A/N. An amazing reviewer and friend recently dedicated a chapter to me! rileypotter17 is the author of a very good AU story entitled The Lover! Go check it out!
In case you were wondering, Dragon's Breath IS a drink, and there's multiple kinds - but the only one that matters is the one that me and my friends came up with when we were 16 (we were troublemakers). It is exactly as I said in the last chapter, only instead of Firewhiskey, it's vodka and there's a splash of Sprite and apple juice and no dragon's scale (obviously). Its only slightly green. And it very well could kill you, so I really don't recommend it. It's really quite awful and could end in you or one of your friends streaking through the city. Or dying. PLEASE DO NOT DRINK IT. Try the cocktail, which is gin and cinammon schnapps I think...
Resa Fun Fact:
Growing up, my friends and I were a group of our own Marauders. I was Sirius *smiles*
...~oOo~...
Chapter Thirty-Five: A Birthday & An Apology
"It's your birthday and you're going to work?!"
"Sirius, believe it or not, most people go to work on their birthday."
"B-but... all you'll be doing is sorting catalogues and organizing in compliance with the Dewey Decimal System and doing boring library things. It's not very celebration-y."
"Celebratory."
"Whatever," Sirius huffed. "Remus, tell Hermione that she absolutely cannot go to work on her birthday."
Remus was halfway out the door on his way to his own job, mug of coffee in one hand, house keys in the other. "Sirius, Hermione wants to keep her job - she's not going to call out last minute just so you can have her to yourself all day."
"Anyway, it doesn't really feel like my birthday," Hermione said honestly, slipping her cardigan over the camisole. "And I especially don't feel twenty." Because I'm really not.
"But you have to want a party!" Sirius said, Dandelion tucked under his arm as he chased Hermione through the house while she got ready. "Look at our kitten, Hermione! She wants her mommy to stay home and play with her and Daddy!" Sirius held out the cat, practically shoving her in Hermione's face while holding her under her front legs.
The half-kneazle looked disdainfully at her, clearly communicating, Please just do what he says so he puts me the hell down.
"I'm going to work, Sirius, and that's all there is to it," Hermione said, tucking her wallet into her beaded purse. "And please, Sirius, do not have it that I come home to a party. I'm not in a partying mood. The best birthday present you could give me, Sirius in -"
"My virginity?"
"That boat sailed a long time ago if your number of nighttime visitors is any indication, so no. The best present is a quiet night with a film and some pasta with my two favorite boys," Hermione finished. She gave him a sincere look. "Really. Please don't overdo this. I promise I'll throw you the biggest party you like on your birthday, but just... leave this alone, alright?"
Sirius sighed. "Can James, Lily, and Peter come over?"
"Of course they can," Hermione said. "Just... no whiskey, no gifts, no balloons and banners. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Sirius confirmed. She definitely didn't like how he complied so easily, but she didn't see anything distrustful in his expression.
"Thank you, Sirius."
"On one condition."
Hermione's lungs emptied and she wanted to smack her forehead. She really should have seen this coming. She had wrongly had more faith in the world and was no stuck. "And what is this condition?"
"You give me a kiss goodbye," she said with a sly smirk.
Tipping upward, she kissed his cheek.
"I meant on the mouth," he added.
"You didn't specify, so I'm off." Hermione pulled her hair back and began towards the door.
"Fine," he said calmly with a shrug, continuing to follow her. "I hope you like crepe paper and booze. Because there's going to be tons when you get home. And streamers. I might even order a clown and some strippers. How last-minute do you think you can order one of those plastic bounce-houses? Good thing I copied your address book while you were sleeping, this way I can Floo everyone and -"
He was cut off by her mouth. Smashed into his. Hard. All lips and teeth. Not wasting a second, Sirius wrapped his arms around her waist and demanded entry to her tongue and he got it. After the initial surprise of the kiss, Sirius gained control and kissed her deeply and thoroughly.
When they disengaged, very slowly, Hermione blinked in bewilderment and said, "Uh..."
Sirius smirked. "It was a birthday kiss. Expect nineteen more."
"I'm pretty sure... that covered... twenty," Hermione murmured, leaning heavily against the wall, still a little fuzzy in the head. She was literally lightheaded.
"Do you still want to go to work?" he asked coyly, bringing his large hands to his her hips, giving her a light squeeze.
Hermione looked at her watch and uttered a small half-curse. That kiss had gone on much longer than she'd expected. Where she was running later before, she was definitely late now. "You did that on purpose," she accused.
