Breathe: Chapter 7

[ceredwensirius]

Title: Breath
Chapter: Remorse (7)
Chapter Rating: PG 13
Warnings: Mention of sex
Pairings: Sirius/Hermione
Summary: Sirius is propelled forward through time by a magical accident. He has to adjust to all the changes and maybe find love in the process. A romance between Hermione/Sirius.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.
Author’s Note: Sorry for the slow update.

Remorse

Blinking a few times to clear the haze of sleep from her eyes while stretching her limbs a bit to encourage her body to wake up, Hermione raised a hand from under the covers to touch her aching head. Hangovers, she decided as the loud, demented brass band played in her head, were a most effective deterrent to the liberal use of alcohol. If her brain had the will to engage she might have pondered why someone would risk the experience twice but the act of pondering was too painful to entertain.

The pressure let up slightly as she ungracefully raised up, slipping her legs from under the sheets and tapped the hardwood floor with her toes until she found her slippers. The cool air in her bedroom was lightly refreshing but didn't stop the internal wobble, a faint queasiness of the brain. Swaying slightly as she got two legs under her, she put one reluctant foot in front of the other until she reached her bedroom door.

Opening it a crack, she listened for the sounds of roused souls, only satisfied to leave her room after confirming that all was quiet. Closing her door softly behind her, she slipped across the hall to the bathroom.

The unnaturally enthusiastic band allowed for only those thoughts which were matters of human necessity; the loo, breathing and food were all she could manage for the moment. Although she couldn't yet identify why, she was possessed of a vague instinct that desired no contact with her house mates. Padding softly down the stairs, she took care to be so quiet that not even the portraits stirred at her passing.

Dehydration, she remembered from somewhere, was a key factor in obtaining a hangover. She wanted nothing more than to personally and permanently silence the relentless thud, reaching the kitchen was her most crucial priority. Stepping off the stairs and turning into the hallway that led to the kitchen, she was eager to get some water into her system. Upon sighting the doorway to her target destination her chest clenched into a tight, cold grasp which served to further encourage the pounding between her ears; there was someone in the kitchen.

The light spilling into the hallway combined with the soft sound of someone humming gave away the human presence. The initial shock of adrenaline was replaced by a feeling of irritation but she couldn't remember why she should be irritated.

Figuring it to be Remus, whom she couldn't raise a strong sense of aggravation for, she continued down her path. When she crossed the threshold into the kitchen though, her assumption proved wrong. The last person she wanted to deal with at this time or any other was carefully watching a cauldron simmer over a low flame. The feeling of irritation swelled uncomfortably as the band kicked up its a efforts just a tic, effectively banishing any hope for clear, coherent thinking. She coughed slightly to announce her presence.

"Morning beautiful," chirruped Sirius as he added a last ingredient.

Unable to identify the substance and not caring enough to try she crossed to the table with barely a grunt for him.

"I figured you to be a light weight so I'm brewing a fail safe hangover relieving potion for you." Sirius stirred the potion clockwise three times and continued to observe the potions progress, glancing over at her with a sly half smile.

The ridiculous endearment and his assumptions about her tolerance almost earned him a reaction but the consideration of brewing a potion to ease her pain buttoned her lip of any aggressive verbiage. "What's in it?"

"Best not to ask," he replied, flashing her a quick mischievous grin.

Selecting a small brass ladle from an old crockery canister with a large, ostentatious 'B', the lip of which sprung out from one side to pour its contents, he scooped out a measure of smoking liquid, poured a small amount and set it in front of her.

Hermione looked into the porcelain cup to view the clear liquid and the smoke that wafted off, drinking quickly and without too much thought, only hope for an end to her misery.

The liquid was scalding hot, searing down her throat and into her gut. Once settled there she could feel the magic flowing back in the opposite direction, out and up, speeding like wind over water to her head. A soft squeak escaped her lips as the band was summarily executed, followed by a tickling sensation coming from out of her ears. A cold shiver ran down her spine making her whole body quiver, she shook like a dog after a bath.

"Feel better?" asked Sirius sweetly.

