Disclaimer: I do not own or have any rights to Harry Potter, or my chapter titles 11 onwards.
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Chapter 26: Shot through the Heart
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Hermione groaned and rolled over, the morning sun was not a welcome guest this morning. The Gryffindors had celebrated well into the night before Professor McGonagall had sent them to bed in the early hours of the morning.
Hermione peaked an eye out, her duvet shielding the light from her tired eyes. She saw Lily glare annoyingly in the direction of said light and let out a groan of defeat as the large golden orb won its morning battle of disturbing the students Sunday morning slumber.
"I'm going to destroy that blasted ball of light," the redhead grumbled.
"Good luck," Hermione replied. "Be sure to let Remus in on the secret if you succeed, I heard he had a grudge to settle with another glowing planetary object."
Lily scoffed. "That's the understatement of the year," she said slowly pulling herself from her bed and getting dressed.
Hermione stayed snuggled comfortably in her bed as she watched the green eyed girl. "Why are you getting up?" she asked. "Its Sunday, you do realize that?"
Lily smiled. "I," she replied, "have a date with a certain head boy."
Hermione gasped and feigned shock "Better not let James know you're seeing Hu, I believe he can be the jealous type."
Lily laughed and chucked a pillow at Hermione's head. "Very funny," she said as she pulled on a pair of shoes. "I'm not sure where James is taking me but apparently its been cleared with Dumbledore, and I've been told to pass onto you that you shouldn't wait up."
Hermione cocked an eyebrow at this but Lily only shrugged and walked out. "I'll see you later," she called as she headed down the stairs.
"Bye," Hermione called after her before snuggling down to battle the light so she could get some more sleep.
At the base of the stairs Lily met James and Sirius.
"Morning," she greeted the boys, giving James a kiss.
"Where's mine?" Sirius asked pouting.
"Upstairs," Lily replied not missing a beat. "Hopefully trying to destroy the sun."
Sirius smiled. "Well, we can't have that now can we?" he said as he kicked the piece of wood that disabled the stairs, he shot a questioning glance at Lily who smiled at him before he headed up the stairs.
Sirius breath caught in his throat as he opened the door. Hermione had fallen back to sleep and the golden sunlight was streaming across the mass of curls that encircled her face.
Sirius walked quietly towards her bed and sat gingerly on the edge so not to wake the sleeping girl. He stared at his content angel and took a mental picture of the image to store away for future reference.
A small sigh from across the room brought Sirius attention away from Hermione and towards the source of the sound. Louise was sitting up in her bed with Marie joining her friend to watch the couple across the room, Sirius smiled at them as they collected their stuff and headed for the showers.
Once they had left Sirius turned back to meet chocolate orbs.
"Good morning," he greeted leaning in for a kiss.
"Morning," Hermione replied giving him a quizzical look.
"What?" Sirius asked, pretending that it was a normal occurrence for him to be sitting on her bed in the morning. "I was just looking for a good morning kiss."
"And you didn't find one in your own dorm?" she asked in mock astonishment. "I swear someone needs to teach Remus and Peter a thing or two about looking after their friends, and James, well where do I start?"
Sirius grimaced. "Thanks Hermione, you just ruined my breakfast."
Hermione laughed lightly and reached up to pull Sirius back down to her determined to make breakfast the last thing on Sirius' mind.
Sirius deepened the kiss as he lowered himself over Hermione, his forearms, supporting most of his weight, were placed along either side of her head. Hermione moaned from the back of her throat as their kiss grew more intense. She moved her hands from their position on his shoulders to trace a path down his chest to the bottom of his shirt. Wanting more she slipped her hands underneath the garment that was opposing her desired contact.
She felt Sirius' breath hitch when her hands met his skin, she smiled against his mouth which caused him to pull back and meet her eyes.
"You think that's funny?" he asked huskily. "What you can do to me?"
Hermione smiled. "At the moment, yes, but I'm sure the novelty will wear off." She replied and attempted to pull him back down to her, Sirius however resisted, smiling at the girl under him.
"Any idea when that will be?" he asked, his face millimeters from her own.
"Oh, I think it's worn off now," she replied, tugging at his shirt again.
"You sure?" as asked his lips brushing her own as he spoke.
Hermione nodded slightly and Sirius replaced his lips over her own again.
As things between the pair started to intensify again there was a loud knock at the door. Sirius groaned and slumped down on top of Hermione burying his head in her pillow.
"Guys, you better be decent, we're coming back in," warned Louise, through the door.
Sirius began to mumble unintelligible things under his breath.
"And it's our dorm Black so you can stop your complaining!"
Hermione gently pushed Sirius off her, got out of her bed and headed for the door while the black haired teen lay splayed out on her duvet. She opened the door and let her dorm mates in.
"Oh," Marie said when they saw Sirius on the bed, "did we interrupt something?" she asked innocently as Sirius glared at the two girls from behind his bangs.
Hermione blushed and walked back to stand next to her bed. "Come on," she said grabbing the sides of her duvet. "You woke me up so there is no way I'm going to let you fall asleep on my bed." As she said this Hermione lifted her side of the duvet into the air, this in turn caused an unsuspecting Sirius to fall to the floor with a thud.
"Fine, fine, I get the message," he grumbled getting up. "Meet you down in the common room in fifteen?" he asked Hermione.
She nodded and he leant in for another kiss before heading out the door. Once the door was firmly shut Hermione glanced over at the other girls.
"Awwww," cooed Louise. "You guys are so cute."
