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Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter or any of the characters, I just like to play with them
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
Us
Hermione and Sirius fell into a daily pattern that made the uncomfortable moments more bearable. Fortunately as the week progressed she was able to do more and more for herself. The seizures and migraines weren’t under any better control than before but her motor skills improved drastically. She would actually wear herself out practicing. On more than one occasion she had fallen and Sirius had to insist that she take a break.
The results of her efforts were that she could walk slowly around by herself and dress and undress herself. She still needed help getting into and out of the tub. When she ate, she made a mess but she did it on her own.
Sirius couldn’t help but admire her tenacity.
She disliked being out of control of her own life and did whatever it took to remedy that. It wasn’t easy but she felt like she was gaining ground every day.
Sirius was overly anxious in his affections towards her, it wasn’t like him but this situation had him off balance. In the past week she had found a variety of gifts from him that he had just left lying about. Flowers. Chocolates. Jewelry from a muggle store, whose name she recognized on the box. He was trying so hard. Too hard.
She was struggling with him as well. She couldn’t deny that she had some sort of feeling for him. She found that she liked being around him, a lot. She kept finding reasons to keep him in her company. His presence was soothing and comforting to her. She couldn’t explain to herself why she felt the way she did and that’s what bothered her.
What was far more disturbing was the intense physical reaction she had to him. She had no frame of reference for the rush of desire she felt for him or the heat which pooled between her legs.
She may have lost her memories but what she was left with shocked her.
And that wasn’t all…
She liked the way he smelled.
The day she realized that little horror she buried her head in a book and refused to look at him for the rest of the afternoon.
The problem with all of this was that it didn’t fit the mold. She and Sirius were known for having a go at each other. Her last actual memory of him involved a magnificent row over Kreacher. It happened the day before she, Harry and Ron were to leave on the Hogwarts Express for their sixth year. Molly Weasley intervened, telling them both off and Hermione had left the drawing room fuming.
The next day things were still quite tense between them. They had made their apologies as usual but they hadn’t quite cooled off. That last argument over Kreacher had her wondering whether or not she should even go to number twelve, Grimmauld Place the next summer.
And now she was married to him, happily by all accounts.
It just didn’t make sense.
She decided she needed to hear it from the horse himself.
She waited until he surfaced from the basement where he was working on her library with Remus. He had come up to grab them both a beer before returning to work.
He was shirtless and sweaty. Hermione bit her lip and looked away while she composed herself. She had never had such strong reactions to a boy before much less a man like Sirius. This was becoming a regular occurrence with her and she found it extremely annoying.
She cleared her throat to get his attention, he looked over at her and flashed a very sexy smile.
“Did you need me?”
“Can we talk, Sirius?”
“Uh, sure. Just let me take this beer to Remus.” Sirius left for the basement and returned about five minutes later.
“So, what’s on your mind?” He took a seat on the couch next to her.
“Would you tell me about us?”
For some reason he didn’t expect this question quite so soon.
“Sure, uh…where to start...”
“Tell me how we fell in love. No, wait…I mean I want to know about that, all about that.” She glanced shyly at him. “First, I want to talk about…well, about…about that thing that we did.” Her voice dropped to just above a whisper on the last bit.
“You mean our love making?” He didn’t whisper. Hermione’s face turned a vibrant shade of red.
“Um…do you expect me to ah…well, I mean do I have to…”
“No, of course not. Although I expect that when you’re ready you’ll want to.” That suggestion was just enough to make her feel warm and slightly tense.
“How will I know…”
Sirius cut her off, he leaned in close, his lips almost touching hers. “Trust me, you’ll know.” His voice was low, his warm breath mingled with hers. For one brief moment she wished he would make good on the kiss his lips were promising.
He pulled back with a smirk on his face. He was in agony, why shouldn’t she be in agony right along with him?
When she spoke next it started out with a squeak, she coughed to clear her throat, attempting to maintain some semblance of composure. “So…how did we fall in love? We were married first but that was just in name, so that I was safe from the ministry, right?”
