I Want the Fire Back

Summary: Hermione is obsolete – the War is over, Harry and Ron are busy, and she the mere Charms teacher at Hogwarts. When a presumably dead man comes back better than ever, she suddenly means everything... to him. SiHr

Rating: R for language, themes, sex, and whatever else may come out of my twisted little mind.

Disclaimer: It's not me who owns these characters or any plots associated with the Harry Potter books.

Chapter 9: Uncertainty Not for Long

Hermione gave a frustrated sigh as she sat in the comfortable red armchair of her living room. She was grading her 5th and 6th years 2 ½ foot essays they had to do on Appearance Charms (Dos and don'ts) and Self-Invisibility Charms (Safe – or could you disappear for good?). So far, she had graded half of the fifth years' papers. And they were due to be handed back fully graded the next day.

But, it just so happened, that as Hermione was frustrated – Sirius was horribly lonely. They had both been much busier than usual during the past week – Sirius was prepping lesson plans for the next full moon and Hermione was preparing her kids for a pre-Holidays exam she had planned. So, as it is obvious, they did not have very much one-on-one time with one another. And oh, how they needed that one-on-one time.

Wrapping his arms around Hermione's overly tense shoulders from behind, Sirius whispered into her ear. "Want to take a walk with me?"

"Sirius," she began in an exasperated voice, "I have loads of essays to correct-"

"I know, love," he unknowingly brushed a piece of hair away from an ink-spotted cheek, "You've been at it all day. I think you need a break-" she gave him an uncertain look, so he rushed on "- I'll even help when we get back here. I know I graduated a while ago, but I wasn't exactly horrible at Charms in my day."

His incessantly present smirk (so unlike Draco's old smirk of superiority and insolence) graced his features and Hermione sighed, setting down her quill.

After all, Sirius Black always got his way with women. Well, most of the time… Alright, 99% of the time.

And off on a walk they went.

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"Oh… damn you, Black… bloody… stop!" Hermione panted as Sirius kissed her neck, all the while unbuttoning her shirt and taking his kisses lower.

Minutes before, when the two frustrated lovers were on their rather innocent walk in the hall, Sirius pulled Hermione into an empty classroom to end his aggravation.

He momentarily pulled away from her collarbone, only very slightly, so that his hot breath still brushed against her skin, making her quiver. "Why? We won't get caught – I locked the door and put a silencing charm on it."

But Hermione had no time for this – she had to get those damn essays done – not get it on in an unused classroom. Even if the person who wanted to get it on with her had those coal-like black eyes, boyish grin and dimples, full pouty lips, spectacular stomach…

No, no time for this at all –

The charms teacher emitted a particularly vociferous moan as Sirius succeeded in getting her shirt the rest of the way off. Damn him…

The cocky man pulled away from his ministrations to grin at the brown-eyed girl. "Knew you couldn't resist."

To this, Hermione usually would have chuckled at the typical arrogance, but something – her stress, maybe – caused quite an unexpected reaction. A reaction that led to one of her biggest fears being revealed by accident.

"Why do you this to me?" she cried suddenly, shoving him away and slamming herself against the wall in a futile attempt to increase their separation.

"'Mione, what did I do?" Sirius gawked at her, pulling his hands away hurriedly, wondering how in the hell he had abruptly made her so upset.

She was breathing heavily now – perhaps not so much from the earlier fervent kissing – and was still pressed desperately against the wall, eyes downcast.

"Sodding hell, woman – what's wrong?" Sirius gripped her shoulders urgently, causing her to meet his dark gaze.

"You… I can't…" she shook her head, moving her eyes down below his stare again.

"Tell me…" he was pleading, needing to know what made his woman suffer so. And the fact that it had to deal with him – well, all the better to find out what it was and fix it, hmm?

"I'm helpless," frightened brown eyes met darker confused ones. "When I'm around you, Sirius. I would give you anything at any price – as long as you're happy."

At first he wondered if this had to do with the walk he had begged for, but decided that this was deeper than that. Something that had graced her mind before today.

His expression darkened, "Is that so bad? I would do the same for you."

"No – no, Sirius. That's not what I meant. I mean… What I mean is…" he glared at her as she stumbled over her words, trying to chose carefully. "I – I've only been really weak one time. And that was that night with Pettigrew and Malfoy… and you – as well as you give me strength to live and fight, you also make me so, so scared…"

Sirius frowned. "What are you saying, Granger?" she flinched at the cold formality, but continued on at his request. "If I ever lost you, I wouldn't live, Sirius. I'm to the point where life without you, is not anywhere near what the tangible standard of living really is to me. I'm so bloody scared that something – someone – is going to take you away from me, and I'll be alone. I can't be alone." She finally raised her eyes to his own, which were widened slightly in astoundment. "I spent five years alone, Sirius. I can't take any more. I need to know that you're here… you know, for good."

He raised a dark eyebrow in contemplation. She thinks I'll leave her? And doesn't she know that I've spent twenty years alone? After going through that, I sure don't want to endure any more...

"Do you doubt my love?"