"Yes, thanks," she murmured quietly.

With the pain gone, her mind and memory were splendidly restored.

"You!" she suddenly hissed, patting her house robe and realizing with disappointment that she had left her wand upstairs.

"Me?" he said innocently enough.

The porcelain cup was still in one hand, she slammed it down on the oak table as she slowly stood to her feet with murder in her eyes. "You're not afraid to let your guard down a little, are you?" she mocked, using his words from the previous evening. "You planned this!" she accused taking a step towards him.

If she had her wand, he would have been a bit more apprehensive but as it was she was just one little witch with a bad temper. "Oh, come off it," he returned. "How was I supposed to know you had never gotten any satisfaction from Ron?" He was leaned casually against the counter beside the sink with his arms crossed in front of him, a lazy smirk gracing his amused face.

"If you're still here when I come back with my wand I'm doing something painful...and permanent!" she promised, realizing just as he had that physically she was no match for him but magically...

"Going to hex my balls off, beautiful?" he taunted. "Might be a bit difficult for me to show you what all the fuss is about without those."

"I've got my sights set on something I'm certain is nearer and dearer to your heart, Black," she said dangerously, her eyes flicking momentarily from his eyes to the top of his head. "But you're right about one thing. You will never get a chance to show me 'what the fuss is about'!"

"Do you have any idea how bloody gorgeous you are when you're angry?" He was completely captivated with the fury in her eyes that desired nothing more than to incinerate him on the spot. She had spirit, this one!

"I'll be back with my wand," she vowed softly and turned on her heel, ready to storm out of the kitchen but was brought up short by the rest of the house's inhabitants who had been watching the display between herself and Sirius. Clenching her jaw, her expression set in iron, she pushed into the crush of onlookers pausing briefly to look Tonks straight in the eye.

"Well, you're off to an early start," commented Remus as he entered the kitchen.

Ginny followed Hermione up the stairs and then an argument could be heard between the two witches. A few cross glances were shot at Sirius for his behavior and then suddenly a door slammed. Sirius glanced at the ceiling when the heavy lurching sound of the upstairs shower cutting on alerted the house to Hermione's whereabouts. Footsteps on the stairs preceded Ginny entering the kitchen with a terrifying glare on her face, her eyes were only for Sirius.

Lifting her wand out of her pocket she advanced towards the Animagus, pointing it directly at him. "I swear if you don't start treating her with a more respectful tone I will be the witch you have to worry about!" As tempted as he was to defend himself, after all it was Hermione who had come after him, the look in Ginny's eyes suggested that was an awful idea. Ginny and Sirius stared each other down for several long tense moments before she turned away.

A high pitched whine and rumble announced that Hermione's shower was complete, as did the muted sounds of one door opening and another closing from a couple of floors up.

"You might want to make yourself scarce," suggested Harry with a grin for Sirius, attempting to break the tension.

"Hermione won't be hexing anyone, she's sorted. For now," said Ginny from the counter where she was beginning to prepare breakfast.
Clearing her throat quietly in the doorway, glaring daggers at Sirius, Hermione got the attention of the kitchen. "There is a briefing with the Vice President of Media Relations at 11:00. If you are planning to attend please be at the eighth floor conference room B and don't be late."

Sirius smiled at her appreciatively as she was wearing her new dress and shoes and had taken some care with her hair and added a little make up. It wasn't that she had done anything drastic by normal convention, just that for her, this was a surprising and pleasing new look. For a moment he thought it would be interesting and even a little fun to watch her handle male attention, she was clearly unused to it. That thought led to a little frown and an odd feeling of discontent. Brushing it off, he smiled at her and let his eyes trail up her body, letting her see his approval. "I'll be there with bells on."

"As long as they are attached to a choke collar that'll be just fine," she returned before turning to leave the kitchen.

When the front door open and closed Ginny rounded on Sirius once more. "You will make an apology. Today!"

Sirius swallowed and nodded, finding the red head almost as scary as Lily.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione was trying to concentrate on the calendar's pattern of runes as she worked out a new one on parchment. This did not help her avoid thoughts of Sirius because he was the one who had given her the idea of beginning and ending sequences. Her quill paused in its scratching against the parchment as she let out a long sigh.

