Chapter Text
Hermione smiled, squeezing Draco’s hand lightly before stepping into the Transfiguration classroom that Sirius had taken over. She had luckily known the spells to unlock the classroom, Sirius and Remus had taught her them in case there were times like this or she needed to get to their offices to see them out of the typical office hours.
The room was decorated differently to how Minerva had always decorated her classroom. There were no cages of animals lining the walls, with just the bare brickwork as a background. Instead there were posters lining the wall, some he had bought in a teaching supply store in muggle London, reading encouraging quotes and such like. The others had been hand designed by Sirius which he had blown up and printed at the photo shop Hermione had taken him to. It was a rather awkward conversation attempting to make the muggle believe that Sirius was an ancient history professor at Cambridge but it did lessen the confused stares at the strange drawings and words. The posters, which were mixed in with the purely muggle ones, depicted diagrams and reminders of spell pronunciation for basic spells and some more advanced ones.
And that was just the walls, his desk was cluttered. Between the stationary and books sprawled across the desk there were also several magical photographs he kept facing him, all depicting different moments of his life. She knew he had discovered a rare photograph of himself and Regulus which sat in a carefully warded frame on the far right of the desk. But there were also photographs of herself, Harry, Remus, Lily, James and even Peter.
It was one of the things that James had asked Harry to relay to Sirius and Remus if he ever got the chance before stepping into the copse of trees that Voldemort was waiting in last May. He had asked for the pair to forgive Peter. Both the boy and the man. The boy for betraying their brotherhood and the man for his crimes. It had taken a lot of work, and a lot of firewhiskey, before Sirius and Remus had been able to come around. Hermione was fairly certain they thought of Peter as almost two separate entities. Wormtail and Peter. Pre and post Hogwarts. Pre and post death eater. And she could hardly begrudge them that if it helped.
There were other decorations as well, the occasional potted plant, a gramophone, a charmed muggle clock, a muggle calendar with a word of the month that he had charmed to be transfiguration words, and even bookshelves filled with spare supplies, textbooks, and interesting transfiguration articles that sometimes could be linked into the lesson. It was Hermione’s favourite classroom to have classes in. The perfect blend between her magical and muggle education. The old castle, the transfiguration posters, with the muggle teaching posters and clock, and friendly environment.
They slipped into their usual seats, front row on the left. Harry and Theo sat next to them in the centre and Blaise and Pansy on the other side of them. She had always loved transfiguration but Sirius teaching it was incredible. He was excellent, knew what he was talking about and had experienced an incredible amount in the field that allowed his students to have faith in him as a capable teacher. Not that they had ever doubted Minerva but generally when the school hired new staff it was as flip of the coin, more often landing on incapable.
Who better to teach about transfiguration than a man who was able to transfigure his body into that of a dog at will and had been since he was fourteen, an age only two others had completed it at, otherwise they were easily the youngest animagi ever recorded, Hermione had made him officially record himself over the summer and had posthumously done it for James and Peter, a permanent reminder to the world that James and Peter were more than the Order member and the Death Eater. They were accomplished people who did something brave and dangerous to help their friend. To help her dad.
Sirius rushed into the classroom, and dramatically spun around when he reached his desk, gracefully lowering himself to sit on the edge of the desk looking like he had been waiting for them and not the other way around. Remus was sick today and Minnie was busy herself with meetings with the board of governors so she was only able to cover the classes where he would quite literally have to be in two places at once. Unfortunately, Remus’ classroom was on the third floor. Sirius’ was on the fifth. That meant having to traverse two flights of moving staircases filled with students blocking his path and not enough time to leave and lock up the classroom before arriving at his own in time to unlock it for his next class and that was with the knowledge of all of Hogwarts' secret passageways and shortcuts.
“Hello, sorry I’m late. Thank you Hermione for unlocking the room,” he let it out in one breath before wandlessly motioning his fingers to the chalk, setting it off to begin writing out on the board next to the desk.
“Well if you taught me the spells I could do it too, but noooooo only Hermione is responsible enough to know them. Like she doesn’t get into more trouble than me, I just get caught more often,” Harry grumbled out.
Hermione had to stifle her snort, Theo didn’t even try.
“What was that, Harry?” Sirius stopped dead, the chalk stopping with him.
His voice was dangerously calm and immediately set Hermione on edge. Sirius was a loud and expressive person, seeing him so calm chilled her to the bone. This was not the man that went after Peter Pettigrew, all guns ablazing, nothing left to lose, kill or be killed, and that somehow made it worse.
The classroom seemed to be holding its breath, wondering how Sirius was going to handle the backtalk from his own godson. It was well known that Sirius was a bit more of a laidback teacher however it got around just as quickly that so long as you showed him respect you could keep those privileges. And they were privileges. None of the students wanted to face the consequences that the fifth year Slytherin and Ravenclaw class were currently facing.
