A note from Serade Black: Well, yes, another chapter is out and available for your eyes. This chapter is rated PG13, and the higher rated version can be found on my livejournal (located on my bio page for Nothing essential to the plot of the story is left out in this version, so do not force yourself to read something you shouldn't.

I've completed the outline for the rest of this story and have EVERY intention of finishing it. We're less than 6 chapters away from the end, give or take a couple and I'm really excited to finish one of the other 2 I've started.

As always, you know I adore Sirius and Hermione and I'm so glad to hear that I've "turned" a few of you really onto this ship. I hope to meet more of you at Phoenix Rises and/or Prophecy 2007.

Enjoy...

Chapter 19

"Destiny Can't Come In"

Alone in the kitchen of their flat, Sirius held onto his Hermione tightly as she straddled his lap in a chair from their small table. She was easily distracted from her afternoon tea and wrapped her arms around his neck, sweetly kissing him. They're foreheads were together, listening to the other breathing, not saying a word.

His gentle hands slowly slid up and down her ribcage, letting his fingers slide over the cotton of her shirt. They weren't talking, just merely listening to the other breathing, enjoying the quiet silence and cherishing the intimacy they shared together.

Every now and then, Sirius would meet her lips with small chaste kisses and then go back to just leaning against her forehead. He closed his eyes and imagined they were the only two in the entire world doing the exact same thing.

He was grateful for the amount of intimacy they offered each other and the way that she held him close, smiling and giggling once and awhile, lifting his heart, releasing him of the dark prison he once knew. He was grateful for the type of person she was, intelligent, pretty, sensitive, clever, and considerate; something he'd never experienced all in one package. She made his heart skip a beat, she made him feel content and warm, and made him feel wanted, sexy and charming. She put him in his place when he needed it, she was stubborn enough to hold a good debate and she was probably the only one that took the time to see what he was capable of.

His very stomach would churn with the idea of someday not having her this way. As if he could ever put his arms around someone else and feel like this, quiet and alone in their little kitchen, not feeling like they had to be out on the town, or shagging the night away, or fighting. No, she seemed to understand him and had started to grow accustomed to his stubbornness. He wasn't perfect, that was definite, but the way she made his very skin shiver with delight, made him want to be, just for her.

He asked himself what he could do to make her smile that day. What was it in him that he had, that might keep her with him, if this law lifted? What was it about her that made him want to denounce his old prowling ways?

It was simple: love.

Sirius Black had fallen in love with Hermione Granger. He loved the way she whispered into his ear about whatever was on her mind. He loved how she rested her head on his shoulder when they slept, waking up to an arm wrapped around him. He loved how she was completely happy with straddling his lap in their kitchen, not saying a word and feeling relaxed.

She was his everything. She was his savior. She was his Godsend. She made him want to be a better man.

The following week together was good. It was better than good, it was by far the happiest the Black couple had been. Feeling like they had overcome an argument that was not deserved, they both promised the other that they wouldn't dwell on things for very long, thus strengthening the relationship.

But, Sirius's inner voice was having a battle with his conscience and he still wasn't sure how to commit himself to Hermione without scaring her away. Just as he thought before, she was far to young to want to commit herself to him, but when she asked what they were together, lying in their bed, half naked and happy, she was the one demanding the answer. Not him.

No, Sirius was the one that confessed his feelings first, only to have said it to a slumbering young witch lying against his chest. She never said anything about it, never added to it, never questioned it, therefore he knew that she never heard him. Maybe they weren't cut out for the "mushy" sort of thing, anyway. Someone like Hermione didn't get too wrapped up in those things, she was sensitive, and like every female, got a bit emotional, but to declare love for someone that was old enough to be her own father – out of the question.

That's what he thought.

Hermione sat behind her desk, behind stacks and stacks of unread news articles that she had yet to go through. She wasn't behind, just the added tips that Tonks kept bringing involving Narcissa and Bellatrix. All of their activity had been noted, charted and documented, but there were still a few minor details that no one could pick up on. Having already proved herself in past captures, they left the mundane details to Hermione, who seemed to have a knack for catching minor things that the more advanced Aurors usually missed.

Re-reading a worn out document that had been retrieved from another raid at the Malfoy Manor, an owl perched itself over Hermione's cubicle. She recognized it to be one that Sirius usually used and she traded her letter for a Knut and treat.

Hermione settled back in her chair, always happy to see a message from Sirius while she was away from work, knowing that it always put an extra perk into going home. Lately, he had gotten fresh in his messages and she looked forward to getting these little teases in the middle of her work day.

As she unfolded the note, she noticed right away, it wasn't that kind of note.

Dear Love,

I'm off to meet a friend for some advice and may not be home in time to leave with you. I'll meet you at the House. Sweet kisses on all your pink parts.

