Work Text:
April 2004
Walking home Friday evening Sirius was reflecting on his long day, especially as the head of the auror department at the ministry. He was thankful that he was almost back home.
The battle of Hogwarts had been just under six years ago now. Since then, Harry and Hermione had been living at 12 Grimmauld place with Sirius. Harry, knowing that his friend Hermione, didn't have many options on where to live, invited her to stay with them. At first the bright young witch didn't want to be a burden to the two men and said she wanted to keep looking for other places. It took the raven haired wizard quite a while to convince her to stay with them.
After the war the truth about Sirius not being the one who betrayed the potters came to light. That he certainly didn't kill any muggles the night the Potters died. Everyone now knew that Peter Pettigrew was the snake in lion's clothing. Sirius was finally able to go out into the public eye without fear of being sent back to azkaban. He was also given his old job of an auror back once the ministry had recovered from the war. Though it didn't take long for the ministry to promote Sirius up to the head Auror.
Sirius knew that Hermione would already be back home from her day shift at St Mungo's. Finally he had arrived outside his house. Opening the door and walking into the hallway, the first thing he noticed was the unusual silence. Normally when Sirius got back home from work he could hear the sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen, but tonight along with the stillness was an air of sadness about the place. Knowing that something wasn't right he went looking for the younger witch. Finding her in the living room, sitting on the sofa, seeming to be reading a book.
Standing at the entrance to the room, looking at her he knew that something had upset her. He also knew this to be true when she hadn't turned a page in the book that she held.
Sirius wasn't the best at comforting people at the best of times after his time in Azkaban. Then he remembered that throughout the last six ish years, but closer to when she first moved in, there had been times when Hermione asked him to change into his animagus form and curl up next to her on cold nights. Even though the witch hadn't asked this of him for the last two ish years he knew it also helped comfort her.
Sirius decided that changing into his animagus form was the way to help Hermione. Going into the family tree room, he got himself ready to morph into his dog form. Once the transformation was complete he went back to the young witch. He jumped up beside her and laid down with his head in her lap. He could feel that Hermione was slightly startled when he jumped onto the sofa, it took the young gryffindor a few seconds to relax. Moments after that Hermione slowly put her hand on top of Sirius' head. Stroking the backs of his dog ears lightly.
Hermione's pov earlier that day.
Hermione had just finished her lunch break, and made her way back to the main wards in St Mungo's, when she was called to the children's area for a suspected broken arm. The young witch had made many accomplishments in the short six ish years, becoming a fully fledged healer at St Mungo's in just under four ish years.
Arriving at the children's ward to take a look at her patient's arm she sees Andromeda Tonks. Immediately knowing that her patient was Teddy Lupin, made her heart wrench with pain and the memory of his parents, who died in the war.
Hermione knew that her job as a healer was more important in this moment, then being Auntie Mione, so she pushed her emotions down by taking a deep breath in and out.
Taking a look at Teddy's arm she confirmed it to be broken, only a minor brake that was an easy fix with 'brackium emendo'. The witch always got fairly upset when a child came in with any kind of injury because it was hard to see them in pain and their parents worry about them.
Healing magic could go terribly wrong after all if cast poorly, she could remember when that fraud Lockhart tried to fix Harry's broken arm in her second year after a quidditch match. The fool ended up vanishing Harry's bones instead.
Present time Sirius' pov
It had been two hours since Sirius arrived back home. He was now back in human form and fully clothed. Hermione had just finished telling him about why she was upset, after treating Teddy's broken arm and how much she was reminded of Remus and Tonks while in his presence that day. She also explained to Sirius that when she had seen the young boy over the last six years, due to Harry being there he helped Hermione forget the pain of the losses from the war.
"I miss them too, Hermione." Sirius said softly while holding the witch in his arms.
After Hermione's explanation it seemed the two got stuck into their own thoughts and memories from the past. Another reason why Hermione was hit hard by the reminder of Teddy's parents could also be due to the sixth anniversary of all the deaths and the end of the war being only two weeks away.
Sirius and Hermione had very different memories of the war. She was at Hogwarts and then on the run with Harry and Ron finding voldermort's horcruxes to destroy them. Sirius was still a wanted man then and kept himself sealed away from everyone.
Every single member of the British wizarding world was affected by the war; both of them couldn't deny that but sometimes it felt like they gave up more than anyone else that includes Harry and Ron too.