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Chapter Six: Bubbles and Legs
Sirius was in a piss poor mood. Their latest client had requested a map not only of his house but the entire perimeter of his property. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that it was November and raining, and it had been raining for the last three days. Sirius was cold, wet, and grumpy. When laying spells for the maps, personal comfort spells get in the way, meaning he had been cold and wet all day. Once Hermione finished the house, Sirius sent her back to Grimmauld. At least one of them could avoid the dreary day.
Sirius walked into Grimmauld and into silence. Where the bloody hell was Hermione? He called her name a few times while walking through the house. More silence meeting his inquiries. He walked up to the second floor where they both had their rooms and came to a stop outside of the shared bathroom. The light was on and the door was cracked. He pushed the door open softly.
"Hermione are you in here?" Nothing. He was starting to get worried.
He stepped into the bathroom and his whole demeanor changed. His lips tilted up in a fond smile even while his eyes began to heat up. Hermione had fallen asleep in the bath. She was laying in an ancient claw foot tub that took up far more room that Sirius would have liked. Her glass of wine was on the floor near her hand which was hanging out of the tub. The bubbles which once reached her hair had mostly popped, leaving a delectable view of the tops of her breasts and her incredible legs which were draped over the edge.
"Hermione, Love, you can't stay in here." He gently shook her shoulder.
"Sirius…" she moaned. He brought his hand back as if he was burnt. That wasn't the case. He wanted that moan to mean what he thought it meant, but she was sleeping. He did have some boundaries after all. He would like her sober and awake for that, obviously.
He reached into the tub and pulled the plug out, letting the tepid water drain. He found one of the biggest, fluffiest towels he owned and laid it on top of her once the water had completely drained. Averting his eyes, he stepped into the role of a gentleman effortlessly. See what kind of things he could do when he wanted to? He chuckled at himself. Look at all of this self-restraint.
He lifted her out of the tub and carried her into her room, gently setting her on her bed. His wand was still in his pocket as he wanted to take care of her with his own hands. He left the towel around her and pulled the blankets up to her chin. He smoothed some of her curls back as she settled into her bed, it was a bonus that she was a talker in her sleep.
"Sirius…So sweet… sometimes…" she muttered rolling onto her side with her back towards Sirius. He frowned what did she mean sometimes? He was sweet all the time! rolling his eyes, he left her to her delusional muttering and walked back into the bathroom. He stripped his wet clothes off and dropped them on the floor. He ignored the tub in favor of the shower and turned on the tap, sighing heavily as he stepped under the steaming spray. The hot water pounded into his muscles on his back and shoulders as his thoughts drifted back to the way Hermione looked laying in the tub.
She was a goddess among women, not just the way she looks but also her fiery personality. It drew him to her like a moth to a flame. He could no more turn away than he could kill himself. She was in his brain.
He grew hard as the focus of his fantasy took a turn. In his vision, Hermione had woken up and ran her slender fingers over her smooth leg. Her eyes were come hither as she beckoned for him to join her in the tub. He stood and stripped off his clothes as she sat up so that he could slip in behind her.
Sirius took his cock in his hand and started a slow stroking as his fantasy heated up. His head resting against the tiled wall.
As fantasy Sirius pulled Hermione back to him he felt her pressed flush to his front, her bum cradling his hard cock. She arched her back driving it further between her cleft. It drove him wild. He kissed her shoulder leaving tiny love bites in a trail to her collar bone before lifting his head to nibble on her ear as she gasped and moaned her pleasure.
She turned around, forcing his legs between hers so that she was straddling him. His cock was twitching furiously, pulsating as she lowered herself to rub her clit against his muscular abdomen. He brought his hands up to her hips, helping her roll them in an effort to get the desired friction. They were both getting frustrated, neither as close as they would like. Holding her from him with one hand, Sirius adjusted his erection to prod her entrance. Her teeth had captured her bottom lip, making it plump and redden. With a groan from them both, Hermione slowly lowered herself onto his dick.
Arching her back, she made her breasts thrust in his face. The water slowly air drying off of her emerged body, goose pimples raised on her skin. Her dark pink nipples hardened into twin peaks of deliciousness as Sirius leaned in to capture one of them between his lips. He sucked, licked and teased them. The faster he worked the faster she did.
He knew the moment she was close. Her legs were quivering and her inner walls were starting to ripple.
"Oh My Fucking God! Sirius!" she screamed into the empty bathroom as she came around him, squeezing his pick until he thought he was going to explode. She rode out her orgasm and kept up her pace for him. She was so incredible. Sirius came with a loud groan.
Sirius slipped out of his fantasy as he came all over his hand and the floor of the shower. If sex with Hermione was half as good as his fantasies, he would die a happy man.
He finished his shower quickly after that, shutting off the water and wrapping a towel around his hips. He quickly walked to his room, the corridors were slightly chilly from the November weather.
