Hello lovely Potterheads,

Sorry this took so long. I've been chasing some tail of my own lately (read: I got a dog), then skiing, après skiing, Covid, you know how it is. Life happened. But here's another chapter for you. Enjoy!

Toiletsplash - x MoaningMyrtle95

PS. Are you guys as excited as me about the new FB movie coming out?! Can hardly wait!

Chapter 19

Both men were waiting in the kitchen when the two of them arrived. Sitting at the long table that had housed all the Weasleys and then some at Christmas, Albus Dumbledore nursed a cup of tea. The atmosphere was strained with disapproval but Sirius was determined to take no notice.

"Custard cream, Albus?" He offered the former Headmaster courteously.

Although still rather displeased with the last living member of the noble and most ancient House of Black, Albus wouldn't let it stand in between him and his outrageously high sugar intake. Thus, he accepted one and took a bite.

The Floo roared to life and Harry stepped into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, followed closely by Hermione. While Sirius would have liked to hug his godson in welcome, he wasn't sure how he would be received.

Ever since Dumbledore had been forced to leave Hogwarts things had been tense between Sirius and Harry. Hermione told him she and Harry had made up. He had hoped, therefore, that if his godson could forgive his friend, he could forgive him too. Harry, however, hadn't initiated any contact with him in the past few weeks.

So what now? Should he play it cool and just say hi? A handshake certainly seemed too formal. Muggles did something like bump fists, but he wasn't sure Harry knew about this and he didn't like to be left hanging.

The awkward tension broke when Dumbledore suddenly transformed into a canary.

Harry's laughter burst from him and even Hermione couldn't suppress her giggles. Sirius, however, was too stunned to join in.

"What the bloody hell just happened?"

"You gave him a Canary Cream!" Harry just managed to splutter in between his hiccups.

"Fred and George invented them", Hermione explained. "He'll be back to normal in a minute."

Sufficiently put at ease, Sirius strode over to Hermione, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He wasn't the least bit concerned about how she would receive him. After all, everyone present knew already they were quite familiar with one another.

Sure enough she let her head rest on his chest and wrapped her arms around his middle to return the hug. They barely took notice as the canary transfigured back into Albus Dumbledore, who looked at his confection as though he was sorry not to be able to eat the rest of it.

"Welcome back, Vixen."

"Are you nervous?"

Harry, Hermione and Sirius were sitting in the kitchen having breakfast two days after their arrival from Hogwarts. Sirius had made them fried eggs in the spirit of Easter and Harry had wolfed it down like he hadn't eaten in days.

"A little.." He managed to articulate with his mouth stuffed.

Harry had been a bit withdrawn since they had arrived at Grimmauld. Hermione hadn't been able to spend a lot of time with him, as both of them were occupied with separate tasks. She hoped he would confide in her when he was ready, but most of all that he would be okay.

"But I don't think there'll be much trouble. Dumbledore will make sure of that. Besides, he has a plan. A solid one."

"I know, but still. Things could go wrong.."

"What about you?" Harry shot back. "Are you ready?"

"I think so! I'm nervous, obviously, but also excited! I've been preparing for this for so long, I can't -"

But she trailed off when her Headmaster appeared in the kitchen doorway in his lilac coloured robes. Harry was on his feet before Dumbledore had time to address him.

"I'm ready, sir."

"Excellent, Harry. You've got your invisibility cloak?" He inquired.

Harry gave his backpack a pad before he slung it over his shoulder. "It's in here. I don't need it yet, do I?"

"You do not, in fact it may not be necessary at all. However, good preparations never go amiss. Now, shall we be off?"

Hermione had flung her arms around her friend's neck before he could protest.

"Good luck, Harry!"

He hugged her back tightly.

"I'll probably be back before you're done." He joked. "In fact, that would be something! Seeing you transform for the - "

His sentence got lost when Sirius came up behind Harry to make their hug into a sandwich.

"You guys.. " Harry grumbled, feeling embarrassed.

At Dumbledore's chuckle, Hermione took a step back. She could only just hear Sirius whisper a quiet 'be safe' into Harry's ear before he too let go and both bespectacled men were off.

With a wave of his wand, Sirius had the dishes rise off the breakfast table and fly to the sink, where they started to clean themselves. He took Hermione's hand in his and kissed the back of it. She blushed prettily, like she did every time he held a door or pulled out a seat for her. Or perhaps it was his accompanying look of adoration that made her cheeks stain red.

"Shall we?"

