This Is Love!

It was a rare, quiet night in the Gryffindor common room. With the end of another year fast approaching most were in the library trying to cram some last bits of information into their abused minds, while others had sealed themselves into their dorm rooms to weep brokenly. Those few who'd managed to retain a semblance of emotional normality had been summarily banned by one Hermione Granger, Head Girl. She'd refused to allow anyone else's marks to suffer because a selfish few wanted to enjoy this last month at Hogwarts.

It had come as a great shock, a very pleasant one though, when her best friends had sat down, shut up and studied, as she'd suggested. Ron particularly, was finally showing signs of interest in things academic - he'd frantically combed the library, tracking down everything the professors mentioned, even as offhand comments. He'd spent three hours researching Siamese cats for charms before Hermione had told him he was being ridiculous, Flitwick wasn't going to test them on his pet cat. She'd taken the book out his hands then - strictly speaking, she'd ripped the book from his desperate hands - and led her friend back to the common room. She'd been afraid to let him go back alone because he'd been suffering from intermittent hysterical blindness.

That experience and a rather nasty incident with a hopped up Neville - espresso didn't agree with the Longbottom constitution - had decided her. She finally had the chance to hold the brief seminar on study methods for her fellow students that she'd been dying to try for years. Attendance was spectacular and Hermione had finally felt vindicated and acknowledged as the superior creature that she was. Having Parvati and Lavender hanging on her every word and calling her Mistress hadn't hurt her ego either.

The results of that seminar could be seen in the beautiful quiet of the common room that night. With most off working according to Hermione's Principles, she, Harry, Ron and a few others who'd dared to remain in the Great One's presence could study in peace. The only sounds were the scratching of quills and the turning of pages. Even Ron had managed to get himself under control and was proceeding apace. She had high hopes for both her friends.

The blissful quiet was irrupted by the squeak of the portrait hole, swinging open. For some reason, soon after the Dark Lord's defeat, it had developed a pronounced squeak that resisted silencing charms, making it virtually impossible to sneak out of Gryffindor tower. None of the three had been amused. Sirius Black's head slowly appeared in the doorway. His eyes darted around the room before settling on Harry and he nodded sharply. His body quickly followed his head, as he all but jumped into the room and stalked over to where his godson sat, surrounded by teetering piles of books.

Hermione shot him a glare before returning to her own studying. She kept him just within her peripheral vision though, should he try to take Harry from his revision.

Sirius had stayed on at Hogwarts, as part of the repair effort and the rumor mill was fond of the notion that he might be returning to teach the following year. DADA was the likeliest position - the curse was still in full effect and their professor of the past year had been killed off in the Death Eater's final assault. Rather than cancel examinations, the Headmaster had decided to administer them himself. The mill rather fancied Mr. Black, so there was never any shortage of information on him. Apparently there was something about ex-convicts who cleaned up well that titillated Parvati and Lavender. Hermione of course had told them that they were being silly, Sirius Black wouldn't be teaching, as he hadn't a certificate. That perfectly logical statement had done nothing to quell the rumors though. It seemed her power was not yet absolute.

"Harry." Sirius hovered over his godson, positively bouncing with contained energy. Hermione frowned again. He was up to something. During the war she'd learned not to trust the mischievous man - he was good, honorable, kind and funny but trouble followed him like a bitch in heat. And he was always dragging Harry in with him.

Harry continued to read, apparently not aware of the nervous-seeming man standing far too close to his books for Hermione's comfort. She watched closely to make sure he didn't knock anything over. She was proud of Harry though, obviously he'd learned well as he was following Hermione's Principle Number Four to great effect.

"Harry," Sirius tried again, this time a bit louder. When he still wasn't noticed he leaned forward and gently tapped Harry's shoulder. If he had known beforehand that the boy hadn't slept in at least twenty-seven hours and was absolutely wired on tea and chocolate biscuits, he probably wouldn't have elected tapping. James, he remembered, had never taken well to being touched when he was revising on caffeine and sleeplessness. Too, it would have been a better idea if Harry hadn't been surrounded by waist-high precarious piles of heavy books.

Harry yelped and jumped back from the perceived threat, trying to assume a proper defensive posture from which to throw curses. The sudden flailing of his limbs had the decidedly negative affect of knocking over a stack of books. The stack with the heaviest and loudest books. Half tumbled straight to the floor while the others fell to either side, impacting other nearby books. Soon Harry's circle of revision was crumpling to the floor, with most books having the temerity to neatly avoid the rug, and sending up a cacophony of thumps, bangs and crunches. The crunches happened when some unfortunate book fell open, only to have its precious pages crushed by the cruel spin of one of its brothers.