HGHGHGHGHG
Hermione was staring in shock at the Daily Profit. On the front page was a large black and white of her previous boss, Alexander Flint. He had been found this morning right next to entrance to the Ministry, dead. His body was so mangled that the Mortuary at St. Mungo's had a whole team dedicated to the mystery man. There hasn't been a murder this high profile since the last group of Death Eaters had been rounded up. It reminded everyone of the fear and uncertainty at the height of the second war. People would soon start to panic. The Aurors would move on this fast, probably calling in favors and retiree's.
"Sirius, maybe we should hold out on going to any of our clients today. Two out of three of them were on the opposite sides of the war, and even though Lisette wasn't even in the country at the time, she is Rabastian's cousin. He is still out there somewhere."
"I'm okay with that, we haven't had any down time in weeks."
They heard Ginny yelling from the library and they both ran up to see what was wrong.
"Ginny, what's wrong? Is it Harry?"
"No it's Ron. Harry asked him to comeback just for this case and those two idiots found themselves in the middle of something nasty. They found not only Rabastian Lestrange but a cauldron full of Polyjuice potion. They found that he had close to fifteen captives in the basement of the dingy house he had been hiding out in."
"Is Ron okay?"
"He is in St. Mungo's."
"Did they capture Rabastian?" Sirius asked.
"No, he cast something nasty at Ron and Harry lost him once he ran beyond the boundary. The other Aurors are crawling all over that house searching for any clue as to where he might be."
"We will follow you through to St. Mungo's, Ginny." Hermione said as she grabbed the beaded bag that she only recently stopped carrying around and took the floo to the hospital.
The second she moved from in front of the grate, Sirius stepped out and siphoned the ashes off of them both. He put a comforting arm around her as they followed Ginny to the waiting room.
Pansy was a complete mess, sobbing and ordering any nurses around that she could find. The Healer came out to usher the group in the room. He told them that Ron was stable but still unconscious.
"Pans, let them do their jobs." Ginny said to the distraught woman. Taking her shoulders and steering her to the room that Ron was in. Harry was sitting on one of the chairs, head between his knees buried in his hands. He was obviously blaming himself. Sirius put one hand on his Godson's shoulder, letting him know that he was there if and when Harry needed him.
Hermione wrapped her arms around Sirius' waist glad that he wasn't part of the investigation. Sirius held her tightly with one arm as she cried into his shirt. Ron looked pretty beat up. His skin was turning a terrible waxy grey color. He wasn't sure if Ron would make it.
They must have been there for hours when Ron's eyelids finally fluttered and he was immediately suffocated by the shaking body of his girlfriend.
All of the healers except one filed out of the room, leaving the recuperating man with his family.
"I told you to leave this for the Aurors! You haven't been out in the field in over a year. Why didn't you listen to me?" Pansy raged.
"I love you too Pans." Ron smiled at her as she pulled back. He had stunned her into silence. That was Ron, he was always choosing the worst times to declare his feelings.
"Ronald Weasley you utter prat!" she yelled before dissolving into another round of tears.
"What did I say?" he asked confusedly as Hermione shook her head and Ginny glared as she patted Pansy on the back.
The healer cleared his throat and addressed the group, updating the intimidating war heroes on the status of one of their own.
"He was hit with a spell that we believe is the creation of the caster. It has all of the normal signatures you find in these types of things. As best as we can tell it was a tissue eating disorder that starts inside the body and eats its way through eventually. Lucky we got to him right away and there will be no lasting damage. We will keep him for a few days before we release him just to be sure."
"Thank Merlin!" Molly said voicing every one's thoughts.
HGHGHGHGHG
Hermione was a ball of nervous energy. Ever since Ron ended up in the hospital, she had been acting like a caged tiger. She was bursting at the seams, she needed to get out of there. Sirius watched her for two days. His rug would have holes before the week was over at this rate. They needed to do something to keep busy. They had pushed all of the map making work to the back burner since their clientele was mostly Slytherin families, just to be on the safe side.
"Kitten, come here." Sirius finally said. Hermione jumped forgetting she wasn't alone in the room. Sirius rolled his eyes. Who could forget he was in the room?
"Why don't we get back to the maps. Harry had looked into all of the leads and our customers. He cleared them this morning. Let's start with Lisette's. Her map is almost finished. The only thing we need to add is the spell to reveal the true names and where they are in the house. It shouldn't take us long. Two hours, tops."
Hermione nodded sighing in resignation. She wanted to get it finished as well.
"Okay. Give me five to tell Harry where we are going."
"I can do that if you want to go get our cloaks."
"Okay."
Sirius watched Hermione as she rushed out of the room. He smiled and chuckled as he walked over to the floo and after calling out Harry's office, he stuck his head in the fireplace.
"Harry, I am taking Hermione over to the Lestrange place to finish that map."
