I Want the Fire Back
Summary: Hermione is obsolete – the War is over, Harry and Ron are busy, and she the mere Charms teacher at Hogwarts. When a presumably dead man comes back better than ever, she suddenly means everything... to him. SiHr
Rating: R for language, themes, sex, and whatever else may come out of my twisted little mind.
Disclaimer: It's not me who owns these characters or any plots associated with the Harry Potter books.
Mouseisi: Yes, yes, I know it's Jack Sparrow's word! But in the wizarding world, Sirius is the equivalent to Jack in attitude and looks. Not the same in attitude and looks, but you get my drift. But yes, I do admit it was Jack's word first. Lol.
Tomiko the Muse: I know Ginny's real name is Ginevra, but I really didn't want to confuse people, so I made her Virginia. Lol. I hope it's not too big a deal! Oh, and I don't know what that quote is from… Damn, I feel really stupid now! Yay! Cookie!
Niam: Hermione still becomes catatonic when she goes through a vast amount of stress or grief, or has to recall bad memories. But it has not happened since Sirius has been back. Hmmm… wonder why.
Juliette Subervie: Nope nope, Sirius is most definitely not going to want to adopt the child. Hermione could not handle that, for even the mere memories of what she has been through are hard for her to handle.
amber: You didn't get top billing because you said anything 'mean'! You got it because yours was the only review in which I felt the need to respond to it. Your review didn't offend me in the least, so don't believe that I was hurt by it. And I do look over my reviews, and I did notice that a lot of people thought that the son was a crazy revelation – but they merely expressed shock, whereas you seemed to doubt my ability to be able to keep the story up to par with the addition. And I'm really aware of the fact that not everyone will like what I write, because I have tons of favorite stories, yet I don't like every word of them. I just hope I didn't upset or offend you because of how I responded to your review, because it wasn't meant to be discourteous. :)
A/N: I am making a bit of atime leap in this chapter about midway through, so don't get confused.
Chapter 20: This is It
Hermione awoke seventeen hours later, sore and hungry. She hadn't eaten for a long time, and her soreness was a result of the awkward position she had slept in on the bed.
What happened? was her first coherent thought before it all flooded back to her in a torrential wave. She had blurted it out… he left… she slipped, both physically and emotionally… and then he came back.
He always comes back, she thought with a satisfied smile.
"Love, you're up!" Sirius swept into the bedroom clad in a pair of black boxers and a grey t-shirt. He seemed genuinely pleased that she was 'back', and he immediately felt the urge to apologize for his behavior… not that he didn't have the right to react as he had so vividly the day before.
"I suppose," Hermione spoke in a quiet voice, her eyes brown and large, making her appear childish indeed. But cute nonetheless.
"You feeling okay?" Sirius sat down on the edge of the bed as he spoke, raking his concerned gaze over her body and face. He sat slightly far away, not too close to disturb her, in case she was still upset with him.
She nodded, biting her lip, disliking the distance between them instantly. Was he that upset with her?
"'Mione… I'd like to, uh… you know, apologize?" It came out as a question. Dammit.
She looked up at him, surprised – she had not expected him to apologize.
"Er… why?" she said before she could even think of a more intelligible response. Dammit.
"For the way I acted!" Sirius said incredulously. He eyed her with a wary expression, unsure as to why she seemed so… unaffected by his apology.
She shrugged indifferently. "You reacted like any other even mildly intellectual person would."
"Oh…" Sirius seemed put out. A lot of fever had gone into that apology… "So you're not mad at me?"
Leave it up to Sirius to look upset that someone isn't upset with him. "Only if you're not mad at me."
"Deal," he smiled brightly, leaning forward to kiss her on the lips.
Ah, there's the touching I missed… Hermione mused. "I think I'll get some coffee," she smiled against his lips before pulling away and swinging her legs off the side of the bed.
"You sure you're ready to get up?" Sirius bit his lip as he stood up, hovering near her.
"I didn't get hit by a car, Black – I… had a crying… fit," Hermione jutted out her jaw stubbornly as she wandered into the kitchen, Sirius sighing and tagging along behind her.
Bloody amazing woman, that is.
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About five months later…"It's a baby girl," Molly Weasley smiled as she slipped from her daughter's hospital room quietly.
"Oh!" Hermione gasped in joy, bringing her hands to her face. "Is she alright? Is the baby okay?"
"Yes, yes, very much so. The new Malfoy is quite adequately screaming her lungs out," Harry laughed as he also exited the room. He had basically joined Draco and Molly in there to support his blond friend, who had been swaying haphazardly during the delivery. Now he was grinning like an idiot, a new father and an entirely new person.
"Gets that from her mum, she does," Ron smirked. "Did you hear Ginny in there? I mean, I thought my ears would burst!"
Hermione scoffed. "Try pushing a watermelon through the hole the size of a lemon, Ronald, and we'll see how horribly you scream."
Ron made a truly disgusted face and winced, causing the rest of the waiting room to laugh.
"Same thing Lily snapped to me after I commented on her yelling during Harry's delivery," Sirius smiled fondly in remembrance and Harry blushed. He always felt embarrassed when Sirius talked about him as a baby – just like he would if any parent mentioned something their offspring had done at an extremely young age.
"So, 'Mione," Tonks smiled from her plastic chair next to Remus, who was snoring quietly. "When're you going to be in that room, hmm?"
Sirius choked and spit out his recently ingested coffee - not for the first time - dousing Remus with it.
"Ah!" Lupin yelped like a wounded dog as he jerked awake and slipped from his chair, glaring at his best friend. "Bloody maniac…"
Hermione paled drastically and clamped her mouth closed. She didn't mean it, 'Mione… she didn't mean to bring up memories – she was just talking about your future – not your past…
"Oh, as soon as this baby here grows up," Hermione smiled as she patted Sirius on the shoulder. He glared at her and with a pouty expression, said, "I am grown up. I just… have moments of uncontrollable immaturity and foolishness," he crossed his arms over his chest and added, "And I happen to receive immense joy from those moments…"
"I definitely see your point, 'Mione," Fred smirked from his chair across from them, resulting in Sirius throwing a small sugar packet meant for coffee at his head.
"I see your point and I raise you one," George mimicked his twin's smirk, but managed to dodge Padfoot's sugar packet.
"Are you family of Virginia Weasley and Draco Malfoy?"
The group in the waiting room swiveled around to rest their eyes on a short girl with blond hair, named Rhonda, as it clearly stated on her nametag.
"Yes," chorused from the entire lot of thirteen.
"Oh…" Rhonda seemed a little shocked at the rather large reception of people for that one couple. "Well, I suppose I could allow as many as five to go in at a time to see the baby..."
"You can go on, kids, Arthur, Harry and I have already seen her," Molly motioned for them to choose amongst themselves who was to go first.
The first group consisted of Fred and George, Charlie and Bill, and Ron.
Charlie smiled lovingly down at his neice, his eyes a tad watery. "She's beautiful, Gin."
"Like her mother, of course," Draco smiled with admiration as he viewed his sweaty and tired wife as if she were the most beautiful creature in the world, despite her currently rather horrid appearance.
Bill mumbled uncertainly about the girl looking incredibly lively and bright, to which George scoffed, "Oh really, Bill? I mean, considering she was just born and all, I expected her to act all motionless and dead-like."
"Hey little tyke!" Fred beamed at the child, making his freckles stand out even more. "We're your uncles!" he motioned to George, who also beamed and added, "And we'll teach you everything we know so that you may make your dad here go prematurely bald with stress!"
Draco was in so good a mood he laughed, and the first group left a few moments later. After, of course, Ron peered hesitantly at the child and chuckled as she struck out with her little hands, eyes closed and smiling. The kid must have been able to feel the huge amount of love in the room, with that dopey grin on its face.
The others entered next, and Sirius placed himself next to Draco so that he may peer down into the tiny child's face. Hermione, Tonks, Remus, and Percy went to the other side of the bed, so that they could each take their turns holding the baby.
The baby, it turned out, did not have white hair and freckles, as Ron had predicted. She had vivaciously red hair and light silver eyes. Sirius was the first to take verbal note of this.
"Fire and ice," he murmured as he reached his hand out towards the girl, who promptly grabbed his index finger in her minute hand.
"What?" Ginny asked with a puzzled expression.
Sirius motioned to the hair and eyes of the child, calling them by their respective metaphors.
Understanding immediately, Ginny and Hermione let out small gasps. "How's that for unique?" Tonks whispered with a smile as she peered at the baby.
"What's her name?" Percy asked as he cooed towards the girl.
Ginny took a deep breath, ready to recite the moniker her and Draco had finally decided on. "Fiore Ciel Malfoy."
"Pretty name," Hermione murmured as she played with one of Fiore's hands.
"For such a pretty girl," Remus smiled at Draco, who was flushed with excitement, creating red splotches on his pale skin.
"Did you really think I could produce anything less?"
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"I'm really happy for Gin and Draco," Hermione smiled earnestly as she took her shoes off and tossed them in the corner of the backroom. Sirius nodded in agreement dashed off to the bathroom, causing her to roll her eyes.
Surprised he doesn't wet his pants - all that damn coffee he drinks.
School was over now, which meant that Hermione and Sirius no longer dwelled within the walls of Hogwarts. They had purchased a rather nice sized home, away from any large muggle cities. They were near a town called Adler View. It wasn't exactly a wizarding community, but it wasn't completely non-magical either. It was the climatically milder part of England, but rather far away from their friends and family. There was always floo powder and apparating, though, so distance was not a vital part of their decision to live there. Thankfully, for Hermione had fallen in love with the house almost as intensely as she had the man who she would share it with.
