Chapter 5 - Hyde Park

18 August 1979, evening

Hermione was sitting out on her porch, having a cup of tea while watching the sunset. She saw Sirius probably making his way to the apparition point that was just ahead of the street corner from her. She saw his face turn towards her cottage and their eyes met. She smiled softly at him, looking up through her lashes and he smiled at backed. He walked over to her and sat down beside her, "how come you never replied to my owl?"

"I don't own an owl and yours flew away before I could finish my letter. I didn't know how to contact you" replied Hermione shrugging her shoulders, apologetically.

"And here I thought you were gonna break my heart Emilia" he said putting a hand to his chest dramatically. Hermione grinned looking towards him.

"Come on let's go inside and talk. It's getting cold outside." Hermione got up and walked inside the cottage, Sirius trailing behind her.

"Your house is really nice Em..." Sirius said looking around. He hung his coat on the rack and followed her into the kitchen.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Hermione asked a little awkwardly. She had never been good at making small talk with people.

"Nah, just had some at James' home. I just dropped by to see Lily." he replied shrugging his shoulders.

"How's Lily? I haven't seen her in a while" she replied perking up immediately.

"She's good as can be with all of this going around. A few order members went missing last month during a mission. Caradoc Dearborn became a good friend of ours during the missions we were assigned together. It's been hitting Lily a little hard right now." Sirius replied with sadness and dejection in his voice that Hermione had heard only in her time.

"I've been meaning to set up a shopping date with her but work keeps getting in the way. I'll make sure I see her soon." Hermione vowed. She was so busy planning with Dumbledore all the missions that were to be set for the order and their own personal hunt that she had put the Potters' on a backburner in her mind.

"She'd like that I think..." Sirius replied, "On another note, did you have any dinner plans by chance?"

"No, Sirius I haven't made any plans for dinner yet." she grinned at him.

"Well then let's go out. You and me. On a date." Sirius grinned back. Hermione rolled her eyes while laughing.

"Yes, okay. Let's go get some pizza. I don't wanna dine fancy." Hermione replied getting up from her stool.

"What's a pizza?" Sirius asked quizzically.

"You've got to be kidding me! You've never had a pizza! You're seriously missing out my dude. Let me go get changed and we can go to the one near hyde park in London." Hermione said rapidly. She apparated up to her closet and picked out her favourite black flared jeans along with a striped long sleeve shirt and black boots. After running a combing charm spell through her hair she tied it up in a loose ponytail and went downstairs. She had tucked her wand in her right boot and went downstairs grabbing her wallet.

She disapparated them in a back alley near Sophia's Pizzeria that she had come to love in the weeks she had been there. The pizza there was to die for and had become a quick favourite of hers. By the fourth time she had made it there, the wait staff had started to recognize her. Sirius hadn't let go of her hand even after they landed. After a quick walk around they entered the small shop and took a seat at a table in a secluded corner.

"You seem like you've been here a lot." Sirius said.

"Guilty. Its become a favourite of mine. I used to love eating pizzas in New York. It reminds me of home a little." Hermione replied with a twinge of sadness in her voice. She and Harry had found themselves at various pizzerias all over London once the war was over just to get away to constant press attention on them in those early days. Ron's death in the Battle of Hogwarts had been a huge blow to them both. They found comfort in each other's presence remembering their best friend.

Ron was duelling with Yaxley when Rowle hit him in the back with the killing curse. Hermoine had felt so broken and hopeless for a moment when she thought that both Harry and Ron were dead. Harry had moments later taken off his invisibility cloak from across the room. At that moment Hermione could neither shout with joy nor cry over Ron because of the exchange that had started between Harry and Voldemort. She pulled herself out of her memories and focused on the man sitting in front of her.

"Got lost somewhere?" Sirius asked softly.

"Yeah, sorry about that." she replied.

"No, no that's fine. You wanna talk about it?" he offered.

"Not really… So tell me, what's it like being an auror and all these days?" Hermione said steering the conversation away from herself. That was when Gianna came over to take their order.

