Chapter 11: Firewhiskey for Everyone
"I'll be there," Hemione grinned up to Sirius, who stood beside her while she packed up her bag. The other students filed out of the classroom, excited to be done for the day.
"Good," Sirius grinned back, snaking an arm around Hermione's waist and leading her out of the DADA room. They were discussing the Quidditch game tomorrow, which Hermione wouldn't want to miss. It was against their biggest rivals, the Slytherin house, and they had to win.
Sirius and Hermione's relationship had definitely advanced in the past week or so. Hermione was learning more about Sirius than she had ever learned in the future, and she had to admit, she really enjoyed it. They had been spotted together around school much more as well. Almost every night, they would sit together in the common room. Either alone, or with the other boys and Lily. During those late nights, they would just talk. About everything from their favorite colors to what their DADA homework was. Sirius would always be careful not to ask Hermione too much about her parents or her childhood, he knew that was still a sore spot with her.
Speaking of Lily, her and James' relationship had advanced quite a lot too. It wasn't uncommon to find them snogging in some remote corridor. Of course, Hermione and Sirius weren't at that point in their relationship yet. Sirius still hadn't really kissed her yet. That was one thing that surprised her, there were all these rumors about how he would normally be snogging five minutes into his first date. But he was a perfect gentleman. For a while she considered that he didn't want to kiss her, but Lily assured her that wasn't true.
"I need to go to the library," Hermione told him.
"Okay, I've got Quidditch practice before the big game tomorrow," He replied.
"Good luck," Hermione smiled, and placed a kiss on his cheek.
After Sirius had walzed away happily to the locker room, Hermione continued in the opposite direction, towards the library. She hadn't come here in a while, and had been neglecting her research. She couldn't remember the last time she had made any real progress. Today, however, McGonagall had given her a pass to the restricted section, and she was feeling good.
For the next two hours, Hermione piled large books up on a table and did what she did best, she studied.
"GRYFFINDOR, GRYFFINDOR, GRYFFINDOR!" Voices boomed through the stands, making the fragile wood shake and rumble.
"It gets pretty loud," Remus explained as they filed through the stands to get seats.
"SLYTHERIN, SLYTHERIN, SLYTHERIN!" A whole new set of voices bellowed.
Remus nodded and motioned to the Slytherin fans, "There's always competition between the two teams. Everyone wants to cheer the loudest."
"It's fun once you get into it." Lily added, taking a seat next to Hermione.
"It looks fun." Hermione grinned, remembering all the Quidditch games she had attended as a kid. It was interesting how she had to pretend to be new to all of this. She looked around like it was her first time to ever see a Hogwarts Quidditch game, and the others seemed to believe her.
"Two minutes," Peter announced, telling them that the game was about to start.
Lily sat down on Hermione's left, then Remus on her right, with Peter next to him. Both Remus and Peter were wearing red and gold face paint, which Hermione and Lily had laughed at for at least fifteen minutes on the way over.
"Welcome, everyone! Today we've got Gryffindor versus Slytherin. It will definitely be an interesting match!" The announcer said, he was some Ravenclaw boy. Hermione half expected to see Lee Jordan sitting there. "And here they come out onto the field," he continued, "On Gryffindor, we have the star seeker, James Potter," a cheer erupted from Gryffindor while boos came from Slytherin, "as well as many of our other returning players."
The Slytherin team marched out onto the field, and the fans went crazy, "and playing for Slytherin is the brand new seeker, Regulus Black! He's a newcomer to the team, but we've heard good things about him. He'll be playing against his older brother, Sirius Black, who is a beater for Gryffindor. As you can see, this will definitely be an interesting match!" The announcer said, almost drown out by the cheering.
"COME ON, POTTER!" Lily's yelled at the top of her lungs,earning a thumbs up from James down on the field. Lily had yelled so close to Hermione, it felt like she had screamed directly into the girl's ear.
