Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter; it all belongs to JK Rowling. I suppose I own the plot, in a way. And I definitely own the two prophecies!
Summary: In dark times, prophecies predicted the rising of five who would have the power alone to defeat evil. They were the Pack.
**
*
~ The Pack ~
Chapter Twelve: Being a Pack
*
**
Ron lay in a bed in the Hogwarts hospital wing. He looked rather pale, but otherwise completely all right, and he brightened considerably when the doors burst open the other members of the Pack trooped in unceremoniously.
"I should have known." Madam Pomfrey groaned, levelling Sirius and Remus with a stare. "And I thought you two had grown up years ago! Well, not you, Sirius . . ."
"It's time to rejoice, Poppy, and enjoy the little things in life," Sirius grinned, he and Remus playfully slinging their arms around her shoulders. "The Dark Lord is gone, the world - magical and Muggle - is safe and we're all alive. Isn't that cause for celebration?"
Poppy huffed.
"Hey," Ron said with a grin, sitting up as Hermione and Harry sat down on the edge of his bed and Sirius and Remus joined them. "You guys are all right?"
"We'll survive," Hermione said dryly, smiling.
Sirius grinned, irrepressible. "But we'll be scarred for life."
"It's really over?" Ron asked, his face falling slightly. "The Death Eaters, You-Know-Who - ?"
"It's over, mate." Harry assured him. He glanced down at the bedspread. "I'm sorry I let you end up here. If Hermione hadn't had the Stopper Death brew ready, you'd have been - "
"Harry, you're a prat," Ron stated calmly, making the others laugh. "I suspect you're addicted to guilt, but try to avoid it on such a beautiful day." He sighed. "I can't believe I let myself get hospitalized and missed all the action."
"It's okay, Ron," Hermione squeezed his hand. "It wasn't that exciting anyway." She crossed the fingers of her other hand behind her back and heard Harry and Sirius stifle snickers.
Remus smiled and spoke up. "Actually, Ron, you were a great help to us even without being there." He grinned. "Who drew the map for us? We could have all been quicksand mince. You gave us some great ideas for spells and as part of the Pack, part of this bond, you managed to help me pull out of the soul of the werewolf and gave 'Mione the strength to break free of Voldemort's Imperius Curse."
"He put you under the Imperius Curse?" Ron demanded of Hermione, eyes widening eagerly. "What happened? What did he try to make you do?"
"Kill them." Hermione nodded her head in the direction of the others. "Voldemort bound them on the ground and tried to get me to torture and kill them." She glanced at Sirius and his eyes burned into her for a moment. His jaw was tight with a kind of tension, and she decided they had a few things to talk about later . . .
"Were the Order there? How did they react when you told them it was over; that we'd won?"
"Dumbledore didn't exactly jump over the moon, but you could see the light in his eyes when we told him. As for the rest of the Order, they're actually on their way over here with Hogsmeade food for a party."
There was an audible groan from Madam Pomfrey from across the room. They laughed, and assured her they'd clean up after themselves.
"So tell me the whole story, right from the beginning, and don't leave anything out," Ron urged, leaning forward eagerly, any disappointment that he'd missed it obviously fading at the thought of a party and an exciting story. "Come on, spill all."
Hermione glanced at the others, smiling, and then they all looked at Remus. He pretended to sigh. "All right," he said, leaning back in the squashy chair he'd conjured up for himself. "I should probably begin at the point when Dumbledore took you - and Harry - off to St. Mungo's . . ."
***
It was about halfway through the tremendous 'party' (one which was no doubt being echoed all over the magical world in celebration of the Pack and Voldemort's final downfall), that Hermione decided she couldn't take it anymore. She was burning with curiosity, emotion and desire and she needed to know.
She marched across the hospital wing, where Sirius was patiently listening to yet another one of Tonks' mother Andromeda's tale of a bad relationship.
"I'm sorry, Andromeda," she said contritely, elbowing Sirius hard in the ribs. "But I need to speak to your cousin for just one second."
"Oh, but I - " Sirius was beginning to look nervous.
Andromeda laughed. "Oh go ahead, Hermione, you can steal him. Tonks tells me there's a lot you need to talk to him about anyway." She winked and Hermione grinned, trying not to blush. Sirius seemed like he was fighting back laughter as well, and he allowed himself to be dragged towards the door of the room.
"Where are we going?" He asked, intertwining his fingers in hers.
"Somewhere we can be alone."
The Room of Requirement was just down the hallway and up one of the staircases. Quickly, Hermione led Sirius there and pushed open the door than magically appeared in front of them - and stiffened. There was a magnificent four-poster, extremely comfortable-looking bed in the room.
Sirius began to laugh. "Hell, 'Mione, what kind of thoughts have you been having?"
"Very funny." She mumbled, well aware of the fact that she was blushing tremendously and that she had been thinking along those lines . . . damn the man. "I actually needed to talk to you."
"You know," he murmured huskily, apparently ignoring her words and leaning closer, "You look very cute when you're blushing . . . kinda sexy . . ."