“Well, not exactly. The law required that we consummate the marriage. That ring on your finger used to have a charm on it which let the ministry know if we were making love or not.
Hermione made an indignant spluttering sound. “You must be joking.”
“Nope…it was pretty difficult, for both of us.”
“How did we get through that?” Hermione whispered her alarm, looking horrified.
“We just did. I mean the first night with you was pretty awkward but we worked it out.” He curled a tendril of her hair around his finger.
“How?” Part of her couldn’t imagine having sex with him. The other part knew it had already happened and it fed a growing curiosity in her.
“It just did. I came over on Friday evenings and stayed in your private quarters…”
“My private quarters?” Hermione looked puzzled.
“You made Head Girl, didn’t you know?” Judging from the squeal she did not know about that detail.
“So…when did things change between us?” She suddenly felt rather shy, his proximity, the subject matter, it all added to her slight discomfort. So did her emotional and physical responses to him. She longed to reach out and touch him. She shifted her body back from his, needing her space.
Sirius was not fooled. He could smell the changes in her body chemistry, he had been sensing her reaction to him all week and it was making him a little crazy. He wanted to push his advantage with her.
Unfortunately Remus was downstairs, he would have to cut this conversation short.
“I want to tell you all about this, I do. But this requires a longer conversation and I’ve got Remus downstairs helping me with your library. I promise as soon as we’re done for the day I’ll send Remus on his way and we’ll talk.” He pressed his lips to her temple. “I love you and I want you to know how that happened.” He gave her one last smile before returning to the basement.
Sirius paused on the stairs leading to the basement, muttering darkly to himself about the wisdom of choosing to become a dog.
Remus looked up as he heard Sirius stomp down the stairs. Sirius went back to work in relative quiet. He knew Sirius well enough to know that something must have just happened. He had left with a smile and returned with a frown. Remus raised an eyebrow at his friend but said nothing.
“I can’t believe it’s all gone.” There was a gruffness to Sirius’ voice. “I feel like I’m being punished but I just don’t know what for.”
“What’s all gone.”
“You know what!” Sirius spoke a little more harshly than he intended to.
Remus decided to just be quiet. He’d been aware of the sadness and frustration from Sirius all day. His friend was trying to grieve but wasn’t sure how. Hermione wasn’t dead but their love surely seemed to be although Remus wasn’t entirely sold on that point.
“I miss her, Remus.”
“I know.”
“Do you remember, several months ago when I told you about a very uncomfortable conversation between Hermione and myself?” Sirius was glad of the physical labor, it helped him to work off some of his frustration.
“Yes, I seem to recall that.”
“Well, the girl from that conversation is the same girl that is right upstairs and I just don’t know how to…I don’t want to push her but at the same time I am going mad with wanting her.” Sirius angrily shoved a bookcase into place.
“Why don’t you want to push her?” Remus felt that it was an honest question and something that ought to be considered.
“What? You mean throw caution to the wind and…”
“No! No! No!” Remus gave his friend a pained expression. “Just nudge her boundaries a bit.
Maybe she just needs a little shove in the right direction.” Remus knew she didn’t need much of a shove, the house positively reeked of her arousal.
“Nudge her boundaries? Oh, right…I suppose I’m already doing that. Not on purpose, though…not really.” Sirius realized he was lying. “Ok, maybe I am.”
“You were happy once. Who’s to say you couldn’t be happy again?” Remus was sad for his friend. If anyone deserved happiness it was Sirius.
“You think?”
“I think you ought to try and find out. Not just for you either, she was happy too.” Remus wiped the sweat off his brow. “I’m beat. Call it a day?”
“Yeah. You want to stay for dinner?” Sirius felt a little better after his purge and physical labor.
“Dora’s waiting on me.” Remus followed Sirius up the stairs.
“Tell my cousin hello.”
“Certainly.”
Remus walked over to Hermione and said his good bye to her. He and Sirius discussed picking back up the next day as they walked to the front door. Sirius closed it behind him and turned to Hermione.
“Hungry?”
“Oh, yes a bit.”
