Sirius and Silea sat across from one another silently, both nursing their butterbeers. They both seemed to have come to the mutual agreement to go to the inn to have a drink, and as much as Sirius would have loved a firewhiskey, he felt he needed to keep his head clear, so butterbeer it was. Although neither really knew what to say quite yet, they knew they had to talk. After Silea had Apparated the two of them to Hogsmeade using Sirius' wand, the dark haired man remained silent, at a total loss as to what to say.

He believed, well he hoped, that the walking, talking mystery that was Silea Malfoy might finally come to make sense. Although, in all honesty, he knew he was more than likely going to be disappointed yet again.

It was late now, outside was darker than usual with very little stars scattered about, and they'd surely missed curfew by a couple hours, but neither found they currently cared. The inn was filled with a warm ambience, and only a few men from the town were inside, enjoying a stiff drink after a long day. Sirius longed to join them more now than he did when he thought about it last, a whole minute ago.

Sirius tapped his fingers against the table impatiently. He wasn't sure where to start, and the woman opposite him showed no sign of breaking the silence. She was an enigma that he was finding increasingly frustrating, with all the stabs in the dark he made about her being disproved. As the moments drew on, the pace of his fingers increased, become more constant & erratic. When he finally smacked his hand flat on the table, Silea knew his patience was done, and that the time to discuss what had happened had come.

"What the bloody hell just happened? I'm barely keeping up with my thoughts right now, and I'm still not sure that what we experienced was real."

Silea didn't say anything, just stared at him.

"Woman," he practically growled, "you tell me you have a way to destroy Voldemort, we go into a dark horrible cave with contents I'd never have even been able to fathom before tonight, we collect some stupid trinket, and you are able to apparate with apparently no trouble from the ministry."

He was trying to make sense of it all, but he couldn't. How could she, a mere student, have access to such knowledge? Did she learn it from her family? He doubted it. The Dark Lord didn't seem to be the trusting type, nor the inconceivably stupid type for that matter – he wouldn't just be informing people of his ultimate weakness.

But that begged the question; how did she know?

Perhaps…

"Are you already part of the Order?"

It was the only other thing he could think of that made sense. Sure, it was still in development, but he had already heard whispers about it in small circles. He knew at the very least that Dumbledore and his favourite professor Minnie were a part of it. He had already made up his mind to demand his placement in the Order when he was of age and finished Hogwarts, but the idea that they had already started recruiting, and strangers at that, did not bode well with him.

"I know nothing of this Order, and perhaps you should reframe from mentioning more."

The grey eyed witch said it so simply, so plainly. First claiming ignorance and then insisting he not talk anymore of it. Was she covering her tracks? The Order's tracks? When he was a member he was sure to find out, but until then they obviously weren't touching base with the current topic.

Even so, he still had his doubts she was a recruit for the Order.

"Are you a solo agent then? Just trying to do your civic duty of ridding the world of that monster? How would one with no friends or resources be able to acquire such critical information, hmm? Tell me that."

"If you want me to give something away, you are going to have to try better than that."

"Apparently," he scoffed.

They reverted back to their silence.

Sirius kept glancing at her. Although they'd both conjured a hood for themselves to hide their faces from the other occupants of the pub, he could still see hers quite clearly. Her scar was prominent, and it sent a shiver down his spine just thinking how painful it must have been to get. How did she get it he wondered?

He sighed, sincerely doubting he'd find out tonight, or really ever, he mused dryly. However, it was decidedly not important at this point in time.

"Assuming you are working on your own, and that you do know what you claim to, and perhaps even more, then would it not be more beneficial to pool all of our resources together? It would end this war quicker than we could imagine. If Dumbledore knew what you say you do, it would already be over."

He was passionate as he spoke, genuinely believing in what he was saying. He felt hope that perhaps this would be over quickly. If he was lucky, he'd skip joining the Order and go straight to being an Auror, arresting witches and wizards for things that weren't war crimes. As eager as he was to join the battle, he wasn't bloodthirsty enough to prolong it simply so he could have a swing at it. Sirius just knew that he could make a real difference in the world, but if the war was over, he'd happily miss fighting in it.

