Author's note:

This is my first Fanfiction ever! I would love it if you would review my story. Feel free to critique my writing, I can take criticism, please no flames. I need a beta-writer if anyone has the spare time and enjoys editing.

Each chapter will be alternating between Sirius and Hermione's points of view, starting with Hermione.

Keep in mind this is the summer before the trio's seventh year. According to JKR Hermione would be 18.

P.S. Do I really need to say that none of this is mine? Ah well, JKR owns all of these characters and settings.

It was with a heavy sense of foreboding that Hermione approached the daunting steps of Grimmauld place. She hadn't been to the deteriorating old manor since the Christmas of fifth year and she wasn't looking forward to reacquainting herself with the former home of Harry's now dead Godfather. She walked up to the door slowly and took a deep breath before pulling open the massive oak door. Quietly she crept down the hall and up the stairs, careful not to wake the portrait of Mrs. Black, that they had still been unsuccessful in removing. Hermione reached the top of the stairs and started down the hall to the door that would lead to the attic. She kept telling herself to turn back, run out of the house, go home, and pretend she had never gotten Harry's letter begging her for help. But that wasn't the person Hermione was, and as she climbed the stairs of the attic slowly she replayed Harry's desperate letter in her head in order to give herself the determination she needed to go on.

Hermione,

I have the unfortunate task ahead of cleaning out the attic at Grimmauld place. Dumbledore thinks it would be 'therapeutic' for me to look through his old things. I need you and Ron to help me. I really don't think I can handle something like this on my own yet. You know I don't usually ask favors like this, especially during summer break but…

Well if you can, be here a week before term starts. You and Ron can stay the house until we leave for school.

Seeya soon,

Harry

Hermione reached the top of the stairs and was surprised to find her two best friends laughing hysterically. The were crouched next to each other on the floor peering at something.

"Hello boys," Hermione spoke cautiously.

"Mione, have a look!" Ron beckoned without looking up.

Hermione walked over to the pair and was shocked at what lay before them. An old photo album lay open to a page with the most surprising picture Hermione had ever seen. A young raven haired boy, about eleven stood in Hogwarts robes waving enthusiastically to them. His rosy cheeks were spread widely with a mirthful grin and he was missing one of his front teeth. The tie around his neck was tied tightly underneath his prominent double chin and the buttons on his school shirt were being strength tested due to the large pot-belly they covered. This rolie-polie of a child would have given Dudley a run for his money, if he hadn't looked so sweet. The sight of the child reduced Hermione to giggles, but her side split with laughter when she read the caption underneath.

"Sirius – age eleven, first day of school at Hogwarts."

Just the thought that the dashing, slightly arrogant Black, had ever been such a pudgy, nerdy child was enough to send the trio over the edge in their laughing fit. Hermione wasn't sure why she had thought this was a bad idea in the first place. Dumbledore was right, This would be therapeutic, for all of them. As the three of them dusted of their pants and got to work Hermione thought back on the events of the past year.

It had been right at the end of their fifth year that Sirius had passed through the viel, and Hermione could hardly believe more then a year had already passed them by. Throughout their sixth year of school Harry had been moodier then ever. Understandably so, he had, after all, lost the closest thing to a parent he'd ever had. It wasn't until the end of April, and the subsequent defeat of Voldemort that Hermione and Ron discovered the extent of the worries on Harry's mind. He had told his two closest friends nothing of the prophecy, and Hermione was at first angry at Harry for carrying this burden all himself. Fortunately for them Harry had made it through the final battle with Voldemort, although he still refused to share the details with anyone but Dumbledore. He claimed he just wasn't ready, and said he needed time to sort through it all.

They had lost many friends in the war and Hermione was sad to see her beloved Transfiguration professor pass on. Percy had also been a victim in the terrible battles with the death-eaters, ultimately sacrificing his life for his families'. Hermione thought that he must have been trying to make right all the terrible things he'd done to his family in the past. Lucius Malfoy was one of the fortunate casualties of the war, and after his death and the death of Voldemort, most of the death-eaters disappeared or were arrested. Still there were small contingents of anti-muggle violence sporadically throughout the globe, but this problem seemed trivial to what they had dealt with thus far.

