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Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter or any of the characters, I just like to play with them
Invention
The dementor glided toward the bars of the prison cell, followed by two others. They were excited, this new one was filled with fresh, happy memories.
“Not her,” whimpered the prisoner. It had taken so long to replace the emptiness with something real and good.
All three dementors closed in at once.
“Not her,” he screamed! He didn’t know how he’d gotten thrown back in Azkaban. He couldn’t remember being arrested. He had been so happy, he was on the brink of deciding to take what he wanted. A part of him didn’t believe he was allowed to have something as fine as love. He knew he was being punished for daring to dream.
The prisoner backed up against the cell wall, trying desperately to put space between himself and these gliding horrors. He just wanted to be able to remember what it was like to love her.
“Let me keep her!” Sirius was screaming, he thrashed about in the tiny bed, clammy and sweating.
Hermione woke up with a start. She jumped out of bed and grabbed her wand, ready to do battle if necessary. Sleep quickly fled her brain, there was no one in the room with them. She looked over at the erratic movement from the bed and realized that Sirius was having a nightmare.
“Not Hermione,” he moaned as he thrashed the bed. “Please don’t take Hermione.”
She climbed back into the bed and shook him gently. “Sirius, wake up.”
Sirius continued to batter the bed and mumble incoherently.
She shook him harder and raised her voice. “Sirius! Wake up! It’s just a nightmare!”
Sirius opened his eyes slowly and sat up in the bed. “Hermione?”
“Yes, sweetheart. You’re alright. It was just a nightmare. You’re fine. I’m fine. It’s ok.” He lay back down, emotionally drained from the nightmare. Hermione pulled him into her arms and stroked his head tenderly. She could hear his heart pounding in his chest.
“Can you go back to sleep?”
Sirius nodded and relaxed completely in her embrace.
Hermione held Sirius in her arms and listened to his breathing regulate as he fell back asleep. He was nestled in her arms almost childlike. He had never had a nightmare with her before. So much wrong had happened to him in his life, she was surprised that he didn’t have more of these. Hermione cooed soothingly as she cuddled him close.
She had heard her name, he’d been begging something or someone not to take her away. Was he afraid of losing her? Her hand stroked his hair as she slowly fell back to sleep, dropping to cradle his head once she had drifted off.
Sirius woke up and found himself in her arms. He remembered the night before and felt a surge of shame course through him. No one but Remus had ever been a witness to his nightmares, an event that they never spoke of. He was glad that it wasn’t one of his bad ones. It had only taken a few minutes for him to realize that he wasn’t in Azkaban. He thought he was finally getting past the nightmares, it had been a few months since he’d had one. He hoped that Hermione would allow him the same sense of privacy that Remus did. He pulled his body out of bed and trudged off to take a shower.
Hermione woke when he pulled himself out of her arms. She waited until he left the room for the shower to slip out of bed and have her morning cup of coffee and banana. She wasn’t sure if she should say anything to him. She decided to let him come to her if he so chose.
When Sirius joined her in the kitchen, she turned to him and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. She smiled for him and then let him be. Sirius felt a wave of gratitude, she let him know she sympathized without saying a word. Sirius reached under the table and squeezed her thigh, it was the only bit of thanks he would be able to give. He never spoke of his dreams, preferring to leave them in the darker corners of his mind.
Her banana and coffee gone, Hermione left the kitchen through the back door.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hermione critically observed the ten or so golems she and Sirius had erected. It was complicated magic but once she fully understood the theory putting it into practice was possible. They had given up on using golems to communicate with, it just wasn’t practical. There didn’t seem to be any good way to get them to their desired target. Sirius demonstrated to her that giving it lifelike qualities was part and parcel to the creation of a golem. He and James routinely used golems to skive off detention while they changed to their Animagus forms to follow more entertaining pursuits. The golem would move, act and even talk like them so long as the interaction wasn’t too complex.
Hermione was tempted to tell him just how irresponsible it was to shirk detention. He and James had learned complicated magic to get away with bad behavior. They were as bad as the Weasley twins! She understood with perfect clarity how they got top marks while at the same time put little effort into the act of studying itself. She had to work very hard for her good grades, it seemed Sirius had breezed through his school years. She was both awed and envious.