That utter, utter prat!

"Might be a bit difficult for me to show you what all the fuss is about without those," she mocked quietly. "Never!" she hissed to herself.

What she needed and didn't have was ammunition, something she could come back at him with him, turn things in her favor, send him on the run and ducking for cover. Some juicy piece of... Hermione stopped breathing altogether as she remembered something from the first hour that she met him.

"Bullshit! This is some Death Eater trick. If you're Moony, prove it."

"The night before the Christmas hols in our fifth year I caught you snogging Lily in the Astronomy Tower."

She could kiss Remus.

I don't believe you," said Sirius harshly. "You look like you could be Moony's dad but I saw Moony just the other day and believe me he could not have aged that much in less than a week."

"Well, you're as tactful as ever," remarked Remus lightly. "Would you like me to continue to mention embarrassing moments from your youth? There was a particular incident in the prefect bathroom that I happened to walk in on."

Sirius' eyes widened in shock. "You swore!"

"And I've kept my vow," interrupted Remus.

Not one but two sweet and juicy morsels that she could use against him.

"I wonder just how committed Remus is to keeping that secret?" she mused to herself.

"Committed to keeping what secret, beautiful?" Hermione looked up to see him lounging in her doorway like he belonged there.

"You're early," she said grumpily.

"Harry said something to me the other day," he paused to glance out the window, frowning at the change in the view. "Ginny as well. You see...this has all been rather difficult for me and they made me realize...well, I've been a bit of an arse to you."

"Yes, you have," she agreed. "I'll be honest, I don't like you very much."

"I'd like to change that," he said quickly, concentrating on his boots.

"That's unlikely," she assured him, his timing for this conversation struck her as strange.
"I'm really not so bad once you get to know me."

"How did you find my office, anyway?" she said ignoring his attempt for civility.

"Oh, uh...there's a board downstairs with your name on it." Glancing at the parchment under her fingers he smiled to see she was already trying to use the information he gave her. "How's that going?"

"Not sure yet," she replied. "I've had some difficulty concentrating and now I'm dealing with a massive interruption."

He ignored her pointed comment. "Can I help?"

"No, go away," she replied. He just smirked at her and conjured a chair and took his seat beside her. "You really don't listen very well, do you?"

"James and I used runes once in a prank on someone who had a crush on James' girl. We stuck him in a memory loop of the day Lily finally saw him for what he was." Sirius grinned wickedly, ignoring her rebuff entirely.

"And you think that's alright?" she asked him heatedly. "Did you know that Snape was a hero?"

"Do you know that it's very irritating having people you are newly acquainted with know everything about you," said Sirius grumpily. "I may not know who he ended up being but I sure as hell knew who he was when we were kids!"

"Kids, Sirius," returned Hermione. "Something you never got very far away from!"

"I'm not that man, Hermione," said Sirius earnestly in a quiet tone of voice.

"Maybe," she replied. "But he is, or at least was, you."

Sirius shook his head. "You've never known me."

"Fine," she said, pushing the parchment away with her fingertips since it was clear he was determined to continue bothering her. "Tell me something I don't know, like for instance, what you were doing in the prefect bathroom that Remus isn't supposed to say anything about."

Sirius' entire body went still and tense, his eyes making contact with hers briefly before looking away. "You've got a good memory," he said irritably.

"Come on, then," she said, supressing the urge to giggle at having successfully turned the tables. "What's the big secret?"

Sirius sighed and let his head fall back to look at the ceiling. "It's embarrassing," he muttered softly.

"Yes, well, you've been embarrassing me in front of my friends since I met you. Fair is fair."

"Fine, but I get something in return," he countered.

"No deal," she replied. "You owe me, and I can tell anyone I want to."

"What! That's hardly fair!" he said heatedly.

"Oh, I'd say it is just as fair as everyone I know understanding with perfect clarity just how dissatisfying my sex life with Ron was."