Remus scoffed as Hermione made sure her ears weren't bleeding, "you don't hold back, do you?" Remus asked Lily with a grin.
Lily just raised an eyebrow at him and began chanting with the crowd. She really got into Quidditch.
The game began quickly, and started out intense. Slytherin played dirty, that was one thing Hermione was sure of. Every few minutes, the crowd would wince as a Slytherin shoved a Gryffindor out of the way. Gryffindor could also play dirty in response. James made an effort to elbow Regulus whenever the two got to close to each other. Sirius also used his skills well, he had a couple good hits, aiming the bludger at the Slytherins and hitting them most of the time.
The game was slow-moving. For a while, Hermione thought it would be a stalemate. But as the game wore on, they soon found the score to be thirty to twenty, Gryffindor in the lead. Because of their position behind, the Slytherins were getting angrier. Regulus was getting especially fired up. He even tried to throw a punch at James, but just barely missed his face.
"Oooh," Remus squinted, eyes glued to the game.
"Come on, James, get the Snitch!" Lily mumbled to herself, also absorbed in the game.
"Regulus seems to be getting a leg up on James, I hope he doesn't get to the snitch." Remus said nervously.
"It looks like Sirius is aiming to take him out," Peter observed the way Sirius stalked Regulus on the field.
It seemed to happen very quickly. Regulus spotted the snitch and bolted after it, with James hot on his tail. Sirius noticed this happening, and sprung into action. The Beater quickly found a Bludger going astray, and smacked it hard with his club. The Bludger zoomed towards Regulus, who had failed to notice anything other than the golden Snitch. It hit him with a loud thump, and all the Slytherins in the crowd groaned in agony. Regulus flew sideways, and almost completely fell off his broom, but managed to hang on. It was too late for Regulus to get back in the chase after he recovered, James had already caught the snitch.
Lily began jumping up and down, screaming and cheering. Hermione couldn't help getting on her feet too, and cheering alongside the rest of them. Gryffindor had won the match.
"Come on!" Remus called Lily and Hermione, leading them downstairs and into the Quidditch Pitch.
Most of the Gryffindors were running out onto the grass, and the team was just settling down to the ground. Everyone huddled around James, who thrusted the Snitch up into the air.
Lily grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her into the center of the group, where they found James and Sirius, standing next to eachother happily. "Lily!" James greeted the redhead, pulling her towards him and not hesitating to kiss her feverently.
Hermione lost Lily's hand as James grabbed her away, and found herself lost in a sea of unfamiliar people. For a moment, she began to panick, but then a someone grabbed her hand and pulled her back towards James and Lily. Hermione turned to see Sirius, grinning like a madman, "Sirius!" She beamed, and jumped up to hug him, "you were amazing!"
Sirius chuckled and released her from the hug, "thanks."
They both turned to James and Lily, who were still kissing. Hermione blushed, not wanti to watch them practically snogging. After a second or two, James released Lily, and looked a Sirius and Hermione. "Well go on, then!" He said to Sirius, motioning towards Hermione.
Hermione was confused at what he meant, but then understood as Sirius grabbed her waist and kissed her with full force. She felt her knees go weak out of the pure shock. This was definitely something she wasn't expecting. She could feel him grinning against her mouth while he kissed her. She reached up and put her arms around his neck, loving how it felt to be kissing him. Even if it was wrong, even if she didn't belong here with him, she would have done it all over again for this moment.
Soon, they broke apart, and Hermione lowered her arms from his neck. He looked at her and she could see the happiness in his dark eyes. She loved how kissing him made him so happy, and of course, winning the Quidditch match didn't hurt.
James and Lily moved back over to Hermione and Sirius. "You know what we do now, Hermione?" James asked.
"What?" Hermione smirked, guessing what was to come.
"We celebrate, of course!" Sirius cheered, throwing a fist into the air.
The group of Gryffindors walked swiftly back to the common room, laughing all the while.
"Firewhiskey for everyone!" Was the last thing Sirius yelled before the party began.