After a particularly unruly lesson, the class had all participated in backtalk, general disrespect, had done none of the work, didn’t listen and spent the hour lecture causing a ruckus. Sirius after fifteen minutes had stopped trying to calm them down and had sat down and waited. None of them stopped for the rest of the forty five minutes. Even going as far to disrespect him about being a ‘shit teacher’ because he ‘wasn’t teaching them shit’. The next time the class had come in, he had almost replicated Umbridge. Silent, copying from textbooks while he monologued to them about the chapter. If anyone made a peep, they would receive detention for the rest of the week. That had been happening for three weeks at this point. Sirius had let slip to Hermione that he was only going to do it for another week and then slowly give them privileges back but the rest of the student body didn’t know that. And no one was about to risk having Umbridge part two for the rest of the year and potentially beyond if Sirius decided to stick around.
“You heard me,” Harry actually rolled his eyes.
Hermione winced, hissing quietly. Harry was clearly not in the mood however, based on Sirius’ face, he wasn’t either. Hermione tried to get Harry’s attention, whispering at him to pack it in and just let it go.
“Detention, tonight, eight till eleven,” Sirius’ face was suspiciously blank when he proclaimed this.
“That means I’ll be walking back to the tower after curfew,” Harry’s voice betrayed his confusion.
“You’ve never put much stock in the curfew before given how often you’re in detention for breaking it,” Sirius challenged back.
It was like a tennis match, the constant back and forth. The more Hermione thought about it the more she realised it was more like a car crash. Going in slow motion, so horrible and destructive but she couldn’t look away as Harry dug himself a deeper grave and Sirius buried him alive in it. Something was going on with Harry, she knew it, but Sirius was clearly having a long, hard day on top of worrying about Remus and the full moon tomorrow to be dealing with Harry and his teenage dramas.
“Oh fuck off, Sirius, like you were much fucking better,” Harry snarked back, crossing his arms, rolling his eyes and leaning back in his chair.
“That is Professor Black to you when you are in my classroom,” Sirius was back to that eerie calm that had slipped when challenging Harry about the curfew. “And right now, I am the professor and you are not, my past rule breaking has no place in my decision to give you detention. And for that comment alone you will be having detention not only tonight but tomorrow and Friday as well.”
“Dad! Come on. This isn’t fair. You’re just being a shit because you’re having a bad day and are taking it out on me,” Harry yelled, clearly not hearing the hypocrisy in his statement.
Hermione blinked. That was the first time Harry had ever called Sirius ‘Dad’. And they were fighting. The proclamation made Sirius show the first bit of real emotion he had the entire argument.
“You’re doing the same thing, Harry. Please, just let it go. Don’t ruin it,” Hermione whispered to Harry, her eyes begging him to stop, to not taint this memory anymore than it already was.
“Fine,” her begging seemed to take the wind from his sails. She looked at Sirius and she could see the gratefulness in his eyes.
Taking a fortifying breath, Sirius got the chalk going again and officially started the lecture ten minutes late. No one mentioned Harry calling him dad or the obvious preferential treatment that was just shown. It was not hard to guess, based on Hermione, Sirius and Harry’s reactions, that the moment was special.
At the end of the lesson, everyone packed up their things swiftly, heading off for their next lessons or the library to get a head start on the large project Sirius had just finished assigning. Based on Hermione and Harry’s slow speed at packing, Theo simply gave them a ‘see you later’ before kissing Harry’s cheek and sauntering out of the classroom after Pansy and Blaise. Draco kissed her cheek and whispered that he would see her after his muggle studies class he had during the next period before following Theo out of the classroom.
“I’m sorry,” Harry mumbled.
He had never been very good at apologies. She had the years of friendship to back up that point, given how often he would fall out with her and then just act like nothing had happened instead of actually apologising. Thankfully, Harry had apologised to her not long after the battle, for the shit way he had treated her over the years and that he would never do it again. That she had always been there for him and from now on he would always be there for her as he should have been all along. There had been lots of tears from them both that day.
“I know,” was all Sirius said, a sad smile on his face. “I am too,” he added when Hermione raised an eyebrow at him, holding his hands up in surrender before she hexed him.
“Come on, let’s go see dad. I have a chocolate bar for him,” Hermione said, breaking the awkward silence. She knew both Sirius and Remus were free this period, often using this time to have tea with them and Harry as a family.
They followed her out of the classroom, just missing the between-period rush of students and sauntered down to Remus and Sirius’ chambers on the fourth floor. After knocking quietly on the door, Hermione pushed it open slightly and stuck her head in the gap.
“Come in, Mina,” she could see the small smile on his face.
Pushing the door further open, she rushed in and fell immediately into her dad’s arms that were already open and waiting for her. Remus was sitting up on the bed, his back against the headboard, Hermione laid her head on his chest. She revelled in his warmth, the drafty castle was always cold but it was worse during the winter months and unfortunately it was November. Warming charms only went so far.
The comfort that his scent brought her was odd to her, she wasn’t a werewolf but a human child of a werewolf so she wondered if some of his traits were genetic. She had always had a strong sense of smell and wondered if she got it because of his lycanthropy. He stroked her hair gently, barely moving his arm but allowing his wrist to carry most of the movement.