The room housing four veterans of a long and bloody war, one would have thought that such a calamity could have been prevented. It seemed however, that falling books, unlike Death Eaters and Dark Lords were beyond the capabilities of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Sirius Black.

Harry, standing in the epicenter of all that chaos, stared dumbly at his godfather. "Umm," he said succinctly. Sirius nodded in agreement.

Ron pulled his head from a mammoth arcane text and peered around the room. "Has the Dark Lord risen?"

"No Ron," said Hermione. "I'm pretty sure he's still dead."

"Oh. Well what's all the noise then?"

A still dazed Harry turned to his friend. "Books," he said, pointing at the fallen.

Ron's eyes narrowed dangerously and his right developed a slow but erratic tic. Hermione was a little concerned that he might be starting another bout of blindness. If she had to lead him to the hospital wing one more time... "Potter, you may not have noticed, but some of us are just a bit concerned with revising for these itty bitty tests that only decide our whole future." His volume was increasing with every word. "You many have heard of them - NEWTS? And if you insist on throwing books, we'd appreciate it if you took yourself and your... your... books elsewhere." The last word was uttered as a near-scream and the other occupants of the room growled and thumped their fists against whatever was available in support. Ron settled back into his chair with careful dignity and pulled his book up in front of his face.

Harry blinked. He was too tired to be shocked or even affronted, so he mumbled something about the third floor and stumbled off with several of the larger books, a stack of parchment and some quills. He neglected to take any ink, not seeming to notice as he lurched out of the portrait hole. Sirius grabbed a bottle of ink and edged out after him, keeping his eyes on the glaring Gryffindors as he went.

As soon as the new telltale squeak was but a memory, the common room returned to its previous silence. Hermione huffed and grumpily levitated all Harry's spilled books back into neat stacks. She made sure to alphabetize them by subject while she was at it. She stomped silently back to her seat and turned back to her Arithmancy notes. Seconds later she was tucking them into her rucksack, swinging it over her shoulder and running out into the corridor. Muffled screaming about the noise could be heard as the Fat Lady swung back into her customary position.

Sirius was up to something, she was sure, and Harry needed to study. She stopped short, as neither of her prey was in sight and considered her options. There was just possibly a slight slowing of her acuities, she noticed, as she sifted through her mental library of charms. Selecting an appropriately subtle tracking charm, she made the requisite flick with her wand and was off again.

The war and now the repair effort had them all exhausted and jumping at shadows. The stocks of Pepper-Up and Wakefulness potions had been exhausted a few days ago and Snape was working frantically to resupply the school. Evidently caffeine and sugar were not acceptable substitutes, especially not in the form of chocolate. Apparently whatever medicinal value the substance had, could be dangerous when consumed in vast quantities to battle sleep deprivation. Just the other day Blaise Zabini had declared himself the Lizard King and promptly jumped from the Astronomy Tower. If it hadn't been for Madame Hooch's timely intervention, Hogwarts would have been left with only memories of his vibrant personality.

Hermione chased after the twin tiny red lights that represented Harry and Sirius, through all but deserted halls. Occasionally she saw another student, but all were so dazed, she felt there was nothing to worry about, no suspicions to be raised. She passed Susan Bones, who greeted her faintly and then turned back to banging her head into the wall rhythmically. Hermione waved a greeting as she raced past. She wondered if she shouldn't have stopped and helped the girl to the hospital wing. The thought soon left her mind though, as she became distracted by the pretty red lights she was following. What were they on about... oh yes. Harry.

It was probably grossly unfair to ask the students to write their exams after helping to defeat the Death Eaters, but it was as though canceling them hadn't really occurred to anyone. They were all so used to continuing despite the circumstances that they carried on. Everyone from the Headmaster to the smallest first year was so terribly exhausted that they pushed forward, almost automatically. And perhaps sitting exams would take all their minds off of the war and reestablish what passed for normal life. It was an angle she hadn't before considered - she was definitely slipping.

Hermione suppressed a yawn and came to a stuttering halt. Sirius' voice came from around the corner. She quickly extinguished her tracking spell and poked her head around the corner. Just doing a little reconnaissance before jumping into the situation, as Professor Bouchard had taught them before his untimely torture and death.

Harry was slumped against the wall for support. His arms hung limply at his sides and his books lay at his feet. They looked as though they'd suffered another fall. Sirius was bouncing with that same unnatural energy that she'd observed earlier. Perhaps he'd stolen an early sample of Pepper-Up from Snape, the potions were supposed to be available later in the day. He looked nervous though, she'd edged a little closer, enough so that she could hear their conversation clearly, if she strained a little.

"We need to talk," said Sirius. He clasped his hands behind his back for a moment then separated them and drew them through his hair then tapped his fingers together before him. Definitely nervous about something, she thought.

