Disclaimer: Don't own anything
Okay. So it's 0-0 for the Montreal Canadiens. Don't have much to say, besides that this is dedicated to that team who had tried so hard! All I keep saying… is go Kovalev. Anyhow. Thanks to my beta readers Mistic Angel and Tristan. This is just a treat… sort of. Enjoy!
One month later, Hermione was busy baking in the kitchen. She wiped the flour off the book's pages for the hundredth time and glared at the recipe's ingredients.
One cup of sugar.
She searched through the shelves and finally found a bag of sugar.
"I'm telling you … leave it up to some magic-," Harry said, munching on a scone from one of the plates located on a long table.
Hermione frowned at him. Smacking his hand, she seized the rest of his snack and stuffed it in her mouth. Staring at Harry in triumph, she managed to say while biting, "It's for later…don't eat it. And no, I prefer to bake it myself."
"Can't say I didn't warn you," Harry said, hearing the doorbell ringing as their first guests arrived. He left the kitchen to answer the door, while grabbing a chocolate pastry on the way out.
"I saw that," Hermione in a reproachful manner, shaking her head.
Inserting a cup into the packet of sugar, she measured two cups of flour, which she dumped into the mixing bowl. Mixing the butter with the sugar, she glanced at the instructions.
One cup of chocolate chips… done
Two cups of milk… done
One cup of sugar… done
One teaspoon of-
"Wait a minute," she said to herself, checking the book. Her eyes landed on the sugar ingredient, noticing that it was only one cup. "Blast that stupid sugar to hell. Arghhhh!" She stared at the bowl in distress and placed it on the table. She collapsed on a nearby chair, only to perceive flour drifting all around her. Slowly standing up, she noticed that she had sat down on the flour bag.
"Aahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, screw this!" she shrieked in frustration, waving her wand and performing a spell for the food to make.
The doorbell rang, only making matters worst. She waited for a few minutes in anticipation of Harry's footsteps in the hallway outside the kitchen.
"Love," Harry called out from the living room when the doorbell rang a second time. "Can you answer the door?"
Hermione breathed loudly, making her hair puff up and slowly land on her forehead. She stared to walk out of the kitchen when she was hit in the face by an eggshell.
"What in -," Hermione cried out, staring back at the bowls and mixers that were magically working. Unfortunately, they had a mind of their own. Ingredients were being splattered across the room and stained the walls with egg yolk, vanilla essence and other delightful substances. She rapidly cast a spell to protect the prepared foods while her face was splattered with sugar.
She dashed out of the kitchen and closed the doors behind her.
"Humph," she said, hearing the annoying doorbell, ringing constantly. "Shut the hell up. I'M COMING."
She ran to the door, only to slide down the carpet. Luckily, she yanked open the door without being thrown out of house and onto the guests. When she opened the door to see who it was, she was extremely glad that she had not landed up on him.
"Hi," Hermione said, taking a deep breath to calm her before looking between the floured-covered strands of hair in front of her eyes.
Sirius Black stared back at her amusingly.
"Sirius!" she said, cheering up enough to hug him. She carefully prevented herself from inhaling that deep sensuous- 'Arrrrr, here I go again. You told yourself that this stupidity would stop…'
"How are you? It's been so long," Hermione said, gentle hitting his black robes to clean the flour that she had put on him. "Sorry about that."
"No problem. How have you-," Sirius said, smiling in his usual sexy way. Even after being stuck in some time loop and locked away in Azkaban, the odds still weren't against him. He still knew how to make any woman swoon with his smile.
He was interrupted by a female voice as a tall beautiful woman, who was probably Sirius' age, walked up beside him, "Hermione?" She seemed to have a foreign accent to her voice. Her long straight black hair shined brilliantly in the sun and her skin had a perfect glow to it. "Sirius has told be so much about you!"
"Hopefully good things," Hermione managed to say, as she wondered who this woman was. 'Don't be so dumb… you know that it's his girlfriend.'
"Of course! You are his godchild's fiancé!" she said, smiling, "My name is Veronique."
"Nice to meet you," Hermione said, shaking her hands. Her hands were sticky, full of flour but what did she care? "Come in!"
She led them to the living room where Harry greeted them gladly.
"My 'Mione-," Ron said, staring at Hermione in fits of laughter, "What's wrong with you."
"She does look like an incredibly mess," Sirius commented, joining Ron in ridiculing her image.
"Is that dough in your hair?" Veronique said, knowing perfectly well that it was dough.
She felt incredibly embarrassed! After all this time she was seeing Sirius and he had to see her like this. He completely left without even bothering to say bye… and he was making fun of her. Why had she bothered to worry about her feelings for Sirius if he had moved on? Glancing at Veronique painfully, she heard the latest remark.
"Wow, Hermione I think you have all the ingredients to make a cake," Sirius said, laughing at her so much.
