Wedlocked
Chapter 24: Honestly

Trying to stay angry at Sirius was near impossible when the man was whispering encouragements between kisses. He called her glorious, a goddess, brilliant, unparalleled and all manner of things that Hermione quickly lost interest in as he stripped her of her clothes and kissed his way down to her inner thighs. She loved when he kissed her thighs; she loved when he kissed any bit of her, really, but the inner thighs were by far her favourite.

It took virtually no time at all for Hermione to forget why she was angry in the first place. Perhaps that had been his aim or perhaps he was simply that good. As he nibbled and licked his way back up to her mouth, she decided it really didn't matter what he said so long as he kept doing what he did so well.

"Have I told you how glad I am that you're married to me and not Fred?" asked Sirius. "I don't think he would have lasted five minutes in bed with you."

"Should I tell him you said that?" she asked and somehow managed to sound threatening despite being overwhelmingly pleased by the comment.

A grin, slow and devious, spread across his face. "I do hope you will," he said. "Let the poor sod know what he's missing."

"You are such a git," she laughed.

He pulled away, his smile falling. "A git, am I? Do you want me to stop?"

"No!" she nearly shouted as she locked her legs around his hips and pulled his mouth back to hers. "Don't you dare tease me like that."

"I love it when you're bossy," he smirked and kissed her hard, sweeping his tongue into her mouth and taking every inch as his own.

They met the deadline easily, then met it again for good measure.

Just to be on the safe side, Hermione thought they ought to meet it a third time because 'you can never be too careful with Ministry bureaucrats; they might not have been paying attention the first two times'.

Unlike the previous early morning she had spent beside Sirius, Hermione was not expecting awkwardness. However, she was anticipating something stupid to come out of the man's mouth. How could a man so clever at magic and brilliant at seducing women in bed be so rubbish at knowing what to say half the time? Perhaps it was just her that he was rubbish at talking to. Right on cue Sirius opened his mouth to say something. Her hand flew up and pressed firmly across his lips to keep him from speaking.

"Don't say anything. I don't care if it was going to be a compliment, just keep it to yourself. You have a horrible habit of angering me without meaning to, and I would dearly love to go through the next two weeks not dreading our next deadline," she told him.

His eyebrow lifted along with the corners of his mouth. He spoke against her hand, the movement of his lips and stubble tickling her palm.

"I'm going to regret this," she muttered, removing her hand. "What did you say?"

"I said," he grinned impishly, "you aren't exactly innocent in all this, either. Hiding and running away and leaving me to think that you hate me."

She frowned and readied her rebuttal, but his hand mimicked her motion and locked the words inside her mouth. "Don't you dare deny it," he said, eyes narrowing as if in threat. "You turned cold and insisted on leaving me all alone in Hogsmeade last month. What was I meant to think?"

"That you are callous and have no idea what to say to me," she replied into his hand.

"I don't know what you said, but I'm certain it's nonsense. I was perfectly amiable in every way; I let you have your thinking time despite being quite desperate to never set foot in Azkaban again. I think I was more than reasonable in all this, and you had to go and make your little teacup tempest again," he said, tearing his hand away. "How am I at fault when you are so sensitive about my previous sexual endeavours?"

"Git," she spat. "You—"

"A deal, then," he interrupted, his hands raised in supplication.

Remembering that his last offer had gone rather well for the both of them until he opened his stupid mouth, Hermione just crossed her arms over her bare chest and waited for him to continue.

"Absolute honesty."

"What sort of deal is that?" she demanded.

"A very good one," he insisted with that winning smile she was beginning to love to hate. "I will say what I think and if it offends you, rather than stomping away and hiding in the castle for two weeks, you will say what you really think. How am I to know you're offended unless you say something? It's not as if we live together and I see you glaring at me daily over breakfast. I'd like to know when I've been an idiot, thank you."

"What if you're always an idiot?"

"Then I would hope you would tell me," he smiled.

"Well, I think you're an idiot for suggesting such a deal," she said. "You being absolutely honest is possibly the worst plan you've ever come up with given that your honesty tends to make me angry. Perhaps saying nothing at all would be better."

"See, it's working already," he said and kissed her cheek. "I think we're very well off for next time, don't you?"

Unwilling to admit that he might have been right, she just kept her arms crossed and scowled. "What time is it? I have class at ten."

"You've got an hour," he said. "Plenty of time to pretend you were in your bed all night like a good little girl. Unless you'd rather have another go just to make absolutely certain we won't get another visit from the Ministry…" He wiggled his eyebrows and smirked suggestively down at her.

It took monumental effort to turn him down. He was willing and naked and gorgeous, but she would have to be dying, petrified or held captive to miss class. "No, I don't want to have to deal with Lavender again."

"Lavender," he repeated, a deep frown etching his brow. "The annoying one that talks too much? I didn't like her before, now I absolutely hate her. If she's the only reason you don't want to stay, I can do something about that." He sounded positively lethal. Hermione could not imagine what sort of thing he might say or do to the girl. This was, after all, the man who had sent Snape into the Shrieking Shack while Remus was transformed during the full moon. His idea of a subtle deterrent might result in permanent bodily harm. While Lavender was far from her favourite person, she was not about to let Sirius do anything to land himself back in Azkaban.

