Just in case you're confused, let me clear up the matter. I am not J.K. Rowling, and I do not own Harry Potter, and am certainly not making any money off of this. I'm writing this purely because I enjoy it, and I hope you do too.
A Sirius Matter
Chapter 21 - Last Weekend Before School
Harry and Hermione looked around the small comfortable cottage they were inside as Sirius gave them a tour. It had a kitchen, bathroom, living room, "…and here are the two bedrooms."
Obviously Harry and Sirius would be sharing a bedroom, but Harry decided to purposely misunderstand. He smiled deviously. "Alright! You get one and me and Hermione get the other one. You are the best godfather ever!"
Hermione blushed and put her head down while the color drained from Sirius' face. "Er, Harry you misunderstood. You see…"
"No I didn't. Hermione and I are sharing one of the rooms." By now Hermione knew that Harry was joking and suppressed her laughter at Padfoot's dilemma.
"Actually cub, sorry to disappoint you but we're sharing a room."
Harry decided to go a step further. He faked anger and yelled, "You are NOT sharing a room with Hermione!" At this point Sirius' face went red until Hermione burst out laughing. Harry couldn't hold back his laughter anymore.
"You're pulling my leg!" said Black as he joined in the laughter.
"Of course I am!" said Harry in between laughs. "How thick do you think I am? I know I'll have to sneak to her room…"
"Harry!" yelled Hermione indignantly.
"Just kidding, luv. I know you'd hex me if I tried."
"Just remember that," she said with a mock scowl.
"If you don't mind Hermione," said Sirius, "Since Harry and I are sharing, you get the smaller bedroom."
"Oh that's fine, Sirius," she answered. "It's about the size of Harry's bedroom at the Dursleys. If he can live there for months, I can spend two nights there."
Padfoot grinned. "Now that we've got that settled, what do you say we get changed and head to the beach before the sun goes down?"
-
They spent a few uneventful hours (unless you count Sirius teasing Harry for looking at Hermione's swimsuit) at the beach enjoying themselves. Since it was a secluded spot (the whole reason Sirius was hiding there) there was nobody at that beach. When Harry commented on it, Sirius explained, "This is a private island that the Black family owns, and it's warded so that no one comes here. If anyone gets close to the border they have to turn around."
Hermione's face brightened. "Oh! You mean like the ministry did for the world cup! Does this ward work with magical people or just muggles?"
Sirius was glad to see someone interested in his family's security obsession. "Everybody. This place is much more secure than that. Remember, my family was mostly dark wizards, so they were obsessed with security. They didn't hide the manor, but they warded it very well so that no intruder can get in there by conventional means - that is the door, floo, or apparition.
"This place is far more secure than that. There are runes at strategic points in the property that keep out anybody that's not in my family or invited by me just like the house, but even more. It's unplotable. The floo system will not work here. There's something in the runes that stops floo powder from working. The only way a portkey can get through the runes is if there's blood from a Black family member on it. If someone were to actually get past the border, they'd be blown backwards by incredible winds that would keep blowing them back until they're half a mile away."
"You've got to show us some of those runes!" said Hermione excitedly.
"Maybe tomorrow," said Sirius, as he magically created a campfire at the beach. "Oh, magic isn't detected here, either. So, Hermione, why don't you conjure up a few chairs and a table while Harry and I get some food to roast out here?"
"Why don't you just summon the food, Sirius?" asked Hermione with a smirk.
"Oh yeah. Accio food," Padfoot said as he pulled out his wand.
Hermione conjured chairs with small surfaces attached to them, similar to the seats in a nice theater. They levitated hot dogs and later marshmallows over the fire and ate smores made with the finest Honeydukes chocolate.
Sirius stared at Harry. "You look so much like your father did at your age."
"So I hear," said Harry with a small grin.
"I remember the first time I met him. I was looking for a seat on the Hogwarts Express. The kids who came from other Slytherin families wanted me to sit with them, but I'd already decided that I wanted something better for myself." He took a deep breath. "I grew up with the same stupid pureblood propaganda as all of them, but for some reason, I knew that it was wrong, but the others didn't. Maybe it was because I wanted to make something of myself, not pretend to be somebody simply because of who my parents were. Maybe because I didn't think it was right to hurt someone who had never done anything to you."
