Reaching across time

Chapter 18: Mirror of Erised

"Let's look at the facts here. She is playing a dangerous game..." Remus began, going through what they had heard for the tenth time and trying to figure out the confusing exchange between Firenze and Hermione.

"A game the centaurs aren't pleased with" James put in, sitting cross legged on his bed and wearing his most thoughtful expression.

"What do they care about except planets and the future?" Remus asked wracking his brains and trying to remember every known fact he had studied about centaurs.

"She said he has helped her before? But I don't think any of the centaurs leave the forbidden forest which means she has been here before" James repeated his point again.

"She has some knowledge that they do not, and things have been unclear. What does that mean?" Remus asked also repeating his point.

James was by now highly frustrated. It wasn't every day that the marauders took to figuring something out but when they did, they always managed to get the answers. But now they were left with more questions than even remote possibilities let alone answers of any sort.

Remus was wracking his brains, she was protecting them? Sirius was protecting her? What was she risking? What did she know? What were they missing? He repeated the questions over and over again but couldn't come up with anything more.

"Sirius?" James called, turning to frown towards the boy who was also seated silently across him. He hadn't said a word from the time they had returned and it was strange to see him so still.

"Later" the estranged Black heir said before drawing his curtains and cutting the other two out. Remus and James exchanged worried glances before finally agreeing to call it a night themselves.

Sirius lay awake in his bed, lying still as a statue and staring into the darkness. The centaur had said that the grim was her guardian and instantly they had all assumed it was him. Though how he could be anyone's guardian he didn't know. James, he could tell that James would make an excellent guardian but him? Not so much. He lacked almost everything.

He was far too disturbed to sleep properly and after a few more hours, decided to slip out for a little walk in the castle grounds to clear his head. He quickly got up and fetched the cloak before quietly heading down into the common room.

He froze. It was two in the morning and yet there she sat, curled up on the seat closest to the fire, wearing that ratty old shirt and reading a book. Subconsciously he moved forward only to be greeted at wand point.

Hermione saw Sirius standing there with a look of surprise and lowered her wand.

"Sorry, reflex" she said, motioning for him to join her. He nodded before sinking into the offered seat, all thoughts of the lone walk forgotten.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked.

"Not really, you?" She asked conversationally.

"Not even a wink" he replied quietly.

"Is something bothering you?" she asked.

"You could say that" he replied but not wanting to talk about it, he continued "Hogwarts: A history?" he asked

"It's my favorite book" she replied.

They fell silent, not knowing what to say next or if the other person wanted some silence. Neither of them wanted to be a bother and Hermione thought instead of the time in Grimmauld place when she would find Sirius alone in the kitchen regardless of what day or time it was that she woke up.