Hermione stumbled slightly as she preceded him to the sitting room. The previous two days of preparation had largely been spent here by them, while Harry and Dumbledore had occupied the drawing room.

They had practiced and meditated until they couldn't tell if their muscles were sore from running through the forest or sitting in the same position on the floor for too long.

Hermione had felt little parts of the transformation already, although they hadn't actually occurred. Due to the Animalis Interiorem potion and combining it with immense concentration, Hermione had felt catlike ears emerging from her head. With the rest of her body untransformed, it had been oddly reminiscent of her experience in her second year at Hogwarts, when she had accidentally transformed into a human sized cat.

While she was used to the rush of the wind and sounds of little twigs snapping in the forest, the house had seemed eerily quiet. There wasn't anything she could make out from the other room, and she figured Dumbledore must have put up a Silencing Ward. The only sounds that could be heard were her and Sirius' breathing and Kreacher moving around somewhere in the house.

Now, a last, large dose of Animalis Interiorem was waiting for her on the little side table of the sitting room. Hermione, however, found she couldn't focus on this whatsoever.

She'd laid awake well into the night, worrying about everything that was going to happen today and analysing every variable that might go wrong. Somewhere during her analysis, it had occurred to her that for the first time - and probably for the last time in a good long while as well - she and Sirius would be alone in an empty house, with little chance of someone arriving unannounced. The thought had given her chills and she had laid awake thereafter for an entirely different reason.

Having spent another couple of months apart after Christmas, Hermione had grown a bit wary of the feeling of longing, especially now that she was here and Sirius was so close. She could simply taste their sweet reunion in the air, but since Harry had been in the house with them, they had tried to act as normal as possible. He was as accepting as it was possible for him to be at the moment, and she and Sirius had agreed that his godson walking in on them snogging might not be helping matters.

But he couldn't exactly walk in now, could he?

Channeling her inner Gryffindor, Hermione turned around determinedly as soon as Sirius had closed the door behind them. Sirius barely had time to register the look in her eyes that reminded him of a hunter about to pounce on its prey before his back was to the door.

She kissed him fiercely, urgently, like it might be the last chance she'd get. The thought scared Sirius. Her passion overwhelmed him. He had been so determined to take things slow with her, for her to set the pace. She was so much younger after all, he didn't want to pressure her into anything.

Well, she was surely setting a pace now, he thought, as she moved one leg up to wrap around his waist, trying to climb him like a tree. As her fingers wound into his hair, her tongue found its way into his mouth and Sirius relished in the taste of her.

He had spent more time thinking about their previous kisses than he cared to admit, and he was glad to have memorized them so perfectly. Or so he'd thought. Each time he'd summoned the memory of her, her lips felt a little more ghost-like on his, a reminder that his memory could never reflect the real thing.

This kiss didn't resemble their previous encounters at all. Those had been soft, sweet, unhurried. Now, his kitten was showing him her claws and they were currently scraping across his scalp. Sirius moaned into their kiss and they broke apart for some much needed air.

"Twittering Thunderbirds, woman!"

"Too much?" She breathed.

"Gods, no. The only thing too much about that was the doorknob in my back."

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean - "

"I'm not sorry at all."

He took her hand and guided her to the sofa. Instead of sitting next to him, Hermione took him by surprise again as she crawled onto his lap, searching his face for signs of disapproval. Obviously not finding any, she resumed her previous activity of kissing him with renewed enthusiasm.

Sirius responded with equal fervor, but in this new position of her straddling him, it was becoming increasingly difficult to curb the desire to grind against her centre. His pants were positively straining with the bulge in his pants, and he tried his hardest not to seek the friction he so desperately needed.

His hands, which had been on her waist, were shifted by Hermione's smaller ones to rest on her bum. He gave it a little squeeze before muttering to her.

"Merlin Hermione.. Are you sure you won't be turning into a Minx later?"

She giggled at this, her breath hot on the sensitive skin of his neck. He groaned.

"How am I supposed to remain a proper gentleman when you jump me like this, love?"

"Who says I want you to be a gentleman?" She countered.

"I would like to do this properly." Sirius admitted.

The seriousness of his tone was uncharacteristic for the Marauder, and Hermione sat back a little in order to look at him.

"What do you mean by that?"

"This is not just some fling to me, love. I thought I'd made that clear."

"No, I know that." But she blushed nevertheless. "I just meant the 'properly'-part. What does that entail?"

"Oh. Well.."

