"I was just talking about him; remember I said I had this drinking buddy who's always talking about wards. Well, Hermione meet drinking buddy, drinking buddy meet Hermione," said Sirius.
Harry smiled at Sirius, "I've been meaning to come and see you ever since I got a new secret keeper, but the last time I saw you, you said that you were taking the wife and the twins on a vacation to... what was the name of that place? Fernando something?"
"Fernando de Noronha," said Sirius.
"So did Giselle and the girls like it there?" asked Harry, referring to Sirius's wife and his two twin daughters.
"It's beautiful up there, of course they loved it," said Sirius. "I'd still be there if Dumbledore hadn't turned up and pestered me until I agreed to come with him but... this means... You've been travelling all the way from California to Brazil just to..."
Sirius suddenly bounded from his seat and swept Harry up into a hug. "Oh, I should have known you would never forget me," he sobbed.
"What about me?" asked Hermione in a plaintive tone.
Harry frowned as he carefully and gently disengaged from Sirius. "I tried... well you were in the news too, when you were attending that international potions conference in Vegas. You got a fair bit of coverage because you were so young and you already had your mastery. You were presenting some of your research at the conference."
"Improvements to the blood replenishing potion," said Hermione, "but I don't remember ever seeing you there... or were you using another glamour ring."
"No, I didn't use a glamour, didn't think I needed it. I went to Vegas and tracked you down. I couldn't get close to you during the day since you were too busy with the conference but I finally managed to track you down one evening at your hotel bar," said Harry.
"But..." said Hermione as she clearly was wracking her memory trying to remember if she had met Harry during that time. The problem was that she had met hundreds of people during that conference.
Harry chuckled at the look on her face. "See, reconnecting with Sirius was easy. He was also at a bar and all I had to do was sit down next to him, order a drink and strike up a conversation but you..." He turned to Sirius. "Tell me Sirius, have you ever tried to make friends with a woman in a bar."
"Sure," said Sirius. "Not since I got married, but before that sure, of course I've gotten friendly with women in bars. Really friendly, if you know what I mean, with hundreds of stunningly beautiful women."
"Yeah, that's the problem right there. Hermione here thought I was trying to pick her up and... Well, she shot me down rather quickly," explained Harry. He very carefully avoided looking up to see Luna's face. No doubt, she was finding it all very amusing.
"I...I did?" said a shocked Hermione. "But-But, why didn't you try again?"
Harry sighed, "I-I tried, but you know what it was like. You were being totally monopolised by the other potions masters during the day and anything I tried to come up with... Well, I got worried that I was coming across as a bit of a stalker. Even later on… I just couldn't figure out a way. We had absolutely nothing in common anymore. You were living in Australia and it wasn't like we had any common friends I could hit up for an introduction nor were there any convenient trolls to save you from. I'm sorry but without you being able to remember me there just didn't seem to be a way…"
Hermione's face fell. She couldn't believe that she had rebuffed Harry when he tried to make friends.
"If it's any consolation," said Harry gently, "you were rather nice in the way you turned me down."
The next minute Harry was engulfed in another hug, this time by a crying Hermione who kept mumbling apologies into his chest. He looked helplessly at Luna and patted Hermione's back rather ineffectually. "There, there," he said.
It took a while but Hermione was finally persuaded to let go of him and sit down with a cup of tea. "You are going to tell me everything," she cried as she shook her finger at him. "We have so much catching up to do. First things first, did you at least get your OWLs and NEWTs? Or whatever their equivalent over here is?"
Harry grinned and shook his head in exasperation at his friend. Of course, that would be the first thing she would ask about. She hadn't changed a bit; he thought fondly as he sat down and started to tell his godfather and his friend about his life.
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