"That was his failing, not yours," offered Sirius hopefully, wanting to placate her a bit.

"Hardly the point, Black," she replied briskly, not giving an inch of the ground she had gained.

"I really like it better when you call me Sirius," he said softly, his grey eyes holding hers in a moment that made her temporarily forget he was an arse.

Hermione cleared her throat and looked away. "All the more reason to stick with Black."

Sirius sighed and looked away.

"So, prefect bathroom, highly embarrassing...details please," said Hermione, doggedly staying on track.

"I'm a proud man, Hermione," he said quietly. "I am hoping that this stays between us..."

"I'm promising nothing," she replied, hoping that all this build up ended in a truly juicy bit of gossip.

"What do you know about Lily and James'...er, courtship?" he asked, shifting up in his chair to rest his elbows on his knees and lean over them a bit.

"Well, Harry said that he was surprised that Lily hated him at first," she answered with a bit of a smile, wondering where this decision to confess was coming from. She hadn't really expected him to comply.

"Hate!" snorted Sirius. "Fancied the pants off him more like, he was just a bit too cocky for her liking, until he grew up a bit."

"So, what does this have-"

"Let me tell the damn story, woman!" interrupted Sirius with a playful glare. Hermione smiled sheepishly and folded her hands in her lap and waited.

"Anyway, she liked to joke that the reason she wouldn't go out with James was because he was already in a relationship with me." Hermione giggled at that earning a chuckle from Sirius. "Yeah, well...James never saw that as funny and so Lily used that joke a lot to irritate him. When she found out about the memory loop we stuck Snape in she was really angry. I mean she was just as angry at him for what he'd said but she was also mad at herself for leaving Snape defenceless with us. I am guessing that you know the whole story here?"

Hermione nodded. "Harry was taking Occlumens lessons from Professor Snape-"

"Professor?" interrupted Sirius. "Dumbledore made that man a professor?"

"He was a-"

"Yes, yes," said Sirius brusquely. "Hero. You mentioned that." He sighed his irritation that this hated childhood enemy was ever in a position of power over James' son.

"Snape called Lily a-"

"Don't say it!" cautioned Sirius. "It's a filthy word and not one I care to hear passing your lips." Hermione looked away, thinking it was a bit hypocritical for him to censure her.

"So, back to the story. Lily decided that James needed to be taken down a peg and deserved to be pranked himself. She knew that James and me were curious about the prefect bathroom on the fourth floor and that Remus was too much of a rule minder to ever tell us what the password was. It was sort of a standing joke. Pretending to extend the olive branch, she gave James the password. What we didn't know was that she had tampered with the room a bit. James refused to ever discuss the incident but I found out from her years later that it was a combination of a charm set on the room and a potion additive to the taps."

"Oh, no! What did you do?" asked Hermione, expecting the worst."Did the two of you-"

"Nothing like that!" said Sirius scandalized that she would even think it, much less suggest it. "You have a dirty mind, Hermione!" Sirius looked at her, smiling slowly to have found out how devious she could be.

"I-I...I didn't even say what I was thinking," she defended but Sirius just shook his head in mock sadness.

"Well, if that is a fantasy you are ever hoping to play out, let me just say that I am not your man," joked Sirius, gleeful to have found a way to get under her skin again.

Hermione stood up and was about to tell him off but Sirius beat her to words. "You really don't take teasing very well, do you?"

"Its lewd!"

"It was a joke, Hermione. You've made your feelings on the subject of me more than clear. Do you want me to finish the story or not?" Letting a bit of aggravation enter his tone that even he didn't fully understand, he waited for her to regain her seat. With much of the humor gone from him and no longer much up for story telling, Sirius cut to the quick. Something about what he'd just said left him with a feeling of disappointment. "Anyway, long story short, Remus finds out what Lily did and comes to rescue us from reciting Shakespearean love sonnets to one another."

"You read Shakespeare?" she scoffed.

"Actually, neither James or I had even heard of the man before that day but Lily you see, was quite clever with charms." Sirius stared at his hands feeling a bit foolish for reasons that were unrelated to his confession.