Hermione shook all of her thoughts of the past out of her head and tried to focus on the task at hand. Something caught her attention. There was a strange glowing coming from the corner table of the attic. Hermione walked over and peered inside what seemed to be a clay bowl full of light. Hermione knew she had read about this somewhere, it appeared to be a pensieve. Before long she was leaning towards it to better view the scene playing out below her, little did she know the consequences of that action. All of a sudden Hermione felt a tickling sensation in the pit of her stomache as though she were on a particularly wild roller coaster. She felt herself being tugged into bowl in front of her, and she was floating towards the ground below her. Before long she had landed, quite gracefully, on her arse.

"Where the hell am I?" Hermione thought to herself as she stood up brushing the dirt off of her rear. She peered around the empty room and put her hands in her back pockets, as was her habit when she was thinking hard. "Who would preserve a memory of an empty room?" She wondered, taking in her surroundings. She was in some sort of a bedroom, not unlike one of the rooms at the Leaky Cauldron. There was a small bed in one corner of the room with black sheets, and a deep green comforter. On the wall opposite the door there was a writing desk devoid of anything but a few bits of old parchment, and a quill. There was a window at the north wall with an oak trunk underneath it. But this wasn't the Leaky Cauldron Hermione discovered as she looked out of the window. Below her was Hogsmeade village. This had to be the Three Broomsticks, she was certain of it. Hermione had just begun to grow bored with her surroundings when the door to the sparse room opened suddenly, and in walked a twenty year old Sirius Black looking through what appeared to be a stack of letters.

Hermione's heart skipped a beat out of fear and she began to try to explain her presence in his room, but Sirius just walked right past her.

"That's right," Hermione said to herself, "He can't see or hear me!"

The young Sirius crossed to the writing table at the wall and opened one of the letters. Hermione watched, still a bit shy and nervous, as Sirius cursed aloud and threw the letter in bin next to him. He opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out some new parchment and began writing furiously. Hermione crept up behind the disgruntled wizard and read the letter he was composing.

Dear Albus,

I need your help! I was, yet again, denied entry to the Auror training program. They claim that I do not "Meet the Criteria" which means that they don't want anyone whose brother is a death-eater. I am growing anxious Albus. I respect your trust in giving me a position gaurding Hogwarts, but I need something with more excitement. I need to see action! Please Albus transfer me to a position for the Order that doesn't require 'laying low'or waiting around for something to happen.

Sincerely yours,

SB

No sooner had she finished the letter, then the room around Hermione began to swirl. She felt dizzy, yet euphoric... and was almost dissapointed when the swirling stopped. She now found herself in the same room as before, only now she faced the bed. Immediately Hemione was grateful that no one was around to see the blush that crept to cheeks. She giggled at the sight before her. Tangled in the sheets was the usually composed and graceful form of Sirius Black. He lay, shirtless, on his stomache. His head was turned to the side, and his mouth was wide open. Framing his face was his usually impossibly perfect hair, tangled from sleep.

Hermione gasped as a massive grey owl swooped past her and landed on the back of the sleeping man. Talons meeting flesh was enought to wake the man before her with a start and Hermione blushed, again, when he sat up to read the letter that had just been delivered. Try as she might, Hermione couldn't help but look at the toned chest and chiseled stomache that lay before her. All the memories she had of Sirius were of an emaciated, undernourished man in his forties. It was a sharp contrast to what she saw now. Still terribly thin, yet healthy and strong this younger man was very hansome. When looking at him there was no question that he was Sirius, but his face was so differant. He was vibrant and youthful, and there was still alot of laughter and mirth in those deep grey eyes. His hair was considerably shorter then her memories of him, althought still long by most standards. The black tresses came down just past his chin, and he tucked his hair behind his ear as read.

Hermione watched as her curiosity took priority over her bashfulness. All sense of propriety flew out the window as she climbed onto the bed with the shirtless man to read the letter.

Dear Sirius,

A great deal of consideration went into the offer I am about to place before you. I know you grow anxious, and I know that you hate to wait about for the action to come to you. However, I do feel it is foolish for you to go hunting the action. Please take time and think about my proposition. I would like for to come and live at Hogwarts. I have a few teaching postions opening up in the fall, and I think that you are more than qualified to fill one of them. I would give you your choice of...