“Let me hop in the shower and then we’ll eat some of that casserole Molly left us yesterday.” Hermione watched him as he disappeared into their bedroom. She was startled when she heard a noise from the fireplace.
Molly Weasley stepped through, flicked her wand and conjured Hermione’s things from Hogwarts.
“Hello, Mrs. Weasley.”
“Hello, dear. Well, here you are. I’ve packed all your things up in your trunk. So, tell me…how are you feeling?” Molly sat down on the couch beside her.
“Better, see…” She got up and walked around for Molly. “I’m doing more and more for myself. Sirius has been such a help.”
“And how’s that going?” Molly was secretly pleased that Sirius was out of ear shot.
“I’m getting used to him. He’s not so bad. Not at all how I remember him.” It was nice to be able to share with the older woman. “He’s got some odd hang ups though.”
“Oh?” Molly could tick a few of his hang ups on all her fingers.
“I mean I think it’s an odd hang up. I’ve never seen someone shower as often as he does. Not even Lavender Brown and she was always in the shower, washing her hair.” Hermione had an inkling, just the barest suspicion that it might be about her.
‘Poor, Sirius,’ thought Molly. That had to be rough on him. They had been so spirited before she was cursed. Molly Weasley smiled at Hermione. “You know, you and Sirius were quite close. I imagine he is missing you very much.”
“Well, no. Why would he be. I’m mean, we’re here together all the time.” Hermione didn’t know what Mrs. Weasley was getting at.
“No, I mean the two of you were…” How to say this. “The two of you used to frolic about quite a bit.”
“Frolic? Oh…how do you know that?” Hermione asked the question before she thought about what the answer might be.
“Oh, only the number of times I caught the two of you red handed.” She smiled at Hermione’s sharp intake of breath.
“You did not!”
“Oh, yes I did!” Molly frowned as she recounted the details. “There was the kitchen table…”
“No!”
“And then there was the library…”
Hermione felt faint.
“And of course my very favorite…the hallway just inside the front door where Harry and Ron caught quite a show.”
“I don’t want to know anymore.” Hermione’s voice was just a whisper. She could have lived a long full life without that knowledge.
“It’s alright you know, to want that with him. You’re his wife and the two of you were quite fond of each other.” Molly had spoken with her mother, they both believed that it was in Hermione’s best interest to embrace the marriage. Their reasoning was that it had happened once before, surely it could happen again. She was going to need him during her recovery and a happy marriage would make that a lot easier.
“I don’t know what I want with him.”
“I know this must all be very confusing for you. Let him guide you through this, he did it once before.” Molly looked up as Sirius returned from his shower.
“Alright, baby. How about that din…oh, hello Molly.” Sirius was surprised to see they had a guest.
“Hello, Sirius. I was just bringing Hermione her things from Hogwarts.” Molly stood to leave. She cupped her hand around Hermione’s face. “Remember what we talked about.”
Hermione nodded, more than a little stunned at the conversation she had just had.
“I’ll just be off. Can’t really stay for a long visit.” She patted Sirius on the shoulder and left through the fireplace.
Sirius wondered what they spoke of, she was very quiet and seemed sort of dazed. He let her mull over whatever Molly had said while he fixed them each a plate of dinner. He brought it to her and sat down beside her. They ate their dinner quietly, he cleaned up afterwards and returned to her. They curled up on the couch together which was something they were in the habit of doing in the evening.
“I need to know, Sirius.”
“Need to know what, baby?” She felt his warm breath tickle her neck.
“About us.” There was that feeling again, he was close to her and it warmed her whole body.
“I want you to know everything.” She rested her head against his chest and waited for him to begin.
“The first few weeks, after that first night of course, were mostly about fun.” She turned to him in surprise.
“Fun?”
“That’s what love making is, sweetheart.” He decided to clarify what he meant, he had to do this once before. It might be easier to have some of this out of the way. “It’s fun, it feels good, it can be a rather intense experience but in a good way. There are times you want it so badly you can’t think straight.” Hermione turned her head away, she had some familiarity with not thinking straight as of late. He paused for questions but when there were none he continued.