She glared at the entire room, who were laughing with the exception of Harry who was trying to be supportive by rubbing her back and giving them dirty looks.
"Well I really don't fucking care," Hermione said angrily, making them stare at her in shock. She turned to Harry, "No. One. Goes. In the kitchen. Or meet your own doom."
Everyone laughed at Hermione's tone while she looked at them in disbelief.
"I'm going to dress up." She rushed up to her room slamming the door behind her.
Observing the walls in horror, she glanced at the mirror she saw a baking monster staring back at her. Any other day, she would have laughed. Not today. Why couldn't she look decent when she met Sirius? Guess that was always the feeling when women met their ex-boyfriends… right?
Ex-boyfriend. Huh. As she remembered it, Veronique clearly identified her as Harry's fiancé. That's all. Not an ex-girlfriend. Otherwise, she wouldn't be acting so friendly towards her.
The door opened and Ginny entered the room, gently closing the door behind her.
"You need to clean up," Ginny said, "And I'm here to help."
"I don't need any help," Hermione said, trying to pull her brush through her hair.
"Wait a minute… you have, let's see…two ex-boyfriends here and you look like that?" she said, shaking her head disapprovingly. Ginny continued speaking silently while paying attention to her nails. "If I were you, I would be going out of my way to show them that I was better than them."
"One ex-boyfriend. Seamus," she said, "That's it."
"And Sirius," Ginny said, glancing up at her, "Don't tell me that there was nothing between you two… I saw you two shagging… trust me I know what I'm talking about. All I'm saying is allow me to pick your outfit tonight."
"Allow you, yes," Hermione said, walking to her the shower, "Trust you in picking an appropriate dress. No."
"When will you ever trust me?" Ginny said, innocently, lifting up her arms in desperation.
Hermione glanced back at Ginny who anxiously yanking open the doors of her closet, "The only part of Sirius who was my ex-boyfriend… is the person I knew when he was eighteen." Closing the door behind her, she was determined to show Sirius, in fact everyone, what she was made of.
When she came out of the shower, she gazed at Ginny who was sitting patiently on the bed, reading a magazine. Ginny noticed her and jumped off the bed.
"So what is it going to be?" Ginny said, "Choice one?" She lifted up the first outfit, which was a light pink miniskirt and a white top.
"I'm not a teenager," Hermione said outrageously.
"Yes, but you're still young," Ginny drawled, "Fine, choice two."
She raised a white dress up which was definitely more elegant.
"AHHHHHHHHH," Hermione said, studying the dress, "Is this not one of those expensive dresses I bought because I found it..."
"Extremely sexy but never found an occasion to where it?" Ginny answered intelligently. "Yes, I know. I'm a genius. How much do you want to bet that all those guys will be dropping to the floor to ask for forgiveness after what they said about you…"
"Ahuh," Hermione said, while putting on the dress.
"Oh yes and Hermione," Ginny said really sweetly, "This is a very interesting set you have here."
Hermione looked at what Ginny was talking about, and found Ginny lifting a thin crimson red piece of lingerie. "Wild taste, guess you just wanted an extra one for the honeymoon to add to the collection."
"Shut up!" Hermione said, giggling and cramming it in one of her drawers.
"Wonder what other kinky things I can find in these drawers," Ginny said, looking questionably at Harry's drawers.
Hermione fixed her hair and was pushing her friend towards the door when Ginny said, "Sorry… got a little ahead of myself! You look wonderful."
Sirius' POV
Sirius was busy rubbing Veronique's neck playfully while she talked heatedly to Harry and Ron about Quidditch. It was very rare to find a girl who was beautiful and understood the game inside out. He glanced towards the winding staircase where he heard Hermione and Ginny's rapid voices.
"It was something I bought for a joke," Hermione said, "Nothing else."
"Aaaaaaaaaahuhhhhhh," Ginny said, grinning widely.
His jaw nearly dropped when he saw Hermione walking down the stairs. He didn't even recognize how his hand rigidly fell against Veronique's back, completely forgetting about her. Sure, he had seen Hermione about a month ago…but this he could not handle.
She was laughing at Ginny, her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. Her hair had been left untied and gracefully danced across her shoulders with every downward step she took. That dress… a thin white summer dress showed an incredible amount of cleavage while still creating a sophisticated look. With every step, the material shifted elegantly with the wind, exposing the high slits that nearly revealed all of her tanned legs. Her eyes twinkled when Ginny mentioned something to her, while she tried to look away from her. Their eyes connected for a second as she softly smiled at him before lowering her head graciously.
"Big change, 'Mione," Bill said, winking at Hermione.
"Thanks a lot," Hermione looked in the direction of the twins who appeared as if they had decided to rebel and walked through the kitchen. They were obviously covered in flour and one of them had a cracked egg on his hair. Nevertheless, they were still laughing crazily.