"Yeah," agreed Marie. "It's nice to see Sirius settling down a bit, no other girl he dated had any luck."
Louise scowled. "Doesn't stop them trying though does it?"
Hermione looked up puzzled. "What do you mean?" she asked gathering her clothes for the day.
Louise and Marie glanced at each other. "Well no one dares to do it in front of you," said Marie.
"Or your friends," added Louise.
Marie nodded. "Girls from the other houses still approach Sirius like he's single, its not so bad now but there are a few who are persistent. He tends to just ignore them."
Hermione frowned, Sirius had never mentioned this. She reminded herself to ask him about it later, if it bothered him then they should talk.
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As it turned out Sirius somehow landed himself a detention between breakfast and lunch so Hermione didn't get a chance to talk to him that night. She didn't get a chance to discuss it with Lily either as she didn't see the redhead till breakfast the next day.
"I hate Mondays," James declared out of the blue as they ate.
"That's nice Prongs, remind me to use that against you one day." Sirius said smirking which earned him James' bacon in his hair.
"Oh, thanks a lot James, thanks a lot," he remarked as he pulled the bacon out of his hair. "With being so close to that time of the month I'm going to have Moony following me everywhere."
"Hey!" came the indigent response. "It's not my fault I crave meat at particular times of the lunar cycle."
"Just as long as I don't have your face in my hair," Sirius said pointing a warning finger at Remus "because if I do, you" he said changing the direction of his aim to James, "will be paying for it."
"However enlightening this conversation may be," Lily said getting up from her seat. "We have class."
The other followed her, James mumbling something about crazy redheads bring so cheerful at the beginning of the bloody week.
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Later that afternoon Sirius found himself sitting in the Great Hall with his fellow Marauders as they played two separate games of Wizard's chess. He was currently playing Remus, who, out of his friends, was the hardest to beat, so his brow was presently furrowed in concentration.
"Hey Padfoot," Remus said, disturbing his opponents concentration.
Sirius sent him a glare to which the werewolf merely motioned with his eyes to the left of Sirius.
Sirius turned to come face to face with a young, nervous looking Gryffindor. "What do you need mate?" Sirius asked trying to ease the boys tension.
"I..I was told to give you this," he stammered handing Sirius a piece of parchment before hurrying out of the hall as fast as his little feet could take him.
The others were all watching Sirius closely, who was now eyeing the parchment suspiciously. He turned it over to see his name written in very familiar script. He smiled at his friends.
"It's from Hermione," he said scanning the parchment.
"Well?" asked James "What does it say?"
Sirius shook his head at his best friend. "You know Lily was right about you, you do have a tendency to want to know absolutely everything."
"So?"
Sirius just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the chess board in front of him.
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Hermione was grateful for the solitude as she went over her notes in the library. She enjoyed studying with her friends, especially Lily and Remus but the quiet time was what Hermione really craved when it got closer to exams. Her solitude was interrupted however when a pair of shuffling feet approached her and stood in the sunlight that had been lighting up Hermione's parchment.
A small girl in a Hufflepuff uniform stood beside Hermione.
"Can I help you with anything sweetie?" Hermione asked.
The girl shook her head and smiled shyly. "I was asked to give you this," she replied handing over a piece of parchment. Hermione saw her own name scribbled down in Sirius' messy handwriting and smiled at the little girl.
"Thank you," she said, the girl just nodded and walked off to join her friends.
Smile still in place Hermione opened the parchment to read.
H.
Meet me, fourth floor Transfiguration corridor, eight fifteen.
S.
Hermione frowned slightly in confusion, Sirius had never done anything like this before, then again he did like to surprise Hermione now and again and there wouldn't be any harm in following the note up.
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Sirius made his way quickly down the halls towards the fourth floor corridor Hermione had mentioned in her note. He hadn't seen her at dinner but his was a usual occurrence when she was busy studying. Now Sirius hoped she wouldn't be angry that it was ten past eight when the note had said eight.
When he reached the corridor however he found it empty.
"Hermione?" he called.
"Oh dear, you haven't lost her have you?" came a silky voice from behind him.
Sirius turned and glared at the black haired witch. "That's none of your concern, and what in Merlins name are you doing here?"
Monique smiled. "Last time I checked it was a free country, you should be free too Sirius," she said stroking his arm with her hand. "Free of your silly friends so you can honour your family, free of the filthy Mudblood whore so…"
Sirius growled, grabbed Monique's wrists and shoved her against the wall, holding her hands on either side of her head.
"Why don't you go and crawl back to Nott and your slimy dungeons," he spat, his temper taking over as he stared furiously at the girl in front of him.
She merely smile seductively. "Mmmmm I love it when you get angry."
Sirius had had enough; he moved his face inches from the witch in front of him, his eyes filled with menace. "Leave Hermione and I alone," he snarled.
The next thing he knew he had a pair of lips covering his own.
He pulled back in disgust to see Monique smiling triumphantly. That's when he felt her. He released Monique and turned his grey eyes to the pale witch at the end of the corridor.
"Hermione," he managed to croak out but she just spun on her heel and ran.
"HERMIONE!" Sirius shouted chasing her, leaving behind a very satisfied Slytherin.
"Well," she said to the empty corridor. "That was a lot easier that I thought it'd be."
What Monique didn't realize was the corridor wasn't as empty as she presumed and a fair haired student watched wide eyed as the other witch stalked off down the corridor, the scene replaying in their head, over and over again.