“Then, due to circumstances surrounding the marriage law you came and stayed with me at headquarters. We spent several days together and I think that’s when the spark between us started.” Hermione nodded but remained quiet.
“Then I moved in with you at Hogwarts…” She interrupted him.
“Moved in?” He was stroking his fingers up and down her arm, she was having to fight to think clearly.
There was something in her tone of voice that told him her resistance was low.
“Yeah, there was a threat against us from Lucius Malfoy. Dumbledore himself suggested it.” He shifted their bodies so he could snake his arm around her waist.
“What happened to Dumbledore?”
“That is another, also lengthy story. Let’s get though this one first. I promise to tell you all about it.” He wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. He knew he couldn’t put it off forever but he really wanted this talk to go unimpeded.
“So, we were around each other a lot at Hogwarts. You still had a lot to do with school and your Head Girl duties but we were together in the evenings and mornings.” His hand snuck under her shirt and stroked the skin on her sides. He realized he may have made a mistake but she just sighed without protest so he continued.
“Then we were attacked in Hogsmeade…” Hermione interrupted.
“Attacked? Hogsmeade?” She could hardly believe her ears.
“Well, you were having trouble with Lucius Malfoy’s son…”
He smiled when she said something that sound like ‘prat.’
“Indeed. Well, Draco was harassing you in the hallways, got caught and was expelled.”
Hermione had to smile. “His father wasn’t pleased as you can imagine.” She shuddered when she thought about how ‘not pleased’ he must have been. “Then a couple of things happened at once that made the attack possible. First, there was an break out at Azkaban…” Hermione turned to look at him, Sirius nodded and continued. “Second, Voldemort took over at the ministry…” Hermione took her breath in sharply.
“Oh…we were in a lot of danger then, weren’t we?”
Sirius nodded. “We had to go on the run.” In an act of bravery he lightly kissed a place on her neck that never failed to produce a reaction. He felt her tremble but she said nothing.
“Where did we go?” The part of her brain that protested his ministrations was drowned out by the bodily response that wanted him to keep going. Despite her better judgment she kept her mouth shut.
“Mexico.”
“Why Mexico?” That seemed an awfully long way away. She was picturing saguaro cactus and desert sands.
“I’d been there before. After you and Harry rescued me.” He kissed her again, wondering just how far he could push this.
“I thought you were in the tropics.” She wore a little frown.
“I was in the tropics. You’re thinking of the border with America. We were on the border with Guatemala.” He moved his hand to the skin on her stomach, it tickled and made her giggle.
“Oh.” The little voice in her head gave up. She was enjoying herself and didn’t particularly want him to quit.
He turned her around so he could look at her when he spoke. “When we were in Mexico, it was all rather romantic. We would go on long walks along the beach that would end with love making on the sand.” He noticed her flush and then glance at his lips. If he ever had a moment this was it.
“What are you feeling, Hermione?” He pressed his forehead against hers.
“Overwhelmed.” She sighed, she was glad he asked because she would never have thought to express it out loud.
“You’re a little curious aren’t you?” He felt he just had to coax her out a bit.
Sirius leaned into her and let his lips flutter against hers. He wanted to guzzle but instead he sipped. He would unlock her all over again only he would let it happen at a pace she could manage, no matter how much it killed him to do so.
He smiled into the kiss when he felt her press back. He ran his hand in her hair and took control, pleased at how easily she submitted. He kissed her dryly but with passion. He was fighting a battle with himself to stay in control. He had pushed her pretty far and felt that for tonight, it was far enough. “I don’t want to push you, baby. But I do miss you.”
The minute his lips graced hers she knew this had happened before, a million times before. It was right and natural despite what her mind and memory was telling her. “Hmm.” It was just the softest little sound but it was music to his ears.
He pulled back to look at his witch’s flushed face.
“That was…oh…”
“Yea?”
She looked into his eyes and wondered at the emotion that was threatening to burst through her chest. It welled up from deep inside and it had everything to do with Sirius.
“Tell me more about Mexico.” She let her head rest on his chest.
He pulled her in close, feeling the happiest he had in weeks. They curled up together on the couch for the rest of the night as he told her all about how he fell in love with her.
Hermione and Sirius fell into a daily pattern that made the uncomfortable moments more bearable. Fortunately as the week progressed she was able to do more and more for herself. The seizures and migraines weren’t under any better control than before but her motor skills improved drastically. She would actually wear herself out practicing. On more than one occasion she had fallen and Sirius had to insist that she take a break.
The results of her efforts were that she could walk slowly around by herself and dress and undress herself. She still needed help getting into and out of the tub. When she ate, she made a mess but she did it on her own.
Sirius couldn’t help but admire her tenacity.
She disliked being out of control of her own life and did whatever it took to remedy that. It wasn’t easy but she felt like she was gaining ground every day.
Sirius was overly anxious in his affections towards her, it wasn’t like him but this situation had him off balance. In the past week she had found a variety of gifts from him that he had just left lying about. Flowers. Chocolates. Jewelry from a muggle store, whose name she recognized on the box. He was trying so hard. Too hard.
She was struggling with him as well. She couldn’t deny that she had some sort of feeling for him. She found that she liked being around him, a lot. She kept finding reasons to keep him in her company. His presence was soothing and comforting to her. She couldn’t explain to herself why she felt the way she did and that’s what bothered her.
What was far more disturbing was the intense physical reaction she had to him. She had no frame of reference for the rush of desire she felt for him or the heat which pooled between her legs.
She may have lost her memories but what she was left with shocked her.
And that wasn’t all…
She liked the way he smelled.
The day she realized that little horror she buried her head in a book and refused to look at him for the rest of the afternoon.
The problem with all of this was that it didn’t fit the mold. She and Sirius were known for having a go at each other. Her last actual memory of him involved a magnificent row over Kreacher. It happened the day before she, Harry and Ron were to leave on the Hogwarts Express for their sixth year. Molly Weasley intervened, telling them both off and Hermione had left the drawing room fuming.
The next day things were still quite tense between them. They had made their apologies as usual but they hadn’t quite cooled off. That last argument over Kreacher had her wondering whether or not she should even go to number twelve, Grimmauld Place the next summer.
And now she was married to him, happily by all accounts.
It just didn’t make sense.
She decided she needed to hear it from the horse himself.
She waited until he surfaced from the basement where he was working on her library with Remus. He had come up to grab them both a beer before returning to work.
He was shirtless and sweaty. Hermione bit her lip and looked away while she composed herself. She had never had such strong reactions to a boy before much less a man like Sirius. This was becoming a regular occurrence with her and she found it extremely annoying.
She cleared her throat to get his attention, he looked over at her and flashed a very sexy smile.
“Did you need me?”
“Can we talk, Sirius?”
“Uh, sure. Just let me take this beer to Remus.” Sirius left for the basement and returned about five minutes later.
“So, what’s on your mind?” He took a seat on the couch next to her.
“Would you tell me about us?”
For some reason he didn’t expect this question quite so soon.
“Sure, uh…where to start...”
“Tell me how we fell in love. No, wait…I mean I want to know about that, all about that.” She glanced shyly at him. “First, I want to talk about…well, about…about that thing that we did.” Her voice dropped to just above a whisper on the last bit.
“You mean our love making?” He didn’t whisper. Hermione’s face turned a vibrant shade of red.
“Um…do you expect me to ah…well, I mean do I have to…”
“No, of course not. Although I expect that when you’re ready you’ll want to.” That suggestion was just enough to make her feel warm and slightly tense.
“How will I know…”
Sirius cut her off, he leaned in close, his lips almost touching hers. “Trust me, you’ll know.” His voice was low, his warm breath mingled with hers. For one brief moment she wished he would make good on the kiss his lips were promising.
He pulled back with a smirk on his face. He was in agony, why shouldn’t she be in agony right along with him?
When she spoke next it started out with a squeak, she coughed to clear her throat, attempting to maintain some semblance of composure. “So…how did we fall in love? We were married first but that was just in name, so that I was safe from the ministry, right?”
“Well, not exactly. The law required that we consummate the marriage. That ring on your finger used to have a charm on it which let the ministry know if we were making love or not.