Was he angry? She could no longer tell what he was feeling – the infamous mask of inexpressiveness now covered him, shielding him from obvious hurt.

"No." her voice was strong, almost defiant to his close to insulting query.

"Then why do you fear my leaving you?"

"I didn't mean you would intentionally leave… I meant it… as if you died, Sirius. You've died once before. That was hard enough. Now, I couldn't…"

"How do you expect me to assure you that I won't die on you? Seems a bit impossible to me, 'Mione."

"I don't expect that – I know you can't promise that. I said that I need to know – and I do need to. But there's no way of me knowing… No certainty. About this, about anything in the future."

He realized now – she was frightened of the future. Of what was to come… Of all the things for the clever witch to fear, the future was certainly a wise one. Uncertainty was surely a frightening thing.

"Hermione, love – that's how life works. You just take it day by day, and hope it'll always be good. Well, you don't just have to hope… You fight. That's what we do – we fight for the future," he stroked her cheek, giving her a small smile.

"But what if the fighting destroys us?" Negative words, but as she spoke them, she leaned into his touch copiously, welcoming his warmth. He pondered for a moment, knowing that what he needed to say needed to be reassuring but at the same time genuine.

"I think it's tried – many times – with the both of us. But it hasn't really gotten much of anywhere, has it?"

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The next morning Professor Granger was falling asleep at her desk during her third year Charms class with the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Sirius was doing practically the same thing in Lupin's Defense Against the Dark Arts class of Slytherins and Ravenclaws.

This was, primarily, because of the hours of hot passionate sex the two had had the preceding night, only to remember that Hermione had a considerable amount of papers left to grade, in which they began working on those. They had been lucky to get those 45 minutes of sleep they received.

As a student caught something on fire in the corner of Hermione's vision, Sirius was yelling at a Slytherin boy who had made a snarky comment about his haggard appearance this morning.

Ah, what a beautifully long, drug out day.

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"Sleep," Hermione mumbled as she stumbled into her living quarters and collapsed onto the couch. Only to find herself on top of none other than Professor Black.

"What are you doing on my couch?" she glared, not really angry, but quite tired.

"Sleebin…" Sirius mumbled with his face pressed firmly against the cushion as a result of Hermione's weight.

"Oh no you don't," Hermione growled, grabbing a blue pillow from the floor where it had been discarded and preceded to whack him in the perfectly straight black-haired head.

"Ipe!" Sirius yelped in surprise, and with his quick Marauders reflexes, extracted revenge. He grabbed another pillow, this one green and a little larger in size, and clobbered Hermione directly in the face with it.

"Ow! You git!" she thrashed out again but he managed to dodge it. Both were now fully awake and in full combat mode. Sirius dodged another swipe of the fluffy device of evil and threw his own to the side.

Enough of this girly-girl fighting. He tackled the shocked woman to the ground, a silent scream dead on her pink lips.

And that was when the tickling started.

"No, no… Sirius! SIRIUS! STOP! Oh… God…" Hermione could no longer protest as her giggling had became so intense that her pale face had turned a wonderful shade of Weasley red. She kicked frantically, hoping to get him off of her so that she could regain her breath and fight back properly again. But one of her feet decided that it didn't want any more of this fighting in any shape or form, and kicked Sirius directly in the groin.

"Eeee!" he wheezed, falling on top of the now still woman, who was silent in shock.

Did I just kick Sirius in the balls?

"Are you-" wheeze "-bloody-" squeak "-crazy, woman?"

Hermione stifled a laugh and was about to declare her victory when a knock on her door sounded. Smirking triumphantly, she stood up, adjusted her disorderly robes whilst smirking at Sirius, and stepped over his body that was curled in the fetal position, to answer the door.

"Ah, 'Mione!" It was George – no, Fred – no, definitely George – and he was looking serious in an unfitting manner. "Sirius here?" he asked, curiously peeking his shaggy red head further into the room.

"Er, yeah, on the… floor." She trailed off as she realized how inappropriate that sounded, but George merely raised an eyebrow.

"Ah, well, excellent. If you two could please join Fred and I – he's off getting Lupin, by the way – then we have something you all need to see."

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A/N: SO sorry it took me so long to update! And it's kind of short, but I'll be updating tomorrow, so be patient, please. I was staying at a friend's house and I had to study for exams. Oh, and don't forget – I had to dedicate one whole night to prepping myself for the Prisoner of Azkaban sneak preview movie. I saw it!

WARNING (SPOILER FOR PRISONER OF AZKABAN MOVIE, ONLY READ IF YOU'VE SEEN IT): Did you guys notice that when Sirius and Hermione got off of Buckbeak the hippogriff they held hands for quite a long time?! I was so thrilled, even though I'm completely aware that our strange romance will never actually happen (In Rowling's universe, that is). Even some lady behind me was like, "Why is Sirius holding Hermione's hand?" and I was so tempted to be like, "Cuz, bitch, they're in love!" but I decided that was much too ghetto sounding for me and it would have seemed very idiotic at the time.

END WARNING: Ok, now review please!