“If you can charm it to act like you, what else can you charm it to do?” She wanted to play with this magic a little more. Maybe they could do something useful for the Order.
“Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Could be useful to have a double of yourself on the battlefield. Give the impression you were two places at once.” Sirius noticed that Hermione was wearing that little frown, the one she always wore when working something out.
“I guess, but what would it do?”
“What if you could arm it with a spell. Fred and George charmed hats to carry a Shield Charm, why not a golem with a Disarming Charm or even an offensive spell?”
Hermione and Sirius worked together to try and improve on the golems. The golems could also be charmed to tackle or strike an opponent but would probably be more effective acting as a shield from unfriendly fire. The golem could take the brunt of a spell but only one. It didn’t matter what the spell was, it could be anything from a Tickling Charm to an Unforgivable. Once the spell made contact the golem would crumble into dust.
Arming the golem had taken her most of the week, it couldn’t be added once the golem was created. That was how they discovered that a single spell would destroy a golem. Sirius watched her try repeatedly, it didn’t matter what sort of spell she tried to give it. The strength or type of spell had exactly the same effect.
Her efforts gave him a thought, he called one of the golems aside, raised his wand and said “Crucio!” Hermione wheeled around in time to see the golem absorb the spell and explode, shock was evident on her face.
“What was that for?”
“I’m just curious to see what they can handle.” He observed his handiwork thoughtfully and then called over another golem. He raised his wand, careful to note that Hermione was safely behind him. “Avada Kedavra!” The jet of green light was fully absorbed by the golem, it shattered to the ground as a mound of earth.
“Didn’t like that one?”
Sirius shifted his gaze in her direction. “Smart ass.”
“Sirius what are you doing?”
Instead of answering her he called over another golem. He raised his wand, “Divesto!” A fresh pile of earth lay on the ground.
“What! Why did that one explode?” Hermione began to sense a method to his apparent madness.
Sirius called over another golem, “Expelliarmus!” Hermione watched the last of their golems collapse back to dirt and understood the problem.
Hermione raised her wand, muttering as earth began to take on a vaguely human shape. Before she had finished her creation it exploded. She let out a long sigh. “Well that didn’t work.”
“Try adding it right after the dirt first starts to rise.” Sirius went to work at the same attempt. Over and over his forming clods exploded.
Sirius kept trying in vain, in the middle of another attempt something surprised him. Sirius heard the deep, unaltered voice of a golem speak the word, “Expelliarmus!” The jet of light flew out across the backyard in the direction of the ocean.
“You did it!” Sirius was ecstatic, he loved this idea of hers.
“Its less to do with the words and more to do with the intent behind the spell.” Hermione raised her wand, another clod of earth began to form. Once finished she ordered it to cast the spell she gave it, another jet of light flew out towards the ocean.
Several more attempts and she was satisfied they had the spell figured out. Now that she had the charm that armed the golem she turned her attention to the form she gave it. She made another one, only this time she focused only on eyes to see with, ears to hear with and a mouth to utter the spells incantation. She reasoned that it didn’t need features to be useful in battle. She gave her creation crude hands and arms, paying slightly more attention to feet and legs. She left off clothes and skin as those were unnecessary to the task she would give it. The creation that stood before her was an odd looking entity. It looked like a large, vaguely human clod of animated earth. Sirius found the face rather unnerving, it lacked the definition that a skull provided. It was simply a round shape out of which sprung ears, eyes and a mouth.
The benefit of such simplicity was that it was easier to make than the well defined copy of herself. Not only was it easier it took less time to make, all valuable points in the setting of war. There was still value in the perfect carbon copy, they would make fabulous decoys.
She and Sirius planned battle strategies based around the use of golems. They could be charmed to act as shields for the Order as well as decoys. He thought that fifty or so golems armed to Stun or Disarm would be effective. They would be charmed to act as a shield after their spell was released. Hermione thought each Order member could benefit from having a golem double. They would need to show the other members how it was accomplished but for Sirius this was a weakness. He was rather extraordinarily gifted but he wasn’t good at explaining the method. Hermione on the other hand excelled at explaining the inner workings of magical ability.
