Chapter one: Seeds of Doubt

He wasn't sure when it happened, but somehow Sirius Black found himself staring at his godson's friend when no one was looking. He found himself seeking her out to have conversations with her about whatever it was she was reading. He found himself thinking to himself how pretty she had grown in the last year and a half, not that she wasn't lovely before. He found himself hating himself and feeling like a lecher at wondering what her lips would feel like against his. Then he would shake his head and remind himself that she was only fifteen.

There was a laugh, hers, and he looked up to see her joking with the Weasley twins- who'd been ecstatic upon meeting Padfoot and Moony. She grinned as they danced around the room to tease Ron who was in a snit about some chess game Remus had beat him in. Then she looked over and saw him. Her smile widened and he found himself smiling back and giving a little wave before scolding himself on his lack of control. She was just a child.

"Arguing with yourself again?" Remus asked him, coming up with two glasses of pumpkin juice. Of course, he would see it. He just hoped Hermione didn't. Or Harry.

As if reading his thoughts, Remus told him, "I don't think anyone else sees it, except maybe Dumbledore, but he knows everything."

Sirius frowned at the Headmaster's name. He wasn't sure why he always did that, but he didn't trust him. It was like there was a reason or something on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't quite reach it. From Remus' face, he was experiencing this as well, but Sirius pushed it away as he had for the past two years and immediately felt better.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, Moony. She's just a child, I know this, but I can't stop thinking about her."

"Obviously nothing would happen now," Remus placated. "But maybe when she is older? After the war."

"If I survive this war again," he said bitterly. "If we all come out better this time than last."

Sirius knew Harry was angry with Ron and Hermione for not writing to him and telling him anything about the Order, and he knew his girl was miserable because of it. He vaguely wondered if there was anything there, but decided not to think about that as he found Harry alone in the parlor. He sighed a breath of relief. Lately he hadn't been able to get anytime alone with Harry as Molly wanted to be sure he didn't inform him more than he needed to. Another jab stabbed at his mind when he thought this, but he pushed that away too as he sat down across from his godson.

"Hey, Prongslet."

"Hey," Harry mumbled.

Sirius sighed. "I understand you're upset with your friends."

Like a switch, Harry exploded. "They're supposed to be my friends, but they let me think they abandoned me all summer. Ron, I see because he doesn't write much anyway, but Hermione? Why not just kick me in the bollocks? It would hurt less!"

"Hey!" Harry's eyes widened a bit. "Hermione cares about you and she wants what's best for you, right?"

Harry nodded.

"And if Dumbledore told her that she shouldn't write to you, for your own sake, wouldn't she do it?"

Harry nodded again and slumped. "I know, I'm just-"

"Angry." Sirius finished with a nod of understanding. "You're angry and Dumbledore isn't here to get the brunt of it. I know that, but they don't and Hermione is upstairs crying."

He laid a hand on Harry's knee. "She's a bright girl, Harry, and a good and loyal friend. I suggest you fix this before you can't."

"Thank you, Sirius," Harry said in a breath, walking towards the door.

"Harry?"

He stopped and turned back. "Yes?"

"Do you... like Hermione? Is there anything between you?"

Harry made a face. "No, Hermione's great, but she's like a sister, you know?"

He went to leave again and his last words echoed in Sirius' mind before hitting a wall. Sister. Harry's sister. He saw snapshots, glances of images, of a redheaded blur singing to a pink bundle, a beak-nosed git holding it uncertainly, James bursting through the double doors of Potter Manor to shout about the birth of twins. Twins.

Sirius gasped.

It was the last day of holidays when the book lists came in and Sirius watched Hermione open the door with a shriek as she jumped up and down and laughed.

"I got it!" She told he and Remus. "I'm Prefect and so is Ron!"

Remus stood to congratulate her and look at the badge, but she led him in a dance instead, her gaiety almost tangible. Sirius chuckled as he was swept into it as well. He spun her around, not noticing Remus moving back or Harry and Ron coming in until she spun into Harry with a grin.

"Do we get to dance too?" Fred and George popped in to ask, bowing deeply.

"I would be honored," she told them with a giggle.

"What is going on in here?" Molly asked, coming in with a basket of clothes.

Hermione grinned at her. "Ron and I made Prefect."

Molly grinned, something that made Sirius nauseous, and congratulated them both. "Oh, good for you! Oh my Ronnie!"

Sirius felt strange. He remembered, or he thought he remembered, a twin. Harry had a twin, but at the same time his mind rejected the idea. He recognized the signs of a memory charm and had tried to break his, but he was pants at memory charms and far be it from him to escape Azkaban semi-sane, only to lose his mind trying to dispel a memory block. He didn't want to bring it up to Remus until he could get rid of it on himself.

When they were alone again, Sirius, Remus, and Hermione, she frowned as she looked at the shiny badge in her hands.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked. Remus looked over at her.

She looked up at them. "Ron and I were made Prefect." She said this almost to herself before repeating it louder with a look of suspicion and slight horror. "Why were we made Prefects?"

