The characters and canon situations in the following story belong solely to JK Rowling. I am not making any money from the publishing or writing of this story.

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Some answers and a need for clean!

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Hermione was bone weary and needed time to think. "Harry, please as much as I appreciate your concern, it's late and I'm exhausted. If you wouldn't mind?"

Harry wasn't listening; he was looking around the apartment. "You weren't asleep were you? You are still dressed. Why did it take you so long to answer the door?"

Hermione tried not to look him in the eye. She wasn't a very convincing liar with out a great deal of preparation. Harry would be able to read her like a book if she tried a bold face lie. Her only option was the truth. "Actually Harry, this is awkward," she mumbled as she stepped away from him and towards the hallway. A little more forcefully she started again, "well you see I'm not alone."

Harry looked at her as if she had three heads and quickly stepping closer to close the gap between them he asked, "What?"

Hermione cringed slightly at the angry tone of his voice when he repeated his question, "what? You're lying!"

Hermione stepped back further at the unexpected response, "How dare you," she hissed. "I don't need your permission to live my life!"

Harry laughed a cruel and spiteful laugh, "Yeah, right you expect me to believe you have a bloke in there. Gotten over Ron and ready for a quick shag to ring in the New Year have you? I guess I was just a stepping stone to this life you want to live!"

Sirius could clearly hear the vicious of Harry's comment and started to open the door, but he wasn't ready to step completely back into that world. He wanted to understand what had happened before he approached his godson. Hearing Harry's heavy footsteps approaching the door, Sirius turned the doorknob, cracked the door open, and yelled, "Love, where do you keep the towels? I'm going to hop into the shower."

Hermione was thankful for the diversion and answered, "Cabinet under the sink!"

Harry turned and stared at Hermione, speechless.

Hermione gave him a sad smile, "Its okay, you're sorry, and you were only looking out for me. You feel responsible for me I get it, I really do. But, Harry, you have a life, a wife. I am going to try and have a life too."

Her arms wrapped around his neck as she stepped closer pulling his forehead to her, she whispered, "Wish me luck?"

Harry nodded and gently kissed her lips. As she tried to pull away, he pulled her closer his hands smoothing down her back cupping her bottom.

Hermione's hands lovingly pulled Harry's face away. "No, we can't. This is not us alone in the woods or us being thankful for finding me in time. This is the real world, you know I love you and always will but, you have a wife."

Harry nodded, "I'm sorry. I was way out of line, I just miss you so much and everything is so complicated." Walking towards the front door, both Harry and Hermione were silent. As he turned the knob and stepped back to swing the door inward, Harry turned and looked at her again. "It is just that being with you is being home. I know we have talked about this back then and we agreed that we couldn't hurt the. I know we both tried to make them happy, but despite everything I just want to be home." He then left.

Hermione watched the door close and slowly sunk to the floor, the wall supporting her slide down. She let out a small gasp, she was terrified. Harry was not an idiot, he would eventually figure things out and then he would be angry.

Sirius had never turned on the water. He had heard the entire conversation. Of everything that he knew in this new world to be fact, he knew his godson was in love with Hermione. He knew his godson was married to someone else, he thought it was Ginny Weasley. He also knew that Harry and Hermione had slept together more than once. He suspected that Hermione was pregnant with Harry's child.

Sirius also was fairly certain that not enough time had passed for the Wizarding World to change its attitude and laws concerning the illegitimate offspring and unwed mothers. Adultery was often ignored by wives unless evidence was thrown in their respective faces. Antiquated laws allowed scorned wives to sue for the custody of their philandering husband's offspring. The well being of the child was not often considered. The ministry only stepped in if enough complaints were made and that rarely happened. The unfortunate witch was all but branded a whore and shunned by society. Sirius didn't know what Hermione's plans were but the future was grim.

Walking out of the bathroom Sirius saw the heaving shoulders of a terrified woman sitting near the front door. His steps announced his presence, but Hermione didn't look up. Sirius' voice was still raspy from lack of use, "You could say the baby is mine."

"What did you say?" Hermione struggled to stand up.

Offering her his hand, Sirius repeated his offer, "I said you could say the baby is mine."

Hermione shuttered and continued to stare at the man as if he was insane. She followed him as he walked to the sofa and sat down. Hermione stepped next to him and joined him on the sofa. She stuttered, "I don't know what you mean."

Sirius took her hand and gave it a slight squeeze, "I have never been stupid Hermione, fool hardy perhaps, but never stupid."

"How could you possibly have guessed?" she whispered.

Sirius smiled a tired, weary, knowledgeable smile, "I only suspected at first. You are constantly touching and rubbing your abdomen, as if to reassure yourself or to comfort yourself. But, the conversation I just overheard with my godson clinched it."

"No one else knows." She sighed.

"Tell me about Ron," Sirius pointed to the pictures on the mantle, "could the baby be his?"

Hermione let out a small sob, "No, I wish though. Ron's accident was a couple of months before." Once she started talking Hermione didn't want to stop so she continued, "We wanted children you know. We had been together since the end of war. We slipped up during our last year at school and did get pregnant. Neither of us were too happy about what we called our "OOPS" but we knew we would figure it out."

Sirius prodded once she fell quite, "What happened?"

Hermione looked at him and shrugged her shoulders, "It was an accident; I tripped on the staircase and fell. I miscarried at the end of the first trimester. We always figured it would happen again once we were ready. We finished school, I went to university and Ron played professional Quidditch. He kept asking me to marry him but I told him that I wanted to wait until we had to. It was our joke nobody understood but we did."

Hermione wiped a couple of stray tears and gave a little sad laugh, "three years of trying with Ron and no baby, one stupid but wonderful night with Harry and I'm pregnant."

Sirius chuckled, "What did you do to piss off fate so bad?"

Hermione laughed and more tears poured down her face, "I don't know!" In a effort to put a halt to the tears she sniffed a couple of times the last being directed to Sirius. "Did you say you were going to take a shower?"

Sirius laughed, "Do I smell that bad?"

Hermione held her nose and nodded. Sirius looked around the flat for some kind of indication of 'when' he was. Not finding one he asked," How long?"

Hermione looked puzzled, "How long what?"

"How long have I been gone?" Sirius asked.

Hermione dropped her hands into her lap and played with her fingers as she mentally composed her answer. "Well, the fight in the Department of Mysteries was in our fifth year, and then we fought and destroyed Riddle in what should have been our seventh year. Add an extra year for the seventh year re-do, four years for university, and I graduated three years ago I guess about ten years."

Sirius took a deep breath, "Ten years?"

Hermione nodded, "Which means you probably could really use that shower!"

The characters and canon situations in the following story belong solely to JK Rowling. I am not making any money from the publishing or writing of this story.

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I wanted the characters to be older, not teenagers making life changing decisions.

Hopefully, it is not too much of a stretch.

. . . . . . . . . . .hsh.