“You know what this means, though, don’t you?” Her tone carried a hint of humor.
“No, what?”
“You’re going to have to make up a lot of detentions .”
Sirius let out a bark of laughter. “We we’re in trouble with McGonagall more than any other professor. I can just imagine the look on her face. Students using her subject against her.” He flashed her a mischievous smile.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
While things were going well with the golems they were no closer to communicating with the Order. Hermione had read about something called a Sending but other than that she knew nothing. She mentioned it to him earlier in the week. Sirius was familiar with the term but had never tried it. Over the last week he had been working on it during his walk. The results were mixed and on one occasion potentially harmful.
Hermione sat at the kitchen table, quill in hand, ink and parchment resting on the table. She was outlining the theory behind arming the golems in great detail so that it could be taught to the rest of the Order. She felt a sense of urgency, they had been in Mexico for a few weeks and felt the time to leave was looming. Every morning over coffee she half expected to see Hedwig flutter in with a note from Harry.
They would either be called home to fight in the final battle or after the war was finished. She didn’t really believe that Dumbledore would let a pair of able bodied fighters sit it out on the sidelines, that’s why perfecting their contributions was so important. They both wanted something to show for their time away. What if she was wrong though? What if Dumbledore didn’t have time to send for them or what if they got back just as the battle was won?
The unanswered question between Hermione and Sirius would take center stage.
Hermione had been giving his question a lot of thought. What did she want? She kept coming back to that question. It wasn’t until she considered what it would be like not having him in her life that the answer became clear to her. She didn’t want to lose him. She still wasn’t thrilled that she had been forced into this, forced to lose her virginity but now that she was in it she knew there was no place she would rather be. It felt like a tiny bit of victory to her, this law which was meant to hurt her had in actuality given her something wonderful. It had given her Sirius.
She thought about this intelligent, loving, daring, courageous man. No one had stimulated her intellect the way he did. He didn’t reason things out in the same way which was part of how he kindled the fire in her own mind. He held his own in any conversation with her, taking her ideas into places she might not have gone.
He was her dark knight, growling and bristling like his Animagus form in his defense of her. He had no qualms about speaking his mind and acting on his intuition. His confrontations with Draco had led to their current predicament but he gave her the means to fight back, to not simply take what was being handed to her. He didn’t assume he could do it all for her or keep her in the dark as things were developing. He helped her to participate in shaping her own fate where others often wanted to treat her as a helpless girl. He saw her as the adult she was.
Then there was the sex. Dear god, she didn’t want to live without the sex. Before Sirius she had no idea she could feel so good. He made her feel like the most desirable woman on the planet and the only one he wanted to touch. He had a filthy mouth, saying things out loud she had never even thought and the truth was, she loved it. He was passionate and knew exactly what her body was capable of and how to get her there. She let out a little sigh of contentment.
Hermione realized that she was in love with Sirius. She didn’t know when it had happened, it felt like it was a gradual event. It didn’t really matter when, what mattered now was how to tell Sirius. Was she right about him? Did he return her feelings? Hope fluttered in her stomach along with a tiny seed of doubt. If he loved her then why had he been so distant last week?
This week he had been completely different, they had been working together every day on the golems and of course their morning practice sessions. He was back to his friendly, flirtatious self. Once they were past theory and into doing the magic he was every bit the hard worker she was. What was more, he didn’t get frustrated the way she did. He seemed to expect failures, he simply used them as a reference point for the next go. She learned a lot about experimentation watching him work. His example led to her discovery. He was a good match for her. Suddenly her eyes flew open, she had her answer. Hermione raised her head in time to see something odd in the far corner of the room.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Sirius’ feet led him down the familiar path to his friend Estaban’s home. Estaban lived a couple of miles outside the village on a few acres. Like Sirius himself, Estaban was a wizard and the only one Sirius knew to reside in the area. Sirius wanted to introduce Hermione to his friend but he had yet to find him. Estaban lived as many country wizards did in this part of Mexico, helping out the poor among his countrymen. His vocation meant he was on the go a lot.