"Hey Emilia! How are you?" she asked Hermione.

"Hey, Gianna! I'm fine. How's Mrs Serra? I haven't seen her yet..." Hermione trailed off.

"Oh, mom went to my sister Sara's house. She just had a baby and so mom's staying with her until she gets the hang of it. Anyways enough about me. What would both of you like to have today?" she smiled at her and Sirius. Hermione quickly introduced them both to each and they shook hands. She ordered a large pepperoni pizza and 2 glasses of soda for them both.

"I'm excited to try this apparently famous muggle cuisine that I've been deprived of for so long. To answer your previous question I only just graduated training 2 months ago and it's mostly been shadowing senior-level aurors in their cases. It's mayhem out there right now with the war going on. Every of the ministry employee is working overtime most days. We barely get time to breathe. What have you been up to since you came here to the UK?" Sirius grinned.

"Well, it's mostly been travelling around sightseeing and shopping for my new house. I've also looked into opening up a branch of my apothecary shop here but I don't think it's feasible so I'm gonna let it go." she said. Sirius chatted animatedly about his life at Hogwarts and his friends Remus and Peter.

"And so we almost got caught for the dungbombs we threw in Filch's office as a welcome to Hogwarts present but at the last moment, Remus saved our asses by causing a distraction with peeves. Peeves is a poltergeist that lives in the castle." Sirus finished laughing. By this Hermione was laughing so hard there were tears streaming out of her eyes. Soon they finished their dinner and they asked Gianna to bring them the bill.

"So I was thinking since you've introduced me to this most wonderful dish that I'll stuff my face with the rest of my life, it's only fair I show you a secret place that not many people know about." Sirius said once they stepped out of the restaurant. Hermione nodded towards him and he once again took her hand in his, tugging her towards the alley to apparate away.

When Hermione opened her eyes she realised that they had landed in the bushes behind the Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park. She looked at Sirius confused.

"Well, uhh... I've already seen the Peter Pan statue" she told him climbing out of the bushes after him.

"Of course you have seen the muggle park before. That's not what we are here to look at." He replied taking out his wand.

There were no muggles in the park this late at night so Hermione focused on what Sirius was about to do. He tapped his wand on the left toe of the statue 5 times in quick succession and stepped back. The statue moved forward to look down and then nodded. An archway appeared on the pedestal as the figures jumped away and Sirius and Hermione went through it. They had walked into a hidden part of the park that contained a part of the serpentine lake. It was filled with bioluminescent magical plants that made the lake water glow in a myriad of colours. Hermione's eyes widened and a gasp escaped her lips. It was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen in her life. The plants beneath the surface were swaying gently as though caught in a breeze. There were beautiful fishes swimming in the water which Hermione couldn't see clearly.

"It's so fucking beautiful...Wow..." she said looking around with wonder in her eyes, stepping closer to the lake to get a better view. She turned to look back at him and found him gazing at her. She realised they were standing almost chest to chest and her heart skipped a beat. An electric tingle went up her spine and she shivered slightly.

"Are you cold?" he whispered softly.

"I didn't shiver because of the weather." she smiled slyly back at him.

He grinned and then leaned down to kiss her. Hermione put her arms around his neck and his hands gripped her around the waist. The kiss started out as a sweet one as they both discovered each other slowly and taking their time. He smelled strongly of cigarettes and honey. Her hands travelled from the back of his neck to his hair which were held back by a simple leather strap. They both sank down on the soft grass beneath their feet without breaking their kiss and Hermione sat in his lap. They were so lost in each other that they didn't realise when a gnome crept near enough to lob a ball of mud towards their faces.

Hermione and Sirius fell apart the side of their faces splattered with mud. They looked at each other and burst out laughing. A few minutes later when they had stopped laughing both stood up and scourgified their faces and clothes.

"My floo address is Number 19 Wgymore Lane in case you wanted to call" Hermione smiled at him. They bid each other good night with a promise to meet again soon and disapparated to their homes respectively.

