AN: Good morning everyone and happy Thursday. I hope you've been keeping safe with everything that's been going on in the world. Anyways I'm hoping to get back in to writing and keep going with my stories. I have been reading fanfiction at the office when it's slow and listening to the audio books when I have time. When I do things like that it makes me want to write again. I'm hoping to start getting chapters out consistently again for all of my stories but no promises. If you have any requests for a specific story to get updated just let me know and I'll see what I can do. Once again I am sorry for stopping but I needed time away to fall in love with writing again. Today is April 9, 2020 and this is the first chapter today. Anything you recognize is JK Rowlings and anything you don't is mine.

Hermione POV

Sirius watched me as I deftly chopped up vegetables for a thick chunky stew. His hovering was making me feel uncomfortable, like usual, but I did my best to ignore him. But when I turned to toss some onions and garlic into a pot on the stove a crashed into Sirius.

"Sirius!" I snapped almost dropping the vegetables onto the floor.

"Sorry." He said not looking particularly sorry. I rolled my eyes and brushed past him and tossed the vegetables in. "I just..."

"Just w-what?" I asked with a sigh, sauteing the vegetables with a big wooden spoon.

"I've never seen anyone cook the muggle way..." It took a moment for his words to click.

"Are you s-serious?!" I asked my voice cracking slightly. While my voice was doing much better from my torture session with Bellatrix it wasn't completely healed yet. Dumbledore said he hoped it would soon but wasn't completely sure when it would happen.

"Of course I'm S-"

"Don't! That joke got old after the third time you said it..." I growled rubbing my temples. Being around only Sirius this much gave me a throbbing headache. Good thing the others would be here soon, hence why I was making dinner.

"It's a classic and you know it." Sirius said with a smirk. "But that's besides the point at the moment. The point is I've never seen someone cook like you."

"What about L-Lily?" I asked absently slowly ladling beef stock into the vegetables.

"Once she learned how to cook through magical means she gave up on the muggle way." He said absently lifting a celery stick and taking a bite. I glared at him and swiped the vegetable out of his hand.

"That's for the stew." I snapped, quickly cutting off the end he had bitten off of. He huffed and grabbed the small end I had cut off and popped it into his mouth.

"Ohhh this is taking foreeever I'm so hungryyy!" And just like that I was taken back to the hunt with Harry and... and Ron... I tried not to think of his name if I didn't have to. Every time I thought of him I inevitably thought of his body crashing to the floor lifeless. Oh Merlin...

"Do you want to learn how to cook the muggle way?" I asked quickly, my voice thick with emotion. A strangle look passed over his face and then finally he nodded.

I quickly gave Sirius some instructions and watched as he slowly picked up the chef's knife I had been using. I hovered behind Sirius as he awkwardly held the knife in his hand. Kreacher was muttering in the hallway about his precious mistress' belongings but we ignored them. Apparently Kreacher really disliked anyone in the kitchen. Well, he seemed to dislike everyone. Thank Merlin Walburga Black had passed during the war. Or at least that was the way Sirius had phrased it on our first day or we wouldn't have had a place to hide out.

Sirius made a small chop of the carrot and it almost rolled away. I quickly caught it and put it onto the cutting board.

"Try it like this," I said wrapping my arms around Sirius' back and placed my hands over his. A shiver passed through his body and I bit my lip. My hands were always cold, especially when I cooked. Poor guy, must be freezing. I did a slow chopping motion, guiding his hand slowly across the carrot. His fingers were holding the carrot in such a way that the tips of his fingers were in line for the knife.

"You need to curl your fingers under." I said pressing my hand lightly against his. He didn't move. I frowned and pulled my hand away. "Sirius?"

"Like this?" He asked gruffly, his fingers still poking out.

"No, the l-last thing we n-need is for you to lose a finger." I said and then curled my fingers under in a demonstration. "Like this."

"Oh." He started to chop then and his hand deftly moved across the board. His cuts were perfect and uniform.

What in the world? I shook my head and frowned, "Perfect."

I turned to go to the fridge to pull out some half and half. Stirring with one hand and pouring with the other I started to hum a muggle tune. Sirius, a moment later, whistled along with it in a beautiful intricate pattern. A smile crossed my face but a moment later it fell. Things had been weird since our conversation earlier in the day. Sirius was still following me and we were still bickering, but it felt differently than before. There was almost an imperceptible shift in our relationship. I couldn't tell if I liked it or not.

Something occurred to me as I started to stir some spices into the stew. Why in the world had Sirius not known how to properly hold a knife? He had taken potions and you were constantly cutting things, especially if you took advanced potions. A vague memory of my fifth year flitted back to my mind, Remus saying that Sirius' knife skills had been impressive.

My eyes flicked over to Sirius as he continued to chop the carrots into bite size pieces. Was he playing with my head, distracting me? If so why? My lips tightened into a thin line. He was trying to distract me from the Horcrux hunt. That was it! A small frown crossed my face. Could it be something else? No it had to be the Horcrux hunt...

AN: Please review guys! It means so much to me!