Sirius returned moments later, a look of relief on his features. "So, love… what are we doing today?"
Hermione sighed and flopped down on the couch, working a pillow under her feet. "Hmm, didn't we do enough?" she muttered groggily in response, causing Sirius to chuckle.
A rather irritating pecking sound interrupting the beginning of Sirius' incessant rampage of annoyance about to be unleashed upon his fiancée.
Sighing, the young Black trotted over to the eastern window of the living room and flung it open to reveal an impressive looking tawny owl. Noticing that its letter was addressed to him, Sirius provided the owl with some water and lifted Hermione's feet up before collapsing down on the couch and ripping open the envelope.
"Who's it from?" the brunette mumbled through a yawn, a curious expression upon her features.
"Oh… Uh, the Ministry…" Sirius responded distractedly, his eyes raking the letter.
"What? Why'd they owl you?" the girl sat up, trying to peer at the parchment in her lover's hands, but Sirius kept it well away from her prying gaze.
And then she noticed the Auror symbol on the envelope.
"Sirius?"
He looked up to meet her stare. "'Mione… I… Well you didn't think I would stay at Hogwarts forever, did you?" he finished with a slight smile, hoping that it would lessen the wrath he was about to bring about.
Her silent but vicious glare was enough to tell him that his smile did very little or nothing at all to diminish the aforementioned wrath.
"Come on, Hermione! You aren't going to keep teaching there, are you? I mean, I understand if you took the job to remember the good times, get back into the run of things… but I figure, after you graduate, Hogwarts is just a childhood memory. A place where you were safe, where you met your best friends, where you pulled your first prank… But you can't come back just because it's a place of comfort. You have to go out and face the world… Leave it behind, but remember it… Cherish it, always…"
Tears started cascading down Hermione's face, surprising Sirius. "I hate this… Why don't I notice these things? Am I that stupid? Ginny guessed that you would go back to being an Auror before it even crossed my mind! You knew before I did that I wouldn't want to go back to Hogwarts! Am I so daft that I can't realize my own feelings anymore?"
"Don't be ridiculous – you've been preoccupied with other things," Sirius shrugged, reacting quite calmly to Hermione's outburst. "Just focus on the fact that you don't want to remain at Hogwarts – what do you really want to do?"
Sniffing slightly, Hermione rubbed her eyes and stared into space for a moment. Sirius was quite pleased at how proficient he was becoming at calming her down from her exuberant flare-ups. Of course, he had pretty grand people skills; even after the last twenty years of not being able to really utilize them, but to calm down one of Granger's moods like that was indeed admirable.
"I always wanted to open a little bookstore… A Muggle one, of course – with all of the classics and such…" She whispered dreamily, biting her lip. Suddenly she shook her head, sighing, "But I don't have nearly enough money for that, and-"
"Love," Sirius began with a smile, cutting her off at the beginning of a grievous rant, "You may not have the money, but I do."
No words were found necessary as Hermione propelled herself towards her fiancé, a vivid grin on her features, and kissed him passionately.
Cocky as he was, he did have a slight reason to be. He was incessantly correct about her. She would never forget Hogwarts, or the people she had found there, but she was finally ready to move away from her childhood home and become the content adult everyone wishes to be.
Once again Hermione Ann Granger found herself spiraling infinitely out of control, happiness overwhelming her with its presence.
For the second time in the past rather eventful year of her life, she found the need for a little organization.
Let's make a tidy little list, shall we?
1) She would be marrying Sirius Black in approximately one month.
2) Perhaps open bookstore in near future, filled with immensely pleasurable literature favorites, and spend day after day browsing them and conversing with customers about their content.
3) She would the rest of her days waking up to the most beautiful man she had ever met, with a thirst for life she had never experienced before.
4) And as a result of the aforementioned elements - and the man that had stumbled from a veil and fallen at her feet - she was happy.
Hermione had roguish grin as Sirius flipped her over on the couch's leather surface, his dark eyes hooded with lust and mischief, mirroring her own caramel colored orbs.
Should I inform him that my ridiculous mood swing may be result of my rather late menstrual cycle?
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The End.
A/N: Yay! 200 review mark! You guys rule! Thanks a lot!
I'm beginning to lose faith in this story, it's gone horribly downhill and it depresses me to think about it. It's just not even remotely good anymore.
So, me writing a sequel is up to you – I promise you that if I do become convinced to write one, it will not be as bad as this story turned out to be. If I am convinced to do so, which I doubt anyone will want to convince me to do. It would take place ten years in the future, for your information… I mean, this story really only is the beginning of a long life filled with love for Sirius and Hermione. Well, that's all.
Thanks for the fun ride, kids.