While on his walk Sirius thought more about communicating with home. They had no idea how to accomplish a Sending, it was all experimentation met with failure. Undaunted Sirius continued to try whatever idea popped into his head. The first time he tried it out what he ended up doing was Apparating to Hermione’s precise location, nearly on top of her. Once he picked her up off the beach she sat him down and debriefed him of the experience. She wasn’t sure if he was on the right track or not, after all the result had been a bit off.
The really curious thing to her was that he brought himself to her. He hadn’t known she had taken a walk down the beach. When he’d left to find Esteban she was still in the kitchen. She wondered if he hadn’t made an improvement on Apparition.
Each day Sirius tried something new, there were always results although most were rather unexpected and occasionally dangerous. Sirius didn’t mind taking the risk even though he’d had a few close calls over the last week. Once he even splinched a bald patch on his head. Hermione had quickly remedied the situation, sending his hair back to its rightful location. She was a little shaken by the incident but Sirius just laughed it off.
As his feet found their own way down the unpaved road he thought over their week. They had been working on the Sending , in fact they had been working all week and rather hard at that. They had their practice sessions and planning sessions and now they had their experimental magic sessions. He marveled at how well they worked together although he said nothing out loud. They accomplished more by working as a team, he found he had a new appreciation for her.
With everything they were trying to accomplish Sirius’ mind was taken completely off feeling sorry for himself. He’d shed his overcast sky for something a bit more sunny, he hadn’t changed his mind about anything but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. He was back to his flirting and his teasing of her.
He wondered how it was that he knew where she was without knowing where she was. He began focusing his mind less on getting to her and more on just seeing her, seeing where she was. Every time he Apparated to her location he had a glimpse of her first so he focused on getting to the glimpse rather than on reaching her.
He paused in midstride, seeing her quite clearly in his mind. She was sitting at the Arroyo’s kitchen table, making notes and occasionally sucking on the end of her quill. He smiled at the little stain she would get on her lips after studying too hard or too long. It wasn’t a day dream of her, the clarity was that of sight not of imagination. She looked up and smiled at him. Wait, no that wasn’t possible, he was on the other side of the village on his way to see a friend, she was still at the Arroyo’s. Hermione stood up and walked over to him, there was a look of wonder on her face.
“You did it Sirius, you really did it.” Her voice sounded like it was coming through a long tunnel.
He just stared at her for a minute in disbelief. “Hermione?”
She nodded her head vigorously.
“We did it?” He asked incredulously.
Hermione nodded her head again, a huge smile on her face.
In his shock and amazement he lost the vision of her. He turned on his path and ran back to the house.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hermione watched as the semblance of Sirius began to materialize before her eyes. She could tell it wasn’t him, generally speaking Sirius wasn’t see through. It wasn’t a ghost either, she could clearly see his tanned skin, blue jeans and dark green shirt. Hermione got up from her seat and walked over to the vision of Sirius.
“You did it Sirius, you really did it.” She was stunned and a little aroused. This man could do anything he wanted to.
“Hermione?” His voice sounded far away, it was just an echo of his own deep baritone.
She nodded her head vigorously.
“We did it?” He sounded amazed, he had tried so many things this week and none of them had worked out very well.
Suddenly the vision was gone, Sirius had lost his concentration.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hermione was pacing out in back of the Arroyo’s home, she was chewing on her lower lip. They would be communicating with home which meant that they might be going home soon. She had to act and act soon but how? What was wrong with him last week? If he was in love with her then what was that nonsense he uttered last week. No meant to be, that’s what he said. They were not meant to be.
Would he give her up for something as flimsy as that? Why? None of it made any sense to her and it made her feel insecure and unsure about stating her feelings. She had to make him see that fate didn’t order their lives, the choices they made did. What did he think she would do? Go back to school, back to her life as if though nothing had happened. Whether or not they fell in love something had happened and it meant they would never be the same again. She couldn’t imagine what was going through his brain. There was no going back, how could there be? That much was obvious.
Then there were the words he’d mumbled last night in his sleep. Was he afraid of losing her? If so why didn’t he say something? None of this added up.
This man hadn’t caught a break in almost twenty years. Why couldn’t he just accept that something good had happened to him?
She decided then and there to make sure that he did.