Sirius

It was an extremely short note for him. She was more used to lengthy, dirty ones that seemed to draw every minute detail out like the blueprints of a naughty escapade. Instead, he was only meeting someone and when he referred to the house with a capital letter, it meant Grimmauld Place.

Sirius arrived at Hogwarts on his motorcycle. He parked it against the wall, like he used to after he graduated, and had returned to flirt with the seventh years. Walking through those doors brought him such a rush, that he half expected the Headmaster to come down and wag a finger in front of him, with that hint of a grin, pretending that he didn't appreciate the Marauder's latest antics.

He walked ahead, taking his first right at the top of the stairs, letting them continue on and on to the floor that he needed.

His boots clicked against the stone as he walked, catching a few obscure looks from the portraits as they took a few moments to recognize him. A group of girls, he guessed to be sixth years, slowed down their steps as he greeted them with his flirtatious smile in passing. A couple of them stopped to gawk at the chiseled handsome man and his fitted denim jeans, but the Prefect amongst them pulled their attention away and took the initiative to talk to him.

"Can I help you, sir? I'm a Prefect and I need to know your business at Hogwarts." The blonde haired girl asked, pushing her glasses further on her nose.

"You're not a new professor, are you?" A giggling girl asked, immediately receiving a playful slap from the one next to her.

Sirius smiled kindly, flattered that the girls behind this nerdy one had taken to his charm instantly. "No, I'm expected in the Divinations classroom. No need to be worried."

"What's your name, sir?" The Prefect asked, tilting her head a little as if she recognized him from somewhere.

"Sirius. Sirius Black, love."

The girls behind the Prefect couldn't help but gawk a bit more, but they were soon hushed when their business with him ended. She obviously didn't care much for him and turned to shoo the girls away.

Upon their abrupt departure, Sirius just stared as the girls scurried along, watching them cast backwards glances at him. He heard a few voices say, "He married a girl only three years older than us!"

"Lucky witch!" the tailing one answered.

Sirius just shook his head and continued up to the highest floor, up the ladder and into the incense filled room.

"Professor, it's good to see you." Sirius smiled, offering the brandy smelling woman a hug.

"Sirius, it really has been ages, hasn't it? What can I do for you, dear?" She asked, her bottle cap spectacles nearly dangling off of her nose.

Sirius wasn't sure how to start, and paused to himself as he tried to think exactly what he wanted out of her. Sensing his uneasiness, she ushered Sirius over to a table

"What's troubling you? Something is definitely hanging over you."

Sirius grinned nervously for her, knowing that she could be trusted, he was still afraid to let someone else into his head.

"I have a few things that I wanted to talk about," He took a deep breath before answering, preparing himself for what he was going to explain, "and I need you to direct me."

Trelawney pushed her bottle cap glasses further up the bridge of her nose and pulled her sleeves back, rubbing her hands and getting ready for a difficult task.

"You're troubled, Sirius?"

Sirius hesitated for a moment, focusing on the tattered fabric that was the tablecloth before him. "I feel a little, misguided, Professor."

"Go on." She coached, opening every sense to his query.

"I need to know," he paused, taking a deep breath. "What's in store for my future? I just need some kind of sign, to whether what I believe, is supposed to happen."

"I know you're trying to be very vague, Sirius, but it's not helping. You need to let me in on what you're thinking, or I can't help you." Trelawney began, reaching for her tarot cards to begin a reading for him. She then placed an empty cup before him and poured him some tea from a whistling, floating teapot.

"Are you going to read my tea leaves, then?" He asked, thanking her and taking a sip from the china cup.

"No, boy, I'm just offering you tea." She corrected, as if it was the silliest thing he could ask.

He watched how she shuffled the cards, glancing over to her large crystal ball that sat on a stand to her right. "Now, again, what is it that you're unsure of?"

"I've been put into a situation," I was forced to marry, Hermione Granger. "That, up until a short time ago, had been pretty easy to figure out." It was first a mission, but we ended up in bed together. "I'm wondering if how I've been dealing with it, has been the right thing to do." We've let ourselves be free, I fell in love with her, we've protected ourselves from harm, and I'm a little afraid that all good things must come to an end.

"See, much better. I understood that, fine." She nodded, laying out a number of cards to begin her reading.

Sirius held his hands in his lap, rubbing them together for lack of something better to do, and looked down at the cards trying to decipher their message before she did. But, as he looked down at them, upside down, he saw that they were in a language that he couldn't understand, with funny pictures that had no meaning.

Trelawney made a few small sounds under her breath, carefully concentrating on each and every card she passed out. With a shaking hand, she reached for her tea cup and sipped it loudly, breaking their silence. She took a quick glance over at her crystal, watching it change from a blue hue, to a purple one. Still, to Sirius, it was all foreign to him. Back at Hogwarts, he never really was any good at Divination, and even now, when he was older and worldlier, he still didn't know what the color changing ball meant.