Harry yawned expansively and nodded blearily at his godfather. "Sure, ok. I have a second, but I need to get back to revision soon... is this about... the thing?" He trailed off uncertainly and tried to concentrate on Sirius.

Sirius pulled his eyebrows down and together. "Thing, Harry?"

"The thing with Snape," Harry pressed.

Sirius' breath hitched and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You... know about that?" He stared intently at Harry as if searching for something. Highly suspicious, Hermione thought.

A confused Harry stared at his godfather in return. "Um, everybody knows Sirius." Well that was a bit of an exaggeration, she thought. Only Ron, Harry and myself and that's hardly everybody. It's sloppiness like that, which earns you a fail on the NEWTS.

Sirius flew into a restrained panic at that and paced around the hallway. He even mustered the energy to wave his arms. People with that much energy should be hit with a bone-severing hex multiple times. Starting with the ankles and working up, she thought bitterly. "What do you mean everybody knows? How can they know? I only just found out last week!" Sirius stopped in front of his godson, and threw his hands to either side with gusto. Sickening, Hermione thought, he must have been involved with the dark Lord after all, to have that much energy. Just sickening.

"Huh?" Harry blinked again and stared up at Sirius a little dumbly.

Sirius, who had started pacing again stopped at Harry's confusion and turned back to him. "What? Are we talking about the same thing?"

"Er... I'm not sure." Harry scratched his head absently while watching Sirius with extreme wariness. Hermione too, watched him closely as she tried to edge still closer.

"Well what were you talking about," Sirius wheedled.

Harry was a bit more awake now and he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "You wanted to talk. What were you talking about," he asked, his tone a little hostile. Caffeine and sugar, she reminded herself.

"I asked you first," Sirius said evasively.

"Yes but- Nevermind. Well, after you spent all that time in the hospital wing, we figured that the last mission had gone badly." We, thought Hermione? I thought the mission had gone badly. Harry and Ron had decided that it was an attempted murder-suicide on the part of Snape.

Sirius folded his arms and raised an ironic eyebrow. It was an unusual gesture for him. Most suspicious. "Yes it's probably safe to assume that when someone comes back from a mission unable to walk, it didn't go all that well."

"And when Snape said something about a bond that night..." The last time the three of them had snuck out of Gryffindor tower at night, they'd gone to visit Sirius in the hospital wing, only to find him embroiled in a shouting match with Snape. Deciding that discretion was the better part of living, even for Gryffindors, they'd come back the nest night. "Well we figured that you'd saved his life and that was why he was being such an utter git. Well, even more of an utter git than normal. You know, the thing." Harry finished with a fairly confident nod but his assurance rapidly drained away in the face of Sirius' obvious bafflement.

"That thing," Sirius said flatly.

"Well, were we talking about the same thing?"

"No, I can say for certain that we were talking about two totally different things." Sirius fixed his gaze on the floor and shuffled his feet. Hermione edged still closer. After all this, she didn't want to miss anything, not that she was being nosy.

Harry patiently waited for Sirius to talk. And waited. He started tapping a foot, hoping that the man would get the message. Hermione silently decided that Sirius must have suffered some sort of brain damage during the war. Finally Harry spoke up. "So what's this new thing?"

"About that bond, Harry..." Sirius looked up into his godson's expectant eyes and bit his lips. Hermione had never seen the man look more nervous, not even during the worst parts of the war.

"Yes?" Sirius mumbled an answer then and Harry stood up straight in shock. The two hissed back and forth at each other, both of them waving their arms wildly. Severed, she thought, severed.

Harry pushed away from the wall and set to pacing himself, stumbling a bit over his books. "Shagging! You're shagging Snape!" Hermione choked audibly then caught herself. "What's wrong with you?" Harry yelled.

"Don't take that tone with me young man. I'm fully able to make mine own decisions."

"But... it's Snape. How could you... with Snape?"

"We're in love!" Sirius yelled. Hermione didn't take that announcement very well. She choked again and sputtered too for good measure. Sirius whipped around to face her. "Hermione, what are you doing there?" he hissed.

"Er..." One would think that a girl with Hermione's staggering intellect would be able to muster a better response than random syllables. But unfortunately for her, this was evidently not the case.

"Snape... but it's Snape..." mumbled Harry. "I don't... I don't feel so..." In unison, they turned to the incoherent Gryffindor, in time to watch him fall to the floor. Harry Potter had fainted.

Sirius blinked dumbly, as if unsure of what had just happened. "Best take him to the hospital wing," he said to Hermione. "Severus has just finished two batches of Pepper-Up and Wakefulness."

"Oh," she replied.

Sirius cast mobilicorpus on the unconscious Harry and ambled off to the hospital wing, with Hermione in tow. "He didn't take the news very well, did he?"

"Professor Snape, sir?"

"Oh shut up, Hermione."