Invention
The dementor glided toward the bars of the prison cell, followed by two others. They were excited, this new one was filled with fresh, happy memories.
“Not her,” whimpered the prisoner. It had taken so long to replace the emptiness with something real and good.
All three dementors closed in at once.
“Not her,” he screamed! He didn’t know how he’d gotten thrown back in Azkaban. He couldn’t remember being arrested. He had been so happy, he was on the brink of deciding to take what he wanted. A part of him didn’t believe he was allowed to have something as fine as love. He knew he was being punished for daring to dream.
The prisoner backed up against the cell wall, trying desperately to put space between himself and these gliding horrors. He just wanted to be able to remember what it was like to love her.
“Let me keep her!” Sirius was screaming, he thrashed about in the tiny bed, clammy and sweating.
Hermione woke up with a start. She jumped out of bed and grabbed her wand, ready to do battle if necessary. Sleep quickly fled her brain, there was no one in the room with them. She looked over at the erratic movement from the bed and realized that Sirius was having a nightmare.
“Not Hermione,” he moaned as he thrashed the bed. “Please don’t take Hermione.”
She climbed back into the bed and shook him gently. “Sirius, wake up.”
Sirius continued to batter the bed and mumble incoherently.
She shook him harder and raised her voice. “Sirius! Wake up! It’s just a nightmare!”
Sirius opened his eyes slowly and sat up in the bed. “Hermione?”
“Yes, sweetheart. You’re alright. It was just a nightmare. You’re fine. I’m fine. It’s ok.” He lay back down, emotionally drained from the nightmare. Hermione pulled him into her arms and stroked his head tenderly. She could hear his heart pounding in his chest.
“Can you go back to sleep?”
Sirius nodded and relaxed completely in her embrace.
Hermione held Sirius in her arms and listened to his breathing regulate as he fell back asleep. He was nestled in her arms almost childlike. He had never had a nightmare with her before. So much wrong had happened to him in his life, she was surprised that he didn’t have more of these. Hermione cooed soothingly as she cuddled him close.
She had heard her name, he’d been begging something or someone not to take her away. Was he afraid of losing her? Her hand stroked his hair as she slowly fell back to sleep, dropping to cradle his head once she had drifted off.
Sirius woke up and found himself in her arms. He remembered the night before and felt a surge of shame course through him. No one but Remus had ever been a witness to his nightmares, an event that they never spoke of. He was glad that it wasn’t one of his bad ones. It had only taken a few minutes for him to realize that he wasn’t in Azkaban. He thought he was finally getting past the nightmares, it had been a few months since he’d had one. He hoped that Hermione would allow him the same sense of privacy that Remus did. He pulled his body out of bed and trudged off to take a shower.
Hermione woke when he pulled himself out of her arms. She waited until he left the room for the shower to slip out of bed and have her morning cup of coffee and banana. She wasn’t sure if she should say anything to him. She decided to let him come to her if he so chose.
When Sirius joined her in the kitchen, she turned to him and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. She smiled for him and then let him be. Sirius felt a wave of gratitude, she let him know she sympathized without saying a word. Sirius reached under the table and squeezed her thigh, it was the only bit of thanks he would be able to give. He never spoke of his dreams, preferring to leave them in the darker corners of his mind.
Her banana and coffee gone, Hermione left the kitchen through the back door.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hermione critically observed the ten or so golems she and Sirius had erected. It was complicated magic but once she fully understood the theory putting it into practice was possible. They had given up on using golems to communicate with, it just wasn’t practical. There didn’t seem to be any good way to get them to their desired target. Sirius demonstrated to her that giving it lifelike qualities was part and parcel to the creation of a golem. He and James routinely used golems to skive off detention while they changed to their Animagus forms to follow more entertaining pursuits. The golem would move, act and even talk like them so long as the interaction wasn’t too complex.
Hermione was tempted to tell him just how irresponsible it was to shirk detention. He and James had learned complicated magic to get away with bad behavior. They were as bad as the Weasley twins! She understood with perfect clarity how they got top marks while at the same time put little effort into the act of studying itself. She had to work very hard for her good grades, it seemed Sirius had breezed through his school years. She was both awed and envious.