"Well?" he tested, anxious to hear what it was she read.

She shushed him, afraid of losing her concentration and gathered up the cards that lay before her. She quickly turned them over, nodding her head a few times as if understanding the meaning and began dealing out another set of cards in the meantime.

"Sirius, it appears that you are in something very deep. Something that you may not come out of, the same man. Your life is at stake, as well as another's…and another's…and another's. You've got a lot of responsibility with this." She began, dealing out the second set of cards and glancing over at the ball.

Sirius narrowed his brow, as if finding all of that in those crazy pictured cards was insane. But, as he translated it for himself, he heard it the way she explained it.

"But, you feel inhibited, in some way. Something about you is changing, that I can see," she slowly drew out, watching the images in her crystal ball.

"No shit." He chuckled, running a nervous hand through his hair.

Trelawney only dealt three cards and waved a hand to levitate them and force them to change places. As they rested on the table she glanced back up at Sirius from behind hooded eyes through bottle cap glasses.

"This first card is telling me that you need to come to terms with the decisions you are making." You need to face the music admit that you love this girl. "You've put up wards to protect you and you must break them down." She raised her head a little higher, "Sirius, are you using magic to protect yourself from harm? I sense some kind of thick covering over you."

Sirius thought about any kind of magic that was around him and he nodded. The wards on the house, the wards he put over Hermione for her journey to and from work, their motorcycle riding was always foolproof and their nightly walks around muggle London were always protected.

"Release it. It's shielding your Destiny. It's been trying to get to you, to set you on your path, but you've otherwise been preoccupied to allow it to meet you. Cleanse yourself of anything you don't need, dispose of things that aren't of the elements and let your Destiny find you, again." She rambled, using her hands to talk quite theatrically.

"But, what is it, Professor? Will I like it?" Sirius pushed, finding that his pulse rate had increased, ever since she asked him to come to terms.

She bowed her head a little and gave him a friendly grin, "I'm not the one to answer that, Sirius. I cannot judge what part of your Destiny you will or will not like. You just need to let it find you and take you."

"Take me? Am I going to die?" He was quick to ask, moving to the edge of his seat, probing her for thorough answers.

She closed her eyes and shook her head, "I cannot answer that, Sirius." Trelawney sat back in her chair, feeling remorseful for what she was telling him and added, "You've already died, Sirius, this would just be another adventure."

"So, I do." He concluded.

She shook her head again, "Do not guess, Sirius. Just live. Release yourself and let Destiny find you."

Feeling worse than when he did before he went in, Sirius continued on to the Order meeting at Grimmauld Place. He walked into the kitchen and took an empty seat between his godson and Hermione. He looked longingly at Hermione and felt his heart weigh heavy with what Trelawney had said; afraid that it might mean he would be leaving her soon. This war seemed to keep going on and on, and though he felt like he was right in the thick of good things, he was always waiting for the other shoe to fall off – and it nearly has.

Hermione unfolded her hands and slouched back in her chair looking over at Sirius, "Hey." She whispered, offering him a small smile.

He just looked at her, his hands sitting nearly perfect in his lap and whispered back, "Hey."

She leaned in, "You okay?"

Sirius closed his eyes and sighed; feeling completely drained of any humor or normalcy, and nodded for her. At that time, Remus cleared his throat to begin the meeting and Sirius sat back in his chair to listen to his long time friend.

An hour later, the crew started to disperse and Hermione and Sirius were saying good-bye to Harry.

"Sirius?" Remus called from the dark corner of the kitchen, hiding in the shadows next to Snape.

Sirius was grinning at Harry, ruffling his hair like he used to James and looked over to Remus who was trying to get his attention. Sirius excused himself from Hermione and Harry and went to see what it was they wanted.

"So, you're okay? I mean, he's not getting on you, too much, is he?" Harry asked, smiling to his friend.

She shook her head, her dark bushy locks falling wildly around her head, "No, he's fine. He misses you, though. I can't tell you how much he really does want to spend time with you, Harry."

Harry nodded, already knowing all of this. He'd be happy to have his godfather back to himself, but right now Sirius was needed to be there for his best friend, "I know. But, you need him more than I do, right now."

How true that is, Harry.

"Thank you, Harry. I'm sure you'll have him back, soon enough." She dreaded to say, causing those butterflies to erupt in her stomach, again. She couldn't think of being without Sirius at the moment, but knew that they would cross that bridge when they came to it.

Remus had put a friendly arm around Sirius, after they told him they had another mission for him. He had prepared him, by telling him that it wasn't going to be easy, it was going to change a few things and, for the good of the Order, had to go along with it.