It was Sirius' turn to blush. Although he had given this a lot of thought, he'd kept running in circles until finally deciding it didn't matter for the time being. Not until their circumstances changed anyway.

"The ancient pureblood way was through courtships. It's the notion I grew up with, although I'd never really considered it before, and right now it's not exactly an option with me being a fugitive.. I despised most of my parents' pureblood ways and traditions, but this one never seemed so bad."

"Who knew the ultimate bad boy of the house of Black was secretly a hopeless romantic?" Hermione teased him.

Meanwhile, her brain was whirring. She didn't know much about pureblood traditions or what a courtship entailed - although she would definitely be researching it later - but she knew one thing, having been friends with Ginny for four years. One always entered a courtship with the intention of marriage. A successful courtship would end in matrimony.

After she'd managed to set her insecurities aside last Christmas, Hermione recognized that whatever it was between her and Sirius meant a lot to them both. It didn't need to be made explicit. They both knew they were on the same page.

She had hoped that somewhere in the future, - preferably one where Voldemort was gone and Sirius exonerated - they could be together in a real relationship. Hearing him talk about a courtship, implying marriage although carefully avoiding the word for now.. It made Hermione feel a lot younger than she usually did in his company.

Sirius seemed grateful for her light teasing, eager to steer the conversation into a different direction. The clock chimed ten and Hermione reached over to the side table to pick up the goblet of potion.

"Moment of truth," she muttered.

"Time for my Vixen to show herself." Sirius watched her drink the entire goblet of Animalis Interiorem and gently lifted her off his lap the moment she was finished. He remembered the feeling from his first transformation: every sound seemed magnified by a hundred times until your inner animal had been able to show itself for the first time. It had taken him, James and Peter only little more than an hour, but he could still remember the headache up until that point.

"Remember what we talked about, Vixen." Sirius spoke in the softest whisper he could manage. "I know your senses are overwhelming, but you can't shut them out. You need to focus on them, it's the only way. They are too much for your human body, that is the whole point. Focus on them, all of them, and try to feel them in your different form. When you've reached the right mindset, your body will accommodate your changed needs and make the transformation."

It took a while before Hermione was able to focus on anything other than the noises, the smells, the difference in her vision. Even her own body seemed uncoordinated and she slumped to the floor, sitting back on her legs and cradling her face in her hands. Slowly, she was able to make out Sirius' encouraging words from the noise and his distracting smell of leather and woodsmoke.

As she focused on his instructions, she could feel her body start to tremble slightly, like the membrane on a drum that was just beat with quite some force, only it didn't cease after a few seconds. It seemed to go on forever until her skin wasn't her skin.

She couldn't pinpoint when exactly the tingling stopped. When she opened her eyes, nothing had changed. The room was exactly the same, but things still seemed to have shifted. It took another few moments to realize that the difference was only caused by her perspective.

She looked around to find her mate, who stood gawking at her, his eyes wide.

"You did it." It sounded disbelieving and she gave him an indignant huff. Had he ever really doubted her?

"You did it!" He yelled, laughing jubilantly this time. "Oh Vixen, you're magnificent! Truly, look!" And he conjured a mirror so that she could inspect her new appearance, much like she had done in a pond a few months ago.

Hermione was pleased to find the sensations of being in this form were much the same as in the forest while meditating. Sure, there were different shades of grey in her surroundings now, and the soft rug she stood on felt very different under her paws than the leafstrune forest floor. The biggest difference however was the smell. Her mate's fragrance was overwhelming here, in his den. It made her feel safe and she trotted around him, purring slightly and sliding her tail over his legs.

Another shiver in the air, but this time she felt the vibrations of the drum from a little further away. An enormously big, black, shaggy dog stood where her mate's human form had disappeared. He sank through his front paws to bring his head to her eye level.

From there, her animal instinct took over and the vixen jumped back, sinking through her front paws as well as she wagged her tail excitedly. Before Padfoot had caught up with her antics, she was skidding across the room. He caught up with her game soon enough, however, and gave chase.

He played her little game with her for a while, nearly catching her two times before the sneaky thing made her escape. She was an agile little creature. The third time, however, he pounced on her by leaping from the couch. As his Vixen lay beneath him, he touched his muzzle to hers and gave it a little lick.

He was startled to see her transforming back beneath him, and shifted hurriedly himself. So hurriedly, that he had not realized that while playing as Animagi had been innocent and fun, this position was a little more compromising as humans.

Shushing his conscience for the time being, he kissed her fervently for what could have been minutes or several hours, until they were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening.