A/N So, the war is over, Voldemort and Dumbledore are dead, as are most of the other canon deaths. Sirius and Remus, however, are alive. Hermione is 19, repeating seventh year at Hogwarts.
Hermione snuggled up to the warm body lying beside her. She sat up, however, when she remembered that she had fallen asleep alone. She opened her eyes slowly, begrudgingly, as she took in Sirius' sleep-induced smile, the shaggy black hair falling into his eyes. She jumped back slightly as she realised they weren't in Grimmauld Place anymore. They were at Hogwarts, in her dorm room to be exact, with Ginny snoring metres away. She quickly cast a silencing spell around them, and a disillusionment charm over Sirius. Then she began to attempt the trying task of waking him up. "Sirius," she started quietly, shaking him gently. Honestly, she didn't want to wake him up. When Sirius was sleeping, he always seemed so relaxed, so calm. The creases on his worn face dissolved and the youthfulness he was denied for so long returned to his features. But Hermione was nothing but curious, and she had questions for him, so she started pushing him harder, struggling against his size.
Remembering that Ginny wouldn't be able to hear her, she allowed her volume to increase. "Sirius Black, wake up right now!" she yelled. He stirred slightly, but didn't open his eyes. She let out an exasperated sigh and began muttering unintelligible remarks, to which the left corner of Sirius' lip lifted slightly. She stared at him for a few seconds, before stealing the pillow from beneath his head, and hitting him with it repeatedly in the face. "You utter asshole! WAKE UP!" His grin deepened and he began chuckling but his eyes remained closed. Hermione stopped and thought for a few seconds. What can I say to make him open his eyes? She grinned knowingly and got up off the bed. "Well, you can stay here and sleep. I'm just going to go have a shower. By myself. Naked," she said nonchalantly. His chuckling ceased almost immediately. "I'm taking my jumper now," she whispered, trying to sound seductive, "and sliding my shorts off…" which earned an appreciate growl from Sirius as his eyes flashed open. "Come here, you beautiful witch," he purred as he leaned across the bed, and pulled her back to him.
He was straddling her, and watched as her eyes, wide from surprise, relaxed softly as she gazed back at him. Then, he began attacking her face with gentle kisses, murmuring sweet terms of endearment between each brush of his lips. Hermione started giggling softly under her breath, reaching her arms around his back to pull him closer, then rolled them both over, leaving her on top of him. She was in a compromising situation, unsure of how to proceed, when she heard Ginny say "What, what are you doing here?" Sirius and Hermione both froze, holding their breaths, both not daring to look up and face Ginny. "Ron, this is the girls' dormitory. Leave or I'll transfigure your watch into a spider." Sleep talking. Thank Merlin. They both exhaled deeply. Hermione placed a soft kiss on Sirius' nose, before falling onto her side, facing him. "Don't think that I'm not over the moon to see you, because I am," she said, clutching his hand, "but what are you doing here? I mean, did you tell anyone where you're going? Remus will be worried if you aren't at home when he gets back from Andromeda's house with Teddy. And-"
"Hermione, calm down. I Flooed from home to Dumbledore's off- I mean, the headmasters office," he corrected himself, forgetting the loss of his old professor. "And no, no one was there. Then, using my sneaky Marauder knowledge and skills, I stealthily made my way down to the kitchens, where I asked a lovely little house elf named Wolly to Apparate me up here, and- don't give me that look- once she had, I forced- I mean, strongly encouraged, she take a sickle or two," he finished with a knowing smile. Hermione paused for a second, before smiling back and kissing Sirius with passionate delight, before pulling away. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but closed it abruptly. Sirius frowned, his grey eyes narrowing with concern. "Hermione, what's wrong?" She tried to breathe slowly, to avoid getting herself worked up into a massive rant. Her eyes roamed down to their intertwining hands but with a sturdy hand, he tilted her chin up and gained her eye contact. "Hermione, tell me." There wasn't any anger or frustration in his voice, but rather fear, laced with overtones of worry and apprehension.
"Sirius, what if someone had seen you? It's risky for us to be seen together here, especially, well, here," she emphasised, motioning to the bed. "What if Ginny or anybody had seen us? Or if someone asks, Wolly was it, where she apparated you to?" she burst out, seconds away from entering complete panic mode. Just as she was about to ask him more rhetorical questions, she felt the bed shaking with Sirius' chuckling. In a matter of minutes, there were tears running down his cheeks in laughter, as he tried to gradually ease up and compose a straight face. When he looked back down at Hermione, her brows were furrowed. "What's so funny? Aren't you worried about anyone finding out about us?" she asked seriously. With a gentle smile, he shook his head. "Not at all." Her expression didn't change, and he could feel knots forming in the pit of his stomach as worry washed over him again. "Hermione, most of our friends must have some idea or suspicion by now. Maybe not Ron, because he doesn't seem the type to pay attention to these kinds of things," he added jokingly, trying to lighten up her expression.
"How would they know? You haven't said anything, have you?" she questioned nervously.
"No. We promised each other that we wouldn't."
"Then why would you assume they know? Has anyone said anything?" she demanded. His face tightened. "Technically, no," he ground out. "Remus winks at me whenever he leaves us alone in a room together. Harry keeps joking and hinting at the fact that it'd be awkward calling you 'godmother'. And Ginny, well, she's perceptive and smart. She's more likely to know than anyone."
Hermione let out a sigh. "Sirius, they weren't supposed to know."
"And why is it such a problem that they do? Do their opinions matter to you that much? Are you embarrassed to be with me? I know you said you didn't care about our age gap, but if that's changing, tell me now," he ordered, growing angrier with each word.
"No! No, Sirius. It's not you. Well. It's just-" she tried, grunting in frustration as she tried to think of the correct way to word it. "Sirius, after everything the Order went through during the war, all the people we lost, the struggles and constant cloud of grief hanging over all our heads, I don't want to-" she stopped. Sirius' anger dissolved, and was replaced with a smirk. "Never thought I'd live to see the day Hermione Granger struggles with talking," he chuckled. "Oh, shush you," she replied, gently slapping his arm. He shrugged an apology, no longer worried that Hermione wanted to end things with him. To be honest, the thought alone made him lose it completely. "What I was trying to say," Hermione started again, "is that I don't want to… rub our happiness in everyone's faces. Remus lost Tonks, the Weasley's lost Fred, Harry lost Dumbledore. While we lost dear friends, we still have each other. And I don't want to hurt them. So if we have to keep our relationship a secret to spare their feelings, then I will", she finished. He whispered "…bloody selfless Gryffindor," before kissing her fiercely, pulling her bottom lip between his and biting it softly. It was the first time she had ever referred to their relationship as a 'relationship' before, and it evoked such a strong, deep emotion within him. He sighed in contentment, before she began pushing him away. "Sirius, I mean it. I will not compromise their feelings for us," she stated vehemently. "Hermione. After everything we've all been through, don't you think they'd be glad to see us so in lov-" he stopped, as she gasped quietly. "I mean, no one blinked an eyelid when Ron and Lavender started seeing each other. I doubt anyone would object to us," he reasoned, silently adding except for you. Hermione didn't know what to say. Whether to ignore his slip of the tongue, or ask him about it. She chose the latter, because she was a Gryffindor, goddamn it.
"Sirius, what were you about to say before? You know, when you-"
"When I was about to say I love you?" he said bluntly. She nodded slowly. He took a deep breath. "Because I love you, Hermione. Because I don't care what anyone's reaction is. I feel- I feel free, young when I'm with you. I can forget about all the shit that's happened in my life, and just focus on you and me," he confessed. Hermione froze in shock. Sirius held his breathe, waiting for her to say something, but as the minutes passed, he couldn't take the anticipation anymore. "Hermione! Say something!" Still, she said nothing, and after a few seconds, Sirius stood up to leave. "I guess I'll see you at dinner on Saturday night at the Burrow," he offered stoically, and began walking towards the door.
As he reached for the handle, he felt a gentle tug on the sleeve of his shirt. "Sirius, don't go. Never leave while you're feeling angry with me. You know I love you, but I'm bad with surprises, and I never expected you to be the one to say it first, because I've never loved anyone who's loved me back. So I think I was just feeling overwhelmed and nervous, and ramble, ramble, ramble, please stay with me", she said, pulling him behind her. Instead of following her, he took hold of her wrist and pulled her back to stand face to face with him. He cupped her smooth cheek with one hand and inhaled her delicious scent of chocolate and mint, before her slightly puckered mouth demanded his attention. He leant down, as she stood on her tip toes and pulled his face to hers, running her hands through his long, dark hair. Goosebumps shivered across his skin as she held him by his whiskery chin and softly moaned at each caress of his hand across her back.
They eventually made their way to her four poster bed, and began to cuddle under the covers. "So, I suppose that since we're in love and all," she began, smiling at the ease of using the word with him, "we should probably tell everyone sometime soon." "This Saturday at dinner?" he suggested. She nodded eagerly, before groaning and burying her face in her hands. "What could possibly be wrong, my love?" he asked. "I just had the terrible image of Mrs. Weasley giving me… 'the talk'," she said with a frown, which caused Sirius to snicker. "It won't be anything compared to the older brother talk that I'm sure both Ron and Harry will be more than happy to give me. Can you imagine? My own godson threatening me?" he whined, poking Hermione's side when she started laughing.
"Well, whatever happens on Saturday, at least we know we've got each other, right?" she purred softly, her hands running up and down his chest, his deep heart beat vibrating throughout his body. "Exactly. I can't promise to defend you against Molly, because really, we both know she won't approve, and she doesn't like me at the best of times. But when all is said and done, you can be sure there's a spot in my bed with your name on it," he said with a suggestive wink. "Why Sirius, I'm pretty sure dogs sleep on the floor", she said coldly, feigning bitterness. Her façade dropped at Sirius' pitiful face, and they both began snorting in laughter. "Come on Hermione, you know you love me", he joked gently. She hummed in agreement, snuggling closer to him and the warmth he always seemed to radiate.
"And as for why I'm here", he whispered, answering one of her early questions, moving his face closer to hers so that they were nose to nose, "Happy birthday". And with a quick kiss on her forehead, he pulled the precious, beautiful girl to his chest, and held her tightly.
On the other side of the room lay a grinning Ginny, thankful that the silencing charm had worn off twenty minutes earlier.
A/N So this is obviously quite a bit shorter than the last one shot I posted, but I think I actually like it better. It's more fluffy and adorable, and I found it a lot easier to write for Sirius and Hermione, than for Draco and Hermione.
Please review if you enjoyed it!