Chapter 20: Friday, January 25, 1980
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
-Aldous Huxley
Hermione grimaced as she looked around the motel room. Calling the room shabby would be an insult to all truly shabby things. It was, in her opinion, squalid. The heavy drapes covering the filthy windows were shredded on the bottoms, the bed looked lumpy and dirty, the old wall paper was yellowed by cigarette smoke and the carpet practically puffed with dust as she walked across it.
Sirius threw his overnight bag onto the floor and flopped down onto the bed, his arms and legs spread eagle as a smile pulled across his lips.
"Just you and me for two whole weeks, Kitten. What will we do with all this time?" he sat up, waggling his eyebrows and laughing loudly when she sent a stinging jinx his way.
"We'll pay rapt attention to the building across the street and make sure we record any illegal use of magic that we find, you know, exactly why we're spending the next fortnight in this disgusting pit. Honestly, do you think they've ever actually cleaned in here?" Hermione said, using a scourgify on the chair before sitting.
"Oh, it's not so bad!" Sirius said, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and digging through his bag. He pulled out a new bottle of Firewhiskey and conjured two glasses, filling them both to the brim before handing one to her.
"We aren't here to get sozzled and have a good time, Sirius."
Sirius shrugged, "Won't hurt if we do though, will it? Moody said all the activity had been in the afternoon and-
"That doesn't mean we should just forget ourselves at night," Hermione said.
"Oh come on, Hermione!" Sirius urged, "Or are you too afraid of what will happen if you let your inhibitions down around me?"
Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes, she took a sip of the Firewhiskey and raised her eyebrows at him, "Happy?"
"No," Sirius said. "But I know what will make me happy, you want to play a game?"
"I'm not confident that a game with you won't end up in an injury, so no."
He barked a loud laugh and shook his head, "Oh, come on! It's simple. We ask each other a question. You answer it. That's it. If you don't want to answer the question, you take a shot."
"So the point of the game is to… What? Get so drunk you answer any question thrown your way?" Hermione asked.
"Essentially," Sirius laughed. "But I promise not to ask you anything about the future."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at him for a moment and then sighed, nodding. "Fine!" she said, "Fine. Ask your stupid questions."
"Excellent!" Sirius smiled, "First question, where did you buy your clothes?"
Hermione's eyes remained narrowed, "Why?"
"That's not how this works, Kitten. You answer or drink."
"A vintage shop in Muggle London."
Sirius smirked, "They're very posh," he said. "How do you have the money to buy a cottage and Christmas gifts and other things?"
"It's my turn!" Hermione said.
"No, you asked why, I answered it. It's my turn again."
She rolled her eyes but answered, "A friend gave me the money before I came."
An hour later, they had completely settled in and Hermione was properly drunk. She found herself taking quite a few shots back to avoid answering cleverly placed questions of Sirius' future self. She told him she didn't know the details, but he continued asking questions she couldn't answer, so she drank. After her fourth shot, Sirius began taking shots with her in the name of fairness, considering he answered all the questions she asked without hesitation.
Hermione had left the motel for a total of fifteen minutes during their game to get some muggle takeaway for them to eat, knowing she would need something to soak up some of the Firewhiskey in her system. She had never drunk this much Firewhiskey in one sitting. Sure, she had been drunk before, but it was usually from wine or a few too many Butterbeers and a shot or two of Firewhiskey.
"Okay, okay, I have a good question for you!" Hermione said, laughing as a pepperoni slid off the slice of pizza Sirius was holding and landed on his white tee shirt.
"That's not funny! And it's not your turn!" Sirius laughed, grabbing his wand to clean the stain from his shirt as he bit into the slice.
"Are we really still keeping track?" Hermione asked, "Because it seems like we're just getting drunk and talking now."
"My plan worked then!"
"Shut up!" She laughed, "Why are you always trying to get with Marlene at the meetings?"
Sirius swallowed his bite and tilted his head, eyeing her curiously, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you call her a bitch all the time, and then every meeting you go out of your way to try and go home with her! It's a little hypocritical, don't you think?"
Sirius barked a loud laugh, "I said she was a bitch, Kitten, not that she's ugly!"
"That's vile, Sirius!"
He gave an exaggerated shrug, "Maybe to your virginal mind it's vile but-
"What?"
"What do you mean what?"
"My virginal mind?" she asked, her eyebrows in her hair. "Bold of you to assume I'm a virgin."
"You aren't?" Sirius asked, sitting up a little straighter on the bed and arching an eyebrow at her.
"Nope," Hermione answered, making a little popping sound on the "p".