She felt the tension in his muscles relax at having her in his arms again. He never addressed or admitted it but she knew the wolf went mental when she wasn’t with him and it was near a full moon. The closer the wolf was to the surface, the more Remus felt the need to check on her, make sure Draco hadn’t hurt her, that she was safe. Before the second full moon they had experienced after the news broke, Remus had tried to sleep on her floor when she refused to sleep in one of the guest rooms with him that had twin beds. It had taken Harry sleeping in her room with her to persuade Remus to go to his own room with Sirius.
She pulled the bar of chocolate from her bag that had been unceremoniously dumped on the bed beside her and handed it over to him.
“Honeydukes milk chocolate, your favourite,” she smiled.
“I’m supposed to take care of you, you know?” He breathed out a laugh.
She simply shrugged in response, they went in circles every time that got brought up. She didn’t care. He was her dad, she was going to take care of him and the stupid wolf in his head would just have to get over it. She didn’t care if he didn’t like being taken care of, she was determined to do it anyways.
“How are you feeling, mon lune?” Sirius asked gently.
“Like shit,” Remus snorted.
“So… same as usual,” Harry had a mischievous grin on his face.
“Yeah, Harry. Same as usual,” Remus laughed slightly, being careful not to jostle himself too much for fear of the pain that would follow.
They stayed like that for a while, simply chatting and laughing, attempting to make Remus feel better. Or more human. Hermione told them about the latest letter from Dora, her sister in another life, and perhaps this one too. About her latest auror hijinks, how she wished she was able to go out in the field more instead of being stuck on paperwork duty. About her latest raunchy hookup, floo call or letter with Charlie. About Dromeda and the gossip she and Cissa shared with one another. Or any number of other things that she imagined sisters would share. And did in their case.
“Harry got three days of detention today from Sirius,” Hermione informed Remus, eyes swimming with mirth.
“Jesus, Harry. What the fuck did you do? You and Mina get away with a lot more than everyone else so you must have seriously fucked up today,” Remus said, looking to Harry for more information. Harry, on his part, did look rather sheepish as he avoided everyone’s eyes.
“Backchatted a bit, didn’t I,” Harry mumbled, a defensive tone lacing his voice. Hermione snorted.
“A bit,” she echoed. “Is anyone going to talk about the fact that Harry called Sirius ‘Dad’, or are we going to ignore it like a hippogriff in the room?”
Harry’s cheeks turned red and he shrunk in on himself further. Sighing, Hermione left the warmth of her dad’s arms and snuggled up next to Harry, whispering words of comfort and encouragement to him, promising him that no one was mad, they were all happy for him, that she had been waiting for this moment, that it wasn’t disrespectful to the memory of James Potter and that this was what his parents would have wanted when they asked Sirius all those years ago to be his godfather should anything happen to them.
After a while, he took a deep breath and finally met Sirius’ eyes. Remus had a soft smile on his face, looking at her and Harry. Sirius was sitting on the edge of the bed where Hermione had been before, holding Remus’ hand in a white-knuckle grip, clearly nervous about what Harry would say but he had this hopeful look in his eye that he couldn’t mask no matter how hard he tried.
“Is that alright?” Harry whispered, the emotion making his voice almost hoarse.
“Yeah, kid, it’s alright,” Sirius breathed a laugh. A smile pulling at his mouth and making the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes crease.
“Good, that’s good,” the relief on Harry’s face was evident. Hermione dropped her head to Harry’s shoulder.
“Well Dad, Other Dad, I need to go meet Draco, we have a project to complete for transfiguration apparently,” she smiled at them both. Sirius gasped and put a hand on his chest, turning dramatically between Hermione and Remus.
“’Other Dad’. That’s what I’ve been reduced to,” he wiped away a faux tear.
Snorting, Harry decided to join in the bit.
“Yes, Dad, Other Dad, we must be on our way. Theo and I will join you and Draco in the library,” he winked at her.
“Wait, who was ‘Dad’ and who was ‘Other Dad’ with you Harry?” Remus asked, a mischievous look in his eye.
“Obviously, you were ‘Dad’,” Harry responded lightly, before grabbing their bags and dragging Hermione out of the studio apartment like quarters, the pair calling out quick goodbyes to Remus before Sirius started squawking about the ‘disrespect’ and ‘from his own children’ and that he ‘would give them detention for it’.
Hermione and Harry stopped just around the corner, laughing and leaning on one another. When they finally calmed down, they looked at one another and smiled. She knew they shared that same warm feeling in their chests, the acceptance and knowledge of a loving family, of two parents who would do anything for you and loved you unconditionally. Linking their arms together, they headed up to the library to wait for Draco and Theo.
“I can’t wait to tell Dora about this,” Hermione sighed, cheeks hurting from smiling so much.
“Oh, she’s going to make Sirius’ life a living hell, isn’t she?” Harry chuckled.
“I can only hope so,” Hermione smirked.