This chapter contains all original dialogue and action. Couldn't figure out another movie scene to incorporate and this is the result. So if you have a scene, feel free to shoot it to me in a review or a message. Enjoy!
Once it became known to the rest of the school that Persephone was, in fact, the granddaughter of none other than Hades himself, god of the underworld, she'd been given wide berth. It had taken some smooth talking from her mother, some careful maneuvering from her father, and maybe a nudge or two from her grandfather, to have the "powers that be" of the school to even allow her to continue there. More than a few of the pureblood parents had complained about having a "semi-demi-goddess" attend, stating that her "other-ness" made her as much a threat as if a werewolf were attending. In the end, however, they put her on academic and social probation for the remainder of the school term. Needless to say, she was under close watch and had to keep her shit together if she wanted a more "normal" childhood than growing up in the Underworld with her grandparents.
Sirus had spent most of the weekend in the hospital wing after she'd inadvertently called up the fires of hell—not even an overstatement—as a result of his prank on her in the owling tower. Persephone did feel slightly guilty at the extent of the damage she'd done—she hadn't realized that rage of that intensity could cause her to tap into her previously unknown powers. Black hadn't made any attempts to contact her in the week since the incident, and as they were no longer serving detention together, there was little opportunity for her to approach him to apologize—if she even wanted to.
Peggy was one of the few students who didn't act like a sycophant—like most of the Slytherines now did—or a supposed target—like most of the Hufflepuffs did—or like she was a possible threat—like the Gryffindors did. For Peggy, Persephone was still an odd ball who didn't quite fit into any group and who was not "void" in any way—Peggy had gotten into quite a miff when Persephone had relayed that bit of information to her about why she'd toasted Black's arse—but quite the complicated teenager, much like everyone else at the school.
Persephone kicked a stone in the path. Everyone in her year had been given leave to Hogsmeade and she was to meet Peggy at The Hog's Head by three. She'd waited until most of the others had left before she sauntered out, quite alone. She hadn't been in the mood for conversation—hence the reason for meeting up with Peggy later—and most definitely hadn't been in the mood for being gawked at or gossiped about as if she weren't bloody well standing right there—some idiots at the school really wanted to test her wrath it seemed.
It was a nice enough day out—for autumn in England—and in reality she didn't have much to complain about. She hadn't been kicked out of school—though it was true that she didn't have full control over her powers—and she hadn't been targeted for pranks or shit of any kind either as a result of being a Slytherine or as a result for toasting Black.
At the thought of Black she grimaced, the ghost of his lips caressing her lips, and she swore she could still feel his grip on her hips. Shaking her head to clear it, she nibbled on her lower lip and tried to focus on the path in front of her. Supposedly, as Peggy relayed it—and how Peggy got a hold of the information she wasn't sure she really wanted to know—Black hadn't been truly pranking her in the tower. According to Peggy, who wouldn't reveal her source, Black had only been trying to fulfill her sex quiz—which in Persephone's mind was not much different than a prank.
She looked up and Persephone found herself about to run into a figure —at some point in time she'd started sprinting, probably around the same time that Black's face had popped into her mind. She gave a soft cry of alarm just seconds before her body slammed into his back. Persephone clutched at the figure as they tumbled to the ground. Whoever it was succeeded in twisting in the air and Persephone ended up landing on top of him. They rolled a short distance down the knoll she'd met him on, kicking up leaves and dirt, before slamming into a tree trunk.
Persephone gasped at the pain, but found that the figure, now lying slightly on top of her, had taken the brunt of the impact. Persephone couldn't breathe for a brief moment, and in that moment she assessed her position. She was pinned beneath the figure's body, her legs spread wide with his between her thighs. At sometime in the quick struggle, Persephone's shirt had come up beneath her breasts, revealing her creamy white stomach and the scars that marred the soft skin. The man's head—as she could most definitely tell it was a man now-was cradled between her breasts and one of his hands was resting firmly on her waist while the other cushioned her head.
When Persephone found her breath again she looked down and watched the man's head move in rhythm to her breaths. It was somewhat erotic watching his head rise and fall between her breasts but Persephone didn't know this man and she wasn't about to let a stranger enjoy her generous cleavage.
"Would you mind getting off me you big oaf!" Persephone ground out through clenched teeth, pushing at his shoulders, "I can barely breathe with you on me!" Perhaps she should've been more thankful for his obvious efforts at saving her from harm but at the moment she was too distracted by her near state of undress to care.