"Who was your first time with?" Sirius asked.
"You know I can't tell you that," she said, biting into her third slice of pizza.
"No, but you can tell me how it happened! Was it the love of your life? Hogwarts sweetheart that you dated for years and-
"It was my best friend, in a tent, when I was 18. We thought we were going to die soon and decided to just do it."
"Didn't want to die a virgin? Can't say I blame you there," Sirius chuckled. "My first was Mary MacDonald."
"The other beater who hit bludgers at you?"
Sirius nodded, "The very same."
"Why does that not surprise me?" Hermione laughed.
"So you slept with your best friend and then what? Didn't die and decided that the once was enough?"
"If I was sober, I would tell you that you're asking very rude questions, Sirius Black. And for your information, Ha- he was not the only person."
"Oh?" Sirius asked, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "Do tell!"
"You want me to tell you how many men I've had sex with?!" Hermione gasped, shaking her head. "Absolutely not. That is none of your business, what I've already told you was none of your business!"
"Exactly," Sirius laughed, "We're already treading into 'none of my business territory' so why not just tell me? If it's any consolation I lost count sometime after twenty."
"Twenty," Hermione said, an incredulous look on her face. "Sirius!"
He shrugged, "Answer the question, Hermione!"
"Five. Happy?"
"Five? Really? That's… That's actually more than I expected."
"Are you really going to sit here and make me feel bad about having a healthy sex life after you've just told me that you lost count after twenty?" Hermione said.
"I'm not making you feel bad, in fact, I was going to ask if you wanted to make that list six."
"Sirius!" Hermione said, setting her glass down. "No! I do not want to be another notch your extensive bed post, thank you-
"Mine? Who said anything about me?" Sirius mused.
Hermione shifted in her chair, pulling her legs up and folding them under herself. She stared at him for a moment and arched an eyebrow at him. "What are you talking about?"
"Remus, obviously."
"R-Remus?" Hermione stammered, "What about Remus?"
"Oh come on now! You can't tell me you haven't noticed that he fancies you! He baked you two weeks worth of Chelsea Buns for breakfast while we're here! He didn't do that for me!"
"He bakes for everyone."
"Not like that," Sirius said. "Remus bakes for himself, he just makes extras because it's rude not to. He bakes because he likes doing it, not because he wants to feed us. But you, he wants to give you something. You could return that favor and take another thing from him."
"Take another… what are you on about?"
"Give into his very poor excuse of an advance and shag the poor sod," Sirius laughed. "I'm fairly certain you fancy him too. I don't think it would be a terrible thing, well, maybe for you. But for Remus-
"What do you mean terrible for me?" Hermione instantly felt irritated at the statement. Was Sirius honestly buying into the bullshit excuses Remus had always had about being a Werewolf meant he couldn't get close to someone?
"Well, you may not be virginal, but our sweet biscuit baking Remus most certainly is."
Whatever argument she was going to throw at Sirius died in her throat and she just stared at him, mouth hanging slightly open. Of course, there was nothing wrong with Remus not having sexual experience if that was his choice, but she simply couldn't believe it. Remus was brilliant, and kind, and funny! Not to mention he was proper fit. Remus wasn't beautiful in the way that Sirius or Draco was, he didn't have the sharp aristocratic features that instantly marked him for swooning. He wasn't handsome like James or Harry, in that "i just rolled out of bed" sort of way that meant they didn't have to really try to be attractive.
Remus was imperfect and rugged. Scars marred his face and arms— and if Hermione was honest with herself, she had thought many times about what his chest and back probably looked like. His hair was shaggy, and he was incredibly tall— towering over everyone else all the time, at least a foot taller than she was. His shoulders were so broad and she was guilty of picturing how they would feel pressed against the backs of her knees, something that made her blush deeply as she remembered she was sitting in a filthy motel room getting pissed with Sirius.
She coughed a few times and shook her head, pulling herself from her thoughts of Remus and took a sip of her Firewhiskey, hoping that would explain the flush in her neck that was creeping up her face. When Hermione looked up from the rim of her glass, Sirius was staring at her, a small smile on his face, his eyebrows pulled up on his forehead and mischief twinkling in his eyes.
"So, I'm not far off the mark here, am I?" Sirius mused.
Hermione cleared her throat, "I don't know what you're-
"Oh, don't give me that rubbish. You fancy him too! Remus will never make the first move, Hermione. I need to be perfectly clear about that. He's only ever snogged a girl once and it was on a dare, and she had to practically pin him down to get him to do it. The thought of being close with anyone terrifies Moony, if you want anything to happen there, you have to be the one to do it."