“If you can charm it to act like you, what else can you charm it to do?” She wanted to play with this magic a little more. Maybe they could do something useful for the Order.
“Like what?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Could be useful to have a double of yourself on the battlefield. Give the impression you were two places at once.” Sirius noticed that Hermione was wearing that little frown, the one she always wore when working something out.
“I guess, but what would it do?”
“What if you could arm it with a spell. Fred and George charmed hats to carry a Shield Charm, why not a golem with a Disarming Charm or even an offensive spell?”
Hermione and Sirius worked together to try and improve on the golems. The golems could also be charmed to tackle or strike an opponent but would probably be more effective acting as a shield from unfriendly fire. The golem could take the brunt of a spell but only one. It didn’t matter what the spell was, it could be anything from a Tickling Charm to an Unforgivable. Once the spell made contact the golem would crumble into dust.
Arming the golem had taken her most of the week, it couldn’t be added once the golem was created. That was how they discovered that a single spell would destroy a golem. Sirius watched her try repeatedly, it didn’t matter what sort of spell she tried to give it. The strength or type of spell had exactly the same effect.
Her efforts gave him a thought, he called one of the golems aside, raised his wand and said “Crucio!” Hermione wheeled around in time to see the golem absorb the spell and explode, shock was evident on her face.
“What was that for?”
“I’m just curious to see what they can handle.” He observed his handiwork thoughtfully and then called over another golem. He raised his wand, careful to note that Hermione was safely behind him. “Avada Kedavra!” The jet of green light was fully absorbed by the golem, it shattered to the ground as a mound of earth.
“Didn’t like that one?”
Sirius shifted his gaze in her direction. “Smart ass.”
“Sirius what are you doing?”
Instead of answering her he called over another golem. He raised his wand, “Divesto!” A fresh pile of earth lay on the ground.
“What! Why did that one explode?” Hermione began to sense a method to his apparent madness.
Sirius called over another golem, “Expelliarmus!” Hermione watched the last of their golems collapse back to dirt and understood the problem.
Hermione raised her wand, muttering as earth began to take on a vaguely human shape. Before she had finished her creation it exploded. She let out a long sigh. “Well that didn’t work.”
“Try adding it right after the dirt first starts to rise.” Sirius went to work at the same attempt. Over and over his forming clods exploded.
Sirius kept trying in vain, in the middle of another attempt something surprised him. Sirius heard the deep, unaltered voice of a golem speak the word, “Expelliarmus!” The jet of light flew out across the backyard in the direction of the ocean.
“You did it!” Sirius was ecstatic, he loved this idea of hers.
“Its less to do with the words and more to do with the intent behind the spell.” Hermione raised her wand, another clod of earth began to form. Once finished she ordered it to cast the spell she gave it, another jet of light flew out towards the ocean.
Several more attempts and she was satisfied they had the spell figured out. Now that she had the charm that armed the golem she turned her attention to the form she gave it. She made another one, only this time she focused only on eyes to see with, ears to hear with and a mouth to utter the spells incantation. She reasoned that it didn’t need features to be useful in battle. She gave her creation crude hands and arms, paying slightly more attention to feet and legs. She left off clothes and skin as those were unnecessary to the task she would give it. The creation that stood before her was an odd looking entity. It looked like a large, vaguely human clod of animated earth. Sirius found the face rather unnerving, it lacked the definition that a skull provided. It was simply a round shape out of which sprung ears, eyes and a mouth.
The benefit of such simplicity was that it was easier to make than the well defined copy of herself. Not only was it easier it took less time to make, all valuable points in the setting of war. There was still value in the perfect carbon copy, they would make fabulous decoys.
She and Sirius planned battle strategies based around the use of golems. They could be charmed to act as shields for the Order as well as decoys. He thought that fifty or so golems armed to Stun or Disarm would be effective. They would be charmed to act as a shield after their spell was released. Hermione thought each Order member could benefit from having a golem double. They would need to show the other members how it was accomplished but for Sirius this was a weakness. He was rather extraordinarily gifted but he wasn’t good at explaining the method. Hermione on the other hand excelled at explaining the inner workings of magical ability.
