the_debt_of_time

Remus frowned. "Harry, I've been asking myself the exact same question for the
last few years."
Harry turned his attention back to Sirius. "What if I'm not okay with this?"
Sirius swallowed hard and clenched his fists together tightly. "Harry, son, please
don't―"
"Harry!" Remus scolded.
"No, Remus." The boy turned and narrowed his eyes before looking back at Sirius.
"I want to hear it from him. What if I said I don't approve of this? What if I asked you to
choose? Your... whatever it is with Hermione... or me?"
"Please don't," Sirius begged, closing his eyes and willing Harry to understand.
"Answer the question."
"It would... It would kill me to lose you," Sirius confessed, thinking of the first
moment that James placed Harry in his arms. The moment he had been forced to hand
him over to Hagrid when James and Lily were killed. The moment they had finally been
reunited, and again after Sirius had been pulled from the veil. "Harry, you know about the
bonds now. You know what you are to me. You're not just... You're my s-s―"
"Yeah, I know, and you're the only father I can remember," Harry said. "So answer
the question."
Sirius clenched his eyes shut tightly. "Her," he whispered, his heart breaking. "It
would kill me, but I would choose her. Always her. Forever her."
"All right then." Harry stood. "That's all I needed to know." He approached Sirius
then, wrapping him in a tight hug that forced a panicked breath out of his lungs. "Sirius, I
love Hermione. She's been mine to protect since I was eleven. I spent far too long standing
by watching Ron make her cry and Malfoy call her names. Too involved in my own shit to
even bother asking about Krum or do anything about McLaggen. And then I dragged her
into a war, and she never once left my side. She suffered. She was tortured. She almost
died. She lost everything for me, Sirius." He stood tall, holding his head high, his eyes hard
and dark. "So I'll do anything for her, and that means choosing her over you." He exhaled
slowly. "So if you want my approval or... whatever, you have it. But if you hurt her―"
Sirius's eyes widened. "You approve?"
Harry shrugged, the boyishness in him returning. "Well, you say she's your soul
mate. I want you both happy. Don't get me wrong, it's strange, but seven years ago, I didn't