"Please stay home with me," he said, leaning close. "This way we have all day alone to work out our problems, of which there are many. Because you keep telling me there are lot of unfixable problems and frankly I don't know what you're talking about. And this, my love, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a real, honest, unsilly - is that a word? - conversation with Sirius Black."
"No."
"No, you don't want to talk to me?" Sirius face deflated like an untied balloon.
"No, I mean 'no, unsilly is not a word'." Hermione sighed. "Get me some parchment and a quill, please. I apparently have to write my boss a letter."
...
Sirius and Hermione had been talking for a full two hours, where they made gallons of tea and drank it all - with many a bathroom break - and biscuits. They even ended up going for a walk and went to the park where Hermione played fetch with Padfoot.
They ended up at the same park they were at in the spring, only with the dawning autumn, a breeze rippled the lake and the grass was scattered with leaves, the trees quivering and only partially naked. There were less people there - children off at school and their parents at work.
They were sitting up against the trunk of the tree that both James and Sirius had fallen out of.
"Tell me a story," Sirius said, his long legs stretched outward, one of his hands curled into her hair, scratching lightly at her scalp.
"About what?"
"About France."
Hermione tried not to cringe. In her mind, she'd been using France as a secret codeword for Her Past, before the Time-Turner broke. She dug around her brain and came up with a good anecdote for him.
"Well, in France, I -"
"That's not how you're supposed to start a story," Sirius cut in. "It's supposed to start 'once upon a time'."
Hermione smirked and restarted. "Once upon a time, a very lonely little Muggle-born witch had no friends. She was too bookish and too bossy and no one liked her very much. But she worked hard - or at least, she thought she was working hard - to befriend a pair of silly boys. Just when she thought she was becoming friends with them, she overhead one of the boys saying some very... mean things to his other friends about her on Halloween. They were laughing at her and talking about her behind her back and so she ran to the girls' room and cried.
"She cried for hours, quite pathetically. Being a Muggle-born, she already felt the burden of being different and just wanted to go home. She was wondering whether or not she belonged there at all. She was clever, yes, but disliked and bullied, and was caught between sticking it out, showing them she wasn't weak, and writing her parents a letter and begging the, er, Headmistress to let her go home.
"Little did she know, a troll had been let loose in the school. And the boys, the ones she wanted to be friends with her, went to warn her. Unfortunately enough, the troll wandered its way into the very bathroom she was hiding in. The boys, only First Years, very valiantly - and with quite a bit of terrified screaming - battled the troll and knocked it out with its own club.
"The Headmistress's deputy found them, troll on the ground, and was infuriated. But, instead of detention, she deducted points from the girl and rewarded them to the boys and let them be. From then on, the girl and the boys were best friends."
In a content, nostalgic silence, Hermione thought back to that day. The raw fear, the relief, the triumph. The smiles they gave each other once it was over. How that small battle created a bond between them that would sustain future struggles. The bond that made her miss them so sorely that it was hard to get out of bed some days.
"There was a troll in Beauxbaton's?" Sirius finally asked. "Bit rough for such a flighty school. Sounds more like a thing Hogwarts would have lurking about."
"Hmm," Hermione murmured as her only response.
"Was one of those boys your boyfriend from then?"
Hermione chuckled. "Sirius, he was never my boyfriend. You came up with that all on your own."
"Hrumph."
"Don't 'hrumph' at me, it's true. Now, are you ready to head back home?"
Sirius drew small circles with his thumb on the inside of her knee. "Hermione. I love you."
And it sounded like he meant it. Really meant it. His voice burned with honesty and resignation. Like the words came from deep inside him.
"And... I'm sorry for everything I've done," he added, looking at his toes. "I know I've said that a lot today, especially when we were drinking tea - but I mean it. I'm sorry. For being manipulative and insensitive and... well.. promiscuous. I'm sorry for every moment when you and I were together that I didn't tell you how much I loved you and for pretending like none of it mattered when, really, it was the only thing that mattered.
"You don't have any reason to believe me, I know. But I want to spend the rest of my life trying to prove to you that I'm telling the truth. When I thought you'd... been with someone while you were in France... it drove me mad. Made me sick. Because whoever it was, I felt, they had no right, because you were always mine in my mind. Which was wrong, too. Because you aren't a possession and I respect you more than that.