Persephone heard a chuckle emit from the man's throat, "It seems to me that your breathing is perfectly normal."
"You would know wouldn't you," Persephone growled as she suddenly thrust her hips upward, catching the man unaware.
With his slight surprise, Persephone grasped the opportunity and quickly changed their positions. Before he could do anything, Persephone rolled him off her and pulled herself into a ball against the tree trunk. She swiped the hair out of her eyes and hugged her knees to her chest, trying to ignore the way her chest suddenly felt cold without his head cradled on it.
Her stomach did a strange flip when the man also moved to sit up.
"Oh shit," Persephone whispered softly.
He leaned forward and pulled a twig from her hair, "What's wrong now? Surely you haven't suddenly discovered that you can't remember who you are from the slight knock you just took."
"Wh-" Persephone couldn't seem to understand why Sirius Black was kneeling less than a foot away, covered in dirt and leaves, smiling mischievously at her.
"Have I rendered you speechless? My how clever am I?" He began to brush as his once clean shirt. "What a reward for saving you from harm. Maybe I'll have to do it more often."
She still could only blink at him. He seemed to be acting without hostility, without fear, almost as if they were, dare she think it, friends. Had the fires fried his brain? He seemed to sense her confusion, and slight fear, when he glanced back at her and caught sight of her perplexed state.
"You don't need to worry that I'll hex you or try to get back at you, Pervs." At the sound of her unfortunate nickname she snapped a bit back to reality. "I'm not a complete idiot to risk getting fried a second time."
"I uh," she tucked her knees to the side and sat a little more openly, "did it uh," she scratched her head and frowned when her fingers latched onto a leaf, "I mean to say that uh," she flicked the leaf away and darted her eyes up to his expectant face, "it wasn't on purpose." She let out the breath she'd been holding and looked down at her lap, frowning again when she noticed just how filthy she'd gotten from their little fall through the woods.
His chuckle startled her, "I realize that Pervs. You're faithful follower told me everything she could, probably in an effort to keep me from doing something to set you off and perhaps, since it's obvious she's pining for me, to save me from getting burned again."
It took her a moment to realize he was talking about Peggy. A few of the evasive moments her friend had displayed earlier in the week suddenly made sense and she made a mental note to both kick and hug Peggy once she saw her at the pub later.
"Why are you being so…so…" she waved a hand in the air between them in her efforts to find the perfect word to describe just what he was being at the moment.
"Jovial, friendly, pleasant, forgiving?" He offered up options and she sighed with a nod. "Well as I was lying in my cot completely bandaged up, wondering if I'd lost my good looks forever, I tried to picture the whole situation from your perspective." She must've made a face because he chuckled again. "Yes, I know, I did something relatively mature. It surprised me to and I can assure you, another moment like that may not come again for some time." She nodded mutely and waited for him to continue. "In any case, while it was exceedingly hard to picture life from a Slytherine's point of view," she rolled her eyes while he nearly winked, "I realized that what occurred in the owling tower could most definitely be perceived as a grand scheme of humiliation. Given my past, as well as my present, tendency to humiliate and prank most of the school's occupants, though I'll remind you now that most of the occupants deserve it on some level, it was entirely possible and probably that you'd think the worst of me for my actions."
She blinked a few times, trying to digest his crisscrossing words, but nodded once it settled. He seemed to have said enough though and merely returned to picking bits of nature off his clothing. She waited a few moments longer before she nudged him with her foot. He looked up, all pretend innocence. She sighed and shook her head; he really did like to be pursued.
"What other startling revelations did you have after that?"
He crossed his arms over his chest and studied her, "Who says I had any revelations? I just said I pictured it from your perspective. That perspective, I'll have you know, is a very dark, relatively wretched, perspective and I pity you." Her face must've betrayed the surge of anger that suddenly shot through her veins. "It is a pity that you have had to put up with my shit for so long; you, who seem to have pinpointed where my shit comes from at a much more accurate rate than even my friends."
"Why are you telling me this?" She still felt that he had an angle of some kind, as he usually did.
Nothing prepared her for what happened next. Sirius made no sound when he moved. One moment Persephone was staring at him in confusion and wariness, the next Sirius's mouth was clamped firmly against hers and his arms pulled her against his body. Persephone only blinked for a moment, trying to let the shock of the sudden change leave her so she could move again.
She pulled back enough to breathe, and speak, "What in the hell Sirius?"
"What, Persephone?" He smiled at her, his hands having clasped together at the small of her back, causing her chest to press against his, her weight nearly all on him due to the awkward angle she was in.