"I really rather you wouldn't. It is the Lestrange place."
"You have been over there for the last two days with a team of Aurors. Do you really think there is something there?"
"No, but you can never be too cautious."
"And this comes from the guy who jumped into danger at the first whiff of trouble all through school."
"Oi, you weren't Mr. Safety either!"
"Bah. I never got caught."
"Neither did I, mostly."
"Okay boys take this somewhere else!" Auror Murray barked.
Harry rolled his eyes.
"I suppose if you are with her there is no harm." Harry capitulated.
"We will be fine. We will see you tonight at Molly and Arthur's."
"Sure, sure."
Sirius pulled his head back and immediately noticed Hermione bouncing from one foot to the other.
"Ready to go, Kitten?"
"Yes. Let's apparate. I don't' feel like going through the floo this time."
Sirius nodded his head and shrugged on the heavy cloak that Hermione had brought down. He noticed that she placed a new spell on it, 'Impervious'. He smiled. What a sweet thing she was.
He leaned in close and paused for a moment before closing the distance. His lips captured hers in a slow and sweet kiss. She had a floral smell that made him think of rolling in a meadow in his animagus form. It was utterly addicting. She was soft in all of the places that he was hard. It made him want to push her up against the wall and say maps be damned. It was a kind of torture for him to pull away and not deepen the kiss but he was still proving to her that they were good together. That he was mature enough for something more than a quick shag.
This is the kind of stuff James did for Lily but as time progressed Sirius realized that he wanted this. The slow and steady relationship until marriage. It was just that he was completely out of his depth. It wouldn't stop him from trying though. He wanted the life he envisioned with her more than he wanted anything.
"Are you okay?" Hermione asked him after he had pulled away but was staring at her.
"I love you Hermione."
She looked shell shocked, totally thrown.
"You do?" she asked breathlessly.
"I do. I have ever since I ruined your first date. You know, I mercilessly teased James for proposing to Lily the very first time he met her, but now I get it. I wanted your attention and I got it any way I could. Now, I can kiss you any time I want, I can show you what you mean to me, I can tell you I love you without the fear that you would run away from me. I feel like I can take on anything and win. You make me a better man." Sirius leaned in and kissed the tears off of her cheeks. He had no idea he could or would ever be so sappy. She deserved every bit of romance and corniness he could think of.
"I love you too." She whispered. His heart skipped a beat. He truly didn't expect her to say it back. "I had a crush on the older version of you before you fell in the veil and I crushed on you when you shamelessly flirted with me but I didn't fall in love with you until the other night. Did you know I woke up when you were carrying me to my bedroom when I fell asleep in the tub?"
Sirius shook his head. He was convinced that she had been out like a light.
"You were so sweet and took care of me before you got out of your wet clothes. You had to be freezing. Maybe I loved you before then, but that is when without a doubt I realized it."
"Merlin woman! Any more of this and I will never let you leave." He smiled at her and kissed her again, nibbling for just a moment on her lower lip that she loved to chew on. It was his turn.
He took a step back and looked at her a moment more before taking her hand and lacing their fingers together. He gently pulled her with him as he left Grimmauld and apparated them both to the outer boundary of the Lestrange estate.
Usually Lisette was waiting for them in the foyer, having felt them pass the wards. But today was different, there wasn't a sound except the creaking doors in the darkened house.
"Ms. Lestrange? It's Hermione and Sirius. We are here to finish the map. Hello?"
"I don't think she is here Kitten. Let's finish then move on to the next order."
Hermione dug out the nearly finished map and laid it on the floor in the entryway and began to cast the final spells.
"Sirius, are you there?" they heard yelling coming from the study. Sirius walked in and kneeled down in front of the floo.
"Harry? What's going on?"
"I need your help with something. Can you come to the Ministry? It will only take an hour."
"After all the hassle you gave me for bringing Hermione here, you want me to leave her alone?"
"She will be fine. She would kill us if she thought we were coddling her."
"That's true. Alright I'll come through."
"No, talking is one thing but we can't open the floo for travel."
"Are you joking?"
"I wish I were, that would make my life easier."
"Ok. I'll be right there."
Harry pulled his head out of the floo and their connection ended. Sirius didn't feel right about this. Something wasn't right.
"Everything alright?" Hermione asked him in between spells.
"Harry asked me to come to the Ministry. Do you want to come?"
"No. I just want to finish this. I think it will take ten more minutes."
"I can wait then."
"That's not necessary. Go on. I'll meet you at the Burrow when I am done."
"Okay, if you need anything…"
"I helped defeat Voldemort, I can handle getting home."
Sirius' lips thinned in disapproval. He dared not say another word. His witch had a temper. He dropped a kiss on her hair and walked until he was out of the boundary. He looked at the house for a few moments warring with indecision before apparating to the Ministry.