Hermione stares at Sirius Black more than she really should. Ron often catches her staring at him from across the room and jokes about how Hermione has a crush on the older man. He only jokes about it behind Harry's back of course. If Harry even heard a syllable of that statement he would freak out, and given how he'd been acting this summer, it wouldn't surprise Hermione at all if he punched her for crushing on his godfather.

But Ron has it all wrong, though. Hermione did not have crush on Sirius Black. She merely finds the man interesting, almost observing him as a lab rat. He never seems happy, even when he laughs, it seems hollow. Sometimes he looked at her, his grey eyes begging for happiness. It scares her sometimes, when she lies awake at night, his eyes haunting her.

Sirius Black was a shell of his former self. Hermione decides to make it her mission to make him whole once more.