"But I belong to you, Hermione. Even if you laugh after I stop talking - which I won't blame you for doing, because this all feels quite silly, saying it out loud - I'll still belong to you." Sirius paused and took a deep breath, turning and looking in her eyes. "And so does this." The hand that wasn't on her knee came up from beside him, pinching between his fingers, a dandelion.
It was their flower. And that did something to Hermione's knees, even though she was sitting.
Sirius tucked it behind Hermione's ear and wore a small smile. "Beautiful. You, not the flower - which is actually a weed, so I don't know why you always go so moony-eyed when I give you one," he teased lightly.
"You know what this means, don't you?"
"What?"
Hermione smiled. "I owe you a kiss."
...~oOo~...
"SURPRISE!"
Hermione screamed. Not the good scream they were expecting. A shrill, sort of what-the-fuck-is-happening scream. "YOU!" She spun around, pointing very forcefully at Sirius who was grinning like an idiot behind her in the doorway. "I TOLD YOU NO PARTY!"
Sirius laughed and shrugged. "I guess none of them got the cancellations in time."
Everyone in the room looked alarmed and amused, but were laughing and taking pictures of Hermione's cherry-red face. Feeling ridiculous, she turned back around to her guests. Everyone was there - the Marauders, Alice and Frank, the Prewett twins, and... everyone else in her address book. About twenty people. That was a lot of people for Hermione. Twenty too many, actually.
There were dancing streamers along the wall, a big banner with her name on it, balloons - everything she'd kissed Sirius to avoid. She should have known better. There were platters of pre-dinner snacks floating around on their own and - sure enough - a lot of alcohol. Too much alcohol.
Too much everything.
The only thought she kept thinking as she stared on like a deer in headlight was, This is going to take forever to clean up.
So awkward that she thought she was going to cry, Hermione waved at everyone and said, "Hullo."
"HULLO!" came the reply that almost blasted her backwards. They all laughed and the party resumed.
"Remember when I wanted to tell you I loved you back but said nothing instead?" Hermione hissed at Sirius. "I take that internal monologue back. I hate you."
"Aw, c'mon, 'Mione!" Sirius said, beaming. "Look at how happy everyone is to see you!"
Surely enough, Alice and Lily were coming at her like a pair of twin cannons, scooping her into a hug. They each had a wineglass in their hands and they seemed ready to have a good time. Unlike Hermione.
Hermione hated surprises. They always made her feel wildly unprepared and off-guard.
She was led to the kitchen for a drink where she found James manning the "bar", also known as her counter. "'Ello, 'Mione! Want a Dragon's Breath?" he sniggered with a wink.
"Never again, James," she said quickly. "I really just want water."
Everyone in the kitchen with her groaned loudly.
Remus walked in and smiled widely. "There's the birthday girl."
"You knew about this, didn't you?" she growled lowly at him.
Remus nodded. "I was in charge of making it seem authentic. I had to be the usual grouch towards Sirius."
"I am taking you all off my friends' list," Hermione said simply, getting some water from the tap since James was flat-out refusing. "I am very angry, and you best all watch out."
Alice laughed loudly. "But aren't you happy to see all of us!"
"Yes, I am, but a nice, planned dinner would have been preferable," Hermione groused. "This is insane, Sirius is insane, you're all insane. I wanted to read a book and go to bed."
Sirius pouted. "Ungrateful."
Hermione sighed and said, "I'm am touched, really. I'm just... overwhelmed." She gulped her water and took deep breaths. "Give me a minute and I'll start having fun."
She didn't even have sixty seconds before the Prewett twins swooped in and, battle crying, lifted her high up before she was ready and settling her on the shoulders.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU..." they said, running her out into the living area.
Hermione was screaming again and frantically ducking the doorways that they nearly smashed her into. She didn't like this. The Prewetts were too tall, she was too high up, it was almost exactly like riding a room or a Hippogriff and she didn't like it one bit -
And there was an unnaturally massive, bright blue cake on the coffee table, surrounded by twenty full shot glasses.
Everyone was surrounding it, singing in time with the Prewett twins. There were a lot of candles on the cake, all lit, and it made her worry that it would become an inferno and set her flat on fire. She did not like this mental image. It made her palms sweaty - but that might have been because her home was packed with people, making it rather warm.
But once the candles were blown out and she made a wish, she took a deep breath and prepared herself to have fun.
...~oOo~...
Challenge: 1. Favorite part and line? 2. What kind of games should they play at Hermione's birthday? 3. What will happen between Hermione and Sirius now that the air has been cleared?
~ So Long And Thanks For All The Fish ~