“You know what this means, though, don’t you?” Her tone carried a hint of humor.
“No, what?”
“You’re going to have to make up a lot of detentions .”
Sirius let out a bark of laughter. “We we’re in trouble with McGonagall more than any other professor. I can just imagine the look on her face. Students using her subject against her.” He flashed her a mischievous smile.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
While things were going well with the golems they were no closer to communicating with the Order. Hermione had read about something called a Sending but other than that she knew nothing. She mentioned it to him earlier in the week. Sirius was familiar with the term but had never tried it. Over the last week he had been working on it during his walk. The results were mixed and on one occasion potentially harmful.
Hermione sat at the kitchen table, quill in hand, ink and parchment resting on the table. She was outlining the theory behind arming the golems in great detail so that it could be taught to the rest of the Order. She felt a sense of urgency, they had been in Mexico for a few weeks and felt the time to leave was looming. Every morning over coffee she half expected to see Hedwig flutter in with a note from Harry.
They would either be called home to fight in the final battle or after the war was finished. She didn’t really believe that Dumbledore would let a pair of able bodied fighters sit it out on the sidelines, that’s why perfecting their contributions was so important. They both wanted something to show for their time away. What if she was wrong though? What if Dumbledore didn’t have time to send for them or what if they got back just as the battle was won?
The unanswered question between Hermione and Sirius would take center stage.
Hermione had been giving his question a lot of thought. What did she want? She kept coming back to that question. It wasn’t until she considered what it would be like not having him in her life that the answer became clear to her. She didn’t want to lose him. She still wasn’t thrilled that she had been forced into this, forced to lose her virginity but now that she was in it she knew there was no place she would rather be. It felt like a tiny bit of victory to her, this law which was meant to hurt her had in actuality given her something wonderful. It had given her Sirius.
She thought about this intelligent, loving, daring, courageous man. No one had stimulated her intellect the way he did. He didn’t reason things out in the same way which was part of how he kindled the fire in her own mind. He held his own in any conversation with her, taking her ideas into places she might not have gone.
He was her dark knight, growling and bristling like his Animagus form in his defense of her. He had no qualms about speaking his mind and acting on his intuition. His confrontations with Draco had led to their current predicament but he gave her the means to fight back, to not simply take what was being handed to her. He didn’t assume he could do it all for her or keep her in the dark as things were developing. He helped her to participate in shaping her own fate where others often wanted to treat her as a helpless girl. He saw her as the adult she was.
Then there was the sex. Dear god, she didn’t want to live without the sex. Before Sirius she had no idea she could feel so good. He made her feel like the most desirable woman on the planet and the only one he wanted to touch. He had a filthy mouth, saying things out loud she had never even thought and the truth was, she loved it. He was passionate and knew exactly what her body was capable of and how to get her there. She let out a little sigh of contentment.
Hermione realized that she was in love with Sirius. She didn’t know when it had happened, it felt like it was a gradual event. It didn’t really matter when, what mattered now was how to tell Sirius. Was she right about him? Did he return her feelings? Hope fluttered in her stomach along with a tiny seed of doubt. If he loved her then why had he been so distant last week?
This week he had been completely different, they had been working together every day on the golems and of course their morning practice sessions. He was back to his friendly, flirtatious self. Once they were past theory and into doing the magic he was every bit the hard worker she was. What was more, he didn’t get frustrated the way she did. He seemed to expect failures, he simply used them as a reference point for the next go. She learned a lot about experimentation watching him work. His example led to her discovery. He was a good match for her. Suddenly her eyes flew open, she had her answer. Hermione raised her head in time to see something odd in the far corner of the room.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Sirius’ feet led him down the familiar path to his friend Estaban’s home. Estaban lived a couple of miles outside the village on a few acres. Like Sirius himself, Estaban was a wizard and the only one Sirius knew to reside in the area. Sirius wanted to introduce Hermione to his friend but he had yet to find him. Estaban lived as many country wizards did in this part of Mexico, helping out the poor among his countrymen. His vocation meant he was on the go a lot.
