at him. He was, in fact, the one that got her the cat when everyone else said no. 

Narcissa was ecstatic to have a little girl to spoil, and they had a monthly girl's day. Where they ate Ice cream and went shopping. It was a golden rule that the monthly girl's day was a judging-free day where they both could ask and share whatever they wanted.

Narcissa taught her different beauty charms and everything about society. Both the bad and the good. Hermione treasured that day above all else. She liked that she could ask and learn about everything without any stigma. She also liked that she always got honest answers from her aunt.  

Even Kreacher loved Hermione. He had ever since the start. He called her his special little miss. Gave her special treats. (That she often forced him to give to Harry and Draco as well). And he even played tea party with her, something Hermione always found hysterical as he was a grumpy tea-party-goer. 

Which again was something Sirius and the boys also found hysterical. And whenever Hermione caught them laughing at Kreacher, they were forced to participate, often in elaborate dresses and jewellery. The only one participating voluntarily was Lucius. He would do whatever she wanted. 

And through Hermione, Kreacher had slowly warmed up to the other as well. Maybe not as much Sirius, but he only gave him beets occasionally, so Sirius couldn't complain. 

As for Sirius. Hermione was his whole world. She and Harry. Nothing made him happier than finding her bed empty at night because she had gone to Harry's bed to sleep. 

Or when he woke up because she snuck into his bed.

Or when Harry and Draco tried to convince her to get on a broom, and the horror on her face at the idea.

Or watching her reorganising the library for the hundredth time with Kreacher. 

Or seeing her face light up whenever they went to Flourish & Blotts. 

Or when she argued Remus about his profession and his lycantrophy. 

He especially loved their night-time routine, where they read a book together. They had one rule, and that was that it had to be a fun book. They often fought over what qualified as a fun book though. 

He loved her vicious streak as much as he loved her kind heart. 

But his favourite. His favourite was when she called him daddy.