Hermione made an indignant spluttering sound. “You must be joking.”
“Nope…it was pretty difficult, for both of us.”
“How did we get through that?” Hermione whispered her alarm, looking horrified.
“We just did. I mean the first night with you was pretty awkward but we worked it out.” He curled a tendril of her hair around his finger.
“How?” Part of her couldn’t imagine having sex with him. The other part knew it had already happened and it fed a growing curiosity in her.
“It just did. I came over on Friday evenings and stayed in your private quarters…”
“My private quarters?” Hermione looked puzzled.
“You made Head Girl, didn’t you know?” Judging from the squeal she did not know about that detail.
“So…when did things change between us?” She suddenly felt rather shy, his proximity, the subject matter, it all added to her slight discomfort. So did her emotional and physical responses to him. She longed to reach out and touch him. She shifted her body back from his, needing her space.
Sirius was not fooled. He could smell the changes in her body chemistry, he had been sensing her reaction to him all week and it was making him a little crazy. He wanted to push his advantage with her.
Unfortunately Remus was downstairs, he would have to cut this conversation short.
“I want to tell you all about this, I do. But this requires a longer conversation and I’ve got Remus downstairs helping me with your library. I promise as soon as we’re done for the day I’ll send Remus on his way and we’ll talk.” He pressed his lips to her temple. “I love you and I want you to know how that happened.” He gave her one last smile before returning to the basement.
Sirius paused on the stairs leading to the basement, muttering darkly to himself about the wisdom of choosing to become a dog.
Remus looked up as he heard Sirius stomp down the stairs. Sirius went back to work in relative quiet. He knew Sirius well enough to know that something must have just happened. He had left with a smile and returned with a frown. Remus raised an eyebrow at his friend but said nothing.
“I can’t believe it’s all gone.” There was a gruffness to Sirius’ voice. “I feel like I’m being punished but I just don’t know what for.”
“What’s all gone.”
“You know what!” Sirius spoke a little more harshly than he intended to.
Remus decided to just be quiet. He’d been aware of the sadness and frustration from Sirius all day. His friend was trying to grieve but wasn’t sure how. Hermione wasn’t dead but their love surely seemed to be although Remus wasn’t entirely sold on that point.
“I miss her, Remus.”
“I know.”
“Do you remember, several months ago when I told you about a very uncomfortable conversation between Hermione and myself?” Sirius was glad of the physical labor, it helped him to work off some of his frustration.
“Yes, I seem to recall that.”
“Well, the girl from that conversation is the same girl that is right upstairs and I just don’t know how to…I don’t want to push her but at the same time I am going mad with wanting her.” Sirius angrily shoved a bookcase into place.
“Why don’t you want to push her?” Remus felt that it was an honest question and something that ought to be considered.
“What? You mean throw caution to the wind and…”
“No! No! No!” Remus gave his friend a pained expression. “Just nudge her boundaries a bit.
Maybe she just needs a little shove in the right direction.” Remus knew she didn’t need much of a shove, the house positively reeked of her arousal.
“Nudge her boundaries? Oh, right…I suppose I’m already doing that. Not on purpose, though…not really.” Sirius realized he was lying. “Ok, maybe I am.”
“You were happy once. Who’s to say you couldn’t be happy again?” Remus was sad for his friend. If anyone deserved happiness it was Sirius.
“You think?”
“I think you ought to try and find out. Not just for you either, she was happy too.” Remus wiped the sweat off his brow. “I’m beat. Call it a day?”
“Yeah. You want to stay for dinner?” Sirius felt a little better after his purge and physical labor.
“Dora’s waiting on me.” Remus followed Sirius up the stairs.
“Tell my cousin hello.”
“Certainly.”
Remus walked over to Hermione and said his good bye to her. He and Sirius discussed picking back up the next day as they walked to the front door. Sirius closed it behind him and turned to Hermione.
“Hungry?”
“Oh, yes a bit.”
“Let me hop in the shower and then we’ll eat some of that casserole Molly left us yesterday.” Hermione watched him as he disappeared into their bedroom. She was startled when she heard a noise from the fireplace.