"You are needed again, my friend. Voldemort has requested you, Sirius." Remus softened, with a quiet draw. "I won't beat around the bush; you're going undercover with the Imperious curse."

"Oh, come on!" Sirius shouted from the corner of the room, throwing his head back in exclamation.

Remus was quick to shush him, looking over at Hermione and Harry whose interest had been caught. "Sirius, it's all right, calm down."

"It's going to be fine, Sirius. You won't actually be going under, but you'll be at Snape's wand."

"You're a piece of shit, Snape." Sirius growled, thankful that there were witnesses around, so he wouldn't kill him.

"Voldemort sees you as the perfect avenue to get to Harry, so he's requested you, through Severus. You're going to go in, win them over with a very convincing performance."

"And Bella and Narcissa?"

"They will be there, too. They're meeting somewhere in Hogsmeade, and we need you two to scope it out and see what avenues are best to get in. You'll need to convince your cousins that Snape has the upper hand, at all times." Remus continued.

Sirius sneered at Snape, who slowly started to smirk in his direction, "This has been a wet dream for you, for some time, hasn't it Snivellus?"

"The only thing is," Remus paused, "you cannot tell Hermione."

Sirius looked up at him, as if he just offered him a one night shag, "What? Are you insane? She'll believe that I'm up on this entire quack." He shook his head, violently, "No, no, she has to know. This will upset her beyond reason, Remus."

"Afraid that your lady won't be too responsive?" Snape cooed, obviously poking fun.

"No, Sirius, she can't know. It's part of the plan. If Voldemort captures her-"

"Captures her? No! That's it, I'm not leaving her!"

"Sirius, listen. If Voldemort catches her, she needs to be convincing as well. She has to believe you're under the curse."

Sirius listened to everything that Remus was telling him, and nodded to himself that he finally understood what it was, that was happening. It was Destiny, knocking on his door. He hadn't released any magic warding over him, but he knew this was some kind of sign, or test that was being given and it was the truth.

This was a sure fire way to not end up the happy wizard, he secretly hoped he'd be, and he was forever in debt for cheating death, once already. Destiny was telling him that this was his mission, this might have meant his death, and that the time with Hermione, as he knew it, was going to come to an abrupt end.

"I wonder what that's about." Harry asked Hermione, watching the corner of men draw all the room's attention.

Hermione just stared at Sirius; he was obviously really shaken up over whatever it was they were telling him. The way his head fell, the fists he balled with his hands, and the way Remus was consoling him. A few more whispers from Remus and he started to nod, being convince with whatever it was they were telling him.

After ten more minutes of their heated discussion, Sirius slowly turned from the two men and walked over to Hermione and Harry. Without thinking, he took her hand and pulled her away from his godson, desperate for her.

Nearly losing her footing as she was being pulled away, she felt Sirius's fingers interlace with hers and squeeze hard. Out the door and to the stairs he took her, walking her up behind him, careful not to let her trip. He didn't say anything, but neither did she. When he got to the top of the stairs, he turned in the direction of his old bedroom and went in with her, closing the door behind him and turning back to her.

With the speed of a cheetah and the ferocity of a man that only had minutes to live, he drew her face to his and kissed her deeply, as if he was giving her his last breath.

A little overwhelmed with the way he was suddenly acting, she pulled away, "Sirius, what's wrong? What happened?"

He just shook his head, not saying anything and went in for her, again like a hungry animal. He didn't talk; he only fumbled with his pants zipper and started to push her back onto his old bed. The way he nipped her throat and his deep kisses, made her forget whatever it was she was asking and just let him control her. The immediate rush and the very idea that they might have gotten caught, tickled her somewhere below.

Sirius cleared his mind, going through each and every spell he could think of that he had put over himself to ward off anything that might attack them and was free of it all. That included the silencing charm over the room. The door was locked the old fashioned way and he heard Hermione begging him to lock it, properly.

With his lips on fire, biting down around her throat and licking her collar bone, she really didn't care much more for the door all of a sudden, and let him ravish her the way he intended.

"edit"

He drank in her scent, her touch, her voice; it was all being compiled into a small memory box in his head. She had become so much a part of him, it was sickening. Somewhere between the arguments, the lust, the mission and the pretending, he realized that he found himself in love with this witch.

Hermione straightened up, adjusting her skirt and leaving her underwear somewhere under Sirius's bed, and said, "Darling, feel free to ravish me like that, again."

He was zipping up his pants and pulling down his shirt when he couldn't help but smile for his young girl. He leaned over to cup her cheek into his hand again and gave her long, closed-mouth kisses. He loved feeling her mouth pressed against his and he absolutely loved tasting her.

Mindful of how they probably now looked, rustled hair, wrinkled skirts, they quietly emerged from Sirius's old bedroom and began down the stairs