He could almost imagine Dumbledore coming head to head with a cocky Voldemort, only to swiftly and easily destroy him with a single flick of his wand. Sirius would regale the tale to any that would listen, tell them how he was there that day, and saw the whole thing. He could see it so clearly, a world where no one feared someone with a stupid name like 'Voldemort', and were worried about nonsensical things such as being late to an appointment or some other such drivel.

All he had to do was convince this infuriating woman to share her knowledge with them.

To his dismay she sadly shook her head.

"At this point in time I prefer working alone."

The beautiful image shattered before his very eyes.

Sirius scowled. "Then you're a bloody selfish witch is what you are."

The dog animagus violently pushed his chair out and rose, done with this conversation. He was about to storm off when her voice called him back.

"Sirius! Can I have what you found?"

Sirius' hand instinctively went to his breast pocket where he had placed the locket.

"Nah, think I'll hang onto this for a while. See what I can discover myself."

"Sirius," her voice grave, "it needs to be destroyed. It's evil. Trust me when I say you don't want it near you."

He stared at her, a challenge in his eyes. "Tell me why and I might just hand it over."

The Malfoy girl glared at him. "Fine."

He nodded approvingly, about to return to his seat when she shook her head.

"Not here," she whispered, "there are ears everywhere."

Agreeing, they took off back to the castle.

Sirius followed behind Silea closely, not wanting to be left behind, and not taking any risks that she might bail. If anything, she found it annoying, but she knew it wouldn't be for too much longer. They were silent as they moved through the corridors, knowing Filch or his cat Mrs. Norris might pop out from around the corner and catch them at any moment. Worse still, was if the prefects or heads of houses stumbled upon them. Silea shivered, not wanting to think about it. She already was about to do something she swore she would never do again, and she'd rather not do it multiple times in one night.

She walked them back to the empty classroom they had left via portkey, knowing there was a chance that Severus would be waiting there for her with her potions, probably worried sick that she wasn't there when he had returned. So she took extra care to make extra noise that would hopefully alert him of her arrival, and more importantly that they weren't alone.

She opened the squeaky door and held it open for Sirius, gesturing for him to go through first.

"After you," she told him.

A sly grin grew on his face. "No, love, after you."

She rolled her eyes but agreed, hoping she'd given Severus enough time to conceal himself just in case he was there.

Luckily, the Slytherin was nowhere in sight.

Hermione could barely contain her exhale of relief.

She quickly retrieved her wand, feeling complete now that it was in her hand, and then turned to face Sirius who was now planted quite firmly in the middle of the room just behind her. Good, he's less likely to accidently bump into an invisible someone if they loiter in the rooms centre.

Before she could speak, Sirius' wand was out, and a privacy charm was cast.

"So," the animagus began, "where shall we begin? Should we start with this very particular trinket in my pocket? Or perhaps you would like to discuss your knowledge of that cave we were just in? Or mayhaps we could just skip all that entirely and talk about how you know how to kill a creature that's been deemed almost immortal? I'm happy to start there."

During this monologue, he found a chair and was now happily lounging on it with his muddy boots hiked up on the desk, as if he hadn't a care in the world. A triumphant grin similar to a child who was about to get there way was plastered to his face, and Hermione wasn't sure how to proceed.

It was not part of her plans to include Sirius in any of this. By Merlin, no one was supposed to be in the know except her, and here she was with Severus already on her side.

No, she decided. Sirius couldn't know the details of her true plan, but her brain fumbled with what to tell him though. She cursed herself for being so arrogant that no one would ever catch on to her not being more than an innocent student, even more so that she had already been discovered by one Severus Snape. Why had she never thought ahead to what she would say that would be appropriate to discourage anyone's suspicions?

Groping for a logical explanation was proving to be to slow a process for even her quick mind. She would have to Obliviate him. It seemed dishonourable, but she couldn't think of anything else that would make him leave her alone. Even if she came up with a fantastically, elaborate story that no one would dare question, he'd still insist on helping her.