Padfoot sighed and put his head down. "I was ten when my father brought an unconscious muggle into the house and down to the cellar. I asked why he was there and my father said he'd bumped into him on a crowded street. My dad brought him to the house so he could torture the man in a private place where the ministry couldn't detect the spells he used." He looked Harry and then Hermione in the eyes. "The screaming started less than one minute after my dad closed the door to the cellar, and went on for hour after hour." Sirius took a drink of firewhiskey. "When father led him out of the house, the muggle had lost his mind. That's the day I started to hate my father."
"Wow," said Harry.
Sirius continued. "Anyway, when I got accepted at Hogwarts, I made up my mind that I wouldn't be like my dad, so I wouldn't sit near my dad's friends' kids. Nobody else wanted to let me sit with them. They knew I was from a Slytherin family. Finally when I got to the back of the train I saw three boys sitting together. James Potter, Remus Lupin, and…" He growled at this name. "Peter Pettigrew. Anyway, your father invited me to sit with them immediately." He then chuckled. "Peter didn't want me to sit there once he knew who I was, but James and Remus insisted. That rat was afraid I was a dark wizard." Harry and Hermione chuckled. "When I was sorted into Gryffindor, they became my best friends. My family hated me from that moment on."
Sirius told them stories of the Marauders' exploits as Hermione held Harry's hand until they were too tired to stay awake. Harry pretended he was going to sleep in Hermione's room until Sirius pulled his hands behind his back in a manor Harry guessed he'd learned in his auror days and pulled him into the bigger bedroom, which had two beds. It rained that night.
-
The next day after breakfast, they went outside. Sirius said, "Follow me to the runes," and turned into a dog and started running.
The two teenagers started following as fast as they could. "It's a good thing we've been exercising," said Harry, "Or we'd never be able to keep up."
"I know!"
"I can't wait to chase him when I'm a lion."
Hermione giggled at that thought. "A cat chasing a dog."
"While the dog's chasing another cat. That is, if you master the transformation by then."
"You know I'll be able to transform before you."
Harry grinned. "Five snogs says I'll transform before you."
Hermione laughed as she blushed slightly. "I'll take that bet. If I change first, you snog me. If you change first, I'll snog you."
Harry was blushing now as they continued running. "One of us has to change soon because I want to snog."
"I didn't say we couldn't snog until we're animagi."
-
After they'd run about a mile, Padfoot changed back to a human and pointed at what almost looked like a flat headstone from a cemetery, except that it had runic symbols on it.
"Well, Harry, do you know what it says?" asked Hermione with a grin.
"Oh course I do. I know exactly what's written there. Unfortunately, I'm sworn to secrecy."
"Come on Harry," his girlfriend said as she slapped his arm while grinning. "Think. This is what you've been studying for months. Take it one symbol at a time. I know you can do it."
He walked up and looked more closely at the rune. "Well, the first symbol means leave."
To Hermione and Sirius' delight, Harry figured out the entire message of the rune, and they went on to one more before heading back to the beach, and Harry was able to translate that as well. The gist of it was everything Sirius had said, with a few additions. One was that it only rained at night on the island. Another was that if an intruder got five yards into the property line they'd die. Muggle planes and helicopters couldn't fly over it. Even fish couldn't get into their portion of the beach water as though a net were separating them. Birds (with the exception of magical mail-carrying ones) even flew around the property, which Hermione pointed out, "…isn't a very good idea. A bird watcher or muggle radar could notice the phenomenon and wish to investigate."
Sirius laughed. "They already have. You never asked where we're located."
Harry asked, "Where?" while Hermione's eyes went wide.
"It, it's not the, the Berm…"
"The Bermuda Triangle," said Padfoot with a grin.
"What?" said Harry in awe.
"I can't believe it!" said Hermione excitedly. "Some books I've read said they think some sort of ancient ward is around the Bermuda Triangle. They never suspected it was somebody's personal property!"
Harry and Sirius laughed.
"No one will ever look for us here! This is the perfect hideout!" exclaimed Harry.
"Exactly!" said Sirius.
They spent another night very much like the previous one, and spent Sunday playing muggle games like Frisbee (sometimes with Padfoot the dog) along with monkey-in-the-middle and several others until suppertime, when they went back home. Sirius made them both promise not to tell anyone (including Hermione's parents) that it was the Bermuda Triangle.
All too soon it was time for another year at Hogwarts. After saying goodbye to the Grangers; Sirius, Harry, and Hermione all boarded the Hogwarts Express, looking forward to an exciting year.
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