"No," she said quickly. "That's quite alright. I hate missing class."

He chuckled. "Fine. Let's get you back to the castle."

She shifted self-consciously to the edge of the bed while Sirius stood and strolled easily to the washroom completely unperturbed by the fact that he was naked. Admittedly, he had nothing to be ashamed of. As soon as he was out of sight, she dashed around the room collecting all the bits of clothes that Sirius had tossed carelessly off the bed.

"Where are my underwear?" she grumbled and threw on the rest of the pieces she could find.

"I know where they are," Sirius smiled from the doorway, still naked Hermione noted with a blush, "but I'm not telling."

"Just give me my knickers."

"No," he said. "I know for fact you've got some sexy lacy things and a bodice up in that tower. I want to see you in them. If I have to steal your knickers one by one to make that happen, then so be it."

She nearly laughed. A grown man was stealing her underwear? Ridiculous.

"What's the point in lacy underthings? Our clothes never stay on long enough for it to matter what I'm wearing," she commented. It sounded awful, but considering that they only spent time together for The Bloody Deadlines, all they really did was have sex.

"That is not the point," he insisted seriously. "They were a present, and presents must be used. It's etiquette. Besides, very soon you'll be spending Christmas holidays with me and I would like to think that there's something special hiding under that jumper just for me."

Sighing, she said, "Keeping with your honesty bargain: If you're so eager to see such ridiculous underwear, you've more than enough money to go buy some."

"That is a thought," he agreed as he began his slow journey around the room to collect his own clothes. "But, honestly, I know you wouldn't wear them if you had something sensible, white and cotton to wear instead. So I'll stick with my original plan of slowly removing all sensible, white, cotton options until you have no choice."

"I can just go buy more sensible cotton knickers, you know," she countered.

"Which I would only steal, thus making it a waste," he grinned. "I know how much you hate wasted effort."

Given their agreement for total honesty, it was extremely tempting to ask why he always won their arguments, but she didn't think he needed further reinforcement; he was clearly used to winning in nearly all his endeavours. How she would love to find something she could best him at and force continued exposure to it on him – like wizard chess for her or poker for poor Dr Bradshaw. For once she was quite pleased that their marriage would last the rest of their lives, for it would give her plenty of time to find the one thing at which Sirius was not just average but properly bad.

"You're thinking again," he purred in her ear.

"I'm always thinking," replied the girl in a haughty sniff.

"Not always," he smirked. "I know a few things that can shut your brain off. If you'd like I can demonstrate them now…" He laid a kiss behind her ear, knowing the soft skin was more sensitive there and that she would giggle and lean into him for more.

She did giggle at the feel of his lips and she did lean into him because it felt wonderful, but her brain did not sputter to a stop as it had that first night. "Sirius," she sighed and pushed him away. "I don't want to miss class."

"Spoilsport," he muttered and gave it one last Gryffindor try before he stepped away. "All right, I'll let you leave this time, but I demand compensation for my losses."

"And what precisely have you lost?"

"You!" he said as if it was both obvious and the most devastating thing he might have been denied. "Your legs and your mouth and your shoulder–"

"Just the one shoulder?" she smirked.

"Well, the left one has that birthmark on it. I like that birthmark," he grinned. "The right one's fine, I suppose."

"Yes, yes," she shook her head, amused and amazed that he was so familiar with her birthmarks already. They had only spent two nights (and very early mornings) together. "And what did you have in mind for compensation?"

"I was thinking something in lace, preferably strapless."

Breathing an irritated sigh, Hermione shoved past him for the door. "You and that bloody bodice. Fine, I'll wear it just to shut you up. Now will you put some pants on so we can leave?"

"Bossy little swot," he muttered under his breath. Oddly, it wasn't an insult as it had been when he was drunk the night before. This time it sounded almost affectionate.

Daring to test that supposition, she turned and smiled. "You like me when I'm bossy, remember?"

"That I do," he grinned. "I just wish you would boss me in the direction of the bed and not the door."

"Well, if you bothered coming to Hogsmeade over the weekend instead of coming here only to get drunk during the week, then maybe I would boss you into bed," she snipped. It was the honesty bargain again. His drinking himself stupid nightly really did annoy her, but she had worried what he would say if she told him as much. She hoped that her criticism would be taken better when presented as teasing and with the promise of more sex if he wasn't drunk.

Sirius did not even pause. "In my defence, I was getting drunk to be able to deal with you," he said. "Now that you aren't angry at me thanks to my brilliant plan, I don't need to be bothered with that. I can just sneak straight into your room."

"You most certainly will not!" she cried. "I have roommates – nosey, gossiping roommates!"

"Relax," he smirked. "I wouldn't."

"Good."

"Might I just point out that you didn't mind the idea of my coming, only my coming when your roommates were in," his eyes lit with familiar mischief. "So, if I could find a way to keep them out for the night, you would have no objection to my paying you a visit?"

Hermione huffed and left the room, not caring one bit that he was only half dressed and that she had no guard to see her safely to the castle.

"Should I take that as an A-OK on that plan?" he called after her.