A Sirius Matter [Harmione]

7. Talking to Sirius

That night, a tropical bird arrived in Harry's room at Hermione's house. It had a letter that said,

"Dear Harry,

I've just received your letter that says you took my advice about talking to Hermione, and about Grimmauld Place. As far as the picture of my mother goes, thanks for allowing me to burn the portrait myself. I think it might be a good idea if we can communicate faster than every few days. You may have already written me since the letter I'm responding to. I used to have a set of two-way mirrors that I used to speak with your father through. They're probably in my vault, but you don't have access to it. There's a book that used to be in a desk in the second biggest bedroom called, "Matlock's Magical Means of Communications," that explains the spell. I've got a mirror here that's charmed to respond to, 'Snuffles.' I'll keep that with me. Hopefully you'll get a mirror charmed to work with it soon.

Sirius

P.S. Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, I, Sirius Black invite you to my home at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place."

"Wow," said Harry, after reading the letter. He got up, walked to Hermione's room, and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Hermione's voice called through the door.

"Harry, I got a letter from Sirius."

"Really? Hold on a minute. I'm changing."

"Are you sure I can't come in?" asked Harry playfully.

"Positive. Was he just responding to the first letter, or to more than one of them?"

"Just the first. It's got your invitation to the house."

The door opened, revealing Hermione in a light blue pajama outfit.

Harry smiled, "It was worth the wait."

Hermione blushed. "Come in, but don't close the door. I don't want my parents to get the wrong idea."

"Alright," said Harry, stepping into the room. "Here's the letter from Sirius."

He handed her the letter and she read it quickly, smiling as she read. "Brilliant," she said. "I remember testing that book for curses the other day. It's still in the desk. I don't know why I didn't think of it!"

"I guess I know what we'll be doing tomorrow," said Harry. "I still think it's funny that he burned his mum's portrait."

"Can you blame him?" asked Hermione, smirking.

"Not with that woman," he said, "She'd drive him insane. She'd be worse than the Dementors."

"I guess so," said Hermione. "If we're getting up at six, we'd better go to bed now."

"Goodnight Hermione," said Harry.

She gave him a quick kiss and said, "Goodnight,"

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They got up and did their morning exercises, and ended up at Grimmauld Place at 7:45. Ginny wasn't there yet, so they immediately went to the correct bedroom to get the book. When they looked in the bedroom, they saw that Ginny had already redecorated it. It had light brown carpet with light green walls. The queen-size four-poster bed had a dark green blanket over it, with matching bed curtains. There was a wooden desk that appeared to have recently been sanded down and refinished. It was hard to believe it was the same old black desk that they'd seen just a few days ago. Hermione opened the drawer to find...nothing.

"What?" said Hermione, panicking that a book was missing. "It was just here."

"Relax Mione," said Harry. "She probably just emptied the desk when she worked on it."