"Sirius . . ." She warned, beginning to lose control as his hands slid to her waist and the rough edge of his jaw grazed her collarbone as he lowered his head to kiss her neck. "I need to - " Her words were muffled as he kissed her and everything inside her, all the tension and the pain from the previous night's battle, turned to liquid jelly.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and let him carry her to the bed, where he laid her down and continued kissing her. She ran her nails gently over his shirt and them slipped under it, feeling the hard, taut muscles of his chest and the steady rhythm of his heart under her hands.
"They'll wonder where we are - " She gasped out, trying valiantly to control the unsteadiness in her voice and her bodily reactions as his lips moved lower.
His laughter against her skin made her entire heated body tremble. "I don't think any of them will wonder where we are." He breathed.
Hermione had a brief vision of Professor McGonagall not wondering where she and Sirius was, and the image was enough to force her to near giggles. Instead, she tugged on Sirius's shoulders and as he pulled up, she traced her finger down his jaw and kissed him gently. His hands tightened on her waist tenderly, and she slowly leaned her head back against the soft, red silky pillows and whispered, "I love you, Sirius."
He pulled back slightly, raising his head to look her in the eye. She bit her lip, smiling slightly as she ran her fingers through his surprisingly soft, short hair and met his incredulous dark eyes. "You what?" he asked hoarsely.
"I love you." She said simply. "I have for a very long time, and when we thought you were dead . . ." she broke off, swallowing. "So what I wanted to know what whether you really meant what you said in the moor last night."
"You're asking me if I love you?" He began to laugh softly, and lowered his head to kiss her. "'Mione, I think even Ron knew I loved you from even before the day of the Quidditch match. And Remus knew even before I did."
She smiled. She'd been so afraid that he'd blurted it out only as a way to get her to break free of the Curse that nothing could exceed her happiness now. This was what paradise was.
"So how do most people consummate their love, Mr. Black?" She asked with a slow smile.
He blinked and then grinned. "They set the world on fire. And I think that's what we're about to do . . ."
***
By the time Sirius and Hermione got back to the hospital wing, it was entirely empty except for Harry and Remus sitting at Ron's bedside. When they walked in, all three looked up and Ron looked like he might say something greatly embarrassing, but Remus mercifully came to their rescue.
"There you two are!" He grinned. "We've been waiting to have a drink! I think Firewhiskeys are all right for tonight, Sirius."
"Brilliant." Sirius agreed enthusiastically, collapsing into one of the squashy armchairs. Hermione curled up on the arm of his chair, realizing after she did so that if he turned his head towards her, his mouth would be millimeters from her neck . . .
Remus poured out two mugs of Firewhiskey from nowhere and handed one to Sirius. Just when he was about to pour Harry a mug of Butterbeer, Harry, grinning, asked: "Since neither one of you are technically our parents, and since we're also all of age - although not twenty-one - and since this is like a special night, couldn't the three of us also have Firewhiskeys?"
Sirius began to laugh, and Ron asked eagerly: "Yeah, I've always wanted to try some! Can we, please?"
The two Marauders glanced at each other. "What do you think, Moony?" Sirius asked, grinning. "I don't have a problem. Nights - incredible nights - like these don't come along all the time, after all." Hermione felt her body stiffen at his words and with sheer willpower controlled the flush in her cheeks.
"Well, I don't have any problem either." Remus chuckled and there were instant cheers from Harry and Ron. Hermione shook her head, smiling. "All right; three more Firewhiskeys coming up."
Hermione tasted hers with some suspicion; she wasn't a great fan of alcohol. It burned her throat and was nowhere near as intoxicating as Sirius's kisses, but it was all right.
"You shouldn't sit so close to me," Sirius murmured softly suddenly, turning his head slightly towards her. "I can smell you . . . and it's not good for my self-control."
Hermione laughed. "You'll have to start practicing, won't you, because I'm not going anywhere." He grinned.
"All right, people!" Harry announced, waving his mug and grinning with a smile of lightheartedness that had been missing from their hearts for so long. "Time for another - quicker - toast! To approximately four years of friendship and loyalty, not including third year."
"Four years?" Ron's eyebrows shot up. "Harry, you sure the Firewhiskey hasn't gotten to you already?"
"Oh come on, Ron," Harry grinned. "We've been a close pack for a long time before the prophecy even entered our periphery!"
"Hear, hear!" Remus laughed.
Sirius grinned at Hermione. "Never thought I'd see the day my godson made such perfect sense!" he confessed, earning a playful glare from the godson in question.
"Yes, but Voldemort's not going to be the only terror in the magical world," She pointed out, reluctant to be a party-pooper. "There will be other evil and other Dark Lords."
"And we'll keep crushing them as they come, and you know as well as I do, 'Mione, that we'll always do it together."
Hermione downed the contents of her mug and smiled. They were all right, of course. They were less than two days after a battle that had decided the fate of the world, and yes, evil would definitely keep coming.
But there was no point worrying. The prophecies had shown them that. What would come, would come, and like they always had, they would rise to meet the blows when they came and weather the thunderstorms out together.
**
THE END.
*
A/N: This has certainly been my longest story so far, and I'm sorry that the story's over. I think it's probably one of my better pieces of writing so I hope everyone has enjoyed it. Thanks a lot for reading and reviewing and I'll be back with another idea as soon as it hits me! Until then, love always and enjoy the stories! -->