She placed her hands on his shoulders and made a useless move against him, useless because his hold was firm and it seemed she wasn't going to be moving until he wanted her to move. "How do you go from explaining why you aren't pissed that I fried your arse to kissing me again?" She pushed again but when he again didn't budge she sighed and looked down. "Why are you kissing me Sirius? What are you trying to do?"
"Maybe I'm trying to show you I'm sincere." Her head jerked up at his words and she carefully watched a small, almost shy, smile touch his lips. "I know I'm an arse, I know I've shown myself to be a faithless prat, but with you it's different somehow. When I'm with you I feel like there doesn't need to be any filter, I don't need to play any part, and I can just be me. The good, the bad, the ugly, all of it, just me."
"Aren't you like that with your friends?" She couldn't believe she was having this conversation while practically sitting in his lap.
"With my friends we are always trying to prove something to each other, it took a few pointed observations from you to help me realize the whys and hows of that. When I asked them about it, it seemed only Moony really knew what I was talking about. Prongs merely turned it into another jest and that was that." He tugged her closer and she found, surprisingly, that she didn't resist when she was finally settled in his lap.
"So you're kissing me because you have no filter? That makes complete sense."
He smirked, "I'm kissing you because I like you, you daft girl."
Did time stop, were the planets aligned, was she hallucinating in her room? Did Sirius-fucking beautiful—Black really just admit to liking her? He laughed at her gaping and let go of his hands long enough to reach around and push her mouth closed with a finger.
"You like me?" She wished she didn't sound so incredulous. She knew there were perfectly nice qualities about her that someone, of a certain mindset, would appreciate. She didn't have absolutely no confidence in herself as a young woman-Peggy would beat the snot out of her if she were the moping, oh feel sorry for me because I'm not beautiful type.
"Is that really so hard to believe?" At her look he sighed. "Yes, I guess it would be, but it's true. Somewhere along the line you were no longer 'the void of Slytherine,' the girl who skulked on the edge of school society, belonging to no group and trying to draw little attention." She frowned at his words but he continued. "Over the years I've seen moments of fire in you and stitched together with what I've experienced firsthand these past few weeks, I can say that the admiration and fascination I hold for you has completely broadsided me and I like that."
She nibbled on her lower lip, "What are you expecting me to do with all this information? What do you want from me?"
His eyes darted down to her lips and she realized with a jolt in her stomach that he was going to kiss her again. He moved slowly this time, giving her ample amount of time to pull away or turn aside, but she waited for the moment, curiosity and desires a dangerous mixture in her brain.
She shocked herself when his lips finally met hers. While his kiss started out sweet and soft, something clicked in her brain again and when it did, Persephone wrapped her arms around Sirius's neck and pulled herself more fully into his lap, wrapping her legs around his waist. It felt so right, sitting there in his arms, as if she'd finally come home after so many years.
The world blanked out then and all Persephone was aware of was Sirius. His strong arms enclosing around her, crushing her against his firm body; his hand possessively stroking her back and tangling up in her hair; his lips blazing a line down her neck to her pulse. Persephone sighed and pulled his head closer when he licked the skin above her heartbeat, slowly rubbing his teeth against her skin. This felt so very right that Persephone completely forgot the fact that she didn't really know Sirius nor did her know her. Sure they'd connected, of sorts, through their spits and spats, but the knowing of souls that she'd expect in a committed relationship, they did not have. They were from two completely different worlds and Persephone didn't know if there was any chance at all of their being together.
Fueled with a sudden desperation at this thought, Persephone buried her hands in his hair and pulled his head back in order to kiss him. She drove her tongue deep into his mouth, mentally smiling when his tongue just as possessively tangled up with hers. Persephone wrapped her legs tighter around his waist and almost gasped when she felt the bulge of his arousal pressing between her legs. She had never felt anything like this before, never experienced such passion, and she reveled in the cascading emotions in her mind.
Sirius reluctantly dragged his mouth from hers when they both suddenly heard someone approaching. Sirius's arms tightened around her and Persephone opened her eyes and glanced to the side, back towards the path. They were far enough away from the path and deep enough in the brush to be sheltered for the most part, but if whoever was on the path stopped long enough they'd most likely see them. Persephone leaned her head against his and closed her eyes.
They were students heading back towards the school, talking loudly and happily about purchases made in town. They didn't stop in their walking and passed by without incident. Sirius and Persephone both let out the breath they'd been holding. The fiery moment had been broken though and now they could both think again, or at least she could since between the two of them she seemed to be the one with doubts and confusion.