Hermione landed in her foyer and hung her coat and bag in the small cupboard beside the doorway. It had been a long day and Hermione was looking forward to a hot bath and having some quality sleep. She climbed the stairs to her bedroom and found Fawkes sitting on the desk near the window with a letter under its legs.

"Hello Fawkes!" Hermione walked towards the bird to get the letter. It let out a soft caw and stepped aside from the letter. Hermione opened the letter to find a short message from Dumbledore.

Dear H,

If you are sufficiently recovered let us meet tomorrow to deal with the Diadem of Ravenclaw. I'll be waiting for you in my office at noon.

AD

Hermione quickly scribbled Yes sir at the back of the letter and put it back in the envelope for Fawkes to carry in his beak. He promptly took it and vanished in a burst of flame.

xxx ABC xxx

Hermione and Dumbledore walked side by side the next afternoon towards the seventh floor discussing the room of requirement. He had brought the Sword of Gryffindor with him and Hermione was carrying a basilisk fang in her hand. They entered the left corridor and stopped in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls ballet. The trolls were holding their arms above their heads like Barnaby and trying to do a pirouette but kept falling into each other unable to maintain their balance. Hermione walked past the blank stretch of wall 3 times with closed thinking I want to enter the room where everything is hidden. She opened her eyes to find the door materialising in front of them.

"Merlin's pants! This room is enormous!" Dumbledore exclaimed.

Hermione started to walk in the direction of where she thought that old bust of a wizened warlock was kept searching for the diadem.

"The diadem is perched on a shelf somewhere in this room near a bust of a warlock. It's not very deep in the stacks so it shouldn't take us long to find." she told him.

They were in there for almost 3 hours when Dumbledore finally located in beside a stack of transfiguration books. The bust of that warlock was nowhere in sight. Hermione picked it up and looked up at Dumbledore.

"Should we do it here or take it somewhere else?" she asked him.

"Here I think." Dumbledore replied. Hermione moved forward to a crossroad between the shelves and laid the diadem on the floor. The diadem started to vibrate sensing danger as Hermione brought the fang closer to it. It suddenly started to ooze green-ish smoke out of the gem in the centre of the tiara. The smoke was foul-smelling and Hermione soon enough began feeling faint.

"Stab it quickly Hermione! Do it now!" Dumbledore said loudly. She lifted her hand with the basilisk fang, holding the diadem in place with the other and stabbed it right in the centre of the blue sapphire with the basilisk fang. The horcrux let out a loud wailing noise and then the diadem split in two parts right down the middle. Hermione fell back away from the pieces and Dumbledore scooped them up. He put them in his pocket and helped her up.

"I didn't know about the smoke. It didn't put up a fight the last time I saw it." she told Dumbledore.

"Ahh, that's understandable since you were in the middle of battle and afraid for your life. The horcrux might not have picked up on the imminent danger to itself then." Dumbledore offered.

They walked back to his office and Dumbledore offered to her lunch before she went back to her house.

"I would love that. Thank you, Dumbledore" she said politely. "So next we go looking for Marvolo Gaunt's cottage to get his ring. It's in Little Hangleton though I don't know exactly where in the village."

"I daresay we will find out when we go there." he said. Leonna the head-elf then brought them both lunch and Hermione said thank you to the elf to which Leonna bowed deeply and the vanished with a small pop.

"Hermione are you ready for your first mission for The Order?" Dumbledore asked her taking a bite of his shepherd's pie.

"Yes, of course, I am. Is it the Evan Rosier's kidnappings I told you about? Have you confirmed it?" She asked him.

"Yes, I confirmed it. I set Catherine Fry to tail him and he has been kidnapping unsuspecting muggle girls and keeping them in his manor in Torridge, Devon. You are set to go for a mission in 3 days' time with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Catherine Fry. I'll send more details closer to the time." Dumbledore told her.

After lunch, Hermione kissed Dumbledore's cheek and bid him goodbye and floo-ed back to her cottage to prepare for her first mission for The Order.