She couldn't have that. He had a part to play, and he needed to play it like a damn rehearsed orchestra if she was going to do this right.

"Silea," he started, snapping her out of her reverie, "are you in some kind of trouble?"

His voice had a cautious edge to it, as though he was worried that changing the subject might give her the impression he was easing up on her. However, under that edge there was a sliver of genuine concern.

"I'm fine," she asserted.

"You can't expect me to bloody believe that."

"It's the truth."

His gaze grew more and more intense with every passing second.

"Listen Silea, I need to know what's going on. I can't help you if I don't know everything. Look, I know I've been a prat, but trust me when I say that if defeating Voldemort is your endgame, we're on the same side."

Hermione felt a twinge of anger. "What makes you think you could possibly help me? You're too concerned with quidditch and your in-house rivalries to notice anything else!"

He stood up abruptly and singled in on her. "You can't do this alone and you know it! I have talents and knowledge you'd be amazed by!"

"Oh please!"

"I'm sorry, is your head still too rattled to realise all that I did for you just now? I saved your ungrateful life in that miserable cave!"

"I would have been fine on my own! Also, don't take credit for that when I had to instruct you every step of the way! You would have been useless without me!"

"Oh? So, what you're saying is that we are better fit as a team instead of on our own?"

"YES. Wait," she stuttered realising she'd been duped, "that's not what I said at all!"

"I'm rather sure it is," he looked utterly satisfied with himself.

She growled at him. "Stay out of my business!"

"Bloody hell, Silea, what are you so terrified of?!"

The time traveller opened her mouth to retaliate, only to realise how close they had come together during their argument; almost nose to nose, chest heaving, their eyes glowing passionately.

She slunk away from him, backing down from the argument.

He seemed surprised at the sudden change.

They stood in silence, both calming their heart rates and their tempers.

Hermione looked up at him and stared at the young man who would become a victim of betrayal. Seeing him now, the way he was in his youth, Hermione truly saw how deeply his history had scarred him. He acted the jovial man, more for everyone else's benefit than for his own, but deep down he was a wounded animal licking wounds his masters gave him, while staring at them with big sad eyes, silently wondering why it was happening.

Sirius Black dealt with the injustices of the world more times than he should have, and looking at this youthful, passionate version of him, Hermione felt she was the one who had struck the animal unreasonably. She could almost see the man who smiled at her and thanked her for saving him, calling her the brightest witch of her age.

She sighed, resigned. She swore she would never cast the Obliviate spell ever again.

She would honour that promise.

"Okay," she began, "I'll tell you."

He inched forward eagerly.

"But what I'm about to tell you must remain secret."

His shoulders drooped slightly, and his enthusiasm faded. "When you ah, when you say 'secret', do you mean…" he trailed off.

"I mean everyone, not a soul," she insisted.

He faltered.

Hermione felt a glimmer of hope. Perhaps she needn't tell him anything at all. Perhaps he would decide that no secret was worth keeping from his fellow Marauders. However, her hopes were dashed when he slowly nodded.

Hermione took a deep breath. "What do you know about Horcruxes?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow in question, "Nothing, because I don't know what a Horcrux is."

"What if I told you it was something that would keep Voldemort from ever truly dying?"

He considered this for a minute. "How?"

"By ripping out a piece of his soul and leaving it in an object for potential resurrection."

Sirius looked justifiably horrified. "You mean to tell me he's placed his soul into an object?"

"A piece of it, yes…and not just one."

He looked somewhat nauseous now.

"So we would have to kill each piece of his soul, to ultimately eradicate him entirely?"

Hermione nodded.

Sirius barked a laugh. "I'm guessing it's not exactly a walk in the park to destroy these Horcruxes then either?"

"No," she confirmed honestly. "The cave should be proof of that."

He was silent for a moment as he considered her words, before a wolfish grin grew on his face.

"Well, aren't we lucky I'm always up for a challenge?"