"We fixed the kitchen problem," Harry explained, approaching her with a glass of wine, "You look lovely, as usual."
"Thanks," Hermione muttered in his ear, pressing her lips against Harry's neck and laughed at Ginny's outrageous faces.
"What are you two laughing about?" Ron asked, putting his tenth Chocolate frog of the night into his mouth.
"Something I found in Hermione's drawers," Ginny said, grinning.
"What?" the two twins said in unison, mischievously looking between Ginny and Hermione.
Hermione glared at Ginny, hoping she would not say anything.
"Ahhh something that I'm sure Seamus and Sirius wouldn't have minded to see Hermione wear a few years ago-," Ginny said, while Hermione jumped over the couch to shut Ginny's mouth. It had to be a certain couch where a certain Sirius was watching the scene curiously.
Hermione's stiletto heel winded up in the middle of the couch's cushions, eventually making her fall into Sirius' lap.
"Details!" Fred yelled at Ginny.
"Dark red… huh I don't know. Think Harry would give a better explanation," Ginny said, while everyone laughed at Harry who was becoming redder than all the Weasleys' hairs combined (and that most definitely was red).
Meanwhile, Sirius and Hermione were the only ones not paying attention to what was happening. Hermione would have jumped off Sirius the second she landed on him if it wasn't for his arm being around her waist.
"Are you alright?" Sirius asked Hermione.
She nodded sheepishly, "This day keeps getting worse."
"Can't understand why," he said, sheepishly, "You look incredibly beautiful so there must be something you're doing right."
Hermione could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks as she blushed immensely at his comment. She remembered that people surrounded them. Quickly standing up she said mockingly, "Don't I always?"
Sirius smiled, opening his mouth to say something but found Hermione being whisked away by Harry as he kissed her abruptly. Harry looked at his audience, "I know you are all jealous- you don't have to tell me."
"Where have you been this whole month?" Hermione asked Sirius, while Remus joined him at the couch.
"Consulting the Ministry in Egypt about my situation," Sirius explained, "That's how I met Veronique."
Hermione nodded her head in understanding, "So everything is cleared up?"
Veronique laying her head on his shoulder distracted Sirius, "No, I'll have to return soon."
"After all these years, do I finally hear wedding bells for the infamous Sirius Black?" Remus muttered.
Hermione's heart leaped at the words but she remained quiet.
"We'll have to see about that," Sirius said, winking at Remus.
"I'll check on the food," Hermione said rushing to the kitchen. As she left, she saw Veronique and Sirius kissing passionately on the couch.
Hermione's POV
'Why don't they get a room,' she said disgustingly to herself as she closed the door of the kitchen behind her. She leaned against the counter, watching a pot on the stove and occasionally turning the spoon around in the house.
Harry walked into the kitchen. "What are you doing here, again? Told you to relax."
"It was a fine excuse, in my opinion, to save myself the horror of explaining my lingerie to the twins," she said groggily.
"Correction," Harry said, kissing her neck and pulling her away from the stove. "Very sexy lingerie. Reckon they would love to see it on you with the way they were drooling." He smiled and lifted her up slowly onto the kitchen counter.
She smiled at Harry, incredibly grateful to have him. Of course, she had been doubting their relationship recently… ever since Sirius returned. After seeing him tonight with his arms and lips always on Veronique, she was sick to he stomach.
She lowered her head and pulled Harry into a deep kiss. "How about when everyone is gone-," she said, digging her fingers into his messy hair.
"Ahuh," he said kissing her back while moving his hands up her thighs. She moaned as his hands danced across her body heatedly.
Both of them were clueless to the kitchen door opening and Sirius walking in. Sirius was yelling to Ron from the door, "Seamus, you'll have to show me that broom one day." He turned his head to look inside the kitchen and found Harry and Hermione making out on the kitchen counter.
He stood there, shocked, forcing himself to recover when Hermione slightly pushed away Harry. She looked down at the floor in embarrassment and timidly said, "Is there anything I can do for you, Sirius?"
"No," he said, forcing himself to smirk at both of them. Harry was fixing his hair and grinning. "I'll let you two continue…" He walked out of the kitchen without saying another word.
"Embarrassing," Harry simply said to Hermione, laughing. "Two more days."
Hermione looked at him and smiled, laying her head on his shoulder. Her mind was clearer than it had been for a whole month. Seeing Sirius and Veronique together made her realize that she was happy with Harry. And she definitely was not going to lose that because of a relationship that Sirius deemed as foolish.
She was going to move on.
This is not the end. Yup. Since I'm watching the game and I really forced myself to write this chapter for the Montreal Canadiens (yes I'm insane)… I can't write messages to you… but thanks for reading and reviewing! You're all great!! For those who suggested fics for me to read… I've started to read all of them (they're all great!)
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