Molly Weasley stepped through, flicked her wand and conjured Hermione’s things from Hogwarts.
“Hello, Mrs. Weasley.”
“Hello, dear. Well, here you are. I’ve packed all your things up in your trunk. So, tell me…how are you feeling?” Molly sat down on the couch beside her.
“Better, see…” She got up and walked around for Molly. “I’m doing more and more for myself. Sirius has been such a help.”
“And how’s that going?” Molly was secretly pleased that Sirius was out of ear shot.
“I’m getting used to him. He’s not so bad. Not at all how I remember him.” It was nice to be able to share with the older woman. “He’s got some odd hang ups though.”
“Oh?” Molly could tick a few of his hang ups on all her fingers.
“I mean I think it’s an odd hang up. I’ve never seen someone shower as often as he does. Not even Lavender Brown and she was always in the shower, washing her hair.” Hermione had an inkling, just the barest suspicion that it might be about her.
‘Poor, Sirius,’ thought Molly. That had to be rough on him. They had been so spirited before she was cursed. Molly Weasley smiled at Hermione. “You know, you and Sirius were quite close. I imagine he is missing you very much.”
“Well, no. Why would he be. I’m mean, we’re here together all the time.” Hermione didn’t know what Mrs. Weasley was getting at.
“No, I mean the two of you were…” How to say this. “The two of you used to frolic about quite a bit.”
“Frolic? Oh…how do you know that?” Hermione asked the question before she thought about what the answer might be.
“Oh, only the number of times I caught the two of you red handed.” She smiled at Hermione’s sharp intake of breath.
“You did not!”
“Oh, yes I did!” Molly frowned as she recounted the details. “There was the kitchen table…”
“No!”
“And then there was the library…”
Hermione felt faint.
“And of course my very favorite…the hallway just inside the front door where Harry and Ron caught quite a show.”
“I don’t want to know anymore.” Hermione’s voice was just a whisper. She could have lived a long full life without that knowledge.
“It’s alright you know, to want that with him. You’re his wife and the two of you were quite fond of each other.” Molly had spoken with her mother, they both believed that it was in Hermione’s best interest to embrace the marriage. Their reasoning was that it had happened once before, surely it could happen again. She was going to need him during her recovery and a happy marriage would make that a lot easier.
“I don’t know what I want with him.”
“I know this must all be very confusing for you. Let him guide you through this, he did it once before.” Molly looked up as Sirius returned from his shower.
“Alright, baby. How about that din…oh, hello Molly.” Sirius was surprised to see they had a guest.
“Hello, Sirius. I was just bringing Hermione her things from Hogwarts.” Molly stood to leave. She cupped her hand around Hermione’s face. “Remember what we talked about.”
Hermione nodded, more than a little stunned at the conversation she had just had.
“I’ll just be off. Can’t really stay for a long visit.” She patted Sirius on the shoulder and left through the fireplace.
Sirius wondered what they spoke of, she was very quiet and seemed sort of dazed. He let her mull over whatever Molly had said while he fixed them each a plate of dinner. He brought it to her and sat down beside her. They ate their dinner quietly, he cleaned up afterwards and returned to her. They curled up on the couch together which was something they were in the habit of doing in the evening.
“I need to know, Sirius.”
“Need to know what, baby?” She felt his warm breath tickle her neck.
“About us.” There was that feeling again, he was close to her and it warmed her whole body.
“I want you to know everything.” She rested her head against his chest and waited for him to begin.
“The first few weeks, after that first night of course, were mostly about fun.” She turned to him in surprise.
“Fun?”
“That’s what love making is, sweetheart.” He decided to clarify what he meant, he had to do this once before. It might be easier to have some of this out of the way. “It’s fun, it feels good, it can be a rather intense experience but in a good way. There are times you want it so badly you can’t think straight.” Hermione turned her head away, she had some familiarity with not thinking straight as of late. He paused for questions but when there were none he continued.
“Then, due to circumstances surrounding the marriage law you came and stayed with me at headquarters. We spent several days together and I think that’s when the spark between us started.” Hermione nodded but remained quiet.