"That was unexpected." He glanced down their bodies to where her legs still remained wrapped around his waist.
She felt a blush erupt on her cheeks as she pulled her legs away and pushed against his chest. Once he moved away, she sat up and then stood up, her hand on the tree for balance. The world continued to tip and jostle around her for a moment or two after standing but now that she wasn't in his arms she could think more clearly.
"A lot of what's happened today so far has been unexpected." She turned and leaned against the tree, staring down at where he continued to sit, his knees drawn up slightly and his arms lightly resting on them. "What are we doing Sirius?"
He watched the emotions on her face, as she knew she wasn't doing a good job of shielding them, before he answered, "You mean am I being serious about this and do I want something serious out of you?"
"Well, frankly, yes. You should know that I'm not one of those girls you usually chase after." He winced at her words but she had never been one to mince words. "I'm not the type to make out here and there, maybe even shag a few times, before moving on to my next great, bedroom adventure."
"Is that really what you think of me?" He wasn't looking at her but she heard the disappointment in his voice.
"Can you really blame me Sirius? You said so yourself, you haven't proven yourself to be the most faithful of individuals in the past so it is certainly very difficult for me to believe that you're being completely upfront with your intentions now."
He stood and brushed the remaining bits of nature from his body, "I don't know what I want, Pervs." Her nickname made her clench her teeth. "You happy now? I hadn't quite thought this all the way through but that's what I'm good at right? Acting without thinking, doing without realizing the consequences?"
Sirius suddenly stopped and faced her. Before Persephone could take another breath, Sirius had her pinned against the tree, his hands braced on either side of her shoulders. His body was dangerously close to hers, his warmth mingling with hers. His eyes blazed down into hers with such intensity that Persephone almost wished she had sunglasses to shield herself. Sirius leaned his head down until their noses touched.
"But can you deny, Persephone, that something is between us? Something exciting, unexpected," he pressed his hips against hers and she bit back the moan of desire she felt rising her throat at his movements, "almost forbidden?"
Persephone didn't have to time to respond. Sirius' mouth was crushed onto hers, branding his taste into her memory. Persephone stood rigid for a mere second before she all but melted into his body. Persephone wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her fingers in his hair. She pulled his body closer, trying to have every part of her body crushed against his. Sirius moved suggestively against her hips, letting her feel his hardness in the junction between her legs. Persephone purred into his mouth and tried once more to get closer.
Suddenly Sirius pulled away, leaving Persephone burning alone against the tree. He stared at her with desire written clearly across his face then his expression changed to one of amusement. He reached forward and flicked her lightly beneath her chin, pushing her mouth closed. He grinned at her before turning on his heel and starting off towards the path again.
Persephone stared after him in both shock and anger. She couldn't believe he had just assaulted her, yes, that was the correct word, and when she responded, left with a smile. Persephone turned her head slowly and watched Sirius swagger away. Her eyes instantly narrowed and her lips curled up in a vicious snarl. Without thinking twice she launched herself at him, catching him around the middle, and tackling him to the ground. They wrestled for a few moments and she was loathed to admit that she didn't mind all that much that he bested her fairly quickly and now sat astride her hips, her arms pinned over her head.
"Are you the one acting without thinking now?" He chuckled against her neck, causing Persephone to shiver and close her eyes.
He felt so warm and good right now that Persephone chose to forget the mean things that he'd ever said to her. She could forgive him anything if this was how he apologized. Suddenly Persephone felt Sirius kiss her skin above her pulse and she again felt like a puddle of mush. His teeth brushed erotically against her neck making Persephone shiver again.
"If this is your apology, remind me to be insulted all the time." Persephone murmured as she buried her face in Sirius's hair.
"Who said this was an apology?" He pulled away. "You should be the one apologizing to me. You're the one who ran into me on the trail, you're the one who just tackled me, and you're definitely the one who burned me. I don't need to apologize."
She blinked up at him and immediately wanted to take back her earlier thoughts of forgiveness. He was insufferable. Before she did something exceedingly stupid, like fry him or kiss him again, she bit the inside of her lip for a reality check and then replied.
"I'll ask you again, what do you want from me?"
Before he could respond they heard a gasp and some muffled laughter from somewhere above. They turned their gazes to the path and found Potter and Co. staring down at them with a mixture of amusement and confusion. Sirius looked back down at her and she knew then that he was about to do something really stupid.