Remus and Sirius looked at her like she was crazy. "Don't you have the best grades Hogwarts has ever seen?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"No, I have the second. Professor Snape's are still better than mine and Remus is almost tied."

"Remus was made Prefect," Sirius pointed out, not understanding.

Hermione shook her head. "He was also fairly popular. Not the way we are, by circumstances, but actually popular. And the Headmaster probably also did it so he might be a better influence on the rest of you. By that logic, Professor Snape should also have been a Prefect and Ron shouldn't be."

Remus frowned, beginning to understand. "You think there's an ulterior motive?"

She looked conflicted, emotions playing out on her face. "I think that yes, I have good grades, but that I am not the kind of person to be a good Prefect. I'm not approachable. I'm intimidating. No one would come to me with their problems and that it the purpose of a Prefect. Ron doesn't have the grades at all and isn't all that approachable either. He's too absorbed in his own world to care about the younger students. But, Dumbledore would do something like make us Prefects in hopes of asking us to report on Harry under the guise of a concerned teacher."

Remus and Sirius stared at her unblinking for a moment.

"So, you aren't going to take it?"

She smiled. "Oh I'll take it, I just won't betray Harry."

Remus shifted uncomfortably, caught between being on her side and the Headmaster's. "Surely he wouldn't do something like that though? I mean, he's Dumbledore."

Hermione slumped, as though disappointed with him, and stood up to leave. "Yes. He's Dumbledore, the Dumbledore who sat on his bony bum while three eleven years olds defeated Lord Voldemort, Dumbledore who did nothing when the school was under attack from a basilisk, Dumbledore who gave a thirteen year old a Time-Turner and tasked her with saving an innocent man from Dementors, Dumbledore who watched a fourteen year old boy complete a contest that kills adults, and Dumbledore who prevented that boy's friends from writing to him after he watched a friend die. I think I understand exactly the kind of man Dumbledore is."

Then she stormed out, having talked herself into an angry and argumentative mood. Remus and Sirius stared for a moment, never having seen her look so forceful and scary, before Sirius ran out after her.

"Hermione, wait." He said lowly, not wanting anyone to hear them.

She whirled around, a storm of emotions still warring on her face. "What?"

Sirius took a deep breath. "I need to ask you something, but you can't tell anyone. Especially Dumbledore."

Hermione narrowed her eyes curiously and nodded.

"How are you on memory charms?"

Hermione and Ginny woke up to the shouts of Molly Weasley, convinced as always that they were going to be late and miss the train. Hermione groaned, rolling herself off the bed to fall in a crouch rather than sit up. She yawned and rubbed her eyes as she fell into the flow of the September 1st rush. She dressed and tried to get her trunk to the stairs when Fred and George came barreling through, knocking her down two flights of stairs.

There were three screams that filled the air as Harry and Ron finally came out of their room, dressed but disheveled. The first two, Molly and Mrs. Black's portrait, surprised no one. But when Sirius' joined theirs, everyone stopped and stared. Even the portrait.

"YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER! DO YOU NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO BE CAREFUL?!"

Fred and George went pale at the sight of their hero angry at them. "W-we're sorry, Padfoot-"

"Yeah, we really didn't mean to."

"Simple accident."

Sirius helped Hermione, who had a twisted ankle and bruises, up to lean on him. "Well simply make sure it doesn't happen again." He grumbled and he and Molly went to fix her up.

When they were done, they really were running late and they scrambled into the fireplace after Harry left with Mrs. Weasley and Sirius. Hermione had listened to Sirius' story that he thought his memory had been tampered with, but he refused to tell her what it was he thought he should remember. Something about Harry. Hermione had spent that evening reading books on memory charms and had stuffed every book she could find in the library on the subject, into her trunk. She wished he had stayed here, though she knew that had she been in his position she wouldn't have, but what if he were recognized?

She felt awful mentioning to Harry again about being made Prefect and she and Ron having to sit in a different cabin. She knew when she entered the compartment behind Ron, that this was going to be a long ride.

"Weasel and Granger?" A familiar, drawling tone asked. "Couldn't Gryffindor find anyone else?"

There was shrill laughter from his side and Hermione rolled her eyes at the simpering Pansy Parkinson. "At least they're better than Potter," she said, pressing herself against Malfoy. "I mean, even if only marginally."

Hermione smiled sweetly. "Perhaps they didn't want Slytherin to feel like the only ones who had to scrape the bottom of the barrel. I mean, they could have chosen Peeves, right?"

Pansy pursed her lips in quiet anger, but she could have sworn she saw the corner of Malfoy's mouth quirk.

"She speaks, and here I thought she needed permission from waving her hand around like a child. I congratulate you on your promotion. Too bad I can't say the same for Weasel's father."

Hermione sat down with a sigh. Long ride indeed.

A/N: Aaaand, we're starting! I am so very proud of this chapter and I hope everyone likes it okay. This WILL be a Hermione x Sirius story. Lots of bashing with Dumbledore because I hate him with a passion, as well as Molly, Ginny, and Ron. Next up, Umbridge and the reveal of a long hidden secret. OOOOOhhhh! Love always, Skye.