"That doesn't sound nearly as bad as you might think," said Hermione, misreading his change in mood.

"Well, we got her back but that is a story for another day," said Sirius quietly.

A soft knock at the door lifted both their heads to see who the visitor was. Miss Hardfoot smiled hesitantly at Hermione and then her eyes opened wide when she recognized Sirius.

"Hello Miss Hardoot," said Hermione pleasantly. "Ready for the briefing?"

Miss Hardfoot smiled and nodded and then flicked her eyes to Sirius.

"I'm sorry," said Hermione. "Miss Hardfoot this is Sirius Black. Sirius this is Miss Hardfoot. She had a hand in your being here as well."

Sirius smiled charmingly at the young witch and politely shook her extended hand. "I suppose a thank you is in order."

Miss Hardfoot blushed deeply and nodded, looking away to find Hermione shaking her head and then blushing even deeper.

"Shall we?" asked Hermione, getting up from her seat as she grabbed some notes.

"After you, ladies," said Sirius gallantly with a wink for Miss Hardfoot. Hermione pursed her lips slightly at the display and then huffed when Sirius caught her irritation. He did a double take and then grinned lasciviously at her, his spirits suddenly soaring to see a slight display of jealousy. His soft chuckle rang in her ears as they made their way to the eighth floor.

Comments

[ghostgum]

What a delightfully distracting update, honey! Sooooo much more interesting than what I'm supposed to be doing. *grins*

And only Hermione could protest "It's lewd!" and be completely in-character, lol!

[ceredwensirius.livejournal.com]

Uptight, is she not?

I am distracting myself today, trying not to think of less pleasant events.

Thanks for reading!

[ghostgum]

Very uptight!! It's good though, sometimes it's easier to just make Hermione a bit OOC, but I think you've got her really well-drawn here.

*hugs for unpleasantness*

[ilexx.livejournal.com]

I really liked how deliberate the detail was of the whole hangover bit. It made her reaction once the potion kicked in that much more snapping and jarring (the "You!"). Really effective.

I also started to feel badly for Sirius towards the end of this, and it painted Hermione in a more imperfect light in these circumstances. Young Sirius is getting some nice character development happening here, and I can't wait to find out more of his actual personality.

[ceredwensirius.livejournal.com]

I wanted to emphasize that it was a magical remedy. I'm glad its working here.

You were supposed to feel badly, so that's a good thing. He's been so reactionary from the beginning of this, now that he is experiencing some pressure to change he will have to let his truer self come to the fore.

Hermione has a bit of unforgiveness to her personality in canon, some rigidity that is built into her character. That will come into play a bit more as this goes on.

[lakshmi-black.livejournal.com]

A new chapter!

My favorite part was Sirius appearance at her work and their little chat, how can someone be so sneaky and so charming at the same time? I actually felt sorry for him, unless I'm thoroughly mistaken I think he was really trying to be nice, of course, it's his new approach, but still he was trying.

Loved the hangover scene, her reaction was so funny, straight to the point "You!", very good one, and Ginny's protectiveness was quite endearing.

Sirius story was nothing like I have imagined but definitely more entertaining and more humorous, and something I can picture Lily doing, imagining James and Sirius declaiming Shakespeare to each other in a bathroom is just hilarious.

Very good chapter *thumbs up*. You've made my day, my mood is certainly better now.

[ceredwensirius.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you found it funny. I'm a little unsure of myself with humor.

Ginny has her own agenda and sees it slipping away if she doesn't step in.

He's trying. He's made a mess. I think he has been reacting a bit to her prudery and swottiness. She's his polar opposite and his brash confidence and ability to recognize female attraction has her at a disadvantage. He's not really trying to be an ass but in a way his behavior is like a young who pulls the pigtails of the girl he fancies. She is unamused and makes the mistake of giving him a reaction which only escalates matters. Now he's taking stock and finds a situation he's not that happy about.

I went round and round in my head about bathroom incident. I wanted it to seem like it might be worse than it was and only truly awful from a straight male perspective. I occaisionally read slashy Sirius but really not that much and am incapable of writing it.