“Then I moved in with you at Hogwarts…” She interrupted him.
“Moved in?” He was stroking his fingers up and down her arm, she was having to fight to think clearly.
There was something in her tone of voice that told him her resistance was low.
“Yeah, there was a threat against us from Lucius Malfoy. Dumbledore himself suggested it.” He shifted their bodies so he could snake his arm around her waist.
“What happened to Dumbledore?”
“That is another, also lengthy story. Let’s get though this one first. I promise to tell you all about it.” He wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. He knew he couldn’t put it off forever but he really wanted this talk to go unimpeded.
“So, we were around each other a lot at Hogwarts. You still had a lot to do with school and your Head Girl duties but we were together in the evenings and mornings.” His hand snuck under her shirt and stroked the skin on her sides. He realized he may have made a mistake but she just sighed without protest so he continued.
“Then we were attacked in Hogsmeade…” Hermione interrupted.
“Attacked? Hogsmeade?” She could hardly believe her ears.
“Well, you were having trouble with Lucius Malfoy’s son…”
He smiled when she said something that sound like ‘prat.’
“Indeed. Well, Draco was harassing you in the hallways, got caught and was expelled.”
Hermione had to smile. “His father wasn’t pleased as you can imagine.” She shuddered when she thought about how ‘not pleased’ he must have been. “Then a couple of things happened at once that made the attack possible. First, there was an break out at Azkaban…” Hermione turned to look at him, Sirius nodded and continued. “Second, Voldemort took over at the ministry…” Hermione took her breath in sharply.
“Oh…we were in a lot of danger then, weren’t we?”
Sirius nodded. “We had to go on the run.” In an act of bravery he lightly kissed a place on her neck that never failed to produce a reaction. He felt her tremble but she said nothing.
“Where did we go?” The part of her brain that protested his ministrations was drowned out by the bodily response that wanted him to keep going. Despite her better judgment she kept her mouth shut.
“Mexico.”
“Why Mexico?” That seemed an awfully long way away. She was picturing saguaro cactus and desert sands.
“I’d been there before. After you and Harry rescued me.” He kissed her again, wondering just how far he could push this.
“I thought you were in the tropics.” She wore a little frown.
“I was in the tropics. You’re thinking of the border with America. We were on the border with Guatemala.” He moved his hand to the skin on her stomach, it tickled and made her giggle.
“Oh.” The little voice in her head gave up. She was enjoying herself and didn’t particularly want him to quit.
He turned her around so he could look at her when he spoke. “When we were in Mexico, it was all rather romantic. We would go on long walks along the beach that would end with love making on the sand.” He noticed her flush and then glance at his lips. If he ever had a moment this was it.
“What are you feeling, Hermione?” He pressed his forehead against hers.
“Overwhelmed.” She sighed, she was glad he asked because she would never have thought to express it out loud.
“You’re a little curious aren’t you?” He felt he just had to coax her out a bit.
Sirius leaned into her and let his lips flutter against hers. He wanted to guzzle but instead he sipped. He would unlock her all over again only he would let it happen at a pace she could manage, no matter how much it killed him to do so.
He smiled into the kiss when he felt her press back. He ran his hand in her hair and took control, pleased at how easily she submitted. He kissed her dryly but with passion. He was fighting a battle with himself to stay in control. He had pushed her pretty far and felt that for tonight, it was far enough. “I don’t want to push you, baby. But I do miss you.”
The minute his lips graced hers she knew this had happened before, a million times before. It was right and natural despite what her mind and memory was telling her. “Hmm.” It was just the softest little sound but it was music to his ears.
He pulled back to look at his witch’s flushed face.
“That was…oh…”
“Yea?”
She looked into his eyes and wondered at the emotion that was threatening to burst through her chest. It welled up from deep inside and it had everything to do with Sirius.
“Tell me more about Mexico.” She let her head rest on his chest.
He pulled her in close, feeling the happiest he had in weeks. They curled up together on the couch for the rest of the night as he told her all about how he fell in love with her.
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