But she never got to finish the letter. At that precise moment the young man at her side jumped out of bed, knocking her to floor. It took her a moment to recover from her shock and realize that there should be no knocking of any kind in a pensieve. She shouldn't be visible at all, let alone able to be touched. But her shock was nothing to the shock of the young man before her. He had, two seconds before, been completely alone in his bedroom, now out of nowhere and strange girl lay sprawled out on his floor. Sirius was no stranger to unusual happenings, but this… well this was not normal even by wizarding standards.

Hermione got up and manically tried to think of a way out the pensieve, completely ignoring the questions flying from the mouth of the boy in front of her.

"Uh, uh… pensieve disappearo! Oh who am I kidding? Dissappearo? Like that would have worked. Think Hermione think! Um oh no this is bad." She continued waving her wand desperately while shouting every spell she'd ever heard.

"Look, Hello! Who the fuck are you? What are you doing here? Hello? Can you hear me? You! Crazy girl with the wand!"

"Look be quiet, I've messed this up real bad, and I'm trying to think!" Hermione spat at the stunned wizard.

At that very moment Hermione felt the familiar tickle in her stomache and saw the room swirl around her as she floated up and out of the pensieve. Relief flooded through her as she realized she was leaving the strange encounter behind her, but she made a mental note to do some research about this later.

The second her feet were planted firmly on the ground any sense of relief the young witch felt, melted like a popsicle in July. Before her stood Harry, pensieve in hand, wide-eyed and mouth agape. Ron was next to him, muttering incoherently and pointing at the shirtless, confused,twentyyear-old Sirius Black.

Chaos Ensued:

"JAMES!" Sirius shouted advancing on Harry. "What the hell is going on mate? Is this a joke? I just gota letter, and this girl appeared in my room, and then things started spinning…"

Harry stared back blankly, unsure whether to hug his dead godfather or run in fear.

Ron, however had begun to recover from his shock.

"Hermione! What the bloody hell did you do?"

"Ron, I … I don't know! I'm so confused. What do we do?"

"Will somebody please tell me what the fuck is going on?" Shouted an impatient Sirius.

"Hermione, I think you should go send an owl to Dumbledore," Harry started, gaining his composure. "Ron, Um why don't you go get some firewhisky from downstairs, I think Sirius is going to need it."

Sirius had started to take in his surroundings and now realized that he was in hisparent's attic. He was becoming more and more anxious and was running his hands through his hair in desperation.

Hermione, who was used to being the level headed one, and giving orders, took to her new role as a follower and did as Harry told her. She got to the bedroom Harry slept in and found Hedwig asleep peacefully on his perch. She stepped over to the desk to her right and began to look about for parchment and a quill, when a thought struck her. Quickly, she ran out of Harry's room, grabbing one of his shirts from the floor, and bolted up the attic stairs. She threw Harry's shirt to Sirius who still had not calmed down and barked out a few quick orders, reclaiming her natural bossy role.

"James," she started, hoping that Harry would get the hint."Don't tell Sirius anything yet. Ron stop taking shots of the whisky. Sirius sit down and shut up. I'm going to floo into Dumbledore's fire and tell him what is going on."

As quickly as she came, Hermione had gone. She flew down the stairs and was in the foyer of the Black house in no time. She made her way to the fireplace and grabbed some floo powder from the mantel.

"Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts" She coughed into the fire and stuck her head into the green flames. Dumbledore, to her surprise, was sitting in front of the fire waiting for her.

"Ah miss Granger, I was expecting you. I'm on my way right now, in fact. Now please move aside."

No sooner had Hermione moved away from the fire then the wise old man stepped through, and headed towards the stairs. She followed behind quickly, and they reached the attic in no time. Sirius jumped to his feet when he saw Dumbledore enter the room and began firing questions at him quicker then Hermione thought Dumbledore could ever answer.

The headmaster turned to Hermione and Ron and asked them to leave the three of them alone for the moment. Reluctantly, Hermione obeyed and followed Ron Down the stairs and into the kitchen to wait.