While on his walk Sirius thought more about communicating with home. They had no idea how to accomplish a Sending, it was all experimentation met with failure. Undaunted Sirius continued to try whatever idea popped into his head. The first time he tried it out what he ended up doing was Apparating to Hermione’s precise location, nearly on top of her. Once he picked her up off the beach she sat him down and debriefed him of the experience. She wasn’t sure if he was on the right track or not, after all the result had been a bit off.
The really curious thing to her was that he brought himself to her. He hadn’t known she had taken a walk down the beach. When he’d left to find Esteban she was still in the kitchen. She wondered if he hadn’t made an improvement on Apparition.
Each day Sirius tried something new, there were always results although most were rather unexpected and occasionally dangerous. Sirius didn’t mind taking the risk even though he’d had a few close calls over the last week. Once he even splinched a bald patch on his head. Hermione had quickly remedied the situation, sending his hair back to its rightful location. She was a little shaken by the incident but Sirius just laughed it off.
As his feet found their own way down the unpaved road he thought over their week. They had been working on the Sending , in fact they had been working all week and rather hard at that. They had their practice sessions and planning sessions and now they had their experimental magic sessions. He marveled at how well they worked together although he said nothing out loud. They accomplished more by working as a team, he found he had a new appreciation for her.
With everything they were trying to accomplish Sirius’ mind was taken completely off feeling sorry for himself. He’d shed his overcast sky for something a bit more sunny, he hadn’t changed his mind about anything but he didn’t have time to dwell on it. He was back to his flirting and his teasing of her.
He wondered how it was that he knew where she was without knowing where she was. He began focusing his mind less on getting to her and more on just seeing her, seeing where she was. Every time he Apparated to her location he had a glimpse of her first so he focused on getting to the glimpse rather than on reaching her.
He paused in midstride, seeing her quite clearly in his mind. She was sitting at the Arroyo’s kitchen table, making notes and occasionally sucking on the end of her quill. He smiled at the little stain she would get on her lips after studying too hard or too long. It wasn’t a day dream of her, the clarity was that of sight not of imagination. She looked up and smiled at him. Wait, no that wasn’t possible, he was on the other side of the village on his way to see a friend, she was still at the Arroyo’s. Hermione stood up and walked over to him, there was a look of wonder on her face.
“You did it Sirius, you really did it.” Her voice sounded like it was coming through a long tunnel.
He just stared at her for a minute in disbelief. “Hermione?”
She nodded her head vigorously.
“We did it?” He asked incredulously.
Hermione nodded her head again, a huge smile on her face.
In his shock and amazement he lost the vision of her. He turned on his path and ran back to the house.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hermione watched as the semblance of Sirius began to materialize before her eyes. She could tell it wasn’t him, generally speaking Sirius wasn’t see through. It wasn’t a ghost either, she could clearly see his tanned skin, blue jeans and dark green shirt. Hermione got up from her seat and walked over to the vision of Sirius.
“You did it Sirius, you really did it.” She was stunned and a little aroused. This man could do anything he wanted to.
“Hermione?” His voice sounded far away, it was just an echo of his own deep baritone.
She nodded her head vigorously.
“We did it?” He sounded amazed, he had tried so many things this week and none of them had worked out very well.
Suddenly the vision was gone, Sirius had lost his concentration.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Hermione was pacing out in back of the Arroyo’s home, she was chewing on her lower lip. They would be communicating with home which meant that they might be going home soon. She had to act and act soon but how? What was wrong with him last week? If he was in love with her then what was that nonsense he uttered last week. No meant to be, that’s what he said. They were not meant to be.
Would he give her up for something as flimsy as that? Why? None of it made any sense to her and it made her feel insecure and unsure about stating her feelings. She had to make him see that fate didn’t order their lives, the choices they made did. What did he think she would do? Go back to school, back to her life as if though nothing had happened. Whether or not they fell in love something had happened and it meant they would never be the same again. She couldn’t imagine what was going through his brain. There was no going back, how could there be? That much was obvious.
Then there were the words he’d mumbled last night in his sleep. Was he afraid of losing her? If so why didn’t he say something? None of this added up.
This man hadn’t caught a break in almost twenty years. Why couldn’t he just accept that something good had happened to him?
She decided then and there to make sure that he did.
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