"What are you doing?" She inquired.
He half smiled. "I thought I'd warm some milk for hot chocolate."
Hermione found herself smiling, as well. "Sure… I'm up for that."
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After the making of eggs and hot chocolate, after all of this was done, the two of them sat, alone, in front of the Christmas tree, each wrapped in his or her own blanket, sipping from their hot mugs. Sirius thought it a little odd that they were still wearing their formal attire, but Hermione still looked beautiful, and he wondered if he looked presentable, as well. He should have run to a restroom to check, but he never had. He supposed that that would have to wait for later.
Scrimgeour and the problems o the night before went unmentioned. It was not that they were not thought of. Oh no, Sirius could do little but think of the possibility of Hermione going to Azkaban, of himself and Lupin doing so, or all of that torment and horror, those ghosts of so long ago that he could never bring up in himself. It seemed that his entire life, he had been shoved from prison to prison—his own home, with the parents with the hatred in their eyes and sneers curling their lips as they spoke ill of Sirius and everything that he stood for, and then, shortly after, Azkaban itself, and then, not long after being released from this… death, aching, painful death. He wanted the chance to be free for once, to be able to do half of the things he had used to do. Hermione gave him that chance. Now, however, somebody was coming by and threatening it, just to give himself a chance at claiming the untouched beauty of Hermione for himself. Sirius could never stand by and watch that happen. He would die fighting for Hermione's honor, if need be.
But none of this was spoken. It was Christmas Day; they could temporarily put aside those worries….
Hermione half smiled at him as she sipped her hot chocolate. "You can open yours first."
He grinned and bobbed his head as she handed him a nicely-wrapped parcel. "Thanks… you really shouldn't have gotten something for me, though—"
Blushing a little, Hermione shrugged. "It's not much, if that's any help to you."
Sirius just continued smiling, and then slowly undid the tape on the package, tearing into the paper with a strangely practiced ease, and pulled out what was inside.
A long, soft Gryffindor scarf lay across his hands, shining in his eyes as he looked at it in surprise. Hermione bit her lip, watching his every reaction to what he now held. She could not quite measure it. His lips were slightly parted, his eyes crinkled at the edges, staring.
She felt bashful. "Er…."
"I haven't had one of these in ages," he said in a raspy sort of voice. "And never one even close to this soft…." His voice trailed off, and he looked up at her, dark eyes twinkling. "Where… did you get one?"
"I made it." She found herself whispering before she could stop herself.
Slowly, he smiled. "You knit?"
She nodded.
"I suppose I knew that. It just seems so…" he grinned devilishly, "domestic."
"Oh, shove it." She said playfully, nudging him in the shoulder. With a mock-derisive snort, Sirius nudged her back, and Hermione hit his shoulder with hers.
The next move was Sirius's, and he used it to hold her to him suddenly, hugging her so tightly and burying his nose so lightly into her hair that her face burned a raw bright red. He held her like this, until they could get over the sound of their heartbeats in discord, until all that they could hear was this and their breathing, slow but still deep and frantic and odd….
"Thank you… so much, Hermione." He said. "It will help me keep warm in the lonely winters."
He let her go, and Hermione pulled away, looking up at him. Her eyes were sparkling, now. Suddenly, she did not want his winters to be lonely. She wanted to be the one to keep him warm and occupied whenever it was cold out….
But that was ridiculous. She just felt sorry for him, which was probably what he had wanted her to feel, anyway. She was not attracted to him, was not lusting for him, and most certainly was not in love with him. And there was no way on Earth that he was in love with her, not a stubborn bookworm like her. He just wanted to mess with her a little, and she had played directly into his hands on this account.
She bit her lip and looked down at the ground.
"Now," Sirius said, voice a little odd, "perhaps I should go get your present. Shall I?"
Hermione made a noise. "By all means." She muttered.
She was feeling a little weird about the receiving the present bit of this Christmas. She knew already what her present was going to be. Sirius was going to sacrifice himself in order to bring Ron back for Hermione—that was what he had thought she had wanted. And she had, she really had. But now, even with the prospect of Ron being back (which was, by this point, impossible, of course) she could not face Sirius leaving her. They had grown so close… once more, she had to repeat her personal mantra that she was not in love with him, was not in love with him, until it became engrained on her mind, and she could think nothing else, but she no longer knew what the words meant on their own.
The room was slightly drafty, the floor, freezing, but she had noticed this to its full extent until Sirius had left it. Now, she sat, shivering a little, listening to the sounds of Sirius rustling around in the other room.
By the time he came back in, she had pulled the blanket around her shoulders even tighter to her, and was warming a little. He looked at her, smiled, and sat a little closer to her than before. "Here you are," he said, handing her a small package. It was smaller than her package for him had been; just a box, probably about the size of her palm, and only an inch or so high. She took it tenderly, trying to hide how her hands shook slightly, and then, jokingly, shook the box. Whatever it was rattled around in there noisily.
Sirius smiled. "Come on, now, just open it," he said, laughing easily, and Hermione found herself smiling and laughing a little bit, as well.
She tore slightly at the paper, not wanting to make one big, eager mess of it, but she felt her heart pounding in her throat all the while. What could it have been? She wanted desperately to know what Sirius had gotten for her.
The box, it turned out, was hard and black, with antique silver hinges on one side. She gently pried it open, tossing the paper aside without a second thought.
Glittering in the light, there lay a glinting silver necklace. The chain was unbroken, the charm, an untainted teardrop shape. When she lifted it out, it was a little heavier than it looked, and it shone in her gleaming eyes as she stared on at it.
"This is… amazing," she said softly, the words barely passing her lips as a whisper.
Sirius smiled and blushed pleasantly. "I'm glad you like it." His voice was a little gruffer than Hermione had been expecting, and she tore her eyes from the necklace to his face. She could see some unnamed emotion in there as he regarded her, and it made her shiver from her very core outward. Then, his large, warm hands reached out and gently plucked the necklace from her grip. He slid over to her and brushed her hair back away from her back and shoulders, his touch so light that goose bumps were raised all along her skin. Then, the chain encircled her neck, and he fastened it there, holding behind her for a few seconds. Two brilliant smiles grew simultaneously on their faces, but, when Hermione turned around, they both hid them.
"It's beautiful." She said, and Sirius noted that her eyes were still shining a little more than usual.
Sirius could say nothing to that. He just drew her in and pressed his lips firmly against her forehead. This time, when they pulled away, neither of them pretended to hide their smiles.
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A/N: Okay, so that was a really long hiatus. SO sorry about that. Hopefully I'm back. Hopefully. And sorry that was so short. The book 7 release date got me really excited about HP again, and I just started writing, and I battled through a lot of the really difficult parts! If I still have any readers left, I hope you enjoy!!!
Oh yeah, to those of you who correctly got the Dido thing, congrats!! All of the Sirimione fics so far have been titled after Dido songs.