Slowly, painfully slow, the conversation shifted away from their promiscuous ventures and talks of Remus. Once they began talking about Sirius' family, he had finally decided they had enough talking for one night and decided it was time for them both to get to sleep.
Hermione stared at him, frustrated, when he refused to extend the bed and transfigured the chair back from the cot she had made. With a smirk across his face, he took off his leather jacket, tossing it across the back of the chair and ran a hand through his hair.
"I don't need to sleep on a cot, and neither do you."
"I am not sharing a bed with you, Sirius."
His smile pulled higher, splitting his face brilliantly in two, "I guess it's time you see why they needed me to come on a mission for stealth."
"Oh?" Hermione quipped, arching an eyebrow as she folded her arms over her chest.
Sirius nodded and Hermione watched with interest as he suddenly shifted, a shaggy black dog standing where he had been. Of course, they need him to be in his animagus form! She thought, kicking herself for not realizing it sooner.
Padfoot hopped up on the bed and stared at Hermione. She shook her head and laughed, leaning over to pull the chain on the bedside table lamp, and curled up on her side. Padfoot laid behind her after circling a few times to get comfortable. His large, furry back pressed against her and she twisted to scratch at his ears.
"Very clever, Sirius Black," she whispered, chuckling at the small bark from the dog.
It took exactly three days for Hermione to realize that the part of Draco that simultaneously exhausted her and made her love him, was shared by Sirius Black. She wondered if it was a Black Family trait for the men in their bloodline to be so annoying, or if it was just a strange trait Sirius and Draco happened to share. Either way, she was sure that when the two weeks were up, she would either kill Sirius, or they would become the best of friends… The Wizengamot was still out on which would happen.
Between complaints of utter boredom and the nonstop comments of how she and Remus needed to just "shag it out", she was at her wits end with him. She had put him under a silencing spell more than once over the weekend and she was tempted to do it again. Just as Sirius had begun to prattle on about some nonsense or another, she peeked out the window and furrowed her brow, staring at the scene before her.
There was a woman in the alley, visibly upset as she yelled at a large man who had his hand wrapped tightly around the bicep of a small boy. The boy was crying, Hermione could see the flush of his face as he screamed, his small hand reaching toward the woman. The woman was being held by another man and she felt her stomach drop into her feet.
"...and honestly I think that if you-
"Shut up!" Hermione said, speeding across the room to grab her wand. She used it to clean the filth from the glass of the window and squinted down at the scene below them.
"Oi! That was rude! If you would-
"Sirius!" Sirius hissed, "Shut up! Come look at this!"
Sirius huffed and got up from his place on the bed, pulling the other panel of the tattered drapes back as he followed her line of sight down to the scene below. Hermione jumped when she saw a flash of green light, the woman's body slumping over. The man holding her unceremoniously tossed her aside, and approached the man holding the child.
Hermione moved into action, slipping her trainers and cloak on and pulling her hair up to the top of her head as she walked out of the room, Sirius on her heels.
"We can't interfere, Hermione!" Sirius said, "We have to report it back to the-
"That woman was murdered while her child watched, Sirius. I will not stand here and do nothing!"
She sped down the stairs, nearly tumbling down the last flight. Ignoring the look from a housekeeper, she pushed open the back emergency door, silencing the alarm before it had the chance to ring. By the time they reached the alley, the men were gone with the child and the woman's body laid crumpled on the pavement. Hermione ran to her, waving her wand to look at her vitals. The woman was a muggle, and she was dead.
Hermione knew, of course, that the flash of bright green had been the killing curse, but she still felt sick. She knew there were kidnappings and muggle disappearances, Moody had told them about it when he gave them the details of the assignment. But to see it happening in broad daylight, the poor woman never had a hope of defending herself as her son was dragged away.
When she looked back up she saw Padfoot coming toward her. In a blink of an eye, he shifted mid stride and the look on his face was disgust.
"There's more," he said. "There has to be at least half a dozen children in that building. There's so many wards on it, I can't get a clear scent for an exact number but there's definitely something happening in there."
"We have to get them out, Sirius! What would Death Eaters need with half a dozen children? What is the point of all this besides creating chaos for the sake of it?"
"There's another scent, Hermione."
She looked at him expectantly, waiting for his answer.
Sirius sighed, shoving his hair out of his face and she saw the solemn look cross his features. "Werewolves," he said. "There are Werewolves in that building."
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a/n: Okay, first of all, as always... Huge love for Mayghaen17, my alpha! This was one of her top 5 chapters, so I hope you loved it too! Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts! See you on thursday!
xo
mimi